High School for All in East Asia: Comparing Experiences (Routledge Studies in Education and Society in Asia)

Although late to industrialize, East Asia has witnessed rapid development whilst maintaining some of the highest educational enrollment rates and indicators of academic achievement globally. From major players, such as China, to small city-states, such as Singapore, economic success and the growth of education have seemingly unfolded simultaneously. This book seeks to better understand the relationship between these powerful economies and their commitment to educational expansion. Exploring the universalization of upper secondary schooling, it assesses the social foundations of the region’s economic development. Chapters covering each of the countries of East Asia trace how upper secondary school functions as the support for the mass manufacturing labor force, which has been instrumental in East Asian economic expansion. These analyses then compare the experiences of the different nations along two major axes: the relationship between public and private provision and the balance between general and vocational tracks. Finally, the analyses go on to examine recent trends, including the slowing of social development and declining fertility, and ultimately asks, can East Asia maintain its world leading development and educational standards in coming decades? Combining a wealth of quantitative data and policy analyses, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian and international education. Cover Half title Title page Copyright page Table of contents List of figures List of tables Notes on contributors Foreword: secondary education in East Asia—battlefield for the contradictions of modernity Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction, theoretical framework, and preliminary comparisons 1 High school education for all in East Asia 2 Towards an original contribution based on "Asian education"? A review of existing theories of educational expansion 3 Upper secondary education in Asia: a quantitative comparison with Western countries Part II: Mass high school societies: process of expansion and consequences 4 Provision for the expansion of high school education in postwar Japan 5 Private and vocational high schools within the expansion of secondary education: a case study of Korea 6 Structural analysis of the expansion of upper secondary education in Taiwan: private schooling, public demand, and the Twelve-Year Basic Education Policy Part III: Mass education city-states: economic centers and secondary educational expansion 7 Expansion strategies of Singapore's secondary schools amidst processes of economic transformation and nation building 8 Foreseeing the new educational dream just before the post-industrial reality: equality, mobility, and the expansion of upper secondary schools in Hong Kong in the 1980s Part IV: Mass education in post-socialist societies 9 Expansion of upper secondary education in China, 1980–2010 10 Challenges in Vietnamese secondary education during the transitional economy era Part V: Comparative analyses and conclusions 11 Maintaining high school education in the low-fertility societies of Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea 12 Conclusion Index "Although late to industrialize, East Asia has witnessed rapid development whilst maintaining some of the highest educational enrollment rates and indicators of academic achievement globally. From major players, such as China, to small city-states, such as Singapore, economic success and the growth of education have seemingly unfolded simultaneously. This book therefore seeks to better understand the relationship between these powerful economies and their commitment to educational expansion. Exploring the universalization of upper secondary schooling, it assesses the social foundations of the region's economic development. Chapters covering each of the countries of East Asia trace how upper secondary school functions as the support for the mass manufacturing labor force, which has been instrumental in East Asian economic expansion. These analyses then compare the experiences of the different nations along two major axes: the relationship between public and private provision and the balance between general and vocational tracks. Finally, this book goes onto examine recent trends, including the slowing of social development and declining fertility, and ultimately asks, can East Asia maintain its world leading development and educational standards? Combining a wealth of quantitative data and policy analyses, this book will be useful to students and scholars of Asian and international education"-- Provided by publisher This book focuses on the universalization of upper secondary school, using it as a vantage point to understand the foundations of regional economic development. It covers each of the countries in East Asia, tracing how upper secondary schools supported the mass manufacturing labor force instrumental in East Asian economic expansion.