Session Information
23 SES 05 B, The Knowledge Base of Policy
Paper Session
Contribution
Last year at the ECER I presented the theoretical framework and research design of my doctoral thesis, which deals with the relevance of expertise of educational knowledge producers in political and public problem-definition and decision-making processes. This paper now presents first findings of the core question: “Whose knowledge counts?”.
The paper starts from the assumption that western civilizations are increasingly perceived as knowledge societies. They draw expertise from different parts and levels of society which includes also research and sciences. In this context different form of knowledge, different producers and recipients (cf. Gibbons et al, 1994) are questioned. In the case of educational issues, expertise is not only taken from education research, but also from other disciplines. Bourdieu’s theory of capital reveals the special role of policy and media (Arnoldi, 2007) in defining expertise. Expertise is generated through a transformation of cultural to symbolic capital, e.g. academic degrees to reputation. Against this background the question arises, which factors influence the choice of experts for educational issues (with a special kind of knowledge, degree or reputation) by politics, public and the academic discipline itself.
Due to Europeanization and globalization this process is not limited to national levels. International organizations like the OECD produce special knowledge, which exerts high influence on political decisions (cf. Grek, 2010). This influence might lead to a reduction of diversity of types of expertises and forms of knowledge and to changes in political and public demands and value attributions. The paper focuses primarily upon Germany, however, intends to broaden the scope to the European situation of production, dissemination and reception of educational research knowledge, especially regarding its organisational contexts.
At present the universities experience changes, e.g. regarding status and funding – as compared to other knowledge producing organizations (cf. for Germany: Baumert & Roeder, 1989; for the UK: Lawn & Furlong, 2007; for Northern Ireland: Gardner & Gallagher, 2007). Two different types of organizations can be distinguished: non-profit organizations and profit organizations.
In this paper I present a landscape of organizations producing educational research results. I focus upon their structure, aims, disciplinary background of the employed researchers, cooperations with politicians and the public and the knowledge forms they produce or take up respectively. This approach provides answers to the following questions: (1) What kind of shape has the German educational research landscape and what sort of interrelation have their organizations to the public? (2) What kind of knowledge is produced? (3) Is educational knowledge produced outside the universities more attractive to public and policy? (4) To what extent are these questions and preliminary answers valid for the European educational research space?
The paper is embedded in the broader context of my doctoral thesis, which investigates these educational research producing organizations and their production, reception and distribution of knowledge due to three levels. These are highlighted by the question: Whose knowledge counts? WHOSE: academic background of research knowledge producers – KNOWLEDGE: the influence of knowledge forms and their presentation – COUNTS: the demands and value attributions of public and policy on educational research and their conceptualization of ‘useful’ knowledge.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
- Arnoldi, J. (2007): Universities and the public recognition of expertise. Minerva, Vo-lume 45, Number 1, 49-61 - Baumert, J. & Roeder , P. (1989): Expansion und Wandel der Pädagogik. Zur Institu-tionalisierung einer Referenzdisziplin. Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung. Forschungsbereich Schule und Unterricht: Beiträge aus dem Forschungsbereich Schule und Unterricht - Bourdieu, P. (1992): Homo academicus. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag; 5. Auflage - Gardner, J. & Gallaher, T. (2007): Gauging the Deliverable? Educational Research in Northern Ireland. In: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, 101-114 - Grek, S. (2010): International Organisations and the Shared Construction of Policy ‘Problems’: problematisation and change in education governance in Europe. European Educational Research Journal Volume 9 Number 3 2010, 396-406 - Lawn, M. & Furlong, J. (2007): The Social Organisation of Education Research in England. In: European Educational Research Journal, Volume 6, Number 1, 55-70 - Normand, R. (2010): Expertise, Networks and Indicators: the construction of the Eu-ropean strategy in education. European Educational Research Journal, Volume 9 Number 3 2010, 407-421 - Ozga, J./ Seddon, T./ Popkewitz, T. (eds.): World Yearbook of Education 2006. Edu-cation research ad policy: steering the knowledge-based economy. London and New York: Routledge - Senge, K. (2005): Der Neo-Institutionalismus als Kritik der ökonomistischen Perspek-tive. Darmstadt - Weick, K. E. (1976): Educational systems as loosely coupled systems. In: Administra-tive Science Quarterly, vol. 21, 1-19.
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