Education,culture and politics: the evolution of Chinese education at The University of Hong Kong, 1911–1941

The University of Hong Kong (HKU), following its establishment in 1911, has assumed the mission of bridging British and Chinese cultures, to prepare European and Chinese elite youth for political and other professional careers, and thus to improve Britain’s cultural influence in competition with other western powers with regard to China. Dominated by its colonial character and pragmatic orientation, Chinese education at HKU was confined to no more than a supplementary subject at the initial stage. However, colonial crisis and cultural changes in the 1920s and 1930s, together with the endeavours of local cultural and commercial elites, made advanced Chinese education at HKU necessary and possible, and led to an independent unit for Chinese education and Chinese studies being established and strengthened. Organisational and curricular reforms before the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 led to further modernisation and solidified the structure of Chinese education at this university, laying the essential foundation for its post-war recovery and development. The evolution of Chinese education at HKU demonstrated well the subtle entanglements of education, culture and politics in a colonial context, through which coexistence and tensions between tradition and modernity, between China and the West, and between the imperial and republican intellectuals were also vividly revealed.     

A New Patriotism? Neoliberalism, citizenship and tertiary education in New Zealand

This paper argues that a new patriotism has emerged in New Zealand over recent years. This has been promoted in tandem with the notion of advancing New Zealand as a knowledge economy and society. The new patriotism encourages New Zealanders to accept, indeed embrace, a single, shared vision of the future: one structured by a neoliberal ontology and the demands of global capitalism. This constructs a narrow view of citizenship and reduces the possibility of economic and social alternatives being considered seriously. The paper makes this case in relation to tertiary education in particular. The first section outlines the New Zealand government's vision for tertiary education, as set out in the Tertiary Education Strategy, 2007–12 (Ministry of Education, 2006). This is followed by a critique of the Strategy and an analysis of the model of citizenship implied by it. The paper concludes with brief comments on the role tertiary education might play in contesting the new patriotism.     

Roger Osborne (1940–1985), University of Waikato, New Zealand

This short paper outlines the emergence and achievements of the Science Education Research Unit at the University of Waikato over the period 1979–1985 under the leadership of the late Dr. Roger Osborne. Following his attendance at the ASERA meeting in Wagga Wagga in 1977, Roger Osborne rapidly built up a very productive team, which he led until his death in 1985. His legacy is tentatively evaluated. In conclusion, the cultural context in which this work took place is sketched.

Small country,big business? New Zealand as education exporter

This paper discusses New Zealand’s role in the global market for tertiary education. The internationalisation and liberalisation of education markets is progressing rapidly in today’s globalising world, as reflected by the incorporation of education as a service into the GATS framework. Through the example of New Zealand as a case study for the internationalisation of education services, the study depicts the way the government is involved in this process. Commodification of sectors traditionally subject to domestic public policy is often associated with a less interventionist state, but our example of education shows that this is not necessarily the case, at least not in the medium‐term: New Zealand’s government rather appears to be an active facilitator of the liberalisation process in education. We review its recent move towards treating education as an international export good and present data on the growth of this industry. The paper concentrates on the particular ways by which New Zealand’s government is trying to facilitate this process of liberalising the education sector.     

A sociology ‘of’ or a sociology ‘for’ education? The New Zealand experience of the dilemma

The sociology of education in New Zealand, as in other countries, is affected by the dilemma inherent to the discipline, namely: is it a sociology of education or a sociology for education? In this article I analyse three factors in which the dilemma is played out: ‘cultural oppositionism’ in the indigenous (kaupapa Maori) approach, critical policy research and the role of empirical research. I argue that a sociology for education is fundamentally weakened by its politicisation, a flaw not helped by the difficulties in drawing political goals from moral imperatives. In contrast a sociology of education, which uses the strengths of empirical research and theoretical analysis, offers the better hope of renewal for, what is, in New Zealand, a moribund discipline.     

A New Model for the New Media‐‐International University: The University of the Web

This article provides an overview of the programmes, the faculty, and the instructional model of International University. This institution delivers all its courses and degree programmes using multiple media. As IU has a “virtual campus”, Internet e‐mail and course‐specific Web pages serve as the primary instructional tools for interaction between faculty members and students. All the content and media components are developed exclusively to provide an instructional model that requires faculty to contemplate their roles as teachers. The article further describes a new multi‐tiered faculty structure, the instructional design and delivery of content, the providing of student and faculty services in an on‐line environment, and the development of pedagogy to facilitate teaching and learning on‐line.     

