Asia Institute - Research Publications
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 10 of 260
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableLearning in the Language of Cinema: A Case Study of the Impact of Humanities Subjects on Chinese International Student’s Critical Thinking Ability(Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 2020)Chinese students make up the largest portion of international students in Australia, yet we know relatively little about their study experience in the humanities and the impact of Australian humanities subjects on their critical thinking ability. Through a qualitative analysis of the academic performance of two cohorts of Chinese international students enrolled in two film studies subjects, this study has revealed that Chinese international students benefit considerably from an Australian-style training, as evident in their improved analytical skills and critical thinking ability. However, English proficiency remains a major challenge for them in obtaining higher scores, which they could have otherwise achieved in a native language educational environment. This study has also discovered that Chinese international students are generally adept at using multi-media tools to present and communicate ideas. Distanced from their home country, Chinese international students are more motivated to study if they feel a cultural or emotional connection with the course content. Communicating in a language that students can resonate with, be it more visual or culturally sensitive, will help both students and educators achieve better outcomes.
-
ItemUsing Courts to Realize Education Rights: Reflections from India and Indonesia(World Bank, 2018-05-22)This paper examines the role of courts in promoting fulfillment of the right to education in developing country democracies, focusing on India and Indonesia—two countries that have experienced increased education rights litigation in recent years. The paper argues that this litigation has been part of broader struggles over education policy, inequality, and the capture of educational institutions by political and bureaucratic forces; and that the extent to which litigation has been used and led to policy changes has depended significantly on the nature of, and access to, the court system; the presence of support structures for legal mobilization; the ideology of the courts and judges; and the roles and willingness of litigants to pursue redress. Broadly, litigation has served the interests of the poor and marginalized, although gains have largely come through better access to education, while issues of improving quality have been less prominent.
-
ItemThe political economy of teacher management reform in Indonesia(Elsevier, 2018-07-01)Indonesia faces serious problems in the number, cost, quality and distribution of teachers. In recent years, its central government has introduced a range of reforms to address these problems but they have produced modest results. This paper suggests that this outcome reflects the way in which predatory political and bureaucratic elites have used the school system for decades to accumulate resources, distribute patronage, mobilize political support, and exercise political control rather than promote improved learning outcomes. Efforts to reduce teacher numbers, enhance teacher quality, and improve teacher distribution have accordingly constituted an assault on the interests of these elites, provoking powerful, if often subterranean, resistance. Broadly, reform has only occurred where the central government has employed policy instruments that have disciplined local governments and maintained a commitment to these instruments in the face of resistance. The paper concludes by assessing the implications for Indonesian education.
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableTransnational linkages, political dynamics, and the migration-development nexus: Towards a political settlements approach(Elsevier, 2020-10-01)This paper examines how transnational researchers have incorporated political dynamics into their analyses of transnational linkages and their impacts. It argues that they have done so in ways that have focused on conflict and contestation between migrant/diasporic communities and homeland states/communities rather than within them. At the same time, in construing transnational linkages as instruments of particular actors, they have presented a narrow conception of how transnational linkages interact with political dynamics. As an alternative, the paper proposes a political settlements approach which views transnational linkages as institutions embedded in power relationships between competing groups defined in class, racial, ethnic, religious and gender terms. This approach, it is argued, overcomes these two problems by presenting a more disaggregated view of the actors, interests and agendas involved and construing transnational linkages as simultaneously instruments and arenas of contestation.
-
ItemNo Preview AvailableRumbling of reform in China’s fiscal foundations( 2017-04-17)
-
ItemBold Strategy or Irrational Exuberance: Can China's Fiscal Foundation Support the Belt and Road Initiative?(Stanford University Press, 2020)This chapter examines the economic rationale and finances of the Belt and Road Initiative, a signature program in Xi Jinping's assertive foreign policy that aims to build multidimensional networks linking more than sixty countries and costing trillions of dollars. The BRI was conceived during the decade-long fiscal expansion that began at the turn of the century, and the question is whether it remains affordable under slower growth. At this stage in its development, China must manage the program prudently to avoid saddling banks with bad loans from failed projects. As ever, the decentralized system remains the Achilles' heel, reflected in the gap between official statements of expenditure and figures compiled from bank lending and program announcements. Recent fiscal reforms have strengthened the government's ability to rein in local governments but provide little protection against risks from an overly ambitious foreign policy agenda.
-
ItemPublic policy for a modernising China: The challenge of providing universal access to education under fiscal decentralisation(OECD, 2019)One of the key inequalities in China today is the divide between urban residents with local registration (hukou) and those without. This chapter examines the historical and systemic causes of this divide between the hukou and non-hukou populations, focusing on the provision of basic education. The limited access to urban schooling for the children of rural migrants is a divisive issue in the debate on citizenship and social rights of migrants, and one with adverse implications for labour markets and intergenerational mobility. This chapter uses the provision of basic education to illustrate how fiscal decentralisation in China – under particular historical circumstances, produced a divisive, rather than inclusive growth outcome. Moreover, even though education policies have shifted over the past two decades to calling for inclusiveness, their impact has to date remained limited, leaving the government with an inequality it does not want and finding very difficult to reverse.
-
ItemMore Sticks and Fewer Carrots? Looking Ahead to Implementation of Environmental Policy Under the ‘New Normal’(Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School for Science and International Affairs, 2020-02)
-
ItemManaging across levels of government: The challenge of pension reform in China(OECD, 2020)The People’s Republic of China is facing a “population ageing tsunami”, with the share of the population aged over 65 expected to double between 2010 and 2030. Reforming the social security system to improve coverage, sustainability and equity is an urgent task for the government. This chapter examines the workings of the Urban Employee Scheme (UES), the main pension programme currently covering more than 400 million workers and retirees. Although nominally a national programme, the UES is a patchwork of pension pools, managed mostly at the city and county levels. Under fragmented management and weak oversight, the system is rife with underpayment and evasion and has stymied previous efforts by the central government to promote consolidation. This may finally change under top-down reforms implemented since 2013 that have strengthened governance and enforcement capacity. Improving equity and the long-term sustainability of the UES will also require extending coverage to younger migrant workers and strengthening their incentives for participation.
-
ItemUncovering China’s Fiscal Stimulus Policies in the Budget Report(EAI, 2020-07-06)