Introduction

Abstract

International or widespread interest in East-Asian education systems has boomed over the past two decades. (Re)beginning in the mid-1990s, researchers were asking questions about the complex but tantalizing causal relationships between educational investments in science education and national economic growth. Much to the disappointment of policymakers everywhere, Benavot (2002, p. 61) argued that the “link between the degree of industrialization or economic development of a nation and its curricular emphases is rather weak.” As a case in point, although five identified developing countries in 1970 had a fairly large proportion of students engaged in science education, of these, only South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore experienced significant increases in GNP per capita, whereas the two remaining Latin American countries witnessed modest levels of growth. A number of reasons were offered to account for this unanticipated disparity in outcomes inter alia poor technology transfer, governance problems, inadequate provision for basic education, and unique sociocultural factors (see Aldcroft 2000; Ashton et al. 2000).