bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Accepted or Rejected in School
Authors: Garpelin Anders
Published: November 2005

In the classroom, young people in their role of pupils are supposed to focus on and respond to the teaching plan. At breaks, the norms and rules may differ and are more similar to life outside the school. Peer rejection is part of this life. According to Swedish school legislation, schools shall counteract all forms of insulting treatment. Still, recently a young woman appealed her case to the Supreme Court. She sued the authorities for not preventing bullying. The aim of this article is to analyse and discuss victimization and bullying as a part of school life, from the perspective of young people. Data from a longitudinal comparative ethnographic case study of two school classes, carried out with an interpretive approach and a relational interpretation perspective, are scrutinized. The results are mainly from qualitative interviews with 62 young people on three occasions (age 12–21). Both individual and collective victimization occur frequently in the social world of the school, mostly within their own school classes and often even in their own peer group, victimization without their teachers' knowledge. For those suffering, the question of being accepted or rejected might be of crucial importance for their career as pupils as well as from a more general life perspective.
A Matter of Timing: Time Use, Freedom and Influence in School from a Pupil Perspective
Authors: Nyroos Mikaela , Rönnberg Linda , Lundahl Lisbeth
Published: November 2005

A weakening of central time regulation has constituted one aspect of the process of decentralisation and deregulation of Swedish education in the last two decades. In 1999 the Parliament decided on an experiment period permitting schools in 79 municipalities to allocate school hours more freely. The article aims at exploring and analysing pupils' experiences of the structuring of contents and work in schools without a national time schedule. Pupils' influence over schoolwork, and their individual responsibility and freedom to plan and use time are focused on. Thirty-one pupils, aged 14–15 years, were interviewed. They come from three comprehensive schools ranging from a strongly classified curriculum and teacher work to a curriculum characterised by a high degree of cross-disciplinary teaching and teacher teamwork. All three schools, to varying extent, have scheduled ‘open lessons’, when pupils choose content and activity. The majority of pupils appreciate having a responsibility and freedom to plan their own learning, but argue that they are generally not allowed to participate in decisions about teaching and learning. This is particularly the case in subject lessons, which are still mainly controlled by the teachers. The pupils prefer varied forms of teaching and learning and express a need for freedom as well as guidance and structure.
The Emergent European Educational Policies under Scrutiny: The Bologna Process from a Central European Perspective
Authors: Kwiek Marek
Published: November 2005

In this article, the Bologna Process and the European Research Area are viewed as the two sides of the same coin: that of the redefinition of the missions of the institution of the university. The Bologna Process is viewed as relatively closed to global developments: as largely inward-looking, focused on European regional problems (and European regional solutions), in the absence of references to global changes and huge globalization-related political and economic transformations underlying them. Higher education in central and eastern Europe has been in a state of permanent crisis since the fall of communism and there has not been enough general reflection on its transformations. The author's concern about Bologna is that it is not trying to rise to the conceptual level that would be required to assist higher education systems in central and eastern Europe with their integration with western European systems. Bologna could be a useful policy agenda; it could provide clear recommendations on what to do and how, presenting a comprehensive package of reforms. But it is not. In this respect, it does not meet expectations of the academic community in the region; it is unclear in its visions, and consequently in its recommendations for actions. In conclusion, the author states that while it may be quite successful in promoting its agenda in western Europe, it may fail in the transition countries, especially because of the combination of old and new challenges and because of chronic underfunding of national higher education systems. While western European institutions currently seem to be afraid of losing their autonomy, for educational institutions in most transition countries the Bologna Process could be a coherent reform agenda.
The European Social Fund: The Commission, the Member State and Levels of Governance
Authors: Brine Jacqueline
Published: November 2005

The European Social Fund (ESF) is the European Union structural fund that redistributes funds to facilitate vocational education and training (VET). With the exception of the Common Agricultural Policy it is the EU's largest instrument for redistribution. Currently linked to the European Employment Strategy it match-funds, and through its policies, directs, much of the Member State's training for unemployed people. Drawing on a discursive analysis of ESF official policy text from 1957 to 2000, the article explores the relationship between the different actors and levels of governance involved in the construction of the EU: the Council, the Commission and the nation state. There are two strands to the article's argument: first, that Member State politicians and officials use the EU governmental space to make policies that they would otherwise find difficult to introduce at the national level. Second, that despite its apparent focus on vocational education and training the Social Fund's main function is to distribute funds to maintain political stability within, across and between the Member States and this is a vital requirement for the construction of the Union.
Children's Visual Representations of Food and Meal Time: Towards an Understanding of Nutrition and Educational Practices
Authors: Savoie-Zajc Lorraine
Published: November 2005

