Re-inventing public education: the new role of knowledge in education policy making

1. Re-inventing public education: the new role of knowledge in education policy making Dr Sotiria Grek Centre for Educational Sociology University of Edinburgh International Symposium Education as a matter of public concern Leuven, 27-28 November 2008 K.U. Leuven

2. Outline • Empirical evidence is drawn from the CES project ‘Knowledge and Policy: the role of knowledge in the construction and regulation of health and education policy in Europe –convergences and specificities among nations and sectors 2006-2011’. • Knowledge in the knowledge society • The particularities of the Scottish case • The Integrated Children Services (ICS) in Scotland • Conclusions: the new role of knowledge in education policy-making

3. Knowledge and policy • Have always had a loose governing relation • Today, ‘scientization’ of education governance • Evidence-based policy making and accountability… • …in the UK • …and globally

4. Knowledge in the knowledge society • From Mode 1 to Mode 2 knowledge: from local, elite, static and centrally controlled knowledge to more fluid, processual, networked, decentralised, future-oriented knowledge • From bureaucracy to post-bureacracy • Rise of knowledge-based professions and the management of knowledge In general what we experience is strategic efforts ‘to move new scientific and technical knowledge, and thereby the future, into the centre of the cultural, economic and political matrix of society’ (Stehr 2004; ix)

5. The particularities of the Scottish case • Devolution • Centralisation versus decentralisation • Strong belief in public provision • Equality or ‘social efficiency’? • Individualism at the heart of meritocracy • Since 2007, creating the new public imaginary of Scotland

6. The Integrated Children Services in Scotland • 1998:the beginning of the integration of public services in Scotland: education, health, social care and the policy working together for the first time through the ‘New Community Schools’ initiative • 2001: ‘For Scotland’s Children –Better Integrated Children’s Services’ • 2004: single service for all children

7. Education Health Work etc Generic quality indicators Sector-specific indicators governance National targets and performance indicators National Priorities National Skills Strategy e-Health Strategy etc International indicators OECD EU WHO etc Indicators: the creation of a common language Outcomes Impact Delivery Management Leadership etc

8. ‘Getting it Right for Every Child’(2005) • Integrated Assessment Planning and Recording Framework

9. Some reflections • Education no longer a distinctive policy field but part of universal services for children, that combine education with Health, Social Work, and the Police. • From using old, professional, expert knowledge about public education towards more individual, personalised and integrated knowledge about society • A shift from schooling towards a new, market-based morality, where opportunities are distributed according to needs; part of this new consumer ethics is the co-option and the responsibilisation of the individual • From a heavily centralised system to one where local government and local decision making are meant to become more autonomous and active

10. Some reflections ‘A new relation between governing and knowledge may be envisioned: expertise moves beyond the task of policy informing, and becomes policy forming in a more complex form of governing’ (Isaakyan et al 2008). The analysis of knowledge policy might explain new directions in education policy. A re-invention of public education as having a much broader, and therefore more vague and malleable, role in creating society.