Zoom:
https://uio.zoom.us/j/63492824129pwd=WWFwcFFUVzQ1RWZuSXdsTU9ZUmFKdz09
Abstract
We are currently witnessing three concurrent developments that at first sight appear to be contradictory: a (i) reform fatigue, (ii) reform reversal, and (iii) reform enthusiasm. First, Bromley et al. (2021) compiled in their World Education Reform Database (WERD) reports on 183 countries. They document over 10,000 policy changes since the 1970s and demonstrate that reform frequency dwindled worldwide since 2008. Their findings suggest reform fatigue or the end of neoliberal reforms, respectively. Second, a key instrument of neoliberal reform was “school autonomy with accountability” (Verge and Parcerisa, 2019) as a result of which teachers are supposed to be held accountable for the learning outcomes of their students, as measured in standardized tests. Teacher burnout, teacher shortage, and parental opt out from testing seem to suggest a reversal of outcomes-based, neo-liberal school reform. Finally, several disruptive innovations are advanced by some, and at the same time opposed by others, such as for example, scaling up hybrid learning, Fridays for Future, or greater sensitivity for LGTBQI concerns.
The co-existence of a plethora of reform movements that pull practitioners and planners into different directions, makes us stop and think: what does it take for an innovation or a reform to “stick,” that is, materialize in actual practice? Asked inversely, what makes a reform burn out and fade away? Finally, to complicate the narrative: how is it possible that contradictory policies exist side by side in the same education sector?
The presentation draws on comparative policy studies in education to explore the impact of global scripts (developed by OECD, UNESCO, World Bank) for accelerating, or stalling, respectively, school reforms at national level.
Speaker: Gita Steiner-Khamsi
Gita Steiner-Khamsi (Photo: TC Archives)
Gita Steiner-Khamsi, is professor of international and comparative education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York and chair holder of the UNESCO Chair in Comparative Education Policy at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. Her research priorities include comparative analyses of national education policies from a transnational perspective, global reform processes, and education in international cooperation and development. Prior to her emigration to the United States (1995), she established and directed for almost ten years the unit «Intercultural Education» at the Ministry of Education of the Canton of Zurich.
Practical information
The lecture will be in English.
This is an open lecture, no registration is required.
Welcome!
This lecture is part of the PhD course Travelling reforms, policy processes and international knowledge transfer, and is one of the activities finalising the interntional research project Policy Knowledge and Lesson Drawing in Nordic School Reform in an Era of International Comparison (POLNET), funded by the Research Council of Norway.