Christian Christrup Kjeldsen

The Capability Approach, Education and the Labour Market

This mainly theoretical article addresses the core idea and concepts within the capability approach and serves as an introduction to our conception of the approach for the readings of the other articles in this volume. The concepts will be presented briefly, and their interdependent relations will be explained with a strong emphasis on the capability for education and work. Due to some differences between the conceptual understanding of capabilities between Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen (Robeyns, J Hum Dev 6:93–114, 2005), we will also present our suggestion for an accessible model which combines the strengths of each conceptual perspective.

Towards a Capabilities Perspective on Vulnerable Young People in Europe: An Introduction

The volume at hand was developed out of the insights and results of an EU collaborative research project with the title “Making Capabilities Work”. Within this project, 13 partner institutions from different disciplines (educational science, sociology, economics, philosophy, political studies and social work), which are located in ten European countries, have collaborated in a multidimensional research process. This project was the first that applies the so-called capability approach to the topic of vocational education and training as well as labour market policies of the EU and its member states. Based on the insights of this project, the interdisciplinary chapters of this volume aim at assessing the policy strategies dealing with local youngsters’ education, labour market demands and regional inequalities with respect to their potential of enabling young people to participate in working life and society.

Standard Setting in Denmark: Challenges Through Computer-Based Adaptive Testing

The objective of this chapter is twofold: (1) to provide an overview of standard settings in the Danish school system and (2) to guide the reader through the history of standard setting in a Danish context. This includes periods when Denmark provided education without using the formal standard setting approaches we use today, where standard setting involves more than creating limits or cut points in various distributions measuring student achievement. The Danish school system has recently started making actual use of several traditional methods of determining the minimum pass mark for an exam, which opens the possibility for students to move on to a higher educational level, similar to the transfer from compulsory lower secondary to general upper secondary education. This chapter will introduce the former practice, in a time when there was no formal standard setting, up to the current situation, focussing in particular on the introduction of adaptive computerized systems based on the psychometrics used by PISA and IEA. This new form of endeavour forms a sophisticated use of standard setting. This highly complex use of assessment systems takes advantage of the Rasch model terminology that has been applied as part of Danish national tests (NTs). This assessment system secures scalability of students both horizontally, across students within the same grade level, and vertically, across students at different grade levels. To find this system being implemented across an entire educational system, is unique. The chapter explains how this system developed with a particular focus on the Danish NT.

Capabilities for Voice, Work and Education: Critical Analysis of Programmes for Disadvantaged Young People in Europe.

Additional co-authors: Bettina Haidinger, Ruth Kasper, Jan Duker, Thomas Ley, Gunilla Bergstrom