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This Commentary reflects upon the articles in this Special Issue to provide an overview and discussion of their core arguments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A physics professor uses dramas about physics and physicists to teach physics to humanities students who must fulfill their science requirement. The dramatic and philosophic content of plays like 'Hapgood' by Tom Stoppard and 'Copenhagen' by Michael Frayn help the students to learn science in a way that they understand.

The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international development, as UNESCO's Education for All agenda was replaced by Education 2030, which would identify minimum standards of education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its existing PISA assessment into low- and middle-income countries through PISA for Development (PISA-D) and positioned the new assessment as a means of tracking progress on the post-2015 goals. The organisation maintains that PISA-D was introduced primarily in response to the demands of the international community, especially low- and middle-income countries, and that the assessment was developed in partnership with them. This paper investigates those claims through an analysis of the arrival of PISA-D in Cambodia, situating the analysis within UNESCO's shifting agenda and the strategic visions of the OECD and World Bank that first emerged in the 1990s. The result is a very different picture to the portrayals of local agency, demand, consensus and partnership that adorn the official websites and pamphlets of global agencies and much academic research, raising serious doubts about education governance post-2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the role of neoliberalism within portrayals of internationalisation in higher education (HE). Through an analysis of four features of internationalisation, we suggest that they embody a complex entanglement of neoliberal categories and assumptions with other, primarily progressive humanitarian ideals. This framing of internationalisation has three affects. One, humanitarian ideals coupled with neoliberal categories normalise inequalities, turning internationalisation into a meritocratic global race, focusing on celebrating the possibility of the few who can achieve, instead of the embedded inequalities within the system, which disadvantage the many. Two, this allows neoliberal practices to be advanced through the discourse of internationalisation and its association with progressive humanitarian values. Three, this neoliberal framing does not explain the nature of internationalisation of HE in many nations; we demonstrate this by analysing internationalisation in China, Israel and Cuba. We suggest that internationalisation in HE cannot be adequately explained by analyses which rely on neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The OECD’s PISA programme has been portrayed as central to the emergence of a regime of global educational governance and the subsequent convergence of policies towards a standardised model. Whilst there is an extensive literature describing PISA’s impact on education policies, there is a paucity of analysis of how PISA data is presented to the public within nations by three main actors which interpret the results; namely the OECD itself, politicians, and the media. This study analyses how England’s 2012 PISA results were interpreted by those actors, focusing particularly on the role of the media. We demonstrate that the OECD’s original messages were significantly distorted by the UK Government and show how the media, driven by its own logic, framed the results in terms of a narrative of decline, crisis and the need for urgent reform, while, significantly, giving little coverage to either the recommended policy actions or the contrasting interpretations of the PISA results by politicians and the OECD. We argue that a form of ‘mediatised governance’ shaped and limited the overall frame within which the results were debated and had a powerful influence on how local politicians represented the PISA results and advocated their own policy actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-1980s, a number of East Asian societies have consistently performed well in international tests, and their education systems have emerged as models of ‘best practice’, including Hong Kong, which has been extensively referenced by politicians and their advisers in England. In parallel, local dissatisfaction with the education system in Hong Kong has prompted major education reforms. This mismatch between the perceptions of the Hong Kong education system of the two policy communities is explored using documentary analysis and interviews with policymakers and other key stakeholders. We analyse the ways in which features of Hong Kong’s education system are reconstructed and projected in policymaking in England and argue that the referencing to Hong Kong in England is akin to a form of political theatre, reminiscent of a pantomime, with stereotyped villains, heroes and fairy godmothers, narratives of good conquering evil, and comical set-pieces. We argue that these elements provide the means for both constructing and validating simple causal claims and their associated policy actions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Education reform is increasingly based on emulating the features of ‘world-class’ systems that top international attainment surveys and, in England specifically, East Asia is referenced as the ‘inspiration’ for their education reforms. However, the extent to which the features identified by the UK Government accord with the situation within East Asia is problematic. This paper examines the relationship between the English representation and the ‘reality’ of East Asian education systems, using school autonomy as an illustrative example. We focus on Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, which are cited extensively to legitimate policies providing greater autonomy for schools in England. We argue firstly that the English representation has been largely discursive and inaccurate; has failed to recognise the variations across the region; and has been selected to endorse the Government’s ideological preferences. Secondly, the scope, form and nature of school autonomy vary markedly, and are operationalised in each society in ways reflecting the prevailing sociopolitical priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Singapore has been assigned the role of a ‘model’ nation state primarily for two reasons: its rapid rate of economic growth and its outstanding performance on cross-national tests of educational achievement, such as PISA. This has resulted in advocates of reform citing it as illustrating ‘best practices’, especially in the field of education, and it has more generally been viewed as demonstrating the benefits of economic globalization. This paper analyses from a comparative perspective the more problematic and relatively unexplored third dimension of being a model ‘global’ nation, namely its impact on income inequality and the quality of citizens’ life. We focus on the role of the system of lifelong learning which was designed generally to upgrade the skills of the workforce and specifically to provide low-paid/skilled workers with opportunities to improve incomes and enhance their socio-economic mobility. We demonstrate that despite the remarkable economic growth at a national level and the significant expansion of lifelong learning provision, productivity rates have not improved, income inequality has increased, social mobility has declined and the ‘quality of life’ is, in comparative terms, poor. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents an introduction to the issue in which the editor discusses articles contained within the issue on topics such as literacy teaching and learning in Mozambique, teacher recruitment and motivation, and teachers' professional learning in Hong Kong.

