Rethinking Public Education Systems In The 21st Century Scenario

This book emanated from presentations at the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in June 2013. The Congress theme of “New Times, New Voices” provided the broad frame of the post-Buenos Aires series of volumes including this one containing research contributions focusing on the situation of public education systems. The chapters in this volume are selected for quality of research and relevance to the theme, and for representation across global regions. They examine the new and renovated challenges faced by public education systems at present for which different paths are suggested. In particular, this book puts together studies from authors from Latin American countries, especially from the Southern Cone, as a way of giving voice to particular educational problems and perspectives in a globalized world. Getting into educational systems in Argentina, Brazil and Chile and analysing some of its current particularities through the lenses of regional and international comparison, contributes to a better understanding of the processes of circulation, reception, appropriation and translation that historically characterizes educational systems development. This is why the volume also includes studies regarding the impact on contemporary educational reforms in the public sector, their links to past reforms and their cumulative impact on educational systems.

With its comprehensive coverage and quality this provocative book is concerned with the future of developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. By providing in-depth analysis of the economic, social and educational challenges of emerging states it offers an alternative roadmap to development. The authors in this collection substantiate the notion that emerging states often do not participate in policy choices related to their development when faced with universalization of curriculum and internationalization of education. The authors make explicit the direct and indirect effects of globalization on educational systems, social equity, and the path of development. In demonstrating the impact of neoliberalism or market-based reforms on the developing world, the authors show that education without human rights is vulnerable to negative forces of globalization and internationalization. The message of the book is quite pessimistic about possibilities to widen the economic space or increase freedom, unless development cooperation is made possible by “Helping People Help Themselves” as suggested by David Ellerman. The authors note that in the past, the issue of emerging states as an appendage to the world economy was a fundamental question related to colonialism, but now has become a question of imperialism which needs to be examined when considering the current patterns of development.

This book explores the interrelationship between ideology, the state, and education reforms, placing it in a global context. It examines some of the major education reforms and policy issues in a global culture, particularly in light of recent shifts in quality and standards-driven education, and policy research. The book critiques the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of current education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way the shifts in the relationship between the state and education policy affect current trends in education reforms and schooling globally. With this as its focus, the book’s individual chapters highlight hand-picked scholarly research on major discourses in the field of comparative education. A compendium of the very latest thinking on the subject, the book – like the other volumes in the series – offers a state-of-the-art sourcebook for researchers, practitioners and policymakers alike. Not only do the chapters offer a timely overview of current issues affecting comparative education and education policy research in what is now a global educational culture; they also outline future directions that education and policy reforms could take. By doing so, they provide a comprehensive picture of the intersecting and diverse discourses of globalisation and policy-driven reforms in education. Individual chapters critically assess the dominant discourses and debates on education and policy reforms. Using diverse comparative education paradigms from critical theory to historical-comparative research, they address globalisation, ideology and democracy and examine both the reasons for and outcomes of education reforms and policy change. As such, they provide an informed critique of models of quality and standards-driven education reforms that are informed by Western dominant ideologies and social values.

This book is part of the Sense Publishers series emerging from the 2013 WCCES XV World Congress in Buenos Aires (Series Editors Suzanne Majhanovich and Allan Pitman). The Congress Theme of New Times, New Voices provided the broad frame for the conference and the series of volumes, including this one, which contains research contributions focusing on educational internationalisation. Ever since the early days of international and comparative inquiry in education, the idea that policy and practice might be borrowed or transferred from one location to another has been a continuing theme.

"This book brings together new thinking on education’s complex and evolving role in conflict and fragility. The changing nature of conflict, from inter- to intra-state, and with shifting geopolitical power balances, demands a reconceptualization of where education is positioned. Claims that education on its own can be an agent of conflict transformation are disputed. Deliberate attempts at peace education are not without critics and controversies. This collection aims to generate new realism from empirical and reflective accounts in a variety of countries and political contexts, as well as provide innovative methodological approaches to the study of education and conflict. The particular distinctiveness of the volume is the emphasis on ‘contested’ – it includes the debates and disagreements on the many faces of education in conflict, as well as material on teaching controversial issues in fragile contexts. Crucially, it underscores how education itself exists within highly contested projects of state, nation and region building. As well as overview comparative chapters, the collection encompasses a range of specific contexts, geographically and educationally – Algeria, Canada, El Salvador, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nepal, Tunisia, UK and US, with settings that include schools, higher education and refugee camps. Focuses range from analyses of education in historical conflicts to contemporary issues such as post Arab Spring transformations. Perennial concerns about religion, colonialism, protest, integration, cohesion, emergencies, globalization and narrative are given new slants. Yet in spite of the debates, a cross-cutting consensus emerges as the crucial need for critical pedagogy and critical theory if education is to make any mark at all on conflict and fragility. "

This book weaves together voices of faculty, residents, mentors, administrators, community organizers, and students who have lived together in a third space urban teacher residency program in Newark as they reinvent math and science teaching and teacher education through the lens of inquiry. Each chapter includes narratives from multiple perspectives as well as tools we have used within the program to support and build change, providing readers with both real cases of how an urban teacher residency can impact school systems, and concrete tools and examples to help the reader understand and replicate aspects of the process. Capturing both the successes but also the tensions and challenges, we offer a kaleidoscopic view of the rich, complex, and multi-layered ways in which multiple stakeholders work together to make enduring educational change in urban schools. Our third space NMUTR has been a fragile utopian enterprise, one that has relied on a shared commitment of all involved, and a deep sense of hope that working collaboratively has the potential, even if not perfect, to make a difference.

The book examines how the understanding of the global and the local has changed in response to ongoing reconfigurations between the state and society. It also emphasizes the importance of schooling as an institution both within and across national contexts, a holistic approach that helps us move beyond a conglomeration of isolated local events to pay attention to global trends. In this regard, the book underscores the richness of contextual factors that may create opportunities for innovation, or may serve as constraints in the implementation process. As a whole, the book brings new questions about globalization and the imperatives of education policy and implementation.

Whose voices are taken into account in language policy and planning and whose have been ignored or more actively silenced? This is the central question addressed in this book. What are the political and social factors that have helped to create these historical exclusions, in terms of endangerment and loss of traditional languages? What are the global influences on the local landscape of languages and linguistic rights? What are the implications for cultural heritage and identity? In analyzing these questions and reporting on research in an array of countries, the chapter authors also suggest ways forward toward designing more inclusive policies and practices in educational contexts, whether in the context of obligatory schooling or in less formal educational contexts. UNESCO estimates that at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Such statistics remind us that the linguistic diversity that characterizes the human condition is a fragile thing, and that certain languages need to be cultivated if they are to survive into the 21st century and beyond. The chapters in this volume originated as presentations at the XV World Congress of Comparative Education Societies (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2013). They represent several global regions, namely Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. They provide analyses of language policy and politics at the local, regional, national and transnational levels, grass-roots linguistic revitalization initiatives, and the attitudes of minority and majority speakers toward minoritized languages and cultures and towards intercultural and multilingual education programs./div