Further Education and Training: A comparison of policy models in Britain and Norway

This article compares further education and training (FET) policy in Britain and Norway. FET stands for the transmission of knowledge and skills to the existing workforce, as distinct from initial education and training (IET), which qualifies new entrants to work. FET policy has, in both countries, in recent years increasingly been committed to the idea of market organisation. Policy suggestions in this area seem to be guided by three different theoretical perspectives: the model of perfect competition markets, public choice perspectives and social integration perspectives, emphasising collective arrangements. The article argues that while British policy has pursued the model of autonomous markets, Norwegian policy is committed to a mixed model. The mixed model combines market organisation with collective arrangements. This is seen as an example of planned markets, a concept developed in Swedish research on health reform. The interference of labour market training in the system designed for FET complicates the evaluation of the two FET models.     

关于农村教育市场建设的思考

教育市场是市场经济条件下教育得以发展的土壤。教育市场的二元结构，尤其是农村教育市场的匮乏，已经成为农村教育发展、城乡教育均衡，乃至全面建设小康社会的障碍。为什么要加强农村教育市场建设，能否建设，如何建设，是我们面对农村教育市场建设时必须首先思考的问题。     

Hypothetical Markets: Educational Application of Ronald Dworkin's Sovereign Virtue

The purpose of this paper is to consider, in principle and at the most general level, a particular possible approach to educational policy-making. This approach involves an education-specific application of the notion of hypothetical markets first developed in Ronald Dworkin's book Sovereign Virtue: The theory and practice of equality (2000). The paper distinguishes the concept of the market from the operation of any actual market, and from the operation of 'market forces' in any generalised sense. It continues by arguing that hypothetical markets of the kind identified by Dworkin are not only distinct, in both their nature and purpose, from actual markets operating in education, but also—in the face of continuing widespread debate about the value, at particular times and places, of such actual markets—a potentially valuable theoretical tool for educational policy-making. The paper then briefly considers a particular instance of such debate about actual markets in education.     

Not all markets are created equal: re-conceptualizing market elements in higher education

Increasing reliance on market mechanisms in higher education is analysed both as one of the approaches to steering as well as in relation to the consequences of markets for quality and accessibility of higher education. This article goes beyond the normative considerations of market elements as inherently good or bad and the economic theory-guided focus on freedoms of users and providers, by presenting an alternative conceptualization. The conceptualization adapted from studies of markets in other parts of the welfare state to the context of higher education is based on two dimensions: (1) who effectively controls production of certain goods and services and (2) how access to and funding of these goods and services are regulated. It focuses on interests of three main actors—the state, the users (students) and the providers (higher education institutions). This leads to six conceptually distinct markets, whose key characteristics are illustrated by examples from Denmark, England, India, Norway, Portugal and Serbia. The key message is that this alternative conceptualization allows identifying variance in marketization of higher education with regards to (1) which actors are empowered, (2) who are the likely winners and losers and (3) what might be the risks of introducing specific market elements in a higher education system. More generally, a more nuanced analysis relying on this conceptualization can potentially contribute to a deeper understanding of political and policy dynamics in higher education.     

Hierarchies and 'local' markets: the geography of the 'lived' market place in secondary education provision

While not providing a social class analysis of market competition this paper aims to build upon such work by introducing other factors that appear to be present in the education market place. In this paper market competition is considered along two broad dimensions. The first examines educational markets as spatial phenomenon. In the second an empirical study of competition and markets in action is undertaken based on one year's transfer of pupils to secondary schools across six LEAs, each with different geographies. The study proposes three key ways in which competition between schools can be classified. It also suggests that the education market place is, generally, hierarchical, and that the position of schools within these hierarchies is largely associated with their relative examination performances. The paper concludes by suggesting that the concept and the subsequent identification of the ‘local’ markets is necessary before addressing issues such as the impact on school rolls and potential social segregation of intakes.     

Educational Accountability in a Regulated Market

Public debate about school choice is often polarized between those who favor and oppose total free markets in education. However, the serious intellectual work on choice focuses on more moderate alternatives that involve a mixture of public and private accountability. A regulated market model of educational accountability would mix government regulation, options for families, and entrepreneurship on the supply side. It would sustain a role for government in licensing schools, protecting children, punishing misrepresentation, and ensuring free flow of information. This article shows how a regulated market in education would work and how one could be created.     

