CERCular    [No.1 of 2002]

Table of Contents

From the Director

Hong Kong is nowadays recognised as a major centre for comparative education research. CERC is part of this development. Writing in a recent book review, Max Eckstein commented that CERC, for example, "has become a place to be reckoned with in such comparative and international activities". At the recent Annual Conference of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK), the question was raised: what are the factors that have contributed to this development? Several suggestions were made.

First, Hong Kong has a long tradition of using comparative education in formulating educational policies. Under British rule, the initial point of reference was obviously the United Kingdom, although studies were also made of educational practices elsewhere. In recent decades, the comparative element has become more pronounced. The major reforms of the 1990s, focused around the Target Oriented Curriculum, drew on the experiences of Australia, New Zealand, USA and the UK, while the current reform documents contain an appendix explicitly listing the education systems that had been studied in the drafting of the reports.

The importance attached to comparative education by the government in Hong Kong has encouraged the growth of the discipline. Local and overseas scholars have been attracted by the opportunities afforded by Hong Kong, particularly given the rich geo-political complexities of the region. This scholarly flow, in turn, has led to the creation of research centres, such as CERC and, more recently, the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit (CEPRU) at the City University of Hong Kong. Courses in comparative education have been established, thus encouraging a new generation of scholars, while CESHK has proved a focal point, bringing together people with an interest in comparative education as a society with a membership of around eighty.

The activities engendered by all these developments have enabled scholars in Hong Kong to play a role on a bigger stage. CERC has been at the forefront. The centre hosts the website for the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) (www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces), while members participate regularly at comparative education conferences around the world. CERC's publications continue to attract a wide international readership and favourable reviews.

All this is very pleasing, and a tribute to the hard work of many people. It is with some trepidation, therefore, that I take on the role of Director of CERC. Mark Bray has taken on the onerous position as Acting Head of a newly merged department and is therefore unable to continue as Director, although he remains a very active member of CERC. Mark and the previous Director, Lee Wing On, have made enormous contributions to the centre and thereby to the field of comparative education.

This newsletter has a focus on comparative education in Hong Kong. As well as the regular features presenting CERC's activities and other news from the field of comparative education, there are articles describing the history of CERC and of CEPRU, a report on CESHK, and an introduction to the WCCES. Percy Kwok also contributes an article about Professor Robert LeVine, the distinguished scholar currently visiting the University of Hong Kong.

I would like to thank Emily Mang, Sharon Eng and Percy Kwok for their work on this edition of CERCular. The next edition is planned for late autumn, and will include a focus on Hong Kong five years after the return to Chinese sovereignty. As ever, contributions to CERCular would be most welcome.

Bob Adamson

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Focus on Comparative Education in Hong Kong: CERC: Past, Present and Future

Emily Mang is a key person you want to know in CERC. Officially, her job titles are Secretary and Senior Research Assistant, but Emily is responsible for administering CERC, arranging seminars and workshops and ensuring the quality of all desktop publishing, including CERCular.

Reflecting the diverse interests of people involved in Comparative Education, Emily received her undergraduate degree in Geography from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. After a brief stint working at a Canadian Community College she returned to Hong Kong and joined the fledgling CERC organisation. In 2001 Emily earned her own M.Ed in Comparative Education. In fact, this article is extracted from her dissertation. Now that her studies are complete for the time being she plans to spend her time in the near future dedicating herself to having a personal life!

Establishment
The Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC) of the University of Hong Kong was established in 1994 but its origins go back to 1989. John Biggs, Head of the Department of Education and Chairman of the Hong Kong Centre for the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) at that time, proposed establishing a Centre for Regional and Comparative Studies in Education, but the proposal did not gather much momentum. By 1994, the University climate turned favourable to the establishment of centres albeit on a limited funding basis. New centres were to be virtual in nature, requiring no additional resources but serving as magnets to concentrate existing research expertise to generate more interest for sponsorship and funding. In March 1995 the name 'Comparative Education Research Centre' (fondly referred to as CERC) was formally adopted, and has been in use since that time. The aims of CERC were to foster the field of comparative education in the region and internationally. The Centre is run by an Executive Committee, which consists of an ex-officio member, four elected members, and up to two co-opted members. The co-opted members can be either Full Members or Associate Members. Staff and students within the University are Full Members. Associate Members come from outside the University, and their membership is by invitation from the Executive Committee.

Executive Committee
CERC's operation depends on voluntary support from the Executive Committee and the members. They influence administration of CERC and the networks developed by CERC. The founding members of the Executive Committee were all staff from the Departments of Curriculum Studies and Education. Since that time, students have also joined the Committee.

Committee members have come from Australia, UK, China, Hong Kong, India and Japan. The members have brought extensive international experience as well as perspectives from their home countries. In addition to comparative education, the Committee members have specialised in educational administration, planning and policy analysis, cultural studies, research methodology, curriculum studies, language studies, and developmental psychology. The geographic areas covered by these interests included Hong Kong, Macau, China and Taiwan, and throughout Asia as well as Africa, Europe and North America.

The Committee has led the effort to develop links with other comparative education centres. Several members of the first Executive Committee participated in various IEA studies, including the Third International Mathematics and Sciences Study (TIMSS) and the Civic Education Study. CERC Executive Committee members have also conducted research studies for international organisations including UNESCO, UNICEF, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank.

