Developing University Managers

This article reports the results of a study of the extent of management development programmes for managers of universities. The method used was a postal survey of all UK universities, which produced a response of over 60 per cent of universities. According to the responses received, about half of UK universities provide some organised management development for their managers with the other half doing nothing to develop their managers in any systematic way. On this basis, universities provide less management development for their managers than most other UK organisations. A few universities have achieved, and some are intending to seek, the Investors in People standard. Personnel managers within the universities are convinced of the need for management development for those who manage our universities. However, lack of resources and lack of commitment from vice-chancellors and other senior academics are the main barriers to the successful implementation of systematic management development.     

Children,families and inter‐agency work: experiences of partnership work in primary education settings

Despite UK government initiatives intended to address social exclusion, those with poor access to social and economic resources continue to experience unresponsive services. In these circumstances, small inter‐agency projects may offer accessible alternatives. This article explores the implementation of inter‐agency work at a local level, focusing on implications for families involved. It draws on a study of a Health Action Zone (HAZ) initiated project, working in primary schools in a deprived urban area, with children at risk of school exclusion. It examines children's and parents' experiences of the project, locating these within current social policy and social justice debates. While positive outcomes are evident, the article also highlights difficulties in inter‐agency collaboration, which potentially undermine support available to families and maintain pessimism about future improvements. By focusing remedies at the level of individual intervention, such initiatives may also neglect structural and organisational factors contributing to families' difficulties.     

我国高等职业教育考试招生制度 现状、问题与展望

党的十八大以来,职业教育进入改革发展新时期。2013年高职分类考试政策推行后虽然成效显著,但仍存在考试制度不能体现职业教育类型特点、招生制度未能凸显职业教育功能地位等问题,表现为相关利益方缺失、改革要求与现行政策尚有差距、考试环节缺乏有效技能测试。通过梳理高等职业教育考试招生制度的发展历程和各地实践,从多元治理视角提出政策建议,即在加强优质资源供给的基础上,建立考试招生环节的集权与适度分权的多主体治理框架,构建与职业教育类型相适应的考试招生制度,组建技能评价专业机构,完善具有职业教育特点的“文化素质+职业技能”评价体系。     

Political symbolism as policy craft: explaining non-reform in South African education after apartheid

The policy literature in developing countries is replete with narratives of ‘failure’ attributed to the lack of resources, the inadequacy of teacher training, the weak design of implementation strategy, and the problems of policy coherence. This research on education policymaking after apartheid presents the following puzzle: what if the impressive policies designed to change apartheid education did not have ‘implementation’ as their primary commitment? Drawing on data from seven detailed case studies, the construct of ‘political symbolism’ is proposed as a first step towards developing a more elaborate theory for explaining one of the most intractable problems in policy studies: the distance between policy ideals and practical outcomes.     

Documents and debates Social exclusion,sure start and organizational social capital: evaluating inter‐disciplinary multi‐agency working in an education and health work programme

Social policy‐making in the UK under the Labour government has galvanized around the issue of social exclusion, identifying young children (0–4 years) and their families living in areas of high social disadvantage to be particularly at risk. This paper attempts to recover the experiences and views of professionals concerned with the delivery and implementation of a multi‐agency programme tackling the social exclusion of these young children and their families known as Sure Start. The data are based on the analysis of documentation, attendance and observation at meetings, and 32 semi‐structured interviews with members of the inter‐disciplinary team responsible for the Sure Start programme's delivery. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using open coding from grounded theorizing. The paper, in reflecting on the problems and dilemmas of multi‐agency approaches and reported in other research, considers how the preliminary findings from this study suggest the team have managed to accommodate and overcome these potential difficulties, to facilitate an integrated, holistic and user‐centred approach to the programme. The paper concludes by considering the possibility that the team's approach may be conceptually located within an organizational social capital framework as posited by Nahapiet and Ghoshal.     

英格兰高校学生贷款政策浅析

自1990年开始至今,英格兰高校学生贷款政策已经经历了三个发展阶段。2006-2007学年开始实施的新学生贷款政策的性质、内容、申请资格、审核标准以及管理和申请情况均出现了较大的变化。作为典型的政策性贷款,英格兰高校学生贷款政策设计的合理性以及后续影响的分析对中国高校学生贷款政策的制定具有一定的借鉴价值。     

试论新课程背景下乡村课程资源的开发与利用

在新课程改革的背景下,课程资源的开发与利用越来越受到人们的重视,但乡村的课程资源由于受教育观念、教育实施者、教育管理者等诸多因素的影响而开发不力。为此,要建立"城市—农村平等互动"的教育体制,提高乡村教育工作者的课程开发意识和能力,建立和改善学校的管理体制,以促进我国乡村课程资源的开发和利用。     

