Change of higher education in response to European pressures: conceptualization and operationalization of Europeanization of higher education

This article focuses on change in higher education in response to environmental pressures, more specifically pressures coming from European integration initiatives with respect to higher education, e.g. the Bologna Process. Significant research attention has so far been focused on the supposed impact of European initiatives on higher education systems and organizations. However, while many of such studies would claim that what they focus on is “Europeanization of higher education”, few of them provide a clear definition of the concept of Europeanization and an explicit and elaborate theoretical approach. Therefore, the aims of this paper are: (1) to provide a clarification of the concept of “Europeanization of higher education”, and (2) to provide a systematized and robust analytical framework able to account for identified patterns of change. The article builds on the conceptualization and operationalization of the process of Europeanization developed in international relations and comparative studies literature, using two strands of neo-institutionalism: Europeanization through an external incentives perspective based on rationalist institutionalism and Europeanization through a social learning perspective based on sociological institutionalism. Exploration of the explanatory potential of the two Europeanization perspectives focuses on changes in approaches to quality assurance in European countries. An assessment of said explanatory potential, as well as a discussion about the analytical challenges related to using these two Europeanization perspectives is provided in the conclusion.     

当前全球数字贸易国际规则的新发展及中国的应对策略

在国际贸易领域,各国、各地区以及各大国际组织间的谈判博弈经历了由传统贸易谈判向电子商务谈判的转变,当前的国际间贸易谈判已聚焦于数字贸易领域。在数字贸易背景下,国际间贸易规则的博弈愈发激烈。中国是国际贸易谈判、电子商务谈判全球新规则构建的核心推动者,需要结合国情,努力打造符合中国数字贸易发展阶段的“中式模板”。选取66个中国参与的国际电子商务谈判案例,采用模糊集定性比较分析方法进行实证研究,以案例和导致结果的原因为导向,本文得出国际电子商务谈判达成一致的必要条件和取得阶段性成果的5个条件组态,设计出中国应精准选择谈判方、构建有效谈判机制、迅速判断本国特定议题权力和议题联系机会等路径,提出国内治理机制水平提高、全球治理能力提升以及跨境电子商务实践优势转化等策略。     

Between hope and despair: Teacher education in the age of Trump

Abstract

We are teacher educators trying to recalibrate to the world of Trump. As we search to find our new bearings, we recognize that the markers of meaning that we relied on (such as civility and truth) have been washed away, and we must now redefine how to create meaning in our work, and hope in our worlds. In this article, we combine examples of student interactions from our classes with inner dialogue to chronicle our search for hope. Working in the context of the US South, we highlight how drawing from critical theory allowed us to reach for moments of hope in dark times.     

Deconstructing the Carter Review: competing conceptions of quality in England’s ‘school-led’ system of initial teacher education

The commitment to establish a ‘school-led’ system of teacher education in England, announced by the Coalition Government in 2011 and relentlessly pursued thereafter, represented a radical departure from previous kinds of initial teacher education partnership. While it is entirely consistent with a neoliberal agenda, with its strong regulatory framework and appeal to market mechanisms, it is also underpinned by a particular conception of teaching as a craft – ‘best learnt as an apprentice observing a master craftsman or woman’. In 2014, the government established a Review of Initial Teacher Training, led by a primary school head teacher, Sir Andrew Carter. This signalled the recognition of teacher education as a ‘policy problem’, adopting Cochran-Smith’s term. The ensuing report, published in early 2015, was more nuanced than might have been anticipated, although a number of profound tensions emerge from a closer analytical reading; four of these tensions are similar to those previously defined by Cochran-Smith and two are newly emergent. This paper identifies and discusses these tensions as they appear in the Carter Review and relates them to wider debates about the links between teaching, teacher education, evidence and research and to policy-making processes in education.     

Disrupting the carceral state through education journey mapping

The School-to-Prison Pipeline is an alarming trend of funneling children of color out of schools and into incarceration. Yet the focus on the Pipeline neglects the ways society is imbued with a commitment to criminalizing unwanted bodies. In this empirical article I foreground a spatial analysis, making connections to the socio-spatial dialectic, exploring the nature of the Pipeline within a carceral state, and establishing who is vulnerable to state violence. Next I frame the work through Disability Critical Race Theory and the methodological tool of Education Journey Mapping, investigating both the social and spatial processes through the dimensions of mapping. Finally I document findings, making visible the socio-spatial education trajectories of incarcerated young women of color. The purpose of this article then, is to explore the social and spatial mechanisms that funneled girls of color with disabilities into the carceral state, and ways the girls resisted the state violence.     

Governing software: networks,databases and algorithmic power in the digital governance of public education

This article examines the emergence of ‘digital governance’ in public education in England. Drawing on and combining concepts from software studies, policy and political studies, it identifies some specific approaches to digital governance facilitated by network-based communications and database-driven information processing software that are being discursively promoted in education by cross-sectoral intermediary organizations. Such intermediaries, including National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Demos, the Innovation Unit, the Education Foundation and the Nominet Trust, are increasingly seeking to participate in new digitally mediated forms of educational governance. Through their promotion of network-based pedagogies and database-driven analytics software, these organizations are seeking to delegate educational decision-making to socio-algorithmic forms of power that have the capacity to predict, govern and activate learners' capacities and subjectivities.     

