Xie Wen-quan (1995)

An overview of the book (195 English words):

This is a well-written book applying George Z. F. Bereday’s four stage ‘description-interpretation-juxtaposition-comparison’ procedure to make a cross-national study of educational administration across the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Canada.

Chapter 1 introduces basic meanings and methodology of comparative education through George Bereday’s and Noah & Eckstein’s models with some pitfalls and precautions being mentioned.  The author lays down his own procedure: choice of studying topic, define the scope of the topic, choice of research literature, collecting and interpreting data, analyzing data background, classifying and juxtaposing data categories, doing comparisons and laying down conclusion where the last three steps belong to comparative study.

Chapters 2-7 respectively depict single-national studies of the historical background, operational units of operations, organizational structure and characteristics of educational administration in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan and Canada. Chapter 8 concludes the whole study by juxtaposing and comparing those categories patternised in the previous chapters, articulating models of power distribution among educational bodies, legislative systems of education, financing of education and curricular development at various levels. Lastly, the author forecasts national and global trends of educational administration by drawing insights into the case of Taiwan.

Introduction to the author:

Prof. Xie Wen-quan earned his master degree at Ohio State University, doctoral degree at the University of Iowa. He currently work as a professor and the Head of Dept. of Education at National Taiwan Normal University. His research interests and publication cover widely in the fields of comparative educational administration, school administration, educational administration, organizational behavior and secondary education.

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