Yiannis Roussakis University of Athens Freiburg, 15 / 9 / 2006

Europeanization of National / Domestic Education Policies,

Nationalization / Domestication

of European Policies in Education

Yiannis RoussakisUniversity of Athens

Freiburg, 15 / 9 / 2006

“Legislators” and “Translators”:

Educational Policies in theEpoch of EU

Yiannis RoussakisUniversity of Athens

Freiburg, 15 / 9 / 2006

Some (perhaps trivial) Preliminary Remarks

• Functions of National Educational Systems as Ideological Mechanisms:– Nation Building / Identity Formation based

on the “national” past / the “national” route• Language, History, Values, Political Socialization

- Citizenship …

– National Division of Labour / National Economic Development

– Education of the bureaucratic, political, scientific, intellectual Elites of national societies

In other words: To Construct, to Preserve, to Transmit, a given national order

Some (perhaps trivial) Preliminary Remarks II

• In principal, education remains a responsibility of the Member States of the EU, an essentially intergovernmental arena. But, the most significant supranational player of the EU-system, the European Commission, can, according to the Treaty:“contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging co-operation between member states and, if necessary, by supporting and supplementing their action, while fully respecting their responsibility for the content of teaching and the organization of education systems and their cultural and linguistic diversity”.

• Note the difference: In the next article concerning VET, the Commission “implements the policy…”

Some (perhaps not so trivial) Preliminary Remarks

• In fact, the Member States have strongly resisted the legal right of the supranational bodies of EC or EU to interfere with their own, national, education policies.

• Examples:– “No Council” policy in the 1970s– The “Erasmus” case in the 1980s– The hard negotiations during the TEU

discussions– ….

Some (perhaps not so trivial) Preliminary Remarks II

• The Commission, on the other hand, attempted several times, even from the early 1970s to obtain a legal competence concerning education. Its strategic ally in this endeavor was the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the other supranational player of the EC /EU.Adopting decisions based on “wide” interpretations of Articles 6, 12, 39 (“non discrimination”), 48 (“freedom of movement of workers”) and 128 (“provisions on vocational training”), among others, opened a back door for the Commission to education. Education has been named the “creeping competence” of the Commission (Pollack, 1994).

Some (perhaps not so trivial) Preliminary Remarks III

• Within six (6) years, after the implementation of the Maastricht Treaty, the Commission, had managed to devise a dense nexus of (“non-binding”) policy documents (Green/ White Paper, Recommendations, …), action programs, initiatives, mechanisms (like EURIDICE or NARIC), networks, all of which constitute a hegemonic discourse for education in Europe, affecting not only members, but prospective members and neighboring regions as well.

Taking advantage of the fabricated “competitiveness”

global race,and calling for the ”need for

urgent changes”, supranational EU bodies

actually claim every aspectof national education systems

So, Education, • Has entered the realm of policies which are

more than less affected by the “rules of the game” in EU.

• Is now a subject for a relatively new/ emergent strand of research – “Europeanisation Studies”.

An Important (?) Concept:Europeanisation

• “Europeanisation consists of processes of (a) construction, (b) diffusion and (c) institutionalisation of formal and informal rules, procedures, policy paradigms, styles, ‘ways of doing things’ and shared beliefs and norms which are first defined and consolidated in the EU policy process and then incorporated in the logic of domestic (national and subnational) discourse, political structures and public policies” (Bulmer & Radaelli, 2004)

“The Europeanizationof Mrs Yokoto”,

by DiDi

The Relationship between EUand the Member States

Questions for Europeanisation Empirical Research

• What has been affected by Europeanisation?

• Why has Europeanisation occurred?

• How have domestic institutional arrangements shaped the way in which European integration affects polity, politics and policies?

• Who are the key domestic actors?

• When did Europeanisation happen?

(Dyson & Goetz, 2003)

Four “types” of Europeanisation, in relation to “what is Europeanised”

My Choice: Discursive Institutionalism:“Discourse Matters!!” (Schmidt, 1999)

• Focuses /stresses the role of ideas and values which are shaped and transmitted by a certain discourse, as potential explanatory factors of Europeanisation / Domestication.

• Pays attention to policy actors’ perceptions, ideas, preferences, interactions and communications.

• It stresses the cognitive and normative functions of discourse (ideational dimension – what?) through:– The logic of necessity– The logic of appropriateness

• It explores the coordinative and communicative function of discourse (interactive dimension – who talks to whom and for which purpose?).

• It always takes into account the societal and institutional setting.

Discursive Institutionalism:“Discourse Matters!!”

• Domestic change then, is the result of new norm internalization and the development of new identities, which are the outcome of socialization and collective learning processes.

Does it Affect Education?

