This article address the falsehoods regarding No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top legislation, the educational reformers' stance that schools are failing, the privatization movement in education, and the issues of technology in the schools. The importance of poverty is emphasized, although policymakers ignore it and advocate school choice as…

In the September/October issue the author analyzed trends in business and society and identified three pillars of the new economy. After that article was published, readers were asked to share their views on what these changes mean for the world of early childhood. In this article, the author summarizes respondent's views. [For Part 1, see…

A central organizing framework of the voluminous recent literature studying changes in the returns to skills and the evolution of earnings inequality is what we refer to as the canonical model, which elegantly and powerfully operationalizes the supply and demand for skills by assuming two distinct skill groups that perform two different and…

Adult education will have an important role to play in addressing the challenges facing the world in the wake of the Copenhagen climate change talks. What can providers do to make a difference--and what is already being done? In this article, the authors give their perspectives.

It would be difficult to imagine any first-year teacher had aspirations of becoming a weak teacher. Most individuals hired as teachers have the ability to do a good job and want to do a good job. So how is it that some become ineffective? The authors contend that school leaders make them that way. Consider this preposterous notion: School leaders…

People use the words "profession" and "professional" in a multitude of ways. This article provides an extensive discussion about the idea of "profession." The author discusses how librarianship stacks up against the established professions and explores whether librarianship is considered as a profession. The author argues that librarianship is not…

Many people view subgovernments such as the "military-industrial complex" as largely self-governing and budget maximizing. Yet, as defense cutbacks in the 1970s and 1990s show, such networks do not maintain their privileged status indefinitely. In similar fashion, some claim public education is too autonomous and too focused on budget…

This article explores Derrida's claim that teaching is a deconstructive process. In order to explore this claim, the Derridean concept of "erasure" is explored. Using the concept of erasure, this article examines two important aspects of teaching: the name that teachers establish for themselves, and, teaching against social power from a Derridean…

This article argues that education leaders in this country, and indeed leaders of other public services, are facing life-changing decisions. The way ahead is full of possibilities and pitfalls. The article employs the metaphor of a railway journey to explore these. In particular it considers the implications for leaders in terms of how they…

Economists may be biased in ways that are not apparent to many. A widely espoused theory in economics is that regulators' decisions often become biased in favor of the industries they regulate; to use economic jargon, they become "captured." Economic incentives encourage even the best-intentioned regulators to cater to the interests of the…

It has been generally accepted that teaching does not meet the criteria of a profession, at least as exemplified by the more mature professions of medicine and law (Abbott, 1988; Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002; Etzioni, 1969; Howsam, Corrigan, Denemark, & Nash, 1976). Teaching is most often referred to as a semiprofession; Myers's (2008 [this…

"Human capital" is quickly becoming the new site-based management, a popular strategy from the 1980s and 1990s that sought to increase autonomy in schools and spread decision making more widely. While few are sure what human capital means, everyone craves it, has a model to deliver it, and is quick to tout its restorative powers. It is…

A number of colleges and universities are aggressively recruiting professionals from outside academe for various administrative roles. Many of these professionals come to campuses from substantial corporate careers, with excellent aptitude for the job at hand, and are generally wonderful additions to the staffs. The test often faced as managers is…

This autoethnographic account describes interconnections among the author's personal prayer life, teaching, and research. The contextual frame for the story includes episodes and observations from a twelve-year span, encompassing postacademic tenure and promotion to the present. The author's prayer is that others might resonate with parts of this…

Justifiably concerned about power dynamics between researchers and participants in participatory research, much of the literature proposes guidelines for including participant voices at every step of the research process. We find these guidelines insufficient for dealing with constraints set up by the social organizational structures in which…