Pub Date : 2024-02-23DOI: 10.1177/14782103241235725
Anthemis Raptopoulou, Brendan Munhall
The concept of democracy is a central component in education policy at all levels, yet its meaning can be interpreted in a number of ways. This paper examines how democracy is conceptualised and utilised as a legitimising force driving education policy reform. More specifically, attention is given to the use of democracy in the process of promoting programming’s inclusion in the Swedish compulsory curriculum. A number of mass-media articles published in Swedish are analysed using the concept of floating signifiers. The context of Sweden is of particular interest, since the notion of democracy has been a driving force in Swedish society for the legitimisation of education policy changes. In this paper, we chose to approach the link between democracy and education from a critical perspective and ask how the concept of democracy is being utilized as a part of political struggles to hegemonize and legitimize educational changes. It is argued that democracy, as a floating signifier, was central to the discursive production of the educational agenda of programming and its legitimisation. This article aims to function as a critique of the promotion of programming in education as a means to democracy.
{"title":"Democracy as a floating signifier: The struggle for legitimation of programming in Swedish schools","authors":"Anthemis Raptopoulou, Brendan Munhall","doi":"10.1177/14782103241235725","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241235725","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of democracy is a central component in education policy at all levels, yet its meaning can be interpreted in a number of ways. This paper examines how democracy is conceptualised and utilised as a legitimising force driving education policy reform. More specifically, attention is given to the use of democracy in the process of promoting programming’s inclusion in the Swedish compulsory curriculum. A number of mass-media articles published in Swedish are analysed using the concept of floating signifiers. The context of Sweden is of particular interest, since the notion of democracy has been a driving force in Swedish society for the legitimisation of education policy changes. In this paper, we chose to approach the link between democracy and education from a critical perspective and ask how the concept of democracy is being utilized as a part of political struggles to hegemonize and legitimize educational changes. It is argued that democracy, as a floating signifier, was central to the discursive production of the educational agenda of programming and its legitimisation. This article aims to function as a critique of the promotion of programming in education as a means to democracy.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-02-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139946935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-17DOI: 10.1177/14782103241234408
Kimkong Heng, Bunhorn Doeur
Cambodia aspires to become a knowledge-based society to remain relevant in the context of the global knowledge-based economy. However, it remains uncertain how this aspiration can be realized considering the low quality of the country’s education system. Drawing on secondary sources, this article aims to shed light on Cambodia’s aspirations for a knowledge-based society. The article begins by defining the term “knowledge-based society” before providing an overview of the Cambodian education system and discussing key challenges that limit Cambodia’s ability to realize its vision to become a knowledge society. Key challenges were related to low higher education enrollment, a shortage of educational staff with doctoral degrees, a weak innovation capacity, and other critical challenges such as low academic salaries, a lack of clear academic career pathways, limited research funding, and limited knowledge about research. The article provides a set of recommendations that concerned stakeholders should consider to improve the quality of the Cambodian education system and support the country to achieve its goal in developing into a knowledge-based society. It concludes with suggestions for future research to generate new knowledge about Cambodia—a context underrepresented in international literature.
{"title":"Cambodia’s aspirations to become a knowledge-based society: Challenges and recommendations","authors":"Kimkong Heng, Bunhorn Doeur","doi":"10.1177/14782103241234408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241234408","url":null,"abstract":"Cambodia aspires to become a knowledge-based society to remain relevant in the context of the global knowledge-based economy. However, it remains uncertain how this aspiration can be realized considering the low quality of the country’s education system. Drawing on secondary sources, this article aims to shed light on Cambodia’s aspirations for a knowledge-based society. The article begins by defining the term “knowledge-based society” before providing an overview of the Cambodian education system and discussing key challenges that limit Cambodia’s ability to realize its vision to become a knowledge society. Key challenges were related to low higher education enrollment, a shortage of educational staff with doctoral degrees, a weak innovation capacity, and other critical challenges such as low academic salaries, a lack of clear academic career pathways, limited research funding, and limited knowledge about research. The article provides a set of recommendations that concerned stakeholders should consider to improve the quality of the Cambodian education system and support the country to achieve its goal in developing into a knowledge-based society. It concludes with suggestions for future research to generate new knowledge about Cambodia—a context underrepresented in international literature.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"112 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139946933","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-31DOI: 10.1177/14782103241230127
Miia Rissanen, Jyrki Savolainen, Mikael Collan
This research explores the suitability of system-based simulation analysis for higher education (HE) policy-planning. A dynamic system model of the Finnish university funding system covering bachelor-level students is presented. The results show that the model captures the nature of the current funding system, which can be considered a zero-sum game, where the funding an individual university can only be improved at the cost of others. Based on the simulations, it seems that in the Finnish HE system increasing the importance of target time graduations in the funding model would favour the small universities. The generalizability of the used model´s and methods’ suitability outside the Finnish context is evaluated and discussed.
