Education in the European Union: Pre-2003 Member States 9781472528155, 9781472593481, 9781472522429

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Education in the European Union Pre-2003 Member States

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Available and forthcoming in the Education Around the World Series Series Editor: Colin Brock Education Around the World: A Comparative Introduction, Colin Brock and Nafsika Alexiadou Education in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania-the Pacific, edited by Michael Crossley, Greg Hancock and Terra Sprague Education in East and Central Africa, edited by Charl Wolhuter Education in East Asia, edited by Pei-tseng Jenny Hsieh Education in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, edited by Nadiya Ivanenko Education in North America, edited by D. E. Mulcahy, D. G. Mulcahy and Roger Saul Education in South-East Asia, edited by Lorraine Pe Symaco Education in Southern Africa, edited by Clive Harber Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and Netherlands Antilles, edited by Emel Thomas Education in the United Kingdom, edited by Colin Brock Education in West Central Asia, edited by Mah-E-Rukh Ahmed Forthcoming volumes: Education in Non-EU Countries in Western and Southern Europe, edited by Terra Sprague Education in South America, edited by Simon Schwartzman Education in the European Union: Post–2003 Member States, edited by Trevor Corner Education in West Africa, edited by Emefa Takyi-Amoako

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Education in the European Union Pre-2003 Member States Edited by Trevor Corner

Education Around the World

Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP UK

1385 Broadway New York NY 10018 USA

www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2015 © Trevor Corner and Contributors, 2015 Trevor Corner and Contributors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Authors of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978–1–4725–2815–5 ePDF: 978–1–4725–2242–9 ePub: 978–1–4725–3460–6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk

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Contents Series Editor’s Preface Colin Brock Notes on Contributors

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Introduction: Education in Europe 1980–2015: A Regional Overview Trevor Corner

1

1

Austria: From Legacy to Reform

Hans Pechar

21

2

Belgium: Regional Development

Roger Standeart

41

3

Denmark: History, Reform and Legislation

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Finland: Policy and Vision Emma Kostiainen

Thyge Winther-Jensen

63

Matti Rautiainen and 91

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France: Meritocracy and Social Divides

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Germany: Stability and Change

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Greece: Vocational Education and Training in Economic Change Irene Psifidou and Konstantinos Pouliakas

155

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Ireland: Structure and Reform

Rosarii Griffin

179

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Italy: Transitions and Change

Carlo Cappa

Marie-Pierre Moreau

Lukas Graf

109 125

201

10 Luxembourg: Language and Education Kristine Horner and Jean-Jacques Weber

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11 Portugal: Policy and Adult Education Lucinίo Lima and Paula Guimarães

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12 Spain: Education and Regional Autonomy Inmaculada Egido and Javier Valle

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13 Sweden: Education for Social Change Lennart Wikander

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14 The Netherlands: Structure, Policies, Controversies Hulya Kosar Altinyelken and Sjoerd Karsten

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Index

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Series Editor’s Preface This series will comprise nineteen volumes, between them looking at education in virtually every territory in the world. The initial volume, Education Around the World: A Comparative Introduction, aims to provide an insight into the field of international and comparative education. It looks at its history and development and then examines a number of major themes at levels ranging from local to regional to global. It is important to bear such levels of observation in mind because the remainder of the series is inevitably regionally and nationally based. Generally, the identification of the eighteen regions within which to group countries has sometimes been a very simple task – but a few areas less so. Europe, for example, has four volumes, and most of a fifth, and covers more than fifty countries overall. National statistics vary considerably in their availability and accuracy, and in any case they date rapidly. Consequently, the editors of each volume point the reader towards access to regional and international datasets, available on line, that are regularly updated. A key purpose of the series is to give some visibility to a large number of countries that, for various reasons rarely, if ever, have coverage in the literature of this field. For this volume, Education in the European Union: Pre-2003 Member States, there has had to be an adjustment whereby the United Kingdom is excluded. This is because the UK has four separate national systems and therefore requires a separate book. For the remaining fourteen countries, Trevor Corner has assembled a range of well-chosen authors, each an authority on their subject. The collection provides a clear overview of education in each respective country, while also highlighting particular issues of contemporary import. Professor Corner is to be thanked for the considerable effort that this has entailed and the quality of the outcome, especially as at the same time he has been working on a subsequent volume on education in the other member states of the EU. Colin Brock: Series Editor

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Notes on Contributors Carlo Cappa is Lecturer of Education in the Dipartimento di Scienze e Technologie della Formazione, University ‘Tor Vergata’, Rome, Italy. His work concerns the history of education and the philosophy of the Italian and European Renaissance with regard to the thoughts of Michel de Montaigne and to the tensions in the canon of education proposed by humanists in early modern Europe, on which he has written two books and many articles. His current major research is on the process of harmonization of European higher education. Trevor Corner is Professor of Comparative and International Education in the Institute for Research in Education at University of Bedfordshire, UK, and Emeritus Professor and Director of the Institute for Research and Postgraduate Studies at University of Middlesex, London, UK. He has published widely in international and comparative studies and has taught in universities in France, Denmark, Canada and the USA. His research interests include international trends in education, lifelong learning and adult education, and he has worked on the European Union programmes of ERASMUS and FP7. He has been a member of the British and European Comparative Education Societies and published widely on European secondary and higher education. Inmaculada Egido is Professor in the Department of Theory and History of Education at Universidad Complutense of Madrid, Spain, and Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Comparative Education Society (Sociedad Española de Educación Comparada). Her research is centred on education policy and comparative education, with a particular interest in educational reforms, teacher training and school management and leadership. Lukas Graf is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Education and Society of University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. From 2008 to 2013, he worked at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) in the Skill Formation and Labor Markets Research Unit. He has published on developments in vocational education and training (VET) in Germany and other countries in Europe, and ix

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The Contributors

his research combines comparative and historical institutional analysis as well as the sociology of education and the political economy of skills. Rosarii Griffin is Lecturer in the Centre for Adult Education and Researcher at the Teaching and Learning Centre, University College Cork, Ireland. She served as a Governor on UCC’s Governing Authority and was former Director of the Centre for Global Development. An Economic and Social Research Council (ERSC) Scholar at Oxford, she won the VC’s award for her doctoral work. Her research interests include e-learning, gender, disability inclusion and social justice issues in education. She has an abiding interest in global education, has published four books on this topic and is currently writing a further text (2014). Paula Guimarães is Assistant Professor of the Group of Adult Education of the Unit for Research and Teaching of Policies of Education and Training in the Institute of Education at University of Lisbon, Portugal. She was a researcher of the Unit for Adult Education at University of Minho, Portugal from 1992 to 2011. Her research interests include adult learning and education policies and civil society organizations’ intervention in adult learning and education. Kristine Horner is Reader in Luxembourg Studies and Multilingualism at University of Sheffield, UK, where she is Director of the Centre for Luxembourg Studies. She has published widely in the areas of language politics, language ideologies, multilingualism and migration studies, including special issues of Language Problems and Language Planning (2009) and Journal of Germanic Linguistics (2011). Her most recent major publication is Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach (Routledge, 2012). Sjoerd Karsten is Professor of Educational Policy and Organization at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and Director of Research of the National Expert Centre on Vocational Education in the Netherlands. His research centres on pupils at risk, migrant youth and vocational education and training (VET). He has published in journals such as Comparative Education Review, Comparative Education, Compare, Journal of Educational Policy and Educational Policy, on policies for disadvantaged pupils, ethnic segregation, and comparative educational policy. He has previously held academic positions at Universiteit Leiden, the Netherlands, has served as Adviser to the Dutch Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Education Council and

The Contributors

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the National Inspectorate, and has been an external expert for the European Union. Hulya Kosar Altinyelken is Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Department of Child Development and Education and the Department of International Development Studies, at University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her research activities include participation in Governance of Education Trajectories in Europe (GOETE) project, a European Union-funded research project that covers eight EU countries and analyses the educational transitions from lower secondary to upper secondary education with a focus on disadvantaged students. Her past work includes a comparative analysis of pedagogical reforms at primary level in Uganda and Turkey (Ph.D.). Her work engages with issues such as gender, migration, education policy transfer, education reforms, and curriculum change within the EU context. Emma Kostiainen is Lecturer and Teacher Educator in the Department of Teacher Education of University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. She has a Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and her teaching and research interests include social interaction competence and its importance in developing the future school and new ‘teachership’, i.e. how collective, collaborative and creative teaching and learning can be developed in teacher education. She is a pedagogical head of the department and has participated in planning education export in the Department of Teacher Education. Licínio Lima is Full Professor at the Department of Social Sciences of Education in the Institute of Education at University of Minho, Portugal. Previously, he was Head of Department (1998–2004), Head of the Unit for Adult Education (1984– 2004), Head of the Research Centre for Education and Psychology (1994–1997), and Head of the Ph.D. in Education at University of Minho, Portugal (2011– 2013). He has been guest professor in European and Latin America universities and has published works in more than a dozen countries. Marie-Pierre Moreau is Reader in Education at the School of Education of Froebel College, University of Roehampton, London, and previously Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Education at University of Bedfordshire, UK. She has published widely on education and schooling in France, gender issues and research methodologies. Her latest publication examines issues and limitations of the inequalities in the teaching profession on a global perspective.

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The Contributors

Hans Pechar is a Professor of Higher Education in the Faculty for Interdisciplinarity Studies at University of Klagenfurt (AAU), Vienna, Austria. The focus of his research is comparative higher education and the economics of higher education. Most recently, his publications have addressed topics of policies of access to higher education, governance of Austrian universities, and equity in education. Konstantinos Pouliakas is Expert in Education and Training at the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), Greece, and Honorary Lecturer in the Business School at University of Aberdeen, UK. He is a member of the expert and advisory group of several of the European Commission’s (DG EMPL and DG EAC) projects on skill needs and employment. A graduate of St Antony’s College, University of Oxford, he completed his D.Phil studies as part of the Scottish Graduate Programme in Economics. His current interests lie within the fields of skills, applied labour and personnel economics. He has published widely in peer-reviewed academic journals on issues related to human capital, organizational incentives, decent work and employee well-being. Irene Psifidou is Expert in Education and Training Policy at the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) Greece. Before joining Cedefop in 2004, she was education consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC; she worked on the preparation of the World Bank’s strategy on secondary education and managed education development and research projects in transitional Balkan countries. Irene has published in the fields of qualifications’ comparability and transparency, learning outcomes, curriculum policy and practice, teaching methods, teachers and trainers, learners’ assessment, inclusive education and early school leaving. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Education Policy from Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain. Matti Rautiainen is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education at University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. He gained his Ph.D. from University of Jyvakylas, which examined the nature of subject teacher conceptions of community, and his recent public research includes the democratic deficit in Finnish education, comparisons of education in Finland and the UK, and innovations in university teaching. His most recent publication was ‘The Democratic Deficit in Finnish Educational Culture’ in the Journal of Social Science Education.

The Contributors

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Roger Standaert is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Educational Sciences, University of Ghent, Belgium. He obtained his Ph.D. on a comparative study about the rationality of educational policy in 1989. In 1991, he was appointed Director of the new established Department for Educational Development at the Ministry of Flanders. He was granted the State Prize of the Community of Flanders for his work on attainment targets in core curricula. In 1997, he became Chairman of the Consortium of Institutions for Development in Education in Europe (CIDREE). His research and academic interests lie in the field of comparative education, globalization in education and educational policy. Javier Valle is Professor in the area of Theory and History of Education at the Teacher Education College of the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain, and is a member of the Team Europa. His research interest is international comparative education, and, more specifically, the education policy of supranational institutions (mainly the European Union). He is also Co-Director of Spanish Journal of Comparative Education. Jean-Jacques Weber is Professor of English and Education at the University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg. He has published widely in the areas of discourse analysis, multilingualism and education, including Flexible Multilingual Education: Putting Children’s Needs First (Multilingual Matters, 2014), Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach (with K. Horner, Routledge, 2012), Multilingualism, Education and Change (Peter Lang, 2009) and Multilingualism and Multimodality: Current Challenges for Educational Studies (co-edited with I. de Saint-Georges, Sense Publishers, 2013). Lennart Wikander is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Education, Uppsala University, Sweden. He has been the head of the Department of Education and the head of Blåsenhus, the campus and centre for Learning and Educational Sciences at Uppsala University. The major field of his research is in higher education, nationally and internationally. He is a member of the Comparative education Society in Europe Executive Committee (CESE), and President of the Nordic Comparative and International Education Society (NOCIES). Thyge Winther-Jensen is Emeritus Professor of comparative education at Danish University of Education, Denmark. His fields of study are primarily comparative education, history of educational ideas, teaching–learning theory

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The Contributors

and adult education. He is author and editor of several books and articles, and his latest publication is Didaktik. Lærerfaglighed, skole og læring (Didactics. Teacher Professionalism, School, and Learning, with S. Holm-Larsen, Nationalt Videncenter for Laerning, 2013). From 1996 until 2000 he was President of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE).

Introduction Education in Europe 1980–2015: A Regional Overview Trevor Corner

Introduction This first book (of two) on the countries that are member states of the European Union gives detailed treatment of the national developments of education in western European countries that became members of the EU prior to the Nice Agreement in 2003, viz. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Spain and Portugal. Because of the number of its educational systems, the United Kingdom is exempted from this group and is treated in a separate book. The focus of the second book, which will cover the member states of the EU who joined after 2003, is predominantly those countries from the central and eastern parts of the subcontinent, many of which have previously been under the educational and political influence of the Soviet Union, and are moving through a transitional phase towards more westernized models. The relatively small, yet complex, educational systems of the Mediterranean countries, Cyprus and Malta, are also featured. The two books on the European Union (EU) countries provide a concise analysis and overview of the major educational traditions and their recent evolution across Europe, while at the same time offering insights into the mosaic of schools and colleges, languages and social characteristics that each country exhibits through the education it provides for its citizens. The chapters are written by educational experts from each country, with insights and experiential knowledge of the educational forces that have formed the European population as a whole in the current time. They also shed light on the countervailing forces for integration towards a European identity, and the still enduring wish for regional autonomy and locally-based school administrations. 1

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Seeking identity and unity in Europe When I first set out for Aachen, I am ashamed to admit, I was not at all sure where it was. Was it the same place as Aken? Could it be Aix-la-Chapelle? Was it in Belgium, the Netherlands, or Germany? On the map all three countries seemed to meet about there, with France and Germany just over the mapfold. All was soon made clear . . . I heard rollicking male voices singing ‘Ach, Du Lieber Augustin’ as students used to sing it after duels at Heidelberg. Germany it was! Jan Morris, 1997

Europe is the smallest continent; it is not even a continent but an appendage of Asia. It is smaller than Brazil and about half the size of China and the United States. It has, however, a high intensity of internal differences and contrasts across the approximately 46 countries of which it is composed. There are many small territories and islands that also claim some degree of social, political and thus educational separateness, while the eastern ‘border’ of Europe with Asia would be a long term subject of debate (Ivanenko, 2014). All of these countries have their unique yet overlapping histories, politics, languages and cultures – and educational systems. Their histories have been intensively analysed and studied, though perhaps the role of education in the formation of the countries of Europe, and its contribution to the consciousness of what Europe was, is, and can be, has been given less attention. If the current view of Europe’s destiny is one of gentle pessimism, it is at least a little more optimistic than in the late 1940s. The constituent states of Europe could no longer aspire, after 1945, to international or imperial status. The continent had not been able to liberate itself from Fascism by its own efforts nor, unassisted, to keep Communism at bay (and still may not be able to do so today). Later decades of the twentieth century saw increasing disbelief in the great nineteenth-century theories of history with their assumptions of progress and change, revolution and transformation. The current ‘European model’ is a mixture of Social and Christian Democratic legislation that regulates social intercourse and inter-state relations now being laced with a strong dose of centralizing managerialism and economic rigour through the combined influences of the European Commission, Cedefop analyses of country vocational education and training (VET) performances, and comparative educational attainment tables through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) triennial reports.

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Embracing everything from child-care to inter-state legal norms, this European approach stood for more than just the bureaucratic practices of the European Union and its member states; by the beginning of the 21st century it had become a beacon and example for aspirant EU members and a global challenge to the United States. Judt, 2010

The presence of Americans in Europe is an inheritance from the major wars and continues to the present day; anyone travelling across Europe over this period of time could, and still can, see the presence of the multitude of American military bases scattered across western Europe, American scholars on university and college campuses, and through the lifestyle exemplified through the social, digital and visual media. Conversely, it is also the case that Europeans travelling in the US can re-assess their self-image as Europeans, and perhaps only fully realise a European identity when immersed in an ‘American’ culture. The concept of ‘European identity’ varies considerably and can refer to overcoming the German past, French Republicanism and enlightenment, British nationalism and exceptionalism, or the many other characteristics that come under the general theme of national identities. Although the EU has not succeeded in luring individuals away from these national identities, it has been assumed that European identification can only come about by becoming European through acquiring EU membership. Schilde (2014) quotes Jacques Delors when speaking in the US in 1999: We are doubtless rather too blasé today to believe in the European dream as we did in the aftermath of the war. Nevertheless, Europe needs its dreams and, without it, renaissance and reunification would be illusory. Delors, 1999

Besides the many variables that contribute to any individual’s sense of identity (national or European), expectation of personal or country benefits, ethnic, linguistic and minority status, it is education that is seen to play a vital role in the cognitive skills that can be assessed and the level of educational attainment that contributes to ‘cognitive mobilization’ or the overall human capital in society. The fourteen chapters in this volume that discuss developments in education in western European countries are each intended to contribute to a cumulative insight into the commonalities and differences that educational developments have shown, be it through local, regional, national or EU legislative means and, to varying degrees. takes in the perspective of those 70 years that have elapsed since the catastrophic collapse of Europe, both east and west. A further analysis

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of those eastern European states that saw the phenomenon of European identity as positively identified in the Euro–15 (which thus includes the UK), as an aspiration for the fourteen countries that have since joined the Union (Kogan et al., 208). A similar analysis of educational change since 1989 for these eastern European countries is to be found in the sister volume to this one (Corner, 2015). Each of the chapters included here highlights important contemporary developments in the educational systems of each of the countries that made up the European Union from its foundation as the European Coal and Steel Community of six countries in 1950 to the fifteen countries at 2003 prior to the Nice Agreement – and fourteen countries are included in this first volume. Themes to be reviewed in this first chapter, and discussed in detail in the chapters relating to individual countries, include the regional and national contemporary educational structures and policies, research innovation and national trends in the light of their historical precedence, plus selected issues and problems such as historical and political trends and their effect on educational reform, systemic changes within the school and university systems, minority languages, regional change, and intercultural changes for indigenous and new immigrant populations.

Evolution of national education systems in western Europe in a global context There have been many attempts to measure the efficiency of national education systems over the years and one of the most persistent of these has been the PISA studies that has now had five major surveys up to 2012. One aspect of its work has been to relate efficiency indicators that compare result variables with resource variables used in the production of educational services via schools and other social institutions. Some general conclusions from this work are that European countries are characterized by weak management, while Americans (mainly Latin Americans) by a weak endowment of resources, and the Asians by a high level of heterogeneity. The relatively richer countries use the OECD as a reference group and use achievement tests such as PISA and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS); Arab countries are more likely to participate in international testing than Sub-Saharan Africa, while Africa and Latin America are more likely to use regional assessments as indicated by Table I.1. The rapid increase in testing and evaluation using standardized tests during this century points to the greater accountability of educational systems as the national governments, country elites and parents seek greater transparency.

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Table I.1 Types of learning assessments and their use by world regions Region

International (%)

Regional (%)

National (%)

Sub-Saharan Africa (45) Arab States (21) East Asia and Pacific (30) South and West Asia (10) Latin America and Caribbean (34) Central and Eastern Europe And Central Asia (9)

13.0 47.6 30.0 20.0 47.0

60.0 9.5 0 0 53.0

51.0 57.0 60.0 40.0 73.5

77.7

0

33.3

Source: Kamen, 2013

Thieme and colleagues (2012) argue that standardized tests such as PISA are a good indicator of educational achievement, but do not capture so easily the aspects of quality of performance of educational system managers. That is, while PISA results give a reasonable picture of academic achievement at a particular time, they do not indicate:

1. how these results were achieved through educational provision before the age of 15 years at which the tests are administered – in the primary schools, for example; 2. the link with achievement with upper secondary and higher educational achievement; as PISA surveys progress, however, this is becoming more possible; 3. the environmental factors surrounding the school systems that can and do affect achievement but cannot be easily measured or changed; 4. though the numbers of students tested was about 400,000 across the 57 countries, which have approximately 20 million 15 year-old students in total (a sampling ratio of about 1 in 50), there are still possibilities of error and misinterpretations. Table I.2 ranks the countries considered in this book (with the exception of France and the inclusion of the UK), along with the highest and lowest performers of the fifty-four countries surveyed across the world by the OECD. The overall conclusions of the 2006 PISA report from this analysis were that Finland (along with South Korea) had optimal systems with high achievement and strong input of material and human resources. Most of the other western European countries suffered managerial problems to a large extent, while

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Table I.2 Resource, result and environmental variables based on PISA data (2006) Country

Finland Netherlands Ireland Belgium Germany Austria Sweden United Kingdom Denmark Luxemburg Spain Portugal Italy Greece Korea Kyrgystan

Desirable outputs

Inputs

Environmental

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

546.9 506.7 517.3 500.9 494.9 490.2 507.3 495.1 494.5 479.4 460.8 472.3 468.5 459.7 556.0 284.7

555.8 527.8 504.9 515.4 509.7 508.2 502.8 505.1 504.5 488.2 484.2 468.5 468.5 466.3 534.8 316.3

0.513 0.310 0.035 0.022 0.448 0.828 0.593 2.089 1.215 0.988 0.234 −0.662 0.275 −0.296 1.295 −2.556

0.641 −0.149 0.299 0.799 −0.762 1.015 0.574 −0.677 −0.040 −0.043 0.954 2.256 1.170 1.769 −0.211 −1.737

(5) 0.256 0.252 −0.015 0.173 0.293 0.197 0.237 0.191 0.309 0.088 −0.311 −0.617 −0.070 −0.153 −0.007 −0.659

Key: (1) Reading achievement (2) Average achievement in Maths and Sciences (3)/(4) Comparative Rates for Educational and Human Resources (5) Comparative Rates for Surrounding Environmental Factors Source: Meyer and Benavot, 2013

Portugal and Greece (along with many of the eastern European countries) required a greater input of resources as well. The lowest country by achievement (Greece for the European group and Kyrgystan for the whole sample) were judged to be able to make the greatest improvement by substantially increasing human, and thus teaching, resources. The genesis of the PISA surveys, and the approach of OECD, to the collection of educational and social statistical and assessment information went through a number of stages, initially favouring individual country studies, and guided by the Education at a Glance studies that OECD continues to issue. Trohler (2013) has argued that it was the intervention of political and education influences from the USA that favoured the collection of data based on comparable

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data and measurable dimensions of inputs and outputs such as financial resources and educational achievement – indicators providing empirical and objective data. If custom and law define what is educationally allowable within a nation, the educational systems beyond one’s national boundaries suggest what is educationally possible. The field of comparative education exists to examine these possibilities. Thus, much has been made of the global reach of the PISA (and TIMSS) testing programmes and the potential for comparisons in achievement in different systems around the world. It is equally possible, particularly for large educational systems such as the USA or Russia, to do crossregional comparisons that give indicators of variable success within a political doctrine. The situation for Europe has remained somewhere between the two – national systems which guard their educational provision with some care, and an organization such as the EU that seeks to augment its reach through social policy and educational programmes. This can be illustrated with a comparison of the TIMMS and PISA results for Finland and Flanders – each of which is the subject of a chapter in this volume. They represent the two most successful systems from the perspective of the mathematics achievement of their students. Both are economically strong, have similar populations and have been subjected to considerable foreign influences in their development. Nonetheless, a closer examination of the scores achieved over a period of twenty years shows considerable variability, though almost always above the media scores. Pechar (Chapter  1), while giving evidence of early strong resistance to the process of bureaucratization, proposes that most higher education in Austria had regarded open admission as an effective policy to modernize and democratize universities. Since then, however, student/teacher ratios in many fields of study have dramatically increased, resulting in a deterioration of study conditions for students and working conditions for academics. For the past two decades, rectors and leading academics have opposed open admission and advocate rules similar to those at the universities of applied science that admit students according to funded seats (Pechar, 2009). Students unions, supported by Social Democrats, unconditionally defend open admission. This controversy is likely to paralyze higher education policy for the years to come. Discussing the situation for Flanders in the regionalized systems in Belgium, Standeart (Chapter 2) argues that further inclusiveness is required to cater for all needs of young people in Flanders, and there is greater uncertainty and less reliability developing in the assessment of achievement in the schools.

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According to Winther-Jensen (Chapter 3), the implied intention is that the programmes in Danish universities, more directly than hitherto, should adjust to the existing job market and the immediate needs of society. Although the university is free to decide which research-based degree programmes it wants to offer within its academic scope, they shall nevertheless be subject to the approval of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (The 2003 Act on Universities, article 3). Another important element in the reform was the intention to strengthen the management and the rules of governance in order to strengthen the universities’ efficiency and resolution. The argument for this was increased international competition and the struggle to attract students and researchers from abroad. Also, cooperation with the business community, other public businesses, and national and international research institutions increased the demands for academic and financial prioritization. With the new Act the former ‘bottom-up’ model (from 1973) with students, technical and academic staff partaking in the election of leaders at all levels (institute, department, faculty and Rector) has been replaced by a straight ‘top-down’ model. The new regulations caused considerable protests from all sections of academia and several parties in the Parliament but they were nevertheless adopted by a safe majority in the Parliament, consisting of the liberal/conservative government, and supported by the social democratic (labour) opposition and the Christian People’s Party. The Finnish success is well-known and has led to a plethora of books and articles examining the possible reasons (Niemi et  al., 2012). In this volume, Rautiainen and Kostiainen (Chapter  4) acknowledge the perceived success of Finnish education but point to the need for continuing critical evaluation of the system and the essential requirement of maintaining a vision within the educational process.

Higher Education and the Bologna Process The Bologna Process, under a declaration in 1999, had six objectives: a system of clear and comparable degrees; a two-phase study structure; a credit unit system; promotion of mobility; advancing quality assurance, and a European dimension grounded in mobility, employability, competition and attractiveness – thus establishing a European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Most universities across Europe have since tried to implement these measures of the Bologna Process at the political level where the changes in courses and curriculum

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content follow from the national bodies in each country that were responsible for the oversight of higher education. The extent to which the Bologna Process has impacted on national policy, implementation of changes in the universities and the teaching of learning and research, and the implications of convergence to a European framework is not easy to measure; recent survey research (Neave and Veiga, 2013) tends to indicate, at student and institutional levels, poor awareness of the basic structures on higher education courses and the implications of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) for future employment mobility. In general, less than half of the people surveyed indicated a knowledge of the rationale, strategic objectives, targets and changes that the Bologna Process advocated. While the Bologna guidelines at the European level provide an explanatory framework, transferring and implementing initiatives at country and institutional levels was found to be variable and ineffective with many administrators, and academics are at best partially aware of the implications or intentions of Bologna; overall the establishment of an EHEA is nowhere near to being fulfilled. Looking at the development of European higher education during the nineteenth century to the present day, Moutsios comes to the paradoxical conclusion that the EHEA is designed to dismantle academic autonomy across the continent. He points out that German nineteenth-century reforms created the Europeanized institution of higher learning when it was defined as a selfgoverning community of scholars and learners that an academic body created and imparted ‘the knowledge’, stemming from long traditions of universitas of the late Middle Ages and even to Plato’s Academy in Ancient Athens. He concludes that the European project of academic autonomy is being abandoned across the continent under the acceptance or tolerance of the changes promoted by the Bologna Process (Moutsios, 2013). This author’s own experiences of the FP7 programmes is that, while insights and academic progress can be made through interchange and exchange of courses and academics within a discipline (in this case in the social sciences), the practical demands of individual institutions can more than counter the convergence of courses and convergence of learning and training outcomes (Corner et al., 2006). The implementation of the Bologna Process has been described as a large experimental ‘field trial’ with many unknown consequences and risks (Dobischat, Fischell and Rosendahl, 2008, p. 97). According to Pritchard (2006, p. 112), ‘the dialectic among global, national, and local forces will eventually hybridize German higher education into its own distinctive, new model’. The forceful implementation of the sequential degree cycle is linked to the Bologna reforms

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and the traditional degrees like Magister, Diplom, and Staatsexamen have been gradually replaced (though not in all fields), leading to the parallel existence of old and new degrees. Hence, the new BA programmes seem to be more vocationally-oriented (Krücken, 2007) and further elements of vocationallyspecific training are being merged into previously academic general programmes through in-firm internships. Now, all types of higher education institutions offer similar certificates. These changes have altered the relationship between higher and vocational education and training throughout most of the European states considered here, sometimes blurring divisions and at other times increasing competition between the two. Some states cling to traditional educational routines where they serve a cherished national interest. For example, Moreau (Chapter 5) suggests that it is maybe at higher education level that the French system presents the highest level of differentiation, as well as the most distinctiveness, compared with its European equivalents. In line with an egalitarian conception of education, access to universities is open to all baccalauréat holders although, granted, they pay a minimal fee. These non-selective universities (at undergraduate level) coexist with the more élite Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE) and Grandes Ecoles, which also benefit from a higher level of funding and a lower students-tofaculty ratio. Graf (Chapter  6) points out that, while ‘marketization’ is not coterminous with Europeanization (Powell et al., 2012a), recent liberalization raises questions about the future stability of its traditional mode of coordination, or regulation mode, in which collective decisions in state-subsidized organizations guide higher education reforms (Graf, 2009). As the higher education sector is partly deregulated and New Public Management strategies gain a foothold, some claim that Germany has switched to a ‘neo-liberal’ market model in which universities acquire the status of organizational actors and reduce the power of the academic oligarchy (Krücken, 2007).

Vocational Education and Training, differentiation and national economies The Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and its changing relationship with the classical route of education for 14/15 to 18/19-year-olds features in almost every one of the following chapters. Linking education with employment needs is a major concern of national governments trying to match

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educational achievement to labour needs in sensitive political and economic climates. The Copenhagen Declaration started a series of European agreements that sought to build on national initiatives and reinforce the European dimension in VET. Along with a series of communiques (Helsinki 2006, Bordeaux 2008, and Bruges 2010) this has now developed into the Education and Training 20/20 strategic framework. The best laid plans can have an effect: as a number of the chapters that follow relate, and especially for the north-western EU countries of Scandinavia, Austria, Germany, France, etc., the reformation of VET has been a priority in (possibly) surviving the global economic crisis of 2008–2014. Some countries have evolved the dual track vocational/academic system to better match the needs of changing labour markets. However, when the recent economic crisis hit Greece, Psifidou and Pouliakas (Chapter  7) describe the collapse in the economy that has resulted in an astounding increase in the number of people in unemployment, from about 350,000 people (corresponding to an unemployment rate of about 7–8 per cent) in 2007 to more than 1.4 million individuals or 27 per cent in the third quarter of 2013. The youth unemployment rate stood at the historically high 55.3 per cent in 2012, the highest rate in the EU. While there is no room for doubt that the massive unemployment rates experienced in Greece today are a reflection of ineffective aggregate demand as a result of economic depression, it will require a sound long-term planning and restructuring of its skill creation and skill utilization systems. Indeed, the worlds of education and training and of the labour market in Greece have for a long time refused to interact with one another. As Griffin relates in Chapter 8, the ‘Celtic Tiger Economy’ at the start of the twenty-first century became a severe recession as Ireland from 2006 began to dip into recession, resulting from reckless lending by banks from the late 1990s to the mid–2000s, poor governmental regulation and control over the banks, unfettered greed by the developer/construction industry and a culture of corruption, reckless spending and poor accountability by the ruling Fianna Fáil party (which dominated the political landscape during this time). This ‘perfect storm’ led the Republic to seek an international monetary loan from the ‘Troika’, i.e. the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the EC and the EMF (European Monetary Fund). Repaying this debt with interest caused untold hardship for Irish taxpayers who were unfairly burdened with this outrageous private debt. In 2012, Ireland had debts in excess of 150 billion euro, which was 117.6 per cent of GDP; whereas in 2013/14, Ireland owes more than €172,750,000,000. The recession and subsequent public sector cutbacks impacted negatively on the Irish education system; yet, in spite of the political and economic debacle,

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education is an area that is proving to be resilient and consistent despite the failures and moral bankruptcy of the foundational pillars of Irish society.

Multiculturalism and multilingualism across Europe The language and cultural patterns of most European countries show that a variety of languages spoken; languages may be spoken in entire states or may share languages with neighbours. Four countries (Ireland, Cyprus, Malta and Finland) have two official languages. In Luxembourg there are three state languages, and Belgium has three official languages (recognized in delimited linguistic areas) some of the educational implications of which are discussed in Chapters  2 and 10. There are also non-territorial languages such as Romany, which may be recognized as an official language in some countries (e.g. Austria, Finland, Sweden) and therefore affect schooling policies, especially in the primary sector (Eurostat, 2012). The Arfe Report (1981) reviewed regional languages in the late 1970s leading to the adoption of the Arfe Resolution by the European Parliament. Increasingly, and on a world-wide basis, education is having to learn how to cope with multilingual and multicultural societies (Corner, 1984). Horner and Weber (Chapter 10) give a vignette of the complex multiculturalism and multilingualism to be found in present-day Luxembourg. Having a geographical size of 2,586 square kilometres and a population of 549,700, it is located between Belgium, France and Germany. The population currently consists of 45.3 per cent resident foreigners, which is the highest proportion in the European Union (EU). The biggest group of resident foreigners are the Portuguese with 36.5 per cent, followed by the French (14.9%), Italian (7.5%), Belgian (7.3%), German (5.1%), British (2.4%), Dutch (1.6%), as well as other EU citizens (10.8%) and other non-EU citizens (13.9%). The number of nonLuxembourgish citizens living in Luxembourg has been increasing steadily since the end of World War II, particularly since the 1970s. In 1981, 26.3 per cent were resident foreigners, 36.9 per cent in 2001 and 45.3 per cent in 2014. Currently, there are over 248,900 resident foreigners: 90,800 Portuguese, 37,100 French, 18,800 Italian and 18,100 Belgian. Immigration from Portugal has been intense since the 1970s. As with earlier immigration policies (e.g. immigration from Italy), the Luxembourgish government has recruited labour from within Europe. A further characteristic, which is linked to the small geographical size of Luxembourg as well as EU regulations facilitating free movement of the EU

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workforce, is the presence of over 146,900 frontaliers (cross-border commuters), who make up 39 per cent of the workforce. Nearly 80 per cent of the frontaliers come from France and Belgium and are primarily French-speaking, and about 20 per cent come from Germany and are primarily German-speaking. Chapter 10 discusses the evolution of the schools in Luxembourg and how they currently seek to adapt to a constantly changing cultural and liguistic milieu. The educational systems in pluralist democracies encounter great difficulties in handling the contradictions arising from divergent perspectives on religious, ethical and moral issues, and meritocracy (Husen et al., 1992).

Trends and developments in fourteen western European countries This section offers brief summaries of the fourteen chapters that follow. These will help in identifying particular interests and topics for the reader. Together, they illustrate the complexity of provisions that makes up education across western Europe and also the imaginative ways in which each of the authors has approached their task.

1. The chapter on Austrian education begins with an historical overview of educational expansion starting in the 1960s and will provide descriptive information about public/private domains, governance, funding and participation/graduation rates. Welfare regime theories provide a theoretical framework for discussing the characteristics of the Austrian education system. A policy section discusses contemporary reforms and controversies such as early childhood education, comprehensive schooling at lower secondary level, full day schooling, admission procedures for higher education, and tuition fees. 2. Belgian education covers the three regions for cultural and educational matters within the federal state. The French, German and Dutch-speaking communities are autonomous in their educational policies, though required to follow overarching federal state structures. The curriculum exhibits a strong emphasis on values in education, while the system of quality assurance through the role of the inspectorate and performance assessment are in conflict with the educational philosophy of external examinations and the ranking of schools. These and further contemporary educational problems in the Belgian federal structure are examined.

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3. The past three decades have been a time of almost continuing reform within the Danish system of education. Chapter 3 presents some of the fundamental issues which have been at the centre of the political discussions on education in an age of globalization, internal competition, and transition from a monocultural nation-state into a multicultural EU member state. To provide a better understanding of the reforms and of the specific Danish answers to the challenges, from the outside and the inside, an historical background is included. 4. Finland’s early educational history covers the formal schooling with the church period, the Christian popular education expansion, and the establishment of basic and then higher and adult education. Within the recent past, the Finnish educational system has been ranked the best in the world according to the recent international assessments such as PISA and TIMMS. The reason for these results is discussed, including the position of education within Finnish society and the prior organization of school and teacher education from the 1970s. Despite this, the challenges for the future throughout the educational system are huge and emanate from the rapidly changing society, disputes over the aims of education and the impact of ICT. 5. The French system of education is characterized overall by a high level of centralization and, at tertiary level, by a shift to mass education which has taken place earlier than many other European countries. It is also underpinned by well-known secular, republican and egalitarian values, which have been key to the construction of the project of the French state and of the education system that serves it. This system is also characterized by a high level of differentiation, as illustrated by the coexistence of mostly non-selective universities and the elite grandes écoles. At all levels of education, the experiences of students and teachers remain shaped by social structures of power. This chapter provides an overview, from écoles maternelles to higher education, of the general principles around which the French education system is organized and the contemporary debates in educational policy circles. 6. Chapter 6 offers a general description of the German educational system, covering the structures, contents and governance of pre-secondary education, secondary and vocational education, and higher education. The system from the 1970s to today’s Europeanization is covered, focusing especially on the impact of the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes. Germany has traditionally provided a large proportion of its workforce with qualifications obtained in the dual vocational training system, a sector

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that has been institutionally divided from general academic schooling and higher education. Given recent European reforms demanding greater educational mobility and lifelong learning, it has been a goal of German policy makers to increase permeability between the different sectors of the educational system. The implementation of European educational guidelines remains significantly influenced by the specific mode of coordination in the German educational system and the national model of capitalism more generally. 7. The next chapter presents the structure and basic laws of the Greek education system and how EU policy influences and inspires national developments on the education and training processes across the country. It then explores how economic austerity, which is manifested in increased rates of youth unemployment and high levels of skills shortages and mismatch with the labour market, have generated new policy considerations and challenges for the Greek education system. The later parts of the chapter highlight the importance of developing an education and training strategy that will strengthen the diversity and permeability of different educational streams in closer alignment with the current and future needs of the job market. 8. The structure and provision of Irish education since its inception in 1893 (when primary education was formally established in the country) introduces Chapter 8, which examines the main influences and drivers of education since that time, with particular emphasis on the last twenty years. Some of the more significant Education Acts include the Education Act of 1998, which introduced major reforms at primary and secondary levels, and the 1997 Universities Act, which transformed the structure of third-level educational provision. The following ‘Celtic Tiger’ decade brought about much needed diversification in terms of educational provision. However, with the downturn of the economy in the mid–2000s, and the global recession, some reforms are being eroded and even reversed. Concurrent with these trends are global concerns around the teaching of maths, science and literacy, which are underperforming in Ireland from an international comparative perspective. Hingeing on all of this background are the philosophical debates that underpin the educational system, including the place of religion in a pluralistic society. 9. Explaining the education system in Italy is easier said than done. Its history, in fact, has two different aspects that challenge a linear and simple interpretation. The first is the complex development of reforms in the 150

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years of Italian unity; the second is the recent acceleration of numerous transformations in different sections of the education systems, both for some internal dynamics of the country and the influence of international factors. Within the multifaceted framework, the chapter analyses the development of the educational system with special reference to the Republican period, after the Second World War, until the most topical changes of the reforms of today. Some aspects are stressed as especially significant: the dynamics between centralization and decentralization, the movement towards school autonomy, secondary school reforms, the transformations in teacher training, and the reforms of higher education in accord with the Bologna Process. 10. A contemporary look at Luxembourg’s educational system commonly addresses three issues that this chapter uses as corner-stones for discussing current changes and potential developments within this core European country: first, the internationally acclaimed trilingual education system; second, the poor outcomes of Luxembourg’s schooling population in international standardized testing schemes; and third, the high cost of Luxembourg’s public education, which ranks highest in Europe. The chapter analyses these three symptoms by pointing to their realities within the educational system and highlights the factors that are responsible for these symptoms. Finally, the chapter discusses attempts to bring about change and reforms in the light of a highly diverse and fast changing society. 11. Following the Democratic revolution of 1974, this chapter follows the development of education within Portugal with an emphasis on changes in adult educational policies. The chapter discusses the effects on the framework of European policies on the adult education sector and the development of the vocationalist trends that have emerged more recently. Low literacy levels compared to other EU countries, slow reform of the higher education system where the polytechnics have been slow to respond to the requirements of the Bologna Process, the growth of the private sector at secondary and tertiary levels, and recent contentious teacher education reforms have contributed to the debates on where educational priorities lie – national development, European alignment, or internationalism and relationships with former colonies. 12. Changes in the political, social and economic spheres have been accompanied by a profound and important process of reform in Spanish education. The General Law of Education in 1970 was a major turning point at which education moved from one of the most centralized in

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Europe to a radical redistribution to the seventeen autonomous regions. Central control over maintaining minimal standards across the country led to a continuing proliferation of central legislation; overall, however, a measure of democratization and modernization has now been achieved. The extent of progress made in responding to European legislation and the importance of Spanish teachers in the drive towards a high quality and equitable education system is discussed and evaluated. 13. The present educational system in Sweden is the result of the post-war reforms and a social engineering process during the mid-twentieth century based on societal needs and the drive for equal rights and education for all. The system went from a parallel school system to one characterized by uniformity. This means that equal access to education was a main focus from the start and broadened into a strategy where the equal right to learn was available to those with different needs and abilities. As a result of the discussions of quality based on the international assessments of the past decades, new ideas have been introduced with a tendency to evolve a parallel model. This chapter reviews the continuity of reforms and the international influences that have affected all levels of the system. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the role that education has had in Sweden through to the present time. 14. The final chapter analyses the organization and structure of the Dutch education system by highlighting the historical, cultural and political developments in which the current structure is rooted. The main characteristics of the system, including the constitutional freedom to establish schools, school autonomy, school choice, independent schools and equal footing of public and private schools in terms of financing are reviewed. Early selection, school segregation, education and immigrant students, teacher training, and transition from lower-secondary to upper-secondary schools, particularly vocational schools are some of problems to be faced. A number of large-scale reforms that the Dutch education system has witnessed in the past two decades, encompassing content and organization of education as well as conditions of employment, personnel management and funding have been influenced by neo-liberal policies and to a large extent characterized by deregulation and decentralization, resulting in greater autonomy for schools. Finally, the chapter considers European and international trends that influence educational issues in the Netherlands by analysing the impact of PISA on policy discourses, the Bologna Process, and the commitments at the EU level to curb drop-out rates.

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References Arfe Report (1981) The Lesser Used Languages of the European Community. Brussels: Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, Information and Sport. Corner, T. (ed.) (1984) Education in Multicultural Societies. London: Croom Helm. Corner, T. (ed.) (2015) Education in the European Union: Post–2003 Member States. London: Bloomsbury Publishers. Forthcoming. Corner, T., Stenfors-Hayes, S., Ogunleye, J., and Griffiths, C. (2006) The Relationship between Lifelong Learning and Inclusion in the Professions; an analysis of Concepts and Evidence from European Countries through the EMILIA Project (FP7). Scottish Educational Research Conference, Perth, Scotland. November. Delors, J. (1999) Reuniting Europe: Our Historic Mission. Wallenberg Lecture, Aspen Institute, November. Dobischat, R., Fischell, M., and Rosendahl, A. (2008) Auswirkungen der Studien-reform durch die Einführung des Bachelorabschlusses auf das Berufsbildungssystem. Düsseldorf: Hans-Böckler-Stiftung. Eurostat (2012) Key Data on Teaching Languageless at School in Europe. Brussels: European Commission. Graf, L. (2009) ‘Applying the varieties of capitalism approach to Higher Education: Comparing the internationalization of German and British universities’, European Journal of Education, 44: 569–85. Hofman, R., Hofman, W., Gray, J., and Daly, P. (2004) (2004) Institutional Context of Education Systems in Europe: A Cross-Country Comparison on Quality and Equity. London: Kluwer Academic. Husen, T., Tuijman, A., and Halls, W. (1992) Schooling in Modern European Society. Oxford: Pergamon Press. Ivanenko, N. (2014) Education in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, London: Bloomsbury. Judt, T. (2010) Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945. London: Vintage Books, pp. 6–8. Kamen, D. (2013) ‘Globalisation and the emergence of an audit culture: PISA and the search for “best practices” and magic bullets’, in Meyer, H.-D. and Benevot, A., PISA, Power and Policy: The Emergence of Global Governance. Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 117–39. Kogan, I., Gebel, M. and Noelke, C. (eds) (2008) Europe Enlarged: A Handbook of Education, Labour and Welfare Regimes in Central and Eastern Europe. Bristol: The Policy Press, pp. 7–34. Krücken, G. (2007) ‘Organizational fields and competitive groups in Higher Education: Some lessons from the Bachelor/Master reform in Germany’, Management Revue, 181: 187–203. Meyer, H.-D. and Benavot, A. (2013) PISA, Power and Policy: The Emergence of Global Educational Governance. Oxford: Symposium Books.

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Misra, Pradeep Kumar (2011) ‘VET teachers in Europe: Policies, practices and challenges’, Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 63(1): 27–45. Morris, J. (1997) Europe: An Intimate Journey. London: Faber and Faber, p. 321. Moutsios, S. (2013) ‘The de-Europeanisation of the university under the Bologna Process’, Thesis, 11, 119(1): 22–46. Neave, G. and Veiga, V. (2013) ‘The Bologna Process: inception, ‘take up’ and familiarity’, Higher Education, 66: 59–77. Niemi, H., Toom, A. and Kallioniemi, A. (eds) (2012) Miracle of Education: The Principles and Practices of Teaching and Learning in Finnish Schools. Rotterdam: Sense Publications. Pechar, H. (2009). ‘Can research universities survive without control over admission? Reflections on Austria’s exceptionalism in higher education policy’, Journal of Adult & Continuing Education, 15(2): 142–54. Powell, J. J. W., Bernhard, N., and Graf, L. (2012a) ‘The emerging European model in skill formation: Comparing Higher Education and Vocational Training in the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes’, Sociology of Education, 85: 240–58. Pritchard, R. (2006) ‘Trends in the restructuring of German universities’, Comparative Education Review, 50: 90–112. Schilde, K. E. (2014) ‘Who are the Europeans? European identity outside of European integration’, Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(3): 650–67. Thieme, C., Gimenez, V., and Prior, D. (2012) ‘A comparative analysis of the efficiency of national education systems’, Asia Pacific Education Review, 13: 1–15. Trohler, D. (2013) ‘The OECD and Cold War culture: Thinking historically about PISA’, in Meyer, H.-D. and Benevot, A., PISA, Power and Policy: The Emergence of Global Governance. Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 141–61.

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1

Austria: From Legacy to Reform Hans Pechar

Introduction Austria is a landlocked country in the centre of Europe. It has a federal political structure comprised of nine provinces (Länder) and a federal government. It has an area of 83,858 square kilometres and a population of eight million. About 90 per cent of the population speaks German but there are small ethnic minorities of Slovenians, Croatians, Hungarians, Czechs, and more recently Serbs and Turks. About 75 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic. The population is ageing and the school population is decreasing. Immigrant population has grown during the past three decades, from 4 per cent in 1980 to 16 per cent in 2012. In 2011, about 5 per cent of the labour force was employed in agriculture/ forestry, 27 per cent in industry and 68 per cent in the service sector. Austria is among the richest OECD countries, and its GDP per capita was US$42,400 in 2012 (validated by purchasing power parity). Within the European Union it has one of the lowest unemployment rates, and general unemployment was 4 per cent in 2011; however, youth unemployment was 8 per cent in the same year. This chapter consists of four sections: (1) a historical overview; (2) a descriptive section; (3) a theoretical framework for comparative analysis of Austrian education; and (4) a policy section that discusses contemporary reforms and controversies.

The legacy of the past In the late Middle Ages, the area of today’s Austria was culturally well developed. When the University of Vienna was established in 1365, it was the second university in the ‘Holy Roman Empire’ (after Prague, established in 1348). The decision of the Habsburg Dynasty to enforce the Counter-Reformation had 21

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major consequences for the Austrian education system. Universities and gymnasia were handed over to the religious order of the Jesuits who were in charge of education until the late eighteenth century. The legacy of the Jesuits is mixed. Operating in all Catholic countries and running more than 600 schools by the early eighteenth century, the Jesuits promoted meritocracy and mobility within their own order and their educational philosophy was based on the promotion of talent. Some scholars regard the Jesuits as pioneers of the ‘bureaucratic notion of meritocracy in academia’ (Clark, 2006, p. 26). However, the curriculum of the Jesuits, based on the Ratio Studiorum (Plan of Studies), one-sidedly emphasized logical and rhetorical instruction at the expense of the sciences, and it perpetuated scholastic thinking up until early modern times. As a consequence, Austrian universities and intellectual life in general were cut off from the scientific revolution of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. None of the Austrian universities introduced the scholarly and curricular innovations pioneered by some of the northern German protestant universities in the 1800s, notably Göttingen and Halle. Because the Catholic church distrusted lay Bible reading in the vernacular, literacy rates in early modern times were low compared to the Protestant countries of Germany. Popular school attendance was low – 10 per cent in the countryside, 30 per cent in Vienna (Melton, 2003, p.  8). Moreover, school attendance was only weakly linked with literacy because instruction mainly consisted of oral recitation and memorization of the Bible. Church authorities regarded popular literacy as a gateway to ‘heresy’, meaning Protestantism. The Constitutions of the Jesuits said: ‘None of those who are employed in domestic service by the Society ought to learn to read or write (. . .) for it suffices for them to serve with all simplicity and humility our Master, Jesus Christ’ (Hans, 1967, p. 107). Instead of a literate culture, Baroque Catholicism promoted visual media and dramatic performances for popular instruction. The Jesuit school drama served the double purpose of training the cultural elite in rhetorical techniques and of transmitting the aristocratic values in a popular form to the masses (Melton, 2003, p. 66). Reform Catholicism and enlightened absolutism changed the attitudes of church and state authorities towards education. During the late eighteenth century, Austria experienced the rise of a literate culture and Austrian emperors were pioneers in introducing compulsory schooling for all. This was originally motivated by the fear of Catholic emperors that people might convert to Protestantism if they are not properly instructed to read the Bible. Enlightened

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absolutism placed a high value on useful knowledge and had little respect for traditional universities (e.g. some were closed) and the scholastic curriculum of the Jesuits. Although reformers of enlightened absolutism promoted mass literacy, they were intent on restricting popular educational advancement to the elementary level. In some respects, education became socially more exclusive than under the Jesuits’ regime. Whereas the Jesuits sponsored talented boys from lower social classes, enlightened reformers were fearful that educational mobility might disrupt the social order. Hence, authorities intensified their efforts to regulate educational advancements and to restrict access of poor students to secondary schools. According to J. I. Felbiger, the pioneer of elementary schooling in Austria, ‘each has an obligation to live in accordance with the duties and conditions proper to his station . . . One should not frivolously aspire to a higher social position’ (quoted by Melton, 2003, p. 217). The French Revolution and its aftermath again changed the political climate for education. The neo-absolutist regime that emerged during the Napoleonic wars, and was strengthened after the Viennese Congress, eliminated all progressive elements of enlightened absolutism. The ruling classes were now firmly convinced that ‘overeducation’ of the masses would undermine the social order. The ‘school order’ of 1806 explicitly stated that ‘the lower classes must not be taught any ideas that would disturb them in fulfilling their work and their duties’ (quoted by Scheipl and Seel, 1985, p. 24). Compulsory school during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century was primarily an instrument of state and nation building, and served to socialize peasants into citizens of the Empire. Formerly, they dealt exclusively with local authorities (aristocracy, church), but now the central administration of this Empire interfered increasingly in the life of the common citizen and schooling helped to legitimize bureaucracy and political authority. The reformers of enlightened absolutism had reduced the role of the church in education. However, the neo-absolutist authorities of the early nineteenth century reversed this development and strengthened the influence of the church, in particular in elementary schools. At gymnasia and universities, authorities tightened their control over the curriculum. According to Cohen (1996, p. 16) ‘state officials approved the textbooks and course syllabi for all university professors, and lecture content had to conform to the officially sanctioned syllabi’. The revolution that shattered Europe in 1848 failed in Austria, but the regime nevertheless made concessions to reform in higher education. The Empire reshaped its elite segment according to the neo-humanist principles of higher

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learning that evolved in Prussia three decades earlier, and gymnasia and universities abandoned their Catholic character and became secular institutions. During the second half of the nineteenth century, universities quickly caught up to the standards of German research universities and, at the turn of the century, some Austrian universities were among the top tier institutions. During the same time, however, universities became a stronghold of nationalism and anti-Semitism. During the liberal era of the 1860s, elementary schools were substantially reformed and the Catholic church lost control over the compulsory non-elite segment of education. However, a contract with the Vatican granted the Catholic Church significant privileges that continue to the present day; for example, the state pays teacher salaries in private Catholic schools. Regardless, the reform triggered culture wars that were continued during the First Republic. Pope Pius IX had issued an Encyclical that, according to Hans (1967, p.  127), ‘not only condemned secular education divorced from the Catholic religion, but equally definitely condemned any intervention of the State and the system of “mixed” education’. After 1918, the transformation from a huge multinational empire to a small nation created serious problems for economic and political stability. The culture wars between a secular order and Political Catholicism intensified because large parts of the old elite did not recognize the legitimacy of a democratic regime. Attempts by Social Democratic school reformer Otto Glöckel to establish a comprehensive school (Einheitsschule) for students aged 6 to 14 failed. Severe and long-lasting damage to schools and universities was inflicted by the successive Austrofascist and Nazi regimes. As a result, the country lost most of its productive intellectual elite. A significant proportion of school teachers, students, and academics were activists in right-wing groups that undermined the democratic institutions of the First Republic (Höflechner, 1989). After the Second World War, Austria successfully portrayed itself as the first victim of the Nazi regime (pushing aside all aspects of complicity) and, unlike Germany, was not subject to ‘re-education programs’ by the Allies, in particular the Americans. As a consequence, reconstruction of the school and higher education system after 1945 was merely the restoration of pre-war institutions and structures. In many respects, this process did not align with the democratic First Republic, but instead with the policies established by the Austrofascist government (1934–1938). The late 1940s and the 1950s were a period of unchallenged hegemony of conservative educational policy. At universities, only the most radical Nazis were eliminated from the professoriate; notably, many of them were reappointed a few years later. Austria

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made no serious efforts to repatriate the many academics who were exiled by Austrofascist and National Socialist regimes and, up until the late 1960s, academic life in the post-war years was dominated by the generation that started their careers during the Austrofascist regime. The 1960s were a turning point in education policy. This decade was the ‘take-off ’ period of educational expansion and the commencement of an ongoing reform process in schools and higher education that profoundly changed the educational experience of children, adolescents, and young adults. The education system has been subject to change throughout its history, but never before did such dramatic change happen so quickly.

The educational structure Pre-primary education is called Kindergarten; it is the responsibility of the municipalities and is not regarded as part of the formal school structure. Starting in 2010, one year of fee-free Kindergarten became compulsory, mainly with the purpose of guaranteeing sufficient proficiency in the German language; increasingly, ethnically diverse students enter elementary school in Austria.

The school system – structure and enrolments School is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 15. If school authorities determine that a child is not mature enough to attend first grade, the child is placed into a remedial pre-first grade class in the primary school, and this is the case for about 10 per cent of the children. School ends around noon or shortly thereafter. The change from half-day to full-day schooling is currently the subject of reform and controversy. Primary school consists of grades 1 to 4 and is the only part of schooling that is comprehensive. Streaming starts when students transfer to secondary schools. Lower secondary education consists of grades 5 to 8 and is divided into either the ‘main school’ (called Hauptschule) or the lower cycle of the academic secondary school (formally known as Allgemeinbildende Höhere Schule but commonly known as Gymnasium). The former was designed to provide education for the masses and the latter to prepare the elite for universities. Educational expansion starting in the 1960s blurred this distinction, but institutional differentiation still exists. To enter the Hauptschule, students must simply have completed the last grade of primary school, whereas to enter the

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Gymnasium students need to be high achievers in primary school. Overall in 2010, 32 per cent of the age group entered the Gymnasium; however, this proportion varies widely between urban and rural areas. Although the curriculum is similar in both types of school, little transfer occurs between school types. Over the past 40 years, early streaming has been subject to controversy; it is one of the main reasons for high levels of social reproduction by schools, as discussed in more detail in the next section. Special schools for children with mental or physical disabilities (Sonderschulen) enrol 2 per cent of the age group at the primary level and 3 per cent at the lower secondary level. Numbers are decreasing as ‘mainstreaming’ has become popular; increasingly, parents decide if their children should enter mainstream or special schools. Students who do not continue with full-time schooling at the upper secondary level usually enrol in the Polytechnischen Lehrgang, which lasts for one year. Most of this group continue with an apprenticeship in the dual system that combines practical training at a firm with formal instruction – typically for one day a week – at a vocational school (Berufsschule). Successful completion results in a vocational licence. In 2010, 38 per cent of the age cohort participated in vocational training within the dual system. Full-time upper secondary education consists of grades 9 to 12 and is divided into the academically oriented Gymnasium and different types of vocational education. Students who successfully complete the exit exam of the Gymnasium (called Matura – the Austrian equivalent to the German Abitur) are ‘entitled’ to enrol at universities. Full-time vocational schools are divided into a middle and a higher branch, and students who graduate from the latter are also ‘entitled’ to enrol at universities. Promotion from one grade to the next is on the basis of continuous assessment carried out by class teachers and culminating annually in a ‘school report’ with marks between 1 (excellent) and 5 (not satisfactory). Students who fail in two subjects are required to repeat the class. Repetition in compulsory school is rare; in the more selective schools, especially in the higher vocational and technical schools, more than 10 per cent of the students are not promoted.

