Innovative Orthodoxies and Old Bedfellows -Re(drawing) the Geometries of Education Governance (original) (raw)
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Journal of Educational Thought, 2022
Just like that ancient riddle about who came first between the egg and the chicken, researchers interested in educational policy and educational governance keep arguing whether educational policies guide institutional governance or institutional governance controls educational policy formation, implementation, and reform. Although there is consensus about the interconnectedness between the two, controversies about their roles in each other’s establishment and functioning continue to surface in literature on the topics and researchers remain interested in investigating the nexus between them. However, there is still confusion about what to consider when performing an educational policy-governance analysis. This paper discusses the relationship between educational policy and educational governance, and the debates surrounding their influence on each other. The findings of our literature review reveal that whether it is educational policy or governance, they can be categorized into three levels (top-down, bottom-up and middle-out) in terms of planning, implementation and review. Although traditional educational policy-governance analysis that usually focuses on one of the three levels may help understand each level separately, this paper proposes a holistic educational policy-governance approach (HEPGA) that can be useful in considering the complexity, interconnectedness and collectivism that characterize contemporary educational policy-governance practices. Tout comme l’ancienne énigme sur ce qui est venu en premier entre l’oeuf et la poule, les chercheurs intéressés par la politique et la gouvernance éducatives continuent de se demander si les politiques éducatives guident la gouvernance institutionnelle ou si la gouvernance institutionnelle contrôle la formation, la mise en oeuvre et la réforme des politiques éducatives. Bien qu’il existe un consensus sur l’interdépendance entre les deux, les discussions sur leurs rôles font surface et les chercheurs continuent à étudier le lien entre eux. Cependant, il existe une certaine confusion quant à ce qu’il faut prendre en compte lors de la réalisation d’une analyse de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives. Cet article examine la relation entre la politique éducative et la gouvernance de l’éducation, et les débats entourant leur influence réciproque. Les conclusions de la revue de la littérature révèlent que, qu’il s’agisse de politique éducative ou de gouvernance, elles peuvent être classées en trois niveaux (descendant, ascendant et intermédiaire) en matière de planification, de mise en oeuvre et de révision. Bien que l’analyse traditionnelle de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives qui se concentre généralement sur l’un des trois niveaux puisse aider à comprendre chaque niveau séparément, cet article propose une approche holistique de la gouvernance des politiques éducatives (HEPGA) qui peut être utile afin de tenir compte de la complexité, de l’interdépendance et du collectivisme qui caractérisent les pratiques contemporaines en matière de politique et de gouvernance de l’éducation.
Foreword to Education Governance and Social Theory: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research
This Foreword to Andew Wilkins' and Antonio Olmedo's edited collection Education Governance and Social Theory discusses the contemporary crises of democratic governance inside and outside of educational institutions. It discusses a number of reasons why theory matters to education governance. It also elaborates on the relationship between political, economic, and cultural crises of democracy and anti-theoretical and positivist trends. The piece launches the author's discussion of a new theory he terms "the alienation of fact" that contributes to comprehending why the contemporary imperative for radical empiricism (data driven everything) can coincide with the current abdication of evidence, argument, and truth for social policy and governance (Evidence against privatization? Expand privatization). The alienation of fact replaces reason with faith, particularly in markets and is related to both the rise of conspiracy and the individualizing of politics through the registers of the body and numbers.
Education governance and social theory: Interdisciplinary approaches to research
Bloomsbury, 2018
To cite: Wilkins, A. and Olmedo, A. (eds). 2018. Education governance and social theory: Interdisciplinary approaches to research. Bloomsbury: London Available to buy in paperback: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/education-governance-and-social-theory-9781350159723/ The study of 'education governance' is a significant area of research in the twenty-first century concerned with the changing organisation of education systems, relations and processes against the background of wider political and economic developments occurring nationally and globally. In Education Governance and Social Theory these important issues are critically examined through a range of innovative theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to assist in guiding those interested in better understanding and engaging with education governance as an object of critical inquiry and a tool or method of research. With contributions from an international line-up of academics, the book judiciously combines theory and methodologies with case study material taken from diverse geo-political settings to help frame and enrich our understanding of education governance. This is a theoretically and empirically rich resource for those who wish to research education governance and its multifarious operations, conditions and effects, but are not sure how to do so. It will therefore appeal to readers who have a strong interest in the practical application of social theory to making sense of the complex changes underway in education across the globe.
