European Educational Research Journal

Posthuman Humanities

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Posthuman Humanities
Author: ROSI BRAIDOTTI
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-19
ABSTRACT This article compares notes on different and new concepts of 'the Human', developed both within disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic scientific research and in broader social practices. The main focus is on the shifting relationship between the 'two cultures' of the humanities and science in the light of contemporary developments, such as the sophisticated forms of interdisciplinary research that have emerged in the fields of biotechnologies, neural sciences, environmental and climate change research and Information and Communication technologies. These rapid changes affect the very definitions of the human and of human evolution. The question is how and to what extent they have an impact on both the practice of the humanities and on their self-representation. Is humanism challenged or strengthened by these developments? To what extent is anthropocentrism called to task by what is becoming known as posthuman theory?

What is Wrong with the 'What-Went-Right' Approach in Educational Policy?

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: What is Wrong with the 'What-Went-Right' Approach in Educational Policy?
Author: GITA STEINER-KHAMSI
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 20-33
ABSTRACT This article critically examines how 'what-went-right' analyses are used to subsequently justify the transfer of reform packages or 'best practices' from one country to another. Similar to evidence-based policy planning, the what-went-right approach needs to be criticized for being presumptuous. There are three fallacies of the what-went-right analysis that the article dismantles: rationality, precision and universality. The article focuses on the façade of universality and examines how the claim to universal solutions is methodologically sustained. First, the author shows how standardized or normative comparison has in recent years overshadowed the other two types of comparison: comparison across time (historical analyses) and comparison across contexts ('simple comparison'). Then, she elaborates on why the what-went-right approach requires policy analysts to downplay differences between educational systems in order to establish comparability between cases. The emphasis on comparability and similarity of cases is a prerequisite to importing 'best practices' from vastly different educational systems. But what if transfer occurs regardless of difference? There is a curious phenomenon that the article addresses in greater detail: the retrospective definition of a local problem. Given the worldwide circulation of 'best practices' and traveling reform packages, policy analysts sometimes are under pressure to align their analyses of local problems with already existing global solutions. The article ends with a reflection on policy borrowing and lending research and situates the what-went-right approach in the broader question of why and how policy analysts 'buy' or 'sell' reform packages that worked well in one context for transfer into another.

Constitution, Education and Research

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Constitution, Education and Research
Author: FUENSANTA HERNÁNDEZ PINA
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 34-47
ABSTRACT This article gives an overview of Cádiz in 1812 and the Constitution; the development of the contents of this constitution; its influence on the constitutions of other countries and vice versa; and the role of women under this constitution. Cádiz was a cosmopolitan city where races, cultures and traditions mingled - what we would call a multicultural city. The cultural environment of Cádiz in 1812 was so positive that not even in the worst moments of the French siege and bombing of the city would local people stop attending gatherings, concerts, schools, theatre performances, etc. The Cádiz Constitution is an essential text in the history of constitutionalism and of the liberal movement of the beginning of the nineteenth century in Spain, as well as in neighbouring countries and America. Therefore, the year 1812 may be considered the birth of Spanish constitutionalism and the beginning of the construction of Spain as a Constitutional State. The contributions of this constitution and subsequent extensions regarding developments in education will be explained, and its importance in the development of education will be highlighted. The Cádiz Constitution is one of the most important legal documents in Spanish national history and a chief contribution of our country to liberalism and international constitutionalism. Cádiz symbolises the beginning of constitutional Spain, Europe and Latin America.

Governing Education Systems by Shaping Data: from the past to the present, from national to international perspectives

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Governing Education Systems by Shaping Data: from the past to the present, from national to international perspectives
Author: VALÉRIE LUSSI BORER
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 48-52
ABSTRACT Nowadays, the use of indicators (benchmarks) to govern education systems and policies at national and international level is widespread. The practice of using data to administrate and govern education systems appeared at the end of the nineteenth century and developed throughout the twentieth century. Through national and international case studies, this issue studies the process and the conditions which allowed the emergence and the expansion of this phenomenon. Deciding how to collect useful data, how to organise data series according to models which allow comparison (or even ranking), and how to transform them into governing tools is essential for conducting data/benchmarks-based policies. This process leads to a new 'vision' (social construction of reality) of people, education systems and backgrounds, through new standardised objects like the 'average child' or an 'achievement standard'. These processes are at the core of policies conducted by organisations at national, European or international level (European Commission, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD], UNESCO). This issue aims to better understand these processes through historical and sociological analysis from national or inter/transnational points of view.

