Country's Pursuit Research Articles

TEACHER EDUCATION IN CHALLENGING TIMES. A COMPARATIVE AND TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACH TO THE AUSTRIAN AND UKRAINIAN TEACHER EDUCATION REFORMS

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges and reforms in teacher education in Ukraine, drawing comparisons with the Austrian experience, contextualizing the need for reforms in Ukraine's education system within the country's pursuit of European Union membership. Emphasizing the pivotal role of teacher education in driving these reforms, the article analyzes the challenges of teacher education in Ukraine such as inadequate teacher remuneration, outdated pedagogical methods used, and a lack of financial support. Thus, the authors state the urgency of modernizing the teacher education system. To summarize of teacher education in Austria, corresponding solutions are proposed, including individualized approaches and rigorous selection processes with the reference to Austria's experience with aptitude tests. Furthermore, the article outlines education reforms in Ukraine, including the passage of laws aimed at aligning higher education with European standards. It analyzes measures such as interdisciplinary programs, distance learning, and increased university autonomy, designed to enhance student autonomy and the quality of education. By comparing these efforts with Austria's initiatives, such as the implementation of the Bologna Process and attempts to make teacher education more attractive, the researchers offer insights into common challenges faced by education systems globally.

Football and Nation Branding: A Case Study of Saudi Arabia's Strategy for Global Football Recognition

Nation branding is an important factor of international image management which has gained increasing importance for nations worldwide. Since 2018, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has embarked on a journey to enhance its global sports recognition and reputation by strategically investing in football. This research article examines the efforts and challenges Saudi Arabia faces in investing in football as an important tool for country branding. The research will adopt a quantitative approach through the analysis of Twitter to explore the impact of football on Saudi Arabia's nation branding initiatives. It focuses on various dimensions, such as how culture is promoted, economic development, tourism, and global visibility achieved through football as a brand. The findings of this research provide insights into the field of nation branding which can be of further use to policymakers, academicians, and sports officials who are interested in the intersection of sports, culture, and nation branding. The study aims to focus on Saudi Arabia's government-centric approach to nation branding through football and focuses on finding out the complex nature of utilizing football to promote the country's pursuit of global recognition and reputation enhancement.

Infrastructure and Enrolment of Scheduled Tribe Students in India

This paper examines the school infrastructure and student enrolment among the tribal community in India. Data from the UDISE+ Reports of the Government of India for 2012-13 to 2020-21 was used for the analysis. Tribal welfare schools in the country increased between 2012-13 and 2014-15 before declining. In tribal welfare schools, water access has improved, although many schools still lack drinking water and handwash facilities. One-fifth of tribal welfare schools do not have restrooms, which infers open defecation practices. Other facilities, such as the library, playground, electricity, and computers, are unavailable to all the tribal welfare schools. However, meager school improvements, enrolment, and infrastructure have been witnessed since 2019. Given this, it is critical to stress that an increasing number of schools with good infrastructure would encourage the tribal students' enrollment. Therefore, equity and high-quality education for all citizens can aid in a country's pursuit of sustainable growth.

Fight Corruption the EU Membership Requirement: The Case of Albania

Corruption is one of the most crucial challenges which emerges as a solid opponent to the universal rule of the law. This paper examines the issue of combating corruption in Albania and its significance in the context of the country's pursuit of EU membership. Drawing upon the political and juridical history of Albania, the study highlights the close link between political culture and combating corruption in Southeast Europe. It underscores the challenges faced by Albania in combating corruption due to its difficult political past and the shortcomings in the development and enforcement of the law. The implementation of the Justice Reform in Albania is recognized as a significant step toward combating corruption, but the process has encountered obstacles and delays. The paper emphasizes the importance of respecting the deadlines set for the reform and ensuring the functioning of the judicial system to safeguard citizens' rights. Recommendations are provided, including the need for a safety net to prevent critical vacancies in the judiciary, restraining the right to resign during vetting procedures, and ensuring adequate logistical support and independence for new judicial institutions. The study concludes by emphasizing the ongoing fight against combating corruption as an essential requirement for Albania's EU membership and the need for sustained efforts to address the shortcomings identified in the process.

Collectivisation, paradox and resistance: the architecture of people’s commune in China

The people's commune [人民公社], an all-encompassing socio-political, economic, and spatial model of collectivisation in China during the 1950s and the 80s, played a fundamental role in the country's pursuit of modernity. Through the correlation between political forces and spatial production, the commune architecture articulated and enforced the construct of collective subjectivities. The coupling of collective canteens with the abolishment of family kitchens formalised a practice of everyday life that aimed to collectivise the socio-economic functions of dwelling and destabilise social ties formed in the extended family and the patriarchal clan system. The tensions between the modern state and family tradition led to the inherent paradox of the commune architecture: it spatially resembled and renewed the old structures it set out to destruct. The negotiation between the two regimes of power finds its embodiment in materialised details through implementation: the adapted ancestral temple as collective canteen and the renewed traditional three-jian [三开间, three-bay] principle in commune housing. Fieldwork spanning several years in the realised commune settlement of the then Shigushan Production Brigade in Wuhan [石骨山大队] reveals embodied conflicts, resistance, and readjustments of the people's commune as well as how it has become a constitutive part of China's rural society today. An essential addition to the non-canonical architectural histories outside the Western traditions and epistemologies, the architecture of people's commune in China opens up new ways to think about the socio-spatial organisation of networks of care and intergenerational living beyond the nuclear family.

