Smith Richard J M, AUT University

This paper overview aspects of Aotearoa/New Zealand education policy in relation to globalisation and internationalisation drawing upon recent literature in this field. Two policies in particular are highlighted the increasing internationalisation through ‘export education’ policies and the imposition of the PBRF as a research auditing regime designed to redistribute tertiary funding and make the higher education sector both more accountable and economically and internationally competitive. In this paper I draw upon an eclectic range of data and sources including some of my own and other recent research in this area.

Edward Grace Anna, Taylor 's College, Malaysia

This study was designed to investigate diffusion dynamics influencing student enrolment in Taylor’s College American Degree Transfer Program. Many innovations require a lengthy period, often many years, from the time they become available to the time they are widely adopted. Diffusion theorists like Everett Rogers use the five-stage innovation-decision process to explain this phenomenon.

Drawing on previous studies, this paper proposes that concrete experience is likely to foster deeper understanding of an educational innovation leading to adoption of the idea. The use of experiential learning workshops can enhance students’ initial experiences on campus and help establish supportive peer groups (McInnis & James, 1995) which will facilitate transition from high school to a new academic and social environment.

A prototype experiential learning workshop was designed to enable high school students to experience one day of college life in the Taylor’s College American Degree Program. Students were given a tour of the facilities, assimilated into classes from both the liberal arts and science disciplines, and allowed to interact with senior college students. Marketing private colleges in this manner is something that is still relatively new.

The findings suggest that the majority of students had enjoyed this way of learning, believed that it assisted their understanding of the American education system, and would share this knowledge with others. Despite a time lapse of more than ten months, participants were able to recall key characteristics of the programme proving that experiential learning is more effective than mass media alone.

This study offers an adaptable framework for educators who wish to incorporate new methods of diffusing educational innovations to the local population, moving away from traditional media and introducing experiential learning to capture the attention of greater numbers of prospective students.

Stiasny Mary, Director Education and Training, British Council

The importance of knowledge has far surpassed the importance of resources in countries in the vanguard of the world’s economy. Education therefore in the twenty first century assumes greater and greater importance.

With large populations needing access to education and to knowledge, the management of education becomes critically important, especially where there is a commitment to achieve the Millennium Development goals, and particularly goals two and three which aim to; “achieve universal primary education, ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling” and secondly to; “eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2015”. Education is one of the main tools of development for countries aspiring to the eight Millennium Development goals, and at the same time it is also one of the main drivers for the development necessary. In this context public accountability becomes a key feature in the achievement of change.

There is a strong tradition of internationalism in the UK’s education; yet whenever in the past this was explored it was always traditionally interpreted in one way only; that of overseas student recruitment. This, which is effectively a market process, has resulted in what can only be interpreted as a process of the commodification of education, as education itself became a market and there was trade in education either as an artefact or as a service.

In the last five years there has been a definite switch; the internationalisation agenda has become one where mutuality and collaboration in the exchange of education between nations has become the major feature. This will continue as this globalisation of education becomes the background against which educationalists work. It will inform the future shape and structure of education at every level and every phase.

It now appears that there is a new phenomenon; the development of a business in international education itself. And it is here that the British Council has a key role to play as a repository and source of expertise, an initiator and manager of good practice, and a non-partisan and non-profit-making body with independence and quality.

English Rebecca, Queensland Uiversity of Technology

Globalisation has created an educational environment where practices of corporatisation, marketisation and performativity are spreading across the globe like a “policy epidemic” (Ball, 2003). In the local context, this is presented in two ways, first through attracting overseas students whose parents are seeking an international, globalised education and second through presenting South East Queensland parents with an educational option for their children which prepares them for the globalised world. A recent phenomenon has been the emergence of low-fee, professionally marketed non-government schools located especially in the rapidly developing outer ‘doughnut’ of Brisbane. The focus of this paper is on South East Queensland parents and the reasons they are choosing these new, non-government schools as their preferred alternative to government schools, ‘elite private’ schools or Catholic schools. A case study of one such school, The Shelbyville College, revealed that parents had sought a school they perceived would inculcate valued ‘cultural capital’ (Bourdieu, 1977) and prepare students for an imagined globalised future. This school purports to create ‘extraordinary children’ through exposure to its ‘institutional habitus’ (Reay et al., 1998), particularly through its Languages Other Than English (LOTE) program. An examination of the College’s prospectus (titled ‘The [Shelbyville] College: Extraordinary Kids’) and website using Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989) revealed that the school emphasises cultural capital as represented by the LOTE program to draw parents into a discourse of future success for their ‘extraordinary children’.

Vasilenko Irina, Victoria University

The paper offers a cross-cultural comparative analysis of the development of private schooling in transitional China and Russia. The paper also challenges a theoretical endeavour of Transitional studies to comprehend the educational changes within global framing.

Based on the study of over 500 private schools, the paper analyses common and uncommon forms of private schools operating in Beijing and Moscow from 1999 to 2004. The paper discusses some striking similarities in relation to the occurrence of alternative schooling before an implementation of economic reforms and reveals the similar pathway in the emergence of private schools. The comparative description of the four identical stages: Diversification, Decentralization, Privatization and Marketization are presented in this paper.

Although both China and Russia have experienced similar stages of educational transformation, they regard private schooling differently. In China the State guides the development of different categories of private schooling, which operates in the shadow of the state schooling system. In Russia the withdrawal of the State assists in the separation of private schooling as a system for the elite. The paper goes beyond the comparative social, economic and cultural measurements of selected private schools and analyses the role of globalisation in the development of the system of private schooling in particular.

Finally, the paper sums up similar and dissimilar characteristics of the private schools in Beijing and Moscow and, based on the economic, social and cultural measurements, presents the original cross-cultural classification of private schools in a transitional society.

This paper will be a novel resource for international educators seeking to understand the present and immediate circumstances of private schooling marketization in these countries.

Tse Thomas, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

A pursuit of economic rationalism with an emphasis on transparency, accountability and consumer sovereignty is the main theme of recent education reform in Hong Kong. In line with this policy orientation was the publication of official Quality Assurance Inspection Reports from 1998 onwards, with the three-fold purpose being to provide information on which parents may base their choice of a school for their children; accountability; and to encourage school improvement and raise standards. But this measure also sparked strong opposition from the school sector. This paper examines the disputes surrounding the release of inspection reports based on major policy papers, documents and reports, newspaper reports and comments on the measures during the period from May 1998 to October 2006. It also discusses the implications of Hong Kong’s experience for the general issues concerning public reporting of school performance in terms of production, reporting, and use of information.