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At a time when there are renewed expressions of concern about how our societies are organised and the health of our democracies, this paper focuses on the role of education in a democracy. Informed by John Dewey's and Martin Buber's accounts of what it is to be educated, and Homi Bhabha's concept of third space work, the paper presents the case for a progressive education for democratic citizenship. Adopting an ethnologically-informed approach, the paper provides an in-depth look at two Catalan and two English schools, focussing on the ways in which they look to provide a democracy enabling education. The findings reveal how and why mutual cooperation, collaboration and dialogue in relationships are key elements in the modelling of an education for democratic citizenship.

A sizeable literature -- spanning education, sociology and economics -- has investigated the issue of parental school preferences and school choice. A notable gap in the existing evidence base is an exploration of how such preferences differ between mothers and fathers. We present new cross-national findings on this matter, drawing on survey data collected from more than 300,000 parents across 25 countries. Our findings suggest that mothers rate the school environment -- whether the school is safe and has a pleasant atmosphere -- to be more important than fathers. Differences are also observed with respect to the school's reputation and whether it has a high level of achievement. Clearer evidence of such differences emerges for industrialised Western nations than for countries that are not members of the OECD. In most countries, mothers' and fathers' preferences do not vary substantially between sons and daughters.

During the last decade, there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of Syrian asylum seekers, including forced displaced academics (FDAs), in Turkey. Along with providing essentials, there is the issue of social integration for these people. To efficiently deal with this problem, Turkish authorities have developed both educational policies and some legal arrangements to accommodate the employment process for FDAs. This study aims to investigate Turkey's higher education policy for FDAs by examining the lived experiences of these academics based on political, social, and cultural dynamics. The findings illustrate major themes surrounding the academic identity of FDAs and what distinguishes them from other international academics, as well as their experiences in the Turkish higher education system, and the challenges they have faced. The study provides important implications for the purpose of generating effective policies and practices regarding the successful integration of FDAs into the higher education system both in Turkey and worldwide.

Comparative higher education is arguably lagging behind its sister field of comparative education. It has been developed more recently, lacks in institutional structure, its intellectual debate is marginal, and its political construction is incomplete. Yet, despite the pitfalls of comparative higher education research, this article argues that higher education would benefit highly from a strong and united field of comparative studies, built around a community of comparatists. A strong comparative research field in higher education would serve incredibly well in a sector that is highly internationalised, helping develop theories and conceptualisations, as well as methodologies. It would help strengthen research and further our understanding of higher education at all levels -- global, international, and local.

In many developed countries over the past two decades, there have been new standards, new monitoring systems, new course and fieldwork requirements for teacher candidates, new accreditation criteria, and/or new auditing procedures for colleges and universities that offer initial teacher preparation programmes. However there has also been enormous variation among accountability policies, initiatives, and approaches as well as an array of competing claims about their efficacy and impact in teacher education. This article suggests that accountability, on its own, is neither good nor bad, but rather depends on the larger policy and political agendas to which it is attached, how it is used, the goals, values, and purposes it serves, and the assumptions it makes about who should be accountable for what, to whom, and for what purposes. The article introduces the concept of intelligent professional responsibility as part of an alternative to dominant, audit-based accountability models in teacher education. Then the article explores the meaning and instantiation of this concept with examples of recent accountability developments in two interesting, but different policy, professional, and geopolitical contexts -- the United States and Norway.

Increasing the supply of qualified teachers is a priority in many nations as a prerequisite to accomplishing UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" by the year 2030. Questions remain however concerning definitions and measurement of the intended global indicators. In this article, I argue that the work of the comparative research community has the potential to inform and enrich UNESCO's SDG 4 indicators agenda concerning teachers, but this would require moving from a focus on easy to measure indicators such as teacher qualifications to more meaningful and valid indicators such as teacher qualities, and the quality of their education -- a neglected area in the SDG 4 targets. Using evidence from two cross-national studies of mathematics education I propose that engagement with comparative education research may help to re-imagine a sustainable and high-quality teaching-and-teacher education project globally.

