Political parties are often construed as playing an imperative role in democratic systems. However, what happens inside a party once people have joined as members and during their continued engagement is underexplored in research. This paper investigates the organisation of party education within political parties in Sweden and how political…

It has become increasingly difficult for the two major parties in Congress to reach agreement on major higher education legislation. As a result, the Higher Education Act is long overdue for reauthorization. Congressional stalemates on higher education legislation are not conducive to effective and productive governance in this important area of…

Background: It is widely recognised that policymakers use research deemed relevant, yet little is understood about ways to enhance perceived relevance of research evidence. Observing policymakers' access of research online provides a pragmatic way to investigate predictors of relevance. Aims and objectives: This study investigates a range of…

A detailed analysis of "Hansard" transcripts was undertaken to explore the dialogue used in parliamentary debates and committee meetings where reference was made to grammar schools between October 2015 to March 2019. During this period, the first new grammar school for fifty years had been approved, along with the establishment of the…

In the United States, where public pre-K has recently undergone rapid expansion, pre-K policies often include a mandate for parent involvement. We analyze a pre-K parent involvement policy in the state of Michigan, demonstrating the ways mid-level administrators appropriated the policy. We show how the silences and tensions embedded in the policy…

Troubled by the inequities in competitive grantmaking, we use critical quantitative methods to analyze the FY2023 federal academic earmarks as a potential mechanism for racialized change work. Specifically, we ask: To what extent does Congress distribute academic earmarks in ways that reinforce or weaken the racialized stratification of resources…

Competition among parties is a central feature of democratic politics, but extreme partisanship can undermine democratic practices and institutions. We report the results of a formative curricular intervention involving reflective discussions designed to avoid hyper-partisanship in a training program for anyone--including university students--with…

Few studies have examined the growing trend of teacher-legislators, specifically teachers' trajectory to elected office. Drawing on qualitative data and raced-gendered frameworks, this article examines how three female teachers of color in one Southwest state leveraged their teaching experiences to shape their policy priorities and how they…

President Barack Obama's use of the hedging language is an evidence of his unique mastery of rhetorical strategies, power of persuasion and an influential speaker. The purpose of this study was to identify and retrieve the hedging devices contained in President Obama's speeches. For this purpose, his most important and decisive speeches were…

Background: Nearly two decades have passed since the last successful reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Since then, student loan debt and the accumulation patterns based on race have become a pressing issue to address in U.S. society. Purpose: Student debt is one of the key issues on the federal higher education policy agenda. The…

Although the literature contains many recommendations for professional advocacy for school counseling, there is a dearth of research providing clear and contemporary evidence of effective strategies for advocating for elementary school counseling. In response to this gap in the literature, we conducted a phenomenological qualitative study of 13…

This study uses critical discourse analysis to explain how legislators determine the role and contributions of academic researchers in Congressional legislative hearings. The discursive practices that legislators use serve to construct the social identity of academic witnesses, characterize witnesses' qualifications, solicit information from…

Kuwait's Constitution defines the small Arab Gulf nation as a constitutional democracy led by a hereditary emirate, although outside observers have questioned the degree to which it is indeed democratic. Despite such scepticism, Kuwait has undoubtedly taken some steps to promote democratization, including the introduction of the Constitution and…

Social workers are making a name for themselves in national politics. Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) have MSW degrees. The current chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Karen Bass (D-CA), also has an MSW. Having social workers in elected office allows the profession to directly address the Grand Challenges of the 21st…

Drawn from a larger project on reported speech in parliamentary interaction (Reber, forthcoming), this paper studies visuo-material performances of so-called "literalized" (Rumsey, 1992) quoting, i.e., verbatim reproductions of original utterances. Taking an interactional-linguistic perspective, I analyze how participants accomplish…