31 results
Search Results
2. The reproduction of deficit thinking in times of contestation: the case of higher education.
- Author
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Mampaey, Jelle and Huisman, Jeroen
- Subjects
- *
DISCRIMINATION (Sociology) , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIOLOGY , *SECONDARY education , *YOUNG adults - Abstract
In the sociology of education, opponents of deficit thinking would be seen as important change agents, potentially inspiring radical policy change aimed at reducing systemic discrimination of specific sociodemographic groups. That is, contestation of deficit thinking can in theory lead to its destruction. In this paper, we argue that contestation can be overruled or downplayed via public discourses. From a discourse-historical approach, we illustrate how contestation was attenuated in the context of ethnicity in Flemish higher education in the period 1985–2020. We show how a variety of discursive processes eventually marginalize anti-deficit narratives in mass media texts, even though these stances were dominant at certain moments. The major contribution of our study is that it highlights important discursive mechanisms underlying the reproduction of deficit thinking in times of contestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
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3. Built policy: school-building and architecture as policy instrument.
- Author
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Wood, Adam
- Subjects
- *
SCHOOL building design & construction , *SOCIOLOGY , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIAL space , *ARCHITECTURE - Abstract
School architecture is often taken for granted both in use (where it is naturalized) and in writing on education policy (tending to feature simply as policy setting.) Built policy instead points up the active and ongoing role of the material environment in shaping education. From financing and procurement to the design of individual classrooms, the paper works across architecture, sociology and policy studies to clarify the relationship between different dimensions of physical and social space and so provide a useful theoretical ground for future work. What is special about school-building and architecture that enables them to do policy? How are they used to do it? By whom? From city planners to students, a range of actors use different space-organizing resources to attempt the instantiation of (and challenges to) policy in built form. These processes are explored first theoretically, then empirically through a new Academy school in England. The paper deepens understanding of what policy is, emphasizing its intimate if taken for granted spatial characteristics, its ongoing-ness in built form and its travel by means of circulating images of buildings and spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Curriculum interpretation and policy enactment in health and physical education: researching teacher educators as policy actors.
- Author
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Lambert, Karen and Penney, Dawn
- Subjects
- *
CURRICULUM planning , *EDUCATION policy , *TEACHER educators , *EDUCATION research , *SOCIOLOGY , *PHYSICAL education - Abstract
Past research in Health and Physical Education has repeatedly highlighted that curriculum development is an ongoing, complex and contested process, and that the realisation of progressive intentions embedded in official curriculum texts is far from assured. Drawing on concepts from education policy sociology this paper positions teacher educators as key policy actors in the interpretation and enactment of new official curriculum texts. More specifically, it reports research that has explored four teacher educators' engagement with a specific feature of the new Australian Curriculum in Health and Physical Education (AC HPE); five interrelated propositions or 'key ideas' that underpinned the new curriculum and openly sought to provide direction for progressive pedagogy in Health and Physical Education. The paper provides conceptual and empirical insight into teacher educators consciously positioning themselves as policy actors, motivated to play a role in shaping policy directions and future curriculum practices. As such, the teacher educators in this project are identified as policy entrepreneurs and provocateurs. The paper details a dialogic research process between the researchers that was designed to make curriculum interpretation a more transparent, collaborative and generative process. The data reported illustrates the research process supporting teacher educators to engage in productive debate about the possible meanings and enactment of the five propositions. Analysis reveals differing perspectives on the propositions and a shared investment in efforts to support their progressive intent. Empirically, the paper highlights the critical role that teacher educators will play in the ongoing enactment of a new curriculum that is overtly identified as 'futures oriented'. Conceptually, the paper adds depth and sophistication to understandings of teacher educators as policy actors. Methodologically, we propose that the research process described can be usefully adopted by other teacher educators and teachers engaged in similar processes of curriculum development, interpretation and enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
- Full Text
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5. The emergence of the quantified child.
- Author
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Smith, Rebecca
- Subjects
- *
HISTORY of education , *SOCIOLOGY , *EDUCATION policy , *EDUCATIONAL anthropology , *EDUCATION - Abstract
Using document analysis, this paper examines the historical emergence of the quantified child, revealing how the collection and use of data has become normalized through legitimizing discourses. First, following in the traditions of Foucault's genealogy and studies examining the sociology of numbers, this paper traces the evolution of data collection in a range of significant education policy documents. Second, a word count analysis was used to further substantiate the claim that data collection and use has been increasingly normalized through legitimizing discourses and routine actions in educational settings. These analyses provide evidence that the need to quantify educational practices has been justified over long periods of time through a variety of documents and that the extent to which data governs educators’ thoughts, discourses, and actions has dramatically increased during the past century. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
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6. World Bank in Nepal’s education: three decades of neoliberal reform.