Membership
CERC membership has grown steadily from 36 in 1995 to 106 in 2002. There are 11 Associate Members, each of whom is distinguished in the field. Many of these Associate Members have been involved with CERC as authors, editors or contributors to some of the books. Additionally, some of them were involved in seminars, workshops, or conferences during their stay with CERC. CERC has maintained an on-going relationship with these members for mutual benefit.

Visiting Fellowship
In September 1996 CERC had its first postdoctoral fellow, Zhang Weiyuan. Dr Zhang's specialty was careers guidance. While Dr Zhang was involved with the Executive Committee, and conducted seminars during his two-year stay, he also wrote Young People and Careers: School Careers Guidance in Shanghai, Edinburgh and Hong Kong, which was book No.4 in the series of 'CERC Studies in Comparative Education'

In 1997 CERC had its second postdoctoral fellow, Gui Qin. Dr Gui completed her doctoral research on comparing educational objectives in modern China and Japan at Beijing Normal University under the supervision of Gu Mingyuan. She was based at Capital Normal University in Beijing after her studies. Dr Gui assisted CERC in liaising with Beijing Normal University to issue the Chinese version of CERCular. Although she returned to Beijing in August 1999, she maintains active contact with CERC and still edits the Chinese version of CERCular.

CERC greatly benefited from Dr Zhang's and Dr Qin's presence at the University, and it was also gratifying to note the impact that they were able to make on young scholars in China through CERC. These scholars, by participating in a methodology workshop in CERC, were able to open the eyes of young mainland Chinese students to new ways of thinking which would hopefully advance the field in China.

Electronic Networking
With the advancement of technology, CERC developed networks for disseminating information in comparative education studies through cyberspace, in addition to more conventional media. In 1995, the Centre established two electronic bulletin boards, ComparEd and China Education, which focused on comparative education and education in China, respectively. The objective of these electronic forums was to allow convenient access for those interested in the field to exchange and disseminate relevant information of various types such as conference announcements, job vacancies, and publications. Along with listservs, CERC also has its own website which contains all issues of CERCular, and comprehensive information on the Centre's activities as well as links to the websites of other institutions, centres, societies and journals on comparative education. Since 1999, CERC has also hosted the websites of the WCCES and the CESHK, with the assistance of a CERC member.

M.Ed. in Comparative Education
CERC members make significant inputs to the MEd Comparative Education specialist programme first launched in 1996. Students benefit from utilising CERC's services and participating in activities, and CERC also benefits from the students?input. One of the first students, Tomoko Ako, came from Japan mainly for the programme.

Publications
The publication of works on comparative studies in education is regarded as an important role of the Centre. Each type of publication serves a different function for CERC. The publications include: 'CERCular', 'CERC Series in Comparative Education', and collaboration and participation in other publications. The Publications Committee is responsible for vetting book-length manuscripts. CERC books have been distributed both in the local community and to many scholars and students in other parts of the world.

CERCular
The chief mission of the newsletter is information dissemination, facilitating contacts with educational researchers, reporting progress of the Centre, and publicising the works of CERC members. The English edition is entitled CERCular and has been published bi-annually since it first appeared in February 1996. The electronic version is posted on the Centre's website. This current edition is the 12th newsletter. The Chinese version was launched in 1999. The Chinese version is published in the journal Comparative Education Review published by Beijing Normal University.

CERC Series in Comparative Education
The 'CERC Series in Comparative Education' focuses on subjects which explicitly have comparative perspectives. Most publications in the series have been printed in English, and have been widely distributed in the English-speaking world. To enhance circulation to the Chinese-speaking world, the translation of some books has begun, starting with the publication of book No.7 in the series.

Collaborative and Other Publications
In addition to the series 'CERC Studies in Comparative Education', CERC also publishes books in collaboration with other publishers. Publication costs are shared with the partners to provide more effective use of resources. Moreover, enhancing the publication of works in other disciplines can also promote studies in comparative education.

Projects, Training and Consultancies
In addition to publishing newsletters and books, CERC facilitates and participates in many research projects, training workshops and consulting assignments. Over the last eight years, the Centre has been involved in numerous activities in the field locally and internationally. These activities include the inaugural international symposium in May 1995. The theme was 'Education and Socio-political Transitions in Asia' and attracted over 100 participants from Asia, Europe and North America. CERC has also hosted various study tours. Most recently CERC hosted two study tours for administrators and teachers from Gansu Province of China in 2001. An example of consultancy work was the review of higher education in Macau, which was contracted by the Macau government and carried out by Mark Bray and his team between July 2000 and March 2001.

Seminars
CERC has organised many seminars for its members. The themes have covered a wide range of issues and the presenters have been CERC members and visitors, including distinguished figures from the field.

Summary and Conclusion
CERC has made substantial achievements since its establishment in 1994. The number and variety of CERC activities reflect the development of the Centre. These changes reflect the growth in the research interests in comparative education studies. The mission of CERC is to foster the field by facilitating, participating and initiating a wide range of activities within the institution in its capacity, and further stimulate the field by the linkages with other centres, institutes and societies. CERC strives to keep itself updated in the field of comparative education and will continue to develop itself technologically to serve the needs of the academic community.

