Balancing freedom, autonomy and accountability in education volume 4

Charles L. Glenn, Jan De Groof, Cara Stillings Candal (eds.)
Pages: 312 pages
Shipping Weight: 500 gram
Published: 11-2012
Publisher: WLP
Language: US
ISBN (hardcover) : 9789058507761

Product Description

This volume is a continuation of volumes 1-3 of Balancing Freedom, Autonomy, and Accountability in Education, published by Wolf Legal Publishers in 2005.

Educational freedom is important because parents have a fundamental right, recognized in national and international law, to guide the development of their own children and therefore to choose a school in which they have full confidence.  For many parents, this will mean a school that shares their own views about what is most important in life, their religious or philosophical worldview.  To deny that choice, or to make it impossibly difficult for parents of modest means, is unjust and unworthy of a free society.

School autonomy is important because it is the essential precondition for the creation of schools with a clearly-focused mission, schools in which staff and parents and the controlling board or other authority share the same understanding of how best to educate.  We are long past the days when educators could promise that they had a single formula for providing the best possible education to every child or youth.  We know that different schools work best for different pupils, and that teachers find professional satisfaction (and enhanced professional status) in schools where they share a common vision with their colleagues. 

Accountability for common standards is important because today’s pupils will be the parents, adult citizens, and productive workers of tomorrow.  Society has a strong interest in ensuring that they are well prepared for those roles, and that they share an understanding of the virtues required by a free society.  Society also has an obligation to ensure that no child or youth is harmed by neglectful or abusive parents or schools.  It would be unjust to simply let the choices of parents and the enthusiasms of educators result in some pupils (typically those most disadvantaged by economic circumstances if not also by ethnic minority status) receiving an ineffective education.

In the 2005 edition, volume 1 consisted of general essays by the editors, Charles Glenn of Boston University and Jan De Groof of the College of Europe and Tilburg University, providing historical and legal background and comparative perspective on these issues, while volumes 2 and 3 included chapters on forty national education systems, describing the laws and policies under which both public and nonpublic schools operate in each.  These country profiles are being updated by many experts and a new edition will be published in 2012.

Introduction by Charles L. Glenn
Azerbaijan by Vali Huseynov
Bosnia and Herzegovina by Adila Pašalic Kreso
China by Kanqing Wang
Georgia by Chiora Taktakishvili and Ravaz Khoperia
Hungary by Gabriella Pusztai and Magdolna Chrappán
India by Prachi Deshmukh Odhekar
Indonesia by Adsina Fibra Ibrahim
Japan by Toshiyuki Omomo
Korea by Jae-Woong Kim, Jae-Bong Yoo, and Heekwon Sohn
Kosovo by Dukagjin Pupovci
Malaysia by Fatt-Hee Tie
Peru by Luis Castillo
Russian Federation by Maria Smirnova
Saudi Arabia by Fuziah Saeed Alodadi
Singapore by Mui Kim Teh and Sook May Chia
Ukraine by Liudmyla Parashchenko
Wales by Ann Sherlock
How School Choice, Autonomy, and Accountability Impact Student
Achievement: International Evidence by Martin R. West and Ludger Woessmann