Take a look at our Educational Administration & Organization books. Shulph carries a great selection of Educational Administration & Organization books, and we are always adding more.
V. Lynn Meek, L. Geodegebuure, O. Kivinen, R. Rinne
£114.99
Book + eBook
With the emergence of mass higher education, many national governments have identified a diverse higher education system as a policy objective. Diversity is seen as good because it supposedly increases the range of choices for students, matches the education provided to the needs and abilities of
individual students, enables and protects specialization within systems, and meets the demands of an increasingly complex social order. However, little is known about the internal dynamics of higher education systems working for or against particular levels of diversity. The present volume attempts
to further our understanding of processes affecting diversity by addressing them from a theoretical and empirical perspective in a comparative setting. The theoretical part of the book outlines three distinct but complimentary perspectives. Burton Clark discusses the effects of continued
specialization at the disciplinary level and concludes that this will stimulate diversity at the system's level. Guy Neave draws attention to the possible homogenizing forces of the nation state and of the emerging supra-national structures in Europe. Frans van Vught also emphasizes the effects of
the (policy) environment on institutional and system diversity, and specifies under what conditions this influence will lead to decreasing diversity. The empirical part of the book contains eight country studies. These analyses provide detailed insights into the processes that have affected
differentiation in these countries. They also provide the basis for an analysis of the theoretical arguments from a comparative perspective. The concluding chapter is an analysis of the conditions which influence change within higher education institutions and systems, and what the effects of these
changes are in terms of diversity.
The major aim of this book is to contribute to the ongoing European debate on the future relationship between government and universities. The volume refutes the wide spread notion presently adopted by several European politicians and administrators, that the most efficient way to meet the threats
posed by mass university education to excellence in research and teaching is through government supervision and control, and the introduction of short-term incentives of a monetary nature. Instead this study points to the necessity for the operational units strongly to safeguard and strengthen their
own capacities for self-evaluation and willingness to change, mainly through emphasis on the question of academic leadership at the basic level. It also argues strongly for the beneficial effects of continuing the present European experiments with organizing graduate education in a way resembling
the graduate-school model. In developing general policy arguments, introduced in the opening chapters and summed up in the concluding discussion, the book examines empirically the "cultures" of four innovative and three stagnant Swedish departments in the social sciences. A second aim of the book is
thus to provide empirical insights into what, organizationally, signify innovative research establishments. The third, and final aim, is to contribute to the theoretical discussion on preconditions for social change and continuity, by focusing on factors enabling or obstructing these
"micro-structures" to change.
Alexander W. Wiseman, Tiedan Huang, Alexander W. Wiseman
£129.99
Book + eBook
This volume of the "International Perspectives on Education and Society" series examines the transformation of education policy in China, with a special emphasis on transformations in the post-1978 period. While educational policy has experienced major shifts and reversals since the founding of the
People's Republic of China in 1949, the late 1970s and the early 1980s signalled a significant shift in China's openness and willingness to make widespread and rapid changes in education to meet the demands of an increasingly market-oriented economy. These educational policy changes are inextricably
linked to China's increasing interest and participation in the global community abroad and the social-economic transformation and somewhat loosened political environment at home. With the special emphasis on policy change and its subsequent impact on different aspects of education at various levels
of educational institutions, particularly in areas of educational financing and curriculum reform, this volume attempts to bridge the dichotomy between critics and advocates of Chinese educational transformations, recognize the importance and impact that educational policy in China has not only on
one of the largest national populations in the world, but also on other (and often competing) country's systems and provide relevant scholarship to inform policy and practice.
Since the IEA's first international studies on mathematics and science achievement in the late 1960s, the availability and use of international achievement studies around the world has exploded. The most widely adopted studies, PISA and TIMSS, are now administered regularly and include participating
countries from every region around the world. These international studies, now include cross-national studies of multiple subject areas, teachers and teaching, and a developing focus on higher education. This information has been used to make decisions about resource distribution both within and
across national educational systems, but some of the most productive uses of TIMSS and PISA data by policymakers have been to create agendas for innovation and equity in national educational systems. The chapters in this volume will: discuss the uses of international achievement study results as a
tool for national progress as well as an obstacle, provide recommendations for ways that international achievement data can be used in real-world policymaking situations, and also discuss what the future of international achievement studies holds.
The increasing significance of the OECD in the development of national education policies has received much attention in recent years. Although it is recognised that certain international agencies such as the OECD as key "globalizing agencies", have acquired the capacity to "persuade" nation states
towards certain policy priorities, little attention has been paid to making clear how these processes of persuasion may work. This volume investigates such processes, drawing on a study of the relationship between the OECD and educational policy directions in Australia. It investigates the link
between three elements of education policy, the nation state, the OECD and globalization. These links are explored through case studies in higher education and vocational education and training policy developments, drawing on the Australian experience. The book also generates questions about
educational purposes and decision making in the contemporary contexts which have wider applicability.