The World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) was established in 1970 as an umbrella body which brought together five national and regional comparative education societies. Over the decades it greatly expanded, and now embraces three dozen societies. This book presents histories of the WCCES and its member societies. It shows ways in which the field has changed over the decades, and the forces which have shaped it in different parts of the world. The book demonstrates that while comparative education can be seen as a single global field, it has different characteristics in different countries and cultures. In this sense, the book presents a comparison of comparisons.

Common Interests, Uncommon Goals: Histories of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies and Its Members (Cerc Studies in Comparative Education)

Education & Teaching

Bray, Mark

Manzon, Maria

Masemann, Vandra

Schools & Teaching

Comparative Education Research Centre, Hong Kong University

Inequality in Education Comparative and International Perspectives is a compilation of conceptual chapters and national case studies that includes a series of methods for measuring education inequalities. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on global trends in the distribution of formal schooling in national populations. It also offers a strategic comparative and international education policy statement on recent shifts in education inequality, and new approaches to explore, develop and improve comparative education and policy research globally. Contributing authors examine how education as a process interacts with government finance policy to form patterns of access to education services. In addition to case perspectives from 18 countries across six geographic regions, the volume includes six conceptual chapters on topics that influence education inequality, such as gender, disability, language and economics, and a summary chapter that presents new evidence on the pernicious consequences of inequality in the distribution of education. The book offers (1) a better and more holistic understanding of ways to measure education inequalities; and (2) strategies for facing the challenge of inequality in education in the processes of policy formation, planning and implementation at the local, regional, national and global levels.

Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives (CERC Studies in Comparative Education, 24)

This book, which extends pioneering work on Chinese learners in two previous volumes, examines teaching and learning in Chinese societies and advances understanding of ‘the Chinese learner’ in changing global contexts. Given the burgeoning research in this area, pedagogical shifts from knowledge transmission to knowledge construction to knowledge creation, wide-ranging social, economic and technological advances, and changes in educational policy, Revisiting the Chinese Learner is a timely endeavor. The book revisits the paradox of the Chinese learner against the background of these educational changes; considers how Chinese cultural beliefs and contemporary change influence learning; and examines how Chinese teachers and learners respond to new educational goals, interweaving new and old beliefs and practices. Contributors focus on both continuity and change in analyzing student learning, pedagogical practice, teacher learning and professional development in Chinese societies. Key emerging themes emphasize transcending dichotomies and transforming pedagogy in understanding and teaching Chinese learners. The book has implications for theories of learning, development and educational innovation and will therefore be of interest to scholars and educators around the world who are changing education in their changing contexts.

Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing Contexts, Changing Education (Cerc Studies in Comparative Education, 25)

History

Asia

This is the first full study of non-formal education on an international scale since the 1980s. The book describes the emergence of the concept in the context of development and educational reform. It traces the debate about non-formal education from its origins in 1968 to the mid 1980s, and looks at the issues that this debate raised. It then describes a number of programmes in different parts of the world which call themselves 'non-formal', pointing out the wide range of different views about what is and what is not non-formal. Rogers asks whether we should drop the term altogether or try to reconceptualise it in terms of flexible schooling or participatory education. This is an important new book by a well-established author. It deals with complex issues, but is written in a clear style. It contains an important new analysis of the development paradigms in which the controversies surrounding non-formal education grew up, and which shaped its purpose and impacts. The author's call for a reformulation of the concept will find echoes not only in developing societies, but also in Western circles, where the language of non-formal education is being used increasingly within the context of lifelong learning. The book grew out of the teaching of non-formal education in which Professor Rogers has been engaged for the last 20 years. It is intended for teachers and students in comparative education courses in higher education institutions, and for researchers and others with an interest in the field.

Non-Formal Education: Flexible Schooling or Participatory Education? (CERC Studies In Comparative Education, 15)

ROGERS, Alan

Higher & Continuing Education

Full Circle is the story of a life transformed by long exposure to the people and culture of China and East Asia. The stories of many people in Hong Kong, China and Japan are interwoven into this narrative account, as Ruth Hayhoe shares what it was like to live through a series of major transitions – from the Cultural Revolution in 1967, to Hong Kong's return to China in 1997. Ruth Hayhoe left Toronto as a 21 year-old in 1967 and moved to Hong Kong, where she started her career as a teacher in an Anglo-Chinese secondary school for girls. Intending to stay six months, she spent 11 years in Hong Kong, teaching, studying, assisting a number of veteran China missionaries, and falling in love with Chinese people and Chinese culture. In 1980 she moved to Shanghai and taught the first two cohorts of university students after the end of the Cultural Revolution. She returned to Canada in 1984, having done a PhD at the University of London. Five years later, following the Tiananmen tragedy, she was drawn back to China as Cultural Attache in the Canadian Embassy. She continues to visit China where she does research and development work. In 1997, the year Hong Kong was reunited with China, she became Director of The Hong Kong Institute of Education, a newly established tertiary institution for teachers. Her life came full circle, as she again settled into the city where she had begun her teaching career 30 years earlier.

