Foucauldian critical studies are cornucopian in illustrating how policy as discourse normalizes and yields human beings into made subjects in modern societies. However, Foucault's own slide from the 'terminal stage of discourse' pays little attention to the linguistic elements, and thus weakens the theory's potency in explaining the reality.…

Eradicating homelessness is one of the most pressing challenges for efforts aimed at equity and social justice in the world. Many people who experience homelessness have histories of violence, growing up in child protection institutions, involvement in criminal activities, and mental and health problems connected with substance abuse. Homelessness…

Critical approaches to service learning courses may not innately maximize student engagement, civil discourse, and the confrontation of stereotypes. The purpose of this article is to propose the utilization of Moral Foundations Theory as a complimentary framework for service learning courses seeking to critically analyze systems and policies.…

Background/Context: For over three decades, Jean Anyon produced scholarship that revealed the deep-structural causes of educational inequality. Anyon's work in political economy includes a racial analytic; she argues that access to education does not reduce economic disparities in urban communities of color, and that schools in poor and…

Many of the often complex debates central to the topics of belonging and social cohesion have their origins in contrasting interpretations of the ideal relationship between citizens. Governments across much of the western world continue to struggle to reconceptualise what it is to 'belong together' at a time of growing diversity and migration.…

Drawing on the thought of Foucault, this article argues that the anarchistic protagonists of Henrik Ibsen's "An Enemy of the People" (1882) and John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger" (1956) are engaged in a hegemonic battle which puts their identities at stake and ultimately exiles them to isolation. It points out that the very…

Globalization has become one of the most recurrent concepts in social and political sciences. More often than not, however, the concept is handled without much of a properly articulated theory capable of explaining its historical origin and expansion. For education researchers attempting to elucidate how global changes and processes affect their…

Disabled children experience unique vulnerabilities in the context of child protection and welfare services. Current research alludes to strong concerns about social inequality, professional responses, judgement, knowledge and awareness limitations, and practical constraints. This article presents a focused commentary on the literature pertaining…

The aim of this article is to pose some questions concerning "kairos" and feminist activism. In recent years state feminism in Spain has been presented as a "success story" of legislative victories and policy programmes regarding women' equality and equal opportunities. Only two years ago, feminist movements in Spain showed…

The historical origins and development of comprehensive schooling have seldom been analyzed systematically and comparatively. However, there is a rich comparative and historically grounded literature on the development of welfare states, which focuses on many relevant policies, but ignores the education system. In particular, the power resources…

This article deals with challenging the gender inequalities that exist in education and working life. It contemplates the kinds of discursive power relations that have led to gender equality work in Finland. In today's conditions where equality issues are being harnessed more strongly to serve the aims of economic efficiency and productivity, it…

Over the past five years, marriage equality and charter schools have emerged at the forefront of political conversations about equality and rights. Some argue that these policies extend access to certain benefits and opportunities to historically oppressed communities, thus furthering liberalism and egalitarianism. In this article, I engage these…

Background: We describe the development of sustainability via active garden education (SAGE), an early care and education (ECE) garden-based curriculum developed from a 5-year community partnership to link national health policy guidelines with ECE accreditation standards. Methods: National health guidelines and ECE accreditation standards were…

This article juxtaposes "world culture" and "policy borrowing and lending" literatures to understand policy formation in China. Through reviewing China's student nutrition policy evolution since the International Conference on Nutrition in 1992 to the launch of China's landmark national rural student nutrition program in 2011,…

This article evaluates the validity of "theories of change" of anti-polarisation and anti-radicalisation interventions. Assumptions of four dominant social policies are confronted with the literature. In addition, epistemological issues are discussed. Notions of "what works and why", do not equate to straightforward…