Educational policy in England has passed through four main stages during the past three decades. The Social-democratic, resource-constrained, and market phases all contain inherently weak elements of New Labour's Excellence Movement. Less linear, more collaborative forms of school leadership are recommended. Contains 65 references. (MLH)

The view of school leadership presented in official (British) government statements may be characterized as bastardized and strongly managerialist. Both the Conservatives and New Labour have spawned managerialist practices that threaten to undermine New Labour's policy aims of creating a just democracy and a productive economy. (Contains 43…

In this article we analyse the role given to education and training by policy-makers in France and Britain from 1980 onwards, in relation to their overall chosen economic (and social) strategies, and highlight conjunctions between education, exchange-rate regimes, and the level of economic openness. Britain opted for a monetarist route against…

Movements to reform teacher education are underway in many parts of the world, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the US. These attempts at reform are motivated by various forces, but appear to reflect an international convergence toward uniformity, conformity, and compliance. Our purpose here is to analyze the forces and contradictions…

With special reference to the People's Republic of China (PRC), this paper examines relationships between law, education reform and social transformation that have been under-researched. The argument is that, despite national leaders' high expectations, the use of law to effect or consolidate educational reform in the PRC is affected by both legal…

Purpose: To provide a history of the emergence of quality systems from the mid-1980s. To show how quality became a primary policy concern in higher education policy. To map the development of quality processes and raise questions about dominant approaches and express concerns for the future. Design/methodology/approach: Historical document…

Quietly, without attracting too much attention from educational sociologists in Europe, a massive process has been underway for five years that is expected to revolutionize European higher education to an unprecedented extent. Launched by a number of European governments and subsequently taken over by the European Commission, the so-called Bologna…

There is an apparent contradiction between the widespread moves towards a uniform and instrumentalist standards-based approach to teaching on the one hand and recent research-based insights into the complexity of effective pedagogies. The former tendency reflects a politically driven agenda, the latter is more professionally driven. Tensions…

This article focuses on the latest developments in higher educational policy in the Russian Federation and the influence of international organizations such as the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on these policies and education reforms. This article's primary purpose is to explore how the newly…

In 1989, national attention was given to the unusual amount of cooperation and social connections among key policy actors in a major school-finance lawsuit in Kentucky. The case resulted in a judicial ruling declaring the entire state's school system unconstitutional. Accounts of this ruling attributed the unprecedented decision partly to…

How implicit assumptions govern the process of policymaking, and how those implicit assumptions are simultaneously consistent with both the political culture of the state and with behaviors that are effective in achieving desired policy outcomes are investigated in this paper. Interview data were gathered from policymakers and analyzed to discover…

The paper analyzes Section 8 of Nigeria's National Policy on Education, the section which aims to provide equal educational opportunities for all gifted and handicapped individuals. The paper discusses cultural, socioeconomic, and political factors that impinge upon implementation of Section 8 and the need for continuous policy evaluation in…

This brief summarizes the findings of significant research studies dealing with school district governance and the political processes of local school districts. The bulk of the discussion focuses on the research of Harmon Zeigler and his colleagues, particularly on the study described in "Governing American Schools," by Zeigler, Jennings, and…

Focusing specifically on the two largest federal education programs, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142), this study analyzes how states implement federal and state education programs. The book is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 offers background on federal-state…

Focusing on whether and how research actually contributes to the formation of public policy, this paper explores the critical problems in the linkage between science production and the systems that formulate educational policy. The authors suggest that the utilization of social research is limited more by problems of integrating research into the…