¾ Abstracts for Group Sessions ¾

Acedo, Clementina (University of Pittsburgh)

Secondary Education Reform: Global and Regional Trends and Country Case Studies [Panel]

After a general expansion of basic education, developing countries in most regions are facing a political and demographic pressure to expand the access and improve the quality of their secondary education systems. At the same time these governments are revising the main objectives and structure of their secondary and post-basic education in order adjust their systems to the goals of preparing better and productive citizens, improving the transition to the labor market or to higher education and reducing inequality. The panel will present the preliminary findings from a study being undertaken in the context of the USAID-funded “Improving Educational Quality” project. The panel will discuss trends in the types of reforms being undertaken (e.g., organizational restructuring, financing arrangements, curricular change, teacher education) on a global scale as well as within five UNESCO regions: Africa, Arab States, East Asia and the Pacific, (Central/Eastern) Europe, and Latin America. In addition, more in-depth case studies on specific secondary education reforms in five countries (currently being determined) will be described and analyzed comparatively. The case studies will illuminate the groups and contextual dynamics that are involved in shaping whether and how reforms are proposed, adopted, and implemented.

Ahmed, Manzoor (UNICEF and University of Pittsburgh)

Basic Education in South Asia: Challenges of Quality, Equity and Access [Panel]

The South Asian sub-continent, with a fifth of world’s people, has the dubious distinction of being the home of half of world’s illiterates and children deprived of basic education opportunities, as well as almost half of the world’s poor living on less than a dollar a day. In the last three decades, governments in the region pledged a greater effort in basic education and committed larger public resources. In the 1990s, South Asian countries renewed their commitment to “education for all” in the wake of the Jomtien World Conference on Education for All. But progress during the decade has faltered and targets have remained far from being fulfilled - especially in respect of quality of learning and reduction of inequality in opportunities. The Panel, drawing on members’ involvement in South Asia as well as their experience in other parts of the world, will assess where individual countries and the region stand today, critically examine national efforts and international cooperation in the past decade, and will indicate lessons and strategies for meeting the challenges of access, equity and quality in basic education.

Altbach, Philip (Boston College)

Comparative Higher Education: Issues for the 21st Century [Symposium]

This symposium will bring together key experts to discuss central trends in higher education in a comparative perspective. The presenters will deal with issues set forth in a common framework paper co-authored by Philip G. Altbach and Todd Davis. Among the issues highlighted are: Expansion and differentiation, the challenge of higher education and work, technology and higher education, access and accountability, privatization and higher education, globalization and the universities. These are among the central issues facing academic systems worldwide. Each panelist will prepare research based comments focusing on these topics, so that there will be a commonality of issues presented from a broad geographical framework.

Aoki, Aya (The World Bank, HDNED)

Partnering in Adult Basic Education [Symposium]

Adult basic education is indispensable to attaining the goal of Education for All efforts. Reducing adult illiteracy, one of the six major goals endorsed in Jomtien in 1990, is now reemphasized with an expanded vision at the World Education Forum in Dakar in 2000 as ‘Achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.’

To take up this challenge requires strong commitments and partnerships from both government and civil society. The symposium would seek effective models and processes of government – civil society (NGOs, communities, private sector) partnership in adult basic education, as well as roles of international organizations and NGOs including the World Bank and ActionAid. Such partnerships are central to capacity building and professional development to achieve quality basic education and skills training for adults and out-of-school youth. The background papers would present various forms of government-civil society collaboration. The presenters plan to invite a few more partners to share their experiences and/or comments and critiques at the symposium.

Ardizzone, Leonisa (Teachers College, Columbia University)

Expanding the Conversation: Youth voices- An Affirmative Alternative [Panel]

Taken from the point of view of adolescent Bosnian refugees in New York, Youth Peace builders in New York City and child museum-goers in Jamaica, this panel considers both formal and informal aspects of education systems in developed and developing nations. This panel incorporates the fields of refugee, peace and museum education from a psycho-social perspective. Each panelist will speak to resonance through the views of very different target populations pointing to alternative possibilities for policy and practice. The rationale behind this joint presentation is a shared belief that policy and reform should be informed by the voices of those ultimately affected in order to be just and sustainable. The voices of youth will be brought into the conversation on a local level as it relates to the global.

Baker, David (Pennsylvania State University)

Where are we going? Comparative and International Education in the 21st Century [Panel]

Where is the comparative and international study of education heading in the 21st Century? What are the current theoretical issues, problems, and practices that need be discussed, reviewed, and debated? How have specific sub-fields fared over the past decade? Our discipline appears poised to take a leadership role in policy debates and decisions, as well as comparative scholarship throughout the world, but first we need to examine where we have been and where we need to go. This panel examines specific areas in the field and discusses where they are headed in the future. The participants will investigate topics ranging from: distance education, the role of international organizations on human capital, the validity of cross-national studies of student achievement, education policies in developing countries and a comparative look at curriculum as a tool for promoting educational standards.

Balzer, Harley (Georgetown University)

Global Policies and Regional Alternatives in Russian and Post-Soviet Higher Education [Panel]

This panel will examine the acute crises and attempted reforms in the sphere of higher education in the Russian Federation and the other states of the former Soviet Union from the perspective of their relation to global patterns of higher educational reform. Two papers focus on case studies of reform in Russian higher education. Olga Bain’s presentation focuses on the effects of the attempted imposition of a neo-liberal agenda in Russian higher education, and entails a critical analysis of the attempted imposition of market mechanisms and demand-driven financing. Dmitry Suspitsin’s presentation is a detailed case study of the admissions practices at a Russian pedagogical university from the perspective of organizational theory. Mark Johnson’s presentation will entail a broader perspective on the attempted adoption of global policies such as marketization, privatization, and decentralization in higher education in the non-Russian republics of the former Soviet Union, and will also examine the complex mix of successful reforms in this sector, together with a critical analysis of the serious systemic crises that are degrading higher education in terms of both excellence and equity throughout the former Soviet Union.

Banya, Kingsley (Florida International University)

Sustainability, the Environment and Higher Education [Panel]

Development is based on the premise that certain peoples and societies are less developed than others and that those who are more developed (modern) have the expertise (knowledge) to help the less developed societies achieve modernity. This concept is a linear Western definition of modernity and the rationale for the development enterprise since the 1940’s (Parpart and Marchand, 1995). This definition of development has recently been challenged by scholars using post modern critiques of modernity, Western universalism and dualist/binary thinking. Indeed, some scholars are taking the development debate in a new direction. Recognizing the relationship between language and power, they have questioned the language/discourse of development, particularly the representation of the South/Third World as the impoverished, background ‘other’ in need of salvation from the developed North/First World. This dualist construction, they point out, has reinforced the authority of Northern development agencies and specialists, whether mainstream or alternative, and provided the rationale for development policies and practices that are designed to incorporate the Southern nations into a Northern-dominated world. This approach, they argue, is no longer appropriate in an increasingly complex and interrelated world.

Barcikowski, Elizabeth (The Mitchell Group)

Measuring pupil achievement in the context of diversity: Tools for evaluating impact of school quality improvement programs with an example from Ghana [Panel]

New instructional practices, professional development for teachers and school managers, improved infrastructure and community development in education are of little consequence in achievement is outcome is not positively impacted. However, evaluating impact on pupil achievement is difficult to do, particularly in the context of substantial linguistic and cultural diversity and marked pupil differences in academic and cognitive ability. The panelists will introduce a battery of achievement tests that have been developed to meet these challenges and at the same time sufficiently sensitive to evaluate impact of school quality improvement programs. The instruments assess achievement growth in mathematics, English literacy, and English speaking and listening among Grade 3 to Grade 6 pupils. Each presenter will discuss on e of there instruments that make up the test battery and discuss the qualities of the instrument or administration procedure that have proved to be useful in meeting the challenges of pupil diversity. The discussant will address the importance of focusing on learning change in longitudinal study designs as opposed to static performance in cross sectional designs for evaluating impact of school quality improvement programs in developing countries, particularly in multi-lingual and multi-cultural nations. Preliminary findings from USAID/Ghana’s Quality Improvement in Primary Schools Program will be presented.

Boyle, Helen (Education Development Center, Inc.)

Interactive Radio Instruction: Waves That Resonate [Panel]

In the last several years, Education Development Center, Inc. has expanded its use of interactive radio instruction in many new directions. In this session we present these new applications and discuss the implications of their use for project designers, donors and stakeholders. Specifically, IRI is emerging as an effective and economically viable means of providing teacher training and on-going teacher support in the classroom; as a means of ensuring educational equity, both in terms of gender and rural/urban equity and as a feasible strategy for reaching hard to reach populations (i.e. AIDs orphans, nomads and other out of school groups). Using examples from on going projects, panel members will illustrate how IRI is being applied in the new ways outlined above and what the practical implications (benefits and disadvantages) there are for the use of IRI in these new ways.

Boyle, Helen (Education Development Center, Inc.)

Pursuing quality schooling through synergistic actions in a resource-lean environment: The combination of child-centered classroom practice, standards-based system management, decentralized pedagogical support mechanisms, and evaluation in Guinea. [Panel]

Following an ambitious push in educational expansion in the early 1990’s, Guinea began to reorient its reform efforts mid-decade, to ensure that school quality would also be firmly supported in further system expansion efforts. In this context, the Ministry of Pre-University Education and its partners have launched a number of pedagogical, management, evaluation, and policy initiatives to enhance educational quality. These initiatives have involved a broad mobilization of actors at all levels — region, prefecture, district, school, and community as well as at the center. Observers anticipate that these initiatives (which are taking place with little fiscal decentralization, although with varying degrees of donor support) can ultimately lead to appropriate fiscal devolution as well.

Key challenges ahead for sustainability are clear: (1) galvanizing political will at the highest levels for effective decentralization of authorities and financial resources; (2) establishing responsible financial management capacities and practices at all levels; and (3) consolidating other emerging technical and management capacities at all levels.

Bray, Mark (University of Hong Kong)

Comparative Education in China: The Field and its Evolution [Panel]

The panel will bring together three scholars who will analyze the changing nature of comparative education in China. One will focus on the major parameters of the field in its political context, the second will focus on the contributions of a particular individual, and the third will analyze the contributions and constraints of a particular institution. Comparisons will be made between developments of the field in China and developments in other parts of the world.

Brewster, Andrea (UCLA)

Looking Forward and Looking Back: A Conversation with the Editors of the Comparative Education Review [Panel]

In July 1998, the editorial office of the Comparative Education Review (CER) moved to the University of California, Los Angeles. This roundtable discussion will provide the opportunity for the editor of the CER, John Hawkins, and the associate editors, Val Rust, Nelly Stromquist, and Carlos Alberto Torres, to share their general vision of the journal for the coming years and to reflect on the journal’s time at UCLA so far. It will also be an opportunity for the members of the CIES community to participate in refining this vision and making it more representative of the views of students, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in the fields of comparative and international education. There will be brief presentations by the editors and audience participation will be strongly encouraged.

Brewster, Andrea (UCLA)

Conversations with Journal Editors, Academics, and Young Scholars [Symposium]

The editorial board of the Comparative Education Review will sponsor a roundtable discussion aimed primarily toward graduate students and young scholars. This workshop will provide information about publishing in academic journals in the fields of international and comparative education. This will be an informal dialogue between experts in the field and participants. During this session, published senior and junior scholars, and representatives from the editorial board of the Comparative Education Review will share their wisdom and experience about the basic tenets of research, writing, and publishing academic articles. Presenters will discuss issues such as journals in the field of comparative and international education; journal policies and audience; style and submission requirements; and the review process. Organizers will also share handouts, articles, and online resources on publishing with participants. Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and express ideas during an informal discussion period at the end of the session.

Brown, Kara (Indiana University)

Development Policy and Mother-Tongue Instruction: Economic and Language Strategies in China and Estonia. [Panel]

What role do economic and political concerns and ideologies play in language planning? This panel explores the intersection of national development plans and local language concerns in rural China and Estonia. Specifically we examine the use of minority languages as languages of instruction. We address the struggle of linguistic and/or ethnic minorities to achieve greater status for their language in the local and national context. We further explore the tension that exists because many rural residents in peripheral regions are keenly aware of their lack of economic opportunity and find it difficult to support the investment of time, resources, and energy into a language whose boundaries are coextensive with those of economic deprivation. Brown investigates how southern Estonian schools have become entangled in larger debates over language planning, the strategies devised over the past eleven years to revive Voro (a regional language) and promote its legal status and cultural prestige in relation to Estonian (the state language). Buckwalter considers the prospects for mother-tongue education for ethnic minorities in western China in light of the recent initiative know as the “Great Development of the West”. Hunter examines the use of the mother tongue as language of instruction in Tibet as a method of reconnecting a population disengaged from its educational delivery system.

Brown, Katherine (Loyola University)

Alternatives for Adult Education: Models in the New Millennium [Panel]

As educational leaders strive to meet the increasing needs and demands for adult education, both in the United States and around the world, a discussion on models becomes essential. Who decides the content and goals of adult education? How integral are students in developing the vision of future adult education programs? Are the programs to be skill-driven or education experiences that broaden students’ perspectives and aid them in realizing their individual potential?

This panel will present an adult educational model that is well over one hundred years old as well as a developing model based on the needs of today’s students. The strengths and challenges of these models will be explored, as well as their potential to influence the discussion surrounding adult education reform. The final paper in the panel will draw attention to all-important outside forces often influencing adult education reform. The panelists hope that the diverse perspectives of the papers will lead to a lively discussion on the feasibility of future adult education alternatives.

Buchert, Lene (UNESCO)

The Global Initiative to Support National Efforts in Education for All [Panel]

The World Education Forum in Dakar (April 2000) committed itself to wide-ranging goals and targets for Education for All to be achieved by the years 2005 and 2015. It mandated UNESCO to lead the global initiative for support to national efforts in Education for All. The purpose of the panel is to present work in this area by three core partners in the global initiative: UNESCO, Unicef and the World Bank. The panel will focus, amongst others, on rationale and strategies for international resource mobilization and poverty-oriented targeting, and on specific work on the ground in different contexts, including conflict, post-conflict and emergency countries. The latter includes a specific focus on what are called flagship programs.

Buchert, Lene (UNESCO)

UNESCO/Unicef/World Bank Panel on the Global Initiative To Support National Efforts in Education for All [Symposium]

The World Education Forum in Dakar (April 2000) committed itself to wide-ranging goals and targets for Education for All to be achieved by the years 2005 and 2015. It mandated UNESCO to lead the global initiative for support to national efforts in Education for All. The purpose of the panel is to present work in this area by three core partners in the global initiative: UNESCO, Unicef and the World Bank. The panel will focus , amongst others, on rationale and strategies for international resource mobilization and poverty oriented targeting, and on specific work on the ground in different contexts , including conflict, post-conflict and emergency a countries. The latter includes a specific focus on what are called flagship programs.

Camp Yeakey, Carol (University of Virginia)

Global Dimensions of Child Poverty and Public Policy [Symposium]

Childhood has often been perceived of as an age of innocence. Children of the poor, in particular, lack the political power and will to change the conditions of their lives. This panel provides a unique lens by which to view child poverty and relevant public policies in national and global contexts and, in so doing, examines in rich detail the values underlying how developed and developing countries care for their young. Often lost in much of the posturing of governments and nation-states as to their support for children’s rights, are the real policies and programs which serve as barometers and barriers to impede the social development and human potential of future generations. The papers on this panel examine: the growing controversies surrounding the exploitation of child labor among global markets; the lives of migrant children of undocumented workers in America; the global implications of childhood disease and malnutrition; the increasing racial and class antagonisms among urban poor males in developed countries, towards ‘newcomers’; and, America’s increasing failure to educate children of the poor. Each paper is data based and richly grounded in theory and research pertinent to the topic. Analyses conclude with a discussion of the intended and unintended social consequences of each study’s findings for the host society and the inherent values implicit in those social consequences for future generations.

Chabbott, Colette (National Academy of Sciences)

BICSE Town Hall Meeting: Exploring Long-Term Research Agendas for Comparative and International Education [Townhall Meeting]

The Board on International Comparative Studies in Education invites CIES members to participate in town hall meeting to discuss future research agenda for international and comparative education research that could help inform US education policy making. About the Board: The U.S. National Academy of Sciences established the Board on International Comparative Studies in Education (BICSE) in 1988 to help analyze and synthesize international and comparative education research in ways that could directly inform the development of U.S. education policy. Principally funded by the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics and the National Science Foundation, for its first 10 years, BICSE focused largely on issues relating to the Third International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) and on improving cross-national education indicators. In 1998, however, BICSE received a new four year grant that substantially broadened its scope of work. BICSE is now looking for ways to incorporate the findings of smaller scale international and comparative research on a broader variety of topics.

