Nearly every state is projecting a revenue shortfall for both the current budget year and the next fiscal year, and few public-college officials expect to dodge the budget ax. But some higher-education leaders and state policy makers see the bleak economic outlook as an opportunity to press for broad changes in college policy and operations that…

This article reports that in 1996, Alabama officials approved the "4 x 4" plan, which made their state the first in the country to require students to complete four years, or four credits each, of math and science for high school graduation. Other states have since followed suit, with policymakers arguing that higher standards are…

The International Baccalaureate (IB) has undergone rapid growth and largely unhindered expansion over the past four decades. It has moved beyond its European nexus and the three IB programmes now have a relatively large presence in the USA, especially among public high schools. The IB gathered federal funding in 2003, and a concerted attack has…

Few studies have researched career guidance and information policies, particularly at the regional and local level. This article analyses Sweden's national governance of career guidance in schools from 1950 to 2007, and governance at the local level in today's highly decentralised Swedish educational system. The analysis is based on national…

America's present economic unraveling has attracted intense interest among policy makers and the public. A far greater number of analysts that predicted the crisis now seem to know a path out of it. To be sure, the new president does not lack for advice on how to fix the situation. While the financial and regulatory underpinnings of the current…

This article completes the cycle of studies that present the results of a survey of the attitudes and values of college students in the higher educational institutions of Moscow and Warsaw in the context of the problems and subject matter of cultural capital. It presents an analysis of the sphere of active political involvement and the cultural…

In his December editorial on Michael Reiss, Kenneth Tobin ("Cult Stud Sci Educ" 3:793-798, 2008), raises some very important questions for science and science teachers regarding science education and the teaching of creationism in the classroom. I agree with him that students' creationist ideologies should be treated not as misconceptions but as…

John Dewey's willingness to endorse a remedial form of education for African American students offers us a rare glimpse of the racial assumptions underlying Dewey's educational philosophy. By considering a variety of clues--Dewey's silences on racial equality, his understanding of race and racial progress, and his respective prescriptions for…

This article looks at the introduction of the diplomas as part of the 14-19 reforms in England. It questions whether they can survive the low initial take-up from students, the lack of interest from key parts of the schools sector, and the confusing messages about what sort of qualification they are meant to be. It also asks whether the diplomas…

During the past several years, much discussion has focused on developing America's future scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians (STEM) in order to remain viable and competitive in a growing global economy. In retrospect, America has had a long-standing involvement with STEM issues that dates back to the establishment of West…

This paper provides theoretical and methodological arguments to study the politics of space in small marginal and depopulated areas of Spain. The case for research is the Riaza river valley in the province of Segovia. Usually the analysis of rural space (and the geographical space in general) provides opposing presentations: vertical, between…

The Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) aspires to take its place in Europe and the global "knowledge economy". In order to do so, it needs not only to be politically recognised as legitimate and to develop the kinds of economic and governance structures that signify a functional state, but also to produce a cultural imaginary of…

In July, the two major teachers unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) chose new presidents at their national conventions held barely a week apart. At the NEA, Dennis Van Roekel moved up to the top rung of the officers' ladder after serving two terms as vice president. Randi Weingarten added…

In this article, the author discusses how it is simply too late to be still speaking about French theory and its role in the intellectual life of the United States today. It seems to many observers that the gap between real-life politics and theory's guerrillas is much too wide already, after 30 years of academic fever, for the two worlds to even…

In this article the authors draw on a larger study in which their overall concern is to illustrate how diasporic identifications develop through a range of scales related to self, family, community, nation and beyond. They consider the Melbourne Greek community as an exemplar of diasporic experience and use it as a case study for their…