Showing papers in "Journal of Education Policy in 1991"
TL;DR: This article investigated the criteria parents use when choosing schools and found that the happiness of the child was a crucial consideration and that academic criteria were significantly minimized, and the conclusion is drawn that schools and those concerned with the presentation of their practice to parents should not be exclusively preoccupied with the single criterion of academic standards.
Abstract: This paper takes as its starting point the results of a number of projects that investigated the criteria parents use when choosing schools. In those studies it was found that the happiness of the child was a crucial consideration and that academic criteria were significantly minimized. One of the projects, that conducted at Sheffield, set out to try to clarify what parents might mean by the vague criterion of ‘happiness’. The results of this investigation show a complex set of reasons cited by parents for their decisions. A possible explanation for the relative importance of the criteria is proposed. The conclusion is drawn that schools and those concerned with the presentation of their practice to parents should not be exclusively preoccupied with the single criterion of academic standards. It is hoped that these conclusions offer some evidence to justify existing good practice in schools.
96 citations
TL;DR: In this article, policy making for Australian schooling: the new corporate federalism is discussed. But it is not discussed in detail in this paper, and the authors focus on the following:
Abstract: (1991). Policy‐making for Australian schooling: the new corporate federalism. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 85-90.
77 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the use and misuse of comparative examples in British debates over reform and assessed what lessons, if any, we can draw from them for the reform of British vocational education and training (VET).
Abstract: With the future shape of Britain's post‐16 education and training still undecided policy makers are increasingly looking abroad for new models to follow. The educational debate has become internationalized. As in the late 19th century it is the pressure of economic competition from Europe which has galvanized British interest in the relative ‘success’ of training in countries such as France and Germany. This paper examines the current use and misuse of comparative examples in British debates over reform. It analyses the systems of vocational education and training (VET) in France, Germany, and Sweden and assesses what lessons, if any, we can draw from them for the reform of British VET.
30 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: Cibulka et al. as discussed by the authors studied the poltics of education in the United States and the political condition of urban education, including leadership turnover and business mobilization, and the changing political ecology in urban education school systems.
Abstract: Introduction: the politics of urban education in the United States - introduction and overview, J.G. Cibulka, et al. Part 1 The study of the poltics of education: the politics of urban education as a field of study - an interpretive analysis,, K.K. Wong urban education as a field of study - problems of knowledge and power, J.G. Cibulka knowledge and power in research into the politics of urban education, J. Spring public choice perspectives on urban education, J.G. Weeres and B. Cooper. Part 2 The political condition of urban education: leadership turnover and business mobilization - the changing political ecology of urban education school systems, B.L. Jackson and J.G. Cibulka urban schools as organizations - political perspectiveds, R.L. Crowson and W.L. Boyd urban politics and state school finance in the 1980s, T.B.Timar political and financial support for school-based and child-centered reforms, R.A. King and C.K. McGuire. Part 3 Urban school renewal and implementation strategies - political implications: urban school desegregation - from race to resources, D. Colton and Susan Uchitelle school decentralization and empowerment, R.J. Reed politics and federal aid to urban school systems - the case of chapter one, C.D. Herrington and M.E. Orland equity, adequacy and educational need - the courts and urban school finance, L.F. Miron, et al. Part 4 Epilogue: toward improved knowledge and policy on urban education, C.E. Bidwell.
29 citations
26 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a disjunction has been created and sustained between the form taken by annual development plans for schools and a more flexible approach to planning that appears, from small-scale research, to be effective at school level.
Abstract: Concepts adapted from structuration theory are employed to analyse how a disjunction has been created and sustained between the form taken by annual development plans for schools and a more flexible approach to planning that appears, from small‐scale research, to be effective at school level. The interest of LEAs and central government in a high degree of external control over school development is interpreted as contradictory to the interest at school level in maintaining a high degree of control over internal development. It is argued that action according to these contradictory interests has not led to conflict because completion of the plan has been kept largely separate from ongoing strategic planning at school level. The concepts employed in this analysis are defined, features of LEA development plans for schools are discussed, research evidence on development planning is summarized, and unintended consequences of development plans as a form of bureaucratic control are suggested.
