Gender studies: A global perspective of their evolution contribution, and challenges to comparative higher education

The incorporation of new fields of study in the university tendsto be a contested process. This has been the case for women'sstudies despite its many conceptual, theoretical, and methodologicalcontributions. Moreover, these programs have constantly sufferedfinancial vulnerability and struggled for academic recognitionand autonomy. Comparative data about women's studies programs existbut could be enhanced by explicit cross-national studies. At thecrossroads today, women's studies can chose to adopt more feministpolitical concerns and engage in socially transformative researchprojects or succumb to forces of globalization that, in making theuniversity increasingly entrepreneurial, preempt concerns forequity and social justice.     

Sociology and comparative education: A comparative educationist's perspective

The thesis examined in this paper is that comparative educationists, far from following intellectual trends, have introduced new dimensions to methods of enquiry developed first by historians, then by social scientists and, finally and perhaps marginally, by conceptual philosophers. In so far as comparisons can be made, it is asserted that, in the twentieth century, paradigms in comparative education reflect revolutions in the natural sciences, and that to the extent that these preceded shifts in social science paradigms after about 1900, comparative educationists debated and rejected positivism before sociologists did, in the Anglo-Saxon world at least.A second assumption which is examined is that comparative educationists have anticipated issues which subsequently became important in the growth of national and parochial research in sociology, and for that matter in political science.A disclaimer is necessary: little attempt has been made to examine the causal influences in either field or between comparative educationists and sociologists. The history of such interaction at a personal and institutional level is very recent, the participants in the interchanges are, in many cases, still alive, and a substantive recent history of comparative education has yet to be written, although to some extent E. Shils' analysis of the history of sociological enquiry provides a schema against which the growth of comparative education can be compared.

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Zusammenfassung In dieser Arbeit wird die These überprüft, daß vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaftler, weit davon entfernt, intellektuellen Trends zu folgen, neue Dimensionen für Untersuchungsmethoden eingeführt haben, die zuerst von Historikern, dann von Sozialwissenschaftlern und am Rande auch von konzeptuellen Philosophen entwickelt wurden. Soweit es möglich ist, Vergleiche anzustellen, wird dargelegt, daß im 20. Jahrhundert Paradigmen der vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaft tiefgreifene Veränderungen in den Naturwissenschaften widerspiegeln. Softern diese den nach ca. 1900 stattfindenden Wandlungen in sozialwissenschaftlichen Paradigmen vorausgingen, haben vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaftler noch vor den Soziologen den Positivismus erörtert und verworfen, zumindest in der angelsächsischen Welt.Zweitens wird die Annahme überprüft, daß vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaftler Fragen vorweggenommen haben, die später in der Entwicklung nationaler und örtlicher soziologischer Forschung und auch in der Politologie Bedeutung erlangten.Eine Einschränkung muß noch gemacht werden: Der Autor hat weitgehend darauf verzichtet, die kausalen Einflüsse in den beiden Einzelbereichen sowie die gegenseitigen Einwirkungen von vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaftlern und Soziologen zu untersuchen. Die Geschichte solcher Wechselwirkungen auf persönlicher und institutioneller Ebene ist noch sehr jung, die Teilnehmer an ihnen sind in vielen Fällen noch am Leben, und eine substantielle neuere Geschichte der vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaft ist noch nicht geschrieben. Dennoch bietet E. Shils Analyse der Geschichte soziologischer Untersuchungen eine gewisse Grundlage für einen Vergleich mit der Entwicklung der vergleichenden Erziehungswissenschaft.

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Résumé La thèse soutenue dans cet article est que les théoriciens de l'éducation comparée, loin de suivre les courants intellectuels, ont introduit de nouvelles dimensions dans les méthodes d'enquête élaborées d'abord par les historiens, puis développées par les spécialistes des sciences sociales, et enfin — marginalement peut-être — par les philosophes conceptuels. Pour autant que l'on puisse établir des comparaisons, on constate qu'au XXe siècle, les paradigmes de l'éducation comparée reflètent les révolutions qui surviennent dans les sciences naturelles et qu'ils se modifient avant même ceux des sciences sociales, aux alentours de 1900, au point que les théoriciens de l'éducation comparée contestent et rejettent le positivisme avant que les spécialistes des sciences sociales soient parvenus à cette démarche, du moins dans les pays anglosaxons.Une autre assomption de la thèse est que les théoriciens de l'éducation comparée ont anticipé des situations qui devaient se révéler importantes par la suite, avec le développement de la recherche sociologique nationale et locale, et également avec celui des sciences politiques.Il est juste de reconnaître néanmoins qu'une timide tentative a été faite dans l'intention d'étudier les influences causales, que ce soit dans chacun de ces domaines ou entre théoriciens de l'éducation comparée et sociologues. L'histoire d'une telle interaction au niveau individuel et au niveau institutionnel est très récente; les hommes qui ont participé à ces échanges sont encore pour la plupart vivants et une histoire récente autonome de l'éducation comparée reste à écrire. Toutefois, l'analyse que E. Shils a fate de l'histoire de l'enquête sociologique fournit, jusqu'à un certain point, une base permettant d'évaluer le développement de l'éducation comparée.

