This essay maps some of the ways in which the professional knowledge of English teaching has been defined and positioned in the present moment in the United States. The first part of the essay traces multidisciplinary shifts in English education/literacy research that have expanded and shifted the discursive boundaries of teacher education and…

Considering that achievement gaps have become a serious educational problem worldwide, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has been addressing a series of policies to reduce achievement gaps, but the effect of these policies has not yet been carefully examined. Therefore, the present study investigated current educational policies, achievement gap…

Assessment of the legacy of apartheid at the end of the apartheid era in South Africa highlighted major inequalities between white and black, urban and rural areas, and several departments of education. Eighteen years into democracy, the country needs to distinguish between the initiatives taken by the government to address the apartheid legacy,…

After many previous failed attempts to reach illiterate adults, the award-winning South African "Kha Ri Gude" mass literacy campaign, launched in 2008, undertook to ensure that learners seized the opportunity to learn--for many adults, this was a "last chance". Written from an insider perspective by the campaign's founding…

In spite of its overall economic success, most citizens living in the remote areas of Botswana face poverty and are unemployed. The article argues that minority communities in remote areas are excluded because education programs use unfamiliar languages and de-contextualized curricula, there is no national qualifications framework to sufficiently…

This second volume of the "Global Inventory of Regional and National Qualifications Frameworks" focuses on national and regional cases of national qualifications frameworks for eighty- six countries from Afghanistan to Uzbekistan and seven regional qualifications frameworks. Each country profile provides a thorough review of the main…

The nature and value of "professionalism" has long been contested by both producers and consumers of policy. Most recently, governments have rewritten and redefined professionalism as compliance with externally imposed "standards." This has been achieved by silencing the voices of those who inhabit the professional field of…

Most teachers want to learn and improve, and physical education teachers are no exception. Although their teaching field is not subject to standardized testing, physical education teachers seek to find support structures and development opportunities from within their schools and districts so that they feel connected and a part of the professional…

The Common Core wave has swept the country. The expectation is in place for a rapid implementation of both the curriculum and the assessments. The author visited schools across the country as an external evaluator to review their transition plans, and he was struck by the great unevenness of the preparation across districts and schools. What are…

This article discusses the everyday politics surrounding research on a controversial government policy. The research in question is the Research, Analysis and Insight into National Standards (RAINS) project on National Standards in New Zealand primary schools being undertaken by the author. This three-year study was funded by the New Zealand…

Since 2010 Cedefop has been monitoring ECVET developments in relation to national VET qualification systems. This is the fourth annual report, four years after the ECVET recommendation and 11 years after the first ECVET-related meeting at European level; it covers developments up to September 2013. The report examines 38 countries and regions,…

This paper examines the impact of the International Standard School (ISS) on the identity of Indonesia as a postcolonial nation. According to the Indonesian Ministry of National Education, an ISS is "a school which complies with the National Standard of Education and enriches its standards from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and…

A notable feature of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts is the attention given to the teaching of reading and writing in history/social studies, science and technical subjects. The Standards for Reading Informational Text that are included in the Common Core State Standards require students to read texts in depth, understand…

For four and a half decades, the federal role in education has been growing. Costly in terms of taxpayer dollars spent and local control of education lost, this expanding federal control has failed to improve outcomes for America's children. National standards will further expand Washington's role--and will remove parents from decisions about the…

This article describes the evaluation of a project designed to provide in-service training for teachers in rural schools in Outer Mongolia in techniques of independent and co-operative learning. Difficulties faced by Mongolian teachers in implementing a new national standards based curriculum were identified by the Mongolian State Education…