Social Theory and Education Policy: the legacy of Karl Mannheim

This paper looks back at the career of the sociologist Karl Mannheim, who died 50 years ago. It considers how far Mannheim's work remains relevant and discusses what lessons it may still have to offer. Quoting Sir Fred Clarke as saying that educational theory and education policy that took no account of changes in the wider social order would be not only blind but positively harmful, the paper suggests that a similar case applies today. It therefore remains essential that Mannheim's legacy is preserved and that the sociological imagination is exercised in relation to contemporary education policy and education research. In the light of Mannheim's own shift from diagnosing the crisis to prescribing the remedies, the paper also reflects on how far it is legitimate for sociologists of education to make such a move. Finally, the paper considers how Mannheim's notion of planning for democracy might be superseded by more genuinely democratic forms of education policy‐making in the aftermath of current neo‐liberal policies of deregulation.     

Considering Epistemic Violence,Scarcity and Student Voice in Relation to Educational Goods

‘Educational Goods’ is a provocative text which makes important contributions relevant to a wide readership, and this examination of the text suggests it may be necessary to further complicate the concept of educational goods. In particular, it takes issue with the universalising of the ‘good’ which has been a key feature of colonisation that demands assimilation of marginalised peoples and amounts to epistemic violence. It also holds that notions of scarcity in the educational sphere, which leads the authors of this text to consider the importance of decision-making which they insist involves trade-offs, often fail to make space for less zero-sum, and more intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches to the challenges facing schools. Finally, it suggests that the text addresses teachers, parents and other school administrators as key actors shaping the contours of education today, though the voices of students remain relatively obscured. It proposes that it may be fruitful to consider how researchers might begin to develop more meaningful ways to gauge childhood goods based on student self-reporting, student narrative and student priority setting in a way that can inform policy making.     

'The Trouble with Our Schools': A media construction of public discourses on Queensland schools

This paper gives an account of competing public discourses on schooling. In particular, it investigates one newspaper's coverage of the release of an educational report. The paper combines interview data with a critical discourse analysis of newspaper texts to show how media reporting of Queensland schools constructed a preferred discourse on education that represented schools as being in crisis, 'in trouble'. The analysis describes how the paper shaped popular opinion on educational policy through the construction of public discourses of crisis in education. Further, the analysis shows how this discourse positioned particular groups as the authoritative voice on standards in Queensland schools. It shows how, at a time when teacher quality was under question, the media constructed a public discourse that diminished the authority of teachers to speak about education policy, granting that authority to the newspaper's editor, who assumed the people's voice on educational issues. This analysis of the construction of public discourses about education policy gives insights into the media's place in educational policy-making. In so doing, the paper adds to the small body of literature that investigates the relationships between the media and education.     

The Meritocratic Conception of Educational Equality: Ideal Theory Run Amuck

The dominant conception of educational equality in the United States is meritocratic: an individual's chances of educational achievements should track only (natural) talent and effort, not social class or other morally irrelevant factors. The meritocratic conception must presuppose that natural talent and effort can be isolated from social class — and environmental factors in general — if it is to provide guidance in the world of educational policy and practice. In this article Kenneth R. Howe challenges that presupposition and related elements of the meritocratic conception having to do with the role of competition and education as a positional good. Howe argues that, in use, the meritocratic conception unavoidably distributes education based on developed talent and motivation that cannot be isolated from the effects of social class, thus masking the real basis of the distribution and contributing to the perpetuation of illicit group privilege. Howe then entertains and rejects several rejoinders to his critique, including that the meritocratic conception might eliminate the presupposition of isolatable natural talent. Finally, Howe sketches an alternative conception of educational equality based on Elizabeth Anderson's adaptation of Rawls's “democratic equality.”     

Educational Justice,Epistemic Justice,and Leveling Down

Harry Brighouse and Adam Swift argue that education is a positional good; this, they hold, implies that there is a qualified case for leveling down educational provision. In this essay, Ben Kotzee discusses Brighouse and Swift's argument for leveling down. He holds that the argument fails in its own terms and that, in presenting the problem of educational justice as one of balancing education's positional and nonpositional benefits, Brighouse and Swift lose sight of what a consideration of the nonpositional benefits by itself can reveal. Instead of focusing on education's positional benefits, Kotzee investigates what emphasizing education's nonpositional benefits would imply for educational justice. Drawing on recent work in social epistemology, Kotzee holds that theories of educational justice would benefit from a consideration of the virtue of epistemic justice, and he outlines solutions to a number of problems in the area from this perspective.     