Exploring the Pathway of the Equitable Development of Education in China--Based on a Comparative Perspective on the Lineage of Educational Equity Development in China and Japan

Educational equity is an important manifestation of the country's pursuit and realization of equality in the field of education, and is an important goal of educational development.As the development of the times, the attention to the issue of educational equity has been deepened, equity in the starting point of education and equity in the process and equity in the result have been proposed one after another.At the same time, Japan's educational equity has continued to develop and improve in terms of educational rights, opportunities, and segment performance, which has implications for us to continue to deepen our understanding of educational equity and promote educational equity reform. The report of the 18th National Congress emphasizes the need to "vigorously promote equity in education" and "enable every child to become a useful person." [1]On December 27, 2015, the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress of the Party included "education equity" in the Education Law.[2] Xi Jinping who is the General Secretary pointed out in the report of the 19th National Congress that "priority should be given to the development of education, the development of quality education, the promotion of educational equity, the cultivation of socialist builders and successors with all-round the development of moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic qualities, and tries to enable each child to enjoy a fair and quality education."[3] In the global perspective, at the UN Summit in September 2000, there were 189 countries signed the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which states that governments and leaders place a high priority on education equity and "universal primary education, ensuring that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling."[4]This goal that related to educational equity was included in the Millennium Declaration. According to publicly available data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, etc.,Japan is ranked as one of the world's "most equitable" countries in terms of education. According to the World Economic Forum's “Global Social Mobility Index 2020”, its data shows that Japan is the first in Asia and the 15th in the world in terms of "education and employment equity."[5]The model for the development of educational equity in Japan provides inspiration for the continued development of educational equity in China, and is extremely important for China to continue the process of promoting educational equity..

Aligning top‐down and bottom‐up in development planning: The case of Bhutan

SummaryEffective planning makes a vital contribution to developmental success. It is generally perceived as being either centralized (top‐down) or decentralized (bottom‐up). Centralized planning dominated the early development decades, but disappointing results greatly lessened its appeal and paved the way for participatory and decentralized planning. Both types of planning are evident today, but the question has arisen as to whether top‐down and bottom‐up planning can be successfully combined into one effective, efficient, and popular system. This question is examined through the case of Bhutan where central planning was introduced at the outset of the country's push for modernization and today leads the way in the country's pursuit of Gross National Happiness (GNH). However, central planning has been complemented with decentralized participatory planning at the subnational levels. Success in aligning the two planning modes has been achieved by incremental development of the planning system, orientation to the unifying national vision of GNH, a powerful central planning agency, actors at all levels who are able and knowledgeable in their planning roles, and processes that are well organized and proven to work to the satisfaction of all participants.

Cooperation and Conflict in the U.S.–China Petroleum Relationship

ABSTRACT Current U.S. and Chinese petroleum import dependence differ sharply, and the respective vulnerability of each state to future supply disruptions should further strengthen the U.S. power position and weaken China's power position. In an effort to minimize present and future petroleum vulnerability, China has been pursuing neo-mercantilist policies and favoring relations with states hostile to the United States. These polices continually place China in conflict with the United States, particularly since they challenge the international petroleum security and trading regime that largely was built by, and is currently supported by, the United States. While in the past, the United States and China have formally discussed “energy security,” these meetings tend to avoid the real points of difficulty in each country's pursuit of petroleum supply security. Real dialogue on this issue could lead to less conflict over petroleum, especially given the United States's improving petroleum power position relativ...

Weakness and Gambits in Philippine Foreign Policy in the Twenty-first Century

In November 2001, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo made an ambitious foreign policy pronouncement entitled Eight Realities of Philippine Foreign Policy.1 The policy statement highlights the government's objectives to contain domestic and international terrorism and address the country's underdevelopment by enhancing its economic competitiveness in the global market. It also contains bold diplomatic gambits such as balancing the major powers (United States, Japan and China) in East Asia against each other to ensure national security. Specifically, it intends to strengthen the US-Philippine alliance, and to enlist Washington's support for the country's internal security agenda. It also expresses reliance on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other multilateral organizations to advance the Philippines' security and economic goals. Significantly, it conveys the need to protect the interests and well being of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), and actively utilize the Philippine foreign affairs department and diplomatic corps to explore new export markets abroad and to attract foreign tourists and investments to the country. These diplomatic gambits required material resources and military capabilities, and also entailed the cooperation of the Philippines with other states at the bilateral, regional and global levels. However, the Philippine state's internal weakness has thwarted the country's pursuit of its strategic objectives. The policy goals have unleashed latent tensions and conflicts in the conduct of Philippine foreign relations. These include the government's reinvigorated military/security ties with the US, amidst the vocal and chronic anti-American sentiments in Philippine society; the country's desire to play an active role in regional and global security versus the political exigency to resolve its internal conflicts; and finally, the regime's need to project the state's politico-diplomatic clout in global forums and regional developments vis-a-vis its limited economic and military capabilities.

