03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
Local Quality Management - Local School Governance in Light of a Re-centralization Movement
Carl-Henrik Adolfsson
Linnaeus University, Sweden
Presenting Author: Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik
The overall aim of this paper is to explore and theorize on local school governance. In Sweden, as in many other decentralized school systems, extensive responsibility and autonomy has been delegated to Local Educational Authorities (LEA) concerning school management; as well as attaining and securing educational quality. However, ages of declining student achievement and deficient equality between schools have spurred extensive criticism against the Swedish school system. This criticism has resulted in a recentralisation trend, where the state has successively taken a stronger control over schools' outcomes in terms of, for example, an establishment of a Swedish School Inspectorate in 2008 with the aim to strengthen the national audit and monitoring of schools; ii) a reformation of the Education Act in 2010, emphasizing local authorities’ responsibility for educational quality, student achievement, and equality; iii) the initiation of a number of national professional development programs; and iv) a national curriculum with strengthened national knowledge standards, assessment criteria, and a predefined knowledge corpus. Considering such a ‘re-centralization’ movement, new conditions between the state, the LEA and the schools has emerged (Wahlström & Sundberg, 2017a; Adolfsson, 2018). In the light of such a changing governing landscape, questions linked to local school governance can be raised concerning how the LEA navigate and handle the tension between strengthened state regulation and LEA’s responsibility for educational quality. Based on results from two research projects, conducted in two large-sized Swedish municipalities, the following research question is guiding this paper:
In the light of an emerging re-centralization movement in Sweden, what governing strategies and actions do the LEAs apply to control and manage the schools with aim to attaining and securing educational quality?
Considering a ‘classical’ perspective of school governance (Lindesjö & Lundgren, 2014) four aspects of governance is often mentioned: regulation, economy, ideology (content) and evaluation. This paper offer a complementary perspective on school governance. In this paper, school governance are understood and studied in light of an organizational and neo-institutional theoretical framework (Orton &Weick, 1990; Scott, 2008). The school system is considered as a coupled system composing of different subsystems. From that perspective, school governance is understood as an effort to strengthen the couplings between these different subsystems (e.g. the national curriculum and the teaching practice) to attain a more coherent school system. In light of such coupling aspirations, three dimensions can be highlighted regarding how institutions try to control and affect other institutions, respond to external pressure, and seek legitimacy: regulative (rules and sanctions), normative (prevalent norms, expectations and ideals), and cognitive-cultural/discursive (shared conceptions and frames of sense-making) (Scott, 2008). These theoretical concepts enable to explore and distinghuish the character of different strategies and actions that LEA undertake concerning the local governance of the schools.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedEmpirical data from two research projects have been used to answer the research question (Adolfsson & Alvunger, 2020; Håkansson & Adolfsson, 2021). These two projects had a common interest in the dynamic interplay between the LEA and the local schools in two Swedish municipalities, in light of a changed national school governance. The process of analyzing the empirical material was conducted in two steps. In the first step, the transcribed material was analyzed exploratively. 18 semi-structured individual interviews of LEA representants were analyzed together with local policy documents concerning organization, policy and vision, leading and management structure, school improvement strategies. The aim was to attain an understanding of the LEA’s quality assurance systems in the two municipalities concerning organizational routines, strategies, and actions.In addition data from eight focus group interviews with principals (n= 23) were analyzed with aim to understand how principals made sense of a responded to these strategies and actions.
In the next step, these empirical findings were analyzed in
light of the study’s theoretical framework, i.e., in terms of tightly and loosely coupled systems and dimesions of school governance.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsBased on the results It seems that local authorities’ space for regulative sanctions and control has been weakened. In order to compensate, local authorities apply strategies of soft governance for controlling the schools. These strategies are characterized by normative and cognitive/discursive dimension and conducted within the context of the LEA’s quality assurance systems. The following strategies can be distinguished as especially important:
- Local school governance through “Data-based decision making”
- Local governance through quality dialogues
- Local governance through professional learning and best practice
- Obligatory educational programs for principals and system actors concerning
leadership and data-based school improvement
- Principal recruitment
Finally, I’ll argue that ‘quality management’ should be seen as a fifth dimension of school governance.