Countries regarded as holding high levels of educational autonomy face a different set of constraints to that of countries with low levels of autonomy, these constraints being linked to the marketisation of schools. As schools become decentralised and given greater autonomy, school leaders are steered by a responsibilising framework that includes bureaucratic regulation, the discourses and practices of competitive enterprise, and external public accountability measures. This paper contrasts data gathered from school teachers and senior leaders from one high autonomy, high accountability context, England, with one low autonomy, low accountability context, Turkey. Through a process of semi-structured interviews with teachers and senior leaders, we investigated approaches to managing change. Responses revealed differences between countries with very different systems of accountability and the degree of autonomy available to staff. We also found that there were significant similarities in terms of the attitudes and pressures experienced by teachers and senior leaders that raise questions for our understandings and application of notions of teacher autonomy and accountability.

Previous research suggests that knowledge in different subjects varies in terms of objectivity and 'granularity' (division of knowledge content into smaller chunks). It has also been suggested that subject objectivity and granularity vary across different educational systems, due to resource differences. This study measures knowledge objectivity and granularity manifested in school-leaving assessments across nine subjects and two educational systems--China and England. While previous studies have investigated assessments using vague operationalisations such as 'essay' or 'short answer' questions, this study presents a ratio variable to measure granularity: the implied time allocated to individual items. Objectivity is operationalised by coding the item scoring guides as consisting of entirely response content and thus being objective, or as including descriptive content and thus being subjective. It is found that, across both educational systems, STEM subjects have finer granularity and higher objectivity. China assesses with finer granularity and higher objectivity than England (except in mathematics, where granularity is similar and all items objective). England shows significantly greater variation in both variables. The findings offer empirical corroboration of claims about inter-subject differences across different national contexts. They suggest that finer granularity, higher objectivity, and less variation are adopted to cope with resource constraints.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an important cross-national study of 15-year-olds' academic knowledge and skills. Educationalists and public policymakers eagerly await the tri-annual results, with particular interest in whether their country has moved up or slid down the international rankings, as compared to earlier rounds. In 2015 a major change was implemented in PISA, with the introduction of computer-based assessment. This has the potential to reduce comparability of PISA test scores across countries and over time. We investigate this issue using PISA 2015 field trial data for three countries: Germany, Sweden, and Ireland. We show how, if left unaccounted for, the change to computer-based testing could limit the comparability of PISA test scores. We then describe the methodology the study organisers have used to account for such mode effects. Our key conclusion is that although the adjustment made is unlikely to overcome all the potential challenges of switching to computer-based tests, it represents an improvement over the alternative of making no adjustment at all.

This paper seeks to contribute to recent comparative discussions about the shift of traditional referential points as a result of new global governance by the OECD through PISA. In doing so, the authors investigate whether the lower PISA rankings of the US have resulted in the shifting of its referential status in South Korea. For the purposes of analysis, media representation of US education in South Korea is analysed by using two disparate newspapers from two time periods: three years before the first PISA release in 2001 and three years after 2009. This paper uses media discourses as primary data, but it also considers other complementary data such as policy documents and government policy statements on education. Recently, global governance through comparative data has become more significant, but the results of this study suggest that one should be careful about oversimplification. The results of this study imply that the pattern of external referencing in media representation hinges on historical, political, and cultural experiences rather than purely evidence-based discourses, at least in the case of South Korea.

It has been widely documented that accountability systems, including school inspections, bring with them unintended side effects. These unintended effects are often negative and have the potential to undo the intended positive effects. However the empirical evidence is limited. Through a European comparative study we have had the rare opportunity to collect empirical evidence and study the effects (both intended and unintended) of school inspections (a key system of accountability) in a systematic way, across seven countries. We present the findings of the unintended effects in this paper. Survey self-report responses from school principals in each country, with differing school inspection systems, are analysed to measure the prevalence of these unintended effects and to investigate the part played by pressure to do well in inspections. A key finding is that increasing pressure in school inspection systems is associated with the undesired effect of the narrowing and refocusing of the curriculum and instructional strategies. We also show that a proportion of school principals admit to misrepresenting the school in data sent to the inspectorate and show evidence for formalisation/proceduralisation (excessive focus on records) and ossification (fear of experimentation in teaching), although these factors are less related to changes in pressure.

