Education and educational research, according to the current fashion, are supposed to be concerned with what works, to the exclusion of all other considerations. All over the world, and particularly in the English-speaking countries, governments look for means of improving student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. Although such improvements are often to be welcomed, they do not answer all significant questions about what constitutes good education. Also the research on which they are based is not the only legitimate way to do educational research. Social research, and...

Pushing 'social' responsibilities on schools is a process that has been underway for a long time. This phenomenon has been studied more in Europe than in North America and the U.K. and has been labelled Padagogisierung. The editors have chosen to use 'Educationalization' to identify the overall orientation or trend toward thinking about education as the focal point for addressing or solving larger human problems. The term describes these phenomena as a sub-process of the 'modernization' of society, but it also has negative connotations, such as increased dependence, patronization, and...

The powerful Thai politician Banharn Silpa-archa has been disparaged as a corrupt operator who for years channeled excessive state funds into developing his own rural province. This book reinterprets Banharm's career and offers a detailed portrait of the voters who support him. Relying on extensive interviews, the author shows how Banharm's constituents have developed a strong provincial identity based on their pride in his advancement of their province, Suphanburi, which many now call "Banharm-buri," the place of Banharm. Yoshinori Nishizaki's analysis challenges simplistic perceptions of...

Developments in educational systems worldwide have largely contributed to the modernization and globalization of present-day society. However, in order to fully understand their impact, educational systems must be interpreted against a background of particular situations and contexts. This textbook brings together more than twenty (collaborative) contributions focusing on the two key themes in the work of Marc Depaepe: educationalization and appropriation.

Compiled for his international master classes, these selected writings provide not only a thorough introduction to the history of...

The closely argued and provocative contributions to this volume challenge psychology's hegemony as an interpretive paradigm in a range of social contexts such as education and child development. They start from the core observation that modern psychology has successfully penetrated numerous domains of society in its quest to develop a properly scientific methodology for analyzing the human mind and behaviour. For example, educational psychology continues to hold a central position in the curricula of trainee teachers in the US, while the language of developmental psychology holds primal...