Neo-liberal reforms in education have been sweeping the globe, undermining education as a public good, and diminishing its contributions to democratic life. Using post-structural perspectives, this article provides a critical discourse analysis of a proposed legislative bill in the province of Manitoba, Canada, as it relates to the construction of…

Analysis of data on school leavers in Scotland points towards considerable inequality in access to higher education. This is highlighted in terms of participation in higher education by young people from lower-income households or identifying as first in their families to consider going to university. The situation is more acute in terms of access…

The positioning and format of performance assessment in examination physical education varies between courses across Australia and internationally. This paper centres on developments in performance assessment in the Physical Education Studies (PES) course in Western Australia (WA). In 2021 The School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA)…

In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) there are different systems for secondary schooling for young people and this paper focuses on public comprehensive secondary schools. These are frequently characterised as the "schools of last resort" by parents with the ability to make a choice about which school sector their children…

The 2015 Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) prompted universities to consider Indigenization. Subsequently, in recognition of the need for a prior step, decolonizing became the focus. At York University (Toronto, Canada), while faculty hiring policies and curriculum development addressed some aspects of…

Set against a context of a changing world and a polarised debate around contested understandings of the role and purpose of teacher education, this paper argues that the current performativity dominated approach to teacher education in Europe - focused primarily on classroom-based pedagogical competencies - is insufficient to fulfil the agentic…

Widening participation in higher education for under-represented groups is a priority internationally. In Australia, the most common entry pathway for domestic undergraduate students is by obtaining an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) in the final year of secondary school. The ATAR system, however, has been criticised as disadvantaging…

Physics is not a very popular subject at German schools, and several studies indicate that girls are less interested than boys in the traditional physics curriculum. To address this problem, physics education should be up to date, context oriented, interesting for girls and boys, and emerge from their everyday life. The ROSE study shows that…

The ongoing reform of the Nepali education system is guided by the commitment of Nepal's Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology to improve educational outcomes through alignment with international educational policy. The reform goals require Nepali teachers to change their classroom practices to become child-friendly, flexible, and…

This article examines the emerging unfair inequality in Kenyan secondary schools through comparative case studies of three secondary schools in western Kenya. Qualitative data were collected through fieldwork over a four-year period, with participant observation and semi- or non-structured interviews, to understand how interactions among schools,…

This paper responds to calls from past and present students to increase the value of postgraduate scholarships in Aotearoa New Zealand. Here we provide context for understanding the scholarship landscape in Aotearoa, including how scholarships are understood in relation to dominant neoliberal framings of higher education and persistent inequities…

Background: This paper analyzes a remembered shared experience of cocurricular designing and coteaching an experiential learning pilot project in a university study abroad program (SAP) that emphasized social justice. Purpose: We look back because the pilot program is a significant demonstration of what complexities can arise when feminist…

We provide a high-level overview of inclusive education developments in England, Australia, the United States, and Canada, the countries within which much of our research has been completed. For each country, we discuss the work that we have each done within that context, key policy initiatives, and identified levers of system change. Despite…

Student dropout represents a significant challenge in distance higher education. To better understand this issue, a comprehensive analysis of institutional data, spanning several years from a private German distance learning university of applied sciences, was conducted. The primary objectives were twofold: (1) to pinpoint institutional factors…

The theoretical literature on the meaning of qualification standards depicts a variety of definitions. Some definitions describe properties of examinees, whilst others rely on cohort-level or system-level characteristics. Different definitions can be compatible or contradictory. In this study, stakeholders' views of the meaning of qualification…