CERCular    [No.2 of 2002]

Table of Contents

From the Director

In this first edition of CERCular during my tenure as Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre, my first task is a sad one: to bid farewell to CERC's previous Director, Bob Adamson. Bob took over the Directorship from Mark Bray when Mark was prevailed upon to accept the demands of heading the newly created Department of Curriculum and Educational Studies; and Bob's tenure turned out to be all too brief when he was offered a position at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Australia. It was an offer he couldn't refuse: not in terms of a threat of being dumped off Hong Kong's Star Ferry in a pair of concrete shoes, but in terms of the pro-spect of living in a house with a real grass lawn and garden! Bob was also promoted to Senior Lecturer and International Director of the TESOL Unit at QUT, for which he deserves hearty congratulations from all of us at CERC. QUT's gain is very much our loss, but it may yet be a temporary loss: Bob has not resigned from HKU, but is on leave for three years. So perhaps this is not farewell but "until we meet again". We will miss Bob's intelligent and sensitive contributions, his depth of experience and intellectual acuity, his warmth and humour, his loyal support and energetic work rate, and his concern for colleagues and students. He is by no means lost to us, however, since he is integrally involved in various projects in CERC.

When Mark Bray in turn received an offer he couldn't refuse, to accept the Deanship of the newly unified Faculty of Education - and rumour has it that this did come with the threat of concrete shoes in the harbour - he was unable to accept the directorship of CERC that Bob's departure had left vacant. This brings me to my second task: to introduce myself as the new Director. It is a task which I accept very humbly, aware that, coming from a background in philosophy and educational studies, I am yet to gain a strong familiarity with the many facets of the field of comparative education. I will of course rely on the guidance of more experienced colleagues in the field, and that includes our secretary, Emily Mang, who knows everything there is to know about CERC! To them I am indeed very grateful. I have, however, been an active member of CERC since I arrived at the University of Hong Kong and was approached by Mark Bray to work with him on CERC's publications committee. For the last four years I have been very involved in refereeing manuscripts submitted to CERC for possible publication, and editing and proof-reading manuscripts in their final stages before publication. My experience prior to coming to Hong Kong was as a lecturer in the developing world context of South Africa, at the University of Cape Town, and as a doctoral student at Columbia University's Teachers College in New York. In that sense I bring some comparative experience to bear on the challenging demands of co-ordinating the activities of what has been described by leading scholars as one of the most active centres of comparative education research in the world. It is a reputation of which I am well aware, and which I will do my best to uphold.

When Bob Adamson thought he'd be editing this edition of CERCular, he asked me to submit an article offering my perspective on some features of South African education in the transitional period following the formal collapse of Apartheid in that country, compared with some relevant aspects of education reform in Hong Kong. This article is in the pages of this newsletter, and was commissioned by Bob to accompany a perspective on education reform in Hong Kong: Tony Sweeting's "Education Policy, the 1997 Factor, and the Interaction of Politics and Economics: Viewed from 2002". Also in this edition of CERCular are our regular features covering CERC's activities and recent publications, and of course other news about events in the field of comparative education.

Mark Mason
 

back to top
 

Focus on Five Years after the Return to Chinese Sovereignty

Education Policy, the 1997 Factor, and the Interaction of Politics and Economics: Viewed from 2002
Anthony Sweeting

In 1997, CERC published a book edited by Mark Bray and W.O. Lee entitled Education and Political Transition: Implications of Hong Kong's Change of Sovereignty (CERC Studies in Comparative Education No.2). Anthony Sweeting contributed to the book a chapter entitled 'Education Policy and the 1997 Factor: The Art of the Possible Interacting with the Dismal Science'. Here he reviews the landscape five years later.

This update celebrates both continuity and change. Conceptually, in the narrowest sense, the '1997 factor' has inevitably lost all relevance during the years subsequent to the resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong by China because this event, itself, can no longer be regarded as prospect or spectre. If, however, one focuses, instead upon the effects of perceptions of Hong Kong's future as prospect and/or spectre, then the effects of the interaction between political and economic factors on education policy remain hugely significant. In relation to updating the actual contents of the chapter in CERC Studies in Comparative Education 2, the last part of its broader historical section needs special attention, while the concluding three case studies need to be revisited. Post-1997 developments have mainly reflected continuity. Largely for reasons of political correctness, however, their proponents have mainly emphasised change.

Major Development: Education Reform
Change for the better, especially when the result of deliberate action, is more or less synonymous with reform. For obvious political reasons, the Hong Kong reformers have taken pains to emphasize rhetorically how their proposals represent change (as radical improvement) over the discredited colonial past. However, as noted by the present author in recent seminar presentations*, the proposals themselves and steps taken towards their implementation, while characterised by lack of historical perspective, have retained a strong flavour of continuity. The authors of the reform package and the administrators responsible for the implementation of its proposals have, in a manner redolent of New Managerialism, tinkered with 'mechanisms' viewing education as essentially organised into discrete stages. De-spite rhetoric about multi-purposes, they have also tended to accord priority to societal interests and to view education as a commodity of pragmatically instrumental value to the individual and, especially, to the development of the economy.

One of the chief architects of the reform proposals, Professor Cheng Kai-ming, expressed disappointment with the reforms, as implemented, giving the impression that a movement which had started with concern over ends had been hijacked by bureaucrats obsessed with means.ª Professor Cheng's image of the reformers as nomadic pastoralists, allowing their goats and cows (practitioners at the grassroots) to seek their own sustenance, is vivid and idealistic. However, in the implementation process the nomads themselves have been taken over by battery farmers.

Other Developments, 1997-2002
Updates of the case studies
The History curriculum continued to provoke controversy. Liberally constructed suggestions about curriculum change in world history at the Certificate of Education level, mainly in the direction of focusing upon the twentieth century and upon a world-view rather than upon details of selected regions, aroused opposition from conservatives and from teachers reluctant to sacrifice their existing lesson notes. Suspicions that the Curriculum Development Institute intended to use curriculum renewal opportunities necessitated by changes in the structure of senior secondary schooling to marginalise Chinese History stimulated passionate efforts to justify the latter as a separate subject. Uneasy coexistence of radical curriculum reformers and reactionary conservatives characterised the situation in mid-2002, with few signs of a widely acceptable resolution of problems in this curriculum area but every sign that it will continue to act as a barometer of political correctness.

In some practical senses, a consequence of the 1997 'Handover' is that the border has actually vanished. In educational terms, however, the distinctness of the treatment officially provided for (and actually received by) newly arrived children from other parts of China suggests that, in the minds of administrators, teachers, and students, vestiges of a border remain significant.

