Educating for the future? Mapping the emerging lines of precision education governance

Managing the future has become one of the major focuses of global governance in education. In its current mode, education seems unable to answer the needs and interests of the market and future megatrends, such as globalisation and digitalisation. Calls for precision education to introduce the usage of digital platforms, artificial intelligence in education, and knowledge from the behavioural and life sciences are getting a foothold in widening powerful networks of strengthening global governance and EdTech business. By bringing together some of the emerging changes in education governance, in this article we argue for a new constitution of governance, precision education governance. Precision education governance combines three overlapping and strengthening lines of governance: (i) global governance of education, (ii) marketisation, privatisation and digitalisation, and (iii) behavioural and life sciences as the basis for managing the future education. In the article, we highlight the importance in bringing these so far separately studied lines together to understand how they shape the aims and outcomes of education, knowledge and understanding of human subjectivity more thoroughly than before.

Economic Imperialism in Education Research: A Conceptual Review

In this review, we explore economic imperialism, a concept that captures the phenomenon of a single discipline’s power over so many facets of social life and policy—including education. Through a systematic search, we examine how economic imperialism has been conceptualized and applied across fields. We uncovered three key, interconnected elements of economic imperialism that hold relevance for education research. First, economics has colonized other disciplines, narrowing the lens through which policymakers have designed education reforms. Second, an overreliance on economic rationales for human behavior neglects other explanations. Third, a focus on economic outcomes of education has subjugated other important aims of education. We share implications for researchers to use economic theory in ways that are interdisciplinary but not imperialist.

'It's either Maccas or uni': A Bourdieusian analysis of working-class youth in New Zealand

<p>School to work transitions is often presented as a binary choice. You either pursue a university education that is framed as a sure-fire pathway to both social and economic mobility, or you pursue a ‘lesser’ form of industrial and vocational training, with little of hope of advancement. However, this thesis argues that this assumption must be contested, as it obscures the complexity of all school to work transitions and the potential for social mobility in these ‘lesser’ forms of education. Through interviews with young men and women who are training as an apprentice or have recently completed their apprenticeship, this thesis hopes to provide a more complex snapshot of school to work transitions, focusing on how apprentices find and adapt to their new trade. My overall argument centres on Bourdieu’s theory of practice which is often discussed concerning the specific class-based outcomes of education for students from different class conditions (Bourdieu 1977). While this approach is useful to showing the complexity of school to work transitions from supposedly ‘lesser’ pathways, this approach is overly reliant on habitus, presenting a type of individual agency that is primarily reproductive and non-conducive to any potential transformation. Instead of focusing on just habitus in understanding this transition, a greater emphasis is placed on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’. Specifically, how field conditions can influence both the degree and the type of agency within a field, presenting a more complicated conception of agency that can be simultaneously reproductive and transformative.</p>

'It's either Maccas or uni': A Bourdieusian analysis of working-class youth in New Zealand

<p>School to work transitions is often presented as a binary choice. You either pursue a university education that is framed as a sure-fire pathway to both social and economic mobility, or you pursue a ‘lesser’ form of industrial and vocational training, with little of hope of advancement. However, this thesis argues that this assumption must be contested, as it obscures the complexity of all school to work transitions and the potential for social mobility in these ‘lesser’ forms of education. Through interviews with young men and women who are training as an apprentice or have recently completed their apprenticeship, this thesis hopes to provide a more complex snapshot of school to work transitions, focusing on how apprentices find and adapt to their new trade. My overall argument centres on Bourdieu’s theory of practice which is often discussed concerning the specific class-based outcomes of education for students from different class conditions (Bourdieu 1977). While this approach is useful to showing the complexity of school to work transitions from supposedly ‘lesser’ pathways, this approach is overly reliant on habitus, presenting a type of individual agency that is primarily reproductive and non-conducive to any potential transformation. Instead of focusing on just habitus in understanding this transition, a greater emphasis is placed on Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’. Specifically, how field conditions can influence both the degree and the type of agency within a field, presenting a more complicated conception of agency that can be simultaneously reproductive and transformative.</p>

Gender-equitable caregiver attitudes and education and safety of adolescent girls in South Kivu, DRC: A secondary analysis from a randomized controlled trial

Background Adolescent girls face myriad threats to their well-being and safety as a result of gender-inequitable attitudes and norms, and these risks are often exacerbated during humanitarian emergencies. While humanitarian actors have begun to address caregivers’ behaviors and gender attitudes as an approach to support and meet the needs of adolescent girls, best practices for working with caregivers to improve adolescent girls’ well-being in these settings have yet to be identified. Methods and findings This study uses panel data from a program evaluation to analyze associations between changes in gender-equitable attitudes among caregivers and changes in schooling and violence victimization for girls ages 10 to 14 years old in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Participants were recruited in May 2015 for baseline (May to July 2015) and endline (August to October 2016) data collection. Baseline and endline data for both caregivers and girls were available for 732 girls. The average ages of adolescents and caregivers were 12 and 40.7, respectively, and 92% of caregivers were female. The predictor of interest was the change in caregivers’ gender-equitable attitudes between the 2 points in time, where attitudes were measured using 10 underlying survey questions. The primary outcomes of interest were dichotomous and included improvement in schooling participation and declines in physical, sexual, and emotional violence and feeling uncared for. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between changes in caregivers’ attitudes and 5 outcomes of interest and revealed that an increase in a caregiver’s gender-equitable attitude score was associated with significantly greater odds of a girl experiencing an improvement in schooling participation (aOR = 1.08, CI [1.005, 1.154], p = 0.036) and of a girl experiencing a marginal decline in physical violence victimization (aOR = 1.07, CI [0.989, 1.158], p = 0.092). Analyses also revealed that older girls had lower odds of experiencing an improvement in schooling participation (aOR = 0.77, CI [0.686, 0.861], p < 0.001), physical violence (aOR = 0.86, CI [0.757, 0.984], p = 0.028), sexual violence (aOR = 0.86, CI [0.743, 1.003], p = 0.055), or emotional violence (aOR = 0.98, CI [0.849, 1.105], p = 0.005). Important limitations in this study include the self-reported nature of outcomes, use of single questionnaire items to construct the outcome variables, and potential self-selection bias. Conclusions Results suggest that supporting caregivers to increase gender equitable attitudes may be associated with benefits in dual outcomes of education and safety for adolescent girls in eastern DRC. Further research is needed to better understand how to induce a shift in these attitudes in multisectoral programming. Trial registration NCT02384642.

Objective and subjective factors of educational risks for students

Analyzed is the concept of risk as an inevitable fact of our time. They researched conceptual approaches to risk of foreign and domestic scientists who substantiate risk as a way of mastering reality, a condition, and stimulus of activity. The article presents an understanding of risk as a new opportunity, which is provided by competent use of information, an ability to make high-quality decisions in society of risk. The article attempts to show some aspects of education not only through its involvement in the risk system, but also as product and risk generator. Attention is focused on the fact that the concept of “educational risk” has not finally formed in science; most scientists research it through factors that affect processes and outcomes of education. Educational risks exist in the sphere of interests and competences of the state, employers, and youth. The authors provide a classification of educational risk and substantiate the relationship of risk groups. The authors propose specific measures for educational risk management, which require systemic multi-level solutions involving participation in risk management of risk groups. It is concluded that students are able to manage educational risk due to a set of knowledge, awareness of the labor market, and understanding of state policies related to education.

Preference for Mode of Learning for Knowledge and Skills by Professional Management Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic Period

Learning of skill and knowledge are differentiated and acknowledged as the outcomes of education. The COVID-19 pandemic phase has disturbed the teaching in classroom, curriculum and academic calendar of educational institutes across the world. Blended learning is an integration of offline and online approaches of sharing subject resources online after classroom learning. Students pursuing professional management course at the university campus and a reputed private college were considered for sample selection. Only those sample respondents with attendance for both modes of learning were considered. The whole population of 360 was invited to participate in the survey, and 294 student participants’ responses were shortlisted for analysis. The instrument was standardized after conducting a pilot study. Descriptive tools, correlation, regression and ANOVA were applied for analysis. The learning in classroom shows strong preference with all the variables having a positive opinion. Furthermore, preference for classroom learning had not changed during the COVID-19 pandemic phase. The classroom learning variables were significant with the COVID-19 effect except for flexibility. The learning of skills with labs or workplace place exposure was preferred over skill learning with an online demonstration. In future, educational institutes should focus on training faculty in the techniques and delivery of online learning, implementing changes in the curriculum that are suitable for online mode of teaching and employing emerging information and communication technologies. JEL Classification: I230