Chapman, David (University of Minnesota)

In rapidly changing times, is looking back a useful basis for looking ahead?: The Utilization of Evaluation Results in International Organizations [Panel]

International development organizations are using the turn of the century as an opportunity to review their performance and reassess their development strategies for the next decade. To do this, several organizations are engaged in conducting large scale reviews of individual profect evaluations conducted over the last 5-10 years, seeking to identify particularly successful interventions and implementation approaches. At the same time, virtually all observers recognize that the external circumstances facing the developing world are rapidly changing. The future of many citizens is already being shaped by forces that were of relatively minor consequence over the last two decades. Is looking back a useful basis for looking ahead? This panel will discuss the ways in which (and the extent that) reviewing the findings of past project evaluations can inform the decision process of large international development assistance organizations and issues in the conduct of those types of reviews.

Chinapah, Vinayagum (UNESCO)

Quality of Education [Symposium]

The human rights to the achievement and fulfillment of “minimum and basic learning competencies for ALL” still remain a far-reaching dream for too many at the dawn of this new millennium. The world’s poor, the “marginalized”, the “oppressed” and the “unreached” who are mostly girls and women of rural villages and urban slums are increasingly deprived of their rights to a basic education of quality. Being a down-to earth concern and imperative, the provision of an education of quality for all requires a holistic approach to teaching and learning and to the development of the human kind in general.. The environmental conditions and contexts at home, in the community, at school and in the classroom have direct bearings on the quality of teaching and learning and learning outcomes in particular. The latter are often measured through high-stakes examinations which in turn are used to screen out, to select and to push out the majority from the elected few for future educational or occupational opportunities. Monitoring what our children are learning, how and under which conditions, will be addressed by this panel based upon tangible results from educational surveys and studies around the globe, in different regions and from sample of national cases . Mastering the minimum and basic learning competencies as are defined for respective relevant and targeted groups has been examined and assessed since the Jomtien 1990’s World Conference on Education for All. The findings and policy implications were presented and reported at the recent World Education Forum (Dakar, April 2000) as follow-ups to regional and sub-regional presentations. The panelists will take stock of the most recent findings and policy-implications for the improvement of quality education using international, regional, sub-regional and national perspectives.

Clayton, Thomas (University of Kentucky)

The International Spread of English: Implications for Global Equity [Panel]

Since the Second World War and particularly in the last decade, the English language has spread into use in an astonishing diversity of settings internationally. Reasons for the international spread of English are both varied and mappable. From a functional perspective, national policy makers explain decisions privileging the use of English as facilitating the integration of linguistically diverse nations, offering cost advantages over the development of indigenous languages for use in multiple domains, and providing opportunities for international communication within the context of education, science and technology, commerce, the internet, and other arenas. From a radical-functional perspective, critics argue that advanced capitalist nations manipulate language policies in developing countries in favor of English; the development of a global English language infrastructure provides direct economic advantage to advanced capitalist nations and, further, provides a linguistic mechanism for the international transmission of ideologies congruent with their interests. Against this theoretical backdrop, authors on this panel present case studies of the international spread of English in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Thus, authors advance our fund of descriptive knowledge about the international spread of English, while at the same time seeking a complex understanding of the implications of this phenomenon for global equity.

Cleghorn, Ailie (Concord University)

Science Literacy, Science Materials and perceptions of Science: A Cross National Perspective [Panel]

The panel will draw on research from differing cultural perspectives in Europe, North America and Africa, to illuminate the interface between (1) ideas of science and science education (2) the materials used to communicate such ideas and (3) the development of science literacy. Participants will present findings relating to both teachers’ and learners’ perspectives. One paper (Cleghorn) will focus on how the nature of teachers’ views of the nature of science relate to perceptions of culturally appropriate teaching approaches. A second paper (Peacock) considers the repertoire of science teaching strategies used in differing cultural contexts, and how these impact on the use of materials and ideas of science implicit in such use. The third paper (McEneaney) uses macrosociological perspectives to address the issue of why scientific literacy as a pedagogical approach has diffused so widely. The fourth paper (Pillai) reports on children’s science in Ethiopia through analysis of the indigenous knowledge content of a grade two, Amharic language textbook. Panel discussion will be directed towards the implications of the above for the emergence of science literacy, and how these notions can be brought to bear on global health, environmental and other concerns.

Cornbleth, Catherine (University at Buffalo)

Climates and Constraints on US Curriculum and Teaching [Symposium]

In this symposium, we offer comparative perspectives on climates of constraints and restraints on curriculum, teaching, teacher professional development, and administration that have been shown to impede school improvement efforts. We are especially interested in climates that impede teaching for meaningful learning and critical thinking that incorporate diverse students and perspectives. In addition to continuing interest in and effort toward quality schooling, this proposal has two more immediate sources: a joint profect between Addis Ababa University and the University at Buffalo to improve distance education, particularly an AAU curriculum masters program; and an interpretive review of English language research on constraints/restraints on curriculum and teaching.

Cummings, William (Graduate School of Education and Human Development)

The Future of Urban Youth in Big Cities [Symposium]

To greater or lesser degree, big cities around the world face a common fate. The new industries of the communications-leisure complex find it more congenial to locate their workplaces in suburban and rural settings and to erect relatively high technical entry requirements for employees. The older industries that once located near the edge of big cities tend to be in decline. In this context of global neglect, some big cities continue to provide important and even expanding functions as modes of transport, networking governance, culture, finance and crime. However, many of the young people who grow up in the big cities sense a great distance between their upbringing and the opportunities available in their environs. This may be especially the case in the big cities such as those in South Africa and the cast coast of the US ,which for different reasons, have experienced two or more decades of decline, before the recent up turn of their fortunes. For example, in South Africa, the lost generation of youth raised under apartheid were deprived of even minimal educational opportunities and now in the new democratic era are expected somehow to catch up with the new generation. For a large proportion of urban youth, especially those raised in poorer homes where parents are weak in social and cultural capital, the big city as currently structured offers little hope. This study seeks, through a comparison of several big cities, to gain a deeper understanding of condition of urban youth, the opportunities available to them, the types of innovative educational programs that have been developed in some settings to enable these youth to make connections with the adult citizenship roles of work, parenthood, community participation and politics and leisure. For the CIES 2001 conference, a symposium will be convened with representatives to speak on cross cutting concerns such as demographic, economic, social and educational indicators as well as on the policy environment and interventions in the featured big cities of Washington, D.C, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Tokyo, Jakarta, Addis Ababa, and Cape town.

Darnell, William (Academy for Educational Development)

Post-basic Education Critical Issues and Forces Affecting Policy Decisions [Panel]

This panel will identify critical issues for consideration in the development of post basic education policies, and to identify practical lessons learned from the global experience of the last decades of reform and reassessment of secondary education. The panel will also assess the forces affecting the expansion, structure and curriculum of post-basic education world-wide, discuss the dilemmas that countries typically face. Particular emphasis is given to the critical issues affecting central policy reform and will include international comparisons and country-specific lessons. An overview will set the framework for policy making in post-basic education by identifying forces affecting expansion, structure and curriculum of youth education and presenting the critical policy issues faced by government and families in different countries. Alternative policies and approaches to these new demands and global evolution will be discussed as a background for in-depth analyses of the issues: expansion and equity, knowledge and skills for the new economy and the contribution of technology.

Darnell, William (Academy for Educational Development)

Bangladesh’s Female Secondary School Assistance Project: Expanding the Definition of Quality [Symposium]

The Government of Bangladesh through the IDA/World Bank’s Female Secondary School Assistance Project (FSSAP) has provided over one million rural Bangladeshi girls access to lower secondary school. The project has raised girls’ enrollment to parity with boys in secondary school and has brought about a ‘quiet’ social revolution for girls and women in Bangladesh, changing family and societal expectations for girls and girls’ expectations for themselves and their futures. FSSAP has been lauded as one of the most significant reform efforts for secondary school girls internationally in the last three decades.

As Phase Two of the project is considered, challenges and conundrums that surfaced in Phase One come to the fore: What have been the trade-offs between rapidly expanding access and educational quality and how can quality be improved? What shifting roles and responsibilities for ministries of education, NGOs, the private sector, and individual schools will result in more efficient and effective project implementation? Since communities have been involved only in limited ways in FSSAP, can their involvement be increased to improve girls’ and boys’ achievement in Phase Two? When is an appropriate time for scholarship and stipend assistance to come to an end?

Draxler, Alexandra (UNESCO)

Which ICT Solutions for Which Educational Problems? [Symposium]

The benefits of information and communications technologies for delivery of education and as learning tools are widely assumed to be obvious. All educational innovations, however, carry risks, whether they be of failure to deliver the improvement promised, or of lack of sustainability, or finally of unforeseen negative consequences. In wealthy societies, these risks are generally viewed as small compared to the benefits gained from experimentation, diversification, and enhanced experience and evidence about the various effects on learning when new approaches are implemented. In the developing world, the risks are greater; implementation costs are relatively higher compared to overall budgets; systems are less resilient, making innovation more problematic to put in place; hidden costs and maintenance costs, even when small; can be impossible to cover and bring innovations to a halt; and a technology that is comparatively novel in the societal setting can be locked away, stolen or broken very quickly. These considerations are crucial to making effective decisions about ho w and on what scale technological innovations can bring real benefits in delivery, quality, and reach of education in developing countries.

Epstein, Erwin (Loyola University of Chicago)

An examination of Content Boundaries and Standards in the Teaching of Comparative and International Education [Panel]

Recent national and regional CIES conferences have hosted various symposia on the content boundaries and standards in comparative and international education programs and courses around the world. These discussions have been useful in discerning how our field might better develop programs, curriculum and coursework for students pursuing studies in the field. The discussions also revealed how little attention comparativists have given in the past to sharing views on classroom instruction, especially in regard to the question of how the field should be introduced to those being exposed to it for the first time.

Introductory course syllabi and other descriptive documents compiled from institutions that teach comparative education will be presented and discussed. Questions will be raised concerning the nature of differences and similarities among introductory course outlines. To what extent do comparative education courses reflect, or should reflect, common ground? What topics and literature should be considered essential when teaching comparative education courses? To what extent do instructors focus on comparative education as a finite discipline? To what degree is there conceptual consistency in the teaching of comparative and international education?

The panel includes introductory-course instructors who will explain their outlines and course objectives. It is hoped that by thoughtfully and carefully considering how others teach the field, comparativist scholars and instructors will gain insight into their own content delivery.

Epstein, Irving (Illinois Wesleyan University)

Preserving Academic Freedom Globally: The Scholars at Risk Network [Symposium]

The Scholars at Risk Network assists scholars outside the US whose work is threatened by mass or individual displacement, discrimination, censorship, harassment, intimidation, or violence. The Network is designed to include universities, colleges, and research centers that will serve as temporary hosts for qualified scholars who are in need of sanctuary outside of their home region. Members of this symposium will examine the assumptions that led to the creation of the Network in June, 2000, the logistical and operational issues involved in administering such a program, and the larger implications for comparative educators concerned with global issues regarding academic freedom, brain drain, and scholarly exchange. The Network is housed at the University of Chicago and has been supported with a grant from the MacArthur Foundation. During the 1930s and 1940s, prominent higher education institutions such as the University of Chicago and the New School for Social Research provided assistance to persecuted European intellectuals and scholars who contributed to the reinvigoration of academic life in North America. Whether such a model is transferable to the 21st century global context is a specific theme that the panel will discuss. Other themes include the degree to which academicians and public intellectuals are more deserving of protection than other citizens in conflict-ridden societies; the degree to which persecution for political involvement coincides with or departs from the exercise of academic freedom; and the long-term implications of embarking upon a program that can at best offer temporary assistance to scholars in immediate danger.

Evers, Michael (International Institute for Study of Ergonagy)

A Comparison of Perceptions in Japan and the United States on the Value of Education and Training Subjects [Panel]

As educators and their institutions increasingly form linkages in a global society from which they may develop Affirmative Alternatives for Educational Policy, Practice, and Transformation, it is essential that input is gleaned from recipients of education who are now putting into practice what they have learned as a function of current and past educational endeavors. This panel presentation offers insights, research findings, and results of surveys conducted in Japan and the United States of workers’ perceptions as to which aspects of education are proving to be most beneficial to them in their work and daily life. The impact of differences in educational concepts, national heritage versus multicultural globalism, and technological advances are considered in light of the survey results. The first in a series of studies that will provide input from various sources that will eventually offer a “360 perspective” of the perceived value of education and training for work, this comparative glimpse of two countries’ perceptions will hopefully stimulate similar comparative studies. The discussion conducted in this session should be of interest to educators involved in formulating curricula, internships, and applied educational experiences.

Fair, Kristi (Macro International)

Educational Attainment and the Demand for Schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa [Panel]

This panel includes three papers on educational attainment and the demand for schooling in sub-Saharan Africa, using household-based education data from the DHS EdData Activity and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) program. Anne Genereux and Kim Bolyard present data from the 1999 Guinea DHS, which included an extensive module on education. Tracy Brunette discusses profiles of education in sub-Saharan African countries, which draw on a decade of DHS education data. Kristi Fair discusses the development of the core survey instruments, and modification of those instruments for use in Uganda.

Farrell, Joseph (University of Toronto/OISE)

Transforming the Forms of Primary Education in Latin America [Panel]

In Latin America there have been in recent years many attempts to radically transform education, particularly the primary level, to provide more effective opportunities to learn for severely marginalized children. Based upon recently completed field research, three of these cases will be analyzed in this panel. Escuela Nueva in Colombia is an attempt to radically transform ‘forms’ of traditional formal education. Pitt examines its effect on civic learning and later civic behavior. Chile’s P900 program directs additional resources specifically to the most disadvantaged schools/communities, without altering the traditional forms of schooling. Miwa compares successful and less successful participating schools, and compares this to her earlier work on Escuela Nueva. ESEDIR prepares teachers for proposed radically transformed Mayan primary schools in Guatemala. O’Sullivan analyzes the process and political context, and early stage results. These three cases represent important variations in approach to transforming education. Farrell’s overview compares and locates them in the context of an analysis of attempts to radically alter primary education throughout the developing world.

Franchette, Lisa (USAID Ghana)

Results of USAID/Ghana’s Quality Improvements in Primary Schools Project (QUIPS) [Panel]

The proposal is to present four inter-related papers on the results of fieldwork conducted by QUIPS, a USAID-sponsored project, to examine the impact of a primary school project in Ghana, for improving the effectiveness of primary education. The panel represents a series of case studies, which examine observed impacts and expected sustainability of community participation; observed impacts of teaching/learning and supervisory interventions and student/teacher attendance and student achievement; as promoted by the QUIPS model. The methodologies and processes utilized represent several new and innovative techniques including a ‘emerging practices’ approach, use of an appreciative inquiry approach to introducing change at the school level, and a participatory and collaborative approach in the development of instruments/materials and the delivery of program, and building on Ministry and other donor-supported programs in the education sector. To date, QUIPS has fully implemented a two-year intervention cycle in 45 communities throughout the southern regions of Ghana and is currently active in 150 schools/commun-ities throughout the country. The presentation and discussion includes implementation, results/impact and lessons learned.

Garcia-Sellers, Martha (Tufts University)

Promoting Immigrant Children’s Self Expression and School Adaptation through Photography [Panel]

Immigrant schoolchildren face a variety of challenges. English language proficiency is foremost and obvious, but there are other social and cultural obstacles. Until children can communicate easily in English, they may be unable to express what they value most: their friends, fears, and wishes. The disparity between home and school environments is significant making it difficult to translate one to the other. But verbal communication is not the only option; visual communication can provide a means for children to express themselves, thereby enabling teachers and parents to understand them better. This panel describes a photography project, one component of a larger program to promote school adaptation, with Hispanic immigrant children in a Massachusetts elementary school. Second-graders were asked photograph things that meant something special to them at home and school. Later, they were interviewed to discover what the photographs signified. They also wrote brief descriptions of selected photographs. This technique enhanced classroom participation, facilitated communication between teachers and parents, and improved understanding children’s characteristics. Paper 1 explains how children construct cultural continuity between home and school. Selected photos and stories will exemplify this relationship. Paper 2 relates photographic style and content to children’s school adaptation. Paper 3 discusses how photographic expression can strengthen communication among children, teachers, parents and the larger community. The panel organizer will guide discussion on research implications and the benefits of this approach for promoting the school success of Hispanic immigrant children.

Garrow, Stephanie (McGill University, Faculty of Education)

Theory Building for Improved Practice: A discussion of how feminist and post-colonial theory can inform educational practice in international development [Dialogue]

Drawing on their experience in educational development in Africa and South Asia, the presenters of this symposium will engage participants in a dialogue that explores ways in which feminist and post-colonial theory open up spaces for educational alternatives, particularly where partnerships between different educational stakeholders are involved

(e.g. teachers /administrators/schools/government/NGOs).

