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This publication presents 10 provocative essays on some of the most pressing challenges facing education over the next decade and beyond. It showcases the work of academic researchers from across Monash University’s Faculty of Education. These are significant issues that will play a large part in shaping the future of education as we know it.

In 2011, the Taiwanese Ministry of Education issued a policy on the internationalisation of schooling. The policy assumes that being ‘international’ has become necessary in order to maintain economic competitiveness in a globalising world. It was published in two languages: Mandarin, the official language in Taiwan, and English, presupposed as a lingua franca. Treating ‘policy as discourse’, the article analyses internationalism and its performativity through the publication and specific textual construction of this policy. The analysis considers the layout, target readerships, conceptual translation, and spatial representation and construction of ‘Chineseness’ in the two policy texts. This attempt at internationalisation is related to the very specific historical and geopolitical conditions of Taiwan and its liminal position in the globe. The significance of the article rests in expanding ideas of ‘translation’ in education policy studies and in the analysis of the specific geopolitics of East Asia. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This paper discusses the contributions to this special issue in the context of the African Renaissance and the subsequent need to re-define educational development from a multilingual, multicultural and pan-African perspective. Each contribution offers a different angle to the discussion: a critique of Arabization in Morocco, with questions about whether a new medium of instruction policy will prioritize people’s own languages or French; an analysis of urban attitudes in Angola toward a new education policy providing for six mother tongues to be used in lower primary; a description of the challenges for stakeholders in the Seychelles to recognize that Seselwa, a creole, can be an acceptable medium of instruction; and an assessment of the opportunities and limitations in South Africa of classroom trans-languaging between African languages and English. A stronger voice needs to emerge on behalf of African languages and ways of knowing.

The author conducted sampling and statistical analysis of papers on education policy research collected by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure in the period from the years 2004–2013. Under ...

This paper is part of a growing body of content under the New Economics banner. It incorporates an analysis based on research and new thinking around the need to reform our education policy and our economic thinking keeping self-sufficiency as a goal. It starts off with some philosophical questions on the meaning of life and highlights the ills of rampant consumerism. It encourages minimalist thinking towards personal gratification. It encourages introspection and spiritual exploration. It encourages a DIY culture and self-sufficiency. In this context, it talks of growing one’s own food using modern/intensive agricultural technologies that are DIY friendly. It also talks of building a house using earth and one’s own labour as a DIY project. It encourages treating self-sufficiency as a right. Towards this, it highlights the changes needed in education policy and economic policy, particularly with regards to agriculture and ruralisation, in the overall context of land-rich countries. The goals are self-sufficiency, sustainability and ultimately a deeper spirituality.

Nationally and internationally equity in education has become a key goal. In Norway, a White Paper has been tabled to address how equity can be improved through education. In this paper the pedagogic and knowledge orientation of the initiatives are analyzed and discussed in relation to two models of equity: “equity through equality” and “equity through diversity.” The paper finds that although contradictions are present, the Norwegian ministry clearly favors the equality model. The author claims that the presented policies can be understood as a response to the global educational trend that Apple refers to as “conservative modernization.” This can further be related to Bernstein's “Totally Pedagogised Society,” where the adaptable, trainable individual is a key notion. The paper concludes that the lack of attention given to the diversity of citizens may be a major shortcoming, as lack of recognition is in many ways what causes educational failure in the first place.

Fair access and widening participation currently occupy a prominent position in the UK higher education agenda, but these terms remain ambiguous. In this paper we identify two prominent strands of policy in the government's approach to access and the widening of participation and contrast these with a third, more progressive perspective. The academic strand seeks to attract ‘gifted and talented’ young people into an unreformed higher education system. The second strand, which we term the utilitarian approach, posits a need for reform. However, this is undertaken largely to meet the requirements of employers and the economy. In contrast, a transformative approach values diversity and focuses on creating a system of higher education that does not place the burden of change upon potential entrants. This framework is used to explore some of the implications of the government's White Paper The future of higher education. First, the purpose of higher education is discussed, with particular reference to the dist...

