Transformation or continuation? A critical analysis of the making of the post-2015 education agenda

As the target date of 2015 draws near for both the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals, consultations are well-underway to begin defining the shape and scope of the post-2015 development agenda. Between September 2012 and March 2013, UN Member States, private sector representatives, multilateral development agencies, epistemic communities and non-governmental organisations participated in the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Participants involved emphasised education as a societal good and a fundamental human right. Participants also highlighted the importance of education in addressing broader global challenges, stating that ‘education and learning should be transformative and foster global citizenship, thereby assuming its central role in helping people to forge more just, peaceful, tolerant and inclusive societies’. Such discourse suggests a shift in the objectives and priorities of global education in the post-2015 context. Is it possible that the post-2015 education agenda will represent a counter-hegemonic vision for global education? This paper engages in discursal analysis of the Global Thematic Consultation on Education in the Post-2015 Development Agenda to offer a preliminary answer to this question.     

Deconstructing Education for All: discourse,power and the politics of inclusion

The UNESCO World Declaration on Education for All from 1990 sets in motion the new agenda for educational reform that provides basic education for all disadvantaged children and adults in the global context. Since its formulation, a set of consecutive policy texts has been issued by international agencies to monitor, evaluate, and strengthen the capacity of governments to ensure that the goals of Education for All are met by 2015. This paper applies critical theory and discourse theory to provide an in‐depth analysis of the hegemonic ideologies of this global policy framework through the deconstruction of policy texts and discourses. It is argued that Education for All is a modernist project of the new imperialism, structured through the selecting, assembling and underpinning of policy discourses, to expand the ideological project of new capitalism in the global context. Discourse of inclusion is discussed both at the educational and political levels to portray the tensions of the global community in grappling with the issues of justice at the international, national, and local context.     

PISA for Development: how the OECD and World Bank shaped education governance post-2015

ABSTRACT

The year 2015 was significant for the arena of international development, as UNESCO’s Education for All agenda was replaced by Education 2030, which would identify minimum standards of education quality. The OECD had been working on extending its existing PISA assessment into low- and middle-income countries through PISA for Development (PISA-D) and positioned the new assessment as a means of tracking progress on the post-2015 goals. The organisation maintains that PISA-D was introduced primarily in response to the demands of the international community, especially low- and middle-income countries, and that the assessment was developed in partnership with them. This paper investigates those claims through an analysis of the arrival of PISA-D in Cambodia, situating the analysis within UNESCO’s shifting agenda and the strategic visions of the OECD and World Bank that first emerged in the 1990s. The result is a very different picture to the portrayals of local agency, demand, consensus and partnership that adorn the official websites and pamphlets of global agencies and much academic research, raising serious doubts about education governance post-2015.     

Who are the custodians of Pacific ‘post-2015’ education futures? Policy discourses,education for all and the millennium development goals

This article discusses influences of Education for All (EFA) and the education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on education policies in the Pacific sub-region in the context of ongoing ‘post-2015 development agenda’ deliberations, focusing on Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. It is based on doctoral work undertaken as a component of an Australian Research Council Linkage grant, partially supported by the former Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and continuing postdoctoral research.Pacific postcolonial nations’ engagement with EFA and the MDGs was compared through a critical discourse analysis of multi-scalar education policy formation processes. The research identified paradoxical influences of global approaches, and multi-level processes. While such frameworks at once facilitated educational debate and legitimized broader education policy participation, they also supported a status quo in mainstream donor and state dominance of educational development agendas. There is some evidence of wider national participation in the emerging ‘post-2015′ policy processes, but the extent of its influence on multi-level policy deliberations globally and regionally is yet to be seen. Many of the education issues currently being raised in both nations, and regionally, have endured since colonial occupation and independence. This article focuses on educational relevance and gender issues in education, and positions them in relation to the concept of ownership within post-colonial political dynamics and multilevel discursive contexts for participation, which I interpret as being of continued importance to understanding these enduring education concerns.     

Can lifelong learning be the post-2015 agenda for the Least Developed Countries?

