The rising incidence of overeducation in the U.S. Labor market

Research is reported that examines changes between 1960 and 1976 in the incidence of overeducation, defined as the discrepancy between the educational attainments of workers and the educational requirements of their jobs. Estimates are derived at the aggregate level and separately for race and sex groups. Results suggest that the overall incidence of overeducation has increased in recent times because the skill requirements of jobs have changed only slightly, while the educational attainments of workers have increased substantially. Whites continue to be less overeducated than blacks, but the gap has narrowed.     

Education and the market place in Hong Kong and Mainland China

This paper attempts to examine how market forces have affected educational development in Hong Kong and Mainland China. In both places, there has been a trend to the decentralisation and marketisation of education in recent years, particularly in the realm of higher education. Based upon recent research conducted in Hong Kong and China, the author argues that higher education in these two places has been significantly affected by emerging market forces. The core of the paper is confined to the discussion of two major issues: user charges and the introduction of competition and cost recovery in education. The main focus of this paper is on what strategies educational institutions in Hong Kong and China have employed in response to the strong tide of marketisation. Particular attention will be given to discussing how markets and competition have affected the governance and delivery of educational services in Hong Kong and China. This comparative study has demonstrated that even though the recent developments in higher education in these two places have been experiencing a similar global trend, the global tide of universal trend in which private charges, market competition, non-state provision, corporate governance, system-wide performance management should not be treated as a simplistic notion of undifferentiated universal trend. Instead, different places may take different configurations in cases of marketization which remain national-specific as well as global.     

ICT,Leadership in Education and E‐leadership

Advances in information and communication technology are changing organisations, including those in educational settings. Old practices are being altered, and new practices, spaces and possibilities created. The changes are such that it is timely to consider whether our current leadership conceptions remain useful. In non‐educational sectors there is an emerging body of opinion and empirical research that is focusing on what is termed “e‐leadership”. Whilst e‐leadership is a recently constructed concept, with considerable conceptual ambiguity, there are significant differences in leading technology‐mediated environments. These environments appear to place greater emphasis on the ability of leaders to cope with paradoxes and dilemmas and the associated behavioural complexity, to communicate with team members and establish an appropriate social climate and to be able to convey exemplary interpersonal skills through the associated technology. There is a greater emphasis on dispersed leadership. In some situations, such as anonymous groups, formal leadership may be detrimental to group performance. More research is needed, but even at the early stage of the development of e‐leadership it is clear that leadership in technology‐mediated environments needs to be carefully considered. As more examples of these environments are developed in educational settings, e­‐leadership will become an important part of our view of educational leadership.     

The single European market and its implications for educational and vocational guidance services

The formation of the Single European Market is the culmination of a series of changes designed to form an economic community in Western Europe. It is designed to encourage the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. The result is likely to be much higher levels of personal mobility, both educational and occupational. The main obstacles towards freedom of movement are non-recognition of qualifications and inadequate mastery of foreign languages. Various steps are being taken by the European Commission to overcome these obstacles and to promote mobility. These developments have major implications for educational and vocational guidance services. In particular, there is a need for extended information on educational and occupational opportunities across the European Community. There is also a need for improved support services for those who move across national boundaries. This is further likely to raise expectations for guidance services in countries where they are currently ill-developed. Initiatives to date in response to these challenges include European-level reports on the state of guidance services, action programmes designed to encourage innovation in guidance practice, and the establishment of a new European association for those involved in student guidance.University of Cambridge Careers Service     

The failure of the public schools and the free market remedy

A Summary The replacement of the existing system of publicly operated schools by a market of private ones-supported by government vouchers—would probably yield mixed results. On the one hand, some parents would have greater choices among schools and some schools would have to be productive in order to survive in the competitive framework. The increase in consumer choice and the resultant competition among schools would be likely to lead to greater educational benefits for many students and their families (private benefits) than those which they receive under the present monopolistic system.On the other hand, the schools are also expected to fulfill certain social functions. It is in these that a market approach to schooling is likely to yield poor results. For example, basic schooling represents the primary device for equalizing opportunities among racial and social groups. Yet, advantaged children would probably receive far better schooling under the market proposal than would disadvantaged ones, and it is likely that this disparity would lead to larger future inequalities in opportunity between the children of the middle class and those of the poor. Further, it is not clear that a set of largely autonomous schools could provide the common set of values and knowledge necessary for the functioning of a democratic society. Finally, it is likely that the market proposal would increase racial and social stratification of students among schools. Whatever the success of the market in meeting consumer preferences, it would be offset by the market's failure to satisfy the social goals of basic schooling.Fortunately, we are not limited to choosing between the traditional educational bureaucracy on the one hand or an unmitigated free market for educational services on the other. There are several ways to create competition within a public school system. Jencks, Sizer, and Coleman have suggested particular plans based upon the competitive framework, and the proposal for community schools represents a more general framework in which the competition of the market place might be used to advantage. The time is ripe to experiment with at least one of these plans for the children of the ghetto. Do we have any buyers? Henry M. Levin is a research associate with the Economic Studies Division of the Brookings Institute. He has written on economic and educational matters in the Saturday Review, the Journal of Human Resources,and other publications. He is currently organizing a Brookings conference on the community school.     

