Re‐imagining doctoral education: Professional Doctorates and beyond

Portents of the demise of the Professional Doctorate have emerged in some recent policy and institutional circles in Australia, raising questions about the meaning and relevance of the Professional Doctorate in an era of ‘league tables’ and research assessment in Australia. This article argues that such portents, based largely on narrow market‐driven arguments, are premature, reactive and unhelpful, in that they foreclose on a set of critical questions concerning the future purpose, scope and practice of doctoral education. The article argues that the simple re‐assertion of the PhD as the default award represents a restoration of the logics and imperatives of disciplinarity and of older notions of so‐called ‘real’ research. Further, questions of the changing economies of knowledge and practice within, between and beyond the reach of the university, are subordinated and disavowed. The article presents a re‐reading of the emergence of Professional Doctorates, from the perspective of a decade‐and‐a‐half of development and change. It suggests the need to revisit that history critically in the light of the current developments in doctoral education, in knowledge production and in developing different relations around knowledge between universities and different social and professional domains. Such revisitings can bring out emerging issues for doctoral education at a time when anxieties may inhibit taking up opportunities for innovation and linking with new kinds of knowledge production that go beyond Euro‐centric and university‐centric traditions.     

The adjustment of national education systems to a knowledge‐based economy: a new approach

In his article ‘Globalisation, the Learning Society, and Comparative Education’, Peter Jarvis recommends lifelong learning in the period of globalisation as a topic ripe for scholarly research. In particular, he argues for the examination of the extent of lifelong learning around the world and its relation to different levels of employment. This article contributes to this line of inquiry by analysing how education policies facilitate adjustment to economic change and examining how advanced industrialised countries (AICs) compare in their promotion. Principal component analysis is used to construct indices for education systems that reflect these two objectives, and the results reveal considerable cross‐national variation. The Nordic countries appear well‐positioned to cope with changed skill needs. A closer look at the cases of Denmark and Italy portrays how a national education system can facilitate or hinder adaptation, respectively.     

Spatial and financial fixes and the global financial crisis: does labour have the knowledge and power to meet the challenge?

Five years after the global financial crisis, and trillions of dollars in stimulus spending later, the crisis not only remains unresolved, but risks entering a new deeper phase in southern Europe. The global turbulence, although experienced with differing degrees of intensity and dislocation around the world, manifests as high unemployment, industrial slow-down, extensive austerity measures and a range of health and financial pressures passed on to working and unemployed people. One response by governments has been a renewed emphasis on ‘skill’ as a means to work through the crisis and reposition the national economy for a post-crisis world. This paper questions this emphasis suggesting that if skill is the answer then the wrong question is being asked. The concept of ‘fixes’ is used to examine changes in production and work, before discussing the limitations of organized labour’s response to the crisis.

The crisis poses questions to the labour movement about its understanding of the changes taking place in the economy, and therefore work, and the alternatives it could be advocating for new less crisis-prone ways of governing the production of goods and services, and the education that might support that.     

‘Creative destruction’: knowledge economy policy and the future of the arts and humanities in the academy1

Policy conceptualizations of the global knowledge economy have led to the channelling of much Higher Education and Research and Development funding into the priority areas of science and technology. Among other things, this diversion of funding calls into question the future of traditional humanities and creative arts faculties. How these faculties, and the disciplines within them, might reconfigure themselves for the knowledge economy is, therefore, a question of great importance, although one that as yet has not been adequately answered. This paper explores some of the reasons for this by looking at how innovation in the knowledge economy is typically theorized. It takes one policy trajectory informing Australia’s key innovation statement as an example. It argues that, insofar as the formation of this knowledge economy policy has been informed by a techno‐economic paradigm, it works to preclude many humanities and creative arts disciplines. This paper, therefore, looks at how an alternative theorization of the knowledge economy might offer a more robust framework from within which to develop humanities and creative arts Higher Education and Research policy in the knowledge economy, both in Australia and internationally.     

Between education and the economy: high‐stakes testing and the contradictory location of the new middle class

This paper analyzes the contradictory location of the professional and managerial new middle class within the rising tension between old systems of the industrial capitalist model of education, epitomized by a reliance on high‐stakes, standardized testing and the newer forms of production associated with the ‘fast’ capitalism of the global economy. The author argues that the professional and managerial new middle class is faced with a dilemma since they benefit from systems of high‐stakes, standardized testing, yet require schools to also teach the types of skills and flexibility associated with knowledge economy. The analysis suggests that this dilemma represents the contradictory class location of the new middle class relative to both discursive and productive resources.     