The Science from the State: the production of data by the statisticians of the French Ministry of Education, 1957-2007

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: The Science from the State: the production of data by the statisticians of the French Ministry of Education, 1957-2007
Author: XAVIER PONS
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 53-69
ABSTRACT This article analyses the institutionalisation of the production of statistical data by the central administration of the French ministry of education from 1957 to 2007. It shows that beyond the necessary technical and methodological evolutions, this institutionalisation clearly depended on political arbitrations, administrative struggles and professional orientations. Using some theoretical approaches in political science, it interprets this process as the progressive and non-linear development of a specific 'state science'. On the basis of materials collected during a four-year qualitative research study (through 32 interviews, several data sets of documents, consultation of archives, and a questionnaire), it highlights first the main cognitive and transversal properties of this specific state body of knowledge. It describes then its historical concrete forms which varied according to the policy configurations. The latter are studied through four main variables: the formal organisation of the statistical production; the statistical methods, techniques and tools implemented; the composition of the central office; and the main professional cleavages among the members of this office.

Power, Information and Control: school statistics and the Spanish educational system (nineteenth century and first third of the twentieth century)

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Power, Information and Control: school statistics and the Spanish educational system (nineteenth century and first third of the twentieth century)
Author: JEAN-LOUIS GUEREÑA; ANTONIO VIÑAO
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 70-80
ABSTRACT In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between the development of school statistics, especially in the area of primary education, and the development of the Spanish educational system in the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. To do this, they first look at attempts to gather statistical information on education and to provide general figures on education in Spain that took place under the absolute monarchy during the eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth century. They then analyse in a little more detail the long journey undertaken by the new liberal regime between 1834 and 1850 - during which years the Spanish education system would be built - to know the educational situation in the country and have steady, regular, reliable school statistics. What can be considered the golden age of school statistics (1855-1885) followed, when this project was realised. Finally, they discuss the characteristics and evolution of occasional school statistics produced during the last years of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century.

'A Necropolis of Numbers': data production in Switzerland's decentralised education system

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: 'A Necropolis of Numbers': data production in Switzerland's decentralised education system
Author: VÉRONIQUE CZÁKA; MATHILDE FREYMOND; VALÉRIE LUSSI BORER
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 81-94
ABSTRACT Since 1876 the educational landscape in Switzerland has been made up of more than 20 distinct education systems that are largely managed by the cantons themselves, with minimum interference from the federal state. However, approximately a century ago, Switzerland embarked on a policy of harmonisation, which draws on various data sources that are progressively shaped to serve this aim. Why are data important and what exactly are these data? Who needs, who collects and who shapes them? To what end? This article looks at the processes of collecting, comparing and shaping data through the journal published for close to 100 years by the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Public Education. This journal was the first to produce yearly statistics on Swiss education at the end of the nineteenth century. The authors compile and compare the two versions of the journal - one in German, the other in French - and focus on two periods which seem particularly relevant for the history of statistics - namely, from the end of the nineteenth century to the First World War, and the 1960s-1970s.

Historical Change in the Production and Legitimisation of Education Statistics in Switzerland

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Historical Change in the Production and Legitimisation of Education Statistics in Switzerland
Author: THOMAS RUOSS
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 95-107
ABSTRACT Internationalisation as a factor in the impetus for and establishment of education statistics is analysed, taking the example of Switzerland in a long-term perspective. The case of Switzerland shows that historically, international comparisons depended on the nationalisation of statistics' responsibility. This nationalisation of education statistics' authority was itself closely connected with the demand for the domestic availability of statistics from the sub-central regions. This demand was in turn coupled with the structural challenges in the education system caused by its expansion and the heterogeneous degrees of institutionalisation of education statistics.

Voyages of Measurement in Education in the Twentieth Century: experts, tools and centres

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Voyages of Measurement in Education in the Twentieth Century: experts, tools and centres
Author: MARTIN LAWN
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 108-119
ABSTRACT Through the twentieth century, an international scientific community in education, testing and statistics appeared which was rooted in the same texts and processes and worked together across distance and in specific research centres. From Thorndike in New York in the early 1900s to Husén in Hamburg and Stockholm in the late 1900s, there is a web of shared procedures and purposes. The administration and management of education came to depend on the work of community to solve problems and develop governance and control across the sites and work of education.

