The Strong State and Curriculum Reform

Reviews / Votes

'In this path-breaking volume, Lim and Apple and their collaborators both elaborate a convincing critique of existing work on the governance of education in East and South-East Asian countries and provide the bases of extensive theoretical reappraisals of the relationship between state and educational reform. Taken together, the individual chapters collectively represent a major scholarly advance on existing studies and provide a platform to which all future work - political as well as academic - will be indebted.' - Roger Dale, Professor of Education, University of Bristol

'Aiwah Ong described neoliberalism as a mobile technology. This book is careful, powerful and erudite exemplification of that. With a mix case studies and overview, the collection bring into focus the complexities of culture and curriculum in contemporary Asia. The analysis succeeds in capturing what makes neoliberalism the same and different at the same time, as it moves around the globe. As the book makes very clear, what now happens in Asia is of crucial importance to what might happen next in the West.' - Stephen J. Ball, FBA, AcSS, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University of London

'Drawing upon and moving beyond the intellectual traditions of Euro-American critical social theories, the authors of chapters in this volume honor the complexities of power and knowledge and transgress disciplinary boundaries. They not only illuminate how "Asia as indigenize our understandings of curriculum reform in a region thriving with paradoxes and contestations.' - Ming Fang He, Professor of Curriculum Studies, Georgia Southern University

'As a brave departure, they set-up the stage where regional 'Asia' is undergoing tumultuous political, social and cultural changes and upheavals and invite a team of scholars to provide insider accounts of how the politics of curriculum reform are played out. The result is a refreshing and insightful critical scholarship about curriculum reform and educational change in Asia.' - Aaron Koh, Associate Professor of Education, The Chinese Univerity of Hong Kong 'In this path-breaking volume, Lim and Apple and their collaborators both elaborate a convincing critique of existing work on the governance of education in East and South-East Asian countries and provide the bases of extensive theoretical reappraisals of the relationship between state and educational reform. Taken together, the individual chapters collectively represent a major scholarly advance on existing studies and provide a platform to which all future work - political as well as academic - will be indebted.' - Roger Dale, Professor of Education, University of Bristol

'Aiwah Ong described neoliberalism as a mobile technology. This book is careful, powerful and erudite exemplification of that. With a mix case studies and overview, the collection bring into focus the complexities of culture and curriculum in contemporary Asia. The analysis succeeds in capturing what makes neoliberalism the same and different at the same time, as it moves around the globe. As the book makes very clear, what now happens in Asia is of crucial importance to what might happen next in the West.' - Stephen J. Ball, FBA, AcSS, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University of London

'Drawing upon and moving beyond the intellectual traditions of Euro-American critical social theories, the authors of chapters in this volume honor the complexities of power and knowledge and transgress disciplinary boundaries. They not only illuminate how "Asia as indigenize our understandings of curriculum reform in a region thriving with paradoxes and contestations.' - Ming Fang He, Professor of Curriculum Studies, Georgia Southern University

'As a brave departure, they set-up the stage where regional 'Asia' is undergoing tumultuous political, social and cultural changes and upheavals and invite a team of scholars to provide insider accounts of how the politics of curriculum reform are played out. The result is a refreshing and insightful critical scholarship about curriculum reform and educational change in Asia.' - Aaron Koh, Associate Professor of Education, The Chinese Univerity of Hong Kong

'The book contributes to critical scholarship against Western imperial knowledge forms...[it] displays a comprehensive discussion of contemporary and ongoing changes in politics, economics, and ideologies and how these intersect with education policies and practices in Asian contexts... The book is also significant in establishing positions for Asian scholars to construct critical scholar identities, and in providing international scholars with a globalised research lens, as well as a local empirical sites to explore Asian education stories.' - Yijun Hu and Parlo Singh, Griffith Institute for Educational Research, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia