Research in Comparative and International Education

Analysis of Academic Journals in Education: a comparison of publication patterns in England and Germany

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: Analysis of Academic Journals in Education: a comparison of publication patterns in England and Germany
Author: HUBERT ERTL; KLAUS ZIERER; DAVID PHILLIPS; RUDOLF TIPPELT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-16
ABSTRACT This article outlines some of the findings of a project funded by the German Research Association which conducted an analysis of six leading journals of education in Germany and England. All articles published in these journals between 2001 and 2009 were analysed according to thematic foci, methodological approaches and characteristics of authors. The findings of this analysis demonstrate that there are clear differences and similarities in publication patters between different journals and countries and that some of these patterns have changed substantially over time. The comparative perspective used for the analysis results in conclusions regarding nation-specific trajectories of the discourse and research in the area of education.

Historical Research in Comparative Education: a discussion of some methodological issues

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: Historical Research in Comparative Education: a discussion of some methodological issues
Author: AISI LI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 17-26
ABSTRACT In this article the author discusses some issues with conducting historical research, rooted in her own experiences. She focuses on four main points: minimising one's own biases, choosing a suitable research question, evaluating the quality of the sources and providing a balanced interpretation of events. She argues that using a historical approach to understand an educational phenomenon is both a fact-finding process and an opportunity to revisit one's own values, and is an important way to confirm or reinterpret what we know about current educational practices.

Learner Success Stories: what constitutes, and contributes to, success in tertiary vocational training courses?

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: Learner Success Stories: what constitutes, and contributes to, success in tertiary vocational training courses?
Author: ANN HARLOW
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 27-37
ABSTRACT In this article, adult learner experiences of embedded literacy and numeracy within vocational programmes in New Zealand are explored and described to identify what these learners felt had contributed to their success as learners. The embedded approach is a distinctive feature of the adult literacy and numeracy education infrastructure in New Zealand. Two models of data collection were used: in one model, literacy and numeracy events were recorded through photos taken by learners of their own use of literacy and numeracy practices. A follow-up interview was held where the learner explained the significance of the photos to the researcher; in the other model, focus-group interviews were held with two to six adult learners about their learning. The transcripts from both models were collated and then interrogated for themes across the stories. Learners above all valued the support they were given that enabled them to become successful - this support came from tutors, peer group, friends and families. In a few cases, learners had determined they would succeed in spite of their home circumstances and had needed extra support from the institution. Since being enrolled in a vocational course where the focus was on literacy and numeracy, within a meaningful context that offered them entry into gainful employment, these learners had grown in confidence and self-directedness, and had developed a determination to succeed. They had gained literacy and numeracy skills at the same time as developing vocational skills. Their success had led to a changed attitude and disposition towards lifelong learning.

Nurturing Young Children's Moral Development through Literature in Japan and the USA

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: Nurturing Young Children's Moral Development through Literature in Japan and the USA
Author: SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR; JERRIE C. SCOTT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 38-54
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the views of American and Japanese early childhood teachers regarding the nurturing of young children's moral development using literature. The data consisted of responses to a questionnaire and written explanations of 36 American and 36 Japanese teachers. By comparing responses of the two groups, it was possible to identify both similarities and differences in American and Japanese early childhood educators' philosophical and pedagogical views on nurturing young children's moral development. Accounting largely for similarities in responses were generic items, such as beliefs in the importance of nurturing children's hearts/spirits and in the value of using literature to nurture them. Differences were reflected in particular aspects of philosophical beliefs and pedagogical practices. The study revealed that the sources of different viewpoints may be attributed to a combination of culturally specific patterns and curriculum guidelines to which teachers are exposed.

Educational Disparities and Conflict: evidence from Lebanon

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: Educational Disparities and Conflict: evidence from Lebanon
Author: RANIA TFAILY; HASSAN DIAB; ANDRZEJ KULCZYCKI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 55-73
ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of Lebanon's civil war (1975-1991) on disparities in education among the country's main religious sects and across various regions. District of registration is adopted as a proxy for religious affiliation through a novel, detailed classification to assess sectarian differentials by region and regional differentials within each major religious group. Findings show that the civil war helped close the gender gap in education across various sects/regions, presumably because many young men joined militias. However, the education of Muslims still lags behind that of Christians. Intra-sectarian disparities remain very pronounced, especially among Sunni Muslims. The article shows that Lebanon's regional and sectarian inequalities that pre-dated the civil war have been largely maintained. The civil war and its aftermath, however, have led to some shift in the balance of power and to some changes in the ranking of particular sects and regions. Drawing upon the work of Weber and Lenski, the authors argue that sectarian/regional inequalities in education in Lebanon are the product of disparities in economic power and differential access to the state resources among the various regions and sects. They conclude by discussing the future of educational inequalities in Lebanon.

The Face of Private Tutoring in Russia: evidence from online marketing by private tutors

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: The Face of Private Tutoring in Russia: evidence from online marketing by private tutors
Author: OLGA KOZAR
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 74-86
ABSTRACT Private tutoring is a common and worldwide phenomenon. However, there is a dearth of up-to-date research on private tutoring compared with that on institutional one-to-one teaching, which could be explained by challenges associated with data collection. This article proposes using publicly available online advertisements of private tutors as a method of acquiring data on private tutoring practices. It describes a two-stage study which employed this technique to investigate private tutoring practices in Moscow city. The first stage of the study looks at the subjects which are commonly offered for tuition in Moscow city, and the second part qualitatively analyses 32 profiles of top-ranking tutors in order to identify potential attributes of a 'high-ranking' tutor. The particular focus is made on the demographics and self-presentation style of private tutors in Moscow. The findings show that while the majority of tutoring services in Moscow seem to target school students preparing for the Unified State Examination, the most frequently offered subject is English for Speakers of Other Languages, possibly due to a larger target clientele (both school students and adult learners). Other findings include a difference in self-presentation style between two groups of private tutors: those who offer school-curriculum subjects, and those who tutor foreign languages.

A Cross-cultural Study of American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Early Childhood In-service and Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives of Fathering

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 16:49:52 GMT

Title: A Cross-cultural Study of American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Early Childhood In-service and Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives of Fathering
Author: YOKO ITO; SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2013 Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Pages: 87-101
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine similarities and differences in perspectives of fathering among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish in-service and pre-service early childhood teachers. The participants in the quantitative survey consisted of 67 American in-service and 277 pre-service teachers, 118 Chinese in-service and 163 pre-service teachers, 325 Japanese in-service and 350 pre-service teachers, and 105 Swedish in-service and 182 pre-service teachers. Randomly selected participants from these nations also participated in focus-group interviews. The results of this study revealed that fathers' involvement was related to hours of care for both Chinese and Japanese in-service teachers as well as for all four countries' pre-service teachers. Chinese, Japanese and Swedish teachers' perceptions of fathers' involvement were associated with gender equality. The more American, Chinese and Japanese pre-service teachers valued sensitivity of care, the more they considered fathers' involvement to be important. Qualitative data analysis found that the majority of participants valued fathers' involvement and that their cultures clearly influenced their concepts of fathering.

Editorial

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Vic Lally & Lesley Doyle
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 394-408
ABSTRACT Not available

Identity and the Transition from School to Work in Late Modern Japan: strong agency or supportive communality?

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Identity and the Transition from School to Work in Late Modern Japan: strong agency or supportive communality?
Author: AKIO INUI; YOSHIKAZU KOJIMA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 409-418
ABSTRACT This article examines the precarious transition from school to work, considers its relation to young people's identity formation in late modern Japan, and rethinks the theory of identity formation in late modernity. Although Japan's transition system had been efficient and stable over many years, since the late 1990s this has been replaced by an increasing precariousness. The Japanese government has responded with a Career Education promotion policy to foster young people's work aspirations and attitudes in the form of an employability enhancement policy. This policy discourse coincides with a late modernist theory (as put forward by Giddens and Cote & Levine) that emphasises the importance of personal agency for young people's transitions. However, in our longitudinal qualitative study, we found that the 'transitional communities and networks' that young people encounter in their transition from school to work have an important supportive role to play. These transitional communities are important in young people's transitions from the school/college community to the workplace community. Those who had a strong sense of agency but no helpful community experienced serious depression and did not make a successful transition into work. Our case studies support Erikson's argument that community (communality) is indispensable for young people's identity formation. We conclude that both community and agency are important for successful transition in late modernity.

Education Reform in Bolivia: transitions towards which future?

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Education Reform in Bolivia: transitions towards which future?
Author: JOSÉ ANTONIO ARRUETA; HELEN AVERY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 419-433
ABSTRACT This article concerns the impact of educational reforms on young people in Bolivian society as they transition into adulthood, against the backdrop of globalisation and far-reaching structural changes. Ethnicity and cultural capital are linked in complex ways with social stratification in Bolivia. In a pluricultural society, the language of instruction and curricular content are among the most fundamental conditions that determine which social or linguistic groups will be excluded or disadvantaged during formal education. Language and content are particularly significant in identity formation and in the shaping of cultural capital. Each contributes to the formation of specific intercultural skills and opportunities for communication within national or international communities. Additionally, each of these components helps determine which educational paths are open for young people, and which activities they can engage with later in life. In Bolivia, various education reforms have attempted to reshape these parameters. Intercultural Bilingual Education and other key aspects of the reforms will be described along with the historical context in which they emerged. Some conclusions are put forward related to their implementation.

Transition and Tertiary Education: a case study of Mzuzu University, Malawi

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Transition and Tertiary Education: a case study of Mzuzu University, Malawi
Author: PAXTON ANDREW ZOZIE; PETER BENWELL KAYIRA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 434-445
ABSTRACT This article reviews the role of guidance and counselling in Malawi in reducing dropout and easing the transition of students to tertiary education, as well as in helping them during their time in tertiary education. It begins by identifying key success factors in guidance and counselling services for learners in both developed and developing countries. The article argues that the provision of viable secondary school careers guidance and changes to the university counselling programme could reduce the dropout rate and create a smoother transition for students during tertiary education with a positive impact on learning progression. The rationale for integrating guidance and counselling between school and tertiary provision is then explored. Drawing on case-study research carried out at Mzuzu University (MZUNI), the article presents findings on the preparation of students at secondary school for university education, the relationship of subjects offered at secondary school to courses pursued at university and the challenges faced by students as they start university and progress through the levels. The article concludes with some recommendations for enabling smoother transitions through the integration of school guidance and counselling in learning institutions.

Conceptualising a Transition: the case of vocational and academic learning in England, Scotland and the USA

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Conceptualising a Transition: the case of vocational and academic learning in England, Scotland and the USA
Author: LESLEY DOYLE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 446-464
ABSTRACT The contention of this article is that the potentially productive developmental learning experience of the transition which young people in secondary school make between concurrent vocational and academic courses is largely unrecognised and thus unexploited. To support this contention, and to suggest a more productive way forward, understandings of, and attitudes towards, vocational learning and the rationales behind them are analysed. Following on from this, findings are presented from three related empirical studies on the experiences of young people, and their teachers, as they transition between vocational and academic courses. The findings are then conceptualised through the lens of theoretical approaches which privilege and highlight the importance of supported developmental learning, as distinct from the current focus on societal and policy rationales. Particular attention is paid to Beach's notion of 'consequential transitions'. The article concludes with an outline of the opportunities that an approach based on symbiosis between vocational and academic learning can offer for the improved acquisition of skills, knowledge and understanding by young people.

Educational Transitions in the United States: reflections on the American Dream

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Educational Transitions in the United States: reflections on the American Dream
Author: PAUL T. CRAWFORD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 465-479
ABSTRACT Education involves socialization so that individuals become productive members of society. At present, in the United States, educational transitions are primarily viewed in terms of their location in an outcomes-oriented process and framed as helping people achieve the American Dream, but in terms of the status quo national economic interest. But what about US residents who are unwilling to accommodate this particular worldview or its component ethos? Current conceptualizations of educational transitions in the United States favour economic efficiency and national security. However, new demographic realities will necessitate a revised notion of national security, one that is based on social inclusion. Consider, for example, the burgeoning Latino population in the United States. Will the current offer of education remain as valid in 2020 or 2050 when the nation has become a patchwork of minority populations? Individual choice at the moment of educational transition in the United States is increasingly framed as a zero-sum calculus: conform to the status quo or risk marginalization. The educational system is being co-opted by narratives associated with standard gross domestic product (GDP) metrics. The metrics used to guide and warrant educational policy and practice need to be widened so that educational assessment is based on the 'context of human lives'. Despite an uneven record of cultural and ethnic injustice, the United States has narrative-based resources that support social inclusion. At the heart of the nation's orienting narrative is a quandary: how to balance a sense of manifest destiny with an understanding that our future is uncertain and sustainable only by joining many human capabilities?

The Inter-Life Project: inter-cultural spaces for young people to use creative practices and research to assist with life changes and transition

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: The Inter-Life Project: inter-cultural spaces for young people to use creative practices and research to assist with life changes and transition
Author: VIC LALLY; MADELEINE SCLATER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 480-502
ABSTRACT The aim of the Inter-Life Project was to investigate the use of virtual worlds and creative practices to support the acquisition of transition skills for young people to enhance their management of important life events. In particular, the authors have been investigating the role of the Inter-Life virtual worlds in supporting the development of life transition skills in young people, some of whom were in the care of local authorities. Creative practices, such as photography, digital storytelling and filmmaking, were used as a vehicle to enable young people to access and develop new personal and shared narratives as they worked together with researchers over an extended period on 'Interlife Island'. The Inter-Life Project created an embryonic virtual social research laboratory in order to study how young people can use a virtual world creatively, working together as a research community to develop skills that will help them navigate their key life transitions. The project focuses on how participants act and develop in Inter-Life, while engaged in co-designed creative and research activities. It also examines how the skills and understandings that were developed through a range of creative practices map onto their real-world experience. The project environments (based upon the commercial platform 'Second Life') incorporate 'in-world' data-gathering tools (as distinct from the 'transition tools' created for the participants' use) that support content analysis. Such data enable the analysis of complex activities in the virtual world using activity theory as a theoretical perspective. The skills acquired and the development of identities as young people engage in shared activities are reported and analysed. The article concludes by assessing the potential of augmented 3D digital technologies to assist young people in the social and emotional challenges of transition in their lives. It also considers the potential of 3D environments to support student transitions in higher education, with particular reference to art and design education.

Intercultural Space as Transitional Space: movements, transformations and dialectical relations

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Intercultural Space as Transitional Space: movements, transformations and dialectical relations
Author: MARIANNE TERÄS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 503-513
ABSTRACT This article reports on research into an intervention called a 'Culture Laboratory', based on a generic 'Change Laboratory' method within developmental work research and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Within the Culture Laboratory, transitions can be viewed as movements, transformations and reciprocal relations, undertaken as participants attempt to improve their training in a process of observing, comparing and creating. The 17 participants in this study were students from eight different countries of origin, their teachers, other school staff and researchers. Experiences from this study would suggest that transitions are not outright movements that follow a certain path, but are rather complicated back-and-forth movements and tension-rich in-between spaces, which can enrich development and learning through creative actions.

Learning in Global Settings: developing transitions for meaning-making

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Learning in Global Settings: developing transitions for meaning-making
Author: BIRGITTA NORDÉN; HELEN AVERY; ELSIE ANDERBERG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 514-529
ABSTRACT Global teaching and learning for sustainable development reaches from the classroom to the world outside, and is therefore a particularly interesting setting for practising transition skills. The article suggests a number of features perceived as crucial in developing young people's capability to act in a changing world and under circumstances that are difficult to predict. The suggestions are based on an empirical study of the Lund Calling project, which aimed at implementing a web-based international programme for teaching preventive environmental strategies in Swedish secondary schools. The article first presents some of the conditions in Sweden that particularly impact on young people's transition to adulthood. Related research in sustainability education is also briefly outlined. Knowledge capability theory is used to discuss results from the empirical study of the Lund Calling project, where interviews were conducted with secondary school students, teachers and headmasters. Based on these interviews, features that appear to be particularly relevant as transition skills in global learning for sustainable development include transdisciplinary action, democratic collaborative action, as well as self-directed and independent initiative. The article concludes that young people today cannot, as in earlier periods of history, base their actions entirely on the traditions of the family or community. Instead, they also need to learn to form their own communities, capable of acting at both local and global levels. Education here plays an important role in developing the necessary transition skills that enable young people to be prepared for a rapidly changing and uncertain world.

Institutional Habitus and Secondary School Transitions: comparative study of Ireland and Estonia

Fri, 4 Jan 2013 18:04:17 GMT

Title: Institutional Habitus and Secondary School Transitions: comparative study of Ireland and Estonia
Author: MERIKE DARMODY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 4 Pages: 530-546
ABSTRACT This article explores secondary school transitions from a comparative perspective. It focuses on a stage at which a major institutional transition takes place in two different educational systems. Over the years a number of international studies have explored different learning environments and their impact on student educational outcomes. Much of this research explores the impact of school choice and the transition from one level of schooling to another. In general, these studies refer to school transitions as a time when students are particularly vulnerable due to structural and environmental differences between different levels of schooling. In other words, the new learning environments generally have a different 'institutional habitus'. While seamless and unproblematic transition from one level of schooling to another is seen to ensure students' success at the subsequent level of schooling and beyond, negative experiences and difficulties around adjustment, on the other hand, are shown to result in disengagement and becoming at risk of early school leaving, with detrimental consequences for the individual concerned. Furthermore, different pathways within the educational systems have been found to reproduce unequal life chances. To discuss and re-theorise school transitions, the article draws on a large-scale comparative study of the transitions in secondary school in Ireland and Estonia, and utilises a conceptual tool called 'institutional habitus' to gain better understanding of the processes involved. While the article discusses similarities and differences between children's transition experience in two different countries, it also calls for a careful approach to 'direct borrowing' of practices from other countries.

Woodrow Wilson on Education

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Woodrow Wilson on Education
Author: ISAIAH BERLIN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 274-281
ABSTRACT In this 1960 article Isaiah Berlin compares Woodrow Wilson's emphasis on the need to educate university students for life in the real world with the difference between Oxford 'realism' and Cambridge 'idealism' in the nineteenth century. Oxford favoured a Wilsonian preference for general education over (but not to the exclusion of) pure scholarship, and Cambridge the cultivation of private life and personal relationships. Both universities were opposed to the excessive specialisation that Wilson deprecated.

Developing Participatory Approaches for Use in an Action Research Project with Teachers Who Support Children with Visual Impairment in Kenya and Uganda: reflections on the relational praxis between participants and research institutions

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Developing Participatory Approaches for Use in an Action Research Project with Teachers Who Support Children with Visual Impairment in Kenya and Uganda: reflections on the relational praxis between participants and research institutions
Author: PAUL LYNCH; MIKE McLINDEN; GRAEME DOUGLAS; MARY MUTURI; ASHER BAYO; MARTHA MWAURA; JOHN MUGA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 282-295
ABSTRACT Participatory research is a broad term covering a range of approaches that are characterised by a focus on ‘action-oriented’ research involving researchers and participants working in collaboration to bring about positive change. These approaches emphasise engagement with co-researchers and the development and implementation of context-appropriate strategies that seek to empower and transform at a number of levels. This article explores the dynamics of a multi-agency and multinational research programme that investigated the working practices of specialist teachers of children with visual impairment in Uganda and Kenya. The research utilised a range of participatory methods, including workshops and a dedicated practice journal, to provide opportunities for participants to record information about their practice and share their experiences with colleagues. The article analyses the effectiveness of the approach, with a particular focus on the ‘relational praxis’ between the project partners. This analysis highlights the complex nature of the collaborative relationships when research is transnational and operates across cultural, social and environmental contexts. Considerations are offered for research design in this area.

Understanding Local Realities of Quality Education in Kenya: pupil, parent and teacher perspectives

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Understanding Local Realities of Quality Education in Kenya: pupil, parent and teacher perspectives
Author: A.J.C. CUNNINGHAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 296-341
ABSTRACT In 2003, UNICEF-Kenya and the Kenyan Ministry of Education introduced the 'Child Friendly Schools' initiative to encourage educational policy makers and practitioners to look for alternative ways to measure the quality of primary schools beyond pupils' test scores. In 2009, Kenyan government officials distributed the Child Friendly Schools Monitoring Toolkit (CMT) across all public primary schools, promoting it as an exercise in school self-evaluation for measuring educational quality. Senior education officials developed the CMT with 50 indicators for local stakeholders' use when measuring a school's level of child-friendliness. This study investigates the relevance of these 50 indicators to local perspectives of quality education. The study's findings suggest that the CMT's 50 indicators represent only 68% of what pupils, parents and teachers describe as factors that negatively or positively contribute to levels of child-friendliness in their schools. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach for data analysis, 33 'new' indicators for child-friendliness emerge from the participants' responses. The study compares and synthesizes these new categories with the 50 original CMT indicators by creating an 'Enhanced Child Friendly Schools Monitoring Toolkit' (ECMT) for implementation in Kenyan primary schools. The revised ECMT indicators appear to capture 93% of what pupils, parents and teachers describe as factors influencing a school's level of child-friendliness. In the end, the study's findings call for a renewed dialogue between top-down and bottom-up perspectives of quality education in determining future criteria for measuring the levels of child- friendliness across Kenyan public primary schools.

Comparative Study of University and Polytechnic Graduates in Finland: implications of higher education on earnings

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Comparative Study of University and Polytechnic Graduates in Finland: implications of higher education on earnings
Author: BELLE SELENE XIA; ELIA LIITIÄINEN; MIKA REKOLA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 342-351
ABSTRACT This study explores the implications of higher education on earnings in Finland. The challenges as well as opportunities of obtaining a university degree as compared to graduating from polytechnics are evaluated using the REFLEX (The Flexible Professional in the Knowledge Society) data. As a Nordic country, Finland is known for its educated population and the public emphasis on continuous learning but, nevertheless, there has been comparatively little research published internationally. The authors address the criticisms and drawbacks of higher education by analysing the performance of Finnish graduates in the labour market using the analysis of covariances. While debates concerning additional financing for higher education persist, it is acknowledged to be one of the solutions to the aging population and related economic problems in Finland. Based on the results from various Finnish educational institutions, the authors analyse the degree of match between investment in human capital and market demand.

An Investigation of Factors Impacting the Motivation of German and US Teachers to Become School Principals

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: An Investigation of Factors Impacting the Motivation of German and US Teachers to Become School Principals
Author: DAWSON R. HANCOCK; CHRISTINE HARY; ULRICH MÜLLER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 352-363
ABSTRACT School principals play a pivotal role in establishing the direction for successful schools. Unfortunately, significant challenges to recruiting and retaining highly qualified school leaders exist in many regions of the world. Extending the findings of a recent quantitative study comparing the influence of motivators and inhibitors that impact German and US teachers' decisions to become principals, researchers in the current study interviewed selected teachers to determine the reasons for their responses. Similarities and differences in the respondents' perceptions of factors that influenced their desire to become school leaders are reported. The findings offer important ways in which Germany and the USA may learn from each other's practices.

Discourses and Policies on Educational Quality in Argentina, 1990-2010

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Discourses and Policies on Educational Quality in Argentina, 1990-2010
Author: JORGE M. GOROSTIAGA; ADRIÁN FERREIRA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 364-375
ABSTRACT This article analyses the relationships between different notions of education quality and policies on primary and secondary schools implemented in Argentina during the last two decades. The authors focus on three moments: (1) the emergence of the discussion about quality (at the end of the 1980s) in Latin America and in Argentina; (2) the enactment and implementation of the Federal Law of Education (1993); and (3) the enactment of the Law of National Education (2006), along with the implementation of some key policies.

Teachers' Perceptions of their Work Environment in Swedish Junior High Schools

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:36:15 GMT

Title: Teachers' Perceptions of their Work Environment in Swedish Junior High Schools
Author: MARA WESTLING ALLODI; SIV FISCHBEIN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 3 Pages: 376-393
ABSTRACT The aims of this study were to explore the organisational characteristics of junior high schools, to identify typologies of work environments and to explore the relationships between the type of work environment and how schools function. The educational profession and the role of teachers have been influenced by policies inspired by the principles of new public management (NPM). The Swedish version of the Organizational Checkup Survey is a general and expanded version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The present work analyses the 16 items concerning energy, involvement and accomplishment ('Relations to Work') and the 29 items concerning workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values ('Fields of Work'). The answers from 749 Swedish junior high school teachers from a stratified selection of 32 schools were analysed with a structural equation modelling approach. The means of the answers from the teachers from the same school were dichotomised and analysed with partial order scalogram analysis. The polarising variables contributing to the identification of four main profiles were reward and workload. There were gender differences: female teachers were more exhausted, felt more involved and were more dissatisfied with their workload than male teachers. There were also age differences, the younger teachers reporting, in particular, lower professional autonomy (control). The results show relevant differences between schools, and that teachers' perceptions of their work environment can be considered an indicator of school quality. The results of the comparisons are related to the conditions of high efficiency and deprofessionalisation of NPM-inspired educational organisations, and indicate a possible link between school organisation and teachers' perceptions of reward.

Editorial Note

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Editorial Note
Author: David Phillips
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 126-126
ABSTRACT This issue of RCIE contains some articles by young researchers reporting on a range of methodological problems involved in planning projects in comparative and international education. Four of them - those by D. Brent Edwards, Taro Komatsu, Gary Pluim and Heidi Eschenbacher - are concerned with research in post-crisis situations, and they engage separately and interrelatedly with problems that researchers in this important and complex area of educational inquiry face in investigating post-conflict educational issues in challenging contexts.

Researching International Processes of Education Policy Formation: conceptual and methodological considerations

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Researching International Processes of Education Policy Formation: conceptual and methodological considerations
Author: D. BRENT EDWARDS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 127-145
ABSTRACT This article elaborates one approach to conceptualizing and investigating international processes of education policy formation (IPEPF), which are dynamic, multi-level and processual in nature. This contribution is important because, although research is increasingly conducted on phenomena with such characteristics, extended discussions of how these processes are either conceptualized or researched are rare. This article engages with both issues. With regard to the latter, the article adapts and tailors to the phenomena of IPEPF a range of qualitative methodological strategies suggested by Miles and Huberman, and by Yin.

Navigating a Divided Society: educational research strategies for post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Navigating a Divided Society: educational research strategies for post-conflict Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author: TARO KOMATSU
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 146-159
ABSTRACT This article discusses methodological issues associated with education research in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and describes strategies taken to address them. Within a case study, mixed methods allowed the author to examine school leaders' perceptions multi-dimensionally. Multi-level analysis was essential to the understanding of policy-making and implementation in BiH, where school governance was affected by the political dynamics beyond local communities. In the research operation phase, multiple measures were taken to facilitate the implementation process, counter validity threats and solicit respondents' participation in a politically charged and fragmented post-conflict society. Data analysis was conducted by following established procedures, while requiring a careful synthesis of mixed-methods results. By making explicit various methodological issues that were encountered and describing strategies adopted, this article intends to contribute to the improvement of and discussion around research design and implementation in similarly challenging post-conflict environments.

