Assessment discourse and constructions of social reality in infant classrooms

The 1968 structural reform of the education system in Israel was part both of a global process of democratization of education launched after the Second World War and of a larger modernization project in which the social sciences played a crucial role. This dynamic was an expression of a conjunction of interests, in which political forces used research on educational matters in order to advance their socio‐political agendas, while researchers used the state's interest in their work and in the ‘social problems’ they elaborated in order to receive public funding and to obtain state recognition of their scientific contribution. This article traces the reformist discourse structuration—the process of institutionalization of the different social science discourses in state institutions, such as universities and national institutes—in order to disclose the social sciences/politics linkage in Israel. It also puts forward the argument that in order to understand discourse structuration at a national level, it is essential to consider an additional factor: global education networks. Global networks adopted a discourse inspired by the American school model that tended to be adopted by scholars in different countries. The article focuses on the processes in Israel whereby knowledge producers elaborated the ‘inequality of opportunity’ and ‘ethnic gap’ social problems, and proffered the 1968 structural reform as the solution.     

Introducing a neo‐Weberian perspective in the study of globalisation and education: structural reforms of the education systems in France and Israel after the Second World War

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo‐Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed ‘social problems’ according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio‐politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the ‘democratisation of education’ in France and Israel.     

Comparative glocal perspectives on European teacher education

This article reports the findings of a PhD study, which offers comparative perspectives on teacher education in a period of reforms, inquiring into stakeholders’ perceptions in English, French, Italian and Spanish contexts as case studies. The interaction of needs and constraints in European initial teacher education within higher education reforms, and the mediation between contrasting influences and diverse education cultures, are viewed as global phenomena: teacher education practices in different countries can be described as ‘translations’ of European policies, with innovative potential in glocal developments. This article explores some issues of the European dimension of teacher education, reporting the qualitative findings of the study, underpinned by a theoretical framework encompassing globalisation and social ecological studies. In the four case study contexts, the focus is on secondary teacher education; when a subject perspective is required, it concerns the area of modern languages, considering their transversal role in European education policies. Findings from the national case studies come from a limited empirical sample, but can be of interest in showing emerging tensions and trends.     

从教育质量到质量教育的议论-香港特区的经验与教训

教育质量渐渐成为内地教育政策议论中的一个重要议题。在香港特区, 有关教育质素与优质教育的议论已推行了近十年。本文旨在探讨香港特区教育质素政策的发展,并分析有关政策措施带来的一种“核数文化”的后果;继而剖析香港特区推行的优质教育所蕴含着对教育的特定的知识论与本体论的设定;最后应用哈贝马斯对知识旨趣的三种界定,来说明优质教育的三种不同的构思,并揭示现行香港特区所推行的优质教育措施的偏闭与局限。     

Teacher Competence Frameworks in Europe: policy-as-discourse and policy-as-practice

This article analyses the growing focus on teacher competences in European policy discourse against the backdrop of global convergences in education reforms. It traces key ideas, policy recommendations, peer learning and documents which underscore the relevance of teacher quality for education improvement, as recently stressed in the European Commission Communication and Staff Working Documents Rethinking Education. The intertwining of teacher competence frameworks with other areas of education policy is outlined — key competences in school education, the quality of initial teacher education, and the continuous professional development of teachers — teasing out reasons for their central role. Some insights from research and peer learning then explore key implications in the defining and implementing of teacher competence frameworks in national education systems. A comparative viewpoint further analyses current policy trends about teacher competences across European national contexts, in discourse and practice. In order to do so, a framework of analysis takes into account system features as key variables affecting national policy — roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, governance and education cultures, and the status of the teaching profession. Across the variety of policy practices, the analysis endeavours to trace some emerging patterns and trends, highlighting paradigmatic national examples, with some food for thought.     

