While universities now lie between two philosophical poles -- idealism and utilitarianism -- the Humboldtian ideal primarily serves to give a humanist glaze to a technocratic discourse. Regardless of its autonomy on paper, the University does not control its finances. This guise of autonomy has set a double authoritarian heteronomy of the…

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has unveiled plans to move into the field of early childhood education through the introduction of the International Early Learning Study (IELS), a new comparative test of five-year olds that is being piloted in three nations. This article explores the dynamics of this new project…

This article examines why the government in England has signed the country up to taking part in the OECD's new international assessment known as The International Early Learning and Well-being Study (IELS). The article highlights the role of IELS as a technology of neoliberal governance. Looking forward it considers how IELS may open up new…

Early childhood education (ECE) is not new in Indonesia. However, in the past decade, it has received more attention, as shown by the growing number of ECE centres in both urban and rural areas. This growth is accompanied by policy development that corresponds to the global agenda of ECE. Policy development is inevitably linked with the support of…

Based on research and activism on early childhood education and care in the area of Yogyakarta, Indonesia, we argue that the Indonesian government's focus on early childhood has come at a cost to local women. Community-based early childhood programs are delivered by women whose work is unpaid or underpaid. Although early childhood education in the…

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus began to develop a national system of education trying to balance the prioritization of Soviet legacy, strong state control, and processes of democratization. The system of education is a powerful translator of dominant ideologies and legitimate concepts, including the concepts of gender and…

This paper problematizes the dichotomy between neo-liberalism and socialism and the tendency to view the post-socialist condition as a process of convergence with 'Western' and 'global'. It does so by analysing the development and implementation of a quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) policy in school education in the context of the Russian…

For those who focus on the role of education in international development, the approach to education governance of school-based management (SBM) has been the primary means by which the participation of community members has been incorporated into the provision of education. However, while SBM is a well-known approach to governance that has become…

Educational researchers have called attention to how neoliberal ideology has profoundly and detrimentally influenced public education systems, but less attention has been paid to how neoliberalism influences "private" educational institutions. This article examines the influence of neoliberal ideology on education in the USA through an…

This article traces the work of community-based popular educators with an explicit commitment to "Freirean" popular education as they shifted from teaching in a community-based setting to an after-school program focused on standardized test-preparation. Drawing from ethnographic observation and interviews, it examines educators'…

This paper utilizes Henri Lefebvre's work to examine nineteenth century school architecture, in relation to asylums. The deployment of the asylums occurred in unison with the development of public schools. Based on archival research this paper seeks an examination of this interrelated development. The social/spatial arrangement of asylums and…

In this interview with David Hursh, Bob Lingard comments on his current and/or recently completed research projects in respect to new modes of global governance in schooling and the complementarity between international large scale assessments and national testing. He also looks at a project that, in conjunction with school leaders, teachers,…

In this article, we provide a critical explanation and critique of neoliberalism. We attempt an innovative focus ranging from the wider contemporary political and ideological shifts, to the way in which neoliberal policy specifically influences higher education and the consequences thereof. We follow a narrative logic in three parts where we first…

This article is based on an interview conducted with Mark Olssen in October 2014, and the subsequent discussions. These conversations invited Olssen to reflect on his experiences of neoliberalism as a practising academic who has worked in the UK for some 14 years, and also to comment as a researcher and writer who is well known for his work on…

This article discusses the interface between health policy and education. Taking as a case example the power that regulatory "responsible authorities" have under the New Zealand "Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003" to define scopes of practice of health professionals, including that of educator, the article…