Politics of Educational Innovations in Developing Countries : An Analysis of Knowledge and Power

by Stromquist, Nelly P.; Basile, Michael L.; Stromquist, Nelly P.; Basile, Michael L.

• ISBN13: 9780203904053
• ISBN10: 0203904052
• Copyright: 2000-08-03
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Summary

In the educational arena, new ideas often compete as solutions to recurrent problems, making the concept of "innovations" a widespread discursive term. While expectations are substantial for each innovation, implementation of ideas has shown them to be more modest in practice. This book examines innovations in several developing countries, presenting case studies of technological, curricular, and organizational innovations selected for their magnitude in financial investment, scope, and duration. The case studies explore the social and political contexts that shaped the features of these innovations and what they accomplished over time in terms of teacher cost reduction, status mobility, access to education, and national unity. The experience of countries such as Brazil, Lesotho, the Philippines, and Namibia, and the influence of international agencies such as the World Bank are described and analyzed against theories of social and organizational change. The case studies themselves also serve as subjects for reflection on the prevailing positivist approaches to research and knowledge. The Politics of Educational Innovations should be of considerable interest to students of educational change, wither in the academic world or in the fields of government and international cooperation.

Table of Contents

Preface

Conceptual and Empirical Issues in Educational Innovations

Pedagogical Innovations

Knowledge and Curriculum: The Transformative Politics of the Interdisciplinary Project

Improving the Quality of Basic Education? The Strategies of the World Bank Strategies

Power, Culture, and Transformation: Educational Reform in Namibia

Technological Innovations

The Impact of Impact: A Study of the Dissemination of an Educational Innovation in Six Countries

The Adoption of the National System of Telesecondary in Mexico

Training Teachers at a Distance: The Case of Logos II in Brazil

Education for Development in a Context of Dependency: An Historical Review of Innovations at the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre

Reflections on Innovations

Innovations and Research: Issues of Knowledge and Power

Contributors

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