Announcements

  • EXPERIENCIAS INTERNACIONALES DE PROFESIONALIZACIÓN DOCENTE

    2024-07-22

    Próximo Monográfico (Número 47) de la Revista Española de Educación Comparada sobre Experiencias Internacionales de Profesionalización docente

    Coordinadora del Monográfico: Dra. Inmaculada Egido Gálvez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)

    En el Monográfico relativo a Experiencias Internacionales de Profesionalización docente se abordan las siguientes cuestiones:

    ¿Es la docencia una profesión? Esta pregunta, sencilla en apariencia, ha sido objeto de múltiples debates desde hace tiempo, ya que admite respuestas diferentes en función de la perspectiva desde la que nos aproximemos a ella. Desde el punto de vista legal, en varios países, como es el caso de España, la enseñanza es una profesión y además una profesión regulada, lo que supone que sus condiciones de acceso y ejercicio están sujetas a una serie de normas y requisitos establecidos por la autoridad competente. Sin embargo, desde el enfoque de la sociología, se ha puesto de manifiesto reiteradamente que la enseñanza no puede ser considerada una profesión en el sentido estricto del término, sino que, a lo sumo, se trataría de una semiprofesión, ya que comparte algunos de los rasgos característicos de las profesiones, pero no otros (Ingerson y Collins, 2018).

    Aunque no contamos, por tanto, con un consenso de partida acerca del estatus profesional de la enseñanza, en los últimos años es posible detectar un acuerdo generalizado en la necesidad de avanzar hacia la profesionalización de la docencia, partiendo del supuesto de que se trata de la palanca esencial para la mejora de los sistemas educativos. De hecho, son muchos los países en todo el mundo que han emprendido proyectos y reformas destinadas a la “profesionalización docente”. Así, entre otras medidas, un buen número de sistemas han elevado la duración y el nivel formativo de la formación inicial, han aumentado las cualificaciones exigidas para la enseñanza o han introducido estándares profesionales para fomentar la profesionalidad del profesorado (European Commission, 2021). No obstante, un análisis detenido de los cambios a este respecto pone de manifiesto la existencia de contradicciones con otras medidas que también se han adoptado en diversos sistemas, como la exención de la exigencia de titulaciones específicas para ejercer la profesión o las rutas aceleradas de acceso a la misma.

    El marco para conceptualizar la profesionalización docente a partir de la revisión de la literatura abarca aspectos relativos a los dominios cognitivo, ético, social y legal, junto a factores de carácter contextual. En la práctica, al igual que en otras profesiones, el significado del concepto de profesionalización docente es dinámico y está ligado a los diferentes contextos sociales, históricos y políticos. Por este motivo, la investigación comparada sobre políticas de profesionalización docente resulta necesaria para comprender las diferencias transnacionales en la forma en que los distintos países interpretan los mensajes globales, identifican los problemas y desarrollan e implementan las reformas El enfoque comparado, que toma en cuenta cómo difieren las creencias, percepciones y conocimientos previos de diferentes entornos nacionales, regionales o locales, permite también apreciar las divergencias y las tensiones que existen bajo el aparente consenso global en la idea de profesionalización (Akiba, 2017).

    Este monográfico plantea abordar la profesionalización docente desde enfoques comparados que superen la temática de la formación inicial e invita a presentar artículos que aborden cuestiones como las siguientes:

    • Desarrollo de los procesos de profesionalización docente en diferentes países o regiones del mundo.
    • Reformas, contrarreformas y controversias en torno a los procesos de profesionalización de la docencia
    • Análisis secundarios de bases de datos de estudios internacionales que puedan ampliar el conocimiento sobre esta temática
    • Análisis de informes, recomendaciones y proyectos de Organismos Internacionales sobre la profesionalización docente
    • Estudios comparados sobre prácticas, propuestas, debates y tensiones en torno a la profesionalización del profesorado en distintos contextos

    Fecha límite de recepción de trabajos: enero 2025

    Publicación del Monográfico: julio 2025

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  • COMPARATIVE EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL VIEWS IN POSTMODERN TIMES

    2024-02-01

    Comparative epistemological and methodological views in postmodern times

    Editoras: María José García-Ruiz (UNED); L. Belén Espejo Villar (Universidad de Salamanca); Luján Lázaro Herrero (Universidad de Salamanca)

