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In this polemical piece, we begin by arguing that the Schools White Paper (2022) is framed within, and seeks to promulgate, a right-wing 'regime of truth'. We interrogate the vocabulary of the Paper to reveal and challenge its 'truths' -- about the curriculum and its 'delivery'; the testing and examination regime; behaviour; and initial teacher education and the associated pedagogy. We then argue that the requirement for all schools to join 'strong' multi-academy trusts (MATs) is an intimate part of this agenda, not an optional add-on: the Department for Education employs MAT CEOs in every part of the system; MATs operate autocratically; and there is no local democratic control and no local accountability to communities, parents or children. All this reinforces and leaves unquestioned the centralised governmental control of schooling. We end with a call to fight to establish an alternative 'regime of truth' based on respect, reciprocity and democracy.

This paper explores the extent to which latest developments in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in South Africa respond to key principles espoused for a developmental, democratic and inclusionary ideal. The White Paper for post school education and training approved by Cabinet in November, 2013 is referred to by the Minister as the "definitive statement of the governments vision for the post school system" and as such represents a crucial strategy document intended to chart the TVET direction to 2030. Using key theoretical constructs from development theory, this paper provides an assessment of the TVET strategy contained is the paper and explores the extent to which it does respond to the agenda defined by the promise. It is argued that the challenges outlined are not yet able to provide the blueprint for a TVET transformative vision. It is concluded that while the development rhetoric contained in the paper is plausible, the creative tinkering of the system is unlikely to lead to the radical revisioning necessary for a truly transformative TVET system. The underlying assumptions regarding purpose, impact and outcome will need to be carefully reconsidered if the system is to be responsive to the promises of the democratic developmental ideal to which the government is committed.

This paper explores the extent to which latest developments in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training System in South Africa respond to key principles espoused for a developmental, democratic and inclusionary ideal. The White Paper for post school education and training (DHET, 2013) approved by Cabinet in November, 2013 is referred to by the Minister as the "definitive statement of the governments vision for the post school system" (DHET, 2013, p.4) and as such represents a crucial strategy document intended to chart the TVET direction to 2030. Using key theoretical constructs from development theory, this paper provides an assessment of the TVET strategy contained is the paper and explores the extent to which it does respond to the agenda defined by the promise. It is argued that the challenges outlined are not yet able to provide the blueprint for a TVET transformative vision. It is concluded that while the development rhetoric contained in the paper is plausible, the creative tinkering of the system is unlikely to lead to the radical revisioning necessary for a truly transformative TVET system. The underlying assumptions regarding purpose, impact and outcome will need to be carefully reconsidered if the system is to be responsive to the promises of the democratic developmental ideal to which the government is committed.

This paper examines how public education can ensure equity and diversity by clarifying the "democratic aspects" that can be captured through school-community collaborative activities in Japan and the U.S. As a result of comparison and analysis, it is indicated that in both Japan and the U.S., these activities are conducted in the context of streamlining educational administration. In addition, the participation in school management of diverse people such as local residents, parents, and children is promoted in order to grasp their needs and achieve deliberation on an equal footing. In contrast to Japan, however, these activities in the U.S. put importance on providing health and educational services to disadvantaged families and children. Furthermore, they aim to change not only schools but also communities. Therefore, this paper suggests that "democratic aspects" encompassed by collaborative activities have multiple layers: (1) "compensatory-type" (status-quo satisfaction -oriented democratic aspects), (2) "participatory-type" (deliberation-oriented democratic aspects), and (3) "transformative-type" (status-quo change-oriented democratic aspects). In order to guarantee equity of education that ensures fairness and inclusion to all children, this paper clarifies the importance of having both activities that distribute educational and welfare services on a curve to disadvantaged children and families (compensatory-type) and activities that involve children themselves in the practice, leading to the transformation and creation of the world (participatory and transformative type). The types of activities described above do not necessarily set the transformative-type as the ultimate goal. The three types interact together and pave the way toward a democratic and equitable education that is open to all and respects the voices of minorities.

Mission statements and public statements of values are widely recognized as important for educational improvement, even if often ignored. The mission statements and supporting documents of Utah's 41 school districts were analyzed to locate prominent themes and significant omissions. An unexpected and disturbing neglect of democratic citizenship aims was found. Recognizing democracy is a complex educational ideal, the author argues for refocusing mission aims on the distinctive qualities of democracy as a way of life to be lived in schools by identifying for both modeling and practice across the curriculum the distinctive manners of democracy beginning with but moving beyond voice and listening.