Within the broad perspective of school and social exclusion, this article pays attention to an important factor of exclusion: overweight and obesity in primary school children. An interdisciplinary research was conducted and aimed at the study of social representations and practices surrounding food which primary school children, their parents and their teachers hold. This article proposes, firstly, an analysis of drawings produced by the children. Most of them represented dinner time as a social event when the family gathers together. It is pictured as a pleasant and joyful moment of the day, in settings of people standing close to one another or sitting around a table. While concrete references to the act of eating are present, it is the spirit of family reunion that predominates. Secondly, the article will clarify the perspectives teachers have regarding their role in educating for healthy food habits. Holding a prevention perspective, the conclusion will stress the importance of partnerships between parents and schools that should be enacted. Joint interventions should be planned for.
New Modes of Reproducing Social Inequality in Education: The Changing Role of Parents, Teachers, Schools and Educational Policies
Authors: Van Zanten Agnès
Published: November 2005

This article is based on the Keynote Address to the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Crete, Greece, 21–25 September 2004. One of the most consistent results in sociology of education research has been the existence of inequalities in school results and educational trajectories related to social factors. Despite an important increase in number of years of schooling for all children in most European countries in the post-war period, research still shows important differences between social and ethnic groups and even a widening of the gap between the most advantaged and most disadvantaged in some countries. Factors shown by previous studies to account for these differences are still at work, but many of them are influential in new ways. In addition to this, new factors have to be taken into account. Using available sociological literature on European countries, while focusing specifically on France as an exemplary case, this article presents some of the new constraints on and opportunities for action by parents, teachers and schools that result from both economic, cultural and educational changes and recent policy orientations.
Constructing International Policy Research: The Role of CERI/OECD
Authors: Schuller Tom
Published: November 2005

This article discusses how the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) addresses the task of conducting international policy research. The article begins with a descriptive account of CERI's work, including the way member countries shape the research agenda. Several issues which relate to how research evidence is compiled within an international context are addressed. First, why the supposed priority area of lifelong learning is only weakly supported by systematic research is considered. The author raises the question of how we are to judge the quality and impact of international research work, especially where it is policy-related. He suggests that an increasing focus on the outcomes of education raises questions about causality in a policy research context. This leads to some brief consideration of evaluation of research, and of the country as a unit of methodological analysis. Finally, he asks what might be meant by learning from international experience.
Organisation and Context, Efficiency and Equity of Educational Systems: What PISA Tells Us
Authors: Duru-Bellat Marie , Suchaut Bruno
Published: November 2005

After describing both average scores, dispersion, and social inequalities in achievement in the various countries included in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study, this article relates those ‘products' to country economic and cultural characteristics. It then explores relations between student scores and a number of institutional characteristics of countries' educational systems. Results show that relations exist between average scores and certain institutional or pedagogical practices such as grade repeating or tracking. A high degree of social inequality in achievement proves to be associated with overall score dispersion and degree to which educational system differentiates among students.
The Europeanisation of Higher Education in the Netherlands
Authors: Litjens Judith
Published: November 2005

This article examines the extent to which higher education policy in the Netherlands is becoming Europeanised. This issue is explored through the case of the Bologna Process and the impact of Bachelor-Master's (BAMA) Programmes on Dutch higher education policy. Changes in higher education, such as increasing competitiveness and decentralisation, have increased the need for new regulations on a European level. Although the European Union does not have much legal authority in the policy section in question, Europeanisation of higher education is becoming increasingly apparent. The Bologna Agreement, in particular, has been a major push for the integration of the European dimension in Dutch higher education policy. Besides giving a general literature overview of the policy development and implementation of the Bologna Agreement, this article discusses the effects of the Bologna Process on the Dutch Ministry of Education, the VSNU (Association of Dutch Universities) and Dutch higher education institutions. Some interesting insights are provided by interviews that were held with officials working in these sectors.
Remaking Education in Western Europe
Authors: Jones Ken
Published: November 2005