- Author
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Regmi, Kapil Dev
- Subjects
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NEOLIBERALISM , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIOLOGY , *PRIVATIZATION - Abstract
This paper critically analyses key educational policy documents produced by the World Bank mainly from the mid-1980s to 2010 with regard to implementing major educational projects in Nepal. Using critical policy sociology as a methodological tool, the paper explores how a small Himalayan nation with per capita income of about US$730 (2014) plunged into neoliberal world order during the early 1980s. The paper argues that Bank’s educational policy recommendations are guided by some underlying assumptions of neoliberalism mainly marketisation, privatisation, and decentralisation. The paper concludes that neoliberal orientation in education has almost no potential in addressing Nepal’s development challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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7. The instrumentation of test-based accountability in the autonomous dutch system.
- Author
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Browes, Natalie and K Altinyelken, Hülya
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EDUCATIONAL change , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIOLOGY , *SOCIOECONOMICS , *PSYCHOSOMATIC medicine - Abstract
Test-based accountability or 'TBA,' as a core element of the pervasive Global Education Reform Movement (GERM), has become a central characteristic of education systems around the world. TBA often comes in conjunction with greater school autonomy, enabling governments to assess 'school quality' (i.e. test results) from a distance. Often, quality improvement is further encouraged through the publication of these results. Research has investigated this phenomenon and its effects, much of it focusing on Anglo-Saxon cases. This paper, drawing on expert interviews and key policy documents, couples a policy borrowing with a policy instruments approach to critically examine how and why TBA has developed in the highly autonomous Dutch system. It finds that TBA evolved incrementally, advancing towards higher stakes for schools and boards. Further, it argues that school autonomy has been central to the development of TBA in two ways. Firstly, following a period of decentralisation that increased school(board) autonomy, the Dutch government saw a need to strengthen accountability to ensure education quality. This was influenced by international discourse and accelerated by a (politically exploited) national 'quality crisis' in education. Secondly, the traditionally autonomous Dutch system, shaped by 'Freedom of Education', has at times conflicted with TBA, and has played a significant role in (re)shaping global policy and in mitigating the GERM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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8. A logic of appropriation: enacting national testing (NAPLAN) in Australia.
- Author
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Hardy, Ian
- Subjects
- *
STANDARDIZED tests , *TEACHERS , *EDUCATION policy , *IN-service training of teachers , *POLITICAL science research , *EDUCATIONAL quality - Abstract
This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students' results on national literacy and numeracy tests - the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) - in the Australian state of Queensland influenced schooling practices, including teachers' learning. The paper argues the focus upon improved test scores on NAPLAN within schools was the result of sustained policy pressure for increased attention to such foci at national and state levels, and a broader political context in which rapid improvement in test results was considered imperative. However, implementation, (or what this paper describes more accurately as 'enactment') of the policy also revealed NAPLAN as providing evidence of students' learning, as useful for grouping students to help improve their literacy and numeracy capabilities, and as a stimulus for teacher professional development. Drawing upon the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, the paper argues that even as more political concerns about comparing NAPLAN results with other states were recognised by educators, the field of schooling practices was characterised by a logic of active appropriation of political concerns about improved test scores by teachers, for more educative purposes. In this way, policy enactment in schools is characterised by competing interests, and involving not just interpretation, translation and critique but active appropriation of political concerns by teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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9. Education policy as numbers: data categories and two Australian cases of misrecognition.
