Global Mega-Science: Universities Scientize the World

Book published by Stanford University Press (in press)

Global Mega-Science explains the unprecedented worldwide expansion of higher education and of research collaborations that have transformed the production of science. Growing global science capacity ... [more ▼]

Global Mega-Science explains the unprecedented worldwide expansion of higher education and of research collaborations that have transformed the production of science. Growing global science capacity relies on the rise of the research university and unprecedented investments in research, which reflects the influential global ”university-science model”. Most nations have established research universities to educate academics and professionals—all contribute to scientific discovery. Science increasingly relies on global collaborative efforts, esp. the STEM+ disciplines and “mega-science” projects, such as the Covid-19 vaccines, but all fields rely more than ever on collaboration in diverse networks. Unique in its historical scope (1900-2020) and in theorizing the rise of “mega-science” via the worldwide diffusion of the “university-science model”, the book covers numerous cases of leading science countries, not only the US but also Germany, China and other Asian countries, and small states with the newest research universities (Luxembourg, Qatar)—embedded in worldwide trends and patterns. 2023 marks 60 years since the publication of the founder of bibliometrics, Derek de Solla Price, published his seminal contribution "Little Science, Big Science and Beyond" (1963). We explicitly disprove his hypothesis that science growth would slow down; instead, we find pure exponential growth in publications and collaborations. [less ▲]

Foreword

in Amrhein, Bettina; Naraian, Srikala (Eds.) Reading Inclusion Divergently: Articulations from Around the World (2023)

Globally, the meanings ascribed to inclusive education as a simultaneously pedagogical, social, and political concept are frequently contested, and often complex, yet they must always be contextualized if ... [more ▼]