The appropriation of the global discourse in the formulation of national education policies: a case of continuing education of teachers in Greece

Educational research over the last decades has been preoccupied with the way the global discourse has been employed in national educational policy making. Examining a case of teachers’ continuing education in Greece, the paper focuses on the way this global discourse has been selectively appropriated by national agents.

Using data of focused interviews with key agents and the content analysis of policy documents, the paper examines the institutionalisation process arguing that (Greek) education policy is not always subject to rational planning, or global imperatives, but involves informal networks which interact parasitically inside formal policy networks to further sectoral interests.     

Process implementation perspective on neoliberal regulation: a comparative analysis of national curricula and standards-based reforms in the USA and Australia

ABSTRACT

This comparative case study adopts a process implementation perspective on neoliberal regulation to explore developments in national curricula and standard-based reforms in the USA and Australia. Date sources include research reports, books, OECD data, and local survey data. The comparison of the dynamic of two countries reveals that whereas policymakers in the USA adopted a transforming regulatory strategy (targeting the ambiguity and conflict levels in local policy) to implement, Australian policymakers adopted a congruence regulatory strategy (ratifying ambiguity and conflict levels). As a result of this dynamic, the education system in the USA displays a relatively tighter structure, which is related to the tighter professional teaching culture. The analysis suggests that the effect of global ideas and policies adopted locally depends on policymakers’ regulatory strategy, and that local system change drastically only when policymakers adopt the neoliberal default preference for active transformative implementation. Hence, a specific implementation dynamic is a key factor in the global neoliberal agenda, and its presence or absence indicates convergence or divergence between countries adopting similar policies.     

Governance and knowledge transformations in educational administration: Greek responses to global policies

This article explores the localisation of the global and European discourse of educational governance in the Greek education system through the changes that have been introduced in the field of education administration since 2009 by the then socialist government. Our research aims to contribute to the critical policy literature on the spreading marketisation and privatisation in the governing of education around the world and in Europe – through the adoption of New Public Management and Educational Leadership models. In developing our theoretical perspective, we use the Foucauldian concepts of governmentality and discourse, and in order to conceptualise power and control relations in the organisation, transmission, acquisition, and evaluation of pedagogical knowledge, we draw on Bernstein's theory of symbolic control. Our study has examined how the field of education administration is governed through power and knowledge transformations. We trace these transformations by analysing systematically the pedagogic discourse through which the global governance discourse is relayed and becomes a ‘regime of truth’ within public policy and practice in Greece. We argue that such changes have significant implications for everyday educational practice and for the kinds of knowledge that are considered legitimate, and they may affect educational professionals' subjectivities in fundamental ways.     

Teacher education in France under the Hollande government: reconstructing and reinforcing the republic

Successive republican governments in France have constructed a complex educational context, which is rhetorically committed to a myth of provision of educational equality of opportunity whilst in practical terms it is characterised by a system focused on the production and reproduction of elites. This article aims to consider the political drivers and levers that are transforming French teacher education during the current challenging economic, social and cultural context. It uses a relatively new methodological approach to the analysis of policy evolution and development by applying a critical analysis of discourse, which considers the ways in which teacher education policy is ‘reproduced and reworked’. This is achieved through the discourse analysis of a policy speech made in October 2013 by the then Minister of Education, Vincent Peillon, contextualised by comparisons with reforms enacted by the previous Sarkozy government (masterisation). The article, therefore, utilises a systematic framework that allows analysis at the levels of contextualisation and deconstruction of the text and so highlights developments to date in the arguably unique approach of the Hollande government, driven by the relationship between the republican state and the education system in France. The article also considers how reaction following the Charlie Hebdo attacks of January 2015 afforded opportunities to assert new validity for the teacher education policy espoused within Peillon’s speech.     

