International and Comparative Education Commons^™

Are Chinese Students Really Quiet, Passive And Surface Learners? – A Cultural Studies Perspective, Jinyan Huang, Peter Alexander Cowden

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Research has indicated that Chinese students experience considerable challenges in their academic studies at North American universities. This paper explores Chinese students’ academic learning through cultural studies perspectives by examining the concept of identity; cultural and linguistic context; Chinese students as quiet and passive learners; different classroom teaching methods experienced in both cultures; surface learners vs. deep learners; different culture worlds; and the concept of social communicative competence. It is argued that quiet, passive and surface learners are perhaps incorrect descriptors of Chinese students who are studying at North American Universities. Important educational implications are discussed.

Plusieurs recherches montrent que …

Culturally Responsive Communicative Teaching (Crclt): A New Alternative For Efl Teachers In China And Other Non-English Speaking Countries, Yi Lin

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This paper proposes Culturally Responsive Communicative Teaching (CRCLT) as an innovative, alternative approach to meeting the specific cultural contexts and individual students’ needs in non-English-speaking countries. The paper not only contains a comprehensive theoretical framework of the proposed approach, but also offers practical recommendations based on the author’s reading of the literature and professional experience as an EFL teacher in China. The author believes such a study will contribute to EFL teachers’ knowledge of a promising approach which can be adapted to specific cultural contexts and encourage more exploration for new alternatives in teaching EFL in non-English-speaking countries.

Cet article …

Corruption And Reform In Higher Education In Ukraine, Ararat L. Osipian

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

At least thirty percent of Ukrainians enter colleges by paying bribes while many others use their connections with the faculty and administration. Corruption increases inequalities in access to higher education, prevents future economic growth in the country, and undermines quality and credentials of academic degrees. This paper considers corruption in higher education in Ukraine, including such aspects as corruption in admissions to higher education institutions and corruption in administering the newly introduced standardized test. The reform of higher education in Ukraine, based on the national examinations, is intended to be a response to the rapidly changing economic environment and the …

Cie Journal / Revue Eci 2009 Referees / Critiques

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Western Guide To Curriculum Review, Margaret Mcnay

Purple Guides

The Curriculum Review guide offers ideas about how to get started on the review process—questions to ask at the beginning of and during the process, suggestions about information to be gathered and how, issues to think about as you decide what to include in the curriculum, and ideas about how to teach the curriculum involving new and alternative pedagogies.

Editor's Notes And Front Matter, Suzanne Majhanovich

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Literacy, Diversity And Education: Meeting The Contemporary Challenge, Marie Josée Berger, George Sefa Die, René Forgette-Giroux

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

The changing nature of our classrooms in terms of students’ racial population demands an understanding and validation into the different ways in which various ethnocultural and Aboriginal students respond to schools, classroom environments, curricula, and teaching strategies to ensure academic success. This paper is part of a larger study that examines literacy and diversity in relation to the educational challenges in Ontario schools. The focus of this paper is on a qualitative case study involving twenty educators. The study’s findings reveal educators’ articulations with regards to the connections between equity, diversity and multiple literacies.

La nature changeante de nos salles …

Indigenous Education For Cultural Survival: The Makushi Amerindians Of Guyana, Christine Wihak

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

The survival of Indigenous cultures is essential to a sustainable future for the planet as a whole. This paper focuses on the educational efforts being made by the Makushi people of inland Guyana to maintain their culture and language in the face of encroaching development. The paper relates the discussion of the Makushi situation and their educational responses to the development challenges in the small states of the Caribbean. Descriptive information is provided concerning the Makushi’s efforts, which include initiatives in elementary and secondary education, post-secondary training, and community education. Regardless of the venue, a collective vision of Makushi cultural …

Educational Reform Via School Councils: Comparing Saskatchewan’S School Community Councils To An International Precedent, Jane Preston

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

A variety of school governance reform movements directly affected community participation within schools globally during the 1980s and 1990s. This article highlights some of the economic, social, and political undercurrents at the core of this trend. Utilizing historical information as a comparative and dialectic backdrop, the societal and political intricacies interwoven into the recent inception of School Community Councils in Saskatchewan, Canada are explicated. Throughout this article, an overview of the purpose and responsibilities of Saskatchewan’s School Community Councils are compared to and contrasted with the governing persuasion and power of a number of international school councils.