{"title":"Analyzing the Finnish University funding system through system-based simulation","authors":"Miia Rissanen, Jyrki Savolainen, Mikael Collan","doi":"10.1177/14782103241230127","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241230127","url":null,"abstract":"This research explores the suitability of system-based simulation analysis for higher education (HE) policy-planning. A dynamic system model of the Finnish university funding system covering bachelor-level students is presented. The results show that the model captures the nature of the current funding system, which can be considered a zero-sum game, where the funding an individual university can only be improved at the cost of others. Based on the simulations, it seems that in the Finnish HE system increasing the importance of target time graduations in the funding model would favour the small universities. The generalizability of the used model´s and methods’ suitability outside the Finnish context is evaluated and discussed.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139946928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-10DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226518
Fiona Westbrook
Early childhood education (ECE) teachers have expressed being silenced, indicating their responses to everyday issues of political concern may be hidden. This voicelessness underscores the importance of examining strategies and spaces that incite ECE teachers to vocalise their political dialogues. The pandemic, as a crisis event, within Victoria, Australia, during 2020 offers an unrivalled viewing of such entreaties. Posing unique and unusual dangers and opportunities, the early days of the pandemic serve as an entry point to viewing the strategies and spaces utilised by teachers during marked political crisis. Considering these pandemic dangers, this study undertakes a uniquely complex and opportunistic investigation into the political thoughts, ideas, and voices of ECE teachers within these coordinates, which may be of use for other community members beyond these dimensions. Comprising a larger doctoral study, teachers’ posts within a closed ECE Facebook group were analysed against Bakhtinian crisis chronotopes and carnivalesque responses. Insights infer the pandemic crisis incited teachers’ political dialogues to problematise their historical and ongoing issues. Doing so fostered a supportive peer network, opening up and renewing narratives from within the sector. Provocations to arise include the potential of crisis, the ability of laughter to empower teachers to speak up and have voice, as well as creating spaces for political dialogue and activism within the sector.
{"title":"Crisis inciting carnivalesque: Early childhood teachers’ political dialogue strategies","authors":"Fiona Westbrook","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226518","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226518","url":null,"abstract":"Early childhood education (ECE) teachers have expressed being silenced, indicating their responses to everyday issues of political concern may be hidden. This voicelessness underscores the importance of examining strategies and spaces that incite ECE teachers to vocalise their political dialogues. The pandemic, as a crisis event, within Victoria, Australia, during 2020 offers an unrivalled viewing of such entreaties. Posing unique and unusual dangers and opportunities, the early days of the pandemic serve as an entry point to viewing the strategies and spaces utilised by teachers during marked political crisis. Considering these pandemic dangers, this study undertakes a uniquely complex and opportunistic investigation into the political thoughts, ideas, and voices of ECE teachers within these coordinates, which may be of use for other community members beyond these dimensions. Comprising a larger doctoral study, teachers’ posts within a closed ECE Facebook group were analysed against Bakhtinian crisis chronotopes and carnivalesque responses. Insights infer the pandemic crisis incited teachers’ political dialogues to problematise their historical and ongoing issues. Doing so fostered a supportive peer network, opening up and renewing narratives from within the sector. Provocations to arise include the potential of crisis, the ability of laughter to empower teachers to speak up and have voice, as well as creating spaces for political dialogue and activism within the sector.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"2 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139439637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226533
Aboabea Gertrude Akuffo
Ghana is one of the few countries with prior cost-sharing funding approaches to upper secondary education to have rolled out a completely free upper secondary education policy. Whilst the empirical foundation of the emerging body of studies on the policy includes policy makers, implementers and a reliance on policy documents, the perspectives of children who are the key beneficiaries of the policy has remained rarely explored. In this paper, I present children’s experiences of access to upper secondary education and how that informs their perspective of the free SHS policy. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Approach as both a method for data collection and analysis, the study argues that children have contrasting views about the ability of the policy to enable equitable access to upper secondary education. Whilst children from wealthy families believe the policy enables equitable access, those from poor homes believe the policy is poor for poor people. Until the policy acknowledges the diversity among children and account for variations in tandem with the context specificity of each student, upper secondary education will remain an elusive goal to several children from poor social backgrounds despite the free and equitable aspiration of the policy.
