Agent of global markets or agent of the poor? The World Bank’s education sector strategy paper

This article contrasts the official, largely silent, role of the World Bank as an agent of global markets with its professed role as agent of the poor. The failure to make explicit its role as global market advocate creates a policy environment that can be destructive of both global markets and the long-term survival of the world’s poor. The article examines the World Bank’s Education Sector Strategy in this light. The article begins by outlining the institutional, policy and education frameworks that emerge from the conflicts of the World Bank’s dual role in markets and poverty. It then shows that the implementation and outcome analyses in The Strategy grow out of these frameworks and are, therefore, limited in scope and effectiveness. An approach that explicitly acknowledges the market roles of the World Bank would have led to a more effective policy document.     

Education in developing countries: the view from Mount Olympus

In a recent issue ofProspects we published a review of the World Bank's recent publication,Education Sector Working Paper. This publication represents a major policy statement by the Bank on the subject of education and significant (not to say radical) departure from previous policies. It is a document all the more important in view of the enormous funding power of the World Bank and the undeniable influence of its policies on national governments and even on international organizations. TheEducation Sector Working Paper, which has been generally welcomed in international circles, is certainly not without its critics both in the developing countries and in the industrialized world. We feel that at a time when there is a push for examining educational policies and concepts on an international level, we can contribute to the debate by publishing some criticism and rejoinder centring around the World Bank publication, much as we did in 1973 and 1974 on the subject ofLearning to Be, the report of the International Commission on the Development of Education. In this issue, therefore, we open the discussion with an article by Peter Williams, originally written for a one-day review meeting to consider the World Bank publication, held on 19 May 1975, at the University of London Institute of Education, and which he revised forProspects. The institute hopes to publish a report of its meeting, together with the papers, before the end of this year. Peter Williams' critique seems to us to be particularly interesting because it is based on the author's disagreement with the prevailing pessimism in the world, reflected by the World Bank, on the state of education in the developing nations. As always, our readers are warmly invited to contribute their reactions in any form they choose.     

International institutions and educational policy: A review of education-sector policy

In 1974, the World Bank published a study entitledEducation Sector Working Paper which set forth its policy in the field of education. This study, the second the Bank had published, was widely read, analysed and discussed for some time after its publication and had a considerable influence on thinking in education and development at the international level. Prospects devoted four articles to the paper: one book review and three controversies (Vol. V, No. 2, 1975, p. 285; Vol. V, No. 4, 1975, p. 457–78; Vol. VI, No. 2, 1976, p. 209–20). Thus, the discussion in our pages, in which the Bank participated, lasted nearly a year.Now the Bank has brought out another eagerly awaited policy paper on education which is to guide its thinking and action in the coming years. Its publication is an event of international importance and its impact will certainly be considerable.The following article by Martin Carnoy is the first in a seriesProspects will publish reviewing the policies of the Bank as expressed in theEducation Sector Working Paper, and by extension, the foreseeable impact of these policies on the world of education in general. Martin Carnoy's paper is critical: readers familiar with his work (seeProspects, Vol. VIII, No. 1, p. 3–19) will know that his viewpoint on the international aspects of education diverges considerably from that of the Bank and of most international governmental and non-governmental agencies.The debate is open again. Specialist in the economics of education, economic development and political economy. Among his many publications in related fields are Education as Cultural Imperialism, Economic Change and Educational Reform in Cuba, 1955–1974,and Education and Employment.     

Re-visioning from the inside: getting under the skin of the World Bank’s Education Sector Strategy

This paper uses the device of imagining Education personnel at the World Bank engaging in study and discussion that causes them to rethink their 1999 Education Sector Strategy document. The Bank’s educators discuss issues that lead them to see that the World Bank’s assumptions of human capital theory are deficient. Having studied the severe limitations in the effectiveness of the education reforms of several countries, they admit not only that the education model being promoted by the Bank is flawed, but also that its preferred paradigm of modernist development is unsustainable. Thanks to the program of study and reflection, Bank educators decide to meet the challenge of reinventing themselves as educators collaborating with their national clients in developing new paradigms in which both creative education and sustainable development can flourish.     

