Ronald G. Sultana

Learning career management skills in Europe : a critical review

Career management skills (CMS) are increasingly touted as necessary for all citizens, young and adult, particularly given the realities of employment and self-employment in a knowledge-based society, where ‘protean’, ‘portfolio’ careers are expected to increasingly become the norm, and lifelong career guidance an entitlement of all citizens. This paper provides an account of how CMS are featuring ever more prominently on the agenda of many European countries, and explores how such skills are being defined, how and where they are being taught and assessed, and the various modalities by means of which they are integrated in education and training programmes in both the education and labour market sectors. Particular care is given to debates and tensions around the notion of CMS, and to considering trends and initiatives not only from a country-specific perspective, but also from a European one, given the interest of the European Commission in supporting policy development in the area through its Lifelong Learning Programme. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the more pressing issues that need to be addressed.

Transition Education, Student Contestation and the Production of Meaning: possibilities and limitations of resistance theories

Abstract One of the major developments within the sociology of education is the recovery of the role of human agency within what had previously been considered to be determining structures. This article looks at one aspect of such agency, namely the meaning production engaged in by a group of largely working‐class students within transition programmes in three secondary schools in New Zealand. Their contestual industry in receiving, reinterpreting, re‐creating and rejecting meanings provides valid spaces in which critical and conscientising education can occur. It is argued, however, that this same activity hardly warrants the optimism evident in contemporary educational discourse relating progressive change at the micro‐level of the school to changes in the larger social formation. Some of the factors which subvert the transformative potential of contestual and resistant activity are therefore explored.

A Uniting Europe, a Dividing Education? Euro‐centrism and the Curriculum

ABSTRACT The European Unions activities constitute a relatively new influence on educational policy‐making. It has generally been argued that this influence is both weak and politically progressive. It is purported to be ‘weak’ because Member States are supposed to jealously guard the autonomy of their national education systems. In addition, it is argued that the key concern of Brussels remains vocational training, despite the specific reference to general education in the Treaty of Maastricht. It is considered to be a ‘progressive’ influence because the so‐called European dimension in education sets out to foster ‘European’ values such as democracy, respect for human rights, pluralism, multiculturalism and respect for ethnic minorities. This paper will explore these generally held assumptions and will argue that the EUs influence in the field of education is much greater than normally acknowledged, that this influence is exerted through a variety of mechanisms, and that the current construction of ‘Eu...

The ‘Blueprint’ framework for career management skills: a critical exploration

This article examines the Blueprint framework for career management skills as it has been revealed across sequential implementations in the USA, Canada and Australia. It is argued that despite its lack of an empirical basis, the framework forms a useful and innovative means through which career theory, practice and policy can be connected. The framework comprises both core elements (learning areas, learning model and levels) and contextual elements (resources, community of practice, service delivery approach and policy connection). Each of these elements is explored.

From policy to practice : a systemic change to lifelong guidance in Europe

The need to improve policies, systems and practices for guidance in Europe was stressed by the Council Resolution on lifelong guidance (May 2004), which identified as priorities: widening access to guidance services; improving quality assurance mechanisms; refocusing guidance provision to empower individuals to manage their own careers and learning, and strengthening structures for policy development at national and regional levels involving a range of key players.

Personal and Social Education: Curriculum Innovation and School Bureaucracies in Malta

Abstract The rationale behind a personal and social education (PSE) initiative coordinated by the author in Malta1 is critically reviewed. The social context for the emergence of PSE in a number of countries is compared and contrasted, linking this ‘new’ development with issues of legitimation on the one hand, and problems posed by bureaucratic school structures on the other. Some of the normative dilemmas with PSE are explored, notably its tendency to reduce ‘education’ to a technocratic focus on the development and learning of skills. It is suggested that there is a danger that PSE could become yet another compensatory divide which reinforces the social-control function of schools, but that this can be averted if there is a creative rapprochement between two disparate educational perspectives, namely humanistic education and critical theory/pedagogy. The convergence of the two approaches would ensure that both the personal and the political goals of a true education would be achieved.

