Educational (de)segregation in North Macedonia: The intersection of policies, schools, and individuals

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-328
Author(s):  
Aryn Bloodworth
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Contact Theory ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Ethnic Segregation ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
Integrated Education ◽  
Critical Policy

North Macedonia’s two main ethnic groups, the Albanians and Macedonians, have experienced increasing segregation in education, though recent political shifts have made social cohesion a priority, which could replace decades of segregationist policies and break down a damaging cycle of segregation. Using a qualitative approach, I examine the complex relationship between policies, schools, and individuals through analysing 18 years of education policies, interviews/focus groups with 30 participants, and four years living and working in segregated communities. To explore how educational policies, institutions, and practices perpetuate ethnic segregation in North Macedonia, and how growing up in a divided society shapes individuals’ conceptions of themselves and other predominant ethnic groups, I employ contact theory and critical policy analysis. I find that as students grow up in divided schools and communities, their conceptions of the self and of people from other ethnic groups are constituted by these experiences of segregation. While the nation’s education policies currently include more initiatives for integrated education, these have yet to be implemented satisfactorily, meaning that public schools could teach inclusion and serve as a mechanism for dispelling negative stereotypes, but to do so requires a reconceptualization of ethnic difference and a cohesive vision of national identity.

scholarly journals Policy advocacy, inequity, and school fees and fundraising in Ontario, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Winton ◽  
Michelle Milani
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Advocacy ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dominant Discourses ◽  
The Government ◽  
Critical Policy

Fundraising and collecting fees are ubiquitous in Ontario, Canada’s public schools. Critics assert that these practices perpetuate and exacerbate inequities between schools and communities. In this article we present findings from a critical policy analysis of an advocacy group’s efforts to change Ontario’s fees and fundraising policies over the past two decades. Rhetorical analyses of 110 texts finds that the group constructed the problem of each policy similarly, targeted the same audiences, and utilized many of the same strategies to appeal to logos, ethos, and pathos in their struggle over the policies’ meanings. However, only one out of four of the group’s policy meanings became dominant. The discursive and critical policy perspectives grounding the study directed us to examine how neoliberalism and the policies’ shared broader social, political, and economic contexts can help explain this outcome. Specifically, the group’s efforts to change Ontario’s school fees and fundraising policies confronted dominant discourses that construct parents as consumers of education and responsible for their children’s success in a competitive world, promote the meritocratic notion that successful people deserve their success and the benefits it brings, view the government as responsible only for providing the basic requirements of education, and support privatization and marketization of public schools.

scholarly journals Framing teacher education: Conceptions of teaching, teacher education, and justice in Chilean national policies

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
M. Beatriz Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Teacher Preparation ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Quality Teachers ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
National Policies ◽  
Knowledge For Teaching ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Critical Policy

Chile shows high inequity and socioeconomic stratification in both K-12 education and teacher preparation. Drawing on the notion of frames, this critical policy analysis examines how teaching, teacher education, and justice were conceptualized in Chile’s teacher preparation policies between 2008-2015. It also analyzes the narrative stories implicit in these policy documents. Analysis of the documents shows that national policies emphasize a content knowledge for teaching and teacher education and conceptualize justice as an issue of access to quality teachers. These approaches to teaching, teacher education, and justice are similar to predominant discourses in countries like the US. However, Chilean national policies are promoted using a narrative of development instead of the narrative of decline or crisis usually used in developed countries. These findings contribute to the understanding of national teacher education policies and their connection to the process of policy borrowing. The paper shows both the particularities of frames and narratives used in teacher education policies in developing countries like Chile and their similarities to those in countries that implement neoliberal policies in teacher education.

scholarly journals Planning as strategy for improving Black and Latinx student equity: Lessons from nine California community colleges

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Eric R. Felix ◽  
Marlon Fernandez Castro
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Planning Process ◽  
State Level ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Community College District ◽  
Student Equity ◽  
College System ◽  
Higher Education Policies ◽  
Critical Policy

In 2014, California policymakers passed the Student Equity Plans (SEP) policy to address disparities in the community college system. The reform effort formalized a campus-wide planning effort that required institutions to examine their data for disparities, develop goals and strategies to mitigate identified inequities, and use new fiscal resources to realize their plans. In recent years, there has been an increase in the enactment of state-level higher education policies, but few, if any, have focused on the notion of equity or explicitly named racial and ethnic groups as policy beneficiaries. This study examines nine student equity plans in the state’s largest community college district. Drawing upon critical policy analysis, we place a focus on understanding if, and how, the planning process was used to address inequities facing Black and Latinx students. Based on our analysis we found several themes on how plans identified and address barriers facing Black and Latinx students. After examining 178 equity activities, we found only 28 promising activities that explicitly targeted Black and Latinx students with culturally relevant, data-driven, evidence-based strategies. These findings have compelling implications for policymakers seeking to develop reform efforts and institutions using policy to address current and historic inequities faced by Black and Latinx students. The use of planning for improvement is commonplace in educational policy, but we find that more training and capacity-building efforts are necessary to use planning as an opportunity to address racial inequity in community college.

scholarly journals The Discursive Tapestry of Economic and Educational Story Lines

