Telematics for Education and Training in the European Union: Experiences from Research

The European Commission is playing a catalytic role in the deployment of telematics‐based education and training systems throughout Europe. From the initial developments in the DELTA Exploratory Action to the current degree of maturity achieved by the sector ‘education and training’ in the recently launched Telematics Applications Programme, there is a plethora of experimental projects and networks which have shown the increasing trend towards Europeanization of the design, production and delivery of learning materials and services. The new initiatives related to the deployment of the information society in Europe are putting education and training high on the political agenda of the European Union and the use of telematics technologies are to represent a key role in these developments.     

Rights,Identities and Inclusion: European action programmes as political education \[1]

Democracy and a commitment to human rights are key defining features of the European Union. Nevertheless, the inhabitants of Europe, living their local realities sometimes based in poverty and unemployment, and subject to racism, inadequate housing and high levels of crime, may not recognise that the European project is, in its intention, inclusive, since an inclusive society is far removed from their actual experience. European transnational education programmes are intended to promote a sense of involvement in European development. In 1997 the European Commission initiated a study to identify features of projects within its transnational education, training and youth programmes which contribute effectively to political education, and in particular to the development of active citizenship among participants. Projects initiated in 18 European countries, including all 15 European Union Member States, were analysed for the quality of information offered, their capacity to provide practice in democratic skills and opportunities for exploring multiple identities, and the extent to which they worked on democratic lines and enabled participants to feel involved. This article reports on the findings of this study, illustrating best practice in education for active citizenship and proposing a framework which might be applied to any programme of political education.     

Building a policy space via mainstreaming ICT in European education: The European Digital Education Area (re)visited

This article examines the ideational construction and definition of the European Digital Education Area (EDEA) as a policy space and mechanism for the mainstreaming of digital technologies in Europe's education and training systems. It revisits the foundational pillars on which it is premised, proposed in a previous iteration of the concept: formal legislation, mainstreaming of digital education actions and interlinked networks of practice. Employing a mixed methods approach, involving discourse analysis of key policy documents enacted over the past two decades, an online survey of ICT project coordinators under the Lifelong Learning Programme, and interviews with policy officers at the European Commission, the study reinforces the structure and utility of the EDEA for ICT diffusion in education. It argues for its formal acknowledgment as a political priority and key policy area enforceable through instruments similar to those existing under the Bologna Process for a coherent, concerted and strategic approach to digital education at EU level.     

A Comparative Approach to Lifelong Learning Policies in Europe: the cases of the UK, Sweden and Greece

This article argues that, despite globalisation forces, national education and training systems have kept their particularities. Policies of convergence, enhanced by supranational organisations such as the European Commission, have not yet led to a homogenisation of national education and training systems. The latter are still influenced by the political, economic and social framework. Thus, no single model of lifelong learning prevailed in Europe. There were countries close to the demand-led model of 'voluntary partnership' (e.g. UK), countries representative of the 'formalised social partnership' model (e.g. Sweden) and countries adhering to the 'statist' model (e.g. Greece).     

法国终身教育政策的特点与发展趋势探析

法国是最早提出＂终身教育＂的国家,并相继制定、颁布了一系列符合本国特点的法律、法规和政策文件。这诸多的法律、法规和政策顺应本国的发展需求,体现了＂以人为本＂的发展宗旨以及重视成人职业教育的特点。在未来发展过程中,法国政府将更加关注社会的融合以及人的全面发展,更加推崇教育的平等性、参与性、全程性、多元化和多样性。其制定的政策和颁布的法规将呈现更加重视教育的全纳性、欧洲各国职业教育和培训的一体化、各类教育和培训与劳动力市场的紧密结合等趋势。     

Policy learning and governance of education policy in the EU

Open methods for coordinating (OMC) education policies in the EU rely on a number of techniques, one of which is policy learning. This article examines how policy learning and governance transform each other. More specifically, policy‐learning in the education OMC becomes differentiated into four distinct learning styles: mutual, competitive, surface and imperialistic learning. While they overlap with some forms of policy learning discussed in the literature, they are also different by focusing upon interactions and political dynamics between the European Commission and the member states. In seeking to understand how governing through learning occurs, we argue that any ‘impact’ of EU‐level policy‐learning is co‐constructed by both the European Commission and the member states. The analysis of this article is grounded in a discourse analytical and institutionalist perspective. It draws on qualitative data derived from semi‐structured interviews with officials from the Directorate General for Education and Culture in the European Commission and on EU documents generated during policy‐learning activities.     

