ANZCIES Conference: Comparative Minds

I've just returned from the annual Australia and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society (ANZCIES) Conference in Perth. I arrived Perth on Monday 24th in the evening and the whole flight experience was really shocking since there were, at least 5 crying babies on board! However, I spent all 4 hours reading some business magazines that I plan to read a long while ago.

The conference started on tuesday and this year there were a few delagated from the World Council of CIES, including Prof. Crane the president of the world council of CIES and Prof. David Turner from Wales. I really enjoy and was striked Prof. turner's keynote address on "comapartive method" as one of the key messages sending aroundto the audiences was "are we all comparing what we supppose to compare? If not, what will be the consequences of this malfunction of the approach?" That strikes me because in my current project, I am aiming to compare business learnig methods among fuinance, management, and accounting business but there are a number of contexts that I still haven't seriously considered to affect thee way these students learn in their classes.

The first day of ANZCIES conference was filled by a number of topics and presentations that broaden my ideas on the direction of higher education in different corners in this globe. For example, Brian Denman, the young president of the ANZCIES, led the key discussion on transnational education market and online modes of entry. Although this topic isn't new to me, I thought some of the info. on the spread of online ed. market in the global arena as discussed by Brian is well supported by the data.

The best paper - so far for me is ...of course my most favourite scholar Dr. Anne Hickling Hudson from Queensland Uni. Her topic on the collaborative project (trdae/development/education) from Cuba to Venezuela and other caribbean nations is really impressive and insightful. I mean I couldn't have any clues on quality of Cuban ed and the fact that this country is the leading nation among lativ american groups in trade and development. Good thing to share with my students in the class.

The funniest moment- my students' ponsan and our duet-presentation on social imaginary and globalisation in higher education policy in Thailand" It's fuuny because when i lloked at Ponsan I saw myself when I came back to ANZCIES for the first time in 2000 and of course I was nervours like hell! So was Ponsan and the time he presented his paper! The supportive collegiality of ANZCIES will immune my student for the future research activity! I know it will be good for him!

The hottest moment- Leslie vidovich and her presentation on "Trust in Higher Education" OMG! How could you spend 45 mins discussing "trust" in the context of the HE and Di cullen,the best mentor of the conference, from the australian catholic university started to point out role of university as public institution not profit making and its conflich with trust! hot hot hot!

Obviously, I have made a number of new contacts with "colleagues" from a number of institutions such as the University of New Wngland, Newcastle Uni., Macquarie, the World Bank, UWS etc. and I do feel this is going to be a long-term academic relationship.

2 good news: I was selected as Victoria representative for the ANZCIES! How exciting! I would love to organise and support the work of ANZCIES in Victoria and make it a better event! Secondly, Ponsan my student is nominated (and selected) as student representative for ANZCIES...well done!

My final word is there are a number of new theories (Southern theory, Human capital (in the context of comaparative ed) theory etc.) Godd learning experiences folks!

Data Collection is not easy!

I am now in the process of the data collection and last wee was the first group I conducted an interview. Like most researchers, when you act as the moderator of the interview, you really feel that you can't control the flow of conversation. Sometimes, when I threw a question to the participants (students) I wasn't sure if the response was right for the question. Again, there is no right/wrong idea in giving your ideas and feedbacks regarding online learning.



so far, technical aspects of the e-learning at RMIT has been raised quite repeatedly and that doesn't surprise me. Not because of the service isn't good but because of the visibility of this problem for all students. Some other pedagogical and cultural aspects were mentioned in the conversation. I hope to hear more of these points (and some other points) from the next round of data collection.

Next week, I'm scheduled to interview 4 more students to finalize the perspectives from management students and the preliminary findings will be presented at the Academy of International Business Australia and New Zealand at the University of Sydney in December.

