Government Education Policies
Government education policies refer to the set of rules, regulations, and initiatives implemented by the government to shape and regulate the education system. These policies often address issues such as curriculum standards, funding allocation, teacher qualifications, and educational equity. They play a crucial role in shaping the quality and accessibility of education for individuals within a society.
6 Key excerpts on "Government Education Policies"
eBook - ePubResearching education policy
Ethical and methodological issues
- David Halpin, David Halpin(Authors)
- 2005(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Part I Theory, Scholarship and Research into Education Policy Chapter 2 Where We Are Now: Reflections on the Sociology of Education Policy Charles D.Raab Education Policy and Academic Research The transformations that have been in train in British education since the 1970s have discredited many of its most deeply-held values and have altered many familiar characteristics. For long stretches of post-war history, assumptions or myths about bureaucratic and professional control, about the role of politics and ministers, about ‘partnership’, and about the very integrity or boundedness of the systems themselves had been sustained by policies and practices, albeit often with difficulty. Recent criticisms and changes in these dimensions of power are not merely events in the education system alone: they are major occurrences in society and in the politics and government of Britain. This is because education claims a large share of public expenditure and is centrally important to so many cultural, social and economic processes and institutions of government. Therefore, radical departures in education policy and governance are likely to have strong repercussions elsewhere. However, those departures were themselves instigated in part by social, economic or cultural pressures and policies originating outside the education system but mediated through political processes. The restructuring of government and the State entails political and managerial ideologies of general application that also shape the particular form that educational change takes. Moreover, these are developments not only in the affairs of a single country, but in the pol-itics and policy of many countries from whom lessons are learnt and policy ideas are borrowed. The academic study of these phenomena has entailed the development of new approaches to recording and analysing change...
eBook - ePub- Fazal Rizvi, Bob Lingard(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...1 Conceptions of education policy Introduction Policy studies is a relatively recent field of academic endeavour. It emerged during the 1950s in mainly liberal democratic countries, where governments sought the resources of the social sciences to develop public policies, replacing earlier approaches that were largely intuitive and ad hoc. Fifty years later, policy studies has become an established field of study, central to the ways in which societies are now governed. Governments now employ a large number of policy experts to help them think through social problems, develop programmes and assess their effectiveness. Policy experts are also used to justify and promote political decisions, helping to steer social formations in particular directions. In this sense, policy studies as a field is inextricably linked to the processes of change. Especially in its more technical and bureaucratic forms, it has even come to replace politics, sidelining debates about values, shifting attention instead to matters of administrative dictates and directions. In the early stages of its development, policy studies was grounded mostly in ‘policy sciences’, an approach developed by political scientists to enquire into the ways in which public policies were best developed, implemented and evaluated (de Leon and Danielle 2007). Policy studies thus largely addressed the needs of the state, helping it to develop its priorities and programmes and determine ways of ensuring their efficiency and effectiveness. Governments believed that the intractable problems they faced could only be solved through the rigorous application of research knowledge and techniques developed by social scientists...
eBook - ePubLeading from the Inside Out
Expanded Roles for Teachers in Equitable Schools
- David Grubb, Lynda Tredway(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER FOUR GOVERNMENT POLICY AND ITS EFFECTS ON CLASSROOMS AND SCHOOLS • Policy Instruments, Theories of Action, and Implementation Problems • The Range of District Policies • States and Capacity-Building • The Schizophrenic Federal Role • Teacher Roles in Unions and Disciplinary Associations • Social Justice and the Equity Paradox M ANY OUTSIDE INFLUENCES affect schools and classrooms, particularly government policy. Teachers who want to play important roles in shaping their own classrooms and reforming their schools need to be aware of these external influences. The policy arena is broad and deep; therefore this chapter provides information about various levels of policy so that readers can understand the multiple forces at work, all with effects in classrooms. Understanding the way policy works will help all teachers understand better what happens to their classrooms and schools and why. Better understanding is also a precondition for teachers to participate in policy discussions—for example, in taking positions in their unions or disciplinary associations on proposed state and federal policies, or participating in district committees. By understanding policy, teachers and leaders can learn what to ask of district policy, or what positions on state policy would best support their school-level efforts. In this chapter, then, we examine the role of policies coming from districts, from states, and from the federal government. Textbox 4.1 provides some sources of information about policy, though there are usually other sources for specific states. TEXTBOX 4.1: SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT POLICY Education Week has a section on state policy as well as summaries of research...
