Education and Social Development: Global Issues and Analyses

The role of education in the development of societies is an important life perspective that is promoted by families, institutions and governments. In today’s globalized world, this reality may presume a worldwide platform where what is termed knowledge societies could gain at the expense of the educationally less endowed. There is also the case where postcolonial systems of education in Africa, Asia, Latin America and other places did not lead to the expected social and technological progress that was promised with independence. The 17 chapters in this volume attempt to analyze these complex and interlinked contexts of education and development. The book contains important criticisms of the historical developments of education, the meanings and changing intersections of development, schooling, citizenships and their exclusions, and the important interplays of globalization, knowledge, culture and languages.
Beyond the theoretical focus, the book examines learning systems and possibilities in specific regions and countries of the world. These include Africa with a specialized focus on women’s education and advancement as well as individual country studies on Ghana, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Somalia. In the Asian context, the specific chapters analyze the training of teachers in China, and women’s education and education and the caste system in India. These are complemented by select treatments of education and social development in Chile in South America, postcolonial (post-communist) Europe, Russia, and the Caribbean region. Together, the book’s contents should selectively respond to some of the most important social and educational development ideas and debates in our world today.

ALI A. ABDI is Assistant Professor of International Development Education, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, Canada.