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In the education decentralization processes, community participation in education governance has been argued to be essential for improving accountability to service beneficiaries. Therefore, this paper examined the perspectives of key actors on the impact of an educational decentralization policy on improving school quality education in Junior High Schools in Ghana. Participants in the study were 54 School Management Committee (SMC)/Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members, 106 teachers, and 11 head teachers in 11 schools drawn from two districts in the Central Region of Ghana. Teachers filled out questionnaires and interviews were conducted with SMC/PTA members using a semi-structured interview guide and with 11 head teachers. The paper reveals that the education decentralization policy, with community participation at its heart, has given schools some autonomy in their decision-making process. However, the involvement of community members in school activities has been limited mainly to financing, with little emphasis on the decision-making process in school governance. The study recommends that there should be adequate support for communities to become more involved in the decision-making process, especially in implementing the School Performance Improvement Plan for Ghana to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it is aimed to examine the opinions of school principals about decentralization in school administrations. The research is in the qualitative research method. In the research, the phenemology model of qualitative research was used. The study group was selected by purposive sampling method and consists of six school principals experienced in school management. Data were obtained through interview and analyzed by content analysis. According to the results of the research, school principals experience various problems in management, the main ones being pressure from the supervisor, financial inadequacies, personnel shortages and clumsiness and slowness caused by the bureaucratic structure. These problems experienced by school principals are closely related to localization and result from the fact that schools are managed with a centralized structure. School principals believe that decentralization in education is necessary. They think that decentralization in school management will save public money, get rid of the excessive workload of the central government, increase success and efficiency in education, and help ensure adocracy and peace in schools and society. While decentralization has benefits, it can cause some inequalities and negativities. It is recommended to create the necessary environment for this and to make legal and structural preparations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the last decades of the 19th century and during the first half of the following century, the feminization of the primary teaching profession was consolidated as a generalized phenomenon in several Latin American countries. This article comparatively analyzes this process, identifying the material and symbolic factors that made possible the growing number of women primary teachers in in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador and Chile. Methodologically, this work is based on the analysis of documents and sources of various kinds, such as censuses and statistical compilations, ministerial reports, and memories of the ministries of public instruction. The comparative study of these sources allowed us to identify two main trajectories of feminization of the teaching profession: on the one hand, an early feminization process, related to the expansion of national education systems and the consolidation of the so-called Estado Docente. On the other hand, a delayed process of feminization was recognized. This was linked to more decentralized school systems and with greater influence from the Catholic Church. While the first trajectory is represented by the cases of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile; the second trajectory includes the experiences of Peru and Ecuador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the decentralization policy on the education sector of the Department of Huila. It uses panel data on fiscal, administrative and political decentralization, as well as educational coverage and educational quality of all its municipalities in the period 2005-2015. The results show that educational coverage has a positive relationship with administrative decentralization, and that fiscal, administrative and political decentralization contribute to improving the quality of municipal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a fundamental but neglected aspect of efforts to ensure quality and improvement in a decentralised school system: the relationship between the local education authority (LEA) and local school principals. Empirically, it is based on analysis of relevant documents and interviews with key actors in a Swedish LEA (a municipality), selected as a deviant and successful case. The data analysis is rooted in the theoretical concepts of sense-making and framing. The results show that to handle the joint responsibility the LEA introduced new artefacts for quality and improvement work. These included an expanded support unit for quality and improvement, a visionary document for all educational units and a system of tools and forums to expand quality work at local school level and stimulate collaboration between LEA-level actors and school principals. The principals saw a need for most of the artefacts and regarded them as useful. However, the analysis also reveals some negative resonance concerning relevance for the local schools and expectations of uniformity. In addition to presenting and discussing these findings, issues concerning trust and relationships are highlighted in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myanmar's attorneys, judges, law officers, and law teachers are slowly emerging from the isolated world they inhabited during decades of military authoritarianism. Almost a decade ago, the country triumphantly burst into an era of "disciplined" democracy under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, de facto head of state. Yet, the legal education system continues to be marked by hierarchical and bureaucratic practices, infrastructural and pedagogical neglect, and low confidence in the formal justice sector. The authors--two American law professors and practitioners and two students--discuss the direction of legal education in Southeast Asia and how clinical legal education (CLE) methodologies can be used to empower law