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Forming the academic profession in East Asia : a comparative analysis

This thesis analyses the changing shape of the academic profession in (South) Korea and Malaya or Malaysia, and Singapore since the colonial period. The argument is that the shape of the academic profession which has emerged by the contemporary period is a reflection of both the inherited models of higher education and their redefinition after the colonial period. The specific argument of the thesis is that the shaping of the academic profession in these three countries can be understood because of this colonial genesis and because the State formations of the colonial and postcolonial periods permitted only restricted social space for the university and academic autonomy. Chapter One and Chapter Two set out the theoretical perspective of the thesis, for analysing the academic profession. Chapter Three investigates the emergent academic professions of Korea and Malaya under Japanese and British colonialism. Chapter Four analyses the ways in which the academic professions in South Korea and Malaysia and subsequently Singapore were affected by the modernity projects of the newly independent States and shows how those efforts were affected by the colonial inheritance - and how far an escape was made from that history. The theme extends to the contemporary changes in the shape of the academic profession - its institutional locations, its knowledge priorities, and its international relations - under pressures of globalization and the new policies of `internationalization' of education in South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. Chapter Five as the conclusion to the thesis tries to show how the changing shape of three Asian academic professions can be understood through the social and political contexts of these three States - the formation of the academic profession being more affected by these contexts and by State projects than by imported `ideas of the university'.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:536197
Date January 1998
CreatorsKim, Terri
PublisherUCL Institute of Education (IOE)
Source SetsEthos UK
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Sourcehttp://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/21868/

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