Globally, the meanings ascribed to inclusive education as a simultaneously pedagogical, social, and political concept are frequently contested, and often complex, yet they must always be contextualized if we are to make sense of them. This is not least because of the complicated relationship of inclusive education to special education, with a long history of community ambivalence, professional dominance, and sociopolitical controversy. The diversity of readings of dynamic conceptualizations of inclusive education and ensuing patterns of practice around the world is the subject of Reading Inclusion Divergently. This volume of contributions builds upon dialogue among scholars from diverse cultures and working in different regions, whose contexts of work and study range considerably in their political and pedagogical understandings of inclusive education, equity, and diversity, as of disability and disadvantage. Emphasizing the process of inclusion as well as the dynamics of interpretation, instead of the unidirectional, linear development focus on policy implementation and gaps, the editors and authors position themselves within the broad spectrum of voices of the global inclusion movement that derives its myriad perspectives from academic and policy to practitioner and advocacy-activist communities. The theoretical, methodological, and empirical diversity of these contributions re!ects contrasting concepts and institutionalizations of special and inclusive education worldwide; an important undertaking as the rhetoric threatens to become increasingly separated from local school realities. While special and inclusive education fundamentally re!ect societal and educational change, these have also affected change in identifying differences in student bodies and the resulting pedagogical responses. During ongoing educational expansion, from contrasting starting points, schooling has changed quantitatively and qualitatively. Those who participate in special and inclusive education, from students and families to teachers and professionals, have also transformed education and society, especially with regard to understandings of dis/ability. This influence has been increasingly visible in the classifications and categories of dis/ability, and in the organizational forms, from original asylums and special schools and classes established so long ago to today’s classrooms that (aspire to) valorize student diversity, which has always been a central challenge of teaching. Yet the (necessary?) existence of such segregated and stigmatizing settings is not everywhere similarly contested, despite the global norm of inclusive education mandated in human rights charters over the past decades. Indeed, such settings are still taken for granted in many contexts – or even bolstered, paradoxically, under the banner of inclusion. Today, widespread recognition of the importance of education for public and private goods such as equity, emancipation, and participation galvanizes contemporary debates. If special education successfully provided learning opportunities to children previously excluded from schooling completely, in many countries the goal has forcefully shifted to inclusive education, yet there has also been backlash against this idea(l). The paradigm shift has certainly not been universally completed, as many chapters in this volume emphasize, no matter which world region we explore, especially due to widespread disadvantages and institutionalized discrimination that remains endemic. Yet the contributions here not only critique policy designs and multilevel reforms, proposed and ongoing, but mainly provide rich understandings of inclusion and of older and nascent forms of difference in schooling – and the dilemmas that follow. In so doing, these texts generate multidimensional perspectives on what inclusive education is becoming. Ideally, inclusive settings support all children, regardless of their characteristics, who attend neighborhood schools and are guided in their individual learning processes to reach their learning goals in diverse classrooms. Yet in much of the world, even the most basic supports and services for disadvantaged students or children with disabilities are (completely) lacking, with impairment, poverty, and educational and social exclusion intertwined. Universally, children and youth need support to achieve their learning goals; albeit to varying degrees and at different times – and the responses to these needs are similarly diverse. Traditionally, special education has provided additional support for the heterogeneous group of learners perceived as having ‘special educational needs’ or labeled and grouped in innumerable categories, mainly defined by clinical, legal, and educational professions. The academic discourse of disability studies in education points out forcefully the danger of these often de"cit-oriented categories and classifications and the legitimated, though questionable, diagnostics that especially clinical professions have often applied, pushing pedagogical considerations to the background. Attempting to make sense of global similarities as well as persistent cross-national and intercultural differences in special and inclusive education requires different approaches, as these contributions emphasize. Comparative and international education research, more than ever, should take on the challenge of explaining variation within and between national contexts in ‘inclusive education’ – and the resulting consequences for students and social groups. Thus, this volume’s contributions provide welcome additions to the literature. Structured in several sections, Reading Inclusion Divergently begins with chapters aiming to understand inclusion as a project devoted to achieving equity and attaining social justice in divergent contexts affected by cultural, politico-legal, and socioeconomic factors. Here, challenges to democracy, rampant ableism, and persistent educational and social inequalities underscore the necessity of education reforms embedded in broader social and political responses, especially to secure human rights. Analyses of such change necessarily embrace history, often long-term colonial and conflict-ridden trajectories that are at once local, national, and global. Inclusive schooling must acknowledge and respond to these legacies, whether in the existing structures and materials or the processes and practices, such as diagnostics and classification, that reproduce power, strati"cation, and inequity. Disability studies, and the global disability movement more generally, offer important lessons as they emphasize the necessity of participatory and emancipatory approaches across the disciplines and fields, including the arts. Other readings offer critical interrogations of inclusive practices in diverse local contexts and in so doing deepen our knowledge of the range of struggles facing inclusion initiatives, from teachers’ discriminatory practices to associations and other corporate groups’ roles and influences in maintaining the status quo to the subversion of inclusive goals via narrow or contradictory interpretations of inclusion. Everywhere, education systems require transformation to be fully inclusive, but how to define and reach that goal is an urgent undertaking; one that remains contentious. Epistemologically and methodologically, the assembled analyses of inclusive education are varied in their approaches to complex and shifting conceptualizations. By contrast, the contributions together clearly mark the importance of transnational and transcultural research, whether viewed from a bird’s-eye or participatory face-to-face perspective. Here, collaboration, including joint interpretation across boundaries – cultural, disciplinary, epistemological, and methodological – is essential to develop shared understandings and valid reconstructions across contexts. Bringing together voices from the Global North and Global South and at various levels of analysis, this book facilitates a rich and important dialogue, showing pathways to fuller understandings of the worldwide discourses and dialectics of inclusive education. [less ▲]

Evaluating Universal Student Mobility: Contrasting Policy Discourse and Student Narratives in Luxembourg

in International Studies in Sociology of Education (2022)

For decades, Luxembourg did without its own national university. Before and after the Luxembourg’s founding (UL) (2003), tertiary education and the status of being a Luxembourgish student have been ... [more ▼]

For decades, Luxembourg did without its own national university. Before and after the Luxembourg’s founding (UL) (2003), tertiary education and the status of being a Luxembourgish student have been closely linked to international student mobility (ISM). This long-standing tradition was maintained in the new university via compulsory ISM—to bolster the national elite’s European networks and internationalization. Focusing on ISM from Luxembourg—based on analysis of policy documents regarding the UL’s foundation and state allowances for students—we show that policymakers strongly favored ISM. We confront this policy agenda with the perspectives and self-identification of both credit and degree mobile Luxembourgish students. In narrative interviews, students did not always view compulsory ISM as positively as did policymakers. For students, the quality of a stay abroad is much more important—a perspective lacking in the state’s quantity-driven agenda. In the country with the highest ISM rates globally, constraints remain to achieve equity in ISM. [less ▲]