新中国成立70年城乡义务教育师资配置政策的回顾与反思

新中国成立70年我国城乡义务教育师资配置政策制定与实施经历了艰难探索期、初步确立期、稳中推进期和全面发展期四个阶段。各阶段逐步形成各自独有的师资政策文件与体系,政策内容展现了相对完整的城乡教师评价体系,政策价值取向由注重"数量"转化为提升"质量"。与此同时,存在政策执行缺少对教师的动态管理,政策制定缺乏发展长效性以及政策内容缺乏灵活性等问题。在新时代发展背景下,建立城乡义务教育师资发展动态管理库,确保城乡义务教育师资配置政策的长效性,强化城乡义务教育师资配置政策内容的可操作性应成为我国城乡义务教育师资配置政策未来发展的着力点。     

双证结合的职业院校课程结构研究

适应“双证制度”的“双证课程”是以就业为导向职业教育改革的重要内容,其兼具职业性、学历性两种属性。“双证课程”应纳入国家职业资格培训包;其建设必须以国家职业资格为指导,积极发挥行业组织的作用;围绕“双证课程”的开发与施行,必须对相关课程进行改革。同时,要处理好课程开发方法、资源建设、资源应用的评价与管理等问题。     

学前教育政策执行偏差的归因及其矫正

当前我国学前教育政策出现不同程度的执行偏差,究其原因主要是学前教育政策体系不完善,政策执行主体专业性不足,科学地政策执行评估体系缺失,政策执行方案制定随意化,支持性政策执行环境缺失等。为提升学前教育政策执行效能,我国学前教育政策执行应当着力提升政策执行人员的专业素质,合理确定学前教育政策执行目标,有效配置学前教育政策执行资源,加强政策执行管理的科学性与规范性,提高执行主体及目标群体对政策的认同度,合理有效解决学前教育政策执行过程中的各方利益冲突。     

四川省旅行社人力资源现状与开发研究

旅行社是旅游业的龙头，旅行社人力资源开发是提高旅行社经营管理水平和旅游服务质量的关键。笔者通过对四川省旅行社经理、导游及其他工作人员的调研，发现四川旅行社人力资源存在年龄结构合理、总体形象好、体制新的优势，但也存在着严重的结构不合理、流动性大、专业化程度不高、外语人才缺乏、学历水平偏低等不足，亟需更新观念、加强管理、优化结构、加强培训教育，以优化旅行社人力资源。     

乡村振兴战略下的农村妇女培训体系构建路径

乡村振兴战略是贯彻新发展理念、建设现代化经济强国的重大战略。习近平总书记指出,要把实施乡村振兴战略摆在优先位置,让乡村振兴成为全党全社会的共同行动。没有人,乡村振兴就是一句空话。乡村振兴的发展迫切需求有文化、懂政策、有技术、会经营、善管理、具有充分的民主观念以及掌握现代农业生产技术的新时代公民。农村妇女是实施乡村振兴战略的一支重要力量,是我国农业生产的主力军,是推动农村社会发展的重要力量,是提升农村管理民主的排头兵。农村妇女肩负着家庭和社会双重职能,但目前农村妇女普遍存在总体素质偏低、传统思想比较重、信息较闭塞、资金和技术缺乏等问题。精心培育新生代农村妇女,关系到乡村振兴战略的实施,关系到美丽乡村的进度,关系到幸福村落目标的实现。     

Israeli Ministry of Education’s district managers’ and superintendents’ role as educational leaders—implementing the new policy for teachers’ professional development

In Israel, the Ministry of Education determines all aspects of educational policy, including teachers’ initial teacher education, licensing and professional development. As part of the New Horizon educational reform, the Ministry announced in 2010 a new plan for the professional development of teachers in Israel. The Ministry assigned a mediating role to its district managers and superintendents, placing them in charge of introducing and implementing this policy. The current study describes the findings of a qualitative, narrative-based research, which examined the attitudes of 25 Ministry of Education district managers and superintendents regarding the implementation of the new professional development policy. Interviewees noted both the major advantages of this policy, e.g. organizing the professional development process and including all of the teachers, as well as its many disadvantages, e.g. overburdening the teachers, the lack of high-quality teacher trainers, etc. This study sheds light on the process of implementing a top-down reform in teachers’ professional development. Moreover, it sheds light on the main tasks of superintendents as educational leaders.     

