Families with a child with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) have to manage the child's pervasive support needs. To ensure that families are able to manage these needs, they should be properly supported. However, knowledge about the specific support needs of these families is sparse and fragmented, nor is it known if and which…

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 world economy and political map changed dramatically between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Unprecedented trade linked the continents together and set off a European scramble to discover new resources and markets. European ships and merchants reached across the world, and their governments followed after them, inaugurating the…

This study considers the extensive critique of the impact of the "market" or "neoliberal" model on learning and its outcomes in the light of alternative models. The purpose is to consider the potential impacts of the market on learning and its outcomes and to contextualise critique by considering alternative coordination…

While policy-makers and researchers in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) often seem to speak different languages, overwhelming research evidence on how quality ECEC can play a key role in alleviating the effects of disadvantage can be extremely relevant for policy-makers. In this article, we focus on how philanthropic…

The Dutch government has decided to intervene in parents' role in bringing up their children by imposing compulsory parenting support. As such an intervention has to be legitimatised as being "in the interests of the child", it is important to take a closer look at this concept. First it is shown that it is not evident that the…

It is impossible to achieve the normalization of Basque schools when they are subjected to five sets of regulations on the use of the Basque language in different parts of Euskal Herria. Instead of an education system that differentiates between various language models, what is needed is a school system that recognises the right of all Basque…

The internationalization of higher education globally continues to grow more and more towards commercialization and neoliberalism paths, despite growing concerns about the underlying consequences. Building further on our work and using Saudi Arabia as a national case, this article critically investigates how and in what ways the Saudi government's…

Understanding the role of social policies in intergenerational transfers from old to young people is especially important in times of population aging. This paper focuses on the influences of social expenditures and social services on financial support and on practical help from older parents to their adult children based on the first two waves…

The concepts of differentiation and profiling are cornerstones in discussions about the organisation of contemporary higher education systems, following the trends of massification and global competition. This contribution provides a system-level description and comparison of the German and Dutch higher education systems regarding these topics,…

In this paper the authors carefully study the problem of liberty as it applies to school choice, and whether there ought to be restricted liberty in the case of homeschooling. They examine three prominent concerns that might be brought against homeschooling, viz., that it aggravates social inequality, worsens societal conflict and works against…

The Dutch government has a double moral message for Dutch parents. On the one hand, they expect mothers to work more hours outside the home; on the other hand, they expect parents to perform better in their parental tasks. New research shows again that in spite of all stimulation measures, Dutch women with children prefer their part-time jobs, and…

The extent to which the goals and contents of (compulsory) education should to be regulated has been a complicated balancing act in the Netherlands. Against a background of a long-standing statutory tradition of freedom of education, governmental decisions about "what knowledge is of most worth" have been delicate. The purpose of the…

Purpose: To examine the role of power in interactive policymaking settings. Design/Methodology/Approach: A literature study is combined with four case studies relating to citizen participation in natural resource management and rural development in the Netherlands. Findings: Many of the identified problems and dilemmas of interactive policymaking…

When looking at independent schools, the Netherlands is often mentioned as a prime example of school autonomy. Rooted in the constitution, the Dutch education system is build upon a combination of public funding and private operation. After almost a century of independent schools, the Dutch Government adopted a law recently which enables…