This thesis examines the historical relationship between government and self-government, and the contemporary role that Action Research (AR) occupies as a liberal technology of government. It draws upon the Teaching for Effective Learning in Senior Schooling (TELSS) project as the example. This project, which was based on a 'collaborative' AR methodology, was just one of the many national post-compulsory schooling reform initiatives that emerged during the late 1980s and 1990s. At that time, AR and Participatory Action Research (PAR) were preferred methodologies by education faculty personnel, and some teachers, as practical alternatives to 'positivist' social science approaches. This is still the case, both locally and internationally. The initial focus of the thesis is to trace the role of the school and the family in the government of populations, and show how AR is currently positioned as a mechanism for establishing and installing new forms of self-management within these historical institutional arrangements. This includes enticements and inducements to participate in one's own self-management. The AR perspective seeks to make a practical intervention in the re-organization and management of schools, as well as other workplaces and organizations, as a means to promote and develop ongoing professional learning within these organizations. The thesis highlights some confusing issues surrounding contemporary attempts by schools to open themselves to the community, however. AR has achieved considerable success to the extent that expert AR consultants have been commonly employed by Education Departments in many countries to foster new ways of attaining educational goals. Drawing upon other examples, as well as this case study, the contrast between the high expectations of project participants, and their limited outcomes, suggests the need to query AR's representations of participation. This includes some contemporary conceptions of how 'the school community' operates. Is there another way that we can understand this particular territory, and parent involvement in schools more generally, other than in political terms such as the need to 'democratize the community'? The AR commentary focuses on the 'egalitarian' ideal of emancipation and empowerment via participation. AR's preference for participation through human self-determination over that of statist instrumental rationality is questioned, however, by drawing upon empirical evidence generated by the case study, as well as other theoretically informed material. The thesis moves to an account of the role of different forms of government which enable self-management, particularly the role of the school community within the field of education and its administration. By situating the TELSS case study and its limits in what Michel Foucault (1991) terms the history of 'governmentality', AR is described as part of government and an aid to social reform programmes. Inside this discussion, some of AR's self promotions and understandings will re re-defined. These include an anti-bureaucratic rhetoric, concerns about hierarchical power relations, and aspirations of self-autonomy, emancipation and social justice. How is it that educational bureaucracies are so amenable to taking on board goals for educational reform expressed in the form of frequently anti-bureaucratic radical critique? The thesis undertakes the task of investigating this peculiarity, as well as some of the negative outcomes of such liberal governmental undertakings.

In Australia, the development and implementation of National Training Packages has been a major tool in the drive to reform of the vocational education and training system. The main aim of the reform is to establish a national vocational and education system within a federal political system and to make vocational educations and training providers more responsive to the needs of industry, by industry specifying its skill needs through the mechanism of national Training Packages. The background to this workplace project, the Review of the Community Services Training Package, and this study, is established by a review of policy and literature in relation to national training reform issues and stakeholder management within a public policy context. This review established some principles of good practice in relation to stakeholder management. The industry context of the workplace project is discussed. The workplace project is then unpacked in some detail with specific reference to stakeholder management strategies and issues and some specific stakeholder groups. This exegesis goes on to explore stakeholder behaviour in this particular workplace project in its historical context of the introduction of Training Packages to the vocational education and training system. It explores the perspectives of teachers and industry on the implementation of Training Packages and in particular the gap between educational technologies and industry expectations of standards of work performance. The exegesis concludes with some suggestions of opportunities for enhanced workplace practice in stakeholder management and for further research. It also suggests a job of work for industry and teachers to develop new communities of practice around Training Packages as a means of bringing together their sometimes divergent interests.

