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Provides a background on research papers on the quality of education which were published in the volume 33, number two, 2003 edition of the periodical 'Compare.' Link between education and the issues of democracy and participation; Link between education and issues of democracy and citizenship.

This special issue is the third collection of papers Compare has published from the 2003 UKFIET/Oxford conference on The State of Education: Quantity, Quality and Outcomes . The papers presented here were originally given in the Education and Decentralisation symposium organised by Caroline Dyer, Mark Poston and David Theobald, and in the Michael Crossley and Keith Holmes symposium on Culture, Context and the Quality of Education . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comments on the selection of papers from the highly successful 7th Oxford International Conference on Education and Development in 2003 in England. Focus on methodological concerns in comparative and international educational research; Importance of valuing the distinctiveness of one's own knowledge and culture; Link of the knowledge and information revolution with globalization.

This paper explores the cultural and economic strategies of educated but un/under-employed young Muslim men aged between 20 and 34 in a village in western Uttar Pradesh, north India. Drawing on Connell's gender theory, the paper demonstrates how economic and political forces shape Muslim young men's strategies. The paper distinguishes between 'school-educated' men, some of whom had studied in madrasahs for long periods, and the 'madrasah-educated'. Concentrating on school-educated men, we discuss their perceptions of education, and how these relate to their search for a respectable masculinity and what they regard as 'good work'. We also show how uneducated Muslim young men with alternative visions of education criticise the strategies of their educated peers. We use this account of Muslim young men's practices to emphasise the value of a culturally sensitive political economy approach to the analysis of threatened masculinities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the work of Bourdieu, this paper analyses how far formal education within a revolutionary setting can act as a 'strategy-generating' institution in terms of enabling women to aspire to and achieve goals they would not even have envisaged pre-revolution. In making its case, it draws on the examples of three revolutionary societies: Vietnam (since 1976), Nicaragua (1979-1990) and Eritrea (since 1991). It is argued that even though not eliminating gender as a discriminatory marker, education indeed creates room for personal emancipation. While this could equally be achieved by openings within a neo-liberal setting, a strong focus on fostering social cohesion makes educational policies in revolutionary societies different. The paper ends by arguing that revolutionary states can offer valuable lessons for education as a source of social equity. It advocates to newly consider what type of state supports what kind of education system and for what purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where some of the papers in this volume deal with nation building in the democratizing former East European states in the wider ideological context of liberal democratic thought, this paper aims to present a view of democracy and democratization from an alternative, 'Asian' perspective. South East Asian nations, such as Singapore, have attempted to articulate and practise forms of 'Asian' democracy as a response to, and in rejection of, Western liberal democratic models. In these countries, there is not so much a programme of reform and liberalization, as an attempt to evolve a form of democracy suited to an 'Asian' society. To this end, efforts have been made by political leaders to articulate what 'Asian' values are, and Singapore will be used as an example of how a government has promoted a set of values regarded to be congruent with their form of 'Asian' democracy. By examining the history texts in Singapore, and comparing the different contexts in which European and 'Asian' values are embedded and used, the paper will elucidate the ways in which the nature of 'Asian' values and democracy differ from that of those advocated in Europe, and the implications of this for citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with processes of international enquiry. It focuses upon the relationship between a research problem and access to conduct research in a country. It uses data from an ethnographic study of primary education in a Northern Indian District. Conceptually drawing upon the insider-outsider debate within the sociology of knowledge, the paper raises issues about the relationship between the research problem, accessing knowledge and being an outsider to a research setting. It considers problems facing a particular form of outsider - a foreigner. The paper maintains that when researchers who are outsiders embark on designing research in non-western international educational settings, then questions considering the relationship between the research problem, access strategies and the culture of the research setting are vital. Grappling with such questions allows for the development and promotion of new forms of partnership, alongside a deeper understanding of culture and context, when developing comparative and international research policy agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the