Showing papers in "Compare in 2017"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the significant growth of international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) since the mid-1990s and present a framework of rationales for participatin...
Abstract: This Forum discusses the significant growth of international large-scale assessments (ILSAs) since the mid-1990s. Addey and Sellar’s contribution outlines a framework of rationales for participatin...
94 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the potential challenges in implementing professional learning communities (PLCs), including heavy teacher workload, ambiguities in the understanding and implementation of PLCs, and hierarchical work structures.
Abstract: Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been recognised as having the potential to raise the quality of teachers, teaching and student learning through structured teacher collaboration, and have been featured prominently in Singapore and Shanghai – both considered top-performing Asian societies in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Although embedded in education systems that are considered centralised, there are still significant differences. Drawing out key implications from the experiences of Singapore and Shanghai, this paper highlights the potential challenges in implementing PLCs. These challenges include heavy teacher workload, ambiguities in the understanding and implementation of PLCs, and hierarchical work structures. The discussions emanating from the comparison between Singapore and Shanghai PLCs seek to contribute towards the international literature on fostering teacher collaboration through PLCs, which has been predominantly Western-centric.
60 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored knowledge production in the field of educational leadership and management by analysing the prevalence and impact of empirical articles published in four English-medium international journals and analyzed the membership of editorial boards and editors to geographically locate key decision makers.
Abstract: There have been ongoing criticisms of the field of educational leadership and management with respect to over-reliance on research from ‘Western’ contexts. However, evidence on the extent to which voices alternative to the dominant ‘Western’ discourse are represented in the international English-medium discourse of educational leadership and management is thin. Using a three-phase sequential mixed-methods approach, this paper explores knowledge production in the field by analysing the prevalence and impact of empirical articles published in four English-medium international journals. Additionally, the membership of editorial boards and editors is analysed to geographically locate key decision makers. Findings demonstrate that an exceptionally small set of core inner-circle Anglophone and non-inner-circle Anglophone settings enjoys disproportionate influence in the field. There is need for a knowledge base enriched with leadership and management practices from different sociocultural contexts and s...
53 citations
TL;DR: The authors compared principals in Israel and Turkey and how they perceive and practice their role in promoting social justice (SJ) in their schools in order to bridge socioeconomic and pedagogic gaps.
Abstract: The research compares principals in Israel (Jewish and Arab) and Turkey and how they perceive and practice their role in promoting social justice (SJ) in their schools in order to bridge socioeconomic and pedagogic gaps. It poses three questions: (1) How do Turkish and Israeli SJ leaders make sense of SJ? (2) What do SJ leaders do in both countries similarly and differently? (3) What factors facilitate or hinder the work of SJ in both countries? The qualitative study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect the narratives of 11 school principals in Turkey and Israel. A comparative, holistic analysis was employed to identify the principals’ perceptions and daily practice of SJ in their schools. The principals reported different sociocultural, national and personal trajectories that shaped their perceptions of SJ, and described strategies used to promote SJ in their daily scholastic policies, processes and practices that meet the school stakeholders’ backgrounds and needs.
44 citations
TL;DR: The authors explores the way education and conflict have become entangled during the post-9/11 "war on terror" response to "radical Islam" at home and abroad, and explores whether and how education techniques and strategies deployed abroad in pursuit of imperial interests return to the West and are deployed to monitor, control and suppress marginalised communities in a form of internal colonialism.
Abstract: This paper explores the way education and conflict have become entangled during the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ response to ‘radical Islam’ at home and abroad. The paper charts the complex ways that education has been deployed to serve Western military and security objectives in multiple locations in the global south and how these strategies have now returned to the ‘ West’ in the form of ‘countering violent extremism’ interventions. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of the ‘boomerang effect’ I will explore whether and how education techniques and strategies deployed abroad in pursuit of imperial interests return to the West and are deployed to monitor, control and suppress marginalised communities in a form of ‘internal colonialism’. Finally, the paper brings the two sections together in the Findings to explore commonalities and divergences.
43 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the history of global education goal-and target-setting is traced from 1990 to 2015, with particular attention to primary and secondary education and skills development, and the complexity of the global governance architecture for the SDGs and their implementation is also analysed, with acknowledgement of the critical lens of the Global Education Monitoring Report of 2016.