Multi-level Research on Youth Participation in the Haitian Reconstruction

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Multi-level Research on Youth Participation in the Haitian Reconstruction
Author: GARY W.J. PLUIM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 160-175
ABSTRACT Research in comparative and international education routinely encounters exceptional research conditions. In this article, the author explores the particular issues he faced in his research on multi-level youth programs of the Haitian reconstruction. Through a vertical analysis of internationally sponsored programs, this study required special attention to working in a cross-cultural, politically fragile environment. In this article, he highlights connections with several other multi-level studies in fragile states which are also featured in this issue of RCIE. However, his focus is upon those issues that are particular to conducting research in post-earthquake Haiti. These issues include the roles of researcher and participants, the impact of discourses of security, and negotiating cross-cultural issues such as language, power, and notions of participation. This article also positions his research by including an overview, a theoretical framework, the socio-political context, and a detailed description of methodology and methods.

The Research Process in a Multi-level Mixed-Methods Case Study: international organization headquarters and field employee perspectives of a program in Southern Sudan

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: The Research Process in a Multi-level Mixed-Methods Case Study: international organization headquarters and field employee perspectives of a program in Southern Sudan
Author: HEIDI ESCHENBACHER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 176-191
ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of the methods and data-collection process for a multi-level mixed-methods case study. Data for the study were gathered through phone interviews and electronic surveys from individuals working on the same educational program in Southern Sudan, though some were supporting the program from outside the country. The primary comparison was to examine the varied perceptions held by staff involved in a program, that depended on whether they worked in the field, the program office or the international or regional headquarters. This article examines mixed-method research using remote data collection. It also examines how previous experience working on a different program in Southern Sudan helped to prepare for this study.

Reciprocal Cross-school Attraction in Domestic Educational Policy Borrowing: an initial conceptualization

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Reciprocal Cross-school Attraction in Domestic Educational Policy Borrowing: an initial conceptualization
Author: HENRY BARMEIER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 192-208
ABSTRACT This article presents a novel theoretical framework for the study of educational policy borrowing at the sub-national level. Prior theorizing on educational policy transfer, and on policy 'borrowing' in particular, has focused on cross-national processes. In this article the author uses the existing cross-national models of Phillips and Ochs and of Rappleye to develop a conceptualization of how and why educational ideas and practices move between schools of the same country. Domestic policy borrowing is of theoretical interest to the field of comparative education because it demands exploration of reciprocal cross-school attraction, a phenomenon that does not have much relevance at an international scale. Further, domestic policy borrowing is of practical interest in England because of the role that it plays in deliberate government attempts to improve the lowest-performing schools. By articulating a theoretical framework for the study of reciprocal cross-school attraction, the author hopes to facilitate more systematic and comparable research on how and why educational ideas and practices move between schools. Results from his own empirical work using this model will be reported at a later date.

Action Research and ICT Implementation

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Action Research and ICT Implementation
Author: RUNE KRUMSVIK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 209-225
ABSTRACT This emancipatory action research study investigates implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in schools. The case study examined retrospectively was part of a Norwegian ICT project called PILOT, the focus of which concerns the impact on school development of a locally developed Internet subject portal and study periods. The study found that simply overlaying ICT on the old organisational structure was insufficient, and that to succeed, the organisation needed to overhaul its basic structure. Nor is it sufficient to integrate ICT in these development processes. To achieve radical innovation in the school organisation, other structural modifications need to be pursued alongside ICT implementation. It is vital to the success of these innovative processes to allow school leaders and teachers to act as the driving forces on the basis of emancipatory action research. The article shows that this seems to be the main reason why ICT-initiated innovations implemented in 1998 and 2000 at one school are still in use in 2012 as central digital learning resources for both pupils and teachers.

What Teachers in Pre-vocational Education Should Teach and What They Actually Teach: a comparison of curricula and teaching in Germany and China

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: What Teachers in Pre-vocational Education Should Teach and What They Actually Teach: a comparison of curricula and teaching in Germany and China
Author: MATTHIAS PILZ; JUN LI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 226-247
ABSTRACT This article compares the pre-vocational education curriculum plans in lower-secondary schools in Germany and Mainland China, and their implementation. Choosing the curricula of certain school types in two selected regions in both countries, this research first carries out a content analysis of the curriculum plans, using the criteria developed from the curriculum development theory of Reetz. In the second step, based on the findings on the theoretical level, some semi-structured in-depth teacher interviews are conducted in both countries with the purpose of finding out the degree of curriculum implementation as well as influencing factors in the actual teaching practice. The investigation reveals that in both countries certain disparities exist between the curriculum plan on the one hand and the teaching reality on the other hand. The reasons for the disparity are largely different in the two countries and are closely related to the varied institutional settings, the financial situation, as well as teacher training, etc.

Asian Students' Citizenship Values and their Relationship to Civic Understanding: an exploratory study comparing Thai and Hong Kong students

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Asian Students' Citizenship Values and their Relationship to Civic Understanding: an exploratory study comparing Thai and Hong Kong students
Author: KERRY J. KENNEDY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 248-259
ABSTRACT This article draws on data from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) to compare selected citizenship values of students from Thailand and Hong and the relationship of these values to students' civic knowledge. The results indicated considerable differences in the responses of students from each society and differing impacts on their civic knowledge. The models proposed here seem to be more explanatory of the Thai students' responses than they are of Hong Kong students', so additional explanations need to be found for the latter's achievement. This study, for example, has been able to account for just over 32% of the variance in Thai students' civic knowledge, but for only 14% for Hong Kong students. It represents an important start in seeking a fuller explanation of students' civic learning in different cultural, political and social contexts.

Fostering Critical Thinking about Citizenship Education in Particular Contexts: notes from an Anglo-Turkish student teachers' exchange programme

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:33:49 GMT

Title: Fostering Critical Thinking about Citizenship Education in Particular Contexts: notes from an Anglo-Turkish student teachers' exchange programme
Author: HUGH BUSHER; CHRIS WILKINS; TONY LAWSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Pages: 260-273
ABSTRACT Student teachers and staff from three universities in Turkey and from Leicester University, England took part in an exchange programme in Turkey and Britain in 2008-2009. Funding for this from the European Union (EU) and Turkey was in part related to Turkey's application for EU membership and currently contested discourses about the nature of citizenship, citizenship education and European identity. The views of participating student teachers' on these topics were collected before the exchange visits, during the preparation phase, by a questionnaire and during the exchange visits by focus groups. Staff reflections on the programme were gathered after it was completed. Students' understandings of citizenship, the education processes of the Other and their own definitions of appropriate pedagogy were challenged by their experiences during the exchange visits. They also questioned the construction of knowledge engendered by the programme choosing atypical school sites for their visits. Participating staff reflected critically on the impact of the programme on different institutional agendas.

Editorial

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: Bernhard T. Streitwieser
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-4
ABSTRACT Not available

Research on Study Abroad, Mobility, and Student Exchange in Comparative Education Scholarship

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Research on Study Abroad, Mobility, and Student Exchange in Comparative Education Scholarship
Author: BERNHARD T. STREITWIESER; EMILY LE; VAL RUST
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-19
ABSTRACT For many years there has been research on study abroad, student mobility and international student exchange; however in the last two decades the volume and scope of this work has increased significantly. There are now specific academic journals, a host of new books each year, expansive reports by international research organizations, and an increasing number of annual conferences that are all publishing on trends and issues related to this phenomenon. Yet surprisingly, in comparative education scholarship much of this research still appears relatively infrequently in its main journals. This article examines the seeming contradiction of, on the one hand, more student and institutional participation in worldwide international education each year and new research accompanying this trend and, on the other hand, the relative scarcity of reflection on this activity in the core comparative education journals. The article takes stock of the international education-themed research that has appeared in the past in a selection of comparative education journals, shares the editors' advice to future authors seeking to submit research on these areas, and concludes with some reflections on the future direction of scholarship in international education and comparative education.

Student Mobility and Internationalization: trends and tribulations

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Student Mobility and Internationalization: trends and tribulations
Author: JANE KNIGHT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 20-33
ABSTRACT There is no question that internationalization, and particularly international student mobility, has transformed the higher education landscape in the last decade. It has brought diverse benefits to students, institutions, communities and countries. But there are unanticipated outcomes and risks as well. The purpose of this article is look at the complexities and current trends of student mobility and to invite reflection on some of the new developments and unintended consequences. These include granting and recognition of academic credentials; diploma and accreditation mills; collaborative programs such as joint or double degree programs and twinning and franchise arrangements; the great brain race and its implications for brain gain, brain drain, and brain train; the competitiveness agenda; status building and world rankings; regional identity and global citizenship. These macro issues often become an implicit part of the culture or environment of international education without being questioned. Focusing on some worrisome trends and outcomes of new developments in student mobility and internationalization does not deny the multitude of positive results; it is only an attempt to encourage a 360-degree look at the current state of student mobility and to encourage more research and reflection on some important trends and unexpected results.

International Student Mobility and the Bologna Process

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: International Student Mobility and the Bologna Process
Author: ULRICH TEICHLER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 34-49
ABSTRACT The Bologna Process is the newest of a chain of activities stimulated by supra-national actors since the 1950s to challenge national borders in higher education in Europe. Now, the ministers in charge of higher education of the individual European countries have agreed to promote a similar cycle-structure of study programmes and programmes based on the strategic aim of enhancing student mobility in two directions: to increase the attractiveness for students from other parts of the world to study - primarily for the whole study programme - in European countries, and to facilitate intra-European - primarily temporary - mobility. Studies aiming at establishing the results of this policy face various problems. Statistics move only gradually from 'foreign' to 'mobile' students, but remain insufficient with respect to temporary mobility. Individual European countries opt for such varied solutions that an overall overview is hardly feasible. Yet, some general trends are visible. First, Bologna has contributed to greater internal mobility of students from other parts of the world, but not to a more rapid increase of intra-European student mobility. Second, the event of outwards mobility during the course of study up to graduation has turned out to be more frequent than expected by many experts, but differences by country do not fade away. Third, the value of student mobility gradually declines as a consequence of gradual loss of exclusiveness.

Graduate Student Training and the Reluctant Internationalism of Social Science in the USA

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Graduate Student Training and the Reluctant Internationalism of Social Science in the USA
Author: CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS; SETENEY SHAMI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 50-60
ABSTRACT In the US academy, there is significant disciplinary variation in the extent to which graduate students are encouraged to or discouraged from studying abroad and doing fieldwork overseas. This article examines this issue, focusing on US graduate training in the social sciences and the extent to which students are discouraged from developing international expertise. Data is drawn from a mixed-methods study conducted from 2005-2010 by the Social Science Research Council and funded by the US Department of Education's International Research and Studies Program. This article argues that key cultural dynamics in the nomothetic social science disciplines in the USA steer graduate students away from contextual international study and thus work against university internationalization efforts more broadly. Scholars of comparative and international education need to be aware of these kinds of disciplinary cultural dynamics in order to fully understand how university internationalization efforts succeed or fail.

Frontiers Journal and the Forum on Education Abroad: building a research tradition on education abroad for the comparative education scholarship

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Frontiers Journal and the Forum on Education Abroad: building a research tradition on education abroad for the comparative education scholarship
Author: BRIAN WHALEN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 61-69
ABSTRACT Drawing on the author's experience as a founder and editor of the first academic journal devoted to education abroad (Frontiers: the interdisciplinary journal of education abroad), and his work leading the first membership association devoted exclusively to education abroad (the Forum on Education Abroad), this article provides suggestions for areas of education abroad that would benefit from comparative education abroad research. The article argues that comparative education has much to contribute to education abroad research by helping us to understand educational systems around the world through examining education abroad structures, processes and topics; by informing us about how education abroad practices reflect the host culture and society, thereby enlightening us about the relationships between education and society; and by helping to advance education abroad practices and thereby improve education. Comparative research on the topics proposed in the article will provide important information needed by governments, institutions, organizations and program sponsors, and the professionals involved in creating and managing education abroad programs. Ultimately, the best reason for conducting such research is to benefit the many students who participate in education abroad programs as part of their education.

Seek Knowledge Throughout the World? Mobility in Islamic Higher Education

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Seek Knowledge Throughout the World? Mobility in Islamic Higher Education
Author: ANTHONY WELCH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 70-80
ABSTRACT While Southeast Asia as a region is generally poorly represented in scholarship on higher education, this is even more the case when considering Islamic higher education in the region. While patterns of mobility within the Islamic world are ancient, with mediaeval scholarly centres such as Baghdad, Cairo and Alexandria attracting scholars and students from many parts, scholarly mobility in Southeast Asia also has its own history. The earlier part of this article concentrates on the flowering of Islamic scholarly centres, with a particular focus on mobility. Subsequently, contemporary Islamic higher education in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries such as Malaysia, and Indonesia, is analyzed, focusing particularly on international mobility patterns, particularly of students. This includes both regionalism (students from Southeast Asia travelling to other countries within the region to pursue Islamic higher education), and efforts by countries such as Malaysia to recruit significant numbers of students from the Gulf states and Arab world, thereby reversing traditional paths of mobility.

Are Sojourners Natural Comparativists? Critical Perspectives on the Learning Experiences of International Students

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Are Sojourners Natural Comparativists? Critical Perspectives on the Learning Experiences of International Students
Author: MICHELE SCHWEISFURTH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 81-89
ABSTRACT Students who spend a period of time studying outside of their own national systems have a number of advantages in terms of developing a comparative perspective on education. The experience of living and studying abroad provides them with the opportunity to act as participant observers of at least two different systems, and the natural juxtaposition of these experiences should, in theory, help these individuals to better understand their own and the other education systems. This article uses a number of sources to interrogate this assumption. It draws on findings from research conducted by the author and colleagues on international students in the United Kingdom, in order to explore the potential and limitations of a period of international study in informing a learner's comparative perspective. While such students evidently adopt a comparative discourse in discussing their experiences, questions are raised about the validity and depth of these understandings.

Current Research on Chinese Students Studying Abroad

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Current Research on Chinese Students Studying Abroad
Author: JÜRGEN HENZE; JIANI ZHU
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 90-104
ABSTRACT As a result of China's growing participation and importance in the process of internationalization and globalization a continuously rising number of Chinese students has gone abroad for further study. By the end of the last decade the number of Chinese students abroad made up the largest group of international students in the USA (surpassing those from India) and during the next decade this group will become the world's largest floating student population. Because of its size and the growing recognition of China and Chinese culture around the world, research on a wide range of problem areas among Chinese students abroad has been initiated, especially in Australia, Great Britain, New Zealand, the USA and Hong Kong. This article looks at the variety of research issues and attempts to provide a first overview in the light of international and comparative research on international students, their mobility and their recognition by host countries as well as their influence as cultural 'irritators'.

Encountering Culture through Gender Norms in International Education: the case of volunteers in Ecuador

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Encountering Culture through Gender Norms in International Education: the case of volunteers in Ecuador
Author: MARTHA McGIVERN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 105-114
ABSTRACT Demonstrating how international education programs can be used to study theoretical issues relevant to comparative education, this article reports on a scholarly analysis of 83 handover letters written by US participants in a volunteer program in Ecuador to their incoming counterparts between 2006 and 2010. It applies Swidler's notion of 'unsettled lives' to the comparativists' framework of undoing gender and argues that focused on cultural differences, participants are able to see gender inequality in a way they cannot at home. This increased gender consciousness is a key component in undoing gender. These programs stop short, however, of providing opportunities for less gendered or more equal social interaction.

Arubaito, or Short-Term Working Abroad in Japan: a case study of Brazilian university students of Japanese descent

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:49:46 GMT

Title: Arubaito, or Short-Term Working Abroad in Japan: a case study of Brazilian university students of Japanese descent
Author: LINDSEY SASAKI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2012 Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Pages: 115-125
ABSTRACT International migration between Japan and Brazil dates back to 1908, when the first group of Japanese migrated to Brazil. However, in the 1980s, a reverse flow occurred, as thousands of Brazilians of Japanese descent traveled to Japan to work in manufacturing and construction factories (dekasegi workers). Japanese Brazilians up until the third generation were permitted to enter. Many recruiting companies turned to university students who could work the factory jobs during their three-month summer vacation (arubaito workers). This article draws upon a larger ethnographic case study that the author conducted in São Paulo, Brazil and Aichi, Japan in 2009 and 2010. The results of the study indicate that not only economic, but cultural underpinnings contribute to the motivations by Japanese-Brazilian university students to work in Japan. Different forms of non-traditional student mobility are explored that can shape a student's experience abroad.

Introduction. African Higher Education: researching absences, equalities and aspirations

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Introduction. African Higher Education: researching absences, equalities and aspirations
Author: Louise Morley
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 341-347
ABSTRACT Not available

Equity and Quality in the Revitalisation of African Higher Education: trends and challenges

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Equity and Quality in the Revitalisation of African Higher Education: trends and challenges
Author: MALA SINGH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 348-365
ABSTRACT The revitalisation of African higher education has been a policy imperative on the agenda of many international and African organisations in the last decade, as well as a focus for research and debate. Revitalisation is a theme which is itself framed by a larger set of current discourses about the powerful role of knowledge in society and in the economy, and about the possibilities and conditions for knowledge-based development. Central to the success of both the revitalisation and knowledge-based development agenda is a systematic and sustained approach to a package of issues relating to access, equity and quality in African higher education. This article examines trends and developments relating to these three issues in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa and reflects on their implications for a successful revitalisation strategy, as well as for knowledge-based development.

Higher Education as an Instrument of Social Integration in Tanzania: challenges and prospects

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Higher Education as an Instrument of Social Integration in Tanzania: challenges and prospects
Author: DANIEL MKUDE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-373
ABSTRACT In developing countries, higher education is a powerful instrument for social mobility and economic prosperity. An in-depth study of the relationship between higher education and certain equity issues has revealed that in Ghana and Tanzania there is inadequate effort to widen higher education participation to include traditionally disadvantaged groups. The article argues that provided they have strong and visionary leadership, universities can spearhead efforts to make higher education accessible to such disadvantaged groups through the judicious use of their admissions and selection criteria, and the mounting of special make-up and support programmes.

A Ghanaian Response to the Study on 'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: developing an Equity Scorecard'

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: A Ghanaian Response to the Study on 'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: developing an Equity Scorecard'
Author: PAUL EFFAH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 374-382
ABSTRACT The study on 'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: developing an Equity Scorecard' is a contribution to making higher education more socially inclusive in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings reinforce some of the policy initiatives taken in Ghana and Tanzania, and underscore the importance of widening participation in higher education, as well as addressing associated issues of equity and quality. Although the higher education sector has expanded tremendously during the past two to three decades, enrolment at the tertiary level falls behind levels obtained in most developed countries. Access and equity continue to be issues, particularly in rural areas. This article responds to some of the findings in the research study. It identifies some of the policy initiatives by government and interventions taken by the tertiary education institutions to address the issue of access and equity in the provision of tertiary education. As a result of these initiatives, some students in rural areas have not only had the opportunity to enrol in competitive professional programmes like medicine and engineering, but have also been provided with avenues for upward social mobility. A number of recommendations are made towards canvassing support for broader involvement of all stakeholders in the process of promoting access and addressing inequalities.

Agency and Advocacy: disabled students in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Agency and Advocacy: disabled students in higher education in Ghana and Tanzania
Author: LOUISE MORLEY; ALISON CROFT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 383-389
ABSTRACT Between 10% and 15% of the world's population are thought to be disabled. The 2006 United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is an example of emerging global policy architecture for human rights for disabled people. Article 24 states that disabled people should receive the support required to facilitate their effective education. In research, links between higher education access, equalities and disability are being explored by scholars of the sociology of higher education. However, with the exception of some small-scale studies from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Rwanda, Namibia, Uganda and Pakistan, literature tends to come from the global North. Yet there is a toxic correlation between disability and poverty - especially in the global South. This article is based on a review of the global literature on disability in higher education and interview findings from the project 'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: developing an Equity Scorecard', funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Department for International Development. A central finding was that while disability was associated with constraints, misrecognition, frustration, exclusion and even danger, students' agency, advocacy and achievement in higher education offered opportunities for transforming spoiled identities.

Returning to Study in Higher Education in Ghana: experiences of mature undergraduate women

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Returning to Study in Higher Education in Ghana: experiences of mature undergraduate women
Author: CHRISTINE ADU-YEBOAH; LINDA DZAMA FORDE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 400-414
ABSTRACT This study was based on the assumption that in Ghana, women who return late to higher education combine domestic and academic work and, in the process, experience tensions and difficulties in the face of cultural and academic prejudice. It employed an interpretive qualitative research approach via narrative interviews with eight mature undergraduate women from different socio-economic backgrounds in one public university. The intention was to explore their experiences and use the findings to make suggestions for institutional development and learning. The data was collected in May 2009 from a sample of first- and final-year women from the Departments of Sociology and Basic Education in one of the oldest public universities in the southern part of Ghana. The women students found academic work difficult and made reference to gaps in terms of their knowledge deficit, unfamiliar courses and teaching methods. Recommendations from the study include the formulation of an institutional policy on mature women students in particular, and non-traditional students in higher education generally, and the regular provision of professional development programmes for higher education practitioners.

Equity and Equality in Access to Higher Education: the experiences of students with disabilities in Tanzania

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Equity and Equality in Access to Higher Education: the experiences of students with disabilities in Tanzania
Author: ROSEMARIE NYIGULILA MWAIPOPO; AMANDINA LIHAMBA; DELPHINE COSMAS NJEWELE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 415-429
ABSTRACT Social development policies in Tanzania are exemplary in terms of their recognition of the rights of access to higher education institutions by specific demographic groups. Policy documents such as the 2005 National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (known as the MKUKUTA) and the 2004 National Policy on Disability emphasise this necessity and outline the government's commitment to ensure that people who are socially disadvantaged, including those with disabilities, can equally access higher education. The process through which this is achieved is, however, less explicit and is therefore difficult to measure in relation to what students with disabilities actually experience as they not only pursue, but also experience higher education. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, this article analyses the process of access into higher education institutions and outcomes in terms of representation in higher education institutions by students with disabilities. In doing so, it seeks to explore the meaning and outcomes of policies related to higher education institutions in Tanzania in terms of their stated equality ideals and achievements in practice.

Learning from Innovative International Research on Higher Education: how to conceptualise equity for policy, practice and pedagogies in higher education

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:15:21 GMT

Title: Learning from Innovative International Research on Higher Education: how to conceptualise equity for policy, practice and pedagogies in higher education
Author: MIRIAM E. DAVID
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Pages: 430-443
ABSTRACT In this article, the author draws together the diverse approaches to equity and widening participation found in the innovative international research conducted in Ghana and Tanzania by contrast with those in the 'global North', using the United Kingdom as a case study. In particular, the author considers the utility of equity scorecards around the theme of the three Rs - recruitment, retention and results - in the context of very diverse national and international cultures and contexts. The focus of these scorecards is on equity in terms of gender, age and socio-economic backgrounds. Using research evidence from the United Kingdom's Teaching and Learning Research Programme on fair access and widening participation in higher education, the author also draws out further conceptual considerations about equity and diversity as key to developing policies, practices and pedagogies for the future of global universities in the twenty-first century. What are the obstacles and opportunities for envisioning equitable and fair policies, practices and pedagogies for the three Rs to enable and enhance higher education for women and other socio-economically disadvantaged groups?

Introduction. Methods and Instruments for the Evaluation and Monitoring of Vocational Education and Training Systems: a basis for evidence-based policy making?

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: Introduction. Methods and Instruments for the Evaluation and Monitoring of Vocational Education and Training Systems: a basis for evidence-based policy making?
Author: Philipp Grollmann; Melanie Hoppe
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 250-254
ABSTRACT Not available

Reconceptualising Vocational Education and Training Systems in Broader Policy Domains: monitoring and evaluation

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: Reconceptualising Vocational Education and Training Systems in Broader Policy Domains: monitoring and evaluation
Author: NOELA EDDINGTON; IAN EDDINGTON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 255-272
ABSTRACT The article focuses on how the present vocational education and training (VET) system in Australia might be modified to better accommodate possible VET futures change. It begins with the premise that VET's role is to contribute to skills acquisition through formal education and training. The authors propose a simple VET futures role and purpose statement and outline a possible futures public policy environment in which its actualisation might need to be achieved. They continue, first by developing a policy intervention framework and a monitoring and evaluation framework germane to that futures purpose and policy mix, and second, by employing those frameworks to explain how a futures VET system might function. They discuss the present VET system in the context of the constructed futures VET system and draw conclusions from comparisons made. They find (a) that skills policy should be redefined to accommodate broader economic and social policy contexts in general, and sustainable industry policy in particular; and (b) that a more sophisticated policy mix, consisting of unified and complementary supply-side and demand-side interventions, should replace the VET sector's reliance on simplistic supply-side policy responses alone. They outline an incremental approach for transforming the present VET system into the envisioned futures VET system and check and balance their findings through international comparisons.

The Development of a Strategy for Vocational Education and Training: experiences from Montenegro

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: The Development of a Strategy for Vocational Education and Training: experiences from Montenegro
Author: MELANIE HOPPE; JEANETTE BURMESTER; JAN EBBEN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 273-284
ABSTRACT This article addresses the problem that many countries lack a strategic orientation in reforming their vocational education and training (VET) systems, and therefore refers to the added value of a distinct VET strategy within an overall education sector strategy. To start with, the authors provide an answer to the questions 'What is strategy?' and 'What is strategy in education?' They argue that the 'resource-based view of strategy' is a suitable understanding of strategy because it has a developmental perspective and underpins the building of capacity and systems while making the most of core competences by stretching and leveraging them. Using core competences of social partners and other stakeholders is of crucial importance in VET development. By describing the process of developing a VET strategy in Montenegro, the authors provide a case study of putting strategy theory into practice. Concluding with lessons learned, they formulate recommendations.

Development of Entry-Level Competence Tests: a strategy for evaluation of vocational education training systems

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: Development of Entry-Level Competence Tests: a strategy for evaluation of vocational education training systems
Author: MARC SCHÜTTE; GEORG SPÖTTL
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 285-299
ABSTRACT Developing countries such as Malaysia and Oman have recently established occupational standards based on core work processes (functional clusters of work objects, activities and performance requirements), to which competencies (performance determinants) can be linked. While the development of work-process-based occupational standards is supposed to have a positive effect on human resource development and economic prosperity, a continuing problem is associated with the evaluation of such standards. Evaluation of occupational standards has two angles of interest: (a) competence assessment (considering approval of workers); and (b) matching analysis (considering the difference between standard and work-process structures). The working hypothesis of this article is that occupational entry-level tests, an established means of competence assessment, can be utilised for matching analysis - that is, item development and field tests can provide qualitative and quantitative feedback about the relationship between standard structures and the requirements of current work-process structures. The article reflects experiences from the Sultanate of Oman. In particular, the text describes the strategy of (classical) test development and presents exemplary results. The final conclusion is that test development is a feedback mechanism and a decision-making resource linking prospective standards with the status quo in VET systems and related economic sectors.

