GED2851

Education and society in the Asia-Pacific region

Alan Rice

12 points -Second semester -3 hours per week -Clayton

Objectives Upon successful completion of this subject, students should be able to demonstrate library research skills based on synopsis writing on educational institutions, policies or practices in two countries drawn from two of the three categories - Australia, Asia, the Pacific; a familiarity with the different ways Australian, Asian and Pacific educational institutions and practices may be compared; a capacity to trace the implications of a comparison between two countries drawn from two of the three categories (Australia; Asia; the Pacific) for either educational practices in cross cultural settings, or policy analysis and evaluation; an understanding of the difficulties of eurocentric and relativist forms of interpretation.

Synopsis This subject focuses on the ways education is shaped by and comes to be understood by, local, regional and global forces. The approach is comparative in two senses. First, students are required to develop a good knowledge of at least two countries. The countries must be chosen from two of three categories - Australia, Asia and the Pacific Islands. Second, students are required to make a comparison of local and external interpretations of education and society.

Assessment Library project (1000 words): 15% -Seminar paper (2000 words): 15% -Synopsis writing or library research task (1000 words): 20% -Research paper (5000 words): 50%

Recommended texts

AREA handbook for Oceania 2nd edn, 1984
Ryan P (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Papua and New Guinea 3 vols, MUP, 1972
Craig R and King F P (eds.) Historical dictionary of Oceania Greenwood Press, 1981
Pacific Islands yearbook 16th edn, Angus and Robertson, 1989
Statistical yearbook for Asia and the Pacific 1989
Crocombe R and others Land tenure in the Pacific Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, 1987
Crocombe R The Pacific way South Pacific Social Sciences Association, 1975
Tongamoa T (ed.) Pacific women: Roles and status of women in Pacific societies Institute of Pacific Studies, 1988
Reischauer E and Fairbank J East Asia: The modern transformation Houghton Mifflin

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