    Taking an epistemological look at the trajectory of Comparative and International Education in recent years to understand its current situation and envision its future academic directions is now a major intellectual challenge. This challenge is complicated by the theoretical, methodological, and institutional complexities which, like a compass, nuance and reorient this field of knowledge. “The future is now and cannot be postponed for much longer”, as Cowen (2023) put it (in a posthumous work), trying to emphasise the need to address the future of Comparative Education but from the ground up, that is, revisiting the past to urgently rethink everything that is currently reshaping the epistemic assumptions of Comparative and International Education.

    This is the initial sense of the present monograph, which aims to signify the responsibility assumed by this corpus under construction (now more than ever), in which new interdisciplinary models of epistemological theorisation converge with recent lines of thematic interest that extend, and in some cases challenge, the capital that should constitute the scientific knowledge of Comparative and International Education. These views include, in particular, the spectrum of institutional actors that are visible in global political agendas and that are increasingly legitimised (Nóvoa, 2021) as knowledge builders (Cone & Brøgger, 2020; Kim, 2020) in an epistemological narrative that has progressively expanded and that is viewed from innovative, holistic, alternative, non-linear, revisionist and ground-breaking parameters, among others.

    These accounts raise the question of whether the comparative discipline is experiencing a successful academic moment or, on the contrary, whether it should shift towards a commitment to reflexive approaches that lead us to constantly question our implicit assumptions and worldviews, as well as the silences identified along the way (Kin Min, 2023). Not surprisingly, continuous disciplinary introspection and reflection have always been elements of a hallmark of this field (Mukuni, 2022). We are therefore faced with a scientific field that is constantly readjusting its epistemological and methodological corpus, a question that is always open (García-Ruiz, 2012, 2019) and that we must address taking into account the scenarios of plurality, heterogeneity and interdisciplinarity through which Comparative and International Education has always moved.

    Paradoxically, Comparative and International education has never been more successful (Carney, 2010), but it has never had less to say (idem). This is not due to a failure to read the global, as this Australian comparative scholar claims, but to a lack of attention to the teleological perspective or the human, social and global purpose of this science, without which this discipline loses its guiding and directing quality.

    Over the years, Comparative Education has evolved and expanded, seeking a place in the scientific arena to claim its rightful role as a field of study. It has become academically institutionalised, linked, and represented through Global Scientific Societies, and enjoys international visibility through the dissemination of knowledge. However, its configuration as a science is still contested. The historical baggage that accompanies it is not free of banalities, oscillations (Nóvoa, 2021), and moments of dispersion, and even this journey is very much marked by the abuse of using theoretical frameworks from other disciplines to establish basic epistemological elements. The very idiosyncrasy of comparativism (Aullón de Haro, 2019) generates confusion and presents blurred parameters regarding goals and the object of study. This is perhaps its main Achilles' heel, constantly subjecting it to the need to confirm its identity: What is comparative knowledge, what does it do, and what could it be and do? But above all, from the teleological claim of the previous lines: What personal, social, and global world are we heading towards, and do we want to head towards? These are questions that linger, old ghosts of the past that surface in the present future.

    From this issue, we call on the academic community to contribute revisionist works that consider, in particular, the relations of the balance and transition between modernity and postmodernity (García-Ruiz and Crespo-Garrido, 2022), and that make visible postcolonial, decolonial and anti-colonial approaches (Fischman and Silova, 2023), the hegemony of political actors, the scenarios they colonise, as well as the accelerated and hybrid drift of their discourses, and other cores invisible to canonical thought. This is an invitation to engage in comparative hermeneutics based on foundational, post-foundational, policy and practice, revisionist, interdisciplinary and emergent theoretical models (Jules et. al, 2021). In short, we seek views that allow us to generate knowledge and redirect its flows and that, as Rodman (2011) suggests, are not limited to observing and interpreting Comparative Education from a single window.

