An outline is given of the context in which The International School Effectiveness Research Project (ISERP) was designed and it is argued that the deficiencies of existing studies and the increased internationalization of education makes the more rigorous approach of ISERP essential. A number of methodological lessons from the study are given, concerning the need for cohort studies, for observational data, for social outcomes data, for mixed methods, and for multiple indicators. The substantive lessons of the study for a strong technology of education, for a taken for granted in educational discussions within cultures, for societal support of education within cultures, and for a radical intellectual orientation are given.
[Copyright of Educational Research & Evaluation is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803610600874026]

Three strands - the positivist, the cultural and the dependency - of comparative education in relation to language issues are dissused in the paper.

After the resumption of sovereignty in 1997 mother tongue education in Hong Kong, though it began with the good intention of national reintegration, politi-cally, socially, culturally and educationally, has escalated the tensions and contradic-tions of the politics of bilingualism in its implementation. The government policy of bi-literacy and trilingualism addresses, rather than resolves, the problems of hegemonic struggle among different social groups in the society, and between the indigenous elite class and national ruling elites at both the local and national level. A reproduction analysis is conducted to examine the events pertinent to the language shift of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) to Chinese as a medium of instruction (CMI), with particular emphasis on controversial issues such as parental choice, antagonism of elite classes, and group politics in the face of the internationalisation of English under globalised developments of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). English, a colonising language in the past and now a world language for changes in ICT, remains problematic for Hong Kong's language policy undergoing decolonisation and internationalisation in its early post-transitional years. Putonghua, the national lan-guage of China, challenging Cantonese, the regional dialect, as the formal and high Chinese language of the society, has added complexities to the discourse of polemical mother tongue education under the 'one country, two systems' framework practised in Hong Kong.
[Copyright of Compare: A Journal of Comparative Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0305792032000107786]

After sketching in the background for conversation generally about theoretical and methodological issues in comparative education and more specifically about its historical dimension, the author seeks to identify theories that, despite widespread eclecticism and even support for atheoretical standpoints, appear influential, together with characteristic forms of historical analysis. With these preliminaries as a basis, he analyses strategies for clarifying the historical dimension. This leads him to focus both on the units/levels of comparison and on three structures that can be used for this purpose: the familiar (narrative) forms of diachronic analysis, the more in-depth approaches opened up by synchronic analysis, and hybrid forms. The article also recognizes and explores problems associated with the use of the historical dimension, emphasizing those related to sources, interpretation, and periodization, while illustrating these problems and their possible solutions with specific examples from Hong Kong and elsewhere in the world. The article concludes by reaffirming the importance of the historical dimension of comparative education.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03050060500073231]

The authors examined the confidence of teachers from Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, and the United States (N = 1,375) to address civic topics with their students. The authors also used differential item functioning models to examine responses to items from the Teacher Confidence Scale of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Civic Education Study (J. Torney-Purta, R. Lehmann, H. Oswald, & W. Schulz, 2001; J. Torney-Purta, J. Schwille, & J. Amadeo, 1999). National case-study data explained findings within each context. Results revealed that the confidence of teachers varied when they addressed civic topics. Furthermore, teacher confidence varied as a function of country of residence. Case studies supported quantitative findings. Society-based factors, school-based factors, and public discourse illuminated effects of national context on teacher confidence.
[Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOER.101.3.177-188 ]

Learning materials developed by the Open University for first-line managers in the British Health Service have been adopted and adapted in a number of other countries. This paper reports a questionnaire-based evaluation of their use in Australia, the Cayman Islands, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Participants?views of the helpfulness of the 18 workbooks that constitute the core of the Managing Health Services programme were very positive across all four countries, as were their views of the assessment process and, in most cases, of the tutorial arrangements. However, there were some significant differences between the views of the cohorts from different countries. Participants were also asked to assess the extent to which they had developed 40 management competencies as a result of their studies. Managers from each country reported progress in their competence development, but with considerable variation between countries. Possible explanations for these differences are explored.
[Copyright of Journal of Vocational Education and Training is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820100200168]

In Hong Kong and Canada, indeed globally, slogans about learning to learn and teaching for 21st-century knowledge and skills are common. However, there are few examples of how teacher education courses or programs are responding to these new demands. In this paper, we propose a framework for designing teacher education premised on the theoretical perspective of knowledge building. We describe two courses, a pre-service teacher education in course Hong Kong teachers and a joint graduate course for Hong Kong and Canadian teachers. In both cases, participants engaged in knowledge-building discourse mediated by a computer-supported learning environment. We present the design and illustrate how the teachers were able to work as collaborative inquirers and knowledge creators in a knowledge-building community. Implications of knowledge building for teacher development as related to socio-cultural contexts are discussed.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210500527907]