Globalisation and Societal Culture: Redefining schooling and school leadership in the twenty-first century

This paper highlights the importance of societal culture to developing theory, policy and practice within an increasingly globalising educational context. It argues that tensions exist between globalisation and societal culture and that globalisation makes the recognition of societal culture and cross-cultural similarities and differences more, not less, important. Consequently, the inclusion of societal culture as a factor in investigations covering such themes as the curriculum, teaching and learning, leadership and school-based management is seen as an imperative for the future development of comparative education. Accordingly, the first part of the paper clarifies the concept of 'globalisation'. In the second part, globalisation and societal culture are juxtaposed and the interface between them is explored. The third part offers a set of dimensions by which to gauge the influence of, and to compare, cultures. Finally, we illustrate our argument for greater cultural sensitivity by raising some key issues concerning school reform and improvement.     

Obituary

It is with great regret that we announce the death of Gregory Buckland-Smith known to so many of us in ICEM simply as ‘Buck’. He was educated at London University and the Royal Military College of Science. After qualifying he contributed to many journals, particularly in the educational field. On the outbreak of war he joined the army and spent much of his time working on radar. When the war ended he worked with the Foreign Office in Germany as Head of the Films Division. As early as 1945 he was reorganising schools radio in Germany and playing a leading role in the re-establishment of the Institut fur Film und Bild. These were early days in film making also, with films such as ‘A School in Cologne’ and ‘Berlin Looks to the West’. ‘Buck’ also made many friends during this period in Germany and in other countries and was involved with ICEM virtually from the beginning. He was one of our very few honorary members.     

The Learner's Prior Knowledge: a Critical Review of Techniques for Probing its Organization

Science education is presented as the negotiation of knowledge between several different perspectives: those provided by ‘scientists’ science’, ‘ curricular science’, ‘teachers’ science’, ‘children's science’ and ‘students’ science’. A case study based on concepts of force and movement is used to illuminate these perspectives, and implications for the curricular presentation and classroom teaching of the ideas are discussed.