The focus will be on partnerships to develop girls’ education and partnerships that support teacher development for change. These are emerging areas of interest in the international development field, and yet the related activities, and the policies from which they arise, cannot be divorced from theoretical debates that challenge the generalizations, assumptions and power positions upon which they may be based.

In light of recent Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) policy development that focuses on basic education, it is highly pertinent to reflect on the ways in which such policy becomes practice and how the partnerships required for implementation both develop and function. The symposium will begin with a dialogue in which the presenters share some of their field experiences and current thinking about the partnerships they have been involved in. Participants will then be engaged to think about ways in which theoretical issues and analysis can provide stimulating new ways of both ‘thinking about’ and ‘doing’.

Ginsburg, Mark (University of Pittsburgh)

Limitations and Possibilities of Dialogue Among Researchers, Policymakers, and Practitioners [Panel]

This two-session panel features presentations by contributors to the May 2001 special issue of the Comparative Education Review on this theme as well as by other individuals working on this topic. The presentations will examine the structural and cultural barriers to communication between researchers, on the one hand, and policymakers and practitioners, on the other. Specific cases involving comparative and international educators will be discussed to illustrate the limitations and possibilities of following various strategies for overcoming these barriers: 1) translation/mediation, 2) education, 3) role expansion, 4) decision-oriented research, 5) collaborative action research, 6) collective research and praxis. Of interest is not just one- or two-way communication between these groups on a local or national level. Instead, the focus is on the Freirean notion of dialogue – joint reflection and action – among the variety of individuals and groups who are involved in education at institutional, local, national, and international levels.

Gomez, Joel (George Washington University)

Policies for Promoting Community Participation in Education [Symposium]

Drawing on recent experience with innovative work to promote basic education in such diverse areas as Zambia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, El Salvador, Afghanistan

Gorin, Stephanie (Harvard University)

What Informs the Design of Girls’ Education Initiatives? [Panel]

If we are to be true to the goal of achieving gender equity in education, we must include women in the discourse. No one is more aware of the scope of the local needs and challenges facing them than women and girls themselves. This panel will explore the participatory approaches used to inform project design of girls’ education initiatives. It will first provide a framework for understanding inclusive methodologies and their applications. It will then highlight the use of participatory approaches to project design in Morocco, Bolivia, and The Gambia. We will examine the efficacy and sustainability of these projects in empowering women and girls.

Gottlieb, Esther (West Virginia University)

The Role of the Academic Experts in Education Development [Panel]

The Asian World Bank states that “ADB hires individual consultants and consulting firms for a wide range of assignments. Individual consultants, whether hired directly or through organizations, provide expert advice and assist ADB in preparing studies, appraisals, and reports while functioning, in effect, as temporary ADB staff. Because it has a mandate to assist its to assist its developing member countries in the Asia-Pacific region, ADB needs to maintain an inventory of suitably qualified individual consultants to provide consulting services for its various projects.”

The ADB is not the only organization that maintains a large database of individuals, firms and organizations for easy retrieval to lend their expertise “ to assist its developing member countries.” The World Bank, USAID, USIA, ADE, IIE, IRR and many other agencies, consulting firm and universities who bid on large ‘developmental’ projects (e.g. Harvard University BRIDGES project) hire experts, many of them academicians. The field of education in general and Comparative Ed in particular has produced a busy hard working crop of experts, many of them prolific in the production of academic capital as well as accumulation personal experience and wealth from consulting work. The CIES Annual Conference has always benefited from the “field project” papers and the session on practicing (not just theorizing) comparative education. I recall during one of my first CIES meeting questioning one of these experts on his statement on “inter-generation mobility due to attainment of education.” His respond was prefaced by “last week when I met with the Prim Minster of Ethiopia…” I never questioned again the findings of International Education consultants. Experts are coming and going, the new generation of experts are different from the one I met 15 years ago (although he is still in our Society) or are they? In order to captured some of the stories, in order to question some of the outcomes I propose two panels to bring together:

Academic Experts

Officials, Advisors and Academicians from countries receiving aid projects

Questions from invited “inquisitors” participants, panelists, and moderator

The idea is not to have formal presentations, but a question answer type of conversation around major issues in Development Education and on the countries the panelists have expertise in.

The thematic ideas are:

Participatory Collaboration

Building Stakeholder Capacity

The Decision processes

Implementation

Financial allocation

Sustainability

The first Panel will focus on Asia with cases from Indonesia, Laos, India, and Mongolia. The second Panel will focus on South Africa, Honduras and Bosnian

Gottlieb, Esther (West Virginia University)

The Nature and Consequences of Academic Expertise in Planning Education Systems [Symposium]

Donor Agencies, Ministries of Education, world banks and development entities have always hires academics as individual consultants for a wide range of assignments and universities have bid on large educational development projects. Academic knowledge products are wanted more than ever, for consumption, adornment or legitimation, rarely for evaluation or assessment. The work of academic experts has yet to be the subject of the critical gaze of a public that feels in command of itself.

Recent education strategy frameworks outlined by leading international aid agencies show a general shift from project based funding to sectoral planning. This policy shift toward the development and enhancement of an “expert systems” approach in educational planning in Countries dependent on foreign aid and regions known as the ‘Developing’ World has important implication. The planning and management of a whole sector rather than a number of discrete projects requires new levels of knowledge and expertise on the part of the donor agencies. It also involves the standardization of large sets of information and data that can contribute to uniform policy implementation across the sector. This shift towards sectoral planning has implications for the role of education consultants, researchers, and advisors, often from North American and Western European academic institutions, who are involved in program planning, implementation and monitoring by international aid agencies. This supercomplex environment is the playground of academic expert advisors. Many scholars in Comparative Education are (while most are not) playing in this arena, where their knowledge products will be taken, used and sometimes abused, distorted or contaminated, before or while being implemented (if they ever are).

The implications of this shift towards sectoral planning within the context of education planning have yet to be examined and understood. This symposium seeks to identify the important implications that underlie this policy shift by bringing together researchers, academic consultants, officials and education professionals from donor/recipient countries.

The focus of this symposium is to discuss the nature of these changes and their impact on the role of academic researchers and/or consultants in the education sector. What is the nature of the expert knowledge that is called for in the current context of sector planning? What are some of the old/new stories from the field told by long-time academic consultants, researchers, and education professionals who are witness to these policies and planning efforts? How has the current supercomplex policy making environment impacted their role, function and activities?

The idea of this session is not to have formal presentations, but devote the time to raising questions by all participants while the invited participants might have a responses to some of the issues. The session will be organized as a participatory symposium around the issues identified in this abstract. In other words the discussion will be open to comments and challenges, as well as to provocative issues that have been circulating for a while now surrounding the work of donor agencies, such as the world bank.

Gove, Amber (Stanford School of Education)

World Bank and Country Perspectives: Results of School Autonomy and Accountability in Bank Projects [Panel]

In this panel, project managers and country representatives will discuss how Bank-financed projects in Brazil and Nicaragua have come to grips with the apparently conflicting issues of school autonomy and accountability. As governments move at varying rates toward greater decentralization, institutions and individuals at the local level are gaining greater autonomy and decision-making responsibilities. In exchange for this empowerment, however, central governments are demanding increased accountability; for education this usually means higher test scores or more efficient student flows. In this panel we will look at how the tension between autonomy and accountability has played out in two World Bank-financed education projects. In the case of Brazil, representatives from the Ministry of Education will present initial findings from the Fundescola’s School Development Plans, under the auspices of which some 1500 schools have received technical assistance in the elaboration and funding for their school plans. For the case of Nicaragua, representatives from the Ministry will present findings from Aprende’s Autonomous Schools model, under which some 1900 schools currently manage their own human and financial resources. Robin Horn, as task manager and World Bank Education Economist, will offer a perspective on balancing the issues of autonomy and accountability in project design. Amber Gove, doctoral student at the Stanford School of Education, will mediate the panel and offer a theoretical perspective as to why this tension has developed in education policy in two such disparate countries.

Grandbois, Alain (Universite du Quebec a Montreal)

Linking Normal Schools and Classrooms:

Guinea’s Pre-Service Teacher Education Program [Symposium]

In 1998, Guinea launched a reform of its pre-service teacher education system. With World Bank funding, Guinea established two new models of teacher education. The first starts with a four month period of teacher education in regional normal schools, followed by one year of supported student teaching. Students then return to normal school for another four month training period, which leads to certification. The second model consists of one year of normal school-based teacher education followed by one year of student teaching and certification.

Establishing these models of teacher education required replacing the system of select demonstration schools with a wider network of collaborating schools. The program also replaced the former evaluation and control-oriented supervisory system with a system of mentoring and professional development.

The panel will begin by describing how the Ministry set up the network of associated schools and organized the student teaching program. Panelists will describe the range of actors involved: student teachers, collaborating teachers, school principals, pedagogical advisors and local educational authorities. The panel will focus on mechanisms established to encourage the development of student teachers’ teaching practice, the evaluation of that practice and the improvement of mentoring capabilities among cooperating teachers, principals and pedagogical advisers.

Grant-Lewis, Sue (Harvard University)

Governance, Participation and Democratization: Reflections from South Africa

Africa” [Symposium]

South Africa, like many countries throughout the world, has introduced new policies for school governance and financing, aiming to serve the national goals of economic growth, democratization, equity and redress. This symposium will explore conceptual and methodological issues related to understanding the joint devolution of governance and financing as it may affect progress towards equity, redress and the democratization of schools. The panelists on the symposium are members of a research team involved in a two-year study of the implementation of the governance and financing policies legislated by the 1996 South African Schools Act (SASA) and the subsequent 1998 National Norms and Standards for School Funding. Panelists will comment on the following: (1) conceptualizing governance, participation and democracy, drawing on lessons from the literature; (2) the Gauteng Province pilot study; (3) methodological issues in analyzing inter- and intra-provincial variations in government financing; (4) challenges in related government financing to that socio-economic backgrounds of communities and school quality, in an effort to better understand conditions likely to effect progress in the implementation of new school governance and financing policies; and (5) existing provincial legislation related to SASA. This resulting discussion will deepen our understanding of educational decentralization in resource-constrained contexts.

Green, Paul (University of California at Riverside)

Globalization and Transformation in American Higher Education [Symposium]

Numerous factors affect the integration and status of African Americans and Latinos participation in the labor force and its influence upon access to educational opportunities in higher education. These include institutional and personal discrimination, redemptive public policies, level of education, skills and work experience, and the state of the economy. While no one cause determines the status of poor communities, one factor that is increasingly decisive is globalization. Globalization has been defined as “ the intensification of economic, political, social and cultural relations across borders.” (Hans-Henrik & Sorensen, 1995, p. 3). As such, globalization will be a driving force influencing governmental and non-governmental decision making in the new millennium. For African Americans and Latinos, the impact of global transformation is compounded by racially discriminatory labor markets, lack of access to education and training, the disappearance of low-skill mid to high wage jobs, political marginalization in public policy, and an ideological backlash that seeks to reverse social, political, economic, legal and legislative gains. This symposium focuses on educational access and opportunity of an increasingly diversified populace in the United States, and highlights strategies for facilitating educational attainment which will have profound consequences for individuals, the global economy and ultimately for society as a whole. In an attempt to answer these questions, this symposium will present the following four papers.

Harris, Katherine (George Washington University)

Abroad and Beyond: 21 Century Initiatives in International Education [Panel]

The year 2000 saw a historic initiative in International Education made by the U.S. Secretaries of State and Education and the President of the United States, holding that the promotion of educational exchanges with other countries should figure prominently in U.S. foreign and educational policy. Advanced technologies and changing times have opened up the world, and as a result, study abroad and exchanges have become an imperative in higher education around the globe. Particularly in the United States, students’ academic goals and destination choices are changing. More and more, students go abroad not only to study language or culture, but also to conduct research at a foreign university that excels in their chosen field. Professional expertise and cross-cultural adaptability gained through foreign scholar exchange and recruitment will serve not only future economic and political leaders, but also their communities as international relationships become more pertinent in the expanding global market.

* Excerpted from A. Landau, Abstract; Climate for Change: an Investigation of Study Abroad Opportunities between the U.S. and Cuba

Hartwell, Ash (Education Development Center, Inc)

Nurturing Diversity in Education Systems: A Global Perspective [Panel]

Policies on the role of education systems in societies with diverse ethnic, linguistic, religious communities have focused on how to integrate populations to achieve unity and equity. Within the USA policies and practice in public schools have historically worked to assimilate immigrant and minority groups into a monocultural system. Likewise, new nation states have attempted to shape national unity with a uniform curriculum, staffing and linguistic policies. With increasing diversity within nations, and with the increasing contact between communities throughout the world, educational policies which seek to impose monocultural unity are challenged.

This panel will explore another perspective - that education systems within an increasingly democratic, pluralistic world can support both social harmony and learning by nurturing diversity, within a fundamental valuing of human unity. The panel will examine strategies for nurturing diversity within education systems by analyzing initiatives underway within rural communities in Peru and Ghana, US school districts, and a global education project linking diverse communities through information technology. It will seek to address the question: How to mine the potential of cultural differences in education policies and practice?

Harwood, William (BEPS/CARE)

The Impact of National Disaster on Education and Learning [Panel]

When a national crisis occurs governments cannot ensure the delivery of normal support systems. Frequently the last of the systems to be assesses and remediated is the educational system. Experience shows, however, that once basic needs are met, education activities can be a key factor in reestablishing structure and stability, and can serve as a venue by which communities begin to reestablish their role in civil society. Crisis situations include: political, economic, environmental and natural disaster. This presentation will deal with those concepts, as well as the differences between relief and development. The roles of humanitarian organizations will also be discussed. Although national disaster may take many forms, this panel will focus on 3 examples and relate them to the quality and accessibility of education systems, as well as the role of education in the long term national recuperation. These three examples will be (1) post conflict impact on a national educational system; (2) the child soldier and education and ;(3) the impact of the Asia crisis on girls’ and women’s education in Indonesia.

Hoffman, Diane (University of Virginia)

Identities, Resistance, and Individualism: Minority Perspectives on Education in the United States [Panel]

While much recent work concerning identity in education recognizes the ways in which culture and structure work

together to generate situated and actively “produced” identities, in an age of globalized cultural flows, more inquiry in needed into the ever-evolving nature of minority culture-dominant culture relationships and their effects on identity construction. Frequently, the cultural choices made by individuals and groups in such contexts express resistance to incorporation into dominant cultural modalities of production and identity-making. At the same time as they resist on some levels, however, individuals also participate in dominant cultural patterns on other levels, some of which evince connection to transnational political economy. The papers on this panel explore the ways in which minority identities and selves are actively constructed through resistance and involvement in perceived dominant/transnational cultures. Two of the papers examine how selves and identities are produced and sustained in U.S. minority communities in the Appalachian region and among Old Order Mennonites in Virginia. The final paper brings an international minority perspective to dominant discourses on individualism in U.S. education. Together the papers explore the culture/structure nexus and its implications for identity construction.

Husain, M. Asghar (UNESCO)

Education policies, strategies and practice: challenges for the future [Symposium]

Education policies and strategies have multiple objectives, the predominant one being to adapt children and adults to fast changing societies. In trying to achieve this, policy makers have been working under increasing political and resource constraints at both at the national and international levels. The local political contexts under which education systems and strategies operate are becoming increasingly vulnerable to civil disorder, political instability and financial crisis, often imported owing to their transnational nature. In many cases, the state has been weakened without the requisite strengthening of the private sector in the field of education. Although most countries can now boast of qualified professional staff responsible for running educational and related activities, lack of exposure to the appropriate skills required to face the new challenges combined with staff instability have created an environment which is not always conducive to sound policy formulation and implementation. Further, project and sub-sectoral approaches adopted in many cases have failed to reconcile the micro and the macro levels, leading often to policies isolated from the overall social and economic strategy framework. Such policies also lack a vision which projects the increasing aspiration of individuals to benefit from the fruits of democratization as well as from the new information and communication technologies. Similarly, the weak participation of the multiple partners involved, either directly or indirectly in the education decision making process, has deprived this sector of much needed support.