Higher education – structure and enrolment The key features of the Austrian higher education system are a low degree of expansion, weak differentiation, and an idiosyncratic admission policy. Unlike the selective admission procedures at Anglo-Saxon universities or the Numerus

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Clausus system in most European countries, Austria has an ‘open admission’ policy. Students who have completed the Gymnasium and hold a Matura are ‘entitled’ to enrol in any programme at any Austrian university. The tradition of this entitlement system (Berechtigungswesen) is deeply rooted in Europe, in particular in the German-speaking countries. The sending sector (the school) has the authority to vest its graduates with privileges that are recognized without challenge by the receiving sector (the tertiary institutions). Such entitlement systems compel universities to passively accept students based on their achievement in secondary school. However, most countries with an entitlement system have introduced a Numerus Clausus (restrictions to admissions) in fields of study where the number of applicants is permanently and substantially higher than the number of study places policy makers are willing to fund. Austria’s exceptionalism surrounding admission policy can be defined in terms of treating entitlements of secondary certificates as absolute without taking into account the availability of resources. Until recently, the government categorically rejected Numerus Clausus in any field of study, including medicine. Only in 2005, after a decision by the European Court of Justice that Austria could not restrict open admission policies to its own citizens, a Numerus Clausus was introduced in most of the same disciplines to which Germany applies this restriction. Universities of the arts and universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen) do not have open admission. For instance, enrolment at the former requires entrance examinations to prove artistic talent. In Fachhochschulen (which have existed since 1993), students are admitted in accordance with the available study places. Despite the open admission policy, tertiary participation and graduation rates are significantly lower than in most other OECD countries. In 2010, entry rates into tertiary education by students below the age of 25 were 49 per cent in Austria, compared with an OECD average of 62 per cent (OECD 2012, p. 355). Accordingly, only 21 per cent of the 25- to 34-years-old population has attained tertiary education, compared with an OECD average of 38 per cent (OECD, 2012, p. 36). The well-developed vocational training at the secondary level is one reason for lower participation at the tertiary level. Another reason is the low degree of differentiation in higher education. Until 1993, when the Fachhochschul-sector was introduced, research universities had a monopoly in higher education. Due to the late development of non-university alternatives, enrolment in higher education is still dominated by research universities. In 2010, 81 per cent of the

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students were enrolled in universities, 15 per cent were enrolled in the nonuniversity sector of higher education, and 4 per cent were enrolled in the other post-secondary institutions. The distribution of academic degrees is another sign of weak differentiation. Like most European countries, Austrian universities traditionally were comprised of a single tier system, ‘in which the professional school within the university is entered directly after completion of secondary education’ (Clark, 1983, p.  49). Until the 1960s, the doctorate was the first (and only) academic degree in Austria; however, during the 1970s most academic fields introduced a Master’s degree (Diplomstudium). Only with the implementation of the Bologna Process during the 2000s did Austrian universities adopt a two-tier system with a bachelor, master, and Ph.D. sequence. The majority of students and academics, however, oppose this new ‘study architecture’ (see following section). The bachelor is widely regarded as an intermediate degree and, as a consequence, around 80 per cent of all students who graduate with a bachelor enrol at the master’s level. Austria has an exceptionally high graduation rate at the doctoral level – 2.2 per cent compared with 1.6 per cent OECD average (OECD, 2012, p. 69). This is in striking contrast to the low overall graduation rate. However, the traditional forms of doctoral education do not provide research training comparable to the American Ph.D. Many students use the doctoral degree as a pointer to enter the professional labour market because the doctoral degree is not regarded as a sufficient qualification for an academic career. Prospective academics prepare a second thesis – the Habilitation.

Governance, funding, and teaching staff General legislation for all educational matters rests with the federal parliament. Provincial parliaments can pass minor bylaws concerning compulsory schools., although legislation regarding school structure requires a constitutional majority of two-thirds of parliamentary votes. This requirement favours the maintenance of the status quo, because in controversial matters a compromise among the major ideological camps that would enable legislation is unlikely to be achieved. Maintenance of public educational institutions is shared by different levels of government. Compulsory schools are maintained by the municipalities (Gemeinden) and their teachers are employed by the provinces (Länder). Salaries, however, are reimbursed by the federal government. Vocational schools (Berufsschulen) are maintained by the Länder; for these schools, the federal government only reimburses half of the teachers‘ salaries. Up until 2002, public

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universities have been state agencies. As a result of a major governance reform (University Act 2002) institutions now have full legal entity. The federal government continues to be responsible for basic funding, but funding for universities of applied science is shared between federal and provincial governments. In 2008, Austria’s total expenditure for education was 5.4 per cent of the GDP, of which 0.2 per cent came from private sources. Expenditure for pre-primary education was 0.5 per cent, for primary and secondary schools 3.6 per cent, and for tertiary education 1.3 per cent of the GDP (OECD, 2012, p. 246). Attendance at public schools is free. Tuition fee policies for public universities have changed frequently, but even when fees were charged they were minimal. The state provides family allowances and free transportation up to the age of 24, direct study grants, talent scholarships, subsidies for studies abroad, and subsidized health insurance for students. About 6 per cent of students attend private schools that are mostly run by the Roman Catholic Church or affiliated institutions. Most private schools conform to state laws and can issue certificates equivalent to public schools. Since 1999, private universities (formerly forbidden by federal law) have been allowed to exist and enrol about 2 per cent of all students. The notion of a separate track for elite education is reflected in the binary structure of teacher training. Only teachers at the Gymnasium and vocational equivalents are educated at universities, while teachers for compulsory schools are trained at non-university institutions. As a consequence, teachers are divided into two status groups with different employment contracts. Teachers at compulsory schools (elementary schools and the ‘main’ strand of lower secondary schools) are employed by the provinces (Landeslehrer). Teachers at Gymnasium and upper vocational schools are employed by the federal government (Bundeslehrer). This division reflects the ideology of a fundamental difference between elite and popular education that still underpins the practice of early streaming. Around 122,000 teachers were employed in 2011 and about 70 per cent were female. Around 71,000 teach in compulsory schools (Landeslehrer) and 51,000 are employed by the federal government (Bundeslehrer). Academic careers at Austrian universities are structured along the Germanic pattern that is characterized by a hierarchical division between full professors and academics below professorial status. In 2010, the total academic staff at all universities was 11,400 full-time equivalents, 2,170 of whom were full professors (BMWF, 2011). The ratio between the different academic status groups illustrates the opportunity structures for junior faculty to end up as a full professor: for each professor there are approximately two assistants with habilitation and

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almost six assistants without habilitation. Once assistants have completed their habilitation, they meet the formal qualification for the professorship. However, since a ‘call’ for a professorship requires a vacancy in the professorial status group, a large part of ‘middle rank’ academics with habilitation has little chance to be promoted.

Austria in comparative perspective: two theoretical lenses By considering Austrian education in a comparative perspective, two aspects are striking. Measured by common indicators (GDP/capita, Gini coefficient, poverty rate), Austria is a rich and relatively equitable society. With respect to equity in education, however, Austria performs poorly. And in spite of its high level of economic development, tertiary graduation rates are among the lowest within OECD. Prominent paradigms of comparative social research for discussing these conundrums are considered in the following section. First, I will discuss the Austrian education system through the lens of EspingAndersen’s (1990) theory of welfare regimes (Pechar and Andres, 2011). The logic of these regimes is characterized by the level and mode of ‘decommodification’, which is defined as the degree by which the living condition of the population of a country is independent of market outcomes. EspingAndersen’s typology distinguishes Liberal (LWR), Conservative (CWR), and Social Democratic (SWR) welfare regimes. The LWR consists of the AngloSaxon countries which feature a low degree of de-commodification, where welfare provision is designed as a safety net against poverty levels that endanger social cohesion. SWR – the Nordic countries of Europe – and CWR – most countries of the European continent, including Austria – are both characterized by higher degrees of de-commodification, thus setting stronger limits to the market than LWR. However, design and rationale for welfare provision differ among these regimes. SWR emphasize social and gender equity by providing universal welfare coverage and by ensuring resources for all citizens at a much higher standard than minimal need. By contrast, CWR emphasize social hierarchies and the traditional family. De-commodification in CWR serves to protect the social order from being undermined by market dynamics. Education is a crucial mechanism for preserving social hierarchies. From the pre-compulsory to the tertiary level, Austria has organized its educational pathways in a way that facilitates the generational transmission of cultural capital for the educated middle classes, while making it difficult for children

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from families with low cultural capital to succeed. The pre-industrial notion of an ‘organic order’ of societies, with special educational tracks for different status groups, is in many ways still present in institutional arrangements. As recently as the 1930s, the Austrofascist government preached a political philosophy based on ‘social estates’ (Ständestaat) that strongly influenced education policy, and recent reform efforts have not yet been successful in overcoming this legacy (Pechar, 2010). At the pre-compulsory level, Austria provides strong support for young children, but this is for the most part financial aid to families. Its purpose is to allow mothers to withdraw from the labour market and to take care of their young children. In reality, support in the form of public early childhood education is underdeveloped. High public family support has little, if any, equitable outcomes; rather, it strengthens social reproduction by maintaining the transmission of cultural capital within the family. At the secondary level, Austria maintains the outdated model of early streaming. During the 1970s, when in most European countries comprehensive schooling was introduced at the lower secondary level, the educated middle classes in Austria were successful in preventing reform. A separate track – the Gymnasium – was and is reserved for the ‘intellectually gifted’ (as opposed to those who are destined to work with their hands). In the course of educational expansion, the consequences of early tracking have changed significantly. The non-elite track of compulsory schooling, which up to the 1960s enrolled the vast majority of the age cohort, is becoming very unpopular. Today, many talented students who would have taken up highly skilled vocational apprenticeships in former years are creamed off to the Gymnasium. In large urban areas, the former ‘main schools’ have become ghettos for the many who are disadvantaged with the least cultural capital. Early selection is justified by the belief that demand for highly educated people is limited and that society would not benefit by providing education in excess of that demand. It is argued that society should concentrate its resources on the few individuals who are highly talented and have the potential to be promoted to elite positions. It follows that less talented children should be sorted in their proper social niche where they will limit themselves to ‘realistic’ career paths and not waste time in overly ambitious educational paths that they will never achieve. Hence, early selection at school is a mechanism that stabilizes the social order. At the tertiary level, strong ideological and structural barriers to expansion prevail (Andres and Pechar, 2013). Austrian institutions of higher education are

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shaped by the neo-humanist ideal of learning for its own sake. This ideal provides a strong identity for the educated middle classes (as opposed to the commercial middle classes). Max Weber’s distinction between social class and social status (Weber, 1978, p. 302) helps to understand this segmentation. Class refers to one’s position in the system of economic production; status (social estate) refers to the distinctive style of life with a corresponding code of honour. The ideal of nonutilitarian cultivation emphasizes the status dimension, and the educated middle classes shape the education system for the reproduction of social status based on cultivation. Weber’s analysis of the German system around 1900 still provides a good interpretation of present attitudes in Austria: Differences of education are one of the strongest social barriers, especially in Germany, where almost all privileged positions inside and outside the civil service are tied to qualifications involving not only specialized knowledge but also ‘general cultivation’ and where the whole school and university system has been put into the service of this ideal of general cultivation. Ringer, 1969, p. 35

Transition from secondary to higher education exemplifies the perseverance of the elite concept. The concept of ‘sponsored mobility’ (Turner, 1960) explains the pattern of early selection of academically talented students who are relieved of competitive pressure when they enter post-secondary education – they are ‘entitled’ to enrol at any university and any subject. The sponsorship norm is based on the assumption of a stable and sharp division between a small elite and the vast masses. The elite are separated from the less talented masses by a huge cultural distance without gradual intersections. From this perspective, expansion of higher education bears the risk of compromising the ‘gold standard’ of elite culture and higher education. This ideology is reflected in the widespread resistance to the Bologna Process and in the framing of the bachelor’s degree as an ‘intermediate’ degree; there is widespread resistance to the concept of ‘employability’ of university graduates. While the welfare regime identifies the weaknesses of Austrian education, the production regime recognizes its strengths. These strengths consist mainly in vocational education and training (VET) at the secondary level. Production regime theory has emerged from the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature and focuses on different forms of coordination that exist within capitalist economies (Hall and Soskice, 2001). It provides a caveat against the assumption that modernization results in a convergence of one global economic and social model. It emphasizes the coexistence of diverse systems of production that offer

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alternative routes to strong economic performance, and offers a plausible explanation for the weak correlation between tertiary attainment and economic performance in Austria. Production regime theory identifies two ideal types – liberal market economies (LME) and coordinated market economies (CME). Economic life in LME – the Anglo-Saxon countries – relies predominantly on market mechanisms. Austria belongs to the CME that complement market mechanisms with nonmarket forms of coordination. In corporate governance, CME are more strongly oriented towards consultations, consensual decisions, and a long-term orientation, whereas the industrial relations of CME are characterized by long-term commitments (less fluctuation) and collective bargaining at industry or central level. One of the key spheres of a production regime perspective is vocational education and training. Production regime theorists argue that different modes of economic coordination correlate with different types of skill formation. LME have a preference for generic skill formation, with a dominance of general upper secondary schools and a high participation at the tertiary level. CME favour specific skill formation, with a high proportion of vocational upper secondary education and lower rates at the tertiary level (Estevez-Abe, Iversen, and Soskice, 2001). Although early selection in tracks of different aspiration levels is an anomaly of some CWR, tracking at the upper secondary level (ISCED 3) is common within the OECD. At age 15 or 16, most European systems require a basic decision between continuing with an academic curriculum (that typically means preparing for higher education) or choosing a vocational track, that usually limits the post-secondary options. The proportion of students in the academic and vocational tracks differs significantly, with Austria having one of the strongest vocational orientations. A full 58 per cent of the 25- to 64-year-old population has attained upper secondary VET, either within apprenticeships in the dual system or in higher vocational schools (OECD, 2012, p. 39). This type of vocational training is the main route of skill formation, with higher education reserved for the learned professions and other types of occupation that require a research intensive training. The long-term commitment to employees is regarded as a precondition for the involvement of firms in vocational training (as opposed to on the job training). Collective coordination and consensus building between firms, the government, and – after the Second World War – the unions became a precondition and key factor for the dual system of apprenticeship.

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The extensive system of VET in Austria plays an important role in providing an alternative training route for academic low achievers. Graduates of the apprenticeship system enjoy a higher social status and better labour market chances than do individuals in the LME without tertiary education. High social security and low unemployment levels among those with lower educational credentials partly mitigate the consequences of the strong social selectivity of lower secondary schooling. Whether the strong emphasis on upper secondary VET is still a comparative advantage in an increasingly knowledge-based economy is contested. The strength of the dual system lies in the transmission of manual skills that require learning by doing. The knowledge that is required for such tasks is usually weakly codified, hence learning by ‘osmosis’ within a master–apprentice relationship, is often regarded to be superior to school-based learning that has its strengths in the transmission of codified knowledge. However, in a knowledge-based economy, the significance of manual skills is decreasing and abstract cognitive competencies that are best attained in a formalized learning environment gain importance. How and to what extent this calls for a change in educational systems is the subject of controversy among experts and interest groups. The dominant view is that Austria must upgrade its VET system and significantly expand its tertiary education system.

Reform and policy controversy It is difficult to depart from a policy pattern that has deep historical roots. In Austria, inertia as a result of path dependency – emphasized by both welfare and production regime theories – is intensified by the deep ideological cleavage in education policy. Economic and welfare policies in general are increasingly guided by pragmatic considerations, allowing for compromises. In contrast, a fundamental ideological conflict remains in the field of education. Compromises for issues such as comprehensive schooling or tuition fees for universities between the Conservative and the Social Democratic camps seem out of reach. Nevertheless, significant change and reform has occurred since the 1960s, mainly driven by educational expansion. The course for expansion was set by a major school reform in 1962. Up until that time, the most common educational level of attainment in Austria was eight years of elementary school. Since then, lower secondary education became universal and a growing proportion of school leavers have continued with vocational training in the dual system. Entrance

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examinations for the Gymnasium at age 10 were abolished, opening the doors to advanced learning for students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. As a consequence, enrolments at universities started to increase. More students required more teaching staff; the hiring of new faculty was accompanied by the extension of new academic disciplines and the broadening of theoretical approaches and paradigms. Due to a governance reform that reduced the power of chair-holding professors (University Act 1975), junior academics gained status. The expansion of higher learning has eroded the hegemony of the educated middle classes over cultural affairs – yet, they were still powerful enough to prevent structural reforms of the education system. The educational structure is still shaped by the legacy of the former elite system that was characterized by a sharp division between the education of the ‘ordinary people’ and the ‘cultivated elite’. The following section gives an account of recent reform efforts that are aimed at changing this pattern.

Reforms at the pre-tertiary level Significant change occurred over the past decade in the area of pre-compulsory education (Specht, 2009). A broad consensus emerged that the supply of places in Kindergarten must be significantly increased. A main driver of that change was the demand for day care by highly educated women who are increasingly opposed to the traditional ‘male breadwinner’ model. Equally important is the need to teach language skills to first-generation immigrant students. The main difficulty for increasing quantity and quality in early childhood education is the lack of resources of many municipalities (that are in charge of pre-compulsory education). Advocates of reform propose to shift this responsibility to the federal government. In the 1980s and 1990s, early streaming was low on the political agenda because the opposition of conservatives to comprehensive schooling seemed insurmountable. The ‘PISA shock’ of the early 2000s brought this issue back on to the agenda (Specht, 2009). Some factions within the conservative camp (e.g. the business organizations) are now supportive of comprehensive schooling. However, to date the teacher unions have been successful in preventing policy change. In response, the government has upgraded most traditional Hauptschulen to Neue Mittelschulen (new middle schools). It remains to be seen if this reform will be more than a change of labels. Regarding the controversy of full-day schooling, conservative opposition is decreasing. The policy debate on this topic is driven by the same dynamic as the

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debate on early childhood education. Increased labour market participation of women makes the reliance on mothers to monitor the homework of their children no longer sustainable. Hence there is consensus that the supply of fullday classes should be increased. However, it is still controversial whether full-day class should be the standard form of schooling or just a supplementary – and voluntary – extension of the regular half-day class for students with working mothers (Herzog-Punzenberger, 2012). One reason full-day class is still controversial is the resistance of teachers to spend larger amounts of their working days in school. Presently they are at school only to fulfil their teaching duties; they are free to perform all other professional activities – preparation of class, correction of students’ essays – at home. The government, supported by social partners and representatives of parents, wants to extend the presence of teachers in school. More than two years of negotiations with teacher unions with the goal of changing the legal framework for employment contracts have not yet come to fruition.

Reforms at the tertiary level As with school policy, higher education policy continues to be an ideological battleground between Conservative and Social Democratic camps. While the Conservatives obstruct many urgent reforms at the school level, Social Democrats play a similar role at the tertiary level. The most controversial issues are admission policies and tuition fees. Up until the 1990s, most higher education actors regarded open admission as an effective policy to modernize and democratize universities. Since then, however, student/teacher ratios in many fields of study have dramatically increased, resulting in a deterioration of study conditions for students and working conditions for academics. For the past two decades, rectors and leading academics have opposed open admission and advocate similar rules as at the universities of applied science that admit students according to funded seats (Pechar, 2009). Student unions, supported by Social Democrats, unconditionally defend open admission. This controversy is likely to paralyze higher education policy for the years to come. The same holds for tuition fees that have been a matter of controversy for decades. They were abolished in 1971, reintroduced in 2001, and again abolished for the vast majority of students in 2007 (they only apply to students who do not complete in due time). Opponents of fees claim that free education at all levels is a human right. However, significant private funding for pre-primary and tertiary

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education is common in most OECD countries. The balance of private and public funding for these two levels of education is evidence of an inequitable policy in Austria. Although pre-primary education has stronger equity effects than higher education, private contributions in the former are much higher than in the latter. In Austria, 28 per cent of pre-primary funding is private (as compared to an OECD average of 18 per cent); in tertiary funding, however, the private share of 12 per cent is below the OECD average of 32 per cent (OECD, 2013). Reform of teacher training is another contested area. In 2007, the former institutions called Pädagigische Akademien that were classified as post-secondary but not tertiary, were upgraded to Pädagische Hochschulen (PH). Since then, teachers trained to work at compulsory schools graduate with a bachelor’s degree but they are still divided from university-trained teachers for the Gymnasium. A teacher-training reform initiative strives to abolish this division and establish a uniform basic training for all types of teachers., and this would reduce the status gap between the different types. Conservatives fear that this reform will undermine the ideological justification for the early streaming. Another contested issue is the role of universities and PH in future teacher training. The government wants the two institutions to cooperate, but universities do not want to accept the PHs as equal partners. In accordance with the Bologna Process, recent steps to raise the quality of doctoral training were undertaken (Pechar, Ates, and Andres, 2012). Until the 1960s, the doctoral degree was the first academic degree at Austrian universities. Following a major study reform process in 1966, a diploma degree (equivalent to the Anglophone master’s degree) was introduced, but the differentiation between the diploma and the doctoral degree remained weak. The present reform follows the American Ph.D. model. The minimum duration of doctoral training was increased from two to three years. Individual supervision of doctoral students, which dominated until recently, has now for the most part been replaced by new models of semi-structured or structured programmes. In contrast to the previous practice of internal assessment and examination of doctoral candidates (by the supervisor), most universities now require at least one external examiner. This multitude of reform efforts indicates that the status quo of Austrian education is regarded as insufficient for the knowledge society. It remains to be seen whether these efforts will be successful in causing a departure from the conservative path, thereby making education more equitable.

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References Andres, L., and Pechar, H. (2013) ‘Participation patterns in education in comparative perspective’, European Journal of Education, 48(2): 347–61. BMWF (2011) Universitätsbericht 2011. Wien: BMWF. Clark, B. R. (1983) The Higher Education System. Academic Organization in Cross-National Perspective. Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Clark, W. (2006) Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Cohen, G. B. (1996) Education and Middle-Class Society in Imperial Austria, 1848–1918. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press. Esping-Andersen, G. (1990) The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Estevez-Abe, M., Iversen, T., and Soskice, D. (2001) ‘Social protection and the formation of skills: A reinterpretation of the welfare state’, in P. A. Hall and D. Soskice (eds), Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage (pp. 145–183). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hall, P. A. and Soskice, D. (eds) (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hans, N. (1967) Comparative Education. A Study of Educational Factors and Traditions. London: Routledge & Keagan Paul. Herzog-Punzenberger, B. (ed.) (2012) ‘Nationaler Bildungsbericht Österreich 2012, Band 2’, Fokussierte Analysen bildungspolitischer Schwerpunktthemen. Graz: Leykam. Höflechner, W. (1989) ‘Wissenschaft, Staat und Hochschule in Österreich bis 1938’, in C. Brünner and H. Konrad (eds), Die Universität und 1938 (pp. 57–74). Wien/Köln: Böhlau. Melton, J. v. H. (2003) Absolutism and the Eighteenth-Century Origins of Compulsory Schooling in Prussia and Austria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OECD (2012) Education at a Glance 2012. OECD Indicators. Paris: OECD. OECD (2013) Education at a Glance 2013. Austria Country Note. Paris: OECD. Pechar, H. (2009) ‘Can research universities survive without control over admission? Reflections on Austria’s exceptionalism in higher education policy’, Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 15(2): 142–54. Pechar, H. (2010) ‘Die ständische Versäulung des österreichischen Bildungssystems’, in Josef Broukal and Erwin Niederwieser (eds), Bildung in der Krise. Warum wir uns Nichtstun nicht leisten können (pp. 27–38). Wien: Kremayr & Scheriau. Pechar, H. and Andres, L. (2011) ‘Higher education policies and welfare regimes: International comparative perspectives’, Higher Education Policy, 24: 25–52. Pechar, H., Ates, G, and Andres, L. (2012) ‘The “New Doctorate” in Austria: Progress toward a professional model or status quo?’, ceps Journal, 2(4): 91–110. Ringer, F. (1969) The Decline of the German Mandarins. The German Academic Community 1890–1933. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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Scheipl, J. and Seel, H. (1985) Die Entwicklung des österreichischen Schulwesens von 1750–1938. Graz: Leykam. Specht, W. (eds) (2009) ‘Nationaler Bildungsbericht Österreich 2009, Band 2’, Fokussierte Analysen bildungspolitischer Schwerpunktthemen. Graz: Leykam. Turner, R. (1960) ‘Sponsored and contest mobility and the school system’, American Sociological Review, 25(6): 855–67. Weber, M. (1978) Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich (eds), Berkeley/Los Angeles, CA: University of Califonia Press.

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Belgium: Regional Development Roger Standaert

Introduction This chapter initially describes some typical characteristics of the education system in Belgium and then focuses on the use of informal and formative assessment rather than reliance on external examinations that is a hallmark of educational development across the regions of Belgium. This contemporary analysis covers the general principles of education as they apply in the federal state of the three regions of Belgium for cultural and educational matters. These regions comprise the Dutch-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking communities that are largely autonomous in their educational policy and each of which has some parallels to the administrative arrangements of the German Lander. This autonomy is, however, restricted to some extent by an overarching law about the general principles and structures that are similar for these three communities.

The Belgian context Belgium has approximately 11 million inhabitants, of which 57.5 per cent are in the region of Flanders, 32 per cent in the Walloon region, 10 per cent in the Brussels Capital Region and only 0.7 per cent in the German speaking Community. Within the European Union (EU), with 502 million inhabitants, it accounts for 2.2 per cent (the ninth place of the 28 countries). In the 589 municipalities, Belgium has 10.6 per cent inhabitants from non-Belgian origin. In this percentage, 66 per cent have come from other European states, 7.4 per cent from Morocco, 3.4 per cent from Turkey and 31 per cent from other continents, many from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former colony of Belgium. 41

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Currently the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is 376.8 billion euros, which means 2.9 per cent of the mean GDP of the EU. The Purchasing Power Parity (ppp) is 119, compared with the mean score 100 of the EU (the fourth position). The poverty rate (1,000 euros monthly for a single person, 2,101 euros for a family with two children) was, in 2011, 15.3 per cent (9.8 per cent in Flanders and 19.2 per cent in the Walloon Region). The unemployment rate was 7.6 per cent (10.6 per cent for the EU, the eighth position). The current high rate of youth unemployment (under the age of 25) is a contemporary problem across all European states, and stands at 19.8 per cent, compared with the rate of 22.8 per cent in the EU. Regarding the education level in Belgium, 43.9 per cent of the population aged 30–34 years has obtained a degree of higher education (EU, 35.8 per cent), but, on the other hand, the rate of early school leaving is rather high. As a percentage of school leavers, of the population between 18 and 24 years old with a maximum diploma of lower secondary education, Belgium accounts for 12.0 per cent (12.8 per cent for the EU). Belgium has an economy accentuated on the tertiary sector, accounting for 68 per cent of GDP. Industry accounts for 14.7 per cent, agriculture for 0.6 per cent, building and construction for 5.1 per cent and finally 10 per cent for a diversity of sectors. For the purposes of international developments and comparisons, the educational structure and practice in Flanders, the predominantly Dutchspeaking community in the west and north, is both the majority community and illustrative of Belgian education policy and intent. There are notable French-speaking communities in the south and east and the city region of Brussels, and subtle cultural and attitudinal differences towards education apply in the international conurbation around Brussels and the international community in Maastricht just over the eastern border in The Netherlands. In addition, there is a growing number of immigrant cultures with significant educational needs and seeking recognition of their linguistic and religious autonomy. For the purposes of this analysis, the education system of the Dutch-speaking community (Flanders) will be used to illustrate many of the overall principles of Belgian education; with descriptions of the overall structure and then an explanation of the curriculum and the system of quality assurance, along with the important roles of the inspectorate and a well-developed system for guidance of schools and teachers. Together with the inspectorate and the guidance system, a periodical assessment of the curriculum at the systemic level make it clear that external examinations and rankings of schools do not conform with the overall

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educational philosophy to be found in Belgium. Some important contemporary problems and themes in the education system are also considered.

Education at the Federal level of Belgium A correct understanding of the practice of education in Belgium requires some basic insights into the context, namely the Belgian constitutional system, the multilingual reality of Belgian society and the politically and ideologically delicate nature of educational issues in Belgium. Control over education has always been a politically sensitive issue, as illustrated by the question of the extent of religious intervention in education that split Belgian educational politics for a hundred years until it was settled in 1958. At that time, a longlasting political compromise was reached with the so-called ‘School Pact’, which covers the entire educational system except for universities. The compromise reaffirms by law the freedom to choose between religious and secular education and the obligation for the State to support this option. This law abolished school fees at every level of education and government subsidies were guaranteed for all public schools as well as private schools, on the condition that they observed the laws regarding the organization of studies and provided the schools with certain curriculum standards. An important characteristic of education in Belgium is the freedom of education, as it is stated in the Constitution of 1831. It is the core of educational legislation in Belgium and means many aspects, such as organizing education, receiving education and choosing what to teach, are only restricted by the rights of others and the possibility of abuses considered dangerous for society. Active freedom is understood to be the right of establishment, i.e. the freedom of private persons as well as authorities, to found schools and provide education, both in form and content. The autonomy derived from this principle also includes the right, within the prevailing rules of subsidies, to confer legally valid proofs of study and to issue certificates ratifying those studies. It means also the right of orientation, which implies that schools can be founded on the basis of either certain religious denominations (Catholic, Jewish, Protestant and Islamic schools) or non-denominational philosophies, or certain pedagogical or educational ideologies (the so-called small education providers such as Freinet, Montessori, Dalton, Waldorf). Finally, freedom of education is enacted as the right of organization. This affects the right of the controlling bodies and ‘school boards’ to decide on the organization and running of schools without interference

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from the government. This implies laying down the registration policy and applying disciplinary rules, the choice of staff in view of achieving their own educational objectives, and the promulgation of school regulations. In other words, the decisive power of the school boards and school management may not be curtailed in a clearly unreasonable or unequal manner. However, this freedom of education of the Constitution is not to be confused with regulatory measures stated for subsidizing schools. For instance, the government is allowed to: ● ● ●

●

lay down rules about admission policies and the right to refusal; set conditions in relation to people’s qualifications; impose attainment targets insofar as this leaves enough room to realize the pedagogical or ideological project; introduce participation structures.

The historical conflict for the freedom to organize education was marked by the ‘pillarization’ of the education system, which refers to the basis of legislation that has evolved to create a fundamental classification according to the type of school: ●

●

official schools set up by public administrators (municipality, provinces, the Dutch, French, German-speaking communities); subsidized education set up by an individual leader, or an entity governed by private law (the so-called ‘free schools’).

As a consequence most of the schools are organized in educational networks (often referred to as ‘nets’): ● ●

●

the network of the Community; the higher-order network of the network of subsidized denominational schools (the majority catholic schools); the municipalities and the provinces.

The proportion of schools within these networks is different for the three communities. For the Dutch-speaking community, for example, the proportion of the school population in elementary education is 15.3 per cent for the network of the Community, 16.7 per cent for the municipalities and provinces, and 68.0 per cent for the network of free schools (most of them Catholic). For secondary education, the numbers for 2010 are respectively 23.6 per cent, 14.7 per cent and 61.8 per cent. For the French-speaking community, the proportion differs to some extent with fewer pupils in the free schools and more in the schools of the municipalities and the provinces.

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Compulsory education in Belgium starts on 1 September of the year in which a child reaches the age of 6, and lasts for 12 school years. A pupil has to comply with compulsory education until the age of 15 or 16. Afterwards, only part-time compulsory education is applicable and consists of different types of workrelated learning though, in practice, most young people continue to attend fulltime secondary education. Compulsory education ends at the 18th birthday. A small minority of parents opt for home education, and they must inform the ministry of education and the inspectorate, which hold a minimal control over them. The Belgian Constitution provides access to education free of charge up to the end of compulsory education. In addition, for nursery and primary education, parents do not have to pay for school materials and activities that are vital to pursuing and achieving the attainment targets. For secondary education, school expenses must be in proportion to the characteristics of the target group (i.e. technical and vocational education). The list of charges must be stipulated in the school regulations, and parents and pupils have a say in advance on these fees through the school council. For primary, secondary and adult education, the official school year starts on 1 September and ends on 31 August. Colleges of higher education and universities autonomously decide on the actual organization of the academic year and, since 2006, the division of the academic year has been abandoned as a result of the increased flexibility of higher education. Students opt for the pathways of 60 credits or for flexible combinations of course components with a minimum of three credits.

Educational provision in Flanders The main characteristics of Flanders are shown below: System of government National language Population Capital city Number of municipalities Number of provinces Population density Total area Gross domestic product (GDP)

Part of constitutional monarchy Dutch 6,043,161 Brussels 308 5 447 13,522 km2 €376.8 billion

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Expenditure education Institutions nursery education Institutions primary education Institutions secondary education Institutions tertiary education

€10.3 billion (2012) 2,240 2,342 1,075

Non-university: University: Institutions adult education

22 7 147

Nursery and primary education Elementary education comprises both nursery and primary education, for which there is mainstream and special nursery and primary education. Nursery education is available for children from 2.5 to 6 years, and the children can start nursery education between the ages of 2.5 and 3 years. Though not obligatory, this level of education in 2010/2011 provided for 99.1 per cent of the five-year-old children. There were only 2.39 per cent of the two-year-old children at that time who did not attend nursery school, which showed that families rely heavily on this provision. Mainstream primary education is aimed at children from 6 to 12 years and comprises 6 consecutive years of study. Special nursery and primary education is aimed at children who have special needs, temporarily or permanently that may be due to the children’s physical or mental disability, serious behavioural or emotional problems, or serious learning difficulties. There are nine types of special nursery and primary education, tailored to the educational and developmental needs of particular groups of children. From a structural point of view, nursery and primary education are separate. To facilitate a smooth transition, new schools for mainstream education must organize both nursery and primary education. Elementary schools have to collaborate through the formation of school clusters, usually with a minimum of 900 pupils. Apart from the teaching times, nursery schools are allocated a number of hours to employ child carers who support nursery teachers and optimize the way in which the young child is taken care of. The government allocates to each elementary school a funding envelope for management and support staff, and these funds are meant for:

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the care policy; the co-ordination of ICT policy (together with a cluster of schools); the development of administrative support.

The government does not impose any minimum or maximum numbers with regard to the number of pupils per class and thus schools decide for themselves how they divide the pupils into groups. Although there are other possible forms of organization, most nursery and primary schools choose a year-group system and, in most cases, every class has its own (nursery) teacher. The content of the education provided in nursery education is based on a multifaceted approach that encourages children’s cognitive, motor and affective development. The educational provision covers an integrated curriculum of the subject areas: physical education, art education, Dutch, environmental studies and initiation to mathematics. Developmental objectives that describe what young people learn at the school have been introduced for each subject area in nursery education. Primary education builds on the educational provision of nursery education and works on the same subject areas. Instead of developmental objectives (which require no obligation of result), attainment targets are applicable in primary education. These are minimum objectives, which the government considers necessary and attainable for primary school children. From the fifth year onwards, ‘French’ as a second language is obligatory. Attention is also focused on cross-curricular objectives such as ‘learning to learn’, ‘social skills’ and ‘ICT skills’. The school board has full autonomy when it comes to organizing the education it offers, which it lays down in a ‘school development plan’ and enjoys the same autonomy as regards the drafting of the timetables. Children follow 28 to 29 teaching periods of 50 minutes each per school week, which are spread evenly across the five workdays and there is no school on Wednesday afternoons. The teacher tests small or larger subject matter units on a very regular basis in order to assess to what extent pupils have attained the pre-set objectives and also to evaluate the effectiveness of his/her own teaching. Regular, individual school reports provide pupils and parents with information on the child’s progress. At this level the teacher is encouraged to practise a pedagogy of success and positive stimulation, which take into account the difficulties inherent to the pre-set objectives and the varying abilities of the pupils. There is increasing expertise in working with instruments, such as child monitoring systems to observe and monitor pupil’s development. At the end of elementary education, the class council decides whether a certificate of elementary education will be issued or not. There are no central tests and the responsibility for the

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certificate belongs to the autonomy of the schools. The class council bases itself on the school’s own assessment data and decides whether the objectives of the curriculum, including the attainment targets for primary education, have been achieved. To make this assessment efficiently, the different networks provide schools with help and instruments from the schools’ advisory services.

Secondary education Secondary education is aimed at young people aged 12 to 18 years and, as in elementary education, belongs to school clusters with the obligation to cooperate for some aspects of school organization. Secondary education comprises three stages of two years covering different types of education and courses of study. Pupils only make a final choice of subjects in the second stage so that first they are introduced to as many subjects as possible. A school week consists of 32 teaching periods of 50 minutes. For technical, vocational and arts courses, there is a maximum of 36 periods. The six years can be extended by attending an advanced secondary education. The majority of teaching periods in the first stage is devoted to the core curriculum. In the first and second years (1A and 2A) 27 and 24 of the periods, respectively, are used for a core curriculum identical for all pupils of these years; the core curriculum depends on the attainment targets determined by decree. The remaining periods can be determined by the school itself. The first year (grade B) accommodates pupils who have fallen behind in primary school or who are less suited to mainly theoretical education and who fail to obtain the certificate of elementary school. The proportion of B-grade pupils who attend the bridging class between elementary and secondary school is approximately 10 per cent. After this B-grade pupils may either go to the pre-vocational year or to the mainstream of year A. In the pre-vocational grade, pupils not only follow the core curriculum but also have a choice between various initial vocational pathways called ‘occupational fields’. This year prepares them for the moment when they will have to decide in the second stage which course of study they wish to pursue in vocational secondary education. In the second and third stage the subjects in the core curriculum decrease and are modified to suit the different types or branches of education provided from the second stage onwards. The four possible types are: ● ●

general secondary education; technical secondary education;

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artistic secondary education; vocational secondary education.

For each of the four branches, pupils have to choose a course of study above the subjects of the basic curriculum that is common for all the pupils of the branch. A course of study corresponds to a group of subjects that characterize a typical content area. General secondary education aims to provide a broad theoretical education and prepares pupils for higher education. Courses of study can be: economics, sciences, modern languages, Latin, Greek, mathematics, human sciences and sport. Depending on the number of teaching periods, it is possible to combine two courses of study. Technical secondary education focuses especially on general and technical theoretical subjects, provides practical classes and prepares pupils either for a professional career or for higher higher education. More than twenty courses of study are possible, e.g. chemistry, car engineering, woodwork, mechanics, electricity, construction, caring, agriculture, commerce, etc. Artistic secondary education, the smallest branch with approximately 2 per cent of the pupils, combines a general and broad education with active artistic practice and prepares pupils either for a professional career or for higher artistic education. Courses of study are: ballet, visual arts and performing arts. Vocational secondary education allows pupils to acquire specific vocational skills combined with a minimum package of general education. Progression to some forms of higher education is possible but rather rare. If the pupils of vocational secondary education participate in a seventh extra year, then the diploma of secondary education will be issued. There are plenty of practical courses of study in the areas of car engineering, commerce, construction, woodwork, mechanics, electricity, cooling and heating, nutrition, care, personal hygiene and textiles. Granting of the diploma of secondary education is the responsibility of the class council and there are no external examinations. Advanced Secondary Education is a training form allocated between secondary and higher education and is organized on a full-time basis after six years of technical or arts secondary education. Most of the courses are modular and have a strong vocational flavour and connections with the world of work.

Higher education The system of higher education in Belgium is compatible with the overall framework of the European Higher Education Area. The levels of the European Qualification System are represented with the levels of studies for:

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associate degree (level 5); professional bachelor (level 6); master (level 7); doctor (level 8).

The Associate degree is allocated between secondary education and the level of bachelor of the higher education structure. Contrary to Advanced Secondary Education, the training curriculum for an associate degree is situated within higher education. The courses for associate degree can be organized by institutes of higher education or institutions for adult education and offer a maximum of 120 credit points based on the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). The professional bachelor’s programmes focus on bringing students to a level of general and specific knowledge and competences required to practise a particular profession and can therefore lead directly to a place in the labour market. Professional bachelor’s programmes are organized by university colleges, not by universities and the study load, expressed in ECTS credit points, is 180 credits. Master’s programmes include the programme of ‘academic bachelor’, which is geared towards bringing the students to a certain level of knowledge and competences required for scientific and artistic work in general, and towards a specific field within the sciences or arts. They require a level of autonomous scientific or artistic work, or a level to apply these scientific or artistic competences independently in one, or a group, of professions. They are organized by the universities and require a minimum of 180 credit points for completion, more or less corresponding to three academic years of 60 credits each. The master’s element ties in with academic bachelor’s programmes and comprises at least 60 credits. The higher education institutes are organized in five associations. An association is an official co-operation between one university and one or more university colleges. Affiliated institutions may assign certain powers of decision to the association. All programmes of higher education have to be submitted to the joint Dutch–Flemish Accreditation Organization (NVAO), based on the external assessment and the evaluation report of the programme by the externalassessment panel. Fees for admission to all types of higher education are rather low in comparison with other countries and the maximum entry fee is currently 500 euros (2014).

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Teacher training To become a teacher, applicants have two options: the integrated programme and the specific programme. The integrated teacher-training programmes (for teachers in nursery school, primary school and lower secondary education) take three years and require 180 credits, including 45 credits for teaching practice. The university colleges confer the relevant degree of bachelor to the graduates and present them with the diploma of teacher. Specific teacher-training programmes can be followed by students who have already obtained a diploma of higher education or who have relevant professional experience (for vocational subjects) and only need to get additional teaching training. The training programme requires a 60-credit study load, of which 30 credits are specifically allocated to teaching practice. These programmes can be organized by universities, university colleges and Centres for Adult Education. To boost co-operation between the various institutions organizing teacher training, the government is funding the development of expertise networks within an association for higher education and regional platforms that work in a crossassociative fashion.

Adult education Adult education consists of the three levels of adult basic education, secondary adult education and higher vocational education. Courses for adult basic education offer the following disciplines: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Dutch literacy; Dutch as a second language; mathematics; social orientation; information and communication technologies (ICT); introduction to English and French.

The courses in secondary adult education are organized at the level of fulltime secondary education, with the exception of the first stage, and are organized in about thirty vocational categories. There is also the possibility of general secondary education as ‘second-chance education’. By attending these courses, adults can still earn a diploma of secondary education and the adult education centres organize the examinations themselves and award the diploma. The

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courses of higher vocational education are situated at level 5 of the European Qualification Framework and they are subdivided into the following courses of study: ● ● ● ● ●

industrial sciences and technology; business studies; health care; social and community work; biotechnology.

All courses in adult education are modular with subjects subdivided into a number of sub-modules. Modules can start at different times throughout the year and the course participant can compose their own study programme and fix the length of the study. The 147 centres of adult education are clustered in 13 regional consortia, which optimize and harmonize the training programmes provided by the centres.

Contemporary curriculum developments in Flanders The curriculum in Flanders is built on a system of attainment targets, which are minimum goals that the Flemish parliament considers necessary and achievable for a particular group of pupils. In concrete terms, this concerns knowledge, insight, attitudes and skills. There are both subject-related attainment targets and crosscurricular attainment targets. For nursery education and the first year B (the bridging class between primary and secondary education), as well as the preparative class for secondary vocational education, different ‘developmental objectives’ were laid down. Developmental objectives (or aims to be aspired to) are also applicable in special and nursery education in five subject areas: physical education, art education, Dutch, initiation into mathematics and environmental studies. Primary education has attainment targets for the same subject areas and there are also crosscurricular attainment targets for ‘learning to learn’, ‘social skills’ and ‘ICT skills’. In secondary education, subject-related and cross-curricular attainment targets for the first stage are provided, while for the six years of secondary education the cross-curricular objectives are placed in eight contexts or areas of applications: ● ●

physical health and safety; mental health;

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socio-relational development; environment and sustainable development; political–legal society; socio-economic society; sociocultural society; learning to learn.

Moreover, for general secondary education, cross-curricular objectives for technical education have also been developed. From the second stage in secondary education, attainment targets are subdivided into four types (branches): ● ● ● ●

general secondary education; technical secondary education; artistic secondary education; vocational secondary education.

Every governing body or school board must include the attainment targets or developmental objectives in their plans of study. A plan of study sums up the objectives and contents to be achieved in a subject or course of study and also describes the educational methods used for this purpose.

The support system To support schools in achieving the attainment targets, different pathways have been organized, which include: pedagogical counselling services, pupil guidance centres, systematic information and communication and, finally, support for ICT application. Pedagogical counselling services are organized by the subsidized umbrella organizations of the above-mentioned networks: education of the community, catholic education, education of the municipalities and education of the provinces. The number of counsellors depends on the number of personnel working within the schools of an umbrella organization, i.e. one consultant for 350 personnel. In exchange for the financial subsidies, the pedagogical counselling services have to fulfil a number of tasks: ●

● ● ●

promoting the establishment of peer networks and providing support to these networks; supporting and training managerial staff; reinforcing the policy powers of institutions; supporting quality assurance within institutions;

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supporting institutions in their development of points of action highlighted during a full inspection; offering, stimulating and supporting educational innovations; participating in support initiatives organized by the Flemish Government.

All pedagogical counselling services draw up a three-year counselling plan that is presented to the schools and the Flemish government for evaluation on a six-yearly basis. The 73 pupil guidance centres are services financed by the government. These centres offer pupil-oriented services, but can also support schools and parents in the optimization of pupil’s welfare and the pupil’s functioning within the school environment. The care provided by the centres is complementary to that organized by schools and covers four areas: ● ●

●

●

learning and studying: reading and spelling, speech and language, dyslexia; the school career: monitoring compulsory education, study-choice guidance, certification in special education, information regarding the labour market; socio-emotional development: behavioural problems, social skills, emotional problems; preventive health care: medical check-ups, vaccinations, contagious diseases, nutrition, substance abuse.

The guidance they offer is multi-disciplinary and employs physicians, social workers, pedagogues, psychologists and nursing staff. The pupil guidance centres are easily accessible and offer a basic youth-help service provision, but do not offer long-term guidance and are therefore unable to resolve all problems. They must get involved in a demonstrable network of welfare and health services with whom they co-operate. As a result, youngsters will sometimes be referred to other, more specialized services. As the assistance they provide is governed by professional secrecy, the centres can play an important pivotal role between the school and the welfare and health institutions. The centres also keep an individual file on each pupil throughout his entire school career. Access to these files is strictly regulated and the personnel at the centres are bound by professional secrecy.

Some contemporary developments in Belgian education The government has created a broad social support for integrated communication with the different target groups in order to broaden the scope and reach of

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education. An important aim is to attract those target groups that are theoretically more difficult to reach: individuals who do not have access to the internet, people with low reading abilities, people with a limited command of the language. Four magazines are published monthly, free of charge, by the Agency for Educational Communication, respectively directed at teachers, parents, pupils of primary and pupils of secondary education. In addition, there are related websites, e-letters and teacher and student cards that form an inextricable part of this multifaceted communication project.

Support for ICT implementation Taking into account the growing role of information and communication technologies in the innovation of education, different measures have been taken. Schools can appoint ICT-co-ordinators, subsidized by the government, to support the implementation of ICT-programmes. For different target groups, financial incentives to purchase ICT infrastructure are available.

Quality assurance The most important mechanism to control the quality of education is the inspectorate. There are no central or public examinations in Flanders, but other systems of a teacher-oriented use of tests are available. A fixed amount for research linked to evaluation of the education system per year is aimed to call attention to occurring problems.

The inspectorate The educational inspectorate of the Flemish Ministry of Education acts as a professional body of external supervision by assessing the implementation of the attainment targets and developmental objectives. The inspectorate is manned by some 150 inspectors, all with offices in their own homes. The inspectorate also has a corps of approximately ten staff who provide substantive support and nine co-ordinating inspectors will be in charge of ten programmes. It conducts school audits to evaluate the actual implementation of attainment targets and examines whether other legislative obligations, such as applying a timetable based on the core curriculum, are respected. The inspectorate acts as a team and inspects the operation of the whole school or centre at least once every ten years, while the weaker schools, or schools responding to a number of risk factors, will be inspected more thoroughly.

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The inspectorate observation framework is based on: Context, Input, Processes and Output (CIPO); and are adapted to the level of education. A specific instrument with regard to vision, planning and realization is used in evaluating efforts to pursue the cross-curricular attainment targets. The inspectorate advises the Ministry with regard to the continued recognition of the school or centre for adult education. Their advice is often given under certain conditions, so that schools and centres are stimulated to improve their quality. An annual audit goes to the Flemish Parliament so that policy makers can follow up on the quality assessments, with inspection reports being made available to the public through the internet.

Teacher-based use of tests As there is no system of central examinations in Flanders, schools and teachers are responsible for rewarding and examining the pupils. The so-called class council has the power to evaluate the children and to award the certificates and diplomas. In exchange for this confidence, the class council is responsible for a good quality of evaluation and deliberation and has, as a minimum obligation, to take into account the achievement of the attainment targets. This clearly articulated choice for the role of schools and teachers is connected with the principle of the different pedagogical projects guaranteed by the constitutional freedom of education. Ranking of schools is not undertaken because the idea that every school has its own quality and context is seen as more important. The inspectorate has the important task of assuring the quality of the evaluation processes in schools by observing and controlling the schools’ evaluating capacity. In addition, the pedagogic counselling services and the in-service training initiatives invest much time in the field of assessment for learning, or formative evaluation. Anonymous national assessments of performance per year are organized by the Flemish government relating to well-defined units of attainment targets, conducted at the end of a level of education or at the end of a stage in secondary education. The results of these assessments are used for feedback to the Ministry and the Flemish Parliament. They give an idea of the achievement of the attainment targets for the community of Flanders. Moreover, the results are used as a point of departure for discussions about the standards with the pedagogical counselling services, the inspectorate, teachers, parents and even students – the aim being to achieve a curriculum largely supported by the different stakeholders.

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A recent innovation is the possibility for schools to take part in an assessment for specific units by so-called parallel tests. These tests measure the same attainment targets and are offered to schools as a free choice, with independent assessors who compare analogous schools. It is seen as important that schools are obliged to organize their own system of quality assurance, partly based on evidence from tests and examinations. Many tests are available from the pedagogic counselling services and by the publishers of school books as the government does not provide such evaluations. All these measures are suited to the government policy of delegating the responsibility of the quality of schools as much as possible, but which invests a lot of effort towards promoting the school as a learning organization with sufficient potential for self-organization and self-evaluation.

Participation in international comparative studies Flanders very regularly participates in international comparative studies with the aim of gaining information and allowing parts of the performance of the education system to be evaluated. The output results of those international tests are systematically supplemented with context, input and process information. The most important international comparative studies in which Flanders has recently taken part are conducted by OECD and IEA: ●

● ● ● ● ●

PIAAC (Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competences); PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study); TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Sciences Study); PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment); ICCS (International Civic and Citizenship Education Study); TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey).

In collaboration with other European countries, Flanders took part in ICALT (International Comparative Analysis of Learning and Teaching) and ESLC (European Survey on Language Competencies). The Flemish Ministry collaborates with the providers of the tests for the translation of data for the schools in Flanders. In most cases, the Flemish education system achieves a high rating, though owing to the need to reduce expenses and taking into account the high costs of the international comparative surveys, the government has to restrict participating in recurrent surveys.

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Practical scientific research For the past 20 years, the Flemish Minister for Education and Training has allocated a part of the budget to ‘Education Policy and Practical Scientific Research’, which ties in closely with the strategic and operational objectives as formulated in the policy green paper and the minister’s policy letters. An important bank of statistical and scientific material is available that plays an important role in the preparation of the education programmes of the political parties and the policy of new governments.

Ongoing issues and challenges Four main challenges for the education system in Belgium, and specifically illustrated for Flanders, are proposed. First, Belgium is one of the remaining structural systems in Europe where an early choice of a learning path is needed and is similar to those of Austria, Germany and the Netherlands; for Belgium, this means after the elementary school at the age of 12 years. Second, Belgium has a problem with a rather high rate of drop-outs who have not attained a qualification at the end of compulsory education. Third, the boundary between special needs and mainstream education is blurred and uncertain with the system of special education accounting for 4.5 per cent of youngsters in education. And fourth, without central examinations, Belgium has to invest heavily in the self-evaluating capacity of the schools. All of these four problems are seen as in need of different forms of amelioration or re-organization.

Stepping stones for comprehensive education After years of discussion and polemic about the loss of quality in education, a political majority has reached agreement on the restructuring of secondary education. A so-called ‘master-plan’ on secondary education, published at the end of 2013, will be implemented step by step over a period of about eight years. It contains decisions on delaying choice of a learning path until the age of 14, when pupils could follow different learning pathways, varying from programmes with a strong general content to rather strictly vocational paths. Importantly, the new structure will provide different mixtures of academic and vocational content, classified within a restricted number of domains (e.g. humanities, economics, caring, sciences and technology, arts) and, as a consequence, the

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division of the structure of secondary education into general, technical and vocational tracks will disappear. The implementation of this ‘master-plan’ will compel the co-ordination of all the prevailing statutory and decreed provisions concerning secondary education in the coming years

Consolidation of alternative training The high rate of unqualified leavers at the end of compulsory education is presently an undisputed problem in Belgium. No less than 13.9 per cent of the 18 year olds in Flanders leaves compulsory education without any certificate, while in some urban regions it accounts for 28 per cent (e.g. Antwerp). A policy plan for different forms of work-related learning and apprenticeship is being developed that capitalizes on the heterogeneousness of pupils’ priorities and contains measures to reverse the drop-out and premature outflow of pupils. It aims to enhance the image of apprenticeships, to attract a new target group and to achieve a healthy balance between the economic and social tasks of apprenticeships. Every learning pathway will be screened so that they can be brought up to date and attuned to the relevant vocational qualifications for the labour market. The field of action will focus on establishing transparent links between the programmes and the pre-set vocational qualifications to which they can lead. This will be achieved by tackling general education, vocationally-oriented training and practical in-company training in an integrated fashion. Pathwayto-work guidance will, moreover, have to tie in seamlessly with labour-market guidance and a strong collaboration between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Work will be needed.

More inclusion for special needs pupils For children with special needs in Belgium, special education has been developed with a framework of nine types of special needs with their own regulations, supply and provisions. The types vary from children with learning difficulties (e.g. dyslexia, dyscalculia) and a mild intellectual disability, to types of children with more restricted capacities. It concerns children with functional disabilities, with stronger intellectual disability or children who are deaf or blind, for instance, or are suffering from a physical disability. Another type cares for children with behavioural and emotional problems, such as ADHD or autism. In a new government project from September 2014, children with learning difficulties and children with a mild intellectual disability will be placed in

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mainstream education. Schools will be obliged to elaborate on mechanisms of differentiation, remediation, compensation and dispensation to guarantee fair chances for those children to reach the attainment targets of the minimum curriculum. For the implementation of this project an important role is provided for the Pupil Guidance Centres and an extra workforce of special needs teachers could be employed.

Self-evaluating capacity of schools The principle of freedom in education is strongly integrated into the education system with, as a consequence, the absence of external examinations. The governing model of this principle of freedom in education is a strictly regulated and applied juridical system seeking equal access to education for every pupil. In combination with this strongly-enforced juridical basis, the government gives a lot of freedom to schools and teachers in evaluating and orientating children and youngsters. Comparing Belgium with many other countries, one can see an alternative combination with a less strict juridical system, combined with more accountability by schools and teachers. Taking into account the comparative studies on the effectiveness of schooling, and the research on the emphasis for innovation of the local school teams, Belgium is striving for a new equilibrium. Maintaining the principle of freedom of education, and therefore the absence of central examinations and rankings, the policy in Belgium is seeking an improvement in the accountability of the schools and teachers. Aside from the above-mentioned samples of testing at the system level and the evolving of parallel forms of testing, efforts are being made to improve the innovative and self-evaluating power of the schools. Under a recent decree on quality in education, schools are supposed to inspect and monitor their own quality of provision systematically, though there is still some way to go to reach this required capacity of self-innovation and selfevaluation. The results of research, among others TALIS (Teaching and Learning International Survey), have indicated important deficiencies in the selfevaluation of schools and evaluation of teachers. There were hardly any implications for a teacher’s work situation associated with teacher appraisals and feedback and little or no impact on a teacher’s core activities. Despite this, teachers retained a positive attitude towards the appraisal and the feedback they have received. As a result, a broad action plan has been originated for the further development of in-service training, self-evaluation and ICT literacy underpinned with strong financial backing. This has been made contractually binding for

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teachers and supported by the schools inspectorate in charge of the appraisal of teachers.

Bibliography De Coninck, Christine (2009) Core Affairs: Flanders, Belgium (Case Studies Basic Education in Europe). Enschede, The Netherlands: National Institute for Curriculum Development. Department of Education and Training (2008) Education in Flanders. A Broad View on the Flemish Educational Landscape. Brussels: Agency for Educational Communication. Federale Overheidsdienst Economie (2013) Kerncijfers. Statistisch Overzicht van België (Statistical Overview of Belgium). Brussels: FOD Economie, Algemene Directie Statistiek en Economische Informatie. Flemish Ministry of Education and Training (2010) Flemish Eurydice Report 2010. Organisation of the Education System in the Flemish Community of Belgium 2010. Brussels: Flemish Ministry of Education and Training, International Relations Office. Flemish Ministry of Education and Training (2010) OECD Review on Evaluation and Assessment Frameworks for Improving School Outcomes: Country Background Report. Brussels: Flemish Ministry of Education and Training, www.oecd.org/edu/ evaluationpolicy http://www.flanderstoday.eu/education [accessed 27 August 2014] Institute of Educational and Information Sciences (2009) Teachers in Flanders Today. Antwerp: Antwerp University, Institute of Educational and Information Sciences. OECD (2013) Synergies for Better Learning. An International Perspective on Evaluation and Assessment. Paris: OECD, Directorate for Education and Skills. Standaert, R. (2008) Vergelijken van onderwijssystemen (Comparing Education Systems). Leuven: Acco. Standaert, R. (2010) ‘European education and the nation state: A globalisation perspective’, in S. M. Stoney (ed.), Beyond Lisbon 2010: Perspectives from Research and Development for Education Policy in Europe (CIDREE Yearbook 2010). Slough: NFER, pp. 1–27.

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3

Denmark: History, Reform and Legislation Thyge Winther-Jensen

The nineteenth century The first nation-wide Danish school Acts are from 1814, actually promulgated by two acts: Anordning for Almueskolevæsenet på Landet i Danmark (Royal Decree for the Peasantry School System in the Country in Denmark) and Anordning for Almueskolevæsenet i Købstæderne i Danmark, undtagen (Royal Decree for the Peasantry School in the Market Towns in Denmark, except Copenhagen).1 For the children in the country, it meant that they now had to go to school three days a week while children in the market towns had school every day – one class in the morning, the other in the afternoon. The aim of teaching, which was identical for both Acts, should be ‘to form the children into good and upright human beings in accordance with the Evangelical–Christian doctrines and also to impart the kind of knowledge which is necessary for them to become useful citizens of the state’. The subject field came to consist of religious knowledge, reading, writing and arithmetic. Books used in reading should include some Danish history, some geography and impart ‘knowledge that might serve the eradication of prejudices’. Teachers were instructed ‘by gentle and affectionate treatment to win the children’s confidence’, ‘to make the teaching pleasant for them (i.e. the pupils)’, and to teach them in such a way that they ‘well understand the meaning’. The first half of the nineteenth century was strongly influenced by the economic recession at that time and the local authorities were slow to meet the demands of the Acts. The reluctance to adopt compulsory education was widespread in the peasantry and both vicar and teacher were cautious about using the penalty rules for school absence. The second half of the nineteenth century, on the other hand, was a time of prosperity. In the country, farming changed from grain-growing to animal production. The reorganization resulted in higher incomes to the farmers but, unfortunately, the wealth was still not 63

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mirrored in the farmers’ interest in schools. The reluctance was still widespread although to a less degree; partly because the children were needed at work on the farm, partly because of ignorance of the importance of school work. Most schools, therefore, were in a bad state in terms of hygiene and health. In the market towns the situation was somewhat better when it came to buildings, teaching staff and learning possibilities. At some of the schools under the 1814 Act, a third class, or a Realklasse (‘Real’ Class), was established. In return for money, teaching was given in history, geography, biology and physics, and in some cases also in mathematics and German. With a later development into an actual Realskole (‘Real’ School) this type of school was able to offer a prolonged schooling in a subject field that was general in scope, but at the same time markedly ‘real’, which met the pressing demands from trades, industries, and commerce.

