{"title":"The policy idea of ‘the teacher assistant’: Construction and legitimation through a discursive institutionalist lens","authors":"Tina Lidström","doi":"10.1177/14749041221123636","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221123636","url":null,"abstract":"Transnational policy discourses shape teacher professionalism through discursive patterns in policy initiatives from the global policy actor, OECD. The policy idea of ‘the teacher assistant’ has emerged through discourses on teacher professionalism, spurring ambiguities regarding what the policy idea is and ought to be in Sweden. The aim of this article is to critically examine the construction and legitimation of the policy idea of ‘the teacher assistant’, in relation to teachers and the educational institution, through the lens of discursive institutionalism and strands in Curriculum Theory. The focus is a critical understanding of the interplay between ideas, discourses, actors and institutional context. The analysis of policy documents shows how the policy idea is constructed and legitimised through actors’ coordinative and communicative discourses at the national level, influenced by the OECD at the transnational level. The policy idea is intertwined with ideas and discourses on teachers’ professional development through a national professional programme and institutional conditions for goal attainment in schools. Tensions emerge regarding underlying assumptions about teacher quality, highlighting ideas of what teachers are and ought to be, within comprehensive reform strategies. Tensions entail emerging ideas of standardisation and differentiation and ambiguities regarding the policy idea of ‘the teacher assistant’.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43350415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Most Likely You Go Your Way (and I’ll Go Mine)’: School-level enactment of an educational innovation policy in Barcelona","authors":"Edgar Quilabert, Mauro C. Moschetti","doi":"10.1177/14749041221121477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221121477","url":null,"abstract":"Narratives on innovation in education are spreading fast and both national and local educational administrations have been recently promoting innovation policies and programmes in many different European contexts. Academic literature analysing the potential benefits of innovation in education has expanded accordingly, with some international organizations increasingly commissioning research aiming to study the impacts of educational innovation, especially on learning outcomes. Interestingly, less attention has been given to analysing how these policies and programmes are translated into different practices at the school level. Drawing on a policy enactment framework, this paper aims to analyse the ways in which schools interpret top-down policy text and prescription on innovation and enact innovation in education. To do so, we focus on the case of Xarxes per al Canvi (XC), an educational innovation programme launched by the educational administration of the city of Barcelona in 2017 that aims to create school networks in order to stimulate knowledge sharing and innovation. Findings show how schools make sense of the innovation policy diversely. Policy enactment outcomes appear to be context-sensitive, with schools enacting its precepts in different ways, especially to serve their needs in increasingly competitive local education markets.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42887246","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Education policy governance and the power of ideas in constructing the new European Education Area","authors":"Nafsika Alexiadou, Xavier Rambla","doi":"10.1177/14749041221121388","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221121388","url":null,"abstract":"Twenty ye ars after the Lisbon strategy, education policy in the European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture, with a new set of strategic goals endorsed for the 2021–2030 decade. This article examines the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA). Drawing on documentary reviews and interviews with policy actors in the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, we trace the rise and fall of policy ideas in the new framework. The negotiations over the definition of EEA reveal new tensions between and within European institutions over specific policy ideas, with “lifelong learning” and “gender” as the most controversial ones. Continuing, longstanding tensions between the education and employment fields remain, and present a difficulty for the construction of a comprehensive and cohesive education policy program.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"852 - 869"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45860351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transnational families’ social spaces ‘in between’: Expectations, decision-making and belonging in light of educational choices in Norway","authors":"Judith Purkarthofer","doi":"10.1177/14749041221106846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221106846","url":null,"abstract":"Connections between linguistic heterogeneity, educational choices and (family) biographies are complex and ever shifting. With this paper, my aim is to explore the question how social spaces are constructed by multilingual families in migration societies and how they situate social spaces ‘in between’, thereby challenging both binary and national logics and creating third spaces. Especially in view of national educational institutions, family decisions on language transmission and use are reflected upon and at times re-evaluated. Analysis of family interviews with German migrants in Norway shows how both continuity and change are relevant for the parents as they try to produce an uninterrupted family biography but at the same time need to be open to adaptations to new situations. Expectations, language ideologies and perspectives that transcend one’s own family spaces gain relevance while (national) institutions may call for changes in language regimes and practices.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"482 - 495"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47237329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Unpacking ableist discourses in Cypriot education policy during the pandemic","authors":"S. Symeonidou","doi":"10.1177/14749041221117885","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221117885","url":null,"abstract":"During the COVID-19 pandemic, children with disabilities were confronted with ableist discourses that justified unfair policy measures. This study is concerned with the discourses recorded in a range of education documents, published during the pandemic within the Republic of Cyprus. It employs an interdisciplinary framework, informed by Critical Discourse Analysis, Inclusive Education, and Critical Disability Studies, to examine the powerful actors and the ideologies that influenced the formation of discourses. The paper undertakes a critical interpretation of the disability discourses developed in Cyprus during the pandemic, links this with other relevant research conducted in other European countries prior to and during the pandemic, and suggests policy actions/measures that value children with disabilities and their families.