Evidence, Policy and the Reform of Primary Education: A Cautionary Tale

Autor/in	Alexander, Robin
Titel	Evidence, Policy and the Reform of Primary Education: A Cautionary Tale
Quelle	In: FORUM: for promoting 3-19 comprehensive education, 56 (2014) 3, S.349-375 (27 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0963-8253
DOI	10.15730/forum.2014.56.3.349
Schlagwörter	Evidence; Elementary Education; Educational Change; Change Strategies; Centralization; Decision Making; Politics of Education; Early Childhood Education; Curriculum; Academic Standards; Academic Achievement; Children; Child Welfare; Child Safety; Curriculum Development; Mass Media Role; Mass Media Use; Narration; Educational Practices; Foreign Countries; United Kingdom (England) + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Evidenz; Elementarunterricht; Bildungsreform; Lösungsstrategie; Centralisation; Zentralisierung; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Early childhood; Education; Frühkindliche Bildung; Frühpädagogik; Curricula; Lehrplan; Rahmenplan; Schulleistung; Child; Kind; Kinder; Kindeswohl; Curriculum; Development; Curriculumentwicklung; Entwicklung; Mediennutzung; Bildungspraxis; Ausland
Abstract	Here, at "FORUM's" invitation, is the text of the 2014 Godfrey Thomson Trust public lecture at the University of Edinburgh. Its backdrop is the centralisation of educational decision-making in England since 1988 and the power and patronage exercised by the Secretary of State. Taking as examples recent policies on childhood, curriculum and standards of pupil achievement, and referring to the evidence and experience of the Cambridge Primary Review, the article revisits and tests the claim that in England educational policy is now more problem than solution. While making necessary distinctions between policy as promulgated and enacted, and while showing that across a diverse canvas some policies have been better conceived and received than others, the article identifies three tendencies that all too often divide policy from truth and the prospect of effective and sustainable action: policymakers' selective use of evidence; the prior but as yet under-investigated mediation of that evidence by government officials as well as its more familiar distortion by the press; and the Manichaean narratives of progress, its architects and its enemies to which too many policymakers remain addicted. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Symposium Books. P.O. Box 204, Didcot, Oxford, OX11 9ZQ, UK. Tel: +44-1235-818-062; Fax: +44-1235-817-275; e-mail: subscriptions@symposium-journals.co.uk; Web site: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/forum
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10