Abstract
The world is rapidly changing, with shifting geopolitics, demographic transitions and socio-economic and technological revolutions. Knowledge is exploding, and new study areas are emerging. Every year, an increasingly higher number of children enter schools and universities. Paradoxically, the widening of socio-economic inequalities between people and between nations is also noticeable. Structural adjustment, globalisation and the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in new paradigms of development and revolutionary changes in the education policy landscape in many countries. The often-witnessed backlash against globalisation has not yet elicited any significant shift in public policies away from globalisation. Technological advances have resulted in several disruptions: Some of them are of global scale, putting further pressure on several facets of education, including governance, delivery, curricular reforms, teaching–learning strategies, pedagogy and so on. The world is also just recovering from one of the worst pandemics in human history. In addition, democratic pressures, challenges in achieving Sustainable Development Goals and environmental concerns have emerged as major issues. The global society in 2023 is much different from what it was about 50 years ago, and so is the education scenario. Education systems in many rich and poor countries have become increasingly politicised and face the challenges of ensuring social justice, equity, excellence and expansion. Several new issues have arisen in various forms and colours, all of which necessitate a fresh and closer look at educational policies at national and global levels. Handbook of Education Policy attempts to address these needs.
An important strength of this book of 23 major chapters is the analysis of wide-ranging themes in various national and global contexts. The themes chosen by the authors are so divergent that the editors could not group them under any major sections/heads. Some of the themes covered include policies in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, academic excellence, governance, innovations, accountability, curriculum (in particular, interdisciplinary curriculum), inter-sectoral linkages, social justice, inclusion, equity, gender, academic entrepreneurialism, community colleges, transnational policies, international cooperation and education for sustainable development. The 33 contributing authors, including the editors, are teachers, researchers and practitioners from various disciplines, countries and continents, with different levels of experience. These aspects can be seen as strengths of the book but they make it difficult to pen a crisp review.
An important policy issue that emerged prominently during the post-COVID-19 period is digital technology in education. Many countries were convinced on the importance of digital technology and are making policies in this regard. Mizunoya et al. (Chapter 3) argue for making effective policies and expanding access to digital infrastructure everywhere including to rural areas because, according to them, remote learning is ‘the only sustainable solution’ to face ‘learning resiliency in future crises’ (p. 48). It is important not only to substantially improve the access to digital technology in low-income and advanced countries but also to ensure that the quality of learning is not affected. What the world experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic was rather disappointing on both counts. It may be underlined that the available research is not unequivocally conclusive on the role of digital technology in education development. Reflecting on globalisation and subsequent education policies, Rodrigo Arocena (Chapter 8) elucidates the need for knowledge democratisation. Yulia Nesterova (Chapter 20) reviews the issue of inclusion in education on a global framework and proposes a holistic social justice framework that incorporates three components of social justice: distributive, rational and epistemic, which can aid the development of a system that transforms education in ways that it responds to and supports the needs of all children—a system that does not expect ‘students to fit the system, but rather helps the system adjust to the students’ (p. 310). Hei-hang Hayes Tang (Chapter 23) cautions us against the adoption of uncritical entrepreneurialism in higher education, which produces undesirable consequences. Academic entrepreneurialism does not consider principles such as equity, access, quality and justice; instead, it is based on functional goals and pecuniary benefits.
This book also provides national and regional perspectives on many issues. Higher education in South African countries has long been subjected to neglect. ‘No country [in the region] can argue that it has developed an inclusive education system’ (p. 298). These countries have also suffered from the debilitating effects of structural adjustment programmes and other policies of multilateral organisations, which have often been detrimental to higher education. ‘The performance culture, encouraged by the [donor] organisations, creates conditions for instability, violence and conflict-ridden societies’ (p. 288). Further, they have not brought the marginalised and alienated people to the centre of the education system. Focusing on inclusion and equity in sub-Saharan African countries, Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela (Chapter 17) and Sigamoney Naicker (Chapter 19) emphasise the need for radical changes in policies.
This book offers valuable messages on rejuvenating education systems across countries. Anatoly Oleksiyenko (Chapter 4) reviews the paths taken and not taken by Ukraine and suggests that academic excellence cannot evolve through a simplistic methodological emulation of the best practices of internationalisation elsewhere; it requires the integration of local discourses into international knowledge networks. Yongson Kim (Chapter 18) analyses gender equality in academic professions in South Korea and Japan, where a gender-based quota system is in vogue, and observes that universities that are not open to diversity do not foster the promotion of academic excellence; it is also impossible to develop and advance an academic society without a thorough reflection on gender equality. Besides gender inequality, inequalities between different social, ethnic and economic groups, which are quite high in numerous countries, deserve serious attention.
Stressing the need to bring ‘public’ back into public education, Trygve Throntveit (Chapter 6, ‘Public Value Governance’) concludes: ‘Education systems will be much more effective contributors to societal wellbeing when their teachers, faculty, staff and students recognize that they are members of the public rather than its servants or dependents, and learn to act as co-creators, with their intramural and extramural communities of a common life’ (p. 92). After neoliberal policies were introduced and markets became dominant in education provision, education, which was regarded as a public good for a long time, has begun to be viewed as a private good. The change in the approach has significant implications for public policy, including funding. Besides direct benefits, public goods produce a large set of externalities, which are non-excludable (i.e., others cannot be excluded from consuming the goods and/or their benefits) and non-rivalrous (i.e., consumption of a good/or its benefits by one person does not affect the consumption of it by others). While ‘common goods’ and ‘public goods’ have some common characteristics, as per politico-economic theories, common goods are rivalrous (i.e., one’s consumption will reduce its availability to others). Hence, development specialists and education philosophers emphasise the public good nature of education. Since the benefits of public goods are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, pricing mechanisms do not work, and such goods as education are important candidates for ‘social (public) investment’. Treating education as a ‘common good’ and as a candidate for ‘collective investment’ (Mona Khare, Chapter 7) may mean to be a narrow perspective. Overlooking the fine distinction between common goods and public goods, many use both terms interchangeably and/or argue for treating education as a common good.
Frances Pedró (Chapter 10) highlights the importance of curricular and other innovations in promoting equity in education and appeals for systematic innovations and their proper evaluations. Drawing from their experiences in Pratham in India, BRAC in Bangladesh and Escuela Nueva in Colombia, James Williams and Priyal Gala (Chapter 9) underline the importance of flexibility in making innovations and experimentation by local actors. Based on a literature review mapping strategy, Rosalind Latiner Ray and Edward James Valeau (Chapter 22) highlight the valuable contributions of community colleges and the like in other countries, which are acclaimed as gateways for widening participation and access and also as creators of global knowledge, but are not well recognised, nor well-funded or much respected. All these are valuable messages for educationists, educational planners and policymakers.
While the majority of these issues discussed in this book are at the global level, some have also been discussed in specific national contexts, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Ukraine, Thailand and sub-Saharan African and South American countries, which is also useful for a wider group of audience. For example, the challenges faced by the universities in Hong Kong (Chapter 14, Florian Verbeek) in organising a sustainable interdisciplinary curriculum will be echoed by all those who are struggling with developing interdisciplinary teaching and research programmes in their universities. The Hong Kong case clearly shows that efforts are worth making since a sustainable interdisciplinary curriculum can contribute immensely to building human and intellectual capital in universities. There are many more such valuable contributions in this book.
With wide-ranging thematic pieces, case studies, research analyses, global, regional and national insightful perspectives and valuable messages, this Handbook is indeed rich. This scholarly volume will be highly valuable to all those interested in education policy issues in any specific national or global context.