Reinventing Governance: The Role of Boards of Governors in the New Austrian University

In the last decade, the university sector in many European countries has undergone manifold changes in relation to the design of governance structures and processes. Accordingly, a board of governors with far‐reaching competences was implemented by the latest reform of the Austrian higher education system in 2002. Drawing on an empirical research project, this paper contrasts the basic ideas of this reform with insights into the concrete practice of the new governance structure. The results show that board members’ personal factors such as personality, experience, and their attitude towards the multi‐faceted nature of university governance, strongly influence the boards’ identity formation and actual work. It is concluded that such factors must be regarded when implementing governing boards in universities by means of university reform.     

Reinventing Governance: The Role of Boards of Governors in the New Austrian University

In the last decade, the university sector in many European countries has undergone manifold changes in relation to the design of governance structures and processes. Accordingly, a board of governors with far-reaching competences was implemented by the latest reform of the Austrian higher education system in 2002. Drawing on an empirical research project, this paper contrasts the basic ideas of this reform with insights into the concrete practice of the new governance structure. The results show that board members’ personal factors such as personality, experience, and their attitude towards the multi-faceted nature of university governance, strongly influence the boards’ identity formation and actual work. It is concluded that such factors must be regarded when implementing governing boards in universities by means of university reform.

     

高职院校的治理:股东会、董事会与校长——以苏州工业园区职业技术学院为个案

当前,我国高等教育的改革进入了实质性阶段,治理结构与治理机制问题成为高校面临的突出问题.公办高校纷纷制定章程,研讨成立理事会和董事会的可能性;民办院校则面临着分类管理以及相应的治理方式的选择问题.苏州工业园区职业技术学院是一所典型的在董事会领导下实施校长负责制的股份制院校,这所院校的股权结构的演变、董事会成员的构成、董事会职能以及股东会、董事会、院长之间的关系和这所民办高校成功处理相关治理问题的经验,为讨论我国现代大学制度建设和法人治理结构提供了可资参考的案例.     

迈向课堂学习共同体：内涵、价值与行动策略

针对当前课堂学习共同体研究和实践中存在的概念理解片面、个体认知过程缺少关注以及内部组织层次受到忽视等问题,文章从课堂学习共同体的核心概念,即从“共同体”出发,重新阐释课堂作为学习共同体的内涵,揭示出课堂学习共同体对于当今教育改革的重要价值和意义。在此基础上,以“学习心理学”课程为例,通过对课堂学习共同体构建要素,即教师与学生、认同与协商、显性知识与隐性知识的分析,提出了构建课堂学习共同体的行动策略。     

Beyond professionalisation: enhancing the governance culture for Australian university governing boards

This article examines emerging norms of good practice for Australian university governing boards and issues that university governing boards could address to develop effective governance cultures. It firstly considers the ways in which support for many Australian university governing boards has become professionalised over the past decade. At the same time, longstanding tensions or ‘paradoxes’ persist, (Cornforth, 2003) notably between ‘corporate’ and ‘participatory’ board models. To ‘tame’ these tensions requires formative processes of deliberation and debate. The article outlines understandings that may assist boards to engage in such processes and to develop their awareness of differing values in governance practices.     

Governing the governors: A case study of college governance in English further education

This paper addresses the nature of governors in the governance of further education colleges in an English context. It explores the complex relationship between governors (people/agency), government (policy/structure) and governance (practice), in a college environment. While recent research has focused on the governance of schooling and higher education there has been little attention paid to the role of governors in the lifelong learning sector. The objective of the paper is to contribute to the debate about the purpose of college governance at a time when the Learning and Skills Council commissioning era ends and new government bodies responsible for further education and training, including local authorities, arrive. The paper analyses the nature of FE governance through the perspectives and experiences of governors, as colleges respond to calls from government for greater improvement and accountability in the sector. What constitutes creative governance is complex and controversial in the wider framework of regulation and public policy reform. As with other tricky concepts such as leadership, professionalism and learning, college governance is best defined in the contexts, cultures and situations in which it is located. College governance does not operate in a vacuum. It involves governors, chairs, principals, professionals, senior managers, clerks, community, business and wider agencies, including external audit and inspection regimes. Governance also acts as a prism through which national education and training reforms are mediated, at local level. While governing bodies are traditionally associated with the business of FE—steering, setting the tone and style, dealing with finance, funding, audit and procedural matters—they are increasingly being challenged to be more creative and responsive to the wider society. Drawing on a recent case study of six colleges, involving governors and key policy stakeholders, this paper explores FE governance in a fast changing policy environment.     

