Search

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 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 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]