Research on mutual cooperation among scholars or research institutions has become more and more common. Thepurpose of this paper is to explore the current status of cooperation between scholars and research institutions in thefield of Chinese education. In this paper, we use the method of the complex network to analyze the cooperativebehavior of academic papers published by Chinese educational scholars by collecting academic papers on educationleadership, education policy, quality education, and vocational education. Our conclusions show that most of theacademic papers published by Chinese educational scholars are non-cooperative. In the authors of the co-authoredpapers, there is a significant "Matthew effect", that is, some key scholars in these fields that link the collaborators.Lastly, there is no obvious aggregation effect between the authors of the co-authored papers which indicating awidespread and extensive connection between the collaborators. The above conclusions provide valuable insightsinto our understanding of the cooperative behavior of Chinese education scholars.

To many researchers interested in connecting their research to policy decisions and advocating for increased federal investment in science, the federal policy-making and appropriations processes may feel distant and difficult to navigate. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of the federal budget and legislative processes, as well as an understanding of the congressional offices and committees managing these processes, with information about how policymakers incorporate evidence into their work and the challenges they face. The article describes the policy-making ecosystem, in particular the role of the advocacy community. We identify specific points in the process that provide opportunities for researchers and advocates to weigh in on important issues such as federal funding for science and the scientific workforce. Case studies are provided demonstrating two advocacy successes. Finally, we provide a list of relevant resources.

The purpose of systems approach for better education results (SABER) - equity and inclusion (E and I) is to help countries ensure that all children go to school and learn. This paper is part of a suite of what matters papers published under the SABER initiative. SABER was launched by the World Bank to help governments systematically examine and strengthen the performance of their education systems so that all children and youth can be equipped with knowledge and skills for life. SABER is organized around a dozen different domains that collect data on country policies in education. This paper is about E and I in education systems. The paper first provides a quick diagnostic of where countries stand in terms of E and I; why E and I matters for the eradication of extreme poverty, shared prosperity, and development; and how the SABER E and I domain is structured. Three policy goals are then emphasized for E and I in education and discussed in subsequent respective chapters: (1) establishing an enabling environment and providing resources needed for an education system to be equitable and inclusive; (2) providing general conditions that enable all children to start school ready to learn and remain in school; and (3) ensuring that all children, especially vulnerable groups of children, learn in school.

Y. G.-M. Lulat A History of African Higher Education from Antiquity to the Present: A Critical Synthesis. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2005. xii + 624 pp. Bibliography. Index. $129.95. Cloth. Cati Coe. Dilemmas of Culture in African Schools: Youth, Nationalism, and the Transformation of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. ix + 241 pp. Photographs. Maps. References. Notes. Index. $20.00. Paper Tekeste Negash. Education in Ethiopia: From Crisis to the Brink of Collapse. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2006. 54 pp. References. euro12. Paper. Ali A. Abdi and Ailie Cleghorn, eds. Issues in African Education: Sociological Perspectives New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. xvi + 320 pp. Tables. References. Index. $65.00. Cloth With flourish and fanfare the world met in 1990 and proclaimed education for all. In fact, the idea that universal access to education was in humanity's common interest was embedded in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights - "everyone has the right to education" - but let us concentrate on the recent period. Meeting again in 2000, this time in Dakar, the world's governments, the funding and technical assistance agencies, and major nongovernmental organizations noted that the 1990 objectives had not been achieved and proceeded to reaffirm the commitment to education of good quality for all. Major elements of the education-for-all goals were subsequently incorporated into the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and targets.1 Within independent Africa, expanding access to schools and improving the quality of education have long been prominent national goals. Indeed, broader access to education was both an objective and a promise of Africa's liberation struggles. For both individuals and the society, education was to be the vehicle for constructing the new future, developing the understandings, the skills, and equally important, the attitudes that economic, political, and social transformation required. Schools were to be places where the inequalities and inequities of the colonial past were to be addressed, where imagination, initiative, and achievement would become the primary determinants of selection and promotion. Rapidly spreading throughout the countryside, schools were also symbols of the new government's presenee and accomplishments. As Coe puts it, "the projects of the nation-state and mass education have become inseparable in Africa; providing education is one of the major functions and sources of legitimacy of most national governments" (136). Yet education for all in Africa remains a distant dream. For most, universal access to reasonable quality education remains hard to imagine. Writing about Ethiopia (though the assessment might refer to many other African countries), Tekeste Negash concludes, "the crisis of education, despite phenomenal growth in enrolment, has deepened and the education system is in fact on the verge of collapse" (8). How to make sense of the enormous space between aspirations, assertions, and promises and outcomes? The puzzles here are both complex and important. The common answers - time and lack of resources, that is, poverty - are at best partial. Africa is a continent of imaginative education innovations with dramatic examples of rapid progress. Teaching basic science with no laboratories and few materials. Providing literacy programs in remote rural areas where rains make roads impassable. Linking the school experience to the productive life of the community. Enabling teachers to develop instructional materials and to learn from one another. Insisting that prospective teachers become not simply technicians of schooling but also education researchers and activists. And more. Yet few of those innovations have had a long life or have become part of the national education system. And notwithstanding many years of loudly proclaimed education reforms, new plans, and newer new plans, the education-for-all global monitoring reports regularly show that education in Africa remains sorely troubled (UNESCO 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007). …

(1998). Assertive Discipline and the 1997 Education White Paper: a reply to Rigoni and Walford. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 13, No. 4, pp. 575-579.

Medical education policy in Ireland has enabled an increase in undergraduate and postgraduate education activity in general practice. Internationally, ‘vertical integration in general practice education’ is suggested as a key strategy to support the implementation of this policy development. To review the emerging literature on vertical integration in GP education, specifically to define the concept of ‘vertical integration’ with regard to education in general practice and to describe its benefits and challenges. We searched ‘Pubmed’, ‘Academic Search Complete’, ‘Google’, and ‘MEDLINE’ databases using multiple terms related to ‘vertical integration’ and ‘general practice education’ for relevant articles published since 2001. Discussion papers, reports, policy documents and position statements were identified from reference lists and retrieved through internet searches. The key components of ‘vertical integration’ in GP education include continuous educational pathway, all stages in GP education, supporting the continuing educational/professional development needs of learners at each stage and effective curriculum planning and delivery. Many benefits (for GPs, learners and the community) and many challenges (for GPs/practices, learners and GPs in training) have been described. Characteristics of successful implementation include role sharing and collaborative organisational structures. Recent developments in medical education in Ireland, such as the increase in medical school clinical placements in general practice and postgraduate GP training and the introduction of new competence assurance requirements offer an important opportunity to further inform how vertical integration can support increased educational activity in general practice. Describing this model, recognising its benefits and challenges and supporting its implementation in practice are priorities for medical education in Ireland.

The systems approach for better education results (SABER) - information and communication technology (ICT) policy framework is designed to help policymakers make better informed decisions about how best to use ICTs in pursuit of core developmental objectives in the education sector. It aims to aid and inspire education policymakers as they draft, re-consider, and evaluate key policies related to the use of ICT, especially within the formal education sector at the primary and secondary (K-12) level. The framework was constructed by analyzing and synthesizing policy documents from over 80 countries. The vast majority of these policies relate to formal schooling at the primary and secondary level; related official policy guidance for other parts of an education system, including at the level of early childhood development, technical, and vocational education (TVET) and higher education, as well as pertain to out-of-school and life-long learning, is comparatively rare. While the SABER-ICT framework was constructed through an analysis of national ICT and education policies, it is expected that it may be useful when attempting to analyze and benchmark related sub-regional policies (that is, at the provincial or state level) as well.

The systems approach for better education results (SABER) - information and communication technology (ICT) policy framework is designed to help policymakers make better informed decisions about how best to use ICTs in pursuit of core developmental objectives in the education sector. It aims to aid and inspire education policymakers as they draft, re-consider, and evaluate key policies related to the use of ICT, especially within the formal education sector at the primary and secondary (K-12) level. The framework was constructed by analyzing and synthesizing policy documents from over 80 countries. The vast majority of these policies relate to formal schooling at the primary and secondary level; related official policy guidance for other parts of an education system, including at the level of early childhood development, technical, and vocational education (TVET) and higher education, as well as pertain to out-of-school and life-long learning, is comparatively rare. While the SABER-ICT framework was constructed through an analysis of national ICT and education policies, it is expected that it may be useful when attempting to analyze and benchmark related sub-regional policies (that is, at the provincial or state level) as well.

