Upon the launch of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (UNDESD), various activities envisaging a sustainable society have been conducted all over the world. Now that the first half of UNDESD has transpired, it is an urgent task to develop evaluation methods suitable for ESD. This paper examines the outcomes and challenges of the “HOPE” evaluation method that the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) co-developed with ESD experts and practioners in order to support small-scale ESD projects.

  ACCU is entrusted by UNESCO to carry out the Asia-Pacific Innovation Programme for ESD with a view to nurturing 10 grassroots ESD projects across the region. At the end of the two-year project cycle, ACCU, in collaboration with like-minded experts and practioners of ESD, entered into developing an alternative approach to evaluation. Supposing that ESD is an experimental approach to shift the paradigm of education, it follows that evaluation approaches to ESD should also undergo a similar paradigm shift. With this notion, an experimental evaluation approach called the “HOPE” method came into being.

  As its acronym suggests (Holistic, Participatory and Empowering), the method is based on a philosophy that underlies a holistic value, employs participatory approaches, and aims to empower people engaged in evaluation activities. The method comprises field research and questionnaire-based survey. The former, valuing dialogue and descriptive narrative as a qualitative research, includes focus group discussion, individual interview, discussion with key stakeholders, project observation, and feedback session. Feedback sessions conducted at each target site characterize the method well, serving as a platform for mutual learning and reflection. The questionnaire is also unique, attempting to quantify key ESD characteristics in terms of knowledge, skill, value, and attitude. Furthermore, the method introduces the “Hope Timeline”, with a view to revealing changes in respondents’ hopeful attitudes and behaviors under a difficult situation so as to construct a sustainable society. With these unique components, the “HOPE” evaluation was carried out from August to December 2008.

  International evaluation teams comprising several experts and practioners of ESD headed for the target countries where the Innovation Programme for ESD was conducted, namely: Bhutan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand, Palau, and Viet Nam, where the teams conducted interviews with approximately 390 respondents. In addition, the teams received questionnaire responses from more than 700 learners from Bhutan, China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Palau, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

  One outstanding outcome of among many that the evaluation survey revealed is that the level of hope has been increasing in all target countries since the ESD project was launched. This is a significant finding, considering that the gap of hope is widening in many countries. Moreover, the survey shows that the target learners have acquired higher-order thinking skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and others. For example, farmers in Bhutan who participated in the ESD project as literacy learners had an opportunity to reflect on their farming practices using tools like a scoring board to enhance analytical thinking, and improved their skills in not only literacy but also thinking, and even confidence. This helped them to consider more effective farming practices as the first step towards creating a sustainable society. Similarly, in Thailand, elementary school students with difficult backgrounds, such as members of minority hill tribes, the poor, and orphans of HIV/AIDS participated in the project and learned how to investigate and reflect upon their own communities. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  In this paper, the establishment of medical and law schools in the Republic of Korea are analyzed from the standpoint of institutional change. In the Republic of Korea, medical schools and law schools have been established since 2005 and 2009, respectively, with the Japanese system having been used since the pre-war period. The Japanese system appears to have been substituted with an American-style approach in light of the establishment of two distinct, professional schools. How might we come to understand the theoretical underpinnings of these changes?

  It is important to define ‘institutional change’ as a composite concept having two components, the change in qualifying requirements and the change of common expectations. ‘Institutional change’ occurs when an actors related to the institution recognize a change of environment. Actors who recognize this change then try to adapt to their new environs. In this process, there are conflicts among the various attendants or stakeholders who are related to the institution. When these conflicts occur, we can observe interplay of ideologies, contexts and features of a society, the impact of foreign countries, and leadership personalities related to these conflicts. In these processes, the revision of requirements and the formulation of common expectations occurs.

  To examine the conflicts related to institutional change, it is useful to refer to the power balance among actors related to the institution. The concept of ‘the regime of the training profession’ is applied in this study. This concept comprises three components in opposition to one another: government, professionals and the higher education system. Around the regime, there is society and a world that is recognized by the different components of the regime. ‘Institutional change’ is formed through a power dynamic and discussions about issues related to formalities.

  Two regimes serve as the foci of this paper: ‘training doctors’ and ‘training lawyers’. While distinct in and of themselves, the two regimes share mutual features. These include expectations of government and justifications for the establishment of the two schools, including (1) training ‘worldwide professions’ and (2) to reduce the effects entrance examinations from the undergraduate level upwards. The government expected the establishment of the two schools to be the solution to these problems for a variety of reasons. In the regime of training doctors, the government has heavy influence over medical schools through higher education policy, especially regarding the direction, supervision and administrative approval of, and financial support for, university institutions. Professors of medicine opposed and resisted these influences, but have been unable to articulate their arguments officially. Schools of medicine have therefore changed steadily since 2005.