How key transitions influence school and labour market careers of descendants of Moroccan and Turkish migrants in the Netherlands

Most educational research examines school outcomes at certain stages or at the final stage of the school career. This article looks at the entire school career and the transition to the labour market. It focuses on key transitions to identify the educational institutional arrangements that either help or hinder school and labour market success among the most disadvantaged groups in the Netherlands: young people of Moroccan and Turkish descent. The Dutch educational system is one of the most complicated school systems in Europe. Consequently, parents and children have to make many ‘choices’ when navigating it. Many of these key ‘choice’ moments are selection points, either because they are not real choices but dependent upon a teacher’s recommendation or because parents and pupils need a great deal of information about the school system in order to make a choice. This usually results in inequalities for the most disadvantaged groups. Because selection is disguised as ‘choices’, the structural inequalities of the Dutch school system are not usually perceived as blocking mechanisms for disadvantaged students     

The development of the middle school in Sweden: Research and evaluation

The development of the middle school in Sweden is discussed. The historical development is described, with the focus on the creation of teaching traditions as a result of a parallel school system. In the development of the comprehensive school system after World War II, these traditions influenced the forming of the content of the new school.The conflicts around the comprehensive school showed the need for educational research in order to improve decision making. The relation between educational planning, curriculum development and educational research is analyzed.In the seventies a new direction in educational policy emerged, aiming at a more decentralized school system. These changes in the political governing of education are analyzed and discussed in relation to research and the role of educational research in policy making and evaluation of reforms.     

Research and the training of primary teachers

Elementary education is an ideal field for educational research, not only because of the special difficulties that are inherent in it—such as the problem of communication with the children and resistance to change on the part of the teachers—but also because the advance of knowledge is bound up with the revision of its foundations and because a child's early training has a vital influence on the subsequent development of his mental powers and particular talents. Research into elementary education is rendered still more valuable and urgent by two additional factors: changes in the child's family and social status, and advances in the sciences which shed light on the various aspects of those changes. Research at this educational level—important, urgent, but also difficult—promises to be rewarding and the results should lead to considerable changes in teacher training. However, the author is not concerned with this aspect; he is trying to examine to what extent an introduction to educational research and participation in it should be included in teacher training, and how this can be done. Nevertheless, the close relationship thus established between such research and training also implies that we are concerned with training as a subject of research. Raymond Lallez, Director of the Centre for Research and Training at the école Normale Supérieure in Saint-Cloud and a member of the French National Commission for Unesco, worked in child psychology at the University of Montpellier before becoming an adviser to the Minister of National Education of Cambodia. He has taught at several universities in the United States and is currentlyrapporteur for the National Centre of Scientific Research, in addition to his other functions in French national educational planning.     

Voluntary responsible bodies in English adult Education

Abstract

The paper examines the future prospects for educational research as conducted in UK universities and colleges of higher education in the light of current general changes in the organisation, funding and culture of higher education, and in respect of specific changes in the initial and in service training of teachers. It includes a critical examination of the claim made by some educational researchers that their research constitutes a special case, differentiated from other social science and humanities disciplines, both by the routes into educational research and the concerns of those who practise it. It is suggested that the special case argument for the alleged distinctiveness of educational research is largely unjustified, and does not contribute positively to the future prospects of that research or kelp to ease the relative isolation of educational researchers. Alliances between educational researchers, and those researching in the social sciences are advocated as one strategy which will help both partners. It is also suggested that educational researchers should try to ensure that novel and existing modes of training new researchers such as doctoral programmes, make connections with the training of other beginning researchers, rather than dividing would‐be educational researchers from their counterparts in other disciplinary or interdisciplinary areas.     

