The culture of education policy making: curriculum reform in Shanghai

This paper explores the culture of education policy making in Shanghai using the conceptual tool of a ‘global assemblage’. A global assemblage is essentially a collection of ideas and practices that arise from the interplay between a global form and situated sociocultural elements. Focusing on the global form of curriculum reform, this paper explains how the Shanghai municipal government justifies the introduction of the ‘Second Curriculum Reform’ using the global imperative while maintaining its socialist ideology and central control on high-stakes exams. This paper highlights the active roles played by the municipal government and other local educational stakeholders in assembling their own logics, tactics and counter-measures in the contested space of the assemblage. It is argued that the success of the curriculum reform is mediated and vitiated by the sociocultural elements of a dominant exam-oriented culture and the traditional approaches of memorisation, repeated practice and didactic teaching. The complex and unpredictable process of implementing curriculum reform in Shanghai illustrates the culture of education policy making against a backdrop of globalisation as a problem space.     

Issues surrounding English,the internationalisation of higher education and national cultural identity in Asia: a focus on Japan

The English language is significant to the internationalisation of higher education worldwide. Countries in Asia are proactive in appropriating English for their national interests, while paying attention to associated national cultural identity issues. This article examines the ways in which the role of English is interpreted and justified in different countries in Asia, with a particular focus on Japan, as these nations attempt to internationalise their higher education within the broader processes of regionalisation and globalisation and their own nationalist discourse. Through critical analyses and discussions of Japan's two major government initiatives, the Action Plan 2003 to ‘Cultivate Japanese with English Abilities’ and the ‘Global 30’ Project 2008, the article investigates how cultural national identities are shaped, are altered and are put ‘at risk’ in policies and practices for the internationalisation of higher education and the overemphasis on English. It argues for the importance of understanding the intersections of English language policy, the internationalisation of higher education and national cultural identity and also considers how the over-promotion of English in the case of Japan has been energetically driven by the nation building agenda that tends to undermine local languages and what this might mean for internationalisation.     

地方高校发展与高等教育政策调整

近年来,我国地方高校在规模迅猛扩张的同时,普遍陷入了多重发展困境之中。从制度变迁的类型和路径依赖两个角度来看,这种困境产生的制度根源有两个:一是以中央政府为主体的激进式强制性制度变迁的局限性,二是对传统高等教育管理模式的路径依赖。今后高等教育政策调整必须遵循两个基本的指导思想:一是弥补激进式强制性制度变迁的局限,二是摆脱对传统高等教育管理方式的路径依赖。     

Common European framework of reference for languages (CEFR): insights into global policy borrowing in Malaysian higher education

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has emerged as a global policy in language education which has been ‘borrowed’ by nations across the world. This paper presents a critical analysis of Malaysia’s borrowing of the CEFR as part of English language curriculum reform with particular reference to policy motivation and implementation processes as outlined in the English Language Education Roadmap for Malaysia (2015–2025). The analysis draws on Phillips and Ochs’s (2003, “Processes of Policy Borrowing in Education: Some Explanatory and Analytical Devices.” Comparative Education 39 (4): 451–461.) framework for examining educational policy borrowing to highlight challenges as well as prospects of the implementation of the global policy in higher education in Malaysia.     

Regional themes and global means in supra-national higher education policy

The supra-national level has become increasingly important in educational policy formulation. This paper describes and compares two settings in which growth in these supra-national policies is evident—in Europe and in Africa. Key themes arising in policy documents in each context are examined. A distinction is drawn in analysis between themes classified as ‘global means’, such as qualification frameworks and quality assurance mechanisms, which are becoming international norms and which show close similarity across contexts, and regional goals or ‘themes’ in supra-national policy. The paper argues that although there are apparent similarities between the policy goals espoused in ‘regional themes’, context plays an important part in understanding the meanings of these policy goals. In closer analysis, there are differences both in the underlying problems which the policy goals are intended to address, and in the prioritisation given to these goals. This finding is examined in the light of debates regarding policy convergence, specifically drawing on Vaira’s (2004) framework for institutional analysis.     

Re-conceptualising the paradox in policy implementation: a post-modernist conceptual approach

A review of education policy and practice indicates a paradox in policy implementation. Policy outcomes most often differ significantly from intended purposes and provisions enacted. This paper re-conceptualises this policy phenomenon, drawing on the post-modernist conception of policy as both ‘text’ and ‘discourse’ as an approach for understanding and unmasking the messiness and contested nature of education policy processes. The choice of approach is based on three factors. First, the choice is grounded in its efficacy in explicating and legitimatising the issues of power within the policy arena. Second, the choice is based on the potential of the approach in integrating social and political theories of discourse with more linguistically oriented approaches to the study of policy. Third, the preference of approach follows from its potential to draw on language as a resource for reading into and/or analysing complex social issues.     