     

Early childhood education and care regulation: a comparative perspective

Although all industrialized countries regulate early childhood education and care establishaments, regulatory regimes differ substantially. Early childhood education and care regulation is provider-focused in France and Germany, child-focused in Sweden, and facility-focused in the United States. Regulatory enforcement also varies sharply, with France, Germany, and Sweden stressing technical assistance, while the United States stresses compliance. A review of controversies reveals opportunities for cross-national learning and for regulatory reform.     

Regional aspirations with a global perspective: developments in East Asian labour studies

Abstract

Workers in East Asia have shown over the past 50?years that they are capable of challenging capital, despite facing vehement opposition by corporations, oftentimes joined by governments and their militaries, and sometimes even armed thugs. They have built some of the most dynamic labour organizations in the world. This article is designed to put these developments into a global and historical perspective. It identifies today’s movements of capital as the continuation of processes that developed to a new level in the 1700s, and which continue today. It also discusses struggles of workers under the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU-May First Movement) Labor Center of the Philippines, and shows how valuable research conducted to date has identified a number of lessons learned from these struggles, and how they have been communicated to workers worldwide.     

Substantiating a special cultural emphasis on learning and education in East Asia

Claims of a special cultural emphasis on learning and education (SCELE) in East Asia versus the West – the United States in particular – are legion in the research literature. The evidence is, however, largely anecdotal, severely geographically limited, or reflects an unrepresentative selection of respondents. We review the evidentiary strategies of earlier studies, situate the assumed SCELE in a theoretical framework, and compare the prevalence of learning and education words in general-interest newswriting samples from across East Asia and the United States (N = 61). Our findings confirm earlier unsubstantiated claims, provide new insight into the strength of the difference, and illustrate a novel means of quantifying the difference in magnitude of SCELE in East Asia in comparison to the United States.     

Why context matters: a comparative perspective on education reform and policy implementation

This article explores the significance of context within the process of contemporary education reform and policy-making. It draws upon evidence from a comparative study of educational change and transformation in seven education systems: Australia, England, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore. The article focuses on school leadership preparation, training, and development, which has become a policy priority and central improvement strategy in many education systems. The article explores how seven education systems are using this strategy to promote school and system improvement. The article reflects upon the centrality of context in the process of policy implementation and in the broader pursuit of system transformation. The article concludes that more contextually appropriate approaches to educational policy selection are needed and that borrowing approaches from other countries many bring unintended consequences and unfortunate side effects. Further, the article concludes that the process of policy implementation, in context, requires far more attention, if the intended outcomes are to be achieved.     

Global education in perspective: fostering a global dimension in an English secondary school

This article considers the issue of global education in schools by focusing upon the case of one particular English secondary school and exploring the pedagogic and curricular perspectives of its staff and students. It recognizes the strong normative and holistic dimension to global education and the challenges it faces in, and presents to schools. The sometimes mixed pedagogic and curricular messages of global education are characteristic of other adjectival and interdisciplinary educational forms working within the framework of the National Curriculum (11–16). Whilst raising more questions than it answers, this article goes some way to articulate the debates, tensions and dilemmas being discussed in the field of global education—a field including teachers, schools, non‐Governmental organizations and Governmental officials working to promote a global dimension in schools.     

