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Public education is critically important to the human capital, social well-being, and economic prosperity of nations. It is also an intensely political realm of public policy that is heavily shaped by power and special interests. Yet political scientists rarely study education, and education researchers rarely study politics. This volume attempts to change that by promoting the development of a coherent, thriving field on the comparative politics of education. As an opening wedge, the authors carry out an 11-nation comparative study of the political role of teachers unions, showing that as education systems everywhere became institutionalized, teachers unions pursued their interests by becoming well-organized, politically active, highly influential - and during the modern era, the main opponents of neoliberal reform. Across diverse nations, the commonalities are striking. The challenge going forward is to expand on this study's scope, theory, and evidence to bring education into the heart of comparative politics.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Teachers unions in the United States: the politics of blocking Terry Moe; 3. Teachers unions in England: the end is nigh? Susanne Wiborg; 4. Teachers unions in France: making fundamental reform an impossible quest? Michael Dobbins; 5. Teachers unions in Germany: fragmented competitors Rita Nikolai, Kendra Briken and Dennis Niemann; 6. Teachers unions in the Nordic countries: solidarity and the politics of self interest Susanne Wiborg; 7. Teachers unions in Japan: the frustration of permanent opposition Robert Aspinall; 8. Teachers unions in Mexico: the politics of patronage Christopher Chambers-Ju and Leslie Finger; 9. Teachers unions in India: diverse, powerful, and coercive Tara Beteille, Geeta Gandhi Kingdon and Mohd Muzammil; 10. The comparative politics of education: teachers unions and education systems across the world Terry Moe.
About the author
Terry M. Moe is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, California and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He has written extensively on the presidency, public bureaucracy, and the American political system, as well as the theory of political institutions more generally. He has also written extensively on the politics of education and the role of power and special interests in shaping education systems. His books include Relic (2016, with William Howell), Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools (2011), and Politics, Markets, and America's Schools (1990, with John Chubb).Susanne Wiborg is Reader in Education at University College London Institute of Education, member of the Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), and leader of the MA programme in Comparative Education at University College London. She has published widely on comparative history of education, focusing particularly on the policy and politics in secondary education in Scandinavia and Europe. She is the author of Education and Social Integration: Comprehensive Schooling in Europe (2009).
Summary
This book speaks to political scientists, economists, sociologists and education researchers about the politics of education across nations, focusing on the power of teachers unions and their consequences for education reform. Policymakers will find it valuable for the enlightening new evidence it reveals about education and its politics worldwide.
