Classical Political Economy and the Role of Universities in the New Knowledge Economy

Higher education has become the new star ship in the policy fleet for governments around the world. The public policy focus on higher education, in part, reflects a growing consensus in macroeconomics of 'new growth' or 'endogenous growth' theory, based on the work of Solow, Lucas and Romer that argues that the driving force behind economic growth is technological change (i.e. improvements in knowledge about how we transform inputs into outputs in the production process). Knowledge about technology and levels of information flow are now considered critical for economic development and can account for differential growth patterns. In short, universities are seen to be a key driver towards the knowledge economy. Accordingly, higher education institutions have been encouraged to develop links with industry and business in a series of new venture partnerships. This emphasis in higher education policy also accords with initiatives to promote greater entrepreneurial skills and activity within so-called national systems of innovation. This paper focuses upon the economic importance of higher education as a key component of the knowledge economy. It discusses the genealogy and contributing strands to the newly emerging discourse and considers universities in the knowledge-driven economy by reference to the UK White Paper Our Competitive Future. It also considers the arguments advanced by Joseph Stiglitz (ex-Chief Economist of the World Bank) for the 'analytics of the knowledge economy' and discusses universities in terms of 'knowledge cultures'. Finally, the paper provides a critique of the policy discourse of the knowledge economy as a basis of the new challenges facing universities under knowledge capitalism.     

The Cyberspace Challenge: Modernity,post-modernity and reflections on international networking policy

The emergence of global communications networks raises many new questions on the nature of pluralism, community, the delivery of education, the construction of knowledge and the role of comparative educators in a post-Cold War, post-industrialized world. Issues of ownership and power, how knowledge and services are defined and distributed and how technological 'have-nots' are given full and autonomous access to networks will become major policy issues. Educators will need to broaden their perspectives to be more interdisciplinary and knowledgeable of trends and learnings in many different professional and occupation areas if they are to effectively meet the increasing challenges to traditional learning and institutions posed by the new network environment. The author addresses these issues, cites his learning from the rapidly growing area of telemedicine and concludes with recommendations to assist comparative educators address a growing international crisis in education.     

Increasing the Value of the Environment: A 'real options' metaphor for learning

Academic debate continues about the meaning (or lack of meaning) of the terms 'sustainable development' and 'sustainability', and about the nature of any relationship these might have to education and learning. At the same time there are non-academic forums in which certain ideas about sustainable development (or sustainability) are becoming common currency. These are forums in which, typically, policy or compliance issues compel more or less prompt action of one sort or another. Learning is almost always implicit to some degree in such action. In this article, one widely held idea about sustainable development is critiqued in a constructive way, and an approach to thinking about issues of sustainable development and learning (including formal education) advanced. This approach employs a metaphor for possible human interactions with non-human nature that is derived from the world of financial management.     

高校学生对可持续发展的认知研究——基于全球261所高校的调查数据

联合国教科文组织自2015年以来在全球范围内开展了一项针对高校学生的可持续发展认知测试，其测试结果开创性地勾勒出了高校学生可持续发展认知的全球图景。基于该测试第一批次全球261所高校的调查数据分析发现，高校学生已具备基本的可持续发展知识和素养，可持续教育已普遍纳入高校的培养计划，未来需要更多地在实践活动中培养学生的可持续责任意识，“可持续发展为导向的大学”理念广泛受到认同与传播。中国高校学生在测试中整体表现优于国际平均水平，这是近年来我国高校开展可持续教育的成果体现。可持续发展教育的进一步推进需要政策、理论和实践等多层面的支持和联动。我国高校围绕立德树人的重要目标，应把可持续发展理念融入学生核心素养和综合素质培养之中。     

Developing sustainability-literate citizens through outdoor learning: possibilities for outdoor education in Higher Education

UNESCO's challenge to Higher Education institutions to provide educational leadership in sustainable development, provides an impetus to develop innovative, interdisciplinary curricula and pedagogy. Whereas Higher Education curricula in sustainability and sustainable development have tended to come from the environmental sciences, recent studies have highlighted the need for more holistic, experiential, interdisciplinary approaches. As a pedagogical approach, outdoor learning may have something to offer since it lends itself to holistic and experiential learning and enables integration of knowledge and skills from a range of discipline areas. Outdoor and environmental education research suggests that educational experiences in outdoor settings can be significant in developing environmental sensitivity and knowledge. Such knowledge and attitudes are components of ecological literacy and, more recently, sustainability literacy. This paper considers how outdoor experiential pedagogy might contribute to the current sustainability education agenda. It focuses on Higher Education since this sector has the obligation and the capability of instigating a ‘ripple’ effect' in developing sustainability-literate citizens. It discusses possibilities and issues arising from a review of outdoor, environmental and sustainability education literature, particularly, but not exclusively, from the UK. The paper is a precursor to an empirical study into how outdoor learning might contribute to the development of sustainability-literate graduates.     

