Educational Policies and Inequalities in Europe

329 Pages·2012·2.648 MB·English

by  Marc Demeuse, Daniel Frandji, David Greger, Jean-Yves Rochex (eds.)

Educational Policies and Inequalities in Europe
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Educational Policies
and Inequalities in Europe
Editedby
Marc Demeuse
UniversityofMons,Belgium
Daniel Frandji
EcoleNormaleSupérieuredeLyon,FrenchInstituteofEducation,Triangle,France
David Greger
CharlesUniversityinPrague,CzechRepublic
and
Jean-Yves Rochex
Paris8University,France
Selectionandeditorialmatter©MarcDemeuse,DanielFrandji,DavidGreger
andJean-YvesRochex2012
Individualchapters©theirrespectiveauthors2012
Foreword©SallyPower2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-30203-7
OriginallypublishedinFrenchin2008byINRPunderthetitle:LesPolitiques
D’ÉducationPrioritaireenEurope,Conceptions,MiseenOeuvre,Débats
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Contents
ListofFiguresandTables vii
Foreword viii
Acknowledgements xi
NotesonContributors xii
1 Introduction:TowardsaComparisonofPriorityEducation
PoliciesinEurope 1
DanielFrandji
England
2 PolicyInterventionstoReduceEducationalInequalities–The
CaseofEngland,1997–2010 23
LiaAntoniou,AlanDysonandCarloRaffo
Belgium
3 PriorityEducationPoliciesinBelgium:TwoModesof
RegulationoftheEffectsofaMarketLogic 55
NathanaëlFriant,MarcDemeuse,AngelineAubert-Lotarski
andIdesbaldNicaise
France
4 Twenty-FiveYearsofPriorityEducationPolicyinFrance:
DubiousSpecificityandDisappointingResults 93
Jean-YvesRochex
Greece
5 Greece:OnMechanismsandSuccessiveProgrammesbetween
SupportandInnovation 127
GellaVarnava-Skoura,DimitrisVergidisandChryssaKassimi
v
vi Contents
Portugal
6 FromtheInventionoftheDemocraticCitytothe
ManagementofExclusionandUrbanViolenceinPortugal 157
JoséAlbertoCorreia,InêsCruz,Jean-YvesRochexandLucilia
Salgado
CzechRepublic
7 PriorityEducationPoliciesintheCzechRepublic:Redesigning
EquityPoliciesinthePost-CommunistTransformation 191
DavidGreger,MarkétaLevínskáandIrenaSmetáˇcková
Romania
8 Romania:ASysteminEvolution,SearchingforItsConceptual
References 223
CalinRus
Sweden
9 Sweden:PriorityEducationPoliciesinTimesof
DecentralisationandIndividualisation 259
GuadalupeFranciaandLázaroMorenoHerrera
10 GeneralConclusion:PriorityEducationPoliciesinEurope,
fromOne‘Age’andOneCountrytoAnother 288
Jean-YvesRochex
Index 320
Figures and Tables
Figures
3.1 Performancesinmathematicsby15-year-olds,reflectedinthe
2003PISAsurvey:Variancesbetweenandwithinschools 57
3.2 Publicfundingperpupil(¤/year)inFlemishprimary
education,schoolyear2007–2008,byshareofEEOtarget
group 75
3.3 Publicfundingperpupil(¤/year)inFlemishsecondary
education,schoolyear2007–2008,byshareofEEOtarget
group 75
Tables
8.1 SchoolparticipationofRomanichildreninRomania 233
9.1 Successratesofstudentsincompulsoryschoolingtests 272
vii
Foreword
This book represents a timely and important contribution to ongoing
attempts to understand and intervene in the reproduction of social and
educationalinequalities.
Aroundtheworld,nationsareplacingeducationattheheartoftheirsocial
andeconomicpolicy.Education,itisclaimed,iscrucialforthedevelopment
of active citizenship, social cohesion and international economic compet-
itiveness. Rather than the wealth of nations being based on ‘old’ forms of
capital, it is argued that we now live in a ‘knowledge economy’ in which
the development of human capital through ongoing education is the pri-
ority. The importance placed on education is evident from the increasing
levelsofinvestment.Educationnowembracesmorelearnersatmorestages
in their lives. Many governments now have extensive programmes of pre-
school education and almost all countries are expanding provision at the
higher levels and exhorting citizens to engage in lifelong learning. With-
out such investment, it is argued, nations will ‘fall behind’ in the global
marketplace.
However,whileeducationsystemsmayberequiredtogearthemselvesup
for the new global knowledge economy, their ability to meet its challenges
is blighted by widespread and enduring educational inequalities. These