The Free School and the Folk High School movement Politically, the nineteenth century in Denmark might be described as the century of liberalism. From the 1830s and onwards, the ideas of liberalism were supported strongly enough by the population to abolish absolutism and make way for a free Constitution in 1849. Also, in the area of education, the liberal ideas had their impact, especially demonstrated by the benevolent attitude from liberal political quarters to the educational innovation of the nineteenth century: The Free School and the Folk High School. These schools, first and foremost associated with religious – especially Grundtvigian – circles out in the country, were strongly supported and welcomed by liberal politicians as an alternative to the schools originally set up by an absolute State. The Constitution only touched on school questions but in 1855 the Grundtvigian-liberal alliance in the Parliament succeeded in passing an Act, The Free School Act, which provided the legal basis for the later growth of the movement. The most important provision in the Act said that a child’s duty to attend school ceased in cases where the parents provided the teaching themselves and the children met only for regular examinations. A consequence of the provision was that parents were permitted to establish their own school and employ their own teacher. The right, which was frequently used, especially on the island of Funen, was included in the Constitution in 1915. Another consequence was that Denmark still had no compulsory school attendance, only compulsory teaching attendance, which was also included in the Constitution in 1915.

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The Free School and the Folk High School especially, are associated with the names of N.F.S Grundtvig2 and Christen Kold.3 The agricultural reforms in the late eighteenth century provided the breeding ground for their work and ideas. The farmers needed a new kind of enlightenment and another set of values tailored to their new and more independent work conditions. The optimistic Grundtvigian outlook on life, combined with political and economic liberalism, provided exactly such a basis from which the conservative autocratic view – that the existence of the state must precede anything else and that the individual must serve and subordinate to the interests of the state – could be fought. With the idea of the Folk High School, Grundtvig laid down the principles for such a school. The classical ideal of the Latin school, the ‘school for death’, was rejected in favour of a ‘school for life’, i.e. for the mother tongue and poetry, for love of the homeland, for history, and for the People’s Life and its Civil Life. The school of homework should give way to the enlightenment for life, and learning by heart for ‘the living word’. ‘Life and learning must go hand in hand in such a way that life comes first, learning then.’ Grundtvig’s wish to establish a Folk High School in Soroe (a small city not far from Copenhagen) was never realized, but in Christen Kold he had a person who shared his views and knew how to translate his ideas into action. Kold was a man of the peasantry who in his own way had come to the same experiences as Grundtvig about the power of the word, especially through his teaching of children. Like Grundtvig, he did not think highly of the existing school. It was characterized by ‘three false and lying creatures: examination, homework, and learning by heart’. Instead, he wanted them replaced by the oral tale, aiming to ‘awaken’ and ‘animate’ the spirit. ‘It is a prerogative of the living word alone to awaken the spirit. Not till the spirit is awakened can the artificial way to enlightenment through written works with usefulness be entered.’ Kold was strongly seized by the national enthusiasm in 1848 and the fight for national survival in the wake of the war with Prussia in 1864. He decided ‘through the school and by the word’ to make the enthusiasm permanent in the people. Even though the ‘free’ schools, when they peaked, were attended by only 4 per cent of all children in the village schools, their influence reached farther than the numbers at first tell and their influence can be traced far into the twentieth century (parents’ influence in school matters, resistance against homework, examinations, and fingertip knowledge etc.). The free school movement is still very strong. Today, the number of pupils attending a free school under the 1855 Act is about 13–14 per cent of each age group, but the present use of the term ‘free’ school includes not only the inherited

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Grundtvig–Kold-inspired free schools but also schools with a specific educational, ideological or religious outlooks, i.e. progressive schools, private schools, Rudolf Steiner schools, Tvind schools, Catholic schools, Islamic schools, Christian schools, etc. It might be discussed how free they are today as they are heavily supported by the state (about 85 per cent of the costs) and committed to the Folkeskolelov (Act on the Folkeskole, 2003), but they are still free in the sense that they are allowed to be run in accordance with their own specific values and principles as long as they accept the supervision of the Ministry of Education. The innovations of the nineteenth century were the Real School, the Free School and the Folk High School, but one problem remained unsolved: to combine the ‘Almue’ School and the Latin School into a single system. The pupils who attended the Almue School only in rare cases continued in the Latin School, and Latin School pupils had rarely attended the Almue School. By the end of the century, therefore, a picture emerged of the situation which showed that schooling possibilities for children from the Almue in the country and the market towns were poor. There was no connection between the Almue School (from 1899 called Folkeskole)4 and the Latin School, there were big differences between city and countryside and between rich and poor. Admittedly, the requirements for teacher education had been tightened up in 1894. The National Union of Teachers, established in 1874, had in 1899 achieved improvements in terms of wages and work conditions and the subject field had been extended. In 1900, the so-called Sthyr Circular had laid down common guidelines for subject teaching in order to promote homogeneity between schools. But it was not until the so-called ‘change of political system’ occurred in 1901 that the political possibilities for a more radical reform appeared.

The first half of the twentieth century In 1903, the then Minister of Education I. C. Christensen introduced a bill to the Parliament suggesting a completely new school structure. The bill was passed by the Parliament on 24 February 1903 as Lov om højere almenskoler (Act on Higher General Schools). The new Act broke down the previous isolation between the Almue School and the Latin School. The Latin School was replaced by the Higher General School and the coherent structure was obtained through 4/5 years of common schooling for all from year 7 to year 11. At year 11, the pupils were streamed into a grammar line (a 4-year Eksamensmellemskole (Examination Middle School)) and a 2-year practically oriented line free of examinations. At

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the end of the Examination Middle School, the pupils once again were divided into those who preferred a 1-year Realklasse (‘Real’ Class) or a 3-year Gymnasium. (Some years after 1903, the term Højere Almenskole was replaced by the word Gymnasium.) Those pupils who wanted to continue in the Gymnasium were offered Latin teaching in the last (4th) grade of the Examination Middle School. The resulting examination, Den lille latinprøve (the little Latin examination) was an access condition to the Gymnasium (a requirement that was removed in 1979). In her book, Social Origins of Educational Systems, Margaret Archer (1979) points to 1903 as the year in which Denmark – according to her definition of a system – finally achieved a system of education. The 1903 Act also brought an end to the inherited Latin School dating back to the Catholic age before the Reformation in 1536. The new Gymnasium came to consist of three parts: classical (Latin and Greek), modern (English, German and French) and science (mathematics and natural sciences). On the one hand, the reform reduced Latin and Greek to a ‘part’; on the other hand, it answered the wishes of the population for a basic training in modern languages and science. The real innovation of the Act – to create a connection between top and bottom in the system – met a strong need in the population for greater mobility and democracy. It made it possible for the bright child from less-well-off homes to accomplish an education corresponding to his or her abilities and efforts. The 1903 Act was considered a success but some major problems still remained unresolved. Among these were: (1) that no effective alternative existed to the Examination Middle School; and (2) the difference between city and country was still large. The solution to the first problem was looked for in a new change of structure. In 1937, it was decided by the Parliament that children at age eleven could now continue in a four-year examination-free Middle School in which the last two school years were optional (there were still seven years of compulsory education). The experiment, however, to create a vigorous alternative to the Examination Middle School did not turn out well. There were several reasons for this, but the most crucial one probably was that the will to follow up pedagogically on the change of structure was still too weak. Far too often the content came to consist of a watered-down version from the content of traditional subjects from the Examination Middle School. In order to solve the second problem – equalization between country and city – the Act contained a number of provisions aimed at spreading the school arrangements in the cities to rural districts. It was decided, for instance, that two or more schools might unite in a school union consisting of a number of infant schools and a so-called central school with specialist teachers in foreign languages and natural science subjects. The idea was not realized until the 1950s.

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The German occupation of 1940–1945 temporarily put the development on hold and when the economy and production were restored again in the years after the occupation more radical reforms were demanded. The Folkeskole was also provided with a new aims clause that remained unchanged until 1975.

According to the aims, the Folkeskole (1937) shall: Develop the pupils’ abilities and aptitudes, strengthen their character and impart useful knowledge to them.

The second half of the twentieth century Two points of view were reflected in the discussions that preceded the reforms of the 1950s. One was mainly genetically substantiated and said that society, as far as possible, should recognize the innate qualities in terms of intelligence and gifts and accommodate teaching accordingly. This point of view implied retention of the comprehensive school in the sense of the 1903 Act as a delt (i.e. a streamed) school. The reasons given for the other point of view were mainly social and ideological. In respect of democracy, the school should be included as an equality-promoting tool in order to break down socially conditioned and artificially created barriers in society. Capabilities and gifts were regarded as more socially than genetically conditioned. It is this point of view that implied – if not a total removal of streaming – then at least a postponement of it to a later age. A change of the school, from a streamed to a non-streamed comprehensive, began to take shape. This second point of view was favoured by a number of circumstances. The examination-free Middle School had never worked as intended, a problem that had to be solved. Also of vital importance were the general endeavours for democracy propelled by the Second World War, which had been the struggle of democracy against dictatorship. A strengthening of democratic principles, therefore, ought to be reflected in the legislation. In the light of this, it is no wonder that the reforms first of all meant the fall of the Examination Middle School. Streaming was nevertheless preserved as a so-called ‘mild streaming’, i.e. as a streaming that stated that as a general rule the pupils should hitherto be separated after 11 years of age according to their abilities, interest and level of attainment and with regard for parents’ wishes. However, if the parents wanted to postpone the separation until after 14 years of

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age (grade 7) it was made possible. The later development made it clear that the majority of parents at the individual schools wanted to make use of this possibility. What was meant as an exception ended up as a principle rule. Of major importance also was that the official teaching guidelines accompanying the Act introduced for the first time a new ‘child-centred’ education. In that sense, the guidelines were a turning point after years of struggling between ‘progressive and ‘authoritarian’ principles of education. Among the pedagogical innovations might be mentioned the introduction of cross-disciplinary studies, the integration of subjects such as history, geography and biology into a new subject named Orientation, group work, etc. Guidelines were set up for a new Statskontrolleret afgangsprøve (State Controlled Leaving Examination) and this became optional, which might be seen as yet another result of a Grundtvig–Kold inspired influence. With the 1950s’ reforms, the final step towards equalization between countryside and city was taken. The length of the school year, the number of weekly periods and the fields of study were from now on the same all over the country. In rural districts new centralskoler (Central Schools) were built in order to provide children in the upper grades with specialized teachers in foreign languages and natural sciences. In retrospect the 1958 Act stands as the Act which took the first steps after the Second World War towards democratization of the school. The progressive pedagogical thinking of the century was cautiously included and in practice the Act resulted in a postponement of streaming till after grade 7. It further made it possible to establish an alternative for the practically oriented children, at least if measured by the number of children (more than 90 per cent) who on a voluntary basis continued for nine years of schooling (in spite of only seven years of compulsory teaching attendance). The reports that followed up the Act, Undervisningsvejledning for Folkeskolen (Guidelines for the Folkeskole, the socalled ‘blue report’), Folkeskolens specialundervisning (Special Education of the Folkeskole) and Afsluttende prøver i Folkeskolen (Final Examinations in the Folkeskole) were partly an expression of, and partly a contributory factor of, the endeavours made by parents, teachers, and authorities in wishing for this Act.

The reforms of the 1970s and 1980s In the 1960s and 1970s, education – not only in Denmark but all over Europe – was considered an optimal investment in the future. The technological development demanded longer and better education, and education was also considered an important means by which to promote democracy. The favourite

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Figure 3.1 The Danish education system

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climate for education helped to speed up new legislation initiatives. In 1969 the Parliament passed a 9-point programme that drew up the guidelines for 10 years of general schooling, consisting of 9 years basic schooling supplemented by a 10th school year on a voluntary basis. As an immediate consequence of the programme, compulsory teaching attendance was extended to 9 years. Another immediate consequence was that from now on it was up to the parents – and not the teachers – to decide whether a child should continue in the ‘Real’ School or not. The decision was an omen that the days of the ‘Real’ School were over. In 1975 the Parliament decided that the Folkeskole from now on came to consist of a 9-year comprehensive school, a 1-year voluntary pre-school class and a 10th voluntary grade. The points of discussion previous to the passing in the Parliament were: (1) the aim (of the Folkeskole); (2) the change of structure on levels 8–9; and (3) new school-leaving examinations. The new aim, until then the richest in words in Danish school history, emphasized as something new the cooperation between parents and teachers, and subordination of the acquisition of knowledge to an all-round personal development of the child. The principle of self-activity was now taken from an article in the Act to the objects clause and finally the pupils’ active participation in a democratic society was underlined (see the box below).

According to the aims (1973), the Folkeskole shall:

1 in cooperation with the parents provide the pupils with the opportunity for the acquisition of knowledge, skills, working methods and ways of expressing themselves and thus contribute to the all-round development of the individual pupil; 2 in all its work, endeavour to create such opportunities for experience and self-activity so that the pupil develops an urge to learn, to use imagination, and to train the ability for making independent judgements and for taking personal action; 3 prepare the pupils for active participation in a democratic society and to have joint responsibility for the solution of common tasks. The teaching of the school and its daily life must therefore build on intellectual freedom and democracy (Act on the Folkeskole, article 1).

In terms of structure the new Act first of all meant the fall of the Real School. With that, a further step was taken towards the non-streamed comprehensive school. The classes could now be kept together during all nine years of schooling.

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Children, though, with a need for special consideration might be transferred to Special Education (today one out of ten). It was further decided that teaching in mathematics, English and German in grades 8–10 should take place in two courses of different content: ‘Basic Course’ and ‘Extended Course’. The setting of two courses was what was left of the former streaming. In addition, it was left to parents and pupils (and not the teachers) to decide which course to join, but through the eighties the setting was gradually omitted. Finally, the Act was a break with former ‘package’ examinations such as the Real Examination and the State Controlled Leaving Examination. The pupils were now allowed to enter themselves for a final examination in any of the subjects: Danish, English, German, mathematics, and physics/chemistry. The examinations were called Folkeskolens afgangsprøve (The Leaving Examination of the Folkeskole). At the end of grade 10, they were allowed to enter themselves for an examination in the subjects: mathematics, English, German, and physics/chemistry, if they had attended the ‘Extended Course’. All examinations were voluntary. With the 1975 School Act, the equality oriented educational policy peaked in Danish school legislation. Three years later, in 1978, the views of the then Social-Democratic government on education were formulated in U90. Samlet uddannelsesplanlægning frem til 1990’erne (U 90. A Total Plan for Education until the 1990s).5 The document demanded 12 years of non-selective schooling for all (though without recommending an extension of compulsory schooling from 9 to 12 years) as well as more ‘socially relevant’, topic-oriented and interdisciplinary teaching. A change of government in 1982 meant a radical breach with the ideas behind U90. U90 and the reactions to it illustrate the two educational ideologies that characterized Danish educational planning at the end of the twentieth century. On the one hand, we had an ideology of equality that demanded uninterrupted, integrated schooling (a 12-year non-selective school), and late specialization and focus on interdisciplinary, topic-orientated teaching. On the other hand, an ideology opposed, among others, to state paternalism and therefore desirous of a decentralization of the educational system, an emphasis on subject teaching rather than on interdisciplinary activities and methodological formalism. In the Danish edition of this ideology, there was also a Grundtvigian element, which favoured the teaching of history and literature. It was the latter of the two ideologies that set its mark on Danish educational planning in the period from 1982 to 1992, even though the political process somewhat blunted its cutting edge. As the government was strongly pro-European, the demand for internationalization of the educational system also emerged as a significant new element.

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Another element was the demand for a comprehensive revision of objectives and teaching guides for a large number of subjects which, among other things, aimed at ‘the identification of a central core of material . . . which should be known to all’ and a ‘strengthening of the cultural and artistic aspects of the subjects – as opposed to the trend in the 1960s and 1970s towards giving priority to the pedagogical process and to topicality’. Finally, there was emphasis on the ‘necessity of autonomy for schools, i.e. parental influence and free choice of school, including the freedom not to choose a state-maintained school’. Direct reference was made here to the tradition of freedom deriving from Grundtvig and Kold. In respect to educational practice, there was a demand for precision of objectives together with increased freedom to decide how these objectives were to be achieved locally. In terms of finance, this involved a transition towards block grants. The position of the individual school management was to be strengthened with regard to both budgeting and the formulation of the special ‘profile’ of the individual school within the framework of the overall objectives. The latter was considered to be especially important if the Folkeskole was to be able to compete with the private schools. Also the concept of ‘quality’ came to play an important role in the discussion. A special ‘quality development programme’ was launched with the aim to ‘create more precise objectives for individual courses of education, greater coherence with regard to content among them, higher quality throughout so that citizens receive more and better teaching for their money’. One motive behind the project was the idea that the quality of the educational system had to be improved if Denmark was to be able to cope with international competition on the threshold to the Single Market. ‘In all Western countries,’ the presentation of the project stated, ‘we find that increased demands are being made of the quality of teaching, education and research. This is due to, among other things, structural changes in the labour market, new technology, intensified competition and ever more comprehensive internationalization’.

The 1993 School Act on the Folkeskole In 1993, a new government – headed by the Social Democrats – launched a new Act on the Folkeskole to replace the old Act from 1975. Preparations for the new law were begun under the former government, but it was the new Radical6 Minister of Education who saw it through Parliament.

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The new Act differed from its predecessor on the following points:

1.

an amended objects clause, which emphasizes that pupils must learn about Danish culture and gain insight into other cultures and mankind’s interaction with the natural environment (see list below); 2. a new compulsory project assignment in the 9th and 10th grades; 3. no streaming by ability in the 8th–10th grades; 4. English already in the 4th grade; 5. schools are encouraged to offer French as an alternative to German; 6. a new subject: nature/technical studies for the 1st to 6th grades; 7. more lessons – also for the creative subjects; 8. differentiated teaching according to pupils’ needs; 9. interdisciplinary teaching; 10. more attention to the needs of the weaker pupils. According to the aims (1993) the Folkeskole shall:

1. in cooperation with the parents further the pupils’ acquisition of knowledge, skills, working methods and ways of expressing themselves and thus contribute to the all-round personal development of the individual pupil; 2. endeavour to create such opportunities for experience, industry, and absorption that the pupils develop awareness, imagination, and an urge to learn, so that they acquire confidence in their own possibilities and a background for forming independent judgements and for taking personal action; 3. familiarize the pupils with Danish culture and contribute to their understanding of other cultures and of man’s interaction with nature. The school shall prepare the pupils for active participation, joint responsibility, rights, and duties in a society based on freedom and democracy. The teaching of the school and its daily life must therefore build on intellectual freedom, equality, and democracy (Act on the Folkeskole, article 1). After 1993 the Folkeskole can be characterized as a mixed ability, non-selective school for the 7–16-year-olds, even though teaching in the 8th to 10th grades in periods may be organized in units based on the pupils’ different needs and stages of development. It is worth underlining the expressed intention contained in the Act that teaching in all subjects should take its starting-point in the individual pupil’s qualifications and stage of development. In order to compensate for the abolition of streaming, differentiated teaching was in this way made the basic principle for the organization and implementation of teaching.

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The compulsory project assignment in the 9th and 10th grades was introduced to underline the interdisciplinary intention behind the Act. On the basis of a topic chosen by the school, the pupils plan, collect and process information and present the result. According to the Act, education in the nine years of primary and lower secondary schooling is distributed within three subject areas and includes the following compulsory subjects for all students:

1. Subjects in the humanities: (a) Danish: all classes; (b) English: classes 3–9; (c) Christian studies: all classes, except for the year in which confirmation takes place; (d) History: classes 3–9; (e) Social studies: classes 8 and 9. 2. Practical/Creative subjects: (a) Physical education: all classes; (b) Music: classes 1–6; (c) Visual arts: classes 1–5; (d) Design, wood/metalwork, home economics in one or more classes between classes 4 and 7. 3. Science Subjects: (a) Mathematics: all classes; (b) Natural sciences/technology: classes 1–6; (c) Geography, biology and physics/chemistry: classes 7–9. The following topics are a compulsory part of the education programme in the primary schools:

1. road safety; 2. health, sexual education and family studies; 3. educational, vocational and labour market orientation. German language classes are to be offered to pupils as an elective subject in classes 7–9. As an alternative to German, individual students may be offered the opportunity to select French language classes as an elective subject in classes 7–9. A description of each subject is provided in a subject’s folder under the title Fælles mål (Common Objectives). As is customary in Danish school legislation, the Act was the product of broad parliamentary agreement, though not quite as ‘broad’ as on previous occasions, as the Conservatives chose not to support the Act, justifying their

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refusal with the explanation that they did not wish to ‘share responsibility for the introduction of the totally unstreamed school’. Unfortunately the Act ran into the criticism of the Folkeskole that followed the publication of international and national studies of reading proficiency. The studies gave Denmark a weak placing in relation to other countries, especially if the results are seen in the light of expenditure per pupil. A critical OECD report in 2000, together with the impact of globalization and a growing international competition, finally became the starting signal for a hectic reform period in Danish education which has not yet come to an end.

Reforms after 2000 When a new Liberal–Conservative government took over again in 2001 the intention was to pass a new Act, but the 1993 Act is still in force although with important modifications.7 The objects clause was changed once again (see the list in the box below). A comparison with the previous Act reveals a different approach to education at this level. School Leaving Examinations became obligatory, tests in different subjects at different levels were introduced and Fælles mål II (Common Objectives) for all subjects were tightened up once again.

The aims of the Folkeskole (latest version) shall be:

1 in cooperation with the parents, to provide students with the knowledge and skills that will prepare them for further education and training and instil in them the desire to learn more; familiarize them with Danish culture and history; give them an understanding of other countries and cultures; contribute to their understanding of the interrelationship between human beings and the environment; and promote the well-rounded development of the individual student; 2 to endeavour to develop the working methods and create a framework that provides opportunities for experience, in-depth study and allows for initiative so that students develop awareness and imagination and a confidence in their own possibilities and backgrounds such that they are able to commit themselves and are willing to take action; 3 to prepare the students to be able to participate, demonstrate mutual responsibility and understand their rights and duties in a free and democratic society. The daily activities of the school must, therefore, be conducted in a spirit of intellectual freedom, equality and democracy.

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As a part of the process of evaluating the students’ learning outcomes, a range of obligatory national tests were introduced: ● ● ● ●

Danish, with a focus on reading (form levels 2, 4, 6, and 8); English (form level 7); Mathematics (form levels 3 and 6); Geography, biology and physics/chemistry (form level 8).

The tests are intended to be computer-based and adaptive, meaning that they are continuously adapted to the individual pupil. The results of the tests are used in guiding the individual pupil and are assumed to strengthen the communication with parents. In order to strengthen the process of carrying out an ongoing evaluation of the Folkeskole, a provision was introduced requiring a written elevplan (student plan) for all students at all form levels. The student plans are to contain information about the results of the ongoing evaluations in all subjects and on the course of action decided on the basis of these results, and they are to be prepared at least once each school year. At the conclusion of grade 9 level, pupils sit for the Folkeskolens Afsluttende Prøve (The Folkeskole Leaving Certificate), which can be taken in the following subjects: Danish, English, Christian studies, history, social studies, mathematics, geography, biology, science/chemistry, and German and French as electives. Pupils must sit for examinations in a total of seven subjects. Five of the subjects are compulsory for all students: written and oral examinations in Danish, a written examination in mathematics and oral examinations in English and science/chemistry. Moreover, in addition, each pupil must sit for two examinations that are drawn at random, one from the humanities group and one from the science group. At the 9th and 10th form levels, a mandatory project assignment gives students the opportunity to complete and present an interdisciplinary project. The project assignment is assessed in a written statement on the content, working process and presentation of the final result, which affords a broader and more detailed assessment of the student’s ability. At the student’s request, a mark can also be given. The assessment of the project assignment can be indicated in the leaving certificate. The present government, in May 2013, made an agreement with all the parties in the Parliament about a reform to be implemented after the next general election. Among the more important points in the agreement were: (1) to increase the number of school lessons to 30 for the youngest age groups, to 33 for

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the middle groups, and to 37 for the oldest groups; (2) to move forward instruction in English to class 1 (from class 3) and in the second foreign language to class 5 (from class 7). Also included in the agreement was a daily lesson in physical education.

General Upper Secondary Education (Gymnasium and HF) General secondary education today consists of the Gymnasium (upper secondary school) and Højere Forberedelseseksamen (HF) (Higher Preparatory Examination). The former takes three and two years. The Gymnasium course is completed by the Studentereksamen (STX) (Upper Secondary School Leaving Examination) and HF by the Højere Forberedelseseksamen. Today the Gymnasium and HF together constitute a general upper secondary education, which in most cases shares teachers and buildings. The Gymnasium is seen as the natural preparation for higher education for 16-year-olds, while HF is intended for more mature students who have already had experience of the employment market. HF (especially as single-subject courses) has developed into a form of recurrent, continuing education. As opposed to the Folkeskole, which is administered by the municipality, all Gymnasiums and HFs are today managed by the local regional council. In the course of the 1980s both the Gymnasium and HF (the latter only to a slight extent) underwent reform. Structurally, the three-year Gymnasium still came to consist of two ‘lines’: the language line and the mathematics line. Both had the same overall aim: to provide a general education as well as a preparation for higher education. This two-part aim has remained unchanged since 1850 – a thought-provoking continuity when one considers how often the objectives of, say, the Folkeskole have been altered during the same period. The reform meant a transition from a branch structure to an options structure. Where formerly pupils chose specific branches after the first year – for example the mathematicsphysics branch or the modern languages branch from the mathematics and the language line respectively – they could now choose optional subjects. Of a total of 31 or 32 weekly lessons, they now had four to five optional lessons a week in the second year and fourteen to fifteen in the third year. There were a number of reasons why in the final resort the optional system won over the branch system. On the one hand, it met pupil needs for greater individualization and non-traditional subject combinations, such as English and mathematics at high level; on the other hand, it now became easier to introduce

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new subjects, such as business, information technology and philosophy. It was no longer necessary to establish an entirely new branch in order to get such subjects into the timetable. The reform necessitated a division of the school subjects into three groups: common core, compulsory and optional. Common core subjects were the same for all pupils, irrespective of what line they have chosen: Danish history, biology, English, art, classical civilization and religion. The compulsory subjects were those necessary for the specialist line chosen – for instance, a foreign language for the language line, and physics and chemistry for the mathematics line. The optional subjects could be taken at two levels: advanced and intermediate. Pupils were required to choose at least two advanced-level subjects, one of which must belong to the group of obligatory subjects linked to the line they had chosen. These changes also meant a strengthening of written work, inasmuch as during the final year pupils now had to complete a major written assignment, The reform contained a number of elements that clearly pointed in the direction of the Single Market of 1992: the strengthening of foreign languages, especially English, the more flexible structure facilitating quicker adaptation to the changing needs of society, the increased degree of specialization, the emphasis on the cultural aspect of foreign-language teaching. Finally, the importance attached to older literature in Danish teaching can also be seen as an expression of a greater attention to the nation’s own cultural heritage in the forthcoming closer encounters with other European cultures. At the same time, however, the reform sought to preserve the special strength of the Danish Gymnasium: its balance between a broad, general education and a suitable degree of specialization. In 2003, the former division in language and mathematics lines were now abolished. ‘Time is over for the existing division in a language and a mathematics line,’ the then Minister of Education said, ‘humanists need knowledge of natural science problems and students of natural sciences need knowledge of foreign languages.’ In broad outline, the Gymnasium today is organized as a basic sixmonth course common to all students, followed by two-and-a-half-years specialized study programmes. Subjects are offered at C-, B- and A-level, with A as the highest level. By the end of a specialized study programme, all students must have at least four subjects at A-level, normally three at B-level and normally seven at C-level. The six-month basic course is meant as a broad introduction for the students to the subject field and to the work methods of the Gymnasium in order, among others, to give them a better foundation for choice of a specialized study programme after the basic programme. The two-and-a-half-year specialized

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study programmes, providing for in-depth studies, include a specific range of compulsory subjects that are common for all pupils taking the specialized programme and normally three subjects constituting the specialized programme, i.e. a package of subjects supporting each other. In addition to that, all the programmes also contain multi-subject courses with, among other things, the object of strengthening the pupils’ preparedness for further study. This includes the ability to apply knowledge and methods from several subjects to illustrate interdisciplinary themes and problems, and the ability to compare the subjects’ knowledge and methods. In the specialized study programmes, some elective subjects are also included for the pupils to choose from. Each specialized programme ends with a specialized study project. On the one hand, the new reform now makes it possible to a higher degree than before to combine language subjects with natural science subjects. The importance of cross-disciplinary studies has also been strongly underlined by the reform. On the other hand, it has not been particularly well received by many teachers accusing the reform of focusing more on form than content, and therefore, in the end, resulting in a lowering of standards. In many respects, the former Gymnasiums have developed from elite institutions to institutions for a popular general youth education attracting a large cohort of each year group.

Technical and vocational education and training This part of the educational system covers those forms of education that take place in the technical and commercial schools, that is, technical and vocational education as such that until recently used to be attended by two-thirds of an age group. Until 1989, two parallel forms of technical and vocational education existed side by side within the various trades: Mesterlære (Apprenticeship Training) and Erhvervsfaglig Grunduddannelse (EFG) (Basic Vocational Education). The minimum admission requirement was the Folkeskole leaving certificate. To start an apprenticeship, a contract had to be drawn up between apprentice and employer. Apprenticeships lasted from two to four years depending on the trade, alternating between practice at the place of work and school attendance, and were concluded by a svendeprøve (Journeyman’s Test). In the commercial and clerical fields, where there are no provisions for a journeyman’s test, acquisition of a certificate of completed apprenticeship was conditional on passing the Handelsmedhjælpereksamen (Commercial Assistant Examination) or the more comprehensive Handelseksamen (Commercial Examination).

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EFG courses, which were introduced in 1977, were primarily school-based and started with a basic one-year course in one of the eight main fields into which the employment market is divided: commercial and clerical trades, service trades, the construction sector, food industries, iron and metal industries, graphic industries, agriculture and transport. The technical and vocational system also offers courses which in reality must be described as general, upper secondary education even though they are vocationally orientated. At commercial schools it is possible to take a two-year course leading to the Højere Handelseksamen (HHX) (Higher Commercial Examination), which is equivalent to the Upper Secondary Leaving Examination. Similarly, technical schools offer a two-year course leading to the Højere Teknisk Eksamen (HTX) (Higher Technical Examination). On 30 March 1989 – on the centenary of the first Danish Apprenticeship Act – Parliament passed Lov om erhvervsuddannelser (The Technical and Vocational Education Act) and Lov om institutioner for erhvervsrettet uddannelse (The Technical and Vocational Schools Act),8 which together constituted the legislative basis for a reform of technical and vocational education. This legislation was based on the work of a commission, which in the spring of 1987 published a lengthy report on basic technical and vocational education.9 The Technical and Vocational Education Act laid down the structure and principles for these types of education. The Act aimed at combining the best elements of the apprenticeship system, EFG, and of the technical and commercial diploma courses into one set of regulations in order to make the system simpler and more transparent. The majority of the existing types of education were to become special branches within a much reduced number of basic courses with duration of up to four years. It was still possible to start this education in the two ‘old’ ways: either at school or in a firm with which one has concluded a trainee contract but, except for the first twenty weeks, the teaching was to be the same for pupils of both types. The education was to be more consistently based on the principle of alternating between short periods at school and practice periods at the workplace. The Act also gave schools new and wider powers. The individual school could decide what kinds of vocational education it wished to offer and would receive a block grant, which would be dependent on, among other things, enrolment. The reform of technical and vocational education in Denmark was set in motion by structural changes in the employment market, technological development and international competition. In step with the gradual realization of the reform, international activities has been further expanded.

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Contrary to Norway and Sweden, in Denmark there is still a structural distinction between general education and vocational education, but the distinction is gradually becoming blurred. Although the HTX and HHX programmes originally were established within the framework of vocational education they are today – together with STX and HF – increasingly being seen as a ‘package’ of four courses providing the students with different versions of general education. Nowadays (2013), there is a strong political focus on technical and vocational training and education because of a decrease in enrolment at the technical and vocational schools compared with the general education schools (Gymnasium). A future and serious lack of skilled workers is to be foreseen and calls for political action.

Higher education At present the institutions of higher education are grouped into:

1. the college sector, and 2. the university sector. The college sector comprises a number of specialized institutions of higher education, offering short-cycle and medium-cycle professionally oriented programmes. The institutions that have specialized in short-cycle further education have formed ten Erhvervsakademier (Business Colleges) in which the fields of study are agriculture, textile and design, food industry, construction, hotel and tourism, computer science, industrial production, laboratory technician, IT and communication and international marketing. Most programmes give access to further studies within the same field, e.g. bachelor programmes. The eight Professionshøjskoler (Professional High Schools) offer mediumcycle programmes at a level intended to correspond to a university Bachelor programme (the so-called Professional Bachelor Degree in contrast to the General Bachelor Degree awarded by the universities). Examples are: teacher training programmes, social work programmes, journalism, nursing, engineering, etc. It is mandatory for the colleges to cooperate with the university sector. The university sector includes twelve universities, five of which are multifaculty universities. The remaining seven institutions specialize in fields such as engineering, education, veterinary science, agriculture, pharmacy, or business

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studies. In addition to that, there are a number of specialist university-level institutions in architecture, art, music, etc. All university study programmes are supposed to be research-based, and degrees are awarded at undergraduate and graduate level including doctoral degrees. All Danish universities are state universities and are all committed to the same Act.

The Act on Universities 2003 (the University Act) In July 2003, the Parliament passed a new University Act that changed the legislation from the previous reform in 1993. At the presentation of the act, the Minister of Science proclaimed it to be the greatest university reform since the foundation statutes of the University of Copenhagen in 1479. After having stated in article 1 that ‘this act applies to universities under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation’ and that ‘the universities are independent institutions under the public-sector administration and supervised by the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation’, article 2 describes the purpose of the Danish university in the following way:

1. The university shall conduct research and offer research-based education at the highest international level in the disciplines covered by the university. The university shall ensure a balanced relationship between research and education, on a regular basis screened for the relevancy of its research and educational disciplines, prioritize and develop them further, and disseminate knowledge of scientific methods and results. 2. The university has freedom of research and shall safeguard this freedom and ensure the ethics of science. 3. The university shall collaborate with society and contribute to the development of international collaboration. The university’s scientific and educational findings should contribute to the further growth, welfare and development of society. As a central knowledge-based body and cultural repository, the university shall exchange knowledge and competencies with society and encourage its employees to take part in the public debate. 4. The university shall contribute to ensuring that the most recent knowledge within relevant disciplines is made available to non-research oriented higher education (University Act 2003, article 2). Although due respect is still paid to the Humboldtian tradition in points 1 and 2, the tradition in point 3, and later in the Act, is the object of severe limitations in at least four major areas:

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strengthening of the bonds between university and society; approval of degree programmes; new governance regulations; evaluation and quality development.

An important element in the reform is the emphasis that is put upon a stronger interaction between university and society. This reform element is emphasized several times and in different ways: ‘It is decisive,’ it is said in the Explanatory Notes to the Draft Bill, ‘that the priorities of the universities are made stronger and more visible to society’ (Explanatory Notes, p.  2). ‘In the knowledge society,’ it is further stated that ‘the nature of knowledge and education has changed and both are seen in a variety of shapes. University research and education are no longer something exclusively reserved for a limited elite. Knowledge is produced and used by many different organizations, parties and institutions and often in a network based on knowledge exchange, which is a central part of the committed activities of a university (Explanatory Notes, p. 2). . . The gap between the universities and public and private enterprises and institutions must be bridged. We are already witnessing some co-operation and interaction between the universities and society, but this will have to be expanded markedly’ (Explanatory Notes, p. 3). In order to bridge the so-called ‘gap’ between university and society, the reform demands changes in the existing degree programmes in terms of both structure and content. The Bologna Declaration is not referred to in the Act itself, but in the Explanatory Notes it is said that the Act ‘allows for the premises of the Bologna Declaration on the structure of the programmes and the education system’ (Explanatory Notes, p.  5). And the vocabulary in the Explanatory Notes, arguing with words like ‘flexibility’, ‘mobility’, ‘transparency’, reveals a congeniality that in the Act itself is followed up with a clear-cut 3 + 2 + 3 model offering the following research-based full-time programmes as independent, well-rounded, educational programmes: (1) Bachelor programme for 180 ECTS points; (2) Master’s programmes for 120 ECTS points; (3) Ph.D. programmes for 180 ECTS points (Act, article 4). The 3 + 2 + 3 modular model that was introduced on a voluntary basis before the reform is now made compulsory by the Act. As to content, the interaction with society is achieved by demanding that ‘the academic relevance, correlation and progression must be ensured and the programmes must have clearer competence profiles that are directed at different jobs within the private as well as the public sectors’ (Explanatory Notes, p. 5). The

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implied intention is that the programmes, more directly than hitherto, shall adjust to the existing job market and the immediate needs of society. Although the university is free to decide which research-based degree programmes it wants to offer within its academic scope, they shall nevertheless be subject to the approval of the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (Act, article 3). Another important element in the reform was the intention to strengthen management and the rules of governance in order to strengthen the universities’ efficiency and resolution. The argumentation for this was the increased international competition and struggle to attract students and researchers from abroad. Also, cooperation with the business community, other public business, and national and international research institutions increased the demands for academic and financial prioritization. To strengthen management, all universities were turned into independent institutions with the obligation to set up Boards of Directors which are now the highest authority of the university. It will safeguard the university’s interest as an educational and research institution and determine guidelines for its organization, long-term activities and development (Act, article 10). The Board shall be composed of external members and members representing the academic staff of the university, which includes Ph.D. students with university contracts, the technical and administrative staff and students. The Board shall comprise a majority of external members. The Board shall elect a chair from among its external members. The general principle of management now is that the Board hires the Rector. The Rector hires the Deans; and the Deans hire the Heads of Departments. The Rector must be a recognized researcher in one of the university’s central academic fields and have knowledge of the educational sector (Act, article 14 (2)). With the new Act, the former ‘bottom-up’ model (from 1973) with students, technical and academic staff partaking in the election of leaders at all levels: institute, department, faculty and Rector, has been replaced by a straight ‘topdown’ model. The new regulations caused considerable protests from all sections of academia and several parties in the Parliament but they were nevertheless adopted by a safe majority in the Parliament, consisting of the Liberal/ Conservative government, and supported by the Social Democratic (Labour) opposition and the Christian People’s Party. It is the Government’s declared ambition to promote and strengthen the development of evaluation processes and methods at Danish universities. An important tool in evaluation and quality development is the so-called university

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performance contract, i.e. contracts between the Ministry and the individual university. The contract must be approved by the Minister. In their performance contracts, the universities specify their method of evaluation and the frequency. Also in the performance contracts, the universities are to lay down clear and binding guidelines for the election of an evaluation organization (i.e. an independent, external and international organization [my comment]) for the quality evaluations. By introducing similar programmes in other countries, the quality evaluations will form a natural part of the benchmarking with other Danish and foreign universities. The idea is that benchmarking is to be part of the university performance contracts. (Explanatory Notes, pp. 6–7)

According to the Act (article 10(8)), the Boards and Rectors shall enter into a performance contract with the Minister. In addition to qualitative goals regarding such issues as credits, increased completion of studies, internal followup on study programmes, teaching and research evaluations and the like, the Agreements should also include quantitative and measurable indicators for the universities’ activities and results, which the management can use as a managerial and steering tool. Examples to be mentioned are: student mobility, completion and drop-out rates, the number of graduates who have received Bachelor, Master and Ph.D. degrees, volume, quality and the dissemination/publication of research. Furthermore, every university is called upon to develop concepts for use in comparisons (benchmarking) with regard to other relevant Danish and international universities as part of their continuous development. After the expiration of the term of the Performance Agreements, they will form the basis for the distribution of any new funding to the universities and for entering into a new Performance Agreement. So far, the university performance contracts appear to be the strongest limitation on the autonomy of Danish universities. They will be under strict control by them, and probably the contracts will contribute to an increase in bureaucracy and managerial staff. The ruling formula for the universities seems to be: autonomy and academic freedom is good but strong management combined with strategy plans, goals described in terms of competencies, and internal and external control in terms of evaluation, measurement and benchmarking is better. The argument for the implementation of the formula takes place under the pretext of globalization, competition and international penetration. Universities are still places for learning and study, but the content of studies is gradually being changed from

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being studies for the pursuit of truth to studies to fulfil the immediate needs of society and, in a wider sense, to match the strategic goals set down by politicians.10

Notes 1 ‘Almue’ is a Nordic word – not commonly used any more – for the poorer part of the population in the countryside and in the market towns. In the following – for want of a better translation – it is translated as the ‘peasantry’. 2 N. F. S. Grundtvig (1783–1872) Priest, poet and writer. 3 Christen Kold (1816–1870) Teacher who put into practice the ideas of N. F. S. Grundtvig. 4 ‘Folkeskole’ is the Danish word for the primary and lower secondary school, i.e. the school for the 7–16-year-olds. 5 U90. Samlet plan for uddannelserne frem til 1990’erne (A Total Plan for Education until the 1990s). København: Undervisningsministeriet, 1978. 6 The Radical-Left party is a minor social-liberal party that, in the 1990s, was a member of the social-democratic government. 7 For more information, see the latest (Consolidation) Act (2003) at: http://pub.uvm.dk/2003/consolidation.html [accessed 27 August 2014]. 8 https://www.retsinformation.dk/Forms/r0710.aspx?id=14649a1 [accessed 27 August 2014]. 9 Betænkning om grundlæggende erhvervsuddannelser (Report on Basic Vocational Education). Betænkning nr. 1112, June 1987. 10 The intention was clearly illustrated through the title of the folder Fra forskning til faktura (From Research to Invoice), which was published by the Minister in connection with the introduction of the 2003 Act.

Further reading Act on the Folkeskole 2003. Available at the address: http://pub.uvm.dk/2003/ consolidation.html [accessed 27 August 2014]. Act on Universities 2003. universities/explanatory-notes-to-the-draft-bill-onuniversities.pdf Archer, M. (1979) Social Origins of Educational Systems. London: Sage. Further information on the Danish education system, Facts and Figures – Education Indicators Denmark (2007/08), is available (in English) at the address: http://pub. uvm.dk/2008/facts/ [accessed 27 August 2014]. Grundtvig, N. F. S. (1991) Selected Educational Writings (compiled by Max Lawson).

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Skive: The International People’s College and The Association of Folk High Schools in Denmark Winther-Jensen, T. (2002) ‘Tradition and transition in Danish education’, in Education in Transition. International Perspectives on the Politics and Processes of Change. Wallingford, Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 67–83.

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Finland: Policy and Vision Matti Rautiainen and Emma Kostiainen

Introduction Finland’s educational history can be divided into three periods. The first started in the Middle Ages when formal schooling began to develop in association with the Church. The second started in the seventeenth century when Christian popular education was extended to include, in principle, the entire population. The third change was in the nineteenth century when the educational system significantly expanded to encompass not only basic education but also higher education and adult education. The past decade has been very successful for Finland, at least according to international assessments measuring school learning outcomes (such as PISA and TIMMS). At the end of November 2012, Finland’s education system was ranked the best in the developed world according to a survey carried out by the education company Pearson. What are the reasons for these results? In particular, two significant trends underlie them. First, the way the position of education has been shaped in Finnish society and, second, the organization of school and teacher education from the 1970s onwards. Although the history of Finnish education can be regarded as a success story (especially during recent decades), the challenges for the future are huge. Society is changing rapidly and at the moment the ‘hot’ issues from pre-education to higher education are similar: what are the aims of education and what is ICT’s role in education? In this chapter we will begin by presenting the history of education in Finland. In the second part, the focus is on the contemporary system, and in the third we discuss the future of education in Finland.

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The period before the 1970s reform As stated, formal schooling began to develop in Finland in the Middle Ages in association with the Church. The first school, Turku Cathedral School, was founded in 1276 and its aim was to educate priests to serve the Catholic Church. Basic education affecting the entire population began hundreds of years later when, in the seventeenth century, Christian popular education was extended universally. The starting point for the contemporary system, which also initiated the modern period of education, was the formation of a civic society in the nineteenth century when the entire educational system significantly expanded to encompass not only basic education but also higher education and adult education. Before the 1850s, the Finnish educational system was disjointed. Popular education was mainly organized and supervised by local clergy. Its aim was to teach the common people Christianity, reading and occasionally also writing. Although the Church arranged various types of parish and municipal schools, part of the people still received instruction from their parents or other relatives or neighbours (Laine and Laine, 2010; Kuikka, 1997). Higher education was provided at the beginning of the nineteenth century at Turku Cathedral School, a few trivial schools (i.e. teaching the trivium) and pedagogiums (i.e. grammar schools), and at a university (Turku Academy), which was transferred from Turku to Helsinki in 1828. Its name was changed to the Imperial Alexander University (from 1919, the University of Helsinki). Swedish and Latin were the dominant languages of instruction in such schools, and it was not until 1923 that Finnish became a teaching language at university. The 1850s–1860s were an especially important period. In 1858 the development of basic education was affected by Tsar Alexander II’s proclamation that, in future, primary schools could be founded with state support. Earlier, school funding had depended mainly on parishes, congregations and private financers. After the proclamation, the reform of primary education began in a spirit of liberalism. Under the direction of Uno Cygnaeus, a new primary school system was planned and this included the development and organization of teacher education by means of teachers colleges and the 1866 primary school decree ratified the system (Valtonen and Rautiainen, 2012). The first teacher education college was founded in Jyväskylä in 1863, training both men and women teachers. In the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century teachers’ colleges were set up in various parts of Finland and their creation was an important step in developing the new

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primary school. Also the first Finnish-language girls’ schools were founded in the 1860s. Nevertheless, a lot of children grew up without schools. It took decades to construct a comprehensive primary school network across Finland and to ensure that all schools had qualified teachers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Finland’s educational system had assumed its basic form, which endured until the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Additionally, the Finnish law on compulsory education was passed relatively late, in 1921. According to the law, general compulsory education was to be implemented even in the most isolated communities by the end of 1937 (Valtonen and Rautiainen, 2012). The nineteenth century was also a pioneering phase in vocational education and training. Agriculture, health care, business, industry and other fields increasingly needed more professionals, especially after 1879, when some restrictions on business and enterprise were expunged in accordance with an act passed by Alex III. Until 1918, when Åbo Academi was founded for Swedish-speakers, the only university was in Helsinki. Before this, between 1640 and 1822, it was located in Turku, and was transferred to Helsinki in 1828 because of Helsinki’s position as the new capital of Finland. The modern university network was established in Finland during the age of independence. Eight new universities were founded between 1920 and 1979 and the network covered the whole country.

Education as a basis of the welfare state The primary school was the product of an agrarian society and its subject contents were largely planned to meet the needs of local peasant communities. After the Second World War, Finnish society was influenced by many structural changes, including rapid changes in population structure and those affecting social and economic life. These also created the need for reforms to the educational system. Egalitarianization, for example, was slow. Education in Finland remained strongly segregated on the basis of both gender and social status until the basic school reform at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s (Valtonen and Rautiainen, 2012; Rinne and Kivirauma, 2003). The system of basic education needed reforming in the 1960s. The 100-yearold primary school system had reached its end and a thorough reform was initiated. In this reform, both basic education and teacher education changed in

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Source: National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools, 2003, p. 3.

Figure 4.1 The Finnish educational system in 2011.

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Finland. Compulsory basic education for all was extended to nine years, after which pupils chose either upper secondary school or vocational education. The transition to the new basic school was carried out in stages beginning in 1972. The 1971 decree on teacher education transferred teacher education to the universities and, from the end of the 1970s, qualification as a class teacher has required a higher university degree, a Master of Education. Along with the reform, a new grammar-school oriented and subject-based way of thinking spread into school. Practical subjects were obliged to make way for academic studies and, instead of civic skills, schoolwork began to prepare pupils for university-style working. The reform also meant that more emphasis than earlier was placed in school on the study of facts. In practice, this has meant an increase in objective knowledge and a reduction in the type of education and teaching intended to focus on the subjectivity of the person being educated. In other words, the basic school attached greater importance than the primary school to knowing a ready-made, generally accepted subject area, which was the goal of knowledge-based, objectivity-seeking subjects. Thus, the skill-based subjects, that were thought to engender independence, self-reliance, autonomous thinking, evaluative skills and ethicalness, became the poor relatives (e.g. Varto, 2005). The basic school reform also resulted in a clear content change in the educational ethical thinking of the school. Whereas, in the nineteenth century, a sense of community dominated school education in the form of socialization, with ethical education concentrating on features of individual character, the prevailing premise of basic school education in the twentieth century is individuality. By the end of the twentieth century at the latest, the national quest for socialization had disappeared from Finnish educational policy to be replaced by a strong development of individualization, which emphasized the individual’s moral responsibility only to him or herself (Launonen, 2000, pp. 302–3). With these changes, school made a significant move in the direction of individualcentredness. These trends were naturally reflected in teacher education. Over the past fifty years, the following three conceptions of school (Table 4.1) have appeared in discussions of the Finnish school system. The discipline school is based on established teaching curricula, which are implemented in school as standard subjects according to strict and defined study programmes. The discipline school is characterized by its mass form, its closed introversion and formal classroom teaching. In the competition school, these are replaced by individualism, openness and multimodal teaching. Even though the primary school cannot unambiguously be called a discipline school, nor the

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Table 4.1 Three school realities Discipline school Sociopolitical Discipline dimension Manners Traditional values Nostalgia Pedagogical Teacher-led dimension Division into subjects

Competition school

Cooperation school

Working-life bias Entrepreneurship Individualism

Communality Fairness Hope

Constructivism Individual learning

Collaborativeness Problem-derived

Source: Suoranta, 2003, pp. 137–8.

basic school a school of the individual, the change from discipline school to individual school is a change from primary to basic school. In contrast, those features linked to the cooperation school are only just emerging as a part of school reality and the change is slow because the issue relates to a phenomenon that in practice is difficult to realize. Whereas genuine and successful cooperation is generally spontaneous, voluntary and development-oriented, enforced cooperation often produces a travesty of the intended goal (e.g. Hargreaves, 1994; Sahlberg, 1996).

The Finnish educational system in the third millennium More than forty years have passed since the reform of basic education in Finland and, according to international assessments measuring the learning outcomes of school, the results are in global terms extremely good. Finland has achieved especially good results in the PISA and TIMMS studies, which measure linguistic and mathematical abilities (see Figure 4.2). In consequence, Finland’s educational system has risen to become a focus of international interest, attracting educational experts from around the globe seeking reasons for the good results. The reasons behind the success in international surveys are various. Children’s opportunities to study and learn are quite equal; there is a strong supporting system in the school meeting the needs of special education; and teachers are highly qualified (MA level) with high levels of pedagogical autonomy and freedom. Finland is also a very homogeneous culture even if the biggest cities are more multicultural than they were ten years ago. Finnish society has a very strong belief in education and great confidence in teachers’ professionalism (Välijärvi et al., 2007).

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Figure 4.2 Proportions of population with post-comprehensive level qualifications by age group in 1970, 1990 and 2011. Source: Statistics Finland; Education. http://www.stat.fi/til/vkour/2011/vkour_2011_2012–12– 04_tie_001_en.html.

The statutory age for starting school in Finland is 7 years, and pupils normally go to the nearest school regardless of the social status of the pupil’s family. Schools are organized by municipality but are partly financed by the national government. Compulsory basic education consists of 9 grades. In school, the boundaries for the educational and intellectual goals are drawn by the class and subject teacher system. Even though Finland has a uniform basic school, the education of teachers remains clearly differentiated. Class teachers study education as a major, subject teachers as a minor, and the studies of these two groups hardly coincide at all during teacher education. In school, the borderline between lower and upper school traditionally lies between class 6 and class 7. In present-day school, it is not unusual for a class teacher to have lessons in the upper school (classes 7–9) and a subject teacher in the lower school (classes 1–6). Underlying the system is naturally the idea of increasing the intellectual content of study according to the number of years at school. Where school begins without subject differentiation, by the end of lower school it has already become tightly segmented around subjects. Schools are very similar in Finland, regardless of their location. There are a few private schools, such as Rudolf Steiner schools, where the emphasis is on alternative pedagogical principles.

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Figure 4.3 Direct transition to further studies of those completing the 9th grade of comprehensive school 2005–2011 (%) Source: Statistics Finland; Education. http://www.stat.fi/til/khak/2011/khak_2011_2012–12–13_ tie_001_en.html

Autonomy and pedagogical freedom are very important aspects of teacher identity in Finland. There is a prevailing social confidence in that the child will receive the same education regardless of the school. This confidence is placed above all in the system and in teachers whose professional skill is trusted. In the school culture itself, this trust is manifested as the considerable pedagogical autonomy of the teacher, with his or her work not subject to any supervisory or control mechanism. For example, in the early 1990s, government control of school textbooks was ended. Furthermore, the basic school has no nation-wide system of evaluation that applies to all schools. Assessment is done by the teacher who follows final-assessment criteria for the mark of 8 as defined in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education. Naturally, this has its critics. Since assessment is in the hands of the teacher, some people regard the system as unfair, for example, from the viewpoint of applying for further studies.

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The ideal goals set up for the basic school were translated into concrete action and into an operational culture where the primary emphasis was placed on achievement of the learning goals set for school subjects. The objectives set for the work of the primary school were by nature ethically-loaded value objectives that gave a direction to schoolwork. In addition, they focused on teaching rather than learning. The basic school brought about four changes in the discussion of goals and objectives:

1. an objective-oriented focus on learning; 2. learning is seen as something broadly based and of a high level, and not as learning of basic civic skills and attitudes; 3. objectives are expressed precisely in the form of the learning of an individual pupil; 4. the most important measure of successful school operation is achievement of the objectives set (Simola, 1995, p. 95). The same change also took place in teacher education. It is clear then that, with the concentration of activity on achievement of cognitive objectives set for individual subjects, Finnish children also perform well in evaluation studies measuring this. If the focus is shifted from factual knowledge to attitudes, and particularly to participatory culture, Finland finds itself among the tail-enders: young people are rarely interested in politics, or indeed any social activity, e.g. participating in the activities of their community (Suoninen, Kupari and Törmäkangas, 2010). The same result also emerged from a joint Finnish–German study that compared the social participation of Finnish and German young people (Feldmann-Wojtachnia et  al., 2010). The Finnish school, however, has two faces. In the shadow of those good learning outcomes there lurks a democratic deficit in school and a lack of school well-being among children (Rautiainen and Räihä, 2012). This means there is a gap between the aim and practice of basic education, because the development of a democratic society is one of the key objectives in the National Core Curriculum for Basic Education: Basic education must provide an opportunity for diversified growth, learning, and the development of a healthy sense of self-esteem, so that the pupils can obtain the knowledge and skills they need in life, become capable of further study, and, as involved citizens, develop a democratic society. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education, 2004, p. 12

One reason for this tension is the radical democratic experiment in the early 1970s. In the beginning of the 1970s, school councils became highly

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politicized in the 8-year grammar schools and this was quite a traumatic period for teachers. The experiment was quietly ditched towards the end of the 1970s and schools became islands where people were careful not to talk about politics, in other words, not to take a stand on contentious issues. With the introduction of the comprehensive school, assessment of learning moved more vigorously towards evaluation of how well individual pupils achieved the objectives set for each subject. Thus, by the start of the 1980s, schools had become socially neutral places (Rautiainen and Räihä, 2012; Kärenlampi, 1999). The physical structure of schools, such as their space allocation, was a direct reflection of this state. Apart from the corridors and entrance halls, pupils had no space of their own for meeting or spending time (e.g. Tolonen, 2001). During the last fifteen years, there have been numerous different projects with the aim of democratizing schools, but so far little has happened. For example, pupils’ unions do not have enough power in school decision-making. They are still more like organizations whose function is to arrange celebrations. International assessment studies have shown that the differences between Finnish schools are small; in other words, the basic school’s principle of equality has been well realized. Although teachers in the basic school enjoy a high social status and it is very popular to apply, especially for class teacher courses, it has occasionally been difficult to find qualified teachers for remote areas or the capital region. Increasingly, multicultural cities and continuing rural depopulation confront schools with huge challenges. After basic education, students continue to vocational education and training or general upper secondary school. Upper secondary school concludes with matriculation, which is the only national examination in the whole educational system, and this gives eligibility for higher education studies. During recent decades, there have been huge changes in vocational education. The 1990s saw the foundation, alongside university-level institutions, of polytechnics, which were made up of college-level vocational institutions and offered a lower form of higher education. In 1991–1992, the first polytechnics started on a trial basis and the first nine polytechnics were made permanent in 1996. By 2000, all polytechnics were operating on a permanent basis. At the start of the present decade there were over 20 polytechnics. College-level vocational education began in the nineteenth century, mainly in the form of agricultural, business and commercial and technical training. It expanded in the twentieth century, especially after the Second World War. Lower vocational education is offered by vocational schools, whose foundation also

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Figure 4.4 Direct transition to further studies of those passing the matriculation examination 2005–2011 (per cent) Source: Statistics Finland; Education. http://www.stat.fi/til/khak/2011/khak_2011_2012–12–13_ tie_001_en.html

began in the nineteenth century and whose numbers significantly increased until the 1970s (Klemelä, 1999). The largest fields in initial vocational education are technology and transport (approx. 36 per cent), business and administration (19 per cent) and health and social services (17 per cent). The other fields are tourism, catering and home economics (13 per cent), culture (7 per cent), natural resources (6 per cent) and leisure and physical education (2 per cent). Around 50,000 new students begin their studies in initial vocational training every year (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2013). The new Universities Act in 2010 was the biggest university reform since 1640. With the reform, the autonomy of universities was extended by giving

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them an independent legal status, either as public corporations or as foundations. Also, the universities’ management and decision-making system was reformed by giving them larger economic and administrative autonomy. Nevertheless, the main assignment – education, research, and regional interaction – remains unchanged. One of the main objectives of the reform is to facilitate operation in an international environment. In addition, the aim is, for example, to improve universities’ ability to react better to changes in the operational environment, diversify their funding base, direct resources to top-level research and strengthen universities’ roles within the system of innovation (Ministry of Education and Culture, 2013; see also Hautamäki, 2010, p. 40). According to Statistics Finland, a total of 169,000 students attended university education leading to a degree in 2012. The amount is high, and the Ministry of Education and Culture is trying to decrease it. Teacher education is one of the most popular fields at the higher education level.

Figure 4.5 University students by fields of education (Educational Administration’s classification 1995) in 2012 Source: Statistics Finland; Education. http://www.stat.fi/til/yop/index.html

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Towards the future In the twenty-first century, the period of quantitative growth in education lies far behind and there is powerful pressure to close and combine educational institutions and to reduce overlap. Underlying this, on the one hand, is the need to make financial savings, and on the other hand, the view that by reforming its educational system Finland can improve its competitiveness as a nation. Despite the changes, one unifying feature characterizes all of the stages in Finland’s educational history since the second half of the nineteenth century: a strong belief in the power of education. This is characteristic of future thinking, too. As described earlier, the basic elements in Finland’s educational system are structured successfully. The challenges of future development are more concerned with the regeneration of practices and attitudes concerning an ‘already excellent’ education. The future of education needs new ways of thinking and inspiring visions (Sahlberg, 2011). One clear advantage of the Finnish educational system rests on the fact that both its strengths and weaknesses are treated critically and the system is the subject of investigation. Success, especially in PISA, has increased the pressure for constant vigilance in the arena of education. Although the present system is ranked highly in international assessments, the future is pursued in such a way that both the obvious and hidden contradictions, contrasts and tensions in the educational system are seen and brought out. These tensions must be seen as an input of development, rather than a barrier or obstacle to change. When considering the future of education in Finland, the following tensions generate continuums that must be the object of continuous and critical study and analysis.