Creating an Educational Testing Profession in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, 1910-1960

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Creating an Educational Testing Profession in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, 1910-1960
Author: CHRISTIAN YDESEN; KARI LUDVIGSEN; CHRISTIAN LUNDAHL
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 120-138
ABSTRACT In Sweden, Norway and Denmark national testing communities advocating the introduction and expanded use of standardised educational tests in the national educational systems emerged around World War I. Using international research and cross-border networking activities, these coteries were able to gain power and thus establish and promote a new profession, the educational psychologist, along with instituting practices of alleged scientific tests in the following decades.

Numbers Do Not Replace Thinking

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:20:54 GMT

Title: Numbers Do Not Replace Thinking
Author: ANTÓNIO NÓVOA
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2013 Volume: 12 Issue: 1 Pages: 139-148
ABSTRACT The article is organised around three themes, each one illuminating half a century of historical life: (i) the first theme relates to the second half of the nineteenth century, analysing the role of statistics in the formation of state education systems; (ii) the second theme concentrates on the first half of the twentieth century and the importance of tests, examinations and surveys in the development of 'pedagogical modernity'; (iii) the third theme looks at the historical period of the second half of the twentieth century, and how databases began to be used as an important tool in the formulation of educational policies. To conclude, the article underlines how comparison is becoming one of the main instruments of governance in contemporary societies - in other words, how power tends increasingly to be exercised through policies that claim to be 'obvious', 'natural', 'evidence-based', instead of being grounded on ideological and political options.

A Diminished Self: entrepreneurial and therapeutic ethos operating with a common aim

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: A Diminished Self: entrepreneurial and therapeutic ethos operating with a common aim
Author: KRISTIINA BRUNILA
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 477-486
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the aim of creating a flexible and self-centred self by means of entrepreneurial and therapeutic education. It is an analysis that uses documents from project-based educational programmes as well as interviews with young adults and the people who work with them in these programmes. The data are examined using a Foucauldian and feminist analysis of discursive power and subjectivity. The author argues that entrepreneurial and therapeutic forms of education related to young adults lead to a particular kind of ideal self which she refers to as diminished.

Governing Education in Europe: a 'new' policy space of European schooling

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Governing Education in Europe: a 'new' policy space of European schooling
Author: SOFIA CARLOS
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 487-503
ABSTRACT European Schools are a particular type of school that are not integrated into any national education system but are nonetheless official educational establishments that constitute a European Schools System (ESS) governed jointly by the Member States of the European Union. This positioning creates particularly interesting issues of governance that mirror aspects of governing education in Europe, albeit on a smaller scale. This article makes the argument that the ESS, like the European Commission (EC), operates within and across formal national boundaries in a 'new' Policy Space of European Schooling. It suggests that analysis of this 'space' as a microcosm of European governance of education is enabled through integrating interdisciplinary concepts such as re-spatialisation with attention to new approaches to governance that stress fluid and mobile relations in analysing Europeanisation. The article argues that the ESS is an interesting policy case in itself, but also suggests that it has value as a microcosm of the extremely complex and novel forms of policy relations in education in Europe, in which elements of the local, the national and the European are merging and emerging in different ways.

Social Inequalities of Post-secondary Educational Aspirations: influence of social background, school composition and institutional context

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Social Inequalities of Post-secondary Educational Aspirations: influence of social background, school composition and institutional context
Author: VINCENT DUPRIEZ GIRSEF; CHRISTIAN MONSEUR; MAUD VAN CAMPENHOUDT GIRSEF; DOMINIQUE LAFONTAINE
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 504-519
ABSTRACT The first goal of this article is to assess, for each country belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the influence of pupils’ sociocultural background on educational aspirations. The second goal is to explore whether, after controlling for educational achievement, the residual influence of sociocultural background is still significant. In addition, the author estimates whether the sociocultural and academic characteristics of school composition have an additional impact on educational aspirations in this group of countries. Finally, he shows that the structural characteristics of school systems moderate the influence of individual characteristics and school composition on educational aspirations.