inequalities are generally associated with other inequalities, particularly
those of socio-economic status and ethnicity, and are evident throughout
all areas of education systems. Not only do these inequalities persist, but
they can even increase as children progress through school. At higher lev-
els, they are evident in variable participation rates, transitions to work and
involvementinlifelonglearning.
Governments are not blind to these problems. Since the 1960s, many
countrieshaveputinplaceprogrammesdesignedtoaddresstheseinequal-
ities,particularlythoseassociatedwithsocio-economicdeprivation.Asthis
bookreveals,theseprogrammesvarywidelyinfocus,scaleandnature.How-
ever,theyhavegenerallysharedacommonfate–theyhavehad,atbest,only
limitedimpact.
Thepersistenceofeducationinequalitiesinthefaceoftheseinterventions
confrontseducationresearchers,policymakersandpractitionerswithsome
difficult dilemmas. One response is to concede defeat – to accept that edu-
cational inequalities are a ‘fact of life’ and that it is a waste of time and
money to try to eliminate them. Another response is to keep on trying
to intervene, to hope that next time the right policies will be found and
educationalinequalitieswillbeeliminated.
viii
Foreword ix
Clearlyneitherresponseisadequate.Thefirstwilldenymillionsofyoung
people – those most in need – the opportunities which their more affluent
peersenjoy.Thesecondisthenaiveassertionofhopeoverexperience.Such
naivety will not help the intended beneficiaries and will ultimately lead to
thefirstresponseinanyevent.
The third response, and the one to which this book can make an impor-
tantcontribution,istotrytounraveljustwhystrategiesdesignedtoreduce
inequalitiesineducationdonotappeartowork.Cross-nationalcomparison
clearly has a central role to play in this unravelling. In order to under-
stand why some policies succeed and others fail, it is necessary to look
at education provision in terms of systems – and the best way of under-
standing the characteristics of any one system is through comparison with
others.
Cross-national comparison has been facilitated hugely by the increasing
availability of data sets, such as that of the Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA), which have enabled comparative analysis of
the scale and locus of educational inequalities. However, useful as these
data sets are in illuminating patterns, they are not particularly helpful in
revealing the processes underlying the patterns. What is needed is a cross-
national comparison that is also based on an appreciation of the specificity
ofnationalsystems–aspecificitythatstatisticalanalysesinevitablyhaveto
gloss over. It is increased understanding of this dimension that this book
offers.
One of the repeated themes running through the chapters in the book
is the context specificity of concepts, data, provision and the nature
of learning itself. This context specificity should, however, not be seen
as ‘interference’ but as a source of illumination. As this book reveals,
the differences between education systems reflect not only contrasting
amountsofresourceinvestmentandlabourmarketopportunities–although
these factors are important – but also, more significantly, that the dif-
ferences arise from the sedimentation of different values, priorities and
cultures. In order to understand system- (and within-system-) level vari-
ables in educational processes and outcomes, we need to explore the
various meanings, values and significance that various communities attach
toeducation.
In providing detailed accounts of different countries’ attempts to solve
their enduring inequalities, this book enriches our understanding of the
limits and possibilities of educational reform. The illumination of different
strategies and their contexts can actually undermine pessimistic assertions
of the inevitability of educational failure for some social groups. Certainly,
unlesswegraspthecomplexityofthesocio-culturaldimensionsofeducation
andthespecificitiesofthecontextinwhichpoliciesareinserted,reformswill
beweakandineffectual.