Rupert Maclean

Rupert Maclean has been Chair Professor of International Education, and Director of the Centre for Lifelong Learning Research and Development, at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, since July 2009. Prior to moving to Hong Kong, he was Director (Foundation) of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education in Bonn, and UNESCO representative to Germany, since May 2001. He was also Chair, Heads of United Nations Agencies in Germany (2007-2008).

He holds the Honorary positions of Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford, Department of Educational Studies; Adjunct Professor, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) University, Melbourne; and Adviser on Curriculum Reform, Zhejiang Technology Institute of Economy, Hangzhou, China.

Prior to joining UNEVOC in Bonn he was Director, Section for Secondary Education at UNESCO Headquarters Paris; Director a.i. of the UNESCO Principal Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok; Chief of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Educational Innovation for Development (ACEID) at UNESCO Bangkok; and, the UNESCO Chief Technical Advisor for a United Nations project to strengthen and upgrade teacher education throughout Myanmar.

Rupert Maclean undertook undergraduate studies in economics and commerce at the University of Melbourne, and post-graduate studies in the economics of education and sociology of education at the University of Bristol (United Kingdom), the University of Tasmania and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia).

His Ph.D. thesis concerning the sociology of occupations was published by Falmer Press UK and USA in 1992, Teachers’ Career and Promotion Patterns: A Sociological Analysis, and is quoted as being a standard work in its field.

Rupert Maclean commenced his career as a secondary school teacher of economics and history in 1970 (Australia), after which he became a College of Education lecturer (England) and (from 1975) a university academic involved with research and teaching in the sociology of education (Australia). He has been a visiting Professor at Fujian University (China) and at Srinakharinwirot and Silupakorn Universities (Thailand).

He is the author or co-author of 17 books, numerous chapters in books, research reports, journal articles and papers. Some of his publications have been translated into Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish and Russian.

He is co-editor (with Ryo Watanabe, NIER of Japan) of the book series Educational Innovations in Asia and the Pacific: Issues, Concerns and Prospects; and editor of the International Library of Education for the Changing World of Work, which includes (as co-editor with Professor David Wilson of the University of Toronto) the forthcoming International Handbook on Vocational Education, and the related book series Education for the World of Work, all of which are published by Springer Academic Publishers (the Netherlands). His most recent books are Vocationalisation of Secondary Education (2005), jointly with Jon Lauglo (World Bank); Communication and Learning in the Multicultural World (2006), jointly with Pekka Ruohotie (University of Tampere, Finland), and Learning and Teaching for the Twenty-First Centur y (Rupert Maclean, 2007).

Rupert Maclean is on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the international Journal of Educational Change; Asia-Pacific Journal of Education; the South-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education; Educational Research for Policy and Practice; and the Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education and Development.

He has been Guest Editor of a number of international journals, such as: the UNESCO-International Bureau of Education Quarterly Review of Comparative Education, Prospects, for issues on Education in Asia (Number 115, 2000, with Victor Ordonez), Secondary Education Reform (Number 117, 2001, with Cecilia Braslavsky) and Orientating TVET for Sustainable Development (Number 135, 2005); and, for the International Journal of Educational Change, for a special issue on Educational Change in Asia (Vol. 2 No. 3, 2001)

Prior to joining UNESCO in 1990, he undertook consultancies for Federal and State Education Departments in Australia, and for the Asian Development Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF. He was a Member of the Australian Commonwealth Government Social Policy Committee (1987-90) which was the instigator of major policy changes in the areas of education, youth affairs, health and social welfare; and was a Member of the Priority Projects Committee of the Australian Government Disadvantaged Schools Programme, responsible for administering funds allocated to schools catering for educationally disadvantaged population groups throughout Australia.