Monitoring of Qualifications and Employment in Austria: an empirical approach based on the labour force survey

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: Monitoring of Qualifications and Employment in Austria: an empirical approach based on the labour force survey
Author: LORENZ LASSNIGG; STEFAN VOGTENHUBER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 300-315
ABSTRACT The empirical approach referred to in this article describes the relationship between education and training (ET) supply and employment in Austria; the use of the new ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) fields of study variable makes this approach applicable abroad. The purpose is to explore a system that produces timely information on how the specialised and layered supply of initial vocational education and training (VET) is reflected in employment structures. This is done by 'screening' potential risks and opportunities related to ET specialisations, and by comparing a set of indicators across the whole ET supply (from simple occupations to higher education). The approach is based on theory of 'constructivist' knowledge management, and its intent is to provide input for reflection and learning among stakeholders regarding the empirical relationship between ET supply and demand. Consequently, the results do not aspire to offer 'hard evidence', but should instead draw attention to those areas of risk which merit further inquiry. The monitoring system comprises two parts: (1) a comprehensive classification of VET supply; and (2) a multifaceted set of indicators and measurement procedures. The latter is split into three sections: (a) demographics and gender; (b) employment, unemployment and income; and (c) competences, occupations and trades. In each section a number of indicators is defined to compare the risks and opportunities for the 44 programme categories of VET and higher education in several dimensions - for example, the relation of new entrants to potential replacement demand; specific aspects of employment and unemployment measures; relative incomes; and skills utilisation and projections of future demand. The results show interesting patterns of corresponding and contrasting relations between ET and employment for VET programmes. There are limitations, given the small sample size of the Labour Force Survey, while there is also room for greater methodological sophistication.

The Use of Large-Scale Administrative Data Sets to Monitor Progression from Vocational Education and Training into Higher Education in the UK: possibilities and methodological challenges

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: The Use of Large-Scale Administrative Data Sets to Monitor Progression from Vocational Education and Training into Higher Education in the UK: possibilities and methodological challenges
Author: GEOFF HAYWARD; MICHAEL HOELSCHER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 316-329
ABSTRACT This article describes two administrative data sources - UCAS applicant data and Higher Education Statistical Agency (HESA) data - and demonstrates how they can be utilised to monitor the progression of students from vocational and educational training (VET) programmes in to higher education (HE) in the UK. First the article provides a general discussion of the administrative data sets, their coverage and resulting limitations. Second, it illustrates how a combined HESA-UCAS data set can be utilised to provide a descriptive statistical analysis that demonstrates that including VET students within HE programmes widens participation for under-represented groups in the UK but shows that VET students are at a disadvantage compared with those progressing through academic pathways in terms of their probability of gaining access, which types of higher education institution (HEI) they gain access to, and an increased risk of dropping out during their first year of study. Third, multilevel modelling indicates that drop-out risks differ across HEIs and suggests that HEIs can take actions that will reduce the risk of VET students dropping out. Finally some conclusions about the utility of administrative data to answer substantive research questions are presented, with suggestions for improving the quality and access to such data for researchers.

Organised Governmental Learning: vocational education and training practices between peer review and peer learning

Mon, 5 Dec 2011 13:04:24 GMT

Title: Organised Governmental Learning: vocational education and training practices between peer review and peer learning
Author: SANDRA SPEER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 3 Pages: 330-340
ABSTRACT Peer learning has already existed for a long time, as an informal as well as a formal practice between people from the same professional area. However, peer learning systems on the macro level are relatively newer concepts. Policy learning can be fostered by various types of organised activities, ranging from peer review frameworks, which often have a focus on accountability and learning, to international learning events, which are based on concepts like the 'learning spiral'. This article reviews existing international practices of organised governmental learning on the system level, which are also linked to processes on the micro level. It thereby gives a framework to discuss two different VET peer learning activities across Europe which are organised by the European Union (EU) and the European Training Foundation (ETF).

Didactics Textbooks in Germany and the USA: a comparative study of eclecticism, selection and integration

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: Didactics Textbooks in Germany and the USA: a comparative study of eclecticism, selection and integration
Author: KLAUS ZIERER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 147-160
ABSTRACT This article presents the results of a comparison of didactics textbooks in two countries: on the one hand it examines a textbook in the tradition of German Didaktik, and, on the other hand, a textbook in the tradition of 'Instructional Design' from the USA. The main research question is: How do authors write didactics textbooks? Is it possible to gain an understanding from different textbooks about the self-understanding of the academic field of 'didactics'? In answering these questions, the aim is to draw some conclusions in relation to the structures of the disciplines in these different traditions within the field of educational studies. The results show that authors of textbooks work eclectically. Didactics is also an eclectic discipline. 'Eclectic' in this context means that there are two main tasks in the didactical field, selection and integration, and both can only be performed in an inter-disciplinary, historically evolved, culturally specific, argumentative and systematic way.

From a Mouse to an Elephant: Ontario, Canada, social studies teachers and their perspectives on United States policies

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: From a Mouse to an Elephant: Ontario, Canada, social studies teachers and their perspectives on United States policies
Author: TIMOTHY G. CASHMAN; BENJAMIN R. McDERMOTT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 161-169
ABSTRACT The key objective of this investigation was to uncover attitudes and pedagogical comparisons of a sampling of secondary social studies teachers in three schools in eastern Ontario, Canada. The researchers sought to gain insight into how historical and current United States (US) policies are addressed in the provincial curriculum. Moreover, teachers were interviewed to reveal how US and Canadian geographical, historic, economic and political issues are discussed in their classrooms. Broader implications for teachers in the United States and Canada are also considered.

Free Choice, Free Schools and the Academisation of Education in England

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: Free Choice, Free Schools and the Academisation of Education in England
Author: PAUL MILLER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 170-182
ABSTRACT The creation of multiple academies and the introduction of free schools across England is a policy-borrowing initiative that has had much debate from various actors in society. Many criticisms have been levelled at the government's plans and many individuals and organisations have called for them not to come on stream, but instead for the strengthening of current provision in the state sector. The government is responsible for providing education, and passing responsibility of this to parents and private interests raises serious questions about the government's motives. Instead of supporting free schools and more academies, this article questions the idea of supporting free schools and more academies and debates the ideas above, whilst calling on the government to strengthen existing provision by committing more resources to schools and by providing better support for teachers.

How Are Notions of Childcare Similar or Different among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Teachers?

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: How Are Notions of Childcare Similar or Different among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish Teachers?
Author: SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR; YU-YUAN LEE; LOUIS FRANCESCHINI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 183-201
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine similarities and differences in the perceptions of childcare among American, Chinese, Japanese and Swedish early childhood teachers. Participants consisted of 78 American teachers, 156 Chinese teachers, 158 Japanese teachers, and 157 Swedish teachers. The results of quantitative analysis revealed that these teachers had perceptions about childcare that were both similar and different. Both Chinese and Swedish teachers focused on the importance of gender equality in relation to childcare more than Japanese and American teachers did. Although American, Chinese and Swedish teachers viewed children developing attachments with their mothers in a positive light regardless of whether they are blood related, Japanese teachers considered that children's attachments should be only with their biological mothers because they value blood relations between the child and the mother. Both American and Japanese teachers shared similar notions about group care, indicating positive perceptions about such care, but their notions were not as strong as those of their Chinese and Swedish counterparts. The implications for early childhood education are presented.

Greek University: the road to marketization

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: Greek University: the road to marketization
Author: NIKOS M. GEORGIADIS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 201-221
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is the analysis of higher education policy in Greece during the last decade, which is tied in with the ascendancy of market orientation and the complete restructuring of the university. The formation of this policy and its main axes are studied in the context of the pertinent developments at international and European levels, and its implementation is, therefore, assessed in relation to and comparison with the effects of similar policies in other EU member states. The article shows that, for Greek society, the complete restructuring of the university is a matter of prime importance, while concurrently representing a terrain of social and ideological clashes; and although significant steps in the road to the marketization of the university have already taken place, in conditions that are especially favourable for the forces that promote it, this road seems to be still long and winding.

Delayed School Entry in Uganda

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: Delayed School Entry in Uganda
Author: PETER MOYI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 222-235
ABSTRACT Since 1997 Uganda has seen a large increase in school enrolment. Despite this increased enrolment, universal education has remained elusive. Many children enrol in school, but not at the recommended age, and they drop out before completing school. This article focuses on one of these problems - delayed school entry. What household factors are associated with delayed school entry? Delaying school entry is likely to hinder the achievement of universal education and the development of the cognitive competencies of Ugandan children. Using 2006 Uganda Demographic and Health Survey data, this study examines the household factors associated with school entry. The results show that the survivorship of the mother, female headship, and the head's level of education are all associated with a lower probability of delayed enrolment.

Constructing Education as Human Capital in a Transitional Society: a case study of Somaliland's education reconstruction

Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:19:07 GMT

Title: Constructing Education as Human Capital in a Transitional Society: a case study of Somaliland's education reconstruction
Author: HASSAN AHMED; SIMON BRADFORD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 2 Pages: 236-249
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to critically examine Somaliland's post-conflict education reconstruction. The work includes documentary analysis of the Somaliland Education Policy. The authors also draw on the National Teacher Education Policy and the Somaliland National Education Development Plan. The analysis of these documents is primarily informed by discourse analysis theory developed by Fairclough. It is argued that the policy text analyses indicate and favour an enterprise-oriented education ideology. This emphasises competitiveness in market environments both nationally and individually. Educational ideologies are closely related to political ideologies. The authors argue that since the collapse of the socialist government of Somalia in 1990, Somaliland has developed a new political ideology strongly informed by neo-liberal views. This research attributes the development of new education and political ideologies to the significant local-national and global interactions between the local education stakeholders, the Somaliland diaspora community and international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that support the education sector.

Introduction. Framing Gender, Education and Empowerment

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Introduction. Framing Gender, Education and Empowerment
Author: KAREN MONKMAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-13
ABSTRACT Discourse about gender and education is dominated by policy relating to girls' education globally that seeks to improve the situation of girls in low-income countries, increase educational opportunities, and positively influence international development. This perspective, while well intended, continues to rely on several shortcomings - namely, a conflation of the notions of sex and gender, prioritizing educational access over quality of the educational experience, and relying on under-theorized concepts such as empowerment. In general, scholarship has insufficiently addressed the relationship of sociocultural, political and economic contextual dynamics as they relate to the educational experience. This special issue includes a range of contextualized case studies of gender and education with the goal of breaking through these shortcomings, to reveal the story under and beyond the statistics and deepen our theoretical understanding. This introductory article presents an overview of the articles included herein, and discusses the notion of empowerment, and a number of other issues that could help us move forward to a richer knowledge base relating to gender and education internationally.

The Dialectic between Global Gender Goals and Local Empowerment: girls' education in Southern Sudan and South Africa

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: The Dialectic between Global Gender Goals and Local Empowerment: girls' education in Southern Sudan and South Africa
Author: HALLA B. HOLMARSDOTTIR; NGRID BIRGITTE MØLLER EKNE; HEIDI L. AUGESTAD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 14-26
ABSTRACT The start of the Education for All (EFA) movement ushered in a new era in education, an era linked to research on issues such as 'global governance' or the 'world institutionalization of education'. This global governance not only affects the way in which educational systems are influenced, it also involves how we view and define various issues within education. One of the major goals of the EFA movement, which has been accepted as part of the global consensus of 'what works', is the focus on gender equality, and in particular on the role education can play in empowering women and girls. This article is an attempt to understand key issues related to gender and education, and in particular the objective is to provide a critical analysis of how the global consensus in relation to gender and empowerment can be understood in a local context. The data reported on here are from fieldwork conducted in Southern Sudan and South Africa, and in this article we attempt to shed light on the local realities in relation to global gender goals.

What Matters for Marginalized Girls and Boys in Bangladesh: a capabilities approach for understanding educational well-being and empowerment

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: What Matters for Marginalized Girls and Boys in Bangladesh: a capabilities approach for understanding educational well-being and empowerment
Author: JOAN DEJAEGHERE; SOO LEE KYOUNG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 27-42
ABSTRACT Ensuring the education of marginalized children has become an important agenda in order to reach the goals of universal primary education and gender equality. Education policies and projects aiming to target marginalized children often do so on the basis of demographic variables, such as sex, ethnicity, poverty and geography. We argue that this approach to defining marginality does not sufficiently address underlying discriminatory conditions and norms that perpetuate inequalities. In this article, we employed a capabilities approach as an analytical frame to understand what girls and boys in a rural district in Bangladesh reason affects their educational well-being and empowerment. We draw on critical feminist perspectives of empowerment to illustrate how gendered inequalities are perpetuated in the structures and norms in communities and schools. We argue that specific conditions can differentially marginalize or empower, and these conditions have persistent gendered patterns. Conditions of a safe, supportive, and quality educational environment foster possibilities for empowerment and well-being, and conversely, a lack of these conditions can marginalize children from achieving well-being through education.

Schooling, Jobbing, Marrying: what's a girl to do to make life better? Empowerment Capabilities of Girls at the Margins of Globalization in China

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Schooling, Jobbing, Marrying: what's a girl to do to make life better? Empowerment Capabilities of Girls at the Margins of Globalization in China
Author: VILMA SEEBERG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-61
ABSTRACT Though girls' education is a well-established part of the anti-poverty canon, its importance in the lives of girls on the margins of China's globalization is more complex than a utility approach might suggest. This article uses a capabilities approach of empowerment to understand what educational opportunities a set of multiply marginalized girls value - that is, might have reason to value. The article foregrounds rural girls' voices to tell us what capabilities they treasure, how they develop agency, and what well-being they experience while living under severely constrained gendered socio-economic and cultural circumstances. Findings show that the opportunity structure is embedded in how and what the girls value in their world related to education. Hence, understanding and strengthening the fabric of this embedded opportunity structure can lay the foundation for an effective educational development policy toward the Millennium Development Goals. Findings showed that with schooling, the girls gained confidence, and psychological as well as cognitive control; some went against their parents' wishes, and stayed in school. After they 'went into society', they continued to develop their voice and capability of making strategic life choices about school, work and marriage. They imagined social change in their relation to their birth families, though they accepted the prevailing preference for sons, but they sought alternatives to marrying and returning to 'grow crops' [zhong tien] and have babies. One early school leaver put it this way, 'If I don't change, I won't make progress. It would be like living in the past .[the village] I have to adapt to society [in the larger world].'

Uganda's Universal Secondary Education Policy and its Effect on 'Empowered' Women: how reduced income and moonlighting activities differentially impact male and female teachers

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Uganda's Universal Secondary Education Policy and its Effect on 'Empowered' Women: how reduced income and moonlighting activities differentially impact male and female teachers
Author: KRISTEN J. MOLYNEAUX
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 62-78
ABSTRACT In January 2007 Uganda embarked on a strategy to implement a nationwide Universal Secondary Education (USE) policy. This article investigates how gender differences in Uganda's informal and formal teaching markets, that went unexamined during the implementation process of USE, differentially affected male and female teachers' incomes. In particular, this article examines the myriad ways in which male and female teachers are coping with reduced income, and questions 'empowerment' policies intended to expand educational opportunities for the masses but simultaneously refuse to engage with gendered differences within the educational work space.

Education of Hazara Girls in a Diaspora: education as empowerment and an agent of change

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Education of Hazara Girls in a Diaspora: education as empowerment and an agent of change
Author: SOFIE HAUG CHANGEZI; HEIDI BISETH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 79-89
ABSTRACT Afghanistan is a country which has experienced years of conflict and war. This unrest has forced large numbers of Afghans into diasporas, Hazaras comprising one of these groups. Hazaras have mainly fled from rural Hazarajat to more urban areas in Pakistan. Marginalization of Hazaras in general and girls in particular, both in Afghanistan and Pakistan, restricts their ability to, for example, access education and challenge traditional gender roles. However, in the authors' view, the change of locality is but one factor that has altered what kind of marginalization they experience, changing, among other things, the sentiments toward girls' education, as well as their access to schools. In analysing interviews conducted with Hazara parents, teachers and female students in Pakistan, the authors argue that this situation in a diaspora has made girls' education more accessible, and can be seen as an agent of change for both individuals and the Hazaras as a group.

Girls' Education and Discursive Spaces for Empowerment: perspectives from rural India

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Girls' Education and Discursive Spaces for Empowerment: perspectives from rural India
Author: PAYAL P. SHAH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 90-106
ABSTRACT This article examines a national girls' education program and its role in addressing gender inequality in the Indian state of Gujarat. In 2004, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, enacted the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyala (KGBV) program. As a national program designed to increase educational access for the most marginalized girls, the KGBV program innovatively partners with the non-governmental organization (NGO) CARE India and employs a curriculum focused on fostering girls' 'empowerment'. Empowerment, a process relating to an increase in individuals' power over resources and decisions in their life, relies upon education as the key institution to provide the tools to expand women's access to the economic and political spheres of society. Employing an ethnographic and institutional approach, this article empirically investigates the education-empowerment link by examining how institutional form impacts the social processes that both define and characterize empowerment. In other words, it investigates how empowerment is manifested in one KGBV school. It presents an ethnographic study of a KGBV in Gujarat, and identifies findings related to the KGBV program's ability to create a unique 'space' that fosters empowerment.

Speaking Up: contextualizing women's voices and gatekeepers' reactions in promoting women's empowerment in rural India

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Speaking Up: contextualizing women's voices and gatekeepers' reactions in promoting women's empowerment in rural India
Author: SUPRIYA BAILY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 107-118
ABSTRACT This article deepens the understanding of the impact empowerment programs have for women on their social environment, and more specifically on the men in the community, who may or may not be supportive of such endeavors. Gathering evidence from one case in rural India, it addresses how powerholders and gatekeepers reacted to the increased use of women's voices as they interacted as members of a group, within the broader community, and as the women recognized their own increase in value to the community.

Education, Employment and Empowerment: the case of a young woman in northwestern China

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Education, Employment and Empowerment: the case of a young woman in northwestern China
Author: MARY ANN MASLAK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 119-128
ABSTRACT As a marginalized region of the world, the rural Gansu Province of northwestern China provides an informative canvas on which to examine and understand the ways in which education contributes to the lives of local Muslim women and supports their goals for work. Specifically, this article highlights the role education plays in the life of one young woman as a guest house worker from the Dongxiang ethnic group in the southernmost region of the province. Findings indicate that two types of education, formal and informal, contribute to and help maintain a successful career in the service industry.

Empowered to Empower: a civil society-government partnership to increase girls' junior secondary school outcomes in Morocco

Tue, 5 Apr 2011 16:23:21 GMT

Title: Empowered to Empower: a civil society-government partnership to increase girls' junior secondary school outcomes in Morocco
Author: JOSHUA A. MUSKIN; ABDELHAK KAMIME; ABDELLAH ADLAOUI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2011 Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Pages: 129-146
ABSTRACT The empowerment literature has tended to focus on reinforcing the capacity of local populations to act effectively in promoting change on their own behalf. Borrowing from the social capital literature, achieving greater empowerment might be linked also to the actions and aims of the already powerful. A group might endeavor to exert its ability to change a situation or relation in its favour independently, but the ease, degree and durability of any changes will be heightened if they occur with the approval of those who control the major decisive factors or, especially, if they occur in complicity with them. The 'Quality Girls' Dormitory' model of the USAID/ALEF Project implemented by the Academy for Educational Development in Morocco (2005-2009) demonstrates the robustness of this dynamic at a few levels. For the girls, empowerment in both their academic and personal lives emerged from their personal growth and from the contexts for success created by their respective schools and the associations operating the dormitories. The associations grew in effectiveness and influence due to both a program of institutional capacity-strengthening and the collaborative approach of the Ministry of Social Affairs, their main funding source. Subsequently, only the ministry was able to undertake the model's nationwide adoption, both generalizing and sustaining the means to empowerment for the associations and the girls.

From Higher Education to Work: public and professional sector employment in Germany and Britain

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: From Higher Education to Work: public and professional sector employment in Germany and Britain
Author: KATHRIN LEUZE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 344-365
ABSTRACT Comparative analysis of the transition from higher education to work often focuses on cross-national variations of higher education systems to explain country-specific mobility patterns of higher education graduates. The structure of graduate labour markets, however, has received less attention, despite differences across countries. Variations in the structure of public services and the professions are particularly pronounced. This article, therefore, analyses graduate employment patterns in professional and public sector jobs. It develops an explanatory framework based on the concept of internal labour markets and asks whether country-specific degrees of social closure in the public and professional sector influence individual transitions from higher education to work. To answer this question, the study looks at two countries that vary strongly in their institutional organisation of public and professional services - namely, Britain and Germany. Empirically, the transition to public and professional sector employment is studied, as well as between-sector career mobility of higher education graduates. Results indicate that public and professional sector employment is more common in Germany, while further career mobility between these sectors is higher in Britain.

Higher Education in Europe: a comparative female approach

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: Higher Education in Europe: a comparative female approach
Author: ANNA MARIA PIUSSI; REMEI ARNAUS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-381
ABSTRACT The recognition of women's growing quantitative participation in higher education worldwide has to date been rarely accompanied by analysis of the quality of this participation. In Europe, the national and transnational policies of the past few decades have promoted female inclusion in higher education, through positive action aimed at bridging the gender gap, but have not taken into account the different human experience, aspirations, values and expertise of women, interpreting these as a minus value and thereby neutralizing the sexual difference in a universalistic male-dominated paradigm. This article draws on case-study research in five European universities, exploring the free, original voice of women who, as teachers, researchers and university administrators, recount their own university experience, the obstacles in their path and the resistance met with, as well as their own strategies and work practices - including inventive practices - expressing in words their desires and aspirations above and beyond the given order. In the current crisis of the Western universities, caught in the grips of financial distress and symbolic conflicts regarding their mission, we need to give a political transformative sense to these practices and words, offering a new measure of university life necessary for all.

Influences on the Decision to Enter Higher Education in Cyprus: a comparison of students' and teachers' perspectives

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: Influences on the Decision to Enter Higher Education in Cyprus: a comparison of students' and teachers' perspectives
Author: MARIA ELIOPHOTOU MENON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 382-393
ABSTRACT This article examines the main influences on the decision of secondary school graduates to select higher education over labour-market entry. It reports the views of prospective higher education students and secondary school teachers regarding the main influences on the students' intention to pursue higher studies. Survey research was used to collect information from 611 students and 215 secondary school teachers in the Republic of Cyprus. Respondents were asked to rate factors commonly considered to influence the choice of higher education, including the economic and career benefits of a university degree, and reference individuals such as teachers and parents. According to the findings, there were both similarities and differences in the importance students and teachers assigned to different factors. Both students and teachers acknowledged the importance of personal, economic and occupational considerations in the choice of higher education. However, secondary school teachers tended to overestimate their own influence on the decisions of their students. The article discusses the implications of the findings for education policy, especially in relation to measures required to address the needs and wants of prospective university students.

Recognising the Roma and their Rights: an analysis of exclusion and integration in the education system

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: Recognising the Roma and their Rights: an analysis of exclusion and integration in the education system
Author: ANNA HORVAI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 394-407
ABSTRACT This article draws from a small-scale qualitative study related to Roma integration in the Hungarian education system, from the perspective of academics and officials from leading civil society organisations. Based on semi-structured interviews and extensive analysis of the literature, the study identified and categorised key obstacles to Roma integration within the education system, along with methods for improving Roma access, retention and achievement. The study ultimately evaluated the importance of early childhood care and education (ECCE) for Roma children and families by analysing select ECCE services for disadvantaged families in Europe. This article will outline the key findings from the study in light of rising anti-gypsyism, the continued deportations of Roma across Europe and the rapidly approaching Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) and Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) deadlines.

Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Technology to Children in Japan and the United States

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Technology to Children in Japan and the United States
Author: SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR; YOKO ITO; ANDREW GIBBONS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 408-420
ABSTRACT The purpose of the study was to examine early childhood education pre-service teachers' perceptions of the increasing role of new technologies in classroom environments. Given the growth in interest in a teacher's technological literacy, the research focused on similarities in and differences between pre-service teachers' concepts of technology use in Japan and the United States. The participants consisted of 41 female pre-service teachers in the southeastern United States and 41 pre-service teachers (seven males and 34 females) on the main island of Japan. Qualitative analysis of the data yielded five major themes regarding conceptions of technologies: competence; communication; pros and cons of technology; the importance of external and internal assessments; and the media. The results contrasted American and Japanese pre-service teachers' notions of the role of technology in teaching. American and Japanese pre-service teachers mostly agreed on the importance of child, parent, and community involvement in implementing technology in the early childhood centre.

Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development Opportunities in the Curriculum Reform of China

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: Mathematics Teachers' Professional Development Opportunities in the Curriculum Reform of China
Author: XUE HAN; HEQUN WANG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 421-433
ABSTRACT This study examined the professional development opportunities that about eighty mathematics teachers of junior high schools were provided with in the national curriculum reform of China and explored how their beliefs in mathematics instruction and instructional practice were affected by the professional development opportunities available to them. A questionnaire was administered to collect data. The results showed that the length of time the participants spent on attending school-based learning activities had a significant effect on their attitudes toward the effectiveness of the professional development and on their instructional practice. The content of the training programs that focused on studying textbooks and observing and reflecting upon model lessons was highly correlated to the implementation of conventional mathematics instruction. Another factor that related to the implementation of conventional mathematics instruction was the collegial support the teachers received at their schools.

The Critical Thinking Movement in Kazakhstan: a progress report

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 13:29:56 GMT

Title: The Critical Thinking Movement in Kazakhstan: a progress report
Author: NANCY BURKHALTER; MAGANAT SHEGEBAYEV
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Pages: 434-445
ABSTRACT Having gained independence in 1991, Kazakhstan is making major adjustments in its educational system to meet the demands of its changing workplace. To that end, the Ministry of Education has mandated that critical thinking be incorporated into all levels. Given the importance of this goal, the authors surveyed teachers' understanding and use of critical thinking in their classrooms. This article reports the survey results, which provide a brief overview of the status of the teaching and learning of critical thinking in Kazakhstan today. The results point to a growing understanding of critical thinking among Kazakhstani teachers in this region. That said, 10 per cent of respondents plagiarized their surveys, suggesting that many feared looking incompetent, despite assurances of anonymity. The authors recommend the survey be conducted in other regions in Kazakhstan and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to assess the status of critical thinking.

Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Governance and Policy Transfer in Vocational Education and Training

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Governance and Policy Transfer in Vocational Education and Training
Author: ANTJE BARABASCH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 224-236
ABSTRACT This introductory article offers not only a synthesis of methodological approaches, methods, conceptual considerations and theoretical frameworks that are introduced in the various articles in this special issue, it also reaches beyond this collection in referring to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of vocational education and training (VET) governance. The latter are specifically intended to assist in analysing the role of the individual, political groups or networks in governing VET and potentially determining a VET policy transfer process. The author explains how the study of governance is directly connected to the study of policy transfer and specifically introduces categories derived from the behavioural science in order to substantiate the thesis that existing governance studies have not paid attention to the essential category of the human or social factor.

Differences in the Organisation of Apprenticeship in Europe: findings of a comparative evaluation study

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Differences in the Organisation of Apprenticeship in Europe: findings of a comparative evaluation study
Author: FELIX RAUNER; WOLFGANG WITTIG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 237-250
ABSTRACT This article presents a comparative analysis of governance structures in the dual vocational education and training (VET) systems of Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. First a theoretical framework for the classification of plural systems such as dual apprenticeship training is discussed. It is argued that governance in VET can be described according to the coherence of the system on the one hand and the rationale of agency on the other. Moreover, it is assumed that four ideal types of governance can be distinguished. A methodology is presented to implement this framework in data collection and analysis and as an evaluation tool for expert workshops. The study recommends a consistent legal framework regarding the cooperation of learning venues and the establishment of an evaluation and feedback scheme in the shape of an assessment during the training process. In order to efficiently coordinate VET practice, VET policy and VET research, the establishment of a 'VET innovation system' is suggested.

Governance Models of Training for Employment: a European perspective

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Governance Models of Training for Employment: a European perspective
Author: WOLF-DIETRICH GREINERT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 251-260
ABSTRACT Internationally, the question of how to qualify the workforce seems to be of increasing importance for competitive economies. How can politics govern the quantity and quality of employment structures and optimise both? In this article a theoretical framework is outlined that has been developed for the analysis of institutional constructs serving workforce qualification. Its most important elements and mechanisms are explained in a model and a typology - both based on a European/German perspective.

