New Production Concepts and the Reconstruction of Teacher Education : a Post-Fordist Critique.

The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the reconstruction of teacher education in order to initiate a more systematic debate.To undertake this task, I will first locate the current proposals for the reform of teacher education in a brief historical context, before moving on to outline the proposed changes to teacher education. I will argue that these policy shifts must be understood within the wider post-Fordist debate and that the new production concepts of skilling, reprofessionalism and task integration provide a useful basis on which the current restructuring proposals. I will conclude my analysis by arguing that while there are significant advantages to be gained by moving toward a system of school-based training, these gains will not be made unless teacher educators have clear sense of the new policy terrain and its game rules

Digital Weberianism: Bureaucracy, Information, and the Techno-rationality of Neoliberal Capitalism

The social infrastructures that constitute both public and private administration are increasingly entangled with digital data, big data, and algorithms. While some argue that these technologies have blown apart the strictures of bureaucratic order, we see more subtle changes at work. We suggest that far from a radical rupture, in today's digitising society, there are strong traces of the logic and techniques of Max Weber's bureau; a foundational concept in his account of the symbiotic relationship between modernity, capitalism and social order

GATS and the Education Service Industry : The Politics of Scale and Global Reterritorialization

One consequence of the hype around globalization and education and debates on global political actors such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO-is that there has not been sufficient attention paid by education theorists to the development of a rigorous set of analytic categories that might enable us to make sense of the profound changes which now characterize education in the new millennium. 1 This is not a problema confined to education. Writing in the New Left Review, Fredric Jameson observes that debates on globalization have tended to be shaped by "…ideological appropriations- discussions not of the process itself, but of its effects, good or bad: judgements, in other words, totalizing in nature; while functional descriptions tend to isolate particular elements without relating them to each other." In this paper we start from the position that little or nothing can be explained in terms of the causal powers of globalization; rather we shall be suggesting that globalization is the outcome of processes that involve real actors-economic and political-with real interests. Following Martin Shaw, we also take the view that globalization does not undermine the state but includes the transformation of state forms; "…it is both predicated on and produces such transformations."3 Examining how these processes of transformation work, however, requires systematic investigation into the organization and strategies of particular actors whose horizons or effects might be described as global

Global competences and 21st century higher education – And why they matter

This paper brings issues around forecasting and change to the fore to stimulate a conversation around three related questions: How do we understand the challenges of this global era? What might be the role of higher education in re/shaping this future? What competences might students need and how should be go about developing these? </jats:p

Unbundling the university and making higher education markets

Markets do not simply appear as a result of policymaker dictat or policy fiat. And nor do markets – once made – exist in a space which sits outside, or beyond, a society and its complex of institutions and practices. Rather, markets are both made and remade, as new products an

Étude de la mondialisation des classements universitaires. Projets, programmes et transformations sociales

Les auteurs, qui s’appuient sur le cadre interprétatif de Walby et sur les conclusions d’Ellen Hazelkorn, examinent le phénomène des classements universitaires et de leurs effets sur l’activité scientifique à travers trois points de vue répandus : en tant que projet intrinsèque, visant la responsabilisation et la transparence ; en tant que partie d’un ensemble de stratégies destinées à promouvoir compétition et transformations au sein du système universitaire, aux niveaux régional, national et mondial ; en tant que manifestation d’un processus plus large de mondialisation affectant le domaine de l’enseignement supérieur, qui lui-même trouve ses racines dans les mutations de nos sociétés. Si ces différences d’interprétation sont fondées au niveau ontologique et épistémologique, elles n’en sont pas moins invoquées, dans le supérieur comme ailleurs, pour servir des intérêts stratégiques particuliers. Les auteurs attirent l’attention sur les enjeux de pouvoir existants et sur la nécessité de rendre ces derniers transparents, afin de susciter un débat plus large sur la production du savoir scientifique et sa transformation à travers l’usage des classements internationaux.In this paper drawn upon Walby’s framing of explanations and Hazelkorn’s recent conclusions the authors suggest there are three main explanations in circulation regarding rankings of universities and academic work more generally: as a discrete project aimed at accountability and transparency; as part of a programme of strategies aimed at generating competitiveness and transformation within the higher education sector at multiple scales (national, regional and global); and as a manifestation of wider processes of globalisation taking place within the higher education sector, and which are constitutive of transformations in wider social formations. Thay argue that while these differences in explanation are ontologically and epistemologically driven, they nevertheless are mobilised within and outside the higher education sector to serve particular strategic interests. They conclude by drawing attention to issues of power, and the need to make visible the actions of the powerful in order to generate wider public debates about the production of academic knowledge and its transformation through global rankings.Los autores, que se apoyan en el cuadro interpretativo de Walby y en las conclusiones de Ellen Hazelkorn, examinan el fenómeno de las clasificaciones universitarias y sus efectos sobre la actividad científica mediante tres puntos de vista conocidos: como proyecto intrínseco, interesado por la responsabilización y la transparencia; como parte de un conjunto de estrategias destinadas a promover competición y transformaciones dentro de un sistema universitario, a escalas regional, nacional y mundial; como manifestación de un proceso más amplio de universalización procedente de las transformaciones de nuestras sociedades, que involucra el sector de la enseñanza superior. Estas diferencias de interpretación están fundadas a escala ontológica y epistemológica, sin embargo se invocan en la enseñanza superior y en otros sectores, para servir intereses estratégicos particulares. Los autores llaman la atención sobre los intereses de poder existentes y la necesidad de ocultar estos últimos para suscitar un debate más amplio sobre la producción del conocimiento científico y su transformación mediante el uso de clasificaciones internacionales

The dynamics of ‘market-making’ in higher education

This paper examines what to some is a well-worked furrow; the processes and outcomes involved in what is typically referred to as ‘marketization’ in the higher education sector. We do this through a case study of Newton University, where we reveal a rapid proliferation of market exchanges involving the administrative division of the university with the wider world. Our account of this process of ‘market making’ is developed in two (dialectically related) moves. First, we identify a range of market exchanges that have emerged in the context of wider ideological and political changes in the governance of higher education to make it a more globally competitive producer of knowledge, and a services sector. Second, we explore the ways in which making markets involve a considerable amount of microwork, such as the deployment of a range of framings, and socio-technical tools. Taken together, these market-making processes are recalibrating and remaking the structures, social relations and subjectivities, within and beyond the university and in turn reconstituting the university and the higher education sector

Aberrant Neuronal Dynamics during Working Memory Operations in the Aging HIV-Infected Brain

Impairments in working memory are among the most prevalent features of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), yet their origins are unknown, with some studies arguing that encoding operations are disturbed and others supporting deficits in memory maintenance. The current investigation directly addresses this issue by using a dynamic mapping approach to identify when and where processing in working memory circuits degrades. HIV-infected older adults and a demographically-matched group of uninfected controls performed a verbal working memory task during magnetoencephalography (MEG). Significant oscillatory neural responses were imaged using a beamforming approach to illuminate the spatiotemporal dynamics of neuronal activity. HIV-infected patients were significantly less accurate on the working memory task and their neuronal dynamics indicated that encoding operations were preserved, while memory maintenance processes were abnormal. Specifically, no group differences were detected during the encoding period, yet dysfunction in occipital, fronto-temporal, hippocampal, and cerebellar cortices emerged during memory maintenance. In addition, task performance in the controls covaried with occipital alpha synchronization and activity in right prefrontal cortices. In conclusion, working memory impairments are common and significantly impact the daily functioning and independence of HIV-infected patients. These impairments likely reflect deficits in the maintenance of memory representations, not failures to adequately encode stimuli