Education Policy, Politics, & Political Economy
at the National and Local Levels
Through the second research strand, I seek to understand the effects of the global political economy on education at the national and local levels. I also study here how education trends are translated into policy at the national level and then enacted at the community level. In other words, beyond an understanding of how policies travel globally, I assess the dynamics and operation of education policies within different countries. The kinds of policies and practices that I have examined most frequently fall into three groups: global citizenship education, market-based policies, and decentralization-related policies.
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For global citizenship education, I have worked together with a team to conduct a systematic literature review of studies related to Sustainable Development Goal 4.7 (which focuses on education for global citizenship and environmental sustainability). When it comes to market-based policies, I have examined charter schools in Bogotá, Colombia, as well as vouchers in Manila, Philippines, “low-fee private schools for the poor” in Lusaka, Zambia, and private tutoring in Cambodia. In terms of decentralization-related policies, I have examined community-based management in El Salvador and Zambia as well as community-driven development programs in Indonesia.
In all cases, my scholarship is critical in nature, in that I am concerned with (a) issues of power in the making and implementation of education policy, (b) the gap between policy rhetoric and policy reality, and (c) the implications of policy for marginalized groups and for the exacerbation of marginalization. The purpose of my scholarship in this area is to contribute to a more informed understanding of the consequences of dominant reform trends in education, trends which tend to circulate and to be adopted uncritically, often without adequate insight into how they function in practice and to the benefit of certain groups over others.
In all cases, my scholarship is critical in nature, in that I am concerned with (a) issues of power in the making and implementation of education policy, (b) the gap between policy rhetoric and policy reality, and (c) the implications of policy for marginalized groups and for the exacerbation of marginalization. The purpose of my scholarship in this area is to contribute to a more informed understanding of the consequences of dominant reform trends in education, trends which tend to circulate and to be adopted uncritically, often without adequate insight into how they function in practice and to the benefit of certain groups over others.
Global political economy and education policy dynamics |
Edwards Jr., D.B., Verger, A., Takayama, K., & McKenzie, M. (Eds.) (forthcoming). Researching global education policy: Diverse approaches to policy movement. Policy Press.
Edwards Jr., D.B., Moschetti, M., Martin, P., & Morales, R. (Eds.) (forthcoming) Education and development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean: Global Forces and Local Responses. Bristol University Press. Le, H. & Edwards Jr., D.B. (2022). “Singapore’s educational export strategies: ‘Branding’ and ‘selling’ education in a favorable global policy marketplace,” Comparative Education. Online ahead of print. Edwards Jr., D.B. & Martin, P. (2022). “The international political economy of education reform in Central America: Comparative analysis and future directions.” In M. T. Cruz (Ed.), Quality Education in Central America: Dynamics and tensions among approaches to education and development. (pp. 230-268). University of Central America. [In Spanish] Edwards Jr., D.B., Moschetti, M., & Caravaca, A. (2021). “Network governance and new philanthropy in Latin America and the Caribbean: The reconfiguration of the State in the Dominican Republic and beyond,” British Journal of Sociology of Education, 42 (8), 1210-1226. Moschetti, M., Caravaca, A., & Edwards Jr., D.B. (2021). “The privatization of educational policy and network governance in the Dominican Republic.” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 29 (128), 1-19. [In Spanish] Edwards Jr., D. B. & Means, A. (2019). “Globalization, privatization, and marginalization: Mapping and assessing connections and consequences in/through education,” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27 (123), 1-37. Edwards Jr., D.B., Okitsu, T., & Mwanza, P. (2019). "Low-fee private schools, the State, and globalization: A market analysis within the political sociology of education and development,” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 27 (133), 1-42. Kitamura, Y., Edwards Jr., D. B., Chhinh, S., & Williams, J. (Eds.). (2015). The political economy of schooling in Cambodia: Issues of equity and quality. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. |
Market-based reforms |
Edwards Jr., D.B., Hartley, H., & DeMatthews, D. (forthcoming). “The problematics of public-private partnerships: Lessons from the dynamics of accountability and competition in Bogotá, Colombia.” In K. Kelly (Ed.), Education in global contexts. Emerald.
