ERIC Number: ED672306
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2023-Mar
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
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Available Date: 0000-00-00
Democracy and the Politicization of Education. EdWorkingPaper No. 23-751
Agustina S. Paglayan; Anja Neundorf; Wooseok Kim
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
Challenging the conventional wisdom that the spread of democracy was a leading driver of the expansion of primary schooling, recent studies show that democratization in fact did not lead to an average increase in primary school enrollment rates. One reason for this null effect is that there was already considerable provision of primary education before democratization. Still, it is possible that the spread of democracy did impact other aspects of education systems, such as the content of education and the extent to which teaching jobs are politicized. Studying this possibility cross-nationally has been infeasible due to data limitations. To address this gap, we take advantage of an original dataset covering 160 countries from 1945 to 2021 that contains information about these aspects of education. We document that transitions to democracy tend to be preceded by a decline in the politicization of both education content and teaching jobs. However, soon after democratization occurs, this decline usually halts. Counterfactual estimates suggest that democratization roughly halves the degree to which teacher hiring and firing decisions are politicized, but has a smaller impact on the content of education. The empirical patterns that we uncover have important implications for future research.
Descriptors: Democracy, Politics of Education, Elementary Education, Access to Education, Teaching (Occupation), Political Attitudes, Comparative Education, Educational History, Teacher Selection, Teacher Dismissal, Decision Making, Enrollment Trends, Elementary School Curriculum, Elementary School Teachers, Foreign Countries
Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. Brown University Box 1985, Providence, RI 02912. Tel: 401-863-7990; Fax: 401-863-1290; e-mail: annenberg@brown.edu; Web site: https://annenberg.brown.edu/
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
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Language: English
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Authoring Institution: Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University
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Author Affiliations: N/A