    In short, in the epistemological and methodological approaches to be outlined in the comparative field in the current postmodern era, and in this monographic issue of the Revista Española de Educación Comparada, it would be relevant to analyse questions such as the following, by way of example:

    • Counter-hegemonic epistemology of Comparative and International Education: How is the epistemological field of Comparative and International Education being reconstructed based on new transdisciplinary cartographies, the sovereign power of networks and actors that are more diverse but less plural? How does the transfer of fast and soft policies, as well as the utilitarian dimension of international strategic frameworks, affect the configuration of Comparative and International Education?
    • What are the main vulnerabilities of our discipline, from an epistemological and methodological point of view, whose rethinking can put our discipline on a solid foundation for the future?
    • From a methodological point of view, is the unity and support of a recognised comparative method relevant, or the scientific sanction and validity of a plurality of methodological approaches? How is this field of knowledge shaped by expeditious methodologies that push for innovation in Comparative Education? In a context of experimentation with new educational scenarios and formats, is Comparative and International Education oriented towards the construction of an innovative epistemology?
    • Is the strength of our comparative discipline underpinned by the relativisation of orthodox methodologies and the acceptance of the crisis of universalism, complexity, and unpredictability, or by the sanctioning of post-relativist perspectives that assume the existence of Truth?
    • Does the teleological dimension of Comparative Education and the interdisciplinarity it entails mean that the sciences of philosophy and theology need to play a greater role? From a teleological point of view, is global society well guided by the current Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda, or is it possible to make an accurate critique of some dimensions of these goals?
    • In terms of epistemological and methodological views, what do the posthumanism, posthistoricism and post-Westernism of postmodernity imply?

    Deadline: 15/07/2024

    Publication date: 01/01/2025

     

    References

    Aullón de Haro, P. (2019): Editorial: Comparatística y Metodología, Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 34, pp. 10-18. https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.34.2019.25082

    Carney, S. (2010). Lectura de lo global: la Educación Comparada al final de una época. En M. Larsen (Ed.), Pensamiento innovador en Educación Comparada. Homenaje a Robert Cowen. Madrid: UNED.

    Cone, L., & Brøgger, K. (2020). Soft privatisation: Mapping an emerging field of European education governance, Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18(4), 374–390.

    Cowen, R. (2023) Comparative education: and now? Comparative Education 59(3), 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2023.2240207

    Fischman, G.E. y Silova, I. (2023). Editorial: Educación comparada y enredos (De) coloniales: hacia un futuro de aprendizajes más sustentables y equitativos. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 43, 11-19. https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.43.2023.37764

    García Ruiz, M.J. (2012). Impacto de la globalización y el postmodernismo en la epistemología de la Educación Comparada. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 20,41-80. https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.20.2012.7593

    García Ruiz, M.J. (2019). Educación Comparada, Teología y Postrelativismo. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 33, 46-61.

    García-Ruiz, MJ y Crespo-Garrido, S. (2022). El debate Modernismo versus Postmodernismo: su impacto en la universidad. Revista Española de Educación Comparada, 40, 69-90. https://doi.org/10.5944/reec.40.2022.31050

    Jules, T.D; Shields, R & Thomas, M.A. (2021). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education. Bloomsbury Academic.

    Mukudi Omwami, E., & Shields, R. (2022). The development of theory in comparative and international education: An analysis of doctoral theses at North American universities. Research in Comparative and International Education, 17(4), 566–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/17454999221112231

    Nóvoa, A. (2021). The Return of the Comparativist: Estrangement, Intercession and Profanation. In E. Kleridesand & S. Carney (Eds. Identities and Education: Comparative Perspectives in Times of Crisis (pp.245–260). Bloomsbury Academic.

    Kim Min J. (2023). Time-worn pebbles or unpolished gemstones? (Un)usable pasts and possible futures of comparative education. Comparative Education, 59 (3), 475-484. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2023.2240208

    Robert Cowen. (2023) Comparative education: and now? Comparative Education 59(3), 326-340. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2023.2240207

    Rodman, RF. (2011). A house of 1,000 Windows: Situating People and Perspective in Theory and practise. In J.C. Weiman & W.J. Jacob (Eds), Beyond the Comparative (pp. 49-67). Sense Publisher.

