Purpose: This paper aims to understand the debate about what constitutes good education in the Netherlands. The meaning of the concept of democracy in these public debates is divergent and rather diffuse. If teachers, citizens, advisory councils, and the Dutch government agree that democracy ought to be anchored in future education, we first and…

Return on investment (ROI) has become part of the policymaking toolkit, particularly pertinent for activities like school-based career guidance deemed optional by some policymakers. There are institutions supporting ideal ROI methods alongside an academic critique, but little research on how ROI has been applied in practice in a guidance setting.…

Based on the findings of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement notes in 2010 that the development of citizenship education is stagnating. In response to this stagnation, some countries, including the Netherlands, are tempted to act more prescriptively in…

The coronavirus pandemic has led to drastic measures around the world, which have also affected the education system. Schools were closed in the spring of 2020 in almost every country in the world, and many children and young people are still involved in distance learning to this day. What effect these measures have on children's and young…

The expansion of opportunity in higher education and the recognition of the influence of academic research on economic development have motivated policy reforms in many national systems of higher education including Japan. Many of these national reforms involve facilitating market forces in higher education, which is a new context for many…

We examine recent research across countries and cultures in regard to the issues related to the formation of gifted and talented education perspectives, policies, and practices. Many modern cultures and subcultures have developed formal and informal definitions of what it means to be gifted and talented, and when we compare the perceptions,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to review and synthesize published studies and practice in the "integration" of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain and The Netherlands, 1965-2015, drawing out implications for current policy and practice. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is an evaluative review and report of results of…

The paper investigates two -- often disconnected -- policy questions: how can we scale the use of evidence in teaching practice, and how can we generate and scale innovation? Both questions necessitate understanding how teachers and schools connect with each other, and with other organisations and professionals. The paper thus explores the role of…

Over the last two decades, education privatization has become a widespread phenomenon, affecting most education systems and giving place to a consistent increase in private school enrolment globally. However, far from being a monolithic phenomenon, privatization advances through a variety of context-sensitive policy processes that translate into…

Dutch comprehensive education eventually failed on a political level, despite support from many politicians, labour unions and branches in the educational practice. In the early 1970s denominational political parties strove for a Middle School to provide equal opportunities of all children by postponing school choice. From 1973 onwards, however,…

This literature review on school choice analyses the impact of choice schemes on students and on school systems focusing on equity. Reviewing the evidence can be difficult, as the literature is often fragmented and inconclusive, and the political importance of this research often results in high-profile attention given to individual studies rather…

This article focuses on how Dutch newspapers represented the debate in the Netherlands in the 1970s on comprehensive education and thus influenced the Dutch Middle School experiment. Wiborg's identification of key factors of success in Scandinavia was used as a point of reference. The article shows that these key factors did not exist in the…

The purpose of the present review of literature and research is to examine the benefits the arts provide as enhancements for teaching and learning provided for both educators and students in PK-12 school settings. The relationship between exposure to the arts and student achievement within the academic disciplines such as mathematics,…

Whether to adopt national standards and tests has long been a subject of lively debate in the United States. With 47 states now participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and a commitment from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to allocate hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to the development of common tests, the country is…

The main question addressed in this article is how, in light of the multiethnic composition of its population, Dutch education is and should be educating its citizens. Popular politicians and mainstream media advocate discipline-oriented approaches. The authors argue that citizenship education seems to be taking a one-sided turn in Dutch…