2025 IJRSE – Volume 14 Issue 13
Available Online: 10 July 2025
Author/s:
Ching, Gregory S.
National Chengchi University, Taiwan (gching@nccu.edu.tw)
Abstract:
This preface introduces a collection of student-led research papers examining bilingual education as a lens for educational reform across diverse global contexts. Emerging from the English as a Medium of Instruction course “Global Comparative Educational Reform” at National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. The project brings together case studies on Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Chile, Argentina, and the Philippines. Each paper explores how bilingual or multilingual policies intersect with national identity, globalization, teacher capacity, and educational equity. Thematically, the studies reveal several recurring tensions between global competitiveness and local identity, between centralized policymaking and decentralized realities, and between the aspirational goals of bilingualism and the structural barriers to inclusive implementation. While some countries pursue bilingualism for economic and geopolitical positioning, others frame it as a response to linguistic diversity and Indigenous inclusion. Notably, the invited paper on the Philippines adds a philosophical lens through Charles Taylor’s theory of the politics of recognition, arguing that language policy is a moral act with implications for cultural dignity, identity, and justice. Student groups employed a variety of methods, such as policy analysis, stakeholder interviews, comparative frameworks, and philosophical critique, to investigate how language reforms are formulated and lived. Together, their work moves beyond surface-level comparisons to explore how language functions as both a medium of learning and a mechanism of inclusion or exclusion. By bridging cultures and policies, and theory with practice, this project underscores how bilingual education reflects deeper societal questions about who speaks, who is heard, and who belongs in education systems undergoing transformation.
Keywords: bilingual education, language policy, educational reform, cultural identity, comparative education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2025.25202
Cite this article:
Ching, G. S. (2025). Bridging cultures and policies: A preface to student studies on bilingual education reform. International Journal of Research Studies in Education, 14(13), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2025.25202