Lecture notes/summary international perspectives on education

INTERNATIONAL
PERSPECTIVES ON
EDUCATION
Lectures

,Contents
Lecture 1; introduction to comparative education & culture.............................................................2
Lecture 2; international organizations in education...........................................................................4
Lecture 2 globalization and internationalization of (higher) education..............................................4
Guest lecture 2; culture and education in China................................................................................7
Lecture 3; international comparisons................................................................................................9
Lecture 3; Comparative research........................................................................................................9
Guest lecture 3; International comparisons.....................................................................................10
Guest lecture 3; inclusive classrooms in Austria and south Korea....................................................12
Lecture 4; international organizations.............................................................................................13
Lecture 4; The role of international organizations in education policymaking.................................13
Guest lecture 4; International perspectives on education................................................................16
Lecture 5; education for all..............................................................................................................17
Lecture 5; education in the developing world and gender...............................................................17
Guest lecture 5; Romanian education, shaped by its history............................................................19
Lecture 6: Classroom Teaching; culture differences and three domains..........................................21
Lecture 6; classroom teaching; three domains.................................................................................21
Guest lecture 6; classroom teaching Islamic primary education in the Netherlands........................25
Lecture 7: Classroom Teaching; connection macro and micro level.................................................26
Lecture 7; connection macro and micro level influences..................................................................26
Guest lecture 7; Yemen; education in wartime................................................................................30
Lecture 8; Multicultural Education...................................................................................................31
Overview of important concepts week 8;.........................................................................................38




1

,Lecture 1; introduction to comparative education & culture
How is IPE different
- Focus on macrolevel (international
Social
actors/policies/culture)
- Focus on contextual factors that affect education
(and vice versa) --> social, political, cultural,
economic, historical Political Cultural

- Other research methods and sources Educational
system
THIS LECTURE
- Introduction
- Comparative education--> started out of the idea
Economic Historical
of borrowing educational things of other countries
- Culture
-
Educational borrowing
- Historically, comparative education was aimed at ‘educational borrowing’ (first phase of
Bereday)
- Example; NL
o Passend onderwijs--> inspired by Danish system
 Teaching special students at regular schools instead of special schools
 Decentralization (money goes to school corporations)
 However are NL and DK comparable?
 Does not go very well, hard to balance the attention.
 More successful in DK, they also have smaller classes.
- Example; students centered teaching in non-western countries
o Original; teacher in front of class talking about his/her knowledge.
o Students centered is more about students, also more responsible
o Some possible problems with this change
o Educational borrowing is still one of the aims of comparative education, but greater
awareness for cultural and other contextual differences
o Tanzania: “But Madam, if we start a lesson by asking students what they already
know about a topic, they will think we don’t know anything about it ourselves.”
(Vavrus, 2009)
o China: “If I do a poor job everyone will laugh at me, and I’ll feel terrible. I have
shamed myself; I’ve shamed my school education, my parents. Probably that is
related to not speaking too much. … Generally the Chinese are more reserved.”
(Frambach et al., 2014)

Historical stages in comparative education started from travelers’ tales and went to a systematic
field of research
- 2 approaches
o Empirical/positivist; large scale quantitative studies compare educational outcomes
o Interpretivist; in-depth qualitative studies (document analyses, observations,
interviews) to understand education in other countries

Definition of comparative education: An interdisciplinary subfield of education that systematically
examines the similarities and differences between education systems in 2 or more national or
cultural contexts, and their interactions with intra- and extra- educational environments.


2

, Purpose of comparative education:
- To learn about own system and that of other countries
- To enhance our knowledge and education in general
- To improve education institutions, there content, processes and method
- To understand relations between education and society
- To promote international understanding
- To find possible solutions to educational issue

Who undertakes comparative studies?
 Academics, policy makers, international institutions
 Can have different focus and methods but all do comparative studies

Different international organizations; UNESCO, PISA, OECD.
 Aim of these organizations is to help governments share information and analyze
trends on a range of topics, including education in order to bring about social and
economic benefit
Powerful institutions because used for policies

Bereday's model for comparison
- 4 phases
o Description  of the data/what you have found of the 2 countries
o Interpretationinterpret findings each countries but not comparing
o Juxtaposition start comparison. What is similar/or not, formulate hypothesis
o Comparison test hypothesis and draw conclusions
Short profile of comparative education
- Historical long-performed activity of studying foreign pedagogy.
- Established academic subfield of education, since WWII.
- Methodology mainly leaning from other humanities and social sciences disciplines, ongoing
debate on central standards, methods, and aims
- Uniquely placed within a political context
- Performed not only by academics, but also by international organizations
Culture
- Hofstede, culture is;
o Always a collective phenomenon (exists within groups
o Learned, not innate
o Manifested in different ways, e.g. practices, symbols, discourse, traditions
o “Culture is the context in which things happen, out of context, even legal matters
lack significance.” Culture can explain both similarities and differences

- Hofstedes model of culture
o 1. Personality = specific to the
individual, inherited and learned
o 2. Culture = specific to a group,
learned
o 3. Human nature = universal,
inherited
- The six dimensions of national culture (use to
describe culture of a nation)

3