Early education and day care: in search of a policy

This paper examines policy issues in the provision of services for children under five and their families. It argues that services have developed in response to political and economic factors rather than in response to the needs of children and their parents. It shows how the separate strands of development that have led to the current confused situation reflect different ideological and philosophical approaches which tend to militate against a more coherent and co‐ordinated service provision. In the absence of a national policy on services for children under five, the paper examines the attempts by some local authorities to rationalize their own services on a local basis. It considers some of the areas in which a policy is required, including the organizational structure of services, flexibility and responsiveness of nurseries and centres to the needs of families, the quality of day care and education, the involvement of parents, equal opportunities, the relationship between the vouluntary and statutory sectors, pay and conditions of pre‐school workers, and initial and in‐service training.     

Integration of external studies and campus‐based education in Australian higher education: The myth and the promise

A series of historical phases in the development of external studies provision in Australia is outlined. Through an analysis of the ways in which current policy has been influenced by previous conceptions of external studies, it is shown that policy formulation fails to take account of the most recent phase of development in the direction of open learning. It is argued that this error, if uncorrected, will lead to the implementation of policy which, though it may maintain the myth of integration of external studies and campus‐based education, must deny its promise. A promise which, ironically, has greater likelihood of fulfillment in Australia, given the absence of a single national provider of external studies.     

坚持理性思考整合 教学内容努力 完善高校军事训练课程体系

高等学校学生军训必须以国家的有关规定和要求为依据，采用课程的形式，使其具有课程的特征和属性；必须坚持为预备役打基础这一原则，将国防意识、国防理论、军事科技、基础常识、基本技能纳入教学内容；必须遵循教学的一般规律，对教学内容进行科学的调整整合。     

Education and Social Services for Disabled Persons in Spain

DETAILED INFORMATION about education and social services for disabled children and adults, with emphasis on the hearing impaired population is provided. Information is derived from an extensive series of interviews conducted with representatives of government, international agencies, and private sector organizations, as well as health professionals, educators, and disabled persons. A broad discussion of policy and health services follows an overview of demographic and historical background. Spain's leaders recognize the nation's dependence on human resources to affirm its place in the international community and understand that an educated citizenry ensures the preservation of democracy and functions as an instrument for social transformation. These insights have driven major changes in service delivery to the disabled, including a national project for the integration of disabled children into regular classrooms. The National Centre of Resources for Special Education (NCRSE) is responsible for overseeing the national integration project; provision of inservices to teachers and other professionals; development, adaptation and distribution of curricular materials designed to improve the learning process; adaptation of evaluation instruments for students with special educational needs; and promotion of research in the field of special education.     

A Systems Approach to Identifying and Managing Opportunities and Constraints to Delivering Innovation Policy for Agriculture: An Analysis of the Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program

Abstract

In this paper we outline an analytical approach to identifying points in the policy process where management intervention to adjust organizational design could enhance delivery of innovation policy over time. We illustrate this approach using an example from native vegetation policy in the state of Victoria, Australia. We then use this approach to interpret recent reviews of the Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) Program, a policy instrument aimed at enhancing national economic growth by fostering innovation in research and development.

The approach described in this paper is grounded in the idea of policy as a complex and adaptive organizational system.

From the findings it was apparent that reviews of the Australian CRC Program have recognized some of its complex and dynamic properties. However, they have been limited in their capacity to translate this recognition into practical recommendations for organizational design to improve delivery on innovation, particularly in relation to the uptake of research outputs by industries such as agriculture. We propose that this is likely to reflect the bureaucratic foundations of innovation policy and the difficulties associated with changing processes and ways of managing them that have become locked in to the organizational system.

The design of policy instruments to deliver innovation, such as the CRC Program, should be informed by a detailed understanding of the dynamics that are mediating between policy objectives and outcomes over time. Dynamics such as the impact of bureaucratic constraints on the flexibility of policy processes and the participants engaged in them. In the absence of this sort of understanding, dynamics that critically affect the capacity of policy instruments to deliver innovation are likely to go unidentified and left to run their own course to an unpredictable and potentially counterproductive end.

