CERCular    [No.1 & 2 of 2001]

Table of Contents

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From the Director

This issue of CERCular shows that the Centre's work has gathered speed and has resulted in impressive outputs. Among the most tangible outputs have been four new books - and more are in the pipeline. Reviews of CERC's existing books, some of which are partially reprinted here, have been very positive.
    In addition to pleasure at the remarks on the books themselves, we greatly value the general comments made by senior figures in the field about the work of CERC. For example, Edmund King describes CERC as "productive and authoritative", and notes the "careful scholarship undertaken for many years by researchers in the University of Hong Kong". Similarly, Michael Crossley states that CERC "should be congratulated for helping to bridge some of the best of past scholarship with new readers enthused by the contemporary resurgence of the field". We trust that our new initiatives will continue to elicit comments of this type.
    The newsletter also contains information on our training programmes. This includes short-term work with educators and administrators from mainland China, and longer-term degree programmes. A group of 10 MEd students in comparative education has graduated with a 100% success rate and with two gaining distinctions. This cohort has been followed by another which promises to be equally dynamic. The newsletter includes the thesis abstract from one of our PhD students; and other PhD students are nearing completion of their work.
    On the organisational side, CERC has a new Executive Committee and new premises. The Executive Committee has some continuity and some new blood ?a combination which will help maintain vitality. The new premises greatly increase the space available to CERC, and also promote collaboration with other Centres at the University of Hong Kong.
    Another focus is on professional societies in the field. Starting locally, CERC works closely with the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), of which one member of CERC's Executive Committee is President. Regionally, the Centre plays a role in the Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA), which was founded in 1995 at a meeting hosted by CERC, and in which two CERC members have been Directors. Another CERC member presented the Eggertsen Lecture at the 2001 meeting of the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES). And at the umbrella level, CERC provides the Secretariat for the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). New initiatives are being taken in leadership, scholarly work, and dissemination of information through the WCCES network.
    One of the most visible WCCES activities is the organisation of periodic World Congresses. The 11th World Congress was held in Korea in July 2001, and was a very notable event. CERC was well represented by both academic staff and students. The Congress showed the growing vigour of the field in Asia, of which CERC is proud to be a part.
    In previous years, we have issued two annual newsletters. This year we have decided to produce a single newsletter, but it is in effect a double issue which reports on a great deal of activity. As always, we invite readers to get in touch with us, either virtually through our newly-reorganised website (www.hku.hk/cerc) and/or in person at our new premises in HKU's Hui Oi Chow Building.
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Mark Bray

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CERC Books

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Education in China and Abroad: Perspectives from a Lifetime in Comparative Education
by Gu Mingyuan with an Introduction by Ruth Hayhoe
June 2001; 260pp; ISBN 962 8093 70 3; HK$200 / US$32

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Gu Mingyuan is one of China's most distinguished specialists in the field of comparative education. He is a long-serving President of the China Comparative Education Society, and in 2000 he was elected President of the Chinese Education Society. Yet because most of his works have been published only in Chinese, they have been little-known internationally.
    This book presents a collection of Professor Gu's writings over a 20-year period from the early 1980s. Each chapter is a valuable piece in its own right; and, taken together, the chapters show the development both of Professor Gu's thinking and of the field as a whole during a period of dramatic changes.

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Values Education for Dynamic Societies: Individualism or Collectivism
edited by William K. Cummings, Maria Teresa Tatto & John Hawkins
October 2001; 260pp; ISBN 962 8093 71 1; HK$200 / US$32

Social changes have made values education an important topic for academics, policy makers and practitioners in all parts of the world. This book examines values education in a diverse set of societies. Through its comparative analysis, the book significantly enhances conceptual understanding of this complex domain. An intriguing finding concerns the emerging support in Asia for individualistic values, by contrast with the new interest in collective values in the West.
    William K. Cummings teaches at George Washington University, and is a past president of the Comparative & International Education Society. Maria Teresa Tatto teaches at Michigan State University, and has conducted influential comparative studies of teacher education, student learning, and reform. John Hawkins teaches at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is Editor of the Comparative Education Review.

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Knowledge Across Cultures: A Contribution to Dialogue Among Civilizations
edited by Ruth Hayhoe & Julia Pan
October 2001; 391pp; ISBN 962 8093 73 8; HK$250 / US$38

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At the start of the new millennium, the United Nations designated 2001 the 'Year of Dialogue among Civilizations'. This dialogue emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and changed much of the field of comparative education. The dialogue draws attention to deep-rooted cultural differences around the world which shape approaches to education.
    This book gives voice to outstanding scholars from three major Eastern civilizations ?Chinese, Arabic and Indian - who have entered into dialogue with equally distinguished scholars from the West. One of the authors, Muhammad Abdus Salam, was the first scientist from Pakistan to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. The themes of the book include challenges to knowledge in the late modern era; Eastern contributions to scientific knowledge; knowledge transfer across regions and civilizations; indigenous knowledge and modern education; and past and present influences from China. The book will contribute to an ongoing dialogue among civilizations, and enhance mutual understanding in the increasingly globalized society of the 21st Century.
    Ruth Hayhoe is Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and is an Associate Member of the Comparative Education Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the University of London Institute of Education, and Advisory Professor to ten universities in different regions of China. She has devoted two decades to studies of China's education and Chinese-Western relations in education.
    Julia Pan teaches at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She has recently led two major projects of educational and scientific collaboration between Canadian and Chinese scholars, supported by the Canadian International Development Agency.

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Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives
edited by David A. Watkins & John B. Biggs
September 2001; 306pp; ISBN 962 8093 72 X; HK$200 / US$32

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This book is a sequel to The Chinese Learner, which was first published in 1996 and has been widely acclaimed. The 1996 book made a seminal contribution to the field by focusing on the influence of cultural factors on approaches to learning in Chinese societies. Chinese learners were clearly doing some things better than their Western counterparts; but how was this achieved in large classes and harsh educational environments?
    The present volume extends the earlier book by focusing on the work of teachers. It analyses the ways in which teachers in Hong Kong and China think about their teaching, and the ways in which they conduct their teaching. Differences between Chinese and Western approaches to teaching are identified, and lessons are drawn for educational reform.
    David A. Watkins is a professor in education at the University of Hong Kong. John B. Biggs is a former professor in education and in psychology at the University of Hong Kong. They have assembled a distinguished group of contributors for this further path-breaking work.
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Mathematics Teaching

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Is there a Chinese Pedagogy of Mathematics Teaching?

Francis Lopez-Real and Ida Ah Chee Mok

As reported in previous issues of CERCular, researchers at the University of Hong Kong have had a long tradition of involvement with projects conducted under the umbrella of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). One of these projects is the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which has attracted considerable attention worldwide.
        Francis Lopez-Real and Ida Ah Chee Mok are specialists in mathematics education, who are following up some dimensions of the TIMSS project. They are doing this in a project 'The Chinese Pedagogy of Mathematics Education' supported by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong in which Frederick Leung is the Principal Investigator and Ference Marton is a co-investigator. Here they explain the basis of their project and the ways in which it will contribute to wider understanding of the processes of teaching and learning.
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TIMSS was the largest comparative study of student achievement in mathematics ever undertaken, and involved 41 countries. Unlike many previous studies, TIMSS collected data on a large number of factors that might influence achievement. These included curricula, textbooks, resources, the environment, and attitudes of teachers and pupils.
        Many researchers felt that teaching must be one of the most significant factors influencing achievement. As Stigler & Hiebert (1999, p.2) put it: "Standards set the course and assessments provide the benchmarks, but it is teaching that must be improved to push us along the path to success". The TIMSS steering group therefore decided to conduct a video study in parallel with the main study, to record and analyse a large number of lessons from different countries.
        The steering group realised that for economic and logistical reasons the sample for the video study could not be as large as for the main study. In the event, three countries were chosen for comparison: Germany, the USA, and Japan. The original intention was to tape 100 Grade 8 lessons in each country, but for various reasons the final study comprised 100 lessons in Germany, 81 in the USA, and 50 in Japan. Even with a smaller scale than initially envisaged, this was also the largest study of such qualitative data ever undertaken in mathematics education.
        One of the main purposes of the video study was to determine whether clearly-distinguishable characteristics of teaching styles and methodology could be identified across cultures. If so, this might help to explain the different achievement levels of students. The data were collected through random sampling of teachers and Grade 8 classes from within the larger TIMSS sample.
        One major problem was to ensure that the lessons taped would be typical of normal teaching rather than special, stand-alone events. This issue was explained to all teachers, who were asked to provide details of what had occurred in the previous lessons and their plans for the next lessons. The researchers were aware that some aspects, such as student behaviour and discipline, were unlikely to be typical due to the presence of the video camera. Nevertheless they believed that many teacher behaviours, such as routine classroom discourse, are so highly socialised and automatic that they are difficult to change.
        The researchers' analysis of the results of the TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study are reported in the book The Teaching Gap (Stigler & Hiebert 1999). The book claims that the tapes did indeed illustrate quite different pedagogies across the three countries, and that these teaching methods were highly consistent within countries. "To put it simply, we were amazed at how much teaching varied across cultures and how little it varied within cultures" (p.11). The 'teaching gap' of the title refers to these cross-cultural differences.
        Two chapters in this book describe these images of teaching, and analyse three lessons to illustrate the case. The authors propose three 'mottos' for describing the main characteristics of a lesson in each country. For a German lesson, the motto is "developing advanced procedures"; for a Japanese lesson it is "structured problem solving"; and for a US lesson it is "learning terms and practising procedures". Adding flesh to these descriptions, the main aim of Japanese mathematics lessons appears to be conceptual understanding through problem solving with the students having much of the 'control'. Conceptual understanding is also a major aim for German lessons, but the 'control' remains very much with the teacher. In contrast, the major aim in the US lessons appears to be acquiring techniques and algorithms. The lesson illustrations given in the book strongly substantiate these characterisations, and the authors claim that they are highly typical. Indeed, the authors describe the mental picture of the teaching pattern within each culture as a kind of 'teaching script'.
        This is a powerful image; but does a national teaching script really exist? In recent years the phenomenon referred to as 'the Asian learner paradox' has been discussed by a number of authors (e.g. Watkins & Biggs, 1996, 2001). Stated briefly, this is the apparent contradiction between the teaching methods/environment in Asian schools (i.e. large classes, whole class teaching, examination-driven teaching, oriented to content rather than process, emphasis on memorisation, etc.), and the fact that Asian students have regularly performed better than their Western counterparts in comparative studies. The paradox lies in the fact that the above characterisation of Asian teaching describes features that, according to much research, is not conducive to effective mathematics learning.
        The Japanese lessons described in the video study certainly do not 'fit' the Asian stereotype. So, is Japan an exception within Asian cultures? In fact, as Stigler & Hiebert observe (1999, p.106), "one might even argue that Japanese lessons better exemplify current U.S. reform ideas than do U.S. lessons". Or, is the stereotype image of most Asian mathematics teaching quite wrong anyway?
        Our own experience of teachers in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia suggests that the Japanese image portrayed in The Teaching Gap is not typical. We also note that Leung's (1995) comparative study of junior secondary mathematics classrooms in Beijing, Hong Kong and London found great differences between the instructional styles in the three cities. Whole-class instruction was obviously more common in Beijing and Hong Kong than in London. A salient similarity in Beijing and Hong Kong was the teachers' expository style of expounding mathematical content. Our own impression is that the popular pedagogy in Hong Kong is closer to the German model, where concepts are carefully explained but the transmission mode is still dominant.
        Some disquiet has been expressed about the methodology used in the TIMSS video study, particularly concerning the taping of just one lesson per teacher. Partly because of this, a new international research project has been launched. It is called the Learners' Perspective Study, and is led by David Clarke at the University of Melbourne (Clarke 1998). The project will study fewer classrooms in each country, but each class will be videotaped over a sequence of 10 lessons. Our own study is free-standing, but has been conceived in conjunction with the Learners' Perspective Study. It focuses on classrooms in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and also uses a sequence of 10 lessons for analysis.
        In characterising national norms of teaching practice, the TIMSS video study accepted certain limitations. Only one camera was used, the primary focus of data collection and analysis was the teacher, and only one lesson was videotaped for each classroom sampled. The Learners' Perspective Study intends to supplement the TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study data by in-depth documentation of the student perspective over several lessons in the same classroom. The available technology is utilised to combine videotape data with participants' reconstructions of classroom events. The project in Hong Kong and Shanghai, like others in the Learner's Perspective Study, will use two video cameras to provide a split-screen record of both teacher and student actions. It will also use video-stimulated recall in interviews conducted immediately after the lesson to obtain participants' reconstructions of the lessons and the meanings that particular events held for them personally.
        To conclude, the new study will complement the TIMSS, Videotape Classroom Study, and Learners' Perspective Project in the following aspects:

