In this article, I theorize school abolition as a shift needed to unsettle education within current times of ecological precarity. As a practice and horizon, abolition reorganizes schooling's ruling episteme by articulating humanity as a collective performance beyond the pedagogical paradigms of western man. Because racial capitalist schooling…

People hate the feeling of uncertainty; if not managed or addressed properly, it can lead to confusion, frustration, or worse--and that is a bad thing. Equally bad, however, is running from ambiguity, leaping to solution based on assumption, and failing to take the time to explore what is unknown and learning to be comfortable in, and taking the…

On the occasion of its sesquicentenary, which coincides with an extended period of school closures imposed due to the effects of a global virus pandemic, this paper analyses the Elementary Education Act of 1870, and in particular in relation to its implications for compulsory attendance at school. It did not introduce compulsory schooling but…

We live in a world and a time full of challenges. Social inequality, discrimination, global political instability, wars, genocides, terrorism, nuclear and biological weapons, climate change, waste disposal, and species extinction, among others, are constant threats. These pressing issues require attention and solution. Wisdom rises as the…

A growing body of work regarding teacher learning and implementation of reform has pointed to the significant role organizational contexts play in shaping teachers' engagement with reform and their implementation decisions. Within science education, the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and standards reflective of the…

This paper explores how the contradictions of neoliberal education reform and its companion, the self-made aspirational subject, are embodied by Sir Michael Wilshaw, former headteacher of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, through his leadership practices. Wilshaw creates powerful mobility and morality tales that pave over the…

The euphemism "21st century contexts" is often used to capture the transition from solid twentieth century education towards more uncertain social and educational conditions. These contextual narratives acknowledge the complexities of contemporary education that make decision-making, professional practice and leadership seem difficult.…

Social work educators are in a phase of reintroducing the doctor of social work (DSW) degree and refining distinctions between PhD and DSW doctoral programs. This article examines how the two options have been prey to a noticeable "seesaw of precedence", resulting in a debatable history of social work's approach to doctoral education…

Higher education in the college sector has become an increasingly important aspect of the tertiary education system in Scotland, particularly in widening access to higher education for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this respect there is a distinctively different tradition in Scotland when compared with England. Despite the success of…

One social science base for educational administration proposed in the Baron and Taylor collection was organisation theory. In the event this expectation turned out to be over-optimistic. Organisation theory was much too contested and insufficiently pragmatic for the British taste. Major developments in this field occurred mainly in the USA.…

While a great deal of attention has been given to evaluating how well policies are implemented, that is, how well they are realised in practice, less attention has been paid to understanding and documenting the ways in which schools actually deal with the multiple, and sometimes opaque and contradictory demands of different "types" of…

This article critically examines the Labour Party's policies for local school systems, focusing on its proposals for regional Directors of School Standards, for academies and free schools, and for local democracy, and offers an alternative approach.

This paper analyzes drivers and impediments to secondary school reform in Trinidad and Tobago during the period from 1999 to 2009. International assessment data suggested limited progress on improving system quality and equity. Several policy levers and barriers have been defined in current system reform theory. However, explanations for the…

While the literature on professional learning communities (PLCs) has proliferated, much of it derived from and contextualised in Anglo-American settings, the concept and practice of PLCs in Asian contexts of strong hierarchies have largely been ignored. Based on literature and documentary analysis, this paper investigates the systemic…

For the past 150 years public schools in the United States have, in one form or another, tried to address the presence of children in classrooms whose cognitive, behavioral or physical characteristics have been deemed sufficiently problematic to merit a "special" education. Current federal law identifies thirteen categories of…