Institute of Education London

Dr Edward Vickers

• Qualifications and position:
  • MA (Oxon), PhD
  • Reader in Education (Comparative Education)
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Policy and Society
• Department:
  • Lifelong and Comparative Education
• Summary:
  • I have previously worked for 12 years as a schoolteacher and textbook author in Hong Kong and Beijing. My interests include education and political socialization in East Asia; history museums, schooling and national identity in Chinese societies (mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan); and the comparative history of colonial education.
• Teaching:
  • Course Leader for the Erasmus Mundus European MA in Lifelong Learning: Policy and Management
    Teaches on the MA in Comparative Education, leading on the module 'Education and Development in Asia'
    Supervises a number of doctoral students, working on various aspects of education in contemporary China (PRC), Taiwan and Japan, and on topics relating to education and political socialization in other societies, including the UK and France.
• Research Projects:
  • Involved (collaboration with Paul Morris and Christine Han) in bidding for a 'Network Grant' from the Leverhulme Trust, on the theme of 'The role of perceptions of Japan in the construction of East Asian national identities'.
    Currently working on a British Academy-funded project: 'Displaying Chineseness: Museums and Identity in Contemporary Chinese Societies'. This involves examining the ways in which museums in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao and Singapore represent the relationship between local and broader 'Chinese' identities.
    Has recently (2008) begun a small joint project with Liu Yunshan of Peking University, looking at the treatment of climate change in the Chinese junior high school curriculum, and the attitudes of Beijing students and their teachers towards this issue.
• Professional Activities:
  • Member of the Executive of the London Association of Taiwan Studies
    Reviews editor for the on-line journal 'Taiwan in Comparative Perspective'
• Conferences/presentations:
  • 'Nationalism, moral education and curricular representations of China's place in the world' - paper delivered at the European Association of Chinese Studies biannual conference, Lund, Sweden, August 2008 (related papers also delivered at the conference of the Japanese Comparative Education Society, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan, June 2008; CIES conference, Charleston, SC, March 2009, and the conference of the Association of Asian Studies, Chicago, March 2009)
    - Selling 'Socialism with Chinese Characteristics': 'Thought and Politics' and the Legitimisation of China's Developmental Strategy, paper delivered at a Symposium on the politics of school textbooks in East Asia, University of Heidelberg, March 16-18, 2009
    - 'History Museums and the Politics of Identity in Contemporary Taiwan' - invited seminar at the Ecole Nationale des Hautes Etudes, Paris, June 2007.
• Personal Country Knowledge:
  • China (mainland): overall development of the education system in the context of China's developmental strategy (and the implications for equity and social cohesion); the school curriculum and political socialization; history museums, 'patriotic education' and the portrayal of national identity; English language teaching and curriculum development
    Hong Kong: The politics of education in post-1997 Hong Kong; education and political socialization in the context of the transition to Chinese rule; history museums, cultural policy and the promotion of pan-Chinese identities; issues of autonomy and academic freedom in relation to higher education
    Taiwan: schooling, identity and the politics of Chinese versus Taiwanese nationalism; museums and identity politics
    Asia (general / comparative): Education, national identities and the history of modern state formation in Asia
• Languages Spoken:
  • Mandarin Chinese (advanced) - can interview
    Cantonese (intermediate)
    Japanese (intermediate)
    French (basic)
    Spanish (basic)
• Languages Written:
  • Mandarin Chinese (intermediate)
    Japanese (basic)
    French (basic)
    Spanish (basic)
• Research Students:
  • Zhu Wencheng: Contemporary official attitudes towards 'Confucianism' as reflected in the development of China's school curriculum for Literature
    Liu Ye: The social implications of the expansion of China's higher education system: a comparison of patterns of access to universities and colleges in Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces
    Guo Hua: Student expectations of China's higher education system, in a context of rapid expansion
    Tang, Wenna: Transnational Higher Education in China: Rationales, Modalities, Achievements and Challenges
    Ou Chi-Hsi (Tina): The development of education policy regarding the children of immigrant mothers in Taiwan
    Chien Shang-min (Emma): East Asian Web 2.0 Art (second supervisor, working with Professor Julian Stallabrass of the Courtauld Institute)
    Kawaguchi, Yukiko: The development of Japan's foreign language curriculum for schools
    Mark Walsh: 'Internationalizing' the Japanese education system - policy and practice (co-supervised with Dr. Naoko Shimazu of Birkbeck College)
    James Cathcart: The development of France's curriculum for the school subject of 'Histoire-Geographie' during the Fifth Republic, in a context of continuity and change in perceptions of French identity
    Helen Everett: Policy on faith schools and its implications for social cohesion in contemporary England.