Search

The attainment gap associated with socio-economic status is an international problem that is highly resistant to change. This conceptual paper critiques the drive by the Scottish Government to address the attainment gap through the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the National Improvement Framework. It draws upon a range of theoretical perspectives but principally examines the problem through the lens of Steiner-Khamsi’s concepts of ‘reception’ and ‘translation’ of policy and through examination of the international and national (Scottish) policy contexts. The paper argues that, rather than focussing narrowly upon attainment outcomes, an holistic approach should be adopted which takes account of the economic, social and relational constraints which impact upon families in poverty, calling for a systems-level approach. ‘Schools cannot go it alone’: there is a need to focus upon a wide range of public policy to redress inequalities in society. Whilst the Scottish Government has looked to the London/City/National Challenge as a potential solution to the problem, the complexities and limitations of policy borrowing need to be understood. Higher Education Institutions, government agencies, local authorities and schools need to work in partnership to develop research informed practice which will impact upon learning outcomes forallchildren and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports on a knowledge exchange project, funded by the Scottish Funding Council and undertaken by a group of researchers from three higher education institutions in Scotland and the project partner, Sistema Scotland. This newly established charity is attempting to implement a major programme of social change, developed in Venezuela, within the Raploch, a disadvantaged area of Scotland. The researchers' combined knowledge of education, music and psychology has guided their knowledge exchange activities with the project partner and among themselves. The paper outlines the development of Sistema Scotland and the programme, El Sistema, on which it is based. It details the knowledge exchange activities undertaken, which used Derrida's notion of aporia to try to engage Sistema Scotland with different perspectives and understandings, and a practical method for conducting meetings based on Open Space Technology. The various 'encounters' with children, service providers and stakeholders are reported and this is followed by a critique of the processes of knowledge exchange. The paper ends with a discussion of the prospects for successful knowledge exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the process of policy-making within the Scottish Parliament, focusing in particular on the activities of the All Party Committee of Sport, Education, and Culture. I report on the Inquiry process from an insider/outsider position as advisor to the Committee in its Inquiry into special educational needs provision in Scotland and explore the contrasts between the 'Inquiry' and more conventional forms of policymaking. It is argued that the Scottish politicians have attempted to understand problems in their complexity, displaced party politics, and avoided the closure of the simple 'solution' or 'standard' by articulating the challenge of inclusion as a series of aporias. Perhaps most importantly, it is suggested, the Inquiry format has provided a new space in which the politicians could hold their Scottish Executive officials to account, and they did so tenaciously, by requiring accountability in terms of action and responsibility rather than retrospective transparency. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possibilities opened up within the Parliamentary Inquiry space. It is argued that the Inquiry format has created a long awaited opportunity for resituating the debates on inclusion within an ethical framework. More generally, it is argued that academics need to find ways of bringing politics back to policymaking by exploiting the new spaces they find themselves in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to assess the democratic potential of New Community Schools (NCS) as developed by the Scottish Executive in one of its first major educational initiatives. It traces the background to the initiative, locates it within the particular circumstances of the historical, political and cultural contexts of Scotland, and defines its particular ambivalence with regard to deliberative democracy. This ambivalence, it is argued, results from the mediation of state policy. Policy, we argue, does not so much 'migrate' as become culturally 'mediated' in generative local contexts. It has to accommodate itself to, and be assimilated by, different national cultures - even, perhaps especially, across the national boundaries of an increasingly devolved UK, framed simultaneously by a global context. The paper evaluates NCS in terms of the ends and purposes of deliberative democracy under such conditions of possibility. Finally, it infers from the early NCS experience a number of conditions for democratic renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 'exam results debacle' of August 2000 provoked a crisis of confidence in Scottish education and appeared to reveal widespread discontent with the current Higher Still reform of post-16 education. For a time the political future of the reform seemed to hang in the balance. This is surprising because the reform incorporated the views of the consensus that emerged from the Howie debates of the early 1990s, and its development involved consultation on a wide scale. Subsequent debates blamed the leadership style of those, especially the Inspectorate, who steered the reform process; some commentators invoked Humes' (1986) analysis of the 'leadership class' of Scottish education. This paper argues that a full explanation must take account of Higher Still's character as a flexible, unified system. Compared with other types of reform, the introduction of a flexible unified system tends