- Author
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Lingard, Bob, Creagh, Sue, and Vass, Greg
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- *
EDUCATION policy , *INDIGENOUS Australians , *EDUCATIONAL change , *COLONIZATION , *SOCIOLOGY , *EDUCATION - Abstract
While numbers, data and statistics have been part of the bureaucracy since the emergence of the nation state, the paper argues that the governance turn has seen the enhancement of the significance of numbers in policy. The policy as numbers phenomenon is exemplified through two Australian cases in education policy, linked to the national schooling reform agenda. The first case deals with the category of students called Language Backgrounds Other than English (LBOTE) in Australian schooling policy – students with LBOTE. The second deals with the ‘closing the gap’ approach to Indigenous schooling. The LBOTE case demonstrates an attempt at recognition, but one that fails to create a category useful for policy-makers and teachers in relation to the language needs of Australian students. The Indigenous case of policy misrecognition confirms Gillborn’s analysis of gap talk and its effects; a focus on closing the gap, as with the new politics of recognition, elides structural inequalities and the historical effects of colonisation. With this case, there is a misrecognition that denies Indigenous knowledges, epistemologies and cultural rights. The contribution of the paper to policy sociology is twofold: first in showing how ostensive politics of recognition can work as misrecognition with the potential to deny redistribution and secondly that we need to be aware of the socially constructed nature of categories that underpin contemporary policy as numbers and evidence-based policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2012
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10. Assessment of progress in education for children and youth with disabilities in Afghanistan: A multilevel analysis of repeated cross-sectional surveys.
- Author
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Trani, Jean-François, Fowler, Patrick, Bakhshi, Parul, and Kumar, Praveen
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION of children with disabilities , *ASSESSMENT of education , *CHILDREN with disabilities , *EDUCATION policy , *LEARNING disabilities , *CHILDREN with learning disabilities - Abstract
Recent study shows that 617 million children and adolescents–or six out of 10 globally- are not acquiring minimum levels in literacy and mathematics, indicating the magnitude of the learning acquisition problem. For children with disabilities in context of conflict, the situation is arguably even worse: the literature shows that they face difficulties to access the education system due to multiple barriers, and when they do access, they are not learning. Our paper examines if an active education policy promoting inclusion since 2005 in Afghanistan, a protracted crisis context, has been effective. Using two cross sectional household surveys carried out eight years apart (2005–2013), our study shows that access to school and literacy did not improve between 2005 and 2013 for children and youth with disabilities. Both access and literacy outcomes were worse for girls with disabilities, those with a mental, learning or associated disability and those living in household where the head was uneducated. Finally, odds of being mentally distressed significantly declined between 2005 and 2013 indicating that schools might play a protective role for children with disabilities in Afghanistan. Our findings suggest that a multilevel multi-pronged adaptation of the existing system to improve the learning experience and promote children’s resilience, particularly for children with disabilities, in conflict context such as Afghanistan, is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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11. What are Academies the answer to?
- Author
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Gorard, Stephen
- Subjects
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EDUCATION policy , *ENDOWED public schools (Great Britain) , *PRIVATE schools , *BRITISH education system , *PUBLIC schools -- Government policy - Abstract
This paper builds upon an earlier analysis presented in this journal. Using official figures for school compositions and for outcomes at KS4 from 1997 to 2007, this paper considers each of the annual cohorts of new Academies in England, from 2002 to 2006. It shows that their level of success in comparison to their predecessors, national averages, their changing compositions and their changing exam entry practices are insubstantial. Of course some schools are gaining higher scores since Academisation, but others are gaining lower scores. Using the most recent results available there is no clear evidence that Academies produce better results than local authority schools with equivalent intakes. The Academies programme therefore presents an opportunity cost for no apparent gain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
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12. The Neoliberal Educational Agenda and the Legitimation Crisis: old and new state strategies.
- Author
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Bonal, Xavier
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION policy , *EDUCATION , *GLOBALIZATION , *ECONOMIC systems , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
In the context of globalisation and hegemonic neoliberalism, the state's ability to legitimate the economic system and its own policies cannot be assumed as a positive automatic effect. The economic and political conditions that once framed state action have changed, and it is reasonable to think that the emergence of a new accumulation regime implies also a shift in the traditional strategies used by the nation-state to legitimate its policy-making. This paper reviews how the neoliberal educational agenda develops a new political rationality that changes the traditional forms in which the state has managed its legitimation crisis. In addition, the paper argues that context-based factors, nationally specific, show that this political rationality may not be uniformly applied among different nation-states. The case of semiperipheral countries provides some evidence on the necessary combination of old and new strategies developed by the state to legitimate a neoliberal agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2003
- Full Text
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13. Rescuing the Sociology of Educational Knowledge from the Extremes of Voice Discourse: towards a new theoretical basis for the sociology of the curriculum.
- Author
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Young, Michael F.