Europeanizing Universities: Expanding and Consolidating Networks of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme (2004–2017)

in Higher Education Policy (2022), 35

The Europeanization of higher education has gained considerable scope and momentum over the past quarter century. Whereas the coordinative Bologna process, with soft governance mechanisms, have ... [more ▼]

The Europeanization of higher education has gained considerable scope and momentum over the past quarter century. Whereas the coordinative Bologna process, with soft governance mechanisms, have facilitated standardization across countries, European Commission funding programs targeted universities more directly. The Erasmus Mundus Joint Degree Programme, as an incentive-based program, epitomizes the dynamics of such European funding management. Notably, it has established expanding university networks across Europe and unique new tertiary degrees that facilitate student mobility. Applying social network analysis to 561 participating universities through several program cycles, we longitudinally examine three key patterns in the program’s development: the expansion of the programme, the consolidation of networks, and the participation of and coordination by central universities in these processes. Program participation increased considerably across cycles, even as established networks were consolidated, largely through re- accreditation of established programs. Moreover, we identify those universities that assume a central position in the inter-organizational structure of this international program. These universities actively facilitate the evolving Europeanization of higher education by strengthening inter-university networks via a signature EU program. [less ▲]

Neo-institutional Approaches to Understanding How Higher Education Transforms Society and the World of Work

in Côté, James; Pickard, Sarah (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of the Sociology of Higher Education (2022)

The strong growth of higher education and its role as an institution have contributed to the creation of a schooled society, a world in which our daily lives, organizations, politics, and economies are ... [more ▼]

The strong growth of higher education and its role as an institution have contributed to the creation of a schooled society, a world in which our daily lives, organizations, politics, and economies are affected by systems of education. Neo-institutional and comparative perspectives facilitate our understanding of the global transition from elite to mass to universal higher education driving the global knowledge society. Higher-education systems respond to diverse stakeholders even as they (re)shape the experiences, expectations, and demands of society. Education is not merely responsive to other institutions, such as economies and governments, but rather transforms the very nature of work and social life. Using neo-institutional theorizing, we explain broad global patterns, such as the emergence of higher education as a core social institution. This institution, in turn, has influenced societies by encouraging greater emphasis on science production, thereby enabling the scientization of social problems and facilitating the spread of cultural values around equality. Simultaneously, myriad differences and disparities between countries and among social groups persist. Finally, neo-institutional theorizing may usefully inform future research to study the evolution of schooled societies worldwide. [less ▲]

Internationale Disability Studies

in Waldschmidt, Anne (Ed.) Handbuch Disability Studies (2022)

Der Beitrag zeichnet internationale Entwicklungen in den Disability Studies nach. Aufgrund der Bedeutung für die Entstehung und weltweite Verbreitung des multidisziplinären Forschungsfelds liegt der Fokus ... [more ▼]

Der Beitrag zeichnet internationale Entwicklungen in den Disability Studies nach. Aufgrund der Bedeutung für die Entstehung und weltweite Verbreitung des multidisziplinären Forschungsfelds liegt der Fokus auf den englischsprachigen Diskursen. Skizziert werden drei historische Phasen: die Etablierung der Disability Studies in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren, die Ausdifferenzierung in den 1990er und 2000er Jahren sowie die Pluralisierung seit den 2010er Jahren. [less ▲]

Bildungsforschung in Luxemburg im Spiegel wissenschaftlicher Publikationen (integrale Fassung)

in Service de la Recherche et de l’Innovation pédagogiques (SCRIPT); Luxembourg Centre for Educational Testing (LUCET) (Eds.) Rapport national sur l’éducation au Luxembourg 2021 (2021)

Inklusion in Luxemburg: Definitionen, Ansichten und Bereitschaft zur inklusiven Bildung

in LUCET; SCRIPT (Eds.) Nationaler Bildungsbericht Luxemburg 2021 (2021)

