Showing papers by "Maarten Simons published in 2009"

Classification of primary and incisional abdominal wall hernias

Abstract: Purpose A classification for primary and incisional abdominal wall hernias is needed to allow comparison of publications and future studies on these hernias. It is important to know whether the populations described in different studies are comparable.

Re-Reading Education Policies: A Handbook Studying the Policy Agenda of the 21st Century

Abstract: This book collects studies with a ‘critical education policy orientation’, and presents itself as a handbook of matters of public concern. The term ‘critical’ does not refer to the adoption of a particular theoretical framework or methodology, but rather it refers to a very specific ethos or way of relating to the present and the belief that the future should not be the repetition of the past. This implies a concern about what is happening in our societies today and what could or should be happening in the future. As a consequence, the contributors to the book rely on a general notion of public policy that takes on board processes, practices, and discourses at a variety of levels, in diverse governmental and non-governmental contexts, and considers the relation of policy to power, to politics and to social regulation. Following the detailed introduction that aims at picturing the landscape of studies with a ‘critical education policy orientation’, the book presents re-readings of six policy challenges; globalization, knowledge society, lifelong learning, equality/democracy/social inclusion, accountability/control/efficiency and teacher professionalism. It seeks to contextualise these in relation to issues of current global concern at the start of the 21st century. Despite the diversity of approaches, this collection of critical education policy studies shares a concern with what could be called ‘the public, and its education,’ and represents a snapshot of education policy research at a particular time.

The Public and its University: Beyond Learning for Civic Employability?:

Abstract: Instead of asking how universities can contribute to active citizenship and democratic participation (and seeking for ways to improve their contribution), this article asks what it is that universi...

Re-Reading Education Policies, Part 1: The Critical Education Policy Orientation

Abstract: The aim of this first part of two introduction chapters is to discuss features of critical studies of educational policy within the broader field of policy studies and in relation to sociological, political and philosophical research on education. The point of departure is the so-called “policy orientation” in social research, and the emergence of policy analysis and its concern within the welfare state. The sphere and genre of critical educational policy studies at the beginning of the 1980s was mainly rooted in sociological, historical, and political research on education, that is, the research tradition interested in the power, politics and (social) regulation in and around schools. Echoing the term “policy orientation”, we want to introduce the notion critical education policy orientation to describe the distinctive scope of critical education policy studies. In this chapter we will not present either detailed definitions of and illuminating linkages between the main concepts in research traditions nor exhaustive overviews and final accounts of perspectives, theories and methods. The aim instead is to offer some general overviews of approaches and discussions for the purpose of bringing some matters of concern in the diversity of studies critically oriented towards educational policy to the foreground.

From Active Citizenship to World Citizenship: A Proposal for a World University

Abstract: This article explores how universities can function as spaces where a world citizenship takes shape. First, Kant's distinction between the ‘private use of reason’ and ‘domestic gathering’, on the one hand, and the ‘public use of reason’ and ‘public gathering’, on the other, is elucidated. This distinction is used, secondly, to argue that the actual university organises ‘domestic gatherings’. In the name of excellence, it requires an entrepreneurial ethos of its staff, i.e. an ethos of obedience to a permanent quality tribunal, implying a permanent (self-)mobilisation confining the entrepreneur to a domestic gathering and the private use of reason (‘private citizens’). Based on this understanding, the third section develops a proposal for a world university inhabited by ‘learned individuals' acting as world citizens. It is a habitat in which an experimental and attentive ethos is present and where the public use of reason is ‘finding (a) place’. This public use of reason is not just about making things kno...

