Educational Transfer to Developing Countries: Policy and Skill Facilitation

Educational transfer of liberal arts education into China: A case study from Chongqing

“…In his view, the focal point of the transfer relies on the build-up of a 'collaborative partnership'; an essential condition for the development of local ownership (McDonald, 2012(McDonald, , p. 1819. The partnership can take shape in various forms, from trainings to seminars or discussions.…”

“…The partnership can take shape in various forms, from trainings to seminars or discussions. Looking into concrete educational transfer experiences, McDonald concluded that the training projects that were planned to facilitate the implementation generally overlooked the appropriateness of the policy for the local context and there was a gap in promoting sustained local ownership (McDonald, 2012(McDonald, , p. 1820. The trainings should focus more on the recipient country's socio-cultural context and on the entire learning process of the involved actors instead of merely analysing the inputs and outputs (Ibid).…”

“…The trainings should focus more on the recipient country's socio-cultural context and on the entire learning process of the involved actors instead of merely analysing the inputs and outputs (Ibid). The author also underlines the differences of cultural values: while the transferred policy put the emphasis on 'competition, achievement, success and individualism' (typically Western values), the Samoan schooling system valued 'collectivism, interdependence and caring for others ' (McDonald, 2012' (McDonald, , p. 1820. These contradictory characteristics of educational systems in developing-developed countries may make more difficult the indigenization of foreign ideas.…”

“…With respect to skill development, the policy borrowing literature emphasized the importance of 'transfer of training' that should ensure that the skills associated with the given adopted model come to be transferred as well (McDonald, 2012(McDonald, , p. 1824. How were skills transferred in the context at hand?…”

“…The possible reasons behind this shortcoming could be the lack of time (many respondents felt that learning effective teaching strategies takes time and practice), the differing cultural context (what was considered by foreigners as an effective strategic approach in skill development might be less adaptable to another culture) or that cultural elements of the receiving country (the features of the Confucian heritage educational model) had not been considered when planning and conducting the trainings. Within the 'transfer of training' (application of knowledge, skills and attitudes learned from purposeful training), there should be a strategic way of implementing certain learning principles for all the actors involved (McDonald, 2012(McDonald, , p. 1824Blume, Ford, Baldwin, & Huang, 2010). Local characteristics and Chinese educational traditions should also be taken into account when planning the professional development.…”