24 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discussed the implications of these changes through an historical analysis, with special reference to their impact on "freedom" and "equity" in New Zealand schooling.
Abstract: Recent major reforms in the New Zealand education system have included important changes in the character and function of secondary school zoning. The implications of these changes are discussed through an historical analysis, with special reference to their impact on ‘freedom’ and ‘equity’ in New Zealand schooling. The prime aim of zoning has changed from one of balancing out the declared needs of different schools, to one of emphasizing the alleged rights of parents. The new provisions for zoning involve both a strong role for ‘freedom’ and a weak role for ‘equity’, which is likely to endanger some schools especially in disadvantaged locations.
22 citations
TL;DR: The average tenure of urban superintendents is now 2.5 years, coupled with a shortage of applicants for vacant superintendencies, indicating a crisis of legitimacy for many urban school systems as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: This chapter addresses evidence of leadership turnover in urban school systems and explains this leadership problem as emanating from the changing political ecology of urban school systems. The average tenure of urban superintendents is now 2‐5 years, coupled with a shortage of applicants for vacant superintendencies, indicating a crisis of legitimacy for many urban school systems. Demands for racial representativeness on school boards and among superintendents led to more African‐Americans in these positions, but responsiveness to these demands did not check still other demands for improved quality. The evolution from racial equity (integration and representativeness) to quality is reviewed. Most recently, business leaders have mobilized to demand improved quality. An analysis of events in Detroit, Atlanta and Milwaukee illustrates the difficulty these school systems have had managing these cumulative political demands.
19 citations
TL;DR: This article propose an integrative framework that specifies the circumstances under which different kinds of power is allocated between the top of the system and the school site and the way clientele are involved in schooling decisions.
Abstract: Researchers in the field of urban education politics have much in agreement ‐ they refute the notion of bureaucratic insulation in school policy making, connect the school to its broader political and economic community, and address the effects of school governance on race relations, governmental legitimacy and political representation. At the same time, approaching the field with different disciplinary backgrounds and substantive interests, researchers have offered competing frameworks in analysing school politics. In my view, disagreements and consensus within the field can be better appreciated if the diverse approaches and their substantive findings are understood in the proper context of the school policy organization ‐ the way power is allocated between the top of the system and the school site and the way clientele are involved in schooling decisions. In this partial review of the literature, I shall propose an integrative framework that specifies the circumstances under which different kinds of po...
18 citations
TL;DR: The Australian Education Council (AEC) comprised the Federal and State Ministers of Education subsequently established a working party to produce a Green Paper, Teacher Education in Australia: Report to the Australian education Council (February, 1990) (hereafter referred to as the report) and a supplementary document as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Since 1983, the Hawke Labor government has been engaged in a process of national restructuring of the private and public sector. In Australia, however, it has not always been recognized that education, including teacher education is an industry, is expected to contribute to this national reconstruction, and is itself currently undergoing a restructuring which is revolutionary in extent and effect. With the Green and White Papers on higher education (Dawkins 1987, 1988), the Commonwealth Government effectively established a unified national system of higher education. The Australian Education Council (AEC) comprised the Federal and State Ministers of Education subsequently established a working party to produce a Green Paper, Teacher Education in Australia: Report to the Australian Education Council, (February, 1990) (hereafter referred to as the report) and a supplementary document.
18 citations
TL;DR: The authors provided a case study of how this change is being mediated through an inner-city comprehensive school, focusing on the qualitative dimensions of the implementation of curriculum initiatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Abstract: In recent years we have witnessed unprecedented, rapid and substantial curriculum policy changes in state schools This paper provides a case study of how this change is being mediated through an inner‐city comprehensive school The particular focus is on the qualitative dimensions of the implementation of curriculum initiatives in the late 1980s and early 1990s What are reported are the increased contradictions and confusions of differential individual and group teacher experiences of and responses to the changes, reflecting those of the wider education‐policy community at central government level The heightened visibility of the links between individual school micro‐politics and the wider processes of educational restratification are the legacy of the ‘enterprise decade’ ‐‐ a cultural legacy that has increased the instruments of state control and surveillance, while at the same time engendering increased divisions of teacher animosity, fear and low morale
TL;DR: In this article, the authors show that educational practice did not change fundamentally in those days and that personal tensions, rivalries and a lack of continuity in educational policy inhibited greatly the implementation of the 1936 curriculum.