- It will involve two different cities in China - Shanghai and Hong Kong ?thus facilitating the identification of a distinct Chinese pedagogy (if any), as well as variations within it.

- It will complement emergent national norms of student achievement and teaching practices with an in-depth analysis of classroom learning from the perspective of the learner.

- It will utilise a new methodology in the analysis of the data in order to get a deeper understanding of classroom teaching from the learners' perspectives.

- It will examine the Shanghai-Hong Kong differences in teaching in light of what the students actually learn from the lessons.

References

Clarke, D.J. (1998). Studying the classroom negotiation of meaning: Complementary accounts methodology. In A.

    Teppo (Ed.) Qualitative Research Methods in Mathematics Education. Monograph No. 9 of the Journal for

    Research in Mathematics Education. Reston, VA: NCTM, pp.98-111.
Leung, F.K.S. (1995). The mathematics classroom in Beijing, Hong Kong and London. Educational Studies in

    Mathematics, 29, 297-325.
Stigler, J., Gonzales, P., Kawanaka, T., Knoll, S. & Serrano, A. (1999) The TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study.

    Research & Development Report, Washington DC: US Dept. of Education. Stigler, James W. & Hiebert, James

    (1999). The Teaching Gap: Best Ideas from the World's Teachers for Improving Education in the Classroom.

    New York: The Free Press.
Watkins, D. & Biggs, J. (eds.) (1996). The Chinese Learner: Cultural Psychological and Contextual Influences.

    Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

Watkins, D. & Biggs, J. (eds.) (2001). Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical

    Perspectives. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
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MEd in Comparative Education

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One Group Graduates
August 2001 brought the completion of the MEd programme by a cohort of 10 students. This was the second group to complete the specialist programme in comparative education, which had been launched in 1996. It is a two-year programme, studied part-time.
        The students had brought a wide range of skills and backgrounds to the programme, which they completed with a 100% success rate. As Prof. Mark Bray, their Course Director noted, "these groups are part of the growing strength of the field in East Asia, which is significant even from a global perspective".
        The programme comprised 11 taught modules and a dissertation. For many students, the dissertation was the part with the greatest long-term significance. All 10 dissertations are now available in the university library or separately through CERC, and their range is evident from the titles:
- Au Hing Cheung, Francis: 'Curriculum Integration: A Comparative Study of a Local Mainstream School and the Canadian International School of Hong Kong'

- Chan Lai Kit, Katie: 'Secondary School Music Curricula in Hong Kong and Singapore'

- Chan Pik Ha, Rita: 'The Governance and Control of Public Higher Education: Models and Operations in Hong Kong and Macau'

- Mang Wai Ling, Emily: 'Evolution in the Field of Comparative Education, and the Role of the Comparative Education Research Centre'

- Shum Ho Ma, Ada: 'Perceptions of School Culture in Hong Kong: NETs vis-à-vis Students'

- Sin Kit Mui, Corrina: 'The Government's Role in Kindergarten in Hong Kong and Macau: A Comparative Study'

- Sin Sze Man, Irene: 'Politics and the History Curriculum in China, England and Hong Kong'

- Tong Sui Leung, Thomas: 'Education as a Commodity: Private Tutoring in Hong Kong and Taipei'

- Yamato Yoko: 'Education in the Market Place: A Comparison of Systems for Recruiting and Serving Hong Kong Students in International Schools'

- Yan Man Kit, David: 'Ideology and Teacher Education in Communist Russia and Post-Communist Russia'.
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Two students gained distinctions in their studies. Special congratulations go to Ada Shum and Yamato Yoko. Summaries of their dissertations are presented in MEd Dissertations.
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Another Group Begins
As soon as one group completed their MEd studies, another group commenced. The new group again contains great diversity. Two participants come from Canada, one from the USA, one from Philippines, and four from Hong Kong. All have extensive international experience of various kinds, and they also have diverse professional skills. While one participant teaches in a kindergarten, another teaches at the tertiary level. Others have experience in consultancy, librarianship, special administration, and educational administration. All participants have commenced the programme with great enthusiasm, and are clearly set to make further great contributions to the field. The eight students in the new cohort are:
- Carolyn Acorn,
- Chan Man Yi, Helen,
- Cheng Man Wai, Maurice,
- Sharon Eng,
- Fu Yun Ting, Leslie,
- Huang Yuan Yi, Wanda,
- Leung Hoi Yan, Mabel, and
- Maria Manzon.
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Motives and Goals for MEd Study

Each student in the new MEd cohort naturally has different reasons for taking the course. Here are some of their aspirations:
- "Education systems are considerably different all over the world. As a field of studies, I would like to research the similarities and differences in the aims, values and methods between education systems across cultures - in particular Eastern and Western cultures."
- "My interest in Comparative Education has blossomed with every new country I visit. I hope some day to work with a development agency and possibly teach in other parts of the world. This MEd is not only for professional reasons: it is also a personal interest."
- "With my BEd (1st class honours) degree obtained at HKU in 2000 [four years, part-time], I am now determined to expand my scope of knowledge by pursuing an MEd degree in Comparative Education. I believe that to have fruitful pedagogical understanding and applications in the local context, one has to know its strength and weakness by comparison with other educational systems. Self-knowledge is grounded on knowing others."
- "As I have always enjoyed helping other people to learn and develop, I would like to further develop my professional knowledge of education. I believe that my experience in the business world coupled with a professional background in education would allow me to make a substantial contribution to curriculum design and teaching methods in a rapidly changing educational environment."
- "Hong Kong is undergoing drastic education reform. Experience can be obtained through comparing our education system with that of other regions. I hope in this program I can get more insight into how we can change the present system into a better one."

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MEd Dissertations

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As noted above, two students in the MEd (Comparative Education) group which graduated in 2001 gained distinctions. Below and on the next page are abstracts of their dissertations.

Education in the Market Place: A Comparison of Hong Kong International Schools and their Modes of Operation
Yoko Yamato

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This dissertation is a comparative study of different school systems within a small territory. International schools have boomed in Hong Kong in the last decade, with more opening each year and existing ones expanding. In addition to serving various expatriate communities, these schools appeal to Hong Kong emigrants returning from overseas and to an increasing number of local families seeking an alternative to the local education system.
        Although the international schools sector is separate from the local mainstream sector and small in size, it is under the supervision of the government's Education Department. Authorities in many other countries discourage or even prohibit their citizens from attending international schools at home. However, Hong Kong parents are free to select whatever education systems they like (and can afford) from those available in the territory.
       Many factors are behind the boom of international schools. Hong Kong experienced major social changes associated with the reunification with China in 1997, including a marked increase in the number of Hong Kong people holding foreign passports. Another factor has been that reform of the local education system has not been universally welcomed, particularly in the domain of mother tongue education policy. Also, as Hong Kong society has become more prosperous, parents have been better able to afford the fees of private international schools.
        Two research questions are raised in the dissertation: 1) which major groups of students/parents do individual schools target for their educational services, and 2) at what cost. Forty-seven primary/secondary schools were identified as international (type) schools, and data were collected by school visits, through the Internet, and by questionnaires and interviews. The collected data were then sorted out into a summary school information chart, modified from Bray and Ieong's (1996) model, for data analysis.

        The study classifies international schools in several groups using various criteria and scales: e.g. the curricula they follow, examinations prepared for, sponsoring bodies, and initial missions for setting up schools. Some international schools, such as those of the English Schools Foundation (ESF) are classified as self-contained systems. Others may be considered 'one school, one system' or even, in a few cases, 'one school, two systems' The latter category would include the French International School, which has both French-medium and English-medium streams, and the German-Swiss International School, which has both German-medium and English-medium streams.
       Since the research questions were broad and the researcher did not eliminate or restrict the sources of information, she found another unanticipated function of international schools. In addition to serving children of expatriates and of prosperous local families, some international schools serve the children of minority groups who cannot be educated in the local schools which use Cantonese as the main medium of instruction. Thus among the international schools are community-founded schools for less economically fortunate families who cannot benefit from the local free compulsory education service.
       Finally, the dissertation expresses misgivings about the broad label 'international schools', which groups all non-local schools under one heading. With diversification of the mainstream system and new types of international schools opening, it is getting more difficult to draw clear boundaries between categories. The dissertation thus shows a fascinating evolution in patterns.

Reference:
Bray, Mark & Ieong, Pedro (1996): 'Education and Social Change: The Growth and Diversification of the International Schools Sector in Hong Kong', International Education, Vol.25, No.2, pp.49-73.

