Where is the Love?

Given the emphasis that European education agendas have placed on early childhood education in providing the foundations for lifelong learning, the quality of provision--and especially the workforce--is a key concern. Qualification levels are frequently cited as important for the quality of provision, but in their paper in the newest edition of European Education: Issues and Studies, Verity Campbell-Barr and Janet Georgeson from the Plymouth University and Anikó Nagy Varga from the University of Debrecen explore questions of the attitudinal competences required to work in early childhood in England and Hungary. Their paper, "Developing professional early childhood educators in England and Hungary: Where has all the love gone?", presents a mixed-method study that considers the attitudinal competences that early childhood students perceive as necessary. They focus specifically on the role of love in early childhood education and the contrasting perceptions and experiences in England and Hungary. In Hungary love is spoken about freely, but in England a managerialist and entrepreneurial emphasis has created tensions with more emotional ideas of being caring, supportive, and empathic. In Hungary, early childhood educators are given relative autonomy in their professional roles and love is a key characteristic. The paper considers historical, philosophical, and political developments in the two countries to shed light on how English and Hungarian perspectives have diverged. It also explores opportunities that comparing perspectives offers for the further professional development of early childhood educators. If you would like to read this entire paper or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions at this page.

The Idea of the Visiting Inquiry in Comparative Education

In our recent special issue entitled "Governing Educational Spaces: Historical Perspectives," Martin Lawn of the University of Edinburgh looks at state of comparative education in the early Twentieth Century. Here is the abstract of his paper, "The Idea of the Visiting Inquiry in Comparative Education: The 1903 Mosely Commission and the United States" (DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1065395):

Through a study of a privately funded and ambitious inquiry into the education system of the United States, the relations between the development of comparative education as an activity and the governing of education systems in the early 20th century can be illuminated. The relations and interests of early comparativists were mobilized and enhanced by private funding and significant numbers of public actors in education were involved in comparative inquiry. The 1903 Mosely Commission was a philanthropic intervention to reengineer the patchwork of English education, and an attempt to modernize it and influence its government on a large scale. Its innovation was in its methods of influence as well as its scientific reports. The Commission was a hybrid, transnational institution, using comparison to modernize the government of education, mainly involving policy actors and finally, claimed neither by the history or comparative study of education. Consequently, its significance has been lost.

If you would like to read the entire paper or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions at this page.

Table of Contents Volume 47 Number 2 (Summer 2015)

EDITORIAL: PISA and Participation in Education
Iveta Silova & Noah W. Sobe
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1043172P

Steering the National: Exploring the Education Policy Uses of PISA in Spain
Laura C. Engel
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033913

Shadow Education in Spain: Examining Social Inequalities Through the Analysis of PISA Results
Ariadne Runte-Geidel & Pedro Femia Marzo
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033667

Ideas, Institutions, and School Curricula: Explaining Variation Between England and France
Leah Haus
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033604

Children’s Participation in Slovene Preschools: The Teachers’ Viewpoints and Practice
Marcela Batistič Zorec
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1039878

University Graduates’ Skills Mismatches in Central Asia: Employers’ Perspectives From Post-Soviet Tajikistan
Dilrabo Jonbekova
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033315

BOOK REVIEWS
Pedagogized Muslimness: Religion and Culture as Identity Politics in the Classroom. Religious Diversity and Education in Europe, Band 27 by Mette Buchardt
Shabana Mir
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033224

Contemporary Debates in Holocaust Education by Michael Gray
E. Doyle Stevick
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1033226

CESE NEWS Equity In and Through Education: Changing Contexts, Consequences, and Contestations
DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1035025