Posted by: Michael James Stevenson
on 12, Sep, 2012
I went to hear Steve Keen, the author of Debunking Economics, and Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney, critique neoliberal and neoclassical economics, while also providing some alternative policy settings.
A long-standing critic of conventional economic theory, Professor Keen's seminar was timely as There is Always a Reasonable Alternative heads towards the 2012 PPTA annual conference.
Despite Professor Keen’s international standing, there was only a small audience present. Perhaps the local public (government) servants one would normally hope to see were sixty doors back down The Terrace hard at work for Ministers English and Joyce. That said, Professor Keen did mention New Zealand Treasury had made contact prior to his arrival and requested a meeting and copies of his recent research.
Readers may have seen Professor Keen on the BBC show Hardtalk or heard the recent National Radio interview with Kim Hill.
Professor Keen has developed an economic model that uses all relevant data, so he can more accurately analyse what is happening in the economy. He won the 2010 Revere Award of Economics from the Real World Economics Review for being the economist who first warned of the coming calamity in the years before the global financial crisis struck in 2008.
Professor Keen’s presentation focused on:
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 06, Sep, 2012
Tagged in:
union ,
teachers' work ,
role ,
quality ,
professionalism ,
industrial ,
Hargreaves ,
Fullan ,
employment ,
education spending ,
education politics ,
education policy
I was reading Hargreaves and Fullan’s latest book, Professional Capital, and came across this hypothetical question to teacher unions:
“When will you ever support a change that’s not just about more jobs, more money or easier work?”
Posted by: Observer
on 27, Aug, 2012
There have been more charter school meetings in the last week - one in Auckland and one in Wellington. The message that is being sent to Banks and Isaac is that people don’t want these opportunistic interlopers in their communities.
Posted by: PPTAweb
on 24, Aug, 2012
Tagged in:
teaching ,
teachers ,
student achievement ,
social disadvantage ,
schools ,
Office of the Auditor General ,
OAG ,
NCEA ,
Maori achievement ,
evidence ,
ERO ,
equity ,
Education Review Office ,
education politics ,
education policy
The Office of the Auditor General (OAG) has announced a 5 year foray into Māori education.
"School visits for education performance inquiry
Radio NZ, 22 August 2012
About 30 schools are to get a visit from from the Auditor-General's office, as part of a new drive to make regular checks on how well the education system is supporting Maori students." |
It seems the OAG has spare resources and is looking for work. The OAG document "Education for Maori: Context for our proposed audit work until 2017" is a document of somewhat selective references. It has a five year plan for this and a very very select group of advisors.
But why is the OAG duplicating work in an area that another statutory body is responsible for? It seems a wasteful duplication and use of the financial and human resources of government and schools.
The Education Review Office is set up specifically to evaluate and report on the education and care of students in schools and early childhood services.
Within the Education Review office the leadership team have extensive education experience and qualifications including in the area of Maori education.
"The Education Review Office (ERO) plays a valuable role as an agency for change in the education system. ERO has a quite specific legislative role – to review and report on the performance of schools and early childhood services. Increasingly, however, ERO regards its institutional reviews and national evaluation reports as levers for system change. ERO’s findings are used by services, schools, the Ministry of Education, and other policy agencies."
Posted by: Tom Haig
on 23, Aug, 2012
Public achievement information is the Minister of Education’s phrase of the moment, but the achievement information made public by Labour’s questioning about the youth guarantee won’t have her smiling.
In 2010 Tolley trumpeted that this initiative will increase the achievement of 16 and 17 year olds because many of them will be “more motivated to achieve qualifications in a tertiary setting.” Reading between the lines here, what the Minister means is that schools are boring and inflexible, and what many teenagers need is the freedom and ‘real world’ relevance of a tertiary setting.
There’s definitely an argument to be made for this, but there are legitimate questions about it too. We wrote to Minister Joyce at the time that “the evidence is clear, that students who do not achieve success at secondary school do not have any greater likelihood of succeeding at a more expensive tertiary institution.”
