COMPARE Forum: The idea of North-South and South-South collaboration

The idea of having a Compare Forum focusing on the above title was first discussed with one of the Editors of Compare during a PhD defence in Oslo in 2011. The PhD dissertation itself was linked to a larger project in which researchers from the North (Norway) and the South (South Africa) had been collaborating in educational research for over 10 years. Despite the fact that North-South collaboration is not a new issue on the agenda (King 1985) it is still a timely topic to explore, particularly given the recent growth and moves towards North-South-South collaboration or even South-South Cooperation in Education and Development (Chisholm and Steiner-Khamsi 2009). Thus, any discussion of research collaboration, whether North-South or South-South, is seen as an ideal topic for comparative education, particularly when exploring why there should be collaboration at all and if so what are some of the challenges. While it may be argued that the difference between North-South and South-South collaboration may simply be a question of geography, King (1985) reminds us that collaboration is not necessarily between equals and that collaboration at times ‘appears to be a process initiated in the North, and in which the South participates, as a counterpart’ (184). Ultimately, the differences go beyond simple geographic location to issues of funding and power, something that each of the contributions will touch upon in their own way. While cooperation may mean working with someone, it does suggest that one partner provides information or resources to the other, while collaboration suggests a more equal partnership in which researchers work alongside each other. For the majority of our contributors, we use collaboration as opposed to cooperation, although the literature is not always so clear on this distinction.Web of Scienc

From policy to practice : A Study of the Implementation of the Language-in-Education Policy (LiEP) in three South African Primary Schools

There is a general consensus among educators and researchers looking into the state of education in Africa that the primary language of the students is the language through which education should take place. As each formerly colonised territory in Africa has achieved independence, policies for the newly independent states have been formulated. The last four decades have shown us that very often the articulation of policy, particularly language policy, has more to do with a sense of political expediency than reasons of economic or educational development (Alexander, 1989, 1992). Multilingual language policies which recognize linguistic pluralism as resources for nation-building are increasingly becoming commonplace. Many of these policies envision implementation through bilingual education, which open up new possibilities for oppressed language groups (both indigenous and immigrant languages groups) and their speakers. However, Akinnaso (1993) points out that there is often a mismatch between policy and the plan for implementation, particularly with regard to language policy in education. Thus the implementation plan has little potential for achieving the goals of the policy. The situation in South Africa is one in which multilingualism is both supported and contested, despite the progressive commitment to equality of language rights in the country’s constitution (Alexander, 1992). The new Constitution of 1993 in post-apartheid South Africa embraces language as a basic human right and multilingualism as a national resource, introducing nine major African languages (Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu, Sepedi, Sotho, Tswana, Swati, Venda, and Tsonga) as official languages alongside English and Afrikaans, along with the dismantling of the apartheid educational system. To transform the previous apartheid education system into a diversifying one, where the "rainbow" of identities and languages are accepted, and to construct a national identity that is multilingual and multicultural constitute ideological paradoxes which are a challenge to implement (Hornberger, 1991). For Hornberger (1991) multilingual language policies are essentially about opening up ideological and implementational space in the environment for as many languages as possible, and in particular, endangered languages if they are to evolve and flourish rather than dwindle and disappear. In this investigation I analyze the effectiveness of the South African multilingual language policy in promoting additive and functional multilingualism and in opening up the ideological and implementational space needed for the survival of the previously oppressed African languages

Human Rights in the Field of Comparative Education

online resource

How does education prepare the younger generation for the digital age? Results of a qualitative study in five European countries

Eickelmann B, Barbovschi M, Holmarsdottir HB, Parsanoglou D, Sisak M, Labusch A. How does education prepare the younger generation for the digital age? Results of a qualitative study in five European countries. In: Holmarsdottir HB, Seland I, Hyggen C, Roth M, eds. Understanding the everyday digital lives of children and young people. Palgrave; In Press