The Trajectory of Global Education Policy: Community-Based Management in El Salvador and the Global Reform Agenda

318 Pages·2018·5.7 MB·English

by  D. Brent Edwards Jr. (auth.)

INTERNATIONAL & DEVELOPMENT EDUCATION
The Trajectory
of Global
Education Policy
Community-Based Management
in El Salvador and the
Global Reform Agenda
D. Brent Edwards Jr.
International and Development Education
Series Editors
W. James Jacob
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
John N Hawkins
Education Program, East West Center
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
The International and Development Education series focuses on the
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cation. Books emphasize a number of topics ranging from key international
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a great deal of latitude based on interests and cutting edge research.
INTERNATIONAL EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Clementina
Acedo, Webster University, Switzerland Philip G.  Altbach, Boston
University, USA Carlos E. Blanco, Universidad Central de Venezuela
Oswell C. Chakulimba, University of Zambia Sheng Yao Cheng, National
Chung Cheng University, Taiwan Ruth Hayhoe, University of Toronto,
Canada Yuto Kitamura, Tokyo University, Japan Wanhua Ma, Peking
University, China Ka Ho Mok, Hong Kong Institute of Education, China
Christine Musselin, Sciences Po, France Yusuf K. Nsubuga, Ministry of
Education and Sports, Uganda Namgi Park, Gwangju National University
of Education, Republic of Korea Val D. Rust, University of California, Los
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C.  Weidman, University of Pittsburgh, USA Husam Zaman, Taibah
University, Saudi Arabia
More information about this series at
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D. Brent Edwards Jr.
The Trajectory of
Global Education
Policy
Community-Based Management in El Salvador
and the Global Reform Agenda
D. Brent Edwards Jr.
Department of Educational Foundations
University of Hawaii
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
International and Development Education
ISBN 978-1-137-50874-4 ISBN 978-1-137-50875-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50875-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017953883
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To those in El Salvador and around the world who dedicate their
efforts to working toward more equitable, democratic,
and inclusive societies.
P
reface
The Education with Community Participation (EDUCO) program began
in El Salvador in early 1991, near the end of the twelve-year civil war. It
not only represented an extreme form of decentralization in that it trans-
ferred the responsibility for hiring, firing, and supervising teachers to rural
communities, but it was also the first reform of its kind in Latin America.
During the ensuing 20 years, the program has received tremendous atten-
tion. Indeed, within the country it became the central program through
which the education sector was rebuilt and expanded in the postwar era of
the 1990s and 2000s. Internationally, the program has been widely recog-
nized as a successful and desirable example of community-level education
management decentralization. In fact, the program has become a “global
education policy” in that it has been and continues to be highlighted,
cited, promoted, and adapted around the world.
To date, however, the majority of research on this program has been
ahistorical in nature and has focused narrowly on whether the program
“worked”— statistically speaking and with regard to such outcomes as
student achievement. In contrast, in this book, I analyze the dynamics of
how the policy was developed. I shed new light on the trajectory of the
EDUCO program by employing the approach of critical international
political economy and by combining this approach with an analytic frame-
work centered on mechanisms and pathways of transnational influence. By
utilizing these theoretical and conceptual tools, I am able to reveal how
the program was developed, scaled up, and internationally promoted.
More specifically, I am able to highlight the relevant political-economic
structures that impinged on education reform, as well as the various
vii
viii PREFACE
mechanisms and pathways of transnational influence that contributed to
its advancement within and beyond El Salvador. As explained, interna-
tional organizations were central to the policy development process in a
number of ways.
Methodologically, I focus not only on the process of development
itself, but also on the ways in which actors and forces from multiple levels
(local, national, international) interact and intersect in that process.
Theoretically, by choosing to analyze EDUCO’s origins, I attempt to con-
tribute to our understanding of how (i.e., through which mechanisms of
transnational influence) and why certain policies come into existence and
subsequently go global. That is, the book seeks to go beyond a presenta-
tion of findings on EDUCO and to contribute as well to (a) how we
understand and investigate the phenomenon of global education; (b) the
potential and pitfalls of community-based management; (c) the meaning
of the current phase of community-based management in the history of
decentralization trends; (d) the role of research in the politics and promo-
tion of global education policies; and (e) the possibilities that exist for
combating the emergence, circulation, and implementation of neoliberal
education policies globally.
a
cknowledgments
Any contribution this book might make is the result of the significant support
I received along the way. Indeed, as a project that began in 2009, I have
learned and benefited from the guidance, generosity, and encouragement of
numerous individuals and organizations. To be sure, the EDUCO project
would not have been possible without my former doctoral advisor, Steve
Klees. Sincere thanks go to you for shepherding me through the manuscript’s
first incarnation, as a doctoral dissertation. I couldn’t have asked for a more
fitting advisor—critical, responsive, flexible, and always calm. The International
Education Policy program at the University at Maryland provided an excel-
lent space for this project to evolve. The other members of my doctoral com-
mittee—Mark Ginsburg, Nelly Stromquist, Linda Valli, and Antoni
Verger—likewise provided inspiration, both personally and through their aca-
demic work. A special shout-out goes to Antoni Verger, Hulya Kosar-
Altinyelken, and Mieke Lopes Cardozo for hosting me and welcoming me as
a Visiting Scholar during the 2010–2011 academic year at the University of
Amsterdam’s Institute for Social Science Research, when this project was in
its early stages of evolution. Paula Beckman and Frances Vavrus were also
early supporters of this project to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. In particu-
lar, Paula Beckman is responsible for first introducing me to El Salvador.
Without that first trip in January of 2009, it is unlikely that I would have gone
down the rabbit hole that is EDUCO. Thank you for bringing this program
to my attention.
To Cristina Starr, Pauline Martin, and Julián Antonio Victoria
Libreros, thank you for making my time in El Salvador not just enjoyable
but memorable. It’s the people you meet along the way that make all the
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
difference. Each of you continues to inspire me in different ways. Your
examples stay with me.
To Mauricio Trejo, thank you for making me feel welcome at the
Universidad Centroamericana. Your support was instrumental in securing
the Fulbright to come to El Salvador for data collection.
As is usually the case, data collection was only possible because of the
help of a great number of people. In addition to the informants and inter-
viewees, I owe a debt to Eduardo Salvador Cárcamo, without whom
I never would have gained access to the invaluable trove of documents at
the Escuela Superior de Maestros. I would likewise be remiss if I didn’t
thank Evelyn Ávalos, who transcribed no fewer than 45 of my interviews.
Your consistency and diligence were much appreciated.
Financially, this dissertation would not have been possible without sig-
nificant support from Fulbright, the Rotary Foundation, the Golden Key
International Honour Society, and two fellowships from the University of
Maryland—the Anne G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship and the Dr. James
W. Longest Memorial Award for doctoral research in the social sciences
with potential benefits for disadvantaged communities.
Finally, above all, this book and all the work on which it is based could
not have come to fruition with the incredible support that I received from
my partner, Sachi Edwards, and from my immediate family. I am incredi-
bly privileged to have grown up in Montgomery County, Maryland, to
have benefited from the public education system there, and to have learned
from the examples set by my parents. The challenge now is to remain
aware of that privilege and to continue to use it for the benefit of others.
This book represents one effort in that ongoing challenge.