In this essay, we argue that pupils in compulsory school education seem to be exposed to conflicting pressures from an (internal) tendency towards individualisation and an (external) tendency towards standardisation. Drawing on Luc Bolanski and Laurent Thévenot's pragmatic sociology of orders of worth, we develop a theoretical framework to discuss…

Educational reforms and introduction of compulsory schooling for nobility are rightly counted among the most important changes introduced by Peter I in Russia. This article employs a large sample of records from the Heraldry, a government agency in charge of registering nobles for their mandatory service, to assess the spread of literacy among the…

While historically and ideologically peripheralised in modern Chinese politics, traditional culture has been discursively rehabilitated by the Chinese communist regime in recent years. Existing literature on this phenomenon tends to focus on the politicisation of culture, that is, how Chinese culture, particularly the Confucian tradition, is…

There are multiple vantage points from which historians have observed the ways in which both diseased and healthy bodies (as well as their constituent parts) have served as tools of knowledge generation, instruction and coercion in the hands of medical practitioners. From spaces of formal, specialist education such as the medical school to more…

This article details how and why we have developed a flexible and responsive process-based rubric exemplar for teaching, learning, and assessing critical and creative thinking. We hope to contribute to global discussions of and efforts toward instrumentalising the challenge of assessing, but not standardising, creativity in compulsory education.…

Schooling is a critical topic in Myanmar's socio-political discourse that involves multiple interests and actors. Different stakeholders deploy schools for various ends, such as the training of workers, cultural subjugation, identity preservation, religious imposition, political propagation and social control. This article identifies the main…

We examine the mortality effects of a 1947 school reform in Japan, which extended compulsory schooling from primary to secondary school by as much as 3 years. The abolition of secondary school fees also indicates that those affected by the reform likely came from disadvantaged families who could have benefited the most from schooling. Even in this…

Many studies suggest a relationship between education and political participation, but only some address causality. We add to this by re-examining the German case. For identification, we exploit an exogenous increase in compulsory schooling, and use data from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). The data enable analyses that do not rely…

There has been clamor and dismay at the expected future economic and social costs for children affected by school closures from COVID-19. A New York Times editorial, for example, stated: "A learning reversal of this magnitude could hobble an entire generation." However, the nearly universal belief in the substantial social and economic…

This paper investigates the implications of some social anarchists' views on education for thinking about authority, educational paternalism and compulsory schooling. In the first part of the paper, some key concepts in social anarchist theory will be introduced in order to demonstrate the importance of education for social anarchists. The paper…

In this paper we examine the objectives and meanings of the career guidance provided in comprehensive education as set out in discussions in the Parliament of Finland. We approach the topic through an exploration of parliamentary sessions concerning three major legislative proposals for reforming compulsory education in Finland. The premise is…

The dominant analytical and programmatic frameworks used when writing about conflict-affected contexts such as Libya in Global Northern academia belong to the interdisciplinary field of peace and conflict studies (PACS). Within this, education is increasingly gaining attention as a tool for building peace and developing social justice. This…

The 19th century saw the rise of mass schooling. School acts were published, increasing number of teachers were trained and hired, and children increasingly attended schools. This development was strongest in Europe and North America, with schooling in the USA, France and Prussia leading the way. While this development with its national and…

This article advocates for a sociocultural perspective on foreign language education policy and practice in state education systems. The article's geographical focus is on selected countries in Asia, though the general arguments may also be applicable to other countries. It examines factors underlying the divergence between policy intentions and…

Purpose: (1) Critique conventional schooling as detrimental to student well-being and learning. (2) Articulate an alternative that is more conducive to learning and well-being in classrooms, schools, and educational systems. Design/Approach/Methods: I review the historical functions of compulsory schooling, the main critiques to conventional…