{"title":"“If senior high school education is free and equitably distributed, shouldn’t we ask the children about it?”","authors":"Aboabea Gertrude Akuffo","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226533","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226533","url":null,"abstract":"Ghana is one of the few countries with prior cost-sharing funding approaches to upper secondary education to have rolled out a completely free upper secondary education policy. Whilst the empirical foundation of the emerging body of studies on the policy includes policy makers, implementers and a reliance on policy documents, the perspectives of children who are the key beneficiaries of the policy has remained rarely explored. In this paper, I present children’s experiences of access to upper secondary education and how that informs their perspective of the free SHS policy. Using Interpretive Phenomenological Approach as both a method for data collection and analysis, the study argues that children have contrasting views about the ability of the policy to enable equitable access to upper secondary education. Whilst children from wealthy families believe the policy enables equitable access, those from poor homes believe the policy is poor for poor people. Until the policy acknowledges the diversity among children and account for variations in tandem with the context specificity of each student, upper secondary education will remain an elusive goal to several children from poor social backgrounds despite the free and equitable aspiration of the policy.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"12 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139444146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-09DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226526
O. Skarpenes, Kari-Mette Walmann Hidle
In this essay, we argue that pupils in compulsory school education seem to be exposed to conflicting pressures from an (internal) tendency towards individualisation and an (external) tendency towards standardisation. Drawing on Luc Bolanski and Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology of orders of worth, we develop a theoretical framework to discuss the two conflicting cultures. In the first part of the analysis, we present the broad and enhanced tendency towards individualisation in terms of methods and content in Norwegian compulsory education – the construction of an inspirational pupil – and in the second part of the analysis, we present the development of standards for assessment – the construction of an industrial pupil. In the final section we discuss two forms of processes – individualisation and standardisation – rooted in two incompatible orders of worth, the inspirational and industrial order, respectively, and argue that these processes represent a major challenge in schools, a conflicting pressure to which pupils are being subjected.
{"title":"The clash of cultures: Individualization and standardization in education","authors":"O. Skarpenes, Kari-Mette Walmann Hidle","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226526","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226526","url":null,"abstract":"In this essay, we argue that pupils in compulsory school education seem to be exposed to conflicting pressures from an (internal) tendency towards individualisation and an (external) tendency towards standardisation. Drawing on Luc Bolanski and Laurent Thévenot’s pragmatic sociology of orders of worth, we develop a theoretical framework to discuss the two conflicting cultures. In the first part of the analysis, we present the broad and enhanced tendency towards individualisation in terms of methods and content in Norwegian compulsory education – the construction of an inspirational pupil – and in the second part of the analysis, we present the development of standards for assessment – the construction of an industrial pupil. In the final section we discuss two forms of processes – individualisation and standardisation – rooted in two incompatible orders of worth, the inspirational and industrial order, respectively, and argue that these processes represent a major challenge in schools, a conflicting pressure to which pupils are being subjected.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"53 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139442077","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-08DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226531
Ellie Koseda, Ivan K. Cohen, Bryan McIntosh, Jasmine Cooper
There is a particular emphasis on embracing digital transformation to re-define how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) impact the lives of individuals through educational means. This includes the ability to adapt and respond according to outlined graduate attributes, staff, and the wider community for continual success in 21st century learning and work. Ideally, HEI development ultimately inculcates transformation as a university vision and post-covid catalyst for digital innovation. Lastly, the pathway to transformation assumes futuristic, pre-conceived scenarios through pre-planning to inform proposed developmental change by foreseeing digital competition for target year 2030. This entails utilising effective change agents, and key stakeholders to meet and sustain objectives accordingly.
