Policy Futures in Education

ISSN 1478-2103

Volume 3 Number 1 2005

CONTENTS

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

Editorial, pages 1‑2
David Hursh. Neo-liberalism, Markets and Accountability: transforming education and undermining democracy in the United States and England, pages 3‑15
Brian Ford. The Significance of Charter Schools and the Privatization of Standards: holding the wolf by the ears, pages 16‑29
Henrik Hansson & Scott Hall. The Future of Schools from a European Union Perspective: selecting, analyzing and disseminating the most innovative approaches towards the school of tomorrow, pages 30‑37
Gerard Macdonald. Schools for a Knowledge Economy, pages 38‑49
George R. Burns & Robert R. Paton. Supported Workplace Learning: a knowledge transfer paradigm, pages 50‑61
Donald Christie & Joan Menmuir. Supporting Interprofessional Collaboration in Scotland through a Common Standards Framework, pages 62‑74
Sowaribi Tolofari. The New Public Management and Education, pages 75‑89
Mike Cole. Transmodernism, Marxism and Social Change: some implications for teacher education, pages 90‑105
Anne Pirrie. Reclaiming Basic Skills: in defence of long-life learning, pages 106‑116

REVIEW ESSAY
David Chalmers. The Age of Terrorism, pages 117‑120 VIEW FULL TEXT

BOOK REVIEWS VIEW FULL TEXT
Critical Rationalism and Educational Discourse (G. Zecha, Ed.), reviewed by Stephen Gorard, pages 121‑122
The Dissolution of Mind: a fable of how experience gives rise to cognition (Oscar Vilarroya), reviewed by Susan Stuart, pages 122‑124
Curriculum Visions (William E. Doll & Noel Gough, Eds); Curriculum Dynamics: recreating heart (M. Jayne Fleener); Evaluation Practice Reconsidered (Thomas A. Schwandt), reviewed by Vicky Gunn, pages 124‑126

Editorial

This issue of Policy Futures in Education was not planned as a thematic one, yet its contents show strong similarities and overlapping interests. The emphasis is overwhelmingly on schools – schools in relation to neo-liberalism, markets and democracy, charter schools, the future of schools in the European Union, schools for a knowledge economy. We desperately need a more economically literate education policy given that much education policy originates outside the realm of education, mostly in economic policy of one form or other. This much is clearly evident. The Left needs not only an economically literate education policy that is informed by economic history and the history of economics, but also by strong analytical readings of current economic policy – not just a policy sociology aimed at investigating or recording the effects of policy and their differential effects but also one that intelligently can interpret debates on globalisation and the knowledge economy through an interrogation of the economic origins of policy notions. The economics of knowledge and education needs new research directions that are not simply reactive to the claims and findings of mainstream economics, whether it be in the form of Chicago-style human or social capital theories or those of Stanford endogenous growth theory. These new directions might acknowledge the relevance of contemporary history of economics, of, say, neo-liberalism, as Michel Foucault did in the early 1980s in his recently published course at the Collège de France, Naissance de la biopolitique (2004), which with considerable foresight analysed the post-war recovery of the German economy under Erhart and the emergence of German neo-liberalism. The new policy analysis must also necessarily engage in comparison and complete, detailed empirical work rather than adopted standard off-the-shelf analyses. Both of these innovations are aspects of PFIE and I think that aspects of both are provided in the articles that follow.

David Hursh examines education reforms in the USA and England over the last 20 years with their neo-liberal and neo-conservative policy emphases on standardisation, accountability, choice and privatisation. He demonstrates how they arise from similar political rationales and differ mostly only in terms of the effects of different political systems. His analytical and empirical comparisons are detailed and the theme of the piece is strongly argued. His considered analysis is that these policies have failed to achieve their goals and he points to a number of contradictions in neo-liberal policies that will impact on their future.

Brian Ford focuses his attention on educational policy discourse in the USA surrounding charter schools, identifying three areas of review – media debates, and debates concerning national policy and local school reform. He details each of these areas using the Jeffersonian motif of ‘holding the wolf by the ears’. For Ford charter schools implies the privatisation of standards and ultimately the end of public education.