Since 1997, language policy has continued to attract dissension. The 'firm' guidelines of September 1997 were followed by an ad hoc committee's conclusions about which secondary schools deserved to continue teaching via the English medium, appeals by disappointed schools, and eventually the addition of 14 schools to the list. The emotionalism engendered has ensured that, even though decisions have been implemented, few commentators consider that all questions related to language policy have now been resolved. Moreover, despite evidence that some of a new group of Native English Teachers (NETs) are contributing positively to the improvement of English standards in the primary or secondary schools into which they have been imported, the NET scheme seems misguidedly short-sighted and unnecessarily extravagant when compared with options that would directly improve local English teachers and students.

General Post-1997 Developments
The work of both the Language Fund and the Quality Education Fund has tended to provide further examples of the operation of the worst aspects of bureaucratic incrementalism. Partly in an effort to justify their own existence, these institutions frequently succumb to the temptation to sponsor numerous new projects, but neglect to sustain them for development beyond the launching stage. The introduction of a 'ministerial' form of education governance, with the policy secretary made responsible to the legislature, represents perhaps the most radical change at the system-level that has occurred since 1997. Reports in June 2002 that the new policy secretary was an active member of the education fraternity were welcomed, but with reservations. Professor Arthur Li's prestige and the political accountability of his new position gained generally positive recognition. The possibility that he would be high-handed and might show favour to the institution from which he was recruited fuelled reservations.§

The Next Five Years
Numerous issues are likely to divide opinion. At the pre-school level, for instance, the question of unification remains incompletely answered. Within 'nine-year basic education', prospects for development-oriented curricula (and a nongraded approach) have not been improved by current reforms. Radical changes to the structure of senior secondary education have not yet been convincingly justified by evidence or argument. Suggestions that the higher education system might become bifurcated through funding-discrimination between 'research' and 'teaching' universities remain contentious. The funding of continuing education, especially that of sub-degree courses, continues to stimulate debate. Teachers complain about increased workloads. In general, the commodification of education, rampant credentialism, and other symptoms of new managerialism continue to demoralise both teachers and students.

Conclusions
Partly because of and partly despite the apparent changes and real continuities emanating from the top/centre of Hong Kong's education system, there are some signs of health at the periphery. Projects such as CECES'Pre-primary English Language Project and the work of S.K. Tse's team on Chinese Language learning show initiative and imagination. Unfortunately, there are few signs of these qualities, or even a willingness at the highest levels of education policy making to consider alternative options.

Notes
*. e.g. in presentations at the Symposium on "Learning from the past, understanding the future: Education then, today, and tomorrow". Hong Kong Baptist University, May 13-15, 2002, and paper presented at a Centre of Asian Studies Seminar, the University of Hong Kong, June 6, 2002. See also Katherine Forestier, 'The Emperor and the Mouse: Why Reforms are Failing', Education Section, South China Morning Post, June 8, 2002, p. 4.
ª. See Katherine Forestier, 'Education reforms fail to impress their key architect', Education Section, South China Morning Post, June 22, 2002, p.4.
§. See, for example, Linda Leung & Polly Hui, 'Li and Law to head Education', Education Section, South China Morning Post, June 22, 2002, p.1.

back to top
 

Review of CERC Book

Journals in the field have continued to publish many positive reviews of CERC books. Here is an extract from Fazal Rizvi's review of Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia (2nd edition), edited by Mark Bray & W.O. Lee in 2001. The review was published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Vol.22, No.2 (2002).

Over the past decade, the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong has become a leading centre of research on the fast changing political and cultural landscape of education in East Asia. In a relatively short period, the centre has produced a large number of books and articles on topics ranging from the politics of language to comparative policy perspectives on higher education. Common to these publications is the centre's critical perspectives on political transitions and educational changes brought about by the processes of globalization on the one hand and the processes of decolonization on the other. This collection of essays, edited by Mark Bray and W.O. Lee, is no exception. Each of these essays examines issues of education through the tensions between the processes of global change and decolonization. It asks the ways in which the various nation-states in East Asia are engaging with globalization, while remaining committed to the older project of nation-building through education.

The paper by Gopinathan sets the tone. It considers how Singapore has engaged with global-ization, taking advantage of its emphasis on economic integration and on the movement of information and people, on the one hand; and on the other hand seeking to resist globalization's dominant cultural orientation. In making its educational policies, Singapore has been strategic. It has accepted that Singapore's survival depends on its engagement with global processes, but has not lost sight of the important role education plays in its distinctive national agenda. It has used its economic success to resist those educational trends it regards as undesirable. Whether it might be possible for weaker states, such as Taiwan and Mongolia for example, to similarly resist global pressures is an issue left unexplored by Gopinathan.

Eager to obtain international legitimacy, Taiwan has clearly had to perform a more difficult juggling act. It has had to cope with international pressures on the one hand, and with its complex relationship with mainland China on the other. In the end, as Law Wing Wah suggests, its recent higher educational policies are a hybrid mix of Taiwanisation and internationalization. While its reforms are broadly in line with the global trend of changing relations between the state and education, it has resisted some of the expressions of internationalization and democratization.

In recent years, the colonial and neo-colonial role of English language in the age of globalization has been a topic of considerable debate. Most countries of East Asia appear to have accepted the importance of English as the language of global communication and trade. In his essay, Keith Johnson argues however that this acceptance need not imply cultural homogenization, and that it is possible for linguistic use of English to be diverse and locally inflected. Again the question of state capacity rears its head: are all states equally able to resist the juggernaut of English as the language of the Information Superhighway?

This question raises the complex issues of nationalization, democratization and educational policy, which are the subject of the next two papers in this collection. Innes-Brown considers the case of Mongolia. After escaping the clutches of the Soviet Union, Mongolia has been seeking to democratize its educational system, but its reforms have become trapped between the local traditions resisting change on the one hand and the neo-liberal economic demands of the Asian Development Bank and other Western donors, on the other. Hong Kong, a much richer territory, has had to confront a different set of dilemmas. It has been attempting to negotiate its transition from British to Chinese administration, which has meant a closer identification with the People Republic of China. In its civic education programme, for example, it has had to make a number of difficult political compromises, which have undermined some of its cherished liberal-democratic values. The restoration of Hong Kong to China was meant to be an expression of decolonization, but the narrower interpretations of what Hong Kong 'identity' should be do little to allay the fears of many educators that, in this Special Administration Region, transition is simply another form of colonization.

