Target-driven reforms: Education for All and the translations of equity and inclusion in India

This paper critically examines the ways in which inclusion and equity are constituted through education development policies in India. Programmes implemented under global and national Education for All (EFA) policies have largely involved the quantification of ‘equity’ whereby schooling processes are measured against broad targets for school outcomes – focused mainly on student attendance, retention and academic achievement. Drawing on perspectives from Actor Network Theory, the paper puts forward the view of development reforms as ‘networks of translation’ in order to trace the shifts and vicissitudes of educational ideals. Reporting on ethnographic data of two reforms in the south Indian state of Karnataka, we show how narrow understandings of equity are produced through target-driven approaches to EFA. In doing so, the paper highlights the performative effects of education development policy and its potentially counterproductive consequences in contexts of poverty and marginalisation.     

达喀尔论坛后的世界全民教育:进展、特点、挑战及前景

达喀尔世界教育论坛被认为是世界全民教育运动新的转折点.全民教育的十年评估以来,教育权利得到了世界范围内各国的广泛认同,教育质量成为全民教育的主要关注点.但世界全民教育依然面临巨大挑战,而全民终身学习是21世纪教育的关键,是实现更为有质量的生活和人性化社会的希望.     

No shared vision for achieving Education for All: Turkey at risk

Turkey is still far from realizing any of the six EFA goals. Since the Dakar Conference there have been many policy initiatives aiming at improving the quality of Turkish education. The impact and effectiveness of those policy initiatives are yet to be evaluated. The deficit of high quality analytical and empirical research constitutes a major weakness. So does the level of attention on monitoring and evaluation from policymakers. The recent introduction of strategic planning and performance-based budgeting could promote more emphasis on evaluation and monitoring in the coming years. In addition, a transparent, overarching education policy could foster policy dialogue among stakeholders. Overall, this article draws attention to the following critical factors for the EFA success in Turkey: political and economic support for education reform; the need to adopt strategy-oriented sector policies; increased capacity and emphasis on evaluation and accountability of educational policy-making; the need for a new national impetus to improve quality in education.

Education for All in India: assessing progress towards Dakar goals

About 60 years ago India established a policy of providing free and compulsory education to all children and began transforming the elite education system inherited from its colonial past into a mass education program. The task became a race against a rapidly growing population, which outstripped the pace at which children could be enrolled and educated in schools. Notwithstanding this demographic challenge, the system grew in size and the number of children participating in school grew many-fold. The struggle to reach the long cherished goal of universal elementary education continues even today. The present paper highlights two decades of EFA progress, paying particular attention to quantitative trends since 2001, and the policies framed and the strategies implemented to achieve greater equity and quality in the provision of basic education.

全民教育思潮的发展及其对构建学习型社会的启示

全民教育思潮是伴随着教育民主化进程和日趋激烈的国际竞争而出现的,并在联合国教科文组织的直接推动下,自上个世纪90年代以来,形成了全民教育运动。这种思潮,正影响着我国教育理念的重塑和教育实践的发展,对当前推动教育均衡发展、构建学习型社会具有重要的现实意义。     

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report: a mid-term assessment

The Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report is six years old and seven reports have been produced (UNESCO, 2000–2008). It is a product of the outcomes of the World Education Forum in Dakar held in 2000. It is designed to track progress towards the realization of the six EFA goals and to hold governments and the international community to account for their promises and pledges. This short article reviews the genesis, evolution, characteristics, and influence of the GMR to the beginning of 2008. It concludes that the report is now a well established feature of annual international reporting and has helped to strengthen UNESCO’s voice. It is a reference point of some significance but it will need to adjust its reporting and its argument as 2015 approaches.

孔子“有教无类”主张及其价值的现代透视

教育的对象问题,历来都是教育家关注的焦点。在孔子的教育思想中,最光辉的一点便是其“有教无类”的教育主张。它规定了孔子办私学的教育对象。今天,我们重温这一杰出命题,把握其基本思想内涵及现代价值,对于正在进行的教育改革仍有着重要意义。     

Including students with disabilities in Education for All: lessons from Ethiopia

This article addresses the inclusion of students with disabilities into the Education for All and Sustainable Development Goals agenda through a case study of Ethiopia, a country aiming to promote inclusive education amidst rapidly rising school enrolments. The article begins with a review of debates concerning inclusive education in the Global South and the strategy taken by Ethiopia. It then examines how inclusive education is currently being implemented drawing on recent fieldwork at rural and urban schools in Tigray province. Through interviews, participant observation, and focus groups, we found that teachers and school administrators are generally in favour of mainstreaming children with disabilities into ‘normal’ schools. However, insufficient training of teachers and itinerant teachers along with shortages of teaching materials and resources present major challenges to addressing special education needs.     