Complexity in Vocational Education and Training Governance

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Complexity in Vocational Education and Training Governance
Author: DAMIAN OLIVER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 261-273
ABSTRACT Complexity is a feature common to all vocational education and training (VET) governance arrangements, due to the wide range of students VET systems caters for, and the number of stakeholders involved in both decision making and funding and financing. In this article, Pierre and Peter's framework of governance is used to examine complexity in VET governance models. Criticism has been made of complex decision-making processes in VET governance models, whether stemming from co-determination with social partners or shared responsibilities in federations between national and sub-national governments, with the contention being that such complex processes reduce system adaptability. This article argues that the focus on decision-making processes is misguided and the effects of other complex system processes should be considered. First, debate needs to be broadened to take into account how governance frameworks emerge from historical and political differences, such as the impact of federal structures of government. Adaptability depends on more than decision-making processes. Second, international comparisons suggest that complex policy instruments, whether the result of convoluted decision-making or not, may demonstrate greater adaptability in the system but also threaten system coherence. Finally, complex processes for allocating resources and generating feedback seem to increase system accountability, although unintended consequences for other system outcomes may yet emerge.

Governance of Vocational Education and Training in the United States

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Governance of Vocational Education and Training in the United States
Author: JAMES R. STONE III; MORGAN V. LEWIS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 274-288
ABSTRACT Local educational agencies (of which there are more than 14,000) have the primary responsibility for governance of public vocational education and training (VET) in the United States. Local agencies operate within a framework of state legislation and regulations that are heavily influenced by federal legislation. The federal government offers funds to the states for the support of VET. To qualify for these funds, states must submit plans to the federal government describing how they will use the funds to achieve the intent of federal law. States, in turn, require local agencies to submit plans for their use of the funds. The diversity of this system is further complicated by the variety of ways that states assign responsibility for the administration of secondary and postsecondary VET. Initiatives to link secondary and postsecondary training include Tech Prep, career pathways, and, in the most recent federal legislation, programs of study. Almost all government-supported skill training outside the education system occurs through the Office of Apprenticeship and the Job Corps, both of which are administered by the federal Department of Labor. The number of trainees in these programs is much lower than that of those receiving skill training from educational institutions.

Tensions in the Canadian Apprenticeship Sector: rethinking Bourdieu's analysis of habitus, field, and capital

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Tensions in the Canadian Apprenticeship Sector: rethinking Bourdieu's analysis of habitus, field, and capital
Author: BONNIE WATT-MALCOLM; ANTJE BARABASCH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 289-301
ABSTRACT The authors explore governance and related policies that shape Canada's vocational education and training (VET) system and trends that have the potential to fundamentally change accepted practices. The conceptual framework derived from Bourdieu's theoretical concepts of field, habitus, and capital is applied to the description of Canada's apprenticeship system within its particular political, economic and social contexts and current power relations. The authors further contemplate how policy changes may be undermining this system and negatively influencing individuals' work and learning opportunities. Lastly, proposed policy directions for Canada's apprenticeship system are critically examined.

Chaos or Coherence? Further Education and Training College Governance in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Chaos or Coherence? Further Education and Training College Governance in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Author: VOLKER WEDEKIND
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 302-315
ABSTRACT This article frames the lived experiences of management and educators in further education and training (FET) colleges in South Africa, against the backdrop of the radical transformation in the governance of this sector over the past twenty years. The reforms are first described and analysed in terms of their integration and rationale for agency. Second, issues of disjuncture between the internationalized ideal of decentralisation and the emergent, problematic reality of deconcentration and delegation will be explored. Third, data from interviews with principals, council chairpersons and lecturers detail the lived experience of the reform. Governance reforms are perceived as incoherent and lacking a clearly discernible trajectory, and have resulted in highly stressful experiences of alienation, disillusionment and disempowerment by those at 'the chalkface'. As South Africa faces another cycle of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) reforms, this article suggests that policy makers must take into account the capacities of the people in the system to implement the proposed changes.

Caught in the 'Triple Lock'? An Evaluation of Governance Structures in the Development of 14-19 Diplomas in England

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Caught in the 'Triple Lock'? An Evaluation of Governance Structures in the Development of 14-19 Diplomas in England
Author: HUBERT ERTL; GEOFF HAYWARD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 316-330
ABSTRACT This article reports on an evaluation of the development of a new type of qualification that is being introduced in England between 2008 and 2011. These diplomas are aimed at 14-19-year-olds, and are expected to present young people with an alternative to established academic qualifications, and also an alternative to established vocational qualifications. The article sets out and discusses the methods used to evaluate the development process of these diplomas. On this basis, it identifies two issues in the development process that raise questions regarding governance structures in education and training in England. The first issue concerns the way in which a multitude of actors and stakeholders have collaborated in the development process of these diplomas. The second issue focuses on the way in which employers have been brought into the development of a qualification that aims at preparing young people better for employment. For both of these issues, the article concludes that new governance structures have been set up that are only partly successful in reaching the goals set by the government. The weaknesses identified are then discussed within the wider contexts of the English qualification system and the relevant regulatory framework in education and training.

Europeanisation and Policy Change in the Danish Vocational Education and Training System

Wed, 1 Dec 2010 11:17:20 GMT

Title: Europeanisation and Policy Change in the Danish Vocational Education and Training System
Author: PIA CORT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 3 Pages: 331-343
ABSTRACT This article aims to analyse the interrelationship between the Copenhagen Process, EU vocational education and training policy, and Danish initial vocational education and training policies in order to shed light on the role of EU policies in policy and institutional change. The article points to the complexity of policy-making and the crisscrossing of policies across the globe. A major change is the acceptance of the EU as a stakeholder in vocational education and training policy-making and thereby an expansion of the policy space. However, the changes taking place at national level are incremental and the EU policy is translated in the national context, where it contributes to the re-accentuation of existing conflicts and fissures.

Intention, Interpretation and Implementation: some paradoxes of assessment for learning across educational contexts

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: Intention, Interpretation and Implementation: some paradoxes of assessment for learning across educational contexts
Author: MARTIN JOHNSON; NEWMAN BURDETT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 122-131
ABSTRACT The language of formative assessment, sometimes referred to as 'assessment for learning' (AFL), is becoming ubiquitous within international educational discourse. Despite this, levels of common understanding might be considered questionable since the concept appears to have been subject to many different interpretations and to have resulted in varying implementations. The reason for this ambiguity partly lies in the way that the language of formative assessment or assessment for learning has increasingly been applied beyond the context of classroom practice; shifting the focus of assessment from explaining how classroom learning interactions can enhance individual development to considerations involving larger-scale, system-wide accountability purposes. This shift appears to contradict the original spirit of AFL and has led to a blurring of the formative and summative boundaries of assessment. This article presents some empirical data from a small-scale research project to suggest that this issue has a practical impact in the classroom. The article considers the variety of ways that the language of AFL is used by teachers in differing international contexts and suggests that a conflict of purpose might underlie such variations. The article goes on to suggest the need for further research addressing some of the fundamental paradoxes within assessment discourse caused by this conflation of purposes, and identifies areas for further research and investigation.

Reflective Skills of Pre-service Teachers: a cross-cultural study of American and Japanese college students

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: Reflective Skills of Pre-service Teachers: a cross-cultural study of American and Japanese college students
Author: SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR; YU-YUAN LEE; DEBORAH MOBERLY; LEI WANG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 131-143
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine similarities and differences in concepts of reflection among American and Japanese pre-service teachers majoring in early childhood education. Pre-service teachers completed a survey asking them to describe approaches and processes of reflection in their daily practice. The quantitative and qualitative data analysis revealed that both American and Japanese pre-service teachers considered reflection to be related to their thinking, improvement, and morals. However, although American pre-service teachers viewed reflection to be associated with teaching skills, none of their Japanese counterparts perceived it in this way. Their cultures clearly influenced their concepts of reflection: specifically, American pre-service teachers noted that college instructors encouraged them to write down their reflections, while their Japanese counterparts indicated that reflection was supported by talking to others. Reflection was perceived to be a disposition by American pre-service teachers, whereas their Japanese counterparts viewed it as a skill that they had already learned from early childhood. Implications for teacher education are also presented.

The Primary Social Education Curricula in Hong Kong and Singapore: a comparative study

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: The Primary Social Education Curricula in Hong Kong and Singapore: a comparative study
Author: JOE TIN-YAU LO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 144-155
ABSTRACT In the face of the challenges of globalization, nation states try to reinvigorate their traditional or national values and local identities as a kind of counterbalance to globalizing influences. Hence, social and citizenship education across nations in Asia takes different forms with certain distinctive varieties in terms of policies, practices and values in alignment with national priorities. Based on this premise, this article compares and contrasts the primary social education curricula in Hong Kong and Singapore in order to trace the differences and similarities in the responses of these two Asian city states to external and internal forces since the turn of the century. The article particularly sheds light on the tensions and contradictions in policies and practices in social and citizenship education as a result of the interaction of global and local perspectives.

Parental Practices and Achievement of Mexican and Chinese Immigrant Children in the USA: assimilation patterns?

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: Parental Practices and Achievement of Mexican and Chinese Immigrant Children in the USA: assimilation patterns?
Author: KATERINA BODOVSKI; RACHEL E. DURHAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 156-175
ABSTRACT The authors used the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) data to examine the mathematics and science achievement of two immigrant groups in the United States - Chinese and Mexican students. The authors also assessed variation in parental practices and fifth-grade achievement according to ethnicity and the age at which parents arrived in the United States, i.e. comparing children whose parents were born outside of the United States and immigrated after the age of 17, those whose parents immigrated before the age of 17, and native-born parents. The findings support the segmented assimilation framework: Mexican immigrant parents (both arriving as adults and at younger ages) and Chinese immigrant parents (arriving as adults) reported lower levels of parental involvement at school, enrollment in extra-curricular activities, and provision of literacy materials. However, these behaviors among native-born parents of Mexicans and Chinese more closely resemble those of native-born whites. At the same time, although immigrant parents uniformly expressed higher educational expectations than white parents, the achievement patterns of their children diverged along ethnic lines and varied according to the life stage that the parents immigrated to the United States, indicating a process of increasing assimilation among immigrant families but with group-specific patterns. The authors found decreasing disparities in mathematics and science achievement between immigrant and white students: Chinese students' advantage and Mexican students' disadvantage relative to white students disappeared by the second generation and third generation, respectively.

A Comparison of Local Empowerment in Education: Porto Alegre, Brazil and Chicago, USA

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: A Comparison of Local Empowerment in Education: Porto Alegre, Brazil and Chicago, USA
Author: D. BRENT EDWARDS Jr
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 176-184
ABSTRACT Democratization of decision-making processes and increased local involvement are mentioned regularly as desirable ways to proceed in education policy reform. Nevertheless, the limited publications examining reforms for more democratic organization of school districts have tended to focus on isolated examples and very specific aspects of that reform; and while, more recently, scholars have argued for the democratization of education generally in response to global trends, what is missing from the debate is a comparison of specific reforms in education designed to allow for system-wide democratization and authentic participation. This article reviews the existing literature investigating democratic school system reform in Porto Alegre, Brazil and Chicago, USA - both chosen because they were uniquely able to achieve system-wide reform for more democratic involvement. The article discusses the reforms in terms of their context, specific policy mechanisms, successes, and limitations.

'Sometimes I am Spanish and sometimes not': a study of the identity and integration of Spanish Muslim women

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: 'Sometimes I am Spanish and sometimes not': a study of the identity and integration of Spanish Muslim women
Author: SALAM ADLBI SIBAI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 185-204
ABSTRACT This article reports part of a wider investigation which is still being developed and analyzes in depth the lives of female university students who are both Spanish and Muslim. The first part of this research was published in the Revista Española de Educación Comparada, where the results of the study in Madrid are presented. Here, the second part of the research is presented: the outcomes in the Valencian Community, Ceuta and Melilla. The research focuses on the identity and integration of female Spanish Muslim university students in the society in which they were born and grew up. The situation in Ceuta and Melilla is analyzed, which is totally different than the situation in Madrid and the Valencian Community because of their history and location in the north of Africa, and because of the large Muslim population in both cities. Through a primarily qualitative methodology, complemented by the quantitative method, the research investigates which elements these women will include or exclude from their identities and which adaptation strategy (following Berry's model) they have selected to interrelate with their society. The primary data are taken from one-to-one interviews, group discussion sessions and surveys.

Taking the Global Leap: student affairs professionals and internationalization

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: Taking the Global Leap: student affairs professionals and internationalization
Author: BRAD K. MAZON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 205-209
ABSTRACT Student affairs professionals can play a more prominent role in campus internationalization efforts. Unfortunately, they do not often view themselves as having the necessary knowledge, understanding, and tools to engage with international education matters, much less facilitate internationalization experiences on behalf of students. By rethinking their roles as facilitators of internationalization experiences, and as professionals with global skills and aptitudes, student affairs professionals will have a greater capacity to influence campus internationalization policy and programs.

Enhancing the First-Year University Experience: linking university orientation and engagement strategies to student connectivity and capability

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:32:43 GMT

Title: Enhancing the First-Year University Experience: linking university orientation and engagement strategies to student connectivity and capability
Author: STEPHEN LARMAR; ANN INGAMELLS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Pages: 210-223
ABSTRACT Over the past decade in Australia there has been an increasing focus in higher education on identifying cogent approaches for assisting first-year university students in their transition into the university setting. In recent years, an emerging body of literature has given emphasis to the efficacy of a range of strategies for engaging first-year undergraduate students. This article reports on a range of effective school-based university orientation and engagement activities that have been informed by the current body of knowledge on student engagement in higher education. Discussion gives emphasis to the impacts of a range of strategies on the early learning environment experiences of first-year students within the School of Human Services and Social Work at Griffith University, Australia. Attention is also drawn to some of the implications for best practice in the orientation and engagement of first-year students at the levels of the institution, academics and students. Finally, the article identifies how the school-based initiated strategies suggest a broad set of possibilities for engagement and change.

Introduction Evaluation of Higher Education

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Introduction Evaluation of Higher Education
Author: Susan Harris-Huemmert
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-2
ABSTRACT The world has changed considerably over the last few decades. The introduction of the personal computer in the 1980s and the World Wide Web in 1993 have transformed the academic experience. Information can now be gained via mouse click, and exchange among academics is not dependent on location as online-conferencing is now common practice. The international academic community has therefore drawn closer together. Academics and students, too, are being encouraged to be mobile and experience other systems of higher education, which expands their horizons and increases their knowledge. Against this backdrop of change it has become apparent that universities are being increasingly compared with each other, not only nationally, but internationally. Whereas in the past it might have been usual for students to look nationally for their locus of study, they are now looking internationally for the location that will best suit their needs. Many spend at least part, if not all, of their studies abroad.

Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: PETER MATERU; PETRA RIGHETTI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 3-17
ABSTRACT This article assesses the status and practice of higher education quality assurance in sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on degree-granting tertiary institutions. A main finding is that structured national-level quality assurance processes in African higher education are a very recent phenomenon and that most countries face major capacity constraints. Only about a third of them have established structured national quality assurance mechanisms, often only as recently as during the last ten years. Activities differ in their scope and rigor, ranging from simple licensing of institutions by the minister responsible for higher education, to comprehensive system-wide program accreditation and ranking of institutions. Within institutions of higher learning, self-assessment and academic audits are gradually being adopted to supplement traditional quality assurance methods. However, knowledge about and experience with self-assessments are limited. The main challenges to quality assurance systems in Africa are cost and human capacity requirements.

Australia: evaluation and quality in higher education

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Australia: evaluation and quality in higher education
Author: DAVID WOODHOUSE; TERRY STOKES
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 18-31
ABSTRACT Modern Australia evolved from separate colonies, which came together as a federation a century ago. The balance of state/federal responsibilities is relevant to most aspects of Australian life. This includes higher education, where universities are largely state owned but federally funded (with government funding declining), while the other higher education institutions are largely under state oversight. The article begins by describing the evolution of the higher education sector and the various approaches taken to addressing its quality over the years. Ten years ago, the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) was established as the national quality agency with responsibility for auditing universities (emphasising good processes and achievement of objectives within the universities, and diversity between them) and the state accreditation agencies (with emphasis on national consistency of treatment of the non-university institutions). The article describes AUQA's approach and actions that have led to effectiveness nationally and internationally, and an international reputation. The article also refers to other issues, including funding, rankings and standards. It concludes with an outline of the Federal Government's current plans to bring AUQA and the state agencies into a single national agency.

The Quality Assurance of Degree Education in Canada

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: The Quality Assurance of Degree Education in Canada
Author: DONALD N. BAKER; TERRY MIOSI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 32-57
ABSTRACT Under the Canadian constitution, responsibility for education is assigned to the provinces. In some provinces, universities are based in institution-specific statutes, in others, in system-wide legislation. Except for the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, the provinces leave the quality assurance of academic activities to the universities. In the last 15 years, the post-secondary landscape has become more complex. Four provinces have enabled non-degree-granting colleges to offer specific degree programs on the basis of government approval; three have transformed colleges into universities; four permit external universities, public and private, and new private universities based in Canada to offer programs. Though the innovative provinces established quality assurance agencies to screen programs and organizations, the new degrees met resistance from many public universities, which, in the absence of a national accrediting body, took the position that they would only recognize degrees from institutions belonging to their own promotional national body, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Though the new agencies have published both academic standards and rigorous external review procedures, this response from the public universities in effect marginalized the new degree programs and providers. Thus, the state of quality assurance in higher education in Canada is in a state of flux. This article reviews the state of quality assurance activity across the country in both public universities and in the new quality assurance agencies. It concludes with reflections on the challenge of inserting new degrees and new kinds of degree-granting institutions into a framework of academic legitimacy that all players will accept.

Quality Assurance in Chinese Higher Education

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Quality Assurance in Chinese Higher Education
Author: YUAN LI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 58-76
ABSTRACT Quality assurance has been integrated into the fabric of higher education in China, with the issue of quality in higher education - how to evaluate it and how to enhance it - now taking centre stage in Chinese higher education. In the past decade, the development of quality assurance in Chinese higher education has covered a broad spectrum of initiatives, from national policy, quality evaluation methodology, and institutional adoption of quality assurance schemes, to the matrix of quality evaluations. This article attempts to present a comprehensive overview of quality assurance in Chinese higher education by reviewing and analysing the context and development of quality assurance initiatives, alongside the current structure and management of quality assurance in Chinese higher education. By commenting on the current realities and remaining challenges in Chinese higher education, this article also points to some implications for Chinese higher education institutions in their further progress along the quality assurance path.

Quality Assurance in Higher Education: recent developments in the United Kingdom

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Quality Assurance in Higher Education: recent developments in the United Kingdom
Author: STEPHEN JACKSON; JANET BOHRER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 77-87
ABSTRACT Since coverage in the press, in the summer of 2008, of concerns about quality and standards in English higher education, there has been a continuing debate about the nature and extent of the issues and about who is responsible for assuring quality. This article charts the background to these discussions and highlights the characteristics of the English system based on autonomous institutions and self-regulation. It also identifies the role played by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), and its predecessor organisations, in shaping the debate and determining the systems and processes that are used to demonstrate the security of academic standards.

Accreditation in the Netherlands: does accountability improve educational quality?

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Accreditation in the Netherlands: does accountability improve educational quality?
Author: HENK van BERKEL; WYNAND WIJNEN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 88-97
ABSTRACT This article traces the changes in quality assurance within the Dutch higher education system. It starts with a brief history of the development of the Dutch accreditation system, which is the latest step in a process that started with an external quality assurance system. This is followed by an extensive description of the present accreditation system, its structure, its processes and its key players. Finally, it concludes with an attempt to summarise the pros and cons of the system and makes some suggestions as to how the system might develop in the future.

Higher Education Evaluation in Germany

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Higher Education Evaluation in Germany
Author: BERNHARD SCHMIDT; AIGA von HIPPEL; RUDOLF TIPPELT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 98-111
ABSTRACT Quality assurance in the area of higher education has become a central issue among both politicians and scientists. University evaluations which refer to both research and teaching are an important element of quality assurance. The present contribution starts out by determining the different components of quality at universities according to different perspectives. In a second step, the authors take a closer look at evaluations in higher education and differentiate subjects and levels, as well as forms of university evaluation. On the basis of these theoretical-conceptual reflections, it is possible to sketch the different trends in the current practice of higher education evaluation in Germany. Here, the development seems to lead towards a growing significance of accreditation. The spheres of action in university evaluation comprise not only these procedures and agencies of accreditation, but also the evaluation of different faculties, and rankings, which have become increasingly influential in Germany. In a final part, the authors discuss current trends and challenges in higher education evaluation in Germany.

Identification of Best Practice in International Quality Assurance

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:51 GMT

Title: Identification of Best Practice in International Quality Assurance
Author: Susan Harris-Huemmert
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2010 Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Pages: 111-121
ABSTRACT Not available

The Professionalization of Comparative and International Education: promises and problems

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: The Professionalization of Comparative and International Education: promises and problems
Author: ALEXANDER W. WISEMAN; CHERYL MATHERLY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 334-355
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study is to identify, describe, and analyze historical trends in the professionalization of the field of comparative and international education, as indicated by the founding, expansion, and evolution of the professional associations and graduate programs serving the field. Using historical and university data as well as unique membership data from the Comparative and International Education Society, the authors find that (1) professional associations and university programs in comparative and international education contribute to and secure control over expert knowledge, training and credentials; and (2) the merging of 'comparative' and 'international' education has contributed to the professionalization of the field. In particular, the authors find a simultaneous and complementary process of professionalization and fragmentation occurring within the field of comparative and international education.

Approaching the Concepts of 'Educational Achievement' and 'Best Practice': Delphi methodology as a tool for building consensus

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: Approaching the Concepts of 'Educational Achievement' and 'Best Practice': Delphi methodology as a tool for building consensus
Author: BELÉN BALLESTEROS; PATRICIA MATA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 356-365
ABSTRACT This article presents the results of applying the Delphi technique to build a consensus around the concepts of 'educational achievement' and 'best practice' in compulsory education. After defining their key informants, including different groups of educational agents (teachers, families, students, academics and experts), the authors developed two different questionnaires. The first questionnaire aimed to gather the informants' opinions and the second was developed on the basis of the results of the first in an attempt to to reach the desired degree of consensus. Two rounds of consultation were enough to allow the authors to indicate tendencies and points of debate regarding what is meant by educational achievement and best school practice.

The Crisis of the Post-Soviet Teaching Profession in the Caucasus and Central Asia

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: The Crisis of the Post-Soviet Teaching Profession in the Caucasus and Central Asia
Author: IVETA SILOVA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-383
ABSTRACT Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the status of the teaching profession has begun to erode in the Caucasus and Central Asia as evidenced in such indicators as a teacher shortage, the feminization of the profession, an over-aged teaching force, a low transition rate from teacher education graduation to professional service, and a decrease of enrollment in teacher education programs at colleges and universities. While all of these indicators have been well documented, this article considers another indicator which may signal the low status of the teaching profession - the comparatively low results of centralized university examinations among students entering pre-service teacher education programs compared to more competitive, high-demand higher education programs. Using data from centralized university admission tests in Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan for the 2007-08 academic year, the article illustrates that it is the lowest-performing students who are typically entering pre-service teacher education institutions, thus further undermining the prestige of the teaching profession and the quality of education in the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Internationalization of Higher Education in East Asia: a comparative ethnographic narrative of Japanese universities

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: The Internationalization of Higher Education in East Asia: a comparative ethnographic narrative of Japanese universities
Author: EDWARD R. HOWE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 384-392
ABSTRACT How is Japan becoming internationalized? A common response is 'through student mobility'. But can Japanese universities continue to attract thousands of East Asian students annually, given increasing competition from other Pacific Rim nations like Australia, South Korea and Singapore? Japan's internationalization, a focus of educational reforms for decades, is mainly driven by neo-liberal globalism. Marginalized transborder students require our attention. A hegemony of Western knowledge combined with critical social justice issues including access, diversity and equity concerns demands further research. Moreover, much work is needed to foster global citizenship and critical thinking among local students. Nevertheless, systemic changes in society can originate from innovative teacher education programmes focused on internationalization and global citizenship. It is up to internationally minded teachers to lead the way.

Who Should Be Minding Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Study of American and Japanese Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Childcare for Children under Age Three

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: Who Should Be Minding Our Children? A Cross-Cultural Study of American and Japanese Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Childcare for Children under Age Three
Author: SATOMI IZUMI-TAYLOR; YOKO ITO; MASAKO SAITO; TOSHIKO KANEDA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 393-405
ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine American and Japanese pre-service teachers’ understanding of the notion of whether or not children under age three should be cared for by their mothers at home. The participants were 87 female Japanese and 64 female American college students majoring in Early Childhood Education. The participants responded to the instrument assessing their concepts of who should care for children under age three. Factor analysis yielded six factors for the Japanese sample (communication; a mother as a primary attachment figure; blood relations; multiple attachment figures; the quality of attachment; and needs of the child), while five factors emerged from the American sample (a mother as a primary attachment figure; the quality of attachment; multiple attachment figures; constant care; and secondary attachment). The implications for early childhood teacher education are presented.

Teachers’ Understanding of Reconciliation and Inclusion in Mixed Schools of Four Troubled Societies

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: Teachers’ Understanding of Reconciliation and Inclusion in Mixed Schools of Four Troubled Societies
Author: MICHALINOS ZEMBYLAS; ZVI BEKERMAN; CLAIRE McGLYNN; ANA FERREIRA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 406-422
ABSTRACT In this article, the authors examine how teachers in four troubled societies – Israel, Cyprus, Northern Ireland and South Africa – understand and implement reconciliation in light of the increasing diversity of these societies. The authors particularly pay attention to a dialogical encounter between reconciliation and inclusion, as they look for ways to contemplate how each might be of mutual benefit in educational theory and practice. In the first part of the article, the authors give an overview of current thinking on reconciliation and its role in education, and suggest that the notion of inclusiveness can enrich it. The context of the research is then provided by looking briefly at the socio-political and educational settings in which the study was conducted, followed by a discussion of the research methodology. The findings from the study are then presented with the main themes identified as arising across the four research locations. These themes concern understandings of reconciliation and inclusion, student diversity, teachers’ challenges, helping students deal with conflict, and teachers’ development. Finally, whilst acknowledging the exploratory nature of these findings, the authors discuss what policy makers, school leaders and teachers might change about policies and practices for reconciliation education in the four settings studied and, by implication, other comparable settings.

Higher Education and Some Upper Egyptian Women's Negotiation of Self-Autonomy at Work and Home

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 15:46:56 GMT

Title: Higher Education and Some Upper Egyptian Women's Negotiation of Self-Autonomy at Work and Home
Author: HANAN SALAH EL-DEEN EL-HALAWANY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 4 Pages: 423-436
ABSTRACT This research aims to compare the effect of higher education on some Upper Egyptian women's practice of self autonomy at both work and home. The most important revelation this research makes is the fact that although no one can deny the importance and significance of higher education to Upper Egyptian women, yet it failed to challenge the traditional gender division of work. Hence, it affected negatively Upper Egyptian women's perceptions of self-autonomy. The empirical evidence laid down in this research emphasizes that the relationship between women's higher education and their self-autonomy, empowerment, and gender equality yields consistently positive effects of education on some aspects, especially on their participation in decision-making at home. However, women seem to be unaware of their possession of such power. For other aspects of women's life, the empirical evidence suggests that a range of underlying social, cultural and especially economic conditions need to be more favourable in order for women's higher education to have a beneficial effect on gender equality and women's mastery of self-autonomy.

