Showing papers in "Compare in 2014"
TL;DR: This paper investigated the applicability of Neo-institutional theory to comparative education research and found that it is useful for comparative education, but that complementary approaches can be used to support comparative education.
Abstract: The rise in globalisation studies in comparative education places neo-institutional theory at the centre of many debates among comparative education researchers. However, uncertainty about how to interpret neo-institutional theory still persists among educational comparativists. With this uncertainty comes misinterpretation of its principles, variations and explanatory power. Two problematic misconceptions prevail: (1) the belief that the ‘world culture’ strand is the only version of neo-institutional theory applicable to comparative education research; and (2) the assumption that the global homogenisation of society, culture and schooling is a goal of researchers applying neo-institutional theory to comparative education phenomena. This article addresses these misconceptions, elucidating neo-institutional theory and its applicability to comparative education research. Our findings suggest that neo-institutional frameworks for comparative education research are useful, but that complementary approaches an...
69 citations
68 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation and highlight the lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue.
Abstract: In post-conflict and divided societies, global citizenship education has been described as a central element of peacebuilding education, whereby critical pedagogy is seen as a tool to advance students’ thinking, transform their views and promote democratic behaviours. The present study investigates understandings of and attitudes to global citizenship and the challenges faced in its implementation. Teacher interviews highlight lack of time and resources for critical reflection and dialogue. Where opportunities for relevant training are provided, this can benefit critical engagement. Boundaries of educational systems and structures also influence pupils’ understandings of the issues as evidenced in questionnaire findings. We argue that critical pedagogies may be limited unless criticality and activism transcend local and global issues and are applied to schools themselves. Emotional engagement may be required for teachers to claim the space to critically reflect and share with colleagues within and beyond ...
64 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used data from a household survey of three rural communities and interviews in the Mfantseman Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana to investigate the costs incurred by households that choose either fee-free public schools or low-fee private schools.
Abstract: The paper uses data from a household survey of three rural communities and interviews in the Mfantseman Municipality in the Central Region of Ghana to investigate the costs incurred by households that choose either fee-free public schools or low-fee private schools. The paper shows that both provisions impose costs that place those with lower household incomes at a disadvantage since the poorest cannot afford the costs for several children. Although fee-free public education has led to the elimination of payments such as tuition, exams and extra classes fees, other direct costs such as feeding and school uniform consume a large part of the household expenditure on education for the poor. Low-fee for profit private schools remain out of reach and are not affordable by the poorest. The paper concludes that fee-free public schooling still leaves households with significant costs, which constitute a barrier to access for children from poor households. The findings indicate the need for the government of Ghana...
56 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the potential role of education in supporting peacebuilding and societal transformation after violent conflict and argue that education as humanisation and critical dialogue can offer pedagogical strategies and provide a compelling conceptual framework for peacebuilding education.
Abstract: In this literature review, we explore the potential role of education in supporting peacebuilding and societal transformation after violent conflict. Following a critical analysis of the literature published by academics and practitioners, we identify the notion of humanisation (as in the seminal works of Paulo Freire and others) as a unifying conceptual core. Peacebuilding education as humanisation is realised by critical reflection and dialogue in most curricular initiatives reviewed, an approach aimed at overcoming the contextual educational constraints often rooted in societal division and segregation, strained community relations and past traumas. We argue that education as humanisation and critical dialogue can offer pedagogical strategies and provide a compelling conceptual framework for peacebuilding education. Such a conceptual framework can serve as a basis for research in the area, especially in contexts where educational institutions tend to be structured to dehumanise.
50 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a long-term fieldwork used ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews and focus-group discussions conducted in three teacher training colleges (TTCs) in Central and Eastern Kenya, concluded that regardless of institutional HE norms, student-teachers develop critical awareness and action competencies, learning to deal with health in more active, concrete and practical ways than those conveyed.