students, teachers, and their communities, with an emphasis on the rule of law and access to justice. They draw on their experience in developing and piloting Community Teaching and Externship Preparation law school curricula in 2017-19 under the auspices of non-governmental organization BABSEACLE (formerly Bridges Across Borders South East Asia Clinical Legal Education Initiative). They highlight two teaching modules: Community Needs Assessments and peer-to-peer "CLE English" classes at university law departments in remote regions of the country and the outskirts of Yangon. Along with receptiveness for new approaches to teaching, learning, and mentoring by international experts, the authors faced centralized decision-making and planning, no culture of faculty collegiality or autonomy, risk aversion, reluctance to "stand out" amongst peers, frequent teacher transfers, inadequate research skills, rote learning, undue reliance on "distance education," and limited English proficiency. Lastly, the authors comment on the future potential of this educational initiative and the "Development Industry." Warning against a "Project World" mentality, unwelcome imposition of liberal ideals of individualism, and neocolonial tendencies, they highlight the importance of consultation with educational institutions, awareness of the role of local intermediaries and informal justice sector, and the need for genuine coordination and partnership amongst donor agencies and NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on challenges of adopting inter-sectorial cooperation for Afghan refugee education in Iran. Topics discussed include privilege of access to the public education system granted by the government to documented refugee children; adopting decentralized organizational structure in schools; and encouraging technical teams for offering the same.

The process of administrative decentralization of the education system in Romania proceeded in chaotic steps. It was done under the pressure, on one hand, of the EU integration requirements and, on the other hand, of the local administrations who wanted more control over how their money were used in the schools and of the parents committees that wanted to have a say in the local schools. The road was scattered with new reform legislations coming with every change in government composition and ministers. The result was a combination of local autonomy and central control that had the potential to produce confusion and conflict. The multiple and complex blend of divided responsibilities and powers turned out in the process of setting up the new form or entry grade in the Romanian primary education cycle in a rational strategic play scholarly designated as anticommons. Each separated actor tries to obtain a maximizing share of the cooperatively generated benefit for a minimum possible cost. The interactions are modeled as a Game of Chicken where, because actors calculate separately, each selects a higher price/lower quantity position than is optimal, resulting in a lower net payoff both individually and collectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the advances, reflections and theoretical-methodological positions of the Project "Voices and Thoughts: communication from diversity" (SGI 2195, UPTC, Tunja, Boyacá - Colombia). It contains an introduction that corresponds to the reflection on the seventh-peace process that was experienced in the Colombian context. It displays the historical moment of the emergence of the communication wokshops in schools as a period and space of hope, as part of the National Program "Colombia Workshop Schools Tools of Peace". The following sections manifest positions of decentralization built after a week of meeting with young people with diverse abilities at the Koika classroom, representing a time of contextualization which was vital for the learning of the researchers. First, in relation to communication difficulties, as it was considered that these young people did not have communication skills. However, from the first encounter it was clear that the disability was not theirs, but ours and the world's to understand different communication possibilities. Here the construction of intersubjective relations is contemplated, regarding the difference as a potential and the look of strangeness, which is torn between its freedom and the desire for integration. The second decentering has to do with the formative intention to "build their future". In front of this, the research assumes a position of resignation, that is to say, there are no objectives related to promoting its development, nor stimulating skills, because it is not intended to fulfill an educational function. The only intention is to live dialogical experiences that impact on the present. The third decentering is to understand the meeting of diversities without external signs that ensure cognitive differences as a disadvantage or impossibility. The researchers avoid knowing the psychological diagnoses of the participating group, since it is not considered vital to the development of the project. By avoiding a perspective of "naturalization of the normality", the focus shifts to the valuing and the power of conversation as the main expression of human singularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through decentralization, via national legislation since 1999, Thai municipal schools have become responsible for all areas of education, including educational facilities and infrastructure, health and lunch programs, pedagogy and teacher training, and curriculum and educational programme development. However, little research has been conducted on this process or on the results of the devolved municipal educational system. This article describes a survey of parental attitudes towards multiple aspects of the educational offering of the department of education in in one of the largest municipalities in Northeast Thailand, Khon Kaen Municipality (KKM). A large-scale mixed-methodology survey investigated parents' reasons for placing their children in KKM schools and their perception of the transport of students to and from schools. It also investigated the perceived factors of quality of education. The survey found that proximity, no tuition fees, and a good environment were the principal reasons, with cost and safety being issues for transporting students. Principal Component Analysis revealed the pedagogy, education program structure, school lunch program, and educational facilities to be important to parents, with a comparison showing differences by school, some critical. The article suggests KKM institute a citizens' dialogue process for educational strategic management to implement the recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how the decentralization law of 1991 in the Philippines has provided the conditions for the interface of higher education and politics by virtue of Local Government Units (LGUs) establishment of Local Colleges and Universities (LCUs). Anchored on educational politics framework, it specifically looks at the experience of Mandaue City which presently has two similarly named local colleges, one is Commission on Higher Education accredited and LGU supported, while the other has been deemed to have "no legal personality" but has persisted to operate nonetheless. This would create a conflict of legitimacy and later on manifest issues and challenges naturally beyond the immediate domain of education, but one that must be harnessed constructively given the realities of Philippine politics i.e. power struggle and political dynamics. The democratic opening engendered by the decentralization law to allow LGUs to establish post-secondary schools are beset with growing political tensions and contestations. Yet, there were also narratives and evidence of positive impact brought about by the decentralization of higher education. Using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and document reviews, this study contends that public educational ventures such as LCUs serve as a microcosm of the larger problem in Philippine higher education: improved access to higher education, but quality is deteriorating. As such, this study hopes to suggest several policy directions and practical considerations for national governments vis-à-vis the LGUs role as enabler and/or regulator of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The specific accounting approaches in preuniversity accounting are reduced, including the segment accounted for the reimbursement of students travel expenses and other benefits. This paper aims to outline an image of the social aspects of education in the preuniversity public education, represented by reimbursement to the beneficiaries of education, how they are reflected in accounting through the budget classification and disclosed to users via public media. Specifically, our approach refers to scholarships provided by the local administration to support learning, professional scholarships, as well as various support programs for students who come from families with material difficulties, whose financial backer is the state through school inspectorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature reviewed for this study revealed that the movement toward decentralizing responsibility of school governance to communities has become a global policy in the contemporary world. With the aim of enhancing greater community participation and retaining students in public schools, the Government of Nepal introduced two different policies: the General Public School (GPS)Policy and the Community-Managed School (CMS) Policy; both guided by the Decentralized School Governance Policy. Since then, there has been a debate about whether centrally controlled but locally managed GPSs or community owned-locally governed CMSs are better. Policy documents in Nepal repeatedly claim that the CMS Policy achieves better results than the GPS Policy. The research reported on in this paper gathered evidence for examining claims concerning the performance of the policies. The research used mixed methods. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the respective policy implementation performance between the two types of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In education decentralization policy may be beneficial in terms of overcoming an overly cumbersome bureaucracy in educational systems. However, it can also have adverse effects in terms of competition, yielding new kinds of inequalities. This is true in Quebec, where the division of educational labor and the emergence of technical work were indirectly made necessary by the decentralization of the education system, leading to a destandardization of school programming. Students turned away by schools that set standards for excellence turn to schools defined by their educational and social vocation. How do public-sector teachers view all of these changes? As we will see, for many teachers, an attachment to the Quebec education system’s democratic values is not incompatible with buying into free-market values in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on coordinated inductive learning, concerning how agents with inductive learning capabilities can coordinate their learnt hypotheses with other agents. Coordination in this context means that the hypothesis learnt by one agent is consistent with the data known to the other agents. In order to address this problem, we present A-MAIL, an argumentation approach for agents to argue about hypotheses learnt by induction. A-MAIL integrates, in a single framework, the capabilities of learning from experience, communication, hypothesis revision and argumentation. Therefore, the A-MAIL approach is one step further in achieving autonomous agents with learning capabilities which can use, communicate and reason about the knowledge they learn from examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no national accreditation or quality assurance mechanism for Canadian higher education. This paper argues that a number of structural characteristics that emerged as a function of the transition to mass higher education have served to stymie the development of government quality assurance mechanisms, including the decentralization of higher education policy, the development of a relatively homogeneous university sector, and the limited policy capacity of provincial ministries. The development of new types of degrees, combined with an expansion of degree-authority to new institutional types have led to the emergence of new quality mechanisms in several provinces designed to assess the quality of new degrees, but it is the universities that continue to play the central role in terms of quality assurance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Europe, for some countries, the decentralization of the educational system is an ongoing process and for other ones a current functional setup. The reform goals are oriented towards accelerate economic development, distribution of power, increase management efficiency but also on redistribution on financial responsibilities. The financing of the educational system remains an important issue on government's agenda and the problems arising from underfinanced educational system are complex and affects long-term development. The global crisis affected the implementation of all ongoing reforms and measures to