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The history of subjects is often told analysing notions of knowledge in historical reforms, policies, curricula, and textbooks. In this article, we analyse student papers from 1968, focusing on their responses to the topic 'Social distinctions and prejudices in Denmark'. The students present a number of concepts and categories of social differences and prejudices, depict a contemporary problem, refer to theoretical or categorical frameworks, provide a historical account, state bold claims and/or present conceptual definitions. Then, by giving different examples from their everyday life and by establishing some form of line or structure in their writings, they form an argument or narrative. They do this by using—we assume—information from their textbooks, from what have been discussed in teaching, in the public debate, and in the students' homes. The student papers not only passively reflect but are part of the ongoing constitution of the subjects and subject matter, during a period of tremendous educational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Better training in scientific skills, such as the ability to conduct research independently, has been one of the main drivers of reform in medical education. The aim of this article is to report on the scientific term paper module in the modular curriculum of medicine (MCM) at the Charité. This module is an established example of undergraduate medical students conducting their own scientific investigations. Project outline: A faculty-wide, outcome-oriented process resulted in a four-week module for writing a scientific term paper in the 6th semester of the MCM as part of a longitudinal science curriculum. Acquired competencies were assessed through a written term paper and an oral presentation. Two student cohorts (winter terms 2013 and 2014) were surveyed on how they rated the module concept, organizational aspects and the quality of support. We further analysed the chosen topics of the papers as well as student assessment results. Results: The student evaluation (return rates of 193 and 197, 71% and 77%) showed high overall satisfaction with the module. This result was evident in the high rating of the module concept and organizational aspects, a positive attitude towards scientific research, and strong motivation to pursue further scientific research. There was a wide spectrum of term paper topics with a focus on literature reviews. Most of the student work was assessed as good or very good. Conclusion: The scientific term paper module has proven itself as a curricular concept for students to perform own scientific research in the MCM, with strong acceptance and good performance by students. This project report can serve as basis and guidance for development and further improvements to promote scientific competencies in undergraduate medical education in other faculties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally, the emphasis on school reforms is increasing, and school leaders play a key role in realising reform initiatives for school development and change. Often, the formation of partnerships between researchers and practitioners for school improvement is promoted to facilitate professional development and enhance student learning. However, limited attention has been directed towards the underlying ideas, values and beliefs in government-initiated strategies for partnership in the policy context of educational reform. This paper examines how partnerships between schools and higher education institutions are conceptualised and legitimised in Norwegian reform policy documents. We analyse three government white papers, each coupled with an executive partnership strategy document. The analysis applies a discourse analytical approach to policy as text and transmission. Our findings show a shift in the official national discourse on partnerships in education, underscoring new tensions regarding the power to define focus areas in the local reform work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how superintendents and school principals enact national policy reform expectations and what characterises their local organisational arrangements. Furthermore, the paper investigates how superintendents and school principals deal with tensions as entrepreneurs. The study builds on qualitative interview data from two municipalities in Norway. Analytically, the study draws on institutional theory, more specifically, on entrepreneurship, which to a limited degree has been applied in educational and empirical studies. The superintendents and principals interviewed referred to various local arrangements and resources that were partly adapted and changed through reform work to better fit local needs. Such arrangements included intra and interorganisational dependency and cooperation with several actors and organisational resources. Superintendents and principals seemed to partly break away from existing patterns of interaction. The entrepreneurial work entailed dealing with several tensions emerging within and across institutional boundaries in the process of enacting national reform policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil painting education not only helps to improve students' drawing skills and quality but also fosters creative thinking in the field of art. In order to keep up with the development of art diversity, it is essential to establish the concept of art diversity education and reform university oil painting education to meet the needs of modern society. This study aims to explore the potential value of image optical processing technology based on computer vision in the application of oil painting teaching image simulation. In order to improve students' ability of oil painting simulation, this paper presents an image optical processing technology based on computer vision. The study collected a large number of oil painting images and teaching samples. Then, through image processing algorithm, we extract and analyze the optical features in the oil painting works, and then design an optical simulation method to apply these features to the students' simulation works. By comparing the traditional methods and the techniques proposed in this paper, the image optical processing technology based on computer vision has potential practical value in the application of oil painting teaching image simulation, which can help students better understand and simulate the optical effects of traditional oil paintings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the widespread implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures during the pandemic, online classes have become a normal and indispensable part of college students' lives. Analysis of the factors affecting college students' behavioural intention towards online classes will help improve online class quality. This paper sets up a model to analyse the factors that may affect such intentions. The results show that social influence, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have a significant positive effect on college students' behavioural intention, and enabling environment(i.e. the infeasibility of offline teaching due to the pandemic)has a significant negative effect on it. Gender and voluntariness, as moderator variables, also clearly influence behavioural intention. Based on pandemic prevention and control measures, along with education reform and modernisation, this paper offers valuable suggestions to online learning platform and education administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an in-depth exploration of the historical factors shaping Greek elementary education and the contemporary pedagogical approaches and curriculum implemented in Greek elementary schools. Beginning with a historical analysis, the paper examines influential factors and developments spanning ancient times to the present day, including the legacy of ancient Greek education, Byzantine educational traditions, and modern educational reforms. By synthesizing historical insights with contemporary educational practices, this paper offers a holistic understanding of Greek elementary education. It underscores the enduring influence of historical legacies on present-day educational philosophies and methodologies while highlighting the innovative approaches adopted to meet the needs of modern learners. Ultimately, this comprehensive overview aims to contribute to scholarly discourse and inform ongoing efforts to enhance elementary education in Greece. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the concerns of the papers in the Special Issue and examines communication as a chameleon discipline that responds and adapts to sometimes very challenging contexts. It explores the strengths and weaknesses of the diversity of approaches that exist in communication studies and shows how this diversity offers both opportunities to be resourceful and hurdles to be managed. The paper reflects on the definitional ambiguity of communication and the ways that communication is perceived and approached in different institutions globally. Its aim is to forge a way through debates about the nature of the field by paying attention to the responsiveness and adaptability of those who teach communication in the face of educational and political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article announces the winners of the 2022 Patrick Wolf International School Choice and Reform Conference (ISCRC) Best Paper Prize including T. J. D'Agostino and Ignasi Grau i Callizo for their paper "Towards Understanding the Global Landscape of Educational Pluralism," Kaire Poder and Triin Lauri for their paper "The Legitimacy of Private Schooling: Education Preferences in Nine European Contexts," and James Shuls for his paper "Papists and Pluralists: The Founding of America's First Grassroots School Choice Organization."

Botswana has achieved a lot in education development since the country's independence in 1966. Public education funding and access increased significantly, literacy rates rose, more schools were constructed and student enrolment rates increased at both primary and secondary schools. However, this paper argues that Botswana's education system has been declining over the past 10 years, but that is concealed by the use of political spectacle. The data collected from secondary sources were used and subjected to content analysis. The findings show high public education expenditure and access in Botswana, but high failure rates; success narratives and pronouncements without commitment to educational effectiveness and efficiency; massive construction of public schools, but poor teaching–learning conditions; and trivialization of meaningful education reforms. This paper concludes by recommending the introduction of learner-friendly methods of assessment, improving teacher–government relations, the inclusion of stakeholders in education decision-making and the implementation of cost–benefit and cost-effectiveness measures in Botswana's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I argue that power promised to England's teachers by the 2010 'Importance of Teaching' white paper has rather played out as a reformulation of methods of policymaking to more indirect modes of government control. I trace the growth of government control in English schools, promised front-line power in 2010 and a rise in non-statutory guidance after this point. Taking an actor–network theory approach to ethnographic data I then describe how a school takes up one such non-statutory educational initiative – 'Maths Mastery'. Focusing on early stages of the school's adoption of the initiative, I trace associations of actors which problematize existing practices for the teaching of maths and how the initiative is imbued with authority in relation to these. I argue that the ways in which certain actors – statutory education policy and government funding – associate with the 'optional' initiative reveals a 'back door' control of teacher agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses qualitative data from a survey of Higher Education students, who are also parents, to reveal changing attitudes towards, and perceptions of, education during the pandemic school closures in England. Thematic analysis reveals the stresses of 'homeschooling' and how parents reacted and adapted to these, including adjusting ideas around education. This adaptation mirrors the changing attitudes of parents found in pre-pandemic home education. The paper suggests that post pandemic education could be enriched by taking forward some of these ideas, particularly greater flexibility, personalisation and child autonomy in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational reform in China has brought about many Western educational approaches for teachers to consider as part of their pedagogy. An example of this is the theory of multiple intelligences (MI theory). This paper presents how a theory grounded in a Western context is locally reconceptualised by kindergarten teachers who grew up in a different context. A qualitative case study was selected to investigate seven kindergarten teachers' understandings of MI theory in China. Three methods were employed