On being a ‘boundary person’: mediating between the local and the global in career guidance policy learning

This paper engages in a series of critical self-reflections on the authors involvement in the spate of career guidance reviews that have taken place since the year 2000, and which were commissioned by such supra-national entities as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and various agencies and directorates of the European Commission. The author argues that this series of overlapping comparative studies – involving 55 countries in all – constitutes a powerful discursive field that has helped to frame career guidance in particular ways, and that it has led to opportunities for policy lending and policy borrowing on an unprecedented scale. The author examines the dynamics of such policy learning, identifying some of its potential motives as well as key mechanisms by which transfers take place through ‘push’ and ‘pull’ forces. He then goes on to raise a series of questions regarding the viability of deterritorialised policy exchange, noting that social practices such as career guidance are inscribed in a particular complex of values, meanings, and significations that are tightly coupled to the ecological climate in which they thrive. Drawing on his experience in the Middle East and North Africa, the author reflects on career guidance in Arab countries in order to illustrate the way transnational, globalised agendas are reconfigured and reinterpreted at the local level. The paper concludes by considering the ethical and epistemological responsibilities that need to be confronted by ‘boundary persons’ who mediate between the global and the local.

Research in Teaching and Teacher Education: qualitative methods and grounded theory methodology

This article critically appraises the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative methods for the collection of data in the fields of teaching and teacher education. Strategies are suggested to improve ethnographies, and the issue of normative as against positivist approaches to knowledge is addressed. Glaser & Strauss’ ‘grounded theory’ methodology is then presented as tool for the collection, organisation and analysis of qualitative data, and for the generation of substantive and formal theories about education.

The challenge of policy implementation : a comparative analysis of vocational school reforms in Albania, Kosovo and Turkey

Europe Direct is a service to help you find answers to your questions about the European Union (*) Certain mobile telephone operators do not allow access to 00 800 numbers or these calls may be billed. PREFACE Between 2002 and 2005 the European Training Foundation (ETF) launched a peer review programme for South Eastern Europe. Although its main aim was to provide policy recommendations to national policymakers, it also endeavoured to contribute to capacity building and regional networking. In 2006 the ETF shifted its focus from peer review to peer learning, with the main objective being to contribute to national stakeholder capacity building through in-depth analyses and comparisons of education and training systems and policies in different countries. In 2006 the peer learning project concentrated on the issue of financing vocational education and training (VET) in Albania, Kosovo (under UNSCR 1244) and Montenegro. Through interviews and discussions with national stakeholders and peers, four peer policymakers and four peer VET experts from Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro gained a deeper understanding of differences and similarities in the financing of VET in Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. In 2007 the project focused on the impact of VET policies on schools and school management in Albania, Kosovo and Turkey. One policymaker, one school director from a donor-supported pilot school and one from a non-pilot school were selected as peers from each country. National coordinators were appointed to coordinate self-study and preparations for the peer visits. Two peers from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Montenegro were also invited. European Union (EU) VET expert, Ronald Sultana, author of this report, provided external expertise. The experts were engaged and coordinated by Agmin Italy and the team was led by two ETF staff members. We are grateful to all the people we interviewed during our peer visits to Albania, Kosovo and Turkey for their patience in answering our questions and for providing us with food for thought. We are particularly grateful to our ETF colleague Sam Cavanagh for his consistent support. We would also like to thank the team for the open, friendly, professional and intensive discussions that provided an enriching learning experience for all of us. We conclude that policies, people, places and pace are important dimensions of any policy implementation process. We understand that policy design and policy implementation are very complex processes and that policies are implemented, interpreted …

Flexibility and security? ‘Flexicurity’ and its implications for lifelong guidance

This article sets out to trigger research and policy attention among the career guidance community to the increasingly important notion of ‘flexicurity’. It first explores the different meanings of the term, particularly as these have evolved in discussions across the European Union. It then goes on to consider why ‘flexicurity’ has attracted so much policy interest, particularly in its promise to both support labour market competitiveness and increase economic efficiency on the one hand, while protecting the interests of workers on the other. Next, the article documents some of the key debates around the notion of flexicurity, highlighting the fact that any consideration of ‘flexicure’ arrangements needs to be empirically grounded in time and space, and carefully contextualised. The article concludes by making a series of critical reflections on the need to ‘insert’ career guidance in the European discourse on ‘flexicurity’.