diminish its consequences must be taken. This paper aim is to analyze the impact of international projects on the financing of the educational system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review 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 article takes stock of the various tactics and approaches to school management developed in recent years. The objective is to identify the different approaches to an-alyzing the new form of public administration being applied to education, as part of the educational reform processes implemented recently in several Latin American countries. On that basis, the idea of reorganizing schools is embedded in a context of change that promotes decentralization, along with more flexible mechanisms for the way education operates. The existence of these principles has led to diverse and contrasting results that account for heterogeneous school realities, despite the exis-tence of public policies that seek to align them according to certain regulatory stan-dards or requirements. This means school management is still an unfinished topic and one requiring more in-depth consideration to enrich its study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educação is the property of EDIPUCRS - Editora Universitaria da PUCRS 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 Educação is the property of EDIPUCRS - Editora Universitaria da PUCRS 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 Educação is the property of EDIPUCRS - Editora Universitaria da PUCRS 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.)

In China, the 'tidal wave' of rural migrant workers has created unique challenges for the government, one being migrant children's education in cities. Despite central policies emphasising the roles of receiving governments and public schools in providing compulsory education for these children, many migrant children in Beijing still attend privately run, often unlicensed migrant schools. Though migrant children's education is attracting increasing government and societal attention, questions concerning the extent to which this decentralisation of responsibilities has created space for civil society in the policy process remain unexplored. This article examines the role of the civil society actors involved and draws on qualitative interviews and the author's fieldwork experience to show that their limited capacity to significantly impact the situations of these schools is shaped by a lack of state-civil society interaction, as well as limited collaboration between key civil society actors and low levels of interaction amongst the schools themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quality educational leadership preparation has positive influences on practices of graduates. In the Finnish decentralized education system, little is yet known about the sources of principals' practices. This research explores the sources of principals' selfassessed leadership practices in Central Finland and identifies areas for more emphasis. Respondents were selected by purposive sampling. This multiple case study employed eight semi-structured individual interviews as means of data collection. Inductive content analysis was performed. From the findings, besides personal experiences, knowledge from course, and field work, leadership and networking are also major sources of principals' practices. Training positively enhances the practices of principals as they engage in more collaboration and trust. Notwithstanding, professional development is essential for principals to stay relevant to the contemporary world of today and to be confident to face future challenges. Methods of course delivery, management of human and financial resources, as well as creating and sustaining local and international collaborations with other training institutions should be prioritized to improve on training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the possibility of adopting travel as a theoretical and methodological parameter for theorizing in Geography, guided by dialogical ways and considering the academic knowledge as relational and positioned. It is argued that the notion of travel positions the subject and allows the decentralization of the positivistic view that has characterized academic research within cultural groups. This reflection draws attention to the necessary debate about the ways to approach the spatiocultural constructions of various groups and social subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how community management of schools can affect educational outcomes as measured by retention rates. In our model, parents make decisions about whether or not their children should remain in school, and they monitor the performance of the teachers. We analyze a unique data set from El Salvador, which expanded the role of communities in school management through its Educación con Participación de la Comunidad (EDUCO) program. While we use nonrandomized data, we carefully examine biases arising from endogenous program placements and program self-selection. We find that EDUCO had a positive and robust influence on students, encouraging them to continue their schooling. Our results suggest that community participation, a better classroom environment, and careful teacher management are largely responsible for the positive effect of the EDUCO program. We conclude that in El Salvador the decentralization of responsibilities to communities seems to have had significant positive effects on school continuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to describe the most significant changes which are being carried out in Latin-American educational systems, taking Argentina as a point of reference. To that end, this comparative study tackles the following essential aspects: the principle of equal opportunities and social cohesion; decentralisation of educational systems at an institutional level; educational quality and equity problems; the career of teaching; and financial resources. The reforms carried out at university level have not been analysed, since their complexity exceeds the limits of this article. To conclude, we briefly mention the future goals which have been agreed by those responsible for education in diverse Latin-American countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which assesses the equity and adequacy of the school system in New York City after its 32 decentralized community school districts were reorganized into ten administrative regions in 2003. The study used a framework to assess adequacy based on legal, economic and sociological perspectives. The analysis found mixed results regarding the benefits of recentralization.

Pressures for increased accountability and higher student achievement have pushed districts to assume greater control and centralization of curriculum, instruction, and assessments. While the benefits of coherence and centralization have been noted, there is also increasing awareness of the need to balance professionalism and accountability through more decentralized approaches. Using social network analysis and extensive interviews with principals and central office administrators, this mixed methods study explores how one United States school district's formal structures fostered informal relationships between site and central office administrators that led to a balance between professionalism and accountability--a core condition that supported sustained achievement. This study provides one example of centralization/ decentralization, and a balance of professionalism and accountability that was struck between the central office and its schools in a large suburban district serving a high percentage of Hispanics, English learners, and socio-economically disadvantaged students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of the results in the provision of public education under different institutional contexts is carried out for Colombia where, during the decentralization process, different degrees of autonomy to manage education public expenditures have coexisted. The analysis is undertaken by using frontier analysis techniques, which allow us to estimate cost and production functions, in order to determine differences in costs and technical efficiency in the provision of education across regions. The results show that the strength of decentralization had a more positive impact on increasing enrollment than on the improvement of the quality of education. It was also found, that high levels of cost and production inefficiency are present in different regions of the country, implying that savings in public expenditure and better educational results could be achieved if all local authorities could operate at the most efficient level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe a qualitative research project conducted at a public elementary school in a rural community in Guatemala. From analysis of interviews with teachers and the school administrator, we found that a key concern of participants was how they viewed the increasingly problematic relationship between their local educational processes, federal government policies and the broader forces of globalisation. To understand these issues, we employ a theoretical framework that draws from the, often competing, assumptions of global neoliberalism and the capability approach. The teachers interviewed for the project suggest that the Guatemalan government was attempting to implement a program of educational privatization that was incommensurate with the needs and interests of their daily lives as teachers in a small rural community. We argue that the issues and problems raised by the teachers are not only indicative of local or even Guatemalan national issues but illustrate global educational concerns and their incumbent problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The implementation of national educational reform in China calls for newer and stronger school administration. Recognizing the need to establish a knowledge base for leadership development, we employ a set of existing US professional standards for educational leaders as a frame of reference to unpack the complex role of Chinese superintendents. Using data collected from two surveys administered to more than 200 Chinese superintendents in 2007, we find that many indicators of leadership considered essential in the United States are also viewed as necessary for effective superintendency in China. Feedback from the superintendents also points out gaps between what is perceived as important and what is in practice. This article contributes to the efforts of building meaningful global dialogues among researchers and practitioners on developing a new generation of education administrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the role of election of school managers in the educational policy of democratization/decentralization in Recife. It considers how democracy is constituted as an object of discourse in Brazilian education. Data were collected via interviews with municipal managers of education. The Discourse Theory was used as a reference for analysis, based on Laclau. We seek to explain the social aspects from the discourse. The results indicated that the election of managers is an important element in building democracy in school, but it does not mean that democracy is guaranteed. The hegemonic sense present in the manager's speeches is that it is important to build democratic practices in the school routine, especially through the School Council. It is also noticed that democratization is a constituent of the manager's discourse. However, its effect is different in view of the prospect policy managers with which they are in line. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the public and academic debate, the liberalization of Swedish school policy is often equated with privatization and--to a lesser degree--differentiation. The first is associated with the rapid growth of a semi-private free school sector, driven by slogans such as freedom of choice, cost-efficiency, parental influence and market competition. The second is associated with the decentralization of power and goal-oriented governance, aiming to achieve a variegated and flexible school system that is better equipped to meet individual needs, interests and preferences. The article examines this widespread conception of the liberalization of Swedish school policy. More precisely, the objective is to position central school policy developments over the last two decades in the liberal field through a tripartite typology. I argue that the mainstream conception exaggerates the privatization type of liberalization, while neglecting another, less visible but very influential type--namely universalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how economist Friedrich A. Hayek's arguments against central planning of economies can be applied in the field of education. According to Hayek, there was a knowledge problem in the society, with knowledge existing in a highly dispersed way. In the U.S., there has been an increasing centralization of educational decision making. The author points that proponents and critics can use Hayek's arguments in the debate over decentralized education.

The article discusses the education system in the U.S. and South Africa which impact teachers and student performance. It notes the decentralized education system in the U.S. which is based upon the federal constitution that reserves power over education to the states and local authorities, as well as to individual schools and institutions of higher education. The author also highlights the control of the central government on the national framework of school policy in South Africa.

This article discusses the education policy in Chile in the 1980s by studying the case of the San Rafael school. It examines the decentralization of the education system and the role of the government in the development of educational policies during this time period. The author analyzes the effectiveness of the administration and management of public education by municipal governments, which resulted in financial, developmental, and educational inequality throughout the country. Groups in favor of and against the implementation of new education policies at the San Rafael school are also explored.

Textbooks are basic elements that shape the school curriculum. Despite the democratization and decentralization of the Spanish educational system, a certain ideological inertia and bias with respect to their contents and focus persists. The study presented here is based on an empirical analysis of the contents of 264 books used at the primary (6-11 years), secondary (12-14 years) and baccalaureate (15-16 years) levels. The results point to the existence of an "unstated" curriculum, where only brief mention of Islam, Arabs and Muslims, and their presence in Spain predominate. These are usually accompanied by images - for cognitive support - that serve to maintain an exotic, anti-modern, anti-Western and, in other words, an "Orientalist" image of this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes parents' perceptions of their role in supporting educational opportunities for their children, based on a qualitative study of parents and teachers in a rural community in Paraguay. The parents' views on participation are positioned within the context of the intended goals for parent participation outlined in Paraguayan educational reform. Through analysis of parents' narratives about the ways they choose to participate in their children's schooling, this article examines how parents negotiate between collective and individual actions to support their children's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at the idea of decentralization in art education. It is the author's opinion that the act of learning is accelerated by an open communication process that allows students to apply their own meaning to ideas, objects, and experiences. She challenges the traditional classroom environment where there is a hierarchical relationship between teachers and students. Topics discussed include how studio critiques can be decentralized, how educators can become comfortable in relinquishing control, and how art education can help students become more aware of their role in contemporary society.

The article focuses on the general education reform at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). It states that UNL chancellor Harvey Perlman viewed the Comprehensive Education Program (CEP) of the UNL as unattractive to students and is complicated and needs reform. It mentions that an advisory council and planning team were created to draft a reform that will focus on transparency, sustainability, and accommodation, which was approved in 2008 to be implemented in 2009. The authors argue that the new Achievement-Centered Education (ACE) program satisfies the learning outcomes of UNL undergraduate colleges by establishing college-specific additional requirements. Moreover, the ACE program has led to the decentralization of UNL departments and has allowed teachers to participate and adapt.

This paper presents practical aspects of decentralization school network encountered last year in Pre School in Gorj. This took into account the reorganization of school network according to school population dynamics, especially in rural areas of labor mobility in both urban and rural areas, at the request of local communities in order to ensure equal opportunities to education for all children, increasing quality of education, upgrading school facilities and cost effectiveness of educational administration In this highly complex process are covered actions and different areas of the local and school curricula, pupils' choices and their correlation with local needs of the present and future labor market. It stresses the complementary activities of this phenomenon, those related to school management, counseling and guidance, training, financial management, academic and extracurricular programs and projects, EU projects, partnerships and examples of good practice, inclusion and social cohesion at EU level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The education decentralization in 1992 modified the negotiation structure of teachers' salaries between government authorities and the teachers' unions. In 1998 a federal fund called FAEB was created to help the states finance education. This document explores the effects of the new negotiation structure and the effects of the distribution of FAEB among the states on expenditures on teachers' salaries. It is found that states with a high percentage of state teachers previous to decentralization provide teachers with lower salary increases. This is mainly because such states face higher education costs, due to the distribution rules of FAEB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the growth of State sponsored virtual schools and their role in providing for parental choice in the face of limited access to high quality public education in certain areas. Furthermore this piece explores the increasing competition faced by the traditional "neighborhood school" from more centralized districts based and/or State sponsored virtual schools. Implications for the control of public schools remain critical to in what appears to be a struggle between centralization and decentralization that virtual schools represent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]