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- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Early childhood education and care policy change : Comparing goals, governance and ideas in Nordic contexts
- 2024
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In: Compare. - : Routledge. - 0305-7925 .- 1469-3623. ; 54:2, s. 185-202
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is changing across Europe, reflecting multiple policy intentions and assumptions about education in early years, and the role of the state in supporting, funding and regulating its institutions. In this article, we examine the evolution of ECEC comparatively in Finland and Sweden, and we explore the shifts in goals, governance mechanisms and policy ideas that have characterised reforms in the sector. We draw on an analysis of policy documents, and argue that the incremental changes achieved over the last 50 years have been in response to changing goals assigned to ECEC and ideas about its roles and functions as part of the welfare and education sectors. The power of ideas in effecting policy change is tempered by established institutional framings, yet is visible in the early dominance of child-centred ideas, and the later controversies over the emergent labour-market and education-driven rationales of the post-2010s.
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| 2. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Early childhood education research in Europe : Contexts, policies, and ideas
- 2020
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In: Education Inquiry. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 2000-4508. ; 11:2, s. 89-93
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Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- From the very north to the south of Europe, the national examples of early childhood education research reported here address remarkably similar issues around the definition of core values in early childhood education, and their impact on pedagogical work in preschools. Policy histories and frameworks matter, since they define the parameters within which these definitions take place and they determine resources given to preschool provision. Our collection demonstrates the significance of ideas and cultural frames as factors that often act independently to develop professional practice in different directions (see also, Löfdahl Hultman & Margrain, 2019; White, 2002). Education policy and policy reforms are formed often without the participation of professional educators, but they are mediated by practitioners who exercise significant discretion in how they implement them in their everyday work. Since education policy reforms are the result of a social negotiation process, the reforms reflect ideal, but also traditional and normative views on ECE. In this respect, the approaches in the European countries presented here do not show great divergence. Where we do observe stronger differences, is in the ideas of educators around professional autonomy, practice, as well as certain social values. We find that, the success or failure of reforms in early childhood education depends on the extent to which the policy process accounts for not just administrative new requirements, but also the features of the institutional contexts of ECE, their historical evolution in different national contexts, and the role of ideas around the goals and purposes of the sector. Second, no new policy can be effectively applied, with positive transformative effects for young children’s lives, without the active participation of preschool educators in the process. As all the cases in this special issue illustrate, education change aimed to achieve any preschool policy goal (new assessment, inclusive classrooms, gender equality, children’s agency) is a social process that requires professional engagement and learning, and in some cases a transformation of the attitudes of the educators themselves.
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| 3. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Education policy convergence through the Open Method of Co-ordination (OMC) : Theoretical reflections and implementation in ‘old’ and ‘new’ national contexts
- 2010
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In: European Educational Research Journal. - Oxford, UK : Symposium Journals, Ltd. - 1474-9041. ; 9:3, s. 346-359
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article addresses two key questions about the convergence of education policies in the European Union (EU). How does the open method of coordination (OMC), a new governance instrument for the Europeanisation of education policies, change existing national education policy making and how can the OMC and national responses to it be researched? The authors argue that the OMC brings to national policy making a particular set of ideas about education, such as an emphasis on the contribution of education to building competitive economies and a new public management approach. The authors further suggest that the significance of such policy ideas in national education policy making can be best analysed through a combination of sociological institutionalism and discourse analysis. Hence, ‘implementation’ of EU education measures – which have been developed through policy learning – should be understood as a combination of a ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ policy-making process that links EU and national levels. Finally, the article suggests – on the basis of a preliminary exploration of the implementation of education OMC measures in the United Kingdom and Slovenia – that education OMC policy ideas resonate to varying degrees in ‘old’ and ‘new’ member states.
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| 4. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Education policy governance and the power of ideas in constructing the new European Education Area
- 2023
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In: European Educational Research Journal. - : Sage Publications. - 1474-9041. ; 22:6, s. 852-869
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Twenty years after the Lisbon strategy, education policy in the European Union (EU) is at a critical juncture, with a new set of strategic goals endorsed for the 2021–2030 decade. This article examines the complex interplay of ideas, institutions and actors, in articulating education policy priorities in the new European Education Area (EEA). Drawing on documentary reviews and interviews with policy actors in the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, we trace the rise and fall of policy ideas in the new framework. The negotiations over the definition of EEA reveal new tensions between and within European institutions over specific policy ideas, with “lifelong learning” and “gender” as the most controversial ones. Continuing, longstanding tensions between the education and employment fields remain, and present adifficulty for the construction of a comprehensive and cohesive education policy program.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-
(author)
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Europeanisation and education policy
- 2005
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In: World Yearbook of Education 2005. - London : Falmer Routledge. - 0415348587 ; , s. 128-146
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
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| 7. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-
(author)
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Framing education policies and transitions of Roma students in Europe
- 2019
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In: Comparative Education. - : Routledge. - 0305-0068 .- 1360-0486. ; 55:3, s. 422-442
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The aim of this article is to identify the contexts and conditions that allow for successful education transitions and opportunities for the Roma minority in Europe. Thus far, transnational and national policies have failed to ensure Roma inclusion and education equality, even though some progress is visible. Using a combination of policy analysis and interviews with NGO and European Union actors, University academics and Roma students, the article examines the key contexts that frame education policies and create the necessary conditions for education transitions. It identifies the problems and challenges within the contemporary EU education policy frameworks and highlights the tensions between political rhetoric and policy commitments that are visible at national, transnational, and local levels. In addition, through a focus on individual student experiences, the article captures the lived reality of Roma students who have managed their education transitions with success.
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| 8. |
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| 9. |
- Alexiadou, Nafsika, 1968-, et al.
(author)
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Learning, unlearning and redefining teachers’ agency in international private education : a Swedish education company operating in India
- 2023
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In: Educational review (Birmingham). - : Routledge. - 0013-1911 .- 1465-3397.
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Private international education is on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge on how different commercial actors operate in this field and how it affects local teachers and their work in the schools abroad. Swedish school companies have been active in exporting schooling in the international arena, including “Swedish” education models. In this article, we examine one company and their operations in India. We explore the interpretations of the company education model by teachers in the Indian schools, and how this affects their professional capacity. Mixed qualitative methods of interviews, on-site school visits and documentary reviews, were used to examine the possibilities for teachers to exercise professional agency within their working environment. Our findings show that teachers operate within a highly structured pedagogical environment characterised by a given curriculum, a centralised learning platform and training programme, and a set of dominant discourses around values and teaching practices. Teachers are expected to embrace a new professional identity in a process of discarding past experiences and adopting the new professional language given by the company's particular education model. In willingly embracing the company discourses and expectations, teachers’ agency tends to be constrained.
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