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Focus on Comparative Education in Hong Kong: Comparative Education Policy Research Unit (CEPRU)

Comparative Education Policy Research Unit (CEPRU), City University of Hong Kong
Michael H. Lee

Michael H. Lee is Member of the Comparative Education Policy Research Unit, Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong.

About CEPRU
The Comparative Education Policy Research Unit (CEPRU) was founded in February 1999 as one of the strategic research development areas at the Department of Public and Social Administration of City University of Hong Kong. CEPRU is focused on the issues of education governance and education policy, with particular interest in develop-ments in East Asia and the Pacific region. CEPRU has engaged in various activities including organizing workshops, seminars, an international symposia and conferences, and participated in different publication plans and book projects. CEPRU's Occasional Paper Series was launched in 2002.

People
CEPRU currently has six members. Joshua Ka-ho Mok, Associate Professor in the Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong, is the Convenor of the Research Unit. The other five members are David Kin-keung Chan, Joan Yin-hung Leung, King-lun Ngok, Michael Hiu-hong Lee and Eric Ho-chun Lo.

Academic Activities
CEPRU has organized four workshops to which scholars from Hong Kong and other countries were invited to present their papers. Invited scholars at workshops included Mark Bray, Roger Dale, and Susan Robertson. The scope of workshops included:

- Towards a Global Trend: Centralization and Decentral-ization in Educational Governance in Four Chinese Societies;
- The Quest for Quality Education in Hong Kong: Theory and Practice;
- Reflecting Globalization Effects on National Education Policy: The Perspective from East Asia; and
- Centralization versus Decentralization: Educational Reforms and Changing Governance in Chinese Societies.

Co-operation with Government and Other Organizations
CEPRU has also organized several public seminars over the past few years, some of these with government departments including the Civil Service Training and Development Institute (CSTDI) and the Education Department (ED). The public seminars and their presenters were:

- "Education Reform and Policy Change in Singapore delivered by Professor S. Gopinathan, Dean of Foundation Programmes, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore;
- "A Comparative Study of Education Policy in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai" co-organized with the CSTDI to address a group of 120 senior Hong Kong civil servants; and
- "Education Reforms in Shanghai and Singapore" co-organized by CEPRU and the ED to address a group of 70 educational officers.

CEPRU has also organized symposia and conferences to allow more opportunities for scholars and researchers in Hong Kong and other countries to exchange their research experience. A symposium of "Learning Society and Schools in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai" was held at the 16th Annual Conference of the Hong Kong Educational Re-search Association.

CEPRU organized its first international conference on "Marketization and Higher Education" in Shanghai with East China Normal University and Fudan University. Scholars from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea presented papers at the conference. In January 2002, the Research Unit hosted the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) 2002 Conference at City University of Hong Kong.

Upcoming Events
On 27 June 2002, a regional forum on "Educational Reform and Policy Change in East Asian Tigers", co-organized with the ED will be held to provide school principals an opportunity to have better understanding about educational reforms in the East Asian region.

An international symposium on lobalization and Educational Governance Change in East Asia,?co-organized with the Hong Kong Educational Research Association, will be held on 28 June 2002. This symposium will focus on the impact of globalization on education reforms and governance change in countries including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.

Continuing the theme of globalizations's impact on education, CEPRU will sponsor an international conference on "Globalization: New Horizons for Educational Changes" organized by the Hong Kong Educational Research Association to be held on 20-21 December 2002.

Providing Thought Leadership through Publications
CEPRU members have had articles regarding education reforms and changing educational governance in East Asia published in several journals, such as Comparative Education, Comparative Education Review, International Review of Education, Journal of Educational Development, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Higher Education, and Higher Education Policy. A special issue on "Centralization versus Decentralization: Educational Reforms and Changing Governance in Chinese Societies" will be published by Education and Society.

Members have published commentary articles in response to the currently proposed education reform in Hong Kong in various local newspapers, including The Hong Kong Economic Times, Hong Kong Economic Journal, Ming Pao Daily News, Apple Daily, and South China Morning Post (Education Post).

Most recently, Joshua Ka-ho Mok and David Kin-keung Chan edited a book entitled Globalization and Education: The Question for Quality Education, which examined the origin, evolution and development of the quality education movement in Hong Kong. The book was published by Hong Kong University Press in 2002. A new book, Marketization and Higher Education in Greater China, based on selected articles presented at the Shanghai conference in April 2001, will be published in Taiwan by Yang-Chih Book Co. Ltd. This volume will be available in Chinese.

Occasional Paper Series
CEPRU is enthusiastic about the launch of its Occasional Paper Series. The Series includes research articles by CEPRU members and also welcomes papers from scholars and researchers in Hong Kong and abroad. Either English or Chinese articles related to aspects of comparative education, education policy and reform, and changing governance in education are welcome. Contributors to the Series so far are Mark Bray, Burton R. Clark, Stephen J. Ball, Janice Currie, Anthony R. Welch, Joseph Zajda, S. Gopinathan, Lesley Vidovich, Arild Tjeldvoll, and Jason Tan.

