Quality assurance in the Singapore education system in an era of diversity and innovation

This paper describes how Singapore attempts to balance the need for quality assurance and the need for educational diversity and innovation. The Singapore experience shows that this is a delicate balance. On the one hand, to promote diversity and innovation, the government attempts to decentralise its power to the schools. On the other hand, for quality assurance, the government sets up quality structures that reassert the centrality of government control. This paper examines the implications of such a strategy and the challenges that schools face in navigating a new paradigm of diversity and innovation while satisfying the requirements of quality assurance.     

The Chilver Report: unity and diversity

This is a study of the abortive attempt by the direct rule Conservative government in the early 1980s to impose unity on the diversity of initial teacher education (ITE) provision in Northern Ireland (NI) through the work of the NI Higher Education Review Group, chaired by Sir Henry Chilver. Harnessing hitherto untapped archives, it shows how government was forced to bow to the divergent views and religious interests of Northern Ireland the society. This realpolitik was to produce a much less radical shake-up of ITE activity while leaving the Catholic sector essentially intact. The paper demonstrates the relevance of historical factors, the risks inherent in the failure to establish representative review bodies and the power and political adroitness of the Catholic Church at a critical juncture. The authors conclude that, in the political and social context of the 1980s, Chilver represented ‘a bridge too far’.     

新时期民族院校的民族团结教育发展与创新

本文以新时期我国民族院校大学生的民族团结教育为研究对象,针对新时期各民族院校民族团结教育的经验,分析出各大民族院校的经验包括以制度建设为保障、以课堂教育为主渠道、以校园文化为支撑点。最后,提出民族团结教育的创新方法和建设民族团结教育的师资队伍等措施。     

Religious education in Syria: unity and difference

This article discusses the almost identical syllabuses of the Christian and Muslim religious education programmes of the Syrian Arab Republic. Content analysis of the students’ textbooks and teachers’ guides (in Arabic) reveals common themes of citizenship education and national unity. Classroom observations in Damascus also highlight how Christian and Muslim teachers have similar ways of teaching religion. Finally, the article describes how each programme aims to unite, in its own way, all the Christians of Syria as well as the Muslims. It becomes evident that the Syrian religious education programmes strike a balance between the religious autonomy of the faith communities and the need for national unity.     

Cultural pluralism and education: The Israeli case

Israeli society is often viewed as a Western democracy committed to values characteristic of this type of political system. Cultural pluralism is one of these values. The purpose of this paper is to examine the place of this value in the context of Israeli society, and in particular in its educational system. The paper raises serious doubts about the commitment of Israeli society to the value of cultural pluralism, especially in the educational domain. It is argued that the guiding ideology of the Israeli educational system is that of nation building, which aspires to cultivate a shared system of national values and common culture and inculcate them in its school children, thus leaving little room for the value of cultural pluralism. Furthermore, it is argued that the proposed integrative national and cultural agenda leaves no room for Israeli Palestinians, and favours the culture and traditions of Jews of European and American origin and is biased against the cultures and traditions of Jews of Asian and African origin.     

Meritocracy and diversity in higher education: Discrimination against Asian Americans in the post-Bakke era

This paper examines recent changes in admissions patterns and policies of some of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the U.S., with particular reference to the University of California-Berkeley. It focuses specifically on the recent moves away from the application of strict meritocratic admissions criteria toward an increasing reliance on subjective or nonacademic criteria and an emerging but vaguely defined concept of diversity. It also assesses the impact of these changes on both the admissions of Asian American students and the time-honored principle of meritocracy upon which these world-class universities have built their reputations of academic excellence. It is concluded that current efforts to limit Asian American access to high-quality education are a manifestation of a very old anti-Asian bias. This racist bias is deeply woven into the fabric of our society and embedded in our culture and national consciousness.     

The asset of cultural pluralism: an account of cross-cultural learning in pre-service teacher education

As a preservice instructor in a cross-cultural course, I worked with six of my students to try to understand how we encountered one another's diverse attitudes and values. We paid attention to contexts and choices, presuppositions and consequences. By inquiring into our curriculum process, I work toward a theory of cross-cultural education that validates experiential interactions as moments of learning. These moments occur outside more traditional curricula that tend to be based on methodological doubt and argumentation. My work with the students led to a vision of pluralism where diversity is engaged, refined and expanded, to create interpretive competence through encounters of difference and self-study.     

New Labour and teacher education: the end of an era

This paper traces the development of teacher education policy during the first two terms of the New Labour government. It argues that there is substantial evidence to support the claim that during their two terms of office, New Labour forged a policy on teacher education that was distinctively different from the Conservative administrations that preceded them. Like the Conservatives, they have seen the maintenance of a competitive market as essential for the governance of the system. But beyond that, they have significantly moved away from a concern with individual professional formation; individual professional formation has been seen as far less critical than it was, especially at the level of initial training. In the lives of young teachers, the state now provides far greater direct guidance than ever before in the definition of effective teaching, learning and assessment in both primary and secondary schools. And at more senior levels, opportunities for extended professional development are increasingly focused on and achieved through the school as an institution. Teacher education itself is no longer seen as a key site for the ‘re‐formation’ of professionalism. As a result, teacher education is no longer accorded the key political significance that it had under the Conservatives. In this sense, New Labour policies mark ‘the end of an era’.     

Performance management and diversity in higher education: an introduction

Tertiary Education and Management -     

Program diversity in higher education: an economic perspective

Program diversity in academic systems has become an important goal of higher education policy in many countries. Policy makers assume that a diverse academic system will better satisfy public preferences and needs and lead to greater social and economic benefits for society. While these assumptions adopt a recognizably economic perspective, very little of the literature on program diversity in higher education applies economic theory or methods as a means of framing relevant research. The article suggests that an economic perspective would define and measure academic diversity in terms of program innovation in academic institutions, not only in teaching, research and public service activities, but also in the processes of production and markets served. An economic perspective can also provide valuable theoretical frameworks for exploring the important question as to whether and how markets or governments affect program innovation in higher education.