School Improvement And New Education Governance

Educational change via school improvement plans reconsidered in terms

of “new education governance”

Dr. Martin Heinrich Institute of Pedagogy & PsychologyUniversity of Linz, Austria

 

“Education governance” as a synonym for “bureaucracy” and “control”?

There is a need for a systemic view which simultaneously takes cognizance of processes taking place on the micro-, meso- and macro-levels of the education system!

Education governance, not as an obstacle to, but as a force promoting school development!

 

New Education governance by means of “Steering”

“Steering” means taking actions and making decisions which influence further actions and decisions of relevant actors in a particular direction.

 

To talk of “steering” does not imply:

• that steering intentions might be translated directly and unchanged into corresponding follow-up actions,

• that steering actions take place without

side effects or do not generate “transintentional effects”

• that steering actions take place, as it were, “automatically,” without individual and social mediating steps.

 

To talk of steering, however, implies an attempt

– grounded by a certain (steering) logic or a (steering) concept –

to diminish the contingency or arbitrariness of follow-up actions.

 Central strategic value of internal and

external evaluation in the search for new steering models

 

The concept of “evaluation” has changed over time:

1. Concepts of “self-evaluation of schools”

2. External evaluation ideas (school inspection, peer review, benchmarking), but related to internal evaluation measures.

3. External evaluation measures: establishing education standards and obtaining information on system output from related tests.

 

The current situation as an implicit new steering model: “evaluation-based steering concept”

It is the isochronous combination of:

• school autonomy;• school development by means of quality

management; • implementation of education standards;• involvement in international large-scale

assessment tests; and • efforts to establish system monitoring.

 

The twofold function of evaluation withinthe “evaluation-based steering concept”:

• On the one hand encouraging teachers to undertake the formulation and “self-evaluation” of their goals in school improvement plans in order to stimulate development potential and creative will.

• On the other hand external evaluations to provide higher levels with data and intervention possibilities for their steering concepts.

 

By means of this twofold function of evaluation the prima facie plausible idea of

an “evaluation-based steering concept” generates confusion: different concepts of

evaluation and control clash, which disturbs the apparent consensus

 

When we say that we may evaluate the evaluation and if

that then had the same consequences as our evaluation,

then I would do it. That means that … after he [the school

inspector] has done it, he must reveal his criteria of

evaluation and, in my opinion, must indicate how he

regards our school, how he evaluates it, and he must

also give proof of the fact that he has information about

our school, that he also comprehends particular

circumstances and then also sees certain limitations.

However, if he cannot give proof of that, then it will turn

out that his evaluation is in a sense worthless.

 

Yes, that is undeniably domineering and patronizing.

That also tends to indicate the unseriousness of the

whole business. And if they really believe in this, […]

they themselves would also have to be included.

Because if they don’t, they implicitly set out with the

assumption that what they set in motion is completely

justified and correct and that they are basically an […]

organization which always is right, which they are not.

They would have to allow themselves to be called into

question. However, that would basically reflect what I am

asking for: if one carries out reforms only in a limited

area that will not be enough.

 

Basically, one also has to reform the frame conditions;

[…] even the authorities which give rise to this reform

wave must call themselves into question because they

must become the object of their own reform. […] But that

would require a lot, in fact, a tremendous amount of work

on all levels and for that reason one would perhaps once

more lose sight of what it’s all about: the students.

 

Acceptance problems of the ideas of an evaluation-based steering concept:

1. in many places the idea of evaluation-based quality development internal to the organization has still not prevailed;

2. where it has prevailed the skepticism towards the competence of external expertise has been maintained;

3. in this situation education policy is pushing ahead with external control, without being able to give proof that it possesses the necessary competence in terms of evaluation information which is also utilizable at the grassroots.

 

Summary: Revival of centralized control?

The new governance formation is being generated by a mixture of factors and mechanisms which are new in this constellation and, because of their heterogeneity and different points of departure, cannot be reductively described as “centralist control”

But until now no consistent concept of “new education governance”: insufficiently thought-through innovative “governance talk and a collision with “traditional action”

 

My current state-of-the-art analysis:

new education governance talk

&

partially innovated and challenged traditional governance action

 

Discussion to session 4A :

“Professional Learning and Management of Change”

Discussant: Dr. Hans-Guenter Rolff (Professor of Education/University of Dortmund, Germany)

Chair: Dr. Heinz Guenter Holtappels (Professor of Education/University of Dortmund, Germany)