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Changes to the structure of English education because of decentralisation policy, particularly since 2010, have resulted in the creation of large groupings of schools – multi-academy trusts, organisations with multi-level governance structures, set out in schemes of delegation. Although the government has demanded absolute clarity on the role and remit of each part of the structure and the relationship and reporting between them, recent research suggests that there is little clarity or consistency in the role and function of board structures, with members often confused about their roles. This study draws on data from a funded project to examine: What level of consistency there is in multi-academy trust schemes of delegation, and what evidence is there that schemes of delegation align with sensemaking models of board members? The article concludes with a discussion on what the findings imply for use of schemes of delegation as useful tools for board member sensemaking in multi-academy trusts; revealing that although they can be useful tools for sensemaking, their usage varies a great deal between boards and board members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the education decentralization processes, community participation in education governance has been argued to be essential for improving accountability to service beneficiaries. Therefore, this paper examined the perspectives of key actors on the impact of an educational decentralization policy on improving school quality education in Junior High Schools in Ghana. Participants in the study were 54 School Management Committee (SMC)/Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) members, 106 teachers, and 11 head teachers in 11 schools drawn from two districts in the Central Region of Ghana. Teachers filled out questionnaires and interviews were conducted with SMC/PTA members using a semi-structured interview guide and with 11 head teachers. The paper reveals that the education decentralization policy, with community participation at its heart, has given schools some autonomy in their decision-making process. However, the involvement of community members in school activities has been limited mainly to financing, with little emphasis on the decision-making process in school governance. The study recommends that there should be adequate support for communities to become more involved in the decision-making process, especially in implementing the School Performance Improvement Plan for Ghana to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it is aimed to examine the opinions of school principals about decentralization in school administrations. The research is in the qualitative research method. In the research, the phenemology model of qualitative research was used. The study group was selected by purposive sampling method and consists of six school principals experienced in school management. Data were obtained through interview and analyzed by content analysis. According to the results of the research, school principals experience various problems in management, the main ones being pressure from the supervisor, financial inadequacies, personnel shortages and clumsiness and slowness caused by the bureaucratic structure. These problems experienced by school principals are closely related to localization and result from the fact that schools are managed with a centralized structure. School principals believe that decentralization in education is necessary. They think that decentralization in school management will save public money, get rid of the excessive workload of the central government, increase success and efficiency in education, and help ensure adocracy and peace in schools and society. While decentralization has benefits, it can cause some inequalities and negativities. It is recommended to create the necessary environment for this and to make legal and structural preparations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the last decades of the 19th century and during the first half of the following century, the feminization of the primary teaching profession was consolidated as a generalized phenomenon in several Latin American countries. This article comparatively analyzes this process, identifying the material and symbolic factors that made possible the growing number of women primary teachers in in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador and Chile. Methodologically, this work is based on the analysis of documents and sources of various kinds, such as censuses and statistical compilations, ministerial reports, and memories of the ministries of public instruction. The comparative study of these sources allowed us to identify two main trajectories of feminization of the teaching profession: on the one hand, an early feminization process, related to the expansion of national education systems and the consolidation of the so-called Estado Docente. On the other hand, a delayed process of feminization was recognized. This was linked to more decentralized school systems and with greater influence from the Catholic Church. While the first trajectory is represented by the cases of Argentina, Uruguay and Chile; the second trajectory includes the experiences of Peru and Ecuador. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the impact of the decentralization policy on the education sector of the Department of Huila. It uses panel data on fiscal, administrative and political decentralization, as well as educational coverage and educational quality of all its municipalities in the period 2005-2015. The results show that educational coverage has a positive relationship with administrative decentralization, and that fiscal, administrative and political decentralization contribute to improving the quality of municipal education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study addresses a fundamental but neglected aspect of efforts to ensure quality and improvement in a decentralised school system: the relationship between the local education authority (LEA) and local school principals. Empirically, it is based on analysis of relevant documents and interviews with key actors in a Swedish LEA (a municipality), selected as a deviant and successful case. The data analysis is rooted in the theoretical concepts of sense-making and framing. The results show that to handle the joint responsibility the LEA introduced new artefacts for quality and improvement work. These included an expanded support unit for quality and improvement, a visionary document for all educational units and a system of tools and forums to expand quality work at local school level and stimulate collaboration between LEA-level actors and school principals. The