Book Launch: Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries (Table 12)

• In Event: CIES 2017 Tuesday Book Launch Session

Session Submission Type: Group Roundtable Paper Session

Description of Session

This session will launch and discuss the book:

"Learning to Educate: Proposals for the Reconstruction of Education in Developing Countries"

Authors: Ernesto Schiefelbein F. and Noel F. McGinn

Published by UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE)

The symposium offers opportunities for exchange with international experts on practices and concepts of reforming education systems in developing countries; for launching the book; and for discussing ideas for further work on the topic.


Main points:

1. Around the world dissatisfaction with the performance of schools is high, despite continued improvements in their organization and operation.
2. In many countries low rankings on international achievement tests have generated further calls for reform.
3. Earlier reforms, despite their accomplishments, have not reduced complaints about school performance.
4. In part these complaints arise because school systems are designed for schooling, yet we expect them to provide education.
5. The term education is used broadly and imprecisely, and can reflect sharply different perspectives with respect to its purpose. Schools that perform well according to one definition can be judged as failures from another.
6. Some school systems achieve low levels of learning because of inadequate teaching. This book is focused on issues in the improvement of school systems.
7. The central focus of the book is schooling, which varies across regions in terms of access, the internal efficiency of schools, high levels of private provision and control of schooling, and high levels of inequality in access and quality.
8. The first section of the book presents basic principles of learning and its observation, schooling and teaching methods, and the recruitment and training of teachers.
9. A second section proposes basic objectives for a school system, links these with the early and current history of schooling, and reviews major theories on how school systems contribute to the transformation of society.
10. A third section reviews major theories of how schools and school systems are or should be organized and financed.
11. The fourth section presents a scheme for analyzing the process by which different groups in society attempt to change the school system to better serve their interests.
12. Finally, the book proposes four major strategies to initiate a radical improvement of school systems.

This book poignantly captures the puzzling and apparent contradictions or paradox of the promise of schooling, and even education, in liberating individuals and expanding the possibilities for social progress. The authors carefully researched the topic to provide current and cutting-edge knowledge on critically important dimensions of effective teaching and learning. The substantive and comprehensive additions are painstakingly woven into the previous text, revitalizing this edition while preserving the solidity of the initial book which has withstood the test of time as classic works have done. This book will benefit stakeholders of education process in diverse contexts beyond specific regions, countries, and systems.

N’Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba
Professor of Education,
Cornell University, former President, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)

[This]… book is a treasury of insights into the current challenge of universal quality learning proposed by the UN’s Agenda 2030. Almost every page summarises findings for education improvement in the theatre of learning, and draws on the authors’ rich and varied experience in educational action, research, teaching and policy.
But the book does so in short, sharp memorable ways. It focuses on the absolutely crucial need of all children to learn to read well and to learn to learn. But it also underlines the vital requirement for universal quality preschool education if lower income families are ever to compete successfully in primary school with middle class families who have acquired a substantial headstart through investing in private preschools. Otherwise, ‘equal treatment [in primary] produces unequal results’.
Supporting these and many other core concerns are refreshingly argued strategies about learning to learn, teachers’ role and training, local school and community priorities, and the acquisition of values, both in-school and outside.

Kenneth King
Professor Emeritus
University of Edinburgh, President, British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE)

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Organizer

• Simona Popa, UNESCO International Bureau of Education

Chair

• Mmantsetsa Marope, UNESCO International Bureau of Education

Presenters

• Noel Francis McGinn, Harvard University

• N'Dri Thérèse Assié-Lumumba, Cornell University

• Aaron Benavot, State University of New York at Albany / UNESCO

• Kenneth James King, University of Edinburgh / NORRAG

• Renato Opertti, UNESCO International Bureau of Education

• Carlos Ornelas, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana