Knowledge: Epistemological and Ideological Shifts -- Changing Educational Landscapes: An Introduction -- The Owl of Athena: Reflective Encounters with the Greeks on Pedagogical Eros and the Paideia of the Soul (Psyche) -- Implications of the New Social Characteristics of Knowledge Production -- University Reform in Greece: A Shift from Intrinsic to Extrinsic Values -- Universities and Pricing on Higher Education Markets -- Access and Transitions -- Providing Access to Education: Intercultural and Knowledge Issues in the Curriculum -- Access and Transitions in Education -- Educational Inequalities in Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom: A Comparative Analysis of the Origins -- Old and New Solidarities -- Public Education, Migration, and Integration Policies in France -- The Inclusion of Invisible Minorities in the EU Member States: The Case of Greek Jews in Greece -- Learning and Teaching, Quality and Assessment -- Education Quality: Research Priorities and Approaches in the Global Era -- Pupil Assessment in a Historical Perspective: Contribution to the Contemporary Debate -- Recent Trends in Early Childhood Curriculum: The Case of Greek and English National Curricula -- Pre-service Teachers’ Intercultural Competence: Japan and Finland -- Redefining Space -- Internationalising Higher Education: Debates and Changes in Europe -- Nation-State, Diaspora and Comparative Education: The Place of Place in Comparative Education -- The Role of the Nation-State Reconsidered -- Coda.

Analyzing educational landscapes – the fundamental values, principles and institutions of the sector – is a highly complex and demanding task for any researcher. Like shifting desert sands, these aspects of education are in a constant state of flux, changing according to the unpredictable economic, social, cultural and geo-political circumstances of late modernity. Key aspects of the intricate, fluid and multifarious contemporary setting can always escape the researcher’s necessarily selective observation. The contributors to this book share the view that it is wise, therefore, to take note of other people’s ideas, perceptions and perspectives, to compare notes and reflect critically on them. Thus the papers presented here are a critical and comparative analysis of today’s changing educational landscapes. They are an exploration of some of the forces and factors that induce these changes, and also examine some of their most significant implications. The work takes a fresh look at received ideology and institutional practices and delineates the increasingly internationalized educational discourses and policies. Among other things, the book discusses the obsession with quality in education and the alternative perceptions of educational equality; the rising concern at the obstacles to truly multicultural education, and the debate about the epistemological foundations both of knowledge and knowledge production. Underlying all of the papers in the book is the authors’ intention to enhance our understanding of educational change in this era of transition and to further our appreciation of its multifaceted expressions across the world.