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This paper compares approaches to accountability in US charter schools and English academies. We examine the development and main characteristics of these two types of schools before assessing how they are accountable, to whom, and for what. Drawing on both primary and secondary sources, we explore the consequences of the accountability mechanisms in each jurisdiction. Our comparative analysis assesses the different and multiple forms of accountability to which charter schools and academies are subject. We discuss the similarities that exist in the two jurisdictions, albeit that the most consequential sanctions – closure of charter schools and transfer of academies – differ between countries. The final section concludes and highlights policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the governance of LA maintained schools, single academy trusts (SATs) and schools that are part of multi-academy trusts (MATs). The research involved analysing legislative provision, policy documents, and documents addressing the governance arrangements of a sample of 23 secondary schools. Our findings reveal a fragmented state-funded secondary school system as regards overall governance, school admissions, the curriculum, and the use of funding. Significantly schools in MATs, which are governed by the trust board, lack the autonomy of either SATs or maintained schools and are instead under the ultimate control of the trust board. The paper argues that there is a need for greater consistency regarding the governance of state-funded schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

School-based education in England has undergone significant changes since 2010, with a huge expansion of academies, schools outside local authority control, funded directly by central government. Academies and local authority (LA) maintained schools are subject to different legislative and regulatory frameworks. This paper focuses on the governance of LA maintained schools, single academy trusts (SATs) and schools that are part of multi-academy trusts (MATs). The research involved analysing legislative provision, policy documents, and documents addressing the governance arrangements of a sample of 23 secondary schools. Our findings reveal a fragmented state-funded secondary school system as regards overall governance, school admissions, the curriculum, and the use of funding. Significantly schools in MATs, which are governed by the trust board, lack the autonomy of either SATs or maintained schools and are instead under the ultimate control of the trust board. The paper argues that there is a need for greater consistency regarding the governance of state-funded schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most famous passages in Galileo's Il Saggiatore is his declaration that "philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze". He opposed this book of nature with what he claimed was his opponent Orazio Grassi's understanding of philosophy -- "a book of fiction, productions in which the least important thing is whether what is written there is true". This paper seeks to situate this passage within the larger debate between Galileo and Grassi about the relationship between poetry and natural philosophy over the course of their publications regarding the comet controversy of 1618. During their back and forth, Galileo had claimed that "nature takes no delight in poetry", which Grassi had turned on him by alleging that he was too serious if he could not appreciate a poetic flourish in a learned debate such as theirs. This was a major insult given how central poetry and letters were to any early modern discourse. This paper argues that Galileo's "grand book" responded to this insult by both doubling down on his poetry-nature claim and illustrating that he was more familiar with poetry than Grassi. He accomplished both by referring to debates about epic poetry in late sixteenth-century Italy. This connection sheds new light on a passage that seemingly repudiates poetry, as well as contributing to scholarship that has sought to reevaluate the mathematician's engagement with the rich world of early modern Italian poetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A diverse range of Sikh organizations have shaped the direction of Anglo-Sikh education, including the Guru Nanak Sikh Multi Academy Trust (GNSMAT), Nishkam Schools Trust (NST), Khalsa Academies Trust (KAT) and Sevak Schools Trust (SST). The new Sikh Free Schools have also been heavily influenced by the discourse of British Multiculturalism, which is discernible in their aims, approach to education, Sikh values and attainment. This article will bring to light the political and social conditions which made Sikh Faith Schools a reality in England and their impact on the educational landscape of Britain today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2018, academies accounted for 72% of all English secondary schools, compared to 6% in 2009. English academy schooling conforms to marketizing trends in international education reform, but Conservative politicians have also attempted to promote particular moral values. This article analyses the tensions between neoliberalism and neoconservatism and applies this analysis to a concrete debate taking place within the Conservative Party in the 2000s and 2010s. It uses arguments made by an illustrative group of Conservative politicians to explore and analyse the tension between these two reform trends. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it will present the key arguments which were marshalled by a selection of thinkers affiliated with the Conservative Party in favour of educational reform. It will do this by analysing Conservative articulations of the failure of state education; the role of the consumer and the relationship between democracy and the market. Secondly, it will explore the degree to which marketizing and traditionalist impulses in education reform should be considered complimentary or contradictory. I will conclude by arguing that the parent-consumer functions as a vanishing mediator between neoliberal and neoconservative ideological positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Versants: Revista Suiza de Literaturas Románicas is the property of University Library of Bern and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As England attempts to close educational attainment gaps faced by socioeconomically disadvantaged children using