Feminism and ‘the schooling scandal’

In this paper I outline an approach towards policy analysis that takes governmentality as its point of theoretical orientation and begin to apply this approach to my research into the recently raised compulsory school‐leaving age in Western Australia. I aim to demonstrate the methodological potentials of this approach by giving examples of the thinking and practices that shape and condition the policy. I commence by situating the school‐leaving age policy within a broader field of reforms occurring under the general banner of neoliberalism and argue that the policy is primarily concerned with the conduct of students classified at ‘educational risk’, and with transforming these students to become more visible, participative and engaged in their schooling. By focusing on the policy rationalities and technologies, and drawing on Foucault’s notion of governmentality, I explore the forms of knowledge and practical strategies that are deployed in this policy field. I contend that this particular deployment narrowly constructs young people’s experiences of schooling in ways that do not allow for a broader debate about their declining school attendance and what should be done to address it     

HIV/AIDS education in schools: the ‘unassembled’ youth as a curricular project

This paper describes the ways in which administrative structures of the state, techniques of self-government, and practices of social relations exist within HIV/AIDS curricular discourses, a critique enabled by a Foucauldian analytical frame. We argue that youth have been singled out as a particularly risky lot and are therefore prime candidates for HIV/AIDS education. We situate HIV/AIDS education as a method of neoliberal governmentality concerned with regulating the categories of health, risk, and disease in relation to youthful identities. Our aim is to expose the ways in which scientific savoir, values, freedom and restraint work in tandem and hold the potential to shape youthful lives in meaningful ways. We further hope to unmask a certain kind of politics of knowledge that goes, for the most part, unquestioned, because it is linked to normalized ideas about sexuality, morality, individual responsibility, risk, and health.     

New directions in education? A critique of contemporary policy reforms

This paper draws on facets of Foucault's theoretical resources to critique current education policy reform from within the Australian State of Victoria, namely the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's (DEECD) discussion paper New directions for school leadership and the teaching profession. Implicit in the reform effort is decentralization, including penalties for “underperforming” classroom teachers and “ineffective” teacher education courses. Principals will hold a pre-eminent rank in the reforms proposed as they are charged with their oversight and implementation, including intervening in the education and preparation of pre-service teachers.     

文化政治美学视野下的治理理论研究——从福柯的政治治理到托尼·本尼特的文化治理

米歇尔·福柯的治理理论在20世纪90年代以来成为政治学和经济学领域的显学,其理论旨趣为探讨新自由主义政府如何运用知识技术塑造现代主体、实现主体自我管治。但福柯的治理理论与美学、文化研究的关系并未得到充分的阐释。联系福柯后期的生存美学观点,可以推论福柯治理理论是一个趋向美学分析的文化政治概念。托尼·本尼特在考察了美学学科诞生、美学知识型的出现与政府治理需求之间的时间上同步和内涵上的协同关系之后,提出从治理实践的角度来研究治理理论,将治理理论延伸到文化机构、文化政策、文化代理人等文化实践运用中,这种物质化研究美学的方法迥异于超然批判性立场的审美现代性。     

DIMINISHED STATES? NATIONAL POWER IN EUROPEAN EDUCATION POLICY

ABSTRACT:  The increasing research on international organisations' education policy lacks analyses of the relation between international organisations and nation states. This paper aims to analyse the power of nation states in international education policy. Focusing on the new degree system in higher education in Europe, partly from Foucault's governmentality perspective, the paper suggests that nation states retain power while operating in international settings. The study's conclusions argue that the nation states' power might be a chance for further participation of affected people.     

义务教育阶段就近入学政策剖析

作为保障少年儿童平等受教育机会的基本措施,就近入学是许多国家在义务教育阶段普遍实施的一项政策.当前我国这一政策的实施存在一系列问题,其背后原因不仅有经费投入不足、资源配置不均、社会环境的影响等因素,还有就近入学政策自身的缺陷.据此,本文提出了重新进行政策思想定位、改善政策实施环境、完善政策流程等一系列措施,旨在促进我国义务教育就近入学政策的不断完善,使其更好地体现义务教育的公共性和公益性.     

“It’s Groundhog Day”: Foucault’s Governmentality and Crisis Discourses in Physical Education

ABSTRACT

Dominant discourses in physical education research center on subject-wide crisis. This is despite repeated calls to address enduring concerns about how physical education is taught. In short, the subject seems caught in Groundhog Day (defined by Oxford Dictionaries (n.d.) as “a situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way”). This article scrutinizes this position through Foucault’s lens of governmentality, which focuses particularly on power/knowledge relations and their relationship to subjectivity. Through this lens, research functions as a shaper of contemporary understanding and becomes a means for intervention by “experts.” The article is structured as a conversation between authors about dominant discourses in physical education research and issues of governmentality. It argues that research approaches such as action research are framed within other power/knowledge relations and may provide a way to wake up on a new day.     

