| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Co-production of comparative education research and welfare state education policy. : A contribution to the panel session "How Educational Sciences Became Reasonable: Their International Emergence in the Post War Years" at the CIES 2018 Conference in Mexico City
- 2018
-
Ingår i: The program for the Comparative and International Education Society Conference 2018 in Mexico City..
-
Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The focus of this study is the intimate relations between educational research and its social and political embeddings, seen through the lenses of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) such as the IEA TIMSS- and the OECD PISA-programs. While increasing influence of these assessments on educational policies is widely recognized (e.g. Ozga & Lingard, 2007) and the meta-theoretical rationality on which they are operating (Grek, 2009), the constitutive elements and dynamics involved in producing their success stand out as a more open question (e.g. Wagner, 1987, on national variations). Our case is the transition of Swedish Welfare State (SWS) after WW2 and the development of international comparative research in education. With the specific ambition of not letting us fall into the pitfalls of science/politics dichotomies, we are addressing the dynamics of science/society coproduction (Nowotny et al, 2003; Jasanoff et al, 2001). This case is of significant interest: Firstly, the SWS had a recognized centralistic organization with high reliance on science (Fridjonsdottir, 1987). This organization restructured thoroughly in the 1990s with an increasing emphasis of ILSA (Lindblad, Pettersson & Popkewitz, 2015). Secondly, in the emergence of international assessments Swedish researchers played an important role (Husén & Postlethwaite, 1996). The specific time-space reveals uneven patterns in science/society coproduction where IEA is manifesting success as well as a breaking-point in a today highly weakened regime of how the relevance of international comparative education is to be secured, and what this means. Our study is based on a combination of policy documents from state commissions and parliamentary bills, research reports and evaluations of ongoing changes in policy and research as. We identified characteristic phases in the welfare state governance from expansion and centralistic governance over deregulation and decentralization and later into the introduction of a voucher system and governing by results. The analyses resulted in three major conclusions: − At the start comparative education research was rare and had a humanistic base in comprehending education in other contexts. The emerging ILSA was based in the social sciences where comparisons centered on differences in efficiency over national contexts. − During the first decades of ILSA there was little evidence of societal relevance, e.g. in use for policy decisions and reform initiatives. However, the societal relevance increased drastically, given the restructuring of the educational system and the increasing importance given to supranational organizations. − ILSA was from the beginning strongly contextualized and dependent on external resources. The making of the IIE opened up new possibilities for ILSA in Academia, but it is the more recent changes in governance and changes in methodology as well as technology that has allowed the success and dominance of ILSA in research and policy discourses Given these conclusions ILSA turned out to be a successful but contested approach to educational research. For the coproduction of science/society the combination of a strong emphasis on ILSA in social and political discourses on education plus the closing down of the International Institute of Education and the transfer of PISA studies to Pearson is congenial to this development.
