scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Author

Jennifer Wallner

Bio: Jennifer Wallner is an academic researcher from University of Ottawa. The author has contributed to research in topics: Federalism & Public policy. The author has an hindex of 5, co-authored 6 publications receiving 47 citations.

Papers
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A staple of policymaking in any federation is intergovernmental cooperation, which can take the form of vertical initiatives between the central and substate governments or as horizontal initiative as discussed by the authors, and it can be expressed as:
Abstract: A staple of policymaking in any federation is intergovernmental cooperation, which can take the form of vertical initiatives between the central and substate governments or as horizontal initiative

15 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the death of Jordan Manners acted as a focusing event that triggered concern regarding school safety and the challenges facing Black youth in Toronto, altering the policy climate and opening a window of opportunity for change.
Abstract: . In January 2008, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) voted to establish Afrocentric education. Earlier proposals dating back to the early 1990s, however, garnered little response from the board. Why was the TDSB suddenly more amenable to the idea? We argue that the death of Jordan Manners acted as a focusing event that triggered concern regarding school safety and the challenges facing Black youth in Toronto, altering the policy climate and opening a window of opportunity for change. This analysis furthers conceptualizations of the connections between focusing events, policy entrepreneurs, the viability of alternative proposals, and the catalysts that facilitate policy change.Resume. En janvier 2008, le Conseil Scolaire du District de Toronto (CSDT) a vote en faveur de l'etablissement d'un programme d'education afro-centree. Des propositions precedentes remontant au debut des annees 1990 avaient suscite peu d'interet de la part du Conseil. Pourquoi le CSDT s'est-il soudainement montre receptif a cette idee? Nous considerons que le deces de Jordan Manners a servi d'episode marquant qui a suscite de fortes preoccupations quant a la securite a l'ecole et aux defis auxquels font face les jeunes noirs a Toronto. Cet evenement marquant a contribue a modifier le climat politique et a ouvrir une fenetre d'opportunite propice au changement. Cette analyse conceptualise de plus les liens entre episodes marquants, entrepreneurs politiques, la viabilite de differentes propositions et les catalyseurs qui facilitent le changement politique.

14 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the unfolding of standards-based reforms in national education systems has been discussed, and some efforts have been made to better understand how global trends toward standardsbased reforms have emerged.
Abstract: Considerable efforts have been made to better understand how global trends toward standards-based reforms have emerged in national education systems. Less well known, however, is the unfolding of s...

14 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a synthesis of macro-level institutional and societal factors is proposed to understand the effects of meso-level policy choices in the education system in North America and Canada.
Abstract: Mandatory education systems form a central pillar of modern social policy sectors. For two of the countries in North America, the expansion of mass public schooling followed similar trajectories. Despite surface-level similarities, there are important differences in the two countries that require explanation. Without national intervention, the Canadian provinces have instituted similar policies fashioning a de facto national education policy framework. State and local education policy, however, demonstrates major variations that Washington has been unable to smooth out. These outcomes confound conventional institutional or societal approaches. This article calls first for a synthesis of macro-level institutional and societal factors. To unravel the sector-specific attributes, the interactive effects of meso-level policy choices must be assessed. By dividing a sector into its individual dimensions, these effects can be appreciated and coupled with the institutional and societal forces outlined above to acc...

10 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Finland has, as of late, become an inspiration for American school reform and there is no denying that we have much to learn from the Finnish system and it rightly deserves its global accolades.
Abstract: Finland has, as of late, become an inspiration for American school reform. There is no denying that we have much to learn from the Finnish system and it rightly deserves its global accolades. However, over the course of the following pages, I would like to suggest that it is also lucrative to look north of the 49th parallel and consider the practices at work in Canada. Finland has a number of advantages that America lacks, and conditions in Canada are far closer to the challenges faced by American educators. Despite these certain disadvantages, Canada has nevertheless consistently scored near the top of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Programme for International Student Assessment tests and comes extremely close to achieving educational equality. Perhaps even most astonishing is the fact that these results have also been achieved by provinces acting on their own, free from the direct intervention of the federal government based in Ottawa. I argue that the roots of these succes...