From static state to dynamic agility Education has to take an active role in relation to change in society. When education rests on firm foundations, there is an opportunity to make various experiments. These experiments are not yet numerous but the tendency must be towards implementing innovative pilots at many levels within educational institutions. In particular, the most courageous experiments must produce research-based knowledge and experiences. For example, the future-laboratories built in educational settings are seen as concrete steps towards the future.

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Extending perspective from the present and near future to the long-term future Development work in education needs on-going and open-minded vision work. When drawing up scenarios of future education, the perspective must be on the long-term future (see, e.g. Jääskelä, Klemola, Kostiainen and Rautiainen, 2012; Wilenius and Kurki, 2012). By extending the future perspective far enough ahead, it is possible to disengage oneself from the present system where many solutions seem to be impossible and inconceivable. These far-reaching scenarios offer the possibility to explore the ‘empty’ phase between the current and the long-term future. In this liminal phase, professionals are in a position where they have to test the boundaries of their thinking: what can be imagined to be possible? Research-based teacher education has a key role in educating futureoriented professionals who are capable of making changes in Finnish society. The future of education also needs new ways of framing questions concerning education: What does the future school look or feel like? How are time and space perceived in the future school? What is the aim of future school? This also means a shift from a sense of security to risk taking, as well as a shift from the familiar to the unknown. Visionary and ground-shaking ideas and questions are needed when envisioning the future of education. Jääskelä et al., 2012

From conventional views of time and space to new ways of constructing time and space Time and space constitute the framework of learning in formal educational settings. Existing spaces do not sufficiently support future learning. We must dare to think about time and space in a new and creative way. ‘Space’ in educational settings should be seen as consisting of physical, intellectual, social and emotional features. Also offering empty space – both physically and intellectually – is important. Seeing the ‘void’ as a resource gives time and space for fascination and enthusiasm. Jääskelä et al., 2012

From non-participation to participation and involvement As mentioned previously, schools do not have a strong participatory culture (Rautiainen and Räihä, 2012). There is a need for education where the emphasis

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is on processes (explorative in nature) developing future schools as communities (Dewey, 1966). Processes themselves are seen as both the method and the object of learning. These processes include the construction of networks with actors and stakeholders from different fields of society. Future schools and educational institutions are seen as dynamic communities that offer democratic, participative and collaborative spaces for creativity and learning. Learners themselves should be the active actors in constructing the best learning environments – whether more physical or virtual in nature – and the consequent participative culture. New technology and architecture have a key role in the construction of these communities (Jääskelä et al., 2012).

From structured systems to open systems New learning environments supported by modern technology offer possibilities in complex problem solving and the construction of shared knowledge and understanding that can radically change the nature of learning (see e.g. Häkkinen and Hämäläinen, 2012). However, there is a considerable gap between students’ actual capacity and experience in using ICT in informal settings and its pedagogical use and application in schools. Although the infrastructure and provision of ICT equipment, as well as commitment to it at the level of school policies and strategies, is close to the average of other EU countries, at present educational institutions in Finland are more conformists than forerunners in relation to ICT (Häkkinen, Silander and Rautiainen, 2013; Survey of Schools: ICT in Education, 2013). In the long-term future, the welfare – both social and economic – of future societies will be an interwoven construction of various factors where, in particular, education and development of modern technology play a crucial role. It is envisioned that the interplay of technology and its uses is an essential issue in futures research and that the actual challenge lies in understanding its future societal uses (Wilenius and Kurki, 2012, p. 50).

References Dewey, J. (1966) Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press. Feldmann-Wojtachnia, E., Gretschel, A., Helmisaari, V., Kiilakoski, T., Matthies, A-L., Meinhold-Henschel, S., Roth, R., and Tasanko, P. (2010) Youth Participation in Finland and in Germany – Status Analysis and Data Based Recommendation: http:// www.nuorisotutkimusseura.fi/sites/default/files/verkkojulkaisut/Youth%20

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participation%20in%20Finland%20and%20in%20Germany.PDF [accessed 17 June 2013]. Hargreaves, A. (1994) Changing Teachers, Changing Times. Teachers’ Work and Culture in the Postmodern Age. New York: Teachers College Press. Hautamäki, A. (2010) ‘Sustainable innovation’, A New Age of Innovation and Finland’s Innovation Policy. Sitra Reports 87: http://www.kestavainnovaatio.fi/ sustainableinnovation_book.pdf [accessed 19 June 2013]. Häkkinen, P. and Hämäläinen, R. (2012) ‘Shared and personal learning spaces: Challenges for pedagogical design’, Internet and Higher Education, 15(4): 231–6. Häkkinen, P., Silander, T., and Rautiainen, M. (2013) ‘Kohti tulevaisuuden koulua ja uusia oppimisympäristöjä’ [‘Towards the Future School and New Learning Environments’], in P. Jääskelä, U. Klemola, M.-K. Lerkkanen, A.-M. Poikkeus, H. Rasku-Puttonen, and A. Eteläpelto (eds), Yhdessä parempaa pedagogiikkaa. Interaktiivisuus opetuksessa ja oppimisessa. [Better Pedagogy Together. Interactivity in Teaching and Learning]. University of Jyväskylä: Finnish Institute of Educational Research, pp. 139–43. Jääskelä, P., Klemola, U., Kostiainen, E., and Rautiainen, M. (2012) ‘Constructing the future school community – the scenario of an interactive, agency building and creative learning environment’, in Conference Proceedings Volume 1 (The Future of Education Florence, Italy 7–8 June 2012). Milano: Simonelli Editore, pp. 175–8. Klemelä, K. (1999) Ammattikunnista ammatillisiin oppilaitoksiin. Ammatillisen koulutuksen muotoutuminen Suomessa 1800-luvun alusta 1990-luvulle [From trades to Vocational Colleges. The Formation of Vocational Education in Finland from the Early 1800s to the 1990s]. Turku: Turun yliopisto. Kuikka, M. T. (1997) A History of Finnish Education [translated by Käännöstoimisto Valtasana oy]. Helsinki: Otava. Kärenlampi, P. (1999) Taistelu kouludemokratiasta. Kouludemokratian aalto Suomessa. [The Fight for School Democracy. The Wave of School Democracy in Finland]. Bibliotheca Historica 37. Helsinki: Suomen Historiallinen Seura [Finnish Historical Society]. Laine, E. M. and Laine, T. (2010) ‘Kirkollinen kansanopetus’ [‘Church popular teaching’], in J. Hanska and K. Vainio-Korhonen (eds), Huoneentaulun maailma [The World of the Rule Board]. Helsinki: SKS, pp. 258–306. Launonen, L. (2000) ‘Eettinen kasvatusajattelu suomalaisen koulun pedagogisissa teksteissä’ [‘Ethical educational thinking in pedagogical texts in the Finnish school’], Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research, p. 168. Ministry of Education and Culture (2013) http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/ koulutuspolitiikka/Hankkeet/Yliopistolaitoksen_uudistaminen/?lang=en [accessed 14 June 2013] and http://www.minedu.fi/OPM/Koulutus/ammatillinen_ koulutus/?lang=en [accessed 15 June 2013]. National Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2004 (2004) Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education: http://www.oph.fi/english/sources_of_information/core_ curricula_and_qualification_requirements/basic_education [accessed 12 June 2013].

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National Core Curriculum for Upper Secondary Schools 2003 (2003) Helsinki: Finnish National Board of Education: http://www.oph.fi/download/47678_core_curricula_ upper_secondary_education.pdf [accessed 10 June 2013]. Rautiainen, M. and Räihä, P. (2012) ‘Education for democracy: a paper promise? The democratic deficit in Finnish educational culture’, Journal of Social Science Education, 11(2): 7–23: http://www.jsse.org/2012/2012–2 [accessed 19 June 2013]. Rinne, R. and Kivirauma, J. (eds) (2003) Koulutuksellista alaluokkaa etsimässä. Matala koulutus yhteiskunnallisen aseman määrittäjänä Suomessa 1800- ja 1900-luvuilla [In Search of an Educational Underclass. Low-level Education as a Determiner of Social Status in Finland in the 19th and 20th Centuries]. Turku: Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura. Sahlberg, P. (1996) ‘Kuka auttaisi opettajaa. Postmoderni näkökulma opetuksen muutokseen yhden kehittämisprojektin valossa’ [‘Who would like to help the teacher. A postmodern view of the change in teaching in the light of one development project’], Jyväskylän yliopisto. Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research, p. 119. Sahlberg, P. (2011) Finnish Lessons. What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? New York: Teachers College Press. Simola, H. (1995) Paljon vartijat. Suomalainen kansanopettaja valtiollisessa kouludiskurssissa 1860-luvulta 1990-luvulle [Keepers of Plenty. The Finnish Primary School Teacher in the State School Discussion from the 1860s to the 1990s]. Helsinki: Helsingin yliopiston opettajankoulutuslaitos. Suoninen, A, Kupari, P, and Törmäkangas, K. (2010) Nuorten yhteiskunnalliset tiedot osallistuminen ja asenteet. Kansainvälisen ICCS-tutkimuksen esituloksia. [The social knowledge, participation and attitudes of young people. Preliminary results of the international ICCS study]. Jyväskylän yliopisto: Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. Suoranta, J. (2003) Kasvatus mediakulttuurissa. Mitä kasvattajien tulee tietää. [Education in media culture. What the educator should know]. Tampere: Vastapaino. Survey of Schools: ICT in Education 2013. Benchmarking Access, Use and Attitudes to Technology in Europe’s Schools. European Union. Final Study Report February 2013: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/sites/digital-agenda/files/KK–31–13–401-EN-N. pdf [accessed 19 June 2013]. Tolonen, T. (2001) Nuorten kulttuurit koulussa: ääni, tila ja sukupuolten arkiset järjestykset [Youth cultures in school: voice, space and everyday orders of the sexes]. Helsinki: Finnish Youth Research Society. Valtonen, H. and Rautiainen, M. (2012) ‘La educación finlandesa desde 1850 hasta el presente’, ISTOR Revista de Historia Internacional, 12(48): 129–60. Varto, J. (2005) ‘Koulun syytä etsimässä. Tiedon ja taidon erilaiset tehtävät kasvatuksessa’ [‘In search of a reason for school. The different roles of knowledge and skill in education’], in T. Kiilakoski, T. Tomperi and M. Vuorikoski (eds), Kenen kasvatus. Kriittinen pedagogiikka ja toisin kasvatuksen mahdollisuus. [Whose education. critical

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pedagogy and the possibility of a different education]. Tampere: Vastapaino, pp. 197– 216. Välijärvi, J., Kupari, P., Linnakylä, P., Reinikainen, P., Sulkunen S., Törnroos, J., and Arffman, I. (2007) The Finnish Success in Pisa – And Some Reasons behind It 2. Institution for Education Research, University of Jyväskylä: http://ktl.jyu.fi/img/ portal/8302/PISA_2003_screen.pdf [accessed 19 June 2013]. Wilenius, M. and Kurki, S. (2012), Surfing the Sixth Wave. Exploring the Next 40 years of Global Change. University of Turku. Finland Futures Research Centre, eBOOK 10/2012: http://www.utu.fi/fi/yksikot/ffrc/julkaisut/e-tutu/Documents/ eBook_2012–10.pdf [accessed 19 June 2013].

5

France: Meritocracy and Social Divides Marie-Pierre Moreau

Introduction The French system of education is characterized overall by a high level of centralization and, at post-compulsory level, by a shift to mass education that has taken place earlier than in many other European countries (Moreau, 2012). It is underpinned by well-known secular, republican, egalitarian and universalist values, which have been key to the construction of the project of the modern French state and of its education system (Siim, 2000; Sineau, 1992; Touraine, 1994). Also, it is worth remembering that the official motto of the French republic (Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité) adorns the façade of many state buildings, schools included. Yet this system is characterized by a high level of differentiation, through its subtle but powerful organization into a hierarchy of educational paths and institutions, as illustrated in higher education (HE) by the coexistence of mostly non-selective (at undergraduate level) universities with the more élite Grandes Ecoles. Access to particular segments of compulsory and post-compulsory education is also strongly constrained by students’ social class and gender, as highlighted by the wealth of sociological studies that have emerged since the 1960s (see, e.g. Baudelot and Establet, 1971; Duru-Bellat, 1990). This contribution focuses on formal education taking place in state-funded educational establishments. It starts by providing an overview, from the écoles maternelles to HE – the structures around which the French educational system is organized. It then turns to an exploration of some of the classed and gendered patterns of students’ participation in, and with specific reference to, HE. Following this, the chapter explores some of the discourses and values underpinning the French republican model of education, and some of the tensions deriving from the coexistence of a meritocratic and egalitarian ethos with persistent inequalities. 109

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An overview of the French education system As is the case in other European countries, the French education system is organized into three main phases: primary, secondary and higher education (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2013). Primary schooling includes the écoles maternelles and écoles élémentaires. The former represents a distinctive feature of the French education system. While schooling (in the form of attending an educational establishment or, alternatively, of home schooling) is only a legal requirement from the age of six, close to 100 per cent of three-year olds and a quarter of two-year olds attend the écoles maternelles (Hussenet, 2005). This high rate of schooling among these age groups can be explained by a range of factors, including a tradition of early education going back to the nineteenth century (Fagnani, 2001) and the fact that écoles maternelles are free. Research shows that French people are overwhelmingly in favour of an early years provision (in the form of childcare or écoles maternelles) and see it as mostly beneficial for the children (European Values Study, 2009). The existence of the écoles maternelles, combined with a relatively generous childcare provision compared with other European countries, contribute to relatively high levels of employment among French mothers, compared with their European counterparts (Aubin and Gisserot, 1994; Moreau, 2011a). However, the écoles maternelles have been the focus of many debates in recent times. Under the conservative presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012), they have been criticized for their (supposed) lack of positive effect on academic performance in later life and for their costs to the taxpayer (see, e.g. Dazay, 2008; Haut Conseil de l’Education, 2007). However, the left-wing government in office since 2012 has made clear that it has no intention of threatening the existence of the écoles maternelles and, on the contrary, has made it a priority to stop the decline of the proportion of two-year olds attending schools, particularly in the most socially deprived areas (Hollande, 2012a). The year they turn six, children move on to an école élémentaire, for a period of five years. With the écoles maternelles, this level of schooling has been identified as a key priority by the current government (see, e.g. Dulot et al., 2012; Hollande, 2012a). The low attainment of students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, the widespread practice of redoublement (repeating a year) and the intense rythmes scolaires (school times) are under scrutiny. The concentration of the school week into four days, and of the school year in a relatively small number of days in comparison of other European countries, have been described as hindering children’s learning and well-being (Dulot et al., 2012; Hollande, 2012a), with all municipalities due to adopt a four-and-a-half-day week model from

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September 2014. In the academic year that they turn 11 years of age,1 children move on to a collège (or lower secondary school), where they usually stay for a period of four years, before moving to a lycée (or upper secondary school), for three years.2 While all students are expected to sit the brevet diploma in their final year at collège, success in this exam does not guarantee access to the lycée. At primary and lower secondary school levels, education is, in theory, little differentiated, in line with the idea of the ‘collège unique’ (i.e. one school for all), promoted by the 1975 Haby Law (or réforme Haby). However, this rhetoric of sameness hides some differences between, and within, establishments (Felouzis and Perroton, 2007), with students from similar backgrounds tending to concentrate in the same segments of the education system. For example, in some collèges, students are grouped by levels of ability, leading to the concentration of students from similar backgrounds in the same form. It has also been argued that middle-class parents in particular, though not only them, tend to adopt a range of strategies to escape the constraints of the carte scolaire (catchment area mapping),3 when the local school is perceived as ‘not good enough’ (van Zanten, 2002). The publication of the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey has attracted some concern in policy and media circles (see, e.g. Beaumard, 2010), due to the relative decline of the French ranking. Findings from the PISA survey also show that the impact of socioeconomic background on performance is higher in France compared with the average for all Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (OECD, 2009), a result that sits uncomfortably with the egalitarian and meritocratic ethos underpinning the French education system. The formal differentiation of education provision increases at lycée level, as students must ‘choose’ between various baccalauréat types and specialisms. The proportion of a generation gaining a baccalauréat has steeply progressed, with 70 per cent of 18–19-year-olds gaining this degree in 2011, compared with only 29 per cent in 1985 – the year that the French Secretary of State for Education decreed that 80 per cent of each generation should reach this level of study. In 1985, more vocational versions of the baccalauréat général (namely the baccalauréat professionnel and the baccalauréat technologique) were created. Each type of baccalauréat also offers several specialisms to choose from. For example, in the lycée général, three main tracks (filières) coexist: littéraire (literary), scientifique (scientific), and économique et sociale (economic and social). Students from disadvantaged backgrounds disproportionately concentrate in the lycées professionnels and technologiques, which are associated with lower levels of prestige compared with the lycées généraux (Palheta, 2011).

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Yet it is maybe at HE level that the French system presents the highest level of differentiation, as well as the most distinctiveness compared with its European equivalents. In line with an egalitarian concept of education, access to universities is open to all baccalauréat holders, although they do pay a minimal fee. These non-selective universities (at undergraduate level) coexist with the more élite Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles (CPGE) and Grandes Ecoles, which also benefit from a higher level of funding and a lower students-to-faculty ratio. The CPGE, based in some of the most prestigious lycées, are selective at the point of entry and offer different specialisms, including: mathematics and sciences, humanities, and business and economics. For two years, students are subjected to an intense regime of study, at the end of which a few will enter the Grandes Ecoles, with the remaining often entering the university circuit. The Grandes Ecoles represent a heterogeneous ensemble. The most prestigious ones, such as the Ecole Normales Supérieures and the Ecole Polytechnique (also known as ‘X’), train the future political and intellectual élite. They coexist with a range of other schools, most of them with an engineering or business specialism, of variable prestige. In some of the state-funded Grandes Ecoles, students receive a stipend (as is the case in the Ecole Normales Supérieures), while some private ones (such as the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Paris, known as HEC) can command high fees. Universities and Grandes Ecoles also coexist with a large number of short vocational programmes, some of which are based in the lycées, such as the Sections de Techniciens Supérieurs (leading to the Brevet de Technicien Supérieur, created in 1959), some in universities, although they retain some distinctiveness compared with other university programmes (the Instituts Universitaires de Technologie, leading to the Diplôme Universitaire de Technologie, created in 1966). These vocational programmes are usually two years long and have been created with the development of a qualified, technical workforce in mind. They have played a key role in the expansion of French HE. Between 1960/1961 and 2009/2010, the number of students enrolled in universities (IUT not included) has multiplied sixfold, the CPGE population fourfold, and the Sections de Technicien Supérieur student population 30-fold. The population of other institutions with a vocational remit, such as paramedical schools, has also significantly increased (nine-fold) (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2010). Thus, while it expanded, the French system of HE also transformed and differentiated (Duru-Bellat, Kieffer and Reimer, 2011) and it became less and less the norm for a HE student to be studying at university. As for schools, the HE sector has experienced a number of reforms in the recent period. A major change has been brought about by the 1999 Bologna Act,

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which has led to a reduction in the number of levels of qualification and the adoption of a new structure, closer to the Anglo-Saxon model, known as LMD (Licence Master Doctorat). More recently, the 2007 Act on the rights and duties of universities (Loi relative aux libertés et responsabilités des universités, also known as Loi LRU) has enabled universities to increase their autonomy, both in financial terms and in terms of human resource management. The Act is part of a wider trend towards an increased differentiation of the university sector, the further concentration of funding in the hands of a small number of HE institutions, and a move towards funding research through competitive calls (a relatively new move in France compared with, for example, the US and the UK) (Paradeise et al., 2009). This reform has proved very controversial in a country where the education system has traditionally been highly centralized and where fairness is often equated with sameness (Moreau, 2011b). Many staff and students’ unions have opposed the Law, resulting in many protests and sit-ins taking place in the main cities and on university campuses.

Social divides and the French meritocratic ideal Using the example of HE, this section now turns to exploring the gendered and classed aspects of participating in HE in the French context. The transition to mass HE has brought up opportunities for groups with no history of participation in it, and access rates have risen for all socio-economic groups. However, whether this growth in participation has brought about democratization remains a much debated issue, although one that is not specific to this country (Shavit, Arum and Gamoran, 2007). Some have argued that a phenomenon of relative democratization has taken place (Thélot and Vallet, 2000). Others, however, have argued that such claims are flawed as they are based on studies focusing solely on the point of entry into HE. In particular, it has been shown that the most prestigious segments of the HE system (i.e. the higher levels of study and the most prestigious institutions) have not democratized and that, in some cases, their social selectivity has even increased over time (Albouy and Wanecq, 2003; Duru-Bellat et al., 2011; Euriat and Thélot, 1995; Jaoul, 2004). National statistical datasets also show that students from the most advantaged backgrounds are over-represented in HE. Those from the ‘Executives and intellectual professions’ category (Cadres et professions intellectuelles supérieures) represent 29.8 per cent of the French HE population, despite this group representing only 14.4 per cent of the workforce in 2004. At the other end of the

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spectrum, students from the ‘Manual workers’ category (Ouvriers) represent only 10.3 per cent of the HE population, although this group constitutes 24.8 per cent of the workforce (INSEE, 2004; Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2010). Socio-economic background does not only influence levels of participation; it also shapes what students participate in. As the level of study increases, the proportion of students from the more deprived backgrounds tends to decrease quicker than those of their more advantaged counterparts. Indeed, those in the ‘Manual workers’ category represent 11.6 per cent of those studying towards a Licence (Bachelor), but only 6.4 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively of those studying at Master’s and PhD levels (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2010). There are also some major socio-economic differences depending on which tracks students ‘choose’ in this tripartite system. The Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles and the Grandes Ecoles were ‘created to supply the country with scientific, economic, administrative or political elites with the goal to definitely put an end to the old regime social order where birth trumped merit’ (Draelants and Darchy-Koechlin, 2011, p.  17). Yet they have been criticized for precisely contributing to the reproduction of the political and cultural élite (Bourdieu, 1989). Indeed, 51.1 per cent of the population of the Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles and 56.9 per cent of the population of the Grandes Ecoles are from the ‘Freelance professionals and senior executives’ category. Only 6.3 per cent of the CPGE and 2.3 per cent of the Grandes Ecoles populations are from the Ouvriers category (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2010). In a country where entry to a Grande Ecole remains often thought of as solely based on a student’s intellectual abilities as measured through some highly-regulated testing procedures, these figures sit at odds with the dominant egalitarian and meritocratic ethos. More generally, as inequalities of access to these institutions are growing, the relationship between Grandes Ecoles’ graduates and the wider French society has become increasingly ambivalent (Draelants and DarchyKoechlin, 2011). Historically, in France and elsewhere, women have been excluded from education, particularly HE (Moreau and Mendick, 2011). It was only in 1880 that the French lycées de jeunes filles were created, and even then only a minority of young women had access to these institutions. In 1924, following the Léon Bérard Act, women were for the first time allowed to prepare the baccalauréat. In that light, the current levels of feminization of the HE student population (55.4 per cent in 2010 – Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2012) appear as a cause for celebration. Yet gender divides persist. As for students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, women’s levels of representation

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decrease quicker than men as the level of study increases. They also concentrate in those subjects that are looked upon as ‘feminine’ (e.g. literature and social sciences), which also happen to be those with the most uncertain returns on the labour market (Duru-Bellat et  al., 2011; Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2012). Crucially, women only represent a minority of Ph.D. students and of those enrolled in the Grandes Ecoles. For example, only 39 per cent of the Ecoles Normales Supérieures and 14 per cent of the Ecole Polytechnique student populations are women (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2008). The persistence of these educational inequalities has resulted in some policy intervention, which has mostly targeted socio-economic disadvantage. In the 1980s, the creation of the Zones d’Education Prioritaires (Educational Priority Zones, also known as ZEP) aimed to reduce inequalities in schools, although the outcomes of this programme are mitigated (Kherroubi and Rochex, 2002). This was slightly at odds with the republican ethos of the French state, in which, as explained earlier, sameness is equated with fairness. The ZEP programme drew upon a territorial approach (rather than targeting a specific group), meaning that some schools received more resources than others on the basis that they were based in deprived areas. More recently, some Grandes Ecoles and CPGE have established programmes of ‘positive discrimination’, sometimes developing separate paths of entry for students from deprived backgrounds and sometimes offering some specific provision/preparation for them (Allouch and van Zanten, 2010; Sabbagh and van Zanten, 2010). This attracted some controversy as it implicitly questioned the meritocratic nature of the competitive testing procedures leading to the Grandes Ecoles. This intervention, however, suggests a shift of paradigm and a move away from the ‘sameness equals fairness’ view that has been ingrained for so long in French society.

Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité . . . and social divides? As recalled in the introduction to this chapter, the French education system is underpinned by secular, republican, universalist and egalitarian values (Malet and Brisard, 2005; Osborn, 2009; Planel, 2009; Siim, 2000; Touraine, 1994), which have played a key role in the construction of the project of the French state and of its education system. The emergence of these values is often linked to the philosophy of Enlightenment and, more specifically, to the aspirations of its advocates towards a new, Republican society characterized by principles of rationality, progress, and tolerance, in stark contrast to the arbitrary power of the

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monarch that prevailed under the Ancien Régime. Yet this call for tolerance was never meant as a call for the acknowledgement of difference. Instead, it was based on the universalist premise that all human beings are equal in their natural state. As argued elsewhere, In the French republican universalist view of citizenship, individuals are given formal equal rights, with equal treatment as the favoured form of equality policies . . . This concern for equal treatment has been translated into interventionist policies which are usually highly centralized and homogenous, so as to guarantee the equal (same) treatment of citizens across the national territory. According to French values of equalitarism and universalism, it is fair to treat all individuals the same (Planel 2009) or morally unjustifiable to treat them differently (Osborn, 2009). Moreau, 2012, p. 170

Secular values are also embedded in this model. It is worth remembering that the separation of the Church and the state was finalized by the 1905 law on secularism, which sought to limit the influence of religious congregations. Prior to this, secularism was enacted by the 1881/1882 Jules Ferry Law, which established that education should be compulsory, free and secular. This concern for secularism has continued to this day and is encapsulated in the 1958 constitution, which states that ‘the organization of Free and secular State education at all levels is a duty of the State’ and that ‘France is an indivisible, secular, democratic and social Republic which ensures the equality in front of the law of all citizens, without distinguishing on the basis of their origin, race or religion’ (Constitution de 1958, art.  2). In the early 2000s, schoolgirls wearing the hijab in school have reignited this debate, leading to the establishment of a commission with specific duty to reflect on secularism (the Commission de réflexion sur l’application du principe de laïcité dans la République) (Stasi, 2003), which led to the 15 March 2004 Law banning the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in state primary and secondary schools. The principles described above are not given the same prominence in all spheres of society. They are strongly encapsulated in the education system, including in policy texts (Moreau, 2011b) and in teachers’ beliefs (Moreau, 2011a). This may be a little surprising if one considers the role allocated to education in society, i.e. forming citizens, meaning that, in France as in other countries, education often represents a magnifiying lens for understanding societal values. Despite the fact that French society has changed considerably

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since the 1789 Revolution, these values retain some relevance. Suffice here to remind the opening words of the recent Rapport de la concertation sur la refondation de l’École de la République: Each person agrees to acknowledge that the central place of the school, as a space for learning, as a factor of social integration, and as a tool of the republican promise: the promise of an equal access to knowledge – the sort of knowledge which instructs, educates, emancipates and allows us to be part of society. Dulot et al., 2012, p. 34

Similarly, on the night of his victory in the presidential elections, François Hollande, the newly-elected president, stated that : On the very day where French people have elected me President of the Republic, I ask to be judged on two major commitments: fairness and the youth. Each of my choices, each of my decisions will be based on these sole criteria: Is this fair? Is this really for the youth? And when, at the end of my term, I will look at what I have done for my country, I will only ask myself: Have my actions led to some progress in terms of equality? Did I allow the new generation to take their place within the Republic? Hollande, 2012b5

This model is also characterized by a positive view of state intervention. Indeed, In the republican vision of the good life, the state is the expression of society and the organizer of solidarity. Contrary to the liberal understanding, the rational state is portrayed as a neutral administrator of civil society and freedom is associated with the public, and political spheres. Siim 2000, p. 47

This state intervention vouches for the meritocratic nature of education, including in the case of the Grandes Ecoles as success to the national, competitive examinations are seen as an effective way to ensure that entry is solely based on merit, as discussed earlier. This view, of course, does not recognize that navigating the education system and educational performance are strongly tied to the financial, cultural and symbolic capitals available to individuals (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1964, 1970). While the expansion of education has brought new opportunities, social divides have also persisted. The continuing influence of social class and gender on students’ experiences suggests that the French education system is not as meritocratic as has sometimes been claimed.

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As well as the tension between a rhetoric of equality and the persistence of social divides, the French republican model of education has been criticized for its silences. Historically, sociologists and policy-makers alike have focused on socio-economic disadvantage (Baudelot and Establet, 1971; Bourdieu and Passeron, 1964, 1970). In comparison, ‘other differences’ have been hidden because they have been constructed as private and because their acknowledgement was perceived as contradictory to the universalist and secular ideals of the French Republic. While, progressively, gender inequalities have become a legitimate concern for some sociologists of education and policy-makers (Baudelot and Establet, 1992, 2007; Duru-Bellat, 1990; Mosconi, 1998; Zaidman, 1996), though not all by any means, religious beliefs and ethnicity continue to be constructed as very private matters. As a result, and despite evidence that racism is a persistent issue in French society (Silverman and Yuval-Davis, 1999), French statistics do not distinguish between ethnic groups as concepts of ethnicity and ‘race’ have been described as opposed to republican principles and, sometimes, as possibly racist . . . very little is known about the participation of black and minority ethnic groups in HE . . . The collection of statistical data on ethnic background is only allowed under very strict conditions. Moreau, 2012, p. 223

Yet, while ethnicity is not overtly discussed and there is not a policy that specifically targets students from minority ethnic groups, it has been a ‘secret de polichinelle’6 (Calvès, 2010) for some time that the French territorial approach to inequalities has been implicitly a way to target these groups as well as others at a disadvantage in society, since these programmes are usually enacted on territories in which they concentrate (Sabbagh and van Zanten, 2010). The scarcity of data on ethnicity, in contrast with other countries where it is routinely collected as part of the national census (e.g. in the US or the UK), reflects a universalist ethos that erases social divides, yet associates this universal citizen with maleness, whiteness and heterosexuality (Delphy, 2010). This leads to social inertia as the very existence of the issues faced by students from minority ethnic and religious groups is silenced. Attempts to acknowledge differences, particularly ethnic differences, are usually greeted with claims of ‘communautarism’. In other terms, it is feared that communities will develop in isolation and hatred of each other rather than try to ‘integrate’ and that, ultimately, the ‘cement of the nation’ (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2006, p. 3) will crumble. Finally, limited attention in policy and academic texts has been given to

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the ‘intersectionality’ (Crenshaw, 1989) of social class, gender and other identity markers, however, with a few exceptions (Dorlin, 2009). As a consequence, it is difficult to know precisely which groups have benefited from the opportunities brought up by the expansion of education during the twentieth century.

Conclusion In line with the focus of this volume, this chapter takes a broad perspective on the French education system. Despite some elements of convergence with other European countries, France retains some distinctiveness in this area. This is reflected in the structural organization of education, as well as in the principles that underpin it. It is undeniable that, during the twentieth century, the expansion of educational provision has brought up opportunities for students from groups with no history of HE. Women in particular now represent the majority of the HE population and participation rates have increased for all socio-economic groups. Yet this chapter also ponders upon the persistence of classed and gendered patterns of participation. The existing data show that students from disadvantaged backgrounds and women concentrate in the less prestigious segments of the education system, both at secondary and tertiary levels. This, in turn, challenges a meritocratic and egalitarian construction of education, as students’ educational futures remain strongly dependent on social class and gender. Yet the tensions between the republican rhetoric and students’ experiences have led to some questioning of the system and to some shift in the dominant paradigm underpinning the way policy intervention, both in schools, with, for example, the ZEP programmes, and in HE, as exemplified by some CPGE and Grandes Ecoles social outreach programmes.

Notes 1 Unless the student has skipped or repeated a year, with the latter a common occurrence in France. 2 Again, this is based on the assumption that a student has not skipped or repeated a year. 3 Created in 1963 by the then Secretary of State for Education, Christian Fouchet, the carte scolaire allocates students to a school, based on where they live.

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4 Chacun s’accorde à reconnaître la place centrale de l’École comme lieu d’acquisitions et d’apprentissages, comme facteur d’intégration sociale, comme instrument de la promesse républicaine : celle d’un égal accès au savoir, un savoir qui instruit, éduque, émancipe et permet l’insertion dans la société. 5 Aujourd’hui même oùles Français m’ont investi président de la République, je demande à être jugé sur deux engagements majeurs: la justice et la jeunesse. Chacun de mes choix, chacune de mes décisions se fondera sur ces seuls critères: Est-ce juste? Est-ce vraiment pour la jeunesse? Et quand, au terme de mon mandat, je regarderai à mon tour ce que j’aurai fait pour mon pays, je ne me poserai que ces seules questions: est-ce que j’ai fait avancer la cause de l’égalité? Est-ce que j’ai permis à la nouvelle génération de prendre toute sa place au sein de la République? 6 Literally, an ‘open secret’.

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6

Germany: Stability and Change Lukas Graf

Introduction1 While the traditional typologies that contrast the German educational system with, for example, those of the French or the English have served as useful heuristic devices, they require revision to adequately represent contemporary changes in Germany resulting from endogenous reforms and exogenous pressures caused by Europeanization. Germany has traditionally provided a large proportion of its workforces with qualifications obtained in the dual vocational training system, a sector that is institutionally divided from general academic education and higher education. However, due to the growing demand for abstract and codified knowledge but, given recent European reforms demanding greater educational mobility and lifelong learning, it has become a key goal of German policy makers to increase permeability between the different sectors of the educational system. For this purpose, Germany is increasingly relying on hybridization at the nexus of vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE). One key instance of hybrid organizational forms is the rapidly growing dual study programmes, which systematically combine elements from vocational training and HE. While the case of Germany shows that educational systems are responding to Europeanization, it has thus far not departed from its specific developmental path, questioning popular notions of European convergence. The implementation of European educational guidelines remains significantly influenced by the specific mode of coordination in the German educational system and the national model of capitalism more generally. In this context this chapter shows that the German educational model continues to rely strongly on strategic interactions – rather than market coordination – between the various involved actors. In the course of the current European economic crisis, and due to the relatively low levels of youth unemployment in Germany, many foreign observers of the German system pay most attention to the traditional German system of 125

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dual apprenticeship training. However, this chapter will show that the traditional model of vocational training in Germany is under strain. For example, one urgent challenge for German policy makers is the search for balance between vocational training and academic education at secondary and post-secondary levels. As the corresponding developments at the nexus of vocational training and academic education to some extent mirror the character of the German educational system as a whole, they receive special attention in this chapter. Furthermore, the chapter places emphasis on the national system’s development in today’s era of Europeanization, focusing especially on the substantial impact of the Bologna Process for HE and the Copenhagen Processes for VET.2 More generally, this chapter focuses on upper and post-secondary education, not least because the argument can be made that the German educational system is most distinct from other European countries at precisely these two levels. The chapter offers a general description of the German educational system, covering the structures, contents, and governance of pre-secondary education, secondary and vocational education, and higher education. The main goal of the three subsequent sections is both to decipher the traditional German model of education and to examine whether, or to what extent, it has changed in recent times. The first of these sections specifies key characteristics of the German educational model through comparison with the most similar and most different national models within Europe. The second one focuses on three central developments in the German educational model and discusses how these signify either a transformation of the model or rather its creative maintenance. Here, the key topics are the rise and persistence of the pre-vocational training system, the hybridization of vocational training and higher education in the form of dual study programmes, and the rapid Bolognazation of the German HE system. The next section further characterizes the traditional German model of education in contrasting it with the emergent European model of education along three key dimensions: vocational principle versus employability, learning inputs versus learning outcomes, and collective skill formation versus liberal market arrangement. Finally, the chapter provides a short summary and an outlook.

General overview on the German educational system Pre- and lower secondary level education In Germany, schooling is highly stratified, and children continue to be streamed very early, after four or six years of primary schooling, among a variety of school

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types. Lower secondary education exhibits a status hierarchy extending from academic secondary schools (Gymnasien) at the top to special needs schools (Förderschulen) at the low end (Table 6.1). Academic secondary schooling at lower secondary level prepares for the gymnasial sixth form (gymniasale Oberstufe), which in turn provides access to HE. The intermediate secondary school (Realschule) is usually completed with the intermediate secondary school-leaving certificate (Realschulabschluss / Mittlere Reife) after ten years of schooling. The general secondary school (Hauptschule) leads to the minimal school-leaving certificate (Hauptschulabschluss) that is obtained after nine or ten years of schooling. While the general secondary school used to be a major pathway to access quality VET programmes, this role has increasingly shifted to the intermediate secondary school. As a consequence, in several federal states (Länder) the general secondary school has been merged with the intermediate secondary school to avoid its further stigmatization (e.g. Baum, 2011). Furthermore, there are integrated comprehensive schools (Gesamtschulen) in which differentiation is brought to the level of each school, as for each subject students are allocated to courses that correspond to their individual performance in that field of study (see, e.g. Oelkers, 2006). Finally, special needs schools (Förderschulen) represent a highly differentiated field and are intended to address the individual demands of students with specific disabilities (see Powell, 2011 for a critical discussion). However, several federal states are shifting to integrative or inclusive education, thus reducing the number of separated special needs schools (see, e.g. Blanck et  al., 2013). More generally, it can be noted that Germany exhibits a great diversity of organizational forms within the spectrum of main organizational forms outlined above, which is in particular due to the scope for autonomous educational policy given to each of the sixteen German federal states.

Table 6.1 Stylized description of current ‘status hierarchy’ of major organizational forms in the German educational system at lower secondary level Status

Organizational form

Higher-end Medium

Academic secondary school (Gymnasium) Integrated comprehensive school (Gesamtschule); Intermediate secondary school (Realschule) General secondary school (Haupschule); Special needs school (Förderschule)

Lower-end

Source: LG, inspired by Graf et al. (2012, p. 153)

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Upper secondary level education Table 6.2 shows the number of students enrolled in the different types of school at upper-secondary level (ISCED 3). This is merely a rough indicator of the size of the respective sectors due to the variety and complexity of organizational forms at upper-secondary level in Germany, for example, in the category of full-time vocational schools. The two general summaries that can be drawn from Table  6.2 are that a large proportion of young people in Germany are enrolled in VET and that dual apprenticeship training (indicated by the number of people enrolled in part-time vocational schools) is a significant factor at the upper-secondary level. Dual apprenticeship training combines training in a firm with classroom teaching in part-time vocational schools and leads to a recognized certificate according to the Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz, BBiG) or the Crafts Code (Handwerksordnung) (see, e.g. Baethge, 2008, p.  543). Within the sector of full-time school-based VET, there are the following three major categories of school programmes:

1. One-year pre-vocational programmes that are intended to prepare students for dual apprenticeship training (e.g. Berufsvorbereitungsjahr and Berufsgrundbildungsjahr). 2. Schools that mainly provide a general education and lead to certificates that grant either general or limited access (in terms of subject areas) to one or more organizational forms in the HE sector (berufliche Schulen mit vorrangig allgemeinbildendem Charakter). Examples are the vocationallyoriented secondary school (Fachoberschule) and the specialized academic upper-secondary school (berufliches Gymnasium). 3. Schools leading to certificates that fully qualify individuals to enter a specific occupation, for instance the full-time vocational schools (Berufsfachschulen) and the schools in the health-care sector (Schulen des Gesundheitswesens) (see, e.g. Steinmann, 2000, pp. 64–70; Baethge et al., 2007). The latter form, 3, does not stand in direct competition with dual apprenticeship training as it mostly focuses on different types of occupations (e.g. Steinmann, 2000, p. 71). In comparison to VET, the structure of academic education at upper-secondary level is less complex as it is mainly offered by the academic secondary schools (Gymnasium) that end after 12 or 13 years (depending on the federal state) and lead to a general HE entrance certificate (Abitur) (see KMK, 2012).

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Table 6.2 Students at upper-secondary level (ISCED 3), Germany, 2010

Total General schools (allgemeinbildend) Vocational schools (beruflich) Of which: Full-time vocational schools Part-time vocational schools

Absolute

%

3,780,320 1,092,300 2,688,020

100 29 71

934,050 1,753,970

Source: KMK (2011b, p. x); translation and calculation of percentage values by LG.

Post-secondary level education In the higher VET sector, trade and technical schools and Meister (Master craftsman) schools offer further vocational training targeted at the holders of initial VET (IVET) qualifications who are seeking to become technicians or Meister (either on full-time or part-time courses) (see CEDEFOP, 2011, pp. 69–70). Higher education consists mainly of public universities and a few private graduate or professional schools. In 2011/2012, 409 HE institutions enrolled 2.38 million students (DESTATIS, 2012a; 2012b). The German HE system is dominated by universities and universities of applied sciences (see Table 6.3) and, hence, this short description focuses on these two organizational types. The universities provide academic education at post-secondary level, the traditional Humboldtian Leitidee (rationale) of the German universities being autonomous science and the unity of teaching and research (see, e.g. Mayer, 2008; Powell et  al., 2012a).3 Compared to universities of applied sciences, teaching at universities is typically more theory-oriented and research more oriented to basic/fundamental research (Grundlagenforschung). Research universities offer a full array of academic subjects, attach importance to basic research, and award doctorates and the post-doctoral lecturing qualification (Habilitation). Universities of applied sciences were introduced in the late 1960s/ early 1970s as a new organizational form at HE level that focuses on more practical studies in fields such as economics, engineering, social work and health. Usually, professors at universities of applied sciences must have both academic qualifications and professional experience.

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Table 6.3 Higher education institutes and student enrolment in Germany, 2011/2012 Types of HE institute

No. of institutes

Students absolute

Students (%)

Universities Universities of applied sciences Academies of art Public administration colleges Teacher training colleges Theological colleges Total

104 203

1,542,226 744,150

64.9 31.3

51 29

33,340 31,654

1.4 1.3

6 16 409

23,221 2,443 2,377,034

1.0 0.1 100

Source: Data retrieved from DESTATIS (2012a; 2012b); sorted by number of students enrolled; translation and calculation of percentage values by LG.

Governance and key stakeholders The modes of governance for VET and academic/HE sectors differ: initial vocational training in enterprises is regulated by a number of federal laws, while the legal basis for in-school vocational training is provided by Länder (federal state) legislation (CEDEFOP, 2011, p. 38). Close cooperation between employers, trades unions and the state is one of the central tenets of the German VET system (e.g. Baethge, 2008). At the federal level, the ministry responsible for education and research is the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), which is subordinate to the BMBF, plays an important role in developing profiles for VET programmes in cooperation with the social partners (see BIBB, 2012b). The trade unions are engaged in the collective bargaining process and in several functions in the governance of the dual apprenticeship training system (see, e.g. Baron, 2007, pp. 16–22 for details). On the employers’ side, there are three types of relevant interest organizations. One of the major tasks of the employers’ associations (Arbeitgeberverbände) is representing employers’ interests during the process of collective bargaining. The trade associations (Wirtschaftsverbände) are specialized in lobbying for business interests within the political system. The chambers of industry and commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammern, IHK) are responsible for a number of tasks of economic self-governance, such as the testing system for apprentices. While membership of the employers’ associations and the trade associations is voluntary, membership of the chambers is

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compulsory (except for handicraft and agricultural enterprises) (Andersen and Woyke, 2003). The academic secondary schools (Gymnasien) and the HE institutes are regulated by the sixteen Länder (KMK, 2011a). The German federal states also carry the responsibility to finance them (Kehm, 2006, p.  730). This relatively secure funding has led to the perception of HE as a public good. In the traditional Humboldtian model, institutional autonomy exists only in regard to teaching and research, which restricts entrepreneurial activity (Coate et al., 2005, p. 233). At the same time, the influence of the state is sanctioned by intermediary actors, whereby these cooperative and coordinating bodies (next to universities) are the most active actors of HE internationalization (Hahn, 2004, p. 82). They include the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (KMK), the Joint Science Conference of the Federal and Länder Governments (GWK), the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), or the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Broadly speaking, the interaction between German universities tends to be collaborative, largely due to the coordination and conflict-solving function of such national intermediary actors (see Kehm and Lanzendorf, 2006, p.  142). Furthermore, the competition of students for places at universities and competition between universities for students are far less pronounced than, for example, in countries like the UK or the US (see Nullmeier, 2000, p. 216). It can be concluded that the mode of governance in the German educational system – both in VET and in HE – is based on strategic coordination and, thus, complementary to the mode of governance in the German coordinated market economy more generally.4 That is, the German educational system stands in a complementary relationship to other subsystems of the German coordinated market economy such as the labour market, industrial relations, or the national innovation system (see Graf, 2009). After this general overview, the next section broadens the perspective to reveal essential characteristics of the German education system through a comparison with most similar and most different national models within Europe.

The German educational model in comparative perspective In Germany, ideal-typically: HE stands for appropriate education for academic activities; and VET for well-developed, comprehensive vocational competence (Beruflichkeit). Both of these strands within the educational system are offered to distinct groups depending on prior primary-level school performance and

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secondary-level educational attainment (Powell and Solga, 2011; Powell et al., 2012a). In international comparison, the Austrian and the Swiss educational systems can be considered as most similar to the German one (see also Rothe, 2001; Trampusch and Busemeyer, 2011; Ebner et al., 2013). For example, the three countries share crucial characteristics when it comes to transitions within the education system as well as from there into the labour market. In all three countries, students are sorted into a multi-tiered secondary school system at a very early age, where the respective tiers strongly condition later transitions into either VET or HE and, with that, into labour markets (see, e.g. Allmendinger, 1989; Shavit and Müller, 2000). Moreover, the three countries are relatively similar with regard to the institutional linkages between VET, HE and the national labour market. For example, the vocational principle (Berufsprinzip) has played a pivotal role as a central ideal shaping the institutional arrangements at the education–economy nexus (e.g. Kraus, 2007; Deißinger, 1994). All three countries are known for their extensive systems of vocational education and training. Especially at upper-secondary level, the proportion of students in vocational programmes – compared to general education programmes – is high relative to most other countries in Europe. To illustrate this point, Table  6.4 shows the distribution of upper-secondary students by programme type (general versus vocational) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and – to provide a comparison – the equivalent distribution in the UK as an ideal type for the liberal market model of vocational training.5 A variety of general typologies describe national VET systems (see, e.g. Greinert, 1999) as well as national HE systems (see, e.g. Clark, 1983; Teichler, 1990).6 In these typologies, Germany, Austria and Switzerland usually fall under the same category. Thus, taking the example of VET and referring to the typology by Greinert (1999), all three represent dual-corporatist models due to their historically evolved dual apprenticeship training systems.7 In addition, Austria, Germany and Switzerland are all classified as collective skill systems (Busemeyer

Table 6.4 Distribution of upper-secondary students (ISCED 3) by programme type (general or vocational) in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK, 2009

General Vocational

Germany

Austria

Switzerland

UK

46.8 53.2

22.7 77.3

34.5 65.5

69.5 30.5

Source: Eurydice (2012, p. 74), based on Eurostat data extracted in July 2011.

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and Trampusch, 2012). That is, their (dual) VET systems ‘are collectively organized, because firms, intermediary associations and the state cooperate in the process of skill formation in initial vocational training’ (Busemeyer and Trampusch, 2012, p. 4, emphasis in original; see also Thelen, 2006, p. 136 on collectivist skill formation). In European comparison, the two countries that come closest to Germany, Austria and Switzerland in terms of their (dual) VET systems are Denmark and the Netherlands. However, upon closer inspection, the Danish and Dutch cases differ in notable ways from the three former countries. For example, the Danish VET system is, among other things, characterized by a training levy, a form of school-based training tailored to specific vocations that is to be completed prior to apprenticeship training (see, e.g. Ebner, 2009, p. 6),8 as well as by more flexible certification and accreditation procedures (see, e.g. Nelson, 2012, p. 179). In the Netherlands, public institutions and the state play a very strong role in the VET system, for instance in the governance of the so-called regional training centres as well as school-based VET more generally (see, e.g. Andersen and Nijhuis, 2012). Thus, both the Danish and the Dutch cases present a more blurred picture when compared to the dual apprenticeship training systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In Anglophone countries, VET tends to play a different role and – especially at upper-secondary level – usually does not enjoy the kind of reputation it does in Germany, Austria or Switzerland.9 Furthermore, work-based learning in countries like Australia or the UK is usually organized at a more individual level (e.g. through individual learning plans) (Boud and Solomon, 2001) than is the case in the nationally standardized VET systems in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. While this international comparison has been helpful to derive a general picture of the German educational model, even within the group of relatively similar systems (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) there occurs significant variation (Graf, 2013; also Trampusch and Busemeyer, 2011). Therefore, the following section shifts the focus to evolutionary aspects that are more specific to the German context.

Key developments in the contemporary German educational model To examine institutional stability and change in a rapidly changing environment, this section presents three major developments in the German educational

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model that are hotly debated among students, educators and policy makers. First, the rise and persistence of the pre-vocational training system is discussed as a questionable way of dealing with the problem of transitions in the educational system – and as an aspect of the German VET system that remains largely unnoticed by the increasing number of foreign policy makers who would like to transfer parts of the dual training principle to their home countries. Second, a growing trend in the German educational system is presented, namely the expansion of dual study programmes as a hybrid organizational form located at the nexus of VET and HE. The complex set-up of dual study programmes is examined at greater length, as it spans the boundary between VET and HE and, thus, can shed light on several key characteristics of the German educational system (e.g. the German educational schism). Third, the rapid country-specific implementation of the Bologna process in Germany is sketched to prepare the more general discussion of the impact of Europeanization on the German educational model in the final section.

The rise and persistence of the pre-vocational training system In Germany, VET plays a far more significant role in preparing young adults for the labour market than in most European countries where general academic education is prime. The attraction of its VET system for other countries is the provision of highly-skilled workers, smooth transitions from school-to-work, and some insurance against the high youth unemployment rates that plague many other European countries (e.g. Verdier, 2008). Yet the dual system is no longer as successful in providing attractive training opportunities to the majority of a cohort leaving secondary schooling, in matching youth with firms offering stable career perspectives, or in providing youth from lower social backgrounds or from ethnic minority groups with work and social mobility.10 Less-educated youth, in particular, are in danger of not successfully garnering a place in the dual system and are likely to remain at the margins of the labour market (Solga, 2008). Indeed, the intermediate secondary school-leaving certificate (Realschulabschluss / Mittlere Reife) has become the standard to access vocational training opportunities and therefore skilled jobs (Solga, 2005). In contrast, a great proportion of the students leaving general secondary schools (Hauptschulen) find no training opportunity and instead participate in the pre-vocational training system. This differentiated system provides a number of – typically oneyear – programmes intended to prepare students for entry into the VET system

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proper, but in which they are unlikely to acquire credits towards official qualifications. Today, between a quarter and a third of the young people entering VET do not enter regular vocational training and find themselves shunted into a range of state-funded, mainly school-based training pre-vocational programmes (Autorengruppe Bildungsberichterstattung, 2012, pp.  102–5). While these measures aim to enhance youth’s work aptitudes, occupational orientations, or vocational preparation, this takes place outside the regular training system, often solely school-based and without the element of work experience in firms that is still expected by most employers (Baethge et  al., 2007; Powell et  al., 2012b). Several of the various programmes in this ‘transition system’ had already been created in the 1970s, yet it was in the early 1990s when their expansion greatly accelerated (Beicht, 2009). The tremendous costs of pre-vocational training – both in terms of public spending and reduced educational opportunities – indicate how highly institutionalized the idea of apprenticeships and the dual system is in Germany. Despite its obvious disadvantages, the pre-vocational system is maintained in an attempt to ensure the stability and smooth running of the traditional dual apprenticeship system (see also Thelen and Busemeyer, 2012). In this sense, incremental change in one part of the educational system (the development of pre-vocational programmes) serves to shield the need for substantial reform in another part (the traditional dual apprenticeship training or full-time school-based VET). The next subsection provides another instance of this (the evolution of dual study programmes), which is again linked to the increasingly prevalent question of transitions and permeability between the different sectors of the educational system – in this case between VET and HE.

The hybridization of vocational training and higher education As was mentioned before, Germany is a coordinated market economy, part of the collective skill system cluster, and renowned for its extensive dual apprenticeship training systems at upper-secondary level. However, it is also characterized by an institutional divide between the VET system and the academic or HE system (Baethge, 2006), and, hence, can also be referred to as a differentiated skill regime (Busemeyer, 2009, p.  394). Whereas HE has as dominant goals the development of personality, self-control and autonomy, that of VET is to develop individual vocational competence and agency to carry out specific tasks. The orientation when defining learning goals and elaborating

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curricula is less a scientific approach guided by a canon of representative knowledge for academic education than a perspective towards the labour market and its demand for qualified workers. Whereas, in VET, individuals are quasiemployees, in general academic education they are pupils or students (Baethge, 2006; Powell et al., 2012b). This institutional division between VET and HE, called the ‘educational schism’ (Baethge, 2006), has become increasingly contested due to a complex set of interrelated socio-economic factors resulting in an increasing demand for higher skills (e.g. Ebner et  al., 2013). These challenges include the structural development towards the service and knowledge economy and more abstract and codified knowledge, related changes in the production model and work places, as well as rising educational aspirations of individuals (e.g. Mayer and Solga, 2008; Powell and Solga, 2010). In addition, recent European reforms, like the Bologna and the Copenhagen Processes, push for lifelong learning and greater mobility between VET and HE, among other things, to reduce social inequalities linked to educational opportunities (Powell et al., 2012a). In order to deal with this challenge, Germany is increasingly relying on hybridization – a specific combination of institutional elements from the two organizational fields of VET and HE – to introduce gradual institutional reform within its long-established skill formation systems. This process of hybridization has led to the distinct organizational form of dual study programmes that straddle the boundary between VET and HE but also straddle the conventional divide between upper-secondary and post-secondary education – with specific implications for social inequality (Graf, 2013). The dual study programmes combine in-firm training with HE studies leading to a Bachelor degree and in some cases additionally to an official upper-secondary VET certificate. Dual study programmes combine at least two learning environments (academic as well as firm-based), and in about a third of the dual study programmes the vocational school is integrated as a third location (Waldhausen and Werner, 2005). In dual study programmes, students and firms are usually bound by a training, part-time, practical training (voluntariats-), or internship contract (BIBB, 2012a). Dual studies usually lead to a Bachelor degree in about 3–4 years (dual studies at Master level are still very rare) and ideally connect two didactical principles, namely practical training and scientific orientation (Deißinger, 2000, p.  614 on vocational academies; Becker, 2006, p.  1 on dual studies in general). For example, the teaching staff is usually composed of trainers from industry, vocational school teachers and lecturers from universities and universities of applied sciences.

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The field of dual study programmes is characterized by considerable heterogeneity of organizational forms. There are three major types of dual study programmes (the following typology follows Kupfer and Mucke, 2010):

1. Dual study programmes integrating an initial VET certificate (ausbildungsintegrierende duale Studiengänge) are typically designed for people holding a university or university of applied sciences entrance certificate but without VET training or vocational experience. Students acquire a Bachelor degree (post-secondary level) as well as an official VET certificate registered by the Chamber of Commerce/Chamber of Crafts or the certificates granted by full-time vocational schools (upper-secondary level).11 2. Dual study programmes integrating work practice (praxisintegrierende duale Studiengänge) are mainly targeted at people holding a university or university of applied sciences entrance certificate, too. However, in the praxisintegrierende programmes the students ‘merely’ acquire a Bachelor degree (i.e. no official VET certificate). Yet, the phases of work experience still extend far beyond the obligatory internships in standard HE programmes. Also, in comparison to standard programmes at German universities of applied sciences, in praxisintegrierende dual study programmes more attention is paid to adjust the curricular to the in-firm phases within the respective courses of study. 3. Dual study programmes integrating an occupation (berufsintegrierende duale Studiengänge) are best suited for people who have completed initial VET training and have also acquired a university, or university of applied sciences, entrance certificate. An already existing part-time work contract is a precondition for this type of dual studies. In berufsintegrierende dual study programmes the curriculum is supposed to refer to the respective in-firm experiences, but the degree of integration between in-firm learning and HE learning is much lower than in the other two cases. At present, there are few scientific studies of dual study programmes (see also Minks et  al., 2011, p.  111). At the national level, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) – which otherwise is not in charge of monitoring HE programmes – has started to map the occurrence of dual study programmes. The Confederation of German Employers’ Associations speaks of more than 900 dual study programmes (and an increase in the number of programmes by 70 per cent between 2005 and 2011) (BDA, 2011, p.  7). The majority of dual study programmes are offered by universities of applied sciences

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(59 per cent), the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (21 per cent), vocational academies (15 per cent) and universities (3 per cent), followed by other HE institutes (1 per cent) (BIBB, 2012a, p. 25). In total, around 27,900 cooperation links exist between firms and different educational providers within the dual studies framework (Kupfer and Stertz, 2011, p. 29). In April 2012, 64,093 students in ausbildungsintegrierende and praxisintegrierende dual study programmes were registered in the database AusbildungPlus.de (BIBB, 2012a, p.  25). This number increased by 7.5 per cent within one year between April 2011 and April 2012 (BIBB, 2012a, p. 25). However, the real number of students in dual study programmes is likely to be far higher as the providers of dual study programmes report student numbers on a voluntary basis (BIBB, 2012a, p. 25). Clearly, dual studies are a segment that is rapidly growing and attracting increasing attention by all major stakeholders. They are offered most commonly in ‘engineering sciences’, ‘law, economics, and business sciences’ and ‘math and natural sciences’. Dual study programmes tend to be established ‘bottom-up’ through regional initiatives by firms and, for example, local universities of applied sciences. Between these actors, a mutual interest prevails, which facilitates the timeefficient set-up of such programmes (see Mucke and Schwiedrzik, 2000). The rise of the dual study programmes can be seen to support the argument that the dual principle has ‘extended’ and moved up to the HE sector (Drexel, 1993; Deißinger, 2000, p. 615; Sorge, 2007, p. 240). However, it is also important to take into account the important role that employee organizations and trade unions traditionally play within the system of dual apprenticeship training but do not play with regard to dual study programmes (Graf, 2013). The profile of a dual study programme is largely determined by internal negotiations and a cooperation agreement between the training firm and the organizational provider (Mucke and Schwiedrzik, 2000, p. 15; Becker, 2006). This implies that there is a significant degree of flexibility in the specific forms of coordination between firms and educational organizations (e.g. loose or tight) (e.g. Reischl, 2008). Only in the case of the ausbildungsintegrierende programmes (i.e. those dual study programmes that grant a Bachelor degree and an official VET certificate) is the involvement of the chambers formally required. In the relationship between the firm and the educational organization, formally it is the latter that has the final say and can set the standards for the participating firms (e.g. Akkreditierungsrat, 2010). The firms nevertheless have significant influence in the set-up of dual study programmes, for instance, as they can choose between different educational providers (Becker, 2006, p. 36).