to gather data; semi-structured interviews, field observations and documentation. Evidence from the three sources were analysed using a thematic approach. This paper reports contextual factors that had an influence on the teachers' understandings of MI theory and thus its implementation, and argues that the introduction of new educational theories or approaches should be grounded in the local context in which the teaching will be embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relevance of physical education for sport to society is promoted by many states in order to achieve its social values, especially health, social inclusion, education and volunteering. For example, Liechtenstein regards sport as a cultural component in society, being perceived as being of public interest. The Czech Republic, Estonia and Hungary emphasize through reforms implemented in the field of education and sports, encouraging young people to watch and take part in sporting events and to be informed about sports regularly. The economic aspects of sport, especially the sustainable financing of sporting activities for all and the elaboration of policies based on concrete elements, can be considered as strategic objectives of the Republic of Moldova. In this context, the adoption of normative acts that will lead to the establishment of a framework of national guidelines on double careers will have the effect of regulating those concrete measures regarding the education, work, health and financial means of athletes. At the same time, ensuring the continuation of physical activity levels and national policies in this area, as well as continuously promoting the regular exchange of information and good practice on the role of physical activities to improve the health of the population, are also objectives that can be Implemented at national level in close synergy and cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how to recognize and understand the education power, what indicators to characterize and monitor the education power, what ways to build education power. Based on the theory of evidence-based education research, this study uses the comprehensive integration method to carry out a systematic analysis. A strong country in education is an education that is based on local education practices and of international standards. It provides comprehensive support for national construction and human development, exerts an all-round influence on education around the world, and plays a leading role in global education. This paper constructs the ontology index, value index, and identity index from the perspectives of ontology, value theory and identity theory of the world, and forms the key index system of education power. To build a powerful country in education, we must deal with several relations, including the mutual promotion relations between education and politics, education and society, education and economy, education, and human beings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across the world, countries have engaged in different iterations of curriculum change, and one of the common denominators of reform is the proposal of more agency for teachers around curriculum making. This is not an easy task for teachers. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the effects that international ERASMUS+ mobilities have had on the power of curricular agency of teachers from two European countries. This work is based on an empirical investigation of a qualitative nature which collected the testimonies of four school headmasters, a deputy principal and eleven teachers from Ireland and Portugal, teaching different curriculum matters, who were involved in the ERASMUS+ programme. Our findings evidence a very positive impact on secondary teachers' capacity to self‐organize and achieve agency in relation to curriculum making by adapting their knowledge and skills, learnt through the mobility, to their own culture and context through collaborative communities of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-external expectations regarding implementation of reforms and innovations often do not lead to successful school improvement processes in schools. To better understand these processes in schools, this paper aims to investigate school improvement processes on a deep level by focusing on cognitive, metacognitive, and motivational regulation strategies used by school teams and by exploring what school-external and school-internal factors are related to this strategy use. Principals, teachers, and specialist teachers (N = 1328) at 59 primary schools responded to an online questionnaire indicating their school's use of regulation strategies on school improvement. Results from descriptive, variance, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that school teams use all forms of school-based regulation strategies but that schools differ significantly in their strategy use. These differences were mainly explained more by school-internal deeper structures (e.g., task cohesion) and less by school-internal surface structures (e.g., school size) and not at all by school-external factors (e.g., governance systems). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a political-economic analysis of policy evaluation. We focus on Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) as a subset of policy evaluations and argue that they are used instrumentally by decision-makers in order to improve perceptions of reforms and help secure policy legacy. We theorize that this 'credibility premium' is more valuable for incumbents in politically polarized societies, which we empirically examine using two methods. First, we provide a series of vignettes of prominent randomized evaluations embedded by governments in policy roll-outs and a detailed case study of the Liberian government's decision to commission a third-party RCT evaluation of a proposed primary school privatization reform. Second, we have compiled a unique cross-country panel data set on RCTs in development policy since 1996, with which we demonstrate that RCTs are more likely to occur in polarized societies, and that the effect is amplified by the degree of political competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the fall of the communist regime, Romania launched the first multi-systemic reform in the education sector in 1995. The reform was largely financed through a World Bank loan and closely followed the neo-liberal ideology promoted by Bank officials. It aimed to privatize and to implement private sector management principles in the public education sector. This paper argues that in