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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on the topics include rhetoric and policies about the importance of higher education (HE) and the knowledge economy; and understanding of changes in the labour market for economic development.

Tertiary education has seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, but there is a significant share of graduates who struggle to find good jobs, while employers say they cannot find the people with the skills they need. The tertiary education sector needs to reinvent itself to give people greater ownership over what they learn, how they learn, when they learn and where they learn to meet tomorrow's demand for knowledge and skills' (Andreas Schleicher, Director, OECD Directorate for Education and Skills, Higher Education Policy Institute, 2019). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between education and economic development through an examination of human capital theory and the power of transnational companies. The author discusses the origins of human capital theory and notes its popularity within the field of education and economic development research, and he addresses policy responses to the influence of transnational companies (TNC).

This article focuses on the transformation of the labour market worldwide. The increase in the global supply of highly-qualified skilled workers leads to the competition of prices and knowledge in the labour market. It is stated that the global working trend is towards high-end work in low-cost locations. The problems for the "business as usual" model are discussed including the death of the human capital, the stifling of the entrepreneurial spirit and disregard of education in capitalism.

The article discusses the emerging global economic trends as a result of economic globalisation which raise questions on the national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) in Great Britain. It mentions the increased supply of graduates which lead to the reduced demand for high-skilled workers and high number of lowest priced jobs. The author suggests that the Modernising Nursing Careers (MNCs) must standardise its judgments on workers which will give them competitive advantage in talent utilisation.

Abstract: This paper examines the role of social class and prior achievement composition effects on pupils’ progress and the judgements made about school performance. It finds that there are small but significant compositional effects on pupil progress raising questions about how pupils can best be allocated to schools. Comparisons between the official contextual value added model and one that includes composition variables show that school rankings are significantly changed in the latter suggesting that official value added analyses are misleading. This study, therefore, poses a fundamental challenge to policy makers over the determinants of pupil progress and school performance and the way schools are judged, pointing to the need for a re-appraisal of policy relating to these matters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the sociology of education from the perspective of its recent history and attempts to assess the current state of the field. The authors argue that cognate disciplines such as economics and social policy have taken over some of the key questions that were once the preserve of sociology of education. This raises the question of what is lost if the sociology of education is no longer making a significant contribution, in key areas, to the major educational, social and economic issues of the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one on the theory on how education produces minds and characters which are productive in the labor market by David P. Baker, one on the roots of the academic disciplines by Johan Muller and another on a critique of competency-based training by Leesa Wheelahan.

This article evaluates the varieties of capitalism (VoC) approach to institutional convergence, globalization, and divergence as represented by the skill formation and welfare state theory of Margarita Estevez-Abe, Torben Iversen, and David Soskice. The article explains that the VoC approach addresses business strategies, which are based on distinctive national institutional structures generated by provisional solutions to specific problems that businesses in any capitalist economy are forced to address.

This article examines the dominant view of the changing relationship between education, jobs and rewards in the global knowledge economy. This asserts that the developed economies can resolve issues of individual aspirations, economic efficiency and social justice through the creation of a high-skills, high-wage ‘magnet’ economy. Here the authors examine four of the key dimensions of this account and argue that while there has been a fundamental change in the relationship between education, economy and society, their conclusions are far removed from the assumptions that currently inform public and policy debates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances the position that sociology needs to develop an approach to research which focuses on fundamental social problems. In doing so it shares many of the intellectual values and goals of political arithmetic while seeking to move methodologically beyond it. Since such problems are complex they will require, typically, interdisciplinary input and a concomitant approach to the development and appraisal of theories. We are not, therefore, advocating the primacy of sociology but arguing that it has a distinctive part to play in addressing the fundamental problems of the twenty-first century. However, a policy-oriented sociology has also to take up the task, so clearly defined by the tradition of political arithmetic, which is to hold governments to account. Consequently a central principle of a new policy science is that it should contribute to democratic debate about policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite over 30 years of research into the effects of school composition or “mix,” there is remarkably little consensus over the nature and size of school compositional and peer effects. Developing an analytical review of international research in this area, this chapter begins by discussing conceptual and methodological problems related to theorising school compositional effects. A model is developed through which the adequacy of existing studies for capturing compositional effects can be judged. This model helps to explain why existing studies have failed to reach consensus since the modelling techniques vary and none approach the adequacy criteria articulated in the model. Qualitative research can go a long way towards illuminating the subtle processes that are likely to underlie school compositional effects. The inherent difficulties in “measuring” elements of compositional effects have left debate around the importance of school compositional effects open to political and ideological considerations, since the outcomes of key policy decisions such as school choice, effectiveness, and accountability depend on the findings. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Editorial. Introduces a series of articles published in the October 1999 issue of the 'Journal of Education and Work.'

