Announcement

Papua New Guinea (PNG), the largest country in the South Pacific with a population of 7.5 million, achieved Independence from Australia on 16 September 1975. To mark that event, a National Education Conference assessed progress and looked ahead.

CERC’s Mark Bray (pictured here with a participant dressed in the colours of the national flag) had worked in PNG during the first decade of Independence, and was invited back as the opening keynote speaker. He recalled patterns in that decade and linked them to international picture including the Sustainable Development Goals just approved by the United Nations in New York.

PNG is known for its highly decentralized system, requiring internal comparison between provinces. Mark Bray had highlighted this theme in his 1984 book Educational Planning in a Decentralised System: The Papua New Guinean Experience. Equally, t
he event was an occasion for international comparison with peers – and, of course, for comparisons over time.

The event highlighted great achievements during the decades, albeit with much remaining to be done. A video news clip may be accessed here.

Speaker: Li Jun
Chair: Mark Bray

12:45 -14:00, Tuesday 8 September 2015
Runme Shaw 204

In recent decades, Chinese universities have been used as a major vehicle for international aid and collaboration, distinct from that commonly used by such international donors as the US, Japan, UK and Canada. This seminar will look at China’s model with critical reflections on Confucius Institutes (CIs) in general and China-Africa cooperation in particular, based on data collected from both developed and developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Eu-rope and Oceania.
The seminar will examine key dimensions of the Chinese model. It will include focus on rationales, modalities and outcomes in the setting of partnerships between Chinese uni-versities and their partners with a comparative case study approach. It will also reflect on international policy in higher education and its role in fostering global cultural dialogue.
LI Jun has recently joined HKU as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Ed-ucation. He is Chairman of the Hong Kong Educational Research Association (HKERA), and a Past-President of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK). He has written four single-authored books, including A Histo-ry of Chinese Thought on Education (Shanghai People’s Press, 1998), and a new monograph China’s Quest for World-Class Teacher Education: A Mul-tiperspectival Approach on the Chinese Model of Policy Implementa-tion (Springer, forthcoming 2016), in addition to around 70 journal articles and book chapters in English, Chinese and Japanese.

12.45 – 14.00
Wednesday 9 September 2015
Runme Shaw 203

The Comparative & International Education Society (CIES) is the world’s old-est and largest body of its type, established in the USA in 1956. The 2016 annual conference in Vancouver (Canada), 6-10 March, will be a special one for the CIES and for our Faculty.

• For CIES, it will be the 60th anniversary conference with 2,000 – 3,000 participants in a very attractive location.
• Our Faculty will have particular visibility because Professor Mark Bray is CIES President-Elect and responsible for the conference.

To support participation by both academic staff and research postgraduate students, the Faculty is providing travel grants to supplement those already available through other channels.
The information session will be led by Professor Mark Bray and supple-mented by Ms Nutsa Kobakhidze, a PhD student who is working as Assis-tant Conference Manager. Several longstanding CIES members in the Fac-ulty will contribute. The session will provide background information on the nature of the CIES and its conferences, and will explain how you can take advantage of this special occasion.

The annual Best of UNICEF Research (BOUR) exercise showcases and recognizes high-quality, high-impact research done under the auspices of the organization. It “aims to draw attention to a vital part of UNICEF’s work which generates knowledge to inform action, shapes policy agendas and shifts discourse in order to improve the lives of children everywhere.” CERC is delighted that Nirmala Rao won the 2015 award.

A total of 99 submissions of research conducted directly by UNICEF or commissioned through partners were received. From these, 12 studies were identified as examples of quality research and evidence gathering on children. An eminent international external review panel selected a further four for special commendation. These were considered to have potential policy impact, innovative design, thoughtful use of data, methodological rigour and potential replicability in both the country of origin and elsewhere. Among these was an entry entitled “Validation, Finalization and Adoption of the East Asia-Pacific Early Child Development Scales (EAP-ECDS)”.

Nirmala Rao, Serena H.C. Yang Professor in Early Childhood Development and Education and a member of CERC, led the research team. Other team members include Diana Lee (Faculty of Education), Patrick Ip (Department of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine), and John Bacon-Shone (Social Sciences Research Centre).

The award is a great honour and achievement. Professor Rao flew to New York to receive the award on 6 July 2015. It is a practical demonstration of research to improve the lives of children around the world.

Mark Bray has a longstanding interest in the distinctive features of education in small states, with publications on the theme dating from the 1980s. He has been given an opportunity to revisit this theme with a keynote address at the International Education Conference on Small Island States hosted by the University of Seychelles, 5-7 July 2015.

The other keynote addresses were given by Michael Crossley from the University of Bristol (UK) who among CERC’s Associate Members, and by Michael Samuel from the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa) who also has links with HKU.

Every three years, Ministers of Education from the 53 member countries of the Commonwealth convene for the Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (CCEM). At the 2012 conference in Mauritius, CERC’s Trey Menefee and Mark Bray presented the lead statistical and analytical document.

The 2015 conference was held in Nassau, The Bahamas from 22 to 26 June. Trey Menefee and Mark Bray again presented the lead document. It focused on the conference theme, ‘Quality Education for Equitable Development’, and was presented first to the senior officers of the Ministries of Education in member countries and then in plenary session to the Ministers themselves.

The CCEM was also the occasion to launch the Commonwealth’s Education Hub. The website includes Report Cards for each of the 53 countries, taken from Menefee and Bray’s book.

The timing of the conference was significant, coming one month after the World Education Forum in Incheon, Republic of Korea, and three months before the United Nations Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals in New York. Mark Bray assisted with the drafting of Commonwealth inputs to the United Nations Summit, noting the bridge between Incheon and New York.