Mangez, Eric
[UCL]
Simons, Maarten
[KUL Leuven]
The communautarisation of the Belgian education system took place in 1989 when the national system was split in two separate communities, French-speaking and Flemish-speaking, acting from then on as two distinct public authorities (in regard of education policy and other cultural matters). The process of communautarisation only came to confirm a ongoing process of cultural and political differentiation between the two communities. The two communities nevertheless come from the same long terme historical background. Their previous common history (Mabille, 2000) as a national system is very peculiar, as it was characterized by a consociative arrangement, which is typical of small central European nations (The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland). In each of these countries, one could find several distinct integrated sociological communities living side by side on the same territory. In such contexts, the formation of the Nation-State was a complicated process during which the distinct communities (catholic and anticlerical in Belgium) agreed to live together solely on the basis of a ‘pact’, according to which each community would be given equal rights to organize its own collective life. This allowed each community to create a wide range of organizations dealing with almost every aspects of daily life, i.e. a pillar. Such an arrangement can be seen as the pre-history of "governance" (Papadopoulos, 2002). Indeed, in many countries, the implication of non public actors in the elaboration of policies and in the delivery of services – including in sectors such as education and health – dates back to the 19th century and flourished during the 20th century. In these various countries, public services such as education and health care have been ruled and provisioned by private collective actors (= by the so-called organized civil society), and financed by the State. In other words, public-private partnerships have been in place for a long time in these contexts, where policy choices are indeed co-constructed by these private organized actors in a form of negotiation with the State whose role is sometimes brought down to that of a non-authoritative coordinator. In such context, governance - understood as the coordination of diverse actors in providing services- is an old affair. It is however also opposed to new current forms of governance. While old forms of governance required a form of discretion on the part of all actors involved (Mangez, 2010), the new "governance turn" promotes evaluation, accountability and transparency. Additionally, the governance turn is linked up with new international alliances, the Europeanization of education policy and trends towards international competitiveness (Simons, 2007). The two-voice presentation will examine this common history and focus particularly on recent past through a discussion comparing the policy trajectories taken by the Flemish-speaking north and the French-speaking south of the country since their divorce in 1989. Methods/methodology (up to 150 words) The comparative analysis of the two policy trajectories start with a detailed inventory of the education policy agenda, major policy dossiers and decrees and central education debates. Based on these data, the comparison is structured along the following dimensions: a) the role and mode of knowledge for government/governance, b) the mode of collaboration between different (public/private) networks in the field of education, c) the type of relation between forms of State government, forms of governance and the role of public and private actors, d) the global/European/international orientation and reception in both trajectories and e) the role and perception of the other community in education policy. Expected Outcomes/results (up to 200 words) The comparative examination will not only make visible how classic forms of governance in Belgium lead to the emergence of a specific policy context in confrontation with new forms of governance. Additionally, the two communities in Belgium offer an interesting case to discuss divergence and convergence in policy trajectories and to explore the relation between the local, cultural and historical context and globalisation tendencies. Hence, the paper finally aims at contributing to the current discussions on globalisation/Europeanization, new modes of governance and local contextualisation. Specific attention is given to the knowledge - policy relationship: the balance between the requirement for discretion (inherited from the past) and the future-oriented need for evidence is examined in both parts of the country. References: Mabille, X. (2000). Histoire politique de la Belgique. Facteurs et acteurs de changement. Bruxelles : Editions du CRISP. Mangez, É. (2010). Global Knowledge-based Policy in Fragmented Societies: the case of curriculum reform in French-speaking Belgium. European Journal of Education, 45(1), 60-73. Papadopoulos, Yannis. (2003) “Gouvernance et transformations de l'action publique: quelques notes sur l'apport d'une perspective de sociologie historique.”, in Pascale Laborier; Danny Trom, Historicités de l'action publique. PUF, Paris: 119-135 Simons, M. (2007). ‘To be informed’: understanding the role of feedback information for Flemish/European policy. Journal of Education Policy, 22, 531-548. Lawn, Martin, Lingard Bob. (2002) “Constructing a European Policy Space in Educational Governance: the role of transnational policy actors.” European Educational Research Journal 1(2).


Bibliographic reference |
Mangez, Eric ; Simons, Maarten. Cultural fragmentation and globalization of education in Belgium : towards a post-comparative perspective.ECER conference (Helsinki, Norway., du 24/08/2010 au 28/08/2010). |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078/126940 |