Reconstructing Higher Education? The Case of Master’s and PhD Programmes in Education in a Portuguese Institution

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Reconstructing Higher Education? The Case of Master’s and PhD Programmes in Education in a Portuguese Institution
Author: MARIANA G. ALVES; CLÁUDIA NEVES; NAIR R. AZEVEDO; TERESA N.R. GONÇALVES
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 520-533
ABSTRACT Whether and to what extent we are in the process of reconstructing higher education following the Bologna Process orientation is the issue underpinning this article. To address this issue, the authors consider data from an exploratory survey conducted in a Portuguese university, focusing on the field of education. They take into account the contents of the educational policies at supra-national level in Europe and at national level in Portugal. In addition, they draw upon the conceptual debate about policy and politics. They acknowledge changes taking place in the organisational structure of the academic programmes, as well as in the students’ perceptions. Additionally, critical issues concerning the organisation and implementation of these programmes allow them to identify challenges for universities and issues that need deeper inquiry and continuous monitoring.

Suitable Enemies? Governmentality of Youth: youth as a threat

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Suitable Enemies? Governmentality of Youth: youth as a threat
Author: HELENA OSTROWICKA
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 534-544
ABSTRACT This article is a contribution to the discourse of politics towards (for) youth, which the author defines as the 'cultural politics of risk'. The article begins with scientific representations of youth as a threat, as a group inclined to engage in risky behaviours. It then focuses on theoretical approaches called the 'risk paradigm', providing a framework for recognising anxieties and rationalities supporting them. The following section is concerned with the analysis of selected programmes which determine the strategies of Polish state politics towards (for) youth. The author attempts to show the relations between scientific risk knowledge and political projects justified by expert rationality. The article concludes with an interpretation of governmentality of youth portrayed as a threat in the context of the conception of 'suitable enemies'.

Understanding the Difficulties of Implementation of a Teachers' Evaluation System in Greek Primary Education: from national past to European influences

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Understanding the Difficulties of Implementation of a Teachers' Evaluation System in Greek Primary Education: from national past to European influences
Author: GEORGIOS STAMELOS; ANDREAS VASSILOPOULOS; MARIANNA BARTZAKLI
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 545-557
ABSTRACT This article delves into the reactions of national institutions to various external stimuli originating from supra-national policies formulated by international organisms and other bureaucracies. The authors argue that such stimuli, when ignoring various previous arrangements developed in a given social and/or historic (national) context, may disrupt the institution's balance. In particular, they create divergence among the three pillars - normative, regulative and cultural-cognitive - around which an institution is built and lead the main actors involved with it - players - to act with the aim to best serve their own interests. In the case of Greece the attempt on the part of the Greek government to establish a system of evaluation at the level of primary education - following the country's participation into the European Union - led to severe conflict among the actors involved and to the institution's neutralisation. Accordingly, the level of divergence between what is desirable (normative pillar), what is established by law (regulative pillar) and everyday practice (cultural-cognitive pillar) became larger. Finally, the problematic institution's function resulted to an even more serious crisis, which could well be interpreted as 'creolisation' of the Greek education system.

The Discourses of Vocational Education and Training: a developmental response from a European perspective

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: The Discourses of Vocational Education and Training: a developmental response from a European perspective
Author: AURORA LÓPEZ-FOGUÉS
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 558-569
ABSTRACT The article analyses the discourses underpinning formal vocational education and training (VET). More specifically, it presents three accounts of European VET with the twofold aim of reviewing them and of recommending a conceptual shift that leads to further theoretical discussion. The discussion is organised around the existence of three seemingly contradictory accounts in the management of VET - one centred in economic growth; one concerned about the experiences of students and professionals; and one that focuses on the social implications of those involved in VET. The article concludes that while there has been a degree of convergence between the three, social justice issues remain unresolved due to the eagerness to pursue measurable results, while neglecting individual heterogeneity as part of a rich society. Building on some core concepts of the capability approach developed by Amartya Sen, the article takes a step beyond the language of outcomes and reframes VET foundations through the lens of human development.

Multi-level Steering and Institution Building: the European Union's approach to research policy

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Multi-level Steering and Institution Building: the European Union's approach to research policy
Author: MITCHELL YOUNG
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 570-585
ABSTRACT Adopting the conception of the university as a primary driver of innovation and economic growth has brought increased pressure for the European Union (EU) to actively steer university-based research policy, despite its being outside of the EU's direct jurisdiction. While the open method of coordination (OMC) was developed for such situations, the complex nature of universities and research policy has meant that such steering does not stop with the OMC and occurs on multiple levels using a variety of governance tools. By mapping out the ways in which the EU uses legal, financial and informational instruments to coordinate policy and build institutions, the article attempts to understand the role and objective of the EU in this policy area in relation to national and other global actors. It suggests that despite strong globalising trends, the EU does more than to echo and promote these trends at the national and sub-national levels, but also attempts to structure the research environment in a complex heterogeneous way.

