Abstract
“Were the British truly imperialist?” asked the respected travel writer, Jan Morris (2005, p.24). Does “The Chinese Learner” (Watkins & Biggs 1996) “invariably have a high regard for education”? Are “Asian students not only diligent, but also [possessed of] high achievement motivation” (Lee 1996, p.25)? Is there really “a distinct Chinese pedagogy”, as Rao and Chan (2009, p.10) have intimated? Do Finnish students enjoy some cultural advantage that enables them to do well repeatedly – in 2000, 2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 – in the league tables produced by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) administered by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)? Was it appropriate for South Africa’s 1951 Eiselen Commission to state that “education practice must recognise that it has to deal with a Bantu child, trained and conditioned in Bantu culture, endowed with a knowledge of a Bantu language and imbued with values, interests and behaviour patterns learned at the knee of a Bantu mother” (Kallaway 1984, p.175)? And was it valid then to declare, as did Hendrik Verwoerd, South African Minister of Native Affairs in 1954, that “there is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour” (Kallaway 1984, p.173)?
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alexander, Robin (2000): Culture and Pedagogy: International Comparisons in Primary Education. Oxford: Blackwell.
Anderson, Benedict (1983): Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Bauman, Zygmunt (1990): ‘Modernity and Ambivalence’, in Featherstone, Mike (ed.), Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity London: SAGE, pp.143-169.
Bauman, Zygmunt (2011): Culture in a Liquid Modern World. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Berger, John (1972): Ways of Seeing. London and Harmondsworth: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books.
Bernstein, Richard J. (1976): The Restructuring of Social and Political Theory Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bocock, Robert (1992): ‘The Cultural Formations of Modern Society’, in Hall, Stuart & Gieben, Bram (eds.) Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp.229-274.
Chan, Carol K.K. & Rao, Nirmala (2009a): ‘The Paradoxes Revisited: The Chinese Learner in Changing Educational Contexts’, in Chan, Carol K.K. & Rao, Nirmala (eds.), Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing Contexts, Changing Education. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 25, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, and Dordrecht: Springer, pp.315-349.
Chan, Carol K.K. & Rao, Nirmala (eds.) (2009b): Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing Contexts, Changing Education. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 25, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, and Dordrecht: Springer.
Delanty, Gerard (2000): Citizenship in a Global Age: Society, Culture, Politics Buckingham: Open University Press.
Gellner, Ernest (1983): Nations and Nationalism. Oxford: Blackwell.
Habermas, Jürgen (1971): Knowledge and Human Interests. Translated by Jeremy J. Shapiro. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hall, Stuart (1994): ‘The Question of Cultural Identity’, in Hall, Stuart; Held, David & McGrew, Tony (eds.) Modernity and its Futures Cambridge: Polity Press, pp.273-325.
Hammersley, Martyn (2006): ‘Ethnography: Problems and Prospects’ Ethnography and Education, Vol.1, No.1, pp.3-14.
Herder, Johann (1784-91): Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Mankind Translated by T. Churchill. London: Luke Hansard.
Ho, David Y.F. (1986): ‘Chinese Patterns of Socialization: A Critical Review’, in Bond, Michael Harris (ed.), The Psychology of the Chinese People. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, pp.1-37.
Hobbes, Thomas (1651/1982) Leviathan. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Hobsbawm, Eric & Ranger, Terence (eds.) (1983): The Invention of Tradition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hofstede, Geert (2001): Cultures Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions, and Organizations across Nations. 2nd edition. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.
Jacob, Nina (2005): ‘Cross-cultural Investigations: Emerging Concepts’ Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol.18, No.5, pp.514-528.
Kallaway, Peter (1984): Apartheid and Education: The Education of Black South Africans. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Keesing, Felix M. (1960): Cultural Anthropology: The Science of Custom. New York: Rinehart.
Klemm, Gustav F. (1843-52): General Cultural History of Mankind. Leipzig.
Kluckhohn, Florence (1961): ‘Dominant and Variant Value Orientations’, in Kluckhohn, Florence & Strodtbeck, Fred L. (eds.), Variations in Value Orientations. Westport: Greenwood.
