The increasing importance of schools and learning in the changing patterns of work and society is widely recognized. However, implementing and sustaining educational reforms pose major problems in all countries. This paper briefly: (1) summarizes conceptual trends in implementing educational change, (2) reviews the complexities of educational…

The article analyzes curriculum processes and products pertaining to the overall reconstruction of Afghanistan's education system after 2002. With the support of several international agencies, including UNESCO's International Bureau of Education (IBE), as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Afghanistan's Ministry of Education succeeded…

The article documents the complex process of changing Argentina's science curriculum and implementing those changes over the last 15 years. It recounts how reformers tackled the challenges of balancing national (federal) unity in education with local (provincial) autonomy from the political, social and pedagogical points of view. It also analyzes…

This article recounts the battle in the "math wars" that took place in Massachusetts, United States in 1999-2000 over the scope, content and teaching of the state's K-12 mathematics curriculum. Harsh controversies arose between the partisans of a "reform-math" movement stressing an undefined "conceptual understanding" and student-created…

This article explores the theoretical foundations of "social cohesion" as it relates to higher education institutions. In so doing it seeks (a) to understand the core elements of social cohesion--social capital, human capital and ethical behavioral norms that serve a common good--and (b) to establish a flexible framework for understanding the…

This article analyses the situation of the right to education in Europe, based on a comparative study of the recommendations made by the Committee on the Rights of the Child with respect to the reports submitted to the Committee by the European States Parties. The primary sources used are the Committee's concluding observations and the individual…

This study explores the role of public Islamic higher education in promoting better relations between various religious communities in post-authoritarian Indonesia. Based on field research conducted between December 2005 and March 2006, it documents how progressive Islamic education leaders have advanced a tradition of critical intellectualism in…

This paper discusses the results of a study of faculty and university staff at two major universities in the Netherlands: the University of Amsterdam and the Free University of Amsterdam. I sought to understand how faculty viewed the role of the university in relationship to national and European goals promoting social cohesion and the integration…

Universities may contribute to a nation's social cohesion through both direct and indirect means. In their syllabi they may include techniques necessary for understanding complex social problems. Faculty may model good behaviour in terms of listening and understanding points of view that may contradict their own. University administrators may…

In the context of ongoing social divisions, lack of coherent leadership by government, and even divisiveness over medical advances and public health mandates, how might universities respond? What university actions can support "social cohesion" in a society splintered by class, race, gender, colonial legacies, the history of apartheid, and…

Decentralization occupies a prominent place on the policy agenda at international level and, within many countries, at national level. It regularly forms part of an overall package of reform of the public service, which has been summarized under the concept of "new public management" (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2000). This package also includes advocacy…

Over the past decade, Argentina created and implemented a compulsory lower-secondary education level, within an ambitious educational reform programme. This article addresses the reform at the national level, diverse provincial responses, and the particular way that the powerful province of Buenos Aires appropriated the structural change. The…

Community involvement in the management of schools--community empowerment--is a growing phenomenon in the developing world. Many see it as a way to increase the relevance of schools, school attendance, and ultimately to improve learning outcomes. Increasingly, World Bank lending for basic education includes growing support for community…

While evidence from developed countries suggests that communities may contribute to school effectiveness and efficiency, there is a need for more systematic reviews of such practice in developing countries to inform international policy. Research suggests that community participation through school councils could produce opposite outcomes: it can…

In this article the authors examine evidence pertaining to the implementation of a national programme of school-based decentralization, the Quality Schools Programme ("Programa de Escuelas de Calidad"). The main argument of this article is that high levels of inequality in the institutional capacity of different schools and in the financial…