EDITORIAL FOR THEMATIC ISSUE ON “EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES IN EAST ASIA”

Globalization and education reform is becoming an important topic across the international arena. In response to global pressures for reform, national educational systems' quality is increasingly being compared internationally, and education changes are introduced. For example, uniformity of global curricula, instruction, and testing might result from worldwide trends such as the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment). Also, the growth of English language usage and immigrants might contribute to a growing uniformity of global educational practices for the global economy (Springer, 2008). Nevertheless, there is considerable criticism of the ever-increasing global uniformity in education because ignoring differences in contextual capacity and culture at the national and local levels will result in unintended and unexpected consequences for educational practice (Carnoy & Rhoten, 2002).