Full Circle: A Life with Hong Kong and China

Biographies & Memoirs

Hayhoe, Ruth

Historical

<div>The Gansu Basic Education Project (GBEP) was launched in 1999 with the goal of helping one of the poorest parts of China to achieve universal basic education. The project aims particularly to assist minority children and girls, and has had a significant impact. The reasons why children do not enrol in school, or drop out at an early stage, are many and complex. This study focuses on the costs of schooling to households. These costs can be a heavy burden, and may be a major obstacle to universalisation of basic education. The GBEP has aimed to reduce the costs to poor households in various ways. This study examines the arrangements for financing education at county and school levels. Among other project components, it focuses on the effectiveness of a targeted scholarship scheme for poor children, a reformed system of education budgeting, and a free-lunch programme.</div>

Reducing the Burden on the Poor: Household Costs of Basic Education in Gansu, China (Cerc Monograph)

Huang, Ping

Ding, Xiaohao

CERC Studies in Comparative Education No.7 Hong Kong and Macao have much in common. The dominant populations in both territories are Cantonese-speaking Chinese; both are small in area; both are urban societies; both have been colonies of European powers; and both have undergone political transition to reunification with China. Yet in education, for reasons that are analysed in this book, they are very different. The patterns of similarities and differences in the two territories make a fascinating basis for comparative study. The overarching theme of the book, on continuity and change, is particularly pertinent following the transition of the two societies to the postcolonial era. This thoroughly-revised and expanded second edition builds on the widely-acclaimed first edition. The work has been recognised as a significant contribution to the broad field of comparative education as well as to study of the specific societies which are its main focus.

Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macao: Comparative Perspectives on Continuity and Change (Cerc Studies in Comparative Education)

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Governments worldwide are increasingly advocating parental and community partnerships in education. This monograph explores the evolution of parental and community partnerships in Hong Kong and Singapore, and the local and global forces that have shaped those partnerships. It focuses on the work of two government advisory bodies established to spearhead partnership advocacy the Committee on Home-School operation (CHSC) in Hong Kong, and Community and Parents in Support of Schools (COMPASS) in Singapore. Key policy actors and local academics in the two states were interviewed to gain insiders' perspectives on the 'micro-politics' of educational partnership. Comparative educators, ministries of education, and educational policy makers will gain from this book a penetrating insight into parent-school-community partnership in a pair of Asian contexts, and may find some good practices and lessons.

Building Alliances: Schools, Parents, and Communities in Hong Kong and Singapore (CERC Monograph, 3)

Globalization is a multifaceted phenomenon, and one of its major components is the internationalization of education. The increasing pace and complexity of global knowledge flows, and the accelerating ex- change of educational ideas, practices and policies, are important drivers of globalization. Higher education is a key site for these flows and exchanges. This book casts acritical eye on the internationalization of higher education. It peels back taken-for-granted practices and beliefs, explores the gaps and silences in current pedagogy and practices, and addresses the ambiguities, tensions and contradictions in internationalization. In this volume, scholars from a range of disciplines and regions critically examine the commodification of higher education, teaching and support for international students, international partnerships for aid and trade, and the impacts on academics’ work.

Internationalizing Higher Education: Critical Explorations of Pedagogy and Policy (Cerc Studies in Comparative Education, 16)

Especially in less-developed countries, governments face great difficulties in financing education systems. Households commonly have to make major contributions of resources in order to bridge the gaps. Cambodia is among the countries in which government capacity has been particularly constrained, and in which the household costs of schooling have been especially high. This situation has created a major burden for poor families, and has exacerbated social inequalities. The Cambodian authorities in conjunction with donor agencies have devised policies to address the problem. They have had some significant successes, though many challenges remain. This book presents empirical data on the household costs of primary and lower secondary schooling. It builds on previous research which received considerable attention both nationally and internationally, and shows changes over time. The book has wide conceptual and policy significance, not only within Cambodia but also internationally.

Balancing the Books: Household Financing of Basic Education in Cambodia

Bunly, Seng

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