About this book series

The purpose of the Curriculum and School Development in Asia Series is to focus attention on probably the most dynamic region of the world. Education is highly valued across the region, but students differ greatly in their knowledge and skills as well as values because of varying educational systems and socio-cultural traditions. International assessments show that students from East Asia (Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan), as well as Singapore, outperform students in South and Southeast Asia (India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia). Recent assessments in Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia indicate considerable learning problems and educational challenges in this part of the region.   There have been very few attempts to explain this diversity in learning outcomes since the significance of assessment results often focus on East Asian societies. There is a need to understand better how education excellence is created in some Asian societies and not others.   In the same way, it is not clear why conservative approaches to pedagogy, class size and the social expectations of education appear to produce such positive outcomes in some parts of the region but not others. What Asian societies can learn from each other about enhancing learning, what their education systems do to support schools and what school leaders do in their schools and what teachers do in their classroom will be the focus of this Series.

The focus on schools is an important recognition of the importance of these educational institutions   in Asian contexts. At the same time schools are part of larger economic, social and political systems and these undoubtedly have the potential to influence both the processes and content of the school curriculum as well as the processes put in place to support it by education systems and schools themselves. This Series, therefore, will explore curriculum and school development in these broader contexts. Socio-political systems in Asia, for example, vary greatly yet both authoritarian and democratic systems value schooling and invest in it as a means for both socio-economic and talent and citizenship development. Both system and school level processes in a diverse Asia can be better understood within the broad contexts that construct them daily.

The school curriculum occupies a central place in the life of school.  It regulates daily activities, calls for different kinds of teaching strategies and provides the basis for assessment.  Curriculum, assessment, and teaching, therefore, are the daily operational activities of schools that will be highlighted in this Series. The quality and effectiveness of schooling and educational systems hinge on the support by a quality and professional teaching workforce that contributes to these educational developments.  In some education systems these processes are highly regulated by central authorities while in others there are different degrees of autonomy in areas such as school-based management and school-based curriculum development. More needs to be known about how these different levels and processes influence student learning, how schools cater for differences within their classrooms and how students with different levels of social and economic support fare in these systems.

Irrespective of the social, political, economic and cultural contexts of education systems and schools, it is teachers who are responsible for delivering the curriculum. It is well documented that it is teachers who make the difference to and for student learning. Across the region there is considerable diversity in the quality of teachers and therefore their role in classrooms as well as cultivation of students’ values such as moral and citizenship development and well-being will also form and important part of this Series. The focus on Asia highlights the importance of developing further understanding of the curriculum and school development in the region through:

· comparative studies;

· single country case studies;

· studies of school subjects and cross-curricular initiatives;

· teacher studies;

· classroom studies; and

· the study of the contexts that influence curriculum and school development.

These multiple foci will be available to authors and will enable them to develop a deeper picture of the region and the ways students are supported in their multiple contexts.

 Against this background the Series aims to:  

· Understand teaching and learning cultures in Asian contexts;

· Explore the effects of different curriculum development processes on student learning;

· Identify processes used by education systems to support schools and teachers;   

· Cover students’ values development and teachers’ well-being;

· Develop and appreciation of the effects of social, political, economic and cultural contexts on curriculum and school development.                 

Electronic ISSN
2948-1260
Print ISSN
2948-1252
Series Editor
  • John Chi-Kin Lee,
  • Huan Song,
  • Tien-Hui Chiang,
  • Jasmine Sim,
  • Mousumi Mukherjee

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