Purpose: To assess the extent to which privatised extension service, which is premised to be demand-driven, delivers downward accountability to smallholder farmers who are both owners and users of agricultural services. Design/methodology/approach: The research collected data through focus group discussions with smallholder tea farmers and key…

This study discusses the impact of neoliberalism on legal education in England and Wales and the challenges and opportunities it presents. Neoliberalism is characterised by a focus on economic efficiency, competition, and individual responsibility, which can result in the commodification of education. The adoption of neoliberal policies in legal…

As the privatisation of the public sector has grown rapidly in Sweden in the last decade, private companies have become an imperative part of education. Private companies sell and deliver consultancy, hardware, software, services, etc. to schools and municipalities. This study examines a growing rate of activities from companies and businesses…

In 2015, the United Nations (UN) declared 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets to be achieved by 2030, but the COVID-19 pandemic has stalled the world's progress in pursuing them. This article explores how the pandemic has impacted the public health and education sectors of the world's poorest 46 countries, identified by the UN…

External and standardized assessments based on student results are a contested education policy among school actors. Movements of opposition have emerged in different countries, especially in those contexts with high-stakes accountability systems. However, this phenomenon has not been analyzed in soft accountability systems. The objective of this…

The paper explores the policy logics of privatisation through service provision for students with English as an Additional language or dialect (EAL/D) in the state education system of Queensland, Australia. In the context of EAL/D, specifically targeted policy has been subsumed by a broader umbrella or meta-policy of inclusion, whilst at the same…

Privatization of education has become a prevalent global trend, representing a significant shift from viewing education as a public good to considering it as a private commodity. This transformation is closely tied to the modernization of the state under the principles of neoliberalism. A comprehensive analysis, as presented in this book using…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to systematically analyze the neoliberal challenges and problems facing public schools in the particular Hong Kong context. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a systematic and critical analysis on the history and socio-political context of Hong Kong's school policies and practice as well as the official…

This paper explores perceptions of work intensification around the world. Underpinning this analysis is C. Wright Mills' (1959) argument that many personal troubles are public issues, and the notion that a significant dimension of the privatisation of public education, a concern of public education advocates worldwide, is the ways in which school…

In 2018, the Network for Public Education and the Schott Foundation issued a report entitled "Grading the States." That report examined America's commitment to democracy by grading each state and the District of Columbia on the number of publicly-funded but privately-governed educational "choice" programs it had and whether…

Global trends inspired by neo-liberal tendencies have influenced developments in the Swedish school system. A flurry of educational reforms over the last decades have rapidly transformed the municipal school arena into a market in which independent, for-profit schools have expanded and school segregation has increased. This article examines…

Following recent analysis by "We The Educators", a joint project of the Alberta Teachers' Association, the Canadian Teachers' Federation and Education International, the global proliferation of education technologies is inseparable from "the privatisation and standardization of education occurring around the world" (We The…

This chapter is dealing with transitions in the governing of schooling in Sweden. Referring to uses of different dominating governing models, four periods were identified since the WW2, first a centralizing reformation period (1950-1980), followed by decentralizing realization period (1980-1990), and then a deregulating restructuration period…

Over the last decades privatization policies have taken centre stage in many processes of educational reform globally. In Latin America, these policies have played an important role since the 1990s leading to an increasing participation of private agents in educational provision. The case of Uruguay stands out for having remained somehow apart…

This report examines the nation's commitment to democracy by assessing the privatization programs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia with the goal of not only highlighting the benefits of a public school education, but comparing the accountability, transparency and civil rights protections offered students in the public school setting…