Une série de …

Mesure Et Analyse De L’Efficacité Des Etablissements De La Formation Professionnelle En Tunisie, Ezzeddine Mosbah, Mohamed S. Bachta

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Le présent travail a pour objectif de mesurer et d’analyser l’efficacité des établissements de la formation professionnelle en Tunisie. Pour cela, une méthodologie en deux étapes a été utilisée. La première étape concerne l’estimation de l’efficacité technique par le modèle BCC (1984). La deuxième étape estime l’efficacité allocative en utilisant les modèles des coûts d’ombre: Kumbhakar (1996) et Balk (1997). Les principaux résultats montrent, d’une part, que ces établissements peuvent être classés, par niveau d’efficacité technique, en trois groupes. Le groupe hautement efficace, dont les scores dépassent 0.8, renferme 20% des établissements. Le groupe moyennement efficace, dont les scores sont …

Cost-Sharing In Higher Education In Tanzania: The Experiences Of The 1990s And One Decade Later, Grace Khwaya Puja

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This article discusses the cost- sharing experiences of 73 Tanzanian female undergraduates who took part in a 1997 study. It also integrated views and suggestions of the 2007 students from the University of Dar es Salaam and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Mazimbu campus. The University of Dar es Salaam was closed in 2007 because First Year students boycotted classes to protest the government’s policy that required them to pay 40% for their higher education. I advocate for partnership in student financing and the introduction of graduate tax for recovering higher education students’ loans.

Cet article traite les expériences du partage …

Japanese Aesthetics And English Education In The Global Age, Kazuko Kurihara

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

With the advent of the global information age, Japanese youth today are required to have authentic abilities to communicate with different peoples from different countries in the English language, rather than simply a good knowledge of practical and functional American English. Affective learners of English are created through aesthetic reading, especially English poetry, when moved or inspired by the authenticity of the content implying the profound but subtle meaning of human emotion in life. In this sense, the way of affective and aesthetic English learning follows the traditional Japanese appreciation of ephemeral beauty. As an authentic incentive to intellectual activities, …

Identifier Les Attitudes Des Étudiants En Géographie Après Leurs Études Secondaires, Burckin Dal

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Ce travail expose les résultats d’une étude réalisée dans le but d’analyser la démarche d’apprentissage d’un groupe d’étudiants de premier cycle de géographie. Seront traitées ici les démarches d’apprentissage qu’ils adoptent et la façon dont évolue leur niveau de confiance en soi après un an d’enseignement supérieur. Les étudiants étaient confrontés à un programme visant au développement des capacités dans le cadre de la géographie, qui mettait l’accent sur une démarche d’apprentissage en profondeur. Les résultats montrent que, bien que leur niveau de confiance en leur capacité d’étudier et d’apprendre ait augmenté, leur démarche d’apprentissage est devenue de plus en …

Book Review, Deo H. Poonwassie

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Western Guide To Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures, Nanda Dimitrov

Purple Guides

The Western Guide to Mentoring Graduate Students Across Cultures is a handbook for graduate supervisors who work with students from cultures around the world. The guide addresses the most frequently occurring challenges in supervision across cultures and includes concrete mentoring strategies and case studies to help supervisors promote independence and initiative in their mentees, bridge power differences in the relationship, set boundaries, communicate effectively and support their students in the transition to Canadian academia.

Editor's Notes And Front Matter, Suzanne Majhanovich

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Post-Secondary Education Policy In Canada:A Review Of Trends, Dale Kirby

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

In 2005, provincial governments in Ontario and Newfoundland and Labrador each commissioned comprehensive public post-secondary education and training system reviews. While there are considerable differences between the systems and policy approaches in these jurisdictions, the final reports of each of these reviews provide an interesting repository of current post-secondary policy tendencies in Canada. The principal arguments and recommendations put forward in the review reports demonstrate the pervasive influence of economic globalization and the continuing shift to a more utilitarian and market-oriented ideological outlook on post-secondary education’s raison d'être. The policies advocated by both reviews illustrate, to varying extents, the impact …

Appropriations De La DéCentralisation Et RéGulation Des SystèMes ÉDucatifs En Afrique Subsaharienne : Une Analyse ComparéE Des Cas Du BéNin Et Du SéNéGal, Madeleine D. Tchimou

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Cette recherche analyse la régulation des systèmes éducatifs du Bénin et du Sénégal dans le cadre de la décentralisation de l’éducation qui leur a été prescrite à travers les politiques d’ajustement structurel. Quatre aspects clés du système éducatif ont été analysés: l’offre d’éducation, les programmes d’enseignement, l’inspection et/ou le contrôle des enseignants et la condition enseignante. L’étude de cas à partir de données invoquées a été utilisée. Il ressort de l’analyse comparée des portraits nationaux que les appropriations nationales de la mise en application de la décentralisation demeurent assez distinctes dans ces deux pays et que la régulation actuelle de …

Negotiating Tensions And Roles In International Development: A Workshop For Graduate Students, Jennifer Hales

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This paper presents the findings from a qualitative research study involving graduate students who are studying or working in international development. The students participated in an activity-based workshop during which they reflected on and discussed their tensions and concerns about the nature of international development and their roles and positions in this work. Tensions ranged from those on a personal level, where students questioned their individual privilege and power in international development, to those on a structural level, where students questioned the overall nature of development practices.