This article makes a contribution to discussion on the neo-liberal reshaping of education in Western Europe. It argues for a greater attentiveness on the part of education researchers to collective social actors such as trade unions and social movements. Making use of concepts from Gramsci and from Poulantzas, it suggests that such actors had a formative role in the making of post-war education systems, and that reducing their influence is now an important objective of governments across the European Union. Focusing on educational conflict in England, France and Italy, it explores the extent to which traditions associated with post-war reform continue to possess political vitality.
Second Language Acquisition in Pre-School Playgroups and its Relation to Later School Success
Authors: Nap-Kolhoff Elma , Van Steensel Roel
Published: November 2005

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, the authors focused on the relation between pre-school classroom experiences and the development of later comprehension skills in ethnic minority children whose first language is different from the language they learn in (pre-)school. In Study 1, the relation between pre-school playgroup participation and later comprehension skills (some two to four years after playgroup participation) was investigated. The results did not reveal any effect of playgroup participation. At least two explanations for this lack of effect are possible: (i) taking part in playgroups did not contribute to comprehension skills at all; (ii) taking part in playgroups did affect comprehension skills, but this effect diminished. Aiming to find support for either of these hypotheses, in Study 2 the authors took a closer, qualitative, look at what actually happens in preschool playgroups. The findings provided some indications of the acquisition of comprehension skills toward the end of the playgroup period, but this proved to be highly dependent on children's general language proficiency. The combined outcomes of these studies suggest that, if ethnic minority children are to benefit from taking part in playgroups, they need to have at least a basic proficiency in the second language, or playgroups need to change their current practice. However, as many of these children presumably arrive in playgroups without such a basic proficiency, they will probably fail to profit sufficiently from the stimulating environment provided there.
Emotion, Reason, and Information and Communication Technologies in Education: Some Issues in a Post-Emotional Society
Authors: Zembylas Michalinos , Vrasidas Charalambos
Published: November 2005

In this article, the authors work across issues of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education to explore the meaning of emotional experience in the context of online learning. In light of Mestrovic's (1997) notion of a ‘post-emotional’ society and the increasing role of ICT in education, it is argued that educators need to rethink, modify, or extend some of the assumptions made about the relationship between emotion and reason (e.g. as these assumptions are expressed in the traditional binaries between body and mind, and emotion and reason). The argument put forward is that opportunities and consequent decisions and actions about particular pedagogical practices and philosophies must engage with an analysis of the meaning and implications of these assumptions for learning and learners.
Technological Transformation, Multiple Literacies, and the Re-Visioning of Education
Authors: Kellner Douglas
Published: November 2005

In light of globalization and technological developments, this article argues that educators need to cultivate multiple literacies for contemporary technological and multicultural societies, that teachers need to develop a range of literacies of diverse sorts, including a more fundamental importance for print literacy, to meet the challenge of restructuring education for a hi-tech, multicultural society, and global economy and culture. Drawing on Dewey, Freire, Illich and others, the author argues for a reconstruction of education to increase democratization and to make education more relevant to the challenges of the contemporary era. In particular, it is maintained that by introducing multiple literacies to empower individuals and groups traditionally excluded, education could be reconstructed to make it more responsive to the challenges of a democratic and multicultural society.
‘I'm Just Shy’: Using Structured Computer-Mediated Communication to Disrupt Masculine Discursive Norms
Authors: Dwight James
Published: November 2005

In the context of a class is of pre-service, undergraduate educational technology, primary and secondary majors, the author explores feminist theories and post-structuralist theories regarding gender dichotomies to better comprehend how young women have internalized cultural biases informing them that computers are masculine artifacts. The issues are addressed in both in-class discussion and online forums. Because discursive norms tend to favour masculine voices, the author used Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) to disrupt assumptions regarding public/private discourse by intentionally structuring these spaces to limit aggressive rhetorical attacks (i.e. flaming) that young men are more apt to use than young women. The results so far have proved encouraging. The author elaborates on these successes by comparing differences from female and male contributions to a post-class, open-ended (qualitative/ethnographic) survey.
Rethinking the Virtual
Authors: Burbules Nicholas C.
Published: November 2005