Body_machine? Encounters of the human and the mechanical in education,industry and science

This paper unveils the body_machine as a key element of dynamic mental maps that have come to shape both educational praxis and research. It traces and analyses instances in which the human and the mechanical encountered each other in metaphorical, material and visual forms, thereby blurring to some extent the boundaries between them while capturing and mobilising specific forms of knowing and acting. The paper studies, first, how certain ‘orienting frames of reference’ and associated ‘experimental systems’ managed to materialise around the body_machine and penetrate theory and praxis; and, second, what visual and textual sources related to a vocational school may reveal about where and how the body_machine has come to operate in education, industry and science. The paper centres on early twentieth-century photographs and analyses these not only as media presenting, representing and interrogating common thought and practice but also as agents of meaning-making around the body_machine.     

What elements in a sustainability course contribute to paradigm change and action competence? A study at Lincoln University,New Zealand

A significant shift in the dominant paradigm governing the relationship of humans with nature and society is crucial in order to change the current unsustainable practices. This article describes a pilot-study based on a Masters level sustainability course, which explored what specific content, activities and resources may contribute to promoting paradigm change and action competence among university students. Paradigm change and the development of action competence were assessed by analyzing students’ weekly written reflections on their learning experiences and by comparing pre- and post-course questionnaires. At the end of the course students had enhanced their beliefs regarding socio-economic aspects of sustainability and gained an increase in awareness about local sustainability issues. Also some students showed a reframing of certain assumptions related to the dominant paradigm concerning beliefs about the environment and society at large and an increase in self-confidence about promoting change towards sustainability. The main course elements contributing to these results were the class discussions and a structured debate on green growth; an exercise that asked students to reflect on ‘what does my happiness depend on?’; weekly feedbacks which stimulated reflection on what they had learnt; and guest speakers′ accounts of their experiences of putting sustainability into practice.     

Educative mentors? The role of classroom teachers in initial teacher education. A New Zealand study

Classroom experience is an important part of initial teacher education (ITE) and the teachers who work with student teachers in schools have a significant impact on learning in this context. While many studies have documented what the role of these teachers should be, it is also important to consider how the role is conceptualised by the teachers themselves. This qualitative study compares the views of New Zealand primary school teachers with that of an ITE provider. The findings show some differences among the teachers and significant differences between classroom teachers’ interpretations of their role and the expectations of the ITE provider. Teacher interpretations are firmly held and there is more work to be done to explore understandings of educative mentoring and so develop a coherent shared vision of roles in the practicum community.     

Can we,should we,and do we integrate values education into adult distance education? Opinions of stakeholders at the Open University of Hong Kong

Because of the changing needs of society, brought about in part by workplace, family and social structures and partly by the decline of moral and ethical values, it is becoming increasingly urgent to address issues of values education at all levels of schooling. Recently there has been an increasing body of literature challenging those who teach adults at universities or other higher education institutions to incorporate values education, either directly or indirectly into the learning environments they create. This challenge extends to distance higher education, although there are many questions about how this can be done in an environment that is typically intended for independent learning with a focus on cognitive development. This paper reports the outcomes of interviews with three small groups of distance educator stakeholders at the Open University of Hong Kong, namely course co-ordinators, tutors and students, to explore their feelings and beliefs about values education being a component of their programmes. The interviews sought opinions about three broad questions: Should we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Can we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Do we take responsibility for values education in our distance education programmes? Responses suggested that, in the context of this study, we should and that it is possible to do so, particularly directly through the use of counselling and support services and indirectly through incorporating appropriate examples into course materials, but that currently not very much is being done. While the course co-ordinators and tutors were concerned that students might resent the inclusion of values education in their courses, the students themselves appeared to be more open to the suggestion.     

Is meritocracy fair? A qualitative case study of admissions at the University of Oxford

This paper applies an original framework to disentangle the concept of meritocracy, and the relationship between meritocracy and fairness, in elite university admissions. In Britain, elite universities are regularly criticised for being unmeritocratic and by implication unfair, but stakeholders often lack a shared understanding of meritocracy and confound it with outcomes-based measures of fairness. Interview data from admissions tutors at the University of Oxford, viewed through the prism of Joseph Soares’s ideological categories of organic conservatism, democratic elitism and social democratism, indicate that Oxford admissions are highly meritocratic. Thus the question arises: in a deeply unequal society, where academic achievement correlates with family income and social class, is meritocracy a satisfactory admissions framework? The conclusion outlines an alternative path of ‘outcomes-based meritocracy’, as exhibited by the University of California, that makes significant inroads towards integrating social inclusion and academic excellence.     