role that vocational education and training (VET) can play in Southern African responses to major socio‐economic challenges. It argues that this role will be most pronounced if it is articulated within a broader educational and economic vision that is shared by a range of stakeholders in society and supported by an adequate funding base, effective information systems and qualified and motivated planners and implementers. However, it cautions that it is also important to remember that VET reform will not in itself transform economies or societies. The paper argues that there is considerable convergence within Southern Africa around 10 themes of VET reform. It argues that there is much that is of merit in the current broad package for VET transformation but that it is essential that it is carefully critiqued and that elements are adapted to national circumstances and visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews the ways in which the policy of education decentralisation in post-apartheid South Africa results in both forms of inclusion and new forms of exclusion. Drawing on a two-year research project carried out in three provinces in South Africa, it shows how in the governance of schools, new forms of exclusion are being generated. It thus throws into sharp relief the policy effects of education decentralisation in South Africa, illuminating through case study data the disjuncture between policy intention and effect. It argues for the need to re-examine some aspects of post-apartheid education policy given the historical apartheid legacy. It suggests that often, in practice, policies of education decentralisation may exacerbate rather than reduce inequities in society; they may exclude more than include. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores private educational provision in the context of the decentralisation of education management in Indonesia. It provides an overview of the extent and nature of private provision and explores the nature of the interrelationship between private and government schools. The predominance of private provision at secondary level, rising demand for secondary schooling and national financial constraints will mean that private schools continue to play a major role in Indonesia for the foreseeable future. This paper argues that the sector warrants greater consideration from government and donor alike as an issue of both financial propriety and social equity. If the government is to increase educational participation and address issues of efficiency and social equity then policy sensitivity is required to ensure educational provision which is geographically rational and equitable, and promotes complementarity and not competition between government and private provision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the democratisation of education in South Africa within the context of the policy of educational decentralisation with regards to key policy texts, namely, the South African Schools Act (SASA) and the National Norms and Standards for School Funding (NNSSF). It begins by exploring the concept of decentralisation with specific reference to the notions of democratisation and participation. This leads to an examination of these concepts within the South African context. The final section examines the policy impact of participation and democratisation in relation to the powers and functions of School Governing Bodies (SGBs) by considering four illustrative examples, namely, religion, language, admissions and teacher employment. The paper concludes by considering the policy gap between policy rhetoric and practice in relation to attempts to entrench democracy and participation, and enhance participation at the school level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares approaches to curriculum specialisation in secondary education in New Zealand and England. In both countries there have been movements towards increased specialisation, though these have been quite different in form and scope. In both countries specialisation cannot be divorced from broader education policies designed to increase devolution and choice and the paper discusses these contexts before analysing the different approaches to specialisation and attempting an explanation. The authors draw on findings from research undertaken in New Zealand schools. The paper identifies three dimensions that have played a part in influencing curriculum specialisation in both countries. These are opportunity, source of impetus and support. It is argued that while local initiative is possible in New Zealand, central planning and guidance is inadequate. In England while central planning is strong and support is available, it is far from clear that real specialisation is encouraged by existing curriculum and assessment frameworks. In these circumstances in both countries it seems likely that vertical, rather than horizontal, diversity will continue to hold sway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces articles related to education contained in the June 2004 issue of "Compare."

Editorial. Introduces research on education and teaching, published in the volume 32 of the 'Compare' journal. Response from Caroline Vincent and Dougal Hutchison to the article on birth date effects in schooling by Gillian McDonald; Inclusion of abstracts completed by students of the BAICE; Raf Vanderstraeten's paper that uses the concept of pillarisation as a schema around which to conceptualise differentiation within the Belgian and Dutch education systems.