Against the backdrop of international development cooperation’s experience aimed at supporting national education reconstruction, reforms and innovations, the panel will present the lessons learned and alternative approaches for the future. The following areas will be covered by four panelists who have been closely associated with national education policy dialogue processes:

1.Education policy preparation experience, particularly in the South: lessons for policy dialogue;

2.Linking policies, strategies and their implementation; resourcing national capacity building (IIEP¨)

3.Quantum leaps and quality deficits: addressing the relevance gap, norms, standards and values education (IBE)

4.Implementing education policies: utilizing the array of normative instruments

5.Maximizing local participation and responsibility : governance and decentralization (F.Khan)

6.Interaction of globalization and international cooperation in national policy making: forging new partnerships, mobilizing support for education for all and poverty reduction strategies;

Israel, Ron (Education Development Center, Inc)

Education and Democracy: Global Trends and Local Issues [Symposium]

This Symposium will review recent lessons learned about the relationship between education and democracy. A global analytic framework will be presented, along with short descriptive studies of education and democracy issues in Guatemala, Honduras, Malawi, and Ghana. Members of the audience will be asked to comment on the presentations, and share experiences of their own. The Symposium will be coordinated by the USAID sponsored Improving Educational Quality (IEQ) Project

Jansen, Jonathan (University of Pretoria)

Education Policies after Apartheid: Tracing Patterns of Resonance and Resistance in Policymaking [Panel]

Global patterns of policymaking such as the performance based pedagogies and life long learning, are reflected and contested within local communities of practices in the third world. This series of papers use specific case studies of policy making in the six years after the end of legal apartheid to demonstrate the ways in which patterns of resonance and resistance in policymaking at global-national levels are also played out as national-local tensions as demonstrated in the words and through the eyes of practitioners. The role of the Chairperson is to provide a coherent theoretical framework for understanding and approaching the South African case reports which follow.

Johannessen, Gloria (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona)

Bilingual Intercultural Education: Challenges and Successes in the Autonomous Regions of the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua [Symposium]

In this panel, the discussants will present various aspects and perspectives pertaining to the primary education reform that began in Nicaragua in 1994 by the Ministry of Education, with support from various international donors. The USAID basic education profect BASE, now in its second phase, began its bilingual component in 1998 with the purpose of developing bilingual intercultural education in the autonomous regions of the Atlantic Coast. In this panel, a brief history of bilingual education will be presented as background to a description of the current approach, lessons learned and challenges ahead presented from the perspectives of the donor, profect coordinators and the key international consultant. The education of Indigenous and Creole English populations pose many challenges, among them the isolation and remoteness of schools and the historical and traditional cultural differences that exist between and among the various ethno-linguistic groups. The work of international donors in this aspect of education will be examined from the standpoint of the collaboration that has been achieved among donors. This synergetic approach to identifying and responding to education needs will be discussed as a means for providing assistance effectively and efficiently.

Johnson, Jean (National Science Foundation)

Changing Patterns of International Mobility of Scholars: Reverse Flow and Second Generation Collaboration [Panel]

Over the past several decades, three worldwide trends in higher education have contributed to the global diffusion of knowledge: 1) the increasing institutional capacity for advanced training in many countries; 2) increasing flows of students and postdocs among countries; and 3) new patterns of mobility by foreign doctoral recipients in remaining abroad, returning home, or circulating between home and abroad during their career.

The panel presents research on the increasing international mobility of students in higher education, and the increasing reverse flow of scholars. An overview paper provides the macro-level view of flows of foreign students into higher education to five major industrialized countries and the circulation of returning scholars to Asian, European and American regions. Two panelists then provide country-level analyses. A paper on mobility of French postdocs reviews the initial study of US-French mobility and recent updates (abstract to be submitted). A Chinese paper presents information on new international arrangements to accelerate higher education at various levels, from advanced vocational institutions to research universities. Finally, a panelist provides a case study of continuous circulation of scholarly exchanges originating from a government funded exchange project.

Johnstone, Bruce (SUNY Buffalo)

Ramifications of Cost Sharing in Higher Education [Panel]

Cost sharing in higher education is a shift in the burden of higher education costs away from the government, or taxpayer, toward the parent and/or student. Rationalized either by the neo-liberal economic case for efficiency and equity, or by the pragmatic need for revenue supplementation, cost sharing embraces: (1) tuition in both private and public higher education; (2) more nearly full-cost recovery on the costs of food, lodging, and other student living costs; and (3) a shift of existing forms of student assistance from grants to loans, graduate taxes, or other repayable forms. The maintenance of equity and accessibility in the face of this shift of cost burden requires some kind of financial assistance-most commonly need-based grants and loans— that attempts to balance the public need for revenue supplementation with the need to expand access to higher education without regard to family financial circumstances.

This panel is presented by members of the International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project at the University at Buffalo. The panel features several themes related to cost sharing that “cut across” countries with disparate higher educational resources, traditions, and growth potential.

Jones, Beverly (Academy for Educational Development)

Continuing Influences of the Escuela Nueva Model in Community-Based School Reform: The Nicaraguan Experience [Panel]

The current primary school reform undertaking in Nicaragua is one of numerous Latin American educational reform efforts that have been influenced by and share characteristics with the landmark Colombian Escuela Nueva program. The Nicaraguan program began in 1994 with support from USAID and other international donors. The school-autonomy, community-participation, and process-based learning orientations of the Nicaraguan program were strengthened beginning in 1997. The panel will present an overview of the Nicaraguan effort, including an account of the USAID-funded Nicaragua Basic Education (“BASE”) project sequence that provides technical and financial support for the effort, and results to date of a longitudinal study begun in 1998, being conducted by the BASE project in a sample of model schools supported by the project. Presentations and discussion will focus on the specific field reform interventions being applied in Nicaragua; on efforts to bring communities in into close alliance with local schools in support of improved classroom quality as well as school administration; on early findings of the longitudinal study about those efforts; and on what the Nicaraguan experience may reveal about the reform trajectory that began with Escuela Nueva and about the international replicability of community based, process-based school reforms in general.

Kamat, Sangeeta (University of Massachusetts)

Are We Postmodern Yet? Historical and Theoretical Explorations in Comparative Education. [Panel]

This is a panel in which the presenters will lay out a few premises on the question at hand and take varying ‘stands’ in response to the main question. Comparative education, a relatively young field in the ‘sciences’ of education, strongly tied to development projects in former colonies and non-Westernized countries, has recently experienced attempts to take on a more postmodern posture. Such attempts follow over fifty years of knowledge production under the domination of functionalism, with modernization theory in sociology and human capital theory in economics being the main theoretical underpinnings of comparative education. The calls for ‘new ways of knowing’ dating from the late 1980s have only become more insistent as this century nears its end, while the political and economic interests in education continue as strong as ever. Both Rust’s presidential address of 1990 and Paulston’s “invitation to postmodern social cartography” in his edited 1996 volume have had at best a slow trickle-down effect on the field. The research tools of postmodernism have been underutilized and their relevance to the field largely unexplored. An underlying problem here is that such calls for change have rarely involved the traditional areas of Comparative Education: namely, policy, planning, and implementation. In this session we hope not only to touch upon our intellectual history but also to voice differing views on the question that we comparativists are or are/not yet postmodern.

Kane, Eileen (Groundwork, Inc)

Myths and Facts About Participatory Research [Symposium]

Increasingly, educators are including participatory research as part of their research repertoires. Nonetheless, they are often hindered in their efforts to use it by the myths that surround participatory research: it isn't “scientific”; it is only suitable for rural people in developing countries; you can't “scale up”—what you get is a unique picture of a small number of communities; it shouldn't be integrated with conventional techniques; the process of moving from information to action is vague, and many other ideas which keep people from using participatory research to its full power. Some educators have also seen the results of poor participatory research and now wonder if it is simply a cookbook collection of techniques for making people feel good. This session examines these by looking at practical lessons drawn from actual successful projects.

Kazamias, Andreas (University of Wisconsin and Athens, Greece)

Citizenship and Education from the Ancient Polis to the Modern Ethnopolis and the Post-Modern Cosmopolis [Panel]

From the ancient world of the Greek “polis” or “city-state” to the Enlightenment world of the “ethnopolis” or nation state and the postmodern world of the multi-ethnic/multicultural and globalized “cosmopolis”, the concept of citizenship has been of central significance in political and social discourse and analysis. In the mounting literature on citizenship—-what it means, what “a good citizen” or “good citizenship” is, how citizenship in the modern world of the nation-state and the coming world of the global “cosmopolis” differs from citizenship in the ancient world, one comes across references to and some analytic studies of the education of the citizen or of citizenship education. Educating for good citizenship has been considered necessary for the viability of modern politics, especially modern liberal democracies. Modern nation states have always included citizenship education, civics or political education among the goals and in the curriculum of a good general or liberal education. But citizenship and its relationship to education have also been contested conceptual epistemic terrain as well as practical/policy arenas. The contemporary world of high modernity, even postmodernity, with all the certainties and uncertainties that such a cosmos signifies, poses new challenges for citizenship and citizenship education as modern and modernist institutional political frameworks and as socio-cultural and pedagogical significations. In the discourse on the global cosmopolis, for one, there is much talk about post-national citizenship, multicultural citizenship and even world citizenship (cosmopolitica). This panel will examine critically the liberal democratic concept of citizenship as it developed in the post-Enlightened nation state and the related citizenship education, or pedagogy of the modern democratic citizen, with particular reference to the American liberal democratic polity. The methodological approach is historical and comparative, what we would call comparative historical analysis.

Kendall, Nancy (Stanford University)

AIDS and Education [Symposium]

The symposium will provide a venue for researchers and practitioners to discuss the shape and scope of the interaction between AIDS and education around the world, and research directions which are presently being pursued or which could be pursued. Special attention will be placed on discussing various ways of bringing issues related to AIDS into the education research and policy arena (e.g. AIDS as a public health issue, as a curricular concern, as a staffing concern, as an underlying issue that should be addressed by all research and reform efforts, etc.) A second, but critical, goal of the symposium will be to create a contact list and perhaps a website that allows interested researchers to learn what others are doing in relation to this topic, to contact one another, and hopefully to in the future encourage a broader segment of the CIES community to participate in thinking through how the complex effects of AIDS affect the educational system, and in turn how the educational system does or could impact the AIDS epidemic.

Klees, Steven (University of Maryland)

Debates About Education and Development: Two Examples, the Use of IT the Attention to Girls’ Education” [Symposium]

For many decades, local, national, and global educational policies have been enacted in order to improve the well-being of individuals and nations. The success of these efforts has been assessed quite differently from different perspectives. This panel aims at better understanding these differences by focusing the discussion on two priority areas in current educational policy in developing countries — the need for expanding information technology use in schools and the need for the expansion and improvement of educational opportunities for girls. We will spend half of the session on each topic, with each panelist offering a brief discussion of what they see as key issues on the topic, followed by a discussion with those attending. We hope to better understand how we differ on these specific issues and, by looking at two topics, also better understand how these specific differences reflect broader underlying theories and philosophies.

Kuroda, Kazuo (Hiroshima University)

Potentials of Japanese Educational Aid: Can it make original contributions? [Panel]

The World Conference on Education for All in 1990 and its following international conferences and agreements on educational development had a great impact on Japanese educational aid. Its quantity has risen steadily since the Jomtien in spite of the stagnating total budget for development assistance. Its priority has been clearly set in basic education rather than vocational and higher education, which received most of Japanese educational aid before the Jomtien. Japan expanded its educational aid to Africa, the most needy region in respect of EFA, putting relatively less emphasis in Southeast Asia, where most Japanese aid went to earlier. So far, at least in terms of the quantity of input, Japanese educational aid has achieved much for last decade.

However, what is most important is its impact, the real output for educational development, but not the amount of input. This session critically examines the quality of Japanese educational aid, and also discuss how Japan can make its original contribution for educational development in developing countries from various perspectives.

Linden, Tobias (World Bank, Africa Region)

Developing Country Perspectives On Secondary Education and Training Reform [Symposium]

The purpose of this panel is to investigate systemic reform of secondary education and training from the perspective of developing countries who are currently engaged in such reform. This panel will fall into three parts. First, representatives from two countries, one from Latin America and one from Africa, will present an overview of the reforms in which they are engaged, bringing out the key issues as they see them, their successes, and the areas in which they are now focusing their efforts. In the second part, a representative from the World Bank will describe the wider lessons that the World Bank is learning from developing country experiences in secondary education and training reform. Finally, there will be a moderated discussion to identify key areas where further knowledge is needed to enable developing countries to design their own reforms.

Lisovskaya, Elena (Western Michigan University)

Educational Change in Russia: Lessons for Comparative Studies of Educational Transitions [Panel]

Russian education has been undergoing dramatic changes since the collapse of communism. These changes involve all levels and aspects of educational system, from administration and governance to curricular transformation. At the same time, the case of Russian educational transition can be viewed as the one that exemplifies general trends and regularities of educational changes in the societies in the state of transition. Lessons derived from this case have heuristic value for understanding context, course, and possible outcomes of educational changes in other postcommunist societies. They are also instrumental for better understanding educational changes in western societies, the United States included. Therefore, the study of Russian transition is an important resource for furthering comparative studies of educational transitions in general. This panel is going to discuss some of these changes and suggest those lessons for comparative analyses of educational transitions that could be derived from the study of Russian case. Thus, the proposed papers would look into the issues of outside stresses, such as demographic shift, on educational reform, continuity and change in teacher profession, problems and prospects for civic education, and deliberate on the general theories of educational transformation.

Lockheed, Marlaine (World Bank)

AIDS and Education in Africa [Symposium]

The AIDS/HIV epidemic is now recognized to have a major impact on the education sector in many countries, particularly in Africa where a majority of the total HIV infected people live. While there have been many efforts to access the health impact of AIDS on Africa, there has been a lack of attention to the effect of the epidemic on the education sector. This panel will review the situation in Africa at various levels and will lead a discussion on how to react to the epidemic in Africa that has profound impact not only in the education sector but also in the future of Africa in general.

The first group of presenters will discuss the demographic analysis of HIV/AIDS impact on four countries in southern and eastern Africa, the hardest hit region of Africa; review the micro-level impact of these demographic changes in the classroom level in Malawi; and review the effect these macro- and micro-level changes are having on girls, a sector of population that has been under-served by education and will continue to be disadvantaged.

The second group of presenters will review two sets of activities in response to the situation: Efforts to prevent HIV transmission among school children and teachers and education sector programmatic responses to high death rates of teachers, increasing number of orphans, and other consequences of the epidemic.

Lopez-Sanders, Laura (Harvard University)

Transition Times in Mexico: Topics on Inequalities in Education [Panel]

Mexico is going through important changes that have the potential to permeate every fiber of the nation. These changes provide a fertile terrain to set the basis for educational policy dialogue. The panel will present complementary views of educational inequalities in Mexico. The presenters will address affirmative alternatives for education and poverty, such as compensatory programs, school management, parental participation, and early childhood development.

Given the impact of these topics on the improvement of Mexico’s educational policies and practices, under the framework of the interactions between poverty and education, the panelists will explore relevant educational policies to address the inequality of opportunities and the growing gap between the affluent and the poor. Although new hopes and dreams figure in Mexico’s future, there are still many challenges to be faced. The panel will reflect on some of the dimensions of these complex challenges.

Lu, Meg (University at Buffalo)

Academic expectations and adjustment of International students in the US: the comparison of the Asian and African Students [Symposium]

International students studying in the U.S. often experience academic adjustment difficulties. This is because they are exposed to different teaching methodologies than those in their home countries. These differences, as well as international students’ academic expectations in the U.S. will be discussed in this paper.

MacDonald, Lary (University of Maryland, College Park)

Northeast Asian Education, Cognitive, and Familial Patterns and Practices: Convergence or Divergence with Western Practices? [Panel]

Recent national statistics have revealed a significant increase in the amount of Japanese elementary classrooms experiencing Gakkyu Houkai or classroom breakdown. In an educational system accustomed to attentive students who are eager to learn, this phenomenon has caused great alarm in the education community and society at-large. This paper reviews the literature on elementary education settings in Japan, which are examined in the context of the recent Gakkyu Houkai phenomenon, bringing into question early childhood socialization and educational practices in Japan.

Magno, Cathryn (Columbia University)

Educational borrowing: Encounters between the global and the local [Panel]

As globalization overshadows the socio-political landscape of our times, theorists in comparative education have attempted to explain the effects of globalization through modernization and world systems analysis. This panel on educational transfer and borrowing attempts to problematize such recent theoretical emphasis by employing new interpretive frameworks to explain the effects of global forces on local practices. The panelists will present four case studies, which capture the effects of global forces on local practices by examining the mapping of transfer, the politics of transfer, the local adaptation of borrowed educational models, and the agencies of transfer.

Majhanovich, Susan (The University of Western Ontario)

Grappling With Globalization? Education in a Changing World [Panel]

Over the past decade and more, Western governments have subjected the public education system to massive restructuring and reform. Ostensible, their rationale for this upheaval was to repair failings in a system that was not preparing youth to be competitive in the global economy. Restructuring has included extensive changes in curriculum, implementation of ever more standardized testing and a shift of administrative control of teachers and the system away from local authorities to the central government. Such changes have been ongoing in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia, the United States, and more recently in parts of Canada.

