Politics and Knowledge Shaping Educational Reform

Case Studies from Around the Globe

Colleen McLaughlin, Alan Ruby

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN:
  9781009414784
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Educational Policy

Have you ever wondered why education is always being reformed? This book provides ten case studies from all corners of the globe that illustrate how politics and data clash as education policies are developed, enacted, and assessed. A follow-up to the authors' previous book, Implementing Educational Reform, it highlights trends such as politicisation, showing where successful policies have been dropped, and where failed policies persist for ideological ends. Drawing on examples from South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Peru, Portugal, post-Soviet states and the UK, it shows how education policy can be disruptive and abrupt, or consensual and gradual. It challenges the managerial model of education reform that has dominated the last thirty years of education reform thinking, ultimately deepening our understanding of the importance of practical knowledge in designing and implementing policies. It is essential reading for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers of education research, education policy, and international education reform.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Imprints page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Introduction: Until the Miracle Arrives, We Can Learn from Others
• 2 Radical Curriculum Change and the Politics of ‘Implementation’: A South African Case Study
• 3 Towards a Play-Based Pedagogy in Ghanaian Kindergarten Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Implementation
• 4 Implementing Fee-Free Education in Rwanda: Opportunities and Challenges
• 5 Policy Implementation in a Sisyphean State: Improving Pedagogical Practice in Perú through the Soporte Pedagógico Programme
• 6 Reforming the School System: Lessons from England
• 7 Educational Reform in Scotland: Policy, Governance and Professional Culture
• 8 The Role of Textbooks in Improving Education in Portugal
• 9 Turning Social Capital into a Working Wage: How Teachers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Earn Their Pay and Their Keep
• 10 High-Performance and Equity: Closing the Gap Contributes to Success
• 11 Missing Opportunity?: Transformation of the Teachers’ Remuneration System in Kazakhstan in the Context of Increasing Wages
• 12 Conclusion: Global and National Shifts in Implementing Educational Reform: Learning across the Cases
• Index