Iranian Journal of Comparative Education
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Spring 2018

In this paper we argue that, researchers of Comparative Education normally analyse educational practices, curricula, reforms and educational policies, while appearing to be less interested in the ways and means school has to mould citizens, the role of new values promoted via school and how these new values emerge and are projected within the school environment. In this context, Comparative Education could become more humanistic, in turning its attention to the ways and processes by which contemporary citizens are moulded. This could be achieved by studying both educational and social relations, human relations and moral dilemmas posed in the field of knowledge. It could also examine the priority of knowledge and the relativity of values that appear to dominate and mould contemporary citizens. This debate relates to the hierarchy of values and cultural pluralism, as well as to the interpretation of socio-political practices in their wider context.

Religious and other forms of extremism are rife in modern societies. This paper explores some of the reasons why some young people do not follow the “normal” pathways towards becoming citizens who can contribute to the well-being of society and to peaceful coexistence. The answer to this problem seems to lie in the nature of their education as well as in other factors and conditions in their environments. Radicalisation through education gone awry can drive a young person towards extremism. Young people therefore have to be educated in ways that would prevent them from becoming radicalised. This insight should also be reflected in education policy documents. Three South African education policy documents are used to demonstrate how policy documents could be revised to include strategies for the prevention of (religious, cultural and political) extremism, namely the Manifesto on Values, Education and Democracy (2001), the National Policy on Religion Education (2003) and the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (2011).

The transformation of post-socialist education is perhaps one of the most interesting developments in the history of comparative education. The collapse of the socialist system led to a series of crises: - Ideological crisis – the collapse of the socialist idea of education, partially replaced by the ideology of neoliberalism. - Social crisis – dismantling of the socialist welfare system and attempts to replace it by different Western models of social welfare. - Economic crisis – transition from planned to market economy which led to deterioration of educational infrastructure. -  Cultural crisis – socialist culture was replaced by different modifications of promoting national and/or regional cultures. - Structural crisis – countries with practically identical educational structures chose different ways of restructuring education. After the failure of the previous system Western researchers assumed that the common model of transition will be very straightforward – post-socialist countries should catch up with the more “modern” Western educational models. However, the transition did not follow the prescribed path and post-socialist countries have chosen different trajectories of educational development.

This paper examines two approaches to Adult Basic Education and their influence on accessing poverty alleviation resources in selected ethnic minority communities in Vietnam. In a multiple case study that relied heavily on structured and semi-structured interviews, investigations focused on the curricula, methodology, teacher / facilitator training, use of local languages, link to poverty alleviation and post-course use of literacy and literate environments by participants in each of the three selected case study communities. Although there are numerous models and methods for implementing ABE programmes, this paper focuses on Reflect and the Government of Vietnam’s Adult Literacy Programme implemented by local education authorities. Reflect an approach developed by ActionAidis based on the theory of conscientisation, pioneered by Paulo Freire. Adult learners explore development challenges and these become the basis to be taught literacy and numeracy skills. Findings concentrate on: How do differences in ABE / literacy approaches impact on how specific ethnic minorities access specific poverty alleviation resources in Vietnam?

This article is based on the view that school administrative clerks’ professional contribution to schools are significant and noteworthy. However, the nature of their work especially for South African working class contexts remains under appreciated. The article addresses this caveat.  Using an ‘ethics of the self’ framework the article posits that school administrative clerks in low socioeconomic contexts rework their subjectivities by adopting ethical goals and practices in response to their working environments. As they engage in these ethical practices, we contend that their practices contribute to students’ well-being and that their practices positively influence school administration, teaching and learning. Based on a qualitative study of selected school administrative clerks, this article key contribution is that through the clerks’ ethical self-formation practices they provide a modest but noteworthy professional / educational service in South Africa’s working class schools.

This study aimed to investigate Engineering students’ perceptions, problems, and preferred tasks about academic listening. The participants were 199 Iranian undergraduate students of Engineering at the Iran University of Science and Technology. The instruments were a questionnaire with 40 items and an interview with 3 open-ended items. Considering learners’ attitudes, both male and female learners were aware of the importance of academic listening for their success and found listening comprehension exciting. With regard to problems, both male and female learners reported that insufficient vocabulary, speed of speech, poor quality of recordings, long texts, and unfamiliar topics were their major listening problems. The findings also revealed that listening to news reports, listening to academic interview, listening to academic discussion, listening to announcement, and listening to conversation were the male students’ preferred tasks, while listening to academic interviews, listening to seminars and presentations, listening to academic discussion were the female students’ preferred tasks.