Education is a contested terrain. The symmetry of education reform
among the seven countries examined in this volume is remarkable.
There is much commonality in the issues they raise, in the
competing groups battling over education policy, their policy
choices, and the implementation of such policies. Also, all seven
countries address the same issues: equity, global competition, the
performance of their students. There are at least six important
traits characterizing these battles: the context, the combatants,
the issues, the process, and the policies. To begin with, history,
culture, and governance regime set the context for education policy
and reform. Second, there is the process of how these battles are
waged--is compromise an outcome or is it a zero sum contest? Third,
there appear to be four groups of combatants each with its own
ideology representing a particular social class in society and
their views about education and its uses: Conservatives,
Socialists, Neo-Liberals, and Elites. Education is an important and
valued resource that each status group tries to control and shape
to its own views. Fourth, there are key issues that drive education
reform: how education can best flatten a social system, how
education train students for work, and how education socializes
students to be functioning citizens. In recent years, fifth issue
has emerged: student performance on international standardized
tests. Not only is a society's international reputation based on
their students' performance, but nations see such performance as an
indicator of the quality of their educational system and if it is
good enough to secure its economic future. Finally, there are the
policies themselves--do they reduce or increase inequality, who
benefits and how? The chapters in this volume clearly point out
that education reform is not a homogeneous process as some scholars
have conjectured. Rather, education reform involves heated battles
over the control of the educational system because education is
seen as a key factor in maintaining a society's vision and social
structure.
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