- Email: [email protected]
Development education in schools: Global perspectives in the curriculum
BOOK REVIEWS efficiency in return for financial support. Most research goes on in large public universities; small colleges use less-qualified staff to teach the cheap subjects to less-able students who can afford their fees. Academic research can make a considerable contribution to national development, but lack of funds and other resources mean that few academics do research. The balance of research output is shifting over time; Nigerian scientists now produce more papers in international journals than Chileans. Donors have taken some of the pressure off governments by supporting research and innovation in universities, but their contribution is steadily declining as their funds move from higher to primary education. Universities are essentially conservative and hierarchical, with considerable freedom at the bottom; wide-ranging changes imposed by government are likely to be resisted. Innovations are more likely to be successful if their benefits are clear and they do not challenge the autonomy or interests of participants. Performance indicators are most useful as a carrot, not a stick; they are seldom very accurate, since many university functions are not of their nature quantifiable. Inevitably, readers will want to protest when generalisations do not fit their special expertise. For example, Teichler and Winkler's section on Nigeria is grossly inadequate; it cites publications which are long out of date. There are 37 universities, not 13, and over 180,000 university students, not 8620. Little is said about the implications for universities of graduate unemployment, which is becoming widespread and challenges demands for more higher education. Brunner and Briones avoid assessing Chile's real problems with small private institutions. They may provide stability for the major universities, but the system appears to need far more government action than the authors suggest. Nevertheless, this book has much useful information. Administrators and policy-makers should study it carefully, and there is much that students can learn from it. M A R G A R E T PEIL
Birmingham University, U.K.
Development Education in Schools: Global Perspectives in the Curriculum: Audrey Osier (ed.). Cassell, London and New York, 1994, ISBN 0 304 32567 8 and 0 304 32565 1 paper, 278 pp., £35 and £12.99 paper. This volume, one of a series, is designed to counter the recent development in Europe of racial intolerance and acts of violence against migrants and people of immigrant origin. The primary focus is on global problems of development, the north/south divide, human rights and social justice, and how other parts of the world are presented in European schools. In the introductory chapter the editor examines the concept of development education, adopting as a starting point the United Nations' emphasis on human rights, self-reliance, social justice, understanding what is involved in development and how countries promote it, and the rationale for achieving a new international economic and social order. The central theme of this volume inevitably has strong political overtones. For it to be successful, schools will need to prepare their students with the
105
necessary knowledge and skills to address key social, economic and political questions. The task, as outlined by the editor, is far-reaching; some critics would argue that it raises issues that are too complex to be resolved in the present climate of world opinion. For example, in Chapter 2, the editor suggests that a study of colonialism is an essential part of any curriculum designed to promote a greater understanding of north/south interdependence, but what image of colonialism is envisaged? One presumes the author has in mind the traditional, but rather tired and simplistic, image of the oppressor and the oppressed or the exploiter and the exploited, whereas in reality the colonial relationship was far more complex and contradictory than any simplistic analysis would suggest. The study is presented in three parts. The first, of three chapters, explores the changing context of development education and how it has evolved in the last 30 years. These provide valuable background information, but Parts 2 and 4 are more likely to be of interest to practising teachers. Part 2 examines the practical problems of designing a global curriculum. Hopkin presents a most interesting analysis of the varying images of development portrayed in Geography textbooks in the U.K., while O'Shaughnessy examines how development education can fit into the medium of language teaching. Midwinter has a most useful chapter on the way in which development is portrayed in the mass media and how it might be used in the classroom. Primary school teachers, in particular, should find the chapter by Leach, Headteacher of Boulton Primary School in Birmingham, of special interest. He describes the attempt to shape the whole curriculum of his school around the theme of development education. Part 3 has nine interesting case studies, drawn from a variety of countries extending from Scandinavia to Africa. Lack of space precludes detailed comment, but practising teachers should find that each contribution has something to offer, both as food for thought and as a guide to practical matters in the classroom. Thyr and Abrahams-Lyncook each describe cross-curricular projects, on the environment and development in a Swedish school and fitting global issues into the U.K. National Curriculum for secondary schools. Helms discusses the teaching of Peace Education in a Danish high school; Brennan focuses on a development education project in an Irish primary school; Ojwang explains the role of the Pied Crow environmental magazine in Kenya; McFarlane explores the value of a study visit to Kenya and Tanzania for U.K. teachers as part of their in-service education; Zweyacher writes about the role of UNESCO clubs in promoting