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Perceptions of School Culture in Hong Kong: NETs vis-à-vis Students
Ada Shum

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In the late 1990s the Hong Kong government, in an effort to upgrade the English-language skills of local pupils, introduced a Native English-speaking Teachers (NET) scheme through which expatriate and other native English-speaking teachers were recruited for local schools. This study explores the cultural elements that influence the perceptions, interpretations and comparisons of NETs and students as they view different aspects of culture in four secondary schools and the Hong Kong education system. Using a hermeneutics research perspective, participants were required to confront and cope with constructions posed by others in the hope of gaining consensus on various issues put forward for discussion with the researcher as the negotiator. Hofstede's (1991) model of five cultural dimensions was used to analyse the data collected for the study.
        Both the NETs' and the students' cultural perceptions were examined in order to gain insights into culture of the four schools. With the NETs providing outsiders' judgements and the students providing insiders' knowledge, the cultures of the four schools unfolded through ethnographic interviews, observations, journals, and newspaper articles. The NETs are considered outsiders because they speak a different language, and speak or understand little or no Cantonese. Their different cultural backgrounds also affect their perceptions of the schools. They have different contract terms, different teaching roles, and different timetables. The students may see and act toward their schools differently from the NETs, the local teachers, and the administrators.
        One may argue that these NETs may have biases which may in turn influence or distort judgements of situations or issues. Yet despite the disadvantages, their perceptions may help to identify or focus on some characteristics of school culture which could stimulate fresh insights or perhaps some cultural issues that have been ignored or overlooked. Coming from a different culture, the NETs may be able to identify local values and attitudes toward schools which have previously been hidden because the have been taken for granted. In order to depict a fuller picture of school culture in Hong Kong, the students?perceptions are included so that the study can present a grasp of the situation from inside. The dissertation is an attempt to understand the schools from the perspective of the NETs and the students in the same school, and in particular how they perceive themselves in relation to various aspects of the school environment. Since the study is confined to four schools, its findings cannot be generalised. However, it can certainly shed light on important issues which may be experienced more widely.
        Much of the research on school cultures focuses on perceptions of either teachers or students. This particular study integrates the perceptions of the NETs and the students in the same schools for their 'etic' and 'emic' views in order to understand how cultures influence the beliefs, attitudes, hopes, and values of the two groups of informants, and how these factors influence their perceptions of the schools.

        The NETs' and the students' views were juxtaposed in order to tease out the differences in their perceptions. Five recurrent themes were identified as a consequence of the NETs' different assumptions and values which influence their perceptions of the local school culture:

- Experiencing space and place. The NETs felt frustrated because of exclusion from meetings, and were thus ignorant of what was happening around them inside the schools.

- Negotiating roles and responsibilities. The NETs' teaching roles mainly pertained to teaching oral English to all forms. Many NETs disliked this restriction, and felt that their talents were being wasted. They would have liked regular classes and teaching duties like the rest of the teaching staffs.

 
- Establishing communication and relationships. To the NETs, establishing friendship with students was their prime concern, whereas to the students passing examinations was the main objective. The passivity of students was interpreted by the NETs as quiet resistance, but the students had been trained to remain quiet in class and not to respond unless their names had been called.

- Making sense of teaching and learning. Both the NETs and the students considered the examination- driven education system to be traditional and outdated. Nonetheless, most of the students believed that public examinations would continue to exist because it served as a form of assessment and elimination.

- Maintaining power, authority and control. The NETs considered the principal-teacher and teacher-student relationships in schools hierarchical. While the NETs felt that principals in Hong Kong were too powerful, the students believed that principals should be in charge of decision-making and should handle important matters.

        By comparing and contrasting the reality constructed by the NETs' and the students' perceptions, the research has provided insights into the different cultural assumptions and the beliefs embedded in 'Western' and 'Chinese' cultures. Cultural conflicts could be avoided if the NETs and the hosts would be more understanding of each other's cultures.

Reference:
Hoftstede, Geert (1991): Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. London: McGraw Hill.

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PhD Thesis

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CERC congratulates Zhang Minxuan on the award of the PhD degree. Below is the abstract of his thesis.

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Conceptions of Equity and Policies for University Student Financial Support: Chinese Reforms in an International Context 1949-1999

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The pursuit of equity was an important motivation in the worldwide reform of student financial support policies during the second half of the 20th century. However, the meanings of equity vary in different cultures and at different periods of time. Mainly focusing on China, but also observing international trends, this thesis explores changes in equity concepts together with changes in university student financial support policies.
        A multiple-methods approach was adopted for a retrospective policy analysis. Three major methods used were documentary analysis, interviews, and descriptive questionnaires. Documentary analysis covered a wide-range of official publications and unpublished documents. Interviews were conducted with educational administrators and consultants at central, provincial and institutional levels. Descriptive questionnaires gathered basic information on student composition, financial situations and respondents' attitudes to the reforms of the policies. One university was examined as a case to illuminate findings.
        Through these methods the study reveals the equity concept behind the policy of "fee-free plus grant" between 1949 and 182 and the equity concept behind the policy of "fee-paying plus conditional aid" including student loans since 1983. The two main equity concepts behind the policies were three-dimensional complexes with surfaces forms, core nature and deep cultural roots. In terms of surface form, the equity concept behind the "fee-free plus grant" policy was "egalitarian" In nature, the equity concept reflected a state-dominant notion of "ultimate benefit of the majority people". The equity concept was deeply rooted in a traditional Chinese conception that has been handed down for over 2,000 years, namely "yi" (the ultimate criterion of ethical and political rightness). The Chinese "yi" conception had had continuous impact on student financial support policies since the Imperial College of Supreme Learning were set up in 124 BC.
        The formulating process of the new policy of "fee-paying plus conditional aid" contained the growth of a new concept of equity. The new concept was a kind of "deserve equity" in surface form. It conveyed a social requirement of "interest balance" between the stakeholders. The new concept also had some features of an ancient concept, namely "li", which encouraged the pursuit of interests while requiring a balance of interests. "Li" has been the derogatory antonym of "yi" in many debates in Chinese history. Some scholars tried to defend the rightness to pursue economic interest with normal and legitimate approaches as the essential elements of "li". Yet, "li" was a weak, under-developed and negatively-associated concept in traditional Chinese thought. It never reached the status of official creed for governing the country, and was never a dominant concept for higher education financing in ancient China.
        The significance of the change of equity concepts behind the policy reforms extends far back in history. It is a deep conceptual change of the 2,000 years. "Yi" as a fundamental conception sustained student financial policies generation by generation from Han Dynasty. Yet it has largely been replaced by the "li" dominant conception of "interest balance between stakeholders". Student financial support policy is a kind of distribution policy for a rare resource. Therefore, the significance of the new equity concept not only lies in higher education finance but also seeps into Chinese socioeconomic life.
        The change of equity concepts behind the two Chinese policies is not completely the same as in other countries. The changes elsewhere in the second half of the 20th century mainly concentrated on how to keep the interest balance between stakeholders.

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Chinese Books

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Chinese-Language Books on Comparative Education: Recent Publications in Mainland China and Taiwan
Percy Kwok
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The field of comparative education is flourishing in both mainland China and Taiwan. One reflection of this is the number and range of recently-published books. This article focuses on 15 books published in mainland China, and on 14 books published in Taiwan. The books are listed at the end of the article, and the numbers in the text refer to the numbers in the bibliography. Further details are available on the website of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK): www.hku.hk/cerc/ceshk.

A Qualitative Content Analysis
The books cover a wide range of topics. They include preschool education, higher education, teacher education, technical and vocational education, adult education, nonformal education, comparative methodology, educational reforms, curricular studies, pedagogy, school administration, schooling systems, examination systems, financing of education, and history of comparative education.
        The historical span of comparative education in some books [2; 10; 22; 24; 26] ranges from ancient Greece, the Roman Empire and Chinese dynasties to the 21st century. Almost all authors and editors are aware of the tension between globalisation and localisation. Some authors address related fields such as development studies, foreign education and international education, and explain the differences between these fields and comparative education [3; 10; 14; 22; 24]. Some books [10; 14; 19; 22; 24] also trace the recent developments of comparative education societies, research centres, publications, undergraduate and postgraduate education, and international collaboration.
        In mainland China, methodological issues are examined through translations of Western works and through critical reviews of distinguished comparativists' methodological frameworks [15]. Some Taiwanese books are based on masters' dissertations [16; 25] and scrutinise distinguished figures' methodological works. Others are general depictions of Western comparativists' approaches. Few books present methodological innovations by Chinese scholars.
        Since the early 1980s, classical works of some foreign comparativists have been directly translated into Chinese by leading mainland figures. The pace of such translation has been slower in Taiwan, but since the mid-1990s has greatly increased. Some of these books focus on comparative methods [16, 25], while others focus on postmodernism [24], tensions between globalisation (or internationalisation) and localisation [19], and gaps between educational research and both policy and practice [28].

Similarities and Differences in Perspectives
Analysis shows some qualitative similarities in the books published in the two places. Most books published since the mid-1990s have made structural depictions of single-nation case studies. Then follow simultaneous or juxtaposed comparisons in thematic studies in mainland books [6; 8; 9; 11; 13; 14], or synthetic discussion in Taiwanese books [18; 19; 22; 24; 26; 28; 29]. After such comparisons, some implications for further research and policy are made in both places [8; 9; 13; 18; 19; 22; 26; 28; 29].
        Many books lack theoretical explanations to account for the similarities and differences, but authors and editors from mainland China and Taiwan realise the dangers of educational borrowing from foreign countries. Some mainland authors present a distinctive Chinese 'colour' in educational changes arising from cultural and socio-political factors [4; 6; some chapters in 8], while some Taiwanese counterparts highlight tensions between internationalisation, global-isation and indigenisation [19; 22; 26; 28].
        Several classical textbooks in mainland China were written in the 1980s [1; 2; 11; 14]. One Taiwanese book [17] is a reprint of an encyclopaedia of comparative education in the mainland with full Chinese characters and some modification of Chinese terms.
        Most books published in mainland China include the chronological development of the subject, whilst Taiwanese counterparts focus more on contemporary times [1-4; 6-8; 14]. In some symposia [19, 28], Taiwanese comparativists have focused on recent educational research without tracing the historical origins of related cultural issues in ancient China. Nevertheless, Taiwanese books in general have stronger theoretical frameworks, especially in postmodernism and sociology [24; 26; 27], and extensive discussion on comparative methods [16; 25; 28]. In contrast, mainland books published during the 1980s [10; 11; 14] focused more on comparative studies of socialist societies such as the USSR and East Germany. Their theoretical models were in line with the underlying ideo-political Leninist-Marxist framework.

Sharing Comparative Experiences
Cross-fertilisation of educational ideas is to some extent enhanced when mainland authors share experiences with Taiwanese counterparts during academic visits to Taiwan [23]. More importantly, some of the mainlanders' works have been published in Taiwan. Some mainland books also report Taiwanese comparativists' participation in meetings held in mainland China. Moreover, mainland China has been one geographical unit of comparative analysis in Taiwanese books since the 1980s [22; 27; 29]. Coupled with this, some Taiwanese comparativists [e.g. 29] make specific comparisons between mainland China and Taiwan, for more beneficial exchange of educational ideas.

Paradigmatic Shifts
Broadly speaking, four key stages of comparative and international educational development in China can be traced [10, pp.285-314; 14, pp. 25-53; 22, pp.119-123]:
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(i) foreign educational borrowing for reform of education in China, with a starting point of comparative educational spirit (from the 1840s to the late 19th century);
(ii) gradual independence of comparative education from other academic disciplines or subjects in China (from the 1900s to the late 1940s);
(iii) promoting scientific development of comparative education in its standpoints and methodology based on Leninist-Marxist ideo-political doctrines (from 1949 to the mid-1970s) in mainland China;
(iv) diversifying the scope and increasing the depth of comparative and international education in mainland China (after the Cultural Revolution).

