The "no excuses" charter school model is widely regarded in public debate as an effective policy intervention to politically and economically empower historically marginalized student populations. The organizing principle of the "no excuses" model is to do whatever it takes to close the achievement gap and to prepare students…

Research in the implementation of inclusive education in international contexts shows that progress in the Global South appears to lag behind nations in the North. In this paper, I investigate this phenomenon not by associating it with regional cultural and socioeconomic resource limitations, but by reconsidering the assumptions within inclusive…

The interest of higher education researchers in entrepreneurialism in European universities began in the late 1990s with the appearance of two path-breaking books: Sheila Slaughter and Larry Leslie on "Academic Capitalism" and Burton Clark on "Creating Entrepreneurial Universities." Since that time "entrepreneurial"…

Student engagement research, policy, and practice are even more important in today's race-to-the top policy environment. With a priority goal of postsecondary completion with advanced competence, today's students must be engaged longer and more deeply. This need is especially salient for students attending schools located in segregated,…

The aim of this paper is to explore Appadurai's ideas of global cultural flows in the context of the internationalization of higher education in China. Studies on the internationalization of higher education have increased with the expansion of international activities on university campuses; however, more theoretical analysis in the field is…

New Labour's extended schools initiative added to existing models of community schooling. The paper identifies the key principles behind extended schooling, making comparisons with historical models and contemporary trends in community education. Part one examines New Labour's use of extended schools to deliver their social policy agenda. Part two…

This study explores the level of "social presence" or connectedness, in two iterations of a 13-month, graduate-level certificate program designed to help K-12 school leaders integrate technology in their districts. Vygotsky's Social Development Theory serves as the theoretical lens for this programmatic research. The methods include a…

This article takes its point of departure in the current tendency of education policy to become more and more evidence-based. The use of statistics and numbers seems to be a prerequisite for conducting a policy that is both efficient and effective. The kind of knowledge thus produced is regarded as factual and scientific. This article tries to get…

The school environment is a very dynamic sphere. Changes continually take place in educational policy, curriculum and in a school's physical and social environment. A teacher who wants to be effective in such an environment has to adapt to these changes. Continuous professional development of teachers is essential to addressing the gaps in…

In this article, the author tells the story of her search for appropriate tools to conceptualise policy work. She had set out to explore the relationship between the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Australia's education policy, but early interview data…

Proponents of a social model of disability derive their arguments from social constructionism. They combine different disabling conditions under one term: disability. Subsequently, they apply the specific viewpoint of the disability rights social movement of people with physical disabilities to other conditions such as intellectual disabilities,…

Structure and agency of cultural diversity in (international) higher education have to be addressed with a critical perspective on international mobility and practices of international academic teaching. In order to overcome naive assumptions about intercultural developments on the individual and the organizational level, sociological analysis…

Choosing any one alternative out of the three educational models provided by Joel Spring (2007/this issue) may not really be adequate for a new social-sociolinguistic theory for a potentially just world order. In this article, the author contends that as an alternative to the persistently degenerating consumerist model of the education security…

The reunification process in Germany and its effect on distance education policies and practices in the East provide an occasion to test the relevance of the Fordist framework. Discussion includes characteristics of a neo- or post-Fordist distance education system, the failure of Fordism as a theory of industrialized society, and the Fordism…

The locus of control in teacher education has been outside the hands of those who educate our nation's teachers for more than a century. Essentialists have long controlled the agenda for public schooling in America, and it is evident as well that their influence has prevailed in both the form and function of teacher education. The authors suggest…