Road Ahead
CEPRU is growing through collaborative relationships with other research institutions and organizations in the field of comparative education in Hong Kong and overseas. The Research Unit still has a long way to go but, at least, it is a good start for all of us!

To get more information about the CEPRU, visit http://personal.cityu.edu.hk/~samiclee or

contact Michael H. Lee at (852) 2784 4646 and samiclee@cityu.edu.hk.

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Focus on Comparative Education in Hong Kong: Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK)

About CESHK
The Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) was founded in 1989. Membership of the society, which currently stands at 80, is drawn from educational institutions in Hong Kong and the Asian region. This makes CESHK one of the largest (in terms of per capita of the population) comparative education societies in the world.

CESHK provides a forum for the exchange of views, development of partnerships, and shaping of new initiatives. The society is an active member of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), and its officers have contributed to the functioning of that body. In the process, this work has given Hong Kong visibility within the wider arena.

CESHK Conference 2002: "Applying Comparative Education"

The Conference had a new host, the Comparative Education Policy Review Unit at the City University of Hong Kong. The format of the one-day event includes a keynote speech, parallel sessions and the traditional conference lunch, which is the social highlight of the day.

The 2002 conference, on the theme of "Applying Comparative Education" was held on Saturday 26 January 2002. The conference was well attended, with around 60 participants from Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Australia and the USA. The conference was organised by Bob Adamson, who was also completing his term of office as CESHK President.

Following the CESHK AGM, the conference was opened by Professor Ian Holliday, Head, Department of Public and Social Administration, City University of Hong Kong. Mark Bray then presented the keynote speech on the topic "Applying comparative education in Hong Kong and beyond", which was followed by a lively debate. Parallel papers and colloquia followed, on such themes which included higher education reform, rural education in China, civic education, and cram schools. Country focuses included China, India, Taiwan, Australia, Russia, USA and Latin America.

Participants declared the conference a success:
 

"..delighted to have seen [CESHK] flourishing so well on Saturday"

"Thanks for a great day. I liked the cosy feel of the conference."

"It was a really friendly day. I enjoyed the papers and I thought the keynote speech was excellent."

"It was a wonderful experience to be a part of the CESHK conference."

".. substantive issues, professionally addressed, characterized at least what I saw and heard..."

CESHK Executive Committee
Ip Kin-yuen, Lee Wing On, Mok Ka-ho and Wong Suk-Ying have been elected to the new CESHK Executive Committee until the AGM in 2004. Bob Adamson has completed his term of office as President, but will continue to serve on the committee as Past President.

CESHK Bulletin
CESHK publishes an annual Comparative Education Bulletin, which is distributed to members. Bulletin 5 was recently published. To obtain a copy, please join CESHK!

CESHK Membership
CESHK membership entitles members to participate in a wide range of activities in the field of comparative education: seminars, conferences, study visits. Members enjoy a 20% discount on books published by the CERC, and a reduced registration fee for the WCCES's World Congress of Comparative Education.

Membership fees for 2002 are HK$150 (HK$100 for students). Membership operates on a calendar year basis. For new members joining CESHK after 1 September, the subscription covers membership for the rest of the year and the whole of the following year. Registration/Renewal forms are available from the CESHK website.

CESHK Website
CESHK operates a website hosted by CERC

< http://www.hku.hk/cerc/ceshk>.

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Interview with Robert A. LeVine

Prof. Robert A. LeVine: A Lifelong Career in Anthropology
By Percy Kwok

Prof. Robert A. LeVine is a Distinguished Visting Professor at the University of Hong Kong in 2001/02. Percy Kwok here introduce him and his work.

Born in Englewood, New Jersey, USA, Prof. Robert A. LeVine developed an interest in academic studies at the early age of 13. Turning his attention from natural sciences to social and political sciences, the young scholar studied books on infant and child development in high school. Entirely educated in the USA, LeVine completed bachelor, master and doctoral degrees.

LeVine did his PhD fieldwork in southwestern Kenya, East Africa from 1955 to 1957, exploring various psycho-social aspects of Gusii culture. After returning to the USA, he finished his doctoral dissertation and took up a teaching post at Northwestern University, Chicago from 1958 to 1960. Sub-sequently, he was a professor in the Department of Human Development at the University of Chicago for 16 years, before moving to Harvard University, where he taught for 25 years as Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, Professor of Anthropology and head of Human Development and Psychology in the Graduate School of Education. He was later awarded the position of Professor Emeritus.

In Pursuit of Multi-disciplinary Knowledge
During his undergraduate and postgraduate years at the University of Chicago, LeVine was nourished in an ardent scholarly atmosphere of many distinguished figures in social sciences, and studied classic texts of Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle. He studied archaeology, linguistics and social anthropology, and he met the great anthropologist, Robert Redfield, who supervised his master's dissertation. As the Anthropology Department did not have any keen interest in crossing borders between psychology and anthropology, LeVine chose to do his doctoral research in the Social Relations Department at Harvard University, where he came into contact with Clifford Geertz. Geertz's multi-disciplinary research interests and extensive reading areas strongly influenced LeVine's lifelong career in anthropology. Clifford later became one of LeVine's colleagues at the University of Chicago. They collaborated on a number of cross-cultural and cross-national studies especially after the Committee for the Comparative Study of New Nations was founded in 1960.