ReferencesAdolfsson, Carl-Henrik (2018). Upgraded curriculum? An analysis of knowledge boundaries in teaching under the Swedish subject-based curriculum. Curriculum Journal, 29(3), 424-440.
Adolfsson, C-H., & Alvunger. D. (2020). Power dynamics and policy actions in the changing landscape of local school governance. Nordic Journal of Studies in Educational Policy, 6(2), 128–142.
Håkansson, J. & Adolfsson, C. (2021). Local education authority’s quality management within a coupled school system: strategies, actions, and tensions. Journal of Educational Change.
Lindensjö, B., & Lundgren, U. P. (2014). Utbildningsreformer och politisk styrning. Stockholm, Liber
Orton, J. D., & Weick, K. E. (1990). Loosely coupled systems: A reconceptualization. Academy of Management Review, 15, 203-223.
Scott, W. (2008). Institutions and organizations: Ideas and interests. London: Sage.
Wahlström, N., & Sundberg, D. (2017). Transnational curriculum standards and classroom practices: The new meaning of teaching. Routledge
03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
Creating a Rich, Common Curriculum for all Students: Insights into Teaching Practices that Promote Curricular Justice
Stewart Riddle1, Martin Mills2, Glenda McGregor3
1University of Southern Queensland, Australia; 2Queensland University of Technology, Australia; 3Griffith University, Australia
Presenting Author: Riddle, Stewart;
Mills, Martin
Despite the commitment by governments and educational leaders to high-quality and high-equity systems, the defining features of contemporary schooling in liberal democracies are increasing inequality and the uneven distribution of educational opportunities and outcomes (OECD, 2022). Given the challenges of the twenty-first century and the complex set of crises facing young people as they move through the world (Riddle, 2022), it is imperative that we develop new concepts of curriculum, which are committed to providing young people with the best chance of success, but especially for those who have been most marginalised by society’s economic, social and cultural structures. Therefore, it is timely to consider what the concept of curricular justice means for schooling in the twenty-first century (Mills et al., 2022).
This paper argues for a rich, common curriculum that provides all young people with learning choices that have relevance to their worlds, contribute to the preparation for work or further education, alongside opportunities for engagement with a broader knowledge base connected to critical understandings of culture and society. To that end, we have developed a curricular framework of ‘knowledge+plus’, which is committed to the tripartite social justice principles of redistribution, recognition and representation (Fraser, 2004), and brings together powerful knowledge (Young, 2008) and young people’s community funds of knowledge (Moll, 2019) in a common curriculum (Fielding & Moss, 2011; Kelly, 2004). A rich, common curriculum is not an identical curriculum for all students, but rather is developed from a set of common elements, in which ‘young people engage with important disciplinary concepts, are intellectually challenged, and enabled to critically frame knowledge, which is connected to their lives and experiences, while also drawing on broader cultural and social meaning-making practices’ (Mills et al., 2022, p. 350). Such a common curriculum is essential for an inclusive schooling, which can deliver on the promise of a high-quality and high-equity education system for all young people.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedWorking with teams of teachers (n=40) across three case study schools in Australia, a Cycles of Inquiry methodology was utilised to develop, implement and reflect on curriculum innovations within schools serving low socioeconomic and superdiverse communities. Teachers were supported in developing rich pedagogies that were contextually relevant for their students, to maximise opportunities for all students to engage in a high-quality and meaningful curriculum. Data included interviews with participant–teachers, curriculum and school leaders, curriculum planning materials and reflective observations gathered during the process of each participant–teacher’s action research inquiries. Data were analysed comparatively and thematically to determine points of similarity and divergence within teaching teams and across schools.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsInitial findings suggest that when teachers adopt an intentional approach to a knowledge+plus curriculum pedagogical approaches change so as to make necessary connections between students and diverse knowledges. This is especially effective for young people who have traditionally been marginalised, disenfranchised and excluded from certain types of learning experiences. A further Cycle of Inquiry will be undertaken with participant–teachers to elaborate on these initial findings, which will enable additional empirical evidence for a knowledge+plus curriculum, which is committed to social justice for all students.