{"title":"Internationalisation and digital transformation in HEIs: The impact of education 4.0 on teaching, learning and assessment","authors":"Ellie Koseda, Ivan K. Cohen, Bryan McIntosh, Jasmine Cooper","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226531","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226531","url":null,"abstract":"There is a particular emphasis on embracing digital transformation to re-define how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) impact the lives of individuals through educational means. This includes the ability to adapt and respond according to outlined graduate attributes, staff, and the wider community for continual success in 21st century learning and work. Ideally, HEI development ultimately inculcates transformation as a university vision and post-covid catalyst for digital innovation. Lastly, the pathway to transformation assumes futuristic, pre-conceived scenarios through pre-planning to inform proposed developmental change by foreseeing digital competition for target year 2030. This entails utilising effective change agents, and key stakeholders to meet and sustain objectives accordingly.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139446913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-06DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226527
Meseret F. Hailu, Ivet Parra Gaete
We present a review of higher education and education policy literature to understand better higher education institutions (HEIs) that serve sub-Saharan women in engineering. Our sub-Saharan women in engineering (SSAWE) literature-informed conceptual tool consists of five components to facilitate scholarly discussion about equity in higher education systems and facilitate interregional comparisons. The five components to study the educational experiences of women in engineering in this region include (1) a sociopolitical and historical national context for higher education policy, (2) critical discourse analysis of gender-based affirmative action policies, (3) enrollment and graduation data for female engineering students, (4) a longitudinal assessment of the employability of the engineering major, and (5) a qualitative campus climate survey of each country's flagship university. Our article introduces a conceptual investigation of the social, historical, and employment trends contextualizing engineering higher education in this region of Africa. We draw from existing literature about conceptual models predominantly used in higher education efforts toward undergraduate student success. When describing each SSAWE component, we include empirical and theoretical work that substantiates the need for each component and the benefits of the proposed methodology. More broadly speaking, this paper discusses how research employing the SSAWE framework could benefit key stakeholders who engage in policymaking. We suggest that sub-Saharan African universities should prioritize a regional comparative approach when designing support programs for underrepresented students in engineering. SSAWE will also generate more South–South comparisons that advance culturally situated analyses, contributing to higher education institutions’ advancementand the minoritized populations they serve.
{"title":"Sub-Saharan women in engineering higher education: A literature-informed research tool","authors":"Meseret F. Hailu, Ivet Parra Gaete","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226527","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226527","url":null,"abstract":"We present a review of higher education and education policy literature to understand better higher education institutions (HEIs) that serve sub-Saharan women in engineering. Our sub-Saharan women in engineering (SSAWE) literature-informed conceptual tool consists of five components to facilitate scholarly discussion about equity in higher education systems and facilitate interregional comparisons. The five components to study the educational experiences of women in engineering in this region include (1) a sociopolitical and historical national context for higher education policy, (2) critical discourse analysis of gender-based affirmative action policies, (3) enrollment and graduation data for female engineering students, (4) a longitudinal assessment of the employability of the engineering major, and (5) a qualitative campus climate survey of each country's flagship university. Our article introduces a conceptual investigation of the social, historical, and employment trends contextualizing engineering higher education in this region of Africa. We draw from existing literature about conceptual models predominantly used in higher education efforts toward undergraduate student success. When describing each SSAWE component, we include empirical and theoretical work that substantiates the need for each component and the benefits of the proposed methodology. More broadly speaking, this paper discusses how research employing the SSAWE framework could benefit key stakeholders who engage in policymaking. We suggest that sub-Saharan African universities should prioritize a regional comparative approach when designing support programs for underrepresented students in engineering. SSAWE will also generate more South–South comparisons that advance culturally situated analyses, contributing to higher education institutions’ advancementand the minoritized populations they serve.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"22 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139380868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-05DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226532
Gary G DeSantis
This article examines how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ remarks contribute to anti-intellectualism and fuel the pushback against critical race theory (CRT) championed by like-minded conservative Republicans who view its instruction as an affront to society and authentic historical narratives. Dismissing educators and scholars who uphold the teaching of CRT as unpatriotic and denigrating to American society, DeSantis, who has presidential aspirations, has effectively used the issue (along with a number of other matters) to solidify his conservative base fearful of social and hegemonic change. Although CRT is not taught in Florida public schools, similar to other conservative-dominated states which have seized on the teaching of CRT as anathema to their civic principles, DeSantis’ thinly veiled attempt to appease right-wing voters is yet another example of Republicans stoking cultural wars designed to energize conservative constituents against what many of them perceive as liberal attacks on their beliefs and values.
