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During recent years many European countries have modernized the governance of their education systems according to an ‘evidence-based model’ which, e.g., materialized in new school inspections and ...

Global mobility and economic and political crises in some parts of the world have fuelled migration and brought new constellations of ‘cultural diversity’ to European classrooms (OECD 2019). This produces new challenges for teaching, but also for assessment in which cultural biases may have far-reaching consequences for the students’ further careers in education, occupation and life. After considering the concept of and current research on ‘culturally responsive assessment’, we use qualitative interview data from 115 teachers and school leaders in 20 lower secondary schools in Austria, Ireland, Norway and Turkey to explore the thinking about diversity and assessment practices of teachers in the light of increasing cultural diversity. Findings suggest that ‘proficiency in the language of instruction’ is the main dimension by which diversity in classrooms is perceived. While there is much less reference to ‘cultural differences’ in our case studies, we found many teachers in case schools trying to adapt their assessment procedures and grading in order to help students from diverse backgrounds to show their competencies and to experience success. However, these responses were, in many cases, individualistic rather than organised by the school or regional education authorities and were also strongly influenced and at times, limited by government-mandated assessment regimes that exist in each country. The paper closes with a series of recommendations to support the further development of a practicable and just practice of culturally responsive assessment in schools.

Whether voluntary or enforced, increasing patterns of migration have significantly impacted schools by making them linguistically, culturally, religiously and ethnically more diverse than ever before. This increasing diversity requires school leaders to put in place mechanisms to ensure equity of participation for migration background students. Dimmock and Walker (2005) believe that school leaders need to play a vital role in promoting and sustaining an environment that embraces diversity and, by association, contributes to solving the macro problems of society. To accomplish this emerging role, there is a need for ‘new approaches to educational leadership in which leaders exhibit culturally responsive organisational practices, behaviours and competencies’ (Madhlangobe and Gordon, 2012: p. 177). This is all well and good in theory, but the current and historical context in which school leaders operate, together with the training and supports that are provided, influences, to a significant extent, how culturally responsive leadership can operate in practice. This study, which is part of a European Commission Erasmus+ funded project entitled Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools (CReLES), examines these assumptions by mapping out the factors and actors that can hinder and facilitate the flourishing of such practices in four European countries, Austria, Ireland, Russia and Spain.

Throughout the last 30 years, many European countries have ‘modernized’ their governance of education. For the Central European school systems of Austria and the German Bundesländer it has been claimed that this ‘modernization’ was characterised by a sequence of reform ‘waves’ which culminated in introducing ‘evidence-based governance’ models characterised by nation-wide comparative performance testing, new school inspections, etc. This paper argues that we recently see the emergence of revisions of the original ‘evidence-based governance’ models which may be understood as a new ‘wave of modernization’ of school governance. These models aim to react to increasing criticism of the evidence-based philosophy, in particular to its ambivalent attitude to teacher professionalism. The paper at hand analyses the specific aspirations and features of ‘revised evidence-based governance instruments’ to discuss their potential as a policy future. In a second step, we take the Austrian quality management system SQA as an example for these new governance models. In an explorative study, we use case data to understand how teachers and school leaders evaluate this reform and its impact on their work. In particular, we are interested whether or not educational professionals feel that this reform conveys appreciation of and trust in their professional capacities.

Die Bildungsstandard-Reform in Osterreich ist ein Beispiel fur aktuelle Governance-Veranderungen in Schulsystemen. In der Logik evidenzbasierter Steuerung setzt sie normative und funktionale Erwartungen in Richtung einer Verbesserung von Unterrichtsprozessen und -ergebnissen durch individualisierenden, kompetenzorientierten Unterricht und durch gezielte Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung auf der Basis der Ruckmeldung von standardorientierten Kompetenztestergebnissen. Der Beitrag pruft durch die Analyse qualitativer Fallstudien dreier Primarschulen, wie Schulleiterinnen und Lehrerinnen diese Bildungsreform rekontextualisieren und inwieweit die durch die Reformpolitik postulierten Wirkungs- und Prozesserwartungen der Bildungsstandard-Reform, die in Form eines Wirkungsmodells rekonstruiert wurden, in den Primarschulen aufzufinden sind. Dabei zeigt sich, dass im Kontext der Bildungsstandard-Reform in den untersuchten Schulen tatsachlich Veranderungen des Unterrichts unterschiedlicher Qualitat stattfanden, die von Anpassung an die neuen Testformate bis zu einer starkeren Kompetenzorientierung des Unterrichts reichte. Von den – aufgrund des Wirkungsmodells erwarteten – Prozessen des Wirksamwerdens der Reform konnten zwei rekonstruiert werden: Durch die Bildungsstandard-Reform geschieht ein Aufbau von Erwartungen, der durch die Bereitstellung von Unterrichtsmaterialien verstarkt wird. Von Datenfeedback, der Einbeziehung von Stakeholdern der Schule sowie von neuen Notwendigkeiten zur innerschulischen Koordination scheinen dagegen weniger Entwicklungsimpulse auszugehen.

