Current Issues in Comparative Education Volume 15(1) / Fall 2012 • ISSN 1523-1615 • http://www.tc.edu/cice EDUCATION IN SMALL STATES: FRAGILITIES, VULNERABILITIES, AND STRENGTHS Editorial Introduction 5 Re-reading the Anamorphosis of Educational Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength in Small States Tavis D. Jules, Special Guest Editor Invited Articles: Re-conceptualizing and Re-reading Educational Developments in Small States 14 Meeting the Tests of Time: Small States in the 21st Century Godfrey Baldacchino 26 Learning from Small States for Post-2015 Educational and International Development Michael Crossley and Terra Sprague Fragility in Small States: A Community-based Perspective 41 A Broader Definition of Fragility: The Communities and Schools of Brazil’s Favelas Rolf Straubhaar 52 How to Make the Small Indigenous Cultures Bloom? Special Traits of Sámi Pedagogy in Finland Pigga Keskitalo, Satu Uusiautti, and Kaarina Määttä Vulnerability in Small States: An Institutional Perspective on Small Jurisdiction and Small Assemblages 64 Explaining Whole System Reform in Small States: The Case of the Trinidad and Tobago Secondary Education Modernization Program Jerome De Lisle 83 Small States and Big Institutions: USAID and Education Policy Formation in El Salvador D. Brent Edwards Jr. Education Reform in Small States: A Comparative Perspective 100 Small State, Large World, Global University? Comparing Ascendant National Universities in Luxembourg and Qatar Justin J.W. Powell 114 Overcoming Smallness through Education Development: A Comparative Analysis of Jamaica and Singapore Richard O. Welsh 132 Internationalization of Higher Education in Post-Soviet Small States: Realities and Perspectives of Moldova Valentyna Kushnarenko and Ludmila Cojocari Case Studies of Educational Reform in Small States: A Cultural Perceptive 145 Inclusive Education in Bhutan: A Small State with Alternative Priorities Matthew J. Schuelka 157 Building on Living Traditions: Early Childhood Education and Culture in Solomon Islands Lindsay J. Burton Book Reviews 176 Fragile States, by Lohar Brock, Hans-Henrik Holm, Georg Sørensen and Michael Stohl Reviewed by Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams 178 Citizenship Education in Commonwealth Countries, by Tristan McCowan and Sonia Gomez Reviewed by Beth Wright 180 Education in Small States: Global Imperatives, Regional Initiatives, and Local Dilemmas, edited by Peter Mayo Reviewed by Janice B. Fournillier 182 Island Enclaves: Offshoring, Creative Governance, and Subnational Island Jurisdictions, by Godfrey Baldacchino Reviewed by Katherine G. Sammler 184 Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching, by Charlotte Danielson Education in Small States: Policies and Priorities, by Michael Crossley, Mark Bray, and Steve Packer Reviewed by Bradley A. Kirshenbaum 2 Current Issues in Comparative Education 186 Neither World Polity Nor Local or National Society: Regionalization in the Global South - The Carribean Community, by Tavis D. Jules Reviewed by Landis G. Fryer 188 Tertiary Education in Small States: Planning in the Context of Globalization, edited by Michaela Martin and Mark Bray Reviewed by Sophia Rodriguez Current Issues in Comparative Education 3 CURRENT ISSUES IN COMPARATIVE EDUCATION Volume 15, Issue 1 (Fall 2012) Special Guest Editor: Tavis D. Jules, EdD Loyola University Chicago Managing Editor Andrew K. Shiotani Associate Editors Landis G. Fryer, Sophia M. Rodriguez, Beth Wright Assistant Editors Yao Chen, Joy O’ Keefe, Patricia Castillo, Brad Kirshenbaum, Terry Han Book Reviews Andrew K. Shiotani INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Michael Apple, Mark Bray, Michael Cross, Suzanne Grant Lewis, Noel McGinn, Gary Natriello, Harold Noah, Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Frances Vavrus COPYRIGHT Unless otherwise noted, copyrights for the texts which comprise all issues of Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) are held by the journal. The compilation as a whole is Copyright © by Current Issues in Comparative Education, all rights reserved. Items published by CICE may be freely shared among individuals, but they may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author(s) and advance notification of the CICE editorial board. CICE holds exclusive rights in respect to electronic publication and dissemination. The journal may not be posted or in anyway mirrored on the world-wide web or any other part of the Internet except at the official publication site at Teachers College, Columbia University. CICE reserves the right to amend or change this copyright policy. For the most current version of this copyright policy, please see: http://www. tc.edu/cice/Main/guidelines.html. Questions about the journal’s copyright policy should be directed