The analytic category of "small states" remains problematic in the 21st century. Its legitimacy as a rigorous conceptual category continues to be debated; even as small states assume a strident visibility on the world stage because of climate change negotiations. This paper reviews the scepticism that hovers around the small state concept, and…

Though the existing literature on the "favelas" (or shantytowns) of Brazil thoroughly documents the chaotic and violent nature of life within them, few connections have been made between the literature on "favelas", fragility and small states, particularly with regard to the fragile state of educational institutions in "favelas". This article…

This article discusses smallness from the point of view of the Sami, an indigenous people of the Arctic, and describes today's Sami education in Finland, the factors that have affected its formation and the challenges in strengthening it. The purpose of the article is to provide ideas to develop Sami education and encourage discovering methods…

Internationalization of higher education has become a priority for many universities in post-Soviet small states. Focusing on international communication networks, student mobility, or international curriculum development, universities invest human and financial resources to prepare graduates to meet global challenges. Globalization and…

Bhutan is a "small state" according to the World Bank, and therefore categorized as fragile and vulnerable to local and global challenges. However, since the 1960s, when the country first engaged in "modernization" development and global politics, Bhutan has been anything but fragile and helpless. The Royal Government's focus on sustainable…

The Solomon Islands, a small developing nation in the South Pacific, demonstrates an emerging community-based kindergarten model with the potential to promote context and culture relevant early learning and development, despite deeply embedded foundations in colonial legacies. Based on the Kahua region of Makira-Ulawa Province, this collaborative,…

The logic behind international aid to development has typically centered on economics. Notwithstanding the variation in focus--from macroeconomic monetary and trade policies, to economic wealth programs aimed at creating jobs, to supply- and demand-side reforms--the central discourse on international aid has been dominated by a political…

In the introduction to his article, "Aid, Development, and Education," Klees (2010) poses the question, has the "hundreds of billions of dollars in international aid... loaned to [or otherwise targeted to "assist"] developing countries through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms... helped?" He then posits the question to be "too complicated to…

Recent works that assess whether development has been well-served, or served at all, by international aid, are overwhelmingly pessimistic in their assessment and in favor of the market as the antidote to international aid (Klees, 2010). The author finds that Steve Klees' essay focuses on the neoliberal and liberal frameworks that represent the…

While there are areas of disagreement in the responses to this author's earlier article [Klees, "Aid, Development, and Education," "Current Issues in Comparative Education," v13(1) 7-28 2010], he finds that the disagreements are much less important than the commonalities. He tries to detail both in this reply, but he focuses on how he and his…

This paper summarizes the experience and findings from the monitoring work carried out by UNESCO throughout 2009 to examine and assess the possible effects of the global financial and economic crisis on education provision in its Member States. The findings showed that although it was too early to ascertain the full extent of the impact of the…

This paper captures the impact of the Global Economic Crisis on educational programs serving minority groups in developing countries. It has been established that the most vulnerable groupings include nomadic and pastoralist communities, slum dwellers, children in war zones, and women. Various educational interventions such as mobile schooling,…

It is estimated that more than 10% of China's population has left their villages and hometowns as millions of farmers have descended upon cities and urban centers in response to a huge demand for labor since the economic reform launched in the late 1970s (Li, 2006). Approximately 19.8 million children are believed to have accompanied their parents…

The field of international development has recently been consumed by a shift in contemporary educational discourse, one that moves Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) closer to the forefront of what is considered progressive policy formation. In Zambia, the current educational environment seems to indicate that the creation and continued…

This paper presents the pioneering experience of the Programa Primeira Infancia Melhor (the Better Early Childhood Development Program), also known as "PIM" that has been developed since 2003 in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. PIM's goal is to "provide guidance to families, based on their own culture and experiences, to allow them to…