Technologies of governance and education welfare: monitoring education transitions in Greece

ABSTRACT

The aim of this article is to explore the ways educational transitions, i.e. student dropout and early school leaving (ESL), are understood and governed in the contemporary Greek sociopolitical context that is dominated by a persistent economic crisis. Drawing upon the residual nature of the Greek welfare state the paper examines the shifts in the dominant discourses referring to ESL. Furthermore, it attempts to understand the configurations of educational attainment as well as the significance of monitoring technologies such as those of comparative statistics, especially in the context of European governance. It is argued that education transitions are multifaceted phenomena and act as sensors of socio-economic and cultural diversity in each national setting. While EU governance shifts from sophisticated technologies to direct unreserved control, compliance with the rules is a manifestation of political realism on the part of the Greek state, but at the same time a representation of the never accomplished European political integration.

KEYWORDS:

• Welfare state
• governance
• education transitions

Acknowledgements

An early version of this paper has been presented in the workshop organised by the Research Council of Norway following the implementation of an R&D project ‘Lost in Transition: Governance, Management and Organisation of Policy Programs to Improve Completion of Upper Secondary Education’. I am grateful to the participants of this workshop, as well as to the editors of this special issue, for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Evie Zambeta is an Associate Professor of Education Policy and Comparative Education at the University of Athens. Her main research interests include policy analysis in education focusing on issues of Globalisation and Democratic Governance. She has published books and articles on education politics in the Greek and European education systems.

ORCID

Evie Zambeta http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3194-2407

Notes

1. Employer state: term introduced by Tsoukalas (1986) referring to the phenomenon of disproportionally large-scale employment in the public sector.

2. Clientelism: a form of social order based on relationships of patronage. It is associated with political systems of European South.

3. Data collection for this study was based on four in depth interviews with professionals in different sections of education (a top executive at the Transitions Observatory, a School Advisor and two School Principals in Primary and Secondary Education accordingly). Additionally, key policy texts were studied: official reports from the Transitions Observatory, Ministry of Education press releases, as well as related data from Eurostat and OECD.

4. Gymnasium: Lower secondary education, compulsory level (12–15 age group).

5. Lyceum: Upper secondary education, non-compulsory level with general and vocational directions (15–18 age group).