This paper examines the positioning of the Welsh education system within contemporary policy debate and analysis. It begins by outlining some of the ways in which education policy and provision in Wales differs from that of its neighbour, England, and then goes on to critique how these differences have been represented in both the media and by members of the educational research community. Indeed, the paper argues that these representations constitute a form of misrecognition. It is tempting to counter this misrecognition with assertions of the superiority of the "Welsh way"--and certainly pronouncements of a "crisis" in Welsh education appear to be as much politically-driven as evidence-based. However, such an approach would underplay the very real challenges that face Wales--challenges which are both like and unlike those facing England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The paper concludes that we need a serious engagement with national divergences across the four nations of the UK--as well as elsewhere. The case of Wales highlights the need to undertake not only comparative analysis but also "relational" analysis if we are to enhance our understanding of the changing politics of education.

The ways in which examination standards are conceptualised and operationalised differently across nations has not been given sufficient attention. The international literature on standard-setting has been dominated by the psychometrics tradition. Broader conceptualisations of examination standards have been discussed in the literature in England, which has curriculum-related examinations at the end of schooling. There has, however, been little analysis of conceptualisations of examination standards in Scotland. Different education systems and examinations operate in Scotland and England, and the stated value positions and processes relating to examination standards differ markedly. This paper critically examines policy positions on assessment standards in Scotland and England through the lens of recent theories of standard-setting. By analysing public statements on standards, the paper illuminates similarities and differences in conceptual bases and operational approaches, and examines the effects of these on outcomes for candidates. We conclude that both systems are operationalising attainment-referencing, but with different processes in Scotland and England and these practices do not fit within previous examination standards classifications. As such, the paper moves examination standards theory forward by concluding that there is at least one superordinate definitional category that draws upon more than one definitional stance.

This paper examines the roles of research in teacher education across the four nations of the United Kingdom. Both devolution and on-going reviews of teacher education are facilitating a greater degree of cross-national divergence. England is becoming a distinct outlier, in which the locus for teacher education is moving increasingly away from Higher Education Institutions and towards an ever-growing number of school-based providers. While the idea of teaching as a research-based profession is increasingly evident in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, it seems that England, at least in respect of the political rhetoric, recent reforms and explicit definitions, is fixed on a contrastingly divergent trajectory towards the idea of teaching as a craft-based occupation, with a concomitant emphasis on a (re)turn to the practical. It is recommended that research is urgently needed to plot these divergences and to examine their consequences for teacher education, educational research and professionalism.

A commonsense problematic positions comparative researchers as either inside or outside cultures, or their situation is considered so as to acknowledge cultural fluidity and fragmentation. This article rejects the objectivism of these positions to provide a relational account. Using the lens of social practice theory, comparative pedagogy is analysed and a case study provided, where pedagogy is described as a socially situated phenomenon and research on pedagogy as a contested field. Three relations are examined: researchers to pedagogy in processes of data generation; researchers to theories of and empirical research about pedagogy in processes of analysis; and theories of and empirical research about pedagogy to pedagogy in processes of validation. Methodological insights into the status, legitimacy and limitations of research findings are discussed, and a view of comparative pedagogy as craft apprenticeship is presented.

The work of John Furlong on school and classroom ethnography is located in its context and its achievements celebrated. The paper focuses on class, ethnicity and gender issues as it explores the changes and continuities in the ethnography of education over the 66-year period covered. The qualities of a good ethnographer are playfully compared to those of the African-Caribbean trickster figure Anansi used by Furlong in an early article. Looking back to 1954 and forward to 2020, the key themes found in the qualitative research on schools and classrooms in the UK and the USA are compared and contrasted.

