Books for and in schools are commodities. They form a central part of the political economy of publishing. They are also, profoundly, sites of cultural and ideological conflict. While always there, there are periods when these economic and ideological conflicts are even more powerful. This is just such a time. This reality asks us to also examine…

Alternative education schools are a relatively recent phenomenon in the Palestinian-Arab society in Israel. They have been established in response to the growing dissatisfaction with the education provided by the state in mainstream schools. While previous research has sufficiently detailed their characteristics, there is little research on the…

Coaches develop and use a complex system of strategies to gain access to teachers' classrooms for coaching. In the process, coaches confront micropolitical forces within the school organization that shape access, either enhancing or impeding coaches' chances of being viewed as a trusted and valued partner in teacher learning. In this qualitative…

It is our contention that we are in a crisis of curriculum that can be seen from calls to defund public education to the reduction of children to scores on annual assessments. We also point to a crisis in studies of curriculum that the critical tools necessary to consider and critique curricular practices have been intentionally removed from…

In an earlier essay in the Reviewing Policy section of this journal, I examined many of the major arguments for social justice teacher unionism. This combines both more traditional union concerns over wages, working conditions, professional autonomy, and respect with a much more concerted focus by unions on social justice issues in schools,…

The war in Ukraine has affected the internationalization of higher education in Kyrgyzstan in a number of ways, some unique to Kyrgyzstan and some paralleling effects in other countries. This reflective essay, drawing on four theoretical frameworks, with a focus on examining the actors involved, and informed by personal communications and…

In this essay, Stefano Oliverio engages with the question of how to think about education in times of climate change and the "intrusion of Gaia" by establishing a dialogue between Bruno Latour's political ecology and John Dewey's appeal to the need to bring a genuine Copernican revolution to fruition. Oliverio argues that the panoply of…

Previous work on working-class academics has highlighted recurring themes, such as micro-aggressions, imposter syndrome, liminality, exclusion, invisibility and habitus. These themes have been encapsulated in a number of metaphors, such as 'the ghost' and 'the phantom-limb', both of which connote absence, silence and marginalisation. Whilst these…

The educational system in Ghana has undergone various reforms as a result of colonisation, changes in government and constitutional amendments. These reforms have been accompanied by changes in educational assessment programmes. This paper explored the history of educational assessment in Ghana, understanding how educational reforms, colonisation…

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has been a staple in U.S. schools for decades, but it's recently drawn criticism from policy makers and advocates who believe these programs represent government intrusion into areas best reserved for families. Robert Kim describes some of the legal arguments that support the use of SEL in schools. SEL programs can…

This study aims to understand how social organizations participate in education governance and how they interact with state actors in the context of education governance in China from a network governance perspective. Based on a multiple case study, we selected four social organizations (a think tank, an academic association, and a domestic, and…

Coaches develop and use strategies to gain access to teachers' classrooms to support teacher learning and instructional improvement. These strategies respond to the specific conditions in which coaches work, including organizational structures and interpersonal factors that can either facilitate or impede access. In this interview study of 28…

This research note is based on the premise that Paulo Freire is an educator of the present and the future. Contrary to research that has confined him to the past, the author emphasises the construction of Freire's thought-action in five historical periods, noting the timeliness and foresight of his ideas for the 21st century. From his first books…

This article discusses how the critique of the monopoly of Western liberal thought through the decolonisation movement that was intended to increase the number of voices heard has been co-opted by nationalist politics in India and Russia. The debates in higher education in these countries reflect current key questions on the nature of the Indian…

A major reform of teacher training has been underway for the past three decades in French-speaking Belgium, in response to the low quality of teacher training and the consequences for school teaching and learning deemed to be in deep crises. Using a number of eclectic methods (metaphors, typologies, timelines, network maps), we map controversies…