On the distributional impact of public education: evidence from Greece

Household budget survey data and public budget consolidated data for 1987/88 are combined to yield a non-estimation based measure of the benefit of public education outlays in Greece. As expected for a country where education services are provided free of charge and the role of private education is limited, transfers in the fields of primary and secondary education contribute strongly to a decline in inequality. The distributional impact of tertiary education subsidies is shown to be negligible, although indirect evidence suggests that this could well be regressive. [JEL I21, D31]     

弱势儿童的社会保护：社会政策的视角

在市场经济条件下,社会政策在弱势儿童的社会保护中发挥着不可替代的独特作用。我国在相关社会政策建设方面取得的成就应当肯定,但就现实而言,此类社会政策尚存在体系不健全、城乡差别大、执行主体缺乏协调、与其他社会政策不配套等等缺陷。今后在相关社会政策的建设中,应当采取切实措施克服上述缺陷;同时探索建立政策实施中的统一协调(整合)机制与适合国情的实施模式,以强化相关社会政策的实施效果。     

The impact of aid on education policy in India

In the early 1990s, large numbers of children in India remained out of school. International commitments to achieve education for all (EFA) globally meant that India was an important case for donors. India was pressed to accept aid for primary education, and agreed with some reluctance. Although subsequent donor involvement was substantial and influenced aspects of both policy implementation and management, it is shown that Indian education policy priorities remained self-determined. The Government of India – though falling short of securing universal education for its children – succeeded in using external resources and expertise in ways which suited its own purposes, whilst minimising external impact on policy development. The politics and economics of this process are discussed.     

中国弱势儿童教育发展三十年：回顾与前瞻

改革开放30年来,我国弱势儿童教育的发展经过了弱关注发展阶段、关注觉醒发展阶段和综合发展三个阶段,展望未来,我国弱势儿童教育的发展必须:政府担负起弱势儿童教育的主要责任;弱势儿童教育对象走向全纳;弱势儿童教育救助更加全面、系统;弱势儿童教育法律更加健全、完善;弱势儿童教育实现环境无差别、无歧视.     

Adventure education and resilience: The double-edged sword

Abstract

Adventure education philosophers have argued that controlled exposure to challenge can enhance participants' psychological resilience. This study supports this claim, demonstrating significantly greater gains in psychological resilience for 41 young adults participating in 22-day Outward Bound programs than in a control group. All Outward Bound participants reported positive changes in their resilience and their overall change effect size was large. Perceived levels of social support predicted 24% of the variance in resilience gain scores, with participants' ratings of the least supportive group member being the best predictor. The findings for enhanced resilience and the important role of social support warrant wider investigation. In promoting psychological resilience adventure educators are alerted to the importance of facilitating positive interpersonal relations and minimising the detrimental impact of the diverse needs of group members.     

The duration of compulsory education and the transition to secondary education: Panel data evidence from low-income countries

A straightforward way of keeping children in school is increasing the duration of compulsory education. Evidence of the impact of this type of policy in Western countries is abundant. However, its effectiveness has been rarely tested in low-income countries. Using panel data of low-income and lower-middle-income countries covering the period 1996–2017, this paper analyzes the impact of lengthening the duration of compulsory education on the progression of children from primary to secondary education. The empirical results show that in those countries where this policy is implemented, there is a significant increase in the share of children progressing from primary to secondary education but only in those countries where after the reform the duration of compulsory education becomes longer than the duration of primary education.     

Crossing borders: Research in comparative and international education

Published articles permit mapping international and comparative education research. We reviewed 605 articles published 2004–2008 in four major journals. Using title, abstract, and entire text we explored thematic focus, geographic focus, level/type of education studied, method, and funding. The economic, political, and social context of education receives far more attention than its content. Comparative and international education research reflects more diversity than convergence in approach, theory, and methodology. The research community moves in multiple directions simultaneously, insisting that understanding education requires studying not only what happens within schools but also where the schools sit and who enters their doors.     

