In a number of advanced market democracies the role of public technical and vocational education and training institutions has been called into question. This is one result of a singular dominant public policy discourse favouring the provision of public services through contracting out in competitive markets. With the limitations of this default…

Socioeconomic segregation continues to be a central issue for education systems in which market-driven reforms have been implemented. This study analyses trends of socioeconomic segregation in Chile (1999-2018), considering a period with an absence of policies aimed at reducing segregation (1999-2007) and a later stage (2008-2015) when measures…

The idea of privatization of the traditional U.S. public school system is a relatively recent historical phenomenon. The growing trend towards allowing private enterprises to become active players in the development and delivery of classroom learning is assumed to be a "public good." The following commentary provides a cursory look at…

In recent years, the federal government (under Republican and Democratic administrations alike) has encouraged the outsourcing of core parts of public education's work, including testing and test preparation, teaching and tutoring, data collection, and human resources management. However, researchers have found little evidence to support policy…

The author argues that the ascendance of individualistic, free market-oriented ideas about the education of Black people is best understood as the product of the decline of collective social movements. The careers of two of the most well-known American Black educators illustrate this pattern. Booker T. Washington and Geoffrey Canada rose to…

In the present moment of global capitalism, the marketisation of higher education is a reality in the Global South and North. Yet, the Southern experience of marketisation differs from that of the North. This article examines how market-based development in Sri Lanka since the economic liberalisation of 1977 has reshaped Sri Lankan university…

In 1955, Milton Friedman authored a foundational paper proposing a shift in funding and governance mechanisms for public K-12 schools, suggesting that parents be awarded tuition vouchers that they could use to pay for private sector education services for their children, rather than relying on government provided neighborhood schools. Friedman…

Over the course of the 1980s and 1990s, the contours of neoliberalism took shape, as individual corporations implemented new strategies seeking to shift the frontier of control in their favor and increase their profits. Their actions began to shape the political and economic practices of both major political parties, and the orientation of…

With contributions from Linda Darling-Hammond, Michael Fullan, Pasi Sahlberg, and Martin Carnoy, "Global Education Reform" is an eye-opening analysis of national educational reforms and the types of high-achieving systems needed to serve all students equitably.The collection documents the ideologically and educationally distinctive…