Thesis (Ph. D. in Leadership and Policy Studies)--Vanderbilt University, May 2007. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

In China, to go to college one must first pass the entrance exam commonly known as the gaokao . The test is grueling, but also seen as the key in China to becoming elite and successful in China's competitive job market, no matter what walk of life a person comes from. This paper examines the images society has created around the gaokao's status in China, and seeks to understands the dualities between these images and the realities that exist in China today- realities sometimes far different than what the gaokao promises.

This thesis investigates teachers’ perceptions of continuing professional development (CPD) in Germany and Sweden with a questionnaire study comprising a total of 711 mainly lower secondary teachers. Three conceptual terms are elaborated and explained. Teachers act in a CPD marketplace that is constituted by several sources of knowledge which offer opportunities for teachers’ development. How teachers act in the marketplace is a key part of their CPD culture. The study reveals similarities in the two cases regarding the importance of colleagues as well as informal development activities, but there are also significant differences. One the one hand, German teachers can be described as more active in their CPD than their Swedish colleagues in relation to particular aspects of their profession such as assessment, and more suspicious of knowledge from elsewhere, on the other. In order to understand the differences, I argue for an extended focus on the impact of the national context, in terms of socially and historically significant structures and traditions of the teaching profession. The thesis focuses on a crucial aspect with a particular explanatory value for differing CPD tendencies in various national contexts: Autonomy from a governance perspective. This phenomenon, which does indeed change across time and space, is investigated from a socio-historical perspective in both contexts, building on Margaret Archer’s analytic dualism of structure and agency, and a dual pronged model of teacher autonomy. The latter distinguishes institutional autonomy, regarding legal or status issues, from service autonomy related to the practical issues in schools and classrooms. Since these dimensions can be either extended or restricted, different categories evolve which enable us to understand the differences between the two cases. Finally, by using the findings on the German and Swedish teaching profession, a theoretical framework is presented that relates the certain forms of teacher autonomy in particular national contexts to likely CPD cultures that teachers share.

Thesis--Stockholm. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-259).

No description available.

No description available.

This study analyses differences between student groups at Umeå University, Sweden, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. It analyses student study situations, students’ experience of the university environment, students’ exercise and sports activities, and connections between study and leisure-time activities. The study owes much to Bourdieu’s Homo Academicus (English edition 1988), and his theories of cultural reproduction, social structures and habitus, and focuses on students from the subject areas teacher education, natural sciences, humanities and sports. Attention is also given to family backgrounds and female/male variance. The data were collected in 1994-1995, with the aid of 782 questionnaires and 64 interviews. The results show differences between students at the two universities in terms of study time, parents’ education and leisure activities and part-time jobs. Students in the studied groups, differ in many respects. The groups have distinct characteristics in terms of, for example, age and sex ratios. The students’ family backgrounds are also divergent, depending on which discipline the student belongs to. These variations between disciplines are found at both universities. Physical activities (action sports) are popular activities, at both universities. Women and men exercise in different ways, although they might have a similar social situation. The scientific methodology of Bourdieu is also discussed in the study. In sum, the results indicate that there are sub-fields within the university. Individuals with different conditions and habitus, to use Bourdieu’s terminology, inhabit these sub-fields.

China’s curriculum system has been undergoing substantial transformations since 1986. In response to public criticism of the highly prescribed national curriculum, the central state of China is attempting to build a more inclusive system which is composed of national curriculum, province curriculum and school-based curriculum. The new curriculum system accommodates more flexibility in carrying out national curriculum policies and even encourages local input in curriculum development and management. Apparently, the current curriculum reform in China is moving toward decentralization. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the complexity of decentralization reform in China’s curriculum system and examine the dynamics of policy formulation and outcomes of reform efforts in great depth. The main argument made in this socio-philosophical work is that the on-going Chinese curriculum reform is a process of centralized decentralization, which merely transfers work to the local level but not real authority. With an inquiry into the impetus of current Chinese curriculum reform, this theoretical research illustrates that centralized decentralization is taken as a strategic imperative by the state to avoid loss of control over school curriculum that carries particular social and political significance for China in a transitional period. Another major task for this cultural studies research is to problematize the strategy of centralized decentralization, investigating the consequences of the superficial decentralization in reality and analyzing the bottlenecks in promoting current Chinese curriculum reform. In this research, Mark Hanson’s conceptual framework of education decentralization is used to clarify ambiguity in defining decentralization reform in the education sector in China. Meanwhile, Foucault’s theory about power/knowledge and governmentality and Williams’ theory about hegemony are used to deepen the understanding of the state-education relationship in contemporary China. Besides a descriptive analysis of phenomena in current Chinese curriculum reform, the discussion is deployed through pragmatic approach and logic-based reasoning. Most data are obtained from literature review, including previous studies on Chinese education reform, government documents, laws and regulations related to current Chinese curriculum reform.

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-110).

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 100-110).