Abstract: This paper suggests the term ‘paradoxical’ to understand how health education (HE) is carried out and experienced as contradictory and inconsistent by student-teachers who learn about health in Kenyan teacher training colleges (TTC). The claim is that students, apart from formal HE lessons, also learn about health in non-curricular HE, which influences their actions in tangible ways. Bourdieu, medical anthropology and critical educational theory were used to understand processes of cultural negotiation, the production of HE discourses and how learning appears to be a mix of moralities and action competence. This long-term fieldwork used ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews and focus-group discussions conducted in three TTCs in Central and Eastern Kenya. The study concludes that regardless of institutional HE norms, student-teachers develop critical awareness and action competencies, learning to deal with health in more active, concrete and practical ways than those conveyed ...
40 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors use Transformative Learning Theory as a lens for making sense of teachers' learning from study visits to the Global South, arguing that without an explicit focus on relational forms of knowledge about culture and identity, self and other, the potential for transformations in how we relate to, and learn from, each other in postcolonial contexts is severely diminished.
Abstract: In this paper we use Transformative Learning Theory as a lens for making sense of teachers’ learning from study visits to the Global South. Transformative Learning theory is made up of two main elements: the form of transformations and the processes that support transformations. ‘Life changing’ experiences as expressed by study visit participants have been interpreted as transformational, but questions about who and what are transformed, and whether this is at the expense of the ‘Other’, are rarely addressed. Drawing on data from a project investigating study visits for UK teachers to Gambia and Southern India, we analyse the form that changes take and discuss whether these can be seen as transformational. We argue that without an explicit focus on relational forms of knowledge about culture and identity, self and other, the potential for transformations in how we relate to, and learn from, each other in postcolonial contexts is severely diminished.
37 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a secondary analysis of the means for reading achievement showed that the differences are rather small and are attributable to spurious precision, and that the two nations should be considered as being on par with each other in achievements and be assigned the same rank.
Abstract: In PISA 2009, Finland and Singapore were both ranked high among the participating nations and have caught much attention internationally. However, a secondary analysis of the means for Reading achievement show that the differences are rather small and are attributable to spurious precision. Hence, the two nations should be considered as being on par with each other in achievements and be assigned the same rank. Spurious precision as a problem of interpreting and reporting research findings has caught the attention of researchers in several other disciplines, though not in the field of education, and this needs to be rectified. In spite of the finding of no differences in PISA Reading achievement, principals in Finland and Singapore differ somewhat in school management and involvement in school matters. It is suggested that some intervening variables (e.g., teachers’ quality and instruction) are needed to explain the correlation (or the lack of it) between principals’ management styles and student ...
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors analyzed the issue of comparative corruption in the national higher education sectors in the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RF) and found that professional hierarchies based on meritocracy clash with managerialism based on the thriving for-profit principle.
Abstract: This study analyses the issue of comparative corruption in the national higher education sectors in the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RF). Corruption in higher education, as well as the way it is addressed in legislation and court cases and reflected in the media, appears to be consistent with the trajectory and pace of reforms that take place in the USA and the RF. The continuing massification of higher education, with increasing enrolment rates in both countries, as well as the emergence of the for-profit sector, necessitate more control and coordination on the part of the governments, educational institutions and the public. The two systems of higher education slowly and independently converge. In both systems, professional hierarchies based on meritocracy clash with managerialism based on the thriving for-profit principle. As a result, forms of corruption in higher education may become more similar.
29 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify five rationales for the ways in which education contributes to the transformation of conflict transformation through post-conflict education and the translation of these rationales into practice.
Abstract: This paper raises a number of critical questions regarding the contribution of education to peacebuilding. Despite recent calls for greater collaboration between the two fields, there is still a lack of clarity regarding the change theories through which education may contribute to peacebuilding processes. This paper outlines developments over the past decade in the field of education and conflict, before identifying five rationales for the ways in which education contributes to peacebuilding. The second half of the paper examines the translation of these rationales into practice. Sierra Leone is often regarded as a success story of UN peacebuilding and, 10 years post-agreement, offers the opportunity to examine a broad range of programming. Using data gathered during a two-week field study (17–28 January, 2011), the paper reflects on five education programmes that operated in Sierra Leone in the post-conflict period. Semi-structured interviews were held with project personnel and beneficiaries, educational officials, students and graduates, community leaders and UN personnel to assess views on the contribution of education to peacebuilding, the rationales informing projects and challenges to implementation. A number of critical questions are raised regarding the lessons learned by the international community, its tendency to pursue its own agendas and its commitment to conflict transformation through peacebuilding.
