比较教育研究前沿
比较教育研究前沿
1. Unequal partners? Networks, centrality, and aid to international education
Author: Francine Menashy & Robin Shields
Source: Comparative Education(17 May 2017): 495-517
Abstract:
Following the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, international development policy discourses have focused on partnership as an overarching principle. With a focus on participation and non-hierarchical relationships, new partnerships aim to reconstitute the aid relationship in a way that obviates power inequality and hegemony. However, empirical studies of these partnerships are scarce. This paper uses social network analysis to analyse relationships between organisations involved in prominent partnerships for education in international development. Our analysis of an original dataset demonstrates that bilateral donors, civil society organisations, and international organisations are most likely to occupy central positions in this network, meaning that they enjoy high levels of connectivity to many organisations. Literature on international networks suggests that these organisations would therefore shape the flow of information and ideas between organisations, influence the distribution of resources among members, and determine normative preferences of the partnerships. In contrast, recipient governments, private businesses, and universities occupy peripheral positions. We contextualise these findings with respect to literature on aid in international education and privatisation in the political economy of educational development.
2.Policy, philanthropy and profit: the OECD’s PISA for Schools and new modes of heterarchical educational governance
Author: Steven Lewis
Source: Comparative Education(23 May 2017): 518-537
Abstract:
This paper examines the development and administration of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for Schools – a new testing instrument of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – to demonstrate the relevance of heterarchical processes to educational governance. Drawing suggestively across new ‘relational’ thinking around policy networks, and new spatialities associated with globalisation, the research shows how PISA for Schools helps constitute new spaces and relations of, and for, educational governance. Informed by policy documents and interviews conducted with 33 key actors across the PISA for Schools policy cycle, I show how PISA for Schools typifies contemporary educational policy-making and governance via the export of ‘statework’ to private actors and agencies, including intergovernmental organisations, philanthropic foundations and edu-businesses. I conclude by considering how treating PISA for Schools, and other similar education services, as a ‘product’ produces a potentially dangerous blurring of public and private benefits, with the potential that (private) profit might ultimately trump (public) education.
3.After conflict comes education? Reflections on the representations of emergencies in ‘Education in Emergencies’
Author: Indra Versmesse, Ilse Derluyn, Jan Masschelein & Lucia De Haene
Source: Comparative Education(30 May 2017): 538-557
Abstract:
Over the last decade, education has been advanced as a new and legitimate core of the humanitarian crisis response. ‘Education in Emergencies’ (EiE) developed into an institutionalised field of humanitarian practice, advocacy, and scholarly work. Identifying how emergency discourses have been critiqued to operate as ‘social imaginaries’, in this paper the ‘emergency imaginary’ as it develops in the particular discursive context of EiE is analysed. We scrutinise how emergencies are represented in this EiE-discourse by pointing to the socio-ideological and economic drivers of conflict, how the interconnections between education and these drivers are pictured, and the educational changes subsequently advocated for. We conclude that, while EiE has been called a ‘new field of academic and policy research’, the discourse might reiterate prevailing power relations, leading to an adverse portrayal of crisis-affected communities and a legitimation of a global status-quo.
4.Conceptualising education quality in Zambia: a comparative analysis across the local, national and global discourses
Author: Jeongmin Lee & Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski
Source: Comparative Education(04 Jul 2017): 558-577
Abstract:
Building on the Education for All movement, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development re-emphasises quality education as a discrete goal. Contextualising the discussion surrounding this goal in Zambia, this study examines how education quality is conceptualised by educational stakeholders at local, national, and global levels. Triangulating teacher survey and interview data with policy documents from the government of Zambia and UNESCO, we found simultaneous convergence and divergence regarding the concepts of education quality espoused at each level. Convergence was shown in the critical influence of the economic tradition within education and the perceived role of schools in fostering resilient individuals and communities. Divergence was observed through the varying meanings assigned to similar concepts and the dissimilar influences of the humanistic and organisational management traditions at different levels. We discuss the implications of our findings for fostering collective efforts among key partners toward the achievement of quality education in Zambia.
5. The rise, removal, and return of women: gender representations in primary-level textbooks in Afghanistan, 1980–2010
Author: Somaye Sarvarzade & Christine Min Wotipka
Source: Comparative Education(20 Jul 2017): 578-599
Abstract:
Nearly four decades of instability and fragility have led to many changes in the status of women and girls in Afghanistan. Yet, little research focuses on these changes within the education system. To understand the country’s stance toward gender issues in formal practice, we examine gender representations in Afghan primary-level Dari language arts textbooks. Using a qualitative content analysis and longitudinal data, we examine how ideologies about gender have been politicised in Afghanistan and are reflected in school textbooks from 1980 to 2010. Findings suggest that tumultuous political events and power struggles in the recent history of Afghanistan have led to many changes in how the daily social and working lives of Afghan women and girls have been portrayed in textbooks. As seen in the textbooks, it appears that efforts are being made within the current regime to balance competing gender norms. We conclude with suggestions for policy-makers.