order to introduce neo-liberal policy models, the Bank first created a structure of knowledge around the Romanian system of education, which diagnosed it as inefficient and underperforming. Specific representations of domestic institutions, bureaucratic processes, and actors were used to legitimate the forms of intervention proposed and the role of the Bank in internal governance. I argue further that the main stake of the project was reforming governance in education as new mechanisms for power distribution and money allocation were set in place. By manufacturing their role as impartial, apolitical "experts," and by ignoring the political nature of government, they created a niche in governance and imposed neo-liberal understandings in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brian Simon (1915–2002), an influential Marxist historian and educationist in Britain, had been campaigning for comprehensive education from the late 1940s to the 1960s. In the early 1970s, followed by a rapid expansion of comprehensive schools since the issue of Circular 10/65, comprehensive education was under attack by the Conservative government and other conservatives. In the mid-late 70s, along with the conservatives and the New Right, left-wing intellectuals also undermined the public's confidence in comprehensive education. Faced with the crisis in comprehensive education, Simon continued to battle for it by shifting between different roles. Simon was not only involved in politics of education, but also dealt with ideological issues implicit in contemporary educational theories nationally and internationally which caused harm to comprehensive education. Despite this, very little research has focused on Simon's ideas and practice in relation to comprehensive education in the 1970s. Therefore, this paper aims to fill the lacuna. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the impacts of education on women's empowerment in Kenya using six waves of nationally-representative KDHS data. Our study utilizes the change in educational structure in 1985 as an instrument and finds that women under the new system enhanced their schooling by approximately two years. One year of education prolongs women's timing of the first birth, decreases female genital mutilation for the first daughter, reduces intimate partner violence, and improves women's household decision-making. Our findings are robust to several robustness checks. We examined different paths to explain these results, including information exposure, partner matching, and labor market engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using CiteSpace to draw a keyword co-occurrence knowledge map for 1,048 research papers on the quality of higher education from 2000 to 2014 in the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index database, we found that over the past 15 years, research on the quality of Chinese higher education was clearly oriented toward policies, and a good interactive relationship formed between research and policy. Looking at research topics, apart from macrodiscussions of the spirit of several educational reforms, the relevant topics are mainly focused on higher education quality issues in the massification stage, issues of higher education academic management, issues of student cultivation, and issues of ensuring and evaluating higher education quality. Of these, issues of ensuring and evaluating higher education quality have continually been the mainstream of research on Chinese higher education quality, and there has been an increasing trend of emphasizing ensuring internal quality within schools, emphasizing student participation, and evaluating the effectiveness of student learning. Scholars had a renewed focus on the topics of higher education academic management and student cultivation after 2010, and truly improving the quality of higher education will become a future hot topic of study, however there is an urgent need for further study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reflects an effort to consider the history of Albanian education within the context of the country's history. In it, the origin and evolution of Albanian education are described in connection with the country's social and political standing. It is divided into sections, each corresponding to a major historical period in the formation of the Albanian state and intertwined with major reforms in education: education during the Albanian National Renaissance (1830s–1912); education after the Declaration of Independence (1912–1928); education under King Zog (1930s); the 1946 education reform; the 1960s reform, which involved reorganising the system of education for long-term success; and education after the decline of communism in the 1990s and beyond. The paper chronicles how the dawn of the educational system, its organisation and its curriculum were designed to prepare "period-specific" citizens. It is concluded that the roots of the Albanian national education system took hold during the Albanian Renaissance as a necessity of national survival and that the system's development through time is intertwined with the country's constitutional standing, echoing the secret workings of national life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept of time in education. It argues that the neoliberal capitalist construct of time as a resource to be deployed in service of labour—ever-accelerating—has permeated education, with implications for curriculum, teaching, and learning. To slow the effects of neoliberal capitalism in schools requires a reconsideration of time that permits both different understandings of how time is encountered and different values orienting how one spends one's time. Using Hägglund's argument for finitude and Levinas' idea of time as a gift, the paper articulates the philosophical rationale and pedagogical implications for making the most of one's educational time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the endeavour to understand how to think of education 'after progress', viz. in an age in which progress has become problematic, is undertaken by focusing on the theme of time. Dovetailing Klaus Mollenhauer's reflections on the rise of the Bildungszeit at the dawn of modernity with Thomas Popkewitz's analyses of 'cosmopolitan time' presiding over pedagogical reform from the 19th century to the present, I shall, first, explore this temporal configuration of modern schooling (which goes hand in hand with a specific understanding of the child). Against this backdrop, I shall, second, advance an interpretive hypothesis, that of substituting what will be