On Rewards, Punishments, and Possibilities: Teacher Compensation as an Instrument for Education Reform

This commentary is organized around three cross-cutting themes contained in the articles: assessing school based rewards, envisioning other promising possibilities, and evaluating policy as well as people. The discussion of these broad themes illustrates both the power and limits of policy initiatives, particularly in the area of monetary incentives or sanctions as vehicles for enhancing school performance.     

Searching for the public: school funding and shifting meanings of ‘the public’ in Australian education

School funding is a principal site of policy reform and contestation in the context of broad global shifts towards private- and market-based funding models. These shifts are transforming not only how schools are funded but also the meanings and practices of public education: that is, shifts in what is ‘public’ about schooling. In this paper, we examine the ways in which different articulations of ‘the public’ are brought to bear in contemporary debates surrounding school funding. Taking the Australian Review of Funding for Schooling (the Gonski Report) as our case, we analyse the policy report and its subsequent media coverage to consider what meanings are made concerning the ‘publicness’ of schooling. Our analysis reveals three broad themes of debate in the report and related media coverage: (1) the primacy of ‘procedural politics’ (i.e. the political imperatives and processes associated with public policy negotiations in the Australian federation); (2) changing relations between what is considered public and private; and (3) a connection of government schooling to concerns surrounding equity and a ‘public in need’. We suggest these three themes contour the debates and understandings that surround the ‘publicness’ of education generally, and school funding more specifically.     

Lessons Learned from PISA: A Systematic Review of Peer-Reviewed Articles on the Programme for International Student Assessment

International large-scale assessments are on the rise, with the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) seen by many as having strategic prominence in education policy debates. The present article reviews PISA-related English-language peer-reviewed articles from the programme’s first cycle in 2000 to its most current in 2015. Five literature bases were searched, and results were analysed with SPSS. Results map the frequency of publications according to journal, country, and scientific discipline. They also summarise major themes within three identified categories: secondary analysis, policy impact, and critiques. Findings indicated that studies based on the PISA dataset has led to progress in educational research while simultaneously pointing to the need for caution when using this research to inform educational policy.     

Mathematics education in the United States: past to present

This article presents a historical review of mathematics education since the late 1950s in the United States. Three themes are used to organize the literature reviewed in the article: (a) broad sociopolitical forces, particularly highly publicized educational policy statements; (b) trends in mathematics research; and (c) theories of learning and instruction. At times, these themes coincide, as was the case in the 1990s. In other cases, such as the recent push for educational accountability, these themes conflict. Nonetheless, the themes go a long way to explain the serpentine nature of reform in the United States over the last 45 years. This article also attempts to account for developments in special education as well as general education research, something that does not appear in most historical presentations of mathematics education.     

Quality and equality: the mask of discursive conflation in education policy texts

Two key themes of recent UK education policy texts have been a focus on ‘quality’ in public sector performance, and on ‘equality’ in the form of New Labour’s stated commitment to equality of opportunity as a key policy objective. This twin approach can be seen at its most obvious in the concept of ‘excellence for all’. This paper contends that in recent policy texts the vocabularies of quality management discourse and egalitarian discourse have become conflated, serving to mask key issues relating to educational inequality, seen at its most stark in the attainment gap. The paper argues that this has led to a failure to distinguish between the goals of quality management and the ends of egalitarianism. Discursive conflation of this sort risks obscuring the significance of socio‐economic context and the limited impact of within‐school action. The paper also suggests that the focus on equality in terms of school provision paradoxically risks entrenching social inequalities despite the appearance of egalitarian commitment.     

Regional themes and global means in supra-national higher education policy

The supra-national level has become increasingly important in educational policy formulation. This paper describes and compares two settings in which growth in these supra-national policies is evident—in Europe and in Africa. Key themes arising in policy documents in each context are examined. A distinction is drawn in analysis between themes classified as ‘global means’, such as qualification frameworks and quality assurance mechanisms, which are becoming international norms and which show close similarity across contexts, and regional goals or ‘themes’ in supra-national policy. The paper argues that although there are apparent similarities between the policy goals espoused in ‘regional themes’, context plays an important part in understanding the meanings of these policy goals. In closer analysis, there are differences both in the underlying problems which the policy goals are intended to address, and in the prioritisation given to these goals. This finding is examined in the light of debates regarding policy convergence, specifically drawing on Vaira’s (2004) framework for institutional analysis.     

