This paper aims to survey the current landscape of education policy evaluation across OECD countries and economies by examining recent trends and contextual factors that can promote more robust education policy evaluation, as well as identifying key challenges. It takes a view of policy evaluation as an activity that takes place throughout the…

This qualitative study explores school principals' perceptions and enactments of shared sense-making processes during a generally-outlined pedagogical reform, i.e. "a broad-policy reform allowing educators to exercise their discretion in meeting its pedagogical goals," aiming to inquire what makes such processes critical to schools'…

The article addresses the way in which characteristics of the education crisis in the postmodern era are manifested in parental deliberations when choosing to homeschool their children in Israel. Based on a review of the characteristics of the education crisis and examination of possible solutions, homeschooling is presented as an optional…

The research investigated whether teachers' participation in decision-making (PDM) contributes to the development of affective trust during school reform over time, or vice versa. A model including principals' interpersonal skills was tested during implementation of the organizational reform. Teachers (n = 1,482) from 113 Israeli elementary…

The current study deals with the question of whether affective trust among the teaching staff and teacher participation in decision-making (PDM) might influence the relationship between principals' skills (cognitive and interpersonal) and organizational outcomes (job satisfaction and teacher absenteeism) during the first year of educational reform…

This mixed methodology study explored the reasons that teachers in Israel are motivated to become school leaders, and the relative importance of the different discouraging factors that worked against such interest. A cross-national Israeli survey included 39 individual interviews, 2 focus groups of 25 teachers each, and a questionnaire completed…

Home schooling has become increasingly widespread in recent decades. Much research has been conducted regarding different aspects of the practice, including parents' reasons for choosing home schooling. These are often quantitative studies that directly examine these reasons and frequently cite rational reasons. In contrast, the present research…

Educational reform implementation in today's fast changing world requires a critical transition from individual to school sense-making processes. Managing expectations from above (e.g. external demands) and below (e.g. internal school goals) while performing within multiple overlapping contexts, principals seem pulled in many different directions…

This qualitative study identified and analyzed the occurrences of the Garbage-Can decision making model in public schools. The study was based on semi-structured interviews with 34 teachers from elementary and middle schools in Israel. Data analysis showed three major decision areas in which the Garbage-Can model was employed, and the conditions…

Effective implementation of educational reforms requires collaboration between stakeholders. The current paper describes and analyzes the findings of a qualitative research, which examined the perceptions of the three hierarchic levels of stakeholders, assigned by the Israeli Ministry of Education in 2010 to introduce and implement a new policy…

In 2016, the Israeli Ministry of Education (MoE) issued a policy document recommending six new doctrines for pedagogical development at schools. Amid those is 'Glocalism', aimed at addressing the global/local mix within the schooling system. Given the lack of a declared internationalization policy in Israel and its highly nationalistic curricula,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine a model linking school principals' strategic, interpersonal skills and teachers' participation in decision making (PDM) to predict teachers' skill flexibility (SF) during the implementation of educational reform. Design/methodology/approach: From 113 randomly selected elementary schools in Israel…

Purpose: This article presents a conceptual synthesis of the international literature on inclusive education while expanding upon, and incorporating, the articles in this special issue. The authors present their 3P model (philosophy, policy and praxis) and relate each paper in this special issue to different aspects of their model.…

Educational policy borrowing has become rather common in our globalised world. However, the literature lacks contextual criteria that may be employed by researchers and policy makers to assess the correspondence of a particular policy to the local context of a borrowing system. Based on a secondary analysis of documents and research reports, this…

In 2020, 1.5 billion students in 188 countries/economies were locked out of their schools. Students everywhere have been faced with schools that are open one day and closed the next, causing massive disruption to their learning. With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic still raging, many education systems are still struggling, and the situation is…