|
|
| 3. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
-
Coproduction of Comparative Education Research and Welfare State Education Policy
- 2018
-
Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The focus of this study is the intimate relations between educational research and its social and political embeddings, seen through the lenses of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) such as the IEA TIMSS- and the OECD PISA-programs. While increasing influence of these assessments on educational policies is widely recognized (e.g. Ozga & Lingard, 2007) and the meta-theoretical rationality on which they are operating (Grek, 2009), the constitutive elements and dynamics involved in producing their success stand out as a more open question (e.g. Wagner, 1987, on national variations).Our case is the transition of Swedish Welfare State (SWS) after WW2 and the development of international comparative research in education. With the specific ambition of not letting us fall into the pitfalls of science/politics dichotomies, we are addressing the dynamics of science/society coproduction (Nowotny et al, 2003; Jasanoff et al, 2001). This case is of significant interest: Firstly, the SWS had a recognized centralistic organization with high reliance on science (Fridjonsdottir, 1987). This organization restructured thoroughly in the 1990s with an increasing emphasis of ILSA (Lindblad, Pettersson & Popkewitz, 2015). Secondly, in the emergence of international assessments Swedish researchers played an important role (Husén & Postlethwaite, 1996). The specific time-space reveals uneven patterns in science/society coproduction where IEA is manifesting success as well as a breaking-point in a today highly weakened regime of how the relevance of international comparative education is to be secured, and what this means.Our study is based on a combination of policy documents from state commissions and parliamentary bills, research reports and evaluations of ongoing changes in policy and research as. We identified characteristic phases in the welfare state governance from expansion and centralistic governance over deregulation and decentralization and later into the introduction of a voucher system and governing by results. The analyses resulted in three major conclusions:− At the start comparative education research was rare and had a humanistic base in comprehending education in other contexts. The emerging ILSA was based in the social sciences where comparisons centered on differences in efficiency over national contexts.− During the first decades of ILSA there was little evidence of societal relevance, e.g. in use for policy decisions and reform initiatives. However, the societal relevance increased drastically, given the restructuring of the educational system and the increasing importance given to supranational organizations.− ILSA was from the beginning strongly contextualized and dependent on external resources. The making of the IIE opened up new possibilities for ILSA in Academia, but it is the more recent changes in governance and changes in methodology as well as technology that has allowed the success and dominance of ILSA in research and policy discourses.Given these conclusions ILSA turned out to be a successful but contested approach to educational research. For the coproduction of science/society the combination of a strong emphasis on ILSA in social and political discourses on education plus the closing down of the International Institute of Education and the transfer of PISA studies to Pearson is congenial to this development.References:Fridjonsdottir, K. (1987). Social Change, Trade Union Politics, and the Sociology of Work. In The Social Direction of the Public Sciences (pp. 249-276). Springer Netherlands.Grek, S. (2009). Governing by numbers: The PISA ‘effect’ in Europe. Journal of education policy, 24(1), 23-37.Husén, T., & Postlethwaite, T. N. (1996). A Brief History of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (TEA). Assessment in Education: principles, policy & practice, 3(2), 129-141.Jasanoff, S. Markle, G. E., Peterson, J. C., & Pinch, T. (Eds.). (2001). Handbook of science and technology studies. Sage publications.Lindblad, S., Pettersson, D., & Popkewitz, T. S. (2015). International comparisons of school results - A systematic review of research on Large Scale Assessment in education. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish Research Council.Nowotny, H., Scott, P., & Gibbons, M. (2003). Introduction: Mode 2'Revisited: The New Production of Knowledge. Minerva, 41(3), 179-194.Ozga, J., & Lingard, B. (2007). Globalisation, education policy and politics. The RoutledgeFalmer reader in education policy and politics, 65-82.Wagner, P. (1987). Social sciences and political projects: reform coalitions between social scientists and policy-makers in France, Italy, and West Germany. In The Social Direction of the Public Sciences (pp. 277-306). Springer Netherlands.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, et al.
(författare)
-
Higher Education and Research in a Steady State : Changing premises and practices for educational research in Sweden.
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Nordic Journal of Educational Policy, NordSTEP. - : Informa UK Limited. - 2002-0317. ; 1:1
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter addresses changing premises and practices for and in educational research in the case of Sweden. The ambition is to analyse changing preconditions for educational research and potential implications of this for research practices and knowledge production in the field of education. The text is organised in three inquiries: First, we present a general framework of transitions in the system of higher education and research as a combination of expansion and contraction. Second, we analyse educational research in Sweden, its trajectory, playground and play performances, indicating possible changes in the rules of the game. Here we apply an international perspective. Thirdly, based on this, we discuss the current situation - the condition we are in for educational research, and where to go?
|
|
| 6. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Higher Education and Research in a Steady State – On changing premises and practices for educational research in Sweden.