The educational attainment of orphans in high HIV countries in sub-Saharan Africa: An update

Twenty years ago, it was widely expected that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa would lead to a severe deterioration in the educational outcomes among a rapidly expanding orphan population. This article reviews the extent to which this happened by analysing recent national household survey evidence from five high HIV prevalence countries, namely Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The main findings are that while some orphans continue to be educationally disadvantaged in some countries, the overall sizes of already quite small enrolment and educational attainment differentials between orphans and non-orphans have not significantly increased in any of these countries. The main reasons for this are the overall decline in the orphan population (due to the mass availability of life-prolonging anti-retro viral medication), free primary education, lower levels of absolute poverty, and targeted support of various kinds for orphans by governments and NGOs.     

Supporting Lesotho teachers to develop resilience in the face of the HIV and AIDS pandemic

HIV and AIDS threaten to erode the wellbeing of teachers who are faced with an increasing number of children rendered vulnerable by the pandemic. This article explores the usefulness of a supportive group intervention, Resilient Educators (REds), in supporting Lesotho teachers to respond to the HIV and AIDS-related challenges. A time-series pre- and post-intervention design was used to evaluate the programme. The findings indicate that the intervention led to an increase in the sense of agency of participating teachers both on a personal and community level. The findings have international significance for teachers working in similar contexts characterised by extreme adversity.     

The impact of research on developments in inclusive education

This paper begins with a brief review of the development of the concept of inclusive education and then discusses the case for inclusion both from a human rights and empirical perspective. This is followed by an analysis of some of the key areas for research on inclusion and a discussion of the relevant findings. The paper ends with a summary of main conclusions from studies on inclusion and sets out an agenda for research into the new millennium.     

Compulsory schooling,education, depression and memory: New evidence from SHARELIFE

In this paper we provide new evidence on the causal effect of education on adult depression and cognition. We use SHARE data and schooling reforms in several European countries as instruments for educational attainment. We find that an extra year of education has a large and significant protective effect on mental health; the probability of suffering depression decreases by 6.5 percentage points. We find a large and significant protective effect on cognition as measured by word recall. We also explore whether heterogeneity and selection play a part in the large discrepancy between OLS and IV (LATE) estimates of the effect of education on depression and cognition. Using the data available in SHARELIFE on early life conditions of the respondents such as the individuals’ socioeconomic status, health, and performance at school, we identify subgroups particularly affected by the reforms and with high marginal health returns to education.     

The impact of community college attendance on baccalaureate attainment

Community colleges are seen as contradictory institutions. Supporters contend that community colleges increase baccalaureate attainment by providing access to higher education for students who would otherwise not attend college, while critics argue that these institutions decrease baccalaureate attainment for students who would otherwise attend a 4-year institution. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study, this article advances the literature on the impact of community colleges on baccalaureate attainment by estimating new models that allow controlling for pathways of enrollment while using different measures of educational expectations and correcting for college choice. Findings suggest that community colleges significantly reduce the probability of attaining a bachelor’s degree, as compared to 4-year institutions, an effect that remains after having taken into account non-traditional enrollment pathways, educational expectations, and self-selection into 2-year and 4-year institutions.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the November 2004 Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.     

The impact of education on political ideology: Evidence from European compulsory education reforms

Previous research documents a correlation between education and political ideology, usually indicating a positive relationship between education and left-wing political views. In this paper, I examine to what extent this association is causal. I merge political ideology data from 25 waves of Eurobarometer surveys with information on 18 educational reforms in 11 European countries. I then instrument for educational attainment with a regression discontinuity design that estimates the increase in education due to compulsory educational reforms. Notably, it appears that omitted variables bias is important here. I find a significant causal effect of education moving individuals to the right when properly addressing the endogeneity whereas there is a significant association between education and left-wing political ideology when treating education as exogenous. I find that on average, among the individuals compelled into additional education from these specific reforms, an additional year of education moves individuals to the right of the political continuum by about 5–6%. However, I also find no evidence of a causal effect on political ideology for a subgroup of countries.     

