Changing patterns in World Bank investments in vocational education and training: Implications for secondary vocational schools

The economic efficiency of vocational secondary schools in improving the employment prospects for graduates has been questioned, leading to policy recommendations in favor of enterprise-based training and training in non-formal training centers. The role of secondary education would be to impart basic skills, perhaps through reformed curricula that, while falling short of vocationalism, better prepare graduates for adult life. This paper examines trends in World Bank investments in vocational education and training for the period 1963–86 to answer three questions. Is there evidence to suggest that educational authorities in developing countries, as well as in the World Bank, have moved away from investments in secondary vocational schools? What does the record suggest about the patterns through which alternative training systems evolve in developing countries? Is there any evidence that a ‘new educational vision’ is emerging for secondary education? The paper concludes that investment in secondary vocational schools has declined substantially in favor of non-formal training systems. Nine characteristics of effective non-formal systems are identified. Diversified secondary schools, as one model of a ‘new vision,’ have not succeeded, raising important questions regarding possible directions for improved secondary education.     

全球视域下农村小规模学校作用的重新审视

农村小规模学校是为适应偏远农村适龄学生人数较少的客观情况而设置的规模较小的学校。目前,在中国农村基础教育逐步走上规模化、效率化道路的背景下,小规模学校的地位与存在价值自然受到经济理性主义的质疑,以致在教育决策中经常成为被撤并的首选对象。其实,在全球范围内,农村小规模学校的存在有其重要意义,我们有必要重新审视其现实地位与发展前景。纵览各国农村教育发展的实践经验,农村小规模学校的独特作用具体体现在:能够方便偏远地区学生就近入学、扩大受教育机会、保证并提高教育质量,以及提升偏远农村社区的文化凝聚力。此外,各国政府促进小规模学校发展的策略也为我国提供了有益借鉴。     

How Do National Economic Competitiveness Indices View Human Capital?

Economic competitiveness is at the top of national, regional and global political and economic agendas. Several countries in all regions of the world have established policies and institutions devoted to economic competitiveness, including in developing and transition countries. This leads to the question of how to define national economic competitiveness and, as a logical consequence, how to measure it. This article provides a critical analysis of two major global indices measuring national economic competitiveness, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), with a special focus on the index published by the WEF due to its broader global coverage. The article shows that human capital has been given relatively little explicit recognition, despite the large weight of human capital in the WEF index. This article asserts through simulations based on WEF data that countries performing poorly in national economic competitiveness rankings can improve their standings significantly by focusing reform efforts on raising quality of education and on expanding access to education and training. The simulations also show that the potential improvements in national economic competitiveness are unequally distributed across the globe, and that in terms of national economic competitiveness, developing and transition countries stand to gain relatively most from improving their education and training systems compared to developed nations. Suggestions for improving measurements of education and training in the WEF index conclude the article and it is shown that educationalists can help refocus policy discussions on how to improve education and training systems through discussions on substance.     

Developing a global dimension in the curriculum

Jaya Graves trained as a Rudolph Steiner teacher. She also worked extensively with the peace movement through the 1970s and 80s. She is now co-ordinator of Southern Voices, a small organization in Manchester committed to presenting views, perspectives and voices of people from Southern or ‘developing’ countries in different contexts where development education (DE) is practised and ‘developing’ issues are discussed. Implicit in this aim is the understanding that many ‘developing’ countries are ‘root cultures’ to children in an intercultural society. An understanding of ‘developing’ countries and issues will, therefore, help us understand our own society as well as the world in which we live.     

The tuition dilemma in the Latin American University

Governments in Latin America appear to have reached the limits of public subsidy of higher education and they are searching for funding alternatives. Tuition is viewed as one of the means of diversifying support and thereby of reducing the financial pressures on the budgets of these countries. In addition to the economic rationale, advocates of tuition base their arguments on the inequities of public subsidy, on the concept of ‘the ability to pay’, and the need to redirect public subsidy to the elementary and secondary levels. Opposition to tuition is led by the students, with support from faculty and administration in higher education. Opposition is based on the ideology of ‘free’ education, which views higher education as a basic societal obligation and fears the ‘privatization’ of universities if governments do not fulfill their obligations. Tuition is much more than an economic issue and reflects a traditional distrust of government motives within higher education. Without additional sources of funds, however, it is likely that opportunity for higher education will be denied large numbers of students. It is ironic that expansion of opportunity may depend on the implementation of tuition as one method of raising financial support.     