The international business press has been a powerful and influential voice in modern societies and, as its formative years took place during the Cold War, a closer look at the ideologies that were promoted in this part of the press is of interest. Until the 1970s, Farmand was the only Norwegian business magazine of any size and standing. Trygve J. B. Hoff, Farmand’s editor from 1935, was part of the Mont Pèlerin Society (MPS), a neoliberal intellectual collective established in 1947 with participants such as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. This article is a study of the ideas that Hoff promoted, particularly in Farmand, from the 1940s to the 1970s.

A large and growing body of literature has attempted to devise discussion frameworks for school education. However, conceptualizing deliberation able to appreciate the expression of socially disadvantaged people has received relatively little attention. Since the voices of culturally and linguistically depreciated populations would disappear in the institutionalized deliberation process, this paper aims to extend the meaning of democratic deliberation capable of putting forward marginalized accounts. The paper proposes and builds a temporal speech stage named 'generating deliberation' on which superiority-based claims can weaken through 'expressive speech' anchored in the democratic value of equality. The paper also addresses how expressive speech requires truth-telling based 'mindful speech' as a basis for the democratic value of freedom and a more attentive dialogue of generating deliberation. The article first explores divergent assumptions associated with democratic deliberation and their potential dilemmas in foregrounding socially marginalized people. Next, it examines the concept of critical awareness put to work through Rancière's ideas of dissensus and equality, followed by Foucault's parrhesia and freedom. Whilst navigating the magnitude of freedom and equality, the paper theorizes generating deliberation as an expressive/mindful conversation that illuminates the socially invisible. The process of generating deliberation would ultimately enrich deliberation participants' formative experiences of democracy and education.

This article critically examines the Labour Party's policies for local school systems, focusing on its proposals for regional Directors of School Standards, for academies and free schools, and for local democracy, and offers an alternative approach.

This paper advocates for the integration of the 'sociological imagination', as proposed by the sociologist C. Wright Mills, into pedagogical practices to foster inclusive and democratic classrooms. Departing from narrow evidence-based approaches, it explores how the sociological imagination connects personal experiences with broader societal structures, enhancing critical thinking and social awareness among students. Practical strategies for implementation across diverse subjects are discussed, emphasising its potential to empower school-age students as agents of social change amidst contemporary challenges.

The aim of this paper is to bring together concepts and commitments from both liberal and queer theories with the purpose of designing an integrated framework for equity-focused education policy analysis and implementation. In essence, we aim to build a conceptual bridge between queer and liberal democratic theories and to develop what we call a "queer democratic framework" for policy analysis and implementation. We use the case of the Fair Accurate Inclusive and Respectful Education Act (FAIR) throughout this paper as an exemplar of how queer policy analysis and implementation change the terms of the policy discussion. We argue that as an example of a policy that comes out of liberal democratic theory, FAIR can only go so far. It is symbolic and positive, but cannot reach emancipatory aims in practice without queer analysis and implementation.

This paper will argue that resettled refugees' experience of failed citizenship in the United States is actually a bellwether for the challenges of democratic community for all citizens. A primary challenge is the political paradox of forming a community that is heterogeneous, yet is committed, connected, and has the capacity to work together across differences. This tension is often exacerbated by the poor civic education programs that teach stagnant models of citizenship and portray a false unity in civic narrative and experience in the classroom. The paper will then present Emmanual Levinas' concept of the Other and John Dewey's conception of the public as ways to reframe our responsibility to and capacity to work with fellow citizens in diverse democratic communities while also not demanding assimilation or erasure. It will then recommend using experiential learning and Beista's 'community of those who have nothing in common' to reframe civic education in the classroom to combat failed citizenship in all citizens, whether native born or just arrived.

Based on Foucault's concept of the dispositive, the paper attempts to show how societies and schools have been functioning for some time now by regulating three dispositives: juridical, disciplinary, and security. While the crises of the 1970s shifted the combination of dispositives in education in the West towards security, this shift in the rationality of education policy and practice did not occur in Slovenia until the 1990s, following the broader political transition to democracy and a market economy. The paper aims to present these shifts through the structuring of quality assurance mechanisms in education in Slovenia in the previous two decades. First, the concept of quality assurance is presented as part of a broader change in society and education. This is followed by analyses of the dynamics of the conceptualisation, implementation, and regulation of quality assurance in education in Slovenia. Complementarily, following Bourdieu's approach, seven interviews with experts from the field of quality assurance are presented, with the aim of reflecting on the past and shedding light on the current state of affairs in quality assurance in education in Slovenia.