In 1999, the Swedish Parliament decided to launch an experiment to test the idea of replacing, at the compulsory educational level, the national time schedule with localized control of schedules. This was in keeping with strategies of deregulation, decentralisation and increased local autonomy that had dominated Swedish education policy, particularly since the 1990s. The aim of the thesis is to describe and analyse the initiation, decision, implementation and consequences of this experiment The analytical framework combines several different approaches and theories from the literature on public policy and policy analysis. The framework encompasses four dimensions, which cover the experiment’s origins, local application in the classroom setting and consequences. On the empirical level, findings are based on interviews with 32 municipal school directors, and head teachers, teachers and pupils in three schools participating in the experiment, as well as written sources from schools, municipalities, and the national level. The thesis shows that the policy problem the experiment was intended to resolve was represented in an inconsistent manner: On the one hand, the experiment was perceived as a driving force for change; on the other hand, it was seen as legitimising a change that had already taken place. Furthermore, the experiment was formulated in vague terms, which accorded far-reaching discretionary space to the schools. The program’s causal theory expressed by the policy makers was complex, containing a multifaceted chain of presumptions on a range of activities and processes through which the experiment ultimately would lead to improved opportunities for pupils to reach the educational objectives. Empirically, this prediction proved to be invalid as student achievement did not increase. The degree of implementation at the local level varied according to the comprehension, capability and willingness of those involved to carry out the experiment. The courses of action taken by the schools frequently could have been undertaken within the existing legislative framework, as they mostly concerned new ways of working and organising staff and pupils. An assessment of the objectives attained showed that, even if elements of developmental work corresponding to the direction stated in the policy documents were observed, the experiment did not emerge as the primary explanatory factor for this result Thus, the net impact of the experiment can be questioned. If judged against the criterion of adaptiveness, the results are more successful than if the experiment is assessed according to goal-attainment and the validity of the program theory. The experiment was found to integrate, alter and accommodate itself readily to local needs. The thesis illustrates the complexity of formulating and implementing policy in a decentralised context and points to important aspects in the historical background of the programme, which often tend to be overlooked when policy is analysed and discussed. At the same time, the study sheds light on the significant role played by street-level implementation actors in the educational context.

Den här uppsatsen handlar om utbildningspolitik och syftar till att undersöka hur svenska politiska partier talar om skolan i ett antal debattartiklar och repliker, samt om de är överens i några aspekter och vilka dessa i sådant fall är. Utgångspunkten är att det sker en avpolitisering av politik, där kampen mellan ideologier inte längre existerar på samma sätt som tidigare. Genom diskursanalys har ett antal texter analyserats med ett resultat som visar att det mycket väl verkar stämma att partierna inte längre kämpar ideologier emellan, utan att man är övergripande överens och först och främst förvaltar ett redan existerande system. Den politiska kampen, eller spänningen, är inte särskilt stark då samtliga partier är eniga på flera punkter. Däremot existerar en diskursiv spänning kvar i aspekten av att man ständigt försöker underminera varandras kapacitet att vara i regeringsställning. Alla är överens, och alla vill ha makten. / This essay is about education policy and its purpose is to analyze how Swedish political parties talk about school in a number of debate articles and replies, to see whether they agree in some aspects and if so – what these aspects are. We learn of a depoliticization of politics, where the struggle between ideologies no longer exists the way it used to. Through discourse analysis, a number of texts have been analyzed showing that it seems to be true that parties no longer struggle between ideologies, but that they instead agree widely and that they first and foremost administrate an already existing system. While the political struggle, or tension, is weak – since all parties analyzed are unanimous in several areas – but nonetheless a discursive tension still exists in the aspect of trying to undermine each other’s capacity of governing the state. Everybody agrees, and everybody wants to be in power.