The issue of transition from colonialism to post- colonialism is considered in the next three essays in the collection. In the first of these essays, Lee Yonghwan examines the ways in which South Korea has sought to carve out its own distinctive national identity since the Second World War, after a long period of Japanese colonial rule. Education, Lee points out, has had an important role to play in this task. What is clear however, something Lee does not address directly, is that in carrying out this task, educators have borrowed heavily from Western academic traditions, be they neo-Marxist or neo-Liberal. This tension is also present in the case of Macau. As Bray argues, in developing its higher education system Macau has had to negotiate a delicate political path between its history as a Portuguese colony, its reintegration into China and its developing relationship with other countries in the region as well as the West.

The contrast between Macau and Hong Kong, both of which are now special administrative regions of China, is both interesting and revealing, as the chapter by Morris, Kan and Morris shows. Hong Kong's already globalized character raises a different set of tensions of postcoloniality. Its conception of civic identity is inevitably informed by its legacies inherited from the period of British colonialism, and we might add, its well-developed engagement with the processes of economic and cultural globalization. China views this inheritance as both an advantage and disadvantage, making Hong Kong's postcolonial educational project particularly hazardous.

Hazardous, because China has yet to resolve its own tensions between liberal and traditional approaches to curriculum and pedagogy, as the essays by Cheung Kwok Wah and W.O. Lee show. Using the theoretical model of pedagogic discourse proposed by Basil Bernstein, Cheung suggests some of the ways in which, in China, the relationship between the state and intellectuals remains ambiguous; as do China's various policy prescriptions, making it possible to interpret China's official educational discourse in a number of contradictory ways. A good example of this difficulty is China's moral education policy, which is both continuous with its socialist ideologies and suggests, at the same time, a more liberal approach to political and moral education. It is critical of Western liberalism, but simultaneously promotes creative and independent thinking among students. As W.O. Lee says, this is consistent with a widely-held view that, in recent years, China has been caught in a 'liberalization- oppression' cycle.

The essays in this collection make abundantly clear that education is a highly contested terrain which both expresses and responds to political transitions in ways that are historically situated and fraught with tensions and conflicts. It shows how a comparative analysis of the dilemmas facing national governments is useful in identifying the policy options to them. A major strength of this collection is that it demonstrates the issues of globalization and decolonization, to be complex, where implications for education are never clear-cut or self-evident, and are always refracted through local polities. The collection is an important resource for those interested in nuanced and empirically grounded analyses of these issues.

back to top
 

Education Reform

Education Reform in South Africa and Hong Kong
Mark Mason

The year 1994 saw the formal installation of a democratically elected government in South Africa, the first in its history following decades of Apartheid rule by a minority quasi-military government, and centuries of colonial rule by Dutch and British governors. Apartheid was the economic, political, and socio-cultural means by which the white minority in South Africa arrogated to itself power, wealth and privilege in all domains. Apartheid education policy accordingly ensured that white students received an education comparable to the best in the world, and that black students were schooled for failure in order to provide the reservoir of unskilled labour on which the country's economy, based primarily in mining and agriculture, depended.

An education system deliberately designed for failure may seem a contradiction, but the policy ensured this through the desperately poor resourcing of black education. Black teachers were under-qualified and overworked: in rundown schools with no electricity, no water, hardly any desks, and virtually no textbooks or stationery, they often had to deal with classes of up to 80 or 100 students, almost all from poverty-stricken backgrounds. Authoritarian teaching styles, dominated by transmission modes of teaching and rote learning of content, were consequently the order of the day. Changing the South African education system thus requires much more than mere reform: a root and branch overhaul is what is needed.

In order to shift teachers away from the transmission of content by rote and the regurgitation by students of facts in examinations, South African education authorities opted for an outcomes-based education that would focus more on skills, on procedural rather than content knowledge, on what students could do with what they had learned. Hong Kong's introduction of a Target Oriented Curriculum in 1991 was a move made probably for similar reasons. Hong Kong's teachers have all too often been criticized for transmission modes of teaching that focus on the rote learning of content by their students. As in South Africa, the Target Oriented Curriculum was an attempt to shift teachers towards learning outcomes that asked the same question: what can students do with what they have learned? Both the Target Oriented Curriculum and South Africa's Curriculum 2005 have been informed by the theory of an outcomes-based education that emphasizes the importance of procedural or skills-based knowledge, but often at the expense of propositional or content-based knowledge, and also often at the expense of questions of values and ethics in education, or what is known as dispositional knowledge. Good teaching is surely about a careful integration of all three kinds of knowledge - propositional, procedural, and dispositional.

If Hong Kong's teachers feel overwhelmed by the rate at which new reforms and initiatives are thrown at them, most South African teachers feel even more overwhelmed by the demands made by an outcomes-based education. While Hong Kong's teachers might not all hold degrees, they are at least qualified through some years of post-secondary professional training. South Africa's teachers are much less adequately qualified, and many are teaching in secondary schools when they themselves have not completed full secondary schooling. But more than the fact that South Africa's teachers simply do not have the academic knowledge of their subject disciplines to teach them competently, they do not have the professional knowledge to appropriate the entirely new and complex language of outcomes-based education as it has been encapsulated within Curriculum 2005. The plan was over-ambitious, and has been scaled back in its aims and scope in the hope that it might be more manageable for teachers.

Hong Kong's teachers may also feel so overworked by what they describe as large classes and by other demands for high standards that they simply do not have the time or energy to integrate new reforms and initiatives into their teaching. The situation is worse for South Africa's teachers, because classes are commonly twice the size of Hong Kong's. Also, just eight short years after the formal collapse of Apartheid, most schools are still in appallingly bad condition and terribly under-resourced. This is the case because such far-reaching structural change does not happen quickly, because teachers are exhausted, dis-spirited and demotivated after years of teaching under Apartheid, and because the resources to change education are not readily available in a developing world context where there are equally high priorities with regard to housing, welfare, health services, infrastructural development, the alleviation of extreme poverty, and the like. On top of this, an estimated 27% of South Africa's teachers are HIV-positive, and the teacher education institutions have little hope of providing sufficient teachers to staff the country's classrooms. Teachers who are physically weakened by the consequences of HIV and who probably do not have long to live might well not be committed to future-oriented reforms.

Under Apartheid, conservative teachers were often the target of the wrath of revolutionarily inclined students, while progressive teachers who supported the struggle were of ten the target of brutal state repression in the form of beatings, intimidation, repression, detention without trial, and even murder. It is not surprising that even the installation of a democratically elected government has not provided the fillip for teachers to pick themselves up by their own boot-straps and embrace the reform away from Apartheid education with energy, enthusiasm and commitment. The dehumanization of teachers by Apartheid has run so deep that absenteeism, drunkenness in the classroom, lack of professional responsibility for preparation and assessment, violence in the form of excessive corporal punishment (even though it has been outlawed), and the rampant sexual abuse of female students by male teachers, are still, if not quite the order of the day, widespread. This is professional, or, more correctly, unprofessional, conduct that would be unthinkable in Hong Kong.

