European Educational Research Journal
ISSN 1474-9041

CONTENTS [click on author's name for abstract and full text]

Bettina Lange & Nafsika Alexiadou. New Forms of European Union Governance in the Education Sector? A Preliminary Analysis of the Open Method of Coordination, pages 321‑335
Alexandra Ioannidou. A Comparative Analysis of New Governance Instruments in the Transnational Educational Space: a shift to knowledge-based instruments?, pages 336‑347
Marjaana Rautalin & Pertti Alasuutari. The Curse of Success: the impact of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment on the discourses of the teaching profession in Finland, pages 348‑363
Florin D. Salajan. The European eLearning Programme(s): between rhetoric and reality, pages 364‑381
Bregje de Vries & Jules Pieters. Exploring the Role of Communities in Education, pages 382‑392
Daniel Sundberg. From Pedagogik to Educational Sciences? Higher Education Reform, Institutional Settings and the Formation of the Discipline of Educational Science in Sweden, pages 393‑410
Mieke Lunenberg, John Loughran, Kim Schildkamp, Jos Beishuizen, Jacobiene Meirink & Rosanne Zwart. Self-study in a Community of Learning Researchers: what can we do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research?, pages 411‑423
Marcus Pietsch & Tobias C. Stubbe. Inequality in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School: school choices and educational disparities in Germany, pages 424‑445

REPORT
Sabine Manning. Linking Educational Research Activities across Europe: a review of the WIFO Gateway to Research on Education in Europe, pages 446‑450

REVIEW ESSAYS
Florian Waldow. Mass Schooling: a local game with global rules, pages 451‑457 doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.451 VIEW FULL TEXT
José Luis San Fabián Maroto. Teacher Training Policies: deconstructing teaching professionality, pages 458‑465 doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.458 VIEW FULL TEXT

New Forms of European Union Governance in the Education Sector? A Preliminary Analysis of the Open Method of Coordination

BETTINA LANGE & NAFSIKA ALEXIADOU Keele University, United Kingdom

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.321

This article critically explores how a new form of European Union (EU) governance – the open method of coordination (OMC) – impinges on education policies. The first part discusses three key characteristics of the OMC, in particular its flexibility, reflexivity and reliance on the techniques of new public management. It also outlines briefly why the OMC is being applied to EU education policy. The second and main part of the article develops a critical analysis of the OMC in education by questioning to what extent it can be considered as a new form of EU governance and with what vision of Social Europe it is associated. Most importantly, the second part argues that there may be significant potential for the politicization of mutual policy learning in the context of OMC education measures.

A Comparative Analysis of New Governance Instruments in the Transnational Educational Space: a shift to knowledge-based instruments?

ALEXANDRA IOANNIDOU University of Tübingen, Germany

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.336

In recent years, the ongoing development towards a knowledge-based society – associated with globalization, an aging population, new technologies and organizational changes – has led to a more intensive analysis of education and learning throughout life with regard to quantitative, qualitative and financial aspects. In this framework, education policy is no longer merely an affair of the nation state; on the contrary, a range of significant actors (international, supranational and non-governmental organizations) play an important role in policy formation and construct a transnational educational space. In a research project being carried out at the University of Tübingen, the education policy initiatives of an international (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]) and supranational (European Union [EU]) organization concerning the concept of lifelong learning are being examined with emphasis on its implementation into national forms of monitoring and reporting systems. A part of the study concerns issues regarding the influence of the OECD and EU on national policy formation and their managing capacity. This article focuses on the emergence of new governance instruments used by the OECD and EU in the transnational educational space, their characteristics and their impacts, applying, as a conceptual tool, Willke’s analytical distinction of regulative media into power, money and knowledge.

The Curse of Success: the impact of the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment on the discourses of the teaching profession in Finland

MARJAANA RAUTALIN & PERTTI ALASUUTARI University of Tampere, Finland

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.348

In the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which is an international comparative learning assessment measuring young people’s knowledge and skills, Finland has been ranked at the top in the two rounds conducted and reported so far. In this article, the authors examine the discourses within which Finland’s PISA results have been interpreted by the teaching profession in Finland, and how these interpretations of Finland’s PISA success together with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s PISA may affect national education policy in the future. The main question posed is how do teachers interpret excellence so as to support their attempt to improve their working conditions, when the international success of Finnish education could also be used as proof that all is well. The data comprise editorials published in the official organ of the teachers’ trade union in Finland, Opettaja-lehti. The analysis shows that in the editorials, success is explained mainly by the expertise of Finnish teachers and their university education. However, the editorials also argue that there is a discrepancy between the good PISA results and the present meagre investments in the education system, the deteriorating school network and the poor appreciation of the education system in Finland. Thus, the editorials use the national PISA results to demand more resources for the Finnish education system.

The European eLearning Programme(s): between rhetoric and reality

FLORIN D. SALAJAN Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.364

This article presents the findings of a qualitative study conducted by the author on the implications of e-learning programmes for the higher education systems of the member states of the European Union. The study takes a look behind the scenes of the eLearning Programme and other e-learning actions within other European programmes by tapping into the perceptions of academics at universities in the European Union (in three principal countries – Germany, Portugal and Sweden – and six secondary countries – Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom) who have participated in or have knowledge of the logistical and administrative burdens of European e-learning projects. Through a series of in-depth open-ended interviews conducted on location, via the telephone or over the Internet, the study investigates the interactions of academics and researchers with the European-funded programmes in e-learning. Several interviews with members of the European Commission offer an inside look at the dynamics of the programmes and confer a ‘humanistic’ perspective to the stern letter of the legal documentation. The personal accounts are used to build a ‘composite picture’ of common themes related to the processes involved in developing and conducting e-learning projects under the eLearning Programme and other European programmes, shedding new light on the levels of initiative that go into the actual preparation of e-learning projects.

