Session Information
23 SES 01 B, Policy Borrowing and Policy Learning in Education
Paper Session
Contribution
In 2013 the Government of Spain managed to pass an encompassing education reform act on the grounds that a new scheme designing about fifty tracks would provide the necessary flexibility so that all students find their way within the education system. This argument is underpinned by selected comparative tables that allegedly prove that tracking crucially contributes to school success in terms of progression and attainment. The whole new policy device is also presented as a new method of coordination for regional governments, who are the main educational authorities in their respective areas since the late nineties. In the parliament, this reform has been passed thanks to the absolute majority of the Conservative Popular Party, and a partial, small support of Union, Progress and Democracy (a party stressing the unity of Spain), while the Socialists, the Left, Catalan and Basque Nationalist have openly challenged it.
This paper will analyse the politics of this reform in the light of up-to-date findings on policy borrowing and the knowledge- policy nexus in the context of Europeanisation. A number of research projects have convincingly spelled out how policy transfer entails political (e. g. coalition building), economic (e. g. getting international funding) and ideological (e. g. featuring a given country with regard to a projected image of foreign countries) processes (Steiner-Khamsi & Waldow, 2012). In Europe these processes clearly include the construction of a new kind of expert knowledge based on numbers and best practices, and a complex re-structuring of sub-national, national and supra-national scales of policy making (Dale & Robertson, 2009; Lange & Alexiadou, 2010; Ozga et al, 2011).
In this vein, it is quite plausible to inquire to what extent the Government of Spain aims at transforming the supra- and sub-national scales of education policy-making in the country by means of two strategic movements affecting political scales and the definition of a relevant type of knowledge for education policy. As to political scales, while on the one hand it expects to foster its reform by means of EU funding addressed to curb Early School Leaving (ESL) in order to meet the goals of the European Education and Training 2020 Strategy (see Expected Finding 1 below), on the other hand it is coining its own policy framework addressed to keep regional educational authorities under control (see Expected Finding 3 below). As to knowledge, while on the one hand the central government claims to borrow mainstream best practices to tackle an acute problem in the country (i. e. it uses what Lange & Alexiadou, 2010, define as “competitive learning”; see Expected Finding 2 below), on the other hand it imposes a new system of standard examination and regular reporting to regional authorities (i. e. it uses what Ozga, 2009, defines as “governance by numbers”; see Expected Finding 4 below).
This paper draws on a research project that compares the policies against ESL implemented by the central government as well as the regional governments of Andalusia, Asturias, Balearic Islands, the Basque Country, Castile- Leon, Catalonia and the Valencian Community. Several research teams are looking for the rationale of varied understandings of the problem and different interventions in these regions.
To be precise, the paper will argue for the validity and the relevance of the former research questions by comparing recent policy developments in the European Union Thematic Working Group (TWG) on Early School Leaving (ESL), the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport of Spain, the Department of Education in Catalonia and (probably) a number of other regional governments.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Dale, R. & Robertson, S. (2009) Globalisation and Europeanisation in Education Oxford (UK): Symposium Books. Fairclough, N. (2003) Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. London: Longman. Lange, B., &Alexiadou, N. (2010) «Policy learning and governance of education policy in the EU». Journal of Education Policy 25 (4): 443–463. Ozga, J. S. 2009. «Governing education through data in England: from regulation to self-evaluation». Journal of Education Policy 24 (2): 149–162. Ozga, J.; Dahler-Larsen, P.; Segerholm, Ch. & Simola, H. (2011) Fabricating Quality in Education. Data and governance in Europe. London and New York: Routledge. Pawson, R. (2006) Evidence-based policy. A Realist Perspective. London: Sage. Steiner-Khamsi, G. & Waldow, F. (2012) Policy Borrowing and Lending in Education. World Yearbook of Education 2012. London and New York: Routledge.
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