Purpose: Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been involved in academic programs in many Western countries, actively participating and reshaping policy implementation. This tremendous growth in external voluntary and philanthropic organizations in schools is associated with a global trend toward decentralization, commodification,…

Education within capitalism too often reproduces social and economic inequalities. Schools are depicted as failing and teachers are blamed. In this paper, I examine the discourses underlying this situation and the role of foundations in the US and the World Bank in developing countries in maintaining it. I look at the neoliberal remedy of…

National philanthropies have recently played a prominent role in spending on U.S. urban school board elections, largely seeking to promote candidates who support charter schools. In Atlanta in 2017, 30 candidates competed for nine open school board seats. One practice has been to fund intermediary organisations (IOs) (e.g. advocacy groups,…

Non-Government Organisations (NG0s) which support education in Africa may use different titles such as Council or Trust, are almost always Non-profit organizations. They differ in size, ranging from small local organisations through to large internal multinationals. When founded they will often reflect the ideas, objectives and views of their…

Drawing on data from a study of the changing landscape for teachers' professional development (PD) in England, this paper addresses the provision of PD for teachers in schools serving high-poverty communities designated as 'Opportunity Areas'. Beginning with critical examination of relationships between teaching quality and social mobility, the…

New conceptions of public governance across nations have taken hold globally. In this article, we explore the involvement and expansion of a broad range of actors in public services delivery, beyond the remit of traditional government. While there are common features of this trend, variations reflect the significance of context-sensitive policy,…

The coronavirus has magnified existing racial injustices and educational inequities. Philanthropy will play a key role in facilitating higher education's recovery from the pandemic, but its relationship with the field needs to evolve to enact a more equitable and sustainable future. Informed by survey responses from 30 grantee partners (e.g.,…

In the decades around the turn of the 20th century, American business leaders took their first sustained interest in higher education. This historical article, based on archival analysis, challenges the traditional understanding of these wealthy individuals' philanthropy as either passive or ill-intentioned. Using Andrew Carnegie as a case study,…

Previous research focusing on major philanthropic foundations suggests that these actors have collectively converged around a set of jurisdictional challengers promoting market-based education reforms. Using correspondence analysis, network analysis, and geographic information science, this article empirically tests whether this convergence has…

Drawing on an integrative review of the literature on the privatization of education and an empirical case study of technology corporations in education, this article examines the corporate within the political economy of education. It argues that by analytically conceiving of corporations under the banner of the private sphere and,…

When Crystal Bridgeman joined the Siemens Foundation as senior director of workforce development programs in 2014, she pored over research and led conversations about what kind of projects the foundation should invest in to have the biggest impact. Her findings suggested there were a growing number of job opportunities in fields such as advanced…

The author examined the websites of two large foundations, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation. Each has developed projects and networks, coupled with substantive grants, to improve postsecondary education. These and other foundations have deep and ongoing commitments, not just philosophical but resource-based, to…

While think tanks are a global phenomenon, their role in shaping US policy offers an instructive example of think tank influence on policymaking due to the immensity of resources directed towards those ends, with education policy serving as a prime example. Focusing on a distinct set of "incentivist" education policies, this analysis…

This article explores four cases of donor-sponsored campaigns, illustrating their structure, variety, public impacts, and community building. The author outlines best practices for advocating for an art-based community awareness campaign.

The post-basic education sector is critical to the achievement of the SDGs because this sector increase employability, helps build life skills, and most importantly, improves youth development. No doubt, if post-basic education improves, it will help in the actualisation of the seventeen goals of SDG. Findings reveal that Etisalat intervention in…