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.

Social Inequalities and Europeans Who Leave School Early

One of the primary goals of educational policy throughout Europe is the reduction in numbers of students who quit the educational system before obtaining a high school qualification. In their article in the most recent edition of European Education: Issues and Studies, Jeroen Lavrijsen and Ides Nicaise from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven note previous research showing that younth from disadvantaged families face relatively high risks of school dropout. Using date from the 2009 ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey they explore the way that macro-level determinants influence school dropout risks among different social groups. Their findings indicate that both the design of the educational system (in areas such as tracking age and extent of vocational education) and characteristics of the socioeconomic context (such as poverty rate and unemployment patterns) have an impact on the social distribution of school dropout risk. 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.

Workers' Faculties in the Developing World

"Worker’s Faculties" were widespread in the Soviet Union until 1941. They had two main goals--preparing adult workers and peasants for university entrance through the provision of general education and creating a new socialist intelligentsia from among these groups. At the conclusion of World War II similar Faculties were established in countries across post-colonial Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Based on case studies in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique, authors Tim Kaiser, Tobias Kriele, Ingrid Miethe, and Alexandra Piepiorka of the University of Giessen argue that corresponding transfer processes were largely driven by local actors in the respective countries and that these institutions were regarded as suitable instruments in solving problems particular to postcolonial contexts. If you would like to read this entire paper, "Educational Transfers in Postcolonial Contexts: Preliminary Results From Comparative Research on Workers’ Faculties in Vietnam, Cuba, and Mozambique," 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.

Preschool in Slovenia

In our most recent edition of European Education: Issues and Studies, Marcela Batistič Zorec of the University of Ljubljana explored the impact of introducing the Reggio Emilia educational philosophy at preschools in Slovenia. Here is the abstract of their paper, "Children’s Participation in Slovene Preschools: The Teachers’ Viewpoints and Practice" (DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1039878):

This article presents part of the research performed in a project from 2008 to 2013, regarding the introduction of the Reggio Emilia approach to Slovene preschool educators. The study’s aim was to recognize the possible influence of the training—from 2009 to 2011—in this project on educators’ viewpoints and the promotion of children’s participation in practice. We believe that a potential reform of the Slovene national curriculum should establish the participation of children as one of its key principles. It seems that the two-year intensive training of educators, followed by projects in preschool practice, has been a successful step in this direction.

If you would like to read the entire paper and the important voice of teachers in this area, or if you would like to read any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions at this page.

Education in Spain: Assessments and Shadows

In European Education's most recent edition, two of the papers highlighted education in Spain. Laura C. Engel's paper "Steering the National: Exploring the Education Policy Uses of PISA in Spain" presents findings from a recent study of the education policy uses and impact of international large-scale assessments. The findings from her paper add to a growing body of scholarly work looking at the ways that international assessments guide education policy within national spaces.

Ariadne Runte-Geidel and Pedro Femia Marzo have written a paper examining the use of shadow education by students in Spain over a ten-year period at the turn of this century. They look specifically at the number of students that use this shadow education system and the way that it has evolved during this period. Their study helpfully contrasts the data on the use of extra classes with the socioeconomic profile of students and other indicators of social inequality.

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.

Parents, Disadvantage, and Educational Access

In our recent special issue entitled " Access to and Accessibility of Education Throughout the Educational Trajectories of Youth in Europe," Nicola De Luigi and Alessandro Martelli of the University of Bologna look at the role of parents in educational access. Here is the abstract of their paper, "Attitudes and Practices of Parents: Disadvantage and Access to Education" (DOI:10.1080/10564934.2015.1001259):

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children’s educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children’s access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their children, because of their lower level of economic, cultural, and social capital. Nevertheless, this association does not operate as an automatic mechanism. Indeed, against a backdrop of persisting inequalities, research data show a plurality of intraclass and intragroup dynamics, with disadvantaged parents having diverse ways of avoiding blaming processes, saving dignity, and acting as proactive agents for their children’s educational career.

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.

Governing Through the Arts

The most recent published edition of European Education was the first part of a double issue on the topic of governmentality. Catarina Silva Martins has written a paper that looks at the way that current practice in arts education might actually be used to govern students. Catarina Silva Martins is an assistant professor in the faculty of fine arts at Oporto University in Portugal. She notes that "the way in which art education was incorporated into the schools was not totally independent from the emergence of new cultural practices that combined the government of all with the concerns of individuals' self-development." Catarina Silva Martins makes some interesting connections as she looks at the ingredients for "making the soul through art practices in school. We have reproduced the abstract of this paper below. If it piques your interest and 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.

This paper aims to provide a platform for thinking about the presence of the arts in education at the present as a practice of governing. Through an analysis of the incorporation of the arts in the school curriculum we can see how this was a subject able to promote a political subjectivation of each child as citizen of the future. I focus on the arts in education as police technologies in the government of the child's soul. Police technologies give attention to the ways in which the child is fabricated as a moral, autonomous citizen.

Religion, Governmentality, and Citizenship

Is religion a cultural practice, or can it be a technology used by government to control its citizen? This is the question explored by Ezequiel Gomez Caride in his paper "Governmentality and Religion in the Construction of the Argentinean Citizen" that was published in the first part of the European Education governmentality double issue. Gomez Caride is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his research interests include issues of national identity, religion, and educational policy. In this paper, he argues that "it is not possible to understand citizenship historically without exploring its religious principles ... these religious elements became a part of republican notions of citizenship and ideas of the nation ..." The abstract of the paper is reproduced below. If you would like to read the entire paper or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions here.

