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”