- Subjects
- *
ANTHROPOLOGY , *SOCIOLOGY , *THEORY of knowledge , *EDUCATION policy , *CURRICULUM - Abstract
This paper is a response to that of Moore and Muller 'The Discourse of Voice and the Problem of Knowledge and Identity in the Sociology of Education', which appeared in Volume 20 of this journal. It starts by summarising and endorsing their criticisms of 'voice discourses' but argues that their case is weakened by their failure to distinguish clearly between the 'debunking of knowledge' associated with the postmodernist theories that underpin 'voice discourses' and the general propositions of a social theory of knowledge. The idea that knowledge has a social as well as an epistemological basis is now widely accepted in philosophy as well as sociology. The paper draws on a paper by Stephen Toulmin and makes a distinction between anthropological and sociological approaches to the idea of knowledge having a social basis. It goes on to use some ideas from the author's recent work on the issue of knowledge specialisation to suggest the kind of contribution that a sociological approach to knowledge can make to current curriculum issues as well as to educational policy more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2000
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- View/download PDF
14. The phantom national? Assembling national teaching standards in Australia’s federal system.
- Author
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Savage, Glenn C. and Lewis, Steven
- Subjects
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PROFESSIONAL standards , *PROFESSIONAL education , *TEACHERS , *EDUCATION policy , *EDUCATIONAL change - Abstract
In this paper, we use the development of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) as an illustrative case to examine how national schooling reforms are assembled in Australia’s federal system. Drawing upon an emerging body of research on ‘policy assemblage’ within the fields of policy sociology, anthropology and critical geography, we focus on interactions between three dominant ‘component parts’ in the development of the APST: the Australian federal government; New South Wales state government agencies; and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. While policies like the APST claim to be national in form and scope, our analysis suggests ‘the national’ is much more disjunctive and nebulous, constituted by a heterogeneous and emergent assemblage of policy ideas, practices, actors and organisations, which often reflecttransnationaltraits and impulses. We thus see national reforms such as the APST as having a phantom-like nature, which poses challenges for researchers seeking to understand the making of national policies in federal systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2018
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15. Accountability and Control: A sociological account of secondary school assessment in Queensland.
- Author
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Lingard, Bob
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION , *EVALUATION , *EDUCATIONAL accountability , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper analyses sociologically the current form of school-based secondary assessment, in Queensland which is criterion-referenced to Year 10 and a hybrid criterion/norm referenced form at the end of Year 12. Habermas' arguments are used to suggest that this. assessment pattern will give the state potentially greater 'steering capacity' over education by 'rationalising' it-the 'scientisation of schooling'. This form of assessment fits within the accountability discourse of the economically parsimonious 1980 while meeting selection demands. However, the approach does meet some educational demands. The paper also reflects upon the role of the state and expert knowledge in policy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1990
- Full Text
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16. Sociology of Sport in the United States.
- Author
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Coakley, Jay
- Subjects
- *
SOCIAL sciences , *SOCIOLOGY of sports , *EDUCATION policy , *SPORTS , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper updates and extends previous analyses of the sociology of sport in the United States. It provides a chronology of major events in the history of the field as well as a description of the social context in which the field emerged and grew. Then a review of data from both sociology and physical education leads to the conclusion that the sociology of sport in the United States continues to lack full legitimacy and a critical mass of members in both disciplines. In fact, there are reasons to conclude that the continued numerical growth of those calling themeselves sport sociologists has peaked and will not change significantly in the immediate future. Finally, a content summary of papers published in the first 14 issues of the Sociology of Sport Journal reveals the priorities given to research topics and research methodologies among those Americans doing some of more significant work in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1987
- Full Text
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17. Using a realist research methodology in policy analysis.
- Author
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Lourie, Megan and Rata, Elizabeth
- Subjects
- *
POLICY science research , *SOCIOLOGY , *FOREIGN language education , *MULTICULTURAL education , *BICULTURALISM - Abstract
The article describes the usefulness of a realist methodology in linking sociological theory to empirically obtained data through the development of a methodological device. Three layers of analysis were integrated: 1. the findings from a case study about M?ori language education in New Zealand; 2. the identification and analysis of contradictions and vagueness in language education policy; and, 3. the explanation of these contradictions in terms deeper ideological forces underpinning bicultural politics in New Zealand. The paper makes two contributions to the literature. It demonstrates how a realist methodology can link theory and data, specifically in the discussion of the methodological device. It also generalises the findings in terms of how ideologies of ‘culture’ (i.e ‘culturalism’) inform the inclusion of culture in education in New Zealand and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
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18. Professionalizing school governance: the disciplinary effects of school autonomy and inspection on the changing role of school governors.
