Policy Futures in Education

The aim of this paper is to analyze a specific array of publicly accessible policy papers and literature necessary to provide a contextualized interpretation of segregation policies and their implications for the educational outcomes of migrant children in China. By teasing out its ramifications for education equity, this paper reveals the unanticipated current challenges resulting from educational inclusion for migrant children in urban China. The paper argues that although China’s new migration reform policies are well-intentioned and appear rationally apposite at the macro level, migrant children are presently experiencing institutional forms of acute marginality and discrimination in inclusive schools. It is to be hoped that the information provided will serve to advance governmental and institutional understanding of the subtleties of inequity that have arisen from the current policy of Chinese urbanization. Given the insights evinced in our paper, it should be evident that achieving equity for migrant children under the present policy reforms governing their admission into integrated public schools requires more philosophical reflection than has yet been given.

The well-documented global economic disinvestment in schooling necessitates critical examination of policy discourses that influence educational systems and student learning. Situated within the critical policy studies tradition, the present study conducted a critical discourse analysis of the Donaldson Report (2015), a proposed comprehensive Welsh learning and accountability system. We begin with a brief discussion of research focused on global accountability reform within the new economy. To situate the Donaldson Report within this research, we review literature on reforms within the United Kingdom, with special attention to the Welsh educational policy context, which also includes incorporation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) into national policy. Findings highlight a limited Report focus on core educational rights embodied within the UNCRC and recommendations for a new system that leans toward a more technocratic and performance orientation. We conclude with implications for the exercise of children’s rights within Welsh schooling.

Central to improving the quality of education is developing a teacher evaluation system that promotes teachers’ professional growth, the improvement of student learning, and educational equality for all students regardless of social factors such as socio-economic status, educational environment, race, and gender. To address these issues in South Korea and to respond to pressure from parents, educators, and policymakers, a new national teacher evaluation system was implemented in 2011. This paper briefly describes the evolution of the teacher evaluation system in South Korea and analyzes the newly developed mechanism by which teachers are evaluated. The new evaluation system resulted in a backlash from teachers and debate among educational stakeholders, including parents, educators, and policymakers. Both the support of and opposition to the new policy are discussed. Although the new evaluation system has not been viewed as effective in all schools, several cases of schools that have had success under the new system are examined to determine the factors that led to their success. This article argues that the teacher evaluation system consisting of fair and reliable components that measure teachers’ performance and support professional development can be an effective means of ensuring high-quality teaching, which, in turn, can positively impact student achievement. However, based on an examination of the case studies presented and grounded in the theoretical perspective on accountability proposed by Thorn and Harris, this study asserts that for the evaluation system to be successful in each school, accountability, necessary modification, and mutual adaptation are required. Implications for policymakers, researchers, and politicians are provided.

American education policy at the elite level has coalesced around a consensus valuing “college and career readiness” as the primary metric and value for American schools. This “readiness” is often defined by economic outcomes or by standardized test measures (which serve as predictors for economic outcomes). Policy actors at the local, state, and national levels are pursuing more centralized methods to reach goals based on these value assumptions. At the same time, more individualized programs and more forms of school choice are being implemented across the nation. This theoretical paper explores criticisms of this approach from both the political left and right, as well as the inherent tension between the desire for centralized standardization and outcomes measured by economic outcomes on one hand, and the growing desire among families for individualized, varied, and self-directed schooling experiences on the other.

For those who focus on the role of education in international development, the approach to education governance of school-based management (SBM) has been the primary means by which the participation of community members has been incorporated into the provision of education. However, while SBM is a well-known approach to governance that has become a global education policy, in that it is widely promoted, adapted, and implemented, a trend that stands out—and which is addressed in this paper—is the use of, and reference to, SBM in work on conflict-affected contexts (CACs). Indeed, there has been insufficient attention directed at understanding how SBM is advocated in these contexts. Our intention is to use the present paper as a point of departure for further discussion on issues that arise in relation to the intersection of SBM and CACs. With that in mind, we seek to characterize the extent to which international organizations espouse support for SBM, particularly when it comes to its applicability in CACs; to review the rationales that are invoked in favor of this governance model, again with a focus on CACs; and to highlight important areas for future research.

Digital technology is frequently positioned as being central to the establishment of a ‘future focused’ education system that provides high quality student-focused learning opportunities and re-envisioned educational outcomes. While recognising the potential of technology, this paper explores some of the questions about its role in education and learning – in particular, how technology addresses issues of equity and social justice; what it means to design educational and learning experiences that are truly student-focused; and the potential for technology to dehumanise the learning process. The paper concludes with some considerations of how to integrate digital technology effectively into an education system.

Thailand is a good example of a developing country which is struggling with globally common problems in trying to find solutions for sustainable education development. Education is one of the important methods to build the mindset of Thai people toward sustainable development (SD). The co-production approach is a way of improving public services, including education for sustainable development (ESD). The study employs qualitative research techniques which aim at studying the implementation and co-production of ESD. Moreover, it is to explore and synthesize the implementation characteristics of co-producing ESD in Thailand. The research found 12 correlated indicators from the literature that link SD, ESD and co-production practices. They were categorized into input, process and output of the cycle of implementing and co-producing ESD. The indicators were examined within the context of the case study of Bansankong School. The researchers conducted in-depth interviews with stakeholders that included representatives from the school administration, families and communities, local authorities, other relevant institutions and volunteers. The results showed that factors in the process portion of the cycle of implementing and co-producing ESD tended to be more significant; these were community engagement, information technology and media usage, and the contingency approach. The factors in the input portion of the process, namely, self-reliance and self-efficiency of population and leadership, and the factor of mutual benefits in the output portion proved to be significant. The other seven factors, cultural adaptation, democratic participation, equitability, goal of sustainable future, interdependence, interdisciplinary approaches and collaborative approach and partnership, appeared to be non-significant.

In the present study, we adopt a quasi-transcendental approach in order to deconstruct the teacher–student relationship. According to the results of this study, teacher is the dominant pole and student is the passive one. This relation should be redefined in order to transfer students to the dominant pole. In this improvement process the authoritative role of teachers as information transferors and developers is changed to helpers and facilitators. The results of quasi-transcendental analysis of the teacher–student relationship indicated that the conceptual emergence of being a teacher and being a student are dependent and make sense together. Therefore, a teacher is essential for defining student status and vice versa. In this way, they are defined together and in the absence of one of them, the other one would be meaningless. As a result, students would assume a more active role in the educational process and they would deal with the discovery and construction of knowledge in an action-based process. Furthermore, the student would realize concepts such as the centrality of learner, cooperative learning, etc., more efficiently.