大学公共体育选项课教学的改革研究——以钦州学院体育课教学为个案

体育课程教学是学校教育的一门基础学科,也是学校教育不可缺少的一门重要学科之一。学校体育的目的是增强大学生体质、增进身心健康、提高社会适应能力的重要基础,是学校教育的一个重要组成部分。大学公共体育如何建立起具有经济特色、高起点的选项课教学体系,关键是要加强公共体育课教学改革。随着＂休闲体育＂、＂快乐体育＂、＂终身体育＂等体育锻炼的新观念出现及结合现阶段我国教育体制改革,《全民健身计划》全面实施。     

The ‘German children’ of Mozambique: long-term legacies of a socialist educational experiment

State-led education policies that centre on citizenship formation and are based on socialist-inspired values have been found in many newly independent post-colonial regimes. Such policies have led to a number of educational exchange programmes between developing countries and former ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries. This paper looks at an ambitious secondary school education exchange programme between Mozambique and the former German Democratic Republic in the 1980s. Using Yuval-Davis' three analytical categories of social location, identification and emotional attachment, and ethical and political values, the paper shows how an important part of the identity of former participants in a school exchange programme, who returned to Mozambique in 1988, is built around the concept of being ‘German’ and ‘socialist’. These values of socialist solidarity continue to guide many aspects of participants' lives. However, because in contemporary post-structural adjustment capitalist Mozambique, such values are perceived as a hindrance to contemporary notions of citizenship, these values are lived out mainly in relation to their peer group of fellow ‘German children’.     

‘Making do’, understanding the economic ‘possible’: social positioning,money and mother’s economic habitus in the school context

This paper is a qualitative consideration of how working-class mothers manage money, daily life, their children’s education and, in the process, internalise a particularistic economic position. It is uncommon that educational sociology incorporates a critical engagement of the daily drudge of extending money, and the implications of managing the varied and frequent costs of keeping children at school. I draw on Bourdieu’s model of practice and particularly that of the economic habitus. For these mothers, ‘making do’ refers not only to stretching the economic but to mental dispositions that emerge out of negotiating the economic, ‘not as a universe of possibles … but rather … impassable barriers’. The data reveals in wider and narrower cycles how economic conditions are foregrounded in the doing of ordinary life and in lives of heightened economic difficulty planning, or calculating dispositions towards the future are curtailed.     

Rethinking the mission of internationalization of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region

This article adopts the critical theory approach to reflect and analyse the impacts of globalization on the internationalization process of higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. It argues that globalization forces many of the higher education institutions in the region to follow global practices and ideologies of the Anglo-American paradigm without developing their own unique systems and honouring the rich cultures of their own countries. While higher education institutions are indulging in internationalization in terms of marketization and economic pragmatism, they have to ask themselves, ‘What is missing in the process of internationalization?’ This article argues that internationalization of higher education contributes to building more than economically competitive and politically powerful states. It represents a commitment to the development of an internationalized curriculum where the pursuit of global citizenship, human harmony and a climate of global peace is of paramount importance.     

Financing special needs and inclusive education – from Salamanca to the present

ABSTRACT

The focus of this paper is upon an examination of the ‘direction of travel’ in European countries from special needs education to inclusive education – a development influenced by the Salamanca Statement. The 1994 Salamanca Statement argued that inclusive schools provide ‘an effective education for the majority of children and improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system’ (ix). Underpinning this assertion are issues around special needs and inclusive education are financed. The paper will examine the degree to which the critical issue of financing has – or has not – changed across European countries since Salamanca. This examination takes retrospective look at key issues identified in the European Agency 1999 study of funding models for special education in 17 European countries, compared and contrasted with those identified in a 2016 study of approaches to funding inclusive education in 18 European countries. This paper argues that the essential issues underpinning their financing mechanisms have changed very little. For many European countries, changing systems of financing of inclusive education can still be seen as a key lever for achieving the goal of more widespread inclusion of learners with special educational needs, as outlined in the 1994 Salamanca Statement.     

日本国际教育援助的理念和政策

国际教育援助是日本对外援助中的一个重要领域。就援助理念来讲,日本认为教育是一项人权,援助教育可以削减发展中国家的贫困和实现人类安全,接收教育援助的同时,发展中国家更应依靠自助。日本对国际教育的具体政策主要是:将基础教育主要作为一项基本人权来看待;对于高等教育,则主要通过援助帮助发展中国家培养经济社会发展的人力资源,且援助的重点从专业技术转向管理。最后,日本国际教育援助的区域重心已向非洲转移。     

Performance-based university funding and the drive towards ‘institutional meritocracy’ in Italy

Many countries, including Italy, are increasingly managing their public higher education systems in accordance with the New Public Management principle that private-sector management practices improve efficiency and quality. A key mechanism has been the introduction of performance-based funding systems designed to reward ‘high-performing’ institutions and incentivise ‘lesser-performing’ institutions to improve. Instead of improving efficiency and quality across the board, however, we argue that performance-based funding systems naturalise longstanding structurally determined inequalities between institutions by recasting national higher education systems as competitive institutional meritocracies in which institutional inequalities are redefined as objective indicators of intrinsic ‘merit’ or worth. We illustrate how performance-based university funding systems naturalise pre-existing inequalities between universities drawing on the case of Italy, a country characterised by longstanding inequalities between its northern and southern regions which demonstrably impact on the apparent ‘performance’ of universities. The concept of institutional meritocracy captures the illusory nature of this performance game.     

