Consulting stakeholders in the development of an environmental policy implementation plan: a Delphi study at Dalhousie University

This paper reports on a Delphi Study undertaken at Dalhousie University in which a multi‐stakeholder panel was consulted in order to generate ideas that could be incorporated into an Implementation Plan for the University Environmental Policy (UEP). The objectives of the study were twofold. First, the study endeavored to develop ideas as to the most desirable and feasible ways in which to incorporate the UEP into the activities and structure of the university. Second, the study sought to assess the applicability of the Delphi Technique for consulting with stakeholders in the development of an implementation plan. The final analyses confirm the literature on the challenges, barriers and opportunities encountered for institutional environmental change in higher education. The study also confirms the findings of existing research that promotes the Delphi Technique as an excellent tool to inform the creation of educational and social policy. Specifically, this study illustrates the benefits of applying the Policy Delphi Technique to the development of an Environmental Policy Implementation Plan in higher education.     

Widening participation in nursing through progression agreements between a university and two further education colleges: a case study

The School of Nursing, part of the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences within Kingston University/St George's, University of London, has undertaken a number of initiatives to address the widening participation agenda. The student life‐cycle underpins the framework for the university's widening participation strategy and activities. This article provides a case study of the development and implementation of one such initiative, a Progression Agreement project between the School of Nursing and two colleges of further education (FE). The FE colleges provide Access to Nursing/Access to Health and Social Care Professions courses and the university, in partnership with these colleges, has drawn up Progression Agreements to enable successful completers of these access courses to be admitted onto nursing programmes at the university. The article explores the policy issues and literature related to widening participation, how these influenced the development of Progression Agreements, the evaluation of these initiatives and how Progression Agreements have contributed to changes in admission processes for nursing programmes in the university.     

It's installed ... now get on with it! Looking beyond the software to the cultural change

This case study looks at the lessons learned from the ultimately successful implementation of the Blackboard Managed Learning Environment at Northumbria University and explores how these are now being applied to the matching implementation at a local further education college, which we are supporting. The study identifies key aspects that emerged from Northumbria's experience—the application of models of innovation from both educational and business worlds, the need to take account of the impact of cultural change, the need for effective staff development for all stakeholders, the need for a ‘road map’ for the development, and the need for ongoing dialogue with clients (staff) and customers (students). It reflects upon how Northumbria's approach has led to the emergence of a learning organisation that is adaptive and responsive and how a business approach can be applied to higher and further education innovations.     

中共在高校接管中自我形象的塑造——以对清华大学的接管为例

中共对高校接管既是新政权建立的必然要求,也是知识分子政策落实的结果。1948年底至1949年初,中共以高校师生为重心,通过严谨且细致的接管工作,树立了一个认真负责、廉洁高效、具有民主作风的政党形象,赢得了多数师生的支持与拥护。成功接管清华大学是中共对国统区文化教育机构接管的良好范例,为当下党的高校工作提供了经验。     

A Seat at the Table: How the Work of Teaching Impacts Teachers as Policy Agents

Policy reflects and shapes society's beliefs about schools, teachers, children, learning, and society, as well as the power structures embedded in our communities and decision-making processes. Although teachers may be central to the implementation of education policy, they are marginal to the design of policy agendas and text, especially around issues of teaching and learning. Their absence in the policymaking process creates a disconnect between the goals and design of education policy and the actual lived challenges of implementation. In examining the dynamics in this critical disconnect, we address the following research questions: How do institutional norms and routines affect teachers' agency in the policymaking process? Following this research question is our action question: How do we support conditions that support teachers as policy agents? We draw on qualitative data from two sites (West Virginia and Wisconsin) where K–12 teachers partnered with university researchers in a range of capacity-building efforts. Analysis illustrates how teachers interact with certain institutional norms that make it hard to engage in policy design. Based on our findings, we discuss how a teacher–university partnership can better support the conditions that facilitate greater teacher agency in thinking, talking, and acting on policy.     

