Citizenship,civic education and politics: the education policy context for young Australian citizens

Citizenship education in Australia is embedded throughout the school curriculum. Despite a coherent policy context for the inclusion of citizenship and civic education at all levels of schooling, the links between education and civic minded citizens are tenuous. This paper explores these connections by drawing on the views of participants in an international community service program between Western Australia and Tanzania. By situating the interview data in relation to the policy goals, the paper argues that the current policy framework ‘sanitises’ the political nature of modern citizenship. The results from this study demonstrate that students have little understanding of the connections between the civic, the social and the political realms of citizenship. These results suggest that the current policy context does not adequately prepare young people to position themselves in the political realm.     

Globalisation,Citizenship and the Education of Adults in Contemporary European Society

It is argued in this paper that globalisation is undermining the state and, therefore, calling for a reconsideration of the concept of citizenship. But education has generally reproduced the dominant culture, which is increasingly becoming influenced by the global economic market. Education is reproducing this culture. Adult education, however, has traditionally stood outside of the institutionalised education sector and has served a more democratic and radical function, but as it is being institutionalised it will lose this function - although some areas of adult education will remain outside of this process and be able to be more important.     

Governing education through data: Scotland,England and the European education policy space

This paper draws on interview data from national policy makers in England, Scotland and the European Commission to illustrate differences in the referencing of ‘Europe’ in education policy‐making in England and Scotland in order to highlight the emergent complexity of post‐devolution policy‐making in education through a focus on relations and interactions with Europe, as expressed in the negotiation and development of performance data systems. We suggest that policy‐makers in England reference global influences, rather than Europe, while policy‐makers in Scotland reference Europe in order to project a new positioning of Scotland in closer alignment with Europe. Europeanisation in education thus produces differing policy responses from closely aligned, indeed, in the case of England and Scotland, contiguous policy spaces. Thus the paper seeks to contribute to the literature on ‘travelling’ education policy and its ‘local’ mediation and to connect the development of devolution and the changing policy space of education in Europe.     

The knowledge triangle, European higher education policy logics and policy implications

While it is common to claim that university reforms are based on universal and standardised ideas about ‘modernising’ the university, few studies have examined in a more coherent way how the combined external pressure for change with respect to the areas of education, research and innovation has affected the university. In this paper it is argued that one can identify three different sets of logics concerning the current external reform agenda, and that these logics together create new challenges as to how knowledge is created, diffused and governed by the university. In the conclusion, it is discussed whether the current pressure for reform might change the university as we know it, or whether new institutional translations might emerge from the process renewing the university while maintaining its identity.     

Linkedin,platforming labour,and the new employability mandate for universities

ABSTRACT

Students, academics and university administrators are increasingly using and producing digital platforms, including social media. This paper focuses on LinkedIn to start tackling the question of the effects on higher education as a sector, its actors and the established social practices. It argues that LinkedIn moves beyond the passivity of advertising to its users towards actively structuring digital labour markets, in which it strategically includes universities and its constituents. By introducing the term ‘qualification altmetrics’, the paper suggests that LinkedIn is building a global marketplace for skills to run in parallel to, or instead of university degrees. Qualification altmetrics might challenge the established practices of knowledge production and valuation.     

Citizenship education and the reparation of future teachers : A study

This study examines the views of future teachers of social studies regarding significant global trends, required citizen characteristics, and necessary educational strategies to develop the said characteristics. The study builds upon the landmark work of the nine-nation Citizenship Education Policy Study (CEPS I) carried out in the late 1990s that resulted in the model calledmultidimensional citizenship. The original work focused on the views of policy makers and scholars. The present research, CEPS II, is a follow-up study that seeks to determine the views of the next generation of those who will teach citizenship and civic education through social studies programs in seven participant societies: China, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, The Netherlands, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States of America. The results suggest that the future teachers, when compared with the policy experts and scholars in the original CEPS I study, are more optimistic about the future and are more oriented towards personal development and participatory behaviors that will positively impact the common good.     

