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Page 1. Are School Uniforms a Good Fit? Results From the ECLS-K and the NELS Ryan Yeung Syracuse University, New York . Paliokas and Rist (1996) suggested that other factors associated with the treatment may explain the stark results seen in Long Beach. .
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Journal of Case Studies in Education
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The neoliberal turn in education introduced the concept of the " failing school " into the lexicon of policymakers, administrators and the public. Not only are these schools positioned as failing but they are also on the receiving end of a steady stream of reforms and interventions aimed at turning them around. Such schools arguably exist in a state of continuous reform. Despite their multiplicity, reforms introduced to help such schools converge around a few common themes: punitive forms of upward accountability, privatization of educational services, choice and competition, and weakened collective bargaining rights for educators. These reforms reflect the pattern of neoliberalization that is reshaping not only the practice of teaching and learning but also the conditions of schools as workplaces. This paper considers how these transformations are reshaping the discourse and practice of family engagement. Using qualitative methods at a racially-and linguistically-diverse, high-poverty, urban school district in a state of continuous reform, it asks: What constitutes the work of family engagement, and how do school personnel charged with this work understand its meaning and purpose? It argues that family engagement is being (re)shaped by the imperatives of educational neoliberalization while, at the same time, remaining out of touch with the needs and concerns of families who are racially stigmatized, linguistically diverse, and experiencing extreme economic insecurity. Moreover, school personnel charged with family engagement perform exploited, invisible, and emotional labor that grows in quantity and intensity as the social safety net declines under neoliberalism. These patterns exacerbate rather than ameliorate
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This volume contains papers solely from ATINER’s conferences that directly or indirectly relate to education policy. Most of the papers were presented at the annual international conference on Education. In general, education policy is defined as any systematic intervention to improve the practice of education at all levels. The word systematic is used to describe a process by which means and resources are used to achieve predetermined objectives (targets, goals). In this context, education policy is exercised by all the potential stakeholders of education. Of course, governments at all levels (federal, regional, local) play the most important role, but in many cases the effectiveness and the efficiency of such policies are best executed by other stakeholders of education provision such as teachers, parents, school administrators, students, community groups, employers, etc. Policies should serve and be guided by specific visions, values, ethics, and common-good ideology. This is not more obvious than in the education process. Since ancient Greece, as it is mentioned in one of the papers in this volume, education has a vision and a mission. In ancient and democratic Athens, its mission was to educate the Athenian youth to become better citizens. This was so important that it was used in Socrates’ trial to convict him to death because his teachings were corrupting Athenian youth. In ancient Athens, education’s mission was to instil virtue in the hearts and minds of the Athenian youth. What is virtue and how to achieve this was debated among philosophers, which in modern times would include all academics and practitioners. The latter were teaching the ancient youth in the gymnasium, the formal schools of ancient Athens, where the youth was taught music, literature, dance, natural sciences, etc. It seems that after 2,500 years, philosophers and educators are still debating the same issues. The mission and the vision of education are shaped by the values of a given society. These values are influenced by ideology, religion, culture, history, etc. They set the framework for the provision of education. Another way of looking at education policy is by simplifying it into problem-solution processes. Once a problem has been identified in the education process (e.g. early school dropouts), the education policy-makers and all the education stakeholders come up with the best solution possible. As mentioned above, the best solution should be effective and efficient. Effective means that the best solution gives the maximum results in the shortest time possible (e.g. reducing by half the dropout rate next year), and this is achieved with the least possible human and financial resources. The papers compiled in this book relate to various issues of education policy, at least as the editor of this book sees it and not necessarily the authors of the individual papers, as described above. There are three types of papers. First, six papers discuss issues that relate to education policy’s vision, mission, values, common good, virtue, etc. These papers are presented in the first part of this book. Second, there are a number of papers that describe the role of stakeholders in implementing practical solutions to education policy challenges. These are parents, teachers, local community groups of interests (i.e. businesses), etc. Finally, there are three papers that address specific policies such as uniforms in schools and the time required to complete a Ph.D. degree. All the papers in this volume were written independently of each other and by no means constitute a coherent whole. On the contrary, they are patches, and it is left up to the reader to weave his/her own education policy story. The following parts of this introduction are devoted to a very short presentation of each of the papers contained in this book. A word of warning is necessary. This book puts together papers that use different approaches and methodologies. Also, it reflects the mission of ATINER’s conferences, which is to bring together academics and researchers from different countries in Athens, Greece. In this volume, the authors represent a number of countries: USA, Lithuania, Germany, South Africa, Latvia, Turkey, Slovenia and Australia. There is an academic cost for doing so, but we hope that the benefit from different country experiences far outweighs any sacrifices that might exist in the homogeneity of the rigor and standards of research being presented here. There are many international journals and books that serve these objectives, and the interested reader is advised to look there. Here, the person who reads it will find an incomplete painting, and it is up to the reader to apply the last brush stokes.
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The Journal of Educational …