The Bologna Process: perspectives and implications for the Russian university

This article draws on the discourses of educational policy in Europe to focus on the implications of the Bologna Process for higher education in Russia. The Bologna Process, as a multi-dimensional discourse involving a variety of social actors, reflects some of the complexities and contradictions of globalisation, in many local cases evoking responses and leading to outcomes which were neither planned nor predicted by the official educational policy planners. The role of international organisations in the reform of Russian higher education is considered and the barriers, limitations and possible consequences of Bologna for the Russian situation are explored.     

基于政策视角下的高等教育不公平

对高等教育公平的追求是人们的天性所使然,当前我国高等教育政策制定过程中,政策制定主体偏重"效率"的价值选择倾向;高等教育政策目标忽视对公平的追求;高等教育政策程序公平性不足等问题直接导致我国高等教育政策的不公平性,更谈不上推进我国高等教育的持续健康发展和高等教育公平的实现。只有进一步发挥高等教育政策在高等教育公平实现过程中的积极指导作用,才能有力推进我国高等教育公平的实现。     

高等教育的发展与政策创新

高等教育的发展与教育政策的创新有着深刻的联系。 2 0世纪 70年代末以来 ,我国高等教育的发展紧紧依托政策创新而不断向前推进。其中 ,恢复高考、体制改革和启动大众化的步伐是高等教育政策创新的突出表现。新世纪初叶我国高等教育在朝着实现大众化的方向前进 ,这种发展对于教育政策的创新有着更深切的需求。为此 ,必须进一步加强对高等教育的政策研究 ,进一步加强高等教育的政策法规建设     

The influence of organisational identification on employee attitudes and behaviours in multinational higher education institutions

In order to operate effectively and efficiently, most higher education institutions depend on employees performing extra-role behaviours and being committed to staying with the organisation. This study assesses the extent to which organisational identification and employee satisfaction are antecedents of these two important behaviours. Key objectives of the research were to identify possible antecedents of organisational identification and to discover whether the consequences of organisational identification vary among the employees of multinational universities at home and foreign campuses. We developed a model that was tested using structural equation modelling, which assesses the influences of organisational identification on employee satisfaction, extra-role behaviours and turnover intentions. All of the paths in our model were significant, but employee identification, satisfaction and extra-role behaviours were lower at foreign branches than at the home campuses of universities, and turnover intentions were higher. These results suggest that higher education institutions need to implement different human resource strategies at home and foreign branches, with a focus on improving organisational identification at the foreign subsidiaries.     

加强我国高等教育政策研究的若干思考

随着高等教育在国家经济和社会发展中地位的日益提高 ,高等教育政策研究的重要性也日显突出。通过加强高等教育政策研究来提升政府在高等教育领域的决策能力 ,是当前高等教育发展中面临的一个十分重要的问题。在此基础上 ,作者提出了加强我国高等教育政策研究的几点建议     

高职院校形势与政策课教育教学改革的路径选择分析

在当前我国高等教育当中,高等职业教育作为其中不可或缺的重要组成部分,肩负着为社会培养顺应发展的生产、建设、管理与服务等的高等技术应用人才的重要使命。本文通过对高职院校"形势与政策"课程教育教学当前所面临的一些问题进行阐述分析,为其改革路径的选择进行论述,望此文为相关教育教学工作者提供帮助、借鉴。     

从宏观政策层面看我国高等教育经费的筹措与配置

我国高等教育面临办学经费紧张的同时又存在办学资源严重浪费的现象。从宏观政策层面看,政府除加大对高等教育投入外,还应当建立科学的高等教育成本补偿机制,由受教育者合理分担高等教育成本;通过立法鼓励社会公民和企业组织捐资办学,拓宽办学经费筹措渠道,并采取切实有效的措施确保“渠开水满”。     

Exploring the policy implementation paradox: using the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) policy in Ghana as an exemplar

This paper uses the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE) policy implementation in Ghana as an exemplar to explore the apparent disjuncture between policy intentions in theory and outcomes of implementation tasks in practice. Through the critical discourse analysis of a range of policy documents complemented by the analysis of interviews with Ghanaian education officials, the paper investigates the extent to which the ‘free’, ‘compulsory’, ‘universal’ and ‘basic education’ components claimed in the fCUBE policy title are reflected in the implementation process. Owing to its commitment to enhancing the educational opportunities and outcomes of the educationally disadvantaged, the fCUBE policy is viewed as a ‘rights-based policy’ deeply rooted in social democratic values. However, the advent of neo-liberal ideological rhetoric of ‘skills for the world of work’ has triggered the neutralisation of these progressive ideals. This, the paper argues, has led to a significant discursive shift in policy direction and language of implementing the policy.     

