An anatomy of authority: the Bologna and ASEM education secretariats as policy actors and region builders

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the sources of authority behind the Bologna and ASEM secretariats’ technocratic appearance and administrative routines, and argues that they are transnational policy actors in their own right. By drawing on principal-agent theory and the concept of ‘authority’, it offers an alternative framework for understanding the various forms of authority. The case studies generate three important insights. First, it shows how the secretariats derive their authority from the tasks delegated by states, the moral values and social purpose they uphold, and the expertise they possess. Second, it compares how the different governance structures of the Bologna and ASEM education processes impact on the secretariats’ authority. Third, it highlights how the secretariats exercise their respective authorities and exert their discernible influence at different stages of higher education policy-making and region-building processes.     

English as a symbol of internationalization in higher education: a case study of Vietnam

Vietnam universities have experienced remarkable changes brought about by their internationalization policies. The switch to English as a medium of instruction (EMI) for some academic programs was one of these critical changes. Literature has reported numerous issues related to EMI, including inadequate language proficiency of teaching staff. This paper looks at a qualitative research study on how a government university from Vietnam employs different strategies to enhance teachers’ English proficiency. The study reveals that the introduction of new supporting systems, assessment bodies, recruitment criteria and institutional strategies on training, monitoring and motivation have created cultural change within the teacher community. This cultural change, which includes elements such as self-directed learning, peer learning, professionalism, and ‘open-to-change’ attitudes, has been perceived by both leaders and teachers to be conducive to teachers’ language learning. The findings presented in this paper seek to contribute to the formulation or adjustment of policies related to educational reforms, such as curriculum reform, teacher recruitment and teacher professional development in non-English-speaking countries.     

Almost under the same sky: reclaiming urbanity beyond an epidemic

Abstract

This essay deals with the social and political after‐shock introduced by SARS, which is considered here as both a public health outbreak and an urban cultural crisis. In Hong Kong, several years after the epidemic episode, the people’s voice regarding urban spatial politics, governance, and the media has not only grown louder, but has also been profoundly transformed into collective effervescence. This essay is based on over 50 interviews of ordinary Hong Kong residents from a wide spectrum of demographics. A particular focal point of the interviews was, inevitably, the participants’ reformulation of their identity as a function of urban crisis. Chiefly a documentation of the vernaculars of public criticism offered by the citizens of Hong Kong, this essay relates post‐SARS public sentiments to the (somewhat fiddly) development of democratic ideals that is animating our urban imagination today.     

Gender and everyday evasions: moving with Cantopop 1

Abstract

In this paper, gender negotiations in the production, musical forms, and consumption of Cantopop are taken as a cultural exemplar for a social and political imagination of ambivalence, which seems to be shaping popular life in Hong Kong. It has three focal points – musical forms and expressions of Cantopop (style, lyrics, iconography, affect), gender politics, and ‘everyday‐ness’ – which converge to mark a notable cultural logic performing an enlarging sense of ambivalence about a city that has seen a shift from high moments of economic prosperity to the current postcolonial uncertainties. In other words, Cantopop signals a shift in our sensibilities, a redrawing of our affective map of everyday life after an important historical and politico‐administrative shift. In a sense then, this paper explores Hong Kong's changing identity within the sight and sound of popular culture, by specifically tracing some of the ways in which gender politics is inscribed, coded, negotiated, performed, or simply flirtingly posed on the surface of popular culture.     

Challenges Faced by Canadian Social Work Field Instructors in Baccalaureate Field Supervision

ABSTRACT

This article examines the challenges faced by social work field instructors in two Canadian provinces. The results are based on the responses from 239 field instructors to a questionnaire survey. Findings highlight student difficulties, administrative issues with the social work schools, and practicum setting challenges. These demands hinder the optimal implementation of social work field education, reveal the concerning gatekeeping role of schools of social work, and discourage some social workers from taking on (or continuing) as field instructors. Implications for social work student placements, supervision of students, academic programs, and directions for future research are presented.     

Cultural clusters and cultural industries in China

Through examining the development and the nature of the new cultural districts in China, namely, “clusters of Beijing,” this paper attempts to identify the characteristics of, and critically evaluate, the existing models of culture clusters in China. Obviously, these cultural clusters are seen as a united and state effort to assist, develop and boost the so-called cultural industries, including game, animation, comic, software, science and technology and so forth. However, with the clusters of Beijing as a case study, in this paper we argue that in the course of development, the state interests and the authorities' local (e.g. district) interest are often prioritized over the culture or the local interest. There are also tensions and contradictions among various interest groups on different levels of operations of these cultural clusters. In sum, apart from enhancing the private creative industries, developing the national cultural economy, or revitalizing the old industries as in the cluster models of many western countries, economic interests, political powers of the districts and soft power of the nation can be the overriding interests behind the booming cultural clusters in China.     

How academics manage individual differences to team teach in higher education: a sociocultural activity theory perspective

Higher Education - In the higher education (HE) landscape worldwide, team teaching has become increasingly common. The growing prevalence of team teaching in HE has mainly been driven by the...     

Ecological education: what resources are there in Confucian ethics?

Given the fact that ecological issues are global and the fact that a large part of humanity is rooted in the Confucian tradition, it is pertinent to ask what lessons can be learnt from Confucianism, in terms of both ecological education and the current debate in environmental ethics. In this paper I argue that while Confucian ethics cannot, strictly speaking, be said to contain an environmental ethic, its main concepts and ideas do constitute a different level of thinking capable of being exploited as resources for ecological education, if not for solutions to the current environmental crisis. It also has the potential to resolve a dispute in the environmental debate in the West. In particular, I argue that Confucianism is committed to the idea that the environment has a value that, while in a sense connected with humans, is independent of humans. I show that Confucian virtues such as humanity, commitment to harmony, filial piety and so on have positive implications for ecological education.