Xavier Rambla Sociologia

Since the 1990s the emergence of a global civil society has posited new questions about the potential synergies between advocacy and social research. While  a long tradition of “critical social research” has reflect on its own premises and methods, the many spurs of collaborative work with civil society organisations (CSOs) that have taken place along history have not been systematised in the same way. A few labels such as participatory research and action-research make reference to this strand of researches. However, some participants in the global civil society are interested in creating a new corpus of studies that respond to their concerns. It is not only about challenging epistemological assumptions but about using research as a tool for advocacy.

The Global Campaign for Education has tried to do so for more than a decade. Its focus on monitoring the Education for All goals, certainly, has to do with research on statistical indicators and the topics associated to the goals. Even more, a number of fund designed to promote civil society in education (Commonwealth Education Fund, Real Strategies, Civil Society Education Fund) also encourage CSOs to undertake research that eventually strengthens their action. So far, these studies have focused on budget tracking, girls’ education, educational disadvantage, the individual cost of a quality education, and public-private partnerships (PPPs).

In the Philippines, E-Net has carried out a rigorous and comprehensive assessment of the implications of PPPs for the education system. Actually, in that country the government has been implementing this policy for some decades in order to “decongest” public schools. Although the World Bank and other official studies have already noticed the shortcomings of some current programmes from the point of view of public management, E-Net has also stressed the significant consequences of PPPs for social equity. Thus, debates on PPPs in the Philippines try to contrast both political ideologies and different approaches to the issue drawing on different strands of social research.

La recerca especialitzada en la Unió Europea ha elaborat el concepte de “europeïtzació” per referir-se a una mena de construcció social de la UE. A partir de trobades i discussions, tant el personal polític com les xarxes professionals van adoptant uns esquemes comuns d’interpretació, encara que acabin fent coses diferents a cada país. Els estudis recents sobre l’europeïtzació de la política educativa han remarcat dues conclusions:

En primer lloc, s’ha establert una veritable aliança estratègica entre la EU i l’OECD (vid. recerca Jenny Ozga), la qual ha donat forma a l’agenda europea de política educativa. És molt senzill observar les coincidències dels seus discursos oficials sobre  l’educació i les habilitats laborals, per exemple, fent un cop d’ull al vídeo de l’OCDE sobre habilitats (Idea Factory: Skills) i al vídeo de l’agenda europea sobre Skills and Jobs. Alhora, mentre PISA perfila una agenda general, la UE intenta començar programes acordats entre els estats membres per aplicar aquesta agenda als seus problemes, com ara l’abandonament prematur. La coincidència s’observa en aquest cas entre el vídeo de l’OECD sobre PISA i la proposta de la EU per a una Council Recommendation on policies to reduce early school leaving [COM(2011)19], 31 January 2011

En segon lloc, malgrat que diversos objectius de l’Agenda de Lisboa feien referència a l’educació, el fet que finalment no s’assolissin ha passat força desapercebut. Algunes iniciatives d’aquell moment van ser Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning– i

European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network.

Es pot trobar informació per països a Euripedia d’Eurydice.

Notes per a una classe al Màster en Política Social, Gènere i Treball de la UAB.

Since the Nineteenth century a number of social movements have campaigned for political and social rights, the abolition of slavery, peace building, independence of colonial powers  and other issues that have promoted a world civil society. After the trauma of world wars, the main powers agreed to create a government of nations which promoted international commitment to these principles, albeit at variable degrees. In this vein, all the members of the United Nations are currently committed to a growing number of universal statements and external recommendations on human rights in several policy areas. In education,  the International Conference on Education produced a comprehensive approach linking inequalities and inclusive education in 2008. Only one year later the Durban Declaration on Racism assigned “the primary responsibility of combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance to States”.

In the eighties a research programme based at the University of Stanford found out that the human rights approach is embedded in a bundle of international social norms.  In their view, many UN agencies apply this approach to development, education, food and agriculture, health, labour, trade and so on, with a specific concern with social categories such as children, women and minorities exposed to discrimination. Their inquiries about the factors that lead governments to comply cast doubt on the influence of socio-economic development and modernisation, because their findings show that both more and less developed and modernised countries are senstive to the UN philosphy. They propose an alternative account according to which a world model of political citizenship has eventually prevailed so that all countries are accountable for the same criteria. Any government has to accept these norms in order to be respected as a legitimate power.