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Elmgren, M.; Folke-Fichtelius, M.; Hallsén, S.; Román, H. & Wemke, W. (Red): Att ta utbildningens komplexitet på allvar. - Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. - 9789155494759 ; , s. 209-225
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Considering current discourses on educational research at universities, research councils and government the preconditions for educational research are in transition. Catchwords like “World class,” “excellence,” “strategic,” “visionary,” “multi-disciplinary,” and “internationally competitive” are repeatedly used among financiers and higher education institutions (HEI) and reflect what is at stake and what has come into focus. This is combined with an increasing emphasis on competition for research funds, publication impact, international networking and research cooperation in research projects. In sum, what is communicated to the research community with such an emphasis today is competition, positioning in research hierarchies and demands for strategic action in order to obtain funds and to produce what is regarded as high-quality research of social and political accountability.
|
|
| 7. |
|
|
| 8. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
On relevance and norms of science in times of restructuring
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Trimmer, K. (Ed): Political Pressures on Educational and Social Research International perspectives. - New York : Routledge. - 9781138947122 ; , s. 66-76
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This chapter addresses the nature and consequences of changes in public research policy towards increased competitiveness and strategic funding for educational research in Sweden. Motivated by the basic fact that state interference within the realms of educational research always relates to political interests in its social value, our focus will be on the transition of arrangements and conceptions of such ideas and their implications for critical and autonomous research, long considered to guarantee the production of high-quality research of societal importance. The case we are analysing is Sweden – a Nordic welfare state in the process of rapid restructuring of higher education and research. We consider this a fruitful case with processes and practices that are common to other national and international settings, but with some specif ic characteristics in the ways in which research and higher education policy has operated in the social and intellectual organization of educational research. More precisely we put forwards three characteristics: Firstly, educational research was organized as a specif ic discipline (Pedagogik) as in continental Europe (e.g. the Nordic countries and Germany and Switzerland) and is now transformed into a f ield of educational sciences (pedagogik, psychology, political science, humanities, etc.) competing for recognition and resources. Secondly, educational research was previously to a large extent carried out outside teacher education colleges in specif ic university departments, but is now getting a more prominent position in teacher education, where, thirdly, the previous organization of teacher colleges are being dissolved and instead organized into multi-disciplinary university departments. Thus, by means of these specif ic characteristics the Swedish case has the potential to further clarify the complex and intriguing political nature of research organization more generally.
|
|
| 9. |
- Foss Lindblad, Rita, 1953, et al.
(författare)
-
Post-political governing of welfare state education in Sweden
- 2016
-
Ingår i: Reimers, E. and Martinsson, L. (Eds) (2016): Education and Political Subjectivities in Neoliberal Times and Places Emergences of norms and possibilities. - New York : Routledge. - 9781138962880 ; , s. 86-100
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Seen solely in terms of educational governance the “odd” and extraordinary way of educational governance demonstrated in our introduction by the interaction between OECD expertise and the Swedish government may not appear odd at all. It may, just, be seen as different, being just another regime of governance with differences as well as similarities with other such regimes. Even though this conclusion makes sense, it makes sense only if we deny ourselves the opportunity of reflecting about what is “not so evident” when it comes to education and educational policy (and it is for example evident that both education and educational policy change over time, and that the changes themselves has something to do with changes in society as well as politics). In this text this “not so evident” has turned into a concern about the educated, understood at once as the target and outcome of education as well as of educational policy, understood as an abstraction referring to a wide range of possibilities of educational organizations, offers and subjectivities allowed for within the realms of “the educated”. It is, we will claim, also with regard to the educated that the present regime of governance seems grave in its consequences. When education and the educated as social phenomenon are normatively turned into statistical universals, we are not only confronted with reductionism of a sort that make us wish for more robust understandings and explanations. Even more seriously, these seemingly neutral and unmarked figures are highly policical as well as performative and very effective in hiding the political character of education as well as the educated as emergent phenomena (Bellmann, 2013) – therefore also effective in hindering the making of alternative educational and political subjectivities. The curriculum code of a self-regulative performer acting within the frames of soft governance and international assessment is a signifier of an instrumental and technified education system of governmental subjectivation (Simons & Masschelein, 2010) much in need to be analyzed and compared to other ways of curriculum designs and education governance with other kinds of political subjectivation.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
