Introducing a neo‐Weberian perspective in the study of globalisation and education: structural reforms of the education systems in France and Israel after the Second World War

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo‐Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed ‘social problems’ according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio‐politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the ‘democratisation of education’ in France and Israel.     

Lifelong education and adult education — the state of the theory

Some years ago when the concept of lifelong education was in vogue and when there was a constant flow of literature about it being published by a core of writers gravitating around or employed by UNESCO, the constant warning was not to confuse the concept of lifelong education with adult education because this would unduly limit the concept and distort the educational philosophy it represented. This warning has not, generally, been heeded by writers and the expression ‘lifelong education’ has consequently lost the distinctive meaning writers like Dave, Cropley, Gelpi and Lengrand tried to give it in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1979 Cropley edited a book called Lifelong Education: A Stocktaking which, in fact, tried to take stock of the state of the theory and to identify the problems with its promotion. Gelpi took up the latter task in some detail in a subsequent article but failed to address certain problems with the concept of lifelong education itself, raised earlier by Lawson. This paper goes over all this ground and then tries to clarify some confusions with the concept of lifelong education by examining two different interpretations or views of lifelong education, the ‘maximalist’ and the ‘minimalist’, which have evolved through the literature of the subject, identifying the former with the core of writers mentioned above. It then examines the role of adult education within the two interpretations, arguing that the ‘maximalist’ view has largely disappeared to the detriment of adult education, and reproposing it anew to adult education writers and practitioners.     

Russian in the University Curriculum: A Case‐study of the Impact of the First World War on Language Study in Higher Education in Britain

The outbreak of the First World War and the emergence of Russia as Britain’s ‘glorious ally’ swiftly changed public attitudes in Britain, which had been largely, but not entirely, hostile to Russia. The sense that Britain needed to cure its ‘abysmal ignorance’ of Russia, coupled with the strong desire to replace Germany, the enemy, as a trading partner with Russia led to the initiation of the teaching of the language at eight or more university‐standard establishments. The material and intellectual foundation of the nascent departments of Russian was a partnership between commercial‐financial and academic interests. Money from business sources was crucial in the introduction of Russian teaching at several of them. It was, however, only at Nottingham that the commercial sector actively tried (unsuccessfully) to control the behaviour of the college by restricting promised funding. Meanwhile, partnership with technical schools in recruiting teachers was a significant feature of the introduction of Russian to the higher and further education sector. Staff recruited consisted of both British scholars and expatriate Russians (or other Slavs). Russian departments or divisions were often actively supported within the university by specialists in other fields, who were strongly of the opinion that any serious university system should accommodate the study of a society and culture as significant as that of Russia. When it became clear after the October Revolution that Russia would not continue to support Britain, France and America in the war against Germany, the withdrawal of interest external to the universities did not cause the immediate demise of Russian studies in higher education; they were by this time established firmly enough to survive for intellectual reasons alone, and indeed they survive to this day in most of the institutions discussed here. University College, Nottingham, later to become the University of Nottingham, exemplifies in microcosm the principal trends and features of the national situation.     

Negative effect of the British poor vocational education on its economic development after the Second World War

England is the oldest nation of industry revolution and the earliest industrialization country in the world. With colonization system breakdown and economic giant, the United States, Germany, Japan etc. rising, today of England had already lost former days of elegant appearance. The disadvantageous vocational education is one of essential factor for England economy decline post-war. After the Second War, the student source of vocational education in England is shortage and its quality is not high; ＂The comprehensive high school exercises＂ make the vocational education almost lost exhaustively. The reform measure of variety vocational education in the recent years also did not receive the obvious result. The fall behind and dilatoriness of vocational education make engineering technician and technique worker who are on-the-job near the machine seriously missing, ultimately lead to economic comedown in England. England emphasized literacy education and neglected the occupation education. This is an important reason that resulted in this kind of condition. Under this situation, it caused directly its economy develooment dilatoriness.     

An entangled history of ideas and ideals: feminism,social and educational reform in children’s libraries in Belgium before the First World War

This article examines one of the first children’s libraries in continental Europe, founded by Belgian feminists in Ghent around 1910. The transnational cultural transfer and transformation of the American children’s‐library paradigm is studied from the perspective of “entangled history”. The authors reveal a history entangled in transnational processes and partially overlapping intellectual networks of feminists, social and Lebens‐reformers and progressive educationalists. It is contended that the American notion of children’s libraries served the founders’ feminist, educational, social and Lebens‐reformist views. Discussion includes both national and transnational resonances, notably the interconnections with the Heures Joyeuses in Brussels and with similar Dutch initiatives.     

