Educational Research in the Asia-Pacific Region

Abstract

Perhaps the most impressive achievement of the twentieth century in the Asia-Pacific region is the creation within each country in the region of an organised system of education that aims to provide schooling for all. The rate and extent of development of the system in each country have differed, depending on existing traditions, the financial resources available and the size and structure of the population (see Educational Expenditure and Participation in East Asia and Australia). Nevertheless, the educational services that are being provided extend from early childhood education, through primary and secondary schooling, workforce and technological training to higher education in universities and adult recurrent education. This explosion in the provision of education has been costly and not without controversy within each country and between countries. In spite of the complexity of the issues involved and the wide range of problems that have been seen to exist, the countries in the region were initially slow to see the potential importance of research into educational problems. Education was seen to be an art, rather than a wide field with many problems that were amenable to investigation and research from a range of different perspectives with many different approaches to inquiry (see Educational Research and Educational Policy-Making in Asian and Pacific Countries).

The assistance of T.N. Postlethwaite in the preparation of this article is gratefully acknowledged.