The Changing Nature of Private Engagement in Public Education: For-Profit and Nonprofit Organizations and Educational Reform

Recent years have seen a shifting landscape around private engagement in K-12 public education, one that involves a reorientation of education policy and practice around the principles of the marketplace. In this article, we examine the roles of both not-for-profit and for-profit agencies, as distinct from government agencies, in this movement. Past research has generally focused on subsets of these private actors (i.e., for-profit firms, charter management organizations, or alternative preparers of educators for public schools). We try to look more broadly in order to examine how private actors and the roles of those players in K-12 education are changing, both in terms of the scope of their engagement and the extent to which their role increasingly involves areas at the core of educational practice. In doing so, we consider some of the reasons for these changes, including the influence of federal policy, markets as drivers, and the broader political context. We conclude by raising questions for future research and examining how these developments intersect with values such as democratic voice, equitable distribution of resources, and the public purposes of schooling.     

Empirische Bildungsforschung und evidenzbasierte Bildungspolitik

This paper discusses opportunities as well as constraints of evidence based policy and evidence based practice in education. Expectations held by different strands of the public (policy makers, teachers, parents) are discussed as constraint of the underlying educational research. Furthermore, such expectations constrain the communication between researchers and the public (a case of science communication). Communicating empirical evidence is a precondition for any evidence based policy in education.     

Higher education and training policy and practice in South Africa: impacts of global privatisation,quasi-marketisation and new managerialism

Trends suggest that business practices and private sector ideas and values are increasingly permeating public funded higher education institutions world-wide. The impact of business practices and values on higher education policy and practice is discernible in the growing dominance of global privatisation, quasi-marketisation and new managerialism in the higher education sector. However, reactions of different role players and responses of higher learning institutions to these external demands have varied according to local conditions and institutional types. This article contributes to the debate on the increasing permeation of business practices and private sector ideas and values on higher education in South Africa after apartheid using the case study of the University of Pretoria. It begins with the review of debates on higher education on this topic in general, and then moves on to analyse these debates in South Africa using the resource dependence theory and structuralism as conceptual frames. It argues that: (i) the increasing marketisation and quasi-marketisation in higher education and training could be attributed to the influence of neo-liberalism and new managerialism; (ii) changes in higher education provision, policy and practice in South Africa need to be understood in terms of marketisation and quasi-marketisation rather than in terms of privatisation; (iii) although the influence of these external forces is unlikely to be reversed, provision, policies and practices must be tempered by imperatives of redress and equity in South Africa; and (iv) the case study of the University of Pretoria reported here is used as an example of the extent to which institutions are becoming entrepreneurial.     

Integration of Disabled Students into Regular Classrooms in the United States and in Victoria,Australia

The authors recently visited schools in Victoria, Australia, which were representative of those involved in educating students with disabilities. This paper compares beliefs and values in the US and Victorian systems as they relate tothe education of students with disabilities. It is suggested from the perspective of a practitioner how these varying beliefs are orchestrated in public policy, with comparisons being made of important differences in practice in the education of disabled students in the two systems.     

教育政策问题的内涵及特征——以师范生免费教育政策问题分析为例

教育政策问题确认是教育政策动态运行过程的逻辑起点,而明晰教育政策问题的内涵和特征则是教育政策问题确认的前提和基础。教育政策问题是指基于特定的教育客观情境,为了协调现存的教育利益、价值冲突及满足未来教育价值的公益性诉求．由政府或教育行政部门予以确认和试图解决的公共教育问题及公益性教育价值诉求。本文结合师范生免费教育政策问题,分析了教育政策问题的内涵和特征,以期为提高教育政策制定过程的科学性有所裨益。     

Issues in higher education budgeting policy

This review of the papers by Bowman, Millot and Schiefelbein; and Jones, Thompson and Zumeta; relates the implications of these papers to policy issues in budgetary practice and appropriations for higher education in the United States. Recent developments related to reform of the budgeting and appropriations processes in several states are discussed in terms of the congruence of perceived economic goals for higher education with the apparent public policy goals of the states.     