The subject‐person of adult education in the crisis of modernity

The philosophical and theoretical background of this article is the recent debate in conventional education, highlighting problems with the subject‐person of education (e.g., Oelkers, 1987). This debate has its origins in the questioning by philosophers of the project of modernity, of its future (e.g., Habermas, 1985; Wellmer,1985), and of its subject‐person (e.g., Frank et ah, 1990). The philosophy of education is affected by this debate primarily for two reasons: first, the subject‐person is at the core of the project of modernity and therefore of the inseparably linked idea of conventional education. Second, modernity is in itself an educational project (e.g., Oelkers, 1983), for, if education fails to bring forth the enlightened and emancipated subject‐person, modernity also fails. Therefore, if there is today, as is generally admitted, a crisis of modernity, conventional education and its conception of the subject‐person, as well as the corresponding learning model are inevitably affected. This also applies to adult education, in so far as adult education refers to models of the subject‐person that are still deeply rooted in conventional education.     

Young New Zealanders and the Great War: exploring the impact and legacy of the First World War, 1914–2014

Drawing on school histories, published adult recollections, oral interviews and children’s letters, this article explores how the lives of young New Zealanders were affected by contemporary attitudes and activities during World War I in a country far removed from the actual theatre of war. Particular emphasis is given to school‐related experiences.     

Work‐related adult education: challenges and possibilities in poverty areas

The aim of this article is to talk about the possibilities of work‐related adult education programmes within the context of developing countries. The focus of the analysis is on poor populations, particularly those dwelling in rural and marginal urban areas. The background comprises the challenges for productive incorporation, social exclusion, the relative absence of skill development programmes in these areas and the historical ineffectiveness of adult education programmes. In the light both of lessons drawn form several experiences carried out mainly in developing countries and insights coming from educational and developmental research, the article puts forward some theses that may serve as guidelines when carrying out work‐related adult education programmes, such as the need to stem from integral and inter‐institutional perspectives, to rely on sound strategies that can have a direct impact on both social and economic development, to learn from local contexts (knowledge and opportunities) and evaluate the potential within these spaces, to properly assess the different areas (health, housing, organization etc.) that are related to any social development process, and the importance of taking productive activities—work—as the axis and starting point of programmes.     

Marxist state theory and state autonomy theory: the case of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education

Abstract

In recent times, there have been a number of critiques of Marxist and neo‐Marxist analyses of the state and education policy. These have drawn on postmodernist, ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ and state autonomy perspectives. While the postmodernist and ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ approaches have attracted critical response, to date, the state autonomy perspective has, to our knowledge, gone unchallenged. To address this theoretical lacuna, this paper analyses one writer's attempt, via an historical case study, to uphold state autonomy theory by detailing the ongoing relationship between one quasi‐state agency and the practice of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education. We argue that there are serious conceptual weaknesses in this latest attempt to apply state autonomy theory to educational policy analysis. The arguments in the case study under consideration are seriously compromised by a basically flawed hypothesis, a misrepresentation of contemporary (neo‐) Marxist education policy analysis and by a failure to look at ‘the big picture’.     

War,education and state formation: problems of territorial and political integration in the United States, 1848–1912

Abstract

After the Civil War (1861–1865), the United States faced a problem of “reconstruction” similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been operating under “foreign” governance and integrate them into an expanded nation-state on common structural terms. This paper considers the significance of education in that process of state (re)formation after the Civil War, with particular attention to its role in federal territories of the US West. Specifically, this paper analyses the role that education-based restrictions on citizenship, voting rights and office-holding played in constructing formal state power in the cases of five western territories: Hawaii, Indian Territory, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico. A focus on the significance of education in these cases both advances and challenges literature on the “hidden” and decentralised structure of national policy-making in the US. It adds to that literature by illuminating how education served as an indirect tool of national policy in the West, effectively shaping the structure of power in other policy domains. At the same time, by focusing on the US West, the present analysis challenges the idea that national governance in the US was particularly “decentralised” or “hidden”. It highlights instead: (1) the role of colonial racialism in shaping national responsibility and authority for education in the US; and (2) the significance of education as both an alternative and a corollary to war in establishing US colonial power.     

