OXFORD STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION

Contents

Colin Brock & Lorraine Pe Symaco. Introduction

COUNTRIES WITHIN SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Omar Haji Khalid. The Education System of Brunei Darussalam

Martin Hayden & Richard Martin. The Education System in Cambodia: making progress under difficult circumstances

Assad L. Baunto. Education Reforms in Indonesia

Richard Noonan. Education in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: confluence of history and vision

Siow Heng Loke & Chang Lee Hoon. Education in Malaysia: development and transformations

Richard Martin. Education in Myanmar: opportunity for limited engagement

Lorraine Pe Symaco. Philippines: education for development?

Jason Tan. Singapore: Schools for the Future?

Bob Boughton. Timor-Leste: building a post-conflict education

Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai. Thailand: educational equality and quality

Pham Lan Huong & Gerald W. Fry. Vietnam as an Outlier: tradition and change in education

THEMES WITHIN SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Colin Brock & Pei-Tseng Jenny Hsieh. Aspects of Gender and Education in South-East Asia

Anthony Welch. Higher Education in South-East Asia: achievement and aspiration

Keith Watson. Education and Language Policies in South-East Asian Countries

Somwung Pitiyanuwat. Quality Assurance in South-East Asian Higher Education

Mikko Cantell & Derek Elias. For Bulls and Bears Alike: education as investment in sustainable development

Contributors

Colin Brock is UNESCO Chair in Education as a Humanitarian Response and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford. A graduate in geography and anthropology from the University of Durham, he taught in high schools for a decade before becoming a lecturer in geography. On becoming Education Adviser in the Caribbean Development Division of ODA (now Department for International Development) he moved into international educational development at the universities of Leeds, Hull and then Oxford. He has worked on projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, South/South-East Asia, Latin America and all three tropical island zones for most of the main development agencies, with special reference to gender, teacher education and curriculum development. He has published widely in the field and is currently series editor of Education as a Humanitarian Response for Continuum Books and author of the core volume, Education as a Global Concern (2011).

Lorraine Pe Symaco is a visiting senior lecturer at the University of Malaya, Malaysia. She obtained her doctorate in education at the University of Oxford and has written and presented papers in various international conferences on education and development, higher education, and education in developing countries. She has also worked on research projects dealing with access and equity issues and serves as resource person for training school leaders in various regions in the Philippines.

Assad Baunto has worked on various research projects and served as consultant with multilateral agencies including the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the Asian Development Bank. His research interests are in broad areas of human capital, growth and conflict. He holds an MPhil in development economics from the University of Oxford.

Bob Boughton is Associate Professor and coordinator of adult education studies in the School of Education at University of New England, Armidale, Australia. He has been undertaking research into the emerging adult education system in Timor-Leste since 2004, and recently completed a three-year study of the role of adult education in post-conflict development, funded by the Australian Research Council. Bob has had a long-term association with the independence movement in Timor-Leste, dating back to the period immediately prior to the Indonesian invasion in 1975. His other research interests include Indigenous adult education, learning in social movements, and the history and theory of popular education.

Mikko Cantell has worked at the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok since 2008 when he joined the organisation as Associate Expert and is currently the Programme Specialist for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and acting Chief of the ESD Unit. Previously he worked at the International Department of the Finnish Ministry of Education and for the Finnish National Commission for UNESCO. His volunteer work includes board membership of the Finnish Section of Amnesty International as well as membership of the Crisis Management Initiative. Mikko holds a Master of Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki in international relations/world politics.

Chang Lee Hoon is a Professor and Deputy Dean (Post-graduate Studies and Research) in the Faculty of Human Sciences, Sultan Idris Education University, Malaysia. She received her BA Hons, DipEd and MEd from the University of Malaya and PhD from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her prior appointments were a secondary school teacher, teacher educator at a teacher education college and lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. Her area of specialisation and research is in moral and values education, and teacher education.

Derek Elias has been working for UNESCO since 2001 and was appointed in 2010 Head and Representative of UNESCO’s Country Office in Bangladesh. UNESCO Dhaka strives to support human development in Bangladesh as part of the UN family and provide capacity development in all five of UNESCO’s mandate areas – Education, Social and Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Communication and Information, and Culture. Derek has a PhD in anthropology from the Australian National University following two Bachelor’s degrees in anthropology from University of Queensland and Deakin University in Australia.

Gerald W. Fry is a Distinguished International Professor and Professor of International/Intercultural Education at the University of Minnesota and holds a doctorate in international development education from Stanford University, an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and an honorary doctorate from Thailand in the field of Education for Local Development. He was also a Pew Faculty Fellow in International Affairs at the Kennedy School at Harvard. He has been doing research and development work on South-East Asia for five decades, with a major focus on Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. He has spent approximately 12 years in the field in South-East Asia. He is the author of many books and articles on South-East Asia. Among his recent publications are the books Association of Southeast Asian Studies and Thailand and its Neighbors: interdisciplinary perspectives. Recently he received the University of Minnesota’s Award for Global Engagement.

Haji Omar Haji Khalid is Vice-Chancellor of the Technology University in Brunei. He holds a doctorate in educational studies from the University of Oxford, as well as a BSc in chemistry and physiology from the University of Salford, a Master’s degree in educational administration from Simon Fraser University, Canada and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from the University of Leeds. Before becoming Vice-Chancellor Dr Haji Omar was a Senior Officer in Higher Education at the Ministry of Education, having been involved in various aspects of the development of tertiary education. He has also been registrar and secretary of Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His Oxford doctorate was in special needs education, and today in his spare time Dr Haji Omar is involved in Pusat Ehsan, an organisation promoting special needs provision, and training of people with special educational needs. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Pusat Ehsan.

