With the rise of network society, consumerism, individualization, globalization and contemporary change forces, students are pressured to both perform well in standardized academic assessments while at the same time constructing a non-standard, unique project of the self. I argue that this generates a particular set of place-based tensions for…

Educational administrators have the power to determine the nature of decision-making structures and processes within their institutions and the extent to which decisions are implemented. This paper reviews assumptions underlying decision-making structures and processes established by school administrators; examines potential individual motives…

Highlights the importance of participatory management as a prerequisite for high quality day-care program functioning. Suggests that teachers and directors often have very different perceptions of what is going on in a center. Successful management requires patience, persistence, and a genuine willingness to consider differing points of view as…

The paper reflects on the use by the UK central government of statistical evidence in educational policy matters. Particular attention is given to school league tables. The paper is generally critical of government attitudes, but suggests that progress towards rational decision-making does occur. (Contains 5 notes.)

The article addresses teacher retention challenges employers are experiencing in the quest to effectively meet standard human resource management practices. The quality of the employer-employee relationship forms the foundation upon which effective management practices thrive. Teachers who remain in education value students and their personal…

Notions of distributed leadership and professional learning communities are bedfellows in the drive to school improvement. However, these ideas of sharing leadership and mutual learning as a community are not introduced and developed in a neutral context. Power relationships, priorities and purposes are constructed in certain ways within the…

With few exceptions, a hearing perspective controls the direction of deaf education nationally and internationally. People who are hearing have a powerful influence over decisions that affect legislation, policies, professional organizations, research agendas, and curricular decisions related to deaf education. Although this situation is changing…

In many European mountain areas, including the Swiss Alps, agriculture has been on the decline in the last decades. This has led to changes in land use, landscape and biodiversity; changes which are perceived, explained and valued by people in different ways. In this paper, the views of local stakeholders in the Surses valley, Switzerland…

A self-assessment which allows the reader to measure his/her leadership style, the Leader Adaptability and Style Inventory (LASI) consists of hypothetical situations and multiple alternative actions from which to choose. Four basic leader behavior styles are listed and explained. (CT)

Suggests that a written text and its revisions are documents of decision processes controlled by the writer's outlook on information priorities. (DD)

Drawing on data collected during the second year of a longitudinal qualitative study that followed over 10 Latino/a bilingual students, this article foregrounds the experiences of participants during their sixth-grade year. The principle data sources included structured and unstructured interviews with teachers and students, school observations,…

In response to the challenges of globalisation, the Singapore government has introduced an array of neo-liberal educational strategies to promote two goals: (a) greater diversity and choice in the educational landscape; and (b) greater autonomy and innovation at the school level. This article argues that the Singapore government uses the tactic of…

This article reflects on key methodological issues emerging from children and young people's involvement in data analysis processes. We outline a pragmatic framework illustrating different approaches to engaging children, using two case studies of children's experiences of participating in data analysis. The article highlights methods of…

The commentaries by Feldman and Leenaars are less than persuasive, insofar as they are grounded in an arbitrary and potentially inappropriate advocacy of communal rather than individual values; in unproven assumptions about the constricted and illogical reasoning of suicidal persons; in an implicit equation of their acts with "sins"; and/or in a…

The author disagrees with Homer Simpson who claims that "...cartoons don't have any deep meaning. They're just stupid drawings that give you a cheap laugh." He argues that The Simpsons have a deep meaning in the same way as the works of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell. The message in The Simpsons, Swift, and Orwell is that those in charge do not…