This book is the most comprehensive account yet published about the education system in Cambodia. It covers all system levels and draws upon the knowledge and insights of a wide range of leading Cambodian and foreign scholars. The book focuses on how the system has developed and is making progress. Significant achievements over the past two decades are evident, but many problems remain, including the poor quality of teaching, research and institutional management. Under-funding is an ongoing obstacle, but so too is a bureaucratic culture of resistance to change, a history of weak governance, and an anti-reform sentiment deriving from a teacher-centred and exam-driven curriculum. Achieving international standards must now be the system’s highest priority. To this end, the system must rid itself of conservatism, complacency and manipulation by parochial vested interests.
The Kingdom of Cambodia has an ancient pedigree, a time when its people first established small principalities which evolved in small kingdoms. These kingdoms merged, often violently, eventually establishing the great Angkorian kingdom of the Khmer. The great building complex known as Angkor Wat, an achievement of stupendous proportion, whose dimensions are still being determined, is a product of the Khmer Empire. The empire was subject to much tension, both internally from competing nobles who sought to ascend the powerful throne, to outside kingdoms who tried to invade and subjugate the Khmer. Vietnam to the east, and further south also to the east, was the Cham Empire, while to the west was the Thai. These three kingdoms warred with the Khmer, eventually reducing it from grandeur. After the Khmer Empire fell, Cambodia entered a Dark Ages, a period of 431 years, from 1431 to 1862, years of scant records. Historians today try to reconstruct why the empire fell and why its people moved from the Siem Reap area and why records from this time are almost entirely unknown. In 1862, France became Cambodia's protector, defending its autonomy from both Vietnam and Thailand (Siam) who were both nibbling at either end of Cambodia. The Protectorate ended in 1942 when the Japanese occupied the land, followed by the return of the French in 1945, after the end of the Second World War. As in other countries subjugated by colonist powers, the defeat of France encouraged Cambodian nationalists to fight for a return to independence and autonomy. It is in this crucible that the Khmer Rouge, a communist-inspired group, began an insurrection against the French, and later against the Cambodian government. The Khmer Rouge, inspired by nihilistic beliefs, came to power in 1975 and began the tragic genocide of the Cambodian people. Between a quarter to a third of the people were murdered, representing the best and the elite of its society. There were many actors in this saga, both ancient and modern. I review these persons, to the extent known and the roles they played in Cambodian history and the effect it has had on the country today. The character of Pol Pot, mastermind and leader of the Khmer Rouge, is of special importance. I review his strange way of not identifying with a leadership role until absolutely necessary. But the menace of this man went much deeper; through guile and bland smiles, he allayed fear about himself, though he ordered the murder of those closest to him. Yet, even as they were led away, they disbelieved the order for their deaths, believing that if they could but have a moment with him, all would be set right. Even those closest to him did not see him for the monster he really was. He was a master at guile and deception, with none seeing the man as the monster of terror and destruction. Even in the Far East where exhibiting emotion and genuine feeling is shunned to the nth degree, this man’s ability to remain hidden reflects the ultimate achievement. But he brought ruin to his nation, with today’s loss of the elite of the country. I spent two months in Cambodia, visiting and researching material for this review. During my time there, I visited the only synagogue in the country, the Chabad House in Phnom Penh. It was then that I became aware of an amazing fact: a granddaughter of royalty celebrated her Bat Mitzvah in the capital, attended by members of the royal family. The story of how a member of the Cambodian royal family became Jewish is itself an incredible development. Cambodia today is a Third World country, with many attractions, both superb and revolting. At core, its representations reflect the saga of humanity, whose pages are sometimes elevating and also horrific. I describe my journey to this corner of Asia, hoping I've done justice to its many contours and personalities.
This book systematically examines how learning to read occurs in diverse languages, and in so doing, explores how literacy is learned in a second language by learners who have achieved at least basic reading skills in their first language. As a consequence of rapid globalization, such learners are a large and growing segment of the school population worldwide, and an increasing number of schools are challenged by learners from a wide variety of languages, and with distinct prior literacy experiences. To succeed academically these learners must develop second-language literacy skills, yet little is known about the ways in which they learn to read in their first languages, and even less about how the specific nature and level of their first-language literacy affects second-language reading development. This volume provides detailed descriptions of five typologically diverse languages and their writing systems, and offers comparisons of learning-to-read experiences in these languages. Specifically, it addresses the requisite competencies in learning to read in each of the languages, how language and writing system properties affect the way children learn to read, and the extent and ways in which literacy learning experience in one language can play a role in subsequent reading development in another. Both common and distinct aspects of literacy learning experiences across languages are identified, thus establishing a basis for determining which skills are available for transfer in second-language reading development. Learning to Read Across Languages is intended for researchers and advanced students in the areas of second-language learning, psycholinguistics, literacy, bilingualism, and cross-linguistic issues in language processing.
Indexes the Times, Sunday times and magazine, Times literary supplement, Times educational supplement, Times educational supplement Scotland, and the Times higher education supplement.
This book investigates the relationship between context and leadership in post-conflict Cambodia. Building on the understanding that approaches to leadership are tightly woven within the contexts that leaders operate, the authors examine the case of primary school leadership in Cambodia. A low-income and post-conflict society rocked by civil war and genocide between the 1960s and the 1990s, the country is – perhaps unsurprisingly – faced with numerous challenges as it engages in the process of national rehabilitation and reconstruction, particularly in relation to the education system. The authors provide a comprehensive historical background to primary school leadership not only in Cambodia, but in post-conflict environments more broadly: informing school leadership preparation, development and support, and facilitating understanding of the context in which school leaders work. This book will be of value to students and scholars of primary school education and education in post-conflict countries, as well as to practitioners and policy makers.
