This paper examines the Australian government's Indigenous policy by interrogating the concept of partnership between governments and Indigenous communities through three examples. Increasingly, the Australian federal government is focusing attention on the poor literacy and numeracy outcomes for Indigenous children in remote and very remote…

There is growing concern that almost 20 years after the 1988 Education Act, top-down, large-scale reform has stalled. The policy mix of choice, competition, markets, regulation, accountability and leadership seems not to have closed the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged areas and individuals, while most variations in school performance can…

The Australian State of Queensland's "Smart State" policy is the Government's response to global conditions that require a new type of worker and citizen for a new knowledge economy. As a result the Government has produced a plethora of documents and papers in every aspect of its operation to progress Queensland as a "Smart…

While there has been considerable scholarship on the role of school and district leadership within instructional change, there has been little analysis of the values and orientations that undergird current policy debates about instructional leadership. This article outlines the importance of examining instructional leadership in the context of…

School curriculum policy and politics in South Africa are discussed in this article as a means of highlighting the nature of Governmental power and functioning in a post-liberation developing country. The notion "policy networks" is used as a lens to understand the ways in which specific constellations of policy interests informed the…

Draws on an ongoing project on "Elites in Policy-making," aimed at critically examining the postwar "partnership" between LEAs, teachers, and the Ministry of Education. Challenges pluralism as the dominant theoretical approach to the study of education policymaking in the United Kingdom and argues for a more state-centered,…

This article explores the changing relation between education and the state as this is expressed through a new language of education within Sweden, structured by terms such as the knowledge society, life-long learning and validation. The author read closely a policy document on life-long learning, taking as the point of departure the…

In this article I use the concept of "re-agenting" to explore and explain the role of non-state agencies, principally private companies and business entrepreneurs, as key instruments in the government's transformation of the school system in England. Their role takes both for-profit and not-for-profit forms. The outsourcing to private…

Explores the legitimacy of the partial control over education matters gained by the European Union since the 1970s, examining in particular the role of the European Court of Justice and the European Commission, in reshaping and altering definitions of legal compensation in the fields of education and training. Discusses implications for democratic…

Since publication of the British government's white paper, "Top-up Loans for Students" in November 1988, public debate has been confined to loan proposal merits. A proposal to exclude full-time college students from the social security system has been neglected. This article examines the proposal's rationale and its implications for…

The 19th-century emergence of a centralized, state-controlled school system helped stabilize government and legitimize a state model during a revolutionary period in French history. The centralized model assisted national integration goals by fabricating a symbolic public space. This ambitious political construction may be coming apart. (Contains…

Drawing on Giddens' outline of first-, second-, and third-way politics, examines a range of New Labour's education policies, questioning whether they embody a distinctively different approach. The British government's strategies are largely extensions of second-way "neoliberalism." Education action zones may represent a third (feasible)…

Using three Oakland, California, case studies concerned with implementing the Public Works and Economic Development Act (1965), this article explores the limits of science in policy implementation. Sources of uncertainty are examined and the science of chaos introduced as a possible interpretive framework for extending policy science. Includes 20…

Examines the philosophical tradition of ethical liberalism from its emergence as a coherent response to 19th century classical liberal individualism through contemporary formulations. Pursues origins in John Stuart Mills's writings and assesses ethical liberalism's relevance for understanding current neo-liberal policy restructuring in education.…

The Local Management of Schools part of Britain's Education Reform Act (1988) is conceptually similar to recent innovations in the structure of other local government services. The continuing incorporation of education within the local government framework has resulted in the education welfare tradition's erosion through compulsory competitive…