The Stanford analysis is convincing as far as the global reach of UN regulation is concerned. A growing number of sophisticate research drawing on historical sociology and statistical multivariate analysis of diachronic data actually provides evidence on the universality of these norms regardless of the more commonly observed societal differences. For instance, universal schooling started as a reaction to military defeat, but it is a general concern nowadays. Similarly, the extension of the franchise to women and the creation of administrative bodies in charge of human rights were initial victories of social movements that have become widely diffused later on. Interest on human rights in the curriculum of civic education also illustrates the same pattern of almost universal policy trasfer.

However, questions about effective implementation remain. Although governments feel a sort of obligation to reform their rhetorics, it is far from clear that they change their real policies. Besides formal adoption, further research seems necessary in order to know about the influence of these international recommendations on the social practices that are not a mere translation of formal legislation. Are human rights really implemented by governments who claim to do so? This is a growing concern in many fields such as the monitoring of the right to education. Are schools really teaching the democracy and social justice introduced in their formal curricula? Is gender equality an immediate outcome of formal statements? Are some governments paying lip service to these common international guidelines? These are  some remarkable and significant questions for further research.

The sociologist Basil Bernstein foresaw the increasing role of pedagogic relations in education and other domains such as social care. According to Bernstein, in this type of social relations professionals make complex decisions about what is at stake (classification), and frame their behaviour so that they regulate the participation of students and beneficiaries of social aid (framing). Classification and framing are strong when teachers keep a distance by means of school discipline. They are strong as well when social workers only check if applicants meet the required conditions for a benefit. Conversely, pedagogic social relations weaken classification and framing when teachers actively interact with students, and when social workers want to transform aid into a form of social participation.

Let me quote three examples of the long-term movements towards weaker classification and framing. First, the Index for Inclusion  (see the video too) helps teachers to identify the barriers to learning so that they lead organisational and pedagogic changes that eventually overcome these obstacles in a school. This method empowers teachers, takes students’ needs into account, and often involves parents in school activities. Second, bottom-up planning of after-school activities approaches educators to citizens by designing wide-ranging projects of academic and leisure education addressed to all the students in a neighbourhood (see PEC Barcelona). Third, personalisation (video) also weakens classification and framing by putting the beneficiaries in control of the social care services they receive. According to the proponents of this strategy for social work, everybody feels much better if she can actively engage with the very action of providing support for her specific needs.

But these examples also remind of Bernstein’s thesis about the fallacies of over-stated optimism on these weaker forms of pedagogic relations. Contrary to some educationalists who endorse child-centred education as a guarantee of children’s freedom, he argued that these weaker forms also convey power and reproduce class-biased educational disadvantages. In the same vein, Richard Sennett has convincingly argued that the activation of welfare recipients does not guarantee their full respect at all. Remarkably, none of these authors wants to deride either child-centred education or empowering social work, but both of them suggest a further caution that their proponents sometimes overlook. In brief, closer, active, participative, child-centred or personalised education and social care are not emancipatory by themselves, but their real impacts have to be systematically assessed by means of social research and policy evaluation.

The 7th Basil Bernstein Symposium will be hold in Aix-en-Provence next June. I will present a paper reflecting on these theoretical questions with regard to school improvement and active welfare policies in Argentina and Chile.

El debate sobre la aplicación de la investigación científica a las políticas públicas ha llegado a la educación. ¿Es posible determinar qué medidas funcionan en la distribución de recursos, la organización de las escuelas, la articulación entre programas educativos y sociales, o bien otras áreas que afectan a la educación?

Hoy en día se extiende el interés por las iniciativas que se apoyan en una respuesta afirmativa y tajante a esta pregunta. Puesto que disponemos de indicadores muy sofisiticados sobre el aprendizaje cognitivo, y es posible desagregar las correlaciones estadísticas teniendo en cuenta los efectos derivados de las características individuales, de las interacciones en un aula, de los tipos de escuela, y de los distintos barrios, afirman los defensores de esta respuesta, es también posible medir con suficiente rigor la contribución de un profesor, de una escuela o de un programa concreto al aprendizaje del alumnado. Incluso es posible determinar qué valor añaden a este aprendizaje comparando los rendimientos académicos antes y después de una determinada intervención. El video Evidence-Based Education resume esta posición.

También se ha propuesto una respuesta afirmativa basada en métodos cualitativos. El objetivo en este caso no es tanto medir la contribución específica de un programa como favorecer el aprendizaje entre iguales. Si la comunidad profesional especializada en una cuestión llega a un amplio acuerdo sobre las “buenas prácticas” en este ámbito, todos los participantes aprenden nuevos métodos de trabajo por el simple hecho de reconocer cuáles son estas buenas prácticas y en qué circunstancias se han llevado a cabo. Por ejemplo, este es el método adoptado por el Knowledge System for Lifelong Learning de la Unión Europea para buscar soluciones “basadas en la evidencia” al problema del abandono escolar prematuro.