Assessment as an equity issue in higher education: comparing the perceptions of first year students, course coordinators, and academic leaders

Assessment practices that aim to promote both quality and equity may be compromised in a higher education market where students are consumers and grades the currency exchanged for measures of success. In such a climate, academics report feeling pressured to make course content and assessment less challenging in order to obtain positive student evaluations, and they may lose faith in university quality assurance processes that seem focused on ensuring student satisfaction with education as a product. To explore these issues from the perspectives of the main stakeholders in assessment, this paper investigates assessment perceptions of students, course coordinators, and faculty Associate Deans responsible for teaching and learning at The University of Queensland. The findings highlight differences in what these groups consider to be important assessment issues and differences in how they should be addressed. First year students are identified as a disadvantaged group due to perceptions of the role of feedback and formative assessment that may be influenced by their secondary school assessment experiences.     

Media/ting change: the print media's role in mediating education policy in a period of radical reform in Victoria,Australia

This paper draws upon critical discourse analysis, cultural studies and communication theory, studies on media and educational reform, and the work of Bernstein, Bourdieu and Luhmann in particular, to explore how the print and media ‘mediated’ a period of educational change marked by moves to self‐management in schools in Victoria, Australia. It considers how the media was mobilized by various education stakeholders, and in turn informed relations between schools and government, through policy discourses and texts. It considers why and how particular themes became media ‘issues’, how schools and teachers responded to these issues, and how the media was used by various stakeholders in education to shape policy debates. It is based on a year‐long qualitative study that explored critical incidents and representations about education in the print media over a year in the daily press. It illustrates the ways in which a neo‐liberal Victorian government mobilized the media to gain strategic advantage to promote radical education reform policies, considers the media effects of this media/tion process on schools and teachers, and conceptualizes how school and system performance is fed from and into media representations, public perceptions and community understandings of schools and teachers' work.     

关于“实名推荐制”的利益相关者分析

政策的利益相关者包括政策制定者、政策实行者和政策实施的对象。"实名推荐制"政策中政策制定者指教育部及其授权的北京大学;政策执行者涉及被批准有资格进行推荐的各位校长;政策的实施对象涵盖被推荐的优秀学生。特定政策的出台是利益分配的结果,政策利益主体有得有失,各方都在明确自己的权力、利益和责任的基础上进行博弈,力求达到最佳平衡点,维持政策的"多赢"局面。     

State of rhetoric: neoliberal discourses for education in state of the state addresses and gubernatorial press releases

ABSTRACT

Policy elites use rhetoric in speeches and press releases to provide framing that is intended to influence public opinion. These rhetorical events can be treated as instances in which speech usefully promotes particular discourses. Indeed, elected officials are able to influence how individuals think about problems and solutions through speeches and press releases. Two important rhetorical events in which political elites advance frames for social issues are annual state of the state addresses (SoSA) given by U.S. governors and gubernatorial press releases that inform media reporting about state policy. This study employed policy discourse and rhetorical analyses to examine SoSAs and press releases as rhetorical events within the context of educational policy. Our findings show that governors framed the roles of state government, governors, and educational stakeholders within a discourse that perpetuates a neoliberal version of education. In this framing, governors situated education’s purpose as being workforce and economic development, ignoring its role in addressing social issues and preparing informed, engaged participants for democratic society. Given that individuals make decisions about how to address social issues and understand public institutions based on framing provided by political elites, these findings raise implications for state educational policies and the public purposes of education.     