Pupil Premium funding, no attention is given to how different types of academies do so, nor to policy transfer's role in informing policies for disadvantaged pupils. Employing a qualitative comparative case study methodology with semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, this research compares five primary standalone academies with five system leader multi-academy trust academies. It finds all academies support disadvantaged children with academic, pastoral and extracurricular provision. This is justified by voluntary and coercive policy transfer extending across space and time, in addition to evidence-based policies and school-specific needs prioritised to varying degrees across academy types. Overall, system leader multi-academy trust academies' structure and composition facilitate policy transfer through horizontal and vertical spread of successful practices compared to standalone academies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of XVIIe Siècle is the property of Presses Universitaires de France and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Carolinae Historia Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis is the property of Charles University Prague, Karolinum Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The exhibition of extraordinary examples of female learning, often in the form of gifted girls, became fashionable in the eighteenth century among European aristocracy and courts. It was performed through elaborate rituals that brought together political and religious authorities, everyday society, and intellectuals, reinforcing the prestige of the girls' families and of the nation, in an age of strong cultural and political contestation. This essay considers the most celebrated Spanish female "prodigies" of the century in a comparative perspective, particularly in relation to their more widely researched Italian counterparts. My aim is to open up discussion regarding the ways in which female intellectual "exceptionality" was constructed in Europe in the eighteenth century: the different cultural, social, and political circumstances that shaped that exceptionality, the forces at work in defining it, and the possibilities and limits it offered to real women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Death data from cohorts of academicians have been used to estimate pandemic excess deaths. We aimed to evaluate the validity of this approach., Study Design and Setting: Data were analyzed from living and deceased member lists from Mainland China, UK and Greece academies; and Nobel laureates (and US subset thereof). Samples of early elected academicians were probed for unrecorded deaths; datasets overtly missing deaths were excluded from further analyses. Actuarial risks were compared against the general population in the same country in respective age strata. Relative incidence risk increases in death in active pandemic periods were compared to population-wide pandemic excess death estimates for the same country., Results: Royal Society and Academy of Athens datasets overtly missed deaths. Prepandemic death rates were 4- to 12-fold lower in the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) vs respective age strata of the Mainland China population. A +158% relative increase in death risk was seen in CAE data during the first 12-month of wide viral spread. Both increases (+34% in British Academy) and decreases (-27% in US Nobel laureates) in death rates occurred in pandemic (2020-22) vs prepandemic (2017-19) years; point estimates were far from known excess deaths in the respective countries (+6% and +14%, respectively). Published excess death estimates for urban-dwelling Mainland China selectively analyzed CAE that had double the pandemic death rates than another Chinese academy (Chinese Academy of Sciences)., Conclusion: Missingness, lack of representativeness, large uncertainty, and selective analysis reporting make data from academy rosters unreliable for estimating general population excess deaths., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest J.P.A.I. declares no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This paper examines competencies required for leadership of multi-academy trusts (MATs) to identify the learning experiences needed to make the transition to executive leadership (a concept perceived here as having accountability for multi-part organisations). As part of national government(s) drive to reduce the influence and control of local government over state-funded schools in England policies have been enacted, particularly since 2010, to create academies which were directly answerable to the Secretary of State for Education. Formed as a not-for-profit charitable company, each trust is composed of Members who act as guardians of the governance of the organisation, which is then given strategic direction by a Board of Trustees and executive leadership by a CEO. MATs consist of multiple academies, working to a single trust, and are the organisational model preferred by the Department for Education. In this paper MATs are equated to the concept of loosely-coupled organisations, formed of numerous constituent academies and held together much more loosely than a hierarchical structure would tolerate. Leadership competencies encompassed in the centrally National Professional Qualification for Executive Leadership (NPQEL) are considered inadequate generally and for the case study MAT explored here, leading the trust to introduce additional expectations of future senior leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors’ (CORD) Academy for Scholarship in Education in Emergency Medicine was founded in 2010 to support emergency medicine educators, advance educational methods and scholarship in Emergency Medicine, and foster collaboration among members. As one of the first academies housed in a specialty organization, the CORD Academy concept has been successfully implemented, and has now grown to thirty members in the categories of Distinguished Educator, Academy Scholar, and Academy Member in four focus areas (Teaching and Evaluation; Enduring Educational Materials, Educational Leadership, and Education Research). In this update, the Academy leadership describes the revised academy structure, evolution of the application, and reports the activities of the three Academy pillars – membership/awards/recognition; faculty development and structured programs; and education research and scholarship – in the first five years of the Academy.

