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prospects quarterly review of education
Editor: Zaghloul Morsy
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prospects Vol. XXII, N o . 4, 1992 (84)
Landmarks 403
VIEWPOINTS/COiVri?0 VERSIES
Education and structural adjustment Jandhyala B. G. Tilak 407
OPEN FILE
Monitoring the quality of education worldwide: IL A few national examples of IEA's impact
Interests and modes in research utilization: the Finnish IEA
experience Kimmo Leimu 425
Hungarian experiences in international student achievement
surveys Zoltán Báthory 434
Using evaluation research for policy and practice in Botswana
Serara Moahi 441
Dominican Republic: the study on teaching and learning of
mathematics Eduardo Luna 448
H o w Japan makes use of international educational survey
research Ryo Watanabe 455
What does Kuwait want to learn from the Third International
Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)? Mansour G. Hussein 463
The IEA project on preschool education: preliminary surveys in
Portugal and China David P. Weikart, Shi Hui Zhong and
Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo 469
W h a t does the United States want to learn from international
comparative studies in education? Jeanne E. Griffith and
Elliott A. Medrich 476
TRENDS/CASES
Language, interculturalism and human rights: three European
cases Norma Tarrow 489
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva
programme Rosa Maria Torres 510
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) Charles Hummel 521
Index to Volume XXII, 1992 533
ISSN 0033-1538
Landmarks
Dear Readers and Dear Authors, known to me and unknown,
This is the eighty-fourth and last 'ordinary' issue of'your journal which
I have edited. Four other issues will follow — even though less 'ordinary',
completely different in fact - for which I shall claim at least conceptional
responsibility.
Why, you may wonder, do I adopt this unusual tone? For one reason
only: I have reached retirement age, and so I leave you, or will have done so
by the time this issue reaches you.
What then, you ask, will become of the journal? Do not worry: it will be
in excellent hands. In the first place, it will be transferred to Geneva - to the
International Bureau of Education (IBE), which, as you know, is an integral
part of UNESCO. Next, and most importantly, the new Editor will be Mr
Juan Carlos Tedesco, Director of the IBE. In close co-operation with him, we
shall do our best to see that the transition is carried out as smoothly and as
rapidly as possible.
Even non-Latin-American readers know Mr Tedesco well. He was good
enough to write two articles for the journal - 'Education and Employment:
The Case of the Industrial Sector in Argentina' (Vol. IX, No. 1, 1979) and
'The Role of the State in Education' (Vol. XIX, No. 4, 1989). He was also
Guest Editor of an 'Open File', Tntercultural Bilingual Education in Latin
America', that acquired considerable, renown.
As for our readers in Latin America and the Caribbean, I would not
insult them by presuming to introduce Mr Tedesco to them. In that region, his
publications have become benchmarks, and his work, particularly as Director
of the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Latin America and the
Caribbean (OREALC), has been highly appreciated by practitioners and
decision-makers alike.
After twenty-two years given over entirely to Prospects, / should like to
thank the some 2,000 specialists who entrusted me with their contributions,
and express my regrets to all those whom I did not feel able to publish.
My thanks go also to the universities, foundations, research institutes,
ministries of education, international governmental and non-govemmental
organizations and National Commissions of UNESCO, and of course my
colleagues from the whole United Nations family, who have always been
unstinting in their co-operation.
I wish also to thank all the members of the teams who, in Moscow,
Beijing, Santiago, Beirut, Sofia, Bucharest, Pyongyang, Warsaw, Berlin,
Rome, Budapest, Belgrade and Bangkok, have always worked hard to trans
late, print and disseminate the journal - either in complete 'ordinary' editions
or in anthologies — in their respective languages and countries. It is a source of
great satisfaction for UNESCO and personal pride for me.
Prospects, Vol. XXII, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
Landmarks
And I would certainly not wish to leave out my colleagues here at UNESCO
Headquarters, who have translated, revised, prepared, composed and printed
some tens of thousands of pages, nor José Maria Domínguez and Antoine
Khoury, who, in friendship and with great professionalism, have prepared the
Spanish and Arabic editions of the journal for many years.
Perhaps before all else I should have expressed my gratitude to my assist
ant and secretary, Miss Hilary Platman, without whom this quarterly - things
being what they were - might have become a bi-annual, or even an annual!
I shall say nothing on education here. Is not all that I have said un
commissioned all these years enough? I am quite sure that theses and disserta
tions will be written on the UNESCO Quarterly Review of Education in
due course. I would simply add, as a tentative triple metaphor, that education
today is (and very likely always has been) simultaneously Sisyphus's rock,
Pandora's box and Penelope's web. I do not know of any one myth that could
combine these three metaphors into one unlikely whole. But, to lump all meta
phors together, if an educator ignites a spark in the mind of a child in southern
Morocco, the Andes Cordillera, a remote island in the Pacific, Bosnia or
Harlem, it is for me as if he or she is giving hope to all the children of the
world, the deprived . . . and the others. If you think back to your own expe
rience, I am sure you will understand what I am trying to say.
Thus, as I take my leave of you, I request readers and authors to send
any correspondence as from now to my successor: Mr Juan Carlos Tedesco,
Editor, Prospects, International Bureau of Education, Case postale 199,
1211 Geneva 20 (Switzerland). Fax: (41) (22) 798 14 86.
Z . M .
VIEWPOINTS
CONTRO VERSIES
Education and structural adjustment*
Jandhyala B . G . Tilak
The attention of national and international policy
makers has shifted from long-term goals to short-
term financial and adjustment concerns. The in
ternational community is more interested in ensur
ing the timely payment of debts and interest rates
than in seeking to eradicate poverty and in strength
ening the human dimension of development. Thus,
anti-poverty and human development programs have
been pushed aside. Poverty can wait, the banks
cannot! - H a q and Kirdar, 1986 , p p . xv-xvi
Structural adjustment lending . . . can be seen as
both a sign of deteriorating conditions working against
educational development as well as an instrument
which, at least in the short term, makes educa
tional development extremely difficult to put into
effect. - Jones , 1 9 9 2 , p . 168
The most serious effect that adjustment can have
on primary education is to reduce the (central) gov
ernment's allocation to education in general and to
primary education in particular. - Lockheed et
al., 1991, p. 35
Jandhyala B . G . Tilak (India). Senior Fellow and Head, Educational Finance Unit at the National Institute of Educational Planning, 17 B Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016 (India). His publications include Economics of Inequality in Education (Sage, 1987), Educational Finances in South Asia (UNCRD, 1988), Educational Planning at Grassroots (Ashish, 1992), and Education for Developm e n t in Asia (Sage, in press). He has also taught at the universities of Delhi and Virginia, and worked at the World Bank.
Structural adjustment
and economic stabilization
India was classified only a couple of years ago
in a World Bank study (Kakwani et al, 1990)
as a 'non-adjusting country', along with sixteen
otfier countries that did not need adjustment
measures of the kind suggested by the World
Bank (IBRD) and the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), and as the one that experienced
an increase in the growth rate of its average
annual gross domestic product ( G D P ) per capita
during the period 1980-87. Within a year the
situation had changed completely. India has had
to resort to 'adjustment' loans, and is battling
with the adjustment policies. The new economic
policies of the government are n o w well known
as 'adjustment' policies, with both short-term
and long-term implications for almost all sec
tors of the economy. Adjustment policies being
followed in India and other countries include
policy changes, involving two types of policies:
the short-term stabilization policies of the I M F ,
and the long-term structural adjustment poli
cies of the World Bank. Stabilization policies
* This is a revised version of the paper circulated in the U N E S C O Consultative Meeting of Experts on Education, Adjustment and International Co-operation, held in Paris from 21 to 24 September 1992. The author benefited from the discussions held during the meeting in the revision of the paper. The comments of N . V . Varghese are also gratefully acknowledged. Usual disclaimers apply.
Prospects, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (S4)
408 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
rely on d e m a n d management and include sus
tainable reductions in budgetary deficits, in the
current account of the balance of payments, in
inflationary gaps, etc. They include devalua
tion of the national currency and trade liberali
zation. T h e y are viewed essentially as short-
term demand-oriented devices to reduce
macroeconomic imbalances. They involve cuts
in government spending. T h e most direct con
sequence is a drastic reduction in public subsi
dies, across the board, although the reduction
need not necessarily be, and most often is not,
uniform across all the sectors. In contrast to
these short-term policies, the structural adjust
ment policies and reforms aim at long-term struc
tural reform, including improvement in produc
tivity of resources, improvement in allocation
of resources and an increase in economic effi
ciency; they m a k e the economy more flexible,
and thereby expand growth (World Bank, 19882>;
T h o m a s and Chhibber, 1989). Without the
adjustment policies, distortions in allocations
would take place, and inefficiency at macro level
might increase. In theory and in practice, both
are related:
If you do not solve the problems of stabilization then you cannot by definition start the process of restructuring your economies. If there is widespread excess demand in the system, if inflation is not brought under control, if government deficits keep on growing year after year fanning inflational expectations, in that sort of environment, it is very difficult to assume that you adopt structural policies . . . (Singh, 1992, p. 108).
Adjustment loans are mostly preceded by
stabilization policies; they are viewed as a single
package.
T h e objectives of the adjustment policies
that accompany structural adjustment loans of
the World Bank and the I M F have been to sta
bilize the economy, to improve allocation of
resources, and thereby raise the level of output
and income, and to achieve higher levels of sav
ings and a more efficient use of investments in
order to increase the rate of growth. T h e policy
is, as Emmerji (1987, pp . 3-4) rightly noted,
'non-interventionist in spirit' and 'concentrates
on increasing the efficiency of market signals as
a guide to an improved allocation of resources'.
T h e World Bank started disbursement of such
loans in 1980, and it is reported that as m a n y as
eighty countries have so far taken such loans,
and have undergone or have been undergoing
the process of structural adjustment. Second-
generation structural adjustment loans are n o w
being designed by the World Bank and by gov
ernments of various countries (Fuller and Habte,
1992, p . 12). T h u s there are very few develop
ing countries which have not experimented to
varying degrees with adjustment policies. In this
sense, the whole developing world is in the process
of adjustment, and one can simply refer to this
as a 'global adjustment' period. T h e adjustment
programmes have been found to have mixed
effects on the national economies, as regards
both social and economic sectors. With respect
to economic growth, only a few countries have
been found to have 'done well whilst most have
not only not done well but their performance
has actually deteriorated, in some cases, quite
severely, compared to the pre-reform period'
(Sobhan, 1992, p . 72). In general, structural
adjustment policies have been found favour
able to export growth and the external account;
their effect on aggregate investment is almost
everywhere negative; their influence on national
income and on financial flows from overseas is,
on balance, neutral; their effects on distribution
are also at best neutral; and their effects on the
living standards of the poor are adverse (Mosley
et al, 1991, pp . 301-2) .
H u m a n development and adjustment are
believed to be antithetical. Accordingly, the
adverse effects of adjustment policy are believed
to be damaging severely the h u m a n develop
ment sectors such as education. Hence , at this
stage, a review of the more than ten years of
experience will be very useful for, on the one
hand, the countries that are 'potential candi
dates' for such loans and, on the other, the World
Bank and the I M F , in addition to the countries
that are currently undergoing the process of
adjustment. W h a t are the lessons that India, which
has just become an 'adjusting' economy, can
learn from international experience? H o w can
Education and structural adjustment 409
h u m a n development be protected along with the structural adjustment programmes? This article addresses some of these questions. T h e discussion is mostly confined to adjustment policies, including structural and sectoral adjustment and stabilization policies, as it is felt that the effects of adjustment policies need special attention. General investment loans for education and/or for other purposes have a variety of other positive and adverse effects, ranging from a positive contribution to economic growth to an increase in donor dependency, some of which are well documented in the literature (Tilak, 1988; Weiler, 1984). These are important, but are not discussed here. Similarly, the adjustment policies discussed in this paper refer mostly to the World B a n k / I M F policies, unless otherwise stated; the adjustment-like policies of the other multilateral and bilateral agencies are not specifically referred to here.
T h e following section gives a brief description of the nature of the loans of the two Bretton W o o d s institutions, the World Bank and the I M F . T h e next outlines the context of the newly adjusting Indian economy. T h e following section looks at the research, and country evidence on the effects of adjustment on education, which are then summarized. After that w e examine ways of reducing the adverse impact of adjustment policies on education and in the final section w e attempt to outline some such measures and to present some alternative models of adjustment.
The World Bank/IMF loans
T h e loans that flow from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are of various types, most with some policy conditionality.1
They are briefly described below.
SPECIFIC INVESTMENT LOANS
These are the oldest and the most frequently used instrument for the World Bank's support for education, in the form of support for specific programmes, projects, works, goods and services over a period of five to seven years.2
Such programme- or project-based loans are probably a m o n g the more successful, as they can be more easily and better managed than others.
SECTOR INVESTMENT LOANS
Sector investment loans, the other traditional form of loans, finance a share of a country's sectoral investment programme for a period of three to seven years, leaving the borrowing country more freedom in design of the project and in its appraisal and supervision.
While the distinction between the specific and sector investment loans - both of which are generally referred to as orthodox investment strategies of the World Bank - is not obvious, the former seem to focus more narrowly on a given project, while the latter apply broadly to the sector as a whole. T h e latter focus more on policy and institutional objectives, and also enable the World Bank to exert a strong influence on overall country approaches to the sector in question. T h e success of sector investment loans requires a higher level of efficiency in managing the programmes and policies at local level, compared to project-/programme-based loans.
STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT LOANS
T h e 1980s were a period of economic crisis and adjustment. T h e short-term stabilization policies, including the austerity measures of the I M F , came into conflict with the long-term policy requirements as viewed by the World Bank. T h e structural adjustment loans are, in a sense, the World Bank's response to mis conflict. They signify the World Bank's n e w lending and investment strategies, and aim at correcting fun-
410 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
damental long-term weaknesses in borrowing
countries; they focus on the macro economy,
include non-sector-specific policy reforms, and
are not intended to address sectoral concerns.
T h e conditions that are attached to such loans
are macroeconomic, such as a reduction in fis
cal imbalances and deficits, macroeconomic
efficiency, containment of the wage bill, and an
employment freeze, besides trade liberalization,
currency devaluation, etc. They rarely include
conditions relating to social sector reforms.3 These
loans, however, aim at providing finance m u c h
more quickly than conventional loans, to assist
the economy on a long-term basis. They pro
vide, however, scope for even more interven
tion by the World Bank in that they address the
need perceived by the Bank for comprehensive
economic reform across the board.
SECTOR ADJUSTMENT LOANS
B y the mid 1980s the structural adjustment
programmes were being heavily criticized for
their severe impact on h u m a n development sec
tors (Cornia et al., 1987, 1988), and 'adjust
ment with a h u m a n face' became the slogan of
m a n y . T h e recognition of the inadequacy of
structural adjustment loans, and their weaknesses
in the form of their adverse impact on social
sectors, led to the introduction in 1986 of a
fourth type of loan (in education), called a sec
tor adjustment loan, which is more closely tied
with implementation of policy conditions, and
is contemporaneous with structural adjustment
loan-supported macroeconomic programmes.
These loans support comprehensive reform of
a country's education system. They aim at policy
reforms leading to more efficient allocation of
resources and financing, including the protec
tion of investment in a particular sector (for
example, primary education) and certain items
of expenditure (such as textbooks and learning
materials). These loans have the same purpose
as the structural adjustment loans, but they are
confined to a given sector, i.e. education, and
thereby address the comprehensive reform of a
country's entire education system. While struc
tural adjustment loans do not refer to equity,
access, etc., these aspects could be covered by
the sectoral adjustment loans.
HYBRID LOANS
Lastly, by the end of the 1980s, hybrid loans
began appearing, combining the investment
components of specific or sector investment loans
with sector adjustment loans.4 These loans sup
port investment in a project or a group of projects,
usually with conditions on sector-specific re
forms. They are essentially designed for poor
countries, where deterioration in the already low
coverage of the education system must be ar
rested and improvement in quality urgently at
tempted; this requires both the broad reforms
included in the sector adjustment loans and in
vestment to support implementation of these
reforms.5
O f the various types, it is believed that sec
tor investment loans will be the 'instruments
most commonly used for education lending
during the 1990s . . . these will be the instru
ments most suited to provide the type of assist
ance required to support the World Confer
ence on Education For All ( W C E F A ) targets'
(Fredriksen, 1990, p . 15); however, sector loans
were found to have 'best suited those borrow
ers least in need of it' Qones, 1992, p . 170),
and the shift seems to be in favour of project
support. T h e sector specificity and the World
Bank's 'non-intervention' in the identification,
design, appraisal and supervision of the project
to the country concerned seem to be important
advantages of the sector investment loans. In
general, structural adjustment loans form the
largest chunk of the World B a n k / I M F loans and
credits.6 They m a y , however, have conditions
regarding the education sector. Almost all such
loans - that is, structural adjustment loans with
conditions regarding education policies - are of
recent origin (post-1985). T h e conditions re
late to budgetary cost and financing policies;
very rarely do they focus on the external effi
ciency of education and labour market rewards
(Stevenson, 1991, p . 15).
Education and structural adjustment 411
T h e Indian context
It is generally feared that structural adjustment
and stabilization policies will affect employment
and poverty unfavourably, as these policies are
'almost opposite to those designed to tackle the
problem of poverty' (Emmerji, 1987, p. 4). T h e
poorer and weaker sections of the population,
including w o m e n and children, bear the brunt
of the burden of adjustment policies (ILO, 1987;
Afshar and Dennis, 1992). In the case of India,
for example, Mundle (1992) estimated that the
volume of employment will decline substantially;
and while in a normal scenario the rate of un
employment would be about 4 per cent by 1993-
94, owing to the n e w economic policies it could
increase to 5 or 7 per cent, reflecting alternative
scenarios of low and high growth. These fig
ures do not include likely retrenchments in the
organized sector following the n e w economic
policies. It was also noted that the high-growth
scenario would require successful policies re
garding the substitution of imports by domestic
production and the reduction of the current
account deficit. M o r e interestingly, it has been
estimated that employment in the organized sector
would stagnate at 28 million during the period
1990 to 1994. T h e adjustment policies are also
found to be adversely affecting not only e m
ployment, but also poverty and the living con
ditions of the people (Ghose, 1992, p. 95). It is
generally felt that such trends are not u n c o m
m o n during periods of stabilization and adjust
ment, that these trends will be only for a short
period, and that in the long run they will be
corrected and the situation will improve with
respect to poverty, income distribution, and
h u m a n development in general (Heller et al,
1988).
Under conditions of adjustment, it is feared
that the share of education in the budgetary
resources in India will decline in the near fu
ture, and the government's 1992-93 annual
budget has already indicated trends in this di
rection. T h e cuts m a y be both in plan and non-
plan budgets. A reduction in plan budgets for
education, which are already very small, will
hamper the growth of the system. A reduction
in the non-plan budgets for education will seri
ously jeopardize the very maintenance of the
system. T h e full implications of adjustment
policies for education in India are difficult to
predict. As India has had no experience with
structural adjustment, it has to learn from oth
ers' experiences. W h a t does the international
experience look like?
International experience: a review
A large number of developing countries can be
found 'adjusting' their economies, having taken
structural adjustment loans from international
agencies, the World Bank, the I M F , and other
multilateral and bilateral donor organizations.
T h e Bretton W o o d s institutions, that is, the World
Bank and the I M F , play a dominant role a m o n g
all these organizations. T h e structural and sectoral
adjustment programmes of the World Bank
during the last half the 1980s have been heavily
focused on Africa. Asia received 40 per cent of
all education sector loans during 1988-90, few
of which included policy conditionality. Several
of the Asian countries (for example, Thailand
and the Republic of Korea), having received
structural adjustment loans earlier (in the early
1980s), have later had to resort to traditional
investment loans or education sector investment
loans without explicit policy conditionalities (as
was the case with Bangladesh) (Stevenson, 1991,
p. 5).
About one-quarter of the World Bank's
lending n o w goes for adjustment (macroeconomic
or sector) activities. Between 1970 and 1990
the World Bank invested $ 11 billion on educa
tion (Verspoor, 1991). Half of the World Bank
loans for education contain policy measures, and
in a sense they are education sector adjustment
loans (Fuller and Habte, 1992). Structural ad
justment has forced governments to reveal their
expenditure priorities, and unfortunately m a n y
governments have revealed, in practice, a very
412 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
low priority for h u m a n development activities.
They considered 'it was easier or more expedi
ent to reduce expenditure on h u m a n develop
ment than on other items' (Griffin and Knight,
1990, p . 22).
Several surveys of the literature, as well as
country evidence - cross-country and country
case-studies - clearly suggest that public ex
penditure on education and enrolment ratios
(gross) are negatively related to adjustment
policies. T h e Latin American and African coun
tries that rely extensively on structural adjust
ment loans from the World Bank and the I M F
were to effect significant cuts in public budgets
for education during the structural adjustment
and readjustment processes. Analysing the data
on Latin American countries, Tilak (1989a,
1989è) has shown that, while under normal
economic conditions the allocation of resources
to education might not be influenced by eco
nomic conditions, economic difficulties experi
enced during painful adjustment and recession
periods adversely influence education develop
ment. It is further shown that, under these con
ditions, primary education suffers more than
higher education, and that popular sociopoliti
cal pressures result in the quality of education
being traded off for quantitative expansion. Public
investment in education in current prices de
clined from U S $ 8 8 in 1980 to U S $ 6 7 in 1985
in the region as a whole, and real growth in
total expenditure on education was negative, at
-0 .5 per cent per a n n u m . Between 1970 and
1980, the relative share of higher education in
the total (recurrent) expenditure on education
increased from 16 to 24 per cent, while for pri
mary education it declined from 57 to 51 per
cent. T h e share of education in G N P declined
in ten out of twenty countries in the region be
tween 1980 and 1985, a period characterized
by adjustment. In Costa Rica and Venezuela,
capital expenditures were disproportionately cut,
public expenditure on basic education declined,
enrolments in private schools increased while
those in public schools declined, and the qual
ity of school education deteriorated, with an
increase in the number of repeaters and in pupil-
teacher ratios (Reimers, 1991a, 199le). In all,
Cornia et al. (1987) found that in 65 per cent
of the Latin American countries education was
vulnerable, while it was 'highly protected' in 30
per cent of cases.
In sub-Saharan Africa, a similar experi
ence was documented: a decline in total public
investment in education in absolute terms, and
also as a percentage of total government ex
penditure (World Bank, 1988a). T h e decreases
could be noted as total external debt increased
(Tilak, 1990è). T h e impact of debt service pay
ments on government expenditure on educa
tion as a percentage of total government ex
penditure was found to be negative and significant
in another cross-country study (Psacharopoulos
and Steier, 1987). All these factors contributed
to declining enrolments. In 1991 the Secretary-
General of the United Nations attributed to
adjustment policies the significant fall in gross
enrolment ratios at the primary level (from 77
per cent in 1980 to 72 per cent in 1987), the
more drastic fall for girls, the fall in survival
rates in primary schools, the decline in the quality
of education, and the increase in the number of
illiterates in Africa from 133.6 million in 1985
to 138.8 million in 1990: ' T h e severe resource
cuts to the education sector, as well as the ad
justment policies of cost-recovery and contain
ment, were largely responsible for these declines'
(United Nations, 1991, p . 750; emphasis added).
Cornia (1987, pp. 24-6) found, during the
adjustment process, a steep decline in educa
tional attainment in six countries (Brazil, Ghana,
Jamaica, Peru, the Philippines and Sri Lanka)
on which indicators on educational attainment
were available, in addition to a decline in access
(enrolment ratios) in Chile, the Philippines and
Sri Lanka. While no change in enrolment ratios
was observed in Ghana and Peru, the Republic
of Korea and Zimbabwe, where special targeted
programmes were initiated, registered an increase.
In one of the best and methodologically
most sophisticated studies of its kind on the
impact of structural adjustment on living con
ditions, Kakwani et al. (1990) classified coun
tries into five categories, on the basis of their
adoption of adjustment policies: 'intensely ad
justing' countries, which have had relatively long
Education and structural adjustment 413
experience of adjustment policies and processes,
having taken three or more structural adjust
ment loans by 1989, starting in or before 1985
(twenty-five countries); 'pre-1986 adjusting'
countries, which have received fewer than three
structural adjustment loans, but were included
in the programme before 1985 (eleven coun
tries); 'post-1985 adjusting' countries, which
received adjustment loans between 1986 and
1988 (nineteen countries); 'non-adjusting' coun
tries, which do not need IMF/Wor ld Bank ad
justment measures, and which had an increase
in average annual per capita G D P growth dur
ing 1980-87 (seventeen countries, of which India
was one); and 'non-adjusting' countries, which
were 'potential candidates' for World Bank ad
justment loans, with a decline in the average
annual per capita G D P growth during 1980-
87, and were 'probably the closest to the coun
ter factual non-adjusting countries' (fourteen
countries).
S o m e of the results obtained by Kakwani
et al. (1990) are worth reporting. In eleven in
tensely adjusting countries, public expenditure
on education as a percentage of G D P declined
from 3.5 in 1980 to 2.9 in 1986, while in twelve
non-adjusting countries the corresponding pro
portion increased from 10 per cent to 12.1 per
cent during the same period. Per capita expendi
ture on education (in 1980 purchasing power
parity (PPP) dollars) declined in the intensely
adjusting countries from $81.2 in 1980 to $73.2
in 1986, while in the non-adjusting countries it
increased from $48.7 to $90.8. T h e enrolment
ratio in primary education declined on average
from 94.2 per cent in 1980 to 90.1 per cent in
1985 in twenty-five intensely adjusting coun
tries, while it increased from 89.9 to 98.3 per
cent in eighteen non-adjusting countries of the
type described above, and marginally increased
from 81.3 to 82.6 per cent in another fifteen
'potential candidates'. T h e rate of growth of
enrolments in primary education also declined
in the intensely adjusting countries. O n the whole,
intense adjustment is associated with declines
in almost all the indicators on educational de
velopment.
Lockheed et al. (1991, p . 35) s u m m e d up
the available evidence, stating that the share of
education in total government expenditures
declined between 1980 and 1986 in twelve out
of thirteen intensely adjusting countries, but in
only three out of twelve non-adjusting coun
tries with similar levels of economic develop
ment. T h e decline in the share of education
was from 15 to 12 per cent in intensely adjust
ing countries, and the increase was from 10 to
12 per cent in non-adjusting countries. Fur
thermore, in nine out of the twelve intensely
adjusting countries per capita spending on edu
cation declined in constant terms.
In an elaborate and comprehensive survey
of the literature on the impact of adjustment on
education, Noss (1991) presented an impres
sive review of several individual country expe
riences as well as a critical review of country
and cross-country studies conducted by World
Bank staff and others, and in the process evalu
ated the experience of the World Bank itself.
Noss underlines the strong association between
adjustment and decline in the educational indi
cators in several adjusting countries, and also
the improvement in educational indicators in
non-adjusting countries during comparable pe
riods, but questions the causality factor: whether
the declines could be attributed to adjustment
policies, and the positive growth to the non-
adjustment policies. H e argues that it would be
difficult to isolate the effect of adjustment, as
the countries that adjusted were those that needed
to do so owing to severe economic problems. It
is possible that the outcomes might have been
worse, if not the same, if the countries had not
resorted to adjustment. Noss argues that 'al
though adjustment policies do have certain di
rect and indirect implications for education,
current trends often have their roots in pre-
adjustment mismanagement or economic reces
sion' (Noss, 1991, p . 4).
Supporting the findings of Kakwani et al.
(1990), Noss (1991, p . 23), however, quotes
some more evidence from a World Bank study
that while in ten intensely adjusting countries
the share of education in the government's dis
cretionary public expenditure declined from 17.6
per cent in 1980 to 16.2 per cent in 1986, during
414 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
the same period it increased in five non-intensely
adjusting countries from 10.9 per cent in 1980
(8.7 per cent in 1975) to 12.9 per cent in 1986,
and in another five 'other' (non-intensely) ad
justing countries it increased from 11.7 per cent
to 12.7 per cent. In the other adjusting coun
tries, governments deliberately 'protected' the
education sector (see also Cornia et al., 1987).
T h e real rate of growth of public expenditure on
education per capita came d o w n , in the intensely
adjusting countries, to about 1 per cent per annum
during the 1980s from 10.8 per cent in the 1970s,
while in the non-adjusting countries it increased
from 6.7 per cent in the 1970s to 9.7 per cent in
1985-87 (after declining to 0.3 per cent in 1981-
84) (Noss, 1991, p . 27).
A few other interesting statistics, reported
in several World Bank studies and summarized
by Noss (1991), on some countries that have
undergone or have been undergoing the pro
cess of adjustment m a y be noted: in the Philip
pines the expenditure per student in tertiary
education in 1985 was only 45 per cent of the
1980 level. In Costa Rica the expenditure on
primary education per student had declined by
1986 to two-thirds of the 1980 level, while it
was up to 90 per cent only in the case of terti
ary-level education (p. 28). In Ghana the en
rolment ratio in primary education declined from
80 per cent in 1980 to 71 per cent in 1987
(p. 26). Several country-specific studies also came
to similar conclusions.7 O n the whole, the im
pact of adjustment policies on education in Asian
countries has not been so severe as it has in
African and Latin American countries.
W h y and h o w does education suffer under
'adjusting' processes? Public investment in edu
cation declines significantly, in absolute and/or
relative terms, in the adjusting countries because
the debt burden, and correspondingly the debt
service payments, increase dramatically; gov
ernments are therefore forced to reduce public
spending. It is easier to reduce expenditure on
education than on other sectors. Hence the axe
falls more severely on education, even though it
m a y fall on most other sectors as well.
Balancing the balance of payments becomes
an important goal of the national economies,
and under adjustment programmes currency
devaluation becomes an important instrument
for achieving this. A s Noss (1991, p . 23) has
noted, currency devaluation m a y induce shifts
in the allocation of public budgets towards sec
tors that are more import- or foreign exchange-
intensive, and as education does not belong to
either category it finds itself starved of public
resources.
Real expenditure on education m a y decline,
as education is a labour-intensive sector, with
as m u c h as 95 per cent of the education budget
being allocated for teachers' salaries. Teachers'
wages m a y increase in nominal terms because
of the inflationary tendencies of the adjustment
programmes, but they do not increase enough
to keep pace with the increase in prices.
Lastly, incomes and prices are affected by
adjustment policies, and the demand for educa
tion is influenced by incomes and prices (Behrman
and Deolalikar, 1991, p. 292). A s incomes and
living conditions are seriously affected during
the process of adjustment, demand for educa
tion m a y fall. This is more true of the weaker
sections of society. D e m a n d for education m a y
fall owing to changes in the labour market -
increased levels of unemployment, reduced earn
ings and earnings differentials, a corresponding
increase in the need for participation in the la
bour market, and the increased cost of educa
tion (although opportunity costs m a y decline)
(Woodhall, 1991, pp. 28-9).
Effects of adjustment on education
Macroeconomic adjustment and education are closely related through the budgetary mechanism. T h e level of resources available for education m a y be linked in principle to the success of the macroeconomic reforms, and lack of success m a y lead to further deterioration in spending on education. Economic adjustment and budget restructuring reduce public spending on
Education and structural adjustment 415
education; and declining budgets for education
m a y affect the quantity and quality of the gradu
ates of the education system, which will have a
negative impact on macroeconomic growth and
adjustment (Stevenson, 1991, pp. 19-20). N o t
only the macroeconomic choices, but also the
meso and micro choices, were significantly in
fluenced by adjustment policies, and the influ
ence has been, on the whole, negative (see Cornia
and Stewart, 1990).
T o predict the effect of adjustment poli
cies on education is difficult. However, given
the international experience, the prospects for
education in India appear to be bleak, if not
dismal. In general, early evidence of success of
structural adjustment policies was confined to
middle-income countries, and countries whose
o w n capacities for negotiation and policy analysis
were adequate, but this was not so in the poorer
and weaker countries, notably the sub-Saharan
African countries (Jones, 1992, pp. 166-7). T h e
adjustment policies that do not explicitly take
into account the education sector tend to treat
education not as an investment activity in hu
m a n capital that raises productivity, but as a
sector of public spending, and public spending
has to be reduced in all sectors, including edu
cation. In fact, the adverse impact is found to
be 'heavier' on education than on other sectors
(Emmerji, 1987, p . 8; Stevenson, 1991, p . 20).
T h e isolation and measurement of the ef
fects of adjustment are difficult and problem
atic (Lourié, 1992), not to speak of differentia
tion between the effects of World Bank structural
adjustment policies and those of I M F stabilization
policies, as they are most often presented as a
package of reforms. S o m e of the research re
viewed here,8 however, adopted sophisticated
methodologies and attempted to isolate the ef
fects of adjustment on education. It has been
found that the adverse effects of adjustment
policies on education are likely to be very se
vere. Decline in public investment, in gross
enrolment ratios and in quality of education,
particularly at primary level, have been found
to be strongly associated with adjustment poli
cies. Adjustment leads to squeezes on public
budgets in most sectors, including education.
T h e effect on education m a y indeed be heavier
than on others.
Total public expenditure on education in
current and, more specifically, in real prices is
found to have declined in some countries dur
ing adjustment. T h e declines are more pro
nounced in terms of per student expenditures.
T h e relative priority given to education in the
development framework - expenditure on edu
cation as a percentage of G N P , and as a per
centage of total government expenditure - has
been found to decline in a large number of coun
tries.
Within education, it m a y be easier during
the adjustment process to reduce public spend
ing on primary education than to reduce that
on higher education, for familiar reasons (see
Tilak, 1986, 1990a). Hence basic education and
mass education programmes such as literacy
programmes m a y be more severely affected than
higher education. Higher education m a y receive
'protection' from the governments, the bureauc
racy and politicians.
Further, within education, the capital budg
ets m a y be sacrificed in favour of recurrent
budgets. Buildings, furniture, equipment and
so forth m a y be traded off in favour of addi
tional teachers. Within the recurrent budgets,
because of the pressures of teachers' unions,
etc., teachers' wage bills tend to be less affected.
Even w h e n fiscal retrenchment is effected, the
salaries of teachers and other staff cannot be
cut for various reasons - in fact, they m a y even
increase (in current market prices at a rate less
than inflation), and schools and colleges m a y
even be opened without the necessary buildings
and equipment.
T h e most serious casualty m a y be quality
of education, and investment in those inputs
that have a stronger relationship with quality,
such as textbooks and other teaching-learning
materials. T h e axe falls on the petty amounts
being invested in teaching-learning materials,
including classroom materials in primary schools,
books and journals in libraries, consumable
material in laboratories and other quality-
improvement programmes in secondary schools,
colleges and universities. There is reason to believe
416 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
that the provision of materials and supplies will
drop more than overall budgets, and this will
cause more damage to educational development.
A s Fuller and Habte (1992, p . 4) confirm, ef
forts to increase recurrent spending on text
books are 'stymied at times by overall spending
ceilings negotiated with I M F or World Bank
economists'. Quality of education m a y deterio
rate with an increased number of students per
teacher, reduced numbers of books, etc. D r o p
out and repetition rates m a y increase. During
the process of adjustment, short-duration edu
cation and crash courses m a y be preferred to
long-duration education programmes, short-term
training programmes to long-term training,
untrained teachers to trained teachers, etc. T h e
proportion of young, inexperienced, temporary
and untrained teachers m a y increase. All this
will have serious negative effects on the quality
of education in the long run.
A n equally important concern should be
equity in education. Given the tendencies of
increased cost recovery, equity will also be af
fected. A n important outcome of the adjust
ment policies is introduction of more measures
for cost recovery. Measures such as students'
fees have been introduced even at the primary
level (for example in Malawi, and recently in
Tanzania), although recent discussions on cost
recovery are confined to post-primary levels of
education. Student fees and student loans are
the two most favoured measures of cost recov
ery. S o m e even suggest full cost recovery, par
ticularly at the tertiary level of education. A s
such measures are introduced, and direct and
indirect subsidies in education are subject to
cuts, access to education m a y be seriously re
stricted, and inequities m a y increase in terms of
lower enrolment rates for w o m e n (see United
Nations, 1989) and other weaker sections of
the population.
Adjustment policies directly and indirectly
contribute to restoration of the market mecha
nism in general and privatization of education
in particular - directly, as adjustment policies
specifically include privatization and marketi-
zation, and indirectly, through a reduction in
government subsidies. A s public budgets for
education shrink, privatization will increase, with
all its ill effects (see Tilak, 1991). Private enrol
ment and private investment will increase, but
the increase will not balance the decrease in
public investment, and as a result social invest
ment in education will be less than optimal.
Governments and private enterprise feel that
this is the best time to sell any argument in
favour of privatization. A s a result, even ethi
cally and constitutionally illegal institutions -
for example, the capitation-fee colleges in India
- m a y find support (Tilak, 1992). There m a y
be forces with vested interests that try to exploit
the situation characterized by adjustment poli
cies, and the growth in capitation-fee colleges
m a y be attributed to these forces. Secondly, simi
lar forces also help in the growth of private edu
cation institutions that rely m o s d y not on pri
vate finances, but on those from the public
exchequer: this can be described as 'pseudo-
privatization' (Tilak, 1991). Voluntary or non
governmental organizations that rely heavily on
government funds also belong to this category.
Adjustment policies play a catalytic role in all
this.
Under restructuring, enrolment rates, school
quality and priority for educational investment
suffer, and there are obstacles to an increase in
internal efficiency. At the same time there is a
need for purposeful effort to preserve alloca
tion to education, for the reallocation of resources
- including the targeting of public subsidies -
and for cost recovery. T h e role of the private
sector will increase.
It is not only the h u m a n and financial in
puts into education and the learning process
that are sacrificed: the output of the education
system m a y also be affected, given the high lev
els of educated unemployment. This m a y re
sult in a greater 'brain drain' - an outflow of an
educated workforce, and an escalation in the
qualifications demanded for jobs (Lourié, 1987,
p . 170).
In all, short-run expediency seems to domi
nate public policy-making during the adjust
ment process, and the long-term socio-economic
benefits of public investment do not seem to
carry any weight.
Education and structural adjustment 417
All these effects m a y be only in the short
term. In the long term, economic growth m a y
help education, improving, a m o n g other things,
efficiency in education. But education is a long-
term activity, and perhaps cannot be brought
back onto the rails in a short period of time
w h e n funds are available, once it has gone off
the tracks owing to paucity of funds. Further
more , the world's experience of these matters is
very limited, and the 'long-term results [of ad
justment policies] are yet to be observed' (Fuller,
1992, p . 43). S o m e of the adverse consequences
m a y be due to the fact that policy changes un
der adjustment are guided by political rather
than efficiency considerations (Noss, 1991, p . 3).
However , it m a y be that the cuts inflicted
on education budgets would be more severe
but for the adjustment policies, as these policies
are resorted to because of severe economic prob
lems. In other words, one m a y argue that the
severe economic difficulties m a y have forced
the government to cut its spending on educa
tion drastically, that the adjustment policies helped
in reducing the cuts and that, 'without some
form of adjustment, the situation would have
been worse' (Cornia et al., 1987).9 This is only
a hypothesis, still to be empirically checked.
However , it m a y be tenable to argue that while
adjustment m a y not be the cause of the prob
lem, it m a y not be the solution either.
Prospects
T h e most fundamental weakness of the struc
tural adjustment policies is in the underlying
assumption that not only short-term macro-
economic stabilization but also, more impor
tantly, long-term structural adjustment of the
economy is possible without education; that the
education sector can be ignored, or the invest
ments in education can even be reduced during
adjustment. This goes against the World Bank's
o w n policies favouring h u m a n development in
general, and development of education in par
ticular. This structural weakness needs to be
corrected. T h e orthodox adjustment policies
cannot succeed. A n alternative model of adjust
ment is needed.
First, in large economies, and in sectors
where the effects of structural adjustment are
mixed and controversial, if not totally adverse,
structural reforms should be started on an ex
perimental basis on a small scale, and in a form
that is reversible and modifiable, if necessary.
T h e application of large-scale and irreversible
reforms is costly.
In a situation characterized by economic
difficulties there is a tendency towards myopia:
the short-term savings become more attractive,
and the long-term costs of underinvestment in
h u m a n capital, particularly education, are over
looked. It is rarely realized that 'the high esti
mates of social rates of return to investment in
both the quantity and the quality of education
suggest that education can be important in achiev
ing structural adjustment and long-run economic
growth' (Knight, 1990, p . 71).
T h e undesirable consequences of adjust
ment policies on social sectors could be reduced
if a two-pronged effort were m a d e : (a) by the
adjusting countries and (b) by the World Bank
and the International Monetary Fund . F r o m the
point of view of the adjusting countries, it is
necessary, as the International Labour Organi
sation (ILO) (19926) suggests: that legal and
fiscal protection is guaranteed to sectors like
education, so that drastic cuts in public expendi
ture are not inflicted on it; that the political
mobilization of groups interested in education
take place, so that they become an organized
force that is more vocal and powerful ' w h e n the
threat of adjustment' is 'seen to be serious'; and
that a well-trained bureaucracy is built up in
vulnerable areas like education, so that budgets
for education are defended competently.
Reduction in the severely adverse effects
of adjustment policies on social sectors requires
structural adjustment policies to include explic
itly the protection of social and h u m a n devel
opment sectors (Haq, 1990; Ribe et al, 1990a,
1990&). In fact, the World Bank seems to have
understood this, and has exhibited considerable,
though not sufficient, flexibility in its lending
418 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
strategies. T h e relationship between macro-
economic adjustment (through a structural ad
justment programme) and education seems to
have been at least partly taken into account by
the World Bank, as reflected in its changing
strategies. It appears that over the years the Bank's
investment loans have become somewhat flex
ible in responding to the vastly different situa
tions prevailing in various countries. For exam
ple, w h e n structural adjustment loans, which
were later regarded as 'experimental and based
upon insufficient economic and institutional
analysis' (Stevenson, 1991, p . 27), were severely
criticized for causing serious damage to the so
cial sectors, sectoral adjustment loan programmes
specifically for social sectors were taken up.10
In a good number of countries, structural ad
justment loans were supplemented by educa
tion sector lending sectoral adjustment or tradi
tional type of investment loans. However, the
World Bank's efforts to protect the education
sector started only after the macroeconomic
reforms had begun, and these latter resulted in
a long decline in education finances. T h e
macroeconomic reforms in the initial years paid
little attention to the social sectors. O n the whole,
a variety of experiments were noted: out of a
sample of twenty-one countries, in eight of them
structural adjustment programmes were sup
plemented by education sector loans (sectoral
adjustment or traditional investment loans);11
five countries, including Bangladesh, received
only education sector loans, but not structural
adjustment loans; and another eight relied on
structural adjustment reforms only (Stevenson,
1991, p . 7) . Furthermore, w h e n a given situa
tion demanded more than one type of invest
ment loan at the same time, hybrid loans were
introduced. W h e n countries were found to be
capable of designing their o w n projects and
managing them (including appraisal and super
vision), sector investment loans that provide for
the transfer of responsibilities to the borrowing
country replaced some of the specific invest
ment loans, for which World Bank staff used to
be deeply involved in the identification, design,
appraisal and supervision of projects. There has
been considerable change, but the persistence
of the problems, for example in the form of the
adverse effects of structural adjustment loans
on h u m a n development, shows that the change
is not adequate. A s Jones (1992, p . 171) has
observed, the World Bank failed to design n e w
educational approaches to poverty alleviation
during the 1970s, and during the 1980s it failed
'to adjust to a sufficient extent [its] theoretical
understanding of education and development'.
If government spending on education is
low, the World Bank should support higher levels
of spending though sector loans or sectoral ad
justment loans, which are preferable to specific
investment project loans. Only then is 'adjust
ment with a h u m a n face' possible. A s the World
Bank has noted: 'priority social and poverty
programmes must be protected at the expense
of other alternatives' (World Bank, 1989, p . 18).
Adjustment policies should allow an increase in
public spending on h u m a n development sec
tors like education.12 Education, particularly el
ementary education, should receive a 'protec
tive package' in the adjustment programmes
(Sanyal, 1992). This is also reflected in the
changing policies of the World Bank in financ
ing education.
Since the first education loan by the World
Bank to Tunisia in 1962, nearly 400 projects in
about a hundred countries have received loans.
Although a late entrant into the World Bank
system, education became an important sector
of it. T h e World Bank is the single largest do
nor of external finance for education (Tilak,
1988), providing one-fifth to one-quarter of the
external aid for education in the world. During
the initial years, the Bank's investment loans
concentrated on secondary education, particu
larly diversified and vocational and technical edu
cation. A s m u c h as 84 per cent of the education
loans between 1963 and 1968 was for second
ary education, with nothing for primary educa
tion. It was during the first half of the 1970s
that primary education began to receive atten
tion. But still, secondary education, and then
higher education, received larger shares of total
education loans. With the beginning of the 1990s,
primary education has been given top priority
in education lending, with a share of nearly one-
Education and structural adjustment 419
quarter. Adult and non-formal education that
did not figure in the World Bank projects in the
earlier years is also being supported by the World
Bank, which is taking 'Education For A H ' as an
important goal. This is yet another important
change in the Bank's policies on financing edu
cation.