This paper discusses what approaches to ‘lifelong learning’ should guide the post-2015 education agenda for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) which refers to a group of 49 countries that are off-track in achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Education for All goals. Reports prepared by major consultation groups such as the High Level Panel established by the United Nations and Global Thematic Consultation Group have proposed that ‘providing quality education and lifelong learning’ is an overarching post-2015 education agenda. It is an important breakthrough since ‘lifelong learning’ has been recommended; however, it is not clear what understanding(s) of lifelong learning has been articulated in those documents. How have those recommendations addressed the issues and challenges of the LDCs? In this paper, I review literature on lifelong learning and analyse major documents related to the post-2015 education agenda, especially the one prepared by UN High Level Panel. I conclude that unless the LDCs are given a leadership role for setting their goals—according to their contextual realities—the post-2015 millennium initiatives, such as ‘lifelong learning’ as a new educational agenda, will make no sense.     

Modes of discourse about education, peace and human rights in the 1974 UNESCO Recommendation

How do culturally, politically, and economically different actors define education in the UNESCO 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Co-operation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms? This exploration of the document aims to increase understanding of the work of organizations such as UNESCO, as well as stimulating new attention to the area of education for international understanding, peace, and human rights. The text of the Recommendation is analysed discursively, and five repertoires are identified: instruction, principled, factual, stand-taking, and adjusting, as well as a wider discourse of rationality. Repertoires construct positions for the speaker, here the General Conference of UNESCO, and for those to whom the Recommendation is addressed (member states). The adjusting discourse, in which member states are given opportunities to define alternative modes of implementation, is especially important. Identifying the modes of discourse used in the document helps to explain implicit aspects of the normative texts drafted by UNESCO and by international organizations generally. This analysis also provides a basis for reflection on the interaction between international organizations, education policy makers, and educators in this area.     

The global targeting of education and skill: policy history and comparative perspectives

This analysis covers the period from 1925 to 2016 in respect of constructing national and global goals and targets in education and training. Tensions between global and national approaches to target-setting are identified. Equally, the ownership of the global target discourse is discussed along with its contested relevance to both developed and developing economies. The process of constructing Sustainable Development Goal 4 (on Education) is laid out against a background of this essential history. The milestones in this process include national initiatives on education for all in India and China, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UNESCO regional conferences on education, the world conferences on education in Jomtien, Dakar and Incheon, and the UN’s Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. Across these and several other staging posts, the actual texts and framing of the goals and targets are subjected to critical review.     

联合国教科文组织与全球教育治理

在经济日益全球化的进程中,国际社会对教育问题的关注和重视已使教育的全球治理成为一种必然之势。本文首先对教育进入全球治理的议程进行了探讨;其次,以世界全民教育为例并从比较的角度分析了联合国教科文组织在全球教育治理中的比较优势;最后从三个方面展望了全球教育治理的未来发展。     

Education and sustainability: reinvigorating adult education’s role in transformation,justice and development

Distinctively economic objectives for lifelong education, especially adult learning and education, feature prominently in policy-making agendas and educators’ practice in much of the world. Critics contend that humanistic and holistic visions of lifelong learning for all have been marginalised and neglected. The current turn of political attention to issues of planetary environmental sustainability and to global societal transformation and interconnectedness raises further questions and prospects. Two United Nations’ publications in 2015: UNESCO’s Rethinking Education: toward a global common good? and of the United Nations’ Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development pose intersecting concerns for lifelong learning and environmental sustainability. This article engages with those questions in particular regard to the role of adult learning and education. It discusses a field study of non-formal adult education in Ghana. The field study contributes evidence that resiliently humanistic conceptions and practices of non-formal adult education practically succeed to foster transformation, development and human flourishing. That effective humanism gives credence to the ambitiousness of UNESCO and UN agenda for transformation and sustainability and informs international debates.     

From education for peace to education in conflict: changes in UNESCO discourse, 1945–2015

Since the turn of the twenty-first century, the global education community has focused significant attention on the promotion of education in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, embodied in the growth of a new sub-field called Education in Emergencies. This article points out the surprising distinction of this new sub-field from the more established and closely related field of peace education. It examines United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) documents for insight into the changing global ideas that have facilitated the shift in focus from peace to conflict. Empirically, we draw on a quantitative content analysis of more than 450 UNESCO documents published between 1945 and 2015. We find that education for peace remains a constant, if evolving, concern in these texts, but that a powerful emphasis on individual rights has shifted the discursive focus away from inter-state relations and towards the educational needs of young people. In the documents, conflict is now theorised as a threat to education and peace is re-envisioned not just as the desirable outcome of education, but also as its pre-condition. We show how this ideational transformation has re-cast an expansive array of conflicts, natural disasters, and other emergencies as threats to education.     

