Global Governance of Education
The first strand of my research—on the global governance of education—looks at the institutions and processes through which education policies are developed and promoted globally. In this area, my research has focused on the role of such organizations as the World Bank; the United States Agency for International Development; the United Nations Education, Science, and Culture Organization; and the Global Campaign for Education. |
Theoretically, my work in this first strand has focused on conceptualizing and contributing to the following areas:
Examples of research outputs related to each of the three areas mentioned above are included below.
- The processes and pathways through which international organizations influence policy formation in a given country and the mechanisms through which these policies subsequently “go global;”
- The dynamics within and among international organizations, with a focus on the issue of organizational legitimacy; and
- The political economy of knowledge production in global education reform—that is, the way that international organizations produce “policy-relevant” knowledge and strategically employ that knowledge to advance their own organizational agendas within the global education policy field.
Examples of research outputs related to each of the three areas mentioned above are included below.
Processes and pathways through which international organizations influence national policy: |
Edwards, Jr., D.B., Caravaca, A., Rappeport, A., & Sperduti, V. (2023). “World Bank influence on policy formation in education: A systematic review of the literature,” Review of Educational Research. Online ahead of print. Open access here.
Edwards Jr., D. B. (2023). Rethinking World Bank influence: Governance reforms and the ritual aid dance in Indonesia. Routledge. Caravaca, A., Edwards Jr., D.B., Rappeport, A., & Sperduti, V. (2022). “The World Bank and the implementation of education policies: Forms of influence and omissions,” Journal of Supranational Policies of Education, 15, 33-47. [In Spanish] Edwards Jr., D. B. (2018). The trajectory of global education policy: Community-based management in El Salvador and the global reform agenda. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2018). “School- and community-based management as global education policy: History, trajectory, geography,” In A. Verger, M. Novelli & H. Kosar-Altinyelken (Eds.), Global Education Policy and International Development: New Agendas, Issues and Programmes, second edition. (pp. 119-140). New York: Continuum. Edwards Jr., D. B., Brehm, W., & Storen, I. (2018). “The national politics of educational advocacy in the context of global governance: International funding and support for civil society engagement in Cambodia,” Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 48 (2), 171-188. Rambla, X., Verger, A., Edwards Jr., D. B., Bonal, X., & Fontdevila, C. (2017). “Meeting development goals: Evidence from the Civil Society Education Fund,” Development in Practice, 27 (6), 851-864. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2017). “Policy formation in the context of global governance: Rational, organizational, and political perspectives on policymaking in El Salvador,” International Journal of Educational Development, 52, 81-96. Edwards Jr., D. B. & Brehm, W. (2015). “The emergence of Cambodian civil society within global educational governance: A morphogenetic approach to agency and structure,” Journal of Education Policy, 30 (2), 275-293. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2013). “International processes of education policy formation: An analytic framework and the case of Plan 2021 in El Salvador,” Comparative Education Review, 57 (1), 22-53. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2012). “Researching international processes of education policy formation: Conceptual and methodological issues,” Research in Comparative and International Education, 7 (2): 127-145. |
Dynamics within and among international organizations:
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Edwards Jr., D.B. & Moschetti, M. (2023). “The work of international organizations: Ten theoretical approaches and a way forward.” In Tierney, R.J, Rizvi, F., Erkican, K. (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, Vol. 1. (pp. 465-479). Elsevier.
Edwards Jr., D. B. & Moschetti, M. (2021). “The Sociology of Policy Change within International Organizations: Beyond Coercive and Normative Perspectives—towards Circuits of Power,” Globalisation, Societies & Education, 19 (1), 55-69. Edwards Jr., D. B., Okitsu, T., da Costa, R., & Kitamura, Y. (2018). “Organizational legitimacy in the global education policy field: Learning from UNESCO and the Global Monitoring Report,” Comparative Education Review, 61 (1), 31-63. Edwards Jr., D. B., Okitsu, T., da Costa, R., & Kitamura, Y. (2017). “Regaining legitimacy in the context of global governance? UNESCO, Education for All coordination and the Global Monitoring Report,” International Review of Education, 63 (3), 403-416. Verger, A., Edwards Jr., D. B., & Kosar-Altinyelken, H. (2014). “Learning from all? The World Bank, aid agencies and the construction of hegemony in education for development,” Comparative Education, 50 (4), 1-19. |
Political economy of knowledge production: |
Edwards Jr., D. B, Morrison, J., & Hall, S. (2020). “The suspect statistics of best practices: A triple critique of knowledge production and mobilization in the global education policy field,” Globalisation, Societies and Education, 18 (2), 125-148.
Edwards Jr., D.B. (2020). “Best practices from best methods? Big data and the limitations of impact evaluation in the global governance of education,” in T. Jules & F. Salajan (Eds.), The Educational Intelligent Economy: Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things in Education. (pp. 69-85). Bingley, UK: Emerald. Edwards Jr., D.B. (2020). “False advertising and first principles: Misrepresentation of research evidence from El Salvador and the need to change the paradigm of community-based management” In M. Nishimura (Ed.), Community participation in schools in developing countries: Towards equitable and inclusive basic education for all. (pp. 200-212). New York: Routledge. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2018). Global education policy, impact evaluations, and alternatives: The political economy of knowledge production. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. Edwards Jr., D. B. & Loucel, C. (2016). “The EDUCO Program, impact evaluations, and the political economy of global education reform,” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 24 (49), 1-50. Klees, S., & Edwards Jr., D. B. (2014). “Knowledge production and technologies of governance.” In T. Fenwick, E. Mangez, & J. Ozga (Eds.), World yearbook of education 2014: Governing knowledge: Comparison, knowledge-based technologies and expertise in the regulation of education. (pp. 31-43). New York: Routledge. |