T h e World Bank's programmes include not
only structural adjustment loans for macro-
economic adjustment but also sectoral adjust
ment loans specific to a sector, as already noted;
these include social sector and 'safety net' pro
grammes, which m a y be more appealing, po
litically acceptable and feasible, and which in
fact protect a particular (social) sector from
budget cuts in addition to addressing macro-
economic problems and increasing efficiency at
sectoral level (Noss, 1991, p . 7). Sectoral ad
justment policies in education clearly favour an
increase in enrolments in education (particu
larly at primary level), quality of education and
the allocation of resources to primary educa
tion, and the safety net programmes protect the
poor under the adverse circumstances created
by structural adjustment and external shocks. A
proper mix of structural adjustment and social
sector adjustment policies, along with pro
grammes such as the 'safety net' ones, is neces
sary.
T h e adjustment policies, including the
sectoral adjustment policies in education, en
compass a variety of policy reforms relating to
costs, financing, quality, equity, access, and the
internal and external efficiency of education.
T h e adjustment policies clearly insist on increased
cost recovery in education (higher education in
particular), a policy that is difficult to imple
ment in m a n y countries, notably the poor sub
sanaran African states. Without huge public
subsidies, the higher education system m a y col
lapse in some of the poor countries. W h a t is the
opt imum mix of public subsidies and cost re
covery? This is yet to be identified. It needs to
be determined according to prevailing socio
economic conditions, as well as the education
situation in the economy. However, it should
be noted that there is no case either theoreti
cally or empirically for the total withdrawal of
public subsidies, or for 100 per cent cost recov
ery in education.
Lastly, adjustment policies also clearly in
volve an increased role for the market and pri
vatization, and a reduced role for the state, while
h u m a n development in developing countries
requires state intervention and support. This
tendency is also seriously questioned by m a n y .
T h e World Bank is aware of the problem, and
openly admits that markets alone generally do
not ensure that people, especially the poorest,
receive adequate education, and that 'govern
ment intervention is essential for development'
(World Bank, 1991). Adjustment policies have
yet to reflect this change in outlook. A s Mosley
et al. (1991, p . 305) argue, structural adjust
ment policies should embrace, where appropriate,
'policies to expand the economic role of the
state'. In conclusion, the World Bank's invest
ment and lending strategies have, as already
noted, evolved over the years; they have re
sponded to various changing situations. But the
changes do not seem to be adequate. There is
a need for more dynamism and flexibility in
the World Bank's policies to match the various
existing socio-economic, cultural and political
contexts. •
Notes
1. See, for more detail, Fredriksen (1990), Stevenson (1991) and Jones (1992). Stevenson (1991, pp. 5 3 -5) also presents in tabular form the policy content of the several loans.
2. During the 1950s and 1960s, the World Bank concentrated on project financing. Specific investment loans were its main instrument. Non-project financing or financing for general purposes was little known.
3. Only 2 per cent of all structural adjustment loans between 1979 and 1989 included conditions relating to social sector reforms (Stevenson, 1991, p . 15).
4. Hybrid loans, it appears, do not include the components of structural adjustment loans.
420 Jandhyala B. G. Tilak
5. Only Mali was reported to have been given a hybrid loan that has a human resource sector component.
6. During the period 1980-90, the total value of structural adjustment loans was around S 10,442.4 million, compared to 84,324.5 million investment loans/credits, and 8400.5 million education/sector adjustment/hybrid loans (Stevenson, 1991, p. 52).
7. See, for example, Behrman and Deolalikar (1991), Hinchliffe (1989), several other papers in the IDS Bulletin Qanuary 1989), and Carnoy and Samoff (1990).
8. Most of the literature reviewed here is research conducted by the World Bank staff. There is need for more detailed studies from the point of view of the adjusting countries, and for a comparison between the two kinds of research.
9. For the same reason, Squire (1991, p. 182) argues that any analysis of the effects of structural adjustment must compare the outcomes not with the pre-adjustment period, but with the outcomes that could be expected from alternative policies that would have been economically and politically feasible under such difficult economic conditions.
10. In addition, one m a y note two important projects/ programmes of the World Bank. First, the Emergency Social Fund, first established in Bolivia in 1986, represents 'one of the first World Bank-funded efforts to address the social costs of adjustment through creating a separate compensatory program, rather than by modifying the implementation of a structural adjustment program in the light of the expected social costs' ( N e w m a n et al., 1991, p . 367). It helps to cushion the impact of the adjustment on the poor. Secondly, the Bank's Social Dimensions of Adjustment Project, started in 1987, is yet another major programme that aims to reduce the impact of structural adjustment programmes on the social sectors. However, it could also be integrated into structural adjustment loans, or sectoral adjustment loans. T h e project, however, concentrates on sub-Saharan Africa.
11. For example, Malawi's education sector programme was found to be comprehensive and integrated with the macroeconomic programme (Stevenson, 1991, p. 17).
12. Education sectoral adjustment programmes in eight out of fourteen countries recommended that education's share in the budget be held constant, and in the other six countries that it be increased; most of them suggested quantitative targets as well (Stevenson, 1991, p. 25).
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OPEN FILE
Monitoring the quality of education worldwide:
II. A few national examples of IEA's impact
Interests and m o d e s in research utilization: the Finnish I E A experience
Kimmo Leimu
Education is a lifelong collection of experiences.
S o m e experiences are incidental, without nota
ble purpose, and guided by more or less i m m e
diate environmental needs. M o r e purposeful and
systematic learning experiences are provided
through the programmes of formal schooling,
which constitute important societal services ben
efiting both the individual and society. These
benefits are related to the economic, social and
cultural functions of education. M o r e specifi
cally, they are related to educating a competent
labour force, the perpetuation and recreation of
core social institutions, and providing for cul
tural continuity and enrichment by offering stu
dents opportunities to develop personal values,
interests, skills and knowledge. In short, educa
tion offers important survival skills to both so
ciety and the individual.
In this article, I will sketch for the reader
several dimensions of the research paradigm to
demonstrate h o w complicated issues can be
c o m e . After noting some of the domains and
K i m m o Leimu (Finland). Senior researcher at the Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä (Finland). His main academic interests are in curriculum issues, educational evaluation and educational indicators. He has been involved in comparative multinational studies on educational achievement since 1967.
ways of looking at research, I will discuss the
International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA) studies in
Finland and suggest h o w these have helped
Finland, which has a small critical mass of
educational researchers, sort out educational
problems by drawing on a comparative interna
tional context.
Multidimensional research
In economic terms, formal education everywhere
constitutes a large and complex social system,
an 'industry' which demands considerable hu
m a n and material resources with the expecta
tion of positive returns in the future. In general,
formal education is viewed as an 'investment in
h u m a n capital', as an instrument for economic
growth, h u m a n well-being and sociocultural
development. Having established itself as a major
societal service to the nation, education can be
seen as a dynamic field of activity which seeks
to develop its o w n goals and modes of work on
a continuous basis, according to need, but al
ways constrained by available resources.
Considering the importance and pervasive
ness of the education effort, it is evident that
such a major undertaking cannot be left to chance,
but has to include some means of monitoring
Prospects, Vol. XXII, I, N o . 4, 1992 (84)
426 Kimmo Leimu
and evaluation. This implies a coherent system
for obtaining and using feedback information.
It is evident that the more open attitude to plan
ning and decision-making brought about by the
continuous development efforts in m a n y coun
tries has increased the demand for systematic
and reliable information to serve accountability
and provide a better understanding of what is
meaningful in education. This pursuit is often
linked with the more practical goals of judicious
decision-making at various levels of the educa
tional system. However, if such monitoring is
to be reliable, it cannot be far removed from
bona fide research work in the field of educa
tion, especially where policy-makers are eager
to use such information. Thus the issue of re
search utilization has both scholarly and practi
cal applications.
T h e study of education has m a n y aims and
domains. In a large and complex system, re
searchers must by necessity work with several
levels of operation and specialized expertise, which
together determine system definition, problems
and communication style. Thus one m a y focus
on system-level issues and regard other societal
structures and processes as peripheral to edu
cation. Alternatively, one m a y examine pro
gramme-level or local-level issues related to
organizational and curriculum concerns. Or ,
perhaps, one m a y develop an interest in indi
vidual-level interactions involving teaching and
learning. For a complete understanding of edu
cation, all levels are necessary.
Again, the basic purpose of collecting, ana
lysing and interpreting survey data stems from
an interest in changing education, whereby one
comes to a decision usually by monitoring and
evaluating the consequences of previous deci
sions and resulting practices. Such results are
usually needed quickly by policy-makers. O n
the other hand, information sought by educators
m a y be conclusion-oriented, related to the study
of education in more general terms in that it
attempts to conceptualize, describe and inter
pret observations in a theoretical framework
(Cronbach and Suppes, 1969; Bassey, 1992).
It is also necessary to take into account the
various research modes used to communicate
feedback to different audiences, and notably
within and between various levels of decision
makers. Without necessarily linking any of the
communication m o d e s to particular system
operation levels, the following categories have
been identified by Bassey (1992):
T h e formal level, which uses public forms of
communication intended for large and dis
tant audiences. Here the personal inter
pretative and interactional element is mini
mal and spontaneous issues cannot be
handled.
T h e informal-interactive level, wherein the in
formation is shared with others (orally and
written). Here the choice of participants in
the sphere of dissemination, as well as the
prevailing professional and interpersonal
atmosphere, become important.
T h e personal level, wherein the sphere of shared
interests is narrow, perhaps restricted to
close colleagues, or to researchers alone.
Here again, judgements and conclusions
m a y be very informal, reflective or even
speculative, perhaps never achieving any
formal status.
While some additional dimensions might be
useful, the three introduced above will suffice
to produce a many-sided framework for struc
turing the research utilization process. For pur
poses of simplicity, however, three main forms
of utilization are introduced. These distinctions
have been m a d e by Lampinen (1985), based
on work by Gurvitch (1972) and Weiss (1979,
1980), and completed by the work of Husén
and Kogan (1984). Subsequently, other major
research perspectives are discussed in additional
detail in order to demonstrate both the c o m
plexity and the potential in a consideration of
the problems and content of comparative inter
national research in education.
Three main forms and aims of research
usage can be identified:
Instrumental utilization considers research re
sults as directly applicable to distinct prob
lems. Essentially, this approach is m a n
agement-oriented, as its main focus is on
solving practical problems which are con
ceptually straightforward.
Interests and m o d e s in research utilization: the Finnish I E A experience 427
Conceptual utilization employs information to
enlighten the researcher by providing a
better understanding of the problem,
thereby affecting the way in which plans
and decisions are taken.
Political utilization employs educational strate
gies for social action. This approach con
stitutes a rather complicated field of appli
cation, since issues related to values enter
the picture. T h e utilization process m a y
involve a process of choice among m a n y
conflicting points of view, something not
u n c o m m o n in education. This utilization
issue becomes a profoundly h u m a n judge
ment which is selective and m a y result in
what is called tactical or symbolic utiliza
tion (Lampinen, 1985, p . 13).
T h e above distinctions represent 'ideal types'
which are somewhat accentuated and m a y not
be easily found in everyday life. However, they
m a y be used heuristically in considering vari
ous research strategies. O n e such framework is
given in Table 1.
S o m e modes of utilization presented by
Havelock et al. (1971), Weiss (1979) and Husén
and Kogan (1984) have been inserted loosely
into Table 1, although it should be understood
that each model is not necessarily amenable to
m y classification. Thus , for example, it m a y be
noted that neither Havelock's 'linkage model'
nor Weiss's 'research-oriented' model can be
unambiguously placed in any single cell because
as all-encompassing emancipatory strategies they
permeate several types of utilization and c o m
munication modes . Yet other dimensions for
categorizing information use can be found in
Braybrooke and Lindblom (1963) and
Stufflebeam (1976).
T h e general message emerging from the
above elaboration suggests that the utilization
of research knowledge is not a straightforward
matter which only depends on a simple choice
of strategy, or the merits of available informa
tion. A n y successful endeavour will depend on
additional frameworks such as the recognition
of problem uniqueness, the extent and quality
of knowledge required, and the capability and
willingness of persons involved to use the data.
S o m e of these considerations are interrelated to
the purposes and problems adopted by the evalu
ation model, while still others are related to the
culture and ethos of the decision-makers w h o
will use the data.
Expectations concerning multinational educational
research
S o m e examples of those expectations related to
various utilization interests are given below. While
user needs have been listed, some grouping has
been attempted according to the most general
type of utilization displayed in Table 1 : policy,
conceptual and techno-managerial. In review
ing these perspectives, readers should think in
terms of their o w n country.
T A B L E 1. Approaches to educational research
Information use Communication style employed
Formal Interactive
Technical/instrumental
Conceptual/professional
Political/emancipatory
R & D model
Enlightenment model
Political model
Problem-solving model Co-operative sharing model
Invisible college model (Linkage/percolation model)
(Research-oriented model)
428 Kimmo Leimit
POLICY INTERESTS IN RESEARCH
Cultural perspective. W h a t are the undercur
rents of education? W h a t is the status and
role of formal education in different cul
tures at different levels of societal develop
ment? H o w can the structures, contents,
practices and outcomes of education in
Finland be understood in this context?
Historical perspective. Empirical descriptions of
schooling in a time perspective allow the
past to be compared with the present.
These concerns also highlight the impor
tance of the historical timing of I E A stud
ies - especially regarding major educa
tional developments in a particular country.
International comparison perspective. H o w can
the Finnish system of education be viewed
from without and conclusions drawn re
garding both its strengths and weaknesses
in relation to other educational systems?
Futurological perspective. Representing the other
end of the historical time-frame, expecta
tions m a y be extended to the ability of the
school system to meet its challenges in the
future. They are likely to be related to the
nation's survival and developmental needs,
as well as the maintenance of its distinctive
culture.
Accountability perspective. W h a t can be said
about the quality or level of educational
effort in Finland? Is it acceptable? W h e r e
did w e go wrong, contrary to aims and
expectations? W h a t strategies can be sug
gested for providing reliable evaluation of
progress towards educational goals? W h a t
would constitute valid and feasible indica
tors regarding the status of the educational
system?
Economic perspective. Is Finnish education ef
fective, efficient and productive in its ca
pacity for providing the trained and edu
cated labour needs of society? W h a t are its
public and private costs?
Policy perspective. W h a t indications are avail
able to help one to draw conclusions on
the effects of current policy on education
and its outcomes? W h a t suggestions for
policy revision can be derived from re
search?
Administrative perspective. Problems of imple
mentation and leadership require ques
tions about h o w the educational system
functions as a multilevel, co-ordinated or
ganization involving planning, decision
making and management. H o w well are
aims and principles communicated across
levels? D o decisions at one level matter
more than at another?
CONCEPTUAL AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
INTERESTS
Theoretical perspective. H o w can education be
understood and explained as a complex,
multilevel societal system? W h a t concepts
are valid in describing its characteristics
and processes? W h a t causal relationships
are postulated and observed? H o w are the
results interpreted theoretically? W h a t link
ages does comparative education have with
other disciplines and applications?
Structural perspective. W h a t are the effects of in-
and out-of-school factors in explaining
educational phenomena, such as student
learning? W h a t importance do certain back
ground conditions (for example, h o m e
environment, or administrative practices,
curriculum, teachers and school facilities)
have on the quality of educational out
comes found a m o n g different societal
groups?
Curriculum perspective. H o w do social structure
and processes in Finnish society affect the
level and distribution of educational serv
ices and outcomes? W h a t functions does
education serve as a social institution, and
what short- and long-term effects does it
have on the society?
Psychological perspective. W h a t are student learn
ing experiences like? W h a t is the prevail
ing conception of 'a student' as a h u m a n
being, or 'learning' as a process in the
Finnish classroom? W h a t kind of h u m a n
Interests and modes in research utilization: the Finnish IEA experience 429
relations are prevalent? W h a t attitudes are
developed? W h a t are the h u m a n costs of
performing versus not performing well?
Methodological perspective. W h a t research para
digm has been adopted by IEA and why?
H o w does one ensure comparability? W h a t
are the operative techniques and related
errors in sampling, measurement and analy
ses? W h a t is the basic nature and quality
of the data and what does it represent?
TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT INTERESTS
Timing perspective. H o w m u c h time is required
to carry out systematic project evaluation
from start to finish? W h a t complications
are added w h e n the multinational dimen
sion is included? At the micro level, what
amount of time is required by students
taking the tests and answering the
questionnaires? These experiences are im
portant w h e n determining the feasibility of
the research programme in the school and
nation.
Resource perspective. W h e n projects have multi
ple purposes, it m a y be difficult for na
tional funding agencies to see the overall
importance of evaluation research. Funders
should be reminded, however, that such
efforts need to be seen in the light of the
total system operation, because it is rea
sonable to expect some monitoring infor
mation for system-level and curriculum
interests. Costs are not high w h e n dis
counted over several years and pro-rated
according to the m a n y outcomes pro
duced, such as international and national
reports, curriculum and sampling docu
ments, k n o w - h o w , experience and the lat
est technology derived from multilevel re
search activities. Although the exact value
m a y be difficult to determine, it is safe to
say that countries can learn m u c h from
such co-operation.
Organizing perspective. H o w does one manage
and supervise large-scale survey research,
which presumes co-operation from school
authorities, teachers, students and parents
in a variety of cultural settings? H o w should
researchers organize the m a n y logistical
facets of the research process - such as
instrumentation, sampling, fieldwork, data
analysis, archiving, reporting and dissemi
nation, with the variety of expertise avail
able? Enabling people from different parts
of the world to work together to arrive at a
consensus of their cultural, conceptual-
theoretical and practical viewpoints is a
sensitive issue which always requires c o m
promise in the context of cultural inter
change.
Dissemination perspective. H o w does one enable
research results to become part of the
national and international experience con
cerning education? H o w does one reach
the user with research findings? H o w should
data for policy-making, theoretical con
ceptualizing and practitioner use be pre
sented, communicated and implemented?
H o w does one organize and document the
research data for future use? These mat
ters of dissemination and eventual response
are not easily resolved.
If a nation is truly to benefit from comparative
multinational research, then three main perspec
tives - policy, conceptual and technical - must
ideally be considered prior to starting any project
The IEA experience in Finland
Finland was one of the founding member s of
IEA, participating in twelve out of fifteen major
I E A studies, including the first pilot experiment
in 1959. Throughout, the seat of the Finnish
National IEA Centre has been at the Institute
for Educational Research, University of Jyväskylä.
Other Finnish universities have been involved
either in project co-ordination (Joensuu), or as
separate users of I E A data, mainly for academic
work (Turku and Joensuu). Apart from these
universities, the main funding agencies have been
the Ministry and the National Board of Educa-
430 Kimmo Leimu
tion, and the A c a d e m y of Finland. Together, a
widening circle of researchers, administrators,
teacher educators and teachers have directly
experienced these international co-operative
ventures. Thus , one m a y inquire about the role
and concept of I E A studies in Finland: H o w
can m e I E A research venture be seen in Fin
land in the light of the experiences, needs and
expectations observed above?
Traditionally, w h e n painting a picture of
the overall educational effort in Finland, the main
professional benefits expected from international
comparisons concern the quality of inputs, pro
cesses and outcomes of education. In this re
spect, models which help to explain outcomes
within and across countries are valued highly,
as these have the potential for revealing system
structure and curricular arrangements which have
validity in a variety of educational settings. R e
searchers are especially eager to examine effec
tive patterns across countries and to assess them
in the light of their national policy and curricu
lum implications.
W h e n polling Finnish researchers involved
in the early I E A activities, two interests were
recorded: the technical issue of h o w to assess
educational outcomes, particularly instrument
development; and a more general and scholarly
interest in contributing towards the success of a
co-operative study. It is noteworthy that early
Finnish interests did not include the production
of substantial national analyses, as it was thought
sufficient to rely on the c o m m o n international
reports. In later studies, the need for supple
mental national reports became clear. O n e can
view this as the first step toward the need for
enhanced research utilization.
While a formal system of research utiliza
tion has not been established in Finland, the
basic strategy that has been followed in making
use of IEA results has necessarily taken into
account the relatively few resources devoted to
conducting and following up each individual
project. Since it has not been possible to pro
duce comprehensive and timely national reports
which would enable formal, visible dissemina
tion across broad levels of the education c o m
munity, more reliance has been given to what
have been termed 'interactive' strategies. Instead
of seeking short-lived publicity, an attempt has
been m a d e to approach planners, policy-makers
and national working groups with I E A results
or special analyses tailored to particular deci
sion-making needs. While policy-makers take
professional responsibility for developing their
o w n mandate and action plan, researchers are
able to judge the relevance of their o w n data in
shedding light on policy problems.
This activity between policy-maker and
researcher often takes the form of commissioned
reports, which are problem-oriented. Such strat
egies have been applied in Finland to develop
principles of testing and evaluation, including
the final examination system, the upper sec
ondary school curriculum and, more recently,
proposals for mathematics and science educa
tion throughout the formal education system.
T h e more research co-operation can be inte
grated with the development process, the better
the possibilities for researchers to contribute to
important developments through their work and
judgement. A good deal more might be done
along these lines in terms of a highly focused
interactive enlightenment model discussed ear
lier.
International research co-operation has
provided important empirical evidence which
has served policy discussion at the national level,
asking questions about the state of education in
Finland. In fact, I E A studies have often been
found to provide the only representative e m
pirical data for purposes of system monitoring
w h e n an international perspective is required.
Even at the national level, m u c h of the general
curriculum and policy evaluation work either
constitutes or relies on models and approaches
received or adapted from the IEA. These influ
ences are examples of open sharing, based on
c o m m o n international collaboration. A s the
mission of most national-level research shares a
strong orientation towards the future, it m a y be
stated that the I E A has helped point Finnish
educators to the future.
System-level evaluation strategies apply to
both general and specific curriculum issues on
levels: defining subject-area content and objec-
Interests and modes in research utilization: the Finnish IEA experience 431
tives, monitoring implementation, or in obtain
ing performance profiles. In Finland, initial na
tional interests are often related to such policy
and curriculum needs, while further analyses
tackle the theoretical issues. This situation is
qualified by two considerations: timeliness and
general appropriateness of data. Regarding time
liness, with rapid change all around it is possi
ble that the results of long-term research work
are hopelessly outdated by the time they are
released. This is what happened in Finland to
data from the six-subject study collected under
the traditional education system but analysed
and released only after the introduction of the
comprehensive school reforms. While it is u n
derstandable that there was little immediate in
terest in such results, however, access to re
peated studies over the years has led educators
to realize the unique historical value of previ
ously collected data.
Furthermore, one has to judge the appro
priate domain and level of application to I E A
findings. While, typically, system- and curricu
lum-level interests have determined the approach
and the content of these studies, it is true that
I E A data are best suited for exactly these pur
poses. This is not to say that certain I E A infor
mation should not be used (for example, for
instructional purposes) or cannot serve individual
or school-level needs. In fact, positive examples
m a y be taken from the I E A Written Composi
tion Study, where meaningful instructional sup
port was provided to teachers. In short, there is
a wide range of potential research interests in
education with the most suitable approaches.
Early decisions linking policy to methodology
can avoid unnecessary problems after the study
is in progress.
For researchers, the existence of an 'invis
ible college' of researchers with like interests, all
sharing a c o m m o n conceptual framework, is of
particular importance, as it permits not only
comparison of results but actual co-operative
wyrk in a practical sense (see Bloom, 1974;
Husén, 1979, 1988). Such co-operation m a y
be more or less direct, ranging from formal
partnership in special studies to making data
available. M u c h work has been possible using
multinational data which allow each participat
ing system to benefit from comparative studies
pursued elsewhere. Useful learning has also
occurred through more informal exchanges of
views, experiences and technical solutions, all
of which strengthen the quality of research it
self. At this point, one should not underesti
mate the added importance of subjective expe
rience gained by young researchers w h e n they
encounter prominent world-class researchers in
the workplace. Views and advice are keenly
absorbed, and a good deal of state-of-the-art
knowledge is transferred. These contacts are also
likely to build a sense of personal growth and
enhance motivation. All of the above contribu
tions m a y warrant a place in the above utiliza
tion framework.
In Finland, research procedures and meth
odological frameworks have also been used by
teachers wishing to k n o w the latest research find
ings. Together with actual findings, these ex
amples provide teachers with contextual knowl
edge and understanding useful for professional
growth and educational debate. In this connec
tion, professional teacher organizations have
proved both interested in and capable of pro
viding opportunities for publicity and debate,
particularly in the fields of literature, mathematics
and science. Dissemination efforts have ben
efited from links that have been built between
national interest groups by including their m e m
bers on IEA national study committees. This
m a y be taken as the second aspect of the Finn
ish utilization scene, wherein benefits accrue
mainly through interactive enlightenment strat
egies. O f course, it m a y also happen that pro
fessional union interests enter the picture, as it
is possible to use study outcomes w h e n arguing
for better provisions. In such a case one m a y
recognize the existence of a political role played
by teachers organized by discipline (e.g. read
ing, science or mathematics).
Likewise, secondary effects on other re
searchers have been evident, as judged by adopted
principles and academic debates emanating from
IEA research. I E A standards have improved
awareness of sampling requirements and sharp
ened conceptual model-building and instrumen-
432 Kimmo Leimu
tation. In particular, national assessment efforts
have benefited from the IEA experience. In terms
of academic work, m a n y doctoral dissertations
and other graduate research work have been
produced using Finnish IEA data.
In Finland's eyes, IEA data banks offer
information which is timeless, as each data bank
represents an empirical snapshot of structural,
curriculum and instructional circumstances which
have historical value in that they depict educa
tional change. In the research domain, the uti
lization of I E A models and data has been both
direct and indirect, formal and personal. This
is a field where several utilization models m a y
be operative at once, ranging from the technical
linear model and the problem-solving model
found in Table 1 to co-operative sharing.
Equally obvious, but having more direct
effects on students, were those conceptual models
educators learned about through IEA work, which
have influenced the development of curriculum
and learning materials. Thus , n e w conceptuali
zations of learning, as opposed to objectives
standards, have found their w a y into national
curriculum guidelines and even served as the
theoretical background to widely used sets of
learning material.
Suggestions for the future
In general, comparative education research has
provided m a n y rich lessons to Finnish educa
tors by offering opportunities to view one's o w n
system from the outside and, in return, to make
openly available to the international c o m m u
nity information about Finnish educational ef
forts. A s IEA-type research is planned for the
1990s and beyond, it will be important to con
sider carefully the full range of needs and
potentials surrounding comparative multinational
studies.
First, it should be possible to delineate the
projected costs and strategies needed to both
implement and disseminate research. In this
regard, project length and complexity are cru
cial considerations, since it m a y be difficult to
justify long-term research projects, particularly
if the pay-back is not immediate. O n the other
hand, shortfalls in quality standards can no longer
be tolerated. A s a consequence, two different
styles of projects are proposed for the future:
quick and efficient, problem-oriented surveys
which employ already existing instruments and
can serve recurrent follow-up needs using edu
cational indicators; and innovative experimen
tal studies focusing on a set of different cultural
and system contexts.
It is conceivable that future I E A research
might be embedded in a more dynamic con
text. This could be achieved by making reports
more readable and appealing to a variety of
audiences. N e w studies would require provi
sions for national and international follow-up
work, which takes the form of intensive second
ary analysis. Such activities would benefit from
problem-oriented approaches organized around
international team effort, with high-level exper
tise and governmental support. Utilization might
also be enhanced through more interactive strat
egies, using projects which engage researchers
to look for c o m m o n cross-national issues rel
evant to all.
A s is evident from the variety of expecta
tions mentioned above, IEA-type research calls
for insight from experts in m a n y different fields
of knowledge. It becomes crucial that teamwork
and shared responsibilities receive constant at
tention during project planning and analyses.
T h e underlying concern here is for improved
theoretical sophistication, which should then
become evident in the problem definition, hy
potheses tested and data analysed. As IEA al
ready has first-class prominence in international
comparative education research, special effort
should be m a d e to raise the general level of
public understanding by stressing quality stand
ards.
T o s u m up, educational research can aid
those accountable for schools. Survey research
ers have ambitions to capture a useful snapshot
of educational effort, which can be used to un
derstand better h o w education functions. Even
as greater decentralization occurs in Finland,
Interests and modes in research utilization: the Finnish I E A experience 433
IEA work still m a y be expected to help educa
tors understand the educational process. This
article has offered a multitude of approaches to
research that upon first view suggest that edu
cation is a very complex domain. However, rather
than allow themselves to be overwhelmed by
problems, researchers should consider the full
potential of survey research - the potential to
see all the pieces of the puzzle which make up
the educational landscape. •
References
B A S S E Y , M . 1992. Creating Education through R e search. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 33, N o . 3, pp 183-93.
B L O O M , B . S. 1974. Implications of the IEA Studies for Curriculum and Instruction. School Review, Vol. 82, N o . 3, pp. 413-35.
B R A Y B R O O K E , D . ; Lindblom, C . 1963. A Strategy of Decision: Policy Evaluation as a Social Process. N e w York, T h e Free Press.
C R O N B A C H , L . J.; S U P P E S , P . (eds.). 1969. Research for Tomorrow's Schools. N e w York, Macmillan.
G U R V I T C H , G . 1972. The Social Frameworks of Knowledge. N e w York, Harper & R o w .
H A V E L O C K , R . , et al. 1971. Planning for Innovation through Dissemination and Utilization of Knowledge. A n n Arbor, Mich., Institute for Social Research.
H U S É N , T . 1979. A n International Research Venture in Retrospect: The IEA Surveys. Comparative Education Review, Vol. 23, N o . 3, pp. 371-85.
. 1988. Educational Research and Policy Making. In: J. Keeves (ed.), Educational Research, Methodology, and Measurement. Oxford, Pergamon Press.
H U S É N , T . ; Kogan, M . 1984. Educational Research and Policy: How Do They Relate? Oxford, Pergamon Press.
L A M P I N E N , O . 1985. Yhteiskuntatieteelisen tutkimuksen hyodyntaminen poliittis-hallinnollisessa paatoksenteossa. S u o m e n Akatemian julkaisuja. Helsinki, Valtion Painatuskeskus.
S T U F F L E B E A M , D . 1976. Evaluating the Context, Input, Process and Product of Education. Paper presented at the International Congress of Physical Education, Jyväskylä, Finland.
W E I S S , C . 1979. The M a n y Meanings of Research Utilization. Public Administration Review, Vol. 39, pp. 426-31.
. 1980. Knowledge Creep and Decision Accretion. Knowledge, Vol. 1, N o . 3, pp. 381-404.
Hungarian experiences in international student
achievement surveys Zoltán Báthory
Hungary has been participating in international
educational research in close co-operation with
the International Association for the Evaluation
of Educational Achievement (IEA) since 1968.
During this period of twenty-four years, I E A
studies have become an integral part of educa
tional thinking, practice and research.
Hungary enjoyed a rather peculiar situa
tion in Eastern Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.
In spite of all the political and ideological con
straints, it was able to nurture fairly strong rela
tions with the Wes t in the fields of economy,
culture and sciences. Besides, the Hungarians
had a high standard of living, so they could
travel to the W e s t more freely, compared to the
citizens of other 'socialist' countries in the re
gion. M a n y expressions were coined to charac
terize this strange political phenomenon : it was
Zoltán Báthory (Hungary). Professor of education at the University of Miskolc (Hungary) and Head of the Centre for Evaluation at the National Institute for Public Education (Budapest). His fields of interest include issues of teaching and learning (didactics), curriculum and evaluation and research methodology. His most recent published books (in Hungarian) are: Tanítás és tanulás (Teaching and Learning) and Tanulók, iskolák - külonbségek (Students, Schools - Differences). He has also published several articles in his fields of interest, in both Hungarian and English.
said that Hungary had developed a 'refrigerator socialism', that it was ruled by a 'sloppy dictatorship' and that it had been the 'jolliest barrack in the c a m p ' . I E A activities fitted well into this picture.
International co-operation in the field of education was practically u n k n o w n in Eastern Europe. Poland m a d e an unsuccessful start with I E A in 1970. Data related to science had already been collected but the information had not been sent to I E A . Romania took part in the assessment of French taught as a foreign language which turned out to be laborious and unsuccessful. In Jena (in the former G e r m a n Democratic Republic), I was once requested by colleagues to provide them with I E A science tests. I answered that there already existed translated G e r m a n versions and these could be obtained from Frankfurt. T h e response to m y advice was that it would be better for them to translate the Hungarian version into G e r m a n themselves.
In the mid 1970s, an awkward attempt was m a d e to establish an East European I E A . This was an agreement based on the necessity of carrying out a maths survey in the Eastern European context. At the last minute, however, the survey was cancelled because some insisted that, as a first step, the theoretical basis for evaluation had yet to be worked out. Later a survey was carried out but the results were never widely disseminated.
Prospects, Vol. XXII, I, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
Hungarian experiences in international student achievement surveys 435
Benefits of international survey
participation
Hungarian education benefited from interna
tional studies in three areas: (1) methodological
advances; (2) contact with the West (the so-
called 'window effect'); and (3) introduction to
system-level analyses.
METHODOLOGY
IEA studies served as methodological innova
tions for all kinds of assessment surveys and
studies. Since the research methodology of IEA
was developed by researchers with an interna
tional reputation from around the world, H u n
gary did not have to invest in its o w n research
effort to develop the n e w positivist-empirical
methodology. This is a fairly serious gain for
any small and developing country. In mis sense,
IEA has proved an important postgraduate school
in evaluation research for the young generation
of educational researchers in Hungary and else
where in the region. W h a t was brand-new and
unusual for people like m e twenty years ago has
become natural to today's young Hungarian
educational researchers.
International comparisons, secondly, initi
ated national surveys and helped to set bench
marks for these studies. Alongside IEA meth
odology in 1980, 1986, and March 1991, cyclic
studies were carried out with the aim of moni
toring knowledge and skills in the basic fields of
education, such as reading comprehension,
mathematics and computer literacy. These sur
veys and assessments played an invaluable role
from the viewpoint of getting people acquainted
with and evaluating the mechanism of Hungar
ian education. Without these surveys, the H u n
garian desire to be a part of a greater Europe
could only be a dream.
THE 'WINDOW EFFECT'
International studies, as an aggregate effect, m a d e
it possible to avoid the ever-present danger of
provincialism in education. I E A opened a 'win
d o w ' on Western Europe and the wider global
world of education in an age of Eastern Euro
pean isolationism.
I E A studies have accumulated a rich fund
of background information on curriculum con
tent and on the conditions of education in a
sample of countries throughout the world, es
pecially in the developed regions. Because of
this wider context, this kind of information is
invaluable to Hungary whenever major educa
tional policy decisions are required. In critical
situations, it also makes it easier to judge whether
a crisis is the result of national policy on educa
tion or whetiier it has more to do with world
wide educational problems.
SYSTEM-LEVEL ANALYSIS
Over a period of more than twenty years, nine
IEA surveys were carried out (science, 1970,
1983; mathematics, 1980; reading comprehen
sion, 1971; English as a foreign language, 1971;
classroom environment, 1983; written c o m p o
sition, 1986; computers in education, 1991; and
reading literacy, 1991). T h e main results of these
studies are grouped below according to content
field.
Reading comprehension
T h e findings of the Reading Comprehension Study indicated that Hungarian student achievement scores in all tested grades were generally inferior to those of other IEA countries. In rank order by national average, Hungarian students were placed next to the bottom at the Grade 4 and 12 levels while they took eighth place (out of twelve) at the Grade 8 level. Consequendy, instruction in the Hungarian language and c o m munication skills constituted one of the least effective fields of study. Subsequent national
436 Zoltàn Báthory
reading comprehension studies conducted in
1979, 1980 and 1986 corroborated these earlier
findings.
T h e poor achievement results in reading
comprehension shocked the Hungarian Minis
try of Education. Both professionals and the
public reacted sharply. Experts considered mainly
changes in teaching methods and, as a result,
silent reading was emphasized. It is also be
lieved that the IEA findings contributed to the
spread of diverse teaching methods for reading from
the late 1970s onward. Until then, only one
method of teaching initial reading had been used,
in compliance with the central curriculum. Those
early research findings, along with other fac
tors, contributed to the considerable innovation
of education in Hungarian language and c o m
munication skills.
Mathematics
In the I E A mathematics survey, Grade 8 and
12 student achievement was measured in 1980.
Unfortunately, owing to a misunderstanding,
the Hungarian Grade 12 sample did not corre
spond to that of other countries, thereby limit
ing scope for comparisons.
T h e rank order of national averages indi
cates that Hungarian students in Grade 8 are
placed well above the international average and,
at Grade 12, the top 5 per cent scores fifth out
of twelve. These findings clearly indicated the
effectiveness of Hungarian maths education in
a period w h e n traditional arithmetic and ge
ometry teaching was being replaced by the n e w
mathematics of the 1970s.
Science
T h e first and second international science stud
ies took place in 1970 and 1983 respectively
(Comber and Keeves, 1973; Postlethwaite and
Wiley, 1991). Both IEA science studies indi
cated, at least according to the achievement scores
posted, that this field of education in Hungary
was indeed effective. Hungarian science is c o m
parable with that of Japan on the basis of rank
orderings.
In 1970, the fourth-graders were placed in
the middle rankings while the eighth-graders
scored second. In 1983, they were ranked fifth
and first respectively out of twenty-three coun
tries. T h e twelfth-graders scored 7 out of 19 in
1970, while thirteen years later Hungarian up
per secondary students did even better.
T h e relatively high achievements of Hungarian
students resulted from several factors. T h e most
conspicuous one was the political and profes
sional (academic) concern for making science
the premier curriculum. It was widely accepted
that the 'building' of socialism needed high tech
nology and scientifically trained labour. Conse
quently, more teaching time was devoted to
science education in the central curriculum and
the quality of teaching materials (textbooks,
curricula) also surpassed the average of those
in other educational branches. At the same time,
humanistic and language studies had to accept
a marginal position. T h e balance of the cur
riculum was wrongly conceived. Overall research
findings regarding the level of mathematics and
science were substantiated by an international
mathematics and science test conducted in 1991
with Hungary by the International Assessment
of Educational Progress (the international branch
of the Educational Testing Service in the United
States).
General conclusions
Hungary's experience with I E A is a valuable
source for restructuring the public education
system in the wake of political changes. S o m e
of these experiences could also be adopted in
developing ways to influence educational re
forms throughout Eastern Europe. First, I would
like to focus on the necessity of changing the
theoretical framework of education (ideology
versus reality). Second, I consider the implica
tions for the operation of the system (the cen
tralization-decentralization trade-off). Finally,
I raise the issue of provincialism versus globalism.
Hungarian experiences in international student achievement surveys 437
I D E O L O G Y V E R S U S REALITY
During the past forty years of Soviet rule in
Eastern and Central Europe, Marxist-Leninist
ideology imprinted itself on all walks of life; and
this applied extensively to education. In con
trast to positivist and humanistic paradigms, the
Soviet model of educational philosophy came
to be called the 'ideological paradigm'. This
paradigm, which prevailed east of the Elbe river,
was based on the assumption that education
could create socialist personalities. Thus , ad
herents of this philosophy disregarded h u m a n
and social differences, ignored reality and tended
to consider the ideological set of educational
aims as absolute. Ideology infiltrated the entire
education system: curriculum content, teach
ing, school organization and training. T h e cen
trally designed and approved curriculum played
an important role in uniting these school pro
cesses.
According to the 'ideological paradigm',
the output of education should be coherent with
educational aims - otherwise it was thought that
something was wrong with the process. But the
paradigm itself, never wrong, always remained
applicable. Consequently, all positive results of
I E A studies (especially science) were officially
welcomed and thought to complement the domi
nant paradigm. But what was one to do with
the negative outcomes (for instance, reading
comprehension)? Luckily, positive and nega
tive results appeared alongside each other in
Hungary back in the 1970s w h e n the outcome
of the six-subject study was reported. Thus ,
critical implications about methodology and
design could not be raised in one regard (lan
guage) but ignored in another (science and
maths). Ultimately, Hungarian education policy
was forced to acknowledge the negative non-
science achievement results. It is ironic - and
paradoxical - that it was probably the negative
findings from the IEA studies, rather than the
positive ones, that helped to transform educa
tional thinking and re-establish respect for real
ity. T h e ruling educational policy had suffered
its first blow.
In this ideological context, two groups of
research findings had far-reaching effects: (a)
comparisons involving between-school variations;
and (b) h o m e and school effects on learning.
Between-school variance in achievement
During the 1986 I E A General Assembly meet
ing in Stockholm, Sixten Marklund, a Swedish
researcher, displayed an especially thought-pro
voking table, based on his secondary analysis of
the 1970 science education survey (see Table
1). T h e data in the table unequivocally indi
cated that, while the differences measured by
percentage of student variance between S w e d
ish schools were rather minor, they were strik
ing in the case of Hungary. H o w interesting it
was, I thought at the time, that education policy
had set the aim of creating equal school oppor
tunities in both countries, but, given resources,
time and energy, this objective was realized m u c h
more in Sweden than in Hungary.
T A B L E 1. Percentage ratio of between-school variance to overall achievement variance in First IEA Science Study
Country 10-year-olds
England 19 Finland 28 Hungary 40 Japan 18 Netherlands 23 Scodand 29 Sweden 15 United States 32 Federal Republic of Germany 27
Country average 26
Source: Marklund (1986).
14-year-olds
33 20 34 20 40 43 12 28 30 29
Data indicating differences between schools and classes in science and reading comprehension clearly showed that differences between schools were large in Hungarian schools c o m pared to schools in other developed countries. At the same time, it could also be determined that between-school differences were negligible in Finland and Japan. All this led to the conclu-
438 Zoltán Báthory
sion that there exist differences across countries
in the way school opportunities are distributed.
These differences must be determined in part
by national educational policy. In any event,
large Hungarian achievement differences between
schools remained an irritant to the ideological
paradigm.
Home and school influences
on student achievement
Regression analysis applied to IEA data helped
Hungarian researchers to understand better the
influence exerted by h o m e and school factors
on various types of achievement across age lev
els. Generally speaking, analysis of the IEA data
revealed that for those children undergoing c o m
pulsory schooling, h o m e factors were responsi
ble for a greater part of the student achieve
ment variation than were the schools themselves.
Furthermore, the differences found were greater
in non-science than in science and mathematics
and at lower grade levels. Table 2 presents se
lected results.
B y comparing the variations due to these
factors as witnessed in Hungary with the varia
tions in European countries, and Sweden in
particular, two important conclusions could be
drawn. In the case of Hungary, h o m e back
ground influences on reading achievement in
the early grades were greater than the variances
for m a n y other IEA countries and certainly for
Sweden. In brief, Hungarian family influences,
such as father's occupation, mother's educa
tion, books in the h o m e and the like, influenced
student achievement more than in Sweden - a
country claiming to comprise a homogeneous
society.
This finding contradicted official expecta
tions because, according to the ideology of the
day, Hungary too had a homogeneous society
like Sweden and so the influence of the family
should not affect student learning. In a word,
w h y should some Hungarian families influence
student learning w h e n all families are of the
same social level?
In summary, looking at the data, the ef
fects of Hungarian learning conditions on both
science and reading were similar to those in
Western Europe. Hungarian schools by and large
operated in the same way as schools in the highly
developed countries. If this was a reason for
dissatisfaction, so be it!
If there is still a problem raised by these
data, it has to do with the failure to offer a good
explanation as to h o w such badly paid Hungar
ian teachers could have produced such rela
tively excellent Hungarian students. According
to the 1983 science data, Hungarian teachers
received an average salary far below the total
average earnings in other European countries -
in some cases 200 per cent less.
T A B L E 2. Influence of home versus school on reading and science scores in Sweden and Hungary (percentage explained variance)
H o m e influence
Subject Sweden
9-10-year-olds
Science
Reading
13-14-year-olds
Science
Reading
17-18-year-olds
Science
Reading
16 12
18 16
18 4
Hungary
11 19
14 19
12 7
IEA Average
14 18
19 19
16 8
School influence
Sweden
5 3
4 2
20 2
Hungary
7 4
5 4
10 5
IEA Average
6 3
5 3
20 5
Hungarian experiences in international student achievement surveys 439
T o s u m up , I want to touch on the impor
tance of paying attention to reality. Empirical
research is only one tool in the accomplishment
of this aim. However, countries with an ideo
logical paradigm should be aware that empirical
research m a y result in data that oppose the para
digm. Looking back over twenty-four years of
participation in comparative international sur
veys, I can at last understand w h y IEA was con
sidered as the 'extended arm of imperialism' in
the Eastern bloc. F r o m their viewpoint, inter
national empiricism constituted a real danger.