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"834 - 851"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47981582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Which child to which school? How local politicians shape catchment areas, school choice and diversity","authors":"Vito Dabisch","doi":"10.1177/14749041221116252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221116252","url":null,"abstract":"Growing global debates surrounding parental school choice underscore the relevance of school place allocation. While there is much research on school choice, the enactment of such allocation policy is rarely analysed. Responding to this research gap, this article investigates how local politicians in Berlin put public primary school place allocation into practice. Building on approaches of policy enactment and policy field analysis, this article examines the ‘doing’ of Berlin primary school place allocation with the concurrency of catchment areas and parental school choice. Methodologically, this article draws on semi-structured interviews with three inner-city district school department heads in Berlin. Using qualitative content analysis, their political objectives, scope and strategies are analysed. The findings demonstrate that local politicians can interpret the allocation process in line with their political objectives. Consequently, there is surprising variation between the districts’ enactment of primary school place allocation policy. Policymakers’ political preferences for either school choice or social diversity are influential, as is the local context (e.g. school place shortages). The study highlights the importance of local actors and identifies three political strategies used to influence school place allocation, which might inform local politicians’ strategies elsewhere.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"814 - 833"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49502335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Open Door Events: Positioning schools in urban post-compulsory education markets","authors":"Marta Curran, A. Castejón, M. Manzano","doi":"10.1177/14749041221099738","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221099738","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this paper is to explore the role of open-door events as key institutional devices to position schools in local education markets. The paper draws on data from a qualitative study based on observations in 25 open-door events in secondary schools in the city of Barcelona. The findings show, on the one hand, how promotional actions are mediated by a school’s position in the local hierarchy and by objectively unequal features in terms of the type of ownership, social composition and programs offered. On the other hand, the findings reveal how, from these unequal positions, schools display different logics of action aimed at providing information about their status among families and students from different social backgrounds. Overall, the paper presents a typology of schools that contributes to a better understanding of the hierarchy of the local education markets in the transition to upper secondary education.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"798 - 813"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48803085","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Science students’ post-bachelor’s choice narratives in different disciplinary settings","authors":"L. Madsen, H. Holmegaard","doi":"10.1177/14749041221095151","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221095151","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we aim to understand the implications of the structural changes of the Bologna process from a student perspective. We investigate how bachelor’s degree students’ in a post-Bologna era with three-year bachelor’s degree and two-year master’s degree units construct their post-bachelor’s choice narratives in two different science degree programmes (chemistry and natural resources) at a Danish research-intensive university. We pay special attention to how science students’ narrative repertoires and imagined futures interact with and set the scene for their choice narratives in specific disciplinary settings. We draw on theoretical ideas of science identities including ‘narrative repertories’ and ‘imagined futures’, combined with disciplinary cultures and institutional capital. The analysis draws on small-scale rich qualitative material including 12 narrative interviews and focus groups with 44 students, including reflective essays, drawings and word-cloud brainstorms. Results show that the post-bachelor’s trajectory is a choice that students must relate themselves to in their identity negotiations. We document how students within the same faculty are presented with different narrative repertoires to construct and negotiate their choices from and as a result experience different choice processes and negotiations due to the different disciplinary settings they encounter. The implications for higher education institutions are given.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"216 - 235"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41630664","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cultures of economic education: Grammar school curricula in a multilingual comparison","authors":"Thomas Ruoss, Nicole Ackermann, Talia Stadelmann","doi":"10.1177/14749041221099379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221099379","url":null,"abstract":"Reinforcement of differences in educational systems and school curricula may be expected in Europe due to societal crises and transformations. Thus, it is likely that cultural “variants of a capitalist spirit” and different concepts of economic education will become evident in a corresponding curriculum analysis. In this study, we focused on cultures of economic education at the level of grammar school curricula in a federal, multilingual context. We aimed to compare subject content in curricula and identify structural characteristics (e.g. regional language, graduation rates, and cantonal university) associated with differences in subject content. Taking Switzerland as an example, we compiled a representative dataset with 47 curricula and qualitatively analyzed subject content. The results showed that subject content clearly differs in terms of curriculum language, but no clear pattern was found regarding other structural characteristics. We concluded that cultural “variants of a capitalist spirit” are present differently across language regions. This perspective on local differences may help us to understand conflicting goals and measures when facing economic crises on a global level.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"11 2","pages":"781 - 797"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41268259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mobility for teacher students or teacher students for mobility? Unravelling policy discourses on international student mobility in the context of teacher education","authors":"Tea Dyred Pedersen","doi":"10.1177/14749041221097202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041221097202","url":null,"abstract":"Forming part of the efforts to internationalise European higher education, international student mobility has become a key activity strongly supported and promoted by policymakers. In particular, the mobility of teacher students has become a more prominent issue over the past decades. However, to this date there is a lack of research focussing on this specific aspect of higher education mobility policies. Drawing on the analytical framework of discursive institutionalism, this article critically explores policy discourses on teacher student mobility as they emerge in a range of historical and contemporary European and Norwegian policy texts. Subsequently, it discusses how such discourses presuppose the function of teacher education and future teachers in the political agendas on internationalisation and mobility. The study finds that mobility in the context of teacher education is legitimated and promoted with discourses of harmonisation, professionalisation and instrumentalisation, and argues that these discourses are ambiguous and obscure the purpose of both the activity of mobility itself, as well as teacher education and what it educates for, with potential implications for how mobility policies can be realised. In doing so, the article contributes to a critical discussion about the drivers behind contemporary policies for internationalisation and mobility in higher education.","PeriodicalId":47336,"journal":{"name":"European Educational Research Journal","volume":"22 1","pages":"761 - 780"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2022-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46024661","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}