Higher Education Organizations as Strategic Actors in Networks: Institutional and Relational Perspectives Meet Social Network Analysis

in Theory and Method in Higher Education Research (2021), 7

Informed by multiple disciplines, theories, and methods, higher education scholars have developed a robust and diverse literature in many countries. Yet, some important (organizational) sociological ... [more ▼]

Informed by multiple disciplines, theories, and methods, higher education scholars have developed a robust and diverse literature in many countries. Yet, some important (organizational) sociological perspectives, both more established and more recent, are insufficiently linked. In particular, we identify two theoretical strands—institutional and relational—that, when joined, help to explain contemporary developments in global higher education and yield new organizational insights. We review relevant literature from each perspective, both in their general formulations and with specific reference to contemporary higher education research. Within the broad institutional strand, we highlight Strategic Action Fields, organizational actorhood, and associational memberships. Within the relational strand, we focus on ties and relationships that are especially crucial as science has entered an age of (inter)national research collaboration. Across these theories, we discuss linkages between concepts, objects, and levels of analysis. We explore the methodological approach of social network analysis as it offers great potential to connect these strands and thus to advance contemporary higher education research in a collaborative era. [less ▲]

Handbuch Inklusion International: Globale, nationale und lokale Perspektiven auf Inklusive Bildung

Book published by Barbara Budrich (2021)

Inclusive education has become a leading theme internationally over the past several decades, as it addresses key issues, often controversial, of exclusion/inclusion, learning opportunities, and ... [more ▼]

Inclusive education has become a leading theme internationally over the past several decades, as it addresses key issues, often controversial, of exclusion/inclusion, learning opportunities, and educational equality and justice. Among international organizations as well as supranational governments, we find an increasing emphasis on recognizing diversity and enabling education for all. This is visible in the Salamanca Declaration (1994), the overall “education-for-all” agenda, the Sustainable Developments Goals (e.g., Education, SDG 4), and the worldwide ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (e.g., Article 24 on Education), which mandates among state parties the establishment of an inclusive education system across levels, from early childhood to lifelong learning. This frame of reference is not only significant in terms of definitions and contents but also in the context of the strengthening of world society. The world societal level is not the same as what occurs in the relations between nation states, as important as such learning in policies and practices may be but extends beyond. This is evident in the definition of “inclusion” that has become significant internationally as a category signifying attempts to guarantee access and participation in different levels of education systems, but one that has contrasting and divergent understandings, implications, and implementation consequences between national and local contexts. The goal of participation that follows normatively and legally from such understandings of inclusion, is recontextualized differently, sometimes even paradoxically, when in fact segregated and separate settings are extended under the banner of inclusion. In Germany, for example, despite inclusion discourse flowing from such international agendas that focus on processes of integration and participation, the structures, cultures, and practices that disadvantage and disable continue to exist or even become strengthened. Even if the myriad dimensions of diversity are increasingly discussed and intersectional approaches become more important, the emphasis on difference of disability or “special educational needs” continues. In educational research, numerous publications have delineated the establishment of inclusive education from diverse perspectives. Over the past decade in particular, this has occurred in relation to the UN CRPD, which also implies a connection to the world society-frame; however, theorization and in-depth empirical analyses are lacking to explain more recent developments on multiple levels. Even for nation-states, few systematic and comparative studies have analyzed the diverse forms of inclusive education in different contexts. The consequence has been a divergence between the national discourses of inclusive education, for example, in the German-speaking countries, that remain focused on special educational needs, and the more global discourse that understands inclusive education in human rights terms and a key developmental process in democracies. Although some recent comparative research projects and dissertations provide insights into specific country contexts, a more comprehensive publication that collects such research results of international inclusive educational research has been lacking. Furthermore, the opportunity presents itself to extend the dialogue through a world society perspective on inclusion to reflect global inequalities via integrating case studies from the Global South. International and intercultural perspectives enable the investigation of structures, cultures and practices of different countries to the crucial comparison of educational processes. This is especially necessary in the case of inclusive education, whether as a source of inspiration, a reflexive critique of taken-for-grantedness or as a means to identify disparities and social inequalities. Thus, in several dozen chapters, the Handbook Inclusion International presents diverse global, national, and local perspectives on inclusive education. [less ▲]