Course Schedule

Week 1. Sep 12    Course Introduction

Week 2. Sep 19     The Role of Educational Systems

Chen, Chuansheng and Harold W. Stevenson. 1995. "Motivation and mathematics achievement: A comparative study of Asian?American, Caucasian?American, and East Asian high school students." Child development 66 (4): 1215-1234.

Park, Hyunjoon. 2008. "The varied educational effects of parent-child communication: A comparative study of fourteen countries." Comparative Education Review 52 (2): 219-243.

Week 3. Sep 26    Getting in: Parent and Admission Officer perspectives in the U.S.

**Group Presentations: the US**

Stevens, Mitchell L. 2009. Creating a class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites. Harvard University Press. (selected chapter on Moodle)

Chin, Tiffany. 2000. “Sixth Grade Madness” Parental Emotion Work in the Private High School Application Process.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 29 (2): 124-163.

Week 4. Oct 3       School Cultures: France and the Netherlands

**Group Presentations: France and Netherlands**

Draelants, Hugues and Brigitte Darchy?Koechlin. 2011. "Flaunting one's academic pedigree? Self?presentation of students from elite French schools." British Journal of Sociology of Education 32 (1): 17-34.

Mijs, Jonathan J. B. and Bowen Paulle. 2015. "The Burden of Acting Wise: Sanctioned School Success and Ambivalence about Hard Work at an Elite School in the Netherlands." Intercultural Education 27 (1): 22-38.

Week 5. Oct 10     National Holiday

Week 6. Oct 17     School Cultures: the US and Ireland

**Group Presentations: Ireland and Finland**

Courtois, Aline. 2015. "‘Thousands waiting at our gates’: moral character, legitimacy and social justice in Irish elite schools." British Journal of Sociology of Education 36 (1): 53-70.

Khan, Shamus. 2011. Privilege: The making of an adolescent elite at St. Paul's School. Princeton University Press. (selected chapter on Moodle)

Week 7. Oct 24     In Search of an “Exemplary Model”

Watch Documentary "The Finland Phenomenon."

Class discussion to follow.

Week 8. Oct 31       Education Outside of School: Examples of East Asian Countries

**Group Presentations: Japan and South Korea**                       

Dawson, Walter. 2010. "Private tutoring and mass schooling in East Asia: Reflections of inequality in Japan, South Korea, and Cambodia." Asia Pacific Education Review 11 (1): 14-24.

Shih, Yi-Ping and Chin-Chun Yi. 2014. Cultivating the difference: Social class, parental values, cultural capital and children's after-school activities in Taiwan. Journal of Comparative Family Studies 45 (1) 55-75.

Week 9. Nov 7         Coping with the Risk of Failure: China and Chinese Parents

** Group Presentations: China and Taiwan**

Chiang, Yi-Lin. 2018. “When Things Don’t Go as Planned: Contingencies, Cultural Capital, and Parental Involvement for Elite University Admission in China.” Comparative Education Review

Young, Natalie A. E. 2018. "Departing from the beaten path: international schools in China as a response to discrimination and academic failure in the Chinese educational system." Comparative Education 54 (2): 159-180.

Week 10. Nov 14    Does Higher Education Pay Off?

**Group Presentations: your choice**

Lee, Sunhwa and Mary Brinton. 1996. “Elite education and social capital: The case of South Korea.” Sociology of Education 69 (3): 177-192.

Rivera, Laruen. 2011. "Ivies, extracurriculars, and exclusion: Elite employers’ use of educational credentials." Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 29 (1): 71-90.

Week 11. Nov 21  Attend the 2018 IDAS Conference

**You should attend two sessions and submit a 1-2pp short paper about the sessions in which you participated.

**Extra credits: if you ask questions to the speaker during the conference, you will get extra points by stating the question and the speakers’ response in your paper. Please direct your questions in an intellectual manner and in accordance of academic etiquette.

