Search results

The global expansion of primary and secondary education is accompanied by globalization of stigma of a type that did not exist before in the areas reached by the modern, rational, and secular education during the past decades. International organizations and national governments have established the number of years, age, grade conditions, and the level of knowledge that should be acquired for each stage. Often, children are classified in dichotomous categories such as enrolled–non-enrolled, completed–not completed, successful–not successful, wastage–not wastage, and so forth. As a result of this, children who leave primary school before they have finished the stipulated grades/number of years run the risk to be defined as “not fully competent” culturally and economically, not only from the “modern” perspective but from the “traditional” perspective and to be labeled and stigmatized. With the massive expansion of primary and secondary education, the number of “failing” students is increasing, especially in very academically oriented and selective education systems such as that in Senegal.

The role of policy in the development of education is crucial. So much rests on the decisions, support, and most of all resources that policymakers either give or withhold in any given situation. This volume of International Perspectives on Education and Society highlights the valuable role that educational policy plays in the development of education and society around the world.

David P. Baker is Professor of Education and Sociology at The Pennsylvania State University. He studies the role of education in the social construction of modern society. He publishes widely on the comparative and historical analysis of schooling and higher education. He frequently assists in the planning of large cross-national studies of academic achievement for multi-national agencies and individual national governments.