Copyright of Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Chinese Taipei Comparative Education Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rationalising school activities through principles of standards, testing and accountability has taken a strong hold and continues to be the dominant logic for educational reform in England. This article examines the ways in which three principals of English academies understand and respond to accountability policies as required by their Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) and external demands. A sensemaking perspective is adopted to explore how school principals come to interpret, negotiate and adapt messages and pressures about accountability policies in their efforts to respond to their local contexts. Based on an analysis of data from three academies, this article highlights the active role of school leaders in the enactment processes of policies related to curriculum and pedagogy, data monitoring, resource allocation and performance management. Findings reveal the variations in the degree of autonomy the participating leaders enjoyed in some of these areas, in which they appeared to interpret and adjust policies as needed to fit their schools and communities. Insights from individual leaders' sensemaking provide an important contribution to research on how academies respond to high-stakes accountability policies in that the meanings leaders make determine the actions and decisions they take on instructional priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How have public sector austerity and the outsourcing of school provision under the Academies programme affected the state school workforce in England? Existing research claims that teachers are being substituted by cheaper support staff and that schools are becoming increasingly dominated by managers. However, these claims focus on the period before austerity-induced budget cuts and the outsourcing of more than 9,000 schools under the Academies programme. Using nationally comprehensive data sources, analyses reveal that changes under austerity have been drastic, far surpassing those associated with outsourced Academies. Long-term increases in the number of teachers and support staff have gone into reverse, while managerial teams have continued to grow. This research has important implications for our understanding of how marketization and austerity affect state school workforces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the flexibilisation of teachers' employment relations in England in the context of an accelerated deregulation of work and employment conditions and of educational provision. It brings to light a contrasted picture, where external flexibilisation, through the recruitment of unqualified teachers, seems to be contained by a mixture of diverse but convergent interests and norms from the State, teacher unions and employers. Meanwhile, forms of internal flexibilisation (regarding working time, pay, and job boundaries and workplaces) appear to be more pervasive. This raises fundamental questions about the meaning of 'standard' employment relations in the teaching sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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A number of art historians have noted how in around 1800 the social function of the visual arts in the Czech Lands fundamentally changed and a new ideal of bourgeois vizuality emerged. At the same time, visual culture in the Age of Enlightenment came to be seen as a ‘movement of knowledge’ through different cultural spheres. Reacting to the discussion of Daniela Tinková’s view of the Enlightenment as a process of spreading and democratizing knowledge and extending information networks, the present text develops these ideas and considers other ways in which art in the Czech Lands during the Enlightenment could be conceptualized. We point out that new centres of culture and broad-based social penetration brought not only changes in the way information on the visual arts was disseminated, but a new situation in which the exchange of knowledge across a variety of social and educational fields was no longer restricted to the hitherto clearly defined professions that had established the prevailing terminology and methodology in their own domains. For example, professional artists might now explore all sorts of fields of knowledge, while traditional humanistic art-theoretical discourse began to attract not only dilettante ‘amateurs’ but also a new class of professional art experts and critics with no formal artistic training. The study of art thus became an independent branch of knowledge, a component of education, a source of cultural and historical memory, and a badge of patriotism and personal identity. A similar shift can be observed in modes of visual perception, which in the Enlightenment were moulded by an endeavour to extend the traditional range of art consumers and recipients by means of aesthetically oriented education and training. There was also a clear attempt to fulfil the ideal of public art based on modern criteria of ‘taste’, aimed at eliminating persisting social barriers and the cultural monopoly of established aristocratic elites and creating a template for a bourgeois visual culture (sensibility, reappraisal of hierarchy of genres, instruction in drawing, growth of graphic art, etc.). This movement of knowledge also made it far easier for recipients to find their bearings in the art market (exhibitions, reviews, advertisements) by providing them with criteria for judging the quality of artworks and, more generally, promoting the visuality of the dawning industrial age (public access to art collections, industrial exhibitions, the first museums, etc.), and hence to a hitherto unseen extent opening up the world of visual art to the wider public.