我国现代学徒制的实践现状及对策研究

现代学徒制已成为我国职业教育领域新兴的人才培养模式。目前实践中仍存在发展机制和法律保障有待优化、企业参与积极性不高、职业资格体系标准不统一、“双导师”团队的培养力度不够等问题,因此,作者认为从应国家层面制度设计和政策支持、行业层面深度指导、企业层面提高参与积极性、学校层面管理控制四个层面多管齐下突破我国现代学徒制困境。     

New ways of being public: the experience of foundation degrees

This article explores the recent development of new spheres of public engagement within UK higher education through an analysis of the foundation degree qualification. These, according to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), were designed to equip students with the combination of technical skills, academic knowledge, and transferable skills increasingly being demanded by employers, and they have been identified as being at the forefront of educational agendas aimed at increasing employer engagement in the higher education (HE) sector. As such, they might be regarded as an expression of the ‘increasing privatisation’ of HE. However, this article argues that, on the contrary, they have enabled the development of new areas of public engagement relating to the design and delivery of courses as well as providing new opportunities for the pursuit of public policy goals such as widening participation. Such outcomes, it is argued, are the result of a number of factors that explain the ‘publicness’ of the qualification and that should be sustained to ensure the implementation of the 2006 Leitch Report in a manner that further develops public engagement.     

职业资格有关问题的认识与建议

在对职业资格的分类、其与学历文凭之间的关系、其在人力资源开发中的作用以及其在经济角度和社会角度下的有关属性加以分析的基础上,提出了应进一步完善职业资格法律体系、建立适合中国国情的职业资格管理机制和加强相应政策引导的结论和建议。     

珠三角绿道政策研究

珠三角绿道政策是广东省落实科学发展观、建设宜居城乡的一项重要政策,但在执行过程中出现了各种问题．如长距离借道、未划定绿廊控制区、部分绿道功能不全、缺乏管理等,政策实施并未达到预期效果。主要是因为政策执行主体未充分认识绿道的内涵,缺乏相关法律、制度以及宣传不足等原因,为此提出要加快绿廊控制区的划定工作,完善配套服务设施,加大宣传力度,建立合理的管理体系和监督机制,健全绿道保护的相关法律等进一步完善珠三角绿道政策的建议。     

Overview of Transfer of Training: From Learning to Performance

This article explores the background, current state, and emerging trends in transfer of training. Transfer of training can be denned as, ensuring full application of new skills and knowledge to the workplace. Typically, past training efforts have focused on ensuring learning by trainees, and not on supporting the transfer of that learning to performance on the job. Today's organizations recognize effective workforce performance as a strategic asset in the global competitive economy but face problems in attaining high performance. Experience of successful organizations shows that key stakeholders (managers, trainers, trainees, and others) must be closely involved in all phases of the design, development, and implementation of training and other performance improvement efforts, to achieve and maintain effective workforce performance. However, both managers and human performance professionals frequently overlook the need to gain stakeholder involvement to support full transfer of new skills to the job. A successful program in a government agency, and recommendations for transfer strategies for technology-based learning, illustrate the collaboration of stakeholders which is necessary to achieve high levels of transfer of skills to the workplace.     

英国高校学科评估的现状分析

在高等教育大众化、教育资源短缺等因素的影响下,英国在1993～2001年间进行了规模宏大的高校学科评估。学科评估提升了教学在英国大学的地位,但也存在如耗资巨大、评估体系不完善、高校学术自主受到侵蚀等问题。英国从2002年开始的新的质量保证体系“院校审核”试图解决这些问题。英国的学科评估正处于不断改进之中。     

Developing Managers in Further Education Part 1: the extent of the task

Abstract

This article is the first of a two‐part article on the development of managers in further education (FE). It reports on research which surveyed all general FE colleges in England and two case study colleges, Peterborough Regional College and Leicester South Fields College. The framework for analysing organizational maturity, devised by Pedler et al. (1988), is used to suggest that colleges had not progressed very far pre‐incorporation, in terms of their ability to embed the development of managers within the organization's growth.

The article explores the implications of the range of differing percentages of managers, particularly at first‐line level, in the responding colleges, and the differing self‐perceptions of managers at different levels in the case study colleges. The article concludes that there is a discrepancy between the perceptions of senior and first‐line managers as to who is a manger and what constitutes management activity, and that there is a need to build a shared perception and self‐perception of the nature of a management role.

The responsibility for the development of managers and the extent of development activity is also analyzed. The article reports on an increase in the numbers of managers undertaking development activities, but explores the variations between colleges and the fact that development is still disproportionately being resourced at middle and senior, rather than first‐line manager levels. Finally, the very varied arrangements for allocating the responsibility for the development of managers is described, leading to questions on the viability of line managers undertaking this role.

The article concludes by directing the reader to the second part, which will explore the process of selection of development activity, the links between this process and the strategic plan, the profile of development activities as reported by responding colleges, and finally returns to Pedler et al. ‘s (ibid.) framework to assess the progress of colleges.