学校教育负向功能理论分析框架的构建

目前，人们已经普遍注意到教育的负向功能，但是研读对教育负向功能的论述，仍存在两个重大缺陷：其一，缺乏针对不同教育主体的教育负向功能的理论构建；其二，对教育负向功能的成因停滞在浅层的理论分析上，就事论事。从市场经济冲击、社会体制混变、文化混变、微观教育操作四个方面可以探讨教育负向功能产生的深层社会成因。     

为什么高等教育市场不遵循经济学教科书

2013年11月1日至3日,第十届北京论坛教育分论坛成功举行。论坛以"高等教育的全球参与和知识共享"为主题,邀请了来自中国、韩国、马来西亚、老挝、以色列、美国、加拿大、巴西、德国、英国、希腊、挪威、澳大利亚、南非和中国香港等15个国家和地区的30位学者到会演讲,来自校内外的50多位师生参与了会议讨论。     

How parental and school responses to choice policies reconfigure a rural education market in Victoria,Australia

Market principles now dominate the education and social policies of many Anglophone countries, including Australia, but articulate differentially within specific contexts. Existing historical legacies, local economic and social conditions, and geographical settings interact with federal and state funding and transport policies to shape the nature of regional education markets and the choices families make in a rural school market in Australia. Through two school case studies, this article explores the effects of policy shifts on parental choice and student movement within a regional Victorian community. Informed by policy sociology, the article views the policy as a dynamic, often ad hoc process with contradictory effects. It indicates how an ensemble of federal and state funding and conveyancing policies enable some schools to develop marketing practices that reconstruct the local education market to their advantage through the introduction of transport and flexi-boarding policies. It demonstrates that education markets are not confined to urban settings and that while choice is not a new phenomenon in this rural area, federal and state funding and transport policies have reconfigured local markets and intensified the market work undertaken by schools and parents with, in this instance, unequal effects on the provision of schooling in a rural region.     

In search of ‘time-tested truths’: historical perspectives on educational administration

This article has a dual purpose. The first is to pay tribute to the work of Richard Selleck and Geoffrey Sherington; the second to argue that historians of education can make substantial contributions to current and future educational policy and practice by identifying what Ravitch has called ‘time-tested truths’. The nature and purpose of historical study are examined with particular reference to education and to making maps of the past. Examples are provided of the application of historical perspectives to contemporary education issues in 1985 and 1996. The final section draws upon an analysis by leading historians in the USA of the failures of school reform, and a research project into the establishment, nature and likely fate of the Department for Education and Employment in the UK. The basic conclusion is that the development of the field of educational administration requires both specialist historical studies and those informed by a broader understanding of educational and human perspectives.     

互联网背景下专业市场运营模式探讨——以湖州市织里童装城专业市场为例

专业市场由传统集贸市场发展而来,是产业专业化发展的结果。文章以湖州市织里童装城专业市场为例,分析了互联网背景下专业市场运营中存在的问题及其制约因素,指出了专业市场运营的机遇与挑战,并提出了童装专业市场运营的“一个主导、五种业态、两项支持和五项配套”的“1525”运营模式。     

什么是受过教育的人——一种多维视角的考察

"什么是受过教育的人?"作为教育领域的核心问题之一,它从根本上关涉的是教育目的问题。20世纪60年代以来,人们从不同的视角对这一问题进行了广泛的探究。文章选取并分析了其中四种较具代表性的视角,即以彼得斯为代表的认知视角、以怀特为代表的伦理视角、以马丁为代表的性别视角和以鲍斯玛等为代表的历史视角,进而对这些视角之间的张力进行了反思,探讨了"受过教育的人"概念在中国语境中的独特性。     

Implementing English Further/Higher Education Partnerships: the Street Level Perspective

This paper reports on research into the operation of English further/higher education, with a focus on the role of partnerships in supporting the massification of higher education. The research draws on the bottom‐up policy implementation tradition to provide analysis of the effects on partnerships of a quasi‐marketised environment. The rationale and effects of market orientated policy are discussed with reference to empirical data from college staff and partnership managers. In employing the concept of the ‘street‐level bureaucrat’ as an agent of policy implementation, this research contributes to the interpretation of policy and partnership which has previously been unexplored within the further/higher education context. Conclusions are drawn with implications for the development of college higher education delivered in partnership.     

Disciplinary cultures in an Australian college of advanced education

Recently scholars have called for more detailed historical study of the teaching lives of academics across countries, systems and institutions. This article contributes to the research on the professoriate in its widest sense. The article focuses on the disciplinary perspectives and cultures of academic staff employed in one of Australia’s oldest colleges of advanced education during the period 1965–1982. It examines official beliefs, slogans, and truisms, which formed part of these perspectives. Disciplinary perspectives include the academics’ views of the subject, the important problems for the subject, and the criteria of utility of the subject. Australia’s Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Advanced Education saw colleges of advanced education compared to universities enrolling students with different interests, stressing part‐time studies, concentrating on applied courses rather than humanities, being closely attuned to the labour market and workforce needs and being principally teaching institutions. They were to be equal but different to universities, but came to be viewed as equal but cheaper. A crucial issue is the extent to which the disciplinary perspectives of college of advanced education academics matched those that the legislators envisaged.     