to the Editorial Board. DISCLAIMER The opinions and ideas expressed in the CICE are solely those held by the authors and are not necessarily shared by the editors of the Journal. Teachers College, Columbia University (CU) as a publisher makes no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, for information on its CICE Web site or in any issue of CICE, which are provided on an “as is” basis. Teachers College, CU does not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any party for any loss or damage resulting from the use of information on its CICE Web site or in any issue of CICE. 4 Current Issues in Comparative Education Editorial Introduction Re-reading the Anamorphosis of Educational Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength in Small States Special Guest Editor Tavis D. Jules Loyola University Chicago The Raison d’être of Small States Research Not so long ago, across many disciplines, the study of small states was seen as a futile project since “small states have been rendered synonymous to chronically vulnerable and problematic territories for which aid, assistance and especially favourable deals are legitimate” (Baldacchino, 2012, p. 237). Yet within the past eighteen months we have seen a popular resurgence of educational research on small states in comparative and international education (CIE) with at least two publications in 2011 (Education in Small States: Policies and Priorities by Michael Crossley, Mark Bray and Steve Packer, and Tertiary Education in Small States: Planning in the Context of Globalization edited by Michaela Martin and Mark Bray) and one in 2010 (Education in Small States: Global Imperatives, Regional Initiatives and Local Dilemmas edited by Peter Mayo). Before this wave of contemporary comparative analysis, the last comprehensive analysis in CIE of educational developments in small states appeared in the Special Issue in Comparative Education in 2008, Comparative and International Perspectives on Education in Small States guest edited by Peter Mayo. This Special Issue of Current Issues in Comparative Education shows the raison d’être of small states research is more pertinent now than ever, and challenges doubts over whether small state studies is still noteworthy as a category of analysis (see Goetschel, 1998; Baehr, 1974; Christmas-Moller, 1983). The numerous submissions for this Special Issue corroborate the expanded interest in the topic, which beseeches the question: What is now ‘novel’ about small states that has drawn new attention from researchers? Perhaps an answer to this question rests in the economics of small states. Another – although not unrelated – answer could be the movement of small states from government to governance, driven by globalization and technology which call for innovation and inventiveness to partake in the knowledge economy. Indeed, globalization has changed the way small states are regulated since it creates both homogenization and new localisms as nation states are confined to particular spaces, topographies, and ecologies. Therefore, in a post-‘global financial crises’ era, this issue offers re-readings of the policies, performances, and practices of small states, and continues the resurgent discourse about what we can learn from them. For some time now, small states research has been on an ‘empirical cliff,’ where there is emergent curiosity about why these states are successful, but diminishing empirical research about what constitutes success. Historically, the overall narrative on education in small states focused on analyzing individual states and searching for comparative patterns. Several prior studies have tried to address the educational challenges in small states, falling into two categories: single country studies or geo-strategic/geo-hemispherical studies (such as the Commonwealth, countries, the Caribbean Community [CARICOM], and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [ASEAN]). Within this issue, we have found new conceptualizations of small states that move away from “methodological nationalism” (Robertson & Dale, 2008) and provide unique © 2012 Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Current Issues in Comparative Education 15(1): 5-13. Editorial Introduction comparative perspectives on the strengths, vulnerabilities, and fragility that have come to define small states. The authors use existent literature on small political jurisdiction (see Baldacchino, 2012; Mayo, 2010) to reassess how distinctive small jurisdictions, such as the favelas in Brazil, which exist within a large urban metropolis, also face and respond to the same encounters that small states do (see in this issue Straubhaar). This new form of social learning forms a jurisdictions perspective that helps us to draw lessons from small states and apply them