This framework paper provides an overview of what matters most for school autonomy and accountability. The focus is on public schools at the primary and the secondary level. This paper begins by grounding School Autonomy and Accountability in its theoretical evidence base (impact evaluations, lessons learned from experience, and literature reviews) and then discusses guiding principles and tools for analyzing country policy choices. The goal of this paper is to provide a framework for classifying and analyzing education systems around the world according to the following five policy goals that are critical for enabling effective school autonomy and accountability: 1) level of autonomy in the planning and management of the school budget; 2) level of autonomy in personnel management; 3) role of school councils in school governance; 4) school and student assessment, and 5) accountability to stakeholders. This paper also discusses how country context matters to school autonomy and accountability and how balancing policy goals matters to policy making for improved education quality and learning for all.

Ideas, ideology, and common beliefs that may guide a policy decision-making process are embodied in discourses. Thus, working out the underpinning beliefs and attributes of actors, or – applied to this topic – the driving ideas behind educational policies, involves the analysis of discourses. Yet, though discourses may be the right place to detect ideas and attributes of actors does not mean discourses are confined to specific sources. In fact, every human action involves communication and thereby entails a discourse. Consequently, there is a huge and influential tradition of closely linking discourse theory with social theory, as seen in the works of Foucault, Mouffe, Laclau, etc. In this strand of thought, discourse is understood as a system of social relations and practices (Howarth, Norval and Stavrakakis, 2000, 4).

The year 2005 marked the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Swann Report in the UK. The final report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Education of Children from Ethnic Minority Gro...

(2002). Responses to Ball, S.J. (2001) You've been NERFed! Dumbing down the academy: National Educational Research Forum: 'A National Strategy-Consultation paper' A brief and bilious response in JEP, 16 (3), 265 - 268. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 139-143.

(2001). 'You've been NERFed!' Dumbing down the academy: National Educational Research Forum: 'a national strategy ? consultation paper': a brief and bilious response. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 265-268.

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 presented here is the hearing process held by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research in 2017 prior to the launch of a white paper on quality culture in higher education. The potential coherence between input by stakeholder groups and the quality measures proposed in the white paper is investigated. The theoretical framework comprises the concept of ‘uploading’ borrowed from research on EU policy making and discursive institutionalism to analyse the representation of input by stakeholder groups when they attempt to ‘upload’ their priorities into the white paper. The methodological approach is content analysis of the hearing responses and the white paper. The findings show that stakeholders from the higher education sector and employer groups had a higher degree of coherence with the proposed measures in the white paper, and universities and colleges had a lower degree of input that was represented.

Education and Training: Working PaperTen (WP 10) (Department of Health 1989a) was published in October 1989. It was an integral part of Working for Patients (Department of Health 1989b) and as such was alleged to embrace the same fundamental principles WP 10 may result in the most significant change to nurse education in the UK since the 1949 Nurses Act, with variations in its funding, structure and organisation. Surprisingly, there has been relatively little discussion about this important development within the nursing press The aim, therefore, of this paper is toevaluate WP 10 within the context of the ideology which has underpinned social policy in the last 14 years. Firstly, Conservative Party policy will be explored, then WP 10 itself will then be examined in order to assess how far such principles have been applied to nurse education through its implementation. It is intended that by this process of analysis further understanding will be gained about this policy and its potential consequences for the future of nursing.

