Purpose: To improve school organisational performance and innovativeness, and meet diverse student needs, school leaders should be innovative, risk-takers and proactive, thus applying entrepreneurial practices/strategies and market mechanisms. This study aims to investigate, from a schoolteacher's perspective, the degree of entrepreneurial…

This study raises the question of why the French secondary school history curricula introduced in the late 2000s prescribed more extensive coverage of plural histories than did secondary school history curricula for English schools introduced in the same time period. Both countries share similar societal diversity. To explain the variation in…

In contrast with that basic understanding of university autonomy, in most continental European countries, such as France, and also in Japan, the government has tightly controlled universities, in terms of both their organization and activities. In these countries, the concept of "governance" is often lacking, as institutions were not…

Based on a comparison of school external evaluation processes in three countries (England, France and Switzerland), this article questions the possible quality turn in the governance of European educational systems. Using materials collected through qualitative methods (91 interviews, surveys of literature and observations) during a sociological…

In order to successfully match students and jobs in the medical profession of their choice, and at the same time meet the country's health care needs, it has become evident that access to medical schools and the various medical professions should be tightly regulated, in particular by a "numerus clausus." In most Western countries,…

Current administration of French education is failing in its managerial function, not in the sense that it mediates inefficiently between the teacher and the external situation in the form of the public or political interest, but that its excessive rigidity runs contrary to the spirit of current reform and mitigates against greater freedom in all…

An analysis of advisory councils in France's centralized system also proposes a framework for such councils in policy formation in other countries. The analysis looks at the main features of such groups, how they are placed within the system, and what may be learned from the French experience. (MSE)

The 19th-century emergence of a centralized, state-controlled school system helped stabilize government and legitimize a state model during a revolutionary period in French history. The centralized model assisted national integration goals by fabricating a symbolic public space. This ambitious political construction may be coming apart. (Contains…

Examines the impact of teacher unions in two centralized educational systems--France and Israel--on school reforms. Document analysis and interview data suggest that, since 1970, teacher unions in both countries have been demanding and receiving more say in educational policy reforms. Despite similarities in tactics, French unions are more…

No country in Europe, with the exception of France, provides specially designed professional preservice programs to prepare educational administrators. This is partly because administrators have little power, being controlled at one level by central politicians and administrators and at the institutional level by teachers and teacher unions.…

Changes in internal and external systems of governance as a result of a 1984 law promoting some decentralization and a trend toward increased local and regional responsiveness are discussed. The role and significance of new governance bodies are examined. (MSE)

Considers five major interests at stake in higher education: social justice, competence, academic freedom, autonomy/accountability, and decentralization/centralization. Suggests that the implementation of conflicting interests is less a matter of the relation between the state and higher education than of relations between the academic profession…

A comparative study of policies and practices for accountability in French and English schools is presented. Growth of central government influence and teacher autonomy are common elements. However, the constraints on teachers (formal in France and informal in England) do not necessarily cause more freedom or accountability in England. (MSE)

The French school system is changing from a pyramid-like decision-making structure into an organized network of schools linked together through resource-allocation "conventions." This article examines the evolving relationship between these models from the early 1980s, highlighting school autonomy's effects on local politics and…