This paper explores the emergence of the term 'polycentricity' in education policy research and compares its use in education to its historical use in its 'parent fields' of political science and economics. We focus on the leading role of Stephen Ball and colleagues in popularising the term in education, inspiring other education scholars to…

The Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) has become one of the most influential forces in global education. The growing influence has been accompanied by growing criticism. For nearly two decades since the first round of PISA was conducted in 2000, the global assessment program has been roundly scrutinized and criticized by…

Are we witnessing the rise of 'global' student protests, in the wake of austerity policies and globalised educational reforms? To answer this question, this article draws on a comparison of the claims, anger, and hope present in three post-2008 student movements: the student movement in Santiago, Chile (2011-2012), the 'Maple Spring' in Montreal,…

Widening participation in England has been framed around two primary needs; raising attainment and raising aspiration. Whilst aspiration is complex, policy definitions often frame it in narrow economic terms and see access to higher education as primarily about developing a workforce, the underlying logic being that to improve social mobility that…

An international consensus seems to have developed in educational research--and among educational planners and policymakers--during the last 10-15 years proclaiming that learning is, and must be, a visible phenomenon. This paper questions this predominant view and serves an assemblage of points offering educational scientists at least four…

This paper critiques the language practices and language-in-education policy of Botswana from a translanguaging perspective. By so doing, it revisits our commonly held perceptions about multilingualism, bilingualism and language and its boundary. We commonly perceive languages as autonomous and as having boundaries and we perceive bilingualism or…

The purpose of this paper is to problematize the place of religious authority in politics and education. Specifically, this essay highlights the role of religious authority in establishing a moral order that values compliance and conformity at the expense of liberty and critique. In doing so, the essay reflects on Israeli politics and Islamic…

This response to David Lewin states the purpose of my critique of some aspects of Liam Gearon's work. It clarifies my position on the aims of "inclusive" religious education, rejecting Gearon's view that REDCo researchers shared a common pluralistic theology, regarding religious education as having a single political aim. It reinforces…

This paper presents aspects of a small scale study that considered student teachers' language and discourse around race and ethnicity at a university in the northwest of England. The first part of the paper critiques current education-related policy, context and practice to situate the research and then draws upon aspects of critical race theory…

Education reform in England is increasingly portrayed as a quest to create "world class" schools through the transfer of features of "high performing" school systems. The demand for evidence to support policy borrowing has been serviced by an influential intermediary network, which uses international data banks to compare…

This article begins with a critique of dominant approaches to language policy in education that are based on the notion of "rights" and "peoples." It makes the case for an approach that is based on the tripartite view of social justice, as articulated by Nancy Fraser. This view of social justice sees a complementary…

In 2003, the Japanese Ministry of Education accredited the high school diplomas of most "ethnic high schools," which are schools by and for specific ethnic minority populations, such as Korean, Brazilian, or Chinese students in Japan. Prior to this policy, diplomas from most ethnic high schools were not recognized by the Japanese…

The rhetoric of education today tends to divide the world in two: between those who favor "reform" and those who don't. Many who consider themselves reformers say they stand in opposition to the "status quo." Some of them speak of the need to challenge the "education establishment," or the education bureaucracy. Many also describe their policies…

In 2006 the National Council of Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) removed the phrase "social justice" from its glossary definition of dispositions. Initially, many educators were disappointed by what seemed like an abrupt removal of this educational value. But in the years since, little has been said or done to understand what, exactly,…

A number of arguments appeared in the late-nineteenth-century United States about "correctness" in language, arguments for and against enforcing a standard of correctness and arguments about what should count as correct in language. Insofar as knowledge about and facility with "correct" linguistic usage could affect one's standing in the social…