28 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate people's motivation to commit to education and the social dynamics beyond the institutionalised framework of SMCs, and shed light on factors that cause differences in the extent and form of participation.
Abstract: A School Management Committee (SMC) is an administrative tool adopted in many developing countries to decentralise administrative and financial responsibilities at school level, while involving local people in decision-making and making education more responsive to demands. I question the assumption linking administrative decentralisation and popular participation. There is a long-lasting tradition in Africa of schools built and run through local initiatives, even in the absence of governmental education services. Instead of seeing SMCs as a means to promote community participation and evaluating its effectiveness, I investigate people’s motivation to commit to education and the social dynamics beyond the institutionalised framework of SMCs. I also shed light on factors that cause differences in the extent and form of participation.
TL;DR: In this paper, the challenges of ensuring equity among partners of very different academic power and status, across continents, within complex research projects involving differing disciplines with their own norms, and balancing needs for capacity development of individuals and for institutions can be major sources of conflicts.
Abstract: The challenges of ensuring equity among partners of very different academic power and status, across continents, within complex research projects involving differing disciplines with their own norms, and balancing needs for capacity development of individuals and for institutions can be major sources of conflicts. While each of these concerns has been addressed separately, the implications of situations where they reinforce each other have not. Drawing on experience in four complex, multi-partner and multi-disciplinary social science research projects, I consider four main overlapping issues: (1) the structural inequalities inherent in North-South relationships as well as between junior and senior researchers and how these raise difficult problems for research managers; (2) the implications of different kinds of local institutions, and of seeing authorship as a major feature of capacity building, even if no funding is allocated to the task within research grants; (3) the effects of multi-disciplinarity: h...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a book that concentrates on the main "lessons" they have learned from anthropology and adult education, focusing on the three main "Lessons" learned by the authors.
Abstract: Bringing together a creative blend of expertise in anthropology and adult education, Brian Street and Alan Rogers weave together a book that concentrates on the main ‘lessons’ they have learned thr...
TL;DR: This paper explored the relationship between culture and educational outcomes as seen in how participation in a school Polynesian club (a cultural education supplementary site) builds youth feelings of self-esteem, identity and the confidence to connect to other educational, cultural and social spaces.
Abstract: Because identity (language and culture) are central to Pacific knowledge and knowledge construction processes, Pacific students’ educational experiences should be viewed through a cultural lens that sees Pacific knowledge and practices as valid and valued. This study explores the relationship between culture and educational outcomes as seen in how participation in a school Polynesian club (a cultural education supplementary site) builds youth feelings of self-esteem, identity and the confidence to connect to other educational, cultural and social spaces.
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study of teaching in Denmark and England was carried out to identify variations in pedagogy across two countries and found that teachers in both countries adopted a variety of roles.
Abstract: This article reports the findings of a comparative study of teaching in Denmark and England. Its broader aim is to help develop an approach for comparing pedagogy. Lesson observations and interviews identified the range of goals towards which teachers in each country worked and the actions these prompted. These were clustered using the lens of Bernstein’s pedagogic discourse to construct teacher roles, which provided a view of pedagogy. Through this approach we have begun to identify variations in pedagogy across two countries. All teachers in this study adopted a variety of roles. Of significance was the ease with which competent English teachers moved between roles. The English teachers observed adopted roles consistent with a wider techno-rationalist discourse. There was a greater subject emphasis by Danish teachers, whose work was set predominantly within a democratic humanist discourse, whilst the English teachers placed a greater emphasis on applied skills.
TL;DR: The authors investigated the extent to which rights-based education is utilized in textbooks from conflict-affected countries and found that textbooks from more democratic countries are more likely to emphasise a rights discourse.