Rural Education As Rural Development: Understanding the Rural School–Community Well-Being Linkage in a 21st-Century Policy Context

Despite the significant proportions of rural Americans, schools, and public school students situated in the geographic peripheries of an increasingly urbanizing country, rural education in the United States has consistently occupied both scholarly and policy peripheries. This is to the detriment of rural America, especially to the extent that public policy and educational practice may work at cross-purposes with the vitality and well-being of rural communities. This paper examines these issues and, more specifically, considers the relationship between rural education and rural community development. I argue that rethinking the purposes of education, particularly within rural contexts, may help not only to more clearly articulate a sensible rural education policy, but, in the process, more clearly articulate broader rural development policy.     

PERCEPTIONS OF THE PURPOSES OF EDUCATION AMONG RELIGIOUS TEACHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN ISRAEL

This research examines the purposes of education perceived by teacher education students preparing for a career in Israeli public religious schools. Participants were 164 men and 364 women in their first or final year of teacher education. They responded to questionnaires that explored educational purposes in four ways. Twenty-four students also were interviewed. Major results indicate that: 1) universal and religious purposes of education are considered highly important; 2) men attribute greater importance than women to religious- Torah purposes; 3) academic-intellectual growth is not considered an important educational purpose. Implications of these and other findings are considered for educational policy and practice in public religious schools.     

教育政策的边界与价值向度

教育政策是由政府及其机构和官员制定的、调整教育领域社会问题和社会关系的公共政策。在广泛的意义上，教育政策包括法律化教育政策和非法律化教育政策两部分。价值选择、合法性和有效性是教育政策的三个基本价值向度。在教育政策活动中，这些价值向度具有独特的来源和实现的条件。     

中国高等教育:在竞争与挑战中实现平衡发展

世界各国的教育系统都面临着诸多平衡发展的问题,而且这些挑战在全球化的作用下变得愈加严峻。中国的情况尤其如此。各国所面临的主要挑战包括:实现公平、质量与效率的平衡;通过提供公共资源和加强监管促进私立教育的发展;实现院校自治、学术自由与公共问责的平衡;实现教育系统工具与内在目的和目标的和谐统一;学习借鉴国外优秀经验与发挥本国教育制度和传统的历史优势。在考察上述这些重要政策议题时,我们必须明确以下一些问题:教育改革要实现什么样的目标?谁发起改革以及谁从中受益?     

关注“周口经验”对中国民办教育长期发展的价值

在民办教育上,周口经验总结为一是优惠政策和真诚服务,二是管理上的规范和促进。其意义在于让"民办教师"参与机关事业单位养老保险,稳定了民办学校教师队伍,实践了学生权利本位的教育公共政策准则,丰富了教育领域建立"公私合作伙伴关系"的公共政策实践,为民办教育的长期健康发展所需要的政策环境进行了一次实践检验。     

Civic professionalism: teacher education and professional ideals and values in a commercialised education world1

The last three decades have seen an intensification of commercialisation throughout the public sector in general and state schools in particular. Policies designed to introduce business ideologies, structures and practices have operated in tandem with a push to include the corporate world in the running, governance and provision of educational services. Together these policy instruments are eroding the influence and power of education professionals and precipitating a transformative shift in the nature of public education. A specific threat which these policies may encourage is the use of corporate propaganda techniques targeted at schools which may harm children, undermine the proper purposes of education, subvert the moral and social fabric of school life and damage the foundations of civil society. This paper argues that educators must recognise the dangers of commercialised schools and organise to protect civic education, speak up for its values and preserve the distinctiveness of educational practice operating within non‐commercialised public spaces. Such a strategy also offers the opportunity to redefine the central role of educators as servants of the twin professional ideals of children's civic welfare and democratic citizenship.     

远程教育政策评估基本问题研究

远程教育政策是发展远程教育的主导性因素,政策评估的规范化和科学化是其发展的一种必然趋势。由于我国教育政策评估起步较晚,目前远程教育政策评估缺乏系统的理论指导和经验积累。因此有必要借鉴公共政策评估和教育政策评估的相关理论和经验,研究远程教育政策评估的内涵、类型、方法和模型,探讨构建远程教育政策评估理论的途径,以提高我国远程教育政策评估实践的有效性。     