Martin Hayden is Professor of Higher Education and a member of the Centre for Higher Education Policy and Practice at Southern Cross University in Australia, where he is also Head of the School of Education. He has published extensively on topics related to higher education policy. He has worked with ministries in Vietnam and Laos on projects funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Children’s Fund concerning the development and implementation of legal and regulatory reforms in the education system. He is co-editor of a recent book on the higher education system in Vietnam, published by Springer, and he is the author of various chapters, articles and reports on issues in higher education in Vietnam.

Pei-Tseng Jenny Hsieh is a post-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Education, University of Oxford. With a background in language policy issues, her research interests are now in assessment and evaluation of educational policies and programmes in both developed and developing contexts. She has worked for major consultancies as well as for the World Bank and is currently engaged on large-scale assessments in developing countries and how they contribute to progress in education. She has worked on such issues in East and South Asia as well as Sub-Saharan Africa, and is currently involved in projects in India, Nigeria and The Gambia.

Richard Martin is an international education and employment consultant who was previously Education, Science and Training Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Hanoi and Chief Technical Advisor on a World Bank project in Vietnam. He has worked with the United Nations Children’s Fund on developing a plan of action for education legal reform in Lao PDR, and has written on the higher education system in Burma. He currently works for the Southern Cross University in Australia as the Director of International Cooperation and Development, South-East Asia and is recipient of a scholarship by the Australian government to work with the National University of Laos to suggest improvements to their operations.

Pham Lan Huong is Director of the International Educational Research Center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She has published books and articles on education in Vietnam. Among her recent publications (with Gerald Fry) are Education and Economic, Political, and Social Change in Vietnam, Universities in Vietnam: legacies, challenges, and prospects and The Emergence of Private Higher Education in Vietnam: challenges and opportunities.

Richard Noonan is an education and training economist and planning specialist by profession. Beginning in mathematics and physics at Ohio University, he turned to comparative education and economics of education at Columbia University, where he earned a doctorate (EdD) in 1974. In 1976 he completed a doctorate at Stockholm University (PhD), where he taught education research methods. He began a consulting career in the early 1980s, and has extensive experience working in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Since the mid-1990s he has worked mainly in South-East Asia, especially Laos, where he has lived since 2002. He is also currently preparing a monograph on the history of education in Laos.

Siow Heng Loke is currently the Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and a Professor at the School of Education and Cognitive Science at Asia e University, an international university established with the support of 31 Asia Cooperation Dialogue member countries. Prior to joining Asia e University, he had served as a chemistry and physics teacher, curriculum officer and professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. He earned his doctorate in science education at Temple University, Philadelphia. His current research interests are in science education, curriculum and instruction, education and work. He has been a consultant on different occasions to local and international organisations such as the Ministry of Education Malaysia, INTEL, Sabah State Government, the World Bank, and Regional Centre for Education in Science and Mathematics (RECSAM).

Somwung Pitiyanuwat has been the Director of the Office for National Education Standards and Quality Assessment, Thailand since 2001. He has worked in the field of education since 1976. Previously, he was Dean of the Faculty of Education of Chulalongkorn University. He has been the Vice-President for research affairs for Chulalongkorn University since 2000. Dr Pitiyanuwat obtained his PhD in educational psychology at the University of Minnesota. He has been instrumental in shaping both Thai quality assessment and educational reform at all levels of educational institutions. He is a member of numerous national and international boards and committees concerned with educational development and quality assurance and served as host of the ASEAN Quality Assurance Network 2009 Roundtable Meeting and the Asia-Pacific Quality Assurance Network Annual Conference in Thailand.

Jason Tan completed his Master’s degree in education and national development at the University of Hong Kong and his doctoral studies in comparative education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is currently Associate Professor in Policy and Leadership Studies at the National Institute of Education in Singapore. Jason is Executive Editor of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education. His most recent publications include Globalization and Marketization of Education: a comparative analysis of Hong Kong and Singapore and Thinking Schools, Learning Nation.

Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai received his MSc in comparative and international education from the University of Oxford, and he is currently completing his PhD in education at the University of Cambridge with a focus on teacher education reform and educational equality in Thailand. He is also pursuing his second Master’s degree in international public policy at University College London, University of London. Prior to this, Vincent received a scholarship to study for his BA (Hons) in primary education at Brunel University (London) where he graduated with first-class honours and a Qualified Teacher Status qualification. His interests, apart from education and international development, also include international relations. Vincent is also the Founder and Chairman of the Global Student Education Forum.

Keith Watson is Emeritus Professor of Comparative and International Education and a former Director of the Centre for International Studies in Education Management and Training at the University of Reading. He is a former Editor-in Chief of the International Journal of Educational Development, a past Chairman and President of the British Comparative and International Education Society, and Chair of the United Kingdom Forum for International Education and Training. He is author of Educational Development in Thailand and has written widely on comparative education, South-East Asia, education and language policies, and educational administration.

Anthony Welch is Professor of Education, University of Sydney. His numerous publications address reforms, principally within Australia, and the Asia-Pacific. He has consulted to international agencies, governments, institutions and foundations. Project experience includes East and South-East Asia, particularly in higher education. His work has been translated into numerous languages, and he has been Visiting Professor in the USA, UK, Germany, France, Japan, and Hong Kong (China). A Fulbright New Century Scholar (200708), his most recent books are The Professoriate: profile of a profession (2005), Education, Change and Society (2007), and (in press) ASEAN Industries and the Challenge from China. His forthcoming book Higher Education in Southeast Asia: blurring borders, changing balance will appear in 2011. He is Director of the Australian Research Council project, The Chinese Knowledge Diaspora.

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