Untangling the Net

Abstract

The importance of computer training in social work education will continue to increase as the profession becomes more globalized and technological. It is the authors' premise that social work education must include the integration of training in computer technology. One resource available to educators is the Internet. The world wide web contains a vast amount of information on policy and social issues. This article discusses the use of web based learning exercises to simultaneously teach social policy and enhance student computer skills. Two learning exercises are presented which are designed for use in social work policy courses. The authors present their teaching experiences and provide suggestions on using this approach in the classroom environment. Information on resources and useful URL's for policy research is included in the discussion.     

Environmental Thought,the Language of Sustainability,and Digital Watches

The field of education, and derivatively environmental education, is filled with inherently difficult concepts, yet we have not, I believe, given sufficient attention to understanding these ideas that ground our work. For example, the term 'education for sustainability,' has gained rapid acceptance yet little critical attention has been given to the term. Before launching into a critique, I do acknowledge the importance of 'sustainability' and the usefulness of this concept in environmental thinking. Many ecological processes are not sustained-not kept going continuously. Species are going extinct at an alarming rate and whole ecosystems are at risk. So, it is important to talk about sustainability. However, I argue that this alone is not sufficient. In this article I examine limitations associated with the language of sustainability and their implications for environmental thinking. Using the idea of digital watches as a metaphor, I explore what sustainability is not. Contemporary examples from advertising, curriculum development, and 'wildlife management' will be used to illustrate the central theme.     

Faith-Based Schooling and the Invisible Effects of 11 September 2001: The view from England

The specific problematic of this paper is the effects of the events of 11 September on English education policy, particularly policy surrounding faith schooling. One story to be told is one of an absence of effect, of policy discussions and directions continuing on the same trajectory before and after that date, a story of 'no U-turn'. However, this article presents an alternative account that recognizes important effects, but effects that have largely remained below the surface. The central focus of the paper is the symbolic power of 11 September operating around an axis of destabilization. It is argued that the event symbolizes a disruption of myths of urban order and of the 'safe' accommodations between modernity and postmodernity; and that there has been an analogous impact on the myth of liberalism as the all-encompassing voice of reason and civilization. '11 September', it is suggested, serves as a potent reminder of the fundamental tensions in models of liberal education, evident, in particular, in the paradox of 'liberal imperialism'. It can thus be effectively mobilized in policy discussions by either regressive or progressive thinkers. The paper draws attention to the way in which these tensions and mobilization practices can be seen behind current English policy debates on faith schooling. It concludes that intensified public anxieties about 'Osama Bin Laden academies' fundamentally undermining 'our way of life' have not coalesced into anything 'measurable'; but that the lack of a U-turn by New Labour on the faith schooling issue could be understood as an important 'intervention' designed to act as one stabilizing message in destabilized times.     

'All the Names': Leas and the making of pupil and community identities

The coming of LEAs in 20th-century England presented an administrative challenge and an information explosion as the local state worked to meet both local and national educational policy demands. This paper will analyse the ways in which the organisation of knowledge was enlisted into the service of local education policy-making. It will argue that the collection of data by the local state involved both the construction of knowledge and its ordering. These processes in turn involved the creation of an 'education archive', an archive in which ideas about pupils and communities were embedded and genealogies of identity created. The paper will be illustrated through a case study of Birmingham LEA. In particular, use will be made of the Education Census, 1907-1970.     

“Doing the Math”: Maternal Beliefs About Early Mathematics Versus Language Learning

Research Findings: Little is known about how parents approach preschoolers' mathematics learning and how this aligns with early mathematics education research and policy. This study examined these questions by contrasting parents' approaches to early mathematics and language and by exploring key themes in parents' talk about mathematics learning and education. Consistent with current research and policy, parents reported helping preschoolers learn mathematics and attempting to connect this learning to children's interests and everyday experiences. However, parents admitted to lacking goals for and knowledge about early mathematics. In addition, compared to language, parents reported that mathematics was taught less often at home, should be emphasized less in preschools, was less interesting to preschoolers, required more direct instruction, and was less of a personal interest and strength. Practice or Policy: Parent interventions could capitalize on parents' beliefs and practices by providing parents with concrete examples of what mathematics preschoolers learn through daily activities, how to maximize children's mathematics interests, and what the similarities are between early mathematics and language. These efforts will also need to help parents overcome their mathematics anxieties and show parents why early mathematics education is important. Similar strategies could be used to help early childhood teachers improve their mathematics practice.     