我国教育政策价值的反思与前瞻

教育政策价值是教育政策理论与实践最根本、最核心的问题。近年来我国制定和实施的一系列教育政策还存在着诸多问题,而造成这些问题的一个重要原因是,我国尚缺乏对教育政策价值观的思考。从主体需要来说,我国未来的教育政策要重视其直接利益相应人的利益;要适当扩大教育政策制定、执行和评价主体的范围;要重视共同利益、长远利益、弱势利益和未得利益,做到共同利益与政治利益、长远利益与眼前利益、强势利益与弱势利益、既得利益与未得利益兼顾。从客体属性来说,我国未来的教育政策要重视其公共性,做到政治性与公共性的统一;要提升教育政策的合理性,做到合法性与合理性具体的、历史的统一;要加强教育政策的协调功能,做到管理功能与协调功能并重。从效应关系来看,我国未来的教育政策要提升其内在价值,做到外在价值与内在价值的统一;要重视教育政策应然价值,做到实然价值与应然价值的统一;要重视教育政策的隐性价值,做到显性价值与隐性价值的统一。     

公共政策视野下影响高等教育政策制定的基本因素

基于公共政策视角,在主要考虑国家、高等教育机构和公众三个变量的同时,参考社会、经济和技术三个主要的基本因素发现:由于多元化办学格局中高等教育政策更倾向于教育的经济功能或教育的社会、文化功能,而非基于教育本身的功能,严重影响高等教育政策的质量与执行。为了保证高校正确的办学方向和公益性,尊重人的价值、确保学术至高无上的地位、遵循高等教育自身的逻辑应该是我国高等教育发展和国家公共政策的核心,尤其是高等教育政策制定的基础。     

Policy and Practice of the Decentralization of Basic Education in China: The Shanghai Case

This paper is aimed at exploring distinctive features of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai by drawing on data from Shanghai Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2012. While doing the research for this paper, the author found that from a policy perspective, Shanghai had launched a reform policy aimed at transforming the highly centralized education system. This included a devolution of the decision-making authority to local departments of education and a reduction of control over schools. Private school policies were also initiated with the understanding that private schools ought to enjoy autonomy in almost every aspect of decision-making. From the perspective of practice, decentralization of basic education could be categorized as county-based school decentralization. In such a situation, the county bureaus of education wielded decision-making authority over a number of areas in the public school sector, while gradually devolving some decision-making authority to the public schools themselves; and the private schools enjoyed autonomy within their major decision-making areas. Given both the policy and practice of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai, some suggestions are provided regarding: (1) how to promote school decentralization, and (2) how to balance it with accountability.     

免费师范生教师职业价值观调查分析

免费师范生教师职业价值观呈现主体性、多变性和功利性的特点,这些特点的成因既有师范生免费教育政策不完善的因素,也有社会舆论错误引导和免费师范生培养中存在问题等因素。要通过完善师范生免费教育政策、加强社会舆论引导、强化学校培养和家庭介入等途径,塑造免费师范生正确的教师职业价值观,推动我国教育事业向前发展。     

The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice

The last decade of education change has been characterized by the rise of evidence-based policy and practice agendas. Internationally, we are witnessing efforts to increase and incorporate research use in public services. This article examines efforts in education to address the research–practice gap through an emerging field we term knowledge mobilization (KM). We explore some of the controversy surrounding the use of ‘evidence’, outline national and international KM initiatives and consider some of the issues and challenges that arise from the increased interest in evidence and research use in education. We also assess the current state and desirable future directions of efforts to strengthen the role of research and evidence in education.     

第三办学力量的希望与困境——对中外合作办学的实践、理论及有关政策问题分析

中外合作办学是我国教育事业中在公办学校、民办学校之外崛起的第三支办学力量,近年来的发展令人瞩目。但是,在诸如对中外合作办学理论的探讨研究、深入认识其重大和深远意义、完善政策与法规、增强政策指导的科学性、可操作性和前瞻性等方面尚待进一步加强。本文通过对中外合作办学实践及政策制定的回顾,分析了在实践和政策执行中存在的问题,并对如何进一步推进中外合作办学实践提出了对策建议。     

试论高等教育成本分担与社会公平

从理论上分析了高等教育成本分担政策对社会公平的促进作用，指出实行高等教育成本分担政策可以促进社会在公共教育资源、收入分配和高等教育机会方面的公平。论述了高等教育成本分担政策在现实中表现出来的局限性，并根据具体情况提出了相关的政策建议。