Stankiewicz, Barbara

Educational network reorganizations in Lithuania, particularly in regional municipalities, have become necessary due to declining student numbers, migration trends, and the need to optimize public resources. Nevertheless, such reforms raise serious questions regarding social justice and equal access to educational services in different territories. This issue is particularly relevant in areas with decreasing population density, growing proportions of socially at-risk groups, and declining availability of public transportation and other services. The aim of this study is to comprehensively evaluate the challenges of social justice and educational accessibility during the reorganization of the educational network, based on secondary quantitative data analysis. The study used various statistical and administrative data collected from the Ministry of Education, Science, and Sport, the Lithuanian Department of Statistics, regional municipal administrations, and other public institutions. Analyzed indicators include dynamics of student numbers, changes in the structure of educational networks, travel distances to the nearest educational institutions, distribution of teachers and other staff, socio-economic indicators, and population density in different territories. Methodologically, the study involves descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analyses, as well as territorial analysis using geographic information system (GIS) data. This allows identifying which municipalities and localities are most affected by network reorganization in terms of social justice and accessibility. The research data revealed that in regions with low student density and a high number of socially at-risk residents, reorganization often results in decreased service accessibility, longer travel times to educational institutions, and narrower educational service offerings. Meanwhile, in urban centers, the impact of reorganization often manifests in less significant changes, as more alternatives and infrastructural capacities remain available. The study emphasizes that the success of educational network reorganizations depends not only on financial efficiency or infrastructural solutions but also on creating socially just policies. Ensuring social justice requires data-driven planning and sensitivity to territorial and social specifics. It is essential to consider regional differences during reforms to prevent network reorganization from becoming an additional factor deepening social exclusion. These research results provide practical insights for both national policymakers and municipal administrations to develop solutions that combine financial efficiency with social justice and ensure equal educational opportunities for all children, regardless of their place of residence.

Educational network reorganization in the regions is becoming increasingly relevant as municipalities strive to adapt to declining student numbers and use public resources more efficiently. Marijampolė and Šakiai municipalities in Lithuania are undertaking ambitious reorganizations of their educational networks, including both school and preschool institution reforms. In the context of political decision-making, it is crucial to understand the criteria guiding local authorities in carrying out reforms and the social and institutional impacts they foresee. The aim of this study is to investigate the principles political decision-makers follow when reorganizing the educational network, the strategies they use to manage resistance, and how they assess the long-term impacts of reforms. The study applies document analysis (municipal council decisions, reorganization documents), secondary statistical data analysis (student numbers, financial indicators, staff structure), and qualitative interviews with municipal leaders. The analysis is based on a public policy implementation evaluation model, encompassing dimensions such as effectiveness, efficiency, impact, sustainability, and equity. Results reveal that political leaders often need to balance economic arguments with social consequences. One of the biggest challenges is community resistance, teachers’ adaptation difficulties, and maintaining education quality in declining regions. The findings show that political decisions often balance between the need to save funds and the desire to preserve social cohesion in communities. Leaders identify the most frequent challenges as strong community resistance, teachers’ fears about job security, and difficulties in maintaining service quality in remote areas. Politicians emphasize that success depends on transparent communication, data-driven decision-making, and a long-term strategic vision. The study’s findings may be useful for developing strategies that reconcile financial sustainability with social responsibility, aiming for long-term and socially sensitive outcomes in educational reforms.

The restructuring of educational institution networks often leads to significant organizational changes that directly impact employees’ professional well-being and their sense of belonging to the organization. In the studied Lithuanian municipality, a preschool education reform was implemented, merging ten independent kindergartens into one centralized institution to optimize resources and ensure higher quality of education. However, such structural reforms pose challenges for employees’ identity, motivation, and emotional well-being. The aim of this study is to explore how employees perceive the culture of the new organization after reorganization and whether a sense of identity from the previous divisions persists. The study seeks to identify connections between maintaining identity, sense of belonging, community spirit, and employees’ motivation and emotional well-being. A multi-level methodology is applied: document analysis (municipal decisions, reorganization plans, internal institutional documents), secondary statistical data analysis (staff turnover, demographic data, organizational structure), and a quantitative employee survey. The survey questions focus on the clarity of organizational values, opportunities to participate in decision-making, the level of interdepartmental collaboration, and emotional attachment to the organization. Initial results show that employees experience changes differently: some feel more integrated into the new organization, while others still strongly identify with their former divisions. It was observed that employees who lost their sense of previous division identity are more likely to experience emotional stress and decreased job satisfaction. The study’s findings highlight the importance of addressing not only structural and financial aspects during reorganizations but also the “soft” dimensions of the organization, such as culture and employees’ emotional well-being. This becomes crucial for ensuring successful implementation of reorganization and long-term staff engagement.