This thesis investigates higher education regionalization by studying the case of the Asia Pacific Quality Assurance Network (APQN). In this thesis, higher education regionalization is conceptualized in three ideal-types: 1) as a sub-set of higher education globalization, 2) as a regional form of higher education internationalization, and 3) as an alternative to higher education globalization. Theories of international relations and globalization are used to develop a conceptual framework of the norms, values, ideologies, and concepts of regional identity that underpin these constructs. The main research question asks what can be learned about higher education regionalization through a study of the APQN? A sequential mixed method approach is used to gather data from textual analysis, key informant interviews, participant observation, and an online survey to investigate how the APQN bridges national, regional, and international levels of quality assurance in higher education. A methodological triangulation design is implemented to pinpoint the ideal-type of higher education regionalization that most represents the APQN. An embedded case study of Việt Nam’s QA capacity building activities demonstrates the APQN’s role in one country. The findings suggest that the ideal-type of higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization best represents the APQN. The nature of the APQN as a network for QA professionals highlights the transformative role that globalization is playing within the nation state. Instead of globalization being a homogenizing force on higher education systems, this study shows that higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization is changing the role of the nation state into a regulator for the global market. Higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization does not remove the control of the nation state, but rather reinforces the state’s role as a monitor of higher education for market competition. The study concludes by suggesting opportunities for QA policymakers and practitioners to shape higher education regionalization.

This thesis investigates higher education regionalization by studying the case of the Asia Pacific Quality Assurance Network (APQN). In this thesis, higher education regionalization is conceptualized in three ideal-types: 1) as a sub-set of higher education globalization, 2) as a regional form of higher education internationalization, and 3) as an alternative to higher education globalization. Theories of international relations and globalization are used to develop a conceptual framework of the norms, values, ideologies, and concepts of regional identity that underpin these constructs. The main research question asks what can be learned about higher education regionalization through a study of the APQN? A sequential mixed method approach is used to gather data from textual analysis, key informant interviews, participant observation, and an online survey to investigate how the APQN bridges national, regional, and international levels of quality assurance in higher education. A methodological triangulation design is implemented to pinpoint the ideal-type of higher education regionalization that most represents the APQN. An embedded case study of Việt Nam’s QA capacity building activities demonstrates the APQN’s role in one country. The findings suggest that the ideal-type of higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization best represents the APQN. The nature of the APQN as a network for QA professionals highlights the transformative role that globalization is playing within the nation state. Instead of globalization being a homogenizing force on higher education systems, this study shows that higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization is changing the role of the nation state into a regulator for the global market. Higher education regionalization as a sub-set of globalization does not remove the control of the nation state, but rather reinforces the state’s role as a monitor of higher education for market competition. The study concludes by suggesting opportunities for QA policymakers and practitioners to shape higher education regionalization.

Unlike multilevel data with a purely nested structure, data that are cross-classified not only may be clustered into hierarchically ordered units but also may belong to more than one unit at a given level of a hierarchy. In a cross-classified design, students at a given school might be from several different neighborhoods and one neighborhood might have students who attend a number of different schools. In this type of scenario, schools and neighborhoods are considered to be cross-classified factors, and cross-classified random effects modeling (CCREM) should be used to analyze these data appropriately. A common problem in any type of multilevel analysis is the presence of missing data at any given level. There has been little research conducted in the multilevel literature about the impact of missing data, and none in the area of cross-classified models. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of data that are missing completely at random (MCAR), missing at random (MAR), and missing not at random (MNAR), on CCREM estimates while exploring multiple imputation to handle the missing data. In addition, this study examined the impact of including an auxiliary variable that is correlated with the variable with missingness (the level-1 predictor) in the imputation model for multiple imputation. This study expanded on the CCREM Monte Carlo simulation work of Meyers (2004) by the inclusion of studying the effect of missing data and method for handling these missing data with CCREM. The results demonstrated that in general, multiple imputation met Hoogland and Boomsma’s (1998) relative bias estimation criteria (less than 5% in magnitude) for parameter estimates under different types of missing data patterns. For the standard error estimates, substantial relative bias (defined by Hoogland and Boomsma as greater than 10%) was found in some conditions. When multiple imputation was used to handle the missing data then substantial bias was found in the standard errors in most cells where data were MNAR. This bias increased as a function of the percentage of missing data.

