Lately, a deliberative conception of democracy has gained influence in policy debates throughout Europe. Individuals are here seen to be fostered into responsible, mature--democratic--citizens by being involved in dialogue. In the 1990s, calls for "democratic education" intensified in Sweden. This article analyses two pedagogical models influenced…

In 1987, the government of Ghana embarked on a process to decentralise education management to districts as part of wider social and democratic governance reforms. A central part of this reform was the prescription of active community participation in the affairs of schools within their locality. This paper explores the different meanings…

In 1997, the Government of Sri Lanka launched a comprehensive set of education reforms designed to promote equitable access to basic education and improvements in learning outcomes. The package of reforms arose as a political response to widespread youth unrest in the late 1980s and attracted considerable "political will", a vague but much vaunted…

This article addresses the politics and policy-making of alternative forms of basic education in the context of EFA, with an emphasis on non-formal education (NFE) for school-age children. It explores how policy-makers interpret the relevance of such alternatives, the steps that are taken to implement the reforms and factors that play a role in…

This case study of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in India, the largest basic education programme in the world, assesses the significance of foreign aid for achieving increased access to elementary education from 2002 to 2010, particularly for the most disadvantaged. It reviews the practical experience of India and its development partners in jointly…

This paper considers the macro and micro-political forces that influenced the development of the Education for All--Fast Track Initiative in its formative years from 2002-2009. The author uses the conceptual framework of the network organisation to analyse the complex interaction of personal, political and institutional forces that shaped the FTI…

Governments and development agencies met at Jomtien in 1990 and Dakar in 2000 and committed themselves to achieve "Education for All" (EFA). Most aid to education is now the umbrella of EFA and its associated goals, targets and indicators. This paper selects some of the indicators used for EFA and analyses their strengths and weaknesses. Gross and…

Modern business discourse suggests that a key bulwark against market fluctuation and the threat of failure is for organizations to become "agile'", a more dynamic and proactive position than that previously afforded by mere "flexibility". The same idea is also directed at the personal level, it being argued that the "agile" individual is better…

This paper examines the implications of policy fracture and arms length governance within the decision-making processes currently shaping curriculum design within the English education system. In particular, it argues that an unresolved "ideological fracture" at the government level has been passed down to school leaders whose response to the…

This article explores the upper secondary (or post-16) school market. The study on which it is based, funded by the Swedish Research Council, was entitled "Upper-secondary education as a market". Empirical data include official statistics, policy documents, school publications, company reports and school visits. Printed and other news media were…

There is a growing body of literature discussing evidence-based education, practice, policy, and decision-making from a critical perspective. In this article, drawing on the literature and policy documents related to evidence-based education in the USA, Britain, and Canada, I join this critique and offer an anticolonial perspective. I argue that…

The purpose of this article is to explore recent curricular reforms to advocate student-centred pedagogy (SCP) in primary schools in Turkey. By using a case study approach, the article examines teacher views on SCP, classroom practices and perceived challenges in implementation process. The study highlights some of the unintended consequences of…

Multiple contexts interact to position any school on a spectrum from cumulatively advantaged to cumulatively disadvantaged. This article discusses a study of the contextual advantages and disadvantages experienced by primary schools in the south east of England, concentrating especially on schools in the least deprived 5% of schools nationally.…

Through the example of what is now known in a large part of the Anglo-saxon world as the boys' underachievement debate, this paper explores the construction of gender issues, which underpins educational policies in England and France. It argues that the formation of particular questions as "policy issues" bears limited relation to what happens on…

Over the last two decades, moves toward "inclusion" have prompted change in the formation of education policies, schooling structures and pedagogical practice. Yet, exclusion through the categorisation and segregation of students with diverse abilities has grown, particularly for students with challenging behaviour. This paper considers what has…