indonesia' teacher certification: an analysis using the world culture theory and the systems...
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Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy: An Analysis Using the World Culture Theory
and the Systems Theory
Iwan SyahrilMichigan State University
A special thanks to MSU’s Education Policy Program & Dept. of Teacher Education for supporting this presentation
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• Background
• Conceptual Framework
• The Policy - the World Culture Theory
• The Policy - the Systems Theory
• Lessons Learned
• The Problem with Defining “Quality”
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Background
Global discourse “The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers.”
Indonesian discourse: “Around the world, there has been an increasing
shift away from concern with access to a concern with quality in the educational systems of developing countries. If Indonesia is to keep
up with global trends in this regard, it must actively campaign to improve the quality of its
teachers, with the poor performance of Indonesian students attributed to the general
inadequacies of its teachers.” 3
ALL K-12 teachers
are certified
1 million with
Bachelor’s degree
1.7 million with out
Bachelor’s degree
Certification Assessment
2.7 millionteachers
2007 201537.5%
62.5%
100%
8 years
Academic Upgrading to Bachelor’s
degree
basic salary doubled/tripled
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Teachers, Government
agencies, Teacher
Education, Money,
Facilities, etc.
Policy Implementation Intended Outcome
~ To certify all
Indonesian K-12
teachers by 2015
~ To improve teacher’s
salary
All Indonesian
K-12 teachers
are certified in 2015 and
have improved
salary
Inputs, Components
Implementation Objectives
PolicyOutput
Teacher certification
improves teacher
quality, and improved teacher quality
improves student learning
Student learning
improves, therefore,
educational quality
improves
LinkingConstruct
PolicyOutcome
Figure 2. The certification policy logic model, adapted from McDavid & Hawthorn (2006)5
Preliminary findings• A pilot study in spring 2014
• Data collection: Interviews & document analysis Four teacher educators (three are top MoNE officers); One MoNE mid-level manager
• Policy output - Yes. Policy outcome - No. Quality did not seem to be the central goal The culture of civil servant —> (Bjork, 2005)
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The World Culture Theory
• Countries want to be “modern” nations —> similar development goals, projects, & commitments. Education as a solution to their development challenges —> similar issues —> similar approaches for ed policies.
• The advancement of scientific research in education —> standardized models of solutions —> Western civilization as the main references of the world models
• Intensification of national linkages to int’l education organizations —> defining ed models & agendas, framing problems and the solutions,
“All cultures are slowly integrating into a single global culture” (Spring, 2009, p. 9).
Meyer and Ramirez, 2000
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The World Culture Theory• Countries want to be “modern” nations
—> similar development goals, projects, & commitments. Education as a solution to their development challenges—> similar issues —> similar approaches for ed policies.
• The advancement of scientific research in education —> standardized models of solutions —> Western civilization as the main references of the world models
• Intensification of national linkages to int’l education organizations —> defining ed models & agendas, framing problems and the solutions,
The Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy
Using the international test data and studies on the data, it frames Indonesia as having comparable situations as other “modern” countries. The Government of Indonesia makes a rational decision —> teacher quality.
Proven best practices —> The role of teacher knowledge and skills and teacher incentives in improving student academic performance
The World Bank fills the role of experts by providing models and knowledge (from elsewhere) for Indonesia to implement its education reform goals successfully.8
The Systems Theory
• The act of policy borrowing and lending is not due to rational reasons but to political and economic ones. Policy borrowing —> build political coalitions.
• No best practices; rather, a story of coercing Western countries’ narratives.
• Instead of convergence, local meanings and realities prevail
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The Systems Theory
• The act of policy borrowing and lending is not due to rational reasons but to political and economic ones. Policy borrowing —> build political coalitions.
• No best practices; rather, a story of coercing Western countries’ narratives.
• Instead of convergence, local meanings and realities prevail
The Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy
The certification idea was a big political coalition between the government (pushing for teacher quality) and other forces such as teacher associations, parliament, etc. (pushing for teacher welfare)
The scholarship is still undecided about how and why certification can improve teacher quality and student learning.
Similar narratives, Indonesian context:e.g., the culture of civil servant.
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Lessons Learned• More on the Systems theory assumptions
• Hidden abode: “the announced goal is not what it seems – that is, it is not what the actor or those in authority in a collectivity actually intend” (Portes, 2000, p. 7).
• Policy bilingualism
• Comparability in international comparisons
• The political and economic dimensions in policy borrowing
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• Kennedy, 2010. Teacher qualit-ies~ tested ability (high test scores are quality)~ credentials (certificate and experience are quality) ~ ability to reason and learn from experiences ~ teacher effectiveness in raising test scores (student test scores are quality) ~ etc.
• Teacher qualities teaching quality or student learning (situational factors: students, materials, schedules, etc.)
• Decision on definition = policy tradeoffs
The problem of defining “quality” in “teacher quality”
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Next
• Focusing on the policy implementation process Why? Quite a few studies focus on the impact.
• Teacher education institutions as key implementing agents
• CIES 2016?
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Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy: An Analysis Using the World Culture Theory
and the Systems Theory
Iwan SyahrilMichigan State University
A special thanks to MSU’s Education Policy Program & Dept. of Teacher Education for supporting this presentation
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