principals saw a need for most of the artefacts and regarded them as useful. However, the analysis also reveals some negative resonance concerning relevance for the local schools and expectations of uniformity. In addition to presenting and discussing these findings, issues concerning trust and relationships are highlighted in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myanmar's attorneys, judges, law officers, and law teachers are slowly emerging from the isolated world they inhabited during decades of military authoritarianism. Almost a decade ago, the country triumphantly burst into an era of "disciplined" democracy under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, de facto head of state. Yet, the legal education system continues to be marked by hierarchical and bureaucratic practices, infrastructural and pedagogical neglect, and low confidence in the formal justice sector. The authors--two American law professors and practitioners and two students--discuss the direction of legal education in Southeast Asia and how clinical legal education (CLE) methodologies can be used to empower law students, teachers, and their communities, with an emphasis on the rule of law and access to justice. They draw on their experience in developing and piloting Community Teaching and Externship Preparation law school curricula in 2017-19 under the auspices of non-governmental organization BABSEACLE (formerly Bridges Across Borders South East Asia Clinical Legal Education Initiative). They highlight two teaching modules: Community Needs Assessments and peer-to-peer "CLE English" classes at university law departments in remote regions of the country and the outskirts of Yangon. Along with receptiveness for new approaches to teaching, learning, and mentoring by international experts, the authors faced centralized decision-making and planning, no culture of faculty collegiality or autonomy, risk aversion, reluctance to "stand out" amongst peers, frequent teacher transfers, inadequate research skills, rote learning, undue reliance on "distance education," and limited English proficiency. Lastly, the authors comment on the future potential of this educational initiative and the "Development Industry." Warning against a "Project World" mentality, unwelcome imposition of liberal ideals of individualism, and neocolonial tendencies, they highlight the importance of consultation with educational institutions, awareness of the role of local intermediaries and informal justice sector, and the need for genuine coordination and partnership amongst donor agencies and NGOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the effects of decentralization on education and health in Ethiopia using an original database covering all of the country's regions and woredas (local governments). Ethiopia is a remarkable case in which war, famine and chaos in the 1970s–80s were followed by federalization, decentralization, rapid growth, and dramatic improvements in human development. Did decentralization contribute to these successes? We use time series and panel data analyses to show that decentralization improved net enrollments in primary schools and access to antenatal care for pregnant women. The main channel appears to be institutional, not fiscal. We offer the database as an additional contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper undertakes an analysis of the "smart school" as a building that both senses and manages bodies through sensory data. The authors argue that smart schools produce a situation of ubiquitous sensation in which learning environments are continuously sensed, regulated, and controlled through complex sensory ecosystems and data infrastructures. This includes the consideration of ethical and political issues associated with the collection of biometric and environmental data in schools and the implications for the design and operation of learning environments which are increasingly regulated through decentralized sensor networks. Working through a relational and adaptive theory of architecture, the authors explore ways of intervening in smart schools through the reconceptualization of sensor technologies as "atmospheric media" that operate within a distributed ecology of sensation that exceeds the limited bandwidth of the human senses. Drawing on recent projects in contemporary art, architecture, and interaction design, the authors discuss specific architectural interventions that foreground the atmospheric qualities and ethical problematics of sensor technologies in school buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the main features of the provision, organization and funding of nineteenth century European school acts. It indicates that these school acts promoted schooling that was basic, rather than compulsory, and provided a framework for schools funded by a diversity of revenues, and three types of local organization either based on the church, municipalities or several organizations. As a result, this article complements the analysis of determinants of rise of mass schooling, and the debate on decentralization, with an overview of European school acts and a theoretical challenge to further address the varying institutional framework of nineteenth-century schooling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the advent of post-apartheid democracy, the government was confronted with the dilemma of how to address the inequities of the apartheid education dispensation by increasing access and participation while simultaneously allowing self-managing schools and promoting efficiency. In addition, the political transformation was accompanied by a strong emphasis on the need for shared responsibility for the governance of schools by local school governing bodies (SGBs) in partnership with the state. However, it is argued that 'decentralised centralism' has permeated the South African education system at the expense of the notion of community participation. The first part of the article examines the concepts of decentralisation and decentralised centralism. This is followed by an examination of the enactment of decentralisation in the South African education system. The third section shows how re-regulation of the periphery has gradually led to the education system becoming more centralised and how vested interests contributed to the development of decentralised centralism. The article concludes with a discussion of the schism between policy idealism and the practical reality and the connection between a legitimacy crisis and political realism as drivers of the movement towards decentralised centralism in the South African education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Schulleitende antworten mit unterschiedlichem Schulleitungshandeln auf die komplexen Ansprüche ihrer Umwelt. Ausgehend von dem Konzept der Responsivität wird zunächst die sich wandelnde Umwelt von Schulleitenden beschrieben, bevor mithilfe des vorgestellten Theorierahmens ein Blick auf zwei Schulleitende geworfen wird. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The impact of decentralization on education systems requires the local government to develop local content curriculum to preserve regional characteristics and local uniqueness through education. Practice in the field revealed problems in terms of implementation so that the development of an evaluation model in accordance with the characteristics of the region is necessary. The purpose of this study was to produce an evaluation model for evaluating vocational skills programs on the local content curriculum. Method: This was a developmental study consisting of three phases: 1) The initial investigative phase was conducted by interviewing vice-principals and vocational skills programs teachers;2) The design phase was carried out by making an instrument, evaluation guide, evaluation procedure and the effectiveness of the model assessment sheet; 3) The trial phases were carried out by performing readability test, small-scale trial, and large-scale trial. Results: The results of the readability test indicated that evaluation instrument, evaluation guide, and evaluation procedure were feasible to use, and according to experts the model was very effective to evaluate vocational skills programs on the local content curriculum. The result of the small-scale trial showed that the 24 items developed were valid and reliable. Large-scale trial results indicated that the instrument had acceptable validity and reliability of the construct. Implications for Research and Practice: Evaluation models that have been developed, validated by experts, validated by practitioners and trials on the small and large-scale can contribute to improving vocational skills programs on the local content curriculum developed by local governments throughout Indonesia and even other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on challenges of adopting inter-sectorial cooperation for Afghan refugee education in Iran. Topics discussed include privilege of access to the public education system granted by the government to documented refugee children; adopting decentralized organizational structure in schools; and encouraging technical teams for offering the same.

Policies aimed at both reducing the costs associated with schooling (particularly through fee-free education) and decentralising responsibility for education delivery have become a central part of international education doctrine. This article draws on the 'politics of scale' literature to highlight how these education reforms are contested at different scales, in turn leading to uneven administrative and material outcomes. It examines education policy reforms in Papua New Guinea, which have - contra international trends - sidelined non-state actors and strengthened the state's role in managing education services. National fee-free education policy has been contested at different administrative scales. Church administrators have rallied (without much success) at national directives; subnational administrators and politicians have had greater success, rolling back some aspects of national policy; while local-level schools have employed their own tactics to resist national fee-free education policy. In turn, this case study highlights how fee-free educational policy shapes and is shaped by conflict at multiple administrative scales. The article's findings have implications for debates about the relationship between fee-free education and decentralisation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article summarizes a research conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the policy to make flexible the curriculums, which was implemented in order to improve the inclusion and quality of the teaching in the Colombian schools. The work focuses on determining whether this strategy has been effective in ensuring the right to artistic education under fair conditions. The trajectories of the significant experiences in the artistic education at the basic and intermediate school grades and recognized during the implementation of the National Plan of Artistic Education 2007-2010 were analyzed and compared. It was carried out by using criteria for fair achievement stemming from the study of the pedagogical orientations in the artistic education at the basic and intermediate school grades, as provided by the National Ministry of Education, and by using the 4-A scheme by Katarina Tomasevski, under two (2) theoretical approaches: Justice as Fairness by John Rawls, and the Capability Approach by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. It was found that this strategy has not been effective enough to ensure the said right under fair conditions, both inside and outside the educative institutions, due to three factors: 1) Lack of awareness on this right; 2) the short time allocated in the school to the artistic teaching; and 3) non-regulated policy on how to make flexible the curriculums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • We use PISA data to examine changes in decision-making responsibilities across 33 countries from 2000 to 2015. • In most countries, teachers have lost decision-making authority, but governments and school leaders have gained authority. • Gains in government authority negatively impact teachers’ level of responsibility, especially in the domain of curriculum and instruction. • We argue that these changes pose a threat to teachers’ professionalism and autonomy. Abstract Despite frequent calls for greater teacher autonomy, governments across the globe have increasingly shifted decision-making away from the classroom. In this study, we use cross-national data from the Programme for International Student Assessment to examine changes in decision-making responsibilities across 33 countries from 2000 to 2015. We find that in most countries, teachers have lost decision-making authority, while governments and school leaders have gained authority. We also find that gains in government authority have a negative impact on teachers’ level of responsibility, especially in the domain of curriculum and instruction. These changes pose a threat to teachers’ professionalism and autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the concept of school autonomy, focusing on constitutional responsibility of the State for the school system, decision rights distribution and educational reforms. Topics include finance of the schools, decentralization in schools and educational justice for providing equal opportunities to students.