The author builds theoretically off an alternative conception of the virtual, through a series of steps. First, he explores four processes of engagement through which immersion happens (interest, involvement, imagination and interaction); these will prove especially important for understanding the educational potential of virtuality. Second, he applies this conception of the virtual to a discussion of virtual space and time, suggesting that as virtual spaces become familiar and significant, they become virtual places. Two ways in which this transformation can take place are architecture and mapping, and the author suggests that in educational contexts these processes broadly relate to the perspectives of teacher and learner, respectively. Architecture and mapping represent the structures or design elements in which the four aspects of immersion are guided towards learning goals; when these structures are successful, the process of immersion involves students strongly in the activities of learning. In this sense, then, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that all successful learning environments are, to some extent, ‘virtual’. One way to think of this project is as an attempt to rethink virtuality outside of an exclusively technological domain, and to see it as a central educational concept.
Teaching Education and the Virtual
Authors: Trifonas Peter Pericles , Déspres Blane
Published: November 2005

This text weighs the ethical consequences of a virtual education that posits a learning community based on the free exchange of ideas and the economy of knowledge cultivating the circulation of ideas. It explores the ethical implications of a virtual educational enterprise characterised by exchanges that do not take place face to face but are still grounded within the belief that technology can offer an ethical form of instruction responsive and responsible to individuals, groups and communities.
Smoothness and Striation in Digital Learning Spaces
Authors: Bayne Siǎn
Published: November 2005

It is Deleuze & Guattari's description of smooth and striated cultural spaces (Deleuze & Guattari, 1988) which informs this exploration of pedagogical alternatives within the learning environments of cyberspace. Digital spaces work to constitute subject and text in ways which are distinct, and it is awareness of this distinctiveness which must inform our engagement with the internet as a space for learning and teaching. By using Deleuze & Guattari's conceptualisation of the smooth and the striated, the author works towards a way of understanding how a theorisation of internet ‘topography’ can inform pedagogical choice within online learning contexts. The author begins with a summary of the relation between the striated and the smooth as defined by Deleuze & Guattari, and moves on to consider how this distinction can be extended into the environments of cyberspace. She then explores how a pedagogical approach might be developed which attempts to inhabit ‘smooth’ internet spaces, and ends with a consideration of the virtual learning environment or ‘e-learning system’ which, in defining itself as a space of containment, regulation and efficient progression, functions as a strongly striating element within pedagogical web space.
Representations of Television in Portuguese Language Textbooks in Brazil
Authors: Bergmann Leila Mury
Published: November 2005

This article discusses representations of television in written texts found in elementary school Portuguese language textbooks (PLTb) from 5th to 8th grade. In order to obtain the necessary information for this article, six PLTb collections were selected (out of the 35 that were analyzed and approved by Brazil's National Textbook Program – PNLD – in 2002). This work is referenced in Cultural Studies, a field of study that considers culture to be central and constitutive in/of all the aspects of social life, emphasizing the analysis that sees pedagogy as a complex and comprehensive phenomenon. The analysis is developed using six categories (TV/alienation; TV/violence/values; TV/nostalgia; TV/consumption/advertisement; TV/teacher/news/information; and TV/pros). The conclusion is that most of the texts studied approach the negative effects of television; the ways it could incite violence, diminish intelligence, alienate the subjects and deceive the spectator – that is, a very present topic in students' lives – possibly assuming it would be of their liking. The referred technology is portrayed as harmful and negative. In order to discuss the distinct categories, a dialogue between the different conceptions that emerge at the TV/Tb intersection was developed.
Taking up Online Opportunities? Children's Uses of the Internet for Education, Communication and Participation
Authors: Livingstone Sonia , Bober Magdalena
Published: November 2005

The research project, UK Children Go Online (UKCGO), is conducting a rigorous investigation of 9–19 year-olds' use of the Internet, comparing girls and boys of different ages, backgrounds, etc., in order to ask how the Internet may be transforming, or may itself be shaped by, family life, peer networks and school. It combines qualitative interviews and observations with a major national survey of 9–19 year-olds ( n = 1511) and their parents ( n = 906). This article focuses on two of the key opportunities the Internet affords to children and young people: first, education, informal learning and literacy and, second, communication and participation. While education and learning represent the ‘approved’ uses of the Internet, which is often the reason for which parents and governments invest in domestic Internet access, children and young people themselves are far more excited by the Internet as a communication medium. However, not all the opportunities available to children and young people are being taken up equally. Hence the article concludes by charting the emergence of a new divide, signalling emerging inequalities in the quality of Internet use, with children and young people being divided into those for whom the Internet is an increasingly rich, diverse, engaging and stimulating resource of growing importance in their lives, and those for whom it remains a narrow, unengaging if occasionally useful resource of rather less significance.
Learning by Design: Good Video Games as Learning Machines
Authors: Gee James Paul
Published: November 2005

