Financing special needs and inclusive education – from Salamanca to the present

ABSTRACT

The focus of this paper is upon an examination of the ‘direction of travel’ in European countries from special needs education to inclusive education – a development influenced by the Salamanca Statement. The 1994 Salamanca Statement argued that inclusive schools provide ‘an effective education for the majority of children and improve the efficiency and ultimately the cost-effectiveness of the entire education system’ (ix). Underpinning this assertion are issues around special needs and inclusive education are financed. The paper will examine the degree to which the critical issue of financing has – or has not – changed across European countries since Salamanca. This examination takes retrospective look at key issues identified in the European Agency 1999 study of funding models for special education in 17 European countries, compared and contrasted with those identified in a 2016 study of approaches to funding inclusive education in 18 European countries. This paper argues that the essential issues underpinning their financing mechanisms have changed very little. For many European countries, changing systems of financing of inclusive education can still be seen as a key lever for achieving the goal of more widespread inclusion of learners with special educational needs, as outlined in the 1994 Salamanca Statement.     

Changing patterns in World Bank investments in vocational education and training: Implications for secondary vocational schools

The economic efficiency of vocational secondary schools in improving the employment prospects for graduates has been questioned, leading to policy recommendations in favor of enterprise-based training and training in non-formal training centers. The role of secondary education would be to impart basic skills, perhaps through reformed curricula that, while falling short of vocationalism, better prepare graduates for adult life. This paper examines trends in World Bank investments in vocational education and training for the period 1963–86 to answer three questions. Is there evidence to suggest that educational authorities in developing countries, as well as in the World Bank, have moved away from investments in secondary vocational schools? What does the record suggest about the patterns through which alternative training systems evolve in developing countries? Is there any evidence that a ‘new educational vision’ is emerging for secondary education? The paper concludes that investment in secondary vocational schools has declined substantially in favor of non-formal training systems. Nine characteristics of effective non-formal systems are identified. Diversified secondary schools, as one model of a ‘new vision,’ have not succeeded, raising important questions regarding possible directions for improved secondary education.     

School-based parental involvement: a comparative assessment of predictors of satisfaction in South-East Europe

Exploring a unique region concerning educational reforms in the past 20?years, the present study empirically investigates the attitudes towards parental involvement in school life in a comparative perspective of south-eastern European (SEE) countries for the 2008/2009 school year. Based on a multiple regression model for nine different countries, the research examines the predictors of satisfaction with school–parent partnerships from the parents’ perspective in the SEE context. The 2009 Cross-National Survey of Parents provided detailed evidence of attitudes and practices in educational setups in the Balkans for a representative sample of parents with one or more children enrolled in primary or secondary education. The findings indicate that the most reliable explanatory variable for the parents’ satisfaction with ways of getting involved in school life is the attribution of school–parent roles, with effects knocking on to all the other factors, including the understanding of the need to participate and the feeling of being a stakeholder in the educational process.     

Intercultural competence among sports and PE teachers. Theoretical foundations and empirical verification

As intercultural competence among young people is one of the educational missions at European schools, teachers should themselves be able to deal constructively with cultural diversity, as well as encouraging and shaping intercultural learning processes in their classes. This article focuses on the intercultural competence of physical education teachers. ‘Intercultural competence’, often used as a ‘container term’, will be theoretically founded in reference to the challenges physical education teachers meet. Based on these theoretical assumptions, a special education course was developed and conducted with physical education teachers to further their intercultural competence. With a mixed-method approach, i.e., a systematic interlocking of qualitative and quantitative data, the efficiency of the course has been empirically proved: knowledge competence and methods competence as sub-competencies of intercultural competence are enhanced while educational beliefs and acculturation attitudes as performance indicators are changed.     

The Education and Care Divide: the role of the early childhood workforce in 15 European countries

International reports on early childhood education and care tend to attach increasing importance to workforce profiles. Yet a study of 15 European countries reveals that large numbers of (assistant) staff remain invisible in most international reports. As part of the CoRe project (Competence Requirements in Early Childhood Education and Care) we conducted a cross-national survey among experts in Belgium (Flemish- and French-speaking communities), Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK (England and Wales). The survey explored professional and training profiles not only for formal ‘teaching’ staff, but also for the entire workforce, making visible the assistants who are often omitted from international reports. The proportion of assistant staff varies from a very small percentage in some European countries to half of the entire workforce in many others. Whereas job profiles for higher qualified staff often focus on ‘education’, profiles for assistants typically focus on ‘care’. Consequently a divide between care and education can be observed, both in split systems and in integrated systems. In these cases, the concept of ‘education’ may be narrowed down to schoolified learning and ‘care’ may be regarded as subordinate to education. In several cases, assistants also have less entitlement to ongoing professionalisation than educational staff. Consequences of the findings for practice as well as policy are discussed.     

