The need for a multidisciplinary framework for analysing educational reform in developing countries

It is suggested here that there are three lenses that must be applied to the analysis of educational reform: the educational, the economic, and the political, to obtain a more complete picture of the `whole'. Each lens presents a different agenda, with the disciplinary boundaries of each lens constituting an important impediment to understanding completely the educational reform experiences of the last quarter century. Creating a `varifocal' lens from all three will not ensure successful educational reform, but it is more likely to provide a more satisfactory interpretative framework across these divides and therefore some insights into further reform episodes than the much simpler educational planner's history of educational reform.