But comparisons between schooling in South Africa and in Hong Kong are ultimately difficult, given their entirely different economic, political and socio-cultural contexts. Hong Kong's financial reserves are as massive as South Africa's are paltry, and the way in which education budgets are being cut back here, as a consequence of the "financial crisis" facing Hong Kong, seems almost arbitrary. Hong Kong's teachers are overworked because of the high demands and expectations made on and of them, and it seems rather strange to this teacher with first-hand experience of a society severely constrained by massive poverty that Hong Kong's schools are not better resourced. A typical example is the hue and cry raised about apparently falling standards of competence in English in secondary school graduates, when the resources exist to provide far more small-group tuition by native English speaking teachers than the relatively small amount of funding provided for the Native English-speaking Teachers scheme.

Comparisons between systems such as I have offered here may be difficult, but they do help to place things in perspective. Perhaps both territories should indeed be adopting those selected aspects of an outcomes-based education that have been shown to enhance learning most effectively. South Africa may have some different reasons for this in its Curriculum 2005 to Hong Kong in its Target Oriented Curriculum, but both are rightly aimed at least at the reduction of authoritarian and transmission modes of teaching. But after centuries of colonial and Apartheid education designed to fail the majority of South Africa's young people, how to educate the country's students and workforce to compete in a technologically sophisticated global economy remains a vexed question in-deed. Hong Kong has more than sufficient means at its disposal to do so.

back to top
 

WCCES

Welcome to WCCES News, which is a regular feature of CERCular. WCCES is the umbrella organization that brings together comparative education societies from all around the world, and CERC is pleased to publicise the work of WCCES through the pages of CERCular.

CERC has strong links with WCCES. It hosts the Secretariat and website, and two former Directors of CERC hold official positions in the organisation. Mark Bray is the Secretary General, and Bob Adamson is the Assistant Secretary General. Many CERC members participate in WCCES activities through the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong and other bodies.

Introduction to WCCES
The WCCES was established in 1970, and has two specific goals. The first goal is to promote and enhance the status of comparative and international education as a field of academic study throughout the world. The second goal is to use comparative education as a means to address the major educational problems of the day by fostering co-operative action by specialists from different parts of the world.

The WCCES is composed of 30 constituent societies, each of which is autonomous and has its own goals and activities. WCCES serves as a conduit to bring these societies into contact with each other through information-sharing (such as by email, the WCCES website, journals and newsletters) and through the World Congress of Comparative Education that is held every three or four years.

The organization is run by an Executive Committee drawn from the member societies, and meetings are held at least once a year at conferences hosted by individual constituent societies.

WCCES President
Anne Hickling-Hudson was elected WCCES President during the 2001 World Congress held in South Korea in 2001. She sums up the work of WCCES as follows:

Comparative education is currently undergoing a renaissance. The influences of globalisation and the need to respect diversity have made comparative education an essential tool for making sense of a fast-changing world and for finding new directions to cope with change.

The WCCES is playing an important role in this renaissance. Through its World Congresses, and its ongoing linking of Comparative Education Societies in many countries, the WCCES brings together scholars of diverse research interests in the common pursuit of understanding through comparative analysis.

The WCCES also promotes comparative education as an academic discipline by encouraging institutions around the world to offer courses in the field. This is a way of ensuring that new generations of scholars can be trained, so that they can bring fresh ideas and insights to our common endeavours.

At its inception in 1970, the WCCES set out to contribute to international understanding in the interests of peace, intercultural cooperation, observance of human rights, and mutual respect among peoples. This mission remains as vital now as ever.
 

New Member Societies
Two new member societies joined WCCES in 2002. They are the Comparative Education Society of the Philippines (CESP) and the Associatión de Pedagogos de Cuba, Seccion de Educación Comparada (APC-SEC). Unfortunately, however,the Portuguese Comparative Education Society (PCES) has folded, and has been removed from the WCCES books.

WCCES Congress
At a recent meeting of the WCCES Executive Committee, the Cuban society was elected as the host of the next World Congress, to be held in Havana in October 2004. The working languages of the Congress will be Spanish, English and French. Details will be posted on the website: www.fe.hku.hk/cerc/wcces.

SACHES Research Award and Publications Scheme (SRAPS)
With the support of the WCCES and other donors, the Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society (SACHES) offers Research Awards. The first set of awards of R15,000 is designed to help build research capacity in the region. The awards will focus on comparative and/or history of education. The scheme is not intended to support graduate studies. The closing date for applications is 30 March 2003. Applicants should indicate their educational backgrounds, occupational histories, key publications (if any), research proposals (including a brief statement of the problem, and proposed methodology) and the names of two referees. Further information is available on the website: www.fe.hku.hk/cerc/wcces/news/SRAPS.htm or from Sheldon Weeks <gudrun@info.bw>.

WCCES website?

The WCCES website at www.fe.hku.hk/cerc/wcces offers a wide range of information concerning comparative education. It publicises WCCES activities and those of member societies, announces new books and job openings, has many links to useful websites, and provides details of member societies. Information for possible inclusion in the web-site may be sent to Bob Adamson at <b.adamson@qut.edu.au> or Emily Mang at <cerc@hkusub.hku.hk>.

back to top
 

Education in Small States

Education in Small States: The Case of Cayman Islands
Mark Bray

Mark Bray has a longstanding research interest in the distinctive features of education systems in small states. In March 2002 he travelled to Cayman Islands at the invitation of its government to review aspects of education policy. Here he outlines some features of the Cayman Islands education system.
 

In 1985, a meeting organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat in Mauritius set an agenda for study of education systems in small states. The report of that meeting stressed that small countries are not simply scaled down versions of large countries, but that instead they require distinctive strategies for educational development and have an ecology of their own (Commonwealth Secretariat 1986, p.6). This observation applies to Cayman Islands as much as to other small states.

With a population just 40,000, Cayman Islands must be ranked among the smallest of the small. Most of the population resides on the largest island, Grand Cayman, which is 20 miles long and has an average width of four miles. Cayman Brac is smaller and has a resident population of only 1,800; and Little Cayman has just 120 residents.

For many decades, Cayman Islands was a dependency of Jamaica; but when Jamaica achieved sovereignty in 1962, Cayman Islands opted to remain under the British Crown. In constitutional terms (like Hong Kong before 1997), Cayman Islands is a British Overseas Territory with a governor appointed by the United Kingdom but with strong autonomy in internal affairs. Cayman Islands has used this autonomy to achieve considerable economic growth by forming a tax haven and by attracting tourists.