Abstract: As it was inspired to a large extent by the reform movement (Decroly and others), the 1936 curriculum is generally seen as an important innovation in the history of Belgian primary education. This study shows, however, that educational practice did not change fundamentally in those days. Several factors such as, among other things, personal tensions, rivalries and a lack of continuity in educational policy, inhibited greatly the implementation of the new curriculum. It seems that there was an inevitable gap between the idealistic context of the innovation on the one hand and the sociohistorical reality in which it had to be implemented on the other. Such a discrepancy is, perhaps, perennial rather than unique in the history of education.
TL;DR: The authors argues that the origins of this transformation may be traced to the early 1970s when government leaders began to question openly the costs of schooling and the effectiveness of school programmes, leading to a shift away from the philosophical and social foundations that have governed public policymaking in Canada for more than a century.
Abstract: Educational policy in Canada is in the midst of an important transition as the 1990s begin. The origins of this transformation, this paper argues, may be traced to the early 1970s when government leaders began to question openly the costs of schooling and the effectiveness of school programmes. However, rising public and governmental concerns with the institution of public schooling, the paper contends, are even more deeply intertwined with the larger affairs of state and with a shift away from the philosophical and social foundations that have governed public policy‐making in Canada for more than a century. These philosophical and social foundations, this paper will attempt to illustrate, were born in the common school movement of the mid‐nineteenth century and the ideas of Victorian liberalism that produced it. After more than a century of directing educational thought and practice, these liberal ideas have lost much of their public and political appeal. This paper will examine the reasons for ...
TL;DR: The authors track the early effects of the 1988 amendments to the federal Chapter One programme on the policies and practices of four large urban districts (Atlanta, Chicago, Dade County and Dallas).
Abstract: This chapter tracks the early effects of the 1988 amendments to the federal Chapter One programme on the policies and practices of four large urban districts (Atlanta, Chicago, Dade County and Dallas). Specifically, the article analyses reform efforts in the areas of programme co‐ordination, parental involvement, school‐wide projects and school performance accountability. Drawing on an historical analysis of the evolution of relations between the federal government and local school districts since the programme's inception in the 1960s, the authors argue that the apparently only modest impact of the 1988 reforms on the practice of Chapter One programmes to date is a result of a basic conflict between the intent of the reforms (to enhance educational effectiveness) and the political context as it occurs at the local level (an orientation toward bureaucratic and regulatory compliance).
TL;DR: In this paper, a theoretical model for analyzing the escalation and manifestation of racist incidents in schools has been proposed to identify areas where teachers, community representatives and parents might intervene in the build-up of racist events in schools.
Abstract: In this article we want to move beyond the assembling of descriptive data on racist incidents in schools collected by researchers such as Elinor Kelly (1988) to offer a provisional theoretical model for analysing the escalation and manifestation of such events. If the efficacy of the model can be demonstrated empirically it might help us to pinpoint areas where teachers, community representatives and parents might intervene in the build‐up of racist incidents in schools.
TL;DR: In the province of British Columbia, a curriculum policy for guiding school pr... as mentioned in this paper was proposed by the Royal Commission on Education (RCE), which recommended extensive changes to schooling in British Columbia.
Abstract: A Royal Commission on Education recommended extensive changes to schooling in the province of British Columbia. Out of these recommendations arose a curriculum policy for guiding school pr...
TL;DR: In this paper, centralizing in order to decentralize? DES scrutiny and approval of LMS schemes is discussed and a discussion of the benefits of decentralization in education policy is presented.
Abstract: (1991). Centralizing in order to decentralize? DES scrutiny and approval of LMS schemes. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 401-416.
TL;DR: The authors discusses the importance of the relationship between power and knowledge for research into the politics of education and proposes research questions regarding the poor, effective schools, restructuring, and the influence of business on schools.
Abstract: This essay discusses the importance of the relationship between power and knowledge for research into the politics of education. Based on this discussion, the author proposes research questions regarding the poor, effective schools, restructuring, and the influence of business on schools. Of particular concern is the effect of the relationship between power and knowledge on the education of children from poor families, and dominated racial and ethnic groups. In addition, the essay suggests an interrelationship between the political and economic interests of educational researchers and the types of research questions that they ask.