Post-apartheid Africa and post-Soviet Georgia implemented a variety of education reforms since the 1990s. Many of these reforms exhibit recognizable similarities despite the significant contextual differences between the two countries. This paper examined the school decentralization process framed by the world culture theory and compared how the enactment of reforms was influenced by country contexts. It focused on the development of regional administrative units and school governance in these two countries to illustrate how specific reforms may have structural similarities but be functionally different. The scope and depth of the functions of new educational structures also play an important role in understanding how they respond to local needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of administrative decentralization of the education system in Romania proceeded in chaotic steps. It was done under the pressure, on one hand, of the EU integration requirements and, on the other hand, of the local administrations who wanted more control over how their money were used in the schools and of the parents committees that wanted to have a say in the local schools. The road was scattered with new reform legislations coming with every change in government composition and ministers. The result was a combination of local autonomy and central control that had the potential to produce confusion and conflict. The multiple and complex blend of divided responsibilities and powers turned out in the process of setting up the new form or entry grade in the Romanian primary education cycle in a rational strategic play scholarly designated as anticommons. Each separated actor tries to obtain a maximizing share of the cooperatively generated benefit for a minimum possible cost. The interactions are modeled as a Game of Chicken where, because actors calculate separately, each selects a higher price/lower quantity position than is optimal, resulting in a lower net payoff both individually and collectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the partnership between the American government and research universities, starting with he Morrill Act of 1862. It discusses the importance of federal government and its funding for higher education which is not reciprocated by the public perception, decentralization of higher education system and self-governance.

This study investigates how sustained professional learning for teachers within a centralised system was cultivated. Specifically, the sustained professional learning was initiated by officers from the headquarters (HQ) and involved interested teachers across schools in Singapore. Qualitative instruments were used to collect and analyse the data in examining the partnerships perceived by the participants. The enablers responsible to bring about sustained professional learning are proposed. A contribution of this study is to clarify how resources in the HQ and its schools can be bridged. Deliberate bridging of resources is critical particularly at the initial stage of the partnerships. This bridging is made possible through dedicated appointed champions. The appointed champions are passionate about the educational innovations and are willing to invest their time to understand the teachers’ needs. This paper argues that the enablers can offer opportunities for lateral networks to be forged within a hierarchical system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhetoric around decentralisation suggests school-based management improves education outcomes. Existing reviews on school-based decision-making have tended to focus on proximal outcomes and offer very little information about why school-based decision-making has positive or negative effects in different circumstances. The authors systematically searched for and synthesised evidence from 35 quantitative and qualitative studies evaluating 17 individual interventions on the effectiveness of school-based decision-making on educational outcomes. Devolving decision-making to the level of the school appears to have a somewhat beneficial effect on dropout, repetition and teacher attendance. Effects on test-scores are more robust, being positive in aggregate and for middle-income countries specifically. On the other hand, school-based decision-making reforms appear to be less effective in communities with generally low levels of education, where parents have low status relative to school personnel. The authors conclude that school-based decision-making reforms are less likely to be successful in highly disadvantaged communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the advances, reflections and theoretical-methodological positions of the Project "Voices and Thoughts: communication from diversity" (SGI 2195, UPTC, Tunja, Boyacá - Colombia). It contains an introduction that corresponds to the reflection on the seventh-peace process that was experienced in the Colombian context. It displays the historical moment of the emergence of the communication wokshops in schools as a period and space of hope, as part of the National Program "Colombia Workshop Schools Tools of Peace". The following sections manifest positions of decentralization built after a week of meeting with young people with diverse abilities at the Koika classroom, representing a time of contextualization which was vital for the learning of the researchers. First, in relation to communication difficulties, as it was considered that these young people did not have communication skills. However, from the first encounter it was clear that the disability was not theirs, but ours and the world's to understand different communication possibilities. Here the construction of intersubjective relations is contemplated, regarding the difference as a potential and the look of strangeness, which is torn between its freedom and the desire for integration. The second decentering has to do with the formative intention to "build their future". In front of this, the research assumes a position of resignation, that is to say, there are no objectives related to promoting its development, nor stimulating skills, because it is not intended to fulfill an educational function. The only intention is to live dialogical experiences that impact on the present. The third decentering is to understand the meeting of diversities without external signs that ensure cognitive differences as a disadvantage or impossibility. The researchers avoid knowing the psychological diagnoses of the participating group, since it is not considered vital to the development of the project. By avoiding a perspective of "naturalization of the normality", the focus shifts to the valuing and the power of conversation as the main expression of human singularity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through decentralization, via national legislation since 1999, Thai municipal schools have become responsible for all areas of education, including educational facilities and infrastructure, health and lunch programs, pedagogy and teacher training, and curriculum and educational programme development. However, little research has been conducted on this process or on the results of the devolved municipal educational system. This article describes a survey of parental attitudes towards multiple aspects of the educational offering of the department of education in in one of the largest municipalities in Northeast Thailand, Khon Kaen Municipality (KKM). A large-scale mixed-methodology survey investigated parents' reasons for placing their children in KKM schools and their perception of the transport of students to and from schools. It also investigated the perceived factors of quality of education. The survey found that proximity, no tuition fees, and a good environment were the principal reasons, with cost and safety being issues for transporting students. Principal Component Analysis revealed the pedagogy, education program structure, school lunch program, and educational facilities to be important to parents, with a comparison showing differences by school, some critical. The article suggests KKM institute a citizens' dialogue process for educational strategic management to implement the recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is aimed at exploring distinctive features of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai by drawing on data from Shanghai Program for International Students Assessment (PISA) 2012. While doing the research for this paper, the author found that from a policy perspective, Shanghai had launched a reform policy aimed at transforming the highly centralized education system. This included a devolution of the decision-making authority to local departments of education and a reduction of control over schools. Private school policies were also initiated with the understanding that private schools ought to enjoy autonomy in almost every aspect of decision-making. From the perspective of practice, decentralization of basic education could be categorized as county-based school decentralization. In such a situation, the county bureaus of education wielded decision-making authority over a number of areas in the public school sector, while gradually devolving some decision-making authority to the public schools themselves; and the private schools enjoyed autonomy within their major decision-making areas. Given both the policy and practice of the decentralization of basic education in Shanghai, some suggestions are provided regarding: (1) how to promote school decentralization, and (2) how to balance it with accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how the decentralization law of 1991 in the Philippines has provided the conditions for the interface of higher education and politics by virtue of Local Government Units (LGUs) establishment of Local Colleges and Universities (LCUs). Anchored on educational politics framework, it specifically looks at the experience of Mandaue City which presently has two similarly named local colleges, one is Commission on Higher Education accredited and LGU supported, while the other has been deemed to have "no legal personality" but has persisted to operate nonetheless. This would create a conflict of legitimacy and later on manifest issues and challenges naturally beyond the immediate domain of education, but one that must be harnessed constructively given the realities of Philippine politics i.e. power struggle and political dynamics. The democratic opening engendered by the decentralization law to allow LGUs to establish post-secondary schools are beset with growing political tensions and contestations. Yet, there were also narratives and evidence of positive impact brought about by the decentralization of higher education. Using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and document reviews, this study contends that public educational ventures such as LCUs serve as a microcosm of the larger problem in Philippine higher education: improved access to higher education, but quality is deteriorating. As such, this study hopes to suggest several policy directions and practical considerations for national governments vis-à-vis the LGUs role as enabler and/or regulator of higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government decentralization is in worldwide use for education reforms. It takes different forms across countries from political and fiscal perspectives. It is a unique feature that the governance of Korea is politically decentralized, but it remains fiscally federalized. In this article, we utilized both political and fiscal perspectives to evaluate her decentralization by school resources and student outcomes. After analyzing the panel data, we find that fiscal decentralization is positively related to student outcomes. In contrast, we find little evidence on any relationship