Martha Caddell

Private schools as battlefields: contested visions of learning and livelihood in Nepal

Current policy and programme considerations of the role of the private sector in the promotion of schooling reform and the achievement of Education For All encompass a somewhat narrow arena of debate. Discussion of the relative merits of private / state schools remain based on measurable, yet partial, markers of efficiency and effectiveness. Further, while the rhetoric of partnership increasingly infuses discussion of private sector—state relations, this may mask more than it illuminates. Critical questions around the potential disjuncture between profit‐orientation and social concerns are broadly sidelined. Drawing on insights from Nepal, where private schools have become key sites of struggle in the conflict between Maoist insurgents and the state, this paper argues for a more critical and politically engaged approach to understanding the contribution of private schooling to learning and livelihoods.

Blurring boundaries: towards a reconceptualisation of the private sector in education

This Special Issue of Compare stems from papers presented to the eighth United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET) Oxford International Conference on Education and Development in 2005. It draws, in particular, on a set of panels focused on moving towards ‘Reconceptualising private sector contributions to learning and livelihood’ which explored, from diverse perspectives, how private education provision is understood and how livelihood both shapes and results from private sector investment in learning. Emerging from the conference discussions was a series of conceptual, methodological and practical challenges concerning how the private sector’s changing role in education is understood. The papers collected here reflect on and extend those debates and consider the implications for policy, practice and academic research. Offering new insights into these themes is particularly timely, firstly, given the increasing emphasis on an enhanced role for the private sector in policy and programme development as a partner in reaching Education for All; and secondly, given the related growth of research into this area over recent years. This collection extends the debate initiated in an earlier edition of Compare which focused on decentralisation of education and the implications of such policy and practice on the range of actors involved and provision on offer (Dyer & Rose, 2005). The Decentralisation issue highlighted the marginal position of private sector debates in contemporary policy, how it is often by ‘default rather than design’ that it has become an important player at all levels of education provision (Rose, 2005, see also Bangay, 2005; Little & Evans, 2005). However, while much can be gained by considering privatisation as a form of decentralisation (e.g. Patrinos & Ariasingam, 1997; Bray & Mukundan, 2003), there are distinct practical, political and conceptual concerns related to the private sector that require exploration. Consequently, this Special Issue, devoted specifically to exploring the private sector’s contribution to the education sector, has been developed. The papers presented here extend discussion of the diversity of the ‘private sector’, those schools and education enterprises that are commercially oriented and subject to market-forces, and focus attention on the dynamics of the multi-faceted EDITORIAL Compare Vol. 36, No. 4, December 2006, pp. 411–419

Can pay, should pay? Exploring employer and student perceptions of paid and unpaid placements:

Students can benefit from applying their emerging skillsets through a work placement, both in terms of consolidating their learning and in gaining a better appreciation of their subject area. However, the main motivation for students in completing a work placement is in their increased employability skills. The aim of this study is to identify the core issues underpinning the ‘paid versus unpaid’ student work debate through a unique opportunity to access student and employer experiences. The study explores motivations, experiences and outcomes from different placement models – both paid and unpaid – for students and employers. Using separate surveys for students and employers, drivers, motivations and experiences were explored. Employers from large multi-nationals to small- and medium-sized enterprises, from profit-making organisations to the third sector, took part in the study. Overall, the data support the argument that placements should be paid, highlighting the benefits accruing both to students and to employers from payment being a component of the placement experience. This is particularly the case when a placement is for an extended period of time and the work being undertaken is equivalent to that of a regular employee. However, the value of work experience to students, paid or unpaid, emerges strongly from the study, and so, finally, the article highlights issues and questions arising for the higher education sector.

Knowing but not knowing: conflict, development and denial

Drawing on case study material from Uganda and Nepal, this paper highlights the tension between what is ‘known’ and what is ‘done’ by practitioners working in the arena of conflict and development. It explores the forms of knowledge given conceptual and practical influence and the development interventions that are consequently sanctioned or sidelined. Examining Stanley Cohens work on atrocities and suffering, the paper considers the explanatory potential of the concepts of denial and acknowledgement in the context of conflict and development. It argues that this approach opens conceptual and practical space in which to address the interplay between personal experiences of conflict contexts and institutional barriers to communication and changed practice.

Workplaces and policy spaces: insights from third sector internships Scotland

Purpose – Understanding the relationship between learning and work is a key concern for educational researchers and policy makers at the local, national and international level. The way that learning and the economic environment are framed impacts upon policy and funding decisions and has significant implications for the HE sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore how internships have become a key site in which policy and funding mechanisms seek to address concerns about graduate employability and graduate skills in relation to Scottish national economic plans and perceived business needs. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from five years data generated from the Third Sector Internships Scotland programme, the authors adopt an approach to the analysis of policy and internship experiences based on a spatial perspective. The authors explore two spatial arenas in play; the conceptual space where discussion and policy making occur and the physical places of education and the workplace where learnin...