With contributions from Linda Darling-Hammond, Michael Fullan, Pasi Sahlberg, and Martin Carnoy, Global Education Reform is an eye-opening analysis of national educational reforms and the types of high-achieving systems needed to serve all students equitably. The collection documents the ideologically and educationally distinctive approaches countries around the world have taken to structuring their education systems. Focusing on three pairs of case studies written by internationally acclaimed experts, the book provides a powerful analysis of the different ends of an ideological spectrum----from strong state investments in public education to market-based approaches. An introductory chapter offers an overview of the theories guiding both neoliberal reforms such as those implemented in Chile, Sweden and the United States with efforts to build strong and equitable public education systems as exemplified by Cuba, Finland and Canada. The pairs of case studies that follow examine the historical evolution of education within an individual country and compare and contrast national educational outcomes. A concluding chapter dissects the educational outcomes of the differing economic and governance approaches, as well as the policy implications.
Editor Iris C. Rotberg brings together, in one accessible source, current education reforms in 16 countries, written and analyzed by experts in the field. This book offers: education reform in a wide range of countries selected to represent diverse societies and education systems; a unique analysis of how education reformers respond to rapidly changing societies and increased demand for education in the face of limited resources; case studies showing the difficult tradeoffs countries make as they attempt to implement change, all in the context of historical antecedents, values, and political structures that facilitate or constrain their reform efforts; a book that goes beyond myths and stereotypes and describes how countries address global pressures, immigration patterns, and increasing gaps in socioeconomic levels; description of political and economic pressures that determine a country's policies concerning equality of educational opportunity, access to higher education, student testing and tracking, teacher accountability, decentralization, school choice, and innovation; an invaluable resource for policymakers, faculty, students, and the general public who are interested in how decisions made about the education system will ultimately affect the quality of education, educational access, and social justice.
This innovative new handbook offers a comprehensive overview of the ways in which domestic education policy is framed and influenced by global institutions and actors. Surveys current debates about the role of education in a global polity, highlights key transnational policy actors, accessibly introduces research methodologies, and outlines global agendas for education reform Includes contributions from an international cast of established and emerging scholars at the forefront of the field thoughtfully edited and organized by a team of world-renowned global education policy experts Each section features a thorough introduction designed to facilitate readers’ understanding of the subsequent material and highlight links to interdisciplinary global policy scholarship Written in an accessible and engaging style that will appeal to domestic and international policy practitioners, social scientists, and education scholars alike
It is now time to break down the ideology of exceptionalism in the United States and other Anglo-American nations if we are to develop reforms that will truly inspire our teachers to improve learning for all our studentsespecially those who struggle the most. In that essential quest, Pasi Sahlberg is undoubtedly one of the very best teachers of all. From the Foreword by Andy Hargreaves, Lynch School of Education, Boston College Finnish Lessons is a first-hand, comprehensive account of how Finland built a world-class education system during the past three decades. The author traces the evolution of education policies in Finland and highlights how they differ from the United States and other industrialized countries. He shows how rather than relying on competition, choice, and external testing of students, education reforms in Finland focus on professionalizing teachers work, developing instructional leadership in schools, and enhancing trust in teachers and schools. This book details the complexity of educational change and encourages educators and policymakers to develop effective solutions for their own districts and schools.
Education privatization is a global phenomenon that has crystallized in countries with very different cultural, political, and economic backgrounds. In this book, the authors examine how privatization policies are being adopted and why so many countries are engaging in this type of education reform. The authors explore the contexts, key personnel, and policy initiatives that explain the worldwide advance of the private sector in education, and identify six different paths toward education privatization—as a drastic state sector reform (e.g., Chile, the U.K.), as an incremental reform (e.g., the U.S.A.), in social-democratic welfare states, as historical public-private partnerships (e.g., Netherlands, Spain), as de facto privatization in low-income countries, and privatization via disaster. Book Features: The first comprehensive, in-depth investigation of the political economy of education privatization at a global scale.An analysis of the different strategies, discourses, and agents that have contributed to advancing (and resisting) education privatization trends. An examination of the role of private corporations, policy entrepreneurs, philanthropic organizations, think-tanks, and teacher unions. “Rich in examples, careful in its analysis, important in its conclusions and recommendations for further work, this book is a vital, rigorous, up-to-date resource for education policy researchers.” —Stephen J. Ball, University College London “Few issues are as significant as is education privatization across the globe; few treatments of this issue offer both the breadth and nuanced understanding that this book does.” —Christopher Lubienski, Indiana University
The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform examines educational reform from a global perspective. Comprised of approximately 25 original and specially commissioned essays, which together interrogate educational reform from a critical global and transnational perspective, this volume explores a range of topics and themes that fully investigate global convergences in educational reform policies, ideologies, and practices. The Handbook probes the history, ideology, organization, and institutional foundations of global educational reform movements; actors, institutions, and agendas; and local, national, and global education reform trends. It further examines the “new managerialism” in global educational reform, including the standardization of national systems of educational governance, curriculum, teaching, and learning through the rise of new systems of privatization, accountability, audit, big-data, learning analytics, biometrics, and new technology-driven adaptive learning models. Finally, it takes on the subjective and intersubjective experiential dimensions of the new educational reforms and alternative paths for educational reform tied to the ethical imperative to reimagine education for human flourishing, justice, and equality. An authoritative, definitive volume and the first global take on a subject that is grabbing headlines as well as preoccupying policy makers, scholars, and teachers around the world Edited by distinguished leaders in the field Features contributions from an illustrious list of experts and scholars The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students of education throughout the world as well as the policy makers who can institute change.