Throughout his career, LeVine has undertaken ethnographical work by deepening his studies in the same research sites. For instance, 21 years after his doctoral studies in Gusii culture, he went back to Kenya in 1974. With some specific training in the Freudian doctrine of psychoanalysis at the University of Chicago in 1962-71, he articulated notions of parenthood and investigated relationships between infant care and development by gaining deeper insights in a Gusii community (LeVine et al. 1994). LeVine later extended his fieldwork to West Africa and Latin America, and Asia.

Prof. LeVine's academic research interests have crossed over the boundaries of 'orthodox social sciences' like archeology, psychological anthropology and education. His many publications lie in various fields of culture theory and his educational studies cover comparative studies of parental behavior and child development, with a particular focus on developing countries.

Towards a Distinctive Philosophical View of Education
At the age of 22, LeVine (in the Social Relations Department at Harvard University) started to collaborate with John Whiting (in the School of Education) by acting as his research assistant in studies using cross-cultural perspectives of child development in education. He continued his extensive research interests in education by opening up 'new' horizons, including infant psychology. In line with John Dewey's pragmatist philosophy of education, LeVine noted that many educators and educational researchers tended to equate education with formal schooling. He argued that there are plenty of fruitful learning activities found in early child development long before formal schooling begins. He felt that Anglo-American psychologists over-generalised preferred practices from their own cultures regarding child care, without paying heed to distinctive causal relationships between mothers and their children during infant development in other cultures. LeVine used patterns of Gusii mothers' behavior towards their infants to question attachment theorists' models, which he criticised as using American practices to view non-American cultures without much empirical data support. The four patterns were Gusii mothers' lack of praise for their toddler's accomplishments, virtual absence of mock conversations or extended play dialogues with their infants or toddlers, and restrictions of explorations (LeVine 2002).

In the interview for this article, LeVine humbly com-mented that he could not figure out why he recently received the Distinguished Contributions Award of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), in the footsteps of such giants as Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner in the last century. But the reasons for his award surely lie in his remarkable contributions to education, including:

- The significance of cross-cultural perspectives in psycho-social studies (LeVine 1982)
- Broadening the scope of educational research in social or African cultural issues (LeVine et al. 1994; LeVine & Norman 2001; LeVine, LeVine & Schnell 2001)
- Posing great challenges to universalistic claims by attachment theorists (LeVine 2002)
- The provision of empirical educational research evidence to justify international health policies in developing countries (LeVine, LeVine & Schnell 2001)

What are the implications of Robert LeVine's work for comparative education? An important lesson is that Euro-centric or Anglo-American-centric conceptions of educational discourses or cultural norms for educational evaluation may not be legitimately generalized to African, Asian or other cultures. This runs parallel to other postmodernist comparativists' calls for social cartography (Paulston 1999) or relativistic development of comparative education across geographical borders (Bray & Gui 2001; Rust 1991).

References:
Bray, M. & Gui, Q. (2001). Comparative education in Greater China: contexts, characteristics, contrasts and contributions. Comparative Education 37(4): 451-473.

LeVine, R.A. (1982). Culture, behavior, and personality: an introduction to the comparative study of psychosocial adaptation. New York: Aldine Publication Co.
 

LeVine, R.A. et al. (1994). Child Care and Culture: Lesson from Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

 
LeVine, R.A. & Norman, K. (2001). The infant's acquisition of culture: early attachment reexamined in anthropological perspective. In C.C. Moore and H.F. Mathews (Eds.), The Psychology of Cultural Experience (pp. 83-104). New York: Cambridge University Press.

LeVine, R.A., LeVine, S.E. & Schnell, B. (2001). "Improve the women": mass schooling, female literacy, and worldwide social change. Harvard Educational Review 71 (1): 1-50.

 
LeVine, R.A. (2002). Challenging expert knowledge: Findings from an African study of infant care and development. In U.P. Gielen & J.L. Roopnarine (Eds.), Childhood and Adolescence in Cross-cultural Perspectives. Forthcoming.

Paulston, R.G. (1999). Mapping comparative education after postmodernity. Comparative Education Review, 43(4): 438-436.

Rust, V. (1991). Postmodernism and its comparative education implications. Comparative Education Review, 35 (4): 610-626.

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WCCES

What is the WCCES?
The World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) is the international umbrella for 29 comparative education societies, including the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong. The societies vary in size: the largest is the Comparative and International Education Society in the USA, with over two thousand members; others comprise a handful of dedicated members.

The WCCES was formed in 1970, with the goals "to promote the study of comparative and international education throughout the world and enhance the academic status of this field" and "to bring comparative education to bear on the major educational problems of the day by fostering co-operative action by specialists from different parts of the world".

The major WCCES event is a World Congress, which is generally held every three years, hosted by a member society. The last one was the 11th World Congress, held in Chungbuk, South Korea in 2001. At this congress, Anne Hickling-Hudson was elected President of the WCCES.