Henrik Hansson & Scott Hall turn towards the future of schools, describing a Schools Foresight project undertaken within the Fifth Framework Programme of the European Community for Research, Technology and Development that investigates futures learning approaches and innovative uses of technology in school settings. They describe the framework, the methodology, and the results of this important project. Gerard Macdonald, by contrast, investigates the notion of schools for a knowledge economy (see Volume 1, Number 1 for an issue devoted to education and the knowledge economy), explaining that English schools, especially since the mid nineteenth century, have always been part of the industrial economy, preparing students for the production line. Yet he questions whether this industrial styled school system is up to the demands of a new knowledge economy and whether a conservative institution like English schools will easily be able to adapt to the changes required.

George R. Burns & Robert R. Paton in a related article investigate a knowledge transfer paradigm for workplace learning within the United Kingdom policy arena. They investigate the concepts of knowledge generation and transfer to sketch knowledge transfer options and draw on two case studies to analyse the effects of knowledge transfer on organisational structures. Donald Christie & Joan Menmuir examine the ‘new orthodoxy of interprofessional collaboration and multidisciplinary practice’ in the caring professions within the Scottish policy context. They review arguments for and against a common framework for professional standards and argue that it may enhance professionalism, providing the means to engage in dialogue across professions and to ‘re-story’ themselves promoting professional learning and development.

Sowaribi Tolofari provides a general and theoretical account of the relations between New Public Management (NPM) and education reforms. Tolofari analyses NPM’s theoretical origins, policy drivers and its emphases on privatisation, marketisation, managerialism, performance measurement and accountability – all thrusts of New Right ideology. Mike Cole outlines the Marxist critique of postmodernism and assesses transmodernism, in the work of Dussel among others, to interpret and understand the legacy of European invasions of the Americas. He finds both paradigms wanting and returns to the Marxist notion of ‘racialisation’ as a necessary supplement. His argument then poses the question of liberal democracy or democratic socialism from the contrasting viewpoints of transmodernism and Marxism, before investigating these political choices and their implications for teacher education. Anne Pirie provides a spirited defence of long-life learning offered as a critique of the European Union’s Lisbon strategy emphasis on ‘basic skills’ which, she argues, exists in a contradiction between the goals of economic competitiveness and those of social solidarity.

There is also a review essay by David Chalmers of three recent books on education, 9/11 and the age of terrorism, followed by three book reviews. All in all, this is a substantial issue and one, it is to be hoped, that will keep the wolf from the door, so to speak.

Michael A. Peters
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

Reference
Foucault, M. (2004) Naissance de la biopolitique cours au Collège de France (1978‑1979), ed. Michel Senellart, with François Ewald & Alessandro Fontana. Paris: Le Seuil.

Neo-liberalism, Markets and Accountability: transforming education and undermining democracy in the United States and England

DAVID HURSH University of Rochester, USA

Education in both England and the United States has undergone a profound change over the last two decades as part of neo-liberal and neoconservative political reforms. The reforms have been characterized by efforts to standardize the curriculum, to implement standardized tests in order to hold students, teachers, and schools accountable, to increase school choice, and to privatize education provision. While the reforms in both countries have similarities, differences in the structures of schooling and in the relative political strength of neoconservatives and neo-liberals help to account for policy divergence.

The Significance of Charter Schools and the Privatization of Standards: holding the wolf by the ears

BRIAN FORD Columbia University/Walton High School, New York, USA

The dynamics of educational policy discourse in the USA are illustrated by the highly contested positions on charter schools in three arenas: media debates, national policy and local school reform. In media debates, civil society actors – including teachers’ unions, think tanks and print media – engage in polarized exchanges notable for their name-calling and vitriol. In national policy, after two decades of much consensus where charters were viewed as a way of raising standards, policy formation is presently shaped by deep splits on funding and privatization initiatives; charters are increasingly short on the former and seen as potential vehicles for the latter. This manifests itself on the level of local reform, where charters are a component part of numerous school reforms, including a systematic overhaul of the nation’s largest school district. There, a corporate model that emphasizes the chief executive officer’s role in selecting among productive and unproductive employees has been deployed. The title image (wolf, ears) responds to some of the discourse and is taken from Thomas Jefferson’s explanation of the dilemma slavery posed for the USA. As the privatization of standards seems to advance incrementally, the article suggests that a similar dilemma now confronts advocates for public education, especially teachers’ unions, who have previously supported standards-based reform and the use of charters for the purpose of educational innovation.