Policy referencing patterns in South Korea: The Free Year Program and the High School Credit Policy

This study sets out to examine the referencing patterns of two key policies in South Korea, the Free Year Program (FYP) and the High School Credit Policy (HSCP). Classic reference countries US and Finland were frequently cited in the HSCP sample while less cited references such as Ireland, Sweden, and Denmark appeared for the FYP. In many cases, referenced countries were linked to a distinct set of themes across policies. The active and widespread practice of referencing in Korea is demonstrated by the large proportion of external references at the start of each policy cycle for the FYP and HSCP as well as the wide range of reference countries spread across multiple themes. Our study demonstrates how the same borrower country (Korea) can develop a repertoire of varying reference societies depending on the specific policy to legitimize domestic pursuits.     

Researching Environmental and Sustainability Education Policy: Slumbers and Awakenings

This article offers a series of reflections based on a recent edited collection, Environmental and Sustainability Education Policy: International Trends, Priorities and Challenges. As one of its editors, here I bring together key features of the collection and themes pertinent to this emerging field of scholarship, to offer some way-markers for possible future research avenues. Taken together, I trust these observations might help others navigate what we encountered in policy studies and practice development, and illuminate various blank, blind, bald and bright spots for research and policy in both environmental and sustainability education, and related fields of inquiry.     

The Pedagogy of Jewish Community: Reflections on the Work of Jonathan Woocher

A leader in Jewish education policy for over 30 years, Jonathan Woocher influenced countless practitioners and policy makers. This article examines Woocher’s body of written work by investigating three of his pieces published over a span of 20 years. The article exposes four themes: Jewish education is a project of building infrastructure, Jewish education is a project of America, Jewish education needs to emphasize not program but person, and Jewish education needs to be restimulated by Jewish wisdom. The themes woven together amount to a pedagogy of community, a way to understand the purpose, structure, and tools of Jewish education.     

Exploring who we are in the context of global reforms in education: the Second Level Support Service in conversation

How will the Second Level Support Service (SLSS), established to support curriculum reform and the professional development of teachers, sustain its own professional development and identity in a climate of change and uncertainty? How will the SLSS maintain its vision of continuous professional development in the midst of educational reform? This article reports on a research project undertaken jointly by the SLSS and the Department of Education and Professional Studies, University of Limerick, designed to support the professional development of the SLSS, as it addressed, in a reflexive way, the questions posed above. The article outlines: the context, including the public policy context, in which the research was undertaken; the research design which incorporates narrative enquiry and collegial conversation; and some of the main themes which emerge from the three focus groups, whose conversations provided the research data. Chief among these themes is the degree to which the vision and practice of the SLSS supports or challenges the view of teachers and teaching which underlies the reform of education. The article offers some concluding remarks which relate the project to critical theory and organisational development.     

我国教育政策研究现状分析

本文对1994-2004年在学术期刊上所发表的教育政策研究论文进行了抽样统计分析。分析包括作者单位、研究主题、研究类型、研究规范性、研究方法五个方面。通过分析,本文指出我国教育政策研究中存在的问题,并对其未来发展进行了思考。     

国外教育政策执行研究“三大主题”述评及其启示

20世纪70年代以来,国外教育政策分析和研究人员把教育政策执行作为研究和改进的对象,从分析模型、执行模式和相关变量的视角,对教育政策执行的理论模式进行比较分析,并指出了不同模型的侧重点。纵观相关研究内容发现这些研究主要关注三方面主题,其侧重点虽各不相同,但每一研究主题都有恰当的目标设置、严格的研究设计,从各种不同角度提出了有价值的分析思路,这对我国的教育政策执行研究有着重要的启示和借鉴意义。     

