Vol. 3, No. 1, 2012

1 JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGY 1 vol. 3/2012 -RXUQDORI3HGDJRJ\9RO &DOOIRUSDSHUVt7KH(IIHFWRI0DQDJHULDOLVPLQ(GXFDWLRQu -RXUQDORI3HGDJRJ\ 2YHUYLHZ ,QWHUQDWLRQDO(GLWRULDO%RDUG Journal of Pedagogy is published by the Faculty of Education of Trnava University in Trnava in collaboration with the Center for Research in Education at the Institute for Research in Social Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. The journal is peer-reviewed and publishes articles on education within the wider socio-cultural context. It examines the relationship between educational policy and educational practice, and deals with education theory and research and their implications for educational life, while shedding new light on imporWDQWGHEDWHVDQGFRQWURYHUVLHVZLWKLQWKHÀHOG-RXUnal of Pedagogy devotes special attention to publishing integrative research reviews, in-depth conceptual analyses of education and original studies that contain information on educational processes as well. Each paper is peer-reviewed by anonymous experts. The journal accepts previously unpublished papers only. Instructions for authors are available online at http://pdf.truni.sk/jop/. Journal of Pedagogy is indexed and abstracted in: Education Research Complete (EBSCO) ERA – Educational Research Abstracts (Routledge) Higher Education Abstracts (Wiley-Blackwell) Cabell’s Directories – Educational Psychology & Administration CEJSH – The Central European Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities The Summon (ProQuest) Jean-Louis Derouet – Institut National de Recherche Pédagogique, Lyon, France )UDQFHVFD*REER²'LSGL6FLHQ]HGHOO·(GXFD]LRQHH GHOOD)RUPD]LRQH8QLYHUVLW\7RULQR,WDO\ Mary Koutselini – Department of Education, University of Cyprus, Nicosia Tata Mbugua – Department of Education, University of Scranton, USA Sally Power – School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Wales, UK 1RUEHUW 5LFNHQ ² )DFKEHUHLFK (U]LHKXQJV XQG %LOdungswissenschaften, Universität Bremen, Germany Patricia Scully – Department of Education, University of Maryland, USA Ikechukwu Ukeje – Bagwell College of Education, Kennesaw State University, USA Andrew Wilkins- Department of Education, University of Roehampton, UK Isabella Wong Yuen Fun – National Institute of Education, Singapore &KULVWRSK:XOI²,QWHUGLV]LSOLQlUHV=HQWUXPIU+LV torische Anthropologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany -|UJ =LUIDV ² ,QVWLWXW IU 3lGDJRJLN )ULHGULFK$OH[DQGHU8QLYHUVLWlW(UODQJHQ1UQEHUJ*HUPDQ\ (GLWRULQFKLHI 2QGUHM .DåĀiN ² 'HSDUWPHQW RI 3UHVFKRRO DQG 3ULmary Education, Trnava University in Trnava (GLWRULDO%RDUG 7RPiå-DQtN²,QVWLWXWHIRU5HVHDUFKLQ6FKRRO(GXcation, Masaryk University Brno ,YHWD.RYDOĀtNRYi²'HSDUWPHQWRI3UHVFKRRODQG3ULmary Education and Psychology, Prešov University Prešov Viktor Lechta – Department of Educational Studies, Trnava University Trnava Branislav Pupala – Department of Preschool and Primary Education, Trnava University in Trnava .OiUDäHĊRYi²'HSDUWPHQWRI(GXFDWLRQDO6FLHQFHV Masaryk University Brno 6WDQLVODYäWHFK²'HSDUWPHQWRI3V\FKRORJ\&KDUOHV University Prague Martin Strouhal- Department of Education, Charles University of Prague 2ĕJD=iSRWRĀQi²,QVWLWXWHIRU5HVHDUFKLQ6RFLDO&RPmunication, Slovak Academy of Sciences Bratislava =X]DQD =LPHQRYi ² &RQVHUYDWLYH ,QVWLWXWH RI 0 5 äWHIiQLN%UDWLVODYD 6SHFLDO,VVXH (IIHFWLYH PDQDJHPHQW RI HGXFDWLRQDO RUJDQL]DWLRQV LV RI FULWLFDO LPSRUWDQFH +RZ GHÀQHGDV´PDQDJHULDOLVPµ7KLVPDQDJHULDOLVPPD\XQGHUPLQHWKHSXEOLFSXUSRV 5REHUW/RFNHKDVSRVLWHGDQRSHUDWLRQDOGHÀQLWLRQRIPDQDJHULDOLVPDV ´:KDW RFFXUV ZKHQ D VSHFLDO JURXS FDOOHG PDQDJHPHQW HQVFRXQF HV LWVHOI V\VWHPDWLFDOO\ LQ DQ RUJDQL]DWLRQ DQG GHSULYHV RZQHUV DQG HPROXPHQWV ²DQGMXVWLÀHVWKDWWDNHRYHURQWKHJURXQG·VRIWKHPDQ DJLQJJURXS·VHGXFDWLRQDQGH[FOXVLYHSRVVHVVLRQRIWKHFRGLÀHGERGLHV RI NQRZOHGJH DQG NQRZKRZ QHFHVVDU\ WR WKH HIÀFLHQW UXQQLQJ RI WKH RUJDQL]DWLRQµ /RFNHS  PDQDJHULDOLVP ´KDV LQYROYHG WKH UHIRUP RI HGXFDWLRQ LQ ZKLFKWKHUHKDVEHHQDVLJQLÀFDQWVKLIWDZD\IURPDQHPSKDVLVRQ (GLWRULDODVVLVWDQW =X]DQD'DQLåNRYi /DQJXDJHHGLWRU &DWULRQD0HQ]LHV Published by the Faculty of Education, Trnava University in Trnava 3ULHP\VHOQi7UQDYD Published in collaboration with the Center for Research in Education at the Institute for Research in Social Communication of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. E-mail: jop@truni.sk Journal is supported by the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak 5HSXEOLF VRFDOOHGSURGXFWLYHHIÀFLHQF\WKHQWKHSURYLVLRQRIHGXFDWLRQDOVHUYLFHVKDVEHHQ PDGHFRQWHVWDEOHDQGLQWKHLQWHUHVWVRIVRFDOOHGDOORFDWLYHHIÀFLHQF\VWDWHHGX FDWLRQKDVEHHQPDUNHWLVHGDQGSULYDWLVHG 3DWULFN)LW]VLPRQV0DQDJHULDOLVPDQG ,WLVSRVVLEOHWRFULWLFL]HWKLVPDQDJHULDOLVPE\DFDVWHRIPDQDJHUVZLWKRXWGHQLJUDW LQJ WKH FULWLFDOO\ LPSRUW IXQFWLRQ RI PDQDJHPHQW RI HGXFDWLRQDO RUJDQL]DWLRQV :H ,QWHUHVWHGDXWKRUVVKRXOGVXEPLWDWLWOHDQGDEVWUDFW QRPRUHWKDQZRUGV RXW OLQLQJWKHLUSURSRVHGDUWLFOHWR5REHUW.HPS NHPS#XOPHGX DQG=X]DQD'DQLåNRYi MRS#WUXQLVN QRODWHUWKDQ7+856'$<-$18$5<$XWKRUVVKRUWOLVWHGIRU WKLVVSHFLDOLVVXHZLOOEHFRQWDFWHGDQGLQYLWHGWRVXEPLWDUWLFOHVQRPRUHWKDQ Registered with the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak 5HSXEOLF(9 The online version of the journal is published by VERSITA Central European Science Publishers (http://www.versita.com/jlpy). ISSN 1338-1563 (print) ISSN 1338-2144 (online) DWMRS#WUXQLVNE\:('1(6'$<-8/<$OOSDSHUVZLOOEHUHYLHZHGE\WKH Content EDITORIAL Zuzana Danišková: Unwrapping today’s educational gifts is a must… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ARTICLES Andrew Wilkins: Public battles and private takeovers: Academies and the politics of educational governance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 I-Fang Lee: Unpacking neoliberal policies: Interrupting the global and local production of the norms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 David Greger, Edward Kife: Lost in translation: Ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations in the Czech Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Michaela Minarechová: Negative impacts of high-stakes testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Libor Bernát: The shaping of the Lutheran teaching profession and Lutheran families of teachers in the 16th and 17th centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Katarína Šmajdová Búšová: Professional families – the development of the relationship between a professional mother and the child in the context of the mother’s status . . . . 117 Kelly M. Maye: A Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education as linked to anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 REPORTS Standardization and Normalization of Childhood (Miriam Böttner, Jessica Schwittek, Aytüre Türkyilmaz) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 REVIEWS Málková, Gabriela: Zprostředkované učení. Jak učit žáky myslet a učit se (Marta Filičková) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 editorial EDITORIAL Unwrapping today’s educational gifts is a must… The third volume of this journal opens with an issue that is not monothematic, but is one in which six authors come together in pairs to discuss common themes. One article reminds us that we should learn from history. The authors come from various parts of the world and debate topics from various branches of pedagogy and so we have been able to put together an issue which presents contemporary pedagogy from a wider perspective. The majority of the authors concern themselves with “hot topics”, which they look at from a deeper perspective and not simply as “fashionable” themes. So, what is it that requires unwrapping in pedagogy today? The irst two articles, which discuss the economisation of education and neoliberalism – theories of education –, try to relect the current inluence of neoliberalism on education at different levels. In the next two articles – on educational evaluation and diagnostics – the authors endeavour to explain the current trend of high-stakes testing and the mainly negative impact it has on pupils, teachers, schools and the education system as a whole. All four articles debate the challenges confronting pedagogy today from an international perspective. This is followed by a historiographical article which provides a national view of the teaching profession in the Kingdom of Hungary. The issue is concluded by two sparring partners who introduce the topic of special education. The two initial articles depict the situation of nursery and primary schools facing the new challenges brought by current global and political trends. A Wilkins investigates the current mood in primary schools in Great Britain. He describes how and why schools are changing their status from state (community) schools to academies that are not inancially dependent on the state alone. He uses the sociological term “commodiication” to label this new state of affairs in education. Through an exploration of the historical and political background to the current rules of the game, Wilkins points out why the concepts of “philanthrocapitalism” and “public accountability” are slippery and even. I-Fang Lee, whose article title provided the inspiration for the title of this editorial, describes the impact of the “neoliberal mir- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 5 edit o ri al acle” on the organisation of nursery schools and kindergartens in Taiwan and Hong Kong – countries that are representative of the Asian Dragons and thus of countries that have taken capitalism and laissez-faire to heart. She deals speciically with the “voucher policy” adopted by both countries, as they see this as a means of improving the accessibility and quality of preschool education. Lee, however, points out that these good intentions and attempts vanish once the wrapping paper is ripped open. The next group of articles represents an attempt to unwrap the popular phenomenon of high-stakes testing. In her article, M. Minarechová deals not only with the history of across-the-board testing, but also looks at its negative impacts. She demonstrates that the “parent” countries of acrossthe-board testing are Great Britain and the United States of America, and that Australia, where this type of evaluation was introduced later on, is an “offspring” country. Minarechová explains that this kind of assessment was introduced as a means of judging schools, since they were to start behaving as entities on the market. We also learn where the concept of high in the term “high-stakes testing” comes from. In the remainder of the article Minarechová looks at the negative impact testing has on all the affected parties – whether that is the pupils themselves, the teaching and the learning, the school, the teachers, or the state budget. The article by D. Greger and E. Kifer continues with the theme, covering general experiences from the world of testing. They introduce another member of the “off-spring” of across-the-board testing – the Czech Republic; although, here, in contrast to the situation in other countries, the goals of such testing are not entirely clear. The authors deal with the educatioal developments in the Czech Republic, especially how they led to recent developments of national assessments. The special focus is aimed at the upper-secondary leaving examination (the Maturita). The historian L. Bernát unwraps the rise and status of the teaching profession in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Based on his research into a variety of historical sources, Bernát demonstrates how religion was interwoven with education and how it was no exception to ind that the teacher and the priest were both one and the same. He makes an interesting observation on the use of the terms nepotism and lobbying during the period under study, given that they are more typical of the current era. The author also alludes to the status of women during the period; although, this is harder to reconstruct given the information available in existing resources. We can speculate as to whether it was the male sexus dignior that guaranteed teachers a higher status than they have today. The third group of pairs falls under the topic of special education. K. Šmajdová Búšová discusses institutional care; that is, a particular form 6 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unwrapping today’s educational gifts is a must… of it – the professional family. On the basis of ethnographical research, she analyses the status of professional mothers i.e. their own perceptions of themselves and the perceptions the looked-after children have of them. The article attempts to answer the question posed in the introduction to the article – whether the professional family model is over-rated and presents more of a risk as far as the psychological health of the child is concerned than a residential home would. The topic of special education is continued by K. M. Maye, who describes a case study on the relevance of cognitive and biophysical models of education for those with obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders. She investigates the case of a 10 year old boy who was referred for special education during his third grade school year. Having analysed his behavior and the results of various emotional and intelligence tests, the author recommends Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, as a form of psychotherapy, and Cognitive Therapy. As a result of the irst treatment this boy should accept emotional responsibility for his problems, while obtaining the willingness and determination to change targeted behaviors. The second treatment – cognitive therapy should help him to concentrate on the obsessions and compulsions. The next approach, cognitive management, should reinforce the therapeutic setting and instructional setting with this boy. As mentioned at the beginning, the majority of the articles in this issue are a response to current themes in pedagogy. The articles by Wilkins, I-Fang Lee, Grefer, Kifer and Minarechová are representative of critical pedagogy, which primarily seeks to critique current education policy. The articles by K. M. Maye and K. Šmajdová Búšová are also representative of topical themes; not, however, from the standpoint of critique, but in terms of a perspective that is politically important and prioritised nowadays: the rights of the child, i.e. the inclusion of children with special needs. The article by L. Bernát does not lend itself to any of these categories – it is a classic academic article, devoted to historical research and without feeling the need to respond to current political fashions Zuzana Danišková JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 7 artiCleS DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0001-0 ARTICLES JoP 3 (1): 11 – 29 Public battles and private takeovers: Academies and the politics of educational governance Andrew Wilkins Abstract: Introduced to the British education system under the Education Act 2002 and later enshrined in the New Labour government White Paper Higher Standards, Better Schools for All (DfES, 2005), the Academies policy was set up to enable designated under-performing schools to ‘opt out’ from the inancial and managerial remit of Local Authorities (LAs) and enter into partnerships with outside sponsors. A radical piece of policy legislation, it captured New Labour’s commitment to (further) private sector involvement in public sector organisation – what might be termed a neoliberal or advanced liberal approach to education reform. A consequence of this has been the expansion of school-based deinitions of ‘public accountability’ to encompass political, business, and other interest groups, together with the enlargement of the language of accountability itself. In this paper I address the importance of rethinking conventional public/private, political/commercial divides in light of these developments and foreground the changing nature of state power in the generation and assembly of different publics. Key words: publics, power, accountability, language, schools Legacies and Recompositions Launched in 2000 by the then Secretary for Education and Employment, David Blunkett, and later enshrined in the New Labour White Paper Higher Standards, Better Schools for All (DfES, 2005), the Academies policy was set up to extricate designated under-performing schools from the inancial and managerial remit of Local Authorities (LA), thereby generating the conditions to enable state-funded schools to exercise autonomy and become selfgoverning (i.e. grant-maintained). Designed principally to offer ‘radical and innovative challenges to tackling educational disadvantage’ (DfES, 2005, JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 11 art iCleS p. 29), the Academies policy was conceived by Blair’s New Labour government as a ‘Third Way’ (Giddens, 1998) solution to education reform. ‘Third Way’ because it relied on a precarious balancing strategy – what Stuart Hall calls a ‘double shufle’ (2005) – of pursuing cheek by jowl market principles and welfarist or social democratic values as policy levers for improving educational outcomes for children attending schools in disadvantaged areas. Under these proposals, schools interpellated as failing to meet government-imposed targets were encouraged (or, often compelled, see Ball, 2005) to convert to academies1 with the support an outside sponsor (usually a charity, business, faith group, university, or philanthropic entrepreneur) who would run the school subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. Initially these would-be sponsors were required to contribute only a small percentage of capital needed to run a school (an initial contribution of £500,000 with additional funded paid over a ive-year period to the sum of £2 million) with matching funds of £25 to £30 million provided by central government. This captures the rise of what can be described as ‘philanthrocapitalism’ in British policy-making and political thought, best described by Edwards (2008, p. 28) as the ‘belief that methods drawn from business can solve social problems and are superior to other methods in use in the public sector and in civil society’. Later on, this £2 million requirement was scrapped under the New Labour government (Curtis, 2009), thus enabling politically unaccountable irms and sponsors to run publicly inanced schools without a mandatory donation. Unsurprisingly, the Academies policy was not simply maintained by the Conservative government subsequent to their electoral victory on 6 May 2010 with the support of the Liberal Democrats (conjoining to make the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government). It was renewed and revised – re-articulated and transcoded (Clarke et al., 2007) – to facilitate a vision of a Conservative-Liberal variant of neoliberal reform, relected in the coalition government’s promise of a ‘Big Society’ (Stratton, 2010). Following their electoral success, Education Secretary Michael Gove rolled out new legislation on 26 May 2010 making it possible for all schools (including, 1 Types of school in England vary considerably according to funding and how they are governed. Academies, free schools, foundation and trust schools are similar in that they are jointly funded by the state and a business or charity donation, and are privately run free of local authority control. In contrast, community schools are statefunded and local authority governed, as are community and foundation specialist schools which cater for children with speciic educational needs. Outside of the public sector school system are private schools. These include maintained boarding schools, which are privately managed and offer free tuition fee but charge fees for board and lodging. Finally, there are grammar schools which are privately funded and privately run. 12 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance for the irst time, primary and special schools) to convert to academy status, in addition to ensuring that schools judged ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted (the schools inspectorate) would be fast-tracked through this process. Echoing earlier attempts by Conservative governments to systematically weaken the legitimacy and autonomy of LAs (see Education Reform Act, 1988), the new legislation also removed powers from LAs to adjudicate on decisions that could block schools who wish to become academies, thereby further eroding the LA’s capacity to govern an increasingly differentiated and competitive school marketplace. A similar set of policy trends introduced by the Conservative-Liberal government seeks to further undercut the power of central authority through extending into education a new mixed economy of welfare consisting of private, voluntary and informal sectors in which state-subsidised private sector is fused with a semi-privatised state sector. This is captured through the emerging free schools programme (Murray, 2011), the centrepiece of the Conservative governments’ election manifesto, which seeks to solicit interested groups (commercial and non-commercial), faith groups, academy ‘chains’ and even parents to set up their own schools in response to local demand and free of local authority control. Alongside this, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willets, has implemented reforms to higher education funding systems (DoE, 2011) to enable universities to exercise further autonomy, to make universities more accountable to students and corporate stakeholders, and to raise their tuition fees to £9000. But how different is the current government from the previous ‘progressive’ Left-liberal governments? Despite extending the scope and reach of the Academies policy, the Conservative-Liberal government failed to win over members of the Labour Party. Labour leader Ed Balls went on to accuse the coalition government of ‘elitism’ (Press Association, Guardian, 2010), namely for extending the Academies policy remit to include ‘popular’ or ‘oversubscribed’ schools, adding to further evidence of ‘backdoor privatisation’ of public sector education (Beckett, 2009). As Woods, Woods and Gunter (2007, p. 239) observe, one of the stated aims of New Labour’s Academies programme was to ‘break the cycle of underachievement in areas of social and economic deprivation’. Yet despite evidence of ‘redistribution’ (although New Labour themselves failed to articulate redistribution as a policy lever), the emergence of the Academies policy attests to the continuing marketisation of education: the subsuming of public and state services within the logic and low of private capital (Hall, 2011) and the Right-liberal insistence on utilising state power for the purpose of constructing consent for what Ball (2005, p. 215) aptly describes as ‘the privatisation of decision-making’. But what does elitism mean anyway? JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 13 art iCleS We might recall when New Labour lumped together ‘past’ education systems as elitist because they ostensibly lacked choice, personalisation and diversity of provision (see DfES, 2004: Foreword; also see DfEE, 2001; DfES, 2005). New Labour thus utilised the term elitism as a rhetorical device within to articulate reform for a market-led system of public education (Clarke, Smith & Vidler, 2006). For Labour, then, to denigrate the coalition government as elitist on account of their full rather than partial commitment to the market (i.e. their pursuit of market solutions in the absence of ‘democratic’ objectives) only serves to reinstate the language, ontology and logic of the market as a dominant framing for policy discourse and development. This is ‘capitalist realism’ at its purest, a form of political paralysis that determines a priori any vision for social and democratic transformation, ‘acting as a kind of invisible barrier constraining thought and action’ (Fisher, 2009, p. 16). Since the introduction of the Academies policy in 2000, however, there has been a strong presence of anti-academy feeling among British publics (Hatcher & Jones, 2006; Murray, 2011), especially among parents, teachers, school governors, headteachers, local residents, teacher trade unions, academics, education journalists, and councillors (from London to Bristol to Leeds to County Durham). The structure of feeling underpinning these protests is that academies – deined as publicly funded independent schools – possess the capacity to circumvent local democratic processes, making them a potential ‘loss to the community’ (Unison, 2010). Similar criticism of academies can be traced to the websites, forums and campaign and policy literature offered by the Anti Academy Alliance, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Local Schools Network, the Campaign for State Education (CASE), the Derbyshire-based Green Party, Socialist Party, and Voice. According to Astle and Ryan (2008, p. 338), local anti-Academy campaigns are committed to a vision of ‘education created and sustained by local resources, matching local need, and resting on principles of local democracy’. Against this preferred vision of education, academies are excoriated for undermining or displacing welfarist and social democratic commitments to keeping publicly provided education, well, ‘public’ and accountable to the parents and communities they ‘serve’. In this paper I map the historical and political context that has given rise to these conditions of possibility before outlining public perceptions of the uneasiness between academies and local efforts to preserve elements of public welfarism and a democratic, participatory citizenry. I then move on to an analysis of the notion of ‘public accountability’ which appears to 14 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance stand at the heart of these debates. Drawing on West, Mattei and Roberts’ (2011) proposed framework for analysing accountability in education, I outline the broad range of accountability measures schools are forced to comply with as a result of the commodiication of education (Wilkins, 2012). With these perspectives and ideas in view, I then demonstrate the slipperiness and unevenness that surrounds the concept and practice of public accountability, drawing attention to the multiplicity of interest groups, both commercial and non-commercial, that now haunt and colonise the language, mediation and performance of school-based forms of accountability. I conclude with a discussion on how this adds to our knowledge of the potential deleterious impact of academies and free schools on local democratic processes, together with an examination of the usefulness of the notion of public deployed in anti-academy rhetoric and its overall aim to overcome private trends in public education organisation. ‘Economics is the Method. The Object is to Change the Soul’.2 Since the neoliberal revolution in education in the 1980s, British governments have wasted no time in extending and disseminating new public management and consumerist discourses to all education institutions, culminating in the creation of a market-led education system (Ball, 2008; Keat & Abercrombie, 1991). From primary and secondary schools offering education for 5- to 16-year-olds to further education and higher education institutions providing post-compulsory education for young and adult learners, the ield of education is continually undergoing transformation as schools, colleges and universities are forced to adopt business practices of self-regulation, innovation, lexibility, eficiency and competition, thereby making themselves intelligible to the corporate world and malleable to the task of offering ‘value-for-money’ services. Through unprecedented forms of policy development and reorganisation over the last 30 years, successive British governments have worked tirelessly to inscribe market values into these institutions and the mechanisms and practices which govern them. Such forms of educational governance owe their dominance to the creative and rhetorical lourish of sustained and ongoing attempts by neoconservative – and more recently, so-called ‘progressive’ centre-left governments – to discredit and de-legitimate the post-war social-democratic settlement and its associated language of equality and fairness. 2 Margaret Thatcher speaking in 1979. Speech quoted in Sunday Times, London, 7 May 1988 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 15 art iCleS New Labour’s displacement of politics in favour of administration (‘what matters is what works’ mantra), for example, captures how these business practices have become inscribed in policy discourse and sedimented into the ‘habitus’ of political common sense. For Jessop (1993), these trends signal a broader transition from the old Keynesian Welfare State (KWS) to a Schumpeterian Workfare State (SWS), characterised by tendencies relating to the shift in Western economies from Fordist to post-Fordist or neoliberal regimes of accumulation. Building on this analysis, Harvey mobilises the term ‘restoration’ to demonstrate how post-Fordism (deined by the deregulation of capital and labour, the causalisation and outsourcing of the workforce, and the disintegration of working patterns, trade union bargaining powers and centralised authority) constitutes a ‘political project to re-establish the conditions for capital accumulation and to restore the power of the economic elites’ (1995, p. 19). Others characterise this shift in terms of the dissolution of the post-war social-democratic settlement (Hall, 2011; Massey, 2011) and the replacement of Keynesian welfare economic policy with a new political and economic settlement resting on principles of supply-side economics, the trickle-down theory of public prosperity and public choice theory (Jonathan, 1997). Indeed, public choice theory served as an important reference for New Right critiques of public services in the 1980s and the promotion of neoliberal discourses. During this time the Regan administration in the US and the Thatcher government in the UK utilised public choice theory as a political tool for legitimating and naturalising ‘monetarism’ (Friedman, 1970) as a policy device for governing welfare state planning and spending. Monetarism in essence champions the doctrine of laissez-faire economics which positions the market as the preferred mechanism through which all public and private institutional arrangements and transactions should be mediated (Olssen, Codd & O’Neill, 2004). And this links up with public choice doctrines where the assumption is that state-employed professionals, despite working in public and non-commercial organisations, sometimes seek to maximise their self-interest and therefore make decisions akin to consumers in the marketplace (Dunleavy, 1991). This in turn served as a framing for constructing public services in negative terms as dominated by ‘producer interests’ rather than the interests of individual service users (Clarke, 2005), resulting in strong criticism of the bureau-professionalism of state welfare as inappropriate and ineficient to the task of coordinating welfare structures, relationships, cultures and organisational forms. For Clarke and Newman (1997), the culmination of these trends effected a transformation in welfare, governance and its social relations, to the extent that public services went on to operate within the remit of a managerial16 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance ist culture of lexibility, eficiency, cost-effectiveness, value-for-money and economic competiveness. These changes in governing can be traced to the way in which the decision-making powers of central and local government were shifted from the legislative (e.g. the parliamentary assembly, the site through which laws are passed, amended and repealed) to the executive, namely the individual managers of public services (Flinders, 2002). Alongside these developments, citizens have been summoned in the role of consumers of welfare services (active, responsible, self-governing, discriminating, informed, and so forth) with the expectation that welfare providers will improve their services through appealing to citizens as consumers with values and tastes which can be surveyed and provided for with rational detachment (Le Grand, 2007). Consistent with the character of early Anglophone liberalism (of the transcendental subject posited by Kant and the theory of self-originating sources of valid claims proposed by Rawls, see Jonathan, 1997), these trends champion the moral and ontological primacy of the subject and its ‘rational centre’, namely the idea that citizens share the ability (as consumers) to calibrate their behaviour on the basis of a set of narrow calculating norms and principles (Dunleavy, 1991). At the same time, these policy trends presuppose and demand individuals and groups who behave and look upon themselves as part of wider networks of socialisation. As in the case of New Labour, these networks were imagined and summoned through discourses and practices of community (Newman, 2001). Community, however, is a deeply contested concept (both in political and ‘social’ terms) since it carries the potential to obscure internal divisions and distinctions and gloss over social contradictions and forms of resistance (Clarke, 2009). Moreover, with the expansion of roles for the voluntary and private sector as ‘community stakeholders’ (an issue I will turn to briely), these developments have the potential to crowd out and displace local voices (Ball, 2005). Thus, as Zizek (2009, p. 76) explains, ‘Liberalism is, in its very notion, “parasitic”, relying as it does on a presupposed network of communal values that it undermines in the course of its own development’. This emphasis on the axiomatic character of the self-interested, self-maximising subject, coupled with the introduction of a mixed economy of welfare with expanded roles for the private, voluntary and informal sectors, in turn has contributed to the collapse of public/private, citizen/consumer, and professional/managerial binaries (Needham, 2003), together with the gradual displacement of welfarist discourses and commitments to equality of opportunity and democratic participation and social transformation (Gewirtz, 2002). As Ball (2005, p. 216) observes, ‘Progressive modernisation and its powerful and suasive and radical discourse both celebrates and excludes or residualises older narratives of policy radicalism which are JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 17 art iCleS based on ideas like participation, community, sociality and civic responsibility’. Couched in the language of New Right critiques of public services with its appeals to the superiority of markets, the mantra of adaptive lexibility and the enterprising culture of public-private partnerships, the emergence of academies can be read as distinct relections of, or developments from, the radical programme of economic and institutional reform initiated by the 1980s Conservative government and later re-articulated by the New Labour governments (Gunter, 2010). Indeed, the use of private companies and private sponsorship for the delivery of education systems echoes the earlier introduction of charity-sponsored City Technology Colleges (CTC) by the Conservative government in 1986 (Whitty, Edwards & Gewirtz, 1993). Certainly, too, the culture and ethos of academies relect the entrepreneurial spirit of these seismic shifts in policy discourse development. Woods, Woods and Gunter (2007), for example, demonstrate how the ethos and curriculum focus of academies tend to be structured with values and principles of enterprise and entrepreneurialism at their centre, with business and enterprise comprising the most popular specialism (52%) of the 58 academies they examined. ‘The spirit of business enterprise is central to the cultural messages inherent in the way some academies are conceived to be working’, they observe, ‘and frame their ‘output’ in terms of the core purposes of the organisation’ (2007, p. 248). Students, too, are encouraged to think and behave accordingly as neoliberal subjects (Wilkins, 2011). Using the lexicon of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, we might characterise the neoliberal revolution in education in terms of a ‘war of position’ in which the state, through aggressive displacement of one political settlement in favour of another, attempts to reorganise public perceptions and understandings about welfare, citizenship and rights and what these practices entail for those who the state seeks to govern. For example, within neoliberal deinitions of citizenship individuals are required to fulil certain duties and responsibilities in order that they might become the kinds of citizens presupposed by neoliberal capitalism – namely, citizens who militate against complacency, revere competitiveness, tolerate precarity and evince lexibility. Rights, therefore, are no longer unconditional entitlements. Here the fulilment of obligations is deined as a condition for receiving particular rewards with the intention of inducing the active enlistment of individuals into responsible agents (Dwyer, 1998) and tightening the entitlement and the behaviour and moral outlook of citizens (Deacon, 1994). This is different to, say, a socio-liberal deinition of citizenship where citizens are expected ‘to enjoy a minimum level of rights (economic security, care, protection against various risks and so on)’ (Johansson & Hvinden, 2005, p. 106). In this way, 18 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance neoliberalised education is as much as about enabling and facilitating the self-governing of individuals as it is about governing individuals per se. In order to better understand how local people respond to these structural adjustments, policy developments and relations to the self, I now turn to a brief discussion of the structure of feeling underpinning local anti-academy protests and explicate some of the core issues they address. In particular, I aim to make an original contribution to these debates through examining the notion of public and its importance as a form of evaluation, rhetoric and argument for anti-academy protesters aiming to overturn the ‘privatisation’ of schools. At the same time, I aim to problematise the notion of public contained within these arguments and draw attention to its slipperiness and unevenness with the intention of exploring its usefulness for the language of anti-academy rhetoric and protest. The Story so far... While the literature on academies acquires momentum and scope (Armstrong, Bunting & Larsen, 2009; Astle & Ryan, 2008; Ball, 2005; Beckett, 2007, 2009; Hatcher & Jones, 2006; Gunter, 2010; Woods, Woods & Gunter, 2007), the evidence so far is mixed, with research emerging which both supports and undermines government assertions concerning the overall eficacy of academies over comparable LA-controlled (e.g. community) schools. In particular, there is little evidence to demonstrate the accountability gains (or losses) for school governors and parents. This might be due to the fact that academies are still in their infancy, born to a New Labour government; are ‘shape-shifters’ (Beckett, 2010, p. xx) with no overarching philosophy guiding the bulk of academies (Wilby, 2009); or simply because more data needs to be collected to show the relations between schools and the parents and communities they ‘serve’ (Ball, 2005). There is, however, strong evidence to suggest that academies have the potential to operate as inequality-producing mechanisms in the delivery of education services. As outlined above, academies to not operate under the inancial and managerial remit of LAs, but instead private school legislation set up by a sponsor who retains ownership of the school estate (Becket, 2007). This in turn guarantees the sponsor freedom to explore new pedagogical approaches and organisational structures, including the lexibility to determine pay and work conditions for teachers; to alter the admissions criteria for selecting in (and selecting out) students; and to restructure the curriculum and timetabling (Curtis, 2009). This raises problems around fairness and access in the case of student admissions where there are concerns that academies might cherry pick and cream skim the best and brightest, in effect excluding learnJoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 19 art iCleS ers from socially disadvantage groups or learners with special education needs (SEN). As Millar (2010) observes in the Guardian, there is ‘uncertainty over how, as independent schools, they will be bound to SEN rules that are obligatory for state maintained schools’. In addition to this, there are concerns around local accountability. Academies are permitted to appoint rather than elect their board of governors, with one LEA governor and one governor elected by parents. This means that academies can choose to avoid entering into consultation agreements with parents, teachers, support staff and the local community when making key decisions about how the school should be run. Fundamentally, the literature on academies undercuts government claims that academies contribute signiicantly to raising educational achievement (Astle & Ryan, 2008). There is lack of evidence to support government assertions that academies achieve well above the national average for standards in academic achievement (DoE, 2010), for example. Machin and Wilson (2008, p. 8) suggest that ‘changes in GCSE performance in academies relative to matched schools are statistically indistinguishable from one another.’ Evidence also indicates that fewer children on free school meals are admitted to academies compared to LA-controlled schools. According to the National Audit Ofice report The Academies Programme (2010, p. 25), ‘The proportion of such pupils attending academies between 2002-03 and 2009-10 has fallen from 45.3 to 27.8%’. Coupled with this is evidence to suggest that the ‘gap in attainment between more disadvantaged pupils and others has grown wider in academies than in comparable maintained schools’ (ibid, p. 6). In contrast, a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP commissioned by the then Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) argues that ‘pupil performance has improved in academies, and often at a rate that is greater than the national average and other comparison schools’ (Armstrong, Bunting & Larsen 2009, p. 124). The scale of this progress was not identiied by the authors as uniform across all academies, however, with success in terms of intake and attainment differing dramatically between academies. The suggestion here, then, is that there is no overall ‘Academy effect’ but that standards are relative to individual institutions (Armstrong, Bunting & Larsen, 2009). What is missing from these accounts is a consideration of how, with the expansion of roles for voluntary and private sectors as ‘community stakeholders’ in the governing of academies, conventional social democratic notions of public mutate (or become ‘hollowed out’) under the encroachment of political, commercial and other interest groups. In what follows I explore the implications of this mutation for thinking about anti-academy language and protest, and the usefulness of the term public as a lever for waging anti20 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance privatisation battles with the government. In particular, I offer proposals on how, given the complexity of these arrangements, education researchers might begin to think about mapping their effects on parents and schools. Rethinking Public versus Private For anti-academy organisations and protestors, the act of assigning responsibility to politically unaccountable managers and private agencies to deliver education services means that academies potentially operate through ‘a governance model where the link with the local community can be virtually nonexistent’ (Mansell, 2010). This is echoed and redeemed by the Anti Academy Alliance – a broad based campaign supported by parents, governors, teachers, trade unions, academics and others against the creation of academies and trust schools – who calls for the return of publicly inanced independent schools to local democratic control. Similarly, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) – the largest union for teachers employed in the state sector – demand the return of academies to maintained (i.e. LAcontrolled) status and to be made locally accountable (NUT, 2007), while the Campaign for State Education (CASE) – a non-proit organisation in favour of non-selective, LA-controlled schools – argue that since academies fall outside the remit of LA control there is no guarantee that the interests of the local community will be met. At the heart of these protests, then, is a rejection of the ways in which academies operate outside and in contradistinction to conventional principles and practices of public welfarism and democratic socialism (as opposed to ‘market socialism’). In other words, those processes which ostensibly ensure state-funded services are made accountable to the individuals and groups they are meant to serve. Democratic conceptions of public – the public sector, public service management, public administration, public service ethos, public service orientation, the public interest, and so forth – have undergone a major (some may even say irreversible) reformulation since the 1980s with the advent of private sector involvement in public sector organisation (Ball, 2008; Clarke & Newman, 1997; Gewirtz, 2002; Needham, 2003). On this account, the intersecting dynamics of public and private domains (i.e. how sites of public and private interaction articulate and combine with each other to produce new conigurations of power and practices of the self, see Wilkins, 2010) need to be better emphasised in context of these debates. Any appeal to conventional formulations of public which signify the ‘decommodiication’ of the individual’s relationship with the community (Esping-Andersen, 1990) runs the risk of evoking romanticised, even ‘golden age’, versions of the public sector and elements of an naive utopianism. In other words, it is important JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 21 art iCleS to avoid denouncing academies on the sole basis that they symbolise and facilitate the ‘privatisation’ of schooling. These are the pitfalls of a sterile moralism which current and ensuing centre-left governments, caught up in the seduction of capitalist realism, are unlikely to concede to. In fact, such denunciations are likely to reinforce these trends, as Fisher (2009, p. 28) demonstrates: ‘the problem is that any opposition to lexibility and decentralization risks being self-defeating, since calls for inlexibility and centralization are, to say the least, not likely to be very galvanizing’. In their discussion of school-based forms of accountability, West, Mattei and Roberts (2011) demonstrate how schools are forced to comply with a broad range of accountability measures as a result of the commodiication and marketisation of British education since the 1980s, including market, legal, hierarchical, contractual, network, participative and professional. Participative accountability, in particular, registers the unique position academies and free schools are likely to ind themselves in as a result of their ‘independence’ from LAs but not their sponsors. As West, Mattei and Roberts (2011, p. 53) explain, [Participative accountability] comprises a number of different dimensions. Schools are accountable to parents for the individual child’s progress via dialogue between parents and teachers; to community stakeholders (business, community organisations, other statutory bodies) who may participate in school initiatives; and to other stakeholders via school governing bodies. Forced to negotiate and mediate the contrasting and sometimes conlicting claims lowing from parents, school governors, teachers, the local community, and business, political and other interest groups, academies and free schools are essentially hybrid organisations situated within, between and across public and private realms. As Clarke and Newman argue (1997, p. 127). The public, then, is positioned in a ield of multiple relationships with the state through which it is constituted in a range of different ways. The public sector no longer has a monopoly of interactions with the public. There are many potential interactions, involving a variety of organisations, which resist being reduced to a simple distinction between public and private. One of the ways in which academies and free schools therefore might be reworked to acquiesce the needs and expectations of local people – and therefore satisfy some of the demands set out by anti-academy organisations and protestors – could be through generating more concrete and sophisticated understandings of how these school-based deinitions of participative 22 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance accountability (and concomitant meanings of cooperation and governance) are being managed within newly conigured relations between academies and parents, governing bodies and community stakeholders. Who these accountability measures are aimed at and what kinds of assumptions they entail about those to be held accountable also need to better conceptualised, both within the academic and government literature on academies. The free schools programme has been criticised for pandering to the educational aspirations of middle-class parents and teachers. Geographical data on the irst wave of free schools announced by the coalition government in August 2011 suggest that a high concentration of free schools are being built in areas dominated by middle-class households, for example (Vasagar & Shepherd, 2011). This raises important and hitherto unexplored questions around the impact of socio-economic, policy and organisational factors on the structure of school-based forms of participative accountability and, above all else, children’s educational experiences. If we adopt a view of policy as something which is dynamic and situated, and which evolves in tandem with locally deined conditions and possibilities (Ball, 2008), then exploring how school-based deinitions of participative accountability is translated through school-level policies, community voices, and local authority policy and structures is essential to future education research around academies and free schools. This is because academies and free schools operate within a context of devolved management, and thus it is essential that researchers grapple with the ways in which power is dispersed, iltered and often guarded against in the context different community settings and within and through the formation and interpenetration of class-, commercial- and local-based publics. Existing research on parental involvement in school-based initiatives, for example, suggests that parents from lower socio-economic and minority ethnic backgrounds often feel excluded or misunderstood by schools (Crozier, 2000; Crozier & Davies, 2005; Reay & Mirza, 2005). Schools therefore can be viewed as microcosms of politics and culture that function in the production, distribution and regulation of power. Understanding what kinds of imaginary publics come to be symbolised, culturally, commercially and institutionally, through schools is therefore important to the task of demonstrating how differently governed schools can be shown to be in some way inconsistent or untenable in offering accountable, equitable and socially just forms of schooling. The Formation and Assembly of Publics In this paper I have outlined the historical and political conditions that have helped to facilitate and maintain aspects of private takeover in educaJoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 23 art iCleS tion; in essence, the neoliberal revolution in public schooling. Focusing on academies and free schools as markers for the continuing fortiication of this historic bloc, I have traced the antecedents of the current political settlement to the ‘radical’ revisionist texts of the 1980s neoconservative policy documents and political thought (Jonathan, 1997). When analysed alongside policies and practices of choice, personalisation, decentralisation and diversity of provision – the hallmarks of British education policy over the last three decades – academies and free schools can be understood to constitute developments in the continuing marketisation and commodiication of public services and public service users. These elements combine and complement each other in ways that work to restructure, outpace and render ‘unrealistic’, ‘unproductive’ or ‘too costly’ traditional social democratic commitments to equality of opportunity and access and citizen participation and transformation (Gewirtz, 2002). A corollary of this has been the weakening of the old institutional embodiments of a social democratic public (Clarke & Newman, 1997), the diminishing role of elected government (Lowe, 2005) and the reduction of the powers typically enjoyed by local government (Jones, 2003). In tandem with these analyses I have traced the complexities that tend to inhere around arguments concerning the formation of publics. Through focusing on the types of language, evaluation and arguments offered by non-government organisations and groups who position themselves against academies, I have explored the importance of the notion of the public in these framings. However, rather than offer a straightforward comparison of public (good) versus private (bad), I have structured my analysis in a way that complicates this binary and which aims to open up discussions on the kinds of nuances, dynamics and competing pressures practitioners, policy makers and public service users inevitably confront and negotiate in the context of academies and free schools. It is precisely because welfare services and the responsibilities and orientations of welfare users are becoming increasingly mediated and constrained at the intersection of public and private domains (of business values and public sector values, of consumer orientations and citizen orientations, of political principles and commercial principles, of community-regarding impulses and self-regarding impulses, and so forth) (Clarke et al., 2007; Reay et al., 2008; Wilkins, 2010) that future education research will need to attend to these complexities in their devolved, organisational, socio-economic driven contexts. This, too, I argue, has implications for anti-academy language and rhetoric. To achieve the kinds of ‘cooperative’ forms of governance between schools and parents that anti-academy organisations are proposing, we need to rethink the language through which resistance is currently being formulated 24 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance and articulated. While I am not proposing we dispense with the term public entirely – in fact, the idea of the public is politically necessary to give resistance force and content – I do think it is important to trace how neoliberalism is articulated both as a private and public political project. In doing so, we might begin to formulate alternatives which work to incorporate some of those possibilities while at the same time mitigating their potential negative effects. An important insight generated through policy sociology, public or applied anthropology and cultural studies approaches, for example, is the idea that policy discourses and practices do not translate directly and uniformly to particular national, institutional, socio-economic and geopolitical contexts (Peck, 2004), but which are intrinsic to the formation and assembly of a plurality of publics. Rather, here, neoliberalism can be understood as something which is dynamic and situated, as well as productive and enabling. Moving beyond dichotomies of public/private and political/commercial demands taking neoliberal trends seriously as colonizing strategies involving innovation, experimentation and contestation rather than the rolling out of a stable or coherent programme of reform (Larner, Le Heron & Lewis, 2007; Ong, 2006). 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Specialisation and choice in urban education: the city technology experiment. London: Routledge Wilby, P. (2009). The real problem with academies. Guardian, February. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/10/wilbyacademies Wilkins, A. (2010). Citizens and/or consumers: Mutations in the construction of meanings and practices of school choice. Journal of Education Policy, 25 (2), 171-189. 28 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Public battles and private takeovers: academies and the politics of educational governance Wilkins, A. (2011). Push and pull in the classroom: Gender, competition and the neoliberal subject. Gender and Education. iFirst articles. Wilkins, A. (2012). School choice and the commodiication of education: A Visual approach to school brochures and websites. Critical Social Policy. Special issue: Inequalities and images: Insights for policy and practice, 32 (1), 70-87. Woods, P., Woods, G. & Gunter, H. (2007). Academy schools and entrepreneurialism in education. Journal of Education Policy, 22 (2), 237-259. Zizek, S. (2009). First as tradegy, then as farce. London and New York: Verso Aut ho r: andrew Wilkins, Ph.d., assistant Professor roehampton University department of education roehampton lane london SW15 5PU UK email: andrew.wilkins@roehampton.ac.uk JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 29 DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0002-z JoP 3 (1): 30 – 42 Unpacking neoliberal policies: Interrupting the global and local production of the norms I-Fang Lee Abstract: Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) has been constructed as a new site for educational, sociocultural, political, and economic investment. Coupled with such a growing and popular recognition of ECEC as a signiicant period of children’s learning and development are critical issues concerning accountability, affordability, and accessibility to quality education and care for all. Highlighting the preschool education systems in Taiwan and Hong Kong as two examples from Asia, this paper aims to open up a discursive space for reconceptualizing the effects of neoliberal discourse and how such a system of reasoning reconstructed notions of inclusion/exclusion to limit the making of quality education and the provision of care for all. Keywords: preschool education system, neoliberalism, vouchers Introduction Investment in quality education and care for future economic development and social returns has been mobilized as the dominant global educational reform rhetoric. For example, in Starting Strong (OECD, 2001 and 2006), it is argued that high quality early childhood education and care would make a major contribution to any country’s national development and success in the new global knowledge-based economy. Another contemporary example of this similar thread of logic is a special emphasis on the economics of early childhood (Heckman, 2006) that emphasizes the beneit of quality early childhood education as an effective approach for promoting economic growth in the future. It is obvious that the logic underpins the core arguments of these two examples. Both share a strong root in the neoliberal political economic system of reasoning. 30 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unpacking neoliberal policies: interrupting the global and local production of the norms As noted by Apple (2001), “for neoliberals, one form of rationality is more powerful than any other – economic rationality” (p. 38). This move to think within economic rationality has worked to reconigure a new common sense for all. The magical formula of neoliberalism is to rationalize, with an economic reasoning system as the miracle solution, to ix sociocultural, educational, political, and economical problems. Through this mode of reasoning, a cost-beneit analysis and a vision of eficiency have appeared to become the dominant norms for creating standards to promise quality for all. Borrowing such a magical formula into the ield of education changes the philosophical foundation of education for all in that, rather than thinking about the ield of education as a sociocultural site, it is transformed into a “quasi-market” or “free-market” (for example, see Friedman & Friedman, 1990; Chubb & Moe, 1990; Friedman, 1995). As the ield of education is redeined as a marketplace, whether it’s a semi-market, quasi-market or free-market, the parents and children/students are reconigured as consumers while educational programs are commodiied. While it may appear to make sense to rationalize through the mode of economics and to articulate the fact that every dollar we spend or invest at the present moment for quality ECEC programs will bring us valuable social returns within a few years, it is dangerous to underestimate the effects of this neoliberal political economic system of reasoning. As Apple (2001) reminds us, “rather than taking neoliberal claims at face values, we should want to ask about their hidden effects that are too often invisible in the rhetoric and metaphors of their proponents” (p. 70). Therefore, working against the dominant global trend of accepting neoliberalism in the educational reform discourse as the miracle solution to ensure quality and to promise freedom and equity for all, this paper unpacks the glocal effects of neoliberalism on early childhood education, care, and policy by highlighting the preprimary education systems in Taiwan and Hong Kong as two examples from Asia. The irst section of this paper introduces the preschool education systems in Taiwan and Hong Kong as two examples from Asia to question the effects of neoliberal policies in education reforms. While the two education and care systems in Taiwan and Hong Kong are very different and cannot be comparable or compatible with each other, the shared trend of making a “right” turn through neoliberal policies to reform preschool education is noteworthy. The second section of this paper presents a critique of neoliberalism from a post-structural perspective to discuss the effects of neoliberal discourse. In sum, the discussions in this paper aim to address how neoliberal policies work to create conditions for the (im)possibilities of quality education and provision of care for all. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 31 art iCleS Preschool Education Systems from two of the four Asian Dragons: Taiwan and Hong Kong Both Taiwan and Hong Kong have been known as two of the four Asian Dragons.1 Recognized for their capabilities in achieving and maintaining rapid growth in economic development, the Taiwanese government and both the colonial Hong Kong regime and the post-colonial Hong Kong government (also known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after its political handover in 1997) have been placing economic growth and development at the center of their contemporary sociocultural and political imaginaries. In particular, both Taiwan and Hong Kong have accepted capitalism and have been highly inluenced by neoliberal policies from the West (particularly political and economic inluences from the United States and British governments). In this section, I will introduce the systems of preschool education in Taiwan and Hong Kong to build a foundation for further discussion on the effects of neoliberal policies in preschool education reforms. System of ECEC in Taiwan Early childhood education and care (ECEC) is not included in the 9-year national compulsory education system. While there are both public and private kindergartens and childcare programs, it is important to note that more than 70% of the programs are in private institutions.2 The structural divide between education and care for young children can be seen through the different governing bodies and regulations, as well as the different emphases of the programs. For example, nursery schools are for children between ages 1-6 to place a stronger emphasis on care while kindergartens are for children between ages 3-6 to stress the importance of education in the early years. Moreover, nursery schools are regulated by the Ministry of the Interior whereas kindergartens are governed by the Ministry of Education. Currently, ECEC in Taiwan has been under reconstruction through a process of integration to echo the Scandinavian notion of educare. The term ‘Preschool’ for children between ages 2-6 will be formally adopted for all ECEC programs after the projected oficial integration by 2014. In addition to the notion of educare to recognize the equal importance of 1 2 The term Asian Dragons refers to the four highly developed economy geopolitical spaces including: Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore for their rapid economic development and industrialization between the1960s and 1990s. While 70% of the ECEC programs in Taiwan are private, it is important to note that at the elementary level, according to oficial and public statistics from the Ministry of Education, 98.53% are in public schools. 32 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unpacking neoliberal policies: interrupting the global and local production of the norms education and care in the early years, another signiicant change in Taiwanese preschool education is a proposal to include ive-year-old kindergarten as part of the new national compulsory education system3. Issues Concerning Preschool Accessibility and Affordability in Taiwan. It is obvious that with the limited availability of public ECEC programs for all children, many parents have no other options but to choose private programs. However, such a logic operates under the assumption that parents who choose to opt out of public programs are inancially capable of affording private programs as options4. Not being included as part of the national compulsory educational system, it is harder to get the real story of the enrollment rate at the preschool level. Although the Taiwanese government states that most children still attend preschools even though ECEC is non-compulsory, a closer read of the government’s public statistical records from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Interior could help to offer some critical facts to the real story. For example, to highlight the school year of 2007-08, there were 138,287 children attending public kindergartens and childcare programs, whereas there were 295,474 children in private provisions. Among the total population of 3-5 year olds for the 200708 school year, 37.33% of the children 3-5 years old did not attend any public or private kindergartens/childcare programs. Taking such an oficial record as an example for discussion, this simple statistical calculation elucidates that accessibility to public programs (whether kindergarten or childcare programs) for young children is relatively limited and the affordability of private programs may be an expensive option for numerous families with young children in Taiwan. This issue of affordability is represented by the alarmingly high percentage of children not attending any program. For that, while being careful not to make an over-generalized conclusion about the 37.33% of young children who are not enrolled in any type of public or private programs, given the common parental belief in early childhood education in Taiwan, it is possible to interpret that a signiicant number of children in the 37.33% may come from inancially disadvantaged families whose parents may not be able to afford private ECEC services. 3 4 A new proposal to implement a 12-year compulsory education system is projected by the 2014 school year. In this new proposal, it will include 6 years of elementary education, 3 years of junior high, and 3 years of senior high or vocational education for all children. It has been proposed to augment the ive-year-old kindergarten into this new proposal of 12-year compulsory education reform to modify it to a K-12 compulsory education system. The cost for private preschool education and care in Taiwan is about three to four times more compared to public programs. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 33 art iCleS Noting the problems of accessibility and affordability of preschool education, Chao-Xiang Yang, a former Minister of Education (from June 1999 to May 2000), stated that preschool vouchers should be thought of as a “promise” for all children and their families. In an interview on preschool education, Yang (2000) supported the formation of preschool vouchers in Taiwan: Please Promise Me a Future While calls for “extending education to young children” are becoming ever more widespread, the educational budget for early childhood education is simultaneously and paradoxically being oppressed within the national education budget. A reason for deploying early childhood educational vouchers is not to let economic barriers exclude any child from accessing early education. (Abstracted and translated from Reengineering EducationYang’s (2000) oral narratives, p. 51) This local adaptation of a neoliberal preschool policy has been brewing not only as an educational issue but also as a political debate since the 1990s in Taiwan (for example, see Lee, 2009). The intelligibility of preschool voucher policies in Taiwan has been scaffolded by the global circulation of neoliberalism as a miracle solution to ensure freedom to choose as well as to address issues concerning accessibility and affordability. System of pre – primary education in Hong Kong The ield of early childhood education and care has been under major reconstruction in Hong Kong since its historical transition from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region of China in 1997. At the turn of the 21st century, different from the British colonial era, education is considered as the key to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region’s (HKSAR) future development in the global economy (Hong Kong Education Commission, 1999; Mok & Chan, 2002). Under the irst Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa’s administration, a blueprint for the development and reform of the education system in Hong Kong was proposed. In that report, the notion of ‘lifelong learning’ was deployed to lay the foundation for a major reconstruction of the education system (Hong Kong Education Commission, 2000). As noted by Chan and Chan (2003), the production of this government report helped to acknowledge the ield of early childhood education as “the foundation for life-long learning” (p. 8). The dramatic change from the “Cinderella of the education system” (Opper, 1993, p. 88) to “the foundation for life-long learning” (Chan & Chan, 2003, p. 8) has had a profound inluence on the outlook and development of pre-primary education in Hong Kong (Rao, 2005). 34 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unpacking neoliberal policies: interrupting the global and local production of the norms One of the most important and notable impacts of the development of preprimary education is the change in the Hong Kong Government’s role in pursuing the provision of quality (Rao & Li, 2009). Becoming more actively involved in the pre-primary sector in the post-colonial period, the HKSAR Government has taken on several major neoliberal policy initiatives that focus on “building a new culture for quality early childhood education” (Hong Kong Education Commission, 2000, p. 49). In responding to the recommendations of the Education Commission, the HKSRA Government has worked on promoting and building quality education and care in the early years through implementing several major initiatives and policies. For instance, the implementation of the new “Guide to the Pre-primary Curriculum” (EDB, 2006), the announcement of the Pre-primary Education Voucher Scheme (PEVS) since the 2007/08 school year (EDB, 2006), and the introduction of the Quality Assurance Framework since the 2000 school year all work together to mark milestones in the making of quality preschool education in Hong Kong. Issues Concerning Preschool Accessibility and Affordability in Hong Kong. Currently, all programs in the pre-primary education sector are private. The lack of public funding in pre-primary education since the British colonial period has constructed the ield of ECEC as a free market. With no public ECEC programs, education and care for young children in Hong Kong have historically been thought of as private matters of individual families’ choices. Attempting to address issues concerning accessibility and affordability in the pre-primary sector without forgoing the free market model, a pre-primary voucher scheme under the logic of neoliberalism certainly makes perfect sense. Although this voucher scheme appeared to increase the accessibility of early childhood education as well as make preschool education and care more affordable for all families by providing vouchers as tuition reimbursements to relieve the inancial burdens of parents, the effects of such a policy ironically work to further marginalize many families that have already been disadvantaged. For example, a critical read into the voucher policy could reveal how children of lower income families may be the ultimate others to be excluded through this scheme. To be speciic about the effects of this voucher scheme, it is important to note that all children of legal residents in Hong Kong are eligible to apply for vouchers regardless of their household income levels. However, children of lower income families have been singled out in the text of the policy as a special case in that lower income families who are on social welfare schemes should choose only between welfare subsidies for children’s education costs and the voucher scheme. This either-or condition in the voucher scheme for families in poverty has made preschool less accessible and harder to afford. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 35 art iCleS Furthermore, it is important to note that since the implementation of this pre-primary voucher scheme, many previously existing social welfare subsidies for young children have been gradually subsiding in Hong Kong. From this perspective, the current neoliberal policy of the voucher scheme does very little to address the problems of accessibility and affordability for children from disadvantaged families. Vouchers: the problematics of neoliberal polices Neoliberal policies, such as preschool vouchers in Taiwan and Hong Kong, have been creating illusions of freedom, equality, and democracy (Lee, 2010). From the level of critical analysis, preschool vouchers amplify socio-economic differences and sustain or even further perpetuate the existing status quo for children and their families. Such a false hope about vouchers is a global phenomenon and is associated with the limitation of neoliberal policies for their inabilities to challenge deeper social inequalities with an economic rationality. As Whitty (1997) argues: Atomized decision-making in a highly stratiied society may appear to give everyone equal opportunities but transforming responsibility for decision-making from the public to the private sphere can actually reduce the scope for collective action to improve the quality of education for all. (p. 58) Approaching social inequalities through economic rationality and shifting collective responsibility to individual responsibility through neoliberal policies can dangerously miss the complexities of power/knowledge relations in that, rather than challenging inequalities towards social justice, neoliberal policies like vouchers ironically work to reproduce traditional social stratiication. When going beyond the face values of neoliberalism, as informed by a post-structural perspective, neoliberal policies—such as vouchers—function as social and cultural administration in which new “norms” and “truths” are produced to (re)deine the normative ways of thinking, acting, and being. That is, under neoliberal logic, voucher policies work to produce sociocultural disciplinary guidelines to create a new normative understanding of what a good parent and appropriate preschool program shall look like. Moreover, informed by Foucault’s notion of governmentality (a power that “produces” rather than “represses” our subjectivities), it becomes possible to critique how neoliberal reform discourses, such as preschool vouchers, produce a different kind of “knowledge” as the truth. Hence neoliberal policies can be conceptualized as ‘technologies of the 36 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unpacking neoliberal policies: interrupting the global and local production of the norms self’ through which the governing of others and the governing of the self are interlaced by reform discourses to instruct how one should act or think or be (Foucault, 1978/1990). Thus, neoliberal policies, like those concerning vouchers, are less about emancipation and more about specifying the conduct of conduct (for example, see Lather, 2004; Popkewitz, 2006). Who we are and how we should be to become autonomous and productive selves are internally desired by ourselves rather than externally required. This alteration concerning how we are governed while we simultaneously become selfdisciplined as we accept the economic rationalities through neoliberal policies as the “norms” and “truths” is a signiicant effect of neoliberalism that needs to be examined. Unpacking Neoliberalism Many critical analyses and critiques of neoliberalism and neoliberal policies have focused on the dangerous shift to a market approach in education and issues concerning privatization of education (for some examples, see Apple, 2001, Giroux, 2002; Olssen & Peters, 2005; Perez & Cannella, 2010; Whitty, Power & Halpin, 1998). While acknowledging the importance of critical analyses on neoliberalism and neoliberal policies in education, it is signiicant to unpack neoliberalism as a grand narrative and to examine how contemporary reform discourses and policies surrounding neoliberal rationalities circulate to constitute a new regime of truth to create desirable norms. Unpacking neoliberalism as a grand narrative, Lindblad and Popkewitz (2004) emphasize how theoretical labels such as neoliberalism could dangerously steer us away from a deeper understanding of the effects and tensions that have co-existed in reform discourses and policies. They note: Neoliberalism is planet-speak, a magical concept that is seen as the solution to all problems or as the evil that creates those problems. The world serves as a central ‘marker’ about the promises of progress from conservatives and as the roots of the evil that the left sees as taking away all of the won beneits of the security nets of the welfare state in caring for its populations. The use of neoliberalism as a conceptual framework to understand the social and historical transformations is clearly problematic when one considers the alliances between minority groups and conservative politicians in supporting school choice in the U.S. or the election of social democratic and Labour governments that maintained related policies but with different rhetorical conigurations. Neoliberalism is a symptom and not a cause. That is, JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 37 art iCleS the word never stands by itself as it is itself embedded in a number of historical patterns that exist prior to its formal label of neoliberalism and which need scrutiny. For example, neoliberalism is used in different places and with different political and cultural agendas that seem, at irst glance, as strange bedfellows. (Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2004, p. xix) While vouchers have been analytically associated with neoliberal discourses and classiied as governing policies of the “Right” that are either good or evil, if we are “trapped” by such binaries in our reasoning and analysis, we risk ignoring the complexities and multiple dimensions of educational reform discourses that we ought to scrutinize (Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2004; Popkewitz, 2006). It is from such a standpoint that I shift towards a post-structural dimension of analysis related to the intelligibility of preschool vouchers as a case of educational reform discourses through which the making of a particular vision of the future is crafted. (IM)POSSIBILITIES OF QUALITY PRESCHOOL EDUCATION FOR ALL? While there are different objectives in different reform policies, it is important to acknowledge that all reform discourses, whether we like it or not, have some level of good intentions and attempt to address issues concerning accessibility, affordability, and accountability. Simple put, who would want to put children, the hope for our collective future, in danger? It is only when we shift to a deeper analysis of the intelligibility of reform discourses and policies to understand their socio-cultural and political reasoning particularities that we will be able to unpack the layers of meaning making. Take the preschool voucher policies from Taiwan and Hong Kong as examples and let us shift to a discussion on the core rationality of vouchers— “freedom to choose.” The concepts of freedom and choice are woven together to scaffold and mobilize the concept of vouchers as a form of progressive educational reform. “Freedom” has become a “worldwide good” and has become understood as a universal desire or ultimate emancipation. Simultaneously, “choice” is thought of as a form of empowerment tagging along with the universal concept of “freedom.” Coexistent, freedom and choice become elevator concepts which have “no known origin and serve as a magic concept as they seem to cover the solution for all problems” (Lindblad & Popkewitz, 2004, p. xviii). In fact, who does not desire or want to have the “freedom to choose?” Lindblad and Popkewitz (2004) note that the danger in elevator words or concepts is that they have been “accepted as singular and universal terms that refer to some fact or reality and do not need to be explained” (p. xviii). As elevator words, “freedom” and “choice” have repackaged the 38 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Unpacking neoliberal policies: interrupting the global and local production of the norms concept of the educational voucher as an effective means for change, progress, and democracy. That is, when the educational voucher discourse is linked with the notions of “freedom” and “choice,” it becomes dificult to argue against freedom and choice as such concepts are the core foundation of liberal democracy. Having the freedom to make a choice in itself appears to be a form of democracy and liberation. However, when infused into the preschool voucher discourses globally, the notion of “freedom to choose” could be dangerous as it appears to wear the “skin” of progressive liberal democratic change. After all, to have power or to be freed or emancipated is highly desired as the ultimate achievement of modernization and democratization (Rose, 1999). Hence, when we turn to the texts and the rules of the preschool voucher policies from Taiwan and Hong Kong, it becomes possible to elucidate that this particular notion of “freedom to choose” is socially constructed and economically reconigured to transform our common sense while prescribing a particular way of being, acting and behaving. For example, through the circulation of preschool vouchers as a form of educational reform, not only are parents being disciplined by the rules of the voucher policies, but also the ield of early childhood education and care is regulated through the process of being chosen by parents. In other words, through voucher policies, parents are simultaneously governed and self-governed, as their choices are shaped by the rules of the voucher policies to think of what kinds of programs are classiied as appropriate high quality or normal early educational and childcare institutions (Dahlberg, 2000; or see Dahlberg et al., 1999). Unpacking the effects of preschool vouchers as examples of neoliberal reform discourse opens up a discursive space to rethink the (im)possibilities of the making of a quality preschool for all. Saturated within the neoliberal rationality, contemporary preschool education is at the crossroads in this new millennium. A variety of recent examples of reform policies in Taiwan and Hong Kong, such as oficial productions of curriculum guidelines and quality assurance as well as licensing regulations, all point to that fact that governments are becoming more involved in the highly privatized sector of preschool education. Moving out of the previous “hands off” attitude in preschool matters, both the Taiwanese government and the HKSAR government’s active involvement create ruptures and interject new possibilities for a better development in the ield of ECEC in that a glimmer of hope to address critical issues of accessibility, affordability, and accountability in preschool education may very well still resurface under the public gaze and discussion in Taiwan and Hong Kong, despite the global tidal wave of neoliberal rationality. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 39 art iCleS Some Concluding Thoughts Through the different arguments in this paper, my primary intention is not to examine whether contemporary neoliberal reform policies, such as vouchers, are good or bad or right or wrong. Instead, the presented analyses aim to unpack the global effects of neoliberalism in order to shed light on the embedded systems of reasoning that underpin the intelligibility of neoliberal policies through which our “common sense” or knowledge is (re)organized and constructed. What I have intended to do through the arguments in this paper is a theoretical, methodological, and analytical shift toward social epistemology (Popkewitz, 1991; 1999) through which the construction and intelligibility of the new subject and subjectivity are problematized and destabilized for a deeper understanding of the effects of educational reform discourses. This shift allows me to focus on how reform discourses such as neoliberal policies function as normalizing technologies to produce normative narratives by simultaneously denaturalizing the production of the hope of progress and unpacking the production of a silent panic. 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Early Child Development and Care, 179 (3), 233-245. Rose, N. S. (1999). Powers of freedom: Reframing political thought. Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Whitty, G. (1997). Creating quasi-markets in education. Review of research in education, 22, 3-47. Whitty, G., Power, S. & Halpin, D. (1998). Devolution and choice in education: The school, the state, and the market. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Yang, C.S. (2000). Reengineering education (M.L. Chen, Trans.). Taipei City: YuanLiu Publisher. Aut ho r: i-Fang lee, Ph.d., Senior lecturer University of Newcastle australia Faculty of education and arts School of education Po Box 127 ourimbah NSW 2258 australia email: i-Fang.lee@newcastle.edu.au 42 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0003-y JoP 3 (1): 43 – 81 Lost in translation: Ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations in the Czech Republic1 D. Greger, E. Kifer Abstract: In reaction to central control of schooling by the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic countered with what some say was the most decentralized system in Europe. While the political move to democracy was extraordinarily successful, there were numerous governments between 1989 and the present. The combination of the decentralized control of schooling and lack of continuity in the political realm in regard to education lengthened substantially the amount of time it has taken to mount national assessments. Those assessments, 5th and 9th grade and a high school leaving examination, are now on track but not without political and technical barriers. Key words: Czech Republic, education policy development, testing, assessment characteristic, Maturita, misclassiications Introduction In this paper we describe features of the educational landscape of the Czech Republic and how they led to recent developments of national assessments. We focus on how the past and unique school circumstances in the Czech Republic are related to the development of those assessments. There are three major parts of the paper: a chronology of educational changes since 1989; a way to view and categorize the proposed assessments; and, interpretations of the focus of the assessments as well as a description of their limitations as presently construed. The assessments are a high school leaving examination and tests in the 1 Acknowledgements: This paper is the output of research grant “Unequal school – unequal chances” (No. P407/11/1556) supported by the Czech Science Foundation (GA ČR). JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 43 art iCleS 5th and 9th grades. The purposes of the tests are not yet well-deined. And, a history of decentralized education and high turnover of educational personnel at the national level has led to long delays in implementing the assessments. The paper is broad in the sense of trying to identify major factors that inluenced the design and implementation of these assessments. It is narrow in the sense of being very speciic in describing the assessments and their properties. Merging these two approaches provides a unique view of the process of creating assessments and implementing them in the Czech Republic. Development of Czech education policy post-1989 The Czech Republic in 1989 moved from a totalitarian political system and centrally planned, state-owned economy to democratic governance respecting human rights, the restoration of private ownership and a market economy. These changes affected the education sector which, until then, was under exclusive central control. The political and economic transitions transformed the educational system. Those transformations can be divided schematically into four phases (Greger & Walterová, 2012). Phase one – deconstruction Deconstruction, the irst and earliest phase of the educational transformation, lasted a few months after the political turnover in 1989. A short early period like this is typical of societies in transition, and is well-documented: Birzea (1996) labeled it de-structuring and Čerych, Kotásek, Kovařovic, Švecová (2000) termed it a period of annulation or correction. The main aim of this period was to redress the most visible shortcomings in education caused by totalitarian control. Among the most important tasks of this irst stage of transformation were De-ideologisation of the legal documents, including curricula programs, and de-monopolisation of state education. These facilitated setting up of private and denominational schools, stipulating that parents and students should be free to choose their schools and to pursue their educational goals. There was no emphasis on assessment and evaluation in this irst phase of the transformation. There was, instead, in the centre of the debate, the liberation of content and methods of teaching and learning. Rigid political and ideological control in the system was replaced by a broad level of local school autonomy that Čerych et al. (2000) characterized as “unusually large and unparalleled in many western European countries.” 44 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... School autonomy in this setting includes a wide range of policy options from curriculum determination to admission requirements and the content of examinations. Čerych et al. (ibid) argued that such school autonomy represented a complete departure from the old system and was the key factor in what became the bottom-up nature of the reform process in the irst phase of the educational transformation in the Czech Republic. Phase two: Partial stabilization Kotásek, Greger, Procházková (2004) labeled the second phase (1991 – 2000) of educational transformation in the Czech Republic partial stabilization. After the most urgent and quickly made changes during the deconstruction phase, the partial stabilization period was characterized by gradual and incremental, legislative, organizational and pedagogical initiatives. Despite a tendency toward keeping the “status quo,” slow, deliberate/ partial adaptation to new conditions produced changes fostered above all by representatives of the school administration and conservative teachers. This period was still mainly one of bottom-up reform, where the main changes and innovations were promoted by individuals, local initiatives of teachers and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Reforms were mainly spontaneous, arising from the pedagogical issues and later based on operational, “ad hoc” measures. Partial stabilization is relected in legislation by amendments to the communist era Education Act that was passed in 1984. Among the key players in policy-making at that time were non-proit associations like the Independent Interdisciplinary Group for the Educational Reform (NEMES), an active teachers grouped (PAU – Friends for committed learning – see www.pau.cz) and a Group for Educational Alternatives – IDEA. These agencies and other expert teams prepared reform proposals without the state playing a leading role in policy development. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MOEYS) in 1994 prepared a document, “Quality and Accountability”, that was the irst reform initiative from a governmental group with a national perspective. Although the report had no direct inluence on education, it was the irst attempt to formulate comprehensive policy with a long-term perspective. Thus the second half of the 1990’s could be perceived as a turning point in policy formulation, with the state, represented by MOEYS, beginning to play a leading and major role in the process. There were several other main sources of information that inluenced the direction of change. Public opinion polls, analyzing the demand for schooling from different stakeholders, were conducted from 1995 till 1999 (see Kotásek, Greger, & Procházková, 2004; Walterová & Černý, 2006). Knowl- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 45 art iCleS edge of international and global trends in education was fostered by the active involvement of the Czech Republic in international large-scale studies of student achievement (e.g. Trends in Mathematics and Science Achievement -TIMSS 1995, 1998; International Study of Civics Education – CivEd 1999; Progress in International Reading Literacy – PIRLS 2001; Program for International Student Assessment – PISA 2000 and 2003). In addition, the Czech Republic participated in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) projects, especially reviews of national policies for education in the Czech Republic (OECD 1996, 1999). The other driving force of internationalization was the negotiations and preparations for EU membership. This led to the preparation of an extensive strategic document, Czech Education & Europe (1999). Phase three: Reconstruction The second half of the 1990s was characterized not only by the partial adaptation and implementation of the changes required by the overall social transformation, it was also the preparatory period for the next (third) phase of transformation – reconstruction. The discussions about the future of national education were, according to Kotásek (2005), started in the second phase of transformation and then came to a head in the next reconstruction phase. Documents that inluenced the changes included the White Paper (MoEYS 2001) and The Long-Term Plan for the Development of Education and the Education System in the Czech Republic, (MoEYS 2002). Those were followed in 2004 by the new Educational Acts (Educational Act – The collection of Laws on Pre-school, Basic, Secondary, Tertiary Professional and Other Education No. 561/2004, and Collection of Laws on Pedagogical Staff No. 563/2004). Phase four: Implementation According to Kotásek, et al. (2004) the last phase of transformation began in 2005 and continues today. It is a period of attempting to implement systemic reforms prepared in the previous reconstruction phase. Analyses of the processes of transformation so far have been sketchy. There continue to be obstacles to the systematic understanding of the lively process of change, especially those that started spontaneously. Changes are still happening at the micro- or intermediate level, even though the macro level seems to be now in a inal phase, perhaps ready for implementation. This implementation process, however, is not easy, especially for top-down reforms. Critics of the reforms (most often articulating their concerns in the domain of curriculum and evaluation) argue that the national reforms are 46 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... not well planned and, in particular, have not been explained and communicated to a wider public (parents and other stakeholders). Politics and Educational Policy A detailed explanation of the educational transformation has also not been suficiently elaborated within the context of national politics. The preparation of systemic reform was made during the long period when the Social Democrats held power (even though it was a coalition government) lasting from 1998 till 2006. After the last election the leading party became the conservative Civic Democratic Party that has other priorities and the reform that was to be implemented by the Social Democrats is, itself, being reformed. Thus we might be observing the “reforms of reform”, or what Birzea (1996) calls a counter-reform. The most visible ‘counter-reform’ is in the ield of evaluation, where many measures prepared by the previous government and codiied in law have either been postponed or are being gradually eliminated. The process of educational transformation in the Czech Republic is similar in certain ways to what occurred in other countries and has been analyzed as the tension between continuity and change, a main feature of such transitions (Birzea, 1996). The current stage of development of education is either an implementation phase that requires a substantial amount of effort and time, or as a process of redeinition and reformulation of systemic reform. For both alternatives there are several obstacles to policy formulation or implementation, e.g. inances, management, but especially human resources (in case of evaluation, a lack of expertise in educational measurement, test designs etc.). The risk of reforming the reforms over and over again is thus the biggest obstacle to any change. This brief outline of the transformation of education in the Czech Republic provides a bases and timeline to think about how and why the introduction of national assessments has taken more than 20 years. The story of the educational transformation in the Czech Republic portrays the struggles and shortcomings associated with introducing assessments without clearly setting non-contradictory, compatible goals. The never-ending story: introducing national assessments in the 5th and 9th grade and standardized upper-secondary leaving examination The Czech Republic is one of few OECD countries that until last year did not have national assessments or examinations. Even though the proposals JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 47 art iCleS to reform the upper-secondary leaving examination (the Maturita) by introducing standardized state-administered tests began in the mid-1990’s, and the irst pilot tests were administered in 1998, they were formally required just last year. Results were reported, therefore, for the irst time in the fall of 2011. National assessments in the 5th and 9th grade (at the end of primary and lower secondary school) have a similar chronology. Their introduction followed long periods of discussion with some pilot tests in 2000’s and an expectation of being fully introduced in 2013-2014. The Czech System Santiago, Gilmore, Nusche, and Sammons (2012) have an elaborate igure and discussion of the structure of the Czech educational system. To focus our discussion of the proposed new assessments, we present an abbreviated version of that structure. The irst level of education is pre-primary or nursery school for pupils age three to six. Almost all Czech children attend these schools where available, but they are not required to do so. Required schooling begins at age 6 and ends at age 14. This, the basic education has two stages. The irst ends at grade 5 and age 10; the second ends at grade 9 and age 14. These two stages are the settings for two new assessments. Although there are a number of options for secondary education, one with new assessments, the secondary schooling leaving examination (Maturita), is a subject of this paper. In general, passing the Maturita, usually taken after grade 13, enables a student to apply for admission to the university or equivalent education. Students in the Gymnasium, technical secondary schools and arts schools, take the examination. Students in a vocational track or school can get an apprenticeship certiicate after 12 years of schooling, but there are also a few vocational programs leading to Maturita. The proposed or newly instituted national assessments are focused on transition points in the school system. The 5th grade assessment is at the end of stage 1 or primary school. The 9th grade assessment forms a transition to secondary school. The Maturity examination is between secondary education and further or tertiary education. By being at those transition points, the assessments could conceivably be thought of as serving more than one purpose, something not considered desirable in testing circles. That is, they could be used to certify past performance or as a basis to select for additional education. 48 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Prior assessments in the Czech Republic Prior to the new assessment initiatives, such activities were conducted locally. Teachers and principals in secondary schools, for example, prepared their own high school leaving examination. Those examinations were written, administered and scored by local school personnel. They were usually composed of both written and oral sections but in some locations they were only oral. It is important to note these efforts because they are a piece of the history of the Maturity examination and apparently inluenced greatly the design of the new assessment. In addition to those mentioned above, outside companies produced examinations that schools could use if they so desired. From local initiatives to national mandates and OECD inluence As discussed earlier, in the mid-1990s, after the revolutionary deconstruction phase of mainly bottom-up changes in education, the state became more involved in planning educational reform. At irst, a number of strategic documents were formulated. Among the most inluential ones were the OECD national education policy reviews undertaken in 1995 (see OECD, 1996) and in 1999 (see ÚIV, 1999). Many of the recommendations in the OECD reviews were taken into the strategic White Paper for educational development in the Czech Republic from 2001 (MoEYS, 2001). While preparing their review of national education policy in 1995 OECD formulated 11 recommendations as priorities for action (OECD, 1996, p. 180). They grouped these recommendations into three broad ields: − Improving the curriculum, structure and quality of basic and general secondary education. − Strengthening the relevance, responsiveness and quality of administration of vocational and technical education. − Implementing more effective means of administration, governance and management. Five out of eleven recommendations were formulated for part A, among which two directly emphasized testing: − Recommendation No. 1: Developing instruments to assess pupil learning achievement in basic schools; and, − Recommendation No. 4. Standardizing and differentiating the secondaryschool leaving examination (Maturita). The two recommendations together and separately instrumentally changed Czech education. What might be the most famous and inluential strategic paper on education in the Czech Republic, the so-called White paper (MoEYS, 2001) relied heavily on them. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 49 art iCleS OECD reviewers argued that in the Czech Republic “there is no appropriate instrument or set of instruments to assess and control the quality of education provided” and that “the traditional ways of controlling inputs ... can no longer substitute for the assessments of the outcomes of the teaching and learning process” (OECD, 1996, p. 181). Based on those assertions, they recommended that steps be taken to develop instruments to measure pupil achievement throughout basic school and to undertake a mandatory assessment of attainment at the end of ninth year. The assessment could take the form of a inal examination in which an important place is given to an external measurement of attainment. (ibid) Some possible approaches The OECD reviewers emphasized that a change from measuring inputs to measuring outputs is a serious departure from previous activities and should be implemented with caution. They even suggested that external part of the examination should be proposed for use by schools but not imposed on them as a requirement. That is, schools could participate on a voluntary basis. The OECD reviewers used a background report prepared by the Czech authorities (it forms the major and irst part of the 1996 OECD book). The background report included still another critique of existing practices. Entrance examinations to upper-secondary schools that are organized by individual schools are fragmented and results from various schools are not comparable. What’s more, the tests prepared by individual schools (or some schools use the tests of private providers), may not measure what was taught in basic schools, since their main aim is to differentiate among students for admissions (norm-referenced tests) and are, therefore, unfair. The OECD reviewers proposed to use examinations in the 9th grade for measuring the quality of schooling, not for admission to upper-secondary level. Even though OECD examiners did not provide details on testing (the whole recommendation is elaborated in just 1.5 pages), it is fair to assume that the main goal of the proposed examination was to measure the quality of education aligned to national standards (which they have said should be more fully elaborated). The ministry of education, however, added a goal to use the results of the 9th grade assessment for admissions to upper secondary school. It is, therefore, proposing to use the same tests for normative purposes. This is one of a number of examples of how the two opposing goals were actually set for the same assessment. This is highly controversial and considered to be technically unsound. 50 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Another controversy linked to the assessment, and proposed directly by the OECD experts in 1996, refers to the use of assessment results for accountability purposes. Publishing league tables with results of schools (test-based accountability) is desirable, OECD reviewers argued, because “the publication of the assessment results, aggregated for each school but on a school-by-school basis, would help establish “quality maps” of the school system and encourage school directors, teachers and local School Ofices, with appropriate support, to take action to upgrade those basic school demonstrating relatively low achievements” (ibid). The proposal for test-based accountability is not surprising, since the New Public Management and accountability movement is generally dated to 1980s and the irst research studies that challenged its effectiveness were of more recent (late 1990s). Since that time, however, there are several studies measuring the effects of test-based accountability, questioning its beneits (for a most recent review see Hout & Elliott (2011)) and stressing the negative unintended consequences it entails (like teaching to the tests and narrowing curriculum, inappropriate test preparations, affecting who is tested by exclusion, re-classiication of students or retention of weak students in a grade). A more elaborate discussion of these side effects is contained in section 3. The most recent OECD review on evaluation and assessment in the Czech Republic (Santiago et al. 2012) contains no mention or support for presenting league tables or test-based accountability. Rather what is proposed is the use of test results for giving feedback and for formative purposes. In fact, “assessments for learning” or formative assessment is stressed throughout the most recent OECD recommendations. As we remarked in preceding paragraphs, the aims or purposes of assessments in 5th and 9th grade were not fully elaborated even though they included proposals for making schools accountable. The Czech authorities added another purpose, too – the use of test results for admissions to upper secondary level. We believe the two purposes, holding schools accountable and assessing student mastery of what is taught, is not achievable by one test. Again, according to testing experts, an inappropriate use of a test is to use it for two, perhaps divergent, purposes. Clarity of Purpose In the 2001 White paper, the purposes of assessment were not detailed; in fact, they were more general and in a broader context than earlier documents. The main argument was that autonomy for schools should be balanced by external evaluation and assessment, and more accountability JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 51 art iCleS (MoEYS, 2001). The proposal for presenting league tables, however, was not mentioned in the White paper. The use of the results of assessments in 9th grade for admission to upper-secondary schools was kept and enthusiastically supported in both documents, the OECD one and the MoEYS one. Clear purposes for assessment and the potential conlicts among the purposes were never discussed. An assessment grid, like the one used to describe the assessments in next part of this paper was never completed and the requirements for tests not speciied in a such a clear and concise way. First Assessment Administrations After the accession of the Czech Republic into the European Union in 2004, and with the use of funding from EU (European structural funds), pilot tests were administered in 2004 to 9th grade schools that volunteered to participate. The number of schools participating in the assessment increased over time from 2004 to 2008. The assessment in 5th grade started in 2005 and was administered also on a voluntary basis. Each of the assessments included three tests: Mathematics, the Czech language and a student aptitude test supplemented by a student questionnaire. These projects were open to interested schools on a voluntary basis, and as early as 2008 there were about 1800 schools participating in the assessment in the 5th and 9th grades (about one third of all schools) accounting for 56,000 of 5th graders and 78,000 of grade-9 students. The inancing for the project ended in 2008, however, and there was no immediate action undertaken to institutionalize these assessments on a regular basis as parts of a national evaluation system. Governments change and so, too, assessments There are several possible contextual reasons for the end of the inancing. One is political, though not strictly ideological. The project was launched under the Social Democrats and when the inancing ended, a new government was in power, formed as coalition of three parties with a Prime Minister from the conservative Civic Democratic Party. Neither the new conservative government nor the minister of education from the Green Party were speciically against the testing. Rather, it was a lack of strategic planning at the education ministry and lack of continuity among the governments that led to the collapse of the assessment initiative. Only during the last two coalitions led by the Social Democrats and their Ministers of Education was the ministry in power for an extended period of time (1998-2002 and from 2002-2006). This enabled them to prepare strategic documents and pass a new Education Act. 52 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Since September 2006, and during the goverments formed by coalitions led by the conservative Civic Democratic Party, there were six ministers of education, with the average amount of time spent in the ofice being 11 months! What’s more, usually the change of minister meant also the change of deputy ministers and even exchange of oficers at the ministry and at lower levels of the hierarchy. This lack of continuity is, along with general opposition to introducing external assessments, a cause of the lack of funding for continuing assessments at 5th and 9th grade. Even the OECD examiners suggested that change from measuring inputs to measuring outputs needed to be implemented with caution, argumentation and patience. To this concern can be added problems associated with goals of the assessments not being clearly stated. Goal statements, such as they were, changed over time, and often several contradictory purposes were mentioned. In addition, there was nothing to suggest that the general attitudes of the Czech population were considered. Public opinion, as expressed in responses to a survey, and opinions of experts in education at the national level are split into two groups of equal size with different opinions. In the last public opinion poll on education in 2008, parents and the general public were divided in support for introducing an assessment of the whole population of students in the 9th grade, when 45% agreed, 42% was against and 13% of general public neither agreed nor disagreed with its introduction (Chvál, Greger, Walterová & Černý 2009). When asked further about how results should be used, of the group of respondents who favored grade 9th grade testing, more than 50% agreed with the use of results for providing feedback to schools, teachers, or parents. That is, the formative approach. Only about one third of those respondents, however, agreed that the test results should be included in students’ grading or as one of the criteria for admission to high school, and even smaller group supported using the results for accountability purposes. The results were 28% agreed with publishing league tables and 27% agreed to use the testing results to evaluate local schools. It should be noted that in the context of a post-Socialist country, the trust in the state or local authorities is generally low due to the strict control, with an ideological bias, over schools and peoples lives exercised under the rule of Communist party. This constellation of perceptions leads to lack of trust in local authorities being able to use, in an unbiased way, the assessment results to evaluate schools. In phase one of transformation, the reforms in general were introduced as bottom-up initiatives. In that context, reforms strengthen the school‘s autonomy and eliminated the detailed prescribed curricula of the Soviet JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 53 art iCleS era. In its place was a more general, and local, framework for curricula. For many experts and some parents the introduction of obligatory national assessments is understood as a step back into control and rigidity. Also, when the assessment for feedback purposes is offered to schools on a commercial basis by private providers (mainly the company Scio and Kalibro) the assessment results are not be used for purposes other than feedback to schools. The private providers are unlikely to give results to entities other than schools, thereby allowing comparisons among schools. So the state initiatives are more and more understood (and often also articulated by ministry oficials) as the source of control, which still conveys negative connotations implicitly referring to the former non-democratic regime. In addition to the split opinion on testing and cautionary tales of state control, there is a third argument opponents used against the implementation of the pilot tests. Both the private providers of the tests and the ministerial institute responsible for assessment , the Centre for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (CERMAT), offered only norm-based assessments. This is in contrast to what was considered desirable – standards based assessments. The OECD reviewers as well as White Paper on Education argued for development of curricular and evaluation standards; i.e. standards based assessments. But, that did not happen. The tests remained norm-referenced and their relationationship to what is taught in schools was unclear. Traditional reporting of results to general public was of very low quality, formal reports on psychometric qualities of the tests were not widely disseminated, and results of these assessments were not obviously used for either policy recommendations and formulation, or for monitoring the education system. Thus the state did little to prove the either the quality of the assessment or its usefulness. Because the recommendation for setting up standards was ignored, standards-based or criterion-referenced tests were not introduced. These are the three reasons why the assessments have not yet been implemented. First is the fact that the development of the assessments is being rushed. The current conservative government, however, has set as goals for their term in ofice to introduce national assessment in 5th and 9th grade. The tests in mathematics, the Czech language and foreign language shall be IT-based (administered by computer), and composed fully of multiple-choice format questions. In reaction to previous criticism, the ministry started to develop evaluation standards upon which to base expected student learning or, perhaps, to develop the test. The time frame for development of these standards was however limited by the Minister of Education to only 6 months, with the result being standards of low quality. 54 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... A recent OECD (Santiago et al., 2012) review on evaluation and assessment in the Czech Republic came to the conclusion that the development of the standards is being rushed by the requirement for national tests to be piloted in 2011... Given the more immediate reason for their development, the standards may be more appropriately regarded as speciications for the national tests, rather than indicators of the quality of student achievement expected at different levels of education system. (Santiago et al., 2012, p. 10) Also, the Review Team suggested the need for clearer articulation of the purpose of national tests and to recognize that they cover a limited range of competencies. The tests, as originaly announced by the Ministry, will likely be very “high-stakes tests”. This will certainly arise if the test scores are used to evaluate schools and/or teachers. Overseas experience, especially in the United States, has demonstrated that there are serious negative side effects when national test scores of student achievement are used for these accountability purposes (e.g. “teaching to the test, “narrowing of the curriculum”) (Santiago et al., 2012, p. 10). The OECD reviewers nicely summarized the criticism made by Czech education experts (including the author of this paper) to the present situation in the overall development of the assessments. Instead of opening a discussion about clearly setting goals, developing proper standards, discussing how to limit the side effects and constructing high quality tests for useful feedback to schools and parents with pupils, the Minister of Education is arguing that there were years of discussion but no real action. So, he broke this chain and bravely introduced the assessments. Unfortunately, introducing the national assessment has become the goal in itself, rather than understanding the national assessment as a means to meet previously stated goals. The current minister and the Ministry did not formally deine the purposes of the assessment, but in his public speeches he has already mentioned that the results of achievement tests will be used for evaluating school quality, for publishing results of the schools in league-tables, for admission of students to upper-secondary education, as well as for feedback of schools/teachers/ parents/pupils. After the widespread criticism of the high-stakes nature of the tests, the minister changed his rhetoric and stated that national assessment will serve only as a feedback to schools. Such rhetoric however, is one thing; what he will try to do may be another. The experience with already introduced upper secondary leaving examination taught that the reality is often different from JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 55 art iCleS the rhetoric (even though the ministry promised not to present league tables of secondary schools, that is what actually has happened). The New Maturita Test and Its Legacy The ‘New Maturita’ assessment has a longer history than the 5th and 9th grades tests, and since it was inally administered in 2011, there is experience, albeit short, in the use of results and quality of the tests. But irst some history: the Old Maturita dates back to communist times and until recently was regulated, with amendments, by the Education Act of 1984. The Maturita examination and its content was the exclusive responsibility of the principal of each high school. The general guidelines provided in the Education Act speciied, that in the most prestigious schools (gymnasium – general academic stream – attended only by approx. 20% of student population) the Maturita will be composed of two obligatory subjects (Czech language and literature, and a foreign language) plus two optional subjects (list of subjects from which the choice was made also by the principles of the schools). At the secondary technical and vocational schools the obligatory parts of the examination included only the Czech language and literature, then one optional subject provided by school, and inally a theoretical and practical assessment from one of the specialized subjects related to technical or vocational orientation of the study program. The former, and typical, form of the Maturita was an oral examination in front of the board of examiners (school teachers). Usually one part of the Czech language examination was the essay test, written on one of the four proposed topics, and scored by the teachers of the school. Maturita in mathematics at some gymnasia could use subject-matter tests prepared and scored by mathematics teachers in the school. Hence it is clear that the content of the Maturita differed markedly from type of the school (gymnasium vs. technical or vocational school/ study program) and also between individual schools (e.g. different gymnasia). Even though passing the Maturita is a sine qua non for applying to a university, the results of the Maturita, though one of the criteria for admission to higher education, have very little weight and practically no impact on admission decisions. Instead, universities develop their own admission tests (in some places complemented by interviews and other assessments) or use the tests of the private provider Scio (e.g., two of seventeen faculties at Charles University in Prague make use of the Scio tests; other faculties prepare their own admission tests). The Scio company offers subject matter tests in social sciences, mathematics, science and foreign language (English 56 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... and German) and scholastic aptitude tests. In the 2009 – 2010 academic year there were 40,000 applicants sitting for 100,000 Scio examinations. Proposals for reforming the ‘Maturita’ date back to the mid-1990s and are also associated with the OECD review of Czech education policy. OECD reviewers (OECD, 1996, p. 132) pointed pointed out that for the ‘Old Maturita’ the failure rate was 1% (much lower than in other OECD countries), results were not comparable across schools, they were an inadequate measures of student performance, and that the results were of little use in admission to higher education. In 1996 the report stated that gradually, the view is gaining ground in the central administration and in universities, that something must be done. Proposals for a new organization of the examination differ very widely. A national examination of whatever kind would probably be unacceptable in the present political context, in part because of the mistrust of interference from central authorities in the educational process. There is also fear from the educational community that a centrally set examination would negatively affect teachers’ motivation to be innovative and that it would lead to ‘teaching to the test. (OECD, 1996, p. 132) In addition, however, it was asserted that universities were in favor of a more standardized Maturita, in order to use its results. It was stressed by reviewers that central actions in the 1990s and particularly national assessment proposals were very sensitive and delicate issues, particularly in postCommunist countries where central control was often too strict and widely misused. The reforms in 1990s emphasized decentralization, more autonomy to schools, freeing up the curriculum frameworks and giving teachers more freedom. In this context, OECD reviewers suggested that external part of the new Maturita should not be imposed on schools, but be offered on a voluntary basis. OECD reviewers also recognized that the three different types of uppersecondary education (general – gymnasia, technical and vocational) are of varying quality with different student cohorts based mainly on the social background on the students (high SES students in gymnasium academic track and lowest SES students in vocational schools). The report said that the Maturita has to satisfy various needs, those of higher education and those of the labor market… In the opinion of the review team, only a Maturita comprising several variants, each with a different mix of disciplines, some more academically-oriented, JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 57 art iCleS some more focused on labor-market competencies, can meet this different requirements. (ibid) In early 1990’s this division made sense since only about one third of graduates from upper-secondary level schools transferred to higher education, and the majority of those were students from gymnasia. Now, however, with 55% of high school graduates applying to university, the situation has changed. Nevertheless, large differences in social composition of students within three different tracks remain the same and constitute a barrier to introducing one type of assessment for all. OECD examiners therefore stated that “differentiating the Maturita according to courses taken during secondary education would be just as important as progress towards comparability across schools” (OECD, 1996, p. 133). These insights turned into Recommendation No. 4, mentioned earlier, which emphasized the need for standardizing as well as differentiating the secondary school leaving examination. Examiners proposed a new model to address three deiciencies of the old form: 1st) results of Maturita are not comparable across schools; 2nd) Maturita do not permit an assessment of the quality of secondary education; 3rd) Maturita is of little use for universities in their admissions. OECD reviewers formulated the following proposals for new Maturita ...reform should follow three key principles. Firstly, the new Maturita should consist of a combination of school-based assessment of achievement and externally-developed and universally applied common examination, the latter in order to allow and promote comparability internally and externally. Secondly, the new Maturita should involve the state, either at central or regional level, to a greater extent than is presently the case, so that the Maturita examination becomes an effective means of quality control for secondary education. Thirdly, the new Maturita should provide useful information about the quality and content of student achievement to university faculties and higher education institutions. It is recommended, therefore, that the Maturita be divided into two parts, one deined at the school level and another standardized at the regional or country level in each of the broad curriculum areas of secondary general and technical education. (1996, p. 185) Just as in the case of 5th and 9th grade assessments, the OECD review provided an elaborate discussion of purposes and format of the new Maturita, compared to that of the White Paper (2001). The White paper speciied only 58 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... that the New Maturita have a common, standardized, external part, organized by the state that provides comparable results among schools and students, and simpliies the transition to the universities. The White Paper (MoEYS, 2001, p. 97) added a new characteristic, which was not part of the OECD recommendation – the state administered common part of Maturita shall have two levels of dificulty. This ‘innovation’ created serious technical problems and complexities. Because of the large differences in types of students and curriculum coverage in the three different tracks (gymnasia, technical and vocational) the common part would be either too dificult for the majority of the students not attending gymnasia, or would cover just minimum standards that will not enable the universities to use the results of the New Maturita for selection purposes. Two levels of dificulty were supposed to be the solution to meet the two goals for new Maturita. In 1997, pilot tests for the New Maturita were administered by the ministerial Institute for Information in Education, and then in 2006 when the Centre for Evaluation of Educational Achievement (CERMAT) was founded, the preparation moved there. Following the OECD recommendations schools participated voluntarily in pilot testing and every second secondary school took part in these trials. Even though New Maturita was piloted in 1997, it was not codiied until 2004 when the new Education Act (irst Education Act in post-Communist period replacing the Education Act of 1984) was approved. The New Maturita was codiied then and was supposed to come into legal force during the 2007-2008 academic year. Protests of high school graduates, who questioned the fairness of assessment saying the evaluation standards were not known in time and they had no opportunity to learn the content, forced the parliament to postpone implementation from 2008 to 2010 (it was also political issue, since new elections were approaching and well-organized upper secondary graduates and their parents constituted a large part of electorate). The two biggest competing parties – Social Democrats and conservative Civic Democratic Party- were both involved with the new Maturita. It became a political issue for at least two reasons: 1st) both main parties blamed the other that the Maturita examination was not prepared in time and could not be implemented as originally planned; 2nd) the costs of pilots were unprecedentedly high and grew geometrically. In 2009, another postponement was approved, with a new target date in 2011. The model for new Maturita was ever changing and several amendments to Education Act of 2004 were approved, specifying various details of this new examination. One of the most signiicant changes approved in 2008 consisted of introducing two levels of dificulty, as was proposed in White Paper. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 59 art iCleS After years of trials new Maturita was implemented in 2011. It contained two parts – a common, state-organized and administered part and proile part that was the responsibility of each school. We deal in this text only with the state-administered standardized part of assessment, so we will not describe the varying part of the new Maturita model the content of which is determined by principle of each school. In 2011 two subjects were obligatory: 1st Czech language and literature, and 2nd either foreign language or math. Students could choose an examination of lower or higher dificulty. The Czech language exam is composed of a didactic test, an essay test and oral exam (prepared centrally, but administered and assessed according to speciied criteria by school teachers). Students must pass both examinations. Students may choose optional examinations from subjects like biology, physics, civics, history, etc. In 2011 students could choose an obligatory lower level of dificulty in Czech language and, as one of the optional examinations, a higher level of dificulty in the same subject (Czech language). The examinations offered as optional subjects were only at the higher level of dificulty aimed at being used by universities for admissions purposes. The full model, supposed to be introduced in 2012, shall consist of three obligatory exams: 1st Czech language, 2nd foreign language and 3rd one of the following three subjects: mathematics, civics/social studies, or information technology. However, this model was, by another amendment, postponed till 2013. Experiences with irst year of new Maturita Assessment experts, as well as student groups, said the tests were of inferior quality. Also, students made pictures of the assessment sheets and published the tests on the internet. CERMAT, instead of publishing sample items themselves, warned the students that they broke the authors’ law and there might be legal consequences for those who have made the tests public. The lower dificulty Czech language test was highly criticized. A review of this test by university experts and teachers claimed that one quarter of the test items were lawed. CERMAT made the tests available after they appeared on the internet. But, they never published a report of the psychometric properties of the tests or the characteristics of individual items. Nor have they responded to the critical reviews. The lack of evidence about the quality of the assessments and failure to report the test characteristics produced scepticism about whether the published results were valid and reliable. The mere assertion of reliable and valid measures was not enough. 60 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... How the results were used received additional criticism. Critics argued that, though very expensive, the endeavor brought no new information at system level. Critics knew ahead of time the best results would be in the highest track, gymnasium, and the most problematic ones would be in vocational track, where in some (rather small) schools more than 70% of students did not pass. This result relects mainly the nature of the student cohorts and produces no new information for system improvement. A main fear of both schools and educational experts was that publishing school raw scores in league tables would be interpreted by general public as relecting the quality of the school, rather than the characteristics of the student population. The Ministry of Education said it would not happen. Nevertheless the Ministry did publish league tables of the best schools – presenting 10 best schools within each of the three tracks and also by 14 regions, the three best schools. This produced further demands from the media and representatives of the regions for additional comparisons between schools. They requested the data and produced full league tables including every school in the region and its results. CERMAT never explained how they produced the score for the school quality, when students were taking different exams, and two varying levels of dificulty, but also individual subject-matter tests with varying dificulty (the cut-off score for Czech Language was at 44% of correct answers and for mathematics at 33%). One wonders, what one score for each school actually means, and how it was computed? The irst year of experience with newly introduced external state-administered part of the Maturita did not help to convince either education experts, or the general public, that it was a valuable exercise. Low transparency of the assessment and its questionable quality raises doubts if the whole and lengthy process was not a pointless exercise. Even the OECD examiners (Santiago et al., 2012, p. 10) stated that multiple purposes of the schoolleaving examinations raise some concerns” and they add following recommendation: National standardized tests (as well as school-leaving examinations) should be valid and reliable instruments, assess the breadth of learning objectives in the curriculum, and results should be used properly for their intended purposes... An independent working group with representatives from a range of sectors and organizations in education could be established to further debate the national test, monitor its implementation and conduct impact evaluations. (ibid, p. 17) Certainly this is a way forward. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 61 art iCleS A more Precise View of the Proposed Assessments As indicated earlier, the Czech Republic’s school system is both highly differentiated and highly decentralized. It is highly differentiated in the sense that there are both different types of schools and special schools for different types of students. It is highly decentralized because, although a substantial amount of funding comes from the central government, principals and head teachers are responsible for a wide array of factors related to how the school operates and how it responds to initiatives from more central forces. Although there is a national framework that schools must follow, how they approach the framework is not proscribed. Hence, there is a good deal of autonomy for a school and substantial diversity between schools. With such diversity comes a bevy of opportunities to assess students. Entrance examinations, for example, are used for students to move between each of the levels of schooling and, even under some circumstances, for entry to compulsory schooling. There are school leaving examinations and exit certiicates issued by different types of secondary schools. In general, gymnasia and technical schools have school leaving examinations; vocational schools give certiicates. Until very recently assessments at all levels have relied heavily on oral examinations enhanced with additional written questions. The questions are formulated by the principal and teachers within each school. The variety of contents and lack of standardization is evident. In fact, universities stopped using the exit examinations because they were not comparable across schools and hence not comparable for students. Of course, there may be positive attributes of local testing that are being ignored. Although schools use standardized tests for instructional purposes and to provide achievement information, movement between school types and exits from secondary schools are based on these, what could be termed, informal assessment methods. Uniform standardized testing in these contexts was and remains to large extent rare. CERMAT That is beginning to change. The Center for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (CERMAT), instituted in 1999 and now a unit within the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, was designed primarily to produce a standard secondary leaving examination (nová maturita). In 2004, with a new education law, its charge was broadened to produce 5th and 9th grade tests in the Czech language, mathematics, an aptitude test, and study skills. By 2007 those tests were formally administered nationally with 62 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... schools participating on a voluntary basis. In 2007, almost 60,000 students in the cohort participated in the grade 5 assessment. CERMAT followed a highly structured approach to develop an assessment, including reporting results for students and schools. In addition it provides a portal to provide information for a variety of audiences and assistance to schools as they learned more and participated in the assessment. For the 9th grade assessment that included a measure of general skills, or aptitude, as well as the Czech language and mathematics, it gathered information from about 70,000 students in about 1600 schools. The participation rate for schools was about 60%. It is interesting that the implementation of the 5th and 9th grade assessments moved so much more quickly than that of the high school leaving examination, one main target of our paper. CERMAT was given the charge to develop the high school leaving assessment in 1999 and began tryouts as earlier as 2002. Yet it was not until the fall of 2011 that it was oficially administered. However the new development in grade 5 and 9 assessments is that responsibility for its implementation was moved from CERMAT to the Czech School Inspectorate (CSI) that shall develop and administer the test. CSI, however, plans to subcontract other companies to prepare the tests. Before getting to the saga of the leaving examination, it seems important to provide information about its structure, how it has been constructed, and the kind of information that is available about it. Secondary school leaving examinations may have varied designs and do not necessarily function in the same way (Ekstein & Noah, 1989; Robitaille, 1997). In order to make sense, therefore, of the Czech approach to the assessment, it is necessary to describe its characteristics and how CERMAT approached its task. For all the years of trying to legitimate the examination much other work peripheral to the actual examination was completed. One way to describe the various features of a large-scale assessment is found in Table 1 from Kifer (2001). It shows the many dimensions that must be considered when constructing, conducting and reporting results of something like the school leaving examinations. By using this table, one can begin to draw inferences about decisions made by CERMAT as it responded to a number of these issues when constructing the assessment. It also serves the purpose of locating disputed areas of the assessment when we begin to discuss factors that apparently led to the decade long hiatus of the national implementation of the test. Further, it serves as background to a discussion of side effects or unintended consequences. As Scriven (1993) has noted in evaluation of programs „side effects often are the main event.“ JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 63 art iCleS Table 1 The assessment grid Assessment Grid Purposes/  Achievement  Accountability  Instruction Functions:  Monitor  Certify  Evaluate  Compare  Formative  Summative Measures:  Content  Other  One  More than one Targets: Standards:  Student  Class/Teacher  School  Elementary  Middle  Secondary  Frameworks  Content  Proiciency  Moderate  Low  District/State/Nation  OTL  Assessment Stakes:  High  Rewards  Sanctions Outcomes:  Status  Growth/Change  Cohort  Longitudinal Assessments:  Traditional  Performance  Multiple Choice  Constructed Response  Norm Referenced  Performance Events  Writing on Demand  Portfolio Technology  Calculators Support:  Students  Teachers  Tutoring  Summer School  Other  Staff Development Reporting: Word Processors  Students/Parents  Class/Teacher  Adaptive  Devices  Staff  School Source: KIPER, 2001 64  Other JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2  Public lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... In order to understand better the proposed high school leaving examination, we apply the grid to the structure of the proposed assessment. Later in the paper we will discuss how the structure of the assessment may or may not meet the needs of the goals of the assessment. Purpose/Function The irst and most important dimension of the assessment is determining its purpose. Good tests can be powerful tools but it is unusual to ind they cannot do more than one thing well. CERMAT decided to measure the achievements of students to certify their mastery of parts of the secondary curriculum. According to CERMAT’s director they are not interested in making inferences about schools based on the aggregate achievements of the students. That is, they want their assessment to measure achievements not be a source for accountability. Great Britain, for instance, produces “league tables” by aggregating students’ scores to compare schools. CERMAT’s director does not want that and emphasizes the purpose of the leaving examination is ascertain what students know not to judge schools. That is, of course, a controversial issue that could conlict with the Minister of Education’s views. Measures A large scale assessment could have one measurement or many. It could include affective measures as well as cognitive ones. It could assess many different areas but form a composite score. It could score examinations independently or create subtests and sum those. The school leaving examination is clear about what will be measured and how. There are categories for the measures within the assessments. The irst distinguishes between those tests that are compulsory and those that are optional. Presently the compulsory set includes Czech language and literature and either mathematics or a foreign language. In 2013 both mathematics and foreign language will be compulsory. The optional list includes an array of typical secondary school subjects; e.g., physics, biology, art. The second distinction is based on the dificulty of the assessment. A student may choose either a basic assessment or a more advanced one. It is assumed that success on the more dificult test represents a higher degree of mastery of the content and skills taught in secondary schools. Targets Assessments might measure students solely to determine how well they perform in a certain area. But, they might also use the student scores to JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 65 art iCleS make judgments about effectiveness of teachers or the relative status of schools. The choice of targets ties into the purpose of the assessment. Often aggregate student scores are used as accountability measures for teachers and schools. As indicated earlier the targets of the assessments are students and there is a dispute about using results for any other purpose. Although the percent of students who are entering some form of tertiary education is increasing, the targets are pupils within the gymnasia and technical schools. That is, there has been no expansion of school types offering the leaving examination. Standards Standards are ubiquitous. There are standards that deine content outcomes. There are frameworks for assessments and assessment standards. There are proiciency standards that are used to determine whether or not an examinee has “passed.” There are Opportunity to Learn (OTL) standards to ensure that tests contain content that examinees have been exposed to. The Czech Republic like other OECD countries and systems is intimately involved in the standards movement. Those content standards lead to test frameworks upon which the examination is based. Although it appears that the tests are carefully constructed, there is no formal statement of assessment standards serving as a basis for test construction. Also, although it is assumed that the tests cover content taught in the schools, there are no formal OTL standards. Although it would not be intended, the tests may favor some schools and their curricula over others. Without OTL standards for schools, the representativeness of the assessment is open to questions on a fairness dimension. For the compulsory tests, there are established cut-points that determine a passing score. The implication is that there are, therefore, proiciency standards. We could ind no information about how the cut-points were determined, that is, what method was used to establish them. That makes it dificult to determine whether they have consistent scoring and methods for determining passing scores or whether they are following agreed upon methods for creating proiciency standards. Since the optional assessments are constructed locally, it is dificult to know what, if any, standards are being applied there. Stakes The stakes or consequences associated with testing are complex things. What is very consequential for one examinee may be of little perceived impor66 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... tance to another. The consequences for this assessment, however, are welldeined. The irst is actually obtaining the stamp of approval. The second is being admitted to a university. The stakes are high for students but, as indicated earlier, not for teachers or for schools. Passing the leaving examination is opening the door to higher education. There are opportunities to repeat an examination but such support is not emphasized (This is in contrast to some high school leaving examinations in the United States where students may take them as early as their second year in high school and can repeat them often in subsequent years). There are also incentives to take the more dificult of the compulsory examinations and to take a greater number of optional tests. The more, the better, in terms of acceptance to university since these results of these assessments play a major role in admission to a number of universities in the Czech Republic. Outcomes One way to distinguish among outcomes in assessments is to ask what is being measured. For instance, if an assessment is given once, then one is measuring the status of the examinees – how much do they know and how does one describe the performance at that one time. If, however, one has a prior comparable measurement, it is possible to estimate how much an examinee has learned or grown. Growth or change measures emphasized years ago, were almost forgotten, but now are having a renaissance in largescale assessments. Such measures are often associated with accountability policies. This examination represents the culmination of learning during a student’s secondary education. It is a status examination (what does the student now know) not a growth or change measure (how much did the student learn in a given time period). There are no comparisons made from cohort to cohort and no growth or change measures available. Assessments There are a variety of types of questions used in large-scale assessments. They can be multiple-choice items, performance events, open-ended items (constructed response items), oral examinations or portfolios. The type of assessment should be related to what are considered to be the desired outcomes. Multiple-choice questions, for example, are very eficient ways to assess a broad spectrum of information. They are not so powerful in determining how an examinee reasons or gives justiications for responses. Essay JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 67 art iCleS questions are very good ways to assess both knowledge and reasoning but present problems of agreement among raters about the quality of the essay. Such lack of agreement is an issue in oral examinations as well. The type of assessment in the Czech high school leaving examination varies from test to test. The compulsory mathematics examination, for example, has about ½ open-ended or constructed response items and about ½ multiple choice items. The Czech language examination contains a multiple choice portion, a written examination and an oral examination. The type of assessment for the optional parts is allowed to vary. Most schools, it appears, continue the tradition of having mainly oral examinations, but schools may and do have written portions, too. Technology Technology has huge effects on an assessment. Obviously using a calculator on a mathematics test can change the nature of the test. The same is true of using a computer and word processing software for an essay examination. Also, technology can be adaptive: students with various disabilities may be given accommodations on the test. An example would be a visually impaired student having a human reader or screen reader to read the examination for him or her. Calculators are not allowed on the mathematics test. But there are other accommodations as part of the assessment. The accommodations range from giving more time to complete the examination to providing a visually impaired student with an aid, if necessary, to read the examination. Here, as in other parts of the assessment, CERMAT is operating within a consensus of good assessment. There may be calls for more and more accommodations or as technology improves a portion of the assessment could be computerized. Such changes will produce questions of comparability across time and fairness of the examination. Support A new and different assessment carries with it a need to provide information about the assessment and support and training for those involved in the assessment. Substantial amounts of information about all aspects of the assessment are found in a dedicated and excellent website: www.novamaturita.cz . There one can ind descriptions of the new assessment targeted on students and parents, universities and the media. Several sections are devoted to how teachers and examiners have been trained. Careful scrutiny of the website produces a broad and deep understanding 68 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... of the assessment and the preparations taken to insure its usefulness. One thing that is missing in the support category is providing additional assistance to students who do not pass one or more parts of the assessment. It appears as though a student may retake one part of any examination, but there also appears to be no formal mechanism to provide additional support – tutoring, practice examinations – for that student. Reporting There a number of audiences for results of an assessment. In addition, to students, teachers and schools, there are the public and in this case divided governments. Each of the audiences wants the information for different purposes and each can inluence how an assessment changes over time. CERMAT provides information for each of these audiences. That includes score reports for students and schools, information for the media and examples of the assessment. Questions or items on the assessment are posted on the CERMAT website and information about scoring, and levels of proiciency are also evident. It is necessary to have planned carefully what information is provided and how it is provided. Choosing released items carefully can moot such criticisms. The 5th and 9th grade tests according to the grid Rather than apply each dimension of the grid to each dimension of the 5th and 9th grade tests, we, here, shall highlight the major features of those assessments. Purposes and Functions Here as indicated earlier is a source of contention that has not been resolved. Is the assessment to be of what students know and can do and the results used to provide feedback to teachers and schools; or, is it to provide a basis for selection into the next level of schooling? If it is the latter, it is subject to one criticism of the use of test scores. One test score should never be used alone to make an important educational decision. Targets The issue of which targets is related to that described above. Both students and schools are targeted by these assessments. The issue is whether JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 69 art iCleS one assessment can produce precise scores for students and adequate measures of school effectiveness. We think not. Assessments These tests apparently are going to be computer administered. That means that scores can be calculated quickly and results be available in close enough proximity to the assessment that they can be used for formative purposes. The downside is that they will be only multiple-choice tests. This, of course, limits what skills can be measured well. Interpretation In the irst two sections of this paper, we described the nature of the assessment issues and the context in which they occur in the Czech Republic. In this section, we are going to comment on those issues. Our comments deal with the assessment in general, the 5th and 9th grade initiatives, and then the high school leaving examination. The Assessment Initiatives in General Clarity of purpose Successful large, wide-spread state or national assessments depend on a number of crucial attributes. There must be clarity in terms of the purpose of the assessments. Are they to focus on instruction and achievement or accountability? Will they be used for future educational decisions (selection to higher levels of schooling) or will they certify a level of achievement? Will they be used to inform or to judge? So far the Czech assessment project has been marked by a lack of clarity or agreement about the purposes of the assessment. This is particularly true of the 5th and 9th grade assessments where it is not clear how the results of the assessments will be used. Of particular importance is whether the results of the assessment will be used exclusively for formative purposes, feedback to the schools and teachers about what is being done well and not so well on this small number of content areas. Or, will these, arguably narrow, assessment results be used to track students into different types of schools. Assessments can fulill the irst purpose easily. For successful placement of students, additional information about academic performance and attitudes is necessary. 70 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Classiication accuracy Each of the assessments, in one manner or another, classiies students and/or schools. Although there is available information about the desirability of having reliable measures, we could ind no discussion of the accuracy of classifying students. For example, how will the decision be made about whether a student passes the high school leaving examination and how many mistakes of what kind will be made? Reliability of test scores or acceptable classiication accuracy is a result of the amount of error in the measurements. Note neither notion deals with the larger conceptual question of the desirability of the assessment. It is based on assuming that what is being done is defensible in broader ways. These are the right tests at the right time! In terms of assessment programs and accountability systems that have proiciency standards (i.e. cut-points to make a go/no go decision about a test score), the right technical questions have to do with how good (accurate) are the classiication decisions, not how reliable are the tests, even though the two ideas are obviously linked. Although a number of researchers have asked that kind of question, there is no consensus about what methods are appropriate to answer it. There are, however, strong approaches in a technical sense that are done to address such questions (Young & Yoon, 1998; Rogosa, 1999). One study in the United States (Hoffman & Wise 2003) reported that about 2/3 of the school classiication decisions, whether or not schools met their goals, were correct ones. In an accountability arena where schools can be rewarded or punished according to their scores, the question is whether that level of classiication accuracy is suficient. In the Czech context, the question is how large are the errors when forming a “league table.” Classiication accuracy is played out through the ranking systems. If the league tables lead to consequences (rewards or sanctions) other than public knowledge of a schools program, classiication accuracy becomes even more crucial and becomes an issue that must be addressed in the construction of the assessments. In the present Czech context, classifying student performance accurately is more important than accurately classifying schools. Each of the assessments leads to a yes/no decision and, therefore, issues of proper classiication. In a second study, Huffman, Thacker and Wise (2003) looked at the accuracy of student classiications. Depending on the grade level and content area somewhere between 60 and 82 percent of students were properly classiied. In this study the lower grades and reading were the areas where classiication was highest. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 71 art iCleS It is important to note that a estimated classiication rate of 82 percent means a large number of students are misclassiied. If 50,000 students are tested and the classiication rate is 82 percent, there will be 9000 students with incorrect labels. Figure 1, a dot plot, shows the number of misclassiications on cohorts of about 50,000 each. It is interesting to note that the size of the cohort in this study was about the same as the size of the cohort that took the Czech Republic’s 5th grade assessment in 2008. So the results here are particularly appropriate. 0 10000 20000 Number of Misclassifications Figure 1: Student Misclassiications 2001-2002 Each dot on the plot represents an estimate of the number of misclassiied students by subject area and grade level. For example, the dot furthest left on the scale is about 7000, the number of students who were misclassiied by the 2001 11th grade Social Science test. The whole dot plot contains, then, an estimate of the number of students for each of the subject area grade level combinations for the year 2001 and 2002 – the percent upon which the numbers are based are in Table 2. We wish to make three general points about the above data display. First, these results show the limits of any educational test. These results are comparable to those of other studies of this type. The problem is clear: tests produce fallible measurements and fallible measures produce classiication errors. A mandatory high school leaving examination with a cut-point attached to it, and misclassiications of the magnitude found here, could be disastrous. As has been shown in the United States, there are huge controversies when erroneously scoring test items prohibits students from meeting graduation requirements which, in fact, they have met if the test were scored properly. Third, there needs to be a way to communicate these results to various educational audiences to help them understand better what assessments can and cannot do. Persons should know that measurement error is an essential component of any assessment and that scores should be interpreted with that in mind. The general research issue here is obvious, highly technical in some 72 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... aspects and extraordinarily important: What can be done to improve the precision of the measuring instruments used in the Czech Republic for areas that will be part of a high stakes accountability system? There are a number of questions related to that general one. Are school classiication errors different depending on the kind (size, location, student composition, level) of school? Are student classiication errors related to the background characteristics of students or the kinds of schools they attend? Each of these questions is related to the broader issues of equal opportunities for schooling, the possibilities for social mobility, and, in general, fairness. Side Effects: The Main Event For high stakes testing and accountability systems, just like other educational interventions, side-effects or unintended consequences are often the main issues. Among the negative side-effects are, for example, narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, consuming too much instructional time, intimidating teachers, and encouraging cheating. Some positive ones include focusing attention on standards, responding positively to criticism of schools and using test results as a means to get more resources for schools. There remains research to be done to document or dismiss these criticisms and to understand better the broad implications of them regardless of whether the allegations are true or false. We should generate a richer research literature to document all effects, intended and unintended consequences, positive and negative, of high stakes tests and accountability systems. One piece that is missing in the Czech Republic plans is a systematic research agenda to understand better the consequences of its assessments. In the United States, assessments are a lightning rod of the reform. It is arguable that those who wished to disrupt reform efforts found the high stakes assessment an easy target. How does one think about and explain these various effects? More important, however, is how the assessments in Czech Republic may change the locus of control for education. The highly de-centralized Czech system is likely to change with the introduction of national tests. One would expect the central government through the Ministry of Education to exert more inluence on the schools as the assessments become institutionalized. The testing tail is a powerful way to wag school dogs. Finally it remains the case that the best information a parent can receive about the performance of their child is from the child’s teacher. A score on a national assessment or nationally-normed test cannot begin to provide the depth and breadth of information that a visit to the child’s teacher can give. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 73 art iCleS The 5th and 9th Grade Tests It appears that these assessments are planned to do two things: 1) to produce scores for students to determine where they will be placed for subsequent education; and, 2) to judge the adequacy of the schools. Those demands cannot be met with one assessment. Tests are narrow; schools are broad. A measure, for example, that estimates a student’s mathematics proiciency samples but a very small part of a school’s curriculum and even smaller part of what schools do. An assessment that is broad enough to sample well the curriculum may not be adequate to provide good scores for students. Other large-scale assessments use a technique called item sampling when attempting to get a good measure at the school level. In that scheme, students receive different tests that, in the aggregate, represent broader samples of the content of a school’s curriculum. A second problem related to making determinations about schools is that a limited number of content areas are to be assessed. Schools teach more than mathematics and the Czech language. If one is to describe how well a school does in terms of what tests can measure, then all content areas should be sampled. Trying to do that, and to do it well, may be prohibitively expensive. When high-stakes are associated with school outcomes, a number of negative side-effects accrue. As mentioned earlier, a set of common criticisms of high stakes assessments includes that their use leads to narrowing the curriculum both in terms of what subjects are emphasized and what in a subject area is taught (Ketter & Pool, 2001), teaching to the test (Shephard, 1989), and that too much time is spent preparing speciically for tests (Shephard & Dougherty, 1991; Herman & Golan, 1993). The net result is that higher scores may be an artifact: students can answer more test questions correctly but do not have any additional mastery of subject matter. Are there other measures that can be used to validate the score increases that are the inevitable result of high stakes testing? There is probably more research in the United States on this issue than in other countries. In the United States scores from the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT), the American College Testing Program (ACT), and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) often are used as criteria to legitimize gains on state assessments. Most such comparisons are either lawed, show that state score gains are not replicated in other test settings, or both (Linn & Baker, 1999, 2000, 2002; Koretz & Baron, 1998). In fact, Amrein & Berliner (2000a, 2000b, 2000c) argue that states with high stakes testing programs have on the average lower scores on SAT, ACT and NAEP. 74 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... There is a logic to indings that results from other tests do not conirm inding from indings from more local high-stakes tests. To do well in those situations, schools must emphasize the content and skills that are sampled by the state-wide assessments. In theory both the curriculum and the tests are built to relect the same standards. There is no such alignment with the SAT and ACT which were designed for a different purpose, to predict grades in college not to relect a particular curriculum. In addition most states do not require students to take college entrance tests so it is not clear what kind of sample is represented by those who do take the test. NAEP purposely attempts to assess content that is not represented in any one particular curriculum. Hence, NAEP scores should be related to assessment outcomes only to the extent that the questions or items are sampling a common curricular domain. The implications for the Czech assessments are clear: one important task is to deine ways to establish the legitimacy of the testing. If the scores are just a relection of a very narrowly tailored curricula experiences for students and do not provide wider interpretations, then any kind of ranking is suspect. The validity, usefulness, goodness, of the score interpretations are essential. The High School Leaving Examination The structure of the proposed policy for the high school leaving examination presents two major technical issues. The irst is what is meant and how might one deal with assessments at two levels of dificulty. The second is how to score the leaving examination if it is composed of both a national piece and voluntary local assessments. Psychometricians know how to create tests that are more or less dificult. They put more dificult individual questions on the more dificult tests. But dificult items may be only that. Take a simple example: To know whether a student can divide two numbers, one could ask the student to divide 20 by 5 or 10.7836 by 1022.432. Clearly the second question is more dificult. But, does successfully answering the latter question give more information about a student’s mathematics achievement? Suppose the easy division were placed on the lowest level of dificulty test and the harder division question were place on the highest level. If a student taking the highest level test missed the question, but could answer the easy question, what does it say about that person’s achievement. Another way to make a question dificult is to write a question in a content area that some but not all students are exposed to. In mathematics it might be an easy question from a calculus course. If a student had taken JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 75 art iCleS the course, the question might be easy. For a student who has not taken the course, the question is likely to look like a foreign language. The general point is that it is not clear what inferences can be drawn from test score differences that depend on the construction of the test. Try-outs and transparency are a necessity! CERMAT must be much more open about how these tests are constructed and the results of the try-outs. In this case, of particular interest are the deinition, construction and implementation of an assessment at two levels of dificulty. The second issue is how to deal with scores that are deined by varied test components – the required and optional ones. In deciding how to aggregate a combination of scores, there are two general approaches. One is labeled compensatory; the other conjunctive. A compensatory approach creates a total score upon which to base the pass/fail decision. By using a total score, a high score on one test can overcome a low score on another test. The compensatory model is most often used when each student is measured on the same components. That is not the case for the Czech assessment where students may have different components, and some of the components are local. So, it would appear that a conjunctive model will probably be used. A conjunctive model means that in order to pass the assessment, the student must pass each of the components. That may solve one problem of differing numbers of components but it creates another. Given patterns where a student may fail the required portion of the assessment but pass all of the optional ones or pass the required and fail an optional one, what should be the decision rule for passing or failing the assessment? These issues must be addressed in order to give the assessment credibility. Some Final Thoughts Amidst our discussion of the chronology, politics and structure of the new assessments runs another set of issues that need to be addressed. According to the experts, the Czech Republic had one of the highest correlations between the background characteristics (fathers and mothers educations and occupations) of students and their performance on international assessments such as TIMSS and PISA. This suggests that equality of opportunities, social mobility, and issues of fairness are intertwined with what is assessed and what should be done with assessment results. This is particularly true if the early assessments, 5th and 9th grade, are used for the purpose of selecting those who will be placed in higher tracks or more select schools. Coming into play in these circumstances are the problems of using a single test score to make an important educational decision and the issue of substantial numbers of score misclassiications. In 76 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... addition, since those results will relect only responses to multiple-choice prompts and will be based on a small number of content areas, the scores are not generalizable. Students from higher social backgrounds will be favored in those settings with those measures. Rather than swooping in with a national test, a fairer approach would be to insure that each student is given ample opportunities to demonstrate their competencies. That would mean not only insuring equal access to the best learning opportunities but also the assessment of varied abilities with methods in addition to standardized tests. There is irony when it comes to the high school leaving examination. There is little doubt that results of a national test would provide score comparability now not available with local assessment methods. The local methods might, however, produce fairer outcomes and more social mobility. The argument is that local assessments, although less generalizable, are likely to produce better judgments of talent. If there are major differences between schools, it is possible for most students in one school to have higher national scores than most students in another school. Those scores will be inluenced by a number of variables including the fact that the higher scoring students come from higher social class settings. But, the higher scoring students on a standardized test may not be the most talented students. Because they are deined and conducted locally, the present local assessments are likely to identify the most talented students in the school, and do a better job than would be done with a one-shot national assessment. If that is the case, each school will have students who score at the highest levels and will be eligible for the best of further education. Given the environment, the student has excelled. There is no way the student can do better. That is, the local results may be both more representative but also be affected by a score ceiling. This notion plays out in the United States at the University of Texas. Rather than admit students with lower test scores to increase diversity among undergraduates, a policy that could be declared unconstitutional, the university put into place a policy that admitted students unconditionally if they are in the top 10% of their high school graduating class. Because Texas schools are so differentiated by ethnicity, the new policy produces an entering class very similar in its background characteristics to that which would be admitted under an afirmative action policy. Local decisions may be fairer decisions! Whether the consequences of the new assessments in the Czech Republic JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 77 art iCleS will produce more inequality is a question that should be investigated as the new assessments are phased into the system. There are, of course, other major questions that can be addressed within the context of the Czech educational system. Although OECD and other organizations push for a kind of testing Olympiad that seek to rank order what hypothetically is common to the varied participating systems, the Czech Republic, just as is true in other countries, has a history, a context, and a set of practices that are uniquely its. It is unlikely that any other OECD country began the 1990’s with a more decentralized educational system. As assessments are introduced, will they be less successfully implemented because of the history? Or, will the changes, once implemented, be endorsed by all the major policy players. The ramiications of a decentralized educational system, a supremely successful transition from Communist rule, competition among political parties for power and authority, provide a fascinating basis for a story of a changing educational system. We watch with great anticipation! R e fe r e n c e s Amrein, A.L. & Berliner, D.C. (2002a). High-stakes testing, uncertainty, and student learning Education Policy Analysis Archives. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http:// epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v10n18/ Amrein, A.L. & Berliner, D.C. (2002b). 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Standards and school dropouts: A national study of tests required for graduation. American Journal of Education, 98(1), 1 – 34. 78 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Čerych, L., Kotásek, J., Kovařovic, J. & Švecová, J. (2000). The Education reform process in the Czech Republic. In Strategies for Educational Reform: From Concept to Realisation. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing Chvál, M., Greger, D., Walterová, E. & Černý, K. (2009) Testování žáků na konci základní školy a státní maturita – aktuální otázky současné vzdělávací politiky. Orbis scholae, 3(3), 79-102. Clarke, M., Haney, W. & Madaus, G. (2000). High stakes testing and high school completion. The National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy, 1(3). Retrieved June, 20, 2012, from http://www.bc.edu/research/nbetpp/publications/ v1n3.html Clements, S. & Kifer, E. (2001). Talking back. Frankfort, KY: Long-Term Policy Research Center. Greger, D. & Walterová, E. (Eds.) (2012). Towards educational change: The Transformation of educational systems in post – communist countries. New York: Routledge. Eckstein, M.A. & Noah, H.J. (1989). Forms and functions of secondary – school – leaving examinations. Comparative Education Review, 33(3), 295-316. Haney, W. (2000). The myth of the Texas miracle in education. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8(41). Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/ v8n41/part1.htm Haertel, E. H. (1999). Validity arguments for high-stakes testing: In search of the evidence. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practices, 18(4), 5-9. Herman, J. L. & Golan, S. (1993). The effects of standardized testing on teaching and schools. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 12(4), 20 – 25, 41 – 42. Hoffman, R. G. (2002). The Accuracy of students’ novice, apprentice, proicient, and distinguished classiications for the 2001 and 2002 Kentucky Core Content Tests. Frankfort KY: Kentucky State Department of Education. Final Report, HumRRO FR-02-46 Hoffman, R. G., Thacker, A. A. & Wise, L. L. (2000). The Accuracy of students’ novice, apprentice, proicient, and distinguished classiications for the 2000 Kentucky Core Content Test. Frankfort KY: Kentucky State Department of Education. Final Report, HumRRO FR-03-06 Hoffman, R. G. & Wise, L.L. (2003). The accuracy of school classiications for the 2002 accountability cycle of the Kentucky commonwealth accountability testing system. Frankfort KY: Kentucky State Department of Education. Final Report, HumRRO FR-00-41 Hout, M. & Elliott, S.W. (2011). Incentives and test – based accountability in education. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Ketter, J. & Pool, J. (2001). Exploring the impact of a high-stakes direct writing assessment in two high school classrooms. Research in the Teaching of English, 35(3), 344 – 393. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 79 art iCleS Kifer, E. (1994). Development of the Kentucky instructional results information system (KIRIS). Guskey, T. (ed.) High stakes performance assessment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc. Kifer, E. (2001). Large-scale assessment: Dimensions, dilemmas and policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc. Koretz, D. M. & Barron, S. I. (1998). The validity of gains in scores on the Kentucky instructional results information system (KIRIS). Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation Kotásek, J. (2005). Vzdělávací politika a rozvoj školství v České republice po roce 1989 – 1. časť. Technológia vzdelávania, (3), 7–11. Kotásek, J., Greger, D. & Procházková, I. (2004). Demand for schooling in the Czech republic (Country Report for OECD). 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A policymaker’s guide to standards-led assessment. Denver CO: Educational Commission of the States and the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MoEYS) (2001). National Programme for the Development of Education in the Czech Republic. White Paper. Prague: ÚIV, Tauris. OECD. (1996). Reviews of national policies for education. Czech Republic. Paris: OECD. Orield, G. & Kornhaber, M. L. (Eds.) (2001). Raising standards or raising barriers?: Inequality and high-stakes testing in public education. Washington D.C.: The Century Foundation Press. Robitaille, D. (Ed.). (1997). National contexts for mathematics and science education. Paciic Educational Press, Vancouver: Canada Rogosa, D. (1999). How accurate are the STAR national percentile rank scores for individual students? – An interpretive guide. Retrieved June, 12, 2012, from http://wwwstat.stanford.edu/~rag/ed351/drrguide.pdf Santiago, P., Gilmore, A., Nusche, D. & Sammons, P. (2012). OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment in education: Czech Republic. Main Conclusions. Paris: OECD. 80 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 lost in translation: ever changing and competing purposes for national examinations... Scriven, M. (1993). Hard – Won lessons in program evaluation. New Directions for Program Evaluation, 58, 1-107. Shepard, L.A. (1989, April). Inlated test score gains: Is it old norms or teaching the test? effects of testing project. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini. jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED334204&ERICExtSearch_ SearchType_0=no&accno=ED334204 Shepard, L.A. & Dougherty, K. C. (1991). Effects of high-stakes testing on instruction. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue _0=ED337468&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED337468 ÚIV. (1999). Priority pro českou vzdělávací politiku. Praha: Tauris. Voke, H. (2002). What do we know about sanctions and rewards? Retrieved June, 12, 2012, from http://www.ascd.org/publications/newsletters/policy-priorities/oct02/ num31/toc.aspx Young, J. M. & Yoon, B. (1998). Estimating the consistency and accuracy of classiications in a standards-referenced assessment. Retrieved June, 12, 2012, from http://www.cse.ucla.edu/products/reports/TECH475.pdf Aut ho rs : david Greger, Ph.d. Charles University in Prague Faculty of education institute for research and development of education Myslíková 7 Praha 1 110 00 Czech republic email: david.greger@pedf.cuni.cz edward Kifer, Professor emeritus University of Kentucky College of education 510 McCubbing drive lexington KY 40503 USa email: skipk@uky.edu JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 81 art iCleS DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0004-x ARTICLES JoP 3 (1): 82 – 100 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing Michaela Minarechová Abstract: High-stakes testing is not a new phenomenon in education. It has become part of the education system in many countries. These tests affect the school systems, teachers, students, politicians and parents, whether that is in a positive or negative sense. High-stakes testing is associated with concepts such as a school’s accountability, funding and parental choice of school. The study aims to explain high-stakes testing, how it is created and developed in selected countries and look at the negative impacts of tests on various actors within this relationship. Keywords: High-stakes testing, negative impacts, students, teaching, learning, teachers, schools Introduction High-stakes testing usually involves national or state-wide standardized achievement tests (Marchant, 2004). At present, post-communist countries (for example Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania) are dealing with the introduction of high-stakes testing in education. These countries use national and international tests; for example, in Slovakia a national test called Monitor 9 is used in ninth grade, in the Czech Republic the irst highstakes testing is just beginning and will test pupils at level 5 and 9 this grade and in Romania the National Test was introduced in the school year 2008/2009 at the end of Grade 8 and also at the end of Grade 7 (Niculae & Doncu, 2007). In these countries (Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania) TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA international tests are also used. These postcommunist countries only pay attention to the positive issues relating to the introduction of tests and we therefore focus on the negative consequences of high-stakes testing in this article. High – Stakes Testing High-stakes testing consists of a series of tests in which the results eval82 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing uate schools, teachers and pupils. These tests “are increasingly seen as a means of raising academic standards, holding educators and students accountable for meeting those standards, and boosting public conidence in schools” (Heubert & Hauser, 1999). The consequences of these tests affect all those involved in the education process. Every state in America uses a high-stakes test to comply with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy. For example 25 states in America offer inancial rewards to successful schools or schools that have shown improved test results. Similarly, in 25 states the government has the power to close, reconstitute, or take control of failed institutions (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). We shall explore the impacts of highstakes testing on various factors associated with this theme. First, we will look at the mechanism of high-stakes testing and its application in selected countries. Creation and expansion of high-stakes testing in England High-stakes testing has been used for over twenty years in England. West (2010) explores the creation and development of high-stakes testing in England. High-stakes testing has been used since the introduction of the national curriculum and related assessment in 1988 during the reforms (Education Reform Act, an Act to amend the law relating to education, 29th July 1988). One of the key roles of testing was accountability. We might say that testing has become a tool of accountability for schools. The test results provide the means by which schools are responsible for the education they provide (West, 2010). Since 1980, education policy in England has been inluenced by both the neoliberal and neoconservative approaches of the ‘New Right’ (Chitty, 1989, in West, 2010). The two key facets of the education reforms included, on one hand, the introduction of choice and diversity and, on the other hand, the national curriculum and testing programme. Greater importance was placed on parental “choice” in the Education Act of 1980 (An Act to amend the law relating to education, 3rd April 1980). The consequence of the reforms (Education Reform Act) was an increased diversity in the education on offer, a change in school funding and disclosure of test results. Since 1992, the results of these tests have been presented in “school performance tables” and “league tables”. Diversity has been encouraged through the creation of 15 City Technology Colleges and the specialist schools programme. By 1996 this programme had covered 181 technology colleges and language colleges (Woods et al., 1998). The technology colleges were funded by the government and private sponsors (Walford, 1997, in West, 2010) and statemaintained schools may opt out of local government control to become socalled “grant-maintained” schools. These schools are able to obtain inan- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 83 art iCleS cial grants from government agencies for their students (Funding Agency for Schools) (Whitty & Edwards, 1998, in Petrová, 2011). Changes resulting from the laws of 1980 and 1988 created a quasi market environment in the area of education. According to West (2010), on the supply side, there is a “battle” between the schools over customers (the students) and on the demand side there are the parents themselves. The parents, who were initially considered only to be “passive” recipients of education, found themselves in the role of “partners and customers” (DES, 1991; DCSF, 2008, in Wilkins, 2012). They found themselves in the role of consumers. Using information obtained from school inspections, parents can assess and compare schools using the data on performance which is provided and controlled by the government. They may also use other complementary/supporting forms of evaluation of schools. For example school brochures and websites, parent and teacher exchanges and school visits (Wilkins, 2012). The policy of introducing a quasi-market environment led to schools devoting more time to preparing students for testing rather than improving the quality of education itself, because high-stakes testing has become the main external indicator of school quality (Petrová, 2011). The basic principles of this quasi-market environment were maintained by the Labour government in 1997. But the following year (i.e. in 1998) “the School Standards and Framework Act abolished grant-maintained status and from September 1999 schools were designed as one of three new types of school-community (formerly country), voluntary (aided or controlled) and foundation schools” (West & Pennell, 2002). As mentioned above, the national curriculum and programme of evaluation was introduced with the 1998 reform. The national curriculum is determined on the basis of Key Stages. The results of tests in mathematics, English and science (at age 11) are published as “school performance tables” and “league tables” (West, 2010). In England, in addition to these tests there are two public examinations: the General Certiicate of Secondary Education (GCSEs) and the General Certiicate of Education Advanced, (GCEA – A Levels). The irst set of these exams (GCSEs) is taken during the inal year of compulsory secondary school education. At this point, students can either leave education and obtain a job or go on to further studies. These exams represent the end of Key Stage 4 – for students aged around 16 years. The second set of public exams is the General Certiicate of Education Advanced, A Levels, which students usually take at the end of upper secondary education. As West (2010) notes, the tests undertaken at the age of 11 years and the public examinations sat between the ages of 16 and 18 years can be considered to be national high-stakes testing. These tests determine or help determine the futures of schools, pupils and teachers. A survey in 2005 84 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing (MORI, in West, 2010) found that 52% of parents agreed that a school’s position in the performance tables would affect their decision in choosing a school for their child/children and 27% of parents reported that they were inluenced by other factors such as the location of schools or the resources on offer. Creation and expansion of high-stakes testing in USA As in England, high-stakes testing has an established tradition in the United States. Since the 980s high-stakes testing in United States can be referred to as being so-called “full-value”. The introduction of high-stakes testing was preceded by decades of earlier attempts to improve education in the United States going back to 1960. Duncan and Stevens (2011) report on the origin and development of high-stakes testing in the United States. American educators were particularly interested in the question of improving the education system after the launch of Sputnik in 1957. This led to the adoption of an education law on elementary and secondary schools (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA) in 1965, and the subsequent development and introduction of minimum qualiication tests. In this case, almost no impact was found to be had on the teachers and schools involved. However, the tests have been criticized “for being relatively easy to pass since they were concerned with minimums to be learned: the achievement loor and not the achievement ceiling” (Nichols & Berliner, 2007). Title I of this Act was one of the most important pieces of legislation in US history. The law was adopted mainly in relation to federal aid for schools with high concentrations of poor children and it remained the largest source of federal support for public schools. This education law on elementary and secondary schools has had an unquantiiable impact on the expansion of standardized testing in American schools (Sacks, 1999, in Duncan & Stevens, 2011). In 1969 the NAEP project (National Assessment of Educational Progress) was launched, which represented a major step toward national assessment (Grant, 2004). The NAEP is a mandatory survey designed to measure what students know and can do. Student assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, social studies, civics, US history, geography, citizenship, literature, music, career development, art, and computer competence (Johnson, 1992). The irst national assessment was implemented in 1969 and students were assessed on science. Following the introduction of NAEP, “federal government support of national or largescale testing grew” (Grant, 2004). The limited academic approach of the next twenty years was published in the report of the Presidential Ofice in 1983 and was entitled A Nation JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 85 art iCleS at Risk. This report pushed the topic of the quality of education onto the national political agenda, since the data apparently suggested that American education was not of the quality found in other countries. It implied that foreign competition had overtaken US economic superiority, since schools in other countries were better, produced better and more educated workers than did the American ones. The results of the standardized tests were an indication of the true status of national education (Duncan & Stevens, 2011). This situation resulted in a “test boom” and state governors tested all students at the district level with the aim of raising and improving the economy (Fiske 2008, in Duncan & Stevens, 2011). In September 1989 a summit (The National Education Summit in Charlottesville, VA) was held which focused on how to improve America’s educational performance. The summit was attended by President George Bush and the nation’s governors and it led to the adoption of six National Education Goals to be reached by the year 2000. The result of this summit was a renewed federal commitment to improving educational achievement and increasing the nation’s commitment to students, teachers, and schools. The issue of standardized tests was dealt with by The National Assessment Government Board created by Congress in 1988. The result of their investigation was the passing of a law entitled No Child Left Behind in 2002 signed by George W. Bush. This Act has four main aspects: lexible and local control, consolidation of parental control, and a focus on the operation of the system (U.S. Department of Education 2007, in Lobascher, 2011). It introduced the legal requirement of annual testing for students. It was the irst time in US history that they began testing children in all public schools and the results were used as the unit of school assessment (Matthews, 2006, by Duncan & Stevens, 2011). The tests were referred to as “high” because they had the ability to change lives as a consequence of the implications associated with progress in test scores (Duncan & Stevens 2011). Creation and expansion of high-stakes testing in Australia The implementation of high-stakes testing in Australia occurred much later in comparison to the previous examples on creating and developing this mechanism in England and the United States. The American Educational Research Association has developed a scale that can be used to help decide whether tests are deined as high-stakes testing. High-stakes tests have serious consequences for students and teachers. The NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy) has become a high-stakes test as a result of the website MySchool. This website was created in 2008 when Australian education ministers agreed 86 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing to greater transparency and accountability in schools. MySchool provides details on student performance in NAPLAN and basic descriptive and demographic data (Caldwell, 2011). Lingard (2010, in Lobascher, 2011) referred to the introduction of highstakes testing in Australia as a global policy convergence. In addition, testing is considered to be a key part of the globalized educational discourse. The educational policy of Australia belatedly followed in the direction of the leaders, such as England and the United States (Lobascher, 2011). The current educational reforms under way in Australia borrow from those adopted in the United States and England. Lingard (2010) believes that this situation is a result of policy loans and the low of people between Australia and England, and to a lesser extent between Australia and the United States. However neither of these nations has education that could be considered best practice. The Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) criticized Australia’s move towards high-stakes testing and invited politicians not to repeat the mistakes that have occurred in England; Lobascher (2010) gives some examples: high-stakes testing produces ‘defensive pedagogies’; the effects of the English policy regime are negative: deprofessionalisation of teachers with reductive effects on schools, which means it is dificult for them to achieve their policy goals. In the United States policy (for example, the No Child Left Behind (2002 Act) has caused a decline in the quality of learning and teaching in US schools and a narrowing of the focus in schools serving disadvantaged students (Lobascher, 2010). The Impact of High – Stakes Testing upon Students High-stakes testing has already established a stable base in various countries. It has become a natural part of school life and for students it is part of everyday schooling. High-stakes testing has also become the subject of investigation amongst many researchers (West 2010; Redell 2010; Amrein & Berliner, 2002) who focus on the consequences of high-stakes testing in terms of accountability, teaching and learning. Teachers and students have learned to ind their way around this area since the implementation of highstakes testing in schools through the hidden curriculum. The school curriculum is generally understood to be an explicit, intentional, planned and formal training course with speciic objectives. However, besides the formal school curriculum students also come into contact with the so-called unwrit- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 87 art iCleS ten curriculum, which is characterized by its informality and “unplanned” nature as opposed to the school curriculum. This unwritten process of education is known as the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum consists of values and inter-group relations, which enable students to integrate into society (Kentli, 2009). Many studies have been carried out (Dreeben, 1968; Lynch, 1989; Margolis, 2001, Giroux, 2001) which aim to examine the theory of the hidden curriculum found in Kentli’s investigation (2009). Teachers often teach subconsciously through the hidden curriculum. The hidden curriculum manifests itself in subtle features of the teaching: how the different activities, social interactions and relationships are structured. However, “supplying” the hidden curriculum is not a one-way process. It is a process that affects the things that are shaped and reconstructed through interactions (Renold, 2001, in Booher-Jennings, 2007). The relationship between gender and the hidden curriculum appears to be signiicant. Schools maintain and transmit “gender codes” through a formal structure as well as through informal practices (Arnot 1982, 2002; Dillabough, 2003, in BooherJennings, 2007). It is important to realize that the hidden curriculum does not exist a priori, but is created in the daily interaction occurring between students, their teachers and classmates (Booher-Jennings, 2007). Teachers respond to the success/failure of students in high-stakes testing on the basis of gender. Booher-Jennings (2007) found that teachers symbolically separate boys and girls who have failed the test. When a girl was unsuccessful in passing the test, teacher’s reaction was negative. They claimed that girls in general “do their best” and so encouraged them to resit. On the other hand, boys who failed were identiied as “bad” or as not having tried to pass the test. Thus the experience of success and failure was very different for girls and for boys. Girls adopted the teacher’s criterion that they should “do their best” and applied it to their own behaviour. Girls who did not pass the test faced a double burden. In front of their classmates and parents, they portrayed themselves as studious girls who wanted to pass the test and be the best. In addition, the girls worked separately from the boys who were unsuccessful in the test. The boys were the target of criticism by the girls claiming that they were not committed enough to pass the test. The boys adopted a version of the successful ideology: they felt that they must work harder and not “goof off” (Booher-Jennings, 2007). The boys also received support for the legitimacy of their initiative. But three unsuccessful boys regarded this requirement as unfair. They would rather take the female version of a successful ideology and work within their powers and abilities. Also, in her research Booher-Jennings (2007) shows that girls and boys react differently to failing/passing the test. Girls who passed the test said that their parents were proud of them. Parents of girls who failed the 88 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing test preferred the principle of “doing one’s best”. The boys were afraid that if they were unsuccessful in the test their parents would be angry at them. The girls were afraid that their parents would be disappointed. In schools the idea that the staff and the parents know what is the best for children is widespread: girls need more conidence to be able to pass the exams and boys more self-discipline (Booher-Jennings, 2007). High-stakes testing is associated with various consequences which may include “retention of students in grade before tests”, and suspension, expulsion or reclassiication of students prior to testing (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Bowie (2002, in Marchant, 2004) described the case of students being retained in grade. In this case, over 20,000 elementary and middle school students in Baltimore had to repeat the grade. Marchant (2004) added that this affects the lives of all the students and that they “feel the effects of highstakes testing”. Some students are simply expelled due to poor marks and in the interest of school ratings. Students are expelled from school before or during highstakes testing. In this way schools artiicially raise or rather inluence their position in the performance tables. An interview with one principal showed that students who tend to score low are expelled from school before testing because they are not “ready to test” (Kelleher, 1999, in Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Other research also found that less successful students were released from school on the day of testing or they were sent on a trip so as to be excused from the test (Haladyna et al., 1991, in Amrein & Berliner, 2002). In some countries, students with limited language skills (Limited English Proicient, LEP) are exempted from high-stakes testing. Language-minority students represent a threat to schools because their “performances” threaten the future of the school. Teachers were therefore familiar with various measuresso that LEP students as well as language-minority students were exempted from testing for example (Downs, 2000; Haney, 2000, in Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Students with low tests results who are Hispanic but speak luent English are exempted from high-stakes testing simply on the basis of their Hispanic surnames. In Louisiana, parents requested the Ofice for Civil Rights to investigate why almost half of the students from poor and minority districts had failed the state test, even after taking it for a second time (Sadker & Zittleman, 2004). Another example is provided by the state of Georgia, where two out of three students from low-income families failed the mathematics, English and reading tests, while all the students from wealthy families were successful. Moreover, these students even exceeded standards. These differences are also visible within the middle class. Almost half of the students in Ohio from families with incomes below $20,000 did not pass tests. By contrast, 80% of students from families with JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 89 art iCleS incomes over $30,000 did (Amrein & Berliner, 2002; Heubert, 2002/2003; Neill, 2003, in Sadker & Zittleman, 2004). Greater attention is given to so-called “borderline” students. This group consists of students who are on the border of passing/failing the test. These students have an enormous impact on the school or district score: whether they fail or pass the tests. Researchers who conducted the recent National Science Foundation study interviewed teachers who openly admitted that they focused more on the borderline students than the students who would certainly have failed the test. Borderline students were put together in one group and the teachers gave them extra lessons to prepare for the tests (Madaus et al., 1992, in Amrein & Berliner, 2002). In another study these students were labelled as “bubble” students. Teachers said they would not spend time with children who would never pass the test. Thus the school day for “bubble students” was altered so that they could continue practising for the test until tests were taken. By contrast, the weakest and the cleverest students had a traditional school day (McNeil, 2000). Disadvantaged students may appear in other statistics such as those on race or on material disparities. Gifted and talented students are also negatively affected by high-stakes testing, but this manifests itself in other ways than it does in the minority and poorer students. Gifted and talented students are often bored in class or feel disadvantaged. Many students feel frustration and anger because of the slow pace of teaching, the disproportionate amount of time spent on test preparation and the constant repetition of basic concepts. Some students simply stopped paying attention during lessons or were engaged in various non-academic activities such as independently reading their own texts, resting or chatting with their friends as they waited for teachers who were focusing their attention on the “slower” classmates (Moon et. al., 2007). The interests of students are in conlict with those of the school, so attention is primarily focused on schools that adopt strategies that are in the interests of the overall evaluation of the school. This means that the primary goals of schools focus on their own interests at the expense of the primary needs of the students and their well-being (Ball et. al., 2010, in Kaščák & Pupala, 2011). Another example of the impact of high-stakes testing on students comes from the Canadian province of Alberta, where highstakes testing was introduced into education in the 1980s. This was supervised by the MACOSA commission (Minister’s Advisory Committee on Student Achievement). The commission issued recommendations relating to highstakes testing, where there is no mention of any positive beneits for the students who are involved in testing (Graham & Neu, 2004, in Kaščák & Pupala, 2011). It is obvious that in some cases, schools and principals are 90 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing willing to commit unfair practices, to manipulate students and put them in disadvantaged groups simply to ensure a higher place in the performance tables. However, this manipulation ultimately affects the students. We mentioned above the negative impact of high-stakes testing upon students taking the test. We have described the ways in which the various intervening parties impact upon the students taking the test. In this subsection we will direct our attention to the pupils, to what happens during testing and their experiences. The greatest impact of high-stakes testing is felt by the individual pupils as students. Reddell (2010) describes experiences of testing in her research, where she noted a wide range of impacts, on students that is, manifest in various forms such as stress and tension in students, teachers’ preferences for “better” students, undermining of student self-esteem and in some cases even student fear of failure and the associated consequences. The students suffer in various psychological and physical ways, for example, anxiety, stress, exhaustion resulting from lack of food and water, an increase in blood pressure and the rate of respiration, elevated body temperature, gastrointestinal problems, headaches, dificulty sleeping, and muscle spasms (Blazer, 2011). During the test, students are exposed to an enormous amount of stress caused by public comparisons between students in the classroom or school. Some schools produce test result comparisons in visual format comparing individual students whose test scores fell. In this way, students can see the evaluations of all their classmates, which may be very unpleasant for pupils who have not achieved the required score. In addition it is only the test result that will affect the further development of the students in education (Reddell, 2010). Students cope with the pressures placed on them in different ways from adults. If a child constantly works under pressure, we cannot expect there to be no impact on their psychological or emotional well-being. Stress in children manifests itself in a variety of behaviour issues such as frequent, unjustiied and unpredictable “explosions” or problematic behaviour at school or at home. Other possible symptoms of stress are jumpiness, nervousness and poor concentration, which can affect the student’s performance in school. The symptoms of stress also include a lack of appetite and the student being frequently ill. The negative impacts of high-stakes testing upon teaching and learning 1. High-stakes testing interferes with teaching and learning. Under highstakes testing, the way students are taught is changing along with the methods used and the way in which teachers approach instruction. Creative interdisciplinary activities and project-based investigations are being JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 91 art iCleS Figure 1 Focus of teachers upon subjects Stecher et al., 2000a, p. 21, in: Stecher, 2002 left out. Teachers prefer more “traditional lecture and recitation” strategies to “innovative instructional strategies such as cooperative learning and creative projects” (Blazer, 2011). The teachers put considerable emphasis on students achieving the maximum test score because the results of high-stakes testing are linked to national test results, for example, through “teaching to tests”, providing training, and “coaching” students in how to answer questions (Harlen 2007, in West, 2010). Highstakes testing also leads to an increased emphasis on tested content (Westchester Institute for Human Services Research, 2003). Most teaching time is devoted to preparing for the testing or doing the testing. This is called “teaching to tests”. Simply put, certain subjects are given preference over others in the classroom or increased time is allocated to subjects which are part of the high-stakes testing at the expense of subjects not included in the tests. If the teacher spends a lot of school time preparing students for tests, the quality of teaching decreases. Other subjects (which are not included in the testing, for example, art, physical education, social studies and science) are simply marginalized. Since highstakes testing demands that students be prepared for tests, it “promote[s] ways of teaching that are often boring and neglectful of problems and issues concerned with race, class, gender, and sexuality” (Grant, 2004). One of the irst studies on the effects of high-stakes testing (carried out in two Arizona schools in 1980) showed how subjects were reallocated. The 92 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing study showed that reduced emphasis was placed on important subjects. The study also revealed that teachers neglected subjects such as science, social studies and writing, i.e. the subjects not included in the test (Smith et al., 1991, in Stecher, 2002). Figure 1 shows the changed emphasis on subjects in the State of Washington after the introduction of high-stakes testing. A similar example is given by the national survey of teachers, where nearly 80% of the teachers conirmed that they had paid greater attention to teaching subjects that are part of the test. In addition 50% of teachers testiied that the subjects that are not part of the test (art, physical education, foreign language, industrial/occupational training) are allocated less time (Pedulla et al., 2003, in Madaus & Russell, 2010). One teacher said that at their school, teachers were “forbidden” to teach social science before March (Hoffman et.al., 2001, in Sadker & Zittleman, 2004). The time devoted to test subjects is increasing at the expense of non-test subjects; this is evident from the above examples. Moreover these “timing changes” affect the child’s breaks during the school day. Since it was necessary to increase the time devoted to testing subject knowledge, the solution was found in restricting breaks. In response to this step, the Rescuing Recess campaign was launched, starting on 13 March 2006, by the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and Cartoon Network. This is a campaign that promotes the importance of recess for children and focuses on work that will help sustain and revive the idea in schools across the country (National PTA, 2006). The negative impacts of high-stakes testing upon schools As mentioned in the introduction, the inluence parents have over their children’s education is manifested through personal choice over decisions about which school is best for their child/children. However, it can happen the other way round and the choice falls on the side of the school, especially if there are more candidates than places available and where schools publish admission criteria to select which students are to be offered places (West et. al., 2004, 2006, in West, 2010). The criteria for selecting students for entry into school divide them up according to those who are likely to be successful in tests and those who are likely to achieve a high score. The league tables also affect private schools. There were concerns that schools prevent pupils from participating in testing in some cases, especially if they are certain that students will not achieve good results. The chairman of the Associations of Independent Schools said that this was exactly what was going on in independent schools and he referred to league tables as an expression of tyranny, which has a toxic effect on the schools, forcing teach- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 93 art iCleS ing to the test and a narrow curriculum (Times Educational Supplement, 2008b in West, 2010). Stecher (2002) refers to two basic effects (positive and negative) of high-stakes testing upon students, administrators and politicians. We will focus only on the negative effects since that is the aim of our study (see Table 1). Table 1 The negative effects of high-stakes testing Negative effect of high-stakes testing Impact on Students − − − − Impact on Teachers − Encourages teachers to focus more on speciic test content than on curriculum standards − Leads teachers to engage in inappropriate test preparation − Devalues teachers’ sense of professional worth − Encourages teachers to cheat when preparing or administering tests Impact on Administrators − Leads administrators to enact policies to increase test scores but not necessarily increase learning − Causes administrators to reallocate resources to tested subjects at the expense of other subjects − Leads administrators to waste resources on test preparation − Distracts administrators from other school needs and problems Impact on Policymakers − Provides misleading information that leads policymakers to suboptimum decisions − Fosters a “blame the victims” spirit among policymakers − Encourages a simplistic view of education and its goals Frustration of students and a subsequent decrease in effort Makes students more competitive Causes students to devalue grades and school assessments Source: Stecher, 2002 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing upon teachers Besides these negative practices, high-stakes testing affects teachers in other ways. Teachers are also exposed to pressures which are also not without consequences. This is relected in various, almost unacceptable, practices such as cheating. Many teachers said they had helped students do their coursework in order to achieve better results (Times Educational Supplement 2008a, in West, 2010). A new regulator of qualiications and tests, Ofqual (Ofice of Qualiications and Examinations Regulation) was created in England amid fears that students were cheating in coursework (help from 94 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing teachers, parents or copying from the Internet). All this is in aid of one thing only: to improve the test and exam performance of pupils. High-stakes testing also affects teachers’ instructional and assessment practises. For example, McMillan (1999) surveyed 570 secondary teachers and 152 elementary teachers in Virginia. He found that more than 80% had indicated that the Standards of Learning (SOL) test had affected teachers’ instruction. Teachers often leave the teaching profession because of what is going on under the name “accountability” and “tougher standards” (Kohn, 2000, in Reddell, 2010). Teachers are exposed to more stress by high-stakes testing. There are claims that the introduction of high-stakes testing has worsened the problems associated with keeping teachers. Many teachers handed in their resignations to schools after the introduction of high-stakes testing (Kohn, 2000, Jones et al. 1999, Haney, 2001, in Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Jones et al. (1999) conducted a survey among teachers in North Carolina, which found that roughly 75% of teachers had left school during the summer. They left because the State had designated the school as a low-performing school and they wanted to avoid the consequences. Teachers leave education because of the pressure associated with high-stakes testing. In short, teachers have been leaving state schools to go to private schools since the introduction of high-stakes tests because private schools are exempt from the policy of high-stakes testing (Amrein & Berliner, 2002). Teachers, like students, ind themselves under great pressure and stress due to high-stakes testing. They often face pressure from higher places and live with the knowledge of the known effects and disadvantages that result from possible failure in high-stakes testing. As an example, the national study includes interviews with teachers about high-stakes testing. The report states that seven out of ten teachers feel stressed as a consequence of high-stakes testing and two out of three teachers believe that preparation for the testing takes up time that would otherwise be available for teaching important topics (Quality Counts 2001, in Sadker & Zittleman, 2004). High-stakes testing and its inluence We have already described the impact of high-stakes testing upon students, teachers and even politicians, but we have not discussed the tests themselves. Just as teachers or students can be affected, so can the process of testing itself or the evaluation tests. As Reddell (2010) noted those involved in correcting and evaluating tests may not mark tests correctly and fairly. Most of the tests consist of parts that can only be marked by human hand, for example essays. Other parts of the test can be electronically marked, but there is no guarantee that the JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 95 art iCleS results are evaluated correctly. In other words, machines may also succumb to the same inluences. Questions with multiple choice answers are easy to correct: the answer is either right or wrong. However, computers can also be used to evaluate the essays. The criterion is the name of the categorising software used to determine a student’s skill in writing essays. Jehlen (2007) replaced every occurrence of “the” with “chimpanzee” in a student’s work. The programme corrected the essay and assessed it to be “cogent” and “wellarticulated”. However, the tests themselves may be wrong. One example is the story of Martin Swaden and his daughter who did not pass a maths test. Swaden wanted to see his daughter’s test to ind out where she had made mistakes and what still needed working on in her order for her to succeed in the next test. Together with a state oficial, Swaden discovered that 6 out of 68 responses were scored incorrectly not only in his daughter’s case but for all the students in Minnesota as well (Draper, 2002, in Sadker & Zittleman, 2004). Impact of high-stakes testing on the state purse The question of money and inance also concerns high-stakes testing. Testing is carried out, logically, through tests. However, these tests must be produced by someone, delivered to each school and marked, which is naturally not free. This is where different businesses and companies operating in this area enter into the equation. But when we imagine how many schools and students annually participate in the testing, we ind that the cost of preparing and administering the tests is not negligible. On the contrary, this trade is a “money-spinner”. It is estimated that in the United States, following the adoption of the No Child Left Behind policy in 2002, the industry that produces high-stakes testing for state education departments, increased its annual revenue to $1.1 trillion (Vu, 2008, in Graber, 2011). In an interview about the integration of high-stakes testing into teaching, teachers said that these tests were a way in which the state demonstrated its efforts to improve educational standards through no small funds (Barksdale-Ladd & Thomas, 2000). Money invested in high-stakes testing (on the preparation, administration and evaluation) could be used in other ways, such as supplying tools to schools, purchasing technical equipment to be used in lessons and so on. The money could be used to enrich the curriculum and the professional development of teachers in relation to assessment (Stiggins, 2002, in Aflerbach, 2005). The reality is quite different. The government annually invests exorbitant amounts in high-stakes testing. Eighty per cent of the school budget was allocated to standard education in 1967. By the end of 1990, the proportion of resources devoted to standard teaching had been 96 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Negative impacts of high-stakes testing reduced to about 50 per cent (Rothstein & Miles, 1996, in Baines & Stanley, 2004). Some schools (particularly urban and rural ones) that have insuficient inancial resources have to pay for the tests out of the money originally allocated for the recruitment of teachers, to repair a leaky roof or for buying new books (Baines & Stanley, 2004). As mentioned above, the funds needed to implement high-stakes testing are enormous. The annual cost associated with implementing high-stakes testing is comparable to the gross national product of a small country: ranging from $20 billion to $50 billion (Centre for Education Policy, 2003, in Baines & Stanley, 2004). It is evident that high-stakes testing digs deep into the purses and the inancial budget of states. But the question remains as to whether the state is investing in the right things or whether high-stakes testing is as beneicial to the state/government as is expected. Conclusion As West (2010) pointed out both Conservative and Labour governments use the test results to place schools in England in the performance tables, which form the central principle of the quasi-market environment. However, the situation in other countries in the United Kingdom is different. For example national testing was eliminated in Wales in 2004 and in Northern Ireland it was replaced in 2010. National testing of pupils does not occur in Scotland, where there is a completely different education system. But a Scottish Survey of Achievement has been in use since 2005. This survey provides information about the national level achieved in order to assess the education system (West, 2010). The above examples indicate that high-stakes testing comes in different forms in different countries. While some countries have yet to introduce high-stakes testing, other countries have replaced or abolished these tests. 