The paper analyses continuing vocational education and training policies in the UK in the period 1979-2010 with a focus on regulation and governance. It reviews Conservative and Labour party policies to ascertain their principal components and explore their evolution through time. More specifically, the paper reviews the paradoxical existence of…

The Second Half Program (SHP) is an educational sports program running in Brazil. It began in 2003 and was one of the Olympic educational proposals described in the Rio 2016 Olympics bid. Using sport as a tool, the SHP aims to deliver moral education and to promote citizenship in order to counteract "social exclusion" and "social vulnerability".…

Covering a decade during which the "digital divide" came to popular and political attention, and written at a time when the Internet continues to be championed as a means of widening access to educational opportunities, this paper presents an analysis of the social, economic and educational characteristics associated with using the Internet for…

Worldwide, teacher shortages have created a demand for certified teachers. Throughout the world, local and national governments are seeking ways to resolve this issue. New York City (NYC), the largest public (i.e. state funded) school district in the United States, addressed the teacher shortage by creating an alternate route to certification…

In this reflective essay, Eric Booth utilizes his Habits of Mind for Creative Engagement to offer two suggestions for intensifying the impact of arts learning in schools. Booth's first suggestion redefines what artistic engagement really means and where it can contribute to creative learning. His second suggestion advocates for the use of…

The authors of this article describe themselves as a lucky group of older adults, ranging in age from sixty to ninety-two, who participate in an intergenerational arts program at their local senior center in Flushing, Queens, one of New York City's most culturally diverse communities. In their living history theater program, run by Elders…

During the winter of 2011-2012, Weardale, England, was the setting for an ambitious informal adult education project. In this rural area in the northeast part of the country, the local arts collective, Jack Drum Arts, established a community play project entitled "The Bonny Moorhen." This dramatic undertaking aimed to retell the story of…

England's National College for School Leadership (NCSL) is probably unique in the scale on which its key national programmes are offered. This paper focuses on two of these programmes--Leading from the Middle and Leadership Pathways--which use blended learning models to cater for the leadership development needs of "middle leaders" broadly…

This article seeks to explore the influence of the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) in England in supporting aspirant heads to make the transition to headship. It draws upon a sample of NPQH graduates confirming their perceived readiness for headship prior to the commencement of their NPQH programme. A questionnaire survey…

The chosen focus of this special issue is timely given the burgeoning international interest and investment in leadership development and school improvement. In many countries leadership and improvement have been closely linked and there is no doubt that this linkage has an international reach. Together, these articles review and extend some of…

There is great interest in educational leadership in the early part of the twenty-first century. This is because of the widespread belief that the quality of leadership makes a significant difference to school and student outcomes. In many parts of the world, including both developed and developing countries, there is increasing recognition that…

The authors focus on the investment into school leadership in England during the New Labour governments from 1997, and through this they make a contribution to an ongoing scholarly conversation about leadership development. They are concerned to both understand and explain leadership as a policy intervention into the professional practice and…

America is supposed to be a place of freedom and kindness. People from other countries look at America and see a place of opportunity where they can raise their children. Immigrants see America as a place where their children can receive a solid education and have a chance for a better life. Unfortunately, many Americans do not see it the way…

In this article, the author describes the opportunities she had for putting her cultural and language skills to use. She shares her experiences at the Asian Voices of Organized Youth for Community Empowerment (A-VOYCE) program and at the Participatory Chinatown project. The author never thought that learning about her identity and using what she…

China, the same as her Western counterpart countries, has been experiencing educational decentralization over the last two decades. Such a policy shift, however, brings with it issues of "managerialism," "accountability" and "competition," all of which are becoming part of the common language in the educational lexicon. These newly imposed…