TRANSFORMING SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL GOVERNANCE: TRADE TRAINING CENTRES AND THE TRANSITION TO SOCIAL INVESTMENT POLITICS IN AUSTRALIA

ABSTRACT:  Prior to its election to office in 2007, the Australian Labor Party announced a commitment to introduce Trade Training Centres (TTCs) into all Australian secondary schools as an initiative of its Education Revolution. TTCs were proposed as a key element of Federal Labor's education and training policy that aimed to manage future risks to Australia's competitiveness in the emerging global economy and to support school-to-employment transitions for young people. This analysis adopts a governmentality framework to conceptualise the Federal Government's introduction of TTCs alternatively as a key strategy for nationalising social investment politics in Australia. The paper draws on recent Australian policy documents to argue that TTCs are social technologies that work to open up social spaces in and around schools for governing relationships between schools and other community stakeholders, particularly businesses and families. The paper concludes by examining policy implications, including those of social justice, for promoting school community partnerships through TTCs.     

Promoting school libraries and schools library services: problems and partnerships

Literuture Matters was a two‐year, national programme in England designed to promote partnerships between schools library services and initial teacher training institutions. Its aim was to raise awareness of the role of the schools library service in promoting children's books and reading for pleasure. There were positive effects, in the short term, on student teachers, teacher educators and library staff. Potentially sustainable partnerships were developed, but structures and funding are needed to ensure a long term impact over new teachers' careers.     

School psychology interns’ characterizations of family–school partnerships

School psychologists are encouraged to establish family–school partnerships with culturally and linguistically diverse families across the spectrum of child development. Partnerships and collaborations have been described in prior literature as bidirectional, nonhierarchical relationships between families and schools, expanding on the more traditional but limited concept of unidirectional parent involvement in school. This qualitative study describes five specialist‐level school psychology interns’ experiences facilitating family–school partnerships with culturally diverse families during their internship year. Findings focus on defining and identifying characteristics of family–school partnerships from interns’ recollections of their lived experiences. Five salient elements characterized the practical experience of a partnership: requisite situations for partnering, stakeholder involvement, intern's actions, intern's emotional responses, and the outcome or quality of the family–school partnership. These findings have implications for the training of school psychologists and the ways that family–school interactions are conceptualized both in training programs and in school settings.     

The trials and tribulations of partnerships in refugee settlement services in Australia

The ascendency of neoliberal ideas in education and social policy in the 1980s and 1990s was succeeded in the new millennium by a ‘new’ social democratic commitment with emphases on community empowerment, building social capital and a ‘whole of government’ approach to partnering with civil society to meet community needs. In Australia, this approach has resulted in the development of partnerships between schools and community organisations formed as part of a targeted, holistic approach to service delivery to meet the settlement and educational needs of refugee youth. Drawing on interviews conducted with community workers and government officers involved in the school–community partnerships, we document how these partnerships are working ‘on the ground’ in Queensland schools. We analyse our findings against the international literature on changing notions of neoliberal governance, and discuss the implications of the shift to the ‘partnering state’ for schools and community organisations working with refugee young people.     

Slippage and/or symbolism: gender,policy and educational governance in Scotland and Sweden

This article provides an overview and analysis of the relationship between gender, educational policy, and governance in Scotland and Sweden and the two countries’ response to European Union and global legislative and policy change. In Scotland, gender is mainly invisible in recent policies on inclusion, achievement beyond academic attainment, and the idealisation of the child. Gender is thus marginalised within a range of factors contributing to social in/equality. In Sweden, in contrast, gender has higher visibility in policy and governance as both an indicator of democracy and a means of preserving social democratic consensus and prosperity. However, recently its privileged position has come under attack. We draw on social capital, gender, and policy theory to analyse the range of influences on gender and educational governance in the two countries including that of the social capital of organised feminism.     

Understanding the nature of school partnerships with business in delivery of vocational programmes in schools in Australia

This article seeks to provide a school perspective on the nature and quality of the partnerships which schools form with businesses in order to deliver work placements and workplace learning in Australia. It found that the ability of schools to engage with external partners depended on the ability of school leaders to define and communicate the role of VET within the school and its broader community. This dependence on individuals and leadership is vulnerable to changes in key personnel and the informality of some of the processes and relationships can lead to problems in monitoring, evaluating and replicating programmes. Our study shows that a balance is required between carefully documented processes and the flexibility required to operate programmes successfully. The study also noted the tension between the perceived needs of the school and those of industry. A successful partnership necessarily requires school flexibility – in the decisions as to what programmes should be offered and how work placements and timetabling should be organised.     