The Map is the Territory: educational evaluation and the topology of power

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: The Map is the Territory: educational evaluation and the topology of power
Author: ANTTI SAARI
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 586-600
ABSTRACT In recent years there has been a global call for more scientific knowledge about education as a basis of governance. This means that exact descriptions of the reality of schooling should inform decisions about what works in education. In this article, evaluation and testing are analysed as cartography, the art of mapping educational spaces, which both creates and confuses our sense of educational reality. By using elements from cultural studies of cartography as well as sociology and the philosophy of science, this article claims that the analogy of cartography and evaluation can open novel vistas for contemplating the relationship between the world of education and its scientific representation. As a case in point, the article uses the construction of Finnish comprehensive basic school reform and the evaluation system pertaining to it. The analysis shows how evaluation as the mapping of the reality of education brings distant objects near, onto a homogeneous, stable plane. It also makes certain things visible while leaving others out of sight. Furthermore, evaluation as cartography is not only passive representation; it actually creates new spaces. In this way, evaluation practices can profoundly affect how we think and act upon schooling.

Pupil Responses to a Saviour Pedagogy: an ethnographic study

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Pupil Responses to a Saviour Pedagogy: an ethnographic study
Author: ANNELI SCHWARTZ
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 601-608
ABSTRACT This article is based on research in an ongoing ethnographic investigation of schooling in a multiethnic, multiracial school on the outskirts of a major Swedish conurbation in an area of multidimensional poverty. First, it analyses the use of an individuating, visible pedagogy, which contains a large number of routines that are designed and intended to improve the performances and behaviour of pupils in the school. Secondly, it analyses the subjective responses of the pupils to this pedagogy. Hidden forms of resistance to the main intentions of the pedagogy are presented and discussed.

Quantifying Quality: the construction of Europe and the road to the policy of learning

Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:08:21 GMT

Title: Quantifying Quality: the construction of Europe and the road to the policy of learning
Author: Eszter Neumann
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 4 Pages: 609-615
ABSTRACT Not available

Editorial. The European Curriculum: restructuring and renewal

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Editorial. The European Curriculum: restructuring and renewal
Author: Kirsten Sivesind; Jan van den Akker; Moritz Rosenmund
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 320-327
ABSTRACT Not available

Are the Traditional Curricula Dispensable? A Feature Pattern to Compare Different Types of Curriculum and a Critical View of Educational Standards and Essential Curricula in Germany

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Are the Traditional Curricula Dispensable? A Feature Pattern to Compare Different Types of Curriculum and a Critical View of Educational Standards and Essential Curricula in Germany
Author: DANIEL SCHOLL
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 328-341
ABSTRACT The results of international school achievement studies had major educational implications in many European countries, especially for the control concepts of education. This becomes exemplarily apparent in Germany, in which a large-scale educational reform was set in motion. Thereby, the education system was set from an input- to output-oriented control. Part of this reform involved the adoption of new curriculum types. A striking feature of this enactment was, among other things, that while it initiated studies of school curricula, it was shown at the same time that there are currently no established sophisticated theoretical tools for analysis of curricula - neither in Europe in general nor in Germany in particular. In this article, therefore, a curriculum-theoretical instrument is presented, which allows a systematic analysis of the structure of curricula. This instrument was developed based on German curricula, which are taken as examples. There should be generalisable impetus for European curriculum research.

Standards-based Curricula in a Denationalised Conception of Education: the case of Sweden

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Standards-based Curricula in a Denationalised Conception of Education: the case of Sweden
Author: DANIEL SUNDBERG; NINNI WAHLSTRÖM
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 342-356
ABSTRACT In this article, the authors examine the development of the Swedish educational reform of 1991 from an international and European perspective, and from the perspective of what counts as knowledge in a recently implemented Swedish curriculum reform. With effect from 2011, the Swedish Government has significantly reshaped the curricula for pre-school, compulsory school and upper secondary school education, but in terms of governing principles for schools, these curriculum reforms can be regarded as a continuation of the 1991 reform. The authors argue that this latest reform, as part of an international policy discourse, can be said to represent a denationalised and instrumental conception of education, and that the implications for the formation of knowledge within this conception can be understood as a standards-based curriculum shaped by two powerful international influences: a technical-instrumental discourse of curriculum, emphasising the form, structure and function of the curriculum; and a neo-conservative discourse of curriculum, with an emphasis on curriculum content as a given and uncontested body of knowledge.