Abstract: In this article the history of global education goal- and target-setting is traced from 1990 to 2015. After the highly inclusive process of developing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets, a much more technical process has produced the global indicators. The challenge of securing the ambitious targets for education in SDG 4 and assessing them via the global indicators is reviewed with particular attention to primary and secondary education and to skills development. A good deal of the SDG aspirations for expanded rights to, and breadth of, education appears to get lost in their translation to the indicators. The complexity of the global governance architecture for the SDGs and their implementation are also analysed, with acknowledgement of the critical lens of the Global Education Monitoring Report of 2016.
42 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the roles of teachers in the implementation of inclusive education in mainstream-classroom settings in South Africa and Finland were investigated, and a qualitative analysis of Finnish and South African teachers' day-to-day teaching and learning support practices in their classroom is discussed.
Abstract: This paper reports on the findings of an international comparative research project where the roles of teachers in the implementation of inclusive education in mainstream-classroom settings in South Africa and Finland were investigated. Inclusive education within this project is broadly defined as welcoming all students to general-education schools and classrooms and not segregating students on the basis of ability or other individual or sociocultural characteristics. In this paper a qualitative analysis of Finnish and South African teachers’ day-to-day teaching and learning support practices in their classroom is discussed. Individual and focus-group interviews encouraged teachers to articulate their views in this regard. Initial findings indicate that despite the dissimilar cultural and historical contexts of these two countries, both complex contextual issues and classroom practices based on a medical-deficit understanding of diverse educational needs play a role in Finnish and South African cl...
40 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on a group of Syrian refugees that came as part of the first large cohort that was welcomed in the UK in December 2015 and adapt Tikly's quality education frameworks and develop a model that highlights the importance of the three intersecting environments, but also the specific inputs/processes that are critical to achieving quality education for refugees.
Abstract: While existing research has shown the importance of the three interrelated domains of the wider policy, the school and home/community environments in the development of quality education for learners, this literature does not fully capture the experiences of the refugee population. In this article we focus on a group of Syrian refugees that came as part of the first large cohort that was welcomed in the UK in December 2015. We adapt Tikly’s quality education frameworks and develop a model that highlights not only the importance of the three intersecting environments, but also the specific inputs/processes that are critical to achieving quality education for refugees. In so doing, we stress the critical role of English as a tool for refugee children’s inclusion and integration in schools. Consequently, the contribution of the paper is an understanding of the inputs/processes that are key to the development of quality education for migrant/refugee children.
39 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates how top scorers in large-scale assessments are framed as positive or negative reference societies in the education policy-making debate in German mass media and which functions they fulfil.
Abstract: Researchers interested in the global flow of educational ideas and programmes have long been interested in the role of so-called ‘reference societies’. The article investigates how top scorers in large-scale assessments are framed as positive or negative reference societies in the education policy-making debate in German mass media and which functions they fulfil. Top scores in large-scale assessments do not automatically promote a country to the status of a positive reference society. Whether top scorers are perceived as positive or as negative reference societies depends largely on stereotyped prior perceptions that determine how success in these assessments is framed. Among the functions positive and negative reference societies fulfil are making educational reform agendas more plausible and serving as projection screens for conceptions of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ school.
38 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors assess measurement equivalence and mean differences in the scores measuring principals' skills (cognitive, interpersonal, strategic) across cultures (collectivism versus individualism).
Abstract: Despite substantial interest and research in measuring leader’s skills, little is known about the measurement equivalence and mean differences in the scores measuring principals’ skills (cognitive, interpersonal, strategic) across cultures (collectivism versus individualism). The aim of the present study was to assess measurement equivalence – configural, metric and scalar – on leaders’ skills across Arab and Jewish teachers in the Israeli educational system. A total of 1388 teachers from 210 elementary schools responded to a skills questionnaire. Results indicated that the configural model is equivalent across samples. The test for metric equivalence, showed that the construct holds the same psychological meaning across the two samples, with the exception of two items. The intercept latent test means (i.e., scalar) showed unequal intercepts among the Arab and Jewish samples, in the strategic and cognitive skills scale. The results have implications for cross-ethnic research and, more broadly, for...