This article concentrates on the policy reforms of schools in England, Germany, France and Italy, from 1988 to 2009, with a focus on the introduction of market accountability. Pressing demands for organisational change in schools, shaped by the objectives of "efficiency" and competition, which were introduced in England in the 1980s, have been adopted in other European countries, albeit at a slower pace and within the continuing need for domestic institutional conformity. How does the increasing predominance of market accountability in state schools change traditional bureaucratic and professional accountability relationships between politicians, managers, professionals and users? The article argues that despite some evidence of convergence between different education systems, England remains the outlier and continental European countries have been much more reluctant to adopt choice and competition policies. (Contains 4 tables and 7 notes.)

This paper examines the intellectual and professional contribution of comparative and international studies to the field of education. It explores the nature of the challenges that are currently being faced, and assesses its potential for the advancement of future teaching, research and professional development. Attention is paid to the place of comparative and international education (CIE)--past and present--in teacher education, in postgraduate studies, and in the realms of policy and practice, theory and research. Consideration is first given to the nature and history of CIE, to its initial contributions to the field of education in the UK, and to its chief mechanisms and sites of production. Influential methodological and theoretical developments are examined, followed by an exploration of emergent questions, controversies and dilemmas that could benefit from sustained comparative analysis in the future. Conclusions consider implications for the place of CIE in the future of educational studies as a whole; for relations between and beyond the "disciplines of education"; and for the development of sustainable research capacity in this field. (Contains 1 note.)

The article is a comparative analysis of the policy and practice of professional learning communities (PLCs) in primary schools in England and Finland. The concept of PLC has become a globally fashionable one and has been explicitly advocated in policy documents in both countries. Drawing from a database of qualitative semi-structured interviews with primary teachers, four key themes affecting their work and well-being are identified: the primary school community; collaborative working; continuing professional development and trust and accountability. The realities of PLCs as experienced by primary teachers in each country are contrasted. Similarities in teachers' responses were found, especially in examples of education policy borrowing. However, the different cultural contexts in each country resulted in some fundamental differences that strongly influenced the nature of, and possibilities for, school PLCs. While ideal notions of PLCs may be difficult to realise, it is argued that it is an important concept worth developing for its potential contribution to teacher well-being.

Heated discussions about the comparability of standards between examination subjects have kept Qualification Authorities, Testing Services, independent researchers and academics around the world busy for many years. As a result, many countries have adopted statistical techniques which aspire to make aggregated scores based on different subjects comparable. This paper presents eight international case studies and highlights the criticisms against the statistical comparability methods. The side-effects (problems) they may have sparked in various countries are discussed in length. The author maintains the view that the Gordian knot in this case is not statistical: it is one of perceived unfairness. The Qualification Authorities and the Testing Services should step forward and explain to the stakeholders what can be done and what cannot be done using statistical techniques. Once the stakeholders accept the limitations of any statistical technique, it will be easier for them to strike a balance between the desire for comparability and the need to democratically allow students to choose their own combination of subjects to study. The psychometricians should not be forced to apply statistical solutions to complex problems caused by political decisions; they are more likely to fail than to succeed. (Contains 1 figure.)

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo-Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed "social problems" according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio-politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the "democratisation of education" in France and Israel. (Contains 8 notes.)

The totally unusual experience of participating in the writing of "The University and the Teachers: France, the United States, England" is recalled here by one of the co-authors. This was a collective enterprise, under the direction of Harry Judge, and the other members of the team were two American researchers, Lynn Paine and Michael Sedlak. The book was conceived as a cross-national comparison, and the authors agreed to exercise their "expert ignorance". This writer was, as a result, invited to observe and interpret the American situation, while Harry Judge wrote the chapters on France.

This paper reports on a case study of the London Education Authority of Barking and Dagenham's borrowing of Swiss educational practices, and the implementation and internalisation of those foreign practices in the teaching of mathematics in primary schools. The study employs analytical frameworks that might be used by policy makers or researchers looking at "borrowing" educational practices and policies from elsewhere to use at home. The significance of context (e.g. social, economic, political and demographic) is highlighted, both in the process of educational borrowing and in the implementation of these ideas to improve education at home. In conclusion, the paper reflects upon "best practices" and strategies that might serve as lessons to others. (Contains 3 figures and 10 notes.)

