Curricular Battles: Is it Possible to Win the War even if a Few Battles are Lost?
This paper is a response to the two commentaries (Sircar, 2012; Sarbadhikari, 2012) written for the article â€œReforming Medical Curriculum in India in Recent Years: Conflicts of Political, Regulator, Educationist and Professional Nature and Strategies for their Resolutionâ€ (Sood & Ananthakrishnan, 2012). Considering the enormity of the process of bringing about a change, often compromises have to be made for a step wise approach to make the proposed changes more acceptable across the board. A â€˜one size fits allâ€™ approach is unlikely to work in India because of numerous conflicting pressures and the solution has to be tailored to the specific situations in the country. While a national exit examination as a measure of quality control looks admirable, a number of issues have to be addressed before it can become a reality. The authors conclude that a much higher role of educationists and professionals, consensus building, and political support are essential to achieve successful curricular reforms. A strong regulatory agency could play a definitive role in maintaining standards.
Information as Change Agent or Barrier in Health Care Reform?
Health care systems across the world are in a state of flux. If the experience of the early 1990s can be used as a model, the recent global economic downturn will lead to very significant pressures to reduce spending and achieve better value. Systems have provided a range of approaches to modeling and evaluating these more complex organizations, from simple process models to complex adaptive systems. This paper considers the pros and cons of such approaches and proposes a new modeling approach that combines the best elements of other techniques. This paper also describes a case study, where the approach has been deployed by the authors. The case study comes from health care services in Ontario, Canada, who are shifting from the traditionally hospital-based system to one that recognizes a greater role for community and primary care services.
Economic Rationality or Social Justice? Gender, the National Qualifications Framework and educational reform in South Africa, 1989‐1996
Abstract> This article examines the ways in which gender redress has been conceptualised in different phases of the policy development work on the National Qualifications Framework, a key initiative of education reform in South Africa. It identifies two discursive framings for the NQF‐‐the discourse of economic rationalisation, utilised by business and COSATU, and that of social justice, utilised by the ANC and COSATU. It concludes that neither, for different reasons, have grappled with gendered social relations or the gendered, but dispersed, power of the state. The paper points out that the existence of a widespread women's organisation in South Africa during the transition period had little impact on policy formulation in education and training, thus raising questions about ways in which women's demands can have an impact on education policy change.