The influence of teachers on the development of political radicals: a case study of members of the Scottish Socialist Party

While there is a wealth of literature on radical adult ‘popular’ education for change, most of it looks forward and speculates on the educational processes best able to help ‘the oppressed’, ‘excluded’ or ‘disadvantaged’ become critically‐aware ‘subjects’ of social change. Within a critical education framework, recent research looked in the opposite direction, identified adult activists already critically‐aware and worked backwards through their life histories to find the educational experiences seen as most influential in their development. Examining questionnaire responses, this article analyses how members of the Scottish Socialist Party perceived the influence exercised by their teachers, from primary to tertiary education, in the development of their beliefs and identity as activists. Comparisons are made with research in ‘active citizenship’. The research suggests there is more potential for radical education within the formal sector than is often believed and teachers contribute to this process in sometimes contradictory ways. The findings feed into debates in the UK and other countries, particularly in Latin America, about where popular educators should direct their energies, within state structures or outside, in social movements.     

浅议内蒙古学前教育发展中存在的问题及对策

学前教育作为教育体系的重要组成部分和发展基石,不仅事关我国学龄前儿童的健康成长和基础教育的普及与质量,更与国民素质的整体提高和国家的长远发展紧密相联。本文通过对内蒙古自治区学前教育发展现状的研究,全面了解该地区在学前教育发展中存在的问题,分析问题形成的根本原因,试提出一系列促进该地区学前教育事业发展的对策建议。     

Postmodern Challenges and Modern Horizons: education ‘for being for the environment‘

This article argues that a ‘humanly‐constructive’ critical theory of environmental education called ‘a critical ecological ontology for educational inquiry’ provides a necessary complement to the ‘socially‐critical’ perspective. This humanly‐constructive curriculum theory focuses on our individual and collective ‘being‐in‐the‐world’. It invites learners, teachers and researchers to study how their ‘lived experience’ of socio‐environmentally problematic circumstances is shaped and stretched globally by various economic and technological imperatives. In so doing, ‘a critical ecological ontology’ highlights the personal politic required for a socio‐ecological praxis. Of particular relevance to the socio‐ecological politic ‘for being’ are interpretations of postmodern agency that emerge from three practical applications of ‘a critical ecological ontology’. This dialogue of theory and practice is necessary in the critical curriculum project of environmental education     

The Desire for Academic Qualifications among Migrant Minorities: a multi‐level analysis

The examination of educational aspirations encapsulated in the ‘diploma disease’ debate has been embedded principally within the context of economic development of so‐called developing countries. Through a review of relevant literature, this paper extends the discussion to the context of migrant minorities in so‐called developed countries. The analysis occurs on four levels, relating to the purpose of education, systemic function, local operationalisation, and relations between self and society. It is concluded that aspiration formation among migrant minorities arises from historically, socially and culturally derived notions of education which interact in dynamic, diverse and sometimes contradictory ways with the dominant views of education within the new society.     

Bringing Progressivism into a Critical Theory of Education

This paper argues for the theoretical and practical possibilities of applying a ‘critical theory’ of education to British primary schools. It traces the series of misconceptions and misinterpretations of progressive education which, coupled with the neglect of its own emancipatory potential, has allowed it to be discredited by right‐wing and left‐wing politics. Re‐establishing a fairer reading of its central tenets and coupling this with the developing concept of a ‘socially critical primary school’ provides for an emancipatory primary education which embraces critical theory.     

Educational practice,student experience,and the purpose of education—a critique of ‘Pedagogy in Practice’

The focus of the present paper is a critical discussion of the recently developed concept Pedagogy in Practice (PiP) with the intention of improving the concept for future research. PiP aims to understand ongoing educational practice from the students’ perspective by interviewing groups of students about their understanding of learning. By emphasising ‘pedagogy’ and ‘practice’ and drawing from a theoretical foundation that takes practice and action as key concepts, PiP is an appealing alternative to research in student voice, to which it is closely related. However, a critical analysis of PiP in relation to its stated theoretical sources (Bourdieu, Bernstein, Dewey) shows that the approach contradicts these sources in key areas. In PiP students’ understanding of learning is taken as basic for improving educational practice, however, PiP is developed without an explicit notion of what education is for. This paper introduces a specific formulation of the purpose and functions of education based on the work of Gert Biesta, and outlines how a revised version of PiP might contribute to future empirical research in education.     

Structural elaboration of technical and vocational education and training systems in developing countries: the cases of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

While technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is re-emerging on the agenda of many development agencies and governments of developing countries alike, there remains a serious lack of theoretically grounded literature on how skills formation systems in developing countries change over time, and how these transformations are interrelated with global trends. This article is an attempt to address this shortfall by way of analysing the historical trajectories of TVET in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from the perspective of ‘historical institutionalism’. The analysis finds that, contrary to major assumptions of ‘neo-institutionalist world culture’ perspectives, TVET institutions and policies in both countries have developed to some extent in opposition to the priorities of international donor organisations. It is argued that more generally these developments are strongly related to the path-dependent structural elaboration of the two education systems. As a conclusion it is pointed out that the fact that in both countries TVET became a political priority well before the recent reformulation of donor priorities may raise doubts about the validity and dominance of world culture models for explanations of educational change.