Editorial. Inclusive Education

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Editorial. Inclusive Education
Author: Amanda Watkins; Simona D'Alessio; Mary Kyriazopoulou
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 229-232
ABSTRACT Not available

International Comparisons of Inclusive Policy and Practice: are we talking about the same thing?

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: International Comparisons of Inclusive Policy and Practice: are we talking about the same thing?
Author: SIMONA D'ALESSIO; AMANDA WATKINS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 233-249
ABSTRACT This article has been especially written by the journal Guest Editors as an introduction to key issues in making international comparisons regarding inclusive policy and practice. The authors argue that there is a very real amplification of the methodological problems faced by researchers working in comparative education when they consider the field of special and inclusive education. Two 'problem' areas are discussed: (i) the incomparability of terminology - words such as inclusion may or may not have the same meaning when translated into other languages and also other contexts; and (ii) the inherent methodological difficulties within the 'target' population of research in inclusive education - pupils with special educational needs are not identified, assessed or offered provision in the same ways within countries. This means that comparisons of approaches within countries are problematic - and comparison of these countries at an international level becomes extremely difficult. Therefore, the key question is exactly what can be usefully compared?

Classroom Support for Inclusion in England and Ireland: an evaluation of contrasting models

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Classroom Support for Inclusion in England and Ireland: an evaluation of contrasting models
Author: RICHARD ROSE; ÁINE O'NEILL
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 250-261
ABSTRACT When reporting on those conditions which they perceive as necessary for the inclusion of students with special educational needs, teachers often refer to the importance of additional adult support in the classroom. The deployment of teaching assistants in England and special needs assistants in Ireland has been regarded as an important factor in supporting national policies for inclusion in both countries. This article reports on research which through survey and interview methods investigated the working practices of these colleagues and discusses the different approaches to their deployment in schools. It is suggested that whilst there are clear distinctions between the operations of the teaching assistant in England and the special needs assistant in Ireland, both play a distinct and essential role in the development of inclusive schooling. The article considers how two distinctive models of classroom support have emerged and the different ways in which they impact upon inclusion. Consideration is given to the changes which are taking place in the development of classroom teams and the ways in which this may impact upon current and future inclusion agendas.

Questioning Inclusion: the education of Roma/Traveller students and young people in Europe and England - a critical examination

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Questioning Inclusion: the education of Roma/Traveller students and young people in Europe and England - a critical examination
Author: SPYROS THEMELIS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 262-275
ABSTRACT This article deals with issues pertinent to the 'inclusion' of Roma/Traveller children and young people in Europe and, in particular, England. It discusses some key issues that pertain to the inclusion of Roma/Traveller groups in society and it critically presents some key policies that have been advanced to tackle educational and social exclusion of these groups. The aim in this article is to explore the impact these approaches have had thus far and to unravel some of the contradictions, inconsistencies and tensions that permeate them. The critical examination of such approaches is principally located within the context of the United Kingdom, but relevant policies and initiatives that have been introduced by supra-national European organisations are also discussed in order to inform the reader about the wider context in relation to the issues many Roma/Traveller groups face. Inclusion does not operate in a vacuum. It is argued that a set of structural and ideological factors that impact on inclusion need to be identified and linked to a renewed and enriched inclusion approach. In fighting exclusion, holistic and sustained approaches are necessary, which cut across social, political, economic and cultural domains and extend well beyond the formal education of one group (the Roma/Travellers).

Transatlantic Conversations about Inclusive Education: France and Nova Scotia

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Transatlantic Conversations about Inclusive Education: France and Nova Scotia
Author: CORNELIA SCHNEIDER; MARY JANE HARKINS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 276-288
ABSTRACT Inclusive education has become an international educational priority with the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This article compares and analyses in depth two different educational systems on two continents with regard to their development of inclusive education and their current issues with this policy. France and Nova Scotia, a Canadian province, have two different traditions of schooling and of the education of children with disabilities. The article will compare the educational systems, educational policies, definitions of inclusive education, and the shifting teachers' roles and responsibilities. Two case studies will be used to contextualize the layers of meaning underlying inclusive education.

Inclusion on the Agenda in Four Different School Contexts in Canada (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Québec)

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Inclusion on the Agenda in Four Different School Contexts in Canada (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Québec)
Author: NATHALIE BÉLANGER; NATHALIE A. GOUGEON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 289-304
ABSTRACT Four case studies from four different Canadian provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Québec) are examined in order to better understand meanings given to an inclusive approach in education, as it is defined and experienced by the actors, practitioners, parents, and students. The data examined in this article come from a larger research project which aimed at documenting what are deemed 'inclusive educational initiatives', both in Canada and internationally. The article begins with a brief overview of the theoretical literature in which inclusive education has been discussed followed by a brief description of the case studies examined. It goes on to explain the conditions that were put in place following each province's policies regarding special educational needs and their evolution. The results discussed are school priorities and/or teaching strategies, life in the schools and the involvement of various actors, as well as the resources available and used in each context.

The Role of the Index for Inclusion in Supporting School Development in Norway: a comparative perspective

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: The Role of the Index for Inclusion in Supporting School Development in Norway: a comparative perspective
Author: KARI NES
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 305-320
ABSTRACT Norwegian schools have had a reputation for being inclusive for a relatively long time. Education is supposed to meet everyone's needs in a school for all, irrespective of (dis)ability, gender, ethnicity, social class, etc. However, inclusive ideals are one thing, but realisation of inclusive practices in many ways has proven to be something else, in Norway as well as in other countries. There is also a discrepancy between the regular self-reviews schools are expected to undertake, and what actually happens in this field. The question was, how can schools' self-review and successive inclusive school development be supported? Might the Index for Inclusion be an answer? This material, first published in the UK in 2000, attempts to meet the challenges of developing more inclusive practices and the need to support schools' self-evaluation. In the article Norwegian experiences with the Index are compared with those of other countries.

Inclusive Education in Spain: developing characteristics in Madrid, Extremadura and Andalusia

Tue, 6 Oct 2009 13:44:52 GMT

Title: Inclusive Education in Spain: developing characteristics in Madrid, Extremadura and Andalusia
Author: VÍCTOR SANTIUSTE BERMEJO; FLORENCIO VICENTE CASTRO; FRANCISCO MIRAS MARTÍNEZ; DAVID PADILLA GÓNGORA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 321-333
ABSTRACT The aim of this work is to analyse and communicate the ‘state of the art’ in inclusive education for the Spanish communities of Madrid, Extremadura and Andalusia, as it is now more than 20 years since inclusive education was first adopted in Spain. The analysis is displayed in a twofold perspective: the basic standards inclusive education is governed by and how it is perceived by the educators who have been applying it. Firstly, the national standards for inclusive education, the specific legislative norms for each community and how these are applied are examined, the key question being: what are the normal standards at present and where do we go from here? Secondly, the results of a questionnaire addressed to the educators, support teachers and other professionals who work in the different centres of the three Spanish communities are analysed. The conclusions derived from this questionnaire aim to address the following: How is the process of inclusive education carried out in Spain?

Editorial

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Editorial
Author: David Phillips
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 124-124
ABSTRACT Last year one of the founding members of the editorial board of Research in Comparative and International Education, Tony Sweeting, died after a long struggle with illness. From the start he was a very enthusiastic supporter of RCIE, and he will be greatly missed by those of us who worked closely with him in the journal's early stages and by his colleagues around the world who appreciated his scholarship, good humour, and friendly demeanour towards everyone with whom he came into contact.

Teacher Migration to and from Australia and New Zealand, and the Place of Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu Teachers

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Teacher Migration to and from Australia and New Zealand, and the Place of Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu Teachers
Author: ROBYN IREDALE; CARMEN VOIGT-GRAF; SIEW-EAN KHOO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 125-140
ABSTRACT The international mobility of teachers is gaining increased attention as particular developing countries become significant sources of supply for more developed countries that have shortages. Most attention so far has focused on Africa's contribution to the United Kingdom workforce. This article examines the patterns of teacher migration for Australia and New Zealand generally, with the aim of providing a context within which to view Pacific Island teacher mobility. Australia and New Zealand are potentially important as destinations for Pacific Island teachers, as sources of teachers to these countries and as partners in the development process, which involves the training and support of teachers. Three quite different cases, the Cook Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, are used as examples to begin to understand what is happening in the Pacific. While Vanuatu has little international mobility of teachers, Fiji does experience quite an outflow but this is mainly linked to the political instability which has racked the country since the 1980s. The Cook Islands is quite unique in its overall level of out-migration but the outflow of teachers is not a significant issue. Neither Australia nor New Zealand recruit explicitly from these three countries but they do benefit from the inflow of small numbers of teachers in their general migration programs.

Creating the Cosmopolitan US Undergraduate: study abroad and an emergent global student profile

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Creating the Cosmopolitan US Undergraduate: study abroad and an emergent global student profile
Author: BRAD K. MAZON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 141-150
ABSTRACT Undergraduates in the USA bring to college a wide array of backgrounds, resources, and supports that make it more or less likely that they will participate in study abroad during their undergraduate career. This study investigates the experiences of undergraduates who have studied abroad, as well as the elements that facilitate the study abroad experience. The data suggests that students must overcome a number of constraints in order to study abroad. While the paths to study abroad are divergent, a number of common individual and institutional factors affect students' likelihood for successful participation in a study abroad experience while at college. The data indicate that students must have at their disposal the necessary tools to overcome significant hurdles to study abroad. Institutions of higher education play a crucial role in facilitating not only the study abroad process itself, but also the pre-existing mindset, goals, and sense of agency that students possess in order to take advantage of study abroad opportunities.

The Struggle for Legitimacy: academic colleges on the map of higher education in Israel

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: The Struggle for Legitimacy: academic colleges on the map of higher education in Israel
Author: NITZA DAVIDOVITCH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 151-163
ABSTRACT This article addresses a unique relationship evolving between the two major categories of higher learning institutions in Israel: the country's universities, and the colleges that were established in their shadow. The history of higher education is outlined, stressing the initial dominance of the research universities, and explaining the gradual transformation of its elitist orientation into a more populist one. The article further explains how that transformation led to the establishment of colleges as affiliates of their 'parent' universities, functioning under their full supervision, describing how that model eventually led the Council for Higher Education (CHE) to encourage (in 2000) the development of non-university higher education institutions to secure equal opportunities to broad groups of population. The article goes on to analyze the methods of curricula and teaching development in the colleges, touching upon the development of graduate programs in non-university institutions. It concludes that the initial intention of the CHE to establish a dual system of research universities and popular colleges is developing into a monistic system following the research university concept and model.

Student Engagement: contested concepts in two continents

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Student Engagement: contested concepts in two continents
Author: BRENDA J. MCMAHON Educational; DAVID ZYNGIER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 164-181
ABSTRACT The challenge of student engagement has been recognised as a serious issue in both Australian and Canadian education. This empirical and qualitative study seeks to understand the experiences of two groups of students; the first beginning their high school years and the second reflecting back on successful university and less than successful high school experiences. Students are traditionally objectified and omitted from the discourse on student engagement. Providing a forum for student voice in both continents, we compare and contrast the various and sometimes contested understandings of what an authentic or generative student engagement might mean for both school leadership and classroom practice. Adopting a critical pedagogical perspective, this descriptive article seeks to compare answers to the following question: How is engagement defined and enacted by students within these different environments?

'Feed from the Service': corruption and coercion in state-university relations in Central Eurasia

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: 'Feed from the Service': corruption and coercion in state-university relations in Central Eurasia
Author: ARARAT L. OSIPIAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 182-203
ABSTRACT Education in Central Eurasia has become one of the services most affected by corruption. Corruption in academia, including bribery, extortion, embezzlement, nepotism, fraud, cheating, and plagiarism, is reflected in the region's media and addressed in a few scholarly works. This article considers corruption in higher education as a product of interrelations between the government and academia. A substantial block of literature considers excessive corruption as an indicator of a weak state. In contrast to standard interpretations, this article argues that in non-democratic societies corruption is used on a systematic basis as a mechanism of direct and indirect administrative control over higher education institutions. Informal approval of corrupt activities in exchange for loyalty and compliance with the regime may be used in the countries of Central Eurasia for the purposes of political indoctrination. This paper presents the concept of corruption and coercion in the state-university relations in Central Eurasia and outlines the model which incorporates this concept and the 'feed from the service' approach. It presents implications of this model for the state-university relations and the national educational systems in Central Eurasia in general and offers some suggestions on curbing corruption.

Vacillating between Opposing Conceptions of Personhood: individualism and conformism in Turkish educational practices

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Vacillating between Opposing Conceptions of Personhood: individualism and conformism in Turkish educational practices
Author: MÜGE AYAN CEYHAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 204-210
ABSTRACT Based on one and a half years of participant observation at Bakis School, this article aims to explore two different sets of educational practices, one which seemingly promotes sameness, obedience and conformity, and the other difference, entrepreneurialism and individualism. By way of discussing the shifting cultural values, beliefs and lifestyles in Turkey as a result of post-1980 capitalist modernization, this article provides an account of the way in which larger macro forces impact the classroom values and educational practices in Bakis School. The ethnographic evidence indicates that teachers were far from fully comprehending the concept of the individual the school aims to promote, and therefore vacillated between opposing perceptions of personhood. From the point of view of comparative education research, this article argues that long-term participant observation provides us with intricate data, and clearly reveals the difficulties of putting educational reforms into practice in cases where the underlying philosophy is not fully comprehended, or maybe even desired by the recipient society.

Educational Challenges of Internal Migrant Girls: a case study among primary school children in Turkey

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 14:00:11 GMT

Title: Educational Challenges of Internal Migrant Girls: a case study among primary school children in Turkey
Author: HULYA KOSAR ALTINYELKEN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Pages: 211-228
ABSTRACT This article seeks to investigate education-related challenges encountered by internal migrant girls studying at primary schools in Turkey. From the perspectives of participants, the emerging themes included adaptation, language, low socio-economic status, peer relations, discrimination and bullying. These challenges seem to have direct or indirect influence on academic achievement, school belonging, integration within the new social environment and self-esteem. The findings indicate that internal migrant girls are among the most disadvantaged children, since not only migration experience but also low socio-economic status and gender bias put them at risk of educational underachievement. Their educational challenges need to be acknowledged and taken into consideration by policy makers and educators to make sure that schools are capable of guaranteeing equal educational opportunities for all.

Introduction. Mentoring and Teacher Induction

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Introduction. Mentoring and Teacher Induction
Author: Joan Stephenson; Steve Bartlett
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-3
ABSTRACT Not available

Supporting the Supporters of Novice Teachers: an analysis of mentors' needs from twelve European countries presented from an English perspective

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Supporting the Supporters of Novice Teachers: an analysis of mentors' needs from twelve European countries presented from an English perspective
Author: MARION JONES
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 4-21
ABSTRACT This article is located within the wider European context of teacher development and is specifically concerned with the needs of those supporting novice teachers during the early stages in their professional career. Currently, induction systems across Europe are largely fragmented, locally based and with little transference of best practice. There is therefore a perceived need to develop a common focus on the specific needs of those supporting new entrants to the profession particularly with regard to improving the quality of teaching and learning, but also in terms of improving teacher recruitment and retention. This article reports the results of a needs analysis exercise which was conducted as part of a Comenius project (Teacher Induction: Supporting the Supporters of Novice Teachers in Europe). Data collection by means of semi-structured questionnaires involved a total of 282 practising teachers from 12 European member states and was supplemented by follow-up interviews. The aim was to identify key themes around which common support strategies for mentors assisting new teachers in their professional learning could be developed. These emerged as: the aspect of nurture; quality assurance and accountability; reflective practice; collaborative learning communities; and interpersonal and communicative competence. The data generated revealed a high diversity in terms of respondents' perceptions of the multiple aspects of the mentoring role and the tensions inherent and reflected the idiosyncratic nature of the various educational contexts. As such the findings highlight the need for developing a common focus on mentor training and development for those supporting novice teachers and promote the values and principles underpinning a democratic professionalism.

Mentors, Not Models: supporting teachers to be empowered in an Irish context

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Mentors, Not Models: supporting teachers to be empowered in an Irish context
Author: TERESA O'DOHERTY; JAMES DEEGAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 22-33
ABSTRACT This article explores the values and perceptions of Irish mentor teachers who have been involved in mentoring novice teachers. While situating this research within the historical context of the teaching profession in the Republic of Ireland, the article chronicles the establishment of the National Pilot Project on Teacher Induction and reports on a survey of the perceived needs of Irish mentors. The article illustrates that respondents gained personally from the mentoring process and recognised its potential to be a transformative agent within Irish schools, creating a framework for professional dialogue and supporting extended learning communities within staffs. The article concludes by examining the potential implications of these findings for policy and practice in new mentoring programmes.

Teacher Induction: does Scotland's approach stand comparison?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Teacher Induction: does Scotland's approach stand comparison?
Author: JIM O'BRIEN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 42-52
ABSTRACT The 2-year probationary experience of new teachers was described by the McCrone Report as scandalous and led to the development of an induction standard (as part of an emerging framework or continuum of standards for various stages of teacher development) with related structures of support for beginner teachers in Scotland provided by schools and Education Authorities. The approach adopted by the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre review of the international literature since 1998 on teacher induction offers a lens through which to review developments in Scotland. Hastily implemented but generally regarded to be a success by the General Teaching Council for Scotland and the Scottish government, how do the Scottish developments measure up?

Towards a Formalised Teacher Induction System: the Macau experience

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Towards a Formalised Teacher Induction System: the Macau experience
Author: SOU-KUAN VONG; MATILDA WONG
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-41
ABSTRACT This article discusses the importance of teacher induction not only for sustaining teacher retention and reducing attrition, but also for supporting beginning teachers, helping them develop professionally as they progress within the profession and enhancing effective teaching and learning. While acknowledging the importance of teacher induction, the article examines the development of teacher education in Macau and attempts to analyse the reasons for the absence of a formal teacher induction system at present. It discusses how informal developments in pre-service teacher preparation that have taken place could be considered as a sort of 'gradual induction' to help Macau teachers assimilate into the profession and how these developments could be facilitated for the future. The article concludes by suggesting that, to ensure quality and on-going professional development, a formal teacher induction system or programme in the form of a university and school partnership is desirable.

Teacher Induction in Australia: a sample of what's really happening

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Teacher Induction in Australia: a sample of what's really happening
Author: SUE HUDSON; DENISE BEUTEL; PETER HUDSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 53-62
ABSTRACT Retention rates and stress levels of beginning teachers are of concern. Well-planned induction programs can assist beginning teachers to make the transition successfully into the profession, which may increase retention rates. This qualitative, year-long study aims to explore and describe the induction experiences of eight beginning teachers as they negotiated their first year of teaching. Data gathered through interviews and emails indicated that these teachers required further development on: catering for individual differences, assessing in terms of outcomes, relating to parents, relating to the wider community, and understanding school policies; however, relating to students and understanding legal responsibilities and duty of care were not issues. At the conclusion of their first year only one beginning teacher was assisted by a mentor (veteran teacher) on whole-school programming, and planning for improving teaching with opportunities to visit other classrooms. This was also the only beginning teacher who received a reduced workload in order to meet with the mentor to discuss pedagogical developments. The inadequate support provided to beginning teachers in this study highlights the need for principals and school staff to reassess induction processes, which includes providing time, funding, mentoring support and clear guidelines for a quality induction program.

The Induction and Mentoring of New Teachers in Portugal: contradictions, needs and opportunities

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: The Induction and Mentoring of New Teachers in Portugal: contradictions, needs and opportunities
Author: MARIA ASSUNÇÃO FLORES; FERNANDO ILÍDIO FERREIRA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 63-73
ABSTRACT In this article, policy and research on teacher induction in Portugal are examined. The lack of a formal induction system (despite recognition of its relevance in legal policy documents) and the mismatch between national regulations and practice are also discussed. The authors argue the need for a coherent and sustained induction and support system, drawing on empirical research carried out in Portugal according to two main themes: 1. images of the teaching profession: the balance between conservatism and innovation, and 2. the experience of teaching: implications for mentoring. A number of key issues and questions are identified taking into account the transition period currently underway in the Portuguese context especially as far as teachers' careers are concerned, with implications for induction and mentoring.

The Induction of Beginning Teachers in Scotland and Hong Kong: getting it right?

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: The Induction of Beginning Teachers in Scotland and Hong Kong: getting it right?
Author: JANET DRAPER; VICTOR FORRESTER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 74-86
ABSTRACT Where the continuing professional development (CPD) process is being increasingly articulated and circumscribed by policy and central specification, the initial year of teaching may significantly shape career-long expectations of CPD. This article contrasts the early experiences of beginning secondary teachers in Scotland and Hong Kong and the emergent model that highlights a tension between the systems' support structures and individual autonomy. To resolve this impasse, the authors conclude by arguing for a different model that places as synonymous new teachers' induction, CPD and approaches to becoming autonomous.

Induction: making the leap

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Induction: making the leap
Author: LORRAINE M. LING
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 87-96
ABSTRACT This article provides a critical examination of a variety of approaches to induction focusing especially upon Australia and other Pacific Rim countries. The question of the purposes induction serves for graduate teachers, experienced teachers and education systems is addressed in terms of whether it is a technical exercise which preserves the existing teacher culture, or whether it is a means to critically approach teaching as a profession and to bring about change and renewal. In an era where the local and the global intersect to bring about glocalisation, it is suggested here that new approaches to induction are required which do more than preserve the status quo or which are narrowly about understanding and official knowledge of the existing systems. A 'radical centre' model is proposed which blends elements of the Old Democratic Left and the New Right to provide the basis for a new approach to teacher induction.

Supportive Induction Slows the Revolving Door

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: Supportive Induction Slows the Revolving Door
Author: GAYLE A. WILKINSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 97-110
ABSTRACT The revolving door appropriately describes the attrition among beginning teachers. Especially high attrition plagues our urban schools where highly qualified teachers are most crucial. Even though research over 3 decades has provided the basis for intricate induction programs, not all new teachers experience them. Effective mentoring has provided the greatest impact on increasing teacher retention, but often is not sufficient support alone. Alternative teacher certification programs have increased the numbers going into teaching, but no firm evidence has proven they remain longer. This report explains one example of induction support that results in greater retention.

'Learning Together, Shaping Tomorrow': new teachers try new ways

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:42:57 GMT

Title: 'Learning Together, Shaping Tomorrow': new teachers try new ways
Author: MAXINE COOPER; JOAN STEWART
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2009 Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Pages: 111-123
ABSTRACT Teacher induction programs provide the critical support that new teachers need as they move from university teacher education studies to the everyday realities of teaching. Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) work through a range of new and challenging experiences as they explore their sense of themselves as professionals. Their identities are being constantly constructed and reconstructed as they work through their subjective experience of being a teacher and the objective structures of the wider educational field of the classroom, school and the local community. A high percentage of NQTs leave the teaching profession within the first 5 years of beginning teaching as they grapple with and succumb to the challenges caused by a number of stressors they encounter. New teachers frequently become dissatisfied with the outcomes of their work and decide that they are unsuited to teaching and leave the profession. This article is based on a study of beginning teachers in two Australian states. The focus is on multiple ways to meet the needs of new teachers to establish their professional identity within the context of a community of learners and to value diversity and complexity in the professional community. Key issues addressed included: teacher induction and quality teaching, changing school cultures and the culture of professional learning, teacher learning and responding to changes in the wider community.

Comparative Education: an inner treasure

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Comparative Education: an inner treasure
Author: GIOVANNI PAMPANINI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 317-322
ABSTRACT Inspired by his meeting with Nigel Grant at the beginning of the Nineties the author explains how this influenced and accompanied his career as a Comparative Education researcher and a teacher of Special Needs in Education, with a close, personal examination of the cultural themes of personal identity. Using an anecdotal, colloquial style, he demonstrates the importance, if not the necessity, for all Comparative Education and Intercultural researchers, in parallel to their research regarding the external and exterior aspects of their subject (comparison of different school systems, of educational reforms, of philosophies of education, etc.), to carry out a study into their own interior, personal aspects that will help them to define their own cultural identity and possible, inner 'diversities'. In the author's opinion, understanding and practising such a 'interior route to Comparative Education' can only lead to a more precise, aware use of those terms employed when describing the objects of external research.

Review of the Review: constructing the identity of comparative education

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Review of the Review: constructing the identity of comparative education
Author: C.C. WOLHUTER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 323-344
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is the explication of the identity of Comparative Education and a critical reflection thereon, by means of a journal analysis of articles published in the Comparative Education Review during the first 50 years of its existence. The 1157 articles were analyzed under the following rubrics: levels of analysis of articles; number of units covered by articles; geographical area which articles deal with authors: numbers, countries and institutional affiliation; research methods; paradigmatic affiliations; phase of education articles cover; mode of education articles deal with; and themes/topics focused on. The analysis revealed two equally strong trends - a remarkable resilience/constancy amidst a broadening. For example, the hermeneutic paradigm continues to be the most frequent paradigm, although there has been a significant diversification of paradigms recently. Comparative Education still has the 'black box' character, whereby things outside educational institutions (i.e. shaping forces of education and societal effects of education) are studied more than that which takes place inside educational institutions. The study suggests that there is much scope for the expansion of Comparative Education along new lines. Some of these are pointed out.

Corruption in Higher Education: does it differ across the nations and why?

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Corruption in Higher Education: does it differ across the nations and why?
Author: ARARAT L. OSIPIAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 345-365
ABSTRACT Corruption in higher education is a newly emerging topic in the field of education research. Some aspects of corruption in education have been addressed in recent works by Eckstein, Hallak & Poisson, Heyneman, Noah & Eckstein, Segal, and Washburn. However, rigorous systematic research is lacking. This article considers corruption in higher education as reported in the media, following publications in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Russian Federation. It addresses the differences in forms of corruption across the nations, identifying how exactly they differ and why. Major findings point to the following: some forms of corruption are region-specific while others are universal; types of corruption are connected to the characteristics of the national systems; the general trend in the media attention reflects growing concern about corruption in academia; in the United States more attention is now paid to fraud, plagiarism, and cheating, but in Russia to bribery in admissions. The findings help to determine which aspects of corruption in higher education should be given more consideration in future research and which might be prioritised, as well as how the national systems of higher education can be improved.

Collapse of Monopoly Privilege: from college to university

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Collapse of Monopoly Privilege: from college to university
Author: NITZA DAVIDOVITCH; DAN SOEN; YAACOV IRAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-377
ABSTRACT This article focuses on the erosion of the monopoly by universities of the higher education system in Israel. The hegemony of the universities, the major player in the academic field, has been shattered by the development of the regional colleges that unsettled the preconceptions concerning the higher education system in Israel, including the goals, student profiles, curricula and organizational structure of the various types of academic institutions. This article examines how colleges and universities, the two major types of higher education institutions in Israel, were affected by enhanced access to higher education in the past decade.

