Market Education

Discontent with public education has been on the rise in recent years, as parents complain that their children are not being taught the basics, that they are not pushed to excel, and that their classrooms are too chaotic to encourage any real learning. The public has begun to reject school bond levies with regularity, frustrated by what it perceives to be mounting education costs unaccompanied by increased achievement or accountability. Coulson explores the educational problems facing parents and shows how these problems can best be addressed. He begins with a discussion of what people want from their school systems, tracing their views of the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values education should impart, and their concerns over discipline, drugs, and violence in public schools. Using this survey of goals and attitudes as a guide, Coulson sets out to compare the school systems of civilizations both ancient and modern, seeking to determine which systems successfully educated generations past and which did not. His historical study ranges from classical Greece and ancient Rome, through the Islamic world of the Middle Ages, to nineteenth-century England and modern America. Drawing on the historical evidence of how these various systems operated, Coulson concludes that free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving the public's needs than state-run school systems have. He sets out a blueprint for competitive, free-market educational reform that would make schools more flexible, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of parents and students. He describes how education for low-income children might be funded under a market system, and how the transition from monopolistic public education to market education might be achieved. Coulson's Market Education touches on a wide range of issues, including declines in academic achievement, minority education, the role of public school teachers, and mismanagement and corruption in educational bureaucracies. Coulson examines alternative reform proposals from vouchers and charter schools to national standards for school curricula. This timely and engaging book will appeal to parents, educators, and others concerned with the quality and cost of schooling, and will serve as an excellent resource in college courses on the economics and history of education.

In Market Education: The Unknown History, Andrew J. Coulson explores the educational problems facing parents and shows how these problems can best be addressed. He begins with a discussion of what people want from their school systems, tracing their views of the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values education should impart, and their concerns about discipline, drugs, and violence in schools. Using this survey of goals and attitudes as a guide, Coulson sets out to compare the school systems of civilizations both ancient and modern, seeking to determine which systems achieved the aims of parents and the public at large and which did not. Drawing on the historical evidence of how these various systems operated, Coulson concludes that free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving the public's needs than state-run school systems have.

This book examines how the Global Education Industry (GEI) has brokered, funded, and implemented new conceptualizations of ‘good’ education. With a focus on new private providers and policy actors in education, the authors of the book analyze the impact of the GEI on educational research, policy and practice. How did philanthropies and foundations manage to make their voices heard in school reform debates, what are the implication of digital technologies and data infrastructures on teaching and learning, and should the fast advance of the GEI be merely seen as a logical consequence of the commercialization of education? Moving beyond single-country case studies, the book focuses on key issues related to the study of the Global Education Industry in an international context, discussing the rationales, processes and impacts of current developments. This comprehensive book will be of interest and value to scholars and researchers of the GEI, as well as policy makers.

Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education provides a wide perspective on the dramatic transformation of education policy in Sweden that has taken place during the last 30 years, with a specific focus on marketization. The marketization of education in Sweden is set in the wider international context of changes in education systems. With contributions from researchers across a wide range of scientific disciplines, the book provides examples of the consequences of market orientation in education in terms of increase in inequality as well as in terms of what the market orientation means for principals, teachers and students. It considers how Sweden has developed one of the most marketized education systems in the world and the possible consequences of such processes, as identified by research. Neoliberalism and Market Forces in Education will be of great interest to educational practitioners, politicians, scholars in the field, and postgraduate and research students in education.

Fuelled by forces of globalization, China has gradually shifted from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy. Under the market economy China has experienced a massive and protracted economic boom. It is not clear however whether recent economic changes have brought the same miracle to education in China. Spotlight on China brings together established and emerging scholars from China and internationally in a dialogue about the profound social and economic transformation that has resulted from the market economy and its concomitant impact on education in China. The book covers a wide range of topics, including: Market economy and curriculum reform Teaching under China's market economy Changes in higher education Transitions from education to work Market economy and social inequality With its broad scope and fresh critical perspectives, this collection offers a most contemporary and comprehensive analysis of possibly the largest education system in the world. Lessons learned from the China experiment will inform researchers and educators about social and educational reforms in other countries which are undergoing similar fundamental changes. "Spotlight on China provides a state of the art picture: dynamic, partial, full of contradictions and tensions, and, as we speak, in movement and local reconfiguration." - Allan Luke, Queensland University of Technology "The book moves social science research on China's education another step forward by refining the balance between the viability of mainstream western concepts and the analytical possibilities of creating a new scholarship based on a deeper understanding of the historically grounded realities of contemporary Chinese education." - Gerard A. Postiglione, The University of Hong Kong"

This collection of essays debates the application of market principles to and within the context of education. The contributors are all leading figures in their field, presenting their ideas in an accessible style to the lay reader. Throughout, the educational and public policy issues raised by the application of market principles to education are closely examined.

The so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring has become a global phenomenon but has different features in different settings. This book explores the ways in which teacher-tutors’ beliefs, social norms, ideals about professionalism, and community values shape their economic decisions in the informal shadow education marketplace. Through theoretical lenses of economic sociology and anthropology, this study uncovers strong social and moral embeddedness of the shadow education market in social relationships, cultural norms and moralities in post-Soviet Georgia. The book questions some of the basic assumptions that the predominant neoliberal discourse promotes worldwide. The book is based on Kobakhidze’s PhD dissertation, which won the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Gail P. Kelly Outstanding Dissertation Award. “[A] theoretically innovative and substantively enlightening account of shadow schooling in Georgia... A landmark achievement.” Roger Dale, University of Bristol “... an important and timely topic ... addressed with exceptional thoroughness. It constitutes a solid piece of academic work and clearly makes a significant contribution to the field of shadow education.”Heidi Biseth, University College of Southeast Norway, Chair of Gail P. Kelly Award Committee in 2017 “...through robust critical analysis, Kobakhidze invites a humanistic re-visioning of economy and society.“ Ora Kwo, The University of Hong Kong

This book offers a comprehensive empirical analysis of educational inequalities and their consequences on individual labour market outcomes for men and women in France and Germany, two countries with different education systems. Using microdata of either country, the analyses mainly rely on econometric methods. After a detailed comparison of the French and the German education systems, the social determinants of school and post-school attainment are analysed. Then, the extent to which education reduces the unemployment risk is examined, distinguishing between risk of entering unemployment, unemployment duration and recurrence of unemployment episodes. Finally, evidence is given on the impact of education on individual earnings prospects.