to involve more conflict between educational interests, and a policy process that is relatively centralized, 'top-down' and linear. An analysis of this process must take account of horizontal as well as vertical lines of conflict in education, and of the political weaknesses which prevented the leadership from articulating clear principles and priorities as a basis for conflict resolution. The paper concludes that Humes' analysis should be complemented by McPherson and Raab's (1988) account of Scottish educational policy-making as the interplay of pluralist and corporatist forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last three decades have witnessed significant changes in the social and economic context of young people’s lives. There is increasing evidence that for young people growing up in the UK, this is fuelling a disparity between those with resources and those without. What this means in terms of social justice, however, is difficult to discern. In Scotland, promoting greater social justice so that all its citizens are included has been held up as a key vision of successive Scottish administrations since devolution began in 1999. Scotland therefore makes an interesting case for the examination of policy discourses in relation to young people. In order to do this, the paper draws on a theoretical framework of justice developed by Nancy Fraser which is oriented on the norm ofparticipatory parity. Combining this framework with an approach informed by critical discourse analysis, the current policy context in Scotland is examined in order to discern if it contributes to all young people achieving participatory parity and subsequently social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The UK Government is keen to encourage the use of mediation, rather than court or tribunal, as the best means of resolving disputes between citizen and state on the grounds that legal proceedings are costly, lengthy and stressful. The policy of proportionate dispute resolution appears to be particularly applicable to the field of special educational needs (SEN), where both mediation and tribunal are available as dispute resolution mechanisms. However, evidence suggests that very little use has been made of mediation in either England or Scotland. In order to understand this phenomenon, this paper begins with investigating the dominant policy frameworks in SEN (England) and additional support needs (ASN; Scotland). Subsequently, the attitudes of English and Scottish local authority (LA) officers are explored. It is argued that both countries now have an eclectic mix of policy frameworks in play, including the traditional models of bureaucracy and professionalism, and the more recent models of managerialism, consumerism and legality. In Scotland, professionalism and bureaucracy continue to dominate, and this is associated with more restricted access to and less use of all forms of dispute resolution, in particular the tribunal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Spring of 2002, The SCRE Centre at the University of Glasgow was commissioned to conduct focus group research on behalf of the the Education, Culture, and Sport Committee at the Scottish Parliament. The study, which was conducted over a 3 month period, was intended to inform the Committee's inquiry into the purposes of education. Inquiries of this type are a common feature of the working practices of the Scottish Parliament. The aim of this particular one was to promote 'an in-depth discussion on key issues on the future direction of education'. The main theme of this paper is the dissonance between those who framed the inquiry and those who participated in the focus group study. The meanings of that dissonance are explored—as, briefly, are the conditions under which the research was conducted. The factors that contribute to mismatch in intention or meaning are also discussed. This study also comments on the continuing dominance of academic education in Scotland, and the consequences for those who see themselves as failures while subscribing to the centrality of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an analysis of the take-up of modern apprenticeships in Scotland for the period 1999-2001. The methodology includes secondary data sources and a case study. The findings indicate that, although the numbers participating in the MA scheme have increased, there remain major concerns both with completion rates and the quality of the programme. The authors also question the relevance of using pedagogically driven theoretical models to understand the complex and dynamic nature of work-based employment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers two examples of recent policies affecting teachers' work, Performance Threshold Assessment in England and Chartered Teacher status in Scotland. Through tracing their origins and motivations, a comparative analysis is offered, which seeks to explore the extent of the influence of national contexts on developments in the restructuring process. Both policies purport to meet the professional needs of teachers who are a few years into their careers, yet the Scottish example is strongly oriented towards professional development, while the English example is oriented towards performativity and teacher assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper questions the current importance given in the post-compulsory literature to curriculum planning models. In particular, the writer draws attention to how curriculum discourses promote an overly rational and simplistic view of systemic education change processes. The research is based on an analysis of post-16 secondary data sources in Scotland and a case study of a local school and college in Fife. The implementation of 'Higher Still' provides the policy backdrop to the research. Finally, a case is made for conceptualizing curriculum reform within a wider multi-levelled and culturally-driven education model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]