How Singaporean Students Decide to Study in Australia: towards building a model of their decision-making

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: How Singaporean Students Decide to Study in Australia: towards building a model of their decision-making
Author: TERRY GATFIELD; STEPHEN LARMAR
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 378-393
ABSTRACT Higher education ranks as Australia's sixth largest export sector, making a financial contribution of over $9 billion to the economy in 2004-2005. Surveys of potential students and projections by IDP-Education Australia on marketing higher education in 2025 are that the overseas student intake will rise by 14% to 850,000, earning in export trade around $A56 billion annually. Australia currently has 10 per cent of the global market share for international students, being the second largest supplier after the USA. With additional places required, particularly from the Asian nations, primary beneficiaries will be Australia's universities. Due to the size and growth potential of the industry, this article is designed to better understand the process of decision-making by international students in the Asian region, with a specific focus on Singapore. By examination of relevant theories, the literature and an analysis of the decision-making processes identified for students from Singapore, a model of decision-making is constructed to attempt to explain the behaviour of this student population.

Overrepresented Minorities in Special Education in the United States and Romania: comparison between African-American and Roma populations in disability studies

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Overrepresented Minorities in Special Education in the United States and Romania: comparison between African-American and Roma populations in disability studies
Author: GABRIELA WALKER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 394-403
ABSTRACT This manuscript briefly examines minority participation within the school population that is eligible for special education services - namely, African Americans in the United States and the Roma population in Romania. A large percentage of students from both minorities come to school unprepared to learn and they remain behind because of the simultaneous action of several factors, such as family values, material support for child education, evaluation team members' and teachers' perceptions and expectations, insufficient student and parent guidance, and institutional racial/ethnic discrimination. Children coming from minority groups, and from low-socio-economic-status families, are more likely to be identified as having special needs in both the United States and Romania.

Teacher Efficacy in Rural Zimbabwe

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:47:22 GMT

Title: Teacher Efficacy in Rural Zimbabwe
Author: JUDY K. DUNHAM; DANIEL SONG’ONY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Pages: 404-412
ABSTRACT The need to address contextual variables, such as cultural bias and cultural norms, is a common challenge for researchers in international education. This article highlights societal conditions and cultural issues that could have impacted teacher efficacy data in Zimbabwe, a country known for its ongoing economic crisis, political repression, and societal instability. In light of the country’s circumstances, it is likely that Zimbabwean teachers’ efficacy (i.e. their self-confidence in their ability to produce positive student outcomes) is diminished. The 23 educators in this study were from nine impoverished rural schools where there are few opportunities for professional growth. During July of 2006, they completed the 24-item Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) at the beginning of a professional development workshop. The data were analysed to ascertain whether these educators had faith in their abilities to expect good results from their efforts. The results of this study suggest that the teachers possessed high levels of teacher efficacy. These results are interpreted in light of potential cultural differences in the construct of teacher efficacy.

Introduction. Early Childhood Education and Care

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: Introduction. Early Childhood Education and Care
Author: Ailie Cleghorn; Larry Prochner
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 222-223
ABSTRACT This thematic issue on early childhood education and care (ECEC) takes the reader from the lead article by Peter Moss to the United Kingdom, Italy, India, Bangladesh, and beyond, to explore a wide range of issues involved in the transition from pre-school settings as well as from the home to formal schooling. The reader will find in these articles that the notion of transition is expanded not only to include an important event in the life of a child, but also to be shown as a cognitive phenomenon and a social process. The collection of articles thus contains several foci: shifts in the culture and language from the home/pre-school setting to school; differences in pedagogical approaches; and a kind of reverse border crossing or transition that the child of immigrant parents engages in as she traverses the socio-linguistic/cultural landscape from school to home, taking on the responsibility of interpreter of the new culture for the parents.

What Future for the Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and Compulsory Schooling?

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: What Future for the Relationship between Early Childhood Education and Care and Compulsory Schooling?
Author: PETER MOSS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 224-234
ABSTRACT The relationship between early childhood education and care (ECEC) and compulsory schooling is the subject of increasing research and policy attention, as attendance at both grows globally, as the discourse of lifelong learning emphasises that learning begins at birth, and as investment in early childhood is increasingly advocated for the returns it brings in later education. Having discussed the structural and cultural framework that contextualises the relationship, the article considers four possible types of relationship: preparing the child for school, stand off, making the school ready for children, and the vision of a meeting place. It concludes with a discussion of some critical questions and of how the relationship between early childhood and compulsory school should not be confined only to the first few school grades: full resolution requires inclusion of secondary education.

Not Just Content, but Style: Gypsy children traversing boundaries

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: Not Just Content, but Style: Gypsy children traversing boundaries
Author: MARTIN P. LEVINSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 235-249
ABSTRACT The policy to integrate English Gypsy children in schools tends to overlook the difficulties facing such youngsters in their attempts to negotiate between contrasting practices and values at home and school. Contradictions between such practices/value systems at home and school entail not only knowledge/skills, but also differing modes of instruction/transmission. Informed by learning theories and New Literacy discourse, along with evidence from previous accounts of Romani learning practices in the home context, this article draws on findings from an ethnographic study of English Gypsies (1996-2000), and data from a follow-up study, involving original and additional participants (2005-6). The article explores attitudes across age-groups, outlining, in particular, the knowledge/skill base valued in the home setting, highlighting the mismatch between home and school expectations, and the difference of expectation in child-adult relations in each context. It argues that policy-makers need to consider the wider impact of school education on identity and group membership.

Policy and Practice in Italian Children's Transition from Preschool to Elementary School

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: Policy and Practice in Italian Children's Transition from Preschool to Elementary School
Author: WILLIAM A. CORSARO; LUISA MOLINARI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 250-265
ABSTRACT This article considers educational policy and practice in a preschool and an elementary school in Modena, Italy in terms of their effects on children's transition to and progress in elementary school. The study is based on a six-year longitudinal ethnographic study that involved direct observation of teacher-student and peer interactions. The ethnographic observations were supplemented with interviews of students, teachers and parents both before and after the children's transition to first grade. The article focuses primarily on what the authors term 'priming events', which are activities that prepare preschool children for the transition to first grade academically, emotionally and socially. The findings are placed in the context of preschool and elementary school policies in Italy and how these policies are put into practice in Modena and more generally in the Emilia-Romagna province of northern Italy.

Tracing Global-Local Transitions within Early Childhood Curriculum and Practice in India

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: Tracing Global-Local Transitions within Early Childhood Curriculum and Practice in India
Author: AMITA GUPTA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 266-280
ABSTRACT Taking the view that curriculum and pedagogy are complex processes related to history, politics, economics, culture and knowledge, and influenced by interactions that occur between students, teachers and the larger communities, this article will discuss how curriculum takes shape and is negotiated in some early childhood classrooms in post-colonial urban India. The article draws on empirical and published research, and includes a discussion on the influence of recent local and global forces on teaching and learning, focusing specifically on issues such as: the deep divide between private and public education in India; the challenge of sustaining local government schools in India in the face of the global emphasis placed on knowledge of the English language; the recent increase in the emergence of private schools in low- as well as high-socio-economic-class neighborhoods in India; the more recent neo-colonial influences of western media on children's lives in their homes and schools; and early childhood teachers' perceptions on the transitions between 'western' and 'Indian' values.

Understanding Childhoods In-Between: Sudanese refugee children's transition from home to preschool

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: Understanding Childhoods In-Between: Sudanese refugee children's transition from home to preschool
Author: DARCEY M. DACHYSHYN; ANNA KIROVA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 281-294
ABSTRACT Canada receives over 30,000 refugees each year, approximately 10% of whom are under five years of age. While to varying degrees the factors influencing the experiences of adult refugees have been identified and researched, the experiences of young refugee children 'living in-between' has only recently begun to capture researchers' interest. This article considers what the experiences are of young refugee children in their day-to-day living between languages and cultures as they make a transition between home and Canadian early childhood settings. More specifically, the question addressed is: What roles do refugee children play in mediating the host culture for their parents in the hybrid place created by play? The authors propose that play in early childhood does serve, for refugees experiencing resettlement, as a site of cultural mediation, contestation, and identity negotiation. An analysis of three Sudanese refugee mothers and their four-year-old sons' use of common early childhood artefacts - wooden building blocks - is used to demonstrate how young refugee children who experience child care outside their home for the first time not only learn to 'be a preschooler', but learn to 'interpret' this role to their parents.

The Succeed Project: challenging early school failure in Bangladesh

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: The Succeed Project: challenging early school failure in Bangladesh
Author: FRANCES E. ABOUD; KAMAL HOSSAIN; CHLOE O'GARA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 295-307
ABSTRACT This evaluation research compares the first-grade competencies of two cohorts of Bangladesh children who attended 'Succeed' preschools, with a control group who did not attend preschool. Testing of these groups occurred in 2006, 2007, and 2005, respectively. The Succeed program aims to improve children's learning and children's school success by developing and testing an affordable, sustainable preschool model that can be implemented in school, community and home settings. Researchers assessed the quality of school- and home-based preschool environments using the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) plus two curricular subscales that tap program quality. An independently developed test based on government-defined competencies assessed school achievement of Grade 1 children. Results showed that children who attended Succeed preschools performed better in four of the five competencies relating to reading, writing, and oral math, compared with children without any preschool experience. Better quality preschool environments were positively associated with children's competencies in Grade 1. There were no statistically significant differences in first-grade performance between children from home-based preschools compared with school-based preschools, both using the same Succeed program.

From Home to School: mapping children's transition in the Indian context

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:05 GMT

Title: From Home to School: mapping children's transition in the Indian context
Author: PRERANA MOHITE; NAMITA BHATT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Pages: 308-316
ABSTRACT The education and care of young children has been rooted in Indian culture as reflected in ancient scriptures and documents, and has continued to be a significant engagement during the pre- and post-independence period and in the contemporary realm of education. Yet, in the present situation, the progress and understanding of early childhood care and education (ECCE) leaves much to be desired. This article offers an analysis of current policy developments in ECCE and their implementation across diverse socio economic settings with the focus on transition from home to preschool. The key issues surrounding cultural and linguistic transitions that accompany a child's introduction into a world outside the home are discussed, drawing on data from an ethnographic study of early childhood thought, policy and practice carried out across four semi-rural and tribal areas in Gujarat, India.

Teaching in Technology-Rich Classrooms: is there a gap between teachers' intentions and ICT practices?

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Teaching in Technology-Rich Classrooms: is there a gap between teachers' intentions and ICT practices?
Author: ASLAUG GROV ALMÅS; RUNE KRUMSVIK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 103-121
ABSTRACT The Norwegian school system gives a high priority to information and communication technology (ICT), and its ICT density is high, with one laptop per student considered desirable and being nearly accomplished. This study seeks to find the reasons for aspects of Norwegian teachers' pedagogical behaviour and choices by focusing on their thoughts and practices in technology-rich classrooms and by analysing how they explain them. It aims to enhance our understanding of how teachers in leading-edge schools appreciate the possibilities of a technology-rich environment, using theories about teachers' technological pedagogical content knowledge as a framework. The informants in this study had worked as teachers in upper secondary schools for at least five years and were categorised as digitally competent. Interviews conducted early in the study showed them struggling to explain their ICT use because teaching is a complex activity and ICT can not be isolated from it. To increase the validity of the study it was therefore necessary to employ a more composite research method, collecting data from the researchers' and the schools' reports and from development work with ICT, interviews with teachers, videotaped lessons, videotaped discussions with teachers after lessons, and videotaped discussions involving teachers sharing their reflections with colleagues. The study shows that if teachers do not feel comfortable with changes, teaching practices stay the same. At the same time these teacher have developed, and have continued to develop, a digital pedagogical content knowledge which seems to be necessary in the digitised school of today.

Democracy and Terrorism: what roles for universities?

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Democracy and Terrorism: what roles for universities?
Author: BEVERLY LINDSAY; SUZANNE HICKEY; ISSAM KHOURY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 122-134
ABSTRACT In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, the study of terrorism has become prominent as a function of the social sciences. The purpose of this article is to examine how terrorism studies relate to university engagement in an effort to reduce violence and terrorist acts across the globe. Illustrations will be explicated from the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Tel Aviv University in Israel, and Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. The article concludes with correlating how these universities have not merely studied terrorism, but how these studies engage their students, faculty, and their communities in combating a phenomenon that is continually evident.

Reflections of Changes in Higher Education in Israel: the case of social work departments

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Reflections of Changes in Higher Education in Israel: the case of social work departments
Author: NITZA DAVIDOVICH; SHLOMO SHARLIN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 135-157
ABSTRACT This study focuses on the profiles of students of social work and examines whether different profiles of students can be identified in various social work programs in Israel's institutions of higher education (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and the College of Judea and Samaria). The article discusses the students' profiles in view of the unique practical nature of social work programs and their place in the higher education system. The study also examines whether students' profiles point to a system of higher education of a binary nature in which distinct programs and curricula cater to distinct target groups, or whether student profiles reflect a monistic system in which all social work programs are similar.

Through the Lens of a Neighbor: perceptions of Mexican educators and students regarding current United States policies

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Through the Lens of a Neighbor: perceptions of Mexican educators and students regarding current United States policies
Author: TIMOTHY G. CASHMAN; RENE A. RUBIO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 158-166
ABSTRACT Researchers analyzed the perceptions and pedagogies of educators in two Chihuahua, Mexico, public schools with regard to United States foreign policies. The key objective of the research was to provide additional insight into the impact of recent actions taken by the United States Government, including the war in Iraq. Chihuahuan educators and their students suggested that the United States Government should be more engaged in the dialogue of how to address the root causes of terrorism. Additionally, the findings of this study indicated that educators and future teachers in both the United States and Mexico benefit from broader understandings of educators' roles and students' perceptions in a bi-national community.

The Impact of Post-secondary Privatization: the case of Costa Rica

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: The Impact of Post-secondary Privatization: the case of Costa Rica
Author: LORELLE L. ESPINOSA; JOSÉ L. SANTOS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 167-178
ABSTRACT Between 1985 and 2000, the Central American country of Costa Rica experienced rapid and unprecedented private university growth as part of an international movement towards post-secondary privatization. Costa Rica stands apart from other developing countries in that all 50 of the nation's private universities are proprietary, resulting in a private sector that has dramatically different educational goals from that of a previously dominant public system. This article examines the impact of post-secondary privatization in Costa Rica as viewed through a neoliberal development lens and the subsequent tensions between a well-established public system and under-regulated private sector. Interviews with public and private university faculty and administrators, as well as key education officials, shed light on emergent distinctions between the two institutional types, including their respective mission and purpose, perceived educational quality, and resulting societal impact.

A Culture of (In)Equality?: a cross-national study of gender parity and gender segregation in national school systems

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: A Culture of (In)Equality?: a cross-national study of gender parity and gender segregation in national school systems
Author: ALEXANDER W. WISEMAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 179-201
ABSTRACT Recent international education reports have highlighted some of the progress (as well as remaining disparity) in gendered education enrollment rates. But, the problem of gender segregation is still a very real issue even in some nations where girls are enrolled at levels on par with boys. Separate classes, curricula, and in many countries separate schools for boys and girls persist. This is juxtaposed against the opposite extreme that exists in some other countries' educational systems where girls are sometimes pushed into classes and advanced curricula for which they have not been adequately prepared. Using data from the most recent Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), this article reports on gender parity across approximately 45 nations in access (measured by enrollment rates), performance (mathematics achievement scores), and opportunity (implemented curriculum, teacher characteristics, classroom interaction) among 13-year-old girls and boys. The results of this study suggest that while cross-national gender parity numerically exists in many of these 45 nations in access, performance, and opportunity, the implications for gender equality are less clear. Several theoretical propositions are posited to explain these cross-national trends in gender parity versus equality.

Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS): international accountability and implications for science instruction

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS): international accountability and implications for science instruction
Author: JONATHAN M. ECKERT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 202-210
ABSTRACT International educational comparisons are relatively recent phenomena and have long been the source of international debate. Since the formation of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in the 1950s, assessments have grown increasingly more valid and reliable. TIMSS is an exemplary attempt at cross-national comparison. In trying to link results to practice, TIMSS released video studies that attempt to compare teaching methodologies employed in science in various countries. Much has been made of the TIMSS report and the pedagogy displayed in the video studies, but one question remains unanswered. What are the implications for science instruction based on cross-national comparisons? In countries such as the USA and the United Kingdom, the TIMSS reports have been the basis of much criticism of science instruction. This article explores the implications of the TIMSS reports and offers recommendations for the use of cross-national comparisons to impact classroom instruction.

Business School Teaching and Democratic Culture: an international and comparative analysis

Fri, 6 Jun 2008 10:42:14 GMT

Title: Business School Teaching and Democratic Culture: an international and comparative analysis
Author: SIMON ULRIK KRAGH; SVEN BISLEV
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 2 Pages: 211-221
ABSTRACT Egalitarian and participation-oriented teaching emphasizes critical discussion and informal relationships between students and professors. The authors argue that the use of egalitarian and some aspects of participation-oriented teaching at business schools differs systematically across countries according to the strength of democratic culture. Countries with high levels of well-being, strong emancipatory and civic values as well as a stable political democracy also tend to have egalitarian and, to some extent, participation-oriented teaching at their business schools. The article draws on survey data collected at Copenhagen Business School and macro-sociological data from a number of publicly available databases.

Introduction. The 'Two Faces' Today?

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Introduction. The 'Two Faces' Today?
Author: Julia Paulson
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-4
ABSTRACT Not available

Education and Intra-alliance Conflict: contrasting and comparing popular struggles in apartheid South Africa and Palestine

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Education and Intra-alliance Conflict: contrasting and comparing popular struggles in apartheid South Africa and Palestine
Author: BILAL FOUAD BARAKAT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 5-18
ABSTRACT Much recent research has been directed at illuminating the role of education in major conflicts between ethnic groups. It is increasingly well understood that education does not necessarily have a positive, peace-supporting influence, but that the wrong kind of education can serve to reinforce divisions. However, in many conflicts there are multiple fault lines. Even if one central antagonism between two broad groupings can be identified, numerous tensions and divergent interests may exist within each of these groupings. This study examines the hypothesis that the notion of the 'two faces of education' extends to such 'conflicts within the conflict'. In other words, with regard to tensions within groups on the 'same side', education and schooling may also serve either as a unifying force or as a cause of violent disagreement - or both at the same time. This article presents the results of extracting both kind of themes - education as divisive or unifying - from a thorough review of the literature on two case studies: South African education during the anti-apartheid struggle, and the development of Palestinian education in exile and under occupation. While significant differences exist, there are also some common patterns, such as the use of educational privileges to co-opt part of the opposition, the continuation of educational class differentials within broad alliances during and after conflict, and the role of ambiguity in educational discourse in opposition. Both cases support the conclusion that education and schooling can play an ambivalent role at all levels of complex conflicts, and that research on 'education and conflict' cannot afford to ignore this complexity.

Sri Lanka: in peace or in pieces? A Critical Approach to Peace Education in Sri Lanka

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Sri Lanka: in peace or in pieces? A Critical Approach to Peace Education in Sri Lanka
Author: MIEKE T.A. LOPES CARDOZO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 19-35
ABSTRACT This article seeks to explore the 'two faces of education' through a critical analysis of peace education in Sri Lanka. It aims to contribute to the wider debate on the complex role of education in situations of conflict. The article starts with an overview of what peace education is, or should be. This leads to the conclusion that peace education cannot succeed in isolation, and needs to be incorporated in a multilevel process of peacebuilding. Further analysis draws from Bush & Saltarelli's notion of the 'two faces of education', combined with Lynn Davies's notion of 'war education'. These notions help to explain to what extent (peace) education in Sri Lanka contributes to positive or negative conflict, or, in other words, which one of the two 'faces' is most prominent. The positive side of education is employed through inter-group encounters, the stimulation of self-esteem and a 'peaceful school environment'. Through dialogue and understanding, these initiatives stimulate a desegregation of a very segregated school system and society. However, these positive initiatives remain limited. Other, more structural issues, tend to work towards the negative face of education, by fostering segregation, fear and bias rather than counteracting them. These issues form pressing challenges for peace educators and policy makers in Sri Lanka. Critically informed research and evaluation should provide guidelines for well-thought through peace education initiatives, by working towards a combination of critical theory and problem-solving approaches to deliver both critical and hands-on guidelines for further peace education initiatives.

Multiculturalism is Dead: long live community cohesion? A Case Study of an Educational Methodology to Empower Young People as Global Citizens

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Multiculturalism is Dead: long live community cohesion? A Case Study of an Educational Methodology to Empower Young People as Global Citizens
Author: HILARY CREMIN; PAUL WARWICK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 36-49
ABSTRACT This article explores the theme of the 'two faces of education' by reviewing new policy directives in the United Kingdom to strengthen community cohesion in schools and their communities. These directives have resulted from growing disaffection with the aims and outcomes of multiculturalism. This article will investigate the ways in which this disaffection has resulted in both 'quick fix' politicised solutions, and in more genuine attempts to support young people to develop positive relationships with people from different ethnic backgrounds. It will suggest that whilst inequalities of educational outcome for different ethnic groups persist, schools will continue to be part of the problem, hence the second link with the theme of two (or more?) faces of education. In order to become part of the solution, schools internationally will need to adopt much more creative and complex approaches to the reduction of racism and inequality than those currently being proposed by the UK Government. A case study of an approach that has been used in many countries of the world, including Brazil and Canada, to engage young people in open dialogue, and to develop empathy and critical thinking is provided. The case study from a multi-ethnic college setting within the Midlands, United Kingdom, will illustrate how young people can be enskilled and empowered to consider key debates that have relevance to their lives as global citizens living in a culturally diverse community.

The Two Faces of Empowerment in Conflict

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: The Two Faces of Empowerment in Conflict
Author: ROSALIND EVANS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 50-64
ABSTRACT This article problematises Bush & Saltarelli's call for a new and comprehensive peacebuilding education which empowers children through demonstrating that alternatives to conflict exist, that they have choices and the capacity to change their own and their society's situation. It does so by exploring the various possibilities for empowerment available to young Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal, which are advanced by agencies administering services in the refugee camps and promoted by refugee political groups. Fieldwork demonstrates that some children simultaneously engage in humanitarian agency projects, which promote human rights and peaceful values, and with political groups advocating violence. Through their participation in agency projects, children learn awareness-raising methods, such as poetry and street theatre, which they also employ in their work with political groups. This article will consider the relationship between children's empowerment through their involvement in agency-initiated non-formal education projects and their engagement in violent political activities, suggesting that, like education, empowerment may show two faces in situations affected by conflict.

Education for Demilitarizing Youth in Post-Conflict Afghanistan

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Education for Demilitarizing Youth in Post-Conflict Afghanistan
Author: YUKITOSHI MATSUMOTO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 65-78
ABSTRACT This article examines both the largely negative role that education has played historically in contributing to conflict in Afghanistan and the ways that education has been purposefully employed as a post-conflict strategy aimed at building peace and social cohesion. The growing attention among academics and policy makers to the role of youth in post-conflict contexts, and the urgent need to reintegrate ex-combatants has led to the implementation of educational programming directed at Afghan youth as a central part of the country's Demobilization, Demilitarization, Reintegration (DDR) effort. Drawing on the author's field research and experience working on literacy programming for youth and adults in Afghanistan, this article investigates how the unfulfilled aspirations and needs of a 'lost generation' of young Afghans have been addressed within DDR processes. It argues that the adoption of a more dialectic approach to the educational programming provided through DDR - one that engages with and offers alternatives to education's previously negative manifestations - may offer more potential than current programming.

Political Peace - Educational War: the role played by international organisations in negotiating peace in the Balkans and its consequences for education

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Political Peace - Educational War: the role played by international organisations in negotiating peace in the Balkans and its consequences for education
Author: GWYNETH OWEN-JACKSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 79-90
ABSTRACT The number of countries involved in conflict appears to be growing. Global awareness of these conflicts grows as the increasing use of weblogs and mobile phone videos, alongside traditional technologies, demonstrates the day-to-day effects of conflict on those caught up in it. International organisations are drawn into negotiating 'peace settlements' and into monitoring post-conflict developments due to this growing global awareness of conflict and due to the influences of globalisation, increasing economic interdependence and other factors. International organisations, including the World Bank and agencies of the United Nations, try to find common ground between opposing factions in conflict situations in order to broker peace. This is not an easy task and compromises often have to be made. Peace agreements and settlements also need to take account of how the parties will work together in the future, and therefore, these may include aspects of educational provision. This article describes the role played by international organisations in negotiating the peace agreement that brought about the end of the conflict in the countries of the former Yugoslavia in 1995. It goes on to illustrate the consequences for education of this peace agreement and suggests that, whilst international organisations may have brokered peace on the streets, the opposing factions are continuing their war in the terrain of continuing educational conflicts, due at least in part to structures for educational provision laid out in the Dayton Agreement. The article provides support for Bush & Saltarelli's claim that education has two faces, and argues that in this case, unfortunately, the negative one predominates.

Differentiation, Development, (Dis)Integration: education in Nepal's 'People's War'

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:26:09 GMT

Title: Differentiation, Development, (Dis)Integration: education in Nepal's 'People's War'
Author: ROBIN SHIELDS; JEREMY RAPPLEYE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2008 Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Pages: 91-102
ABSTRACT A violent conflict between Maoist insurgents and the national government has engulfed Nepal for most of the last decade, a situation that has been complicated by deep-seated instability at the highest levels of the government itself. Even with the declaration of a ceasefire in 2006, violence endures in pockets of lawless banditry and unrest at the hands of separatist groups. During the conflict, education and schools played a central role, with issues such as the neglect of rural schools, the right to mother tongue education, and the expansion of private schooling figuring prominently in the Maoists' list of grievances. Both sides used intimidation and violence to gain support from rural schools, which acted as one of the lone advocates of community interests during the upheaval. This article argues that throughout the conflict formal education in Nepal has simultaneously presented many faces: on one hand it contributed to the conflict by reinforcing social inequalities while on the other it mitigated the effects of the conflict by maintaining social cohesion and mediating between opposing sides. In other cases it seemingly did both at once: acting as an egalitarian force by expanding basic education and literacy at an astounding rate while simultaneously excluding certain groups from sharing the benefits of the country's development. Building upon the work of Bush & Salterelli, the article shows that in the case of Nepal education presents not two but many faces that are highly contextual and remain relevant in the post-conflict environment.

Video Papers - a Means for Documenting Practitioners' Reflections on Practical Experiences: the story of two teacher educators

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: Video Papers - a Means for Documenting Practitioners' Reflections on Practical Experiences: the story of two teacher educators
Author: KARI SMITH; RUNE KRUMSVIK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 272-282
ABSTRACT This article is documentation of the personal professional reflection processes as well as staff discussions reflecting the staff's ongoing efforts to improve the quality of teaching in the teacher education programme at the University of Bergen. The documentation is two-dimensional: video clips have been inserted into the traditional text form. This allows the reader to personally view the discussed issues and thus better form a personal opinion of the situation, without having to rely solely on written documentation and the authors' subjective analysis. The authors claim is that video-paper as a form for publication allows for a more comprehensive presentation of the data and enables the reader to examine the documentation on which the authors base their reflections and discussions. The validity of the findings is improved as they are open to examination by a wider audience.