Föreliggande rapport är resultatet av sex intervjuer kompletterade med litteraturgranskning. Rapporten speglar den pågående debatten kring studieavgifter. Den redovisar, inspirerad av diskursanalytisk metod, tre skilda diskursiva debatter dvs. lärosätets, individens, samhällets, på två diskussionsområden - kompensatoriska åtgärder samt möjligheter, fördelar/styrkor. Rapporten påvisar de problem och lösningar som förts fram inom dessa. Respondenterna lyfter fram att studieavgifter handlar om ett ömsesidigt investeringsproblem för framtida välfärd – för individen såväl som för samhället. Respondenterna pekar också på att samverkan mellan departement behövs liksom företagsstöd för industristipendier eftersom full kostnadstäckning behövs. Brister i investering blir ett dilemma som långsiktigt påverkar Sveriges välfärd och även den enskilda studentens välfärd, i synnerhet för den som inte själv har ekonomiska resurser. Fem av sex respondenter har den samlade synen på avgifter att kravet på full kostnadstäckning inte är rimligt utan ett välfungerande stipendiesystem och innebär att vi förlorar alltför många studenter. Den preliminära lösningen är att vidta kompensatoriska åtgärder samt att regeringen tillskjuter medel, säger studieanordnarna. Jag drar slutsatsen att vi ännu inte är redo för att ta hand om konsekvenserna av avgifter och att samverkansdebatten knappt påbörjats. / This paper is based upon six interviews completed by making a literature examination. The paper reflects the current debate on tuition fees. It shows, inspired by a discourse analysis method, three separate discursive debates i.e. higher education, the individual, the society, in two areas of discussion – compensatory measures and potentials, advantages/ stability. The paper demonstrates the problems and solutions put forward in these areas. The respondents highlight that tuition fees are about a mutual investment problem for future welfare - for the individual as well as the society. The respondents also point out that there needs to be collaboration between the ministries, as well as financial support for industrial scholarships because costs need to be completely covered. Lack in investment becomes a dilemma that affects Sweden’s welfare and even the students individual welfare in the long term, particularly for the one who does not have own economic resources. Five of six respondents have an overall view on tuition fees that indicate the demands on full cost coverage is not reasonable without a well-functioning scholarship system and results in us losing too many students. The preliminary solution is to take compensatory actions and that the government contributes funding, the study providers say. I conclude that we are not yet ready to deal with the consequences of tuition fees and that a collaborative debate has just begun.

This study focuses on exploring the current (2009-2010) state of the English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) Program in Yemen. The current state of the program was investigated through exploring the beliefs of teacher educators, teacher candidates, and administrators. Additionally, available education policy documents were critically examined. A pilot study pointed to the need for interviews with various stakeholders of language teacher education. Multiple semi-structured interviews were designed and conducted. Three teacher educators and four recent graduates were interviewed. Three administrators in the Ministry of Higher Studies and Scientific Research were interviewed. Furthermore, two bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education together with two administrators in an Education Sector were interviewed. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. An extensive reading of the transcriptions led to the identification of major patterns. Several themes were found. These themes highlight various aspects of the ELTE program in Yemen. The findings showed that the ELTE program had neither clear-cut standards nor educational philosophy, and suffered from distinctive administrative and academic problems. The findings, furthermore, revealed that the education policy-makers paid little attention to the program improvement and the application of the strategies they had planned. Finally, despite the problems encountered, all participants agreed on the critical need for the ELTE program at Yemeni universities.

The research presented here has three major purposes. The first is to explain how political institutions and policy outputs can change in the presence of a growing minority population when the preferences of these minorities differ from those of the majority. I show how representation in all three branches of government can lead to these changes, specifically in the local legislature and local bureaucracy. Secondly, I demonstrate the relationship between local legislative representation of Latino minority populations to substantive policy outcomes that favor this minority group, and explain how variable electoral institutions influence this relationship. The third general purpose of this research is to make the argument that the study of minority politics need not take place within a theoretical vacuum. That is, I use theories of minority group behavior (as opposed to Latino group behavior), and relevant empirical tests, to inform mainstream democratic theory. What democratic theory is missing, I argue, is the ability to fully explain and predict changes in institutions, policy, and policy outputs in a dynamic preference environment. Examining minority politics over time helps fill this void.