Last weeks lecure for What is Ed? was with Mike Day; who is a cabinet member for Education in Swansea. The topic of this lecture was educational policy.
He described educational policy as guidelines for actions to achieve goals and objectives. Specific aims to be achieved and desired end results. It reflects on political opinions, traditions and values, and socio-economic objectives. It's over a long time scale and discusses fundamental choices.
What is education for?
- Create a workforce
- Transmit values and beliefs
- Keep people off the streets
- Tool for social mobility
- Produce 'rounded' individuals
- What should be the school compulsory age?
- Should school be free?
- Should it be selective?
- SEN? Include in mainstream? Seperate?
- Guides opertionl decisions and actions
- Teacher in the classroom, what to do?
- Guidelines or straight jacket?
- Politicians - elected to represent people. They hold the 'purse strings' and are not subject experts.
- Practicioners - Know how it works in practice, from a different perspective but unable to take the wider view.
- Should be a meeting of minds (Between the two)
- UK Level (Westminster) - Determines compulsory school age, teachers pay and conditions, responsbility of LEA's, parents and schools.
- WAG - Welsh medium, foundation phase, schools, no SAT's or free tuition fees and pupil deprivation grant.
- LEA - Organise and determine size and number of schools we have. Advice and guidnce to schools adn identifies where and how many children (of compulsory age) are missing education within their area
- School and Governing body - Uniforms, start and school finish times, child protection, SEN equal opportunities, school improvement plans, personal and social education.
- Where do regional groups fit in? - 4 introduced from this September. SWAMWAC, Focus on school improvement, standards, learner and wellbeing.
- Policy borrowing - searches internationl examples of unique, transferrable 'best practice'
- Policy learning - development of tailored national policies rather than policies taken off the peg, they also learn from the countries history.
- Raise standards of acievement and attainment
- Quality of the learning environment
- Make best use of human, physical and financial resources
- Stakeholder engagement copeness and partnership
- Coherance (Consistency with wider educational strategies and support of other council strategies)
- Flexibility (Appropriate use of resources)
- Objectivity (Use of robust assessment framework)
- Cost effectiveness
- Resourced
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