The First Year Experience Project: A model for university-wide change

Studies of Australian first year students (McInnis & James, 1995; McInnis, James, & Hartley, 2000a) show that initial experiences on campus are important, and influence students' persistence in higher education. In this paper we present the way in which one Australian university has sought to address the issues of first year student progression and withdrawal, grounded in theory and research. We begin by reviewing the literature on withdrawal, and conclude that each university must understand the experiences of its own students, if it is to address attrition. Next, analysis of Tinto's six principles (Tinto, 1987, 1993), which underpin successful attempts to enhance first year student success and progression at university, and Peel's (1999) "basic set of expectations" in relation to attempts to address transition issues by universities, leads us to the conclusion that a coordinated, informed, university-wide response to transition issues will improve the learning experiences of all first year students. We then apply Fullan's theory (1991) of successful change processes to the context of La Trobe University. Drawing on this theoretical background, we discuss the processes of the First Year Experience Project, the vehicle for change that is in place at La Trobe University. We highlight the dynamic nature of the change process, and emphasise the way in which evaluation is embedded in that process. Finally, we attempt to synthesise the theory and the practice, showing where the First Year Experience Project at La Trobe University fits with theory, evaluating the success of the change model in relation to its objectives, and raising issues for the future.     

The ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes towards different environmental phenomena: A sample of Syrian refugee children

This study aims to examine the preschool Syrian children's attitudes towards some environmental issues (consumption patterns, environmental protection, recycling-reuse, and life habits) based on the ecocentric and anthropocentric approach. Content analysis research was carried out as the aimed to reveal how children make sense of some environmental phenomena. The sample group consists of 74 Syrian children in early childhood age, attending a kindergarten. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews through the illustrated Turkish version of the "The Children's Attitudes towards the Environment Scale-Preschool Version (CATES-PV)" interview form. The content analysis technique was used in the analysis of qualitative data. The current research results show that most of the children's responses to consumption patterns and daily life habits are anthropocentric, while they are ecocentric towards environmental protection, recycling, and reuse. In line with these results, important recommendations have been presented for teachers, parents, and researchers who work with Syrian children.     

Pupil participation: the NASEN policy

NASEN is to be congratulated for developing a Policy on Pupil Participation (NASEN, 2004). The importance of developing this practice has been increasingly recognised over recent years by policy makers, practitioners and researchers. In this short article I shall address some of the issues that the development of such a policy raises. Although generally welcoming NASEN's initiatives and similar actions by other organizations, I consider it important also to review the issue more broadly.     

The impact of school policy and stakeholders' actions on student learning: A longitudinal study

This paper proposes a theoretical framework on how school policy can promote student learning. School policy is considered to have an indirect effect on student achievement by changing school stakeholders' actions toward improving the School Learning Environment (SLE) and teaching practice. A reciprocal relationship between school policy and stakeholders' actions is also considered. A longitudinal study was conducted to test the framework's main assumptions. A stratified sample of 64 primary schools was selected and students' achievement in Mathematics at the beginning of Grade 4 and at the end of the next three consecutive school years was measured, alongside the school policy and teachers' actions with regards to issues associated with teaching and the SLE. The results of multilevel structural equation modelling analyses supported the main assumptions of the framework. Implications for the development of school policy are drawn and suggestions for further research are provided.     

Environmental Education in Rural Central Himalayan Schools

Abstract

This article describes an experimental environmental education course in rural schools in India's central Himalayas. The course was designed to introduce environmental and livelihood issues into mainstream curriculum. The Uttaranchal Environment Education Centre initiated this program in 1987 with the help of national and state departments of education. This practical course focuses on land degradation, which is the region's major environmental problem. Students learn how to manage their village ecosystem to ensure maximum sustainable productivity. Currently, 1,000 teachers in 530 schools offer the course to approximately 68,000 students.     

