New Institutionalism in Higher Education

in David, Miriam E.; Amey, Marilyn J. (Eds.) SAGE Encyclopedia of Higher Education (2020)

countries. It views educational institutions as a key producer of social cohesion by supplying the shared beliefs that generate shared cultural meanings. To most institutionalists, education (schools ... [more ▼]

countries. It views educational institutions as a key producer of social cohesion by supplying the shared beliefs that generate shared cultural meanings. To most institutionalists, education (schools, colleges, universities, but also home schooling, religious, and informal education) stands out as one of only a handful of key social institutions next to the family, the economy, religion, science, and government. Higher education takes its place in this nexus of institutions, as it globally expands in size and grows in strategic importance. [less ▲]

Accountability: Antecedents, Power, and Processes

in Teachers College Record (2014), 116(9), -

During the past decade “accountability” has emerged as the master rationale for education reform. Given its ubiquity and central role in current policy and practice, it is almost possible to forget that ... [more ▼]

During the past decade “accountability” has emerged as the master rationale for education reform. Given its ubiquity and central role in current policy and practice, it is almost possible to forget that even 15 years ago the term was hardly ever used and accountability, in today’s sense, was virtually a nonissue. That is surprising given the certainty with which advocates claim accountability as the needle’s eye through which the camel of public education reform must pass. How has this change come to pass? How has accountability emerged as the master rationale for contemporary education reform? How has it become the accepted justification for policies from the construction of centralized curricula, to teacher evaluation schemes based on student test scores, to government takeovers of schools that “fail to improve”? [less ▲]