Challenging school reform from below: is leadership the missing link in mobilization theory?

This article presents research relating to the experiences of union and community-based campaigns that have sought to challenge the establishment of academy and free schools in England. Such schools are removed from local government control and are seen as a defining element of the neoliberal restructuring of public education. The research draws on social-movement literature, and particularly mobilization theory, to better understand the dynamics of such campaigns and the contexts in which they can either thrive or wither. In the article, I argue that mobilization theory provides a useful framework for such analysis but that it fails to adequately reflect the importance of individual agency and the role of leadership at a local level. Leadership of such campaigns is often assumed by individuals reluctantly, and often defies traditional descriptions of “leadership,” but must be recognized if mobilization theory is to avoid being overly deterministic

‘Scaling up’ educational change: some musings on misrecognition and doxic challenges

Educational policy-makers around the world are strongly committed to the notion of ‘scaling up’. This can mean anything from encouraging more teachers to take up a pedagogical innovation, all the way through to system-wide efforts to implement ‘what works’ across all schools. In this paper, I use Bourdieu’s notions of misrecognition to consider the current orthodoxies of scaling up. I argue that the focus on ‘process’ and ‘implementation problems’: (1) both obscures and legitimates the ways in which the field logics of practice actually work and, (2) produces/reproduces the inequitable distribution of educational benefits (capitals and life opportunities). I suggest that the notion of misrecognition might provide a useful lens through which to examine reform initiatives and explanations of their success/failure

Raising standards in American schools: the case of No Child Left Behind

In January 2002, President George W Bush signed into law what is arguably the most important piece of US educational legislation for the past 35 years. For the first time, Public Law 107-110 links high stakes testing with strict accountability measures designed to ensure that, at least in schools that receive government funding, no child is left behind. The appropriately named No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) links government funding to strict improvement policies for America’s public schools. Much of what is undertaken in NCLB is praiseworthy, the Act is essentially equitable for it ensures that schools pay due regard to the progress of those sections of the school population who have traditionally done less well in school, in particular, students from economically disadvantaged homes, as well as those from ethnic minority backgrounds and those who have limited proficiency to speak English. However, this seemingly salutatory aspect of the Act is also the one that has raised the most objections. This paper describes the key features of this important piece of legislation before outlining why it is that a seemingly equitable Act has produced so much consternation in US education circles. Through an exploration of school level data for the state of New Jersey, the paper considers the extent to which these concerns have been justified during the early days of No Child Left Behind

The problem of gender categorisation: addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research

Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to address some of the conundrums arising in our own theoretical work, and analyse remaining challenges that we feel the field of education needs to address in order to advance theoretically. Identifying two key tensions underpinning this empirical dilemma of gender categorisation – the tension between agency and determinism in gender identification, and that between gender deconstruction and gender analysis – we seek to weave a path through some of these complex debates, and to indicate ways in which they may be addressed in future work. We argue that in order to avoid essentialism and reification of gender distinction, we need to apply a ‘three-fold’ analysis that incorporates three different elements in our categorisation of gender: spectator perspective; respondent perspective and social context

Letramento em Matemática: um estudo a partir dos dados do PISA2003

Neste trabalho partimos do pressuposto de que os resultados das avaliações em larga escala são instrumentos adequados para compreender o currículo aprendido. Entendemos, ainda, que os resultados obtidos por distintos países em avaliações internacionais constituem-se uma boa estratégia para captar ênfases diferenciadas no currículo ensinado. A partir dos resultados do Programa Internacional de Avaliação dos Estudantes - PISA 2003, buscou-se comparar diferenças nas ênfases curriculares em Matemática entre Brasil e Portugal. Para isto, a pesquisa utilizou como metodologia a análise do Funcionamento Diferencial do Item (DIF). Esta metodologia possibilita identificar itens que violam um dos principais pressupostos da Teoria de Resposta ao Item (TRI), segundo o qual, alunos de grupos distintos, mas de mesma habilidade cognitiva, têm a mesma probabilidade de acertar um item. A análise em 84 itens da prova de Matemática do PISA 2003 mostrou que alguns itens apresentam DIF entre alunos brasileiros e portugueses. De modo sintético, podemos dizer que alguns itens mostram-se mais fáceis aos alunos brasileiros, em especial os que se referem à subárea Quantidade. Já os itens da subárea Mudança e Relações são, aparentemente, mais fáceis aos alunos portugueses. Ao mesmo tempo, itens envolvendo contextos científicos mostram-se mais fáceis aos alunos portugueses, enquanto os que envolvem contextos da vida pessoal são mais fáceis aos brasileiros. Os resultados desta pesquisa evidenciam a relevância e necessidade da ampliação do debate curricular no campo da educação matemática. A compreensão dos resultados dos testes de avaliação em larga escala pode fornecer novas questões sobre o como e o quê os alunos aprendem Matemática

Non-affirmative Theory of Education as a Foundation for Curriculum Studies, Didaktik and Educational Leadership

This chapter presents non-affirmative theory of education as the foundation for a new research program in education, allowing us to bridge educational leadership, curriculum studies and Didaktik. We demonstrate the strengths of this framework by analyzing literature from educational leadership and curriculum theory/didaktik. In contrast to both socialization-oriented explanations locating curriculum and leadership within existing society, and transformation-oriented models viewing education as revolutionary or super-ordinate to society, non-affirmative theory explains the relation between education and politics, economy and culture, respectively, as non-hierarchical. Here critical deliberation and discursive practices mediate between politics, culture, economy and education, driven by individual agency in historically developed cultural and societal institutions. While transformative and socialization models typically result in instrumental notions of leadership and teaching, non-affirmative education theory, previously developed within German and Nordic education, instead views leadership and teaching as relational and hermeneutic, drawing on ontological core concepts of modern education: recognition; summoning to self-activity and Bildsamkeit. Understanding educational leadership, school development and teaching then requires a comparative multi-level approach informed by discursive institutionalism and organization theory, in addition to theorizing leadership and teaching as cultural-historical and critical-hermeneutic activity. Globalisation and contemporary challenges to deliberative democracy also call for rethinking modern nation-state based theorizing of education in a cosmopolitan light. Non-affirmative education theory allows us to understand and promote recognition based democratic citizenship (political, economical and cultural) that respects cultural, ethical and epistemological variations in a globopolitan era. We hope an American-European-Asian comparative dialogue is enhanced by theorizing education with a non-affirmative approach