Reforming teacher education in England: ‘an economy of discourses of truth’

This paper is an attempt to think aloud about the current policy proposals in circulation in England that address pre-service teacher education. Rather than dealing with details of policy and points of specificity in practice, the focus of this paper is with how propositions are justified and the overall ways in which meanings are being managed; a fundamental aspect of policy analysis.     

Values in geographic education: the challenge of attending to learners’ perspectives

Geography as a school subject is highly infused with values and controversial issues. Much attention has been paid to the role of the (geography) teacher in dealing with values education, but the continued lack of pupil‐focused empirical work hampers conceptual, practical and policy development. Drawing on evidence from pupil‐focused research, it is argued that greater attention must be paid to three issues: (i) pupils may interpret classroom experiences in relation to unannounced or hidden values and controversies; (ii) pupils may position or locate themselves in relation to controversial issues in a variety of ways; and (iii) as a result, pupils’ engagement with values in the geography classroom may be highly individualised and complex, reflecting (i) and (ii) in combination. The challenge is to attend to learners’ perspectives, and these three issues are presented as possible starting points for future research agendas.     

Re‐addressing the priorities: new teacher educators and induction into higher education

This article draws on research involving 28 teacher educators in the first 3 years of their careers in the English higher education sector. It discusses the areas of tension they found in making the transition from teaching in the school sector to working in universities, the priorities they identified for their induction and the induction structures and processes available to support them. Previous research on teacher educator induction has identified the need for more consistent and thorough structures. However, the findings of this study show that the current structures and procedures often do not meet the tutors' needs. Overall there is little articulation between different modes of induction, with most tutors still dependent on learning through practice, supplemented by informal ‘apprenticeship’ modes of learning. The article concludes with a discussion of issues and future developments.

Cet article s'inspire d'un travail de recherche auquel ont participé 28 formateurs pédagogiques dans les trois premières années de leur carrière dans le secteur d'éducation du troisième cycle anglais. II examine les sujets de tension qu' ils ont decouverts en effectuant la transition de 1'enseignement en milieu scolaire au travail en milieu universitaire, les priorités qu'ils ont identifiées pour leur période d'intégration professionnelle, et les structures et processus d'intégration mis a leur disposition pour les aider. Des recherches antérieures dans le domaine de 1'intégration professionnelle des formateurs pédagogiques a révéle la nécessité d'avoir des structures d'integration plus homogenes et plus approfondies. Mais les resultats de la présente étude démontrent que, souvent, les structures et les procédures actuelles ne répondent pas aux besoins des enseignants. En général, il y a peu de liens entre les différents modes d'intégration, la plupart des enseignants étant constraints à apprendre par la pratique, agrémentée de modes ‘d'apprentissage’informels. L'article conclue par une discussion sur les problèmes et les développpements futures.

Dieser Artikel basiert auf einem Forschungsprojekt, das mit achtundzwanzig Ausbildern von Englischlehrern für den Hochschulbereich, während ihrer ersten drei Jahre also solche, Der Artikel erörtert, die Spannungspunkte die sie in der Übergangsphase vom Lehren an der Schule zum Lehren an der Universität empfunden haben, die Prioritäten, die sie für ihre Einführung festgestellt haben, und den Einführungsprozess und die Einführungsstruktur, die zu ihrer Unterstiitzung zur Verfügung gestanden haben. Vorangehende Forschungsarbeiten iiber die Einführung von Ausbilder von Lehrern, haben das Bedürfhis nach einer einheitlicheren und griindlicheren Einführungsstruktur festgestellt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung haben jedoch herausgestellt, dass die momentanen Strukturen und Verfahren oft nicht mit den Bedürfnissen der Tutoren übereinstimnien. Im Grossen und Ganzen gibt es wenig Meinungsaustausch iiber die unterschiedlichen Art und Weisen von Einführungen, da die meisten Tutoren immer noch vom Lernen durch Praxis, ergänzt durch eine informelle ? Lehrzeit" abhängig sind. Der Artikel schlieBt mit einer Ausführung über Fragen und zukünftige Entwicklungen.

