LIST OF PANELS

Objectives:

The panel seeks to foster a conversation about the role and contribution of the education sector as an instrument of public policy.  This will be achieved through a holistic approach to the theme of education policy that recognizes that centrality of education policy and the education sector as a key area of public policy, which is most OECD countries the second budgetary expenditure after healthcare.

Context:

Education has increasingly been recognized as one of the main enablers of societal and economic transformation and a key lever if developing and developed countries are to face down the 21st C. challenges of the human and social development.  Additionally, education policy is recognized as a key lever to advance other policy issues and priorities such as the consequences of inequality, sustainable development, green growth and climate change, demographic change and the knowledge economy, among other challenges.

Public education, from primary to tertiary and beyond increases wealth and well-being. Educational attainment has direct correlation with increased income, better health, increased social capital, and individual happiness. In most countries

public education is the second most important budgetary expenditure after healthcare.

Further, the education sector also exhibits complex governance arrangements involving multiple governmental and non-governmental actors, including the private sector. As governments and other sectors transition toward new tools and approaches to the delivery of services in an effort to make citizens’ lives easier. This may include recourse to new technologies and new service delivery design.

At the same time the education sector has also been changing to adapt to new citizen expectations, which is challenging the traditional institution-centred educational deliver model. Thus, just like other sectors of public policy, education is not immunized the questions around relevance and appropriateness.

Scientific relevance:

Despite the salience of education as an area of public policy and administration, it is dwarfed by research in other sectors of social policy, such as health care (returns for articles on health in Public Administration Review were twice those recorded for education).  This panel seeks to prompt a scholarly discussion about the education policy as a internal part of the State public policy space.

Education Policy: Adaptations to new challenges in public policy

The panel seeks to lead an empirical discussion of current education policy debates. The panel takes a holistic view of the

educational sector and policy and will thus consider papers covering education from K-12 to postsecondary and beyond. Interconnections between education policy and other public policies will be particularly welcome. The panel welcomes quantitative and qualitative analysis with a strong linkage to the public policy literature and the most recent academic debates on governance.

Papers can be on national contexts, but comparative studies are particularly welcome. Examples of topics to be considered include: • Governance of the education system

• Politics of education and policy-making

• Relationships among education and other social policies and sectors

• Public resource allocations, using either a sector specific or whole of government-wide lens, and 

• Policy analysis and evaluation

Proposals for other topics are welcome as are interdisciplinary approaches to the theme of education policy.