Recapturing the Universal in the University

The idea of ‘the university’ has stood for universal themes—of knowing, of truthfulness, of learning, of human development, and of critical reason. Through its affirming and sustaining of such themes, the university came itself to stand for universality in at least two senses: the university was neither partial (in its truth criteria) nor local in its significance (at least, the university was an institution of the nation state and even had global significance). Now, this universalism has been shot down: on the one hand, universal themes have been impugned as passé in a postmodern age; in the ‘knowledge society’, knowledge with a capital ‘K’ is giving way to multiple and even local knowledges (plural). On the other hand, the very process of globalization has been accused of being a new process of colonization. Global universities, accordingly, may be seen as a vehicle for the imposition of Western modes of reason (often suspected in turn of being no more than Western economic reason at that). Diversity is the new watchword, a term that—we may note—has come to be part of the framing of the contemporary policy agenda for higher education.

Accordingly, in such a situation of multiple meanings, both within and across institutions, the university becomes an institutional means for developing the capacities—at both the personal and the societal levels—to live with ‘strangeness’: perhaps here lies a new universal for the university? But, then, if that is the case, if strangeness is the new universal for the university, some large challenges await those who would claim to lead and manage universities.     

Exploring the potential of the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) as a reflective tool in initial primary teacher education

Although primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland are generalist teachers, language teaching of both Irish and English, as well as the development of literacy skills across the curriculum is an integral part of their daily professional practice. This paper presents an analysis of the European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages (EPOSTL) with a view to considering its potential as a reflective tool in the initial primary teacher education (IPTE) in the Republic of Ireland. The creation and structure of the EPOSTL within a European language policy landscape is delineated, and thematic analysis is presented, focusing on three of the EPOSTL’s main theoretical and conceptual underpinnings: (a) teacher autonomy, (b) reflective practice and, (c) self-assessment. The role of primary teachers as language teachers within a new framework of plurilingualism is highlighted. In order to consider the suitability of the EPOSTL as a reflective tool in teacher education, IPTE educational policy documents are examined to uncover converging discourses with the underlying themes of the EPOSTL. The EPOSTL emerges as a good conceptual fit with IPTE policy. It presents as a reflective tool with the potential to promote a transformative and integrated approach to language teacher education in and across Institutes of Education at a time of sociolinguistic and curriculum change in Irish primary schools.     

Universities responding to policy: Organisational change at the University of Namibia

In this article the development of the University of Namibia since itsestablishment (8 years ago) has been studied within the context of theformation of the newly-independent Southern African state of Namibia. Ahybrid framework, based on the major theoretical perspectives ofneo-institutionalism and resource dependency, has been utilized toanalyse the accounts of key respondents involved in these developmentsand hence derive an explanatory narrative of the changes involved inresponse to (government) policy.It is suggested that the major themes within this narrative may be ofexplanatory value when studying organizational change in small(developing) countries with relatively young institutions. Inparticular, the following concepts are worth highlighting: thenormatively strong but operationally weak state interacting with thenormatively weak but operationally strong institution; the commonpolitical elite, with institutional leaders sharing government values;and the relative informality of policy formulation and pluralism ofgovernment, with leading institutional actions having a policy sensingand shaping role.The loose set of themes devised from the interpretation ofsemi-structured interviews with a relatively small number of respondentscan also be considered as providing a conceptual framework for furtherresearch both within the specific institution and on a broadercomparative basis.     

The more things change,the more they stay the same: African American English,language policy,and African American learners

Abstract

Despite the substantive body of research on African American Language (AAL), designating it a meaningful, rule-governed language system and the first language of many African Americans, schools in the US have systematically failed to integrate a language policy related to African American English learners (AAELs). In this article, we employ a critical discourse and policy analysis to examine two major policies related to AAL and AAELs – the Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School Children et al. v. Ann Arbor School District, a federal district case in Michigan known as the Ann Arbor Decision, and the Ebonics Resolution adopted by the Oakland California Board of the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Our analysis reveals three themes across these texts – they affirm AAL as a ‘home and community language’ in its own right, mandate teachers to take ‘appropriate action’ in teaching AAL speakers, and dispel notions that AAL stems from cultural, social, and economic deprivation.     