Changes

This article explores the impact that e-business is likely to have on the provision of open and distance learning (ODL). It argues the likelihood of a major growth in the use of distance education, and the emergence of global consortia, possibly built around disaggregated value chains, that will create one or more global virtual universities. It suggests the technological developments that will underpin this process, the nature of the value-net-based relationships between institutions engaged in consortia, and the qualities of the Web that are impacting on ODL. It discusses such issues as the development of new e-learning pricing models; the use of Web advertising to generate income; the importance of scale and the concomitant pressure for institutional mergers and alliances; and the impact of e-commerce practices on administrative processes. The article suggests the emergence of hubs that bundle services customers want onto a single website, and the pressure for institutions to become 'sticky' in order to secure customer loyalty. Design strategies to ensure 'stickiness' are suggested. Existing ODL providers will need to address the challenges posed by e-business practice if they are to compete.     

Virtue Epistemology and the Philosophy of Education

This article initially provides a brief overview of virtue epistemology; it thereafter considers some possible ramifications of this branch of the theory of knowledge for the philosophy of education. The main features of three different manifestations of virtue epistemology are first explained. Importantly, it is then maintained that developments in virtue epistemology may offer the resources to critique aspects of the debate between Hirst and Carr about how the philosophy of education ought to be carried out and by whom. Wilfred Carr's position—that educational practitioners have privileged access to philosophical knowledge about teaching practice—will in particular be questioned. It will be argued that Carr's view rests on a form of epistemology, internalism, which places unreasonably narrow restrictions upon the range of actors and ways, in which philosophical knowledge of and/or for education might be achieved. In declaring that practical wisdom regarding teaching is ‘entirely dependent’ on practitioner reflection, Carr not only radically deviates from Aristotle's notion of practical wisdom, he also, in effect, renders redundant all philosophical research about education that is not initiated by teachers in this manner. It is concluded that Aristotle's general approach to acquiring information and knowledge about the world might yet still offer a foundation for a more comprehensive philosophy of education; one that makes clear that the professional testimony and reflection of teachers, observation of teaching practice, and already existing educational philosophy, theory and policy can all be perceived as potentially valuable sources of philosophical knowledge of and for education.     

后疫情时代美国大学的走向

过去几个月，新冠肺炎疫情成为高等教育界无法回避的话题。后疫情时代的美国大学将出现若干明显的变化，如：大学经营模式逐渐“优步化”，教育变得更廉价和更具私人订制色彩，学校成为终身学习的中心，大学的公共利益定位和承诺得到加强，人文学科的危机加剧。困难和危机也迫使人们认识到人文学科在机器学习时代同样不可或缺，从而去反思教育的深层次问题，如教育与政治、技术以及社会的关系。     

Sustainability in the Architectural Design Studio: A Case Study of Designing On‐Campus Academic Staff Housing in Konya and Izmir,Turkey

It is important to engender a 'sustainable’ architectural consciousness in the students who will be the next generation architects. In architectural education, design decisions taken during the early phases of the design process play an important role in ensuring concern for the sustainability issue. But, in general, all discussions about the site that have been held since the beginning of the semester get forgotten, and at the end of the design process students usually create projects that ignore the site criteria. In this article, a specific teaching methodology which supports the sustainability issue in the design studio is presented as a teaching/learning experience. The article is an overview of the design studio process illustrated by a case study on academic staff campus housing in Konya and ?zmir, Turkey. To solve the same problem with the same brief in different regions requires developing sensitivity to climate issues. The resulting product is good evidence that teaching about sustainability in the design studio is effective.     

New Challenges and Opportunities for Lifelong Learning in South Africa

The imperatives for lifelong learning in South Africa are driven by its reinsertion into the global economy and by the social and political necessities of equity and redress after the years of colonialism, segregation and apartheid. It is therefore not surprising to find the discourse of lifelong learning infused into new policy documents. Utilizing Belanger's framework, which argues that lifelong learning is not a norm to prescribe but an empirical reality to analyze and reconstruct, the contexts for lifelong learning in South Africa are surveyed by focusing in on the state of initial education, adult education, and the learning environments. The framework, which acknowledges the daily lived realities of women and men, is a helpful way of retaining an holistic and integrated vision of lifelong learning and its humanistic, democratic goals. For lifelong learning in South Africa to deepen for more than a small group of well-educated, mainly urban, formally employed people, the author concludes that initial education, adult education and the learning environments of all the people will have to be improved. If this does not happen, then at least two polarized 'lifelong educations' will result.     

Crises as catalysts for change: re-energising teacher education in Northern Ireland

Background: Teacher education has been the subject of a seven-year review culminating with the issuing of a consultation document Teacher education in a climate of change: The way forward (Department for Employment and Learning and Department for Education 2010). Issues of rationalisation, demographic trends, the over-provision of teachers and the cost of initial teacher education inter alia dominated the agenda.