While the idea of policy as a complex organizational system is well known, there remains a substantive gap in knowledge as to how thinking about policy in this way might be applied to generate practical options for improving organizational design. The analytical approach described in this paper addresses this gap in knowledge. In the absence of such approaches, the effectiveness of policy instruments such as the CRC Program, which are intended to foster innovation, will continue to be limited by deficiencies in organizational design.     

Lessons to be learned? Parallels between Australia and Hong Kong in the development of distance education

Developments in the provision of distance education in Australia and Hong Kong are analysed in terms of eight phases, characterised by Government policies and institutional practices. Hong Kong appears to be progressing through the same developmental phases as Australia, but at later points in time. Both countries decided against forming a single national open university in favour of dispersed provision but neither followed recommendations to form a body to co‐ordinate course provision nationally. Both have experienced a period of uncontrolled and unco-ordinated expansion of distance education courses and Hong Kong is still in this phase, whereas Australia is now in the midst of belated attempts by its federal government to rationalise distance education at the national level along with higher education as a whole. We argue that much of the confusion surrounding these events could have been prevented by early planning and setting of clear policy guidelines, together with a recognition that implementation of higher education policy is by no means a straightforward matter. Hopefully there are lessons to be learned from this analysis: in the case of Hong Kong, that its current trend towards unco‐ordinated expansion may well lead to enforced contraction and rationalisation should economic growth trends be reversed, and, in the case of Australia, a clearer understanding of issues related to policy and implementation.     

Early educational provision – emphasised in education policy reforms in Norway? An analysis of education policy documents

The article analyses how the intentions of early provision in Norwegian schools have been expressed in the education policy reforms in Norway from the 1970s to the present day. The first area deals with the intentions that most explicitly cover early provision; prevention, early detection and intervention. The second area of analysis relates to the early provision intentions with an emphasis on the correlation between individual and environmental factors seen in light of differentiation and disability. The third area examines how significance is attached to pupils’ social background with regard to early provision in learning in schools. Finally, consideration is given to the relationship between early provision intentions and efforts to prevent pupils dropping out of upper secondary education. The analysis also shows that the policy guidelines on early provision for schools and teachers have been weak and unclear. This is due to the fact that the early provision intentions have primarily been expressed in reports to the Storting, and rarely given any kind of focus in national curricula.     

治理现代化视域下社区教育融入城镇社区治理的“必然”事实和“应然”价值

社会治理作为国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要内容,构成了“政府、市场、社会”多元主体共治的治理格局。社区教育是城镇社区治理、社会治理现代化的强力助推器,社区教育融入社区治理不仅是社会治理现代化进程中应然层面的价值引领,更是新时代背景下社区教育主动作为的实然依据和必然趋势。一方面,社区教育从组织、群体、个体、社会层面主动融入社区治理,参与公共服务提供和公共事务管理与共治,回应群众对美好生活的需求;另一方面,各类社区教育活动融入社区治理,拓展和丰富社区教育的内涵和外延,创新社区教育发展模式,形成社区教育高质量发展生态,进而使社区教育更加契合国家、社会经济发展,实现社区教育的价值。     

Lifelong learning and welfare reform

This is the second of two papers which explore the scope and limitations of lifelong learning as an object of policy. In the first (see Griffin 1999) the evolution of the social democratic perspective was described. According to this perspective, it was suggested, the attempt to render lifelong learning as an object of policy entailed a reductionist concept of learning, so that it stood for little more than the expansion of education and training provision. In the following paper, an alternative perspective on lifelong learning, also emerging from the policy literature, removes it from the possibility of traditional policy analysis, relocating it in culture, civil society and patterns of lifestyle, leisure and consumption. Analytic distinctions between education and learning, function and provision, policy and strategy, and markets and quasi-markets are employed to explore various policy models. It is suggested that this perspective on lifelong learning needs to be understood in relation to policies for welfare reform and the crisis of the welfare state. In effect, it amounts to the integration of education policy into wider policies for welfare reform.     

