European societies have become increasingly diverse as a result of legal and illegal migration flows, and educationists are facing the challenge of how to address the presence of migrant students. In recent years, there has been increasing activity at European level in the field of intercultural education despite the principle of subsidiarity.…

Within policy circles, graduate employability remains a problem. It is often understood as an individual phenomenon, overlooking the influence of the organisation of higher education on the competition for graduate jobs. This article explores and compares how graduate employability is socially constructed within Great Britain and the Netherlands.…

In recent years, the concept of Assessment for Learning (AfL) has travelled across countries, giving rise to a range of educational policy initiatives and school development projects. While researchers have focused on issues such as how formative assessment can support student learning and lead to more efficient classroom practices, less attention…

In the context of the international problem of "early school leaving", this paper explores the issue of sustained participation in upper secondary education in England. It focuses in particular on the position of middle attainers, who constitute a large proportion of the cohort and whose progress will be vital in realising the…

Student engagement has become problematic following the rise of mass and universal forms of higher education. Significant attention has been devoted to identifying factors that are associated with higher levels of engagement, but it remains the case that the underlying reasons for student engagement and, indeed, the notion itself of "student…

The purpose of this article is to clarify the role of "teacher training initiatives" aimed at improving social, emotional and behavioural outcomes of primary school aged children through improved classroom management. Systematic searches were conducted using a range of electronic databases from inception up to September 2011. Included studies were…

This article presents the results of two studies on the use of school self-evaluation in the Netherlands and Flanders. It focuses on which forms of instrumental use of school self-evaluation results can be found in schools, and how differences in self-evaluation use between schools can be explained. Results show that the instrumental use of…

This paper describes two parallel research programmes exploring educational practice/praxis. The first, including a theory of "practice architectures", aims to contribute to contemporary practice theory that views practice from the perspective of a spectator. The second aims to contribute to an emerging (practical philosophy) tradition of…

Efforts to meet the needs of children's learning in arithmetic has led to an increased emphasis on the teaching of mental calculation strategies in England. This has included the adoption of didactical tools such as the empty number line (ENL) that was developed as part of the realistic mathematics movement in the Netherlands. It has been claimed…

The present study examined the implications of grade retention (repeating a grade) and social promotion (automatic promotion to the next grade each year) for high school students' academic and non-academic outcomes. Based on data from 3261 high school students, structural equation modeling demonstrated that, after controlling for interactions with…

This paper addresses the nature of governors in the governance of further education colleges in an English context. It explores the complex relationship between governors (people/agency), government (policy/structure) and governance (practice), in a college environment. While recent research has focused on the governance of schooling and higher…

In my work with white teachers, predominantly female, I assert that "desire" is functioning to produce silent discourses that serve to perpetuate a continuation of white privilege. Based on a qualitative research study exploring the nature of silences in teacher education classrooms, this paper seeks to explore how desire is functioning to produce…

This paper reports the results of a meta-analysis in which the dynamic model of educational effectiveness is used as a framework to search for school factors associated with student achievement. The methods and results of a synthesis of 67 studies are presented. Findings reveal that effective schools are able to develop policies and take actions…

School systems are a major social change agent capable of challenging social inequalities and economic disadvantages. Yet, while schools in Australia are being confronted with increasingly culturally diverse populations as well as an increasing focus on student retention, this transformative role is increasingly being played out in a broader…

This paper considers the model of school effectiveness (SE) currently dominant in research, policy and practice in England (although the concerns it raises are international). It shows, principally through consideration of initial and propagated error, that SE results cannot be relied upon. By considering the residual difference between the…