This paper examines the complex relationships between gender, education, extremism and security. After defining extremism and fundamentalism, it looks first at the relationship of gender to violence generally, before looking specifically at how this plays out in more extremist violence and terrorism. Religious fundamentalism is also shown to have gendered concerns. The paper concludes with drawing together the educational implications of these analyses, arguing for a politicised education to promote both national and personal security. Five components are proposed: acceptance of ambiguity rather than absolutism and single truths; a secular basis in human rights; breaking down 'otherness'; reconciliation rather than revenge; and free speech and humour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the New Policy Agenda, international development institutions have promoted non-profit organizations (NPOs) in developing countries, on a dual logic: firstly, they deliver social services more efficiently than the state; secondly, they mitigate equity concerns around privatization of basic social services by reaching out to the poor. Based on a survey of twenty prominent non-profit education providers in Pakistan, this paper illustrates that the NPO sector is not monolithic: non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the education sector under the patronage of international donors follow markedly different models of education provision to those of Traditional Voluntary Organizations (TVOs) reliant on domestic donations. While the social service ethos of the TVOs makes them distinct from the private sector, it is not the case with the NGOs: their model of education provision, rather than meeting the education needs of the poor, ends up cultivating markets for the private sector among poor communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching-research nexus has been studied by many researchers, mainly looking at pedagogic links and direct benefits arising from the interaction of both activities. The paper takes a comparative approach, looking at the relationship between teaching and research in four universities from two different countries. This paper argues that contextual factors are vital in shaping the nature of the relationship and also identifies differences between disciplines in how these contextual factors may be understood. In particular, the contrasting structural and political contexts provided by two different national settings are seen to have a crucial role in shaping institutional activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers issues related to integration in education, specifically those related to the integration of ethnic/religious populations in conflict. The case study we will use is the educating together of Catholic and Protestant children and Palestinian and Jewish children in two troubled societies, Northern Ireland and Israel, where children are normally kept segregated within the education system. Using a multi-theoretical approach the paper presents data collected in a parallel study of principals, policy makers and stakeholders in the two contexts. Whilst there are striking similarities between integrated education in Northern Ireland and Israel there are also clear differences around the management of pupil diversity which are critically teased out in the paper. It is argued that a cross-fertilization of theoretical perspectives is necessary both to analyse integrated school settings and to support those involved in these ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the incidence and determinants of overeducation in the Belgian private sector. Two different approaches are used to define overeducation by means of data on characteristics of employees and employers. Using the 1995 Structure of Earnings Survey, between 22% and 24% of the workforce is found to be overeducated. Results support the idea that employers view labour market experience as a substitute for formal education. They also show that male workers and people employed in state-owned firms are less affected by overeducation. Further results suggest that the size of the establishment has a very weak (negative) impact on overeducation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to papers on education and identity formation in post-cold war Eastern Europe and Asia that appear in this periodical.

This paper examines portrayals of Russia and the Russians in two generations of Ukrainian history textbooks. It observes that the textbooks are highly condemning of Ukraine's main ethnic other in the guise of foreign ruler: the tsarist authorities and the Soviet regime are always attributed dubious and malicious intentions even if there is appreciation for some of their policies. By contrast, the books, certainly those of the second generation, refrain from presenting highly biased accounts of the ethnic other as a national group (i.e. Russians). Instances where negative judgements do fall onto Russians are counterbalanced by excerpts criticizing ethnic Ukrainians or highlighting conflicting interests within the Ukrainian ethnic group. The negative appraisal of the ethnic other as foreign ruler is clearly instrumental for the nation-building project as it sustains a discourse legitimating the existence of Ukraine as independent state. However, recent trends in history education, the paper concludes, suggest that the importance of nurturing patriotism as a national policy objective is diminishing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the career progress of female principals in Greek secondary schools and the under-representation of women in management positions. Drawing on in-depth interviews with six women principals in Athens, the paper considers the factors affecting women's participation in school management. The findings demonstrate that women are greatly under-represented in secondary school management positions. The main reasons for this disadvantage are personal factors, covert discrimination, gender stereotypes and constraints experienced through their socially defined roles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The uniquely Japanese institution of the tanki daigaku (two-year university) known as 'junior college' in English was seen as Japan's answer to increasing participation in higher education. Initially established on a provisional basis in 1950, becoming permanent in 1965, they were the higher education institution (HEI) of choice of almost 500,000 students a year at their peak in 1995. Demographic changes after 1992 brought about a buyers' market for higher education with institutions in aggressive competition for students, a battle in which the tanki daigaku seems destined to be defeated. This paper examines the options available to junior colleges in crisis and in so doing identifies a number of features of a virtually universal system of higher education which raise issues for other advanced societies grappling with massification and commodification in their own higher education systems. The paper reviews the literature in this area, as well as drawing on a year of participant observation as an associate professor from 2000-2001. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to contribute to the limited literature on teacher job satisfaction in developing countries, especially in Cyprus. Drawing on interviews with 52 teachers and administrators in 17 schools, the paper describes the sources of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of Cypriot teachers and the impact on how teachers feel. Teachers emphasised their satisfaction with interactions with students, relationships held with colleagues and opportunities to contribute to the growth of individuals and the development of society. Sources of dissatisfaction were social problems and their impact on teachers' work, students' lack of interest and bad behaviour, the centralised educational system and the lack of professional autonomy in schools, and teacher evaluation and promotion prospects. Some of the factors are predictable but others are less so, having to do with the particular historical and social context in Cyprus. The context of a developing country is especially considered in an effort to explore how education officials may address issues of teacher satisfaction and dissatisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses community participation in Cambodian schools, looking at the spaces for participation and the cluster school system strategy adopted by the royal government to decentralise education. While institutionalised spaces of participation are relatively new, Cambodian communities have traditionally supported schools despite 25 years of political turmoil. Today communities provide material contributions but their participation in internal decision-making processes is still limited. While some local NGOs have shown that more active participation is possible, the factors that limit the establishment of democratic spaces for participation are to be found in the institutional set-up and, more importantly, in the trauma caused by the conflict, and in Cambodian socio-cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based mainly on a study of newspaper adverts for qualifications and tuition courses in Sri Lanka over a period from 1965 to 2000, this paper describes a decentralisation of control over the supply of qualifications. It is argued that this has occurred not through a deliberate policy mechanism to decentralise qualifications, but rather by default, through the more general liberalisation of the economy since 1978. Interviews and documentary analysis indicate that at the beginning of the period under study, education and qualifications in Sri Lanka were largely under the control of the state. However, by the end of the period of study, control over the provision of various qualifications rests with diverse bodies – foreign and domestic, public and private. This constitutes a de facto decentralisation in education and qualification provisions in Sri Lanka, notwithstanding the absence of education policy-making to this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary focus of this paper is two case study schools, one in Singapore and one in Australia, which have both been actively pursuing an agenda to build a unique internationally-oriented curriculum, in a context of globalization, but also within the constraints set by national/State curriculum frameworks, examinations and league tables. Interviews were used to collect data in each school, and then cross-case analysis was conducted to reveal both similarities and differences in the way the two schools are moving towards internationalizing their curriculum. Emergent meta-level conceptual themes around policy for `internationalization' of the curriculum are discussed: enablers and constraints; the issue of whether such internationalization fosters a market ideology; changing power relationships; and the relevance of distinctions between internationalization and globalization. The paper concludes by pointing to the contribution of the `sociology of knowledge' and `critical policy analysis' in disrupting the potentially hegemonic economic discourses associated with internationalizing the curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aspects of post-16 education, particularly with reference to vocational education and training, have acquired a degree of common presentation in the policy making of many national and international organizations in recent years. This paper compares similarities and differences in the rhetoric and reality of policy implementation in Brazil and the UK in post-16 education, particularly Technical and Vocational Education and Training. It finds an increasing alignment between these two very different countries at the levels of both discourse and practice. It argues that this reflects the dominance of international and regional agencies on whom both countries draw in developing policy, and the subsequent dissemination of those agencies' particular assumptions about the relationship between education, skills and economic performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides the outcomes of two small-scale sets of interviews carried out in the Netherlands and in England on views about and interpretations of the work-based route for young people. In the light of current revival of interest in work-based learning for young people, and in particular the apprenticeship model in England, I was particularly interested in the issue of parity of esteem between the work-based route and other routes. Whereas in the Netherlands the focus for the development of Vocational Education and Training (VET) is on the full-time vocational route, which has a reasonably high status, England has opted for the apprenticeship