The 11th World Congress
The 11th World Congress of Comparative Education Societies was an outstanding occasion, organised by the Korean Comparative Education Society, under the leadership of Professor Lee Byungjin. The theme was "New Challenges and New Paradigms: Moving Education into the 21st Century". More than 400 delegates attended, many from Asia. The venue thus provided an Asian perspective on comparative education, allowing further global balance after the previous congresses in Africa, Australia and Europe.

The delegates were honoured by a video mess-age of welcome from the President of the Republic of Korea, and by the attendance of the Deputy Prime Minister at the opening ceremony. Professor Lee and his colleagues prepared a highly successful blend of academic and cultural inter-action, with delegates being treated to an excellent programme of presentations, visits and musical performances.

A special double issue of the International Review of Education, featuring papers presented at the congress, will appear in 2003 and subsequently be published as a book.

CERC and WCCES
CERC members are active in WCCES affairs. Mark Bray serves as the Secretary-General, while Bob Adamson is responsible for the WCCES news column that appears in Innovation, the publication of the International Bureau of Education. CERC also hosts the WCCES website, which is maintained by Bob Adamson, Emily Mang and Percy Kwok.

WCCES Officers

The WCCES Website

The WCCES website www.hku.hk/cerc/wcces provides news and information about the WCCES and the field of comparative education in general. The website offers a number of pages.
 

About WCCES
This part provides a brief history of the council and its statutes and by-laws.

News
Here you can find news from member societies, reports of conferences and other events, changes in office bearers, calls for papers and so on.
 

Membership
Many people want to know if they can join the WCCES. Actually, you can only join through a member society. This page provides the relevant instructions.
 

Future Events
This page lists conferences, colloquia and seminars to be held by member societies and other agencies in the field of comparative and international education.
 

Journal Contents
Announcements from publishers and member societies concerning their journals are found on this page.
 

New Books
The page carries details of new books in the field of comparative and international education.

World Congresses
There is a record of the past eleven World Congresses on this page.
 

Job Openings
This page displays advertisements for jobs in comparative education.
 

Member Societies
Here, all the member societies are listed, together with contact details of officers, and links to websites where available.
 

WCCES Officers
The office-bearers of the WCCES and their e-mail addresses are given on this page.
 

Links
This is a very useful page for anyone carrying out research in comparative education. There are approximately 200 links to relevant websites covering global, regional and national education.
 

Languages
You will notice that some pages are written in French. The WCCES has no official language policy. The council conducts most of its business in English, but it acknowledges the strong contribution made, inter alia, by the Association Francophone d'Éducation Comparée (AFEC). The French title of the WCCES is Conseil Mondial des Associations d'Éducation Comparée (CMAEC).
 

WCCES News

New President of CCES
Gu Mingyuan has retired from the Presidency of the China Comparative Education Society, a post which he has held since 1984. The new President is Prof. Liang Zhongyi, Institute of International and Comparative Education, North East Normal University, Changchun, Jilin Province 130024, China.

CESA announces new committee
At the recent Comparative Education Society of Asia conference in Taipei, Prof. Yoshio Gondo retired from the Presidency (which he has held since 1995). The new President is Prof. Byung-Jin Lee, Dept. of Education, Korea National University of Education, Kangnae-myun, Cheongwon-kun, Chungbuk, The Republic of Korea. E-mail: leebj@cc.knue.ac.kr.

At the same meeting, Prof. Kengo Mochida retired from the Secretary-Generalship (which he has also held since 1995). He is replaced by Dr Jeong-Seon Lee, Kwangju National University of Education, 1-1 poonghyang dong, Buk-gu, Kwangju City 500 703, The Republic of Korea. E-mail: jslee@gnue.ac.kr.

The new Vice-President is Prof. Shen-Keng Yang, of National Taiwan Normal University, and the Co-President is Prof. Mohammad Fakry Gaffer of the Institute of Teaching & Educational Sciences, Bandung, Indonesia.

The next CESA Conference will be 21-22 July 2003 in Bandung, Indonesia.

SACHES 2002
The Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society has issued a call for papers for its conference to be held at the University of Pretoria, 30 October to 1 November 2002. The theme is "Learning from one another: Educational change, reform, policy formulation and implementation in Southern Africa". Abstract deadline 30 August 2002. Contact: Brigitte Smit or the Assistant Organiser: Mrs Ster Steyn, Department of Education Management and Policy Studies, University of Pretoria, bsmit@hakuna.up.ac.za, Tel.: 012-420-4569 ; Fax : 012-420-3581.

SACHES calls for SRAPS applications
The Southern African Comparative and History of Education Society invites applications for the first round of the SRAPS project by 30 April 2002. The first award(s) of R 10,000 is designed to assist in building research capacity in the region. The award is intended to help a researcher to undertake a study. (The award is not intended to support graduate studies.) Applicants should send: Name, Address, E-mail, Phone, Fax, Educational Background, Occupational History, Key publications (if any), Research Proposal (including title and sub-title, a brief statement of the problem, proposed methodology, possible outline of report) and the names of two references. For further information and application forms contact: Sheldon G. Weeks, Chair, SACHES, fax 267-533-107; e-mail: gudrun@info.bw.

CIES Website
The Comparative and International Education Society has developed its website, www.cies.ws under the direction of Dr Miguel Angel Escotet.

