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Book part
Publication date: 12 July 2005

Implementing Educational Transformation Policies: Investigating Issues of Ideal Versus Real in Developing Countries

Diane Brook Napier

Most comparative education research has included investigation of dimensions of educational reform but not all research in the field has focused concertedly on reform in…

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Abstract

Most comparative education research has included investigation of dimensions of educational reform but not all research in the field has focused concertedly on reform in relation to the realities in practice. In the latter half of the 20th century comparativists underscored the need to investigate implementation issues, not just reform policies, as had often been the case in earlier comparative research, since time had shown that political processes did not always equate with educational outcomes. Reforms can be thwarted altogether, significantly modified or mediated in practice, embraced with qualification, or differentially implemented across regions or levels within a given country. Reform implementation might produce intended and unintended change (for better or for worse); or no change at all might be the outcome; or change might occur ahead of reform. Some of the most fascinating findings in comparative research are dichotomous considerations of change such as policy versus practice, ideal versus real, de facto change versus de jure change, intended and unintended outcomes of reform, grass-roots (bottom–up) versus centralized (top–down) reforms, and de facto change legitimized-after-the-fact through reform or new policy.

Details

Global Trends in Educational Policy
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(04)06003-7
ISBN: 978-0-76231-175-0

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1993

Educational Reform in the Soviet Union and the United States: An Analysis and Comparison

David H. Reilly

Attempts to reform educational policies and practices have beenincreasing in recent decades. Since the early 1980s, both the UnitedStates and the Soviet Union have engaged…

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Abstract

Attempts to reform educational policies and practices have been increasing in recent decades. Since the early 1980s, both the United States and the Soviet Union have engaged in significant efforts to improve and/or restructure their educational systems. Analyses and contrasts these efforts in terms of the reform goals, philosophies, procedures, outcome criteria and personnel practices for each country. An assessment of the success of the reform effort is provided.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 7 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09513549310023267
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

  • Education
  • Philosophy
  • Policy
  • Russia
  • USA

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1989

Five Years After A Nation at Risk: An Annotated Bibliography

Bonnie G. Gratch

More than five years have passed since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983 by then‐Secretary of Education Terrance Bell's National Commission on Excellence in…

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Abstract

More than five years have passed since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983 by then‐Secretary of Education Terrance Bell's National Commission on Excellence in Education. Those years have seen the publication of an enormous body of both primary material, composed of research reports, essays, and federal and state reform proposals and reports; and secondary material, composed of summaries and reviews of the original reform reports and reports about effective programs that are based on reform recommendations. This annotated bibliography seeks to identify, briefly describe, and organize in a useful manner those publications dealing with K‐12 education reform and improvement. The overall purposes of this article are to bring organization to that list, and also to trace relationships and influences from the federal initiatives to the states and professional associations, and from there to the school districts and individual schools.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049072
ISSN: 0090-7324

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Article
Publication date: 3 May 2013

The evolution of educational reform in Thailand: the Thai educational paradox

Gerald W. Fry and Hui Bi

The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the evolution of educational reform in Thailand. Three major phases are identified. The special focus of the paper is an…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the evolution of educational reform in Thailand. Three major phases are identified. The special focus of the paper is an assessment of the third reform which began with the passage of the Office of the National Education Commission (ONEC) (2002).

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology for the study is mixed methods including document analysis, direct participant observation, and compilation of major statistical performance indicators from diverse sources.

Findings

The success of the most recent reform has been clearly mixed. Major structural and legal changes have occurred but overall system performance remains disappointingly low, despite large Thai educational expenditures as a percent of national budget and the presence of much impressive educational leadership talent. The paper identifies what is called the “Thai educational paradox”. The essence of the paradox is Thailand’s failure to achieve its educational potential. The paper identifies key factors explaining the paradox.

Originality/value

The paper has significant theoretical, policy, and practical implications. From a theoretical perspective, the study confirms the persistence of strong regional disparities and a lack of fiscal neutrality associated with a neoliberal model of capitalistic development. From a practical policy perspective, it is imperative for Thailand to improve the overall quality of its educational system and to reduce regional disparities. There have been numerous studies of each of Thailand’s three phases of reform, but this paper’s original contribution is its presentation of a historical, interdisciplinary, and integrated perspective on the evolution of educational reform and the many obstacles associated with its implementation.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 51 no. 3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231311311483
ISSN: 0957-8234

Keywords

  • Thai educational reform
  • Thai educational paradox
  • Decentralization of education
  • Education and inequality
  • Regional disparities
  • Politics of educational reform
  • Education
  • Thailand

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Article
Publication date: 16 January 2009

Hong Kong educational reforms in the last decade: reform syndrome and new developments

Yin Cheong Cheng

This paper aims to analyse the reform syndrome, bottle‐neck effects and their impacts on teachers and school education in the last ten years and highlight the direction of…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyse the reform syndrome, bottle‐neck effects and their impacts on teachers and school education in the last ten years and highlight the direction of new developments.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper examines educational reforms in Hong Kong in the last decade.