3. The Governance of Education Systems
Open Book Publishers, 2023
This work is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text for non-commercial purposes of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: About the Authors Montserrat Gomendio, a biologist by training, holds a BSc from Universidad Complutense (Madrid), a Ph.D. from Cambridge University (UK), and is currently a tenured Research Professor at the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). For many years, she combined her research work with leadership positions such as Director of the Spanish National Science Museum and Vice-President of the Spanish Research Council. In 2011 she was appointed Secretary of State for Education, Vocational Training and Universities in the Spanish Government. In 2015 she joined the OECD as Deputy Director of Education and in 2017 she became Head of the OECD Skills Centre. Since 2020 she has co-founded and co-chaired Skills WeGo, a consultancy on education, training and employment. Montserrat is a member of the Board of the International Baccalaureate. She has authored books and over 100 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals. José Ignacio Wert holds a law degree from Universidad Complutense (Madrid) and a master's degree in Political Sociology by Instituto de Estudios Políticos (Spain). He has been Deputy Director of the Centre for Sociological Research (a public research institution) and founder and CEO of Demoscopia, a leading polling firm in Spain, as well as serving in different managing capacities in other private ventures. From 2011 to 2015 he was Minister of Education, Culture and Sport in the Spanish Government and from 2015 to 2018 he was Spain's Ambassador to the OECD. Since 2020 he has co-founded and co-chaired Skills WeGo, a consultancy on education, training and employment. He is the author of four books and co-author of over two dozen others, plus several hundred articles in journals and magazines. xvii Preface by putting pressure on governments to decrease class size over time and by rejecting attempts to improve teacher quality and evaluate teachers or students. Thus, the trade-off has been exactly the opposite. When we analyse the trends of countries positioned somewhere between these opposite poles (Europe, United Kingdom, North America, Australia and New Zealand), we find that most of them have not managed to improve their education systems during the last decades, despite major increases in levels of investment and many reforms. This clearly shows that the evidence provided by international surveys has not had the expected impact on the performance of education systems. We argue that this is partly because some policy recommendations are misleading, and partly because in certain political contexts solid evidence is not enough to overcome huge political costs, which tend to be the result of ideological battles and/or strong underlying conflicts of interest. Despite this pessimistic conclusion, we remain convinced that the only way forward is to obtain robust evidence and, more importantly, to improve the policy recommendations so that they adapt more readily to the specific context experienced by each country. In countries where the magnitude of the political costs and underlying conflicts of interest are too great, the only way forward may be to start pilot projects rather than to implement systemic changes. If successful, such pilots may be expanded, but small steps like this will require time, and students may not have much time to spare since they need to face an uncertain, challenging and rapidly changing world. 2 'Opinions, attitudes and values'-following the metaphor coined by Sir Robert Worcester, are different expressions of depth and intensity for views that people may have on any given matter: "opinions: the ripples on the surface of the public's consciousness, shallow, and easily changed; attitudes: the currents below the surface, deeper and stronger; and values: the deep tides of public mood, slow to change, but powerful" (Worcester, 1983).
Governance of elementary education: An analytical view
2019
The issue of education, and making it accessible to the public, has been one of the major concerns of Pakistan since decades. It is a problem which has garnered quite a lot of attention over the years, both at home and abroad. Education at the elementary level requires special attention because this is the most critical stage of an individual’s entire academic trajectory, and has important implications for the country as well. The Punjab government has recently launched many new schemes in order to increase enrollment rates and to provide this basic facility to the vast millions deprived of it. The method chosen for this purpose has been public-private partnerships and privatization, with the help of millions of dollars in aid from international donor agencies. This paper argues that these projects initiated by the Punjab government are based on neo-liberal policies which challenge the spirit of public service and create further inconsistencies in the society. Specifically, the impl...
Education Governance in Transition: An introduction
Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 2002
The purpose of this article is to present concepts and research problems dealing with education governance and social inclusion and exclusion. Education restructuring, as a recent international movement, is regarded as a combination of transitions in governing and new managerialism. Social inclusion and exclusion is conceived of as a duplet concept, mutually de ning each other. The relation between new governance-deregulation, decentralisation, privatisation and steering by goals and results-and social inclusion/exclusion is conceptualised as an equity problematic and a knowledge problematic. It is argued that there is a need to understand the system of reason in order to capture the implications of education governing in transition.
Educational Governance and Democratic Practice
Educational Policy, 2001
A preoccupation with academic quality has guided contemporary education reforms in the United States. This is hardly surprising, because political and business elites recognize that well-trained,high-skilled workers are crucial for regional competitiveness. Many parents have also come to see academic credentials as vital to their children’s future well-being; they have thus sought more control over their children’s schooling. As these changes have been occurring, others have voiced concerns about the state of civic engagement and democratic practice. With questions emerging over how public policies might promote democracy, the democratic function of public schooling has received renewed scrutiny.However, as yet, no effort has been made to explore the commensurability between reform efforts motivated by quality and accountability concerns and the growing discussion of education for democracy. This article begins that task, indicating where trade-offs must be made between goals and where goals could be advanced in mutually supporting ways.
Reframing education as a public and common good: enhancing democratic governance
Journal of Education Policy, 2019
is Reader in Education at Goldsmiths, University of London. He writes about education policy and governance and governing relations with a focus on privatisation management, meta-governance, attraction and soft governing, risk responsibility, expert administration, regulated participation, and democratic cultures. His recent books include Modernising School Governance (Routledge 2016) and Education Governance and Social Theory (Bloomsbury 2018).
European Educational Research Journal, 2010
During the last 20 years many European education systems have seen profound changes in the way they are governed. This also applies to the school systems of German-speaking countries which until then had been characterized by a long period of stability. Both political rhetoric and actual changes have rightly attracted increased attention of educational researchers, resulting in a growing body of work on the 'governance' of schooling. There is no such word as 'governance' in the German language. Nevertheless, a type of studies called 'Governance Studies', 'Governance Research' or 'Governance Perspective' has recently evolved in German-speaking social sciences. This article aims to make accessible this strand of research which has not yet been extensively published in languages other than German. Further, it intends to explore its links and relationships to other European research approaches. First, the article explains in what way the concept of 'governance' has been defined in German educational research. The second section discusses some of its methodological aspirations. In the third part, some examples of empirical research on changing educational governances are discussed in order to give an idea of how this research approach currently unfolds.