Abstract: This paper investigates the extent to which rights-based education is utilised in textbooks from conflict-affected countries. Drawing on a unique dataset of 528 secondary social science textbooks from 71 countries from 1966 to 2008, we analyse factors that predict a rights discourse in texts. We find that textbooks from conflict-affected nations are significantly less likely to emphasise a rights-based discourse, while more recently published textbooks from more democratic countries are more likely to emphasise a rights discourse. Our findings have ramifications for curricular reform and rights-based education in conflict-affected nations.
TL;DR: A good education emerges as the number one priority for the post-2015 world for the more than three million people around the world, who had voted by mid-2014 in the UN/civil society poll regarding education.
Abstract: A good education emerges as the number one priority for the post-2015 world for the more than three million people around the world, who had voted by mid-2014 in the UN/civil society poll regarding...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify and examine Indian indigenous and global concepts of CCA within traditional and contemporary child-centred pedagogic discourse, reveal the complexities of underlying agendas within the domestic and international setting and the implications of this for the integration of the CCA and the "child-centered" teacher in India.
Abstract: The Child-Centred Approach (CCA) is increasingly promoted within India and internationally as a response to the challenge of delivering quality education. From identifying and examining Indian indigenous and global concepts of CCA within traditional and contemporary child-centred pedagogic discourse, this paper reveals the complexities of underlying agendas within the domestic and international setting and the implications of this for the integration of CCA and the ‘child-centred’ teacher in India. Based on empirical analysis of teachers’ interviews, the findings demonstrate that the role of the teacher continues to be largely overlooked in spite of a willingness from teachers to engage within the child-centred pedagogic discourse. Disempowerment, a lack of autonomy and limited professional status are highlighted. Therefore, this paper calls for the rediscovery of the ‘child-centred’ teacher to advance from within the nation. Without this, it is asserted that the authenticity of the CCA model will continu...
TL;DR: In this article, the Institute for Housing Studies in Rotterdam is used as a case study to investigate the ways non-western, international students construct and negotiate knowledges in Western institutions of higher education.
Abstract: Taking the Institute for Housing Studies in Rotterdam as a case study, this paper aims to theorise the ways non-Western, international students construct and negotiate knowledges in Western institutions of higher education. It describes the types of knowledges these students identify as characteristic of their learning abroad, distinguishing between the curriculum, knowledge of cultural Others and ‘critical thinking’, and the strategies of incorporation, avoidance and resistance with which students negotiate these knowledges. These knowledges, if contested, are then theorised to facilitate these students’ entry into, and mobility within, globally dispersed epistemic communities.
TL;DR: In this article, the setting up of the partnership across the Mauritian and South African higher education contexts with respect to the development of a postgraduate PhD doctoral studies program is explored.
Abstract: This paper explores the setting up of the partnership across the Mauritian and South African higher education contexts with respect to the development of a postgraduate PhD doctoral studies programme. The Mauritian Institute of Education (MIE) aims to develop staffing capacities through engagement with doctoral studies, especially in the context of limited experience in doctoral supervision. The South African model of doctoral cohort supervision at The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) School of Education is a recent alternative model of delivery in the building of these student and staff capacities through shared ownership of the process and products of doctoral education and development. This paper highlights the expectations, constraints and enabling features of the setting up of the UKZN-MIE PhD programme across international boundaries, driven by mutual reciprocity through valuing of indigenous local knowledges, a non-colonising engagement and innovative methodologies for postgraduate education. Ada...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the nature of reform efforts at two universities in Kenya, to elucidate lessons for universities undergoing market-oriented reform in the West and to suggest a reciprocal relationship between institutions in Africa and Europe, upending the centre-periphery paradigm.