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CERC News

New Director for CERC
In January 2002, Prof. Mark Bray was appointed Acting Head of the new Department of Curriculum and Educational Studies in the University of Hong Kong. Dr. Bob Adamson has been appointed as Honorary Director of CERC up to March 2003.

Mini-Conference
In 17 November 2001, CERC hosted a half day mini-conference entitled 'Improving Teaching: Lessons from "Teaching the Chinese Learner"'. Speakers included some chapter authors of the book, Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives, which was published by CERC in September 2001. The event attracted over 30 participants, and the book was featured in an article in the Education Supplement of the South China Morning Post on the day of the event.
 

CESA's Third Conference
The Comparative Education Society of Asia (CESA) held its third biennial conference in Taipei from 13 to 15 November 2001. The conference was hosted by the Chinese Comparative Education Society-Taipei (CCES-T), and the theme was "The Prospects of Asian Education for the New Century". Mark Bray presented a keynote address on "Comparative Education: Global Trends and Asian Contributions".

It was pleasing to hear David Wilson of University of Toronto comment in his keynote address that "the CERC publications programme in Comparative and International Education has become the most robust in the world in the past few years".

Visitors
Current and forthcoming CERC visitors include:

Nina Borevskaya will visit the University of Hong Kong for two weeks in March 2002. Dr. Borevskaya's visit will be funded by the Department of Curriculum and Edu-cational Studies. CERC looks forward to welcoming her, and is pleased that the fruitful contact that began during her last visit in October 1999 is maintained.

Rosa Maria Torres is another official visitor to the Department of Curriculum and Educational Studies for two weeks in May 2002. She is an Ecuadorian currently based in Argentina, and CERC particularly looks forward to the perspectives she will bring from Latin America. She is well known as an advocate of basic education and human rights, and has worked in all continents for UNICEF, UNESCO and other bodies.

Reports on Dr. Borevskaya's and Dr. Torres's visits will be given in the next edition of CERCular.
 

CERC Seminars
CERC had a vigorous programme of seminars last semester. Announcements of future seminars will be posted on the CERC website: www.hku.hk/cerc/Seminars/seminars.htm.

Feb. 4

Greg Fairbrother, "Political Socialization and Critical Thinking Their Influence on Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese University Students' Attitudes Toward the Nation"
 

Feb. 11

Carole Hahn, "Comparative Perspectives on Civic Education"

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Book Review

The Journal of Educational Change (Vol.2, No.2, 2001) has carried the following review of CERC Series in Comparative Education 7. We are pleased to see the positive reception, and reprint the review here by permission of the author.

Mark Bray & Ramsey Koo (eds.), Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macau: Comparative Perspectives on Continuity and Change, 386 pp., ISBN 962 8093 82 7. HK$200 or US$32. Available from cerc@hkusub.hku.hk.

Education and Society in Hong Kong and Macau joins a series of explicitly comparative studies published by Hong Kong University's Comparative Education Research Centre (CERC), directed by Mark Bray. This volume was directly inspired, and builds upon, work done in the early 1980s by two researchers, Murray Thomas and by T. Neville Postlethwaite, whose later work was also published by CERC. In addition to the introduction by Ramsey Ding Yee Koo, and two concluding chapters by Mark Bray, there are eleven excellent contributions to three broadly comparable domains of change experienced in Macao and Hong Kong: the levels and subsectors of schooling; the political, economic, and social issues surrounding change; and the curricular policies and processes driving change. While contributors clearly are knowledgeable about both former colonies, only one was currently working in Macao at the time of the book's publication. The others worked in Hong Kong, reflecting the fact that, as Mr. Yung's chapter usefully documents, Macao's higher education infrastructure is dwarfed by that of Hong Kong, since as at the end of the 1990s there were twenty post-secondary students in Hong Kong for every one in Macao.

Many of the chapters in this volume will be consulted in their own right as sources for under-studied topics in the contemporary colonial transitions. For example, Beatrice Leung documents the intersection of Roman Catholicism, education policy, and the fight against communism in Hong Kong, contrasted with the triumph of the cultural revolution over the Church in Macao in 1966. Jennifer Lo provides a detailed account of the process and the politics surrounding curricular reform in each former colony. In Hong Kong, where control had been relatively centralized, there was a move (just prior to the handover to China) to devolve decisions and thus to create a number of stake holders. Macao moved in the opposite direction, recentralizing authority that had been effectively ceded to constituents by a weak Portuguese presence. Chapter 3 gives an overview of an especially timely issue: the preparation of teachers. Titus Li and Ora Kwo ground current debates in their historical antecedents, tracing Hong Kong teacher preparation to an Anglican school's 1853 effort to prepare English language teachers, and to Cantonese teacher preparation beginning in 1914. Macao's teachers have been trained for a much briefer period, only since the 1930s. Even today, very few of Macao's teachers have been trained locally, with the majority having received training elsewhere in China, a constraint to the development of a local style of teaching and, perhaps, to a local identity. Hong Kong's teachers, nearly all trained in Hong Kong, wrestle with the current dilemma of how to upgrade the training and status of primary teachers, who in past years were required to be certified but did not need a university degree. One of the most fascinating studies included here is that of Thomas Tse, who looked at differences in the evolution of civics education in the two post-colonial transitions. Tse found that characteristics of state capacity and autonomy over civil society, as much as the catalytic macro-political handovers, explain the differences between Macao and Hong Kong.