Findings

Echoing the international trends of educational reforms, Hong Kong, as an international city, has initiated a series of educational reforms in the past decades. The experiences of educational reforms in Hong Kong may provide a good case for understanding the dynamics of educational reforms and drawing theoretical and practical implications for research, policy formulation and implementation not only in Hong Kong but also in other international communities.

Originality/value

From the analysis of the reform syndrome, particularly the bottle‐neck effect, there should be seven key aspects for policy‐makers, educators and stakeholders in Hong Kong to address the emergent key issues in educational reforms and work for the further development of their education system in the coming few years.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 23 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/09513540910926439
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

  • Educational innovation
  • Educational policy

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Book part
Publication date: 11 May 2007

The Reform for EFA in Mexico: Disappointing Progress, could do Better

Christopher Martin

The paper examines 15 years of basic educational reform in Mexico directed at improving scholastic performance, equity and education for all (EFA), through mainly…

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Abstract

The paper examines 15 years of basic educational reform in Mexico directed at improving scholastic performance, equity and education for all (EFA), through mainly administrative measures, particularly decentralization. Taking a critical policy studies approach informed by anthropological examination of local educational processes, this chapter takes issue with scholarship that sees educational reforms in LDC's as the product of “decision makers” and the school reality as a deficit to be filled by “policy”. This perspective mirrors the characteristically top down approach of the very reform process it is supposed to be analyzing. The approach taken in this paper treats school district persons and institutions as active agents in their own right. More specifically the paper will argue that Mexican reforms toward EFA have been unable to transcend the very corporatist–personalistic structures it avowedly sought to reform. It has thus been largely ineffective in mobilizing forces for change, the goodwill, creativity and initiative of educators so important to its avowed aim of improving student scholastic performance. However, isolated examples of innovative uses of spaces opened by the reform offer ideas about how to reorient the reform in more productive directions.

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Education for All
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(06)08010-8
ISBN: 978-0-7623-1441-6

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Book part
Publication date: 13 December 2010

A framework for understanding dramatic change: Educational transformation in post-Soviet Russia

Eleoussa Polyzoi and Eduard Dneprov

This chapter examines the initiation of educational change in post-Soviet Russia, using the eight-factor change framework developed by Michael Fullan. Interviews were…

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Abstract

This chapter examines the initiation of educational change in post-Soviet Russia, using the eight-factor change framework developed by Michael Fullan. Interviews were conducted with 24 key individuals, including members of the Ministry of Education, teacher educators, university researchers, and members of advocacy and school reform organizations. Important primary (government, policy, and school) documents related to the change process of educational transformation were also examined. The format for the interviews involved a common, open-ended unstructured questionnaire, upon which the researchers elaborated with additional probes as the interview unfolded. The interviews ranged from 1–2 hours in length; approximately 50–55 hours of material were recorded. Data analyses involved examination of the transcribed interviews, extensive notes, and documents acquired by the principal researcher. With a specific focus on decentralization reforms, the Russian experience was matched against the initiation stage of Fullan”s framework in order to understand Russia”s transformation as a “change” process. The data show that Fullan”s conceptual framework does clearly have utility for helping us understand events in Russia. However, we propose a revised framework, which is more consistent with the revolutionary rather than the evolutionary transformation and, therefore, better accounts for the dynamic character of dramatic and sudden change typical of Russia and other former Soviet countries.