ANZCIES Conference

The 2008 Australian and New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society Conference

Meeting of Comparative Minds: Education in all its forms
24 - 27 November 2008
Curtin University, Perth

Comparative and international education examines all aspects of schooling and education across the globe. Research analyses can range from single nation case studies to large cross-national studies, but they usually share commonalities in approach, method, or conceptual framework. As educational contexts, structures and practices become increasingly valued in a 'globalising' world, comparative analyses serve as potent vehicles for interpreting and discovering patterns among educational phenomena.

The primary aim of the conference is to promote dialogue on comparative and international education research throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As the region is comprised of countries with a wide range of educational systems, cultures, political regimes and levels of economic development, the conference is an ideal venue for critical analysis and interpretation.

Data Collection

I am currently preparing to collect data for this project. Basically, I need to interview students in the business portfolio (in accounting, finance, and management). The interview will be conducted in a group of 5-6 and will take 20-30 minutes. If you are interested in taking part in this project, please leave your message here.

If you are interested in international and comparative education, please participate in this year ANZCIES conference in Perth. See you threre.

Current Economic Affair

Much of the political discussion surrounding the $700 billion bailout passed by Congress last Friday has revolved around how the plan will affect ordinary “Main Street” Americans. Yet the financial crisis has had an impact world wide. Will the economic “base of the pyramid” — the three to four billion people in the developing world who earn under $3,000 per year — feel the pain?

It is estimated that large portions of many developing countries’ GDPs are held in the informal sector. In Nigeria, for example, it is estimated that two-thirds of the country’s economic output takes place outside of any economic and legal regulation. Unfortunately, this means that many people developing countries (90% in Nigeria, for example) have the dubious “advantage” of being unbanked. They draw income, pay expenses, and hold savings in cash and rarely engage with the formal capital markets in any direct way. While they may not be adversely affected by the financial crisis, people in developing countries are affected by other issues, such as the increase in food prices. That cost was up 40% in 2007 alone according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization and it has effectively lowered the income of millions of people already living without a financial cushion.

The fact remains that an enormous swath of the world’s population has never had access to the wealth-generating power of capital markets that we, until recently, have taken for granted. This should prompt us to consider how we can best help the world’s poor access the wealth-magnifying capacity of well regulated formal financial markets without exposing them to the type of reckless behavior demonstrated by of some of the major American financial institutions in recent years.

The project has been approved by business portfolio's ethics committee

Good news for me to receive this info. from the portfolio that this project is approved. The last part of the letter of approval is interesting. It stated:

The RMIT Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) requires the submission of Annual and Final reports. These reports should be forwarded to the Business Portfolio Human Research Ethics Sub-Committee Secretary. Annual Reports are due in December for applications submitted prior to September in the year concerned. I have enclosed a copy of the Annual/ Final report form for your convenience. Please note that this form also incorporates a request for extension of approval, if required.

What is this project all about?

This project aims to investigate the extent to which accounting, finance, and management undergraduate students from different cultural and learning backgrounds negotiate online learning environments. Previous studies reported the increasing role of online education and training for future accountants and business managers as well as “cultural gaps” between individual students in online learning and communication (Volet and Ang 1998; McLoughlin and Oliver 2000; McLoughlin 2001). However, those designing and delivering online education in accounting, finance, or management often fail to take into account these cultural differences (McLoughlin 2001). This study will help investigate gaps in cultural groupings and conditions of interaction among students from diverse backgrounds in online learning. It will identify the unique challenges these students encounter in the online learning environment. As reported by Conole (2004) and Hannon and D’Netto (2007), factors such as institutional, pedagogical, technological, and cultural issues play a pivotal role in the success or failure of online learning. This project will adopt their models to investigate the impact of those factors on diverse students’ negotiation of, and engagement in accounting, finance, and management online education.