A General Agreement on Higher Education: GATS, globalization, and imperialism

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: A General Agreement on Higher Education: GATS, globalization, and imperialism
Author: CHRISTOPHER S. COLLINS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 283-296
ABSTRACT Through successive rounds of negotiations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) encourages countries to commit their higher education system to the mandates of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The WTO is an organization committed to the aggressive trade liberalization of services like higher education. This ideology, known as neoliberalism (Apple, 2005) is redefining the role of higher education. Through critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003), three genres of documents have been analyzed in search of the ideology and power relations imbedded in the texts. These genres include informational documents, the legal text of GATS, and proposals from the USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan calling for the reduction of trade barriers in higher education. The relationship between the developed countries who are calling for a reduction in trade barriers and developing countries who are struggling to provide public education could be further strained through an international set of trade rules like GATS. Language and text can create, shift, or maintain ideologies. In the case of GATS, the ideology reflects a new imperialism where more powerful countries retain developing countries as markets in which they continue to rule intellectually.

The 'Regulatory' State and the Use of 'Independent' Agencies as Legitimising Mechanisms of Educational Reform

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: The 'Regulatory' State and the Use of 'Independent' Agencies as Legitimising Mechanisms of Educational Reform
Author: DIONYSSIOS GOUVIAS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 297-312
ABSTRACT The emergence - at the dawn of the new millennium - of 'independent agencies', 'national commissions' and 'councils' around the world, has been based and justified on grounds of 'impartiality', 'reliability', 'democratic-principles guardianship', or even 'technical competence'. These 'independent' agencies are compared to state agencies, which traditionally have been responsible for the formulation of education policies. By using analytic tools from the Marxist, as well as from the neo-Weberian theoretical traditions, it is argued that the constitution of these new 'independent agencies' is a response to the post-modern State (what the author calls the 'regulatory State') legitimacy crisis. By including representatives from various interest parties, the dominant interests within the State mechanisms -always in accordance with the current power balance in the various social fields- vest the inherently unequal social relations with the magic cloak of 'social partnership'.

Corruption in Higher Education: conceptual approaches and measurement techniques

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: Corruption in Higher Education: conceptual approaches and measurement techniques
Author: ARARAT L. OSIPIAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 313-332
ABSTRACT Corruption is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. Forms of corruption are multiple. Measuring corruption is necessary not only for getting ideas about the scale and scope of the problem, but for making simple comparisons between the countries and conducting comparative analysis of corruption. While the total impact of corruption is indeed difficult to measure and even more so internal changes in corruption, some aspects of corruption may be quantified and measured. This article presents major conceptual approaches to corruption and develops a technique for measuring the distribution of graft in a higher education industry by using some ideas about bribery and other forms of corruption among the faculty members in higher education institutions in transition and developing nations. In order to measure the level of corruption and its changes over time or changes due to government intervention and other anticorruption efforts, the author combines two indicators, namely the number of corrupt faculty members who take bribes in a given period of time and the value of the average bribe, calculated as weighted average. The author also introduces the Distribution index (DI), the weighted DI, and the share weighted DI in order to capture internal changes in the distribution of graft. The proposed methodology may be applied in measuring corruption in higher education across the nations and making comparisons.

Technical and Vocational Education in Cameroon and Critical Avenues for Development

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: Technical and Vocational Education in Cameroon and Critical Avenues for Development
Author: S. MEGAN CHE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 333-345
ABSTRACT Technical and vocational education (TVE) can influence development and economic progress for post-colonial societies. Some newly independent sub-Saharan African countries attempted curricular transformation that might produce a skilled workforce through widespread access to versions of TVE. In Cameroon, no such post-colonial curricular revolution was enacted. This article qualitatively analyzes fourteen Cameroonian secondary mathematics teachers' spontaneous discussions about the possibilities and perceived necessity for increased TVE avenues in Cameroon. Relationships between TVE, the problem of educated unemployed, the public and private sectors, and development are explored. This article views teachers' discussions from a lens of critical theory.

Malaysian Educators and their Perspectives on the Iraq War: a case study

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: Malaysian Educators and their Perspectives on the Iraq War: a case study
Author: TIMOTHY G. CASHMAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 346-354
ABSTRACT This case study provides perspectives on the War in Iraq with information collected from Sabah, Malaysia, educators. The author has analyzed input from Sabahan teachers regarding their discussions of United States-led war efforts in Iraq. The implications for discourse in Sabahan classrooms are described. The author then argues that Sabahan perspectives can impact discussions of the war's overall effects in American classrooms and, in turn, broaden the curriculum in American schools.

The Rebirth of Educational Exchange: Anglo-German university level youth exchange programmes after the Second World War

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: The Rebirth of Educational Exchange: Anglo-German university level youth exchange programmes after the Second World War
Author: CINDY NAUMANN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 355-368
ABSTRACT In the early years of the Second World War the British had already begun post-war planning for education in Germany. They expressed a need to re-educate Germans and re-establish personal contacts with German people. One tool conceived to achieve these policy objectives was educational exchange. This paper will examine British educational exchange policy in post-war Germany, including how educational exchange came to be a part of post-war educational policy in Germany, what types of exchange programmes were established and how exchange programmes addressed educational policy objectives. It will focus on programmes for university level youth, utilising documentary evidence from archival sources and an historical approach to analysis. The aim of the paper is to provide a clearer conception of how educational exchange programmes between the British and Germans developed in the immediate post-war period.

BOOK REVIEWS

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:31:43 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEWS
Author:
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Pages: 369-371
ABSTRACT Comparative and International Education: an introduction to theory, method, and practice (David Phillips & Michele Schweisfurth), reviewed by Thyge Winther-Jensen, pages 369-370

From Sites of Occupation to Symbols of Multiculturalism: reconceptualizing minority education in Post-Soviet Latvia (Iveta Silova), reviewed by Michelle Morais de Sa e Silva, pages 370-371

Introduction. Policy, Education and Conflict

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Introduction. Policy, Education and Conflict
Author: Julia Paulson
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 172-175
ABSTRACT Not available

Learning about War and Peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Learning about War and Peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa
Author: LYNDSAY BIRD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 176-190
ABSTRACT Two-thirds of the world's conflicts are in Africa. In particular, the Great Lakes region (Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and Tanzania) continues to see conflicts that are complex, extreme and seemingly intractable. By exploring the narrative experiences of those most affected by the conflicts in the region - specifically refugees from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda living in camps in north-western Tanzania - this article examines to what extent educative processes (holistic formal and informal learning processes) affect people's experience and engagement in violent conflict. The article draws on the author's research that identified different information circuits by which people learned about conflict. In opposition to the common perception that formal schooling effects change, the findings indicated that the primary mechanisms were oral/aural, such as gossip, traditional storytelling and radio. Individual and collective identities were constructed through this process and the research identified how identities could be shifted through different formal and informal educative processes - often through indoctrination or coercion. This article concludes with an indication of alternative strategies for conflict prevention and peacebuilding (particularly within a refugee or similar context). Efforts at peacebuilding continue to falter in the region and this illustrates the need to construct a more inclusive peacemaking process, taking into account the insights and values of those most affected.

How to Certify Learning in a Country Split into Two by a Civil War: governmental and non-governmental initiatives in Côte d'Ivoire, 2002-06

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: How to Certify Learning in a Country Split into Two by a Civil War: governmental and non-governmental initiatives in Côte d'Ivoire, 2002-06
Author: MAGALI CHELPI-DEN HAMER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 191-209
ABSTRACT Following political turmoil and rising socio-economic difficulties, Côte d'Ivoire has been split into two since September 2002. The rebellion controls the northern part of the country and the main towns of Bouaké, Korhogo and Man, while the government controls the southern part with Abidjan, Yamoussoukro, Daloa and all the ports in the coastal area. At the beginning of the war, civil servants who were in place in the north of the country were called back to Abidjan to be redeployed in government-controlled areas. These included many teachers and education officials, but not all, as some of them chose to stay in the war-affected areas to continue their initial work. This article focuses specifically on governmental and local non-governmental initiatives related to education which were put in place at the onset of the crisis. What type(s) of education have been offered to the children in war-affected areas and to the displaced children in government-controlled areas? What have been the difficulties of organizing national examinations in war-affected areas? How have educational attainments been certified on both sides? The study covers the period 2002-06, and is based on document analysis, grey literature collected on site and interviews with key informants.

Political Education in Croatian Secondary Schools: an emergency reaction to a chaotic context

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Political Education in Croatian Secondary Schools: an emergency reaction to a chaotic context
Author: KARIN DOOLAN; MLADEN DOMAZET
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 210-221
ABSTRACT The article draws on an analysis exploring how the content and aims of secondary school political education have been framed in official Croatian policy documents following the country's war for independence, with particular focus on the underlying conception of citizenship promoted in such a post-conflict setting. The article also addresses how official textbooks for the secondary school subject of 'politics and economics' shape this conception of citizenship through their choice of topics. It is argued in the article that the case of Croatian political education illustrates how a social and historical tipping point can influence what counts as official political knowledge to be transmitted in schools, and thus exemplifies the transitional nature of such knowledge in emergency settings. This locates the issue of knowledge transmitted in Croatian secondary school political education in a broader theoretical discussion on how knowledge can be radically affected by 'paradigm shifts' in social and political circumstances, and raises the question of ways in which its arbitrariness can be minimised. To this end, special attention is given to the role of skills and values in political education.

Framing Youth within the Politics of Foreign Assistance

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Framing Youth within the Politics of Foreign Assistance
Author: CLARE A. IGNATOWSKI
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 222-229
ABSTRACT Although in the past the field of youth development has been subsumed within or occluded by other traditional development sectors such as education, a re-emerging emphasis on security in US government foreign assistance has tended to foreground youth as a frame of reference for international development programming and public diplomacy. While youth as security threat is by itself a reductive formulation, there are opportunities to grasp more deeply the power of young cohorts to affect social change in multidimensional ways. This article examines how youth issues have been framed within broader policy and program priorities of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), especially in post-conflict/fragile states, in an effort to illuminate some key dilemmas and knowledge gaps.

Gangs, Soldiers and 'Idle Girls': constructions of youth and development in World Bank discourse

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Gangs, Soldiers and 'Idle Girls': constructions of youth and development in World Bank discourse
Author: MIKAELA LUTTRELL-ROWLAND
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 230-241
ABSTRACT This article examines the World Bank's recent World Development Report on youth and development (2007) as an empirical example to explore the links between the employment of 'group identity' and the use of policy frameworks. Drawing on feminist theory to analyse the representations of young people put forward within the report, this article demonstrates how the report privileges economic indicators, elevates formal institutions, and obfuscates structural inequality and power. The article argues that the report's failure to indicate the partiality of its perspective on youth and development problematically narrows the policy options the World Bank is able to present.

Education and Instability: avoiding the policy-practice gap in an emerging field

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Education and Instability: avoiding the policy-practice gap in an emerging field
Author: Z.E. KARPIÑSKA; RACHEL YARROW; L.M.A. GOUGH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 242-251
ABSTRACT The imperative to provide education for communities affected by man-made or natural disaster has been strongly articulated. Since the mid 1990s, a growing body of literature and research has emerged in the fledgling field of 'education and instability'; however, there is still a pressing need for high-quality, applicable research. The article argues that a scholarly attention to the insights and questions of 'education and instability' that privileges practitioner involvement may deepen and add rigour to existing insights. Such research may also raise questions and create critical discussion concerning assumptions about conflict, emergency, aid, policy, participation and service provision, and other issues in education and instability. A budding scholarly community at the University of Oxford is the Conflict and Education Research Group (CERG), comprising researchers who have practical experience of working with development agencies and in crisis situations. The group studies what role there might be for education, broadly defined, in promoting stability, peace and development. The article outlines the CERG's emerging research agenda along with its commitment to moving beyond the policy-practice divide to produce meaningful scholarly research with applicable findings and clear dissemination strategies.

Educational Transfer in Situations Affected by Conflict: towards a common research endeavour

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:24:52 GMT

Title: Educational Transfer in Situations Affected by Conflict: towards a common research endeavour
Author: JEREMY RAPPLEYE; JULIA PAULSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Pages: 252-271
ABSTRACT This article argues that the field of education and conflict is, in many ways, 'stuck in its emergence' because it has yet to develop common theoretical understandings, useful analytical tools, and shared conceptual frameworks to unify and sustain a mutual endeavour by scholars working on a diverse range of topics and cases. In a curious, tentative and collaborative way, therefore, this article seeks to explore potential solutions to this problem by searching for common ground between the fields of education and conflict and educational transfer. Its foremost question is: to what degree can analytical tools recently developed by those interested in policy transfer illuminate the investigations of those interested in education and conflict? To explore this question, two young scholars, one primarily engaged in research into processes of educational transfer and one focused on the dynamics of education and conflict, come together to argue first for the potential of collaboration between the subfields. The article then introduces a series of transfer models and presents examples wherein those models may be useful for the study of education and conflict. Finally, aspects of these models are combined with work done by scholars interested in conflict and transition to present a new conceptual device: 'Educational Transfer in Situations Affected by Conflict'. The purpose of presenting the new model herein is to elicit critique and feedback from researchers, policy makers and practitioners that, it is hoped, will lead to its further refinement and to an understanding of its potential for establishing common ground.

The Japanese Preschool System in Transition

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: The Japanese Preschool System in Transition
Author: YUKI IMOTO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 88-101
ABSTRACT This article is an anthropological analysis of the recent policy reforms of the Japanese preschool system. It takes the introduction of the nintei-kodomoen ('accredited children's centre') as a point of entry to discuss the historical, social and political debates concerning early childhood education and care. The 'dual system' which characterized the post-war Japanese preschool system is undergoing change. The falling birth rate and the increasing number of women choosing to continue their careers after childbirth are bringing changes to the values of motherhood and childhood. The reforms taking place in the preschool system - which are accelerated by the political process of liberalization - both reflect and affect these changes.

The Europeanisation of Education Policy: researching changing governance and 'new' modes of coordination

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: The Europeanisation of Education Policy: researching changing governance and 'new' modes of coordination
Author: NAFSIKA ALEXIADOU
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 102-116
ABSTRACT This article explores how the European Union coordinates education policy making through the use of a mode of governance called the open method of coordination (OMC). Part One briefly presents and discusses the mechanisms of the education OMC and its key characteristics. Part Two draws on contemporary theories of Europeanisation and discourse analysis to provide a theoretical and methodological framework for researching the response of member states to this policy coordination. Member states of the European Union are not seen as passive recipients of policies from the European Commission and the Council of the European Union. Rather they engage in a complex process of selective adoption of policy measures that suit particular purposes, formulate various aspects of policy often in tension with other member states, and possibly reject those elements of policy that do not fit national priorities or timelines. Finally, the author briefly exemplifies these issues by operationalising key research questions around the issue of domestic response to the education OMC through a suggested research approach for the exploration of the process of Europeanisation of education policy.

Evaluation: emergence, mode of inquiry, theory and practice

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: Evaluation: emergence, mode of inquiry, theory and practice
Author: AIDAN KENNY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 117-134
ABSTRACT The aim of this article is to present the reader with an accessible and practical account of evaluation as a mode of inquiry within the broad domain of social science. The starting point is the presentation of a general outline of the main milestones relating to the emergence of evaluation as a mode of inquiry and some of the prominent advocates of contemporary evaluation. Particular attention is directed towards what is termed as 'programme evaluation'. Then the author endeavours to explore whether evaluation as a mode of inquiry is practice or theory led. A definitive answer to this question is not presented here in this short article; instead, the author makes assumptions based on his interpretation of the reviewed discourse within the field and personal reflection from practice. The case of the European University Association's quality review of the seven Irish universities and the Dublin Institute of Technology is cited as an example of evaluation in practice in the Irish higher education sector. Issues such as the politics and power, decision making, and the use, misuse or non-use of findings of evaluations are briefly introduced.

Researching External Evaluators of Higher Education in Germany: methods and techniques

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: Researching External Evaluators of Higher Education in Germany: methods and techniques
Author: SUSAN HARRIS-HUEMMERT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 135-143
ABSTRACT Expert committees are frequently called into institutions to analyse the status quo and make recommendations for improvement or change. This is so within the fields of medicine and law, and increasingly so within the field of education, and higher education in particular. Little is known, however, about the mechanisms at work within such expert committees in any of these contexts as literature is surprisingly scarce. German higher education is presently undergoing a process of change as it moves towards a three-tiered degree structure: Bachelor, Masters and doctorate. Experts are being called upon to examine the state of education and make recommendations that can have a major impact on the future of a discipline or department. It is the aim of this article to reveal some of the issues that need addressing when the focus of study is the people who make up expert evaluation commissions.

Time and Comparative and International Education

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: Time and Comparative and International Education
Author: ERIK WESTLUND
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 144-153
ABSTRACT This article argues that epistemological and theoretical issues surrounding time in relation to comparative and international education need further exploration in consideration of the new understandings of time that have emerged (or re-emerged) during the last century. By drawing on an interdisciplinary selection of ideas as well as various scholars' conceptualizations of time that range from antiquity to the present, the article suggests practical ways, supported by sociological and historical examples, to theorize time for application in comparative educational research. Appropriating a more nuanced understanding and abstraction of temporality is necessary and opens different time-worlds for comparison, resulting in knowledge informed and shaped by a time that transcends Newtonian linearity and discreteness. The article is written with the understanding that as technology continues to stimulate globalization and redraw the boundaries of space and time, the importance of reconsidering temporality in regard to educational research is clear.

The Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol: its impacts and implications for the global teaching profession

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: The Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol: its impacts and implications for the global teaching profession
Author: PAUL WASHINGTON MILLER; GUY MULVANEY; KIMBERLY OCHS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 154-161
ABSTRACT This article discusses the development and implementation of the Commonwealth Teacher Recruitment Protocol, which was adopted in September 2004. Following a review of the contextual issues of international teacher migration, the challenges of teacher recruitment are discussed. Key features of the Protocol are highlighted and discussed with regard to the current task of implementation. A comparison is made between recruitment before and after the adoption of the Protocol, focusing on the United Kingdom. In conclusion, the article highlights challenges and opportunities for Protocol implementation and areas for further research.

Exploring Turkish Pre-service Science Education Teachers' Understanding of Educational Technology and Use

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:29:04 GMT

Title: Exploring Turkish Pre-service Science Education Teachers' Understanding of Educational Technology and Use
Author: HAKAN TÜRKMEN; JON E. PEDERSEN; ROBBIE McCARTY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Pages: 162-171
ABSTRACT Helping prospective teachers become more knowledgeable and skilled in the use of technology in education is an important goal of today's teacher preparation programs. This article reports the results of a survey, 'Pre-service Teacher Technology Survey: technology usage and needs of science educators', that determined pre-service science education teachers' perceptions of their preparation vis-à-vis technology and the pre-service teachers' knowledge and desired knowledge of technology. More specifically, the focus was to address the understandings of Turkish pre-service teachers regarding their current and desired knowledge of educational technology. The findings of this study show that Turkish pre-service science education teachers are relatively unfamiliar with the advantages of educational technology and do not maximize its use. However, they have a desire to know more about the advantages of educational technology and its use in the education of Turkish children.

Digital Literacy Research from an International and Comparative Point of View

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: Digital Literacy Research from an International and Comparative Point of View
Author: MANUELA PIETRASS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-12
ABSTRACT The fear of a growing digital divide between those having access to the Internet and those who do not results from the still uneven distribution of digital media. Though the number of Internet users is rapidly growing, there is evidence for the further existence of a digital divide caused by the lack of digital literacy. Thus, the digital divide cannot be closed by access alone and becomes a matter of media education. To find appropriate methods for increasing digital literacy demands knowledge about the ways users deal with computers and the Internet. This knowledge is gained by empirical research in different formal and non-formal contexts of computer and Internet use. This introductory article to a special issue of Research in Comparative and International Education devoted to 'Digital Literacy Research' gives an insight into international data on Internet use and outlines a theoretical framework of digital literacy. It also discusses the single studies collected in the special issue. It shows that further research will profit by an international and comparative approach which considers national, cultural, social and age differences between the users.

Children’s Writing Processes When Using Computers: insights based on combining analyses of product and process

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: Children’s Writing Processes When Using Computers: insights based on combining analyses of product and process
Author: ALEKSANDRA GNACH; ESTHER WIESNER; ANDREA BERTSCHI-KAUFMANN; DANIEL PERRIN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 13-28
ABSTRACT Children and young people are increasingly performing a variety of writing tasks using computers, with word processing programs thus becoming their natural writing environment. The development of keystroke logging programs enables us to track the process of writing, without changing the writing environment for the writers. In the myMoment schools project, children in primary school grades one to five were provided with a web-based interactive writing environment, which they could use to read and write stories and comments. The parallel study on myMoment suggests that interviews and analyses of writing processes can provide detailed information about the effect that writing environment and instructions have on writing. An individual case study illustrates the potential that triangulating product and process analyses can offer in the teaching of literacy skills at elementary school level.

The Digital Literacy of Seniors

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: The Digital Literacy of Seniors
Author: BURKHARD SCHÄFFER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 29-42
ABSTRACT This article describes national and international comparative quantitative and qualitative empirical results for media use and media behaviour of elderly people against the background of demographic change and development in the sphere of information technology. Besides gender, professional position and educational qualification, age and affiliation to a generation are - in terms of 'country', origin or culture - the most significant predictors of whether someone is familiar with the computer and the Internet and whether he or she is using it in a competent way in private life and in their occupation. In addition to the international studies covered, this article focuses principally on the German situation, because the relative increase in the proportion of elderly people in that country has advanced the furthest in comparison with the rest of the world. Germany is playing a pioneering role in this respect. Searching for explanations which go beyond quantitative interpretation, a generation-specific model of cultures of media practice is being developed which favours the generation concept, in comparison with the 'pure age' concept, thus enabling a theory-based perspective with regard to demographic change. A generation-specific culture of media practice means approaching the current media technologies with those competences and restrictions which have been learned during adolescence and with the media available at that time.

Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the Internet

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: Digital Media Literacies: rethinking media education in the age of the Internet
Author: DAVID BUCKINGHAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 43-55
ABSTRACT This article considers how media educators can respond to the new challenges and opportunities of the Internet, and of digital media more broadly. It begins by exploring the value and limitations of the notion of 'literacy' in this context. It argues that 'competence-based' definitions of literacy tend to neglect the social diversity of literacy practices, and to retain a narrow focus on 'information', and it suggests that a broader definition of literacy necessarily entails a more critical approach. It then moves on to consider the nature of digital literacy more specifically. It argues that definitions of digital literacy have tended to take a rather limited view of information, and of issues of reliability and bias, and it proposes a broader approach which recognises the social and ideological nature of all forms of mediated representation. Following from this, it then provides some concrete indications of ways in which media education approaches might be applied specifically to the analysis of the World Wide Web, using the established framework of 'key concepts' (representation, language, production, audience). Finally, it considers the potential of digital media production in the classroom as a means of promoting digital literacy. It distinguishes between the approach adopted by media educators and more instrumental or expressive approaches. It then considers the difficulties of such work in a context where a 'digital divide' in access to technology continues to exist, both within and between societies. It argues that the benefits of digital technology in this respect depend crucially on the pedagogic and social contexts in which such technology is used, for example, in the opportunities that are provided for collaborative production and for students sharing their work with a wider audience. The article concludes by arguing that digital literacy needs to be seen as part of a broader reconceptualisation of literacy, and of the use of technology in education.

The Use of Computer Tools in Implementation Projects in Schools

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: The Use of Computer Tools in Implementation Projects in Schools
Author: CORNELIA GRÄSEL
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 56-67
ABSTRACT In recent years, some endeavours have been made to overcome the gap between theoretical and practical knowledge. In many countries projects have been conducted that aim to disseminate research-based knowledge in the practical field of education. This article presents an approach to the implementation of research results. This approach is referred to as 'symbiotic implementation', because teachers and researchers are seen as partners and aim to jointly advance teaching and learning in classrooms. Teachers and researchers form a community of learners with the goal of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in classrooms. In addition to face-to-face cooperation, the computer is used as a tool for communication and collaboration in teachers' communities of learners. The computer provides several tools which facilitate different functions for the communities: (a) mutual sharing of information among participants, (b) planning and documenting lessons, and (c) commenting upon and revising products. In two studies in Germany the process of teacher collaboration was investigated. As expected, face-to-face collaboration was pivotal for the success of the implementation. In contrast, teachers used the available computer tools only to inform themselves or to obtain material; the cooperation and collaboration tools were only used to a small extent.

Argumentative Knowledge Construction in Online Learning Environments in and across Different Cultures: a collaboration script perspective

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: Argumentative Knowledge Construction in Online Learning Environments in and across Different Cultures: a collaboration script perspective
Author: A. WEINBERGER; D.B. CLARK; P. HÄKKINEN; Y. TAMURA; F. FISCHER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 68-79
ABSTRACT In recent years, information and communication technology has established new opportunities to participate in online learning environments around the globe. These opportunities include the dissemination of specific online learning environments as well as opportunities for learners to connect to online learning environments in distant locations. These dissemination and distance learning scenarios create potential challenges, however, in terms of the cultural differences in the internal scripts that learners of different cultures bring to these environments. This article considers these issues and challenges specifically for online environments focusing on argumentative knowledge construction. It discusses the importance of cross-cultural research in this area and proposes that a collaboration script perspective may prove extremely valuable for this research.

The European Charter for Media Literacy: meaning and potential

Thu, 3 May 2007 11:48:59 GMT

Title: The European Charter for Media Literacy: meaning and potential
Author: BEN BACHMAIR; CARY BAZALGETTE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2007 Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Pages: 80-87
ABSTRACT This article offers a brief outline of the background, origins and purposes of the European Charter for Media Literacy. The Charter constitutes a new approach to the formation of a network of media educators in Europe. Rather than proposing a bureaucratic organisation with formal membership, it offers a consensual definition of media literacy to which organisations and individuals can demonstrate their affiliation simply by signing the Charter online. The steady growth of registered visitors to the European Charter for Media Literacy website, and the number of Charter signatories nearing 200, indicates widespread interest and support for the concept; however, the effectiveness of the Charter as a catalyst for debate and collaboration remains to be proved.

Comparative Education: method

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: Comparative Education: method
Author: DAVID PHILLIPS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 304-319
ABSTRACT This article is a slightly edited excerpt from a forthcoming book by David Phillips & Michele Schweisfurth: Comparative and International Education: an introduction to theory, method, and practice (Continuum, 2007). This part of the study rehearses some of the considerations of method in comparative studies in education.

From Antithesis to Synthesis: reinterpreting the Brian Holmes/Edmund King dialectic

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: From Antithesis to Synthesis: reinterpreting the Brian Holmes/Edmund King dialectic
Author: JASON NICHOLLS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 320-334
ABSTRACT The author reinterprets the work of two pioneers of methodology in comparative education, Brian Holmes and Edmund King. Where the two thinkers have tended to be understood as opposites, the author argues that this is not the case. Indeed, Holmes and King may be worth more together than apart, the systematic approach of the former complemented by the cultural sensitivities of the latter and vice versa. In this article, the two thinkers are understood, essentially, as anti-positivist liberals sympathetic to the ideas of Popper.

The Educational Recommendations of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: potential and practice in Sierra Leone

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: The Educational Recommendations of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: potential and practice in Sierra Leone
Author: JULIA PAULSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 335-350
ABSTRACT This article investigates the impact of the educational recommendations made by Sierra Leone's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) while exploring broader questions regarding the potential of truth commissions to contribute to post-conflict educational reconstruction and reform. The complex interrelationships between education and conflict in Sierra Leone's civil war are explored, as is the current situation of educational reconstruction in the country. Using data gathered during field research in Sierra Leone, the contribution of the SLTRC educational recommendations to identifying post-conflict educational needs and to the educational reconstruction process is assessed. While the article suggests that truth commissions present potential to contribute to post-conflict educational reconstruction, it also points to the limitations of this process in Sierra Leone.