Concerning the fourth stage, Gu Mingyuan [4] identified three sub-stages after the establishment of the Chinese Comparative Education Society (CCES) in 1979. First, from the late 1970s to the early 1980s were mere descriptive studies of educational systems in some well-developed countries. Second, from the early 1980s to the early 1990s in-depth and wide-ranging thematic studies were undertaken in developing countries which had conditions that paralleled China's circumstances. Gu [8, pp.3-7] pinpointed the shortcomings of these two sub-stages: comparative educational research was alienated from pragmatic aspects of China education, and lacked a theoretical framework to account for regularities of comparable patterns. He suggested that it also suffered from insufficient professional development of comparative education as an academic discipline. However, during the 1990s more ideo-cultural and socio-cultural perspectives [e.g. 5, 6] were adopted to improve understanding of the foundations of educational development.
        In mainland China, the first Institute of Foreign Education was founded at Beijing Normal University in 1964. Subsequent emergence of master courses in 10 universities and doctoral programs in three universities produced an increasing number of mainland Chinese comparativists. By the turn of the century, 10 national conferences and the second Comparative Education Society of Asia conference had been held by the CCES [5]. Throughout the fourth stage, university textbooks, monographs, academic journals on comparative education have increased both qualitatively and quantitatively [10, pp. 300-314; 15, pp. 39-53].
        In Taiwan, the starting time for comparative educational development was usually identified as the mid-1940s. Some specialists [19, p.431-471] then identify three main stages. The period 1946 to 1974 was dominated by descriptive studies of Japan, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. The formation of the Chinese Comparative Education Society-Taipei (CCES-T) in 1974 signalled the commencement of the next stage. The scope of cross-national perspectives widened, and the CCES-T bulletin facilitated interflow of ideas. Taiwanese educators began to pay more attention to cultural issues as presented by Western comparativists. The third stage brought further growth, and dates from 1995 when the first national comparative research centre was established at National Chinan University. It has provided professional training of masters and doctoral students [19, p.453-453; 22, p.127]. The CCES-T bulletin evolved into a full journal, and welcomes submissions from other Asian countries including mainland China [22, p.126].

Looking Forward
Comparative education seems set for vigorous growth and maturation on both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Much of this growth has been generated internally, but it has also benefited from movement of scholars and publications across the Straits. Facing globalization and internationalization in the 21st century, Chinese comparativists, both in the mainland and in Taiwan, will have a common goal to carrying out educational reforms by suitably integrating lessons from foreign countries with indigenous Chinese culture. They will also make an important academic contribution by developing theoretical approaches and models.

References

Books on Comparative and International Education Published in Mainland China:

[1]. Cheng Youxin (1987). A Comparative Study of Curriculum. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. ¦¨¦³«H ½sµÛ. <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|±Ðµ{>>. ¥_¨Ê : ¥_¨Ê®v½d¤j¾Ç¥Xª©ªÀ.

[2]. Chu Bo (1988). An Introduction to the History of Comparative Education. Guangzhou: Guangdong Higher Education Press. ¦¶«k (1988). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¥v²¤>>. ¼s¦{ : ¼sªF°ªµ¥±Ð¨|.

[3]. Gu Mingyuan & Xue Liyin (1996). Introduction to Comparative Education: Education and National Development. Beijing: People's Education Press. ÅU©ú»·, Á§²z»È(1996). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾É½×: ±Ð¨|»P°ê®aµo®i>>. ¥_¨Ê : ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[4]. Gu Mingyuan (1998) Relationships between Heritage Culture and Educational Modernization. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. ÅU©ú»·¥D½s. (1998). << ¥Á±Ú¤å¤Æ¶Ç²Î»P±Ð¨|²{¥N¤Æ>>. ¥_¨Ê : ¥_¨Ê®v½d¤j¾Ç¥Xª©ªÀ.

[5]. Gu Mingyuan (1999). '"Reflections on my life in Comparative Education', a CERC seminar with a Chinese abstract summarized with a theme 20 years of establishing Comparative Education Society in China" in Comparative Education Bulletin (1999), Issue No.2, p.8.

[6]. Gui Qin (1996) From Confucianism to Modernism: A Comparative Study on the Quality of Talents in China and Japan. Hankou: Hubei Education Press. ®Û¶ÔµÛ. (1996). <<±q¾§®a¶Ç²Î¨«¦V²{¥Nªº¤Ï«ä : ¤¤¤é¤H¤~Æ[ªº¤ñ¸û¬ã¨s >>. º~¤f : ´ò¥_±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[7]. Hao Weiqian & Li Lianning (eds.) (1997). A Comparative Study of National Educational Laws. Beijing: People's Education Press. °qºûÁ¾, §õ³s¹ç¥D½s.(1997). <<¦U°ê±Ð¨|ªk¨îªº¤ñ¸û¬ã¨s>>. ¥_¨Ê : ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ

[8]. The National Comparative Educational Symposium. (1994). International Comparative Education: An Anthology on Comparative Education. Beijing: People's Education Press. ¥þ°ê¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¬ã¨s·|½s. (1994). << °ê»Ú±Ð¨|Áa¾î: ¤¤°ê¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¤å¿ï >>. ¥_¨Ê: ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[9]. Su Zhen, Xing Kechao & Li Chunsheng (1996). Comparative Teacher Education. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press. First edition 1990, second edition 1996. Ĭ¯u¥D½s ; ¨·§J¶W, §õ¬K¥Í°Æ¥D½s. (1996). <<¤ñ¸û®v½d±Ð¨|>>.¥_¨Ê: ¥_¨Ê®v½d¤j¾Ç¥Xª©ªÀ.

[10]. Wang Chengxu (1998). History of Comparative Education. Beijing: People's Education Press. ¤ý©Óºü. (1998). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç¥v>>. ¥_¨Ê: ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[11]. Wang Chengxu; Gu Mingyuan; Zhu Bo (eds.) (1985). Comparative Education. Beijing: People's Education Press. First edition 1982; Revised edition 1985. ¤ý©Óºü; ÅU©ú»·; ¦¶«k½s. (1985). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|>>. ¥_¨Ê: ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[12]. Wang Zhonglie (ed.) (1997). A Comparative Study of University Degree and Postgraduate Education in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. Beijing: People's Press. ¤ý©¾¯P¥D½s. (1997). <<»OÆW, ­»´ä, ¿Dªù¾Ç¦ì¨î«×»P¬ã¨s¥Í±Ð¨|¬ã¨s >>.¥_¨Ê: ¤¤°ê¤H¥Á¤j¾Ç¥Xª©ªÀ.

[13]. Wang Yingjie, Qu Hengchang & Li Jiayong (1997). Compulsory Education in Asian Developing Countries. Beijing: People's Education Press. ¤ý­^ªN, ¦±ùÚ©÷, §õ®a¥ÃµÛ. (1997). <<¨È¬wµo®i¤¤°ê®aªº¸q°È±Ð¨| >>.¥_¨Ê: ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[14]. Wu Zhikan; Yang Hanqing (eds.) (1999). A Study of Comparative Education. Beijing: People's Education Press. First edition in 1989; Revised edition in June 1999. §d¤§¨Ô; ·¨º~²M ¥D½s. (1999). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç>>. ¥_¨Ê: ¤H¥Á±Ð¨|¥Xª©ªÀ.

[15]. Xue Liyin (1993). Inquiry into Contemporary Methodology of Comparative Education: Comparative Education as Forums of International Communication of Education. Beijing: Capital Normal University Press. Á§²z»È (1993). <<·í¥N¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¤èªk½×¬ã¨s : §@¬°°ê»Ú±Ð¨|¥æ¬y½×¾Âªº¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|>>.¥_¨Ê : ­º³£®v½d¤j¾Ç¥Xª©ªÀ.

Books on Comparative and International Education Published in Taiwan:

[16]. Chen Jinying (2000). Brian Holmes' Theory and Method of Comparative Education. Taipei: Yang Zhi Ltd. ³¯ÀA¼ü (2000). <<ÀN¿p´µªº¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|²z½×»P¤èªk = Brian Holmes' theory and method of comparative education>>. ¥x¥_¥«: ´­´¼¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[17]. Gu Mingyuan (ed.). (1996). An Encyclopedia of Comparative Education. Taiwan: Li Wen Ltd.ÅU©ú»·¥D½s (1996). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|Ãã¨å>>. °ª¶¯¥«: ÄR¤å¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[18]. Comparative Education Research Centre at National Chi-nan University in Taiwan (ed.) (1997). Comparative Education and Educational Reform: Lectures at Comparative Education Research Centre. Vol. 1. Bu-li zhen, Nan-tou xian: National Chi-nan University in Taiwan. °ê¥ßº[«n°ê»Ú¤j¾Ç¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¬ã¨s©Ò¥D½s (1997). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|»P±Ð¨|­²·s : ¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¬ã¨s©ÒºtÁ¿¶°>> ¤@ . ®H¨½Âí, «n§ë¿¤: °ê¥ßº[«n°ê»Ú¤j¾Ç.

[19]. Guo li Tai-wan shi fan da xue jiao yu xue xi jiao yu bu guo jia jiang zuo zhu. (1999). Educational Sciences: Internationalisation and Indigenization. Taipei: Yang Zhi Ltd. °ê¥ß»OÆW®v½d¤j¾Ç±Ð¨|¾Ç¨t±Ð¨|³¡°ê®aÁ¿®y¥D½s. (1999). <<±Ð¨|¬ì¾Çªº°ê»Ú¤Æ»P¥»¤g¤Æ>>. »O¥_: ´­´¼¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.
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[20]. (1997). Studies in Comparative Education. Moscow: with a foreword written on 26 May, 1997, translated by Dr. Zhong Yi-xing in Nov. 1997. Taiwan: Li Wen Ltd. °¨ÄR¬ì«½, ³Å§QºÖªQµÛ ; Áé©y¿³Ä¶. (1997). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç>>. °ª¶¯¥«: ÄR¤å¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[21]. Okihara Yutaka (1995). Studies on Comparative Education. First printing (1989); second printing (1995). Translated by Xu Nan Hao. Taipei: Books Publishing Ltd. ¨R­ì¤¥ (1995). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç>>. ½sĶ. ¥x¥_¥« : ¹Ï®Ñ¥Xª©¨Æ·~¦³­­¤½¥q.

[22]. Shen Shanshan (2000). Studies in International and Comparative Education. Taipei: Cheng Chung Bookstore. ¨H©k©k (2000). <<°ê»Ú¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç>>. »O¥_: ¥¿¤¤®Ñ§½.

[23]. Shi Weiping (1998). Specialized Studies on International and Comparative Education. Taipei: Shang Ding Publisher. ¥Û°¶¥­(1998). <<°ê»Ú»P¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|±MÃD¬ã¨s>>. ¥x¥_: °Ó¹©¤å¤Æ¥Xª©ªÀ.

[24]. Wang Rujer (1999). Comparative Education. Taipei: Wu-nan Publishing Ltd. ¤ý¦p­õ (1999). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|>>. »O¥_ : ¤­«n¹Ï®Ñ¥Xª©¦³­­¤½¥q.