Masemann, Vandra (University of Pittsburgh)

Looking Forward by Looking Forward: Resonance, Resistance, and Affirmative Policies in the CIES [Symposium]

In response to the panel last year on “Looking Forward by Looking Backward” I propose that we have a symposium made up entirely of women, past or present or future presidents of CIES who speak on the theme of this conference. They will speak on ways in which the CIES has taken steps to move forward in the areas of gender, under-represented and minority issues, epistemologies and other issues. The symposium will provide an opportunity to speak to our history at CIES so that more new scholars can hear about some of the struggles we have launched even within our own society or academic life.

Mayo, Peter (University of Malta)

Gramsci & Education: International Perspective [Symposium]

Antonio Gramsci is one of the most cited figures in the contemporary debate on education focusing on social justice and equity issues. His writings on the School are constantly referred to in the debate on schooling, whereas his writings and accounts of his activism in the broader domain of ‘workers’ education and cultural development’ are a constant point of reference in the contemporary debate on radical adult education. This set of four presentations will draw on papers being prepared for a compilation of readings for a forthcoming book dealing with different aspects of Gramsci’s thought relevant to different areas of education. The brief introduction will highlight the themes tackled in the forthcoming compilation, to provide an indication of the breadth of Gramscian analysis with respect to education.

McClure, Maureen (University of Pittsburgh)

Inter-Agency Consultation on Education

In Situations of Emergency and Crisis [Symposium]

The purpose of the symposium is to share the work of the Interagency Consultation on Education in Situations of Emergency and Crisis, and to encourage scholarship, research, and policy, program and professional development in the area. The consultation was officially formed at UNESCO’s Education For All (EFA) meeting in Dakar in April, 2000, and is one of EFA’s major follow up activities. The purpose of the consultation is provide rapid access to high quality education knowledge and expertise to both the educational professional community and UN Member States. The founding members of the Consultation are UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF. They are attempting to agree on norms, standards and benchmarks that can be useful to the field. It has established the following working groups and encourages participation in its work:

1. Materials and supplies for teaching and learning in emergencies

2. Monitoring of emergency and crisis education programs

3. Post-primary education in emergencies and crisis

4. Education Staff training in emergencies and crisis

5. The UN Girls’ Education Initiative

6. Sourcing agency staffing for emergency education

7. Information sharing and networks for emergency education staff

8. Program co-ordination mechanisms

McClure, Maureen (University of Pittsburgh)

The Interagency Consultation for Secondary Education Reform and Youth Policy [Symposium]

This UNESCO-based collaborative working group was founded in June 1999. Its purpose is to assess the global educational needs of teenagers and to inform policy analysts and policymakers in UNESCO Member States. Consultation members include UNESCO, Agence Internationale de la Francophonie, The British Council, The Commonwealth of Learning, The Commonwealth Secretariat, The Council of Europe, DFID, Education International, IIEP, IBO, ILO, Ministère des Affaires étrangères de France, OECD, UNDP, UNICEF, USAID, World Bank, and others.

The symposium will introduce the CIES community to the work of the consultation which includes conferences, case studies, review papers, and planning for the secondary education and youth policy components of the national education action plans for Education For All. The group has interests in the following areas: review papers and case studies, website, secondary and vocational education, the role of youth in reform, curriculum reform, the role and the condition of the teacher, information technology and education, non-formal education, distance education, finance, and organization, form and management. It invites scholarly interest in the area and will encourage a network of research and collaborative work with comparative and international students, scholars and policymakers in this area of growing importance.

McGinn, Noel (Harvard University)

Collaborative Cross-National Research: Promises and Problems [Symposium]

This panel is a final report of the experiences of the Six Nation Education Research Program, a collaborative venture begun in 1994 involving researchers and policy makers in China, Germany, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and the United States. The Six Nation Program differs from other examples of international cooperation in 4 major ways: 1) The initial organization of the Project was through and with policy makers rather than with researchers. As each country has a unique political structure and history it is likely there were variations in the extent to which policy makers participated in definition of research questions, and in ensuing stages of the research projects. 2) Each country was given responsibility for organizing research on one of the following topics: vocational technical education, language of instruction, educational indicators, math and science education, and higher education. Each country carried out at least two studies. 3) Research teams communicated within and across countries but each developed its own methodologies and analyses (except for Math and Science Education). 4) Countries raised their own funding, a further source of cross-national variation. 5) Finally, the Six Nation Program has been unique in the frequency of and public attention given to meetings involving research and policy makers from the various countries. The panel summarizes findings of three of the research themes and comments on how cross-national collaboration influenced national efforts.

Miller-Grandvaux, Yolande (USAID)

Community Schools: A new Future for basic Education in Africa? [Panel]

Community schools are rapidly transforming the picture of basic education provision and delivery in West Africa as we know it. Current experiences in several USAID and World Bank supported programs point to a new understanding of quality and ownership in schools and education systems.

While schools have flourished and spread in countries like Mali, Guinea, Zambia and Malawi, and access rates have rocketed as a result, other issues have not been resolved. In this locally owned, bootstrap process, parents and teachers are asked to play new roles and sustain them...Whose schools are they? What status do they hold? What place do they hold in struggling education systems? What future do they have? They can be seen as creating a “parallel” education structure competing with the conventional education systems, as the new basic education model, or yet as a successful but temporary phenomenon.. The panel will present and discuss the Mali, Guinea and the Benin community school programs from these various angles and focus on success and failures, cost efficiency and lessons learned.

Milliken, Phoebe (George Washington University)

Northern Concepts, Southern Application [Panel]

Through many years and many programs of international development, ideas generated by the northern/developed world for their own education system have been transposed onto education in the southern/developing world. Can development programs or indigenous organizations adapt the concepts and practices promoted by the north for the north in ways that benefit education in the south? The panelists will look at three northern concepts that have been introduced into education in the south to assess their impacts. Betsy Mull will examine the attempt to achieve gender equity in Guatemala by giving girls access to the same education available for boys. Phoebe Milliken will look at the effect of professional development associations on education in Nigeria and Cameroon. XXX will address YYY.

Miske, Shirley (Miske Witte and Associates)

Transforming Attitudes, Practices and Policies: Lessons from IEQ Research on Implementing Ghana’s School Language Policy [Symposium]

In 1999-2000, teacher educators and other researchers from three universities together with officials from the Ghana Education Service developed a unique partnership to study Ghana’s school language policy through the USAID-funded Improving Educational Quality (IEQ) project. They conducted a six-site case study in order to describe policy implementation and its implications for teaching and learning and language policy reform. The policy calls for the Ghanaian language prevalent in the local area to be the medium of instruction for the first three years of primary education and for English to be studied as a subject. Transition to English-only instruction is to occur in the fourth year. The research examined classroom interactions, parent and community support, curriculum and materials, teachers’ preparedness in the local language and in bilingual instruction, and the role of teacher education in implementing the language policy.

The first round of data collection revealed a mixture of opposition and support for the policy in both attitudes and resources: for example, a lack of local language materials, inappropriately trained teachers, and understanding of the policy. The second data set revealed the possibilities of transformation for improved bilingual education: changes in parental attitudes toward mother tongue instruction, teaching practices that promote language development and learning, and an experimental teacher training program.

Mitchell, Claudia (McGill University)

Gendering HIV/Aids Prevention: Creating Action spaces for Canadian and South African Youth [Panel]

HIV/AIDS is fast becoming a global crisis and young people, worldwide, are one of the most vulnerable groups. Within the youth population, there is strong evidence that girls are particularly at risk (UNAIDS, 1999). In both Canada and South Africa the HIV incidence rate is increasing more rapidly in females than in males. Although female vulnerability to HIV infection is now acknowledged, there are few studies or program that deal specifically with issues related to gender, HIV and youth. At the same time, the First World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth and the Third World Youth Forum of the United Nations System both held in 1998 were two major events that highlighted the role of youth as protagonists in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that young people, whilst being the most vulnerable, are also the best resource for changing the course of HIV/AIDS. The focus of our 3 member panel is on looking at ways in which young people can be directly involved in “turning the tide” of HIV/AIDS prevention. In approaching the issue of “Gendering HIV/AIDS Prevention” we have been exploring the use of participatory methodologies which position young people as experts of their own culture and as co-researchers in the study of sexuality within their own lives. Thus, the symposium will focus on methodologies which link research and social change with each panelist looking at a different aspect of participatory process and youth involvement.

Monkman, Karen (Florida State University)

Technology, Gender and Social Activism [Panel]

The first portion of the panel examines secondary research and feminist epistemologies to elucidate the issues surrounding the gender gap in technology-education: gender biases in the design of computer programs/software, girl’s ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ learning spaces, and pedagogy, and the curriculum. We will highlight two challenges that educators and policy-makers face in the design and implementation of these technology programs: (1) students as consumers versus producers of technology and (2) single-sex versus integrated approaches to technology education. A multi-media case study will explore these issues and engage participants in the task of devising strategies for technology education through the application of feminist epistemological principles. Secondly, several hundred web sites related to women’ s issues have flourished in the last decade; however, it is unknown to what extent these sites are capable of inducing change for women’s equality. Therefore, the efficacy of the Internet as a tool for social activism is examined in three ways: Is the information being exchanged online effective in provoking action? What initiatives have been successfully launched? Finally, how do these web-based organizations remain afloat and retain members for sustained action? A questionnaire and follow-up interviews will be conducted to explore the effectiveness of Internet activism.

Motola, Shirleen (University of Witwatersrand)

Education Reform in South Africa: Policy to Practice [Panel]

This panel contributes to the ongoing debate on education change and transformation in South Africa with specific reference to school reform which has been driven by the goals of access, equity, redress, efficiency and democracy. These goals, in the context of a limited fiscus, as well as the practical implementation challenges at the chalk-face, continue to dominate the policy development process which is struggling to reconcile two imperatives. First, the post apartheid challenge of providing a system of education that ensures that South Africans have the knowledge, values, skills, creativity, and critical capacities required to build democracy, development, equity, cultural pride, and social justice. Second, the global competitive challenge to establish a cost effective system of life long learning that will develop the skills, knowledge and competencies required to facilitate innovation and economic growth in the 21st century. This panel will review the recent school reform initiatives, curriculum change and bureaucratic change processes to understand how the government faces these two conflicting demands.

Shireen Motala’s paper sketches the broad context and framework within which school reform has occurred, and then critically examines whether current systemic reform initiatives with align with our policy goals. Michael Cross and Sepi Rouhani analyze the process of curriculum reform and its structural and policy tensions to examine the meaning of the recent paradigm shift in the curriculum debate. Francine de Clercq examines the problems of policy implementation and service delivery, and suggests that the commonly accepted tensions and constraints faced by the educational management structures, even though real, are also symptoms of the more complex and inadequate attempts at transforming the education bureaucracy.

Mullinix, Bonnie (Monmouth University)

Converging Pathways: Strategies for Addressing Educational Equity in Namibia [Panel]

Concluding its first decade of independence, Namibia remains actively committed to redressing inherited educational inequalities. Emerging from 23 years of armed struggle and a long history of separate and unequal educational opportunities, generations of Namibians were denied the basic tools needed to improve quality of life and contribute to nation building. National development strategies have clearly identified the importance of education for Namibia’s historically disadvantaged majority population. These policies have promoted innovative efforts from governmental and nongovernmental organizations, collaborations between local, and international organizations, and formal and nonformal educational interventions with Namibians of all ages. As no single strategy could possibly meet existing needs, establishing multiple, specialized and intersecting pathways has provided a network of avenues leading towards educational and social empowerment.

This panel will provide participants with a glimpse into three of these paths. Following an introduction to the historical and structural issues associated with educational reform efforts in Namibia, panel members present information and critical reflections on projects targeting reform in primary school instruction, parent/community empowerment, and nonformal education of adults. The panel then transitions to dialogue with the audience regarding the intersection of these pathways and their impact on the redistribution of educational opportunities within Namibia.

Mundy, Karen (Stanford University)

Globalization Theories in the Teaching and Research of International Comparative Education [Symposium]

The participants of this symposium all share an interest in contributing to globalization theories from an international comparative perspective. The perspectives of the participants are grounded in different areas of research (non-governmental organizations, multilateral aid agencies, grassroots movements), in different regions of the world and different methods of inquiry. The participants of the symposium acknowledge that the analysis of transnational and transcultural developments in education has always been a central research domain of international comparative educational research and teaching. Hence, the field of international comparative education appears to be predisposed to respond to globalization theories that are increasingly emerging in the social sciences and educational research.

There are, in particular, two themes that the symposium will address: How do we contribute to and expand existing globalization theories by including an international comparative educational perspective? And, vice versa, how do we introduce globalization theories in ongoing debates of the international comparative education research community?

The symposium addresses both research and teaching of globalization theories. Several participants focus on their recent research and publications in that particular domain of study, whereas others present their methods of presenting and reflecting on globalization theories in international comparative classes at graduate schools of education in the United States.

Murphy, Lynn (Stanford University/Save the Children)

The Role of Save the Children’s Community Schools in Expanding EFA: Challenges in Partnerships, Assessment, and Scaling Up. [Panel]

Almost a decade has passed since Save the Children launched Strong Beginnings, the agency’s response to the global “Education For All” initiative. This response mainly became developing community schools. As the community schools have common response, both in Save the Children and in other organizations, to rapidly expand access to basic education, the argument has been made that they are more cost effective, can maintain quality, and have “spill over effects” through their innovations and community-based approach. There are concerns, however, that as community school projects move to scale and partner increasingly with government and other organizations, some of the innovations, quality, and “spill over effects” may be lost. This panel will attempt to address these concerns by asking the following questions. Over the past ten years, as Save the Children has expanded its projects into several countries, and as each country has expanded its programs, is the vision of the community school, and the approach taken, still a relevant and viable response to EFA? How does the “community” stay central in the community school when scaling up and building partnerships? What are the challenges of assessing quality education in and the “spill over effects” of the community school?

Muskin, Joshua (World Learning)

Bilingual multicultural education for indigenous and displaced populations: Native Americans

Guatemalan Mayans and recent U.S. immigrants” [Panel]

As national and regional frontiers become increasingly porous, the challenge of living across societies also grows quickly, even for populations that do not travel beyond their home. This situation describes equally immigrant populations settling into a new home and the populations where these displaced groups settle. In turn, these two scenarios refer equally to newly relocated groups - e.g., Salvadorans and Vietnamese in suburban Washington, D.C. - and to indigenous populations co-habitating with the inheritors of their former colonial conquerors - e.g., Native Americans and Guatemalan Mayans. The role of education in facilitating this mixing has always been important, but the aims attributed to this process have clearly changed over time; characterized most simply as an evolution from education for assimilation to one for adaptation and accommodation. The current panel will present the strategies taken by three governments - U.S., a Native American Tribe, and Guatemala - to use education to promote cultural and linguistic maintenance and pride within a monolingual social context. The focus of all four papers will be to address the pedagogical challenges and imperatives of bilingual multicultural education as well as the community participation and policy parameters in which these operate. The panel will attempt to draw out common themes to inform broader policy and practice.

Muskin, Joshua (World Learning)

Community Participation in Ethiopian Schools: an update [Panel]

The USAID Basic Education System Overhaul project in Ethiopia is in its fourth year, with gains especially evident in the areas of teacher training and community participation. The panel will offer of forward perspective on the project, looking at ways to measure the progress to date and addressing the question of how to sustain its positive aspects. The assessment aspect will focus especially on (i) representing the nature and systemic effects of the community participation component and (ii) the impacts of the overall initiative on student performance. Addressing sustainability, the major concern will be (i) the relevance of the issue for such a project and (ii) steps that can be taken to heighten the prospects for sustainability, where deemed relevant.

Muskin, Joshua (World Learning)

Sustainability in Education Projects: does it really matter? [Symposium]

The challenge of addressing the aim of program sustainability in the area of education internationally is fraught with contradictions. This challenge is heightened as countries move to greater decentralization in the management and funding of national education systems. The major factors that compromise, or even undermine, education program sustainability in developing countries can be attributed to the donor environment, to host country policies and administration and to the very nature of the education cycle and delivery systems. For example, looking at donor support, the typical 3 to 5-year life-of-project format is inadequate to assess the impacts, and therefore the effectiveness, of interventions. As a program ends, both donor and host country expectations about the local capacity to maintain momentum may be unrealistically high, underestimating both the effects of withdrawn external support (technical as well as financial), nor at a greatly “scaled-up” level of program implementation. The symposium will build upon the case of USAID’s Basic Education Support Overhaul in Ethiopia to stimulate a broad discussion of the factors that oppose sustainability in education programs. In addition, it will elicit ideas on how this aim might be achieved despite the systemic constraints and on where it really should not matter.

