{"title":"The influence of the Programme for International Student Assessment on educational governance situated in the institutional setting of South Korea","authors":"Yong Kim, Tae-Hee Choi","doi":"10.1177/14782103231192741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231192741","url":null,"abstract":"The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has instigated educational changes and reforms globally, in particular, introducing and intensifying neoliberal logic and governance in test-taking countries and beyond. PISA outcome impacted upon the educational governance of South Korea as well, however, the changes deviated from what have been observed in other contexts. Framed by institutionalism, and drawing on research reports and literature published on Korea, the paper explores how PISA outcome was appropriated to sustain progressive educational agendas against conservative party’s turn to elitism and competition at a critical juncture. After reviewing the context, Korea’s responses to PISA outcome as captured in educational policies are presented, along with their shapers. The paper highlights how the policy responses parted ways with those of most countries by rehumanizing the curriculum, while acknowledging that its planned new relationship with PISA may turn their course.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43912464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scaling through the pandemic: An analysis of international students’ experiences","authors":"Suvi Jokila, Kalypso Filippou","doi":"10.1177/14782103231192338","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231192338","url":null,"abstract":"In educational research, scales are often presented as the ontological reality of a study. This study problematises this starting point and suggests approaching scales as experienced and epistemically used. Thus, this study asks how international students studying at Finnish universities during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic negotiated their experiences using scales and scaling. The analysis was based on the responses (n = 84) to an open-ended question in an online survey. The survey was distributed in the spring of 2020 to international students studying in universities across Finland. We conducted an abductive analysis of how the international students employed scales in their reflections on their lives during the pandemic. Theoretically, we draw from the conceptualisation of scales, which we suggest provides an analytical lens for understanding subjective experiences, and rescaling, which students used in making sense of their experiences. We argue that international students made sense of their everyday lives during the pandemic through scales and rescaling, contributing to their sense of belonging and sense of (in)equality.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48990596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A ‘good’ neoliberal citizen: A policy analysis of conceptions of young Singaporean citizens","authors":"S. Thaiyalan, Liyun Wendy Choo","doi":"10.1177/14782103231190696","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231190696","url":null,"abstract":"Globalisation has driven the pursuit of more active citizenship forms. Many governments see educational policies as critical to preparing young citizens with the necessary skills, knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours to thrive in a changing global context. However, what active citizenship education is and means varies across countries. Little is known about how active citizenship is conceptualised in educational policies in Singapore and the kinds of citizens these policies and programmes aim to nurture. This article draws on an analysis of 20 Singapore policy texts, such as political speeches, press releases, and curriculum documents, to examine the kind of Singaporean citizens the Singapore government seeks to nurture. We argue that globalisation provides a critical context for local conceptualisations of citizenship, but the active Singapore citizen is not an individualistic nor a universal neoliberal citizen subject. In line with Asian conceptions of citizenship, which posit that ‘good’ people make good citizens, active citizenship in Singapore has a prevailing focus on ‘good’ character and an active citizen who prioritises the well-being of the collective, yet caught in a paradoxical pursuit of a neoliberal citizen.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47618918","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"School principals, selection criteria, and responsibilities: Challenges in educational policy implementation","authors":"J. Khanal, K. D. Regmi","doi":"10.1177/14782103231185698","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231185698","url":null,"abstract":"Failure in implementing education policy affects not only school leadership practices but also the overall quality of public education. This study aims to investigate the implementation of educational policies made for (a) the recruitment of school principals and (b) guiding their responsibilities in community schools of Nepal. Drawing on interviews conducted with 12 principals and six teachers, we examine whether Education Regulation enacted by the Government of Nepal in 2002—mainly Rule 93 on the criteria for the selection of principals and Rule 94 on their assigned responsibilities—was fully implemented. Our findings show that overpoliticization in school management, top-down approaches to policymaking, lack of transparency and awareness about policy provisions, and workload pressures for principals have resulted into implementation failure. For implementing educational policies related to school leadership, frequent training for principals, presence of media for parental awareness, and legal institutions for justice are important.