Main Content
Session Information
23 SES 07 A, Europe and Beyond
Parallel Paper Session
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
Expected Outcomes
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.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
Marginal Content
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 you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.