route to be the development tool for high quality VET. The paper explores what we can learn about our own experiences in England in the light of what is happening elsewhere (Raffe, 1998; Raffe et al ., 1999). It becomes clear from the data obtained that policy development in the Netherlands aims to increase the status of work-based learning through incorporating the route into the full-time route and providing end qualifications that can be achieved through either a full-time college-based route or through a work-based learning route. The modern apprenticeship route or work-based learning route as such has not a high status, contrary to what is sometimes claimed to be the case. In England, the aim of policymakers is to create a work-based learning route, which is considered to be a high quality route, and is comparable to the general/academic route. The paper shows that there are various reasons as to why this attempt might fail. Both countries aim to provide a 'ladder' or 'column' of opportunities in VET. The research shows that very few young people in fact move up a ladder, but rather move into work-based learning or apprenticeships at certain points on the continuum, and subsequently move sideways into general or theoretical provision in order to be able to progress higher up. Target groups for work-based learning are different at the lower end from those at levels 3, 4 and 5. Very few participants in either country move from level 1 up to level 4 through participation in a work-based route, and it may therefore be appropriate to talk about the provision of a climbing framework, where young people move backwards and forwards and sideways, rather than about a ladder of opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes the salient features of the emerging knowledge society, its relationship with education, the role of the international organisations in knowledge development and knowledge management, and specifically the need for knowledge-based aid policies. The paper argues that development of strong education systems, including specifically higher education and research systems, is a necessary prerequisite for development of a knowledge society. International aid organisations have been active in the development of education directly, and thereby in knowledge development indirectly in developing countries. Some organisations have also initiated efforts that aim at knowledge development and management directly. But the approaches of international organisations for knowledge development and management need to be modified to suit the divergent dynamic socio-economic conditions and national policies. Also based on the principle of comparative advantage, it can be suggested that knowledge development should be the main responsibility of governments in developing countries, while knowledge management could be the task of the international aid organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German unification took place very rapidly, and it is sometimes argued that East German education was colonised in a process according to which ideas and structures (some of which were not very successful in the West) were foisted on the East in the cause of unity and homogeneity. This paper argues that the 'victim/colonisation' hypothesis is exaggerated. There was a suppressed reform tendency in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) that resulted in several distinctive educational institutions in the New Bundesländer. Although it is true that a controversial divided secondary school structure replaced the GDR unified school, it was the East Germans themselves who clamoured for the grammar school without paying sufficient attention to the implications for those pupils who failed to obtain entry into it. Their suspicions that their most able children were under-achieving were not validated by empirical studies. To a certain degree, reverse transformation can be observed (influence from East to West). In the field of pre-school education and childcare, for example, the spectacle of a well-developed sector in the East made the Westerners realise that they themselves had no adequate policy or strategy so they began to develop one. The Wisssenschaftsrat (Higher Education Council) too drew attention to the efficiency of the GDR higher education system, and in certain respects is striving to emulate it in the Old Bundesländer. The conviction of having been 'colonised' feeds resentment that could result in a backlash against democratic values. The paper ends with a brief discussion of the implications of the colonisation hypothesis for citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regarding 'development' as a constructed and contested concept can enable us working in international education to re-examine our assumptions and approaches as 'developers'. Given its theoretical origins in post-modern, post-colonial and feminist thought, the concept of development as discourse implies more than simply 'development speak' and can provide a way into analysing relationships around knowledge and power. Stressing that there are many overlapping discourses, rather than just one Development Discourse, I explore in this paper the insights gained, methods used and constraints faced when using this approach during fieldwork in Nepal. Practical situations like literacy classes or meetings, and texts such as funding proposals or students' writing, illustrate how analysis of development discourses can bring out new dimensions relevant to training and planning. Moving from this micro-level to a wider context, I argue that the ideological dimension of educational planning and policy needs to be recognized and analysed through a focus on discourse. Instead of suggesting that a certain policy succeeds or fails in 'technical' terms, policy makers can then begin to ask different questions which acknowledge the political agendas of the various development players and allow for a greater variety of voices to be heard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offers information on a study which argued that educational decentralization in the South African context may result in greater educational inequities along the lines of class rather than race. Account of related literature; Discussion on the discourses of educational decentralization in South Africa; Dispute between national policy and provincial implementation in the Western Cape.