A new education for a new era: the contribution of the conferences of the New Education Fellowship to the disciplinary field of education 1921–1938

This article examines the role played by the conferences of the New Education Fellowship (NEF) in the emerging disciplinary field of the sciences of education between the two world wars. The NEF was a movement connecting lay enthusiasts for educational reform with major figures in the developing disciplines of psychology and education, such as Carl Gustav Jung, Jean Piaget and John Dewey. Use is made of Bourdieu's concepts of field, forms of capital and habitus to analyse the strategies of agents at the conferences and their relation to developments in the disciplinary field. The NEF is also considered from the perspective of social movement theory as a non‐class‐based movement of opposition. Seven international conferences on education are discussed plus others in South Africa and Australia. The themes are discussed and their social composition is analysed both in terms of the countries represented and the participation of members of the academy. The origins of the NEF are traced from the Theosophical Fraternity in Education and the leading roles of Beatrice Ensor and Elizabeth Rotten are considered in the framework of habitus. Discussion of the work of Ferrière, the third founder of the NEF, reveals a distinction between philosophical and moral conceptions of education and ones associated with positivism. The location of psychology in this binary is also revealed. Accounts of the conferences held in the 1920s reveal a strong commitment among the leaders of the NEF to the fostering of international understanding and a world consciousness through education and Support for the League of Nations. This and other elements of the NEF's ideology are characterized as a heretical discourse. Tensions between members of the academy and the other participants are highlighted and the heterogeneity of the audiences are identified as a source of strength as well as friction. The following section addresses the change of emphasis of the NEF in the 1930s in response to the worsening international situation and the involvement of leading figures from the academy. The NEF's position on research in education and the need to bring teacher training into the academy was made explicit at the conferences held in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. These involved bureaux of education research, which were financed by American foundations, and the combination of the NEF's network with this money is considered in terms of the field's development and the consequences for the competition for prestige and other forms of capital. The conclusion reviews the extent to which these conferences contributed to the development of the field and to the necessity for historical accounts of its development to take account of the dimensions analysed by Bourdieu's conceptual framework.     

A future for adult lifelong education in Aotearoa New Zealand: neoliberal or cosmopolitan?

This paper sets out to answer two questions ‘Given the policy settings for lifelong learning for adults in Europe and much of the western world, what are the policy settings and experiences in Aotearoa New Zealand?’ and ‘Will the future of adult lifelong education there be neoliberal or cosmopolitan?’ The article first examines some of the roots of post‐compulsory education policy in Aotearoa New Zealand over the last 30 years. In particular it considers trends in philosophies and practices about educating adults as well as some of the varied policy discourses prevailing over this period. Next it reviews the ever‐changing policy landscape, in particular unresolved tensions between social and economic goals, the acquisition of skills for learning for living and dialogic social purpose learning, and attainment of social cohesion and recognition of diversity. Finally the paper attempts to preview how these tensions may play out in an uncertain future.     

A quiet revolution – International influence,domestic elites and the transformation of higher technical education in Ireland 1959–72

The upgrading of higher technical education which began in the 1960s marked the most influential intervention by the Irish government in the third-level sector since the establishment of the independent Irish state. A series of reforming initiatives extended educational opportunity and transformed the status of technical education at higher level. International pressures undoubtedly proved influential in stimulating policy change. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) encouraged far-reaching reforms through its critical evaluation of educational facilities for technical training in Ireland. But educational reform was not imposed by international agencies on a reluctant corps of national politicians and officials. International influences dovetailed with changing attitudes toward technical education within the Irish political and official elite. Leading politicians and public officials showed an increasing awareness that the previous neglect of technical education was untenable in an era of economic development and educational expansion. It was a timely combination of international scrutiny and domestic political re-appraisal, which triggered a radical restructuring and expansion of higher technical education in Ireland.     

@MIT research centre at Delft University of Technology： A bridge between research, education, society and profession

In 2006, we launched the @MIT Research Centre （Modification, Intervention Transformation） at the Faculty of Architecture at Delft University of Technology. @MIT was founded to respond to the need for an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to the transformation of the built environment. @MIT aims to bring momentum to the renewal of education and research, and sees improved relations between the scientific and the professional community as a key step in this process. The @MIT research programme stands at the epicentre of the current debate on continuity and change in architecture and construction. The conservation and transformation of existing objects is becoming more and more of a necessity, with social, economic and cultural implications. @MIT builds the bridge successfully between the profession, the society, education and research.