Institutional Context of Education Systems in Europe: A Cross-Country Comparison on Quality and Equity

206 Pages·2005·1.04 MB·English

by  R. Hofman, A. Hofman, J. Gray, P. Daly (auth.), R. H. Hofman, W. H. A. Hofman, J. M. Gray, P. Daly (eds.)

Institutional Context of Education Systems in Europe
Institutional Context of Education
Systems in Europe
A Cross-Country Comparison on Quality and Equity
Edited by
R.H. Hofman
University of Groningen,
The Netherlands
W.H.A. Hofman
Erasmus University,
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
J.M. Gray
University of Cambridge,
U.K.
and
P. Daly
Queen’s University Belfast,
Ireland
KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK, BOSTON, DORDRECHT, LONDON, MOSCOW
eBook ISBN: 1-4020-2745-1
Print ISBN: 1-4020-2744-3
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Table of Contents
Preface ix
About the editors xi
Chapter 1 Institutional contexts and effectiveness of schooling 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 A conceptual presentation of assumed relationships 5
1.3 Institutional contexts of education systems 6
1.3.1 Public/private sector effects 7
1.3.2 Type of funding of public and private education 9
1.3.3 Governance of public and private education 10
1.3.4 Choice and community in public and private education 12
1.4 The within-country public/private sector model 14
1.5 Objectives and design of the international project 16
1.6 Acknowledgements 16
Chapter 2 Selection and definition of indicators 17
2.1 Introduction 17
2.2 Selection and description of six indicators of institutional context 17
2.2.1 Funding of schools 17
2.2.2 Indicators of types of governance 19
2.2.3 Indicators of freedom of school choice 22
Chapter 3 Country reports: education systems in Europe 25
3.1 Introduction 25
3.2 Spain 27
3.2.1 Country profile 27
3.2.2 Characteristics of Spanish compulsory education 27
3.2.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 29
3.3 Scotland 35
3.3.1 Country profile 35
3.3.2 Characteristics of Scottish compulsory education 36
3.3.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 37
3.4 Sweden 41
3.4.1 Country profile 41
3.4.2 Characteristics of Swedish compulsory education 42
3.4.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 43
3.5 Portugal 47
3.5.1 Country profile 47
3.5.2 Characteristics of Portuguese compulsory education 47
3.5.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 49
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vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
3.6 The Netherlands 56
3.6.1 Country profile 56
3.6.2 Characteristics of Dutch compulsory education 56
3.6.3 Public and private education: key characteristics 57
3.7 Ireland 63
3.7.1 Country profile 63
3.7.2 Characteristics of Irish compulsory education 63
3.7.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 64
3.8 Germany 69
3.8.1 Country profile 69
3.8.2 Characteristics of German compulsory education 70
3.8.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 71
3.9 France 75
3.9.1 Country profile 75
3.9.2 Characteristics of French compulsory education 76
3.9.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 77
3.10 England 81
3.10.1 Country profile 81
3.10.2 Characteristics of compulsory education in England 81
3.10.3 Public and private education: key characteristics 83
3.1 Denmark 90
3.11.1 Country profile 90
3.11.2 Characteristics of Danish compulsory education 90
3.11.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 91
3.12 Belgium (French) 96
3.12.1 Country profile 96
3.12.2 Characteristics of Belgium (French) compulsory education 97
3.12.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 99
3.13 Belgium (Flemish) 104
3.13.1 Country profile 104
3.13.2 Characteristics of Belgium (Flemish) compulsory education 105
3.13.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 107
3.14 Austria 1
3.14.1 Country profile 111
3.14.2 Characteristics of Austrian compulsory education 112
3.14.3 Public and private schools: key characteristics 113
Chapter 4 Quality and equity of european education 117
4.1 Introduction 17
4.2 Distribution of public and private education 117
4.3 Fair comparisons of public and private schools’ performance 119
4.4 Choice of quality assessment criteria 120
4.5 International comparison 122
4.6 Overview of TIMSS mathematics assessment 123
4.7 Methodology 124
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
4.8 Comparison of quality and equity across European countries 126
4.9 The outcomes within a broader perspective 131
4.10 Interpreting our results in comparison to PISA outcomes 133
4.11 Educational expenditure 135
Chapter 5 Configurations of institutional contexts 139
5.1 Introduction 139
5.2 Configuration theory and multidimensional scaling 140
5.3 Towards dimensions of institutional contexts 140
5.4 Interpretation of configurations 145
5.5 Four configurations of institutional contexts 148
5.6 Public and private schools 151
Chapter 6 Reflections and explanations 157
6.1 Introduction 157
6.2 Size and funding of public and private education 157
6.2.1 Grant-aided private versus ‘truly’ private education 157
6.2.2 Selectivity of the country’s education system 158
6.2.3 Equity in education 159
6.2.4 The specific distribution of public and private schools 160
6.3 Governance and system influences in education 160
6.3.1 Types and features of school governance 161
6.3.2 Parent influences and their educational power 161
6.3.3 Influence of local educational authorities 162
6.4 School choice in education systems 162
6.4.1 School choice and the role of catchment areas 162
6.4.2 Parental school choice and admission policies 163
6.4.3 Parental choice and financial and social resources 164
6.4.4 Characteristics of school and classroom 164
6.4.5 New types of schools 165
6.5 Taking into account country-specific characteristics 165