This article asks how good video and computer game designers manage to get new players to learn long, complex and difficult games. The short answer is that designers of good games have hit on excellent methods for getting people to learn and to enjoy learning. The longer answer is more complex. Integral to this answer are the good principles of learning built into successful games. The author discusses 13 such principles under the headings of ‘Empowered Learners’, ‘Problem Solving’ and ‘Understanding’ and concludes that the main impediment to implementing these principles in formal education is cost. This, however, is not only (or even so much) monetary cost. It is, importantly, the cost of changing minds about how and where learning is done and of changing one of our most profoundly change-resistant institutions: the school.
From ‘Credentialism’ to the ‘Practice of Learning’: Reconceptualising Learning for the Knowledge Economy
Authors: Guile David
Published: November 2005

This article argues that there is a paradox at the heart of United Kingdom and European Union polices for learning: the knowledge economy debate rests on a traditional interpretation of the concept of learning (i.e. the acquisition of existing knowledge and skill), yet the challenge of the knowledge economy is to produce new knowledge and skill. Overcoming current credentialist approaches involves rethinking what is meant by ‘learning’. Drawing on activity theory, the article introduces the concept of ‘reflexive learning’ to illustrate how to reformulate public education policies to prepare learners for working and living in a knowledge society/economy.
Rethinking Science and Commodifying Knowledge
Authors: Jacob Merle
Published: November 2005

Several commentators have remarked that universities are now under constant pressure to promote the commodification of knowledge produced by faculty and students. Although academic opinion on the implications of the drive to commodification remains divided, there is a general consensus that at the very least it has the potential to change the conditions for conducting science. This article provides an analysis of the debate and practices associated with the commodification of knowledge produced in universities. The article concludes that the commodification of knowledge is part of a global process of commodifying everything and that academics are both promoters and victims of the commodification of knowledge.
Economic Fundamentals of the Knowledge Society
Authors: David Paul A. , Foray Dominique
Published: November 2005

This article provides an introduction to fundamental issues in the development of new knowledge-based economies. After placing their emergence in historical perspective and proposing a theoretical framework that distinguishes knowledge from information, the authors characterise the specific nature of such economies. They go on to deal with some of the major issues concerning the new skills and abilities required for integration into the knowledge-based economy; the new geography that is taking shape (where physical distance ceases to be such an influential constraint); the conditions governing access to both information and knowledge, not least for developing countries; the uneven development of scientific, technological (including organisational) knowledge across different sectors of activity; problems concerning intellectual property rights and the privatisation of knowledge; and the issues of trust, memory and the fragmentation of knowledge.
Education and General Agreement on Trade in Services: Preserving Public Education is the Best Way to Achieve the Education for All Program
Authors: Vanlathem Jean-Marie
Published: November 2005

Officially, public services of education are not part of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). But more and more pressure is being put on the developing countries and on the less advanced countries to make commitments about their public system of education. The ‘Educational For All’ program, defined by UNESCO, is essential in guaranteeing the human right to free access to quality education. It is of the utmost importance that public systems of education contribute to sustainable development. It is also the best way to preserve cultural and linguistic diversity and to avoid a situation where English becomes the unique and universal learning language. This article shows the threats (from GATS, from international institutions, but also from private providers) that contend with public systems of education and looks for ways of avoiding the complete privatization of educational services. Is it possible to avoid a two-speed educational system that would allow free access, for all children, to literacy … but that would limit access to further education only to those who are able to pay for it?
Multicultural Education and the Postcolonial Turn
Authors: Hudson Anne Hickling
Published: November 2005

The assumptions which the educational system inherited from the era of European colonialism, and modified during the era of decolonisation, are currently facing postcolonial challenges. In this article, the author considers how multicultural education and postcolonial rethinking might lead educators and students to change traditional school contexts and curricula. The issues discussed focus on Australia, but also apply more broadly to countries with culturally diverse populations.
Internationalization of Higher Education: Towards a Conceptual Framework
Authors: Qiang Zha
Published: November 2005

Higher education has now become a real part of the globalization process: the cross-border matching of supply and demand. Consequently, higher education can no longer be viewed in a strictly national context. This calls for a broader definition of internationalization, which embraces the entire functioning of higher education and not merely a dimension or aspect of it, or the actions of some individuals who are part of it. This article provides a conceptual and organizational framework of internationalization of higher education, which includes a discussion on the meaning and definition of the term, a description of the various rationales for and approaches to internationalization, and an analysis of strategies of integrating international dimensions in a higher education institution.
Globalisation in Education: Process and Discourse
Authors: Schriewer Jürgen
Published: November 2005