Covert action? Education,social policy and law in the European Union

Education in Europe has been one more aspect of social policy, traditionally held to exist within the sovereignty of member states, which has been encroached upon by supranational institutions. This paper explores the legitimacy of the partial control over education matters that has been gained by the European Union since the 1970s, examining in particular the role of the European Court of Justice and also the European Commission, in reshaping and altering definitions of legal competence in the fields of education and training. Special emphasis is placed on the method by which an original competence in training has been reconstituted to incorporate some aspects of education policy. Implications for democratic legitimacy and accountability at the European level are discussed.     

Filling in the gaps: European governance,the open method of coordination and the European Commission

The article addresses the way in which EU policy‐making operates, explains the relevance of ‘lifelong learning’ for the European Commission and analyses the mechanisms by which the Commission has advanced policy‐making in education and training since the Lisbon Summit. The article reviews in particular the alleged lack of effectiveness of the Open Method of Coordination in education and, second, the notion that the EU advances ‘slowly and persistently’ in its acquisition of competences in this area.     

Political and Individual Rationales of Student Mobility: a case-study of ERASMUS and a French regional scheme for studies abroad

The aim of this article is to analyse political rationales for promoting student mobility in Europe and discuss these in the light of individual experiences of mobile students. Since the creation of the ERASMUS programme in 1987, student mobility in Europe has been the subject of unusual political promotion. More recently, in the context of the Bologna process, the goal of increasing student mobility has been reaffirmed by various higher education actors. Student mobility is thought to be both a component of the European Higher Education Area and one of its outcomes. Beyond this apparent widespread acceptance, we examine, on the one hand, underlying legitimating ideas and rationales that accompanied the institutionalisation of student mobility by the European Commission and a regional French authority. We also discuss the extent to which drives for mobility and outcomes at the individual student level are in line with the political perceptions and expectations of the above‐mentioned institutional actors.     

《欧盟教育与培训合作的战略性框架》述评

新近颁布的《欧盟教育与培训合作的战略性框架》在欧盟发展史上具有里程碑意义。本文从提出背景、基本共识、总体目标、战略目标、实施原则、工作机制、相关行动、监测指标八个方面阐述了该框架的主要内容,指出该框架具有针对性、宏观指导性和操作性等特点,认为它不仅为全球区域教育合作提供了范例,也必将促进欧盟教育与培训系统的发展。     

Transnational currents in Finnish medical education (c. 1800–1920), starting from a 1922 discourse

In Finnish historiography, received wisdom about increasing German influence in the universities throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century prevails. However, along with the German neo-humanistic model, universities in Sweden and, particularly, Russia also played an important role in reforming the Finnish higher education system. Broadly speaking, medical education at the University of Helsinki followed general European developments, in which German universities indeed often took the lead. These developments included: (1) the increasing need to concentrate education for all the medical professions at the universities; (2) the gradual replacement of clinical education by research training; and (3) increasing specialisation. This article will show, however, firstly that in all these respects, Finnish scholars took inspiration from further afield than just Germany, and secondly, that characteristics which were taken from foreign models were always adapted to the needs of the indigenous society – creating a distinctive Finnish model of medical training. The Finnish example will make clear the extent to which a scientifically based practice such as medicine is far from universal, but rather is subject to local cultural influences, and how educational practices are bound up with the political and cultural relationships within a geographical region. The starting point for this analysis of the specificity of medical education at the University of Helsinki is a series of two essays published in 1922.     

Three bolognas and a pizza pie: Notes on institutionalization of the European higher education system

Quietly, without attracting too much attention from educational sociologists in Europe, a massive process has been underway for five years that is expected to revolutionize European higher education to an unprecedented extent. Launched by a number of European governments and subsequently taken over by the European Commission, the so-called Bologna Process is expected to boost European higher education to the top of the world higher education markets by 2010. This article looks at the history of the Process and its connections to the process of constructing the federal Europe, and analyses its three agendas: cultural, political and economic. In the final section the issue of institutionalizing the European higher education system is discussed and problematized. It concludes that the contribution European intellectuals have made to the project is both sociologically naive and intellectually irresponsible.     

The European Union's discourse of ‘equality’ and its education and training policy within the post‐compulsory sector

This paper provides a critical overview of the development of European education and training policy and its relationship to the discourse of ‘equality’. This development reflects significant shifts within the European Union's discourse of economic growth and peaceful unity‐‐that is, the economic and social concerns of the European Commission. Interwoven into both these discourses is the European discourse of ‘equality’.

In the first section of the paper the historic development of the Commission's education and training policy is considered in relation to the discourses of equal opportunities and social exclusion, paying particular attention to the influence of the Action programmes for equal opportunities between women and men. This is followed by a brief section in which the recent interpretation of EC policy by the UK government is examined. In the final section the focus is on the equality discourse itself and the consequences of its application for under‐educated long‐term unemployed people. The paper concludes that although the differences between equal opportunities and social exclusion can appear as radical redefinition, they are nevertheless simply discursive shifts in a fundamentally unchanged equality discourse. Their significance, however, lies in the need for such an apparent shift.     

Policies of adult education in Portugal and France: the European Agenda of validation of non-formal and informal learning

This article analyses the influence of the European Union’s educational policies on the implementation of devices for the recognition and the validation of informal and non-formal learning within public policies on education and training for adults in European Union Member States. Portugal and France are taken as examples. The European Union’s statements have influenced the development of devices for recognizing adult competences, regardless of the social, cultural and economic specificities of each country. However, sociocultural and sociopolitical characteristics influence the conditions under which recognition devices and the methods of their experimentation and generalization emerge, and are the vector of conflicts of interests between macro- and micro-sociological levels. There is at the same time a ‘culture of convergence’ impelled by the European Commission, and a process of adaptation in matters of cultural and territorialised practices, which aim to avoid marginalization. Data are drawn from official documents and interviews with people in charge of training institutions.     

工学交替学生思想政治教育工作研究

随着高等职业教育的发展,高职院校学生开展工学交替实习将是高职人才培养模式的重要举措.在工学交替实习中,学生思想政治教育工作经常出现一些困难,这些困难如果不解决好,将影响学生工学交替的实习,影响人才培养模式的推进.因此,要积极应对,解决好这些困难,落实工学交替的培养模式,探索出一套行之有效的思想政治教育方法.培养出具有良好的思想素质、规范的职业素质、丰富的专业知识、较强的业务技能的高素质应用型人才.     

浅谈思想政治教育工作与人才培养

思想政治教育是人才培养工作中的基础工作,思想政治教育工作的好坏,影响着人才培养质量的高低。思想政治教育工作应围绕提高人才培养质量而展开,人才培养应融入思想政治教育,二者密不可分。另外,人才培养首先是将学生培养成“人”,其次是将学生培养成“才”。这也正是对应了中共中央提出的“全面发展,德育为先”的教育方针。因此,认清思想政治教育在人才培养中的地位和作用,在专业课堂教学中有效进行思想政治教育,必将促进教育教学质量的提高。     

ECVET and ECTS credit equivalency in higher education – A bridge too far?

The implementation within Europe of a credit system for vocational education and training known as ECVET is a European Commission priority. The potential for permeability between the ECVET and European Credit Transfer and accumulation System (ECTS) was foreseen in the Recommendation to establish ECVET in 2009, while the Bruges Communique of 2010 called for the promotion of flexible links between vocational and higher education and increased coherence between ECVET and ECTS. To this end a significant number of EU-funded projects were undertaken to explore compatibility between ECVET and ECTS. This article reviews the findings of these projects and reflects on their success in terms of achieving this policy goal. These bridging projects identified several points of compatibility between the two credit systems and produced valuable tools and frameworks to facilitate such permeability. Achieving credit equivalency between ECVET and ECTS does not appear feasible, rather the evidence points to using a learning outcomes-based equivalency framework. However, this article calls into question the sustainability of these project results with regard to the lack of success in translating these findings into practice and the lack of co-ordinated efforts to implement these findings at a national or pan European level.     

PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ESTABLISHING A TRANS‐EUROPEAN MOBILITY SCHEME FOR UNIVERSITY STUDIES “TEMPUS"

This article is a reprint of the explanatory memorandum of a proposal formulated by the Commission of the European Communities for the establishment of a mobility scheme intended to enable students, teachers, and researchers to participate in education and training programmes similar to those in the Community. A principal goal is to develop links between central and eastearnn Europe and such . European Community programmes as ERASMUS, COMETT, LINGUA, and SPES. The indicative calendar presented assumes that the scheme will be in operation as of the 1990‐1991 academic year.

     

英澳德职业教育与培训：相似原则指导下的不同实践

文章主要分析了英国、澳大利亚和德国这三个国家的职业教育和训练体系的共同原则和不同实践。首先探讨企业在这三个国家参与职业教育和训练中的作用。英澳德三国致力于改进相关工作技能并为青年人提供企业相关训练，注重加强训练中企业的参与。澳、德特别强调学徒制途径的重要性，英国的现代学徒制也以崭新的面貌呈现在世人面前。其次。英、澳两国引入职业资格认定的评估体系，探索职业协会在资格认定中的重要作用。英澳德三国保证职业教育质量的方法是相似的。最后探讨了欧洲一体化政策对于学生与职业资格在不同国家转移的作用。比较英澳德三国时，发现相似多过区别，职教方法的一致性更明显地体现在职教政策的概念基石上，而不是具体的实施过程中，然而，欧洲教育和训练一致化的动议也意味着职教实践上的逐渐趋同。