Interventions in Education Systems: Reform and Development

Description

Interventions in Education Systems draws on research conducted in England, Mexico, Singapore and Finland to illuminate reform processes to education systems in a range of contexts, to develop a better understanding of intervention processes and to promote the development of more sophisticated models for reforming education systems. The authors compare policy implementations and interventions in countries with different socio-economic profiles and different levels of development, highlighting how these processes in practice all too frequently are side-tracked and distorted, often unintentionally, by political, economic and social forces. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Education Reforms Four contrasting country cases Education reforms 1. Implementation Myopia Presentation of the problem Epistemological bases The state and its variations Classification and categorizations of the state Education interventions The role of the state International organizations 2. Internal Changes and the Workings of Education Systems State-sponsored reform processes State-sponsored models of change Developing a community of practice Teacher development and reflection Teacher learning communities and collaborative enquiry 3. A History of International Organizations in Education International organizations The organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) The OECD phase one: Loose coupling and relative independence The OECD phase two: Strong coupling and relative dependency The OECD phase three: The attenuated model and PISA The programme for international student assessment Research and evaluation studies The natural history of an OECD project Interventions and experiments Extra-national interventions 4. Corporative Change in Mexico Historical background Contemporary Mexican education The setting of curriculum standards Corporativism and patron-clientage Schools and classrooms Parental and community participation and educational policies The unfolding of policy 5. Experiments and Interventions in the English Education System The professional status of the profession Accountability and quality Revaluations and devaluations Phase one: Mixed messages Phase two: Adjustments by the central authority Phase three: Reassertion of control Phase four: Compromise Consolidation 6. Statism and the Singapore Model The survival phase (1965–78) The efficiency phase (1979–96) The ability-driven phase (1996–2010) Reforming the education system 7. Finland’s Educational Revolution The current system Curriculum development A professional workforce Finland and the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) Conclusions: How Education Systems Work Notes References Author Index Subject Index