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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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Educational Restructuring and Educational Research in Tandem?
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The starting point for this study is that educational reform and educational research is moving in tandem, as could be expected from theoretical insights of the co-production of science and society in Science and Technology Studies. The ideas of relevance in educational research plays a vital role here and will be in focus when the interplay between the restructuring of educational systems and the reforming of educational research are analyzed.
Our focuses on prevalent ideas of relevance in educational research aims to show ways in which these ideas has been important in the restructuring of educational systems and research and what consequences it has had on the expertise of teachers and researchers. The study is based on the case of educational reform in Sweden in relation to changing demands on educational expertise and research over a period of twenty years. The case is of special interest for understanding interrelations between educational restructuring and educational expertise. Swedish education is a radical example of (global) trends in restructuring since the early 1990s, but the transition of Swedish educational research follows only recently, and still with some exceptions, the very same trends. Our analyses are based on two different kinds of sources – a selection of policy documents from the Swedish government and documentation of strategic instruments developed and used by Swedish Research Councils for the renewal of educational research, as well as an analysis of the concrete outcome of its uses in terms of approved research applications.
Our results are presenting large changes in educational research policy, which has moved educational research from (a) a disciplinary organization in terms of “pedagogic” towards a multidisciplinary “educational research field”, and (b) which in tandem with Higher Education reforms has led to increased dependences and competition of external research funds, where (c) productivity in terms of international scientific publications is becoming the most important indicator for scientific quality. This dependency is combined with increasing demands for quantitative studies of school performances and international comparative studies of different kinds, all supposed to function in the control and surveillance of educational systems. However, these findings are complemented by another finding, where the relevancy of educational research for the teaching professions is emphasized, underlining the needs for praxis-relevant research either to be carried out in teacher education departments or otherwise expected to serve the needs of the teaching professions. Similar patterns are identified in Norwegian educational research policy and will be compared to the Swedish case. In sum, and taken together, our research findings shows a new and more subtle governing of the ways in which educational research now is engaging with educational practices on systems and school levels congenial to restructured education. It should alarm us for the prevalent dangers of creating an incapacity for more “radical” (reflexive and critical) forms of research practices to supersede current educational regimes.
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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
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Higher Education Policy and Changing Transnational Expertise in Sweden : A contribution to the symposium Globalization and The Nordic model - conflicting, resisting and converting tendencies in policy of education
- 2014
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Ingår i: The NERA 2014 Session Program. - : NERA. ; , s. 58-59
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper aims to analyze current impact of transnational organizations and multinational corporations in governance of higher education in Sweden. We put this in context of welfare state restructuring and performative governing by means of indicators and ranking and related to changing policy demands on research and expertise. Are these changes in higher education policy and research policy working in tandem as could be suggested by science - technology studies (Nowotny et al, 2003)? Our study will be based on policy network analysis and identification and analyses of expertise in education policy discourses. We analyze current policy discourses (since 2006 and onwards) giving special attention to what expertise that are referred to in these discourses, as well as the meanings and objects of the expertise concept in use. In relation to our aim of analyzing the impact of transnational organizations and multinational corporations in educational policy making, we refer to the studies on transnational governance by Djelic Sahlin-Anderson (2006) and the increasing use of incomplete organizing (Ahrne & Brunsson, 2010) in higher education. Concepts of "thin descriptions" (Porter, 2012) and potential "looping" (Hacking, 2004) are used here. As a result important changes in higher education governance and expertise are identified. Our analyses lead to a discussion of couplings between governance and research policy in higher education. This paper is attached to the symposium "Globalization and The Nordic model - conflicting, resisting and converting tendencies in policy of education" in Network 21, "Politics of Education and Education Policy Studies". References: Ahrne, G. & Brunsson, N. (2009). Complete and incomplete organisation (Scores Reports 2009:2). Stockholm: University Djelic, M. L., & Sahlin-Andersson, K. (Eds.). (2006). Transnational governance: Institutional dynamics of regulation. Cambridge University Press. Hacking, I. (1995). The looping effects of human kinds. Causal cognition: A multidisciplinary debate. D. Sperber, D. Premack and A. J. Premack. Oxford: Clarendon Press: 351-94. Nowotny, H.; Scott, P.; Gibbons, M. (2003): Introduction: Mode 2'Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge. Minerva, 2003, 41.3: 179-194. Porter, T. M. (2012). Thin Description: Surface and Depth in Science and Science Studies. Osiris, 27(1), 209-226.
