CERCular: No.1 of 1998

Conferences


Shanghai Conference on Teacher Education

The Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong was co-sponsor of an international conference on teacher education, 26-30 April 1998. The conference was held at the East China Normal University in Shanghai in collaboration with the State Education Commission. The theme was 'Teacher Education in the Asian Region: Policy and Practice'.

The conference attracted over 130 participants from Asia and beyond. The focus of many papers was of course on Hong Kong and other parts of China; but other papers focused on such countries as Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Pakistan, Singapore and Uzbekistan.

Shanghai was chosen as the venue for the conference because it is an increasingly international city, with much to offer. CERC expects to play a role in publication of selected papers from the conference.

World Congress, South Africa, July 1998

The Tenth World Congress of Comparative Education will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 12-17 July 1998. This is the first time that the World Congress has been held in Africa, and it promises to be a substantial and stimulating event. It will be hosted by the Southern Africa Comparative & History of Education Society (SACHES). The theme is: 'Education, Equity and Transformation'.

The Congress is held under the umbrella of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). This global body brings together 30 regional and national societies, including the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK). Hong Kong is expected to be well represented at the Congress.

Details on the Congress can be accessed through their home page: http://www.uct.ac.za/education/wcces/index.htm or through CERC's site: http://www.fe.hku.hk/cerc.

CIES Conference 1999: Toronto

The 1999 conference of the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) will be held in Toronto, Canada, from 13 to 18 April 1999. This is end-on to the conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), which commences in Montreal on 19 April. The CIES conference will be held in the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). The conference is being organised by CIES President-Elect Ruth Hayhoe, of the Hong Kong Institute of Education. More details, when available, will be announced on the home page of the CIES, which can also be accessed through CERC's home page.

CIES in Buffalo

In March 1998, the US-based Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) held its annual conference in Buffalo, New York. CERC was well represented, with seven participants - one of the largest delegations from outside the United States. The seven CERC members were Zhang Lili, Paul Morris, Jiang Yimin, Gui Qin, Chan Ka Ki, Mark Bray and Au Yeung King Hau, all of whom presented papers. Four of them are pictured here, together with Ip King Yuen, who is a graduate of the University of Hong Kong and who now teaches at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Some of these participants were visiting the US, and experiencing this type of comparative conference, for the first time. Gui Qin, for example, is an active member of the Chinese Comparative Education Society (CCES), but had not previously attended a CIES meeting. She has recorded some impressions which provide instructive cross-cultural insights and which deserve consideration by more seasoned participants of CIES conferences as well as by newcomers.

My First CIES Conference

Gui Qin

Things that happen for the first time in one's life always leave a deep impression. This is especially the case when they contain surprises and contrasts with familiar patterns. This was my experience when attending the CIES conference and visiting the United States for the first time.

The first different thing was that nobody met me at the airport in Buffalo. Usually in mainland China, a signboard labelled 'Conference Reception' will come to your eyes when you get off the plane or train, and you will probably be transported to the hotel as a warm welcome. But in Buffalo I had only a map sent by the conference organisers. I was fortunate that a more-experienced colleague had travelled with me on the flight. Otherwise I might have suffered a lot. He helped me to understand the unfamiliar American accents on the public address system, and together we took a taxi. If I had been alone, I would have worried that the taxi driver would take a circuitous route and/or overcharge, which is a common practice in China. I might also have looked for a smaller vehicle, since the taxi seemed to me much too big compared to vehicles in Hong Kong and mainland China!

By the time I arrived at the Hyatt hotel where the conference was held, I felt thirsty. I looked in my room for the vacuum flask of hot water, which in China would have been a standard feature. I was taken aback to be told that flasks were never provided. I could either buy something to drink, I was told, or turn on the tap in the bathroom and drink unboiled water. Unboiled water?! I had been told since childhood never to drink tap water because it contained bacteria. Was such water cleaner in the USA?

My next surprise was when I took off my shoes and looked for the slippers which again are standard features in Chinese hotels. I was puzzled once more. I looked in every corner, but still couldn't find the slippers. Later, when I told this to an American friend, he laughed and said that if he went to China he would wonder why the slippers were in the Chinese hotel.

Well, then I turned to food, and met my next surprise. Only at that point did I realise that I had freedom to eat whatever and whenever I wanted, because no meals were included in the conference registration fees. I had never experienced such freedom. In China, conference participants usually enjoy at least two meals plus welcome and departure banquets as part of the package. Fortunately I had sufficient US dollars with me. My American colleagues comforted me by pointing out that if meals had been included, the registration fee would have been much higher.

Concerning the conference itself, I hadn't expected that over 500 people would come, and from every continent, to the meeting of a national society. First I had thought that there would be a limitation on the number of participants, which is the usual practice in China. For CCES conferences, each province or university is given a quota by the CCES committee according to the size and role of the province or institution. The main reason is that the conference organisers cannot support too many people. The organisers gain financial aid from various sponsors, and, in contrast to the USA, cannot expect to recover costs from the participants.

My next mistake was to have assumed that all participants had been chosen by the conference organiser because of the quality of their proposed presentations. When my proposal had been accepted, I had felt proud. Only at the conference itself did I learn that anyone who had registered before the deadline could make a presentation, and that anyone who could find time and money could attend. I completely lost my sense of superiority when I learned that. It was really new to me not only that opportunities to present could be obtained equally by both big potatoes and small potatoes, but also that participants could choose which sessions they wanted to attend and even could leave those sessions in the middle. In China, speakers are selected by the conference committees. For both plenary and parallel sessions, it is an honour to be selected as a speaker.

Next I reflected on the organisation of the conference. The official theme was 'Bringing Culture Back In'. In China, each conference has a theme; and all papers must relate to that theme. In this light, I had carefully tailored my presentation to fit the theme of the CIES conference. Thus I was surprised to find many people in Buffalo making presentations that had nothing to do with the theme. Having got over my surprise, however, I found that many people presented what they were really interested in, and thus did so with seriousness and commitment. I learned a lot from their miscellaneous topics.

Finally, in this conference I experienced a lot of confusion over my name. Of course I knew that Westerners place their surnames last; but I expected people in a comparative conference to be culturally sensitive and to know that Chinese people place their surnames first. Then I realised that a lot of the confusion arose from the fact that most Chinese in the conference did not place their surnames first - they had reversed them for the benefit of the Westerners. Those Westerners who were culturally sensitive could be forgiven for being confused, and for not knowing whether the names had been reversed or not.

Four days for a conference is not long, but memories of this conference will last for ever. I learned so much, not only about comparative education and about the USA, but also about myself! Truly it is a privilege towork in the field of comparative education and to have opportunities for so much continuous learning.

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