Pupils, Institutions and External Collaboration
The whole of the Cayman Islands school system, from reception to upper secondary, has only 2,900 pupils. Little Cayman has just one school, which is multigrade and in 2002 had only nine children. Cayman Brac has three small primary schools and one small secondary school; and Grand Cayman has 19 primary and secondary schools of which 10 are in the private sector. On Grand Cayman, all pupils in the public secondary sector go to a single middle school and then to a single high school.

At the post-secondary level, the territory is served by a community college which has 1,500 students and offers associate degrees, certificate programmes and professional studies. For further studies, Caymanians must either take distance-education courses or go abroad. Cayman Islands is a member of the regional University of the West Indies (UWI), which is headquartered in Jamaica and is owned by 15 countries. However, most Caymanian students prefer to go to universities in the USA, Canada and UK.

Cayman Islands is also a member of the regional Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), which is headquartered in Barbados. The secondary school curriculum in Cayman Islands?schools is shaped by the CXC examinations and by the International General Certificate of Secondary Examination (IGCSE) set by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). However, curriculum developers are anxious also to promote local identity. One major event in 2000 was the publication of a set of primary school social studies textbooks specifically for Cayman Islands. Although this was a high-cost operation, it was considered necessary to enhance the local relevance of the education system.

Economics and Resources
The publication of the social studies textbooks was facilitated by the Cayman Islands's economic prosperity. Recent years have required belt-tightening; but prosperity has nevertheless also permitted the government to overcome the constraints of small scale in other ways. One of these constraints is in the supply of teachers. Cayman Islands has no provision for pre-service teacher training, and has an inadequate supply of local teachers. The gap is bridged by recruitment of expatriate teachers.

Another constraint, which is typically faced by small states, is in the domain of special education needs. In 2000, approximately 20% of the school population was identified as having special needs, which according to a report by a UK-based consultant (Millett 2000, p.33), was in line with the proportion in the UK. However, 20% of a small population and 20% of a large population translate into very different absolute numbers. With the small numbers, Cayman Islands is unable to provide the degree of specialist attention that could be offered in a larger society. Nevertheless, Cayman Islands has an excellently-equipped special school which in 2002 had 54 pupils and which sought external expertise for matters which could not be fully addressed by the local staff.

Personalisation
Cayman Islands, like other small states, has a very personalised education system. Rather than being faced merely by anonymous percentages and macro-level policies, planners can know personally the people who will be affected by their decisions.

In some respects, of course, personalisation can be problematic because it can politicise every action; but small size permits policy-makers and planners to pinpoint problems and possible solutions much more clearly than would be possible in a larger system. In 2002 the government was considering restructuring the secondary schools on Grand Cayman. The decision required careful analysis of the competencies of individual teachers and the locations of the homes of individual students.

Comparative Education
For the field of comparative education, study of Cayman Islands and its education system is valuable for several reasons. First, smallness is of course a matter of degree. Hong Kong may feel small compared with Taiwan, but is large compared with Macau. Likewise, although Macau may feel small compared with Hong Kong, it has twice the population of Maldives, which itself has six times the population of Cayman Islands.

Because Cayman Islands is among the smallest of the small, it is particularly deserving of detailed analysis. As indicated by the 1985 Commonwealth Secretariat statement, small states are not simply scaled-down versions of larger states. Analysis of Cayman Islands and its education system helps to identify the nature of the ecologies of small states and the ways in which they differ from medium-sized and large states.

References and Further Reading
Bray, Mark & Packer, Steve (1993): Education in Small States: Concepts, Challenges and Strategies. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

Bray, Mark & Steward, Lucy (eds.) (1998): Education Systems in Small States: Comparative Perspectives on Policies, Models and Operations. London: The Commonwealth Secretariat.

Commonwealth Secretariat, The (1986): Educational Development: The Small States of the Commonwealth - Report of a Pan-Commonwealth Experts Meeting, Mauritius, 1985. London: The Commonwealth Secretariat.

Millett, Anthea (2000) Review of the Cayman Islands Education Department. George Town, Cayman Islands: Ministry of Education, Aviation and Planning.

back to top
 

Universities in Hong Kong

A Revolution for Universities in Hong Kong
Michael H. Lee
 

Michael H. Lee is a member of the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit at the City University of Hong Kong. Here he reports on a major change planned for Hong Kong's university sector.

In 2000, Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa declared that the participation rate of higher education in Hong Kong would be increased to 60 per cent for the relevant age group (aged 17 to 20) by the year 2010 from the current level of 30 per cent. In this policy context, the University Grants Committee (UGC) conducted a review of the higher education sector in Hong Kong in 2001. The review was led by Lord Sutherland, a senior member of the UGC and then Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. The report Higher Education in Hong Kong, which is also known as the Sutherland report, was released in March 2002. The report has marked a new stage of the development of higher education in Hong Kong. Shaping the landscape of higher education, the report aims to make the sector more competitive in the regional and international arenas, raising the best to standards comparable of world-class institutions elsewhere.

The report declares that in order to become internationally competitive, higher education in Hong Kong will require comparable strength and flexibility in the governance and management of institutions, diversify its income from private and public sources, and then place its focus on better utilisation of resources for the highest quality of teaching and research. In this sense, universities are facing a 'revolution' in which old practices of resource allocation and institutional governance will be taken over by more accountable, professional and entrepreneurial managerial mechanisms.

Prior to the report's release, there was speculation about the split between teaching and research institutions based on historical background, social prestige, student recruitment, and research performance. Commentators speculated that the allocation of resources would be rationalised to maximize value for money by a division of labour among universities, with institutions concentrating on teaching or research in accordance with their capabilities. Although the report does not explicitly spell out such a split, it implies that only research-oriented institutions would be endowed with more resources from public and private sectors. The traditional comprehensive universities have a head-start in this quest, already enjoying advantages in being able to absorb extra non-government financial support from competitive bidding for research and donations from both alumni and the business sector.

It is important to maintain the principles of justice and fairness in shaping the development of individual institutions. Universities should undertake teaching and research activities simultaneously to fulfil their fundamental roles of discovering, disseminating and applying knowledge. The question is whether the creation of a few world-class universities will widen the gap between research and teaching institutions.

In order to guarantee the most appropriate use of public money and control resources in the university sector, Lord Sutherland suggested that the best way forward should not be a simple categorization between teaching and research universities, but a genuine division of labor according to their areas of excellence, in which teaching and research complement each other. This should be implemented if it ensures old and young universities compete on a level playing field.

Young and newly upgraded universities, including the Baptist University, the City University, the Institute of Education, Lingnan University and the Polytechnic University, have much to contribute. Over the past decade, they have developed their own areas of excellence with the recruitment of world-class professors and researchers to meet the needs of their niche markets. It should not be assumed that only traditional comprehensive universities, such as the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University and the University of Science and Technology, can best conduct world-class research. There should be more room for the young universities to grow and compete.

The report also recommends the delinking of university salary scale from the civil service. Universities would be empowered to determine whether they would shed their civil service salary structures and would pay according to individual academic staff's performance and the market value of different disciplines. This is not a new idea in East Asia. Two years ago, the Singapore Government reviewed the governance and funding of higher education. The two state universities, the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University, were ordered to shed their civil service salary structures. Performance and market forces become the main criteria determining the level of increments paid and given place of automatic, time-based ones. In short, salaries were delinked and based instead on performance evaluation and assessment conducted by the universities.

The days when Hong Kong academics could enjoy an iron rice bowl were numbered before the Sutherland report was published. Delinking is part of a wider change involving the expansion of the contract system to both general and academic staff. This will cause the collapse of the tenure system, which was originally aimed at protecting academic freedom from external and political interference.

The Sutherland report is influenced by prevailing notions of accountability, performance, quality assurance, value for money, and public sector reform. The restructuring of higher education in Hong Kong represents a departure from the traditional role of a university as a cultural and academic institution. The effect is that university education is becoming more commercialised and market-oriented. Intense pressure is being put on universities to become more responsive to the needs of the government, employers and students.

Three core values: economy, efficiency and effectiveness are now emphasised in relation to the concept of public service management. Academics have been transformed into 'state-subsidised entrepreneurs' or 'academic capitalists' to make research output and products saleable in the market. In this revolution, universities are being transformed into corporate-like enterprises with a management structure to match.

Administrators, academics and students are all victims of this move. Administrators must search for new sources of income ranging from community donations to spin-off companies. Although profit-making may not be their major concern at present, the move towards corporate behavior is clear. Academics have had to reorient teaching and research towards market values. Students are becoming more like consumers: they select programmes based on the most practical courses to maximise their value in the labour market. Programmes in turn become more job-oriented, and universities more like vocational training institutions. The importance of pursuing knowledge for its own sake is then neglected.

Universities are being treated much like other public service institutions and corporate bodies, which are under pressure to comply with the global entrepreneurial trend. The strengthening of management is a prerequisite to meet social and market demands and prepare for global competition in higher education. The traditional ethos of collegiality is being replaced by ideologies of economic rationalism, corporate managerialism and academic capitalism.

back to top
 

CERC Seminars

CERC maintains a vigorous programme of seminars. Below is the list for March to October 2002.

March 22

Nina Borevskaya & Mark Bray, "Financing Education in Transitional Societies: Lessons from Russia and China"

March 28

Nina Borevskaya, "Educational Reform in China: A Way to Postmodernism"

April 8

Lynn Davies, "Comparative Frameworks for Examining Identity and Conflict"

April 29

Robert LeVine, "The Anthropology of Educational Processes"

July 3

David Post, '"New Elitism" or the Re-Birth of Inequality? Trends in University Opportunities in Hong Kong, 1981-2001'

Sept. 27

Andy Brock, "The Challenges of School Development Planning in Poor Rural Villages of Western China: A Report on the UK-GansuBasic Education Project"

Oct. 22

Nina Dey Gupta, "The Geopolitics of Globalization: A Re-examination by Comparativists?

Oct. 24

Carol Coombe, "Managing the Impact of HIV/AIDS on the Provision of Education: Lessons from South Africa for China"

back to top
 

Global University Network for Innovation

Global University Network for Innovation - Asia & the Pacific

In September 2002, a group of senior university officers met in Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China for the first general assembly of the Global University Network for Innovation ?Asia & the Pacific (GUNI-AP). The network had been established with UNESCO encouragement following the World Conference on Higher Education held in Paris in 1998.

The theme for the meeting was 'The Globalization of Economies and Internationalization of Higher Education', and the event was organised by Wang Libing of Zhejiang University. Other participants included the Vice-Chancellors/Presidents of La Trobe University (Australia), Zhejiang University, Shanghai Teachers' University, Devi Ahilya University (India), National University of Indonesia, Osaka University (Japan), University Kebangsaan Malaysia, National University of Mongolia, Mahidol University (Thailand), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Assumption University (Thailand), and Hanoi University of Technology (Vietnam).

The assembly was also attended by several people with CERC connections. One was Li Yancheng, who has been a research student at HKU and is based at the National Academy of Educational Administration, Beijing. Another was Chu Yiu-On, who is based in the Macau government's Higher Education Bureau, and who in 2000/01 assisted the CERC team with the review of higher education in Macau. Mark Bray presented a keynote address entitled 'Financing Higher Education in Asia: Patterns, Trends, and the Impact of Glo-balization'.

GUNI-AP will now move to a range of activities, with particular focus on:

- innovations in curricula,

- diversification of funding,

- staff recruitment,

- professional development,

- partnership building, and

- exchange of students, academics and administrators.

From left: Wang Yibing (UNESCO), Mark Bray, Chu Yiu-On, Li Yancheng, M.A.R. Diaz (United Nations University), Wang Libing

back to top
 

World Comparative Education Forum

Worldwide Comparative Education Forum
14-16 October 2002
Bejing Normal University, China
 

Beijing Normal University is a distinguished institution in China, and in 2002 it celebrates its centenary. This Worldwide Comparative Education Forum is part of the centenary celebrations. CERC is a co-organizer of the event, and has created a website for the Forum. The theme is Globalization and Education Reforms, and the sub-themes are:

- Economic globalization and educational reforms

- International mobility of professionals and relevant policies for education
- International educational services: experiences and strategies
- Multiculturalism and education
- Cultural traditions and education in the era of globalization
- Education and national identity
- Internationalization of education, localization and individualization
- Missions and roles of comparative education in the era of globalization
 

Invited Keynote Speakers include:
- Mark Bray (Hong Kong, China)
- Gu Mingyuan (Beijing, China)
- Nina Dey Gupta (India)
- Anne Hickling Hudson (Australia)
- Lee Byung-Jin (Korea)
- Liang Zhong-yi (Northeast, China)
- Jurgen Schriewer (Germany)
- Shin'ichi Suzuki (Japan)
- Zhong Qiquan (Shanghai, China)
v Zhou Mansheng (Beijing, China )

A report on the event will be given in the next issue of CERCular.
 

back to top

New Electronic Journal
 

In Focus is a new not-for-profit refereed online journal of the Institute of International Development in collaboration with Florida International University. Its purpose is to present the scholarly work of graduate students in the interdisciplinary field of International and Comparative Education.

