In this article, the author explores the market phenomenon revealed in the practice of a mixed-ability grouping policy in Taiwan, and traces the influence of the wider educational contexts on the formation of the market phenomenon. Although there have been no major policies introduced with the intention of creating a market mechanism in Taiwanese…

This paper examines the politics of policy-borrowing in Korean education. I use the term "loanwords" as a metaphor for the practice in some Korean educational sectors of using borrowed English-origin educational rhetoric to create actual policy reform. I argue that discourses of choice and diversity, as loanwords, are initially bifurcated into…

This study proposes an elaboration of the human development capability approach by theorizing empowerment capabilities as an essential aspect of the education of excluded village girls. Seeking to explain Chinese village girls' demand for schooling, the article identifies intangible and instrumental capabilities that have often been…

Many nations make use of a "personal statement" (or equivalent) in their higher education admissions system. This article examines how statements differ according to applicants' educational background. Among the indicators used are fluency of expression, quantity and quality of workplace experience, and extracurricular activity.…

This study investigates the extent to which national educational policy factors can explain differences in the probability of students repeating a grade in primary and lower-secondary education across OECD member countries. Data from the PISA 2009 study, the OECD "Education at a Glance" brochures, and the TALIS 2007 study were analyzed by means of…

Based on in-depth interviews, this study offers a comparison of how high-school students in China and Norway are actively constructing the Internet as an element of their everyday lives. Through the Schutzian notions of everyday life-world, social-biographical situation and relevance, the study has revealed striking differences between the Chinese…

Cram schooling is believed by students and their parents to have positive effects on learning achievement in Taiwan. Using two waves of panel data gathered by the Taiwan Education Panel Study (TEPS) in 2001 and 2003 and the method of propensity score matching (PSM), the present research found that the average treatment effect for participants of…

The present paper, based on an ethnographic study of a government school and a low-cost private school in Andhra Pradesh, India, argues that the students of a government school and a private school have two different worlds and are socialised differently. As children progress from childhood to adolescence, the transition is accompanied by…

China's heated education policy climate in 2010 indicated an increasing national concern for improving educational quality and educational quality assessment. Despite glowing portraits of Chinese education painted by international observers, the Chinese public has expressed consistent dissatisfaction with educational quality. The inter-related…

This article uses life course theory and family bargaining theory to explore how decisions over schooling are negotiated in poorer Mexican families for whom compulsory basic education is a luxury. It explores educational decision making by conceptualizing education in terms of the way it meshes with other social relations and institutions across…

The global politics of reconciliation provide a blueprint for postconflict reconstruction projects around the world, including in South Africa, Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). Of these, the B&H case is of particular interest due to the extensive involvement of some of the world's most powerful states and leading…

This study examines how far education systems worldwide have progressed from depicting society as rooted in a homogenous, bounded nation-state towards cosmopolitan emphases on a common humanity and social diversity. The research uses a unique longitudinal and cross-national primary source of data--high school civics, history, and social studies…

This article explores the establishment of schools set up by Muslim communities in Cape Town, South Africa, after 1994. Twelve schools have been set up across the city: four primary schools, three high schools, four schools that have grades 1-12, and one school that has grades 1-3 and 8-10. They are registered with the Western Cape Education…

This paper reports on a study that explored issues of curriculum continuity at the school to university level transition in Malawi. It bases its analysis on the school integrated science curriculum and university science and technology programmes. Data were collected through interviews, documentation and classroom observations. The findings show…

A closed-form questionnaire was used to explore the ideas of school students about the composition of air, the causes and consequences of air pollution and the extent to which the students would accept various courses of action to reduce air pollution. Items for the questionnaire were derived from the results of interviews and an earlier open-form…