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  • Gender equality policies in higher education: Atlantic and african universities

    2023-07-19

    Editors: Inmaculada González Pérez (University of La Laguna), Carmen Ascanio Sánchez (University of La Laguna) and Sara García Cuesta (University of Valladolid)

    Call for papers

    Since the 1970s, international organisations have been working towards gender equality, as exemplified by the entry into force of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1981) and the rise in equal opportunities policies since the adoption of the UN Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action(1995).  

    These policies have also gained prominence in the field of education, as currently worldwide: “general or inclusive education laws under education ministry responsibility focus on people with disabilities in 79% of countries, linguistic minorities in 60%, gender equality in 50% and ethnic and indigenous groups in 49%” (UNESCO, 2020: 30). This clearly points to the increasing commitments of countries to gender equality in education, and to the commitment of states to meet Sustainable Development Goal 4 “Quality Education” and SDG 5 “Gender Equality”. 

    Although there is consensus on achieving this goal, the fact is that the gender equality policies in education have a marked political focus that separates or distinguishes the international organisations that promote them. For example, the World Bank

    “… attaches great importance to women being productive and contributing their labour and skills to the economic well-being of the country, such that education becomes a powerful tool for increasing both women’s income and productivity” (Martínez, 2015: 65). 

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  • THE GLOBAL DIMENSIONS IN THE PROCESSES OF TRAINING AND PROFESSIONALIZATION OF THE TEACHING FUNCTION. TOWARDS "REGIONAL" MODELS AND PROGRAMS FOR THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF TEACHERS IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

    2023-01-25

    Coordinador: Leoncio Vega Gil (University of Salamanca)

    Call for papers

    The training and professionalization of teachers continues to be in permanent debate both in the social and academic framework and, of course, in political discourse and action. Issues such as professional identity, requirements for access to programs, institutional and curricular training models, transition to professional practice (Eurydice, 2015), practical training, permanent training, attraction to teaching (European Commission, 2013) or the social recognition of the teaching function, are the object of analysis and reconsideration in different international contexts. And also the progressive incursion of the corporate business fabric not only in education but also in teacher training such as Teach for America (Schneider, 2013) and Teach for All (Lefebvre, Pradhan and Thomas, 2023).

    The REEC monograph is dedicated to investigating, understanding and explaining how globalization processes affect the policies and practices of construction and implementation of teacher training and professionalization programs based on the regionalization of the academic and pedagogical cultures of the educational systems in which they are embedded. Therefore, it is intended to rebuild the network of institutional, curricular and methodological relationships in regional contexts at a global level. It is about verifying and proving the "overcoming of methodological nationalism" in comparative and international education. Teacher training models, both theoretical and practical, curricular and administrative, no longer respond to national geographies and nation-states, but rather take on broader dimensions that make them more dependent on linguistic and academic cultures and geopolitical influences. international (Vega Gil, 2011; Fernández Soria, J.M. et al, 2016). This is why the term "region" does not present an international geographical dimension but rather an academic, political, cultural and historical one.

    From an institutional and curricular perspective, teacher training and professionalization models can be analyzed from a formal perspective (traditional, public/private, broad in time and in the curriculum) or non-formal (intensive, public/private, short, professionalizing, etc.). In this second case we have the "alternative routes" or "learning training".

    In order to address the aforementioned challenges, it seems pertinent to recover the so-called "teacher training continuum" proposed by the OECD (2005), Eurydice (2002-2004) and a whole group of researchers to proceed with the analysis of the processes, policies and training programs and professionalization of the teaching function. A vector that is expressed in three times, institutional spaces and programmatic developments: the attraction towards the teaching profession (employment status, remuneration table, social image, good practices, access/admission model to training programs, etc..), training (institutional frameworks, curricular structure of the programs, professionalization processes, agencies and quality assurance, etc.) and retention/induction (mentoring/induction programs, incentives, licenses, mobility, continuous professional development (permanent training) ; that is, on-the-job training).

    When we use the terminology of teacher training, we are referring to the training of teachers in the non-university educational system: early childhood education, primary education and secondary education (lower and higher) and, of course, the transitions between the different levels.

    In historical terms, the studies should include the political and programmatic developments after World War II (the second half of the 20th century) which, as we know, offers different rhythms in the processes of educational reform based on the different contexts and political and economic conditions. institutional. And, of course, finish with the most recent reforms.