In Focus is committed to the diversity of people and disciplines. It exemplifies innovation by providing a scholarly on-line journal for graduate student publications run by peers.

Graduate research students make up the editorial board of the journal and are overseen by faculty and a practitioner advisory board which includes CERC Mark Bray. Website: www.escotet.org/infocus.

back to top

Publications by CERC members

1. Comparative and Cultural Perspectives

Ako Tomoko (2002): State-Society Relations amid the Increasing Influence of "Private Space": A Study of Two Public Middle Schools and One Private Middle School in Shanghai, Asian Studies. Vol.48, No.2.

Bray Mark (2002): Comparative Education in East Asia: Growth, Development and Contributions to the Global Field, Current Issues in Comparative Education. Vol.4, No.2: 5pp.

Bray Mark (2002): Comparative Education: Global Trends and Asian Contributions [in Japanese], International Research on Education and Culture. Japan, Kyushu University, Vol.2, No.3: pp.1-14.

Bray Mark (2002): Supplementary Private Tutoring in East Asian Countries, The Japanese Journal of Educational Research. Vol.69, No.1: pp.15-17.

Bray Mark (2001): Comparing Education in Russia and China: An Experience of Collaboration and a Consideration of Approach, Comparative Education Bulletin. Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong, No.5: pp.42-48.

Bray Mark & Borevskaya Nina (2001): Financing Education in Transitional Societies: Lessons from Russia and China, Comparative Education. Vol.37, No.3: pp.345-365.

Bray Mark & Gui Qin (2001): Comparative Education in Greater China: Contexts, Characteristics, Contrasts, and Contributions, Comparative Education. Vol.37, No.4: pp.451-473.

Bray Mark (貝磊) & Koo Ramsey (古鼎儀) (2002): 《香港與澳門的教育與社會：從比較角度看延續與變化》. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, 250pp.

Cave Peter (2001): "Educational Reform in Japan in the 1990s: 'Individuality' and Other Uncertainties", Comparative Education, Vol.37, No.2, pp.173-191.

Cheng Kai Ming (2001): Education and Development: The Neglected Dimension of Cross-Cultural Studies. In: Alexander, R.J., Broadfoot, P. & Osborn, M. (Eds.), Learning from Comparing: New Directions in Comparative Educational Research. Volume 2: Policy, Professionals, and Development. Oxford, Symposium Books, pp.81-92.

Cheng Kai Ming (程介明) & 田玲 (2002): 知識社會中的教師與教師教育.In:袁振國主編,《中國教育政策評論2002》. 中國, 北京教育科學出版社, pp.115-128.

Deng M., Poon-McBrayer K.F., Farnsworth E. & McCabe H. (2001): The Development of Special Education in China: A Sociocultural Review, Remedial and Special Education. Vol.22, No.5: pp.288-298.

Law S.Y.A. (2001): Building the Culture of Lesson Observation: Hong Kong and Guangzhou in Comparison. In: Cheng, Y.C., Mok, M.M.C. & Kwok, T.T. (Eds.), Teaching Effectiveness and Teacher Development: Towards A New Knowledge Base. Hong Kong, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp.239-274.

Law W.W. (2002): Education Reform in Taiwan: The Search for National Identity through Democratisation and Locali-sation, Compare: A Journal of Compare. Vol.32: pp.63-83.

Leung F.K.S. (2002): Behind the High Achievement of East Asian Students, Journal of Educational Research and Evaluation. Vol.8, No.1: pp.87-108.

Leung F.K.S. (2001): In Search of an East Asian Identity in Mathematics Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics. Vol.47, No.1: pp.35-51.

Leung F.K.S. (2001): Teachers' Attitudes towards Mathematics Teaching in Beijing, Hong Kong and London, Shuxue Tongbao (in Chinese). Vol.8: pp.1-5.

Ng H.M. (2001): "Creation of Income" by Schools in China: A Survey of Selected Schools in Guangzhou, Educational Management and Administration. Vol.29, No.4: pp.379-398.

Ng H.M. (2002): The Cultures of Teachers in China and Hong Kong - A Comparison, The Journal of East China Normal University (Educational Sciences) (In Chinese). Vol.20, No.1: pp.71-82.

Postiglione G.A. (2002): 21世紀的中國高等教育：市場經濟條件下的若干發展性思考,《比較教育研究》, 中國, 北京師範大學, No.2: pp.52-59.

Postiglione G.A. (2002): Chinese Higher Education for the Twenty-first Century: Expansion, Consolidation, and Globalization. In: Chapman, D.W. & Austin, A.E. (Eds.), Higher Education in the Developing World: Changing Contexts and Institutional Responses. Westport, Greenwood Press, pp.149-166.

Postiglione G.A. (2001): Globalizations and Professional Autonomy: The Academy in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing, Education and Society. Vol.19, No.1: pp.23-44.

Postiglione G.A. (2001): China's Educational Expansion, Consolidation, and Globalization, International Higher Education. USA, Boston College, No.24: pp.10-11.

Stimpson P.G. & Wong F.B.K.(2001): Environmental Education in Guangzhou in the People's Republic of China: Global Theme, Politically Determined, Environmental Education Research. Vol.7, No.4: pp.397-412.

Watkins D.A. & Regmi M.P. (2002): Does the Language of Response Influence Self-presentation? A Nepalese Test of the Cultural Accommodation Hypothesis, Psychologia. Vol.45: 6pp.

Winter S.J. & Udomsak N. (2002): Male, Female and Transgender: Stereotypes and Self in Thailand, International Journal of Transgenderism. Vol.6, No.1.

Wong K.C. (2001): The Chinese Culture and Leadership, International Journal of Leadership in Education. Vol.4, No.4: pp.309-319.

Yamato Yoko & Bray Mark (2002): 'Education and Socio-Political Change: The Continued Growth and Evolution of the International Schools Sector in Hong Kong' Asia Pacific Education Review, Vol.3, No.1, pp.24-36.

2. Curriculum and Assessment

Adamson Bob (2001): English with Chinese Characteristics: China's New Curriculum, Asia Pacific Journal of Education. Vol.21, No.2: pp.19-33.

Kan F.L.F. & Vickers E. (2002): One Hong Kong, Two Histories: 'History' and 'Chinese History' in the Hong Kong School Curriculum, Comparative Education. Vol.38, No.1: pp.73-89.

