This article argues that the "airlift" language often used to describe the eight hundred Kenyan students who attended US and Canadian universities between 1959 and 1963 is misleading. It assumes that the students were being plucked out of substandard education, yet these youth had received some of the most rigorous education in the…

'One day a poster announcing the preparatory course at the university appeared in a village. Pokusa [surname, "desire" in Polish] was among the first to enrol. He was accepted after passing an exam. Now he is one of the best students! -- All you need is a good will -- he explains.' That is how a local newspaper in 1953 encouraged peasant…

John Dewey and W.E.B. Du Bois were prominent critics of how vocational education programs were often used to restrict rather than enhance student aspirations. An overview of the Bordentown Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth (1886-1955) suggests that it met requirements both men articulated for the right kind of vocational…

In this article, David Lewin examines the processes of educational representation, simplification, and selection, proposing the term "pedagogical reduction" in order to clarify the role these processes play within pedagogy. Although this term is virtually unknown among Anglo-American educational theorists, it reflects a substantial…

Employing a Weberian understanding of the centrality of a strong bureaucracy in the modern nation-state, this article examines the relationship between the state and elite education in France. Through a historical analysis and an examination of two current issues facing education--widening participation and pressures to internationalise--we…

This article explores discursive languages through which leading women in the International Federation of University Women (IFUW) articulated their understandings of world citizenship and looks at what Caroline Spurgeon, the first President of the IFUW, called the "organised training of women to be citizens of the world." The central section…

This paper explores two of the tensions Tarc identifies in the history of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma: firstly, between its design for meritocratic competition and its internationalist vision and, secondly, between the IB as a global commodity and its localised interpretations. Using data from three case studies of Australian…

This paper explores ways in which gendered approaches have limited women's experience of higher education. Using a historical lens with primary examples from the United States and Britain, it demonstrates how beliefs about women over time led to three expectations about their educational participation: initially, that women were not interested in…

Indonesia's post-1998 transition to democracy has presented Muslim educators with the opportunity to take part in shaping the future of Indonesian democracy in ways that are consistent with Muslim social, political, and educational aspirations. One of the key vehicles for doing so is civic education. For Muslim educators in the Islamic higher…

The original World War II GI Bill fully subsidized education or job training for 7.8 million veterans, making college a realistic expectation rather than an impossible dream, and enabled millions to move to and develop the suburbs. This caused a true social revolution and fueled the longest economic boom in history. (MSE)

An attempt to integrate psychological and sociological theories of student choice of higher education courses by drawing on the structuration theory of A. Giddens is discussed. Empirical support is given through studies of Danish higher education admission and student course selection by 1,084 secondary school graduates. (SLD)

This report presents data from three longitudinal studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972, the High School and Beyond study, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) were all designed to assess the educational experiences and achievements of high…

"Minding the Gap" argues that in today's highly competitive, global economy, all young people need a postsecondary education. Yet only one in ten students from the lowest economic quintile in the United States currently earns a postsecondary credential. This timely and instructive book from Jobs for the Future explores policies and…