between political decentralization, school resources, and student outcomes. Lastly, we draw useful policy implications for developing countries whose decentralization moves like Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article makes an assessment on the implementation of the decentralization policy in education in Malawi in relation to the achievement of its objectives. To bring this into perspective, the socioeconomic, legal and political contexts, and the related policies, which have a bearing on education decentralization, have been analyzed. The decentralization of education in Malawi has to a great extent been unable to meet its objectives as a result of reluctance of the central ministry to cede more decision-making power to the local level, and due to insufficient human resources. The article concludes by giving policy recommendations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the possibility of implementing policy change in education using the complexity theory. Topics include the complexity of the decentralisation of the education systems due to the dynamic open systems, the implementation and sustainability of policy change in education governance, and the role of status quo in the resistance to change.

The specific accounting approaches in preuniversity accounting are reduced, including the segment accounted for the reimbursement of students travel expenses and other benefits. This paper aims to outline an image of the social aspects of education in the preuniversity public education, represented by reimbursement to the beneficiaries of education, how they are reflected in accounting through the budget classification and disclosed to users via public media. Specifically, our approach refers to scholarships provided by the local administration to support learning, professional scholarships, as well as various support programs for students who come from families with material difficulties, whose financial backer is the state through school inspectorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the dialectical interplay between centralisation and decentralisation forces so as to understand how schools leverage on its autonomous pedagogical space, influence the diffusion of innovations in the educational landscape of Singapore and how a centralised-decentralised system supports (or impedes) pedagogical reform for twenty-first century learning.Design/methodology/approach The paper first outlines the evolutionary stance of Singapore’s decentralisation from its past to present trajectories, thus providing a broader social-historical interpretation to its tight-loose-tight coupling of the education system; followed by situating the context of reform within the national narrative of Ministry of Education’s (MOE) twenty-first century competencies framework. The authors examine how school autonomy should be accompanied by systemic enabling mechanisms, through two case illustrations of whole-school reforms.Findings There are four carryover effects that the authors have observed: structural, socio-cultural, economic and epistemic. Middle managers from the two schools act as a pedagogical, socio-technological and financial broker outside the formal collaborative structures organised by the MOE. Such a “middle-out” approach, complemented by centralised mechanisms for “coeval sensing mechanism”, has resulted in boundary-spanning linkages and multiplier effects in terms of knowledge spillovers.Research limitations/implications Socio-cultural context matters; and what constitutes as co-learning between policymakers and practitioners in Singapore may be construed as policing that stifles innovations in other contexts.Originality/value In addition to the conceptualisation of how school autonomy may lead to school-based innovations, the paper provided some preliminary empirical evidence of how the co-production of knowledge has been engendered within, across and beyond individual Singapore schools through the mechanism of innovation diffusion. The unit of analysis is innovation ecosystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature reviewed for this study revealed that the movement toward decentralizing responsibility of school governance to communities has become a global policy in the contemporary world. With the aim of enhancing greater community participation and retaining students in public schools, the Government of Nepal introduced two different policies: the General Public School (GPS)Policy and the Community-Managed School (CMS) Policy; both guided by the Decentralized School Governance Policy. Since then, there has been a debate about whether centrally controlled but locally managed GPSs or community owned-locally governed CMSs are better. Policy documents in Nepal repeatedly claim that the CMS Policy achieves better results than the GPS Policy. The research reported on in this paper gathered evidence for examining claims concerning the performance of the policies. The research used mixed methods. Results indicate that there is no significant difference in the respective policy implementation performance between the two types of schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the extent to which young people in predominantly middle-class environments identify with Europe and considers the influence of European education policy, school ethos and curricula. We compare data drawn from individual and focus group interviews with students aged 15-17 at a state school and a European School in England. The empirical analysis was informed by post-structuralism and found that young people at both schools developed multidimensional, multifaceted identities. Students at the European School, which has an ethos of developing both national and European identities, identified themselves more as European than their peers at the state school, which integrated students on the basis of a common British citizenship. The findings