Lopez-Real F.J. & Leung A.Y.L. (2001): Reflections on a TIMSS Geometry Lesson, For the Learning of Mathematics. Vol.21, No.3: pp.25-31.

Lopez-Real F.J. & Mok I.A.C. (2002): Is there a Chinese Pedagogy of Mathematics Teaching?, Perspectives in Education. Vol.4.

Murdoch P. & Adamson Bob (2001): The Effects of a Short-term Study Abroad Programme upon Sociolinguistics Competence in the Use of English as a Second Language. In: Bodycott, P. & Crew, V. (Eds.), Perspectives on Short Term Study and Residence Abroad. Hong Kong, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, pp.101-112.

3. Educational Policy, Administration, and Management

Bray Mark (2002): The Costs and Financing of Education: Trends and Policy Implications. [Series: 'Education in Developing Asia']. Manila & Hong Kong, Asian Development Bank & Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, 77pp.

Bray Mark (2001): Community Partnerships in Education: Dimensions, Variations and Implications. Secretariat for the World Education Forum, Paris, UNESCO, 48pp.

Cheng Kai Ming (2001): Vision Building among School Leaders. In: Wong, K.C. & Evers, C. (Eds.), Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives. London, Routledge Falmer, pp.54-66.

Evers C.W. (2001): Knowing How to Lead: Theoretical Reflections on Inference to the Best Training. In: Wong, K.C. & Evers, C. (Eds.), Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives. London, Routledge Falmer, pp. 103-115.

Wong K.C. & Evers C.W. (Eds.) (2001): Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives. London, Routledge Falmer, 171pp.

4. Educational Psychology and Student Learning

Bernardo A.B., Zhang L.F. & Callueng C.M. (2002): Thinking Styles and Academic Achievement among Filipino Students, Journal of Genetic Psychology. Vol.163, No.2: pp.149-163.

Bray Mark (2001): Out-of-School Supplementary Tutoring, Childhood Education: Infancy through Early Adolescence. Vol.77, No.6: pp.360-366.

Chan C.K.K. (2001): Developing Learning and Understanding through Constructivist Approaches for Chinese Learners. In: Watkins, D.A. & Biggs, J. (Eds.) Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, pp.181-204.

Gao L.B. & Watkins D.A. (2002): Conceptions of Teaching held by School Science Teachers in P.R. China: Identification and Cross-cultural Comparisons, International Journal of Science Teaching. Vol.24: 19pp.

Lian J.M. & Yeh J.C.Y. (2002): Parents' Perceptions of Their Children with Disabilities, Inclusive Education, and Related Services in Taiwan, Journal of Asia-Pacific Education. Vol.2, No.1: pp.75-91.

Mok I.A.C., Chik P.P.M., Ko P.Y., Kwan T.Y.L., Lo M.L., Marton F., Ng F.P., Pang M.F., Runesson U. & Sze-To L.H. (2001): Solving the Paradox of the Chinese Teacher. In: Watkins, D.A. & Biggs, B. (Eds.) Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, pp.161-179.

Ng F.P., Tsui A.B.M. & Marton F. (2001): Two Faces of the Reed Relay - Exploring the Effects of the Medium of Instruction, In: Watkins, D.A. & Biggs, J. (Eds.) Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, pp.135-159.

Watkins D.A. & Biggs J.B. (Eds.) (2001): Teaching the Chinese learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong, Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, 306pp.

Watkins D.A., Mboya M. & Sachs J. (2001): Approaches to Learning and Achievement in Specific School Subjects of Black African Students, IFE Psychologia. Vol.9: 9pp.

Watkins D.A., McInerney D., Lee K.M.C., Akande A. & Regmi M.(2002): Motivation and Learning Strategies: A Cross-cultural Perspective. In: McInerney, D.M. & van Etten, S. (Eds.), Sociocultural Influences on Motivation and Learning. Volume 2. Connecticut, USA, Information Age Publishing, 16pp.

5. Social and Moral Issues

Adendorff Mike, Mason Mark & Gultig John (2002): Being a Teacher: Professional Challenges and Choices. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 195pp.

Adendorff Mike, Gultig John and Mason Mark (Eds) (2001): Being a Teacher: Professional Challenges and Choices. Reader. Cape Town: Oxford University Press, 146pp.

Mason Mark (2002): In Defence of a Dialectical Ethics beyond Postmodern Morality. In P. Beilharz (Ed.), Zygmunt Bauman, Volume Three (180-190). London: Sage Publications. Reprinted.

Mason Mark (2001): Ethical Responsibility in the Teaching Profession. In: Raidt, E. (Ed.), Ethics in the Workplace. Johannesburg, St Augustine College Publica tions, pp.209-220.

Mason Mark (2001): Outcomes-based Education in the Context of Three Kinds of Knowledge, In: Adendorff, M., Gultig, J. & Mason, M. (Eds.), Being a Teacher: Professional Challenges and Choices. Reader. Cape Town, Oxford University Press, pp.99-102.

Mason Mark (2001): The Ethics of Integrity: Educational Values Beyond Postmodern Ethics. Journal of Philosophy of Education, Vol.35, No.1, pp.47-69.
 

back to top

New CERC Books

Higher Education in Macau: Growth and Strategic Development

Mark Bray
with
Roy Butler, Philip Hui, Ora Kwo & Emily Mang
 

May 2002; 127pp, ISBN 962 8093 60 6, HK$150 / US$24

Higher education in Macau has expanded dramatically in recent years. Before 1981, Macau had no higher education institutions; but two decades later it had 12. This book chronicles the growth, and analyses the wider environment within which the institutions operate. Discussion includes focus on the implications of Macau's small size; linkages with Hong Kong, mainland China and other parts of the world; the changing balances between public and private provision; and the significance of political transition.
 

Guide to International Schools in Hong Kong

Yoko Yamato & Sally Course
 

June 2002; 84pp, ISBN 962 8093 62 2, HK$72 / US$12

Looking for information about international schools and kindergartens in Hong Kong? This compact, new-format school guide provides newcomers and local families with the first comprehensive picture of Hong Kong's booming international education scene and uncovers the reasons for its remarkable growth.

Includes:
- international school life in Hong Kong
- comparison with international education in other locations and the local school system
- international pre-school sector
- special needs
- admission and fees
- directory of schools and kindergartens
 

Publications Order Information

CERC's publications can be ordered from: Comparative Education Research Centre, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: cerc@hkusub.hku.hk; Fax: (852) 2517 4737. The list price includes sea mail postage; add US$5 per copy for air mail. We accept cheque, bank draft payable to 'The University of Hong Kong', VISA and MASTER CARD. For credit card, please provide card number, expiry date, name and address of the cardholder.
 

back to top