Managing legitimacy in the educational quasi‐market: a study of ethnically diverse,inclusive schools in Flanders

In this paper, we examine how ethnically diverse, inclusive schools manage their legitimacy in an educational quasi‐market. These schools are often threatened with a loss of legitimacy as ethnic majority parents perceive an ethnically diverse student population and radical pedagogical practices as signs of lower quality education. However, precisely legitimacy in the eyes of ethnic majority parents is crucial to acquire resources, motivate staff members and maintain their ability to offer quality education, necessary to minimize the majority–minority educational attainment gap in the long run. Drawing on a theoretical approach combining neo‐institutional and impression management theories, we empirically investigate how four ethnically diverse, inclusive secondary schools embedded in the highly exclusive Flemish educational quasi‐market manage their legitimacy. Comparing their legitimacy management strategies, we find that maintaining legitimacy is related to (1) formally conforming to dominant norms, decoupling their radical practices by relegating them to the informal sphere; and (2) proactively manipulating perceptions of the school's ethnic diversity and radical pedagogical practices. However, our findings suggest that an ambiguous version of these strategies might be sufficient to achieve this aim.     

The spectacle of global tests in the Arabian Gulf: a comparison of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates*

Although scholars have examined the effects of global tests on national and regional educational governance, few researchers have studied their impact on education in the Arabian Gulf. This research fills the knowledge gap by studying the international spectacle of PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS results in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – two small rich states at the periphery of knowledge production processes. I argue that an analysis of these narratives reveals how global accountability discourses are translated into the Arabian Gulf context as truth claims that performance in league tables is an accurate and objective representation of educational quality. Four themes emerge from the analysis: integration of test results into national visions; measurement of educational progress based on test results; ranking of student performance; and policy changes to improve test results. In conclusion, I suggest that the over-dependence on global tests in defining educational quality in Qatar and the UAE erodes educational sovereignty and restricts the capacity of small states to develop and nurture alternative, indigenous and localised solutions for guiding educational reforms.     

Exploring learning and fit in the transition from higher education to the labour market: A systematic review

The transition from higher education to the labour market is an important period for youngsters, characterised by extensive changes which act as triggers for learning. Furthermore, students’ educational background and the (in)congruence with their work context is important. Accordingly, the aim of this systematic review is to explore the role of learning and fit in the transition process. Results indicate that most emphasis is put on theoretical knowledge, communication, problem-solving, and learning skills. Although the perception on what has to be learned differs for employers, educators, and graduates, each group valued generic competences most. Results show that transfer can be experienced in three ways and the need for learning at work is stressed. Concerning fit, four types of fit are distinguished: vertical, horizontal, competence, and person-environment fit. Several personal background characteristics are shown to influence fit and findings indicate that fit has an influence on career progress and personal resources.     

Sensitive educational research in small states and territories: the case of Macau

This paper explores the sensitivities of conducting educational research in small states and territories, where the very act of conducting research, aside from its purposes or focuses, is itself a sensitive matter. The paper takes a ‘critical case study’ of Macau and examines cultural, educational, political, micro‐political, interpersonal and practical issues, overlaid by characteristics of Chinese culture, that must be factored into the planning and conduct of research in the territory. It suggests that compromises and trade‐offs have to be made in educational research in small states and territories, and argues that researchers must anticipate a range of problems in advance, and, through ingenuity, networking and sensitivity, overcome them. The magnification of sensitivities in small states and territories contributes to their special educational ecology; investigating these is frequently an interpersonal as well as a research matter.     

Organizational responses to the labor market

Shifts in the labor market require adaptive responses on the part of formal organizations. Such organizational responses are shown in changes in recruitment strategies. This study examines how departments in comprehensive colleges and universities formulate their faculty recruitment strategies and set standards for new faculty personnel. Comprehensive institutions are neither research universities nor liberal arts colleges. Even though most offer graduate degrees at the master's level in such areas as teacher training and business programs, they are predominantly devoted to undergraduate education. Lacking strong ties to distinctive beliefs and identities, these institutions have become increasingly vulnerable to environmental changes.Based on extensive fieldwork at four institutions, this paper focuses on twenty faculty searches conducted over a period of substantial changes in academic labor markets. Several common search episodes are identified.The general pattern of recruitment strategies is shaped by the rule of status competition in a prestige hierarchy: less prestigious organizations compete for institutional legitimacy by adopting the norms of more prestigious organizations. Search-related practices in these comprehensive institutions are, therefore, organized around the institutional rituals that conform to the standards of more prestigious research universities and elite liberal arts colleges. Search and recruitment practices often reflect a ritualized form of preoccupation with credentials, specialities, and procedures. Despite their initial emphasis on specific goals, those involved in the search were less concerned about search outcomes than about processes.     