[25]. Wu Lingjuan (1999). Edmund J. King's Social Ecological Contextualism in Comparative Education. Taipei: Yang Zhi Ltd. §dÌR®S. (1999). <<ª÷®¦ªº¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|²z½×»P¤èªk >>. »O¥_ : ´­´¼¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[26]. Yang Shenkeng (1999). Forms of Knowledge and Comparative Education. Taipei: Yang Zhi Ltd. ·¨²`§| (1999). <<ª¾ÃѧΦ¡»P¤ñ¸û±Ð¨| = Forms of knowledge and comparative education>>. ¥x¥_¥« : ´­´¼¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[27]. Yang Siwei & Shen Shanshan (1996). Comparative Education. Lu-zhou, Taipei: Guo li kong zhong da xue. ·¨«ä°¶, ¨H©k©k½sµÛ (1996). <<¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|>>. ¥x¥_¿¤¿c¬w¥« : °ê¥ßªÅ¤¤¤j¾Ç¥Xª©¤¤¤ß.

[28]. Chinese Comparative Education Society-Taipei (1999). Educational Research and Educational Policies: An International Comparison. Taipei: Yang Zhi Ltd. ¤¤µØ¥Á°ê¤ñ¸û±Ð¨|¾Ç·|¥D½s (1999). <<±Ð¨|¬ã¨s»P¬Fµ¦¤§°ê»Ú¤ñ¸û = Educational research and educational policies: an international comparison>>. »O¥_ : ´­´¼¤å¤Æ¨Æ·~ªÑ¥÷¦³­­¤½¥q.

[29]. Zhou Zhuying (1998). A Comparative Study of Education between Mainland China and Taiwan. Taipei: Normal University Press Ltd. ©P¯¬·ë (1998). <<®ü®l¨â©¤±Ð¨|¤ñ¸û¬ã¨s>>. ¥x¥_ : ®v¤j®Ñ­b¦³­­¤½¥q.
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Early Childhood Education

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The World Organisation for Early Childhood Education, known in French as the Organisation Mondiale pour l'Education Précolaire (OMEP), is an international body with policy-advocacy and other professional functions. CERC's Nirmala Rao (nrao@hku.hk) has been an Executive Committee Member of the Hong Kong branch of OMEP since 1995, and is currently its Chairperson. Here she comments on some of the achievements and challenges that the organisation faces.

Fostering Comparative Research in Early Childhood Education: The Role of OMEP in the Asia-Pacific Region
Nirmala Rao

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OMEP is an international, non-governmental organization, founded in 1948 to benefit children under the age of eight years throughout the world. Its main objective is to promote optimum conditions for all children, in order to ensure their well-being, development and happiness within both their family units and the wider communities in which they live. OMEP is currently represented in 70 countries, and co-operates with other international organizations with similar aims. OMEP has consultative status with, and is represented worldwide at, the meetings of UNESCO, UNICEF, the Council of Europe and ECOSOC.
        The Hong Kong branch, OMEP-Hong Kong, was established in 1992 and has played an active role in enhancing preschool education in Hong Kong through the organisation of five international conferences, seminars and conferences, and through advocacy and research.
        Although OMEP is not a research organisation per se, our experiences reflect some of the opportunities and challenges posed for comparative research into early childhood education in the Asia-Pacific region. National Committees exist in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The annual World Council and regional meetings provide an opportunity to disseminate research into early childhood education, and more importantly afford the opportunity for early childhood researchers and practitioners from different National Committees to forge collaborative relationships.
        In a recent project, National Committees from the Asia-Pacific region produced information sheets about Early Childhood Services in their countries. These provide very useful comparative information, and highlight the diversity across nations. Differences in economic development, social and educational policy, political systems and population and geographical size as well as within-country disparities have led to different national priorities in early childhood education research, policy and practice.
        At the same time, the information sheets highlighted several common issues. These include a concern for enhancing quality of service provision - a theme which can be used to illustrate the lessons learned in planning for comparative research into preschool quality.
       The first challenge for the comparative analysis was to agree on the most appropriate dimensions to compare. When consensus has been reached, investigators must bear in mind that the quality of early childhood programmes can only be discussed within the context in which they exist. This is because definitions of quality vary across political, educational, economic and cultural circumstances, and differ depending on the viewpoint of the stakeholder/evaluator.
        Nations in the Asia-Pacific region vary vastly in terms of national enrolment ratios for early childhood education and some nations want to focus on increasing quantity and producing low-cost, high quality programmes. Although all nations are interested in enhancing quality, they are at different starting points. For example, many nations currently have extensive, explicit requirements for the registration and regulation of early childhood programmes, including detailed regulations for staff qualifications, space and equipment. Others are focusing on using research to advocate more comprehensive and stringent government regulations.
        Notwithstanding some to the challenges engendered by comparative education research, it is clear is that cross-cultural projects bring many advantages. Policy-relevant research can inform both national and regional policy whereas research on curriculum can lead to a sharing of good practices and resources across nations. Undoubtedly, comparative research has the potential lead to better outcomes for our young children.

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Book Reviews

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Journals in the field have continued to publish many positive reviews of CERC books. Here are extracts from some of the reviews, reproduced with permission of the authors and publishers.

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Zhang Weiyuan (1998): Young People and Careers: School Careers Guidance in Shanghai, Edinburgh and Hong Kong. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 4, 160 pp. ISBN 962 8093 89 4. HK$180/US$30.

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This is the fourth volume in the series of Comparative Education Studies published by the University of Hong Kong's productive and authoritative Comparative Education Research Centre. As its blurb claims, it is the first comparative work of its kind.
        At first sight, a reader might wonder why those three cities were chosen for the research; but a closer analysis shows the justification for a comparative study at this particular time of challenge and change ?not only in the political sense but in respect of all career expectations.
        Both Hong Kong and Edinburgh have had long-standing capitalist traditions (as of course did Shanghai); but Shanghai's firm experience of socialism during decades and Hong Kong's present expectations amidst a global shift of prospects (occupational as well as socio-political) present a new background for all considerations of careers guidance. Those considerations lead the author finally to suggest a 'new theoretical basis' for careers guidance programmes, founded not on speculation amidst uncertainties but on careful scholarship undertaken for many years in the University of Hong Kong. Some of that research is further strengthened by collaborative exploration undertaken in concert with colleagues in Shanghai and other Chinese universities - particularly in relation to technological changes and their implications.
        The findings of those researches have in part been published already, some in this journal; but the new study under review directly involved 1662 students in selected secondary schools together with 54 guidance teachers and officers, chosen as instructive for their contrasts as well as any similarities. Some doubts must arise about the wider validity of conclusions reached in such a restricted context at a time when no career anywhere is foreseeable. Moreover, in the nature of things, the chosen samples were rather small and some of the students's career expectations in rather privileged secondary schools still look a bit old-fashioned (as indeed they are in most countries despite the swamping of actuality by computers and the internet). Nevertheless, the author reveals meticulous care in tracing changes of perception and provision in all the contexts studied, and sets them in turn within world trends in careers guidance (for example, in the USA and the United Kingdom).
        This careful empirical study succeeds in giving the 'inside view' of students' and parents' often erroneous ambitions, with prompting for more realistic guidance in future.
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Edmund King
Comparative Education, Vol.36, No.4, 2000

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T. Neville Postlethwaite (1999): International Studies of Educational Achievement: Methodological Issues. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 6, 86 pp. ISBN 962 8093 86 X. HK$100/US$20.

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International studies of achievement are currently much in the news. A growing international awareness that the 'knowledge economy' of the 21st century will be dominated by those countries with the most effective education systems has prompted a growing obsession among governments to ascertain how the products of their particular education system compare with those of potential rivals around the world. Thus the results of the recently published Third International Maths and Science Study have received enormous publicity internationally. They have promoted individual countries to ponder the profile of strengths and weaknesses in student achievement that they revealed and to engage in methodological debates about the implications of these findings for identifying ways of raising standards in the future. Sadly, however, so great has been the interest shown by lay people - notably governments and the popular media - in such results that, as Postlethwaite explains in this book, there is a real danger of the results being at best misinterpreted and at worst, abused.
        This volume, then, written as it is by one of the doyens of this genre of comparative study, is very welcome indeed in providing a short and accessible account of the many important methodological issues that need to be taken into account in conceiving, conducting and interpreting such international comparisons of student achievement....
       Thus, in this short overview, Postlethwaite traces the evolution of such studies from the early International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) pilots in the 1950s and 1960s to the multi-million dollar industry they have become today. He provides a brief, but admirably comprehensive, rehearsal of the problems of sampling, instrument construction, data collection, management and analysis which confront those responsible for conducting such studies. He documents the inevitable technical limitations and pitfalls of such a complex, international testing programme and urges, hence, the need for an intelligent reading of the results obtained.
        This is a refreshingly personal account by one who perhaps more than any other is in a position to be well aware of both the strengths and the weaknesses of such surveys. After a career of more than 30 years spent pursuing the development of relevant techniques for this purpose, Postlethwaite's reflections in this book about their overall value and what has so far been achieved are revealing indeed.... It deserves a very wide readership.

Patricia Broadfoot
Comparative Education, Vol.37, No.1, 2001

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Harold J. Noah & Max A. Eckstein (1998): Doing Comparative Education: Three Decades of Collaboration. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 5, 356 pp. ISBN 962 8093 87 8. HK$250/US$38.

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At the present time, there is a resurgence of interest in the field of comparative and international education - with many new and experienced researchers engaging for the first time in international or cross-cultural initiatives.... This is good news for the future of the field, for it brings with it renewed growth, changing intellectual perspectives, a variety of challenging discourses and new priorities for attention. Rapid growth of this nature also has attendant dangers, especially for a complex and multidisciplinary field such as this. Foremost among these is the danger that the achievements, lessons and literatures of the past are neglected or overlooked in the quest for the new.
        It is in this context that the republication of selections from Noah & Eckstein's work - spanning a period of 30 years - are reviewed here. This is a book that well captures what these two authors see as their most significant contributions to the field between the mid-1960s and the late 1990s. In doing this, it usefully helps to bridge the recent intellectual past with the more contemporary debates in comparative and international education....
        The text is divided into four sections. The first of these documents the evolution of the authors' distinctive approach to comparative and international research in education. Extracts from their highly influential book titled Toward a Science of Comparative Education (1969) clearly illustrate how positivistic aspirations characterise their influence ?and how this is reflected in much of their substantive research. Many readers will take issue with the perspectives presented here, but this, in itself, can be stimulating and valuable ?especially for those dealing with the contemporary, but often familiar, challenges to educational research that dominate the debate today. Moreover, Philip Foster's insightful Foreword adds to this broad analysis....
        Section two of the book focuses upon 'Schools in Context', documenting work carried out predominantly in Western urban systems and contexts. Similarly, section four demonstrates the wide range of policy-related studies with which both authors have engaged. Section three thus reserves space for a most valuable and coherent overview of the substantive theme that Noah & Eckstein are, perhaps, most noted for - 'Achievement, Assessment and Evaluating Learning'. This is a highlight of the book....
        The Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong should be congratulated for helping to bridge some of the best of past scholarship with new readers enthused by the contemporary resurgence of the field. This is a most readable, useful and welcome book ?and one that also opens the way into other original publications coming from the same innovative series.