Guanxi and school success: an ethnographic inquiry of parental involvement in rural China

This study examines the differential patterns of school success of rural students as a result of China’s market transition. The process dimension, how families from different social backgrounds within rural society get involved in rural schooling and how this contributes to the inequality of school success within rural society, is investigated. The data analysis suggests that schools as institutions provide few official channels for rural parents to participate in rural schools and help their children to achieve school success. This raises the importance of families’ strategic initiatives to employ guanxi within family, community and between school and family. These make the point that guanxi and their employment have become an important mechanism for social inclusion and exclusion in the competition for advantages in school success in post-socialist China.     

The role of social capital in the explanation of educational success and educational inequalities

This article examines the role that social capital plays in school success and in the explanation of social and ethnic inequalities in the German educational system. Based on Coleman's well-known concept of social capital, different aspects of social capital are distinguished, including social network composition, parent–school interaction and intrafamilial social capital. In sum, the overall results indicate that the different aspects of social capital influence the school performance of pupils. In addition, social capital endowment is found to be of relevance for the explanation of inequalities in school grades between social classes and ethnic groups. In this respect, the analyses indicate that social capital endowment is part of the underlying mechanism responsible for educational inequalities.     

Social capital in the classroom: a study of in-class social capital and school adjustment

Social capital is generally considered beneficial for students’ school adjustment. This paper argues that social relationships among pupils generate social capital at both the individual and the class levels, and that each has its unique effect on pupils’ performance and well-being. The sample in this study consists of 1036 children in 60 first-grade classes in 46 Dutch elementary schools. Multilevel regression results show that a substantial proportion of the variance in school adjustment can be attributed to the class level and that both individual-level and classroom-level social capital have substantial effects on school adjustment. At the individual level, the size of one’s network is more important than its structure. At the collective level, social capital also has a ‘dark side’ because it can have negative effects on adjustment, lowering the academic performance in a class.     

Effective consultants: a conceptual framework for helping school systems achieve systemic reform

A growing number of organisations – universities, non-profits, independent consultants – are emerging as partners to school systems pursuing systemic improvement. This proliferation invites questions probing the interaction between school systems and their consulting partners. Drawing on a cross-disciplinary review of literature, this theoretical paper (1) explores the processes and strategies used by consulting organisations as partners to school systems and (2) proposes a conceptual framework as a starting point for implementation and evaluation of effective consulting for systemic improvement.     

School-university partnerships: a new recipe for creating professional knowledge in school

This paper first reviews the literature on school-university partnerships to evaluate and describe challenges and paradigms of Japanese approaches to school-university partnerships in theory and practice. Secondly, it clarifies the role of three-year school-university partnership between the Nagoya University and the Tokai City Board of Education in the central Japan for creating an effective environment in schools for teachers to learn from each other and for developing more learning-centered education that focuses on the real needs of students. From this study it can be claimed that more effective relationships between Japanese school teachers and university researchers can be established through developing collaborative a school-based research framework especially through the process of jugyou kenkyuu (lesson study).     

The social justice implications of privatisation in education governance frameworks: a relational account

This paper explores the social justice implications of two, ‘linked’, governance developments which have been instrumental in reshaping many education systems throughout the world: the ‘privatising’ and ‘globalising’ of education (Klees, Stromquist, & Samoff, 2012 Klees, S., Stromquist, N. and Samoff, J., eds. 2012. A critical review of the World Bank’s education strategy 2020, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.  [Google Scholar]). We argue that such education governance innovations demand an explicit engagement with social justice theories, both in themselves, and as offering an opportunity to address issues of social justice that go beyond the re/distribution of education inputs and outputs, important though these are, and which take account of the political and accountability issues raised by globalising of education governance activity. To do this we draw upon Iris Marion Young’s concept of ‘the basic structure’ and her ‘social connection model’ of responsibility (Young, 2006 Young, I. M. 2006. Taking the basic structure seriously. Perspectives in Politics, 4: 91–97. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]a,b) to develop a relational account of justice in education governance frameworks.     

Reconsidering school politics: educational controversies in Sweden

School politics in Sweden has recently moved in a conservative direction, emphasising the importance of conventional school subjects, stronger teacher authority and more discipline in the classroom. At the same time, consensus on the utility of such measures is lacking in the school debate. The conservative approach is often criticised as misleading and behind the times in relation to contemporary knowledge demands. This article examines and discusses the relevance of this critique. The main argument is that the conservative approach has a better matching with a previous phase in the history of Swedish school politics and that conventional schooling is difficult to combine with two of the major goals of schooling today – the diffusion of democracy and multipurpose skills. From this perspective, the political notion of schooling seems decoupled from the broader domain of public demands on education. To alleviate this problem school politics should draw less on the pedagogical ideas of essentialism and more on the historical legacy of progressivism in the Swedish education system.     