What is the public role of the university? : A proposal for a public research agenda

Abstract: GERT BIESTA Stirling Institute of Education, University of Stirling, United Kingdom MAREK KWIEK Centre for Public Policy, Poznan University, Poland GRAHAME LOCK Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands; Leiden University, Netherlands; University of Oxford, United Kingdom HERMINIO MARTINS University of Oxford, United Kingdom; University of Lisbon, Portugal JAN MASSCHELEIN Centre for Philosophy of Education, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium VASSILIKI PAPATSIBA School of Education, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom MAARTEN SIMONS Centre for Educational Policy and Innovation/ Centre for Philosophy of Education, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium PAVEL ZGAGA Centre for Educational Policy Studies, Faculty of Education, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

Towards the Idea of a World University

Abstract: Could anyone reasonably oppose the idea that quality and excellence are essential to the university? However unlikely it seems, that is exactly what we would like to do in this article: we would like to reject the demand for quality and excellence in the university. We would like to arrive at a point at where the need for quality is no longer necessary. In this article, such a refusal will direct us to a proposal for using the spaces offered by the university and its teaching and research in a different way; in a way that transforms the university into a world university. This paper will argue that a world university is concentrated around attentive pools of worldly study. It is a university that has to invent new languages in order to answer the question “How can we live together?” In order to answer this question, and to be “present in the present,” we will clarify our argument that both acceptance and attention are needed in the world university. This position implies a kind of curiosity that is not driven by the “will to know” but by a caring attitude to what is happening now.

Re-Reading Educational Policies, Part 2:Challenges, Horizons, Approaches, Tools, Styles

Abstract: The first part of the introduction chapter explored the emergence of the so-called critical education policy orientation, and explored three features of this orientation: acknowledgement of the educational, moral and social concerns in debates on education, the focus on power, politics and regulation in education (except for specific policies), and the adoption of a specific form of critical advocacy towards society. This part of the introduction explores the current state of affairs, and aims both at giving access to theoretical discussions and analytical frameworks and offering some overviews of specific and hopefully useful tools and approaches. The first section explores some of the challenges the critical education policy orientation is facing today in view of the challenges of contemporary society and regarding theory and methodology. We will clarify that in confrontation with these challenges the critical orientation is in need of “de-parochialisation” (Dale, 1994; Lingard, 2006) and a “recalibration of critical lenses” (Robertson & Dale, 2008). The second section sketches the (meta-)theoretical horizons of critical policy research in order to discuss the main approaches adopted by critical education policy scholars (and in the contributions of this book): cultural political economy, critical discourse analysis, policy field analysis, governmentality study, micropolitical analysis, feminist theory, post-colonial theory and hermeneutics. The third section lists and discusses some of the old and new classifications and analytical tools that have been and are being used to critically examine education policy. In the concluding section of the chapter, different styles of critical education policy research are distinguished in order to emphasise the idea that when policy makers become critical there is perhaps an urgent need for critical scholars to become concerned.

Higher Education and European Citizenship as a Matter of Public Concern

Abstract: With the growth of the European Union – both in terms of its size and in terms of its influence and importance – questions have emerged about the relationship between the European Union and the inhabitants of its member states. These questions are increasingly being framed in relation to the idea of citizenship. The issue here is not only whether such a thing as European citizenship can exist. The issue is also what we should understand by European citizenship and, in relation to this, how European citizenship can be promoted and advanced. These questions are first of all considered to be important in relation to the democratic legitimacy of the European Union on the assumption that the legitimacy of democratic governance crucially depends on the extent to which it is supported and ‘owned’ by its citizens. But they are also considered to be important in relation to wider questions about social cohesion and integration and the emergence of something like a sense of a European identity. Whereas many opportunities for civic participation and identification are located at national and sub-national levels, there is at least one area where over the past decade something with a more European identity has been emerging. This is the field of higher education.[1] While compulsory education and, to a slightly lesser extent, vocational education have largely remained tied to national priorities, agendas and policies, the field of higher education is rapidly evolving into a sector which transcends national borders and agendas. Although the economic imperative is central in the policies that drive these developments, particularly in relation to the ambition of the European Community to become ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion’ (Lisbon European Council, 2000), policy makers are clearly aware of the wider potential of universities in relation to questions of social cohesion and European citizenship (see, for example, European Commission, 2003, 2006). This is also what has been emphasised by the European universities themselves, who have stressed that their role encompasses more than just the creation of the next generation of workers for the knowledge economy, but includes a responsibility for cultural, social and civic development at national and European level (see, for example, European University Association, 2003). There are indeed good reasons for focusing on the higher education sector in relation to questions about European citizenship. One reason goes back to the Humboldtian tradition, which has always given the university a special role in the development of the democratic nation-state, a line of thinking which is now extended to the European level. This line of thought traditionally stresses the unique role of ‘academic’ education, that is, the edifying potential of research-based education in institutions for higher education. A second reason for a focus on higher education has

In de ban van het leren. Over biopolitiek en beleid van levenslang leren

Abstract: Het is opvallend hoe beleidsmakers op het niveau van Europa en de lidstaten levenslang leren vooropstellen als een oplossing voor de meest diverse problemen en uitdagingen. Werkloosheid bijvoorbeeld wordt gedefinieerd als het niet beschikken over (gepaste) competenties en (gepaste) training is de manier om aan werk te geraken. Bovendien schuift men levenslang leren naar voren als voorwaarde om in een snel veranderende kennissamenleving tewerkgesteld te blijven. Ook werk zoeken zelf ziet men als een activiteit waarvoor specifieke competenties vereist zijn die met gepaste trainingen geleerd kunnen worden. Maar beleidsmakers benaderen bijvoorbeeld ook burgerschap en ouderschap als iets dat vraagt om gepaste competenties. Problemen op het gebied van armoede en integratie worden geduid als het ontbreken van de juiste kennis, vaardigheden en houdingen en leren wordt daarvoor als oplossing aangedragen. In het gezondheidsbeleid wordt de nadruk gelegd op het verwerven van competenties om een gezond leven te leiden en kennis over gezondheidsrisico’s en (on)gezonde levensstijlen. In het eerste deel van Geschiedenis van de seksualiteit en in zijn beschrijving van het moderne seksualiteitsdispositief stelt Foucault dat het begrip seksualiteit functioneert als een ‘unieke betekenaar’ en tegelijkertijd als een ‘universeel betekende’ (Foucault 1976, 152). Dit geldt vandaag ook voor het begrip (levenslang) leren: het functioneert als een betekenaar die alle facetten van het leven en samenleven aan zich kan binden, en alles is op de één of andere manier herleidbaar tot het (levenslang) leren van mensen. Maar misschien kunnen we nog een stap verder gaan. Volgens Foucault heeft het seksualiteitsdispositief een strategisch statuut in de moderne biopolitiek, dat wil zeggen een politiek die zich inlaat met de vormgeving en de reproductie van het individuele en het collectieve lichaam. Seksualiteit verschijnt in deze biopolitieke configuratie precies als een scharnierpunt tussen het individuele en het collectieve, tussen burger en populatie en tussen lichaam en soort. Deze bijdrage wil duidelijk maken dat we vandaag de ontwikkeling zien van een leerdispositief dat een strategische functie vervult in de hedendaagse vorm van biopolitiek. Ook leren functioneert als een scharnierpunt tussen het individuele en het collectieve; levenslang leren is de voorwaarde voor een succesvol leven als individu, maar het is tegelijkertijd de garantie voor het welzijn en de welvaart van de bevolking. Deze bijdrage wil dus aangeven dat het overheidsbeleid inzake levenslang leren een vorm van biopolitiek is en dat dit beleid haar effectiviteit en omvattendheid ontleent aan de strategische werking van wat we hier zullen beschrijven als het leerdispositief. Voor tot die duiding te komen – waarbij we foucaultiaanse perspectieven en concepten als een gereedschapskist gebruiken voor een kritische lezing van het heden – is het nodig kort in te gaan op de draagwijdte van Foucaults ideeën over bestuurlijkheid en biopolitiek.