Neyestani, Lily (Harvard University)

Transplanting Alternative Models of Education: The Pivotal Role of Teacher Professional Development [Panel]

In a world where the Internet has become as common as the television, we see the sharing of knowledge as being paramount in the learning process. Through this sharing of ideas, the transplanting of alternative models of education is becoming common in efforts to seek effective ways of bringing quality education to students. While factors such as culture, politics, economic conditions, donor agendas and program flexibility need to be taken into consideration when transplanting education models, an important contributor to the process is professional development. The panel will explore the question: Does professional development facilitate the transplanting of education models? Case studies from Colombia, Honduras and Pakistan will be used to explore this question. A combination of literature reviews and on site observations will provide support to the notion that teacher training plays a pivotal role in the success of transplanting models of education. While professional development alone does not ensure transportability of education models, its impact is significant enough to warrant greater attention and research from the education community.

Nieto, Carolina (Harvard University)

Does Decentralization Impact Educational Quality? [Panel]

Decentralization reforms promise improvement in educational quality and efficiency. Although central governments have been critical of the initial phase of decentralization, many reformers and communities stress that decentralization provides mechanisms for meaningful participation and, over time, is quite successful from a local point of view.

Research on decentralization reforms has resulted in different conclusions as to the wider implications of the process for education. Most studies focus on concerns of highest priority for the national level of government, such as efficient financing. However, few studies examine changes at the local level, with regard to the community’s involvement in and ownership of the educational process.

A key issue not yet satisfactorily addressed is the impact of decentralization reforms on educational quality. The Escuela Nueva innovation in rural Colombia and its adaptation in Bolivia, as well as rural education programs in Chile and minority language policies in Spain, provide four examples of decentralization efforts with varying outcomes. By examining the goals, assumptions, and resulting mechanisms of decentralization within these four particular political and economic contexts, this panel will consider the implications for similar projects undertaken elsewhere.

Ninnes, Peter (University of New England Australia)

Opening Up Comparative Education: Teaching, Discourse, Theory [Symposium]

The focus on this symposium is on opening up comparative education in two senses of the phrase. First, we think of opening up in terms of a package. We want to open up the parcel of comparative education, unpack it, and see what is inside. To this end we specifically explore the theoretical perspectives which are parceled up with teaching of and research in comparative education. In particular we are interested in the extent to which bits of post-positivist perspectives are in the container, how they are packaged, who put them there, for what purpose, with what effects, and which other perspectives accompany them as part of the baggage. In the second sense, we wish to open up comparative education as one might open up a house after the winter. We want to throw open the windows and invite in some fresh spring/post-positivist sunshine and breezes, and examine and reflect on the effects this has on the interior of the house of comparative education, the impact and responses of its occupants, and on the way we see each other and our work in the house and surrounding fields. The symposium will be an interactive one, in which the presenters take turns reflecting on the way in which the research reported in their papers informs the process of opening up comparative education, and in which audience members are encouraged to actively contribute to the discussion.

O’Dowd, Mina (Karolinska Institutet)

Studying Knowledge within the Framework of PRESTIGE: A European Comparative Education Research and Training Network [Panel]

PRESTiGE is a European comparative education network, the purpose of which is to study processes of educational standardization and transformation in a global environment. Six universities are included in this network, which trains doctoral and post doctoral students in comparative education. Since its start in 1998, network meetings and international seminars have been held twice a year, providing ample opportunities for researchers and students from all six universities to meet, exchange ideas and discuss their research. Exchange has lead to the establishment of new commonalties, not fully anticipated at the outset. In this panel, knowledge will be discussed from five different perspectives. Knowledge management within companies, the role and the forms of educational knowledge in processes of internationalization, and the limitations of international aid and NICT with regard to the achievement of educational goals will be presented by three of the scientific leaders involved in the network. Knowledge acquisition within the framework of PRESTiGE will be discussed by a doctoral student, while knowledge construction, seen in relation to the community in which it is produced, will be discussed by a researcher. The panel provides an overview of the research and training being undertaken within the framework of PRESTiGE.

Ouane, Adama (Director, UIE)

Follow-up to Dakar: Education for All [Symposium]

This Panel intends to explore the issues surrounding the bold commitment made in Dakar (April 2000) during the World Education Forum (WEF) by Member States, NGOs/CSOs, private sector and international development agencies to achieve the goal of Education for All (EFA) by the year 2015. Is this another slogan? Is this the repetition of Jomtien? What is different? Where are the differences? And why should the countries and international community succeed this time? Several indicators are pointing to the right direction. Education is acknowledged as a right, quality is at its center and holistic, integrated inclusive policies are advocated to cater for the learning demands of all – from early childhood to adulthood. Links with an overall development framework in a sector-wide approach are acknowledged and used as a filter to validate and support planned activities. Community participation in educational governance is perceived as a key strategy to achieve Education for All.

NGOs and civil society organizations are launching a world campaign to watch the implementation of the Dakar Framework. What are national prerequisites to success? Which differentiated strategies will bring all to the set goals? How to grant participation ad ownership and how to monitor results? What are the new policy directives and key changes in practice leading to the EFA goals and objectives? The panel will present a range of cases and discuss key issues related to these educational challenges.

Pai, Seeta (Harvard University)

Culture, Gender and Education: A Conversation Between Anthropology and Comparative Education [Symposium]

The proposed symposium aims to encourage conversations between anthropological and comparative education perspectives on links between culture, gender, and education in various settings. While discourses about development and equity are familiar to comparative educationists interested in gender education themes, anthropological approaches to the cultural mediation of these phenomena seem somewhat neglected. Thus, the symposium is specifically structured to facilitate dialogue. Following brief presentations, reflections by invited commentators will provide a bridge to audience participation. Commentators will extend the discussion to different cultural contexts and assess the utility of a cultural models approach for comparative education research and policy. Presenters will explore how local cultural models of family, gender, and school-going mediate global pressures for education. In particular, we document how culture specific family structures and meaning systems around gender shape and are shaped by educational strategies, choices and outcomes. The first four presentations concern diverse populations in India and are offset by the fifth with evidence from the US. Besides highlighting cultural models in our own research, we will point to methodological implications of cultural context approaches for comparative education, underscore their relevance in Western and non-Western contexts, and raise questions about the ubiquitous policy emphasis on schools and schooling as social panacea.

Paine, Lynn (Michigan State University)

Listening to Teachers Talk about Teaching: Studying Teaching across Cultural Contexts [Panel]

Despite its long history of examining education across national boundaries, comparative education has traditionally paid relatively little attention to teaching as a practice and instead emphasized systems of education and often conceptualized teachers as passive recipients of policy. Recent epistemological and conceptual shifts have moved the lens for understanding education closer to the classroom and teachers. There is now renewed interest in understanding teaching comparatively and conceptualizing teaching as a cultural practice.

This panel explores a particular dimension of cultural practices associated with teaching—teachers’ talk about teaching. Public conversation about teaching is a common part of teaching in both China and Japan, one strikingly different from the traditionally individualized and privatized approaches to teaching found in many U.S. schools. In this panel we examine cases of teacher talk in both societies in order to understand its nature and the roles it plays. By bringing in both Chinese and Japanese cases, we can begin to deconstruct “Asian” education practices. In addition, by looking closely at teachers talk as a form of teacher learning, we can push further in conceptualizing the notion of “community of practice” and see how practices of particular communities support different kinds of teacher learning. Finally, by exploring the ways in which U.S. teachers engage with some of these practices, the panel can inquire into the possible resonances across cultures and communities of practice. The three papers in this panel come out of two ongoing research projects—the Lesson Study Research Group and the Middle Grades Mathematics and Science Teacher Induction Study. The discussants—Catherine Lewis and Joseph Tobin—bring rich insights from their work examining teaching close up in Japan and China and grappling with how one can study practices in one culture to support conversation and learning in another.

Parker, Christine (Ohio State University)

Political, Economic, and Cultural Aspects of Textbook Policy [Panel]

Textbooks are at the core of nearly any educational program, and their creation is influenced by a multitude of factors. This panel has come together in order to investigate humanities textbooks in four different countries: Japan, Poland, Greece and Italy. Each participant’s focus is slightly different. Ed Beauchamp analyzes the political battles raging between over history textbooks in Japan, where the more democratically-minded political left opposes the conservative right over how Japan’s history should be interpreted and taught. Angie Bartolomei looks at the degree of multicultural representation found in photographs and illustrations in foreign language textbooks in Greece and Italy in order to ascertain the reasons behind any differences. Lastly, Christine Parker argues that it is only a combination of political and economic factors that recently elicited real change in the Polish model for history textbooks. In every case we present, we find a democratic educational model it pitted against more particularistic value systems. The theme of this year’s conference is a suitable starting point for presenting our proposal. If one desires to bring about more enlightened policy creation and implementation, one needs to investigate all elements that help, hinder or otherwise affect policy before, during, and after its realization.

Phillips, David (Oxford University)

Aspects of Education in Germany since Unification [Panel]

In 1990-91 I was a member of a Commission of the German Science Council, the Wissenschaftsrat, which investigated the position of teacher education in the universities and colleges of the former German Democratic Republic, now incorporated into the Federal Republic following the Unification of the two Germanies. Some ten years on, one of my doctoral students, Nina Arnhold, has investigated the work of the Teacher Education Commission, and a detailed diary I kept during 1991 has formed the basis of much of her reconstruction of the Commission’s activities. I have found myself involved therefore both as subject and object of her research, and this unusual position has led me to reflect in this paper on the problems of near contemporary record keeping in diary form and its use in academic writing. The paper also considers the rationale and aims of the Commission and draws some inexact parallels with the immediate post-war years in Germany and the need then to ‘reconstruct’ educational provision.

Pigozzi, Mary (UNICEF, Education Section)

Girls’ Education and HIV/AIDS: Intersections from a UN Perspective [Panel]

While the seriousness of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is finally getting more attention, its gender dimensions are often underplayed. This session will look at some of the relationships between HIV/AIDS and girls’ education. These relationships are important both for better understanding how to prevent and cope with the disease and for achieving quality basic education for all—HIV/AIDS could undermine the gains that have been made so far, especially with regard to girls’ education.

Poindexter, Maria (Pennsylvania State University)

The Spirit of Education: Transforming Policy Through Practice [Panel]

The approach nations take to successfully build a global society begins with education. The nature of scholarship, curriculum, and evolving dynamic paradigms in addressing international needs must be at the forefront of a participatory academy with a global focus. David Scott suggests a systemic approach through a movement that reconnects higher education with human wholeness, “a movement to return matters of wisdom, care, and spirit to the fore of our educational agenda” (Scott, 2000).

The challenge to many developing nations is providing large numbers of people with quality education effectively and efficiently. This panel will focus on educational programs and policies that provide solutions through teaching, research, and outreach. The first will examine innovations in the delivery of secondary education in Columbia. The second will focus on the central role higher education plays in the social, cultural, and economic development of Southern Africa. This discussion will highlight how higher education can support public policy in maintaining socioeconomic development in Southern Africa. The third will focus on the importance of developing higher education policies in a global context for a rapidly changing economy like South Africa’s and other developing countries.

Porter, Maureen (University of Pittsburgh)

Forging L.I.N.C.S. Among Educators Through International Service Learning [Panel]

These dual panel sessions aim to further critical, research-based reflection on the significance of international service-learning programs. In session I we offer findings drawn from the Learning Integrated with Needed Construction and Service (LINCS) program at the University of Pittsburgh. This program of local, community-based action was designed to further faculty and student participants’ global sense of self and community. We consciously worked to create a community of practice among educators at all levels (teacher certification candidates to professors). Further, our community brings together students (from eight countries) with colleagues in rural Peru, who were our partners in the project of building a preschool. The common threads that run through our two semester course sequence are: a focus on local-global sensibilities of place and membership, a concern for social justice through service, fostering critical education professionals, institutional capacity-building for (international) service-learning, and creative means of evaluation and communication about our project. In session I we initiate paper-based discussions of these interrelated issues. In session II will show a 30-minute video that we made about LINCS. Then, we will facilitate an open debate and collaborative critique of the ideas, challenges, and questions raised in both sessions.

Rambaud, Marylee (Creative Associates International)

The Role of Education in Addressing Child Labor [Panel]

An estimated 250 million children work in the developing world, often in situations that harm their physical, emotional, intellectual, social or spiritual development. Children’s work that is exploitative and dangerous poses a major human rights and social-economic challenge. In an era of globalization, child labor has been the most visible issue generating discussion about how to define children’s rights, including the right to an education. Working children who are excluded from educational opportunities need and deserve alternative educational policies and practices. This panel will first review the current situation and complexity of child labor issues worldwide, present the diverse frameworks used to understand child labor issues, and highlight barriers that prevent working children from having access to education. Regional examples will illustrate the range of child labor issues linked to policies and practices of formal education systems and examine how children’s work affects school enrollment, attendance and achievement. Finally, the panel will focus on key processes for developing alternative educational policies, programs and practices that successfully reach working children and youth with meaningful education and help combat child labor.

Ramos, Flavia (George Washington University)

Building Dialogue Across Cultures Within Schools [Symposium]

In this symposium, we discuss the issues and challenges involved in building dialogue across diverse cultural groups within schools. As classrooms in contemporary plural societies grow more culturally diverse, the need to incorporate multicultural education into the school curricula by addressing the traditions and ways of knowing of every ethnic group in the classroom has become widespread. Despite the efforts many teachers are making to incorporate the cultural contributions of diverse ethnic groups in the classroom, intergroup relations within schools are often embedded in an aura of mistrust, prejudice, and conflict. Participants in this session have conducted research related to multicultural education in several settings, and will present their findings of studies conducted in schools in the United States, Northern Ireland, and Israel. We will look into what schools and teachers in these different settings are doing to improve intergroup relations, and the lessons that have been learned from multicultural programs. We will examine curricula, policies, and practices used to address cultural diversity among school students; attempts to discover underlying barriers to implementing multicultural curricula; and how students and their parents view schoolteachers’ efforts at bridging the communication gap between culturally diverse groups, especially in conflict situations.

Reimers, Fernando (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Education Policy Reform in Mexico. Policy Formation and Implementation

Results. [Panel]

n 1992 a major policy reform took place in Mexico. The National Agreement for the Modernization of Education transferred responsibility for educational management from the Federal Government to the States of the Mexican Republic. Through two successive Federal Governments there was remarkable continuity in implementing policies to achieve the objectives of the Agreement. This panel will discuss the forces that influenced the shaping of this agreement, and will examine recent empirical evidence of what changed and what remained the same after the changes went into effect.

Reimers, Fernando (Harvard Graduate School of Education)

Unequal Schools, Unequal Chances. The Challenges to Equal Opportunity in the

Americas. [Symposium]

In this symposium, several of the authors of a recent book just available from Harvard University Press will discuss some of the core questions and chapters of the volume. The purpose of this book is to help us think about the following questions: Is it possible to attain equality of educational opportunity in highly unequal societies? How much of this can be accomplished with educational interventions? Is it possible to make education systems more egalitarian, at least to counter the inertia that leads them to reproduce initial inequalities? These questions are central to advance our understanding of the links between education and society, but they are especially pressing to inform the policy choices that will shape the future of the children of the Americas today. The basic theme of this book is that there are deep inequalities in educational opportunities in the Americas for children of different social backgrounds. Even as the countries of the hemisphere have made gains in expanding access to education at all levels, when everybody gains and non-school resources become more unequal in society, inequality is stubbornly persistent and the educational requirements for accessing the jobs that matter to improve life opportunities may be raised. A basic paradox of both the United States and Latin America is that of growing levels of educational opportunity and attainment but growing levels of income inequality and very severe persisting poverty. Some look at this pattern and the sharp link with educational attainment and argue that education can overcome inequality and that, since all groups strongly desire education, the key is raising the quantity and quality of educational inputs and standards. Recognizing the importance of education to attain greater social equity, this book takes issue with the view that overall expansion and improvement will do it. Given that there are many mechanisms that will tend to preserve educational inequality even as general levels rise and that the economic and educational inequalities and other advantages of middle and upper class families are so powerful, some combination of social and economic policy and explicitly redistributive educational policy is necessary to produce greater educational equity on a large scale, which would, in turn, tend to produce still greater economic and social equality. The chapters in this book provide evidence on three topics: 1) the extent and persistence of educational inequality, 2) the factors that are associated with different levels of achievement across groups of children, and 3) the kind of policies and programs that have been implemented to foster greater educational equality and the impact of those programs on access to education and learning.

