Education as a global public good: the applicability and implications of a framework

This paper addresses a growing literature on global public goods theory, in particular the use of this framework to promote the equitable provision of goods and social services, such as basic education, on an international scale. Due to a lack of research into this theory’s applicability to education, the author aims to discern how such a framework might be applied, and its possible policy implications, focusing on universal access initiatives and the debate on private provision of schooling. The paper further questions the appropriateness of using global public goods theory given certain critiques.     

Educational Qualifications: The economic and trade issues

This paper describes the commercial provision of education goods (books, pedagogical software, etc.) and services (testing, evaluation, management consulting, etc.) and argues that a vibrant private sector is an essential ingredient for an efficient and high-quality public school system. It also describes the rising trade in education goods and services and points to areas of controversy associated with that trade. It concentrates on one ingredient of the overall picture, that of educational qualifications. It discusses how changes in technology and labour markets are forcing a shift in the debate over access to education. Some argue that education, chosen by the individual, is a human right. Others argue that education by nature is different from other public services justifying government prohibition of private and/or international providers. Central to the debate are the differences from one part of the world to another in how educational institutions are accredited and how graduates become certified to enter the professional workforce. However one may feel, these issues are destined to become an important ingredient of the international education debate over the next decade.     

持续增长的国际教育商品与服务商业市场

本文对教育产品和服务做出了厘定，并提出两种分支领域的结构；论述了商业活动的规模及其走向；为那些有兴趣投资该领域的人们检视其机遇与挑战；探讨了几个问题：商业方式提供教育商品与服务是好还是不好?是不得已而为之还是必然选择?对于那些不知道如何对此做出适当回应的国家来说，是应该欢迎还是应该抵制这些趋势?     

Are we asking the right questions? Moving beyond the state vs non-state providers debate: Reflections and a Case Study from India

This paper provides an overview of recent trends in basic education provision in India: charting an impressive expansion of enrolment in public schools but a growing concern with the quality of learning. Concerns around quality are seen as a driving factor in the migration of students from the public sector to low fee private schools. While there is evidence of improved learning amongst some low fee private schools there are also significant concerns around equity. The paper proposes that for the sake of future generations it is necessary to move beyond a polemical focus on state or non-state provision but rather to focus on six core questions about education provision: Is it sound pedagogically? Does it deliver meaningful learning? Is it equitable? Is it scalable? Is it financially viable and Is it sustainable? These questions are explored through a review of ‘Gyan Shala’, an innovative low cost education programme operating in the slums of Gujarat and Bihar. The paper concludes that a better understanding of the dynamic between the sectors is needed to ensure effective education planning which will deliver meaningful learning to all.     

Imagining the Imaginative: An Analysis and Its Implications for Arts Education

Artistic activities are frequently touted as being imaginative or valuable in helping develop the imagination of students. However, it is not always clear what is meant by the imagination. Is the imagination a faculty of the mind? Do some people have it while others do not? Is it something that can be developed? Or is having an imagination having the ability to conceive of ideas in a certain way? If having an imagination is an ability to conceptualize in a certain manner, can educators provide experiences which foster this ability? How does this ability differ from creative ability or the ability to fantasize? These questions, among others, must be dealt with if we are to come to an understanding of what we mean by the concept of imagination. Having a clearer understanding of what we mean by the imagination still leaves unanswered questions concerning why we should want to be imaginative and why being imaginative is important for arts education. These are the questions to be addressed in the following paper.     