Developing policy instruments for education in the EU: the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning has been characterized as a policy instrument with a number of contested ideas, raising questions about the process through which such instruments are developed at European level. The introduction of the EQF is in this article examined through variations of neo-institutional theory: historical contingency perspective, rational perspective, normative perspective and a process of chance. The EQF is examined as a case, using documents and expert interviews as empirical sources. The article highlights the complex interplay between various historical processes that enabled the introduction of the EQF and how problems and solutions can drive the process forward in a dialectic manner. Furthermore, while the impact of the EQF on national level remains to be seen at this point, the analysis uncovers increased space for introducing new instruments on EU level.     

Citizenship Education: An empirical study of policy,practices and outcomes

This article reports on a comparative study of civic education in six countries-Britain, the USA, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia. Differing policies and practices with respect to citizenship education among the six Western democracies were found to be associated with different patterns of adolescent student political attitudes and perceptions. In those contexts in which civic education includes political content and opportunities for students to explore and express opinions on public policy issues, and to engage in decision-making, young people (ages 15-19) appear to be more interested in the political arena than in those contexts in which they do not have such experiences.     

NAPLAN and the role of edu-business: New governance,new privatisations and new partnerships in Australian education policy

This paper provides a critical analysis of the edu-businesses currently working in partnership with the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority to deliver the Commonwealth government policy initiative of the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). These emerging public–private partnerships (PPPs) exemplify new heterarchical governance structures in Australia, where a network of public and private agents now contribute to education policy processes. In analysing the NAPLAN policy network, this account seeks to proffer a critical analysis on the evolving PPPs in Australia and ascertains in whose interests and with what outcomes these PPPs operate. The NAPLAN policy network is analysed in relation to the contemporary state and its changing modus operandi, in which I draw on the notions of heterarchies, networks and new governance structures in education to understand these developments. Network ethnography is employed to document the network of PPPs that are associated with NAPLAN and other government initiatives in Australia, and in particular, I reflect on the activities of Pearson and the Australian Council for Educational Research to problematise what these policy networks mean.     

知识社会和知识社会中的教师

知识社会的根本特征是:知识是推动社会发展的根本动力;"知识型工人"是知识社会的主力军;学习和教育将成为知识社会的中心;"创造性鸿沟"将会加大;道德问题将会凸现,社会不平等将会加剧.知识社会要求教师的教学不但要面向知识社会,做知识社会的催化剂,而且还要能超越知识社会,做知识社会的应对者.这一要求应该成为教师职业的最高理想.     

新时代劳动育人高质量发展:理论、政策与实践

劳动既创造了人类又创造了教育,劳动教育是人类文明演进的基本方式。劳动育人既是马克思主义教育的思想精髓,又是中国共产党发展马克思主义教育的实践探索,更是习近平新时代教育思想的重要纲领。在价值逻辑上,劳动育人能够促进人类全面发展,促进技术转型升级和社会深刻变革。在政策逻辑上,我国劳动育人发展经历了以体力劳动为核心的重建探索期,以技术教育为旨趣的转型调适期与以五育并举为核心的全面提质期。在实践逻辑上,新时代劳动育人迫切需要从内涵、内容与内功层面解决"内涵陷于劣势""内容流于形式",以及"内功沦为把式"的现实之困,助推劳动育人高质量发展新局面的开创。     

International dimensions: A challenge for European engineering education

Internationalization of higher education is a concept that often is transformed into a set of activities that has a certain international dimension. This can be done more or less consciously. Issues such as development of skills and knowledge, creation of an international culture on campus and the involvement of an international dimension in all activities concern university management. These are issues university managers have to deal with. But it also opens up new opportunities. The broader issues of internationalization require a strong involvement of the academic leaders and of senior officers. This contribution describes how changes around us force universities to take action and introduce clear policies for internationalization of higher education, based on the needs institutions for higher engineering education should respond to. Special attention is given to a recent Swedish evaluation on the effects of student exchange. This study is compared with experience at Chalmers.