Rihani, May (Academy for Educational Development)

Multi- Sectoral Approach to Girls’ Education [Symposium]

Objective: To discuss and debate the multi-sectoral approach to, and results of the Strategies of Advancing Girls’ Education (SAGE) Project, by presenting the conceptual framework of this multi-sectoral approach, the approach used to measure indicators and results, and two case studies from Africa.

The Panel: Will begin by detailing the conceptual framework of the multi-sectoral approach to girls’ education and the reasons for adopting it as an intervention strategy; and by discussing the strong linkages within a multi-sectoral approach, the sense of ownership at both the national and local levels, the capability of mobilizing national and local resources, and implications for sustainability. Then the panel will present two quite different case studies that are implementing this approach: The Guinea Model that has been very successful in involving, in addition to the public sector, the religious and media sectors, and its initiatives to involve the business sector; and the Mali Model that involved international and national NGOs, and the media sector with the public sector. Finally, the panel will discuss its approach to measuring indicators of progress and success and will present specific results to date at the national and local levels in both countries.

Riley, Kathryn (World Bank)

Promoting Good Teaching and Learning [Symposium]

Education For All (EFA) has brought children to school who had previously been excluded - girls, the poor, the disadvantaged - but attendance at school is not a guarantee of access to learning. A range of factors combine to limit the impact of schooling in many developing countries. These include lack of connection between schools and communities; limited access to good health and nutrition programs; poor teaching (and a depleted teaching force in many countries because of the spread of AIDS); materials and approaches which do not accommodate learners’ needs or different mother tongues; and strategies which fail to recognize that for many children schooling is not a continuous but a fragmented experience.

Dakar 2000 has highlighted the importance of quality, part of a recognition that education expansion will need to be promoted through a focus on quality improvement. Developing an understanding of the shape and nature of success is a critical element in achieving this quality improvement. Equally important is the recognition that change and improvement depend on the will, capacity and actions of many players at different levels in an education system. This interactive symposium brings together a range of educators involved in supporting change and improvement to discuss some of the pressing issues. Contributors will draw on their experience in a number of countries, particularly in Africa and the Asian Pacific, to focus on strategies which can reduce repetition and drop out; lead to improvements in the quality of the educational experience offered to children and young people; and which can strengthen local communities and help alleviate poverty. Contributors will focus on three interrelated issues which parents and communities see as being particularly critical: community participation; language of instruction and teacher quality and will address such questions as:

· Community involvement: In what ways can community involvement be harnessed to improve the quality of schooling available to children?

· Language of instruction: What kinds of changes in policy and practice are needed to widen access and improve learning opportunities?

· Developing teachers’ skills and capacities: What kinds of strategies appear to be working, and in what kinds of contexts?

Robb, Janet (Creative Associates)

Social Mobilization Campaigns: An Affirmative Strategy for Involving Communities [Symposium]

Creative Associates International, Inc (CAII) has developed and tested an innovative social mobilization process for increasing the awareness and ownership of ideas and practices related to education and other social issues. Unlike many social mobilization campaigns, which rely heavily on mass communication methodologies such as television, radio and newspaper, this campaign employs grassroots level methodologies and person to person communication at the community level. The process creates an atmosphere for dialogue concerning issues within and among the communities and then mobilizes communities to accept responsibility and take action to address those issues. Key stakeholders and policy makers are kept informed of the community activities and work to influence policy to impact change. This SMC process has been utilized in Malawi to increase girls’ participation in school, improve educational quality, and most recently raise community awareness of strategies to alleviate HIV/AIDS. It is now being adapted to raise community awareness about girls’ education, school health and nutrition, and HIV/AIDS in Zambia. This symposium will present the rationale and conceptual framework of the SMC process, summaries of selected implementation issues in Malawi and Zambia, and a basic framework for adapting its implementation to other countries and or social issues. Experiences provide valuable insights into the relationship of the community to education and the utilization of community initiating lasting social change.

Rossman, Gretchen (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Community Intervention in post-conflict settings: Experiences in Azerbaijan and beyond. [Panel]

Throughout the world, communities that have survived violent conflict often struggle with the complexities of reconstruction and revitalization. Depending on their severity and duration, conflicts can debilitate formal educational systems, displace large numbers of people, change familiar gender roles and relations, disturb leadership capacity, create economic hardship, and leave deep psychological wounds across generations. In recent years, practitioners, researchers, and policy-makers have become more sophisticated in their approaches to post-conflict reconstruction, moving beyond traditional modes of relief assistance and adapting education and community development strategies to meet the unique challenges posed by violent conflict. This panel will offer multiple perspectives on post-conflict community interventions, grounded in the experience of a recent training conducted in Azerbaijan by several of the panelists. Specifically, topics will include the following: a) approaches to education in

post-conflict settings internationally; b) community mobilization and leadership training in Azerbaijan; c) participatory monitoring and evaluation training in Azerbaijan; and d) policy considerations to address the gendered impact of conflict. The panelists will also discuss an experimental graduate course on learning in post-conflict settings they have co-constructed at the Center for International Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Rust, Val (UCLA)

Knowledge and New Definitions of Literacy: Technological, Global and Feminist Applications [Panel]

Panelists will collectively speak to current indigenous and feminist ways of knowing that generally remain remote or obscure from established methods of teaching and learning and common definitions of literacy. Conventional approaches typically ignore variable constructions of knowledge and disregard the potential of what such constructs could produce and protect. Not only are the ostensive losses or neglect of indigenous knowledge acute, but the documentation and integration of such knowledge often seems abstract and complex, even problematic. Swiftly spreading internet and communication technologies combine with revisions of environmental awareness, cultural identity formation and intellectual property rights to yield real economic and political controversies about the digital divide, neo-colonialism and American globalization. Out of this turbulence, this panel would like to create open spaces for indigenous knowledge and new definitions of literacy to emerge. Literacy for the 21st century and the information age is no longer based on reading and writing print material. This has profound implications for equity and human rights, development, international education and globalization. Papers will address information literacy, technology and the individual learner; oral and indigenous knowledge for females and school curriculum in Kenya; and ecological literacy for women food producers in African development during the onset of the “New Green Revolution.”

Samoff, Joel (Stanford University)

The Politics of Education Policy in Africa [Panel]

Notwithstanding the periodic calls for apolitical policy-making guided by research and professional expertise, the process of setting public policy always reflects interests, pressures, alliances and compromises. That is particularly clear for education, perhaps the most contested of public policy arenas and often a ringing confirmation of Lindblom’s notion of “muddling through.” Hence, rather than counterpose a depoliticized, rational orderly model of policy making on the one hand and the maelstrom of pork barrel politics on the other, it is far more instructive to understand policy making as an inherently political process and to explore the intersection and interaction of knowledge and interests, and expertise and compromises. Where, for example, does, should, and can authority lie for higher education? What are the consequences of particular mixes of national direction and institutional autonomy? Similarly, who does, should, and can bear the costs of educational innovation and reform, including the costs of failed efforts? Increased reliance on foreign aid involves foreign participants, often with firm agendas and strong preferences to accompany their funds, in education policy making. Thus, we seek to explore the politics of education policy and to use that exploration to understand better accomplishments and frustrations in education in contemporary Africa.

Samoff, Joel (Stanford University)

Reflections on Aid to Education: High Hopes, Critical Choices, Mixed Outcomes [Round Table]

External aid has come to play an increasingly prominent role in education in many countries. For some, beyond development assistance, that aid supports meeting the basic needs of students, teachers, and schools. The forms of aid have changed over time and, where outcomes are identifiable, frustration and disappointment have been common. This round table will provide an opportunity for senior staff in education funding and technical assistance agencies to reflect on their experiences over several decades, from expectations to experiences to assessments to frustrations to future directions. Their frank, critical, and self-critical reflections offer insights into the social history of foreign aid and challenges to current aid policies and practices.

Schriewer, Juergen (Humbolt University Berlin)

Comparative-Historical Research in Education: The Role of Expert Knowledge, Social Interpretations and Meaning Patterns in Shaping Educational Reality [Panel]

The comparative-historical approach in social and educational research has acquired new relevance. This is a consequence of theoretical and methodological developments which have taken shape in different fields of social study. Thus, it is not only insights from historical sociology that suggested the “reconciliation of history and comparison”; world systems analysis as well has meant re-introducing, into comparative research, a macro-historical perspective which mainstream methodologies had excluded from it for decades. While the panel is aimed, thus, at illustrating at the methodological level more generally the renewed relevance of combining historical and comparative research, it is also meant to elucidate in greater detail the particular role that expert knowledge, social interpretations and classifications, or meaning patterns deeply rooted in cultural traditions have played in shaping social and educational reality.

Schubert, Jane (American Institutes for Research)

Improving Educational Quality: Implementing an Approach Within Educational Priorities [Panel]

Educational systems in developing countries are strained by the need to provide and support a system which enables pupils to successfully complete primary school. A wide range of national reform efforts to improve quality “compete” with sometimes overwhelming challenges within the larger societal context—e.g. implementing universal primary education and learning to live and function with HIV/AIDS. The USAID IEQ Project works with host country individuals and institutions to strengthen their capacity to examine “quality”. A key focus is to look at the extent to which specific educational reforms reach the school and classroom in quality of teaching and learning improved? The IEQ Process is guided in each partner country by principles which: generate knowledge about the reality of teaching and learning(e.g. assessing pupil performance; observing instructional practice); facilitate local, national and international mechanisms to users of the findings; collaborate with a local institution so as to strengthen the in country capacity to sustain a process appropriate to monitoring the implementation of host country educational priorities at the local level. This panel will describe how three countries are implementing the IEQ process to examine, pinpoint and define educational quality within the context of their national reform efforts.

Schubert, Jane (American Institutes for Research)

Which Language? Findings from Improving Educational Quality (IEQ) School Language Policy and Use Studies in Ghana and Malawi. [Symposium]

Kasem or English? Quiche or Spanish? Chiyao or Chichewa? Many factors influence teachers; choices of language use in the classroom and the effective implementation of school language policies: teachers and parents’ beliefs about how children learn a language and content material; education officials’ support-or lack of same- for bilingual education; teachers’ preparedness to teach bilingual classes; limited resources, especially for less widely spoken languages, and the presence or absence of political will to implement existing policies. Panelists will discuss the latest findings from Improving Education Quality (IEQ) classroom research on pupil learning and school language use in three countries. The implementation of school language policies in Ghana, Guatemala, and Malawi will stimulate a comparative international discussion of national, official, and local language use in schools. Group discussion will explore implications of school research for those who make and implement school language policy.

Schubert, Jane (American Institutes for Research)

Strengthening the Quality of Education [Symposium]

Throughout the developing world, enormous human energy and financial resources are being poured into activities aimed at improving how schools are structured, how education is delivered, and how and what students learn. Too often, however, well-intentioned project design and implementation strategies are more strongly driven by strongly held beliefs than solid evidence of the likely effectiveness of the interventions being advocated. This symposium seeks to separate facts from beliefs, evidence from deeply held personal commitments. What really does work in education? What interventions, once in place, really lead to learning? What are the political and economic factors that might cause us to shy away from the evidence?

Schwille, Jack (Michigan State University)

Voices of Experience: The Guineans Who Facilitate and Evaluate Teacher Initiated Professional Development Projects [Panel]

Since 1994, a World Bank funded program to help Guinea primary school teachers design and carry out their own school improvement and professional development projects has expanded from a small experimental program in one region to a national program for the whole country. To support all these projects, nearly 200 facilitators and about 80 evaluators have been recruited among mid-level ministry personnel, given special training and assigned to teacher teams to assist with writing proposals and carrying out projects. Each of these individuals has a story to tell about what can be learned from this experience. At a recent national dissemination conference for the program, the organizers of the conference selected a number of facilitators and evaluators to reflect publicly on their experience. The national team has selected two of the best-written versions of these presentations for CIES. In addition, two other key regional actors in the program will provide further background and context.

Shaeffer, Sheldon (UNICEF, Education)

Rights-based, Child-friendly Schools: Theory and Practice [Panel]

Education systems around the world are faced with the challenge not only of increasing access to but also the quality of their primary schools. The Dakar Framework for Action makes clear that such “quality” must be broadly defined, to include the quality of the learners, of content, of teaching-learning processes, of the learning environment, and of the final outcomes.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child talks about more than the right of all children to education. It also discusses the nature and characteristics of schooling from the perspective of child rights. The framework of a “rights-based” or “child-friendly” school – which is both child-seeking (trying to identify excluded children and get them into school) and child-centered (working for the best interests of the child) – represents a useful approach to the implementation of a broader definition of quality. Such child-friendly schools are:

· inclusive of children

· effective with children

· healthy and protective of children

· gender-sensitive and

· involved with children, families, and communities

This panel will explore in greater detail what each of these components means and discuss examples of how child-friendly schools are being implemented in practice.

Shaeffer, Sheldon (UNICEF, Education)

Global Movements and Essential Documents in Comparative and International Education [Plenary]

The worlds of academic research and teaching in comparative and international education and of UN conference, conventions, and declarations are often far apart-neither one informing the other. Students in international education often know little about the fundamental movements of the field or the essential documents upon which these movements are based. Of particular importance are the following: The Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most universally approved treaty in the world, the Education for all Movement and its essential documents, the Declaration of the World Conference on the Education for All and the Framework for Action, The new Global Agenda for Children and the United Nations Special Session on Children. These documents, and the movements they represent, lay out fundamental principles and definitions, goals and targets, strategies and activities of development agencies, many non-governmental organizations, and governments. But they are seldom included in the coursework of students in international education or referred to in the literature of the field. This symposium will describe these documents and offer comments on their utility from the perspectives of academics, NGOs, and government.

Sherman Swing, Elizabeth (Saint Joseph’s University)

Archives and the Uses of Memory [Panel]

In Kent State University Archives are to be found papers of the Comparative and International Education Society. In addition, papers of the late Raymond Ryba, long-time Secretary General of the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies, will soon be deposited there. These two sets of papers constitute, albeit in fragmentary form, much of the written record of two major comparative education organizations. For historians, however, there exists another valuable resource, the collective memory of senior Society members. That archival records do not always coalesce with disparate memories, or disparate memories with one another, is a particular challenge. On this panel, the CIES Historian; the Kent State University Archivist’ and two former CIES Presidents, one a former editor of Comparative Education Review, the other a former Secretary-General of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies, examines the role of written documents and the uses of memory in determining what really happened in the past.

Shin, June (Harvard University)

The Power of Policy in Southeast Asia: Educational Equity Issues in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines [Panel]

In recent years, Southeast Asian countries have looked to economic growth as a vehicle for national development. These economic development objectives call for a labor force that is highly skilled in science and technology. As a result, educational plans have been closely aligned with human resource development designed to bring the nations to competitive standing with other key players in the global market. The educational policies that ensue are directly influenced by these broader government goals. This panel addresses the current state of educational policy formation in Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia. We consider the impact of these policies by asking key research questions: In what ways, if any, do government policies address or exacerbate equity issues in education? Who does educational policy serve? In the creation of educational policies that embody a national development agenda, which groups are promoted and which groups are dismissed or marginalized? Although these issues are global policy concerns, they will be examined within the Southeast Asian context in order to draw attention to parallels or distinctions within the region.

Singh, Manjari (Indiana University)

The great Balancing Act: Competing and collaborating voices of stakeholders in NGO educational programming in Kenya, Palestine, and India [Symposium]

A key component of recent development agendas in education has been the inclusion of local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as partners in program planning and implementation, in the belief that these organizations have deeper, more genuine connections to local communities and are better able to articulate and respond to their needs and priorities than either international agencies or government bodies. This panel/symposium examines the varying representations of community interests in NGO-government-donor partnerships in three contexts (Kenya, Palestine, and India), focusing on the definition of educational agendas, articulation of local voice, and levels of cooperation and resistance to and within NGO participation in educational development programs. Three non-formal education programs designed and managed by NGOs in response to community needs are examined for their actual representation of key stakeholder preferences and the extent to which they represent alternatives to the usual mode of community representation in the educational planning and delivery systems of these countries. The contextual factors influencing NGO success in this arena are highlighted, resulting in a call for more critical examination of the potential of partnerships to revitalize education in particular contexts.

Smith, Sarah (Harvard University)

Teacher Education in Namibia: Five Perspectives [Panel]

In the years following independence, Namibia has embarked on ambitious reforms in education. A primary component of these reforms has been teacher professional development. Many efforts have been made to promote the principles of learner-centered and democratic education through teacher education. This panel will examine five areas of teacher professional development in Namibia:

1. Pre-Service Teacher Education in Namibia: The BETD After Eight Years

2. The Role of Action Research in Building Local Capacity for Educational Reform

3. In-Service Training Connected to Curriculum Reforms: Life Sciences

4. In-Service Teacher Training: Pedagogy for Lower Primary Teachers

5. Continuous Assessment as a Component of Educational Reform

Each paper addresses various components of teacher education in Namibia. The panel will explore the strengths and weaknesses of these efforts while taking into consideration assumptions about teacher professional development. Each perspective provides valuable lessons for future initiatives in teacher education.