eBook - ePubEducation in China
Philosophy, Politics and Culture
- Janette Ryan(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Polity(Publisher)
...General education policy directions and specific priorities such as those documented above are set by the CCP and the State apparatus, the State Council. The State Council formulates legislation and regulations to govern the overall direction of educational policies, which are put into effect by the central Ministry of Education (MOE). The central MOE coordinates with other departments as necessary, such as the Ministry of Finance, especially if government education initiatives have broader implications. These policies and strategies are implemented by a labyrinth of local departments of education at the provincial level and bureaus of education at the county level and through complex systems of oversight. These levels interpret the general central government policies and produce corresponding policy documents and practical guidance for schools and universities, although national-level universities report directly to the central MOE. Structure and funding of public education Although considerable autonomy has been devolved to school principals and university leaders, they still need to work closely with local MOE and CCP officials. Local bureaus and departments of education also provide regional consultants to advise schools on specific areas of curriculum and pedagogical practice. Different policies and conditions exist in cities and economically developed (especially coastal) areas and economically under-developed areas. Governments in minority autonomous regions formally have more autonomy and education is designed and regulated at the local government level within the overall central framework. Central government spending on education has increased and in 2016 was CNY3.8 trillion (USD560 billion), comprising 5.2 percent of GDP, an increase of 7.6 percent over the previous year, and this is projected to rise further (China Daily 2017e)...
eBook - ePub- Stephen Ball, Meg Maguire, Ivor Goodson, Stephen Ball, Meg Maguire, Ivor Goodson(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Governments and education reform: some lessons from the last 50 years Ben Levin OISE, Department of Theory and Policy Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Over the last few decades many efforts have been made to address education issues through policy at various levels. Looking at these efforts around the world suggests that they have often been motivated more by beliefs than by evidence of impact. Not only are the wrong policies often adopted, but effective implementation of education policy is often lacking. In part this is because governments face particular constraints on what they can do. Education reform efforts would be stronger if they gave more attention to reliable research evidence and a greater focus to what is known about effective teaching. Ever since public schools began, governments have been looking for ways to improve them. Over the last few decades many efforts have been made to address education issues through policy at various levels. Looking at these efforts around the world, one can only conclude that they have often been motivated more by untested assumptions or beliefs, or by issues currently in the public mind, than by evidence of value or potential impact (Perry et al. 2010; news.bbc.co.uk/2/mobile/ education/10207406.stm?SThisEM). The current moment, as suggested by Gamble, offers some new possibilities for considering the role of the state, since much of what previously was taken-for-granted seems to have led in the wrong direction. The same is true in education where much education policy has been unsuccessful in improving student outcomes or in reducing the inequities in those outcomes while also having negative effects on educators’ morale. Any historical moment offers both opportunities and constraints...
eBook - ePub- Carlo Raffo, Alan Dyson, Helen Gunter, Dave Hall, Lisa Jones, Afroditi Kalambouka, Carlo Raffo, Alan Dyson, Helen Gunter, Dave Hall, Lisa Jones, Afroditi Kalambouka(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...In contrast in many Nordic countries the level of public funding for comprehensive education is above the EU mean and generally more fairly distributed (for example in Finland each school educates children at the same per pupil rate). Although these various funding mechanisms may say much about the historical developments of education in different countries what they all demonstrate is a commitment to the public funding of education for all to at least upper secondary level. Although public funding is the bedrock to efficacious education systems, most countries have also developed national curricular, pedagogical, and accountability education policies that have attempted to drive up performance of schools generally and particularly those dealing with disadvantaged and poor students. In the UK, links between disadvantage and educational failure, and the subsequent policy activities, are relatively long established; however, in recent years—predominantly since the election of successive New Labour governments from 1997—the policy process can be considered as both intensified and wider in focus and outlook. This intensification can be seen in the tendency towards central intervention and is also evident in a results-driven focus—which has lead to an increase in target-setting and a need for educational providers to meet these targets—and the focus on delivering a ‘quality’-driven educational system. In many respects this policy agenda parallel’s the US’s No Child Left Behind 2001 Act which reauthorized a number of federal programmes aiming to improve the performance of US primary and secondary schools by increasing the standards of accountability for states, school districts, and schools, as well as providing parents more flexibility in choosing which schools their children will attend. Part of the drive to enhance quality education in many educational systems has been through curriculum reform...
