Policy making (original) (raw)
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The culture of education policy making: curriculum reform in Shanghai
Critical Studies in Education, 2012
This paper explores the culture of education policy making in Shanghai using the conceptual tool of a 'global assemblage'. A global assemblage is essentially a collection of ideas and practices that arise from the interplay between a global form and situated ...
Understanding Policy Change: Multiple Streams and National Education Curriculum Policy in Hong Kong
Journal of Public Administration and Governance
"The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the policymaking process of the Moral and National Education (MNE) curriculum in Hong Kong by employing Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework. The aim of the paper is threefold. First, it will describe the policy process of the national education curriculum policy as a foundation for the analysis. Second, the author will critically evaluate and apply Kingdon’s MSF to examine the policymaking process, both to analyse how such policy came to be constructed as a problem and to consider the proposed policy solutions, as well as the surrounding political forces. Third, the analysis will identify the possible coupling of these lines of thought and the notions of “policy entrepreneurs” and “policy windows.” The MNE policy provided a good example of how a policy problem is constructed in various policy contexts, as well as how the solution is matched to the problem. Although the policy outcome is not entirely predictable, Kingdon’s framework is excellent for explaining the likely outcomes. This paper contributes to the wider policy literature by bridging the East-West gap in policy analysis. It provides a better understanding of the policymaking process in Asian countries, and it should also prove useful to both education policy scholars and policymakers. Finally it suggests further research is needed on how social media affects each of Kingdon’s streams in Hong Kong."
Curriculum Reform and Education Policy Borrowing in China: Towards a Hybrid Model of Teaching
This chapter critically discusses the development and application of a model of education in China by focussing on recent curriculum reform in the country. Since the 1980s, China has launched a series of ambitious education reforms in its effort to revamp its basic education and prepare its graduates for the challenges of the 21 st century. Major changes are evident in the school management, curriculum, pedagogy and assessment in Shanghai schools. Drawing upon Phillips and Ochs (2003)' four stages of education policy borrowing, this article analyses the curriculum reform in China and argues that a hybrid model of education exists in China that combines foreign and local ideas and practices. Rather than wholesale policy borrowing from the West, the foreign ideas and practices are being internalised and indigenised in China as they interact with local traditions, values, ways of doing and actors.
Referencing and borrowing from other systems: the Hong Kong education reforms
Educational Research, 2016
Background: This paper analyses the role of, and approach to, policy referencing and borrowing in Hong Kong's recent reforms that culminated in the creation of its New Academic Structure and the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. Main argument: It argues that Hong Kong has gone further than most jurisdictions not just in responding to global influences on education reform, but in taking explicit steps to internationally benchmark its curriculum and assessment, and in involving the global community at multiple levels in the process of education policy planning and implementation. Sources of evidence and method: The paper is based on the documentary analysis of policy documents in Hong Kong, and 23 interviews with key stakeholders in the policy network, including policy-makers, practitioners and community leaders. Discussion and conclusions: While policy referencing and borrowing in the Hong Kong context can, in part, be traced to a colonial legacy, the Special Administrative Region of China demonstrates a collaborative approach to education reform involving local and international engagement that may be relevant to other systems. Its approach was informed by a measured use of policy referencing that involved 'horizon scanning' of other systems' policies and practices; international benchmarking; and engaging international expertise to facilitate implementation.
Neoliberalism as exception: The New High-Quality School Project in Shanghai
Drawing upon Aihwa Ong's concept of 'neoliberalism as exception', this paper explores how the education authority in Shanghai capitalises on neo-liberal knowledge, techniques and logics to address local challenges. Through the creation of 'new high quality schools' that is accompanied by a new assessment system, the authority hopes to persuade parents to choose non-elite schools instead of prestigious schools that excel in academic performance. The neoliberal strategy of school choice is supported by the policy of school autonomy for educators to go beyond test scores to promote holistic development in students. The paper underlines the indigenisation of neoliberalism through policy dynamics where multiple educational stakeholders interact with and mutually influence one another. By highlighting 'neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics' in Shanghai, this study demonstrates how neoliberalism coexists with state forms, cultural norms and social practices in a particular locality.
How Shanghai Does It: Insights and Lessons from the Highest-Ranking Education System in the World
How Shanghai Does It: Insights and Lessons from the Highest-Ranking Education System in the World, 2016
Education is widely recognized as a fundamental right and as one of the most powerful instruments for economic growth and poverty alleviation. Education is critical to the World Bank Group's mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity in the world by 2030. It also features prominently in the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015 to transform the world. The fourth of these global goals calls for access to quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all. In fact, quality education is essential for any country aiming for sustained and diversified economic growth. The question that policy makers are constantly asking is how to achieve quality in education in the face of daunting challenges. The World Bank's Education Strategy 2020 calls for investing early, investing smartly, and investing for all-with a particular emphasis on strengthening education systems and raising learning outcomes. Worldwide, education systems differ in history, context, policy focus, and implementation, as well as results. Through its financing, development knowledge, and global partnerships, the World Bank Group aspires to bring the best global and comparative evidence to individual country contexts. This study, How Shanghai Does It, provides many exciting, valuable, and relevant lessons from Shanghai, one of the world's best-performing education systems according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD's) Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). By analyzing and benchmarking education policies and practices pertaining to teachers, school financing, student assessment, and school autonomy and accountability, the study provides an unparalleled and comprehensive account of the insights and lessons from Shanghai. The account reveals that Shanghai has managed to strategically plan, develop, and establish a set of highly coherent and synergistic education policies that have together boosted education results. Furthermore, the study reveals a second secret-that Shanghai implements its education policies consistently and constantly strives to innovate and reform to meet new challenges. The breadth of the information and analysis in this study is both practical and relevant, not only for education systems aspiring to achieve Shanghai's success, but for Shanghai itself in view of the rapidly changing landscape of social demography and educational purpose and technology in the region and globally. xii
Neo-liberal Education Policy in China: Issues and Challenges in Curriculum Reform
Sense Publishers
This chapter critically discusses the key characteristics and ideological assumptions of neo-liberal education policy, and its impact on curriculum reform in China. To illustrate the adoption and consequences of neo-liberal education policy in China, this chapter focuses on recent curriculum reform in Shanghai. It is argued that there is a shift, through the implementation of neo-liberal education policy, from a “one-size-fits-all” educational model to one that focuses on individual interests and needs in China. However, the neo-liberal education policy in China faces two main challenges. First, although the educational changes attempt to promote more student- centred curriculum, pedagogy and assessment, key educational stakeholders in China still value traditional forms of teaching and learning that lead to academic success in high-stakes examinations. The second challenge is the de-professionalisation of school personnel where centralised control by the state through the school appraisal system and standardised exams threatens to undermine the professionalism and autonomy of the educators.
This article aims to explore processes of policy implementation with respect to an ongoing empirical study in three very different sites: Denmark, Nepal, and China. Rather than treat these investigations in the traditional manner of separate and contained national case studies, I attempt to create a "policyscape" around processes of what Roger Dale has called hyperliberalism in education, and I do so by working across different levels of the education systems within these three countries. My argument is that nationstate and system studies of education must be informed by understandings of the nature of globalization and especially the new imaginative regimes that it makes possible. Educational phenomena in one country case must thus be understood in ongoing relation to other such cases. In this sense, I am attempting to operationalize as a research program a new approach to comparison, one that has been alluded to in the literature but only conceptually (e.g., Cowen 2000; Marginson and Mollis 2001; Welch 2001).