公共物品边界的变化与公共物品的私人供给

公共物品的边界和范围,实际上很难明确划分。大部分物品介于纯粹公共物品和纯粹私人物品之间。引入产权制度、组织以及技术等排他手段,公共物品能够由私人有效供给。争胜竞争市场过程中的企业家行动总是能够展示出公共物品的多种私人供给方式。一定情况下,搭便车和排他问题不再成为提供公共物品的制约因素,非赢利性行为下的民间公益,也是公共物品私人供给的一种现实模式。     

Non‐profit education providers vis‐à‐vis the private sector: comparative analysis of non‐governmental organizations and traditional voluntary organizations in Pakistan

Under the New Policy Agenda, international development institutions have promoted non‐profit organizations (NPOs) in developing countries, on a dual logic: firstly, they deliver social services more efficiently than the state; secondly, they mitigate equity concerns around privatization of basic social services by reaching out to the poor. Based on a survey of twenty prominent non‐profit education providers in Pakistan, this paper illustrates that the NPO sector is not monolithic: non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the education sector under the patronage of international donors follow markedly different models of education provision to those of Traditional Voluntary Organizations (TVOs) reliant on domestic donations. While the social service ethos of the TVOs makes them distinct from the private sector, it is not the case with the NGOs: their model of education provision, rather than meeting the education needs of the poor, ends up cultivating markets for the private sector among poor communities.     

A global collage of impressions: Preschools abroad

“What do you think of European preschools?” “Do they have good schools in Yemen?” “What are Chinese child care centers like?” I am always taken aback when asked such questions. Of course, I'm always taken aback when someone asks what I think of kindergarten education in the United States; I never know how to answer that either. Does the question refer to kindergarten classes in the school near my home? Or kindergartens across the United States? Even if the inquirer expected an answer based on the schools which I visit regularly to supervise student teachers I would have to give a general statement, followed by some qualifying statements related to different teachers, different schools, and different school districts — all withinone county! The old adage that “All generalizations are dangerous, including this one” always comes to mind.     

Towards the In‐College Evaluation of TEC Programmes

Abstract

The advent of the single European market has generated new demands for training and consultancy, and many further and higher education institutions have been anxious to exploit the commercial opportunities that have been created. In general, however, institutions have been more successful in providing training for the public sector than they have been for the private sector. A survey of FHE reveals the kinds of single‐market training that are on offer, and suggests that the training that is available needs to be more precisely geared to the requirements of business if colleges and universities are to make further inroads into the private sector. It is argued that much training is currently ‘supply led’ rather than ‘demand led’, and that institutions need to recognise important differences between information needs, skills needs and qualifications needs in the design of their single market provision. There are, however, examples of good practice, and institutions’ perceptions of their own needs in improving their European training are also discussed. The article concludes with some practical steps that institutions might consider in order to improve their single‐market training.

‘The training performance of industry and commerce in this country must be raised to meet the greater commitment and higher standards of other European countries.’

The words belong to the then Minister for Further and Higher Education, Robert Jackson, and were spoken in 1990 at the launch of the Department of Education and Science‐funded PICKUP Europe Unit ‐‐ an initiative designed to help further and higher education (FHE) to meet the training needs of industry and business in anticipation of the changes heralded by the single European market (SEM). Helping industry and business to respond to the challenges of the enlarged European market fitted well into the PICKUP scheme, which was intended to encourage FHE institutions to make their expertise and resources available for the purposes of updating and reskilling the labour force. It reflected the Government's desire to build a stronger link between education and wealth creation, and to foster competence‐based, as well as knowledge‐based, aspects of educational provision. The 282 measures associated with completion of the single market have made it increasingly important that workers at all levels are familiar with the new Europe in which they will produce goods and services, but just how effectively are further and higher education institutions facing up to their own challenge, and providing the ‘training for Europe’ that is considered so important in ensuring that British businesses exploit the opportunities of the single market?     

The Home Schooling “Market”: Results and Implications of Current Research

ABSTRACT

One of the biggest forces in primary and secondary education today is the home schooling movement–parents opting to forego sending their children to public or private schools in order to teach them themselves in their own home. As this movement grows, more and more students entering higher education will have been home schooled. This is becoming a market segment that many colleges and universities cannot afford to ignore. The current paper reviews the research which has been conducted on home schooling to answer four questions of importance to college or university officials as they contemplate targeting this group: (1) why do parents home school? (2) what are the characteristics of home schoolers? (3) would home schoolers make good college students? and (4) how could a college or university effectively reach out to home schoolers? By answering these four questions, college and university officials can better decide whether or not they should target home schooled students and, if they do, how to best reach these students.     

