University of Malta. Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Educational Research
Abstract
Educational reform is shaped by the ideas and actions of national
actors but also by global (ideological, political, and economic) dynamics. This
paper offers an analysis of the global discourses (words and practices) that helped
to place notions of student-centred and active-learning pedagogies on the
international education reform agenda, particularly since 1990. Additionally, the
paper examines how these discourses interacted with educational reform
initiatives in Egypt that were undertaken by Egyptian officials and educators,
at times with project support from international intergovernmental and
nongovernmental organisations. The paper concludes that comparative and
international educators need to interrogate the variety of educational discourses
operating at both the local/national and global levels, to examine the complex
interactions that occur within and across these levels, and to analyse how such
discourses are constrained or enabled by global political and economic
developments, including the ideologies and practices of ‘democratisation’ and
multinational corporate capitalism.peer-reviewe