Education, Training and Labor

BY CHRIS GEARY As a former traditional public middle school math teacher and charter high school history teacher, it is clear that the question “are charter schools good or bad?” cannot be answered as simply as anyone would like. Before diving into the implications, it is worth defining what charter schools actually are. Essentially, a […]

BY ABEL MCDANIELS Last month, teachers from Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest school system, went on strike for nine days. Among their demands were community schools. A community school intentionally organizes school and community resources to support student success. These schools stay open well beyond 3pm, the typical end to a […]

‘Migrant workers’ is the typical term used to describe migrants who work in Singapore. But they are far more than just workers defined by their labour. Theophilus Kwek argues that we should move beyond the simple trope of ‘migrant workers’ in our discourse on migrant issues, as a first step to seeing them as people whose lives are just as full and fraught as our own, and treating them accordingly.

BY STEVEN OLENDER Julian Castro championed an ambitious expansion of public education while announcing his 2020 presidential bid by advocating for universal Pre-K. His plan, “Pre-K for the USA,” is likely an extension of his Pre-K 4 SA program which works to make high-quality, full-day Pre-K available to all four-year-olds in San Antonio. Pre-K for […]

Abstract African economies are under pressure to grow at a higher rate in order to raise the living standards and create sufficient jobs for its bulging youthful population through application of science, technology, and innovation as articulated in continental and global development agendas such Agenda 2063, and 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals. African universities are […]

As the Syrian refugee crisis continues, reflecting on educational provision for refugee children in Jordan demands a move beyond the crisis approach.

Before 2015, charter schools[1] in Chile were able to select prospective students based on the socioeconomic status of their families, revealed through the ability to pay a copayment;[2] and on other requirements, such as personality tests, admissions tests, marriage certificates, baptism certificates and others[3], that allowed the schools to discriminate against children whose families could […]

Tay Hong Yi examines the psychology behind the “elite” and “neighbourhood” school labels, exploring the link between school names and the prestige associated with “elite” schools. He argues that school names play a role in entrenching educational stratification and have become an indicator of social hierarchy – and that reframing the discussion this way can facilitate more targeted education policy design.

BY WILL LINDSEY As a proud North Carolinian, I’ve frequently found myself explaining the state’s policies and politics to critics. For citizens of our state, it feels like we can’t catch a break. I don’t think the country will soon forget the stain of NC House Bill 2 in 2016. The bill removed anti-discrimination protections […]

BY YUSAKU KAWASHIMA Working conditions in Japan are widely regarded as severely demanding. In fact, there is even a Japanese word, karoshi, that means “death from overwork,” with its own Wikipedia entry.[1] However, as someone who has worked in Japan for more than ten years, I wonder how much of the country’s actual working situation […]

BY LINA HIDALGO In Harris County, Texas, the third largest county in the nation and home to Houston, the “education gap” is something that tens of thousands of families struggle with daily. One-in-five children in Texas is born in Harris County, and nearly 35 percent of them live below the federal poverty line. Low-income students […]

BY ALISON COLLINS AND BAR PELED The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) has done very little over the years to prioritize women—not at its founding, not during its transition to a professional and international institution, and certainly not today. The administration’s failure to address the gender imbalance among the faculty and in the curriculum, as well […]