ABSTRACT
I had the opportunity to be in the audience at a session of the American Sociological Association’s Sociology of Education Section when Jeanne Ballantine first presented the results of her innovative and exciting investigations on the concept of ‘good teaching’ in various nations around the world. It was fascinating to listen to Jeanne describe how she met with faculty members in many nations including Spain, England, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Japan. I had such options in recent years when visiting some of these very countries, so why hadn’t I thought of interviewing my international colleagues on this subject? Jeanne emphasized that if higher education most certainly has universal value, then why does the quality of teaching in higher education have such low priority among our international colleagues; why hadn’t this occurred to me, a faculty member in a school of education?