The notion of policy "borrowing" in education has been a consistent theme in comparative inquiry in education from the early decades of the 19th century. While there were many countries that benefited from adopting the educational policy of other countries, there has been many cases wherein such action has earned a lot of negative feedback. One such example is the German educational policy, which had been adopted positively and negatively by other countries over the past two hundred years. In the light of this trend, a country in the process of adopting other nation's policy faces the question of whether adoption of another's policy could actually solve its own educational problems. In this article, the author examines the advantages and the disadvantages of educational policy adoption by citing several studies made on the subject. (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper examines the ways in which the results of the OECD Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA) have influenced educational discourse in Germany. It argues that the results caused shockwaves in the educational landscape and led to a re-evaluation of other international comparisons which had presented an unfavourable picture of education in Germany. The paper outlines three main areas affected by the reception of the PISA study in Germany: political discourse, curriculum development processes and academic discourse on education. Changes in the political discourse resulted in a wide-ranging reform agenda, with the introduction of national educational standards being the most significant of a number of initiatives and programmes. In terms of curriculum development processes, the paper argues that PISA has led to the growing importance of principles such as outcome control, competence orientation and external assessment. The post-PISA academic discourse in Germany can be characterised by the re-orientation of educational studies towards a greater emphasis on the empirical research of pedagogic practice ("empirische Unterrichtsforschung"). All three areas of change are informed by more or less systematic comparisons with educational structures in other countries and, therefore, it is argued that PISA has contributed to a rediscovery of comparative education in the German discourse. (Contains 10 notes.)

This article suggests that the academic field of study called comparative education must always deal with the intellectual problems produced by the concept of context (the local, social embeddedness of educational phenomena) and transfer (the movement of educational ideas, policies and practices from one place to another, normally across a national boundary); and their relation. Considerable progress has been made, but these intellectual issues have not yet been fully sorted out despite the normal optimism--and the very powerful legitimation motif in the history of the field of study--about its "usefulness": the special value of comparative education as a way of improving educational policy. The article suggests that the ideology of usefulness in the history of comparative education has helped to permit a whole range of intellectual, quasi-intellectual, and rather practical activities to be gathered together under the umbrella name, "comparative education" to the point where serious epistemological, ethical and political confusions are occurring. The article concludes by suggesting that it may be time for some fresh thinking about the intellectual shape of comparative education and its relations to educational policy. What are some of the simple questions which might help to clarify an agenda of possibilities?

This paper examines the work in education of Michael Sadler (1861-1943). It covers his early years in Oxford, his time as director of the Department of Special Inquiries and Reports, his periods as professor of education in Manchester and as vice-chancellor in Leeds, and his return to Oxford as Master of University College, and it assesses the significance of his contribution to the early development of comparative studies in education and its continuing relevance. (Contains 6 notes.)

Investigates the views of 18-year-old students in international schools with a view to identifying key features of such an education from the student perspective. Compared responses with those from six European Schools. Notes limitations to the results. Includes a copy of the questionnaire employed. (DSK)

Explores the link between the established tradition of a nation's vocational training system and the specific pattern of state or government involvement in the process of skill formation. Maintains that the German government's participation in quality control and selective admission is limited and offset by other factors. (MJP)

Discusses a comparative study of elementary school teachers in England and France that preceded the implementation of the National Curriculum in English schools. Reports differences in teaching methods, classroom organization, and teacher student relationships between the two countries. Concludes that greater focus on professional autonomy by English teachers may present problems in increased centralization. (DK)

Explores the utility of the construct, compensatory legitimation, for the comparative study of curriculum policy. Demonstrates the limits of existing compensatory strategies for explaining the curriculum policy of Zimbabwe. Applies the construct to postcolonial states. Argues socialist curriculum policy supports the legitimation of the state in postcolonial societies. (DB)