Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Policy-Making in Education: A Holistic Approach in Response to Global Changes

This book is based on the notion that an adequate response to globalization challenges requires a holistic approach to several different dimensions - immigration, technology, economy, and environment - as well as effective collaboration and coordination among the central domains of education: curriculum, teaching, and teacher education. Several cases of policy-making are presented in order to elicit common features as guidelines for the holistic policy-making model proposed in this book. First, this central framework views the different dimensions of globalization as requiring connection and integration. Second, the proposed approach asserts that three major aspects of education that are vital for policy in education - curriculum, teaching, and teacher education - must also be integrated. Finally, the process of policy-making is perceived as requiring close interaction and coordination between diverse stakeholders and representatives of the different aspects of globalization. The book presents a conceptual model for policy-making, as well as details of operational steps in this process. Review Ben-Peretz offers scholars, policy-makers, and educators an examination of educational policy-making in the context of the new demands and challenges of globalization.--Research Book News, August 2009 Not only does Ben-Peretz's lucid prose inform readers of the dramatically shifting world landscape encasing their daily experiences, her profound message provides suggestions concerning responsible and respectful action because, as she maintains, human beings are not without agency -- even in uncertain times. . . . Miriam Ben-Peretz productively addresses the theory-practice-policy divide in Policy-Making in Education: A Holistic Approach in Response to Global Changes in a way that others have not done. I highly commend the volume to readers.--Teachers College Record, November 2009 With this outstanding book one can set out on an exceptional and provocative journey which offers universal national and personal views. All of them reveal ideas and wisdom as they focus on policy-making in education.--Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education This important book comes at exactly the right time when cross-cultural curriculum issues have become the principal educational topic worldwide. There are three strengths of the book that will attract a wide readership. It takes an integrated, holistic, approach at a time when academic and policy fragmentation is rampant. It focuses on socio-cultural and educational issues amidst overwhelming one-sided technological, economic and political discussion of globalization. Its most important strength is that it approaches education with a curriculum, teaching, and learning starting point. Readers herein will find an intellectually rewarding alternative to most abstract postmodern theory and policy writings on this crucial topic. Ben Peretz's writing is always topical and always conceptually far reaching while being down to earth and practical. This book solidifies that reputation.--F Michael Connelly, professor emeritus, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto With insight, clarity, and a lifetime of experience, Ben-Peretz reveals how globalization affects every nations' ability to educate new immigrants and design sensible curriculum for rapidly changing societies. She raises issues every educator must address in an age of interdependence and interconnectedness of people and economies.--David C. Berliner, Regents' Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University As the earth grows flatter and smaller, neither schools nor the policies that guide them can remain locked in the past. Miriam Ben-Peretz, whose innovative thinking about curriculum and schooling has guided the field for several decades, now offers the educational world exciting new ideas for responding to those changes with courage and creativity.--Lee Shulman, president emeritus, The Carnegie Fou