What does educational policy-making and institutional practice entail in an era of globalization? Global interactions challenge conventional assumptions governing the certainty of geographical boundedness; simplistic notions of citizenship and identity; fixed notions of time, space and movement, and clear distinctions between economic modes of production and consumption. Irving Epstein argues that conventional educational institutions and the policies that support them tend to ignore such anxiety by affirming a belief in educational modernism to the exclusion of other possibilities. What is missing in most of these analyses is an appreciation for the role of affect in determining how our encounters with these practices become significant and how our efforts to find meaning in those policies and practices lead to their acceptance or rejection. This book is the first application of affect theory to comparative education themes and shows how it can help to form a more robust discussion of the policy-making process and the popular reactions to it. After discussing the key concepts associated with affect theory, he presents a total of six case studies. Three of the cases depict relationships between educational, cultural, and social organizations whose purposes conflict with one another but whose presence is indicative of a loss of faith in the efficacy of public schooling. Three of the cases are illustrative of an even greater systematic rejection of educational institutional aim and purpose.
I
rving Epstein is the Rhodes Professor Emeritus of Peace and Social Justice at Illinois Wesleyan University, USA. In addition to
Education, Affect, and Film, he is the author of
Affect Theory and Comparative Education Discourse (2019). His other book length publications include the edited volumes
Chinese Education: Problems, Policies and Prospects (1991
), Recapturing the Personal (2007),
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Children's Issues Worldwide (2007),
and The Whole World is Texting: Youth Protest in the Information Age (2015). From 1988-1998, he served as an associate editor of the
Comparative Education Review and is currently
an Emeritus member of the Scholars at Risk advisory board, an international network devoted to protecting scholars from persecution while engaging in academic freedom advocacy.
Daniel Friedrich is Associate Professor of Curriculum at Teachers College, Columbia University, USA. He is the author of
Democratic Education as a Curricular Problem (2014) and co-editor of a special issue of
Education Policy Analysis Archives on the global network Teach For All (with Rolf Straubhaar).
Stephen Carney is Professor of Educational Studies at Roskilde University, Denmark.
His research focuses on global educational reform and has involved ethnographic work in Denmark, England, Nepal and China. He is active in the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), especially its Special Interest Group concerned with 'Post-foundational approaches to comparative and international education'. He is also President of the Comparative Education Society in Europe (CESE).