Numerous studies regarding citizens' identity and nation-building issues have relegated the analysis of religion, understood as a cultural practice, and its role in the governing of the citizen. However, this article states that religious narrative is still a crucial technology of government to conduct the conduct of citizens. Through the Foucauldian notion of governmentality, I draw together the roles of religious discourses in three historical educational events from Argentinean history. In contrast to the secularization theory that ignores the power of religion in shaping the modern republican citizen, this study demonstrates the extent to which Catholic narratives are still a central technology in governing the Argentinean republican citizen.

Exporting European Education

The final paper in our recent special issue of European Education: Issues and Studies exploring European education outside of Europe comes from Barbara Schulte. She is an associate professor of education at Lund University in Sweden and at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies in Copenhagen. She specializes in research on education and contemporary history in China. Her research focuses on issues of transnational educational transfer, governmentality, and the discursive construction of the educational field in China. Her paper is entitled "Europe Refracted: Western Education and Knowledge in China" and the abstract is reproduced below. If you would like to read the entire paper or any other content from our journal, you can find out more about subscriptions here.

European educational knowledge and practices have been deeply impacted by the colonial experience. While hegemonic knowledge was exported to the colonies, practices of teaching and governing colonial subjects were tested in the periphery and then reimported to the center. This contribution looks at a case of European education outside Europe that did not take place, at least not entirely, in a colonial setting: China. It argues that the (at least potentially) non-colonial encounter with societies that presented possible alternatives to European civilization was as important in refracting and reframing European knowledge, education, and identity as was the colonial encounter. European education outside Europe was enacted not only in settings of hegemony and resistance but also in more subtly nuanced spaces of encounter.

Seeking the Educational Cure

In a recent edition of European Education: Issues and Studies, the editors presented four papers that explored the ways that European education has been exported to other regions around the world. Hoda A. Yousef's contribution to the journal is entitled "Seeking the Educational Cure: Egypt and European Education, 1805-1920s." Dr. Yousef is an assistant professor of the history of the Islamic world at Franklin and Marshall College. She is currently working on a manuscript about the centrality of Arabic literacy, education, and public displays of language to the development of modern Egypt. The following abstract accompanied her paper in European Education:

Egyptian reformers and governments, in their desire to create relevant and effective educational institutions, have often looked to Europe for inspiration. This paper examines the development of European style education in Egypt during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The desire to utilize modern methods while preserving the local character of education created institutions that straddled the line between the strictly European and Egyptian. With these compromises and negotiations, ultimately, one of the most influential legacies of European education was the belief in education as a “cure” for all the ills of modern Egyptian society.

If this gets you wondering about the issue of European education outside of Europe, or gets you interested about the journal, you can find out more about subscriptions here.

Creating Germans in Africa

In the most recent edition of European Education, we featured four papers about the export of European education to places around the world. One of these comes from Daniel J. Walther. He is the Gerald R. Kleinfeld Distinguished Professor in German History at Wartburg College. He is also the author of the book Creating Germans Abroad: Cultural Policies and National Identity in Namibia and several articles on the German experience in Namibia and on German colonialism. He is currently working on a study of the interplay between the medical profession and indigenous agency within the context of venereal diseases and prostitution. His paper in our journal is entitled "Creating Germans Abroad: White Education and the Colonial Condition in German Southwest Africa, 1894–1914." The abstract of the paper is provided below. If it looks like something that you would like to read, please follow this link to find out more about subscriptions.

Creating Germans Abroad: White Education and the Colonial Condition in German Southwest Africa, 1894–1914

From the perspective of German colonial supporters and authorities, appropriate white education in the settler colony of Southwest Africa (SWA) was essential for maintaining German hegemony in the territory. In order to reach this objective, the German colonial administration in SWA, with assistance from pedagogues and institutions in Germany, embarked upon a program to turn the colony’s white youth into productive and loyal members of the German Empire. The educational policies pursued provide a lens to explore how colonial enthusiasts defined what it meant to be German. However, this image and the policies intended to create it did not exist in isolation. Other populations, colonial economics, and geography resulted in a German educational system that could not be exactly replicated in SWA. Thus, a system and ultimately a population emerged that were shaped by both German educational philosophies and colonial exigencies.

European Education in the Philippines

The most recent addition of European Education features four great papers that each discuss the ways that European education was implemented outside of Europe. One of these is by Erin P. Hardacker. She is a doctoral student in Educational Policy Studies and Southeast Asian History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research interests include colonial education systems and policies, civic and language education in American and colonial contexts, and the history of childhood. Her paper is entitled "The Impact of Spain’s Educational Decree of 1863 on the Spread of Philippine Public Schools and Language Acquisition." An abstract is provided below, and if it piques your interest, you can find out more about subscriptions here.

"The Impact of Spain’s Educational Decree of 1863 on the Spread of Philippine Public Schools and Language Acquisition"

The Educational Decree of 1863 was an effort by Spain to reform the Philippine colonial education system. The Decree established a complete system of education in the archipelago—it required two elementary schools in each municipality (one for girls and one for boys), standardized the curriculum, and established normal schools, thus making systematized education available to the masses. In the nineteenth century, educational opportunities opened to a segment of society previously kept under control by the religious orders through a selective curriculum of rudimentary academics and a heavy dose of catechism. The colonial logic was to create a cadre of clerks and officials in service of the new, liberal colonial state, but the Educational Decree of 1863 had an impact the reverse of what Spain intended. The formal system of education created in the Philippines under Spain, even when unevenly implemented, provided Filipinos with the tools to function outside of colonial rule.