Spreen, Carol Anne (Columbia University)

Opportunities for Innovation in Internationalization: The National Security Education Program [Panel]

Formidable obstacles face the widespread integration of international education—emphasizing the study of languages and cultures—into U.S. higher education. The National Security Education Program (NSEP) seeks to facilitate the development and/or enhancement of innovative approaches to increasing the quantity and quality of participation in internationally-oriented curriculum development and international education opportunities. The NSEP consists of three initiatives: (1) Scholarships to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in world areas critical to U.S national security; (2) Fellowships to U.S. graduate students to study foreign languages, disciplines, and/or geographic areas that will strengthen U.S. national security; and (3) Grants to U.S. institutions of higher education (or consortia led by such institutions) to establish and/or improve programs in critical but less commonly studied foreign languages, area studies, and other critical fields of study.

Unlike most other students who study abroad, NSEP award recipients study in and about areas under-represented by U.S. students. They study languages, academic topics, and cultures in and of diverse world regions outside the normal destinations of Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They bring considerably different perspectives to issues related to cross-cultural understanding, multiculturalism, and definitions of societal values and norms. The uniqueness of the venues where NSEP undergraduate scholars and graduate fellows study, and the acquisition of skills in less commonly taught languages have resulted in numerous “life-changing” experiences. There are clear lessons that have been learned about diversity, multilingualism, and cross-cultural understanding through the unique international education experiences of these students. There are also lessons to be learned from students who chose to pursue study in world regions that are outside the usual destinations for U.S. students. At the institutional level, the learning modules broaden the base of academic cooperation and international relations study and disseminate much needed authentic learning materials for languages that currently lack adequate traditional text-based materials such as textbooks, dictionaries, audio and video tapes. The proposed panel session will enable CIES members and other conference attendees to hear the experiences of three direct recipients of our efforts. One undergraduate scholar, one graduate fellow, and an institutional grant awardee.

Steiner-Khamsi, Gita (Columbia University)

The Mongolization of Imported Educational Reform [Panel]

The panel explores various implementation strategies that hint at forms of cultural adaptation, “indigenization” or “Mongolization” of imported Western or North American reforms. At center stage of this panel is the question how local actors in educational reform (local NGOs, educators and stakeholders) re-interpret and recontextualize international educational reform programs in ways that suit their local context. This approach acknowledges active agency on the part of local program designers and implementers and calls in question those traditional approaches in educational evaluation research that simply identify the gap between project design and project implementation as aberrations or lack of project management. Put positively, this panel examines how local project designers and implementers have creatively changed the original design of an international educational program in ways that are culturally sensitive and responsive to local needs. The panel responds to the overall theme of the conference by exploring how local forces encounter and react to global forces in educational reform.

Taiber, Julie (International and Cultural Exchange)

Lobbying for International Education: Current Issues and the Challenges Ahead [Symposium]

Lobbying has helped policymakers see that international education is not a special interest, but a national interest. This symposium will take stock of recent achievements and future policy challenges to international education, with a particular look at the recent National Policy on International Education initiative. International education lobbyists will provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the implementation of a national policy on international education, attempts to protect and boost funding for international education activities, and other issues. In the continuing drive to move international education from a special interest to the national interest, this interactive session will also address lobbying techniques that have proven effective in securing policy improvements to international education.

Tarrow, Norma (University of California)

Linguistic Diversity and Language Policy: Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.A. [Panel]

Bilingual education is a current educational and political issue in many parts of the world and for at least three different purposes:

• to encourage knowledge of more than one language in an increasingly global economy

• to revitalize or establish the equal value of a language other than the national language, or, when there are two national languages, as in Canada

• to provide instruction in the primary language of immigrant or indigenous children

The panelists will focus on each of these aspects to different degrees —-the French-English situation in Canada (more specifically in Québec). the difficulties involved in the education of indigenous children in México, and bilingual education in California as well as the implications for other states in the United States. The ramifications of legislation, political initiatives and administrative policy in terms of educational programming and outcomes will be compared and contrasted.

Tatto, Maria (Michigan State University)

Accreditation and Accountability Systems in Teacher Education [Symposium]

Increased world-wide calls for educational reform to develop systems capable of providing access and quality education for all children, have fueled policy makers’ interests on teachers. Although more than 40 years ago Beeby (1966) pointed out that the quality of educational systems could not be improved without simultaneously improving teachers’ quality, current research has begun to provide empirical results supporting that assertion (TIMSS, 1997). These studies have also found that teacher preparation seems to have an influence on their practice and an influence on what pupils learn (Darling-Hammond, Cohen and Hill, 2000). However these links have received little attention in the general and international research literature (Tatto, 2000). But while we know intuitively and increasingly empirically that teacher preparation must be intrinsically linked with high quality teaching, we do not know what are the kinds of mechanisms that support teacher learning throughout their professional life cycle. Indeed frequent questioning regarding the value of teacher preparation has raised parallel to the growing need for the development of accountability systems in teacher preparation. Although this call for accountability and development of standards of performance seems to be a worldwide phenomenon, few of these efforts have been documented in the international arena. The literature on teacher preparation is for the most part, descriptive, few studies have been directed at researching empirically the links between teacher preparation, practice and pupil learning, and on the mechanisms that support teacher learning. In this panel our intention is to include ongoing efforts in this area (e.g., documented evaluation studies; self-studies, etc.) that have attempted to do research and answer questions related to accountability in teacher education (e.g. how cost-effective are current accreditation systems? What is the value added of different approaches to teacher preparation? What are the mechanisms that support accreditation?

Theisen, Gary (The World Bank)

World Bank Symposium: Priorities, Opportunities, Trends and Tensions [Symposium]

A panel of senior staff from the World Bank will present a brief overview of Bank education priorities and activities by geographic region. Representatives from the Bank’s offices responsible for research, dissemination, instruction and evaluation will also describe their activities in support of strengthening education investments. The panel will discuss recent trends and tensions within the Bank and their implications for the character of the lending portfolio, project, management and occupational opportunities with the Bank. Approximately one-third of the session will be devoted to addressing questions from the audience.

Thomas, Mathai (University of Bridgeport)

Millennium Summit of the World Leaders at the United Nations: A Dialogue of Cultures for Building a Global Community [Panel]

Scholars of International Education are greatly concerned with the ‘state’ of the emerging world, its shape and quality. It was best expressed recently at two summits arranged by the United Nations in August and September 2000. ‘The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders’ consisting of heads of states brought together by the UN which provided a forum to express their hopes and fears, the problems and prospects of the new world in the making. Do religious leaders bring new insights and understanding of global problems in building a just and peaceful world? What are the major social problems and issues that these world leaders select? What are the differences or similarities between Third World and Industrialized nations regarding values and commitments? Does the United Nations Millennium Declaration sufficiently express the hopes and fears of people entering a new millennium? Is globalization a suitable concept to explain the emerging relationships between nations in the present decade? These and similar questions are raised by the panel members for their analysis of the short presentation of world leaders at the United Nations.

Torney-Purta, Judith (University of Maryland at College Park)

Citizenship and Education in Twenty-Eight Countries:

Civic Knowledge and Engagement at Age Fourteen [Panel]

The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), headquartered in Amsterdam, is a consortium of educational research organizations in 50 countries. Twenty years after the first IEA Civic Education Study (in which nine countries participated), the IEA General Assembly decided to mount a second, two-phased study of civic education to explore how students view their citizenship identity and how their views are influenced by the political, educational, and social context in the countries in which they live. The overall goal of the study is to identify and examine in a comparative framework the ways in which young people are prepared for their roles as citizens in democracies and in countries aspiring to democracy. The first phase of this second IEA Civic Education study—conducted in 1996 and 1997—was the more qualitative phase. Researchers collected documentary evidence on the circumstances, content, and processes of civic education in response to a common set of framing questions. More specifically, national researchers examined what adolescents in their countries are expected to know about democratic practices and institutions and looked at the ways in which their societies convey a sense of national identity to young people. The researchers also investigated what adolescents are taught about international relations and about diversity.

Thirty-one countries from Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia have participated in one or both phases of the study. Those countries include the following: Australia, Belgium (French), Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. Of the countries mentioned above, only Canada and the Netherlands are not participating in the second phase of the study.

The Phase 1 national case studies contributed to the design of instruments for the second, more quantitative phase of the study. During Phase 2, approximately 90,000 students aged 14 from nationally representative samples in twenty-eight countries were tested during 1999 and several thousand 15-18 year olds were tested in 2000. Questionnaires also were administered to teachers and school heads.

The student test and survey consists of five types of items: items which measure: (1) cognitive knowledge of principles as well as of threats to democracy; (2) skills in interpreting political communication; (3) concepts of democracy, citizenship, and scope of government; (4) attitudes related to trust in institutions, national feeling, opportunities for immigrants and women; and (5) students’ expected participatory actions relating to politics. A final part of the student survey assessed the students’ perceptions of classroom climate as well as other background variables. The first report of international/comparative findings from the IEA Civic Education Study will be available to the press and public in early March, 2001 (still to be scheduled between March 6 and March 15).

Tsang, Mun (Columbia University)

Recent Evidence on the Effects of Privatization Initiatives in Education in Developing Countries [Panel]

A variety of privatization initiatives in education have been undertaken in developing countries, including public support of private schools through vouchers and other forms of government subsidies, the contracting of the private sector to manage government schools, and the conversion of government schools into schools run by non-government organizations. Drawing upon the recent evidence in several developing countries, this panel examines education effects of privatization initiatives in education, focusing on school effectiveness, school governance and curriculum, the availability of school choice and educational access.

Urwick, James (College of the Bahamas)

Educational Policy Alternatives in the Commonwealth Caribbean [Panel]

As societies in transition which have accumulated considerable “educational capital” but continue to have great problems of social deprivation, the states of the Commonwealth Caribbean face many educational policy choices involving complex issues. As the papers of Anne Hickling Hudson and James Urwick will illustrate, some of these choices are concerned with the allocation of roles between governmental and other agencies in educational provision. In this area, the advantages of independent initiatives have to be weighed against the risks of reinforcing educational and social stratification. Anthony Laynes paper will elaborate on some aspects of the latter problem. Other choices are concerned with the adoption of new, or non-traditional, approaches to the delivery of education within the school. Such approaches, as Hyacinth Evans’ paper will show, may or may not be able to transform the school’s environment. In spite of the heritage and problems which they have in common, however, these states present a mosaic of variations in policy decisions and outcomes, a few of which will be explored in Urwick’s paper.

Vawda, Ayesha (The World Bank)

Public and Private Education: Mechanisms for Equity [Panel]

Governments remain the largest financiers and providers of education in most countries. The magnitude of public investment is a potentially powerful instrument for achieving equity in education. However, research indicates that the incidence of public spending disproportionately favors higher income groups. At the same time, the private sector (for profit and not-for profit) is playing an increasingly important role in education delivery, finance, management and choice. Some countries are experimenting with targeted financing mechanisms and a redefinition of the role of the government vis a vis the private sector to achieve greater equity. This session will discuss the evidence from a number of countries on equity in the distribution of public finances on education and the increasing role the private sector is playing in the delivery, financing, and management of education. Mechanisms for enhanced equity (including public-private partnerships) will be considered and the panel will shed light on a redefined role of the government.

Wagner, Dan (University of Pennsylvania)

IT, Learning and Education in Developing Countries: New Bridges over the Digital Divide [Panel]

The “digital divide” is a global phenomenon. In industrialized countries, the knowledge economy, powered by the internet and e-commerce, has become a key driver of growth and productivity, leading to new levels of prosperity. Yet, at the same time, a global digital divide is growing, such that the poor and disadvantaged peoples of developing countries are falling further and further behind in economic and social development. The relationship between the development of new information technologies (IT) and education has become a topic of increasing interest over the last decade. This is true not only because of rapidly changing technologies, but also due to dramatic changes in how nations and individuals think about education and educational opportunities, both in and out of school.

To bridge this technological and education gap will not be easy. In the developing world, disadvantaged in-school and out-of-school children youth and adults are composed of many diverse groups, such as women, ethnic and linguistic minorities, refugees and migrants. This diversity is one of the most important features in understanding why narrowly focused, middle-class oriented, and “one size fits all” education programs - especially when complex technology is introduced - have often met with poor results and lost resources. One major challenge is to maintain a focus on learning, rather than simply access to IT. A second major challenge is to avoid or reduce the cost of the inevitable problems associated with the integration of emerging and changing technologies into educational programs and processes that are practical on the ground, especially in impoverished settings. Recent advances in IT may offer new opportunities to address these challenges, as well as pitfalls from increased expense and under-trained personnel. Furthermore, disadvantaged populations will have major difficulties in utilizing the technological literacy skills needed in order to take advantage of these advances.

This panel will focus on various dimensions of these issues, from research, policy, and practice perspectives, with descriptions of recent initiatives in formal basic education, higher education, and non-formal literacy education in developing countries.

Wang, Jian (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

Looking Into the Familiar Through a New Lens [Panel]

In this panel, three qualitative studies will explore the ways in which some Chinese teachers, who are in different periods of their professional careers teaching different subject areas and grade levels, learn to teach. The three participants in this panel were born and grew up in China but received their training as researchers in the US education institution. They will look at the issues of teachers’ professional development in a familiar context of teaching with a newly acquired conception, pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987), which are shaping the research and reform on teaching and teacher learning in the US. The first study focusing on three Chinese expert teachers and their instruction analyzes the ways in which these expert teachers internalize the goals of reform-minded reading instruction and transcend their existing content knowledge and pedagogy into a new form of pedagogical content knowledge crucial for teaching as expected by reformers. The second paper on two second-year mathematics teachers examines the ways in which some contrived structures, public observation and examination of teaching, and organization of teachers’ work, shape the development of the teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for mathematics teaching. The third paper studies three first-year teachers teaching three subjects and the ways in which their conceptions of subject matter, teaching, and learning are influenced by the mandated curriculum and mentoring relationship.

Wendell, Laura (World Library Partnership)

Alternatives to Traditional Book Donation [Panel]

The donation of outdated and inappropriate teaching materials from developed countries to libraries and schools in developing countries can be a very damaging practice with far reaching consequences. This is not an issue many people think about. As a result, their good intentions often lead them to practices that undermine the development of indigenous author’s, scholars, and publishers. During this symposium, we will share some of our experiences and suggest some positive alternatives to traditional book donation. The World Library Partnership (WLP), an active advocate for alternatives to traditional book donation, is an organization working with school and community libraries in developing countries. Assistant Director, Maggie Hite, leads groups of US volunteer librarians to Southern Africa. In conjunction with the training and hands on assistance provided by the volunteers, WLP’s Book Coupon Program provides certificates for the purchase of local materials. This program empowers African schools and communities to choose for themselves what materials will be in their libraries. It also contributes to the long-term sustainability of libraries by supporting African publishers and booksellers. Finally, it saves thousands of dollars in shipping and customs charges. Join Ms. Hite and WLP Executive Director, Laura Wendell to explore these issues and learn about positive, affirmative and sustainable practices.

Zajda, Joseph (Australian Catholic University)

Education Reforms in Russia and Eastern Europe: Affirmative Alternatives for Educational Policy [Panel]

There has been a good deal of public debate about the reform of the education system in Russia and Eastern Europe during the 1990s.The panel presents an overview of the curriculum reforms and the politics of educational restructuring in Russia and Eastern Europe during the 1990s. It also explores political and pedagogical factors that may enhance or hinder the adoption of education reforms. The panel evaluates the politics of education transformation in Russia and its intended and unintended impact on social class, ethnicity and gender stratification.

In the 1990s, education policy reforms in developed and developing economies have emerged as a top-priority political, economic, and cultural issue. Improving the quality of education in the new Russia and Eastern Europe has become associated with the following three key goals of post-industrial states. First, improving the quality of education is linked to international economic competitiveness. This is highly significant for Russia, one of the global military powers, currently undergoing a painful transitional period. Second, quality education is a necessary condition for development and higher living standards. Third, the affective dimension of education reforms is a catalyst for transforming and changing attitudes and values.

Education and economic reforms in post-communist Russia, which re-defined the nature and direction of education and training, attempted to respond to the market forces and demand for privatization, deregulation and localization. Russia, like other nations, has rejected a rational foundation for the modern welfare state, choosing “charismatic” leaders in Yeltsin, (and currently Putin), forsaking humanistic and rational ideals, and preferring a culture of “personal gain” rather than “communal goals”