Policy and reality in educational development: an analysis based on examples from Iceland

This paper probes the relationship between educational policy and actual changes in the field of education in Iceland. It attempts to relate previous analysis of the role of the State in changing education and give some reasons why it may sometimes be less effective than expected. Educational change is inspected from three different perspectives: First, from the perspective of expansion of participation in education; secondly, from a perspective that involves probing the nature of educational problems; and, finally, from a perspective which demands a birds-eye view of the educational debate in order to expose inconsistencies or contradictions that may not normally be appreciated. The data brought forward, related to the first perspective, suggest that governmental intervention is not clearly visible and intervention by central authorities does not account for educational expansion. Two examples related to the second perspective suggest that if the problems at hand are not appropriately analysed, policies to deal with them will not be effective. The third perspective brings forward a number of contradictions inherent in major educational goals and it is argued that if these are not addressed properly the impact of any policies involving them will be lessened. It is concluded that educational research may fruitfully inform educational policy from the perspectives discussed in the paper.     

Policy makers’ rhetoric of educational change: A critical analysis

Reforms in education often fail due to insufficient time to implement them, too few charismatic leaders, the influence of the preceding culture, scarce resources or an incapacity to comprehend the complexity of the education system. Most studies dealing with the cognitive aspects of educational change investigate the meaning of change through the lens of the educators and principals and there is not as much research available on the perception and interpretation of change by policy makers and the language they use to communicate messages about policy that affect sensemaking–sensegiving during the process of learning about the changes. Guided by the premise that the language of a reform movement is shaped by its ideology, this article illustrates how press releases of the Ministry of Education in Canton Sarajevo in Bosnia–Herzegovina reflect an exploitation-oriented dominant reform logic. The results of frequency analysis, hierarchical clustering and multidimensional scaling imply that MoE is driven by a top-down perspective to educational change, with a focus on the procedural, organizational and collaborational aspects of reforms that primarily alter the structure of the education system but not its internal substance. We end this paper by suggesting that educational system as complex adaptive system cannot be controlled, but effectively managed through distribution of control and creation of few attractors, benefiting from self-organization in the technical core and making change in the official top-down rhetoric.     

Beyond Local Cultures: Towards a Cosmopolitan Art Education

What kind of art education best takes up the educational opportunity of cultural diversity? This article draws on Merton's distinction between local and cosmopolitan perspectives on culture to contrast different models of art education in a multicultural society. An example is given to illustrate a local perspective on education which seeks to affirm pupils in their own culture. This model is underpinned by a particular view of culture, pluralism, art and education. Alternative views on each of these constituent elements are explored in order to make a case for an alternative model of art education - one which goes beyond culture and which can more properly be described as cosmopolitan.     

Strategic Rhetoric: a constraint in changing the practice of teachers

Within the overall occupational culture of teachers, there are a number of different staff subcultures which compete for limited resources within a contracting educational system. This paper concentrates upon the subculture of physical education by focusing on one department engaged in a teacher initiated curriculum innovation where competing perspectives of change are made evident. It is suggested that coping strategies developed within the educational context of the school in order to enhance subject status may deflect teachers from considering the possibilities of change in their classroom practice.     

教育功能研究的取向和视角分析

通过对教育功能不同学派和观点的梳理 ,可以将教育功能研究分为两种不同的取向和视角 :深究式向度和穷举式向度。对这两种向度的分析表明 ,教育功能研究上的宏大叙事缺乏对不同社会和文化背景下的教育现象的阐释力 ,也不能很好地与处在不同政治、经济、文化形态下的教育实践相契合     

From vocational training to open learning environments: vocational special needs education during change

This paper describes the development of education of students with special needs in vocational education. The paper is based on a case study research conducted in 2001–2005 in Jyväskylä Municipal Federation of Vocational Education in Central Finland. The study consisted of two parts: firstly of the historical analysis of special educational stages, and secondly of the contemporary analysis of special educational challenges in the research target. The Developmental Work Research model was used in attempting to get a systemic view of different factors affecting a special educational entity. The study showed the importance of a holistic view. The special educational system in the research target seems to be strongly linked to the general structure of vocational education, its goals, learning principles, legislation and personnel structure. The development of vocational special education in Jyväskylä followed the strongly regulated national guidelines set for vocational special education until the end of the 1990s. At that time new legislation, structural reforms and the change from norm‐based towards an autonomous information‐based self‐government opened doors for new special educational implementation. From the perspective of teachers specialized in special educational needs (SEN‐teachers) a clear change can be seen from an autonomous, defined work towards a loss of an expertise position. However, the strong linkage between general and special education in vocational education offers possibilities for inclusive education. In order to face the new challenges, the work of SEN‐teachers has to be redefined to clearly broaden the perspective from teaching towards new expertise in each educational establishment.     