Finalmente un tercer enfoque sugiere una respuesta mucho más matizada. Tal como ha puesto de relieve la sociología de la ciencia, no es fácil desentrañar los intereses científicos de los intereses políticos que influyen en el conocimiento. La presencia de los segundos no anula la validez científica de un estudio, sino que ayuda a enteder el entorno histórico en que se han formulado las preguntas, diseñado las investigaciones e interpretado los hallazgos. Esta doble implicación de la evidencia científica es todavía más acusada en los estudios dedicados a cuestiones donde la incertidumbre es muy elevada, como ocurre con gran parte de programas educativos e innovaciones pedagógicas. En este contexto, por tanto, es imprescindible considerar qué “teoría del cambio” adopta cada programa, qué intereses científicos y políticos alientan esta aproximación al tema, qué aspectos de esta teoría se apoyan en conclusiones sólidas de las investigaciones especializadas (no sólo de las evaluaciones del programa) y qué impactos provocan las intervenciones que comparten una misma “teoría del cambio”. La propuesta de Ray Pawson, en el sentido de elaborar una “síntesis realista” de las evaluaciones, precisamente apunta en este sentido. El equipo de estudio especializado en Globalisation, Education and Societies de la Universidad de Bristol ha analizado desde esta perspectiva las prácticas sociales, ideas, conflictos y decisiones políticas que están tejiendo la llamada “europeización” de la política educativa.

Catalan and Spanish versions available here and here

At the same time as many countries engage in controversies on school choice, educational public- private partnerships and the corresponding legal reforms, a number of specialists are studying the effects of the co-existence of two different institutional sectors funded by public budgets, namely public and private-dependent schools. Actually, Spain and Chile provide two very relevant cases to find these effects out, because in these two countries a great share of students enrols in private schools supported by state aid (i.e. private-dependent schools).

Really, many research questions are at stake. Do these institutional arrangements eventually broaden the scope for family choice? Do private dependent schools charge a fee, besides the public benefit they receive? Do these schools select their intake? Which effects do fees and selection provoke? Does the co-existence of these two types of schools trigger competence to improve teaching and academic performance? Is it connected with the increasing segregation observed almost everywhere? Actually, private dependent schools charge fees in some countries, although in other ones they don’t; furthermore, in some countries they establish their own criteria for student admission while this option is completely forbidden in other ones. Their effects on academic quality vary significantly, in both ways, and anyway they are not the only cause of school segregation.

A research team has compared the politics of private dependent schools in Spain and Chile. We asked for similarities and differences beyond statistics and law. Our conclusion highlights that the main variation is quantitative, since inequalities and segregation are sharper in Chile but the same underlying processes can be observed in both cases. First, in both countries the democratic governments elected during the political transitions from authoritarian rule attempted to regulate the private-dependent sector, which the dictatorships had widely supported. Second, in Spain and Chile important campaigns have been launched by different political players both for and against a stricter regulation of this sector. Third, our observation of local politics in both countries shows that private-dependent schools avail of influential (formal and informal) political instruments so that their interests eventually prevail, mostly as far as the selection of students is concerned.

In our view, this analysis also highlights two questions that political debates often overlook. Certainly, the waves of reforms and mobilisation have been so controversial that the topic has become a sign of political identity in these countries. This is not bad news but a symptom of democratic vitality; however, sometimes intense debates focus so much on a few issues that other ones are sidelined. We want to make two recommendations on the grounds that all public subsidies should be delivered in the same general conditions. Drawing on this principle, which should affect education as well as civil construction and the management of water or electricity, the struggle observed in our two case studies reminds us of two aspects. On the one hand, private-dependent schools only select their intake in some countries, while this option is forbidden in other ones. To what extent is it legitimate that these institutions select their students if they are supported by the state? On the other hand, if the budget of these schools was published, and therefore was better known, it would be much easier to estimate their needs and the relative weight of public subsidies in their whole income. So, democratic debates could really advance if new diagnoses and proposals on admission and budgeting appeared and were disseminated in Spain and Chile.

