This study examines a new profession in China and those who inhabit it--admissions counselors who advise Chinese students on how to apply to colleges in the United States. This study was conducted in the international divisions of eight Chinese public high schools in five cities in China and aims to fill the void in our knowledge of the vital role…

This essay review examines four different movies that directly or indirectly refer to the theme of private tutoring or, as it is widely called, shadow education. The movies, directed in locations as diverse as India, Turkey, and Cambodia, are all made from a critical perspective. The directors demonstrate challenges in public education systems and…

The aim of this article is to investigate why Sweden, the epitome of social democracy, has implemented education reforms leading to an extraordinary growth in Free Schools in contrast to liberal England, where Free School policy has been met with enormous resistance. Conventional wisdom would predict the contrary, but as a matter of fact Sweden…

In this article, we explore how the World Bank operationalizes its focus on poverty alleviation in one of the most controversial arenas of educational change: the expansion of privately provided schooling. We argue that the Bank's role in promoting private provision has been far more complicated than most critics have discerned. It has…

Recently, Latin America has seen the advent of research activities to meet the call for research that long preceded them and of the full-time research faculty who engage in them. These developments have taken place as the region partakes in contemporary worldwide trends that have affected universities elsewhere: the consequences of the increased…

Analyzes potential effects of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) on the orientation and control of national education systems. Explains concepts of space, scale, and territorialization in relation to critical shifts in GATS's activity in education. Suggests that rescaling aspects of educational governance to the global level will…

An open letter after September 11, 2001, reflects on education's role in promoting tolerance and peace. Further discussion focuses on liberal versus neoliberal ideology; the expansion and democratization of public education in the 20th century, guided by liberal public policy concerning the state's responsibility for social welfare and the public…

Describes recent structural, curricular, and ideological changes in Czechoslovakian schools: closure of many business-operated vocational schools, declining vocational enrollment, localization of educational decision making, emergence of private and religious schools, church-state conflicts over ownership of school buildings, emphasis on…

Describes attempts to establish at least 20 private universities in Australia between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, of which only 4 remain viable. Discusses five categories of national higher-education environments. Suggests that most proposed private universities were undermined by their overtly commercial character and the strength and…

Educational revolutions in Great Britain and the former Soviet Union were initiated by charismatic national leaders, looked back to more "authentic" conditions where teachers and students dominated formal education, encouraged parent participation, and sought to destroy bureaucratic intermediary agencies in the educational…

A snapshot of the changing Polish educational system focuses on elimination of uniform curriculum requirements, return of religious instruction, emergence of private and religious schools, removal of overtly ideological materials from history and literature curricula, and fears of a power struggle between the present postcommunists and new…

Analyzes how a flourishing market economy has affected China's social policy and educational development, focusing on "marketization" and "privatization" in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong Province. The Delta's expansion of multiple financial sources for education and huge demand for professional and technical education have…

A review of eight new books suggests that increased privatization of education in Europe is inevitable, particularly for higher education. Twelve data tables provide statistics for 29 European countries on enrollment ratios, private school enrollments, vocational education, engineering and science students, public expenditures on education, and…

Criticizes a World Bank policy paper that views private-industry provision of vocational education as an ideal toward which all countries should move, while ignoring the need for relativism in policy formation. Discusses flexibility in delivery of training, importance of general education, relevance of prevocational education, and equity issues.…