    With this academic framework of reference, this special edition will welcome research papers that address the topic from different perspectives and approaches. Papers that address some of the topics and contents that we suggest below will be especially welcome.

    • The model or models of training and/or professionalization of the teaching function from the Anglo-Saxon cultural perspective. Contributions from Colleges, Teach for America, Teach for All, School Direct, Alternative Routes, Agencies for Accreditation, SCITT, Teach First, QTS. It is a question not only of knowing the curricular programs, but also of analyzing their implications, their recipients, their evaluations, their connections with professional practice and with international competence evaluations.
    • The model or models of training and professionalization based on the Confucian philosophy. We must ask ourselves about training for professional development and educational leadership. Because of the relationship between training and gender. Due to the requirements for access to training and recruitment. And, in institutional terms, by the external dimension of the Normal Universities, the National Universities of Education, the National Institutes of Education or the Institutes of Educational Development. And its connections with international competency assessments. The certifications and their accreditation agencies or bodies.
    • Cultural diversities and teacher training in Africa. Different academic cultures and languages in teacher training. Decentralization and identity in teacher training programs. International Organizations and their involvement in training. And the “learning routes”? Do schools need technicians or teachers? Governance and training.
    • Can we talk about a European model of teacher training? Unity and diversity in training programs and institutional developments. Has the Bologna Process generated a new formative pedagogy? How do you combine national educational sovereignty and the European dimension of training? Has the decentralization and territorialization of education been projected in teacher training programs? Is the postcolonialism of education and training more discursive or curricular? Attract, train and retain, for what school of tomorrow? Economy and privatization (governance) in training programs.
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  • POSTCOLONIALISM AND EDUCATION

    2023-01-10

    POSTCOLONIALISM AND EDUCATION

    Coordinadores del monográfico: Dr. Gustavo Fishman; Dra. Iveta Silova. Universidad Estatal de Arizona

    This special issue serves as a challenge to reexamine our current preoccupation with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices” – and rearticulate our research agendas in more relational, ecologically attuned, and geopolitically equitable ways. Given that even some of the most critical scholarship runs the risk of reproducing colonial relationships (e.g.,  by privileging contributions from English-speaking and/or Western-based academics rather than engaging with the plurality of knowledges beyond dominant languages and academic traditions), this multilingual special issue will welcome articles in Spanish, Portuguese and English that will address the following:

    How should education respond to a world of shifting planetary boundaries, collapsing ecosystems, and deepening inequalities? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond mere reruns of Western metaphysics?

    What education policies, practices, and pedagogies can help to advance for more equitable and sustainable relationships in the relational flow of life where everyone and everything – both human and non-human – are deeply interconnected?

    How can de- and anti-colonial scholarship be practiced in ways that enact more ethical modes of being in the world? Who benefits and who is punished by the colonial entanglements of knowledge production in comparative education?

    How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable (trans)local research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against colonialism?

     

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  • POST COLONIALISM AND EDUCATION

    2023-01-09
    POSTCOLONIALISM AND EDUCATION Coordinadores del monográfico: Dr. Gustavo Fishman; Dra. Iveta Silova. Universidad Estatal de Arizona

    The last several decades have seen a resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern theory scholarship as an intellectual resource to confront the persisting colonial legacies in education (Pashby, da Costa, Stein & Andreotti, 2021; Silova, Rappleye, & You, 2020; Takayama, Sriprakash, & Connell, 2017; Takayama, Heimans, & Vegneskumar, 2016; Connell, 2007; Walsh et. al 2018; Muller & Ferreira, 2018). These academic efforts have made invaluable contributions to extending and deepening our understanding of colonialism not as “a monolithic structure with roots exclusively in historical bad action,” but rather as a set of contemporary and evolving ontological, epistemic, and land relations that are often maintained “by good intentions and even good deeds” (Liborion, 2021, p. 7). We situate this special issue within these ongoing theoretical exchanges and intellectual movements, calling for a continued collective (re)rethinking of the role of education - despite all of its good intentions and deeds - in reproducing the logic of coloniality and thus contributing to multiple, intersecting crises we currently face: structural inequality and injustice, institutionalized racism and patriarchy, accelerating climate crisis and ongoing threat of species extinction, among many others.