The Future of Schools from a European Union Perspective: selecting, analyzing and disseminating the most innovative approaches towards the school of tomorrow

HENRIK HANSSON & SCOTT HALL Stockholm University, Sweden

What can we learn from European Union (EU) school projects about future learning approaches? The EU has invested massively in information and communication technologies (ICT) projects promoting innovative use of new technologies in school settings. The aim of the project ‘School Foresight’, with partners in Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Romania, the Czech Republic and Sweden, was to select and reflect on the best projects done so far. These projects were popularized and presented at the European Science Week in the autumn of 2004 and reached more than 10,000 students in five countries. This article describes and discusses the School Foresight project and the selection process of innovative EU projects showing the way towards the school of tomorrow. A number of best cases will be presented and discussed in a European, American and global context. The school of the future is both a question of what is possible and what is desired. Different scenarios might be preferable depending on local context, history, language, etc., or, are we all moving into the ‘global classroom’?

Schools for a Knowledge Economy

GERARD MACDONALD University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom

English schools have always been involved with the economy of their time, but it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that schooling for the poor became primarily an adjunct of industry, rather than of the Church. This industrial style of education, preparation for the production line, still informs the school system, though Britain is no longer primarily an industrial country, but one moving toward a post-industrial economy. Such a ‘new economy’ will almost certainly be dependent on the production of new, or renewed, knowledge; and thus on the creativity and innovative capacity of its workers, and on their ability to continue learning throughout life. To foster these qualities, our school system – designed for quite different purposes – will have to undergo significant change. It will need a rethinking of what is meant by learning; a forward-looking and individualised curriculum (though not necessarily one that is centrally mandated); a new involvement with economic growth areas; and a quite different approach to networked technologies. Like any conservative institution, British schools tend to resist proposals for radical renewal, and that resistance is now, and will be in future, supported by an influential group of parents. But the school system’s political paymasters have traditionally seen schooling as an instrument of economic growth. Since schools are not well fitted to serve a nascent knowledge economy, at some point there are likely to be radical changes to their practice.

Supported Workplace Learning: a knowledge transfer paradigm

GEORGE R. BURNS & ROBERT R. PATON University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

The importance of knowledge to the effective development of economic growth in the twenty-first century has led to a number of initiatives such as lifelong learning, skills development and knowledge transfer. Of these, knowledge transfer has predominantly been concerned with the commercial exploitation of research knowledge. This article suggests that such a narrow focus on research-led development is really only practical for larger organisations and misses many opportunities for knowledge transfer related to improving organisational knowledge and business effectiveness through supported workplace learning appropriate to small to medium-sized organisations. Two models of supported workplace learning, one involving a programme of study developed to reflect the strategic objectives of the organisation, and one developed to reflect business-led development, are described through case studies. Both illustrate the effectiveness of knowledge transfer that, although not research-led, had a significant impact on the competitive advantage of the respective organisations. In one case the students gained postgraduate awards, while in the other the students gained considerable business experience, again illustrating the flexibility that supported workplace learning can offer for individual development. Finally, the article concludes that effective knowledge transfer into the workplace may legitimately be structured around objectives that do not depend on research. In this mode, supported workplace learning offers an approach that is effective for the organisation and flexible in supporting individual development. It is also noted that one aspect of the process that became evident in both case studies was the need to manage the change process that injection of new knowledge created.