A far-reaching discussion is taking place in the United States about the challenges facing higher education and the possible forms postsecondary learning might take in the future. Notwithstanding the strengths of our best research institutions, the shortcomings of many U.S. colleges and universities are significant. There is growing evidence that they need to focus more effectively on student learning, improve completion rates, lower costs, make much better use of technology, boost productivity, improve delivery of instruction for nontraditional students, and take innovations to scale more quickly.To make this happen - and to provide brand-new alternatives to traditional models - a more entrepreneurial approach to postsecondary education is sorely needed. But even as a period of unusual ferment in U.S. higher education gets under way, numerous barriers continue to slow innovation and thwart experimentation, both in traditional institutions and in start-up ventures.In an effort to understand the nature of those barriers and to generate ideas for overcoming them, in December 2011 the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation convened a diverse group of analysts and practitioners for a two-day retreat in Palm Beach, Florida. Participants included Shai Reshef, founder of the University of the People; the management editor of The Economist; the founders of startups 2tor, Inc. and StraighterLine; senior leaders of nontraditional universities such as Olin College and Western Governors University; the president and CEO of Kaplan, Inc.; the directors of education policy at the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for American Progress; and professors who both study and participate in postsecondary reform initiatives.The gathering, part of the Kauffman Foundation’s Law, Innovation and Growth series, was organized into panels addressing six broad themes: Tackling Campus-Level Obstacles to Innovation; Rethinking Accreditation; Streamlining State and Federal Regulations; Improving Incentives to Boost Academic Productivity; Filling Information Gaps about Student-Learning and Job-Market Outcomes; and Overcoming Barriers to Taking Innovation to Scale. The aim was not to limit discussion to these issues, but simply to provide provisional categories that might foster wide-ranging conversation.Each participant prepared a short background paper and presentation linked to one of the retreat’s themes. The resulting essays are collected in this report, organized by theme. (A full list of authors can be found on page 7.) These thoughtful analyses offer a window into how a range of articulate thinkers and doers approach the question of what is wrong with U.S. higher education, and how it ought to be fixed.

The World Bank's policy paper on vocational and technical education and training has been 5 years in the making, during which the Bank has produced a long list of background papers as spin-offs and base materials. These-along with the paper itself, with its long string of referencesare valuable contributions to the rapidly growing international literature on vocational training policies. Its recommendations are packaged as policy options. The order of priority is evident from the sequence in which the options are presented: "Strengthening Primary and Secondary Education," "Encouraging Private Sector Training," "Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency in Public Training," and "Training as a Complement in Equity Strategies." It is, in fact, general education and private-sector training that are given pride of place in this paper.

There is abundant research work in progress on the subject of small enterprises, recognizing it as the backbone of the economy. This sector caters to the largest chunk of employment. But beyond that the small sector contributes to national economy, it prevents concentration of wealth in few hands, harnesses underutilized resources, smooth transition to higher technology, integrates working of large with the small business, (sub contracting), and contributes to major goals such as Balance of Payment stability. But this sector needs an infrastructure of support services. There are some excellent examples of benchmarks of policy initiatives by countries around the world. The purpose of this paper is to review some policies of small enterprises and to use this for designing an indigenous policy. Since Punjab is the hub of small enterprises and is leading through some successful examples of PSIC and PVTC and emergence of cities based on small industries, it was decided by the author to prepare a Punjab specific small enterprises & entrepreneurship development policy. Much of development has taken place without a law or policy directed at small enterprises. Small enterprises are put at 'a fundamental social and economic disadvantage' because of this it has been observed that policy would be fundamental requirement for growth & development of this sector, therefore, an all round view has been taken while preparing this recommendation for the Punjab Government. This paper through its research has recommended the need to bifurcate the PSIC into a Punjab Small Enterprise Development Bank and a Small Business Development Service Provider. It has also emphasized the need for a paradigm shift in education policy toward entrepreneurship education. It has recommended financial policy reforms towards the small enterprise sector lending (Training Prior to Lending). It has also emphasized the need to define small enterprises and to separate the small from the medium enterprise. And finally it has recommended the establishment of the Small Enterprise Hub.

The present position paper claims that language education policy in Europe regarding immigrant minority languages is far from reaching satisfactory results. Despite a tradition of language diversit...