While there is much (party) politicking about the social and educational backgrounds of Members of Parliament, especially presently around the composition of Boris Johnson's Cabinet, it may be observed that the educational backgrounds of Conservative and Labour education secretaries over the decades have not been wildly different. This article examines their elite biographical peculiarities, and how these combine in other education ministers and their networks of advisors to constitute a distinct 'policy community' in the pursuit of an agenda in educational reform, presently being that of academies and free schools. It is proposed that while diversity in this context may not always be found in their secondary or higher education, this does not limit, as is sometimes posited, either their capacity for compassion in social deprivation, or their understanding of diverse educational structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Academies of health professions educators can amplify members' social capital, promoting educational innovation and organizational change. However, research in this area is limited. This article attempts to close the gap in literature with the results of a program evaluation of our interprofessional teaching academy through the lens of social capital and organizational culture. Methods: A program evaluation using a cross-sectional survey was conducted with all members of the Baystate Education Research and Scholarship of Teaching (BERST) Academy. The survey drew on a conceptual framework from previous literature on social capital, communities of practice, and faculty development evaluation. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Results: Overall survey response rate was 54%. More than 90% of respondents have applied the skills learned through BERST Academy into their practice. Social capital was defined with five items (Cronbach alpha = 0.87), and we found no significant difference between profession and social capital, suggesting that perceptions of social capital did not significantly differ by membership in a specific profession. Discussion: Our results showed that BERST Academy members were able to cultivate social capital through high-quality connections. An academy can serve as a unique culture within an institution to foster collaborative relationships that increase social capital, for members of different professions. In addition, an academy can also provide members with a community that benefits them in the greater organizational culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent schools White Paper outlined as Government policy for all schools to become part of a "strong" multi-academy trust (MAT), which means all school becoming academies. Is there evidence that such a full academisation model would deliver the results the Government desires. It is difficult to see that there is. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the Organization of Artists in Brno in the 18th Century. The article analyzes set of normative sources which regulated the exercise of the profession of painters and sculptors in Brno in the 18th century (guilds’ statutes, government’s decrees, civic regulations, judicial sources etc.). The study interprets the decline of the artists’ guild organization in Brno in the 1750s in a wider perspective of economic and administrative reforms in the Habsburg monarchy. These reforms were marked by several particular initiatives made by the artist’s corporation in Brno, who came up with own unsuccessful proposals of various changes of the traditional city’s guild system. The study states that such initiatives should not be explained simply as symptoms of a changing urban society in Central Europe during the Enlightenment era, or as a consequence of the dynamics of proto-industrialization and the establishment of new economic as well educational institutions, but also as a result of the new product market and the demand shifted towards less expensive and more fashionable goods.