CENTRALIZATION VERSUS
DECENTRALIZATION
East and Central European policy-makers for a
long time believed that effectiveness of school
ing - educational quality in today's terminology
- was closely related to the measure of centrali
zation in educational administration. This opinion
used to be shared by some Western I E A theo
reticians, w h o backed up their beliefs by point
ing to excellent Hungarian achievement in sci
ence and mathematics. T h e examples of Japan
and, later, of the Asian 'tigers' also provided
convincing evidence. At the same time, h o w
ever, the progressive Hungarian researchers did
their utmost - especially from the early 1980s -
to loosen the exaggerated centralism of educa
tional administration by liberalizing its centrally
prescribed curricula. In the Education Act of
1985, significant results were attained in this
direction. Researchers never considered centrali
zation, at least in its extreme version as it ap
peared in the region, as an important variable
to study. Researchers did agree that school ef
fectiveness was an important outcome to be
measured and researched.
I do not believe that international surveys
proved to be a clinching argument in settling
the dispute about h o w centralization influenced
school quality. Both sides had ample evidence.
N o serious pedagogical arguments were ever
put forward to show that the preservation of
centralized authority would enhance school ef
fectiveness.
In the 1990s, in the midst of changes oc
curring in East and Central Europe, it is not
centralization that is the danger, but, rather,
extreme decentralization. I a m afraid that m a n y
of us misunderstand the West even in this re
gard as w e drift from one extreme to another.
Through the Western 'window' opened to us
by participation in comparative international
studies, it is possible to monitor the relative flex
ibility of teaching staff with respect to teaching
content, and the degree of centralized authority
over the curriculum and teacher certification.
In some ways, a central administration is needed
to regulate m i n i m u m standards, especially in
times w h e n m a n y Eastern European systems
are moving toward major reforms.
In Hungary, in 1990, the educational ad
ministration broke away entirely from the prac
tice of extreme centralization and began to cre
ate the conditions of a balanced curricular
regulation similar to that found in m a n y Euro
pean countries. For example, as part of this
process, a national core curriculum was elabo
rated, and a public examination system was cre
ated. T h e national core curriculum should en
sure a c o m m o n basic level of education,
compulsory for every school (Nagy and Szebenyi,
1990). Beyond the core curriculum, schools are
free to decide h o w they want that core and local
curriculum taught.
PROVINCIALISM VERSUS GLOBALISM
In the course of changing the political and so
cial system of Hungary, the questions of what
to keep and what to throw away cause m u c h
debate. Should Hungary try to merge with greater
Europe or seek to emphasize national cultural
traditions? T h e liberals emphasize adjustment
to Europe while the conservatives stress national
cultural traditions (Báthory, 1992).
In addressing these questions, I believe each
national system of education automatically per
petuates national traditions. Themselves authori
tarian, educational administrations wish to de
termine the values and content of education;
this applies even more to those countries that
440 Zoltän Báthory
for m a n y decades sat on the sidelines of E u
rope, with no opportunities for genuine inter
national relations. Participation in international
research activities can offer opportunities to
become involved in the international network,
as past membership of I E A allowed some an
early orientation to European educational is
sues. It will be difficult to convince conserva
tive national political leaders in the former Eastern
bloc countries about the direct and indirect ben
efits of international co-operation. In this re
spect, it m a y be advisable to look first for allies
a m o n g educational researchers.
Beyond the general approach to provin
cialism versus globalism, there exists a more
concrete reason for participating in international
research. Measurement instruments elaborated
during I E A workshops by a wide range of edu
cational researchers from around the world (dif
ferent statistical analysis techniques, sampling,
test construction, curriculum grids, data m a n
agement, etc.) m a y turn out to represent a truly
international world curriculum design. T h e at
tainments, skills, abilities and attitudes arrived
at by nearly every participating country during
a study must count for something.
A n y international achievement test or ques
tionnaire whose content, if it is to be valid, can
only be elaborated after a m i n i m u m partial con
sensus arrived at by all countries, does indeed
represent a tangible product of international co
operation. These tests and questionnaires pro
vide a c o m m o n orientation for curriculum de
velopers in their quest to find something truly
global. Consequently, IEA instruments are worth
investing in, even if a system of education can
not or does not wish to participate in the actual
survey. •
References
B Á T H O R Y , Z . 1992. Some Consequences of the 'Change in Regime' in Hungarian Public Education. Recent Trends in Eastern European Education. Frankfurt a m Main, German Institute for International Research.
C O M B E R , L . C ; K E E V E S , J. P. 1973. Science Education in
Nineteen Countries. Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell. M A R K L U N D , S. 1986. An Unfinished Audit? IEA, 27th
General Assembly Meeting in Stockholm. Stockholm, Swedish National Board of Education.
N A G Y , J.; SZEBENYI, P . 1990. Hungarian Reform: T o
wards a Curriculum for the 1990s. Curriculum Journal, Vol. 1, N o . 3.
P O S T L E T H W A I T E , T . N . ; W I L E Y , D . E . 1991. Science
Achievement in Twenty-one Countries. Oxford, Pergamon Press.
Using evaluation research for policy
and practice in Botswana
Serara Moahi
Over the last two decades it has become in
creasingly apparent in most countries that there
is a need to incorporate empirical research into
the process of educational planning on both a
long- and a short-term basis.
Policy-makers gradually develop national
philosophies or guiding principles in education.
Next, they set goals and allocate resources to
accomplish those goals, though, often, little time
is spent thinking about ways to evaluate suc
cess. T h e n the process is repeated. Somewhere
in the process, there comes a point where w e
need to evaluate our efforts and ask ourselves
h o w far these policies and programmes have
gone towards achieving our goals. Only from
such evaluations can our policies, and the er
rors in current practice, be revised.
Policy planners n o w recognize the need
for monitoring and feedback because educa-
Serara Moahi (Botswana). Senior Research and Testing Officer in the Research and Testing Centre of the Department of Curriculum Development and Evaluation, Ministry of Education (Botswana). Former National Research Co-ordinator for the IEA Reading Literacy Study; is currently working on the Criterion Referenced Testing programme in Botswana.
tional changes have been so rapid. Even long-
term policies have been m a d e obsolete and ir
relevant before they could be implemented. Fi
nally, the trend away from quantitative expansion
of the educational system to the qualitative di
mension - looking at what happens in the class
room - makes evaluation research more impor
tant today.
T h e purpose of this article is to share the
experience Botswana gained from the research
commissioned by the Ministry of Education,
and show h o w research was used as a basis for
formulating policy in educational areas formerly
untouched by national survey research. T h e article
continues by examining h o w research covering
a certain number of research needs has served
policy-makers, planners, testing officers, and
educational practitioners.
Botswana is a country located in the southern
cone of Africa. According to U N E S C O , Bot
swana's per capita G N P was $1,010 annually
in 1991, with agriculture and mining as the key
economic sectors. T h e country had 1.3 million
inhabitants in 1990, 25 per cent of them living
in urban areas, with a net enrolment ratio in the
early grades near 97 per cent. B y 1988, public
expenditure on education equalled 8 per cent
of GNP.
Prospects, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
442 Serara Moahi
Past educational research conducted in
Botswana played a significant role in the for
mulation of current educational policy. For ex
ample, current education policy in Botswana,
referred to as 'Education for Kagisano', is based
on the recommendations of a national commis
sion on education, created by the government
in 1975. O n e of the national concerns facing
education twenty-five years ago was inscribed
in the Education for Kagisano report (Botswana,
1977):
Botswana has not, until now, had a comprehensive review of its education system in the 10 years since independence. The numbers of schools and students have increased rapidly - some would say too rapidly - but quantitative growth has had a bad effect upon quality. Little has been done about what happens inside the schools.
In 1975, the Education Commission was con
cerned about the massive expansion of the for
mal education system, aimed at satisfying the
increasing demand for formal schooling but
without accompanying improvements in the
quality of schooling. T h e appointed commis
sion deemed it necessary to collect empirical
information on some important aspects of the
system through a national survey. T h e main
aim of the survey was to evaluate qualitatively
the outcomes of instruction at both primary and
secondary levels of schooling and, using an in
put/output model, to relate the outcomes to school
inputs such as school facilities and teacher and
student background.
H o w did the commission proceed?
T h e commission decided to draw upon the ex
perience gained by the International Associa
tion for the Evaluation of Educational Achieve
ment (IEA) from their first international studies
in the 1960s and 1970s. Cognitive instruments
from the IEA six subject survey (civics, litera
ture, science, reading, English and French as a
foreign language) and mathematics were exam
ined and test items from the reading compre
hension, mathematics and science tests were given
to Botswanan Standard VII (last year of pri
mary), Fo rm III (lower secondary) and F o r m V
(upper secondary) students. T h e research task
before the Education Commission was to uti
lize decision-taking research to help educators
consider ways and priorities for improving the
day-to-day operation of school teaching (Cooley
andBickel, 1986).
T h e comprehensive evaluation of the
Botswanan educational system by the Educa
tion Commission not only provided the basis
for government policy on education, but also
demonstrated a commitment to the use of edu
cational research and evaluation in seeking so
lutions to educational problems in Botswana.
This sentiment is still expressed today, as wit
nessed by an official government document
entitled 'Improving the Quality of Basic Educa
tion in Botswana', presented to the Eleventh
Conference of Commonwea l th Ministers in
October 1990 in Barbados. According to the
report, efforts toward improving the country's
research capacity should include financing worthy
research via government and donor funds and
the establishment of a computerized data unit
within the Ministry of Education, along with a
planning and policy unit.
Developing data baselines
T h e 1976 national survey provided the country with baseline data for the school system; these served as a benchmark for checking the effects of implementing national education policy. While no study since 1976 has exactly replicated the original study, intervening studies have always contained c o m m o n areas of evaluation, allowing for observation of change across time. For example, the 1982 primary education survey used national tests to measure student achieve-
Using evaluation research for policy and practice in Botswana 443
ment at Standard VII. This 1982 Primary E d u
cation Improvement Project (PEIP) was also
intended to provide baseline data on school fa
cilities, teacher and pupil background informa
tion and pupil achievement. In designing these
questionnaires and tests, some of the questions
and test items from the earlier 1976 national
testing programme were included to compare
changes in student learning and learning condi
tions over time. This trend analysis of change
in student achievement between 1976 and 1982
was the first time such data were analysed in
Botswana. Keeping in mind the subjective na
ture and variability of tests drawn up by teach
ers, prior achievement scores based on grades
were never really possible.
T o s u m up, if people do not k n o w where
they are going or what they are doing, they will
be unable to discover whether they have arrived
or what they have accomplished. C o m m o n sense
tells us that if people do not k n o w the starting
point of their journey, they will never k n o w h o w
far they have come . T h e baseline data obtained
from the 1976 and 1982 education surveys did
allow educational planners to establish some
reference points for measuring school facilities,
teacher training, in-service programmes and the
like.
T h e international Reading
Literacy Study
In 1989, the Examination Board of the Minis
try of Education in Botswana joined the IEA
Reading Literacy Study operating from H a m
burg. In the beginning there were close to fifty
countries in the study, m a n y of them located in
Asia, North Africa and Latin America. T h e
Botswanan Testing Unit was interested in sur
vey research technology - especially in devel
oping tests based on test scaling models that
could both guarantee reliability within a coun
try like Botswana and allow educators to c o m
pare item difficulty across countries. Botswana
was particularly interested in comparing itself
with Zimbabwe, the other regional country par
ticipating, along with Nigeria, Kenya and se
lected countries around the world.
T h e international Reading Literacy study
was designed to accomplish two tasks: (1) to
develop and administer a set of measures by
which educational leaders could describe the
types and levels of reading literacy attained by
various segments of the school population within
each nation; and (2) to examine the impact of
varying educational policies and programmes,
as well as h o m e influences, on reading literacy.
Internationally scaled reading comprehension tests
in narrative, expository and document reading,
along with word recognition in English, were
employed in Botswana and other countries. Stu
dent and teacher questionnaires were also ad
ministered to elicit information about the stu
dent h o m e reading environment and school
attitudes and activities related to teaching and
instruction.
O n the basis of these test instruments, a
testing programme for 9- and 14-year-olds, a
sampling plan, a data programme, and a time
table were developed that would allow Botswana
to pilot test in 1990 and test several thousand
students in 1991. Data were subsequently
cleaned and data file sets developed at the
Ministry's Examination Unit. T h e overall ra
tionale of the study is presented in Figure 1,
which shows the kinds of background infor
mation (home language, gender, geographical
residence, family economic status, etc.), school
inputs such as teacher education, experience
and reading activities; school policy inputs such
as emphasis on homework , reading in class,
access to reading materials, etc.; all based on
the child's reading literacy. Figure 1 serves as
a m e n u from which any country might choose
in order to investigate relations between the
various boxes.
T h e value of this reading literacy model
lies in its ability to investigate h o w students of
varying backgrounds utilize good teachers and
schools to learn h o w to read in their instruc
tional language. T h e model allows researchers
to examine the wider process of schooling in a
444 Serara Moahi
BACKGROUND VARIABLES
SCHOOL INPUTS SCHOOL/TEACHER POLICIES
IV OUTCOMES
1
2
3
4
S
Economic status
H o m e literacy resources
H o m e language
Pupil gender
Urban/rural
6
7
8
9
10
II
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
Teacher gender
Teacher education
Teacher training
Teacher in-service
Teacher experience
Instructional time (total)
Instructional time (languages)
Instructional time (reading)
Teacher readership
Reading materials in class
Reading materials in school
School pupil-teacher ratio
Class size
Pupil-special teacher ratio
Public/private
Principal's experience
Principal's time in school
U n m e t remedial demand
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
Comprehension instruction
Skills instruction
Literature emphasis
Assessment emphasis
H o m e w o r k (teacher)
H o m e w o r k (student)
Reading in class
Access to reading materials
Frequency of library visits (class)
Frequency of borrowing books
Encouragement to parents
School reading initiatives
Principal's level of engagement
37
38
39
40
Composition achievement
Composition-reading
Document-reading
Voluntary reading
FIG. 1. Conceptual framework for reading literacy: a menu.
national context while focusing on just a few
relationships. Data analysis allows researchers
to investigate reasons w h y some children, per
haps children in rural areas or those starting
school late, seem to lack motivation or fail to
study hard, and thereby perform poorly on read
ing skills.
Instrumentation for the study was care
fully developed over two years - first by screen
ing test items from around the world, and next
by inspecting and then pilot-testing these items.
For example, an item from the word recogni
tion test given to 9-year-olds is offered to show
the reader the kind of test administered to chil
dren. This non-verbal test measures h o w fast
children can recognize words and is correlated
with reading effectiveness as measured by scores
on tests of reading passages and graphs (Fig. 2) .
policy and practice in Botswana 445 Using evaluation research for
Boy
0 ^
_Ä
JSgfg
¿f
Fingers
©<§
4 #
ñ FIG. 2. Word recognition test items (after IEA Reading Literacy Study, Hamburg).
Stimulating innovation
Concerning the concept of school efficiency,
the Botswanan Ministry of Education believes
the kinds of hypotheses developed using the
I E A reading literacy model will prove useful in
making its o w n national report. Furthermore,
the findings - both academic findings and school-
level indices of resource levels - will also be
examined and compared to similar items in
cluded in earlier national surveys carried out in
Botswana. Returning to the concept of baseline
data, it is n o w clear that the database derived
from the 1991 testing in reading literacy can
serve as a further database. In fact, surveys are
n o w under w a y to replicate the 9- and 14-year-
old surveys on adjacent age levels for assess
ment purposes, using the latest test-construc
tion technology.
Botswana and other developing nations such
as Z i m b a b w e are n o w entering a period in which
their Ministries of Education are localizing re
search, in concrete terms through the establish
ment of research units based within the minis
try, and conceptually by internalizing research
within their o w n policy-planning and evalua
tion units. A s Ross and Mahlck (1990, p . 11)
stress:
Decision-makers in the 1990s will demand that proposals for change put forward by educational planners should have a reasonable chance to improve educational outcomes and/or improved student flows, and these improvements should be of a magnitude that can be defended in terms of the costs of making the changes.
In an earlier citation of the paper presented to
the Eleventh Conference of C o m m o n w e a l t h
Ministers, Botswana's education sector was shown
to consume 16.9 per cent of the total govern
ment budget in 1982/83 and 18.3 per cent in
1990/91. T h e financial context offered by these
numbers suggests that while the education sec
tor has only increased slightly over the decade,
it is expected to remain very flat for the next
five years, as the government finds it more and
more difficult to provide additional resources
for education.
Under tight budgets, the issue of financial
accountability stares us in the face each time
the education minister presents his budget. There
must be convincing evidence showing that scarce
government resources spent on education do
indeed contribute toward the overall goals of
national education. This author continues to argue
that n e w directions in educational planning will
present n e w challenges, such as: the establish
ment of a clear conceptual education frame
work; the establishment of linkages between
educational system data and the quality of edu
cation indices; the development of sound meas
urement and testing techniques; and the estab
lishment of cost scenarios noting the conditions
likely to cause anticipated change.
Botswana's Ministry of Education admit
tedly set a precedent in gathering information
to provide feedback for policy adjustments when ,
in 1976, it undertook the Botswanan I E A R e p
lication Study, followed by the 1981 Primary
Education Survey, the 1985 Junior Secondary
Survey and, finally, the I E A Reading Literacy
Study in 1991. It is fifteen years since the pub
lication of the Education for Kagisano policy
statement - a statement that still guides educa
tional development in Botswana. Over these years
there have been a number of reports in Bot
swana about the state of education. For e x a m -
446 Serara Moahi
pie, m a n y schools have been built and school
fees have been abolished to increase access.
Teacher-training colleges have increased and
university-level primary education departments
been set up to improve the status of teacher
training. Teacher in-service workshops are taken
seriously. N e w teaching approaches have been
introduced to promote learner-centred ap
proaches to education. T h e school curriculum
has been refocused to reflect national goals and
a practical skills orientation, including vocational
education. Examinations and testing units are
being asked to respond to n e w theories and tech
nologies by emphasizing individual student c o m
petence. A d d e d together, each of the above in
novations should contribute to better teaching
and better learning.
Recent research in Botswana is providing
information on the status of die education sys
tem in the light of ongoing curriculum, instruc
tional and organizational changes in schools.
Inferential and descriptive studies on classroom
research report that teachers are unlikely to
implement innovation enthusiastically unless they
are part of the development process and have
been allowed to acquire the required skills. Class
room-level studies also suggest that teachers are
not encouraging reasoning and discovery learn
ing in Botswanan schools. These findings sug
gest mat as school systems turn their focus away
from books, desks and teacher qualifications as
means of altering student learning, the cultural
context of the classroom must be taken into
account in planning intervention programmes
throughout Botswana. Snyder and Ramatswi
(1990, p . 15) raise these very important issues
in the context of policy formation at the sec
ondary-school level:
School improvement initiatives assume that teachers and classrooms are resources to be used (to meet schooling needs). W e rarely think about the dynamics of schools - the pre-existing daily scripts and methods employed by teachers in the engagement of their classroom tasks. W e implicitly see the classroom as a simple setting to be changed or modified as directed and not as a complex organization, resiliently enveloped within its material and h u m a n constraints.
Such classroom research does not give us solu
tions to the problems facing education in Bot
swana, though it helps to emphasize relevant
issues in the African region which can be in
cluded on questionnaires developed for large-
scale surveys.
T h e role of national education
researchers
T o strengthen education in Botswana, planners
should view inputs and outputs in the educa
tion system as dependent on the social, cul
tural, financial and h u m a n contexts that shape
education systems. Each factor should be built
into the general research design, because any
policy intended as one form of school system
intervention cannot be isolated from the work
ings, practices and conventions of the other fac
tors. In other words, cost considerations are tied
closely to student and teacher attitudes and
behaviours, and these in turn are tied to lan
guage and custom, etc.
If educational planners work more closely
with practitioners at all levels, then policy-re
lated issues can be more precisely identified,
and appropriate information gathered and ana
lysed. If researchers work well they can help
bridge this gap between the planner and the
practitioner. In fact, whenever a researcher makes
a careful study for the ministry, every oppor
tunity should be m a d e to communicate pur
poses and rationale to classroom teachers. T h e
benefits to research are twofold: first, the teach
ers are more likely to support the data-collection
efforts, and, second, they m a y be able to offer
some very pragmatic suggestions to improve
the study.
Using evaluation research for policy and practice in Botswana 447
Subregional co-operation
in research
Recently there was some talk about offering IEA
survey research training to countries in the south
ern Africa region, as the U N E S C O Harare of
fice had indicated that such training was valu
able. T h e intended purpose of this activity was
to acquaint African researchers with steps in
the survey research process and, more impor
tantly, to see if there was enough support in the
region to undertake some form of large-scale
cross-national evaluation research. T h e think
ing behind this idea had m u c h to do with trying
to initiate regional co-operation whereby Bot
swana and Zimbabwe, for example, might un
dertake a comparative study with South Africa,
Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia and Zambia.
In a way, this is a good idea because Bot
swana is more likely to compare its education
system to those of its African neighbours rather
than to America, Europe or even Asia. T h e rea
sons are simple. Well and poorly educated la
bour from Botswana must eventually compete
with similar persons from neighbouring coun
tries in the region. If primary education in
Swaziland or Namibia is significantly better at
producing educated Standard VII graduates than
is Botswana, w e would not only like to know
this but, more importantly, to know why . If the
curricula of neighbouring education systems are
somehow better, Botswana should find out why ,
especially if its neighbours' curriculum pro
grammes are equally priced.
In conclusion, international research in
education is valuable to Botswana, especially if
research comparisons can be m a d e selectively
between similar countries such as Botswana,
Zimbabwe, Swaziland or developing countries
outside Africa. At the same time, Botswana is
interested in reviewing those countries where
achievement is exceptionally high in order to
seek explanations which might be applicable to
the Botswanan context. If mat were to happen,
the investment in international comparative
research would pay for itself m a n y times over. •
References
B O T S W A N A , R E P U B L I C O F . 1977. Education for Kagisano. Report of the National Commission on Education. Gabarone.
C O O L E Y , W . ; B I C K E L , W . 1986. Decision-oriented Educational Research, pp. 3-6. Boston, Kluwer-Nijhoff.
F U L L E R , B . 1990. What Investments Raise Achievement in the Third World? In: D . W . Chapman and C . A . Carier (eds.), Improving Educational Quality: A Global Perspective, pp. 17-33. N e w York, Greenwood Press.
Ross, K . N . ; M A H L C K , L . 1990. A N e w Mission for Educational Planning. In: K . N . Ross and L . Mahlck (eds.), Planning the Quality of Education: The Collection and Use of Data for Informed Decision-making, pp. 7-12. Paris, U N E S C O .
S N Y D E R , C . W . ; R A M A T S W I , P. T . (eds.). 1990. Curriculum in the Classroom: Context of Change in Botswana's Secondary School Instruction Programme, Preface. Gabarone, Macmillan.
Y O D E R , J. H . ; M A U T L E , G . 1991. The Context of
Reform. In: M . Evans and J. H . Yoder (eds.), Patterns of Reform in Primary Education: The Case of Botswana. Gabarone, Macmillan.
Dominican Republic: the study on teaching
and learning of mathematics
Eduardo Luna
In the foreword to Improving Primary Education
in Developing Countries: A Review of Policy Op
tions, A n n Hamilton, Director of the Depart
ment of Population and H u m a n Resources at
the World Bank, states:
A nation's children are its greatest resource. In only a few decades the prosperity and quality of life of all nations will be determined by today's children and their abilities to solve the problems that face them, their families, communities and countries. Education unlocks these abilities, and investment in children's learning is the most important contribution to a better future. The cen-trality of children's learning is widely recognized.
This 'investment in children' concept has slowly
gained acceptance in m a n y developing coun
tries over the last decade. Its recognition by Latin
Eduardo Antonio Luna (Dominican Republic). Professor of Mathematics at Barry University, Miami (United States) and at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago (Dominican Republic). President of the Inter-American Committee on Mathematics Education and member of the Executive Committee of the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.
American countries has resulted in significant
increases in educational opportunities for pri
mary school children. With school enrolment
ratios nearing 100 per cent in m a n y Latin Ameri
can countries during the 1980s (Lockheed and
Verspoor, 1990), it has been suggested most
nations in the region have achieved the quanti
tative goal of enough places in primary schools
to serve the relevant school-age population.
Information on quality -
insufficient or non-existent
A less sanguine picture emerges w h e n one
looks at the quality of education provided to
students once in school. For example, most
policy-makers do not k n o w the educational
achievement scores in mathematics and lan
guage attained by students spending a few
years in the classroom. Therefore they do not
k n o w if the quality is better or worse over time.
Unfortunately, m a n y Latin American countries
still lack national evaluation systems to deter
mine curriculum areas that need improvement
Prospects, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
Dominican Republic: the study on
- systems that can generate innovative and
viable programmes to improve instruction and
learning in the various curriculum subjects. In
fact, it is often left to the teacher alone to
determine whether a student should be pro
moted to the next primary grade. Under this
system, h o w can one be sure whether standards
in one school are the same as standards in
another?
In M a y 1978, the Government of Ven
ezuela, through F O N I N V E S , a foundation de
voted to promoting scientific and technical edu
cation, and the Venezuelan National Centre for
the Improvement of Science Teaching
( C E N A M E C ) , sponsored a conference attended
by representatives from nine Latin American
countries. T h e attendees were seeking informa
tion about the Second International Mathemat
ics Study (SIMS) organized by the IEA (Inter
national Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement). This conference,
endorsed by the Inter-American Committee on
Mathematics Education ( I A C M E ) , led to dif
ferent national projects, including 'The Teach
ing and Learning of Mathematics in the D o
minican Republic' ( T L M D R ) - a project I will
discuss shortly.
In 1980, a group of professors of the
Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
( P U C M M ) , Santiago (Dominican Republic),
initiated the T L M D R project. Dominican pro
fessors decided to pool their knowledge in dif
ferent areas to focus on a neglected but impor
tant aspect of education - the evaluation of
classroom teaching and learning. O n e reason
for interest in classroom mathematics teaching/
learning was the perception that educators did
not know h o w well scientific and technological
knowledge appropriate to Latin America was
being produced in the classroom. T h e lack of
sufficient Dominican Republic college students
interested and competent in the sciences could
also be traced to poor teaching of basic sciences
and mathematics in primary and secondary
schools. In fact, educators had very little reli
able information concerning the quantity and
quality of mathematics learned by students in
the Dominican Republic. Moreover, very little
and learning of mathematics 449
was known about the way teachers taught daily
mathematics classes.
It was against this background that the IEA
International Mathematics Study provided the
opportunity to share access to expertise, expe
rience and technological know-how accumulated
by IEA since the late 1960s. National expecta
tions for the study were to receive empirical
data which could be used to design new strate
gies to improve the teaching and learning of
mathematics in the Dominican Republic. T h e
strategies would be based on information ob
tained from national samples of both teachers
and students interacting with each other in the
instructional framework. Comparisons with other
education systems, both similar to and different
from the Dominican Republic, could show h o w
well students were doing on the basis of 'the
international yardstick'.
T h e remainder of this article describes h o w
the mathematics study was carried out, the chal
lenges overcome and the outcomes revealed.
This earlier study, carried out in the 1980s, has
paved the way for participation in the newer
international mathematics and science study n o w
being conducted in over fifty countries by IEA,
with an international centre in Vancouver
(Canada).
Framework of the study
Like all international comparative studies,
T L M D R was conceived as a broad-based, c o m
parative investigation of the mathematics cur
riculum as prescribed, taught and learned. For
the purposes of the study, the mathematics cur
riculum was seen to consist of three dimen
sions: intended (official documents), implemented
(classroom teaching) and attained (student
achievement gain on a pre- and post-test de
sign). In addition to the curriculum analysis,
the design allowed the study of several non-
school factors, such as family influences, since
it is always more appropriate to study an edu
cation system within its social context.
450 Eduardo Luna
Methodology
T L M D R mathematics tests were administered
at the beginning and end of the school year to a
random sample of 5,342 students in the target
populations (13- and 17-year-olds). Achieve
ment tests consisted of a forty-item core and
four rotated forms of thirty-five items each, from
which students answered the core items and
one rotated set of questions.
T h e mathematics test items were selected
from an item data bank consisting of translated
questions developed internationally by IEA.
Dominican Republic researchers certified that
each item was appropriate for Latin American
use in testing arithmetic, algebra, geometry,
elementary statistics and measurement. T h e
items were pilot-tested several times, ending
with a final selection of 180 items, including
116 from the final set employed in the S I M S
international survey.
In addition to the mathematics test, a
student questionnaire was developed to gather
information about parental occupation and edu
cation, students' nutritional practices, the occu
pational expectations of students and attitudes
toward school and learning. Similarly, a ques
tionnaire was developed for teachers, request
ing information about academic training, teacher
workload, instructional materials and practices,
opinions about the mathematics process and
attitudes toward mathematics. A classroom proc
ess questionnaire was developed to gather in
formation about methods and procedures used
to teach algebra, geometry, measurement, etc.
Finally, a questionnaire was developed which
gathered information about the opportunities
students had had during their current or previ
ous school year to learn the mathematics needed
to answer the test items.
Sampling
W h e n T L M D R was carried out in 1984, there
were two mathematics curriculum programmes
that lower and upper secondary-school students
could study: traditional and reform programmes.
T h e traditional programme had been developed
in 1950 and corresponded to mathematics pro
grammes taught in the United States during the
1950s, with an emphasis on arithmetic and
measurement, and some sets and statistics also
included. T h e reform programme had been re
cently introduced and corresponded to the cur
riculum developed by mathematics experts
emphasizing both algorithms and their justifi
cation. Students following either programme were
eligible to participate in the study.
T h e sampling design for the Dominican
replication of the IEA mathematics study was
designed to facilitate in-depth national compari
sons rather than international comparisons. Local
researchers were encouraged to assist in deter
mining substantially relevant strata for the study.
In the case of the Dominican Republic, there
was an interest in comparing the major urban
areas, including the capital, with small towns
and rural areas, because, as with most nations,
geographic differences are associated with eco
nomic development. Second, there was an in
terest in comparing school types, because these
were known to serve different social groups and
to employ teachers with different levels of ex
perience and access to school facilities. Conse
quently, urban schools were differentiated as
public primary and intermediate schools; pub
lic traditional and reformed high schools; pri
vate and semi-official schools; and authorized
or not aumorized by the Ministry of Education
to offer examinations. Urban schools were also
categorized by population (for example, Santo
Domingo , Santiago, cities with populations be
tween 50,000 and 100,000, between 15,000 and
50,000, and less than 15,000).
In rural areas only one type of school was
considered because rural schools are more ho
mogeneous than urban schools. Once schools
Dominican Republic: the study on teaching and learning of mathematics 451
had been sampled, students from appropriate
grades were sampled in sufficient quantity to
permit comparisons between school type and
demographic area. In all, 116 schools repre
senting thirty-six sampling strata were drawn.
Data collection and analysis
At the time T L M D R was initiated, researchers
recognized the importance of effective c o m m u
nication with each of the schools in the sample in
order to obtain all student and teacher informa
tion. This strategy required four site visits to
each school in the sample. While this quality-
control measure increased the cost of the survey,
it was felt necessary since it is almost impossible
to establish effective communication w h e n face-
to-face contact is lacking. A team of fifteen fourth-
year college students, under the supervision of
the research team, administered the question
naires and tests. Data collection proceeded well
and all schools submitted their materials to the
national centre. At the time, both teachers and
students wrote their answers in the questionnaire
booklets because in the 1980s multiple-choice
test formats were n e w and it was thought that
separate answer sheets might present undesir
able complications in retrieving data.
S o m e findings from the study are reported
in Table 1, where percentages of correct an
swers on a post-test score (ninety-three-item
test for 5,342 students from schools, 160 class
rooms, over 31 school settings of various types)
are shown. T h e national average across all schools
is presented along with an international average
of the twenty countries that participated in the
earlier survey. F r o m Table 1, the reader can see
just h o w well students from each of the school
types performed in each of the content areas.
All school types in the Dominican Republic were
below the international norms, with the private
school students performing best among the school
types in the country. In fact, the pre-test aver
age score in the private school group was higher
than the post-test score in all the other school
forms.
Activities stemming from the
achievement survey
A great deal of concern was expressed about
the poor performance of the Dominican stu
dents in the international achievement test re
sults, and educators wished to understand w h y
this was and what to do about it. A team of
mathematics educators from the University of
British Columbia was invited to assist in identi
fying possible causes for underachievement and
to help m a k e recommendations for appropriate
remedial action. A programme of classroom
observations, videotaping of lessons and inter-
T A B L E 1. Grade 8 percentage correct score by school type and mathematics topic (Dominican Republic)
Natural numbers
C o m m o n fractions
Decimals
Ratio-proportion
Algebra
Geometry
Statistics
Measurement
Public lower
secondary
30 22 18 20 21 25 19 20
Public traditional secondary
36 21 18 21 20 24 22 21
Public modern
secondary
38 20 20 21 24 27 24 21
Private certified
secondary
57 35 33 34 28 40 38 32
Private non-certified
secondary
41 26 22 22 21 26 27 22
Rural secondary
37 21 16 18 20 23 18 20
National average
37 22 19 21 21 25 22 21
International average
66 51 48 50 47 53 54 53
452 Eduardo Luna
views with teachers and principals in twelve
randomly selected schools representing the vari
ous school types was chosen. During a two-
week period all lessons taught to a specific class
were observed in each of the twelve schools.
T h e purpose of the classroom observations and
teacher interviews was to get a more complete
picture of the teaching of mathematics at the
Grade 8 level and to supplement and amplify
die data obtained through the classroom pro
cess questionnaires. T h e goal was to be able to
make explicit the kinds of instruction and learning
procedures taking place in various schools, to
examine the range of instructional processes and
to relate them to the aggregate results obtained
from the national survey.
Results from the videotaping did provide
a context for a better understanding of the na
ture of classroom instruction across schools.
Schooling sessions in the Dominican Republic
take place in the morning, afternoon and evening.
Students attend one of these sessions and teachers
m a y teach during any or all of the sessions, with
a typical teaching load of forty-eight periods
(forty-five minutes each) per week. Typical class
room instruction is restricted to copying lecture
notes from the blackboard and writing h o m e
work exercises in a notebook. Such practice
restricts the amount of time available for other
instructional activities like guided practice or
problem-solving, independent work, etc. Reli
ance on note-taking based on copying was not
monitored for accuracy, with teaching load most
often cited by teachers as the reason for little
monitoring and feedback.
Employing curriculum development and in-service
training
Results obtained from T L M D R classroom observations led to a decision to attack die problems in two ways: (1) a curriculum development centre for mathematics was needed to
prepare high-quality materials appropriate to the
Dominican context, which would enable teach
ers better to instruct pupils in mathematics; (2)
it was clear m a n y Dominican teachers needed
to upgrade their teaching skills; for this purpose
an in-service education programme was imple
mented.
THE CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
INTERVENTION
T o aid m e curriculum development centre, a
desktop publishing system including Macintosh
microcomputers, laser printers and several soft
ware packages was acquired for the Dominican
centre w i m funds provided by the International
Development and Research Centre ( I D R C ) in
Ottawa (Canada). This equipment, maintained
locally, resulted in the production of low-cost,
easy-to-use teaching materials which could be
reproduced in large quantity for distribution to
teachers. T w o mathematics curriculum units of
the Grade 8 content on which students scored
particularly poorly (Luna et al., 1991) were
chosen, and Spanish-language versions of the
units were developed, produced in consumable
form and distributed to schools.
IN-SERVICE PROGRAMMES
O n e Grade 8 mathematics teacher from each of forty-eight schools in the Santiago area was invited to participate in the in-service education programme in the summer of 1987, m a k ing use of the two units described in die previous paragraph. Participants were randomly assigned to either a short (three-day) or long (three-week) training session. During the long session, teachers were introduced to teaching models that supported the structure of the lessons developed. They watched presentations and in turn presented lessons which were videotaped. M u c h time was spent discussing the mathematical content of the lessons, since m a n y teachers lacked an understanding of mathematics.
Both groups of teachers were later observed
Dominican Republic: the study on
teaching mathematics in their classroom, and
rated on the basis of adjustment to the teacher
model and knowledge of lesson content. Like
wise, a pre- and post-test on the subjects for the
two units were administered to the students of
the in-service teachers. In all cases, those teach
ers attending the longer training programme,
and their students, were rated highest.
Since the establishment of the Curriculum
Development Centre, designed to examine rea
sons for the uneven achievement performance
in the Dominican Republic, financial assistance
from the Canadian International Development
Agency ( C I D A ) , joint efforts with the Univer
sity of British Columbia, the Ontario Institute
for Studies in Education, and the Latin Ameri
can Centre for Research and Development of
Mathematics Education have been provided so
that the curriculum centre can continue to in
vestigate the teaching and learning of mathematics
in the Dominican Republic.
Looking to the 1990s
T h e following passage, from the preface of a
World Bank report, is relevant here: 'There are
two ways educational systems can be organ
ized. O n e is to keep teaching children without
any feedback on what students learn. T h e other
is to institute a national assessment system to
monitor student learning for feedback and im
provement' (Horn et al., 1991).
Although most educational systems in the
world today follow the first approach, the situ
ation is rapidly changing. M a n y countries, in
cluding several in Latin America, have c o m e to
realize the potential for measuring student
achievement for the purpose of improving school
quality. Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico are coun
tries in the vanguard of this movemen t . Educa
tional programmes in Belize, Brazil (Northeast
and Säo Paulo), Colombia, the Dominican R e
public, Ecuador and Jamaica have already in
cluded proposals to establish educational assess
ments. Implementing educational assessment is
and learning of mathematics 453
not easy: to be done properly, it requires tech
nical expertise, financial resources and institu
tional and government commitment.
Experience in international comparative
education studies by Dominican researchers has
proved that the technical experience of IEA,
combined with a local commitment to enrich
country analysis, can yield viable, low-cost strat
egies to improve the teaching and learning of
school subjects. At present, Latin American
countries working on the Third International
Mathematics and Science Study ( T I M S S ) in
clude Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa
Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, G u a
temala, Mexico, P a n a m a , Peru and Venezuela.
National Project Co-ordinators from each of
these countries me t in Caracas in April 1991,
and again in Santo D o m i n g o in February 1992,
to discuss the survey framework, instruments
and sampling design. A product of these meet
ings has been the agreement to participate in
T I M S S at least at the lower secondary-school
level; to complete the questionnaires sent out
by the international co-ordinating centre; to
participate in the pilot-testing of the open-ended
items; and to conduct a pilot study on math
ematics and science using the instruments de
veloped.
This joint venture represents the first time
that a study of this type will be conducted in a
large number of Latin American countries. In
the past, Latin American participation in I E A
studies has been limited, owing to the costs in
volved in the development of test and question
naire instruments relevant to Spanish-speaking
culture, in collecting and processing data and
in analysing and reporting findings. It is hoped
that this n e w co-ordinated effort of Latin Ameri
can countries to participate in the N e w M a t h
ematics and Science Study represents renewed
regional interest and will be seen as a contribu
tion to the internationalization of this large fifty-
country study of mathematics and science learn
ing. •
454 Eduardo
References
H O R N , R . ; W O L F F , L . ; V Ê L E Z , E . 1991. Developing Edu
cational Assessment Systems in Latin America. A Review of Issues and Recent Experience. Washington, D . C . , World Bank.
L O C K H E E D , M . E . ; V E R S P O O R , A . M . (eds.). 1990. Im
proving Primary Education in Developing Countries: A Review of Policy Options. Washington, D . C . , World Bank.
L U N A , E . ; G O N Z A L E Z , S.; W O L F E , R . 1991. The Under
development of Educational Achievement: Mathematics Achievement in the Dominican Republic Eighth Grade. Journal of Curriculum Studies, Vbl. 22, N o . 4 , pp. 361-76.
L U N A , E . ; G O N Z A L E Z , S.; Y U N E N , R . 1982. Selección de
items cognoscitivos utilizados en el estudio, La Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje de la Matemática en la República Dominicana. Santiago, Centro de Investigaciones PUCMM.
R O B I T A I L L E , D . ; G A R D E N , R . 1989. The IEA Study of
Mathematics II: Contexts and Outcomes of School Mathematics. Oxford, Pergamon Press.
SECRETARIA D E E S T A D O D E E D U C A C I Ó N , BELLAS A R T E S Y
C U L T O S ( S E E B A C ) . 1979. Diagnóstico del sector educativo en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo, Editora Educativa Dominicana.
W O L F E , R.; L U N A , E.; Y U N E N , R.; GONZALEZ, S. 1982.
Informe sobre el muestro utilizado en el estudio, La Enseñanza y el Aprendizaje de la Matemática en la República Dominicana. Santiago, Centro de Investigaciones, P U C M M .
H o w Japan makes use of international
educational survey research
Ryo Watanabe
This article attempts to explain, with some il
lustrative examples, the reasons w h y Japan has
participated in the international co-operative
studies sponsored by the International Associa
tion for the Evaluation of Educational Achieve
ment (IEA), and to present a variety of impacts
that have both influenced educational practices
in general and advanced the educational research
community in Japan. T h e article goes on to
describe h o w interpretation of international data
and research experiences gained from partici
pation in I E A studies has been useful in im
proving Japanese education, and h o w these re
sults have been shared with other countries.
Japanese educators want to see h o w suc
cessful they are in helping youth become useful
Ryo Watanabe (Japan). Chief, Section for International Co-operation in Education at the National Institute for Educational Research (NIER), Tokyo; formerly educational technology specialist at the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. Author of several books including International C o m parison of Computers in Education: Results of IEA Computers in Education Study (in Japanese) and Teachers' View Towards Instructional M a terials and Their Use, and author of a chapter on Japan in R. M . Thomas and T. N. Postlethwaite's Schooling in East Asia.
and productive adults. Setting high standards is
not enough. Society must also be able to c o m
pare its overall standards with those of other
nations as well as to review patterns found within
its national boundaries. National or individual
science standards should not imply just one
average score, but rather various measures of
cognitive learning (creative and critical think
ing, factual recall and problem-solving) and at
titudes toward school and learning. These pat
terns found in Japan and other countries can
help Japanese educators find better ways of pro
viding a balanced education. Pattern differences
m a y also be used by other nations seeking to
learn h o w to improve their o w n systems, with
countries borrowing freely from each other in
the market-place of pedagogical ideas. This
sharing is what international surveys are all about.
The IEA and Japan
Japan joined the I E A in 1961, and the National Institute for Educational Research ( N I E R ) , one of the national educational research institutes established by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, has since then been the m e m b e r
Prospects, Vol. XXII, I, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
456 Ryo Watanabe
institution representing Japan. Immediately af
ter joining IEA, Japan was involved in the First
International Mathematics Study (FIMS) , con
ducted in the early 1960s. W h e n the research
design was first announced, N I E R decided to
participate in F I M S , with due recognition of
the remarkable opportunity that IEA was offer
ing to the international research community, and
with the expectation that F I M S would contrib
ute to the identification of the weaknesses and
strengths of Japanese mathematics education.
This decision was also m a d e with the earnest
hope and the confidence that concrete and valu
able data would be m a d e available for the im
provement of education in Japan within an in
ternational context.
Improvement of mathematics education and
its modernization was an urgent concern for
Japan at that time. Although the findings of
experimental studies on mathematics education
conducted outside Japan had been introduced,
it was not clear to what extent they could be
generalized to the Japanese educational context.
Therefore, it was expected that F I M S would
m a k e it possible better to understand the way in
which social background and pedagogical prac
tices affected the learning of mathematics, in
cluding student achievement and teaching and
learning practices. Objective data drawn nationally
from thousands of students and hundreds of
schools, and measuring daily practices and class
room observations, would, it was reasoned, pro
vide ways to improve mathematics education.
A number of nationwide, large-scale achieve
ment surveys covering mathematics achievement
had already been conducted in Japan, but F I M S
had three significant differences: first, it was
conducted internationally and it attempted to
measure student achievement adjusted for con
tent area studied and not studied; second, it
examined a very broad and comprehensive cur
riculum content; and, third, it employed a vari
ety of conditional factors thought to influence
mathematics performance. National project lead
ers thought it especially important to measure
student attitudes toward mathematics and
achievement. Japanese data derived from this
early mathematics survey, along with those from
other surveys, m a d e teachers pay more atten
tion to the ways in which students learn, and
not just to the content of mathematics.
Since the 1960s, Japan has participated in
several projects among the studies sponsored
by IEA, recognizing the benefits to Japanese
education. These included the First International
Science Study (FISS) conducted in the early
1970s, the Second International Mathematics
Study (SIMS) conducted in the late 1970s, the
Second International Science Study (SISS) con
ducted in the early 1980s, and n o w the C o m
puters in Education Study ( C O M P E D ) and
Third International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS) currently under way. Data from
the Mathematics and Science Study collected
over time reveal certain trends, showing the
improvement in student achievement from decade
to decade.
