The thirty-seven articles of this volume provide an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of educational institutions in modern society. Written by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and economists, they create a synthesis of the variety of theoretical perspectives andmethodological approaches now competing for attention in educational research.

In this fascinating account, the author examines the politics of federal education policy through the lens of the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Using the epic battle that spanned two Congresses and two presidential administrations, this book illustrates the new dynamics of political interactions and policy formulation as they affect public education issues. Highlighting the polarization between the two parties and how it affected the outcome of the bill, this book: explains why President Bush succeeded in passing an expansive education bill, No Child Left Behind, and President Clinton failed to do so; describes the changing institutional relationships and shows why practitioner groups were largely left out of the process; reveals how leaders in the House and Senate were able to compromise on provisions like testing, choice, and accountability; and reframes the analysis of the changed political and institutional environment in which education policy decisions will be made in the new century.

In this special edited volume, scholars with diverse backgrounds and conceptual frameworks explore how economic, political, social and ideological forces impact on school curricula over time and place. In providing regional and global perspectives on curricular policies, practices and reforms, the authors move beyond the conventional notion that school contents reflect principally national priorities and subject-based interests.

This volume explores the role of some of the most prominent twentieth-century philosophers and political thinkers as teachers. It examines how these teachers conveyed truth to their students against the ideological influences found in the university and society. Philosophers from Edmund Husserl and Hannah Arendt to political thinkers like Eric Voegelin and Leo Strauss, and their students such as Ellis Sandoz, Stanley Rosen, and Harvey Mansfield, are in this volume as teachers who analyze, denounce, and attempt to transcend ideology for a more authentic way of thinking. What the reader will discover is that teaching is not merely a matter of holding concepts together, but a way of existing or living in the world. The thinkers in this volume represent this form of teaching as the philosophical search for truth in a world deformed by ideology.

Ideology and Educational Reform traces the underlying ideological problems that make genuine educational reform difficult. It describes three major themes in public education: common school, human capital, and clientelism.

This book lays bare the ideological and political character of the positivist rationality that has been the primary theoretical underpinning of educational research in the United States. These assumptions have expressed themselves in the form and content of curriculum, classroom social relations, classroom cultural artifacts, and the experiences and beliefs of teachers and students. Have existing radical critiques provided the theoretical building blocks for a new theory of pedagogy? The author attempts to move beyond the abstract, negative characteristics of many radical critiques, which are often based on false dualisms that fail to link structure and intentionally, content and process, ideology and hegemony, etc. He also is critical of the over-determined models of socialization and the abstract celebration of subjectivity that underlies much of the false utopianism of many radical perspectives. Professor Giroux begins to lay the theoretical groundwork for developing a radical pedagogy that connects critical theory with the need for social action in the interest of individual freedom and social reconstruction. Author note: Henry A. Giroux is Assistant Professor of Education at Boston University. He is the co-editor of Curriculum and Instruction: Alternatives in Education and The Hidden Curriculum and Moral Education.

Globalisation, Ideology and Education Policy Reforms, which is the 11th volume in the 12-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, presents scholarly research on major discourses concerning globalisation and the politics of education reforms. It reviews some of the ideological imperatives fueling education reforms. It examines critically education reforms within their social, political and global dimensions. It provides an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information about recent developments in globalisation, ideology and trends in education reforms. Above all, the book offers the latest fi- ings to the critical issues concerning major discourses surrounding the nexus between ideology and education reforms in the global culture. It is a sourcebook of ideas for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in education, and schooling around the world. It offers a timely overview of current policy issues affecting education reforms globally. It provides directions in education, and policy research, relevant to progressive pedagogy, social change and transformational educational reforms in the twenty-first century. The book critically examines the overall interplay between the state, ideology and current discourses of education reforms in the global culture. It draws upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, academic achievement, standards, equity and the role of the State (Apple 2004; Carnoy 1999; Zajda et al. 2008). It explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the State, globalisation and quality-driven education reforms.