TL;DR: The already chequered history of the culture concept in both the social sciences (Archer 1988) and educational studies (Burtonwood 1986) took yet another turn when recently coupled with "enterprise" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The already chequered history of the culture concept in both the social sciences (Archer 1988) and educational studies (Burtonwood 1986) took yet another turn when recently coupled with ‘enterprise’. Moreover those shadowy ideas about enterprise culture that resulted sometimes claimed simple and straightforward links from education, through into economic performance, towards supposed new national capabilities and well‐being which were rarely that clearly proven in practice. Nevertheless, in chasing these shadows, educational institutions now host a plethora of schemes and initiatives, ranging from the likes of the Mini‐Enterprise in Schools Project (MESP), through Enterprise in YTS, to Enterprise in Higher Education (EHE), Enterprise Awareness in Teacher Education (EATE), Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs), and various others with no clear end in sight. Not only that but, very much under the shadow of ‘the’ enterprise culture as government and state would have it, many such institutions’ own...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report on a study that sought to map and conceptualize the implementation of this comprehensive change by principals and teachers, and identify three response patterns (local scenarios) to a central policy intervention are identified.
Abstract: The Netherlands’ new basic school was implemented in the mid‐1980s to increase individualized instruction and curriculum differentiation for children in the earliest grades. To do so, kindergarten and primary schools were brought together. This article reports on a study that sought to map and conceptualize the implementation of this comprehensive change by principals and teachers. Our assumption is that a demand for complex reform represents an intervention into the school's life. The central reform policy can be seen as a stimulus that arouses the ‘implementing school’ to develop a response pattern to that policy. We would not expect a precise correspondence between the centrally defined reform concept and the response of the local school. Three response patterns (local scenarios) to a central policy intervention are identified. Following up on this analysis, a complementary view is presented in which a central policy is seen to provide the school with opportunities for self‐reflection and, con...
TL;DR: This article studied the effects of the internal politics of the organization in city schooling, a politics that may adapt in some unforeseen way to new battles between top-down and bottom-up.
Abstract: Reformed at the turn of the century toward top‐down, centralized administration, city school systems are frequently being reorganized today toward a bottom‐up, decentralized construction. The most radical of these is Chicago. But Chicago, in a condition shared widely throughout the USA, is a city school system experiencing serious budgetary and infrastructure decline ‐ a condition tending anew toward organizational centralization. Such political forces may not mesh well ‐ as a new politics of adaptive realignment at the grassroots encounters renewed strength in an ‘old politics’ of bureaucratic centralization. Largely unstudied and unknown at this time are the effects on the internal politics of the organization in city schooling ‐ a politics that may adapt in some unforeseen way to new battles between top‐down and bottom‐up.
TL;DR: The political organization of urban schools (centralized bureaucracy, standardized resource allocation rules, and bureaucratic incentives) poses a major obstacle to improving this knowledge base as mentioned in this paper, and the task of generating better knowledge of how urban schools can work must overcome several political problems such as the strength of bureaucracies and their allies; the narrow orientation of consumer-oriented reform demands, and the resource inadequacies.
Abstract: A review of the scholarship on urban education indicates that the knowledge base is disputed in fundamental ways and is fragmentary, reflecting educational research generally. Further, many promising practices remain unadopted or poorly implemented, further reinforcing the knowledge‐base problem. The political organization of urban schools (centralized bureaucracy, standardized resource allocation rules and bureaucratic incentives) poses a major obstacle to improving this knowledge base. Correspondingly, the task of generating better knowledge of how urban schools can work must overcome several political problems such as the strength of bureaucracies and their allies; the narrow orientation of consumer‐oriented reform demands, and the resource inadequacies of urban schools. Restructuring proposals do not address these interlocking impediments. Dramatic improvements in urban schools cannot be expected without attention to how the knowledge base can be improved.
TL;DR: The movement to decentralize school governance as discussed by the authors is an effort to make schooling a meaningful process for all students, and particularly the minority poor, are decentralization and citizen/parent empowerment, the focus of this chapter.
