The knowledge triangle, European higher education policy logics and policy implications

While it is common to claim that university reforms are based on universal and standardised ideas about ‘modernising’ the university, few studies have examined in a more coherent way how the combined external pressure for change with respect to the areas of education, research and innovation has affected the university. In this paper it is argued that one can identify three different sets of logics concerning the current external reform agenda, and that these logics together create new challenges as to how knowledge is created, diffused and governed by the university. In the conclusion, it is discussed whether the current pressure for reform might change the university as we know it, or whether new institutional translations might emerge from the process renewing the university while maintaining its identity.     

Exam-oriented education and implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China

This paper investigates the implementation of education policy for migrant children in urban China. Historically, rural and urban residents in China were separated by the hukou system, and rural children were not allowed to attend urban schools. Since the relaxation of the hukou system in the early 1980s, large numbers of rural families migrated to cities. The right of migrant children to education in urban China was formally recognised by the government in a series of policies starting in 2001. The research reported, here, reveals that migrant children did not have equal access to urban schools nor did they enjoy an equally good education to that of urban children. Based on 53 in-depth interviews with school principals, teachers and pupils in two provincial capitals in China, this paper explores the main factors affecting the implementation of education policy for migrant children. The research demonstrates that policies relating to equal admissions criteria were not implemented as intended, with migrant children not having equal access to schools. However, policies relating to non-segregation and academic support were implemented as intended. It is argued that, at the school level, this is a result of the examination-oriented system, and schools’ responses to this.     

Free primary education policy and pupil school mobility in urban Kenya

This paper examines pupil school mobility in urban Kenya using African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC) household survey data which contain information on pupil transfers between schools. The aim is to identify which school characteristics attract the greatest demand for incoming transfers. The analysis reveals that there are frequent transfers in the slums than in the non-slum settlements; that transfer are in favour of private schools; and that quality is the main motivation for the transfers. Quality schools are perceived to have good discipline and better teacher performance. Given these results, should the Kenya government recognise the ‘low cost’ schools found in the slums which serve nearly half of the pupils and devise mechanisms of funding them?     

Conditional cash transfers and improved education quality: A political search for the policy link

Conditional Cash Transfer programs (CCTs) provide cash to poor families upon the fulfillment of conditions related to the education of their children. Even though CCTs have been increasingly expected to improve educational attainment – besides their proven impact on greater enrollment and attendance, it is not clear whether they have had any impact on education policies. In order to explore that, this article builds upon a comparative study of three programs: Opportunity NYC, Subsidios Condicionados a la Asistencia Escolar (Colombia), and Bolsa Famila (Brazil). The article concludes that, when it comes to policy-making, the link between CCTs and education policies has been weak, contrary to high international expectations.     

高等教育发展趋势与政策分析

近几年是我国高等教育发展最好的历史时期,是发展思路非常清楚的时期,同时也是争议颇多的时期。目前,我国高等教育面临的长期国情是:穷国办大教育、经济发展不平衡、望子成龙愿望、以发展促问题解决;新的挑战为:大众化新平台、全面建设小康社会、经济全球化大趋势、城镇化发展;新的理念有:可持续发展、和谐社会、创新型国家、终身学习。为此,我国高等教育的进一步发展必须坚持学校的多样化分类发展与特色定位,这是教育教学的根本要求;需要促进现代大学制度建设,这是高等学校内部管理保障的要求;需要加强评估对拨款的影响,这是高等学校外部的保证要求;还要引导高等学校的区域扩展,这是全面建设小康社会的教育需要。     