Abstract: Higher education in developing nations is typically viewed from a dependency perspective – institutions are seen as merely recipients of Western knowledge, aid and reform efforts. Nevertheless, universities in both the centre and the periphery are dealing with tensions between protecting the public good and embracing neoliberal values based on a market approach to higher education. In the USA and Europe these competing interests are typically cast as mutually exclusive. Our study on the market approach to higher education in Kenya, however, suggests that public and private interests can be complementary, contributing to a re-envisioning of the traditional mission of higher education. This article seeks to examine more fully the nature of reform efforts at two universities in Kenya, to elucidate lessons for universities undergoing market-oriented reform in the West and to suggest a reciprocal relationship between institutions in Africa and Europe, upending the centre-periphery paradigm.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlighted the power of development agencies and the influence of international agendas in national policymaking across the Global South and highlighted the importance of international development agencies in the development process.
Abstract: Considerable research has highlighted the power of development agencies and the influence of international agendas in national policymaking across the Global South. In recent years, increasing crit...
TL;DR: In the context of postconflict and divided societies working towards building peace, it has been widely recognised that education can play a critical part in either fermenting community division or building peace as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In the context of post-conflict and divided societies working towards building peace, it has been widely recognised that education can play a critical part in either fermenting community division o...
TL;DR: This paper investigated the semantic and linguistic elements of the discourse of World War II in Ukrainian school history textbooks for the 11th grade, centring on the following distinct key themes: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the German attack on the Soviet Union and the ensuing Nazi occupation regime, the Soviet army offensive followed by the restoration of the Soviet regime, and resistance movements.
Abstract: The main objective of this paper is to illustrate the conceptualisation of a textbook as a site of memory, a discourse and a genre. This paper investigates the semantic and linguistic elements of the discourse of World War II in Ukrainian school history textbooks for the 11th grade, centring on the following distinct key themes: the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the German attack on the Soviet Union and the ensuing Nazi occupation regime, the Soviet army offensive followed by the restoration of the Soviet regime, and resistance movements. The textbooks analysed dismantle the Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War and reveal the atrocities of Stalinism. They also create a new hero-and-victim paradigm: the heroic deeds of Ukrainians in the Soviet army and of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) fighting for Ukraine’s independence are emphasised, as is the suffering of Ukrainians under the German occupation and the Stalinist regime.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse the extent to which Turkey has operationalised the capability approach in its planning and implementation of education for development projects and argue that sections of development plans devoted to social policies reflect several themes of capability approach.
Abstract: Turkey’s recent development plans suggest that, according to state planners, development is no longer identified with, achieved through or measured by economic growth. These documents evince that Turkey has embraced what is referred to as the capability approach. What remains unclear is whether this embrace is substantive or rhetorical. This paper is designed to analyse the extent to which Turkey has operationalised the capability approach in its planning and implementation of education for development projects. I argue that sections of development plans devoted to social policies reflect several themes of the capability approach. However, analysis of an education for development project in Turkey demonstrates that the capability approach has gained limited traction in practice. Equity, inclusion, participation and critical thinking in the World Bank’s Basic Education Project are either insufficiently realised or subordinated to productivity and competition within the global market.
TL;DR: The major issues discussed by contributors to the "COMPARE Forum: The post-2015 education and development agenda" (Compare 43[6], December 2013) included "education quality", "quality education" or "quality and learning" as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The major issues discussed by contributors to the ‘COMPARE Forum: The post-2015 education and development agenda’ (Compare 43[6], December 2013) included ‘education quality’, ‘quality education’ or ‘quality and learning’ (as opposed to ‘schooling’). For example, the report of the post-2015 education consultations (UNESCO-UNICEF 2013) recommended that attention should be focused on the quality of education, which implies, among other things, an adequate supply of well-trained and motivated teachers and the provision of enabling learning environments. These inputs are expected to lead to measurable and equitable learning outcomes, that is, the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies linked to twenty-first-century livelihoods. At the same time, the High-Level Panel report on the post-2015 development agenda (United Nations 2013) specifies a goal on education, to ‘Provide quality education and lifelong learning’, which includes: ‘... Ensure[ing] every child, regardless of circumstance, completes primary education able to read, write and count well enough to meet minimum learning standards ...’ (30). The question arises whether minimum learning standards are those that are sufficient to continue to the next educational level? Are they equivalent to ‘equitable learning outcomes’? The point in raising these issues of quality is that neither the language of instruction for pooror well-performing students nor the language of the tests is mentioned. Indeed, in the last Compare Forum, it was only Alhawsawi and Hanna (2013), in summarising the deliberations of a postgraduate student forum and giving an example from linguistic and cultural minorities in Thailand, who identified the importance of the role of the language of instruction in the achievement of educational quality and equity in the post2015 education and development agenda. In 2011, the World Bank released its Education Strategy 2020, Learning for All: Investing in People’s Knowledge and Skills to Promote Development. One would think that the move from ‘education for all’ to ‘learning
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the online messages of foreign branch-campuses in education hubs (Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore) and found that the dominant themes on institutional websites reflect key issues facing higher education, including quality, leadership, international connections and technological advancement.