Michael Crossley
Compare, Vol.31, No.2, 2001

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Ruth Hayhoe (1999): China's Universities 1895-1995: A Century of Cultural Conflict. 300 pp. ISBN 962 8093 81 9. HK$200/US$32.

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Interest in China's social, political and educational development gathers pace continually - most of all when great events lurch that progress further. It is easy even for specialist outsiders to lose the significance of potent changes, and still more to miss the subtleties of continuing traditions and preferences. Therefore we are specially indebted to scholars who, like Professor Hayhoe, point deftly and with empathy to developments and problems in lucid terms.
        Even to expert outsiders the real 'inside view' of China in all its varieties of unspoken emphasis remains largely mysterious. What better guide could we have than Ruth Hayhoe? She has had a distinguished academic career - not just at several academic levels in her native Canada, the USA and Britain but also as a teacher, researcher, professor and administrator in several cities within China itself during distinctly different phases of its recent history. Thus in more ways than one she is a bilingual - indeed a polyglot - interpreter. So she gives us, as she says, not just a factual history but a continuous inside story.
        For people in Comparative Education there is a double bonus. The author's experience as a student and colleague of leading scholars in our field throws interesting sidelights on their impact on her. In her fascinating introduction she expresses gratitude to some of them by name, whereas later experience in the Chinese field and elsewhere prompted reappraisal of some of their ideas....
        The account of Chinese higher education presents its evolution from the indigenous heritage onwards through the phases of foreign introductions and the period of nationalist and socialist revolution as well as the reforms of 1978-90 and special regional developments; but throughout the chronicle the author distinguishes the threads of social and sexual opportunity and other considerations at the purely human level. Thus there is much more here than enlargement and updating. The entire context and commitment of educational and social studies, and the technological/social revolutions in communication and other world events, affect all education profoundly ?and, not least, comparative studies of its engagement and reach in every corner of our lives.
        Therefore the author's new story comes to us in an altered climate of scholarly and political concern. Obviously dealing with 'a century of cultural conflict' primarily at the level of higher education, it is of great significance for wider and deeper understanding of Chinese reactions and perceptions generally.... There is abundant detail, together with rich biographical references: but what comes through most to the reader is the warmth and sympathy of its scholarly author.

Edmund King
Comparative Education, Vol.37, No.1, 2001

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Mark Bray & Ramsey Koo (eds.) (1999): Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macau: Comparative Perspectives on Continuity and Change. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 7, 386 pp. ISBN 962 8093 82 7. HK$200/US$32.

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The de-colonization of Hong Kong and Macau are distinctive because the transition has been to integration with an existing nation-state (China) rather than to independence as in other post-colonial societies. The two societies also had been colonized by two colonial powers. They provide an excellent and rare opportunity both for analysis of continuity and change (the sub-theme of the book) as reflected in education as well as education's influence on these two factors. In addition, Hong Kong and Macau provide a fascinating basis for comparative study due to their similarities and differences....
        An important strength of this book is the coherent and systematic way in which each chapter is comparative.... The comparative methodology used throughout the book is highlighted in the Conclusions section in a chapter by Mark Bray. Perhaps the most significant contribution of the book is in this section. On a theoretical and methodological level Bray makes a strong intellectual case for comparative studies in education. In his chapter on Methodology and Focus in Comparative Education, Bray draws attention to broad issues such as the purpose of comparative study in education, types of comparison, trends and the broad array of tools used in this field. His chapter on Continuity and Change is an excellent conclusion bringing together the themes of the previous chapters....
        Undoubtedly, this volume is an important work in the field of comparative education. The comprehensive list of references will be most valuable to students of comparative education. Not only does the choice of Hong Kong and Macau offer an excellent opportunity for comparison, they are also ideally placed at this juncture of history to be the focus of study of societal transition from two colonial powers. Direct comparisons make this book on educational change and continuity in two societies an authentic example of comparative work. However, the lasting and distinctive contribution of this volume to comparative studies lies in the breadth and depth of analysis that make it a fascinating methodological and theoretical study.

Ratna Ghosh
Educational Practice and Theory, Vol.23, No.1, 2001

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Thomas Clayton (2000): Education and the Politics of Language: Hegemony and Pragmatism in Cambodia. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 9. 241 pp. ISBN 962 8093 83 5. HK$200/US$32.

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When the Vietnamese army entered Cambodia in January 1979, it found a country devastated by years of war and the brutal social and economic policies of Pol Pot. The Vietnamese were viewed by Cambodians simultaneously as liberators and as occupiers with expansionist aims. They immediately set about the work of rebuilding Cambodia along international socialist lines. The reconstruction of Cambodia's shattered educational system was a priority. In September 1979, less than ten months after the overthrow of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodian schools were reopened (p.111). Thomas Clayton's book, Education and the Politics of Language: Hegemony and Pragmatism in Cambodia, 1979-1989, is an effort to understand the educational and linguistic policy decisions made during the ten years of the Vietnamese presence in Cambodia. Working within an expanded world-system theory framework, Clayton explores the manner and extent to which decisions made during Cambodia's occupation reflect the hegemonic aims of the Vietnamese and the particular form of Cambodian responses to them.
        In its simplest sense, world-system theory as applied to education identifies core and periphery nations within the context of global power relations and argues that international educational assistance to the periphery ultimately returns capital (either real or symbolic) to the core. Clayton is careful to explore the debates surrounding the limitations of world-system theory as it is classically conceived. These debates concern the responses of subordinate individuals to attempted hegemony and the deterministic nature of the model.... The model also assumes that states and nations overlay the core and periphery zones of the world in a neat one-to-one correspondence. Focusing their attention at the level of states and nations, world-system theorists tend to ignore or obscure issues of agency.
        While Clayton acknowledges the limitations of world-system theory, he finds the postmodern alternative unattractive. In postmodernism's rejection of the structuralist ontology of Marxism and its focus on "individuals unfettered by determining universals," Clayton argues that postmodern analysis traps the investigator in localized frameworks with no general validity. Within such a framework the opportunity for comparison is largely denied. Clayton's solution is a more complex structuralist model, one which would allow for the exploration of the complex relationships between structure and agency (p.21)....
        The Cambodian example is complex and interesting. Clayton's well-considered study invites further comparison. For this reason, the book will be of considerable interest to scholars and students of international education and language policy. It will also appeal to those interested in the politics of mainland Southeast Asia more generally.

Nancy J. Smith-Hefner
The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.60, No.2, 2001

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Higher Education in Macau

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Review of Higher Education in Macau

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CERCular No.2 of 2000 reported that a consultancy team headed by Mark Bray had embarked on a review of higher education in Macau. The team members were Roy Butler, Philip Hui, Ora Kwo and Emily Mang. The team completed its work in March 2001.
        The report, entitled Higher Education in Macau: Strategic Development for the New Era, is the most comprehensive of its type to be produced. The review mainly focused on 11 institutions listed in the table below.

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Enrolments in Higher Education Institutions, Macau, 1999/00

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Notes: The University of Macau evolved in 1991 from the University of East Asia, which was itself established in 1981. All figures are headcounts, not full-time equivalents. No enrolments are shown for the United Nations University International Institute for Software Technology because it was a research institution. No enrolments are shown for the Macau University of Science & Technology because it only admitted its first students in 2000/01.

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A glance at the table shows some striking features. First is the number of institutions in a territory with a population of just 400,000; and second is that many of the institutions were very small.
        These features were among the major concerns which the consultants were required to address. The report noted, however, that seven of the 11 are private institutions, which arguably should be left to decide for themselves how large they should be and indeed whether they should exist at all. Within the public sector, each institution has a role which can be clearly defined, and the consultants did not advocate merger. However, they did recommend careful attention to the wider context within which Macau operates. The territory on the one hand faces major competition from providers in mainland China and elsewhere, but on the other hand is capable of recruiting many students from beyond its borders.
        The consultancy study, like many such works, drew extensively on comparative analysis in order to learn lessons from developments elsewhere. Particular attention was paid to patterns in other small societies, and to Hong Kong, mainland China, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Australia. Some of the academic analyses have been presented in a chapter by Mark Bray in the second edition of CERC Studies in Comparative Education 1 (2001), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. The chapter is entitled: 'Higher Education and Colonial Transition in Macau: Market Forces and State Intervention in a Small Society' (pp.139-161).
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Project & Addresses

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CERC members have remained active in a various projects, and have also presented keynote speeches and other
addresses at a range of conferences. These include the following:

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- In January 2001, David Watkins presented a keynote speech to the Institute of Psychology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences conference of cross-cultural psychology. His speech was entitled 'Developments in Cross-cultural Research: A Personal Perspective'.

 
- From January to March 2001, Cheng Kai Ming again taught a course on Cultural Perspectives in Educational Studies at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, USA. This maintains a link which was commenced in the mid-1990s.
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- In March 2001, Nirmala Rao made an invited presentation at the Conference on Curricula, Policies and Practices in Early Childhood Education held at the University of Malta. Her presentation was entitled 'Early Childhood Education in Hong Kong: Moving Towards Child-Friendly Policies'.

- In April 2001, Gerard Postiglione returned to the University of Hong Kong having spent a year on secondent to the Ford Foundation in Beijing.

 
- In May 2001, Mark Bray presented a keynote address at the International Conference on Economics of Education held at Peking University. His address was entitled 'Government and Household Financing of Education: Finding Appropriate Balances'.

- In June 2001, Cheng Kai Ming presented a symposium at Teachers College, Columbia, USA, on the theme 'Privileges Lost, Responsibilities Gained: Reconstructing Higher Education'.
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- In June 2001, Cheng Kai Ming presented a keynote speech at the Policy Forum on the Organisation of Ministries of Education at the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning in Paris. His speech was entitled 'Steering from Outside: Policy Organisation and Policy Environment in Education'.

- In July and August 2001, Bob Adamson worked with the Ohana Foundation in Hawai'i, USA, on a project developing a multimedia package for English-language teaching in China.

- In July 2001, Gerard Postiglione delivered an address on higher education in the 21st Century to the Salzburg Seminar, in Austria. The Salzburg Seminar is described as one of the world's foremost international educational centres committed to broadening the perspectives of tomorrow's leaders. With the principles of reconciliation and intellectual inquiry central to its activities, the Seminar is dedicated to promoting the free exchange of ideas, experience, and understanding in a multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural environment.

- In August 2001, Mark Bray presented a keynote speech at the International Forum of the 60th anniversary conference of the Japan Society for the Study of Education (JSSE), in Yokohama. The 60th anniversary is considered particularly important in Japanese culture.

- In September 2001, Cheng Kai Ming joined a conference in Interlaken, Switzerland, on 'Linking Work, Skills and Knowledge: Learning for Survival and Growth'. He presented a paper on Learning in the Knowledge Workplace, and chaired the preparatory committee for the Interlaken Declaration that emanated from the event.

- In September 2001, Mark Bray presented an invited plenary address at the Oxford International Conference on Education and Development convened by the United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training (UKFIET). His address was entitled 'Community Initiatives in Education: Goals, Dimensions, and Linkages with Governments'.

