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What's in a Wave? The Content of Neoliberal Education Reforms, 1970–2018

Lisa Overbey (Stanford University, USA)

Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022

ISBN: 978-1-83753-739-6, eISBN: 978-1-83753-738-9

Publication date: 14 December 2023

Abstract

This chapter presents empirical results of an analysis of the content of education reform globally in nine policy areas during the recent wave of neoliberal reforms between 1970 and 2018. It draws on data from the World Education Reform Database (WERD), the most comprehensive database to date of education reforms around the world. The results show a dramatic increase in policy reform discourse on improving educational quality compared to reforms in other policy areas between 1970 and 2018, with the pace accelerating from 1990 onwards. Expanding access to education remains an important priority. Access reform discourse slightly increases during the peak period of education reform from 1992 to 2009, before leveling off. The results also show a significant rise of reforms in policy areas related to accountability discourse. Overall, the descriptive trends presented in this chapter complement case study literature on neoliberal education reform and suggests directions further cross-national research.

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Stanford School of Education Dissertation Improvement Grant and a research grant from the Stanford Center for Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS).

The WERD project, the source of data for this chapter, was supported with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Jackman Humanities Institute at the University of Toronto, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, and at Stanford University the Institute for Research in the Social Sciences, the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and the Graduate School of Education. I would like to thank all the research assistants who helped on the WERD data collection project at the University of Toronto and Stanford University, as well as audiences in Stanford’s Comparative Sociology Workshop; Stanford’s PACS Workshop, and meetings of the Comparative and International Education Society in 2019, 2020, and 2021.

Citation

Overbey, L. (2023), "What's in a Wave? The Content of Neoliberal Education Reforms, 1970–2018", Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2022 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 46A), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 91-105. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-36792023000046A007

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited