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Considering the sensory and social needs of disabled students in higher education: A call to return to the roots of universal design Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Ann-Marie Creaven
Universal Design for Learning is a pedagogical approach that aims ‘to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn’ (CAST website, n.d.). Originating in the context of K12 education in the United States, the core principles involve the provision of multiple means of representation, engagement, and action/expression. Despite high instructor
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Jean Améry’s reconceptualization of resentment: Reflections on a political pedagogy of resistance to oblivion and indifference Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-21 Michalinos Zembylas
This essay examines Jean Améry’s account of resentment as protest against oblivion and indifference and explores its implications in invoking a political pedagogy that attempts to find moral and political virtue in resentment. Exploring the pedagogical implications of resentment through the lens of Améry’s account reveals something important about how resentment is understood today and used to “pedagogize”
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‘Tick boxes are just tick boxes’: Problematising evidence-based teaching and exploring the space of the possible through a complexity lens Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Zahid Naz
This article seeks to provide a new paradigm for questioning how quality and excellence in teaching practices are understood and evaluated. By combining ideas from complexity theory and Michel Foucault’s conception of polymorphous correlations, I argue that a shift away from the forms of thought that engender reductionist evaluations can become a starting point to redefine the efficacy of teaching
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The creation of culturally responsive school environments in Ireland: Factors that assist in reducing the gap between policy and practice Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-18 Aron Foley, Daniel Faas, Merike Darmody
Ireland’s cultural identity has transformed significantly in the past few decades as a result of large-scale inward migration. Consequently, the creation of culturally responsive school environments has become a major concern in policy discourses in recent years. Despite the prevalence of such discourses, research on the cultural responsiveness of the four major primary school types in Ireland, and
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Achieving digital education in primary schools: Success factors and policy recommendations Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-13 Ourania Maria Ventista, Magdalini Kolokitha, Paraskevi Tsani, Georgios Polydoros, Grigorios Arkoumanis
This paper examines the current education policy for achieving digital education in European Union overall and in Greece specifically. By using a theoretical framework of policy enactment, this study explored different factors which could predict technology integration and digital education. A survey was conducted with 205 classroom teachers across 32 primary schools in Greece. The analysis tracked
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Investigating VET teachers’ experiences during and post COVID Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Sonal Nakar, Rachel Trevarthen
Vocational education and training teachers play an integral role in ensuring students, both international and domestic, gain quality learning experiences and positive outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic caused rapid changes and abruptly shifted vocational education from face-to-face teaching to teaching at a distance. This study aims to investigate vocational education and training teachers’ experiences
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Fifty years on – limitations and opportunities within Ireland`s higher education system and structures Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-08 Breda McTaggart
Regional Technical Colleges, later Institutes of Technology, were developed just over fifty years ago in response to a perceived gap in knowledge, skills, and competencies required to promote market growth and success ( Thorn, 2018 ). It was envisaged that this change to Ireland’s higher education landscape would be capable of continuing adaptation to the social, economic, and technological changes
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A tale of tartan: Diffractive storytelling in response to educational policy for Pākehā educators in Aotearoa New Zealand Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-06 Naomi Pears-Scown
This piece demonstrates a creative practice that invites educators from diverse backgrounds to consider the memories, stories, and cultural histories alive within them. How we carry and know our own stories influences how we can critically and reflexively enact or challenge policies of cultural responsivity in education. Given that the political landscapes in education get remade over and over, the
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An intergenerational comeback: Girls’ education, development, and social capital Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-03-02 Sheng-Hsiang Lance Peng
This article examines the trajectory of global human rights expansion, with a specific focus on the advancement of girls’ and women’s education. By adopting a generational lens and using a reflective standpoint, I unpack the role of gender-specific social capital in fostering agency and empowerment among girls, particularly within the Global South. Building upon Porter’s Girls’ education, development
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Democracy as a floating signifier: The struggle for legitimation of programming in Swedish schools Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-23 Anthemis Raptopoulou, Brendan Munhall
The concept of democracy is a central component in education policy at all levels, yet its meaning can be interpreted in a number of ways. This paper examines how democracy is conceptualised and utilised as a legitimising force driving education policy reform. More specifically, attention is given to the use of democracy in the process of promoting programming’s inclusion in the Swedish compulsory
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Cambodia’s aspirations to become a knowledge-based society: Challenges and recommendations Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-17 Kimkong Heng, Bunhorn Doeur
Cambodia aspires to become a knowledge-based society to remain relevant in the context of the global knowledge-based economy. However, it remains uncertain how this aspiration can be realized considering the low quality of the country’s education system. Drawing on secondary sources, this article aims to shed light on Cambodia’s aspirations for a knowledge-based society. The article begins by defining
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Educational evaluation as a rhythmical policy phenomenon Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-14 Kerstin Löf Catini, Susanne Westman, Eva Alerby
Public pressure on evaluation has influenced educational projects and national evaluation systems for many decades. This article extends the ongoing discussions in the field, offering a problematising exploration of evaluation as an educational policy phenomenon, thinking with the notion of rhythm in the analysis. Approaching educational evaluation with the notion of rhythm has, for us, implied a philosophical
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A tale of two reviews: Examining the content and ideology of two single-blind reviews Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-09 Glenn Toh
As part of my work as an educator, I see the need to surface for discussion what might indeed be considered as acts of oppression on the part of peer reviewers when certain aspects of knowing and meaning are misrecognized, obscured, or suppressed. Drawing on observations concerning coercive and oppressive relational and educational practices found in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed as well
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Policy opinions regarding the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-08 Nevbahar Ertas, Andrew N McKnight
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has recently been positioned as a serious problem requiring urgent policy response among partisan media outlets. Making a case for pressing policy demands, several policy makers have proposed federal, state, and local level legislation and other measures to restrict how race, racism, or American history in general can be taught in K-12 schools, higher education institutions
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An analysis of the policy drivers and legal frameworks associated with school exclusion in Northern Ireland Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-02-07 Gavin Duffy, Gareth Robinson, Michelle Templeton
This paper offers analysis of the policy drivers and legal frameworks associated with school exclusion in Northern Ireland. This activity is timely given limited analysis in this area in recent decades. The research is an element of an UK-wide, multi-strand, ESRC Large Grant project, examining the Political Economies of School Exclusion and their Consequences across the UK, informally referred the
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Analyzing the Finnish University funding system through system-based simulation Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-31 Miia Rissanen, Jyrki Savolainen, Mikael Collan
This research explores the suitability of system-based simulation analysis for higher education (HE) policy-planning. A dynamic system model of the Finnish university funding system covering bachelor-level students is presented. The results show that the model captures the nature of the current funding system, which can be considered a zero-sum game, where the funding an individual university can only
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Practicalities and dichotomies of education policy and practice of higher education in the Golden Triangle Area (Southeast Asia): Implications for international development Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Shine Wanna Aung, Than Than Aye
Following the paradigm of globalization and development as a means of achieving a better life from the domestic sphere to the international landscape, different stakeholders including scholars, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and institutions have been focusing on better informed policy and practice with an embedded mission of international development. Educational policymaking and implementation
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Ethnic studies programs in America: Exploring the past to understand today’s debates Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Hani Morgan
The debates that involve banning critical race theory and implementing ethnic studies programs have recently surged. But this is not the first time that controversy about ethnic studies programs and other efforts to promote equity has led to dissension. In the 1960s, similar discord led to violence. Today, right-wing activists are making efforts to prevent ethnic studies programs from being implemented
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Challenges of integration of immigrant students into Slovenian primary schools—Perspectives of teachers and other professionals Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-24 Maja Pucelj, Annmarie Gorenc Zoran
The primary school sector, where educational and socialization activities occur, is the first and most important sector for integrating migrant students into a new environment. Nevertheless, the 2019 Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) for Slovenia concludes that while Slovenian integration policies provide equality on a legal or theoretical level, they do not fully integrate immigrants into society
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Competing visions of artificial intelligence in education—A heuristic analysis on sociotechnical imaginaries and problematizations in policy guidelines Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-22 Cornelia Linderoth, Magnus Hultén, Linnéa Stenliden
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in education necessitates a shared understanding of its intended purpose and societal implications. This paper underscores the significance of societal perspectives in AI and education, often overshadowed by technological aspects. At the same time, policy guidelines for the integration of AI technology within educational systems are playing a pivotal
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Refugees and school engagement: A scoping review Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-19 Tebeje Molla
With the global increase in forcibly displaced populations, understanding and improving educational opportunities and outcomes for refugee youth is of paramount importance. This scoping review focuses on understanding the extent and nature of evidence related to school engagement among refugee parents and students. The review’s scope was limited to peer-reviewed articles published in English between
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Time for slow care: Bringing slow pedagogy into conversation with ethics of care in the infant/toddler classroom Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Cassie Sorrells, Samara Madrid Akpovo
This research presents the findings of an 8-month ethnographic case study of one infant/toddler classroom in the southeastern United States. Participants included the classroom’s two (white, female) teachers and a racially diverse group of 12 children between one to 2 years of age. Grounded within an ethics of care theoretical framework, this research was guided by the following research questions:
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Examining academic freedom within WB and UNESCO discourses on higher education: A Foucauldian discourse analysis Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-17 Israa Medhat Esmat
Academic freedom constitutes an integral part of traditional university values that ensure the proper functioning of universities in pursuing truth and inculcating civic values. In a globalized world where Higher Education (HE) policy is the result of the interaction of local, national, and international levels, the positions of international organizations on questions of academic freedoms deem significant
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Towards ecological everything – The ecological university, ecological subjectivity and the ecological curriculum Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-12 Robert J Stratford
There are no perfect solutions to the complex mess the planet is in right now, but there might be some better directions for the contemporary ‘university in ruins’ (Readings, 1996). In a world of struggling liberal democracies, climate change, biodiversity loss and global pandemics, this paper builds on the philosophical work informing the Ecological University (Barnett, 2018; Stratford, 2019) to shore
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Crisis inciting carnivalesque: Early childhood teachers’ political dialogue strategies Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-10 Fiona Westbrook
Early childhood education (ECE) teachers have expressed being silenced, indicating their responses to everyday issues of political concern may be hidden. This voicelessness underscores the importance of examining strategies and spaces that incite ECE teachers to vocalise their political dialogues. The pandemic, as a crisis event, within Victoria, Australia, during 2020 offers an unrivalled viewing
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“If senior high school education is free and equitably distributed, shouldn’t we ask the children about it?” Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Aboabea Gertrude Akuffo
Ghana is one of the few countries with prior cost-sharing funding approaches to upper secondary education to have rolled out a completely free upper secondary education policy. Whilst the empirical foundation of the emerging body of studies on the policy includes policy makers, implementers and a reliance on policy documents, the perspectives of children who are the key beneficiaries of the policy
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The clash of cultures: Individualization and standardization in education Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-09 Ove Skarpenes, Kari-Mette Walmann Hidle
In this essay, we argue that pupils in compulsory school education seem to be exposed to conflicting pressures from an (internal) tendency towards individualisation and an (external) tendency towards standardisation. Drawing on Luc Bolanski and Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology of orders of worth, we develop a theoretical framework to discuss the two conflicting cultures. In the first part of
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Internationalisation and digital transformation in HEIs: The impact of education 4.0 on teaching, learning and assessment Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-08 Ellie Koseda, Ivan K. Cohen, Bryan McIntosh, Jasmine Cooper
There is a particular emphasis on embracing digital transformation to re-define how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) impact the lives of individuals through educational means. This includes the ability to adapt and respond according to outlined graduate attributes, staff, and the wider community for continual success in 21st century learning and work. Ideally, HEI development ultimately inculcates
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Sub-Saharan women in engineering higher education: A literature-informed research tool Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-06 Meseret F. Hailu, Ivet Parra Gaete
We present a review of higher education and education policy literature to understand better higher education institutions (HEIs) that serve sub-Saharan women in engineering. Our sub-Saharan women in engineering (SSAWE) literature-informed conceptual tool consists of five components to facilitate scholarly discussion about equity in higher education systems and facilitate interregional comparisons
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Structural change and the governance of Indigenous schooling in Australia: What’s the problem represented to be? Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Liwen Zhang
The Australian National Indigenous Reform Agreement (Closing the Gap) aims to address inequalities in various aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives. Scholars have repeatedly critiqued its failure to tackle structural inequalities. The agreement was revised in 2020. The current study adopts Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to critically analyse
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“‘We believe in education, not indoctrination’: Governor Ron DeSantis, critical race theory, and anti-intellectualism in Florida” Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-05 Gary G DeSantis
This article examines how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ remarks contribute to anti-intellectualism and fuel the pushback against critical race theory (CRT) championed by like-minded conservative Republicans who view its instruction as an affront to society and authentic historical narratives. Dismissing educators and scholars who uphold the teaching of CRT as unpatriotic and denigrating to American
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The challenges and opportunities of hybrid education with location asynchrony: Implications for education policy Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2024-01-03 Selina Mayer, Reem Abou Refaie, Falk Uebernickel
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted traditional on-site education. One currently deployed alternative is hybrid education formats, which combine online and on-site elements. Educators, educational institutions, and policymakers need to understand the challenges and opportunities hybrid education can pose to both students and educators to orchestrate these formats successfully. This is especially
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Dutch first in Dutch higher education policy Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-05-15 Jessica Schiltmans
In the past 15 years, the number of international students in tertiary education doubled to reach 5.6 million students in 2018 and is expected to grow to 6.9 million in 2030 (Choudaha and Van Rest,...
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The 2010–15 coalition government and the legacy of free schools in England Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-05-15 Ben Williams
Free schools were a flagship policy of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition (2010–15), aligned with the broader academisation programme, yet both consolidating and transcending New Labour’s ...
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Sustaining opportunities and mutual partiality through Collaborative Online International Learning in South Africa Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-05-15 Ashika Naicker
The value of internationalization within the limits of mobility has become more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. As reflection occurs on our own history, navigating a period of reset and re...
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Alternative futures of Finnish comprehensive school Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-05-05 Päivi Nilivaara, Tiina Soini
Inevitable and constant change is challenging school systems worldwide, and COVID-19 has further intensified the debate on the future. This article examines the possible futures of Finnish comprehe...
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The psychological turn in higher education and the new taxonomy of attitudes and emotions: Denmark as a case study Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-28 Laura Louise Sarauw, Søren SE Bengtsen, Ourania Filippakou
This article explores the increased concern with students’ well-being in higher education as a mode of governance that goes hand in hand with new mechanisms of exclusion. Focussing on a new student...
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Slogans, political discourse and education: An interview with Ruth Wodak Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-28 Mitja Sardoč, Ruth Wodak
This interview with Prof. Ruth Wodak discusses some of the most pressing issues associated with slogans, political discourse an education. The introductory section of the interview touches on Prof....
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Global-local policy interactions in the South and the need for critical policy engagement–lessons from teaching licence policy in Pakistan Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-27 Sajid Ali, Afaq Ahmed
Countries in the global South, such as Pakistan, face challenges to determine their education policies without any external pressures. The national sphere of authority of the state has to deal with...
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The importance of art implementation in college general education Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-20 Allison Aziz
Throughout the years, general education (GE) has failed to see the value in visual arts programs in its curriculum across colleges in universities in the US. Even while creative careers continue to...
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How far should we go seeking new horizons for education’s autonomy? Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-14 Doron Yosef-Hassidim, John Baldacchino
While the fresh debate on education’s autonomy continues in this special issue as in other forums and venues, new layers of complexity on this theme continue to emerge, just as further nuances are ...
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Cosmopolitan nationalism as an analytical lens: Four articulations in education policy Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-11 Miri Yemini, Claire Maxwell, Ewan Wright, Laura Engel, Moosung Lee
Cosmopolitanism and nationalism are often presented in binary terms, as standing in opposition to each other, especially with regards to education. In this paper, we establish a framework for study...
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The education-world dilemma of Education’s autonomy: The case of K-12 engineering education Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-07 Doron Yosef-Hassidim
This paper addresses a dilemma of education’s autonomy: if an educational goal is to be universal, how do people’s current problems and concerns are supposed to be integrated or addressed in the ed...
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Slogans as an integral part of educational discourse: Two examples Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-04-05 Zdenko Kodelja
Slogans in education have been the subject of critical analysis – at least in the context of philosophy of education – for more than half a century. Some of these slogans are no longer relevant or ...
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COVID-19, geopolitics and risk management Towards framing a reciprocal, coordinated, responsive and empathetic international education sector Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-03-27 Ly Thi Tran, Diep Thi Bich Nguyen, Jill Blackmore, Baogang He, Huy Quan Vu
Geopolitics is shaping the international education landscape. International education has trationally been used as a tool to boost transnational cooperation, foster multilateral and global ties, an...