CREATIVITY, KNOWLEDGE AND CURRICULUM IN FURTHER EDUCATION: A BERNSTEINIAN PERSPECTIVE

ABSTRACT:  This paper draws on the work of Basil Bernstein to offer a (re-) conceptualisation of creativity for the English further education (FE) sector. It begins by locating creativity within the political economy of FE and argues that teaching and learning is constrained by an instrumental remit for the sector, which prioritises perceived economic needs over broader conceptions of education and training. The paper goes on to analyse the FE curriculum, relating Bernstein's work on generic modes to critiques of competence. It proposes a central role for knowledge and broad conceptions of skill in FE in order to contest an instrumental approach to teaching and learning arising from official discourse on competitiveness. The paper uses Bernstein's typology of vertical and horizontal discourse to argue that creativity needs to be re-defined in a way that recognises the value of principled, conceptual knowledge in vocational education whilst acknowledging the socially constructed nature of creativity and knowledge.     

The impact of migration on national identity in a globalized world: a comparison of civic education curricula in England,France and Ireland

This article examines the extent to which citizens of migrant origin are included within discourses of national identity in civic education curricula in England, France and Ireland. We explore how much space is given to citizens of migrant origin in discourses of national identity in civic education curricula and how they fit with central values normalized by a higher degree of recognition in schools. Although early immigration systems assumed that incorporation of migrants into the national polity would take place via socialization in education, the failure to include citizens of migrant origin in the contemporary ‘imagined community’ articulated in civic education discourses risks marginalizing some citizens which gives rise to a sovereignty gap. The disparity between legal and cultural belonging of some individuals in Western Europe presents a major challenge for education systems which are tasked with making national identity discourse resonate with a globalized citizenry. The study found that despite commonalities around the promotion of human rights and democracy, civic education curricula diverge with regard to representation of religion. Moreover, nationalistic aspects of the French model contrast with a multicultural, and recently global, approach to citizenship education in England and the promotion of European citizenship in Ireland.     

The spectacle of global tests in the Arabian Gulf: a comparison of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates*

Although scholars have examined the effects of global tests on national and regional educational governance, few researchers have studied their impact on education in the Arabian Gulf. This research fills the knowledge gap by studying the international spectacle of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS results in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – two small rich states at the periphery of knowledge production processes. I argue that an analysis of these narratives reveals how global accountability discourses are translated into the Arabian Gulf context as truth claims that performance in league tables is an accurate and objective representation of educational quality. Four themes emerge from the analysis: integration of test results into national visions; measurement of educational progress based on test results; ranking of student performance; and policy changes to improve test results. In conclusion, I suggest that the over-dependence on global tests in defining educational quality in Qatar and the UAE erodes educational sovereignty and restricts the capacity of small states to develop and nurture alternative, indigenous and localised solutions for guiding educational reforms.     

The tension in turkish teacher education: Conflict and controversy during the transformation from an academic approach to a professional approach

Most of the reforms, which have been undertaken in the last 30 years in the Turkish educational system, are about teacher education. When we examine the teacher education curriculum from the perspective of these reforms, it has been observed that there is a controversy between the academic and professional approaches used in these curricula. While the reforms undertaken in 1982 and 1997 were in favor of the academic approach, the latest reform undertaken in 2006 was made to strengthen the professional aspects of teacher education curriculum. In this paper, Turkish teacher education reforms are introduced in the light of the professional and the academic approaches, which have always been the topic of discussions about teacher education.     

ROMANIAN HIGHER EDUCATION DURING THE TRANSITION PERIOD

Romania has a long tradition of higher education, one which was stifled during the period of communist rule from 1948 to 1989 and is now, during the period of transition which began in 1990, beginning to re‐emerge. The system is confronted with shortages of academic personnel in a number of fields and with the financial inability to offer academic staff proper salaries or even to finance much needed improvements in infrastructure. The system, which used to be completely public, is now confronted with the mushrooming of private universities of dubious quality. The system of assessment and accreditation of the new institutions, both private and public, is described, as is the development of national standards for a final licenta ^{1 1} This degree/diploma, similar to the French licence, is the first degree/diploma of long‐cycle undergraduate higher education that is awarded in Romania. View all notes examination. The hope is that these and other reforms coupled to an annual expenditure of at least 4 percent of GNP on higher education will lead to steady improvement in the output of Romanian higher education institutions.