called the 'child-as-migrant' for the 'cosmopolitan child', by appropriating, in an educational key, some insights of Thomas Nail's 'migrant cosmopolitanism'. I shall thereby suggest an alternative view of 'progressivity', construed not along modern-developmentalist lines but as a form of non-conservativeness, linked with a recognition of the ekstatikon (that is, destabilizing) character of time. This will require a revisiting of some Aristotelian intuitions about time as the rhythm of movement , reinterpreted as the affective experience of that ek-statikon without which there is no potential for the new. Accordingly, 'progressive' education (in the different interpretation investigated here) is the concern to allow all of us as 'migrants' to live actively in the abode of our ek-static and unpredictable condition and, therefore, to be vulnerable to the new, without merely remaining in a taken-for-granted ethos, cosmopolitan, inclusive, and progress-oriented though it may be. (Editor's note: This paper forms part of the suite entitled 'Education After Progress'.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will consider James K.A. Smith's proposal for Christian educational reform by examining the historical animating principles and the contemporary embodied practices of Episcopal boarding schools in the United States. Drawing on historical accounts of the early years of Episcopal boarding schools, this paper will surface resonances between Smith's vision for Christian education and the hopes of the first rectors of Episcopal boarding schools. Moving from the founding of these schools to their contemporary configurations, this paper will draw on ethnographic accounts of Episcopal boarding schools to complicate Smith's vision of the formative Christian school. Ethnographic accounts of Episcopal schools offer further support for Smith's cultural liturgies paradigm; at the same time, the concrete realities of Episcopal boarding schools will call into question Smith's convictions regarding the potential for Christian schools to operate counter-liturgically. A consideration of the Episcopal Church's ecclesial mission will demonstrate how it departs from Smith's post-liberal ecclesiology to suggest realistic ways forward in the negotiation of Christian identity and practice in the context of Episcopal boarding schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of quality culture (QC) development in Taiwan which has recently undergone major reforms of quality assurance (QA) policies. The implementation of internal quality assurance (IQA) initiatives has been an indispensable condition to form a QC in higher education which contributes to a fundamental and comprehensive evolution of Taiwanese higher education. To explore the government's policy strategies and transformation of QA approaches, this paper interviews policymakers, QA experts and academics. This paper identifies common features and distinct characteristics of QC in Taiwan's higher education, and its relations to QA mechanisms. These perspectives offer a different way of conceptualising QC in QA policies. Furthermore, QC development has not only served the purpose of enhancing quality in higher education but has also acted as a driver for QA and higher education changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In today's universities, women are still underrepresented in senior leadership positions. The research-focused systems and structures that support the progression of men often work against women who are drawn to alternative career paths within the academy for a variety of reasons. UK universities have seen an increase in teaching-focused career paths as well as 'Third Space' roles, which navigate an increasing space between purely professional and purely academic jobs. Since 2018, four research-intensive universities in the UK have appointed women to the position of PVC Education who have come from Third Space, academic development backgrounds. This paper explores their career paths and experiences and identifies that they have had to constantly navigate between professional and academic contracts in order to negotiate their own progression, thus creating their own space in which they are able to advance. The paper considers whether women in the Third Space end up trapped in a 'glass classroom' or whether a more fundamental political and transformational act in gender and Third Space career progression is emerging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the paper is to analyze and evaluate the demographic development trends in Bulgaria as well as to identify demographically problematic rural areas and the consequences of their development. Based on information from the National Statistical Institute, the demographic processes in the rural areas of Bulgaria for the period 2011-2021 are analyzed. The obtained results show the high rate of population decline in some regions of Bulgaria and the unfavorable values of the coefficients for demographic dependence and replacement. Rural areas of our country are experiencing faster depopulation than cities. This leads to significant territorial disparities in the manifestation of the observed processes. The last part emphasizes the need to implement regional demographic policies aimed at stimulating families with children and reforming professional education. It is also recommended to implement a proactive immigration policy to attract Bulgarians living abroad and immigrants from third countries with the necessary educational and professional qualifications to reduce the negative effects of the labor shortage in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to keep up with the pace of the times, we should infiltrate the output oriented teaching concept into the teaching reform of moral education course, so as to improve students' knowledge ability and moral quality. On the basis of existing scholars' research, this paper expounds the three characteristics of output oriented education concept: learning as the center; emphasizing the integration of learning and application; paying attention to the whole person education. And through the research on the main problems existing in the current moral education curriculum teaching, it is found that the teaching methods are backward, the curriculum is few, and the teaching materials are unrealistic. This has led to the unsatisfactory effect of the moral education curriculum. This paper analyzes the causes of these problems, and uses the method of questionnaire survey to investigate the current situation of moral education teaching in a university in our city. The survey results