Gender discourses in an NGO education project: Openings for transformation toward gender equality in Bangladesh

This article seeks to illustrate how various actors participating in a non-governmental organization (NGO) education project in two Bangladeshi communities represent different framings of gender. Teachers, as critical actors in this education project, utilize multiple discourses of gender equality and when viewed in relation to community members’, parents’ and students’ ideas of gender equality, we argue their discursive practices can create spaces for transformation. The use of multiple discourses suggests that specific local adaptations of women in development (WID), gender and development (GAD), post-structural and rights and capabilities approaches may all be useful in the work toward gender justice as these approaches inform the different meanings of gender equality in the communities. We conclude that NGOs play a critical role in making micro-level changes in schools as well as have a broader impact on communities and national agendas by engaging different actors’ uses of gender equality discourses.     

中国基础教育性别公平存在的问题和对策

性别公平是当今国际世界基础教育研究中的一项重要任务，本文首先介绍了20世纪90年代中国基础教育在实现性别公平方面取得的成就，然后指出了中国基础教育中仍然存在性别不公平的一些问题，最后探讨了21世纪前15年中国基础教育全面实现性别公平应该采取的政策措施。     

Deconstructing Education for All: discourse,power and the politics of inclusion

The UNESCO World Declaration on Education for All from 1990 sets in motion the new agenda for educational reform that provides basic education for all disadvantaged children and adults in the global context. Since its formulation, a set of consecutive policy texts has been issued by international agencies to monitor, evaluate, and strengthen the capacity of governments to ensure that the goals of Education for All are met by 2015. This paper applies critical theory and discourse theory to provide an in‐depth analysis of the hegemonic ideologies of this global policy framework through the deconstruction of policy texts and discourses. It is argued that Education for All is a modernist project of the new imperialism, structured through the selecting, assembling and underpinning of policy discourses, to expand the ideological project of new capitalism in the global context. Discourse of inclusion is discussed both at the educational and political levels to portray the tensions of the global community in grappling with the issues of justice at the international, national, and local context.     

Reconstruction versus transformation: Post-war education and the struggle for gender equity in Sierra Leone

In post-war contexts, education is widely regarded as essential not only for civic reconciliation, but also as a key force for gender equity. In Sierra Leone, however, despite enhanced educational opportunities for girls, much of the emphasis on post-war educational reconstruction is unlikely to rectify gender inequities that remain entrenched within mainstream schooling and in the broader social context. Yet the capacity of education to contribute to gender-based change has not been entirely muted. Several women's associations are supporting girls’ education as integral to economic and political actions aimed at challenging the hegemony of patriarchy and gendered violence. What remains to be seen is whether these discrete efforts can foster a women's movement capable of altering the structures of patriarchal power in Sierra Leone.     

Teaching in transition: Examining school-based gender inequities in central/southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

In the last decade, gender equity has become one of the most prominent issues in education reform efforts worldwide. Yet, questions of gender equity have received very little attention in the education reform efforts in the post-socialist countries during the transition period. Focusing on the political, economic, and social changes of the 1990s, this article examines school-based gender equity as it is treated in textbooks, curriculum, teacher attitudes, school environment, leadership and tracking. The article presents gender-sensitive strategies for reform and explores how existing ‘gender-neutral’ education practices detrimentally affect gender equity in schools, providing country-specific examples. The article concludes with recommendations for teaching in transition, given the education sphere's strong potential to redress gender inequities.     

Equality or equity: Gender awareness issues in secondary schools in Pakistan

This paper focuses on gender awareness issues as a dimension of addressing the wider issue of the quality of education in Pakistan from the perspective of social justice. In Pakistan classrooms, boys and girls learn separately and therefore teachers and others tend to think that there are no gender issues once access is achieved and the learners are in the classroom. However, beyond access there are several factors that compromise quality of education and raise issues for gender equity as an element of social justice. These issues are examined in the context of a professional development intervention on promoting gender awareness among secondary mathematics teachers in disadvantaged schools in rural Pakistan.     

