Focuses on levels of anxiety and imagery among female and male students in varying proximity to an examination to explain gendered differences in degree classification at Oxford and Cambridge universities. Finds significant, gendered differences in the impact of proximity on anxiety and imagery. Links these findings to differences in degree…

Argues, in contrast to David Hargreaves, that libertarianism implies a mild presumption against school choice, and that notions of common good are significant to educational decision making only when deciding between sets of institutions that perform equally well at delivering their obligations. Links these issues to questions about school choice.…

Argues that for children to develop autonomy they must be socialized into the values of the adult community but then exposed to those of other communities. Proposes that school choice plays a role in the first, but that other actions must be taken to ensure the second. (DSK)

Critiques arguments by Harry Brighouse for ignoring the social and political contexts that generate policies concerned with compulsory schooling and school choice. Proposes changes in educational policy that would develop structures and procedures designed to prevent already disadvantaged children from suffering further from increased school…

Provides an overview of recent British educational policy regarding "specialization" (school choice given to parents) and "selection" (student placement by ability or interest, controlled by the school). Specifically discusses the Assisted Places Scheme, a program granting need- and ability-based scholarships to academically selective private…

Considers the extent to which grant-maintained schools (state-supported but self-governing) in Britain have contributed to the diversification of the system. Argues that the private schools have yet to provide programs that are innovative or ground breaking. Includes excerpts from interviews with nine grant-maintained school headmasters. (MJP)

Discusses the introduction and implementation of the 1988 Education Reform Act for England and Wales. Traces the attempts of several existing private schools to become grant maintained (eligible for various forms of government support). Most private and faith-based schools have not been successful in this endeavor. Discusses the reasons for this.…

Discusses the blurring of boundaries between state and private education system that has occurred since 1979 in Britain. Notes that the system has always maintained degrees of support for private and state-supported education. Investigates the social and political influences involved in the implementation of school vouchers and the 1988…

Examines some of the effects of the creation of an educational market, based on parental school choice, on ethnic minority students. Argues that the new market framework which encourages separation and competition has begun to affect the education of minority students in mostly negative ways. (MJP)

Argues that much of the recent scholarship on school choice, marketization, and diversity has ignored issues of gender. Provides an overview of several recent studies examining gender issues and parents' perspectives on school choice. Maintains that gender is a significant, if often, contradictory factor in these decisions. (MJP)

Explores the ambivalence of many working class parents to the idea of school choice. Maintains that, for many working class parents, school is associated with powerful memories and images of personal failure. Includes excerpts from interviews and data collected from an Economic and Social Research Council study. (MJP)

Considers the criticism that recent reforms involving school choice and diversity do not adequately address issues of educational equity in Great Britain. Outlines a series of three reforms that could make the system more equitable given the assumption that school choice is desirable. Examines and criticizes these assumptions. (MJP)

Argues that choice, diversity, and equity are key organizing concepts of the neoliberal public domain. As such, they are implicated in the failure of neoliberalism to address the central predicaments of the age. Articulates a new vision of a learning democracy expressed through civic cooperation, participation, and justice. (MJP)

Presents a broad overview of the current state-of-the-art, as well as the historical development of writing university histories. Identifies seminal and representative works from the earliest writings on university history to the present. Discusses genres, trends, and controversies and their differing developments in Europe and the United States.…

Summarizes research concerning the educational experience of women students, in Germany and Austria. Posits six broad categories of research: (1) beginning of women as university students; (2) "tradition of prejudice;" (3) structural analyses of female students; (4) university socialization and memory; (5) occupationally specific analyses; and (6)…