The guidelines followed by many educational boards recommend behavioristic practices for dealing with student discipline; however, Lawrence Kohlberg's idea of organizing schools as "just communities" suggests a more promising approach. It translates to the school context the core principle of Habermas's discourse ethics: "those…

This article argues that contemporary education policies promoted by UNESCO and the OECD are embracing two distinct post-humanist visions, which I call the 'sustainable futures' and the 'techno-solutionist' strand. I will relate these strands to two conflicting agendas of education after World War II: the humanistic-emancipatory perspective…

The topic of citizenship education and the promotion of democratic citizenship in schools has risen to the top of educational policy agendas in Europe over the past three decades. This rise in attention, however, appears to be accompanied by an apparent lack of attention to the specific manner in which citizenship, education and the assumed…

The study on which this article reports sought to explain the complexity of the relationship between inclusion policies and practices in education in Slovakia. Education policy in Slovakia is characterised by an enduring resistance to inclusion practices, despite the presence of humanist inclusion discourses. Accordingly, education policy and…

Pedagogical reform is an institutional change that involves revising the rules of the game in practice, the legitimacy of which depends on political and legislative contexts. In the context of Myanmar's experience transitioning into a democratic society, this study discusses the changes in theoretical equilibria concerning pedagogical practices…

This study describes a key feature of modern, democratic policy making, namely the relation between stakeholder input and policy output. In the Nordic countries, there are long traditions for and democratic values attached to the dialogue between the government and civil society when developing policies for the educational sector. The case…

This book discusses national school policy reforms in a number of key European countries and shows how these are framed in transnational collaborations that meet with national particularities and contestations. It gives an overview of school policy developments that represents the diversity of Europe within a comparative framework. It takes point…

Purpose: In the rational model of the democratic governing chain, intervening spaces at all levels are neglected in relation to the policy process. An intervening space is a group of persons with the power and responsibility to interpret policy at their level in an organization. The research question is as follows: How are democratic policy ideas…

The UNESCO-led Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) stresses the importance of building teachers' capacity for an ESD transforming how people think and act. From the perspective of the pluralistic tradition, this creates challenges related to this tradition's notion that educators should facilitate…

"Globalization and Education" provides a critical introduction to various theories of globalization and the implications they are assumed to have for educational policy and practice. Using the current global financial crisis as a backdrop, internationally renowned author Fazal Razvi examine a series of questions about the ways in which…

This study in the research domain of higher education sustainability addresses issues of policy and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in and through Hong Kong public universities. The purpose of the study was to critically analyze the problématique of achieving the SDGs by the Hong Kong higher education sector. The study…

In 2021, the Florida Legislature passed House Bill 233. The bill has three provisions: 1) it mandates an "intellectual viewpoint diversity" survey that asks students, faculty, and other employees at Florida's public colleges and universities to report on their levels of comfort to express their ideological and political opinions; 2) it…

This study offers a theoretical context for reading political education literature. Comparing the two classical cultural exemplars (Latin/Greek) we build our working framework upon the firm distinction between Republican and Democratic ideals and we suggest that the current political culture is shaped into the Republican mold. Setting these…

Purpose: The years 1960-1970 were decisive years in the development of Swiss vocational education and training (VET). The post-World War II economic boom, technological innovations and the debate concerning equal opportunities and the democratisation of education put the VET system under pressure. Reforms were thus undertaken to increase the…

In this paper, we draw on policy sociology and democratic theory to illustrate how evidence-based practice not only limits teachers' capacities to exercise professional discretion and authority, but also jeopardises the democratic project of schooling more broadly. Using theoretical concepts from Foucault's discipline with Connolly's…