ReferencesFielding, M. & Moss, P. (2011). Radical education and the common school: A democratic alternative. Routledge.
Fraser, N. (2004). Recognition, redistribution and representation in capitalist global society: An interview with Nancy Fraser, Acta Sociologica, 47(4), 374–382.
Kelly, A. V. (2004). The curriculum: Theory and practice (5th ed). Sage Publications.
Mills, M., Riddle, S., McGregor, G. & Howell, A. (2022). Towards an understanding of curricular justice and democratic schooling. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 54(3), 345–356. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2021.1977262
Moll, L. (2019). Elaborating Funds of Knowledge: Community-oriented practices in international contexts. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 68(1), 130–138. https://doi.org/10.1177/23813369198708
OECD. (2022). Education at a glance 2022: OECD Indicators. https://doi.org/10.1787/3197152b-en
Riddle, S. (2022). Schooling for democracy in a time of global crisis: Towards a more caring, inclusive and sustainable future. Routledge.
Young, M. (2008). Bringing knowledge back in: From social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of education. Routledge.
03. Curriculum Innovation
Paper
Subject Choice at 15 and Global Competences
Marina Shapira, Mark Priestley
University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Presenting Author: Shapira, Marina
The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) (e.g., Scottish Executive, 2004; Scottish Government, 2008) has been widely acknowledged as the most significant educational development in Scotland in a generation (Priestley & Humes, 2010). Implemented from 2010, the holistic, competency-based curriculum for those aged 3-18 years seeks to prepare children and young people for the workplace and citizenship in the 21st century (Scottish Government, 2009).
Previous studies have examined how the breadth of the Scottish secondary curriculum (defined as the number of entries to National 5 qualifications in year 4 of secondary education in Scotland, S4) narrowed under CfE (Shapira & Priestley, 2018, 2019) and investigated the relationship between CfE breadth and attainment in school (Shapira et al., 2022).
Given the four capacities framework of CfE, one might assume that students exposed to a broad upper secondary curriculum would not only attain better academic results and move to positive destinations, but also develop skills and competences that indicate they have a better understanding of the complexities of modern societies, awareness of the world and its contemporary problems, cultural openness and sensitivity, self-awareness and resilience, and active citizenship. In other words, it seems that the breadth of the secondary curriculum could be linked to measures of the OECD global competencies.
This paper aims to explore the relationships between the measures of competence of 15-year-old students in Scotland, available in the 2018 Scotland’s PISA dataset, and the breadth of the secondary curriculum experienced by 15-16 year-olds in state-funded secondary schools in Scotland.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn this study we linked between the Scottish Government administrative education data (SGAED) and the 2018 PISA data for Scotland using the source code that allowed matching between the school ID variable in the PISA dataset and the school ID variable in the SGAED. The source code was provided to us by the Scottish Government Analytical Services.
Scottish Government administrative education data
In this study we used administrative data on subject enrolment, attainment, and initial destinations of Scottish school leavers, for all state-funded secondary schools in Scotland, special schools excluded (363 in total), for years 2011-2019, provided by the Scottish Government.
PISA Data
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international study that began in 2000 with the aim of evaluating education systems worldwide. It tests the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students in participating countries/economies, focusing on key subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science. Every three years, a randomly selected group of fifteen-year-olds take the tests, which are not linked directly to school curriculum, but are designed to assess how well students can apply their knowledge to real-life situations (OECD, 2020). In 2018, PISA added an assessment of ‘Global Competence’, which evaluates students’ abilities of cognitive reasoning concerning global and intercultural issues, as well as their socio-emotional skills and attitudes. These new measures were introduced in order to assess whether students are ready to ‘thrive in an interconnected world’ (OECD, 2020).
