European Educational
Research Journal

ISSN 1474-9041

Volume 1 Number 2 2002

CONTENTS

[click on author's name for abstract and full text]

THEME
Globalisation: autonomy of education under siege? Shifting Boundaries between Politics, Economy and Education
Guest Editors: S. KARIN AMOS, EDWIN KEINER, MATTHIAS PROSKE & FRANK-OLAF RADTKE

Karin Amos, Edwin Keiner, Matthias Proske & Frank-Olaf Radtke. Introduction. Globalisation: autonomy of education under siege? Shifting Boundaries between Politics, Economy and Education, pages 193–213 VIEW FULL TEXT
Christel Adick. Demanded and Feared: transnational convergencies in national educational systems and their (expectable) effects, pages 214–233
Thomas Brüsemeister. Myths of Efficiency and the School System: observed at the levels of interaction, organisation and society, pages 234–255
Francisco O. Ramirez. Eyes Wide Shut: university, state and society, pages 256–273
Gero Lenhardt. Europe and Higher Education between Universalisation and Materialist Particularism, pages 274–289
Martin Lawn & Bob Lingard. Constructing a European Policy Space in Educational Governance: the role of transnational policy actors, pages 290–307
Iveta Silova. The Manipulated Consensus: globalisation, local agency, and cultural legacies in post-Soviet education reform, pages 308–330
Jenny Ozga. Education Governance in the United Kingdom: the modernisation project, pages 331–341
François Orivel. Excluding the Poor: globalisation and educational systems, pages 342–359
ECER KEYNOTE
Marc Depaepe. The Practical and Professional Relevance of Educational Research and Pedagogical Knowledge from the Perspective of History: reflections on the Belgian case in its international background, pages 360–379
RESEARCH NEWS, pages 380–392 VIEW FULL TEXT
BOOK REVIEWS VIEW FULL TEXT
Globalisation, Educational Transformation and Societies in Transition (Teame Mehbrahtu, Michael Crossley & David Johnson, Eds), reviewed by Lynn Davies, pages 393–394
Operation Blackboard: policy implementation in Indian elementary education(Caroline Dyer), reviewed by Alan Rogers, pages 394–396
Education in Germany since Unification (David Phillips, ed.), reviewed by Edwin Keiner, pages 397–398
State of Transition: post-apartheid educational reform in South Africa (Clive Harber), reviewed by Simon McGrath, pages 398–399

Demanded and Feared: transnational convergencies in national educational systems and their (expectable) effects

CHRISTEL ADICK Ruhr-Universität, Bochum, Germany

The article focuses on the impact of social developments related to ‘globalisation’ on education. In line with the world systems approach as most prominently expounded by Immanuel Wallerstein the author conceptualises globalisation not as a new development, but as the current expression of a long historical process originating in sixteenth century Europe. In order to make use of world systems theory for education, the author makes a strong argument in favour of taking Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital and the relative autonomy of the educational system into account. On this basis, the author reviews a secondary analysis based on numerous studies of national education systems with respect to the various degrees of convergence, divergence and variation. It is argued with reference to the neo-institutionalist approach of the Stanford group that convergence and standardisation in education are not questions of affirmation or rejection as much as historical processes that by no means imply a deterministic implementation of an economic rationale.

Myths of Efficiency and the School System: observed at the levels of interaction, organisation and society

THOMAS BRÜSEMEISTER Fern Universität, Hagen, Germany

The article discusses, how the logic of the economic system – facilitated by terms like efficiency and quality management – is introduced into the educational system. The thesis is, that similar myths concerning the supposed efficiency of quality management can be differentiated according to three dimensions: to observation constellations between various audience groups at the level of society, to influencing constellations, which are established by consulting organisations (organisation level), and to negotiation constellations, in which the educational professions in schools are involved (level of interaction). Such a multi-dimensional programmeme of observation seems to be necessary, both in order to take account of the diversity and the simultaneity of particular processes in schools and their environments as they occur in the context of globalisation. Thus, it is necessary to heuristically link different theoretical explanation modules: systems theory, neo-institutionalism and theories of action. The hypothesis is postulated that myths of efficiency have similar effects in the societal audience, in organisation and in the education profession, in the form of a mutually responding resonance.

Eyes Wide Shut: university, state and society

FRANCISCO O. RAMIREZ Stanford University, USA

The article seeks to explain why the ties between industry and university are reacted to in different ways across the Atlantic. The modal European response is one of concern while the modal response in the United States of America is more optimistic. Some sociological explanations emphasize how differences in historical legacies explain persisting differences in what constitutes universities and why these differences in turn explain differences in sensibilities toward university industry links. These explanations indicate that the historical legacy of greater social embeddedness makes American universities more open to multiple external influences, including those rooted in industry. An alternative sociological perspective suggests that the weight of historical legacies is increasingly offset by the authority of a common world frame that defines what constitutes a university. More broadly, world models of progress and justice and their enactment to attain viability and probity as universities leads to common university blueprints. These blueprints become a core feature of the transnational organizational environment within which universities are increasingly situated. The first set of explanations seeks to make sense of persistent differences between European and American universities; the second focuses on growing commonalities.

