UNESCO's Global Governance in the School Education: A Scoping Review

Autores/as

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.46.2025.41423

Palabras clave:

UNESCO, Gobernanza Global, Estudios Globales, Escuela

Resumen

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is one of the most influential international organizations in formulating school education policy. However, its history has been marked by significant bureaucratic dysfunctions that cyclically call into question its global leadership. In this scoping literature review, we map 36 studies published in the last decade in WoS and Scopus databases to understand the distinctive and contradictory nature of UNESCO's global governance in the school education sector. We classified the studies according to their objectives and identified recurrent themes. The article reveals an interest in understanding UNESCO's governance at various institutional dimensions and topological scales. However, few studies focus on its influence in countries of the Global South, a space that also challenges the organization's global scripts. Likewise, the studies analyzed draw attention to the expressive weakening of UNESCO's humanistic orientation in favor of neoliberal visions.  The article concludes with a preliminary assessment of UNESCO's governance, suggesting the need to investigate the role of its regional enclaves and the normative influence that the organization exerts at the level of school educational experience

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Biografía del autor/a

José Miguel Fuentes-Salazar, Asistente de Investigación, Facultad de Educación, Universidad Católica de Chile

José Miguel Fuentes Salazar: Is a historian and master’s degree in education. Current he is a student in the doctoral program in education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He is an assistant researcher at Center Teacher Knowledge of the University of Chile.  His research interests include global governance in education, large-scale assessments, and transnational history of the education. Datos de contacto: Email: jmfuentes1@uc.cl ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5188-8973

Lluis Parcerisa, Profesor Asistente en el Departamento de Enseñanza y Aprendizaje y Organización Educativa, Universidad de Barcelona

Lluís Parcerisa: Holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning and Educational Organization at the University of Barcelona (UB). His main research interests include global governance, education privatization, the datafication of schooling, and school autonomy with accountability reforms. Datos de contacto: Email: lluisparcerisa@ub.edu ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6755-1988

Cristobal Villalobos-Dintrans, Profesor Asistente, Facultad de Educación, Universidad Catolica de Chile

Cristobal Villalobos: Is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and Deputy Director of Center for Studies to Policies and Practices in Education (CEPPE UC). He holds a PhD in Social Sciences and a master’s degree in applied economics. Aditionally, he hold a Degree in Sociology and Social Work from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. His topics of interest are educational policy, comparative politics, elites and education, and social inequalities. Datos de contacto: Email: clvillal@uc.cl. ORCID:https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1964-7213

Citas

* References marked with an asterisk indicate studies included in the review.

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Publicado

2024-12-28

Cómo citar

Fuentes-Salazar, J. M., Parcerisa, L. ., & Villalobos-Dintrans, C. (2024). UNESCO’s Global Governance in the School Education: A Scoping Review. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, (46), 343–364. https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.46.2025.41423

Número

Núm. 46 (2025): Miradas epistemológicas y metodológicas comparadas en tiempos de postmodernidad

Sección

ESTUDIOS E INVESTIGACIONES

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Creative Commons License

Esta obra está bajo una licencia internacional Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 4.0.