- In September 2001, Gerard Postiglione delivered an address at the headquarters of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris. The address focused on higher education in China, and was to the Experts' Workshop on University and Technology for Literacy and Basic Education Partnerships.

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- In October 2001, Cheng Kai Ming presented a keynote speech at the 50th anniversary conference of the Australian
Association for Senior Educational Administrators hosted by the New South Wales Institute of Senior Educational Administrators. His speech was entitled 'Quality Education Leadership in a Knowledge Society'.

- In November 2001, Mark Bray presented a keynote speech at the conference of the Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA), in Taipei. His address was entitled 'Comparative Education: Global Trends and Asian Contributions'.

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CERC News

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HKU's New Librarian - with an EdD in Comparative Education from Teachers College, Columbia

In May 2001, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) welcomed its new Librarian, Dr Anthony (Tony) W. Ferguson from the USA. Anthony Ferguson has worked for many years in the Brigham Young University and Columbia University libraries.
        Of even greater interest for CERC is that he holds an Ed.D. from the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia. Teachers College has an important place in the history of the field, having been the first institution in the world, in 1899, to provide a formal course in comparative education. It maintained its leadership role in the century that followed, and has many renowned alumni.
        Dr Ferguson's doctoral dissertation, completed in 2001, was entitled 'The Library and Information Needs of Chinese Undergraduate Radio and Television University Distance Education Students'. He indicates that he is especially glad to come to HKU because the university provides a vigorous base from which he can maintain professional links related to his previous studies. As he remarks, "HKU is arguably the premier institution for intercultural communication between China and the West".
        On its side, CERC is delighted to have Anthony Ferguson in its membership ?and through him to have enhanced links with the University Library!

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New Premises
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In July 2001, CERC moved into new premises in the Hui Oi Chow building on the HKU campus. The new premises are considerably larger than the old ones in the Knowles Building. In addition to the office allocated solely to CERC, the Centre shares a common room and a seminar room with the Centre for Educational Leadership (CREC) and the Wah Ching Centre of Research on Education in China (WCCREC).
        We will welcome all visitors. Come to see us in Room 408C of the Hui Oi Chow Building (opposite the HKU bookstore). All phone and fax numbers remain the same.
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Gansu Basic Education Project

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In 2001, CERC hosted two visits from Gansu Province. The first one, in January was a 10-day visit by 21 administrators and educators. The second one, at the end of May, was a 7-day visit by 15 educators.Their programme was managed by Bob Adamson with assistance of various colleagues and particularly Sun Miantao, Judy Zhu and Emily Mang. The visits were part of the Gansu Basic Education Project, which is funded by the UK Department for International Development and managed by Cambridge Education Consultants (CEC). CERC had played a role as a partner with CEC in the tender for the project in 1999.

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CERC Seminars & Events

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CERC has a regular programme of seminars and other events. Below are the events held in 2001:

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Journals

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Journal of Postcolonial Education

The Journal of Postcolonial Education is published by James Nicholas Publishers in Melbourne, Australia. It is a refereed journal which appears twice a year. CERC's Nirmala Rao is a member of the Editorial Board, and will be pleased to provide more information (nrao@hku.hk). Postcolonialism is defined in a wide sense to extend beyond the period of direct colonialisation to neo-colonialism, dependency and the intensification of globalisation. Information on subscriptions and related matters is available on the website: http://www.jamesnicholaspublishers.com.au/jpejrnl.htm.
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Asia Pacific Education Review

Another new journal has been launched in Korea, entitled the Asia Pacific Education Review. Mark Bray is an Associate Editor, along with eight other scholars from various countries. The journal is published twice a year by the Institute of Asia Pacific Education Development of Seoul National University.
The main purpose of the journal is "to stimulate research, encourage academic exchange, and enhance professional development for Asian-Pacific scholars and others who are interested in Asian-Pacific education and culture". More information, is available on the website: http://aped.snu.ac.kr/prof/aper/index.htm.
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CESHK News

On 17 February 2001, the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) held its annual conference at the Hong Kong Institute of Education on the theme "Comparing Across Cultures". It was a successful event, with around 50 participants. Ruth Hayhoe presented a plenary paper entitled "University and Academy in China and Europe: Comparative Reflections on Values and Institutional Patterns".
        CERC's Bob Adamson is President of the CESHK, and has succeeded in expanding the outreach. As Bob points out, "with about 80 members, CESHK is not large; but it is vigorous and is playing an important role in both local and wider affairs". Mark Bray, the CERC Director, also serves on the CESHK Executive Committee as Past President and Honorary Treasurer. Ip Kin-yuen (Hong Kong Institute of Education) is Vice President, Lo Yiu Chun (HKIEd) is Honorary Secretary, and the other committee members are Wong Suk Ying (Chinese University of Hong Kong) and Percy Kwok (CERC).
        The next conference will be held on Saturday 26 January 2002 on the theme "Applying Comparative Education". It will be hosted by the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit of the City University of Hong Kong. A range of other CESHK activities is planned for the rest of the academic year, including seminars and educational visits. Details are on the CESHK website: www.hku.hk/cerc/ceshk.htm.
        The CESHK has also published another issue of its Comparative Education Bulletin. It has 48 pages, and contains short articles, news and other materials of interest. For further information, contact badamson@hkusua.hku.hk.
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CERC Associate Members

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CERC has 11 distinguished Associate Members in different part of the world. They are:

- Philip G. Altbach (Boston College)
- Nina Borevskaya (Institute of the Far East, Moscow)
- Max A. Eckstein (Columbia University)
- Ruth Hayhoe (Hong Kong Institute of Education)
- Gui Qin (Capital Normal University, Beijing)
- Lee Wing On (Hong Kong Institute of Education)
- Gu Mingyuan (Beijing Normal University)
- Mok Ka Ho (City University of Hong Kong)
- T. Neville Postlethwaite (University of Hamburg)
- Hong Shen (Huazhong University of Science & Technology)
- Jason Tan (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
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WCCES

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Since September 2001, CERC has provided the Secretariat for the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), of which Mark Bray is Secretary General. In addition, since July 2001 Bob Adamson has had responsibility for compiling the WCCES Newsletter. This is published by the International Bureau of Education in Geneva, in several languages, as part of its periodical Innovation.
        To make more effective use of new technologies, Bob Adamson is linking the print version of the newsletter to the Internet. As Bob points out, the Internet can have a wider reach, can contain more materials, and can be updated regularly. Readers are invited to visit the newly-updated website: www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces. It contains information on the 29 national, regional and language-based comparative education societies which are WCCES members, and on many other dimensions of the field of comparative education.
        Approximately every three years, the WCCES holds a World Congress of Comparative Education. The 11th World Congress was hosted by the Korean Comparative Education Society at the Korea National University of Education from 2-6 July 2001. It was a very memorable event. Presentations by CERC members and Associate Members included the following (in order of appearance on the programme):

- Peter Cave: 'A Comparison of History Teaching in Japan and England'

- Edward Vickers: 'Politics and History Education in Hong Kong during the Transition from British to Chinese Rule'

- Sammy Hui King Fai: 'Lifelong Learning: Lessons Learned from Evaluating an Adventure Team-Building Camp'

- Nirmala Rao & Cheng Kai Ming: 'Socio-Contextual Influences on Teaching Mathematics: Lessons from Indian Classrooms'

- Wong Kam Cheung: 'Teaching and Learning in Shanghai and Hong Kong: Lessons from Comparison'

- Cheng Kai Ming & Nirmala Rao: 'Comparing the Educational Policy-Classroom Teaching Interface in China and India: Cultural Beliefs, Context and Effective Teaching'

- Zhang Minxuan: 'Facts, Factors and Future: Converted Schools ?A New Kind of School in China'

- Annie Tong Siu Yin: 'Comparison of Junior Secondary English Syllabuses in Hong Kong and Shanghai'

- Joshua Mok Ka Ho: 'Similar Trends, Diverse Agendas: Higher Education Reforms in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan'

- Shen Hong: 'The Role Model for Chinese University Presidents: Three Contributions of Zhu Jiusi for Huazhong University of Science & Technology'

- Ruth Hayhoe: 'Knowledge Across Cultures: A Contribution to the Dialogue of Civilizations'

- Shinobe Yume Yamaguchi & Cheng Kai Ming: 'How Japanese ODA Affects Human Resources Development: Case Studies of Thailand and Japan'

- Percy Kwok: 'Cultural Transformation of Indigenous Knowledge in Asian Cram Schools: Challenges for Asian Education in the 21st Century'

- Jiang Yimin: 'Social Capital and Students?Academic Achievement in Chinese Language and Mathematics in Urban China'

- Law Wing Wah: 'Globalization and Educational Restructuring in the Asia Pacific Region'

- Percy Kwok: 'Postmodern Mappings of Spatio-Temporal Dimensions of Archeology and Geneaology of Compara-
tive Education in China: Discourse Formation and Cultural Thesis for the 21st Century'

- Mark Bray: 'Comparative Education in Greater China: Patterns, Developments, and Contributions'

- Joshua Mok Ka Ho: 'Marketization and the Changing Governance in Higher Education: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and Taiwan'

- Karen Cheung Hoi Yan: 'After-School Academic Workload of Students in Shanghai and Los Angeles'

- Ruth Hayhoe: 'Envisioning a New Institution between East and West in Hong Kong'

- Tomoko Ako: 'Chinese Self under the Socialist Market Economy: A Theoretical Inquiry Based on an Ethnography of Three Middle Schools in Shanghai'

- Yoko Yamato: 'Education in the Market Place: A Comparison of Features of International Schools for Recruiting and Serving Hong Kong Students'

- M.V. Mukundan: 'Decentralized Educational Policies: Some Experiences in Kerala, India'

- Shen Hong: 'Education Policy, Science and Technology Policy, and the Research University in China'

- Bob Adamson: 'Educational Projects in Yunnan: One Goal, Different Outcomes'

- Ora Kwo: 'Partnerships in Initial Teacher Education: A Tale of Two Universities?'
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Many of the presentations in the World Congress were grouped around 13 thematic Commissions. A volume of papers from the Congress, drawing from contributions in a range of these Commissions, is now being edited by Mark Bray. It will first appear as a special double issue of the International Review of Education, and will then be republished by Kluwer as a book.
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Book Launches

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The World Congress of Comparative Education provided an occasion to launch the book by Gu Mingyuan, Education in China and Abroad: Perspectives from a Lifetime in Comparative Education.
        The World Congress was a particularly appropriate venue for such a launch, because Professor Gu is a long-serving President of the China Comparative Education Society (CCES), and is a former Vice President of the World Council.
        Regrettably, Gu Mingyuan himself was not able to attend the book launch; but the event permitted several tributes to his life and work, as well as comments on the wider field. First Mark Bray, who chaired the event, explained how the book had come to be prepared. He noted that CERC sees Gu's book and that by Noah and Eckstein as in some ways parallel volumes. Gu's book, he observed, is by a distinguished Chinese scholar looking back over two decades, and Noah and Eckstein's book is by a pair of distinguished Western scholars looking back over three decades. Comparison of the two books shows striking contrasts in the way that the field itself has evolved in the two societies.
        Then Ruth Hayhoe, Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, spoke about the context of the book and the way in which it had been compiled. She made specific reference to the inputs of Gui Qin, who had been one of Professor Gu's students, who subsequently spent time in CERC as a post-doctoral fellow, and who now teaches in Beijing's Capital Normal University. Ruth Hayhoe highlighted aspects of Gu's personal history, and explained the role that Gu Mingyuan has played not only in China but also on the international stage.
        These remarks were echoed by Shen Hong from the Huazhong Univesity of Science & Technology. Like Gu Mingyuan, Ruth Hayhoe and Gui Qin, Shen Hong is one of CERC's Associate Members. She noted the way that the field of comparative education has changed in China, and pointed out the extent to which this is reflected in the book. Professor Shen noted that although much of Gu Mingyuan's work was readily available in Chinese, very little had been published in English. This book therefore made his work accessible to a new audience and gave Chinese scholarship added impact on the world stage.
        These formal presentations were followed by informal interactions among colleagues who had worked with Gu Mingyuan in various capacities and/or were keen to explore the relevance of the book for the field as a whole. Participants agreed that the event was both enjoyable and significant for the field.

