Global Governance Of Education

This book examines the educational role of three international organizations created as part of the post-World War II multilateral architecture: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These organizations have significantly promoted and shaped education as a fundamental feature of the modernization of society and contributed to the globalization of educational norms, policies and technologies. Drawing on primary source materials and interviews, the book provides novel perspectives to the literature on the global governance of education by focusing on the historical entanglements, relations and power struggles between these three organizations, rather than treating them separately. The study sheds light on the homogenizing effects of globalized educational policy-making and the shifting power dynamics in the global governance of education. ‘This book makes a very distinctive and important contribution to the literature that critically analyses the influence of the global agencies on education globally; it goes beyond the standard discursive analyses of policy texts to also explore the history of those organisations through archival research and in-depth interviews of the key personnel. What emerges is a powerful analysis which locates those agencies within their historical epochs and shines a light on their tensions and micro-politics, both internally and between organisations.’ Paul Morris, Professor of Comparative Education, Institute of Education, University College London, UK ‘A must-read historical account of the intermingling, boundary setting and competition between the three big intergovernmental organizations (IOs) in education: OECD, UNESCO, and the World Bank. Different from other scholars that document how these IOs have transformed themselves in response to external and internal changes, Elfert and Ydesen draw attention to the relational aspect: how have these three IOs navigated conflict, carved niches, and used and abused each other to amplify and expand their own mission? How have they done so in an environment that is crowded with intergovernmental and international organizations, each with a claim to govern education globally?’ Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor of Comparative and International Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; UNESCO Chair of Comparative Education Policy of the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies 'This volume is a thoughtful and timely work of scholarship. Understanding the roles of UNESCO, the OECD and the World Bank is central to understanding contemporary education in global perspective. Elfert and Ydesen’s historical analysis sets out in rigorous detail how these organisations have evolved, and what has shaped and driven this evolution. The historical analysis is complemented by contemporary interview data, facilitating an actor-level analysis as well as a broader picture. The book is conceptually and theoretically rich while being accessibly written; the authors manage complexity remarkably well. For anyone interested in global governance and the role of international organisations, or anyone who wants to understand in general how global educational agendas have developed and converged, this book is a most valuable read.' Michele Schweisfurth, Professor of Comparative and International Education, University of Glasgow, UK Chapter "UNESCO, the OECD and the World Bank: A Global Governance Perspective” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Governance of Higher Education explores the work of traditional and contemporary higher education scholarship worldwide, providing readers with an understanding of the assumptions, historical traditions, and paradigms that have shaped the scholarship on governance. Bringing together the vast and disparate writings that form the higher education governance literature—including frameworks drawn from a range of disciplines and global scholarship—this book synthesizes the significant theoretical, conceptual, and empirical scholarship to advance the research and practice of governance. Coverage includes the structures of governance, cultures and practices, the collegial tradition, the new managed environment of the academy, and the politics and processes of governance. As universities across the globe face a myriad of challenges and multiple stakeholder demands, Governance of Higher Education offers scholars, practitioners, and higher education graduate students an essential resource for advancing research and the practice of governance.

This volume offers a critical examination of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), focusing on its origins and implementation, relationship to other international large-scale assessments, and its impacts on educational policy and reform at national and cross-national levels. Using empirical data gathered from a research project carried out by the CeiED at Lusofona University, Lisbon, the text highlights connections between PISA and emergent issues including the international circulation of big science, expertise and policy, and identifies its conceptual and methodological limits as a global governance project. The volume ultimately provides a novel framework for understanding how OECD priorities are manifested through a regulatory instrument based on Human and Knowledge Capital Theory, and so makes a powerful case to search for new humanistic approaches. This text will benefit researchers, academics and educators with an interest in education policy and politics, international and comparative education, and the sociology of education more broadly. Those interested in the history of education will also benefit from this volume.