T h e Computers in Education Study was
planned as a two-stage study, starting in 1987,
with data collection from school principals and
teachers in 1989. Currently, the project has
entered stage 2, with data collection in mid-1992
among students as well as school principals and
teachers. T I M S S started in 1991, with data
collection scheduled for early 1994.
W h y Japan participates in
international studies
Participation in international studies has brought
about both visible and intangible impacts on
education policies, curriculum and educational
practice, and the methods of educational re
search in Japan. International studies sponsored
by IEA are primarily intended for the collection
of necessary and important data to improve
individual education systems. Each country can,
therefore, decide whether or not to take part in
any study on the basis of the expected benefit
from such participation. International and na
tional options m a y also be added to the major
survey, and these additions provide extra value
H o w Japan makes use of international educational survey research 457
to countries by allowing them to tailor survey
designs to their o w n needs. In the Second Sci
ence Study, a practical skills test was included
as an international option. Japan administered
this kind of test for the first time, together with
a few other countries, in order to compare the
achievement of students performing, reasoning
and investigating in a practical setting with that
of students carrying out paper and pencil tests.
A s stated in its mission statement, IEA's
mission is 'the conduct of comparative studies
focusing on educational policies and practices
in order to enhance learning within and across
systems of education' (Hayes, 1991). This state
ment m a y , of course, be applicable not only to
I E A studies but also to international compara
tive studies initiated by other organizations.
However , I E A studies are unique in their plan
ning and implementation, as they are co-opera
tively designed and implemented by the partici
pating countries, and their data are analysed
cross-nationally and m a d e available to identify
the characteristics of a given education system.
O n e major benefit from Japan's participa
tion in international studies has to do with the
identification and testing of a set of core meas
ures thought to affect learning (for example,
school resources, teaching practices, curriculum
organization and student and teacher attitudes).
Early on, these measures are agreed upon by all
participating countries as relevant to their o w n
system of education. W h e n one looks at the
results for each country, interesting patterns reveal
themselves and researchers can start trying to
explain w h y , for example, teacher in-service
training affects students in one country but not
in another. Another benefit is that Japanese re
searchers w h o participate in the planning and
carrying out of the studies, including data analysis,
improve their o w n skills as well as observe h o w
others from around the world benefit from the
research process.
Involvement in the process of determining
a c o m m o n framework for research, clarifying
issues and problems and identifying a sampling
design is a unique and valuable opportunity for
researchers to discover the trends of education
in the world in general and the scientific situa
tion in individual countries. Through informa
tion exchange and the relation of experiences
a m o n g the world community of researchers,
people learn from each other, which leads to a
better understanding of educational research
practice. N e w ideas and information on educa
tion that work in one country can be debated
and adapted in another if appropriate.
In studies such as mathematics and sci
ence achievement, I E A divides the curriculum
into three categories, namely: intended curricu
lum, referring to the curriculum plan at the macro
level, which m a y be laid d o w n in official docu
ments or which m a y exist as a shared concep
tion of the main curriculum content; implemented
curriculum, which is the one actually taught in
the classroom, or the content, time allocations,
instructional strategies, etc., that the teacher
realizes in his/her lessons; and achieved curricu
lum, which is the outcome of student learning,
or the cognitive skills and attitudes of students
that result from teaching and learning. These
three curricula are interlocked, but each can be
measured separately.
In I E A studies, the above three curricula
are separately treated and analysed in relation
to such factors as students' attitudes and be
haviour, which are often correlated with them.
Before participation in the I E A , this kind of
approach had not been tried in Japan, and few
research studies had been undertaken, on the
one hand, to examine the correlations between
the scientific attitudes, perceptions and knowl
edge students on the one hand and their level of
achievement, on the other. N o w that mese inno
vations have been incorporated in the design of
I E A studies, a longitudinal study on qualitative
changes in scientific attitudes and science learning
a m o n g elementary and secondary school chil
dren has been implemented in Japan.
T h e results of international studies, which
involve the participation of culturally diverse
countries, each with their o w n education sys
tem and practices, are sometimes very useful in
the process of revising the curriculum and im
proving teaching methods. Apart from the dif
ficulty generally encountered, owing to the con
servative nature of education, in introducing
458 Ryo Watanabe
changes or innovations in content and meth
ods, voluminous data obtained from a compre
hensive survey m a y not be easy to analyse and
interpret. In order to develop concrete propos
als for the improvement of education using large-
scale surveys, it is necessary to focus on a few
key educational factors which are important in
one's o w n country. Researchers can then care
fully h o m e in on a few points k n o w n to be im
portant and utilize data from the survey over
several years in order to answer research ques
tions that arise from year to year. Similarly, w h e n
surveys are carried out over several decades, it
is possible to examine trends.
Impact on curriculum and teaching methods
In Japan, the school curriculum is prescribed as
courses of study for elementary, lower second
ary, and upper secondary schools, and is used
to plan classroom instruction. T h e courses of
study are regularly revised, almost every ten years
since the end of the 1940s. T h e elementary
curriculum was most recently revised and put
into operation in April 1992; the dates for the
lower secondary and upper secondary curricula
are 1993 and 1994 respectively.
Revisions of these courses of study are based
on discussions among educational personnel and
subject specialists, the results of which were fi
nally published by the Ministry of Education
and implemented by teachers. In the process of
deciding the content and emphases of the re
vised courses of study, die results of research,
including IEA studies, are taken into considera
tion, reflected upon and where relevant acted
upon.
A s for science education, Japan has been
criticized for providing students with a too nar
row teacher-centred, recall-based style of in
struction. S o m e say that students lack the skills
and attitudes to tackle inquiry learning. Such
criticisms are supported by results from a sur
vey of science achievement conducted by the
Ministry of Education as well as by the I E A
science studies. T h e IEA Second Science Study
revealed that scores for practical skills tests were
lower than those for paper and pencil tests
(Keeves, 1992). Teachers also indicated they
spent less time on experiments and observation
as children progressed through the grades. In
brief, Japanese students m a y suffer from defi
ciencies in investigating and inquiry skills, in
spite of their high content-of-knowledge scores.
In view of these findings and others, Japa
nese educators have looked into the develop
ment of skills and attitudes a m o n g students in
order to be able to nurture the kinds of indi
viduals required in the twenty-first century -
individuals w h o , endowed with a broad-based
humanity, can respond to the demands of a
changing society. In the revision of the Japa
nese courses of study, it was decided to e m p h a
size observation and experiments, especially in
lower and upper secondary schools, and to at
tempt to develop and foster spontaneous in
quiry activities and scientific thinking skills.
T h e teaching content of science education
prescribed in the old courses of study tended to
emphasize the pure sciences. For example, the
I E A Second Science Study demonstrated, us
ing analyses of test items, that students did poorly
on items with direct relevance to daily life. A n
other potential problem arising from an over-
abstract approach suggests that, while it is wise
to allow all students w h o have the ability in
science or w h o are interested in science to pur
sue physics, chemistry and biology, the oppo
site m a y not be true. For those students w h o
are not good at science and mathematics, per
haps study content ramer than rigorous abstract
principles and rules should be adapted. For this
group of students, it might be better to let them
develop their scientific talents - scientific point
of view, good judgement, and decision-making
skills - through an understanding of natural phe
nomena based closely on their daily life. In or
der to make this possible, it was considered
necessary to incorporate practical subjects into
the curriculum at the national level, thus pro
viding content relevant to daily life.
H o w Japan makes use of international educational survey research 459
While considering the impact of interna
tional studies, one cannot ignore the impact on
parents and teachers as well as that o n the cur
riculum. Japanese parents should be satisfied
that, according to the I E A test results, their
children do well by international standards. F r o m
the perspective of curriculum specialists and
researchers, there are still a n u m b e r of prob
lems to be resolved in trying to improve achieve
m e n t in mathematics and science. Howeve r ,
international comparisons, regardless of overall
achievement level, still point out areas of weak
ness and can be used to address educational
problems.
Japanese teachers were also relieved to hear
that their students do well on international tests.
These teachers, w h o see themselves as respon
sible for student performance, are n o w using
the results of the national report to diagnose
problems in teaching and learning in order to
improve instruction. S o m e teachers are even
using the correct response rates of Japanese stu-
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Singapore
United States
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Percentage correct score
FIG. 1. Performance on practical skills test (14-year-olds, 1983-84) (after Keeves, 1992).
Practical total (69)
Science achievement (72)
Performing (76)
Reasoning (57)
Investigating (86)
Practical total (70)
Science achievement (62)
Performing (81 )
Reasoning (48)
Investigating (87)
Practical total (50)
Science achievement (61 )
Performing (63)
Reasoning (34)
Investigating (28)
Practical total (65)
Science achievement (60)
Performing (70)
Reasoning (65)
Investigating (70)
Practical total (55)
Science achievement (55)
Performing (64)
Reasoning (42)
Investigating (79)
Practical total (51)
Science achievement (55)
Performing (61)
Reasoning (39)
Investigating (68)
460 Ryo Watanabe
dents for each test item to identify the level of
their o w n students' performance in comparison
with the overall standard of Japanese students,
regarding both knowledge of and liking for
mathematics and science. Furthermore, some
very active teachers make use of IEA results in
applying n e w and varied teaching methods to
replace chalk-and-talk instruction.
Urgent future issues
Apart from mathematics and science studies,
IEA initiated the Computers in Education Study
( C O M P E D ) , because as computers come to be
widely used in schools, the nature of mathematics
and science and other instruction will change.
W h e n this study was proposed in the middle of
1980, the number of computers in Japanese
schools was limited. Findings from a nation
wide survey conducted by the Ministry of E d u
cation in March 1987 showed that only 6.5,
22.8 and 86.3 per cent of public elementary,
lower and upper secondary schools respectively
were equipped with at least one computer.
Owing to the low diffusion rate of c o m
puters at that time, especially in elementary and
lower secondary schools, there was an argu
ment among Japanese educators, some deem
ing that it was not beneficial for Japan to par
ticipate in the study for the present. There was
also an argument that computers needed to be
introduced and used in schools, and this would
have to be realized in the very near future. Since
so little information was available, Japan was
keen to learn from the experiences of other coun
tries in regard to the kinds of problems faced in
introducing computers and using them for teach
ing and learning. A s a result, Japan finally de
cided to join the C O M P E D study, with the
expectation that valuable comparative informa
tion would be forthcoming, since some other
countries in the study had already attained wide
spread adoption of computers in schools.
In the old courses of study, computers were
not treated as part of the teaching content, ex
cept in the curriculum of vocational upper sec
ondary schools. But in the process of curricu
lum revision, it gradually became clear that c o m
puters must be introduced into schools at all
levels. A decision was then taken to equip all
public elementary, lower and upper secondary
schools with computers by 1994 with budget
ary support from both national and local gov
ernments. A s a result, computers are rapidly
being installed and, as of March 1992, 30.9,
58.9, and 97.8 per cent of public elementary,
lower and upper secondary schools respectively
had at least one computer.
Although planners are aware that m u c h
needs to be learned about the extent and use of
computers for learning in schools, useful infor
mation from the IEA C O M P E D study will be
forthcoming soon. These results are expected
to provide the basis for the establishment of
guidelines for the effective use of computers in
schools. Finally, data collected from teachers in
1989 and again in 1992 will provide informa
tion about changes in attitudes and availability
of computer hardware and software over the
years.
O n e implication that can be drawn from
the current study has to do with the positioning
of computers in schools. According to the find
ings, those countries, like the United States, that
have relatively long experience of computers in
schools tend to place them in ordinary class
rooms and make constant use of them. In con
trast, Japanese data show that computers tend
to be kept in special rooms. This m a y occur
because Japanese schools tend to arrange c o m
puters in computer laboratories away from the
classroom. If computers are to be fully used
and integrated into the teaching and learning
process, they will need to be judiciously located.
In the current computer study, a functional
information technology test assessing the stu
dents' knowledge of computers was included
for international testing. During the piloting of
that test, Japanese teachers pointed out that
computer teaching had never been included in
the curriculum syllabus and therefore it would
be difficult or impossible - even unfair - to ask
Japanese children to take such tests. However,
H o w Japan makes use of international educational survey research 461
drawing on the IEA international paradigm and
past results from the computer study, as well as
noting that the mathematics and science sur
veys included items that had not been taught,
researchers were quick to point out that the
uncharted nature of computer use in schools
demanded that some form of testing be carried
out. Besides, it was revealed that some children
learn about computers outside school. After some
discussion, teachers and other concerned per
sonnel agreed that the results of such testing
could be used to identify the direction of future
computer teaching/learning developments, as well
as to help formulate future guidelines for c o m
puter education in Japan.
Joint efforts for the promotion of
international co-operation
N I E R has been involved in the activities of in
ternational co-operation and exchange in vari
ous forms apart from the IEA. T h e relationship
between N I E R and U N E S C O is worthy of special
mention, as the co-operation between these two
organizations has existed for twenty-five years.
N I E R started its U N E S C O - N I E R Regional
Programme for Educational Research in Asia
and the Pacific in 1967 at the request of
U N E S C O , and has been collaborating with
U N E S C O since then in the building and strength
ening of the research capabilities of countries,
especially in the region of Asia and the Pacific.
In collaboration with the U N E S C O Principal
Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific ( P R O A P )
in Bangkok, N I E R has been organizing two or
three regional seminars and workshops every
year in order to provide opportunities for joint
comparative studies, the sharing of experiences
and information concerning critical issues in
education, and the joint preparation of possible
strategies for solving educational problems.
N I E R has, therefore, collaborated with other
countries in the mutual strengthening of educa
tional research capabilities for more than a quarter
of a century, not only with the countries par
ticipating in IEA projects, but also with other
countries, especially those in the region of Asia
and the Pacific. N I E R , by taking advantage of
opportunities for organizing regional activities,
has also shared experiences and information
gained from participation in IEA research projects
with other countries participating in the
U N E S C O - N I E R regional activities. At the same
time, because of the high achievement level at
tained by Japanese students in IEA studies, other
Asian-Pacific policy-makers are keen to learn
more about Japanese successes in curriculum,
teaching, and other educational areas which m a n y
see as a prerequisite to their national develop
ment.
As for the building and enhancement of
research capabilities, IEA, in connection with
its projects, has also provided training opportu
nities for countries that are participating in a
study for the first time or those not familiar
with large-scale research. In this respect, over
the years N I E R has had the opportunity to or
ganize training and studies, and to accumulate
k n o w - h o w in the implementation of large-scale
survey research, which it has shared with coun
tries in the Asia-Pacific region (NIER, 1990).
It is evident that there are m a n y advan
tages to be gained by countries that participate
in international studies. However, it is equally
true that m a n y problems and difficulties accom
pany such research, as it is difficult to develop
a c o m m o n research framework or design that
covers diverse cultural backgrounds and educa
tional systems, and also asks the relevant re
search questions applicable to all countries at a
given time. However, participation in interna
tional research certainly facilitates the process
of mutual understanding - a process requiring
compromise solutions. Furthermore, education
is a very complex process of h u m a n endeavour,
and so it is too optimistic to expect miracle pre
scriptions or quick remedies to solve educational
problems around the world in one study, even
w h e n that study is undertaken internationally
and has comprehensive coverage and scope.
Under these circumstances, it can be said
that sincerity and enthusiasm on the part of
462 Ryo Watanabe
policy-makers, educators and educational re
searchers in the everlasting pursuit of clues for
the improvement of education are the key to
the successful implementation of international
studies. A good example has been set by the
implementation of IEA's research projects, and
this is the most significant effect of such stud
ies. In other words, I E A activities, being inter
national and co-operative efforts for the enhance
ment of learning, with the aim of preparing young
people for the future, are of lasting value to
countries which, like Japan, participate in inter
national research. •
References
H A Y E S , W . A . (ed.). 1991. IEA Guidebook 1991: Activities, Institutions and People. T h e Hague, International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA).
K E E V E S , J. 1992. Learning Science in a Changing World. T h e Hague, IEA/Flinders University of South Australia.
N I E R . 1990. Tomorrow's Tools Today: The State of Educational Computing in Asia and the Pacific. Tokyo, National Institute for Educational Research (NIER).
What does Kuwait want to learn from
the Third International Mathematics and
Science Study (TIMSS)? Mansour G . Hussein
Because schooling affects society as a whole,
the educational process is easily criticized, of
ten harshly, by both teachers and parents, by
those directly involved with schooling as well as
those w h o have little direct contact with schools.
T h e reason w h y so m a n y criticize educational
processes has to do with individuals viewing
the issues from varying vantage-points. If par
ents find out that one of their children lags be
hind in school studies, the teacher and school
officials are most often blamed. If teachers feel
the burden of educational shortfalls, their frus
tration is directed at the whole educational sys
tem, or at parents and students. W h e n students
do poorly, they often blame themselves, which
leads to lower self-esteem.
T h e educational process is criticized in both
developing and developed countries because
Mansour G . Hussein (Kuwait). Assistant Under-Secretary for Student Affairs at the Ministry of Education (Kuwait). His particular academic interests are in mathematics teaching and curriculum development. Author of a series of mathematics textbooks with teachers' guides.
education is a basic factor in the planning pro
cess. W h e n nation-building goes slowly, the school
system is felt to have failed society. In brief,
education is blamed w h e n national scores are
low or students fail to learn skills needed in the
labour market. While society certainly has the
right to criticize the education system, only in
ternational comparisons a m o n g similar educa
tion systems can offer solid evidence of school
ing's failure or success in a society. Large-scale
student surveys yield results which can be used
to diagnose educational weaknesses so that they
can be corrected and the system improved.
Non-evaluated programmes
Over the last thirty years, Kuwait and the Gulf
Co-operation Council states ( O m a n , Saudi Ara
bia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emir
ates) have carried out m a n y educational and
scientific programmes. S o m e of them have con
tinued until today, while others were abandoned
Prospects, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
464 Mansour G. Hussein
soon after implementation. Those which lasted
did not necessarily do so as a result of scientific
evaluation. Their continuation depended on
personal expert opinions, or limited feedback
from educators w h o were using their o w n judge
ment, though sometimes without statistical back
up. O n the other hand, those education projects
and experiments that were terminated often did
not receive scientific scrutiny beyond the ad
vice of a few experts and educational authori
ties.
O n e such project was a mathematics pro
g r a m m e presented to the Arab countries by
U N E S C O , starting in 1970/71 and ending two
years later in 1972/73. T h e author witnessed
the implementation of this project from begin
ning to end. It involved the use of textbooks in
Grades 10, 11 and 12, each text being intro
duced on an experimental basis in the first year
and then being m a d e compulsory the following
year. This project was never formally evalu
ated. Rather, evaluation relied on individual
opinions and feedback from teachers, without
any systematic survey.
Another education project concerns the
introduction in 1981 of an English-language
programme to replace a traditional English-lan
guage programme used in the 1970s through
out the Gulf region. N o formal evaluation was
ever carried out to assess the effectiveness of
either programme other than a quick poll of
teachers.
Starting in m e 1980s, the State of Kuwait
and the Gulf Co-operation Council states started
implementation of a unified mathematics and
science programme under the sponsorship of
the Arab Bureau for Educational Research for
the Gulf States. T h e headquarters of the Arab
Bureau is located in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. T h e
Educational Research Centre for the Gulf States
is located in Kuwait.
T h e main interest of the Educational R e
search Centre is to develop all aspects of edu
cation in the Gulf region. In 1981, a mathematical
programme was initiated in the first grade of
elementary school. T h e first mathematics text
was experimentally introduced in two elemen
tary schools in each Gulf state, followed the
next year by a general introduction of the n e w
curriculum and tests to all Grade 1 classes. T h e
process was continued through to the ninth grade.
Similar plans are in progress for mathematics
classes up to the twelfth grade. T h e same pro
cedure was followed with both the unified texts
in mathematics and science. If questions were
ever to be asked about the criteria used to intro
duce a given text, the answer would be the fol
lowing: 'The steering committee for the text
book project believes that the text is suitable for
introduction.'
T h e steering committee consists of: the
Chairman, usually a professor from Kuwait
University or the Public Authority for Applied
Education and Training; a m e m b e r of the Cur
riculum and School Textbook Department; and
one or two instructional supervisors. T h e c o m
mittee members usually visit schools experiment
ing with the text, perhaps twice or three times
per year. T h e committee attends some classes
and, depending on the impression it receives
during these visits, m a y conclude that the book
can be introduced more widely to the whole
grade level. This is the way the evaluation sys
tem for mathematics and science has worked in
the State of Kuwait and other Gulf Arab states
- an education system that relies heavily on the
personal judgement of school experts.
The need for evaluating h o w well schools teach mathematics
and science
Educational planners in the ministries of edu
cation throughout the states of the Gulf C o
operation Council present curricula to schools
with the sincere belief that such curricula both
develop and reflect the most advanced educa
tional trends in the subject-matter. Here the
following kinds of questions are raised:
Are there comparative studies (for example,
control and experimental schools) which
indicate to what extent the implementa-
What does Kuwait want to learn from the
tion of curricula and textbooks follows the
given planning schedule?
T o what extent do students comprehend the
content of these curricula?
T o what extent are the aims and goals of the
n e w curricula achieved?
Mathematics and science curricula m a y be viewed
as comprising three components:
T h e intended curriculum: the curriculum that
is defined by the Ministry of Education
and found in the textbooks and teacher
syllabus.
T h e implemented curriculum: the curriculum
that is taught by teachers in their class
rooms and influenced by personal point of
view, knowledge and experience.
T h e attained curriculum: the curriculum that is
assimilated by students according to their
attitudes toward the subject, and indi
vidual study habits which can be meas
ured using student testing.
If the curriculum assimilated by students can
be tested, then it can be judged in comparison
to h o w well teachers cover the intended cur
riculum. Relating intended curriculum to im
plemented and attained curriculum can only be
evaluated through an extensive monitoring and
evaluation design which the educational systems
of Kuwait and the Gulf Co-operation Council
states desperately need.
Monitoring and improving
teachers' methods
All educators agree that successful learning de
pends on effective teaching methods. If effec
tive methods of teaching were applied by all
teachers, taking into account students' socio
logical and psychological learning needs, then
teachers unquestionably would be able to raise
student standards. This applies to education
across the board. If educators can find out what
teaching methods are followed by teachers, it
becomes possible to develop methods which are
International Mathematics and Science Study 465 ¡S)?
more suitable to some students than to others.
Comparison of teaching methods by student
characteristics (ability, previous subject profile,
motivation, learning style, etc.) can lead to re
finements in the way mathematics and science
are taught and learned in the Gulf states. With
out scientific evaluation studies, which currentiy
are not well developed in the Gulf Co-opera
tion Council states, it will remain difficult to
assess student learning and teacher instruction.
Without such assessment, improvement in school
ing is less likely to take hold.
Using student achievement scores
to monitor curriculum success
Education officials usually consider the grades
(either numeric or letter scores) students obtain
in their examinations as a clear indication of the
success or failure of the school curriculum, teach
ing instruction and student learning. Usually it
is very important for school officials to set high
standards in marking students, even though it
is taken for granted that the high percentage
does not m e a n m u c h by itself. If one class at
tains a 70 per cent pass rate, and another class
a 90 per cent pass rate, the class with the higher
pass rate can probably be seen to have come
closer to achieving the planned aims of the cur
riculum than the class with the lower average.
In fact, it is probable that most of the students
in the 90 per cent class have received high grades
while the majority of the students in the 70 per
cent class received low grades.
But beyond these aggregate examination
score percentages obtained for each student, there
is a great need for psychometric evaluation to
determine student achievement levels for each
mathematics and science topic or concept. Fur
thermore, student assessment by mathematics
and science skills and thinking skills needs to be
measured. Subscores in algebra, geometry, c o m
putation and statistics, which can be equated to
the curriculum programme, are required. Sei-
466 Mansour G. Hussein
ence topics and skills such as observation, meas
urement, problem-solving, data interpretation
and formulation of generalizations must be ob
tained. T h e aggregate percentage score for each
student n o w obtained is of limited value in evalu
ating the success or failure of the curriculum,
even though the score has some value for deter
mining student placement in further education.
What does Kuwait expect
from its participation in IEA's
Third International Mathematics
and Science Study (TIMSS)?
Before trying to answer what Kuwait expects
from comparative international educational re
search, it m a y be helpful to shed some light on
the education and evaluation systems in K u
wait, so that the reader can visualize the reasons
behind Kuwait's decision to participate in in
ternational survey research.
T h e education system in Kuwait is con
sidered to be centralized in its planning but
decentralized in its implementation. T h e M i n
istry of Education determines management regu
lations inside and outside schools. T h e ministry
also develops curricula, selects the authors to
write textbooks, prints these textbooks and gives
them to students free of charge.
T h e Ministry of Education plans for in-
service teacher training. It also evaluates differ
ent aspects of the educational system, including
instruction and school processes as well as the
organizational structure of the delivery system
itself. Kuwait follows an educational model with
4-4—4 years, which implies four years each of
primary, intermediate and secondary schooling.
In addition, two years of non-compulsory kin
dergarten attendance is almost universal.
T h e system for evaluating student achieve
ment in Kuwait for the purposes of promotion
from one grade to another requires a m i n i m u m
score of 50 per cent on each subject taught.
These total scores are attained through daily
quizzes and monthly exams, in addition to the
grade obtained by students during their final
examination. N o students are promoted from
one class to the next unless they get 50 per cent
of the total grade in all subjects studied. If they
fail to obtain at least 50 per cent in two of the
subjects they study, they will be given another
chance two months later to achieve 50 per cent
overall. O n the second attempt, if they are un
able to get the 50 per cent m i n i m u m in the
subjects failed on the first try, they will repeat
the same class the following year. If any student
failed to obtain the 50 per cent m i n i m u m in
more than two subjects, they would normally
not be given the previously mentioned chance.
They would be considered a failure and required
to repeat the same class. Table 1 indicates the
subjects that are required from each student at
every stage of the educational cycle.
At the end of every school year, standard
ized examinations are administered to all stu
dents in intermediate and secondary schools. In
the primary grades, the examinations are left
completely to the teacher's discretion without
any external interference. In both the interme
diate and secondary cycle, the headteacher pre
pares the final examination in consultation with
the school instructional supervisor, w h o visits
the school several times each year.
T h e final examination for twelfth graders
(the end of the secondary-school cycle) is pre
pared by the Ministry of Education in secret.
T h e ministry also plans the examination sched
ule without notifying teachers in advance. It then
forms special committees, m a d e up of teachers,
w h o mark the examination papers by number
(because of the importance of these examina
tions for future student success). If any student
receives 60 per cent or more average across all
subjects, he/she will be eligible to attend K u
wait University or one of the colleges of the
Public Authority for Applied Education and
Training. If any student gets 80 per cent or
higher average across all subjects, he/she be
comes eligible to compete for a full scholarship
to attend one of the foreign universities for five
or six years. Such scholarships are usually in
the United States, the United K i n g d o m or in
What does Kuwait want to learn from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study 467 (TIMSS)?
T A B L E 1. School subjects taught in Kuwait
Subjects
Islamic education Arabic English French Mathematics Science Physics Chemistry Biology Geology Social science1
Geography History Sociology Philosophy Fine arts Physical education Music H o m e economics2
1. Fourth-year primary.
2. Girls only.
Primary
X X
X X
X
X X X
Intermediate
X X X
X X
X
X X X X
1
X X X
X X
X
X X
X
2
X X X
X
X X X X X
X X
X
Secondary (year)
3
Science
X X X
X
X X X X
X
Arts
X X X X X X
X X X X X
X
4
Science
X X X
X
X X X
X
Arts
X X X X X
X X X X X
X
another Arab country. T h e above description
offers the reader some idea of h o w important
the final examination is in determining the fu
ture of Kuwaiti students.
Having sketched the education system and
the methods of evaluation used to promote stu
dents in Kuwait and the Gulf states, w e can
n o w return to our earlier question: W h a t does
Kuwait expect from participation in the Third
International Mathematics and Science Study
being carried out by the IEA?
It is most important for Kuwait to discover
to what extent the country is mastering curricu
lum content reflecting international developments
in science and mathematics. Researchers also
want to find out the extent to which Kuwait or
the Gulf countries are achieving the planned
educational and scientific goals proposed by the
ministry, w h e n examined in the context of the
combined goals of educational systems around
the world. Since Kuwait is a good representa
tive of the Gulf countries, an international study
- such as the one in mathematics and science -
is of great value and importance, not only for
Kuwait but also for other countries in the re
gion.
In this context, the international study in
mathematics and science provides comparisons
between countries in the Gulf region and those
elsewhere in the Arab world and beyond to
Europe and Asia. Therefore, it has great poten
tial for determining curriculum impact on Arab
mathematics and science learning during the
coming years. T h e international study completes
first testing of 9- and 13-year-olds in 1994 and
tests these same age-groups again four years
later in 1998. T h e design of the study enables
comparisons to be m a d e over two time periods,
allowing 9- and 13-year-old trend analyses.
T h e performance of Kuwaiti students, w h o
are not unrepresentative of other Gulf Arab stu
dents, m a y be poor w h e n compared interna
tionally. If this turns out to be true, Kuwait
wishes to k n o w w h y in order to have an indica
tion of where reforms are needed. Making se
lective comparisons with over fifty countries
468 Mansour G. Hussein
around the world allows Kuwait to see precisely
where its students fit on an international scale.
But, more importantly, participation will allow
educators to examine national efficiency in stu
dent performance. Those countries which per
form well m a y offer insights as to w h y that is
so, and other countries are free to assess whether
such programmes would work in their o w n coun
tries.
In addition, analyses of cognitive profiles
for students in Kuwait can show h o w students
perform at various cognitive levels (for exam
ple, recall, application of mathematics and sci
ence), leading to guidelines for reforming math
ematical objectives in the Gulf states.
In summary , participation by Kuwait in
international comparative survey testing in math
ematics and science can address the following
questions: Are students in Kuwait taught the
same curricula as the students in other coun
tries participating in the study? D o students in
Kuwait learn mathematics to a level that could
be considered of a reasonably high international
standard? Are there any marked differences in
performance between Kuwaiti students and stu
dents from other comparable countries in the
study?
In the light of the final question, it is espe
cially important to note several key long-term
generalizable benefits that Kuwaiti education has
received from participation:
Promotion of assessment research through n e w
survey technologies and methodologies
related to sampling, test construction, cur
riculum analyses, statistical analysis, etc.
Monitoring the achievement of students of
tiiree cohorts.
Supplying a framework and procedures for
writing test items for future local studies.
Providing a framework for interpreting and
analysing the results and findings of simi
lar studies in the region in the future.
F r o m these known benefits, and from m a n y others
that will become apparent during the course of
the study, Kuwait values highly participation in
international educational survey research. •
The IE A project on preschool education
Preliminary surveys in Portugal
and China
David P . Weikart, Shi Hui Zhong and Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo
Early childhood experience plays a crucial role
in the development of young children's later
school success, social responsibility and work
productivity. Research studies in some coun
tries have found that young children living in
poverty w h o participate in high-quality preschool
programmes are significantly more likely to gradu
ate from high school and get a job and signifi
cantly less likely to commit crimes. Although
governments and parents today generally rec
ognize the value of preschool services, includ-
David P . Weikart (United States). President and founder of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation (Ypsilanti, Michigan) specializing in early childhood education. Author of H o w Nations Serve Young Children: Profiles of Child Care and Education in 14 Countries and Challenging the Potential: Programs for Talented Disadvantaged Youth.
Shi Hui Zhong (People's Republic of China). Professor and Head of the division conducting national surveys on early childhood education for China's National Institute of Educational Research.
Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo (Portugal). Professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Porto (Portugal).
ing kindergarten programmes, unfortunately, to
date, only a limited number of societies have
invested heavily in high-quality early childhood
programmes. But as more and more mothers
with preschool-aged children enter the workforce,
and as parents increasingly recognize preschool's
impact on children's social, cognitive and physical
development, early childhood care and educa
tion services take on added value. Worldwide,
parents are beginning to ask governments to
help provide early childhood services.
W h y study preschool children?
W h y should government officials be concerned
whether preschool-aged children attend early
childhood programmes such as those provided
by child-care centres or kindergartens? T h e
answer is simple: such attendance can provide
the boost in cognitive and social skills that the
next generation needs to guarantee its success
in later life. It appears that both advantaged
and disadvantaged children benefit from such
programmes and that the advantages c o m p o u n d
over the life of each individual. With growing
recognition of the value of preschool services,
Prospects, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
470 David P. Weikart, Shi Hui Zhong and Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo
middle-class families will make sacrifices to pay
for these services should governments not pro
vide them free or at low cost. Other families,
even though they m a y value such services highly,
will not be so fortunate. In this sense, w e need
to debate h o w best to serve socio-economic strata,
and this debate will require empirical findings
from actual studies.
A s the social d e m a n d for preschooling
grows, most government agencies are searching
for information to guide them in developing
n e w cost-effective services as well as in improv
ing current ones. Guiding information about
such programme characteristics as group size
and adult/child ratio (structural characteristics)
is available, but there is little information about
the process characteristics of programmes (the
interactional processes a m o n g children and
adults). Consequently, it is difficult to make any
policy recommendations on h o w to improve
services to enhance children's readiness to en
ter the formal school system.
Educators and educational researchers in
various countries have likewise been quick to
endorse comparative international preprimary
research. They are interested in recording the
availability of early childhood services and die
possible effects of services on children's future
schooling. Countries involved with the Interna
tional Association for the Evaluation of Educa
tional Achievement (IEA) in such research at
the present time are Belgium, Finland, Germany,
Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania ,
Slovenia, Spain, H o n g K o n g , Thailand, Indo
nesia, the People's Republic of China, the R e
public of Korea, Russia, Nigeria, and the United
States. T h e researchers from these countries see
a cross-national study of preprimary schooling
as valuable for educational planners because it
allows researchers to explore the experiences of
preschoolers under varying national and cul
tural conditions. Whereas process understandings
are not always possible to arrive at by a study of
any single system, a study over m a n y systems
reveals certain behavioural consistencies under
varying cultural norms. Thus , 'world of pre
schoolers' serves as a natural laboratory to dis
entangle relationships influencing child devel
opment and learning. For this reason, the edu
cation field is very interested in carrying out
international comparisons of h o w preprimary
care/education services are provided to young
children in various countries and what effects
they have on socializing young children into
their national cultures.
The IEA Preprimary Project
T h e IEA study just referred to is k n o w n as the
IEA Preprimary Project, and it is being carried
out in conjunction with the High/Scope Educa
tional Research Foundation in Ypsilanti, Michi
gan. So far, eleven of the countries involved
have undertaken Phase 1 of the project, a de
scriptive survey (in 1988) using household sur
vey techniques to gather information from families
about their use of early childhood care and edu
cation services. In 1991, samples of the early
childhood settings identified in the 1988 survey
were selected, and n o w , in Phase 2 of the project,
observations and interview questionnaires are
being used to investigate the quality of young
children's experiences in these preschool envi
ronments in sixteen countries. In addition, a
subsample of children from each type of setting
has been assessed in terms of their cognitive,
physical and social development. In years to
come , in Phase 3, these same children will be
reassessed using direct assessment, examination
of school records and information from parents
and teachers to follow their developmental
progress over time.
Phase 2: the study design
Phase 2 of the I E A Preprimary Project, which is being carried out in sixteen countries around the world, is guided by an ecological approach that views the development of young children as the product of interactions between the child
The IEA project on preliminary surveys i:
and the socialization settings of the immediate
environment. Y o u n g children participate in a
variety of settings that are significant for their
development: preschools, child-care centres, day
care h o m e s and their o w n h o m e s . These set
tings are in turn affected by certain aspects of
the broader social and cultural environment. T h e
Phase 2 study evaluates the effects of different
socialization settings on a child's development
by exploring the relationships a m o n g : the struc
tural features of settings; the socialization proc
esses occurring within settings; various features
of the child's social and cultural background;
and the child's developmental status.
Phase 2 data collection includes gathering
site background information about each child's
country, city and neighbourhood, as well as family
background information from a family inter
view (including information on parental expec
tations for the child). Teacher interviews pro
vide similar information, as do questionnaires
administered to the administrators of each pre
school setting. Observations of adult-child and
child-child interactions are recorded and, finally,
cognitive, linguistic, social competence and
physical development measures are administered
to subsets of children. Data-collection instru
ments are summarized below:
Observations of the following, conducted at
both in-home and out-of-home settings:
children's activities; adult behaviours; and
adults' organization of children's time.
Assessment of children's developmental status
in the following areas: language skills; cog
nitive skills; social skills; and fine-motor
skills.
Interviews and questionnaires to gather the
following information: structural charac
teristics of settings; family background data;
teacher/caregiver/parent expectations for
children; and national-level information.
In their 1988 household survey, I E A preprimary
researchers contacted over 15,000 families with
4-year-old children to collect information about
their use of early childhood care/education serv
ices. In each of the eleven countries conducting
that survey, project staff located a national prob
ability sample of families. In the present phase
preschool education: 471 n Portugal and China
of the I E A Preprimary Project - the observa
tional study - participating countries are inves
tigating the types of settings that were identi
fied by families in the household survey. Project
staff have conducted observations in these set
tings, have interviewed families and teachers/
caregivers and have administered the develop
mental status measures to children from each
identified setting. Each country is studying from
two to five types of settings, and a m i n i m u m of
100 children will be observed/assessed in each.
T h e children selected for observation/assessment
in the current phase of the project will in a later
phase be followed and assessed again, at age 7 .
Current issues in preprimary child care
Three issues predominate in the early child
hood field worldwide: availability, sponsorship
and quality of services. If government planners
can collect data on current supply and d e m a n d
and determine h o w well programmes are work
ing, they m a y be able to determine the best m i x
of private and public agency support for early
childhood services and take steps to improve
the overall quality of services.
AVAILABILITY
There are several factors worldwide affecting the supply and d e m a n d of early childhood services. In rich and poor countries alike, where mothers with small children mus t enter the workforce, out-of-home settings to care for children are inadequate. In those countries where the needs/resources gap stems primarily from low economic development, rising demographics and limited capital, any large-scale early childhood programmes will be difficult to implement, regardless of sponsorship. Previously, in m a n y of these countries, extended family m e m b e r s could care for children in the h o m e , but this
472 David P. Weikart, Shi Hui Zhong and Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo
type of care is often unavailable n o w . Tradi
tional ways of caring for the young have broken
d o w n while alternative systems have not been
created. Governmental programmes are few in
number for cost reasons, and private programmes
are few in number because of families' inability
to pay for them. Over the next decade, the bal
ance between public and private providers will
shift as early childhood services gain in impor
tance and incentives for private settings increase.
SPONSORSHIP
In m a n y countries, preprimary provisions fall
under a wide variety of agencies - health, pub
lic welfare, social services, public assistance or
religious. In most countries either the Ministry
of Education or the Ministry of Social Affairs
assumes major sponsorship. In countries in which
the Ministry of Education sponsors the early
childhood services, kindergarten programmes
employing thematic and activity approaches to
learning seem to predominate. W h e n the M i n
istry of Social Affairs serves as the sponsor, the
focus is more often on child care with learning
through play.
T h e different views of the purpose of early
childhood services (education versus care) af
fect m u c h of the way in which programmes are
organized and supervised, since funding, staff
ing, curriculum, ancillary services and links to
other systems can vary dramatically. T h e pres
ence of multiple agencies as sponsors for early
childhood services in m a n y countries has led to
problems regarding standardization and quality
control.
QUALITY IN DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Improving the quality of early childhood serv
ices requires training and certifying staff and
personnel, providing parents with valid infor
mation, developing curriculum programmes
appropriate to children and merging child de
velopment theory with day-to-day activities car
ried out in preschool settings.
If it is true that the younger the pupil be
ing taught, the more likely it is that teachers
have inadequate training, salary and status, then
the public's belief that the care of young chil
dren requires little if any special preparation on
the part of the teacher must be altered dramati
cally. This means that programmes to educate
policy-makers, parents and the public at large
are necessary.
Early childhood professionals and practi
tioners need to continue to combine informa
tion from child development research studies
with information about the daily practices in
early childhood settings. For example, n e w find
ings about physical development need to be
considered w h e n planning the purchase and use
of playground equipment, and new findings about
cognitive and language development need to be
considered w h e n planning the daily pre-literacy
and pre-numeracy activities for young children.
Another issue involves h o w to balance group
size with programme costs to provide high-quality
programmes efficiently.
These three issues - availability, sponsorship
and quality - represent commonalities noted in
the first phase (1988) of the I E A Preprimary
Project from information gathered in Asia, Af
rica, Europe and North America, in rich and
poor countries alike. These issues serve as pre
dictors of future concerns facing the child-care
field. W e n o w turn to two case-studies to show
h o w these issues are translated into national
policies in Portugal and China.
The Portuguese case-study: expanding kindergarten coverage
Portugal is one of the countries conducting a
national study within the cross-national
preprimary project. Under the leadership of the
co-authors of this article, faculty and advanced
students in the psychology and education de
partments at the University of Porto, as well as
The IEA project on preliminary surveys i:
other national researchers, participated in the
study.
In Portugal the type of early childhood
service typically used by families with 4-year-
olds is a kindergarten p r o g r a m m e sponsored by
either the Ministry of Education or the Minis
try of W o r k and Social Security. In Ministry of
Education kindergartens there is an 'educational'
p r o g r a m m e , which operates for approximately
six hours per day, with a forty-five-day s u m
m e r break. Usually, however, only 60 per cent
of spaces in these kindergartens are occupied
by children. There are children where there are
no kindergartens, and there are kindergartens
where there are not enough children. In Minis
try of W o r k and Social Security kindergartens
there is a 'social welfare' p rog ramme , which
operates for about ten to twelve hours per day,
with a one-month break that coincides with the
national holiday period. Both ministries' kin
dergartens include both public and private pro
g r a m m e s ; the Ministry of W o r k and Social Se
curity programmes also include other types, such
as factory-operated programmes. Because of this
involvement of two ministries, the country's
establishment of n e w kindergarten programmes
requires m u c h co-ordination.
In the 1988 household survey that was part
of the I E A Preprimary Project, Portuguese re
searchers interviewed 581 families about their
use of early childhood services. T h e y found that
approximately 30 per cent of parents typically
provided the sole care for their 4-year-old chil
dren during the week, while the remaining 70 per
cent of parents typically enrolled their children
in one or m o r e extraparental early childhood
settings during the week (these included s o m e
settings other than kindergartens). Those chil
dren enrolled in extraparental settings spent an
average of forty to forty-five hours per week in
these settings.
T h e researchers asked all the families what
type of care/education arrangements they would
like to have for their 4-year-old children if they
had a choice. Eighty-one per cent of the par
ents w h o were the sole caretakers for their chil
dren stated that they would like their children
to attend kindergartens, while 95 per cent of
preschool education: 473 n Portugal and China
the parents w h o s e children attended s o m e
extraparental setting other than kindergarten
stated that kindergarten would be their first choice.
A t the outset of Portugal's participation in
the I E A study, the Portuguese Ministry of E d u
cation had announced its plans to expand the
rate of kindergarten coverage and to devise pro
g r a m m e s better suited to the particular charac
teristics and needs of specific regions of the
country (better suited, for example, to the den
sity of population or the nature of parental
employment in urban versus rural areas). T h e
findings of the study confirm that parents would
value this expansion and improvement of serv
ices, since it would increase the likelihood that
they could enrol their children in kindergarten
programmes.
The Chinese case-study: encouraging prompt results
Chinese early childhood educators see their role
in the modernization of the country as provid
ing appropriate environments for young chil
dren that will lay a solid foundation for an over
all improved quality of life. O n e of the co-authors
of this article and her staff from the Central
Institute of Educational Research in Beijing
carried out the Chinese national study within
the I E A Preprimary Project with the support of
the Ministry of Education and the International
Development Research Council, and with tech
nical support from the University of H o n g K o n g .
T h e 1988-89 Chinese household survey con
tacted 24,000 families in ten provinces in China
- 12,000 families with 4-year-old children and
12,000 with 6-year-old children.
China's interest in preprimary education
follows a long tradition of looking at ways to
understand h o w young children learn, which
dates back to the eleventh century B . C . In the
early twentieth century, T a o Xingzhi and C h e n
Heqin influenced both the theory and practice
of early childhood education in China. Their
474 David P. Weihart, Shi Hui Zhong and Joaquim Bairrao Ruivo
work resulted in the creation of kindergartens
to serve the children of workers and peasants
and in the development of a set of guidelines
for the operation of early childhood programmes;
these include, for example, the belief that both
kindergarten and family should take responsi
bility for the child's education and that play
and games are the major approach for teaching
children in kindergartens.
T h e 1988-89 household survey in China
was important because researchers gathered data
directly from parents as well as from early child
hood settings. Thus , the data collection included
families whose children were not attending early
childhood settings as well as ones whose chil
dren were attending settings. With the house
hold survey data, the researchers were able to
look at the lack of services as well as the con
cerns about services currently being offered.