L’angoixa per la crisi financera que afecta els països rics amaga altres crisis que recauen amb més duresa sobre els països més pobres del món. De fet, el darrer Informe de Seguiment de l’Educació per Tothom assenyala la cara educativa d’aquestes crisis de desenvolupament. Aquest informe revisa l’estat dels indicadors de l’escolarització als cicles infantil i primari, la finalització dels estudis primaris, l’equilibri entre nens i nens en totes aquestes dades, els rendiments educatius, l’alfabetització, i el finançament de l’educació. Si entre 202 i 2010 anunciava alguns avenços en l’ensenyament primari, malgrat moltes altres insuficiències, la darrera edició de 2011 malauradament dóna força raons per al pessimisme.

La primera manifestació d’aquesta crisi del desenvolupament educatiu s’observa en la dificultat de reduir el nombre d’infants exclosos de l’escola primària. Encara que entre 1999 i 2004 aquesta quantitat va disminuir a un ritme lent però constant que inspirava algunes esperances, el ritme es va desaccelerar significativament al llarg del quinquenni següent, fins al punt que si la tendència es manté el nombre absolut de criatures privades d’una plaça escolar podria haver augmentat el 2015, quan s’han d’avaluar els assoliments definitius d’aquests indicadors.

La segona manifestació està molt més lligada a les turbulències de la borsa i del deute sobirà, donat que les contribucions dels principals donants per al desenvolupament educatiu han minvat molt des del començament de la crisi. A hores d’ara, la migradesa d’aquestes aportacions respecte a l’ideal del 0,7% no és el principal maldecap, sinó que les contínues restriccions de les quantitats aportades pel Nord a favor del Sud acaparen l’atenció dels observadors. Encara pitjor,  la despesa educativa tan sols es manté als països més pobres del món a costa d’un creixent dèficit dels seus pressupostos, cosa que molt probablement dugui a més rebaixes a molt curt termini.

The term “Europeanisation” is gaining momentum as a label for the many activities that eventually “make” Europe in all the social domains. Education plays an increasing role in these activities, not only because the Lisbon Agenda and the 2020 Strategy aim at meeting educational goals, but also because in many countries there are political and academic debates on lifelong learning, early school leaving and competencies. Significantly, in another world region such as Latin America a similar concern is even older than it is in Europe, and the contribution of education to regionalism have been highlighted recently by the statement of the Ibero American Educational Goals.

Actually, both processes are similar in a number of aspects:

– Both of them rely on open coordination between governments who are to meet targets and benchmarks each one in its own way.

– Their action is underpinned by a sort of  ‘programme theory’ on the beneficial effects of multidimensional educational policies, and moreover, their contribution to economic growth.

– Their very statement is an explicit instrument of regional building, either complementing the EU with more social cohesion or creating a community of Ibero American nations.

– The continuous monitoring of their advances and setbacks constitutes a regional space of debate.

– They qualify their official deadlines with complex arguments. Thus, the EU responded to the failure of the 2001-2010 Lisbon Agenda by blaming the current economic crisis and extending the period for the following decade. In a similar vein, the Ibero American Educational Goals widen the room of manoeuvre for some important governments. If they did not meet some of the global Education for All goals in 2015, they are allowed to reply that their country is immediately committed to other goals five years later.

But an important difference is really significant. While the EU is stretching its area of influence within an stable institutional regime, whatever their contradictions and shortcomings in many fields, these educational plans are much more competitive in Latin America. Actually, the Ibero American Educational Goals have been mostly launched by Spain and Portugal, with key support from Brazil and other governments. But they are somehow competing with the US-backed Program for the Educational Revitalization of the Americas, and the ALBA initiative led by Venezuela.

Brasil ha experimentado una considerable mejora de sus indicadores sociales y educativos durante la última década. No sólo la pobreza de ingreso se ha reducido sino que también la desigualdad entre los más ricos y los más pobres ha disminuido. Asimismo, en un contexto de crecientes gastos sociales y de considerables esfuerzos por mejorar la infraestructura escolar, la escolaridad se ha ampliado y los rendimientos académicos de los estudiantes menos favorecidos han registrado algunos progresos. Sin embargo, la mitad de estudiantes todavía asiste a la escuela sin adquirir las competencias académicas básicas, una gran parte de jóvenes está estudiando cursos que corresponden a una edad muy inferior a su edad cronológica, y a pesar de que su notable contribución a la matriculación y la asistencia escolar de los pobres, no está claro que las ayudas sociales Bolsa Familia ejerzan una efecto positivo significativo sobre los rendimientos académicos de sus beneficiarios.