  In contrast to the regime of training doctors, in the regime of training lawyers, a powerful legal profession was initially able to prevent the establishment of law schools though opposition to government policy. However, in the regime of training lawyers, the legal profession was critical in facilitating institutional change. Since 2003, the legal profession has led the reform of the judicial system and has come to adopt a more positive approach to the establishment of law schools and the Law School Act was approved in the Diet in 2007. The Act changed a key aspect of the regime of training, limiting the number of applicants admitted to law schools. While legal profession and nonlegal actors opposed each other on this issue, the legal profession has the ultimate authority to limit the number of law school admissions. In the lawyer training regime, there is one important feature related to the international sphere worthy of attention. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Reform of the school textbook editing system in Taiwan (hereby referred to as the “textbook system”) proceeded throughout the 1990s, a period characterized by democratization and liberalization. The direction of the reform involved a transition from the state editing system to the government authorizing system. Shortcomings in the previously monopolized system in 1989 allowed for the step-by-step development of the textbook system over the following decade. A complete government authorizing system was established in 2001 with the implementation of a new set of nine-year integrated curriculum guidelines for Taiwan’s compulsory education system.

  During the decades-long authoritarian period, the government had been notorious for its “uniformization” of education. Because of this, during the period of democratization, the reformation of the textbook system became a top priority in the changing government’s education reforms. The reform of Taiwan’s textbook system reflected society’s demand for the “diversification” of education, thus the system has seen a continuing “swing back” of forces since its establishment.

  The purpose of this study is to discuss the difficulties faced during the consolidation of the new system in the 2000s. This research will contribute three significant points to the field of Comparative Education.

  Firstly, observations by an outsider (such as those presented here) may lead to further the overall objectivity of studies on Taiwan’s educational reform. The first phase of these studies focused on offering a theoretical basis for the on-going educational reform, however upon entering their second phase in around 1994, this focus shifted towards considering the results of the reform. The second purpose of this research is to upgrade the study of politics in relation to educational issues in Taiwan. This topic has been previously studied by Corcuff (2002), Lin (2009), and Yamazaki (2009). Thirdly, this research may widen the range of Comparative Education research. Taiwan is often characterized using such terms as a ‘post-colonial nation’, a ‘divided country’, a ‘newly industrialized economy’, and a ‘newly democratized regime’. The study of the educational system of such a nation may reveal interesting findings in the field of Comparative Education. However, to date, Taiwan’s educational system has not been sufficiently studied by scholars outside of Taiwan. This essay is written with the intent to set the foundation for future studies.

  The first of this paper’s four sections defines the concept of diversification in the context of Taiwan’s educational reform, outlines the process of textbook reform, and describes the main characteristics of the Taiwanese version of a government authorizing system.

  In Taiwan’s rapidly changing society, educational reform and the concept of diversification went hand-in-hand with the concepts of democratization and liberalization, setting the course for educational reform in new era. Diversification of the textbook system started in 1989, when school textbook editing was opened to private publishers (The target of this 1989 reform was limited only to subjects such as ‘music’, ‘arts’, ‘guidance’ and etcetera, which were not covered by the integrated entrance examination for high schools). In accordance with the reform of the national curriculum, the transformation of the textbook system continued throughout the 1990s. The completed government authorization system of textbook editing was formed in 2001, with the implementation of the new curriculum guidelines for compulsory education. Under the new system, private publishers are in charge of editing textbooks, and the National Institute for the Compilation and Translation (NICT) is in charge of textbook authorization. (View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)

  Although East Asian societies are well-known for the pervasive use of shadow education, there is a dearth of research comparing the societies within the region. This paper examines the prevalence and determinants of participation in shadow education in four East Asian societies: Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. The study uses cross-national data from Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006, which captures the use of shadow education for 15-year-old students. I apply Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) equations to investigate the extent to which family background is associated with intensity of participation in each society, and whether or not the effect remains significant when adding student’s ability and school participation rate in shadow education to the model.

  With the exception of Korea, student participation in shadow education in East Asian societies is not exceptionally high at the age of 15, and there is considerable variation throughout the region. The participation rate in Korea is almost twice that of Japan and the average hours of participation in Korea is three times higher than that in Japan. In all four societies, families of higher socio-economic status (SES) invest more intensively in shadow education, controlling for student’s ability and other key factors, suggesting that shadow education may serve as a mechanism to exacerbate social inequality. Across societies, the use of shadow education by other parents in the school is a determinant of how much a parent invests in shadow education, which suggests that parent’s sense of competition is also an important factor to consider.

  The present study yields three research implications. First, the study highlights the importance of examining the variation within East Asian societies in regards to participation in shadow education. Future studies need to consider the variation in purpose and forms of shadow education as well as government responses to shadow education across societies. Second, the study underscores the need to look across grades and transition points though comparative study. The large difference between Korea and Japan in respective prevalence rates raises questions as to whether or not university entrance examinations serve as watersheds across East Asian societies. Third, the extent of disparity is likely to be underestimated in this study, as the PISA question on shadow education includes after-school programmes held at schools without charging tuition. Future research should also compare household expenditure on shadow education, which would grasp some aspect of disparity in the quality of shadow education.