Wang, Ru-zhe (Aug. 1999)

An overview of the book (335 English words):

It is the first Chinese book, providing a comprehensive and systemic picture of the aims, objectives, historical development of professional organizations and academic journals or periodicals in the field of comparative and international education. It is a resourceful reference to layman and current researchers, with a mastery of Chinese language, in such academic discipline.

Chapter one is a general introduction about the definitions, theories, historical development and their conceptual / operational differences and similarities. In particular, the author brings out paradigmatic shifts in conceptual models of comparative and international education, under the tremendous impacts of postmodernism, post-colonialism and post-structuralism with far-reaching implications further growth of comparative educational studies in the era of globalization and internationalization. Based on a multi-level comparable framework of geo-political background, educational administration structure, distinctive characteristics and chronological development of educational systems, Prof. Wang endeavors to make cross-national or -continental comparisons in United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Asia in chapters 3-9 respectively.

Chapter ten provides multi-perspectives for school and educational reforms. Topics cover conceptions of educational reforms like marketization, administrative or financial decentralization or devolution, public school reforms in UK and USA, relationships between educational and school reforms in UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.  Chapter 11 depicts a penetrating comparison of higher education, according to its historical emergence and functions, qualitative and quantitative patters of higher education in some Asian, European and North American countries. Chapter twelve outlines the functions and policies of international educational organizations and research centres like CERI, OECD, IEA and UNESCO.

In its conclusion, the book summarizes current educational trends in evolutionary manner and anticipates future growth of lifelong learning, re-engineering and re-structuring of educational and schooling systems in national and global scales, the rapid popularization of information and communication technology (ICT) in education. Appendices contain useful information about journal papers, books and websites, two glossaries of Chinese and English special terms and a Chinese-English name list of current and past renowned researchers and scholars in the field of comparative and international education.

Background of the author:

In the past, Prof. Wang Ru-zhe won two grade A academic awards, presented by the National Science Council, and successively earned both bachelor and master degrees from National Taiwan Normal University in Taiwan and a doctorate one from the University of Manchester in UK. He is currently acts as the director of the Graduate Institute of Education at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan. His special research interests lie in comparative education, higher education and educational administration. He is also the author of a book (1998) in the field of educational administration entitled ‘Jiao yu xing zheng xue’ with the same publisher.

Back to Book Reviews