Teachers' Unions and Education Reform in Comparative Contexts


Book Description

Teachers’ unions have long been controversial and divisive organizations, but criticism and distrust of them may be at an all-time high. This volume considers the prevailing assumption that unions successfully block change in education because they are primarily motivated to protect members’ interests. It challenges the conceptualization of teacher union motivation and provides a more nuanced account of unions’ interests, power and impact. Through a series of international cases from the United States, Finland and the Canton of Zürich, this volume examines the hot-button issue of performance-related pay reform and compensation. It argues that a better understanding of the union-management relationship may be the key to securing more meaningful change and reform. It will be of use to scholars, policy-makers, union leaders, teachers and citizens who are interested in the possibilities for the union-management relationship, rather than the limitations.




Teachers' Unions and Education Reform in Comparative Contexts


Book Description

Teachers' unions have long been controversial and divisive organizations, but criticism and distrust of them may be at an all-time high. This volume considers the prevailing assumption that unions successfully block change in education because they are primarily motivated to protect members' interests. It challenges the conceptualization of teacher union motivation and provides a more nuanced account of unions' interests, power and impact. Through a series of international cases from the United States, Finland and the Canton of Zürich, this volume examines the hot-button issue of performance-related pay reform and compensation. It argues that a better understanding of the union-management relationship may be the key to securing more meaningful change and reform. It will be of use to scholars, policy-makers, union leaders, teachers and citizens who are interested in the possibilities for the union-management relationship, rather than the limitations.




The Comparative Politics of Education


Book Description

This book provides new evidence on teachers unions and their political activities across nations, and offers a foundation for a comparative politics of education.




The Strong State and Curriculum Reform


Book Description

As Asian education systems increasingly take on a stronger presence on the global educational landscape, of special interest is an understanding of the ways in which many of these states direct their schools towards higher achievement. What is missing, however, are accounts that take seriously the particular construction of the strong, developmental state witnessed across many Asian societies, and that seek to understand the politics and possibilities of curriculum change vis a vis precisely the dominance of such a state. By engaging in analyses based on some of the best current social and cultural theories, and by illuminating the interactions among various state and non-state pedagogic agents, the chapters in this volume account for the complex post-colonial, historical and cultural consciousnesses that many Asian states and societies experience. At a time when much of the educational politics in Asia remains in a state of transition and as many of these states seek out through the curriculum new forms of social control and novel bases of political legitimacy, such a volume offers enduring insights into the real if not also always relative autonomy that schools and communities maintain in countering the hegemonic presence of strong states.




Teacher Reform in Indonesia


Book Description

The book features an analysis of teacher reform in Indonesia, which entailed a doubling of teacher salaries upon certification. It describes the political economy context in which the reform was developed and implemented, and analyzes the impact of the reform on teacher knowledge, skills, and student outcomes.




Moral Panics and School Educational Policy


Book Description

This book explores school educational policy through the lens of moral panic theory at a theoretical level, and through a select history of moral panics in school education during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.




Modernising School Governance


Book Description

Modernising School Governance examines the impact of recent market-based reforms on the role of governors in the English state education system. A focus of the book concerns how government and non-government demands for ‘strong governance’ have been translated to mean improved performance management of senior school leaders and greater monitoring and disciplining of governors. This book addresses fundamental questions about the neoliberal logic underpinning these reforms and how governors are being trained and responsibilised in new ways to enhance the integrity of these developments. Drawing on large-scale research conducted over three years, the book examines the impact of these reforms on the day to day practices of governors and the diminished role of democracy in these contexts. Wilkins also captures the economic and political rationalities shaping the conduct of governors at this time and traces these expressions to wider structural developments linked to depoliticisation, decentralisation and disintermediation. This book addresses timely and original issues concerning the role of corporate planning and expert handling to state education at a time of increased school autonomy, shrinking local government support/oversight, and tight, centralised accountability. It will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students in disciplines of education, sociology, political science, public policy and management. It will also be of interest to researchers and policy makers from countries with similar or emerging quasi-market education systems.




Education and Political Subjectivities in Neoliberal Times and Places


Book Description

Education and Political Subjectivities in Neoliberal Times and Places investigates the conditions and possibilities for political subjectivities to emerge in international educational contexts, where neoliberal norms are repeated, performed and transformed. Through demonstrating the possibility of political subjectivities, this book argues that neoliberalism should neither be considered post-political, nor a natural law by which educational practices have to abide. This book considers how political subjectivities are made possible in education in spite of dominant neoliberal norms. Chapters address key theoretical discussions surrounding these different, sometimes contradicting, norms and their relationship to education, economy and politics. This innovative approach considers diverse educational and political initiatives in the wake of new public management, postcolonial perspectives on neoliberal education, and educational practices and critical possibilities. The book advocates understanding and enacting democracy as an experiment, based on the conception that democracy is constantly constructed and constitutes a transformative process in society in general as well as in education. This book advances the argument that there is still room for political subjectivity in spite of the dominance of neoliberal educational governance. It will appeal to researchers, academics and postgraduate students in the fields of higher education, education policy and politics, sociology of education and comparative and international education, as well as those interested in neoliberalism, new public management, and inequality.




Political and Social Influences on the Education of Children


Book Description

This book investigates the effects of social and political change on the provision of primary education in post-communist and post-war contexts. Focusing on Bosnia and Herzegovina, the author considers educational developments in post-communist countries of central and Eastern Europe, the effects of the civil conflict that occurred 1992-95 and the consequences of the peace settlement. In order to present a picture of the development of primary education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the importance of political ideology on education provision, chapters discuss instances of the impact of external political influences, educational provision being drawn from neighbouring countries, and illustrate how the political war is continuing. Political and Social Influences on the Education of Children provides insights into lessons learned for education in countries with a changing political state and considers what the future might hold for primary education provision in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Political and Social Influences on the Education of Childrenis key reading for researchers, scholars and postgraduate students interested in educational developments in post-communist countries and education in areas of conflict. This book will also appeal to those interested in the political and social history of the region.




Education and Society in Comparative Context


Book Description

"What was the interrelationship between education and society during the twentieth century in the United States and India? What is the essence of the historical development of educational policies and social systems in these two countries? What philosophical views and developmental courses underlie their outdoor-oriented education? What are their aims of outdoor-oriented education? What procedures are connected with their outdoor-oriented education? These questions are examined in this unique volume.This book is divided into three parts. The first part creates a context for the comparison of the issues concerning education and society. The central point of departure used here regards education as being closely related to the totality of culture and human activity. The dialectic process between education and society is realized differently in accordance with the value objectives that provide the background for different societies. This comparative educational study uses a historico-hermeneutical approach. The second part analyzes the social systems and educational policies of the United States and India following their developmental trends and patterns. The nature of the relationship between education and society for each country is further brought into focus when it is interpreted from the perspective of the philosophical views, pedagogical aims, and procedures of twentieth-century outdoor-oriented education. The case studies provide an interesting insight into how changes in educational policy have been reflected in the every-day pedagogical procedures used in schools in the United States and India.The third part is an analysis and comparison of the phenomena previously presented that are related to education and society through the lenses suggested by sociological theories. It compares the dimensions of the interrelationship between education and society from the standpoint of outdoor-oriented education in the two countries during the twentieth century.This thought-provoking volume is intended for anybody interested in the interplay between education and society in all its complexity. It offers a fascinating journey into the past and present of the issues that have defined the development of education and society in the United States and India."