show that most teachers and students think that moral education course is of great significance, but they are not interested in it. In view of the problems reflected in the survey results, this paper finally puts forward the following suggestions for reference: integrating teaching content, innovating teaching forms; strengthening the construction of teaching staff; effectively connecting the curriculum system and learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically analyzes gap discourses in student learning, starting from the achievement gap, education debt, and opportunity gaps, applying the lens of coloniality, racial-capitalism, and modernity (CRCM). Gap discourses are the prevalent rationale behind educational policies and school reforms globally. Specifically in the United States, achievement gap discourses contribute substantially to the educational framework that minoritized students (students of color) are inherently – intellectually and academically – behind White students. This paper will show the pervasive power of achievement gap discourses and their influence on school policy, practices, and norms. Additionally, we highlight how some of the most formidable achievement gap critiques fail to grasp the power of gap discourses. In some cases, these critiques end up reifying White supremacy ideologies. We propose a decoloniality framework or a layered and multi-disciplinary response to help re-think the entire gap discourses informed by White supremacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The well-being and mental health of principals is being threatened by changing working conditions such as a broader variety of roles and tasks. In this article, we argue that social capital might buffer against declining (mental) health. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential influence of social capital, including both internal (bonding) and external (bridging and linking) social capital, on principals' well-being. A longitudinal study was set up across three waves of data. Questionnaires were collected from 2084 Australian principals and 829 Irish principals, across six and two timepoints, respectively. The hypotheses were tested using a longitudinal path model approach using maximum likelihood estimation in lavaan for R. In line with our hypotheses, the results indicated that principals who reported higher levels of either internal or external social capital also reported higher levels of well-being. More specifically, support from colleagues outside the school and supervisor support (external social capital) and collaboration and trust in management (internal social capital) predicted well-being positively across time. The results of this study highlight the importance of having social support from colleagues and supervisors and possibilities for collaboration to maintain well-being as a school principal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Existing research on loosely coupled educational systems has largely ignored the social and affective dimensions of such systems. Drawing on literature from organizational behavior, this study examines how “human” factors, including role identity dynamics, power dynamics, and stereotyping, shape the implementation of state-led education reforms. Research Method/ Approach: This study draws on interviews and focus groups with 77 actors from different organizational levels in two states and uses a grounded theory analytical approach. Findings: Our findings indicate that stereotyping is ubiquitous across contexts, that the way actors stereotype and perceive each other depends on their positions in the system, and that stereotypes of higher ups often persist even as higher ups are aware of them and try unsuccessfully to mitigate them. We theorize about the reasons for these outcomes and their consequences for efforts at systemic change. Implications for Research and Practice: This study underscores the importance of social and emotional factors in education reform efforts, which have been under-theorized to this point. It demonstrates that reforms could be more successful when higher ups and lower downs have more frequent and meaningful interactions, which facilitate opportunities to break down social and emotional barriers to successful implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that reforms of higher education finance for undergraduates in England introduced by the Blair government in 2006 provided a progressive strategy for achieving the central objectives of higher education of quality (better), access (wider) and size (larger). Reforms in 2012 are a not a strategy but a collection of ad hoc arrangements. They include the good (a higher fees cap, a higher interest rate on student loans, better information and improved support for part-time study), the bad (abolishing most taxpayer support for teaching in the arts and humanities and the social sciences, and raising excessively the threshold at which loan repayments start) and the unspeakable (abolishing Education Maintenance Allowances and AimHigher). The reforms are fiscally costly and hence perpetuate the central problem of capped student numbers, and will not stand the test of time. The concluding section outlines the next White Paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to bring together two seemingly disparate conversations, design and environmental education, with the intent to offer an interesting, new, useful approach to developing educational responses to the climate and ecological crises engendered by the Capitalocene. Beginning with observations on the relevance of design to the creation of alternative futures, we outline results from a six-person year-long research project that led us to identify six principles for guiding eco-social-cultural change: all my relations, abundant time, mystery/unknowability, embeddedness/integration, ancient futures, and (re)creative dissonance. We situate this work within transformative orientations to design, which are shown to parallel critical threads in the environmental education literature. We then extend, rework, and reimagine the six principles by suggesting how they can serve as prompts to assist environmental educators to reexamine and move beyond problematic norms of the Capitalocene in their thinking and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trauma-informed Care (TIC), Restorative Justice (RJ), and Multicultural Education (MCE) are three approaches to school reform widely being discussed and promoted within schools. The authors of this paper, representing the fields of psychology, social work, and education, present