Europe and Higher Education between Universalisation and Materialist Particularism

GERO LENHARDT Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Universalisation characterises the development of higher education since the Middle Ages. Three manifestations of this process can be distinguished: the expansion of enrolments, the expansion of the scope of teaching and research over ever more subjects, and the expansion of academic freedom. Universalisation is supported at the European level by the secretaries of education of 29 European countries, who are committed to the development of a European university. At the same time it is attacked by the higher education establishment in Germany. As a result the analysis suggests, that the process of universalisation will go on and shape the future European university.

Constructing a European Policy Space in Educational Governance: the role of transnational policy actors

MARTIN LAWN Worcester, United Kingdom BOB LINGARD University of Queensland, Australia

Educational policy is no longer, if it ever was, the product of the nation state alone. In Europe, significant policy actors in education are working today face to face and virtually in joint governmental projects and networking translating, mediating and constructing educational policies. The existence of this new social sphere of work, in which the construction of Europe is paramount, served by the regular communications and intimate work relations of a new European class of educational system actors, is deserving of further research. They appeared to constitute a form of policy elite in education, which has not surfaced into view in the study of education, either in studies of the national state or of Brussels: in the latter’s case, it may be because education does not have the same regulatory or legal framework as key aspects of governance in European law. The power this group wields by acting as shapers of the emerging discourse of educational policy, expressed in reports, key committees, funding streams and programmes has to be examined and recognized within studies of educational policy.

The Manipulated Consensus: globalisation, local agency, and cultural legacies in post-Soviet education reform

IVETA SILOVA Open Society Institute, Almaty, Kazakhstan

At the end of the 1990s, Latvian minority education reform was characterised by extensive references to Western European models, including such concepts as ‘ethnic integration,’ ‘multiculturalism,’ and ‘bilingual education.’ Focusing on the conceptual development of the idea of ‘integration’ and its interpretation in the education sphere, this article examines the process whereby Western discourses became widely accepted locally. Emphasising the existence of a ‘hybridity’ of voices in a rapidly changing political context, this article maps out different interpretations of the new discourse by Latvian- and Russian-speakers, including their attempts to resist, modify, and create new meanings of ‘integration’ in post-Soviet Latvia.

Education Governance in the United Kingdom: the modernisation project

JENNY OZGA University of Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom

This article considers the modernisation of education governance as implemented by the New Labour governments of the United Kingdom since 1997. The discussion focuses on the apparent contradiction between those elements of modernisation that require the measurement and management of performance; and those that promote greater fairness and responsiveness. It is argued that tensions between these elements of policy are resolved by New Labour policy makers through the use of ideas derived from social capital theory. Modernisation uses these ideas in pursuit of a transformation of politics that enhances governability by making beliefs and feelings quantifiable, and by equating social relations with capital accumulation. The article concludes with a consideration of the problems encountered in the operationalisation of the modernisation project in the United Kingdom’s Education Action Zones, where business was encouraged to play a major role in building new networks and social relations.

Excluding the Poor: globalisation and educational systems

FRANÇOIS ORIVEL University of Burgundy and CNRS, France

The article starts from the fact that one billion adults are illiterate world-wide, that more than 100 million children of school age are not schooled, and that the democratisation of the access to education is often only rhetorical. On the basis of available statistics it tackles successively three questions. First, who finances education and how much do they spend? Secondly, what resources or means are devoted to the education of an individual, and how can these data be evaluated. And finally, do the inequalities between individuals, social groups or nations tend to de- or increase with respect to education access. It will be shown that, for example, in developed countries like France, the social inequalities when it comes to education have widely diminished and can appear as relatively minor when compared to those affecting children from the poorest countries. At macro-economic level the ‘tendentious reduction of education systems’ productivity is not valid. Schools are unequally efficient with the same means. The traditional distinction between developed and developing countries is changing, part of which is due an unequal development of developing nations. The least advanced have remained outside of the race, and the distance is increasing.

The Practical and Professional Relevance of Educational Research and Pedagogical Knowledge from the Perspective of History: reflections on the Belgian case in its international background

MARC DEPAEPE Catholic University of Leuven, Flanders, Belgium

During the past 25 years, the author has set up several research projects in the history of education. A lot of them focus on the so-called ‘educationalisation’ or ‘pedagogisation’ process, that is the increasing importance of educational phenomena (educational conceptions, mentalities and practices and their legitimation in educational research and pedagogical knowledge) in society. On the basis of such studies it is possible to draw at least partial answers to the problem of the practical and professional relevance of educational research and pedagogical knowledge in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Among other things, analyses of the inception of experimental research, of the change and continuity of in the ‘progressive’ area, of the social significance of the teaching profession, as well as of everyday life in ordinary schools, show an almost persistent tension between ‘rhetoric’ and ‘reality’ on the one hand, and between ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ pedagogy on the other. Tackling these kind of paradoxes is not only very helpful in qualifying the enduring attempts to improve education by research, but also in demythologising the educational past – a task to which contemporary history of education has devoted itself.

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