Inclusion gatekeepers: the social production of spatial identities in special education

Abstract

Critical approaches to inclusive education seek to transform educational systems to increase access, participation, and achievement for students at the intersections of multiple markers of difference. Yet, the role of space in inclusive education remains under explored as a social and political construct. We know that space matters for the production and maintenance of student identities; however, little is known about its interaction with teacher and specifically special educator identity. This qualitative study takes a ‘spatial turn’ in inclusive education by exploring how the existing geographies of exclusion within schools mediated special educators’ identity construction. Through interactions with their sociocultural contexts, special educators’ engaged in the co-construction of gatekeeper identities and participated systems of ableism that perpetuated and justified exclusion. Recommendations will be made for how school communities can critically interrogate space as a means for increased equity and inclusion.     

Knowledge building: aligning education with needs for knowledge creation in the digital age

Educational technology research and development - This paper examines the alignment of education with the needs for knowledge creation in the digital age using the Knowledge Building model and...     

Critical thinking in education: a review

National governments and employers have argued that it is important for all sectors of education to prepare individuals who are able to think well and for themselves. 'Good thinking' and 'thinking well' are commonly used terms bound up with what is called 'critical thinking' in the research literature. Evidence is presented in this paper, however, which suggests that not all students may be good at critical thinking; nor do some teachers appear to teach students 'good thinking' skills. A review of the research literature in this area was undertaken and the methods and conceptions of teaching likely to inhibit and enhance critical thinking are outlined, as well as what is required to improve students' thinking skills. Ways forward in teaching critical thinking, and in helping students to learn to think well and for themselves, are described and discussed.     

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.     

Joe L. Kincheloe: Embracing criticality in science education

This article reviews significant contributions made by Joe L. Kincheloe to critical research in science education, especially through a multimethodological, multitheoretical, and multidisciplinary informed lens that incorporates social, cultural, political, economic, and cognitive dynamics—the bricolage. Kincheloe’s ideas provide for a compelling understanding of, and insights into, the forces that shape the intricacies of teaching and learning science and science education. They have implications in improving science education policies, in developing actions that challenge and cultivate the intellect while operating in ways that are more understanding of difference and are socially just.

Shifting fundaments of European higher education governance: competition,ranking, autonomy and accountability

In the present study we provide an interpretation of a general narrative of transnational governance of higher education. All the elements of the narrative – competition, ranking autonomy and accountability – are visibly present in contemporary higher education policy agenda. We examine these not as separate ideas and practices but as an interlinked whole, bringing an amount of coherence to transnational governance of higher education in Europe. All the elements, as they are currently represented in policy statements by the European higher education establishment, are premised on social atomist ontology and ideology of competition. Consequently, drawing on textual evidence we argue that the recent trend for increasing universities' institutional autonomy and accountability has been justified by reference to competitive logic, which, in turn, has been strengthened by the practice of comparative ranking. The article contributes to diagnosing potential misconceptions that frame the current higher education policy-making in Europe.     

The ‘Usefulness’ of Learning: the struggle over governance,meaning and the European education space

The creation of a distinctive and useful European education policy space is a necessary part of the project of Europeanization in the European Union. A ‘European education area’ is fundamental to the contemporary structuring of the European Union; it announces the arrival of a major discursive space, centred on education in which the legitimation, steering and shaping of European governance is being played out. This article explores the problem of governance and education, through its first stage, the construction of a European education project, based on cultural inheritance and then cooperation networks; then it examines, in the second stage, the determination of a new policy of lifelong learning. This new policy shifts the emphasis from formal institutional influence and centres on the individual learner, stressing performance and comparison. The article discusses the difficulty of this task, and its most important aspect, connecting governance and a meaningful project.     

A critical analysis of the Syrian refugee education policies in Lebanon using a policy analysis framework

ABSTRACT

Lebanon, a country impacted by ongoing political and economic instability, has an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees competing for access to already fragile healthcare, education and labor sectors. Half of these refugees are children. This piece will discuss the efforts and policies Lebanon already has in place regarding the education of Syrian refugees. This will be done through the implementation of Lesley Vidovich’s (2007) a policy framework which proposes an analysis of the policy context and policies’ influence, an analysis of the policies as text as well as an analysis of the implementation of those policies. Such a framework has the opportunity to not only provide a holistic view of the Lebanese history and context leading to current policies surrounding the education of refugees, but it has the potential of serving as a systematic framework for other various contexts concerning education in conflict areas.     

欧洲化:研究背景、界定及其与欧洲一体化的关系

欧洲化研究兴起于20世纪90年代初,并已发展成为欧洲研究领域一个十分重要的学术议题.欧洲化研究的兴起有着深刻的历史与学术研究背景:欧洲一体化进程的快速发展、传统的一体化研究陷入困境以及欧洲一体化研究思路的转变构成了三个主要的影响因素.本文阐述了欧洲化研究的状况及其发展阶段,在详尽评述欧洲化不同界定的基础上,分析了欧洲化的基本含义,探讨了欧洲化与欧洲一体化之间的联系和区别.     

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.