Evaluating faculty pedagogic practices to inform strategic academic professional development: a case of cases

An investigation was undertaken into how a process involving peer review and observation of teaching can be used to enhance academics’ teaching practices and inform professional development activities at an organization level. We describe an innovative and highly structured approach to gathering evidence of pedagogic practice from academic peer observers, students, and reflections on practice. Collating multiple perspectives on multiple instances of observed teaching a focused analysis is undertaken to provide an insight into development opportunities for a teaching culture and context. The investigation was undertaken in response to organizational needs in an increasingly competitive higher education sector where strong quality statements around teaching and learning outcomes are a matter of importance for organizational success. This paper will be of interest to academic developers and leaders in quality enhancement in higher education.     

Teachers' understanding of internationalization as an essential part of nursing education in Sweden

This study investigated how 60 teachers' in Swedish nurse education, in higher education, understood and taught internationalization. The teachers answered a self-administered questionnaire. A phenomenographic, contextual and content analysis approach was used. The results show that teachers were found to experience and understand internationalization in different ways, which could be related to two perspectives within their working context; an organizational didactic or an educational didactic. The findings imply the importance of reinforcing an understanding of internationalization in connection with a didactical theoretical awareness.     

学校文化研究的历史考察——中外比较的视角

学校文化作为一种文化现象早已有之,根据西方文化教育学派的观点分析,教育是一种"文化活动",是"文化过程",它与文化同时发生和发展。国外学校文化研究经历了从组织文化到学校文化的过程,而我国学校文化研究经历了从校园文化到学校文化的演变。这种变化既是学校文化理论研究视角的不断调整和价值取向的不断更新,也是学校文化建设实践的历史转向。     

Infusing Multicultural Education: A Process of Creating Organizational Change at the College Level

Organizational change directed at infusing multicultural education into an institutional unit such as a college requires attention to the organizational culture of that unit. The authors use the concept of second-order organizational change (Levy & Merry, 1986) as a way to conceptualize the nature of the change associated with infusing multicultural education within a large College of Education. The authors describe a four-year process of organizational change in which qualitative changes to the organization's culture occured in support of multicultural education. Key elements of change include the values and norms that support organizational policies and practices. Lessons learned are included.     

A complexity analysis of organizational culture,leadership and engagement: integration,differentiation and fragmentation

ABSTRACT

The predictive utility of previous studies of organizational culture has been limited by an over-emphasis on the integration perspective. Much less attention has been his been paid to subcultural differentiation and fragmentation. This case study bridges that divide by employing methods of cultural analysis designed to explore the relationship between organizational culture, the culture of leadership, and employee engagement in an academic institution through the lens of integration, differentiation and fragmentation. Adopting a complexity approach to cultural analysis as a theoretical framework, methodological innovations utilizing survey data and quantitative inferential statistics establish the predictive utility of organizational culture with respect to three dimensions of engagement: vigor, dedication and absorption. Analyses based on cultural uniformity, subcultural variation and ambiguity were found to illuminate different aspects of the culture of leadership and engagement, differentiated by employee status and years of service. Results of the differentiation and fragmentation analyses yield insights masked by the integration approach: Analysis of cultural differentiation revealed dedication and absorption were more affected by cultural and leadership dynamics than vigor, while analysis of cultural fragmentation uncovered minority perspectives on bullying, leader accountability and employee misbehavior that represent important targets for improvement masked in the analysis of organizational culture as a whole.     

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.     

Gender Inequality in Education: accounting for women's subordination

This article is an attempt to apply a systematic use of theory to gender inequalities in education. It expands on the tenets of liberal, radical, and socialist feminist perspectives to account for differential gender outcomes in terms of educational access, attainment, and field of study choices. The State emerges as a key actor regulating and promoting educational processes and outcomes, and the perspective that most accurately captures the State's practices is socialist feminism. There has been a recent convergence in feminist thought toward the meshing of ideological and material elements in the explanation of women's subordination, bringing closer than ever the radical and socialist feminist perspectives. These perspectives detect severe limits in the State's ability to improve women's conditions while groups outside the State, particularly women‐run organizations, are identified as the most likely sources of significant educational change and thus social change, in the interests of women.     