- Author
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Wilkins, Andrew
- Subjects
- *
SCHOOL administration , *PROFESSIONALIZATION , *SCHOOL boards , *SCHOOL autonomy , *SCHOOL inspections (Educational quality) , *EDUCATIONAL accountability , *EDUCATION policy , *BRITISH education system , *EDUCATIONAL sociology , *ADULTS , *ELEMENTARY education , *SECONDARY education - Abstract
Since the 1980s, state schools in England have been required to ensure transparency and accountability through the use of indicators and templates derived from the private sector and, more recently, globally circulating discourses of ‘good governance’ (an appeal to professional standards, technical expertise, and performance evaluation as mechanisms for improving public service delivery). The rise of academies and free schools (‘state-funded independent schools’) has increased demand for good governance, notably as a means by which to discipline schools,in particular school governors– those tasked with the legal responsibility of holding senior leadership to account for the financial and educational performance of schools. A condition and effect of school autonomy, therefore, is increased monitoring and surveillance of all school governing bodies. In this paper, I demonstrate how these twin processes combine to produce a new modality of state power and intervention; a dominant or organizing principle by which government steer the performance of governors through disciplinary tools of professionalization and inspection, with the aim of achieving the ‘control of control’. To explain these trends, I explore how various established and emerging school governing bodies are (re)constituting themselves to meet demands for good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2015
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19. Unruly Practices: What a sociology of translations can offer to educational policy analysis.
- Author
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HAMILTON, MARY
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION policy , *METHODOLOGY , *SOCIOLOGY , *POLICY analysis , *SOCIAL policy - Abstract
This paper argues for the utility of ANT as a philosophical and methodological approach to policy analysis. It introduces the key features of a recent educational policy reform initiative, Skills for Life and illustrates the argument by looking at three 'moments' (in terminology) in the life of this initiative, applying the theoretical tools of ANT to these. The analysis shows that even (and perhaps especially) within a strongly framed social policy initiative like the Skills for Life Strategy, things constantly escape; that differences held in tension within the 'successful' project sow the seeds of failure and dissolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
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20. Disability studies, disabled people and the struggle for inclusion.
- Author
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Oliver, Mike and Barnes, Colin
- Subjects
- *
DISABILITY studies , *PEOPLE with disabilities , *INCLUSIVE education , *STUDENTS with disabilities , *SPECIAL education , *SOCIAL integration - Abstract
This paper traces the relationship between the emergence of disability studies and the struggle for meaningful inclusion for disabled people with particular reference to the work of a pivotal figure in these developments: Len Barton. It is argued that the links between disability activism and the academy were responsible for the emergence of disability studies and that this has had an important influence on mainstream sociology and social and educational policy nationally and internationally. It is evident, however, that the impact of these developments has been only marginal and that in light of recent concerns about the global economy, environmental change and unprecedented population growth, the need for meaningful inclusion is more urgent than ever and cannot be dependent on the work of a few key individuals for its success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
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21. CRISE DO PROJETO DE DEMOCRATIZAÇÃO DA EDUCAÇÃO E DA FORMAÇÃO OU CRISE DE UM MODELO DE DEMOCRATIZAÇÃO? ALGUMAS REFLEXÕES A PARTIR DO CASO FRANCÊS (1980-2010).
- Author
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DEROUET, JEAN-LOUIS
- Subjects
EDUCATION policy ,INTERNATIONAL organization ,INTERNATIONAL agencies ,DEMOCRATIZATION - Abstract
Copyright of Educacao & Sociedade is the property of Centro de Estudos de Educacao e Sociedade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
- Published
- 2010
- Full Text
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22. Management of Workplace Change in the Australian Higher Education Sector: A study of employee involvement provisions in workplace agreements.
