In education, contemporary discussions of standards and standardisation often appear incidentally, as part of the critique of particular standardisation projects, such as national or international assessments and comparisons. This review essay focuses not on particular standards but more broadly on how standards develop, how they participate in…

Education in the United States was in a state of "crisis" at the time of the 1983 release of "A Nation at Risk," the landmark report on the US education reform. This was the time when the rising Japanese economy started threatening the post-war US economic dominance and conservative figures such as Ronald Reagan gained popular…

Two recent books provide varied resources for exploring ethical issues in the social sciences. Reflection on ethical issues aims to sensitize scholars to a range of consequences of their research, and to scholars' responsibilities to their discipline, their colleagues, and the public. This review article assesses the utility of these texts (and of…