National Educational Agencies Research Articles

Exploring ecological and professional competences’ development on the perspectives of teachers’ “needs”

Taiwan’s Ministry of Education commissioned Nationwide Teacher Advancement Education Promotion Center to establish “the service platform of teachers’ professional development promotion” to promote effective communication on ecological and professional competences’ development among teachers and administrators. Through the platform, schools and national educational agencies can understand the needs of ecological and professional competences’ development and plan appropriate training and education activities. The number of hours, which were planned by the participants of teachers on the platform from 2009 to 2012 school year and which were needed for different kinds of professional development subjects, are analyzed. The results show that teachers’ needs for ecological and professional competences’ development subjects are stable. In summary, the paper draws some conclusions for the ecological and professional competences’ development of educators: provide teaching practices based on ecological and professional competences’ development courses. Provide a systematic series of ecological and professional competences’ development courses. Merge ecological and professional competences’ development resources to enrich the course content.

Calculating the Future: The Historical Assemblage of Empirical Evidence, Benchmarks & PISA,

Purpose —Prominent at the intersections of national educational agencies, higher education, and international educational performance assessments are two reform standards: “benchmarks” determining optimal student performance, and “empirical evidence” for determining the quality of reform practices. These two notions are often taken as connecting policy and research to effective changes in many countries. The article examines the historical and cultural principles about educational change and its sciences embedded in these standards through examining OECD's PISA and the McKinsey & Company reports that draw on PISA's data. Findings/Originality/Value —First, the reports express salvation themes associated with modernity; that is, the promise of a better future through governing the present. The promise is to provide nations with data and models to achieve social equality, economic prosperity, and a participatory democracy. Second, the promise of the future is not descriptive of some present reality but to fabricate the universal characteristics about society and individuals. The numbers embody social and psychological categories about a desired unity of all students. Third, the “empirical evidence” of the international assessment entails a particular notion of science and “evidence”; one that paradoxically uses the universals in comparing and creating divisions.

An ideology critique of global citizenship education

ABSTRACTIn the last two decades, global citizenship education (GCE) has become a catchphrase used by international and national educational agencies, as well as researchers, to delineate the increasing internationalisation of education, framed as an answer to the growing globalisation and the high values of citizenship. These developments, however, have created issues, due to the presence of two conflicting discourses. While the discourse of critical democracy highlights the importance of ethical values, social responsibility and active citizenry, a neoliberal discourse privileges instead a market-rationale, focused on self-investment and enhanced profits. These two discourses are not separated; they rather appear side by side, causing a confusing effect. This article aims to analyse GCE as an ideology, unveiling not only its hidden (discursive) content but also the role played by non-discursive elements in guaranteeing the coexistence of antagonistic discourses. It will be argued that not only the critical democratic discourse does not offer any resistance or threat to the neoliberal structuring of higher education, but also this discourse can function as an apologetic narrative that exculpates all of us who still want to work in universities, notwithstanding our dissatisfaction with their current commodification.

Bildung-Psychology and implementation science

Bildung-Psychology encourages a long-term view of lifelong learning for individuals, educational organizations (e.g., schools), and systems (e.g., national education agencies). Learning on these levels does not happen independently from the other levels, as an individual’s education is interrelated to characteristics of educational institutions and systems. Likewise, implementing educational innovations requires activities on all levels of the educational system. In this article we present a cascading logic model where an independent variable at one level is a dependent variable at the next level from the classroom to the federal government. In line with lifelong learning, implementation is a growing science built on research and evaluation of practices that unfold over years and decades. This article will summarize some of the major findings from implementation science as they have unfolded over the past 50 years. It points out similarities between the Bildung-Psychology framework and implementation science in order to build a theoretical base for a future research discourse.

Governing teachers by professional development: state programmes for continuing professional development in Sweden since 1991

The purpose of this article was to analyse how teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) contributes to the government of the teaching profession. This is done by examining the CPD initiatives organized by two Swedish national educational agencies since 1991 involving the school subjects of Swedish (standard language education) and mathematics. Four programmes of professional development are identified in the investigated material, each motivated by specific conceptions of teachers and professional development. One important trend is that agency engagement in teachers’ CPD and school development has increased over time and that CPD programmes have become more prescriptive and elaborate in their use of evaluations. While this may result in a more standardized and centrally governed teaching profession, centrally governed initiatives could also provide teachers with professional arenas for developing ideas without being influenced by local school management.

A needle in a haystack: a search for value for money in turn-around strategies for schools in difficult circumstances

Background While current investments in school improvement occur in the context of the worldwide economic downturn, in the South African context, there is in addition widespread disparity in education provision and attainment related to pre-democracy race-based patterns. Despite the education sector receiving the largest national annual budget allocation (at least 20%), and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the business sector and even international aid agencies spending millions on school improvement projects, efforts at school improvement have not translated into the desired learning outcomes for students (reflected, for instance, in international comparison tests like TIMSS). This situation calls for deliberation on what constitutes ‘value for money’ in school improvement. Purpose In this paper we present a review of school improvement interventions in South Africa, with a view to discussing their efficiency and effectiveness in the local context. Design and methods The review of school improvement interventions in South Africa involved a systematic search of published and unpublished reports of South African schooling interventions, by both national education agencies and NGOs, aimed at improving the quality of schooling. Desktop searches were conducted on Google Scholar, targeting journals published in the last 10 years (2002 to 2011). Information on unpublished interventions was derived from sources outside of academic documents (e.g. annual reports and personal communications). Snowball sampling was used to reach as many projects as possible, starting from interventions in Johannesburg, which is the most populous city and economic centre of South Africa. Fifty published reports and 75 unpublished reports were reviewed. The information from each report was entered on a spreadsheet according to the aspects of schooling the intervention addressed. The data were then summarised using descriptive statistics and graphs. Conclusions Evidence from the review suggests that in the South African context, where access and equity in education are yet to be achieved for the majority of the population, ‘value for money’ is achieved most effectively when there is ‘connectedness’ across sectors (especially education, health and social services), and when value is in terms of gains for the whole of society or the common good.

The debate on learning assessments in developing countries

Over the past decade, international and national education agencies have begun to emphasize the improvement of the quality (rather than quantity) of education in developing countries. This trend ha...

Power, control and professional influence: the curious case of Physical Education in Scotland.

The policies advanced for physical education in Scottish schools in recent decades have often been influenced by the contrasting stakeholder views of national educational agencies, teacher education institutions and teachers. This article presents in preliminary fashion a historical and contemporary analysis of the major policy interventions and the influences which have characterized their development. We argue that even though physical education has managed to retain its curriculum presence, lack of clarity and consensus on the nature and direction of subject intentions has frequently led to variable progress. What has helped in these circumstances has been physical education’s location as a conduit for various education, health and sport related discussions on achieving policy ambitions. However, further problematic realization of outcomes allied to encroachment from various health and sporting initiatives could mean that the largely fortunate circumstances within which physical education currently operates could change quickly unless identified targets are more clearly met.

Needed Improvements in Education News Coverage as Perceived by Media and Education Gatekeepers

In a national survey, education writers (N=301) expressed their views on ways of improving the coverage of education news. They maintain that top priority needs are an increase in the number and salary of staff mem bers assigned to cover education in the mass media. They also suggest educational programs for education writers and school administrators, and expanded research. Survey data reveal that respondents perceive the news values of educators to be dramatically different from the news values of personnel who process education news. SYSTEMATIC studies are beginning to illumi nate the process of communication between school men, newsmen, and the community (1). Perspec tives on the role of the mass media in this process have been advanced by a survey of the state and problems of education reporting (7), a content analysis of sources and subject matter of educa tion news (10), and earlier reports in this jour nal (5, 12). Mass media content is the consequence of inter action of elements in social systems, principally the schools and the press. A number of individ uals and groups interact to formulate the news of education. Particularly lacking in research to date are investigations of the gatekeepers of education news?those processors of news who select from a large body of information a much smaller portion that is released to the public (2:220-221). Method A questionnaire was sent to 514 education writ ers, the entire membership of the Education Writ ers Association (EWA). A return of 59 percent (N=301) was obtained. The 8-page printed ques tionnaire consisting of sixty-eight questions was designed to elicit information on demographic characteristics of respondents; attitudes toward education writing, the media, and educational per sonnel and institutions; and suggestions for im provements in the field. The present report con centrates on those sections of the survey devoted to proposed improvements. Analyses of additional data are reported elsewhere (9, 11). Respondents included Media Gatekeepers, the active members of the EWA, and Education Gate keepers, the associate and affiliate members. Media Gatekeepers included education writers for news papers, press associations, magazines, and radio and television stations. The Education Gatekeep ers included personnel who process education news for universities, colleges, elementary and second ary schools, and regional and national education agencies.