The article draws on comparative analyses meant to investigate both the degree and the dimensions of the ‘internationalisation’ of educational knowledge in societies that differ considerably in terms of civilisational background and modernisation path. In so doing, the article seeks to put forward two essential ideas. These refer, first, to the importance that educational discourse plays in shaping the educational reality of the present-day world. In this sense, in educational research as in social science in general, the (increasingly numerous) analyses of the socio-economic processes bringing about world society have to be complemented by (hitherto under-represented) research into the semantic construction of world society. Secondly, taking the above analyses and their conceptual design as an example, the article is meant to underscore the theory-dependency of our observations on, and of the resultant knowledge of, phenomena and processes of globalisation.
Higher Education and Multinational Corporations Linkages: Establishing a Mutual Bond. Lessons for China from Redemocratized Hungary
Authors: Freeman Kassie
Published: November 2005

This article examines several issues related to the relationship between higher education institutions and multinational corporations in countries such as Hungary that are undergoing historic economic and political shifts and to discuss implications from the findings for China. The findings suggest that, although Hungary and China differ culturally and in the shift in their political and economic changes, China can benefit from the lessons learned in Hungary.
Hegemonic and Marginalised Educational Utopias in the Contemporary Western World
Authors: Milojevic Ivana
Published: November 2005

This article discusses whether utopian thinking in education has really disappeared, as is often argued. The argument is here made that while overtly utopian thinking has lost its legitimacy among social sciences and education theorists and practitioners, the influence of various utopian discourses on educational policies and practices remains strong. The first part of this article contextualises the present state of utopian thinking by overviewing its historical development. The second part discusses this in the context of education. The third part raises the issue of hegemonic utopias that present as ‘realist’ discourses about the future. The fourth section brings into discussion marginalised utopias, and asks the question if there are any spaces left for utopias that most deeply challenge patriarchal and Western assumptions about what constitutes knowledge, history, future and ideal education. The article concludes by arguing that all ‘regimes of educational truths’ whether labelled ‘realistic’ or ‘utopian’ draw their inspiration from a particular image of the future, an image that always includes at least some elements of the utopian.
Dystopian Nightmares and Educated Hopes: The Return of the Pedagogical and the Promise of Democracy
Authors: Giroux Henry
Published: November 2005

This article examines how the political, economic, and ideological policies under neoliberalism in the United States are being used to wage a war against almost every facet of American life not directly governed by the logic and values of the market. War has become the central motif of the dystopian vision of neoliberalism and the effects of such an assault on the domestic front have been overshadowed by the war in Iraq. The article further argues that it is crucial that educators reclaim a revitalized notion of politics that gets beyond the discourse of critique, one which all too often in reductionistic fashion emphasizes either the crushing effects of domination or views people largely as victims. A more radical politics must consider embracing a notion of hope rooted in pedagogical work that both extends the sites of pedagogy and recognizes the importance of cultural politics as a preconditions for both creating revitalized democratic public spaces, social movements, and the possibility of social action.

Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education? Free medical care? Free whatever? It comes from Moscow. From Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell.[1]

My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub. (Dreyfus, 2001)
On Enfraudening the Public Sphere, the Futility of Empire and the Future of Knowledge after ‘America’
Authors: Smith David Geoffrey
Published: November 2005

This article examines various ways the current Bush Administration in the USA is conducting an information war to mask its larger imperial aims. The implications of this for public education and for the meaning of public knowledge are explored, particularly through Enrique Dussel's analysis of Euro-American modernity. The ‘myth’ of modernity has two faces, the surface face of ‘emancipative reason’ and the historically silenced underside face of ‘sacrificial reason.’ Understanding the continuity between these is foundational for any new global ethic, and for the epistemic conditions of future human knowing.
Reality on Trial: Notes on Ideology, Education, and Utopia
Authors: Leonardo Zeus
Published: November 2005

