Educational Research for Policy and Practice, the official journal of the Asia-Pacific Educational Research Association, aims to improve education and educational research in Asia and the Pacific by promoting the dissemination of high quality research which addresses key issues in educational policy and practice. Therefore, priority will be given to research which has generated a substantive result of importance for educational policy and practice; to analyses of global forces, regional trends and national educational reforms; and to studies of key issues in teaching, learning and development - such as the challenges to be faced in learning to live together in what is the largest and most diverse region of the world. With a broad coverage of education in all sectors and levels of education, the Journal seeks to promote the contribution of educational research, both quantitative and qualitative, to system-wide reforms and policy making on the one hand, and to resolving specific problems facing teachers and learners at a particular level of education in the Asia-Pacific region on the other. Education systems worldwide face many common problems as global forces reshape our institutions and lives, while at the same time, the research and problems facing education in Asia and the Pacific reflect its rich cultural and scholarly traditions as well as specific economic and social realities. Educators and researchers can learn from significant investigations, reform programmes, evaluations and case studies of innovations in countries and cultures other than their own. One purpose of this Journal is to make such investigations within the Asian-Pacific region more widely known.