Copyright of XVIIe Siècle is the property of Presses Universitaires de France and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The major vectors of cultural transfers that we propose to analyze in the context of the formation of centers of enlightened absolutisms through the works of the French Enlightenment - academies - will be, initially, the institutions conveying intellectual movements allowing the formation of these centers. It seemed important to us to give a transversal view of these institutions across enlightened Europe while taking into account the specific position of France at that time. By analyzing the main vectors of these movements - academies, and in particular the evolution of the institution of the Academy in France, we will always remain cautious and will try not to interpret the transfers as simple transplantations of the cultural models of one country to the other while demonstrating that the failure of the political and cultural project of enlightened absolutism can be read through the collapse of the official vectors of cultural transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O plakatu kao sredstvu komunikacije Vrijeme u kojem živimo potpuno je usaglašeno sa novim medijima vizuelnih komunikacija u koje se nedvosmisleno ubraja i plakat, sa svojom apsolutno prijemčivom i likovno pretpostavljenom formom, koja prati, osluškuje, provocira, uzbuđuje, obavještava i uvodi u kompleksan svijet likovnosti i dizajna. Brojni teoretičari, istoričari i umjetnici raznih profila su se bavili njegovom pojavom i analizom, te predlaganjem raznih mogućnosti definisanja samog pojma plakata i plakatske umjetnosti, pa najčešće nailazimo na informacije o plakatu kao umoženoj obavijesti koja se postavlja na javnim mjestima (moguće od riječi plak -mrljica ili krpica)? U engleskom jeziku se koristi termin poster (prihvaćeno i u našem jeziku kao doslovni prevod), ili posted up (objavljeno, u smislu postavljanja na javno mjesto). U francuskom jeziku se koristi the World Biennial of Student Poster -A Case Study Abstract: The paper World Biennial of Student Poster -A Case Study aims to show the complex structure of the poster as an art form in a historico-analytical and content-wise manner. Viewing the poster in the light of the progressive technological and innovative possibilities of modern information technologies, constantly requires challenging of the scopes and justification of the existence of a "classic" poster. Its role in contemporary society has been analyzed through various forms of manifestation in the spheres of art and modern design. Insufficiently paid attention to the essence of artistic expression through the poster, which has historically been marginalized in relation to classical painting, has positively changed over time, and through the apostrofing of the strength and the range the poster reaches, it has pointed to the significant changes in the society that this type of communication has achieved. In this paper, a prominent event of the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, the World Biennial of Student Poster, was selected for the case study, and through the analysis of eight exhibitions of the Biennial, its role since 2004 has been evaluated with an obvious improvement in pedagogical and creative work on the poster.

In England, schools are able to take on academy status, which is intended by the central government to give them greater autonomy (DfE, 2018). Groups of academies can form multi-academy trusts (MATs), which typically grow in size with additional schools becoming academies and joining. One mechanism for MAT growth is sponsorship, which occurs when an underperforming school is required to become an academy and to join a MAT to facilitate its improvement. It was to explore the emerging patterns of MATs and their operation, especially in relation to sponsorship, that the research we report here was carried out. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, we sought to establish the emerging patterns of MATs that sponsor underperforming schools. In the second phase, we interviewed MAT chief executive officers (CEOs) to further explore emerging patterns of MATs, the factors affecting the growth of MATs and the nature of sponsorship. Our analysis shows the development of a complex and potentially unsustainable state schooling system in England, managed by Regional School Commissioners (RSCs) and dependent on the altruistic values and motivations of CEOs of MATs to improve schools that are underperforming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy reform around the globe has increased the autonomy that schools enjoy in spending on resources. This reform assumes that schools face strong incentives to use their resources to maximise pupil attainment and that they know best how to spend their money to achieve this aim. This study provides evidence of the relationship between governance and how schools choose to spend their money. It uses data for all state-funded secondary schools in England for the academic years 2009/10, 2011/12 and 2015/16. This enables a comparison of schools operating under three forms of governance: local authority maintained schools (LAMs); schools operated as a single 'academy' trust outside local authority control (SATs); or those in a network of academy schools governed by a multi-academy trust (MATs). The data provide no support for claims that academy schools will spend less on administration or that networks of schools will enjoy economies of scale. The data do show that academy schools spent proportionately less on teacher salaries and educational support, and more on back office costs, after taking account of pupil characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]