Globally, public affairs programs are designed to meet dual educational purposes. On the one hand, these professional degree programs are intended to educate students for careers in service to the public. On the other hand, these programs are also intended to educate students about our common responsibility to contribute to the betterment of…

In Zimbabwe, a range of actors are involved in education due to ongoing challenges of resourcing and funding schools. There are complex socio-political arrangements that result from private-public partnerships in the education system. Some schools are created and funded by individuals, and little is known about the tensions these funding…

The research on education philanthropy typically characterizes foundations as practicing either "traditional" or "strategic" philanthropy. These labels are used to indicate divergent ways of thinking about the impact of grants and approaches to grantmaking between the two models. Drawing on a theoretical framework informed by…

Concerned with the ongoing youth mental crisis in the United States, researchers intentionally planned for positive youth development (PYD) practices in nature. Educators, appreciating the critical importance of youth developing relationships and a sense of belonging, may regard this model as a powerful tool to enhance existing programs. Both…

Background/Context: The business and philanthropic sectors have been a persistent force in shaping U.S. schools. Recently, they have used their resources to advance policies that embody newer principles of industry--reforms that suggest that competition, choice, and deregulation can spur improvement and effectiveness. This has most notably…

(IOs) are influential policy actors in higher education. Yet, little is known regarding the role of philanthropic foundations in sponsoring IOs for policy promotion. By relying on longitudinal analysis of grants, semi-structured interviews, and social network analysis, this study examined the most central IOs within foundation-sponsored networks,…

In this paper, we focus on a special use of but in interactions in which those doing the questioning and answering are accountable for producing talk that is relevant to a third party--an overhearing audience. Specifically, we aim to show how participants leverage the contrastive power of "but" in turn-initial position to refocus…

The connection between the environment and our individual wellbeing can be seen through our indigenous histories, traditional ways of living, and understanding of health benefits of living in balance with our land, water, and sky. Educational settings can be reimagined and transformed to better use outdoor spaces and build the wellbeing of our…

The OECD is a key player in global education policy advice and part of the edu-business network. This network comprises of companies, philanthropies, consulting agencies and think tanks profiting from educational governance reforms and large-scale testing. This article investigates the structure of the OECD global policy network and its capability…

Investigating the potential of video games as an aid to community mapping and participatory architectural design, the author discusses the use of the sandbox game "Minecraft" by the Block by Block Foundation in collaboration with Mojang Studios, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat for three projects--Model Street (Dandora Phase 2, in Nairobi,…

As schools transitioned to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, community-based organizations pivoted from providing afterschool programs to dealing with all manner of crises and basic needs. Some out-of-school time (OST) providers stayed open to provide full-day programs for the children of first responders and essential workers, while…

Background/Context: Research on the patterns of philanthropic funding of charter schools has largely focused on the behavior of major foundations. This work has documented how the once diffuse giving by these major foundations has become increasingly concentrated on a small number of jurisdictional challengers in the form of charter schools,…

This study was designed to investigate the applicability of the IES/NSF pipeline-of-evidence protocol in ascertaining why two notable educational initiatives spearheaded and financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation achieved or not the goal of improved academic outcomes for K-12 public school students. Our interest was not…

Pressing social problems and inequities call attention to the need for interventions that target root causes and change systems. A significant challenge facing system change efforts is the lack of systems-based evaluation theory and methods. To address this challenge, we conducted an instrumental case study of evaluation within an exemplary…

How can funders create a grantmaking strategy that puts them in a position to quickly and effectively respond to unpredictable challenges? This case study follows strategy redevelopment for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's education program. The re-envisioning of the strategy ensured the education program team could be nimble and…