The edited volume provides multiple lens to view school governance practices, exploring its modernization, ethical review, future trend, as well as the reciprocal influence of educational policy. Drawing on a wide-spread experience in the field of education governance from leading scholars, emerging scholars, doctoral research students and school principals, this book includes insights from 11 countries and economies across four continents: Asia, Europe, North America and Oceanic. Most of them are high achievers in the OECD’s PISA 2018 worldwide ranking in mathematics, science and reading. The book not only lifts to the forefront school governance educational thinking, but also acknowledges their complex evolution, especially under the current impact of COVID-19 Pandemic. This book will be of interest to academics, professionals and policymakers in education and school governance, and any scholars who engage in historical studies of education and debates about educational governance.

A Brookings Institution Press with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Center for American Progress publication America's fragmented, decentralized, politicized, and bureaucratic system of education governance is a major impediment to school reform. In this important new book, a number of leading education scholars, analysts, and practitioners show that understanding the impact of specific policy changes in areas such as standards, testing, teachers, or school choice requires careful analysis of the broader governing arrangements that influence their content, implementation, and impact. Education Governance for the Twenty-First Century comprehensively assesses the strengths and weaknesses of what remains of the old in education governance, scrutinizes how traditional governance forms are changing, and suggests how governing arrangements might be further altered to produce better educational outcomes for children. Paul Manna, Patrick McGuinn, and their colleagues provide the analysis and alternatives that will inform attempts to adapt nineteenth and twentieth century governance structures to the new demands and opportunities of today. Contents: Education Governance in America: Who Leads When Everyone Is in Charge?, Patrick McGuinn and Paul Manna The Failures of U.S. Education Governance Today, Chester E. Finn Jr. and Michael J. Petrilli How Current Education Governance Distorts Financial Decisionmaking, Marguerite Roza Governance Challenges to Innovators within the System, Michelle R. Davis Governance Challenges to Innovators outside the System, Steven F. Wilson Rethinking District Governance, Frederick M. Hess and Olivia M. Meeks Interstate Governance of Standards and Testing, Kathryn A. McDermott Education Governance in Performance-Based Federalism, Kenneth K. Wong The Rise of Education Executives in the White House, State House, and Mayor’s Office, Jeffrey R. Henig English Perspectives on Education Governance and Delivery, Michael Barber Education Governance in Canada and the United States, Sandra Vergari Education Governance in Comparative Perspective, Michael Mintrom and Richard Walley Governance Lessons from the Health Care and Environment Sectors, Barry G. Rabe Toward a Coherent and Fair Funding System, Cynthia G. Brown Picturing a Different Governance Structure for Public Education, Paul T. Hill From Theory to Results in Governance Reform, Kenneth J. Meier The Tall Task of Education Governance Reform, Paul Manna and Patrick McGuinn

Over the past ten years the PISA assessment has risen to strategic prominence in the international education policy discourse. Sponsored, organized and administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), PISA seems well on its way to being institutionalized as the main engine in the global accountability regime. The goal of this book is to problematize this development and PISA as an institution-building force in global education. It scrutinizes the role of PISA in the emerging regime of global educational governance and questions the presumption that the quality of a nation’s school system can be evaluated through a standardized assessment that is insensitive to the world’s vast cultural and institutional diversity. The book raises the question of whether PISA’s dominance in the global educational discourse runs the risk of engendering an unprecedented process of worldwide educational standardization for the sake of hitching schools more tightly to the bandwagon of economic efficiency, while sacrificing their role to prepare students for independent thinking and civic participation.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international achievement measure that assesses 15-year-old student performance in the areas of reading, mathematics, and science literacy in over 70 countries and economies triennially. By presenting an in-depth examination of PISA’s role in education governance and policy discourses, this book provides the reader with a critical analysis of the educational change process within our increasingly global educational policy environment. Exploring the prominent socio-political drivers of large-scale educational reform across the globe, chapter authors examine PISA’s national and global implications from a diverse range of regional contexts. Through the presentation of cross-disciplinary viewpoints and topical issues related to the PISA international survey, this volume explains the degree to which PISA-focused research is linked to national educational policy discourses and international education agendas.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.