Exploring the Role of Communities in Education

BREGJE DE VRIES Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen, The Netherlands
JULES PIETERS Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.382

In this article, the authors explore if and how knowledge communities have the potential to help improve the communal efforts of practitioners, intermediaries and researchers to change education. An explorative study was conducted with a survey that was distributed among 187 workers in the Dutch educational field to investigate if and how knowledge communities are realized, and could contribute to bridge the gap between educational research and practice. The survey explored the role of communities from four perspectives derived from the literature in the field: their heterogeneity, informality, interactivity and effectiveness. The findings show that many communities are active, and that their members perceive them as heterogeneous, informal, interactive and effective ways to collaborate with others. Frequent and face-to-face communication, as well as financial support, seems to positively influence how the community is perceived by its members. It is concluded that the potential of knowledge communities deserves to be investigated in more detail so that the collaborative educational change taking place in the communities can be optimized and sustained for the future.

From Pedagogik to Educational Sciences? Higher Education Reform, Institutional Settings and the Formation of the Discipline of Educational Science in Sweden

DANIEL SUNDBERG Växjö University, Sweden

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.393

The purpose of this article is to address the question of Pedagogik as an academic discipline in Sweden based on a social study of the science’s point of departure. The philosophical and epistemological issues which constitute the conceptual questions about the nature and content of educational science are, although crucial, peripheral to this article. The article is concerned with the general consequences of the formation of the discipline due to ongoing changes and reforms in Swedish higher education. Text analysis of self-evaluations of education departments in Sweden provide the material for a critical examination of the changing institutional settings for educational sciences. Three general tension fields are highlighted in the ongoing formation of the discipline: Pedagogik as a discipline opposing segmentation and professional specialisation, Pedagogik in relation to other disciplines/subjects in the university system, and the pragmatic specialisation of professional knowledge. The ‘boundary work’ of the education departments in the positions they take in these tension fields is highlighted and analysed. Studying discipline formation processes can serve, in this regard, to deepen the reflexive self-understanding of the producers and users of educational knowledge. The article concludes with some outlines for further empirical research on the formation of the discipline of Swedish Pedagogik.

Self-study in a Community of Learning Researchers: what can we do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research?

MIEKE LUNENBERG VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
JOHN LOUGHRAN Monash University, Melbourne, Australia KIM
SCHILDKAMP University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
JOS BEISHUIZEN VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands
JACOBIENE MEIRINK University of Leiden, The Netherlands
ROSANNE ZWART Radboud University Nijmegen & VU University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

doi:10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.411

This article reports on the results of an intensive summer course in which a community of learners, consisting of three teaching and teacher education academics and 17 European PhD students in the field of education, conducted a collective self-study. The international collective self-study offered a unique opportunity to go beyond parochial and local perspectives on the process of research and knowledge creation. The central question in this summer course was: ‘What can we, as researchers, do to help teachers/teacher educators benefit from our research and what can be learned through this research on research?’ The participants first studied relevant literature about the – relatively new – concepts of self-study and a community of learners. Secondly, they studied and discussed their own research projects through the lens of a self-study methodology. The critical study and discussions of both literature and the research projects resulted in a list of 15 guidelines. In addition, the doctoral students experienced and learned that forming a community of learners can be an effective environment for collaborative inquiry learning and that conducting a collective self-study can be an effective way of carrying out research.

Inequality in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School: school choices and educational disparities in Germany

MARCUS PIETSCH Institute for Education Monitoring Hamburg, Germany
TOBIAS C. STUBBE Institute for School Development Research, University of Dortmund, Germany

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.424

This article explores the mechanisms of educational pathway decision making at the transition from primary to secondary school in the German education system by analysing data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). The highly reliable data of the German sample of the 2001 PIRLS make it possible to take into consideration simultaneously students’ cognitive abilities at the end of primary schooling, criteria for parental decision making in education, as well as institutional adjustment options of family education strategies, in order to describe the complex mechanisms of educational pathway decision making. First, a general overview of the German education system and a review of the current state of research concerning the issue of social inequality of education in Germany are given. Subsequently, a theoretical background seeking to answer the question of how educational disparities arise and how they are structured, as well as a model for analysing parental choices in education are presented. After hypothesizing, multifarious statistical analyses are conducted with the aim of proving these assumptions and demonstrating how complex the mechanisms of educational segregation in Germany are. The results demonstrate that all participants in the process of decision making take a more or less socially biased achievement criterion as a basis and, thus, the logic of meritocracy does not seem to be an appropriate idea for segregating students into different branches of education at the end of primary schooling.

Linking Educational Research Activities across Europe: a review of the WIFO Gateway to Research on Education in Europe

SABINE MANNING Research Forum WIFO, Berlin, Germany

doi: 10.2304/eerj.2007.6.4.446

The WIFO Gateway to Research on Education in Europe (http://www.wifo-gate.org) is an Internet portal focusing on vocational education and training and human resource development. Launched 10 years ago by the Research Forum Education and Society (Wissenschaftsforum Bildung und Gesellschaft – WIFO) Berlin, it has developed in several stages in close collaboration with research partners across Europe. Several dimensions of linking educational research activities at the European level are addressed in this article: linking research content, both over time and across the field; linking research and information; and linking researchers in collaboration. These dimensions are outlined by drawing on evidence of piloting from the WIFO site, including thematic resource bases on European research projects, a synopsis of national research across countries in the European Union, directories of doctoral dissertations and Master’s programmes, and an indexed edition of ECER/VETNET proceedings (papers presented at the annual European Conference on Educational Research [ECER] by the European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training [VETNET]), and finally the Newsletter for European Research in Learning and Work as an efficient tool for linking the online platform with the community of researchers.

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