In den deutschsprachigen Schulsystemen sind in den letzten Jahren neue, sog. „outputorientierte“ oder „evidenzbasierte“ Steuerungskonzepte eingefuhrt bzw. akzentuiert worden, die mit veranderten Arbeitsanforderungen fur Schulleitungen verbunden sind. An einem Sample von osterreichischen Schulleitungen wird untersucht, ob es relevante Gruppen von Leitungspersonen gibt, die diese Steuerungsvorstellungen teilen, und ob entsprechende Einstellungen auch mit vermehrter Entwicklungsaktivitat und einem veranderten Fuhrungsverstandnis zusammenhangen. Mittels Clusteranalyse konnten drei in Hinblick auf konkurrierende Steuerungsvorstellungen gut interpretierbare Gruppen identifiziert werden. Schulleitungen mit „outputorientierten Einstellungen“ berichten uber mehr (unterrichtsbezogene) Entwicklungsaktivitaten und verstehen sich eher als Manager eines padagogischen Betriebs.

School systems such as the Austrian (and similarly the systems of the German Bundeslander) have seen profound changes to their governance in recent years. Instruments such as comparative performance testing and data feedback, school inspections using teams of inspectors and explicit procedures, system monitoring and national education reports have been recently introduced. The chapter claims that these changes happened gradually and identifies four phases of school improvement with varying foci of attention. Furthermore, it argues that these changes are associated with shifting relations between accountability, professional capacities and trust (in schools and professionals). In the concluding section of this chapter, special attention is given to the Austrian quality management strategy Schulqualitat Allgemeinbildung. It is seen as an example of recent transformations of ‘evidence-based governance models' that try to take account of teacher and school leader professionalism more than previous models. Its aspirations and early empirical experiences are discussed.

This chapter discusses fields of application and critical issues of the approach. Action research holds that a teaching strategy is an attempt to realize an educational idea in a concrete interactional form. As educational ideas always incorporate educational values, it does not make sense to separate instrumental questions from intentional ones. Action research is not a method of data analysis. Neither it is characterized by specific methods, but rather by integrating various methods in a methodologically consistent strategy. New developments in substantive natural scientific research as well as in philosophy of science may be interpreted as paving the way for a reincorporation of alternative research traditions’ into a ‘unified methodology’. Invention, scrutiny and application of methodological rules and criteria is a right and duty of the researcher working within a concrete project rather than a prerogative of specialized methodologists. A characteristic feature of traditional empirical research is its personal and institutional separation of reflection and action.

Across the world, teachers’ classroom assessment tasks and responsibilities are becoming more diverse due to increased migration. In this review, we address how migrant students are affected by assessment, both summative and formative, at the classroom level, with a focus on culturally responsive assessment (CRA). Previous research has shown that CRA practices mainly occur in student-centred classrooms. Furthermore, both student and teacher beliefs about teaching and learning might negatively affect migrant students’ opportunities to engage in assessment situations. Teaching and assessment practices should be negotiated and aligned with and included in classroom norms to be culturally responsive. We propose that what is generally considered a valid and reliable assessment practice might need to be adjusted to account for students’ cultural ways of knowing and participating and how this is expressed and communicated within the classroom.

During recent years, many European education systems have attempted to modernise their governance by establishing some variety of an ‘evidence-based governance regime’. Since 2008, a policy of performance standards has been introduced in Austrian education. This policy includes the communication of competence-based output standards, the provision of support material (e.g. competence-based assignments, diagnostic tests) and in-service training opportunities, nationwide comparative competence tests (at the end of the primary and lower secondary cycle of schooling), and data feedback of assessments results to students, teachers, schools, and administrative authorities. The paper aims to develop a conceptual model for research into the processes and effects of such a ‘performance standard policy’. Official documents are analysed in order to formulate the ‘programme theory’ underpinning the policy. Main elements of this policy, its intended effects, and the processes and intermediary mechanisms are outlined in a conceptual model that may be used to organise and orchestrate research into performance standard policies.

