Reforming higher education in Nordic countries. Studies of change in Denmark,Finland, Iceland,Norway and Sweden

This paper provides a self-ethnographic investigation of a continuing education program in engineering in Central Finland. The program was initiated as a response to local economic structural change, in order to offer re-education possibilities for a higher educated workforce currently under unemployment threat. We encountered considerable difficulties both in relation to student motivation and our ability to engage the students. By comparing our observations and experiences with adult learning theory, and considering them in relation to economic structural change, we aim to raise issues that would benefit others. The main results of this study are that: (1) under the condition of structural change studying seemed to be externally motivated; (2) specialized work experience may have hindered self-direction in the acquisition of an academic orientation and skills; and (3) a transformation in student perspective, leading to perceiving the education provided as an opportunity, would have been required but was seldom observed.     

北欧国家外语教育政策与实践——以瑞典和挪威为例

欧洲外语教育政策是欧洲一体化的一个直观反映。近年来,欧盟一直致力于语言多元化的推进和完善。北欧国家既希望通过一体化融入欧洲,也尽力避免以英语为代表的欧洲优势语言对本国语言母语人群的侵蚀。瑞典和挪威通过一系列的外语教育政策和实践,努力推进欧洲语言多元主义和语言学习多样化。     

Globalization and the Asia Pacific: an exploration of efficiency and equality aims of education1

The paper aims to explore the relationship between globalization and education through an investigation of educational policy development in the specific context of the Asia Pacific. The paper's primary focus is on data collected from the World Bank, OECD, IMF and UNESCO to look primarily at three interrelated trends in education: increasing enrollments at all educational levels, issues of gender equality, and changes in public expenditure. In the paper, we argue that developments in education are increasingly impacted by a particular conception of globalization, which is illustrated in the overarching pressure of efficiency on educational aims. Although both efficiency and equality aims of education are present in recent policy developments in the Asia Pacific, the importance attached to education's capabilities of advancing human capital development have brought about a fundamental tension between two purposes of education: one relating to efficiency and one underlying education's potential to advance goals of access and equality.     

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。     

The struggle for comprehensive education in the Netherlands: the representation of secondary school innovation in Dutch newspaper articles in the 1970s

This article focuses on how Dutch newspapers represented the debate in the Netherlands in the 1970s on comprehensive education and thus influenced the Dutch Middle School experiment. Wiborg’s identification of key factors of success in Scandinavia was used as a point of reference. The article shows that these key factors did not exist in the Netherlands because of the polarisation of liberals and social democrats. Furthermore, the article shows how newspapers played different roles, varying from disseminators of new ideas to sparking debate and from communicators of political views to a barometer, consequently influencing the political strategies chosen.     

效率视野下的我国职业教育

市场经济体制要求教育资源的运作体现效率原则,工作领域的迅速变化使就业的不稳定性日益突出,成人教育与在职培训的重要性与日俱增,这就要求为转换职业和下岗或失业人口提供教育和培训,提高其自雇或受雇的能力。     

Educational Inequality in the Minority Regions of Present Day China and Suggestions for the Government Regarding the Education Policy

Based on the research of new educational inequality in the minority regions of present day China, this article points out the importance of educational equality principle in government’s decision making and suggests that it should give top priority to ethnic minorities when distributing education resources, to develop their compulsory education and broaden their opportunities to enter into postcompulsory education by the “differentiated but equal” principle. Perfect education policies and mechanism and lifelong education system are also pivotal for the attainment of the goal of educational equality. Translated from Journal of Research on Education for Ethnic Minorities, 2005:2     

改革开放以来我国研究生教育政策的文本分析

从政策分析的角度看,20多年来我国研究生教育的发展经历了制度建立和加快发展、调整改革、深化改革、深化改革与积极发展四个时期。在不同的发展阶段,研究生教育政策都发挥了重要作用,并体现出了不同的特点。     

How the girl choosing technology became the symbol of the non-traditional pupil's choice in Sweden

The purpose of this article is to elucidate how the girl who chooses technology came to be the symbol of the non-traditional pupil's choice in Sweden. In the early 1960s it was hoped that girls would enter workshop training and then commit themselves to engineering mechanics jobs at a time when Sweden was characterised by economic growth which was expected to lead to labour shortage. However, the problems and the resistance against women in the workshops were rarely discussed. One possible explanation for not addressing the obstacles that the girls risked facing is that great hopes were attached to changing gender roles. The major school reform that was about to be launched was also expected to lead to more equal educational choices. In addition, girls' choices were associated with tradition and an outmoded society. The female mechanic or industrial worker came to be seen as a symbol of modern Sweden.     

History,nation and school inspections: the introduction of citizenship education in elementary schools in late nineteenth-century Sweden

It was in the late nineteenth century that teaching in Sweden’s elementary schools began its transformation from a religious education to a broader, national citizenship education that included history and geography. International research has pointed to a connection between the introduction of school inspections and the reform of public education during this period. In Sweden, however, the practice of inspection has not been explored at any length. This article therefore considers the part played by school inspections in the implementation of a more extensive curriculum in Swedish elementary schools in the period 1860–1900, with a particular focus on the subject of history, using a study of inspection reports from the diocese of Uppsala. It is argued that school inspectors had a key role in initiating reform at the local level, but also that the move towards broader-based citizenship education was not a simple, straightforward process.     

