The rapid growth of low-fee private schools in developing countries has attracted much scholarly attention in recent years. In contrast with the traditional private schools that mainly serves elites and the rich, low-fee private schools target the relatively poor households by charging low tuition fees. Some believe that low-fee private school is “the poor’s best chance” to receive quality education while others question the quality of low-fee private schools and whether they are affordable to the most disadvantaged population. The present paper is a case study on a low-fee private school in Cambodia, a country where the low-fee private sector is unexplored. Through in-depth interviews with households and other stakeholders including the government officers, school owner, teachers and students from the low-fee private school, the study seeks to understand reasons beyond the growing popularity of the low-fee private sector and its implications to education in Cambodia. Findings revealed that interviewees believe that the low-fee private school is of better quality and expressed dissatisfactions toward the public sector. The paper discusses the implications of low-fee private schooling on the issues of quality and equity and the role of state in the education provision in Cambodia. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

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This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the role of elite single-gender schools in the reproduction of class and gender inequalities. This is an ethnographic study of an all-boys and all-girls school in the Toronto area, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and web and print school documents. I focused especially on students in their final year of high school, when the potential advantages embedded within a private school are most likely to be capitalized on. The data provide an opportunity highlight three mechanisms of class and gender reproduction. First, I explore the teacher/student relationship as a source of advantage for students and show how teachers are complicit in these negotiations. I make sense of this in the context of the schools’ belief in the importance of educating the whole child, including traits like leadership, and the university prep focus of these schools. Second, I focus on how school personnel understand their students as gendered subjects and the contradiction this presents at the all-girls school, where administrators are keen on students defying stereotypes but draw on many of those stereotypes to develop best practices at the school. Third, I analyze the university choice process of these students, noting especially how they construct distinctions between Canadian universities despite Canada not having a steep and well-known hierarchy between institutions, and how they use the established hierarchies in other countries. I bring together theories on the correspondence between the economic structure and the education system and the role of culture in reproduction, staying mindful of how these educational settings are structured and what is happening in the classroom, including how students shape their educational experiences through their actions and their interactions with others, especially teachers.

This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the role of elite single-gender schools in the reproduction of class and gender inequalities. This is an ethnographic study of an all-boys and all-girls school in the Toronto area, combining participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and web and print school documents. I focused especially on students in their final year of high school, when the potential advantages embedded within a private school are most likely to be capitalized on. The data provide an opportunity highlight three mechanisms of class and gender reproduction. First, I explore the teacher/student relationship as a source of advantage for students and show how teachers are complicit in these negotiations. I make sense of this in the context of the schools’ belief in the importance of educating the whole child, including traits like leadership, and the university prep focus of these schools. Second, I focus on how school personnel understand their students as gendered subjects and the contradiction this presents at the all-girls school, where administrators are keen on students defying stereotypes but draw on many of those stereotypes to develop best practices at the school. Third, I analyze the university choice process of these students, noting especially how they construct distinctions between Canadian universities despite Canada not having a steep and well-known hierarchy between institutions, and how they use the established hierarchies in other countries. I bring together theories on the correspondence between the economic structure and the education system and the role of culture in reproduction, staying mindful of how these educational settings are structured and what is happening in the classroom, including how students shape their educational experiences through their actions and their interactions with others, especially teachers.

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Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Adelaide, 1990. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Adelaide, Graduate School of Education, 2003. / Bibliography: leaves 118-122.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-65).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1927. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. "Selected bibliography": p. 334-342.