European Educational
Research Journal

ISSN 1474-9041

Volume 6 Number 1 2007

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

Geir Haugsbakk & Yngve Nordkvelle. The Rhetoric of ICT and the New Language of Learning: a critical analysis of the use of ICT in the curricular field, pages 1‑12
Mieke Lunenberg, Petra Ponte & Piet-Hein van de Ven. Why Shouldn’t Teachers and Teacher Educators Conduct Research on their Own Practices? An Epistemological Exploration, pages 13‑24
Dionyssios S. Gouvias. The ‘Response’ of the Greek State to Global Trends of Educational Policy Making, pages 25‑38

POSTGRADUATE PRIZE ESSAY, ECER 2004
Anja P. Jakobi. The Knowledge Society and Global Dynamics in Education Politics, pages 39‑51

MAPPING EDUCATION RESEARCH IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Martin Lawn & Gareth Rees. Introduction, pages 52‑54 VIEW FULL TEXT doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.52
Martin Lawn & John Furlong. The Social Organisation of Education Research in England, pages 55‑70
Walter Humes. The Infrastructure of Educational Research in Scotland, pages 71‑86
Gareth Rees & Sally Power. Educational Research and the Restructuring of the State: the impacts of parliamentary devolution in Wales, pages 87‑100
John Gardner & Tony Gallagher. Gauging the Deliverable? Educational Research in Northern Ireland, pages 101‑114

REVIEW ESSAY
Nico Hirtt. What’s Common Between ‘Business in Schools’ and ‘Education Business’?, pages 115‑121 VIEW FULL TEXT doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.115

The Rhetoric of ICT and the New Language of Learning: a critical analysis of the use of ICT in the curricular field

GEIR HAUGSBAKK & YNGVE NORDKVELLE Lillehammer University College, Norway

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.1

This article focuses on how we perceive new technology and technological development within educational settings, and seeks to establish a critical link between the rhetoric of information and communications technology (ICT) and what Biesta called ‘the new language of learning’. Within this ‘new language’ the learner is a consumer, with needs that must be fulfilled by the teacher. This rhetoric implies that ‘teaching’ has been replaced by ‘learning’ and challenges the conventional curricula in many respects. The article applies Biesta’s perspective to a concrete scrutiny of current trends in education and the introduction of ICT in education in particular. The analysis gives support to Biesta’s main hypothesis, but it also indicates that the radical shift from teaching to learning is accompanied, and we might possibly say influenced, by the rhetoric connected to the use of ICT. In recent Norwegian curricular texts ICT takes a position as the rationalising tools by which teaching can be made efficient, individually designed and flexible. The intention is to critically examine the way in which teaching is more or less automatically replaced by learning, the influence the rhetoric of ICT has had, and how ICT and learning seem to be connected through merely rhetorical couplings.

Why Shouldn’t Teachers and Teacher Educators Conduct Research on their Own Practices? An Epistemological Exploration

MIEKE LUNENBERG Vrije University, Amsterdam, Netherlands
PETRA PONTE Leiden University, Netherlands
PIET-HEIN VAN DE VEN Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, Netherlands

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.13

The idea of teachers and teacher educators engaging in research is not, in itself, new, but in recent years the propagation of this idea seems to have become really popular. This growing popularity brings the risk that practitioner research will degenerate into an increasingly vague and obscure ‘container concept’. The aim of this article is to pause to allow time to reflect on the concept of practitioner research from a perspective that sees knowledge, knowledge-constitutive interests and knowledge construction as interrelated.

The ‘Response’ of the Greek State to Global Trends of Educational Policy Making

DIONYSSIOS S. GOUVIAS University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.25

Many academics in the past have attempted to provide an overview of the general and common elements and ‘trends’ in contemporary, international education policy, focusing mainly on the most advanced – economically and technologically – countries of the ‘West’: from the increasing adoption of market ideologies in (public) education, to the introduction of modern management techniques into the organisation of state schools; and from a rising support for ‘public choice’ theories to the prevalence of the ‘perfomativity’ criterion. The main aim of this article is to examine the degree of ‘adaptation’ of the contemporary Greek educational system to the above trends. Using Ball’s analytic model (1998), this will be done through a comparison between the specificities of the Greek social – and consequently, educational – formation and those of other advanced countries of the ‘West’, drawing examples mainly from the European experience.

The Knowledge Society and Global Dynamics in Education Politics

ANJA P. JAKOBI University of Bremen, Germany

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.39

This article explores the linkage between the idea of a knowledge society and effects of internationalisation in education policy-making. The fact that the idea of a knowledge society is widely shared is brought together with an explanation of increasing dynamics in education politics. The central argument is that the idea of a knowledge society has helped countries to increasingly perceive themselves as similar with respect to necessary educational changes. In consequence, they exchange policies which, some decades ago, would have been assumed to be bound to and determined by specific national traditions. Theoretically, the article is conceptualised in an institutionalist framework and illustrates the theoretical thoughts by the example of lifelong learning. Methods applied are content analysis, descriptive statistics and interviews.