development education in France; Blackledge focuses on ways to counter racism in the primary school curriculum; and Jaaskelainen and Lindberg present two Finnish approaches to development education. Classroom teachers reflect the wide array of political opinions found throughout society. Some would take issue with the editor of this book over some of the positions outlined in the introductory chapters, but on balance few are likely to question the need to combat the spread of racial intolerance among the youth of today. How we explain the gross economic inequalities in the world is a far more controversial and tougher assignment. This is a book aimed directly at the practising teacher, and one which should both stimulate and inform. Each chapter includes a list of references, and there is a useful index. As a former Geography teacher, I found the chapter on Geography and development education especially interesting, but this is a
106
BOOK REVIEWS
book with a varied menu which should have something to interest a wide array of teachers. CLIVE WHITEHEAD
University of Western Australia
Traditional Culture and Modern Systems: Administering Primary Education in Bangladesh: Mohammed Hedayet Hossain. University Press of America, London, 1994, ISBN 0-8191-9581-2, 217 pp., £32.50. Hossain's account of what life is like for children, teachers and administrators in the primary schools of Bangladesh is an important eye-opener. Through his descriptions of the villages, classrooms, district offices and teacher training institutes, I could see once again, after a decade away, the shaded interior of the classrooms, rows of children crowded on benches sharing tattered textbooks, the teacher chanting a lesson and the children chorusing back. The author argues in essence that the rules and values of 'modernising' bureaucracy, including top-down control, impersonal, routinised procedures, specialisation and division of labour and the recruitment and promotion of officials according to achievement criteria, have been distorted in the Bangladeshi context. The result is that the primary education system is administered by officials for individual gain and denies children a good basic education. Through participant observation and extensive interviewing in Rupushi school district, Hossain allows people to say in their own words how they perceive their situation, squeezed as they are by an impersonal, coercive and corrupt bureaucracy. He shows how administrators and teachers are alienated. At teacher training institutes, for example, teachers tell of unlearning good teaching principles and being forced to pay for their teaching diplomas. In schools, supervisors adhere rigidly to the official rules. Sometimes bureaucratic incentives also make sense educationally. For example, a headteacher commented, 'Teachers must indicate a minimum student attendance of 80 percent on the relevant government form. If attendance falls, teacher salaries can be withheld. Consequently improvement in school attendance is a very important part of any teacher's job. Education planning is target-bound' (p. 131). The risk, however, is that attendance registers may be falsified. Hossain begins the book by describing the historical and cultural context of Bangladesh prior to the imposition of foreign administration. I wish he had explored more explicitly the ways in which traditional values and practices were better than today, if indeed they were. Were the old ways in education a mirror of better societies at
large or did the old schools create societies with more integrity? This unanswered question leaves me with the feeling that he is perhaps glorifying 'the good old days' without sufficient justification. Even more intriguing, why has modern bureaucracy proved dysfunctional in the Bangladeshi context? For policy makers, the challenge this book suggests is how to develop an affordable alternative to a large-scale bureaucratic school system as a means of making school accessible to everyone in Bangladesh. For example, could the government provide the incentives for enough private providers to come forward - - benefactors and guardians, landowners and rich business people, NGOs and religious foundations? Could such a system expand to reach all the children? Would it be more affordable and sustainable? Would it provide better quality education, including citizen values? Would it be possible to start all over again, given the stranglehold that stakeholders have in the current system? It is refreshing to review a scholar and author such as Hossain, born in a developing country, who comments so objectively and candidly for an international readership on a culture he knows so well. Throughout his text Hossain introduces us to many genuine educators, who want to do a good job for the children of Bangladesh. Perhaps in his next book he will use his empathy and passion for justice to develop a constructive approach to better educational development. We should look forward to it. LINDA A. DOVE
The World Bank ZJER: Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research. HRRC, University of Zimbabwe, Box MP167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe, ISSN 1013-3445. This journal is now in its seventh year, with three issues per year, five papers per issue. The two copies at hand indicate that a wide variety of topics are covered: adult literacy programmes, democracy, the goals of primary teachers, substitutes for corporal punishment, aspects of administration and teacher training. The research projects reported took place in Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland as well as Zimbabwe, and the editors are willing to consider papers from all of sub-Saharan Africa. This is the sort of grass-roots research which can be very rewarding and needs wide dissemination. Perhaps it can reach education libraries through exchange programmes where foreign exchange is hard to find. M A R G A R E T PEIL
University of Birmingham, U.K.