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Moreover, the employer associations often support dual study programmes through policy statements or through their actual engagement in a specific dual study programme (e.g. BDA, 2011). However, there is no federal standard with regard to the salaries of those enrolled in dual study programmes. Only in the case of the ausbildungsintegrierende dual study programmes is it decreed that the student should receive at least the same payment that a traditional apprentice at upper-secondary level would receive. The actual payment for students in dual study programmes is sometimes higher, depending on specific local regulations or sometimes even on individual negotiations between the student and the firm (Graf, 2013). It should also be noted that the educational organizations that offer dual study programmes are subject to the differing laws and accreditation processes in the sixteen Länder (see, e.g. Akkreditierungsrat, 2010), which leads to further differentiation. The historical development of the dual study programmes represents a form of institutional layering through historical contingency (Graf, 2013; see also Streeck and Thelen, 2005 on the concept of layering). As Kahlert (2006) notes, the vocational academies (which were the first educational organizations providing dual study programmes) were not mentioned in any general education policy plan; their genesis rather happened as a side effect of the politically planned creation of the universities of applied sciences. In the beginning, the vocational academies were not taken seriously by most of the established actors in the fields of VET and HE; rather, they were seen as a thought experiment. In fact, the emergence of the dual study programmes from the late 1960s onwards was largely a ‘subversive response’ by large industrial firms to the perceived academic drift related to the politically determined upgrading of former vocational and engineering schools into universities of applied sciences. That is, influential large firms in Baden-Wuerttemberg launched them precisely to secure their hold on high-end vocational education and training, which they feared they would lose in the face of the greater academic autonomy of the new universities of applied sciences (Kahlert, 2006). In this sense, the first dual study programmes were created from the bottom-up through layering by local stakeholders who found a niche in the grey zone between the fields of HE and VET (see also Graf, 2012). However, these stakeholders sought to entirely displace neither the newly established universities of applied sciences nor the dual apprenticeship programmes, but aimed to establish a new organizational form as an institutional layer at the fringes of these two established forms (Graf, 2013). In a nutshell, dual study programmes combine learning processes from both VET and HE and they usually stress the equal importance of academic and

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firm-based learning. The best example for the way in which they also link upperand post-secondary education is the double qualification granted by the ausbildungsintegrierende programmes. Furthermore, these programmes are neither solely subject to traditional HE governance nor to traditional VET governance, but to a mix of both. Thus, dual study programmes as a hybrid organizational form are a means of reducing the institutional distance between VET and HE, despite the German educational schism that prevails between the traditional organizational forms in these two fields respectively. As in the case of the pre-vocational training system, with the dual study programmes, a new organizational form has been created to adjust to changing environmental conditions – rather than pushing a reform of the core organizing principles of vocational training in HE. This hints at the stability of these traditional organizational forms. However, the next example shows that substantial institutional reform of such core organizational forms is still possible if exogenous pressure (e.g. European educational reforms) and endogenous demands for reform by key domestic stakeholders coincide.

The rapid Bolognazation of the German higher education system German HE has been depicted as a system of ‘political legalism’ in which legal procedures dominate conflict resolution (Goldschmidt, 1991, pp.  5–6). Clark defines its governance regime as ‘a combination of political regulation by the state and professional self-control by “academic oligarchies”’ (Clark, 1983, p. 140). Four prominent ‘traditional’ features of German HE discussed by Teichler (2002, pp. 349–50) are that:

1 universities are strongly oriented towards science; 2 universities are of more or less the same quality; 3 programmes usually lead to degrees that are oriented towards a vocation (see also Müller et al., 2002, p. 42); 4 Länder governments steer HE (see also Müller et al., 2007). The ‘German model’ of HE gained prominence based on both the Humboldtian ideal of a community of professors and students and on the principle of ‘education as a public good’ (as opposed to ‘education as a commodity’ and the principle of competition) (Powell et al., 2012b). With regard to evolutionary dynamics, German HE is usually considered as conservative, slow-moving, and inclined towards incremental rather than radical changes (Krücken, 2003; Teichler, 2005). Given this tendency towards

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inertia, recent rapid shifts in academic programmes, such as the widespread implementation of new degree structures (BA/MA) throughout the country, represent a rather unexpected case to study institutional change. The implementation of the Bologna Process has been described as a large experimental ‘field trial’ with many unknown consequences and risks. Traditional degrees like Magister, Diplom and Staatsexamen (all used to be roughly equivalent to the Master level in Anglophone countries) have been gradually replaced (though not in all fields), leading to the parallel existence of old and new degrees. Often, in these new courses, ‘competences and educational objectives are defined with a view to the demands of labour markets’ (KMK, 2007, p. 11). Hence, the new BA programmes seem to be more vocationally-oriented than before (Krücken, 2007). These changes have altered the relationship between HE and VET, increasing competition between the two (see Powell et al., 2012b). The Bologna Process was swiftly implemented in Germany. Despite repeated protests by students and academic staff who feared that policy-makers would use Bologna as a tool to increase competitive market elements in the national HE system, the endogenous conditions for change were favourable given that the majority of policy makers and HE managers had already felt the need for reform for some time (see Bernhard et  al., 2013, pp.  180–3). Interestingly, the implementation of European educational policies in the field of VET is fraught with more conflict than it is in the field of HE. One reason is that the social partners are worried that they will lose some of their stakes in the VET system as the national governments and Brussels step up their cooperation in the policy field of education. While the social partners are to some extent involved in the European policy-making processes, their influence in Brussels is lower than when compared to the historically evolved balance of power in the national arena. However, this is not so much an issue as far as traditional HE is concerned, as the social partners are not involved to the same extent in its governance as they are in the case of VET (and especially dual apprenticeship training) (Graf, 2013). While ‘marketization’ is not coterminous with Europeanization (Powell et al., 2012a), recent liberalization raises questions about the future stability of its traditional mode of coordination, or regulation mode, in which collective decisions in state-subsidized organizations guide HE reforms (Graf, 2009). Decentralized reforms include the formalization of the three-cycle degree structure, the introduction and retraction of tuition fees (up to €500 in some Länder), performance-based pay, greater autonomy for universities and university presidents, and the ‘Excellence Initiative’ that provides additional funds for

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research to selected organizations (see Flink et  al., 2012 on the ‘Excellence Initiative’). As the HE sector is partly deregulated and New Public Management strategies gain a foothold, some claim that Germany has switched to a ‘neo-liberal’ market model in which universities acquire the status of organizational actors and reduce the power of the academic oligarchy (Krücken, 2007). In summary, current developments in the German HE system appear to lead to transformative change that goes beyond minor incremental adjustments or the development of alternative educational pathways (as in the case of the prevocational programmes and the dual study programmes). Given this potential, the next section deepens the discussion of the emerging European educational model and the increasing challenge it presents to the historically evolved educational model in Germany.

Increasing European challenges to the German educational model This section discerns three ‘Europeanization challenges’ to skill formation in Germany. It describes elements in the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes that can be regarded as generally challenging for the traditional mode of skill formation in Germany. Whenever applicable the impact of these Europeanization challenges on the German hybrid organizational form of dual study programmes will also be mentioned. The European Qualification Framework (EQF) – which was formally adopted by the European Parliament and Council in April 2008 – encompasses all educational levels and forms. Based on non-binding recommendations, member states voluntarily committed themselves to develop a national qualification framework that will later be referenced to as the EQF. The official goal of the EQF with its eight reference levels is to diffuse and promote lifelong learning and to make national qualification systems more readable and understandable within and across different countries to facilitate national and international mobility. The EQF represents a central tool in the Bologna Process and Copenhagen Process, respectively. I argue here that key characteristics that underwrite the EQF as well as the two-tiered degree structure (linked to the Bologna Process) are in conflict with the traditional institutional configuration in Germany, namely the European foci on (1) employability, (2) learning outcomes, and, more generally, (3) a liberal market arrangement in skill formation. In contrast to these European foci, skill formation in Germany has traditionally relied more on (1)

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the vocational principle, (2) input and process orientation, as well as (3) strategic (or collective) coordination. Below, I sketch these tensions between the current European processes and the historical status quo in Germany. The EQF serves as the major point of illustration.

Employability versus the vocational principle The vocational principle promotes more narrowly defined occupational skills than the somewhat more broadly defined concept of employability. Employability can be defined as ‘the capability to gain initial employment, maintain employment and obtain new employment if required’ (Hillage and Pollard, 1998, p. 1). Kraus (2008, p. 77) observes that ‘[a]s the traditional earning schema in an English-speaking context, employability clearly differs from the concept of vocation in Germany and has been developed in accordance with different structures in the education system, labour market and the welfare state’. This concept of employability is also embedded in the development of the EQF. The first qualification frameworks were designed for the specific historical and systemic context in Anglophone countries (see Allais et al., 2009b, p. 2). In the UK, for example, the development of qualification frameworks in the 1980s was part of a wider marketization in education (Cort, 2010, p. 311) and, as such, characterized by a quasi-market logic organized around standards for certification (Verdier, 2009, p.  10). Thus, originally, qualification frameworks were designed as a means to cope with an education landscape that is far less standardized than that in Germany (Graf, 2013). The development of the EQF was inspired by these first NQFs in England, Scotland and New Zealand (all of which are liberal market economies). However, Germany has, nevertheless, signed up to the EQF, for example to position its national qualifications at the European level. Interestingly, the European focus on employability represents less of a challenge for the German dual study programmes as a hybrid organizational form. As this hybrid combines occupationally specific skills with more general academic training, its qualifications fit more smoothly into the European employability scheme than traditional dual apprenticeship training or the Humboldtian study programmes.

Learning outcomes instead of learning inputs The professionalism that individuals acquire in dual apprenticeship training is in part a result of their early integration into a community of practitioners, which,

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however, is not an element prominent in the EQF or the new German Qualification Framework (Drexel, 2005; Banscherus et al., 2009, p. 57). The EQF’s focus on (formal, informal and non-formal) learning outcomes challenges the vocational principle, which emphasizes inputs and processes of training (in the workplace) (Powell and Trampusch, 2012c, p. 285). In doing so, the EQF suggests replacing trust in organizational forms with trust in ‘outcomes’ (Allais et  al., 2009b, p. 3). However, Allais, Young and Raffe (2009b, p. 3) argue that ‘as outcomes themselves are a form of “proxy” for what people know or can do, the institutional basis of trust is inescapable and that at least implicitly people will continue to rely on institutions [i.e. educational organizations, LG]’. Generally speaking, the shift to learning outcomes contrasts with the common practice in Germany, which has traditionally relied on learning inputs such as the type of educational organization or study duration (see also European Commission, 2011). Thus, it is perhaps not surprising that the implementation of the EQF (an outcomeoriented scheme) to education systems that are traditionally input-oriented is leading to some unintended results. For example, in Germany, after tough negotiations between VET and HE stakeholders, it was decided in 2012 that qualifications from general schooling will not initially be allocated to the German Qualification Framework (BMBF, 2012). More generally, for educational organizations in Germany, including its new hybrid organizational form, the paradigm shift towards learning outcomes manifests itself as a rather long and winding road.

Liberal market arrangements instead of strategic coordination Rasmussen, Lynch, Brine and colleagues (2009, p. 159) observe that ‘European policies in the areas of welfare and education are marked by a fundamental tension between the pursuit of capitalist growth on one hand, the pursuit of social justice and equality on the other’. In this context, it is crucial to take into account that current European activities in the fields of VET as well as HE and research are intertwined with the Lisbon Strategy (see, e.g. Hanf et  al., 2009), which aims to direct these fields towards the ideals of ‘efficient’ human capital investment and ‘competitive’ knowledge-based economic growth (see, e.g. Bruno, 2008). The Lisbon Strategy, devised by the European Council in 2000, was influenced by the perceived pressure to catch up with the knowledge-based growth of the ‘new economy’ in the United States with its liberal market institutions (see Bruno, 2008; Watson, 2001). Moreover, one of the principal goals of EU VET policy is to open up educational markets (Drexel, 2005;

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Trampusch, 2008, p.  603). Private providers of educational programmes in particular are very interested in European mechanisms for ensuring quality (to create trust) to facilitate market exchanges (see Cort, 2010, p. 306). Arguably, ‘the EQF is not neutral but will influence national education policies in the direction of a higher degree of standardization and commodification of education and an introduction of market principles into the education sectors’ (Cort, 2010, p. 307). The European trend towards a more market-oriented skill regime presents a significant challenge to Germany as a case of collective skill formation that builds on strategic coordination between all involved stakeholders. In as far as the hybrid organizational form of dual study programmes in Germany builds on traditional collective elements (e.g. in terms of educational governance), this trend is likely to be to the detriment of their hybrid status. The three paragraphs above mostly refer to the EQF. However, a similar case can be made for the two-tiered degree structure (which is the traditional degree configuration in liberal market economies like the US and the UK). For example, the new Bachelor and Master degrees use ECTS credits to measure learning outcomes and the Bachelor degree is typically aimed at employability as it is supposed to qualify students for labour market entry. While the Europeanization processes claim to be neutral policy tools, it turns out that policy-makers are, nevertheless, promoting a specific educational ideology. Due to the voluntary character of both the Bologna and the Copenhagen Processes, they represent an ideational and normative challenge to Germany rather than directly regulative pressure. However, if European and German educational policy-makers want to optimally promote permeability between VET and HE, then more attention needs to be paid to the complexity of national and local institutional conditions and established innovative organizational solutions, like the hybrid dual study programmes that have evolved in Germany.

Discussion and outlook After a general overview on the German educational system, the chapter has derived essential characteristics of the German education system through comparison with most similar and most different national models within Europe. Furthermore, it described evolutionary aspects that are specific to the German case. Here the focus has been on the increasingly important question of transitions and permeability between the different sectors of the educational system. The analysis showed that incremental change in one part of the

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educational system (the development of pre-vocational programmes) serves to shield off substantial reform in another part (the traditional dual apprenticeship training or full-time school based VET). Similarly, with the dual study programmes a new organizational form has been created to adjust the system to changing environmental conditions – rather than pushing reforms with regard to the traditional core organizations of vocational training and HE. This hints at the system’s capacity to maintain historically evolved organizational forms through adjustment at their fringes. However, transformative institutional reform at the core is also possible if exogenous pressure and endogenous demands for reform by key domestic stakeholders coincide. This has been illustrated at the example of the rapid implementation of the Bologna Process reform and especially the new degree structure in Germany. Thus, whether traditional classifications of the German educational model still fit – i.e. whether the activities in the educational policy field represent ‘merely’ creative maintenance of the status quo or rather model transformation – depends crucially on the interplay of endogenous and exogenous conditions in the specific sector of the education system. The chapter has also outlined key features of the emergent European educational model (employability, learning outcomes and liberal market arrangement) that stand in contrast to traditional characteristics of the German education model (vocational principle, learning inputs and strategic coordination). Following the argument above, the extent to which the new European norms will affect the German model crucially depends on the willingness of powerful actors in the German educational system to stick with or depart from the system’s historical developmental path. However, the still considerable reliance on strategic coordination as the dominant mode of governance challenges popular notions of rapid European convergence.

Notes 1 I would like to thank Justin J. W. Powell, Nadine Bernhard, Heike Solga, Laurence Coutrot, and Annick Kieffer for their excellent support and close cooperation during the past years. 2 The Bologna Declaration was signed in 1999 by twenty-nine European educational ministers to establish a Europe-wide HE area. The key instrument in the Bologna Process is the two-tiered degree structure (Bachelor/Master), defined in terms of learning outcomes and measured by the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). In 2002, the Copenhagen Declaration was signed by

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thirty-one ministers to enhance European cooperation in vocational education and training. A central initiative initially launched within the Copenhagen Process is the development of the European Qualification Framework (EQF). The specificities of the traditional model of German HE are further discussed below. Analysing the way coordination problems are solved in these different institutional spheres, the Varieties of Capitalism literature (see especially Hall and Soskice, 2001) defines two distinct modes of coordination – namely market coordination and strategic coordination. The UK and the US are discussed as ideal types of a liberal market economy largely based on coordination through competitive markets. In contrast, Germany is considered to be an ideal type of a coordinated market economy relying more on strategic interactions between the various stakeholders. See, for instance, Greinert (2005) and Powell, Bernhard, and Graf (2012a) for more details on key specificities of the liberal market model of VET in the UK in comparative perspective. See Powell, Graf, Bernhard et al. (2012b) for a review of these typologies. In Greinert’s typology, the other types are the state-regulated bureaucratic model (e.g. France) and the aforementioned liberal market economy model (e.g. the UK) (Greinert, 1999). Ebner (2013, p. 207) distinguishes between two types of dual apprenticeship training systems: the ‘German type’ (Germany, Austria, and Switzerland), which features a high degree of standardization, and the ‘Danish type’, which is less standardized. Moreover, the ‘German type’ produces more vocational specificity than the ‘Danish type’. For example, due to the strong position of VET in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, some occupations that are part of the VET portfolio at upper-secondary level in these countries belong to HE in other countries (e.g. Banschbach, 2007, p. 66 on the German case). For critical reviews of current developments in the German VET system, see, e.g. Solga (2009), Thelen (2007), or Kupfer (2010). Training in vocational schools can be, but need not be, part of ausbildungsintegrierende programmes.

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Krücken, G. (2003) ‘Learning the “New, New Thing”: on the role of path dependency in university structures’, Higher Education, 46: 315–39. Krücken, G. (2007) ‘Organizational fields and competitive groups in higher education: some lessons from the Bachelor/Master reform in Germany’, Management Revue, 18: 187–203. Kupfer, A. (2010) ‘The socio-political significance of changes to the vocational education system in Germany’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 31: 85–97. Kupfer, F. and Mucke, K. (2010) Duale Studiengänge an Fachhochschulen nach der Umstellung auf Bachelorabschlüsse – Eine Übersicht (Version: 2009). Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). Kupfer, F. and Stertz, A. (2011) ‘Dual courses of study – the supply and demand situation’, BWP Vocational Training in Research and Practice, BWP Special Edition: 29–30. Mayer, K. U. (2008) ‘Das Hochschulwesen’, in K. S. Cortina, J. Baumert, A. Leschinsky, K. U. Mayer, and L. Trommer (eds), Das Bildungswesen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Reinbek: Rowohlt, pp. 599–645. Mayer, K. U. and Solga, H. (eds) (2008) Skill Formation: Interdisciplinary and CrossNational Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press. Minks, K.-H., Netz, N., and Völk, D. (2011) Berufsbegleitende und duale Studienangebote in Deutschland: Status quo und Perspektiven. Hanover: Higher Education Information System (HIS). Mucke, K. and Schwiedrzik, B. (2000) Duale berufliche Bildungsgänge im tertiären Bereich – Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer fachlichen Kooperation von Betrieben mit Fachhochschulen und Berufsakademien (Version: July 2000). Bonn: Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). Müller, W., Brauns, H., and Steinmann, S. (2002) ‘Expansion und Erträge tertiärer Bildung in Deutschland, Frankreich und im Vereinigten Königreich’, Berliner Journal für Soziologie, 12: 37–62. Müller, W., Mayer, K. U., and Pollak, R. (2007) ‘Institutional change and inequalities of access in German higher education’, in Y. Shavit, R. Arum and A. Gamoran (eds), Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Nelson, M. (2012) ‘Continued collectivism: the role of trade self-management and the Social Democratic Party in Danish Vocational Education and Training’, in M. R. Busemeyer and C. Trampusch (eds), The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 179–202. Nullmeier, F. (2000) “‘Mehr Wettbewerb!” – Zur Marktkonstitution in der Hochschulpolitik’, in R. Czada and S. Lütz (eds), Die Politische Konstitution von Märkten. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, pp. 209–27. Oelkers, J. (2006) Gesamtschule in Deutschland – Eine historische Analyse und ein Ausweg aus dem Dilemma. Weinheim: Beltz. Powell, J. J. W. (2011) Barriers to Inclusion: Special Education in the United States and Germany. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

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Powell, J. J. W. and Solga, H. (2010) ‘Analysing the nexus of higher education and vocational training in Europe: a comparative-institutional framework’, Studies in Higher Education, 35: 705–21. Powell, J. J. W. and Solga, H. (2011) ‘Why are participation rates in higher education in Germany so low? Institutional barriers to higher education expansion’, Journal of Education and Work, 24: 49–68. Powell, J. J. W. and Trampusch, C. (2012c) ‘Europeanization and the varying responses in collective skill systems’, in M. R. Busemeyer and C. Trampusch (eds), The Comparative Political Economy of Collective Skill Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 284–316. Powell, J. J. W., Bernhard, N., and Graf, L. (2012a) ‘The emerging European model in skill formation: comparing higher education and vocational training in the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes’, Sociology of Education, 85: 240–58. Powell, J. J. W., Graf, L., Bernhard, N., Coutrot, L., and Kieffer, A. (2012b) ‘The shifting relationship between vocational and higher education in France and Germany: towards convergence?’, European Journal of Education, 47: 405–23. Rasmussen, P., Lynch, K., Brine, J., Boyadjieva, P., Peters, M. A., and Sünker, H. (2009) ‘Education, equality and the European social model’, in R. Dale and S. Robertson (eds), Globalization and Europeanization in Education. Oxford: Symposium Books, pp. 159–77. Reischl, K. (2008) ‘Bestandaufnahme der bisher in Deutschland akkreditierten dualen Studiengänge’, in BLK (ed.) Tagungsband zur Fachtagung des BLK-Projektes. Bonn (4 March 2008): Bund-Länder-Kommission (BLK). Rothe, G. (ed.) (2001) Die Systeme beruflicher Qualifizierung Deutschlands, Österreichs und der Schweiz im Vergleich. Villingen-Schwenningen: Neckar-Verlag. Shavit, Y. and Müller, W. (2000) ‘Vocational secondary education: where diversion and where safety net?’, European Societies, 2: 29–50. Solga, H. (2005) Ohne Abschluss in die Bildungsgesellschaft. Opladen: Verlag Barbara Budrich. Solga, H. (2008) ‘Lack of training: employment opportunities for low-skilled persons from sociological and microeconomic perspectives’, in K. U. Mayer and H. Solga (eds), Skill Formation: Interdisciplinary and Cross-National Perspectives. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 173–204. Solga, H. (2009) Der Blick nach vorn: Herausforderungen an das deutsche Ausbildungssystem. Berlin: Social Science Research Center (WZB). Sorge, A. (2007) ‘Was ist von einer produktiven Wissengesellschaft durch nachhaltige Innovation und Berufsbildung zu erwarten?’, in J. Kocka (ed.), Zukunftsfähigkeit Deutschlands – Sozialwissenschaftliche Essays. Berlin: WZB Jahrbuch 2006. Edition Sigma. Steinmann, S. (2000) Bildung, Ausbildung und Arbeitsmarktchancen in Deutschland. Eine Studie zum Wandel der Übergänge von der Schule in das Erwerbsleben. Opladen: Leske + Budrich.

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Streeck, W. and Thelen, K. (eds) (2005) Beyond Continuity. Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. New York: Oxford University Press. Teichler, U. (1990) Europäische Hochschulsysteme: Die Beharrlichkeit vielfältiger Modelle. Frankfurt am Main: Campus. Teichler, U. (2002) ‘Hochschulbildung’, in R. Tippelt (ed.), Handbuch Bildungsforschung. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, pp. 349–70. Teichler, U. (2005) Hochschulstrukturen im Umbruch. Frankfurt am Main: Campus. Thelen, K. (2006) ‘Institutions and social change: the evolution of vocational training in Germany’, in I. Shapiro, S. Skowronek, and D. Galvin (eds), Rethinking Political Institutions. The Art of the State. New York: New York University Press, pp. 135–70. Thelen, K. (2007) ‘Contemporary challenges to the German vocational training system’, Regulation & Governance, 1: 247–60. Thelen, K. and Busemeyer, M. R. (2012) ‘Institutional change in German vocational training: from collectivism to segmentalism’, in M. R. Busemeyer and C. Trampusch (eds), The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 68–100. Trampusch, C. (2008) ‘Jenseits von Anpassungsdruck und Lernen: die Europäisierung der deutschen Berufsbildung’, Journal for Comparative Government and European Policy, 6: 577–605. Trampusch, C. and Busemeyer, M. R. (2011) ‘Berufsbildungs- und Hochschulpolitik in der Schweiz, Österreich und Deutschland’, Swiss Political Science Review, 16: 597–615. Verdier, E. (2008) ‘L’éducation et la formation tout au long de la vie’, Sociologie et sociétés, 40: 195–225. Verdier, É. (2009) Lifelong learning regimes versus VET systems in Europe. Conference paper, 21st Annual Conference of the Society for the Advancement of SocioEconomic Studies, 16–18 July 2009. Paris, Science Po. Waldhausen, V. and Werner, D. (2005) Innovative Ansätze in der Berufsbildung – Höhere Durchlässigkeit und Flexibilität durch Zusatzqualifikationen und duale Studiengänge. Cologne: Deutscher Instituts-Verlag. Watson, M. (2001) ‘Embedding the “New Economy” in Europe: a study in the institutional specificities of knowledge-based growth’, Economy and Society, 30: 504–23.

7

Greece: Vocational Education and Training in Economic Change Irene Psifidou and Konstantinos Pouliakas

1 Introduction The debt crisis, and subsequent economic recession, that began in Greece in 2009, following the Great Financial Recession that shocked the world a year earlier, has exposed and worsened a series of structural weaknesses that were present in the Greek economy. These weaknesses were to be found in key pillars of the Greek economic and social infrastructure, one of which was the divide between its education and training system and the labour market. The collapse in the economy in Greece resulted in an astounding increase in the number of people in unemployment, from about 350,000 people (corresponding to an unemployment rate of about 7–8 per cent) in 2007 to more than 1.4 million individuals (27 per cent Q3 2013) in 2013. The youth unemployment rate stood at the historically high 55.3 per cent in 2012, the largest rate in the EU. While there is no room for doubt that the massive unemployment rates experienced in Greece today are a reflection of ineffective aggregate demand as a result of economic depression, it also stands to reason that facilitating the recovery of the country from its recent recession will require a sound long-term planning and restructuring of its skill creation and skill utilization systems. Indeed, the worlds of education and training and of the labour market in Greece have for a long time, too long, acted as ‘rival suitors of Penelope’, refusing to interact with one another and to pursue a common goal of enhancing the employability of graduates in jobs that can fully exploit and reward their human capital potential. The present chapter aims to analyse some of the root causes underlying the divide between the Greek education and training system and its job market. It also considers potential courses of action to reform the systems of skills 155

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development and utilization in the country, such as strengthening its initial vocational education and training (VET) stream. Section 2 presents in brief the education and training system in Greece. The high level of skill mismatch, which had been endemic in the country even in the years preceding the current economic crisis, is presented in Section 3 as an outcome of the divergent forces of skill supply and skill demand in the Greek job market. In Section 4, the state of VET in Greece is outlined, with emphasis on the fact that the weak infrastructure and image of VET in Greece may have contributed to the proliferation of skill mismatch in the country in previous years. Section  5 discusses how EU policy influences, and inspires, recent national legislative developments, particularly concerning the initial vocational education and training (IVET) system. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of continuing to improve the quality of the VET educational stream in Greece, as a means of ensuring that the skills of its workforce is in closer alignment with the current and future skill needs of its job market.

2 The Greek education and training system Compulsory education in Greece begins at the age of five when children enrol in pre-primary schools (Nipiagogeia). Primary education follows with six years of studying in primary schools. Secondary education includes two cycles, of which the first is mandatory and represents three-year studies in Gymnasium (lower secondary education), while the second is optional and corresponds to high school (upper secondary education) including three years of studies in Day Schools (general education in Geniko Lykeio and vocational education in Epaggelmatiko Lykeio) and four in the Evening Schools (Esperino Lykeio), or two years in Vocational Schools (Epaggelmatiki Scholi). In General and Vocational Lykeio pupils enroll at the age of fifteen and in Vocational School at the age of sixteen. Higher Education includes the University sector (Universities, Polytechnics, School of Fine Arts) and the Technology Sector (Technological Education Institutions, TEI and the Higher School of Pedagogical and Technological Education, ASPETE). Between secondary and higher education operates post-secondary nontertiary education. It is provided by Vocational Training Institutes (IEK) offering non-formal initial and further vocational education and training, and Kollegia (colleges), classified as belonging to the informal post-secondary education and training sector. Studies and other certificates that Kollegia provide are not

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recognized as academically equal to those granted within the framework of the Greek post-secondary system of formal education and higher education. According to the new law regulating secondary education (Law 4186/2013), which aims among other things to attract more students into VET, students now have the following options in addition to the general upper secondary school: ●

●

initial vocational education within the formal education system1 in the second cycle of secondary education at a vocational upper secondary school (day or evening school, EPAL); initial vocational training outside the formal education system (referred to as non-formal) in vocational training schools (SEK), vocational training institutes (IEK), centres for lifelong learning and colleges.

These schools (public or private), which may be day or evening schools, are funded exclusively by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. The public vocational upper secondary schools offer the specialties that are listed in the legislation. The programmes are organized by sector, group and specialty, with most sectors offering two or more specialties (Cedefop, 2014, p. 21). In Greece, initial vocational training refers to the training that provides basic knowledge, abilities and skills in trades and specialities, targeting the integration, reintegration, job mobility and enhancement of human resources in the labour market, as well as professional and personal development. In particular, it aims at:2 ● ●

●

developing skills, initiative, creativity and critical thinking of the students; conveying all necessary technical and vocational knowledge and developing relevant skills to enter the labour market; providing learners with necessary knowledge and qualifications to pursue their studies in the following education grade (higher education).

Formal education also includes the general formal adult education sector, such as the Second Chance Schools, which lead to certification recognized nationally and gives the holder the opportunity to continue his education in the formal education system. Non-formal education, in accordance with Law 3879/2010, is provided in organized educational settings, outside the formal education system, and can lead to a certificate recognized nationally. This includes initial vocational training, continuing vocational training and general adult education. The Greek education system is governed by national laws and legislative acts (decrees, ministerial decisions). According to the Constitution of 1975, which was revised on 12 March 1986 and 28 April 2001, the administrative

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Source: Cedefop, 2014.

Figure 7.1 The Greek education and training system. EQF levels are placed according to the January 2014 EQF–NQF referencing report. ISCED 1997 was used on the chart. Conversion to ISCED 2011 is ongoing.

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responsibilities in education extend to four levels of power: the central, regional, prefectural and municipal. The administration of primary and secondary education is conducted hierarchically by the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports; the Regional Education Directorates; the Directorates of Education (Prefecture); and the School. The Child and Infant Centres are under the auspices of the Municipal Authorities. With respect to VET, policies and practices are defined centrally by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Employment and the administration and delivery of education is under the control of regional and provincial power. Higher education institutions are fully self-administered legal entities of public law. Collective bodies that are established and act in compliance with special legislation administer each institution.

3 The inelasticity of education and training in Greece 3.1 Theoretical explanations for skill mismatch in Greece Even in the years prior to the economic crisis, several authors had issued warnings about the inelasticity of the Greek education and training system, in particular about the chronic and persistent detachment between its education and training system and the needs of its labour market. Some had attributed this inefficiency to the strong orientation of the educational process to the demands of the once dominant, yet increasingly shrinking, public sector in Greece (KEPE, 2003; Kanellopoulos et  al., 2003). Another sociological explanation had been based on the strong inclination of Greek families to invest in the higher education of their children for reasons that were sometimes unrelated to the employment motive, such as the acquisition of greater status in society or to enhance the likelihood of landing a public sector job. In some cases, this has resulted in a greater propensity of Greeks to study specific occupations (relative to the EU average), either because of greater prestige (e.g. law, medicine) or in search of job security (e.g. military careers, education). The skewed distribution of educational choices of students is also believed to have been facilitated by factors such as the zero direct cost of education3 and from the erroneous expectations of families about the future prospects of such fields (Psacharopoulos, 1990, 2003). Other authors had highlighted that the increasing deregulation of employment laws in the country has resulted in the deepening of labour market segmentation

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in the Greek economy. It has been argued that the implementation of labour market flexibility in the past decade has manifested in a marked increase of atypical employment, which has particularly affected young Greek workers (European Commission, 2010). These precarious contractual arrangements have been associated with jobs that offer low pay, minimal skill requirements and an absence of career development opportunities, all of which are associated with low job quality and job satisfaction (Pouliakas and Theodossiou, 2005). Karamessini (2010) has also shown that a significant share of Greek university graduates who engage in job mobility at the early stages of their careers get trapped involuntarily at the lower end of the job market. Some of the distinctive characteristics of the Southern European labour market model have been noted as well, such as the tendency of individuals to engage in protracted job searches based heavily on informal contact methods. This is in itself partially an outcome of the low job mobility of individuals due to close family ties and high rates of private home ownership (Sherer, 2005; Karamessini, 2008). The lack of attractiveness of the VET system in Greece had been identified as an additional important culprit (Cedefop, 2003). The Greek education system has always been characterized by a high demand for general education and, by extension, university higher education. Vocational education and training traditionally had little appeal to young people, and today, the situation is not much different. Vocational training is still considered as an ‘emergency exit’ to the labour market despite efforts by the state to present it as a viable alternative option equivalent to general education. In particular, the greater tendency of young Greek students to pursue higher rather than technical education has been linked to the poor infrastructure of the vocational education stream in the country, to the fact that it is primarily schoolbased and, generally, to the poor employment and income prospects of graduates from such technical schools (Mitrakos et al., 2010; Livanos and Pouliakas, 2011). All of the aforementioned factors have been correlated with the sustained poor image of the VET sector in the country. A further issue regarding the lack of attractiveness of vocational education in Greece, both generally and in relation to specific professions, concerns occupational rights. While the construction sector, to take one example, grew considerably in the past decade, related specialties in vocational upper secondary schools have seen low participation. This is can be attributed to the fact that there are no established occupational rights for technicians with low- or intermediate-level qualifications, even though these trades demand enhanced

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knowledge and skills (such as ironworkers, builders, aluminium technicians, metal structure technicians, carpenters, cabinet makers, etc.). In several other occupations, rights have not been secured (Cedefop, 2014, p.  19). This is important in the face of evidence showing that establishing occupational rights in sectors such as plumbing and hairdressing has led in the past to strong demand for related educational services (Pedagogical Institute, 2006, p. 150).

3.2 Empirical evidence of skill mismatch in Greece Several authors and international organizations had already documented in the beginning of the previous decade the weak links between the educational process and the skills needed by the Greek labour market (Livanos, 2010). Patrinos (1997) estimated that the over-education rate in Greece was approximately 16 per cent between the mid- to late-1990s. Despite the fact that Greece traditionally has one of the lowest ratios of government expenditure on education to GDP in the EU, and is characterized by a markedly low incidence of early childhood education, the country has made significant progress in recent decades in terms of investing in the skills of its population. The upskilling of the Greek population during the years 2000 to 2010 is evident by the growth in the number of graduates from tertiary education. Although the share of tertiary educational attainment in Greece lags behind the EU average, the proportion of the active population that possesses a tertiary education degree has risen over the past decade by about 7 percentage points. The predictions of anticipated labour supply in Greece and in the EU (see Figure  7.2), as generated by Cedefop on the basis of the country’s historical trends of growth in the active population, further confirm that the process of educational upgrading in Greece is likely to continue unabated in the forthcoming decade. By the year 2020, 76 per cent of the active population is likely to possess at least an upper secondary education, compared to 67 per cent in 2010. Furthermore, about one in three economically active individuals will be in possession of a tertiary education degree. In terms of the demand side of the labour market, in the years prior to the global economic crisis of 2008 the demand for skills in Greece mirrored the average trend in the European Union. During these years, the country experienced a steady contraction in the primary sector of the economy (e.g. agricultural sector) and stagnation in the manufacturing sector. At the same time, the sectors of economic activity that grew the most in terms of employment were those primarily associated with the public sector (e.g. public administration,

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Figure 7.2 Active population by highest level of educational attainment, age 15–65, Greece and EU27, 2000–2020. Source: Eurostat; Cedefop forecasting model of skill supply and demand; date of extraction: 7 October 2013.

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education, health and social work, other community and social services), while the real estate and construction sectors also experienced positive growth. Associated with these structural trends was an increasing demand for individuals who possessed higher educational qualifications and a corresponding decline in demand for lower-educated individuals (see Figure 7.3). In particular, individuals with a tertiary education degree increased their share in the total pool of employment by 42 per cent, which exceeded the EU average of 30 per cent. The robust demand for high skills in Greece became increasingly apparent during the years in which the economic crisis unfolded (2008–2012). During this period of economic contraction, and in spite of the marked squeeze in aggregate demand, individuals in possession of tertiary qualifications increased their level of employment by 3 per cent. This increase was lower than the corresponding rise of 17 per cent observed in the EU as a whole, yet it is testament to the fact that a university degree provided a shield of protection in Greece at a time when the employment pool was rapidly shrinking. Despite the evidence of steady or slightly rising demand for tertiary education graduates, it is worth noticing that for a significant share of them the offer of an employment opportunity has been tantamount to the involuntary take-up of a part-time job that often demands a qualification that is below the level held by the individual. This is also reflected in the most recent estimates of qualification mismatch in Europe by Cedefop (2012), whereby Greece is ranked at the top of

Figure 7.3 Employment by highest level of education attained, 2000–2012, Greece and EU27 Source: Eurostat/EU Labour Force Survey (EULFS); date of extraction: 7 October 2013.

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the EU (along with Spain) in terms of the share of the employee workforce that is affected by qualification mismatch. Indeed, during the past decade (2001–2011) 26 per cent of Greek employees (aged 24–65) were employed in an occupation that required a lower educational qualification than the one they possessed, namely they were over-qualified. This figure was significantly higher than the EU average over-qualification rate of 15 per cent. Furthermore, in the year 2010, it was found that about 47 per cent of employed Greeks complained that they had skills to undertake more demanding duties in their jobs, the second-highest rate of over-skilled workers in the EU (which had an average over-skilling incidence of 32 per cent).4 Yet despite the abundant supply of unemployed or over-qualified/over-skilled workers in the country, about 38 per cent of employers still complained in the midst of the economic recession (in the year 2013) about the presence of skill shortages in Greece (Manpower Group, 2013). Another notable feature of the Greek economy during the past decade, one that stood in stark contrast to the trend observed in most advanced economies, was that upper secondary and non-tertiary graduates (ISCED 3–4) traditionally constitute the group with the highest rate of unemployment (ranging between 9–15 per cent in Greece as opposed to 7–10 per cent in the EU). As shown in Figure  7.4, the relative difference in the unemployment rates of people with higher and secondary/primary level education in Greece has been quite small (OECD, 2005; European Commission, 1996). According to Eurostat data for the

Figure 7.4 Differences in unemployment rates between individuals with different levels of educational attainment, 2000–2012, Greece and EU27. Notes: Eurostat/EU-LFS; date of extraction 6 October 2013.

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years 2000–2008, while a primary or lower secondary graduate in the EU had a 2.5–3 times greater risk of unemployment relative to tertiary education graduates, in Greece the relative risk ranged between 1.17–1.2. However, whereas individuals with medium-level qualifications in the EU maintained their relative employment position during the years of the economic crisis, in Greece the spread of both lower- and medium-qualified workers widened relative to tertiary education graduates.

4 The state of VET in Greece The evidence presented above highlights certain specific structural features of the Greek labour market, such as the tendency by employers to hire individuals with a university degree over medium-qualified graduates, even in jobs that do not require higher level qualifications, but also the poor attractiveness of medium-qualified graduates from vocational schools and post-secondary nontertiary institutions. Therefore, an important issue of concern for Greece has been the lack of attractiveness and employability of its upper secondary and non-tertiary graduates, which is based, to a large extent, on the VET pillar of the system. Mitrakos et al. (2010) confirm that, in the years preceding the economic crisis, the financial rates of return to education enjoyed by medium-qualified graduates from a general orientation lyceum were slightly higher than those from technical and vocational schools (yet most of these wage differences dissipate after a decade of work experience). Worryingly, in the total pool of young Greek adults (aged 25–34) with medium-level qualifications, the share of those that possess an initial VET qualification is less than two-thirds of the EU average (Cedefop, 2013). Specifically, according to the 2009 ad hoc module of the EU Labour Force Survey, only about 46 per cent of all young adults with a medium-level educational attainment had enrolled in VET courses in Greece (corresponding to 340,000 people), while the respective percentage for the EU was 72 per cent (23 million individuals). Moreover, the number of vocational education schools fell by a third between 2001 and 2011, with the private sector particularly severely affected (86.5 per cent) The student population in vocational education also dropped sharply over the same period, decreasing by more than 35 per cent (CTI, 2011). Furthermore, on the basis of the respondents’ answers to the EULFS survey, the Greek VET system can be characterized as being ‘school-based’, as opposed

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to the stronger work-based VET pathways in countries such as Germany, Denmark, Austria and Switzerland. This is concerning, given that most international surveys show that close links between vocational education and the requirements of the job market and economy are an essential precondition for an efficient, high-quality system that would make it easier to move from school to active life (Cedefop, 2014, p. 19). Significant differences in the pathways of young students (aged 18–24) finishing medium-level education and training are observed between Greece and the EU. Greek students who complete upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education from a VET school are less likely to continue with their studies (13 per cent do so in Greece, in comparison to 27 per cent in the EU) and have a greater likelihood of becoming unemployed or inactive (29 per cent in Greece as opposed to 19 per cent in the EU). A greater share is nonetheless likely to enter the job market. Indeed, it is found that in Greece, as in the EU, young VET graduates at the medium level are more likely to be employed, as they enjoy a 4.5–5.5 per cent premium in their employment rate over general orientation graduates.5 The duration between leaving formal education and starting their first significant job (lasting more than three months) is also smaller for mediumqualified graduates with a VET orientation relative to general education graduates. For instance, for about 30 per cent of medium-qualified graduates with a general education orientation, it takes more than two years to find their first significant job, while the corresponding figure for graduates with a VET orientation is 22 per cent. Moreover, the former are also more likely to spend prolonged periods outside of work (71 per cent spend more than 2 years unemployed or inactive, as opposed to 54 per cent of VET graduates). In its forecasting model of skill supply and demand in Europe, Cedefop (2013) predicts that about 42 per cent of the active Greek population is likely to possess a medium-level qualification by 2020 (see Figure 7.1). Furthermore, it is predicted that approximately 1.4 million jobs will have to be replaced in Greece by 2020, due to the gradual retirement of older workers from the labour force. To fill these jobs, a significant share of mostly low- or medium-qualified workers will be needed. For instance, about 381,000 people will be required in the primary sector, even though total employment in this sector is likely to shrink, if this sector were to retain its current share in the total employment pool. Similarly, about 403,000 people will have to be replaced in industries related to the transport and distribution sector. Generally, by 2020 about 59 per cent of all replacement needs

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in Greece will require non-manual (e.g. clerks, market services and sales) and manual skilled labour (e.g. skilled agricultural and fishery, craftsmen), an additional 7 per cent will rely on low-skilled workers filling in elementary jobs and the remaining 34 per cent will need individuals capable of taking up high-skilled posts (e.g. managers, professionals and technicians). From the evidence shown above, it is apparent that a potentially beneficial strategy for the Greek education and training system is to focus its attention towards strengthening the vocational component of learning at the upper secondary/non-tertiary level.

5 Strengthening VET in Greece 5.1 The national and European policy context Over the past decade, Greece has indeed implemented many changes with the goal of making its VET system more attractive, less fragmented and more permeable to young people. Since 2000, Greece has worked jointly with other European countries on common priorities for VET as part of the so-called ‘Copenhagen Process’.6 The second phase of that process started in 2010 and supports the Europe 2020 agenda. The strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training, ET 2020, invites the Member States to cooperate, with the Commission’s support, applying the open method of coordination, to strengthen European cooperation in the 2010–2020 period under four strategic objectives (Council Conclusions, 2009). These include the implementation of: (1) lifelong learning and mobility, (2) improving the quality and efficiency of education and training, (3) promoting equity, social cohesion and active citizenship, and finally, (4) the enhancement of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. This long-term vision of VET is reflected in the Bruges Communiqué where countries agreed to implement a series of intermediate objectives – 22 short-term deliverables by 2014 – that contribute to European VET policy’s strategic goals for 2020.7 The dominant feature of the proposed changes is the shift of focus from inputs that have to do with the institutions, curricula and methods followed in education and training, to learning outcomes, i.e. ‘statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process, which are defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence’ (European Parliament and European Council, 2008, Annex I). This shift brings more closely, and

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actually creates bridges of, cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of the labour market. Learning outcomes can be used in different contexts: for the definition of occupational and educational standards, the description of curricula, for assessment and accreditation requirements, the development of descriptors for the national qualifications frameworks, and even for mobility agreements for the acquisition of learning credits, the creation of CVs, the advertisement of job vacancies, as well as for guidance and quality assurance purposes (Cedefop, 2009; Psifidou, 2011). European tools8 and especially the establishment of national qualifications frameworks in line with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is the method that should lead countries more effectively towards achieving the objectives (European Parliament and European Council, 2008; Cedefop, 2012). Greece is therefore required to take action at national level to achieve these objectives, also formulated through national priorities, to solve chronic national problems and to contribute to the achievement of the European benchmarks. Indeed, recent reforms in Greece have aimed at: ●

● ● ●

promoting lifelong leaning through initial vocational education and adult education; increasing graduates of VET and their status in society; increasing the quality underpinning VET; further linking VET to the needs of the labour market and to employment.

5.2 Recent reforms and policy initiatives In spite of the aforementioned European initiatives, reform of VET in Greece is complex, especially at a time of economic crisis. The complicated governance structure has always affected the consistency, complementarity and continuation of national policies to tackle or alleviate existing problems. Furthermore, the economic and social upheavals of recent years considerably affected the operation of all parties involved in VET and significantly reduced human and financial resources. What has been achieved so far is mainly the adoption of a legislative framework to endorse planned reforms and an institutional reform that has resulted in the merging of several national bodies for the improvement of VET’s governance. Since 2000, four laws – on the national system linking VET with employment (Law 3191/2003), systematizing lifelong learning (Law 3369/2005), developing lifelong learning (Law 3879/2010), and restructuring secondary education (Law 4186/2013) – and numerous

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amendments have been enacted in an attempt to regulate the domain of VET and lifelong learning. In particular, the regulation of lifelong learning with the enactment of Law 3879/2010 for the ‘Development of Lifelong Learning and other provisions’ updates all past Laws and provides the legal framework for organizing education and lifelong learning in a way likely to offer active participation in society and a smooth transition into the labour market. Specifically, it foresees the formation of the Regional Vocational Training Committee with the responsibility to formulate and put forward suggestions to the Regional Council on vocational training matters and its connection to the labour market, to investigate and assess the quantitative and qualitative data for the labour market in the Region, and assess the specialties that must be put forward by IEK, KEK and the vocational training colleges more generally. The relevant resolutions by the Regional Council are taken into consideration during the preparation of the National Lifelong Learning Programme and the Regional Lifelong Learning Programme (Law 3879/2010, article 7, paragraph 3). Further, the Law endorses the creation and operation of collective bodies on lifelong learning and its connection to employment (article 5). With this same Law, a national qualifications framework is instituted for the first time in Greece. So far, in the country there was no unified validation and accreditation system for qualifications that would include all forms of education, training and vocational experience. The aim of the Hellenic Qualifications Framework is to establish a modern and effective validation and accreditation system for qualifications, reinforcing their transparency and their connection to employment and facilitating access and participation to lifelong learning. By classifying qualifications in terms of learning outcomes into eight levels (in accordance with the European Qualifications Framework, EQF), it allows for the recognition and certification in a uniform manner of learning outcomes that citizens could acquire through various learning paths. Valuing all types of learning, it can also contribute decisively to the recognition and acceptance of VET as an important means of professional and personal development. However, due to successive changes in individuals and organizations in charge, the various phases of the implementation of the Hellenic Qualifications Framework have been considerably delayed. Despite such obstacles, qualifications as part of the formal education system, including IVET, have been referenced in terms of learning outcomes to the EQF during the course of the year 2014. Box 7.1 presents and discusses some further representative examples of recent developments in the area of VET in Greece.

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Box 7.1 New legislative measures related to VET Law 4115/2013 completes the process of setting up two new bodies, which arise as a result of other mergers and which fall under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports. These are the ‘Foundation for Youth and Lifelong Learning’ to tackle issues related to student care, as well as issues pertaining to Lifelong Learning and the ‘National Organization for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance’. This Law fundamentally aims at concentrating specific powers to a single body, in order to achieve the best possible organization and rationalization of management responsibilities. Chapters of Law 4093/2012 concerning the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports update, simplify and harmonize the licensing systems of professions regulated by the Ministry. This Law also provides for the establishment of a single competent national authority and defines the procedure for the examination of equivalence between professional qualifications attested by formal higher education degrees of other EU Member States and those attested by diplomas issued in the framework of the national education system, in cases where provisions of Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications are not met, in order for an individual to take up and pursue economic activity in Greece. This arrangement covers the institutional vacuum concerning the free mobility of employees within the EU to take up and pursue an economic activity in Greece.

Over the past two years, there were mass transfers of responsibilities from the Ministry of Employment to the Ministry of Education, such as the recommendation, design and execution of policies and programmes for initial and continuing vocational training, as well as the supervision of bodies in charge for linking VET with employment, developing lifelong learning programmes and certifying qualifications. Furthermore, the role of the Regional Directors was strengthened, enabling them to respond more to the needs that emerge in the education system in their geographical jurisdiction. Under the new law on secondary education (Law 4186/2013), the introduction of a new apprenticeship year (post-secondary) for the graduates of the most popular secondary VET schools (EPAL) is expected to increase opportunities for work-based learning and hopefully will attract more students into VET. It also introduced Schools of Vocational Training (SEK) with strong work-based learning elements to revamp less successful precedent programmes (EPAS). The recent law also reinforces strategic cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the national employment service; the latter will provide expertise,

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attract partnerships and have an active role in the operation of the revamped secondary vocational training schools (SEK) and the newly established postsecondary apprenticeship programmes. Generally, under the new institutional framework, the function of existing institutions of VET and lifelong learning has been upgraded, and the need for cooperation and quality assurance has been proclaimed. Indeed, as of 2013, there was some indication that the VET situation in Greece has improved; the population of students in EPAL schools has remained the same (22,000 students), while participation in public IEK schools has been increased significantly from 5,500 students to 12,500. The government is also continuing to exert efforts to increase the attractiveness of VET. For instance, in 2014, the Ministry of Education launched a national media campaign to make VET more attractive and to present to the public the recent changes that have taken place in secondary education. Nevertheless, a culture of collaboration and effective communication between the different institutions and authorities is not yet well established in Greece. There are still examples where the participation of the actors concerned is often not meaningful, and even though their formal presence is required they do not have any real involvement (Zahilas, 2012). For instance, the current system of initial VET requires tripartite representation both for the management and the implementation of procedures, such as the certification of qualifications. Thus, while for many years now the involvement of social partners on issues related to VET and lifelong learning is institutionalized, in reality the decisions are often taken at a central, governmental level.

6 Conclusions Dealing with the economic crisis, and the long-term challenges that Greece faces, requires investment in people’s skills: VET is an important part of that investment. In Europe, about half of all jobs require a medium-level qualification, primarily acquired through VET (Cedefop, 2012). In this respect, important changes that are taking place in educational policy in the EU in recent years, derived in alignment with European objectives and benchmarks in education and training as prescribed by the Lisbon Agenda and ET2020, are affecting Greece as well. The objectives of the Bruges Communiqué, the adoption of a learning outcomes approach and the establishment of a European Qualification Framework are just some examples of the changes that are shaping the present educational landscape in Greece.

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Indeed reforms which aim to introduce learning outcomes in certifications, qualification profiles and VET curricula, and to facilitate the validation of nonformal and informal learning are likely to achieve a better interaction between the worlds of education and training and of the Greek labour market. Reforms undertaken in Greece in the last decade illustrate that there is apparent evidence of European guidelines influencing the implementation process in the national educational policy, particularly with respect to the modernization of VET. For example, rising interest followed by legislative action has led to the establishment of novel bodies and institutions in the field of VET. Furthermore, efforts have been made to increase the work-based learning element within VET with the introduction of an apprenticeship year and to strengthen the labour market relevance of VET qualifications. Indeed, the new law on the restructuring of secondary – including vocational – education (Law 4186/2013), which came into effect in September 2013, opens the VET system to the economy and the job market and attempts to regulate the field from the perspective of lifelong learning. According to this law, specialties should be tailored to national and regional economic needs, following the recommendations of the ministries, regional administrations and social partners. Curricula can be developed in line with the European credit system for VET (ECVET), and take into account, where these exist, related job profiles certified by the National Organization for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance (Eoppep) (Cedefop, 2014, p. 21). However, the whole national effort made so far entails two contradictory outcomes. On the one hand, Greece has emphasized lifelong learning and investment in human and social capital during the past decade as a means of raising productivity and accelerating economic development, as well as strengthening social cohesion. Thus, important legislative and institutional action has been taken concerning the update, development and quality improvement of VET and the linking of the latter to employment. Moreover, social inclusion, accessibility to education and training, ICT skills improvement, as well as quality provision and assessment, became priorities for Greek educational policy in order to align with the EU agenda. On the other hand, different authors (Panitsidou, 2009; Zahilas, 2012) have pointed out the absence of a sound long-term planning strategy and of a smooth implementation of the policies endorsed by the Greek state. Moreover, the persistent lack of attractiveness of VET to young people, in addition to the significant delays in the development of the Hellenic Qualifications Framework, are some examples of the serious shortcomings and deficiencies in measures taken so far.

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The present analysis attributes these deficiencies to three core parameters. First, the absence of systematic research and skill needs analysis in Greece encourages the faithful adoption of EU policies and practices that sometimes accentuates the misalignment of educational policies with the particular needs of the local economy and society. Second, the weak collaboration between the stakeholders concerned restrains flexibility and inhibits development of quality services. Finally, what appears to be the most important handicap for all VET initiatives taking place in Greece is the issue of financing and its proper allocation. The forced fiscal adjustment as well as institutional commitments resulting from memorandum contracts has acted as a ‘domino effect’ blocking planned procedures and closing down or merging VET institutions. In conclusion, it is deemed important that further action and more effective measures are required in Greece in order to ensure closer links with the job market and economy and a more vigorous involvement of the social partners, including a sense of social co-responsibility and consensus on vocational training matters. Problems and inertia that have inflicted the country in the past, such as a lack of connection of education and training with the job market; low quality of infrastructure and technology use in initial vocational training; the unattractiveness and low social status of vocational schools, and, most importantly, the lack of time consistency in the implementation of educational policies, will have to be overcome if Greece is to ensure that it will have a modern and dynamic educational system that is in tune with the needs of individuals, the economy and society. Making available to all citizens a multitude of quality educational alternatives, of which VET is a core component, is a crucial parameter to ensure an effective labour market, sustainable development and social effectiveness. This can only be achieved if the necessary structural changes in the country are implemented in a timely fashion while simultaneously protecting the social and humanistic dimension of learning.

Notes 1 In Greece, ‘formal vocational education’ refers to programmes at upper secondary level (EPAL) that allow access to higher education through exams. Other upper secondary or post-secondary programmes and some CVET programmes, although they are fully or partially regulated by the state and lead to officially recognized qualifications, are considered non-formal VET.

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2 Official Journal 146/Issue A/13–07-2006 Law 3475: ‘Organization and operation of secondary vocational education and training and other regulations’. 3 The provision of education in Greece, as enshrined in Article 16 of the Greek constitution, is free for its citizens. In recent years, several universities have been allowed to institute a limited amount of tuition fees for postgraduate courses. 4 These figures are based on the fifth wave of the European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS), carried out in 2010 by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Working and Living Conditions (Eurofound), which surveys a random sample of workers (employed and self-employed) in thirty-four countries about their working conditions and quality of working life. 5 In the case of tertiary education graduates, Karamessini (2010) shows further that continuous work experience during their undergraduate studies positively influences their odds of employment and of being in a well-paid job 5–7 years after graduation, as is the participation in formal traineeship schemes. 6 Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training, and the European Commission, convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on enhanced European cooperation in vocational education and training: ‘The Copenhagen Declaration’. 7 The Bruges Communiqué on enhanced European Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training for the period 2011–2020. Communiqué of the European Ministers for Vocational Education and Training, the European Social Partners and the European Commission, meeting in Bruges on 7 December 2010 to review the strategic approach and priorities of the Copenhagen Process for 2011–2020. 8 Under the Copenhagen Process, Member States, with the social partners, have established common European tools and principles, namely: the European Qualifications Framework (EQF); the European Credit System for VET (ECVET); Europass; European Quality Assurance Framework for VET (EQAVET); principles and guidelines for identifying and validating non-formal and informal learning; principles on lifelong guidance and counselling.