A comparative analysis of the efficiency of national education systems

The present study assesses the performance of 54 participating countries in PISA 2006. It employs efficiency indicators that relate result variables with resource variables used in the production of educational services. Desirable outputs of educational achievement and undesirable outputs of educational inequality are considered jointly as result variables. A construct that captures the quality and quantity of educational resources consumed is used as resource variables. Similarly, environmental variables of each educational system are included in the efficiency evaluation model; while these resources are not controllable by the managers of the education systems, they do affect outcomes. We find that European countries are characterized by weak management, the Americans (mainly Latin Americans) by a weak endowment of resources, and the Asians by a high level of heterogeneity. In particular, Asia combines countries with optimal systems (South Korea and Macao-China); countries with managerial problems (Hong Kong, China-Taipei, Japan and Israel); others where the main challenge is the weak endowment of resources (Jordan and Kyrgyzstan), and, finally, others where the main problem is in the long run since it concerns structural conditions of a socioeconomic and cultural nature (Turkey, Thailand, and Indonesia).     

Rethinking the pattern of external policy referencing: media discourses over the ‘Asian Tigers’’ PISA success in Australia,Germany and South Korea

The article compares how the success of the ‘Asian Tiger’ countries in PISA, especially PISA 2009, was depicted in the media discussion in Australia, Germany and South Korea. It argues that even in the times of today's ‘globalised education policy field’, local factors are important in determining whether or not a country becomes a reference society for educational reform. The article aims to uncover some of these factors, identifying the globally disseminated stereotypes about Asian education, economic relations and the sense of ‘crisis’ induced through the relative position and change of position in PISA league tables in the countries in question.     

Primary School Teacher Training in the European Community: an overview of recent developments

The colleges of education for primary school teachers in The Netherlands have gone through several mergers in the space of just a few years. Many colleges of education became part of a polytechnic. The authors studied how the specific characteristics of the education of primary school teachers can show to full advantage in a large institute of higher vocational education. In the Dutch situation as well as that of the other countries of the European Community (England and the Federal Republic of Germany in particular) the phenomena ‘integration’ and ‘differentiation’ have been studied. The authors concluded that mergers of primary school teacher training colleges can be a serious threat to the educational identity of teacher training as a whole. Holding to as well as giving up the educational identity does not guarantee that the specific characteristics will be kept.     

Access for All? Sozialinvestitionen in der frühkindlichen Bildung und Betreuung im europäischen Vergleich

The importance of investing in early childhood is widely acknowledged in policy circles. Particularly formal Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) is seen as key to creating equal opportunities and combating poverty by increasing educational achievement of children and supporting parental employment. This social investment perspective has in recent decades supported the rapid development and expansion of ECEC in most European countries. However, the international social investment discourse masks fundamental differences in European ECEC systems and detracts attention from the way ECEC is embedded in the wider welfare regime of a country. This paper critically examines the ‘social investment potential’ of ECEC systems by comparing an early social investment country, Sweden, with two ‘late movers’, the UK and Germany. It argues that investing in ECEC is not per se a panacea for social inclusion. To the contrary, if not combined with other, partly ‘traditional’ equality measures both in education and social protection, ECEC investment may have the opposite effect of increasing social inequality.     

A rising tide meets a perfect storm: new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland

This paper examines the emergence of new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education in Ireland in the 15 years period 1997–2012. Framing accountability in terms of the three main approaches to it globally in education systems, that is, compliance with regulations, adherence to professional norms and attainment of results/outcomes, we identify significant changes, particularly, in compliance- and results-driven accountability. A ‘rising tide’ of accountability, due to the interrelated influences of the European higher education space, education legislation and professional self-regulation policies (i.e. Teaching Council), is evident since the late 1990s. This was punctuated by a ‘perfect storm’ in 2010 comprising ‘bad news’ from PISA 2009, the economic bailout and strategic leadership at a system level. The cumulative impact of the ‘rising tide’ and ‘perfect storm’ is evident in how they reframed both ‘to whom’ and ‘for what’ accountability in teacher education relates. Significantly, the new accountabilities in teaching and teacher education reflect a move towards the dominant global education reform movement (Sahlberg 2007) with its emphasis on standardisation, narrow focus on literacy and numeracy and higher stakes accountability.     

