This article examines conflicts that have unfolded over the past 75 years regarding the separation of church and state in American public education. Through discussion of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses as articulated in the First Amendment to the "US Constitution," as well as influential court cases that have set legal…

The authors use a Bourdieuean framework of "legitimating principles" and the "symbolic capital" of dominant "discursive themes" to explore (a) the genealogy and (b) the current state of the discourse on "character education" (understood broadly as any approach to moral education that foregrounds the…

I critique in this article the construct of culture because of its centrality in creating the notion of "difference," which has been commonly applied to marginalized populations. I examine critically how the notion of culture has been theorized in educational research as a means to obtain theoretical clarity in research design and…

This paper presents a framework for critical reflection that teacher educators can employ to analyze prospective teachers' reflection and support their transformative learning. The author argues that teacher educators should not only pay attention to the cognitive processes of prospective teachers (how they reflect), but also the content of…

The current policy gaze on teacher quality is resulting in significant shifts in how teacher education is conceptualized, designed and delivered. Traditional approaches to teacher preparation and continuing professional development (CPD) are being challenged, and often displaced, by new models that expedite the process and experience of becoming a…

Based on the literature of the field, this article traces a continuum between parental involvement with schools, and parental engagement with children's learning. The article seeks to shed light on an area of confusion; previous research has shown that different stakeholder groups understand "parental engagement" in different ways.…

This conceptual paper traces the development of the culture and capture of celebrity in the field of educational leadership. Drawing on Rojek's ("Celebrity." London: Reaktion Books, 2001) typology of celebrity, we examine the emergence of celebrity of leadership that is activated via the current policy environment that compels…

This paper complements debates around use of new technologies and literacy in education by proposing a focus on "classroom-ness." It highlights the significance of incidental, everyday and ephemeral practices associated with classroom technology-use. Using examples from a study of primary pupils' interactions around digital texts,…

This paper reviews empirical studies that have evaluated the impact of problem-based learning (PBL) on school-aged pupils, in order to summarise how it has been implemented and to assess its effects on academic and personal development. Following electronic searches of PsychINFO, the British Education Index and the Cochrane review database, six…

In line with the Lisbon Agenda, set by the European Council in the year 2000, European governments formulated ambitious plans to halve the level of early school-leavers by 2012. This paper outlines the dropout prevention measures in the Netherlands and analyzes their influence at both the individual and school level. While most policy measures…

In 2006, Sandford, Armour and Warmington undertook a comprehensive review of the literature on the role of physical activity/sport and physical education in promoting positive development for disaffected youth. This paper revisits the findings of the literature review in light of data from a four-year evaluation of one corporate-sponsored physical…

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 state of tertiary education in South Africa is not adequately meeting the needs of its populace. The system in place does not effectively nor appropriately target the racial group of students which forms the democratic majority. This paper portrays the reasons why these students are not succeeding on the basis of a mismatch between their…

The present paper examines Greek secondary education teachers' views on and attitudes towards in-classroom students' misbehaviour. Eight hundred and sixty-nine participants provided information, firstly, on the frequency and the forms of in-class misbehaviour incidents, secondly, on their beliefs about the origins of students' misbehaviour, and,…

Recognizing the negative outcomes associated with experiences in bullying at school, educational researchers, school officials, and policy-makers have called for more rigorous research on bullying in school. Research on bullying behavior in school has primarily been examined using quantitative methods. Mixed methods research in the field of…