Revisiting China’s Africa policies and educational promises: towards a global convergence of development in the post-2015 era?

ABSTRACT

Comparing China’s 2006 and 2015 Africa policies, this article reveals how China’s political discourse has become more confident, practical, and depoliticised. In particular, this paper shows how education is allocated, promised, and embedded in China’s ‘shared’ agenda, which is centred on development co-operation and mutual learning. It then reflects on the extent to which China may move towards traditional donors. This paper concludes that, despite fragmented convergences in the discourse and an increased recognition of a Chinese model, China maintains its distinctive role and position in the post-2015 era.     

迈向教育公平的革命性理念——联合国教科文组织“全民教育”政策的话语实践分析

保障人的基本受教育权利,促进教育公平是UNESCO多年来一贯的追求。本研究借助福柯的话语实践理论,运用N-Vivo 8.0对UNESCO的全民教育政策文本进行处理,发现全民教育一方面延续了UNESCO追求教育公平的努力,另一方面又具有更为强烈的革命气质。这种革命气质促使全民教育与终身教育在信息时代不断走向融合。     

Post-2015 agendas: Northern tsunami,southern ripple? The case of education and skills

This paper examines the architecture of post-2015, paying particular attention to the role of the South and the place of education and skills development in this. A battery of different levels of meetings and consultations has sought to influence the outcome. So another dimension analyses the route map itself, and explores the process whereby any post-2015 goals or targets might be established, and what are the milestones on the journey. A particular education challenge in this safari is that there are three processes for proposing an education dimension of post-2015 frameworks: a post-MDG one, a post-EFA, and a SDG process.     

Researching educational policy and change in ‘new times’: using critical discourse analysis

A number of writers have drawn attention to the increasing importance of language in social life in ‘new times’ and Fairclough has referred to ‘discourse driven’ social change. These conditions have led to an increase in the use of various forms of discourse analysis in policy analysis. This paper explores the possibilities of using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) in critical policy research in education, drawing on a larger research project which is investigating the equity implications of Education Queensland’s reform agenda. It is argued that, in the context of new times, CDA is of particular value in documenting multiple and competing discourses in policy texts, in highlighting marginalized and hybrid discourses, and in documenting discursive shifts in policy implementation processes. The last part of the paper discusses how such research might be used by policy activists inside and outside education department bureaucracies to further social democratic goals.     

Monitoring of education for sustainable development in Germany – insights from early childhood education,school and higher education

In Germany, the implementation of the UNESCO Global Action Programme (GAP) on Education for sustainable development (ESD) 2015–2019 aims to implement ESD more profoundly within the structures of Germany’s educational system. In this context, a national monitoring has been set up in order to analyze the extent and quality of ESD implementation in all educational areas. The paper contains the results of an indicator-based desk research comprising a content analysis of key documents in three areas of education: early childhood education, school education and higher education over a period of 5 years (2011–2016). Overall, the main results indicate that, at the level of key documents, the goal of a broad implementation of ESD is not yet achieved, while there are considerable differences among the federal states. ESD and related concepts can be found more frequently particularly in documents that are more recent. At the same time, ESD is increasingly predominating other educational concepts such as environmental education. The results are one component of a comprehensive monitoring process of ESD-implementation on the level of documents and offer important insights relevant for further (political) activities aiming at a mainstreaming of ESD.     