Japan’s new lifelong learning policy: exploring lessons from the European knowledge economy

The concept of ‘lifelong learning’ or shōgai gakushū has rapidly become one of the topmost priorities in Japan’s education policy agenda. This was considerably evident in December 2006 when the term ‘lifelong learning’ was added to Japan’s educational charter, the Fundamental Law of Education. This paper explores, as a means to develop Japan’s new lifelong learning policy, the lessons that can be learnt through an examination of the European countries’ efforts to build a knowledge economy, where lifelong learning is regarded as the key solution in overcoming several important social and economic concerns. In this paper, I first examine the current situation of lifelong learning in Japan, employing the ethnographic data that I have collected since 2001. Second, I provide a brief review of the European lifelong learning policy, which is one of the priority guidelines in the European Union. Under the Lisbon Strategy, for example, the argument on European lifelong learning theoretically centres on developing human capital in order to survive in the global knowledge economy. Lastly, referring to the European experience over the past decade, I propose to directly connect Japan’s latest policy development regarding lifelong learning with the trend of building human capital through lifelong learning in order to enhance its competitiveness in the era of globalisation.     

Re-inventing ‘Europe’: the case of the European dimension in Greek-Cypriot geography and history curricula

‘Europe’ has been increasingly ‘invented’ and ‘reinvented’ in discussions about education, curricula and identities over the last five decades. The ‘European dimension in education’ was a term increasingly used by the European Union and the Council of Europe to denote their educational policies encouraging national educational systems to endorse a European dimension in order to prepare young people for an increasingly integrated Europe. However, it has also been a contested term in academic writing, as some researchers critique the elitist, exclusionary and Eurocentric educational implications it may have; others welcome its pedagogic and intercultural potential. This article presents the findings of a content analysis of the history and geography curricula and textbooks used in state Greek-Cypriot primary schools and explores the possibilities of using the European dimension as a tool to alleviate ethnocentrism and traditional pedagogies in these curricula and textbooks, by presenting the application of some principles which have been used for the development of a curricular intervention in the two subjects.     

From participation to competition: Changes in the notion of decentralization in Swedish higher educational policy 1

Abstract

The relationships between higher education and the world of work are viewed, principally, as similar in economically advanced societies. The comparative study ‘Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Europe’, however, indicates substantial differences between European countries as regards transition to employment, as well as the employment and work situation, according to objective and subjective measures. The analysis is based on a survey of more than 30,000 graduates from 10 European countries about 3–4 years after graduation. The findings suggest that only a minority of 10–20% of graduates face substantial problems on the labour market or end up in positions not commensurate with their level of education. There is a clear North‐South differential in Europe with respect to transition and objective employment measures, while the pattern is more differentiated with respect to the perceived utilisation of knowledge, the self‐rated adequacy of position and the job satisfaction.     

Comparing the gender gap in educational attainment: the impact of emancipatory contexts in 33 cohorts across 33 countries

Nowadays, women outperform men in educational attainment in many countries. Still, large variation between countries remains. Emancipatory contexts in which individuals are raised might explain these differences in male–female educational attainment, both over time and across countries. This study examines individual and contextual factors that affect educational attainment of men and women for cohorts born between 1950 and 1982 across 33 countries. Possible explanations for differentiation over time and across countries relate to women’s labour market participation and an emancipatory normative climate, indicated by degree of religiosity. We employ multilevel models on data (N = 138,498) from 6 waves of the European Social Survey and the US General Social Survey (2002–2012) to test our hypotheses. Results show that a higher level of female labour market participation in early adolescence improves women’s performance in education, whereas high levels of religiosity during that phase negatively affect women’s educational attainment.     

Limits to vocationally-oriented education in the third world

With reference to selected Third World countries, the paper generalizes, within a broad analytical framework, the underlying reasons for the formulation of policies and practices to abate the growing problem of the ‘educated’ unemployed through the initiation of vocationally-oriented educational programmes. It outlines the main reasons why the implementation of vocationally-oriented educational strategies did not converge with and reinforce other related employment initiatives to achieve their intended goals. Discussion is then focussed on why there is a mismatch between educational training and work, which has given legitimate grounds to many Third World countries to question whether the assumptions that underlie vocationally-oriented education are a ‘fallacy’. In conclusion, an alternative educational strategy is suggested. This strategy not only outlines how it may be possible to interface education and work, but also how greater efficiency and equity can be brought about in this relationship.     