Listening to learn: children playing and talking about the reception year of early years education in the UK

Recently in the UK there have been dramatic changes in the state provision of early years education and care, most notably the introduction of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority's ‘early learning goals’ in 1999 and ‘curriculum guidance for the foundation stage’ in 2000. Outlining the context in which these changes came to take place, this research begins to consider how we might understand children's experiences of this policy in practice in their reception year. Valuing children's potential as participants in research, a play‐based activity was designed to ensure that the process of generating data would be meaningful to the children as well as to the researcher. Analysis of the discourse highlights themes of early education that were of importance to the children. Further discussion of these themes offers insight into how concepts of work and play might be linked to the role of the adult‐in‐charge, potentially undermining opportunities for learning; and how concepts of the individual, normalisation and the individualised academic curriculum promoted by national policy stand opposed to a notion of community on which the children place great emphasis.     

Higher education research in Asia: an archipelago,two continents or merely atomization?

This study analyzes higher education research in Asia since the 1980s, based on internationally indexed publication data, focusing on research approaches and themes. The analysis is based on scientometrics, science visualization, and social network analysis measures and methods. We find an increase in the number of higher education publications in both specialized and non-specialized higher education journals, although at a much faster rate in the latter. Based on the results of a community algorithm, research themes were grouped into two research approaches in line with theoretical expectations on the organization of higher education research: (1) teaching and learning approach and (2) policy approach. We found these approaches to have an equivalent representation in both specialized and non-specialized journals, although the system policy theme is found to be highly influential of other themes in specialized journals. However, a scholarship schism between the approaches is evident. Further, in the 1980s, the policy approach was dominant in Asia, while in the 2000s there is greater focus on the teaching and learning approach. A further analysis of eminent researchers of higher education in Asia confirmed the schism and indicated a slight cross-fertilization between higher research approaches, but also found evidence of the isolation/atomization of these scholars.     

Finding the common ground: Teachers' and employers' representations of English in an assessment context

There has been a long‐standing debate about how ‘English’ can be defined. Educational policy changes have typically been driven by differing representations of the subject, and have ranged from broad ‘aesthetic’ definitions to more narrow ‘functional’ views. The present study aims to analyse areas of consensus and contention in stakeholders' discourse regarding English. A questionnaire‐based survey and focus groups were used to explore how teachers and employers viewed English as a subject. Their views were conceptualised into three themes: the importance of functional English; English as atomistic versus holistic study; and English as critical thought. These themes are discussed in relation to historical definitions of ‘English’, and their implications for the future reform of English qualifications.     

School policies on bullying and cyberbullying: perspectives across three Australian states

Background: Despite decades of research, bullying in all its forms is still a significant problem within schools in Australia, as it is internationally. Anti-bullying policies and guidelines are thought to be one strategy as part of a whole school approach to reduce bullying. However, although Australian schools are required to have these policies, their effectiveness is not clear. As policies and guidelines about bullying and cyberbullying are developed within education departments, this paper explores the perspectives of those who are involved in their construction. Purpose: This study examined the perspectives of professionals involved in policy construction, across three different Australian states. The aim was to determine how their relative jurisdictions define bullying and cyberbullying, the processes for developing policy, the bullying prevention and intervention recommendations given to schools and the content considered essential in current policies. Sample: Eleven key stakeholders from three Australian states with similar education systems were invited to participate. The sample selection criteria included professionals with experience and training in education, cyber-safety and the responsibility to contribute to or make decisions which inform policy in this area for schools in their state. Design and methods: Participants were interviewed about the definitions of bullying they used in their state policy frameworks; the extent to which cyberbullying was included; and the content they considered essential for schools to include in anti-bullying policies. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically. Findings: Seven themes were identified in the data: (1) Definition of bullying and cyberbullying; (2) Existence of a policy template; (3) Policy location; (4) Adding cyberbullying; (5) Distinguishing between bullying and cyberbullying; (6) Effective policy; and (7) Policy as a prevention or intervention tool. The results were similar both across state boundaries and also across different disciplines. Conclusion: Analysis of the data suggested that, across the themes, there was some lack of information about bullying and cyberbullying. This limitation could affect the subsequent development, dissemination and sustainability of school anti-bullying policies, which have implications for the translation of research to inform better student outcomes.