In facing the challenges of rapid globalization, IT intensification, international competition and local demands for developments, educators, scholars and leaders in the Asia-Pacific region and other parts of the world are concerned with reforms of teacher education for the future of education in the new millennium. This edited volume aims to provide a global sharing of the major trends and characteristics of the ongoing teacher education reforms in this region and the major challenges and issues raised in policy formulation and reform implementation. With a total of 14 chapters prepared by 18 scholars from nine educational systems – Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and United States – in the Asia-Pacific region, the book highlights the trends and challenges in the reform of teacher education in the region generally and in eight educational systems in particular. Most chapters directly or indirectly address the latest issues of teacher education and development at operational, site, and macro levels from a national or regional perspective. This volume is of interest to teachers, teacher educators, researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders in all developed and developing countries.

This reissue examines the crucial question of how the education systems of Third World countries continue to be influenced by the former colonial powers, arguing that decisions and views made early in the twentieth century cannot always be so readily condemned from the standpoint of the 1980s. The study begins by placing the problem in its historical context and goes on to examine different regions of the Third World influenced by colonialism. It concludes with a contemporary global overview of current colonial dependency and provides a detailed and comprehensive bibliography on different facets of education and colonialism.

This book offers a fresh and comparative approach in questioning what education is being used for and what the effects of the politicisation of education are on Asian societies in the era of globalisation. Education has been used as a political tool throughout the ages and across the whole world to define national identity and underlie the political rationale of regimes. In the contemporary, globalising world there are particularly interesting examples of this throughout Asia, ranging from the new definition of Indian national identity as a Hindu identity (to contrast with Pakistan's Islamic identity), to particular versions of nationalism in China, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. In Asia education systems have their origins in processes of state formation aimed either at bolstering 'self-strengthening' resistance to the encroachments of Western and/or Asian imperialism, or at furthering projects of post-colonial nation-building. State elites have sought to popularise powerful visions of nationhood, to equip these visions with a historical 'back-story', and to endow them with the maximum sentimental charge. This book explores all of these developments, emphasising that education is seen by nations across Asia, as elsewhere, as more than simply a tool for economic development, and that issues of national identity and the tolerance - or lack of it - of ethnic, cultural or religious diversity can be at least as important as issues of literacy and access. Interdisciplinary and unique in its analysis, this book will be of interest to scholars of political science, research in education and Asian Studies.

This book examines Malaysia’s educational landscape, providing a contemporary study of key themes that have emerged in this multicultural, multi-ethnic society, as it attempts to shift from a middle-income to a high-income nation. Combining contributions by scholars from various fields—such as economics, history, sociology, political science and, of course, education—the book provides richer insights into Malaysia. Offering a unique resource, it will be of particular interest to educators, researchers, students, policymakers and members of the public who want to be updated on the latest trends and challenges in Malaysian education.

The quality education in modern world had becomes a main concern for any parents who want their child to excel in academic qualifications, in order to have a better future in their carrier, with better wages. The government in any country spends a great amount of fund in dealing with education, which is important in human capital development. Since educational literacy is relative to prosperous economic development for a country, no one can ignore its importance to the society. Some renowned international assessment such as OLIMPIAD, TOEFL, TIMSS, or PISA has being used to evaluate the students' academic performance throughout the whole world. But, Malaysia, which is a modern nation, has to deal with a problem, where its assessment performance ranking had decline almost every year. Its assessment performance has nothing different with other third world countries such as African countries. The deteriorating of academic performance might causes by over intervention by political institutions and ineffectiveness of policy implementations. Should education over intervenes by politics, such as what happened at North Korea, Cuba and China? This kind of incident do happened in Malaysia, where the over intervenes by politics in education had causes the deteriorating of academic performance among Malaysian students.

Santhiram’s critique of history education in Malaysia’s school system, past and present is both valuable and timely. His study reaffirms that history’s considerable value as an educative and academic undertaking is too often hijacked by political elites. This study is a salutary reminder why such tendencies should be challenged. S. Gopinathan Professor & Former Dean, National Institute of Education, Singapore Is it true, Santhiram asks, that the origin of the Malaysian nation is from the 1400s onwards? What of the earlier periods with the influence of diverse groups from across Southeast Asia; what of the contribution of more recent Chinese and Indian migration? As Santhiram comments, Malaysian historians and history teachers have some serious soul-searching to do. They might well begin that soul-searching by reading this powerful and important book. It deserves to be read widely, indeed, if Malaysian education is to move forward. John Furlong Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Oxford, United Kingdom Santhiram has put together a highly readable narrative of the history of curriculum development, from a past oppressive colonial to the present tribal periods of Malaysian history. Santhiram tells the story simply and straightforwardly avoiding controversies but not denying the contentious nature surrounding the shaping of policies regarding the subject, its curriculum design and the construction of textbooks to buttress the implementation of the curriculum in the nation’s primary and secondary school systems. This is a very readable work. Tan Sri Gajaraj M Dhanarajan Emeritus Professor, Penang, Malaysia