Neo-liberal influences in a ‘conservative’ regime: the role of institutions,family strategies,and market devices in transition to higher education in France

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on the interplay between institutional arrangements, family strategies, and market devices in the transition to higher education (HE) in France with a view to documenting both persistent features of the French ‘conservative’ educational regime and recent changes, in particular those related to neo-liberal influences. Using a theoretical model inspired by research on welfare regimes and integrating key elements of the sociology of networks, institutions, and markets, as well as data from a comprehensive qualitative study, the article focuses on three main topics: the impact of both institutional stratification and family choices on segregation and channelling into HE; the framing of students’ choices generated by impersonal policy instruments and personal human guidance; the role of private providers and agencies, as well as the devices they use to influence students’ transition to HE. The conclusion emphasises the impact of these different processes on the perpetuation of educational inequalities.     

Ethical issues in online educational research: protecting privacy,establishing authenticity in email interviewing

Educational researchers have a responsibility to ensure that in whatever research paradigm they work, the research that is conducted is done so within an ‘ethic of respect’ to those who participate. This implies a number of responsibilities on the part of the researcher that include ensuring trust, dignity, privacy, confidentiality and anonymity. When research uses the Internet as the medium of investigation, these ethical responsibilities become more complex for the educational researcher. This paper discusses such complexities by examining the ethical dilemmas of using the Internet as a site for qualitative research. It will draw on two educational studies that used email interviewing, and will specifically focus on two ethical challenges the researchers faced when using this method: protecting participants’ privacy and anonymity, and establishing authenticity in online environments, including the way in which ownership of online research conversations and identities are experienced and expressed. In discussing such dilemmas, the paper concludes by questioning whether these issues can be addressed in an effort to construct the unattainable but pursue the utopian: fully ethical educational research.     

Research in instructional technology at the national institute of education,Singapore

Summary The National Institute of Education of Singapore is in a unique position to develop and research educational products and processes for Singaporean classrooms. However, the opportunities made possible by advances in educational technology will only be realized if teachers are willing and able to utilize these programs and thereby achieve measurable gains in time, productivity, and/or learning outcomes. With the opportunity for training a majority of the nation's teachers by the year 2000, the NIE can significantly affect the implementation of the vision of an intelligent, information-technology-oriented educational system in Singapore. Ongoing research studies such as those reviewed in this article should provide both theoretical foundations and concrete models for the design of culturally appropriate educational technology programs.     

Vague Concepts in the Educational Sciences: Implications for Researchers

This article argues that many key theoretical concepts and core areas of study in the educational sciences are couched in paradigmatically vague terms. The shared features of vague terms and two different readings of vagueness are discussed. “Practice”, which is widely used both as a theoretical and an empirical term in the field of educational research, is used as an example of a vague concept that cannot be made more precise, regardless of the quality of definitions or theoretical agreement. Finally, in addition to giving an outline of how the term “practice” is used in the educational sciences, the article refers to contemporary educational research to discuss some of the key methodological implications of vague terms for researchers.     

Why innovate with education?

Pressley and Harris have correctly highlighted many unfortunate limits of educational intervention research and institutions for disseminating research reports. They have suggested useful changes in how intervention research is done, and, except possibly for their emphasis on faithful replication, they have argued correctly that the changes are feasible. Unfortunately, they represent educational intervention research as being important primarily as guidance for educational reformers. I argue that research does not guide educational intervention, and that even if it is improved in the required ways they suggest it will not guide educational innovation. Instead, the valuable function of their analysis is that it could improve the scientific quality of educational research.     

Moving Educational Psychology Into the Home: The Case of Reading

Public policy meant to improve educational outcomes has focused on within‐school factors, even though it is known that factors within the home influence these outcomes more. This article suggests that some aspects of academic work are well enough understood that researchers can offer advice as to changes that parents might make in the home, so as to improve children's academic performance. Reading is taken as a sample case, and research is reviewed with an eye toward home‐based practices to improve decoding, comprehension, and motivation.