The future of UNESCO: Strategies for attracting new resources

UNESCO suffers from two structural incompatibilities. The first is between the breadth of its stated goals and paucity of its financing. The second is between the countries who largely finance the organization and the many other countries who claim its benefits. As a consequence the functions of UNESCO are not critical to the interests of the financing member states. Other UN agencies with similar dilemmas have sought solutions to critical problems as seen by industrial democracies and to attract external budgetary resources as to finance these activities. It is suggested that UNESCO should do the same.     

An analysis of the impact of traditional Chinese culture on Chinese education

The educational tradition of China has developed from traditional Chinese culture. Without an understanding of the cultural impact on traditional education, it is impossible to comprehend the educational tradition of China and to change its traditional educational ideas. There are fine traditions and feudal remains in Chinese culture which ought to be examined from the historical materialism perspective in order to tell the essence from the dross and to facilitate educational modernization in today’s China. __________ Translated from the Journal of Hangzhou Teachers College (Social Sciences Edition), 2004:1     

基于社会工作的高校帮困育人体系的构建

伴随高等教育体制改革的深入,高校家庭困难学生教育成为社会各界关注的问题。作为专业性的助人活动,社会工作在救助社会弱势群体方面发挥重要作用。将社会工作引入高校贫困生教育,构建基于社会工作的高校帮困育人体系,可有效增强教育工作的实效性。     

Conceptualising transitions from vocational to higher education: bringing together Bourdieu and Bernstein

Abstract

In this paper we provide a framework for conceptualising transitions from Vocational Education and Training (VET) programmes to Higher Education (HE), by bringing together Bourdieu’s and Bernstein’s theoretical approaches with the view to attend to the often side-lined epistemic and pedagogical parameters. We utilise the Bourdieusian tools of field, habitus and capital to capture the relational, material and cultural aspects of HE transitions. In using a Bernsteinian lens we shed further light into how social agents acquire differentially structured and valorised knowledges and develop a sense of themselves as hierarchically positioned knowers. The metaphor of transitional frictions is utilised to capture the ongoing struggles that students with a VET background experience as they make the transition to HE. We argue for the need of widening epistemic access and putting in place enabling pedagogies that can ease these transitional frictions, thereby potentially increasing the chances of successful HE participation and completion.     

More than Just Worksheets?: A Study of the Confidence of Newly Qualified Teachers of English in Teaching Personal, Social and Health Education in Secondary Schools

This paper addresses concerns regarding the preparedness of newly qualified teachers to deliver Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in the United Kingdom in relation to the training received during Initial Teacher Education and through early Continuing Professional Development. The paper is situated not only within a context where OfSTED has questioned the adequacy of some non-specialist PSHE teachers but also one where, due to a range of social and health concerns centred on young people, schools and teachers are being expected to play an increasingly important role in the social and health education of their pupils. As such, PSHE is increasingly seen as important across all curriculum areas. This paper relates specifically to the confidence of trainee and newly qualified teachers of English in teaching PSHE in secondary schools in the United Kingdom. Drawing on questionnaire data collected from recent Professional Graduate Certificate in Education graduates, the paper suggests that trainee and newly qualified teachers have the skills and knowledge drawn from their main subject (English) to deliver PSHE; however, many lack confidence and awareness to acknowledge these skills. The paper suggests that this situation may be addressed through increased opportunity to deliver and receive feedback on PSHE teaching during initial teacher training.     

The impact of attendance and student characteristics on academic achievement: findings from an undergraduate business management module

The article provides an empirical investigation into the impact of attendance and student characteristics on academic achievement in higher education. It is based on a study of 127 students who completed coursework for a taught undergraduate business management module at London Metropolitan University between 2003/4 and 2005/6. The article concludes that there is a significant positive correlation between attendance and academic achievement. However, regression analysis suggests that students who attend are already predisposed to academic achievement and that their propensity to achieve is largely determined by entry qualifications, age, cultural background, work and course. Student characteristics that were not found to have a significant impact on academic achievement include mode of study, gender, living arrangements, commuting time, marital and dependency status, language and nationality.