In this commentary, I interpret Xinying Yin and Gayle Ann Buck's collaborative action research from a social-cultural perspective. Classroom implementation of formative assessment is viewed as interaction between this assessment method and the local learning culture. I first identify Yin and Buck's definition of the formative assessment, and then…

This article reflects upon three seminal articles published in "Higher Education Policy" ("HEP") on academic freedom and university autonomy. The reflections indicate that "HEP" research contributes to a sophisticated and systematic understanding of the complexity of academic freedom, addressing both the original…

This paper works in dialogue with Arjun Appadurai's paper, "Grassroots globalization and the research imagination" in an attempt to outline some necessary changes in researching education in the multiple contexts of globalisation. The paper provides two narratives as part of this project, which Appadurai calls the…

This article focuses on the epistemological changes evident in twentieth-century educational reform in China. Reflections on linkages between knowledge and modernization, based on sociological literature, are presented. The Chinese knowledge tradition, current changes in the higher education curriculum, and curricular experiments at six…