2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 234-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley W. Carpenter
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Policies ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Analysis Framework ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Critical Policy ◽  
Policy Solutions

Using a critical policy analysis framework, this article examines the discursive foundation of the most recent era of educational reform. The purpose of this article is to provide educational practitioners and scholars with a better understanding of how neoliberal and globalized discourse may codetermine what practitioners—the readers and implementers of policy—are offered as legitimate policy solutions for public schools. The findings of this article examine the ideological foundations of the educational policies put forward by the Obama/Duncan and Trump/DeVos administrations. Specifically, this article shows how, over the past 40 years, two historically related elements determined the purposes of educational policy: (a) the continual threat of economic instability that began in the 1970s as the interconnectedness of global economics became apparent, and (b) the subsequent institutionalization of economic policies intended to secure the health of the economy and establish the United States as a dominant force in the global capitalist marketplace.

Safe Zones, Dangerous Leadership: Decolonial Leadership in Settler-Colonial School Contexts

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 519-540
Author(s):  
Awaachia’ookaate’ (Jason D. Cummins, Apsáalooke) ◽  
Ethan Chang
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
District Leadership ◽  
Local Pressure ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
School Contexts ◽  
Local Leadership ◽  
Native Communities ◽  
District Implementation ◽  
Critical Policy

Recent studies of Indigenous educational leadership have contributed instructive conceptual insights to decolonize public schools. Building on these theoretical insights, we investigate the organizational and policy constraints leaders face when attempting to enact decolonial strategies. Combining “safety zone theory” and Critical Policy Analysis, we examine how one Apsáalooke educational leader, Cummins negotiated and challenged institutionalized practices delimiting “safe Indian-ness.” These include: (a) transactional, policy inscribed relations between schools and Native communities; and (b) tepid district implementation of pro-Native legislation, such as policies expressing a commitment to preserving Native American cultures. We convey how Cummins made, unmade, and remade new policy meanings through local leadership practices, such as creating more humanizing Apsáalooke-defined spaces for community-school engagements and orchestrating local pressure to move district leadership to fulfill policy commitments to serve Native students. Data includes 18 interviews with Apsáalooke tribal members, education policy texts, and collaborative auto-ethnographic memos. Based on these findings, we develop the notion of dangerous leadership: a decolonial leadership praxis that challenges settler–colonial conceptions of safety and negotiates material, communal, and personal threats that such acts of subversion tend to provoke. We conclude by discussing implications for dangerous leadership amid nonideal and constantly shifting settler-colonial school contexts.

The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP): Challenge or opportunity?

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 21-37
Author(s):  
Judith Anthony
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Future Research ◽  
English Language Learning ◽  
Learning Progressions ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Critical Policy Analysis ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Critical Policy

This article provides an overview and critical analysis of The English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP) (Ministry of Education, 2008). Identifying main themes through critical policy analysis, this review seeks to place ELLP in context through a comparison with The English Language Learning Framework: Draft (Ministry of Education, 2005) and English Language Learning Progressions (ELLP ) Pathway Years 1–8 (Ministry of Education, 2020a). Within this review, the structure of ELLP is explored along with key ideas and claims. It is argued that there are both challenges and opportunities in ELLP. Finally, the key issues are summarised and suggestions are made for future research.

“Weg Da—Wir Wollen Lernen!” Education Reform in Hamburg, Germany in Neoliberal Times

2013 ◽  
Vol 115 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Jeff Bale
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
News Media ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Substantial Part ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Reform Measure ◽  
Interpretive Communities ◽  
Critical Policy

Background/Context This paper is in dialogue with critical policy scholarship that has developed a certain consensus about what neoliberalism is and what its impact has been on recent education policy. A substantial part of the paper comprises a synthesis of recent German scholarship on neoliberal education policies in that country. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on critical analysis of neoliberal education policy, this paper examines a recent education reform measure in Hamburg, Germany. A key component of the intended reform measure was defeated by a ballot initiative spearheaded by a coalition of Hamburg residents widely understood to represent the city's wealthy elite. Making sense of the controversy over this reform measure is the central goal of this paper. To do so, I identify five features of neoliberal education policy in Germany and use them as a framework within which to read the specific reform measure in Hamburg and the resistance to it. Research Design This paper reports an interpretive policy analysis and draws on document sources from four interpretive communities: (a) Hamburg's education ministry; (b) two pro-reform coalitions; (c) one anti-reform coalition; and (c) news media sources. A total of 389 documents were collected for this study, to which I applied a grounded theory approach for data analysis. Conclusions/Recommendations By reading this controversy against previous scholarship on neoliberal education policy, I argue that this specific case of education reform in Hamburg does not follow the pattern such analysis would predict. By stressing this divergence, I neither intend to challenge the consensus on neoliberalism within critical policy scholarship, nor to position this reform policy as a panacea to neoliberal ills. Rather, I argue that the anomalous nature of this specific reform effort in Hamburg provides two unique analytical opportunities: (a) to understand more deeply the constraints imposed by neoliberalism on schooling, especially in a context of policy making that bucks the neoliberal trend; and (b) to identify more clearly what educational policy strategies are required to move beyond neoliberal imperatives for schooling and society.

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