This is a book about four rural secondary schools of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, a newly independent Central Asian state of the former USSR. Utilizing case study methods, we describe and discuss how teachers, administrators and students are attempting to survive the proclaimed "transition" to democracy and a market economy within their particular schools and communities. We view this work primarily as a cultural study of schools and school life, not a work about the national education system. There is in fact a growing volume of other writings on issues and problems in education in Central...

A look at the challenges facing education in Central Asia. In many ways, the story of education since the beginning of the transition in Central Asia is integrated with similar processes in other parts of the former Soviet Union. It may not explain everything, but understanding the challenges throughout the 15 former republics is helpful in understanding the progress and setback in the Central Asian Republics. Most importantly, the Central Asia republics have demonstrated their independence in the adherence of Western-recommendations; they have articulated their demand for respect on their...

A volume in International Perspectives on Educational Policy, Research, and Practice Series Editor: Kathryn M. Borman, University of South Florida Being a "student" has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their families in Kyrgyzstan. "Giving their children education" (dat detyam obrazovaniye) - meaning "higher education" - has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbers of universities and university enrollments have increased dramatically - in fact quadrupled - since Kyrgyz independence from the former...

A volume in International Perspectives on Educational Policy, Research, and Practice Series Editor: Kathryn M. Borman, University of South Florida Being a "student" has been and remains a highly desirable status for young people and their families in Kyrgyzstan. "Giving their children education" (dat detyam obrazovaniye) - meaning "higher education" - has become an imperative for many parents, even in a time of serious economic and social decline. The numbers of universities and university enrollments have increased dramatically - in fact quadrupled - since Kyrgyz independence from the former...

In the mountains of the Northern Pakistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan School and schooling are both symbolic of wider ranging cultural and political battles over morals, modernity, development, gender and the rule of law. Educational Policies in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan: Contested Terrain in the Twenty-First Century is about both the normative battles over the purpose of education, as well as about the structural impediments to providing instruction in those remote and challenging locations where it is attempted. The analytical frames in this collection come primarily from the...