33 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report on the findings of original field research carried out in the small island developing state of Fiji in the South Pacific, in which a North-South research partnership was built upon previous collaboration between team members and, in so doing, pioneered the blending of Pacific and Western research approaches sensitive to a postcolonial positioning.
Abstract: This article reports on the findings of original field research carried out in the small island developing state of Fiji, in the South Pacific. A North-South research partnership was built upon previous collaboration between team members and, in so doing, pioneered the blending of Pacific and Western research approaches sensitive to a postcolonial positioning. The study interrogates practitioner perspectives on the nature and quality of teachers and teaching in Fiji; the challenges of teachers’ work and lives; priorities for successful qualitative reform; and theoretical implications for the processes of education policy transfer and qualitative improvement. The analysis draws upon work on the politics of aid and international development, revealing tensions between existing learner-centred policy frameworks and emergent neoliberal and performativity oriented initiatives influenced by international surveys of student achievement, related league tables and the experience of the regional reference societies of Australia, New Zealand and India.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the complex and multi-dimensional nature of violence in post-conflict Sierra Leone and critically address the role of education in the conflict and postconflict period, highlighting education's centrality as a catalyst to conflict, and then reflect on the failure of the reconstruction process to adequately transform the education system into one that could support a process of sustainable peacebuilding.
Abstract: Research on peacebuilding has mushroomed over the last decade and there is a growing interest in the role of education in supporting peacebuilding processes. This paper engages with these debates, UN peacebuilding activities and the location of education initiatives therein, through a case study of Sierra Leone. In the first part, we explore the complex and multi-dimensional nature of violence in post-conflict Sierra Leone. In the second, we critically address the role of education in the conflict and post-conflict period, highlighting education’s centrality as a catalyst to conflict, and then reflect on the failure of the post-conflict reconstruction process to adequately transform the education system into one that could support a process of sustainable peacebuilding. Finally, we conclude by exploring the ways that greater investment and focus, both financial and human, in the education sector might, in the long term, better contribute to a sustainable and socially just peace.
TL;DR: In the absence of any comprehensive introductory text on the theory and practice of international peace education (PE), PE scholars Monisha Bajaj and Maria Hantzopoulos put together an edited volum...
Abstract: In the absence of any comprehensive introductory text on the theory and practice of international peace education (PE), PE scholars Monisha Bajaj and Maria Hantzopoulos put together an edited volum...
TL;DR: The authors conducted a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about "internationalisation in practice" in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internationalisation.
Abstract: The phenomenon of internationalisation of education in the twenty-first century has developed more rapidly and has been the subject of more research in higher education than in the schooling sector. This paper conducts a comparative analysis of the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and students about ‘internationalisation in practice’ in two case-study Australian independent secondary schools that adopted different approaches to internationalisation. Theoretical lenses of both interpretivism and critical theory were used to guide the research at different stages. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Findings indicate that whilst globalisation is having a powerful impact on schools, local contextual factors such as school ethos, school resources, teacher values and parent demographics and expectations play a significant part in shaping how schools engage with internationalisation. Wider implications for equity, teacher education and further research and theory development are...
TL;DR: More than any other historical figure, Marc-Antoine Jullien of Paris has been considered the "father" of Comparative Education as discussed by the authors, and his Esquisse d'un ouvrage sur l'education compare, appearing in 1...
Abstract: More than any other historical figure, Marc-Antoine Jullien of Paris has been considered the ‘Father’ of Comparative Education, and his Esquisse d’un ouvrage sur l’education compare, appearing in 1...
TL;DR: In this article, a push-pull factor theory of the international student's choice of destination is developed to identify factors influencing the choices made by these students, and the analytic hierarchy process is used to examine the relative importance of these factors.
Abstract: The mobility of African students beyond national territories has become common worldwide. However, the underlying reasons motivating students to leave their countries of origin in pursuit of higher education in other developing nations and why these factors are important have not been fully explored. This study attempts to explore why and how African students travel to the United Arab Emirates for higher education. A push-pull factor theory of the international student’s choice of destination is developed to identify factors influencing the choices made by these students. The analytic hierarchy process is used to examine the relative importance of these factors. The findings of this quantitative study indicate that learning environment and geographic proximity are the two most important factors for African students, while other factors have a moderate impact. The findings contribute to a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the needs and choices of existing and potential students from th...
