Culture, Transnational Education and Thinking ─ Case Studies in Global Schooling

The notion of thinking skills as a key component of a 21st century school education is now firmly entrenched in educational policy and curriculum frameworks in many parts of the world. However, there has been relatively little questioning of the manner in which educational globalisation has facilitated this diffusion of thinking skills, curriculum and pedagogy in a cultural context. This book will help to redress such an imbalance in its critical assessment of the cross-cultural validity of transplanting thinking skills programs from one educational system to another on an international scale.

Culture, Transnational Education and Thinking provides an international comparative study of the intersection of three educational concepts: culture, education and thinking. Drawing on case studies from Malaysia, South Africa and Australia/USA for the purposes of comparative analysis, the book employs the context of an international school program in the teaching of thinking skills, Future Problem Solving Program International. The book explores the associations between Future Problem Solving educators, their cultural background, and their approaches to thinking, evaluating the relevance of transferring thinking skills programs derived in one cultural framework into another. The book also discusses the wider implications of these cross-cultural comparisons to curriculum and pedagogy within schools and higher education, with a particular emphasis on the teaching of multicultural school-based classes and cross-cultural understandings in teacher education and professional development.

This book will be of relevance to academics and higher education students who have an interest in the fields of cross-cultural and intercultural understanding, comparative studies in education, and theories and practices of cognition, as well as the development of tertiary and secondary curricula and associated pedagogies that specifically acknowledge the cultural diversities of both teacher and learner.

Niranjan Casinader is a lecturer in curriculum and assessment in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate units across primary and secondary teacher education. His research interests focus on the impact of the historical and contemporary globalisation of education on curriculum, pedagogy and leadership, with particular reference to culture, problem-solving capacity, humanities education and the impact of colonialism. He has been concerned with thinking education for over twenty years, and is currently involved in the leadership of a nonprofit organisation concerned with the teaching of thinking and problem-solving skills at both the Australian and global levels.In 2013 Niranjan was presented with the AARE Early Career Researcher Award.