Curricular Reform and College-based Innovation in Vocational Education and Training in England and Germany

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: Curricular Reform and College-based Innovation in Vocational Education and Training in England and Germany
Author: HUBERT ERTL; H.-HUGO KREMER
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 351-365
ABSTRACT This article outlines a small-scale comparative research project which investigates the effects of the wide-ranging reforms in the vocational education and training (VET) sector of Germany and England on the work of colleges and teaching personnel. The article provides some background to the ongoing reform of college-based training in the two countries. From an institutional perspective, the article examines to what extent VET reforms lead to innovative teaching practice at vocational colleges (Berufsschulen in Germany) and further education (FE) colleges (in England). It also looks at the degree to which administrative and leadership structures at colleges enable and prepare lecturers to embrace changes and to what extent these structures result in a reactive or proactive stance regarding educational innovation. From a personnel perspective, the lecturers' attitudes towards change are investigated. Their perceptions of current reforms are examined as well as the connection between reforms and their translation into innovative practice.

The 'Europeanisation' of Vocational Education between Formal Policies and Deliberative Communication

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: The 'Europeanisation' of Vocational Education between Formal Policies and Deliberative Communication
Author: PHILIPP GROLLMANN; KLAUS RUTH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 366-380
ABSTRACT This article deals with current European policies of vocational education and training, namely the Copenhagen Process, the Open Method of Coordination and the framework of the Lisbon Agenda. The analysis shows that there is no standard European path of achieving the Lisbon Goals, but rather that there are considerable variations depending on the prevailing VET systems and the respective VET policy. Two antagonistic scenarios on the possible effects of the current activities to implement a European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), and the European Qualification Framework (EQF) are sketched. The best and worse case scenarios can be used to assess the current national activities to improve the quality of European VET systems and stimulate processes of discursive communication. The concluding section outlines some prospects of a European VET policy by utilising the presented findings and proposes some cornerstones of a European VET policy aiming at improving the teaching and learning processes. It is argued that the coherence of policies formulated through the so-called Lisbon Goal is not mirrored in concurrent European policies of VET and that more 'deliberative' processes of communication between different actors in VET spanning from the level of practice to the level of European policies are needed in order to truly 'Europeanise' VET in Europe.

International Migration and Its Impact on Education: a look at Germany and the USA

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: International Migration and Its Impact on Education: a look at Germany and the USA
Author: KIMBERLY OCHS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 381-392
ABSTRACT This article looks at the impact of international migration on the German education system, including formal, non-formal and informal education at all levels. The first section provides an overview of the issue of international migration, and the international policy discourse about migration and education. The second section provides a brief overview of the German education system, providing a backdrop for the discussion. Section three takes in turn the impact of migration on the different levels of education (primary, secondary and tertiary), and also includes an account of the inspection of German schools, universities and selected educational institutions by the United Nations, in which the author participated as an observer, where special attention was given to the human rights of children and the experiences of migrant students. Section four compares the situation in Germany with that in the USA, and proposes a number of issues for consideration among practitioners, policy makers and researchers to build upon the current debate and to improve the situation in both Germany and in the USA. This is of particular relevance given the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's most recent PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) study and continued concerns about Germany's lacklustre performance in comparison to other developed nations.

Comparing the Promotion of European Identity at Three ‘European Schools’: an analysis of teachers’ perceptions

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: Comparing the Promotion of European Identity at Three ‘European Schools’: an analysis of teachers’ perceptions
Author: NICOLA SAVVIDES
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 393-402
ABSTRACT This article presents some preliminary findings from a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council that is investigating how the ‘European School’ ethos of developing a European identity amongst its pupils is being pursued. The project involves a multiple case study of three European Schools (Brussels I [Belgium], Culham [United Kingdom] and Alicante [Spain]) to identify the steps being taken and the conditions in place that are seen to contribute towards this ethos. The study’s research proposal was published in an earlier issue of this journal and this article follows on from that by presenting some of the research findings to date. The findings presented here are from one dimension of the project, namely that of teachers’ interpretations of and attitudes towards the European identity ethos and their attempts to implement it through their teaching. The findings are based on an analysis of interviews conducted with history, geography and English language teachers in the English language sections of the three schools. Analysis of this sample of interviews was conducted in order to discover some of the key themes that are arising in relation to the study’s research questions across the three schools.

Collective Reflection on a Public Lesson in a Mathematics Teaching Research Group

Fri, 5 Jan 2007 14:48:49 GMT

Title: Collective Reflection on a Public Lesson in a Mathematics Teaching Research Group
Author: XUE HAN
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Pages: 403-418
ABSTRACT This study explored how teachers' collective reflection within one community of practice - a teaching research group consisting of Chinese mathematics teachers - might have enabled or constrained teacher learning. Close examination of the specific interactions within one group meeting provided the focus for the present investigation. Using a narrative discourse analytical approach, this study examined the potential learning opportunities created or foreclosed by the community through unfolding several key episodes. It indicated that further research on specific interactions transpiring within a teachers' community can contribute to understanding the complex relations between teachers' communities of practice and improvement of teaching practice.

Academic Cheating in Austria, Portugal, Romania and Spain: a comparative analysis

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Academic Cheating in Austria, Portugal, Romania and Spain: a comparative analysis
Author: AURORA A.C. TEIXEIRA; MARIA FÁTIMA ROCHA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 198-209
ABSTRACT The empirical evaluation of academic cheating has been almost exclusively focused on the US context. Little is known about cheating in European universities. This article aims to contribute further evidence on this highly relevant phenomenon afflicting higher education throughout Europe. Based on a large sample of undergraduate students of Economics and Management in Austria, Portugal, Romania and Spain, the authors estimated an econometric model and controlled for a variety of factors most likely to influence the probability of cheating (e.g. student characteristics, location, grades). It was found that (1) the likelihood of copying increases when the expected benefit from copying is positive; (2) in copying-favourable environments, the students' propensity to copy tends to be higher; (3) the greater and more serious the perceived sanctions, the fewer the incentives students have to perpetrate dishonest behaviours; (4) in schools where 'codes of honour' exist, the propensity to copy among students is lower; and (5) the propensity to copy seems to be influenced by the countries' education systems and social factors - for instance, Portuguese students are less prone to fraudulent behaviour, whereas Spanish students are more likely to cheat than their Austrian counterparts; no significant difference was found between Austrian and Romanian students.

Reconciling Multiple Researcher Positionalities and Languages in International Research

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Reconciling Multiple Researcher Positionalities and Languages in International Research
Author: PRACHI SRIVASTAVA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 210-222
ABSTRACT Through the development of a set of ideas combining Merton's conceptions of the 'Insider and Outsider' with Lacan's notions of identity construction, the article examines: (1) the role of multiple researcher identities and positionalities, and (2) working in more than one language during data collection and analysis. The article aims to fill a surprising gap in existing literature on such issues in international educational research. Through a reflexive exercise on the fieldwork and data analysis process in one study, the article puts forward the concept of 'currencies' as a way to mediate researcher positionality and achieve temporary shared positionalities with research participants. It also highlights the need to mediate different languages during data analysis and presentation, introducing the concept of 'analytic languages' as a potentially useful construct in doing so.

Theorizing Educational Transfer: toward a conceptual map of the context of cross-national attraction

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Theorizing Educational Transfer: toward a conceptual map of the context of cross-national attraction
Author: JEREMY RAPPLEYE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 223-240
ABSTRACT This article highlights some of the current methodological issues surrounding how to analyze and understand educational transfer with particular reference to cross-national attraction. It reviews the resurgent interest in the themes of attraction and transfer and evaluates new models and typologies that describe those complex processes. It argues that gaps in the current research and new challenges posed by 'globalization' necessitate a new interpretive framework. To that end, a contextual map of cross-national attraction is presented and its component parts are described in considerable detail. Examples from the author's previous work on Chinese and American attraction to Japanese education are used to illustrate the uses of this new analytical framework. The article concludes by suggesting the various ways the device may assist in analyzing attraction and transfer and in opening up new areas of research.

Higher Education and the Knowledge Society: issues, challenges and responses in Norway and Germany

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Higher Education and the Knowledge Society: issues, challenges and responses in Norway and Germany
Author: LORE ARTHUR
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 241-252
ABSTRACT This article investigates how employers and university leaders in two very different countries, Germany and Norway, are responding to the challenges imposed by the global knowledge economy and the 1999 Bologna Declaration. It asks: does society need more or fewer graduates? What competencies do employers expect of their graduate workers? How do higher education institutions perceive their responsibility towards the employability of their graduates? Both countries offer the opportunity to illustrate responses to shared challenges. From a comparative perspective a number of issues have emerged. In Germany, the country's federal structure with divided responsibilities remains a cause of frustration. Reforms are slow and laden with complexities. Norway's centralised system of higher education, on the other hand, and the availability of resources, has eased higher education reforms but not anxieties about the country's economic future 'once the oil runs out'. However, the successes of two mass higher education systems built on Humboldtian traditions are also discussed.

Unequal Educational Outcomes among First-Generation Immigrants: the case of youth from the former Soviet Union in Israel

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Unequal Educational Outcomes among First-Generation Immigrants: the case of youth from the former Soviet Union in Israel
Author: KATERINA BODOVSKI; AARON BENAVOT
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 253-270
ABSTRACT This study focuses on school enrollment and patterns of track placement in the Israeli secondary education system among immigrant youth from the former Soviet Union. This unique case is discussed in the light of segmented assimilation theory and the accommodation-without-assimilation hypothesis. The findings of the study conclude that a family's previous socio-economic status is more important than its current socio-economic status in determining the educational outcomes of immigrant youth; students whose mothers possess higher educational qualifications are more likely to be enrolled in Israeli high schools and intend to complete all necessary matriculation examinations than children whose mothers have lower educational qualifications; immigrant youth with a previous record of high academic achievements in the Soviet Union had stronger matriculation intentions and were more likely to be enrolled in academic tracks; a student's proficiency in Hebrew had strong, significant effects on enrollment status, educational intentions and track placement; youth reporting negative relations with Israeli peers and frequent arguments with parents over smoking, alcohol and drugs were more likely to drop out and have lower educational intentions; and immigrant adolescents with stronger ties to Israeli peers were less likely to be enrolled in academic and professional tracks.

Higher Education in Israel at a Crossroads: the effect of regional colleges on the map of higher education in Israel

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Higher Education in Israel at a Crossroads: the effect of regional colleges on the map of higher education in Israel
Author: NITZA DAVIDOVITCH; YAACOV IRAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 271-285
ABSTRACT A historical review of institutions of higher education in Israel reveals far-reaching changes in all aspects of higher education since the first university was established in Mandatory Palestine in 1925, the most salient of these being the increasing demand for higher education in recent decades. This study attempts to determine whether the present system of higher education in Israel is progressing toward a binary system, characterized by a clear division of labor between universities and colleges directed toward different target populations, or whether development is oriented toward a converging system, with the various academic institutions growing more similar to one another. The findings of the study, based on a survey of students at two distinct institutions, confirm that a similar model operates in both types of higher education institutions, according to which students' sense of academic success is the product of a student-centric learning process. In this process, organizational attributes, including orientation, experience and social and academic climates, interplay with student demographic and psychosocial attributes, including self-efficacy, to produce students' sense of academic success.

Teaching about the World: two case studies

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: Teaching about the World: two case studies
Author: JOE TIN-YAU LO; MERRY MERRYFIELD; SUM-CHO PO
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 286-300
ABSTRACT In response to the challenges of globalization, scholars and educators have been calling forth the infusion of global education into school curricula in order to enable children to adapt to the dynamic and changing contexts, as well as to live in an increasingly interdependent and culturally diverse world. However, there is a paucity of research literature in the area of intraregional and intercultural comparative studies on teachers' instructional decisions and practices in Hong Kong's global classrooms. This article aims to fill the vacuum in this area of study and shed light on the uniqueness and commonness of the two case-study schools - one local school and one international school. It is expected that the article can yield conceptual and practical lessons for the study of teachers' instructional decisions and practices in the global classrooms in school contexts with different cultures.

BOOK REVIEW Culture and Pedagogy: international comparisons in primary education (Robin Alexander)

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 13:09:00 GMT

Title: BOOK REVIEW Culture and Pedagogy: international comparisons in primary education (Robin Alexander)
Author: Jason Nicholls
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 3 Pages: 301-303
ABSTRACT Not available

Did the Cypriot Students Really Cheat on TIMSS?

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Did the Cypriot Students Really Cheat on TIMSS?
Author: ELENA C. PAPANASTASIOU; MICHALINOS ZEMBYLAS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 120-125
ABSTRACT Over the last few years, data obtained from high school seniors for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS, 1995) has led to several simplistic and controversial interpretations. One of these controversies is related to the results from Cyprus: although Cypriot students did not perform well in mathematics in elementary, middle school, and in the non-advanced sectors of high school, the students in the advanced mathematics courses managed to perform exceptionally well. In a previous article, an American commentator has suggested that either Cyprus has a dual educational system or Cypriot students have cheated on this test. In this article, the authors revisit this claim and examine whether it is possible for an educational system that does not allow students to perform well in mathematics relative to other countries, to produce students who could perform exceptionally well when they are high school seniors.

Innovation in Higher Education Systems in the Post-socialist Countries in Central and Eastern Europe, 1999-2005: possibilities for exploration through a complexity theory framework

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Innovation in Higher Education Systems in the Post-socialist Countries in Central and Eastern Europe, 1999-2005: possibilities for exploration through a complexity theory framework
Author: SANDRA ROMENSKA
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 126-135
ABSTRACT This article discusses the possibilities for applying a collection of theories, known as complexity theory, for the study of institutional innovation in higher education in the post-socialist countries in Eastern and Central Europe for the period 1999-2005. It presents an outline of the theory and suggests for discussion links between the framework of complexity theory and a research project under development, trying to map higher education change.

Comparing Hungary and Russia: methodological implications of a qualitative research project

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Comparing Hungary and Russia: methodological implications of a qualitative research project
Author: ANDREA LACZIK
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 136-145
ABSTRACT This article addresses methodological challenges during preparation and data collection that the researcher faced while conducting a research project in Hungary and Russia. The article discusses methodological decisions on the basis of the comparative study that had to incorporate not only the researcher's aim but also the agenda of the research participants. It argues that in a qualitative study that explores and describes a new area of research, flexibility, cultural sensitivity and the accommodation of local ideas are essential. First, the article briefly describes the content of the research project and offers a short summary of the contextual understanding of Hungary and Russia. The main part of the article relates to the qualitative research method with its country-specific approach.

Analytical Reflections on Access in English Higher Education: transnational lessons across the pond

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Analytical Reflections on Access in English Higher Education: transnational lessons across the pond
Author: LORENZO DUBOIS BABER; BEVERLY LINDSAY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 146-155
ABSTRACT Recent policy trends in international higher education suggest that the dichotomy between selective and widening participation is a global issue. The central premise of this article considers the historical and contemporary challenge of promoting higher education opportunities across socio-economic distinctions in England. Three critical questions are considered: (1) How did historical developments of higher education in England during the twentieth century, including American influences after the Second World War, shape the contemporary debate on widening participation? (2) Have the purposes of higher education altered as access shifts from elite to mass? and (3) What critical philosophies influence higher education purposes and developments, and might more balanced viewpoints assist policy makers in crafting decisions? Thus, we can garner a greater comprehension of how educational policies in the twentieth century redefined the role of higher education, contributing to the debate concerning the definition of public good - social contribution for the larger society versus economic return for the individuals. In analyzing this debate, the article also: (1) explicates watershed policies, including major education acts since the 1940s; (2) examines shifting post-secondary roles via Trow's typology of higher education development - elite, mass, and universal; and (3) explores communitarian, neo-liberal, and utilitarian philosophies to illuminate ideas regarding widening access.

ISO 9000 in Education: a comparison between the United States and England

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: ISO 9000 in Education: a comparison between the United States and England
Author: THERESA THONHAUSER; DAVID L. PASSMORE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 156-173
ABSTRACT Quality schooling has often been a subject of international concern. In an effort to meet government standards for federal funding, improve their performance, and obtain public trust, education institutions of all levels, in many countries are implementing the market-based ISO 9000 quality management system. ISO 9000 is an international quality management system created by the non-governmental organization, International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The literature surrounding ISO 9000 in education indicates that the application of this quality management system to education is debatable, the implementation process is time-consuming and difficult, and that the subject is understudied. While there have been numerous case studies on ISO 9000 in education, this was the first study to use quantitative survey research methods to examine and compare ISO 9000 implementation in education institutions in two different countries, the United States and England. Interestingly, US and English institutions turned out to be very much the same with regard to ISO 9000. For example, US and English education institutions have a similar time to ISO 9000 registration, define their customer, stakeholder, suppliers, and partners in the same manner, and are implementing ISO 9000 for similar reasons.

Investigating Education for European Identity at Three 'European Schools': a research proposal

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Investigating Education for European Identity at Three 'European Schools': a research proposal
Author: NICOLA SAVVIDES
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 174-186
ABSTRACT Encouraging pupils to develop a sense of European identity is one of the implicit aims of the 'European Schools'. This article describes a proposed research study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, which will investigate how this aim is being pursued at three European Schools. The proposal builds on two years (2003-2005) of preparation including research methods training, preliminary research and pilot work conducted at one of the three European Schools to be studied. The introduction to this article presents the contextual background and rationale to the proposed study, before moving on to a brief review of the empirical literature and the conceptual framework. Following this is a discussion of the general purpose of the research, outlining the research questions and the methods that will be used for gathering the data to answer them. The purpose in presenting the preliminary details of this project is to seek constructive criticism and suggestions from educational researchers, particularly from amongst comparativists and those working on European, international and intercultural dimensions. This proposal is designed to guide the project rather than to serve as a fixed framework. It may therefore be modified in light of the feedback received and as unforeseen avenues and new opportunities present themselves.

Methodological Challenges in Complex Comparisons: bilingual and intercultural education research in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile

Wed, 24 May 2006 12:25:10 GMT

Title: Methodological Challenges in Complex Comparisons: bilingual and intercultural education research in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile
Author: SOLANGE G. TAYLOR
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 2 Pages: 187-197
ABSTRACT This article examines the methodological issues encountered in carrying out a three-country comparative study of language-in-education policy implementation in Bolivia, Peru, and Chile. The analysis is divided into three sections, each of which addresses one of the primary challenges encountered in undertaking the research. These three primary challenges were the level of analysis, access to interview and documentary data, and accountability to those who assisted the author in her research. The article explores the chosen response to each of these challenges and suggests additional avenues for research and methodological development.

Introduction

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Introduction
Author: David Phillips
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 1-1
ABSTRACT Research in Comparative and International Education (RCIE) is a new online journal devoted to recent work by scholars around the world. Its focus will be on research and its outcomes, and there will be particular interest in the methodological problems involved in inquiry in comparative and international education.

This first issue contains a wide range of articles illustrative of the kind of work that will be included. In addition to general coverage of this kind, there will be thematic issues devoted to detailed coverage of a major topic: the first of these, planned for the end of 2006, will be on early childhood education.

We invite contributions from researchers in all areas of comparative and international education. We hope that the forum provided by RCIE will be particularly attractive to young scholars exploring methodological possibilities in their research. We shall also be glad to consider interim reports on continuing research projects, 'work in progress' that might form the stimulus for further discussion of the kind that online publication can facilitate.

The Theme of Educational Transfer in Comparative Education: a view over time

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: The Theme of Educational Transfer in Comparative Education: a view over time
Author: JASON BEECH
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 2-13
ABSTRACT This article analyses notions of 'transfer' in the literature of comparative education, searching for continuities and discontinuities in the way that the process of educational transfer has been construed. The analysis shows that the theme of transfer has been fundamental in comparative education from the early nineteenth century until the present day. Although some of the questions addressed in the field since its origins are still crucial today, it is suggested in the final part of the study that these problems should now be addressed in a world in which educational space has become more complex, as supra-national and sub-national actors become increasingly important in the production and reproduction of specialised knowledge about education.

Convergence of Higher Education and Economic Growth during the European Construction: a contribution to the cliometrics of growth (EU-15)

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Convergence of Higher Education and Economic Growth during the European Construction: a contribution to the cliometrics of growth (EU-15)
Author: CLAUDE DIEBOLT; MAGALI JAOUL-GRAMMARE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 14-30
ABSTRACT With the Treaty of Maastricht, European states committed themselves to the pathway of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Admission to EMU assumes respect for certain so-called 'convergence criteria'. In spite of this joint determination to achieve harmonisation, education, one of the most important socio-economic fields, remains in the hands of the member states. With this as the point of departure, this article is aimed at checking whether the construction of Europe was accompanied by convergence in terms of per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and in terms of the development of higher education. Results show that depending on whether examination is performed on a stage-by-stage basis or for the entire study period, the development of higher education precedes or follows economic development.

Virtual Networks, Support Stockings and Community. Online Publication: a new context of meaning for comparative and international education?

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Virtual Networks, Support Stockings and Community. Online Publication: a new context of meaning for comparative and international education?
Author: MINA O'DOWD
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 31-39
ABSTRACT This article addresses the advent of this online only publication, the very context in which it is being made available. Central to the article is Delanty's work on communicative communities. It is argued that it is particularly appropriate to view comparative and international education in this manner. Online publication offers comparative and international education a new context of meaning. Seen in this context, comparative and international education can be reformulated as one of the communicative communities that are more about communication than place, more about belonging than boundaries, more about the production of meaning than about the reproduction of meaning.

Are Students Expected to Critically Engage with Textbook Perspectives of the Second World War? A Comparative and International Study

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Are Students Expected to Critically Engage with Textbook Perspectives of the Second World War? A Comparative and International Study
Author: JASON NICHOLLS
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 40-55
ABSTRACT This article is a comparative study of perspectives of the Second World War in contemporary school history textbooks from England, Japan, Sweden, Italy and the United States. In the article the author examines the extent to which interpretations of the Second World War differ in the textbooks of each nation as well as the relationship between perspectives and contemporary political agendas. Research on developments in Germany is used as an anchor against which to compare developments in the five countries. Having described and analysed differences the author then investigates the extent to which students in the five countries may be expected to engage with perspectives offered. To construct alternative interpretations of the conflict the author supports an interpretative understanding of the discipline of history based in a neo-hermeneutic reading of the subject.

Comparing Language Learning Attitudes in England, Germany and the Netherlands: some methodological considerations

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Comparing Language Learning Attitudes in England, Germany and the Netherlands: some methodological considerations
Author: BRENDAN BARTRAM
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 56-72
ABSTRACT ABSTRACT The following article examines the methodological considerations involved in carrying out a trinational comparative survey of pupils' attitudes to learning French, German and English (as foreign languages) at comprehensive schools in England, Germany and the Netherlands. The research was conducted as part of a Ph.D. study aiming to describe the nature of the pupils' attitudes and to examine and compare the pupils' perceptions of educational and socio-cultural influences in the different contexts. A discussion of the broader theoretical framework in which the study is located is followed by an analysis of research design and decision-making. This includes a detailed review of country, sample and instrument selection, along with an examination of the practicalities of access, piloting and analysis. Finally, a number of ethical issues are considered.

Investing in Teacher Effectiveness to Improve Educational Quality in Developing Countries: does in-service education for primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka make a difference to teaching and learning?

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Investing in Teacher Effectiveness to Improve Educational Quality in Developing Countries: does in-service education for primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka make a difference to teaching and learning?
Author: DAVID JOHNSON
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 73-87
ABSTRACT The article reports the findings of a study into the efficacy of an in-service professional development programme aimed at changing the teaching strategies of primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka. It highlights some of the methodological dilemmas inherent in conducting large-scale experimental research in developing countries but also demonstrates important methodological techniques in collecting 'fine-grained' observational data of teacher professional behaviour. The analysis attempts to answer the question whether curriculum policy renewal, accompanied by materials development and training eventually translates into desired pedagogy. It shows that most primary mathematics teachers in Sri Lanka are easily sensitised to some 'new' teaching strategies but find others more difficult to use routinely. Further studies are needed to clarify whether those elements of pedagogy stressed as important during training and emphasised in the teaching guides, but which have not become part of the teachers' repertoire, are resistant to cross- cultural transfer or simply unachievable due to the structural constraints of schooling in the developing world.

Theories of Intelligence, Goal Orientation and Attribution in Malawi's MESA Schools

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: Theories of Intelligence, Goal Orientation and Attribution in Malawi's MESA Schools
Author: KATE CHAUNCEY
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 88-108
ABSTRACT This article suggests that, as the Malawian Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology continues to advocate for educational access, equity and quality, aspects of educational psychology may be particularly important to consider in context. It presents and discusses research conducted in June and July 2004. The key research concepts (theories of intelligence, goal orientation, attribution to setback, and confidence) are briefly introduced, and then, the study's objectives, methods and findings are each discussed in turn. The research objectives included: (i) examination of the relation between particular Malawian students' theories of intelligence and their goals and attributions in response to academic setback; (ii) examination of gender differences in students' theories of intelligence, goals, setback attributions, and confidence levels; and (iii) exploration of the variables mentioned as possible predictors of students' 2004 examination scores (controlling for student demographics and prior academic performance). In order to reach these aims, a survey was administered to 284 Malawian students attending Malawi Education Support Activity (MESA) schools. Test scores were collected from 'progress books,' and quantitative data were supplemented by semi-structured interviews with key informants. Students' theories of intelligence were found to be associated with their goals and setback attributions, but not with their confidence levels. Females were significantly more likely than males to hold entity theories of intelligence, to have dominant performance goals, and to attribute academic setback to lack of intelligence. Male students reported moderately higher confidence than females. Regression analysis revealed 'learning goal' to significantly predict test scores. The findings suggest that student theories, goals, and attributions warrant further research and school community attention. In addition, the findings encourage questions concerning the cross-cultural applicability of certain educational psychology theories. In conclusion, this article recognises the need to understand cross-cultural differences in educational psychology, yet raises questions by identifying potential similarities between previous findings from the United States, United Kingdom, and Hong Kong and the study at hand.

How College/University Presidents around the World Make Decisions

Thu, 26 Jan 2006 16:50:26 GMT

Title: How College/University Presidents around the World Make Decisions
Author: REBECCA S. LAKE
Journal: Research in Comparative and International Education
Year: 2006 Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Pages: 109-119
ABSTRACT The world is rapidly changing into a different kind of world where the wealth of a nation is defined by the educational level of its people. Higher education institutions throughout the world provide the means to meet today's information and knowledge requirements dictated by the ever-fluid global marketplace. Colleges and universities offer courses and programmes allowing nations to reap the benefits of an educated workforce and compete globally. College/university presidents by their position wield great power and authority to direct their respective institutions. Decisions made by presidents of colleges/universities have significant consequences on complex transnational tertiary education issues. If college/university presidents around the world are expected to make similar types of decisions to foster a borderless transnational tertiary education system, then it is important to know more about the substance of their work and how they make administrative and fiscal management decisions. The purpose of this global study was to identify 'pre-choice' factors employed by presidents of higher education institutions around the world when making decisions. Seven college/university presidents, one participant on each continent (North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe, with an island representative as a substitute for Antarctica) was selected to accommodate global distribution.