T h e household survey revealed that, in ur
ban areas, 75 per cent of 4-year-old children
typically attended an early childhood setting or
were cared for by someone other than a parent
during the week. Nearly all of the urban chil
dren w h o were receiving extraparental care/edu
cation attended an organized group setting such
as a kindergarten. In rural areas, only 25 per
cent of 4-year-olds attended a setting or were
cared for by others. A s in the urban areas, w h e n
children did receive extraparental care/educa
tion, the most frequently used setting was an
organized group. Since approximately 80 per
cent of China's population lives in rural areas,
this results in a 45 per cent rate of extraparental
care for 4-year-olds nationally.
In China, a variety of organizations/agen
cies sponsor organized group settings, and the
major sponsors are different for urban and for
rural areas. Table 1 presents the percentage of
organized group settings sponsored by various
organizations/agencies.
T h e findings indicate that in urban areas
the major sponsor is state enterprise, while in
the rural areas the major sponsors are boards of
education for rural towns and village councils
for rural villages. In China, increasing the number
of organized group settings in the different types
of urban and rural areas has been set as a goal.
T A B L E 1. Percentage of early childhood organized group settings sponsored by various organizations/ agencies in urban and rural areas
Sponsor Urban Rural town
Rural village
Board of education 8 34 6 Collective enterprise 20 3 7 Government institution 15 22 21 Neighbourhood 18 7 2 Private 3 4 2 School/university 3 2 8 State enterprise 33 20 0 Village council 0 8 54
Clearly, in order to meet this goal, it will be
necessary to involve actively the m a n y different
sponsors of these settings.
O n e set of questions in the 1988-89 house
hold survey asked directors of organized set
tings about equipment and materials present in
their settings. Table 2 shows the percentage of
urban and rural settings with various types of
equipment and materials.
T h e data reveal that most group settings
have simple educational toys and that approxi
mately half of the settings have materials to m a k e
toys. A m u c h smaller percentage of settings have
other types of equipment and materials, espe
cially in rural areas. S o m e types of equipment
(for example, a sandbox) are fairly inexpen
sive, while other types of materials (big blocks)
m a y require greater expenditure. However, in
both urban and rural areas, more settings have
big blocks than have sandboxes. Also, materials
for children to use to m a k e toys are usually
quite inexpensive, but only about half of the
T A B L E 2. Percentage of urban and rural early childhood organized group settings having various equipment and materials
Item
Simple educational toys Materials for making toys Balance beam Big blocks Rocking horses Sandbox
Urban
99 58 55 48 54 22
Rural
91 48
7 10 21
6
T h e IEA project on preschool education: preliminary surveys in Portugal and China
475
settings have these items. These findings raise
the question of what early childhood staff un
derstand about the use of equipment and mate
rials in teaching young children.
Another set of questions in the 1988-89
household survey asked parents about their
methods of dealing with various behaviours
exhibited by their children. W h e n the research
ers compiled the findings for these questions
and shared the data with officials in the appro
priate government agencies, the decision was
m a d e to develop a parent education programme
and to require the parents of young children to
participate in this educational venture.
In summary, China has so far used the
findings from Phase 1 of the IEA Preprimary
Project in three different ways. First, it found
that there were fewer organized group settings
available than it had expected, especially in ru
ral areas, and it has therefore set a goal of in
creasing the number of such settings by work
ing with the various sponsoring organizations/
agencies. Second, because of the findings about
equipment and materials, teacher-training in
stitutions will provide additional training to di
rectors and staff in early childhood settings about
the use of equipment and materials in the teaching
of young children. Finally, government officials
have developed a parent education programme
to provide parents with child-rearing informa
tion and techniques.
W e have provided some general information
about the I E A Preprimary Project and described
two case-studies that convey the impact of the
findings from the first phase of the study. Data
collection for the second phase of the study is
n o w under way . This includes observations in
early childhood settings, interviews and assess
ment of children's developmental status. T h e
findings from the 1991-92 study (Phase 2) will
allow for the comparison of the quality of chil
dren's experiences across various types of set
tings (kindergartens, day-care homes) as well
as across various countries. In addition, the re
lationships a m o n g such variables as teacher-
child interactions, family characteristics, cultural
setting and child developmental status will be
examined. As the social demand for preschool
services rises, national policy-makers and plan
ners will have at their disposal a potent force to
reshape the future generation of citizens. •
Bibliography
O L M S T E D , P.; W E I K A R T , D . 1989. How Nations Serve
Young Children: Profiles of Child Care and Education in 14 Countries. Ypsilanti, Mich., High/Scope Press.
SECRETARIADO NACIONAL DE REBILITAÇAO. 1983.
Experiencias ¿novadoras no campo da integraçâo. Um projecto de educaçâo-integraçâo na comunicade. Lisbon.
W h a t does the United States want
to learn from international comparative
studies in education? Jeanne E . Griffith and Elliott A . Medrich
W h y do the IEA's activities
interest the United States?
While surveys of international achievement have always been of some interest within the American education community, these studies are n o w
Jeanne E . Griffith (United States). Associate Commissioner for Data Development, National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education. Formerly Senior Analyst in Social Legislation at the US Library of Congress and Demographer at the Office of Statistical Policy, US Office of Management and Budget.
Elliott A . Medrich (United States). Currently working at Management Planning Research Associates, Inc., in Berkeley, California. Author or co-author of works on education statistics and primary and secondary education policy, including The Serious Business of Growing U p : A Study of Children's Lives Outside School and, with Jeanne E. Griffith, International Science and Mathematics Assessments: W h a t Have W e Learned?
Prospects, Vol. XXII
attracting considerable attention a m o n g more general audiences of policy-makers. There are several reasons w h y this is so.
First, Americans have c o m e to understand that important changes are occurring in the market-place and in the workplace, and that the kinds of changes taking place will have a significant impact on the rising generation - and on the schools they attend. A strong connection between education and economic competitiveness has arisen over the last decade out of concern about the balance of trade, the quality of workers and the educational composition of the workforce.
A s early as 1983, the National C o m m i s sion on Excellence in Education gave special urgency to the matter of schooling and international competition in their landmark report, A Nation at Risk (US Department of Education, 1983). In January 1990, seven years after the National Commission's report, President Bush and the nation's governors highlighted the larger international context within which American education must be viewed (US Department of Education, 1990, p . 1):
[, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
What does the United States want to learn from international comparative studies in education? 477
Our people must be as knowledgeable, as well trained, as competent, and as inventive as those in any other nation. All our people, not just a few, must be able to think for a living, adapt to changing environments, and to understand the world around them. They must understand and accept the responsibilities and obligations of citizenship. They must continually learn and develop new skills throughout their lives.
This concern with the economic implications
of educational performance was not felt by the
United States alone. Along the same lines, a
report of the Organization for Economic C o
operation and Development ( O E C D ) articu
lated the reasons w h y the United States, like all
other countries, will need a well-educated la
bour force, capable of adjusting to the demands
of a society in which technology and informa
tion hold the key to competitiveness ( O E C D ,
1989, p . 5):
. . . our societies are going through a period of rapid and far-reaching change. The signs of this are manifold . . . Technological progress, international trade, the speed of communications, world competition . . . these are just some aspects of m e change which is posing crucial questions for our societies, structures and habits . . . T h e analyses undertaken in the O E C D , as elsewhere, in order to assess the effect of structural changes on economic performance, all point to the decisive and fundamental importance of education systems. It is they that hold the key to possible progress and that determine each country's medium and long-term prospects in world competition.
Second, international achievement comparisons
n o w receive widespread coverage in the Ameri
can press, and the results have become the sub
ject of intense public debate and discussion. W h e n
survey results are released, articles assessing the
performance of American students compared with
students from other nations appear on the front
pages of newspapers throughout the country.
Third, international achievement compari
sons are n o w associated with America's national
education goals. In 1990, the President and the
nation's fifty state governors adopted a set of
six national education goals. This was a major
innovation for this country, in which educa
tional policy is highly decentralized. In conjunc
tion with the goals, both the President and the
governors have recognized that measuring and
evaluating student success in the classroom re
quires both national and international perspec
tives. Their interest in international policies,
practices and outcomes has increased dramati
cally, and they n o w seek information on state
performance in an international context. This
represents a distinctly n e w and expanded view
of the American educational system.
Fourth, it is becoming clear to American
policy-makers that international achievement stud
ies can give information on a great variety of
issues, and that it m a y be appropriate to aban
don the insular view of schooling that has hereto
fore left the United States on the periphery of the
international education community. In this re
gard, a committee of the National Research C o u n
cil wrote (Bradburn and Gilford, 1990, p . 4):
. . . comparative research on education . . . increases the range of experience necessary to improve the measurement of educational achievement; it enhances confidence in the generalizability of studies that explain the factors important in educational achievement; it increases the probability of dissemination of new ideas to improve the design or management of schools and classrooms; and it increases the research capacity of the United States as well as that of other countries. Finally, it provides an opportunity to chronicle practices and policies worthy of note in their o w n right.
International assessments provide access to in
formation across different countries and cul
tures about a wide variety of education policies,
programmes and practices that can help us
improve our o w n educational system. T h e sur
veys represent important opportunities to think
about and examine m a n y aspects of schooling
in the United States by means of comparison.
Fifth and finally, international achievement
studies are n o w valued for far more than test
scores. Increasingly, policy-makers are interested
in the contextual detail that accompanies these
surveys. Information on the cognitive, social,
478 Jeanne E. Griffith and Elliott A. Medrich
economic and public goals of other education
systems; descriptions of curriculum and teach
ing methods; descriptions of the ways students
(and teachers) use time in and outside school;
analyses of parent and student attitudes toward
education; motivation to learn and perform well;
explorations of h o w countries deal with students
of varying ability levels; and comparisons of the
socio-economic context of education systems -
these topics are representative of the kinds of
comparative education studies that are attract
ing increasing attention.
Taken together, these factors have elevated
international achievement assessments to a level
of high salience in American policy-making cir
cles. In the future, they will surely influence
h o w the United States thinks about curriculum
and teaching practice in American schools. For
that reason, it is essential that the studies be
conducted to the highest level of quality, so that
the data can effectively support the policy process.
While the United States has been a willing par
ticipant in m a n y previous international assess
ments - those sponsored by both the Interna
tional Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement (IEA) and the Inter
national Assessment of Educational Progress
(IAEP) - growing interest in the results of these
studies and the data associated with them places
n e w burdens on those w h o organize, conduct
and administer these projects.
This paper reviews some concerns that have
been raised about prior assessments, discusses
h o w the Third International Mathematics and
Science Study ( T I M S S ) is addressing these is
sues, and suggests some long-range questions
that could profitably become part of the interna
tional education research agenda in the future.
Data quality: a persistent problem
Given the level of attention directed at interna
tional achievement assessments in the United
States, the issue of data quality is especially
important. Policy-makers in the Office of the
President, the U S Congress and the offices of
the nation's governors are all sensitive to charges
of poor quality. Policy-makers frequently voice
concern about what w e really k n o w and what
m a y be an artefact of a poorly designed study
or a study designed for other purposes. Appar
ently minor flaws in some studies are used to
reject robust findings across m a n y studies. If
the findings of these studies are to play a role in
the American educational policy debate, it is
essential that the research adhere to rigorous
statistical standards. In this regard, w e focus
here on matters of sampling and data collection
which, from our point of view, should be a cen
tral concern a m o n g those w h o organize and
manage the international assessments.
International achievement surveys are based
on samples; hence the data are susceptible to
both sampling and non-sampling errors which
affect the accuracy of the results. Sampling er
rors are of special import because the interna
tional survey results are based on samples of
students, not on surveys of entire student
populations. In reviewing the previous I E A stud
ies, three data-quality issues with significant
implications for data analysis require special
attention: response rates, comparability of sam
ples and non-sampling error.
RESPONSE RATES
T h e response rate is the ratio of those w h o ac
tually participated in the survey to those se
lected to participate. While there is no formal
statistical basis for defining the adequacy of re
sponse rates, a high response rate increases the
likelihood that the data truly reflect achievement
a m o n g the target population. A low response
rate makes it less likely that the findings are
accurate estimations of student performance.
At the least, high levels of non-response m a y
have a significant impact on h o w findings are
interpreted. At the U S National Center for
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480 Jeanne E. Griffith and Elliott A. Medrich
the quality of its o w n surveys). Non-response
begins to matter a great deal as the assessments
receive substantial exposure and as the perform
ance of students from different countries is c o m
pared. Lower response rates invariably reduce
confidence in survey results that are reported.
In the absence of any other information de
scribing non-response bias, a high response rate
is crucial because there is no other way of knowing
if non-response is proportionately distributed
across the sample population.
Table 1 summarizes our findings about the
adequacy of response rates in prior assessments
of mathematics and science. Based on an 85 per
cent standard, few countries achieve the level of
adequacy that N C E S would require before it
published and disseminated data from similar
types of studies. This is not a criticism of the
quality of work of other countries; in fact, the
United States meets the standard only one time.
Since studies of non-response were not pub
lished by the IEA, the impact of these sampling
issues on the results of these surveys is not known.
In fact, m a n y countries, including the United
States, have had real difficulty in achieving high
response rates, thereby raising questions about
sample representativeness. In our view, the en
tire set of questions surrounding sampling and
data collection should represent a priority for
the IEA, as future international assessments will
surely receive even more attention than these
earlier studies in the United States and in other
countries. Hence the accuracy of estimates is a
real concern.
SAMPLE COMPARABILITY
If the performance of populations on the inter
national assessments is to be compared, there is
an expectation on the part of users of our infor
mation that the samples from country to coun
try will capture approximately the same range
of students. In fact, achieving sample compara
bility has been an elusive goal.
O n e aspect of comparability relates to age-
level and grade-level comparisons. These rep
resent very different ways of designing and col
lecting international survey data. In the broad
est sense, age-level comparisons describe entire
population cohorts, while grade-level compari
sons describe in-school population cohorts.
Age-level comparisons can provide cohort
profiles, without regard to whether or not the
population surveyed consists of students in-school
or out-of-school, although more frequently they
are drawn only from the in-school populations.
T h e IEA studies historically have sampled age-
groups in the pre-secondary-level surveys, but
not in the secondary-level surveys. At the pre-
secondary level almost everyone in the focal age-
groups is in school (and can be sampled without
difficulty), but at the secondary level, in systems
with lower school retention rates, large numbers
of students eligible to attend school are not en
rolled. Hence, at the secondary level, age-level
testing poses a complicated and costly design,
sampling and survey administration problem.
Grade-level comparisons are limited to stu
dents attending school, and to students at specified
levels of schooling. Their strength is that they
offer the opportunity to relate classroom char
acteristics (for example, classroom processes and
teacher practice) to student performance in ways
that would not be possible with an age-based
sample. However, since students in different
systems start school at different ages, grade-
level testing controls for years of education, but
not for differences in the ages (and consequent
maturation) of students at a particular grade
level. A 13-year-old m a y be at one grade level
in one system, and at another grade level in
another system (and m a y not have been ex
posed to the same number of years' schooling,
or the same curriculum as a 13-year-old from
another system). Samples of students in the 'last
year of compulsory schooling' are particularly
problematic, for they do not even control for
years of education. For example, in some sys
tems, by the last year of secondary school stu
dents m a y have had thirteen years of education;
in other systems they m a y have had twelve years,
or fewer. Grade-level comparisons, however,
permit descriptions of h o w students are faring
at different points in their educational careers,
as defined by the system.
What does the United States want to learn from international comparative studies in education? 481
Other educational policies that interfere with
simple international comparability are related
to treatment of students of varying ability lev
els. This can stem from cognitive abilities, socio
economic disadvantage, immigration or language
proficiency. Whatever the sources of variabil
ity, countries handle such students in different
ways - with streaming or tracking, with special
classes or total immersion. W h e n regions, schools
or classes are sampled, the potential for system
atic exclusion arises, with potentially severe con
sequences for sample comparability.
Recognizing that these distinctions define
analytical parameters and the types of descrip
tion that can be achieved, all participating edu
cational systems must strive to assure repre
sentative samples of the same student populations.
This becomes complicated, however, because
from country to country major differences exist
in age/grade relationships, in the handling of
students of varying ability and in the schooling
of immigrant students or students w h o speak
second languages. T h e international assessments
should be able to support accurate inferences
about a cohort, and samples could, with some
difficulty, be designed to ensure that they cap
ture the range of individual, school and class
r o o m variation in each educational system.
Design questions associated with sample
comparability are important in terms of deriv
ing samples that are analytically equivalent across
participating educational systems. Under any
circumstances, the objective should be to seek
accurate comparisons of achievement between
systems and across populations, without regard
to different national policies that m a y affect the
selection and retention of students in school.
W h e r e inherent educational policy differences
disallow strict comparability, information must
be included in reports and analyses to permit
the reader to m a k e informed inferences about
the statistics provided.
NON-SAMPLING ERROR
Non-sampling errors pose a particularly daunt
ing dilemma in the international arena. N o n -
sampling errors are the result of m a n y factors
which are difficult to control and describe, but
a m o n g them are these: inability to obtain c o m
plete and correct information from and about
participants and non-participants; participant
non-response to questions; mistakes in record
ing or coding data once it has been collected;
and errors in collecting, processing, sampling
and estimating data. In international studies, the
special problem of differences in meaning is
introduced w h e n test instruments are translated
into different languages, and this can be an
important source of non-sampling error. Subtle
differences in national procedures in test ad
ministration or the handling of missing data can
also lead to substantial non-sampling error. N o n -
sampling errors are difficult to estimate, but they
m a y result in bias and non-reliability of the data
themselves. While efforts m a y be m a d e to c o m
pensate for non-response, without special analyses
it is not possible to k n o w with certainty that
non-sampling errors, and the impact they m a y
have on the data, have been adequately taken
into account.
Strategies to improve data quality: the T I M S S response
A s policy-makers are referring to international
studies to a greater extent, useful studies of the
future will need to respond to the requirements
for higher quality information associated with
public decision-making. Information is attain
ing a 'high stakes' quality because it is being
used not only for academic research (although
that use remains highly important and stim
ulative), but also for setting national and sub-
national policies and practices in m a n y coun
tries. If cross-national comparisons are to be
scientifically credible, at least seven questions
concerning the data must be addressed (Medrich
and Griffith, 1992):
1. T o what extent do the samples meet the
study design requirements?
482 Jeanne E. Griffith and Elliott A. Medrich
2 . Are there differences a m o n g countries in
h o w the eligible survey populations are
defined? Did each participating entity fol
low identical procedures?
3. H o w are modifications to the sample han
dled? For instance, w h e n countries legiti
mately sample target populations that are
not thoroughly comparable with those of
other nations participating in the research,
are these non-comparable circumstances
articulated and justified, and their implica
tions discussed?
4 . Are the response rates adequate on a
country-by-country, stratum-by-stratum
basis?
5. D o the characteristics of those declining to
participate (or excluded from testing) dif
fer substantially from country to country?
Within countries, does this affect the de
gree to which the sample that is achieved
represents the eligible 'target' population?
6. D o the age distributions of test samples
differ substantially a m o n g participating
educational systems, and, if so, what are
the analytical implications?
7 . H o w have issues of non-sampling error
been addressed?
These questions pertain both to sample design
procedures and to the adequacy of the data-
collection outcomes. Institutions collecting in
ternational survey data have recognized the sig
nificance of these issues, and issues that will
affect data quality in T I M S S are being addressed
in a deliberate manner . O f special importance,
T I M S S is working with more adequate resources,
and with considerably m o r e participation of
education ministries. This will facilitate the en
tire planning process for the policy uses of the
data. A t the same time, continued involvement
of highly skilled researchers assures creative
developments to stimulate future policy debates
that cannot yet be anticipated. Furthermore, a
Sampling and Methodology Committee of the
T I M S S Co-ordinating Committee and an O p
erations Committee are designing materials that
should assure carefully refereed samples and
adequate oversight of the data-collection pro
cess (Griffith et al., 1991).
T h e I E A Reading Literacy Study provides
evidence of progress on data quality issues that
is worth mentioning here, as these procedures
are to be replicated in T I M S S . First, the s a m
pling manuals and data-collection instructions
were considerably more precise and easier to
follow than had been the case in prior studies.
Strong data collection requires procedures that
all can apply and that enable reconciliation of
'exceptional' circumstances that m a y arise. Sec
ond, involvement of education ministries facili
tated the process of drawing and executing s a m
ples. T h e impact of increasing government
involvement was certainly evident in the United
States. At the fourth-grade level, school and
student response rates were 87 per cent, while
at the ninth-grade level they were 86 per cent.
T h e final data-quality test for the Reading
Literacy Study and for T I M S S , however, will
be determined by comparability of the samples
across participating educational systems; by the
nature of discussions of field execution prob
lems; by careful questionnaire and test design
to minimize non-sampling error; and by disclo
sure and discussion of sampling issues that af
fect h o w data are interpreted.
Beyond student performance rankings: an agenda for the future
Cross-national surveys of student achievement are only one w a y of evaluating the product of the educational enterprise. While the objectives of these assessments have been m a n y and varied, the American press, policy-makers and, consequently, most Americans focus rather single-mindedly on h o w students score on the performance tests and h o w the United States ranks against other countries - as though the surveys represent a kind of intellectual Olympics.
But as the scores from various studies have begun to appear somewhat redundant, policy-makers have started to ask questions about the systems - educational and otherwise - that produce these relatively poor perform-
What does the United States want to learn from international comparative studies in education? 483
anees. Under what circumstances do United
States students perform more or less poorly?
W h a t are the effects of curricular differences
a m o n g countries? H o w does motivation to learn
and to perform affect our measures of student
performance? D o student, parent and teacher
expectations have a major effect on student
outcomes? W h a t are the effects of parental
support on educational performance? W h a t
about other social effects, such as health, in
c o m e , housing and peer influences - what are
their effects on educational performance?
O n e of the more important contributions
of the international achievement surveys is that
they can help us learn more about the corre
lates of achievement associated with excellent
school performance. In our estimation, the fo
cus of future studies should not be: ' W h o ' s
number one?'; the point should be: ' W h a t makes
a difference?' and what can w e learn from dif
ferent educational structures and institutional
practices that could support efforts in this country
to improve the performance of students and
improve the quality of the schools?
In that spirit, w e identify some general is
sues w e feel are appropriate for the interna
tional agenda. They go beyond questions asso
ciated with the current set of achievement
assessments. O u r intention is to describe issues
which w e feel are important to policy-makers in
the United States and which are amenable to
consideration in the international forum.
O n the basis of the discussion in the pre
ceding sections of this article, w e begin by speci
fying conditions which international education
research should strive to achieve:
Research should be focused, well designed and
administered in a w a y that assures a high
level of quality. International studies are
expensive, whether they are large and c o m
plex as in the I E A tradition, or small and
experimental as in numerous comparative
studies documented in the professional
literature. In the current environment of
tight budgets w e can ill afford to support
research that does not meet reasonable
technical standards that enable accurate
cross-national comparisons.
Project participants should be identified early
on, so that there is ample time to structure
the work to the satisfaction of both those
undertaking the research and those w h o
will use the results.
Research objectives should be realistic and
carefully bounded - purposeful, and not
so ambitious as to become unmanageable
and, therefore, less likely to produce cred
ible and useful results. In other words, a
great deal of effort needs to be invested 'at
the front end'.
Taking these three conditions as operating prin
ciples, there are at least six kinds of studies for
the long-term research agenda that represent
areas of exceptional substantive interest in the
United States and, w e believe, cross-nationally:
curriculum research; studies of classroom prac
tice at different stages of the educational pro
cess; studies of societal support for and interest
in education; studies of adult educational achieve
ment to reflect the entire educational experi
ence; large-scale longitudinal studies aimed at
illuminating transitions and contextual factors
in education; and studies of special subjects such
as foreign language proficiency and schooling
in student non-native languages. W e briefly
describe some of the questions associated with
each subject area below.
CURRICULUM STUDIES
W e believe that it would be useful to undertake
broader curriculum studies than those associ
ated with opportunity-to-learn variables, which
w e recognize as one of the cornerstones and
most important contributions of the I E A pro
gramme. These variables on opportunity-to-learn
have historically focused on a particular set of
test items or the targeted subject of a test. F r o m
the perspective of national policy-makers, there
is a real need for information about the time
students spend being exposed to the full pano
ply of particular subjects at each educational
level, and the substance of the curriculum - this
as a way of understanding differences in cur
ricular priorities. Such information reflects dif-
484 Jeanne E. Griffith and Elliott A. Medrich
ferences in educational goals and approaches.
W e need better data so that w e can understand
h o w our curriculum compares with the curricu
lum of other educational systems, and consider
what these different priorities yield in terms of
student outcomes.
CLASSROOM PRACTICE
A s noted in the IEA's classroom environment
study (Anderson et al., 1989), educational sys
tems organize for learning in different ways.
Descriptions of schools and classrooms - in
cluding, for example, analyses of management
practice, classroom instructional processes and
student and teacher time use, and staff training
and in-service training - offer especially useful
information that can be applied in policy set
tings across educational systems. While educa
tional practice is in part the product of system-
specific social, cultural and economic
circumstances, there are m a n y opportunities to
share and borrow strategically. T h e O E C D In
ternational Education Indicators Project (INES)
represents one effort to develop these broader
contextual elements and to provide comparably
based, descriptive measures of school and class
r o o m organization.
SOCIETAL SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION
A recent publication of the U S National Center
for Education Statistics ( U S Department of
Education, 1991, p . 23) notes:
. . . w e need a m u c h better understanding of the conditions of families with young children, and of children's readiness to learn as they enter the formal educational system. . . . If the public is to understand not only educational performance but also the environment in which schools and colleges pursue their mission, it is essential that w e have a m u c h better understanding of [family support for learning, community and cultural support, and financial support].
It is clear from small-scale case-studies like those
of Stevenson et al. (1986) that the purpose of
education, schooling and culture is viewed in
very different ways from country to country.
This, in turn, seems to have a great deal to do
with students' attitudes toward education, h o w
hard they work at school, teachers' expectations
for students from widely varying backgrounds,
the level of national support for education and
so forth. T h e I N E S Project is attempting to
describe attitudes and expectations towards
schools and schooling a m o n g parents, teachers,
the general public, students and employers cross-
nationally. This m a y yield a productive approach
to understanding the role of education in the
larger social order, and help distinguish the
national education 'psyche' across countries and
cultures. Ultimately, effective research m a y re
quire intensive case-studies.
STUDIES OF ADULT EDUCATIONAL
ACHIEVEMENT
In m a n y countries that participate in interna
tional achievement surveys, significant propor
tions of the adult population achieve some level
of post-secondary education. Parallel to studies
of adult literacy, it would be useful to explore
the overall levels of achievement, attainment and
work- and life-related skills attained by adult
populations. This is one w a y of exploring the
relationship of various aspects of educational
experiences to such outcomes in different coun
tries. In an international context, studies of adult
educational achievement can inform policy
makers w h o want to compare the return on in
vestment associated with commitments to post-
secondary education.
LARGE-SCALE LONGITUDINAL STUDIES
Longitudinal studies of cohorts of youth con
tribute to our understanding of factors associ
ated with m o r e or less successful transitions
between phases of schooling; of relationships
between students' experiences inside and out
side of school and their educational and other
W h a t does the United States want to learn from international comparative studies in education? 485
performance; of the effects of various behav
iours on educational commitment , involvement
and attainment; of the relationships between
students, parents and teachers; and of the influ
ences on and effects of motivation and engage
m e n t in education. A longitudinal perspective
in such studies would contribute greatly towards
our understanding of h o w these relationships
react to varying educational systems and insti
tutional practices with a broader variety of situ
ations on which to draw inferences.
SPECIAL L A N G U A G E - R E L A T E D STUDIES
Changes in the international economy and im
migration policies are creating n e w challenges
for the schools. For example, second-language
studies should receive more attention. There
are two types of studies of second languages
that are needed. T h e first should address h o w
well schools are preparing students to live and
work in a multilingual world. Will there be suf
ficient numbers of young people trained in the
languages of emerging nations? T h e second is
h o w well nations are dealing with the increasing
numbers of students for w h o m the national tongue
is a second language. Both are issues of real
significance, and w e k n o w too little of the cross-
national experience. W e note that the I E A in
tends to introduce a language-testing cycle, and
yielding valuable comparative data will be a
challenge for these assessments.
There are m a n y ways in which international
education assessments can help us better u n
derstand the role of schooling in society, and
the effectiveness of schools as institutions with
broad social functions. These initiatives deserve
a special place in future programmes. Perhaps
the important point is that the historic testing
areas ought not to be the sole focus of the I E A
effort.
In the demanding, competitive environment
of the n e w century, educational policy-makers
in the United States will need to evaluate the
quality and outcomes of schooling against both
national and international criteria. Comparative
studies in education can have a powerful im
pact on the ways in which American educators
think about education policy, on the organiza
tion and curriculum of schools and classrooms
and on the connections between schools and
families. But to inform the policy process it is
essential that cross-national data be high-qual
ity and comparable. While the stage is set for
integrating data from comparative studies into
future debates, technical difficulties inherent in
cross-national research must be satisfactorily
addressed, and the studies must respond to the
needs of m a n y audiences with m a n y different
interests. •
References
A N D E R S O N , L . ; R Y A N , D . ; SHAPIRO, B . 1989. The IEA
Classroom Environment Study. Oxford, Pergamon Press. B R A D B U R N , N . ; G I L F O R D , D . (eds.). 1990. A Framework
and Principles for International Comparative Studies in Education. Washington, D . C . , National Academy Press.
GRIFFITH, J. E.; O W E N , E.; PEAK, L.; MEDRICH, E. 1991.
National Education Goals and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Statistical Association, Atlanta, G a . , August 1991.
M E D R I C H , E . A . ; GRIFFITH, J. E . 1992. International
Mathematics and Science Assessments: What Have We Learned? Washington, D . C . , U S National Center for Education Statistics.
O R G A N I Z A T I O N FOR E C O N O M I C C O - O P E R A T I O N A N D D E
V E L O P M E N T ( O E C D ) . 1989. Education and the Economy in a Changing Society. Paris, O E C D .
STEVENSON, H . W . ; A Z U M A , H . ; H A K U T A , K . 1986. Child
Development and Education in Japan. N e w York, W . H . Freeman & Co.
US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. 1990. National Goals for Education. Washington, D . C . , Superintendent of Documents.
. NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS,
SPECIAL STUDY PANEL O N EDUCATION INDICATORS.
1991. Education Counts: An Indicator System to Monitor the Nation's Educational Health. Washington, D . C , Superintendent of Documents.
. N A T I O N A L C O M M I S S I O N O N E X C E L L E N C E IN E D U C A
TION. 1983. A Nation at Risk. Washington, D . C , U S National Center for Education Statistics.
TRENDS/CASES
Language, interculturalism and
h u m a n rights Three European cases
Norma Tarrow
In the closing years of the twentieth century, all
across the globe, nations and their educational
systems are having to recognize and respond to
the increased heterogeneity of their societies. A
variety of terms have been used to describe these
responses - for example, multicultural, inter-
cultural, bilingual, development and h u m a n rights
education, ethnic studies, anti-racist and preju
dice reduction education. This plethora of ter
minology is redundant and/or confusing. In ad
dition, programmes are often developed without
a strong theoretical underpinning and are over
simplified in their presentation - frequently ig
noring more significant and broader issues. Yet,
taxonomic frameworks for analysis do exist in
the field of multicultural/intercultural education1
N o r m a Tarrow (United States). Professor of Education at California State University. Her research interests include human rights and intercultural education specializing in the education of indigenous minority groups. She is the editor of H u m a n Rights and Education and the author (with Sara W. Lundsteen) of Guiding Young Children's Learning: A Comprehensive Approach to Early Childhood Education and Activities and Resources for Guiding Young Children's Learning. She has also authored chapters in several recent volumes in her fields of competence.
and recent work has postulated an oscillation
model to account for its history (Gundara and
Jones, 1991). This article is based on a develop
mental paradigm viewing societies as moving
sequentially and (in spite of occasional regres
sions) invariantly through three major stages.
A s the opposing forces of supra-national
amalgamation and ethno-linguistic separation
rivet attention on both Eastern and Western
Europe, more attention is belatedly being paid
to territorial (indigenous) groups, several of w h o m
are actively engaged in linguistic and cultural
revitalization, often pitting these subordinate
groups against the dominant or majority groups
in the nation-state.2 Progressing from paradigm
to practice, in the fields of language retrieval,
interculturalism and h u m a n rights, the model
will be applied to three indigenous groups - the
Welsh in the United K i n g d o m and the Basques
and the Catalans in Spain.
The paradigm
T h e reality of multicultural societies is being
met with approaches which appear to be based
on three different ideologies: assimilation, ac-
Prospecls, Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4, 1992 (84)
490 Norma Tarrozv
commodation and 'interculturation'.3 T h e first,
in its pure form, envisions a monocultural soci
ety and implies non-recognition or non-accept
ance of the reality and permanence of
multiculturalism until forced to do so (usually
by some traumatic events), as well as the non-
equality of dominant and subordinate groups.
T h e second, in its early phase, is still based on
the non-equality of dominant and subordinate
groups with compensatory programmes to ac
commodate (to some degree) to the needs and
values of the latter. Since the goal, however, is
still one of assimilating (or at best, integrating)
members of the subordinate groups into the domi
nant society, these compensatory programmes
can be viewed only as a transitional phase be
tween assimilation and accommodation. A s the
vision of a monocultural society is reluctantly
relinquished and replaced with a cultural-plural
ist perspective, the ideology progresses to one of
accommodation. This cultural-pluralist view of
society and its accommodation ideology permit
(in addition to the transmission of the language
and culture of the dominant group) attention to
the language and culture of the subordinate
groups. Thus , at this level, there is a prolifera
tion of minority language and culture programmes
- ethnic studies, bilingual education, alternative
religious studies, etc. All of these programmes
are directed at and for the members of minority
groups, permitting the maintenance of separate
identities and (ideally) shared participation in
the dominant society: a kind of balancing act
between the competing goals of cultural diver
sity and social cohesion that constitutes the 'plu
ralist dilemma' referred to by Bullivant (1981).
Responses based on the concept of shared par
ticipation are designed to equalize access and
include affirmative action and equal opportu
nity programmes. T h e last phase of this level,
which serves as a transition to the next, calls for
legitimizing the language and culture of the sub
ordinate groups on the part of all members of
society. Thus , schools develop and implement
multicultural education programmes requiring
the delicate balancing of the goals of cohesion,
equality and diversity - each of which, carried to
its extreme, is incompatible with the others
(Schools Council, 1982). Multicultural educa
tion programmes introduce all students to some
of the more visible aspects of the group identifi
cation of all component groups - history, tradi
tions, language, heroes and heroines, etc.
It remains for the third level, however, based
on the ideology of interculturation, to achieve
(or at least have as a goal) a truly intercultural
perspective. In the educational environment,
proponents of this viewpoint have become cham
pions of such programmes as prejudice reduc
tion, anti-racist education and h u m a n rights
education. It is at this level that concepts of
interaction, interdependence, interchange and
reciprocity emerge and that programmes are
directed at all members of the society. In the
school, 'all members of society' signifies all chil
dren, teachers, administrators, etc., and the afore
mentioned concepts have relevance both for
content and for the structure and environment
of the school itself. Building upon the under
standing of the characteristics of different indi
vidual cultures (provided by multicultural edu
cation), education at this level advances to a
consideration of the quality of the interaction
between cultures and nations, an appreciation
of the mutual enrichment provided by inter
change, an understanding of the concepts of
reciprocity and interdependence, and, tJirough
related processes such as co-operative learning
and conflict resolution, to education for inter
national comprehension, peace and h u m a n rights.
This article is based on the assumption that
arriving at the ideology of interculturation is a
developmental process - that societies m o v e
sequentially through each of these various phases
in the same w a y that a child sits, crawls, stands
and walks. Just as one doesn't expect the child
to run before standing and walking, it is unreal
istic to expect societies to implement intercultural
approaches if they have not yet adopted a cul
tural-pluralist perspective, with its implied le
gitimization of the language and culture of other
groups. A n d just as a toddler often takes a step
or two and then retreats to crawling for several
weeks before daring to take a few more steps,
special cases in various societies or specific events
m a y propel a jump to a later phase, but usually
Language, interculturalism and human rights: 491 three European cases
this is short-lived unless this point has been ar
rived at from an ideology that has matured steadily
and developmentally through each of the pre
ceding phases.
T h e paradigm appears to be applicable to
a number of different countries, at times with
minor modifications. S o m e societies seem to
m o v e smoothly through its various stages; oth
ers seem to 'get stuck' or fixated at certain points
along the way before they m o v e on to the next
phase or make a jump to a later phase in re
sponse to specific situations; while still others
appear occasionally to take a long step back
wards! T h e model seems to be applicable in the
United States as it responds to its treasure of
native population, settlers, long-standing and
recent immigrants and the variety of languages
and cultures that have drawn from and enriched
it. Educational response to the increasing
pluralization of society in the early years of the
twentieth century was frankly assimilationist. In
the 1940s and 1950s the intergroup education
movement added a focus on tolerance and mutual
understanding, while the 1960s introduced a
sequence of educational responses based on the
valuing of cultural pluralism. First, ethnic stud
ies programmes (geared primarily to members
of various ethnic and racial groups) focused on
famous personalities, cultural traditions and ethnic
pride. Later, bilingual education programmes
added an emphasis on the rights of different
ethnic groups to be educated in their primary
language. Recognizing the need for all children
to understand cultures other than their o w n ,
multicultural education programmes became the
byword of the 1970s. Early programmes took
the 'Holidays and Heroes' or 'Tacos on Tues
day' approach, but more recently there has been
an emphasis on more general, universally ap
propriate concepts of intercultural and anti-racist
education (United Kingdom) , prejudice reduc
tion (United States) and h u m a n rights educa
tion (Canada, Australia and Council of Europe)
programmes, with more radical theorists claim
ing that none of these will be effective without
structural changes in the power relationships
between dominant and subordinate groups.
Spain and the United Kingdom present
interesting challenges to the paradigm. They
each have within their borders indigenous groups
with their o w n languages and cultures, w h o are
a majority in their respective regions, and whose
languages and cultures have only recently been,
to some degree, revitalized. Moving from para
digm to practice, this paper represents a pre
liminary attempt to apply the proposed model
to Catalonia and the Basque Autonomous C o m
munity ( B A C ) and to approach the task in ref
erence to Wales. All three have had to learn
h o w to crawl (to return to the child develop
ment analogy) after having been gagged by a
national policy that totally repressed their lan
guages and cultures in an unremitting policy of
assimilation. T h e premise of this paper is that,
in societies subjected to such attempts at cul
tural and linguistic genocide, the intensive ef
forts required to reverse that situation will pre
clude awareness and attention to the needs and
rights of 'others' as long as the indigenous lan
guage and culture are still perceived as vulner
able, and policy-makers and practitioners are
more concerned with the 'self than the 'other'.
The three regions
CATALONIA AND THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS
COMMUNITY (BAC)
Catalonia and the B A C are the two most indus
trialized areas of the Spanish state. During the
period of major industrial expansion (which
coincided with the Franco era of harsh repres
sion of Catalan and Basque language and cul
ture), massive immigration from other parts of
Spain was encouraged by the central govern
ment. These people, w h o are members of the
dominant group in the nation-state, are, in ef
fect, a minority (both in number and in their
perception of access to the power structure)
within the Catalan and Basque regions - even
though they speak the national language and
are citizens of Spain. They c rammed into what
had been small towns encircling Barcelona and
Bilbao, creating entirely Castilian-speaking c o m -
492 Norma Tarrow
munities enjoying almost full employment in
the 1950s and 1960s. Thus , both regions and,
in particular, these 'immigrant' communities are
hard hit by the present unemployment rate of
approximately 20 per cent (one of the highest
in Europe). T h e Basque region is even more
affected since the threat of terrorist activity has
deterred any new industry or investments in
the region. Spain also has a long-standing gypsy
minority, with its o w n culture, which has re
sisted all attempts at assimilation and has a sig
nificant presence in both regions. Spain's new
role as a country of immigration has brought
minority groups from other Western nations as
well as from Third World countries in Latin
America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East (as
an outcome of the world economic crisis and
political chaos). Their presence is just begin
ning to be acknowledged - particularly in the
belts surrounding Barcelona and Bilbao.
T h e ideology of the newly democratized
Spanish state has become one of accommoda
tion of the languages and cultures of indigenous
minorities, with delegation of the authority to
do so to the autonomous governments. Thus ,
these until recently oppressed subordinate groups
are n o w in a somewhat ambiguous position. While
they function as dominant groups in their re
gions, they are still constrained by parameters
established by the state, operating very m u c h
like minorities in relation to the central govern
ment.
WALES
T h e heyday of Welsh industrialization in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries quadrupled the population of Wales, and drastically altered its character. Here, too, large numbers of the dominant national group came to the newly industrialized areas of Glamorgan and Gwent . W h e n the slate, coal and steel industries of the south closed d o w n , m a n y of these English and English-speaking immigrants chose to remain. After a hiatus of several decades, immigration has begun again. T h e settled immigrants are n o w being joined by others from
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Arab nations
and China (as well as Chinese from H o n g Kong) .
Labour Force Surveys, completed between census
polls, indicate that they constitute 1.2 per cent
of the total population (of Wales) and a m u c h
greater percentage in the areas of Swansea and
Cardiff, as well as Bangor in the north - al
though their presence has not been widely ac
knowledged.
Language
CATALONIA
Catalonia's widely shared language and culture
played a critical role in fostering the movement
for autonomy, which (except for a small con
tingent of extremists) has been largely viewed
in linguistic and cultural forms. For centuries,
Catalan, closely related to other R o m a n c e lan
guages, was the language of the intellectual and
commercial community, whose nineteenth-cen
tury literary revival sparked the movement for
autonomy. In fact, Catalonia represents an ex
ample of reverse diglossia, a bilingual situation
where the minority language is the prestige lan
guage.
T h e Catalan language evolved from the
popular Latin of R o m a n settlers w h o , starting
in the second century, substituted Latin for the
indigenous languages (except in the western
Pyrenees where Euskara, the Basque language,
remained unchanged). In the tenth century, Latin
disintegrated into the Romance languages. After
the Arab conquest and the Christian reconquest,
several languages crystallized and were reduced
to Galician, Castilian and Catalan. Catalan was
firmly planted in Catalonia and its conquered
areas. F rom the twelfth to the fourteenth centu
ries, Catalan and Castilian vied for prominence
and inspired literary movements, but Castilian
steadily advanced while Catalan influence
lessened. W h e n Aragon lost political power in
the fourteenth century, Catalan literature and
official use waned and continued to wane under
the unification begun by King Ferdinand and
Language, intercultui three Eui
Queen Isabella. T h e eighteenth century saw the
repression of all languages except Castilian.
Catalan underwent a nineteenth-century ren
aissance, a brief revival under the Second R e
public, and forty years of total repression in the
twentieth century. During this period, the use
of Catalan in schools, newspapers, religious serv
ices, media, business and public administration
was officially banned. After years of maintain
ing the language and culture in semi-secrecy, it
became a voluntary subject and, with the resto
ration of the Generalität (Catalonian national
legislature) in 1977, a compulsory subject in
primary and secondary schools. Today, the In
stitute of Catalan Studies is charged with en
suring the vitality of the language. Within Cata
lonia, there are two main varieties of the language
(eastern and western) plus Aráñese (spoken in
the Valley of Arañes). Siguan estimates that about
50 per cent of Catalonia's 6 million residents
speak Catalan as a mother tongue and another
30 per cent speak or understand it (Siguan, 1989).
THE BASQUE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY
Euskara is an ancient and non-Indo-European
language, with a paucity of written literature,
whose speakers tended to be located in the ru
ral and less educated segment of the popula
tion. Although maintained through the Middle
Ages and the early years of Spanish unification,
it did not expand. Considered archaic, and handi
capped by its diglossic situation in relation to
Castilian, it had begun to disappear by the nine
teenth century, w h e n it underwent a literary spurt
not nearly as extensive or popular as the Catalan
renaissance. Basque nationalism has leaned heav
ily on a shared ethnic background with strong
expression of the desire for complete political
independence, and the Basque language as its
badge of nationhood. T h e Franco regime's con
certed programme of cultural repression, intended
to crush the nationalist spirit, focused particu
larly on the language. T h u s the last 100 years
have witnessed an attempt to revive the lan
guage, followed by a period of severe repres
sion, a second clandestine revival movement and,
; m and human rights: 493 ean cases
since the granting of autonomy in 1978, the
compulsory learning of Euskara at all levels of
the educational system. T h e A c a d e m y of the
Basque Language has, to some degree, over
c o m e the fragmentation resulting from the vari
ants and dialects of the language by developing
a standardized and unified Euskara Batua. T h e
total number of Euskara-speaking persons has
remained fairly constant, but, since the popula
tion of the Basque provinces has more than tri
pled in the past 100 years the net effect is a
sharp decline in the proportion of the popula
tion of the region that speaks the language (Clark,
1981). Siguan estimates that about 25 per cent
of the 2 million people in the B A C speak Euskara
(Siguan, 1989).