Advocating and administering critical realism in a study of transnational educational collaborative partnerships

ABSTRACT

Transnational higher education is an increasingly important and essential part of the internationalisation of higher education. As the number of global educational institutions and international students participating in these types of initiatives increases, it becomes of paramount importance that research methodologies that investigate the phenomenon are developed and shared within transnational research communities. This article seeks to contribute to transnational education research by exploring a paradigm that has the potential to generate alternative forms of knowledge concerning transnational collaborative partnerships. By exploring functionalist and interpretivist approaches, often applied in partnership research, this article argues that neither approach, when applied in isolation, can fully articulate the notion of a TNE collaborative partnership. The article therefore champions the application of critical realism when investigating these partnerships and provides an empirical example of two Chinese-British case studies to illustrate the application of the paradigm, followed by a vignette of the type of findings generated, and its value to research and practice.     

Social capital as the catalyst for school participation

This article investigates the association between social capital and education in Jhabua, a tribal dominated district of central India. The case study analysis showed a disconnection between social capital and education in the majority of the villages. However, two of the fourteen villages showed that empowerment of the civil society made formal social organizations like PTAs effective, and also that informal networks play a key role in accountability. This article presents the case that although institutional structures are in place to promote the role of social capital in education, social capital effectiveness depends on a community-based catalyst.     

School Education as Social and Economic Governance: Responsibilising communities through industry‐school engagement

This article examines shifts in educational and social governance taking place in Queensland, Australia, through Education Queensland's Industry School Engagement Strategy and Gateway Schools program. This significant educational initiative is set within the context of Queensland's social investment agenda first articulated in its education policy framework, Queensland State Education‐2010. The article traces the historic extension of this overarching governmental strategy through establishment of the Gateway Schools concept, brokering state‐wide industry‐school partnerships with key global players in the Queensland economy. Industry sectors that have formed partnerships in Gateway projects include Minerals and Energy, Aerospace, Wine Tourism, Agribusiness, Manufacturing and Engineering, Building and Construction and ICT, with more industries and schools forecast to join the program. It is argued that this ‘post‐bureaucratic’ model of schooling represents a new social settlement of neoliberal governance, which seeks to align educational outcomes with economic objectives, thereby framing the conditions for community self‐governance in Queensland.     

Secondary school transition for children with special educational needs: a literature review

Successful transition from primary to secondary school is important for psychosocial well‐being. Children with special educational needs (SEN) may face additional complexities at transition, although the impact of this process on children's psychosocial adjustment has been underexplored. The article aims to review systematically the literature exploring the impact of transition on the concerns and psychosocial adjustment of children with SEN in comparison to typically developing children. Published studies were identified through a systematic search of six electronic databases. Articles fulfilling inclusion criteria were reviewed and a quality criteria system was developed to rank studies. Children with specific learning difficulties perceive lower levels of social support and more peer victimisation after transition than typically developing children, but methodological limitations and the modest number of studies restricted the conclusions that could be drawn.     

现代学校制度变革：正式制度与制度社会资本的有效配合

科层化、官僚化的教育体制已使学校变成一个毫无生气的组织，一个不能激发人的主动性和创造性的组织。现代学校制度的危机就在于制度社会资本的下降。因此，当今改革的一条重要途径是让学校成为“自组织”治理体系，让其中的制度社会资本即非正式制度“复活”或“再生”，即充分发挥习俗、规范、学校化、学校氛围、隐蔽课程的作用，因为它们往往比正式制度具有更好的潜在约束作用，更能节约交易费用，从而更有利于学校发展。但是，良好的制度设计应该是正式制度与非正式制度达到有效配合。     

Translations of new public management: a decentred approach to school governance in four OECD countries

Despite the prevalence of corporate and performative models of school governance within and across different education systems, there are various cases of uneven, hybrid expressions of New Public Management (NPM) that reveal the contingency of global patterns of rule. Adopting a ‘decentred approach’ to governance (Bevir, M. 2010. “Rethinking Governmentality: Towards Genealogies of Governance.” European Journal of Social Theory 13 (4): 423–441), this paper compares the development of NPM in four OECD countries: Australia, England, Spain, and Switzerland. A focus of the paper is how certain policy instruments are created and sustained within highly differentiated geo-political settings and through different multi-scalar actors and authorities yet modified to reflect established traditions and practices.     

Leadership,partnerships, and organizational development: exploring components of effectiveness in three full-service community schools

Full-service community schools are viewed as an approach to improve educational opportunities and outcomes for underserved student populations. The realization of these goals, however, is not guaranteed. According to Richardson’s (2009) research-based model of highly effective community schools (HECS), the effectiveness of full-service community schools depends on 3 interrelated components: leadership, partnerships, and organizational development. This qualitative case study uses the HECS model to examine different levels of effectiveness among 3 full-service community schools in an urban district in the eastern United States. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of Richardson’s model for practice and research.