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Consequences of large-scale, high stakes testing on school and classroom practice. L. S. Hamilton, B. M. Stecher & S. P. Klein (Eds.). Making sense of test-based accountability in education (pp. 79-100). Santa Monica: RAND Corporation. West, A. & Pennell, H. (2002). How new is new labour? The quasi-market and english schools 1997 to 2001. Retrieved June, 20, 2012, from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/214/ West, A. (2010). High stakes testing, accountability, incentives and consequences in English schools. Policy & Politics, 38(1), 23-39. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 99 art iCleS Westchester Institute for Human Services Research. (2003). High – stakes testing. The Balanced View, 7(1). Retrieved June, 20, 2012, from http://www.sharingsuccess.org/code/bv/testing.pdf Wilkins, A.(2012). School choice and the commodiication of education: a visual approach to school brochures and websites. Critical Social Policy,32 (1), 69-86. Woods, P., A., Bagley, C. & Glatter, R. (1998). School choice and competition: Markets in the public interest? London: Routledge. Aut ho r: Michaela Minarechová, M.ed., Ph.d. candidate trnava University of trnava Faculty of education department of Preschool and Primary education Priemyselná 4 trnava 918 43 Slovakia email: michaela.minarechova@gmail.com 100 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0005-9 JoP 3 (1): 101 – 116 The shaping of the Lutheran teaching profession and Lutheran families of teachers in the 16th and 17th centuries (illustrated by the example of the Trenčín, Liptov and Orava superintendency) Libor Bernát Abstract: The article deals with changes in the status of teachers and the shaping of Lutheran families of teachers in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Trenčín, Liptov and Orava districts of the superintendency. It describes the formation of the families and their background. Keywords: teacher, clergyman, family, school, study, teaching post, reformation, Catholic Reformation In the 16th century Lutheran teachers faced fundamental changes as a consequence of the reformation, and one of its demands in particular – the end of the celebacy of clergymen, who represented a section of the intelligentsia, the elite, and constituted a class concerned with pastoral activities and education. The aim of this article is to investigate how the class of Lutheran teachers and their family relationships were established. The socio-economic status of this group will not be considered since it requires a study of its own. Geographically, we will concentrate on the families in the regions of Trenčín, Liptov and Orava, which formed a separate superintendency1. The lesser autonomous districts were called seniorates. There were three seniorates in the region of Trenčín – Hornotrenčianske, Dolnotrenčianske and Hradňanské. They were quite independent and the superintendent (Bernát, 2007) was their only connection. 1 A superintendency is a district under the jurisdiction of a superintendent, the head of a dioceses of the Evangelical Church. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 101 art iCleS The number of parish ofices and schools depended on the political situation. There were some ofices with no school at all (Slopná, Kolárovice, Kvačany and others) and some ofices with not one but two schools (Liptovský Mikuláš and Okoličné, Dolný Kubín and Záskalie). Noblemen and patrons had a key role to play – Count Juraj Thurzo (and his relatives), the Illésházy counts (Illyésházy, Iliesházy, Illésházy, Ilešházi), the Osztrosith barons (Osstrosic, Ostrosith, Ostrožič) and other landowners. Many of the members of these families had studied at foreign universities, in Wittenberg (Ján Ostrožič, Gašpar Suňog, Imrich Thurzo), Strasbourg (J. Ostrožič, Péter Révay), Tübingen (J. Ostrožič) and elsewhere. Naturally, they were inluenced by the “paradigm” of the reformation and it manifested itself in their political, economic and educational activities. These events resulted in a “turn” in the religion and helped to make religion a part of education. The teaching profession began to be regarded as the irst stage in the clerical or pastoral profession. The term “teacher” is used purposefully because at that time there was a difference between a rector (headmaster) and his assistants – conrectors, colleagues, teachers, etc. Positions tended to be referred to by several names. For instance, assistant teachers were referred to as collega, socius, locatus, Geselle, hypodidascalus, preceptor, magister, curator classis, synergus, Lehrer, auditor, and classicus. Sometimes a teacher would hold several posts. For instance, Samuel Paulini, Sr. was both collega and teacher simultaneously in Ružomberok between 1584 and 1585. This would primarily happen in larger schools because in smaller schools they would only have one teacher. In the literature and resources, these positions tend to merge into one and any teacher is called a rector, which would not correspond with his status at school. Sometimes a cantor (leader of a choir) would be a teacher and would continue his studies simultaneously, or he would interrupt his teaching activities to devote himself to his studies. For example, after completing his studies, Adam Corodini (Coroda, Corodinus, Korodini) was the cantor in Mošovce from 1606 to 1608. Count J. Thurzo arranged for him to go to Wittenberg with a cover letter dated October 12, 1608. After completing his studies there he became the rector in Žilina in 1611.2 There were teachers of young noblemen, too. These positions were not very lucrative and that is why these teachers tried to obtain posts in civic schools or to become deacons. However, these jobs could also help them to obtain new posts or enable them to travel with young noblemen. 2 Triplicis Ordinis Matriculae Ordinatorum, a Rndissimis Dominis Superintendentibus … 1813, f. 132, The General Bishop’s Ofice of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Slovakia, manuscript. No registration number. 102 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... The teachers of parish ofices would often become deacons – particularly in Považská Bystrica. At other times the post of deacon would become a starting post for a clergyman when leaving for another parish ofice. But let us return to family issues. In terms of Hungarian law, the principle was that the social status of the child was based on the social status of the child’s father. Thus the sons would often follow in their fathers’ professions and become teachers or clergymen, and the daughters would marry other clergymen or teachers. There is an apt description of Bohemia and Moravia by Zikmund Winter: “Many a parish priest or a dean would tie a young clergyman to his family, offering his daughter’s hand in marriage” (Winter, 1895). In other words, a young teacher or clergyman would try to ind a partner within his own community. Affections played only a marginal role. A man was under the control of his family and had to conform to expectations and be devoted to the family. Basically the same is true for other reformed European countries. The pater familias played a key role in these families. The life of a young teacher was focused on two equal aspects: career and family. Although the lives of husband and wife were closely linked, their social role was irmly predetermined. A wife was a housewife looking after her family, and a husband was primarily career-oriented. Their sons were expected to follow in their father’s footsteps. Their daughters were expected to be good housewives and the parents would try to ind a proper husband for them. From a legal point of view, the daughters were under the authority of their father until their marriage and under the authority of their husband after their marriage. On numerous occasions the teachers became husbands without having to be clergymen, as opposed to some German regions where nearly one-third of clergymen (37.1 %) were married about four months after becoming clergy members (Wahl, 2000). The information available does not satisfactorily answer the question of how old the women were on entering into marriage with teachers (clergymen). At marriage the men were aged from 24 to about 27. The legal age of marriage was 24 for men and 16 for women. Due to dificulties in ascertaining the real age of a person, physical maturity was the deciding factor in those days (Malý & Sivák, 1988). In second marriages we have found no case of the woman being older than the man. There were even rare cases where a teacher (clergyman) had a daughter who was a single mother. Ondrej Kerner Očovský (Kernerius, Kernerus, Kerneris), the pastor in Kamenná Poruba, was one of them. His daughter was seduced, probably by the rector Ondrej Laurentii who was mistreated JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 103 art iCleS by the pastor and his son and the rector even communicated his complaint about this to the senior Eliáš Ladiver, Sr (Holuby, 1988). Therefore, many families in this class were linked through marriage or baptism or tutorship. Baptism was important but there were differences in the ways it was carried out. The choice of godparents was important. A church order from Kremnica in 1558 required “that the godparents be devoutly urged to carry out their duties and pray to God for the faith of the infants...”(Križko, 1948). In the case of the untimely death of the parents, the other teachers (clergymen) would become “the tutors” of the children of deceased relatives or friends. Ján Gažúr placed his son Matiáš (Michal) into the foster care of Matej Lochman and Tomáš Fabian from Mošovce. There were several similar cases. The documents of the time cannot provide us with any information about adoption rates and related issues in the families examined. Nepotism was strengthened through the consolidation of this class, the establishment of the seniorates and the creation of superintendencies. Families supported and favored their relatives. This was typical of Europe as a whole. In the Kingdom of Hungary it was typical not just of the Roman Catholic Church but of the Calvinist Church and the Unitas Fratrum as well. The schools in Bánovce nad Bebravou and Bytča can be used as examples. In Bánovce there were six Lányis and in Bytča there were ive, not including Eliáš Lányi, the irst superintendent of Trenčín, Liptov and Orava. Moreover, it was not uncommon for a father and later his son to be teachers at the same school. For example, this was true of Juraj and Zachariáš Clementis and Eliáš Ladiver, Sr. and Eliáš Ladiver, Jr. in Žilina, and Ján and Teodor Sopúšek in Trenčín, etc. Personal references were important and future career prospects could be improved if a person was depicted in a lattering light within an inluential family. For instance, the rector Leonard Mokošini (Mokoschini, Mokoschinus) in Partizánska Ľupča recommended his student Jakub Cebani (Czebanius, Czebonius Briznensis Pannonius) to his brother Juraj who was the pastor in Boca. Cebani would go on to become Juraj’s deacon (Prónay & Stromp, 1905). Close relationships were formed amongst those studying as well. Students would often attend several schools. For example, Juraj Clementis studied alongside Ján Krman, Sr. and Krman’s daughter Rebeka would later go on to become Clementis’ wife. The students would often follow their favorite teacher to his new teach- 104 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... ing position. Almost all of the clergymen in the region under examination had taught before becoming clergymen, so it was not uncommon for them to meet their former students who had already become teachers or clergymen. For example, Matej Hranica (Hranicza, Hranicenus, Hranický), the rector in Bojnice, would go on to become the pastor in Žabokreky nad Nitrou. He offered a teaching post to his former student Vavrinec Sartoris in 1609 (Triplicis Ordinis …, f. 6). Nowadays we would call it lobbying. Many of the village teachers, unable to attend the leading schools in the Kingdom of Hungary or one of the foreign schools, taught at village schools for a long time. Their hopes of a better teaching post or of becoming clergymen had never been fulilled. At some parish ofices (Drietoma, Rajecká Lesná, Udiča, Višňové, Žaškov, etc.) none of the teachers we know of became ordained priests. Their social power was very limited and their social responsibility negligible. On the other hand, in other villages and small towns like Bobot and Uhrovec all of the teachers were ordained as priests. Some of the teachers would migrate to obtain a better teaching post. A wealthy landowner would often move teachers and clergymen from one region to another. This kind of migration was not restricted by either the superintendency or the seniorates. For instance, the Balaš (Balassa) family owned land in the regions of Trenčín and Novohrad, so Eliáš Institoris Mošovský was the rector in Považská Bystrica from 1620, then he was the pastor in Ľuboreč from 1622, and in Udiča from 1628. Many of the rectors (deacons) married into the families of pastors. This was quite understandable because the pastor was obliged to “set the table” for them every Sunday and on feast days. The rectors had close relationships with the pastor’s family. The pastors used to make use of the situation to marry off their daughters. For instance, Samuel Paulíni, Jr., the pastor in Rajec, wanted his daughter Justína to marry the rector Ondrej Fabricius (Fabrina, called Miško). Their disagreement was so intense that the rector had to leave Rajec and later became the pastor in Liptov. There are no genealogies of these families which would allow us to determine how many pastors’ and teachers’ daughters married teachers or clergymen. Based on the available data we estimate that every fourth or ifth adult daughter was one of them. The married couple was supposed to live moderately and in accordance with good manners. They were supposed to serve as an example of a peaceful, devout, diligent and family life. These couples represented a united community and collectively they were JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 105 art iCleS supposed to show how to live an exemplary life. On the other hand, any one of these couples could be punished for their transgressions. These families were prevented from advancing further by marital obstacles irmly speciied in family law. This applied mainly to blood relatives. There was even a legal kinship, i.e. a kind of adoption or brother-in-law, and a spiritual kinship between godparents and godchildren. The obstacles were not absolute and the engaged couple could request to be exempted from them (Malý & Sivák, 1988). A marriage was terminated by the death of the husband or wife (or by the pronouncement of his or her death). We found no cases of separation (divorce). Even though teachers were obliged to be in mourning for their deceased wives, they would often marry another woman quite quickly after the funeral. The wife of a deceased teacher would often marry another man soon after the funeral. It was a matter of survival. The death of a husband meant the loss of a breadwinner. On the other hand, a teacher needed someone to keep house and to show that a Christian family could become a reality. Thus the well-known teacher (pastor) Eliáš Ladiver, Jr. was married four times. Older men especially needed someone to take care of them. Such is the case of John Amos Comenius whose third wife was a very young Jana Gajusová from Týn nad Vltavou. From the legal point of view, old age was reached at 60. We have not discovered any teacher marrying after reaching the age of 60. Even after reaching 45, a daughter or some other female relative kept house for a teacher whose wife had passed away. Nonetheless, women were not personally free and legally independent. The words of Apostle Paul in the Bible make this point clear: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law”. (1Cor.14:34, compare with 11:5-12). The lives of the wives of teachers are quite hard to recount. There are no sources, and what we have was written by men. The wives were supposed to be a sort of “mistress of the house”, “companion” to the teachers. Their lives were completely subordinate to those of the men. There is basically no information available about their literacy or education. Some of them could write, that much we know, like Judita Masníková, the wife of the rector Matej Domkovič in Dolný Kubín and later in Dubnica nad Váhom, but this seems to have been a rarity. Legally, the male gender was considered to be sexus dignior – a superior gender. 106 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... Figure 1 the closing part of a letter by J. Masníková with her signature sent to her son J. domkovič in levoča SNK alU Martin 155 G 46 Having a large number of children placed considerable demands on the mother. Thanks to the high birth rate, many of the families could grow and strengthen their inluence (the number of rectors and pastors in the Trenčín, Liptov and Orava superintendency are stated in parentheses). Table 1 Alphabetical list of the families of teachers working in the regions of the superintendency under investigation3 Family Augustíni Benedikti Number 2 2 Related families Bombicenus Haler Regis Rutkai Šmidelius Jakobei Krman Smrtník Clementis Clementis (2) 3 3 Hieronymi Krman Regis Rozinský Čutka Doršic 3 4 Mazurka Mokošini Žár Fabianides 3 Number 1 1   1 2 1 1  1  1  1 1 3 Only family members working in this particular region are listed. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 107 art iCleS Family Fabricius Fabricius (2) Hadík Hrabec Number 4 3 6 3 Related families Jakobaei Chalupka Number   Krišpín 1 Pilárik Clementis 2 Levius? Regis Tranovský     Chalupka 6 Hadík  Institoris Jakobei 3 3 Blasius Fabricius  Jeleň Kalinka 2 3 Tranovský Oekonom Augustini Krman 3 Lochman Marklovský Mokošini  Tarnóci Vranka  Benedikti Clementis (2) Fabri Masník Láni 6  Paulini Rebierko Sinapius 3 4 2 Mikuláš Mokošini 2 2    Lochman 108 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 2 1 2 Domkovič Schrötter Thuroci Chmel Kalinka 1   Peták (1) Doršic 2 1  Sarorius (3) Krman Fabricius Sartorius (1) 1 1  Splénius Láni (Caban) Lišovíni Masník 1     2 1 1 2 2 1 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... Family Number Related families Melík Tranovský Monkovicenus 3 Paršic Petrovič 2 5 Ladiver Frivaldský Clementis Rajtini 2 Cehener Duchoň Nicolaides Sartoris(1) 4 Major Masník Sartoris(2) 2 Schrötter 3 Carbonarius Huldenreich Majtan Dianiš Duchoň Sinapius 4 Hrehuš Kvetoň Ladiver Láni Sopúšek 4 Matthaei Žitkius Stránovský Škrovina Telkonius 2 2 2 Bapčáni Zvarecký Dokmovič Jastrebiny Marček Urbanovič Túrsky 1 Tvrdý Urbanovič 2 3 Aparius Dropko Dubravius Nosko Domkovič ? Marček ? Vranka 1 2          JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1   119 2  Müller Kalinka Sopúšek 2 1   Frano Total number:  Telkonius Molitor Majtán Žitkius Number 1  2 2  1 63 109 art iCleS As the table indicates, the largest numbers of teachers were from the following families: Hadík (6), Chalupka (6), Lányi (6, excluding the Caban branch), Petrovič (5), Doršič (4), Fabricius (4), Lišovíni (4), Sartorius (4), Sinapius (4) and Sopúšek (4). The total number of teachers was 119. An additional 63 teachers can be added from the families into which a teacher married. Thus we obtain a total number of 182 teachers in the superintendency. Teachers from the families who did not work in the superintendency are not included. This means that 316 teachers and clergymen came from the families listed. Apart from these families, there were fathers and sons, brothers, uncles, nephews and cousins working in the superintendency. In total they numbered 24 couples. We decided to include only one of the teacher’s known workplaces in the following alphabetical list: cantor Ján Apostolus, Sr. in Liptovský Mikuláš and his brother-in-law Michal Chmel, Jr. who was a conrector in Žilina, teachers Juraj and Mojžiš Bánovský in Žilina, Peter Baroš, a rector in Trenčín, and Mikuláš, a rector in Ilava, teachers Ondrej Beniamides Sr. and Jr. in Lednica, cousins Eliáš Berger and Alexander Socovský who were rectors in Trenčín, teachers Michal Caban, Sr. in Partizánska Ľupča and Michal Caban, Jr. in Varín, collega Blažej Fábri in Žilina and his son Juraj Fabricius who was a teacher in Bánovce nad Bebravou, rectors Eliáš and Pavol Faško in Okoličné who were brothers, rectors Matej and Gašpar Gažúr in Ilava, rectors Matej and Ján Haberman (Habrman, Habrmann) who were father and son in Kysucké Nové Mesto, rectors Ondrej Hieronimi, Sr. and his son Izák in Dolný Kubín, Juraj Kazar, Jr. who was a rector in Dolný Kubín, and his son Ján who was a rector in Hybe, rector Štefan Krušpier, Sr. in Žilina and his son Štefan who was a rector in Kysucké Nové Mesto, rector Ján Lukáč in Lokca and his son Ondrej who was a cantor in Liptovská Teplá, rector Ján Lycius in Ružomberok and his son Juraj who was a rector in Trenčín, collega Mikuláš Martinko (Martinkius, Martiny Martiny) in Bytča and his brother Samuel who was the rector in Súľov, rectors Mikuláš Nigrini Oškeredský and his son Samuel in Žilina, rector Vavrinec Osvald (Osvaldi, Oswaldi) in Rajec and his son Štefan who was a teacher in Bánovce nad Bebravou, rectors Martin Rotarides and his son Izaiáš in Veličná, cantor Matej Rudinský in Ilava and his son who was a cantor in Liptovský Mikuláš, rector Pavol Zachenský (Zachemský, Zachemszky) in Okoličné and his brother or son who was a rector in Partizánska Ľupča. Due to the lack of available data, the average number of children in teachers’ families remains unknown to us. Some families were childless but some had 24 or 25 children. 110 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... Table 2 The numbers of schools, teaching posts and teachers in the Trenčín, Liptov and Orava superintendency Seniorate Schools Teaching posts Teachers4 Ordained rectors5 Hradňanský 10 88 86 35 Dolnotrenčiansky 21 205 143 56 Hornotrenčiansky 16 275 201 67 Oravský 16 126 99 39 Liptovský 31 372 317 94 Total 94 1 013 823 291 Source: Bernát, 2001 There were schools with many teachers but some village schools had just a few teachers. Not every parish ofice had a school. In some of the smaller parish ofices (Bielice, Dobrá, Kamenná Poruba, Boca, etc.) there was no school at all. It is interesting to note that in the Orava seniorate there was not a parish ofice that did not have a school. Some of the larger parish ofices even had two schools. The total number of clergymen and teachers was 1305 and 316 of them (24.21 %) were from the families under investigation. If we add another 37 pairs consisting of fathers and sons and brothers, we arrive at a igure of 29.88 %. We estimate that we have no data on about 10 % of the families. That means that one-third of the pastors and rectors came from these families. The families of clergymen and teachers were able to give the children a solid foundation on which to build. For example, in the large Lišovíni family there were four physicians – Ján Lišovíni (* 1680), Ján Lišovíni (1713-1757), Ondrej Lišovíni (1672-1714?) and Samuel Dávid (the 1700s). The increasing number of educated persons even made it possible for some of the member of these families to ind work abroad, where there were also better conditions, earnings, circumstances and more religious tolerance. Religious tolerance was only an issue for a small number of educated persons, mainly those leaning towards Calvinism, the Unitas Fratrum or Utraquism. These were Slovak igures who spoke Slovak as their mother tongue, which helped to create more favorable conditions for the national intelligentsia to emerge (Kuzmík, 1976). 1 2 Some teachers held more than one teaching post. Only ordained rectors in the seniorates are included. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 111 art iCleS The families established roles as “mavens” (or experts) (Gladwell, 2006). The family members would become experts or “masters” in a particular ield of study. Therefore, it is understandable that several members of these families would hold several important posts in seniorates. The families even included several foreigners from Bohemia and Moravia (Adami, Perlička, Petrozelinus, Šumberg), Germany (Haler, Krman, Paulini, Sinapius), Silesia (Tranovský) and Poland. Alexander Karol Curtius (Kurtius) who was the rector in Partizánska Ľupča, was from Lithuania. By the end of the 17th century, the Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation) had already started to take effect, with Catholic clergymen and teachers becoming more prominent. The number of evangelical intelligentsia decreased and jobs were harder to ind. The Catholic Reformation, wars and suffering left scars on the teachers’ families. The families of evangelical teachers were in decline and conversion to the Catholic faith started to become more prevalent. Village teachers were more likely to change religion and adopt the Catholic faith because of their social status. Nevertheless, the role that the families of evangelical teachers played in the national revival was important. But that is a different topic to be dealt with. R e fe r e n c e s Bernát, L. (2001). Dejiny školstva v dolnotrenčianskom senioráte v 16. a 17. storočí. Pedagogická revue, 53 (4), 341-362. Bernát, L. (2001). Dejiny školstva v hornotrenčianskom senioráte v 16. a 17. storočí. Pedagogická revue, 53 (1), 62-76. Bernát, L. (2004). Dejiny školstva v oravskom senioráte v 16. a 17. storočí. Pedagogická revue, 56 (5), 492-512. Bernát, L. (2007). Pastori a pedagógovia v superintendencii Trenčianskej, Liptovskej a Oravskej v 16. a 17. storočí. Slovenská štatistika a demograia, 17 (3), 62-92. Bernát, L. (2003). Školstvo v hradňanskom (záhorskom) senioráte v 16. – 17. storočí. Pedagogická revue, 55 (4), 378-391. Gladwell, M. (2006). Bod zlomu. O malých příčinách s velkými následky. Praha: Dokořán. Križko, P. (1948). Dejiny banskomestského seniorátu. Liptovský Mikuláš: Tranoscius. Kuzmík, J. (1976). Slovník autorov slovenských a so slovenskými vzťahmi za humanizmu. I. A-M. Martin: MS. Malý, K. & Sivák, F. (1988). Dějiny státu a práva v Československu do r. 1918. I. díl. Praha: Panorama. Prónay, D. & Stromp, L. (1905). Monumenta historica evangelicorum in Hungaria. Budapestini: V. Hornyánszky. Wahl, J. (2000). Lebensplanung und Alltagserfahrung. Wüttembergische Pfarrfamilien im 17. Jahrhundert. Mainz: Verlag P. von Zabern. 112 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... Winter, Z. (1895). Život církevní v Čechách. Kulturně-historický obraz z XV. a XVI. století. Praha: Nákladem české akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění. Historical sources: Archív biskupského úradu Nitra Kanonická vizitácia 1688, kniha č. 2, f. 16 Cirkevný zbor ECAV na Slovensku, Lyceálna knižnica Kežmarok Annales Statum Ecclesiarum Lyptoviensis Comitatus ... Joach. Kalinkii ... A 1647. 1653. 1666. MS 1936 Odpis nechal urobiť Imrich Pongrácz v XVIII. stor. ružomberským farárom Pavlom Kešmarským Farský úrad evanjelickej cirkvi a. v. v Istebnom, Protocollum Scholae Istebnensis ab Anno 1789 ... bez ev. čísla. Farský archív SECAV v Súľove KRIŽAN, J.: Dejiny artikulárnej niekdy cirkvi ev. a. v. súlovskej. Dľa rukopisu neboh. Jána Križana farára sulovského zostavil Miloslav Križan ev. a. v. slova Božieho kazateľ. Súlov, rkp. nedat. Knihovna Národního muzeum v Prahe Akta Jednoty bratrské XIV., f. 470a-470b MV SR SNA Bratislava Rodový archív Zayovcov z Bučian, Písomnosti podľa II. zväzku elenchov Ľ. Balogha z r. 1862, 22. Písomnosti týkajúce sa protestantov v Uhorsku 1615-1822 MV SR ŠA v Bytči Oravská župa, šľachtické písomnosti, spisy, fasc. 1, 1684, no. 1, Ambrózy, fasc. 2, 1715, no. 2, Matheides, 1716, no. 3/a Mathesius Oravský komposesorát. Thurzovská korešpondencia 1511-1676. II. Listy písané J. Thurzovi 164 II-F/2 Fond Zsolnay zo Sedličnej (1261) 1533 – 1896, škatuľa č. 10, Rôzne. Protocollum rerum miscellanearum, 1. zošit Zbierka cirkevných matrík: 193 I Matricula ecclesia Dubnicensis 1667-1793 383 II. Farnosť Košeca úmrtná matrika 29. I. 1773-26. XII. 1841 386 V matrika sobášna 11. I. 1750-10. XI. 1841 Matrika cirkve ev. aug. v. púchovskej od R. P. 1784. I. zv. i. č. 875, 981 I Matrica baptisatorum 5. IV. 1699-19. XII. 1726 Sedliacka Dubová MV SR ŠA v Bytči, pobočka Dolný Kubín: Geburová pozostalosť, Oravské evanjelické fary a ich kňazi. Od počiatku reformácie do r. 1781. Príspevok k cirkevným dejinám Oravy. nedat. strojopis a rkp. b. d. Cirkevný zbor ECAV v Dolnom Kubíne, 1709. 1611-1709 Poznámky o farách na Orave. Zoznamy ev. kňazov a učiteľov, Catalogus Ecclesiarum Euangelicar. Aruensium, nestr. Kronika škôl inv. č. 134/928 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 113 art iCleS MV SR ŠA v Bytči, pobočka Liptovský Mikuláš, Annales ciuitatis Lypcae Allemanorum ... 1579, mestečko Partizánska Ľupča, Zápisnice liptovského kontubernia MZA Brno, G 12 Cerroniho sbírka 13. stol. – 1845, č. 37, inv. č. 38, Schulseminarien, Gymnasien und Schulen der Accatholischen in Mähren 1810 č. 88-89, inv. č. 90, Nachrichten von dem ehemaligen und gegenwertigen Zustand der akatholischen Gemeinden in Mähren. 1804 č. 91, inv. č. 92 Evangelische Pastoren und Schulrectoren in Boehmen před r. 1807 Bočkova sbírka, čís. 10.670 Paměti Pavla Urbanidesa Seniorátny archív v Trenčíne HOLUBY, J. Ľ.: Nástín dejín bývalej ev. a. v. církve Ilavskej. Spísal Joz. Ľ. Holuby, vyslúžilý ev. farár a. v. zemansko-podhradský a senior trenčianský. B. m., b. d. PROCOPIUS, J.: Index rerum et verborum ... 1789. Rkp., III 2 C 52 (signatúra z Archívu ev. a. v. seniorátu nitrianskeho) Protocolon sev liber continens articvlos confessionis item leges et ordinem ... Anno Domini MDLXXX ... Turčiansky seniorátny archív v Martine HOLUBY, J. Ľ.: T. Sv. Martin. Turčiansky seniorátny archív Martin. Dejiny Turca a turčianskeho seniorátu. Písomný materiál 110. Dejiny Turca – historický materiál. Príloha listu Holuby O. Škrovinovi z Pezinku 24. 7. 1912, rkp. Zápisnice turčianskeho turčianskeho kontubernia, 17.-18. stor., rkp. Slovenská národná knižnica, Archív literatúry a umenia Martin Š. Adamovič. Dejiny novohradského seniorátu. Dobroč 107 K 2, Dolná Strehová 107 K 3, Kalinovo 107 K 9, Lešť 107 K 10, Lovibaňa 107 K 11, Mašková 107 K 16, Polichno 107 L 2, Senné 107 L 5, Turíčky 107 L 6, Veľký Krtíš 107 L 10, strojopis, nestr. Annotationes per Rev. Dn. Thomam Dorothiczium ... consignatae et per Dr. Gabrielem Velovicz f. 30-45. Odpis Mateja Šuleka z roku 1786 MJ 303 Collectanea Laučekii – Epistolarum tom III. a VII. C 1069, Collectanea XIV. J 859 Daniel Krmana II. /ml./ kňaz, biskup, literát a trpiteľ. M 120 E 45 a 56 JJ 17 Daniel Sinapius-Horčička 56 AA 19 Diarium Andreae Thurii, f. 1-16 a Brevis Delineatio Virae Andreae Thurii, f. 17-19 Diarium Georgii Clementis (f. 20-25) a Diarium Zachariae Clementis (f. 25-29). Odpis Mateja Šuleka z roku 1786 MJ 303 Gymnasiologia Evangelico-Hungarica ... Hanc Rezikio-Mathidesianam Gymnasiologiam variis ... descripsis Michael Rotarides Gömörino-Hungarus Anno 1746 Vittenberg ... J 1968 HOLUBY, J. Ľ.: Materiály k historii církevních sborov evanj. av. na území Trenčianskej Stolice stávavavších a stávajúcich. II. Dolnotrenč. Contubernium. Sbierané Joz. Ľ. 114 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 the shaping of the lutheran teaching profession and lutheran families of teachers... Holuby farárom zpodhradským a seniorom Trenčianským. (počiatok urobený r. 1884 v októbri.), J 3333 IOANNIS REZIK – GYMNASIOLOGIA EVANGELICO – HUNGARICA, sive HISTORIA SCHOLARUM et earundem RECTORUM CELEBRIORUM. Opera et studio M. SAMUELIS MATTHAEIDES alias Matthejeczi de Revisna Arvensis Nob. Hung., ... ad Annum MDCCXXIII eruta ... J 1967 Judita Masníková J. Domkovičovi 155 G 46, list z roku 1677, rkp. List Daniela Dedinu z 13. novembra 1685 J 3373 Memorabilia Ecclesiae Evangelicarum Liptoviensium collecta per R. D. Matthiam Schulek Pastorem N. Palugyensem. Industria R. D. Alexandri Lichner, Pastoris Nem. Kostolanensis denuo MDCCCCLVI descripta stroj., SNK ALU Martin J 862 Pamatné příhody Štěpán Pilárika Senického někdy kněze ... Wydal Bohuslav Tablic 1804, MJ 574 Vita nostri evangelici ... b m., 18. stor. J 3371 Series ordinatorum per Superintendentem ..., b. d., rkp., MJ 2 Spolok svätého Vojtecha v Trnave fasc. 304, č. 8 Cirkevné dejiny Turzovky a celých Kysúc. Napísal farár Točík 1943 strojopis Matricula Scholatica Juventutis R. M. Gymnasii Trenchiniensis ab anno 1655 inchoata, usque 1755 continuata, sign. AR I, n. 1. Spolok sv. Vojtecha v Trnave Státní okresní archiv Uherské Hradiště Fond archiv města Uherského Brodu, i. č. 54, Bartoškova kronika, rkp., s. 129 Pozůstalost Veleslava Růžičku, Náboženské poměry na Uherskobrodsku, Bojkovsku a Kloboucku v XV.-XVIII. století. Rkp., Praha 1934 Tranoscius – Tranovského knižnica, Liptovský Mikuláš HOLUBY, J. Ľ.: Krátke dejiny bývalej církve evanj. a. v. Bytčianskej, s iliálkami: Hliník, Hotešov /pozdejšie samostatná cirkev/, Chotešovka, Oblazov, Malá Bytča, Petrovice, Kolarovice /za čas samostatná cirkev/, Rovné /s kostolom/ a Setechov. Rkp. asi 1917 ten istý: Materiály k dejinám církve evanj. a. v. v stolici Trenčianskej. Sbierka II. Joz. Ludev. Holuby a. ev. farár Zemansko-Podhradský a t. č. senior Trenčianský 1887. ten istý: Materiály k dejinám církví evanjelických a. v. v Stolici Trenčianskej. Svazek V. diel 1. Církve ev. a. v. Contubernia horno-trenčianského čili Žilinského (S mapkou.). Diel I. Od Jozefa Ľud. Holuby-ho, farára ev. a. v. v Zem. Podhradského a na ten čas seniora Trenčianskeho. rkp. Zemianske Podhradie 1888 sv., 2. diel, rkp. 1888, ten istý: Materiály k dejinám církví evanjelických augšp. vyzn. v Stolici Trenčianskej. Svazek VI. dieľ 1. Církve evanj. a. v. Contubernia dolňo-trenčianského. Dieľ I Joz. Ľud. Holuby farár Zem.-Podhradský a na ten čas senior Trenčianský. Sostavil Zemanskom Podhradí 1889, rkp. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 115 art iCleS Fragmenta historica Ecclesiarum Euangelicarum Incyliti Comitatus Arvensis ... Opera et Studio Matthaiae Schulek ..., bez ev. č. Memorabilia Ecclesiae Evangelicarum Liptoviensium, odpis M. Šuleka, bez ev. č. Ústredná knižnica SAV (Bývalá lyceálna knižnica) Bratislava Sors Danielis Krman superattendentis et V. D. Min., rkp., fasc. 234/4 Curricullum vitae Joannis Senioris Blasii 1684 töl 1763-íg., fasc. 237/2 Ordinačný list M. Sartoria, fasc. 682 Eredeti oklevek 4. Trencsén-Liptó és Árva Tarnóczy Márton superintendens aláirása, rkp., fasc. 684/110 Danielis Krmanni Hungaria evangelica, rkp. z roku 1842 od L. Balogha, zv. 416 Regestá ista Ecclesiastica, per R. Dn. Joannem Hodikium … opis Ludovita Balogha 1843, rkp. zv 363 REZIK, J.-MATTHAEIDES, S.: GYMNASIOLOGIA EVANGELICO – HUNGARICA, sive HISTORIA SCHOLARUM et earundem RECTORUM CELEBRIORUM. Opera et studio M. SAMUELIS MATTHAEIDES alias Matthejeczi de Revisna Arvensis Nob. Hung., nuper Lycei Eperiessiensis intra et ex Moenia moderatoris et simul Slavorum Nationis Pastoris, ex Authoris annotationibus autografois et aliorum documentis ad Annum MDCCXXIII ... zv. 480 Syllabus Litteratorum Thurocziensium ... Andreas Schmal... (1755) Ústredná knižnica SAV (Bývalá lyceálna knižnica) Bratislava, rkp. zväzky 79 Ústredný archív ECAV na Slovensku Bratislava M. Šulek „Memorábilia“, bez ev. č. Variae Superintendentales et aliorum Matriculae atqvediiaria, nec non Catalogi Ecclesiarum, Superintendentium, Fautorum & Persecutorum Ecclesiae aliaque ad Historiam Eccl. spectantia; ... colleta Opera et Studio Matthiae Schulek Ecclesiae Ev. Tiszóltzensis V. D Ministri Triplicis Ordinis Matriculae Ordinatorum, a Rndissimis Dominis Superintendentibus ... Duplicis Ordinis Matriculae Ordinatorum, a Rndissimis Dnis Superintendentibus ... Aut ho r: libor Bernát, Ph.d., thMgr. Slovak University of technology in Bratislava Faculty of Material Science and technology in trnava department of engineer’s education and Human Sciences Pavlínska 16 trnava 917 24 Slovakia email: libor.bernat@gmail.com 116 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0006-8 JoP 3 (1): 117 – 135 Professional families – the development of the relationship between a professional mother and the child in the context of the mother’s status Katarína Šmajdová Búšová Abstract: A professional family is an organizational form of institutional care which is used mainly in residential children’s homes. By considering the psychological development of the child and by providing a supportive environment, the professional family provides systematic, purposeful and professional care and education for the child. It attempts to respect age differences and developmental disorders in the child. The professional family provides this care and education continually for a speciic period of time. The process of forming a relationship between the parents and the children being cared for is very problematic. There is a signiicant lack of clarity and many problems exist in this ield and to make it worse the status of the professional parents, mainly the professional mother are not clearly deined. We attempted to deine this status through qualitative research using the theory of object relations by Donald Wood Winnicott. Key words: residential care, professional family, status of professional mother, theory of D. W. Winnicott, ethnography Introduction The topic of professional families is very broad and there are a great number of different opinions amongst experts about how important it is and about the duties of the professional family. In general, there are two groups. One group believes in the absolute acceptance of professional care and overestimates its importance (Matej et al., 2000; Pukancová, 2006). The second group clearly highlights the shortage of professional families, which they believe, in certain cases, can have dangerous consequences for the development of the child in comparison to care within a residential home (SobotJoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 117 art iCleS ková, 2009a,b; Škoviera, 2009a,b). This is supported also by the fact that in terms of the research conducted in Slovakia, statistical overviews about children cared for in professional families appear to dominate. The published research deals mainly with organizational shortages in professional care but does not look at it in terms of development (Filadeliová, 2008; Lukuvka, 2011). Research has of course, been conducted abroad as well (e.g. Working Group on Children at Risk and Care, 2004). This has produced some interesting results, but as Kovařík and Bubleová (2002) point out Slovak professional care is in many ways speciic and differs from that found abroad. In Slovakia the professional family is deined as a home environment provided by an employee of a residential home where a number of children are cared for in a lat or a house. This care can be provided by a married couple or only one parent. The number of children who are placed with a professional family is calculated on this basis1. The legal status of the child stays the same and he remains in institutional care. Thus there is no need to obtain a court ruling on the placement of the child. Those providing professional care are required to complete an accredited training course. A professional family is entrusted with the care of a range of children, particularly those aged three and under. The aim of the professional family is not to create a long-lasting relationship with the child but to facilitate the child’s return to the biological family or to foster care or adoption (Búšová, 2008). In other countries, the options that are considered to be closest to the Slovak one are viewed as traumatic for the child by the Council of Europe.2 There are various aspects to the topic of professional care. In our research, conducted between 2006 and 2011 in cooperation with Miloš Kučera of the Department of Psychology at the Pedagogical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, we focused on the relationship between the professional parent and the child and its development. Sobotková (2009a) points out that the fundamental problem is that this form of care involves being reared within a family and yet at the same time it is an institutional form of care. She believes that the indings of psychological research have not been taken into consideration. When comparing the family and institutional care she considers the psychological characteristics of the family from the perspective of satisfying the psychological needs of the child. Sobotková argues that these 1 2 One professional parent is employed full-time to look after two children in institutional care. This is the case with two kinds of professional care – replacement families and patronage families. Both types are kinds of host families which provide temporary care for a child. The aim is to provide the child with experience of family life or to provide him/ her temporary patronage while the biological family works through its problems (Working Group on Children at Risk and in Care 2004). 