Discussions bearing upon the provision of intermediate (post-primary) schooling in Ireland in the nineteenth century were inextricably interwoven with debates regarding Catholic autonomy there. The establishment, in 1878, of the intermediate system, cannot be understood outside the context of Irish Catholic grievances, imagined or otherwise. This…

Most studies of sex education center on local Anglo-Euro-American contexts, tracing the origin of sex education to a coordinated response to the spread of venereal diseases. These neglect the circumstances in which sex education developed in the developing world between the 1950s and 1980s: a growing collective anxiety about rising birth rates…

It is widely recognised that academic freedom and university autonomy in Turkey are currently under pressure. Many scholars have produced articles discussing the Turkish predicament, linking it to the recent authoritarian and populist turn of the country. This paper offers a different interpretation, arguing how academic freedom and institutional…

This article gives a historical-philosophical overview of three generations of pragmatist thinking centered around the question of democracy. It serves as an introduction and contextualization to the papers that develop a third generation pragmatic point of view in the remainder of the special issue. The perspective is from one American-trained…

In the United States, sex education is more than just an uncomfortable rite of passage: it's a political hobby horse that is increasingly out of touch with young people's needs. In "Touchy Subject," philosopher Lauren Bialystok and historian Lisa M. F. Andersen unpack debates over sex education, explaining why it's worth fighting for,…

This paper explores the movement of the New York City Interborough Association of Women Teachers (IAWT) for "equal pay for equal work" in teaching salaries, which it won in 1911. The IAWT's success sheds light on the possibilities and limits of women teachers advocating for change within a feminized profession. Leading the movement were…

In this article, we continue Martin Thrupp's critical work in education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand by examining the policies of the Sixth Labour-led Government (2017--2023) and the Sixth National-led Government (2023-present). We consider their attempts to mitigate social injustice via education policy and the social imaginaries that underpin…

This book offers new insights and methodological tools to improve our understandings of how prestigious schools in Poland navigate the major political, social and cultural crosscurrents. The range of choice for elite schooling in Poland has expanded during its post-communist transformation. However, while elite education in countries such as the…

Through the lens of the school board, this essay examines school governance dynamics as a southern, historically white public school district struggled to implement school desegregation. In 1976, the city of Waco simultaneously elected its school district's first trustees of Color, Dr. Emma Louise Harrison and Rev. Robert Lewis Gilbert. Harrison…

This is an edited transcript of the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture, given by Ken Jones, at the request of the Socialist Education Association, in November 2020. The lecture situates Caroline's work in the context of the 'Long Revolution' of twentieth century Britain. The lecture discusses the meaning of that revolution for education; it charts the…

The aspiration of this paper is to develop a novel approach towards investigating the socio-political history of mathematics teaching in educational systems. Traditionally, historical studies are confined to just one country, the author's country. Broader approaches address international developments by confronting and comparing global and local…

The linking of school choice and charter schools to the legacy of Black alternative education and civil rights initiatives is a central discursive galvanizing and organizing tool for charter proponents, as it aims to provide legitimacy to the charter movement, while simultaneously coopting Black critiques of the institution of education to advance…

This article draws on the contributions to this special issue to highlight the urgent need to restore checks and balances in our evaluation of 'usable pasts' in comparative education. Considering that our reading of the field's history not only moulds our understanding of comparative education now but also shapes our imagination of its potential…

Fifty years after the Supreme Court issued its ruling in "San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez," the trajectory of school finance desegregation has shifted from expansive federal hopes to narrower state efforts. Attempts to address many of the disparities continue to be constrained by the complex and intersecting nature…

School funding formulas built upon historically inequitable foundations, such as the property-tax-based system in Texas, warrant continuous monitoring to understand the degree to which they contribute to inequity. Following a review of the political and legal history of the state's school funding formulas and the most recent school finance changes…