National development, a worldwide rationale of mass schooling systems, is both economic and social-integrative and supports the human capital paradigm. The social-integrative objective fosters membership in modern systems of state and money exchange that pull people away from traditional ethnic, cultural, regional, or religious allegiances. This…

After World War II, an optimistic, rationalist ideology infused with Jeffersonian values influenced worldwide educational growth. The idea of a universal, free, compulsory system replaced an older elitist ideology. The equality ideology held that (1) cultural integration was necessary for national unity and (2) a shortage of trained manpower was…

During the 1960's, the nations of the world strove to provide access to schools, especially primary schools, to all children, on the assumption that education was a necessary and sufficient precondition for economic development. This faith gave way, in the 1970's and 1980's, to worldwide skepticism about the linkage between education and economic…