118 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... needs can be largely fulilled only within a family which provides a long-term perspective, a shared future and satisies the need for security. The Slovak model of the professional family “does not display all the hallmarks of a family upbringing and thus represents a very complicated and perhaps incomprehensible situation for the child” (Sobotková, 2009a, p. 61). We believe that this is a multidimensional problem. It is connected to the fact that there is no clear deinition of the status of the professional parent. The status of the professional mothers has an important role to play where children in care up to the age of three are concerned. The instructions for professional parents and particularly for the professional mother are rather legal and bureaucratic in nature. Our research therefore focused on an analysis of the status or position of a professional mother in relation to the children in her care. We posited the question: what is the status of a professional mother in relation to the child in her care and what impact does this status have on the professional mother and on the child? We consider “status” to mean the position a professional mother has in relation to the child in her care. We related this to the wishes and needs of the child and the wishes of the professional mother and her understanding of her duties in respect of this position within the natural environment of the professional family. Methodology of the Research In examining the issue we took into consideration the nature of our research problems. We decided to explore the potential of qualitative research, speciically ethnography, which gave us a more detailed insight into the professional family (Kučera, 1995; 1998). To collect the research material we used semi-structured interviews3 and participant observation within the natural environment of the professional families4. We observed all three professional families and we had contact with them 3 4 These were conducted with professional parents who were asked about the behaviour of the children on joining the professional families (pre-adaptation period), during adaptation to the new environment (adaptation period) and after their adaptation to the professional family (post-adaptation period). They were 6 in total. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. We participated in various situations in almost all aspects of the daily routine in the professional families – we observed the looked after children waking up and getting up, at breakfast, lunch and dinner, during visits of relatives and friends, when the biological children came home from school, during games, outdoors and indoors and during the bedtime routine. We focused on the interaction between the professional mothers and children in care. We actively participated in some of the activities and passively observed others. We conducted a total of 12 participant observations and 8 of them were audio recorded and transcribed (almost verbatim). JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 119 art iCleS on 17 occasions (all-day visits) as part of the research. In addition, we maintained contact via e-mail and telephone. All the families belonged to the same residential home and had brought up their own children5. In each of the families the mother was the professional parent and in one family there was also a professional father. The professional parents had varying levels of education (at least secondary school education and at most postgraduate university education). Their primary motivation when starting this job was to help children and give them a home. Christian faith was another strong factor. The professional parents were aware that we were conducting the research and keeping records for this purpose. They were informed in advance about how we would deal with the data obtained. The parents set all the conditions (day, time, place). Within an ethnographic interpretation we focused on the theory of object relations by Donald W. Winnicott (1998; 1971; 1965; 1960). This particular author was chosen since he dealt in depth with the duties of the mother in forming a relationship with the child. He described the important elements of maternal care, which he believed are an important inluence on the ensuing development of the child. In addition, we wanted to ind out at which stage of psychological development the children being cared for were and what kind of demands they placed on their professional parents, especially the professional mother. In the course of the research we found out when it is and when it is not suitable to place a child with a professional family6. We considered at what stage it is necessary to end a child’s stay with a professional family as soon as possible and move the child to a more permanent form of substitute care or adoption. We illustrate our indings with the cases of nine children aged between eight months and three years. Since the project was quite extensive, this article presents the indings in brief. The Status of Professional Mothers Throughout the research project, attention was focused on the status of professional mothers. On the basis of our indings, status was divided into three possible categories along a scale running between two opposite poles – the professionalism as against the personal involvement of the professional 5 6 In the irst family, the biological children were of a younger school age, in the second the children were adults (they lived away from the family home) and in the third the children were of a middle and older school age. We based this on the fact that it may be possible every time but that there is always the possibility that something else might happen in relation to the phase the child is in. For example, when it is not suitable, it is better to keep the child in a residential home for the ensuing month and then place the child in inal adoption. 120 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... mother. This scale expressed the ability of the professional mother to make use of two approaches in child rearing (Cibulec, 1984): − emotional (this was expressed in terms of personal involvement); including the mother’s ability to create an emotionally safe environment for the child and provide stability for the formation of relations; − rational (this was expressed in terms of professionalism); including the ability of the professional mother to act expertly, objectively and effectively in rearing the child, as a professional carer. The irst category refers to the balance the professional mother maintained between her professionalism and personal involvement. This involved a certain ideal and was of the nature that “this is the way it should be” in relation to the currently deined form of professional parenthood. The professional mother, in her role as child rearer, was able to explain her temporary inluence on the child and at the same time use the emotional and rational approaches appropriately. The second category relates to the professional mother becoming personally involved to an excessive degree (forming a deep emotional tie with the child). It referred to the mother’s loss of professional attitude as a residential home employee and to her acquiring an attitude commensurate to that of a future substitute parent who would keep the child in her care. In terms of the current deinitions of professional parenthood, this is a negative element. The result is that the mother later wants to alter the form of substitute care (e.g. fostering)7. The third category refers to the excessive professionalism of the professional mother. This was a completely professional attitude with minimal personal involvement (she was a truly professional carer). In terms of current deinitions of professional parenthood it need not be a negative element but from the viewpoint of the psychological development of the children it is unquestionably negative. The status of the individual professional mothers depended on the particular child they cared for8. If the status was balanced then everything was all right in relation to the professional mother but later started to be problematic for the children. All the professional mothers acquired this status during their irst visits to the children at the residential home and it was also part of their motive for becoming a professional parent. Several factors sup- 7 8 On the other hand if we are to see professional parenthood as “a hidden means” of fostering, it would be an ideal situation for a child who would get her own “mother”. This means that if the professional mother looked after two children she might have a balanced attitude to one child and an excessively professional attitude to the other or she might be too personally involved. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 121 art iCleS port this inding and they are conirmed by statements made by the professional mothers. They are: − the mother seeing herself as a professional and understanding the inal goal of her job: “We got her with the knowledge that we would have her for a while because an international adoption was being arranged for her... All this warmth was always based on the fact that wow, super you are at our home and it will be super for you somewhere else and it will happen very soon.” − short-term care of the child (ideally it appeared to be best if the child stayed with a professional family for a year, this could be limited by an adaptation period): “Well, if you have to maintain some kind of distance between the professional parent and the child if you have to keep things in perspective, then I think the parent is able to keep themselves in check, since once the child is here, and I get to know them, take note of their needs, and we it in with one another, do it together for a month or two without any problems, then, as they say it’s best to quit while you are ahead.” − acceptation of the child by the other members of the professional family: “Well, and so our biological children... they couldn’t get used to her at all. They thought she was so unpleasant or how can I put it?... But as I was open to her, to her needs...But I have to say the longer it went on for (the bad relationship between her biological children and the looked after child), I can say that they affected me, because they were unhappy with the situation, I also gradually became a little bit colder.” − how the child accepts the professional mother (when the child rejected her, the mother accepted it in a rational way, she was reconciled to it, she was able to accept it); − uncertainty over what it means to place a particular child in professional care: “During the irst few weeks I often wondered whether there was any point in placing her with my family just before she left to join the next family. I asked myself this very question, which is often discussed in the media, why, why?... But gradually this ques- 122 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... tion receded into the background and I realized it was irrelevant when I began to see the beneits appearing” − the psychological stress levels of a professional mother looking after a child in care and how she perceives crises: “There I learnt that really it is only through will power that you can force your mind to be good and to understand that it is the child who needs help and that you are normal, that you are the adult who is there to help the child get through it. Because sometimes it seemed to be the other way round.” − breaking down deep-rooted conceptions about how a child should behave at a particular age: “I cooled a little, or I would say that it started, oh the really dificult period psychologically began when you have to spend all your time with the child, who at the age of three has long legs and arms, beautifully developed, and yet it is as if it were an 8-month-old baby.” − how the professional mother copes when the child leaves the family. Where the professional mother became excessively involved, a doubleedged situation arose: a) she either understood it as a “hidden means” of achieving a more permanent form of substitute care, which meant that she in fact looked after the child as if it had been fostered (this was a conscious behaviour); she took “justice into her own hands”, because otherwise she could not see the point of professional parenthood for herself: “If I could ight for these children I would because I can see they are happy and satisied here and if they were as happy as they are here I would be reconciled to the fact. But if I knew they were going somewhere worse and that everything that had been done for them was pointless, then that would hurt.” b) or she considered professional parenthood to be a job and did not expect this to happen (it was subconscious); as a consequence she “betrayed” her profession: “This awareness, this external awareness, you could say that I was on guard professionally, so I did not bond with her con- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 123 art iCleS sciously, but subconsciously, this hidden human side of me did bond with her” On discovering this we asked ourselves what might cause this kind of change in the status of a professional mother. When analysing the problem we noticed the following factors: − the initial moment of contact between the professional mother and the child at the children’s home, linked to an intensely positive emotional experience: “So and one moment that was really remarkable was when I saw her and I say to the nurse you can put her in my arms, so I held her to me and never before had I experienced such a feeling in my life, such an awareness of the situation, that this was the irst time in my life and I realized that by holding her to me, she had become close to me yes, then it was alright.” (A professional mother who became too involved) “I had the feeling he would prefer not to breathe... He was scared in some way. He didn’t even look at me... not a word, nothing, nothing. When I took him in my arms he remained motionless in the position he was in. Silent... Because he rejected me there at the residential home. He made it clear then that I was... At least that’s how I saw it because he didn’t make a sound, he didn’t move, he didn’t want to communicate with me at all, in any way, nothing, no eye contact.” (A professional mother who remained balanced) − an action on the part of the child, designed to shift the status of the mother from professional to personal (meaning that the child asked her to promise that she would be his mother forever – the promise of permanent love); on the part of the child it was a strategy, for example, laying claim to the professional mother, assuring her that the child loves her, seeking and checking the love of the professional mother, and checking, exerting his own will, relecting his own ideas about his relationship with the professional mother through symbolic play and so forth.9 This factor was also in evidence during our observations: Michal said to his professional mother, “Mum…” The profes9 These strategies began to appear towards the end of the adaptation or at the beginning of the child’s post-adaptation period within the professional family and they tended to increase. 124 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... sional mother looked at him and replied: “Yes?” Michal looked at her and asked, “Do you love me?” The professional mother answered, “Of course I do. I love you very much.” The professional mother kissed him on the cheek several times. The professional mother went out into the hall. Marián followed her. The professional mother came back into the kitchen holding the dustpan and brush. She knelt down and started sweeping. Marián went up to her from behind and put his arms round her waist. He was smiling. The professional mother turned to him and said, “Woof!” Marián started laughing. She turned round again and went on sweeping. Marián walked round her once and hugged her again. He repeated this about three times. The professional mother was doing up Lucia’s slipper. When Barborka saw this, she turned to the professional mother, went up to her and started crying. She stretched her arms towards her. The professional mother told her, “Don’t be jealous, don’t be jealous. You yourself left, don’t be jealous.” Barborka went on crying and sat on the professional mother’s knee. The professional mother was laughing. Barborka was crying. The professional mother told her, “Come on, let’s get up.” Barborka continued to sit and cry. The professional mother smiled and said, “So until Lucia leaves, will you be with me?” Barborka continued to cry. The professional mother told Lucia: “Lucka, wait a moment, please” – she put Barborka and Lucka on the ground and stood up. Barborka started to shout more and grabbed her legs. The professional mother said to her: “So everything is all right now.” − professional mothers who disagree with and are prejudiced against the biological parents to whom the child is to return; − the failure of a professional mother’s defensive mechanisms, as conirmed by the following statement (the time period could be reduced by the child’s adaptation period with the professional family): “Once a year of her stay with us was up, I realized how close to my heart she had become and that if she was placed in substitute care or offered substitute care after a year, I realized that I would ight for her.” In practice there were notable disadvantages when a professional mother displayed excessive professionalism and particularly in her relationship JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 125 art iCleS with the child but also in relation to the professional mother (she herself was aware of it and that produced internal feelings of blame). This status was caused by: − a negative beginning and negative acceptance of the child by the professional mother (in the sense of being professional through will power): “I didn’t resolve this initial antipathy, I didn’t resolve it by giving him back. I tried to train myself to think that I am in this job and so I have to accept this child as well.” − prejudice a professional mother has against a child and his/her ethnicity; − aversion of a professional mother to inappropriate and negative behaviour in a child (this was linked to the onset of negative internal feelings in the professional mother); − divergent perceptions of manifestations of expressions of love in the child and the professional mother (e.g. satisfying the biological needs of a child as an expression of love versus cuddling and requiring physical contact): “It was also like, oh here’s a new auntie, it’s a change, yeah, a new auntie, that’s good. But somehow I have the feeling he didn’t care, that I was just another one.. If you give me my food on time, I’ll let you be and if you don’t I’ll let you know all about it and that was it... Now he knows, now he comes to me – Mum, I want to hug you or – Mum, I want you to hold me in your arms, it is different, the relationship has changed but I’m at that stage where he’s just here temporarily.” − the continuation of internal conlicts in the professional mother, which manifested themselves as external conlicts with the looked after child: “I’m going through a very dificult relationship with him, because he comes to the table... I give him a slice of bread, he eats his, and is capable of taking the others’ slices, if you aren’t quick, then tough, I am hungry. And he says, ‘I want more’, ‘I want more’... ‘That’s enough’. ‘I want more’, and ‘I want more’ and he whines and he throws himself on the ground and does other things like that or simply sits at the table and whimpers.” − conscious or subconscious furthering of a problematic relationship between a professional mother and the child. The problem with these different status categories is that they are very sensitive and the line between them (more precisely the professional mother switching from one category to another and back) is very fragile. We believe 126 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... that what is required is the intervention of experts (psychologists, social workers etc.) in a supervisory sense. We feel that this issue requires intensive cooperation with the professional mothers (parents) in such a way that they might be able to deine her status, achieve greater balance, have an overview of the situation, be able to work on it in a constructive way and adopt certain solutions. The question is whether it is possible to determine and deine this problem in such a precise way. Our opinion is that it is very dificult and that it would be necessary to study it in greater depth, mainly from a psychological point of view. The Inluence the Status of the Professional Mother has on the Relationship with the Looked after Children The status categories were determined on the basis of how the professional mothers understood their duties and their wishes in that respect. However this is also intertwined with the wishes and needs of the looked after children. These two areas were closely interconnected. In this area we have focused on the behaviour of the looked after children and what they requested from their professional mothers. We based our interpretation on the developmental child stages at an early age as formulated by Winnicott (1960; 1971; 1998). The author outlines all four stages that relate to the psychological development of a child from birth up until the age of ive: 1st stage: refers to very early development extending to the prenatal period and including the perinatal and postnatal development of a child as well; 2nd stage: refers to the primitive emotional development of a child when the basis of the relationship between the mother and child is formed10. Winnicott emphasizes the importance of breastfeeding as the means by which the mother gradually reveals the outside world to the child. He describes states such as omnipotence, for example, which expresses the internal magical world of the child. The child relates to the magical world through transitional objects (for example inger sucking, holding a blanket tight, using different creative gestures etc.) Here the author includes: 10 Winnicott uses the term “mother and infant living together”. According to him “the term ‘living with’ implies object relationships, and the emergence of the infant from the state of being merged with the mother, or his perception of object as external to the self” (Winnicott, 1960, p. 588). JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 127 art iCleS − the integration of the psyche within the body; meaning the gradual coming together of the psyche and the body in a single unit 11; − the integrated self, more precisely the achievement of the status of “one”; meaning that the child gradually gains the ability to perceive him/herself and others as one unit; − contact with reality by means of an illusion; this consists of initial sucking, omnipotence and the danger of splitting the internal world into a true and false self. This occurs when the mother fails to show external reality to the child. Externally it is expressed by various primitive actions such as, for example, a child swaying backwards and forwards. This can be observed in psychologically children in residential homes. 3rd stage: this refers to the period when a child adopts a depressive position, meaning that he tries to control his instincts. According to Winnicott feelings of blame originate in the child due to instinctive love, which is directed at the mother. Gradually, exciting and calming forms of relationships come together (controlling instincts), meaning that the child is gradually able to exert control over this instinctive attacking of the mother. Thus the mother has to hold the situation i.e. give the child time to cope with it. The mother has to be lexible and adapt to the child’s needs, thus giving the child the ability to experience caring interest. This way a supportive circle is created, which is strengthened through repetition and this forms the basis for the creation of interpersonal relations. 4th stage: this refers to the formation of interpersonal relations and related complexities (the formation of the id, ego, superego, child sexuality, defensive organisations, three-body relationships, the Oedipus complex etc). According to Winnicott a child experiences all these stages all the time. The difference lies in the fact that some of them dominate during certain periods. We compared the children in this study in this way. The main criterion was the age at which they came to stay with their professional families (we divided them into these categories: under one year old, one year old, and two years or older). The criteria used were: − the family history of the children in care (what experiences had they had in institutional and family care); − the characteristic behaviours of the children, categorised according to the 11 A modern version of this is “mentalisation”, which we understand to mean the human ability to deal with internal states on the psychological level. This means a person can regulate, form and determine relationships, their boundaries and progression over time on an intersubjective level (Vavrda, 2005). 128 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... period in which they occurred (pre-adaptation, adaptation and post-adaptation). This primary categorisation was then linked to: − the duties of the professional mothers in relation to individual children; − the actions of the children which led to attempts by the professional mothers to change their status; − other collateral factors (these factors were described as part of the status of professional mothers). This article presents the indings and interpretations relating to the professional mothers and the children under their care involved in the research project. Our aim was not to make generalizations, but to highlight situations which do in fact occur within professional families. The children under one year old mostly had only experienced institutional environments (i.e. they had been in residential homes since birth). In the pre-adaptation and partly also in the adaptation period, these children did not respond to the new environment of the professional families at all. They did not notice the adults (i.e. the professional parents) and they did not call out for them. The following could be observed in all the children: − that their internal world was divided into a true and false self (this was manifest in the children rocking backwards and forwards, the fact that they existed within their own closed world, inappropriate sucking of ingers, a lower threshold of pain, regression etc.); − clearly demanding sudden satisfaction of the oral instinct (feeding). In terms of the developmental stages outlined by Winnicott, three out of four of the children were at a very early stage (i.e. the irst stage) in the preadaptation period, yet their age indicated that they should be at the phase of completing the total person and have the ability to experience caring interest (i.e. the third stage). The fourth child who had been inluenced by a family environment (for two months) had probably reached the second stage, i.e. contact with reality through illusion. The duties of the professional mothers were also derived from the stage the looked after children had reached. In principle their duties were the same – to create a state of “living together” with the child so that the child could start its primitive emotional development (i.e. the second stage), to give the child a chance to experience caring interest (i.e. the third stage) and later, at an appropriate age, to bring the child up to the three-body relationship (i.e. the fourth stage). In relation to the status levels of the professional mothers, all the children performed actions and made attempts designed to change the mother’s relationship from a professional to a personal one. These attempts started appearing towards the end of the adaptation period and at the beginning of JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 129 art iCleS the post-adaptation period. If the child had competed the adaptation period and had been subsequently entrusted into a more permanent form of substitute care (foster care or adoption), the balanced professional mother status was “enough” for the child. The actions that were designed to change the status would probably then be aimed directly at the substitute mother. If a child had also stayed with a professional family in the post-adaptation period and had been unsuccessful in attempts to shift the professional mother status, then the following problems arose: a) the balanced status of the professional mother eventually changed into a personal status without her expecting it (and this was associated with the beginning of internal conlicts), the child had dificulty in moving fully from the state of “living with mother” to the three-body relationship12. b) Where the professional mother exhibited excessive professionalism and she accepted the child only with strong determination, the child started to behave as if it were at a younger age in development terms i.e. the child regressed. This intensiied considerably when the professional mother was on holiday and the child returned to the residential home for a while. Where the mother was too personally involved (i.e. she promised the child that she would be his mother), these problems did not appear. The children at the age of one who had had experience of being with a family and of being in an institutional environment accepted the professional mothers positively and over the course of time they became proprietorial or even jealous in relation to them. Omnipotence and using transitional objects were characteristic here. The fundamental difference between these children was that they had systematic professional care (one period of care was interrupted when the professional mother was on holiday). In terms of psychological development, both the children came to professional families when they were at the third stage i.e. they had reached the total personal stage and the ability to experience caring interest. Consequently, the professional mother’s task was one of uniting. The professional mother should help the children deal with a lost or interrupted state of “living together”, providing them with experience of caring interest and linking this with the previous relationships in which they had reached the third stage. As was the case with the previous group of looked after children, there was also evident activity of these children focusing on shifting the professional mother status (from professional to personal). It was very intense, purposely aimed at the professional mother and very speciic (the child expressed love 12 The reason could be that there was doubt about the stage because the professional mother had not entered into the relationship with the child as a certainty. 130 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... for the professional mother in various ways and expressed a desire for declarations of love from the professional mother). However, not one of the children was successful in this. The consequences were similar to those experienced by the children from the previous group. They began to doubt their basic love for and trust in the primary person. The situation was worse if the child had experienced being returned to the residential home while the professional mother was on holiday. This resulted in: − the appearance of a false self, the division of the child’s internal world (e.g. the child would rock back and forth, inappropriately suck his/her ingers, retreat into his/her own world etc., which had not been the case before); − a signiicant distrust of love, which later manifested itself as jealous “scenes” towards the professional mother. In this case the state of the child worsened and he slipped back to the previous developmental stage (regression). In this situation the professional care provided for these children was inadequate and it was necessary to place the child directly in a more permanent form of substitute care or arrange an adoption. The last group of children studied were placed in care at the age of two and older. All the children had experienced both family and institutional care, although the time at which this occurred differed. They expressed positive reactions when they came to stay with the professional families (“everything is OK and cool”; “Hurray, I am here”). In spite of this two of them displayed a visible distrust of women13. Their relationships with the professional mothers were problematic during their adaptation period and they were more predisposed towards the professional fathers. Similarly, in relation to expressions indicating a false self, they self-harmed (e.g. pinching, hand-biting, twisting the ear, head butting etc.) and refusing to go to the toilet (they had to wear nappies). At irst they did not distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar people and they had evident problems sleeping and eating. In terms of psychological development they were somewhere between the second and the third stage (i.e. they were resolving the primary issues, accomplishing total person and developing the ability to experience caring interest). The tasks of the professional mothers were therefore quite complicated, because at the time of the adaptation period the children slipped back in terms of development (regression), speciically to the “living together” developmental stage. Thus they had to give the children a chance to expe13 We presumed that this was related to a negative experience with women – mothers. Apart from this child, another child was moved between institutional and family environments several times and repeatedly. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 131 art iCleS rience caring interest and later when this primary need had been satisied, the children were led into the next developmental stages. As far as the stage at which children perform actions intended to change the status of the professional mothers is concerned, this appeared after a certain length of time (once the state of “living together” had been reached, it could be limited by an adaptation period). Two children reached this stage but the third child did not (he performed no actions). We think this was also due to the length of time the children stayed with the professional families (the third child was with the professional family for only 8 months, he was still at the initial stage of “living together” – and at that time he probably “did not need” the promise of eternal love). The child who attempted but did not manage to change the personal attitude of the professional mother had dificulties in shifting to three-body relationships. This problem was not evident in the child who achieved this change and he continued along the path of psychological development. Consequently, we came to the conclusion that as long as a child reaches the “living together” stage (i.e. he catches up on the missing stage of psychological development) it is appropriate to place the child in a permanent form of substitute care or adoption, so that the child can focus his energies on obtaining the promise of certainty and maternal love from the substitute mother instead. However, further research is required to establish the impact this change of primary person would have on the child and its psychological development. Conclusion As far as all our indings are concerned, we came to the conclusion that a child placed in a professional family shifts (or tries to shift) the status of the professional mother to the level the child needs at that moment, depending on which stage of psychological development the child is at (i.e. a balance between professionalism and personal involvement or excessive personal involvement in the sense of guaranteeing that the professional parent will be the child’s mother). If the child is unsuccessful in this, then a distrust of basic love begins to emerge and the child’s psychological development stops (this means that the child will not able to enter the next developmental stage without this full guarantee).14 Attempts to obtain a promise that the professional parent will “be my mother” appear in children who have reached the state of “living together” with the professional mother and who need to shift 14 This means that for a certain length of time, it is enough for the child if the professional mother maintains a balanced. Once this period comes to an end, the child tries to shift the mother to the state of being his/her mother and giving him/her the guarantee of life certainty as Sobotková (2009a) states. 132 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... to a higher level in their psychological development (i.e. shifting to threebody relationships). This most often occurs in the post-adaptation period of a child’s stay with a professional family. In addition to this conclusion we obtained other indings as well: − looked after children who have never experienced or have had minimal experience of a family environment before being taken into institutional care cope better with professional parenting without the promise of certainty and love (this is an “ideal” form of care for children up to the age of one year). It was worse or harder for those children who had been in a family environment for some time before entering institutional care and who had reached the primary task developmental stage (the promise was necessary to create a link between the interrupted psychological development that occurred as a result of their having been removed from their family environment). The most suitable approach for these children is to place them as quickly as possible in a more permanent form of substitute care or adoption. − a change in the status of the professional mother status to one that is excessively personal can happen either consciously or unconsciously on the part of the professional mother. If this occurs subconsciously and the aim of the mother is not to keep the child permanently in her care, then internal conlict may emerge within her, and this is associated with feelings of blame, failure and doubt over her own role. This may result in a conlictual relationship with that particular child. − the level of professionalism as well as the intensity of the defence mechanisms of the professional mother are strongly inluenced by the attitude of the professional father and the other members of the professional family. These may either harden her attitude or return her to primary stage status of (i.e. balanced). − the professional mother’s ability to maintain a balance between professionalism and personal involvement is limited in terms of time (the adaptation period or reaching the “living together” stage) and is inluenced by various external factors. The “ideal” is for the child to stay with a professional family for one year. Our research shows that a signiicant problem was the interruption of professional care when the professional parents were on holiday. This clearly had a negative inluence on the psychological development of the children in care, or it impacted on their development, returning them to an earlier stage. In spite of these indings we believe that professional care within a family is important and that it is of practical use in the ield of institutional care. Under certain circumstances it can provide looked after children with invaluable conditions and opportunities for future development. On the other JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 133 art iCleS hand it can be damaging as a result of various unfortunate decisions in certain areas, which make the previous efforts of the professional parents less valuable, and they really are damaging (e.g. when the professional parents take a holiday). That is why we think it is very important that the conceptions, guarantees, conditions, attitudes and solutions to the problems that arise within this kind of care as well as the various recommendations and advice are continually linked to the actual consequences, which can be gleaned only through practical investigation. In relation to our research indings we would recommend that the problem of appropriately placing children in various forms of institutional care be dealt with more sensitively and that there should be greater consideration of the stages in the psychological development of a child, and this is primarily a task for experts working in residential homes. In line with foreign models of professional care we consider it necessary to provide systematic and purposeful supervision of the professional families; the content of which should also be determined by experts guiding the professional parents. We also believe that it would be beneicial to create several types of professional care, which would be able to respond more to practical needs. R e fe r e n c e s Bubleová, V. & Kovařík, M. (2002). Mezinárodní srovnání přístupů a forem realizace pěstounské péče se zřetelem k využití profesionálních pěstounů při řešení situace ohroženého dítěte a reintegrace rodiny. 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(2011). Profesionálni rodičia považujú pri práci za najťažšiu problematiku „pripútania a odpútania“. Retrieved January 10, 2012, from The Bridges to the Family http://www.mostykrodine.sk/mosty3.pdf 134 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Professional families – the development of the relationship... Matej, V. et al. (2000). Profesionálny rodič alebo guľatá kocka – sprievodca profesionálnou náhradnou výchovou v rodine. Bratislava, Slovakia: Návrat. Pukancová, D. (2006). Hľadá sa profesionálna rodina. Nebyť sám, 3 (2), 20 – 21. Sobotková, I. (2009a). Potřebuje dítě profesionála, nebo rodiče? Biograf, 49, 61 – 64. Sobotková, I. (2009b). Poznámky k současné situaci v ústavní výchově dětí. Retrieved November 04, 2009, from http://anv.cz/odborne/121-poznamky-k-soucasne-si tuaci-v-ustavni-vychove-deti Škoviera, A. (2009a). Profesionálna rodina ako výskumný problém. Biograf, 49, 65 – 69. Škoviera, A. (2009b). Nové dilemy profesionálnych rodín. 