The article discusses various reports about education published within the issue, including one by Julia Preece and Dama Mosweunyane on the sources of mismatch between learned perceptions of citizenship responsibility among Botswana's youth adults and another by Paul Bennell and colleagues on Vocational Education and Training graduates in Tanzania.

The article discusses various papers published within the issue including one by Elaine Unterhalter on gender equality and global social justice and another by Amita Chudgar on the impact of the sex of the teacher on student outcomes in India.

Narrative research methodology embraces multiple ways of representing lived experience discursively, regardless of a participant's levels of literacy, education or formal occupation. This article explores some of the dilemmas of 'doing' narrative research in comparative and international education, with particular emphasis on the postcolonial agenda internationally. The first part of the article explores the current postcolonial context in which narrative research is taking place. From there, a narrative exploration of a particular context, based on research carried out in Sri Lanka, highlights issues of power, language and ideology. This storied discussion illustrates ways in which the narratives of the empowered and the disempowered reveal the complex interrelationships of language and power. Three key methodological dilemmas are examined, and a suggested framework is given to deal with such dilemmas. In sum, this paper is a journey of discovery of narrative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of narrative inquiry to contribute to an understanding of immigrant students' educational experience. Research on immigrant students' education is reviewed and the need for detailed examination of these students' experiences in schools, such as is done in a narrative inquiry, is demonstrated. Current trends in narrative inquiry that focus on multicultural and cross-cultural phenomena are examined. Key questions that narrative inquirers engaged in international and comparative education need to consider are discussed. One narrative inquiry on Mainland Chinese immigrant students in Hong Kong is presented to demonstrate the particular qualities of this form of inquiry and its potential for understanding immigrant students' educational experience. Dilemmas and concerns associated with this form of inquiry are briefly addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In states that are diverse, issues of national identity formation and who belongs and how they belong can, and often do, change over time. This article analyses how education was used as a tool to artificially create antagonistic national identities based on religious and ethnic definitions of who was Indian or Pakistani. It focuses in particular on how in India the BJP led government (1998-2004) and in Pakistan the government under General Zia-ul-Haq (1977-1988) rewrote the curricula and changed textbook content in order to create the 'other' in order to suit their ideology and the politics of the day. Drawing on the original textbooks, extensive fieldwork interviews in both countries and a study of recent literature the paper argues that fundamentalization in general and the fundamentalization of textbooks in particular are state controlled mechanisms through which to control society. They can also have serious international consequences, as two antagonistic national identities oppose each other's definition of history and self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses ways in shaping future environments through education and work-based learning. The author gives information on the impact of environment issues in international debates affecting the educational developments. It presents an overview of the discussions regarding the physical environment in macro levels as well as the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, and the how could the future possibly be changed.