Abstract: Higher education has become a key strategy for the economic development of certain city-states that are positioning themselves as higher education hubs, recruiting both students and foreign providers. This article presents the findings of a research study that examined the online messages of foreign branch-campuses in education hubs (Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore). The project adapts and expands on Fairclough’s notion of critical discourse analysis to include virtual discursive space in order to understand how foreign providers address context, and what values are central to their programming, as they construct their virtual presence in new locations. The findings identify that the dominant themes on institutional websites reflect key issues facing higher education, including quality, leadership, international connections and technological advancement. The paper concludes with a conceptual framework that assists institutions in moving beyond these themes to re-consider context in their overseas operations.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue for the recognition of Maasai women's self-determined learning in order to bring about human development in Kenya and construct a complex picture of literacy, drawing on postcolonial feminist theory as a framework to ensure that the woman's voice is heard.
Abstract: This paper aims to challenge limited notions of literacy and argues for the recognition of Maasai women’s self-determined learning in order to bring about human development in Kenya. It also seeks to construct a complex picture of literacy, drawing on postcolonial feminist theory as a framework to ensure that the woman’s voice is heard. Through the analysis of narratives from three Maasai women, the author discovered that: (1) these ‘illiterate’ women have their own literacy through which they read the world (their community); (2) these women use this self-determined literacy to raise critical awareness on community issues; and (3) these women have become ‘organic intellectuals’ in that they have the capacity to synthesise information and skills in order to solve community issues by themselves. This paper concludes that a literacy programme should be more centred on the women from the village and must acknowledge their traditions and culture.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives and draw on the notion of the ethic to explore new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change.
Abstract: The curriculum has been proposed as a powerful means with the potential to initiate social transformation. It reflects the dominant social, economical and political discourses and for this reason it seems reasonable to situate reconciliatory discourses in relation to the curriculum. Whilst curriculum scholars mostly agree that we need to seek new directions and ways of understanding curriculum, there is little consensus about the direction the field should take. Two particular issues that this article addresses are the tendency of curriculum practitioners to tackle social issues at a symptomatic level instead of considering the roots of the problems, and the over-emphasis on the political dimension with little or no attention given to the ethical dimensions of the curriculum. In an attempt to develop new ways of understanding curriculum and enabling social change, I explore nostalgia as a way to stimulate dialogue over competing narratives. To facilitate this exploration, I draw on the notion of the ethic...
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographic study of a government school and a low-cost private school in Andhra Pradesh, India, is presented, where the authors argue that the students of both government and private schools have two different worlds and are socialised differently.
Abstract: The present paper, based on an ethnographic study of a government school and a low-cost private school in Andhra Pradesh, India, argues that the students of a government school and a private school have two different worlds and are socialised differently. As children progress from childhood to adolescence, the transition is accompanied by increased responsibilities, cognitive maturity and behavioural changes. At home, socio-economic status, parental educational levels, family atmosphere and household survival strategies influence the way children perceive the world. At school, teachers and peer-group relationships play a cardinal role in moulding children differently. However, family, peers and school are not distinct arenas, but inter-related, and together contribute in shaping the child.