Education,nation‐building and modernization after World War I: American ideas for the Peace Conference

The First World War ended with the collapse of the Austro‐Hungarian, Russian, German and Ottoman Empires. In planning for the peace negotiations the allied governments considered not only the European boundaries but especially the national aspirations and future development of the peoples of the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Africa and East Asia. American President Woodrow Wilson created a secret commission of academics and experts to prepare studies that would inform and support the American peace negotiators. Almost all of the studies on education, covering education in Austria, Prussia, Albania, the Ottoman Empire, Central Africa, Japan, and the education of minorities in Western Europe, were prepared by Paul Monroe, professor of history at Teachers College, Columbia University, with various assistants. There was a certain logic to Monroe's selection, since he had edited the five‐volume Cyclopedia of Education, published 1911–1913, and was connected to a worldwide network of educational experts who had contributed to that project. Monroe's reports, like most of the expert reports prepared for the American commission, are in part compilations of ‘objective’ information, such as educational statistics, legislation and policies. But at crucial points they develop critical analyses of existing structures and define a proposed role for education—a kind of educational self‐determination—in what we might call nation‐building in parts of the collapsed empires and in the preliminary steps towards de‐colonization in other parts. While Monroe's ideas about the role of education could play only a small part in contributing to the plans for the Treaty of Versailles, they had a continuing impact in shaping American efforts in international education in the 1920s. Monroe himself played a large part in bringing American educational ideas to bear on modernization efforts in China, the Middle East and other developing areas in the 1920s and 1930s. This paper is part of a larger biographical project on Paul Monroe and the spread of American influence in international education.     

Adult education and the modern nation‐state: reflections on ’Social Commitment and Adult Education‘

This paper, which is situated within a discourse of inclusivity, is concerned with Higher Education's response to the needs of groups, such as working class adults with negative experiences of school, who are currently excluded from higher education throughout Europe. It argues, using illustrations from a case study, that there are a variety of organizational and pedagogical implications that must be addressed if participation is to be widened which relate to both individual ability and attitude and to institutional and situational barriers. It concludes that all universities have conceptions of equity which reflect ideological positions and influence the practice that is seen as acceptable. The dilemma facing those committed to social inclusion is that too much emphasis on the structural can imply that the efforts of individual students are of little consequence in determining success or failure. It is argued that a counter-balancing position is needed in which, whilst acknowledging the contribution of the student, course managers and institutions build structures to challenge the negative effects of inequality.     

Factors affecting the state anxiety level of higher education students in Macau: the impact of trait anxiety and self‐esteem

The aim of this study is to find out the levels of anxiety of 589 day‐ and night‐class students in higher education in Macau two weeks before the final examination period. The Chinese version of the 40‐item Spielberger’s State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch & Lusherier, 1970 Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R. and Lusherier, R. 1970. STAI manual for the state trait anxiety inventory, CA: Consulting Psychologist Press.  [Google Scholar]) was applied in this study. The two anxiety scales are nicely constructed into several logical and explainable factors. In addition, the Chinese version of Rosenberg’s self‐esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965 Rosenberg, M. 1965. Society and the adolescent self‐image, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) was applied to find out the relationship between students’ self‐esteem and their trait and state anxieties. Generally speaking, night‐class students, who had full‐time jobs during the day, had significantly higher levels of anxiety than day class students, who were either unemployed or engaged in part‐time employment. Furthermore, based on the results of the path analysis, students’ general anxiety levels might be affected by their general state of anxiety and their self‐esteem. It is hoped that through this study, the educational context of higher education might be better understood.     

Evaluation of the non‐formal forest education sector in the state of North Rhine‐Westphalia,Germany: organisations,programmes and framework conditions

Although a large number of different organisations offer various forest education programmes within Germany, specific information (i.e., sectoral and programme content and provision at a state level) is lacking. This study used a survey of all 61 forest education organisations (43 respondents) in the state of North Rhine‐Westphalia, Germany, to evaluate its forest education sector, with a specific focus on the organisations, demand for its services, forest educational programmes and framework conditions. Input from expert interviews was also used to develop recommendations. The study indicates that, especially with children as the main target group, many non‐formal programmes are offered to support the formal environmental education sector and to promote leisure activities in the forest. Yet, despite a high demand for forest education, low personnel resources restrict the number of visits and activities, principally owing to limited financial resource. We also discuss the provision of innovative new educational programmes and supplementary services, combined with increased quality management, that could be beneficial to the future development of the sector in NRW.     

Leadership in education: the case of Vice‐Chancellors

This paper is based on the Franklin Lecture given at the Guild of Educators on 17 November 2005 at the Bakers’ Hall, London.