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Globalization and Educational Development in East Asia
Organizer and Chair: Hyunjoon Park, University of Pennsylvania
Discussant: Emily Hannum, University of Pennsylvania
High quality and efficiency of East Asian education is considered to have contributed to economic success of the region. However, recent globalization of economy, which demands workforces who possess high technology and are flexible enough to deal with swiftly changing economic environments, calls for reexamination of educational systems in the region. The emphasis on decentralization, privatization, individualization, student-centered teaching, and quality education presents a serious challenge to East Asian education whose fundamental features have been standardization, centralization, and test-oriented schooling. Another challenge associated with globalization stems from its impact on demographic composition of the student body. The increasing interconnection of global economy and frequent labor movement across borders have led to rapid growth of immigrant population, foreign workers, and international marriage in East Asian countries –especially Japan and Korea. Along with this trend, educational status of multicultural children is becoming an important issue in the region. Cultural diversification in education raises a fundamental question about the underlying assumption of cultural homogeneity on which Japanese and Korea education have long relied. In this panel, we discuss several challenges East Asian educational systems (particularly China, Japan, and Korea) face in the era of globalization. We assess how each country has responded to specific challenges and how far it has progressed to meet goals of educational reform. We also raise some critical questions about the goals of educational reform that each country sets up to deal with the global economy. We examine the issues from interdisciplinary perspective across sociology and education.
Japanese Schools: The Educational Challenges Presented by an Increasingly Multilingual and Multicultural Student Body
Yuko G. Butler, University of Pennsylvania
The rapid increase in the number of foreign residents in Japan in recent years has, in turn, led to an increasing number of school-age children who do not speak Japanese as their first language. These students represent more than 60 language groups, with Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese speakers representing the most rapidly growing groups. They often come from socially and economically challenged backgrounds, and it is estimated that more than 20,000 such students need urgent assistance with their education. While education of these students has become a pressing concern among certain local governments and schools, these students have yet to receive sufficient assistance overall. Linguistic and cultural diversification also presents a challenge to the current Japanese educational system, which has been largely based upon a monolingual and monocultural model. Based on various government and school documents, interviews with teachers and local administrators, and my own field observations of select schools which have high concentrations of language minority students, the present paper aims to accomplish the following: (1) to describe the current educational status of language minority students in Japan; (2) to analyze the challenges that the Japanese educational system faces in meeting the needs of its increasingly diverse student body; and (3) to offer a number of suggestions for schools and administrators that are struggling to meet the educational needs of such students.
Globalization, School Reform, and Quality Education in China
Jennifer Adams, Stanford University
Globalization has influenced the ways in which nations think about education and development. Around the world, educational trends such as decentralization and privatization are examples of how the delivery of education has been shaped by the globalization process. Not surprisingly, a renewed emphasis on competitiveness in the era of globalization has focused attention on school outcomes, and in turn, intensified international comparisons in education. The quality of schools, teachers, and their students is increasingly compared across countries, highlighting what children are learning and how well they are learning it. This emphasis on comparison has translated into tracking the not only the quantity, but also the quality of education. In contemporary China, quality education, known as suzhi jiaoyu, has become an important objective. Suzhi jiaoyu reforms are intended to develop the diverse skills of the whole child, not just promote test-taking skills, and to stimulate critical thinking. The reforms, which represent a significant departure from previous educational practices, are meant to engage students in learning, and to encourage students to consider multiple answers to the same question and multiple solutions to the same problem. Drawing on educational policy documents and interviews with policymakers in China, I discuss how the China case is illustrative of the way that globalization, through the process of international comparison, has reoriented school reform towards issues of quality.
Chinese Education Policy for the Global Knowledge Economy: Reform Rhetoric and Reality during the First Decade of the New Millennium
Tanja Sargent, Rutgers University
This paper presents a policy analysis of Chinese educational reform policy rhetoric during the first decade of the new millennium, in the context of the literature on globalization and education. A content analysis of official Chinese educational policy documents is conducted in order to outline goals for the global knowledge economy. Conclusions regarding the progress towards the goals will draw from an analysis of official education statistics from the China Statistical Yearbooks (2000-2005), UNESCO Institute for Statistics, and reports put out by the Chinese Ministry of Education. Use will also be made of survey data from Waves 1 and 2 of the Gansu Survey of Children and Families. Indicators will include advancements in the spread of educational technology, teacher training and development, research funding in tertiary education, educational equity, the expansion of elite education, and measures of curriculum reform implementation. Finally, consideration will be given to a critique of the goals themselves.
Standardization/Centralization of Korean Education and Student Outcomes: Implications for Educational Reform in the Era of Globalization
Hyunjoon Park, University of Pennsylvania
The growing demand for ‘flexibility,’ ‘competition’, and ‘creativity’ of workforces in the era of globalization has raised fundamental questions about the standardized and centralized educational system of Korea. According to a critical view, the high level of standardization andcentralization of education, which restricts school’s autonomy and educational choices of students and parents, has negative consequences for quality of education. Researchers often highlight Korean students’ low level of school engagement, lack of educational motivation, lack of creativity and knowledge application (as compared to mere knowledge acquisition), and low self-concept and confidence as evidence for negative impacts of educational standardization and centralization. However, little empirical research has examined in detail how Korean students actually differ in educational attitudes and behaviors from their counterparts in other parts of the world. Systematic cross-national comparisons will help us to better assess the current status of Korean students and to appropriately evaluate advantages and disadvantages of standardized Korean education.
Using individual-level information on 15-year-olds’ educational outcomes from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), I compare Korean students’ literacy skills, problem-solving skills, self-concept and school engagement to those of students in western countries as well as students in Hong Kong and Japan. The major aim the study is to present more accurate and comprehensive assessment of educational status of Korean students in comparative perspective. I discuss the linkage between the current feature of Korean educational system and the results of student outcomes. From findings, I derive some critical suggestions for the direction of educational reform.