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43906426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Examination of globalisation’s clouts on Ghana’s tertiary education policy","authors":"F. Boateng, U. Abonyi, Emmanuel Intsiful","doi":"10.1177/14782103231184284","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231184284","url":null,"abstract":"The paper examined and analysed the extent globalisation and its dimensions impinged Ghana’s tertiary education policy landscape in global and national historical and contemporary perspectives. Historical and contemporary policy documents and articles, that help to understand how globalisation and its antecedents have interwoven and permeated the dynamics underpinning Ghana’s tertiary education policy, were used as conduits for the analysis. Within the context of structural adjustment and democratisation juggernauts triggered by the West, neoliberal reforms were initiated in the early 1990s. They were characterised by the liberalisation of the sector for the establishment of private tertiary education institutions, creation of buffer agencies to ensure effective stakeholder control in policy and quality assurance of those institutions, initiating laissez-faire financial reforms and incorporating non-governmental financial responsibility. Nonetheless, they concomitantly spurred the tertiary education institutions to drift towards entrepreneurialism and innovation through activities such as research, fee policies and collaborations with vital stakeholders. Although the reforms were geared towards market, the Ghanaian system of tertiary education remains a quasi-market system with substantial governmental control.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41347431","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Tanushree Biswas, J. Wall, Hanne Warming, Ohad Zehavi, D. Kennedy, K. Murris, W. Kohan, B. Saal, Toby Rollo
{"title":"Childism and philosophy: A conceptual co-exploration","authors":"Tanushree Biswas, J. Wall, Hanne Warming, Ohad Zehavi, D. Kennedy, K. Murris, W. Kohan, B. Saal, Toby Rollo","doi":"10.1177/14782103231185178","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231185178","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a conceptual co-exploration of the relationship between philosophy and childism. It draws upon a colloquium in December 2021 at the Childism Institute at Rutgers University. Nine co-authors lay out and interweave scholarly imaginations to collectively explore the concept of childism in critical philosophical depth. Through diverse entry points, the co-authors bring a wide range of theoretical perspectives to this task, some engaging the term childism explicitly in their work, others approaching it anew. The result is an extended conversation about the possibilities for deconstructing ingrained historical adultism and reconstructing social norms and structures in response to what is marginalized in the experiences of children. Our own conclusion, having initiated this dialogue, is that we have learned to think about childism with greater plurality, that is, as childisms.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47472998","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Some implications of the neoliberal massification of Colombian HE for achieving the sustainable development goals","authors":"Lee Mackenzie","doi":"10.1177/14782103231186846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231186846","url":null,"abstract":"This article draws on existing research, including publicly available data, to identify changes in Colombian HE which have led to its progressive massification and neoliberalisation. These include the introduction of standardised testing; endogenous and exogenous privatisation (Ball and Youdell, 2007); the expansion of the country’s non-income contingent loan scheme; cost-cutting and cost-sharing; and the Government of Colombia’s prioritisation of technical and technological (T&T) education. The article then explores some implications of this neoliberal massification of Colombian HE for the achievement of the UN’s sustainable development goals in general and more specifically Sustainable Development Target 4.3, which is the only target to explicitly reference inclusion in HE. The analysis suggests that although some neoliberal policies may have broadened access to HE for some Colombians from low-income and rural backgrounds, they are not consistent with a sustainable development agenda. Reasons for this include the large number of student loans recipients who are in arrears; the use of public money to finance students’ courses in private higher education institutions (HEIs); the prioritisation of T&T education which leaves limited room in Colombian HE for the ‘full development of the human personality’ (OHCHR, 2022: article 13.1); and the country’s overreliance on non-renewable resources for its economic prosperity. The paper ends with some proposals for disrupting the ongoing neoliberalisation of higher learning in Colombia such as the replacement of the country’s non-contingent loan scheme with an income-contingent model; improving the efficiency and accountability of state-run T&T programmes; the granting of student loans only for courses at accredited HEIs; the provision of loans to accredited private HEIs only in cases where no public alternative exists; the abolition of tuition fees in public HEIs for the poorest students; the introduction of stipend-supported internships; and the promotion of Civic Education.