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POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS KEY VARIABLE IN THE CONTEMPORARY PROCESS OF DEMOCRATIZATION. POWERFUL POLITICAL LEADERS WERE ALSO A SALIENT FEATURE OF CANADA'S TRANSITION FROM THE AUTHORITARIAN, GOVERNOR-CONTROLLED REGIMES IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY TO MODERN DEMOCRATIC CONDITIONS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. CANADA'S POLITICAL LEADERSHIP TRADITION, WHICH VALUED COMPROMISE AND ACCOMMODATION, IS OFTEN HAILED AS EXEMPLARY BUT HAS COME IN FOR CONSIDERABLE CRITICISM SINCE 1982 AS CANADIAN POLITICIANS CONTINUE TO FAIL IN THEIR ATTEMPTS TO FIND A BASIC CONSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION OF THE CANADIAN STATE ACCEPTABLE TO QUEBEC AND THE REST OF CANADA. THIS ARTICLE ASSESSES THE CANADIAN TRADITION AND ARGUES THAT THE IMAGE OF PAST CANADIAN LEADERS HAS CONVENTIONALLY BEEN IDEALIZED. AN IMPORTANT LESSON TO BE LEARNED FROM THE CANADIAN CASE IS THAT LEADERS WHO ASSISTED IN THE TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY IN NORTH AMERICA WORKED IN GENERALLY FAVORABLE CONDITIONS OF ECONOMIC AND TERRITORIAL EXPANSION AND OFTEN RESORTED TO PARTY BUILDING TECHNIQUES OF PATRONAGE, INFLUENCE AND CORRUPTION WHICH ARE DENOUNCED WHEN USED BY CONTEMPORARY LEADERS IN NEW DEMOCRATIC POLITIES.

This article analyses research literature and policy texts to investigate the extent to which culturally responsive education policies can improve Māori achievement in schools. It presents a snapshot of current levels of Māori inequity, which is followed by an account of the history of Māori education policy to illustrate the origins of the current situation. Contemporary policies for Māori education, based on cultural responsiveness, are analysed in terms of their potential to succeed in overcoming Māori inequity. While it is important for teachers and schools to engage in culturally responsive practice, blind faith in these policies as "the solution" to Māori underachievement is unrealistic, and has the potential to place unfair responsibility for raising Māori student achievement on schools and teachers, rather than on government or policy itself.

This article unpacks and critiques the scholarship of Elizabeth Rata on the politics of knowledge in education. Rata represents a widespread, though covert, influence within the global academy of an imperialist form of philosophical universalism which has particular significance for Aotearoa New Zealand due to her vocal opposition to Kaupapa Māori education and Māori politics more generally. This article uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to focus on the arguments of one key article, in order to expose its philosophical weaknesses. Our analysis shows that Rata's scholarship is based on misconceptions of several key terms and concepts, which inexorably lead to inadequate arguments and invalid conclusions, and undermine the cogency of her claims about the 'dangers' of Kaupapa Māori education.

This paper discusses the design of a problem‐based learning approach that seeks to embed industrial knowledge in the enterprise resource planning (ERP)‐related curriculum of universities. It describes a project that is developing a business reference model for public administration. This reference model is to be implemented in the leading ERP system SAP R/3. Teaching cases are developed through collaboration between universities and industry. The paper argues that this approach is in alignment with the recommendations of key curriculum documents and educational approaches.