- Author
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Weller, Stephen and Gramberg, Bernadine Van
- Subjects
- *
DIVERSITY in the workplace , *HIGHER education , *INDUSTRIAL relations , *UNIVERSITIES & colleges , *EMPLOYEE participation in management , *SOCIOLOGY , *INTERPERSONAL relations , *EDUCATION policy - Abstract
Involvement of employees and unions in workplace decision-making has a long history in Australian industrial relations. The mechanism for employee involvement in workplace change was originally set out in the Termination Change and Redundancy (TCR) clause in Australian awards in 1984. It continues to operate under Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBAs), along with other negotiated terms and conditions. EBAs thus represent a source of organizational policy and provide a starting-point to examine institutional processes for employee involvement in workplace change. The higher education sector has undergone significant change over the past two decades, and some have claimed that collegiality has been replaced by an increasing managerialist focus on productivity and efficiency. This paper reports on a longitudinal analysis examining the extent to which the TCR clause has evolved in Australian universities and its implications for change management policy for the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
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23. How Studies of the Educational Progression of Minority Children Are Affecting Education Policy in Denmark.
- Author
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Colding, Bjørg, Hummelgaard, Hans, and Husted, Leif
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CHILDREN of minorities , *MINORITIES , *SOCIAL policy , *SOCIOLOGY , *EDUCATION ,DEVELOPED countries - Abstract
Over the past decade, the number of ethnic minorities in Denmark has increased rapidly, now accounting for over 8 per cent of the total population. This paper presents results from a number of recent studies regarding the educational choices of minority children from less developed countries. An important social concern is that the educational attainment of these children is much lower than among native Danes. The studies show that that a main reason for the education gap is very high dropout rates from vocational schools among minority children and that inadequate Danish language proficiency of immigrants, parents and their children, is an important reason for the high dropout rates, as are inadequate educational preparedness from grade school and insufficient apprenticeship positions available for minority youth. Socio-economic background, however, has relatively little effect. Recent policy changes to reduce dropout rates from vocational schools are reviewed and additional policy interventions are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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24. Navigating social partnerships: central agencies–local networks.
- Author
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Seddon, Terri, Billett, Stephen, and Clemans, Allie
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION policy , *PARTNERSHIPS in education , *EDUCATIONAL cooperation , *SOCIAL policy , *POLITICAL planning , *EDUCATIONAL sociology , *EDUCATION , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper considers the way social partnerships tend to be represented as either horizontal localised networks or neo-liberal policy instruments. Building on two empirical studies of partnerships, we argue that partnerships cannot be understood in either/or ways but are negotiated at the interface between central agencies and local networks. They are mediated by networks operating through the partnership and through government and community, and by the different organisational logics of agencies. These complexities challenge our ways of analysing and representing partnerships, and justify further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
25. Globalizing policy sociology in education: working with Bourdieu.
- Author
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Lingard, Bob, Rawolle, Shaun, and Taylor, Sandra
- Subjects
- *
EDUCATION policy , *EDUCATIONAL sociology , *GLOBALIZATION , *JOURNALISM , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
This paper uses Bourdieu to develop theorizing about policy processes in education and to extend the policy cycle approach in a time of globalization. Use is made of Bourdieu’s concept of social field and the argument is sustained that in the context of globalization the field of educational policy has reduced autonomy, with enhanced cross‐field effects in educational policy production, particularly from the fields of the economy and journalism. Given the social rather than geographical character of Bourdieu’s concept of social fields, it is also argued that the concept can be, and indeed has to be, stretched beyond the nation to take account of the emergent global policy field in education. Utilizing Bourdieu’s late work on the globalization of the economy through neo‐liberal politics, we argue that a non‐reified account of the emergent global educational policy field can be provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
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26. Governmentality and the Sociology of Education: media, educational policy and the politics of resentment.