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42322753","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Welcoming refugee children with a moral, rather than merely legal, right to education: Ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education","authors":"Niclas Rönnström, Klas Roth","doi":"10.1177/14782103231185621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231185621","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we argue for the moral and not merely the legal right to education for refugee children. National education in many countries is challenged by refugee flows and influx of displaced people. However, there is a tendency to think of refugee flows as isolated events rather than parts of the dynamics of a world society that national education systems needs to respond responsibly to and build capacity for. Consequently, there is a gap between the legal right to education for refugee children and its practical realization, and granting refugee children access to national education systems is becoming part of the problem and not only a solution to the de-territorializing and cosmopolitan challenges of refugee flows and displaced people. We argue that education for children of refugees’ need to meet with a cosmopolitan design of education in order to respond responsibly to the right to education for refugee children. In the first part, we discuss the legal right to education for refugee children, and moral challenges with regard to its practical realization in nation-centred school systems and schools. In the second part, we discuss de-territorializing effects of refugees in education by reviewing research on refugee education, refugee children’s experiences of education and by discussing refugee education in Sweden as a case. In the final part, we discuss ideas for a cosmopolitan design of education. We argue for a moral commitment to the education of refugee children in order for us to respond responsibly to their legal and moral rights and situation, but also to the legal and moral rights, and situations of those affected in host countries. We also argue for the importance of critical cosmopolitan imagination in education that does not restrict education to norms of national loyalty and national integration, or to economic norms of competitiveness and effectiveness.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46691739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Education policy is spatial policy: Using spatial imaginaries to enhance education policy research","authors":"Bryan A. Mann, Jaclyn Dudek","doi":"10.1177/14782103231186296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231186296","url":null,"abstract":"Education policy scholars must consider spatial theories and related methodologies. Spatial theories encourage rich understandings of education policy because education and place are intimately connected. This article shows how scholars can use spatial imaginaries to enhance knowledge of place and education policy. We explain these connections in three ways. First, we outline theoretical concepts and analytical considerations of spatial imaginaries. Second, we provide examples of lines of inquiry related to spatial imaginaries and education policy. Third, we consider methodological techniques. Education policy is spatial policy, so building theory and methods about place and education policy is vital to the field.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43584653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Elham Yousefi Hamedani, Mohsen Taheri Demneh, Ahmadreza Nasr-Isfahani, Y. Abedini
{"title":"Educational futures: Alternative scenarios for the primary school curriculum","authors":"Elham Yousefi Hamedani, Mohsen Taheri Demneh, Ahmadreza Nasr-Isfahani, Y. Abedini","doi":"10.1177/14782103231184930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103231184930","url":null,"abstract":"In an increasingly complex and uncertain world of the future and aligned with the emergence of Society 5.0, exploring alternative futures of education and the curricula in terms of fulfilling the mission of education systems is necessary. Therefore, this study set out to do foresight for the primary school curriculum in Iran. The study was conducted using the scenario planning method, which resulted in four alternative scenarios. The first scenario, called “The Magic School Bus” represents “curriculum as a personal roadmap.” The second scenario, entitled “The Pursuit of Happyness” describes the “curriculum revival.” The third scenario, named “The Ice Age” represents the “curriculum collapse.” The fourth scenario, entitled “Dead Poets Society” narrates the situation of “curriculum in limbo.” The findings showed that innovation comes from agency of players rather than impeccable structures and requires a transformation in perspectives about the educational aims in the digital era, as well as an increase in the authority and empowerment of schools. A key policy priority should thus be developing practical ideas for reshaping the curriculum and producing prototypes of future-proof educational models.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45494844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}