JT03290846 OECD DIRECTORATE FOR EDUCATION OECD Education Working Paper SeriesThis series is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies drawing on the work of the OECD Directorate for Education. Authorship is usually collective, but principal writers are named. The papers are generally available only in their original language (English or French) with a short summary available in the other.Comment on the series is welcome, and should be sent to either edu.contact@oecd.org or the Directorate for Education, 2, rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris CEDEX 16, France.The opinions expressed in these papers are the sole responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries. ABSTRACTIn the last three decennia, many governments have introduced market mechanisms in education. They have done so by enhancing parental choice and encouraging school competition, through policies like abolishing catchment areas, creating voucher programmes and setting up charter schools. These market mechanisms have given rise to fierce debates in both political and scientific circles. However, most prior reviews of research literature in this area have concluded that the effects of market mechanisms in education are small, if they are found at all. This review tries to answer the question why that is the case, by analysing the causal pathways that link market mechanisms to educational outcomes and by reviewing the empirical evidence for each step along those causal pathways. The findings of this review point to the need for a nuanced and qualified discussion about market mechanisms in education. What market mechanisms mean in actual practice strongly depends on (local) contexts, while the impact of market mechanisms is related to other policies impacting on parental choice behaviour as well as actions taken by schools. RÉSUMÉAu cours des trois dernières décennies, de nombreux gouvernements dans le monde entier ont introduit des mécanismes de marché au sein de leur système éducatif. Ils ont procédé ainsi en valorisant le choix des parents d'élèves et en encourageant la compétition scolaire à travers des politiques telles que l'abolition des zones scolaires, la création de programmes accessibles à l'aide de chèques scolaires, et mise en place des écoles à charte. Ces mécanismes de marché ont donné naissance à des débats passionnés dans les milieux politiques et scientifiques. Cependant, les toutes premières recherches dans ce secteur ont conclu que les effets des mécanismes de marché dans le secteur éducatif sont mineurs, lorsqu'ils sont déterminés. Cette étude essaie de comprendre pourquoi il en est ainsi en analysant la chaîne causale qui lie les mécanismes de marché aux résultats dans le secteur éducatif, en passant en revue les données empiriques à chaque étape du processus. Les résultats de cette étude soulignent le besoin d'un débat nuancé et modéré sur les mécanismes de marché dans l'éducation. Ce que mécanismes de marché signifie en pratique dépend fo...

This papers aims to illustrate how press clippings can be used as data in educational sociology. In the fall of 2007, large numbers of secondary school pupils took to the streets in the Netherlands. The pupils went on strike after the government, following years of tolerance, started to control the law issuing that pupils must receive a minimum number of lessons per year. Demonstrating youngsters capture the news for days. We analyze what appears to be a spontaneous action from the perspective of the drama-democracy (Elchardus, 2002). Our data comprise press clippings and minutes of parliamentary debates. Secondary sources are used to investigate how ‘factual’ developments relate to presentations in the press. What this analysis shows is that what looks like a spontaneous action, is actually an eruption of more fundamental changes in society. What’s more, the whole idea of school autonomy may entail a major irony.