- Author
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McCarthy, Cameron and Dimitriadis, Greg
- Subjects
- *
SOCIOLOGY , *EDUCATION , *RACE awareness , *GROUP identity , *EDUCATION policy - Abstract
This paper argues that theorizations of the state which are sensitive to both its durability and its permeability, and theorizations which can account for the massive interconnections between local and global forces as well as different material and discursive sites are missing from contemporary work in the sociology of education. Drawing on Foucault’s notion of ‘governmentality’ as a key resource for addressing this impasse, the authors highlight the constant fabrication of racial identity through the production of the pure space of racial origins or ‘resentment’—the process of defining one’s identity through the negation of the other. This dynamic, the article maintains, now informs key discourses both in popular culture and education. The authors conclude that these processes operate in tandem in the prosecution of the politics of racial exclusion in our times, informing key policy debates, including those around affirmative action and bilingual education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2000
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. Curricular policy as a collective effects problem: A distributional approach
- Author
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Penner, Andrew M, Domina, Thurston, Penner, Emily K, and Conley, AnneMarie
- Subjects
Curriculum and Pedagogy ,Education Policy ,Sociology and Philosophy ,Education ,Quality Education ,Adolescent ,California ,Curriculum ,Demography ,Educational Measurement ,Educational Status ,Humans ,Mathematics ,Policy ,Research Design ,Social Justice ,Statistical Distributions ,Inequality ,Quantile regression ,Sociology - Abstract
Current educational policies in the United States attempt to boost student achievement and promote equality by intensifying the curriculum and exposing students to more advanced coursework. This paper investigates the relationship between one such effort - California's push to enroll all 8th grade students in Algebra - and the distribution of student achievement. We suggest that this effort is an instance of a "collective effects" problem, where the population-level effects of a policy are different from its effects at the individual level. In such contexts, we argue that it is important to consider broader population effects as well as the difference between "treated" and "untreated" individuals. To do so, we present differences in inverse propensity score weighted distributions investigating how this curricular policy changed the distribution of student achievement. We find that California's attempt to intensify the curriculum did not raise test scores at the bottom of the distribution, but did lower scores at the top of the distribution. These results highlight the efficacy of inverse propensity score weighting approaches for examining distributional differences, and provide a cautionary tale for curricular intensification efforts and other policies with collective effects.
- Published
- 2015
28. Emerging Social Work Traditions, Profession Building, and Curriculum Policy Statements.
- Author
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Steiner, Joseph R., Briggs, Thomas L., and Gross, Gerald M.
- Subjects
- *
SOCIAL services , *SOCIAL structure , *SOCIOLOGY , *HUMAN services , *CURRICULUM , *EDUCATION policy - Abstract
This paper develops the concepts "great traditions'' and "`little traditions" and describes their role in the evolution of the social structures we know as professions. This analysis is to facilitate collective understanding of social work as a profession and the evolutionary nature of its development. More specifically, the article will analyze aspects of the recently approved Curriculum Policy Statement in relation to social work traditions and the shared roles of the Council on Social Work Education, as an accrediting body, and specific schools of social work, in the development and transmission of social work traditions. Its purpose is to enrich the dialogue which accompanies the development and operationalization of a new social work educational policy statement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1984
29. Educational Policy-Making and the Relative Autonomy of the State: The Case of Occupational Educational in the Community College.
- Author
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Dougherty, Kevin
- Subjects
- *
UNITED States education system , *POLICY sciences , *EDUCATION policy , *SOCIAL policy , *SOCIOLOGY - Abstract
Over the past twenty years, the expansion and differentiation of education in the United States have been explained in many different ways, but most explanations give little or no importance to the role of government officials pursuing their own interests. And all ignore how business's and students' influence over educational policy is due less to their direct participation in policy-making than to their ideological influence and possession of resources that policy-makers covet. In this paper, I use the case of the massive expansion of occupational education in the community college to develop an alternative explanation of educational policy-making. This analysis draws on, but also critiques, recent work in political sociology on the roles and interests of the "state managers" who head major segments of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1988
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
30. Chartering National Educational Systems: The Institutionalization of Education for Elite Recruitment and its Consequences.
- Author
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Kamens, David H. and Ross, R. Danforth
- Subjects
EDUCATIONAL sociology ,INDUSTRIALIZATION ,EDUCATION policy ,ELITE (Social sciences) ,SOCIOLOGY ,SECONDARY education - Abstract
The article focuses on the consequences of institutionalization of education in society. There are no formal policies that control the number of university places and link university recruitment directly to secondary education, so that supply is formally regulated, as in European systems, rather than being subject to consumer demand. The argument focuses on characteristics of the nation-building process and isolates two problems facing many nation-states: the structural problem of building internal legitimacy; and the cultural problem of substantiating the state's claim to competence as a corporate actor internally and externally. The expansion of education does not appear to be strongly affected by state organization. Careful longitudinal studies of single societies would be useful to plot the development of state authority and the corresponding changes in the structure of educational systems. Also quantitative studies of a large number of societies examining the effects of states on educational systems are required to assess the major argument of this paper.
- Published
- 1983
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
31. Identity Crisis? Problems and Issues in the Sociology of Education
- Author
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Shain, Farzana and Ozga, Jenny
- Published
- 2001
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