Global education policy and professionals in conflict-affected and post-conflict states

Session Submission Type: Group Panel

Description of Session

The proposed panel focuses on the relationship between global education policies and education in conflict and post-conflict affected states. Scholars of the former examine not only the conditions under which education policies move from one geographic locale to another, but also how and why “global education policies” are borne and spread (e.g., Carney, 2009; Jakobi, 2009; Steiner-Khamsi, 2004, 2010; Verger, Novelli, & Kosar-Altinyelken, 2012; Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, 2016). Many scholars and practitioners focusing on the latter have and continue to develop “global” policies and programs considered to be “best practices” (e.g. Schools as Zones of Peace, Learning to Live Together, the Safe Schools Initiative) that are intended to be adapted to meet “local” needs and realities (i.e., they should be context-specific). However, questions persist about “what works,” the transferability and adaptability of policies and programs across a range of conflict and post-conflict settings, and why and how these policies and programs “move” from one context to the next. This panel intends to bring together new thinking and research on the ways in which global education policies have been developed, implemented, and subsequently transferred across different conflict or post-conflict contexts.

Discussion of globalization and education focuses on how the opening of new spaces for education policy formulation and transfer was occasioned beginning in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, and that the opening of these spaces and processes of policy formation enabled influence from a range of supranational actors (Burbules & Torres, 2000; Dale, 1999; Moutsious, 2010). Notably, however, these shifts were concomitant with changes in the nature of conflict from interstate wars to chronic, unresolved, and recurring intrastate or civil wars in so called fragile or failed states. Consequently, the role and influence of national and international non-governmental organizations (I/NGOs), United Nations (UN) agencies, and for-profit education service providers in education policymaking as well as education service delivery expanded dramatically in contexts of protracted conflict.

The presentations on this panel unpack the dynamics detailed above. When considered collectively, this panel’s presentations indicate that in conflict-affected countries throughout the world, states’ involvement in the provision of education is severely limited, providing openings for non-state actors, including UN agencies, I/NGOs, and for-profit education organizations to become “global” education service providers of “global” education programs, albeit through different means and often for different ends. This panel further suggests that the formulation and implementation of educational programs in post-conflict settings also lends itself to the emergence and entrenchment of policies that later can be leveraged and sold “globally.” Finally, the presentations on this panel are valuable because they rely on long-term case studies and other methodological approaches that produce insights on the creation, ascent, and transfer of global education programs, under the auspices of global education policies (e.g. Education for All, the Sustainable Development Goals) in conflict and post-conflict states. Importantly, one of the papers on the panel also looks takes aim at actors who central to global education policies with conflict-affected contexts—that is, one of the papers examines the boundaries and professionalization of the field of Education in Emergencies.

The panel structure is as follows. After the conveners introduce the overall purpose and theme of the panel, each panelist will have 15 minutes for their presentation. This will be followed by brief comments (10 mins) from the discussant during which she will offer remarks on the papers and reflect on overarching insights and implications, particularly for understanding the relationship between globalization and education in conflict and post-conflict settings. The final 15 minutes of the session are reserved for Q&A with the audience.

Panel conveners:

D. Brent Edwards Jr., University of Hawaii
Chrissie Monaghan, New York University

Panelists:

Paper 1: International actor impact during and after repressive government: The different faces of World Bank influence on development and education policy in Indonesia (1970s-2010s)

Authors: D. Brent Edwards Jr., University of Hawaii; Inga Storen, University of Oxford

Paper 2: Title: Education as politics? Interrogating the glocalisation of Myanmar’s recent education reform process

Authors: Elizabeth Maber, University of Auckland; Ritesh Shah, University of Auckland & Mieke T.A. Lopes Cardozo, University of Amsterdam

Paper 3: Re-building Markets, not States: The Business of Education in Emergencies

Author: Chrissie Monaghan, New York University

Paper 4: Professionalization across Institutional Boundaries: Global Emergency Education Specialists and the Making of a new Professional Field

Author: Julia Lerch, Stanford University

Discussant:

Susan Robertson, University of Bristol

Sub Unit

• SIG: Education Conflict and Emergencies

Organizers

• Christine E Monaghan, New York University

• D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii

Chair

• D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii

Individual Presentations

• International actor impact during and after repressive government: The different faces of World Bank influence on education policy in Indonesia - D. Brent Edwards, University of Hawaii; Inga Storen, University of Oxford

• Education as politics? Interrogating the glocalisation of Myanmar’s recent education reform process - Elizabeth J. T. Maber, University of Amsterdam; Ritesh Shah, University of Auckland; Mieke Lopes Cardozo, University of Amsterdam

• Re-building markets, not states: The business of education in emergencies - Christine E Monaghan, New York University

• Professionalization across institutional boundaries: Global emergency education specialists and the making of a new professional field - Julia Lerch, Stanford University

Discussant

• Susan L Robertson, University of Bristol