Epistemology,ontology and ethics: ‘galaxies away from the engineering world’?

Philosophy of technology/philosophy of science has recently become part of the curriculum of engineering degree programmes in Denmark. However, to what extent do teachers of engineering see it as meaningful for students to work with relatively abstract philosophical concepts such as epistemology, ontology and ethics as part of engineering degree programmes? And what, if any, are the complexities and difficulties in implementing philosophical questioning into engineering curricula? Do teachers tend to see philosophy of science as a kind of ‘Trojan horse’ – an unwelcome idea that will defocus engineering degree courses and steal time from more important subjects? Or do they see it as a necessary and welcome addition to engineering curricula that will result in more qualified and free-thinking engineering graduates? Subsequently these issues are discussed in the light of findings in an empirical case study carried out by the authors at their Institute.     

“Fácilis descensus Averni” Mind,Brain, Education,and Ethics: Highway to Hell,Stairway to Heaven,or Passing Dead End?*

Are human beings born unequal when it comes to ethics? Or are ethical standards acquired? Or both nature and nurture? Neuroscience is on its way to discovering biological underpinnings of ethics in our brains. Whatever the upcoming findings on this front will be, our philosophical, political, and educational views, and even the way we look at ourselves as a species, could soon be radically challenged, if not altered. AENEIS, the special section of this journal dedicated to Educational Neuroscience and Ethics, seeks to shed light on the crucial and sometimes frightening questions and answers we are to be confronted with. Starting with Charles Lang (“Science, Education, and the Ideology of ‘How”’) and Zachary Stein (“On the Difference Between Designing Children and Raising Them: Ethics and the Use of Educationally Oriented Biotechnology”), we are embarking on a fascinating but dangerous learning journey. To navigate between Scylla and Charybdis, extreme caution is highly recommended.     

公共经济视野下的高等教育产品

根据公共经济的分类,高等教育提供一部分纯公共产品,但主要提供准公共产品。纯公共产品是用于满足社会公共需要的产品和服务,准公共产品介于公共产品与私人产品之间。高等教育一方面具有公共产品受益的非排他性、效用的不可分割性和消费的非竞争性的特点;另一方面具有私人产品,可以买卖的商品性质,因此具有排他性、效用的可分割性和消费的竞争性特点;高等教育作为准公共产品,存在一系列经济和生产问题。     

Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Transition Countries: Accreditation -- Accountability and Assessment

One issue facing countries in transition concerns how to ensure quality for a broader and more diverse set of institutions. Quality assurance processes (i.e. accreditation, accountability and assessment) have particular relevance today as higher education undergoes dramatic changes in countries in transition, as the world becomes more internationalised, and as private higher education institutions increase in number and enrol increasing numbers of students. Three questions emerge. Do differences among transition countries relative to central control prior to independence explain the current set of quality assurance mechanisms? Has the growth of private higher education in transition countries affected how quality assurance is conceptualised? Have quality assurance mechanisms been affected by the opening of branch campuses in transition countries?     

Internationalisation policies: about new trends and contrasting paradigms

In this article, internationalisation of higher education is analysed as a response to globalisation. A distinction is made between two paradigms in internationalisation: competition and cooperation. The different approaches to internationalisation in the Anglo-Saxon countries on the one hand and in continental Europe on the other are analysed along the lines of these two paradigms. With respect to the role and position of continental Europe in the global higher education market the following questions are explored. Is there a real higher education market in Europe and if so for whom? Should and can European higher education actually compete internationally, and if so, is cooperation the right strategy to do so? It will be concluded that the effectiveness of cooperation and especially that of international university consortia in international competition is largely still hidden in the future. Furthermore, many questions still remain to be answered in order to improve our understanding of the international higher education market in terms of its segmentation and the related diversification of the higher education sector and its functions.     

