In the December 2008 special issue of the "Oxford Review of Education" John Furlong focused upon Tony Blair's modernisation of the teaching profession and associated attempts to harness teacher professionalism to a broader reform agenda. This article responds to Furlong's contribution through an examination of the evidence base used to…

This commentary reflects on the key themes and goals of this symposium. It contextualizes the relationship between participatory action research (PAR) and teaching in the increasingly popular field of critical action-oriented geography. It considers a number of benefits to student learning from engagement with PAR, drawing on the papers in the…

Purpose: This paper sets out to argue that the strategic implementation of technology is implicated in a range of crises or socio-economic disruptions, like peak oil, climate change and the rising environmental costs of energy consumption. It aims to argue that institutional technological implementation is contested, complex and should not be…

In a context where the science underlying global issues such as climate change often loses out to political opinions and distortions, science teachers have a unique and very important role. Science teachers can use global-learning approaches to encourage learners to develop skills in scientific enquiry and critical analysis of scientific issues.…

The purpose of this paper is to consider the complex relations of transnational academic mobility, internationalization and interculturality in higher education. It is argued that, in the contemporaneous relations of the triad, "interculturality" disappears and the other two--transnational academic mobility and internationalization--are…

This paper explores definitions and understandings of restorative practices in education. It offers a critique of current theoretical models of restorative justice originally derived from the criminal justice system and now becoming popular in educational settings. It questions the appropriateness of these concepts as they are being introduced to…

Experiential learning has explicitly, since the publication of the Kolb "treatise" been a cornerstone of youth work practice in the UK. It is the contention of this paper that there is a significant misinterpretation of Kolb's theory by those who have applied his theory to youth work. Not least that experience is framed as:…

In recent years, beauty ideals and practices have been explained almost exclusively using evolutionary psychological frameworks, to the exclusion of more proximate factors such as psychosocial and individual psychological variables. To overcome this limitation, we examined the associations among sexist beliefs, objectification of others, media…

In their rejoinder to our article about their work on evidence-based science education, Millar "et al." (2008) claim that we misrepresented their position, and that our argument was false or unclear in key respects. In this brief reply we argue that their criticisms are misdirected, and that they fail to engage in the sort of dialogue…

A reader of Traianou and Hammersley's article (in this issue), which discusses at some length the work we undertook in the "Evidence-based Practice in Science Education (EPSE)" Research Network, might attribute to us views that are rather different from those which we in fact hold, and which we have sought to present in our own accounts…

Len Barton is acutely aware of the power of the academy to either enhance critical thinking or to depress it. He is a true academic, never accepting the received wisdom or perspective of any given sociological standpoint, no matter how powerful or fashionable it was at the time. He has encouraged and promoted a unique blend of professional and…

This article reports on an action research project in which the value of critical friendship for students doing research and writing their dissertations within an international master's course has been explored. This course is run jointly by Roehampton University (London, UK), Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic) together with Fontys OSO…

In this paper Gewirtz and Cribb offer a response to Hammersley and Abraham's criticisms of their arguments about the place of values in social research published in this issue of BJSE. In doing so, they make clear that most of the positions that Hammersley and Abraham attribute to them are ones that they do not identify with and that, like…

This article offers a critical analysis of recent trends in educational policy with particular reference to their assumptions about the knowledge society. It examines the implications of the analysis for the issue of elitism and the promotion of greater educational equality. The article concludes by offering an alternative approach to educational…

The quality of qualitative research has been subject to considerable criticism recently, partly driven by the development of an international movement for "evidence-based policy and practice." In the United States, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are posited by some as the best way of producing reliable research knowledge. Also,…