• “With regard to the Treaty of Amsterdam that brought additional powers for Parliament and new Community competences to combat unemployment and hence social exclusion, and in view of enlargement, the question will arise whether the Member States will be able to carry on developing their proper educational systems regardless of the reforms and structures within the other Member States or whether they will have to face some sort of growing closer together even in matters where national traditions and national identity are at stake.” (Berggreen-Merkel, 1999)

Does it Affect Education?

• “There is no obligation to take part in the programmes. However, the EC treaties require the member states to give access to organisations, institutions or companies. In fact, no country can reject a programme” (Klaus Fahle, 1989)

Does it Affect Education?

• “[W]e will suggest that as the politics of education moves to a European level as national economies become increasingly ‘Europeanised’, the education sector settlement -the arena on which the agenda for education comes into contact with the means of achieving the agenda- shifts selectively from the national to the European level. Very broadly, we might suggest that those elements linked directly to the reproduction of national social formations will remain at the nation-state level, while those more directly associated with the extended reproduction of the mode of production will move to the European level” (Dale, 2003)

In any case, we should keep in mind that:

• “The rescaling of the governance of education is not dependent on a single mechanism, such as regulation, but may be associated with a range of different mechanisms.” (Robertson & Dale, 2003)

Source: Wielemans, W. (2000), “European Educational Policy on Shifting Sand?” in European Journal for Education Law and Policy, No4, 2000, pp.21-34.

L is b o n P ro c e s s

G e n e ra l A g re e m e n t o f T ra d e o f S e rv ic e s (G A T S )

K now le d g e

K n o w le d g eE c o n o m y

K n o w le d g eS o c ie ty

S u s ta in a b leD e v e lo p m e n t

Glo

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C o nve rg ingN a tio na l

E duc . & T ra in.S ys te m s

Q u a lity

E ntr e pr e ne ur s hi p

M o bi l i ty

O pe n M e th o d O f C o o rdin a t io n

" Edu ca t io n a n d Tra in in g 2 0 1 0 "

E uro pe a n A c tio n P ro g ra m s(S oc r ate s , Le on ar do, You th e tc )

& Initia tive s (e Le ar n in g e tc )

© Yian n is R ou s s ak is

P olic ies of (Supr anat i o nal and Subnat i o nal ) S tak eh old ers

T re a tie s a nd T e xts(A r tic le s 1 4 9 & 1 5 0 TA m s ,

Gr e e n P ape r s , W h i te P ape r , D e c i s ion s ,R e c om m e n dation s , ad h oc s tu die s , e tc )

,

I n dica to rs , B e n ch m a rk s ,C o m pa ra t iv e I n te rn a t io n a l

S tu die s

N ation al E d u cation P olic ies

C e r t i fi e d C o m pe te nc e s

Education, then

• Has become a highly complex arena, including international and domestic actors which, until recently, either did not have a “say” on the various aspects of education or their views were downplayed.

• Is discursively formed, discussed / produced / implemented with the use of different “technologies” than in the past.

• Appears colonized by the demands of the economy (Ball, 1998) and is depicted as “the key to future financial well-being” (Brown & Lauder, 1996).

And, in this case,

• Economy serves as the new educational ideology (or education the new economic

ideology?).In this sense, it is also viewed as

“eco-nomia”(a mentality of distribution, discipline,

surveillance and control of the functions of the society, the market and the state,

similar to that of the “good housemaster”, when it comes to the behavior and the

transactions of the family)

It is now “Governmentality” (Foucault) for“Steering at a Distance”

“Do this, do not do that, otherwise I will throw you to jail,This is no way to govern people as rational beings.

But if you say: So as God has ruled, so you act;Otherwise you will suffer discipline and loss.

You wonder what loss? None other than this:Not having done what you should; Having lost the trust,the esteem and the mediocrity towards you.

A greater loss than this,no matter how hard you can search,you will not find.”

Epictetus, Discourses, III, 7, 34-37

A Rhizome of Education Policy

Rhizome is a figurative term used by Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze in their book A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism ad Schizophrenia to describe non-hierarchical networks of all kinds.The six principles of the rhizome as listed bythem as follows:

•Connection •Heterogeneity •Multiplicity •Asignifying rupture •Cartography •Decalcomania

A Complex Task

One Wolf, or Several?

An Analysis of Educational Policy Based on the Approaches by Stephen

Balland Trevor Gale :

“Education Policyas Text and Discourse”

Analysed using

Historiography, Archaeology, Genealogy

Such an Analysis would reveal that:

• There are “legislators” and “translators” in the current European (Global?) “education policyscape”. But their roles are not fixed. In fact they constantly change.

• Convenient societal “simulacra” (Baudrilliard – “Feigned Representations of Reality”) are used to facilitate both for “legislation” and “translation” of education policies.

• In many instances, the “translated” policy has little or no resemblance with the one “legislated”. As the Italians would say:

“Traduttore, Traditore”

No more early morning “torture”!Thank You For Your

Attention!!!!

Dali,Simulacrum of a Feigned

Image