印度初等教育性别公平问题及其启示

印度初等教育的发展中存在着诸多问题,其中以性别公平问题较为突出,本文由此从性别的角度来探讨印度初等教育近年来的发展成果和存在的问题,以及为解决这一问题印度政府所采取的政策和措施,并从中为我国初等教育的普及提供一些借鉴.     

扩展我们的教育质量观：重新发现教育目的

高等教育机构对质量保证日益增加的重视以及初等和中等教育中评估学习成就的重要机构的出现,是教育领域中具有重要发展意义的代表性现象。全民教育(EFA)这一全球性运动表明,人们不仅意识到了世界各地的人们都有受教育的权利,而且承诺将教育扩展到世界各地。本文表明的是,尽管我们取得了重大进展,不容忽视的是挑战依然存在。笔者认为,目前在世界各地兴起的质量保证制度中关于质量构成的理解嵌入了个人主义概念。据此,笔者指出这是远远不够的,其他能够阐释我们作为个体、作为民族以及作为国家身份的更具概括性的概念需要被引入,这样才能获得关于质量的更广泛的观点。     

教育研究的国际视野——联合国教科文组织教育研究机构的比较分析

本文对联合国教科文组织及其框架下的教育研究机构进行了介绍,对有关教育研究机构的研究、培训、咨询、出版与文献服务、论坛举办等主要活动进行了评述和比较分析.这些教育研究机构体现出广阔的国际视野,分工明确、协作互助,与时俱进、不断调整,组织健全、注重参与,对我国教育研究事业具有一定的借鉴意义.     

A critical review on studies of relationship education in the gender equity education of Taiwan: 10 years and beyond

With discourse analyses, this paper attempts to review the research development of relationship education in Taiwan for nearly a decade after the Gender Equity Education Act was announced in 2004, including the research topics generated, the knowledge accumulated, and the results achieved. This paper focuses not only on how the power and impacts of the academic institutions evolves through the production process of knowledge from the research, but also on how the gender perspectives are placed or filled into the discourses. Tracking and reflecting on the discourses and the development of relationship education researches in Taiwan, this paper aims to examine the interwoven effects and influences that social cultures, structures, and institutional power play on the knowledge production and research development of relationship education. The trajectory of Taiwanese experience illustrates a good example for policy making and legislative initiatives in legislative procedures in regard to certain gender knowledge and subjects. It is essential to utilize and coordinate the national resources and academic institutions with further awareness for the direction and promotion of gender knowledge in order for the education and research to root, grow, and prosper.     

“科学大众化”的困境：社会学的分析

科学大众化是当今科学教育的一个核心概念,但在教材和教学层面,科学大众化却面临困境。这种困境主要体现为科学素养内容的不均衡性,即过分重视学科内容而忽视相应的个人、社会和文化意义。文章从科学家的学术控制和学校文化两个角度分析了这种不均衡性的原因。文章最后从两种理科课程取向之间的张力出发,提出科学教育家可能是科学大众化走出困境的希望。     

The puzzling relationship between international development and gender equity: The case of STEM postsecondary education in Cambodia

Gender inequality persists in certain science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) postsecondary fields. Notably, cross-national evidence suggests the STEM gender gap is smaller, not wider, in less developed nations. This is the first known case study to examine this gap within a developing country: Cambodia. This study investigates the following question: how does development – specifically socioeconomic and gender equity indicators – affect women’s share of enrollment in specific STEM and STEM-related fields? Merging two sources of national data, we leverage provincial census figures and institutional administrative data to estimate women's enrollment share in STEM as well as in specific fields (i.e., accounting, information technology, and health). Findings show women’s share of STEM and information technology majors is larger outside the capital. Further, socioeconomic development and urbanization indicators distinctly predict women’s share of health and information technology majors. These fields also have an inverse relationship between women’s share and gender egalitarian characteristics. We discuss potential explanations and implications for gender and inequality in higher education, within and between nations, in the context of larger theoretical debates on the nature of sex segregation.