Post-16: Proposals and Issues

The recently published White Paper, Education and Training for the 21st Century, is the prelude to new laws which are likely to change the course of post-16 education and training. It is essential that all who work with young people who have special educational needs are aware of the proposals and the issues which arise so that they can respond to the draft legislation due later this autumn. David Hutchinson, a senior manager in a college of further education and also a founder member and vice chairman of Skill, the National Bureau for Students with Disabilities, summarises aspects of the White Paper, some reactions to it and recommendations which Skill wants the government to take into account when the Bill is being drafted.     

Privatisation,Decentralisation and Education in the United Kingdom: The Role of the State

Since the early 1950s, the axis centralisation–decentralisation, especially as thematised in the work of Isaac Kandel, has represented a major focus of comparative studies in education. Kandel argued that issues relating to the internal conduct of the classroom (interna) should, so far as possible, be decentralised, while issues relating to administration, school structure and organisation of the educational system (externa) might safely be centralised. After 1988, successive governments in the United Kingdom have undertaken reforms which have placed more central control on the curriculum and even methods of teaching (interna), while school finance and administration (externa) have been devolved to the school level. The present essay argues that a simplistic approach to centralisation and decentralisation is not likely to be fruitful. Instead, we should acknowledge the role of the State in creating a permissive framework for educational systems. Local action can then be seen as part of a policy accommodating or resisting the implications of that framework.     

Privatisation, Decentralisation and Education in the United Kingdom: The Role of the State

Since the early 1950s, the axis centralisation–decentralisation, especially as thematised in the work of Isaac Kandel, has represented a major focus of comparative studies in education. Kandel argued that issues relating to the internal conduct of the classroom (interna) should, so far as possible, be decentralised, while issues relating to administration, school structure and organisation of the educational system (externa) might safely be centralised. After 1988, successive governments in the United Kingdom have undertaken reforms which have placed more central control on the curriculum and even methods of teaching (interna), while school finance and administration (externa) have been devolved to the school level. The present essay argues that a simplistic approach to centralisation and decentralisation is not likely to be fruitful. Instead, we should acknowledge the role of the State in creating a permissive framework for educational systems. Local action can then be seen as part of a policy accommodating or resisting the implications of that framework.     

Some Student Comment on Friendship Patterns and Ethnic Minority Groupings in Post-16 Education

In this paper, Jean Wright and Ann Beynon discuss their past and present experience of counselling in schools and colleges. They reflect on the way counselling in schools has declined whilst at the same time growing significantly in sixth forms and colleges of further education. Drawing on these experiences and one of the writers' recent experience of the approach to counselling in the USA, they argue that a reconsideration is needed of the value of counselling approaches in schools.     

Mass Education,Privatisation, Compensation and Diversification: Issues on the future of public education in Mexico

The corrosion of public education in Mexico by institutional rigidities and decades of underfunding have placed the system in severe crisis. The rich have opted out and the poor are dropping out of it. The failure of incomplete and politically decentralisations to address poor quality and persistent inequalities have resulted in widespread applause for special compensatory programmes aimed to reach the most underprivileged students. This article argues that the disappointing results are due their sidestepping needed reforms within the system in favour of targeting the students it is incapable of retaining, and an erroneous view of the underprivileged as possessing educational aspirations and abilities completely distinct from the rest of society. The article proposes a more inclusive educational approach to provide high quality education for all.     

Education Management Organisations and the Privatisation of Public Education: A cross-national comparison of the USA and Britain

Education Management Organisations (EMOs), for-profit and non-profit management companies engaged in take-over and operation of public education, are becoming big business in the USA and the UK. It is estimated that in the US, EMOs were projected to generate up to $123 billion dollars in revenue in 2000. In the smaller UK system it is estimated that about 5 billion of services in public education could be contracted out to private organisations per annum. This paper examines the policy frameworks that have enabled EMOs to take-over and progressively contribute to the privatisation of public education in two national settings, the USA and England and Wales. The British scene is distinctive because government policies that have sought to expand the role of the private sector, via public-private partnerships, in the provision of public sector services and its strong accountability system, have provided opportunities for EMOs to be engaged in, or take-over, schools and educational administrative services formerly provided by LEAs. In the US, in the mid-1990s, EMOs were invited to take over school districts and specific schools. However, this practice has been succeeded by a new focus on taking over the management of charter schools. A large capital market that is able to finance enterprises involved in educational services supports the development of EMOs in the US. Our research findings, however, point to halting progress by EMOs in public education in the US. There have been well-publicised failures to deliver the promised better education at a lower cost and also well-documented failure to raise student performance levels in school and school districts. The paper concludes with reflections on the extent to which EMOs have taken forward privatisation and its implications for the governance of education.     