Centralization reforms in the education sector aim to ensure consistent service quality and more efficient use of resources. In the studied Lithuanian municipality, ten separate preschool institutions were merged into one centralized kindergarten, seeking to establish unified professional standards and improve educational quality. However, such changes raise questions about how the newly implemented reforms are perceived in employees’ daily practice. The aim of this study is to reveal how, under conditions of centralization, employees perceive the clarity of educational quality principles, the application of professional standards, and the role of feedback in their professional development. The study uses a mixed methodology: document analysis (reorganization plans, internal regulations, quality assessment documents), secondary statistical data analysis (indicators of staff distribution, workload, service volume), and an employee survey. In the survey, employees evaluated the clarity of educational quality standards, the uniformity of their application, the effectiveness of feedback, and their participation in shaping professional decisions. Preliminary data analysis revealed that some employees view the impact of centralization positively, particularly clearer standards and the sharing of common methodological experience. However, challenges remain in the practical implementation of professional standards and in establishing a unified understanding of educational quality throughout the institution. There is a noted need to involve employees more actively in creating professional standards and to transform feedback into a tool for development rather than control. The study provides practical insights into how education leaders can manage quality assurance processes during large-scale organizational transformations.

According to the structure of societies and the role of social institutions, the education system should be a guarantee of social stability. However, international research and statistical analysis raise doubts as to whether the Lithuanian education system creates prerequisites for ensuring social stability. Lithuania constantly strives to achieve better positions, but the results of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015 and 2018 show that the achievements of Lithuanian students are lower and do not reach the OECD average, and there is not much progress observed within this period. Studies of student achievement reveal a wide gap in different economic, social and cultural status (ESCS) environments. Achievements of students who study in Polish in many areas are lower than the average of the country. Differences in achievements, as established by the international research, might be affected by the fact that the majority of schools that teach in Polish are located in rural areas, where the average performance of all students is lower due to the poorer ESCS. The international study TALIS (2018) emphasized that the most important persons related to the school and the ones with the greatest impact on the students’ learning are teachers. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to reveal the potential of Polish minority school teachers in reducing student achievement gaps. The topic presented in the article can be treated as a step in creating a purposeful and systematic approach to national minority (NM) schools in Lithuania, assessing their situation, possibilities and competence to overcome student achievement gaps by counterbalancing the challenge of the ESCS environment. A mixed research strategy was chosen to achieve the research goal: - the context of education of NM in Lithuania is examined based on the analysis of legal acts; - the analysis of achievement gaps of NM students is based on statistical data analysis, i.e. provided by PISA 2015 and 2018 and national student achievement assessment data; - the evaluation of the situation of teachers is based on the analysis of the Lithuanian strategic education documents, data of the Statistics Department, official reports, and TALIS 2018; - teacher working practices are determined based on the data obtained during three group interviews with 21 teacher who work in NM schools. This research confirms the findings of previous studies that the ESCS has an effect on student achievements, but our research emphasizes that small schools, having better conditions for individual relationships not only with students, but also with their families, have more possibilities to control the negative impact of ESCS on student achievements. However, a teacher working in a rural area faces financial difficulties, as the number of students in rural areas decreases, so does the possibility to have a full-time position and receive a higher salary. This is also related to fewer possibilities for improving competences and self-education. Nonetheless, the long-term impact of education equity in Lithuania in NM schools will be influenced by the ability to control the effect of the social, economic and cultural context. There is a need to change the current school network and model in municipalities with a strongly expressed ESCS by organizing full-day schools for children from families with an unfavourable ESCS, which would ensure additional workload for teachers and support specialists.