Consultation Courses Offered in Special Education Teacher Training Programs: A National Survey

This article argues that how public services and supports for children and families are delivered is closely related to how they are financed. It is therefore essential to examine how financing systems for education and other children's services inhibit or promote more integrated service delivery systems. Two questions are specifically addressed: (a) How do current financ- ing arrangements present specific legal, political, administrative, and attitu- dinal obstacles to implementing comprehensive, community-based children's service approaches? (b) What are some promising strategies for overcoming these obstacles? The article concludes by noting that alternative financing approaches offer unique opportunities for the educational and psychological consulting communities because of the potential of these mechanisms to foster a more integral role for such personnel in children's service provision.     

Impact of training on change in practice for education assistants in a group of international private schools in Hong Kong

This paper reports research that evaluated the efficacy of training for education assistants and its impact upon changing practices in a group of private international schools in Hong Kong, China. Two cohorts of education assistants received training through an education institute. The focus was on supporting and fostering inclusive practices in schools. The expectations and perceptions of the education assistants regarding the training was recorded through survey and focus group interviews and discussed alongside international literature in the area of classroom support and inclusive schooling. The paper concludes that the provision of training was successful in meeting education assistants’ expectations and in increasing personal confidence and raising self‐esteem, but that they face many challenges if their learning is to be applied. The research further reveals that education assistants within Hong Kong schools lack clarity in their role and a narrow understanding of how they may be most appropriately utilised within schools has led to a limiting of their deployment. Implications for training providers and the teaching profession are discussed.     

Patterns of compensation of public and private school teachers

General impressions suggest that public school teachers are paid higher salaries than private school teachers. Indeed, the evidence is consistent with this general impression. But why the difference? Do public school teachers have better qualifications? Are private schools better places in which to work, and are they able to pay lower wages for comparable teachers? Do public and private schools even operate in the same market for teaching personnel? Are those individuals who seek employment in the private school sector from the same population as those seeking public school employment? What part does the ownership structure of the school play in the determination of teacher compensation? It is the purpose of this paper to provide some insights into these and related questions about the patterns of variation in compensation of public and private school teachers. Our findings reveal that public school teachers earn more than teachers in non-public schools. Teachers in parochial schools are the lowest paid, while teachers in non-sectarian private schools are the highest paid among non-public school teachers. There appear to be structural differences in the patterns of wage variation between the different sectors. Public school teachers possess greater quantities of those characteristics that are valued in the market than non-public school teachers. Non-public school teachers sacrifice between 10 and 40% of the public school teacher salary to work in the non-public sector (depending on the type of school within the non-public sector) and they are aware of their sacrifice. Organizational and ownership structure of the school also appears to make a difference in salaries, with profit-making schools being among the lowest paying, second only to parochial schools.     

Quality assurance of higher education in transition countries: Accreditation ‐ accountability and assessment

Abstract

One issue facing countries in transition concerns how to ensure quality for a broader and more diverse set of institutions. Quality assurance processes (i.e. accreditation, accountability and assessment) have particular relevance today as higher education undergoes dramatic changes in countries in transition, as the world becomes more internationalised, and as private higher education institutions increase in number and enrol increasing numbers of students. Three questions emerge. Do differences among transition countries relative to central control prior to independence explain the current set of quality assurance mechanisms? Has the growth of private higher education in transition countries affected how quality assurance is conceptualised? Have quality assurance mechanisms been affected by the opening of branch campuses in transition countries?     

Higher Education and Public Good

Policy debate about whether to maintain public subsidies for higher education has stimulated reconsideration of the public mission of higher education institutions, especially those that provide student places conferring private benefits. If the work of higher education institutions is defined simply as the aggregation of private interests, this evaporates the rationale for higher education institutions as distinctive social foundations with multiple public and private roles. The private benefits could be produced elsewhere. If that is all there is to higher education institutions, they could follow the Tudor monasteries into oblivion. But what is ‘public’ in higher education institutions? What could be ‘public’? What should be ‘public’? The paper reviews the main notions of ‘public’ (public goods in economics, public understood as collective good and Habermas' public sphere) noting the contested and politicised environment in which notions of ‘public’ must find purchase. A turn to global public goods offers the most promising strategy for re‐grounding the ‘public’ character of higher education.