MSc SOAS/PhD UCL: A POLITICAL ECONOMY ANALYSIS OF THE ORIGINS AND EFFECTS OF THE RISE OF PRIVATE LOW FEE SCHOOLS IN EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

1+3：伦敦大学法学院硕士和硕士/博士这项研究将对当前促进和加强私营部门在发展中国家教育中作用的援助政策进行批判性评估，例如与英国国际发展部(DFID)、联合国(UN)机构、世界银行和全球教育伙伴关系(GPE)相关的政策。这将考虑到制定政策的政治、经济和社会文化背景，并采用性别视角来考虑如何理解和普遍评估私有化的影响。这项研究将明确地涉及一系列不同的研究领域。它将促进跨教育、性别研究和政治经济学的跨学科方法，这将受益于从业者的视角。后者将是与发展政策领域的一个关键实践者--行动援助组织合作的结果。拟议的研究项目旨在进一步支持对私有化的起源和影响的调查，特别是在女童教育和性别平等方面，并根据可持续发展目标，围绕扩大免费公共教育的可持续筹资提供积极的解决办法。通过在评估发展中国家增加推广低收费私立学校的起源和影响时采用性别视角，目前的研究将利用和促进关于教育现实中性别层面的丰富文献(Monkman和Hoffman，2013；Monkman和Webster，2015；Unterhalter，2016)。这将更广泛地植根于对必要性和利益的政治经济学分析，这些分析支撑着援助和发展模式的变化，包括对教育的影响。最主要的研究问题是：1.自2010年以来，私营部门行为者在全球教育和性别政策中的作用和影响是如何出现和演变的？2.这对纠正撒哈拉以南非洲的不平等，包括性别不平等有何影响？3.私人行为者在教育中作用的增加，对公共资助的包含性别平等的教育体系的前景有何影响？研究方法研究的第一部分将通过文献分析和半结构化访谈揭示私营部门的代表如何以及何时开始在性别和女童教育方面的全球政策制定中发挥作用，并将对所采用的证据形式进行批判性评估。第二类调查将把女童教育工作的特殊历史放在分析与阐明和执行援助政策有关的必要性和利益的范围内，并特别侧重于国际金融机构(如世界银行)。这包括对世行作为知识银行和包括教育政策在内的发展领域领导者的作用进行批判性评估。第三部分将侧重于在发展中国家推广低学费私立学校的一套具体倡议的成果。这将需要审查一系列人口数据、国民账户、行政数据，这些数据勾勒出了提供服务的一些关键的性别层面。这还包括在博士课程第二年在尼日利亚和肯尼亚或乌干达(未经确认)进行为期3-6个月的海外实地考察。

1+3: MSc SOAS & MPhil/PHD at UCLThe research will critically assess current aid policies that promote and strengthen the role of the private sector in education in developing countries, such as those associated with the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations (UN) agencies, the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). This will take into consideration the political, economic and socio-cultural context within which policies are formed as well as deploy a gender lens to consider ways in which effects of privatisation can be understood and are commonly evaluated. The study will engage explicitly across a set of different terrains of research. It will foster an interdisciplinary approach across education, gender studies and political economy that will benefit from practitioner perspective. The latter will result from collaboration with Action Aid, a key practitioner in the field of development policy. The proposed research project is intended to further support an investigation into the origins and effects of privatisation, particularly with regard to girls' education and gender equality, with related work offering positive solutions around expanding the sustainable financing of free public education, in line with SDG targets. Through the deployment of a gender lens in the appraisal of both the origins and the impact of the increased promotion of low fee private schools across developing countries, the current research will then draw on and contribute to a rich literature on gender dimensions of education realities (Monkman and Hoffman, 2013; Monkman and Webster, 2015; Unterhalter, 2016). This will be anchored more broadly in political-economy analysis of imperatives and interests that underpin changes in aid and development paradigms, including bearing on education. The overarching research questions are:1. How has the role and influence of private sector actors in global education and gender policy emerged and evolved since 2010?2. What are the implications of this for redressing inequalities in Sub-Saharan Africa, including gender inequality?3. How are the prospects for a publicly funded education system that incorporates gender equality affected by the increased role of private actors in education? MethodologiesThe first strand of the research will unpack through documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews how and when representatives of the private sector came to play a role in global policy making around gender and girls' education and it will critically assess the forms of evidence that are deployed. A second strand of investigation will place the particular history of work on girls' education within an analysis of the imperatives and interests associated with the articulation and implementation of aid policy, with a specific focus on International Financial Institutions (e.g. the World Bank). This includes a critical appraisal of the Bank's role as Knowledge Bank and leader in development, including education policy. A third strand will focus on outcomes of a specific set of initiatives promoting low fee private schooling in developing countries. This will entail looking at a range of demographic data, national accounts, administrative data drawing out some key gender dimensions of provision. This also involve overseas fieldwork for a period of 3-6 months in Nigeria and Kenya or Uganda (not confirmed) during year two of the PhD programme.