This article is a commentary on the seven articles in this special issue of EJTE on teacher quality from international perspectives. In the article, Marilyn Cochran-Smith points to differences as well as common themes and details across the articles in the issue. The article discusses the emergence of teacher quality as a global concern, including…

Test-based accountability or 'TBA,' as a core element of the pervasive Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), has become a central characteristic of education systems around the world. TBA often comes in conjunction with greater school autonomy, enabling governments to assess 'school quality' (i.e. test results) from a distance. Often, quality…

Governments continuously design and redesign higher education policies, and governmental capacities are the pillars for undertaking these tasks during the formulation stage. This paper considers the assumption that different governmental political and technical capacities shape different spaces for action and thus different types of policy design.…

This paper investigated a policy-making debate in Chile, by examining the construction of the Netherlands as a new "reference society". It focused on a reform agenda that aimed at a transformation of the neo-liberal school governance model. Based on the analysis of government documents, parliamentary debates, and media materials, the…

The purpose of this article is to present an analysis of the philosophical, historical, sociological, political, and economic perspectives reflected in the public policies about lifespan sexuality education of Germany and The Netherlands. A new conceptual framework for analysis and evaluation of sexuality education policies that integrates the…

Despite all intentions in the course of the Bologna Process and decades of investment into improving the social dimension, results in many national and international studies show that inequity remains stubbornly persistent, and that inequity based on socio-economic status, parental education, gender, country-of-origin, rural background and more…

This paper outlines a heuristic framework for understanding basic patterns in the efforts of nation-states to achieve some degree of integration of ethnic minorities to the dominant culture. Four case studies, from Britain, Sweden, and the Netherlands, illuminate the basic typology: Assimilation, Cultural Pluralism, Socialized Isolation,…

One of a series of studies related to the Delphi research project: "Policy Instruments for Higher Education in the Western Europe of the Future", this paper describes the beginnings of a consumer-oriented public higher education system in the Netherlands. It first examines the start of public debate with the publication of two political…

One of a series of studies related to the Delphi research project: "Policy Instruments for Higher Education in the Western Europe of the Future", this paper describes and analyses the recent development of the higher education agenda in the Netherlands to show that the development of higher education policy is an incremental process of…

Using as an example the development of the comprehensive school concept in the Netherlands, this paper explores the strategy for educational innovation in a centralized national educational system, the role of educational research and evaluation in educational innovation, the impact of research on policy-making, and the strengths and weaknesses of…

This report describes a joint project among two U.S. universities, a university in the Netherlands, and one in London, England, designed to prepare U.S. students of higher education policy with an understanding, appreciation, and analytic knowledge of the effect of the unification of Europe on higher education policy, as well as give European…

Essays address the relationship between second language education and intercultural communication in several countries. Following an introduction are the following papers: "Second Language Learning in Belgium" (Ludo Beheydt); "Foreign Language Education in Bulgaria: Present-Day Situation and Future Tendencies" (Madeleine…

The history of education in the Netherlands, including the political and administrative framework of educational policy, the relation between education and the labor market, and current trends, is discussed. Teacher education, educational planning, and participation by educators and noneducators in the schools through committees are also examined.…