Private Schools and Public Power: A Case for Pluralism
Abstract
School choice has become one of the most debated educational policy considerations in recent times. Here, Randall examines the role of government intervention in the operation of non-public schools, focusing on diversity and pluralism in education.
... Even so, care must be given to the fact that the use or definitions of the terms "public" and "private" have changed over the years and are often used differently depending on the country. For example, prior to the middle of the 19 th century in the United States, the term "public" referred to anything that contributed to the general welfare of society (Randall, 1994). In Britain for example, the "nine great public schools of England" in the 19 th century were really schools financed by charitable organizations rather than schools operated for profit or "private schools" (Aldrich, 2004, p. 5). ...
... In most instances, government education is begun as an effort to use education a policy tool to achieve political and social objectives, to be a major source of social reform. The rise of the common school movement in the United States in the 19 th century, was a political solution to a myriad of social problems (Randall, 1994). ...
... The content and configuration of education is much more than a pedagogical issue-it is also a moral and ideological matter. If politics is the "authoritative allocation of values," then, the content and delivery of education are political questions of the first order (Randall, 1994). ...
... Education was, in fact, asked to "win the cold war in the 1950's, [the war] on poverty in the 1960's . . . solve the problem of unemployment in the 1970's," disarm the culture wars in the 1980s and 1990s and make the United States the economic power and technological leader of the world (Spring, 1986, p. 336;Randall, 1994). Traditionally, schools are to save democracy and the American Way of Life, however one happens to define these terms. ...
Research in education is a value-free, unbiased, neutral, social scientific pursuit of truth, using the best methods, and models available—or so we were told when we were learning the craft. The past 30 years have witnessed dramatic changes in how we view research and education. Traditional paradigms of research of methodology now compete with a variety of qualitative approaches and critical theory has unmasked the neutrality of education. This article provides an introduction to these issues and concerns of the politics of research on education as well as an outline of each chapter.
... Whoever decides both content and access to education can more easily maintain the social status quo or facilitate social change. It is not surprising, therefore, that governments take a keen interest in the governance of education and the use of education as a policy instrument to achieve political goals and solve social problems (Randall, 1994(Randall, , 1997. ...
Purpose
– This paper is a historical review of the development of private primary and secondary education in Hong Kong from 1841-2012. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolving relationship between the state and private schools in Hong Kong.
Design/methodology/approach
– This paper utilizes sources from published official documents, public data available on government websites, archival documents and newspapers. The authors also carried out a few individual interviews with legislators, government officials and principals who were familiar with the history of private education in Hong Kong.
Findings
– The colonial Hong Kong Government adopted laissez-faire policy in greater part of its rule until 1970s. The year 1978 marked the period of “state control” until the 1990s when privatization and deregulation emerged as a world trend in the governance of education. The role of government changed to that of “supervision” instead of “control.” Further, it is shown that the change of sovereignty did not avert the trend of decentralization, deregulation and privatization in education which is entrenched in the management of public affairs in human societies.
Originality/value
– The findings provides an illuminating look into the development of a society and how it grapples with the fundamental questions of the degree of social control and proper use of political power in a colonial setting.
... In taking control of territorial publics schools as a result of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, the federal government attempted to utilize the region's schools to curb the religious commitment of LDS youth. Americans had long understood and used the power of education to assimilate immigrants and other social, religious, ethnic and racial outsiders into American democracy (Randall 1994). Utah's public schools became an important part of the government's effort to undermine political and social power exercised by the Church. ...
In recent years the educational programs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) have received praise for their role in the high rates of religiosity and denominational retention among their youth. This study offers a historical summary of the efforts of LDS to develop the most effective methods of engaging their youth in religious education. It tracks the development of LDS religious education from its origins in the United States, to its efforts on the global stage. Ultimately, LDS educators adopted a flexible approach utilizing volunteer teachers to meet the needs of this growing global faith.
... The progressive world view is guided by the "Enlightenment ideology with its secularism (indifference to religious truth), naturalism (denial of the supernatural), and positivism (limitation of inquiry only to those areas that can be investigated empirically)." 46 These two perspectives or belief systems about human nature, the purpose of life and character of the universe are based on incommensurable premises and principles. Hunter concludes that the current culture war is due to two fundamentally different cultural systems. ...
