02 Dec 2014

Education Post-2015: Recurring Themes By Robert Palmer

By Robert Palmer, NORRAG. This is the second blog in a series of post-2015 reflection blogs (see first blog here); a synthesis review of NORRAG NEWSBite’s post-2015 education blogs over the last couple of years. There is an overwhelming view that the next round of education targets needs to be more ambitious than the 2015...
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28 Nov 2014

Transfer of the Dual System of Vocational Education to Developing Countries – Help or Hindrance for Development? Reflections from an Austrian Perspective By Margarita Langthaler

By Margarita Langthaler, Austrian Research Foundation for International Development.  Currently, there is much talk about why youth unemployment rates in Austria, as in other German speaking countries, are substantially lower than in the EU and OECD area. Generally, media and politicians point to the existence of the dual system of vocational education as the main...
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27 Nov 2014

Education Diplomacy - Towards a Common Understanding By Katharina Hone

By Katharina Hone, DiploFoundation. Many of the participants in the Education Diplomacy Day in Geneva in October pointed out that they were not sure exactly what education diplomacy means. And then they proceeded to talk about their own work – which in each case was a good example of education diplomacy, in one of its many different aspects. The...
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25 Nov 2014

The Challenges of Promoting Transfer of the Dual Model of Vocational Training in International Cooperation By Markus Maurer

By Markus Maurer, Zurich University of Teacher Education.  In today’s highly globalised world it would be surprising if governments and their experts, whether operating in economically highly or less highly developed contexts, tried to resolve the challenges of vocational education and training (VET) by developing context-specific solutions from scratch. Rather, they virtually always try –...
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20 Nov 2014

Without Theory, there are only Opinions By Roger Dale

By Roger Dale, University of Bristol. The phrase ‘without data you’re just another person with an opinion’ which has been frequently uttered by Andreas Schleicher as a defence of the PISA surveys, is – I argue – not only indefensibly dismissive but very misleading. I say this, because I argue that without knowing why and...
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12 Nov 2014

The Global Influence of the OECD in International Education Policies By Simone Bloem

By Simone Bloem, Université Paris Descartes/University of Bamberg. The OECD is the co-ordinator of what some claim is currently the most important and influential international student assessment: The Programme of International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA not only includes the 34 member states of the OECD, but an almost equally large number of so-called partner countries...
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