Education as an export industry: the case of New Zealand

This paper discusses New Zealand's role in the global market for tertiary education. The internationalization and liberalization of education markets is progressing rapidly in today's globalizing world, as reflected by the incorporation of education as a service into the GATS framework. Through the example of New Zealand as a case study for internationalization of education services, the study depicts the way government is involved in this process. Commodification of sectors traditionally subject to domestic public policy is often associated with a less interventionist state, but our example of education shows that this is not necessarily the case, at least in the medium-term: New Zealand's government rather appears to be an active facilitator of the liberalization process in education. We review its recent move towards treating education as an international export good and present data on the growth of this industry. The paper concentrates on the particular ways by which New Zealand's government is trying to facilitate this process of liberalizing the education sector. --

Governance by comparison: How ratings & rankings impact national policy-making in education

How can international comparisons have an impact on one country while others are not affected at all? This paper examines the power of ratings & rakings (R&R) using the example of the OECD's PISA study (Programme for International Student Assessment) and its differential impact on national education policy making. We argue that R&R have an impact if the evaluated topic is framed as crucial for national objectives and if, at the same time, a substantial gap between national self-perception and the empirical results can be observed. After assessing the media impact of PISA on 22 OECD countries, we illustrate our theoretical argument through the use of examples of two poorly performing countries who demonstrated entirely opposite reactions: Germany and the U.S. While the German system of secondary education was strongly affected by the international comparison and underwent comprehensive changes, the U.S. did not respond to its below-average ranking at all. The theoretical concepts of self-perception and framing offer explanatory power to delineate the different reaction patterns. -- Wie kommt es, dass internationale Vergleichsstudien bestimmte Staaten substantiell beeinflussen andere jedoch nicht? Am Beispiel der OECD PISA-Studie untersucht dieses Arbeitspapier den Einfluss von Rankings und Ratings (R&R) auf nationale Bildungspolitiken. Wir argumentieren, dass R&R besonders dann einen Einfluss entfalten, wenn der evaluierte Gegenstand zum einen als entscheidender Politikbereich verstanden wird und wenn gleichzeitig eine Diskrepanz zwischen nationaler Selbstwahrnehmung und empirisch erzieltem Ergebnis besteht. Nach Darstellung der Medienreaktionen in 22 OECD-Ländern wird unsere Argumentation am Beispiel von zwei gegensätzlich reagierenden Ländern illustriert: Deutschland und den USA. Während in Deutschland die negativen PISA-Ergebnisse zu einem umfassenden Bildungsdiskurs und zu massiven Bildungsreformen geführt haben, zeigten die USA keine öffentliche oder gar politische Reaktion auf ihre ebenfalls negativen Resultate.

Civil society, accountability and the UN system

Civil society and its associations (CSAs) are a vital part of the UN system since its estab­lishment in 1945. During Kofi Annan’s time as Secretary-General of the United Nations, existing relations with civil society were even intensified and new tights with businesses established in order to create partnerships with non-state actors. In this contribution, I seek to examine how CSAs contribute to enhance the accountability of the UN regime. I apply a simple policy-cycle model adapted for analyses on the international level and explore how CSAs are involved in the stages of policy setting, policy formulation and policy imple­mentation of political processes as they take place at UN level. I explain differences of CSA participation in and through the UN system examining (a) the degree of for­malized and systematic procedures by looking at the constitutional provisions and liaison operation to have relations with civil society associations, and (b) the resources civil society associations make available for interaction with the UN by looking at organizational provi­sions. In the conclusions I evaluate the constituencies CSAs have (not) served by civil society initiatives at UN level. My research is based on expert interviews with representatives of CSAs and UN officials

Types of governance in education: a quantitative analysis

This study creates a typology of education systems. It uses empirical analysis to deter-mine six types of education governance on the basis of various factors such as the de-gree of state involvement or funding sources, and structural differences of average time spent on homework or the degree of support for low achievers. It reveals differences in output among these types as measured by student performance, and relative equality of performance. The typology reflects similarities in governance of education among groups of countries, and indicates that common geography and history may be more of a linking factor than expected in a globalized world. --

Education as an export industry: the case of New Zealand

This paper discusses New Zealand's role in the global market for tertiary education. The internationalization and liberalization of education markets is progressing rapidly in today's globalizing world, as reflected by the incorporation of education as a service into the GATS framework. Through the example of New Zealand as a case study for internationalization of education services, the study depicts the way government is involved in this process. Commodification of sectors traditionally subject to domestic public policy is often associated with a less interventionist state, but our example of education shows that this is not necessarily the case, at least in the medium-term: New Zealand's government rather appears to be an active facilitator of the liberalization process in education. We review its recent move towards treating education as an international export good and present data on the growth of this industry. The paper concentrates on the particular ways by which New Zealand's government is trying to facilitate this process of liberalizing the education sector