The Coproduction illusion: considering the relative success rates and efficiency rates of securing an Education,Health and Care plan when requested by families or education professionals

This comparative study examines success and efficiency rates for Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments in England when requested by families or education professionals. England is the only nation in the UK with EHC needs assessments. These are requested from the Local Authority (LA) if the school’s ordinarily-available provision is insufficient for individuals to make expected progress. Policy states that needs assessments should include parents, pupils and professionals in all decision making (coproduction). After a needs assessment, the LA may issue an EHC plan. This study considers whether the outcome of a needs assessment (issuing an EHC plan) is independent of the source of the request. Statistical analysis compared outcomes of needs assessments requested by families and education professionals. Analysis of publicly-available datasets and policy provided further context. Findings included: (i) a need for further research to explore inconsistencies in outcomes of needs assessments across England; (ii) LAs efficient at issuing EHC plans were consistently efficient for requests from education professionals and families; (iii) a potential discrepancy between families’ perceived level of involvement and the reality: a ‘coproduction illusion’. It is proposed that policy and guidance in England requires revision to ensure consistent use of language, roles, and responsibilities.     

School jailhouse: discipline,space and the materiality of school morale in early-modern Sweden

This paper uses a specific phenomenon of early-modern education in Sweden, the school jail, as a point of departure for a broader analysis of educational policy in the areas of discipline and moral instruction. The paper demonstrates how the jail evolved as a part of a wider network of objects, pedagogical technologies and social routines in this area and how this gradually came to change. From being part of a disciplinary rationale leaning on public corporal punishment, the prison was successively set aside in favour of new symbolic and more productive forms of discipline. This process of modernisation also enforced spatial and material reconfigurations, as the classroom acquired a more prominent role as an arena for regulatory practice. The paper also suggests a shift of the general scope in formal policy from a religious frame of reference towards a more secular and independent positioning of schooling.     

21世纪以来我国教育公平研究的回顾与反思

21世纪以来我国教育公平研究是在"社会转型与民族复兴"这一社会背景之下进行的,与我国这一时期的教育政策和教育发展状况有着密切的联系。教育公平研究的内容主要有教育公平本质论、教育公平领域论、教育公平条件知识化、教育公平发展论。我国教育公平研究,既有特点也有不足。目前我国教育公平研究亟待解决的问题是:由论起式研究走向命题式研究;进一步构建教育公平的概念体系,由注重宏观层面的研究转向注重微观层面的研究;注重理论思辨与实证研究的有机结合;关注其他利益群体的教育公平问题的研究。     

少数民族教育平等问题及政府的教育政策选择

国家作为教育决策的主体,应该以公平性原则作为教育政策选择的出发点和落脚点。要合理安排教育资源分配优先权,将民族地区义务教育的发展作为资源优先投入的重点之一;以"差别但平等"原则进一步拓宽少数民族在义务教育后的入学机会;以建立全民终身教育体系作为实现民族教育平等的最终目标,并依靠完善的政策机制逐步实现教育公平目标。     

芬兰教育改革与发展中公平观的演变

20世纪60年代,芬兰在建设公正与福利国家的政治理想的促动下,展开了一次学校综合化改革,力求通过统一的综合学校为所有儿童提供平等的教育。20世纪90年代,芬兰从工业社会过渡到后工业社会,在新自由主义思想的影响下,反对教育的一致化,强调通过自由竞争实现个人最大程度的发展。两次改革反映了两种不同的公平观,即社会本位的公平观和个人本位的公平观。     

新自由主义思想和美国教师教育的变革

今天世界上许多地方的教师教育正在发生重大转型,转型期的教师教育受到新自由主义思想和新保守主义思想的广泛影响。美国新自由主义思想对教师教育的影响,主要表现在教师教育的商品化,公共财政支持的减少,问责机制的加强以及多元文化的冲击。未来的教师教育应该更注重培训项目的质量,致力于培养专业教师,并通过教师、家长和学生的共同努力抵制新自由主义的冲击     

教育平等视野下的职业技术教育制度创新研究

在教育平等的视野下,在相关理论研究的基础上,课题组采用文献法、理论分析法和问卷调查法对我国现行的职业技术教育制度和现实问题进行分析,从社会发展对职业技术教育的影响及要求出发,通过对问题产生根源的追溯以及与其他教育类型的比较,明确职业技术教育的弱势地位,提出教育类型不平等的研究视点;并在教育平等理念的引导下,采用比较研究方法,借鉴发达国家的发展经验,结合我国职业技术教育发展的实际,从制度创新角度研究我国职业技术教育的发展问题,用前瞻性的眼光,提出了职业技术教育制度创新的改革建议。     

The neo-liberal education policies of epimeleia heautou: caring for the self in school markets

The paper argues that neo-liberal education policy has capitalized on a historical concern to care for the self, or the Greek epimeleia heautou. We discuss epimeleia heautou in relation to education policies that emphasize greater choice in curriculum offerings, and in relation to school choice policies more generally. Thus, a premise of our argument is that school choice policies accommodate a much greater range of selves to be cared for. The analysis examines the neo-liberal subject, homo ?conomicus, in relation to education policy that produces choices of the self and choices for its care. We conclude by discussing conceptions of the self in relation to two aporias of neo-liberal educational equality produced through ethnic-specific schools.     

Governing by partnerships: dilemmas in Swedish education policy at the turn of the millennium

In recent years, governing through partnerships has become more and more common and is today reflected in a range of policy areas. In the following article, governing through partnerships is analysed in Swedish education policy around the turn of the millennium, where the notion of partnership has had a large impact. Using as its point of departure a theoretical perspective inspired by Michel Foucault, the article analyses the calls for partnership in Swedish education policy as part of a set of governmental rationalities forming individuals into partnering, that is active and responsible, citizens. In the article, some of the long‐term consequences of the uses of the concept of partnership in Swedish education policy are discussed, focusing particularly on issues of inclusion/exclusion and democratic regeneration. With the idea of governing through partnerships, it is argued that the political landscape is redrawn. The role of the State, for instance, is increasingly to leave room for various voluntary and independent actors and associations, to co‐ordinate and interact, as a partner, among others, rather than directing society ‘from above’.