Week 12. Nov 28       Individual/Group Meetings about final paper

Please sign up to meet and discuss your final paper during course meeting time. You should have an idea and an outline of what you want to examine/write about before the meeting.

Week 13. Dec 5     Global Education: Hierarchy of educational systems

**Group Presentations: the UK**

Brooks, Rachel, and Johanna Waters. 2009. "A second chance at ‘success’: UK students and global circuits of higher education." Sociology 43 (6): 1085-1102.

Week 14. Dec 12   Global Education: Strategies that deal with the hierarchy

**Group Presentations: your choice**

Lee, Yean-Ju, and Hagen Koo. 2006. "'Wild geese fathers' and a globalised family strategy for education in Korea." International Development Planning Review 28 (4): 533-553.

Woronov, Terry. 2007. “Chinese children, American education: Globalizing child-rearing in contemporary China.” In Generations and Globalization: Youth, Age, and family in the New World Economy. Eds, Cole, Jennifer and Deborah Durham, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Week 15. Dec 19   Concluding Remarks: Global education and student belonging

Vandrick, Stephanie. 2011. "Students of the New Global Elite." Tesol Quarterly 45 (1): 160-169.

Week 16. Dec 25   In-class workshop: presentations (I)

Class presentation will take the format of a mini conference, as observed in the IDAS conference. Each student/group will have 15min to present their final project, followed by 5min of Q&A. This is an opportunity to receive comments from knowledgeable readers, make revisions on your final paper, and practice defending your research or idea. Attendance and participation in the workshop is a sign of support to your fellow classmates, and it is also good karma when it is your turn to present. Hence you are required to join class even if you are not presenting.

*Note: The exact time for each presenter will depend on the number of students in the course.

Week 17. Jan 2      In-class workshop: presentations (II)

Week 18. Jan 9       Turn in final paper

**Please turn in a hard copy of your paper to instructor’s mailbox in the sociology office before 5 pm on Jan 8**

Course Requirements

1. Class participation (10%)

Since this class takes the format of a seminar, classroom participation is necessary. You are strongly encouraged to participate in classroom discussions by raising questions, responding to others, and providing your thoughts about the course materials. Through classroom discussions, you will not only get to know your classmates, but also enhance each other’s understanding of the materials under discussion. Together, we will create a friendly atmosphere in which all feel welcomed.

2. Discussion leader (20%)

Beginning in week 2, each student should lead course discussion at least once in the semester. Students can sign up for an article or a movie that they would like to discuss. Discussion leaders should prepare a list of 3-5 questions and post them on Moodle no later than the night before class meeting.

*Students who choose to discuss one of the two movies must watch the movie beforehand so as to facilitate discussions in course.

3. Group project (introduction to an educational system) (20%)

Considering the scope of content in this course, it is necessary to have a shared understanding of the educational system of each country we will discuss. Each group is welcome to present about educational systems in other countries that are not listed. In-class presentations will begin on week 4. Each presentation will be 15-20 minutes. Members in each group should feel free to improvise with this assignment, as there are no requirements on the method or tools to assist or present your findings.

*Some may find Harman’s 1994 article, “Student selection and admission to higher education: policies and practices in the Asian region,” quite useful.

4. Final paper + final presentation (40+10%)

Each student should write a final paper, in the format of a literature review, for the course. The paper should be about educational in global society, in alignment with the course topic. Students should pursue a specific topic of his/her interest. The paper must ask a question and provide evidence from existing research. Topics on educational inequality is preferred, but not necessary. Details of the paper and its format will be distributed in class in the second half of the semester. Since the paper will impact your final score to no small degree, there should be “checkpoints” as you set out to conduct your literature review. You should feel free to discuss your project/paper with the instructor during the semester. As a second checkpoint, you must schedule a meeting with the instructor at week 12 to discuss the outline and obtain approval of the review topic. Finally, you will present your findings in class to the classmates. This opportunity will serve as the third and final checkpoint.

Your presentation score consists of your own presentation (5%), and participation (10%), which is primarily based on the questions raised for classmates’ work.