The policy reassembly of Afghanistan's higher education system

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how a national higher education sector can be assembled upon a relatively narrow ideological foundation during and in the aftermath of violent conflict. It analyses the case of Afghanistan's higher education system, and argues that the violent disintegration of this system during the 1980s and 1990s created the conditions for a neoliberal reassembly and subsequent expansion of higher education from 2001. This paper draws on data gathered from document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with key policy actors. It identifies an ideological grounding in neoliberalism within higher education policies which are responsible for directing the sector's growth since 2010. I argue that this neoliberal agenda, largely driven by globalised influences, has exploited Afghanistan's conflict-affected context to position higher education primarily as a driver of economic growth, thus limiting policy emphasis on higher education's non-economic dividends. The paper concludes by critiquing the underlying assumption that this role is sufficient if higher education is to serve as a key institution in Afghanistan's ongoing national development.     

Taking stock of sustainability in higher education: a review of the policy literature

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the current literature that examines the uptake of sustainability policies in higher education. Articles were retrieved from both ERIC and Scopus databases and then manually reviewed to ensure that they focused on each of: higher education; sustainability; and policy. A total of 91 articles were analysed using a multi-stage process that involved sorting data according to typologies (i.e. temporal, terminology, methodology, geography), coding the text of the articles based on topical content, and an indexing method used to label data for further analysis and the development of broader code categories. Results suggest that drivers and barriers associated with the integration of sustainability policy in higher education are well known; yet increased research is needed to understand best practices and processes by which sustainability can be furthered through higher education policy. In addition, findings demonstrate the need for future research to focus on various aspects of the policy process, including policy development and enactment, and on implications of policy for practice. While there have been some reviews of sustainability policy in higher education research to date, this review contributes to this literature by highlighting research primarily focused on sustainability policy within higher education.     

Absence of the academic from higher education policy

This article argues that the individual academic is all but absent from the assumptive worlds of policymakers in UK higher education. It is taken for granted in research on academic identity that those who work in higher education as teachers and researchers refer to themselves as, and indeed are referred to by others as, ‘academics’. Evidence is drawn from a study of policymakers in the UK to demonstrate that the word ‘academic’ is not a part of the lexicon of higher education policymaking. Moreover, the concept of the academic is cast into shade by an overwhelming emphasis on ‘the student experience’, and, from another direction, by a location of professional academic accountability at the level of the higher education institution rather than the individual. The article concludes with an exploration of what work this absence of the academic in policy does in disrupting the possibilities for engagement between the worlds of academia and policymaking and in perpetuating the discourses of marketisation and new management in higher education. It also suggests understanding the assumptive worlds of policymakers is a crucial counterbalance to a growing body of literature on academic responses to change, some of which has tended towards the self‐referential.     

中国高等教育财政政策的公平取向

促进教育公平是中国制定教育政策的基本价值导向。中国高等教育财政政策的基点是增加教育投入,保证机会公平,并已经关注资源利用情况及对过程公平的促进,今后的方向是如何提高产出效率,促进结果公平。对高等教育财政政策的公平取向进行分析,提出构建以公平为取向的高等教育财政政策体系,通过财政政策促进高等教育公平,具有现实性意义。     

中国高等教育大众化的理论与政策

高等教育大众化进程包括量的增长与质的变化 ,两者呈非均衡性 ;高等教育大众化的前提是办学模式的多样化 ,其核心则是教育质量的多样化 ;高等教育大众化促使高等教育融入终生教育体系。关于高等教育大众化的政策方面 ,应注意解决好规模速度、资金投入、资源的开发与合理配置、毕业生就业等问题     

An anatomy of authority: the Bologna and ASEM education secretariats as policy actors and region builders

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the sources of authority behind the Bologna and ASEM secretariats’ technocratic appearance and administrative routines, and argues that they are transnational policy actors in their own right. By drawing on principal-agent theory and the concept of ‘authority’, it offers an alternative framework for understanding the various forms of authority. The case studies generate three important insights. First, it shows how the secretariats derive their authority from the tasks delegated by states, the moral values and social purpose they uphold, and the expertise they possess. Second, it compares how the different governance structures of the Bologna and ASEM education processes impact on the secretariats’ authority. Third, it highlights how the secretariats exercise their respective authorities and exert their discernible influence at different stages of higher education policy-making and region-building processes.