State Education as High-Yield Investment: Human Capital Theory in European Policy Discourse

Gillies, Donald

doi:10.2478/v10159-011-0011-3

Cited by 59 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…People with disabilities, the elderly, the mentally ill, the weak and the frail are less likely to contribute to the 'knowledge economy'. As Gillies (2011) has pointed out, they did not play a major role in bringing about the banking crisis in 2008 and unleashing the ensuing economic woes. They are also less likely to be direct beneficiaries of the knowledge economy, and indeed they may suffer disproportionately as governments cut back on the additional support they require.…”

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…In the wake of the global financial crisis, the central goal of the Lisbon Strategy, namely to make the European Union 'the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustained economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion' 2 rings more hollow than ever before. As Gillies (2011) has pointed out, human capital theory presents education as 'instrumental for economic growth or economic "success", without ever indicating what this economic development is for' (p. 236). It is worth pointing out that the lofty aspirations of the Lisbon Strategy are entirely consonant with the economic foundations of the European Commission, founded in 1957 as the European Economic Community (EEC).…”

Section: The European Reference Framework: a Brief Structural Surveymentioning

confidence: 97%

“…For them, the concept of the 'knowledge economy' and the promise of 'more and better jobs' are little more than hollow slogans. 3 From the systemic perspective Gillies (2011) has observed that although human capital theory may have something to commend it in global terms, 'it is not clear how the economies of Ireland, Scotland, mid-20th century India, and post-1989 Eastern Europe, for example, benefitted from producing, and exporting, countless graduates' (p. 237). Moreover, the long-term impact of this on graduates' perception of self and of others is rather difficult to predict.…”

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…However, it is evident that she will never be a 'free, equal and independent' party to the social contract. Nor will she be a 'fully cooperating member of society over a complete life' (Rawls, 1996, p. 183), at least not within the terms of understanding generated through EU policy discourse saturated with references to human capital theory (Gillies, 2011). For all the references to 'community cohesion' or to 'social diversity and cohesion', it is not clear that the Framework can offer the conceptual resources to keep in view the pure singularity and full humanity of those who have been struck this kind of blow.…”

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Learning to learn in the European Reference Framework for lifelong learning

Pirrie

Thoutenhoofd

2013

Oxford Review of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the construction of learning to learn that is implicit in the document Key Competences for Lifelong Learning--European Reference Framework and related education policy from the European Commission. The authors argue that the hallmark of learning to learn is the development of a fluid sociality rather than the promotion of fluent task-oriented behaviour. They also make the case for greater attention to the embodied, situated, affective and creative dimensions of learning to learn. These are considered in the context of the main trends in EU lifelong learning policy over the last two decades, which indicate a narrow instrumentalist approach to learning situated firmly within the human capital paradigm. The authors focus on the internal coherence of the Framework, and on the tensions inherent in learning 'outcomes' that emphasise personal fulfilment and wellbeing, social cohesion and economic competitiveness respectively. This article is the first step in clarifying the epistemological basis of learning to learn, and wresting it from narrow identification with self-regulated learning and meta-cognition, and ultimately challenging a narrow reading of human capital theory.

show abstract

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: The European Reference Framework: a Brief Structural Surveymentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Making Room For Those Left Right Behindmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Learning to learn in the European Reference Framework for lifelong learning

Pirrie

Thoutenhoofd

2013

Oxford Review of Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A school which is constantly concerned with quality is above all an "enterprising" school based on the notion that it produces or provides something. What is being produced and provided is human capital (see Gillies 2011). As a product, this has to be standardised for the public and has to be observable, measurable and achievable-and with the help of technologies of governmentality (Kopecký 2011), such as audits and self-evaluations, the school as an entrepreneurial organisation can demonstrate the relationship between inputs, processes and outputs (Rose 1999).…”

Section: School Culture In Managerial Strategies For Social Changementioning

confidence: 99%

School culture at risk of political and methodological expropriation

et al. 2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this article is to problematize the concept of school culture both as a concept and as a subject of investigation. It deals with the historical roots of this concept and the fact that it is shrinkinga consequence of the managerial imperatives of effectiveness and accountability in education. School culture, in relation to the quality of schools and the quality of education, has become the subject of audits, arrived at through a developed network of standardisation in education, testing and evaluation. The methodology of evaluation currently lending particular substance to school culture, however, generates different methodological perspectives on investigating school culture and thus research is becoming an instrument of political power. In the research it is then necessary to either abandon the concept of school culture or to free it from spinning round the cycle of evaluation/self-evaluation-a change in school culture-improving the "quality of the school"-a new evaluation/self-evaluation. One way to do this is to employ ethnographic approaches in research into schools and to understand school culture as a system of texts.

show abstract