芝加哥大学哈珀校长的办学理念及治校举措

大学校长的办学理念对大学的改革和发展起着至关重要的作用。哈珀作为芝加哥大学的首任校长,其办学理念对芝加哥大学的定位和发展有着深远的影响。在哈珀执校的十五年间,芝加哥大学迅速跻身于世界一流大学的行列。追溯哈珀校长的成功经验对我国大学校长办学理念的构建具有一定的启示作用。     

Developing a Measure of Perceived Environmental Risk

Abstract

This study conceptually and empirically develops a scale that measures perceptions of environmental risk (PER). PER is a measure that is different from the measure of environmental knowledge but equally important because people tend to act on their perceptions regardless of whether they are accurate. A reliable and valid assessment of perceived environmental risk is important for environmental education because it will provide a general overview of the present state of perceptions regarding environmental risk, and it will provide measures of specific environmental issues. Therefore, this type of scale either can provide a comprehensive measure for environmental education programs or can measure specific selected items that apply to certain situations or programs, or both. Administrators and teachers could use this scale to indicate the effectiveness of environmental education programs. We define perceptions of environmental risk as a general measurement of risk which assesses the degree to which one perceives danger, peril, or hazards to either self, community, society, or all three, in regard to specific environmental issues. In developing this scale, we used various heterogenous groups across multiple studies to affirm the scale's validity and reliability.     

Introducing sustainability into university curricula: an indicator and baseline survey of the views of university teachers at the University of Valencia

Many higher education institutions have assumed the role of diffusing knowledge, values, attitudes and behaviours that favour sustainability. A key objective in such work is training university teachers to apply sustainability criteria to their respective disciplines. While university teachers' active participation is essential to achieving this goal, their ideas about and predispositions towards introducing sustainability into curricula are not always understood or appreciated. In this paper, we report on a questionnaire survey at the University of Valencia, Spain, on the current baseline situation for introducing sustainability across the university's curricula. We also report on a measure to periodically review the situation, including progress of and/or decline in introducing sustainability into diverse subject areas, focusing on a series of indicators grouped under the common name ‘π Indicator’. Key findings from the survey include the widespread support for introducing sustainability across the university's curricula; however, as might be expected, significant differences occur in how questions are addressed by staff from various disciplines, including how they relate to departmental perceptions, interpretations and performance of sustainability‐related teaching.     

Transition and technology—Evaluation of blended learning delivered by university staff to 6th form students

This paper tackles two issues which are closely related: transition from pre‐entry learning to studying at university and the role blended learning strategies might have in supporting this transition. It draws on the pilot delivery of two credit‐bearing modules which were delivered in two pre‐entry institutions. The modules followed two different models in terms of their alignment to the pre‐entry curriculum and in their mode of delivery. They were evaluated through questionnaires and focus groups with students. Both university tutors and coordinators at the schools were also interviewed in order to identify barriers in the process from their perspectives. This paper contributes to research in this field by identifying, from the key stakeholders of students' and deliverers' vantage points, factors that are specific to the blended learning process and contribute to a more structured and positive transition experience for the students. It looks at how blended methodologies can enhance the transition process, as well as what some of the barriers might be. As a consequence, the paper will provide some suggestions as to how institutions may overcome some of those issues identified in order to replicate the practice successfully.     

Reforming University Education in Hong Kong and Singapore

University education has been thrust into the limelight by policymakers in Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years. Reforming university education thus has become a norm for both city-states. This article reviews and compares some recent developments in the university reforms in both city-states. It argues university education, as a public policy area, is not immune from the profound influence of such concepts as accountability, performativity, quality assurance and market relevance, which prevail in a wider policy context of public sector reforms and governance changes. Hong Kong and Singapore's university reforms are similarly extensive, ranging from the admission mechanisms through to the governance and funding systems. This article has four main sections. The first sketches a paradigm shift in the policymaking process and the changing state-university relationships in the age of globalization. The second reviews and compares some recent developments of the university reforms in both city-states. The third turns to assess the impacts of the reforms on university stakeholders. The final section is the conclusion.     

The Debate on University Transformation in South Africa: the case of the University of the Western Cape

This paper examines issues in the transformation of the university system in a democratic South Africa utilising the University of the Western Cape as a case study. In particular, it questions how the University's 1982 Mission Statement, which defined its oppositional role in the apartheid period, might be revised to shape the universities radical traditions to the tasks of the contribution of a new social order.