Changing Education: Leadership, Innovation and Development in a Globalizing Asia Pacific (CERC Studies in Comparative Education, 20)

This book responds to the growing unease of educators and n- educators alike about the inadequacy of most current educational systems and programs to sufficiently meet the demands of fast changing societies. These systems and programs evolved and were developed in and for societies that have long been transformed, and yet no parallel transformation has taken place in the education systems they spawned. In the last twenty years or so, other sectors of society – transportation, communication, banking, health services – have radically changed they way they operate, but education has continued essentially the same. There is no doubt: education must change. To those ready to accept this challenge, this book represents a welcome guide. To be sure, it is not a ‘how-to’ instruction manual, since the shape of change must be particular to the needs and situations of each setting, and societies are as varied as they are fast changing. Rather than provide specific directions, if provides a useful road map for the navigators of change, within which each can plot out their specific itineraries towards their goal. It illuminates the basic goal of education – the total and balanced development of individuals and, through them, societies – and depicts the main features, the imperatives, the demands, and the pitfalls of an ever more interdependent, globalized world in which this goal must be pursued. My work has exposed me to dozens of international conferences on various education themes, and several colleges of education worldwide.

This book responds to the growing unease of educators and non-educators alike about the inadequacy of most current educational systems and programs to meet sufficiently the demands of fast changing societies. These systems and programs evolved and were developed in and for societies that have long been transformed, and yet no parallel transformation has taken place in the education systems they spawned. In the last twenty years or so, other sectors of society, such as transportation and communications systems, have radically changed the way they operate, but education has remained essentially the same. There is no doubt: education needs to change.

To those ready to accept this challenge, this book represents a welcome guide. Unlike most books on educational policy, this volume does not focus on improving existing educational systems but on changing them altogether. Its focus is not on doing things better, but on doing better things; not on doing things right, but on doing the right things to prepare students for a fast changing interdependent world.