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This paper seeks to explain the formulation of education policy discourse of bilateral aid agencies in Japan, South Korea, and China to examine theories of globalization of education with Cambodia as a case study. A further effort was made to explore the potential of post-structural theory to examine processes of globalization in terms of policy convergence or divergence in relation to the two dominant sociological theories in the field of comparative education: Neo-Institutional Theory and Systems Theory. Policy documents and interviews with government officials were analyzed to test these two theories against a post-structural approach. It was found that Asian aid agencies display tendencies toward both convergence and divergence in their aid policy discourse. There is a tendency for the agencies to practice self-referentiality in an effort to strengthen their political influence in international relations. Further research will be required to examine how project implementation may confirm or challenge the interpretation of the aid policy discourse in relation to post-structural discourse analysis.

This study sought to examine bilateral aid agency actors and their aid policies as they might be affected by political changes in Cambodia as a recipient country to examine processes of globalization in terms of policy convergence or divergence in relation to the two dominant sociological theories in the field of comparative education: Neo-Institutional Theory and Systems Theory. Policy documents, aid agency press releases, and wider media coverage were analyzed to test these two theories. It was found that Asian aid agencies did not converge in aid policy with Western aid agencies which have sought to reduce aid and limit trade with Cambodia as a result of the 2017 changes in the Cambodian political system. The Asian aid agencies do not display isomorphic convergence as predicted by Neo-Institutional Theory, and conversely prioritized their own geopolitical context in formulating aid policy with economic and political dimensions which reflected broader international relations considerations as predicted by Systems Theory. Further research will be required as these aid directives are translated into actual policy and project implementation to examine these theories in the next stage of this research project.

This paper seeks to explain the formulation of education policy discourse of bilateral aid agencies in Japan, South Korea, and China to examine theories of globalization of education with Cambodia as a case study. A further effort was made to explore the potential of post-structural theory to examine processes of globalization in terms of policy convergence or divergence in relation to the two dominant sociological theories in the field of comparative education: Neo-Institutional Theory and Systems Theory. Policy documents and interviews with government officials were analyzed to test these two theories against a post-structural approach. It was found that Asian aid agencies display tendencies toward both convergence and divergence in their aid policy discourse. There is a tendency for the agencies to practice self-referentiality in an effort to strengthen their political influence in international relations. Further research will be required to examine how project implementation may confirm or challenge the interpretation of the aid policy discourse in relation to post-structural discourse analysis.

AbstractThis study aimed to chronicle and understand the emergency online teaching experience of five faculty members in a liberal arts college located in Tokyo, Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, adopting the autoethnographic method. It explored the nature and dimensions of problems the faculty members faced, resources used to make sense of problems encountered, and actions they took to solve the problems as reflective practitioners in emergency online teaching. It also examined differences between faculty members over time. Analysis of seven weeks of autobiographic reflective journals during a 10-week academic term revealed that the faculty members encountered a range of problems during the classes, especially student-related and technology-related issues. When encountering problems, faculty members utilized references such as their past experience in face-to-face classroom teaching. Faculty members with more online teaching experience were more adaptable and flexible in mobilizing other references to solve problems. Overall, all members worked as reflective learners and practitioners who continued to reflect on the problems they faced and find solutions. These findings suggest that engaging in reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action can be effective ways for faculty members to develop their competencies to solve problems in emergency online teaching situations when responding to unprecedented challenges and issues is continuously needed.