TL;DR: The authors conducted qualitative research conducted among students, teachers and policy-makers in these two jurisdictions that explored the area of dealing with difference within citizenship education, using the starting point of a framework based on international law on education, and considered how freedom of expression and non-discrimination are variously interpreted and balanced when exploring controversial issues in the classroom of a divided society.
Abstract: It has long been established that an effective citizenship education in a multicultural society must incorporate some exposure to a variety of views on different topics. However, the ability and willingness to deal with difference relating to controversial matters of national identity, narrative and conflict vary. This is not least the case in the ethno-nationally divided and conflict-affected jurisdictions of Northern Ireland and Israel. This article relates qualitative research conducted among students, teachers and policy-makers in these two jurisdictions that explores the area of dealing with difference within citizenship education. Using the starting point of a framework based on international law on education, the article goes on to consider how freedom of expression and non-discrimination are variously interpreted and balanced when exploring controversial issues in the classroom of a divided society.
TL;DR: This article argued that the principles of colonial difference saturate Jullien's proposal, and that the ways that Jully enable subjectivities and subject positions as well as the ways it reifies social and contextual categories of analysis have cautionary salience for us today.
Abstract: Much existing scholarship takes Marc-Antoine Jullien’s 1816/17 Esquisse et Vues Preliminaries d’un ouvrage sur L’Education Comparee [Sketch and Preliminary Views for a work on Comparative Education] as an epochal moment in the establishment of comparative education as a scientific field of academic study. Yet, Jullien’s plan also needs to be examined in relation to European traditions of travel and global colonial expansion – and, concurrently, to the cosmopolitan practices, networks and mobilities that constitute social science. This article argues that principles of colonial difference saturate Jullien’s proposal. The ways that Jullien’s work enables and disables subjectivities and subject positions as well as the ways it reifies social and contextual categories of analysis have cautionary salience for us today. Jullien’s proposal did not found a discipline nor did it spark a continuous conversation, yet it is an instance in the establishment of the field that shows the stubbornly durable entang...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the Internet supply of private tutoring lessons in academic subjects and assesses the micro-and macro-factors influencing the offered lesson price as set by private tutors.
Abstract: In many parts of the world, shadow education has become a major enterprise. Such is the case of the countries of the former Eastern Bloc, including the Czech Republic, which is in scope of this article. The study analyses the Internet supply of private tutoring lessons in academic subjects and assesses the micro- and macro-factors influencing the offered lesson price as set by private tutors. Based on the quantitative content analysis of 2058 individual tutor profiles advertising online, the author found a very unequal distribution of tutors within the country and a considerable proportion of mainstream schoolteachers acting as private lesson providers. The higher the formal education and age of the tutor, the higher the price they offer per lesson. Male tutors set higher prices than female tutors, and tutoring in foreign languages is generally more expensive than in any other subject. The results suggest that the features of private tutoring supply have implications for equity in education.
TL;DR: The authors discuss the importance of fieldwork in doctoral research and highlight the ethical implications of White privilege of researchers turning consent into an obligatory contract with participants, unanticipated delays in the fieldwork opening up new possibilities, and tensions resulting from negotiating between insider and outsider identities while researching in two hostile contexts.
Abstract: This Forum issue discusses the centrality of the fieldwork in doctoral research. The inevitability of researchers’ influence and of their values apparent during and after their fieldwork calls for a high degree of reflexivity. Since the standard methodology textbooks do not sufficiently guide on addressing such challenges, doctoral researchers go through stressful phases, at times revising various decisions they made before starting fieldwork. By drawing upon four case studies from varied contexts, this forum highlights some of these challenges including: going beyond signing the consent form and building rapport to elicit student voices; the ethical implications of White privilege of researchers turning consent into an obligatory contract with participants; unanticipated delays in the fieldwork opening up new possibilities; and tensions resulting from negotiating between insider and outsider identities while researching in two hostile contexts.
TL;DR: The authors examines and compares how the national media of Japan, England and France reported on the PIAAC results of their countries and the extent to which these reports mirror key messages from the OECD's Country Notes.