The workshop activities, designed by the author and based on a global education …

Operating Under Erasure: Race/Language/Identity, Awad Ibrahim

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Based on a critical ethnographic research project, this paper is about the impact of becoming Black on ESL learning; that is, the interrelation between identity formation, identification, race, culture and second language learning. It contends that a group of French-speaking immigrant and refugee continental francophone African youths who are attending an urban Franco-Ontarian high school in south- western Ontario, Canada, enters, so to speak, a social imaginary, a discursive space in which they are already imagined, constructed, and thus treated as Blacks by hegemonic discourses and groups. This imaginary is directly implicated in whom they identify with (Black America), which …

Learning To Teach, Learning To Play The Game: A Case Study Of A Minority Teacher Candidate Teaching For Equity, Diversity And Social Justice, Andrew M. A. Allen

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

In this article, the author explores the premise that possibilities for social change in an antiracist teacher education program might be revealed by closely examining the struggles and real life experiences of a beginning teacher from a minority background working from the margins of the educational setting. Focusing on the quality of the teaching-learning activities being negotiated and forged, this article is grounded in a study of the tensions, dilemmas and conflicts experienced by teacher candidates learning to teach for social justice. The study revealed that the inherent tensions caused by discontinuities between the intent and critical antiracist philosophy of …

Book Reviews

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Cie Journal/Revue Eci 2008 Referees/Critiques

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

Editor's Notes And Front Matter, Suzanne Majhanovich

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

An International Perspective On Under-Representation Of Female Leaders In Kenya’S Primary Schools, Bosire Monari Mwebi, Angeliki Lazaridou

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Studies of school administrators in North America, Europe, and Australia have shown consistently that women, although a majority in the teaching force, are under-represented in leadership positions. This study examine whether the factors associated with under-representation of women in school administration in Kenya are the same as they are in other countries. The female participants identified six barriers. These are, family obligations, cultural beliefs, unethical recruitment practices, lack of networking, low expectation of success, lack of role models and mentors. The participants further identified four areas for improvements. These are, educating the public, training and exemplars, and recruitment.

Les recherches …

Is Decolonization The Answer To Indigenous Under-Achievement? Comparing Rhetoric With Reality In New Zealand And Canada, John R. Minnis

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

The paper compares the rhetoric of decolonization put forth by indigenous scholars with the reality of educational outcomes in New Zealand and Canada and discusses the implications of two common themes emerging from the discourse: (1) cultural determinism in which both First Nations and Maori scholars fundamentally but narrowly depict education as a means to conserve language and cultural heritage -- which results, intentionally or unintentionally, in (2) a hardening of racial/ethnic boundaries. The paper critiques the appropriateness of both themes in the context of the widely accepted notion that indigenous peoples in both countries need to attain higher levels …

Call For Papers

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

L’Interculturel En Environnement : Rencontre De La Justice Sociale Et De La Justice Environnementale, Gina Thésée, Paul R. Carr

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

Le sur-développement des pays du Nord fait planer sur le monde entier des menaces sans précédent. Les changements climatiques sont les signes avant-coureurs, à long, moyen ou court terme, de ces menaces. Aux prises directement avec les premiers impacts, les populations du Sud voient leurs multiples vulnérabilités s’accentuer. Si l’approche écologiste, après des décennies de combat, a finalement reçu l’attention des mondes politique et économique à propos des défis environnementaux, ces derniers ont adroitement opéré un virage conceptuel significatif : l’environnement et l’éducation relative à l’environnement (ERE) ont cédé la place au développement durable et à l’éducation au développement durable …

Negotiating The Culture Of The Academy: Chinese Graduate Students In Canada, Sheila Windle, Beverley Hamilton, Min Zeng, Xiaodong Yang

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

This paper presents the process and results of a narrative inquiry into the stories of eight Chinese international graduate students. Results show three main commonalities in participants’ education narratives in China: parental influence, the exam system and independent study. In the Canadian setting, specific aspects of the academic culture are experienced as permeable (written work, lab work, tests and reading ability) or impermeable (in-class discussions, oral presentations, group work, oral discourse, communicating with local people). Discussion articulates participants’ use of unique personal resources, which results in distinctive trajectories of entry into and navigation within this new academic culture.

Cet article …

Book Reviews

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.