WALES
Welsh belongs to the Brythonic branch of Celtic,
which began to separate into independent lan
guages in the middle of the sixth century. B y
the Middle Welsh period (1150-1400) a stand
ardized language had been developed by bardic
poets and was used by gentry. T h e process of
language shift began with the Act of Union of
England and Wales in 1536, from which time
Welsh was restricted to the family, the c o m m u
nity and religion - primarily amongst the rural
poor. Although Welsh was banned from public
life, translation of the Bible in 1588 guaranteed
the survival of the language. Circulating and
chapel Sunday schools in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, respectively, provided in
struction in the Welsh language but the inferior
status of the language was accepted, even by its
speakers. In the nineteenth century there were
strenuous efforts to eliminate the language, aided
by large-scale immigration and emigration. T h e
1847 Report of the Commissioners says: ' T h e
Welsh language is a vast drawback to Wales,
and a manifold barrier to the moral progress
and commercial prosperity of the people. . . . It
dissevers the people from intercourse which would
greatly advance their civilization, and bars the
access of improving knowledge to their minds. '
B y the end of the century, demands for the use
494 Norma Tarrow
of Welsh began to surface, with the Welsh Lan
guage Act of 1967 ultimately giving English and
Welsh equal validity within Wales. In terms of
numbers of Welsh speakers, at the beginning of
the twentieth century there were 977,400 (al
most 45 per cent according to the 1911 cen
sus). B y 1981 this had dropped to 500,000
( 19 per cent). T h e decision to speak Welsh within
families appears to cut across social class and is
related primarily to the perceived usefulness of
the language (Edwards, 1991).
Thus , all three regions are currently absorbed
in efforts to achieve reverse language shift (RLS),
defined by Fishman (1991, p . 81) as 'an at
tempt on the part of authorities that are recog
nized by the users and supporters of threatened
languages to adopt policies and to engage in
efforts calculated to reverse the cumulative pro
cesses of attrition that would otherwise lead to
their contextually weak language-in-culture be
coming weaker, while its competitor, a strong
language-in-culture, becomes even stronger.'
Status of the indigenous
languages
CATALONIA A N D THE BASQUE A U T O N O M O U S
C O M M U N I T Y
It has been little more than a decade since the
normalization of language and culture in Cata
lonia and the Basque region has been seriously
under way. In that brief period, what has been
accomplished? T h e autonomous languages are
n o w co-official with Castilian in the relevant
regions, a major accomplishment in the light of
modern history. For Siguan (1989), this im
plies that the regional language is the appropri
ate language of the educational system. H e also
points out the following:
T h e laws in both (Spanish) regions state that,
at the end of compulsory education, stu
dents will be able to use both languages
with facility.
If the child's mother tongue is one of the two
official languages, parents have the right
to insist on education in their o w n lan
guage.
Separation into two different education sys
tems has been explicitly rejected.
Teachers are expected to k n o w the official
languages; this has required a gradual ac
quisition of the regional language for m u c h
of the teaching force.
Teacher training has been directed at the goal
of being able to teach in the regional
language.
At university level, the right of members of the
university community to use either of the
two languages has been confirmed.
In analysing the process of normalization, this
observer notes that the presence of Catalan is
increasingly being felt in every aspect of life.
For those familiar with Spanish, Catalan is not
difficult to read, and thus a great deal of printed
matter is disseminated monolingually - in Catalan
only. Understanding and speaking the language
can be accomplished with relative ease - thus
m a n y public events are conducted only in Catalan.
T h e prestige of the language is high, its value in
the society is evident and thus, although there
has been some resistance, for the most part people
are willing to learn and use it, or have their
children learn it as a means of getting ahead.
Mos t Catalans k n o w the language, and its use
as mother tongue has always been high and is
growing, even in the non-Catalan segment of
society. W h a t Woolard (1986) calls the 'poli
tics of persuasion' seems to have paid off. Cata
lonia's goal of having Catalan as the official lan
guage, with Spanish as a complementary second
language, is clear, progress in that direction is
evident and its realization is a reasonable ex
pectation.
T h e Basque situation is quite different and
the language is still quite vulnerable. There has
been success in terms of language spread. M o r e
people k n o w the language but, other than in
heavily Basque-speaking rural areas, its pres
ence is not felt in the shops, on the streets, in
recreational activities, etc. Euskara is a difficult
language to learn and knowledge of Spanish
Language, interculturalism and human rights: 495 three European cases
does not help one to read it. Thus , although
great efforts are m a d e to disseminate informa
tion in Euskara, it is always accompanied by a
translation in Spanish (or, often, in English).
This bilingual situation (while obviously neces
sary) reduces the need to achieve full compe
tency in Euskara. If the Basques are striving for
the same goal as the Catalans - a unilingual
society with bilingual (Spanish) functionalism
- it appears unlikely that this will be accom
plished. If they are willing to work with each
succeeding generation to achieve second-lan
guage competency in Euskara, it seems reason
able that they will be able to ensure the survival
and transmission of their unique and historic
language and culture.
WALES
Assessment of progress in the revitalization of
Welsh language and culture must take into ac
count that, in contrast to Catalonia and the B A C ,
there is no overall national or regional language
policy. Policies of individual local education
authorities range from highly anglicized Gwent ,
which only recently opened its first Welsh-
m e d i u m secondary school, to Dyfed's contro
versial language policy. Five major accomplish
ments include:
• Growth in the number of pupils studying
subjects in Welsh.
• Increase in the number of subjects taught in
Welsh to C S E , O and A levels of second
ary education.
• Setting up of an examination system for Welsh-
language proficiency.
• Production of a range of textbooks and learn
ing materials.
• Setting up of resource centres for support of
Welsh-language instruction (Thomas,
1986).
T h e Education Reform Act (1988) for Eng
land and Wales requires the Secretary of State
for Education to establish the National Cur
riculum by specifying appropriate attainment
targets, programmes of study and assessment
arrangements for each of the foundation sub
jects. Welsh language has been recognized as a
foundation subject and each of the four key
stages of compulsory schooling must offer ei
ther Welsh or Welsh Second Language. Thus
an additional accomplishment is the develop
ment and phased implementation of the N a
tional Curriculum attainment targets, pro
grammes of study and assessment arrangements
for Welsh and Welsh Second Language (Welsh
Office, 1990).
It remains for the yet-to-be-released 1991
census results to indicate whether the decline in
numbers of Welsh speakers (continuing even
to the 1981 census) has been slowed or reversed.
There has been some evidence that, for the first
time, in the under-5 age-group, there has been
an increase in the number of Welsh speakers.
In brief, therefore, although, as noted, their lev
els and type of normalization are different,
Euskara, Catalan and Welsh are no longer on
the 'endangered species list' of minority lan
guages. A s their languages and cultures have
been strengthened, the Basques, the Catalans
and the Welsh have developed a more secure
sense of the 'self - the prerequisite to a positive
concept of the 'other'. T h e Basques and the
Catalans, both minorities in Spain, and the Welsh,
a minority in the United Kingdom, are not and
do not function as minorities within their re
gions. O f the three, Catalonia is by far in the
strongest position and, thus, presumably most
open to responding to the needs of subordinate
groups in the region. T h e first and crucial step
is, of course, the recognition of the existence of
these communities, their linguistic, cultural and
religious differences and their problems in their
adopted lands.
Interculturalism
According to the paradigm, early responses to the needs of subordinate groups tend to take the form of compensatory programmes. These are usually designed to assimilate the child into
496 Norma Tarrow
the majority culture - often by focusing on needed
language skills, and often at the expense of his
or her o w n language and culture. As already
noted, compensatory programmes m a y be seen
as a transition between the ideology of assimila
tion and the next level of accommodation, when
minority language and culture programmes le
gitimize and possibly safeguard the linguistic
and cultural heritage of subordinate groups.
MINORITY POPULATIONS
Gypsies
Estimates of the gypsy population of Catalonia
indicate that there are about 2,000 families c o m
prising 13,000 to 15,000 individuals, of w h o m
about 6,000 are school-age children. Forty per
cent live in the province of Barcelona, with 15 per
cent in Lleida, 20 per cent in Girona and 25 per
cent in Tarragona. Department of Education
policy permits schools to restrict admission of
gypsy children to no more than 5 per cent of
their population. According to the only gypsy
in the European Parliament, access for gypsy
children to normal schools is restricted by the
opposition of school administrators to their ad
mission (Ramirez Heredia, as cited in Capella,
1987).
In the Basque Autonomous Communi ty ,
there seems to have been no interest until re-
cendy in ascertaining the demographics of the
gypsy population. O n the basis of interviews
with a sample of the gypsy population, Grupo
Pass (1987a, 1987e) estimates that there are
approximately 7,000 gypsies in the B A C . Cur
rently three studies (in Álava, Guipúzcoa and
Vizcaya) have received financial support from
the regional government, as they attempt to find
out h o w m a n y reside in the B A C , where they
are and what their needs are. O n e of these has
been carried out by a dedicated group of young
teachers in the Escuela Puente Gitana of
Guipúzcoa. They can account for over 300 chil
dren in forty-eight different schools and esti
mate that there are at least another 100 school-
age children not attending school, according to
reports of such children by sixteen different
schools and nine municipalities (Seminario
Escolarización, 1989).
Although Wales also has a gypsy popula
tion, centred in Merthyr Tydfil, information about
its size and educational provisions has not read
ily been available.
Immigrants from the dominant culture
T h e arrival of more than 2 million non-Catalans
in Catalonia between 1950 and 1975 created
extremely serious problems, ranging from the
erection of shanty towns to meet immediate
housing needs to vastly overstretched educa
tion and health services. Formerly tranquil towns
on the outskirts of Barcelona n o w have
populations in which the vast majority is non-
Catalan, comprising almost half of the total
population of the province. T h e majority of these
people represent a monolingual Castilian work
ing class from the impoverished agricultural
regions of Andalucia. According to Strubell, the
compulsory use of Catalan by authorities was
built up by politicians into a perceived confron
tation between Catalan- and Spanish-speaking
populations - which is precisely what the gov
ernment strived to avoid. 'There being no ra
cial, religious, or other unsurmountable differ
ences between immigrant population and host
population, the Paîsos Catalans are therefore
an open society. T h e cultural differences can,
in time (and in theory) be overcome' (Strubell,
1984, p . 103).
According to García-González (1986), the
same immigration wave (1950-75) brought some
200,000 persons to the Basque region. H e points
out that there has not been a serious global study
of the situation of these immigrants, because of
either a lack of sensitivity or unwillingness to
acknowledge problems. Seventy per cent are
working class, with low-level education and
qualifications. They live in industrial belts, are
subemployed or unemployed, ethnically bifur
cated, socially rejected and subject to ethnocen
tric prejudice, linguistic and cultural difficulties
and social conflict - without any special meas
ures being taken to promote or preserve
Language, intercultur three Eur
ethnocultural pluralism and diversity. Their
children represent 27.5 per cent of the popula
tion (varying according to municipalities). García-
González recommends an in-depth study and
creation of special services for both first- and
second-generation immigrants, as well as pro
grammes to foster comprehension and respect
for different cultures and value systems.
Specific information on the numbers of
English settled in Wales has not been available.
It is evident, however, that the urban, industri
alized areas of all three regions have been heav
ily infiltrated by immigrants from other parts of
the nation. Since these people are speakers of
the dominant language, in each case they have
contributed to the diminution of indigenous lan
guage and culture.
Foreign immigrants
Territorially based minorities in Europe (such
as the Basques and the Welsh) have long been
oppressed by the nation-states in which they
are located. Their response to oppression has
often been one of nationalistic antagonism, which
m a y easily become a chauvinistic parochialism.
However, the fact of the territorial base makes
their position significantly different from those
minorities without one. F e w doubt that they
belong; their feeling of oppression is based on
other factors, principally linguistic, cultural, re
ligious and economic. For the other minorities,
w h o share these oppressions, a further one is
added. This is the widely held view that these
minorities not only do not belong but should
not be in Europe (Jones and Kimberly, 1986,
p . 22).
T h e Basques, the Catalans and the Welsh
have been through a difficult period. N o one,
however, ever doubted that they 'belonged'. This
oppression is, however, the lot of a relatively
n e w group in all three regions. It must be real
ized that, until relatively recently, Spain was
traditionally a country of emigration. In the mid
1970s, however, Spain began experiencing a
fair amount of immigration, primarily from Latin
America, Africa, the Middle East and Portugal.
This was induced by several factors, including
im and human rights: 497 ean cases
the restrictions on immigration by other West
ern European nations, Canada and the United
States; political and economic events; the ces
sation of internal rural-urban migration; and,
until 1985, very loose border controls. Govern
ment statistics for 1986 indicate a foreign resi
dent population of 293,208 - mainly from the
United States and Western European countries.
A different picture is provided by the I O E study
(Caritas Española, 1987), which is the most
complete work on foreign immigrants in Spain,
as well as the work cited by most investigators
in the field. They estimate, on the basis of ex
trapolation of data, that the actual foreign resi
dent population is closer to 720,000, with about
73 per cent (526,000) from Third World coun
tries and at least half of these undocumented
(Bier, 1988). However, neither of these figures
can be accorded credibility, since the research
group responsible for the Caritas study (Colectivo
I O E ) has acknowledged a statistical error which
would lower the estimate of foreign immigrants
to approximately 360,000 (La Serna, 1989).
In July 1985, the L a w on the Rights and
Liberties of Foreigners was implemented in Spain.
While stabilizing the rights of legal immigrants
with permission to work, its effect was also to
reinforce the marginalization and insecurity of
the undocumented immigrants. N o t only are
the data on a national level questionable, but
there are no available data breaking d o w n the
immigrant population by provinces or regions.
Thus , it is difficult to estimate h o w m a n y of
these have found their w a y to Catalonia or the
B A C . In the B A C there do appear to be at least
5,000 Portuguese, an indeterminate number of
gypsies (many also Portuguese), an Arab popu
lation (primarily in Bilbao) and a sizeable Fili
pino community. Catalonia reportedly houses
45,000 Arab Muslim immigrants from North
Africa (primarily Moroccans), Central Africa,
the Middle East and South East Asia (Losada,
1988).
T h e Moroccan immigration dates largely
from the 1960s and was primarily a consequence
of the ending of immigration by the French
government in 1967, economic development in
Spain and the consequent availability of jobs.
498 Norma Tarrow
T h e Middle Eastern (primarily Palestinian, Ira
nian and Iraqi) and Central African immigrants
are m u c h more recent arrivals. T h e immigra
tion of the former (often for political motives)
began in 1968 and until 1972 comprised pri
marily single m e n , with an influx of family groups
starting in 1986 (Caritas Española, 1987; Losada,
1988). T h e most recent immigrant group to
arrive is a colony of black Central Africans
working as agricultural labourers in the Maresme
district. T h e first wave of this group was also
m a d e up of single m e n (immigrating for eco
nomic motives) w h o created little stir. As wives
and young children have begun to appear in
the communities involved, however, there has
been some discriminatory community reaction.
This received a great deal of coverage, being
reported on radio, television and in the press,
with the United Nations Association of Spain
condemning the occurrences in Santa Coloma
de Farners as racist (El Pais, 1989).
Information as to the extent of 'foreign in-
migration'4 to Wales and its character, obtained
from the literature as well as personal interviews,
indicates that most of those concerned with
education believe in-migration virtually ceased
with the onset of industrial decline in the 1960s
and 1970s, are convinced that the children of
those w h o came to Wales at that time are n o w
thoroughly integrated into Welsh society and,
unless directly involved in schools receiving these
children, are unaware of the existence of pock
ets of recent immigrants in need of special as
sistance. Estimates of populations of different
ethnic groups obtained from the Office of Popu
lation and Census Statistics indicate that the
largest numbers of these immigrants to Wales
c o m e from India, Pakistan and Arab nations.
T h e Glamorgan Racial Equality Council
reports an ethnic minority population of about
6 per cent in Cardiff, primarily from the Indian
subcontinent. T h e next highest group are de
scendants of seamen from Arab nations and
China. While this group is a long-established
population with no language needs, racism is
still a significant factor in their education expe
rience. They evidence the highest level of un
employment and the lowest levels of school
achievement. T h e group that does have lan
guage needs includes the more recent Somali
immigrants (Austin, 1992). During an inter
view, D r Austin stated emphatically: 'I a m fully
supportive of Welsh language but wish the L o
cal Education Authorities (LEAs) would sup
port other community languages. There are more
Urdu language speakers in Cardiff than Welsh
language speakers!'
In Gwent , the Racial Equality Council re
ports that 85 per cent of the immigrant popula
tion is Muslim. Since the census merely asked
country of origin, the language needs of m a n y
second generation, non-English-speaking immi
grants w h o indicate the United K i n g d o m as
country of origin have been overlooked by offi
cial census statistics (Mineur, 1992).
EDUCATIONAL POLICIES
Educational responses in the autonomous c o m
munities should (at least in theory) be bound
by international agreements, as well as by na
tional and regional legislation. A s members of
the Council of Europe, the United K i n g d o m
and Spain have a responsibility to carry out the
recommendations and directives of its various
component organizations. For more than two
decades the Council of Europe has pioneered
in the area of intercultural education - first con
cerning itself with the problems of nomads ,
migrants and minority language groups and,
recently (recognizing the significant role of teach
ers), with the training of teachers in the con
tent, processes and perspective of intercultural
education. Box 1 summarizes major recommen
dations and directives in these areas.
In practice, the step between the signing
of these agreements and the implementation of
programmes appropriate for carrying them out
seems to be missing. T h e Spanish Ministry of
Foreign Affairs generally brings agreements with
educational implications to the attention of the
Ministry of Education, where efforts m a y be
m a d e to implement them, to some extent, in
regions directly under their authority. In the
autonomous Basque and Catalan regions, h o w -
Language, interculturalism and h u m a n rights: 499 three European cases
Box 1. International agreements: language and culture of minorities (accommodation level)
1961: Recommendation 285 on the Rights of National Minorities. Adopted by the Consultative Assembly of the
Council of Europe (28 April):
'Persons belonging to a national minority shall not be denied the right, in community with the other
members of their group and as far as compatible with public order, to enjoy their o w n culture, to use
their o w n language, to establish their o w n schools and receive teaching in the language of their choice
or to profess and practise their o w n religion.'
1975: Resolution 13 Containing Recommendations on the Social Situation of Nomads in Europe. Adopted by the
Committee of Ministers (22 May):
' R e c o m m e n d s that all m e m b e r states take measures to implement policies delineated and inform the
Secretary General of the Council of Europe of such actions taken to:
1. Stop any form of discrimination against nomads.
2. Counteract prejudice by giving the settled population better information about the origins, ways
of life, living conditions and aspirations of nomads.
3. Include nomads in the preparation and implementation of measures concerning them.
4 . Safeguard the cultural heritage and identity of nomads.
5. Promote schooling by the most suitable methods designed to integrate children of nomads into
the normal educational system.'
1976: Recommendation of the Council of Ministers of Education of the Council of Europe. Adopted by the
Council of Ministers (9 February):
'With the collaboration of h o m e country, efforts should be m a d e to teach children in their maternal
language and culture.'
1977: Directive of the Council of Europe (legally binding on member states):
' M e m b e r states should take measures, in collaboration with country of origin, to teach language and
culture of that country to children of migrant workers.'
1981: Recommendation 928 on the Educational and Cultural Problems of Minority Languages and Dialects in
Europe. Adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (7 October):
' R e c o m m e n d s gradual adoption of children's mother tongues for their education.'
1983: Resolution on Measures Favouring the Languages of Cultural Minorities. Adopted by the Parliament of
Europe (14 March):
'Calls for measures to protect minority languages.'
/ 988: Resolution 192 on Regional or Minority Languages in Europe. Adopted by the Standing Conference of
local and regional authorities of Europe (16 March):
'Defines minority languages as "languages belonging to the European cultural heritage that are
traditionally spoken within a territory by nations of the state w h o form a group numerically smaller
than the rest of the state's population and different from the language or languages spoken by the
rest of the state's population". Calls for agreement on measures to promote the use of regional or
minority languages in education, public services, media, cultural facilities and activities, economic and
social life. Parties are expected to submit a report every two years to the Secretary General of the
Council of Europe.'
500 Norma Tarrow
ever, there appears to be little awareness of these
agreements on the part of educational adminis
trators and, thus, little or no planned efforts at
developing related curriculum, materials or
necessary teacher training. In Wales, also, there
appears to be little awareness of the terms of
these international agreements, although the
United Kingdom is officially committed to their
implementation.
In terms of national legislation in Spain,
the 1970 L a w of Education (Article 51) left an
open door in respect to creation of special tran
sition schools for marginalized children, and a
number of these were created from 1971 to
1978. In 1978 an agreement was reached be
tween the national Ministry of Education and
Science and the National Gypsy Secretariat for
the creation of such schools (escuelas puente)
and thus a significant number were established
between 1979 and 1981. T h e theory was that
these were to serve as a bridge (puente) over a
one- or two-year period, preparing gypsy chil
dren to enter the regular school system. In prac
tice, this was not the case, as very few children
m a d e the transfer.
O n the national level, in 1983, a Royal
Decree on Compensatory Education provided
the basis for resources directed at compensa
tory education for disadvantaged groups within
the regular school system. With its passage, the
escuelas puente began to be phased out, although
some still exist. B y 1986, 83 per cent of gypsy
children in the Ministry of Education and Sci
ence ( M E C ) territory were in regular schools
(Diaz, 1987). A n d , in the educational territo
ries administered by the autonomous c o m m u
nities, thirty-two escuelas puente disappeared
(Cuadernos de Pedagogía, 1988). B y 1987-88,
the Department of Compensatory Education was
co-ordinating the work of schools in M E C ter
ritory with a budget of 770 million pesetas
(Martinez, 1987). Under the auspices and fi
nancing of the European Community, a study
was undertaken to determine the educational
problems of the Portuguese colony (many of
them gypsies) estimated at 70,000, with 14,000
school-age children. T h e goal is to develop bi
lateral agreements for the education of these
children in their country of residence (in this
instance, Spain) with support from the h o m e
country for classes in h o m e language and cul
ture. Support is also being provided by the
Ministry of Education and Science for c o m
pensatory programmes for gypsy children initi
ated by the autonomous communities.
In the United Kingdom, the policies of the
1970s and 1980s represented a gradual accept
ance of cultural pluralism, culminating in the
Swann Report. Its main recommendations were
disregarded, however, with the move to the right.
Under the new National Curriculum 'the lack
of importance attached to community languages
and the emphasis given to standard written and
spoken English seem likely to operate towards
an uncompromising assimilation of children w h o
are, or could become, bilingual to the dominant
language' (Gundara and Jones, 1991, p . 23).
Lynch (1989) points out that the major prob
lem facing pluralist societies is inadequate ac
commodation of social to cultural systems. S o m e
focus on the language issue, some with a 'trin
kets and tokens' approach and others through
the h u m a n rights dimension. F e w have tried a
co-ordinated global set of initiatives to achieve
systematic and deliberate change towards agreed-
on goals with a national covenant of acceptable
norms and values (as per the international agree
ments). Lynch sees the United Kingdom as
hampered by archaic values and structures, an
outdated Parliament, a system of 'public schools'
(which are not public), exclusive universities, a
socially narrow judiciary, a socially and intellec
tually skewed civil service and fatuous snob
bery, and calls for a national Charter of H u m a n
Rights and Liberties.
As an example of the situation in Wales,
Swansea has at least two schools with recent
immigrants accounting for almost half of the
student population. This rapidly altered char
acter of the school and city has taken place within
the last ten years. Problems of racial prejudice
are bubbling under the surface and, under the
principle of parental choice, m a n y parents have
moved their children to a nearby church school.
There are no efforts being m a d e for c o m m u
nity education. Teachers are having to deal with
Language, interculturalism and human rights: 501 three European cases
m a n y more learning difficulties, behaviour prob
lems and non-English-speaking children, plus
the revolution of the National Curriculum.
A National Foundation for Educational
Research survey indicated the existence of lan
guages other than Welsh and English in Welsh
schools. However, 'none of the responding L E A s
had conducted language surveys of their schools
and awareness of linguistic diversity appeared
low' (Bourne, 1990, p. 177). They concluded
that although the number of immigrants is small,
it is considerably larger than believed, that little
thought has been given to the place of these
other languages, and that none of the Welsh
L E A s claimed to have provided any in-service
training on linguistic diversity or 'on support
ing bilingual pupils' learning in the mainstream
where their stronger languages were other than
Welsh or English' (Bourne, 1990, p. 178).
T h e G w e n t Racial Equality Council has
been seeking equity through the courts on the
basis of the 1976 Race Relations Act (which
has limited impact in the field of education)
and an amendment of a 1936 Public Order, as
well as section 11 of the 1966 Local Govern
ment Act. It is also basing claims on the Euro
pean documents (for example, the Convention
of 1950 and the Directive on Minority Lan
guages of 1977), which, it believes, are not be
ing implemented in the United Kingdom, al
though that country is a signatory to these
agreements (Mineur, 1992).
In his review of the development of
multicultural education, Verne (1987) notes that,
in the early phase, the question is simply one of
integrating minorities into the majority. Often
this takes the form of intensified teaching of the
official language (or languages, in the case of
the autonomous regions) - better k n o w n as
compensatory education. A s the majority be
gins to tolerate or accept the domestic use of
the minorities' o w n language and culture, and
even begins to consider mother-tongue instruc
tion at school and some attention to the minor
ity culture, programmes such as bilingual and
bicultural education or ethnic studies begin to
appear. Both of these represent the a c c o m m o
dation level, and w e next consider h o w pro
grammes in Catalonia, the B A C and Wales adhere
to the sequence within that level proposed by
the model (that is, compensatory-minority lan
guage and culture-multicultural programming).
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES
Catalonia
In terms of compensatory programmes, Cata
lonia took the lead in Spain, in 1982, by creat
ing a special section (Junta de Promoció Educativa
d'Escoles d'Acció Especial) to deal with prob
lems of marginalization of all kinds and, in January
1983, this group presented a report on the edu
cational situation of gypsy children to the Council
of Education of the Generalität, describing the
current status and suggesting that high priority
be given to needed improvements. Since then
there have been attempts to introduce several
programmes at the accommodation level, pro
viding resources and materials related to m i
nority languages and culture. Several projects
supported by the European Communi ty involve
Catalonia. In Barcelona, gypsy groups are par
ticipants in a plan to co-ordinate social services
(Interface, 1992a) and, in Gerona, in a voca
tional training programme (Interface, 1992c).
T h e resources and results of several other E u
ropean Communi ty projects based in Madrid
m a y also affect the lives of gypsies in the au
tonomous regions.
There is, in Catalonia, some recognition of
the need to teach all children about other cul
tures - primarily on the part of people involved
in compensatory education programmes, the
press, etc. This recognition has not, however,
been converted into action, except on the basis
of individual initiative. A group of about ten
faculty from the Education Institute (ICE) and
Department of Anthropology of the Autono
m o u s University of Barcelona have begun to
include workshops about minority cultures in
their reciclatge programmes (in-service) for teach
ers in the field. They have been able to arrange
for released time for teachers w h o have gypsy
children in their classes for a one-day workshop,
502 Norma Tarrow
with the municipality paying for a substitute. In
terms of pre-service programmes, questionnaires
distributed by this investigator to third-year
(graduating) students and interviews with the
Director of the magisterio of the University of
Barcelona indicated that there is nothing in the
present teacher-preparation curriculum to pre
pare future teachers for the reality of teaching in
the multicultural classrooms of this region. In
collaboration with a colleague at this institution,
a pre-service intercultural education model was
developed and presented at a national confer
ence of magisterios (Cueva and Tarrow, 1989).
T h e majority of educators w h o responded to a
questionnaire on the need for intercultural edu
cation (as well as those interviewed) tended to
focus only on the provision of compensatory
programmes to assimilate the immigrants into
Catalan language and culture - rather than ef
forts to help them preserve their o w n languages
and cultures. Although there are several pro
grammes of the latter type being offered, they
are certainly not the norm, but, perhaps, a step
towards an ideology of accommodation.
Basque Autonomous Community
Authorities in the Basque region appear to have been so focused on the problems of their o w n vulnerable language and culture that they have only recently begun to attend to the needs of other minorities. They have just dipped a toe into the waters of compensatory programming with several programmes beginning in September 1989. In some of these cases the government appears to play a reactive role - recognizing the problem and providing some support after the initiative has been taken by non-official agencies or groups. Interviews, questionnaires, examination of curriculum guides, texts, etc. reveal no attempt to teach non-minority children (or educate teachers) about minority cultures. Educational responses in reference to minority groups are still largely based on an assimilation ideology, with some new (compensatory) programmes representing the transition to accommodation. It appears that the next step m a y be a long time in coming.
Wales
T h e major barrier to effective policies is the
widely held belief that there is little representa
tion in Wales of groups other than English, Welsh
and long-standing assimilated ethnic minorities,
and that multicultural policies are not called for
in schools with little minority representation.
W h e n faced with numbers of immigrant chil
dren, the approach appears to be one of pro
viding some form of compensatory program
ming with the aim of rapidly assimilating these
youngsters into the host society. T h e most c o m
m o n technique is for a support teacher to go
into the classroom and work with small groups.
If extra funds are available, the priority seems
to be to hire a home-school worker. School heads
in Swansea indicate that Welsh-medium schools
receive 10 per cent extra in their budgets to
cover the costs of teaching all subjects in Welsh,
while schools with large numbers of minority
children are entitled to no extra funding to deal
with language and cultural differences. Pro
grammes initiated by university faculty working
with these schools deal with the customs and
traditions of various religions. Efforts are also
m a d e to maintain communication with the head
of the local mosque. Individual teachers have
utilized drama, art and writing activities to bring
in the culture of their students.
In Gwen t , community-based mosque
schools in Urdu, Arabic and Bengali are serv
ing about 350 youngsters, whose needs are not
being met by the state system. A recent survey
indicated that forty schools in G w e n t are re
ceiving funds for English as a Second Language
(ESL) programmes, thus confirming the extent
of the language needs of immigrant populations
(Mineur, 1992). In Glamorgan, community lan
guages have no place in the curriculum offered
in the mainstream schools. A n y work done in
this area is done by community groups them
selves and through their o w n resources (Aus
tin, 1992). As for multicultural education, D r
Austin claims that Cardiff is 'extremely back
ward'. There are only one or two schools with a
positive regard for the celebration of diversity. Several projects (supported by the Euro-
Language, intercultur three Eut
pean C o m m u n i t y ) aimed at improving the op
portunities of gypsy children are under way in
the United K i n g d o m and m a y directly or indi
rectly affect the gypsy community of Wales.
These include teacher training (Interface, 1992a),
access to secondary education and vocational
training, and development of intercultural teach
ing materials and distance learning (Interface,
19926). Information packs directed at students
and teachers and parent-teacher networking
programmes are also being implemented (In
terface, 1992c).
In summary , in all three regions the formerly
oppressed subordinate group has, in effect, be
c o m e the dominant group. There has been some
awakening to the needs of the other groups,
and to educational responses that attend to their
cultural, linguistic and religious differences.
Catalonia, from a more secure position in terms
of the recuperation of its o w n language and
culture, has m a d e m o r e progress in this area
and is beginning to develop some programmes
with a multicultural emphasis. T h e B A C is just
entering the transition phase with compensa
tory programming focused primarily on assimi
lation of subordinate groups. In Wales, there
appears to be a need to recognize the existence
of these minority groups before educational plan
ning, policies and practices can meet their needs.
W h a t , then, is being done at the third level -
from a truly intercultural perspective and in the
areas of prejudice reduction, and education for
international understanding, peace and h u m a n
rights?
Human rights
Saunders (1980) describes a situation in which each minority (and majority) will have sufficiently strong feelings of identity not to be intimidated by the proximity of other cultures. This is the premise of an 'interculturation' ideology. At this level, one finds intercultural education and education for peace, h u m a n rights
sm and human rights: 503 iean cases
and international understanding - each of which
tends to overlap the others and has stronger
bases in different societies.
Intercultural education is no longer directed
solely to minority groups but to the community
at large. It builds upon the knowledge and atti
tudes conveyed by multicultural education (the
traditions, languages, values and norms of the
different cultures comprising society) and moves
to the level of interaction and interchange be
tween cultures. In the process it also deals with
such concepts as discrimination and stereotyp
ing, requiring that all members of the c o m m u
nity examine their o w n attitudes, beliefs and
behaviour in relation to other cultures. Included
in the field of intercultural education are such
programmes as prejudice reduction (in the United
States) and anti-racist education (in the United
Kingdom) .
Clearly, then, intercultural education goes
beyond the subject-matter taught to the types
of learning processes used, the structure and
total climate of the school (Buergenthal and
Torney, 1976). It is understood that trust, open
ness and mutual respect must be the accepted
rule between administrators and teachers and
between teachers and students. 'Intercultural
education concerns all children, all teachers, the
whole school community and the whole of school
life, all the subjects taught and all parents and
partners in education . . .' (Rey, 1986, p . 14).
It must imply the denunciation of all one-
sidedness (however sincere); if not, the concept
is effectively invalidated, giving w a y to pater
nalism, ethnocentricity and even racism. Impli
cations for both pre- and in-service training of
teachers were recognized by the Council of
Europe in its Recommendation R (84) 18 (see
B o x 2).
It is important that training should prepare teachers to welcome and understand pupils, families and colleagues from other parts of the world, to respect the diversity of languages, lifestyles, ambitions, behaviour patterns and religions, and to cope with conflicts which break out and overcome them so as to ensure the cultural enrichment of all. Teacher training is the real key to intercultural education. (Rey, 1986, p. 37)
504 Norma Tarrow
H u m a n rights education m a y be defined as the
conscious effort, both through specific content
as well as process, to develop in students an
awareness of their rights (and responsibilities),
to sensitize them to the rights of others, and to
encourage responsible action to secure the rights
of all. For those countries that 'subscribe to in
ternational agreements dedicated to guarantee
ing h u m a n rights and to democratic govern
ment, teaching h u m a n rights is a moral and
legal imperative' (Tarrow, 1988, p. 1). Educa
tion in this field is seen as the best guarantee
and ultimate sanction of h u m a n rights (Ray and
Tarrow, 1987, p . 3).
T h e objectives for education for h u m a n
rights, peace and international understanding
have been anticipating universal acceptance and
implementation probably since the dawn of civi
lization, but certainly since the adoption of
U N E S C O ' s Recommendation Concerning Edu
cation for International Understanding, C o - o p
eration and Peace and Education Relating to
H u m a n Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in
1974 (see B o x 2).
Each of these movements tends to deal with
a broad spectrum of global issues including Third
World development, East-West relations, the
international economic order, the arms trade,
resource depletion, terrorism, regional violence,
environmental issues, hunger and h u m a n rights.
All place an emphasis on educational process
as well as content - encouraging students to
examine their o w n attitudes and values, build
ing a sense of trust, co-operation and openness,
developing multiple perspectives, dealing with
conflict resolution and fostering the active in
volvement of students. A n d all are based on the
premise that this type of education begins not
at the high-school level but in earliest childhood
- pervading both the curriculum and the cli
mate of the schools.
Interestingly enough, although there ap
pears to be very little interest in multicultural or
intercultural education (in all three regions, to
some degree), there does seem to be some in
terest in the fields of international comprehen
sion, h u m a n rights and/or peace education -
although most of the initiative seems to be coming
from outside the formal educational system. T h e
organizations dedicated to Third World issues
are very concerned about the rights of people
in Africa, in the Middle East and in Latin
America, and in getting this concern across to
schoolchildren. They claim no interest, h o w
ever, in the rights of people from Africa, the
Middle East or Latin America w h o are right in
the community and in the schools or in educa
tional programmes dealing with issues raised
by their presence in the community.
In Catalonia there are numerous organiza
tions committed to each of these themes, some
producing or disseminating materials to schools
and some working direcdy with schoolchildren
and/or teachers to raise awareness (and funds)
for developing nations, but they are not adapt
ing these materials to sensitize students and
teachers to the needs of Third World children
in their classes. Although there is feverish activ-
Box 2. International agreements: intercultural and human rights education (interculturation level)
1974: Recommendation Concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education Relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; U N E S C O . Adopted by the General Conference (19 November):
'Objectives include: an international dimension at all levels of education, understanding and respect for all peoples, awareness of increasing global interdependence, ability to communicate with others, awareness of duties towards one another, understanding of the necessity for international solidarity and co-operation, readiness to participate in solving community, national, and world problems.
National policy, planning and administration should take the necessary steps to carry out concerted programmes of action from an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented perspective.
Language, interculturalism and h u m a n rights: 505 three European cases
Special attention should be paid to the development of attitudes in preschool and to the preparation
of parents.
Teacher training should include preparation for their role relevant to the objectives, as well as
opportunities for study abroad and international exchanges.'
1978: Resolution (78) 41 on the Teaching of Human Rights. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers
(25 October):
' R e c o m m e n d s that governments of m e m b e r states take whatever measures are appropriate "to ensure
that the teaching of H u m a n Rights and fundamental freedoms is given an appropriate place in
curricula of teaching and training, initial and in-service, at all levels".'
1984: Recommendation No. R (84) 18 on the Training of Teachers in Education for Intercultural Understanding!
Migration; Council of Europe. Adopted by Committee of Ministers (25 September):
'Considering population movements irreversible and generally positive, the presence of millions of
schoolchildren from foreign cultural communities, and the essential role of the teacher, the training of
teachers should equip them to adopt an intercultural approach. R e c o m m e n d s that the governments of
m e m b e r states encourage development of materials to support an intercultural approach, include
preparation for teaching the host language more effectively, and m a k e the intercultural dimension a
feature of initial and in-service teacher training.'
/ 985: Recommendation No. R (85) 7 on Teaching and Learning about Human Rights in Schools; Council of
Europe. Adopted by the Committee of Ministers (14 May):
' R e c o m m e n d s that the governments of m e m b e r states (within the context of their national education
systems and their legislative basis) encourage teaching and learning about h u m a n rights in line with
the following suggestions: —
1. H u m a n rights in the school curriculum
A s part of social and political education involving intercultural and international understanding.
Based on concepts acquired from the earliest ages.
With more abstract concepts introduced in secondary-school subjects such as history, geography,
moral and religious education, language and literature, current affairs and economics.
Using international agreements as a point of reference, with teachers careful to avoid imposing
personal convictions.
2. Skills
Intellectual skills, including written and oral expression, ability to listen and discuss, defend one's
opinions (including those involving judgement - such as using multiple sources, analysis, and
identification of bias, stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination).
Social skills, including recognizing and accepting differences, resolving conflict, taking responsibility,
understanding the means of protection of h u m a n rights at all levels.
3. Knowledge
Including topics such as categories of h u m a n rights, various forms of injustice, people, movements
and key events, international declarations and conventions.
Emphasizing the positive.
Providing opportunities for involvement in h u m a n rights issues and expression of feelings.
4 . Climate of the school
A democratic setting where participation is encouraged, views expressed openly, interactions based
on fairness and justice.
5. Teacher training in the content and processes of h u m a n rights teaching.'
506 Norma Tarrow
ity and publicity surrounding the unification of
Europe in 1993, there is very little emphasis on
this theme in the schools. It is treated in some of
the texts used in upper-grade social studies
classes, and the subject of h u m a n rights does
appear at several places in the social studies
curriculum (depending on which text a teacher
selects). Mos t schools mention h u m a n rights,
but although it is in the official national curricu
lum, very few schools actually do any in-depth
study. At present, approximately twenty schools
in Catalonia belong to the Associated Schools
network, several of which are actively involved
in h u m a n rights issues. A number of curriculum
resources are available (primarily at the second
ary level) but there is a big leap from the
production of materials to their dissemination -
and an even further one to their actual imple
mentation in the classroom. N o n e of the organi
zations has prioritized workshops for teachers
to provide either or both the content knowledge
and/or the didactic skills and methodology that
would allow diem to feel comfortable introduc
ing these diemes in the classroom. T h e majority
of the teachers interviewed were unaware of the
existence of most of these materials. In addition,
one must realize mat teacher training in Spain
prepares future teachers to follow a text rigidly.
There is little or no emphasis on the kinds of
processes inherent in h u m a n rights education -
an open classroom, active co-operative learn
ing, teaching of multiple perspectives, etc. Thus ,
it appears that education in these fields is
limited to a relatively small number of teachers
w h o , due to their o w n personal system of values
and interest, are motivated to search out and
introduce young people to these themes.
In m e somewhat insulated Basque region,
education for international comprehension has
not been as significant as it is in other parts of
the world. A number of organizations outside
m e formal educational system are the 'movers'
in the fields of h u m a n rights and peace educa
tion. T h e Association for H u m a n Rights of
Euskadi, Gernika Gogoratuz (Remember
Guernica), the educational resource centre of
Irun and Educators for Peace are some of the
major groups. T h e Basque government tends
to subsidize m a n y such activities. S o m e m u
nicipal governments have also supported par
ticular programmes.
As party to the National Curriculum, teachers
in Wales will be able to compensate for its na
tionalist tone and introduce themes of interna
tional co-operation, peace and h u m a n rights within
the context of cross-curricular themes. Devel
opment Education Centres, the Early Years
Trainers Anti-Racist Network, the H u m a n Rights
Education Network and major conferences pro
moted by the National Children's Bureau and
the Commonweal th Institute all appear to be
continuing the work begun before implementa
tion of the National Curriculum;. T h e participa
tion of educators from Wales in mese activities
needs to be encouraged. T h e Curriculum Council
of Wales has produced a resource guide for
teachers on the theme of 'Communi ty Under
standing'. It is aimed at fostering active citizen
ship and understanding of h u m a n rights with a
focus on conflict resolution, appreciation of cul
tural diversity and equity in the distribution of
resources. T h e National Curriculum Council
has produced material on 'Education for Citi
zenship' and the Northern Ireland Council for
Educational Development has produced a guide
on 'Education for Mutual Understanding' - all
of which are also available to teachers in Wales.
Troyna and Hatcher (1991) optimistically note
that the National Curriculum contains statements
endorsing multicultural education and racial
equality and mat there is still space for teachers
to continue to develop anti-racist work. They
caution, however, that mese themes appear to
be 'afterthoughts', that there m a y be a resulting
innovation overload on teachers and that the
precedence of parental choice over the statutory
duty of L E A s and their schools not to discrimi
nate can lead to a white flight backlash.
Conclusion
This article has provided examples of present
policies and practices in Catalonia, the Basque
Autonomous Communi ty and Wales in refer-
Language, interculturalism and human rights: 507 three European cases
ence to a tri-level model of intercultural educa
tion. In analysing progress through the devel
opmental stages of the model, w e have taken
into account the unique characteristics of these
three cultures - which have, in a relatively short
period of time, been transformed from oppressed
subordinate groups within the nation to their
somewhat ambiguous status as perceived domi
nant groups in their respective regions. Follow
ing a lengthy period of linguistic and cultural
repression based on an assimilation ideology,
each has instituted assertive policies to recoup
its o w n language and cultural heritage. Legisla
tion, educational programmes, teacher prepa
ration and curriculum materials have been uti
lized in implementing these policies, within the
parameters imposed by national legislation and
directives. Evaluation studies have been utilized
to justify intensification of efforts in these ar
eas. It is clear that there has not been unani
m o u s approval of language normalization pro
grammes in any of the three regions, although
protests have not escalated and there is an ap
preciable change in attitude on the part of Cas-
tilian-speaking residents, particularly in Catalo
nia, and English-speaking residents in Wales.
T h e difference in the linguistic situation in Cata
lonia, the B A C and Wales can be traced to a
number of historical, socio-economic, geographic
and political factors, in addition to the charac
teristics of the three languages. It is not simply
a situation of the Catalans being 'ahead' of the
Basques and the Welsh. It appears that Catalo
nia can reasonably expect to reach its goal of
Catalan as the official language of the schools
and society, with Spanish as a second language
linking it to the rest of the nation and the out
side world. T h e Basques m a y need to establish
functional bilingualism in a bilingual society as
their ultimate goal. Without widespread mother-
tongue usage, this would m e a n repeating the
normalization process with each generation. T h e
Welsh emphasis on language shift through pro
grammes aimed at young mothers and preschool
children and strong support of Welsh youth
groups and cultural activities, as well as Welsh-
m e d i u m instruction at all levels, m a y ultimately
result in a bilingual society.
