This book focuses on important theoretical and policy debates on educational reform, with detailed analyses of reforms in 11 countries. It also explores the effects of geographical location, political ideology, and economic structure on shaping educational reform. Individual case studies are included on Australia, Cote d'Ivoire, England, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Spain, Tanzania, and the United States. The book covers the role of reform in changing education and addressing problems in the educational system, as well as its wider role in deflecting crises in the political and economic system, plus the effect of reform on educators, and educators upon reform. Extensive bibliography and reference lists accompany each chapter, including the introduction and conclusion. Contributors include: N'Dri Thérese Assié-Lumumba, John M. Barrington, Susan F. Cooper, Peter Darvas, Sara Morgenstern de Finkel, Esther E. Gottlieb, Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo, Don Martin, Henry D. R. Miller, Rolland Paulston, Rajeshwari Raghu, Susan Rippberger, Susan L. Robertson, Carlos Alberto Torres, George E. Urch, Roger R. Woock, and Hugo Zegarra.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book describes how different nations have defined the core competencies and skills that young people will need in order to thrive in the twenty-first-century, and how those nations have fashioned educational policies and curricula meant to promote those skills. The book examines six countries—Chile, China, India, Mexico, Singapore, and the United States—exploring how each one defines, supports, and cultivates those competencies that students will need in order to succeed in the current century. Teaching and Learning for the Twenty-First Century appears at a time of heightened attention to comparative studies of national education systems, and to international student assessments such as those that have come out of PISA (the Program for International Student Assessment), led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. This book’s crucial contribution to the burgeoning field of international education arises out of its special attention to first principles—and thus to first questions: As Reimers and Chung explain, “much can be gained by an explicit investigation of the intended purposes of education, in what they attempt to teach students, and in the related questions of why those purposes and how they are achieved.” These questions are crucial to education practice and reform at a time when educators (and the students they serve) face unique, pressing challenges. The book’s detailed attention to such questions signals its indispensable value for policy makers, scholars, and education leaders today.

This book analyzes teacher quality in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the key to faster education progress. Based on new research in 15,000 classrooms in seven different countries, it documents the sources of low teacher quality and distills the global evidence on practical policies that can help the region produce "great teachers."

Education in South America is a critical reference guide to development of education in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. The chapters, written by local experts, provide an overview of the education system in each country, focusing particularly on policies and implementation of reforms. Key themes include quality and access, multicultural education and the management of education systems. Including a comparative introduction to the issues facing education in the region as a whole and guides to available online datasets, this book is an essential reference for researchers, scholars, international agencies and policy-makers.