The article presents an introduction in which the editors discusses articles on topics such as economic, social, and cultural factors contributing to boys' experiences of higher education in Jamaica; the education of refugees in Great Britain; and educational inequality in China and Vietnam.

Education reform in England is increasingly portrayed as a quest to create ‘world class’ schools through the transfer of features of ‘high performing’ school systems. The demand for evidence to support policy borrowing has been serviced by an influential intermediary network, which uses international data banks to compare education systems, and to identify and promote evidence of ‘what works’. The approach to comparisons has been portrayed as a ‘New Paradigm’ by its advocates, and whilst the network has been extensively critiqued, this has largely focused on its deviation from the norms of academic comparative education. This article explores how the ‘New Paradigm’ operates, identifying its inherent features and the strategies used to overcome the methodological issues associated with policy borrowing. This is pursued through an analysis of the rationale; assumptions; underlying ideology; methodology; omissions and silences; dealing with critics; and language and presentation of four of its influential publications. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Patricia Bromley and Marina Andina on a neo-institutional analysis of the minimum standards for education in emergencies, one by Jutta Nikel and John Lowe on a multi-dimensional model of quality in education, and one by Jocelyn Wong on professional learning communities in a secondary school in Shanghai.

Chinese history (a subject entirely separate and distinct from 'history') has long been the most politically sensitive subject in Hong Kong's school curriculum. Previous studies have analysed the policies of the colonial and postcolonial Governments towards this subject. Here, we examine the role played by the Chinese history subject community (comprising teachers, academics and officials in the Government's educational bureaucracy), and look at the way in which this has operated as an autonomous interest group. We conclude that the influence of this subject community has been a key factor limiting the extent to which the local educational authorities have been able to develop a coherent policy in relation to history education in general, and the teaching of national history in particular. Specifically, advocates of the maintenance of Chinese history as a separate subject within the school curriculum have been able, by associating themselves with the post-1997 agenda of 'patriotic education', to effectively hoist the local educational bureaucracy with its own petard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts with a broad historical overview of educational reforms and then focuses on those specific to civic education. Lastly we look at the implementation of policy, and examine the effect of the current political climate in the Special Administrative Region (SAR) on civic education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the changing educational landscape in Hong Kong prior to and following its transition to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. It does this through an analysis of the rise and fall of a specific curriculum reform, the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC), which straddled the political reunification. The article draws on a range of published research and evaluation projects and the analysis focusses on the four key elements of public policy, namely the origins, the nature, the policy actions used and its impact on practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper firstly identifies the major legacies inherited by the post-colonial government in Hong Kong, with reference to the key features of access, control and curriculum. Subsequently we examine the state's attempts to reconcile the tension between its quest for legitimacy and for stability. Two dimensions of education, namely the process of educational policy making and the nature of citizenship promoted through the school curriculum, are analysed in terms of the conceptions of civic participation and identity promoted and implemented by the state. In conclusion we point to the shift in the policy making process and the strengthening of policy actions designed to promote the state's conception of civic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses the case of the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC), a major curriculum reform introduced into Hong Kong primary schools, to explore the interaction of cultures and curriculum reforms. It is argued that the reform emerged from, and was adapted and enacted in contexts or arenas that exhibited very different cultures. We focus on three distinct arenas that affected the reform, and examine within each of these the key interest groups and their shared understandings. The article thus provides an analysis that stresses the fragmented, pluralistic and changing nature of culture within Hong Kong society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzes the relationship between the school curriculum and Hong Kong's transition on July 1, 1997 from a British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Discussion of evident periods in the relationship between the state and the school curriculum; Selection and competition in education in Hong Kong; Civic education in Hong Kong; Emerging of Social Studies as a school subject.

An introduction is presented for the featured articles within the March 2014 issue, focusing on schooling in African countries, including contributions by Shoko Yamada, Christine Smith Ellison, and Roger Jeffery.

An editorial is presented on author's editorship to the periodical. Topics include the shift to electronic procedures for doing academic business and the reliance on reviewers; the rise of Editorial Board the number and quality of submissions has risen along with downloads and citations; and Board members' meetings.

An introduction is presented in which the authors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including intercultural education in Greece, ethnographic case study on Islamic Boarding school, and the educational system in China.