Abstract: School results for children of poverty ‐ those forced by that poverty to live in inner‐city neighbourhoods ‐generally indicate educational failure at a much higher rate than is seen for students nurtured by wealthier school districts. This failure in school severely limits chances of social and economic upward mobility, which translates into a waste of human capital for the nation's business‐industrial‐political complex, and dashed hopes, dreams and self‐esteem for the individual. Parents and concerned citizens from across socio‐economic strata, long aware of the general inadequacy of schools in poor communities, have demanded improvement, often seeking it through legal and political means. Important strategies among the various federal, state and local school reform efforts to make schooling a meaningful process for all students, and particularly the minority poor, are decentralization and citizen/parent empowerment, the focus of this chapter. The movement to decentralize school governance ‐ an effort to...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the Australian teacher debate and its implications for policy and practice, and present a survey of teacher debates in the Australian education system, focusing on the following issues:
Abstract: (1991). Contradictions in the Australian teacher debate: implications for policy and practice. Journal of Education Policy: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 359-369.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a case study from Liberia to illustrate the importance of adequate attention being given to the incentive structure surrounding the development and use of national level data in policy formulation and management at the national level.
Abstract: A priority in many international educational development projects in the Third World is the increased use of information in policy formulation and planning. This, in turn, has resulted in considerable attention and resources being devoted to design and implementation of education management information systems (EMIS). However, those sponsoring such systems often fail to understand the impact these systems can have on other activities within the education sector and, as a result, the resistance that may arise to EMIS. Consequently, in planning EMIS, sponsors often fail to provide adequate individual and organizational incentives to encourage use of improved educational data at the national level. This paper presents a case study from Liberia to illustrate the importance of adequate attention being given to the incentive structure surrounding the development and use of national level data in policy formulation and management at the national level.
TL;DR: The Local Management of Schools (LMS) part of the Education Reform Act (ERA) is very similar in concept to recent innovations in the structure of other local government services as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Recent legislation embodies different concepts of education that are commonly driven by the market and financial considerations. The Local Management of Schools (LMS) part of the Education Reform Act (ERA) is very similar in concept to recent innovations in the structure of other local government services. The continuing financial incorporation of education within the local government framework has resulted in the education welfare tradition being eroded especially through compulsory competitive tendering. Policy alternatives might be considered that look at structures for education outside the specific education remit and that see schools as a site for broad local authority provision.
TL;DR: The controversy surrounding a school choice policy, the 1985 Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act (PEO), has been analyzed in this paper, which describes the theory, development and outcomes of the PEO law and analyzes the contending conceptions of authority contributing to t...
Abstract: Interest in school choice has reached an unprecedented level in the USA. Magnet schools and open enrollment programs are growing rapidly; many different types of school choice proposals, including tuition vouchers and tax credits for private schools, have come before state legislatures and school boards nationwide. Some have become controversial; most have been opposed by public school groups. This paper analyzes the controversy surrounding a school choice policy, the 1985 Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options Act (PEO). Like the larger national debate over choice, questions about equity and feasibility arose in the controversy over PEO, but a closer examination of the language and tactics of the PEO debate reveals a more fundamental struggle over authority and a defense of professional control that is in key respects incompatible with goals of school choice. This study describes the theory, development and outcomes of the PEO law and analyzes the contending conceptions of authority contributing to t...
TL;DR: The authors relate language research to policy work, a relationship that has been implicitly recognized by educational researchers in their attempts to address unresolved issues in the production and utilization of written policy reports, such as variability in format/style, scope, medium, and audience.
Abstract: The aim of this article is to relate language research to policy work, a relationship that has been implicitly recognized by educational researchers in their attempts to address unresolved issues in the production and utilization of written policy reports. A number of US educational policy researchers have attempted to influence the way in which policy reports can and might be produced by explicating product features that discourse researchers gloss as variability in format/style, scope, medium, and audience. Their attempts to be responsive to the ‘meanings’ of educational policies for diverse targets and interest groups raise difficult questions, including, how we can develop policy products (presentations of words) that take into account variability in oral and written policy arena processes (multiple expectations about style; multiple expectations about ‘valuable’ information; multiple interpretations and meanings of actions). After introducing examples of these calls for attention to product and proce...