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A step not beyond education’s autonomy Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-03-07 Juuso Tervo
Many arguments for education’s autonomy put forward a repeated yet undefined claim that there is an identifiable, dividing line between education and its outside, and that it is within the distinct...
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A subject’s autonomy: Undidactic mediation in Georg Lukács and John Dewey Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-03-06 John Baldacchino
This paper looks at autonomy through the dynamic relationship between particularity, experience, and subjectivism in the works of Georg Lukács and John Dewey. While the focus on autonomy appears to...
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Some notes on the necessity of autonomous educational practice and two concerns Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-02-23 Carl Anders Säfström
This article suggests a sophistical autonomous practice in response to Platonian Aristotelian philosophy’s domination over education. It shows the dangers of empty education in which education is r...
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The inherent fruits of educational endeavour Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-02-11 Pádraig Hogan
This contribution begins by reviewing a widespread inherited idea in Western civilisations: that education is an undertaking to be controlled, at least in all essentials, by some superior body; not...
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Consolidating a neoliberal agenda in education: UNESCO and New Zealand policies for the sake of ‘safe’ learning environments Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-02-06 Marta Estellés, Catrin Dawson, Jo Smith
Over the last few decades, both New Zealand and the intergovernmental organisation of UNESCO have widely spread the rhetoric of safety through a broad range of educational issues. This notion, in v...
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The suitability of teaching profession for pedagogical students: The Vietnamese view Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2023-01-13 Nam Danh Nguyen
The quality of teacher education plays an important role in improving the quality of general education. The model of teacher education is also different in countries around the world, and for each ...
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From slogans to frameworks: Embedded values or postdigital positionality? Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-12-07 Sarah Hayes, Petar Jandrić
This article explores ways in which higher education (HE) slogans, together with related frameworks and policies, increasingly invade the personal, cultural and positional values of individual staf...
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Religious instruction in the post-truth world: A critique of Australia’s controversial religious instruction classes in public schools Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-12-05 Jennifer Bleazby
Even though religious schools are common in Australia, many government schools provide religious instruction (RI) classes. Religious instruction involves students being segregated into faith based ...
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Revisions of evidence-based governance: The case of the Austrian quality management system SQA Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-15 Herbert Altrichter, Karin Ettl, Karin Grinner, Kornelia Kolleritsch, Silvia Kopp-Sixt, Renate Leeb-Brandstetter, Heidemarie Pöschko, Alexandra Postlbauer
Throughout the last 30 years, many European countries have ‘modernized’ their governance of education. For the Central European school systems of Austria and the German Bundesländer it has been cla...
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Relationship between emotional intelligence and resilience among university students during crisis Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-14 Ngoc Nhu Nguyen, Tuan Phong Nham, Yoshi Takahashi
This research investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence of university students and their resilience ability during crisis: the pandemic of Covid-19. A large-scale quantitative ap...
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Uncovering the discursive ‘borders’ of professional identities in English early childhood workforce reform policy Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-04 Nathan Archer
The early childhood workforce in England has experienced periods of policy attention and more recently policy neglect. During the past two decades (2000–2022) the extent of interest in workforce po...
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Governing by slogans Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-03 Mitja Sardoč, Vladimir Prebilič
Throughout recorded history, slogans have been an important part of our public life. From political rhetoric and propaganda, to social movements and awareness-raising campaigns, their usage has ove...
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Implementing an institution-wide pedagogical change in an Israeli college: The AWpack advising system in support of academic writing Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-01 Dorit Barchana-Lorand, Yehudith Weinberger
Universities and colleges around the globe struggle to find ways to improve students’ academic writing skills. With the goal of tackling students’ writing skills on an institutional level, we set o...
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“Neoliberal subjects” and “Neoliberal affects” in academia: Methodological, theoretical and political implications Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-11-01 Michalinos Zembylas
This paper suggests that scholarship on the affective life of neoliberalism in academia needs to exercise more caution when it invokes the notions of “neoliberal subjects” and “neoliberal affects.”...
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How and why have higher education tuition fee policies evolved in England since 1997? A critical discourse analysis of Dearing, Browne and Augar Policy Futures in Education Pub Date : 2022-10-31 Rob Hickey
The last 25 years have seen a dramatic shift in tuition fee policy in England. This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis to understand the motivations behind policy setting, comparing the pivotal...