The articulation of multi-stakeholder participation implies some reconstruction of public governance structures towards a more participatory democracy with a significant impact on public governance. This reconstruction implies incremental decision-making methods. Pluralistic incremental decision-making is based on the hypothesis that decisions are made under pressure, compromises, coalitions, and negotiations between interdependent actors. The aim is to reach an agreement that reconciles the diversity of interests resulting from coordination of the parties involved. However, stakeholder involvement in the public governance process faces significant contradictions based on methodological, theoretical, and ethical issues. From the methodological point of view, it is very difficult to define who a legitimate stakeholder is. There is no objective method to distinguish between individuals and groups who should be considered as stakeholders and those who should not. Another issue is the extent to which the stakeholder should / could be involved in the decision-making process. We explored the relationship / collaboration between bureaucrats and interest groups in education. The key questions we raise in the study are: What stakeholders are invited to take part in the decision-making process and when? What are the reasons for stakeholder involvement? and To what extent is that involvement reflected in the decisions made? In the education system, the main stakeholders are teachers', school leaders', parents' and students' organizations. In the first stage of the research, we chose the largest interest group - the teachers' trade union, which unites more than 10 thousand pedagogical staff (about 1/3 of all teachers). We must point out that there is a quite fierce competition in Lithuania between the two trade unions representing teachers‘ interests. In terms of the results of the research, it is worth noting that public authorities have a particular interest in encouraging stakeholder involvement in high-risk, uncertain and complex decisions. These features are characteristic of the decisions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially at the very beginning of the pandemic. I myself was working in the ministry at the time, holding the position of deputy minister, so I was directly involved in the process when the emergency required urgent decisions. The pandemic disrupted normal life around the world, as well as the functioning of education systems. Most students were unable to attend school, and educational institutions had to adapt quickly to new conditions and challenges. The extreme situation called for urgent solutions. No one was prepared for the pandemic, and urgent solutions covering the entire education system were needed in its presence. No one knew what the right solutions would be. It was difficult to select the best solutions and predict the consequences, as no country had such extensive experience in distance learning, no research was carried out, and there was a lack of reliable data on the IT infrastructure and digital literacy levels of schools and students. In the case of Lithuania, it was understood that it was important to involve stakeholders in the decision-making process as early as possible: the school leaders' association, teachers' unions, the parents' forum, the students' union, the municipal association, INFOBALT, an association uniting business enterprises in the IT sector, the media, etc. Assuming that stakeholders play an active role in the decision-making process, the need for an evidence-based policy, a policy of openness, public awareness and, at the same time, responsibility and control for the decisions taken will be at least partially met. Undoubtedly, due to tensions and very limited time, it was difficult to find compromises. On the other hand, the key actors involved in the discussions did not have enough time to discuss solutions with their wider group. However, the involvement of stakeholders led to more informed decisions that were more acceptable to the educational community. Some argue that public involvement in policy-making is a positive change that increases the legitimacy of public policy and can lead to more accurate and innovative decisions (Bingham et al., 2005; Fung 2006), while others argue that involvement has minimal impact on decision-making and best practice. serves as a buffer for elected officials to reject criticisms of the legitimacy of the process (Rowe and Frewer 2000). Now, the conducted survey and discussion with the largest education union in Lithuania reveals that involvement and role of the union differs from the level of governance at which they participate. Trade unionists, whose activities cover the municipal level, focused most on cases where they were involved in resolving conflict situations. In other words, they were not involved in shaping proactive policies or strategic education policies in the region. However, trends show that agreements between trade unions and local authorities on matters in which they are invited are being legitimized at the initiative of the trade unions themselves. This tends to institutionalize their involvement in decisions related to teacher issues. This can be identified as a kind of expression of neo-corporatism. It can also be assumed that there is still a lack of participatory democracy practices in local authorities and the culture of stakeholder involvement. This is probably why the education system in Lithuania is still quite centralized, and municipal institutions do not feel ready for greater decentralization and a different relationship of powers and responsibilities. Meanwhile, trade union leaders at the central / national level are characterised as more proactive policy actors who not only see problems and raise them, but also offer measured solutions to public authorities. There is now a tendency for trade union involvement in educational decisions and negotiations to improve teachers‘ working conditions and foster a culture of evidence-based policy, as they increasingly base their proposals on research and analysis carried out independently by the authorities. Stakeholder involvement in decision-making at the national level ensures a comprehensive representation of the needs of the modern society or relevant policies. However, the growing power of interest groups, such as trade unions, raises the question of the levers of power and participation in democratic decision-making. On the one hand, municipal level government is rather of a closed nature due to fear of losing the decision-making power, and openness at the national level to recognize major interests as a mechanism to strengthen their legitimacy and ensure the legitimacy of their decisions by involving certain stakeholders in political decision-making. However, groups with power in solving one problem will not necessarily have power in solving others. In this context, the approach of deliberative democracy (Macedo 1999; Dryzek 2010; Mansbridge 2012), which is characterized by innovative alternatives to involving the population in decision-making or empowering a wider range of interest groups in the municipality, is becoming relevant. It is a direction towards reforms of municipal government decentralization and towards the changing logic of political power systems. It is also worth emphasizing that an active trade union can be seen as a guarantor of policy continuity. On the one hand, trade unions have an interest in signing agreements between political parties on the future of education and are active participants in shaping those agreements, while on the other hand, trade unions "monitor" compliance with those agreements. Thus, in a sense, trade unions monitor education policy. Thus, it can be concluded that the teachers' trade union is an important player in education policy, that influences not only tactical / operational educational decisions, but also raises the quality of general, forward-looking decisions and ensures the preconditions for finding the form of democracy in question.