Birmingham University, U.K.
Development Education in Schools: Global Perspectives in the Curriculum: Audrey Osier (ed.). Cassell, London and New York, 1994, ISBN 0 304 32567 8 and 0 304 32565 1 paper, 278 pp., £35 and £12.99 paper. This volume, one of a series, is designed to counter the recent development in Europe of racial intolerance and acts of violence against migrants and people of immigrant origin. The primary focus is on global problems of development, the north/south divide, human rights and social justice, and how other parts of the world are presented in European schools. In the introductory chapter the editor examines the concept of development education, adopting as a starting point the United Nations' emphasis on human rights, self-reliance, social justice, understanding what is involved in development and how countries promote it, and the rationale for achieving a new international economic and social order. The central theme of this volume inevitably has strong political overtones. For it to be successful, schools will need to prepare their students with the
105
necessary knowledge and skills to address key social, economic and political questions. The task, as outlined by the editor, is far-reaching; some critics would argue that it raises issues that are too complex to be resolved in the present climate of world opinion. For example, in Chapter 2, the editor suggests that a study of colonialism is an essential part of any curriculum designed to promote a greater understanding of north/south interdependence, but what image of colonialism is envisaged? One presumes the author has in mind the traditional, but rather tired and simplistic, image of the oppressor and the oppressed or the exploiter and the exploited, whereas in reality the colonial relationship was far more complex and contradictory than any simplistic analysis would suggest. The study is presented in three parts. The first, of three chapters, explores the changing context of development education and how it has evolved in the last 30 years. These provide valuable background information, but Parts 2 and 4 are more likely to be of interest to practising teachers. Part 2 examines the practical problems of designing a global curriculum. Hopkin presents a most interesting analysis of the varying images of development portrayed in Geography textbooks in the U.K., while O'Shaughnessy examines how development education can fit into the medium of language teaching. Midwinter has a most useful chapter on the way in which development is portrayed in the mass media and how it might be used in the classroom. Primary school teachers, in particular, should find the chapter by Leach, Headteacher of Boulton Primary School in Birmingham, of special interest. He describes the attempt to shape the whole curriculum of his school around the theme of development education. Part 3 has nine interesting case studies, drawn from a variety of countries extending from Scandinavia to Africa. Lack of space precludes detailed comment, but practising teachers should find that each contribution has something to offer, both as food for thought and as a guide to practical matters in the classroom. Thyr and Abrahams-Lyncook each describe cross-curricular projects, on the environment and development in a Swedish school and fitting global issues into the U.K. National Curriculum for secondary schools. Helms discusses the teaching of Peace Education in a Danish high school; Brennan focuses on a development education project in an Irish primary school; Ojwang explains the role of the Pied Crow environmental magazine in Kenya; McFarlane explores the value of a study visit to Kenya and Tanzania for U.K. teachers as part of their in-service education; Zweyacher writes about the role of UNESCO clubs in promoting development education in France; Blackledge focuses on ways to counter racism in the primary school curriculum; and Jaaskelainen and Lindberg present two Finnish approaches to development education. Classroom teachers reflect the wide array of political opinions found throughout society. Some would take issue with the editor of this book over some of the positions outlined in the introductory chapters, but on balance few are likely to question the need to combat the spread of racial intolerance among the youth of today. How we explain the gross economic inequalities in the world is a far more controversial and tougher assignment. This is a book aimed directly at the practising teacher, and one which should both stimulate and inform. Each chapter includes a list of references, and there is a useful index. As a former Geography teacher, I found the chapter on Geography and development education especially interesting, but this is a
106
BOOK REVIEWS
book with a varied menu which should have something to interest a wide array of teachers. CLIVE WHITEHEAD
