The five chapters in this book draw upon the policy experience and trends in OECD countries to examine various aspects of lifelong learning.

Provides state-of-the-art reviews of policy issues and developments in the ways that countries define students with disabilities, difficulties and disadvantages; approaches to career guidance; changes underway in higher education; and policy options for making investments in lifelong learning pays.

Reviews the latest international experience on ways to improve access to quality early childhood education and care; achieve both high-level and equitable performance in reading literacy; ways to overcome teacher shortages; and redefining the concept of human capital.

This 2004 edition of Education Policy Analysis includes articles on the role of non-university institutions in tertiary education; gaining returns from investments in ICT; the challenges lifelong learning poses for schools; and taxes and lifelong learning.

This volume informs the growing number of educational policy scholars on the use of critical theoretical frameworks in their analyses. It offers insights on which theories are appropriate within the area of critical educational policy research and how theory and method interact and are applied in critical policy analyses. Highlighting how different critical theoretical frameworks are used in educational policy research to reshape and redefine the way scholars approach the field, the volume offers work by emerging and senior scholars in the field of educational policy who apply critical frameworks to their research. The chapters examine a wide range of current educational policy topics through different critical theoretical lenses, including critical race theory, critical discourse analysis, postmodernism, feminist poststructuralism, critical theories related to LGBTQ issues, and advocacy approaches.