Supporting Interprofessional Collaboration in Scotland through a Common Standards Framework

DONALD CHRISTIE & JOAN MENMUIR University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

The context of this article is the emergence of a new orthodoxy of interprofessional collaboration and multidisciplinary practice in the caring professions. Several current policy initiatives in Scotland, especially in relation to services for children, illustrate this trend, which is evident on an international scale. The article considers the nature of the challenge to models of professionalism represented by interprofessional collaboration. The contentious issue of whether it is appropriate to attempt to define standards of professionalism is examined. In particular, arguments for and against the articulation of a common framework of professional standards are analysed. The model of professionalism adopted in The Standard for Initial Teacher Education in Scotland is explained and the shared features in the equivalent standards in the fields of nursing, other allied health professions and social work are outlined. The potential value of a common standards framework is analysed in terms of how such a framework might help to overcome barriers to interprofessional collaboration. It is argued that defining professional standards need not diminish or demean professionalism. On the contrary, it is possible to create a common standards framework which can serve to enhance professionalism by enabling professional practitioners to ‘re-story’ themselves and at the same time engage effectively in dialogue with colleagues in other professions with whom they are expected to collaborate. The potential implications of a common standards framework for patterns of professional education and training are discussed.

New Public Management and Education

SOWARIBI TOLOFARI

Public administration has always been under constant review. Such reviews were mostly parochial, incremental, initiated or driven by low-key staff and often ended as fads. From the end of the 1970s to the 1990s, however, governments around the world were engaged in widespread and sustained reforms of their public administration. These reforms were born out of economic recession, but also had political and social drivers. They were initiated by the political apex and fuelled by New Right ideology. Collectively, these reforms came to be termed New Public Management (NPM). NPM is characterised by marketisation, privatisation, managerialism, performance measurement and accountability. This employment of corporate attitudes in public administration is grounded on certain theories, mainly public choice, transaction cost analysis and principal–agent theory. As with every other sector, the education service was also reformed. In this field the major signs of NPM are the local management of schools on managerialist principles and the heightened influence of stakeholders in the daily life of the school, while the collegiality of academia is diminished. At the higher education level, institutions are tending towards full-fledged corporate organisations delivering enterprise education. This article discusses NPM in detail, tracing its origins, considering the theories and examining its principal characteristics, and then takes a critical look at its implications for education.

Transmodernism, Marxism and Social Change: some implications for teacher education

MIKE COLE Bishop Grosseteste College, Lincoln, United Kingdom

The author first briefly outlines what he considers to be the defining features of transmodernism and its relationship both to postmodernism and to Marxism. He then suggests that transmodern interpretations of the legacy of the European invasions of the Americas are illuminating, as is Marxism, in providing an understanding of how the imperialism in which contemporary US foreign policy is currently engaged has a specific and long-standing genealogy. However, he argues that the Marxist concept of racialisation is more convincing in explaining the source of violence against the Other than the transmodern positing of ‘basic narcissism’ as the source. Next, he contrasts the transmodern perception of liberal democracy with Marxist analyses of democratic socialism. After this, he challenges transmodernism’s conception of Marxism as an imposed and utopian philosophy locked within modernism. He concludes with a consideration of the political and economic choices open to us, and, with respect to these choices, the implications of both transmodernism and Marxism for sustaining resistance to neo-liberal capitalism and US imperialism within teacher education.

Reclaiming Basic Skills: in defence of long-life learning

ANNE PIRRIE Scottish Centre for Research in Education, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom

The author draws upon recent experience of providing consultancy services to a working group established by the European Commission in 2001 to facilitate the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy for economic, social, and environmental renewal in the European Union. The article begins with a critique of the ‘new basic skills’ identified at the Lisbon European Council on 23 and 24 March 2000. These were information and communication technologies (ICT), technological culture, foreign languages, entrepreneurship, and social skills. The article raises questions about the compatibility of the economic and social aims of the Lisbon Strategy. It also asks whether the Lisbon Process privileges certain forms of knowledge over others. Furthermore, who are the winners and the losers in the breathless rush towards increased economic competitiveness? The author concludes that the logic of competition inherent in the Lisbon Process may undermine rather than reinforce social solidarity; and that the chronic neglect of some really basic skills has had dire social and economic consequences.

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