INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF EDUCATION最新文献

This article investigates the impact of illegal fishing on sustainable fisheries, and its implications for youth unemployment, in Uganda. The qualitative study drew on the knowledge, attitudes, practices and experiences of young fishers regarding their role as active citizens in sustainable fishing. It also explored youth entrepreneurship through lifelong learning as a potential solution to the challenges involved. Data were collected using participatory action research. Interviews were conducted with thirteen young fishers (aged 22–35) from Kigungu fishing ground on Lake Victoria, four of their spouses (some of whom were fish smokers), and two fishers from Gaba fishing ground (as a comparison). A focus group discussion was also held with five local leaders of Kigungu fishing ground. The authors used a social constructivist theoretical framework to help them understand the perspectives of young fishers and consider potential solutions and opportunities for lifelong learning. Their findings highlight manipulative employment terms and expensive legal fishing methods as significant barriers to sustainable fishing. Furthermore, fishers expressed uncertainty about starting their alternative enterprises, compounded by a sense of hopelessness and a lack of social capital, as victims of a worldwide problem they are being punished for but cannot solve on their own. There is a need to engage young fishers in discussions surrounding alternative livelihoods and collective solutions.

In 2015, the governments of United Nations Member States agreed on an ambitious agenda for people, planet and prosperity. Support for the unprecedentedly ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda was obtained, however, on the condition that there would not be any accompanying enforcement or accountability mechanisms. The non-binding nature of the SDGs is characteristic of the process of “governance through goals”, with governments enjoying a large degree of freedom in their implementation. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and its impact on national education systems, political consensus has emerged that education must be an urgent policy priority, evidenced by multiple global initiatives to accelerate progress towards achieving the targets of SDG 4 on Quality Education. Drawing on the emerging literature on governance through goals, as well as relevant policy documents, the author examines two specific global initiatives aimed at making headway through increased Member State engagement; namely, the reform of the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism (GCM) and the Transforming Education Summit (TES). Discussing the role of governments in global education governance, this article examines whether such initiatives signal a new approach to implementation and accountability in relation to SDG 4 – and thus to the global governance of education. The findings have important implications for the remaining SDG period until 2030, and demonstrate the critical need for increased accountability as well as mechanisms to assess the implications of different policy measures, evaluate funding arrangements, and interrogate the roles of different actors in education.

Voluntary national reviews (VNRs) are an important component of the follow-up and review process for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Presented by countries at the annual United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), VNRs detail a country’s self-reported progress to peers. This voluntary process has been criticised for its weak accountability. Global governance literature, however, points to an increase in these “soft” governance mechanisms as well as the potential strategic benefits of this approach. Using a mix of logistic regression and document analysis, this study examined VNRs as a soft governance tool and a reflection of the governance mechanism of the SDGs. The authors examined the scope and content of VNR submissions from 2016 to 2022, with a deeper review of 2022, which focused on the global goal for education (SDG 4). Three types of soft governance – governing by goal-setting, by numbers and by morality – were used as lenses to make sense of the results. The authors’ findings demonstrate the ability of soft governance tools to bring together diverse actors around a broad set of goals, and how the power of numbers can influence which indicators countries report on in their VNR.

This article provides an overview of the evolving agenda surrounding the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4), dedicated to education. The authors examine the transformation of its guiding principles via the introduction of new priorities, benchmarks and modes of governance. Drawing on theoretical and methodological insights from political sociology of global education, and employing a combination of ethnographic methods, they highlight key moments which illustrate the dynamic nature of global coordination efforts for SDG 4. The article examines the reform process of the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism (GCM), alongside the adoption of a renewed thematic agenda, ranging from the Global Education Meetings in 2020 and 2021 to the Transforming Education Summit in 2022. Their findings underscore the predominant influence of multilateral agencies and donors over Member States, driven by a preference for a multistakeholder approach and a pragmatic vision of education. Key trends identified include a focus on basic learning, digital literacy and education financing, highlighting the current trajectory of global education governance.

This study interrogates how one of the least-studied regional intergovernmental organisations, the African Union (AU), operationalises or recontextualises the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the process of developing its post-2015 education and development strategies. Employing critical discourse analysis and drawing on multidisciplinary theories, the author examines the emergence of the SDGs in Africa and the strategies used to make them hegemonic. The analysis indicates that the AU positions itself as an emerging education policy “node” negotiating between global development discourses and African needs and challenges. The strategies that the AU uses highlight potential issues in global governance. On the one hand, the AU positions itself as a victim of the unfair power relationships in global governance, by which international organisations and powerful economies maintain their institutional, structural and productive dominance. This seems to keep the AU “at bay” when it comes to decision-making at the global level. The AU consequently vows to become more critical and assertive, and to forge inclusive and fair relationships with its global partners. On the other hand, post-2015 African development strategies seem to benefit from global norms and make repeated references to scientific knowledge, expert ideas and best practices from the Western world. Overall, then, in order to carry out its role as a continental policy node vis-à-vis global expectations, the AU employs two apparently conflicting strategies: adoption and adaptation. These interpretations of the SDGs add more salience to both consensus and conflict-driven theories of global governance.

The purpose of this study was to describe educational initiatives that use hip-hop culture as a means of socio-educational action. To this end, the authors carried out a systematic review of relevant articles published over the last 10 years in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and written in English, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. After applying inclusion/exclusion criteria, 68 articles were analysed. This analysis revealed how most of the reported experiences refer to formal secondary education. Although a third of these experiences are linked to critical pedagogies, these were not derived from the critical use of hip-hop – which was largely instrumental. But by means of a thematic content analysis, the authors identify the main strengths and limitations of hip-hop culture as an educational medium. Among the strengths they highlight are its potential to build culturally relevant educational contexts for students traditionally excluded from the academic curriculum, its fostering of students’ political and social participation, and its facility to promote critical thinking. Among the challenges encountered in using hip-hop culture in educational spaces are some educators and families’ perceptions of hip-hop as anti-educational, the imposition by educators of a vision of hip-hop that is not shared by young people, and the lack of systematisation of experiences that can provide guidance on how to carry out this type of initiative.

The authoritative ideas of what education should be like under the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) are constructed through discourse among key actors of the “international education community” at large. This article presents the evolution of international education discourse, comparing the periods before and after September 2015. The analysis is presented in two parts. The first part discusses the period before the adoption of SDGs in 2015, during which the agenda was formulated through discourse. The author identifies themes such as cognitive and noncognitive skills, learning outcomes, measurement and indicators. Actors shaping the discourse included mission-driven civil society organisations (CSOs), constituency-based CSOs, technical specialist groups, UN Member States and philanthropic organisations. The second part is based on a large sample text mining using 832 web-downloaded texts published between 2015 and 2022. The list of key themes largely mirrors those identified in the first part, although the relative weight among them has changed over time. The emphasis has shifted from global, structural topics to more local, specific ones, with increased attention on individual learners and their skills and knowledge. It suggests the uprooted nature of global governance, particularly at the time of SDG adoption. The fact that the term “SDGs” has permeated to the household level reflects widening participation in the global discourse on education. The author observes two contrasting perspectives: one discusses education’s contributions to noneducational goals, such as employment, economic growth, achieving sustainability or guaranteeing basic human rights; while another represents traditional educationalism, which tends to equate schooling with the traditional classifications of primary, secondary and higher education.