比较教育与国际教育交流论坛

前些年大家都在讨论比较教育学科的身份危机,然而近年来世界各国,特别是发展中国家比较教育学科的发展依然繁荣,其生命力何在?笔者重申了作为比较教育方法论框架的国际教育交流论坛这一观点的重要性,认为随着知识经济的发展以及世界的多极化和经济体的多元化发展,今天世界各国的教育更需要在真诚沟通的前提下,在教育理论、观念、价值、制度、政策和实践领域互相交流,在具有跨文化性、发展性和预测性的国际性课题中相互合作。由此可见,把比较教育作为国际教育交流论坛,就可以摆脱比较教育学科身份危机的困境,开拓比较教育研究新的广阔天地。     

解读英国未来教师素质标准

教育在当今社会中的重要地位已经成为世界各国的共识。各国都把提高教育质量、加强教师教育视为教育改革的重要内容。英国政府充分发挥监督、规范职能,提高了对职前教师培训的要求。英国2004(2)号文件(The Future of Initial Teacher Education For The Learning And Skills Sector)明确提出未来教师职业领域所达到学习、技能和实践的能力标准。该标准贯穿于教师职前培训的各种要求,对教师意识,教师职业道德培养确立、知识技能与教学实践能力的掌握都将起到潜移默化的作用。对于如何处理师生关系,尊重学生独立人格,为学生个性发展创造条件等职业道德要求,以及教师在教学中扮演牧羊人角色都给我们提供了极其重要的参考价值。     

Crossed looks: globalisations and curriculum in Guinea-Bissau

This article focuses on education in Guinea-Bissau in the context of globalisations, examining the concept of globalisation and its relation to education and the curriculum. It focuses on the relatively neglected area of national education policies in Guinea-Bissau, comparing differences and common points of interference/influence of multilateral (international and regional) and bilateral organisations in these policies. Data collection was based on content analysis of a corpus of documents – the Education Act, the document of Portuguese Cooperation Programme, the Education Sector Policy Paper, the Education for All National Plan of Action, and Policy n. 3/2007/CM/UEMOA – and field notes collected from 2009 to 2012. The article argues that there is a tendency for the homogenisation of curriculum policies, at least at the macro-level, due to the different types of pressures coming from international/regional organisations.     

地情资料的开发利用与县域特色经济的发展

壮大县域经济 ,重在突出个性 ,形成特色。从地域自然资源特色与县域经济特征和发展方向的关系 ,整合狭义、广义资源特色 ,发挥综合优势等方面论述了地情文献的开发和利用是发展县域特色经济的基础。并围绕发展县域特色经济 ,就开发利用地方文献资料 ,提出了强化地情文献工作服务特色经济的意识 ,按照发展县域特色经济的要求加强地情文献资料收集、整理、研究和加工的几点具体建议。     

浅谈市场经济条件下的继续教育

由于教育效益评估的间接性、迟效性、近似性,教育不能市场化、学校不能企业化、教育劳动不能商品化。作为教育的一个子系统 继续教育,却由于它的特殊性,不但要主动适应市场经济,为市场经济的发展服务,而且完全可以引入市场机制,以市场手段发展和管理继续教育。优胜劣汰的竞争规律、投入产出的经济原则是我们发展继续教育过程中应遵循的基本原则;规模出效益、信息是生命、科学技术是生产力,是我们搞好继续教育应学习和借鉴的观念和办法。     

The World Bank,support for universities,and asymmetrical power relations in international development

This article examines the role of the World Bank in advancing higher education sectors in the developing world, considering in particular the increasing power and strength of a global knowledge-based economy. Given the powerful role that intergovernmental organizations such as the World Bank play in shaping global economic policies, the authors are concerned about how the Bank’s policies and actions may limit knowledge generation and capacity building of universities in the developing world. Relatedly, the authors use case studies of the Bank’s involvement in Thailand and Uganda to better understand the role it plays in producing and reproducing forms of global hegemony. The authors discuss hegemony in terms of neocolonialism and neoliberalism. Neocolonialism is described as forms of domination advanced by powerful nations and their institutions, while neoliberalism is understood as an economic ideology by which weaker nations may be brought into greater alignment with global trade initiatives.     