人本视角下的大学物理课程地位和作用

在以学生和谐人格的构建为旨归的大学教育中,各类教育资源功用不一,各自从真善美用多个角度协同作用于学生成长。大学物理需要走出课程既往的工具逻辑,以人的逻辑和视角重新定位自身。针对学生成长需求,大学物理课程有着不同于其他教育资源的独特作用,应定位为通识类核心基础课。     

Changing curriculum policy into practice: the case of physical education in Hong Kong

This article examines the differences between the formally stated aims of education and the implementation of the school curriculum in order to show the divergence between what is initiated and what emerges as school practice. This implementation problem is examined from the policy-makers' and teachers' perspectives, with specific reference to physical education as a school subject in Hong Kong. First, it examines the existence and intention of educational policy towards curriculum as established by policy-makers. Second, the implementation process is evaluated from the teachers' perspective by employing a framework adopted by Cuban (1998) that utilized effectiveness, popularity, fidelity, adaptability and longevity. The data are derived from a case-study of a physical education programme that included document analysis, and interviews with teachers, parents and students. The case-study provided a subjective perspective of teachers and their work, while the framework assisted in demonstrating the absence of cohesion between the various government agencies. The resulting fragmentation of ideas leading to confusion and frustration for teachers also indicates that longevity and adaptability are likely to be the most constructive criteria for the assessment of curriculum change.     

Educational Visions from Two Continents: What Tagore adds to the Deweyan perspective

In this global village, it is relevant to look at two educational visionaries from two continents, John Dewey and Rabindranath Tagore. Dewey observed that the modern individual was depersonalized by the industrial and commercial culture. He, thus, envisioned a new individual who would find fulfillment in maximum individuality within maximum community, which was embodied in his democratic concept and educational philosophy. Tagore's educational vision was based on India's traditional philosophy of harmony and fullness. It focused on self‐realization within the context of international education. This article compares the educational visions of Dewey and Tagore and demonstrates that Tagore's international educational perspective adds to Dewey's concepts of social individual and democracy and that their perspectives have implications for contemporary education.     

杜威的教育目的论及其启示

杜威主张教育即生长，生长的目的是更多的生长；教育过程以外无目的，教育目的寓于教育过程、教育活动之中。在民主制度下，由于不同的个体拥有各自特定的教育目的，教育才能训练每个人养成有秩序地促进社会变迁的反省习惯。因此，我们对教育目的应从现实与未来两方面进行认识；教育目的的制定必须考虑青少年心理的适应性和社会需求的适应性；教育目的不应仅仅保存与传递现有的社会理想、价值观，或再现过去的社会状态，还必须具有对流行的社会价值观进行评析和批判的职能。     

“南通教育现象”的文化解读

本文分别对"现象、教育现象、南通教育现象"进行了内涵阈定;论述了其六大显性书写:高考15年领先、德育品牌全国关注、素质教育经验全国推广、各项竞赛叫响世界、名校名师影响广远、西部支教贡献突出;并从五个层面进行了文化诠释:崇教文化、包容文化、民生文化、农耕文化、创生文化。     

Legacy of British Colonial Early Childhood Education

This article examines early childhood educationin Hong Kong from three perspectives: historical, socio-economic, and educational development. Each perspective highlights different issues and problems in the development of early childhood education. The historical perspective identifies some major events and their influence on the formulation of educational policies particularly at pre-school level. The social-economicperspective considers education as the means toachieve economic development, which is whythe amount of resources allocated is closelylinked with the future needs of the economy;therefore preschool education has long beenneglected in Hong Kong. The educationaldevelopment perspective reflects the Hong Konggovernment's expectations for education, and thereview of the educational policies helpsunderstand the development of pre-schooleducation. Analysis of some historicalbackground and current trends of early childhoodeducation development, highlight possible future developments of early childhood education in Hong Kong, particularly after the reunification with her motherland, China, in 1997.     

“幸福教育学”论纲———胡弼成教育论著观点摭拾

胡弼成教授有关教育学的论述始终围绕“人的幸福”这一价值取向,努力尝试从教育学理论的多个方面解读教育的“幸福”所在,形成了独具个人风格的教育学观点。这些观点主要包括：人性假设基础上的教育本质观;立足学生“现有”基础面向“待完成性”的发展指向的课程观;以学习为主的师生共通活动的教学过程观;师生关系的“一体两面”观;以精神活动为主的教育投入观;以个体质量为核心的教育质量观。