Anti-intellectualism and political illiteracy are sweeping across the American media and cultural landscape, giving rise to discourses that are unabashedly nativist, racist, and reactionary. Populist sentiments drive the rabid individualism and anti-government rhetoric of right-wing groups such as the Tea Party movement. Underlying these…

Recently, the need to turn away from technological education in general education schools and go back to labor training has been expressed, particularly by: (1) long-term teachers in the "Labor" (Trud) general education school who do not want to change their ways, go through retraining, and increase the amount of their work efforts in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the policy process that led to the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in the United States and the Bush Administration's role in this process. Design/methodology/approach: The research design is historical and archival. A description of the NCLB Act is given and the major provisions and…

Improving teacher retention and resiliency are key educational problems. In this article, we share findings from case studies of six educators who, for over 200 combined years, worked in urban, high-poverty schools and highlight what teachers need to remain in such contexts. We argue that developing "professional resilience" is a process…

This project is based on research conducted with 12 schools in New South Wales, Australia. It examines how each school incorporates Aboriginal perspectives in its Kindergarten to Year 6 program with a view to identifying quality practice. As we interviewed teachers in these schools, it became clear that there is considerable confusion over the…

This paper explores the development internationally of the inclusive education perspective. Inclusive education as a late modernity reform project is exemplified in the call for "Education for All". Despite the simplicity of its message, inclusion is highly contestable. We argue in this paper that the key questions raised by the concept of…

The author, a former headteacher and now a county councillor, argues that the structural changes to the education system put in place in the first weeks of the new government in the summer of 2010 will exacerbate the gap between the highest and lowest achieving schools, will destabilise the state-funded education system, will expose it to…

In some places in the world teachers still receive professional esteem commensurate with the vital task they have chosen to fulfil. In the US this is not currently the case. Even the lip service that used to be paid to teachers seems to have vanished as the perceived crisis in the schools is more and more blamed on teachers--and especially teacher…

This paper seeks to explore the politics of health promotion as a continual process of public health globally and locally. Our main objective in this study is to present the health promotion education initiatives taken by the World Health Organization (WHO) at an international level and also to examine the politics of health promotion in Greece,…

English language proficiency and how it can be improved have been keenly debated issues in Australian universities. The debate has become more intense in the context of the marketing of international education and Australia's increasing share of international students. One reaction has been to raise the minimum English language levels for…

While there are significant differences between England and Scotland in the politics, the policy environment and the management of schools, leadership development both north and south of the border is charged with addressing what has been termed a recruitment and retention "crisis". An emerging phenomenon in both jurisdictions is that of…

At the 1986 Wyoming Conference on English, a group of graduate students and part-time and tenure-line faculty formulated a statement known as the Wyoming Resolution, a rallying cry to improve composition teachers' pay, benefits, and working conditions. Adopted by the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in 1987, the Wyoming…

"California in a Time of Excellence" follows the Golden State's efforts to reform its public school system from 1983 to the present. Beginning with progressive curriculum reform initiatives that were launched even before the National Commission on Excellence in Education (NCEE) issued "A Nation at Risk" in 1983, James Andrew…

The purpose of this study is to examine the problem of research quality in social sciences at higher education. Quality of research produced at higher education started to be questioned more often as research became the major factor determining academics' promotion and fund allocation to universities. In the study, we aimed to reveal how academics…

"Perspective" is a monthly e-newsletter presenting news and views from Achieve. This month's issue commences with a commentary assessing the meaning of college- and career-readiness. In doing so, it addresses some of the questions Achieve gets asked most frequently, including: What subjects are most important in defining "Readiness"? What does…