Major problems of online education come under, four categories: institutional or organisational, technological, pedagogical and cultural. Institutional issues, such as organisational factors, and their interaction with technology can have a profound effect on culturally diverse students. Conole (2004) and Hannon and D’Netto (2007) reported issues such as institutional support for online education, communication between students and institutions, or guidance from the institution can promote a strong level of online engagement by students. Additionally it is confirmed that pedagogical approaches facilitate profound learning rather than surface learning (Ramsden 1992). As online learning in business involves a number of activities, people, and processes, it is important for universities and lecturers not to see it as “culture-neutral”. Lecturers should be concerned how cultural differences are managed in virtual learning. There are dangers in simply transferring traditional face-to-face learning methods to an online system. Previous studies make extensive reference to the access, speed, system, and clarity of the usage of informational communication technology for the promotion of students’ engagement in online education. Finally, cultural factors such as the linguistic, approach to learning, and communication contents also play a pivotal role in students’ readiness and willingness to engage in online learning. Language and approach in learning are among the most significant obstacles for cross-cultural learning. Differences in writing conventions (style, format, content, and organisation) between instructors and their audience can also often lead to poor communication. For example, some cultures take offence at brief exchanges using short sentences or declarative language (McLoughlin 2001). They may require more polite or more indirect interactions. Direct or corrective feedback may similarly embarrass some users. To be more effective, online educators must be willing to adapt their materials to other cultural, linguistic, and learning conventions (McLoughlin and Oliver 2000). The increased global popularity of online international business education has generated a number of studies addressing specific issues of cultural identity thereof that suggest race, ethnicity and cultural stereotypes, and their attendant prejudices, can be reproduced via online education, and even encoded in the software interface (Nakamura 2002; Hannon and D'Netto 2007).

Previous studies in online education and business pedagogy (Debreceny, Lymer et al. 1999; McLoughlin 2001) reported major problems of cultural and environmental insensitivity, teaching style differences, disparate educational values, difficulties of language and semantics, and other technical problems relating to the platform used, operating systems and a lack of standard interfaces. McLoughlin (2001) and Reeder et al (2004) also reported that cultural and language differences in students are not always explicitly taken into account in the planning and design of learning technologies, instruction design and generic courseware. Chase et al (2002) found a ‘cultural gap’ between individuals in online education. (and communication), and that “participation rates differ by cultural grouping” in online communication (McLaughlin, 2001). A number of studies in online education in various disciplines confirmed online education with complicated interfaces, procedures, conditions, or interactions present unique challenges to learners from different academic, cultural, and learning backgrounds (Reeder, Macfadyen et al. 2004; Hannon and D'Netto 2007).

Given the abovementioned issues, this project will investigate and compare factors of engagement and effectiveness of online education among accounting, finance, and management students. The outcomes from this project, therefore, will help educators and researchers in accounting, finance, and management education to better understand the issues of diversity underpinning students’ experience in online education and training. This understanding will help improve the implementation of online education in accounting, finance, and management courses. Thus the study will provide long-term benefit for higher education institutions that offer accounting, finance, and management programs to student of diverse backgrounds

International Education in Thailand

Over the period between 1995 to 2001, the number of Thai HEIs offering international programmes increased significantly from 15 institutions in 1995 to 37 institutions in 2001 (ONEC, 2001). The department of export promotion (DEP) has been attempting to increase the intake of new international students in Thai HEIs by 30 percent per annum (DEP, 2004).The cost for each foreign student, who enrols in Thai HEI is approximately 500,000 Baht per year (tuition fees plus living cost). Recognising the amount of revenue that can be generated from these expenses for the nation, the Thai government has endeavoured to promote higher education to new prospective students in target countries. The number of international students enrolled at HEIs in Thailand has increased significantly from 2,240 in 2001 to 4,962 in 2003 (DEP, 2004). The top five home countries of these international students were China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India and Japan (DEP, 2004). These international students have contributed approximately 2,172 million Baht per year to the Thai economy and it was expected that the revenue would increase to 2,484 million Baht at the end of 2003 (DEP, 2004).

