Evaluating Education: Normative Systems and Institutional Practices

This book series examines and theorizes the historical development, socio-economic context, conceptual framework and implicit conceptual assumptions of different regulatory and evaluative regimes. It investigates the values embedded in policies and their implications in practice, proposing and developing alternative perspectives  on how to conceive the role of public higher education and the mission of the university in the twenty-first century. It also surveys developments arising out of the current regime, such as the “metrics industry”  that has emerged to rank and measure the performance of institutions in secondary, tertiary and postgraduate education, as an important management tool in the implementation of institutional, national and international policies. The series investigates the multiple ways in which assessment has become a standardized function of governments and funders, and examines the consequences of the shifting line between private and public ownership. 

The  series encourages relevant contributions from all disciplines, including, inter alia, philosophy, sociology, media studies,  anthropology, political science, history, legal studies, and economics in order to foster dialogue and deepen our understanding of the complex issues involved. Although the emphasis is on the university, the series addresses the diversity of evaluation criteria and techniques on a broad scale, covering not only secondary and postgraduate education as well, but also adult and continuing education. 

Book proposals are to be submitted to the Publishing Editor: Claudia Acuna (Claudia.Acuna@springer.com).