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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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Quality and Relevance in educational research assessments : Some reflections on the role of research in processes of expertizing educational change.
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In accordance with the scientific enterprise at large, educational research is considered to be of increased importance - for the improvement of education and for the possibilities of social and economical developments. But as funding has its limits (Ziman,1994) this has also meant increases in demands and pressures on educational research to conduct according to what is needed and asked for – e.g. to be relevant (Besley, 2009). But how are decision over needs taken and how are the balance between research relevance and research quality handled, and with what consequences? These are questions addressed in this paper whose main aim is to reflect on the role of research in processes of expertizing educational change. Reflection means here to rethink (to reconceptualise) what already has been altered in a period of time where educational research and educational research policy are increasingly run by global agendas (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010) and where changes in epistemologies could be expected to follow changes in research assessments and research practices. The study addresses questions of research quality and research relevance from a perspective where images of differences between “external” and “internal” quality standards play a vital, but different, role in different forms of assessment of educational research (see Boaz & Ashby, 2003). This external/internal divide are here seen from a perspective of social epistemology (Fuller, 2002), and the paper analyse and exemplify the performativity and translations of these divides and its conceptual specificities as they are performed. Our analyses are based on different sources - selections of policy documents as well as selections of research assessment procedures from selected Research Councils. The paper is to be seen as an extension – and a conceptual rethinking - of our previous studies on the politics of assessments of educational research in Sweden (Foss Lindblad, Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2009), Norway (Lindblad, 2013) and Australia (Lindblad & Foss Lindblad, 2013). Our findings indicate, firstly, that the conceptual ambiguities of quality and relevance in educational research assessments are founded in epistemological terrains that mirror differences in the roles given to research in the processes of expertizing educational changes. While our empirical cases (Sweden, Norway and Australia) gives clear evidence for the fact that, secondly, such differences makes a difference also for the agenda setting of research priorities and the actual funding of research, the situation could also be seen as one where, thirdly, the external/internal divides conceptually hidden in ideas about scientific quality and scientific relevance demonstrates that struggles over different kinds of research has other dimensions than those addressed in the discussions on evidence-based research (Hammersley, 2007) and/or questions on qualitative vs. quantitative research (Denzin, Lincoln & Giardina, 2006). Disciplinary differences are important here – as are questions of the future of educational research (see Furlon & Lawn, 2011) and we will here take a clear stance for the importance of disciplines, and disciplinary crossings, in processes of expertizing educational change. References Boaz, A. & Ashby, D. (2003). Fit for purpose? Assessing research quality for evidence based policy and practice. Retrieved 2014, from ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy. Besley, T. (2009). Assessing the Quality of educational research in higher education: International perspectives. Sense Publishers. Denzin, N: Lincoln, Y & M Giardina,. (2006). Disciplining qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Vol. 19, No 6. Pp. 769 – 782. Fuller, Steven (2002). Social Epistemology. Indiana University Press. Furlong, J. & Lawn, M. (2011). Disciplines of Education. The role in the future of educational research. London & New York: Routledge. Hammersley, M (Ed.) (2007). Educational evidence-based practices. London:Sage. Lindblad, S. ; Bergviken Rensfeldt, A. ; Jensen, B. et al. (2013). Evaluering av forskningsprogrammene PRAKSISFOU og UTDANNING 2020. Oslo: Norges Forskningsråd. Foss Lindblad, R. ; Lindblad, S. ; Popkewitz, T. S. (2009). Narratives on Educational Research Evaluation in Sweden. Besley, A.C (Ed): Asessing the Quality of Educational Research in Higher Education. s. 279-292. Rotterdam: Sense Publications Lindblad, S. & Foss Lindblad, R. (2013). Educational Research: the State of Sweden and the Australian 2.2 world. The Australian Educational Researcher. 40 (4) s. 527-534. Rizvi F. & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing Education Policy. New York: Routledge. Ziman, J.M. (1994). Prometheus Bound: Science in a Dynamic Steady State. Cambridge: University Press.
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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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The governance of peers.