    Driven by the logic of modernity/coloniality, education is directly implicated in these crises.  From competitive education league tables and global ranking exercises to education transfer of ‘best’ policies and practices, much of comparative education research has served to justify the Western modernist notions of progress and development, while displacing and sometimes purposefully erasing alternative worlds and worldviews. Today, schools and universities (especially in Western cultures) remain deeply rooted in the ideals of Western Enlightenment, perpetuating the logic of human exceptionalism and (neo)liberal individualism, while justifying the hierarchical order of being: White people of European descent over all people of color, men over women, perceived able bodies over disabled, and on and on (Martusewicz, 2018). Ultimately, the same logic of human exceptionalism sets apart all humans as superior to other living and non-living beings, justifying exploitation of nature by humans and threatening lives of everyone, everywhere.

    This special issue serves as a challenge to reexamine our current preoccupation with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices” – and rearticulate our research agendas in more relational, ecologically attuned, and geopolitically equitable ways. Given that even some of the most critical scholarship runs the risk of reproducing colonial relationships (e.g.,  by privileging contributions from English-speaking and/or Western-based academics rather than engaging with the plurality of knowledges beyond dominant languages and academic traditions), this multilingual special issue will welcome articles in Spanish, Portuguese and English that will address the following:

    How should education respond to a world of shifting planetary boundaries, collapsing ecosystems, and deepening inequalities? How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond mere reruns of Western metaphysics?

    What education policies, practices, and pedagogies can help to advance for more equitable and sustainable relationships in the relational flow of life where everyone and everything – both human and non-human – are deeply interconnected?

    How can de- and anti-colonial scholarship be practiced in ways that enact more ethical modes of being in the world? Who benefits and who is punished by the colonial entanglements of knowledge production in comparative education?

    How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable (trans)local research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against colonialism?

     

     

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  • POSTCOLONIALISM AND EDUCATION

    2023-01-09

    MONOGRÁFICO NÚMERO 43. POSTCOLONIALISMO Y EDUCACIÓN

    Coordinadores del monográfico: Dr.Gustavo Fishman y Dra. Iveta Silova. Universidad Estatal de Arizona

    The last several decades have seen a resurgence of academic engagement with decolonial, postcolonial, anti-colonial, and southern theory scholarship as an intellectual resource to confront the persisting colonial legacies in education (Pashby, da Costa, Stein & Andreotti, 2021; Silova, Rappleye, & You, 2020; Takayama, Sriprakash, & Connell, 2017; Takayama, Heimans, & Vegneskumar, 2016; Connell, 2007; Walsh et. al 2018; Muller & Ferreira, 2018). These academic efforts have made invaluable contributions to extending and deepening our understanding of colonialism not as “a monolithic structure with roots exclusively in historical bad action,” but rather as a set of contemporary and evolving ontological, epistemic, and land relations that are often maintained “by good intentions and even good deeds” (Liborion, 2021, p. 7). We situate this special issue within these ongoing theoretical exchanges and intellectual movements, calling for a continued collective (re)rethinking of the role of education - despite all of its good intentions and deeds - in reproducing the logic of coloniality and thus contributing to multiple, intersecting crises we currently face: structural inequality and injustice, institutionalized racism and patriarchy, accelerating climate crisis and ongoing threat of species extinction, among many others.

    Driven by the logic of modernity/coloniality, education is directly implicated in these crises.  From competitive education league tables and global ranking exercises to education transfer of ‘best’ policies and practices, much of comparative education research has served to justify the Western modernist notions of progress and development, while displacing and sometimes purposefully erasing alternative worlds and worldviews. Today, schools and universities (especially in Western cultures) remain deeply rooted in the ideals of Western Enlightenment, perpetuating the logic of human exceptionalism and (neo)liberal individualism, while justifying the hierarchical order of being: White people of European descent over all people of color, men over women, perceived able bodies over disabled, and on and on (Martusewicz, 2018). Ultimately, the same logic of human exceptionalism sets apart all humans as superior to other living and non-living beings, justifying exploitation of nature by humans and threatening lives of everyone, everywhere.