Analyzes the factors generating low skill equilibria in South Korea, Singapore and Great Britain. Importance of the nature of competitiveness in understanding issues related to economic survival and welfare; Inclusion of education on the platforms of politicians; Political consensus on the social capacity for productivity and skill formation.

This paper provides a critique of neo-liberal political economy of education. It is argued that neo-liberal ideology trades off democracy against 'economic efficiency.' However, the consequence of the application of neo-liberal principles to education is that overall standards of education are likely to decline, thereby creating the conditions for a low skilled, low morale workforce. It is suggested that this outcome is consistent with the Neo-liberal creation of a low wage low technology economy. On the basis of the critique, an alternative education system concerned with meeting the aims of an education for a democratic, economically sophisticated, society is sketched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines how the educational system in Western industrial societies should be organized to meet the social and economic challenge of the late twentieth century. In advanced industrial societies the educational system has been identified as making a major contribution to national economic prosperity. In recent decades Western societies have been experiencing a major transformation heralding a new era which can be described as post-industrial, post-modern, post-fordist or in terms of the rise of the information society. This transformation has been the result of a number of factors including the technological revolution in communications, computers and robotics; globalization; and the rising competitive force of Pacific Rim countries. So long as industrial production is distinguished by the routine tasks symbolized by the assembly line, where the majority need only to conform to the demands of the task in hand and a minority conceive and develop policy, a rigid division of labour based on bureaucratic procedures proves a reliable technology for the administration of production. The aim of education in this context is to process the raw material of human abilities into workers who are then fed into the appropriate level of the productive hierarchy. Consequently, despite the shift to a fairer system of educational selection during the twentieth century and major gains in economic efficiency, the way in which systems of education and training have been organized in industrial societies on the principles of machine bureaucracy has resulted in a massive waste of talent.

There has been reference in literature to the concepts of a Transnational Capitalist Class and a Global Middle Class, but there has been little discussion of how education may form any sense of class solidarity for these groups. In national contexts, ruling class socialisation has been achieved through elite private schooling. But the notion of global classes presents a fundamentally different problem for class socialisation and solidarity since the educational mechanisms for creating solidarity are unclear. This question has achieved prominence through the political discourse identifying and attacking an international, liberal elite who are 'Citizens of Anywhere' and 'Nowhere'. We focus on the role of the elite, traditional 'International School', delivering the International Baccalaureate programmes specifically designed to promote 'international mindedness' (IM), in the educational trajectories of this echelon of society. We argue that IM offers a class constructed platform in providing an element of global social solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper reveals a significant under-reported emergent phenomenon: the graduates of the well-established 'Elite Traditional International Schools' worldwide are beginning to cluster in certain universities, in certain 'global cities'. As one might expect, New York and London are central to this clustering, alongside Boston, Toronto and Vancouver. Surprisingly, these destinations are not the world's top, elite universities, showing that the forms of class reasoning which we might expect of the 'Trans-National Capitalist Class' do not seemingly apply to this model of elite education. We explore the emerging evidence, and discuss its character and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the author discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the education-industry relationship, students' involvement in part-time employment, and vocational education.

Introduces a series of papers on skill formation in South Africa. Need to take a global view of the issues of skill formation because of the greater interdependence between economies; Fiscal and monetary discipline imposed by the various global institutions which have such a strong influence on the country; Distinction between intermediate economies like South Africa and an apparently developed economy like Great Britain.

Editorial. Introduces articles in the December 2002 issue of the 'Journal of Education and Work.' Development of a high skills economy; Importance of education to the economy of Great Britain; Employer performance in examining the viability of a labor government policy in Great Britain.

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Justin J. W. Powell and Heike Solga on the low higher education participation rates in Germany, one by Rob Strathdee on the higher education in New Zealand, and one by Chaya Herman on doctoral education in South Africa.

The article presents the authors' reply to Geoff Whitty's comments on Capital and Class. Whitty claims that we offer ...appears to be an unreconstructed notion of revolutionary socialist struggle every bit as implausible as some of the naive suggestions for reforming capitalism they rightly deride. He also charges us with committing most of the errors they identify in others, with only being prepared to excuse our own past practice, with a crudity of argument which is sloganistic, distanced from real struggles and specific crisis. More specifically, he does not accept the criticism of Rachel Sharp and ourselves of his advocacy of involvement within the Labor Party in Britain. Finally, he notes that practice will require some specification of what links with the community, social movements, working class politics, trade union struggles, broader based strategies of social justice, and so on, might actually mean in practice. Nevertheless, Whitty comes to agreeing with us in his final paragraph where he specifies the links necessary for practice. We have quoted his list above. Our list included trade union politics, party organization, mass mobilization, revolutionary training and political education, international solidarity, women's liberation, national freedom for minorities and struggles against war. Whitty's criticism on this point is plainly inconsistent. We do not wish to suggest that only our past be excused. If this is the impression we have created then we are mistaken and Whitty' criticism is important and well taken.