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Education and Development in the Global 'North' and 'South' - EDU00129M

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  • Department: Education
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Reva Yunus
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

This module offers an overview of what is at stake in contemporary policies and politics of education with an emphasis on neoliberal reforms across regions in the ‘Global North’ and ‘South’, a critical engagement with the idea of development and the Sustainable Development Goals, the involvement of international agencies like the OECD and the World Bank in shaping the global educational landscape and debates around policy borrowing.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2024-25

Module aims

This module introduces students to key debates in the field of education and development, focussing both on the ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’. It presents some key milestones and phases in the historical evolution of paradigms and practices in education, including the post-World War II global development landscape, decolonisation and nation-building in the ‘Global South’ and stratification and austerity in the ‘Global North’, leading to a critical discussion of contemporary normative frameworks for global education, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Module learning outcomes

Subject content

  1. Critically examine the relationship between education and international development.

  2. Examine different theoretical frameworks for ‘development’ and the provision of aid for education programmes, including the Sustainable Development Goals.

  3. Apply historical perspectives to develop effective comparisons between the conceptualisations of education in a diverse range of contexts.

  4. Critically assess the impact of neoliberal reforms on educational provision in a range of international contexts and how these reforms intersect with existing structural issues.

  5. Grasp the role of international political economy in shaping the discourses and practices of education, including non-formal education.

  6. Understand the concept of policy borrowing and its limitations, and critically apply the concept to specific case studies.

Academic and graduate skills

  1. Identify and use keywords to search sources and identify relevant research literature.

  2. Critically analyse and communicate theoretical frameworks and research findings.

  3. Summarise, understand and critically analyse key concepts, issues and debates from a range of theoretical reading as well as qualitative and quantitative research.

  4. Present arguments in a formal manner appropriate to the level of study.

  5. Work cooperatively and effectively in groups.

  6. Develop skills and confidence to work independently (for example, time-management); identify your strengths and weaknesses as a learner; understand how to utilise strengths and address weaknesses.

Module content

Education, development and the nation

We will consider the role education plays in various national and international blueprints for the future. In what ways is education imagined to contribute to the goals of shared prosperity, welfare and social justice? What might be the limitations of such designs? Examples will include historical perspectives on the role of state-funded education, and/or the ideas of nation-building and nationalism through education.

Stratification and austerity in education in the “Global North”

Students will be introduced to reforms introduced since the 1980s onwards in both ‘developing’ and ‘developed’ regions of the world which affected infrastructure, provision and teachers’ working conditions, while also paving the way for a new economics of testing, increasing stratification, privatisation and commercialisation of education. The role of agencies like the OECD will be discussed.

Political economy of education in the “Global South”

Beginning with a conceptual difference between ‘welfare’ for citizens of (former) imperial states and ‘development’ for citizens of (former) colonies we will discuss examples of how provision of education has been historically stratified; and how it has evolved through the end of direct colonial rule, nation-building by former colonies and neocolonialism through international organisations.

The potential and limitations of policy borrowing

We will learn about the ways policy travels from country to country and the ways it responds (or fails to respond) to local national, social, economic, historical, and cultural contexts. This will also help students think through implications of standardisation in the contemporary global context.

Critical perspectives on “development” and the SDGs

We will explore questions such as: How effective are the Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for educational development in the “Global South” and the “Global North”? In what ways might the SDGs be shaped by histories of colonialism, dominance and extractivism? In what ways are they a departure from these patterns? Students will also be encouraged to think through unevenness of ‘development’ and educational disparities within nations.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 80
Essay/coursework
Group Poster Presentation		 N/A 20

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Essay		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Individual written feedback reports, with follow-up tutor meeting, if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.

Indicative reading

Apple, M. W. (2004). Creating difference: Neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism and the politics of educational reform. Educational policy, 18(1), 12-44.

Ball, S. J. (1998). Big policies/small world: An introduction to international perspectives in education policy. Comparative education, 34(2), 119-130.

Khoja-Moolji, S. (2015). Suturing together girls and education: An investigation into the social (re) production of girls’ education as a hegemonic ideology. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 9(2), 87-107.

Klees, S. J., Samoff, J., & Stromquist, N. P. (Eds.). (2012). The World Bank and education: Critiques and alternatives (Vol. 14). Springer Science & Business Media.

Rappleye, J. (2012). ‘Reimagining Attraction and “Borrowing” in Education: Introducing a Political Production Model’. In World Yearbook of Education 2012: Policy Borrowing and Lending in Education, edited by Gita Steiner-Khamsi and Florian Waldow, 2012:121–47. World Yearbook of Education ; New York: Routledge.

Stromquist, N. P., & Monkman, K. (Eds.). (2014). Globalization and education: Integration and contestation across cultures. R&L Education.

VanderDussen Toukan, E. (2017). ‘Expressions of Liberal Justice? Examining the Aims of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals for Education’. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education 48(3): 293–309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-017-9304-3.


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.