Re‐imagining and rescripting the future of education: global knowledge economy discourses and the challenge to education systems

Using critical discourse analysis as a methodology for analysis, this paper sets out the nature and form of the challenges directed to the compulsory schooling sector by the knowledge economy that is contained in key policy and related documents put out by the OECD, the World Bank and the UK government. The OECD and the World Bank’s policy agendas are increasingly important in setting policy and programme agendas for the developed and developing countries respectively; however there are important differences between the two institutions regarding how education should be redesigned. The World Bank’s redesign of education favours the market and individualism as the means for developing knowledge and skills for the knowledge economy. The OECD, however, while concerned with human capital formation, rejects the market model in favour of an institutionally embedded liberalism to overcome the problems posed by tacit knowledge. The UK, on the other hand, has promoted the idea of personalized learning. The paper suggests that this idea is particularly problematic for developing a system of innovation for the economy that is dependent on high levels of social interaction.

The first half of the twenty‐first century will, I believe, be far more difficult, more unsettling, and yet more open than anything we have known in the twentieth century. I say this on three premises; none of which I have time to argue here. The first is that historical systems, like all systems, have finite lives. They have beginnings, a long development and finally, as they move far from equilibrium and reach points of bifurcation, a demise. The second premise is that two things are true at these points of bifurcation; small inputs have large outputs (as opposed to times of the normal development of the system, when large inputs have small outputs); and the outcome of such bifurcation is inherently indeterminate. The third premise is that the modern world system as a historical system has entered into a terminal crisis and is unlikely to exist in 50 years. However, since its outcome is so uncertain, we do not know whether the resulting system (or systems) will be better or worse than the one in which we are living, but we do know that the period of transition will be a terrible time of troubles, since the stakes of the transition are so high, the outcome so uncertain, and the ability of small impacts to affect the outcome so great. (Wallerstein, 1999, p. 1)     

Priorities and strategies for education — A world bank review: The process and the key messages

This paper reviews the reasons for the 1995 World Bank sector review Priorities and Strategies for Education, and describes the consultative process followed in its preparation. Despite enormous progress, developing and transitional economies face major challenges of enrollments, equity, quality and in delaying reform. They can meet these challenges by giving a higher priority to education, paying more attention to learning and labor market outcomes, focusing public investment on basic education, attending to equity, involving households and encouraging autonomous educational iinstitutions.     

What drives failed policy at the World Bank? An inside account of new aid modalities to higher education: context,blame, and infallibility

This article analyses recent World Bank interventions aimed at improving higher education and local research capacity in low-income countries. Our empirical entry point is a critical analysis of the Development and Innovation Grant (DIG) scheme the Bank rolled out in Cambodia (2010–2015), a virtual carbon copy export of its Academic Initiative Fund in Bangladesh. Offering a rare insider perspective, we argue that the DIG scheme ultimately failed because the Bank so glaringly misunderstood the Cambodian context. We use this case to contemplate the deeper flaws in how the Bank ‘thinks’, highlighting how the world’s most powerful development institution manages to maintain faith in its own infallibility despite failure.     

Globalization of the economy: The implications for education and skill formation

In conclusion The globalization of the economy offers enormous possibilities, but in return demands significant modifications in production behaviour and training policies. Individual countries will have to make hard choices to achieve, in a rapidly changing world economy, both international competitiveness and national welfare. Original language: English Wadi D. Haddad (United States of America) Deputy Secretary, World Bank. Special Adviser to the Director-General of UNESCO on development issues, representative to the financial institutions in Washington and to the academic and development community in the United States. Ph.D. in physics and education from the University of Wisconsin. After a career as a university professor and director of research in Lebanon, Mr Haddad first entered the World Bank in 1976. He was subsequently chief adviser to the President of Lebanon (1982–84), and worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington (1984). He rejoined the World Bank in 1987 and, in 1989, was appointed Executive Secretary of the World Conference on Education for All (Jomtien). He is the author of many books and articles on public policy, human resource development and science.     

