In this article, the author argues that despite wide-ranging appeal of the discourses of globalization, our modes of thinking and ways of addressing issues of cultural diversity remain trapped within a national framework. The dominant constructions of cultural diversity often overlook the ways in which experiences of diversity now take place in…

Starting from Peters' characterization of philosophy of education, the article elaborates the development offered by the Blackwell Guide (i.e. a field of study that involves a variety of approaches, including philosophical analysis with problems rooted in the use of language in educational discourse, addressing the assumptions and values embedded…

Science has a long history in Europe, a continent of various national and regional cultures that is unified through common goals and values. This blend, says the author, should make the continent attractive for what the economist Richard Florida in his book "The Rise of the Creative Class" called a creative class: a blend of artists, scientists,…

The concept of competency is considered both in relation to the educational competency of the short-cycle student described in the "Dublin Descriptors" of the Bologna Process and in the European Commission's European Qualifications Framework, and in relation to the legal competency that the European Commission has within the field of education and…

This article concludes the issue, and reflects upon the main themes that unite the various contributions, namely the evolution of educational and legal competency; the complexity of European Union educational governance; the challenges of measuring and developing indicators for education; and the role of social justice agendas in EU education…

If we are to fully understand and adequately respond to the multicultural question in European education, it is necessary to develop rich empirical descriptions and theoretically rigorous explanations of policy processes and effects. For example, we need to be able to characterise and explain the differentiated ways in which education policies and…

This article argues that in Britain dominant educational discourses of "the ideal pupil" exclude minority ethnic pupils and prevent them from inhabiting a position of authentic "success". It suggests that "the successful pupil" is a desired yet refused subject position for many minority ethnic young people--even for those who are (to some extent)…

This article argues three things. First, it argues that the perception of diversity being problematic in Europe has been generated largely by non-European immigration into urban areas. This has been Britain's experience for 50 years and Spain's for barely 15, but whether the immigrants are ex-colonial, Turkish or Balkan migrant labour, or Africans…

This is a response to an article written by Robert Slavin entitled "Evidence-Based Reform in Education: What Will It Take?" Although both the author and Slavin agreed on some points, they disagreed on the following: (1) Failure to Distinguish the Requirements of Decision Making at National and Local Levels and, with This, Over-confidence in…

At the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) 2006 in Geneva, Switzerland, the EERJ Roundtable focused upon the relationships between information, research and intervention. These relationships could be understood as a circular flow of decontextualising and recontextualising terms, concepts or "knowledge" according to the respective…

This article considers the landscape for educational research in the smallest country of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland. As elsewhere, educational research exists in political and economic circumstances that have considerable influence on its direction, nature and purpose and this article seeks to contextualise these influences. Northern…

This article makes a contribution to discussion on the neo-liberal reshaping of education in Western Europe. It argues for a greater attentiveness on the part of education researchers to collective social actors such as trade unions and social movements. Making use of concepts from Gramsci and from Poulantzas, it suggests that such actors had a…

This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Dublin, Ireland, 7-10 September 2005. It argues that we are facing the simultaneous renegotiation of the major post-war social contract (concerning the welfare state) in Europe and the renegotiation of a smaller-scale modern social pact: the…

This article uses the development of a "Research Quality Framework" in Australia as a focus for reflection on the way in which quality is assessed in relation to education research, and a consideration of the role and situation of a national association of education research in relation to that. The study examines ways in which "quality" and…

This article presents seven reports on the interviews about reception and use of international indicators among respondents from Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom. The first report is based on interviews with 5 respondents occupied with different aspects of the macro level of the Flemish educational system.…