The data set associated with this paper can be found at the following location: 10.17633/rd.brunel.c.4720436 Grammar tests, de facto policy and pedagogical coercion in England’s primary schools. © The Author(s) 2020. Since their introduction by the Conservative government in 2013, primary school children in England have taken a mandated grammar, punctuation and spelling assessment, which places an emphasis on decontextualised, standardised English and the identification of traditional grammatical terminology. Despite some concise criticisms from educational linguists, there remains no detailed and critical investigation into the nature of the tests, their effects on test takers, and the policy initiatives which led up to their implementation. This article contributes to this gap in knowledge, using critical language testing as a methodological framework, and drawing on a bricolage of data sources such as political speeches, policy documents, test questions and interviews with teachers. I discuss how the tests work as de facto language policy, implemented as one arm of the government’s ‘core-knowledge’ educational agenda, underpinned by a reductive conceptualisation of language and a problematic discourse of ‘right/wrong’ ways of speaking. I reveal how teachers talk about the ‘power’ of the tests, intimidating and coercing them into pedagogies they do not necessarily believe in or value, which ultimately position them as vehicles for the government’s conservative and prescriptive language ideologies.

The article is a position paper on inclusive practice in education with respect to students with severe or profound and multiple learning difficulties (sld/pmld). It asks if children and young people with sld/pmld have been excluded from the policy and the practice of inclusive education. A review of the literature found that there is a research gap around inclusive education for learners with sld/pmld, and a review of historical and current practices indicated that this group of learners has indeed been excluded from both the policy and practice of inclusion in the United Kingdom with the use of curricula based on a mainstream linear and academic model reinforcing this exclusion. The study makes a theoretical and practical contribution to the continuing debate about inclusive education and will be of interest to teachers, parents, policy-makers and the learners themselves.

The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996 (hereinafter CRSA) (preceded by the interim Constitution of 1993) ushered in a new legal order which abolished the previous apartheid system and constituted a sovereign democratic state founded on the fundamental values of human dignity, equality and freedom.5 The newly-founded democracy has had a profound impact on the lives of all people in South Africa.

This article examines the English government’s vision for how research is proposed to lead to improvements in the system in the context of a school-led, self-improving system and rapid and sweeping legislative reforms. The debate about the role of research in the teaching profession has been sharpened by a large consultation effort in the academic community. The BERA-RSA inquiry suggests an empowering vision for teachers where research engagement informs practice and a role for schools in providing a ‘research-rich environment’. However, the government’s proposals offer a rather less empowering vision. The author of the paper contrasts a version of research-informed teaching and leadership with one where teachers are supposed to follow and be led by the evidence. The government’s education policy, especially as set out in the 2016 White Paper ‘Educational Excellence Everywhere’ is analysed in relation to this position. Analysis of statements from the document are shown in the paper, and contextual...

This paper revisits the abolition of the colleges of education in England and Wales, specialist providers of teacher training which were effectively eradicated in the years after Margaret Thatcher’s 1972 White Paper Education: A Framework for Expansion. Its central argument is that the way in which change was enacted thereafter represented a significant break with the model of policymaking which had held sway since the end of World War Two. Whilst more far-reaching change would come after Mrs Thatcher’s ‘conversion’ to neo-liberalism later in the decade, the fate of the colleges of education was, I argue, an important if largely overlooked episode in the history of education – especially in terms of violating the collaborative relationship between central government and local authorities which had, until that point, dominated education policy in post-war Britain.

This chapter deals with an analysis of only one aspect of social policy—that is, policy regarding the education and training system. It provides a background for a critical study of the process of education and training policy formation and its application in the period 1994–99. The chapter contains a description of the most important overarching policies of government as these are reflected in the Constitution and in documents pertaining to the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy. It summarizes and comments on the most important education policy documentation and also deals with the skills development policies and strategies of government. The Bill of Rights specifies a number of social and economic rights, including housing, health care, labour rights, and rights in respect of education. One of the most interesting commentaries on the role of the Constitution relative to the goals of education and training is to be found in the White Paper on Education and Training published in March 1995.