an integrated framework that acknowledges the commonalities these three models share, as well as the ways that they complement one another by focusing our attention on different aspects of urban education. We argue that the concept of healing offers a powerful heuristic for systemic school reform — a guide for rethinking how we address pedagogical, disciplinary, curricular, and policy decisions. We are calling for the creation of "healing schools," arguing that, 1) Schools can play a valuable role in promoting healing and well-being among the students and families with whom they engage and 2) Many of our urban schools themselves need healing because they have become systems of toxic environments for adults and youth alike. To address the need for healing in schools, we present a framework promoting four key values: relationships, safety, belonging, and agency. These values are embedded within an ecological perspective, exploring how they manifest at the internal, student, school, and community/society levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australian early childhood education and care [ECEC] has faced a series of change and reform since 2009, including the introduction and later revisions of key curriculum and qualify frameworks, increased qualifications, shifting theoretical knowledge and pedagogies, and challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, early childhood professionals [ECPs] have been confronted with a succession of substantial changes impacting their professional practice. This paper reports on a qualitative, post-structural study identifying workplace and learning discourses as key influences for the reform engagement of eleven ECPs from kindergarten settings in Victoria, Australia. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis [FDA] revealed specific subjective positions and discursive practices among participants. Recommendations are offered to address issues related to the uptake of reform initiatives. It is anticipated that these findings may generate greater opportunities to support our existing, emerging and future generations of ECPs as they lead the transformation of ECEC and transition through complex times of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the openings for educational change enabled by framing inequality through the concept of rights, considering how variations of this framing have emerged historically and in current debates. Taking as our starting point the 1970 publication Rights and Inequality in Australian Education, we suggest that it is important to pay attention to the ways in which rights gain force within social action and through demands made by differently constituted publics. In the 1960s and 1970s, a right to educational equality garnered greater recognition, prompting moves towards needs-based funding and curriculum diversification, led by the Commonwealth Schools Commission. These moves were responsive to social movements that helped to shape new publics. In a second and more politically conservative moment, rights and inequality were increasingly separated in policies influenced by neoliberalism. We argue that the strategies currently adopted by Indigenous scholar-activists are promoting a return to a rights-based perspective, which is distinctive in casting inequality as ontological and epistemic violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Public education reforms, such as expanded school choice, have become a critical lever for remaking urban landscapes. These reforms often aim to attract and retain affluent and White families in urban schools, so scholars have examined how these parents navigate the perceived risk of choosing these schools for their children. Purpose: This paper extends this scholarship to understand how other families experience these reforms in gentrifying landscapes. We ask: (1) How do Black parents navigate school selection in a gentrifying and expansive education marketplace? (2) How do Black parents' perceptions of schooling shape their approach to school selection? (3) How do parents' positionalities (e.g., gender, class, place attachments, and tenure in the city) influence their experiences? Research Design: We leverage a qualitative meta-analysis design that pools data from three separately conducted studies of gentrification in Washington, D.C. For this analysis, we center on 34 Black parents' experiences as they navigate school selection. We reanalyzed data through the lens of critical spatial and racial theories. We paid particular attention to participants' attachments to place, their perceptions of their choices, the school and neighborhood attributes participants valued, and how they navigated school selection. Findings: Parents considered a broad range of school and neighborhood characteristics as they constructed their choice sets. As they searched for schools, Black parents made a series of racialized compromises to find schools they perceived to be racially, physically, and socially safe for their children. Parents, for example, negotiated their desire for academic rigor with their perception of schools' social climates and their perceptions that schools would be racially affirming and inclusive. Place and space were essential to parents' choice set construction. Schools' physical locations and perceptions of safety influenced whether parents viewed schools as viable options for their children. Conclusion: Our study underscores the multiple factors that bound choice set construction. Critically, Black parents' experiences as they navigated school selection suggest that the expansive educational marketplace offered a "chance, not a choice" at high-quality educational opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of multimedia networks and advanced educational tools, there is a growing need for innovative and effective educational systems. To engage students more effectively and enhance learning results, traditional physical education programs have seen a need for modernization. This paper investigates the creation of a cutting-edge video resource platform for physical education to address these issues, revolutionizing the educational process by utilizing micro-videos and multimedia technology. To build the foundation of our platform, we make use of multimedia networks and various kinds of micro-videos. The platform combines the power of real-time conversation, animation, and video to create an immersive learning environment. In addition, we use data-driven adaptive teaching methodologies, which assess student performance and change educational material through individual growth. Our approach