The book's most expansive contributions come from Mark Bray. In two chapters, Bray discusses the various purposes of comparative studies in education. Bray embraces, in particular, the early view of Isaac Kandel, who argued that the value of comparison resides in the search for causes of the variation in educational problems and their attempted solutions. Against critics who found, subsequent to Kandel, little accumulated knowledge, Bray quotes from Joseph Farrell, who held that "popular" or "trendy" investigations are less useful than are studies based on more general understandings of how education systems work. Bray takes up this challenge, first, by reviewing and discussing a theoretical classification developed by Thomas and Postlethwaite, (as well as his own previous collaboration with Thomas), and by Margaret Archer (whose perspective was the basis of one contributor to the volume). By placing the individual contributions of this book within the theoretical framework of a scholarship, which was developed independently of Hong Kong and Macao, Bray shows the value of theory in comparative education.

...The contributors to the Hong Kong - Macau volume share a common intellectual space. They know each other's work (and also appear well-acquainted with one another personally). Perhaps because of this advantage, but also through their effective efforts, the editors ... induced contributors to write for one another, to refer to each other's scholarship, and generally to keep the focus on how the two former colonies adapt to the postcolonial challenges and the politics emerging from the transition to Chinese sovereignty. The result is much more than an encyclopedia of Macao and Hong Kong education. It is a first-rate contribution to comparative method and evidence that will interest readers in Eastern Europe, in Panama, and in every society where education both reflects and promotes political change.

David Post

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New CERC Publication

香港與澳門的教育與社會: 從比較角度看延續與變化
貝磊 古鼎儀 主編

香港與澳門有眾多共同之處。兩地人口中，占主導地位的是講廣東話的華人；兩地的面積均較小；皆屬都市社會；長期以來，兩地都曾是歐洲強國的殖民地；而且兩地都經歷了與中國統一的政治過渡。然而，在教育方面，由於本書分析出的種種原因，兩個地區又有很大差異。
 

兩地的類同與差異模式構成一種可供比較研究的絕好基礎。本書的總綱是從比較角度看延續與變化，隨著這兩個社會向後殖民地時代過渡，這一主題尤其具有相關性。
 

本書的研究範圍包括教育的所有層次。這是同類研究中第一部論述詳盡之作，不僅對比較教育的廣泛領域作出了貢獻，而且對本書重點論述的特定社會的研究作出了貢獻。
 

貝磊任香港大學講座教授、比較教育研究中心執行委員。古鼎儀任香港教育學院教育政策與行政系高級講師。兩位學者長期從事香港和澳門教育研究，積累了可貴的經驗，目前都在有關比較教育的專業機構中發揮著積極作用。

(For details in English, please see CERCular No.2 of 1999 or the website: www.hku.hk/cerc/Publications/CERC_7.htm).

目 錄

序言 (古鼎儀)
 

教育的層次與劃分
1. 學前教育 (黃艾珍)
2. 小學與中學學校教育 (鮑勃、李小鵬)
3. 師資培訓教育 (李小鵬、過偉瑜)
4. 高等教育 (容萬城)
 

政治、經濟和社會問題
5. 殖民地時期的教會、政府和教育 (梁潔芬)
6. 高等教育、帝國主義和殖民過渡 (許國輝、潘麗雯)
7. 教育與勞動人口 (馬慶堂)
 

課程設置方針和過程
8. 課程改革 (羅耀珍)
9. 公民教育和政治教育 (謝均才)
10. 中學歷史課程 (陳岡)
11. 中學數學課程 (鄧國俊)
 

結論
12. 比較教育學的方法論與焦點 (貝磊)
13. 教育的延續與變化 (貝磊)
 

Education in Developing Asia

This set of five volumes comprises a self-contained series, co-published with the Asian Development Bank, and edited by Mark Bray. All five volumes were published in March 2002. Price: HK$100/US$12 each; or HK$400/US$50 for the set of five.

Education in Developing Asia consists of five studies:

Volume 1: Education and National Development: Priorities, Policies, and Planning
Don Adams
ISBN 971-561-403-5, 81 pp.

Volume 2: Management and Efficiency in Education: Goals and Strategies
David Chapman
ISBN 971-561-404-3, 85 pp.

Volume 3: The Costs and Financing of Education: Trends and Policy Implications
Mark Bray
ISBN 971-561-405-1, 78 pp.

Volume 4: Equity and Access to Education: Themes, Tensions, and Policies
W.O. Lee
ISBN 971-561-406-X, 101 pp.

Volume 5: The Quality of Education: Dimensions and Strategies
David Chapman & Don Adams
ISBN 971-561-407-8, 72 pp.
 

Order from: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China. E-mail: cerc@hkusub.hku.hk; Fax: (852) 2517 4737. The list price includes sea mail postage; add US$5 per copy for air mail. We accept cheque, bank draft payable to 'The University of Hong Kong' VISA and MASTER CARD. For credit card, please provide card number, expiry date, name and address of the cardholder.
 

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