Design, manufacture and supply of school furniture in the Australian state of New South Wales following the Second World War occurred in a context of population growth and new ideologies of teaching and learning. This article addresses the particular situation in New South Wales, where administration of schooling remained highly centralised. The…

One of the Editors' 2022 "Challenges to the Field" was: "What is the story this government wants us to tell our children?" "What is education for?" Continuing this conversation leads to a related question: What can be learnt from reviewing the history of schooling in Australia in this light? I argue here that the…

This paper focuses on independent training providers (ITPs) -- in other words, private companies -- as suppliers of vocational education and training in post-war England. Whilst acknowledging the central role of further education (FE) colleges in delivering vocational learning, it draws attention to a large, diverse sector of ITPs operating…

For two centuries, academics and their universities have competed for prominence and vied to demonstrate that their institutions are at the center of the scholarly world. Scientific advances in particular fields, reciprocal academic visits and conferences, impressive physical architecture, and publishing in shared venues and a "lingua…

Scholarly disciplines are historical reservoirs riven with contradictions. Often unaware of their own history, the humanities lead in complications, with English departments outpacing other fields of study. Both writing and English language and literature studies exhibit long-standing omissions and conflicts. This essay explores their similarities…

Purpose: This article explores the overlooked experiences of Chinese students in Australia from the White Australia Policy era to the post-war period. It argues that the emerging post-war transitional generation faced racial discrimination and geopolitical challenges, leading to the establishment of student societies and collaborations with…

The story of the decline of sociology has been unfolding for a few decades, but it becomes a more hair-raising tale every year. The crazed and intellectually empty ideologues completely colonized the field. They have made it their own, and the consequence is that contemporary sociology is now a wasteland for any seeking the complex truths of human…

This article works toward conceptualizing frictions between colonial education and non-Western traditions of African education in the modern African state. Signaling manifestations of educational friction or disequilibrium, we apply the concept of haunting to uncover ways the legacy of colonial education is reproduced through Western modernity as…

This study aims to determine if the educational approach of educator Marva Collins was counter-hegemonic through a critical race theory (CRT) lens. This is a study in contemporary history using autobiographical and archival materials and in-depth interviews to explore the relationship between her educational approach and that used by the…

In September 1977, all of France's middle schools implemented the so-called "collège unique" reform in the seventh year, i.e. the elimination of tracking (or streaming) and the mixing of all pupils and teachers for the first year of secondary education. This article examines the genesis and implementation of this reform from the point of…

Existing scholarship tends to understand university governance structurally (emphasizing formal authority and resource environments), culturally (focusing on history, norms, and leadership), or by combining both approaches (Kezar & Eckel, 2004). These models understand governance in instrumental terms, as the means for steering the university.…

This paper attempts to reinterpret asylum theory (1954) propounded by Ortwin Henssler (1923-2017) as a free-space theory of education, as a way of grasping the problematic nature of 'pedagogical protection.' The theoretical potential of Henssler's thought has been more appreciated, accepted, and developed in Japan than in his native Germany.…

In 2005, Kitson and McCully introduced the 'risk-taking' continuum, representing the multiple ways in which teachers in post-conflict societies deal with the history of conflict in the classroom. 'Avoiders', at one extreme, refrain from teaching the violent past, while at the other extreme 'risk-takers' analyse multiple perspectives on what…

Since 1840, Chinese political leaders have struggled to draw effectively from Western culture without abandoning the Chinese essence in their design of higher education. In this paper, we use cultural nationalism as the theoretical framework to examine how Chinese political leaders have responded to this challenge. Our analysis shows that cultural…

Racism against Asians is often ignored worldwide, and the field of mathematics education is no exception. The anti-Asian racism unveiled during the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates that we rethink the current discussions of equity and social justice in mathematics education regarding how the needs of many Asian students have been forgotten and often…