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Post-Socialism is not Dead: (Re)Reading the Global in Comparative Education
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014009
ISBN: 978-0-85724-418-5

Keywords

  • revolutionary change
  • conceptual framework
  • educational transformation
  • Russia
  • interviews
  • primary documents
  • data analysis

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Book part
Publication date: 20 January 2021

Shared Sense-Making as Key for Large Scale Curriculum Reform in Finland

Tiina Soini, Kirsi Pyhältö and Janne Pietarinen

The national core curriculum is renewed in Finland approximately every ten years, the most recent one being 2016. The core curriculum sets the general goals, providing the…

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Abstract

The national core curriculum is renewed in Finland approximately every ten years, the most recent one being 2016. The core curriculum sets the general goals, providing the foundation for district- and school level curriculum development work (Finnish National Board of Education, 2016). The messages from transnational educational policy (e.g. OECD) are apparent in the core curriculum. However, districts, schools and teachers are highly autonomous in upholding, resourcing and deciding about the curriculum making at the local sites of activity. Accordingly, the curriculum making relies heavily on shared sense-making as a tool for cultivating transformative learning throughout the educational system. The chapter draws on the results of the national “School Matters” research project (2014-2018), to provide the meta-analysis of the sense-making in national curriculum making. Results suggested that the shared sense-making focused on engaging educational practitioners in learning at all layers of the system. However, the means for facilitating shared sense-making between the different layers of the system and curriculum was perceived to be less coherent by the stakeholders at the district and school level, than at the state level. This implies that the educational providers should not only be involved in co-creation of the aims, contents and values of the curriculum document, but also in designing novel and ecologically valid ways for orchestrating the complex and dynamic curriculum making.

Details

Curriculum Making in Europe: Policy and Practice within and Across Diverse Contexts
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83867-735-020211012
ISBN: 978-1-83867-735-0

Keywords

  • Curriculum reform
  • Curriculum renewal
  • Curriculum making
  • Sense-making
  • Transformative learning

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Book part
Publication date: 15 December 2016

Ideological Call to Arms: Analyzing Institutional Contradictions in Political Party Discourse on Education and Accountability Policy, 1952–2012

Debbie H. Kim, Jeannette A. Colyvas and Allen K. Kim

Despite a legacy of research that emphasizes contradictions and their role in explaining change, less is understood about their character or the mechanisms that support…

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Abstract

Despite a legacy of research that emphasizes contradictions and their role in explaining change, less is understood about their character or the mechanisms that support them. This gap is especially problematic when making causal claims about the sources of institutional change and our overall conceptions of how institutions matter in social meanings and organizational practices. If we treat contradictions as a persistent societal feature, then a primary analytic task is to distinguish their prevalence from their effects. We address this gap in the context of US electoral discourse and education through an analysis of presidential platforms. We ask how contradictions take hold, persist, and might be observed prior to, or independently of, their strategic use. Through a novel combination of content analysis and computational linguistics, we observe contradictions in qualitative differences in form and quantitative differences in degree. Whereas much work predicts that ideologies produce contradictions between groups, our analysis demonstrates that they actually support convergence in meaning between groups while promoting contradiction within groups.

Details

How Institutions Matter!
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X201600048A012
ISBN: 978-1-78635-429-7

Keywords

  • Institutional contradiction
  • political discourse
  • education policy
  • computational linguistics

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 2020

Teachers’ perceptions of educational reform: the schools’ readiness, supporting mechanisms and contributions of the reform

Orit Avidov-Ungar and Rinat Arviv-Elyashiv

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of teachers toward national reform in education according to the reform stage (Initiation, Implementation or…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of teachers toward national reform in education according to the reform stage (Initiation, Implementation or Institutionalization) attained in their school. The study aim to examined: How do teachers perceive the current reform?; Is there a correlation between teachers' perceptions and reform stage?; To what extent are teachers' perceptions affected by school's mechanisms and school's readiness?

Design/methodology/approach

The research methodology is quantitative. Teachers (N = 288) completed a written questionnaire. One-way ANOVA was used to investigate teachers' perceptions of the reform and its contributions to school effectiveness and to teachers' working conditions according to reform stage, while controlling for managerial position, teaching experience and school level. Multivariate modeling was used to examine the relationships between the variables.

Findings

Teachers' overall attitudes toward the changes associated with the education reform lay between moderately negative and neutral. Reform was perceived to have made a greater contribution to school effectiveness than to teacher working conditions. School readiness for reform and the presence of school mechanisms supporting reform explained much (41%) of the variance in teachers' attitudes. Teachers holding leadership roles and those whose schools were in the Institutionalization stage exhibited more positive attitudes toward the reform and perceived it as having improved their working conditions to a greater extent than those without leadership roles or whose schools were in the Initiation or Implementation stages, respectively.

Originality/value

Teachers' attitudes toward reform have not previously been examined in the context of reform stage.

Details

International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-12-2018-0386
ISSN: 0951-354X

Keywords

  • Educational reform
  • Reform stage
  • School effectiveness
  • Teacher attitudes
  • Reform readiness

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