Asian Education Podcast

Quantitative ethnography and educational research

In this episode, concluding our mini-series introducing special issues of the Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Edward Vickers talks to Belle Dang, Andy Nguyen and Eric Hamilton about their work on quantitative ethnography. They begin by explaining what quantitative ethnography (QE) is, and why they see it as especially useful for educational researchers working in low- and middle-income countries. QE refers to methods of quantifying data from what is typically viewed as the inherently qualitative field of ethnography. It enables researchers to visually map or tabulate this data in ways that may be both illuminating for scholars, and readily understandable or persuasive to non-academic audiences such as policymakers, administrators or educational practitioners.

The discussion then turns to the article by Belle, Andy and their co-authors on the ‘digital transformation’ of Vietnamese higher education. As Andy and Belle explain, this research was prompted by their experience of the Covid-19 pandemic and the strains this placed upon higher education in Vietnam. As elsewhere, in Vietnam policymakers and educators responded to these strains in part by accelerating the adoption of digital technology for instructional use. In this study, the authors compare the approaches to digital technology in the higher education sector during and after the pandemic, using ‘epistemic network analysis’ to quantify and visually map the patterns and connections between ideas in relevant documents.

In their research on the take-up of digital technology in Vietnamese higher education, Belle, Andy and their team found that the focus shifted from primarily technical considerations during the pandemic to more searching reflection on the purpose and appropriate uses of the technology during the post-pandemic period. Faced with the immediate crisis of Covid-19, the sector rushed to expand digital infrastructure and put in place the necessary administrative framework, perhaps without a very sophisticated or secure understanding of the technology’s potential and limitations. However, once the emergency was over, more attention was directed towards elaborating a ‘vision’ for the collaborative use of digital technology in higher education.

Nevertheless, the overall impression that emerges from the study of Vietnam is of general enthusiasm there for digital technology - at least among policymakers and university administrators. This episode concludes with some discussion of whether Andy, Belle or their colleagues encountered any scepticism concerning the merits of this rush to digitalise, or any wider public debate over the potential disadvantages of an excessive reliance on digital technology in higher education, or more generally.

Related Readings:

Hamilton E, Espino DP, Lee S, Lux K (2025), "Editorial: Quantitative ethnography in education research and evaluation in low- and middle-income nations". Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 27 No. 2 pp. 81–85, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-08-2025-064

The Learning Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa

This episode continues our mini-series showcasing recent special issues of the Journal of International Cooperation in Education. This time, the focus falls on a 2025 special issue, "Addressing the 'learning crisis' in sub-Saharan Africa: Critical factors and potential solutions", edited by Nozomi Sakata and Moses Oketch. Nozomi Sakata and Hannah Edjah join Ed to talk about this issue, and especially Hannah's co-authored article examining a recent initiative to reform teacher education in Ghana.

Hannah, Nozomi and Ed begin by discussing what is meant by talk of educational 'crisis' in the societies of sub-Saharan Africa. Who defines the nature of the 'crisis', and how are related narratives used to justify particular policies? This connects to the discussion in the previous episode of the podcast, which looked at the JICE special issue dealing with the politics of crisis narratives in education.

The discussion then turns to the recent reforms to college-level, pre-service teacher education programmes in Ghana. In their article, Hannah and her co-authors gathered reflections from various stakeholders involved in designing and implementing these reforms, which aimed to standardise and centralise public provision of teacher education in Ghana. In their conversation for the pod, Hannah, Nozomi and Ed seek especially to probe the politics behind the reform process. They ask why a reform of this nature was proposed at this particular time, and by whom. Since the reform was largely funded by foreign aid, they reflect on the role of local voices vis-à-vis those of donors in the policy's design. And in so far as local voices were involved, whose voices were loudest, and why? Here they touch on the composition of the sample of stakeholders interviewed for this study, noting the preponderance of men over women - despite the fact that the majority of schoolteachers in Ghana are female.

In a wide-ranging discussion, Ed, Hannah and Nozomi raise a number of difficult issues of relevance not just for our understanding of teacher education in Ghana, but to debates over the politics of educational reform in developing societies across Africa and beyond.

Further reading:

Edjah H, Adu Henaku E, Okrah AK, Sakata N, Yates C (2025), "Collaboration between stakeholders in the design of a context-based curriculum in Ghana". Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 27 No. 1 pp. 58–76, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-03-2024-0014

Nozomi Sakata, Chris Yates, Hannah Edjah & Abraham Kwadwo

JICE special issue on 'The Politics of Post-Crisis Challenges in Education'

Continuing our mini-series introducing the Journal of International Cooperation in Education , this episode focuses on a recent special issue on the theme of 'The Politics of Post-Crisis Challenges Confronting Education', edited by Latika Gupta and Edward Vickers. The theme is taken from that of the 2023 conference of the Comparartive Education Society of Asia, which was held in Hiroshima, Japan.

Edward Vickers begins by briefly discussing this theme of 'crisis', and the way in which the special issue tackles it. He provides an overview of the articles in the issue, which include an edited transcript of a panel discussion at the CESA conference in which he, Fazal Rizvi, Maren Elfert, Audrey Bryan and Nishara Fernando discussed 'international organisations, crisis narratives and education policy debate'.

The discussion then turns to this episode's featured article by Chris Millora, on 'informal learning and youth social action in the Philippines'. Joining the conversation with Ed and Chris is Mark Maca, who has extensively researched the history and politics of education in the contemporary Philippines.

Among the issues Ed, Chris and Mark discuss is whether, or in what sense, the Philippines today should be seen as a society 'in crisis'. To the extent that it should be, they interrogate the nature of that crisis and its educational implications. Mark, whose work focuses primarily on formal schooling, explains the role of the school curriculum in teaching about citizenship and recent changes in this respect. He reflects on the significance of formal schooling in moulding Filipino citizens.

Chris focuses in his article not on formal but on informal learning about citizenship. He explains what he means by 'informal' learning, and why he sees it as important. The data for his paper comes from case studies of two youth activist groups in the Filipino region of Iloilo: Youth4Health, which seeks to raise HIV awareness, and Buligag Youth, which works to enhance youth involvement in local governance and politics. Chris discusses who these young people were: their social and educational backgrounds, and their reasons for engaging in activism. He reflects on how their activism influences their experience of citizenship, and briefly discusses how they have moved on from activism, and whether any have become involved in formal politics.

Further reading:

Gupta L, Vickers E (2025), "Editorial: The politics of post-crisis challenges confronting education". Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 27 No. 3 pp. 225–230, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-11-2025-069

Millora C (2025), "Young people “learning to become” active citizens: informal learning and youth social action in the Philippines". Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 27 No. 3 pp. 231–245, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-02-2024-0007

Vickers E, Bryan A, Elfert M, Fernando N, Rizvi F (2025), "Discussion: Crisis? What crisis? International organisations, crisis narratives and education policy debate". Journal of International Cooperation in Education, Vol. 27 No. 3 pp. 309–328, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JICE-11-2025-070

Introducing the Journal of International Cooperation in Education

In this episode, the first of a 'mini-series' on the Journal of International Cooperation in Education (JICE), Edward Vickers talks to Tatsuya Kusakabe and Sakata Nozomi, the journal's editors. In three subsequent episodes, Ed will introduce themes discussed in recent special issues of JICE. First, however, this conversation with Prof. Kusakabe and Dr. Nozomi introduces the overall goals and scope of the journal. JICE is managed by Hiroshima University and is published by Emerald. The journal is affiliated to the Comparative Education Society of Asia.

JICE is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that engages with unconventional approaches to educational development and knowledge generation. The term ‘International Cooperation’ denotes the Journal’s vision that education can be a process of cooperation, with non-hierarchical, horizontal relationships among stakeholders. Since its official launch in 1998, JICE has become an alternative venue for generating non-Western-centric knowledge in educational development. JICE aims to contribute to accumulating field-level knowledge, policymaking and development strategies in the global South while espousing an unconventional mode of international cooperation in education.

For more information on JICE, visit the journal website at https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/journal/jice

Further reading:

Series 6, Episode 2

Catherine Aymé on teaching French in Central Asia

In this episode of the Asian Education Podcast, we are joined by Catherine Aymé, who is a teacher and researcher at Sorbonne University Paris Nord in Information and Communication Science. Her doctoral research explores some of the intercultural tensions between France and Uzbekistan, focusing on ‘French as a second language’ educational resources that circulate in Uzbek universities. This episode focuses on issues related to language education, the context in which educational resources are developed and circulated, and how they are actually used.

Links to the work of researchers mentioned in the interview:

Pierre Moeglin, Professor in Information and Communication Science

Joëlle Le Marec, Professor in Information and Communication Science at the  French National Museum of Natural History, laboratoire PALOC.

Alex Frame, Professor in Information and Communication Science University of Burgundy

Fred Dervin, Professor of Multicultural Education, Helsinki University

Introducing the Little Red Podcast. Sample episode: Education Nation - China's Exam Fetish

The Little Red Podcast: interviews and chat celebrating China beyond the Beijing beltway.

For more episodes of the Little Red Podcast, visit the show's website:

Introduction to Education and Development in Contemporary Asia (bonus series):

In a new initiative, the Asian Education Podcast is releasing an MA module on 'Education and Development in Contemporary Asia'. Designed for hybrid delivery, this provides a historical overview of education’s role in the political, social and economic development of contemporary Asian societies. Each episode features a conversation between the presenter, Edward Vickers, and an invited expert, with episode notes providing a brief outline, guiding questions and recommended readings (as well as links to further materials).

The series/module begins by critically considering the educational significance of legacies of colonialism and imperialism across the region, while emphasising the need to acknowledge indigenous agency and the salience of non-Western forms of ‘hegemony’. A central theme concerns the importance of politics to any understanding of education, in Asia or elsewhere. The role of schooling in national identity formation in post-colonial or post-revolutionary societies is crucial here, but so too is the wider function of ‘political socialisation’ in inculcating values of meritocracy, hierarchy and justice. The module traces these and related issues - of inequality (as it intersects with divisions of gender, class, residence and ethnicity); multiculturalism; collectivism (or individualism); educational intensity and credentialism; and the prevalence in public discourse of narrowly instrumentalist conceptions of education’s purposes. Asian societies are often presented in the West today as educational models - but if Asia is seen as offering answers, what are the questions being asked of education, and are they the right ones?

NOTE: This is a bonus series designed for teaching postgraduate courses on Education and Development in Contemporary Asia. This episode (comprising previously published episodes of the Asian Education Podcast) is fully accessible. For details on terms of access to the whole series write to: [email protected]

Assessment, educational competitiveness and ‘shadow education’

This session examines the prevalence of supplementary private education (or ‘shadow education’) across contemporary Asia. Highlighting the intense educational competitiveness that has fuelled this phenomenon, we discuss what is causing this, and why it has become so pervasive and extreme. Much of the focus in discussions of educational intensity focuses on cultures and systems of educational assessment, but competitive credentialism is more than a state of mind or a matter of testing techniques - it is symptomatic of deeper social issues. The fundamental factors driving the explosive growth of shadow education are varied and complex. They include the rapid expansion of access to education (at both schooling and college levels); a corresponding growth in the use of educational qualifications to select candidates for employment and further education; and profound social insecurity in contexts of minimal public welfare provision and vast (and growing) disparities in income and opportunity. The ramifications of the shadow education ‘craze’ are also extensive and complex, and include its ‘backwash’ effect on regular schooling.

This session draws on previous episodes of the Asian Education Podcast:

Questions discussed include:

Readings:

Kaori Okano (2021). Education and Social Justice in Japan. New York and London: Routledge, Chapter 7.

Edward Vickers (2024). Review of Le Lin (2022), The Fruits of Opportunism, China Journal 91, 136-139.

Bhorkar, S., & Bray, M. (2018). ‘The expansion and roles of private tutoring in India: From supplementation to supplantation’, International Journal of Educational Development, 62, 148-156.

NOTE: This is a bonus series designed for teaching postgraduate courses on Education and Development in Contemporary Asia. This episode (comprising previously published episodes of the Asian Education Podcast) is fully accessible. For details on terms of access to the whole series write to: [email protected]

Session Two: Education in Postcolonial South Asia - nation-building, inequality and economic development

Episodes related to this session:

Education systems in the societies of South Asia still bear the stamp of their origins in the era of British colonialism, when provision was designed to buttress political control and cause minimum disruption to the privileges of established elites. In the postcolonial era, expansion of educational provision has been touted as the key to economic growth and shared opportunity, but profound social inequality remains entrenched across the region. In this session, we discuss the role of education in shaping the new nation-states of postcolonial South Asia, with a particular focus on the period since the 1980s - a period that has witnessed extensive marketisation and privatisation of public service provision. We consider how pressures for increased privatisation of educational provision have been related to other trends, notably the rise of nationalist extremism and demonisation of religious or ethnic minorities. We also consider the role of education in promoting - or limiting - opportunity for groups on the margins of South Asian societies: not only religious minorities and ‘lower’ castes, but also women and girls.