    This special issue serves as a challenge to reexamine our current preoccupation with global education trends – student achievement tests, competitive education league tables, global ranking exercises, and “best practices” – and rearticulate our research agendas in more relational, ecologically attuned, and geopolitically equitable ways. Given that even some of the most critical scholarship runs the risk of reproducing colonial relationships (e.g.,  by privileging contributions from English-speaking and/or Western-based academics rather than engaging with the plurality of knowledges beyond dominant languages and academic traditions), this multilingual special issue will welcome articles in Spanish, Portuguese and English that will address the following:

    How should education respond to a world of shifting planetary boundaries, collapsing ecosystems, and deepening inequalities?

    How might we learn from this uncertain time to construct new comparative genres that extend beyond mere reruns of Western metaphysics?

    What education policies, practices, and pedagogies can help to advance for more equitable and sustainable relationships in the relational flow of life where everyone and everything – both human and non-human – are deeply interconnected?

    How can de- and anti-colonial scholarship be practiced in ways that enact more ethical modes of being in the world? Who benefits and who is punished by the colonial entanglements of knowledge production in comparative education?

    How can the professionals and scholars in the field generate more sustainable (trans)local research practices that act as epistemic disobedience against colonialism?

     

     

    Read more about POSTCOLONIALISM AND EDUCATION

  • The Global Education Industry: Comparative Education Analyses

    2022-01-25

    Monographic Coordinators: Antoni Verger (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona); Clara Fontdevila (University of Glasgow) y Mauro Moschetti (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

    The participation of the private sector in education manifests itself in numerous ways and springs from diverse causes. Private schooling is the most well-established manifestation of the education privatization phenomenon, but it is far from being the most widespread or the most profitable. In the last decades, new forms of privatization, commercialization, and profit-making in education have emerged and spread. Originally coined by James Tooley (1999) to describe private education provision in developing countries, the concept of the "global education industry" (GEI) has more recently gained salience as a way to capture and make sense of a phenomenon that goes well beyond private schooling (Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi 2016; do Amaral, Steiner-Khamsi, & Thompson 2019).

    With this complex and unpredictable scenario in mind, this special issue will welcome research papers that address the phenomenon of the Global Education Industry from multiple angles. We will particularly welcome submissions that address the following topics and questions:

    • The emergence and recontextualization of the GEI in specific territories: How does GEI’s penetration and manifestation vary across different world regions, education regulatory regimes or state-market complexes? How do the drivers or enabling factors behind the expansion of GEI differ?
    • Unpacking the GEI landscape: How is the GEI structured and how has its composition and structure evolved over recent years? What are the new and changing patterns of cooperation, competition, hierarchization and hybridization with the public sector?
    • In-depth analysis of specific GEI segments (such as EdTech, textbook publishers, school improvement products and services, assessment and certification industry, private tutoring), educational levels, or prominent or emerging players.
    • Analyzing COVID-19 as a facilitator of GEI: Which has been the impact of the pandemic in the outreach of GEI, and its entrenchment with national education systems (especially in relation to processes of educational digitalization, but not only)? And, how has GEI itself been transformed/re-structured by the pandemic? (e.g., emergence of new players, change in market position, product portfolio diversification)
    • The policy role of GEI actors, networks, and coalitions: How have GEI actors become influential in the formal and informal political and policy making spheres? Which influence and advocacy strategies do they deploy and to what end?
    • Analyzing the effects of GEI penetration in terms of education quality and equity: Which are the impacts of GEI products in terms of segmentation, social stratification of schools and educational inequalities? Under which circumstances, and for whom, is the expansion of the GEI, including new forms of digitalized teaching and learning, more likely to translate into increased education quality or enhanced learning experience?
    • Implications of the GEI in terms of teacher professional autonomy, democratic governance, and data privacy: How are schools, teachers and students coping with the GEI?
    • Governance, regulation and monitoring strategies; “publification” and partnership attempts: How are governments coping with the GEI?

     

    Important dates:

    You have time to submit your 200-words abstract until February 21 2022. Abstracts can be written in Spanish, English, or Portuguese. A decision on accepted papers will be communicated to authors on March 1st 2022. Full papers (first draft) are expected by July 21st 2022. The special issue will be published in January 2023.

    Read more about The Global Education Industry: Comparative Education Analyses