EDITORS: Íris Santos, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University; Elias Pekkola, Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University; Hanna Posti-Ahokas, University of Helsinki.
Please feel free to share the call with other colleagues who might be interested in contributing.
TIMELINE:
Extended abstracts due – May 31, 2023
Acceptance of abstracts and invite full chapters – June 30, 2023
Review of the full proposal by Brill – July 3, 2023
First draft of chapters due – November 30, 2023
Editors feedback – January 31, 2024
Revised chapters due – April 13, 2024
Submit to publisher – May 31, 2024
POSSIBLE TOPICS:
The edited volume will consist of theoretical and empirical chapters focused on the insider perspectives of the work of international organizations in education and development:
1. Experts’ understandings on the role/impacts (positive and negative, intentional, and unintentional) of international organisations On the development of education in countries of the Global South;
2. Autoethnography of professional experiences as development actors in African countries;
3. Professional work, networks and practises in IOs for educational development;
4. Experiences of professionals working in international organisations headquarters/policy level;
5. Institutional policy, management, leadership and organizational issues related to IOs in relation to development of education;
6. Historical analysis of longstanding activities of international organisations (from insiders’ perspectives);
7. Insider understandings of international organisations as sources of (big) data and the consequences of this data on education development in the Global South;
8. Global/local relations: dive into the relations between international organisations and local actors;
9. The role of international organisations in South-South cooperation: the emergence of collaboration between organisations in the Global South
10. Local problems, global solutions? How practitioners in the countries of the Global South manage tensions between local interests and global forces?
GUIDELINES FOR ABSTRACTS AND CHAPTERS:
Extended abstracts are expected to be around 1,000 words (including aims, theoretical approach, data description, methods and reference list) and should be sent by May 31, 2023 to: iris.santos@tuni.fi
Chapters are expected to be between 6000 and 7000 words. If accepted, the chapter’s first draft is expected by November 30, 2023.
FURTHER INFORMATION:
Íris Santos
iris.santos@tuni.fi
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Education is often associated with both, the improvement of human livelihoods and wellbeing and the development of human capital that, in consequence, can lead to economic growth. Thus, it is not surprising that, in recent decades, education has been seen as a crucial sector in development cooperation. In consequence, individual countries and international organisations alike have been focusing on this sector’s improvement.
Earlier research (e.g. King & Palmer 2014) argues that, in the countries of the Global South education development is significantly more influenced by national challenges than by global forces. Nevertheless, formal global development mechanisms such as the Sustainable Development Goals and international actors such as international organisations (intergovernmental organisations, i.e. UNESCO, World bank, etc., and international non-governmental organisations, i.e. Save the children) do also have some influence in national education policymaking (King & Parker, 2014).
Interested in these dynamic intertwinements between global and local actors, considerable amount of research has been done on how countries have changed their public policies with the aim of boosting its education system’s access, quality and equity and/or to reach/follow globally agreed education standards (e.g. Takayama, 2008; Wilkins 2015; Ferreira, Flores & Casas-Novas, 2017; Centeno, Kauko & Candido, 2018; Hardy et al., 2021). Even more extensive volume of studies have focused on the role of international organisations in education development through cooperation schemes (McNeely, 1995; Duggan, 1997; King, 2007; Moutsios 2009; Martens & Windzio, 2022). However, these studies are often written from a macro perspective, and they contribute to the discussion on global education policy and (neoliberal) world order. There are only a limited number of studies (e.g. Santos & Pekkola, 2023) that approach international organisations from organisational or professional perspective.
This edited book aims at filling up this gap. The proposed volume provides avenues to study the daily work and perspectives of education experts and practitioners working in international organisations for educational development – specially with experience in the Global South with the aim of understanding organizational practices from inside. Our aim is to explore these experts and practitioners’ experiences and understand a) how development cooperation in the sector of education is constructed and b) what is the role and impacts of such organizations. In this book we expect to have chapters expressing critical views on education development initiatives and the nuances, ambiguity, and complexity of development cooperation in the contexts of the Global South revealed and discussed in-dept. We also expect to have some more pragmatic stances where experts and practitioners express their perspectives on how dynamics of global development cooperation can become more efficient and sustainable.
References:
Duggan, S. (1997). The role of international organisations in the financing of higher education in Cambodia, Higher Education 34, 1-22.
Centeno, V., Kauko, J. & Candido, H. (2018). Quality assurance and evaluation through Brazilian lenses: An exploration into the validity of umbrella concepts, Comparative Education, 54(2), 132-158. DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2017.1348084
Ferreira, A. S., Flores, I. & Casas-Novas,T.(2017). Porque melhoram os resultados PISA em Portugal [ Why do students ‘results improve in PISA in Portugal]. Fundacão Francisco Manuel dos Santos.
Hardy, I., Heikkinen, H., Pennanen, M., Salo, P. & Kiilakoski, T. (2021). The ‘spirit of the times’: Fast policy for educational refotm in Finland. Policy Futures in Education, 19(7), 770-79. DOI: 10.1177/1478210320971530
King K. (2007). Multilateral agencies in the construction of the global agenda on education, Comparative Education, 43(3), 377-391. DOI: 10.1080/03050060701556331
King, K. & Palmer, R. (2014). Post -2015 and the global governance of education and training. Working paper #9. Network for international policies and cooperation in education and training – Norrag.
Martens, K. & Windzio, M. (2022). Global pathways to education: Cultural spheres, networks and international organisations. Palgrave Macmillan.
McNeely, C. (1995). Prescribing national policies: The role of international organisations. Comparative Education Review 39 (4), 483-507.
Menashy, F. (2018). Multi-stakeholder Aid to Education: Power in the Context of Partnership. Globalisation, Societies and Education 16(1), 13–26. DOI:10.1080/14767724.2017.1356702.
Moutsios, S. (2009). International organisations and transnational education policy, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 39(4), 469-481. DOI: 10.1080/03057920802156500
Santos, Í & Pekkola, E. (2023). Policy entrepreneurs in the global education complex: The case of Finnish education experts working in international organisations. International Journal of Educational Development, 98, 102749. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2023.102749
Takayama, K. (2008). The politics of international league tables: PISA in Japan’s achievement crisis debate. Comparative Education, 44(4), 387-407. DOI:10.1080/03050060802481413
Wilkins, C. (2015). Education reform in England: quality and equity in the performative school, International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19(11), 1143-1160. DOI:10.1080/13603116.2015.1044202
(updated 25.4.2023)