Questions discussed in this session include:

Readings:

Krishna Kumar. 2014. Politics of Education in Colonial India. New Delhi: Routledge.

Lall, Marie, and Kusha Anand. 2022. Bridging Neoliberalism and Hindu Nationalism: The Role of Education in Bringing about Contemporary India. Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2xqnf78.

Gupta, L., & Vickers, E. (2025). The Janus Face of Indian internationalisation: nationalism, neoliberalism and the politics of teacher education reform. Comparative Education, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2025.2574754

Asian (Re)Education on Film, Episode 14

The Last Emperor (Bernardo Bertolucci, UK/Italy/France/China, 1987)

For the last episode in this series, I’ll be discussing The Last Emperor, which was actually the first feature film about China that I ever saw, shortly after it came out in 1987. Unlike the other films I’ve been discussing, this is a Hollywood blockbuster with a Western director, Bernardo Bertolucci. But like Chen Kaige’s King of the Children (Episode 2), which appeared in the same year, it’s also a document of China’s liberal 1980s, the decade of Beijing’s ‘Opening Up’, when the country was more tolerant and open that it had ever been, or would subsequently become.

Bertolucci was given permission to shoot on location in Beijing’s Forbidden City, as well as in other locations such as the former palace of the Emperor of Manchukuo in Changchun. This makes for a visually stunning production, and one that I find particularly evocative. In the early 2000s, I worked in a compound just north of the Forbidden City, at the People’s Education Press (PEP). PEP’s offices were just east of Jingshan Park, and during my lunch break, I would often climb the hill in the park to admire the panoramic view of the old imperial palace.

My role at PEP was to write and edit English language textbooks for China’s secondary schools, but the sort of education with which The Last Emperor deals is rather less conventional. The central narrative thread consists of the story of the ‘re-education’ of Aising Gioro Pu Yi, the boy-emperor of the Qing Dynasty who was deposed in 1911. The film cuts backwards and forwards between the portrayal of Pu Yi’s life in a Communist-run re-education camp during the 1950s, and episodes from his earlier life. It is largely based on Pu Yi’s heavily censored autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen, published in English by Beijing’s Foreign Languages Press, which I remember seeing prominently displayed in every ‘Foreign Languages Bookstore’ on my early visits to China in the 1990s. It also draws on the book Twilight in the Forbidden City, the memoir of Pu Yi’s tutor, Reginald Johnston, a British educator whose stint at the heart of Beijing preceded mine by 80 years or so.

Pu Yi’s autobiography, which can be read as a particularly elaborate example of the Communist genre of ‘self-criticism’, was meant to showcase the regime’s humanity and integrity. ‘Re-education’, as a method for dealing with the regime's ideological opponents, was promoted as emblematic of the essential humanity of Communism. Other regimes might kill or torture their enemies: the corrupt Kuomintang, for example, whom the Communists displaced, or the brutal, hated Japanese imperialists. But Communism - as a creed underpinned by ‘science’ and enlightenment - would reason with its opponents, demonstrate to them the error of their ways, and turn them towards the one true path of progress. That, at least, was the theory that Pu Yi’s story, above all, was meant to exemplify.

As we’ll see, though, this film - despite having been made with the approval of the Communist authorities - somewhat subverts that narrative. It does so particularly through its depiction at the end of the Cultural Revolution. For that reason, amongst others, this is a film that almost certainly could not be made today. And as I’ll discuss, there is more to say about the doctrine of re-education itself, and its contemporary application in the China of Xi Jinping.

You can watch the film online here:

Further reading:

Aising Gioro Pu Yi (1960). From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aising Gioro Pu Yi. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press.

Reginald Johnston (1934). Twilight in the Forbidden City. Cambridge University Press (reissue 2011).

Bulag, U. E. (2023). The wheel of history and minorities’ ‘self-sacrifice’ for the Chinese nation. Comparative Education, 60(1), 96–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2023.2271781