This paper analyses how high-stakes, standardised testing became the policy tool in the U.S. that it is today and discusses its role in advancing an ideology of meritocracy that fundamentally masks structural inequalities related to race and economic class. This paper first traces the early history of high-stakes testing within the U.S. context,…

This paper in commenting on the contributions to this special number demonstrates the necessity of historicizing and contextualizing the rise of test- and standards-based modes of accountability in contemporary education policy globally. Both are imperative for understanding specific national manifestations of what has become a globalized…

This paper explores Rizvi and Lingard's (2010) idea of the "local vernacular" of the global education policy trend of using high-stakes testing to increase accountability and transparency, and by extension quality, within schools and education systems in Australia. In the first part of the paper a brief context of the policy…

High stakes testing has been long established in the English school system. In this article, we seek to demonstrate how testing has become pivotal to securing the neo-liberal restructuring of schools, that commenced during the Thatcher era, and is reaching a critical point at the current time. Central to this project has been the need to assert…

The accountability paradigm for reforming public schools began in the U.S. as a state-based initiative grounded in establishing state standards for core content and developing high-stakes tests and schedules to hold schools, teachers, and students accountable (Hout and Elliott, 2011). This essay examines the test-based patterns of that paradigm…

This paper reports on research conducted in the first mainstream school in Australia being guided by Buddhist philosophy. It focuses on a group of teachers, examining the impact of Buddhism on their teaching, exploring the challenge for them of bringing together their professional knowledge with Buddhist worldview. The major conclusion is that the…

Given the purported benefits pre-service teachers can gain from international experiences, we chose to conduct a qualitative case-study to explore the extent to which these experiences influenced the hiring decisions of local school administrators. We collected data using questionnaires and follow-up interviews and found that in many instances…

Cosmopolitanism has recently received increased interest and representation in educational discourse and theory. Given the global and international emphases in cosmopolitanism, international schools might provide some clues and illustrations of cosmopolitanism influence in schooling. The way an international school articulates its purpose can…

Within the context of bilateral support to the education sector in Tonga and the Solomon Islands, this paper will explore how the discourse of "partnership" has been interpreted and activated within the Sector wide approach (SWAp). In concentrating particularly on the relationship between the respective Ministries of Education and New Zealand's…

Recent international declarations stress the importance of partnerships between and amongst donors, the state and civil society, in order to improve service delivery and promote qualities of good governance, particularly in key sectors such as education. However, in conditions of state fragility--where high levels of distrust between and amongst…