Skip to main content

Writing Global Education Policy Research

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Researching the Global Education Industry

Abstract

This chapter confronts an absence at the center of global education policy studies which often misses the chance to embody global complexity through open-ended, transgressive or, even, ambivalent approaches to enquiry. Methodologically, it appears to favor a gaze from above and across space, simplifying subaltern experiences of reform. I discuss privatization efforts in public education in Nepal by linking them to global labor markets and mobility, consumer modernity and state formation processes. I suggest that neoliberal tropes such as ‘quality’, ‘effectiveness’, ‘commercialization’ and privatization intersect with and invest other tropes such as freedom and self-determination, happiness, love and belonging. The capture of public education by business interests may actually be a more chaotic ensemble of reason, desire, fear and seduction.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adhikary, R. W., & Lingard, B. (2018). A Critical Policy Analysis of ‘Teach for Bangladesh’: A Travelling Policy Touches Down. Comparative Education, 54(2), 181–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (1997/1944). Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, A. (2017). The Cynical Educator. Leicester, UK: Mayfly Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Altizer, T. (1979). Eternal Recurrence and the Kingdom of God. In D. B. Allison (Ed.), The New Nietzsche: Contemporary Styles of Interpretation (pp. 232–246). New York: Delta.

    Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis, MN/London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2012). Global Education Inc.: New Policy Networks and the Neo-liberal Imaginary. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2017). Michael and Susan Go Investing. Keynote Presentation to Symposium on Economization. Commodification. Digitalization. The Emergence of a Global Education Industry. February 16th–17th, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S., Junemann, C., & Santori, D. (2017). Edu.net. Globalization and Education Policy Mobility. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S., & Youdell, D. (2008). Hidden Privatization in Public Education. Brussels, Belgium: Education International. Retrieved from https://www.ei-ie.org/media_gallery/2009-00034-01-E.pdf. Accessed 01 Mar 2018.

  • Bataille, G. (2006). The Absence of Myth: Writings on Surrealism. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (2003). Passwords. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baudrillard, J. (2008). Fatal Strategies. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e).

    Google Scholar 

  • Berlant, L. (2011). Cruel Optimism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bista, M., & Carney, S. (2002). Human Resource Development Plan for the Education Sector of Nepal. Kathmandu, Nepal: His Majesty’s Government of Nepal.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borges, J. L. (1998). On Exactitude in Science, The Aleph. London: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulfinch, T. (1993). The Golden Age of Myth and Legend: The Classical Mythology of the Ancient World. Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carney, S. (2009). Negotiating Policy in an Age of Globalization: Exploring Educational ‘Policyscapes’ in Denmark, Nepal and China. Comparative Education Review, 53(1), 63–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carney, S., & Bista, M. B. (2009). Community Schooling in Nepal: A Genealogy of Education Reform Since 1990. Comparative Education Review, 53(2), 189–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Featherstone, M., & Lash, S. (1995). Globalization, Modernity and the Spatialization of Social Theory: An Introduction. In M. Featherstone, S. Lash, & R. Robertson (Eds.), Global Modernities (pp. 1–24). London: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson, J. (1999). Global Disconnect: Abjection and the Aftermath of Modernism. In Expectations of Modernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Life on the Zambian Copperbelt (pp. 234–254). Berkeley, CA: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, A., & Ferguson, J. (1997). After ‘People’s and ‘Cultures’. In A. Gupta & J. Ferguson (Eds.), Culture, Power and Place: Explorations in Critical Anthropology (pp. 1–29). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, M., Lingard, B., Rizvi, F., & Taylor, S. (2001). The OECD, Globalisation and Education Policy. Oxford, UK: IAU Press & Elsevier Science Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Honan, E., & Bright, D. (2016). Writing a Thesis Differently. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29(5), 731–743.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, R. (1997). American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America. London: Harvill Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, I. (1954). What Is Enlightenment? In Columbia College & J. Buchler (Eds.), Introduction to Contemporary Civilization in the West: A Source Book (pp. 1071–76). New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman, W. (1975). Existentialism: From Dostoevsky to Sartre. New York: Plume.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazamias, A. (2001). Globalization and Educational Cultures in Late Modernity: The Agamemnon Syndrome. In J. Cairns, D. Lawton, & R. Gardner (Eds.), Values, Culture and Education. World Yearbook of Education 2001 (pp. 1–16). London: Kogan Page.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazamias, A. (2009). Agamemnon Contra Prometheus: Globalisation, Knowledge/ Learning Societies and Paideia in the New Cosmopolis. In International Handbook of Comparative Education (pp. 1079–1111). London: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Koro-Ljungberg, M., & MacLure, M. (2013). Provocations, Re-Un-Visions, Death, and Other Possibilities of “Data”. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 13(4), 219–222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, M., & Beech, J. (2014). Spatial Theorizing in Comparative and International Education Research. Comparative Education Review, 58(2), 191–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liechty, M. (2003). Suitably Modern: Making Middle-Class Culture in A New Consumer Society. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pigg, S. (1992). Inventing Social Categories Through Place: Social Representations and Development in Nepal. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 34(3), 491–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, S., & Dale, D. (2015). Towards a ‘Critical Cultural Political Economy’ Account of the Globalising of Education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 13(1), 149–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schriewer, J. (2012). Editorial: Meaning Constellations in the World Society. Comparative Education, 48(4), 411–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stronach, I. (2010). Globalizing Education, Educating the Local: How Method Made Us Mad. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Takayama, K. (2015). Provincialising the World Culture Theory Debate: Critical Insights from a Margin. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 13(1), 34–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, M. C. (1984). Erring: A Postmodern A/theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • The Guardian. (2013). Revealed: Qatar’s World Cup ‘Slaves’. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/25/revealed-qatars-world-cup-slaves. Accessed 01 Mar 2018.

  • Thrift, N. (2005). Knowing Capitalism. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2008). Non-Representational Theory: Space, Politics, Affect. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verger, A. (2012). Framing and Selling Global Education Policy: The Promotion of Public–Private Partnerships for Education in Low-Income Contexts. Journal of Education Policy, 27(1), 109–130.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Žižek, S. (2012). Welcome to the Desert of the Real. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

As with all of my writing, it is not possible to present a text without acknowledging an ongoing dialogue with my colleague Ulla Ambrosius Madsen. The artifact presented here is mine but it builds on a shared mode of thought.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen Carney .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Carney, S. (2019). Writing Global Education Policy Research. In: Parreira do Amaral, M., Steiner-Khamsi, G., Thompson, C. (eds) Researching the Global Education Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04236-3_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04236-3_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-04235-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-04236-3

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics