Advancing innovation in the public sector: Aligning innovation measurement with policy goals

There is sufficient evidence, drawn from surveys of innovation in the public sector and cognitive testing interviews with public sector managers, to develop a framework for measuring public sector innovation. Although many questions that are covered in the Oslo Manual guidelines for measuring innovation in the private sector can be applied with some modifications to the public sector, public sector innovation surveys need to meet policy needs that require collecting additional types of data. Policy to support public sector innovation requires data on how public sector organizations innovate and how a strategic management approach to innovation can influence the types of innovations that are developed. Both issues require innovations surveys to delve deeply into the innovation processes and strategies that are used by public sector managers. Implementation of the measurement framework proposed in this paper would open up opportunities for a new, policy-relevant research program on public sector innovation.     

Take care of a child, one work like any other?

This article has its roots in the basic contradictions, which go back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, between the self-interest and the care of others, exemplified by the delegation of responsibility for the care of children and other vulnerable persons. This splitting of human life-supporting activities has sealed women's dependence on men by setting off the lucrative area from the private, non-lucrative sphere of activities. These contradictions become paradoxical as soon as we consider the delegation of responsibility for the care of a child to someone not related to the child. This article addresses the question of how the child's developmental needs can be met without damage to his/her sensitivity, and his/her perception of others or of the cooperation involved. As soon as it is born, the child, a thoroughly interactive being, discerns the relationships it entertains with those who are in charge of him/her. The persons - mostly women - who take care of the child are not interchangeable, since they bring their own subjectivity into their dealings with the child and this is reciprocal. The women's skills, frequently thought to be “undefinable”, but which many women, whether related or not to the child, have developed or should develop, are brought into play and are either transmitted or acquired in the course of their care of the child; these skills are not by nature “feminine skills”, but they require a great deal of reactivity and sensitivity and therefore, many child professionals, mothers' aids and children's care-takers in the home are hurt and insulted by the low esteem in which they are held. These skills and human qualities, which are the result of feelings more than of formalised knowledge, techniques or theories - albeit these are also necessary - make child care and child rearing an art. These skills seem to be in total contradiction with those that are current in the world of labour, where the tempo of work, flexibility of working hours, the evaluation criteria and anxiety are conditioned by economic considerations and rest on purely monetary factors. Finally, a recognition of these sensitive qualities - when it is given - must of necessity be inter-subjective but also be societal. The latter requires a new, different organisation of the labour world, one which recognises the diversity of human activities, where each can find a sense of social usefulness by contributing to the satisfaction of others' social needs and having one's own needs satisfied by others - by many others. This would presuppose reversing the meaning of the division of labour and of life-maintaining activities by placing greater emphasis on “interest in others”.     

Stratifikationen im Bereich der Hochschulbildung in Deutschland

Until recently there have been no universities or study programs in Germany that were connected to claims for top level positions in the field of higher education. However, by now efforts to vertically differentiate higher education are increasing and emphasize differences in quality. Such efforts have so far been observed with respect to research. In contrast, this article focusses on stratificatory efforts that are primarily connected to education at universities. It is based on cases studies in the field of graduate schools funded by the German excellence initiative and in the field of private higher education institutions that belong to law, business, and the social sciences and try to positions themselves as top level institutions. The first part addresses specific forms in which stratification is institutionalized in the field of higher education at present. The second part then exemplifies the various ways in which vertical differentiation is mobilized along a common attribute in both fields—internationality. We show that stratification is not a monolithic process but involves highly complex differentiations along various attributes and in multiple ways.     

On stratification in changing higher education: the “analysis of status” revisited

This article seeks to shed light on current dynamics of stratification in changing higher education and proposes an analytical perspective to account for these dynamics based on Martin Trow’s work on “the analysis of status.” In research on higher education, the term “stratification” is generally understood as a metaphor that describes a stable vertical order. In sectors that are experiencing considerable change, such an order is still in the making. In following Trow, we propose to look at stratification as an open ordering process that constructs verticality. We distinguish between sector and field stratification, i.e., between stratification through coercive regulation by the state and through status judgements by a wide range of stakeholders. Within the last decade, field stratification has grown in importance as governments in continental Europe have provided universities with more leeway. Specific devices (rankings, etc.) channel such judgements and construct images of how a field appears. By applying this concept to two empirical cases from German higher education, we will show how devices redefine verticality in higher education through specific field images. First, master rankings in business administration/economics expand the topological boundaries to include degree programs outside national sectors, raise the importance of alumni and increase the recruitment of female students. Second, the Excellence Initiative triggers the construction of a new unregulated sector of doctoral education; excellent graduate schools model themselves along the scales of the field image as selective, interdisciplinary, international, and part of a holistic university image.     

Awareness of Societal Issues Among High School Biology Teachers Teaching Genetics

The purpose of this study was to investigate how aware high school biology teachers are of societal issues (values, moral, ethic, and legal issues) while teaching genetics, genetics engineering, molecular genetics, human heredity, and evolution. The study includes a short historical review of World War II atrocities during the Holocaust when scientists from all the above-mentioned disciplines had been involved in trying to support and develop the eugenics theories. It investigates pre- and postwar theories of the eugenics movement in the United States which were implemented successfully in Germany and a literature survey of the studies of societal issues related to these subjects. The sample consisted of 30 male and female biology teachers. Enclosed are teachers' answers in favor or against including debates about societal issues in their classrooms while teaching the disciplines mentioned above. Teachers' answers were analyzed in relation to three variables: years of teaching experience, gender, and religion faith. Data were collected from questionnaires and personal interviews and analyzed according to qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show that amongst the teachers there is a medium to low level of awareness of societal issues, while mainly emphasizing scientific subjects in preparation of matriculation examinations. The majority of the teachers do not include societal issues in their teaching, but if students raise these issues, teachers claimed to address them. No differences in teachers' opinions to societal issues were found in relation to gender or religious faith. Teachers with more years of teaching experience tend to teach with a more Science, Technology, and Society (STS) approach than novice teachers. The results are discussed in relation to teachers' professional development and teaching strategies are suggested to be used in their classrooms based on a STS approach, which includes the societal issues as a main goal.     

User satisfaction with computer-based career information delivery systems

Conclusions In this study, support for the CIDS in use in New York State emerged from each of the user groups—principals, counselors, students, and parents. There are, however, two areas of future work that emerged from the results of this study which may be applicable on a broader basis. The first deals with the information content of the CIDS. The second relates to its increased utilization.Counselors did not give overwhelmingly high marks to the content of systems. Although counselors can do their part by letting the developers know what is good and what is not good, the responsibility lies primarily with developers and state providers to incorporate current, locally relevant information at the level of detail most appropriate for the user.Spreading the use of CIDS in a school beyond its provision for individual college and career counseling will not only help in making school more relevant to the students' life-careers, but will also provide increased access to the information and the computer for those students who might not otherwise seek it. School personnel can reexamine practices to see that full use of the CIDS resource is being made. System developers can work on the identification of model programs and the dissemination of information about them to their sites. It is hoped that with the increasing availability of microcomputers in schools, not only in guidance offices, but in laboratories and classrooms, such uses will continue and spread.Deborah Perlmutter Bloch, Ph. D., is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, Department of Education, Baruch College, City University of New York.Joyce Ford Kinnison is a consultant in Cary, North Carolina.This study was conducted as part of the project, Evaluating Computerized Career Information Systems for Use with Occupational Education Curricula, sponsored by the New York State Education Department and the New York State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee. Funding was provided by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act.