试论知识经济时代高校体育改革与发展趋势

运用文献资料研究方法，对知识经济时代高校体育的基本特征进行了分析总结，并以此为出发点，对高校体育的教学思想与观念、教学内容、教师素质、教学方法、教学评价、课余体育几个方面的发展趋势进行了初步探索．     

World Bank okays public interest in higher education

This essay review discusses the report of TheTask Force on Higher Education and Society(TFHES), convened in 1998 by the World Bank butindependently financed and staffed incollaboration with UNESCO and severalfoundations. Peril and Promise marks anhistoric turning point in the framework forpostsecondary educational planning. Rate-of-return analysis has been de-emphasized,while promotion of the public interest hasmoved front and center. The report of theTFHES, published in 2000 by the World Bank, hasreceived deserved attention in some parts ofthe world and has even developed an associatedwebsite (http://www.tfhe.net). As we explainbelow, the framework advocated by the TFHES isalready being used in official policy documentsof the World Bank, whose position will surelymultiply the influence of the Task Forcethrough its effect on other development banksas well as on programs of bilateral nationalassistance. And yet, despite its seminalimportance, the TFHES report has yet to befully appreciated by many researchers of highereducation. With this essay review, we hope tobroaden the discussion of the Task Force, and to offer a preliminary assessment of its impactin the 2002 World Bank policy document, and toconnect its arguments to questions that arecentral in the scholarly literature of ourfield.     

The need for attention to the issue of rural education

This paper argues that strategies for vocational education in Africa, with particular regard to rural communities, which were highlighted as a key aspect of development strategies in the '60s and '70s — such as Education for Self Reliance or the Brigades of Botswana (see Nyerere, J., 1967. Education for Self-Reliance. Ministry of Information and Tourism, Dar es Salaam; Foster, P., 1969. Education for self reliance: A critical evaluation. In: Jolly, R. (Ed.), Education in Africa: Research and Action. East African Publishing House, Nairobi, pp. 81–102) and the World Bank programmes in support of Non-Formal Education (Coombs, P., Ahmed, M., 1974. Attacking Rural Poverty: How Non-formal Education Can Help. World Bank/Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore) — have never been replaced with a viable alternative in subsequent years. Whatever the reasons for the failure or demise of such programmes, which aimed at linking the school curriculum to the world of (rural) work in the past, the need for careful attention to that linkage has increased rather than decreased in the interim given the overall decline in access to secondary and tertiary education and the prospects for finding alternative employment in the formal sector. The paper focuses on recent reform initiatives in South Africa and seeks to make the point that new policy, in so far as it has been shaped by global trends, has failed to engage with the specific interests of the rural poor.     

高中信息技术教学略论

随着信息社会的到来,以计算机和网络为核心的现代信息技术的不断发展,正越来越深刻地改变着我们的生产、生活、工作和学习方式,它成了当今世界经济和社会发展的大趋势,各国纷纷把信息技术教育放到了提高国际竞争能力的战略地位,其应用的广度与深度已成为衡量一个国家科学技术和经济发展水平的一个重要标志。 为了加快我国中小学普及信息技术教育的步伐,教育部已于2000年发布了《关于加快中小学信息技术课程建设的指导意见》,并决定在2001年底前,全国普通高级中学和大中城市的初级中学都要开设信息技术必修课,并将其作为我国面向21世纪增强国际竞争力、提高全民素质、培养具有信息素质和创造素质的新型人才的一项重要举措。     

The Italian middle school in a deregulation era: modernity through path-dependency and global models

In the current context of intensified moves towards educational deregulation, the configuration of the Italian middle school and its relationship to education governance is an interesting case. Historically, it represents a unique example of the successful ‘decision-making' model of the welfarist era. Despite some internal constraints, at the end of the 1970s it was considered a progressive model of schooling for its time. At present, however, internal institutional processes and path-dependencies have rendered its comprehensiveness relatively formalised and weak. A key finding of this article is that ideas, such as the ‘two people’ theory, have played a crucial role in shaping actors' strategies and goals, while references to world models, in particular the English model, have mediated the reception of global policies. Cultural factors, such as the role played by families, are deeply linked to structural issues and inequalities. An ethnographic account depicts a welfarist institution whose internal processes and links to the wider society may be seen as an example of Italian modernity that ‘speaks for itself’. Fieldwork clarifies the role of the teachers in mediating a path-dependent and cultural reproduction pattern. I argue that partial deregulation is a major source of inequalities at the middle school level, engendered by both new and old mechanisms, which further intensifies a selective path in education. This analysis will show how global deregulation trends meet local and enduring path-dependencies.