Coping in the global financial system: the political economy of nonpayment in Russia

enomenal spread of unconventional means of payments has been one of the most controversial features of Russia's post-socialist economic development. Orthodox analyses tend to trace the causes of the non-monetary economy to the inconsistency of political reforms, to the legacy of the past, and to endemic corruption. This article challenges such accounts. From the perspective of international political economy, the proliferation of nonpayments, severe liquidity squeeze and the structural disjuncture between Russia's financial and productive circuits are the outcomes of the country's pursuit of the paradigm of the Washington Consensus. In this light, barter and nonpayments in Russia are neither the‘inevitable’features of the market restructuring, nor simply the residue of the command system. The non-monetary economy in Russia is a peculiar reaction to the politico-economic imperatives brought onto the country by the deregulated financial markets and by the neoliberal political ideology that underpins their global expansion.

European Integration in Identity Narratives in Estonia: A Quest for Security

The article situates the Estonian discourse of national identity in the country's pursuits of EU and NATO membership. It first outlines the assumptions, concepts, and rhetorical devices through which the notion of national identity is constructed in discussions of international integration, and then highlights the policy ramifications of the identity discourse. The article concentrates on the three closely linked concepts - civilizational conflict, national territorial sovereignty, and security - that together constitute a core of identity debates in Estonia. While national identity in Estonia has hitherto been examined in the context of ethnic relations between the Estonian and the non-Estonian populations, this article analyzes identity debates, including issues of ethnicity, in the context of the country's pursuits of international integration. As identity is a central concept in Estonia's foreign, security, citizenship, and minority rights policies, the article exposes the claims that underpin these policies. The Estonian identity discourse contains strong arguments in favor of EU membership, yet several of its fundamental premises discursively construct this membership as harmful to Estonia. Both pro- and contra-EU arguments pivot particularly on claims about geopolitical and cultural threats. On the one hand, international integration is constructed as a security measure against the Russian threat. On the other hand, insofar as supranational institutions pressure Estonia to naturalize its Russian-speaking residents, who are construed as representatives of the Russian threat, international integration is also depicted as dangerous to Estonian identity. Estonian identity narratives thereby contradict governmental rhetoric of ethnic and European integration.

Nationalism, Imperialism, and the International Education Movement in Early Twentieth-Century Japan

The literature on nationalism ascribes a pivotal role to schools in creating what Benedict Anderson calls an “imagined community,” through the formation and dissemination of a common national identity and a shared national consciousness where none existed before (e.g., Anderson 1983; Gellner 1983; Hobsbawm 1990; Smith 1991). It is not unusual to find Japan cited as a prime example of this process, not only among theorists of nationalism, but among Japan specialists, as well (e.g., Beauchamp 1988, 226–29; Cummings 1980, 17–25; Hunter 1989, 192–97; Ienaga 1978; Pyle 1996, 125–30; Rohlen 1983, 46–57; Schoppa 1991, 29–31; Thomas 1996, 254–62). In general, they portray the first two decades of the Meiji period, between 1868 and 1890, as the era when a modern national consciousness merged with a revivified nativist identity to form an “emperor-centered nationalism” that was institutionalized and propagated by the state, chiefly through a newly established compulsory, centralized school system. Frequently, this assertion is supported by citing the Imperial Rescript on Education (1890), which begins, “Our Imperial Ancestors have founded Our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting and have deeply and firmly implanted virtue; Our subjects, ever united in loyalty and filial piety, have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty thereof.” This distinctive brand of Japanese nationalism is also regarded as a factor contributing to the subsequent development of Japanese imperialism and the country's pursuit of a colonial empire abroad, which began with its victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), and concluded fifty years later with its defeat in the Pacific War.

Cash crops, food crops, and sustainability: The case of Indonesia

Recent evidence suggests that the main obstacle to sustainable agricultural development is the failure of any economic policy, whether promoting food crops or exports, to address adequately problems of natural resource management. Policies to achieve food self- sufficiency may therefore by neither inherently more nor inherently less environmentally sustainable than export-oriented agricultural development. Indonesia serves as a useful illustration, as the country's pursuit of both food self-sufficiency and export crop promotion strategies has encountered many problems of environmental and resource degradation. Overcoming these problems will require the explicit integration of natural resource management concerns within the economic policy framework for Indonesian agriculture.