Although the international higher education service offered by HEIs in Thailand has grown significantly in terms of both the number of programmes and the number of local and international students, local and international HEIs operating in Thailand need to learn much to deliver this service. In particular international postgraduate programmes which are operating in a foreign territory, culture, and customs. One of the major problems in fostering the quality of internationalisation of the Thai education is lacking in information, research and knowledge in this area. It causes Thailand and institutions operating in the kingdom to offer local or transnational programmes without strategic directions.

Higher Education in Vietnam

“According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training [MOET], to the end of 2005 (MOET, February 2006), there are 230 universities and colleges which are public and non-public (terms used by MOET). State research institutions number 300 (Tran et al, 1995) all of which are public. Vietnam’s universities, colleges and research institutions are responsible to various ministries which means that they work under direct supervision of their ministry or provincial authorities in terms of their mission and financial support, for example the University of Medicines reports to the Ministry of Health. However, the curriculum of each is subject to approval by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

In recent years, the higher education system in Vietnam has undergone many positive changes. In relation to access and equity in higher education, policy making bodies such as the Communist Party of Vietnam, and the MOET have launched several new policies and trialed various models to both modernize the higher education system and respond to the needs of access and equity in higher education. International agencies, foreign donors, as well as private enterprise, have also contributed a great deal to increasing access and equity to higher education in Vietnam and the re-organization of the higher education system structure and capacity building for universities/colleges for the future.”

My current publication

Dear Guys,

My paper on Vocational Education programme in Thailand is recently published in the International Journal of Management in Education. You can follow the link here to get an abstract of the paper

Education is back

I disappeared from the screen for a long while due to my work commitment. Will be back online shortly.

Thai Studies Conference in Bangkok

I have just returned to Melbourne from Thailand and Singapore. The conference I attended was quite mediocre in the sense that there wasn't any paper that striked my thought in education. The best thing about this conference was the fact that I could presented my project on educational leadership in the Thai context to a tiny group of audiences. I really enjy listening to the comments from some of them. Questions regarding the cultural context and organisational behaviour in the Thai schools was really popular.

Of all scholars I met, Dr. Irving Chan Johnson from the National University of Singapore was one of the most impressive in his comments on the cultural context, ways of living, and the Thai. I probably

Changing from School Manager to School Leader!

Schools have traditionally been managed by a bureaucratic management style principal. In this method principals rely on a rational set of structuring guidelines, such as rules and procedures, hierarchy, and a clear division of labor (Allen 1998). Principals using this style receive lots of credit for an efficiently run school. Over time this style of management eventually backfires as creative teachers and students become unsettled. These types of principals tend to be control freaks who find it difficult to let go of the detail and are particularly threatened by the idea of empowering other leaders for fear of diminishing their own power base. These principals soon forget that schools exist for students and not for administrators (Prideaux, 2001). As new decision making models emerge with research backing their success, the role of the principal begins to change.

Principals are no longer strictly managers; they are expected to be leaders. Leaders that can take their school to a higher level of academic achievement, where all students are successful learners and all teachers engage their students in learning. To become such a leader, principals need to leave behind their bureaucratic management styles and redefine themselves as a moral leader. Principals that are leaders not just managers will be able to move their school forward. These new principals allow teachers to be leaders in developing better curriculums to reach the needs of all students. For a principal to maintain this type of leadership, he/she will need to learn how to serve his staff not just manage it.

Principals are beginning to value the important role that teachers play in the success of their school. Recognizing their value, principals are beginning to work with teachers to achieve goals that will contribute to the schools success. Principals are looking for a leadership style that welcomes the cooperation of others and values their input. One such leadership style is that of a servant leader. In servant leadership one serves the needs of their staff (Sergiovanni, 2000). By serving one's staff instead of serving one's own needs, a principal is able to create change within the school. Principals can practice servant leadership in the three ways that Sergiovanni (2000) describes: purposing, empowerment, and leadership by outrage.

--to be continued --

Happy New Year 2008

I wish you all the very happy year and enjoy managing your education!