The United States' failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role. This report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill prepared to compete with their global peers. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science every three years, U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science compared to students in other industrialized countries. The lack of preparedness poses threats on five national security fronts: economic growth and competitiveness, physical safety, intellectual property, U.S. global awareness, and U.S. unity and cohesion, says the report. Too many young people are not employable in an increasingly high-skilled and global economy, and too many are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have an inadequate level of education. The report proposes three overarching policy recommendations: implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security; make structural changes to provide students with good choices; and, launch a "national security readiness audit" to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness.
Global Education Reform presents an opportunity to reorganize, transform, and recapture misplaced human potential. The book advocates a new culture of the education process through the establishment of Student Concerned Review Councils (SCRCs) as a vehicle for global education reform in college and university communities. The proposed SCRC must be viewed as an active search engine for a global conduit to encourage chancellors, vice chancellors, presidents, professors, and ministers of education to be fully integrated in the SCRC process. The book notes that effective design and implementation of Information Technology Resource Service Centers (ITRSCs) on college and university campuses will definitely help students to reconnect with their lost potential, elevate their self-confidence, improve their inner satisfaction, develop their personal life and professional career, and restore dignity to the education community. The implementation of Information Technology Resource Service Centers (ITRSC), Programming Resource Technology Center (PTRC), Open Access Technology Resource Center (OATRC), Professional Development Technology Center (PDTC), Professional Development Technology Center (PDTC), Academic Faculty Resource Technology Center (AFRTC), Academic Research Technology Center (ARTC), Learning Resource Technology Center (LRTC), and Certification Resource Technology Center (CRTC) will enhance the understanding, importance, and advantages of information technology in the education process. The author sees the decay of the Nigerian educational system as a regrettable oversight and a deterrent to global education reform and the preparation, nurturing and education of future education leaders of the unified free world. The author asserts that Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Tafawa Balewa, General Aguiyi Ironsi, General Yakubu Gowon, Chief Obafemi Owolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Brigadier Udoakaha Esuene, and Governor Owelle Okorocha were patriotic, enduring, and outstanding education advocates for all citizens in Nigeria. A lifelong education is an instructive and enlightening route to wisdom, intellectual growth, and maturity; therefore, it is the authors assertion that combined and collaborative efforts are needed, as well as support from ministers of education and other politicians who are willing to allocate adequate financial resources that will enable privileged elites; chancellors, vice chancellors, presidents, professors to prepare future leaders of the education system in their formative years to establish an attitude of persistence, and self-confidence to cope with the demanding workforce and professional challenges of todays information technology society. The author submits that effective and efficient use of information technology as valuable data and voice transmission tools, e-mail, cell phones, Internet access as education instruction delivery apparatus, and communication system for global language barriers will definitely create a singular and mutually sovereign system for the successful development of global education reform.
In Balancing Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform, Rotberg brings together examples of current education reforms in sixteen countries, written by 'insiders'. This book goes beyond myths and stereotypes and describes the difficult trade-offs countries make as they attempt to implement reforms in the context of societal and global change. In some countries, reforms are a response to major political or economic shifts; in others, they are motivated by large upsurges in immigration and increased student diversity. Irrespective of the reasons for education reform, all countries face decisions about resource allocation, equality of educational opportunity across diverse populations, access to higher education, student testing and tracking, teacher accountability, school choice, and innovation. The essays in this volume reveal: _
Documenting the outcomes from three decades of transnational research conducted under the leadership of António Teodoro, this volume offers a robust scaffolding of the social and political context in which global education is being challenged by the contradictions of neoliberalism, globalization, deregulation, governance, and democracy. Contesting the Global Development of Sustainable and Inclusive Education presents outcomes from transnational studies conducted in response to global policies advocating the development of sustainable and inclusive education for all. Chapters map the impacts of globalization on education policy and consider how international organizations are shaping national education reforms. Focusing on questions of social justice, the volume asks how the neoliberal strategies enacted by national governments are affecting the work of teachers as well as curriculum, teacher training, and assessment. Finally, the text asks whether there are alternatives to financially-driven, competition-based reforms that might better position education as an action project for social justice. This volume will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, researchers and policymakers in the fields of global education, comparative education, and education policy.
