The decline of the guru : the academic profession in the Third World

The academic profession faces new challenges everywhere. The pressures of mass higher education, accountability, fiscal constraints, distance education and the new technologies, and changing attitudes concerning academic work have combined to place unprecedented strains on the professoriate. This book brings together some of the best analysts of the academic profession in a wide ranging comparative analysis of the changing academic workplace. The stress here is on middle income and developing countries, but the issues discussed are relevant everywhere. This book, precisely because of its comparative and international perspective, is useful worldwide. Among the topics considered in the case study chapters are: the changing demographics of the academic profession, including the role of gender in the professoriate, new developments in academic appointments, including the terms of academic work, evaluation of professors, and the tenure system, external pressures on the academic profession, including demands for accountability and threats to academic freedom, the changing nature of academic work, including patterns of teaching and evaluation of students and increases in teaching responsibilities, the role of research in a changing academic environment, the impact of the new technologies and distance education, and future prospects for the professoriate. A World Culture Of Schooling? / Kathryn M. Anderson-levitt -- Thai Wisdom And Glocalization : Negotiating The Global And The Local In Thailand's National Education Reform / Susan Jungck With Boonreang Kajornsin -- Transformations In South Africa : Policies And Practices From Ministry To Classroom / Diane Brook Napier -- Teaching By The Book In Guinea / Kathryn M. Anderson-levitt And Boubacar Bayero Diallo -- Beyond The One Best System : Developing Alternative Approaches To Instruction In The United States / Thomas Hatch And Meredith L. Honig -- Resistance To The Communicative Method Of Language Instruction Within A Progressive Chinese University / Huhua Ouyang -- World-cultural And Anthropological Interpretations Of Choice Programming In Tanzania / Amy Stambach -- The Politics Of Identity And The Marketization Of U.s. Schools : How Local Meanings Mediate Global Struggle / Lisa Rosen -- World Culture Or Transnational Project : Competing Educational Projects In Brazil / Lesley Bartlett -- Europeanization And French Primary Education : Local Implications Of Supranational Policies / Deborah Reed-danahay -- Transforming The Culture Of Scientific Education In Israel / Kalanit Segal-levit -- The Global Model And National Legacies / Francisco O. Ramirez. Edited By Kathryn M. Anderson-levitt. Based On Papers Presented At Two Symposia Held At The 2000 And 2001 Meetings Of The American Anthropological Association. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The academic profession faces new challenges everywhere. The pressures of mass higher education, accountability, fiscal constraints, distance education and the new technologies, and changing attitudes concerning academic work have combined to place unprecedented strains on the professoriate. There is no country that has avoided these challenges, although the changes vary. This book brings together some of the best analysts of the academic profession in a wide ranging comparative analysis of the changing academic workplace. The stress here is on middle income and developing countries, but the issues discussed are relevant everywhere. This book, precisely because of its comparative and international perspective, is useful worldwide. Among the topics considered in the case study chapters are: - The changing demographics of the academic profession, including the role of gender in the professoriate - New developments in academic appointments, including the terms of academic work, evaluation of professors, and the tenure system - External pressures on the academic profession, including demands for accountability, threats to academic freedom, and others - The changing nature of academic work, including patterns of teaching and evaluation of students and increases in teaching responsibilities - The role of research in a changing academic environment - The impact of the new technologies and distance education - Future prospects for the professoriate. Front Matter....Pages i-viii Centers and Peripheries in the Academic Profession: The Special Challenges of Developing Countries....Pages 1-21 Big City Love: The Academic Workplace in Mexico....Pages 23-50 Universities and Professors in Argentina: Changes and Challenges....Pages 51-73 The Changing Academic Workplace in Brazil....Pages 75-106 The Academic Profession in China....Pages 107-134 The Academic Profession in Malaysia and Singapore: Between Bureaucratic and Corporate Cultures....Pages 135-165 The Changing Academic Workplace in Korea....Pages 167-198 The Fall of the Guru: The Decline of the Academic Profession in India....Pages 199-230 The Academic Workplace in Public Arab Gulf Universities....Pages 231-269 The Academic Workplace in a Changing Environment: The Nigerian Scene....Pages 271-296 Challenges and Pressures Facing the Academic Profession in South Africa....Pages 297-324 Back Matter....Pages 325-338 Is There One Global Culture Of Schooling, Or Many National And Local Cultures? Do Educational Reforms Take School Systems On Diverging Or Parallel Paths? These Case Studies From Five Continents Use Ethnography And History To Challenge The Sweeping Claims Of Sociology's World Culture Theory (neo-institutionalism). They Demonstrate How National Ministries Of Education And Local Schools Re-invent Every Reform. Yet The Cases Also Show That Teachers And Local Reformers Operate 'within And Against' Global Models. Anthropologists Need To Recognize The Global Presence In Local Schooling As Well As Local Transformation Of Global Models. This Is A Collection That Scholars In The Field Of The Anthropology Of Education Will Not Want To Be Without. Annotation. The academic profession faces new challenges everywhere. The pressures of mass higher education, accountability, fiscal constraints, distance education and the new technologies, and changing attitudes concerning academic work have combined to place unprecedented strains on the professoriate. This book brings together some of the best analysts of the academic profession in a wide ranging comparative analysis of the changing academic workplace About a hundred years, ago, King Rama V strategically thought of ceding power over some small areas of land to Britain and France to protect the greater part of the Kingdom, instead of fighting in the battlefield where traditional weapons could not compete with the more advanced war equipment of the Europeans. The academic profession worldwide is united by its commitment to teaching and the creation and transmission of knowledge.