致力于更加公平的教育:义务教育政策三十年——基于改革开放30年义务教育政策与法制建设的思考

改革开放30年来,具有中国特色的义务教育法律体系初步形成,同时在政策领域,采取了小学升初中免试就近入学、均衡发展政策,针对社会弱势儿童实施了"两免一补"政策、随班就读政策、"两为主"政策等,形成了相对全面的普及和救助政策体系,致力于更加公平的教育是改革开放30年来义务教育政策和法制建设的主旋律。尽管如此,还存在着义务教育发展尚不均衡、弱势儿童的受教育机会尚未得到全面保障等突出问题。为此,要强化政府的义务教育公平责任,建立和完善保护儿童受教育权利的政策和法律机制,实现教育公共服务均等化,以保障每一个儿童都能上好学。     

Governmentality and My School: School Principals in Societies of Control

Abstract

The introduction of new accountabilities and techniques of government for the purposes of educational reform have created new complexities and tensions for school leadership. Policies such as the publishing of league tables in the UK, high stakes testing in the US and the introduction of the My School website in Australia are particularly significant for school principals. In this article I appeal to the work of Foucault and Deleuze to provide an alternate approach to understanding how principals are constituted as subjects through a range of practices and discourses associated with the introduction of the My School website. I specifically draw upon Foucault’s notion of governmentality and Deleuze’s notion of societies of control to provoke new lines of thought into these government practices. I argue that it is through the performative in the education system that school principals are becoming perpetually assessable subjects.     

义务教育政策公平性的内涵

义务教育政策的价值内涵和价值追求应当与义务教育本身的价值内涵和价值追求是一致的。所以,作为社会财富进行再分配的一种资源和协调社会平衡发展、实现社会公平正义的一种工具,义务教育政策公平就是实现义务教育资源分配的公平。义务教育政策公平性的价值内涵构成包括平等的原则、发展的原则、弱势补偿的原则、以人为本的原则、标准一致性原则。     

对《义务教育法》有关特殊教育条款的分析

新修订的《义务教育法》继承了我国建国初期采取的对特殊教育的特殊政策,并将改革开放以来实施特殊教育的成功做法上升为法律,从政府责任、教育形式、教师待遇、经费投入、法律责任五个方面保障特殊儿童、少年受义务教育权利和教育权益。本文对相关条款进行分析的同时,对该法第十六条中的个别术语和文字表述的科学性进行了探讨。     

论城乡教育一体化语境中的义务教育均衡发展模式——以江苏省常州市为例

区域内义务教育均衡发展模式是各地因地制宜推进城乡教育一体化战略的实践创新。义务教育均衡发展常州模式,旨在为城乡人口提供优质均衡的教育机会及资源,创新推进义务教育集团全区域覆盖为方向的城乡教育优质均衡发展和以保障外来务工人员随迁子女教育权利为表征的城乡教育一体化。市、县政府应该以合理科学的政策选择,赋予不同类别教育集团运行发展为动力支持,加强集团间办学经验的推广及共享;赋予外来务工人员随迁子女平等的教育机会与教育过程,以及外来民工子女学校改善办学条件、教师收入补贴等政策支持。     

Changing green subjectivities in outdoor and environmental education: a qualitative study

This article draws on a longitudinal qualitative study of Australian tertiary students studying Outdoor and Environmental Education. It draws on the work of Foucault and Darier to consider how ‘environmental governmentality’ shapes the conduct, desires and attitudes of these students over time. Attention is drawn to normalising and disciplinary effects of mainstream environmental discourse alongside an exploration of some of the inconsistencies and ruptures in how participants interact with discourses of environmentalism.     

新时期农村义务教育投入政策的思考

进入21 世纪以来,我国农村义务教育投入政策实现了“三大转变”: 投入主体由“农民”转向“政府”;投入管理体制由“乡镇为主”转向“以县为主”;收费办法由“多费制”转向“一费制”,并进一步向“免费制”过渡。但为确保政策实效,还必须推进农村义务教育投入的法制化进程,完善农村义务教育经费的转移支付制度,提高民间资本的投入水平,改革政府绩效评价体系。