This national study of academic deans examined the social and cognitive dimensions underlying disciplinary variations in respondents' self reports of their administrative behavior. Discriminant analyses identified significant linear functions that distinguished behaviors of deans from hard/pure, hard/applied, soft/pure, and soft/applied discipline…

This explanatory study employs developmental theory and NSOPF-99 data to illuminate the middle years of faculty life, an ill-defined and largely unexamined portion of the academic career. The study's findings suggest that the middle years of faculty life have distinctive attributes, pose special challenges, and deserve systematic investigation by…

Inclusive education represents a new agenda for educational reform that spans a wide range of socio-political, cultural, ethical, personal and interpersonal dimensions. Working towards educational inclusion demands commitments, responsibilities and initiatives on the part of all parties to take into consideration the meanings and purpose of…

Besides "inclusion" meaning incorporation within the education system, there is also "inclusion" signifying the incorporation of knowledge, two distinct processes which went hand-in-hand to start with but which, as education systems expanded, have begun to drift apart. While the population as a whole, including the more deprived sectors, has…

The aim of this article is to review the current state of inclusive education in the world and to suggest a few relevant considerations. The first section "Two parallel concerns" retraces the inescapable connections between the educational aspects of inclusive education and more general concerns regarding inequality. The second section "Inclusive…

This paper argues that a common sense of purpose around inclusive education, together with a consistent use of language, is essential if Education for All (EFA) strategies are to become more inclusive. This does not require the introduction of new techniques; rather it involves: collaboration within and between schools, closer links between…

The article examines the Finnish system of basic education and the means it employs to support good learning and healthy growth and development for all students. The excellent learning outcomes of the Finnish comprehensive school indicate that it is possible to develop a system with both quality teaching and learning, and equity and equality for…

The UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE), through the Community of Practice (COP) in Curriculum Development, organized eight Regional Preparatory Workshops on Inclusive Education in 2007. These workshops had the overall goal of initiating a participatory, consultative process in order to highlight key issues and challenges regarding…

Active participation of Brazilian civil society, coupled with the 2007 education development plan launched by the Brazilian government, provides an interesting example of the influences of the Dakar Goals. The two domestic initiatives share the same name, spirit and direction proposed in Dakar 2000. Here we analyze changes in the Brazilian…

It is easier to collect data on teachers' qualifications, experience, or training than to get a precise idea of their command of subject matter or their classroom behaviour. However, research consistently shows that "class effect" (the impact on a student of being in one class rather than another) on pupil performance is relatively high,…

About 60 years ago India established a policy of providing free and compulsory education to all children and began transforming the elite education system inherited from its colonial past into a mass education program. The task became a race against a rapidly growing population, which outstripped the pace at which children could be enrolled and…

Over the past decade there has been increasing concern with aid effectiveness, and, more generally, development effectiveness. New ways of delivering aid have been developed, including sector-wide approaches and direct budget support. This paper reports on the progress that has been made through some of these new modalities of aid to education, as…

After briefly describing the emergence and evolution of the global movement toward Education for All (EFA), the Introduction discusses the difficulties of employing target goals to bring about significant policy change and educational transformation. The article then presents a comprehensive overview of the uneven progress towards EFA since 2000,…

The Philippines has experienced a setback in its progress towards EFA 2015 Goals. In particular, a decline in primary and secondary education performance indicators and a widening gap between boys' and girls' performance were noted. While the present policy environment in the country has been conducive to education reforms, a lack of political…

Turkey is still far from realizing any of the six EFA goals. Since the Dakar Conference there have been many policy initiatives aiming at improving the quality of Turkish education. The impact and effectiveness of those policy initiatives are yet to be evaluated. The deficit of high quality analytical and empirical research constitutes a major…