Retreat into scientism, paradoxes of transparency, and corruption in education

Um dos sintomas da razão indolente (SANTOS, 2006) é o recuo ao cientificismo, o qual tem sido, particularmente, acentuado nas políticas, cada vez mais hegemônicas, de avaliação, de prestação de contas e de responsabilização. Por isso, um dos objetivos deste texto é o de colocar em causa este aparente consenso cientificista (ou este consenso supostamente transideológico) e fazer uma breve incursão exploratória ao que aqui se designa de paradoxos da transparência. Considera-se que esses paradoxos traduzem a existência de tensões e contradições relativas a uma dimensão central dos discursos políticos e educacionais contemporâneos. Com isso, o artigo pretende dar continuidade a uma linha de pesquisa que tem procurado sublinhar a relevância da necessidade de complexificar e dar maior rigor teórico-conceptual à accountability em educação. Finalmente, tentando abrir caminho para o desenvolvimento de novas articulações e análises, chama-se a atenção para a corrupção na educação cuja complexidade ainda é insuficientemente conhecida e pesquisada, nomeadamente, nas suas relações com as problemáticas da transparência e da accountability. Admite-se que as práticas de corrupção em educação, em muitas situações, são (paradoxalmente) induzidas pela necessidade de dar resposta à governação baseada nos números, nos rankings e nas (supostas) evidências, anulando completamente as expectativas legítimas em torno da transparência dos processos educacionais e das decisões políticas.One symptom of “indolent reason” (SANTOS, 2006) is the retreat into scientism, which is especially marked in the increasingly hegemonic policies surrounding assessment, reporting and accountability. As such, one of the aims of this paper is to call into question this apparent consensus on scientism (a supposedly trans-ideological consensus), and briefly explore what we define as the paradoxes of transparency. These paradoxes are found to reveal the existence of tensions and contradictions concerning a central aspect of current political and educational discourse. In doing so, the article seeks to continue a line of study which has aimed to emphasize the significance of the need for a more complex, and theoretically and conceptually rigorous understanding of accountability in education. Finally, in an attempt to pave the way for further discussion and analysis, attention is drawn to corruption in education, the complex nature of which remains insufficiently understood and studied, notably in terms of its relationship with the problems of transparency and accountability. It is acknowledged that practices of corruption within education are, in many situations, (paradoxically) caused by the need to answer to a system of governance based on numbers, league tables, and (supposed) truths, completely nullifying legitimate expectations about the transparency of educational processes and policy decisions.Trabalho financiado por Fundos Nacionais através da FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – no âmbito do Projeto PEst-OE/CED/UI1661/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Academic Employment Externalization

The growth of part-time and off tenure track full time faculty employ­ment in USA higher education institutions since 1970s has been paralleled by the increasing literature on the subject. Many of the studies remain descriptive in nature and focus on the characteristics of the contingent employees. The present study contributes to a small body of literature that searches for the organizational and environmental driving factors that bring contingent employment to life

Are Academics in Kazakhstan capable of self-regulation?

This paper investigates the state and structure of professional norms in the context of undergraduate teaching in a university in Kazakhstan. The purpose is to understand the belief system held by academics with regards to their professional duties in the context of teaching. Evidence of such normative structure would suggest that Kazak academic profession holds potential for effective and ethical self-regulation, its absence would raise a red flag for university administrators and policy makers. In order to place our findings in the meaningful context, we compare the normative structure in Kazakhstan to that of US academic profession previously studies by Braxton and Bayer (1999). We find that academics in Kazakhstan adhere to a normative structure which is quite similar to, although somewhat more relaxed than, that of US professors. We discuss the implications of these findings and empirical evidence for academic corruption in the context of decentralisation reforms and authority devolution

An Essay on Virtue and Survival: Dead End Leadership and the Therapeutic Alternative

Russian higher education is facing a multitude of pressures from various directions. The entire system headed by the Ministry of Education and Research, strives to integrate into the European higher education space, individual universities are under pressure to maintain quality control, whilst facing budgetary pressures (Volkov, Livanov, Fursenko, 2007). At the same time the demographic situation in the country leads to shrinkage of the student body, whilst university funding follows each individual student (Denisova-Schmidt and Leontyeva, forthcoming). This puts HEIs under pressure to retain the current cohort of students at all costs. Although the pressures may appear similar to those faced in other national contexts by HEIs, the specific adaptations that universities and individual academic undertake, we argue, are quite unique to Russian context and hence, deserve special consideration. This paper will seek to explain how the constellation of pressures leads to formation of institutionally ingrained mechanisms that trap everyone involved in a perpetual limbo of ambivalence, unresolved conflicts and corruption. We question the role of leadership in the current context. How do Russian present realities shape the fundamental goals of leadership? What conceptualisations of leadership are most helpful in this context

Taxonomy of corruption in higher education

This article explores the phenomenon of corruption that has become common in higher education in developing countries around the world. Cases of educational corruption include, among others, paying bribes for grades, buying diplomas, and admissions to universities. An available body of literature on educational corruption does not provide sufficient insight on the nature and structure of the phenomenon. This article attempts to fill in the gaps by developing the taxonomy of corruption in higher education. This taxonomy distinguishes educational-specific corruption from that common to any public sector by identifying corruption that directly and indirectly involves students. Moreover, this article distinguishes different types of educational-specific corruption depending on the area of occurrence and the agents involved. This classification disaggregates the complex phenomenon of corruption in higher education and develops common understanding of its structure and possible agreement on definitions. Different types of corruption may require different theoretical and methodological approaches if research is to be conducted on educational corruption. Deconstruction of corruption in higher education serves as a tool for further research

Inquiry-oriented instruction in science: who teaches that way?

The expansion of the No Child Left Behind Act to include science standards and assessments is likely to refocus states’ attention on science teaching and learning. Requiring teachers to have subject majors and greater funding of professional development are two key policy levers for improving instruction in science. There has been relatively little work examining the characteristics of teachers who are most likely to initiate inquiry-oriented instruction in science classrooms. Using a nationally representative sample of the teachers of eighth grade science students, the authors found relatively strong associations between reform-oriented practice and the majors and degrees that teachers earned as part of their formal schooling, as well as their current levels of participation in content-oriented professional development activities