Las investigaciones, los debates académicos y las evaluaciones de las políticas públicas empiezan a sugerir que varios aspectos de la pobreza multidimensional pueden estar actuando en contra de los avances educativos. ¿Será que el impacto de la educación contra la pobreza, teorizado por la teoría del capital humano, se ve coartado por el impacto de otras dimensiones de la pobreza sobre las mismas carencias educativas? Eso es lo que parecen sugerir algunas investigaciones recientes. En primer lugar, la persistente brecha de ingresos redunda en perjuicios considerables para los más pobres, que disponen de muchas menos ventajas que los ciudadanos con más ingresos. Los vasos comunicantes entre las desigualdades económicas y educativas probablamente transmitan efectos dañinos en ambas direcciones. En segundo lugar, dos de los factores más incisivos sobre el desfase entre la edad cronológica y la edad escolar quizá se cifren en el trabajo infantil y la vulnerabilidad social de los hogares formados por familias monoparentales o por familias con personas mayores a cargo. El hecho es que una protección social centrada casi exclusivamente en la población que dispone de un empleo estable deja completamente de lado estas otras circunstancias que tan directamente influyen sobre las oportunidades de los menores, puesto que estos hogares padecen un elevado riesgo de empobrecimiento si no reciben ningún tipo de apoyo público. En tercer lugar, el acceso a la escuela primaria sin haber cursado previamente una educación infantil adecuada, a veces sin haber recibido los cuidados apropiados para el desarrollo individual durante la infancia, muy probablemente también esté actuando como un poderoso obstáculo para que una gran parte de estudiantes logre los resultados académicos recomendados para su edad.

Estos problemas señalan decisiones de política pública especialmente sensibles para el desarrollo educativo del país. La redistribución fiscal, la protección social de las personas que viven en condiciones vulnerables, y el abandono de los programas de educación y cuidado de la primera infancia son, a un mismo tiempo, los nuevos puntos de la agenda política y unos viejos terrenos de conflicto entre gobiernos, grupos de presión y movimientos sociales. Detrás de todo ello se adivinan los procesos de producción de la pobreza estudiados por CLACSO-CROP, el acaparamiento de oportunidades conceptualizado por la sociología conflictivista (Charles Tilly, Goran Therborn), o bien la captura de rentas y los riesgos morales asimétricos que han introducido los economistas neoclásicos y neoinstitucionalistas en sus modelos.

La globalització consisteix en un canvi molt significatiu de les escales geogràfiques de l’acció social. En comptes d’actuar només a l’escala de l’estat burocràtic que monopolitza la coerció en un territori determinat, ara com ara les empreses, institucions financeres, organismes internacionals, partits polítics, moviments socials, lobbies, think tanks, sindicats, esglésies, mitjans de comunicació i etcètera trien estratègicament de quina manera fan servir les escales local, estatal i global.

La campanya de les eleccions presidencials franceses de 2012 ha posat sobre la taula el debat sobre l’enorme influència de les finances i del lliure comerç a l’escala global de les accions socials. En particular, algunes candidatures volen discutir les maneres de retornar un cert poder econòmic als estats per tal que aflorin els costos socials i ecològics de l’activitat econòmica. Vegeu l’entrada a la Wikipédia.

En l’àmbit acadèmic, l’economista Jacques Sapir interpeta que la crisi financera ha engegat un procés de desglobalització, entre altres raons, perquè al capdavall els governs han esdevingut les darreres garanties de les institucions financeres. També l’economista nord-americà Dani Rodrik remarca la possibilitat que un proteccionisme comercial de caire social i ecològic recuperi aspectes de la sobirania dels estats i dels seus governs.

Des de Filipines, a partir de la seva col·laboració amb els moviments socials representats al Fòrum Social Mundial, Walden Bello eixampla el ventall de la proposta. A parer seu, no es tracta tan sols de finances i de comerç sinó també de la producció agrària,  la indústria i les polítiques socials; a més, tampoc no és qüestió de confiar tan sols en les decisions dels governs estatals sinó també d’obrir espais de participació a l’escala de les localitats o a l’escala de les regions mundials definides per afinitats culturals. Encara que no aborda directament el tema de l’educació i les polítiques socials, en fa una referència molt rellevant en suggerir que la redistribució de l’ingrés, de la propietat rural i del sòl urbà podria desfermar un “vibrant internal market that would serve as the anchor of the economy and produce local financial resources for investment”.

Per tant, l’anàlisi social de les escales geògrafiques que a hores d’ara duen a terme diverses ciències socials enllaça d’una banda amb els debats especialitzats sobre el canvi social, el poder, les desigualtats, l’acció col·lectiva o el territori, però d’una altra, proporciona conclusions que  també s’hauran de tenir en compte a l’hora de fer propostes com les anteriors.