begins with collecting data and processing signals, with audio signals serving as the primary input for our watermarking method. To determine masking thresholds across important frequency bands, we compute power spectral density (PSD) using the Fast Fourier Transform. Using watermarking to integrate health data, these thresholds, both tonal and non-tonal, ensure imperceptibility and robustness. In turn, physical education is personalized using integrated data. Health information that has been extracted is carefully incorporated into the curriculum, enhancing it and assisting pupils with a range of medical issues. Our study results show that engagement and learning outcomes have significantly improved. For instance, we noticed a considerable improvement in student satisfaction levels, with an average rise of 25%, and an average increase in learning efficiency of 30% for students. These results highlight the potential of our proposed platform to revolutionize physical education. This work reflects a development in tailored and data-driven instructional approaches in addition to a step forward for contemporary physical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first evidence of the causal relationship between adult children's schooling and changes in parental health in the short and long term. By using supply-side variation in schooling as an instrument for adult children's education and a representative dataset for rural China, we find that adult children' education has a positive influence on the long-term changes in parental health, with limited evidence of any short-term effect. Our results remain consistent after a variety of sensitivity tests. The heterogeneous analyses show differences in socio-economic status and gender, with low-educated parents and mothers being the primary beneficiaries of children's schooling. Potential mechanisms for the long-term effects of adult children's education on changes in parental health include better chronic disease management, improved access to health, sanitation, and clean fuel facilities, improved psychological well-being, and reduced smoking behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the intersection of testing and policy, situating test-driven impact and validation within the context of policy-led educational reform in Korea. I will briefly review the existing validation models. Then, arguing for an expansion of the conventional conceptualization of consequential validity research, I use Fairclough's dialectic–relational approach in critical discourse analysis (CDA), positioned in critical and poststructuralist research tradition, to evaluate social realities, such as intended and actual impact of policy-led testing, I take, as an example, the context of the development of the National English Ability Test (NEAT) in Korea, which had been used as a means of implementing government policies. Combining Messick's validity framework for consequential evidence, Bachman and Palmer's argument-based approach to validation (assessment use argument, AUA), and Fairclough's dialectic–relational approach, I will illustrate how the impact of policy-led testing is performed and interpreted as a sociopolitical and discursive phenomenon, constituted and enacted in and through "discourse." By revisiting the previous Faircloughian research works on NEAT's impact, I postulate that the discourses arguing for and against social impact acquire their meanings from dialectical standpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Education reform in early childhood education in China has often adopted western theories and pedagogies in efforts to facilitate educational change. The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) is an example of one adopted. This paper reports on a study that examined factors that influence Chinese kindergarten teachers' use of MI theory in their pedagogy. The study was a qualitative case study with seven participants from two kindergartens. Multiple methods were used to understand the contexts of these teachers' work, their understandings and practices, and ways that they had become exposed to ideas about MI. A number of influences were apparent in shaping teacher understandings and practices. These influences at times motivated teachers to incorporate MI, but there were also instances where teachers were unsure and confused about MI and struggled to meld it with their existing beliefs and practices based on longstanding Chinese values and pedagogies. The paper argues that if the policy goal of any educational reform is to facilitate teacher change then the introduction of new educational theories or approaches should first be grounded in, and connected carefully with, teachers' practices and, second, take careful consideration of the context in which their teaching will be embedded. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study focuses on the nexus between bilingual education and child labor. • Relationship between bilingual education and child labor is conceptually ambiguous. • Study exploits an education program for indigenous children in Peru. • It uses a difference-in-difference approach. • Bilingual education lowers child labor. This paper investigates the effect of bilingual education reform in Peru on child labor. The reform aimed to improve access to schooling for indigenous children in rural areas with greater integration of education providers and the delivery of lessons and material in vernacular indigenous languages. The core specifications use child-level panel data from the Young Lives Study and a two-way fixed effects difference-in-difference approach to test the causal effect of the program on child labor. The results show evidence to suggest that access to bilingual education has a negative and statistically significant effect on the extensive margin of child labor, with some specifications showing consistent results for its intensive margin counterpart. The preferred estimates are sizeable, with some specifications showing a decrease in the likelihood that an indigenous child enters child labor by between 12 and 18 percentage points. The findings are robust to several specifications including randomized inference techniques, synthetic difference-in-difference, and placebo tests. The paper also shows that concurrent policies, including Peru's conditional cash transfer program, are unlikely drivers of the core results. The paper's findings also suggest that the program resulted in greater inputs (i.e., time) into schooling and improved outcomes of education for indigenous children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]