Educational assessment and accountability: a New Zealand case study

This paper discusses the increasing use of assessment as a market signal and as an index of educational accountability. It is argued that assessment policies in New Zealand reflect an uneasy balance between the interests of the new right and more progressive educationists. These influences are examined using three largely contradictory models of educational accountability (professional, market and management). Each model reflects a range of epistemological and ideological assumptions. Thus student assessment serves different and largely conflicting purposes. The paper uses a recent New Zealand policy document (Tomorrow's Standards) to examine the interaction of each model. It is argued that through a failure to state clearly the purpose of assessment, educational reform in this area is overly concerned with the means rather than the ends of education. This has important implications for student motivation and learning. The paper concludes with a comment on current policy development and concludes that some recent initiatives provide the hope that a system of assessment that is both meaningful and relevant to individual learners may be developed.     

我国学前教育消费主义倾向分析

改革开放以来,我国学前教育在市场经济体制运行下,从教育决策、人与人的关系和价值判断方面均体现出一定的教育消费主义倾向,这一倾向的发展将对教育公平的改进、学前教师权威的建立和素质教育改革带来一定的负面影响,值得引起我们每一个关心学前教育事业人的关注。     

THINKING ABOUT THE NATURE AND ROLE OF AUTHORITY IN DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION WITH ROUSSEAU'S EMILE

Educational authority is an issue in contemporary democracies. Surprisingly, little attention has been given to the problem of authority in Jean‐Jacques Rousseau's Emile and his work has not been addressed in the contemporary debate on the issue of authority in democratic education. Olivier Michaud's goals are, first, to address both of these oversights by offering an original reading of the problem of authority in Emile and then to rehabilitate the notion of “educational authority” for democratic educators today. Contrary to progressive readings of Emile, he argues, Rousseau's position on this issue is not reducible to “education against authority.” What appears at first glance to be an education against authority is, in a deeper sense, an education toward and even within authority. Michaud contends that we have to embrace these complexities and contradictions that inform Rousseau's work in order to gain insights into the place and role of authority in democratic education. Michaud sheds light on Rousseau's stance on authority through a close study of specific topics addressed in Emile, including negative education, opinion, one's relation to God, friendship and loving relationships, and, finally, the relation Rousseau established with his reader.     

Educational assessment in England

This profile explains the assessment system in England, concentrating on those aspects that are related to government policy. It begins by putting the system in context; it then describes the national educational structure, curriculum and assessment arrangements. The government agencies responsible for carrying out education policies are introduced. In order to illustrate the intersection of curriculum and assessment development and political policy, the profile describes and discusses assessment issues that highlight the role of government and its agencies in the development, implementation and monitoring of England's national curriculum tests and 14‐to‐19 qualifications. It argues that successive governments have increasingly intervened directly in curriculum and qualifications development, and observes the growing governmental policy influence over assessment issues and the repercussions of that influence.     

Education and the Demand for Emancipation

This paper puts forward the hypothesis that in recent decades, pupils of schools in the western world have been given a new form of individuality. This construction has been nourished by both the demand for emancipation as it was expressed in the critical sociology of education (and pedagogy) and by the neoliberal turn in education policy. It unfolds consequences of such an alliance between romantic and neoliberal individualism, and argues that some of Simmel's concepts might fruitfully be engaged to grasp important aspects of today's educational culture. Against this backdrop, the paper discusses the construction of the new individuality in regard to educational changes in control and discipline, individually adapted education and assessment and finally academic knowledge. Primarily by using examples from the Norwegian case, the paper analyses how recent opinions on these issues can be viewed as different expressions of an educational culture promoting alienation as emancipation.     

Evaluations and the Forgetfulness of Pedagogical Relations: Remarks on Educational Authority

In this essay, Christiane Thompson addresses the question of evaluative practices, particularly student evaluation of teaching (SET), and their effects with respect to pedagogical relations in the university setting. In the first part of the essay, Thompson draws on Michel Foucault's analysis of power to show how university teaching has come to be defined according to notions of obligation, accountability, and assurance. The forgetfulness of pedagogical relations that results from the increasing use of SET prompts Thompson to rethink the significance of pedagogical relations in the second part of the essay. Referring to the notion of “educational authority” and Foucault's framework of power, Thompson argues that education is about the continuous re‐institution of pedagogical relation to the other. In the final section, Thompson reflects upon the professor's “authority” in terms of constituting a “community of inquiry”: specifically, the seminar is interpreted as a pedagogical setting that implies a different “being‐with” than SET suggests. She concludes by considering what possibilities and limitations the seminar setting offers and how we can discuss this issue (by means of evaluative practice).     

论教育法对教育权的规范和保护

依照教育法的规定，教育权分为国家教育权、社会教育权和公民教育权三种类型，三并重发展是当代教育的一个重要特征。公民接受教育的权利，即公民受教育权，是国家教育权和社会教育权的综合反映，是社会经济和教育事业发展到一定阶段的产物。由于公民受教育权是一种社会权，而不是自由权，所以，探讨它的法律保护就成为教育界和法学界关注的热点问题。这需要突破传统的法理观念，采用新的诉讼方式，通过民事上或行政上的司法救济，以实现公民受教育权的法律保护。     

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.     

'A Demented Form of the Familiar': Postmodernism and Educational Research

What can postmodernism do for, or to, educational research? The article discusses its potential for resisting closure and simplification. Developing a ‘preposterous’, anachronistic postmodern method that is caught up with surrealism and the baroque, the article plays with trompel'oeil paintings and outmoded popular entertainments such as magic lanterns, peep shows and clockwork automata as figures for critique and analysis. It argues for defamiliarisation, fascination, recalcitrance and frivolity as methodic practices for research in the compromised conditions of postmodernity, and as forms of ethical resistance to the risk‐averse literalism that pervades contemporary education policy.     

县区教育城域网建设的思考与探索

本文阐述了加强教育城域网建设的意义和策略。基于网络的智慧教育体系的建设可以为学生提供更多的学习灵活性、更多的获取知识的途径,可以为教育管理提供更多的、更智能的决策分析支持,促进区域教育的高效发展。     

Policy and Practice of the Decentralization of Basic Education in China: The Shanghai Case

This paper is aimed at exploring distinctive features of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai by drawing on data from Shanghai Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2012. While doing the research for this paper, the author found that from a policy perspective, Shanghai had launched a reform policy aimed at transforming the highly centralized education system. This included a devolution of the decision-making authority to local departments of education and a reduction of control over schools. Private school policies were also initiated with the understanding that private schools ought to enjoy autonomy in almost every aspect of decision-making. From the perspective of practice, decentralization of basic education could be categorized as county-based school decentralization. In such a situation, the county bureaus of education wielded decision-making authority over a number of areas in the public school sector, while gradually devolving some decision-making authority to the public schools themselves; and the private schools enjoyed autonomy within their major decision-making areas. Given both the policy and practice of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai, some suggestions are provided regarding: (1) how to promote school decentralization, and (2) how to balance it with accountability.     

Paternalism,Authority and Compulsory Schooling in Social Anarchist Educational Thought

This paper investigates the implications of some social anarchists’ views on education for thinking about authority, educational paternalism and compulsory schooling. In the first part of the paper, some key concepts in social anarchist theory will be introduced in order to demonstrate the importance of education for social anarchists. The paper then discusses anarchist educational ideas with regard to the content and process of education. Potential justifications of authority and educational paternalism receive special attention. The final part of the paper revolves around a discussion of compulsory schooling understood as a paternalist practice. It aims to contribute to ongoing debates by evaluating the educational institution of the school, and the practice of compulsory schooling, from a social anarchist perspective. The pragmatic character of this approach is reflected by some final remarks on the feasibility and desirability of compulsory schooling in imagined anarchist societies and our existing societies. This paper is aimed at anarchist and non-anarchist philosophers of education. Anarchist theory critically scrutinises all authority and hierarchy and takes no existing social structure, institution or practice in any area of life for granted. An engagement with anarchist thinking on educational issues such as authority, directiveness, educational paternalism and compulsory schooling may help anarchists and non-anarchists alike to enrich and deepen their own views on certain practices.     

教育政策与美国总统政治

随着教育重要性的日益凸显,总统政治和教育的联系日趋密切。20世纪60年代中期以来,美国教育政策逐渐成为总统政治的核心,直接影响到总统竞选的成功与否以及执政过程中的民意向背。为此,两党候选人纷纷在竞选中将自己标榜为“教育总统”,积极构思一系列教育政策,以此谋求民众的支持。本文首先对20世纪60年代中期以来美国总统政治中的教育问题进行了系统梳理,随后对总统政治与教育之间的关系进行了总结。     

关于我国外语教育政策的若干思考

外语教育政策关系到我国教育工作的全局。本文论述目前我国外语教育的现状,对当前国际政治形势下我国外语教育政策的制定取向提出了几点思考,以期对我国外语教育政策的制定有一定的参考意义。