Kein Experte ist wie der andere: vom Umgang mit Missionaren und Geschichtenerzählern

Der vorliegende Text leistet einen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung des Experteninterviews als Erhebungsinstrument in den Sozialwissenschaften. Im Mittelpunkt steht das Interviewverhalten der Befragten - ein Aspekt, der in der bisherigen Literatur zum Experteninterview zu wenig Beachtung gefunden hat. Die Rolle, die der Experte im Interview einnimmt, so unsere These, ist dabei letztlich mitentscheidend für den Erfolg und die weitere Verwertbarkeit der durch ein Interview gesammelten Antworten. Neben Faktoren wie der allgemeinen Vorbereitung, der Ausarbeitung der Fragen und der Auswertungsmethode wird damit die Gesprächsführung zur entscheidenden Determinante der Qualität eines Experteninterviews. Der Beitrag entwickelt eine Typologie unterschiedlicher Interviewpartner und stellt deren jeweilige Besonderheiten dar. Experten lassen sich nach ihrem Kommunikationsstil (detailverliebt, anekdotenhaft, abstrahierend, ausweichend, contra-faktisch) und nach ihrer Intention, an einem Interview teilzunehmen (Informationsweitergabe, Persuasion), unterscheiden. Entlang dieser beiden Dimensionen lassen sich zehn Typen von Experten unterscheiden. Eine solche Typologie hilft, Herausforderungen an eine Interviewsituation (Zeitmanagement, Faktensammlung, Ermittlung von Meinungen) frühzeitig zu erkennen und Interviewstrategien (aktives Zeitmanagement, Konkretisierung, Konfrontation, Bekenntnisstrategie, Versachlichungsstrategie) zu entwickeln, um möglichen problematischen Verhaltensmustern, die solche Experten zeigen, entgegenzuwirken.The following text is intended to contribute to the development of the expert interview as an instrument for gathering data in the social sciences. The focus is on the expert’s role in the interview, an aspect that has largely been neglected in the literature on this subject. This paper asserts that the role an expert takes on in an interview situation determines the usefulness of the information gathered in that interview. This makes the /conduct/ of an interview a factor determining its quality, next to general preparation, wording of questions, and the method of evaluation. We lay out a typology of potential interview subjects, illustrating their respective specific characteristics. Experts can be differentiated according to their style of communication (detail oriented, anecdotal, abstracting, evasive, and counterfactual) and by their reasons for participating in an interview (conveying information, persuasion). Ten different types of experts can be differentiated along these two dimensions. Such a typology can help to recognize early on the challenges of certain interview situations (time pressure, fact-gathering, solicitation of opinions) and thus to develop particular interview strategies (active time management, concretization, confrontation, opinion acknowledgement, objectification) that can counteract some experts' predictably problematic patterns of behavior

Governance by comparison: How ratings & rankings impact national policy-making in education

How can international comparisons have an impact on one country while others are not affected at all? This paper examines the power of ratings & rakings (R&R) using the example of the OECD's PISA study (Programme for International Student Assessment) and its differential impact on national education policy making. We argue that R&R have an impact if the evaluated topic is framed as crucial for national objectives and if, at the same time, a substantial gap between national self-perception and the empirical results can be observed. After assessing the media impact of PISA on 22 OECD countries, we illustrate our theoretical argument through the use of examples of two poorly performing countries who demonstrated entirely opposite reactions: Germany and the U.S. While the German system of secondary education was strongly affected by the international comparison and underwent comprehensive changes, the U.S. did not respond to its below-average ranking at all. The theoretical concepts of self-perception and framing offer explanatory power to delineate the different reaction patterns.Wie kommt es, dass internationale Vergleichsstudien bestimmte Staaten substantiell beeinflussen andere jedoch nicht? Am Beispiel der OECD PISA-Studie untersucht dieses Arbeitspapier den Einfluss von Rankings und Ratings (R&R) auf nationale Bildungspolitiken. Wir argumentieren, dass R&R besonders dann einen Einfluss entfalten, wenn der evaluierte Gegenstand zum einen als entscheidender Politikbereich verstanden wird und wenn gleichzeitig eine Diskrepanz zwischen nationaler Selbstwahrnehmung und empirisch erzieltem Ergebnis besteht. Nach Darstellung der Medienreaktionen in 22 OECD-Ländern wird unsere Argumentation am Beispiel von zwei gegensätzlich reagierenden Ländern illustriert: Deutschland und den USA. Während in Deutschland die negativen PISA-Ergebnisse zu einem umfassenden Bildungsdiskurs und zu massiven Bildungsreformen geführt haben, zeigten die USA keine öffentliche oder gar politische Reaktion auf ihre ebenfalls negativen Resultate

