Books in the Routledge Research in International and Comparative Education series

This book provides an insider's account of how the Japanese educational system is trying to meet that challenge while placing the developments in a larger international context.

This edited volume offers an international perspective on citizenship education enacted in specific socio-political contexts. Each chapter includes a pointed conceptualization of citizenship education¿a philosophical framework¿that is then applied to specific national cases across Europe, Asia, Canada and more. Chapters emphasize how such frameworks are implemented within local contexts, encouraging particular pedagogical/curricular practices even as they constrain others. Chapters conclude with suggestions for productive change and how educators might usefully engage contemporary contexts through citizenship education.

This volume explores the research and practice of faculty development in developing and fragile countries, and the multiple individual, institutional, cultural, political, and economic barriers that stand in the way of this reform. Based on the concept that "we teach as we were taught," it aims to help higher education faculty as they move from lecture-based teaching to a more interactive approach, which helps build critical thinking, creativity and problem solving skills in students.

With chapters co-written by English and Finnish authors, Educating for Democracy analyses the history and current state of education systems in England, Finland and other European countries to establish whether they are effective in creating democratically-minded citizens. Recent years have seen decreasing control of educator professionalism as governments are becoming more concerned about economic growth, and in some cases, survival. The contributors to this volume question whether educators are becoming less effective as a result, exploring the idea that democracy is a dying concept, and asking whether educators are now simply creating cogs for the neo-liberalistic/capitalist machine.

Showing how youth from one of the poorest and most violent neighborhoods in Cape Town, South Africa, learn differently in three educational contexts¿ in classrooms, in a community hip hop crew, on a youth radio show¿this book illuminates how South African schools, like schools elsewhere, subtly reproduce inequalities by sorting students into social hierarchies linked to assessments of their use of language. Highlighting the voices and perspectives of young South Africans, it explores how language is linked to cultural mixing which occurred during colonialism and slavery and continues through patterns of global mobility, and how language and learning are bound to space and place.

This book reconceptualises transformative learning through an investigation of the learning process and outcomes of International Service-Learning (ISL). Drawing upon key philosophers and theorists it offers an integrated, multi-dimensional approach, linking transformative learning to the development of the authentic self, and analysing the aesthetic, moral and relational dimensions of ISL in an increasingly globalized world.

France and the United States have in particular experienced demographic and cultural shifts since the 1960s that have resulted in intense debates over national identity. This volume examines how each country¿s national history is represented in primary schools¿ social studies textbooks and curricula, and how they handle contemporary issues of ethnicity, diversity, gender, and patriotism. By analyzing each country separately and comparatively, it demonstrates how various groups (including academics, politicians and citizen activists) have influenced education, and how the process of writing and rewriting history perpetuates a nation.

This volume explores the impact of international service learning programs on members of host communities (local residents, business owners and hosting families) who are increasingly influenced by the presence of international students in their lives. Drawing upon post-colonial, feminist and other critical theories, it examines the complicated power relations between North American students and their host communities in South Africa and Central America. It stresses the importance of developing relations between North American students, faculty and individuals in the host communities to create a mutually engaging learning experience.

Drama as a process-centred form is a popular and valued methodology used to develop thinking and learning in children, while theatre provides a greater focus on the element of performance. In recent years, offering drama and theatre as a shared experience is increasingly used to engage children and to facilitate learning in a drama classroom. This book is an amalgamation of theory, research and practice from across the globe, using drama and theatre as a central component with children. It provides an exploration of the methodologies and techniques used to improve drama in the curriculum, and highlights the beneficial impact drama has in a variety of classrooms, enriching learning and communication.

This book explores the idea that the increasingly complex connections created by the forces of globalisation have led to a diminishing difference between what were once described as international schools and national schools.