References Cedefop (2003) Vocational Education and Training in Greece. Cedefop Panorama Series: No. 59. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. Cedefop (2009) The Shift to Learning Outcomes. Policies and Practices in Europe. Cedefop Reference Series: No. 72. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

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Cedefop (2012) ‘The skill mismatch challenge in Europe, in European Commission (2012)’, Employment and Social Developments in Europe 2012. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications. Cedefop (2013) Roads to Recovery: Three Skill and Labour Market Scenarios for 2025, Briefing note, No. 9081. Thessaloniki, Greece. Cedefop (2014) Vocational Education and Training in Greece. Short Description. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Council Conclusions (2009) Council Conclusions of 12 May 2009 on a Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET2020). Official Journal C 119 of 28.5.2009. CTI (2011) Record of the Existing Situation in EPAL / EPAS Schools with the Development and Utilization of ICT Tools in the Framework of the Implementation of The Education Policies and Interventions 50 of the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs. Rion: Computer Techology Institute. Working Group 2, Scientific Planning and Research, deliverable P2.3 final report (unpublished). European Commission (1996), Labour Market Studies: Greece. Luxembourg: Employment and Social Affairs. European Commission (2010) ‘Youth and segmentation in EU labour markets’, in Employment in Europe 2010 (Ch. 3). Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications. European Commission (2012) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Rethinking Education: Investing in Skills for Better Socio-economic Outcomes. COM(2012)669final. European Parliament and European Council (2008) Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications. Kanellopoulos, C. N., Mitrakos, T., and Mavromaras, K. G. (2003) Education and Labour Market. Athens: Centre for Planning and Economic Research, Scientific Studies: No. 50 (in Greek). Karamessini (2008) ‘Still a distinctive southern European employment model’, Industrial Relations Journal, 39(6): 510–31. Karamessini, M. (2010) Transition Strategies and Labour Market Integration of Greek University Graduates. Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, GreeSE Paper No. 32. London: The Helenic Observatory, LSE. KEPE (2003) Education and Labour Market, Study No. 50 (in Greek). Law 3879/2010 (Government Gazette 163/issue Α’/21-9-2010): ‘Lifelong Learning development and other provisions’; article 25 includes provisions on domestic transfers. It provides for the regulation of Lifelong Learning in Greece. It regulates responsibilities of Lifelong Learning bodies. It also sets the Lifelong Learning National Network. Law 4115/2013 (Government Gazette 24/issue Α’/30-1-2013): ‘Organization and operation of the Institute for Youth and Lifelong Learning and of the National

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Organization for the Certification of Qualifications and Vocational Guidance and other provisions.’ It sets the rules of operation and organization of the two abovementioned bodies. Chapter three contains other provisions for issues under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports. Law 4093/2012 (Government Gazette 222/issue Α’/12-11-2012): ‘Approved Medium Term Fiscal Strategy 2013–2016 – Emergency Measures of Implementation of Law 4046/2012 and the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy 2013–2016.’ By this law, the Medium Term Fiscal Strategy 2013–2016 is approved. Pages 5580–90 contain provisions relating to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports. Livanos, I. (2010) ‘The relationship between higher education and labour market in Greece: the weakest link?’, Higher Education, 60(5): 473–89. Livanos, l. and Pouliakas, K. (2011) ‘Wage returns to university disciplines in Greece: are Greek higher education degrees Trojan horses?’, Education Economics, 19(4): 411–45. Manpower Group (2013) Talent Shortage Survey: Research Results 2013. Milwaukee, MI: Manpower Group Mitrakos, T., Tsakloglou, P., and Cholezas, I. (2010) ‘Determinants of wages in Greece, with emphasis on earnings of tertiary education graduates’, Bank of Greece Economic Bulletin, 34: 7–42. OECD (2005) Economic Surveys: Greece. Paris: OECD. Panitsidou, E. (2009) ‘European lifelong learning educational policy in the light of the “Lisbon Agenda”: The Greek case’, Review of European Studies, 1(1): June. Patrinos, H. (1997) ‘Overeducation in Greece’, International Review of Education, 43(2/3): 203–23. Pedagogical Institute (2006) Early Abandonment of Secondary Education (Gymnasium, Unified Lyceum, Technical Vocational School): Survey. Athens: Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs. Pouliakas, K. and Theodossiou, I. (2005) ‘Socio-economic differences in the perceived quality of high and low-paid jobs in Greece’, Bank of Greece Economic Bulletin, 24(January): 91–132. Psacharopoulos, G. (1990) Education in Greece: A Modern Tragedy. Athens: Sideris. Psacharopoulos, G. (2003) ‘The social cost of an outdated law: Article 16 of the Greek constitution’, European Journal of Law and Economics, 16: 123–37. Psifidou, I. (2011) ‘Methodological approaches to test the EQF descriptors on qualifications and curricula: experiences drawn from LdV pilot projects’, European Journal of Qualifications, 3(June): 33–42. Sherer, S. (2005) ‘Patterns of labor – long wait or career instability? An empirical comparison of Italy, Great Britain and West Germany’, European Sociological Review, 21(5): 427–40. Zahilas, L. (2012) Η επίδραση του Εθνικού Πλαισίου Προσόντων στα συστήματα εκπαίδευσης και κατάρτισης και στη βελτιστοποίηση της σχέσης τους με την αγορά εργασίας. Διδακτορική Διατριβή. Πανεπιστήμιο Στερεάς Ελλάδας, Τμήμα Περιφερειακής και Οικονομικής Ανάπτυξης.

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8

Ireland: Structure and Reform Rosarii Griffin

General introduction Ireland is an island that sits on the most westerly point of Europe. It is embedded between Britain, Ireland’s neighbour to the east – separated only by the Irish Sea, while on its westerly front, the closest landmass is the United States of America situated c. 2,700 nautical miles away. The island of Ireland is 32,500 square miles (84,431 square kilometres) in area, with more arid and rugged landscape to the west, with more fertile lands to the south and midlands of the country. The parliament of the Republic of Ireland, called Dáil Éireann, is located in a building named ‘Leinster House’ in Dublin City. Ireland has a population of approximately 4.6 million people (not including 1.8 million who live in Northern Ireland), with a density of c. 65 people per square kilometre making it one of the least densely populated countries of Europe. However, with urbanization, Dublin city has over half a million dwellers. Dublin’s surrounding areas are highly populated while parts of the midlands, south-west, west and north-west of the country are sparsely so.

The history of education in Ireland Education is, for the most part, deeply valued and embedded in the Irish psyche as an important vehicle for social, emotional and economic advancement. Traditionally, education has been highly regarded within Irish culture, and generally viewed as a gateway out of poverty and ignorance (Long, 2013). However, how the reality of this perception bears out in terms of the educational system that exists may well be another story.

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The roots of Irish national interest in education is often thought to be rooted in pre-Christian Celtic civilization. It was during the Dark Ages that Ireland inherited the accolade of being an island of ‘saints and scholars’, referring to the numerous seminary colleges set up in Ireland for the prorogation (and protection) of the faith and ecclesiastical scholarship during this period of religious intolerance and persecution on mainland Europe. During the period of colonization, Protestantism dominated the landscape, and Catholics were persecuted on Irish soil. However, the Catholic Church set up illegal ‘Hedge Schools’ (held in fields or barns) during the 1700s to1800s: ad hoc schools for poor, ignorant and impoverished Irish Catholic children, largely run by the Catholic Clergy at risk to their own lives. This continued until the Roman Catholic Relief Act (1829) granted Catholic emancipation, a movement led by Daniel O’Connell, a much revered Irish Hero and Parliamentarian in Westminister, London, who died in 1847 (O’Corráin and O’Riordan, 2014). Eventually, when the Irish Free State was formed, Catholicism was deeply embedded as part of Irish national identity through its association with education in Ireland. Hence, Catholicism became important in the formation of the new Irish State and national identity. Formal elementary education, in the form of a national system of education, was set up in Ireland in 1831, under British rule. Within Britain, compulsory education for all children up to the age of ten was mandated through the Forster’s Act in 1870 (Thomas, 2013). Prior to this legislation, education was not compulsory and only half the population attended school. It was at this stage that education aligned itself with the ideals of the Industrial Revolution, by providing an educated population for the expansion of capitalistic ideals, which was essential (Thomas, 2013, p.  13). The driving force was not so much the expansion of the human mind but rather the concern around losing a competitive edge because of the lack of a workforce that possessed basic education. Thus, the underlying philosophy behind mass education was essentially rational instrumentalism, rather than, for instance, Rousseau’s idealism espoused in his famous treatise on education Émile: or On Education (1762). In Ireland, the Intermediate Education Act came into being in 1878, and a Department of Agriculture and Technical Training was established in 1899. Education in Ireland was taught only through the medium of English even though Gaelic or Irish was the native language spoken by the majority in Ireland at that time. Nevertheless, the idea emerged that this national system of education should unite all children of different creeds in one system (Akenson, 1970). Initially, schools with mixed Church management (i.e. between Catholic and

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Protestant) received more favourable funding that those under single denominational management. However, by the mid-nineteenth century, there were only 4 per cent of schools which were under mixed-board management, the remainder of the schools were single denominational (Akenson, 1970) such was the extent of the internal sectarian divide. The establishment of a third-level sector was also pursued with enthusiasm: Queen’s University was set up in 1845, with three constituent Colleges in Cork, Galway and Belfast. Trinity College in Dublin (1592) was already well established at this time, originally intended for the preserve and advancement of the Protestant community. It eventually opened its doors to Catholics and dissenters in 1793 and allowed Catholics to take up academic posts by 1893; women were allowed entry in 1904. However, Catholics were not allowed to enter TCD with express permission from their Bishop until 1970. Following the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, little change was made to what was already established under British Rule. If anything, the Catholic Church had increased control over education, and set up schools all around the country headed up by the various religious orders (e.g. the Presentation Sisters, the Christian Brothers, the Mercy Nuns, the Carmelite Order, local parishioners, etc.). In fact, education in Ireland – though publicly funded – to this day is still privately managed with School Boards of Management, chaired by Religious Orders or their Trustees. Most teaching staff in the early schools were clergy or nuns from religious orders at that time. Laity became more prevalent from the 1970s onwards. Certainly, in line with Catholic thinking around the role of women and their place within the family unit, until the 1960s, women who became teachers had to give up their Public Sector and Civil Service jobs and positions once they got married. The status of women remained as such until the late 1960s, at which point the ruling was reversed. Returning briefly to 1930, the Vocational Education Act was passed and, similar to the British model, it was expected to operate with devolved responsibility to local authorities. At this time, it was broadly accepted that such vocational training was geared towards those considered less academically able and those predominantly from socially disadvantaged backgrounds (Byrne, Cremin and Griffin, 2000). The vocational sector took on an apprenticeship model, and the curriculum permeated with the philosophy of ‘learning by doing’. Formal primary education was also fee-paying up until the early nineteenth century, and was therefore prohibitive for the majority of Irish people. Within the school curriculum, there was a drive towards using education to promote a

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nationalistic agenda. One such move was the attempt to re-establish Gaelic as the native tongue, and therefore the teaching of Irish became compulsory within the Irish curriculum (it is still compulsory to this day). Failure to succeed in Irish also resulted in overall failure to acquire the necessary certificates of achievement following the termination of schooling. Unfortunately, the Irish language was not taught as a living language but rather as a relic of the past, over-burdened with literary texts and grammar. Since the 1990s, this failed approach has given way to progressive pedagogical approaches. With that, came the popular Gaelscoil movement, i.e. schools that teach solely through the medium of the Irish language. Although accused in some quarters as a middle-class movement, the Gaelscoilenna have refuted this accusation and point out that migrant-parents find English-medium schools sufficient for their children, rather than to introduce an added linguistic challenge to their child’s education. Today, education in Ireland is compulsory from the ages of 6 to 16. The latter age is ordinarily reached when a child completes three years of secondary school. Although there is no State provision for Early Childhood education, the State does cover fees for one year of pre-school early care and childhood education at recognized pre-schools at the age of three or four. From there, a child moves on to primary school, the vast majority of which are state funded. The primary school educational experience lasts for eight years. Most primary schools are run by denominational churches, although most now are laity-led. All schools, denominational or not, are state funded. There are some nondenominational schools that exist, called ‘educate together’ schools. Most Irish schools are publically funded, yet privately managed through Boards of Management based at the school level (Griffin, 2001; DES, 2004).

International movements towards child-centred education Internationally, progressive education theorists, from building on the work of Aristotle, began to view education as a child-centred endeavour where children must explore and discover rather than be corralled into learning decontextualized facts through rote learning within a teacher-centred and top-down assessment driven curriculum. Theorists (such as Dewey, Pestalozzi and Frobel to mention but a few) believed traditional education to be reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times novel, where rote learning and decontextualized facts, irrespective of comprehension, were at the heart of education. Slowly but surely, schooling and theories about education began to permeate national thinking through works

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such as Rousseau’s Émile, which advocated a child-centred approach to education where experiential learning is at the core of the learning experience. The English philosopher John Locke’s essay ‘Some Thoughts Concerning Education’ (1693) further developed the notion that children’s minds are like a tabula rasa (an open mind with an absence of preconceived ideas) impressed by learning through observation and experimentation. Other significant theorists and influential thinkers that followed included the Swiss Johann Pestalozzi who wanted to educate the mind and spirit of the child – placing care and respect for the child at the heart of the child’s educational experience. His theories were further developed by German Friedrich Froebel, his student, who coined the term Kindergarden meaning ‘garden for children’ – indicative of the wonderment and awe of childhood and what the learning environment should be like. Froebel argued that creative play should be a core part of the curriculum to enable the holistic development of the child. In his book, The Education of Man (1862), he argued against corporal punishment, a practice heavily endorsed within Irish schools at this time though eventually outlawed from Irish schools as late as the 1960s. From the late 1960s and early 1970s, the curriculum at primary-level became child-centred and began to endorse many of the ideas espoused above.

Economic impact on education from 1960 to 2010 In terms of economic activity, Ireland had traditionally been an agrarian society, up until the 1960s when it began to diversify its activities. This shift in economic activity gained pace in 1973 when Ireland joined the EEC (the European Economic Community) in order to expand its agri-markets as well as benefit from European subsidies. Henceforth, there was a move towards exporting livestock and also a parallel drive to increase industrial manufacturing. From the 1970s, in terms of its economic activity and the boost that joining the EEC/EU gave to the Irish economy, Éire never looked back and has since become a keen EU and global economic player. It was at this time that investment in education became a key driver heralded as a key component to its national and potential international success. In the 1980s, there was a downturn in the economy when manufacturing industries began to fail, and, aligned with global trends, manufacturing industries began to move towards cheaper operating economies such as Eastern Europe and Asia, particularly China. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, technological-based

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industries, multinational pharmaceutical companies and the financial services sector began to take a strong foothold in Ireland, particularly during the ‘Celtic Tiger’ years (from the mid-1990s to late 2000s). Since then, such global industries have thrived in Ireland. As Ireland became particularly attractive as a central business hub, especially in relation to foreign direct investments (FDIs), factors mooted to attract FDIs to Ireland – in order of importance – included: ●

●

●

●

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Ireland’s very attractive, competitive and sometimes controversial international corporation tax rate of 12.5 per cent; Ireland is perceived as a strong committed European partner and is therefore popularly perceived as a gateway to Europe; Ireland is an English-speaking country for historic reasons, although Gaelic is de jure the official language of the country; Ireland has a young, vibrant, highly educated, skilled and talented work force; Ireland had a stable political landscape with few incidences of civil unrest, attractive for FDIs.

Aside from ‘the Troubles’ in Northern Ireland (1960s–1990s) that eventually resulted in a successful peace process jointly established in 1998, the aforementioned factors contributed to Ireland’s economic boom from the mid1990s. Therefore, on balance, although the cost of living within the Republic is high, Ireland is broadly perceived as a good place to do business globally. This positive business perception of the Irish environment has been a redeeming aspect since Ireland from 2006 began to dip into recession. This recession resulted from: ● ● ● ● ●

●

reckless lending by banks from late 1990s to mid-2000s; poor governmental regulation and control over the banks; unfettered greed by the developer/construction industry; the wide-scale bribery of officials; a culture of corruption, reckless spending and poor accountability by the ruling Fianna Fáil party (which dominated the political landscape from the mid-1990s to the late 2000s); a global downturn in markets.

The above led to a ‘perfect storm’ that eventually led to the economic crash of Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger Economy’, leading the Republic to seek an international monetary loan from the ‘Troika’, i.e. the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the

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EC and the EMF (European Monetary Fund). Repaying this debt with interest has caused untold hardship for Irish taxpayers who were unfairly burdened with this outrageous private debt. Ireland had debts in excess of 150 billion euro, which in 2012 was 117.6 per cent of GDP whereby Ireland in 2013/14 owes more than €172,750,000,000. The recession and subsequent public sector cutbacks impacted negatively on the Irish education system. When ‘the Bailout’ (as ‘the international loan’ is commonly referred to) came into force, Ireland had to make certain structural adjustments to its economy, especially within the public sector. Education was one area that suffered cuts to its budget as a result of austerity measures demanded by the ‘Troika’. Yet, in spite of the political and economic debacle, education is an area that is proving to be resilient and consistent despite the failures and moral bankruptcy of the foundational pillars of Irish society traditionally held in high esteem. Such pillars included: ● ●

●

●

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the corruption of the political establishment, and local public officialdom; previously ‘revered’ professions (revealing malpractices in medicine and law); the banks and the financial services sector (billion-euro private debts burdened onto the Irish taxpayer); the Catholic Church (scandalous revelations of shocking sexual and physical abuses of minors within their industrial schools); the Charity sector (paying senior staff handsomely out of publicly raised funds).

It appeared, as the Irish recession was unfolding, so too was the murky underbelly of Irish society with revelations of widespread white-collar corruption and criminality; there has also been a parallel increase in drug-related gang criminality and violence. It appeared to many that the very fabric of Irish society was ripping apart. This was particularly poignant with the collapse of Irish economic sovereignty (2008–2013) where few escaped the impact of its downturn. Nonetheless, the education profession remained resilient, in spite of severe cuts to teacher salaries, school resources and reductions in disability assistance. Despite the national dismal picture, Irish education, though surviving on a shoestring, is still widely respected and protected by the Irish people who place a value on education not just for economic prospects but also for personal well-being. And for those who decide to emigrate, education is popularly perceived as a passport to greener pastures abroad, with greater opportunities to progress.

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Progress in education since the 1960s to 1980s Following the publication of several OECD reports, including Investment in Education (1965), the Irish government began to invest heavily in education as such reports began to link investment in education with economic prosperity. A stalwart educationalist, O’Sullivan (2006) – commenting on the latter report from the perspective of a ‘cultural stranger’ – argued that such OECD reports were widely regarded as ‘modernizing forces’ within Irish insular paradigms that governed Irish educational policy-making. O’Sullivan maintains that the roots for such paradigmatic shifts towards an economic model of education had already begun in the 1950s, in which the human capital paradigm began to replace the social development paradigm. He believes that this shift in emphasis has continued to the present day, whereby the human capital paradigm began to incorporate vocational, commercial and market interpretations of schooling. O’Sullivan locates these reformatory movements within the broader context of western neo-liberal forces that have persistently influenced Irish educational policy-making. The influence of the UK on Ireland has also been particularly strong in this respect (Griffin, 2001). Significantly, in the interim period, Ireland joined the ECC in 1973, and became a very active member ratifying some, if not all, of the EU treaties which were to ensue – though on several occasions such treaties were only passed by marginal percentages, including the Nice, Lisbon and Maastricht Treaties. Ireland was now subject to EU policies on areas of social, economic and fiscal concerns, and almost all the political parties were of the view that such linkages had more positive than negative ramifications for the Irish people, though this is still contestable. The beginning of major progressive steps in education began in 1967, when the Minister for Education, Deputy Donogh O’Malley, made an unexpected and surprising announcement that there would be free secondary education. Hence, between 1963 and 1991, there was a threefold increase in school participation. From the 1960s onwards, education became a more unifying and national concern that affected all social classes. For example, between 1963 and 1991 there was a threefold increase in school participation. The beginning of major progressive steps took effect from 1967 when the Minister for Education, Deputy Donogh O’Malley, made an usual and surprising announcement there would be free secondary education for all. Both Church and State in Ireland combined to include commonly accepted goals reflecting economic, cultural, egalitarian, administrative and partnership concerns. This contrasts, for instance, with the

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tradition of selective elitism within the British system with the prominence of the public (fee paying) sector within education, or indeed the competitive meritocratic tradition within education in the USA (Griffin, 2001). By the 1980s and 1990s, changes in education were taking shape. The 1998 Education (No. 2) Act for Ireland arose out of the White Paper of 1995, having been delayed by a change of Government in between. The Act played particular attention to second-level education. Up until this point, there was very little legislation governing schools, highlighting the consensual nature of Irish policymaking up until this point. Legislation at this point was more to legitimize current practice rather than instigating serious or radical reforms. The legislation introduced contemporary concepts such as partnership, transparency and accountability. It also set some key provisions in place, including allowing the Minister to withdraw recognition from a school that was not deemed to be performing its functions, legislated for the direct public funding of schools, the institution of the inspectorate and, in particular, it formally recognized the role of parent associations and the establishment of school boards of management for schools with corporate status (Griffin, 2001: Walsh, 1999). Following the legislation, it was noted in a 1997 OECD Report, Parents as Partners in Schooling, that the various measures proposed essentially meant that Ireland was about to have one of the most ‘parent-participative education systems in the world’ (OECD/CERI, 1997).

International trends in Irish education from the late 1980s In keeping with international trends in the 1980s and 1990s, there was also a drive for more accountability, transparency and quality assurance in education. The OECD Report of 1991, Review of the Educational Systems: Ireland, favourably reviewed the Irish education system, but did recommend more formal monitoring and reportage of the system. These concerns were subsequently articulated in the Green Paper of 1992 entitled ‘Education for a Changing World’. Measures included restructuring the role of the inspectorate, introducing standardized tests for primary schools, the use of performance indicators, increased accountability on school management boards, greater transparency in higher education institutions as well as the Department of Education and Skills, with annual reports to be issued. Nonetheless, it was widely perceived at this time that education was making an ideological paradigmatic shift towards neo-liberalism, and the desire to develop human capital for economic purposes

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indicated a shift away from nationalistic concerns around social and cultural issues. O’Sullivan (2002, p. 134) notes that this shift was evident in the ‘dominance of commercialized schooling and vocationalized curriculum in Irish educational discourse’. The report, ‘A Strategy for the Nineties’, issued by the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) in 1993 clearly endorsed consumer rights in education, and concluded by recommending the need to consider information systems and performance indicators in order to allow parents to gain ‘factual and evaluative data about schools’ (NESC, 1993, p. 134). Similar concerns were voiced by the then Minister for Education, Mary O’Rourke, when she issued a circular 24/91 entitled ‘Parents as Partners in Education’ (Department in Education, 1991) wherein she recommended active parent associations, full representation of parents on School Boards with decision-making powers, and a strategy for the inclusion of parents built into the policies of schools. Notions of ‘school choice’ were becoming prevalent during this time, arising from transatlantic debates around education that driving educational reform in the USA and the UK. These reforms were instigated by the Reagan and Thatcher governments respectively, and rigorously enforced, as far as possible. In short, it appears that the main socio-cultural influences on Irish education, particularly in relation to curriculum formation and educational policy-making are: first, Ireland’s colonial past; second, the dominance of the anti-intellectualism through the neglect of the philosophical and sociological analyses within educational research and policy making; third, the ‘social partnership approach within education leading to the golden aspiration of “consensus”; and fourth, ‘the prevailing technical paradigm . . . and the priority given to education for human, rather than for social capital’ (Gleeson, 2010, p. 3). Gleeson concludes that, from an Irish perspective, praxis (i.e. the ability for students to reflect on the conduct, character and consequences of their actions and/or their ways of relating to others (Kemmis, 2008, p.  289)) has received little attention while ‘liberal functionalism’ has been accepted as the only real paradigm in connecting schools with society (O’Sullivan, 1989, 2006; Drudy and Lynch, 1993; Gleeson, 2010, p. 6). Similarly, the increasing influence of neo-liberal ideology across educational systems in the western world has also been identified by Ball (1990); Whitty, Halpin and Power (1998); Apple (1999); Darling-Hammond (2001) among others. Such influences are reflected in Irish educational debates around populist concerns such as league tables, rational-technical models of curriculum design and planning, and the overall neglect of macro-planning – all indicators of the direction in which Irish education is heading.

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Key legislative changes to Irish education from 1990 to the present Since the mid-1990s, education in Ireland has progressed at a phenomenal rate with changes afoot at every level of education. The dialogue that developed in the 1990s eventually led to an ‘extraordinary cohesion and partnership in the system’ (Walsh, 1999, p.  209). This partnership had many positive offshoots, though the concept of ‘partnership’ was a contested concept well critiqued by O’Brien and O’Fathaigh (2007). Nevertheless, in the 1990s, much was achieved insofar as the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in education became clearer; representative boards of schools were formulated and accepted; the middle-management of schools became stronger; incareer programmes became recognized; and the disadvantaged began to be targeted. In other words, the principle of ‘partnership’ became firmly rooted (Walsh, 1999, p. 209). Prior to this, the debates about Irish education were dominated by issues of structure, ownership and control of schools and education. Now the focus between all the partners suddenly shifted to wider educational debates, such as the quality of education, professionalism, equality and equity, pluralism, curriculum development, democracy, lifelong learning and accountability, as well as the impact of technology on teaching and learning. Although it was a period of progression, O’Brien and O’Fathaigh (2007) still lamented the fact that more marginalized groups, such as disability, ESL, lifelong learning, traveller, immigrant and refugee status groups, were not given due attention, nor did they benefit a whole lot, in a time of unprecedented economic prosperity and buoyancy, and unparalleled optimism for the future of Irish society (Healy in his ‘Foreword’, in O’Brien and O’Fathaigh, 2007, p. xvii). Prophetically, Healy laments the growth of ‘competitiveness and individualism in society’, which he claimed ‘have made some people unhappy’ and highlights some paradoxes in that ‘economic growth and globalization are accompanied by social inequality, endemic deprivation, social unrest, violence and environmental stress’ that a ‘high consumption society’ – he sagely wrote – brings otherwise known as ‘progress’ – stating that ‘the conventional economic wisdom argues that this is what is required to produce a situation where everyone has a stake and where the good life can be accessed by all’ (Healy, in O’Brien and O’Fathaigh, 2007). One has to therefore ask, progress for whom, and at what cost? These are questions that came very much to the fore at the end of the ‘Celtic Tiger’ cycle, and the consequent bust after boom, leaving many people dizzy from the heights from

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which they had fallen. It appears Healy quietly predicted as much, in his own understated way. Since the mid-1990s, there has been approximately thirty pieces of legislative Acts passed through parliament pertaining to education in Ireland, be it Early Childhood Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Welfare legislation, the third-level sector including Further Education, or Disability Education, and so on. The key pieces of legislation that I will refer to in this section, in chronological order, are: The Universities Act 1997, The Education Act 1998 and the Education (Amendment) Act 2006, The Education (Welfare) Act 2000, the Teaching Council Act 2001 and the Teaching Council (Amendment) Act 2006, and the role of the Higher Education Authority (HEA).

Progress in Early Childhood Care and Education There was little concerted research into Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) (0–6 years) prior to 1995, and this correlates with the coming on-stream of degree courses for ECCE students in the mid-1990s and the subsequent increase of status of this sector in relation to the political agenda in the late 1990s. The Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education (CECDE) was set up in 2002, and this Centre played a crucial role in ‘directing and inspiring’ ECCE research in Ireland (Douglas, cited in Walsh and Cassidy, 2006, p. 6). From this time, a number of themes emerged in the public interest domain and are reflected in the research, including: children’s voices and rights, transitions from early childhood education to formal schooling, the quality of provision of ECCE, educational disadvantage, special needs, cultural diversity, international perspectives, longitudinal research and policy in the ECCE area, as well as staffing, training and qualifications issues (Walsh, 2003). The interest in ECCE was crystallized with the creation of the Office of the Minister for Children in 2005. Hence, the NCCA subsequently published an important document entitled ‘Framework for Early Learning’ and the CECDE published The National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education. Such research highlighted the gaps within the early childhood sector and, with mounting pressure from parent groups and society as a whole, the government eventually introduced a free early childhood care and education scheme (ECCES) with the aim of narrowing the gap between those who come from disadvantaged communities, and those from middle-class backgrounds, in order to create a more level playing field for children and ensuring the best possible start to their education. This funding

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pertains to any child attending any pre-school education system (including Montessori schools, Naonraí, playgroups, HiScope, etc.), and they receive one free year of education paid directly to the education provider (ordinarily a private enterprise).

Key changes in primary school In 2004, there were approximately 440,000 students enrolled at primary level; 340,000 at secondary level; and 125,000 at third level (DES, 2004, p. 7). Today, the document Projections of Full-Time Enrolment Primary and Second Level, 2013– 2031 (DES, 2013) estimates that primary enrolments will rise by 37,000 pupils in 2015, and will stabilize at 596,000 by 2019 before declining. Secondary schools are predicted to peak by 2015, and this rise will be sustained through to 2026 hitting a peak at about 416,000 pupils before reducing. This peak and trough in demographics has serious implications for educational planning at all three levels of education in Ireland. Average class size at primary level in Ireland in 2009/2010 was 24.1, the second highest in the EU (CSO, 2012).

The secondary school cycle The Government’s Department of Education and Science (DES) sets the general regulations around school recognition, regulates management of schools and the staffing and resourcing of same, prescribes curricula, and also negotiates teacher salaries. It has recently outsourced some of its functions to external agencies, such as the State Examinations Commission, which sets and assesses the main aforementioned state examinations at junior and senior cycles in secondary school. The secondary level sector comprises secondary, vocational, community and comprehensive schools. Second-level schooling typically begins at the age of 12 and has two cycles: junior and senior. The first junior cycle is a compulsory cycle of three years that, at 16 years of age, ends the period of compulsory schooling for students. This first cycle also ends with a summative examination called the Junior Certificate cycle comprising between nine and twelve examination subjects. In the late 1980s, some curricular changes were made to the secondary school system with a three-year cycle from 12–15 years (approx.), which is completed

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by what was then called the Intermediate Certificate before becoming the Junior Certificate in 1988. The examination at the end of this first three-year cycle of schooling is a summative external pen-and-paper examination run by the State. The reason for maintaining this system of education to date was to offset any risk of nepotism, favouritism or professional misconduct. Hence, the external examination system, though narrowly conceived, is broadly perceived as fair and objective irrespective f social class, gender, race or ethnicity of the child. Currently, there are reforms afoot to employ ‘assessment for learning’ pedagogical tools and convert the Junior Certificate into a continuous assessment examination that is internally assessed by teachers in the classroom. The new proposed Junior Certificate is to be called the Junior Cycle Student Award (JCSA). Currently, these reforms are contested as there is a perception that the changes are motivated not by: (a) pedagogical concerns and debates around ‘assessment for learning’ vs ‘assessment of learning’; or (b) on the merits or otherwise of continuous assessment over the limitations of summative, terminal, written formal examinations; or (c) around implications for teacher professional practice or the necessity of appropriate in-service training. To date, there has been little or no in-service provided or resource allocation for teaching professionals in relation to the change of assessment. Therefore, the prevailing viewpoint by the Teachers’ Unions is that such reforms are driven by economic imperatives, getting more value-for-money from state teachers, and freeing up the State from the fiscal burden of the costly external examination system. In Ireland, unlike the UK and the USA, teachers’ unions are still a powerful stakeholder within the educational system and are an integral partner in the social partnership arrangement that exists between the State, the Church, parents and teachers. This reform has yet to be implemented in full. However, in relation to the educational debates that led up to the introduction of the new Junior Certificate, there was a dearth of educational debate, discussion and philosophical basis on which such changes were to be introduced. While the document, A Guide to the Junior Certificate (NCCA, 1989) was published to relay the overarching aims and principles of the new Junior Certificate, educational experts complained that the certificate was not a convincing rational for the new examination, to be within an overall curriculum framework for the junior cycle or could be seen as satisfactory from an educational point of view. This highlights an anti-intellectual bias, whereby the basic goals and values of education are notably tacit, not explicit, particularly ‘during a period when major transformations in the society, economy and culture were occurring’ (OECD, 1991, p. 76).

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Between the Junior cycle and the Senior cycle, a ‘Transition Year’ was also introduced, as an optional year, directly after the Junior cycle to allow students to acquire life-skills and competences such as driving and European enculturation experiences through trips abroad. Other skills acquired include ICT, typing, and the development of interpersonal skills through engaging in drama, debates, sporting events, etc. The Transition Year is designed to give students an opportunity to mature and develop other core communication and intrapersonal skills outside of the academic prescribed course of the Senior cycle. However, Gleeson (2010) reports that, as a result, it is often referred to as a ‘doss’ year, indicating the attitude in which non-examination and non-subject-driven years are perceived among young people – a perception perpetuated by the educational system itself. The second cycle in secondary school, referred to as the Senior cycle, begins at the age of 15 or 16 and lasts for 2 years, ending with the ‘Leaving Certificate’, a second compulsory examination at the end of the secondary school cycle. Simultaneous to the changes in the aforementioned Junior Certificate, many curricular changes occurred during the 1980s to make the Senior cycle curriculum broader and less prescriptive. The ‘Leaving Certificate’ – which is the examination at the end of the second secondary school cycle (of two years duration from c. 15/16 years to 17/18 years of age) was also broadened to encompass a more technical and vocational orientation (introducing the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme and the Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme). Grades earned from this examination are equated to points on a scale, and the points system determines which students qualify for third level or further education courses. This points system is controversial as it is based on an external, summative examination or assessment. Disappointingly, it was determined by a ‘Commission’ (which was set up to investigate the points system, and to examine if there was a better viable alternative) that there is no feasible alternative to the points system as it is a high-stakes examination within Irish society, with no reliable alternative that would earn the backing of the general public or, indeed, the teaching profession. According to the Irish Central Statistics Office (2014), real expenditure in education per student in Ireland increased over the period 2002 to 2011 by close to a third at first level and by 27 per cent at second level. Nevertheless, CSO figures show a marked decrease of 14 per cent at third level over the same period. The CSO also record that in 2011 over 46 per cent of the population aged 25–34 had completed third-level education, which came in as the third highest rate across the EU. The proportion of the Irish population aged 18–24 who left school

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with at most lower secondary education was 10.6 per cent in 2011, which compared favourably to the EU average of 13.5 per cent (CSO, 2012). Hence, one of Ireland’s most notable educational strengths is its current participation rates in second-level education. CSO figures show that second-level completion rates in education in Ireland in 2013 were 90 per cent, the highest secondary participation rates in the EU. Overall, in Ireland, there tends to be an ad hoc approach to educational policy-making and curriculum reform, which is broadly an attempt to satisfy pragmatic demands. In some ways, this is reflective of the political landscape of Ireland, which is essentially centralist, with centre-left and centre-right party educational policies almost indistinguishable from each other, purporting to represent and satisfy technical, rationalist with egalitarian concerns. This has led to Irish educational policy-making being effectively a patchwork quilt comprising different interest groups’ concerns stitched together to form what is currently the prevailing educational system that exists, with poor attention given to educational planning. This is also reflective perhaps of the electoral proportional representation (PR), whereby long-term planning by Ministers of Education has given way to short-term thinking for political gain. In short, there is little ideological difference between the political parties, hence the current status quo. The consensual approach is reflected in the raft of reforms that have happened since the 1990s (Gleeson, 2010).

The third level in Ireland The third level is provided primarily by the universities (albeit they have been set up for over 150 years, they have since been established independently through the 1997 Universities Act), Institutes of Technology and Colleges of Education in Ireland. Other institutions exist that specialize in areas such as medicine and law. While third-level education is currently considered to be ‘free’, there are substantial ‘registration fees’ that students need to pay in order to register for courses amounting to a few thousand euro per year. Currently, about 60 per cent of students graduating from secondary school will enrol for a third-level place, hence, the wave from second level is expected to carry through to third level. In all, an increase in demand of ‘at least 45,000 places over 2012 levels is expected by 2027’ (DES, 2013, p. 4). The difficulty is that such volumes of new entrants to third level will be entering the system following years of austerity measures and reduced resources. This will prove difficult for the

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government in terms of future planning if this issue fails to be addressed in the near future. Certainly, any gains from the ‘quality insurance, quality assurance’ measures at third-level education (propelled by the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012), will surely militate against progress made in the interim period unless measures are taken to protect the quality of Irish education, particularly in terms of resourcing third-level higher education and research institutes, as well as further education colleges. Meanwhile, as third-level colleges revenue sources have steadily declined from the public purse over the past decade, almost in parallel fashion, there has been an increase of success from competitive funding streams within the EU research and innovation programmes of research through the various Frameworks (most notably Framework 5, 6, and 7) among other EU streams of funding (ERASMUS, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie, Tempus, etc.). However, as of 2014, all of these funding streams have been merged into one Funding Body called ‘Horizon 2020’ (McCarthy, 2014). Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market. http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020

Europe has become a very important source of funding for most third-level institutions in Ireland, particularly for the university sector in terms of realizing research, development and innovative ambitions within the global economy. Similarly, there is an added pressure for Irish universities and colleges to maintain, if not to raise, their ranking towards the higher-end of world universities. However, with depleting core revenue, bigger class sizes and an employment embargo preventing the hiring of new staff to replace retiring staff, on top of an ever-increasing workload, it is difficult to see how the quality of education provided cannot be affected as a result. Nevertheless, a move towards more online and blended learning opportunities and course offerings may assist in offsetting the number of contact hours or staff availability for students. Nonetheless, this issue is being highlighted to the Government of Ireland by the IUA and CHIU as well as the Unions, as an issue of deep concern.

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Tertiary cycle In relation to the third level, the Universities Act was passed in 1997. This set out a framework of accountability for the effective governance of universities. It also ensured that the autonomy of the universities was safeguarded through the provision 14(1), which states that ‘the university shall have the right and responsibility to preserve and promote the traditional principles of academic freedom in the conduct of internal and external affairs and be entitled to regulate its affairs in accordance with its independent ethos and traditions’, thus preserving the balance between autonomy and accountability. Since then, the Higher Education Authority (HEA) produced a report entitled The Financial Governance of Irish Universities: Balancing Autonomy and Accountability (2001) in order to clarify what this actually meant in practice. The HEA also set out a voluntary universities code of principles and best practice around conducting its internal and external affairs. All of the universities, together with the Irish Universities Association (IUA) accepted this code and its principles, and reporting requirements commenced in 2007. The code’s implementation is continuously under review (Kelly and Hegarty, 2007). In 1996, third-level fees were abolished with the aim of making third-level participation more equitable. By 2003, Ireland had a high participation rate in tertiary education (50 per cent) compared with other OECD countries, and it was anticipated that this would rise to 65 per cent and beyond in the future (CHIU, 2003). However, according to Denny’s (2010) findings, the socioeconomic gradient shows that the resultant equality of participation has not been the case. Third-level participation still favours higher-income families despite such measures being designed to create greater equality of access, especially for lower-income families. These findings are a result of the fact that ‘students from white-collar backgrounds do significantly better in their final second-level exams than the children from blue-collar workers’, and in Ireland the results of second-level examinations determine third-level entry as the grades are converted into points that determine course entry. Denny concludes that in order to be successful, such policies targeting the advancement of those from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, ‘should be targeted at the intended beneficiaries’. He also highlights the very pertinent fact that there are different domains of disadvantage, all of which may not be so obvious and which should be targeted separately (Denny, 2010, p. 16). However, over the decades, the net financial intake of the universities has decreased since the abolition of fees (and the introduction of registration fees

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instead), while the number of students entering third level has increased, with the university sector relying almost solely on the Exchequer for its funding. The sector is required to find supplementary income from research grants and EU programmes through competitive funding streams. The financial strain on the third-level sector has dampened the higher education sector’s ambitions to become a world class third-level system, competing within the global economy, and vying for places not with first-class rated anymore, but with middle ranking universities (CHIU, 2003). Similarly, the third-level sector unions, particularly IFUT (Irish Federation of University Teachers), SIPTU and TUI are claiming that the Irish third-level sector is in crisis, through ‘massive underfunding combined with commercialization and managerialism’. Currently, they are campaigning, through their ‘Charter for Action’ that the university sector is under attack through the casualization of labour in the university, the clawing back of academic freedoms, and the impact of ‘reforms’ on university support staff. The unions collectively are also concerned that universities are places of learning not just of enterprise, and they should not be construed as an industry boot-camp. In any case, the universities are currently a site of contestation with different interest groups represented, but the core concern that a university is first and foremost a public good needs to be protected and preserved. Out of our cleverness . . . has come learning about how to share ideas and pass down skills and knowledge. Out of it has come education. Thomas, 2013, p. 2

References Akenson, D. H. (1970) The Irish Education Experiment: The National System of Education in Ireland in the Nineteenth Century. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Apple, M. (1999) Power, Meaning and Identity. New York: Peter Lang. Ball, S. (1990) Politics and Policy-Making in Education. London: Routledge. Brock, C. and Tulasiewicz, W. (eds) (2000) Education in a Single Europe (2nd edn). London: Routledge. Byrne, K., Cremin, P., and Griffin, R. (2000) ‘Ireland’, in C. Brock and W. Tulasiewicz (eds) (2000) Education in a Single Europe (2nd edn). London: Routledge, pp. 206–27. CHIU (2003) The Future Funding of the Irish University Sector (by FGS Consulting commissioned by CHIU) Dublin: Confederation of Heads of Irish Universities, November.

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CSO (2012) http://www.cso.ie/en/newsandevents/pressreleases/2012pressreleases/ pressreleasemeasuringirelandsprogress2011/ [accessed 1 September 2014]. Denny, K. (2010) ‘What did abolishing university fees in Ireland do?’ Discussion Paper given at the School of Economics and Geary Institute, University College Dublin. 20 May 2010. Research partly funded under the PRTLI (Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions), UCD. Department of Education (1991) Parents as Partners in Education. Dublin. DES, Government of Ireland (2004) A Brief Description of the Irish Education System. Dublin: DES, Dublin Publications Unit. DES (2013) Projections of Full Time Enrolment: Primary and Second Level, 2013–2031, July 2013. Statistics/Projections http://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Statistics/ Statistical-Reports/Projections-of-full-time-enrolment-Primary-and-Secondlevel-2013–2031.pdf [accessed 1 September 2014]. Drudy, S. and Lynch, K. (1993) Schools and Society in Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. Gleeson, J. (2010) Curriculum in Context: Partnership, Power and Praxis in Ireland. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers. Griffin, R. (2001) ‘The mediation of market-oriented policies at second level schooling: multiple case studies between England, Ireland and the USA.’ Unpublished DPhil Thesis. Department of Educational Studies, St Hugh’s College, Oxford University. Kelly, M. and Hegarty, J. (2007) Governance of Irish Universities: A Governance Code of Legislation, Principles, Best Practice and Guidelines. Dublin: HEA/IUA Stationary Office. Kemmis, S. (2008) ‘Epilogue: a radical proposal’, in S. Kemmis and T. Smith (eds), Enabling Praxis: Challenges for Education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, pp. 287–96. Long, F. (2013) ‘Interview with R. Griffin’, in Education for a Brighter Future, Part 4 of a six-part radio documentary series funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) under its ‘Sound and Vision’ Award Scheme. CRY104 fm. Co-Produced by R. Griffin and D. Parker. Available on http://www.youghalradio.com/?page_id=525 [accessed 1 September 2014]. McCarthy, S. (2014) ‘How to write a competitive proposal for Horizon 2020.’ Course presenter, S. McCarthy from Hyperion in Devere Hall, UCC, Cork. 17 January 2014. NCCA (1989) A Guide to the Junior Certificate. Department of Education, Dublin. NESC (1993) A Strategy for the Nineties. Department of Education, Dublin. OECD/CERI (1997) Parents as Partners in Schooling. Paris: OECD. OECD/Department of Education (1965) Investment in Education Report. Dublin: Stationery Office. OECD (1991) Review of National Policies for Education: Ireland. Paris: OECD. OECD (1995) Decision Making in 14 OECD Education Systems. Paris: OECD. O’Brien, S. and O’Fathaigh, M. (2007) Learning Partnerships for Social Inclusion: Exploring Lifelong Learning Contexts, Issues and Approaches. Cork: Oaktree Press.

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O’Corrain, D. and O’Riordan, T. (2014) Emancipation, Famine and Religion: Ireland Under the Union 1815–1870: www.multitext.ucc.ie/d/Daniel_OConnell [accessed 15 January 2014]. O’Sullivan, D. (2002) ‘Cultural strangers and educational change: OECD Report Investment in Education and Irish Educational Policy’, Journal of Educational Policy, 7(5): 445–69. O’Sullivan, D. (2006) Cultural Strangers and Educational Change: OECD Report Investment in Education and Irish Educational Policy. published online 9 July 2006: http://tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0268093920070502 Thomas, G. (2013) Education: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press / Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. Walsh, J. (1999) A New Partnership in Education: From Consultation to Legislation in the Nineties. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. Walsh, T. (2003) An Audit of Research on Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland 1990–2003: www.cecde.ie/english/audit_of_research.php. [accessed 1 September 2014]. Walsh, T. and Cassidy, P. (2006) An Audit of Research on Early Childhood Care and Education in Ireland 2003–2006: www.cecde.ie/english/audit_of_research_2nd_Ed. php [accessed 1 September 2014]. Whitty, G. Halpin, D. and Power, S. (1998) Choice and Devolution in Education: The School, the State and the Market. Melbourne: ACER. http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/ horizon2020/en/what-horizon-2020 [accessed 18 January 2014].

Further Reading Darling-Hammond, L. The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ESAI (1998) Irish Educational Studies, Volume 17; Spring 1998. Dublin: Educational Studies Association of Ireland. Griffin, R., Parker, D., and Regan, C. (2014) Education for a Brighter Future: A six-part radio documentary series of current education issues in Ireland. Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) under its ‘Sound and Vision’ funding scheme. To be found on www.youghalonline.com or www.cry104fm.ie [accessed 1 September 2014; available on open archive]. Lynch, K. (1989) ‘The hidden curriculum: reproduction’, Education. An Appraisal. London: Falmer.

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Italy: Transitions and Change Carlo Cappa

Introduction Two different types of argument, heterogeneous yet closely linked, need to be taken into consideration in order to understand the development of the education system in Italy. Over the long period to be analysed, from Unification (1861) to today’s most recent developments, Italy’s historical condition has profoundly changed, with radical social upheaval modifying the role of the education system. This brings to the fore all the complexities of a juncture in a national system that has entered a lively dialogue with the international context, marking a development that does however present important continuities – as much in the inspiring ideals guiding its growth as in the issues to which it has been tried to give answers – in the past and the present. The first type of argument to consider, therefore, is the intrinsic plurality of co-ordinates required in studying the education system, a feature not limited solely to Italy: cultural, social, political and economic, often out of tune one with the other if not in open conflict. A second type of argument, again not limited to the case of Italy, but particularly delicate when dealing with a topic such as this, is that of the evolution and the different currents of historiography in the field of education succeeding one another and intertwining in the course of history. These in turn are revealing signs as to how the Italian education system can be considered, and what expectations and hopes there are for its transformation. In this case also, current debate has produced approaches never before broached, readings and interpretations that are influenced by the tensions present within Europe and worldwide, and that are very much alive in Italy. At the same time, other approaches of analysis continue to exist, with their stable, consolidated history, that insist on specific critical points within the Italian education system. In this multifaceted framework, after a short historical outline, this chapter will analyse the development of the education system with special reference to the 201

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Republican period, after the Second World War, until the most topical changes of today’s reforms. In order to have a better understanding, some aspects will be stressed as especially significant: the dynamics between centralization and decentralization, the movement towards school autonomy, secondary school reforms, the transformations in teacher training, and the reforms of higher education in accord with the Bologna Process.

The Casati law In analysing the evolution of the education system in united Italy, it is usual to see its founding moment in a measure – the Casati law – that was in fact adopted at the beginning of the unification process in 1859, and was only later extended to the rest of the country as unification went forward, until the whole peninsula was included.1 When promulgated (three days after the peace signed at the end of the Second War of Independence), the law was therefore applied in the first place only in the Reign of Sardinia, which through that same peace treaty was extended to comprise Lombardy as well as the territories already included, i.e. Piedmont, Liguria, Val d’Aosta and Sardinia (the latter bestowing its name on the whole Reign for historical reasons). The progressive extension of this law throughout Italian territory justifies its being considered the fundamental measure for the education system in the new Reign, but is however at the root of some of the issues and criticism it raised. The conditions existing when the Casati law2 came into force featured notable differences in school policies among the various States pre-existing in the Italian peninsula (Bonetta, 1997; Cives, 1990; Santamaita, 2010, Santoni Rugiu and Santamaita, 2011). Where education was considered one of the main points in the political agenda, a common trait was the intention to modernize the State, taking into account the economic and social forces present. In particular, a growing demand for access to education became apparent that would also cater for the middle class’s desire to partake of that culture, in primis classical culture, so far limited to the aristocracy and upper classes. This was especially true in the Reign of Sardinia; it was here that the unification process started and where important innovations were introduced, one of the most relevant being the Royal Letter of 30 November 1847 with which the king Carlo Alberto set up the Ministry of Public Education. This is meaningful, since it demonstrated the interest of the State in being the point of reference in the field of education and in opening discussions – discussions frequently seen as conflicts – with the

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Church (Pazzaglia, 1994). The next step followed only a year later: the Boncompagni law of 4 October 1848 structured the education system in the Reign into three levels: elementary, secondary and university level. Also noteworthy was the increasing urge to control the education system, both by arrogating it to the State rather than the Church, and by accentuating bureaucratic structures. This last tendency was further strengthened by the Lanza law of 22 June 1857 with its emphasis on centralization at administrative level. We must however remember that even with the next step forward – the Casati law – State bureaucratic control was not absolute; although education was guaranteed by the State, the institution or maintenance of private schools was foreseen. Together with these aspects, and as one result of the turbulent historical events of the period, the groundwork was also laid for the Casati law by the inflow into Piedmont of personages exiled from other States, among whom were Casati himself and Raffaello Lambruschini. The Casati law therefore came to light in a fertile ground, albeit under an exceptional regime – the outcome of the times immediately after the conflict of the Second War of Independence during which full powers had been conferred on the king Vittorio Emanuele II by Parliament. The law was intended to consolidate the previous ten years of reform of the Reign of Sardinia and such a set-up became the model extended to the rest of the country after the proclamation of the Reign of Italy in 1861 (Canestri and Ricuperati, 1976). Seeking to respond to the needs of the time and under the attentive leadership of a liberal Right, the Casati law structured the education system into three divisions (Talamo, 1960): the first including higher education, the second including classical secondary education, and the third including technical and elementary education. The legislators’ concerns were clearly focused on the first structure, laid out in much greater detail, while elementary education was less central – and this was anything but unusual in the European context. Free elementary education was provided in all municipalities and was divided into two two-year periods, with children starting at the age of six. The first twoyear period was in fact compulsory, though paternal education, much favoured by the Catholics, was an acceptable alternative. Secondary education fell into two types: classical secondary education made up of five years of ginnasio and liceo; and technical education, made up of three years of technical school and three years of technical institute. This part of education has been reviewed and interpreted in many different ways: there is no doubt in fact that the two channels of secondary education were kept strictly separated, a separation that reached up to include the direction of the institutes of secondary education, which could not

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be entrusted to the same person. This arrangement was integrated by the care taken to establish a different territorial distribution that would take into account the differing functions assigned to the two channels and attributed to technical education the function, fundamentally important to the State, of supplying the general and specific culture to serve careers in the ‘public service’, industries, commerce and agriculture. Furthermore, the physics and mathematics section of technical institutes allowed for the possibility of entering the sciences faculty. This did not exclude on principle a connection between this branch of the school system and the university, representing a functional integration to the attention devoted to philosophical and classical studies in licei and universities, the pivot of the general system of the Casati law for the training of the future ruling class. The classical secondary school granted access to all university faculties and centred on the humanities; this level was one of the fundamental features of the new education system. The success and centrality of this type of school for the story of education in Italy is unquestionable: in spite of the profound changes brought in over the centuries, today’s liceo classico with its five-year duration is still divided in accordance with the distinction between the two-year ginnasio and the three-year liceo. The varied territorial and qualitative characters found in the other levels of education were also present in the situation of the universities as addressed by the Casati law, a diversification that would widen yet more with the annexation of other territories to the Reign. Over a few decades, this was to lead to the presence of seventeen State and four free universities (Santamaita, 2010, pp. 20– 1; Tomasi and Bellatalla, 1988). There were five faculties at the outset: Law, Theology, Medicine, Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, Lettere e Filosofia (Arts) – in fact, a replica of the medieval university structure but with two important differences: the ‘promotion’ of the liberal arts faculty and the addition of the more ‘topical’ faculty of sciences, which, as we have seen, was linked to the technical course of studies as well. A number of elements are especially meaningful also for the later developments of the higher education system in Italy: universities were given the double function of teaching and research; their heterogeneity and numbers immediately posed a problem of their rationalization and harmonization. This last matter is still an open question because it has never really been solved, the result is a higher education that might well lead to an excessive number of degree holders in subjects such as law with no opportunity to take full advantage of the qualification gained. The last item to be mentioned regarding the Casati law was what might be called a third branch of education: the so-called ‘normal’ education intended to

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prepare teachers for the elementary schools so urgently required by the new State. This course lasted three years, where the first two years enabled those who completed them to teach in the first two-year period of the elementary school, while the third one enabled them to teach also in the second biennium. Given the pressing need for teachers, however, the Casati law laid out alternative means to gain the ‘patente’ (elementary teaching licence), both through a positive assessment by the Royal Inspector of the province, or through simply passing the single final exam of the three-year course and a year of practical training in schools (Talamo, 1960). This detailed description of the historical moment is necessary since certain elements, and a number of critical points dealt with in the Casati law, were for a long time, and maybe still are, characteristics of the Italian education system, as we shall see. To evaluate it, we must take into account the complex situation at the time the law was passed. It took shape within the overall picture of the effort to unify the State. As in other European States, this was a commitment that meant building up an administrative, political and economic unity and forming the citizens of this new reality. This critical period was made yet more arduous by the financial weakness of the time and by the Church’s strenuous opposition to the very existence of an Italian State, that usurper of Papal powers. Seen in this light, the Casati law was a success both politically and financially, satisfying certain demands of Piedmont and Lombard Catholics without being onerous for the resources of the nascent State (Palomba, 2009, pp. 197–9). With the same prospect of compromise between different requests, the delicate issue of relations between State schools and private schools was solved by adopting a ‘middle system of freedom’, enabling private schools to exist while the State remained in charge of education. Opposed by many liberals suspicious of the State’s strong, binding role, and by federalists like Carlo Cattaneo, the centralizing decision was eventually adopted within the overall picture of a State fearing for the solidity of newly-achieved unification. In virtue of the vital link between the Casati law and the target of setting up a unified State, the structure and arrangement of the law aimed at bringing together a selective attitude with the creation of courses satisfying the social and economic requirements of the times, and an increase in generalized schooling. Such intentions gave rise to a law that was relatively open both regarding the laws of the time in other European countries and regarding the Italian laws approved from 1923 onwards (Barbagli, 1974, p. 81, Palomba, 2009, pp. 200–2). As well as university access granted to students of technical education, a particularly important feature was the arrangement of one single elementary

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education regardless of what study courses the students would undertake later on. The objective of creating a unified State imposed a complex equilibrium in education between selection and socialization; the Casati law was an important contribution to this result.

The Gentile reform The years between the Casati law and Giovanni Gentile’s important reform in 1923 saw a number of adjustments and notable changes in the Italian education system. Among these, the Coppino law of 1877 must be mentioned because it was in line with the new political climate in the country when the Right relinquished government to the Left. This law was intended to make elementary education more binding. The obligation of school attendance hence became more stringent and was set for three years, from six to nine years of age, and later extended to six years by the Orlando law in 1904 and to eight with Gentile. However, a number of difficulties remained regarding the obligation itself, issues that were in part economic and had hindered the implementation of the Casati law. Furthermore, the question of relations with the Church was at the heart of a measure making religious instruction optional and replaced by First Notions on the Duties of Men and Citizens (Prime nozioni dei doveri dell’uomo e del cittadino). Although many of its points were never implemented, the Coppino law focused attention once more on education and showed good will as to facing the many problems of the young unified State, focusing on the ‘formation of citizens’ in elementary school syllabi (Palomba, 2009, pp. 202–5). Lively debate characterized the following decades and involved people of the calibre of Francesco de Sanctis (1817–1883) and Aristide Gabelli (1830– 1891), Antonio Labriola (1843–1904) and don Giovanni Bosco (1815–1888). Filtering through the historical context and specific cultural tradition, the issues in pedagogy under discussion in the rest of Europe reached Italy, influencing educational policies also. Among the different proposals raised, the positivist-inclined pedagogic school undoubtedly made its mark (Genovesi, 2010, pp. 105–22; Santamaita, 2010, pp. 41–73). The urgent need to create the State’s citizens through the education system became ever more the focal point on the political agenda. Two closely-connected aspects require attention in order to understand successive developments: the problem of ‘normal’ education for the formation of teachers, and the discussions on what was to become the scuola media, middle

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school (i.e. lower secondary) (Trebisacce, 2013). Teacher education had been a problem since it was first instituted; to attend it, an exam had to be passed on subjects not studied in elementary school, and male candidates had to be at least sixteen, female candidates fifteen. This caused a gap between the end of elementary school and any possibility of starting ‘normal’ school. To remedy this situation, in 1880 Francesco de Sanctis set up a two-year preparatory course for the normal school; this course was extended for one year by the Minister, Boselli, in 1889. Thus the whole course of the normal school lasted six years and the ‘lower licence’ to teach only in the first two-year stage of the elementary school was abolished (Covato, 1994; Santamaita, 2010, pp. 62–3). As to the structure of schooling after primary education, debate raged between unicist and pluralist positions: the former wanted to limit the variety of the many study branches available immediately after elementary education; the latter, for various reasons, argued for keeping the distinction between technical and classical education. It was in this climate of attention to education that another important law appeared, the Daneo-Credaro law of 4 June 1911 (Genovesi, 2010, pp. 84–6; Santamaita, 2010, pp. 69–71) that decidedly boosted the increase and spread of the elementary school; this impulse coincided with the transfer from local administrations to the State of the responsibility for elementary schools, a norm opposed by the Catholics who had greater influence at local level. Due to this opposition, the rule was applied only in towns that were not provincial capitals. During the same years, moreover, the importance of pre-school education was recognized, leading to a fundamental innovation in the creation of the Case dei bambini by Maria Montessori in 1907, a fact that acknowledged the growing importance of infant education as so widely debated in Europe since the time of educators such as Froebel and Pestalozzi, and which in Italy saw the start of the scuole materne run by the sisters Rosa (1866–1951) and Carolina Agazzi (1870– 1945) (Genovesi, 2010, pp. 73–4). In the years before fascism came to power in 1922, the debate on education in Italy became more and more heated, with Church and State both in the front line. In particular, there was the Royal Commission inquiry for the regulation of studies in Italy, which carried out an in-depth investigation throughout the country from 19 November 1905 to 11 May 1909, an initiative similar to others made at the same time in other European nations. In this case too, the issue of the scuola media came to the fore, since the Minister, Bianchi, proposed merging the technical school with the lower ginnasio to form a three-year middle school without Latin. This was strongly opposed by Galletti and Salvemini, although on the socialist side, in La riforma della scuola media. Their opposition was based on the belief that a school divided into two

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branches fulfilled educational needs while satisfying the upward aspirations of the less affluent classes better than a single school that would inevitably have been modelled on the needs of middle- and upper-class children; therefore this would have placed at a disadvantage those pupils from other social conditions, who would instead have gained by a more ‘useful’ education (Galletti and Salvemini, 1966, pp. 269–633). The debate was still going forward ten years later, as shown by Piero Gobetti in La questione della scuola e il problema della scuola media (Gobetti, 1960). Meanwhile, the cultural climate was also undergoing change, registering the growing weight of idealist thought as represented by Giovanni Gentile and Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, and of Catholic thought, which found new energy and political influence, eventually leading to the foundation of the Popular Party by Luigi Sturzo in 1919. The so-called ‘Giolittian age’ (spanning the first fifteen years of the twentieth century) therefore, saw the rise of new problems connected to increasingly urgent claims from a democratic context, which had produced an enlarged secondary school population. However, it did not prove possible to resolve the difficult economic situation of teachers and respond to the new social climate. After the First World War, tensions and contrasting opinions found no mediation, not even in the attempt made by the last brief Giolitti government (June 1920 to June 1921), when the Minister of Public Education was the important intellectual and philosopher Benedetto Croce. He tried to deal with the delicate issue of the State examination in middle schools, but the measure he proposed, closer to the claims of the Catholic wing than to those of the other parties, was unable to gain the approval of the parliamentary Commission. These failures brought personalities such as Ernesto Codignola closer to fascism, then approaching centre stage in Italian politics. A feeling began to surface also among some intellectuals that only this new movement would be able to deal decisively with the complex universe of the Italian education system. Few moments in the history of Italian schooling have been subject to so much debate as that period of change known as the Gentile Reform (Canestri, 1983; Genovesi, 2010, pp. 123–56; Santoni Rugiu and Santamaita, 2011, pp. 89–102). Whatever our opinion today may be on the education scenario of that time, Gentile’s skill remains evident in summarizing and building a rational system out of the tensions of the previous decades within a picture that was to influence Italian schooling until the very recent past. We must recall that the Gentile Reform was made up of numerous measures, in particular three royal decrees issued between May and October 1923 (the year after fascism entered the government), thanks to the full powers delegated to the government thus

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avoiding any parliamentary discussion. It was set up, therefore, before the fascist government had taken on those dictatorial features of a regime that became its characteristics after the Matteotti assassination on 10 June 1924. The Gentile Reform, furthermore, was not fascist-inspired: rather, it interpreted Italian neoidealistic thought and liberal positions. Compulsory schooling was extended to eight years, i.e. up to the age of fourteen. Primary education was divided into three cycles: a first, non-compulsory cycle (scuola materna), followed by two cycles, respectively of two and three years. Thus elementary schooling lengthened to five years. Secondary education was split into a lower secondary (scuola media) and upper secondary level. In the first stage there were four branches: complementary school (three years, with no access to further studies), the ginnasio (three years), the lower courses of the technical institute (four years) and the magistrale, the teachers’ training school (four years). In the second stage there were five branches: higher courses of the technical institutes (four years) and teachers’ training (three years), the classical liceo (five years), the scientific liceo (four years) and the girls’ liceo (three years). The latter was especially unsuccessful and was abolished after a few years. The scientific liceo also failed to attract the interest of Italian families; they only began to consider it a viable option when it was extended to five years. The complementary school, however, was a real ‘dead-end’ school, also incapable of attracting families. Between 1929 and 1931 it was re-organized into job-oriented schools (scuole di avviamento al lavoro) which gave students the chance of then continuing in technical institutes and magistrali. Finally, vocational education was assigned to the Ministry of Economy (Genovesi, 2010, pp. 157–74). At the centre of his reform, Gentile’s fundamental theory gave classical studies pride of place since they had the role both of fuelling the education of the country’s élite and of being the cohesive link for national identity, thus earning a place in technical institutes as well. Further important features were the introduction of religious instruction in elementary schools after the Coppino law had set it aside, and the State examination at the end of each stage of education. Religion was, however, ancillary to philosophy and was a surrogate at the education stage in which philosophy could not be adequately studied. This inevitably annoyed many Catholics who were otherwise welldisposed towards the novelties introduced by the reform. At the same time, the strongly merit-based character of Gentile’s approach clashed with the claims of the middle class, that important pool of consensus for the fascist regime. This reform, therefore, dealt with the needs of a transition period in which heterogeneous contributions were made by eminent leaders of Italian culture

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of the time, among whom was Giuseppe Lombardo Radice, Director General of the elementary school, sympathetic to the pedagogical approach of activism. Gentile resigned in 1924, at the moment when a number of adjustments started to bring the neo-idealist’s philosophical project in line with the fascist regime. Until 1938 there came many slight alterations, and also measures for a ‘fascistization’ of Italian education. Among the former, the State exam was made less rigorous (1924); later, after the Lateran Pacts with the Catholic Church, which put an end to the dispute between the Italian and the Papal States since unification, the teaching of the Catholic religion was included in the secondary schools at both lower and upper level (1929). Among the latter measures, one of the most important was the founding of the Opera Nazionale Balilla (1926) and the racial laws of 1938 with their severe effects on schooling. In this climate came Giuseppe Bottai’s Carta della Scuola of 19 January 1939, intended as the climax to the full fascist transformation of the school, outlining the relation between school and society according to the regime’s populist view. In actual fact, the Carta, approved just before the outbreak of the Second World War, remained almost completely unapplied apart from a few points; one that should be recalled was the unification of all branches of the lower scuola media except for the vocational and crafts schools.

