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Authors’ experiences encourage teachers and learners to consider the impact of integrating an intersensory transformative curriculum that explores how the senses interact with each other in different combinations and hierarchies (see Howes, 2003). Such efforts may require a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of the senses in understanding self with a focus on increasing consciousness, meaning-making, and embodied experiences (Boske, 2011b; Burns, 1978; Eisner, 1994; Noddings, 1984). All human experiences are essential to interpretation of the senses. Attending to the sensorium, which embeds the senses throughout learning, may encourage connectedness among self and others; and ultimately, provide spaces to promote equity in schools. Teachers and learners, in developing this socioecological perspective by designing curricula to include readings and activities centered on deepening personal knowings, can work to collectively engage in making connections among self, social justice and equity, and addressing larger societal issues (Furman, 2012; Jean-Marie et al., 2009).

As school leaders across the world wrestle with ways to think about, respond to, and act upon social justice, this chapter provides a way for school leaders to think about what it means to lead for social justice in schools. The chapter offers a template to ground school leaders in socially just practices. The authors contend those interested in leading schools do not need to wait for external agencies to take actions that align with their beliefs and vision to serve school communities in socially just ways. School leaders have the capacity to demonstrate their convictions and commitment to foster meaningful change. The authors suggest such changes promote opportunities to frame a new common discourse in educational leadership: pursuing a new vision for leading for social justice in schools.

Purpose – This study analyses the potential of cash waqf for the socio-economic development of Kelantan state. A cash waqf scheme was established by the Kelantan Islamic Religious Council (Majlis Agama Islam Kelantan or MAIK) in an effort to contribute to the socio-economic development of the Muslim community in that state.

Methodology/approach – A qualitative method of data acquisition through interviews. Among the informants interviewed were persons well versed with waqf and Islamic affairs, and several relevant public persons in Kelantan.

Findings – The results indicate that the people of Kelantan are optimistic about the success of cash waqf, although the implementation of this instrument is still in its infancy there. The socio-economic development factors of the economy, education, well-being, agriculture, health and religious affairs can be improved with the implementation of cash waqf.

Originality/value – This chapter is the first attempt to discuss the potential of cash waqf in Kelantan.

Victoria University is one of the few Australian dual-sector institutions that offers vocational, further, and higher education programs. The University offers short courses, apprenticeships, certificates, diplomas, degrees, and postgraduate studies to 40,000 students. The campuses are primarily located in the western region of Melbourne (Australia) but include Sydney and international sites. The predominant student cohorts come from low socio-economic backgrounds and are the first in family to attend a university.

This chapter reports on the joint partnership between local councils and Victoria University in the development of collaborative learning hubs that anticipate broader access to learning for community members whilst providing links back to larger campus locations. The intended aim of these partnerships is to increase tertiary participation and completions, whilst engaging/reengaging local community members in the art of learning.

The University has embarked on a project to design and implement collaborative learning hubs that provide tertiary courses in a number of local councils. ¹ The project builds on the strategic directions of both the councils and the University, which sees itself as the University of Opportunity for people who would traditionally struggle to be successful in tertiary education. The two councils that Victoria University is partnering with are Hume City Council and Hobsons Bay City Council.

Using data from the 2000 Program for International Student Assessment, we examined determinants of children’s participation in highbrow cultural activities and its relationship with academic achievement in Hong Kong. We found that family socioeconomic status (SES) and home possessions related to high-status culture were important determinants of children’s participation in highbrow cultural activities. Yet, we found no significant relationship between children’s participation in highbrow cultural activities and academic achievement when controlling for other variables. We highlighted several characteristics of Hong Kong society and its educational system, including the British colonial experience, extreme focus on test preparation, and extensive shadow education, all of which may combine to explain the role of cultural resources in this East Asian society.

This book provides a deeper understanding of what it means to promote social justice and equity work in schools and communities around the world. Throughout this book, narratives describe how authors continue to reshape the agenda for educational reform. They remind us of the significance meaningful relationships play in promoting and sustaining reform efforts that address the injustices vulnerable populations face in school communities. Their voices represent the need for engaging with obstacles and barriers and a resistant world through a web of relationships, an intersubjective reality (see Ayers, 1996). As authors engaged in thinking about addressing injustices, they describe how their thoughts transformed into actions moving beyond, breaking through institutional structures, attempting to rebuild and make sense of their own situations (see Dewey, 1938).

This chapter is part of a larger project that examines recent educational expansion efforts in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, a nation that provides a valuable case study of challenges shaping higher educational expansion efforts in developing countries. The initial goal of the project was to identify supply and demand issues in postsecondary training. Though we did not collect data with the intent to examine neo-institutional or status competition dynamics, this theme emerged inductively from a series of interviews conducted with individuals and focus groups, making it an ideal case study for this volume.

Knowledge-building (KB) pedagogy is a framework that promotes collective inquiry towards the continual resolution of knowledge problems that are relevant to a community (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993). Scardamalia (2002) proposes 12 principles to define KB pedagogy. The aim of this study is to provide a review that analyses the influences of these principles on empirical investigations on KB and the importance of technology in such investigations in order to understand the research trends on this pedagogy. The sample was selected from the most recent products published in the Web of Science database. The content analysis performed showed that researchers focussed mainly on the aspects related to a balanced distribution of knowledge and the improvement of ideas in a KB community. Results of this research suggest the addition of a sixth principle in KB pedagogy, that is, a technological principle. The latter highlights that KB is mediated by technology, which in turn facilitates communicating and sharing ideas within a community.

This chapter offers an integrated framework for the design of educational leadership preparation programs that situate disability in the vision of social justice leadership (SJL) and equity for all students. We examine the extent to which current standards for building-level administrators inform their ability to implement programs for students with disabilities. Utilizing Theoharis’ (2007) definition of social justice leadership (SJL), we propose a broader framework for SJL that accounts for students with disabilities and present four key components upon which the broader framework of SJL rests. We align the updated standards for building-level leaders with the professional standards for special education administrators and describe how the skill sets for special education leaders complement and inform the design of leadership preparation programs to support candidates’ ability to create, sustain, and implement programs that meet the needs of all children. Finally, we argue for an integrated framework of professional standards that provides a more comprehensive set of skills necessary for meeting the needs of each and every student in the school, and we provide recommendations for leadership preparation programs to achieve this integration.

More than 80 percent of contemporary nation-states have founded educational ministries and compulsory education laws over the past two centuries (UNESCO, 2000). How modern state systems originated and have expanded is one of the classic questions of cross-national studies. A major reason, apart from structural variation that many social scientists observe, is that modern state systems are nearly universal. For instance, the structural arrangements of educational ministries and legal elements of compulsory education laws are fairly similar across nations, though the ages for free compulsory education vary and the names of educational ministries have changed over time (e.g. ministries of vocational education and training, secondary and special higher education, and adult education). The historical construction of educational ministries and laws are critical instances to illuminate the organizational reality of state action, reflecting modern state systems that have been deeply institutionalized throughout the world.¹