suggest that the policy on the European dimension in education contributes towards developing students' identification with Europe and to their knowledge of Europe, though not at the expense of their ethnic and national identities, which were stronger than their European identities. Lack of a European dimension in education (both in and out of school) seems to result in a lack of identification with and knowledge about Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scholars widely acknowledge that politics help explain why policies are adopted and how they play out in states, districts, and schools. To date, political analyses of education reform tend to isolate a particular policy and examine the politics of its adoption or implementation, but pay less attention to the effects of the politics of surrounding reforms and broader issues. Purpose: In this article, I use the instrumental case of the Los Angeles Public School Choice Initiative (PSCI) to demonstrate the ways in which the political dynamics of other policy issues in the same local environment greatly affect the form and fate of a reform. The article examines what led to the adoption of PSCI and what explains its implementation and adaptation over time. Research Design: The study employed an embedded case study design and gathered 3 years of data from leader interviews, observations, interviews, and focus groups in nine case study schools, media articles, and documents. I drew on an ecological-political framework to analyze these data and to understand the evolution of PSCI. Findings: I find that PSCI provided a vehicle to advance the goals of six education reform "subgames"-- decentralization, charter expansion, accountability, union reform, academic rigor, and community empowerment --as well as goals of two broader local "games" of electoral politics and bridging, and that each was consequential to at least one or more phase of PSCI. At times in its evolution, players seeking success in one area of reform aligned with, used, or were used by players seeking success in other areas of reform. It is the interactions of these players in relation to the environment and to others working to advance complementary and conflicting reform issues and goals that explains how a reform touted to improve accountability and learning for low-performing schools and to empower the community became a broader referendum on school governance and reform writ large. Conclusions: Consistent with recent scholarship, this research demonstrates that an increasingly broad set of actors are engaging in decisions around public schooling and changing the nature of educational governance. The study also illustrates the value of examining local policy with an ecological-political lens and poses several hypotheses that could be explored in future studies. Finally, it suggests that prior to adoption, policymakers consider the extent to which a new policy advances or competes with the goals of surrounding reforms and investigate ways to bolster bridging games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: The concept of scale has gained purchase across social sectors in recent years as organizational leaders and funders seek to maximize the impact of promising social innovations. Purpose/Objective: We apply insights from recent scholarship on ideas as mechanisms for change to explain how the idea of "getting to scale" intersected with political opportunities and human and financial resources in the early diffusion of the charter management organization (CMO). Research Design: As the birthplace and a political locus of the CMO form, California is an ideal vantage point from which to understand the early years of the form's diffusion. We conducted interviews with California CMO and non-CMO leaders, principals, and funders. Our interviews were designed to understand when and why CMO leaders thought about growth, the challenges and opportunities associated with growth, organizational goals and strategic priorities, and whether and how funders shaped CMO development and plans. In addition, we constructed a school-level panel dataset for the 1991-92 to 2006-07 school years using data from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and the California Department of Education. We included charter organizational form, enrollment, and school founding and closure years. We also joined multiple Foundation Center datasets to create a grant-level dataset for the years 1999 to 2006 that includes grant amount, grant type, recipient, and funder. Finally, we conducted participant and nonparticipant observations at CMO board meetings, foundation staff meetings and presentations, and charter school conferences and meetings. Findings/Results: Understood and framed as the vehicle for getting to scale, the CMO form drew a disproportionate share of private philanthropy dollars, appealed to a new class of professionals from outside of education, and was successfully distinguished from alternative charter forms, all of which contributed to its early diffusion. Conclusions/Recommendations: We develop a fuller understanding of the charter school movement, describing how the diffusion of the CMO form displaced ideas about school-level autonomy and decentralization in favor of ideas about getting to scale and tipping the system. The study also offers insight to scholars analyzing current and past efforts at educational reform by emphasizing the roles played by ideas, opportunities, and resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We review empirical evidence on the ability of decentralization to enhance preference matching and technical efficiency in the provision of health and education in developing countries. Many influential surveys have found that the empirical evidence of decentralization's effects on service delivery is weak, incomplete, and often contradictory. Our own unweighted reading of the literature concurs. However, when