Issue paper
Research topic:
Towards
a culture of quality policymaking in
transition countries. The case of education
Fellow:
Lucian Ciolan
Lecturer, Faculty of
Psychology and Educational Sciences
Contact:
Ministry
of Education and Research
28-30 G-ral Berthelor str.
Tel.: +40 21 312 71 65
Fax: +40 21 312 47 19
Email: ciolan@policy.hu
The main reason which motivates this research and
the main challenge that determined the application is a previous team research
under LGI policy fellowship started in 2002 focused on decentralization in
education in transition countries, performed together with colleagues from
The whole exchange of ideas among us and the main
findings of our investigations, focused on identifying the systemic conditions
for strategic steering and quality policy making in education in transition
countries, finally brought into attention an extremely interesting transition
process in public policymaking, visible inside the specific countries, but also
the approximate repetition of the same steps by each country, according to the
actual level of their political, social, economic and not least educational
reforms.
A whole culture of quality policymaking in
education started to develop, and a transition can be observed from a contemplative culture, deeply rooted in
the communist years, but also in the broader and more subtle social and
everyday life culture of Balkans and Slavic countries, towards an evaluative policy culture, more close to
the western values and, generally, to the values of globalization. This unique
policy environment offered by transition contexts and the possibility to
capture and describe such a process as development
of a quality policymaking culture could contribute to avoid a double danger
that is obvious for those who studied the realities in post-communist
countries:
·
A
schizophrenic evolution in the field of public policy, generated by the
two-sided reality build in the last years and the gap between the policy discourse, on the one side
and the effective implementation
practices on the other side. The public policy development is only partly
self-generated, as a need of the different sectors in their improvement
efforts. There was and there still is a huge pressure, coming from political
and financial “dependencies” of these countries: negotiation chapters with the
European Union, structural adjustments imposed by World Bank and International
Monetary Fund etc.
·
Repetition
of the same pathway and, implicitly, of the same mistakes by different
countries situated at different development levels in their political, social
and economic growth. The labyrinth of transition, even it looks so different
from one country to the other, in the field of public policy development we had
the possibility to note many similar evolutions that would make possible and
fruitful the investigation of main characteristics and trends of public policy
development.
We make reference to a culture of quality policymaking because we strongly believe that
in transition context the quality of policymaking process is not primarily a technical problem of those involved,
but a cultural problem, deeply rooted in the capacity to link discourse and
practice, to ‘merge’ what we say and what we actually do.
The actualized and “European” or “global” discourse
of policymakers in transition contexts, very knowledgeable about language and
theory of public policy, is not
necessarily a guarantee for the successful implementation of development
programs in these countries.
The basic assumption that we have is that
policymaking in education is more likely to produce high quality results if
there is a mature policy system in
place. By mature policy system we understand that some conditions are met in
the process of development and implementation of educational policies:
Having in mind these three directions, we will
investigate the maturity level of educational policymaking systems in
Since education is one of the most dynamic and
present public spheres in development efforts and programs, with a huge impact
not only on a large number of people, but also with a long term impact, we
thought that this would be a good case
study that will allow for analogies and transfers towards what public
policy generally means.
2.1. The general research
problem
The general research problem of this proposal is
linked to the process of policymaking in transition contexts, namely to the
investigation of the level of development of the policymaking system in
education.
We choose as a case study the field of education,
with the intention to make analogies and transfers towards other public spheres
and to try to underline the general framework and the coordinates of building a
quality policymaking culture, as a joint result of internal development and
external pressures.
2.2. Definition of the research problem
This research
aims to investigate the process of development of a mature policymaking system
in transition contexts and, based on that, the articulation of a policymaking
culture. We plan to analyze the technical-functional, conceptual and
professional development of this process, directly in two countries:
o
o
This direct and in-depth study will be complemented
by study of basic educational policy documents from other transition countries
in the region (
The different stages of different countries could
be visible in terms of:
o
Stage
of transition (general one, but especially educational), i.e. functioning of
new institutions and management systems.
o
Level
of maturity of policymaking process, i.e. competency of policy developers,
separation between politics and policy.
o
Degree
of transition from a contemplative policy culture (discursive
/ ideological, control-based, eruptive / pressure-oriented, routine-oriented)
towards a quality, evaluative policy culture (reflexive / action oriented,
trust-based, evolutive / strategically oriented,
creative / innovation oriented).
2.3. The research questions
The main research question is What is the level of development / maturity of the educational policymaking
systems in
Subsequent to this question, we will also try to
answer questions such as:
·
What
are the steps of the policy cycle followed and what are the steps ignored? How
functional is the articulation between different steps?
·
To
what extent is a policy language created and used on a regular basis? Do the
structure and language of basic policy documents prove a mature and sound
process of policymaking?
·
What
are the institutions involved in educational policymaking? How are they
structured and what functions do they have?
·
What
are the main tools used by policymakers to ensure the strategic steering and quality
policy making? (regulation and deregulation
mechanisms, financial incentives and disincentives, professional
self-regulation, standards and benchmarks, targeted development programs,
planning and cooperation networks etc.)