Toward a Learning Technologies knowledge network

The National Science Foundation-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) is designed to be a national resource for stimulating research and development of technology-enabled solutions to critical problems in K-14 science, math, engineering and technology learning. The Center, launched at the end of 1997, is organized around four themes identified as areas where research is likely to result in major gains in teaching and learning, and sponsors research across disciplines and institutions in its four theme areas. CILT brings together experts in the fields of cognitive science, educational technologies, computer science, subject matter learning, and engineering. It engages business through an Industry Alliance Program and is also training postdoctoral students. CILT's founding organizations are SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning, University of California at Berkeley (School of Education and Department of Computer Science), Vanderbilt University's Learning Technology Center, and the Concord Consortium. Through its programs, CILT seeks to reach beyond these organizations to create a web of organizations, individuals, industries, schools, foundations, government agencies, and labs, that is devoted to the production, sharing and use of new knowledge about how learning technologies can dramatically improve the processes and outcomes of learning and teaching. This paper describes the rationale and operations of the Center, and first-year progress in defining a set of CILT partnership projects with many other institutions that came out of our national theme-team workshops. Roy Pea, of SRI International, is Director of CILT. Marcia Linn (U. California, Berkeley), John Bransford (Vanderbilt University), Barbara Means (SRI International), and Robert Tinker (Concord Consortium), serve as CILT's coprincipal investigators. Sherry Hsi (Ubiquitous Computing) and Sean Brophy (Technology and Assessment Models) are among the first group of CILT Postdoctoral Fellows. Jeremy Roschelle (SRI International) and Nancy Songer (University of Michigan) are CILT theme-team leaders. Roy Pea and Marcia Linn would like to thank the Spencer Foundation for support during their year at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, in which they developed the CILT concept with the other authors. CILT is funded by National Science Foundation grant #CDA-9720384. Pea and Linn would also like to acknowledge contributions to this article by the many authors of CILT partnership project proposals, and by theme-team leaders. The authors thankfully acknowledge Donna Baranski-Walker for her many contributions to developing the CILT Industrial Alliance Program while serving as its Director in 1998.     

The effect of free primary education policy on late school entry in urban primary schools in Kenya

Late school entry is driven by several factors, one of the key ones being the cost barrier to schooling. Policies such as free primary education (FPE) that advocate for universal coverage are therefore partly aimed at removing the cost barrier. The Kenyan Government, like many in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), introduced FPE in 2003 with the aim of universalising access to schooling, which is one of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) it signed up to achieve. Based on a case study of four sites in Nairobi, the aim of this paper is to assess whether the FPE policy has affected late enrolment. The data used were collected by the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) and comprise a sub-sample of 4,325 first-graders during 2000–2005. The paper applies a probit model to assess the impact of the policy on the basis of marginal effects on the predicted probability of late enrolment. The results show that the FPE policy reduces the probability of late enrolment by 14 per cent. The reduction in probability of late enrolment was greater among children residing in slums (16 per cent) than those in non-slums (9 per cent). The main implication of the findings for policy makers is that cost barriers are a likely cause of over-age enrolment.     

Educational policy and teacher education

This article stresses the importance of teacher training in implementing changes in educational policy. It considers some of the ‘hidden’ implications of educational change and suggests that in order to reduce such undesirable consequences, teacher trainers should be more involved in educational policy-making, especially in regard to curriculum development.     

Social reproduction and education policy

The last half-century of sociology of education is littered with the debris of functionalist theories about social reproduction, inequality and class. This article discusses 'progressive 'and 'conservative 'readings of arguments about social reproduction and explores the consequences for the sociology and the politics of education with reference to supposed 'influence ' and 'audience'. New Labour's embrace of the school effectiveness/improvement movement and the introduction of the Sure Start programme illustrate that while 'social reproduction' is still a concern for sociologists of education, policy-makers have more 'practical' concerns.     

Powerful knowledge and geographical education

Michael Young has argued that pupils should be given access to ‘powerful knowledge’. This article examines the extent to which his concept of powerful knowledge is applicable to geographical education, in particular to the study of urban geography. It explores the distinction Young makes between everyday and school knowledge, how this relates to geographical education and to the academic subject of geography. It then considers the extent to which geographical disciplinary knowledge has the characteristics of powerful knowledge. Finally, it raises issues related to curriculum and pedagogy.