A s for the languages and cultures of sub
ordinate or minority groups in Catalonia, the
Basque region and Wales, relatively little has
been done on an official basis. It m a y be a case
of short memories, insensitivity, 'pecking order'
or insecurity and defensiveness in regard to their
o w n language and culture, but whatever the
reason, the same assimilation ideology previ
ously employed by the central government (and
so odious to all three societies) has been pur
sued in relation to other cultural groups. C o m
pensatory programmes tend to afford a feeling
of self-righteousness, of 'doing something' for
'them', but the ultimate goal is usually assimila
tion into the dominant culture. Legitimation of
other cultures and languages is in its infancy in
Catalonia and has yet to be conceived in the
Basque region and Wales. Multicultural and
intercultural education appear to be non-exist
ent in all three. National legislation guided by
fears of being ' swamped ' by immigrants is as
difficult to reconcile with interculturalism as is
regional policy that permits public schools to
refuse admittance to citizens w h o are members
of particular minority groups. Lynch eloquently
presents a rather pessimistic view:
As long as the task is seen as the socialization of immigrants - or even ethnic minorities - to the dominant culture, and the perpetuation of an inherently unequal social hierarchy, the prospects for the development of an appropriate multicultural and intercultural education addressed to issues of educational equality in a culturally diverse society, desirous of the h u m a n rights of individuals and groups, committed to freedom from discrimination, and recognizing the issues of power and access to rewards and resources involved, remain relatively bleak. (Lynch, 1986, p. 148)
Yet, in all three regions there is some attention to programmes concerned with h u m a n rights, peace, development issues, etc. These are far more prevalent in Catalonia than in the B A C or Wales. Again, this m a y be understood in terms of the very different backgrounds of these three regions - Catalonia is further along and more secure in restoring its o w n language and culture than the Basque region or Wales. But it is also
508 Norma Tarrow
m u c h easier to deal with and be charitable to
Africans and Asians 'out there' than it is to deal
with and extend equality to African and Asian
immigrants 'right here'. T o do so would m e a n
opening one's o w n culture to change resulting
from interaction and reciprocity. It would re
quire viewing such change as an enrichment
rather than a problem and a willingness to make
structural changes assuring equality of access
and opportunity and shared power.
T h e international agreements and recom
mendations cited are standard-setting. They were
not intended as a description of what exists, but
rather as goals to be reached. T o reach them
requires taking the ideas they express m u c h more
seriously than appears to be the case at present;
using them as a basis for educational programmes
and policies; capitalizing on some of the out
standing programmes already in existence to
serve as training models; and assuring a signifi
cant place in pre- and in-service teacher educa
tion for current and future teachers to examine
their o w n beliefs and attitudes, build their o w n
knowledge about other cultures, and provide
opportunities for them to have the practical
experiences that will permit them to advance
from policies and practices based on assimila
tion or accommodation models to the interac
tion and interchange implicit at the level of
interculturation. •
Notes
1. Lynch (1986) reviews a number of these paradigms. 2. T h e words 'dominant' and 'subordinate' are used,
rather than 'majority' and 'minority', as it is access to power, rather than number of people, that is the relevant factor.
3. Watson (1979) uses the terms 'assimilation', 'adjustment' and 'integration'. Banks (1988) uses 'acculturation' for the third category. However, 'acculturation', in some societies, means just the opposite of what is intended here - the socializing of an individual into the norms and values of the dominant group rather than the process of interchange and
enrichment of each culture by the other. Thus, the term 'interculturation' is used in this article to refer to the interaction between members of dominant and subordinate groups.
4. A term considered more appropriate by the Welsh authorities in reference to people from other parts of the United Kingdom.
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Alternatives in formal education
Colombia's Escuela Nueva
programme
Rosa María Torres
T h e Escuela N u e v a ( E N ) or N e w School pro
g r a m m e of Colombia has become a standard
reference in the educational publications of in
ternational organizations. A m o n g the main or
ganizations, U N E S C O , the World Bank and
U N I C E F have lent their support to the pro
g r a m m e , promoting it and recommending it as
a model experiment. U N E S C O has described
it as 'an experience of unquestionable interna
tional value', while the World Bank has stated
that the lessons to be drawn from it deserve to
be widely disseminated a m o n g educational plan
ners and policy-makers in the developing world.
Study and observer missions have travelled to
Colombia to find out more about it. Several
countries are interested in replicating it, both in
and outside the region.1
W h a t is it that makes E N so special? Broadly
speaking: the very fact that E N is an innovation
and an alternative within the formal education
Rosa Maria Torres (Ecuador). Teacher, linguist and educational journalist. Researcher, adviser on various programmes and author of numerous publications on education. Director of Research at the Instituto Fronesis in Quito. Currently working as an educational adviser for UNICEF, New York.
system; the long period over which it has evolved
and matured; the systematic approach adopted;
the emphasis placed on the curriculum and teach
ing component as the linchpin of the whole
system; and the tangible results that the pro
g r a m m e is producing. W e shall go on to exam
ine these five points, including both their strengths
and weaknesses, and conclude with some con
siderations about the programme's potential for
replication in other contexts.
Escuela Nueva: an alternative
within formal education
It is often thought - even in Latin America it
self - that E N is a non-formal education pro
g ramme or even a non-governmental programme,
like other programmes singled out by interna
tional organizations as successful models of basic
education (such as the B R A C rural primary
education programme in Bangladesh). But E N
is neither of these. Perhaps its greatest merit
and most promising aspect is that it is not, in
fact, an alternative to formal or state education
¡'raspeas, Vol. XXII, I, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva programme
511
but an alternative within the formal and public
education system.
In education, there is a tendency to see
non-formal education as 'alternative'. It is thought
to have a number of virtues in contrast to the
perceived flaws in formal education. This has
given rise to the well-known list of opposites:
inflexible/flexible, vertical/horizontal, monologue/
dialogue, irrelevant/relevant, uncritical/critical,
authoritarian/participatory, divorced from real
ity/rooted in real life, set apart from the c o m
munity/integrated with the community, etc.
Formal education, nowadays impugned
throughout the world for its poor quality and
inefficiency, is considered by m a n y to have had
its day, while non-formal education is thriving,
expanding and becoming increasingly diversi
fied. Neither, however, has a monopoly of
merits or flaws. Within formal education there
have been significant changes. Colombia's
Escuela Nueva is one indication, among others,
that such change is possible, and that there are
alternatives not only to formal education but
within it.
Escuela Nueva:
from local project to national
policy
'Pilot projects' have lost their credibility, since
so m a n y so-called 'pilot' projects have failed to
be anything more than local experiments that
began and ended without achieving the ex
pected wider extension or impact. Meanwhile,
there has been a proliferation of one-off, m a s
sive-scale programmes or programmes that have
rushed ahead without going through a testing,
maturing and development process. F r o m this
point of view, E N has proved an exceptional
experience. That it has risen from the ranks of
micro experiment to a feature of national edu
cation policy is one of its outstanding merits
and one of the major reasons for its popularity.
T h e beginnings of E N date back to the
early 1960s, with the introduction of the Uni
tary School system, promoted at the time by
U N E S C O and adopted in several Latin Ameri
can and Third World countries. T h e first Uni
tary Rural School in Colombia was set up in
Pamplona in the department (administrative
district) of Santander. T h e teacher in charge of
the school at the time was to be the E N N a
tional Co-ordinator. B y the mid 1960s, the small
school had blossomed out into 150 pilot schools.
In 1967, the Colombian Government decided
to extend the Unitary School methodology to
all the single-teacher schools in the country.
In 1975, the Escuela Nueva programme
was founded on the basis of this experience.
Between 1975 and 1978, with the support of
the Agency for International Development
( U S A I D ) , the E N programme was implemented
in 500 schools in three departments. Between
1982 and 1986 the programme expanded to
the Pacific Coast. In 1985, by which time there
were 8,000 E N schools across the country, the
Colombian Government decided to adopt E N
as a strategy to achieve universal rural primary
education. A period of rapid expansion ensued
from 1987 onwards, with the introduction of
the programme in 17,984 schools by 1989. In
1991, some 20,000 of the 27,000 rural schools
in the country were involved in the programme,
with an estimated coverage of one million chil
dren, the goal for 1992 being 28,000 schools. It
has thus taken some two decades, following at
least one decade of experience accumulated
beforehand, to complete the process that has
built up that initial local project into the present
nationwide, internationally recognized pro
gramme.
Escuela Nueva: a system approach
E N is not - as is often thought - a methodology. It is an integrated system combining four c o m ponents: curriculum, training, administration and
512 Rosa María Torres
community. N o n e of these components stands
on its o w n . Their interrelationship is what makes
the model both coherent and feasible.
THE CURRICULUM COMPONENT
Considerable emphasis is placed on curriculum-
related issues in the E N programme. K e y fea
tures are the active method employed, the learning
materials k n o w n as 'learning guides', the work
or study corners, the school library, the school
or student government and flexible promotion.
T h e E N curriculum is geared to rural ar
eas and to multigrade teaching. O n e or two teach
ers are in charge of all grades in primary educa
tion, which in Colombia lasts for five years. T h e
children study in small groups using the guides,
supplied by the state free of charge. T h e guides
are divided by subject-matter (mathematics,
natural science, social studies and language) and
by grade (from the second to the fifth grade,
there being no guides for the first grade). They
are designed for self-instruction, with graded
activities and exercises and detailed instructions
about h o w to do them, so that the pupils can
work to a large extent on their o w n , helping one
another. T h e aim is to save time and to place
less of a burden on the teacher, to lessen the
need for highly qualified teaching staff and to
enable pupils to progress at their o w n pace.
Teachers are trained to adapt the content of the
guides to the specific characteristics of the chil
dren and the local environment, and also to the
community's needs and parents' expectations.
T h e work corners are arranged by field of
study and comprise objects collected or m a d e
by the children themselves or provided by the
parents and the community.
Each school has a small library, which is
central to the learning process and is part of a
strategy to encourage reading in the children,
the teacher and the community. T h e libraries
n o w have a stock of about seventy books, in
cluding reference books by subject, more gen
eral reference works (encyclopedias, dictionar
ies, atlases), works of literature and collections
of books on community-related topics.
E N attaches great importance to the school
government, a student council responsible for
organizing the children's school activities, its
purpose being to involve the children as respon
sible partners in school management, initiate
them in civic and democratic behaviour, and
foster attitudes of co-operation, comradeship
and solidarity as well as developing their poten
tial for leadership, decision-making, public speak
ing, teamwork and so on. T h e school govern
ment, comprising a President, Vice-President,
Secretary, Committee Leaders and Assistants
for each grade, is elected by the pupils accord
ing to strictly democratic procedures, and is
renewed periodically to enable different chil
dren to gain experience of leadership.
Assessment and grade promotion differ
substantially from the conventional school sys
tem. Assessment is part of the learning process,
its main function being to m a k e teachers and
pupils aware of areas needing reinforcement.
Promotion to successive objectives or grades is
flexible, not automatic. Each child is moved on
to the next grade w h e n he or she achieves the
educational objectives set, which can take more
(or less) time than a normal academic year. This
means that it is the school that fits in with the
timetable and needs of the children and their
families, and not the reverse. A n y children tem
porarily absent from school can resume their
studies without having to drop out.
T h e actual learning environment extends
beyond the classroom. E N schools have a veg
etable patch and a garden, and sports grounds
and community facilities form part of the wider
school environment. T h e interior design pro
vides adequate space for the work corners, li
brary, kitchen, dining-room and washroom fa
cilities. Teachers are often housed on the school
premises. T h e natural environment is the main
object of study and provides most of the re
sources for teaching and learning.
TEACHER TRAINING
In the E N approach, teachers begin to work as
facilitators in relation to their pupils - guiding,
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva programme
513
directing and evaluating learning - and as c o m
munity leaders and organizers. Both roles in
volve major changes of attitude. For this rea
son, changes of attitude-pedagogical and social -
play a key part in E N teacher training.
Initial training (for n e w teachers) is pro
vided through three sequentially designed work
shops, each of one week's duration: initiation,
methodology and organization and use of the
library. After the first and the second work
shops there is a six-month and a three-month
interval, respectively, to give teachers time to
put what they have learnt into practice in their
schools. Attendance at the first workshop is a
prerequisite for inclusion of the school in the
E N programme and for a teacher to start work
ing with it. A basic E N principle is to repro
duce in teacher training not only educational
content but also methods and real-life situa
tions that the teachers themselves will encoun
ter in their classrooms and in their relations with
their pupils.
In-service training takes place through what
are known as 'Rural Micro-Centres', where teach
ers can exchange, update and upgrade their
knowledge and experience on an ongoing basis;
they are organized on the initiative of the teach
ers themselves and operate with groups of ten
to fifteen teachers from neighbouring areas.
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COMPONENT
T h e administrative component is the part that
has received least attention in current literature
produced by and concerning E N . It is obvi
ously a crucial and complex area, involving
political and institutional factors that go beyond
strictly administrative considerations.
Administration 'has more to do with giv
ing direction than with controlling' (Ministry of
Educat ion-UNICEF, 1990), which means that
administrative officials, too, have to familiarize
themselves with the programme's objectives and
components, and especially with its pedagogi
cal aspects.
E N is designed as a decentralized pro
g r a m m e . At the centre of the structure, a co
ordinator and a small team (of ten persons in
1991, most of them involved with E N in lead
ership positions since its inception) are respon
sible for co-ordinating and designing policies
and technical strategies, and evaluating pro
g r a m m e implementation. At the departmental
level, the structure comprises a representative
committee, a co-ordinator and a team of multi
plier agents. F r o m 1987 onwards - w h e n the
Plan for the Universalization of Rural Primary
Education was launched and the E N expansion
process began - a series of changes were intro
duced in the administrative structure, with e m
phasis on decentralization as a strategy. T w o
n e w structures were established - a committee
on universalization at the national and depart
mental levels, and the educational units - for
purposes of decentralization and institutional
support (Ministry of Education-UNICEF, 1990).
THE SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP
T h e E N school is expected to operate as an
information centre and focal point for c o m m u
nity integration. T h e school-community rela
tionship is basically one of mutual benefit, with
parents and the community joining in school
activities, and the school promoting activities to
foster local development and improve the qual
ity of life of the population.
In order to enable teachers to gain a better
understanding of the community and local con
ditions E N recommends the use of a series of
tools: the family record (information about the
families connected with the school), the agri
cultural calendar (information about the agri
cultural activities of the area and the correspond
ing seasons), the neighbourhood m a p and the
district monograph, all of them designed with
the participation of the children, their parents
and the community. Under the teacher's guid
ance, all these tools are key resources for the
planning of educational activities.
There are various ways in which E N at
tempts to involve parents in their children's learn
ing activities and stimulate the children's inter
est in learning more about their parents and
514 Rosa María Torres
their lives. T h e library, the school premises and
the cultural and recreational activities are al
ways open to community participation. Achieve
ment Days - days w h e n academic results are
announced and the school government reports
on its activities - are used as an opportunity for
sharing school and community activities.
Demonstration Schools, organized and lo
cated in each department in which the programme
operates, are a full-scale E N institution. They
are schools in which these four components can
be 'seen' to be working in exemplary condi
tions. For this reason, a visit to a Demonstra
tion School is a key element in the strategy of
teacher motivation and training.
Escuela Nueva:
a pedagogical innovation
Educational innovations often give prominence
to organizational features and neglect the peda
gogical aspects. M a n y innovative experiences
of national and international renown are recog
nized as such for the changes they introduce in
administrative management, planning and evalu
ation, n e w services provided, infrastructure,
spatial organization and the introduction of n e w
curriculum content. Yet teaching and learning
methods, the cornerstone of any educational
change, are often overlooked. T h e central role
of pedagogical innovation in the programme is
one of E N ' s most remarkable features.
E N has drawn on and combined various
features of progressive educational theory and
practice, basing its programme on the philoso
phy of the Unitary School (itself derived from
the Active School), some of whose principles
were the preservation of the complete primary
school approach through multigrade teaching,
individualized instruction enabling pupils to
advance at their o w n pace, active learning, edu
cational materials designed to enable the teacher
to work with several groups at once, and auto
matic promotion.
E N ' s methodology focuses on learning by
doing, linking theory and practice, individual
and group work, study and play, guidance and
self-instruction. T h e learning activities develop
in children an ability to think for themselves,
and to analyse, investigate and apply what they
have learnt. T h e study corners, the library, work
in small groups, the use of self-instructional
materials, the student government, the teacher-
training workshops and the rural micro centres
have all been designed to foster active learning,
not only by the pupils but also by the teachers.
T h e conventional duties of the teacher-instruc
tor are shared out a m o n g the learning guides
(contents and methods), the library (an addi
tional reference source), the study corners (ob
servation and experiment areas), the group of
pupils (who work together and help one an
other) and the school government (where pu
pils learn for themselves the values and atti
tudes for democratic life in society).
In teacher training, pride of place is given
to teaching methods and to motivation and the
capacity to innovate. T h e micro centres are de
signed in effect to meet criteria considered cru
cial to any teacher-training strategy - the need
for continuing and in-service training, based on
contact and teamwork among teachers, the pool
ing of experience and critical analysis by teach
ers of their o w n teaching practices.
E N ' s slogan, ' M o r e and better primary
education for children in rural areas', sums up
this attempt to reconcile quantity with quality.
It is a matter not just of providing children in
rural areas with greater access to education, but
of offering them a better education. T h e en
deavour to depart from conventional teaching/
learning practice - top-down, authoritarian, rote
and passive learning - and the attainment of
higher levels of achievement than in conven
tional schools have been crucial, constant ele
ments in E N ' s development.
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva programme
515
Escuela Nueva:
a programme that gets results
In the final analysis, the merits of a programme
are assessed not on its philosophy or stated
objectives, but on its results.
Recent evaluations (Psacharopoulos et al.,
1992) have found that E N pupils have higher
achievement scores than their counterparts in
conventional rural schools (except in fifth-grade
mathematics), as well as significant achievements
in terms of self-esteem, creativity and civic be
haviour such as a sense of co-operation, respon
sibility and solidarity. E N has increased c o m
munity participation in school-related activities
and has reduced the probable drop-out rate
a m o n g children completing the fifth grade
(though not the third grade). Another study
(Rojas and Castillo, 1988) found that E N has
had a significant impact on adult education,
agricultural extension, athletic competitions,
health campaigns and community celebrations.
E N has changed the face of rural educa
tion in Colombia. It is proving that it is possible
not only to take schooling into rural areas and
substantially improve its quality, but also to design
an educational model specifically tailored to the
rural context, without forfeiting quality and ef
ficiency. Moreover, E N seems to be showing
that the traditional disadvantages of rural areas
can be perceived and turned to account as positive
factors - ample space, contact with nature, natural
resources, linkages with the community, the
central role played by the school and the teacher
in community life, the climate of co-operation
to which the multigrade school lends itself, the
particular pace of rural life, etc.
Weaknesses of Escuela Nueva
A s in the case of other internationally acclaimed innovative experiences, there is a tendency to present E N as a problem-free venture, or at
any rate to minimize any problems there might
be. Recognizing contradictions and weaknesses
seems to be viewed as being inconsistent with
'success'. In fact, there is nothing to be gained
from idealizing these programmes, either for
the programmes themselves - which, on the
contrary, lose their credibility - or for those hoping
to draw inspiration from them as a model to be
followed. It is a well-known fact that there are
always considerable discrepancies between a
model and its implementation. It is to the credit
of E N and its co-ordinating team that they are
always willing to acknowledge such discrepan
cies and are constantly at pains to identify and
remedy them.
A study trip to see E N operating in the
field in 1991 gave m e first-hand experience of
the magnitude of both the programme's strengths
and its weaknesses (Torres, 1991). So far I have
referred to the former; I shall n o w review the
latter.
There is r o o m for improvement in all the
components and elements described. T h e pro
gramme ' s co-ordinating team itself is not satis
fied with the guides, the teacher training, the
school government and the school-community
relationship. T h e guides require thorough revi
sion (three revisions have been carried out to
date) as regards both content and methods, es
pecially in mathematics and grammar . M a n y of
the contents and activities do not appear to be
geared to the actual circumstances and needs of
a rural child. Furthermore, not m a n y teachers
have been making use of the adaptation m e c h a
nism built into the guides, highly thought-pro
voking and interesting though it is. There is still
some w a y to go in terms of instructional design,
which is still too formal and inflexible for the
requirements of do-it-yourself learning mate
rials such as these.
There are still shortcomings in teacher train
ing as regards both coverage and quality. T h e
rural micro centre strategy is not yet fully u n
derstood or established in all areas. School gov
ernments are not always set up or, where they
are, not always as planned. A n unduly control
ling or paternalistic approach by teachers and
adherence to form and ritual - so deeply in-
516 Rosa María Torres
grained in the classroom culture - often prevail,
thus defeating the objective of school govern
ment. T h e active stimulation of the school-com
munity relationship depends to a great extent
on the teachers, and to that extent their charac
teristics, training and personal motivation de
termine the quality of that relationship, which
in fact often replicates the familiar models of
the conventional school.
T h e teaching of reading and writing - ba
sic skills and the factor which largely determines
the children's academic future - is still one of
E N ' s main shortcomings in terms of curricu
lum and pedagogy. T h e guides, as has been
said, are designed for use from the second grade
onwards, leaving teachers free to choose the lit
eracy methods and techniques they deem most
appropriate.2 This is clearly an open invitation
to a conventional teaching approach and to the
outdated methods that prevail in this field. O n e
of the major challenges facing E N is to come
forward with new ideas for the teaching of reading
and writing, drawing on knowledge and experi
ence gained in the region in recent years.
T h e n e w teacher-pupil relationship pro
posed by E N has yet to be completely accepted
and applied by all teachers. While there are some
teachers w h o have fully grasped their new teaching
role, there are others of the old school w h o con
tinue to apply the frontal teaching approaches,
demonstrating in fact that it is possible for a
progressive educational philosophy to coexist
alongside conservative, outmoded educational
practice. In such cases, E N principles and strat
egies (active teaching methods, student govern
ment, flexible promotion, etc.) are accepted in
theory while the teaching practices questioned
by these principles and strategies m a y be kept
intact. In other words, w e can see precisely w h y
E N has survived and continued to exist and
even to progress, but also h o w it can get bogged
d o w n and grow stale and bureaucratized, drained
of its substance and innovative force.
E N requires its teachers and its schools to
perform two main functions: a teaching func
tion and a community function. It is certainly
not easy to strike a balance between the two,
and what seems to be happening is that the
Demonstration Schools are placing more e m
phasis on the community role than on teaching.
In fact, what the Demonstration Schools should
show is that it is possible both to provide edu
cation efficiently without forfeiting its c o m m u
nity and social base, and to establish a close
school-community relationship without forfeit
ing the quality of the teaching process. T h e y
should show that it is possible to have good
teachers w h o , without neglecting their primary
teaching role, are also prepared to become good
community leaders.
O n e of the conflictual aspects glossed over
in the literature about E N is the institutional
question and, in particular, the relationship with
the Ministry of Education, characterized by
mistrust and conflict of various kinds and never
fully clarified. Faced with anything from open
boycott to passive resistance, E N has often had
to swim against the tide or operate on the fringes
of the system, falling back of necessity or by
choice on the support of international organi
zations and private organizations in Colombia
itself. Its precarious situation and lack of insti
tutional legitimacy as part of the state structure
are, in effect, weakening the programme's ca
pacity for consolidation and expansion.
A long evolutionary process such as the
one E N has witnessed can be conducive to de
velopment and progress, but it can also cause a
programme to stagnate and grow stale unless
steps are taken to rejuvenate it continually. T h e
ageing of Escuela Nueva is a recurrent concern
a m o n g those directly involved in the programme
and is increasingly emphasized in connection
with its present growth phase.
Expansion has, in fact, brought with it both
an aggravation of old problems and a series of
n e w ones. As stated (Ministry of Education-
U N I C E F , 1990), the 'cost of going for scale'
has included 'inevitable sacrifices in terms of
effectiveness and efficiency' and has resulted in
'a reduction in the number of days spent on
training workshops or, in some places, a failure
to provide the study guides in time for the training
sessions. O n e consequence of these problems
is, of course, a weakening of experiential learn
ing in teachers' training, added to teacher apa-
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva programme
517
thy and criticism of the programme'. T h e n e w
administrative structure that has emerged as a
result of the programme's expansion has led to
conflict with the technical teams, w h o have not
always been consulted, and has caused a sharp
rise in the number of administrative officials,
with training demands that the programme is
unable to meet. Elsewhere, the absence of any
such machinery for local management has led
to situations of inefficiency and uncertainty as
regards the expansion and follow-up of the pro
g r a m m e .
Another factor to be borne in mind is the
proliferation of Demonstration Schools during
the expansion phase. Although such schools are
considered to be one of the strategies needed to
maintain quality, their introduction on a m a s
sive scale appears to be having the opposite
effect. Introducing demonstration on a grand
scale m a y well entail discrediting excellence and
losing out on quality.
Is Escuela Nueva a model
that can be replicated?
Replicability is a topical subject. In the world
strategy of 'Education for All', in which access
and quality go hand in hand (at least in theory),
the combination of innovation and replicability
has taken on great importance. Innovative ex
periences are expected to be capable not only
of expansion, but also of flexibility and adapt
ability to other contexts. In this perspective, E N
is seen internationally as a highly attractive and
promising experiment. W e have a few comments
on this.
In the first place, the specific nature of E N
as w e k n o w it and as it has been developed in
Colombia must be borne in mind. It is a for
mal, public, rural primary education programme
basically geared to the problems of multigrade
teaching. These characteristics, which are the
model's specific hallmarks, must not be over
looked w h e n considering possible adaptations
or variants. N o r must it be forgotten that E N is
a system organized on the basis of four inter
locking components - curriculum, training, ad
ministration and community - and not an as
sortment of separate elements. It is important
that these two considerations are borne in mind
by those w h o might have a superficial under
standing of what the programme entails and are
looking for a magic formula, and might there
fore be tempted to apply a 'carbon copy' of this
experience to any other type or level of educa
tion, or to pluck out of it one or other of its
features (learning guides, teacher training, school
government, flexible promotion, etc.) in the mis
taken belief that, in so doing, they can replicate
the model and introduce substantive changes in
the system.
There are a number of factors which are
intrinsically bound up with the historical devel
opment and distinctive character of E N , some
of them unique and not readily available or
replicable in other contexts. T o begin with, the
'rural school' is a concept that means m a n y dif
ferent things in different places. T h e type of
'rural schools' that E N in Colombia is talking
about is schools that are well endowed with in
frastructure and equipment. They usually have
solidly built school buildings, with plenty of space
and pleasant surroundings, and are properly
equipped with furniture and other fittings. M a n y
of them have accommodation for the teacher.
They m a y have a kitchen, a dining-room, wash
rooms, running water, electricity and even tel
evision. In short, they are rural schools that are
privileged in comparison to those usually found
in Third World countries, including Latin Ameri
can countries.3
Colombia is a linguistically homogeneous
country. This means that the E N programme is
at an incomparable advantage in having to cope
with only one language: Spanish. This factor
alone greatly simplifies the task - curriculum
design, methods, teacher training, production
of materials, teaching and learning - and has
left its mark on each and every part of the pro
g ramme . A n y attempt to introduce a similar
model in bilingual or multilingual situations such
as those prevailing in rural areas in m a n y Third
518 Rosa María Torres
World countries means venturing into entirely
n e w territory.
According to a recent study on E N carried
out by the World Bank (Psacharopoulos et al.,
1992), most E N teachers have secondary or
university education. In addition, as compared
with conventional rural schools in Colombia it
self, there are more E N teachers living on the
school premises. Both factors - teachers' previ
ous level of education and teachers living in -
have a positive impact on pupil achievement (a
university education was associated with better
cognitive outcomes, and teachers' residing on
the school premises was also related to better
scores in creativity and civic behaviour).
E N has c o m e into being through a long
and very distinctive process. This point is e m
phasized in the programme literature:
In Escuela Nueva, the necessary technical conditions have been met, since the programme has been designed and put to the test over a period of fifteen years. . . . Furthermore, the present government has fulfilled the necessary political conditions. In addition, adequate financial conditions have been assured through the allocation of government funds, a loan from the World Bank and the co-operation of U N I C E F , which has lent its support to maintain the quality of the Escuela Nueva programme as it expands. (Ministry of Education-UNICEF, 1990)
W h a t countries can offer such a combination
of technical, political and financial circum
stances?
With regard to the technical conditions,
w e shall mention only one crucial, outstanding
component of E N : the learning guides. A s the
World Bank has acknowledged, developing good
textbooks calls for highly specialized technical
competence that is not easy to come by: 'trans
lating curriculum specifications into good text
books requires considerable expertise. Textbooks
must have the appropriate content and reading
level; be consistent in approach, method and
exposition; be properly sequenced; motivate the
students; and, finally, be readily taught by less
qualified teachers, yet allow good teachers
to expand upon them' (Neumann , 1980).
'Throughout the world, few individuals possess
the sort of expertise required for writing good
textbooks' (Lockheed and Verspoor, 1991). H o w
m a n y programmes can avail themselves of such
h u m a n and technical expertise?
In addition to government funds channelled
through the Ministry of Education, E N has been
receiving regular financial support from vari
ous international agencies - U S A I D , I D B ,
U N I C E F and the World Bank - and from a
number of private organizations in Colombia.
T h e estimated cost of E N is between 5 and
10 per cent higher than that of conventional
schools (Schiefelbein, 1991), while teacher train
ing costs at least three times more (Psacha
ropoulos et al.j 1992). C a n similar financial
support be expected in other countries? Is it
realistic to think in terms of long-term processes
that go beyond the urgent, short-term concerns
of governments and international organizations
in the educational field? C a n E N itself expect
sustained support to enable it to continue to
expand while improving its quality?
In a world where policies and programmes
are swept in on a tide of fashionable international
thinking and come to an end with national gov
ernments, E N stands out as an exceptional in
novative experience that has succeeded in holding
its o w n for nearly two decades. H o w has E N
been able to survive the changes of government
and administration and the political and admin
istrative instability characteristic of Latin America?
Perhaps for want of a more thorough analysis,
E N ' s success has been attributed to 'a mixture
of advertisement, strategic support, academic
standing of the developers and simple luck'
(Schiefelbein, 1991). T h e 'luck' factor no doubt
covers a wide range of unpredictable, inexpli
cable and non-reproducible factors.
Various studies conducted worldwide have
shown that one of the characteristics of suc
cessful programmes and effective schools is the
part played in them by specific individuals with
drive, vision, leadership qualities, charisma,
perseverance, etc. T o some extent this is true of
E N as well. T h e initial team has remained rela
tively stable and cohesive. Individuals in key
positions and in the right place at the right time
Alternatives in formal education: Colombia's Escuela Nueva programme
519
have had a decisive impact on the programme's
development, not only nationally but also at the
intermediate and local levels. A s has been pointed
out: 'Today, even though Escuela Nueva has
been institutionalized in die whole country, the
support it receives in some of the provinces
largely depends on the personal preferences of
local administrators' (Psacharopoulos et al., 1992,
p. 19).
T e n years elapsed between E N ' s official
establishment as a programme in 1975 and its
adoption as a national education policy in 1985,
when it began its expansion phase. There have
been three stages in this process (Ministry of
Education-UNICEF, 1990): learning to be ef
fective (1975-78), learning to be efficient (1979-
86), and learning to expand (1987 to the present
day). Even with the time and planning that went
into the programme's development and the tech
nical, political and financial support it received,
there is every indication that E N was not equipped
to cope with its present rapid expansion, at least
not without jeopardizing its quality and the con
solidation of its achievements. If this is what
happens with so carefully prepared and moni
tored a programme as E N , what can be ex
pected of precarious, newly launched pro
grammes that are required to expand and even
achieve universal implementation without hav
ing gone through the stages and met the re
quirements essential to their very survival? T h e
pressure that such programmes are under to
day from governments and international organi
zations to cater for record numbers, show good
results and become successful models m a y well
be helping to undermine any possibility of change
and of tangible, steady progress in the educa
tional field.
There is a great deal that other countries
and Colombia itself can still learn from E N ,
from both its potential and its weaknesses. There
is also a great deal that can be done to consoli
date and improve the programme, while pro
tecting it from the hazards of fashion and the
risks inherent in any model and strengthening
its domestic, national role for the very purpose
of reinforcing its external, international role. T h e
fact is that E N is clearly pointing a way, setting
an example that is not necessarily reproducible
but undoubtedly encouraging and inspiring.
T h e radical change required in education
today takes second place to the need to broaden
access and m a y consequently be confined to
cosmetic changes or piecemeal reforms. While
achieving universal education is the major task
ahead, universalizing it without changing it
amounts to delivering more of the same, with
more of the same in terms of drop-out, repeti
tion, academic underachievement, wastage of
resources, a decline in professional standards,
demoralization and inefficiency.
Transforming formal education is, with
out a doubt, the great challenge. Schooling
must be m a d e less formal and more flexible,
relevant, useful, creative, enjoyable, responsive
to pupils' intelligence and personal inquiry,
respectful of diversity, attentive to children's
needs, responsive to teachers' needs, open to
participation by parents and the community
and accountable to society for the results
achieved. This is precisely what E N is endeav
ouring to do. A n d this is w h y it is worth
supporting the programme, understanding it
better and learning from it. •
Notes
1. In Latin America, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala are n o w actively engaged in trying out this system, under U N I C E F auspices.
2. Several attempts have been made in the past (proposals for new methodologies, guides, etc.), but, for various reasons, none has materialized.
3. Under a plan for the promotion of education in rural areas and less densely populated centres, and with resources funded by the World Bank, Colombia undertook to improve the physical infrastructure of the country's rural primary schools in the late 1970s and early 1980s; this included rebuilding classrooms, supplying drinking water and providing sanitary installations and desks and chairs for pupils and teachers (Ministry of Education-UNICEF, 1990).
520 Rosa María Torres
References
L O C K H E E D , M . ; V E R S P O O R , A . 1991. Improving Primary Education in Developing Countries. Washington, D . C . , Oxford University Press/World Bank.
M I N I S T R Y O F E D U C A T I O N - U N I C E F . 1990. El Programa
de Escuela Nueva. Más y mejor educación primaria para los niños de las zonas rurales. Bogotá.
N E U M A N N , P. H . 1980. Publishing for Schools: Textbooks and the Less Developed Countries. Washington, D . C . , World Bank. (Staff Working Paper 398.)
P S A C H A R O P O U L O S , G . ; R O J A S , C ; V Ê L E Z , E . 1992. Achieve
ment Evaluation of Colombia's Escuela Nueva. Washington, D . C . , World Bank.
R O J A S , C ; C A S T I L L O , Z . 1988. Evaluación del programa Escuela Nueva en Colombia. Bogotá, Instituto S E R .
SCHIEFELBEIN, E . 1991. In Search of the School of the XXI Century: Is the Colombian Escuela Nueva the Right Pathfinder? Santiago, U N E S C O - U N I C E F .
T O R R E S , R . M . 1991. Escuela Nueva: una innovación desde el Estado. Quito, Instituto Fronesis.
Profiles of educators Plato (428-348 B . C . )
Charles Hummel
Plato was born in 428 B . C . , towards the end of
that extraordinary period in h u m a n history w h e n
the foundations of spiritual life were being for
mulated by Lao Tse (at the turn of the sixth
century), Confucius (551-479), Buddha (c. 5 5 0 -
480) and Socrates (469-399) and the Upanishads
were being written (at the turn of the fifth cen
tury) .
H e was born to a family that belonged to
the top ranks of the Athenian aristocracy. His
father was a descendant of Codrus, last king of
Athens. T h e brother of one of his mother's
ancestors was Solon, the great Athenian states
m a n and law-maker, and one of Plato's uncles,
Critias, was to become a m e m b e r of the C o u n
cil of Thirty. Plato was thus predestined to play
an active role in Athenian politics. In his sev
enth Letter he explains w h y he chose not to take
that path. Instead, he formulated the most sig
nificant political theory of ancient times and
with it founded the science of politics.
Plato was born soon after the death of
Pericles, w h o had been a friend of the family
Charles H u m m e l (Switzerland). Studied philosophy at the Universities of Basle (with Karl Jaspers), Rome and Zurich. Permanent Delegate of Switzerland to UNESCO, 1970-87. Member of the Executive Board of UNESCO. Member and President of the Council of the IBE (International Bureau of Education). Representative of Switzerland on the Council for Cultural Co-operation (Strasbourg). Ambassador to Ireland, 1987-92. Author o/Nicolas de Cuse, Education Today for the World of Tomor row and many articles on philosophical and educational topics.
and w h o had carried Athens to the heights of its
power, prosperity and culture. Sophocles and
Euripides were a m o n g the great playwrights of
the time w h o delighted the public, and the young
Plato must certainly have met them.
But Plato was also destined to witness the
decline ofthat Athens to which he was so dearly
attached. A s a young m a n he endured, prob
ably as a soldier, the defeat of his city in the
Peloponnesian W a r and experienced the ensu
ing decline of the Athenian democracy. T h e
twilight of the Classical A g e of Greece was ap
proaching and with it the demise of the inde
pendent Greek city-states, which were supplanted
by the Alexandrian empire. Plato lived in the
period of transition between Classical Greece
and the Hellenistic era that opened a n e w chap
ter in the history of the West .
Plato's life
A s a child, Plato undoubtedly received the edu
cation that was c o m m o n l y given to boys of his
age. H e attended a private school in Athens
accompanied by a slave, or 'tutor' (there were
no public schools at that time). There he stud
ied reading, writing and arithmetic, following
which he committed to m e m o r y a considerable
part of the corpus of Greek poetry, above all
the works of H o m e r , w h o m the Greeks consid
ered the educator par excellence. H e also learned
the songs of the lyrical poets and to play the
lyre, two skills that, as he put it in his Protagoras,
Prospects. Vol. XXII, [, N o . 4 , 1992 (84)
522 Charles Hummel
'familiarize the minds of children with the rhythms
and melodies' by which 'they become more civi
lized, more balanced, and better adjusted' {Pro
tagoras, 326b).1 Naturally, Plato also attended
the gymnasium, for physical training: for 'they
are sent to a trainer, so that a good mind m a y
have a good body to serve it, and no one be
forced by physical weakness to play the coward
in war . . .' (Protagoras, 326b-c). It m a y be added
that Plato's sister did not go to school; she re
ceived her education, as was customary at the
time, exclusively at h o m e .
T h e decisive event in Plato's life was his
meeting with Socrates. At the age of 20, this
rich young aristocrat became the most faithful
disciple of Socrates, son of a stonemason and a
midwife. Plato stood by Socrates to the end,
w h e n his master was condemned to death and
executed by the Athenian democracy (399 B . C . ) .
It was a traumatic experience that marked Plato
for life and reinforced his low opinion of de
mocracy. T h e pages Plato wrote as Socrates's
defence (The Apology) and on the last hours of
Socrates's life are a m o n g the most moving in
world literature.
After Socrates's death Plato left Athens on
a long voyage that took him first to Megara,
where he visited Euclid (the philosopher, not
the mathematician), and then almost certainly
to Egypt and Cyrene, on the coast of present-
day Libya. H e also travelled to M a g n a Graecia,
in southern Italy, where he frequented Pythago
rean circles, spending time notably with Archytas
in Tarentum. F r o m there he went to Sicily to
the court of Dionysius I, tyrant of Syracuse,
w h o was fond of surrounding himself with the
company of famous m e n in order to boost his
o w n prestige. There Plato argued his view that
kings should be philosophers and should de
vote their lives to the service of the highest moral
values rather than to their personal aggrandize
ment and interests, but to no avail. After twelve
years of travel Plato returned to Athens, where
he founded his Academy.
During his stay in Syracuse, Plato had
formed a friendship with Dionysius's brother-
in-law Dion, w h o struck him as being a poten
tial philosopher. W h e n Dionysius the Elder died,
Dion recalled Plato to Syracuse to tutor the young
Dionysius. Once again Plato thought he would
be able to have his ideas on the role of educa
tion and philosophy in politics put into prac
tice. Accordingly, he went again to Syracuse,
where he was very well received, and set him
self to the task of educating Dionysius II, teach
ing him mathematics, which he regarded as the
royal road to philosophy. Plutarch, in his biog
raphy of Dion, relates h o w the entire court at
Syracuse took up geometry, covering every room
in the tyrant's castle with sawdust, upon which
they drew triangles, circles and other forms. T h e
young Dionysius, however, was not a very bright
pupil and tired quickly of the lessons of his
demanding tutor. Furthermore, he was jealous
of Dion, w h o m he sent into exile. Plato returned
to Athens and the Academy. In 361 B . C . he
succumbed for the third time to the temptation
to go to Syracuse, but with no happier results:
once again he encountered humiliation. It was
only with the help of Archytas that he managed
to get back to Athens, where in 348 B . C . he
died, at the age of 80.
Plato's works
T h e works of Plato have reached us virtually intact. They consist of twenty-eight Dialogues and thirteen others of variously uncertain authorship. There are also thirteen Letters, three of which (VI, VII and VIII) are generally recognized as having been written by Plato. Plato's Dialogues cover a wide range of subjects: duty, courage, virtue, justice, love, beauty, science, nature, rhetoric and the harmony of words with Being and with Ideas; the nature of humankind, wisdom, kingship, legislation, etc. With the single important exception of Laws - Plato's last work and the one in which he set out in detail his ideas on education policy - Socrates is, directly or indirectly, cast as one of the protagonists of the Dialogues. It is the only time a disciple has ever identified himself so closely with his master as to put his o w n words into his
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) 523
master's mou th . It is extremely difficult to draw
the demarcation line between the ideas of Soc
rates and those of Plato. Philologists have at
tempted to do so by sorting Plato's Dialogues
into several groups., ranging from the m o r e S o -
cratic to those that clearly depart from the thought
of the real Socrates and are considered to be
distincdy Platonic. W e cannot enter into the
philological subtleties in this article and shall
treat the Socrates w h o appears so true to life in
Plato's Dialogues as part of the latter's 'profile'.
In fact, it is as teacher that Plato most re
sembles his master. Socrates appears in the works
of Plato as the archetypal teacher, even though
he insists that he is not one. Accordingly, the
object of most if not all of Plato's Dialogues is
essentially educational: his whole work was written
in the service of paideia.
Plato was an extremely serious, moralizing
and austere thinker w h o disapproved of the most
innocent pleasures, even the reflex of laughter
(The Republic, 388e and Laws, 732c). H e was
also a writer of exceptional literary skill, w h o
drew his characters with a fine economy of de
tail in the m a n n e r of the great Chinese painters,
creating in a few sentences a true-to-life atmos
phere, and his works contain countless e x a m
ples of superb subtlety and a flair for irony. O n
the other hand, his Dialogues contain long pas
sages of laborious and sometimes formalistic,
punctilious and, it must be admitted, frankly
tiresome dialectics. Plato's writings have had a
determining influence on all aspects of Western
philosophy (and even perhaps on all aspects of
its culture). In fact the European philosophical
tradition can be characterized as a long series of
dialogues with Plato or, as the great American
philosopher A . N . Whitehead put it, as 'a series
of footnotes to Plato'.
Plato's philosophy
In order to understand Plato and to p l u m b the depths of his thought one mus t keep closely in m i n d the fact that his philosophy is not in any
sense a doctrine. Plato did not set u p a philo
sophical system in the m a n n e r of Hegel, for
example. T h e distinguishing feature of Plato's
philosophy is the progression or process by which
his ideas are formed - his so-called dialectical
method, which does not involve solitary, hence
unilateral, reflection, but is rather a collective
exercise by which friends, as in The Sympo
sium, or adversaries, as in Gorgias, m o v e for
ward in argument. Moreover, Plato's Dialogues,
which often deal with the clarification of a con
cept - such as beauty, duty, love, justice or pleas
ure - do not usually c o m e to a final conclusion
on the subject or end on universal agreement.
T h e initial question is left open. T h u s Protagoras
concludes with the following statement, 'Well,
w e will talk of these matters [which w e have just
been discussing] at s o m e future meeting . . .'
(Protagoras, 36le).
Plato sums u p his approach in his seventh
Letter.
O n e statement at any rate I can m a k e in regard to all w h o have written or w h o m a y write with a claim to knowledge of the subject to which I devote myself [philosophy] . . . Such writers can in m y opinion have no real acquaintance with the subject. I certainly have composed no work in regard to it, nor shall I ever do so in future, for there is no way of putting it in words like other studies. Acquaintance with it must c o m e rather after a long period of attendance on instruction in the subject itself and of close companionship, when , suddenly, like a blaze kindled by a leaping spark, it is generated in the soul and at once becomes self-sustaining. (341b-d)
Attentive readers of Plato's Dialogues will find
that they are participants in this sudden, vision
like dawning of knowledge. H o w e v e r , w e mus t
qualify this passage (which is rather discourag
ing for commentators on Plato!) with the ob
servation that towards the end of the phi
losopher's life a touch of dogmatism crept into
his work, which gives the sudden impression
that one is attending an ex cathedra lecture by
the A c a d e m y professor.
Plato was relentless in his analysis of the
conditions and limitations to the acquisition of
knowledge imposed by a world that was elusive
524 Charles Hummel
because it was in constant movement. H e be
lieved that all h u m a n beings, with the exception
of true philosophers, lived in a world of appear
ances. This is w h y the Socrates of his Dialogues
incessantly demonstrates to his interlocutors h o w
m u c h their claims to knowledge are illusory
because based on unfounded opinions or on
prejudices. In Laches, to cite but one example,
two prominent generals are obliged to admit
that they do not k n o w the meaning of courage.
O n the one hand, led by his certainty of
the absolute, he explored the h u m a n condition
as it related to the supreme values of beauty,
truth and goodness. O n the other hand, haunted
by his experience of the decline of Athens and
convinced that all change carried within itself
the seeds of corruption, he looked to perma
nence as the sole guarantor of absolute values.
H e considered that he had discovered in the
concept of 'Ideas' the incorruptible reality he
regarded as the foundation of being, and he
illustrated that concept by his fascinating and
celebrated myth of the cave {The Republic, 514a-
517a).
It is only through a proper education and
through the pursuit of philosophy that h u m a n
beings can free themselves from the chains of
their senses, desires, ambitions (such as wealth
and power) and passions and that they can ac
cede, progressively, passing from one level of
enlightenment to the next, to true knowledge
and, ultimately, to the vision of the Agathon, the
Final G o o d . Plato's thought is centred on the
h u m a n being and, more particularly, on the ethical
problems the h u m a n being has to face. T h e
questions of right, justice and the individual's
place in society, that is in the polis, the Greek
city-state, are among the ethical questions that
concern him to the highest degree. Plato, like
his pupil Aristotle after him, considered the
h u m a n being a political animal. H e devoted two
of his most important works, The Republic and
Laws, to politics, of which ethics is an essential
dimension.
In the course of his examination of the
h u m a n being, Plato developed a new 'science'
of the soul. His psychology (another discipline
he fathered) m a y seem to the modern reader to
be somewhat naive and elementary. Neverthe
less, it has some interesting features. For exam
ple, on the subject of young Charmides's head
ache, in the dialogue of the same name , Socrates
states that 'all good and evil, whether in the
body or in the whole m a n , originates . . . in the
soul' (Charmides, 156e). T h e care of the soul is
essential for a person's future. It is no accident
that Socrates asks young Hippocrates, w h o in
tends to entrust his education to Protagoras the
Sophist: ' D o you understand that you are going
to entrust the care of your soul to a m a n w h o is,
in our o w n words, a Sophist, though I should
be surprised if you k n o w just what a Sophist is.
A n d yet if you don't know that, you don't k n o w
to w h o m you are entrusting your soul, nor
whether he represents something good or bad'
(Protagoras, 312c).
Lastly, with his theses concerning the im
mortality of the soul, Plato also broached the
area of religion.
Plato's anti-Sophism
T h e ideal Platonic educator or teacher is the antithesis of the Sophist. T h e passages in Plato's works in which Socrates criticizes or disputes with the Sophists are legion. It was, as Karl Jaspers puts it, the battle of philosophy against non-philosophy. T h e Sophists in Plato's time were itinerant teachers of higher education. They rented rooms and there gave lessons for an often quite substantial fee to the scions of the aristocracy, w h o normally c o m pleted their elementary studies in private schools at or about the age of 16. Plato himself almost certainly attended the courses of eminent Sophists such as Gorgias and Protagoras.
T h e Sophists taught the widest range of subjects; but they were best k n o w n as teachers of rhetoric, the art of manipulating the masses. T h e oratorical art, explains Gorgias in the dialogue which bears his name , is ' T h e power to convince by your words the judges in court, the senators in Council, the people in the Assem-
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) 525
bly, or in any other gathering of a citizen body'
(Gorgias, 452e). T h e eminent Protagoras as
serts with great pride: ' F r o m m e [the student]
will learn . . . the proper care of his personal
affairs, so that he m a y best m a n a g e his o w n
household, and also of the State's affairs, so as
to become a real power in the city, both as speaker
and m a n of action' (Protagoras, 319a). Plato's
grand indictment of the Sophists is contained
in the dialogue of the same n a m e . His critique
is presented as a sort of counterpoint to an au
thoritative lecture on Being, highlighting the abyss
that divides true philosophy from non-philoso
phy. Here is the hardly complimentary portrait
he draws of the Sophist: ' T h e hired hunter of
rich young m e n , . . . a sort of merchant of knowl
edge about the soul, . . . A retail dealer in the
same w a r e s , . . . an athlete in deba te , . . . a con
troversialist', one w h o instils in young people
the opinion that he is, personally and in all matters,
the wisest of m e n ; he is a magician and a mimic
w h o has appropriated the 'shadow play of words '
as an art (Sophist, 23Id, 232b and 268c).
O n the other hand, 'the philosopher, whose
thoughts constantly dwell u p o n the nature of
reality, is difficult to see because his region is so
bright, for the eye of the vulgar soul cannot
endure to keep its gaze fixed on the divine' (Soph
ist, 254a-b) .
These passages on the Sophists show that
Plato d e m a n d e d a deep sense of moral respon
sibility o n the part of the true teacher, on w h o m
lay responsibility for the sound health and fate
of his pupil's soul. It was his duty to protect his
disciples against false knowledge and guide them
o n the path to truth and virtue. H e mus t never
be a mere peddler of materials for study and of
recipes for winning disputes, nor yet for pro
moting a career.
Is it not a terrible historical irony that by
democratic vote the citizens of Athens sentenced
Socrates to death o n the charge that he was , of
all things, a Sophist and that he was corrupting
the city's youth?
The Socratic
teaching method
Socrates is presented as the archetypal educa
tor. This is already apparent in Laches, which is
about two eminent generals w h o are looking for
a tutor for their sons; and Werne r Jaeger, in his
Paideia, a classic work on education in the an
cient world, calls Socrates the mos t influential
teacher in all European history.
Only Socrates asserts the contrary, as, for
example, in The Apology: ' [ S o m e people are
saying] that I try to educate people and charge
a fee, [but] there is no truth in that either . . . I
think that it is a fine thing if a m a n is qualified
to teach, as in the case of Gorgias of Leontini
and Prodicos of Ceos and Hippias of Elis' (The
Apology, 19c and e). W h a t is the cause of this
apparent contradiction?
Socrates refuses to be taken for a teacher
of the Sophist sort. H e believed that in order to
be qualified to teach one must k n o w the subject
taught. O n e must k n o w h o w to m a k e shoes before
teaching another the shoemaking art, and to be
able to train a physician one mus t be acquainted
with the various diseases and their cures. A s a
true philosopher, Socrates makes no claim to
k n o w anything; indeed, he is conscious of all
that he does not k n o w and, consequently, is
always searching for knowledge, whereas the
others - both the Sophists and the people in the
street with w h o m he converses and w h o m he
'examines' - live in the illusion m a t they pos
sess knowledge. In fact, exposing that illusion is
the first step in the process of learning to live a
good life, represented as a harmonious relation
ship between a person and his or her final des
tiny, which is moral and political in nature.
In the prologue to The Symposium there is
a delightful episode that serves as a good illus
tration of the Socratic method. Socrates is late
in arriving because, as he occasionally did, he
has paused on the w a y , caught u p in his o w n
thoughts ( The Symposium, 174c). Agathon, the
host, invites Socrates to sit next to h i m because
'I want to share this great thought that's just
526 Charles Hummel
Struck you in the porch next door.' At which
Socrates replies to Agathon: 'I only wish that
wi sdom were the kind of thing one could share
by sitting next to someone - if it flowed, for
instance, from the one that was full to the one
that was empty, like the water in two cups
finding its level through a piece of worsted'
(The Symposium, 175d). T h e Socratic method
is to be distinguished, therefore, from the tradi
tional method of teaching, in which teachers
seek to transmit their knowledge to their pupils,
w h o are expected to assimilate it, on the whole
passively. T h e Socratic method is an interac
tive method in which teacher and pupil co
operate in the pursuit of knowledge through
dialogue. A series of questions and answers
involve the two parties in the same cognitive
pursuit (Plato occasionally uses images taken
from the hunt). This is yet another reason - a
methodological one - w h y Socrates does not
want to be described as one w h o possessed
knowledge.
This dialectical method runs through the
entire work of Plato. T h e reader is drawn into
the discussion as an active observer. Plato the
educator takes his readers, entangled in their
desires and illusions, and leads them, patiently
and through a critique suffused with irony, to
the point of reflection and independence.
In The Apology, Socrates insists that he has
been entrusted with his teaching role by Apollo
himself: ' G o d appointed m e . . . to the duty of
leading a philosophical life, examining myself
and others' (The Apology, 28e). A s to whether
he would renounce his role of 'examiner' should
he be acquitted, he declares:
Gentlemen . . . I owe a greater obedience to G o d than to you, and so long as I draw breath and have m y faculties, I shall never stop practising philosophy and exhorting you and elucidating the truth for everyone that I meet. I shall go on saying, in m y usual way, ' M y very good friend, you are an Athenian and belong to a city which is the greatest and most famous in the world for its wisdom and strength. Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as m u c h money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honour, and give no attention or thought to truth and under
standing and the perfection of your soul?' (The Apology, 29d and e)
Accordingly, in Plato's mind , philosophy and
education are one and the same discipline. T h e
Socratic method of teaching has often been
characterized as a 'maieutic' method, or one in
which the teacher assumes the role of a mid
wife. A deciphering of this method is contained
in Meno. There, Plato's Socrates argues that
'mere is no such thing as teaching, only recol
lection' (Meno, 82a) and maintains that teach
ers should play the role of midwife in order to
deliver their pupils of the knowledge they u n
consciously possess. T o illustrate this original
method, Socrates conducts an educational ex
periment: by questioning a young slave, he leads
him to self-discovery of the solution to a rela
tively complicated problem in geometry (Meno,
82b-85b) . F r o m this experiment Socrates con
cludes as follows:
So a m a n w h o does not know has in himself true opinions on a subject without having knowledge . . . This knowledge will not come from teaching but from questioning. H e will recover it for himself . . . A n d the spontaneous recovery of knowledge that is in him is recollection . . . If then there are going to exist in him, both while he is and while he is not a m a n , true opinions which can be aroused by questioning and turned into knowledge, m a y w e say that his soul has been forever in a state of knowledge? Clearly he always either is or is not a m a n . (Meno, 85c and d, 86a)
Maieutics is based on a concept of the i m m o r
tality of the soul and of metempsychosis, which
of course goes beyond the thought of the his
torical Socrates.
This doctrine of knowledge acquired be
fore birth is also developed in Phaedo (72b et
seq.), while the maieutic method described in
detail, but less speculatively, in Tlieaetetus (148e-
151d) is perhaps that of the historical Socrates.
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) 527
The Academy
W h e n Plato founded the A c a d e m y around 385
B . C . he was just over 40 years old. H e set u p his
establishment on gardened premises not far from
Athens. T h e A c a d e m y is often described as the
first university in history - which is not exactly
true. It resembled the medieval universitas m o r e
than the m o d e r n university. It was a centre of
study and research, but nothing is k n o w n of the
details of its organization. It was m o r e of a sci
entific communi ty than a school. T h e Acad
e m y w a s probably modelled after the Pythago
rean communities Plato had visited in M a g n a
Graecia. Legally, it was established in the form
of a thiasos, or religious confraternity. It was
dedicated to the M u s e s . Teachers and pupils
lived there in a communi ty atmosphere that was
enhanced by a dialectical method of teaching,
in which doctrinal presentations are followed
by discussion.
Plato remained head of the A c a d e m y for
die rest of his life. This meant that for s o m e
forty years he was the driving force and princi
pal teacher of this intellectual centre of ancient
Greece. T h e A c a d e m y remained open until
A . D . 529, that is, for almost 900 years after Pla
to's death.
According to an old tradition, there was an
inscription over the portal of the A c a d e m y pro
claiming that a knowledge of geometry was a
requirement for entry. Plato probably developed
a passion for mathematics during his encoun
ters with the Pythagoreans - especially Archytas
of Tarentum, w h o was a brilliant mathemati
cian. Plato, himself a seasoned mathematician,
invited other scholars accomplished in this dis
cipline to teach at the A c a d e m y . These included
Eudoxas, w h o was a mathematician, astrono
m e r , geographer and physician.
Science also had its place at the A c a d e m y .
This fact tends to be forgotten, so firmly im
planted in tradition is Plato's image as the great
master of ethics and metaphysics. Timaeus, his
great dialogue concerning Nature, testifies to
the scientific work done at the A c a d e m y and
the encyclopedic scope of the scientific knowl
edge it housed. A n amusing fragment of a c o m
edy by Epicrates has survived, in which one of
the characters tells what he had heard while
passing by the A c a d e m y garden: ' T h e y were
trying to define the differences between the life
processes of animals and the growth of trees
and vegetables. A m o n g other matters they were
trying to determine to what species pumpkins
belonged . . .'.
Politics, the main subject of the A c a d e m y ,
was studied and taught on a regular basis. T h e
A c a d e m y o w n e d a collection of the written con
stitutions of a large n u m b e r of states. Politi
cians, statesmen and specialists in constitutional
law were educated at the A c a d e m y ; and the
long list of its disciples w h o were called u p o n to
act as political and legal consultants in the Greek
states is a good indicator of the extent of its
influence.
Plato's dream was to educate in his A c a d
e m y those 'philosopher kings' about w h o m he
wrote so copiously in his two works, The Re
public and The Statesman, which, together with
Laws, contained the cream of the results of the
A c a d e m y ' s studies and research in political sci
ence.
Philosophy, of course, took pride of place
in the A c a d e m y ' s curriculum. T h e founding of
the A c a d e m y opened a n e w period in Plato's
thought. It marked his departure from the philo
sophical approach of Socrates. T h e Pythago
rean doctrines began to rival the example of his
former and still venerated master as his source
of inspiration. This shift was already noticeable
in Meno (as mentioned above) and in Gorgias,
and became more pronounced right up to Laws.
With the exception of this last (posthumous)
work, Socrates remained a central character of
Plato's Dialogues. Howeve r , his works became
m o r e doctrinal in tone. This, it would seem,
was not only a natural consequence of his daily
life as a teacher at the A c a d e m y but also the
sign of a conscious affirmation of his philosophical
conclusions.
T h e educational issues with which he dealt
also changed in emphasis. T h e y had first been
primarily didactic, if not methodological in
emphasis, strongly inspired by the personality
528 Charles Hummel
of Socrates - the educator - but with the Acad
e m y the emphasis became almost exclusively
social and political. T h e focus of interest moved
towards educational policy.
Educational policy in the ideal state
Plato developed his concept of educational policy
in his two largest works, The Republic and Laws.
In The Republic Plato developed his concept of
the ideal state, which embodied justice. It was a
sort of Utopia. (For Plato, however, the world
of ideas, because permanent, is more 'real' than
the world of facts, which is in a state of con
stant flux!) Rousseau believed that 'Plato's The
Republic . . . is the best treatise on education
ever written' (Emile, Book I). In Laws Plato drew
up a highly detailed system of laws for a pro
posed colonial city-state. While the themes of
these two Dialogues would seem to be almost
identical, there are considerable differences be
tween them. T h e differences, however, do not
touch upon educational issues. The Republic is a
pure theory of the ideal state, whereas Laws is a
practical application to a hypothetical concrete
case.
In The Republic the inhabitants are divided
into three distinct classes: slaves, w h o are the
subjects of special provisions in Laws, crafts
m e n and merchants (generally alien, without
rights of citizenship) and, lastly, 'guardians', w h o
are responsible for the security and administra
tion of the state. T h e guardian class is itself
divided into two groups: the 'auxiliaries' and
the 'perfect' guardians, or regents - the first, in
principle the youngest, having responsibility for
internal and external security (including the police
and the army), while the second group, the 'sages',
watch over the smooth functioning and har
m o n y of the state. At the head of the state is a
'philosopher-king' (such as Archytas of Taren-
tum) - an idea that is taken up again in The
Statesman but abandoned in Laws, in which a
'nocturnal council' assumes the responsibilities
of the highest authority.
T h e ideal society for Plato is as immutable
as a Doric temple; for, in an ideal state, change
can bring about only decadence and corruption
(Laws, 797d). Society must therefore be pro
tected from all that could upset the civic order
and induce change. T h e guardians must devote
themselves entirely to the service of the state.
They m a y not possess material riches (which
give rise to jealousy and conflict); they m a y not
indulge in frivolities (which could compromise
their integrity); nor m a y they entertain private
ambitions. All they have must be held in c o m
m o n : room, board, wives and children.
O n e of the tasks of education in the Pla
tonic state is to preserve the status quo. All in
novation is taboo. Contrary to most modern
educational principles, education must stand
guard against all change and all forms of sub
version.
Despite his extreme conservatism, however,
Plato had some highly innovative ideas. For
example, he espoused equality of the sexes at a
time when w o m e n , with the exception of courte
sans, were relegated to the household. In the
Platonic state girls, like boys, do their gymnas
tics in the nude and are expected to go to war
clad in the same armour as the m e n . They share
the boys' education, with no discrimination be
tween them. Moreover, Plato prescribes c o m
pulsory education for all, that is, for all m e m
bers of the guardian class. This idea, however,
was not to receive application until m u c h later,
at the time of the French Revolution. C o m p u l
sory schooling goes far beyond an elementary
education; yet Plato has very little to say about
the education of craftsworkers and merchants,
which consists of no more than a simple ap
prenticeship, and slaves receive no mention at
all.
Plato, indeed, was the first to formulate a
complete education system, covering every as
pect from its administration to a detailed cur
riculum. In Laws Plato describes h o w educa
tion should be organized and administered. T h e
whole education system should be headed by a
'Supervisor of Education', 'far the most impor-
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) 529
tant of the highest offices in the State', w h o
would supervise all aspects of education for
children of both sexes. H e should be 'a m a n of
not less than 50 years, and the father of a legiti
mate family, preferably of both sexes' (Laws,
765d and e). H e will have working under h im
'superintendents of gymnasiums and schools in
charge of their seemly maintenance as well as
of the education given and the . . . supervision
of attendances and accommodation for children
of both sexes, together with judges of perform
ers contending in both musical and athletic c o m
petitions' (Laws, 764c and d ) . These competi
tions are important because the careers of the
guardians are determined by their results.
T h e education of the guardians - a life
long education that stretches from before birth
to retirement age - is described in detail in The
Republic (especially Books II-V and VII) and in
Laws (especially Books I, II and VII). In Laws,
however, the p r o g r a m m e of studies is abbrevi
ated. Having abandoned the idea of the phi
losopher-king, Plato did not dwell any further
o n the teaching of philosophy, as he had done
in The Republic. After introducing the concept
of 'guardians', he goes o n to say: 'But the rear
ing of these m e n and their education, h o w shall
w e m a n a g e that? A n d will the consideration of
this topic advance us in any w a y toward dis
cerning what is the object of our entire enquiry
- the origin of justice and injustice in a State . . .?'
(The Republic, 376c-d) . T h e object of Platonic
education is therefore moral and political; it is
not an apprenticeship for k n o w - h o w but an
education in life skills.
Since the health and beauty of both body
and m i n d are essential goals of Platonic educa
tion (see Laws, 788c), education, in keeping
with Greek custom, is divided into two parts:
gymnastics and music (= culture).
Physical education begins before birth.
Pregnant w o m e n are advised to walk around
and m o v e about as m u c h as possible, for 'every
sort of shaking and stirring [communicates] health
and beauty, to say nothing of robustness' to the
unborn infant (Laws, 789d) .
Preschool education is the responsibility
of parents (whereas in The Republic children
are raised collectively and do not k n o w w h o
their parents are!), w h o are enjoined to treat
them with measured discipline, for 'while spoil
ing of children makes their tempers fretful, peevish
and easily upset by mere trifles, the contrary
treatment, the severe and unqualified tyranny
which makes its victims spiritless, servile, and
sullen, renders them unfit for the intercourse of
domestic and civic life' (Laws, 791c) .
T h e teaching of culture begins very early
on, through the stories parents tell their chil
dren. Plato attaches the greatest importance to
the content of these stories, for first impres
sions shape the still malleable minds of children
and determine their character. Consequently,
such stories mus t pass the censors' scrutiny.
Plato places a strong and oft-repeated stress on
censorship, not sparing even H o m e r .
Next to stories, games should contribute
to the education of children. ' H e w h o is to be
good at anything as a m a n mus t practise that
thing from early childhood, in play as well as in
earnest . . . T h u s , if a boy is to be a good . . .
builder, he should play . . . at building toy
houses . . .' (Laws, 643b) . F r o m the ages of 3
to 6 children should play together under the
supervision of w o m e n assigned to that task.
Children enter school at the age of 6. T h e y
first learn to read, write and count. 'For reading
and writing three years or so, from the age of
10, are a fair allowance of a boy's time, and if
the handling of the lyre is begun at 13, the three
following years are long enough to spend o n it.
N o boy, no parent shall be permitted to extend
or curtail this period from fondness or distaste
for the subjects . . .' (Laws, 809e-810a) .
Together with this literary and musical
education, students of the Platonic state engage
in all sorts of sports, including horse-riding and
weapons training. T h e balance between culture
and gymnastics should be maintained as per
fectly as possible (The Republic, 411c et seq.).
A t the age of 18, at the end of this basic
education period during which they will have
undergone m a n y contests and examinations of
all sorts, young people - both boys and girls -
are required to devote themselves exclusively
for a period of two to three years to physical
530 Charles Hummel
and military training, as the traditional ephebe
did.
At the age of 21 pupils selected on the basis
of their past performance go on to higher stud
ies. It is here that Plato's curriculum differs fun
damentally from the tradition of employing Soph
ists for the purpose. It is this level of studies,
which leads to philosophy and, at the same time,
to the highest offices in the state, that concerned
Plato the most. In fact, they formed the subject
of the teaching at his Academy. Education, then,
was compulsory until the age of 20. Plato rec
o m m e n d e d that 'all this study . . . must be pre
sented . . . not in the form of compulsory in
struction . . . because . . . a free soul ought not
to pursue any study slavishly'. Moreover 'noth
ing that is learned under compulsion stays with
the mind ' (The Republic, 536d-e).
These higher studies, which stretch over a
period of ten years, consist of a systematic as
semblage and arrangement of the knowledge
acquired in past studies: 'They will be required
to gather the studies which they disconnectedly
pursued as children in their former education
into a comprehensive survey of their affinities
with one another and with the nature of things'
(The Republic, 537c). This is essential for an
understanding of dialectics, 'for he w h o can view
things in their connection is a dialectician' (The
Republic, 537c). It is probably also at this stage
that Laws would be studied as a manual of poli
tics, social sciences and comparative law (Laws,
811c-d).
Special stress is next placed on the study
of the four disciplines that prepare the student
for philosophy: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy
and harmony. These disciplines lift the soul to
the level of the immutable. Mathematics - arith
metic and geometry - liberate the mind from
sensation, familiarize it with the world of pure
thought and turn the soul towards the heights
of the world of ideas. 'Geometry is the knowl
edge of the eternally existent' (The Republic,
527b). It is through geometry that one learns
h o w to manipulate concepts (The Republic, 5 1 0 -
511). Astronomy initiates the soul to the order
and immutable harmony of the cosmos. Har
m o n y , a sister science of astronomy's, focuses
on the search for and knowledge of the laws of,
and the order in, the world of sound. T h e influ
ence of the Pythagoreans here is obvious. Plato
repeated with insistence that w e must 'prevent
our fosterlings from attempting to learn any
thing that does not conduce to the end w e have
in view' (The Republic, 530e).
At the age of 30, and not before, Plato's
students finally begin to study philosophy or
dialectics. After pursuing this course for five
years they must then 'return once again to the
cave' and serve for fifteen years in the army
and the civil service, where they are constantly
put to the test. 'At the age of 50 those w h o
have . . . approved [sic] themselves altogether
the best in every task and form of knowledge'
will be able to behold the good; 'and w h e n they
have thus beheld the good itself they shall use it
as a pattern for the right ordering of the State'
(The Republic, 540a). T h e y will then devote the
rest of their lives alternately to philosophy and
public life.
W h e n they retire, these state officials will
have the leisure time to devote themselves en
tirely to the delights of philosophy - this being
their sole reward.
Plato's polis is essentially an educational
community. It is created by education. It can
survive only on condition that all its citizens
receive an education that enables them to m a k e
rational political decisions. It is up to education
to preserve the state intact and to defend it against
all harmful innovations. T h e aim of education
is not personal growth but service of the state,
which is the guarantor of the happiness of its
citizens for as long as they allow it to be the
embodiment of justice. •
Note
1. Quotations are from T h e Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by E . Hamilton and H . Cairns, Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1973. T h e line numbers, as is customary, are those established by the Stephanus edition (1578).
Profiles of educators: Plato (428-348 B . C . ) 531
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Announcing an important n e w book jointly published by
UNESCO Paris and Advent Books New York
HIGHER EDUCATION IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE:
Toward the 21st Century Edited by Zaghloul Morsy and Philip G Altbach
Editor, PROSPECTS Professor and Director
UNESCO's Quarterly Comparative Education Center
Review of Education State University of New York,
Paris Buffalo
ISBN 0-89891-066-8 $37.50 Published January 15, 1993
A unique volume not only for the range of topics discussed but also in the diversity of the authors
and the fresh perspectives they bring. U N E S C O ' s "invisible college" of scholars around the world
was instrumental in permitting the editors to reach beyond the usual confines of Western scholarship.
Further, U N E S C O ' s translation facilities allowed them to reach out to authors writing in Arabic,
French, Spanish and Russian as well as in English.
Contents
Preface by Philip G Allbach. Introduction by Zaghloul Morsy
Part 1: Situation, Challenges and Prospects The Idea of the University: Changing Roles, Current Crisis and Future Challenges: Torsten Husénl Patterns in Higher Education Development: Toward the Year 2000: Philip Altbachl Autonomy and Accountability in Higher Education: Orlando Albornoz! Open Universities: A Comparative Approach: Tony Kaye & Greville Rumble! Privatization of Higher Education: Janhyala B G Tilakl University, Research, Development: Abdallah Larouil Universities and National Development: Issues and Problems in Developing Countries: Lawrence J Sahal Rethinking the Financing of Post-Compulsory Education: Jean-Claude Eicher & Thierry Chevaillier.
Part 2: Case Studies French-Speaking Universities in Sub-Saharan Africa: François Orivell Latin America: Higher Education in a Lost Decade: Simon Schwartzman! The Problems of Higher Education in the Arab States: Raj i Abou-Chacral Higher Education and Development: The Experience of Four Newly Industrializing Countries in Asia: Jasbir Sarjit Singh! The Development of Higher Education in Eastern and Central Europe in the Aftermath of Recent Changes: Jan Sadlakl 'Soviet' Higher Education in a Changing Political, Social and Economic Context: Stanislav Merkurievl Changing Higher Education Policy: Three Western Models: Osmo Kivinen & Risto Rinne! Higher Education in the United States in the Year 2000: D . Bruce Johnstone! Promoting Higher Education's Contribution to the Developing European Community: Hywel Ceri Jones.
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ICELAND: Bokabud, Mais & Menningar, Laugavegi 18,101 REYKJAVIK, tel.: (354-1) 242 42, fax: (354-1) 62 35 23.
INDIA: Orient Longman Ltd, Kamani Marg, Ballard Estate, B O M B A Y 400038; 17 Chittaranjan Avenue, C A L C U T T A 700013; 160 Anna Salai, Mount Road, M A D R A S 600002; 80/1 Mahatma Gandhi Road, B A N G A L O R E 560001; 3-6-272 Himayatnagar, H Y D E R A B A D 500029 (AP); Oxford Book & Stationery Co., 17 Park Street, C A L C U T T A 700016, andScindh House, N E W D E L H I 110001, tel.: 331 58 96,331 53 08, fax: (9111) 332 26 39; U B S Publishers Distributors Ltd, 5 Ansari Road, P .O . Box 7015, N E W D E L H I 110002, fax: (9111) 327 65 93; T .R. Publications Private Ltd, P M G Complex, II Floor, 57 South Usman Road, T . Nagar, M A D R A S 600017.
INDONESIA: P T Bhratara Niaga Media, Jalan. Oto Iskandardinata 111/29, JAKARTA 13340, tel./fax: (6221) 81 91 858; Indira P.T., P .O . Box 181, Jl. Dr Sam Ratulangi 37, JAKARTA PUSAT, tel./fax: (6221) 629 77 42.
IRAN, ISLAMIC REPUBLIC O F : Iranian National
Commission for U N E S C O , Shahid Eslamieh Bldg, 1188 Enghelab Avenue, P .O . Box 11365-4498, T E H R A N 13158, tel.: (9821) 640 83 55, fax: (9821) 646 83 67; A S H K A N 3 Co. Ltd, P .O. Box 15875-1787, 123 Dr Mofateh Avenue, T E H R A N 15717, fax: (6221) 629 77 42.
I R E L A N D : T D C Publishers, 28 Hardwicke Street, D U B L I N 1, tel.: 74 48 35, 72 62 21, fax: 74 84 16; Educational Company of Ireland Ltd, P . O . Box 43A, Walkinstown, DUBLIN 12.
ISRAEL: Steimatzky Ltd, 11 Hakishon Street, P . O . Box 1444, B N E I B R A K 51114, fax: (9723) 579 45 67; R . O . Y . International, 41 Mishmar Hayarden Street, T E L Aviv 69865 (postaladdress: P . O . Box 13056, T E L A V T V 61130), tel.: (9723) 49 61 08, fax: (9723) 648 60 39.
ITALY: L I C O S A (Librería Commissionaria Sansoni S.p.A.), via Benedetto Fortini, 120/10 (ang. via Chiantigiana), 50125 F I R E N Z E , tel.: 64 54 15/16, fax: 64 12 57; via Bartolini 29, 20155 M I L A N O ; P A O Bookshop, via delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 R O M A , tel.: 57 97 46 08, fax: 578 26 10; ILO Bookshop, Corso Unità d'ltalia 125, 10127 T O R I N O , tel.: (011) 69 361, fax: (011) 63 88 42.
J A M A I C A : University of the West Indies Bookshop, M o n a , K I N G S T O N 7, tel.: (809) 927 16 60-9, ext. 2269 and
2325.
J A P A N : Eastern Book Service Inc., 37-3 Hongo 3-chome, Bunkyo-ku, T O K Y O 113, tel.: (033) 818-0861, fax: (8133) 818-0864.
J O R D A N : Jordan Distribution Agency, P . O . Box 375, A M M A N , tel.: 63 01 91, fax: (9626) 63 51 52; Jordan Book Centre C o . Ltd, P . O . Box 301, Al-Jubeiha, A M M A N , tel.: 67 68 82, 60 68 82, fax: (9626) 60 20 16.
K E N Y A : Africa Book Services Ltd, Quran House, Mfangano Street, P . O . Box 45245, N A I R O B I ; Inter-Africa Book Distributors Ltd, Kencom House, 1st Floor, Moi Avenue, P . O . Box 73580, N A I R O B I .
K O R E A , R E P U B L I C O F : Korean National Commission for U N E S C O , P . O . Box Central 64, S E O U L , tel.: 776 39 50/47 54, fax: (822) 774 39 56.
K U W A I T : The Kuwait Bookshop C o . Ltd, AI Muthanna Complex, Fahed El-Salem Street, P . O . Box 2942, Safat 13030, K U W A I T , tel.: (965) 242 42 66, 242 46 87, fax:
(965) 242 05 58.
L E S O T H O : Mazenod Book Centre, P . O . Box 39, M A Z E N O D 160.
LIBERIA: National Bookstore, Mechlin and Carey Streets, P .O. Box 590, M O N R O V I A ; Cole & Yancy Bookshops Ltd, P . O . Box 286, M O N R O V I A .
M A L A W I : Malawi Book Service, Head Office, P .O. Box 30044, Chichiri, BLANTYRE 3.
MALAYSIA: University of Malaya Co-operative Bookshop, P .O. Box 1127, Jalan Pantai Bahru, 59700 K U A L A L U M P U R , fax: (603) 755 44 24; Mawaddah Enterprise Sdr. Brd., 75, Jalan Kapitän Tarn Yeong, Seremban 7000, N . SEMBILAN, tel.: (606) 71 10 62, fax: (606)
73 30 62.
M A L D I V E S : Asrafee Bookshop, 1/49 Orchid Magu, M A L E .
M A L T A : L. Sapienza & Sons Ltd, 26 Republic Street, VALLETTA.
MAURITIUS: Nalanda Co. Ltd, 30 Bourbon Street, P O R T -LOUIS.
M E X I C O : Librería 'El Correo de la U N E S C O ' S.A., Guanajuato n.° 72, Col. Roma, C.P. 06700, Deleg. Cuauhtemoc, M É X I C O D.F., tel.: 574 75 79, fax: (525)
264 09 19; Librería Secur, Av. Carlos Pellicer Cámara s/n, Zona C I C O M , 86090 VILLAHERMOSA, Tabasco, tel.: (93) 12 39 66, fax: (52931) 12 74 80.
M O Z A M B I Q U E : Instituto National do Livro e do Disco (INLD), Avenida 24 de Julho, n.° 1927, r/c, and n.° 1921, 1.° andar, M A P U T O .
M Y A N M A R : Trade Corporation N o . (9), 550-552 Merchant Street, R A N G O O N .
NEPAL: Sajha Prakashan, Pulchowk, K A T H M A N D U .
N E T H E R L A N D S : Roodvelt Import b.v., Brouwersgracht 288, 1013 H G A M S T E R D A M , tel.: (020) 22 80 35, fax:
(020) 25 54 93; S D U Uitgeverij Plantijnstraat, Externe Fondsen, Postbus 20014, 2500 EA 's G R A V E N H A G E , tel.: (070) 378 98 80, fax: (070) 347 57 78. For periodicals: Faxon-Europe, Postbus 197, 1000 A D A M S T E R D A M .
N E T H E R L A N D S A N T I L L E S : Van Dorp-Eddine N . V . , P . O . Box 3001, W I L L E M S T A D , Curaçao.
N E W Z E A L A N D : G P Legislation Services, 10 Mulgrove Street, P . O . Box 12418, Thorndon, W E L L I N G T O N , tel.: 496 56 55, fax: (644) 496 56 98. Retail bookshops: Housing Corporation Bldg, 25 Rutland Street, P . O . Box 5513 Wellesley Street, A U C K L A N D , tel.: (09) 309 53 61, fax: (649) 307 21 37; 147 Hereford Street, Private Bag, C H R I S T C H U R C H , tel.: (03) 79 71 42, fax: (643) 77 25 29;
Cargill House, 123 Princes Street, P . O . Box 1104, D U N E D I N , tel.: (03) 477 82 94, fax: (6424) 477 78 69;
33 King Street, P . O . Bax 857, H A M I L T O N , tel.: (07) 846 06 06, fax: (6471) 846 65 66; 38-42 Broadway Ave., P.O. Box 138, P A L M E R S T O N N O R T H .
NIGERIA: Obafemi Awolowo University, ILE IFE; The University Bookshop of Ibadan, P .O. Box 286, IBADAN; The University Bookshop of Nsukka; The University Bookshop of Lagos; The Ahmadu Bello University Bookshop of Zaria.
N O R W A Y : Akademika A / S , Universitetsbokhandel, P .O . Box 84, Blindem 0314, O S L O 3, tel.: 22 85 30 00, fax:
22 85 30 53; Narvesen Info Center, P .O. Box 6125, Etterstad, N-0602 O S L O 6, tel.: 025 73 30, fax: 02 68 19 01.
PAKISTAN: Mira Book Agency, 65 Shahrah Quaid-E-Azam, P .O. Box 729, L A H O R E 54000, tel.: 66839, telex: 4886 UBPLK; U N E S C O Publications Centre, Regional Office for Book Development in Asia and the Pacific, P.O. Box 2034A, ISLAMABAD, tel.: 82 20 71/9, fax:
(9251) 21 39 59, 82 27 96. Sub-agent: Tayyab M . S . Commercial Services, P .O. Box 16006, A-2/3 Usman Ghani Road, Manzoor Colony, K A R A C H I 75460.
PHILIPPINES: International Book Center (Philippines), Suite 1703, Cityland 10, Condominium Tower 1, Ayala Ave., corner H . V . Delà Costa Ext., Makati, M E T R O M A N I L A , tel.: 817 96 76, fax: (632) 817 17 41.
P O L A N D : ORPAN-Import, Pake Kultury, 00-901
W A R S Z A W A ; Ars Polona-Ruch, Krakowskie Przedmiescie 7, 00-068 W A R S Z A W A .
Q A T A R : U N E S C O Regional Office in the Arab States of the Gulf, P .O. Box 3945, D O H A , tel.: 86 77 07/08, fax: (974) 86 76 44.
RUSSIAN F E D E R A T I O N : Mezhdunarodnaja Kniga, Ul. Dimitrova 39, M O S K V A 113095.
SAINT VINCENT A N D T H E GRENADINES: Young Workers' Creative Organization, Blue Caribbean Building, 2nd Floor, R o o m 12, K I N G S T O W N .
S A U D I A R A B I A : Dar Al-Watan for Publishing and Information, Olaya Main Street, Ibrahim Bin Sulaym Building, P . O . Box 3310, R I Y A D H , fax: (9661) 462 61 24.
S E Y C H E L L E S : National Bookshop, P . O . Box 48, M A H É .
S I N G A P O R E : Chopmen Publishers, 865 Mountbatten Road, N o . 05-28/29, Katong Shopping Centre, S I N G A P O R E 1543, fax: (65) 344 01 80.
SLOVAKIA: Alk Verlag, Hurbanovo nam. 6, 893-31 BRATISLAVA.
SLOVENIA: Cancarjeva Zalozba, Kopicarjeva 2, P .O. Box 201-IV, 61001 LJUBLJANA.
SOMALIA: Modern Book Shop and General, P .O . Box 951, M O G A D I S C I O .
S O U T H AFRICA: Van Schaik Bookstore (Pty) Ltd, P .O . Box 2355, BELLVILLE 7530.
SRI L A N K A : Lake House Bookshop, 100 Sir Chittampalam Gardiner Mawata, P .O . Box 244, C O L O M B O 2.
S U R I N A M E : Suriname National Commission for U N E S C O , P .O . Box 3017, PARAMARIBO, tel.: (597)
618 65, 46 18 71, fax: (597) 49 50 83 (attn. U N E S C O Nat. Com.) .
S W E D E N : Fritzes Informations Center,
Utbildningsdepartementet, Ministry of Education and Science, S-103 33 S T O C K H O L M {postaladdress: S 106 47), tel.: 468-690 90 90, fax: 468-20 51 21. For periodicals: Wennergren-Williams Informationsservice, Box 1305, S-171 25 S O L N A , tel.: 468-705 97 50, fax: 468-27 00 71; Tidskriftscentralen, Subscription Services, Norrtullsgatan 15, S-102 32 S T O C K H O L M , tel.: 468-
3120 90, fax:468-30 13 35.
S W I T Z E R L A N D : A D E C O , Case postale 465, C H - 1 2 1 1 G E N È V E 19, tel.: 943 26 73, fax: 943 36 05; Europa
Verlag, Rämistrasse 5, C H - 8 0 2 4 Z Ü R I C H , tel.: 261 16 29; United Nations Bookshop (counter service only), Palais des Nations, C H - 1 2 1 1 G E N È V E 10, tel.: 740 09 21, fax: (4122) 917 00 27. For periodicals: Naville S.A., 7, rue Lévrier, CH-1201 G E N È V E .
T H A I L A N D : U N E S C O Principal Regional Office in Asia and the Pacific ( P R O A P ) , Prakanong Post Office, Box 967, B A N G K O K 10110, tel.: 391 08 80, fax: (662)
391 08 66; Suksapan Panit, Mansion 9, Rajdamnern Avenue, B A N G K O K 14, tel.: 281 65 53, 282 78 22, fax:
(662) 281 49 47; Nibondh & C o . Ltd, 4 0 ^ 2 Charoen Krung Road, Siyaeg Phaya Sri, P . O . Box 402, B A N G K O K G . P . O . , tel.: 221 26 11, fax: 224 68 89; SuksitSiam Company, 113—115 Fuang Nakhon Road, opp. W a t Rajbopith, B A N G K O K 10200, fax: (662) 222 51 88.
T R I N I D A D A N D T O B A G O : Trinidad and Tobago National Commission for U N E S C O , Ministry of Education, 8 Elizabeth Street, St Clair, P O R T O F SPAIN, tel./fax: (1'809) 622 09 39.
T U R K E Y : Haset Kitapevi A . S . , Istiklâl Caddesi N o . 469, Posta Kutusu 219, Beyoglu, I S T A N B U L .
U G A N D A : Uganda Bookshop, P . O . Box 7145, K A M P A L A .
U N I T E D A R A B E M I R A T E S : Al Mutanabbi Bookshop, Madina Zaid, Building n°4387, doot 14 to 16, A B U D H A B I , tel.: 34 03 19, fax: (9712) 31 77 06; The British Council Book Shop, near Rashid Hospital, D U B A I , tel.: 37 62 24.
U N I T E D K I N G D O M : H M S O Publications Centre, P . O . Box 276, L O N D O N S W 8 5 D T , fax: 071-873 2000; telephone orders only: 071-873 9090; general inquiries: 071-873 0011 (queuing system in operation). HMSO bookshops: 49 High Holborn, L O N D O N W C 1 V 6 H B , tel. 071-873 0011 (counter service only); 71 Lothian Road, E D I N B U R G H E H 3 9 A Z , tel. 031-228 4181; 16 Arthur Street, B E L F A S T B T 1 4 G D , tel. 023-223 8451; 9-21 Princess Street, Albert Square, M A N C H E S T E R M 6 0 8AS, tel. 061-834 7201; 258 Broad Street, B I R M I N G H A M Bl 2 H E , tel. 021-643 3740; Southey House, Wine Street, B R I S T O L BS1 2 B Q , tel. 027-226 4306. For scientific maps:
McCarta Ltd, 15 Highbury Place, L O N D O N N 5 1 Q P ; GeoPubs (Geoscience Publications Services), 14 Orleston M e w s , Highbury, L O N D O N N 7 8LL, tel.: 071-607 90 57, fax: 071-607 50 37, and4<) Halfway Avenue, L U T O N LU4 8RA.
U N I T E D REPUBLIC O F T A N Z A N I A : Dar es Salaam Bookshop, P .O . Box 9030, D A R ES SALAAM.
U N I T E D STATES O F A M E R I C A : U N I P U B , 4611-F Assembly Drive, L A N H A M , M D 20706-4391, tel. toll-free: 1-800-274-4888, fax: (301) 459-0056; United Nations Bookshop, N E W Y O R K , N Y 10017, tel.: (212) 963-7680, fax: (212) 963-4970.
V E N E Z U E L A : Oficina de la U N E S C O en Caracas, 7. a avenida entre 7. a y 8.a transversales de Altamira, C A R A C A S , tel.: (2) 261 13 51, fax: (582) 262 04 28 (postal
address: Apartado 68394, Altamira, C A R A C A S 1062-A); Librería del Este, Av. Francisco de Miranda 52, Edificio Galipán, Apartado 60337, C A R A C A S 1060-A; Editorial Ateneo de Caracas, Apartado 662, C A R A C A S 10010; Fundación Kuai-Mare del Libro Venezolano, Calle Hípica con Avenida La Guairita, Edificio Kuai-Mare, Las Mercedes, C A R A C A S , tel.: (02) 92 05 46, 91 94 01, fax:
(582) 92 65 34.
Y U G O S L A V I A : Nolit, Terazije 13/VIII, 11000 B E O G R A D .
Z A M B I A : National Educational Distribution C o . of Zambia Ltd, P . O . Box 2664, L U S A K A .
Z I M B A B W E : Textbook Sales (Pvt) Ltd, 67 Union Avenue, H A R A R E ; Grassroots Books (Pvt) Ltd, Box A 2 6 7 , HARARE.
A complete list of all the national distributors can be obtained on request from: Promotion and Sales Division, U N E S C O Publishing, U N E S C O , 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 P A R I S 07 SP, France, fax: (1) 42 73 30 07, telex: 204461 Paris.
U N E S C O B O O K C O U P O N S can be used to purchase all books and periodicals of an educational, scientific or cultural character. For full information, please write to: U N E S C O Coupon Office, U N E S C O , 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 P A R I S 07 SP (France).
All correspondence should be addressed to the Editor
prospects International Bureau of Education,
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Authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in signed articles and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of U N E S C O and do not commit
the Organization.
T h e designations employed and the presentation of material in Prospects do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of
U N E S C O concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or
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© UNESCO 1992 Published texts may be freely reproduced and translated (except where
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