政府治理理论的新进展及启示

传统的政府中心论的研究视角限制了人们的讨论范围和思考能力,治理理论主张从一种更为灵活的互动论视角,从政府、市场、企业,公民、社会的多维度、多层面上观察思考问题。治理理论是补救政府管理和市场调节的不足而产生的一种社会管理方式,它既是各国政府改革的实践总结,又作为一种新的理念深刻影响着各国的政府改革。对于正在进行社会转型的中国来说,同时实现治理理念的更新、治理工具的创新和政府治理能力的提升,是未来一段时期内政治和行政改革所面临的中心任务。     

国有独资企业如何构建董事会

建立现代企业制度,完善法人治理结构是国有独资企业改革的方向。但是,国有独资企业只存在唯一的国有股股东,由国资委作为出资人代表行使股东权力,而国资委又是国务院的特设机构,其身份相对特殊。在考虑这些特殊性的前提下,如何深化国有独资企业的改革、建立董事会制度将是一项开创性的工作。文章分析了国有独资企业治理结构现状,提出了关于董事会设计框架的基本构想,并且强调形成董事会的权利制衡机制,从而提高董事会决策的科学性。     

The Lambert Code: Can We Define Best Practice?

The article explores the proposals put forward in the Lambert Report for reforms in university governance. It compares the recommendation for a Code with the analogue Combined Code which regulates corporate governance in companies and draws a distinction between attempts, from the Cadbury Report in 1992 to the Higgs Review in 2003, to create board structures which will reduce the prospect of misgovernance, and the underlying aim of Lambert to improve university performance through governance change. It argues that analogies between university governing bodies and company boards are misleading and that university governing bodies, on their own, are almost by definition unable to fulfill the criteria of an ‘effective board’ laid down in the DTI Report on TransTec. It suggests that a Guide on Governance which encourages institutional self determination is a better basis for sustaining institutional autonomy, which is a key ingredient to encouraging high levels of performance, than a Government backed Code which risks reducing institutional diversity and cutting across existing legal instruments. It concludes that the proposed Code is a distraction from serious consideration of what factors encourage improved institutional performance.     

Effects of Transactional and Transformational Governance on Academic Teaching: Empirical evidence from two types of higher education institutions

The article considers the importance of examining how members of university governing bodies understand and perform their roles in the politically complex context of contemporary higher education. While a growing body of scholarly literature is devoted to the study of university governance, much of this work neglects the human aspects of decision‐making in the presence of the competing interests, societal expectations and government intervention currently besetting universities. This article argues that, given this context, understanding of the factors impacting on university governing body effectiveness will be greatly enhanced by interpretive analysis of qualitative data obtained from university governance practitioners themselves.     

Community participation in schooling in Nepal: a disjunction between policy intention and policy implementation?

Community participation in the governance of school systems is a recurrent theme of educational reform in developed and developing countries alike. This article analyses the effort of one developing country – Nepal – to promote broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structure. It looks at how the current policy creates spaces for community participation in school and the extent to which a gap exists between policy intention and policy implementation. Drawing on the case study data, this article suggests that while the policy has created legitimate spaces for community participation in school, participation in such spaces is taking a form of tokenism, and the community represented in school governance is restricted to a small number of political elites. Given that ethnic, cultural, linguistic and socio-economic characteristics of the local populace, problems exist within the school system to embrace differences and diversities that prevent a majority of parents from effective participation in school. This article concludes that along with the structural reform, participation can be reinforced by developing a long-term strategy to build community capacity for the provision and management of education, as well as by preparing educators to work effectively with parents of different socio-cultural backgrounds.     

Governance in Higher Education Corporations: A Consideration of the Constitution Created by the 1992 Act

This article argues that the constitutions of higher education corporations created by the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act are flawed. It argues that the constitutions were created with insufficient regard both for precedents for the creation of universities and also for emerging problems and principles of corporate governance. This resulted in a model of governance which maximised the role of the vice–chancellor or chief executive and 'independent members' of governing bodies, limited the participation of staff and students, and allocated a restricted role to academic boards. This article examines a number of the problems arising from inadequacies in governance in a number of post–1992 universities and their similarity with problems arising in further education colleges who shared common governance arrangements from the 1992 Act. This article compares these problems with governance problems in Australian universities and concludes that there is a need to reform the governance arrangements created by the 1992 Act.     

善治视阈下深化行政体制改革的路径选择

21世纪以来,公民对政府的治理能力要求越来越高,公共治理由"善政"走向"善治"。善治因其合法、透明、责任、回应、法治、有效等基本要素而被看作是未来公共治理的全新模式,对于深化我国行政体制改革具有重要作用。而目前我国行政体制改革进入深水区以及过去多次行政体制改革留下的痼疾,恰恰反映了我国在行政体制改革方面存在的诸多问题。因此,根据善治型政府的基本理念来分析深化行政体制改革比较可行的路径,势必会有利于行政体制改革在具体层面的推进。     

Thoughts on teaching thinking: perceptions of practitioners with a shared culture of thinking skills education

This article aims to outline the reported experiences of practitioners in a local authority in England where, since the mid-1990s, a high proportion of teachers have undertaken professional development in the field of teaching thinking skills. The article is based on the main findings from a questionnaire survey which was carried out among first, middle and high school teachers in this area. It was intended to explore their views on the use, benefits and challenges of teaching ‘Thinking for Learning’, a term which encompasses both the use of a range of thinking skills strategies and the Community of Enquiry/Philosophy for Children approaches.

The vast majority of respondents reported a range of positive effects on their pupils, including pupil motivation and cognitive, social and affective benefits. On the other hand, reported challenges mainly referred to a perceived lack of time and to some seemingly inherent difficulties in the teaching of thinking.

Conclusions from this study have the potential to inform professional development practice and policy far beyond this local authority's regional boundaries, and aim to contribute to the body of knowledge about forms of education that are based on dialogue and enquiry.     

论国有控股公司治理结构的完善

国企改革已走过了10多年的历程,在总结我国实践和借鉴外国经验的基础上,国有控股公司的治理结构日趋完善,但仍存在许多不足,需进一步完善。因此,一要完善董事会、独立董事、监事会制度;二要完善对经营者的激励和约束机制;三要建立公司外部治理与内部治理互动的机制;四要重视员工在国有控股公司治理结构中的作用;五要以股权分置改革为契机,推动上市国有控股公司完善治理结构。     

The role of mediating organizations for school reform: independent agents or district dependents?

This paper examines the role of mediating organizations in helping schools engage in whole school change as part of a school district's reform agenda. Specifically, it examines the Learning Community Program in Los Angeles, a programme designed by an external school reform organization, to assist schools in planning and implementing LEARN (Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now). The programme's success is shaped by the district and school contexts in which it operates. As mediating agent, the Learning Community Program must balance the challenges facing the schools ‐‐ particularly their readiness to engage in reform ‐‐ with the demands of the district for scale, accountability and resources. As it does so, it faces the challenges of maintaining program flexibility, building sustainable changes, and preserving its organizational independence. These pressures generate three central dilemmas and threaten to undermine the success of the district's reform and the Learning Community Program ‐‐ scale versus sustainability, district mandates versus site autonomy, and organizational independence versus survival. It concludes that mediating agencies can be constrained by their dependence on policymakers for critical resources.     

The Role of Democratic Governing Bodies in South African Schools

School governance reform in post-apartheid South Africa has been used instrumentally to democratise schooling and to calibrate governance functions to accommodate diverse school contexts. Through an analysis of relevant sections in legislation, the author shows how the reform was structured to allow for representative democracy and partnerships. But, drawing on two recent studies, she contends that the governance reforms failed to include measures that prevent a re-enactment of traditional South African power relations of race, class and gender at schools, and apartheid-era inequalities continue to manifest in schools. The author concludes that in general democratic school governing bodies have fallen short of the transformation vision.     

高校共同治理及其对完善中国特色现代大学制度的启示 大规模学生评估的影响力与重要性： 现状与趋势

调整、改革和完善高等院校的治理结构是完善中国特色现代大学制度的难点,也是关键。美国高等院校治理的模式对美国高等教育的成功发挥了举足轻重的作用,也在国际上享有很高的声誉。本文旨在介绍高等院校共同治理的理念,描述董事会、校长和教授三方在共同治理中的协作与分工,分析美国大学共同治理实践中的一些问题,并探讨美国共同治理的经验对完善中国特色现代大学制度的启示。     

Examining behavioral, relational, and cognitive engagement in smaller learning communities: A case study of reform in one suburban district

The purpose of this project was to examine the impact of Smaller Learning Community reform on students’ behavioral, relational, and cognitive engagement in a suburban school district experiencing urbanization. We describe a project in which we evaluated the engagement of a cohort of 8th grade students as they transitioned to high school (n = 605). Specifically, we disaggregated the data to identify how students’ engagement differed as a function of their participation in Smaller Learning Community structures, prior achievement, and race.     

Perceptions of the principal’s role in democratic school governance in South Africa

This article explores governors’ perceptions of the role played by school principals in the democratic governance of secondary schools in South Africa. The South African Schools Act No. 84 of 1996 has mandated that all public schools in South Africa must have democratically elected school governing bodies, comprised of the principal (in his or her official capacity), educators, non‐teaching staff, parents and learners, but the latter is applicable only in secondary schools. This reform is intended to foster tolerance, rational discussion and collective decision‐making. In the light of this reform an empirical study investigated the role of the principal in the school governing body (SGB), particularly in promoting parent and learner participation in SGBs. The findings highlighted the important functions that principals fulfil with regard to the functioning of the SGB. Principals are viewed by governors as playing a positive role in SGBs. Governors referred to principals as ‘the finger on the pulse of what is happening at school’; they are resource persons for other members of the SGBs and ‘the engines’ of the schools. Governors viewed the principal as in charge of the professional management of the school, ensuring that all duties are carried out adequately, setting the tone in SGB meetings, and responsible for interpreting education policies and ensuring that they are well implemented. Furthermore, principals have the responsibility of ensuring the maximum participation of both parent and learner governors in SGBs meetings. Principals can also contribute greatly to school governance issues, since they are usually at an advantage in terms of their familiarity with official regulations, provincial directives and knowledge of educational reform measures. The findings highlighted persistent power struggles in rural schools that may arise when principals overplay their roles as this creates tension among SGB members. However, principals enabled implementation of democratic values such as tolerance, rational discussion and collective decision‐making in schools through their leadership roles.