The World Bank and Public-Private Partnerships in Education: Framing, problem representation and the construction of gender equality
Abstract: Education is commonly agreed upon as being one of the main drivers of national economic development which has led to a greater incorporation of education policies in development projects. Internationally, the World Bank is the single largest provider of expertise knowledge and financial aid to education development and as such they can play a key role in shaping policies and how problems are understood and thought of. The inclusion of private actors in the provision of education services is a frequently recommended strategy by the World Bank for developing countries to meet the demands of universal education provision. This thesis adopts a discursive approach to the World Bank’s policies on Public-Private Partnerships in Education (ePPPs) and the construction of gender equality. Frame analysis and the ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ approach is applied to investigate problem representations. The analysis reveals a discrepancy between the policy frame and the policy discourse on ePPPs and gender equality. World Bank discourses are suggested to be based on a liberal form of governance where education is given an instrumental value and the question of gender equality is left unproblematized.
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