The variables we used include:
o PISA Maths, English and Science Test scores
o Age & Gender
o An number of ensures describing the family background such as paternal education, family wealth and educational resources, etc.
Other measures from the PISA dataset included measures of well-being and global competences including:
Belonging to school; Being informed about international conflicts, migration and climate change; Adapting to different situations Being able to handle multiple tasks simultaneously; Learning about and respecting other cultures at school; Awareness of the world's problems.
Methods
We used descriptive and inferential data analysis methods, including multilevel regression modelling (level 1 - individual students nested in level 2 - secondary schools), to explore the relationship between the average number of National 5-level qualifications subject entries made by students in year 4 of secondary education and 1) attainment, as measured by PISA Math, Science and English scores, 2) numerous measures of OECD global competences, while controlling for the characteristics of students, their families, and their schools.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsIn summary, we found that the number of subject choices entered in schools for National 5 level qualifications in S4 was positively associated with attainment measured by PISA English and Maths test scores. The positive relationship remained statistically significant after controlling for individual, family, and school-level characteristics. Furthermore, the analysis of the relationship between the subject choice in S4 and measures of global competences revealed that, after controlling for students' age and gender, their family's education, economic, social, and cultural resources, and immigration status, and the school's SIMD, % FSM, % ASN, and student/teacher ratio, the positive relationship between the average number of subjects entered by students in schools for National 5 qualifications in S4 was statistically significant for PISA composite indexes
• awareness about importance of intercultural communications,
• global mindedness,
• resilience
• sense of belonging to schools.
These findings suggest that enrolling in a broad range of subjects in S4 and, thus, a broader secondary curriculum, is associated with the wider competencies of young people, preparing them better for life in a modern, complex and interconnected world.
ReferencesScottish Government. (2017). Positive Destinations: A Framework for Action. Edinburgh: Scottish Government. Retrieved from https://www2.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00524093.pdf
The Scottish Government. (2017). Entitled to a world class education: delivering excellence and equity in Scottish education. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government. Retrieved from https://www.gov.scot/publications/entitled-world-class-education-delivering-excellence-equity-scottish-education/pages/3/
Scottish Government. (2020). Four capacities: Scotland’s curriculum for excellence. Retrieved from: https://beta.gov.scot/policies/curriculum-for-excellence/four-capacities/
PISA (2018) PISA 2018 global Competence , Global competence - PISA (oecd.org)
OECD (2018) Preparing our Youth for an Inclusive and Sustainable World: The OECD Global Competence Framework. Retrieved from Handbook-PISA-2018-Global-Competence.pdf (oecd.org)
Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology, Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
OECD (2021). Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future, Implementing Education Policies. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Priestley, M., Alvunger, D., Philippou, S. & Soini, T. (2021). Curriculum making in Europe: policy and practice within and across diverse contexts. Bingley: Emerald.
Scottish Government (2008). Building the Curriculum 3. A framework for learning and teaching. Edinburgh: Scottish Government.
Shapira, M. & Priestley, M. (2020). Do schools matter? An exploration of the determinants of lower secondary school subject choices under the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence. Review of Education, 8, 191-238.
Shapira, M. & Priestley, M. (2018). Narrowing the Curriculum? Contemporary trends in provision and attainment in the Scottish Curriculum. Scottish Educational Review, 50(1), 75-107.
Shapira, M., Barnett, C., Peace-Hughes, T., Priestley, M. & Ritchie, M. (2022) Subject choice at 16 and attainment across the Scottish National Qualifications Framework. Nuffield Project, Working Paper No. 4. Stirling: University of Stirling.
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