The Social Organisation of Education Research in England

MARTIN LAWN University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
JOHN FURLONG University of Oxford, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.55

The field of education research has grown enormously in England over the last 25 years – in size, complexity, forms of production and purpose. It has been shaped by governmental, market and production changes, and it appears to be moving outside the university sector as well. The British Educational Research Association is trying to map the field and to make sense of its development. This article begins with a search for relevant data about the key elements in the field – personnel, institutions, output, etc. – and tries to draw conclusions about the next steps in the inquiry.

The Infrastructure of Educational Research in Scotland

WALTER HUMES University of Paisley, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.71

This article offers a descriptive and analytical account of the current state of educational research in Scotland, viewed against the background of constitutional change within the United Kingdom and debates about the nature, function and quality of research activity and output. It starts by considering how to undertake the task in hand and argues that it is necessary to draw on a combination of institutional, developmental and interactive approaches. Thereafter the relatively disappointing Scottish results in the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercise are reported to set the scene for subsequent efforts to improve research capacity. The role of the Scottish Executive in determining research priorities, commissioning projects and using the findings of research in helping to inform policy is outlined, taking account of important structural changes following devolution. A key development has been the Applied Educational Research Scheme (AERS), a collaborative university-led initiative, funded jointly by the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Funding Council (previously the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council). This consists both of substantive research networks and a capacity-building programme of research training for beginning and developing researchers. Established research centres, with different histories and emphases, are described in order to raise issues about the balance between applied research, linked to policy priorities, and fundamental research which seeks to develop new theories and models. The role of the Scottish Educational Research Association, which has links with the British and European Educational Research Associations, is considered. Various attempts by different bodies to promote teacher engagement in research are also described. In the final section an attempt is made to assess what progress has been made. It is concluded that while the overall climate for the conduct of educational research has improved, providing real opportunities to demonstrate the value of research, there remain a number of challenging problems. These include: issues of research quality; inadequate opportunity to undertake fundamental (as distinct from applied) research; tensions between the demands of teacher education programmes and universities’ research aspirations; the risk of ‘collaboration’ becoming ‘consensus’; and the absence of a developed international perspective.

Educational Research and the Restructuring of the State: the impacts of parliamentary devolution in Wales

GARETH REES & SALLY POWER Cardiff University, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.87

This article explores the relationships between educational research and the state. However, the aim is not to construct idealised versions of what the relationship between research and educational policy ought to be, but rather to examine the ways in which the state is able to influence the priorities of educational research through its role as the key funder of such research and as a principal consumer of its results. Empirically, the analysis is located in a particular historical context: the restructuring of the United Kingdom (UK) through the devolution of powers from the UK central government to a Parliament in Scotland and an Assembly in Wales, each with its devolved executive. In particular, the effects of this devolution on educational research are analysed through an examination of the transformation of educational research in universities; and of the ways in which the Welsh Assembly Government has used research in the processes through which educational policies are developed. Processes of globalisation have created complex interactions between civil society and different levels of government in many societies, which have had important consequences for the ways in which education policies are produced and the roles played by different forms of ‘expert’ knowledge (including educational research). Accordingly, the significance of the analysis extends beyond the specific, historical context in which it is located.

Gauging the Deliverable? Educational Research in Northern Ireland

JOHN GARDNER & TONY GALLAGHER Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.1.101

This article considers the landscape for educational research in the smallest country of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland. As elsewhere, educational research exists in political and economic circumstances that have considerable influence on its direction, nature and purpose and this article seeks to contextualise these influences. Northern Ireland differs considerably from the other three jurisdictions by virtue of it being very small (a population of circa 1.5 million), a fact that creates systemic difficulties such as capacity weaknesses in both numbers of researchers and the range of research skills available. Perhaps most importantly, however, Northern Ireland is uniquely distinguished from England, Scotland and Wales by having a proportionately large selective education system (grammar and non-selective secondary schools) and a politically and religiously divided population. This article argues that in combination with such national pressures as the Research Assessment Exercise, these contextual features result in a largely instrumental role for educational research – a tool to gauge what policy changes are deliverable. A strategic direction based on a dialogue between the government and the researcher community is therefore needed to prevent the continuation of a perceived ad hoc and fragmented system of educational research. The challenges of building a thriving research community in such circumstances also include the need to promote innovative ideas and related research, and to encourage greater inter-institutional collaboration. This in turn, it is argued, will help to create a community of practice capable of both sustaining itself in the future and making available a broader range of research competence.

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