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Teacher Education has been transforming throughout the world to cater to the emerging needs of quality education. Significant developments have taken place nationally and internationally in political, economic, and cultural fields, influencing education in general and teacher education in particular. The quality of education depends to a great extent on the quality of teachers. And, the quality of teachers depends on the way they are educated and trained. Pakistan has a vast education sector and a huge teaching force but teacher education in the country has not been keeping pace with modernization and development globally. Teacher education curricula, dissemination, evaluation and implementation revolved around traditional models for decades. However, there has been a growing realization to reform the teacher education system lately. The education policy (2009) of Pakistan indicates such realization on the part of the stakeholders. This chapter reports on an important teacher education reform program, which is based on collaboration between the government of Pakistan and the USAID. The Teacher Education Project (TEP), assisted by USAID, is a reform initiative that aimed at restructuring and modernizing teacher education in Pakistan. This chapter aims to provide insights into the objectives, importance and achievements of the project in terms of shaping the future direction of teacher education in Pakistan. It reports on the substantial structural and policy changes that took place in teacher education under the project. This chapter also highlights the possible challenges in the way of useful implementation and sustainability of this and similar education reform initiatives in Pakistan.

This chapter provides a comprehensive description of special education in Bangladesh. It begins with the early origins of special education and then proceeds with definitions of and prevalence of current disabilities in Bangladesh. This section is followed by governmental policies and legislation related to the right to education for all students with disabilities. Next, educational intervention methods are delineated along with a description of governmental special schools and teacher training and preparation of special educational professions. Early intervention practices and working with families is also discussed. The chapter ends with the progress that Bangladesh has made and the challenges that remain.

The concept of technical assistance predicates that international experts have information that the host country community of practice lacks. At the same time, elementary education is deeply personal and familiar to everyone in the post-Soviet environment; it was a point of pride in the USSR. Navigating this territory requires patience and thoughtful partnership with the Ministry of Education officials and host communities.

The post-Soviet environment has documented achievement of universal primary education and near-universal literacy. However, new forms of testing and literacy measurement indicated that literacy rates in the former Soviet Union did not necessarily represent functional composition and comprehension skills. At the same time, many of the smaller former Soviet republics lack the financial resources to support their education systems to the level provided by the USSR. This presents unique challenges in providing technical assistance in education.

Since World War II, the United States has played a leading role in development assistance in both volume of funds and role. Though the largest bilateral development agency, USAID is somewhat of an outlier in modes of operation, scope and nature of activities, and place within government. This chapter examines the development and character of U.S. foreign assistance. Like others, the United States provides foreign aid for multiple reasons – to relieve suffering and promote long-term economic and social development, to gain favor with allies, to open markets, to help ensure national security. Security and diplomacy do play a large role in U.S. foreign aid, even in basic education. In the context of U.S. internal politics, both humanitarian/development and diplomatic/security rationales have been necessary to sustain public and government support for foreign aid. Still neither rationale has prevailed; the budget is split nearly in half. The need for a humanitarian rationale may be characteristic of U.S. foreign assistance along with the emphasis on democracy. Yet these programs have sometimes been distorted by the diplomatic rationale and the security needs of the state. Many of these tensions and the constant need to justify foreign aid likely derive from the perennial periodic isolationist thread of U.S. politics, the particular adversarial institutions of U.S. policymaking, and the transparency which leaves these processes open. Even so, U.S. development assistance has played a prominent role in the trajectory of international development post-World War II, and has worked to address many of the great challenges of the times.

University partnerships have been promoted and implemented a good deal in Europe since the approval of the Bologna Declaration of June 19, 1999 (Bologna Declaration, 1999). Over the past two decades, the University of Prishtina has developed many bilateral and multilateral initiatives to strengthen cooperation and partnership among universities from different countries and regions (University of Prishtina, 2004, p. 2). The University of Prishtina embraced the Bologna Declaration in 2001, and since then has established several partnerships aimed at strengthening its capacities and improving the quality assurance of its higher education (Brunnhofer, 2010, p. 107). In the recent years, the University of Prishtina has given priority to the area of research, aiming to increase the quality and quantity of research conducted by its faculty. The quality and relevance of the international partnerships of the University of Prishtina is the main focus of this paper, including the current state of research among the faculty. The researcher used a qualitative method for conducting this research. It shows the institutional and individual benefits of those partnerships. Finally, it presents the impact of cooperation on developing research and improving the quality of education in Kosovo.

This chapter explores the case of post-socialist education transformations in Nicaragua. While less commonly known to have been a full participant in the Cold War, Nicaragua's conflict with the United States during the 1980s was underlain by a socialist/capitalist struggle. Education reforms in Nicaragua thus present an important example of a complex interplay between socialism and post-socialism in the context of Latin America. The case of Nicaragua is also significant because of its recent reelection of the same government that was in power during the socialist period, thus reflecting a reemerging mix of capitalist and socialist elements in education. The analysis focuses on important political periods in the last 30 years and responds to the following questions: What are the post-socialist education transformations that have occurred in Nicaragua? And, how have the directions of the reforms been shaped by international, national, and local political and economic factors? Drawing on qualitative policy analysis and interviews with various groups of education stakeholders, the findings highlight three specific dynamics of reforms. These dynamics highlight the complex nature of the reform processes, including the Nicaraguan government's relationship with and the role of international donor organizations, differing notions of “local participation” that signify the shifting role of civil society, and continuities and discontinuities in policy processes.