Alternative schools for troublesome secondary students

Results of a field experiment indicate that a certain kind of secondary school program reduced the disruptive behavior and improved the scholastic performance of students who were about to be suspended or expelled from their conventional schools. The research indicates that the program was demonstrably effective only with those students who were not at the outset extremely depressed and anxious. The essential characteristics of the program are described. The findings document the social psychological processes by which the program achieved its goals. Implications are drawn for a typology of delinquency; causes of delinquent and disruptive behavior; stigmatization; the possibility of an educational program being effective without the direct involvement of disruptive students' families or friends; and for some recurring questions regarding the design of alternative educational programs.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43869/1/11256_2005_Article_BF02171975.pd

The political economy of educational reform in Australia, England and the United States

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The role of education in development: an educationalist’s response to some recent work in development economics

This paper delves beneath the widespread belief that education (often repackaged as human capital) is important in development to consider the role that the discipline of education plays in shaping the wider discourses of development. In particular, it will explore recent texts by important figures in development economics (Collier, Easterly, Sachs and Stiglitz) to see what they say (and don’t say) about education’s role in development and to contrast this with educationalists’ accounts. This will lead on to a consideration of what the implications of such a reading are for the field of international and comparative education. The paper concludes that the relative marginalisation of educational accounts in mainstream development thinking is a major challenge to which international and comparative education needs to respond