Balancing Curriculum Freedom and Regulation in the Netherlands

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Balancing Curriculum Freedom and Regulation in the Netherlands
Author: NIENKE NIEVEEN; WILMAD KUIPER
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 357-368
ABSTRACT The extent to which the goals and contents of (compulsory) education should to be regulated has been a complicated balancing act in the Netherlands. Against a background of a long-standing statutory tradition of freedom of education, governmental decisions about 'what knowledge is of most worth' have been delicate. The purpose of the analysis described in this article is to disentangle, interpret and discuss this complicated balancing act between curriculum regulation and curriculum freedom during the past 40 years and to learn from other countries by putting the results into a wider European curriculum policy perspective. The contribution will end with discussing issues that need to be carefully considered with respect to the recent Dutch policy shift towards output regulation by means of mandatory achievement tests for mathematics, mother tongue and English at the end of lower secondary education.

The European Qualification Framework: skills, competences or knowledge?

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: The European Qualification Framework: skills, competences or knowledge?
Author: PHILIPPE MÉHAUT
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 369-381
ABSTRACT The European Qualification Framework (EQF) is intended to transform European national qualification frameworks (NQFs) by moulding them into a learning outcomes framework. Currently adopted as an enabling law by the European Union, the EQF has now operated for several years. In order to secure widespread adoption, however, it will be necessary for it to be anchored at the sectoral and occupational levels in the European labour market as well as at the European and national levels. The article assesses the progress made so far, identifies difficulties encountered and modifications that need to be made and provides an appraisal of the likely evolution of the EQF. It is argued that it is likely that some key design features, such as the 'strong' approach to learning outcomes and a narrow conception of competence will not survive modification and adaptation in the context of the European labour market. The argument is illustrated with some recent research on the EQF.

Facing the Changing Demands of Europe: integrating entrepreneurship education in Finnish teacher training curricula

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Facing the Changing Demands of Europe: integrating entrepreneurship education in Finnish teacher training curricula
Author: JAANA SEIKKULA-LEINO; ELENA RUSKOVAARA; HEIKKI HANNULA; TUIJA SAARIVIRTA
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 382-399
ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) considers the learning of entrepreneurial skills to be an essential factor in creating welfare. Therefore, in the EU, one of the latest core aspects is to develop entrepreneurship education in teacher education. However, entrepreneurship education still seems to be, across the countries, a quite uncommon theme. This article describes the ways in which entrepreneurship education is included in the curricula of Finnish teacher training. The curricula for academic and vocational teacher education were obtained in autumn 2010, either online or by requesting them in paper or electronic format. The inclusion of entrepreneurship education has developed relatively effectively in the curricula of vocational teacher education units. Academic teacher education units have not really increased the quantity of entrepreneurship education in their curricula. In the curricula of the teacher training schools, entrepreneurship education is mentioned at least as a formality. The current unstable situation in the EU requires not only economic arrangements, but also new approaches in other areas, such as education and its reform. As an implication for practice, we propose there could be more support for curriculum design of higher education at both national and EU level.

The Epistemological Fog in Realising Learning to Learn in European Curriculum Policies

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: The Epistemological Fog in Realising Learning to Learn in European Curriculum Policies
Author: DAVID LEAT; ULRIKE THOMAS; ANNA REID
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 400-412
ABSTRACT The European Union is concerned about the economic prospects of its member states as they have to compete against newly emerging economies with lower wages and high ambitions. Part of the strategy to deal with this economic shadow is to create a knowledge economy, but in order to achieve this, a shift to a competence-based curriculum model is seen as critical. Since the Lisbon strategy in 2000, policy documents have provided guidelines and tools for member states, but progress has been limited and in several states curriculum reforms which favoured competences have been reversed. This article uses interview data from school students from two projects in England focused on enquiry and learning competence, and analysis which draws on the theories of Bernstein, to illustrate their accounts of the difference between traditional and competence-based models. The data demonstrate the tensions caused by pupils' perceptions of the demands of summative assessment systems, which reflect a very different epistemology from experiential/competence models. The authors conclude that greater pedagogical literacy, attention to professional development, assessment reform and engaging students as partners in curriculum reform are needed.

Comparison as Curriculum Governance: dynamics of the European-wide governance technology of comparison within England's National Curriculum reforms

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: Comparison as Curriculum Governance: dynamics of the European-wide governance technology of comparison within England's National Curriculum reforms
Author: NATALIE PAPANASTASIOU
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 413-427
ABSTRACT The curriculum is a governance technology of knowledge production and is also itself governed by complex dynamics within European education policy space. This article focuses on how the curriculum is governed by comparative knowledge; in particular, it identifies how this facet of governance has manifested itself within the policy space of England's National Curriculum reforms. Critical discourse analysis of four key policy documents reveals how understanding the governing power of comparative knowledge involves considering dynamics originating from multiple spaces and times. While international comparative logic within England's National Curriculum could be regarded as a manifestation of a European-wide governing technology, the article suggests that the distinctiveness of 'Europe' is at risk of being lost to dominant global knowledge paradigms which are also an integral part of the 'governance by comparison' process.

'Europe' as an Alibi: an overview of twenty years of policy, curricula and textbooks in the Republic of Cyprus - and their review

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: 'Europe' as an Alibi: an overview of twenty years of policy, curricula and textbooks in the Republic of Cyprus - and their review
Author: STAVROULA PHILIPPOU
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 428-445
ABSTRACT This article compares discourses on 'Europe' in Greek-Cypriot policy, curricula and textbooks over approximately the last twenty years, from the early 1990s, when Cyprus applied for European Union (EU) membership, until 2011-12, the school year during which the recently revised curricula were gradually introduced to schools for implementation. This period spans both before and after the accession of the Republic of Cyprus to the EU in 2004, the year when an educational reform was also launched. As this reform has been mainly materialised through curriculum review processes, and as 'Europe' has been repeatedly invoked to legitimise and explain its necessity, it renders Cyprus a useful case study, within the problematique of this special issue, in terms of exploring the shaping and governing of a European education policy space via 'European' curricula. Findings indicate distinct differences and continuities between the two periods; although 'Europe' increasingly provides a framework to legitimise curricular innovation towards tolerance and respect for diversity, human rights and democracy, reconciliation and inclusion, it is not systematically addressed in curriculum texts in locally relevant ways to alleviate existing tensions between ethno-national and state identities which have historically fuelled inter-communal conflict and division in Cyprus. Moreover, the construction of citizens seems to increasingly draw from the knowledge economy paradigm and from discourses of efficiency and competitiveness, despite a parallel (and more publicised) agenda for social justice and inclusion in the recent curriculum review documentation.

'Tuning' Education for the Market in 'Europe'? Qualifications, Competences and Learning Outcomes: reform and action on the shop floor

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: 'Tuning' Education for the Market in 'Europe'? Qualifications, Competences and Learning Outcomes: reform and action on the shop floor
Author: FÁTIMA ANTUNES
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 446-470
ABSTRACT This article examines issues relating to governance and the reform of public policies in the European Union and suggests that a managerial agenda for change is developing, seeking to amplify the space for marketisation and control in the educational sphere. It is argued that, between the 1990s and 2010, world-ambitious educational models have been fostered in 'Europe', proposing curricular organisation and regulation principles, such as competences and learning outcomes, as well as regulatory frameworks based on political-technical instruments (qualification frameworks, credit transfer and accumulation systems, quality assurance systems); that is, an unstable and controversial educational language and universe has developed, populated by entities such as active pedagogy, indicators, targets or benchmarks. In order to substantiate the argument, the author briefly analyses, first, the emergence of the curricular dimension in the agenda for educational change; second, she tries to interpret how and why the category 'learning outcomes (and competence[s])' has acquired importance in the confluence of the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes and the Education & Training 2010 Programme in this 'silent revolution in the field of education'. After considering some of these developments in 'Europe' and Portugal, she proposes a few tentative reflections regarding this educational paradigm change and the action of teachers and students.

The Bias of Markets

Sat, 1 Sep 2012 15:55:27 GMT

Title: The Bias of Markets
Author: Francesca Gobbo
Journal: European Educational Research Journal
Year: 2012 Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Pages: 471-476
ABSTRACT Not available