Since 2003 children in England have been formally assessed at the age of 5 after their first year in school, and their numerical scores reported to parents and analysed at school and national levels. The use of statutory assessment for this age group is unique in the UK, where other regions use less formal methods of assessment. It is also unusual…

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate what impact new regimes of management and governance, including new managerialism, have had on perceptions of gender equality at universities in three Western European countries. While in accordance with national laws and EU directives, contemporary current management approaches in universities…

The Chinese government is pouring resources into building vocational education at all levels of the Chinese educational system. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in three vocational secondary schools in 2007-2012, this article compares rural and urban schools to highlight the persistent urban-rural divide in implementing vocational…

This article approaches the phenomenon of the continuing influence of French and English pedagogical cultures in Africa relying on post-modern notions of time and space. It reports on a project carried out in Cameroon where both cultures are in contact and where the teachers from two primary schools were observed and interviewed over a period of…

Research on and with ethnic minority students is characterised by a growing international literature that privileges "liberal multiculturalism" as a lens through which to understand their experiences, yet ethnic diversity is constructed and responded to in many societies that are not underpinned by liberal democratic values. In this paper we use…

In sub-Saharan Africa, education conducted through a European language is associated with low school achievement. Both teachers and learners may often not be fluent enough to use the language as a medium of instruction. In these circumstances, both also make use of a common African language. They switch between two languages in the plenary…

This article examines Minzu University of China (MUC), the nation's leading ethnic minority university, relative to faculty perspectives regarding initiatives to strengthen MUC as a comprehensive university. Based on a case-study approach, and employing organizational culture as a theoretical lens, the authors identify three narratives of…

This study provides insights about attitudes toward heroes and role models in Germany and Israel. We expected German and Israeli school textbooks and teachers to provide varying renditions for the traumatic effects of World War II and the Holocaust, and for students to express different attitudes about the role of heroes in their lives. In…

This article examines how teachers and parents in 10 municipal schools serving students growing up under conditions of social vulnerability represented themselves, and others, as valid agents for charting school improvement. In four schools parents and teachers saw each other as trustworthy and collaborating to provide an education that could…

There has been an unprecedented interest in reforming pedagogical practices in sub-Saharan Africa in the past two decades. The reform efforts are often characterised by a move away from teacher-centred instruction to child-centred pedagogy (CCP). Uganda has been no exception to this trend as the new curriculum adopted the principles of CCP and…

This article examines how epistemological differences regarding knowledge production and material differences in the conditions of teaching influence teachers' and teacher educators' understandings of learner-centered pedagogy. Emerging from a 5-year collaboration between teams of US and Tanzanian teacher educators, the research focuses on six…

Derived from the Confucian educational tradition, the term "Tongshi" reflects a contemporary Chinese effort to break away from the former Soviet legacy and forge undergraduate curricula on the basis of a US general education model. In recent years, "Tongshi" education reform has entered the spotlight in Chinese universities as they have sought…

In Serbia, teachers and policy makers express different and sometimes competing visions of education. Teachers express their desire to "awaken" students by using progressive pedagogies, while European Union and World Bank reformers appropriate progressive education in the service of neoliberal goals. The research findings presented here indicate…

What happens to traditional civic notions of nation, national identity, and constitutional rights when national curricula incorporate ideas of global citizenship, other national identities, diversity, and human rights? Using a longitudinal, mixed-methods approach, we address this issue by analyzing the nature of changes in South Korean civic…

This article examines the ways that students and professors imagine the space of higher education and thus shape their relationship to the larger academic community. Data come from a "Lengua Inglesa" program in northern Mexico. The findings reveal that personal and community histories, family networks, media, and migration converge to shape what…