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Launch of Hayhoe & Pan Book

On 19 October 2001, CERC's new premises hosted a launch of Knowledge Across Cultures: A Contribution to Dialogue Among Civilizations. The event was a celebration of hard work, as well as an occasion to share the insights of the two editors.
        CERC considered itself fortunate that both co-editors were available to join the event. Ruth Hayhoe came over to the HKU campus from the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Julia Pan was able to stop over in Hong Kong en route from mainland China to Canada.
        Introducing the event, Mark Bray noted that the importance of dialogue among civilisations had been underlined dramatically by the September 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, and by the subsequent developments in Afghanistan. He applauded the careful scholarship which Ruth Hayhoe and Julia Pan had devoted to the book, and noted both its striking breadth and profound depth.
        Ruth Hayhoe then provided some background on the book. She observed that it had a long history, for the first conference on the theme had been held in Toronto in 1992; had been followed by a conference at the Yuelu Academy in Changsha, Hunan, in 1994; and had been further followed by a conference at Northwest Normal University in 2001. These events had brought together scholars from China, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South Asia to share insights from an impressive range of disciplinary perspectives.
        In turn, Julia Pan explained the history of her collaboration with Ruth Hayhoe. She expressed appreciation for the ways in which the collaboration had enabled her to extend understanding of the issues and the role of scholarly discourse. Even at the editorial level, she noted, the book had been an embodiment of the theme of dialogue among civilisations, and had shown ways in which such dialogue can bear fruit.
        CERC is delighted to have this book by its prestigious contributors its series CERC Studies in Comparative Education. As several colleagues noted during the book launch, the volume will be a lasting contribution on a very important subject.
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Publications by CERC Members

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1. Comparative and Cultural Perspectives

Bray Mark (2001): The Growth and Diversification of Higher Education in Macau, International Higher Education. Boston, USA, Boston College, 23: 19-20.

Bray Mark (2000): Globalisation, Education and the Colonial Transition of Two Remnants of Empire: A Comparative Analysis of Hong Kong and Macau, In: Mebrahtu, T., Crossley, M. & Johnson, D. (eds.), Globalisation, Educational Transformation and Societies in Transition. Oxford, UK: Symposium Books, 175-194.

Bray, Mark & Borevskaya, Nina (2001): Financing Education in Transitional Societies: Lessons from Russia and China, Comparative Education, 37(3): 345-365.

Bray, Mark & Gui Qin (2001): Comparative Education in Greater China: Contexts, Characteristics, Contrasts, and Contributions, Comparative Education, 37(4): 451-473.
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Bray Mark & Lee W.O. (Eds.) (2001): Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 228pp.

Bray Mark & Lee W.O. (2001): Education and Political Transition in East Asia: Diversity and Commonality, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 1-18.

Cheng Kai Ming (2001): Changing Cultures and Schools in the People's Republic of China: Tradition, The Market and Educational Change, In: Cairns, J., Lawton, D. & Gardner, R. (eds.), World Yearbook of Education 2001 - Values, Culture and Education. Kogan Page, 242-257.

Cheng Kai Ming (2000): Information Era and Lifelong Learning: Public-Private Partnership in East Asian Culture, In: Wang, Yidan (ed.), Public-private Partnerships in the Social Sector: Issues and Country Experiences in Asia and the Pacific. Tokyo, Asian Development Bank Institute, 48-58.

Cheng Kai Ming (2000): Key-note Address: Education Reform in the Knowledge Era, In: Ramirez, V.E. (ed.), Proceedings of the 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Education and Culture. Pasig City, University of Asia and the Pacific, 5-11.

Cheng Kai Ming & Yamaguchi Yume (2001): Japanese ODA's Impact on Human Resources Development: The Cases of Thailand and Indonesia. Tokyo, International Development Research Institute, 98pp.

Cheung Kwok Wah (2001): Regulating Pedagogic Discourse in China: The Shift between Restrictive and Elaborated Ideological Orientations, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 185-199.

Cheung Kwok Wah & Ip Kin Yuen (2001): Public vs. Private Schooling: A Lesson from the Policy Debates in the United States and Britain. Focussing on Legislation of Minban Education. Beijing, China, Educational Science Press, 302-312. [in Chinese]

Kwan T.Y.L. & Lopez-Real F.J. (2000): Partnership and Professional Development: A Unified Approach in An Asian Context, Journal of Applied Research in Education. 4(1): 108-120.

Lee, W.O. & Sweeting, Anthony (2001): Controversies in Hong Kong's Political Transition: Nationalism versus Liberalism, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 101-121.

Morris, Paul, Kan, Flora & Morris, Esther (2001): Education, Civic Participation and Identity: Continuity and Change in Hong Kong, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 163-181.

Poon-Mcbrayer K.F. (2000): The Development and System of Special Education in the United States: A Cultural Perspective, In: Sun, J.R. & Feng, J.H. (eds.), American Culture and Education. Beijing, China: China Social and Science Publishing House, 87-113.

Westwood, P.S. & Graham, L. (2000): Collaborative Consultation as a Component of Support for Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings: Perspectives from Teachers in South Australia and New South Wales, Special Education Perspectives. 9(2): 13-25.

Wong Kam Cheung (2001): Culture and Educational Leadership, In: Kam Cheung Wong & Colin W. Evers (eds.), Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives. London, Routledge/Falmer, 36-53.

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2. Curriculum and Assessment

Bray Mark (2001): Examination Systems in Small States: Meeting National Needs in a Global Environment, In: Bell, Katrina (ed.), Education in the Commonwealth. London, UK, Kensington Publications, 125-129.

Bray Mark & Adam Khadeja (2001): The Dialectic of the International and the National: Secondary School Examinations in Maldives, International Journal of Educational Development, 21(3): 231-244.

Law N.W.Y. & Lee Y. (2000): Emerging Pedagogical Practices: Hong Kong in an International Context, Changing Classrooms & Changing Schools. A Study of Good Practices in Hong Kong Schools. Hong Kong, CITE, The University of Hong Kong, 11-21.

3. Educational Policy, Administration, and Management

Baldacchino Godfrey & Bray Mark (Eds.) (2001): Human Resource Strategies for Small States [Special issue of the journal devoted entirely to this topic], International Journal of Educational Development. 21(3): 203-284.

Bray Mark (2001): Higher Education and Colonial Transition in Macau: Market Forces and State Intervention in a Small Society, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 139-161.

Bray Mark (2000): Double-Shift Schooling: Design and Operation for Cost-Effectiveness. London/Paris, The Commonwealth Secretariat/UNESCO IIEP, 93pp.

Bray Mark (2000): Financing Higher Education in Asia: Patterns, Trends and Options, Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education. XXX(3): 331-348.

Wong Kam Cheung & Evers Colin W. (Eds.) (2001): Leadership for Quality Schooling: International Perspectives. London, Routledge/Falmer, 171pp.

4. Educational Psychology and Student Learning

Boulton-Lewis G.M., Marton F.I., Lewis D.C. & Wilss L.A. (2000): Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander University Students' Conceptions of Formal Learning and Experiences of Informal Learning, Higher Education. 39: 469-488.

Boulton-Lewis G.M., Marton F.I. & Wilss L.A. (2001): The Lived Space of Learning: An Inquiry into Indigenous Australian University Students' Experiences of Studying, In: Sternberg, R.J., & Zhang, L-F, Perspective on Thinking, Learning and Cognitive Styles. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 137-164.

Watkins David A. (2001): Correlates of Approaches to Learning: A Cross-cultural Meta-analysis, In: Sternberg, R.J. & Zhang, L.F. (Eds.), Perspectives on Thinking, Learning and Cognitive Styles. Mahwah, NJ, USA, Lawrence Erlbaum, 165-196.

Zhang Li Fang (2000): Abilities, Academic Performance, Learning Approaches, and Thinking Styles: A Three-Culture Investigation, Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies (Special Issue: Achievement Motivation of Chinese Students). 1(2): 123-149.

Zhang Li Fang & Sternberg R.J. (2000): Are Learning Approaches and Thinking Styles Related? A Study in two Chinese Populations. The Journal of Psychology. 134(5): 469-489.

Zhang Li Fang & Sternberg R.J. (2001): Thinking Styles across Cultures: Their Relationships with Student Learning, In: R.J. Sternberg & L.F. Zhang (Eds.), Perspectives on Thinking, Learning, and Cognitive Styles. Mahwah, NJ, Lawrence Erlbaum, 197-226.

Zhang Li Fang & Watkins David A. (2001): Cognitive Development and Student Approaches to Learning: An Investigation of Perry's Theory with Chinese and U.S. University Students, Higher Education. 41: 239-261.

5. Social and Moral Issues

Chapman D., Chen X.Y. & Postiglione G.A. (2000): Is Preservice Teacher Training Worth the Money? A Study of Teachers in Ethnic Minority Regions of the People's Republic of China, Comparative Education Review. 44(3): 300-328.

Cheng Kai Ming (2000): Views from Outside: Perspectives about Private Education, Dynamics of Non-government Education. Minban Jiaoyu Dongtai. Shanghai, 55: 51-57. [in Chinese]
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Cheung Kwok Wah (2001): The Debate of Choices in Public and Private Schools and Some Case Studies in the US, Focussing on Legislation of Minban Education. Beijing, China, Educational Science Press, 83-86. [in Chinese]

Law Wing Wah (2001): The Taiwanisation, Democratisation and Internationalisation of Higher Education in Taiwan, In: Bray, Mark & Lee, W.O. (eds.), Education and Political Transition: Themes and Experiences in East Asia. Hong Kong, CERC, The University of Hong Kong, 37-57.

Stimpson P.G. & Wong B.K. (2001): Environmental Education in Guangzhou in the People's Republic of China: Global Theme, Politically Determined?, Environmental Education Research 2001. 7(4).

Westwood, P.S. (2001): Making Special Schools Ordinary: Is this Inspirational or Confused Thinking?, International Journal of Special Education. 16(1): 7-20.

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