The authors analyse macro-level political decisions across various societies as well as individual actions and experiences to advocate for a more inclusive and effective education system capable of driving social change. They consider relationships between politics, education and social change – in various contexts and dimensions. The macro level of educational policy (and politics) is confronted with the micro realities of human biographies. However, the authors do not consider people who are influenced by political decisions as incapacitated "mass". Thus, social change always results from these macro-micro connections. This interdisciplinary book includes themes related to political sciences, education, and sociology, which resulted from the authors' study of contemporary social and education phenomena. It gives insight into interesting paradoxes and controversies.

This book compares, from a historical and sociopolitical perspective, the respective systems and contents of music education in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in response to globalization, localization and Sinificiation, with particular reference to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei.

Democratizing educational access and building capacity in developing countries and amongst indigenous peoples in developed countries may be elusive but are hopeful goals. Many developing countries are striving to reengineer their incoherent education systems at a time when they are most vulnerable, particularly with susceptibility to natural disasters, political unrests, and economic instabilities (UNESCO, 2007). Similarly, indigenous peoples in developed countries are seeking more control over education as they consider the long?term effects of educational policies that have been forced on them. Research on education and social change in developing countries has a long history (Glewwe, 2002; Hanushek, 1995; Sider, 2011). However, there is limited research on educational capacity?building in developing countries such as Kenya, Honduras, Haiti, Ghana, Hong Kong, India, Peru, China, and Thailand. Further, the educational frameworks by which Indigenous peoples (M?ori, Canada’s First Nations, and American Indian/Alaska Natives) have been educated have some significant similarities to those encountered in developing countries. The compilation of chapters illuminates research and collaborative initiatives between the authors and local leaders in developing countries’ and Indigenous peoples in developed countries’ efforts to solve the complexity of social inequities through educational access and quality learning. The authors draw on theoretical lens, knowledge bases, and strategies, and identify trends and developments to provide the scope of educational improvement in a globalization context (Brooks & Normore, 2010; Jean?Marie, Normore & Brooks, 2009).

understanding Mantras explores the origin, nature, function, and significance of mantras within the bounds of the hindu tradition. It analyses the use of mantras in the Vedic age in the gtreat theistic movements of Saivism and Vaisnavism, and in Tantra. A brief introduction by Alper outlines the major controversies in Western scholarship concerning the nature of mantras and gives an insightful and suggestive paradigm for resolving the issues. It approaches a bibliography on all of Hinduism and will serve as an invaluable tool for future research.

Education Reform and Social Change is about addressing and changing the structures, policies, and practices of schools that differentially advantage white, middle class, native English speakers over students of color for whom English may be a second or additional language. It is also about helping people to think critically about what it is schools do and to consider more democratic, participatory, and equitable approaches. The chapters in the text provide first-hand documentation of the voices, struggles, and visions of students, parent activists, advocates, attorneys, and educators involved in educational and social change processes. It chronicles real-life efforts of people challenging the status quo and working to build a more participatory, equitable, and transformative future. The goal of this book is twofold: first, to consider the structures, policies, and practices that shape and limit educational change, and learning and teaching; and second, to document grassroots collaborative and creative efforts to change them. It offers a critical framework both for conceptualizing and for actualizing educational change. Organized into four sections, this book provides a theoretical and practical framework for thinking about educational reform and social change -- one that moves from the broader structural concerns that are embedded in policy, to case studies that document activism and collaborative efforts to change school, city, and state policies, to classroom-based directions and initiatives, and to the construction of personal and collective visions for a more democratic, equitable, and just education. Each section includes an overview of the chapters, necessary background information to help the reader contextualize what follows, and guiding questions to encourage reflective thought and engagement with the text and to invite personal linkages. Two resource sections are included at the end of the volume: "Radical Educational Reform, Critical Pedagogy, and Multicultural Education: Selected Readings and Resources" and "National Organization Networks and Resources with a Critical Perspective."

This brief, interpretive history of American schooling focuses on the evolving relationship between education and social change. Like its predecessors, this new edition investigates the impact of social forces such as industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and cultural conflict on the development of schools and other educational institutions. It also examines the various ways that schools have contributed to social change, particularly in enhancing the status and accomplishments of certain social groups and not others. Detailed accounts of the experiences of women and minority groups in American history consider how their lives have been affected by education at key points in the past. Updates to this edition A revised final chapter updated to include recent changes in educational politics, finance, policy, and a shifting federal policy context Enhanced coverage and new conceptual frames for understanding the experiences of women and people of color in the midst of social change Edited throughout to update information and sources regarding the history of American education and related processes of social transformation in the nation’s past

In academia, the effects of the “cultural turn” have been felt deeply. In everyday life, tenets from cultural politics have influenced how people behave or regard their options for action, such as the reconfiguration of social movements, protests, and praxis in general.

Education policy and practice has historically been developed within the national/regional context. However, globalization has prompted educationalists to review their practice in the light of international influences. World issues such as global warming, conflict and the depletion of earth resources have also contributed to an increased awareness of the role that education can play in resolving these problems. The contributors focus on how education can bring about social change while connecting with theory at the level of cultural impact and policy implications. They investigate the potential for creating a transnational value system in education, focusing on some key human rights issues both at home and overseas. Truly international in scope, this text lays the groundwork for future research by exposing the commonalities and differences in approaches to knowledge production and its dissemination, drawing together contributions from a variety of cross cultural contexts.

Market reform, financial decentralization, and economic globalization have greatly accentuated China's social and regional inequalities. Education is expected to address these inequalities in a context of rapid social change, including the rise of an urban middle class, changed status of women, resurgence of ethnic identities, growing rural to urban migration, and lingering poverty in remote areas. But some argue that state policies have not sufficiently addressed inequitable practices, and that schools actually perpetuate and reproduce inequities, giving rise to a new system of social stratification driven more by market forces than socialist principles. Featuring all original, previously unpublished material, this volume examines this argument through analysis of selected aspects of educational stratification in China during the reform era. Chapters focus on the new urban middle class, poor rural residents, the migrant population in urban areas, rural girls, and ethnic minorities. The contributors are established scholars in the field, and they build a conceptual framework for assessing the degree to which China's educational reforms are inclusive, equitable, and integrative across social categories and groups.

Critical Theorist Carlos Alberto Torres offers a political sociology of adult learning and education, based on Critical Social Theory and the always inspiring work of Paulo Freire. Empirically grounded and theoretically sophisticated, this new book follows the footsteps of his classic book published in the early nineties The Politics of Nonformal Education in Latin America. Torres book offers comparative and international sociological analyses of adult learning and education, an area in which there is an obsession with ‘practice’ and an aversion to theory, with some notable and laudable exceptions, but which has the potential to provide avenues for social justice education in ways that no other systems and policies can. This book revitalizes social theory in education, and provides ample evidence of the power of adult learning and education, examining a variety of policy documents connected with the various adult education congresses promoted by the UNESCO, which are thoroughly scrutinized for what they bring to or omit from the policy agenda. In the context of new developments in adult learning and education, particularly the impact of multiple globalizations, neoliberalism, and the new role of international organizations in reconceptualizing lifelong learning, new evidence-based research, new narratives, and the vibrancy of social movements striving for a new and possible world, it is clear that new theoretical designs were needed making this is a must-read book.