'Because of the insights offered the book under review should be compulsory reading for Ministers of Education and educational planners as well as for students of educational reform. They would find it readable, informative and disturbing. This could well become a classic account of why innovations fail. - Keith Watson, Department of Education Studies and Management, University of Reading Educational investment is now back at the top of the development agenda. The World Conference on Education for All confirmed the commitment of national governments and donors to provide opportunities for all children to enrol in school and reach minimum levels of achievement. This book takes a new look at the problems that confront politicians, planners, curriculum developers and teachers in implementing educational innovations in developing countries. The insights into theory and practice that emerge provide the intellectual yeast for the development of effective innovation strategies for the next decade.
In the educational arena, new ideas often compete as solutions to recurrent problems, making the concept of "innovations" a widespread discursive term. While expectations are substantial for each innovation, implementation of ideas has shown them to be more modest in practice. This book examines innovations in several developing countries, presenting case studies of technological, curricular, and organizational innovations selected for their magnitude in financial investment, scope, and duration. The case studies explore the social and political contexts that shaped the features of these innovations and what they accomplished over time in terms of teacher cost reduction, status mobility, access to education, and national unity. The experience of countries such as Brazil, Lesotho, the Philippines, and Namibia, and the influence of international agencies such as the World Bank are described and analyzed against theories of social and organizational change. The case studies themselves also serve as subjects for reflection on the prevailing positivist approaches to research and knowledge. The Politics of Educational Innovations should be of considerable interest to students of educational change, wither in the academic world or in the fields of government and international cooperation.
The main focus of this book is innovation for developing countries: what is the innovation for, what are the current conditions of the innovation, and how to effectively innovate in developing economies. It contains the latest insights and analyses of innovation based on intensive interviews as well as primary and secondary data of manufacturing firms in developing countries, Vietnam and Laos in particular. Innovation requires something new. Integration of deep understanding of innovation and econometric analyses are a “new combination” in this book, which contrasts with other, similar books in the field. This new approach may benefit policy makers as well as scholars and firms in poor countries. The main points of the book are summarized as follows: First, for most poor countries “learning innovation” is considered the key to economic growth rather than “leading-edge innovation”, which is a more popular theme in similar books on innovation. Second, an overwhelming majority of innovations currently used in poor countries are developed in advanced countries, so technology transfer and learning from the latter are a fundamental source of innovation in the former. Third, a surprisingly high rate of firms (around 50%) reported that they introduced new or significantly improved products or processes in poor countries, and this high innovation rate is a great benefit to be enhanced by government policies. Fourth, the common factors driving innovation of manufacturing firms in Vietnam and Laos are (1) human capital, (2) social capital, and (3) innovation in the past. Fifth, the impact of innovation on firm performance is found to be mixed in these countries. Sixth, so far almost all studies on innovation have focused on product or process innovation, but additional light is shed here on organizational innovation.
This volume of the series that debates the need for universal primary education, is concerned with the "good behaviour" of would-be educational innovators in developing countries. The text looks at the need for a code of practice and relating that to issues of economic realism, human rights sensitivity, ecological responsibility and educational effectiveness.
In formal education, a curriculum (plural curricula) is the set of courses, and their content, offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow and mature in becoming adults. Crucial to the curriculum is the definition of the course objectives that usually are expressed as learning outcomes and normally include the program's assessment strategy. These outcomes and assessments are grouped as units (or modules), and, therefore, the curriculum comprises a collection of such units, each, in turn, comprising a specialised, specific part of the curriculum. So, a typical curriculum includes communications, numeracy, information technology, and social skills units, with specific, specialised teaching of each. This book presents research on educational curricula from around the world.
Historical Dictionary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, a bibliography and more than 700 cross-referenced entries on UNESCO’s initiatives, programs, projects, normative instruments, and partners over the past 76 years.
Underpinned in the stream of thought named ‘communitarianism’, Reforming Education in Developing Countries argues that developing countries need educational reforms that are tightly entwined into their cultural, social, and organizational contexts. It questions the applicability of neoliberal reforms in developing societies, through an analysis of the main elements of neoliberalism in education. It highlights the critical role of the community and suggests new and alternative lines of thought for the practice of reform initiation and implementation in developing countries. The book criticizes major neoliberal ideas in education, illuminates the distinctions between current neoliberal reforms and the characteristics of traditional societies, analyzes major educational ideologies in the developed world, and emphasizes the key role of local communities in this world. It proposes a dynamic model of reforming education in these countries that includes three major phases and integrates both modern and traditional (indigenous) educational purposes and values. Evocative ponderings are outlined throughout the book to promote critical thinking and reframing of educators' views towards educational reform and change. This book will be of great interest to researchers and students in the fields of educational leadership, educational policy, educational change, comparative education, political science, and sociology. It will also appeal to educators, supervisors, and policymakers.
For the education system to remain responsive to the needs and demands of its multiple stakeholders it must embrace the innovation and research produced by contemporary technology. This book traverses a wide range of conceptual, disciplinary, methodological, national and sectoral boundaries to explore the challenge presented.
The increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries struggling to achieve Education for All and Millennium Development Goals warrants a focused examination of the phenomenon. However, there is little work on the nature and extent of private provision in countries that, on the one hand, are striving to meet international commitments of universal schooling provision and, on the other, face such challenges as constrained public budgets, low levels of quality, and persistent schooling gaps. This volume brings together new research evidence from academics and policy makers on the nature and extent of private provision in a range of countries across Asia and Africa. As South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for the majority of the world’s population of children out of school, this book sheds new light on the changing context of schooling provision in some of the most vulnerable regions. Of particular interest is the nature and potential impact of private provision on the educational opportunities of economically and socially disadvantaged children.