Abstract: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Programme of International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) is put forward as a landmark development in the lifelong monitoring and international comparison of education. The first round of PIAAC’s Survey of Adult Skills compared performance in literacy, numeracy and problem solving in technology-rich environments across 24 countries. However, the translation of any OECD agenda into national policies is mediated by many actors, including the media. This paper examines and compares how the national media of Japan, England and France reported on the PIAAC results of their countries and the extent to which these reports mirror key messages from the OECD’s Country Notes. It begins to trace how the OECD PIAAC agendas materialise into national policies. Although their role in this initial period was limited, we argue the roles of the media together with other policy actors must be monitored as they interact to shape possibilitie...
TL;DR: This paper argued that in a setting where the nuclear family accounts for a minority of households, it is necessary to distinguish between the financing of a child's education and the social organization of schooling, including the caring of the child.
Abstract: From the 1980s and 1990s, governments around the world began to champion ‘parental choice’ over schooling. Much of the existing scholarship has been based on examples taken from the global North. In such settings, where nuclear families are common, a major theme has been the privileged educational strategies and outcomes of middle-class families. Yet this South African study gives attention to gender and family dynamics in helping to explain and understand the large number of schoolchildren travelling to attend historically better-funded schools. It argues that in a setting where the nuclear family accounts for a minority of households, it is necessary to distinguish between the financing of a child’s education and the social organization of schooling, including the caring of the child. It contributes to two literatures. First, to Western-centred educational choice literature that has tended to overemphasise nuclear families; second, to South African literature, which is yet to adequately bring in...
TL;DR: In the discourse of these graduates, the learning experience is described as "easy" and less demanding as mentioned in this paper, which is accepted, justified and even celebrated. But, "easy' education is also condemned for its compromised quality and low status.
Abstract: Private institutions are increasingly visible in the higher education landscape of Egypt. Many of these institutions, however, are within the ‘demand-absorbing’ category, offered at relatively lower fees and requiring lower test scores for admission. Building on interview data, this paper looks at how the graduates of some of these institutes reflect on their learning experience. In the discourse of these graduates, the learning experience is described as ‘easy’ and less demanding. This ‘easy’ education is accepted, justified and even celebrated. Credential fetish and the social status associated with a higher education degree are central to the perpetuation of the allure of ‘easy’. However, ‘easy’ education is also condemned for its compromised quality and low status. The paper seeks to situate these competing and overlapping discourses on private institutes within the analysis of the structure of the education system in Egypt and the global neoliberal tide for education reform.
TL;DR: This paper used a multilevel framework to investigate the effects of individual characteristics and the classroom and school environments on high school students' school engagement in a modernising education system that is different from Western ones.
Abstract: Drawing on data from a merged data set from a student survey and a parent survey that were conducted in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 2013, this article uses a multilevel framework to investigate the effects of individual characteristics and the classroom and school environments on high school students’ school engagement in a modernising education system that is different from Western ones. The results of the three-level model revealed that while students’ attributes remained strong predictors of their school engagement, the social and organisational environment of classrooms and school also greatly shaped the extent to which students emotionally and cognitively engaged with their school and learning. This study provided evidence to support the interactive nature of the impact of multilevel environments on student engagement. The policy and research implications were also discussed in the empirical context of Abu Dhabi.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the institutional changes in the educational systems of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, and demonstrate that the educational reforms implemented during the transformation introduced very different institutional arrangements in the four countries, despite the fact that their systems shared many common characteristics at the beginning of the 1990s.
Abstract: The goal of this work is to better understand the institutional changes in the educational systems of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We demonstrate that the educational reforms implemented during the transformation introduced very different institutional arrangements in the four countries, despite the fact that their systems shared many common characteristics at the beginning of the 1990s. Differences between the national approaches to educational reforms are particularly reflected in the modes of education decentralisation, the level of school autonomy, accountability and funding mechanisms. We believe that different institutional arrangements may have contributed to the divergent achievements of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland in the PISA programme.
TL;DR: In this article, the potential role of information and communication technologies in comparative education scholarship within the context of Jullien's plan for comparative education is considered, and an understanding of cultural context, illuminated by an analysis of the content of social media messages, may contribute to more appropriate and successful educational policies for minority populations.