- 2013
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Swedish case in a globalized context; This paper address governance by performances in Higher Education Institutions by discussing two strategies for assessing research quality, PeerReview systems and systems of performance indicators. While systems of performance indicators are of later date and has its origin in newer forms of governance, it has nevertheless usually been discussed as a system that operates on the same rationalities as the Peer-review system. Research excellence is for example still considered based on principles and norms such as those of originality and rigour, only translated into quantified figures. However, the translation of values between the two system is, we will argue, far from neutral and its significance has more to do with governance than with values per se, and, as we will argue, changes in governance includes the governance of peers. This will be the radical difference. We will here refer to the history of reviews of educational research in Sweden and to a context of changing research policies in a higher education and research system (Parliament bill 2012/13:30) that is based on increased competition of research funds. This we will put into the context of higher education and research as a system of different higher education institutions, such as university colleges and universities with large research funds.
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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
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The Making of the European Higher Education Area; Politics of Knowledge, Research Assessments and University Ranking
- 2011
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Ingår i: European Congress on Educational Research, Berlin 2011.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The making of the “European Higher Education Area” (EHEA) is based on a number of initiatives from a number of actors and networks. We will here put forwards these initiatives and the actions at work. Firstly, we will deal with the making of the “Knowledge Triangle” (KT), where education, research and innovation are assumed to be the interdependent drivers in the making of a Knowledge Society. How is this configured and what tools are at work – e.g. Erasmus and instruments such as U-multirank? Secondly, we go into research assessment exercises and how these construct higher education and research, and their mutual relations. Our study is based on notions of governing and dynamic nominalism. We have analysed documents that are strategic in the construction of EHEA and KT plus analyses of RAE technologies and constructions. This is combined with analyses of ranking instruments as navigation tools and standardization of EHEA. Here, we will focus on Sweden as a case scrutinising three larger universities and their recent use of Research Assessment Exercises and put this in an national and international context. The study is resulting in presenting critical research issues concerning transnational governance in the Europeanization of higher education and research.
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- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
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THE PUBLIC OPINION : ON THE MAKINGS ON MODERN EDUCATION
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research topic/Aim: Our case is Sweden with its comprehensive welfare state education. This case have been in rapid change in education during the last decades, including worldwide restructuring measures such as deregulation, privatization and governing by school performances. Our aim is to analyze education as part of a modernization project based on the development of science as well as on democracy. Our approach to this is analyses of the public opinion in the Swedish welfare state in relation to the current context of Sweden and what its educational system offers. In order to realize these ambitions, we put forwards the following research questions: • What confidence and discontent in education is presented by the public opinion? How is this related to educational levels and political preferences among individuals? • To what extent is there confidence or mistrust in research in different fields – including educational research – and to what extent is this connected with educational levels and social positions among the individuals? Given our interest in modernization of education we have a special interest in how individuals in in teaching professions assess educational research. In order to sharpen the analysis of current trends in education modernization and educational research we made special analyses of the public opinion on the uses of large scale assessments of educational performances. Theoretical frameworks: Trust has become an important factor for understanding operations of governance and educational reforms and variances of success over countries. Given the present context of rapid social and political transformations and ongoing restructuring of higher education and research, the level and objects of trust thus becomes an important indicator of possibilities and readiness of change. Methodology/research design: We have chosen to analyze the views of the public opinion considering trust in science as such and for the eventual betterment of society, with a special focus on educational science. Data are obtained from the SOM-Institute survey 2014 sent to a national sample of 3 400 individuals, out of which 54 percent answered the questions – in sum 1 634 persons. Findings: In the public opinion the confidence in the school is not very high, and most individuals take very critical stances to current developments in schooling. Regarded as indicators of perceptions of education in a modernizing welfare state, the results present somewhat of a crisis in trust of schooling. This is further underlined by the finding that individuals with lower levels of education are more discontent with recent developments in education. Of special interest is the finding that the right wing populists – often in low paid jobs – are most dissatisfied with what education can offer them. Trust in educational research – especially among those in teaching professions – is also indicating that the modernization processes in education is at work. Stated otherwise, modernization of education and schooling seems to correspond to predominant distribution of resources in society, and universalistic claims about modernization seem to be contradicted by its premises and practices. Relevance for Nordic Educational Research: There is a large need for analyzing the current political situation and its politics of knowledge and educational policies in the Swedish welfare state and in similar welfare state contexts, such as the Nordic countries.
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