Education Sector Analysis in Development Assistance: A Review of the Research

Author(s):

Derya Şen(presenting / submitting)Yaşar Kondakçı

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

23 SES 07 A, Europe and Beyond

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

17:15-18:45

Room:

FFL - Aula 19

Chair:

Robert Lingard

Contribution

Within the framework of the systems approach, the aim of the education sector assessment/review is to examine in detail the current state of the education system and the policies pursued; to assess the constraints that impede the improvement of the system performance and identify opportunities to overcome or circumvent these obstacles; and to develop research-based policy options (Chang, 2006; Kemmerer, 1994).

In the sector review, educational system is examined not only in terms of the interrelations and interactions among its sub-systems, but also studied in terms of the environment within which it functions. Accordingly, education being a subsystem of the larger society is examined in relation to its linkages with the other sectors and its contribution to broader development goals. The ultimate purpose of the sector assessment is suggested as to eliminate or limit the arbitrary discretion in deciding educational policies, and in this direction institutionalization of scientific research-based policy-making process (Klees, 1995).

Early examples of sector assessments were developed in '50s and '60s (Klees and Veçhine, 1996); in the following years, the approach was taken up by the development agencies and has received widespread use with the aim of identifying the objectives and the scope of the projects and programs supported by these institutions.

Education sector analysis, in line with its development purposes and premises, is expected to be tailored to the requirements of the local context, hence to display differences specific to certain system being evaluated (Tyler, 1989). However, over time, adoption of a generic approach to perform this kind of studies has been observed in practice. This tendency is also reflected and reinforced in the manuals prepared to be of assistance in the application of the sector analysis. Besides, comparative studies carried out in different periods suggest that sector assessments supported and/or initiated by external funding agencies share similarities in terms of both findings and recommendations although they were conducted in different contexts (Daniere, 1977; Tyler, 1989; Gushee and Jain,1997). The reviews of the practice of sector analysis approach in educational development assistance raised a number of concerns including the predominance of the technocratic approach to policy making and policy evaluation, employment of economic indicators as the principal means of evaluating the system performance, lack of use of participatory arrangements to bring people with different perspectives and world views together, lack of due attention to the socio-economic, cultural, political, and institutional environment in which the educational system operates and the development of policy options in line with the objectives laid down by the global education agenda (Gushee and Jain, 1997; Klees, 1995 and Reimers, 1997; Samoff, 1990).

Issues raised above regarding the sector assessment practice cannot be solely attributable to implementation details. Rather, they reflect particular assumptions about the nature and the behavior of the education system suggesting a contradiction with the notions of the systems approach underlying sector assessment. Based on this reasoning, the current study attempts to explore this apparently contradictory relationship.

Method

As the main interest of this review is to understand whether there exists a genuine contradiction between the sector assessment practiced in development assistance and the underlying framework on which it is built, emphasis will be given to the genesis of this approach. Literature on applied systems thinking will be drawn upon for this discussion. The paradigm shifts over the past several decades in systems thinking will be examined in detail to situate the particular approach adopted by the sector assessment in relation to the variety of positions in systems thinking. Then, underlying assumptions of the associated paradigm will be delineated and compared with the main aspects of the criticisms leveled against the sector assessment.

Expected Outcomes

Sector assessment approach has drawn heavily from hard systems thinking and especially from systems analysis methodology categorized within this paradigm. Hard system modeling marks the beginning of the efforts in applying systems thinking in real life situations. These methodologies were developed during the WW2 and immediate postwar years in the fields of systems analysis, systems engineering and operational research. Later, there were attempts to transfer these approaches, which proved successful to some extent in dealing with the designed systems, to the social realm. However, these efforts failed to produce intended results. This situation is mainly attributed to the inability of the suggested methodologies to tackle with the complexities inherent in human systems basically stemming from the diversity in interests, values, beliefs and the issues of politics and power (Jackson, 2003). Later on, subsequent paradigms of soft systems thinking and critical systems thinking were developed as a response to perceived inadequacies of the hard systems thinking. Regardless of the paradigm shifts experienced in systems thinking over time, it is difficult to mention about the concomitant changes in the sector assessment approach. In this sense, apparent inconsistency of the sector assessment with the systems principles on which it is based could be attributed to this reality.

References

Chang, G.-C. 2006. National Education Sector Development Plan: A result-based planning handbook. Paris: UNESCO. Daniere, A. (1977). The education sector assessment in the Latin American region: Evaluation, prospects and recommended strategies. Washington, DC: USAID. Gushee, S & Jain, M. (1997). Seeing open learning communities: Towards a new mode of sector analysis. LWF paper in collaboration with Florida State University (Draft July 1997). Paris, France: Learning Without Frontiers Coordination Unit, UNESCO. Jackson, M. C. (2003). Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers. Chichester: Wiley Kemmerer, F. (1994). Utilizing education and human resource sector analyses. Fundamentals of Educational Planning series, No.47, Paris, UNESCO: International Institute for Educational Planning. Klees, S. (1995). Final report on Lusophone Comprehensive Education Analysis (CEA) Workshop, Recife, Brazil, Oct. 2-6, 1995. Unpublished memo. Education Cluster, UNICEF, New York. Klees, S. & Verhine, R. (1996, January). Comprehensive Education Analysis: Workshop Reflections. UNICEF Education News, 6(1). Reimers, F. (1997). Participation, Policy Dialogue and Education Sector Analysis. In J. Lynch, C. Modgil & S. Modgil (Eds.), Non-formal and Non-governmental Approaches. NY: Cassell. Samoff, J. (March 1990). Defining What Is and What Is Not An Issue: An Analysis of Asistance Agency Africa Education Sector Studies. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society, Anaheim. Tyler, E. W. (1989). The Education sector analysis in USAID’s assistance to developing countries: A critical assessment. ( Doctoral dissertation ) Available from ProQuest Disserations and Theses database.

Author Information

Derya Şen (presenting / submitting)

Middle East Technical Education

Educational Sciences

Ankara

Yaşar Kondakçı

Middle East Technical University, Turkey

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