Outline

In the aftermath of the Cold War, Northern and Southern countries have increasingly privatised their education systems. There are different pathways to the privatisation of education, yet common to many of them is the notion of crisis. In this topic we review the relationship between education privatisation, conflict and crisis around the world.

This topic looks at the following questions:

In what ways does ‘privatisation through disaster’ occur?
Which actors are central to efforts to privatise education?
What motivates the struggles to prevent privatisation?

Lectures

Dr Antoni Verger and Dr Clara Fontdevila, from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, discuss the ways in which the privatisation of education occurs through disaster and crisis.

Dr Nimi Hoffmann, from the University of Sussex, considers the privatisation of education in contexts of crisis across the globe through a comparison of two case studies - the privatisation of education in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, and the outsourcing of public education in post-war Liberia.

Open access publications

Along the Path of Emergency: Privatization by Way of Catastrophe
Citation: Verger, A., Fontdevila, C., & Zancajo, A. (2016). In The Privatization of Education: A Political Economy of Global Education Reform. New York: Teachers’ College Press, Columbia University.

Reflection and discussion

Further suggested reading

Cameron, Ewan. 2019. The Sweeping Incrementalism of Partnership Schools For Liberia. Journal of Education Policy, October, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680939.2019.1670866.

Cole, Teju. 2012. “The White-Savior Industrial Complex.” The Atlantic, March 21, 2012. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843/.

Klees, Steven J. 2018. “Liberia’s Experiment with Privatising Education: A Critical Analysis of the RCT Study.” Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education 48 (3): 471–82.https://doi.org/10.1080/03057925.2018.1447061.

Offutt-Chaney, M. 2022. ‘Black crisis’ and the ‘likely’privatization of public education in New Orleans and Liberia. Critical Studies in Education, 63(2), 180-195.

Pailey, Robtel Neajai. 2018. “When Foreign ‘do-Gooders’ Do More Harm than Good in Liberia.” Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/foreign-gooders-harm-good-liberia-181014075252621.html.

Riep, Curtis B. 2017. “Making Markets for Low-Cost Schooling: The Devices and Investments behind Bridge International Academies.” Globalisation, Societies and Education 15 (3): 352–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2017.1330139.

Romero, Mauricio, and Justin Sandefur. 2019. “Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: Beyond Short-Term Learning Gains: The Impact of Outsourcing Schools in Liberia after Three Years.” CGD Working Paper 521. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development. https://www.cgdev.org/publication/beyond-short-term-learning-gains-impact-outsourcing-schools-liberia-after-three-years

Romero, Mauricio, Justin Sandefur, and Wayne Aaron Sandholtz. 2017. “Can Outsourcing Improve Liberia’s Schools? Preliminary Results from Year One of a Three-Year Randomized Evaluation of Partnership Schools for Liberia.” CGD Working Paper 462. Washington, DC: Center for Global Development. https://www.cgdev.org/publication/partnership-schools-for-liberia

Tessitore, Matthew. 2019. “Bridge International Academies: A Critical Analysis of the Privatization of Public Education in Africa.” Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 41 (3): 193–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2019.1694359.

Warah, Rasna. 2018. “White Saviours, Black Predators: What an NGO Tragedy Tells Us about Foreign Aid.” The Elephant, November 4, 2018. https://www.theeastafricanreview.info/op-eds/2018/11/04/white-saviours-black-predators-what-an-ngo-tragedy-tells-us-about-foreign-aid/.

Young, Finlay. 2018. “Unprotected.” ProPublica, October 11, 2018. https://features.propublica.org/liberia/unprotected-more-than-me-katie-meyler-liberia-sexual-exploitation/.