Comparing governance of international organisations: The EU, the OECD and educational policy

How do international organisations (IOs) influence domestic policymaking? In the field of educational policy, IOs increasingly play an important role in shaping national debates and policies. Comparative studies as conducted by the OECD, for example, reveal strengths and weaknesses of individual educational systems and raise questions of "best practice". International initiatives such as the EU's Bologna Process even compel national policy makers to restructure their systems in such a way that students and staff will be able to move with more ease between systems and receive fair recognition of their qualifications in the near future. The aim of this study is to explore the forms of governance through which international organisations exercise influence on national policymaking. For this purpose, the EU and the OECD serve as case studies since these two organisations have recently been particularly active players in educational policy. Drawing on institutionalist approaches, an analytic grid will be designed in this study for systematically investigating the forms of governance as exercised by international organisations. The findings show that IOs have the most capacities to form and guide national policymaking through their distinctive ability to co-ordinate initiatives and to shape the ideas in a policy field, such as education. --

Kein Experte ist wie der andere: vom Umgang mit Missionaren und Geschichtenerzählern

Der vorliegende Text leistet einen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung des Experteninterviews als Erhebungsinstrument in den Sozialwissenschaften. Im Mittelpunkt steht das Interviewverhalten der Befragten - ein Aspekt, der in der bisherigen Literatur zum Experteninterview zu wenig Beachtung gefunden hat. Die Rolle, die der Experte im Interview einnimmt, so unsere These, ist dabei letztlich mitentscheidend für den Erfolg und die weitere Verwertbarkeit der durch ein Interview gesammelten Antworten. Neben Faktoren wie der allgemeinen Vorbereitung, der Ausarbeitung der Fragen und der Auswertungsmethode wird damit die Gesprächsführung zur entscheidenden Determinante der Qualität eines Experteninterviews. Der Beitrag entwickelt eine Typologie unterschiedlicher Interviewpartner und stellt deren jeweilige Besonderheiten dar. Experten lassen sich nach ihrem Kommunikationsstil (detailverliebt, anekdotenhaft, abstrahierend, ausweichend, contra-faktisch) und nach ihrer Intention, an einem Interview teilzunehmen (Informationsweitergabe, Persuasion), unterscheiden. Entlang dieser beiden Dimensionen lassen sich zehn Typen von Experten unterscheiden. Eine solche Typologie hilft, Herausforderungen an eine Interviewsituation (Zeitmanagement, Faktensammlung, Ermittlung von Meinungen) frühzeitig zu erkennen und Interviewstrategien (aktives Zeitmanagement, Konkretisierung, Konfrontation, Bekenntnisstrategie, Versachlichungsstrategie) zu entwickeln, um möglichen problematischen Verhaltensmustern, die solche Experten zeigen, entgegenzuwirken. -- The following text is intended to contribute to the development of the expert interview as an instrument for gathering data in the social sciences. The focus is on the expert’s role in the interview, an aspect that has largely been neglected in the literature on this subject. This paper asserts that the role an expert takes on in an interview situation determines the usefulness of the information gathered in that interview. This makes the /conduct/ of an interview a factor determining its quality, next to general preparation, wording of questions, and the method of evaluation. We lay out a typology of potential interview subjects, illustrating their respective specific characteristics. Experts can be differentiated according to their style of communication (detail oriented, anecdotal, abstracting, evasive, and counterfactual) and by their reasons for participating in an interview (conveying information, persuasion). Ten different types of experts can be differentiated along these two dimensions. Such a typology can help to recognize early on the challenges of certain interview situations (time pressure, fact-gathering, solicitation of opinions) and thus to develop particular interview strategies (active time management, concretization, confrontation, opinion acknowledgement, objectification) that can counteract some experts' predictably problematic patterns of behavior.

Types of governance in education : a quantitative analysis

This study creates a typology of education systems. It uses empirical analysis to determine six types of education governance on the basis of various factors such as the degree of state involvement or funding sources, and structural differences of average time spent on homework or the degree of support for low achievers. It reveals differences in output among these “types” as measured by student performance, and relative equality of performance. The typology reflects similarities in governance of education among groups of countries, and indicates that common geography and history may be more of a linking factor than expected in a globalized world