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Friday, 13 June 2014

Winthrop Professor Lesley Vidovich is an international expert on education policy, having authored over 150 research papers in the field. In addition to her research activity, Lesley teaches across all course levels at the Faculty of Education, from the popular undergraduate broadening unit “Education for a Global Knowledge Society” to Masters and Doctoral units. Lesley has also supervised over 40 postgraduate students to successful thesis completion, and she has won a series of Teaching and Supervision Awards at UWA.

Lesley is passionate about the importance of local knowledge in the globalising world of education. “As educators and administrators we have to be aware of international developments and the way educational policies and practices travel the world – but we should also be sensitive to local contexts,” she says. “What works in one country may not, for various reasons, work here, and our challenge is to critically analyse existing approaches so that we adapt and apply those that best fit our environment. The emphasis should be on policy ‘learning’, not uncritical policy ‘borrowing’.”

“Singapore is an encouraging example where they have taken to heart the idea that the policies that are most likely to succeed are adapted rather than simply borrowed. For example, privatisation and internationalisation of education developed there gradually, beginning with a few schools, so the participating schools could be studied and supported.”

Together with Sue Ledger and Tom O’Donoghue, Lesley is the author of a forthcoming book titled “Global to Local Curriculum Policy Processes: The Enactment of the International Baccalaureate in Remote International Schools”, published by Springer.

Media references

Martin Swann (Faculty of Education)  (+61 8) 6488 2443

Dr Sanna Peden (Faculty of Education) (+61 8) 6488 2382

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