Lee, Wing On (1996): ‘The Cultural Context for Chinese Learners: Conceptions of Learning in the Confucian Tradition’, in Watkins, David A. & Biggs, John B. (eds.), The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, pp.25-41.
LeVine, Robert A. (1966): ‘Outsiders’ Judgments: An Ethnographic Approach to Group Differences in Personality’. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol.22, No.2, pp.101-116.
Linnakylä, Pirjo (2002): ‘Reading in Finland’, in Papanastasiou, Constantinos & Froese, Victor (eds.) Reading Literacy in 14 Countries. Lefkosia: University of Cyprus Press, pp.83-108.
Marcus, George E. & Fischer, Michael M.J. (1986): Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Masemann, Vandra Lea (2013): ‘Culture and Education’, in Arnove, Robert F.; Torres, Carlos Alberto & Franz, Stephen (eds.), Comparative Education: The Dialectic of the Global and the Local. 4th edition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, pp.113-131.
Morris, Jan (2005): ‘By Jingo, He’s Got it: A Review of Porter, Bernard, The Absent-Minded Imperialists: Empire, Society and Culture in Britain’. The Guardian Weekly, January 14-20, p.24.
Rao, Nirmala & Chan, Carol K.K. (2009): ‘Moving Beyond Paradoxes: Understanding Chinese Learners and their Teachers’, in Chan, Carol K.K. & Rao, Nirmala (eds.) (2009): Revisiting the Chinese Learner: Changing Contexts, Changing Education. CERC Studies in Comparative Education 25, Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong, and Dordrecht: Springer, pp.3-32.
Schwarz, Bill (1986): ‘Conservatism, Nationalism and Imperialism’, in Donald, James & Hall, Stuart (eds.), Politics and Ideology: A Reader Milton Keynes: Open University Press, pp.154-186.
Sikes, Pat; Nixon, Jon & Carr, Wilfred (2003): The Moral Foundations of Educational Research: Knowledge, Inquiry and Values. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Stromquist, Nelly P. (2005): ‘Comparative and International Education: A Journey toward Equality and Equity’. Harvard Educational Review, Vol.75, No.1, pp.89-111.
Tobin, Joseph; Wu, David Y.H. & Davidson, Dana H. (1989): Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Tobin, Joseph (1999): ‘Method and Meaning in Comparative Classroom Ethnography’, in Alexander, Robin; Broadfoot, Patricia & Phillips, David (eds.), Learning from Comparing: New Directions in Comparative Education Research. Vol. 1, Oxford: Symposium Books, pp.113-134.
Tobin, Joseph; Hsueh, Yeh & Karasawa, Mayumi (2009): Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited: China, Japan, and the United States. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Tylor, Edward (1870): Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art and Custom. London: J Murray.
Välijärvi, Jouni (2002): The Finnish Success in PISA – and Some Reasons behind it. Jyväskylä: Institute for Educational Research.
Wagner, Roy (1981): The Invention of Culture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Wallerstein, Immanuel (1974): The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York: Academic Press.
Waters, Malcolm (1995): Globalization. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Watkins, David A. & Biggs, John B. (eds.) (1996): The Chinese Learner: Cultural, Psychological and Contextual Influences. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
Watkins, David A. & Biggs, John B. (eds.) (2001): Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives. Hong Kong: Comparative Education Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.
Williams, Raymond (1981): Culture and Society, 1780-1950. London: Fontana.
Williams, Raymond (1982): The Sociology of Culture. New York: Schocken.
Williams, Raymond (1985): Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society New York: Oxford University Press.
Yang, Kuo-Shu (1986): ‘Chinese Personality and its Change’, in Bond, Michael Harris (ed.), The Psychology of the Chinese People. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, pp.106-170.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mason, M. (2014). Comparing Cultures. In: Bray, M., Adamson, B., Mason, M. (eds) Comparative Education Research. CERC Studies in Comparative Education, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05594-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05594-7_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05593-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05594-7
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)