5 citations


Cited by
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Wibbels et al. as mentioned in this paper argue that the degree to which the two sets of actors [national and regional leaders] conflict depends on four crucial factors: the electoral interests that each brings to the game, a shared intergovernmental fiscal system, the manner in which regional interests are represented in national policy making, and the levers of partisan influence national leaders have over subnational politicians.
Abstract: Federalism and the Market: Intergovernmental Conflict and Economic Reform in the Developing World. By Erik Wibbels. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 276p. $85.00. In this book, Erik Wibbels explores the “federal collective action problem” (pp. 47, 62). Because in federal countries national and regional leaders answer to different constituencies, their electoral interests and preferences toward socially costly reforms might conflict. Market economic reforms constitute one type of such measures. As Wibbels argues, in crisis-ridden federations, “economic reforms takes [sic] on the quality of a public good requiring the individual regions to cooperate, whereas it is more rational for each career-oriented politician to avoid the costs associated with austerity” (p. 27). National leaders concerned with macroeconomic stability want market economic reforms implemented in the regions, but regional leaders have an incentive to free-ride and adopt fiscally expansionary policies. The book suggests that “many market reform policies are a function of a constant process of bargaining between national and regional leaders struggling for political survival” (p. 5). Moreover, it argues that “[t]he degree to which the two sets of actors [national and regional leaders] conflict depends on four crucial factors: the electoral interests that each brings to the game, a shared intergovernmental fiscal system, the manner in which regional interests are represented in national policy making, and the levers of partisan influence national leaders have over subnational politicians” (pp. 5–6). The author proposes that fiscally autonomous regions with competitive party systems are more likely to converge with the national government's interests on market economic reforms; and that national electoral coattails are a more effective means for disciplining regional leaders than partisan harmony through centrally dispensed carrots and sticks (pp. 38–39).

58 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper addresses the rising scholarly concern about the meaning of (comparing) contexts as bounded localities facing an increasingly fluid and generative process of datafication, and uses the recent expansion of standardized assessments in Germany and Russia to illustrate the coming-together of topological and topographical space-making in datafications.
Abstract: This paper contributes to a growing body of research on the increasing datafication of schooling, which has become a salient topic in comparative education and education policy research. Specifical...

30 citations

Dissertation
01 Nov 2019
TL;DR: The authors argued that Black masculinity is implicated in epistemological violence and imperialism, and that the scholarly lens does not provide the overall picture of Black men, and by extension the Black community.
Abstract: This study examined Black masculinity, the representation of Black men, and by extension the Black community. Black men in North America historically have been racially targeted and profiled in employment and education (school/prison pipeline). Black masculinity scholarship has actively represented this demography through diverse scholarships. While this may be the case, the opposite is equally true; the scholarly lens does not provide the overall picture of Black men. This exploratory/descriptive qualitative Afrocentric Indigenous narrative study applied post-colonial, anti-colonial, and critical masculinity theoretical frameworks to argue that Black masculinity is implicated in epistemological violence and imperialism. The study encompassed semi-structured interviews with 10 participants (Kenyan men in Toronto), allowing for open expression of their experiences. The Kenyan story has been missing in action; that is, the Kenyan racial experiences in immigration, education, and labour remain expunged and absent. Black masculinity has not focused on accents as a racial and gendered concept of erasing Kenyan men from social and political processes. The study is framed around the limits of Black masculinity and looks at immigration, education, and labour policies in Canada and how they expel Kenyan men from the body politic. Kenyan men that were interviewed said that though they are Black they are also African based on the complex act of accent multiplier..

28 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors identify variegated interactions of global circulations of sustainability discourses in education in Canada, using data from three levels of education policy-making in Canada and find that sustainability discourse influence education policies.
Abstract: Drawing on data from three levels of education policy-making in Canada, in this paper we identify variegated interactions of global circulations of sustainability discourses in education in relatio...

19 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors have adopted different mechanisms to guarantee minimum standards across the countries, and have shown that intergovernmental relations play a key role in policy diffusion among constituent units.
Abstract: Intergovernmental relations play a key role in policy diffusion among constituent units. Federal governments have adopted different mechanisms to guarantee minimum standards across the countries, b...

19 citations