Since the mid-1990, but in particular since the so-called PISA shock, German-speaking countries have seen major changes in the governance of their school systems. The author of this paper aims to explain some conceptual tools for analyzing governance changes and to give examples of research into governance changes using these concepts. He begins by clarifying the special conceptual view on education systems and on educational reforms provided by the governance perspective, then continues by giving an overview of major educational reforms during the last two decades in German-speaking school systems and explains how they are analyzed and interpreted with the help of governance concepts. He concludes by using the Austrian school autonomy policy, which allowed schools to develop specific “curricular profiles,” as an example for discussing governance changes in a multilevel governance system.

Outputsteuerung, Schaffung neuer Märkte, Verlagerung von Leistungsanforderungen an Individuen – die Steuerung von Arbeit ist im Wandel und geht mit veränderten Bedingungen der Leistungserbringung einher. Auf Basis gerade abgeschlossener Forschungen rückt der Beitrag das Erleben von und den Umgang mit veränderten Leistungsanforderungen aus der Perspektive von Beschäftigten in Schule, Altenpflege und Kreativwirtschaft in den Blick. Sichtbar werden vier übergreifende Tendenzen: Widersprüche zwischen organisationalen Erwartungen und professionellen Ansprüchen, veränderte Kontroll- und Rechenschaftsmechanismen, die Zunahme symbolischer Aktivitäten sowie Veränderungen in der Professionalisierung. Abschließend werden in einem Ausblick Fragen der Legitimität und Gerechtigkeit angesprochen.

Seit nunmehr rund zweieinhalb Jahrzehnten befinden sich die offentlichen Verwaltungen zahlreicher westeuropaischer Lander im Fokus umfassender Reformbestrebungen und tatsachlicher Transformationen. Die unter dem Schlagwort des New Public Managements (NPM) betriebene Restrukturierung wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Politiken zielt/e auf eine Ubernahme betriebswirtschaftlicher Effizienz- und Qualitatskriterien in den offentlichen Sektor. Dabei wurden insbesondere zwei Richtungen verfolgt: Einerseits eine Vermarktlichung durch die Einfuhrung bzw. Starkung von Marktmechanismen in der Bereitstellung wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Leistungen, und andererseits eine Managerialisierung der Organisationen, die, orientiert am Vorbild privatwirtschaftlicher Unternehmen bzw. am Selbstunternehmertum, auf eine veranderte Arbeitskraftnutzung und Leistungssteuerung ausgerichtet ist.

Im Zuge von Versuchen, die Steuerung von Bildung in Richtung ‚Evidenzbasierung‘ weiterzuentwickeln, haben viele deutschsprachige Schulsysteme verschiedenen Versionen von ‚Bildungsstandard-Politiken‘ realisiert. Damit ist gemeint, dass Ziel- und Ergebnisperspektiven in Form von kompetenzorientierten Bildungsstandards formuliert, standardbezogene Leistungen regelmasig gemessen und an Akteure auf verschiedenen Systemebenen ruckgemeldet werden. Diese Masnahmen sollen kompetenzorientierte Unterrichtsentwicklung stimulieren, zu einer Verbesserung der Schulerleistungen und zu mehr Gerechtigkeit in Schulwesen fuhren. In diesem Kapitel wird anhand der Ergebnisse von qualitativen Langsschnitt-Fallstudien von drei osterreichischen Sekundarschulen gefragt, ob die Bildungsstandard-Reform Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung stimuliert hat und durch welche Prozesse eventuelle Wirkungen eingetreten sind.

Mit praktischen Verfahrensvorschlägen für die Unterrichtsentwicklung "Aktionsforschung ist die systematische Reflexion von Praktikern über ihr Handeln in der Absicht, es weiterzuentwickeln" (John Elliott). Durch die rasche wirtschaftliche, soziale und kulturelle Entwicklung stellen sich neue Anforderungen an die Schule und den Unterricht. Dieser Band erleichtert den Bezug von der Forschung zur Unterrichts- und Schulentwicklung, um eingespielte Routinen des Lehrens und Lernens zu überdenken.

The policy of performance standards aims for quality improvement in schools by stimulating teachers to plan and organize their teaching according to competence-based performance standards (competence-based teaching) and to use performance data feedback from national standard-based assessments for evidence-based teaching development. The research so far indicates that many teachers seem to make less use of performance standards and data feedback than expected and to use it in partly unintended ways. Cognitive adaption theory suggests that the reaction of individuals to change is strongly influenced by individual characteristics. In particular, self-efficacy, locus of control, and positive affectivity have been found to foster openness to change and therefore enable participation in change. Following this approach, the paper explores to what extent teachers’ use of performance standards and data feedback can be linked to individual dispositions such as self-efficacy, perceived control, and positive affectivity. Using data from Austrian primary teachers, the results suggest that self-efficacy and positive affectivity foster openness to the educational standards reform which in turn increases the likelihood of teachers’ participation in competence-oriented teaching and data use.