Este artículo aprovecha una investigacíon que se ha hecho entre 28 profesores educadores que han cumplido hasta tres ãnos de sus carreras en el sector de enseñanza superior inglesa. El artículo trata las zones de tension que se han discubierto al hacer el paso de la enseñanza en una esuela a la enseñanza en una universidad, las prioridades para su iniciaciõn que identificaron, y las estructuras y procedimientos de la iniciaciõn disponibles. Investigaciõnes anteriores sobre la iniciaciõn de los profesores educadores habían identificado la falta de estructuras más consecuentes y meticulosas. Pero los descubrimientos de esta investigación confirman que rnuchas veces las estructuras y procedimientos actuales no satisfacen las necesidades de los profesores. En general hay poca articulación entre los diferentes modos de iniciación y en muchos cases los profesores tienen que aprender por medio de la práctica complementado por modos de aprender informales y tipo "aprendizaje". El artículo termina iniciando una evaluación de las consecuencias de estos descubrimientos y unas posibles evoluciónes futuras.     

Cross‐field effects and temporary social fields: a case study of the mediatization of recent Australian knowledge economy policies

This paper utilizes Bourdieu’s conceptual frame to examine the mediatized effects of policy processes concerned with the growth and support of knowledge industries in Australia. These policies span education, science, research and other knowledge industries (such as venture capital firms and intellectual property law). The paper argues that some policy processes are best represented as temporary social fields. The nature of these fields can be described by the kinds of cross‐field effects that they produce. A case study of an Australian knowledge economy policy, The chance to change, and associated policy processes demonstrates the broad analytic capacities of Bourdieu’s conceptual frame for policy analysis, when combined with the concepts of cross‐field effects and temporary social field developed here.     

Introducing a neo‐Weberian perspective in the study of globalisation and education: structural reforms of the education systems in France and Israel after the Second World War

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo‐Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed ‘social problems’ according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio‐politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the ‘democratisation of education’ in France and Israel.     

Adult participation in higher education and the ‘knowledge economy’: a cross-national analysis of patterns of delayed participation in higher education across 15 European countries

‘Delayed participation’ in higher education (HE) is an increasingly important feature of modern HE systems in many countries. Despite this, surprisingly little empirical research has been undertaken seeking to better understand levels of delayed adult participation in HE across Europe. The present article responds to this gap by analysing country-level data on delayed adult participation in HE across 15 European countries and by modelling associations between participation levels and a range of theoretically derived economic, social, demographic and systemic factors. The findings suggest that there is considerably more cross-national variation in levels of adult delayed participation and that prevalent typologies of HE, such as Trow’s, fail to give recognition to the importance of delayed participation. The modelling work finds that social and demographic factors exhibit relatively strong associations with delayed participation in HE. This questions the pre-eminence of economic factors within much of the academic literature, policy discourse and policy activity.     

Between ideology and institution: the curriculum of upper‐secondary education

This study examines apparently similar historical phenomena in 19^th‐century Prussia and Switzerland: the establishment of modern foreign languages in the curriculum of upper‐secondary education. Through the course of the 19^th century, there appear to have been great transnational European affinities with regard to both the differentiation of the upper‐secondary education into types and the development of the curriculum. However, the contextualization of the curriculum within the overall organization of the school system raises doubts as to whether the similarity is more than only quantitative. A second contextualization of the overall organization of education within cultural convictions also reveals fundamental differences rooted in different political convictions, such as monarchism and republicanism. As a result, despite the formal similarities, the establishment of the foreign language education in Switzerland and Prussia could not have been more different.     

Local conceptualisations of the education of asylum‐seeking and refugee students: from hostile to holistic models

Sociological research on the presence and yet invisibility of asylum‐seeking and refugee pupils in the educational system in the UK is noticeably absent. This article offers insights into the ways in which the presence and the needs of such pupils are conceptualised by local authorities and schools. It draws on the results of a survey of 58 English local authorities and qualitative data from three case studies of LEAs and a sample of their schools. The ethical position adopted by officials and teachers in these three sites offers a compassionate model of social inclusion based on a holistic approach to the asylum‐seeking and refugee child. It contrasts with the restrictive and often hostile government stance on immigration, asylum and integration.     

Self‐knowledge and psychological knowledge: Teaching psychology from the cognitive point of view 1

The aims and methods of teaching psychology depend on one's conception of the field. The three principal contemporary approaches are behaviorism, dynamic psychology, and cognitive psychology. Of these three, only cognitive psychology provides a frame of reference in which knowledge can be seen as valuable in its own right, and psychological knowledge as important even for non‐professionals. The three orientations have different implications for the level at which psychology can usefully be taught. A successful course taught in a junior high school illustrates the feasibility of teaching about cognition at this level, where other approaches may have little to offer. The three orientations suggest emphasis on different methods of teaching. Classroom demonstration of perceptual and cognitive phenomena plays a special role in teaching about cognition. It enables the student to discover that what he is learning applies to him, and thus endows it with specific concreteness and personal relevance.