Italy after the Second World War On 25 July 1943, fascism collapsed. The Liberation of Italy followed on 25 April 1945. Within this framework, conditions changed making it possible to hold the highly-debated Referendum on 2 June 1946 that transformed the country into a Republic. During this voting operation, the Constituent Assembly was also elected; this Assembly held its sessions from 25 June 1946 to 31 January 1948, and the Italian Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948. This again was a period during which a balance was sought between the two main parties in the field, the Left, with the Communist and Socialist parties, and the Catholic front; and this balance in turn had to respect the international position of the new Republic. After the Yalta Conference of 1945, Italy came within the Western bloc in spite of the presence of a strong Communist Party, which however found it impossible to take power, thus making true government alternation impossible. In 1955, Italy joined the United Nations. The Constituent Assembly saw a heated debate on education with top-level participants, among whom Aldo Moro, Giorgio La Pira, Guido Calogero, Tristano

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Codignola and Palmiro Togliatti, representing all the different spirits present in this complex process of defining the new Republic. The most important results in the field of education were: the formation of a school open to all, free and compulsory for at least eight years; recognition of the right to open private schools as long as there was no financial burden for the State; the intent to grant access to the higher levels of studies to all the students who deserved it, even if they were without financial means. An important factor also was the inclusion of religious instruction since the Constitution recognized the Lateran Pacts of 1929. From 1951 to 1961, schooling was controlled by the majority party, the Christian Democrats. During that period, the school population increased, so much so that attendance doubled in elementary and in lower secondary education. Besides this great achievement, however, many reforms – such as those of the Ministers Guido Gonella (1951) and Giuseppe Medici (1959) – were not completely implemented (Ambrosoli, 1982). In the long evolution of the scuola media, mention must be made of the experimentation in 304 institutes of a single middle school in the 1960/1961 school year. From 1959 on, the political climate in fact changed and the government widened its base of support through an arduous agreement with the Centre-Left, and this had noteworthy effects on education. Between 1959 and 1962, many reforms followed one another, thanks to the Minister of Public Education, Luigi Gui, redefining the scuola media: it became one single three-year course, reaffirming that education was compulsory until the age of fourteen. The part played by Latin at this level of education diminished (and was abolished in 1977 by the Minister, Franco Maria Malfatti), and of course access to any course of higher secondary education was possible after a final State examination. The different courses available within higher secondary education were: classical liceo (5 years), scientific liceo (5 years), artistic liceo (4 years), liceo magistrale – teachers’ education – (4 years), technical institute (5 years). Besides these, the Vocational State Institutes, to be recognized only a few years later as fully-qualified secondary education, offered two-, threeor four-year courses leading to a diploma (Susi, 2012). The reform of the scuola media, implementing the principles of the Constitution, radically changed Italian schooling and influenced its further development. In part, it satisfied the Left’s determination to avoid differentiation in education (Chiosso, 1977), embodying the output of much national and international debate (Palomba, 2009, pp.  207–10). On the other hand, this approach had to be fully harmonized with the other levels of education, and that did not happen for a long time.

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The decade preceding the Delegation Law3 of 1973 and the ensuing Decrees of the following year saw the expansion of education that became mass education and brought about an impressive increase in the number of teachers. In particular, after the innovation of the scuola media unica and as an effect of the political and social climate of the times, in 1969 access to university was liberalized, enabling all students from any type of higher secondary school to enrol in any degree course, and individual academic study plans were allowed under certain specific conditions. This move had also been prepared by the reform at the start of the same year, for the moment experimental, of the State examination of maturità at the end of the upper secondary school. This was the most important change in the organization of the university offer since the Gentile reform, and was to last until the Berlinguer reform at the end of the 1990s. Furthermore, the option of university enrolment whatever the type of secondary school attended cancelled any distinction in the prospects opened up by the different branches. This met the approval of the middle class, which aspired to greater social mobility (Palomba, 1988); it avoided the ‘dead-end’ schools; and, finally, it offered prospects to those who would not find work after the end of the higher secondary school course (Barbagli, 1974).

From the 1970s to the 1990s As we have said, during the process of democratic growth of the Italian Republic, there was – and certainly still is – no lack of strong tensions, in some cases blocking the completion of structural reforms. The case of the Delegated Decrees of the 1970s is here emblematic: the approval of the law delegating the Government to issue norms on the juridical state of managers, inspectors, teaching and non-teaching personnel of the scuola materna, elementary, secondary and artistic state schools, took three years, September 1970 to August 1973; in the following nine months, it was to lead to important adjustments in the education system (Chiosso, 1977). The Delegated Decrees were issued on 31 May 1974, sustained by principles of law placing schooling within a wider vision of social community, in which it was to carry out its educational function in close relation with families. This new view of schooling brought with it the creation of Collegial Bodies (Decree of the President of the Republic – D.P.R. 416) providing for the participation of students (from upper secondary schools) and of parents, both having the right to convene independent assemblies. This involvement of the social context was confirmed by assigning the teaching body with the task of

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planning the educational offer of the school, enabling such proposals to be adjusted according to the specific needs of each local territory. In the 1960s and 1970s, schools were invested with a social function definable as ‘meliorist’, in search of structural reforms still not fully achieved, in line with an approach common to the Left; that was a focal point of much debate within educational sociology (Benadusi, 1984). The profile of teachers underwent profound changes (D.P.R. 417); the freedom of teaching as guaranteed by the Constitution was reiterated (freedom in teaching and in cultural expression). In defining their function, the education of students to critical thinking and the full formation of the personality of each were underlined. Freedom in teaching was also reinforced by the introduction of experimentation (D.P.R. 419) directed at research and innovation in didactics and teaching methods as well as at innovation in school organization. Introduced at all levels of education, in many ways experimentation served as a test for any future reforms that might eventually involve the education system; at the same time, experimentation enabled educational offers to be adjusted more rapidly to changes in society, thus compensating for the lack of more organic, complex reforms. The season of experimentation came to a climax with the creation of the Brocca Commission, named after its Chairman, Beniamino Brocca, Italian Under-Secretary for Public Education. The Commission launched various experiments that demonstrated the desire to change and adjust the education system to the new social climate and to the new challenges caused by mass education. At the same time, there was no chance of an overall reform (Benadusi, 1989), especially with regard to the upper secondary school; this would have to wait until the second half of the 1990s, at a time of profound political change (Niceforo, 2008). In the same period, the university also registered an important novelty: the Decree of the President of the Republic on 11 November 1980, n. 382, entitled Riordinamento della docenza universitaria, relativa fascia di formazione nonché sperimentazione organizzativa e didattica – Reorganization of university teaching bodies, related education level and organizational and teaching experimentation. The decree brought in an overall re-ordering of the university teaching profession and set up a second level of permanent professors – associate professors – abolishing the figure of the ‘assistant’. The first rung in the academic career ladder was now a new role, the researcher. Together with the figure of the researcher and closely linked to it, doctoral studies (in Italy called dottorato di ricerca) were also instituted by this Decree. The belated introduction of this level of higher education in Italy compared to other European countries is due to specific

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historical reasons connected especially to the particular work required by the degree thesis (Cappa, 2012). Laid down in this law and implemented three years later in 1983, the profile of doctorate is more or less in line with the previous tradition of a figure within the academic and scientific research world as understood during the twentieth century in Italy. Clearly there is no optimistic certainty that achieving a doctorate leads automatically and consequently to a university career. Temporary posts and the prolonged – often extenuating – climb towards a stable position have always been features of the Italian university world, if only because no attempt at all has ever been made to link the number of doctorate positions to the foreseeable availability of posts of researcher.

The past twenty years: accelerating reforms and ‘catching up’ with Europe Between 1992 and 1994, a radical political and social change came about in Italy, featuring painful legal vicissitudes and causing the downfall of the two main parties that had been in government over the previous decades: the Christian Democrats and the Italian Socialist Party. This situation was strongly affected by mutations following the fall of the Berlin Wall, an event bearing notable consequences for the political balance within Italy, a country heavily influenced by the polarity between the two blocs, as mentioned above. These various factors led to a period of transition and political instability; the outcome was the victory of the coalition created by Silvio Berlusconi in 1994. This new majority did not last long due to internal problems; a crisis followed that led to a technical government under Lamberto Dini. New elections on 21 April 1996 were won by the Ulivo (the ‘Olive Tree’), a wide Centre-Left coalition led by Romano Prodi, due also to the support afforded by the party named Rifondazione Comunista albeit under a delicate, instable pact of mutual tolerance – patto di desistenza4 (Niceforo, 2008, pp.  27–40; Nicefero, 2010, pp.  25–7). The Ministry of Public Education was entrusted to Luigi Berlinguer who undertook an extended, deepreaching reform of the Italian education system following the policy outlined by the Ulivo and contained in the 88 Tesi per la definizione della piattaforma programmatica de L’Ulivo – 88 Theses defining the programme platform of the Ulivo – and integrating the policy with indications coming from the technicalscientific Commission he had created for the purpose, chaired by Roberto Maragliano. On 13 May 1997, the Commission produced a Synthesis of their work (D.M. 50/97), further re-elaborated in March 1998. Welcomed by many

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educational experts, this report did not fail to trigger a debate still very much alive, especially but not only with regard to the consequences of certain positions on humanist studies (Marchetti, 2011, pp. 25–9). The reforms called into play for primary and secondary education in the four-year Berlinguer period were twofold: they intended to update a number of specific, critical features of the education system considered obsolete and to respect egalitarian principles. Law n. 425, dated 10 December 1977, altered the maturità examination as previously defined under Legislative Decree n. 9 of 15 February 1969 (intended as experimental), by introducing a third, interdisciplinary paper based on multiple-answer test questions, to gain an objective evaluation of the student’s overall preparation. This third paper was accompanied by two new papers: the first was an Italian test, which could now be in the form of comment on a text or on a newspaper article, or else the traditional essay; the second paper was differentiated according to the study course of the particular type of secondary school. Further innovations were: the new make-up of the examining Commission (previously all the members had been external to the school, now half were external, half were staff members); and also the introduction of school credits to be gained by pupils during the last three-year period through extra-curricular activities, credits that were vital for their final assessment; and also the change of the marking system, formerly out of 60, now out of 100, 20 of which were for these credits. These changes were to revamp the old system and anchor it firmly to the actual situation outside the school (Berlinguer, 2001; Tagliagambe, 2006; Vertecchi, 2006). The intention thus made clear was strengthened through Art. 21 of law n. 59 dated 15 March 1997 (the Bassanini law); within the framework of an overall delegation authorizing the government to confer greater powers on local authorities, this regulated school autonomy, adopting many of the norms on experimentation present in the Delegated Decrees of 1974. This norm granted school institutes didactic autonomy, organizational autonomy and the possibility of widening the educational offering. This novelty was followed by substantial financing and several operations to monitor the initiatives taken by individual schools. Through the schools’ intensive activity and further legal adjustments, the D.P.R. n. 275 of 8 March 1999 was reached, Regolamento in materia di autonomia delle istituzioni scolastiche – Regulations containing rules on school autonomy. This brought topics firmly into the vocabulary and practice of Italian education that today are at the centre of the education agenda: the link with local territory; the possibility of enlarging the educational offer with extra-curricular activity (thus gaining the credits that have proved fundamental for the final

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mark of the maturità examination); programming the Plan of Educational Offer (Piano dell’Offerta Formativa – POF); formation and information activities offered to parents; the opportunity to launch initiatives with other educational bodies with universities playing a strategic part; the invitation to set up networks of schools to optimize resources and enrich educational offer. This transformation had a decided effect on the architecture of the education system in Italy: the Minister now determines objectives, elaborating general study plans, while the individual schools have the task of making a selective synthesis based on national indications, pupils’ necessities and needs arising locally. This autonomy is, therefore, the main tool in achieving the new aims required by society of schools as a whole. Luigi Berlinguer remained at his post even after the Prime Minister changed; in 1998, in fact. Massimo D’Alema took over from Prodi. In this climate, law n. 9 of 20 January 1999 was launched, raising compulsory schooling to the age of 15. The intention was to get pupils to start a secondary education course while still in compulsory schooling in order to extend the latter, always an objective central to the Left’s programme. In the school year 1999/2000, this raised the numbers enrolled in vocational institutes, a choice forced on students by the new norm, but it later caused a higher drop-out rate. It appears that for those pupils with less motivation to continue their studies, it was not sufficient, in order to stay on in school, to have the prospect of a study course aiming at professional training or apprenticeship. Berlinguer also dealt with the issue of the non-State schools in the last law before his appointment terminated. Law n. 62 dated 10 March 2000, Norme per la parità scolastica e disposizioni sul diritto allo studio e all’istruzione – Rules on school equality and provisions concerning the right to study and education – in fact recognizes, albeit under certain conditions, the equality of the service offered by non-State schools and ratifies them as belonging to the public education system. This also granted the possibility for students and families who would have chosen non-State schools to take advantage of the economic facilitations provided for those who chose State education. Luigi Berlinguer’s season of reforms was decidedly tumultuous. Besides the laws just mentioned, law n. 30 of 10 February 2000 must be recalled, the Legge quadro in materia di riordino dei cicli d’istruzione – Framework law on the re-arrangement of the cycles of education. As well as including the previous law on the increase in compulsory schooling, this proposed a new architecture of the education system (Bellatalla, 2010). We will not enter into the details of this law since it was never implemented and was abrogated by the Berlusconi government, which came to power in 2001 after the brief period of D’Alema’s second government when Tullio de Mauro,

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previously a close collaborator of Berlinguer’s, was the Minister of Public Education. However, it further illustrates the buzz of reform going forward in the 1990s, which involved the university and teacher training as well. The second half of the 1990s saw the start of a university transformation process, not always successful, well defined as ‘evolving’ (Lombardinilo, 2010). Law n. 210 of 3 July 1998, Norme per il reclutamento dei ricercatori e dei professori universitari di ruolo – Rules for the recruitment of researchers and of university professors with tenure – was already directed towards the Bologna Process. It was not at all by chance that the Minister who intervened most on this subject was Berlinguer himself and that the vision behind his work on universities was not so much typical of the Italian tradition as headed towards the European context, in spite of all the complex problems that implied. We must remember that Berlinguer was one of the four European Ministers who laid the foundations for the Bologna Process in the Sorbonne Declaration of 25 May 1998. Law n. 210 propounded the doctorate as already being the third cycle of higher education, a position fully confirmed and developed in the Ministerial Decree n. 162 published on 13 July 1999, Regolamento in materia di dottorato di ricerca – Regulations on the research doctorate. However it was Decree n. 509 of 1999, Regolamento recante norme concernenti l’autonomia didattica degli atenei – Regulation concerning teaching autonomy of the universities – that brought the Italian universities within the Bologna Process by adopting University Credits (Crediti Formativi Universitari, CFU) and introducing a real revolution in how degree courses were structured. The resulting architecture produced the following cycle-based scenario: the first cycle consists of degree courses at level I lasting three years, while the second cycle consists of degree courses at level II (the specialist two-year degree); there are also a number of degree courses in a single cycle lasting four to six years (among these, Law, Medicine, Veterinary Medicine and the new degree in Sciences of Primary Education). This model was called, not very elegantly, the ‘3 + 2’, since it was necessary to be in possession of the degree diploma at level I in order to gain access to the specialist degree (level II). In Berlinguer’s project, the doctorate was rapidly to become the third cycle, more selective than the first two, but with a similar structure, including credits and an intensive teaching activity. This, however, has proved more delicate with the academic body; being much less compliant towards the reform. Schools of Specialization are also included in the third cycle. Right from its application, this reform presented pros and cons (Graziosi, 2010; Sylos Labini and Zapperi, 2010), as it split up disciplines and triggered an exponential growth in degree courses. The pretext was adaptation to Europe, a

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slogan that was to become very popular in other areas of politics, the instrumental use of which has been greatly criticized by many people (Canfora, 2012). With this pretext, Berlinguer demanded the implementation in a very short time of a real revolution incorporating a high dose of bureaucratic logic and having dubious efficacy both for teaching and for research. Berlinguer’s system was bitterly criticized by the Right. Later, when its structure had to be altered, Letizia Moratti, the Minister of Education, University and Research in the Berlusconi government (2001–2004) produced decree n. 270 of 22 October 2004, which set out to correct it, as the title states: Modifiche al regolamento recante norme concernenti l’autonomia didattica degli atenei, approvato con decreto del Ministro dell’università e della ricerca scientifica e tecnologica 3 novembre 1999, n. 509 – Ministerial decree for amendments to the regulations on didactical autonomy of universities as approved by the Ministerial Decree no. 509 of 1999. In particular, the Minister, Moratti, clearly defined the number of exams necessary to attain a degree at levels I and II and laid down more stringent criteria for universities, specifying, among others, the minimum numbers of teaching staff and enrolled students required for each university course. This might have produced a more rational university system, but actually it meant its further mortification as it was forced to make sudden changes in structure with no single, consistent vision of the role of higher education and culture (Russo, 2008). Alongside this real revolution implemented by Berlinguer, and continued by his successors, legislative measures were taken that have partially reorganized the teacher’s professional profile, evolving slowly in Italy over more than a century of school history. Law n. 341 of 1990, Riforma degli ordinamenti didattici universitari – Reform law on the didactic organization at universities – was issued by the sixth Andreotti government on 19 November 1991 and published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale a few days later on 23 November. This set out a degree course for pre-primary and primary school teachers (called Sciences of Primary Education), and a post-degree, two-year specialization course for secondary school teachers (specialization school for secondary teaching – SSIS). Both structures came within the university sector as it was before the Berlinguer reform. However, as they were activated only several years after the 1990 Law, they came into existence just before the reform, with the Ministerial Decree n. 153 issued in 1998 (published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale on 3 July) under the title Criteri per l’attivazione dei corsi di laurea in scienze della formazione primaria e scuole di specializzazione per l’insegnamento nelle scuole secondarie – General criteria for Universities for the issuing of regulations for the organization of degree courses in sciences of primary education.

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Educational sciences played a large part in both study courses, a fact regarded with suspicion or indeed open aversion by the many critics of Berlinguer’s work (Israel, 2008). The SSIS story was shorter and more turbulent, since it came under immediate criticism from Berlusconi’s next government: under the Minister of Education, University and Research, Maria Stella Gelmini (2008– 2011), it was suspended after completing ten cycles. The study course replacing the SSIS after laborious negotiations is called the Tirocinio Formativo Attivo – Active Training Practice – as laid down in D.M. n. 288 dated 12 December 2011; its first cycle, of one single year, was in the academic year 2012/2013. The degree course in Sciences of Primary Education, on the other hand (at first of four years and now of five years) inaugurated its cycle in the academic year 1998/1999, and was an epoch-making turning-point of immense relevance, for the training of pre-primary and primary school teachers (Betti, 2006), which for the first time in Italy was given at university level. The degree course provided for a first common two-year course followed by a second two-year course differentiated according to the two branches offered: one for scuola materna and the other for primary school. The choice between these two branches was made by the student at the end of the second year of the course and the faculty was accorded to those with a degree in one branch to gain the degree in the other, integrating their personal training with no more than two six-month periods of study. There is closed-number access and this study course, with few changes, is still in force today. Teachers’ education is of course a particularly delicate topic; we would refer the reader to the bibliography for more detailed information (Santoni Rugiu and Santamaita, 2011, pp. 148–90; Cappa, Palomba and Niceforo, 2013).

Latest developments The latest developments show a school system organized in: pre-primary education, a first education cycle, and a second education cycle. Decree n. 59 of 3 March 2004, implementing delegate law n. 53/2003, Delega al Governo per la definizione delle norme generali sull’istruzione e dei livelli essenziali delle prestazioni in materia di istruzione e formazione professionale – Delegation to the Government for the definition of general provisions on education and for the definition of expected minimum levels of performances in education and in vocational training – regulated pre-primary education and the first cycle of education (which includes the first level of secondary school), also on indications

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from the Stati Generali of education (Rome, 19–20 December 2001) chaired by Giuseppe Bertagna. Primary school lasts five years (from 6 to 10 years of age). The first level of secondary school lasts three years (from 11 to 13 years of age) terminating with the State examination and diploma at the conclusion of the first cycle of education, since school year 2008/2009; the assessment of the final exam in the first level of secondary school is expressed in marks from 1 to 10 (Law n. 169/2008). Recent changes involving the second cycle are, however, less linear. Although provided for in Delegation Law n. 53/2003, this wide-ranging reform was laid out only at the end of the legislature, by D.M. 226/2005. It established the creation of the technological and economic liceo; in its division into different branches, it was to absorb the various technical institutes. Organizational problems, resistance on the part of schools and the change in government with the victory of the Centre-Left in the election on 9/10 April 2006, hindered the implementation of this reform. In its two-year duration from May 2006 to May 2008, the Centre-Left government under Romano Prodi, with Giuseppe Fioroni as Minister of Public Education, suspended the reform of the second education cycle, re-instating only the maturità examination with a Commission made up of mainly external members. With the next Berlusconi government, a new series of alterations to the second cycle started under Mariastella Gelmini, Minister from 8 May 2008 to 16 November 2011. Through a series of measures (law n. 133 dated 6 August 2008, law n. 169 of 30 October 2008, and law n. 1 of 9 January 2009), reform was immediately started with its first implementation in the school year 2011/2012, addressing simplification and cuts in experimentation. The options were therefore drastically reduced and a radical standardization took place at national level in both licei and technical and vocational institutes. The types of licei are: art subjects, classical studies, scientific studies, music and dance, foreign languages, human sciences. The technical institutes are structured in two sectors (economic and technologic) and in eleven branches. Vocational institutes are divided into two sectors (services and industry/artisan) and six branches, all lasting five years. It is difficult to draw up a definitive account of this hectic season of reforms for two main reasons: the number of changes implemented by the successive governments, and the difficulty in comprehending the full range of consequences after little more than ten years, especially regarding higher education. Certain dynamics can, however, be brought to light. First, it is significant that Berlinguer inaugurated the habit common to all governments of laying hands on the education system and of this being done in two definite, continually re-emerging

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directions aligned with differing political and communication needs: to adapt education to the life and new necessities of society, and to adapt national education to the European context. Over the last fifteen years, more and more references have been made to national and international documents demanding a different education, from the White paper on Education and Training – Teaching and Learning – Towards the Knowledge Society of November 1995 (White Paper, 1995), by way of the Lisbon Strategy of 2000 to Europe 2020 (2010). Besides such documents and over the same time period, the pressure of international evaluation has increased; however accurately and conscientiously structured, it often boils down to rankings that are drawn according to specific criteria, but are used by commentators for the most diverse purposes, not always consistent with the original goals for which these rankings were created. The outcome of this changed scenario has meant that both the Centre-Right and the Centre-Left have used the same passwords in different acceptances. For Berlinguer, ‘adapting to Europe’ and ‘modernizing education’ meant eroding the previous tradition’s range of subjects and attacking what he considered academic and professorial strongholds; for the Right, with Letizia Moratti and Maria Stella Gelmini, they meant responding to the claims of an uncertain labour market and increasing free competition, a feature typical of the private sector. Here we are unable to deal in detail with the consequences of these positions, but we can see that they have felled the defences erected around an education system to withstand any sudden changes in the society of which it is the expression. Launching schools and universities on the trail of the Holy Grail of adaptation to a presumed and changing external reality has, instead of strengthening the hold on students and families, undermined the stability and authoritativeness of those educational institutions, sending the education system on a quest for identity that is today perhaps the most meaningful challenge for intellectuals and those who, in their various degrees, care about education in Italy. There is another important process going on in the Italian higher education system, specifically concerning the assessment of the system itself, which has relevant repercussions on university funding and on the recruitment of the academic body. Already, in 2006, a law was approved that created a National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Institutes (ANVUR, Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del sistema Universitario e della Ricerca, Law 286 of 24 November 2006). According to the law, the Agency has several functions, including the external assessment of the quality of the processes, results and products of the activities of Universities and Research institutes; the exercise of a directive role for evaluation activities assigned to the internal

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evaluation bodies of universities and research institutes, and the assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of public programmes for the financing and incentivizing of teaching, research and innovation activities. It was also made clear that assessment made by ANVUR would represent a reference criterion for public financing of universities and research institutes; the operative regulations of the Law were approved in 2010, and the Executive Committee was appointed in 2011. With the intent to rationalize the Italian university system and to improve its quality, some provisions were adopted in the last years that are aimed on one hand at evaluating the research activity of academics, on the other at setting up more rigorous and transparent procedures for recruiting them. The research assessment (Valutazione della qualità della ricerca, VQR), started at the end of 2011 and is run directly by ANVUR; it is a complex mechanism for assessing university departments – not individual academics – through the evaluation of a fixed number of publications for each of its members. As for the recruiting procedure, it has undergone a remarkable transformation: according to the Law 240 of 30 December 2010, ‘Norme in materia di organizzazione delle università, di personale accademico e reclutamento, nonché delega al Governo per incentivare la qualità e l’efficienza del sistema universitario’, in order to gain access to a tenured professorial role it is necessary to obtain a ‘National academic qualification’ (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale, ASN, respectively for full or associate professor): this does not give immediately the right of a post in a university, but is a condition for applying to a selection for one. The jury awarding the qualification is made up of five senior academics, one of which has to be non-Italian. This system, which is run by the Ministry with the support of ANVUR for some of the criteria adopted, does not apply to the selection for the role of researcher, which is without tenure. The real impact of these recent changes cannot yet be evaluated; they have caused much criticism in the academic world, not least because of several inadequacies in their implementation. They certainly do not answer all the needs of the Italian higher education system; perhaps they might at least represent a basis on which to build more effective procedures, respecting Italian academic tradition. Numerous are the topics central to today’s education agenda in Italy. In the last few years especially, there has been renewed interest in transforming education. The debate is heated, particularly on certain topics: assessment (in schools and universities, national and international) (Coniglione, 2012; Pinto, 2012; Bonato, 2013; Del Lago, 2013); the role of certain subjects considered

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fundamental, yet today more and more beleaguered, such as the humanist disciplines (Asor Rosa, Esposito, Galli della Loggia, 2013); and teachers’ education (Luzzatto, 2011; Frabboni, 2013). The coming years will prove decisive if education is to retrieve that stability and authority ever more under attack, and not in Italy alone. The heterogeneous nature of the many forces in the field and contingent weakness during an economic crisis as yet unfinished pose tough, extremely complex challenges to be faced with all awareness and acumen, without succumbing to the siren calls of easy, readymade answers, while remaining fully conscious of the wealth of our educational and cultural tradition.

Notes 1 The Reign of Italy was proclaimed in 1861, while complete territorial unification was only achieved later, with the annexation of Veneto (1866) and then with the fundamental step of the conquest of Lazio and Rome (1870), till then under the rule of the Pope. 2 The name comes from the Minister of Public Education Gabrio Casati, Royal Decree n. 3725 of November 13 1859. 3 A delegation law is a law that defines the general criteria, delegating the government to emanate specific measures for their practical application. 4 The expression ‘patto di desistenza’ indicates an electoral agreement in which the parties of a similar political position decide not to present themselves in the same constituencies in order to avoid dividing their own electorate, thus forcing them to converge on one single party or coalition.

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Bibliography Bertoni Jovine, D. (1967) La scuola italiana dal 1870 ai giorni nostri. Roma: Editori Riuniti. Cambi, F. (2004) Saperi e competenze. Bari-Roma: Editori Laterza. D’Amico, N. (2010), Storia e storie della scuola italiana. Dalle origine ai giorni nostri. Bologna: Zanichelli. Lisbon Agenda, (2000) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_en.htm [accessed 1 September 2014]. Niceforo, O. (1990) L’innovazione difficile. Da Falcucci a Brocca: la scuola italiana tra nuovi programmi e vecchi ordinamenti. Pisa: Tacchi editore. Pazzaglia, L. and Sani, R. (eds) (2001) Scuola e società nell’Italia unita. Dalla Legge Casati al Centro-Sinistra. Brescia: Editrice La Scuola. Russo, L. (1998) Segmenti e bastoncini. Dove sta andando la scuola? Milano: Feltrinelli. Santoni Rugiu, A. (1982) Storia della scuola e storia dell’Italia. Bari: De Donato. Semeraro, A. (1996) Il sistema scolastico italiano. Profilo storico. Roma: La Nuova Italia Scientifica.

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Luxembourg: Language and Education Kristine Horner and Jean-Jacques Weber

Introduction Luxembourg has a geographical size of 2,586 square kilometres and a population of 549,700, and is located between Belgium, France and Germany. The population currently consists of 45.3 per cent resident foreigners, which is the highest proportion in the European Union (EU). The biggest group of resident foreigners are the Portuguese (36.5 per cent), followed by the French (14.9 per cent), Italian (7.5 per cent), Belgian (7.3 per cent), German (5.1 per cent), British (2.4 per cent), Dutch (1.6 per cent), as well as other EU citizens (10.8 per cent) and other non-EU citizens (13.9 per cent). The number of non-Luxembourgish citizens living in Luxembourg has been increasing steadily since the end of the Second World War, particularly since the 1970s. In 1981, 26.3 per cent were resident foreigners, 36.9 per cent in 2001 and 45.3 per cent in 2014. Currently, there are over 248,900 resident foreigners: 90,800 Portuguese, 37,100 French, 18,800 Italian and 18,100 Belgian (Statec, 2014). Immigration from Portugal has been intense since the 1970s. As with earlier immigration policies (e.g. immigration from Italy), the Luxembourgish government has recruited labour from within Europe (Barnich, 1985, p. 79). It is often claimed that the aim of policy makers has been to attract people of the ‘same’ religious faith (i.e. Catholic; see Waringo, 2003, p. 17). A further characteristic, which is linked to the small geographical size of Luxembourg as well as EU regulations facilitating free movement of the EU workforce, is the presence of over 146,900 frontaliers (cross-border commuters), who make up 39 per cent of the workforce. Nearly 80 per cent of the frontaliers come from France and Belgium and are primarily French-speaking, and about 20 per cent come from Germany and are primarily German-speaking (Statec, 2014). While many frontaliers also possess multilingual repertoires, these repertoires do not necessarily match up directly with those of the long-term resident population in Luxembourg (Franziskus and Gilles, 2012). The language situation in Luxembourg has frequently been referred to as 227

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‘triglossic’ in reference to the three languages recognized by the language law of 1984: Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch), French and German. The spoken/ written distinction has always been pivotal to understanding language use in Luxembourg, with spoken functions being dominated by the use of Luxembourgish and written functions carried out primarily in French or German. This provides part of the background for understanding why the Luxembourgish government opted for French as the EU working language rather than Luxembourgish, though the latter is officially recognized as the ‘national language’ in the 1984 language law. Luxembourgish language varieties are Germanic and bear similarities to the Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in parts of Germany, Belgium and France; they thus belong to the western part of Moselle Franconian. Two recent changes regarding language use in Luxembourg are of direct relevance to the present study as they can be seen to affect Luxembourg’s trilingualism: an increasing use of French as a spoken language together with the more frequent appearance of Luxembourgish as a written language, thus leading to a partial inversion of the traditional roles of Luxembourgish and French in the Grand Duchy. Both developments are connected to the socio-demographic factors already mentioned: while many of the French-speaking residents and frontaliers also speak Luxembourgish, many others do not and often resort to using French as a lingua franca with Luxembourgish and non-Luxembourgish speakers alike. As for the rise of Luxembourgish as a written medium, it has often been linked to the desire to create greater sociocultural distance from Germany, particularly in the aftermath of the Second World War (von Polenz, 1990, pp. 11–14; Clyne, 1992, pp. 117–22). Although this historical event is of major significance, it must be stressed that the momentum behind Luxembourgish has increased dramatically over the past four decades, precisely at the time when a series of major social, political and economic transformations altered the language situation. In brief, these events include the growth of an international banking economy and the arrival of EU institutions and employees, as well as the record levels of immigration referred to previously. Moreover, recent technological developments have enabled an increasing use of written Luxembourgish in SMS, emails, blogs, Facebook, etc.

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Language and education in Luxembourg The trilingual school system: building bridges or barriers? One of the most striking points about language in Luxembourg is the State-wide, official recognition of three languages (Luxembourgish, French and German) – a somewhat unusual state of affairs within the context of Europe (Clyne, 1997, p. 307; Mesthrie, 2000, p. 38). All three languages are used within the framework of the educational system and, to varying degrees, in the course of everyday life. Due to the obligatory use of more than one language in State-run schools, the Luxembourgish educational system is sometimes held up as a model for other EU member-states, especially in official Ministry discourses (e.g. Kraemer, 2001). It is also the case that academic publications frequently portray individual tri- or multilingualism as a valuable asset providing residents and citizens of Luxembourg with greater linguistic capital than is available to people in neighbouring EU states (e.g. J-P. Hoffmann, 1996, p. 108). However, covert and overt language policy tends to work against linguistic pluralism in Luxembourg, i.e. multiple and varying patterns of language use are discouraged and sometimes even resented. According to Bohler (1998, p. 114), homogeneous ‘unilingual’ behaviour is considered to be the dominant societal norm, making the Luxembourgish language situation similar to that of many other western European (nation-)states. Luxembourgish used to be, and still is, the spoken language of a large part of the population, whereas French used to be not only the main language of State administration and legislation but also the language of ‘high’ culture widely used – especially in its standard written form – by the bourgeoisie and upper-class citizens. While this is to some extent still the case, the far-reaching demographic changes of the last few decades have led to a dramatic shift in the use of French: it has come to be used increasingly as a lingua franca among people living and working in Luxembourg. In this context, there have been shifts in perceptions of French as a marker of prestige. It remains the case that the mastery of standard, written French is valuable in educational and professional contexts. However, the increased use of vernacular French is frequently stigmatized in the public sphere (Horner 2007a; Weber 2009). The consequences for the educational system are enormous. While schools continue to teach a highly formal French (as this used to be the sole social format available for that language), they are now faced with a major challenge: namely, the presence of a large number of students speaking vernacular and contact varieties of French. Yet the school-system has failed to respond to this challenge, and the

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basic structure has remained unchanged for over a hundred years. It demands that students meet strict language requirements in standard written German and French from primary school upward, and in some additional languages (at present, mostly English) at secondary level. In primary school, German is used as the language for teaching basic literacy and as the primary medium of instruction, regardless of whether a student’s home language is Luxembourgish or a non-Germanic language, such as Portuguese or French. By the third year, the teaching of French constitutes a major component of the curriculum. In secondary school, there is a gradual shift to French as the medium of instruction, especially in the case of students who continue their studies in a classical lycée (lycée classique). The Luxembourgish educational system is marked by a clear division into classical and technical lycées, thus creating two separate educational tracks that usually provide students with different career opportunities upon completion of their studies. Table 10.1 presents a rough overview of the system, highlighting the main languages taught and the

Table 10.1 The Luxembourgish school system from pre-school to secondaire classique

PRE-SCHOOL (3 years) précoce (age 3/4) préscolaire (age 4/6) PRIMARY EDUCATION (6 years) (age 6/7)

(age 7/8)

(age 8/12) SECONDAIRE CLASSIQUE (7 years) (age 12/13) (age 13/14) (age 14/15) (age 15/18) (age 18/19)

Main languages taught

Medium of instruction

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish

Luxembourgish Luxembourgish

German as language of literacy, and Luxembourgish for only 1 hour per week German, (Luxembourgish), and French added in the 2nd semester German, French, (Luxembourgish)

Luxembourgish, German

German, French, (Luxembourgish) German, French, English (or Latin) German, French, English German, French, English German, French, English (choice of two of these languages in some streams)

Luxembourgish, German German

German, French German, French German, French French French

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main languages of instruction from pre-school to lycée classique, while ignoring the lycée technique with its wider range of germanophone and francophone streams or ‘sections’. The rather inflexible language regime of the school msystem creates myriad problems for many students, primarily – but not exclusively – those whose home language is not Luxembourgish. For students who speak Romance languages, the situation is compounded by the fact that Luxembourgish is used as a means of spoken communication on a daily basis, and is frequently relied upon by teachers as an (unofficial) medium of instruction. Students from this group are disproportionately represented in the technical lycées, as are students from working-class families who use Luxembourgish as a home language (Davis, 1994, pp. 112–16). According to official statistics (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2013), 35 per cent of students in Luxembourgish schools are of non-Luxembourgish citizenship. In the technical lycées, 43.2 per cent are non-Luxembourgish, whereas in the classical lycées only 19.1 per cent are. Non-Luxembourgish students are thus clearly under-represented in the classical lycées and over-represented in the technical lycées.

Historical origins of the trilingual education system While acknowledging the significance of the national language, historical accounts of Luxembourg also emphasize the ‘inheritance’ of bi-/trilingualism, creating a sense of continuity between language use in the past and in the present. The key event is the Education Act of 1843: after the Duchy was raised to the status of a Grand Duchy in 1815 and the first independent government was established in Luxembourg following the Treaty of London in 1839, the 1843 Education Act was passed introducing mandatory bilingual (German and French) instruction in primary schools. According to Calmes and Bossaert (1996, p. 223), the decision of 1843 is related to the position of Luxembourg within greater Europe, as the sanctioned use of French in primary schools served to generate cultural and political distance from Prussia/Germany. Historical accounts of nineteenth-century Luxembourg often emphasize that relations with Prussia/Germany were linked to business, whereas those with the ‘francophone neighbours’ were politically and culturally motivated (see Calmes and Bossaert, 1996, p. 184; Trausch, 2002, p. 217). The 1843 Education Act established the fundamental structure of language use within the school system as it remains to the present time; pupils are taught basic literacy in German, and they begin learning French during their second

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year of primary school. The addition of Luxembourgish to the curriculum in the School Reform of 1912 is frequently seen as marking the official recognition of trilingualism in schools. A persuasive account of why this happened in 1912 is Spizzo’s (1995, pp. 248–50) description of the beginning of the twentieth century as a time of social and political changes in Luxembourg, especially with regard to the rise of ethnolinguistic nationalism and growing momentum behind the Luxembourgish language.

Linguistic capital: the national resource Attempts to balance the importance of Luxembourgish with the trilingual ideal constitute a salient feature of many discourses revolving around language at the national level. A distinction is often made between the effective value of Luxembourgish as the ‘mother tongue’ and the instrumental benefits of additive bi-/trilingualism. Thus, German and French (and increasingly English) are portrayed as sources of linguistic capital that are acquired in the ‘artificial’ classroom environment. The ideal of trilingualism is based on the assumption that all pupils enter the Luxembourgish school system with one language (i.e. Luxembourgish) and leave school with a high level of proficiency in standard written German and French. Because basic literacy is taught in German, the curriculum continues to be geared towards pupils who speak Luxembourgish in the home, although the use of French presents difficulties for some of these pupils at later stages (Davis, 1994). German and French are taught as subjects, and German is also used as medium of instruction in primary school, with French gradually replacing German as the medium of instruction in the later years of secondary school. Although it is frequently used to explain (difficult) subject matters, Luxembourgish is only taught as a subject for one hour a week in primary school as well as in the first year of secondary school, i.e. the septième. In the textbook which for a long time was used for the Luxembourgish course in the septième, the utility of learning languages other than Luxembourgish is depicted as follows: In addition to their Luxembourgish, most Luxembourgers today know German and French, and many also English. And that is the way it should be! We are dependent on our neighbours; in order to have conversations with foreigners, we must be able to speak their languages. We have almost 30 per cent foreigners living in our country, with whom we want to make ourselves understood. Rasquin et al., [1990]1994, p. 22

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In this text, a clear line is drawn between the language of the ‘Luxembourgers’ and languages used by people in neighbouring countries as well as those used (allegedly) by resident ‘foreigners’ in Luxembourg. Languages other than Luxembourgish are depicted as instrumental resources, necessary for dealing with people considered as outsiders. Thus, French and German (as well as English) are considered auxiliary additions to the ‘mother tongue’ within the framework of this text. Clearly, the model of trilingualism perpetuated by the education system is strictly circumscribed: it does not, for instance, include ‘immigrant’ languages such as Italian and Portuguese. In the school system, those languages may be used a little bit at the very beginning to help children who speak them in the home, and towards the end of lycée classique they can be chosen by students in the language and literature section as their quatrième langue vivante (‘fourth modern language’). But all in all, they are treated as sous-langues (‘sublanguages’) – a term used in a recent report on language teaching in Luxembourg compiled for the Ministry of National Education (Berg and Weis, 2005, p. 45). Another point that is seldom discussed in depth – though it is mentioned in the previous quotation – concerns the increasingly important role of English as the global language. In official Ministry discourses, Luxembourg is frequently held up as a model for other EU member-states, but the trilingual model as sketched by the EU is one that implicitly includes English, and therefore it does not necessarily match the trilingual Luxembourgish model of Luxembourgish plus German and French. Hence, in recent official discourses, the term ‘multilingualism’ is sometimes used rather than ‘trilingualism’, hinting at the (growing) pressure to add (more) English to what Fehlen (2002, pp. 92–3) calls the ‘legitimate multilingual language competence’ in Luxembourg.

The role of English In this section, we look in more detail at the role of English within the Luxembourgish education system. English is taught from the second year of secondary school onwards, except for students who study Latin and as a result only start learning English in the third year of lycée classique. By the end of their secondary school studies, students are expected to reach the level of the Cambridge Advanced Examination, though this has now been redefined in terms of the CEFR levels (Common European Framework of Reference). Over the years, English has gradually strengthened its position within the education system, though by competing with and to some extent displacing Latin rather

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than German or French, the languages that are firmly entrenched from primary school upwards (see Horner 2007b, p. 143). As the Ministry of Education document Réajustement de l’enseignement des langues acknowledges, English is still in a way the parent pauvre of French and German in the education system. The Council of Europe (2005), too, in their report on language learning and teaching in Luxembourg, suggest that students should already start to learn English at least in the first year of secondary school, and that some CLIL-type (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teaching should be introduced in English. In other words, some non-linguistic subjects should be taught through the medium of English at the higher levels of secondary education. This would also be of great practical benefit for the students, as it has become increasingly clear that English and French are the most important languages facilitating access to the Luxembourgish labour market (except for civil servant positions). Thus, Klein (2007, p. 278) argues that, in Luxembourg as in many other countries, the European language policy of mother tongue plus two other languages (MT + 2) should be ‘guided by a “MT + English + 1” slogan’, while adding that, on the one hand, this means ‘prioritiz[ing] economic rather than cultural considerations and, on the other hand, the advantages of commanding English will tend to diminish when these competences become more and more abundant’.

Firwat ass alles schief gaangen? Why did everything go wrong? Responses to Luxembourg’s PISA results The representation of Luxembourg as an inherently multilingual and multicultural nation-state is usually rooted in the belief that students in Luxembourgish schools have the opportunity to acquire greater amounts of linguistic capital and thus openness to the outside world than do their counterparts in other EU member-states. After the results of the first Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests were publicized in December 2001, various discussions took place to try to come to terms with the fact that the scores for students in Luxembourg were third from the bottom in all three subject areas: reading, mathematics, and natural science. As these results are potentially damaging to nation-building strategies based on the trilingual ideal and the related ‘model’ educational system, attempts are often made to invalidate the results (see Horner, 2007a; Horner and Weber, 2005). Two overarching strategies tend to be relied upon: one is based on the argument that Luxembourg cannot be compared with other countries and, thus, there is nothing to be learned from tests administered

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on an international level; the other strategy involves the blaming of certain groups of people within the national arena. In these discourses, civic ideals and European ‘values’ are often overshadowed by the desire for a homogeneous, Luxembourgish-speaking ethnic nation. In the PISA debates, societal heterogeneity is perceived as a fundamental problem. Simultaneously, the ideal of the homogeneous nation-state is in the process of being redefined or renegotiated as most European states are now overarched by the EU superstructure and are affected by the greater processes of globalization. There is an attempt to come to terms with changes in the world (institutional) order, especially as outsider points of view seem to have more impact now than in the past (the PISA tests are administered by the OECD). In response to these changes, the main strategy to invalidate the PISA results is based on the claim that Luxembourg cannot be compared to other countries nor understood by outsiders. Trilingualism is thus foregrounded as a defence mechanism in relation to international boundaries. It is argued that ‘Luxembourgers’ could not use their ‘mother tongue’ (i.e. Luxembourgish), which is linked to the importance of maintaining the trilingual ideal via the educational system. In this manner, ‘good Europeans’ are punished by the mechanisms of tests such as PISA. This defensive strategy is then combined with the strategy of portraying foreigners as the problem, as people who disrupt the (alleged) cohesion of the ideal nation-state. Hence, it becomes very clear that tri-/multilingualism in Luxembourg is a ‘one size fits all’ linguistic repertoire, which leaves non-Luxembourgish speakers, among others, in a difficult situation with regard to educational issues.

German-language literacy and Romance languages speaking students The PISA results for Luxembourg indicate a high correlation between socioeconomic status and test scores (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2001, pp. 40– 1, 82), thus confirming Davis’ (1994) analysis. This point is important because it is not based on a strict ‘Luxembourger’ vs. ‘foreigner’ dichotomy: both students from working-class families and students whose parents were not born and raised in Luxembourg suffer from the inflexibility of the Luxembourgish school-system. While Davis’ study is more concerned with the problems encountered by workingclass children who use Luxembourgish as a home language, she does mention that the existing ‘immersion’ approach to the schooling of students who use (only) nonGermanic language varieties in the home has resulted in ‘submersion’ rather than

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‘immersion’, in the sense that many of these children ‘fail to achieve the language skills necessary for classroom interaction and study’ – a situation caused by a failure to build on the diverse linguistic and cultural experiences these children bring to the school environment (Davis, 1994, p. 188). In 2003/2004, students in the Luxembourgish school-system consisted of 63.6 per cent of Luxembourgish citizenship and 36.4 per cent of non-Luxembourgish citizenship (Berg and Weis, 2005, p. 57). The latter group comprised a majority of Portuguese students (52.7 per cent), followed by those of ex-Yugoslavs (11.4 per cent), Italians (7.7 per cent), French (7.6 per cent), Belgians (4.5 per cent), Germans (3.2 per cent) and Cape Verdians (1.8 per cent). These figures add up to a sum of almost 75 per cent potentially romanophone speakers. Considering the presence of this increasingly large number of children speaking some varieties of French, Portuguese, Italian or Cape Verdean Creole in the Luxembourgish primary schools during the last few decades, the logical – and long overdue – consequence would be the establishment of a two-track literacy system. A choice between German-language literacy and French-language literacy would seem even more obvious as both German and French are officially recognized in the 1984 language law. As has been noted, however, the basic structure of primary school education has remained unchanged: i.e. German-language literacy for everybody, rapidly followed by the teaching of French. The Ministry of Education document Pour une école d’intégration relies upon a vague discourse of threat in order to argue that a two-track literacy system might contrecarrer l’intégration (‘impede integration’): Certain measures, which at first sight might seem plausible, such as Frenchliteracy programs for foreign children, run the risk of impeding integration and seriously compromising the future evolution of our society. Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 1998, p. 12

At the same time, in what virtually constitutes a contradictory move, it is acknowledged that two factors make integration well-nigh impossible: (1) more and more ethnic Luxembourgish children attend private schools at primary level, and (1) many ethnic Luxembourgish students go to the elite lycées classiques, whereas many ‘foreign’ students end up in the lycées techniques. One major reason for this sadly ironic situation is stated: Failing in German is particularly frequent among foreign children, whereas it is failing in French that slows down and ends up discouraging or eliminating [sic] large numbers of Luxembourgish pupils.

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Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 1998, p. 15

In other words, many ‘foreign’ students are not admitted to, or are ‘eliminated’ from, the lycées classiques because of the high level required in German. This trend continues up to the present, with 43.2 per cent of lycée technique students being non-Luxembourgish, as against only 19.1 per cent of lycée classique students (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2013). Politicians and policy-makers continue to resist the introduction of a Frenchlanguage literacy option because, they claim, it would work against the aim of integration. But the existence of parallel systems would not necessarily lead to a split between ethnic and non-ethnic Luxembourgers, since some ‘Luxembourgish’ children (e.g. those with one francophone parent) might well choose the Frenchlanguage literacy programme, and some foreign children (e.g. those from the countries of the former Yugoslavia, as well as from other Central and Eastern European countries) might opt for the German-language one. Both systems could exist in parallel with each other, within the same schools, and these systems would give every student a better chance of educational as well as later social success. Moreover, students from the two streams could be brought together in mixed language groups to allow for peer teaching and learning; in this way, the resources of all students could be valorized, and these students would alternate between playing the linguistic roles of expert and novice. The widespread fear that such a two-track system might undermine social cohesion is misplaced, especially considering that a two-track system already exists at secondary school level (namely, in the split between lycée classique and lycée technique). On the other hand, the advantages would be numerous: apart from the all-important one of no longer damaging some Romance languagesspeaking children psychologically and socially, they include both a pedagogical and an economic advantage. Indeed, Grin argues that when students get their education ‘in a language that they understand well, instead of a language that they understand poorly’, this practice has, as a potential effect, ‘a decline in the dropout rate’ and ‘a decline in the repetition rate (children taking the same class twice because of failing grades), which also entails a reduction in costs’. In the case of Luxembourg, this practice should constitute a substantial reduction, since, in the lycées techniques, the repetition rate can be as high as 62.6 per cent (Council of Europe, 2005, p. 17).

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The Education Act of 2009 The most recent Education Act offers no opening in matters of language, only an opening in the area of teaching methodology. It introduces competence-based learning, along with standardized tests in the third year of primary school (average age eight, with the same test in the same language to be taken by all students). At the same time, pre-school and primary education merge into l’école fondamentale (fundamental or basic school), organized in cycles instead of school years, without, however, changing the specific regime of language teaching and learning in the system. One of the keywords of the new system is differentiation, in the sense that it allows for the possibility of grouping pupils of different ages according to their levels within each cycle. This system is unlikely to work for a heterogeneous school population of on average 42 per cent foreign children in the Luxembourgish primary schools, with some schools actually having more than 50 per cent Romance languagesspeaking pupils in their classrooms. Yet the questions of the language of basic literacy and the medium of instruction in primary school were not key issues of debate during the discussions leading up to the ratification of the new Education Act. Nor was the danger of internal segregation or ghettoization (under the name of ‘differentiation’), with many children of migrant background potentially ending up in the lower streams, seriously considered. At the same time, the opportunities offered by the new system should not be ignored: the competence-based approach could bring in much-needed flexibility, in the sense that only the levels to be reached in the various subjects would need to be fixed and different routes could be allowed for in order to reach these ends. Within such a system, it would be easier to give teachers greater autonomy: for instance, a teacher who teaches large numbers of Romance languages-speaking pupils might decide to adopt a French-language literacy programme and to teach German as a foreign language, as long as all the pupils reach the required level in both German and French after a certain number of years. However, it is doubtful whether the new law allows for this kind of flexibility.

Alternatives to State education Although frequently constructed in official Ministry discourses as providing students with a valuable asset (see Horner, 2004), the German–French ‘bilingual’ educational policy in Luxembourg may be viewed as a gate-keeping

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device. Indeed, Davis (1994) asserts that differences in linguistic repertoires (and access to developing these repertoires) play a significant role in societal stratification within the boundaries of the Grand Duchy. Her study shows how patterns of social inequality are perpetuated by the linguistic and non-linguistic behavioural norms within the school system. As is the case in a number of other countries, language-in-education policy sometimes fosters linguistic discrimination in Luxembourg (see also Horner, 2007a; Horner and Weber, 2005; Kollwelter, 1998). Moreover, there are few options for parents whose children cannot cope with the State school system. The small number of private, religious (i.e. Catholic) schools follows the State school curricula and students take exactly the same examinations, including the Secondary School Leaving Examination. The only alternatives are the Lycée Vauban, the Waldorf school, the European School and the International School, but they tend to charge high fees and to cater for an international elite. Thus, the European School, which offers mother-tongue education in all the major European languages, caters primarily to the children of EU employees, though it also takes in other students to fill up any remaining vacancies. While the school is free for the former group, the latter have to pay high fees. As for those children whose parents cannot afford to enrol them in one of the private schools, the only other option taken up by 3.6 per cent of the school population is to attend schools just across the border (mostly) in Belgium or France (Berg and Weis, 2005, p. 58).

Teaching Luxembourgish as an L1 and L2 In this final section, a couple of points concerning the teaching of Luxembourgish first as an L1 and then as an L2 are considered. Luxembourgish was introduced into the school curriculum under the Education Act of 1912. It is taught as an obligatory subject for one hour per week throughout the six years of primary school and in the first year of secondary school. The course objective for the latter course is explained as: ‘Among other things, the pedagogical task of the subject of Luxembourgish should include showing the students in the septième that the country of Luxembourg has its own language and literature.’ Although students are also taught orthographical rules, the evaluation of student performance is defined as: ‘A maximum of one sixth of the total points may be deducted for spelling errors’ (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2003). In juxtaposition to the roles of German and French, the role of

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Luxembourgish in the school system is extremely limited and controversial. Officially, Luxembourgish is only listed as the medium of instruction in primary school for sports, music and arts; the language is ‘banned’ in most other contexts of primary and secondary education (F. Hoffmann, 1996, pp. 131–2), but it is nevertheless used unofficially by many teachers to explain difficult points to their students (Davis, 1994, pp. 98–104). There is a growing momentum to increase the currently permitted amount of instruction of Luxembourgish as a subject within the curriculum, although most of the push for Luxembourgish in recent years has been limited to the area of pre-school education. In this way, it is hoped that the teaching and use of Luxembourgish during three years of pre-school will help children whose parents were not born and raised in Luxembourg to ‘integrate’ and prepare them for the German-language literacy programme of the primary school (Ministère de l’Education Nationale, 2000). However, the official pre-school policy is based upon the rather essentialist assumption that ‘foreign’ children have one and only one home language, to which Luxembourgish can then be added at school. For example, luso-descendants are assumed to have Portuguese as their L1; if that were true, they would learn Luxembourgish during their pre-school years, be taught basic literacy in German in the first year of primary school and study (standard) French from the end of the second year of primary school onwards. But the actual language situation of these children is frequently far more complex; luso-descendants in particular frequently grow up with two (or more) languages: usually Portuguese, sometimes Luxembourgish, and very often also a (vernacular or contact) variety of French that they acquire in the home environment. This vernacular French is ignored in the Ministry document, which only acknowledges standard French as a school subject taught in primary school, yet it constitutes the main argument for offering these students a Frenchlanguage literacy option, as has been noted previously. As for the teaching of Luxembourgish as a foreign language, the main institution is the Institut National des Langues, a language school for adults subsidized by the Ministry of Education, though Luxembourgish language classes are also organized by local communes and other associations. Moreover, courses in Luxembourgish for specific purposes have been offered within the framework of the Project MOIEN! (‘Hello’) since 1998, mostly for people working in the retail and health sectors. Despite this diversity, the number of courses offered is insufficient to meet the high demand, and the Institut National des Langues has recently opened a second (regional) centre in Mersch. Furthermore, most courses are offered at the elementary level, with only a few courses catering for more advanced learners.

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Conclusion This discussion should have brought out the full extent of the non-prototypicality of the Luxembourgish language situation. In Luxembourg, the main ‘minority’ languages such as Portuguese and Italian are fully standardized languages that play the role of national or official languages in other European countries. As for the dominant languages (Luxembourgish, German and French), they are all three officially recognized in the language law of 1984. It is the first of these, which in the law is referred to as the national language of the Luxembourgers, that is the focus of explicitly framed standardization efforts and language endangerment debates (Horner, 2005). At the same time, it should be clear that Luxembourgish speakers are in no way oppressed due to their use of Luxembourgish. On the contrary, it is the speakers of Portuguese and some other minority languages who are discriminated against because the educational system largely erases their linguistic needs and resources, and instead forces them to go through a German-language literacy programme. Underpinning these language-in-education policies, there is a fear that Luxembourg might eventually turn into a French-speaking country, due to the continuing high level of in-migration from romanophone countries. In the context of endangerment discourses, there is a fear of Luxembourgish dying out and of Luxembourgers becoming a minority in ‘their own country’. Hence, there is an urgent need to re-focus the societal debate, away from this issue of power and privileges, and upon the key question of how to construct an education system that puts children first and their needs and interests, rather than a particular language.