{"title":"“‘We believe in education, not indoctrination’: Governor Ron DeSantis, critical race theory, and anti-intellectualism in Florida”","authors":"Gary G DeSantis","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226532","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226532","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ remarks contribute to anti-intellectualism and fuel the pushback against critical race theory (CRT) championed by like-minded conservative Republicans who view its instruction as an affront to society and authentic historical narratives. Dismissing educators and scholars who uphold the teaching of CRT as unpatriotic and denigrating to American society, DeSantis, who has presidential aspirations, has effectively used the issue (along with a number of other matters) to solidify his conservative base fearful of social and hegemonic change. Although CRT is not taught in Florida public schools, similar to other conservative-dominated states which have seized on the teaching of CRT as anathema to their civic principles, DeSantis’ thinly veiled attempt to appease right-wing voters is yet another example of Republicans stoking cultural wars designed to energize conservative constituents against what many of them perceive as liberal attacks on their beliefs and values.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139380982","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-01-04DOI: 10.1177/14782103241226522
Liwen Zhang
The Australian National Indigenous Reform Agreement (Closing the Gap) aims to address inequalities in various aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives. Scholars have repeatedly critiqued its failure to tackle structural inequalities. The agreement was revised in 2020. The current study adopts Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to critically analyse the recently revised National Agreement on Closing the Gap. This study shows that the main problematisation still concerns the unequal life outcomes between First Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians, but the major difference from the previous agreement is that such problematisation recognises the strong influence of structural inequalities. Findings indicate that Indigenous schooling is governed by the Agreement through discourses of structural change and the inherent comparative framework. This can condition the restructured relationship between First Peoples and the settler state, which makes it difficult to move beyond a comparative framework and a reductive understanding of self-determination. This study argues that the reconstructed relationships open opportunities to challenge settler colonialism in schooling and education policies. However, they should not be utilised to displace sovereignties and genuine self-determination.
澳大利亚全国土著改革协议》（《缩小差距》）旨在解决土著居民和托雷斯海峡岛民生活各方面的不平等问题。学者们多次批评该协议未能解决结构性不平等问题。该协议于 2020 年进行了修订。本研究采用卡罗尔-巴奇（Carol Bacchi）的 "问题代表什么"（What's the Problem Represented to be?本研究表明，主要问题仍然涉及原住民与非原住民澳大利亚人之间不平等的生活结果，但与之前协议的主要区别在于，这种问题化承认了结构性不平等的强大影响。研究结果表明，《协议》通过结构性变化的论述和固有的比较框架来管理土著学校教育。这可能会制约原住民与定居者国家之间的重组关系，使其难以超越比较框架和对自决的还原性理解。本研究认为，重新构建的关系为在学校教育和教育政策中挑战定居者殖民主义提供了机会。但是，不应利用这些关系来取代主权和真正的自决。
{"title":"Structural change and the governance of Indigenous schooling in Australia: What’s the problem represented to be?","authors":"Liwen Zhang","doi":"10.1177/14782103241226522","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14782103241226522","url":null,"abstract":"The Australian National Indigenous Reform Agreement (Closing the Gap) aims to address inequalities in various aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ lives. Scholars have repeatedly critiqued its failure to tackle structural inequalities. The agreement was revised in 2020. The current study adopts Carol Bacchi’s ‘What’s the Problem Represented to be?’ approach to critically analyse the recently revised National Agreement on Closing the Gap. This study shows that the main problematisation still concerns the unequal life outcomes between First Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians, but the major difference from the previous agreement is that such problematisation recognises the strong influence of structural inequalities. Findings indicate that Indigenous schooling is governed by the Agreement through discourses of structural change and the inherent comparative framework. This can condition the restructured relationship between First Peoples and the settler state, which makes it difficult to move beyond a comparative framework and a reductive understanding of self-determination. This study argues that the reconstructed relationships open opportunities to challenge settler colonialism in schooling and education policies. However, they should not be utilised to displace sovereignties and genuine self-determination.","PeriodicalId":46984,"journal":{"name":"Policy Futures in Education","volume":"11 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.5,"publicationDate":"2024-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139387493","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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