Abstract: The 200th year since Jullien published his influential book Esquisse et vues preliminaries d’un ouvrage sur l’education comparee (Preliminary plan and views of a work of comparative education) is an opportunity to reflect on the field of comparative education and potential new research and theoretical directions. This paper will consider the potential role of information and communication technologies in comparative education scholarship within the context of Jullien’s plan for comparative education. Specifically, it uses the example of interactive Uyghur language websites to highlight their value as a vehicle for informal education, and how an understanding of cultural context, illuminated by an analysis of the content of social media messages, may contribute to more appropriate and successful educational policies for minority populations. Data for this paper are drawn from posts from the online community forums (munbar) of four popular Uyghur language websites.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine indicator research over three periods and discuss shifts in policy usage over time, comparing influential actors that reflect discursive shifts in how, and for what purpose, indicators were used: (1) Jullien de Paris, (2) faculty at Teachers College at Columbia University in the early-twentieth century (notably Paul Monroe and Isaac Kandel) and (3) UNESCO Institute for Statistics contribution to the debate on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators.
Abstract: The authors examine indicator research over three periods and discuss shifts in policy usage over time. The study compares influential actors that reflect discursive shifts in how, and for what purpose, indicators were used: (1) Jullien de Paris, (2) faculty at Teachers College at Columbia University in the early-twentieth century (notably Paul Monroe and Isaac Kandel) and (3) UNESCO Institute for Statistics’ contribution to the debate on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators. Arguably, these periods reflect the broader agenda and usage of indicators: modernization/nation-building (Jullien), colonization/development (Monroe and Kandel) and standardization/globalization (SDGs). In this view, indicators make systems comparable, despite their differences: educational systems are not comparable per se, they are made comparable through standardized measurement. Jullien crucially shaped empirical research through uniform questions that enable description, analysis and comparison educa...
TL;DR: This paper identified three principal ways in which this adverse incorporation can happen: differential access to different types and quality of school; through obstacles that prevent children from poorer households from progressing through the system and reaching higher levels; and through subordinate power relations in the school, embodied in systems of assessment, labelling of students and discipline.
Abstract: This paper asks whether education is a viable route to better livelihoods and social inclusion for children living in poor urban areas in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It uses qualitative interviews with 36 students aged 11–16, living in slum and middle-class areas, and also draws on data from a larger, mixed-methods study to provide context. Many children from slums are excluded altogether from education, while others are incorporated into the system but on unfavourable terms. The paper identifies three principal ways in which this adverse incorporation can happen: through differential access to different types and quality of school; through obstacles that prevent children from poorer households from progressing through the system and reaching higher levels; and through subordinate power relations in the school, embodied in systems of assessment, labelling of students and discipline. These are likely to limit the potential for education to be a socially transformative institution.
TL;DR: The results of PISA 2015 revealed a major oddity: reading scores in several of the ‘leading’ East Asian countries had apparently plummeted (Hong Kong −18 points, South Korea −19 points).
Abstract: Results of PISA 2015 released December 2016 revealed a major oddity: reading scores in several of the ‘leading’ East Asian countries had apparently plummeted (Hong Kong —18 points, South Korea —19
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyse the thinking, ideas and ideologies that have shaped contemporary higher education in Poland and argue that the rise of the "corporate university" signals the twilight of the Humboldtian tradition and raises questions about what the corporate ideal of "excellence" may mean for the future of the university.
Abstract: The year 1989 marked the official end of communist rule in Poland and the replacement of ‘Gosplan’ by new instruments for liberal-democratic governance. In terms of the economy this heralded a departure from Gosplan’s five-year planning cycles, performance targets and the ‘propaganda of success’. Paradoxically, however, 27 years later, the marketisation of higher education in Poland has been accompanied by a continuation of Gosplan thinking. This is manifested in a neoliberal vision of the modern, ‘corporate’ university as a largely utilitarian enterprise, but subject to a style of performance management strongly resonant of the Soviet era. This article analyses the thinking, ideas and ideologies that have shaped contemporary higher education in Poland. It is contended that the rise of the ‘corporate university’ signals the twilight of the Humboldtian tradition and raises questions about what the corporate ideal of ‘excellence’ may mean for the future of the university.