     

国家-社会视角下的农村基础教育发展:教育政治学分析

本文从国家—社会的视角剖析了农村基础教育百年来的发展过程,集中探讨了近些年农村社会发生的若干重大过程,如税费改革中县乡财政关系的调整、农村中小学布局调整中利益格局的变化及私立教育兴起等对农村基础教育的发展及其治理结构的影响,描述了农村基础教育发展的不同阶段国家与社会关系的变化,着重分析了这些过程中政府之间以及政府、学校与民众之间围绕教育治理所发生的互动关系,指出了农村基础教育发展的某些新动向。     

如何提升中国教育研究的国际影响力 ——基于专家评估报告的分析

从多维度、全面系统地考察中国教育研究的国际影响力,需要加强同行专家评估的作用。基于8位国外教育专家、10位华人教育专家和11位内地教育专家的评估报告,从中国教育研究国际影响力的重要程度、当前表现、制约因素、提升路径、评价方式等方面,探讨了中外学者在中国增强原创性的知识生产和理论贡献,加强教育研究的国际交流与合作,以及加快科研激励与评价制度及机制改革等方面的共识与认知差异,拓展了如何提升中国教育研究国际影响力的深度分析与理解。     

Tradition, globalisation and language dilemma in education: African options for the 21st century

This paper addresses the dilemma of language in education in African countries with particular reference to Burundi. African languages are still marginalised by colonial languages such as French and English. Looking at other African countries in general and at the case of Burundi in detail, an analysis is made of the adopted policies aimed at promoting the use of the mother tongue as a basis for knowledge acquisition and cultural integration. Burundi has gone through a series of educational reforms both before and after gaining independence in 1962, with French and Kirundi competing as curricular teaching languages. After the integration of Burundi into the East African Community in July 2007, English and Kiswahili were added to the curriculum, complicating education policies. This article places particular emphasis on the contextual challenges that tend to impair the full implementation of the adopted policy reforms. The paper concludes by advocating for a multilingual approach in which the indigenous mother tongue serves as the basis for the acquisition of other languages in the curriculum.     

Problematizing global educational governance of OECD PISA: Student achievement,categorization, and social inclusion and exclusion

Abstract

This study problematizes the global educational governance of OECD PISA and its statistical data as a governing technology in contemporary discourses of education reforms. The study examines principles that order the discourses and practices of the international comparative assessment. The effort of analysing the impact of an education reform regime led by OECD PISA reveals how statistical reasoning defines problems in educational systems and forms social discourse surrounding educational reform to solve such problems. In doing so, this article focuses on standardization, classification, and normalization for measuring and comparing student achievement and national effectiveness. The study also offers an alternative way of considering the politics of inclusion and exclusion embedded in practices of education reforms propelled by the international comparative assessment.     

终身教育维度下的现代国民教育体系结构和层次分析

从终身教育的角度出发,现代国民教育体系的8项基本目标,即传授知识、培养人才、科技研究、服务社会、塑造心灵、维护和谐、优化人生、国际合作,由六个等级或层次构成的,即学前教育、义务教育、中等教育、高等教育、研究型教育、老年教育,它们构成了庞大而复杂的巨系统。在现代国民教育体系的建构中,要重点抓好的是山型教育,即义务教育、普通教育、职业教育、泛在教育。     

全球化时代大学改革的法国道路

全球化时代下,越来越多的学者与学生前往美国。人才输出国面临着人力与物力资源的双重流失。为了应对美国高等教育的强势,法国政府采取了一系列深入的改革。尤其是2006年以来的重组策略,大大改变了传统法国高校规模小、教研分离的面貌。但在改革的同时,法国高等教育也在丧失精英教育等自身原有的特色。