Background: International achievement studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have an increasing influence on education policy worldwide. The use of such data can provide a basis for evidence-based policy-making to initiate educational reform. Finland, a high performer in PISA, is often cited as an example of both efficient and equitable education. Finland’s teachers and teacher education have not only garnered much attention for their role in the country’s PISA successes, but have also influenced education policy change in England. Main argument: This article argues that the Finnish model of teacher education has been borrowed uncritically by UK policy-makers. Finnish and English philosophies of teacher preparation differ greatly, and the borrowing of the Finnish teacher education model does not fit within the teacher training viewpoint of England. The borrowed policies, thus, were decontextualised from the wider values and underpinnings of Finnish education. This piecemeal, ‘pick “n” mix’ approach to education policy reform ignores the fact that educational policies and ‘practices exist in ecological relationships with one another and in whole ecosystems of interrelated practices’. Thus, these borrowed teacher preparation policies will not necessarily lead to the outcomes outlined by policy-makers in the reforms. Sources of evidence: Two teacher preparation reforms in England, the University Training Schools (outlined in the UK Government’s 2010 Schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching) and the Master’s in Teaching and Learning (MTL), are used to illustrate the problematic nature of uncritical policy borrowing. This article juxtaposes these policies with the Finnish model of teacher education, a research-based programme where all candidates are required to complete a Master’s degree. The contradictions exposed from this analysis further highlight the divergent practices of teacher preparation in England and Finland, or the disparate ‘ecosystems’. Evidence of educational policy borrowing in other settings is also considered. Conclusions: Both the MTL and the White Paper reforms overlook the ‘ecosystem’ surrounding Finnish teacher education. The school-based MTL contrasts with the research-based Finnish teachers’ MA. Similarly, the University Training Schools scheme, based on Finnish university-affiliated, teaching practice schools, contrasts heavily with the rest of the White Paper reforms, which contradict the philosophies and ethos behind Finnish teacher education by proposing the move of English teacher preparation away from the universities. The analysis highlights the uncritical eye through which politicians may view international survey results, looking for ‘quick fix’ options instead of utilising academic evidence for investigation on education and education reform.

The authority of the nation states and their capacity to govern their education policy has been reconfigured by the processes of globalisation. This paper examines recent education policy in Pakistan in order to reveal the nature of national authority in education policy-making in a challenging context. The central piece of analysis is the pre-policy text issued by the Ministry of Education, Pakistan — the White Paper. This analysis is further supported through interviews with senior policy actors and other significant policy texts. The paper identifies several tensions caused by the interaction of global and national education policy priorities and explores how the national government of Pakistan seeks to expand its SoA through ‘soft’ governance approaches despite the material and financial constraints within which it operates.

The 2011 the Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability v Government of The Republic of South Africa case flagged a lot of issues faced by persons with disabilities relating to access to education in South Africa. The case tackled certain perceptions about the ineducability of persons with profound and severe disability and the remaining charity-oriented perception by the South African Department of Basic Education. While the court made several important points in advancing universal access to education, the author argues that certain holes in the judgment hinders the existence of judicial finding truly infused with concerns of substantive equality. An example of this short-coming is the court's consideration of reasonableness when the right to basic education is an immediately realisable right. The author also argues that the South African developments in education policy for persons with disability, while positive, is insufficient to truly give effect to substantive equality – the claim to equality being made in the new constitutional dispensation. There is still an attitude that is too permissive of separating students based on abilism. The social model of thinking about requires a complete transformation of the education system that would not require a classification of learners by abilities but have a different constitution so as to accommodate all students and not unduly enable one group over another. The author considers the approaches from Canada and India to explore its responses to education for students with varying levels of ability. Canada's similar conception of equality and India's influence on South African constitutionalism and shared experience with massive equality gaps make these jurisdictions instructive.Keywords: disability; Western Cape Forum for Intellectual Disability v Government of The Republic of South Africa; substantive equality; Education White Paper 6: Special Needs Education; White Paper 6; Right to Education; Integrated National Disability Strategy; special schools; special needs; separate schools; profoundly and severe disability; Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; transformative equality; comparative; India; Canada –Newfoundland; Eldridge v British Columbia (Attorney General); reasonable accommodation