The views in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of CERI and IIR. In 2006 Vietnam had experienced more than two decades of reform. However, while the reforms have transformed the entire Vietnamese economy and opened the country to globalization, the education system is still very much under the Vietnamese Communist Party's control. The schoolbooks are published under close supervision of the authorities. The national autobiography in which children are instructed has not changed much since the first conceptions of the Vietnamese revolutionaries and nationalists: as in many young nations, myths and legends have a fundamental place in the national history. Moreover the historical narrative youngsters are educated in serves the purpose of justifying communist rule and the leading role of the VCP in this process: the VCP is pictured as the midwife of the Vietnamese modern nation. Since the start of the reform process, the pressures and challenges on this system of history education have been growing. However, even if some voices have now started to call for a more subdued national autobiography, the national story is clearly not to be 'de-nationalized' any time soon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the experience in Guinea, Sierra Leone and South Sudan, to explore how the methodology and modalities of community based participatory literacy can interrelate and combine with those of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. The paper considers how transformative models of literacy, such as those of Freire, REFLECT, the ActionAid literacy programme, and ‘New Literacy Studies’, along with the self‐expression and creative writing these generate, can contribute to the processes of forgiveness, reconciliation and reconstruction. It argues that adult literacy programmes constitute an important element in post‐conflict reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses various studies published in the "Journal of Comparative Education." The papers presented has a common theme which is education in the 21st century: conflict, reconciliation and reconstruction. Understanding the relationship between education and conflict is the topic of the paper by Peter Colenso and Tony Gallagher. Elizabeth Copper's paper addresses the education of refugees. Juliet McCaffery’s paper makes an original contribution to the field by addressing the community-based participatory literacy programs developed for refugees and internally displaced community in Guinea, Sierra Leone and South Sudan.

This paper is an attempt to map out an emerging, and increasingly important field of study concerning the relationship between education and conflict. The field has two main parameters. The first involves the variety of contexts within which education systems are required to operate. Distinctions are drawn between education that is provided within relatively peaceful and stable environments; during times of violent conflict; as part of reconstruction following conflict or political transition; and as part of longer term peace and reconciliation processes. Educational priorities and concerns may be quite different depending on each of these circumstances. The second parameter concerns different levels of action within an education system. These include the political and policy environment, administrative and structural features and various aspects of educational practice. The paper argues that actions through various ‘entry points’ at each of these levels carry the potential to exacerbate or ameliorate conflict and suggests that a systemic analysis of investments in education systems from a conflict perspective should be a routine part of educational planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A focus on conflict and education is one of the most pressing concerns of the current times, and yet the role of education in the perpetuation, or the mitigation, of international conflict is curiously underplayed and under‐researched. This paper looks firstly at the contributions that education makes to conflict, through the reproduction of inequality and exclusion, through perpetuation of ethnic or religious divisions, through its acceptance of dominant aggressive masculinities, through selection, competition and fear, and through distorted curricular emphases on narrow cognitive areas of learning. However, the paper also outlines some ‘possibilities for hope’, such as resilient schools, the impact of peace education initiatives and the rise of global citizenship education. It is argued that comparative and international education has a highly important role in establishing patterns of educational contribution to peace or conflict, and in dissemination of research to act as a lobbying force to influence education policy and practice. The paper outlines eight priorities, including alternative international studies focusing on ‘achievement’ in peace education; cross‐cultural or longitudinal studies of impact of peace education and war education; and tracer studies of why young people join fundamentalist organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against a backdrop of the importance of project evaluation in Africa, and the centrality of the project logical framework (logframes) to project evaluation, this paper reflects on experiences arising from evaluations of three educational development projects in East and Southern Africa. Each of these projects had a strong teacher development component. The evidence shows while the logframe brings purpose and clarity to project management, this very strength, in the form of technical rationality, brings attendant limitations to an understanding of real outcomes and processes leading to such outcomes.Inherent logframe limitations may be masked by the settled and stable conditions enjoyed by developed countries. In developing African countries, however, conditions and contexts are very different, and in each of the three cases reviewed a particular set of contextual factors led to the logframe being played out in different ways.Inferences drawn from the three cases support the historical move towards more qualitative evaluation