Th is article argues that policy development and evaluations should not only in-corporate whether and to what extent the policies achieve the intended goals, but should also take the unintended consequences of the policies into account. Based on the classic work of the sociologist Robert Merton, this article addresses the side-eff ects of attempts that have been made by the Lithuanian national government to improve on the governance of basic and high-schools. Th e intended goals of the policies concerned the increase of autonomy of school governance through the decentralization of responsibilities; increasing autonomy of and control over school governance; increasing market-driven governance, inducing competition and col-laboration between schools, and altering the relation between service providers and recipients.An in-depth analysis shows that there were serious side-eff ects. Due to the limited knowledge and capabilities at the local level the policies resulted in sub-op-timal decision-making at the school level. As the transfer went hand in hand with national laws and strict regulations, stipulating the fi nancing and content of educa-tion, setting standards and uniform requirements this reduced the ability of schools to make autonomous decisions and rather turned them into bodies implement-ing national standards. A decrease in cost-effi ciency is visible as every school has to make its own plans; administrative burdens increase, and insuffi cient funding results in a transfer of shortages instead of transferring the responsibility to fi nd solutions for those shortages, and instead of becoming more collegiate, the relation between schools becomes competitive resulting in distrust with all the expected negative consequences. Th e plans to increase the autonomy of school governance could have devel-oped rather diff erently if these unintended consequences had been taken into ac-count beforehand. If such side-eff ects would be anticipated, that could have resulted in more realism, less one-sided and unfounded optimism and in the end, less frus-tration and demotivation.

W mediach po obu stronach najwięcej informacji jest związanej z kwestiami mniejszości narodowych i w dodatku tymi kwestiami, które wywołują najwięcej emocji, to jednak współpraca polsko-litewska jest o wiele szersza i obejmuje różne dziedziny. Stosunki polsko-litewskie na tle spraw mniejszości narodowych są bardzo wraźliwe i wywołują dużo emosji, to stosunki ekonomiczne, infrastrukturalne, kulturowe i wojskowe nie mają takiego ładunku i rozwijają się niezależnie. Oczywiście, że polityczny klimat w kontescie spraw mniejszości narodowych, bez wątpienia ma wpływ na relacje, jednak hystorycznie i ze spraw geopolitycznych i bezpieczeństwa uwarunkowany potencjał nie pozwala calkowicie zahamować rozwoju obustronnych stosunków.

Policizmo teorinė mintis Abiejų Tautų Respublikoje (ATR) Lenkijos– Lietuvos valstybėje) vystėsi adaptuodama vokiečių ir iš dalies prancūzų teorinį palikimą. Analizuojant policizmo teorinį palikimą pastebėta, kad šios srovės idėjų skleidėjai Abiejų Tautų Respublikoje nepakankamai susipažinę su to meto kameralizmo ir iš jo išsirutuliojusios policizmo teorija bei praktika. R. Ładowskis, R. Lengnichas ir kiti autoriai neįnešė naujovių į policizmo teorinę mintį, o tik modifikavo ir propagavo vokiečių bei kitų kraštų teoretikų mintis apie valstybės valdymą. Lyginant policizmo teoretikų postulatus su fiziokratizmo šalininkų darbais ATR, galima konstatuoti, kad ATR fiziokratų (H. Stroynowskio ir kt.) indėlis į fiziokratizmo teoriją yra neabejotinas bei teorinė mintis buvo vystoma ATR, o ne tik adaptuojama iš kitų šalių. Teorinių vėlyvojo policizmo postulatų „perkėlimo“, remiantis vokiečių tyrimais bei teorine mintimi, tradicija išliko ir Varšuvos kunigaikštystės bei autonominės (kongresinės) Lenkijos karalystės egzistavimo laikotarpiu.