Chapter 7 Summary and implications for worldwide
education 169
7.1 Introduction 169
7.2 Key dimensions of context 170
7.2.1 Size of the ‘private’ sector 170
7.3 Types of funding 171
7.3.1 Arrangements for governance 172
7.3.2 Choice and community in public and private education 172
7.4 Country configurations 173
7.5 Do the differences affect academic performance? 174
7.5.1 Comparing the outcomes with PISA 179
7.5.2 Educational expenditure and quality of education systems 180
7.5.3 The quest for higher performance 181
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
7.5.4 The power of markets and the freedom to choose 182
7.5.5 Church, class and identity 184
7.6 Implications for public and private education 185
7.6.1 Strong systems 186
7.6.2 Emerging trends 187
References 191
Appendix I 197
Appendix II 199
PREFACE
Worldwide, policymakers are seeking to restructure and renew educational systems
that have been struggling to keep pace with rapidly changing environmental
demands. Internationally, we observe an increase in attention to governance in
general and governance of schooling specifically. Especially, the concept of
‘institutional context’ has come to play an important role in the explanation of
differences in ‘effectiveness’ between schools. The implication is that improving
institutional policies may be a good deal more effective in increasing the quality of
schooling than revising resource policies.
Educational systems emerge over time. Their formation and maintenance reflect
differing historical traditions, cultural values and religious interests as well as
divergent views about the role of the state in shaping the life-chances of its future
citizens. The quest for higher performance through educational reform has been a
worldwide phenomenon, especially over the last decade; it is a trend from which
European governments have not been immune.
In the International Handbook of School Effectiveness Research, Teddlie and
Reynolds (2000) claim that school effects tend to be more substantial in school
systems making use of governance structures that allow individual schools more
autonomy. However, what is meant by institutional context differs from education
system to education system. The task we set ourselves in this volume was to find
appropriate frameworks for comparison of institutional contexts which were
simultaneously true to the broad circumstances of each country whilst putting some
of the nuances into institutional context. We assume that at the centre of institutional
context are a nexus of inter-cutting relationships pertaining to the relative sizes of
the public and private sectors, the financial bases on which they are founded,
governance structures and the extent of school ‘choice’ available in different
countries as well as variations in decision-making, the ‘locus of control’ and the
influence of parents and community.
Our research methodology was to recruit a range of country ‘experts’, who could
alert us to the salient features of each educational system, and combine their views
with analyses of a cross-European data-set on pupil performance. Bringing these two
sources together we painted a detailed picture of the systems in 13 European
countries.
Our ‘experts’ also gave us a greater purchase on the key structural dimensions which
make up what we refer to as the ‘institutional context’ and underpin our analyses of
performance. Any or all of these factors have been portrayed as crucial to the
functioning of particular educational systems. To judge performance we employ two
key dimensions which we refer to as the ‘quality’ and ‘equity’ components.
Furthermore, we employed configuration theory as a tool for constructing
empirically-based typologies of countries.
ix
x PREFACE
In the end of this volume we take up the challenge of considering what a European
‘settlement’ might look like, taking into account worldwide trends and the
increasing evidence of convergence across educational systems. The outcomes of
our comparative analyses seem to suggest that strong education systems in terms of
finance, governance and choice seem to be preferable.
However, it seems clear from our discussions with our country experts that the
European appetite for strategies which put ‘choice’ policies in the driving seat is
rather limited. On the other hand there is decreasing faith in the power of highly-
centralised systems to deliver change and improvement with the speed and
efficiency that may be required. To a greater or lesser extent, therefore, all the
systems of education operating in Europe face some common challenges. How they
choose to address these will be crucial to their futures. Key elements in the current
debates that we have considered each in greater detail in this volume, include
changing views on:
ƒ centre-local relations with signs of an increasing commitment to
decentralisation as a guiding principle for developing school governance;
ƒ school autonomy which is now increasingly being seen as the engine-room for
school improvement, especially in relation to sustaining it; and
ƒ the celebration of community and school choice as a means of securing higher
levels of parental involvement and respecting key differences.
Finally, we like to acknowledge that this study could not have been carried out with
the help of many contributors. First of all, we like to thank the Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research (NWO/PROO) for their support for this
international project (grant 411-203-07). This project could not have been conducted
without it. In addition to this, we have to acknowledge that this project would also
not have been brought to a good end without the contribution of the partners/experts
from various European countries and their contribution has been recognized in
several chapters.
th
May 15 , 2004
Rotterdam/Aduard,
Adriaan en Roelande Hofman