ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have shown how different countries in Asia have responded to new pressures related to the global economy and how new thinking about economic growth and development has led to wide-scale educational reform at all levels. Not all countries have responded in exactly the same way; a theme that has been developed from the beginning of the book has been that Asia’s diversity often leads to different policy responses, depending on the level of development of the country, local priorities and local values. The pace of development can often lead to tensions within countries, especially in relation to the role local values have to play in the ongoing press to make development a priority at all costs. These tensions play themselves out in different ways in different countries and such tensions can impact directly on the extent to which educational reform processes take hold at the local level. In order to appreciate these tensions and their impact, there needs to be a greater understanding of the extent and focus of specific reform movements, and in particular the ways in which these movements challenge existing values.