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Retrieved November 01, 2009, from In the Interest of the Child http://www.vzd.cz/sites/default/iles/children_in_institutions_prevention_and_ alternative_care.pdf Aut ho r: Katarína Šmajdová Búšová, Ph.d., assistant Professor Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice Faculty of arts department of education Moyzesova 9 Košice 040 01 Slovakia email: busovak@gmail.com JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 135 DOI 10.2478/v10159-012-0007-7 JoP 3(1): 136 – 144 A Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education as linked to anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders Kelly M. Maye Abstract: Cognitive and biophysical factors have been considered contributors linked to identiiable markers of obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders. Research demonstrates multiple causes and mixed results for the short-term success of educational programs designed to ameliorate problems that children with obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders face in the day school setting. The consideration of cognitive and biophysical models of education as related to OCD and anxiety disorder has proven beneicial in determining appropriate treatment for the identiied population of students. In this case study cognitive and biophysical factors are considered to address the referral, eligibility, placement, and treatment of a 4th grade student named Ethan. Ethan exhibited OCD tendencies and elevated levels of anxiety. Ethan often responded to everyday situations with increased emotion of anger and worry, which presented an adverse impact on his educational performance. An array of information was collected as part of the special education evaluation conducted through several measures including: educational diagnostics, surveys, questionnaires, and interviews. Ethan was found eligible for services under the primary disability category “Emotional and Behavioral Disorder”, related to diagnoses of Obsessive Compulsive and Anxiety Disorder. It was determined that the result of such chronic disorders limited Ethan’s ability to access the educational environment, in the absence of specially designed instruction. Interventions considered applicable for implementation were Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), as a form of psychotherapy, and Cognitive Therapy (CT). Key words: Cognitive Model of Education, Biophysical Model of Education, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anxiety, Disorder, Cognitive Therapy, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy 136 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 a Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education... Ethan Student History Ethan is a ten year old, fourth grade, Caucasian male, who was referred for special education during his third grade school year. Information included in the study was obtained through the collection of school records, interviews, surveys, educational diagnostics, and observational data. More speciically, the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, Second Edition (KABC-II) was administered by the educational psychologist to determine his level of general intellect; the Kaufman Tests of Academic Achievement, Second Edition (KTEA-II) was administered by the educational diagnostician to determine academic levels of functioning; behavior observations and review of records was completed by the educational diagnostician, special educator, and educational psychologist; social developmental history was completed by the school psychologist and Ethan’s parents; and parent, teacher, and physician questionnaires and surveys were completed to gather background information and information regarding probable areas of concern. Ethan is an only child who lives with both his mother and father who reside in a mutual household and provide equal physical and emotional support to Ethan. Ethan lives in what seems to be a safe, inviting, and supportive environment. As interviews were typically conducted within the home environment, it was apparent that Ethan was happier and more at ease within the home environment than within the instructional environment. The home was always sanitary and of a welcoming nature. Ethan’s bedroom was illed with maps and map activities, which was a high interest area for Ethan; he had a computer and computer desk that seemed to be set up for both leisure and school related activities. He seemed to rely heavily on his mother for homework support and to relay school related concerns. Ethan’s household socioeconomic status would be considered middle to upper class, with his father employed at a prestigious marketing irm and his mother unemployed by choice. Both parents are educated and have received college/university level degrees. Ethan’s parents noted that although they did not recognize any signiicant cognitive delays early on, they did note a lack of noticeable vocabulary skills late within his second year of life. His parents also reported that he was very “standofish” as a toddler and into early elementary age with his teachers and peers. He often disengaged in social play and group work. He was identiied as systematic and unable to handle non-structured activities and change by his classroom teachers. It was also relayed by his parents that he never liked to get dirty, was a inicky eater, and liked order and sameness. Per Ethan’s original report, referencing a special education referral, he JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 137 art iCleS was originally referred due to recognizable deicits in the areas of mathematical reasoning and written expression. Concerns were also raised referencing Ethan’s emotional instabilities and heightened levels of anxiety. After observational, interview, survey, and diagnostic data were compiled and analyzed, it was determined that Ethan exhibited signs of obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders, with the persistent desire to be reassured and praised while seeking emotional support from his teachers and other adults in authoritative positions. Ethan’s OCD and anxious behaviors concerned those around him in his home and school environments. His dependency on others to provide security and assistance, along with his need to control situations in an unrealistic manner, was additionally concerning to others who knew him on a personal level. Diagnostics conirmed typical development commensurate to his same aged peers referencing intelligence and achievement, yet cognitive eficiency and working memory were recognized as relative weaknesses. Diagnostic testing results also conirmed the existence of anxiety, OCD tendencies, and high achievement motivation. Ethan would often become very anxious and concerned referencing acceptance by others, peer relations, and personal academic performance. Furthermore, it can be assumed that Ethan’s behavioral deiciencies adversely affected his academic performance. Two Models of Thought Two models of thought that support Ethan’s deiciencies and the presence of a disability are the cognitive and biophysical models of learning. The cognitive model addresses Ethan’s need to control and overanalyze situations in an unrealistic manner. His tendency to construe reality, as well as his obsessive compulsiveness lends consistency in support of the cognitive model. Academic deicits can also be deined through cognitive theory. The biophysical model, as related to Ethan’s deiciencies, assumes the problem lies within and is medically related. Many theorists propose that environment, as perceived by the individual, can activate biological problems or genetic predispositions (Webber & Plotts, 2008). It is possible that Ethan’s anxiety was brought about by environmental factors within multiple settings, in which obsessive compulsive and anxious behaviors arise. Cognitive model of education Children, such as Ethan, with obsessive compulsive disorder often never stop worrying. OCD is an anxiety disorder that preoccupies one’s thoughts and beliefs. The anxiety and worry is often so overbearing that children feel 138 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 a Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education... the need to repeat speciic behaviors over and over again in hopes that everything will work out to their desire (The Nemours Foundation, 2010). Ethan consistently over obsessed about the future, and exhibited a strong need to control situations that are often beyond his control. When things go differently than expected, he became anxious and exhibited negative behaviors, which in return affected his academic performance. Positively noted; obsessive compulsive disorder is believed to be a disorder than can be cured, under the notion that “cognitions are under the control of the individual”; therefore can be altered (Webber & Plotts, 2008, p.136). The cognitive model enforces the belief that people can change their thoughts and perceptions through means of self-control and self-regulation in pursuit of increasing mental stability and sustaining more positive and self-fulilling behaviors. The biophysical model supports positive environmental change, or change of setting, that can positively alter student behaviors through effective intervention. To understand the etiology and development of Ethan’s disorder in analyzing cognitive processes, it is important to relay that his long-term unconscious cognitive processes are affected, as his irrational belief system and skewed perceptive thinking affects short-term processes; in his case by means of appraisals and expectations. Beck (1967) afirmed that such short-term processes can contribute to elevated levels of anxiety and worry (as cited in Webber & Plotts, 2008), which was notably present in Ethan’s situation. Individuals like Ethan, who are anxious, often expect negative things to occur. The repeated cycle of forming expectations often concludes false beliefs and alters the way one sees the world. Appraisals, as the concept of individuals placing assumptions to beliefs, quite often affected Ethan’s daily life. He frequently obtained a mentality, scientiically denoted, that one variable is always dependent on another; he overly obsessed on the outcome of multiple events with persistence. If he perceived the outcome inaccurately he may experience disappointment and dysfunctional feelings which would commonly lead to unhealthy behaviors. Beck’s cognitive theory model expressed the idea that individuals who misinterpret facts and experiences in an atypical manner, limits their overall focus on negatively related concepts and forms misconceptions about future events (Allen, 2003). It is important for Ethan to set rational self-focused goals to aid in developing accurate assumptions and perceptions of current and future life events. In relation to learning dificulties that Ethan experienced, cognitive theorists engage in the idea that information is learned through making connections; furthermore, linking prior knowledge to newly learned concepts. Grow (1996) suggested using elaboration as a positive strategy to enhance cogniJoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 139 art iCleS tion; he deined elaboration as linking prior knowledge to new ideas, so that the two may become more deeply intertwined, thus more commonly practiced. “Learning takes place when new information becomes part of existing knowledge” (Grow, 1996, p.3), yet in Ethan’s case cognitive perceptions of life must be addressed prior to enforcing academic strategy, as a means to control behaviors. These behaviors often greatly impacted his overall academic performance and learning experiences. Grow (1996) afirmed that “knowledge can be called useful only if you can access it under appropriate circumstances” (p. 3). Ethan often allowed his knowledge of life concepts to guide his perceptions and appraisals, thus altering his expectations of himself and others. Oliver (1980) suggested that early propositions are linked to student satisfaction and more positive expectations, and that satisfaction increases as performance level increases. Ethan’s situation supports the view that behavior can impede one‘s ability to perform. Students with conduct related disorders statistically perform poorly academically. Webber and Plotts (2008) claimed that students with conduct related disorders often exhibit impulsive behaviors, distractibility, and inattentiveness, which can easily lead to problems with self-control that may predispose them to academic related dificulty. Rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT) is a developed cognitive method that refers to changing one’s belief system in order to cure disorders that relate to misperceptions and faulty belief systems (Webber & Plotts, 2008). A prime example of Ethan’s irrational behavior that may render the need for therapeutic intervention, such as REBT, is his constant worry and obsession in planning his future, as reported by his mother, which contributed to the irrational belief that if he doesn’t start planning now, he will become a failure later. When children establish irrational beliefs, increased levels of anxiety can arise and the feeling of extreme discouragement can come about. Horowitz (2009) identiied that the “mismatch between ability, expectations, and outcomes can cause tremendous disappointment and frustration, resulting in a cascade of emotions and behaviors that can interfere with everyday functioning” (p. 1). Biophysical model of education The biophysical model of education is a model that justiies disordered behavior as genetically, bio-chemically or neurologically related, as well as conceptualized through innate temperament (Webber & Plotts, 2008). Research on genetic, biochemical, and neurological factors is linked to severe emotional and behavioral impairments. Rhodes and Tracy (1974) identiied the biophysical model as a conceptual model that aids in under140 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 a Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education... standing emotional and behavioral disorders (as cited in Zabel, 1988). Temperamental and possible genetic factors may deine Ethan’s atypical behaviors, yet the idea that biochemical factors may contribute directly to his speciic behavioral deicits was not addressed. Webber and Plotts (2008) informed that “temperament refers to a behavioral style that is an inborn tendency, yet is highly inluenced by one’s environment or setting” (p.93). Ethan exhibited four of the nine characteristics of temperament; deined by Thomas, Chess, and Birch (1969); including adaptability, threshold of responsiveness, intensity of reaction, and mood quality (as cited in Webber & Plotts, 2008). Temperament factors related to EBD describes inborn tendencies to react with inappropriate, disruptive, and negative behaviors, yet is also inluenced by environmental factors. Rothbart and Mauro (1990) related temperament to “activity level, rhythmicity, fearful distress, positive affect, attention span and persistence, and irritability and distress” that is exhibited over a period of time and is inluenced by environmental factors (as cited in Webber & Plotts, 2008, p.93). An abundance of educating professionals and researchers acknowledge that innate temperamental factors do often deine an emotional and/or behavioral disorder, yet particular mental patterns cannot be determined when referencing the diagnosis of EBD, due to the existence of concomitant behaviors. Implications taken together with the complex nature of deining biophysical factors pose distinct challenges for educators at all levels of education (Tibell & Rundgren, 2009). Genetic factors refer to inherited disorders, such as manic depression, anxiety, mood disorder, and anti-social personalities, which are suspected genetically transmitted disorders that may be linked to exhibited signs of emotional and/or behavioral disturbance (Webber & Plotts, 2008). A mass of educating professionals support the idea that an emotional or behaviorally related disorder can be generated within the individual through genetic factors, and that genetically determined factors can be changed over time through environmental cause (Webber & Plotts, 2008). Evidence has pinpointed genetics as a predisposing factor of obsessive compulsive disorder; Beck (1976) claimed that many people with OCD have one or more family members who also have the disorder or other anxiety disorders inluenced by the brain’s serotonin levels (as cited in Allen, 2003). “Scientists have come to believe that the tendency, or predisposition, for someone to develop the serotonin imbalance that contributes to obsessive compulsive tendencies is often genetically inherited” (The Nemours Foundation, 2010, p. 2). Obsessive compulsive disorder and mood disorders, in which Ethan has exhibited signs of, correlate with elevated levels of neurotransmitters, speciically serotonin that is present in the blood system and contributes to heightened anxiety and stress. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 141 art iCleS Although it is largely agreed upon that biophysical factors do contribute to emotional and behavioral deiciencies; deining and validating the existence of such factors may require attention from external sources. The biophysical model supports underlying factors that often contribute to the diagnosis of EBD, but not legitimately through expertise of educating professionals or public school related staff. A school psychologist can offer valuable insight on underlying factors obtained through evaluation processes, yet typically the identiication and noted presence of biophysical attributes is established by medical personnel. “In the biophysical model, medical interventions are sought when a physiological cause for emotional and/or behavioral disorder is hypothesized or identiied” (Webber & Plotts, 2008, p.97). Educating professionals, notably in the ield of special education, are bound to addressing deiciencies through the process of intervention and productive teaching. Applications of genetic counseling and technologies may be productive in directing a possible genetic etiological factor, as applications of nutrition therapy, counseling and behavioral interventions may be appropriate in addressing a possible etiological factor of temperament (Webber & Plotts, 2008). Webber and Plotts (2008) suggested the use of developmental histories and genetic testing to determine the existence of genetic related disabilities, and the administering of temperament assessment and DNA testing to determine the presence of temperament as an etiological factor related to possible biophysical deiciencies. Conclusions As the referral process was concluded, Ethan was found eligible for services under the primary disability category “Emotional and Behavioral Disorder”, related to diagnoses of Obsessive Compulsive and Anxiety Disorder. It was determined that the result of such chronic disorders limited Ethan’s ability to access the educational environment, in the absence of specially designed instruction. Treatment Interventions considered applicable for implementation were Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), as a form of psychotherapy, and Cognitive Therapy (CT). It was determined that REBT would be administered through pull out services, by the educational psychologist, during the regular instructional day. REBT is to be structured in an active-directive manner, with the goal of working through a set of target problems and establishing therapeutic goals. Over time, Ethan is expected to work through his 142 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 a Case study of cognitive and biophysical models of education... problems and learn to generalize insights to other relevant, more positive situations. The outlook is to utilize REBT as an intervention with brief and limited measure. The goal is for Ethan to transition from REBT with a developed understanding of how to deal with the elusive condition of OCD and accept emotional responsibility for his problems, while obtaining the willingness and determination to change targeted behaviors. Cognitive Therapy (CT) is to be implemented both during and after REBT has been concluded. The goal of using CT with Ethan to concentrate on the obsessions and compulsions is to intertwine cognitive conceptualization and management. Cognitive conceptualization should be implemented in the absence of challenge, as the focus is reassurance oriented. “Helping people to separate themselves (i.e. their “genuine” identity) from the emotional and/or moral implications of what this disorder seems to represent, is a major portion of cognitive conceptualization” (Phillipson, 2011, p. 2). Cognitive management, as the latter approach, is to be implemented and reinforced in both the therapeutic setting and instructional setting with Ethan. Cognitive management can be used to help Ethan respond effectively to cognitive prompts or physiological experiences of perceived danger or worry. Phillipson (2011) conferred how fundamental it is that one’s scheme of creating cognitive restoration not be a pre-programmed, rote, automatic reaction. The more one inculcates an authentic poignant importance into the responses, the more they will boost the effectiveness of the therapy (Reed, 2010). Removal of variables that reinforce the behavior, habitually revisiting areas that produce anxiety and obsessions as a means to reduce Ethan’s brain sensitivity to particular emotions, and exposing him to stressors that engage ritual, will work together in hopes of creating increased resilience to reversion. R e fe r e n c e s Allen, J. P. (2003). An overview of Beck’s cognitive theory of depression in contemporary literature [Unpublished works]. Rochester Institute of Technology. Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and emotional disorders. New York, NY: International University Press. Grow, G. (1996). Serving the strategic reader: Cognitive reading theory and its implications for the teaching of writing [Unpublished works]. Florida A&M University. Horotwitz, S. H. (2009). Behavior problems and learning disabilities. National Center for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved April 16, 2012, from http://www.ncld.org/ldbasics/ld-aamp-social-skills/social-aamp-emotionalchallenges/behavior-problemsand-learning-disabilities. Oliver, R. L. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction decisions. Journal of Marketing Research, 17(4), 460-469. JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 143 art iCleS Phillipson, S. (2011). When seeing is not believing: A cognitive therapeutic differentiationbetween conceptualizing and managing OCD. Retrieved April, 16, 2012, from http://www.ocdonline.com/deinecbt.php Reed, S. K. (2010). Cognition: Theories and applications (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth,Cengage Learning. The Nemours Foundation. (2011). Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Retrieved April, 16, 2012, from http://kidshealth.org/kid/feeling/emotion/ocd.html# Thomas, A., Chess, S. & Birch, H. (1969). Temperament and behavior disorders in children.New York, NY: University Press. Tibell, L., A., E. & Rundgren, C. J. (2009). Characteristics and implications for education and research. Manuscript submitted for publication, Department of Thematic Studies, Linkoping University, Norrkoping, Sweden. Webber, J. & Plotts, C.A. (2008). Emotional and behavioral disorders: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Zabel, R. H. (1988). Use of time by teachers of behaviorally disordered students: A replication. Behavioral Disorders, 13(2), 89-97. Aut ho r: Kelly M. Maye, Ph.d. candidate Carter G. Woodson academy Faculty Special education 1813 Charleston drive lexington Kentucky 40505 USa email: kmaye011@odu.edu 144 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 rePortS REPORTS Standardization and Normalization of Childhood Conference Martin Luther University of Halle -Wittenberg, 24. – 25.11. 2011 The conference “Standardization and Normalization of Childhood”, hosted by the research committees “Sociology of Childhood” and “Sociology of Medicine and Health” of the German Sociological Association, took place on November 24 and 25 at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. While the presentations of the irst day took on a theoretical and conceptual view of the child and childhood, the topics of the second day were related to established practices of medical and welfare state institutions. Johannes Behrens opened the conference by presenting his thesis on a growing pedagogization of the medical ield, stating that numerous normalization approaches are oriented towards the best possible rather than towards the mere average. Because “being healthy” as the new opposing code to “being ill” is ininitely gradable, many spheres of the health-care ield are now subject to an increasingly pedagogical understanding of care. Ondrej Kaščák (with Branislav Pupala) discussed the shift of standards from a “universal norm” towards a “norm of uniqueness”; a process which also contains the idea that current developmental and achievement standards can (or should be) potentially outperformed by children. Kaščák and Pupala presented results of discourse analyses and showed how the theoretical concept of the “zone of proximal development” (L. S. Vygotsky) is now being interpreted against the backdrop of a neoliberal ideology. According to Kaščák and Pupala, the concepts put forward within the “Developmentally Appropriate Practice” (e.g. the instrumentalization of “high-level play” for the development of “fundamental capacities”) as well as “wunderkind” programmes launched by schools (Small Genius, Minopolis) and within teacher training (fostering of “key competences”), as well as statements of the European Economic and Social committee (fostering of entrepreneurial skills in classroom lessons), all display this shift. While Behrens talked about the pedagogization of medicine, one could speak of a “medicalization of pedagogy” in the contribution of Katharina JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 147 rePo rt S Rathmann (with Klaus Hurrelmann and Matthias Richter, according to the programme). She analysed data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study (HBSC) to compare integrating educational systems with segregating educational systems. The preliminary hypothesis of Rathmann states that students of highly segregating education systems (as in Germany and Austria) are suffering less from psychosomatic stress than their fellow students in integrating educational systems. She relates this with a higher homogeneity in the former, which, according to her, mitigates the competitive atmosphere and, therefore, reduces psychological pressure on students. In this way, a medical variable is used as a criterion for the evaluation of school types. Tanja Betz and Stefanie Bischoff presented results of a discourse analysis of political reports, tackling the question of how the concept of “risk” in relation to children and childhood is used in political debates. The contributors differentiated several discourse patterns: The irst position is based on the idea of the endangered and vulnerable child – the deicient child at risk. According to Betz and Bischoff, this position is being constructed alongside well-established concepts of “good childhood”. Opposed to this is the notion of the child as a potentially dangerous future adult – the child as social risk. While debates using the irst concept evolve around the well-being and suffering of the child, the use of the second is usually related to arguments concerning social and economic costs and the loss of human capital. A methodologically similar access to this subject was chosen by Lena Correll, who analysed the constructions of childhood presented in family reports (published by the Federal Ministry of Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth) from 1949 until today. She illustrated how the child of the 1950s and 1960s was assigned the place of a nearly invisible accessory in the strongly supported nuclear family. Only later, in the course of the 1970s, did the child receive more rights and autonomy. According to Correll, the image of childhood and the corresponding argumentation of the family and education policy in the 1980s were increasingly oriented towards a calculation of human resources, which have been verbalized even more strongly since the 1990s. As a result of this development, Correll argues, the child was raised to a political hope of society in educational, demographic, as well as commercial terms. Whereas the contributions that have been described so far mainly dealt with variations of normativity and displaced norms, the following presentations focused rather on strategies to discover deviations and the congruent efforts of normalizing them. Helga Kelle’s contribution was about the epidemiological data collection 148 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 Standardization and Normalization of Childhood of German school enrolment tests. Using exemplary reconstructions of the testing of language skills, she illustrated how newly introduced standardized test instructions, on the one hand, and established practices of individual diagnosis which school physicians use, on the other hand, are combined in estimating the school readiness of children. According to Kelle, the data thus produced would not accord to the scientiic standards of reliability. Kelle pointed out how this could lead to signiicant bias in the results which are the basis for communal health reporting. By contrasting the work of socio-pedagogical family assistants and midwives, Steffen Eisentraut and Hannu Turba analysed the logics underlying these professionals’ actions in the ield of child protection. In this context, the actors have to draw on a given legal norm and have to take different conceptions of normalcy into consideration when negotiating each individual case. Eisentraut and Turba demonstrated that midwives base their decisions on norms of health and development, focusing heavily on child development and the mother-child relation. Their practices can be said to follow a “development logic”. Socio-pedagogical family assistants, in contrast, consider the life situation of the whole “family-system” and the lifestyle of the parents – strategies which could be subsumed under the term “deviation logic”. The referees argue that national child protection attempts to normalize the child by educating parents to follow norms. Gertrud Ayerle described the speciic structures of intervention in the ield of midwives. She contrasted the developmental and care processes of babies who were taken into custody at a very young age with those who stayed in their families until their irst birthdays. Referring to Ayerle, the families in both groups are exposed to various dificulties. Responding to the particular needs of the families, the midwives reacted supportively. Ayerle emphasizes, especially in those cases where babies were taken out of the families at a very young age, that the interdisciplinary and professional cooperation of midwives and the network “Frühe Hilfen” (early family support) can be a potentially effective and lasting support of the parental responsibility and the wellbeing of the child. Claudia Peter in her presentation, contrasted two differently led medical discourses. She claims that the irst medical specialist discourse dealing with adiposity of children is based on protonormalistic and moralistic requirements of normalcy in which overweight children are categorized as potential risks for society. Peter reveals the knowledge-based strategies of normalcy which are followed, even though there are serious gaps of knowledge about the complexity of the genesis of adiposity. She describes that the specialist discourse about premature infants differs from this knowl- JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 149 rePo rt S edge-based perspective, since it has been mediated in a more value-based and relatively lexible manner by experts side-by-side with the parents concerned. Another ield where medical science has a massive impact on the standardization and normalization of childhood was presented in the contribution of Josephin Brade, Sebastian Jentsch and Katharina Liebsch (together with Rolf Haubl, according to the programme): By means of two contrasting case studies, they demonstrate how socially deviant children are diagnosed with ADHD by pediatrists in the course of a communicative process with parents. Among the adults involved, this diagnosis is communicated as “help”. The scientists from Frankfurt showed how parents hereby derive their strategies for coping with the speciic deviance of their child. As in the adiposity discourse, the underlying logic for this diagnosis is reduced to medical criteria and neurobiological interrelations, disregarding the speciic contextual criteria of the infantile living environment. A further form of deviance of a norm was brought up by a contribution of Solveig Chilla and Burkahrd Fuhs. They illustrated the logic of deviance in the context of the perception and the handling of a deiciency using the example of deaf children. In a profoundly emotionalized discussion about deafness, parents would be confronted with the decision to let the so-called Cochlear implant be implanted into their children – a grave, irreversible surgery, oriented towards the standards of hearing and the medical-technical possibilities to fulil them. According to Fuhs and Chilla, the debate about participation in society and structural discrimination is additionally intensiied by the high costs for the implantation and the primacy of verbal speech. Corresponding to the criticism of the different discourses, the question was brought up why the child’s perspective was left out in most of the study designs presented. Furthermore, the increasing participation of economists in shaping childhood was discussed. Childhood sociologists tend to criticise this development more or less explicitly – the market-economic actors’ existing focus on the child that could be judged positively as well would be unconsidered in such a view. Thus, a differentiated perspective based on empirical studies is missing so far. In general, the various and thematically coherent contributions led to a multifaceted impression of the relation between medical and sociological topics in the ield of children and childhood and opened up new perspectives for both disciplines. Miriam Böttner, Jessica Schwittek, Aytüre Türkyilmaz 150 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 reVieWS REVIEWS MÁLKOVÁ, G.: Zprostředkované učení. Jak učit žáky myslet a učit se. (Mediated Learning Experience. How to Teach Pupils Think and Learn) Praha: Portál, 2009. 116 pp. The Mediated Learning Experience (MLE), understood as a special-pedagogical approach in the educational process, has become a modern trend in pedagogy advocating principles that are in conlict with behavioural or cognitive-psychological theories (supported by e.g. Piaget), i.e., theories that see the development of intelligence and learning processes as a mere product of direct interaction between man and his environment, omitting his social and cultural dependence. MLE, constructed by Feuerstein, connects two approaches: the dynamic assessment of abilities offering a new view of a child’s intellectual development, and an active involvement of adults in the process of learning. Lately, this approach has received favourable responses in a world-wide context. The Slovak and Czech professional public now have the opportunity to become acquainted with the thoughts of the aforementioned Israeli psychologist and pedagogue R. Feuerstein, which are presented by Gabriela Málková in her publication Mediated Learning Experience. This book represents the outcome of the author’s expertise and long-running work in the ields of psychology and special pedagogy. It can be labelled as a follow-up to her earlier monograph The Art of Mediated Learning Experience (published by Togga publishing house in 2008 and dealing with the program of Instrumental Enrichment) and can be perceived as its expanded and revised edition. The publication is intended mainly for teachers of irst-graders in elementary schools; at the same time, its target group also includes special pedagogues, students of pedagogy, psychologists and others. The book is written from the author’s perspective; thanks to her longtime experience in the given area, Málková is able to come up with a wealth of examples from practice. The text of the publication is written in a popular style and can be described as reader friendly. The book, however, maintains the appropriate quality of professional text presentation. The introductory chapter acquaints readers with the essence of MLE. Here, Málková briely identiies and deines its main features as well as describes the signiicance of MLE for an individual’s optimal development. Standard deinitions of MLE that can be found in publications dealing with the topic are supplemented with illustrative examples and experience from the author’s own practice. Along with this, Reuven Feuerstein and his work are introduced. Málková gives the reader clues as to how to interpret his theories; she searches for a connection between Feuerstein’s professional diagnostic activity and educational practice. The principles of Piaget are also outlined to clarify the essence of Feuerstein’s unique understanding of the JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 153 re V ie WS nature of a child’s learning. In the same spirit, Vygotsky is introduced as the representative of socio-cognitive theories and one of founders of the idea of mediated learning in pedagogy. Putting Feuerstein, Piaget and Vygotsky, the world’s three most inluential cognitive psychologists, into context helps to create a complex picture of the problem. We can positively assess the section dedicated to Instrumental Enrichment, especially to individual parts of the program with illustrations, since it contributes to our comprehending the concepts of MLE. Moreover, in this monograph, the typical structure of a cognitive stimulation unit within the domain of Instrumental Enrichment has gained an applicative dimension. The second chapter provides information about key features of MLE. Its universal attributes are as follows: 1. Intentionality and Reciprocity, where intention to mediate is designed to create reciprocity, understood as the pupil’s will to respond to both the content and the process of the interaction; 2. Mediation of Transcendence, i.e. going beyond the “here and now”; and 3. Mediation of Meaning, which answers questions such as “why, what for”. The author emphasizes the importance of using these universal parameters of MLE in everyday lessons at school, while at the same time she provides readers with detailed description of experiences from practice and elaborates on model learning situations. The didactic objective is clearly emphasized by the presence of examples of teacher-pupil interaction woven into the chapter. The attention of the next chapter is focused on supplementary, situational or reinforcing parameters of MLE. We share the author’s opinion that even though they are labelled as peripheral, i.e. they do not necessarily need to become the constituents of mediated interaction, they still comprise a crucial part of mediation and consecutively, should not be neglected. As Málková concludes, in situations of MLE, these parameters noticeably inluence individual differences in creation of cognitive styles, the ability to think, the attitude towards learning and cognitive situations, the development of pupils’ self-awareness and their understanding of other people. Nine parameters are logically divided into two main categories in this book. The irst category incorporates parameters of MLA that are connected to the control-overlearning process: mediation of a feeling of competence; mediation of regulation and control behaviour; mediation of goal seeking, goal setting, goal achieving, and goal monitoring behaviour; mediation of challenge – the search for novelty and complexity; mediation of the awareness of the human being as a changing entity, and mediation of the search for optimistic alternatives. The second group consists of three parameters of MLA that are related to the support of a pupil’s social development: mediation of sharing behaviour; mediation of individuation and psychological differentiation, and mediation of the feeling of 154 JoUrNal oF P e d aG o G Y 1 / 2 0 1 2 MÁlKoVÁ, G.: Zprostředkované učení. Jak učit žáky myslet a učit se. belonging. The latter three parameters assist in the development of a pupil’s individuality and relationships with other people. This well arranged depiction of the nine supplementary parameters of MLE is presented together with appropriate examples of their use in an educational setting. We ind the last chapter especially ediiyng, since it puts emphasis on the use of knowledge about MLE in pedagogical practice, pedagogical-psychological diagnostics in particular. Besides description of a traditional psychometric assessment of abilities, readers can also ind information about dynamic versions of their assessment here. Static and dynamic diagnostics are compared and differences are clearly visualized. Vygotsky’s work and thoughts are again touched on; however, unlike in the irst chapter, the author here discusses the Zone of Proximal Development in connection with the dynamic assessment paradigm. Feuerstein’s Dynamic Assessment is included in the closing part of the last chapter. Málková refers to the most frequently used method of Dynamic Assessment, LPAD; at the same time, though, she points out that the test battery has not been translated into Czech yet. Nevertheless, the author brings model dialogues to the training phase of dynamic investigation which were drawn from freely available foreign publications. What is more, readers can ind structured record sheets designated for systematic coding of an observed pupil’s learning style as well as his or her behaviour in various learning situations. All in all, it can be said that Málková has produced a well-written and well-structured book. If something appears to be missing in this publication, however, this is a broader discussion of the key aspect that is closely related to all terms mentioned above (MLE, Instrumental Enrichment and Dynamic Assessment), and that is Structural Cognitive Modiiability. Since the Instrumental Enrichment program is based on both the theory of Structural Cognitive Modiiability and the applications of MLE, the former should not be omitted when arguing about the plasticity of the brain and changes in structures of the brain as resulting from interventions. Nonetheless, the book serves its purpose, its crucial message being to present the concept of MLE as such to the educational community. The core of the book deals with Feuerstein’s theories and diagnostics, as well as the intervention when working with children. Málková explicitly states that this monograph should be understood as a manual and source of inspiration for those involved in organizing the educational process. The aim of the publication was to clarify the bases of MLE to a wider professional public. We assume that this aim has been successfully fulilled and consider Málková’s Mediated Learning Experience a valuable book in the context of the current Czech pedagogical scene. 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Articles which exceed this will have to be returned to the author for editing. All articles must be in written in English and correspond to the JoP ‘housestyle’ in terms of referencing etc. Further information on this is available at the JoP webpage: http://www.versita.com/jlpy/. Full papers must be submitted to JoP DWMRS#WUXQLVNE\:('1(6'$<-8/<$OOSDSHUVZLOOEHUHYLHZHGE\WKH guest editor and the JoP editorial collective. We look forward to receiving your papers in due course but do please get in touch if you have any questions or issues relating to this. JOURNAL OF PEDAGOGY vol. 3/2012 1 ISSN 1338-1563