Higher education in East Asia and Singapore: rise of the Confucian Model

The paper reviews Asia–Pacific higher education and university research, focusing principally on the “Confucian” education nations Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong China, Taiwan, Singapore and Vietnam. Except for Vietnam, these systems exhibit a special developmental dynamism—still playing out everywhere except Japan—and have created a distinctive model of higher education more effective in some respects than systems in North America, the English-speaking world and Europe where the modern university was incubated. The Confucian Model rests on four interdependent elements: (1) strong nation-state shaping of structures, funding and priorities; (2) a tendency to universal tertiary participation, partly financed by growing levels of household funding of tuition, sustained by a private duty, grounded in Confucian values, to invest in education; (3) “one chance” national examinations that mediate social competition and university hierarchy and focus family commitments to education; (4) accelerated public investment in research and “world-class’ universities. The Model has downsides for social equity in participation, and in the potential for state interference in executive autonomy and academic creativity. But together with economic growth amid low tax regimes, the Confucian Model enables these systems to move forward rapidly and simultaneously in relation to each and all of mass tertiary participation, university quality, and research quantity and quality.     

Putting doctoral education to work: challenges to academic practice

Professional doctorates designed to meet the needs of particular groups (education, nursing, business, law, etc.) have been established, and the PhD now encompasses a wide range of academic pursuits. However, the combination of the PhD and designated professional doctorates does not exhaust the range of doctoral‐level education. Is there a particular role for a doctoral‐level qualification for those who do not wish to follow the academic path of the PhD, or the designated path of existing professional doctorates? This paper argues that there is such a need, and identifies and explores some of the issues to be faced in addressing such a need. The paper focuses on three challenges for academic practice in doctoral education arising from this. First, the impetus for new forms of doctoral education is considered and what this implies for the diversity of current provision. Second, the target population for new professionally orientated doctorates is examined, namely ‘new knowledge workers’, those who operate in areas not covered by specialized doctorates and those who wish to negotiate transdisciplinary programs. Finally, the paper examines issues universities face in meeting the needs of new populations of doctoral candidates, particularly the need to develop new academic cultural practices.     

Similar Trends,Diverse Agendas: Higher education reforms in East Asia

Globalisation is a central concept in this paper but it is important to note that 'globalisation' is a highly contested term. Strong globalisation theory argues that the global economy is dominated by uncontrollable global forces in which nation states are structurally constrained and therefore the capacity of modern states eventually declines. Unlike strong globalists, other scholars believe even though there may be similar trends and patterns in public policy and public management domain along the line of privatisation, marketisation, commodification and corporatisation, different governments may use the similar strategies to serve their own political purposes. Hence, modern states may tactically make use of the globalisation discourse to justify their own political agendas or legitimise their inaction. The present paper sets out in this wider context to reflect upon globalisation effects on national policy, with particular reference to how the selected East Asian societies such as the four Tigers, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea as well as mainland China have transformed their higher education systems. More specifically, this paper discusses the theme of 'similar trends, diverse agendas' by examining how the selected East Asian governments have reformed their higher education systems to cope with the growing impact of the global tide of marketisation and decentralisation.     

Widening participation to doctoral education and research degrees: a research agenda for an emerging policy issue

Widening participation is on the political agenda but, to date, policy, practice and research has focused on undergraduate education. This article identifies an emerging widening participation focus on doctoral education. Using England as a case study, the article examines this development within the context of the long-standing concern with equity in education, before reviewing the relatively small literature addressing who participates (and why) in doctoral and more general postgraduate education. An analysis of Widening Participation Strategic Assessments produced in 2009 by 129 English Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) reveals an emergent institutional awareness of this new development. Finally, a research agenda for widening participation to research degrees, focusing on research students, HEIs and policy-makers, is outlined. The conclusion calls for this agenda to be pursued at institutional, national and cross-national levels so that future policy can be made and implemented on the basis of a robust evidence base.     

Re-bordering comparative education in Latin America: Between global limits and local characteristics

Conceived for presentation at the XIV WCCES conference in Istanbul in 2010, the topic of which was “Bordering Comparative Education”, this paper, within that framework, aims to present the current state of the discipline in Latin America in relation to a quick overview of its present-day situation at a global level. After providing an overview of the current debates on comparative education, with special emphasis on what the authors refer to as motor nuclei (a series of milestones or episodes which have become transdiscursive as the discipline has evolved), as well as pinpointing current challenges in the field, this paper looks into the development of the discipline in Latin America and how it has contributed to the understanding of the region’s educational systems. The paper also examines the unique relationship between comparative studies and the field of educational planning in Latin America. The authors then go on to provide a thematic analysis, categorising the papers presented at three conferences held by the Sociedad Argentina de Estudios Comparados en Educación (SAECE, the Argentine Society for Comparative Education Studies) in 2005, 2007 and 2009. The paper closes with several conclusions regarding the current debate on the discipline in the region and its possibilities for the future.