节庆活动组织创意与创新之研究——以客家桐花祭为例

"一窝蜂"的模仿与复制,活动创意与创新不足,文化论述不够,文化、社会与经济发展重点未能兼顾等,让台湾节庆活动近年来渐呈没落萎缩之势。台湾客家桐花祭在迈入第8个年头之后,也慢慢呈现老化和创新不足。要有效提升客家桐花祭活动创意与创新,必须更加提升活动营销和科技整合的能力;活动的企划及执行过程,应更有效整合小区相关利益人士的意见,重视活动的内涵与质量,强化外地游客吸引力,以消费者和游客为导向,创造小区商机;就政策面而言,主管机关的辅导培育政策应该有较长期性的规划与基础性扶植的思考。如此,客家桐花祭"整体统筹、企业加盟、县市执行、小区发展"的经营模式,才能更加顺畅运作,客家桐花祭的"文化扎根、振兴产业、带动观光、活化客庄"的愿景与目标才能更加深化。     

The role of higher education in national integration in Nigeria

This paper discusses the machinery for higher education policy formulation and implementation in Nigeria with particular reference to the university system. It identifies the goal of national unity and national integration as a new addition to the university's traditional roles of manpower production, research and teaching. An analysis of the implementation of measures aimed at achieving national integration with emphasis on student recruitment is attempted. Two features are apparent, both of which are counter-productive to national integration. First, universities recruit their students mostly from the states and geopolitical regions in which they are located. Secondly, inter-regional migration of students is a one-way traffic - mostly from South to North. Measures to improve the achievement of national integration are also suggested.     

Organizational Capacity and Political Activities of Canadian University Faculty Associations

In this study we examine the organizational capacity and political activities of Canadian university faculty associations in the development of higher education policy. We attempt to describe, from the perspective of the faculty associations, their political role both internal and extenral to the university and the extent to which faculty associations perceive themselves as being able to influence issues of policy. We report the findings of a national survey of university faculty associations including data on organizational structure, finance, perceived influence on institutional and provincial government, policy, services and programs, and other factors related to their role as political pressure groups.     

Developing Country-Tailored Policy for the Provision of Schools with Educational Software and Content: The Case of Lithuania

In many countries, the development and introduction of educational software into general education is one of the key issues of national ICT policies. However, differently from other issues of ICT in education, this question is much more country-specific. Therefore, each state shall look for individual solutions that match its economic, social, cultural and other national requirements the best. This paper analyses the development of country-tailored policy for schools' provision with educational software and content. While having generic objectives, the research investigates the case of Lithuania. Initially, the paper gives a review of the Lithuanian context. Then, it analyses the policies and practices of other countries and abstracts potential solutions of the key strategic issues, relevant to the development and implementation of educational software into general education. In parallel with theoretical investigation, the research ratiocinates and demonstrates how each solution, proposed in the Lithuanian strategy of schools' provision with educational aids, has been adapted to the national peculiarities.     

Evaluation approaches for a national ICT initiative: the example of laptops for New Zealand teachers

This paper will highlight the successful evaluation approaches deployed for long-term exploration of the impact of a national policy initiative as well as some of the results and outcomes. An interactive feedback process informed decision-making at the national and local level thereby enhancing both the initiative and its implementation in schools. The integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into schools has been a focus of a plethora of policy initiatives by governments worldwide for over 20 years. The provision of laptops to teachers is one component of the New Zealand compulsory school sector ICT strategy. The evaluation research design was to use a mixed-methods approach incorporating three yearly cycles of annual nationwide surveys, regional focus groups, and school-based longitudinal case studies. Randomized sampling was used to identify 20% of the available laptop schools as potential participants in the survey. The same schools participated in each of the 3 years. A distinctive feature of this evaluation has been the regular feedback loops between the evaluators and the stakeholders. The stakeholders included the Ministry of Education and laptop suppliers as well as schools, school leaders, and teacher unions. In the current accountability, environment schools are increasingly being asked to participate in evaluation studies. In long-term studies, it is important to establish effective relationships with the schools and the policy-makers and to deploy robust evaluation methodologies. This is essential for both validity and reliability of the findings and the useability and utilization of the findings.     