Why Harry Brighouse is Nearly Right about the Privatisation of Education

Professor Harry Brighouse has written extensively against 'educational choice' reforms in England and Wales and in the USA, and has challenged the status quo of private school provision in England and Wales. This paper explores the extent to which his arguments are applicable to the more radical, but prima facie linked, concept of the 'privatisation of education', that is, where funding, provision or regulation of education are progressively moved away from the state to the private sector. The arguments address in particular the issues of autonomy-facilitating education and educational equality, suggesting that Brighouse's arguments that use these concepts are not powerful objections to the case for choice or privatisation. Indeed, it is suggested that there are several arguments in Brighouse's writings, concerning the virtues of efficiency, diversity and innovation, and the power of the 'mimicking effect' of parents who are not skilled choosers, that contain the kernel for an argument advanced elsewhere that defends, rather than opposes, the privatisation of education.     

Education of Roma Youth in Hungary: Schools,Identities and Belonging

Historically, schools have been homogenizing institutions that often disadvantaged people of color and ethnic and religious minorities. In this article I examine Roma education in Hungary, focusing on (re)production of racial identities and the negotiation of ethnic labels. I distinguish two models of education as they relate to ideas of integration, and assess the evolving ethnic labels: “bad Gypsies” and “good Roma.” These labels reflect different philosophies of education, and both contain different tensions and challenges.     

Marginalized Youth, Delinquency, and Education: The Need for Critical-Interpretive Research

There is a lack of critical, interpretive research on marginalized youths' schooling experiences. There is a significant need for research that furthers theoretical and empirical understanding of how these youths experience school. I posit that a specific type of critical, interpretive research is required in order to understand and improve the educational experiences of marginalized youths. This paper argues that the vast majority of current delinquency and education research, while providing important and useful information, is limited by its adherence to the positivist paradigm and quantitative methods. I suggest that researchers must critically investigate schooling objectives and processes to explore how the educational system may be implicated in reproducing marginalized youths' academic failure and delinquency. Such critical research would investigate how the substantive content and processes of schools correspond with students' everyday lives and values. Such an approach will enable us to learn how to make better schools that serve marginalized youths and create more effective learning environments.     

Education and social transition: Vocationalism,ideology and the problems of development

In the early 1970s the socialist government of Malta embarked on a reform of vocational education. This reform programme had two aims: first, to build up the country's industrial base; second, to bridge the gap between intellectual and manual labour, as advocated by Marx and other socialist thinkers. This article argues that Malta's failure to achieve the second goal holds important lessons for those who continue to advocate socialist ideas.

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Zusammenfassung Anfang der 70er Jahre reformierte die sozialistische Regierung Maltas das maltesische Berufsbildungssystem. Dieses Reformprogramm hatte zwei Ziele: erstens sollte die industrielle Basis des Landes ausgebaut und zweitens die schon von Marx und anderen sozialistischen Denkern befürwortete Schließung der Lücke zwischen intellektuellen und manuellen Arbeitskräften erreicht werden. Dieser Artikel argumentiert dahingehend, daß der mißglückte Versuch Maltas, das zweite Ziel zu erreichen, eine wichtige Lektion für andere Befürworter sozialistischer Ideen sein kann.

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Résumé Au début des années 70, le gouvernement socialiste de Malte entreprit de réformer l'enseignement professionnel, afin d'atteindre deux objectifs: affermir les bases industrielles du pays et d'autre part combler le fossé entre travail manuel et travail intellectuel, comme le préconisaient Marx et d'autres penseurs socialistes. L'auteur soutient que l'échec de Malte dans la réalisation de ce dernier but contient une leçon importante pour ceux qui persistent à défendre les idées socialistes.

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Sumario En los primeros años de la década de los 70, el gobierno socialista de Malta emprendió una reforma de la educación vocacional. El programa de reforma tenía dos objetivos: el primera era crear la base industrial del país; el segundo, salvar la distancia entre el trabajo manual e intelectual, tal como lo habían propuesto Marx y otros pensadores socialistas. El artículo sostiene que el intenta fallido de Malta en lograr el segundo objetivo contiene enseñanzas para los que siguen defendiendo ideas socialistas.

     

习近平青年观视域下“00”后学生党员党性教育路径探析

习近平青年观是依据时代发展和当代青年特点应运而生的青年观,对于新时代新青年们的成长成才具有促进作用,以习近平青年观为引领,加强党性教育,是"00"后学生党员整个党性学习生涯的必经之路。     

“90后”大学新生适应教育探析

＂90后＂大学新生在给大学校园带来新鲜血液的同时,也对高校教育工作者提出了新的课题和挑战。虽然＂90后＂大学新生具有善用网络、求知欲强、思维活跃、思想开放等特点,但入学后,容易在心理、生活、学习、人际交往等方面存在不适应的问题。作为高校教育工作者应坚持以人为本的教育理念,通过拓展心理健康教育模式、完善管理工作机制、丰富校园文化活动等措施,帮助其实现角色转化,增强其对大学学习生活的适应性。     

个体意识、中心化与90后学生的成长成才教育

90后成长于改革开放中,对学生的角色内涵具有自己独特的界定。他们个体意识增强,具有自我中心化倾向和普遍的成才观,这些特点要求对90后学生的教育要有较高的服务意识和水平,践行爱的教育,形成伙伴式的和谐师生关系,促进90后学生的成长成才。