Global managerial education: Reforms and teachers - Emerging policies, controversies and issues in developing contexts

This publication, which has resulted from a collaboration between the Education International Research Institute and the University of Amsterdam’s IS Academie, reveals a global trend of educational policy borrowing. Based on empirical evidence, the case studies presented in this book analyse how education reform agendas are shaped and implemented, and why “cherry-picked” policy ideas from other contexts are often adopted despite inconclusive evidence as to their positive impact on learning outcomes.

The importance of this publication lies in highlighting how and why teachers have become the focus of global managerial and accountability reforms. While the majority of reforms addressed in this book entail policies that target teachers’ work, teachers are rarely included in policy debates and development. Moreover, the implementation process of reforms often does not sufficiently take into account the local context in which they should be embedded, which unsurprisingly may give rise to apprehension or even resistance from teachers. Furthermore, managerial reforms require teachers to take on additional responsibilities, but at the same time undermine their professionalism and autonomy. The case studies in this book make a strong case for teachers as agents, rather than subjects, of educational change.