... Research on regulation of education in developing countries and transitional economies tends to focus on higher education (Koutsky, 1996;Moja et al. , 1996;Richardson and Fielden, 1997;Maxwell et al. , 2000). Conversely, much of the literature that exists in the area of regulation of private primary and secondary education tends to examine private schools in America rather than in developing countries (Chubb and Moe, 1990;Randall, 1992Randall, , 1994Foley, 1996). But regulation is very important, because regulations have the capacity to stimulate or stifle the market for private education, as well as affect the quality of educational provision. ...
It is the intention of government that private schools in Hyderabad are prevented by regulation from exhibiting the basic manifestations of competitive markets - low prices, innovation, good service and so on. However, private schools do, in practice, manifest these features. This paradox is resolved because regulations are not enforced in practice, with the acceptance of bribes by government officials being common. As a result of ‘extra-legal’ activity, private schools are able to offer a better service to the poor than if regulations had been enforced.
... Research on regulation of education in developing countries and transitional economies tends to focus on higher education (e.g., Koutsky, 1996;Maxwell et al., 2000;Richardson and Fielden, 1997). Conversely, much of the literature on regulation of private primary and secondary education tends to examine private schools in America and Europe (Murnane, 1986;Foley, 1996;Bainton, 1983;Carper and Devins, 1985;Smolin, 1986;Erickson, 1984Erickson, , 1986Randall, 1992Randall, , 1994Diehl, 1983;Hirschoff, 1986). ...
Research explored the regulatory regime, both ‘on paper’ and ‘in practice’, for private unaided schools serving low-income families (‘budget’ private schools), in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. Interviews were conducted with school managers, teachers, parents, and senior government officials and politicians. A Supreme Court Judgement rules out profit-making in the schools, although, in practice, interviewees said this was widely ignored. At the state level, extensive regulations govern all aspects of a school's work. In practice, government officials reported, however, that only four regulations need to be met, but none of the recognised schools met more than two of these. In practice, there may be too few inspectors and a culture of bribery and corruption. A possible way forward is described, of private self-regulation, based on findings concerning parental accountability.
This chapter explores the range of issues related to educational and school choice focusing most keenly on choice within the field of curriculum. We examine the history and trends of curriculum choice over the late nineteenth to twenty-first centuries. The chapter argues that there is no one-size-fits-all approach in deciding what is fair for all students when it comes to school choice. The debates operate with important questions including the difference in the purpose of education between public education and private or religious sectors. The sources provide glimpses into curriculum choices relating to early twentieth-century Catholic schools, the public schools of Los Angeles Unified School District in the late 1960s cutting music programs due to budget cuts, and the introduction of whole language curriculum highlighted in Rethinking Schools in the 1980s.
Faiths have long used education as a means to preserve and transmit cultural
values from one generation to the next. However, they have also employed
education to unite people of different cultures and proselytise others to their
worldview. Over the last two centuries, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday
Saints (Latter-day Saint, LDS, or Mormon) has exercised these same
patterns in its educational programmes, especially internationally, as it
has sought to expand around the world. Using Mormonism’s Jua´rez
Academy in northern Mexico as a historical case study, our paper
demonstrates how transnationally governed religion-led school systems
can confront the challenge of exceptionalism by embracing local culture
and customs while maintaining the heritage of their faith tradition. The
study advances the field of international education, highlighting the issues
of globalisation, cultural transfer, and transnational educational governance
The current study was conducted in an effort to examine whether increased levels of communication using visual learning environments (VLEs) alters student perceptions of lecturers. Eighty-six MSc students in Computing Science participated by using She and Fisher's (2002) Teacher Communication Behavior Questionnaire (TCBQ). In addition to using the questionnaire, data from the electronic class site were used to make assessments about the quality and quantity of communication. Two types of classrooms were evaluated: a) a control condition in which the lecturer did not alter any communication aspect of the module, and b) the experimental condition in which the lecturer posted weekly discussion topics. Significant differences were found by cultural background and gender of the students. The bulletin board postings in the experimental condition were more heavily content-based than the control condition ones. The consistency in discussion topic of the experimental condition postings, both bulletin board and email, were more fluid than in the control condition.