A critical consideration of the changing conditions of schooling for students with disabilities in Greece and the fragility of international in local contexts

ABSTRACT

The Salamanca Statement is held as a high-water mark in the history of the global development of inclusive education. It represented agreements bringing together representatives from 92 governments and 25 international organisations to advocate for a more inclusive education for students with disabilities. Since 1994 the Salamanca Statement has been referred to by international education organisations, national education jurisdictions, and disability advocacy organisations as a foundation for progressing inclusive education. In this respect the Salamanca Statement has been important for the inclusive education and Education for All [UNESCO 1998. From Special Needs Education to Education for All: Discussion Paper for the International Consultative Forum on Education for All. Paris: UNESCO] movements. However, international agreements and conventions are fragile in the face of local contingencies and become difficult to apply. We examine the case of inclusive education in Greece to reflect on this complex relationship between international aspirations and the real politic of individual nation states. Greece, like other nations, has embraced the discourse of inclusive education and its successive governments can demonstrate policy activity and public expenditure on the education of disabled students. This is remarkable in a climate of ‘crisis’ and ‘austerity’ where the only investment in the teaching workforce is in the area of inclusive education. However, is Greek education more inclusive in practice as well as rhetoric?     

Education and poverty in the global development agenda: Emergence,evolution and consolidation

The objective of this paper is to analyse the role of education and poverty in the current global development agenda. It intends to analyse the emergence, evolution and consolidation of a global agenda, which attributes a key role to education in the fight against poverty. With this objective, the paper addresses four main issues: first, it analyses the context in which the emergence of the agenda must be placed, analysing specifically the changes generated by globalisation; second, it focuses on the role of the actors, and especially on the role of the World Bank in setting the agenda; third, it explains the consolidation of the agenda by the Education for All Conferences and the Millennium Development Goals; finally it presents some of the main limitations of the hegemonic agenda.     

教育的未来:为教育共建一份社会新契约北大核心CSSCI

半个世纪以来,联合国教科文组织发布了一系列重要的、里程碑式的教育文件。从学会生存、学习的四个支柱到共同利益、社会契约等理念的提出,既呈现了联合国教科文组织作为全球教育领导者的全球性思维和全球视野,也体现了其一贯坚持的人文主义传统,并在传承中创新。面对全纳教育危机、学习的贫穷、学习的非认知能力培养以及新冠肺炎疫情加剧的教育危机等,联合国教科文组织在2021年11月发布的《共同重新构想我们的未来:一种新的教育社会契约》报告中提出,要为教育构建一份新的社会契约,通过契约精神维护与践行"教育是一项共同利益"。     

从教育质量到质量教育的议论-香港特区的经验与教训

教育质量渐渐成为内地教育政策议论中的一个重要议题。在香港特区, 有关教育质素与优质教育的议论已推行了近十年。本文旨在探讨香港特区教育质素政策的发展,并分析有关政策措施带来的一种“核数文化”的后果;继而剖析香港特区推行的优质教育所蕴含着对教育的特定的知识论与本体论的设定;最后应用哈贝马斯对知识旨趣的三种界定,来说明优质教育的三种不同的构思,并揭示现行香港特区所推行的优质教育措施的偏闭与局限。     

Selling ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ ‘Thought and Politics’ and the legitimisation of China's developmental strategy

This article examines China's senior high ‘Thought and Politics’ (sixiang zhengzhi) texts, analyzing how these seek to legitimize the regime's developmental strategy. It is argued that their overriding emphasis on the strengthening of the state is premised upon the imperative of securing China's position within global order conceived in Darwinian terms. While the school curriculum cannot be seen simply as an instrument with which the party-state shapes and moulds popular consciousness at will, it is assumed here that it does play a significant role in the political socialisation of young people. ‘Thought and Politics’ serves as a benchmark of ideological correctness within what remains a highly centralised system of curriculum development. The article begins by briefly analyzing the shifts and continuities in China's developmental strategy, and of the roles assigned to education within that strategy. The importance traditionally attached to schooling's moralizing function is noted, as is the relatively elitist character of the audience for the ‘Thought and Politics’ course – senior high school students. After considering how and why a discourse of state-centred patriotism has become central to the Communist Party's efforts to legitimise its authority, the implications of the ‘Patriotic Education Campaign’ for the broader school curriculum are reviewed. The main discussion then focuses on the way in which the current texts for ‘Thought and Politics’ justify the national developmental strategy in terms derived from this patriotic discourse. Some potential implications of this combination of patriotic political socialisation with a highly labour-repressive developmental model, setting the case of China in comparative and historical context.