Okitsu, T., Edwards Jr., D.B., Mwanza, P., & Miller, S. (2023). “Low-fee private preschools as the symbol of imagined ‘modernity’?—Parental perspectives of ECCE in an urban informal settlement in Zambia,” International Journal of Educational Development. Online ahead of print. Edwards Jr., D.B., Okitsu, T., & Mwanza, P. (2023). “Low-fee private schools for early childhood care and education? Insights from Zambia in the context of economic globalization,” International Review of Education, 68 (6), 897-910. Edwards Jr., D.B. & Le, H. (2022). “When teachers become the external actor: Private tutoring and endogenous privatization in Cambodia,” in C. Lubienski, M. Yemini & C. Maxwell (Eds.), The rise of external actors in education: Shifting boundaries globally and locally. (pp. 31-49). Policy Press. Termes, A., Edwards Jr., D. B., & Verger, A. (2020). “The development and dynamics of public-private partnerships in the Philippines’ education: A counter-intuitive case of school choice, competition and privatization,” Educational Policy, 34 (1), 91-117. Edwards Jr., D.B., Le, H., & Sustarsic, M. (2020). “Spatializing a global education phenomenon: Private tutoring and mobility theory in Cambodia,” Journal of Education Policy, 35 (5), 713-732. Edwards Jr., D.B., DeMatthews, D., & Hartley, H. (2017). “Public-private partnerships, accountability, and competition: Theory versus reality in Concession Schools in Bogotá, Colombia,” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25 (10), 1-32. Edwards Jr., D.B., & Hall, S. (2018). “Neglected issues: How charters schools manage teachers and acquire resources,” Teachers College Record. Edwards Jr., D.B., Klees, S., & Wildish, J. (2017). “Dynamics of low-fee private schools in Kenya: Governmental legitimation, schools-community dependence, and resource uncertainty,” Teachers College Record, 119 (7), 1-42. |
School-/community-based management |
Edwards Jr., D. B., Erazo, M., & Martin, P. (2021). “Islands of participation: The governance of education through ‘Integrated Systems,’” Educacao & Sociedade, 41, 1-18. Online ahead of print. [In Spanish]
Edwards Jr., D.B. (2018). “Accountability through community-based management? Implications from the local level implementation in El Salvador of a globally-popular model,” In K. A. Heidemann & R. A. Clothey (Eds.), Another Way: Decentralization, Democratization, and the Global Politics of Community-Based Schooling. Rotterdam: Sense. Okitsu, T. & Edwards Jr., D.B., (2017). “Can the rural poor hold schools and teachers to account? Policy promise and reality of community school management in rural Zambia,” International Journal of Educational Development, 56, 28-41, 2017. Edwards Jr., D. B., & DeMatthews, D. (2014). “Historical trends in educational decentralization in the United States and developing countries: A periodization and comparison in the post-WWII context,” Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22 (40), 1-36. Edwards Jr., D. B., & Mbatia, P. (2013). “Education decentralization and school clusters in Namibia: Technical, institutional, and political dimensions.” In A. Verger, H. Kosar-Altinyelken, & M. de Koning (Eds.), Global managerial education reforms and reachers: Emerging policies, controversies and issues in developing contexts. (pp. 55-73). Brussels: Education International. Edwards Jr., D. B. (2012). “The approach of the World Bank to participation in development and education governance: Trajectories, frameworks, results.” In C. Collins & A. Wiseman (Eds.), Education strategy in the developing world: Understanding the World Bank’s education policy revision. (pp. 249-273). Bingley, UK: Emerald. |
Global citizenship education |
Chiba, M., Sustarsic, M., Perriton, S., & Edwards Jr., D. B. (2021) “Investigating effective teaching and learning for sustainable development and global citizenship: Implications from a systematic review of the literature,” International Journal of Educational Development, 81, 1-16. Online ahead of print.
Edwards Jr., D. B., Sustarsic, M., Chiba, M., Goo, M., McCormick, M., & Perriton, S. (2020). “Achieving and monitoring education for sustainable development and global citizenship: A systematic review of the literature,” Sustainability, 12 (1383), 1-57. |