Compares changing patterns in educational finance in Russia and China, drawing on the literature concerning educational change in societies moving from socialism to market economies. Discusses economic and political contexts in the two countries, public and private educational expenditures, decentralization of financial responsibilities, increased…

Describes Dutch policies to combat educational disadvantage arising from economic, social, and cultural factors by funding efforts at the local level. Compares Dutch efforts to success factors and obstacles encountered in similar initiatives in the United States, England and Wales, and Australia, where public education and local authority have…

Reviews a book that reports on educational objectives and operations during the 10-year Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, drawing on current developments in the theory of hegemonic relations. Suggests that the book's focus on linguistic policy in education has implications for the role of language in client-donor international-aid relationships.…

Neoliberalism claims that privatization, marketization, uniform standards, and accountability--some important dynamics surrounding globalization in education--increase choices and quality in education. However, numerous studies show that the market has consistently devalued alternatives; increased the power of dominant models; and exacerbated…

The phenomenon of globalization argues for a broader world view that makes allowances for cultural diversity. Caribbean states have a history of living and working with people from diverse backgrounds, and could make a contribution to the new perspective through closer engagement with the field of comparative education, which has always stressed…

Since the 1960s, the epistemological-cum-methodological orientations of American and British comparative education changed from being historical to being social scientific. This metamorphosis has impoverished the field, and a return to a re-invented historical mode of comparative analysis would help to humanize comparative education in a cosmos of…

The evolution of comparative education in Greater China (mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau) has been influenced by size, culture, political ideologies, standard of living, and colonialism. Similarities and differences in conceptions of comparative education are identified among the four components and between Greater China and other…

Globalization and post-modernity are linked to changes in the nature of late capitalism and crises in the modern state. Neither offers much in practice to the much needed renewal of democracy, including in education. Indeed, both arguably contribute to a trend towards individualism, and a retreat from democratic engagement and visions of the…

Examines the local conditions that enabled the development and installation of the New Zealand model of neoliberalism and new public management, characteristics that made it desirable and that would allow its incorporation at a global level, and how implementation was accomplished. Draws implications for the relationship between comparative…

Three perspectives can be found in the field of comparative education: those based on area studies, social science disciplines, and development/planning studies. These perspectives are not mutually exclusive and in fact complement each other. Anti-positivistic orientations have increased in recent years. Not being bound by rigid categories,…

An analytical framework is postulated for a new comparative pedagogy that maps classroom transactions historically and culturally and links them with systemic processes of curriculum transformation. By engaging at macro and micro levels, comparative pedagogy reveals those universals in teaching and learning that must be studied to improve the…

Since the 1970s, participatory development has become part and parcel of most practitioner-oriented development studies programs. This reflects a shift in the field of development that has been going on for the past few decades. "Participatory Rural Appraisal" (PRA) is one approach to participatory development that has received much attention and…

The purpose of this article is to explore the effects of community participation in school governance, as an element of development and humanitarian assistance programs, on social capital and civil society building. The first section describes different types of participation in education, its institutional forms, and the paradigms that support…

This article presents West and East African nonformal education projects as a platform from which to view the interrelationship of participation and transformation in the educational experiences of community, NGO, and state participants. In the context of neo-liberal pressures, carried by an international free-market movement in the 1980s, a wave…

This article analyzes South Africa's efforts to promote broader participation in educational decision-making through local school governance structures in which parents serve as majority members. We utilize the "theory of action" framework to understand both government policy and school-level actors' meanings of two dimensions of governance:…