With the rise of neoliberal reforms and efforts to privatize education, there is a growing need to examine how actors and groups from the public and private sectors influence educational policy change together. In this article, we advance a critical approach to understanding the changing discursive space of educational politics by following…

Marketization of education in South Africa accelerated at the crossroads of the postapartheid democratic transition and global neoliberal turn, reflecting both educational policy impacts of the country's protracted negotiated settlement and transnational trends. A controversial 2018 provincial amendment further entrenched marketization in the…

A provision of India's Right to Education Act requires private schools to enrol 25% of children from 'disadvantaged' and 'economically weaker' backgrounds. Described as a unique public-private partnership, this policy has been widely debated for its promotion of private actors in ensuring equity and access to education. Within this controversial…

In education decentralization policy may be beneficial in terms of overcoming an overly cumbersome bureaucracy in educational systems. However, it can also have adverse effects in terms of competition, yielding new kinds of inequalities. This is true in Quebec, where the division of educational labor and the emergence of technical work were…

Scholars who document neoliberal trends in education argue that privatization and corporatization in schools is dehumanizing and discourages democratic participation. These scholars assert that neoliberal education policies heighten social inequity by emphasizing individualism, marketability and colorblindness without interrogating social…

The recent publication of the UK government's Browne Review 2010 on university and student funding signifies a massive step towards embedding capitalist free-market consumerist values and practices into UK higher education. This paper critically examines that paradigm shift away from public sector provision from the perspective of French Theory,…

In this article, we examine the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) as an example of a unique node within larger policy networks composed of new policy entrepreneurs (e.g., venture philanthropists, think tanks, private "edubusinesses" and their lobbyists, advocacy organizations, and social entrepreneurs). These new policy…

This paper traces developments across Stephen J. Ball's policy sociology in education "oeuvre" and considers their implications for doing research on education policy today. It begins with an account of his policy sociology trilogy from the 1990s, which outlined his conception of the policy cycle consisting of the contexts of influence,…

Studying community engagement provides another lens for examining how neoliberal universities collaborate with external organizations to move closer to the market, often in the hope of promoting the public good. This study examined the tension between the public and private aspects of university-community partnerships by studying the impact of…

Since the election of the Campbell government in 2001, teachers have experienced heightened conflict with the provincial government. An analysis of the discourse and power relations between the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and government reveals a neo-liberal agenda on the part of government and anti-neo-liberalism on the part of the BCTF.…

This paper addresses the educational implications of the geopolitical changes arising from the associated processes of globalisation and regionalisation for the small island states of the South Pacific. As an educationist whose research field combines analysis of the New Zealand educational reforms undertaken over the last decade within a wider…