Finland: Modern Language Teaching

The Committee on Language Teaching Policy has submitted its report to the Ministry of Education. The Committee, chaired by Mr. Jaakko Numminen, was set up in 1976 with the task of investigating to what extent the two national languages, Finnish and Swedish, and foreign languages are taught in the Finnish educational system and to outline a plan, which would guarantee that provision for the teaching of languages in formal and informal education is adequate in the light of national needs and national cultural policy.     

民族自治市建制推动民族自治地方城镇化建设

我国是一个统一多民族社会主义国家,少数民族地区实行民族区域自治,有效促进了各民族平等和共同繁荣.随着城镇化建设的快速发展,民族自治地方建制已不适应当前的发展,改革建制,创建民族自治市已成为推动民族自治地方城镇化建设的必然要求.民族自治市建设需要国家法律制度的保证,采取有力措施,加大国家扶持和对口帮扶力度,并通过民族自治地方的努力,实现与全国同步进入小康社会的宏大目标.     

审视国家助学贷款政策

随着高等教育的发展,高校贫困生问题日益突出,高等教育的资金需求越来越大,国家助学贷款政策应运而生.理论上,国家助学贷款政策是政府为了促进教育事业的发展、为了高等教育的公平、为了社会的公正而做出的实践性决策,对个人和组织的行为产生影响;其本质是学生、高校、社会之间的利益协调和平衡.就实践而言,学生、学校、政府、银行四方都不同程度地成为国家助学贷款政策的受益者.国家助学贷款工作的健康发展,既需学生、学校、银行和政府的单方努力也需要多方配合.     

对土地政策参与宏观调控的若干思考

阐述了土地政策参与宏观调控的必要性及主要内容，认为土地政策参与宏观调控，还应注意与“国家财政货币政策”、“国家产业政策”、“国家区域发展政策”等宏观调控政策有效配合。     

History education in comprehensive schools: using school-level data to interpret national patterns

This paper reports the findings from two large-scale national online surveys carried out in 2009 and 2010, which explored the state of history teaching in English secondary schools. Large variation in provision was identified within comprehensive schools in response to national policy decisions and initiatives. Using the data from the surveys and school-level data that are publicly available, this study examines situated factors, particularly the nature of the school intake, the numbers of pupils with special educational needs and the socio-economic status of the area surrounding the school, and the impact these have on the provision of history education. The findings show that there is a growing divide between those students that have access to the ‘powerful knowledge' provided by subjects like history, and those that do not.     

FE and skills in Scotland: the implications of a policy led and ‘managed’ approach?

ABSTRACT

This article considers the implications of a ‘managed’ approach to skills policy in Scotland, in which Government policy and the role of national institutional frameworks can be seen to be influential, and which contrasts with the more marketised approach which has been a central aspect of policy in England. A number of themes within these national policies are discussed, and the continuing importance of balancing the skills agenda with social inclusion is noted. The ways in which these national policies and frameworks have shaped provision in a number of key areas including apprenticeship programmes, changing patterns of participation and relationships with employers are then examined. The strengths and limitations of the distinctive approaches taken in Scotland will be analysed in terms of their contribution to meeting the changing educational training needs of the workforce in the twenty-first century. This consideration of the distinctive policy led and ‘managed’ approach to the skills agenda will provide the context in which to consider the opportunities for policy learning within the UK.