Studying Changing Governance Systems in European Education – Conceptual and Empirical Approaches

Author(s):

Herbert AltrichterTobias FeldhoffStephan Gerhard HuberGuri SkedsmoKirsten SivesindMelanie EhrenKatharina Soukup-Altrichter

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Symposium

Session Information

23 SES 11 E, Studying Changing Governance Systems in European Education – Conceptual and Empirical Approaches

Symposium

Time:

2009-09-30

16:45-18:15

Room:

HG, HS 45

Chair:

Herbert Altrichter

Contribution

Since the beginning of the 1990s we see an intensifying discussion about 'modernizing school systems' (Brüsemeister/Eubel 2003) in many European countries. The main thrust of reform is increasingly seen as being directed to the governance of educational systems. During recent years educational research has started to attend more closely to these changes and is now searching for appropriate conceptual and empirical devices for studying these phenomena (see Altrichter/Bruesemeister/Wissinger 2007). The proposed symposium aims to stimulate discussion about what is appropriate theory and evidence in research studying changing governance systems in education. The symposium presents four empirical studies from four different European backgrounds (Austria, Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland) on changes in governance systems.

Method

Four empirical studies, using different reserach approaches(such as surveys, delphi method, qualitative case studies) are presented and discussed. The emphasis of the symposium is on analysing different conceptual and research approaches and discuss their appropriateness for studying multi-level governance phenomena.

Expected Outcomes

The symposium asks the presenters to examine two issues: Since there is quite an overlap in – at least, the rhetoric of – these reforms (increased focus on output, demands for transparency, evaluation and performance measurement, educational standards, accountability and discussions of the role of the state, local autonomy etc.), presenters are asked, firstly, to examine whether (or not) and in what way these reforms which might be understood as a result of 'travelling' policies (see Ozga/Jones 2006) are 'embedded' in the national contexts and thereby mediated by local contextual factors. Secondly, presenters are asked to elaborate the rationale behind the different research approaches they use and to discuss their fit to the complex multi-level issues which are usually at stake when we look at governance reforms. Some consequences for empirical research will be spelt out as a consequence.

References

Altrichter, H., Brüsemeister, T. & Wissinger, J. (Hrsg.). (2007). Educational Governance: Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. (Bd. 1). Arnott, M. A./Raab, C. D. (2000; eds.): The Governance of Schooling. Routledge-Falmer: London. Benz, A. (2004; ed.): Governance - Regieren in komplexen Regelsystemen. VS: Wiesbaden. Bruesemeister, T./Eubel, K.-D. (2003; eds.): Zur Modernisierung der Schule. Transcript: Bielefeld. Fend, H. (2008). Schule gestalten. Systemsteuerung, Schulentwicklung und Unterrichtsqualität. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften Gordon, T. J.; Helmer, O. (1964).: Report on a long range forecasting study. Rand Paper P-2982. Rand Corporation. Santa Monica. Häder, M. (2000): Die Expertenauswahl bei Delphi-Befragungen. ZUMA How-to-Reihe, Nr. 5 Kogan, M. (1996): Monitoring, control and governance of school systems. In: OECD: Evaluating and Reforming Education Systems. OECD: Paris, 25-45. Kussau, J. & Brüsemeister, T. (2007). Educational Governance: Zur Analyse der Handlungskoordination im Mehrebenensystem der Schule. In H. Altrichter, T. Brüsemeister & J. Wissinger (Hrsg.), Educational Governance. Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem (S. S. 15-54). Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Lange, S./Schimank, U. (2004): Governance und gesellschaftliche Integration. In: Lange, S./Schimank, U. (eds.): Governance und gesellschaftliche Integration. Wiesbaden: VS, 9-46. Martens, K./Rusconi, A./ Leuze, K. (2007; eds.): New Arenas of Education Governance. The Impact of International Organizations and Markets on Educational Policy Making . Palgrave MacMillan. Ozga, J./Jones, R. (2006) Travelling and Embedded Policy: the case of knowledge transfer, Journal of. Education Policy, 21(1), 1-17 Schimank, U. (2007). Die Governance-Perspektive: Analytisches Potenzial und anstehende konzeptionelle Fragen. In H. Altrichter, T. Brüsemeister & J. Wissinger (Hrsg.), Educational Governance. Handlungskoordination und Steuerung im Bildungssystem. (S. 231- 260). Wiesbanden: VS-Verlag. von Kopp , B. (2008). Bildungssteuerung: Vom Drehen an der Stellschraube zu Governance. In J. Oelkers (Hrsg.), Handwörterbuch Erziehungswissenschaft. Weinheim (In Vorbereitung): Beltz.

Author Information

Herbert Altrichter

Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria

Department of Education and Psychology

Tobias Feldhoff

PHZ ZUG

IBB

ZUG

Stephan Gerhard Huber

University of Teacher Education Central Switzerland (PHZ) Zug

Institute for Management and Economics of Education (IBB)

Zug

Guri Skedsmo

University of Oslo

Oslo

158

Kirsten Sivesind

University of Oslo

Department for teacher education and school development

Oslo

158

Melanie Ehren

University of Twente

Faculty of Behavioral Science

Enschede

157

Katharina Soukup-Altrichter

Pädagogische Hochschule OÖ

Oberösterreich

Linz

Update Modus of this Database

The current conference programme can be browsed in the conference management system (conftool) and, closer to the conference, in the conference app.
This database will be updated with the conference data after ECER.

Search the ECER Programme

Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
Search for authors and in the respective field.
For planning your conference attendance, please use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference and the conference agenda provided in conftool.
If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.