This paper analyses a specific disjunctive policy space in Scotland involving the current key children's social and educational policy agenda, "Getting it Right for Every Child" (GIRFEC), and a recent national report on teacher education, the "Donaldson Report". In four main parts, the paper first introduces and applies in…

This article presents a case study of the peer review process for a feminist article submitted to an engineering education journal. It demonstrates how an examination of peer review can be a useful approach to further understanding the development of feminist thought in education fields. Rather than opposition to feminist thought per se, my…

The topic of silence and "the Chinese learner" has been extensively studied often in relation to cross-cultural adjustment, intercultural issues, learning styles, language ability and differences of classroom expectations. These studies have often led to recommendations to understand silence and "the Chinese learner" in more…

This article reflects on historical homophobia within educational practice and administration as an effort to consider how we might promote dialogue around the queer past of schooling. Along the way, it provides some discussion of the significance of archival knowledge in helping us to develop an understanding of the past while also providing…

The exhortation to innovate is a pervasive one that occupies a central position across university mission statements, strategic plans, marketing literature and job titles. This article locates a discourse of innovation within a history of Australian federal higher education policy, a history that may bear similarity with other national contexts.…

Increase in numbers of postgraduate students worldwide represent an opportunity and necessity for nurturing and recognising the diversity of culturally inflected research topics, methodologies and expression. However, there are tensions in the definitions, encouragement and recognition of diversity in theses, and in balances of power in…

Various scholars have suggested ways to resist neoliberal conditions in higher education (HE). In analysing current neoliberal policies and practices in HE, I suggest that postcolonial theories of resistance can enhance our ability as faculty and administrators to understand and "resist" these policies and practices. In this article, I…

Whilst the dynamics informing processes have taken time to become clear, civic resistance initiated by young people using new media began in Egypt in 2010 against the Mubarak regime, soon widened to Tunisia, Yemen and Libya. Known as the "Arab Spring", this phenomenon re-ignited discussion about the political role of digital space and…

Higher education is playing an important role in Singapore's most recent cycle of modernization: to re-make itself into a global city through the continued accumulation of capital, "talent," and knowledge. This paper is a critical analysis of the accounts of a group of international students enrolled at the National University of…

This paper offers a broad overview of vocational education in Singapore. Looking at vocational education from Independence, it argues that the development of a skilled labour force was not only crucial in the age of globalisation and the dominance of multinational companies, but also an empirical litmus test of the newly elected post-colonial…

Critical language awareness (CLA) has aimed to raise critical consciousness in language education about the social aspects of language use, and especially the relationship between language and power, and is considered to play a significant role in enabling learners to participate effectively in democratic citizenship within and beyond the…

This article explores constructions of teacher identities at a time of significant changes to public service professionalism. The article draws on different discourses of professionalism, contrasting "organisational" and "occupational" professionalism, with discourses of "personal" and "critical"…

Ball argues that "policy authors do make concerted efforts to assert control [of readings] by the means at their disposal … [and that] we need to understand those efforts" (Ball, 1994, p. 16). Efforts by policy authors to control readings are influenced by their own assumptions about the nature of language, texts and communication. This…

This essay examines the controversial "Too Asian?" article published by Canada's premiere news magazine in 2010 as a case study of media and education in order to produce a sharper analytical grammar of race in liberal, multicultural societies. I argue that the article recycles racial stereotypes, perpetuates the normalization of…

In this article, we explore the question of how celebrity operates in young people's everyday lives, thus contributing to the urgent need to address celebrity's social function. Drawing on data from three studies in England on young people's perspectives on their educational and work futures, we show how celebrity operates as a classed and…