The concept of utopia has been described as a distortion of reality in the positive direction. On the other hand, its dialectical counterpart, ideology, has been described as a distortion of reality in the negative direction. Each concept has been defined in exclusive terms from the other, but as discourses they have become dependent on each other, albeit in a negative relationship. First, this article analyzes the four moments of Althusser's theory that ideology is unscientific, humanist, like-the-unconscious, and finally as having material effects. Althusser's theory provides a compendium for the recent ruminations on the concept of ideology and is representative of the propensity to define it in pejorative terms. Second, the article surveys More, Saint-Simon, and Fourier's thoughts on utopia. At its minimum, utopia has been useful in imagining a reality that is better than its current form. At its best, utopia shatters the current reality. Third, the article concludes by building an incipient theory of ideology as utopia, or the utopian moment of ideology critique. The article argues that ideology critique often projects an alternative reality, a utopia, and that utopian thinking is inherently a form of ideology critique.
Totalitarianism and the ‘Repressed’ Utopia of the Present: Moving beyond Hayek, Popper and Foucault
Authors: Olssen Mark
Published: November 2005

This article starts by reviewing the negative account of utopian thinking in dominant liberal western political theory, through the positing of a link between utopianism and totalitarianism, as present in the writings of liberal writers like Hayek, Popper, Berlin and others. As such, this article constitutes a critique of the liberal theories of utopianism and totalitarianism as well as positing alternative conceptions. It uses Michel Foucault's views to advance beyond the liberal mind-set in order to rehabilitate the concept of utopia as both a substantive and methodological conception for both democratic and educational theory, and argues for a revival of utopian thinking as necessary for extending and deepening democracy in the world post 9/11.
Poverty, Equalities and Social Inclusion
Authors: Killean Damien
Published: November 2005

This article explores the relationship between inequalities, exclusion and poverty and assesses the efforts of the Government and others to address them in an integrated way. It considers the failure of a radical vision of a poverty-free and socially inclusive society and attributes this failure, in part, to an unwillingness to take account of the extent of poverty and its impact on different social groups. The article identifies the need for an anti-poverty strategy and calls for non-government equalities groups to demonstrate greater awareness of the impact of economic inequalities on the solidarity and vitality of the communities they represent.
Integration, Assimilation and Social Inclusion: Questions of Faith
Authors: Kelly Elinor
Published: November 2005

Scotland is unique in having an established church that does not run its own schools; it is also unique in having a minority denominational sector that is dominated by one church alone. National debate on religion is locked in Scotland because closed minds prevail. ‘There is no alternative.’ The debate is conducted oblivious to faith arrangements in other European countries, and regardless of the need to reach some new accommodation. The Census of 2001 reveals Scotland's high rate of ‘secularisation’, the variable balance between denominations in different parts of the country, and the presence in all cities of other religions. Arrangements decided a century ago just do not fit the facts of faith today. Scotland cannot continue to seek assimilation, and sustain outdated arrangements; some new forms of integration are required. Inexorably the debate is being reopened because new legislation, based on the principles of human rights, is penetrating the fabric of Scottish political culture.
Spontaneous Disorder? A Very Short History of British Vocational Education and Training, 1563–1973
Authors: Foreman-Peck James
Published: November 2005

A distinctive feature of the British approach until the 1960s was that vocational education and training (VET) should be provided by employers. This is conventionally contrasted with the much more formal state coordinated approach of Germany. The question posed is whether the British style was the ‘spontaneous order’ that results because markets use information efficiently about the supply of and demand for skills. Alternatively, was it ‘spontaneous disorder’ in which the absence of standards and coordination led to underinvestment in VET and economic decline relative to those countries with strong leadership in education and training? There is considerable evidence in the twentieth century that Britain suffered from shortcomings in the availability of highly trained labour. The most credible explanation is the organisation and operation of the VET system; the perceived self-interests of undereducated employers and restrictive unions during booms and slumps provided inadequate conditions for efficient employer-led education and training.
Higher Education Reform in China Today
Authors: Kang Ouyang
Published: November 2005

This report provides a brief account of the major reforms to higher education in China since 1949 and background reforms since 1978, focusing on recent trends and perspectives.
The University and Social Transformation
Authors: Godoń Rafał
Published: November 2005

The article focuses on the problem of a crisis in contemporary European universities. The key question is whether the crisis in university education is a calamity or a challenge in these times of social transformation. Adapting a metaphor of health to the university education in the contexts of politics, knowledge and self-understanding, the author makes an attempt to throw some new light on the pedagogical issues concerning tertiary education. Specifically, he argues that the wholeness of university education does not narrow our outlook on the world. Conversely, it helps us to remember that learning and teaching always require real practice, critical knowledge and personal engagement.
Place Matters: The Distribution of Access to a State Flagship University
Authors: Turner J. Kirsten , Pusser Brian
Published: November 2005