University of Western Australia
Traditional Culture and Modern Systems: Administering Primary Education in Bangladesh: Mohammed Hedayet Hossain. University Press of America, London, 1994, ISBN 0-8191-9581-2, 217 pp., £32.50. Hossain's account of what life is like for children, teachers and administrators in the primary schools of Bangladesh is an important eye-opener. Through his descriptions of the villages, classrooms, district offices and teacher training institutes, I could see once again, after a decade away, the shaded interior of the classrooms, rows of children crowded on benches sharing tattered textbooks, the teacher chanting a lesson and the children chorusing back. The author argues in essence that the rules and values of 'modernising' bureaucracy, including top-down control, impersonal, routinised procedures, specialisation and division of labour and the recruitment and promotion of officials according to achievement criteria, have been distorted in the Bangladeshi context. The result is that the primary education system is administered by officials for individual gain and denies children a good basic education. Through participant observation and extensive interviewing in Rupushi school district, Hossain allows people to say in their own words how they perceive their situation, squeezed as they are by an impersonal, coercive and corrupt bureaucracy. He shows how administrators and teachers are alienated. At teacher training institutes, for example, teachers tell of unlearning good teaching principles and being forced to pay for their teaching diplomas. In schools, supervisors adhere rigidly to the official rules. Sometimes bureaucratic incentives also make sense educationally. For example, a headteacher commented, 'Teachers must indicate a minimum student attendance of 80 percent on the relevant government form. If attendance falls, teacher salaries can be withheld. Consequently improvement in school attendance is a very important part of any teacher's job. Education planning is target-bound' (p. 131). The risk, however, is that attendance registers may be falsified. Hossain begins the book by describing the historical and cultural context of Bangladesh prior to the imposition of foreign administration. I wish he had explored more explicitly the ways in which traditional values and practices were better than today, if indeed they were. Were the old ways in education a mirror of better societies at
large or did the old schools create societies with more integrity? This unanswered question leaves me with the feeling that he is perhaps glorifying 'the good old days' without sufficient justification. Even more intriguing, why has modern bureaucracy proved dysfunctional in the Bangladeshi context? For policy makers, the challenge this book suggests is how to develop an affordable alternative to a large-scale bureaucratic school system as a means of making school accessible to everyone in Bangladesh. For example, could the government provide the incentives for enough private providers to come forward - - benefactors and guardians, landowners and rich business people, NGOs and religious foundations? Could such a system expand to reach all the children? Would it be more affordable and sustainable? Would it provide better quality education, including citizen values? Would it be possible to start all over again, given the stranglehold that stakeholders have in the current system? It is refreshing to review a scholar and author such as Hossain, born in a developing country, who comments so objectively and candidly for an international readership on a culture he knows so well. Throughout his text Hossain introduces us to many genuine educators, who want to do a good job for the children of Bangladesh. Perhaps in his next book he will use his empathy and passion for justice to develop a constructive approach to better educational development. We should look forward to it. LINDA A. DOVE
The World Bank ZJER: Zimbabwe Journal of Educational Research. HRRC, University of Zimbabwe, Box MP167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe, ISSN 1013-3445. This journal is now in its seventh year, with three issues per year, five papers per issue. The two copies at hand indicate that a wide variety of topics are covered: adult literacy programmes, democracy, the goals of primary teachers, substitutes for corporal punishment, aspects of administration and teacher training. The research projects reported took place in Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland as well as Zimbabwe, and the editors are willing to consider papers from all of sub-Saharan Africa. This is the sort of grass-roots research which can be very rewarding and needs wide dissemination. Perhaps it can reach education libraries through exchange programmes where foreign exchange is hard to find. M A R G A R E T PEIL
University of Birmingham, U.K.