During the last 15 years, a body of literature has developed that centers around “teacher reflectivity.” Teachers reflect deeply on the biographical, political, and pedagogical influences that led them to become teachers and that influence their classroom practice. Advocates of teacher reflectivity claim that both preservice and inservice teachers can thereby improve their practice and deepen their understanding of themselves as teachers. Although biographical, political, and pedagogical reflectivity are powerful tools, teacher reflectivity would be even stronger if it included “spiritual reflectivity.” With spiritual reflectivity (with or without a formal religious commitment), teachers see themselves and their work as a teacher in the broader context of their unique commitment(s) to a transcendent power or process that includes biographical, political, and pedagogical influences, but also transcends them.
Home schooling, not a present threat to public education, is nonetheless one of the forces that will change it. If the high estimates of the number of children in home schools—1.2 million or higher—is correct, then the home schooling universe is larger than the New York City public school system and roughly the size of the Los Angeles and Chicago public school systems combined. Even if the real number of home schoolers is more like 500,000, fewer than the lowest current estimate, there are more children home schooling than in charter schools and public voucher programs combined. 1 Home schooling is not a new phenomenon, but a very old one. In Colo-nial days, families, including wealthy ones, educated their children at home, combining the efforts of parents, tutors, and older children. The ru-ral one-room schoolhouse was created by families that banded together to hire a teacher who could substitute for parents but would still use the same mixture of direct instruction, tutoring, and mentoring by older students. 1 The best estimates of the numbers of home schools are provided by Lines (1998) and Bruno and Curry (1997). There is nothing un-American about home schooling. Home schooling families, however, are breaking a pattern established since Colonial times of education's becoming more and more institutionalized, formal, and re-moved from the family. How important is the contemporary home school-ing movement, and what does it portend for American public education? No one can say for sure. It is difficult even to estimate the numbers of chil-dren being schooled at home, and evidence about student learning and other outcomes is incomplete. It is possible, however, to draw three conclusions about where home schooling is likely to go and how it will affect the broad public education enterprise—which, for the purpose of this article, includes charter schools and publicly funded voucher programs as well as conventional dis-trict-run public schools. 2 • First, home schooling is part of a broad movement in which private groups and individuals are learning how to provide services that once were left to public bureaucracies. • Second, as home schooling families learn to rely on one another, many are likely to create new institutions that look something like schools. • Third, although many home schooling families are willing to accept help from public school systems, the families and the schools they create are far more likely to join the charter and voucher movements than to as-similate back into the conventional public school system.
This paper discusses privatisation as policy tool to solve educational problems in Turkey. Turkey, as a developing country, is faced with many problems in education. Large class size, low enrolment rate, girl's education, high illiteracy rate, religious education, textbooks, curriculum and multicultural education are some of the important problems. On the other hand, cultural diversity, economical problems and lack of resources, migration, central management, the rapid growth in school-age population and regional differences make the solution difficult. In principle, privatisation could help in the solution of the problems in Turkey. Private schools can increase the quality of education. Private schools can share responsibility with the government by investing money in education. In addition, private schools can also meet the needs for diversity in society promoting specific religious or philosophical views by using their own teaching methods. The paper describes the availability of private schooling in Ankara as a baseline for thinking about the development of private schooling in Turkey.
This paper sets out some findings of a research project carried out in private unaided schools in low-income areas of Hyderabad, India. The part of the research project documented here was designed to examine the question: ‘Is the regulatory regime conducive to entrepreneurial action and market discovery’ with particular reference to the low-income schools in Hyderabad. This paper is narrowly focused, setting out the results of pattern matching empirical data with the Austrian economic concepts of entrepreneurship, rivalry, and market discovery. The research discovered that two regulatory regimes exist, one that is set out ‘on paper’ in the Education Acts and associated rules, and another that operates ‘in practice’. That is, there is a combination of regulations ‘on paper’ and regulations existing in an ‘extra-legal’ sector. Generally it was found that the regulations ‘in practice’ are consistent with market principles. Conversely the regulations set out ‘on paper’ are not conducive to entrepreneurial innovation and market discovery. Recommendations for potential policy initiatives include the possibility of legitimising the ‘extra-legal’ sector by introducing self-regulation possibly via self-evaluation systems for the private unaided schools. Copyright Springer Science + Business Media, Inc. 2005
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