This article examines the degree to which admission cohorts at a selective public flagship university in the United States reflect the state's broader social and economic diversity. US Census data and University admission data on socio-demographic characteristics, including race, gender, place of residence, family income and education levels, are used in conjunction with geo-spatial mapping to portray the distribution of access to the University for a variety of sub-populations over time. The data reveal persistent patterns of disproportionate representation, with the highest degree of access to the University concentrated predominately among Caucasian students in suburban areas of the state. The authors argue that such disproportionate access to the University has implications for the distribution of the public goods produced by elite public universities.
Competition and Markets in Higher Education: A ‘Glonacal’ Analysis
Authors: Marginson Simon
Published: November 2005

Higher education — particularly the research-intensive university, which is the focus of this article — is the subject of global/national/local effects, and is shaped by hierarchy and uneven development on a world scale. The article theorises social competition in higher education, and traces inter-university competition and stratification on the national and global planes with the help of figures and tables. It argues that social competition is much broader than economic exchange, but in the neo-liberal era marketisation is becoming more important, particularly cross-border markets. Globalisation and markets together are changing the competition for status goods (positional goods) in higher education. The competition is becoming more ‘economised’ because mediated by private capacity to pay, and intensified because there is diminished attention to public good objectives such as equality of opportunity: in any case transnational markets are configured as a trading environment where such objectives are irrelevant. The outcome is the steepening of university hierarchies, the formation of a ‘winner-take-all’ world market in elite and mostly American university education, a tighter fit between social hierarchy and educational hierarchy at the national level, and global patterns of domination/subordination that are as yet scarcely modified by global public goods. This suggests the need to rework the equality of the educational project and situate it globally as well as nationally.
Building Futures Scenarios for Universities and Higher Education: An International Approach
Authors: Vincent-Lancrin Stéphan
Published: November 2005

The article presents a set of scenarios for universities and higher education in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) area. The first section gives a brief overview of the main forces currently at play in higher education in OECD countries, setting the context in which speculation about the future takes place. The second section discusses the purposes of a scenario-building exercise, the methodology used and (some of) its caveats. This suggests the need to rework the equality of educational opportunity project and situate the project globally as well as nationally.
Universities, Regional Policy and the Knowledge Economy
Authors: Peters Michael A. , May Tim
Published: November 2005

This article focuses on the spatial clustering dimension of new information and communications technology (ICT)-driven economic activity based on knowledge industries and especially the tacit knowledge synergies to be achieved through networking in geographical space. The article first details the new knowledge economy, reviewing claims made for its distinctiveness and its role in raising levels of productivity before turning to a brief study of the clustering effects of new ICT-driven economic activity and the development of policies designed to enhance regional development. The remainder of the article details a case study — Univercities: the Manchester Knowledge Capital Initiative — in the North-west of the United Kingdom based on recent research into the attempt to create a ‘Knowledge Capital’ within the Greater Manchester conurbation, which is designed to position Manchester at the heart of the knowledge economy.
In the Shadow of the Ruins: Globalization and the Rise of Corporate Universities
Authors: Waks Leonard J.
Published: November 2005

The term ‘corporate university’, which has come into wide use in the last decade, is applied to three kinds of organizations: (1) established, mainstream, non-profit universities adapting to economic and technological pressures by adopting managerial practices of modern for-profit corporations; (2) newly established, highly innovative universities that operate as for-profit corporations, but satisfy the political and legal requirements for university status, and meet the standards of accrediting bodies (e.g. the University of Phoenix); and (3) new educational organizations operating within, and providing education and training services for, for-profit corporate firms (e.g. Marriott University). Organizations of types (2) and (3) provide a different ‘product’ than traditional universities, but nonetheless are subverting traditional academic practices in areas of recruitment and retention, academic standards, pricing, and managerial culture, thus making mainstream institutions corporate universities of type (1). This article offers a framework for understanding corporate universities as ‘shadow institutions’, an analogy with shadow cabinets, or shadow governments-in-exile. The framework draws on three connotations of the word ‘shadow’: corporate universities exist in the shadow of, or are obscured by, mainstream universities; they reflect, or form a shadow image of, these mainstream universities in certain formal respects; and they foreshadow or pre-figure mainstream universities of the future.