This paper considers what decolonizing film education might mean through a series of research initiatives undertaken across different cultures which explore social media platforms for creating moving image sequences. The paper attends to three factors in the current climate of education: the accessibility of the medium, its immediacy in dissemination, and the democratizing effect that these conditions have had on the medium of film. Working with these three conditions in contemporary film education, the case studies described include workshops that aimed to shift the curriculum from film canons to proposing the introduction of concepts. Furthermore, elided histories are explored through site-specific projects that show how decolonial processes allow these histories to be reclaimed in film practice, and for marginal subjectivities to be made visible. Finally, the proposal of decolonial processes seeks to work with creating opportunities for social and historical visibilities. The proposition is to work with film(ed) evidence as material connected to broader social justice issues that are expressed through aesthetic forms closely associated with decolonial processes and described as decolonial aesthesis.

Purpose: This paper offers insights into the dynamic of misrecognition in an elite school. It presents new findings on micro-interactional power relations in the classroom and argues for additional ethnographies of social science education in elite schools. Methodology: This paper uses an ethnographic method. Its research employs the observational position of a "belonging stranger" is put forward in contrast to the idea of "going native". The focus is on the power of micro-interaction. Findings: A key empirical finding is the change in power relations that occurs when students outrank their social science teacher in subject knowledge.

This paper reviews the literature on citizenship education and examines the factors that have influenced trends in citizenship education in the Republic of Turkey since its foundation in 1923. The aim of this paper is to discuss the general tendencies and practices in citizenship education that have shaped how Turkish youth perceived citizenship throughout the Republic's history. By addressing three important aspects of these tendencies and traditions (history, geography, and geopolitics), the author will discuss whether Turkey is prepared to produce globally minded citizens in today's interconnected world. The history of civic education in modern Turkey can be divided into four time periods, as organized by Ince (2012): The Single Party period (1923-1946), the Democratic Party period (1946-1960), the first military intervention period (1960-1980), and the second military intervention period (1980 onward).

Recognizing the importance of information literacy in defining the primary focus of library instruction, this paper suggests the potential utility of a complementary principle of information creativity. Employers and educators now increasingly stress creativity's value and teachability; this paper turns to the work of John Dewey to suggest that the traditional distinction between creativity and literacy education is not only unavoidable but also potentially productive. This paper offers some initial suggestions as to what a framework for information creativity might entail, and proposes that an emphasis on information creativity could both highlight the familiar association between libraries and creativity and inspire a theory and practice of creativity that strengthens traditions of democratic social progress.

This paper traces the location of the principles of India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, in the country's most recent National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, and the documents leading up to the policy. It draws on the capability development approach and critical theory that facilitate understanding education as a fundamental right, moving beyond the narrow understanding of education as a mere instrument for the global economy. It also draws on global education policy literature and critical policy analysis lens to examine the assumed policy rationality. Based on a qualitative document analysis the paper argues that the policy does not demonstrate a commitment to the ideas of public-funded elementary education, child-centered democratic learning environment, and bridging the gap between equity and quality. The recommendations signal a further dilution of the RTE mandates. The policy statements and linguistic choices show an allegiance to neoliberal discourses reflecting the influence of global education policy transfer without systematic consideration of the realities of Indian school education. This approach indicates a missing link between the policy aims and social justice, that does not bode well on the educational rights of the marginalised children.

This paper offers a frame analysis of educators' responses to the anti-democratic statements and actions of candidate-turned-president Donald J. Trump. It asks how educators responded to Trump, then answers by identifying three types of frames (motivational, diagnostic, and prognostic) that educators employed to make sense of the Trump phenomenon. Using democratic education theory and frame analysis, this paper finds that educators were motivated by legality, complicity, and morality to address Trump's anti-democratic statements with students. Educators framed the Trump problem in terms of historical precedent, present danger to democracy, and concern for the future. They framed the solution with new curricula, fact checking, and critical media literacy. This paper argues that educators assert collective democratic agency to uphold democratic norms in uncertain political times.

This paper presents an evaluation of the information literacies used by community representatives when engaging with participatory budgeting in São Paulo City, Brazil. Using questions established from context-setting interviews with stakeholders, a focus group was held in 2019 with eight participative councillors, with "in situ" interpretation, resulting in a translated transcript of the discussion. Thematic analysis was used to understand information issues faced by community representatives in relation to past research. It was found that the community representatives face informational barriers to their engagement with participatory budgeting, in (a) learning about their role (b) understanding the information needs of the communities served and (c) gathering and sharing information about local issues with stakeholders. These findings allow the refining of CILIP's definition of information literacy (IL) for citizenship and provide the basis for proposing a model for the IL of community representatives. It is also proposed that future IL research could further develop the role of digitally-enabled place and community in shaping the landscape of literacy and the role of hyperlocal representation. Additionally, the role of translation in cross-lingual IL research is considered.