Philanthropy in Education: Making Sense of an Emerging Field

Abstract

This chapter offers a contemporary overview of philanthropy in education as an emerging research field. Although the education sector has traditionally been a popular recipient of philanthropic investment, the scale and scope of funding and policy involvement on the part of philanthropy are growing. In addition, and potentially amplified by COVID-19, big- and in particular tech-philanthropies are emerging as increasingly influential players in national, regional, and global educational contexts. This chapter describes how most existing education research on philanthropy is mainly US- and higher education-focused which has resulted in a narrow geographic and thematic scope whereby contemporary developments remain either overlooked or under-researched. It discusses venture philanthropy inside and outside of the United States, a greater diversity of geographic perspectives, and an increasing dependence of academia on philanthropic funding as emerging research areas that bear great potential to being explored further.

Citation

Erfurth, M. and Ridge, N. (2021), "Philanthropy in Education: Making Sense of an Emerging Field", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2020 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 40), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 241-255. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920210000040014