Overview of Literature on RMC and Applications to Tanzania

Respectful maternity care research in Tanzania continues to increase. This is an overview of the literature summarizing research based on the domains which comprise this quality of care indicator, ranging from exploratory and descriptive to quantitative measurements of birth perinatal outcomes when respectful interventions are made. The domains of respectful care are reflected in the seven Universal Rights of Childbearing Women but go further to implicate facility administrators and policy makers to provide supportive infrastructure to allay disrespect and abuse. The research methodologies continue to be problematic and several ethical cautions restrict how much control is possible. Similarly, the barriers to collecting accurate accounts in qualitative studies of disrespect require astute interviewing and observation techniques. The participatory community-based and the critical sociology and human rights frameworks appear to provide a good basis for both researcher and participants to identify problems and determine possible solutions to the multiple factors that contribute to disrespect and abuse. The work-life conditions of midwives in the Global South are plagued with poor infrastructure and significantly low resources which deters respectful care while decreasing retention of workers. Researchers and policy-makers have addressed disrespectful care by building human resource capacity, by strengthening professional organizations and by educating midwives in low-resource countries. Furthermore, researchers encourage midwives not only to acquire attitudinal change and to adopt respectful maternity care skills, but also to emerge as leaders and change agents. Safe methods for conducting care while addressing low resources, skilled management of conflict and creative innovations to engage the community are all interventions that are being considered for quality improvement research. Tanzania is poised to evaluate the outcomes of education workshops that address all seven domains of respectful care.

Overview of Literature on RMC and Applications to Tanzania

Respectful maternity care research in Tanzania continues to increase. This is an overview of the literature summarizing research based on the domains which comprise this quality of care indicator, ranging from exploratory and descriptive to quantitative measurements of birth perinatal outcomes when respectful interventions are made. The domains of respectful care are reflected in the seven Universal Rights of Childbearing Women but go further to implicate facility administrators and policy makers to provide supportive infrastructure to allay disrespect and abuse. The research methodologies continue to be problematic and several ethical cautions restrict how much control is possible. Similarly, the barriers to collecting accurate accounts in qualitative studies of disrespect require astute interviewing and observation techniques. The participatory community-based and the critical sociology and human rights frameworks appear to provide a good basis for both researcher and participants to identify problems and determine possible solutions to the multiple factors that contribute to disrespect and abuse. The work-life conditions of midwives in the Global South are plagued with poor infrastructure and significantly low resources which deters respectful care while decreasing retention of workers. Researchers and policy-makers have addressed disrespectful care by building human resource capacity, by strengthening professional organizations and by educating midwives in low-resource countries. Furthermore, researchers encourage midwives not only to acquire attitudinal change and to adopt respectful maternity care skills, but also to emerge as leaders and change agents. Safe methods for conducting care while addressing low resources, skilled management of conflict and creative innovations to engage the community are all interventions that are being considered for quality improvement research. Tanzania is poised to evaluate the outcomes of education workshops that address all seven domains of respectful care.

Learning Self-Reliance and Responsibility from the Point of View of Existentialism

As a result of the increased amount of information the importance of its independent, critical evaluation is increasing, so that the knowledge learning would not be replaced by the accumulation of information. The responsibility for and the ability to evaluate information independently are relevant as learning outcomes of education for sustainable development. Responsibility and self-reliance as important areas of human life are the focus areas of the existentialist approach; still, this approach is very little used in pedagogy. The results of this research substantiate the topicality of the existentialist approach in modern humanistic pedagogy, in which the emphasis is placed on the personal significance of the learning process. The main aim of the article is to analyse the learning of self-reliance and responsibility from the point of view of existentialism and to evaluate the conditions of its realization in pedagogical practice. The study was done by combining the results of the author’s previous empirical research, observations in pedagogical practice and analysis of the scientific literature. In the minds of Latvian adults, their self-reliance and responsibility are integral components of both the quality of living and the meaning of learning. With age, there is a growing tendency to associate self-reliance not with independent thinking, but with independence and, consequently, existential concerns about the possibility of its realization. An important existential aspect of the learning process is: the distinction between learning to be self-reliant and responsible and learning to find a place in the network and function in pursuit of personal safety and worth. Self-reliance as a relative independence from security, belongingness and recognition and responsibility as an awareness of one's impulses, feelings and attitudes are related to the survival of existential loneliness and overcoming anxiety. Learning self-reliance and responsibility means learning self-reflection, learning to meet oneself, getting to know one's interests and the factors that cause fear, rather than diverting attention to others to information that helps to justify oneself.