Education International Research Proposal – Steven Kolber

I am interested in completing research into Cambodia and the increasing role of big data and Edu-business, using Cambodia as a case study. My research will also touch on Australia, the USA, France and other more developed, neoliberal nations and show how cultural trends of this nature are finding popularity in Cambodia. On my most recent trip to Cambodia, July 2019, there was much discussion of PISA-D testing occurring as well as SEA-PLM testing. These two tests are from competing organisations (OECD and ACER) looking to develop a foothold in the nation and a consistent, big-data approach to assessment. Just as with PISA, PISA-D has a range of complex issues associated with it, especially within the country of Cambodia and other pilot nations. But these complexities are also global in nature in regard to the broader scope of neoliberalism and the Global Education Reform Movement (GERM) and bear further exploration. Further to this, Cambodia is the second most NGO-intensive country in the world, again on my most recent trip to Cambodia (July 2019) I met with a member of Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). Over a lengthy discussion with him he made it clear that he was personally supportive of a range of approaches that focused on ‘Flexible and Blended Learning’ which in this case was code for less trained and qualified teachers in schools and more technology. As such, no NGOs are value-neutral and indeed some are directly in opposition to those of teacher and human development. Being instead willing to abandon these aspects of development for cost-cutting measures and technology rollout instead.  Union capacity and teacher pay is low which makes it ripe for “digital disruption” / exploitation.

I am personally very active online, especially on Twitter, and have positioned myself as an expert in Educational Technology. I am affiliated with a range of Edu-businesses as a means to monitor their activities in this relatively undocumented space of unpaid representatives and so forth. This will become a part of my writing and research around this space as these representatives’ roles tend to be mostly unproblematic in a heavily regulated nation like Australia. Whilst in less regulated, weaker non-unionised nations, such as the USA or in developing nations, this concept being applied is incredibly complicated. I have already completed an extensive literature review on the extant literature on Cambodian education, which will need updating. The nation has a limited research or reading culture and so this aspect may well take a long time to develop. As such there is a need for outside researchers with knowledge of this country and their educational space to publish works to support this developing culture and raise awareness globally of these types of concerns.

I am currently the Secretary of Teachers Across Borders Australia, who run teacher development workshops in Cambodia twice a year. I have visited the country six times and engaged with teachers there for extended periods. In the past I have collected data on Teachers conditions and so forth, aspects like class size and views on their profession etc. This data was completed without Ethics approval and so forth and so was never published, but the collection and processing of this data helped me to clarify my understanding of this nations education system.

I believe I have a unique perspective in regard to my knowledge and expertise in Educational Technology, especially Flipped Learning and Instructional Video. My ‘on-the-ground’ knowledge of Cambodia and experience interacting with 1,000s of teachers within their system. My knowledge and background in educational research and extensive pre-PhD qualifications make me suited for this type of research and publication. I have intended to complete a PhD, but the content described above is so fast-moving, dynamic and dates quickly due to the technological component that I am hoping that Education International can provide some type of alternative to a traditional PhD. I could also potentially produce a series of short videos to be distributed through your channels or similar if this was of more interest. Please see attached my CV and feel free to explore my online presence and writings. Finally, I am a full-time teacher in a public, Government school which gives my voice more weight than many academics disconnected from the realities and struggles of teaching and means I already have an existing audience of connected and engaged global educators.

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