Less developed countries (LDCs) facing higher education curricula reform challenges in a ‘new world (dis)order’

Abstract

In a previous article for EJHE, I detailed Curricula Reform (CR) efforts in Higher Education (HE) in four (relatively) well developed regional and national settings (The EU, the USA, Hong Kong SAR China, and Singapore). I detailed the backdrop motivating the moves by policymakers to reform the curricula in such ‘world class’ settings, that is, in each of the areas noted, there exists the capital resource base (economic, social and cultural) to undergird such hopes and policy outcomes. I also then detailed the processes each region's policymakers have undertaken to foster ‘world class’ outcomes via CR efforts. Yet, the critique of these processes, and their applicability to CR in less developed countries (LDCs) remains; a task which is the scope of this study. It specifically addresses the question whether the goals and objectives of such higher education curricula reform pressures from the (post)industrial ‘first world’ upon the LDCs are reasonable, given their largely agricultural economies.

Keywords:

• curricula reforms in higher education
• less developed countries (LDCs) and higher education
• change agents in higher education
• international benchmarking methodology

Notes

1. But not only the LDCs: Morsy gives the example of the Netherlands, in which the Government wishes to promote the use of the Dutch language in official communications, all the while realizing that English is the lingua franca of global research and commerce.

2. Participants in the ‘Experts Roundtable University and Technology-for-Literacy/Basic Education Partnership in Developing Countries (UTLP)’ (7 September, 2001, 6), cited UNESCO-BREDA and P. J. Hountondji to speak of the dismal results of these conditions:

Because of the low relevance of their content base, lack of up-to-date resources, limited choice of subjects and programs, lack of flexibility of structure and management, and mostly, the decreasing overall quality of the knowledge they provide, universities in the developing world are experiencing a loss of identity and direction (UNESCO-BREDA 1994). The consequence of the increasing gap between curricula and amount of knowledge and know-how required for the new job market is that IHEs have ceased to prepare youth for effective employment and active professional life. For instance, education specialists and many other people as well believe that enrolling in a university in Africa is either ‘putting oneself on the sidelines’ or preparing oneself to joining the growing numbers of unemployed graduates (Hountondji 1998). This lack of mission focus of IHEs has led to the alienation and disrespect of governments and local populations for the role of higher education institutions, which are seen as irrelevant and useless. (Hountondji 1998)

3. This paper also has a useful comparison and contrast made between the Carnegie classifications of universities and the OECD classification.

4. Gay continues, ‘Is there an alternative? Is it possible to meet this Millennium Development Goal in a humane way that does not perpetuate the creation of bitter, unemployed failures? The answer is likely to lie in systematic job creation as a prerequisite for expansion of primary [and further] education. A large proportion of the billions of dollars Sachs proposes for education would be well spent in developing productive industry, with training programs and jobs for those who are trained’ (254).

5. A comprehensive plan on how the transfer can be made, and the requirements for a successful transition, was presented by The Board and Management of the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute (KIRDI).

6. The Global Dialogue Institute's integrated curricula development and teacher-training project (based upon the theoretical insights of Harold Gardner (1983) in rural Indonesia is described by Laurie Marion (2002) as a model that seeks to reform both school curricula and instructional methodology by embracing the community in the process, respecting the fact that all people, formally educated or not, possess some insights born of varied forms of intelligence. Through what its founders call ‘Deep-Dialogue/Critical-Thinking,’ the program seeks to foster:

an attitude of openness toward the truth and goodness that are expressed in [a different] … worldview. The technology of Deep-Dialogue/Critical-Thinking is a pattern of disciplined behaviour that maintains the orientation to truth and goodness in the encounter with different value systems. By maintaining this orientation, a student experiences personal growth on a profound level in a structured way.

This type of educational experience is precisely what is needed in an era of rapidly expanding globalization. The processes of economic development in a global culture will bring many different value systems into contact with one another on a daily basis. The practice of Deep-Dialogue/Critical-Thinking facilitates communication between persons who hold different value systems so that they may co-operate in common enterprises without compromising what is most important to them. (199)

In many ways paralleling the ‘general education’ motif expressed in the University of Hong Kong reforms, the program hopes to aid teachers and curricula designers to come up with a method to bridge chasms of perspective, both intellectual and cultural:

By providing a liberal arts orientation to teachers, the Global Dialogue Institute is filling a need in the Indonesian educational system that has not previously been met. It is providing, over a relatively short period, a disciplined way of getting to some of the key insights traditionally developed through a liberal arts education. This experience will unleash the creativity of teachers so that they can develop some of their own innovations in the classroom. (208)

7. Mun-Chow Lai and Su-Fei Yap (2004) find it fitting to make a comparison of the R&D policies of the country to the ‘Asian tigers’ of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan, even while they point out shortcomings of funding and HE STEM disciplines provisions.

8. The World Bank (2000) offers an enlightened market capitalist view to the problem, which, while it favors traditionally optimistic ‘market’ approaches, also realizes that HE has a public purpose as a vital aspect of national development. In sum, the authors of Higher Education in Developing Countries argue that HE provision can:

 unlock potential at all levels of society, helping talented people to gain advanced training whatever their background;

 create a pool of highly trained individuals that attains a critical size and becomes a key national resource;

 address topics whose long term value to society is thought to exceed their current value to students and employers (for example, the humanities); and

 provide a space for the free and open discussion of ideas and values. (38)

9. In sum, data incomparability and epistemic hubris are the downfall of such otherwise appealing schemes.

10. According to authors of the Arizona State University's University Design Consortium's report, ‘Hong Kong Undergraduate Education Reform Under “3 + 3+4”’ (no date):

There are real challenges for Hong Kong universities in the process, not unlike the difficulties faced in other reform efforts. The rapid growth in the size of higher education means that there will be many more students required to take the new general education courses now being designed. On some campuses that have followed a British-oriented model, students and faculty have focused solely on the major field, so even the concept of general education is new. In addition, universities will hire many new professors; some universities may assign the new hires to ‘teaching only’ positions with the possibility of creating a two-track faculty, i.e. teaching and research. Several universities are considering using graduate students to lead discussion sections of large lecture courses, a practice that has been criticized in American universities. Because some Hong Kong universities aspire to world-class standards, the pressure for research results will not diminish at the same time that the demands of undergraduate teaching will increase. (n.p.) (In a word, it sounds like they are importing US academic structural problems as well as content benefits.)

11. The humorously apt phrase is well elaborated by sociologist C. Wright Mills’ book, The Causes of World War Three (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1958). I recall he got the idea first from his ‘intellectual grandfather’ Thorstein Veblen.

12. See especially the 2010 Inaugural Lecture by David Moore, Professor of Development Studies and Head of the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Johannesburg, for a detailed explanation of the subtle interplay between traditional versus Gramscian concepts of Marxism and capitalism in development, with particular focus on the South African/ Zimbabwean case.