'Poisoned history': a comparative study of nationalism,propaganda and the treatment of war and peace in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century school curriculum

This paper investigates the educational philosophy and practices of Achimota School, which was established in the Gold Coast Colony (the southern part of today’s Ghana) in 1927 as the governmental model school for leadership education. Achimota’s education aimed to develop leaders who were ‘Western in intellectual attitude’, ‘African in sympathy’. To fulfil this objective, Achimota attempted to develop a curriculum that took into account the sociocultural background of African students while trying to provide an education on a par with that available at English public schools. The paper first examines the discourse surrounding the establishment of a model secondary school for African leadership, which involved diverse groups of people – colonial officials, missionaries, European educationists, traditional chiefs and African nationalists – and then reviews the relevant educational philosophies of the twentieth century. Finally, the paper describes the Achimota education as experienced by students, a mixed product of English public school tradition and ‘African tradition’. Regardless of the efforts to balance the two ‘traditions’, what was actually created was a new Achimota culture that selected essences from different ‘traditions’ and remoulded them for a novel purpose.     

Speculative method in digital education research

The question of ‘what works’ is currently dominating educational research, often to the exclusion of other kinds of inquiries and without enough recognition of its limitations. At the same time, digital education practice, policy and research over-emphasises control, efficiency and enhancement, neglecting the ‘not-yetness’ of technologies and practices which are uncertain and risky. As a result, digital education researchers require many more kinds of questions, and methods, in order to engage appropriately with the rapidly shifting terrain of digital education, to aim beyond determining ‘what works’ and to participate in ‘intelligent problem solving’ [Biesta, G. J. J. 2010, “Why ‘What Works’ Still Won’t Work: From Evidence-Based Education to Value-Based Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 29 (5): 491–503] and ‘inventive problem-making’ [Michael, M. 2012, “‘What Are We Busy Doing?’ Engaging the Idiot.” Science, Technology &; Human Values 37 (5): 528–554]. This paper introduces speculative methods as they are currently used in a range of social science and art and design disciplines, and argues for the relevance of these approaches to digital education. It synthesises critiques of education’s over-reliance on evidence-based research, and explores speculative methods in terms of epistemology, temporality and audience. Practice-based examples of the ‘teacherbot’, ‘artcasting’ and the ‘tweeting book’ illustrate speculative method in action, and highlight some of the tensions such approaches can generate, as well as their value and importance in the current educational research climate.     

Young people’s relationship to education: the case of Greek youth

The aim of this study is to explore how Greek youth understands their relationship to education, and how this understanding might change as a result of the interplay between participation in different educational/social arrangements and structural factors such as gender, socio‐economic background and area of residence. In total, 800 young people (i.e. four groups—students in upper‐secondary school, tertiary education, vocational education and training and working young people) were surveyed. The results yield an impressive homogeneity of the young people’s views corresponding to a ‘pragmatic’ image of schooling, though they are partially differentiated with respect to attitudes and practices. Moreover, boundaries are discerned between the young people following academic and non‐academic educational trajectories, and between the learning opportunities provided within and outside the formal educational system. Finally, females appear to be more mobilized, but less satisfied by educational services. These findings are contextualized and discussed against a background of relevant trends in other European countries, as well as of wider social, historical and political forces affecting Greek society.     

Comparative education in Greece,as a European ‘semi-periphery’

ABSTRACT

Comparative education was established in Greek universities in the 1980s, with the creation of pedagogical departments and two laboratories, and the publication of a journal. There was an early emphasis on education policy analysis, in terms of assumptions about the ‘semi-peripherality’ of Greece within Europe. Later, the emphasis shifted to what was also called ‘modernisation’ – framed by entry to the European Economic Community. There was an emphasis on education policies in other European countries, and the educational policy of Europe, in contrast with Greece which had not yet absorbed what was becoming ‘a European discourse’. There was a continuing motif – reflections on methodology – but the changing concepts of modernisation, the more or less permanent anxiety about reforming Greek education, and the theme of education within the European Union dominated academic work in comparative education in Greece – even after 2010 and the major new economic crisis. An optimistic view is that comparative education will continue to develop in the Greek university through teaching and research. There is, however, a question to be asked about the silences within Greek comparative education.