approaches. However, it is argued that further benefits would accrue from the repositioning of project evaluation from its relative isolation back into the ambit of broader research endeavour. In this way, project evaluation stands to benefit from reviews and meta-narratives; and the literature on educational and teacher development would be considerably enriched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluations, tied to specific programmes, need to be complemented by research that is more sensitive to context at the classroom level. A comparative approach may be used as a platform to move into a two-way conversation with the perspectives of practitioners in ‘developing’ countries and hence scrutinize internationally dominant notions of good teaching that are often assumed in applied research, such as evaluations. This paper draws on findings from a theoretically oriented study of primary school teacher identity in Tanzania, in which explicit comparisons are made with teacher identity in England. The analysis shows how Tanzanian teachers see their social identity and professional responsibilities as being co-constructed and shared with parents, the local community and education administration. A comparison is made with English constructs of professional responsibility and accountability in order to draw some lessons for the conduct and interpretation of evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of unequal access to education among males and females appears to be universal in the developing world. However, females in Africa seem to suffer more discrimination in terms of access to education. This study revisits the question of gender disparities in educational access in Africa by analyzing data from recent comparative national surveys including the Demographic and Health Surveys, Living Standards Surveys, and World Bank data, focusing on Ghana, Zimbabwe and Kenya. It concludes that while substantial progress has been made in the last 40 years, female illiteracy rates are still high compared to males and entrenched attitudes continue to keep females out of the educational system, thereby perpetuating the gender gap. Furthermore, while females are generally disadvantaged vis a vis their male counterparts, females living in the urban areas and some core regions tend to be better off than those living in the rural areas and peripheral regions. The paper suggests a number of policy recommendations that would enable African countries, especially the three countries used as case studies, to reap the full benefits that accrue from female education. These include the need for African governments to rededicate their efforts towards giving female education the highest priority, creating girl-friendly school environments, helping resolve parental poverty issues that compel them to force girls into early marriages, legislating and enforcing laws that compel all children to stay in school for at least 12 years, and wiping out the long existing spatial inequities that enable people in certain locations to have better access to education than others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much recent education policy-making around the world has focused on a restructuring of the role of the classroom teacher in a bid to increase the 'quality' of the educational experience and raise pupil attainment. However, the definition of quality, as expressed through policy, may not always accord with the aims and aspirations of individual teachers who work within a specific cultural context. The rhetoric and intent expressed in policy texts may even have the potential to restrict the quality of what teachers do. This paper draws on some of the findings from a small-scale comparative study of teachers' work in England and Denmark which used an extended case study approach, set in a socio-cultural framework, to examine the relationship of policy trends to teacher values and professional practice. Evidence from the study is used to discuss the issue of 'quality', highlighting contextually specific variations which impact on the implementation of national policy at the local level. Through a discussion of the study's methodology, attention is also drawn to the need for a more contextually sensitive approach to the creation and evaluation of policy which, while recognising universal concerns, also pays heed to local priorities and teacher values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A problem with the construction of an inclusive definition of international education is that the word ‘international’ has a variety of connotations. It is proposed that the term ‘international education’ is ambiguous because it appears to refer to contrasting usages in educational studies. International education is frequently discussed in the context of the related field of comparative education, but a different sense of the term has also developed in the context of the theory and practice of education in international schools and other institutions. This paper compares and contrasts the different usages of the term ‘international education’. It also discusses international- ism and globalization as contexts for international education, as practised in international schools and other institutions, particularly with reference to the history and programmes of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to review the Argentine case regarding school choice in view of the conclusions of recent research on socio-economic segregation in the educational system. In this context, the study of the Argentine educational system becomes a rather interesting one since Argentina has neither demand subsidy programs, nor voucher systems. On the contrary, the continuous actions by the State in matters of supply-oriented financing rule out any thoughts of a generalized existence of either educational markets or quasi-markets. Nevertheless, the strong regulating mechanisms imposed by the State seem to breed deregulated areas that promote actions by sectors with a greater economic or political capacity to satisfy their preferences in terms of their children's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]