Purpose: The paper seeks to assess the ways in which the current economic climate, student tuition fees, reduced income from government and the declining demographic situation will affect recruitment, on the profile of applicants to teacher education, on widening access and participation, and on models of teacher education. As the environment becomes increasingly globally competitive, issues surrounding the nature, quality, cost and content of programmes will be analysed.

Sources of evidence: Data that informs the paper derive from multiple sources including education policy documents, review and strategy documents, research reports and relevant research literature. It will be complemented by the author's knowledge and experience as a teacher, teacher educator and international researcher, and sustained contributor to the formulation, implementation and evaluation of teacher education policy in NI.

Main argument: With the predicted reduction in expenditure for higher education in NI likely to be considerable over the next four years, substantial cuts in teacher education are inevitable. At a time when participation rates for under-represented groups are being encouraged, higher student fees and reduced quotas will impede the goal of achieving a more equitable teaching workforce. Rather than concentrating on the uncertainties that characterise the current economic climate, it will be important not to focus exclusively on survival and sustainability but on longer-term opportunities for transforming and re-conceptualising teacher education.

Conclusions: All of the current national teacher education review documents in England, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland highlight the need to improve teacher education. Irrespective of the constraining global financial situation, a career-long model for teachers' professional learning is overdue. It is possible, even in financially challenging circumstances, to realise the opportunities for creative change to ensure that teacher education maintains its high standards and reputation. Enhanced resourcing by itself does not necessarily guarantee enhanced provision.     

'The Trouble with Our Schools': A media construction of public discourses on Queensland schools

This paper gives an account of competing public discourses on schooling. In particular, it investigates one newspaper's coverage of the release of an educational report. The paper combines interview data with a critical discourse analysis of newspaper texts to show how media reporting of Queensland schools constructed a preferred discourse on education that represented schools as being in crisis, 'in trouble'. The analysis describes how the paper shaped popular opinion on educational policy through the construction of public discourses of crisis in education. Further, the analysis shows how this discourse positioned particular groups as the authoritative voice on standards in Queensland schools. It shows how, at a time when teacher quality was under question, the media constructed a public discourse that diminished the authority of teachers to speak about education policy, granting that authority to the newspaper's editor, who assumed the people's voice on educational issues. This analysis of the construction of public discourses about education policy gives insights into the media's place in educational policy-making. In so doing, the paper adds to the small body of literature that investigates the relationships between the media and education.     

Is this what we want them to say? Examining the tensions in what U.S. preservice teachers say about risk and academic achievement

Questions abound in the U.S. based teacher education literature about the kind of knowledge teachers should possess about learning and academic achievement that will enable them to provide all students with an equitable, effective schooling experience. This article examines how a group of preservice teachers—enrolled in a teacher education program that challenges deficit thinking—understand and talk about academic achievement, paying particular attention to the extent to which the candidates account for academic achievement and recognize potential academic risk. Based on the paradoxical stability and tentativeness of teacher candidates' talk about risk, academic achievement and the deployment of the “at-risk” category, I suggest the need to illuminate the complex body of knowledge that informs teacher candidates' understanding, particularly the knowledge deployed in teacher education curriculum.     

中职生的升学选择及影响因素研究——基于全国10660名中职生的调查

基于中等职业教育基础性转向的政策背景,通过对全国10660位中职生的问卷调查,研究了影响我国中职生升学的若干因素。研究发现：中职生具有很高的升学意愿,且以本科为主要期望学历;毕业班和学习自我效能感强的中职生更可能选择升学;学生干部身份和学校生涯教育质量会影响中职生升学意愿;家庭对中职生升学与否的影响主要体现在经济、文化和社会资本,但影响方式和程度与普高生存在差异;对省域中职升学政策的了解和认同会促进学生升学,而对就业市场和本科招生政策的了解和认同会削弱中职生升学意愿。基于此,未来应从职教本科办学规模、高等职业教育招考机制、央地项目设置、公共财政兜底、生涯教育和升学指导等方面优化中职升学环境。     

The Applicability of the Risk and Resilience Model to Social Problems of Students with Learning Disabilities: Response to Bernice Wong

The purpose of this article is to respond to Bernice Wong's questions regarding the efficacy of the risk and resilience model for studying social problems in students with learning disabilities. Two factors render this framework particularly inviting to special education researchers. First, it is inherently optimistic because it assumes that once we identify factors that contribute to resilience, we can train less‐resistant individuals to be more resilient. As such, it moves us away from deficit models to empowering models. Second, the model forces us to look beyond the characteristics of the individual to consider external factors that have a significant influence on development and behavior. At the same time, however, we still need to advance our knowledge regarding the basic dimensions of social problems among students with learning disabilities. Hence, this article argues for multiple approaches to advancing knowledge about students with learning disabilities.