we organize quantitative evidence first by substantive theme, and then--crucially--by empirical quality and the credibility of its identification strategy, clear patterns emerge. Higher-quality evidence indicates that decentralization increases technical efficiency across a variety of public services, from student test scores to infant mortality rates. Decentralization also improves preference matching in education, and can do so in health under certain conditions, although there is less evidence for both. We discuss individual studies in some detail. Weighting by quality is especially important when quantitative evidence informs policy-making. Firmer conclusions will require an increased focus on research design, and a deeper examination into the prerequisites and mechanisms of successful reforms. Decentralization, Schoolbased Management, Education, Health, Service Delivery, Developing Countries, Preference Matching, Technical Efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate if information and communications technology (ICT) helps improve kindergarten students' basic mathematical achievement regarding addition. Our research compares the level of mathematical competence of the students taught using our ICT oriented learning method which specifically takes advantage of 'Realistic Mathematics Education' (RME) for the concept of addition, as opposed to traditional teaching methodology. The designed software consisted of a story and several activities with and without the use of computers for addition. It was designed following the background of the RME theory. The study dealt with kindergarten students in Crete, who were divided into two groups (experimental and control). The experimental group consisted of 165 students who were taught addition with the support of computers. There were 170 students in the control group which were not exposed to the computer oriented curriculum. Students in both groups were pre-tested and post-tested for their mathematical achievement. The results of the study indicated that teaching and learning through ICT is an interactive process for students at the kindergarten level and has a positive effect for the learning of addition using the background of the RME theory. Also, the most important result of this study was that this teaching intervention appeared to be more effective for the kindergarten students with medium-level mathematical abilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this explorative qualitative study the effect of political decentralization on vocational school leadership is investigated. Through conducting structural interviews with 15 school principals in the states of Bremen and Lower Saxony in Germany, the study was able to conclude that political decentralization entails the creation of elected bodies through which various stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process, and that schools are able to discretionally plan their own goals and objectives. As a result, it can be seen that school leadership adopts a participatory leadership model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers have increasingly advocated decentralization as a way of enhancing educational quality, although its potential in this area is still subject to debate. This article traces the impetus and popularity of the reform as a policy solution over the past few decades. It argues that three trends in particular have characterized the post-2000 era: a deepening of reforms implemented earlier, an enhanced focus on school decentralization interventions, and a notable increase in schemes in the African region. Interestingly, in individual nations, donor agencies have often encouraged the reforms that make up these trends. The article then examines the empirical evidence on the relationship between decentralization and educational quality, using detailed case studies of Indonesia and Kenya. The case studies not only showcase these decentralization trends but also demonstrate that different decentralization approaches can result in dramatically different outcomes in educational quality. On this front, the article argues that design and implementation features tend to shape quality outcomes-and those features, in turn, are fundamentally shaped by economic conditions as well as by the politics of donors and local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decentralization and deregulation policies assume that local educational leaders make better resource decisions than state policy makers do. Conceptual models drawn from organizational theory, however, offer competing predictions about how district central office administrators are likely to leverage their professional expertise in devolved decision making about school funding. To explore deregulation policy in practice, I examine resource decision making in two urban school districts using the case of a 2009 California school funding deregulation policy. I argue that expertise is a key political dynamic in district resource decision making, setting the framework by which decision makers interpret and weigh local school quality, cost, and equity concerns and, as a result, reallocate deregulated dollars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the school of the future, aiming to identify and aid the implementation of the most desired version of school autonomy in Cyprus. More specifically, the study initially forecasts the areas of financial decisions that the school of the future might autonomously manage, identifies the negative effects that may appear along the way and seeks support measures that could enhance an autonomous school’s efficiency and effectiveness. Moreover, after both the probable and the desired future emerge, the paper proceeds in examining the reasons causing the divergence between them, as well as ways in which the two futures may be better aligned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]