References Barnich, M. (ed.) (1985) ‘Les débuts du Service de l’Immigration, in Association de Soutien aux Travailleurs Immigrés’, Lëtzebuerg de Lëtzebuerger? Le Luxembourg face à l’immigration. Luxembourg: Editions Guy Binsfeld, pp. 79–84. Berg, C. and Weis, C. (2005) Sociologie de l’enseignement des langues dans un environnement multilingue. Rapport national en vue de l’élaboration du profil des politiques linguistiques éducatives luxembourgeoises. Luxembourg: Ministère de l’Education nationale et de la Formation professionnelle et Centre d’Etudes sur la situation des jeunes en Europe. Bohler, A. (1998) ‘Unilinguisme et triglossie’, in P. Magère, B. Esmein and M. Poty (eds), La situation de la langue française parmi les autres langues en usage au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Luxembourg: Centre Culturel Français, p. 114.

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Calmes, C. and Bossaert, D. (1996) Geschichte des Großherzogtums Luxemburg: von 1815 bis heute. Luxemburg: Editions Saint-Paul. Clyne, M. (1992) ‘German as a pluricentric language’, in M. Clyne (ed.), Pluricentric Languages. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 117–47. Clyne, M. (1997) ‘Multilingualism’, in F. Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 301–14. Council of Europe (2005) Rapport du groupe d’experts: Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Profil des politiques linguistiques éducatives. Strasbourg: Division des Politiques linguistiques. Davis, K. A. (1994) Language Planning in Multilingual Contexts: Policies, Communities, and Schools in Luxembourg. Amsterdam: Benjamins. Fehlen, F. (2002) ‘Luxembourg, a multilingual society at the Romance/Germanic language border’, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 23: 80–97. Franziskus, A. and Gilles, P. (2012) “ ‘Et le präis direct etikett?” Non-overlapping repertoires in workplace communication in Luxembourg’, Sociolinguistica, 26: 58–71. Hoffmann, F. (1996) ‘The domains of Lëtzebuergesch’, in G. Newton (ed.), Luxembourg and Lëtzebuergesch: Language and Communication at the Crossroads of Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 123–41. Hoffmann, J-P. (1996) ‘Lëtzebuergesch and its competitors: Language contact in Luxembourg today’, in G. Newton (ed.), Luxembourg and Lëtzebuergesch: Language and Communication at the Crossroads of Europe. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 97–108. Horner, K. (2004) Negotiating the Language-Identity Link: Media Discourse and Nation-building in Luxembourg. Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York at Buffalo. Ann Arbor: UMI. Horner, K. (2005) ‘Reimagining the nation: discourses of language purism in Luxembourg’, in N. Langer and W. V. Davies (eds), Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 166–85. Horner, K. (2007a) ‘Global challenges to nationalist ideologies: language and education in the Luxembourg press’, in S. Johnson and A. Ensslin (eds), Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies. London: Continuum, pp. 130–46. Horner, K. (2007b) ‘Language and Luxembourgish national identity: ideologies of hybridity and purity in the past and present’, in S. Elspaß, N. Langer, J. Scharloth and W. Vandenbussche (eds), Germanic Language Histories ‘from Below’ (1700–2000). Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 363–78. Horner, K. and Weber, J-J. (2005) ‘The representation of immigrant students within the classical humanist ethos of the Luxembourgish school-system’, in A. J. Schuth, K. Horner and J. J. Weber (eds), Life in Language. Studies in Honour of Wolfgang Kühlwein. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, pp. 241–58. Klein, C. (2007) ‘The valuation of plurilingual competences in an open European labour market’, International Journal of Multilingualism, 4: 262–81. Kollwelter, S. (1998) ‘Excerpt from an interview on “L’immigration et les langues dans le système scolaire luxembourgeois”’, in P. Magère, B. Esmein and M. Poty (eds), La

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situation de la langue française parmi les autres langues en usage au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Luxembourg: Centre Culturel Français, pp. 163–65. Kraemer, J.-P. (2001) ‘Le Luxembourg, un paradigme européen?’, in Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de la Formation Professionnelle et des Sports (ed.), Année européenne des langues 2001. Luxembourg: Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de la Formation Professionnelle et des Sports, pp. 3–4. Mesthrie, R. (2000) ‘Clearing the ground: basic issues, concepts and approaches’, in R. Mesthrie, J. Swann, A. Deumert and W. L. Leap (eds), Introducing Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 1–43. Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (1998) Pour une école d’intégration: constats – questions – perspective. Luxembourg: Ministère de l’Education nationale et de la Formation professionnelle. Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de la Formation Professionnelle et des Sports (2000) L’Education précoce: Plan-cadre. Luxembourg: Ministère de l’Education nationale, de la Formation professionnelle et des Sports. Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de la Formation Professionnelle et des Sports (2001) PISA 2000: Kompetenzen von Schülern im internationalen Vergleich, Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg. Luxembourg: Ministère de l’Education nationale, de la Formation professionnelle et des Sports. Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de la Formation Professionnelle et des Sports (2003) Horaires et programmes 2003–2004: www.men.lu/edu/fre/hor [accessed: 15 March 2004]. Ministère de l’Education Nationale et de la Formation Professionnelle (2013) L’enseignement luxembourgeois en chiffres: Année scolaire 2011–2012: www.men. public.lu/publications/etudes_statistiques/chiffres_cles/130123_fr_depliant_ chiffres11_12/130123_dpl_chiffres_fr.pdf [accessed: 02.05.2013]. Rasquin, F., Rinnen, J., Schmit, J. and Schumacher, P. ([1990]1994) Lëtzebuergesch Texter. Lëtzebuerg: Ministère de l’Education Nationale. Spizzo, D. (1995) La nation luxembourgeoise: Genèse et structure d’une identité. Paris: L’Harmattan. Statec (2014) Le portail des statistiques: www.statistiques.public.lu/fr/index.html [accessed 10 May 2014]. Trausch, G. (ed.) (2002) Histoire du Luxembourg: Le destin européen d’un ‘petit pays’. Toulouse: Editions Privat. von Polenz, P. (1990) ‘Nationale Varietäten der deutschen Sprache’, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 83: 5–38. Waringo, K. (2003) MigPol: An Overview of Immigration, Integration, Asylum and Refugee Policies in all EU Member States (Country Report Luxembourg): www. emz-berlin.de [accessed 29 July 2004]. Weber, J-J. (2009) Multilingualism, Education and Change. Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang Verlag.

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Portugal: Policy and Adult Education Licínio C. Lima and Paula Guimarães

1 Public policy models and discontinuity as a structural fixture This chapter concerns Portugal and it includes a comprehensive discussion of the historical developments of adult education since 1974, when the Democratic Revolution occurred. Three models of adult education policy are mentioned in relation to this discussion (Lima, 2005; Cavaco, 2009), i.e. the democraticemancipatory model, the modernization and state control model and the human resources (HR) management model. These models are further connected to the developments and main features of Portuguese adult education policies in the last 40 years. The impact of the European Union has led to this chapter including a debate on the repercussions of guidelines of the aforementioned supranational organization, specifically relating to the emphasis on the vocationalist trend and on HR management. This influence has been quite evident since Portugal became a member of the European Economic Community in 1986 and major funding was given to vocational training programmes. From 1999, but especially since 2007 (under the III European Union Funding Framework), the new public policy on adult education was based on forms of provision such as the recognition of prior learning. While it essentially addressed adult education and led to learners earning a diploma, the main purpose of the policy was to prepare adults for the effects of globalization and the restructuring of the Portuguese economy. Surprisingly, recent research findings have shown that the most relevant outcomes of attending these courses have not been an improvement in material living conditions, based on achieving more skilled and better-paid jobs, as argued in many policy discourses, but the raising of self-esteem and individual empowerment of learners, who felt more responsible for their education and learning paths. The emphasis has therefore been on the individualized facet of 245

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the model of HR management, detached from the adult education policies’ democratic-emancipatory model underlying the educational and philosophical roots of this field (Lima and Guimarães, 2012). In keeping with these ideas, observed in the wake of the 1974 democratic revolution, adult education in Portugal proved to be an area deeply marked by education policies that appeared and disappeared sporadically over the past forty years. They were therefore policies that were notable for strong discontinuities with respect to the guidelines and priorities they established over the years. Considering the historical detachment of the political and cultural elites relative to the education of their fellow citizens, and the absence of major educational institutions and social movements involved in the education of the adult population, the democratic regime was faced with the need to produce policies for adult education and create a public offer able to cope with a difficult socio-educational situation. It should be noted that in the mid-1970s around a quarter of the population of Portugal was illiterate, children and young people had extremely low schooling levels despite the increases implemented in the previous decade, and the university population was small. As Alberto Melo (2004, pp. 41–4) concluded, the situation in 1974 resulted from a ‘programmed obscurantism’ whose profound impact on Portuguese society can still be felt today. The same author also observed that: the Portuguese political class, the hegemonic sectors of society of yesterday and of today, always reached great success in their intentions [. . .] of impeding the great majority of Portuguese adults from becoming full citizens in order to participate, in an informal and conscious way, in the (re) organization and the (re)creation of the res publica. Melo, 2004, p. 43

This position was a structural fixture, even during the democratic regime, though it fluctuated and its characteristics shifted with the various political periods. At the same time, paradoxically, the discontinuity of adult education policies stemmed from the lack of any remotely stable central thread. The political and educational guidelines, government priorities, organizational and administrative aspects and educational concepts and theories changed frequently, interrupting or discarding certain policies to make room for others, and so it continued. The heterogeneity and plurality of adult education as a sphere of social practices was never the subject of comprehensive, multifaceted government policies, but of segmented, heterogeneous guidance that was generally short term.

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This time, the core argument of this chapter, which seeks to interpret the political and educational models most important in this sector, based on the three proposals mentioned above, is as follows: the political directions of a democratic, emancipatory and regional stripe that we can link to the popular education paradigm and the ‘critical models of social policy’ (Griffin, 1999a) have only had a fleeting impact in the revolutionary context and beyond. In a few years the popular education initiatives of the second half of the 1970s were subjected to a kind of crushing, even though some of their more typical features have endured until the present day in certain practices of the voluntary and community sectors, in an active resistance to those policies. Two separate but interlocking models have gained prominence. A rationale of modernization and social control started to emerge from the 1980s, with the return of educational guidelines under the centralized control of education administration and policy, which led to the sharp reduction in the area of adult education deemed legitimate and open to public support, from then increasingly formalized as ‘second chance’ school education, known as ‘remedial education’. From the late 1990s the HR management model took over, in the context of ‘models of neoliberal policies’ (Griffin, 1999b) of economic competitiveness and the production of a qualified workforce governed by vocational notions for the production of human capital, strongly inspired by the European Union. This model was accompanied by acute tensions in terms of practices such as the recognition of prior learning.

2 Understanding public policies on adult education: different models Public policies on adult education are discussed based on three models founded on political-educational guidelines, political priorities, organizational and administrative dimensions, and theoretical and conceptual elements. These are: the democratic-emancipatory model; the modernization and state control model; and the HR management model. These three models are seen as analytical proposals set within a continuum. Although addressed separately here, they are not exclusive, since features of more than one model can coexist within the same government policy and cross-fertilization or hybridization is possible. Rather than presenting rigid artificial possibilities of analysis, these models should be considered as heuristic devices for understanding public policies of adult education and learning. Therefore, at a given time, one (or two) models can have

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a higher/lower profile than the others. The dominant character of one model at a specific time does not mean that characteristics of another are not also involved. Nonetheless, the survival of these models tends to be marginal, sometimes offering active resistance and at others persisting in a restricted, implicit or modest form (Lima and Guimarães, 2011).

2.1 The democratic-emancipatory model Regarding the political and educational guidelines, this model is based on polycentric education systems in a framework of participatory democracies characterized by a range of social struggles and conflicts. This is why government policies tend to favour decentralization and bottom-up dynamics, to the detriment of top-down ones. State programmes prefer local support for selfgoverning and self-managed projects and activities, promoted by civil society organizations, particularly non-profit ones, and social movements. Bargaining and compromise (between the state and such bodies) happen in places where these bodies are seen as partners and where the most important policy decisions are taken. The priorities of these policies are to construct more inclusive, just, egalitarian, democratic and participatory societies in which all the actions of all the social actors matter. Social, economic and political change is an essential purpose, and education is regarded as an empowering process, a mechanism for social emancipation and a basic social right. Furthermore, values such as solidarity, social justice and the public good are fundamental to the promotion of educational actions. In terms of organization and administration, it is expected that grassroots groups, NGOs and other non-state bodies will be involved in the definition, adoption and appraisal of policies. We have seen the recognition of the intervention of civil society organizations in policies as participatory forms of decision making are encouraged. At the same time, with respect to the theoretical and conceptual elements, these policies see adult education as a route to developing knowledge and thinking, in which critique and dialogicity are key. Taken as a field of heterogeneous practices marked by the diversity of projects and initiatives, it covers basic education, literacy, community and socio-cultural activities, local development and other areas. The collective dimension of education, along with ethics and politics, are emphasized in these activities. For these reasons, the educational goals linked to democratization, social justice, equal opportunities and social change are stressed.

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2.2 The modernization and state control model Under this model, the political and administrative guidelines are geared towards valuing education as a support for social and economic modernization. In this context, the state is a key player in defining and providing education and its intervention in ensuring free education for all is essential. Based on the perspective of social orthopaedics, these guidelines set out to plug the gaps and social and educational needs of people singled out by various government departments. In addition, adult education, especially the basic and vocational components, helps to train citizens and workers, fostering social, civic and political participation within the framework of formal public authorities and labour organizations. These policies are also sustained by guidelines that aim to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of labour and economic management. This is why they are policies that, while they aim to eradicate social inequalities, favour the maintenance of the status quo and social conformity. The policy priorities emphasize basic education projects and initiatives, namely functional literacy, adaptive literacy and second chance. They are policies that arise as strategies of social control. Formal rules, many of which are bureaucratic in nature, are implemented, based on guidelines more typical of the welfare state. Regarding vocational training, influenced by the more traditional school format, it is proposed to adjust workers to the job, to promote adaptability and productivity growth. In terms of organizational and administrative aspects, the school and its more traditional, harmonized, standardized and formalized organization, in terms of both management and pedagogy, represents facets of a model followed by the projects and promoters of adult education activities. The course, therefore, is the initiative preferred by the various education actors, replicating more rigid educational, pedagogical, administrative and management processes that are closer to the school model. In these policies, the theoretical and conceptual elements of adult education result from an established basic social right. The education system provides for the implementation and interaction of a range of formal and non-formal education activities. However, adult education is mostly about second chance and (continuous) vocational training initiatives that foster equal opportunities and, particularly, economic modernization and the economic development of the nation-state. These initiatives are especially intended to transmit and reproduce valid knowledge for the personal and social education of citizens (specifically voters) and workers, making them flexible to the dynamics of economic development.

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2.3 The human resources management model Contrary to previous models, in which the bodies of civil society (in the case of the democratic-emancipatory model) and the state (the modernization and social control model) played an essential part in the education of adults, here it is the profit-making organizations and the individual, seen as a rational, strategic actor, that are more relevant. In this case, we draw attention to the weight of demand (rather than supply) when defining and implementing adult-oriented educational activities, and the prominence of active policies in terms of both education and training in coordination with the labour market and employment. Against a backdrop of contradictory dynamics of contraction and expansion of the state, basically of major changes in patterns of action more characteristic of the welfare state, partnerships have been established between state and statedependent bodies, as well as private entities, often firms though they may be civil society organizations whose operations are influenced by modes closer to profitmaking entities, thus showing a tendency to corporatization and commodification of education and training. In this line of thinking, projects and initiatives that combine a rationale of public service with a programme rationale are favoured. The policy priorities preferred in this model are driven by economic growth, through increased productivity, competitiveness and employability of working adults, since education and training are at the service of the development of human capital. Adult education, particularly lifelong learning, is concerned with social, economic and educational adaptation where citizens are regarded as enjoying freedom of choice and being responsible for their education and training options. Basic education, especially vocational training, therefore gives precedence to upskilling and the acquisition of skills valued in the labour market and needed for a competitive economy. This circumstance further means that the knowledge gained throughout life, which previously had little value for the social recognition of workers when it came to selling their labour, is becoming more important and can be certified. In other words, there is now formal social recognition of the value of knowledge and abilities, particularly their economic value. Basically, education in all its forms (formal, non-formal and informal) is gaining market value since learning by adults can be translated into investment with an economic return. In organizational and administrative terms, this model adopts HR management and favours induction and managerialist procedures. At the same time, we are seeing an appeal to the intervention of non-state bodies, either profit-making or from the third sector, in the context of partnerships between the state and non-state entities. The intervention of these entities means that

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those that depend on the state have minimalist administration and management structures, opting for strategies based on induction and mediation. With regard to the theoretical and conceptual elements in the promotion of human capital, vocationalism and vocational training initiatives are stressed, even when directed at remedying obsolescence of knowledge related to work, retraining and recycling. From this perspective, knowledge is valuable for the economic benefit it has and the possibilities it offers to increase the competitiveness and employability of working adults and labour organizations. On the other hand, there is the resemanticization of ideas such as democracy, participation, autonomy and freedom, as well as the recontextualization of active educational approaches, participation, and cooperative work. However, even though it seems progressive, this trend is moving towards training economically valuable skills since individual autonomy is accentuated in a competitive scenario where there is a profound depoliticization of knowledge and learning.

3 Historical developments of adult education in Portugal since 1974 3.1 Democracy, emancipation and popular education The popular mobilization that occurred just after the revolution of 25 April 1974 took many forms of expression. With respect to adult education, it was linked to a rationale of intervention typical of popular education. This model was based on participatory dynamics and socio-educational activism that has spawned a myriad local self-organization initiatives endowed with considerable independence and often of remarkable creativity. The educational aspects are often associated with political and social demand, cultural projects, local improvements, community development, mostly from the bottom (of the community) up (to the state and the administration), from a decentralized and autonomous political and organizational perspective. From the variety of collective actors that then emerged we can single out popular associations, both with the resumption of a Portuguese tradition, long suspended during the previous authoritarian regime, and with the creation of new associations and more-or-less informal groups. Some of these groups were later formalized as popular associations of local development. Among the initiatives focused on by associations and popular movements, especially in the second half of the 1970s, were literacy actions, cultural and

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socio-educational work, and basic adult education activities. They occurred in the wake of initial prompting by a wide range of institutions and social actors – community centres, parish groups, cooperatives, sundry local associations, trade unions and other groups – without a predetermined, unifying thread and on the fringes of government policy and organizational action by the public administration. In general, these sociocultural mobilization and popular education initiatives were decentralized constructs, rejecting both the input of central and state authorities and the most typical literacy campaign models. These initiatives, closer to the stream of ‘people power’ and capable of self-organization, community approaches and awareness raising, belonged to a broader context of popular education and popular mobilization rather than to a project to speed up the production of graduates, under avant-garde slogans, conceived centrally and having a doctrinaire slant (Lima, 2005). Between 1975 and 1976, the political and educational model of popular education based on the building of partnerships between popular education associations and the Ministry of Education were developed by the General Directorate of Lifelong Education. Recognizing the self-governing local initiatives through a decentralized but effective policy of support, that department rejected ‘a policy of aggressive intervention’ and backed the role of socioeducational associations through appropriate legal instruments, resources and teaching assets. The pioneering and exceptional nature of the decentralization operated under the Ministry of Education sought to establish a government policy for adult education that could involve non-governmental grassroots groups in the building and operation of such a policy. In July 1976, the General Directorate of Lifelong Education had relations with around 500 local groups and associations to which it provided technical, material and teaching support (Melo and Benavente, 1978). Despite the energy and high social-educational potential of local associations in developing popular adult education programmes and actions, their role was increasingly watered down, but this did not happen immediately, given that the period of political and constitutional normalization begun in late 1976 lasted into the next decade. In fact, the introduction of educational planning and the recentralization of the Ministry of Education’s power did not dispel the acknowledged importance of a concept of adult education that was benchmarked to popular education and based on the relevance of the associative movement, though other aspects gained more focus in public policies, as we shall see in the next section. Law 3/79 to some extent symbolized the transition from social-educational mobilization to the attempt to construct a system and a government organization

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for adult education, no doubt looking to lay the foundations for government policy development of the sector, whose characteristics were now more ‘social democratic’ in terms of social policy models (Griffin, 1999a). In this respect, the focus was on the concept and role of the welfare state in education, particularly through the provision of adult education, the creation of a public network, the production of legislation and other regulatory instruments, the granting of support, the drafting of programmes and targets, inspired largely by UNESCO recommendations. That law made the government responsible for drafting a National Plan for Adult Literacy and Basic Education, which set goals for eradicating illiteracy by means of programmes to implement an intervention strategy that combined government action and popular associations. Special emphasis was given to the development of ‘integrated regional projects’ and the creation of a National Institute for Adult Education (Portugal, 1979). This institute was never set up and the plan soon started to miss its targets. Its overall conception nonetheless contained elements with high social-educational potential and sought an interaction between the state models closest to the modernization and social control model and the associative community models of a popular and democratic nature. It pressed for a decentralized and autonomous system of adult education and looked to capitalize on the experience garnered by the General Directorate for Lifelong Education and by many popular education groups during the revolutionary period. Indeed, the political will, the resources required and the very organizational dynamics of the Ministry of Education’s General Directorate that, in a few years, would have gone through several name changes and spheres of intervention, proved to be incompatible with the plan’s policies and goals. In the mid-1980s, a report by the General Directorate for Adult Education (Portugal, 1986) published data that showed that the plan had been abandoned and the aid given by the Ministry of Education to popular education, associations and community intervention was virtually non-existent.

3.2 Modernization, second chance education and vocational training In 1986, Portugal saw the adoption of the Basic Law for the Education System (still in force) and its entry into the European Economic Community. The popular adult education model and centrality of the associative movement have suffered profound devaluation and marginalization under the dominant political orientations. Issues relating to the literacy, basic education and popular education

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of the adult population came to be represented, from the standpoint of public policy, as matters generally incompatible with the idealized place and desired status for a country in the European Community. The biggest challenges for this ‘new’ country were to modernize the economy and infrastructure, to make public and private management effective and efficient, and to increase productivity and competitiveness in the economy. Adult education was not seen as a strategic variable in these challenges but as a modernization and social control strategy. The Basic Law highlighted second chance learning and school inspired vocational training, even though the latter has not been regarded as a subsector of adult education. Second chance education was mostly developed in mainstream schools through evening classes and it was attended largely by young people who had dropped out of regular day school. With its own rules and making use of a significant country-wide state school system already up and running, this education exposed complex dropping-out problems, issues of coordination with the popular education and local associations model, the model was eventually overwhelmed by the centralized paradigm of formal education, school certification of levels formally required by basic and secondary education (ordinary day school) and by the dictates of continuing studies imposed on regular students. Faced with the strong schooling and formalization of adult education, vocational training was regarded as an independent but parallel route, attracting increasing funding, largely from the European Union, but revealing structural, political and educational incompatibilities with the popular education and basic education model that, moreover, it always ignored. Second chance school education and vocational training were thus the cornerstone of educational policies between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Indeed, actions directed at adults received significant funding from the European Union under the Operational Programme for the Development of Education for Portugal (PRODEP), for instance, which was concentrated on remedial education and vocational training, with the objective of qualifying labour and modernizing the economy. School certification and vocational qualification were boosted with the extension of the provision of training and encouragement of demand by certain segments of the working age public (Almeida et al., 1995). But it did nothing to help relaunch a public policy of adult education. It was hard for the popular education and associative model to regain ground in the face of a centralized education administration. Discontinuing policies and actions in a country with structural social-educational weaknesses, cemented by decades of public neglect, was itself another relevant structural problem of the apparently

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volatile contemporary education policies, or at least not very compatible with the medium and long term, depending more on immediate results to legitimize certain choices. The democratic-emancipatory model survived thenceforth on the fringes of the education system, and often beyond the official legal definition of that world, sometimes cropping up in research and participatory research projects carried out in higher education institutions in conjunction with associations, community projects, local development initiatives, etc. (e.g. Erasmie, Lima and Pereira, 1984; Melo and Soares, 1994; Fragoso, 2009). At other times, support was sought from social policies aimed at children, the elderly, vocational training, relieving poverty, local employment initiatives, rural development and benefits flowed from new European Community support programmes that targeted specific areas (e.g. Lima, 2006). Actually, a considerable number of associations of a new type and calling appeared from the mid–1980s, covering new areas of local intervention opened up by access to European programmes and funds and rarely with the main objective of popular/basic education for adults, although these aspects sometimes fell within the scope of their social actions. Otherwise, there was a restructuring and reorganization of some associations that were consolidated within the popular associations and popular education model, then facing a dearth of policies and funding specifically targeted at adult education. Many of them evolved to the status of private welfare institutions (in Portuguese Instituições Privadas de Solidariedade Social), offering a number of social services on a local basis, under contract and within the framework of partnerships with the official social security authorities. On the whole, they were socially induced actions by public organizations of the state (Guimarães, Silva and Sancho, 2000), rather than popular initiatives started by local or community impetus. In any event, such projects and initiatives kept a range of actions on the ground, which, to a greater or lesser degree, can still be related to the democratic-emancipatory model. However, they were placed at the edge of a government policy only minimally clear and consistent and, of course, also on the margin of the public financing that would be compatible with a social policy that had a civic and democratic purpose.

3.3 Qualification and management of human resources Government policy on adult education in the mid-1990s was notable for its state of crisis and deinstitutionalization. Remedial education, with all its potential, as well as all its problems (e.g. Esteves, 1996; Pinto, Matos and Rothes, 1998; Sancho,

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2000) and vocational training tended then to exhaust the watered-down and marginalized adult education sector (Silva and Rothes, 1998, pp. 28–32), with all the other areas of intervention silenced, especially issues of literacy (often completely overlooked) (Benavente et al., 1996). It was in this context of crisis that the 1995 election manifesto of the Socialist Party (centre-left) brought adult education into the political discourse with a promise to ‘relaunch’ the sector. This promise was based on a consensual diagnosis arrived from academic circles, that overall there was an ‘absence of a system of education for adults’. So a development policy was conceived, involving the promotion of out-of-school education for the development of, and to support, the associative movement. In short, it promised the rebirth of adult education based on a democratic-emancipatory model, interacting with certain principles of other models. In contrast, in 1998 the government launched a programme for the Development of Adult Education and Training, from which time ‘education and training’ began to be articulated terminologically. The National Adult Education and Training Agency (in Portuguese Agência Nacional de Educação e Formação de Adultos) was established in 1999. A minimalist structure was chosen for this organization, based on induction and mediation, referring important matters to later stages of decision and placing the agency in an installation scheme from which, moreover, it was never rescued by the socialist government, until its dissolution in 2002, when the 15th Constitutional Government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Popular Party (centre-right) was in power. It is therefore legitimate to consider that this agency was created, paradoxically, on the fringes of a policy to develop adult education (Lima, 2005). The interregnum of the reassessment of adult education again ended with the disappearance of this expression from education policy discourse. Political speeches and other guidance documents since then have ceased to refer to the ‘adult education’ category, preferring the terms ‘adult education and training’, ‘improving skills of human resources’, ‘vocational training’ and ‘lifelong training’. Adult education again capitulated as a government education policy and found itself under siege, drastically restricted to certain areas of ‘adult vocational training’ within the context of neoliberal guidelines (Griffin, 1999b). The adult population lost identity, ending up conceptually rejuvenated by reference to ‘remedial education’ for young adults and restricted to the ‘workforce’ for the purpose of ‘vocational qualification’. These changes became more noticeable in subsequent government programmes, to the extent that the training of Portuguese people was central to

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the national political agenda. In the 2005 government programme, one of the five major policy areas was to ‘restore the sustained growth of the economy and modernize the country, making knowledge, innovation, the training and qualification of the Portuguese and improvement of government services the paths of progress’ (Portugal, 2005a: 7). Furthermore, the Technological Plan, in conjunction with the EU guidelines and allied with the effort to raise the qualification levels of the human capital as a factor for progress, underpinned the expansion of access to lifelong learning, according to the EU, particularly with respect to the ‘updating and deepening of skills’. This Plan envisaged meeting the challenges of flexible employment, retraining and updating the workforce (Portugal, 2005a: 21–2), and permitted a clear association with the HR management model. The New Opportunities Initiative, implemented after 2005, in fact emphasized this model. This route was intended to foster ‘convergence with the more developed countries’. Moreover, this initiative, together with the National Employment Plan, aimed to broaden the participation of working people and small- and medium-sized enterprises in the skills improvement process. As stated, this programme ‘was a fundamental pillar of employment and vocational training policies’ in the context of the knowledge economy (Portugal, 2005b). There has been a concern since then with the guaranteeing of adult education as a social right, with extended access and based on the priorities of modernization and social control through the development of knowledge and skills useful to the economy. But provisions that have been implemented in the meantime, such as skills recognition, validation and certification involved goals for adaptation and retraining workers have helped to encourage economic growth and to increase productivity and competitiveness. In addition, the emphasis began to fall on the individualization of education and training pathways, while adults were persuaded to be responsible for their choices, in the context of the HR management model. After 2007, there was a strong increase in the provision of adult education, and by 2011 the participation figures were the highest ever seen in Portugal (Portugal, 2011a). Additionally, the last few years have seen a marked increase in the Portuguese appreciation of both formal and non-formal adult education and training (Portugal, 2011b, 2013). Since 2011, under the financial aid programme established by the International Monetary Fund, the Central European Bank and the European Commission, the government adult education policy in force since the 2000s has been suspended and even now, at the start of 2014, the next developments are unclear. However, one cannot help noticing that vocational training, supported by the European Social Fund and carried out by

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larger companies, has grown considerably in terms of the total number of actions implemented and participants benefiting (Portugal, 2010), which clearly indicates the predominance of HR management models. Anyway, present circumstances, as well as generating uncertainty about future developments in adult education, also motivate reflection on the recent history of this sector, on developments and the most striking trends.

4 The impact of discontinuous adult education policies: learners and the recognition of prior learning Overall, the Portuguese situation since 25 April 1974 is characterized by a lacklustre and intermittent presence of adult education in educational policy agendas. This resulted in widespread non-participation of the majority of adults in education programmes and activities, because of systematic mismatches between state policy decisions and the interests, models and experiences of most social-educational sectors, which still maintain on the ground a range of practices recognisable as adult learning and education. Only recently has adult education assumed a political role, under the New Opportunities Initiative. However, this role was supported by the goals and guidelines closest to the human resource management model, leaving serious doubts about the democratic and emancipatory potential of the programmes and provision implemented. Thus, the rejection of a comprehensive integrated adult education policy (Melo, Lima and Almeida, 2002), especially with regard to basic education, popular education, community education and local development, has to be seen as a form of control and social reproduction. Indeed, public adult education policies proved to be a possible analyser of the degree of social commitment and democratization of the actual education policies, considered as a whole. They are also seen as a possible indicator of the level of social cohesion sought by different social policy models. Whereas in terms of public policy this is the thesis of this work, rough development trends in terms of practice can also be identified. Moreover, these tensions are particularly clear in provisions such as skills recognition, validation and certification, the initiative for adult basic education that involved most adults in the last decade (more than 386,000 adults certified) (Portugal, 2011a). Like many devices for the recognition of prior learning, skills recognition, validation and certification relied on two key ideas – social justice and social change (Harris, 1999; Andersson and Harris, 2010) – ideas that can be assigned to the democratic and emancipatory model and, to some extent, the

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modernization and social control model. However, though these ideas were initially central, more recently there has been an ideological shift that deems knowledge that would facilitate economic development to be more important (Glastra, Hake and Schedler, 2004; Andersson, Fejes and Sandberg, 2013). Consequently, the valuing of lifelong learning gained new nuances. With developments such as the European Qualifications Framework (and corresponding National Framework), the purposes of recognition of prior learning in Portugal and other countries began to emphasize the skills (of a professional nature) and their relationship with the labour market. This led to a closer relationship being forged between education/training and work. The recognition of knowledge developed during the course of life has had an essential role since then in promoting employability and in making individuals accountable for their educational and training choices that have an impact in professional terms (Barros, 2013; Guimarães, 2013). Despite this drift, it should be noted that the Portuguese proposal for recognizing prior learning focused on knowledge acquired in varied formal, non-formal and informal contexts, although the process resulted in a school certification and, to some degree, the device also related to knowledge and abilities of a disciplinary nature. On completion, this process led to a diploma (basic level – equivalent to the 4th, 6th or 9th year of schooling – and secondary level – equivalent to the 12th year). The learning recognized, validated and certified was the result of comprehensive activities undertaken throughout life that went beyond the traditional areas of (formal) education and work, in different localized practices. Because it was viewed as a device intended to promote social justice, due to coverage of key skills that could be recognized and validated, to the involvement of adults from very different social groups, and to the school certification that enabled, etc., some authors criticized the limited impact of the recognition of prior learning in terms of emancipation and social change (Antunes and Guimarães, 2014). But, in fact, this process met conditions to promote biographicity (Alheit and Dausien, 2002), but little change in social, political, civic and professional terms could be noted. In this respect, education and training were relatively instrumental, because the dynamics of emancipation that occurred were mainly subjective and individual. Much of the knowledge developed amounted to personal development, increased self-esteem, selfconfidence and a greater sense of responsibility. At the same time, the learning and the changes reported by adults tended to be few and of a modest nature, especially if the political ends associated with the education and training of

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adults are considered and, in Portugal, with the New Opportunities Initiative, the programme that was the driving force behind this provision (Lima and Guimarães, 2012). In fact, the New Opportunities Initiative seems to have followed a HR management model with its upskilling and improving competitiveness, filling the ‘gaps’ and ‘deficits’ exhibited by the Portuguese workforce. In this context, it was hoped that the recognition of prior learning would help adults with certificates ‘climb another rung up the social ladder’, although this increase would be subjective and discursive and might not translate into an actual impact on an adult’s life. But this initiative fell far short of achieving the ambitious ends set for it. Indeed, recognition of prior learning did not lead to a significant increase in employability, but it did motivate adults to improve their education, training and learning, heightening their self-esteem and sense of social and cultural inclusion. Basically, it seemed to contribute to mobilizing potential, to developing soft skills that, for various reasons, led certain adults with certificates to a dead end. This situation resulted from the lack of educational and training provision that could be taken up at the end of the process, as well as the inadequacy of the path to subsequent higher education courses. For these reasons, the New Opportunities Initiative translated into these constraints the more negative side of the finalist vision that has shaped adult education policies, obvious in the isolation to which certified adults seemed to be consigned after completing the process. Looking ahead, we still do not know how many adult citizens will be won over to an education and lifelong learning project that, in Portugal, is still delayed in the context of fitful government policies, especially as the rates of adult Portuguese participation are known to be low and the traditional weakness of educational provision in this area is acknowledged, in contrast to the experience of other European Union countries (EUROSTAT, 2013). The raising of participation rates of adults in all kinds of education, training and lifelong learning actions, building on the results achieved and the corresponding synergies, was undoubtedly one of the greatest tests of the policy pursued in recent years. However, the most relevant outcomes of attendance of these provisions were not an improvement in material living conditions, nor in more skilled and better paid jobs, better employability or economic competitiveness. In fact, they were found in the raising of self-esteem and individual empowerment by learners, who felt more responsible for their education and learning paths from a standpoint of human, personal and social development; they gained from the search for autonomy, self-confidence and responsibility, sometimes following

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the finest tradition of ‘liberal adult education’, popular education, clarification, cultural production and aesthetic enjoyment. But these outcomes have been discredited, both in terms of social policies and in an educational context. This is because the government policy that has prevailed in Portugal has opted to clearly stress the individualized facet of the HR management model, detached from adult education policies based on the democratic-emancipatory model and on the humanistic–critical educational and philosophical roots of this field. It seems adult education policies have been represented by most Portuguese governments to an ideological concern typical of a past revolutionary era, while providing ‘human capital’ with skills and training, giving adults vocational training and implementing the managerialist strategies needed for economic competitiveness are now the real priorities for the future that will help the country to succeed.

References Alheit, P. and Dausien, B. (2002) ‘The “double face” of lifelong learning: two analytical perspectives on a “silent revolution” ’, Studies in the Education of Adults, 34(1): 3–22. Almeida, J. F. (coord.), Rosa, A., Pedroso, P., Quedas, M. J., Silva, J. A. and Capucha, L. (1995) Avaliação do PRODEP/Subprograma Educação de Adultos. Relatório Final (Versão provisória). Lisboa: Ministério da Educação/Departamento de Educação Básica e Instituto Superior das Ciências do Trabalho e da Empresa/CIDEC e CIES (unpublished document). Andersson, P., Fejes, A. and Sandberg, F. (2013) ‘Introducing research on recognition of prior learning’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 32(4): 405–11. Andersson, P. and Harris, J. (eds) (2010) Re-Theorising the Recognition of Prior Learning. Leicester: NIACE. Antunes, F. and Guimarães, P. (2014) ‘Lifelong education and learning, societal project and competitive advantage: tensions and ambivalences in policy and planning of educational change in Portugal’, Globalization, Societies and Education, 12(1): 71–91. Barros, R. (2013) ‘The Portuguese case of RPL, new practices and new adult educators: some tensions and ambivalences in the framework of new public policies. Introducing research on recognition of prior learning’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 32(4): 430–46. Benavente, A. (coord.), Rosa A., Costa, A. F. and Ávila, P. (1996) A Literacia em Portugal. Resultados de uma Pesquisa Extensiva e Monográfica. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian e Conselho Nacional de Educação. Cavaco, C. (2009) Adultos Pouco Escolarizados. Políticas e Práticas de Formação. Lisboa: Educa.

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Erasmie, T., Lima, L. C. and Pereira, L. C. (1984) ‘Adult education and community development: experiences from programs in Northern Portugal’, Convergence, 4: 17–26. Esteves, M. J. (1996) ‘O retorno à escola: uma segunda oportunidade? Trajectórias sociais e escolares dos jovens e adultos que frequentam os cursos do ensino recorrente de adultos’, Inovação, 9(3): 219–39. EUROSTAT (2013) Statistics: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table& init=1&language=en&pcode=tsdsc440&plugin=1 [accessed on 8 January 2014]. Fragoso, A. (2009) Desarrollo Comunitario y Educación. Xátiva: L’Ullal Ediciones/ Dialogos. Glastra, F. J., Hake, B. J. and Schedler, P. E. (2004) ‘Lifelong learning as transitional learning’, Adult Education Quarterly, 54(4): 291–307. Griffin, C. (1999a) ‘Lifelong learning and social democracy’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 18(5): 329–24. Griffin, C. (1999b) ‘Lifelong learning and welfare reform’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 18(6): 431–52. Guimarães, P. (2013) ‘Reinterpreting lifelong learning: meanings of adult education policy in Portugal, 1999–2010’, International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2(2): 135–48. Guimarães, P., Silva, O. S. and Sancho, A. V. (2000) ‘Educação/formação de adultos nas associações: iniciativas popularmente promovidas ou socialmente organizadas?’, in L. C. Lima (ed.), Educação de Adultos. Forum II. Braga: Unidade de Educação de Adultos da Universidade do Minho, pp. 169–235. Harris, J. (1999) ‘Ways of seeing the recognition of prior learning (RPL): What contribution can such practices make to social inclusion?’, Studies in the Education of Adults, 31(2): 124–39. Lima, L. C. (2005) ‘A Educação de Adultos em Portugal (1974–2004)’, in R. Canário and B. Cabrito (eds), Educação e Formação de Adultos. Mutações e Convergências. Lisboa: Educa, pp. 31–60. Lima, L. C. (ed.) (2006) Educação Não Escolar de Adultos. Iniciativas em Contextos Associativos. Braga: Universidade do Minho/Unidade de Educação de Adultos. Lima, L. C. and Guimarães, P. (2011) European Strategies in Lifelong Learning: A Critical Introduction. Opladen, Germany : Barbara Budrich Publishers. Lima, L. C. and Guimarães, P. (orgs) (2012) Percursos Educativos e Vidas dos Adultos. Reconhecimento, Validação e Certificação de Competências numa Associação de Desenvolvimento Local. Braga: Unidade de Educação de Adultos da Universidade do Minho/Associação para o Desenvolvimento das Terras Altas do Ave, Homem e Cávado. Melo, A. (2004) ‘The absence of an adult education policy as a form of social control and some processes of resistance’, in L. C. Lima and P. Guimarães (eds), Perspectives on Adult Education in Portugal. Braga: University of Minho, Unit for Adult Education, pp. 39–63.

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Melo, A. and Benavente, A. (1978) Educação Popular em Portugal, 1974–1976. Lisboa: Livros Horizonte. Melo, A., Lima, L. C. and Almeida, M. (2002) Novas Políticas de Educação e Formação de Adultos. O Contexto Internacional e a Situação Portuguesa. Lisboa: Agência Nacional de Educação e Formação de Adultos. Melo, A and Soares, P. (1994) ‘Serra do Caldeirão. Construindo a vontade colectiva de mudança’, Formar, 12: 13–30. Pinto, J., Matos, L. and Rothes, L. (1998) Ensino Recorrente: Relatório de Avaliação. Lisboa: Ministério da Educação. Portugal (1979) Trabalhos Preparatórios para o Plano Nacional de Alfabetização e Educação de Base dos Adultos (PNAEBA). Relatório de Síntese. Lisboa: DirecçãoGeral da Educação Permanente. Portugal (1986) A Educação de Adultos, 1980/1985. Actividades da DGEA. Lisboa: Direcção-Geral de Educação de Adultos do Ministério da Educação. Portugal (2005a) Programa do XVI Governo Constitucional: http://www.portugal.gov.pt/ pt/GC16 [accessed on 10 October 2009]. Portugal (2005b) Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades. Iniciativa no âmbito do Plano Nacional de Emprego e do Plano Tecnológico: http://www.novasoportunidades.gov.pt [accessed on 6 May 2010]. Portugal (2010) Inquérito à Formação Profissional Contínua 2010. Lisboa: Gabinete de Estratégia e Planeamento/Ministério do Trabalho e da Solidariedade. Portugal (2011a) Linhas Orientadoras para o Futuro da Iniciativa Novas Oportunidades. Lisboa: Agência Nacional para a Qualificação. Portugal (2011b) Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida. Inquérito à Educação e Formação de Adultos 2007. Lisboa: Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Portugal (2013) Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida. Inquérito à Educação e Formação de Adultos 2011. Lisboa: Instituto Nacional de Estatística. Sancho, A. V. (2000) ‘A educação de adultos na escola. 2° ciclo nocturno’, in L. C. Lima (ed.), Educação de Adultos. Forum II. Braga: Unidade de Educação de Adultos da Universidade do Minho, pp. 57–73. Silva, A. S. and Rothes, L. A. (1998) ‘Educação de adultos’, in Ministério da Educação, A Evolução do Sistema Educativo e o PRODEP. Estudos Temáticos (Vol. III). Lisboa: ME/DAPP, pp. 17–103.

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Spain: Education and Regional Autonomy Inmaculada Egido and Javier Valle

Evolution of Spanish education: the ongoing reform of the school system In past decades Spain has experienced a profound transformation in the political, social and economic spheres. These changes have been accompanied by an important process of reform in the educational system. Practically, there is no aspect of the educational system that has not been modified during this period, including the administration and government of education, the structure of all educational levels, the curricula in each of them, the education financing and the training and work conditions of teachers. The change of the system had its turning point in 1970, with the General Act on Education (Ley General de Educación, LGE). This Act, whose importance has been compared with the 1944 Education Act in the United Kingdom (O’Malley, 1995) opened the path to bring education in Spain up to date and meant the beginning of an important effort to eradicate the high deficit in available school places, resulting in a massive opening of the educational system to all social levels. The law established a general education based on a non-discriminatory schooling system for pupils between 6 and 14 years of age, but the full school attendance for children of these ages was not achieved until some years later. Nevertheless, despite the significance of this Act, at the beginning of the democratic regime established by the 1978 Constitution it became necessary to start new reforms that could adapt the system to the new political situation. These reforms, based on the new constitutional guidelines, opened the system to the principles of decentralization, democratization and participation (Egido, 2005). In that way, the Spanish educational system, which was one of the most centralized in Europe, was transformed in such a way that the government of education is now a responsibility distributed between the Central Government and the seventeen autonomous regions (Comunidades Autónomas) that make up 265

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the country. These regions, following the general framework of the central legislation, have autonomy to organize the educational system in their respective territories and, in those that have languages officially recognized, to use them in the teaching. In the following years after the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, different laws were oriented to the modernization of the educational system. Under the governments of the Socialist Party (1982–1996), the reform began with the University Reform Act (Ley de Reforma Universitaria, LRU) of 1983 that updated the Spanish University. That law was based on three constitutional principles: the right of all to education, the freedom of education, and university autonomy. Only two years later, the educational rights and liberties recognized in the Constitution were also regulated to educational levels under Tertiary Education to university by the Organic Act of Right to Education (Ley Orgánica Reguladora del Derecho a la Educación, LODE). This law, passed in 1985, attempted to democratize the management of educational institutions and established school councils in educational institutions, autonomous communities and also at the State level. Besides, this Act deals with one of the most controversial and recurrent aspects in the educational debates in Spain: the status, funding and management of the private schools in the educational system. The Act acknowledged the right to create private educational establishments, accepted that all private schools accomplishing determined conditions could receive public funding, and determined the ways to be managed in those cases where private schools receive public funding. Thus, private schools, the majority belonging to the Catholic Church, which were very important in the country since the beginning of the nineteenth century, accepted the offer of education financed by the State (Ossenbach, 1996). The changes related to organization, government and administration of the system were accompanied some years later by the reform in the structure of all educational levels and the curricula in each of them. The Organic Act on the General Organization of the Educational System (Ley Organica de Ordenación General del Sistema Educativo, LOGSE) in 1990 introduced an important change to the structure of the system and also a more flexible curriculum, inspired by the principles of constructivist educational theories. The Act also extended compulsory education common for all until 16 years of age, establishing a model of ten years comprehensive education. In the first years of the twenty-first century, new reforms were made to the scholar system, driven by the Conservative Party (Partido Popular). In 2001, the Organic Act on Universities (Ley Orgánica de Universidades, LOU) repealed

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the LRU and regulated the structure and organization of the educational system at university level. In 2002, the Act on Vocational Training and Professional Qualifications modified the LOGSE on questions concerning these types of education. Finally, the Organic Act on Quality of Education (Ley Orgánica de Calidad de la Educación, LOCE), approved in 2002, modified the LODE as well as the LOGSE. The objective of the LOCE was to improve the quality and the levels of performance of the educational system. Nevertheless, this law did not come into force because of the change of government in 2004. The Socialist government approved a new reform in 2006 through the Organic Act on Education (Ley Orgánica de Educación, LOE) that continued the Spanish nonuniversity educational system until December 2013. In addition, the Organic Act on Universities was amended partially in order to align the Spanish university education with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) in 2007 (Organic law 4/2007 of 12 April, which modifies Organic Law 6/2001 of 21 December).

The educational system today The elections celebrated in Spain at the end of 2011 gave the Conservative Party an absolute majority after almost eight years of Socialist governments. In education, this change of government brought a new reform of the educational system, approved in December 2013 with the Act on the Improvement of the Quality of Education (Ley Orgánica de Mejora de la Calidad Educativa, LOMCE). This law, which affects the levels below Tertiary Education, has defined among its priorities improving the quality of education and the employability of young people, reducing the school drop-out rate, and modernizing vocational training. Although this Act is shown as a modification of the LOE of 2006, the measures set up in it have been heavily criticized by different sectors and the Act has no broad political consensus, so has been approved with only the support of the governing party. In fact, most of the opposition parties have announced that they would derogate the Act if, and when, the parliamentary majority changes; therefore, there are doubts about the continuity of this Act in the future. This situation reflects once more one of the main problematic characteristics of the current educational policy in Spain: its lack of stability due to the absence of a national consensus on education between the two biggest parties in Spain, as is claimed from different educational actors (mainly teachers’ and parents’ associations, but also academic voices and some specialized media). Since 1990, there has been a proliferation of education laws and their corresponding

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regulatory developments, provoking a fatigue effect among teachers and also some confusion in parents and society. Although it would be impossible for any educational system not to be driven by political changes, education in Spain has been particularly influenced by them and any attempt to achieve a social and political pact for education, at least in some substantial aspects, failed. This blocked the consolidation of a relatively stable regulatory framework, with the corresponding development and political reflection in the legislative field (Antiñolo et al., 2014). Nevertheless, despite the proliferation of educational Acts, some characteristics of the educational system remained relatively stable throughout recent years, and there are some continuity lines in the development of Spanish education that are unchanged in the past decades. Among these stable characteristics, which shapes some peculiar features of the Spanish educational system, could be mentioned: (1) the educational administration model; (2) the existence of a mixed network of public schools and private schools publicly funded in the levels of pre-school and compulsory education; and (3) the overall organization of the different levels of education. The stability lines also are related to: (4) the increase of scholarship ratio; and (5) convergence with the educational priorities of the European Union.

(1) Concerning the school system administration, as mentioned, powers and responsibilities are distributed between the State and the autonomous regions. According to the Spanish Constitution (art. 139.1.30), the State has the responsibility for ensuring that across Spain there are basic minimum programme standards (curriculum and qualifications) and for guaranteeing that the rights of Spanish citizens in regard to education are respected. That is why the State plays the primary regulatory role in educational matters, but the autonomous regions are responsible for the organization and administration of the educational system in their respective territories, with the exception of the powers reserved to the State. They regulate school programmes beyond the minimum structure and content determined by the State, and are responsible for school staffing, support services and grants. However, despite the reforms aimed at decentralizing the educational system, local government authorities and individual schools exercise a limited role in Spain. Even if, formally, schools have pedagogical, organizational and managerial autonomy for their resources, the fact is that the decentralization process has not reached the level of educational institutions. Spanish schools are

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characterized by a limited autonomy given by the educational administration which remains the level where most of the decisions are taken. Therefore, schools haven’t the competences that might be able to adapt more effectively to changing environments and changing policy priorities (Egido, 2005). (2) The existence of a broad number of private schools in the levels leading up to university is also a characteristic of the Spanish system. About one-third of the schools are private, and the majority of them are Catholic. At pre-primary and compulsory levels, these private establishments may subscribe to agreements with the administration and are known as centros concertados (subsidized private schools). In order to receive public financing, private schools must comply with certain requirements. No subsidized private schools are subject to a general approval regime, and they enjoy freedom of internal organization, admission requirements and rules of conduct. However, at the university level, private education is not so representative because 86.5 per cent of students go to public universities and only 13.5 per cent to private, although the latter have been progressively increasing their number of students in recent years (Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2013). (3) In spite of the different laws, and even when the curriculum and organization of each level has been modified on different occasions, the overall structure of the educational system has remained relatively stable since 1990, setting up five big stages: Infant Education, Primary Education, Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary Education and Higher Education – and even the curriculum and organization of each stage has been modified on different occasions. Pre-primary or Infant Education is the first stage in the general educational system and it is not compulsory. It is organized into two cycles: the first, up to the age of 3, and the second, from 3 to 6 years of age. This second cycle is free in all publicly funded schools. Primary Education lasts for six years, between the ages of 6 and 12 and is the first compulsory stage in the system. Compulsory Secondary Education (Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, ESO) comprises four school years, for pupils between the ages of 12 and 16, and is the second compulsory stage, so Primary Education and Compulsory Secondary Education constitute the ten years of free and compulsory education for all pupils. After the compulsory stage of education, pupils have access to the Upper Secondary Education that is also provided in secondary schools. It lasts two

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academic years, and is usually studied between the ages of 16 and 18. It offers two possibilities: Bachillerato (mainstream branch) that lasts two courses, and Intermediate Vocational Training (professional branch) that has a varied length and is also provided in Vocational Training integrated institutions and in National Reference institutions. Finally, Higher Education includes university and non-university tertiary education. University studies, provided in universities, lead to the obtaining of Bachelor, Master and Doctorate Degrees. Non-university tertiary education includes Advanced Vocational Training and Specialized tertiary education. However, although Spain’s tertiary educational system consists of both university and non-university institutions, unlike other European systems in practice it has operated less as a binary than a unitary system made up of university institutions only (OECD, 2009b).

(4) Among the continuity lines defining the system are, as mentioned, the progressive increases in enrolment rates. Starting from a clearly low rates situation at the end of the 1960s, recent decades have been characterized by a major effort to expand access to education, which has resulted in an unprecedented enrolment in the country. The complete schooling of all children in primary and lower secondary levels was accompanied during later years by a very important growth in the number of children enrolled in pre-primary education, so the whole population aged between 3 and 16 years attends school. The rates of school attendance over the age of 16 years have also increased remarkably. With all this, in a short period, the indexes of schooling in Spain have reached levels equivalent to those that exist in other developed countries, having eliminated the differences that previously existed (Eurydice, 2007). In fact, in higher education, rates of participation are greater than those in most European countries (Eurydice, 2012). (5) On the other side, since the integration of Spain to the European Union in 1986, consecutive governments, regardless of the political party that supports them, had a determined will of following a convergence line with the European Union educational priorities. In fact, the reforms of the non-university educational system established by consecutive Acts (LOGSE, LOE, LOCE and currently LOMCE) had as an explicit objective the harmonizing of the Spanish educational system with the European guidelines. Besides this, the most recent reforms of university education, especially those developed in 2007, had their essential reason in Spain signing up to the Bologna Process.

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In that sense, we could consider that the commitment with guidance and objectives defined by the European Union means a stability point in the Spanish educational system, because consecutive governments, despite their more or less continuous conflicts in education, have walked in the same direction. This is especially obvious in the two reforms approved in the past decade. Thus, while the LOE in 2006 considered one of its key principles to be the progress of the Spanish educational system to the JOINT objectives of education systems agreed in the Lisbon European Council at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the current LOMCE has also prioritized the European Strategy 2020. Going beyond the legal changes, the impact of European integration in 1986 was critical for Spanish education. With the incorporation of the country into the European Union, it was faced with the necessity of improving Spanish competitiveness in the European context and this led, among other questions, to a massive increase in education spending. Thus, from 1987 to 1995 education spending increased by over 50 per cent, from 3 per cent of national income to 4.7 per cent (Ansell, 2010). In the following years, although not so marked, the trend continued increasing in public expenditure, accompanied by a slight decrease of private expenditure, due to the commitment of achieving the average level of public expenditure on education in the European Union. Nevertheless, Spain achieved this objective, having its public expenditure in 2009 of 5.1 per cent of GDP, meanwhile the average of the European Union was 5.5 per cent (Eurydice, 2013). Since 2009, the impact of the international financial crisis, which dramatically affected the country, produced a decline in total educational expenditure, which was 4.7 per cent of GPD in 2011 while in the EU it reached 5.3 per cent (European Commission, 2013b). Both non-university and university education have been diminishing their budgets, and there have been spending cuts affecting personal and material resources of the educational institutions (Antiñolo et al., 2014). So, although expenditure per student in Spain is still over the EU and OECD average, since 2010 teachers’ salaries have been directly affected by the economic downturn. The decrease has also taken place in subsidies for meals, transport and textbooks and in ICT equipment in schools. Additionally, public fees at the university level increased for the academic year 2012/2013, because the new rules set meant that fees for Bachelor’s and official Master’s degrees must cover at least 15 per cent and up to 25 per cent of real tuition costs. To sum up the current situation, Table 12.1 shows some general data related to the educational system in Spain. As can be seen, the Spanish educational system has some strengths, but also certain weaknesses, in comparison with other EU countries.

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Table 12.1 General data about the Spanish educational system (2011) Spain

EU21 Average

97% 100% 99% 46%

77% 90% 98% 25%

22%

8%

32%

28%

5.6%

5.9%

6,685 7,291 9,608 13,373

7,085 8,277 9,471 12,856

13 10

14 12

1.23 1.38

0.80 0.84

Educational access and output 3-year-olds 4-year-olds 5–14 year-olds Percentage of population that has attained below upper secondary education (25–64-year-olds) Percentage of population that has attained upper secondary education (25–64-year-olds) Percentage of population that has attained tertiary education (25–64-year-olds) Financial investment in education Total public and private expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP (2010) Annual expenditure per student (in equivalent US$, using PPPs) (2010): Pre-primary education Primary education Secondary education Tertiary education School and teachers Ratio of students to teaching staff: Primary education Secondary education Ratio of teachers’ salaries to earnings for full-time, full-year adult workers with tertiary education: Primary education Lower secondary education Source: OECD, 2013b

Current educational challenges in Spain In general terms, there is no doubt that the educational system in Spain has had very important successes in comparison to the past. In fact, the achievements of the system over recent decades regarding factors such as democratization and modernization are obvious. But there are other questions that cannot be overcome and that Spain must face in the coming years.

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Specifically, if the country’s situation is contrasted regarding the EU level benchmarks set for 2020, the Spanish system has reached (or is close to achieving) the main targets of tertiary educational attainment and early childhood education and care (Table  12.2). However, other goals are still far from being achieved and they become the priority areas for action at this time, as has been pointed out in the country-specific recommendations proposed by the European Commission. These priority areas are mainly related to the transition from education and training to the labour market, a persistently high rate of early school leavers with big regional disparities, and skills mismatches, including higher education. Since it is not possible to cover all the problematic aspects of the Spanish educational system in the coming years, on the following pages we will analyse in some detail two of the challenges that Spain will encounter in the European convergence strategy: early school leaving and low achievement of students in relation to key competences. These problems are considered essential because they are located at the base of the system and have a great influence on the dysfunctions that appear at higher levels of education.

Table 12.2 Key indicators and benchmarks in education and training: Spain (2012) Spain (%)

EU average (%)

Europe 2020 Target (%)

24.9

12.7

40.1

35.7

10 (National Target: 15%) 40 (National Target: 44%)

100

93.2

95

Reading: 18.3 Maths: 23.6 Sciences: 15.7 62.4

Reading: 17.8 Maths: 22.1 Sciences: 16.6 75.7

15 15 15 82

10.7

9.0

15

Europe 2020 headline targets Early leavers from education and training Tertiary education attainment ET2020 benchmarks Early childhood education and care Basil Skills: Low achievers (15-year-olds; Level 1 or lower in PISA study) Employment rate of recent graduates Adult participation in lifelong learning

Source: European Commission, 2013b; OECD 2013b

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Reducing early school-leaving and school failure Clearly, one of the most important problems the Spanish educational system has at this moment is the high rate of early leavers from education and training. While drop-out rates in Europe have been falling continuously in recent decades, they have remained stable in Spain practically since 1995, and have only recently started to fall. As a result, the drop-out rate in Spain, 24.9 per cent, is the highest among all EU Member States, and roughly twice the European Union average, which stands at 12.7 per cent. There are also significant regional disparities in this regard, since the percentages range from 11.5 per cent in País Vasco to 32.2 per cent in Extremadura. Early school leaving means that students lack the competences they need in today’s job market and has a potential adverse consequence in respect to participation in the so-called ‘knowledge society’. Social costs associated with school drop-out rates can be large in terms of social exclusion and are currently reflected in the high rates of youth unemployment and also in the percentage of young people who neither study nor work (not in employment, education or training: NEET), which is above 23 per cent. In recent years, there have been some measures that have achieved a reduction of early school leaving from 31.2 per cent in 2009 to 24.9 per cent in 2012. However, data are far from the national target for 2020, that is 15.0 per cent and, according to the European Commission, Spain has a low (