Perspektivenübernahme als Kompetenz für den Geschichtsunterricht

This study addresses a competency of students’ historical thinking related to taking perspectives. We start by discussing socio-cognitive theories from psychology as well as approaches from history education that focus on this competency. We also present empirical findings concerning relationships between achievement, self-concept and interest in the subject of history and connect these findings with the competency to take historical perspectives. Our research questions target this relationship between indicators of achievement and motivation in the subject of history, the competency of historical perspective taking and students’ socio-cognitive ability to adopt social perspectives in their everyday lives. These questions are investigated using a cross-sectional design with 375 grammar school students in grades 7 and 10. Results indicate that in grade 7 the competency to take historical perspectives relates to students’ ability to coordinate social perspectives in their everyday lives. For 10th graders, however, the adoption of historical perspectives is closely related to subject-specific variables such as interest for history, self-concept, history grade and achievement in a test of historical knowledge. In the last section of this paper, we discuss challenges that arise when students’ competencies in a subject like history are assessed within the context of standard-based testing. Specifically, we raise the issues of reliability, validity, the context-specificity of measurements, the kinds of response formats used and the formulation of progression models of historical thinking.     

Student motivations,quality and status in adult higher education (AHE) in China

This article examines an important and yet neglected aspect of the relationship between higher education and the labour market in contemporary China. It does this through a detailed case study of student motivations, quality and status in adult higher education (AHE) in the city of Taiyuan, Shanxi Province. This is a region which has seen major economic and social changes as China makes the transition from a centrally planned to a market‐oriented economy. The case study is placed in that context. Using the theoretical perspective of human capital theory, the article examines the role of education in labour markets. It then considers the relevance of lifelong learning to the research and provides an account of the methodological approach used in the study. The findings of the research are then presented according to the key research questions. These are that the utilitarianism which exists in AHE provision and demand in China has had an impact upon the quality of provision and learning in this sector. This will definitely not help to develop a lifelong‐learning‐based society and promote citizens’ all‐round development as suggested by government regulations on lifelong learning.     

Labor market conditions and college graduation: Evidence from Brazil

College students graduating in a recession have been shown to face large and persistent negative effects on their earnings, health, and other outcomes. This paper investigates whether students delay graduation to avoid these effects. Using data on the universe of students in higher education in Brazil and leveraging variation in labor market conditions across time, space, and chosen majors, the paper finds that students in public institutions delay graduation to avoid entering depressed labor markets. A typical recession causes the on-time graduation rate to fall by 6.5% in public universities and there is no effect on private institutions. The induced delaying increases average graduation by 0.11 semesters, consistent with 1 out of 18 students delaying graduation by one year in public universities. The delaying effect is larger for students with higher scores, in higher-earnings majors, and from more advantaged backgrounds. This has important implications for the distributional impact of recessions.     

市场经济与知识经济时代教师文化的构建--日本与欧美之比较--

以往,教师是作为国家政治思想及文化传统的传播者,而今,在世界市场经济竞争激烈的形势下,教师教育的发展已和经济的发展紧密的联系起来,教育被作为促进国家的经济发展或者说维持国力的重要因素来考虑,教师亦成为影响国民经济发展的重要社会资源之一。教师教育受到了前所未有的重视。世界各国都在对之进行广泛而深入的改革。其中,对教师文化的重新审视与构建成为当今日本和欧美教师教育研究的一项重要课题。本文从市场经济全球化与知识经济时代发展的视点出发,把日本与欧美各国教师文化的形态特点、发展的新趋势进行分析和比较,以期对我国教师文化的建设与发展提供借鉴与启发。     

Institutional logics of Chinese doctoral education system

As Chinese doctoral education has grown dramatically in the past four decades and developed into one of the largest doctoral education systems in the world, it has become one significant and integral part of the global doctoral education landscape. However, in the literature, there is a lack of both a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese doctoral education system and of generic frameworks for understanding doctoral education in a global context, with an emphasis on the underlying value systems. This may not only hamper the research on doctoral education in China but also affect international comparison and collaboration with Chinese doctoral education. Using the theory of institutional logics, this study tries to bridge the gap by identifying the complex value systems underlying the context of the Chinese doctoral education system, through a qualitative study mainly based on interview data and complemented by documentary data. The interview involves 135 participants, including 45 university academic leaders, 33 doctoral supervisors and 56 doctoral students from 17 research universities, as well as one government policy-maker. We found that the context of Chinese doctoral education system consists of multiple logics of state, profession, family, market and corporation. The special constellation of institutional logics has shaped the current Chinese doctoral education system as a state-led model but meanwhile incorporating family characteristics, market orientation and regulated academic autonomy. The study also showed that Chinese doctoral education has been developing in line with international academic norms and global marketization trends, and has also been shaped by China’s socio-cultural tradition and the strong state regulation. In addition to the institutional logics analysis of the Chinese doctoral education system, this study paves the way for developing a novel framework for analysing doctoral education systems in other contexts and for comparative purposes.