David B Edwards
Biographic Data
| ID | 74833 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David B Edwards |
| GIVEN NAMES | David B |
| FAMILY NAME | Edwards |
| SIGNATURE | EDWARDS D B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3955-9525 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 57 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 166 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
World Bank influence on policy implementation in education
The global education policy field
World Bank Influence on Policy Formation in Education
The World Bank has been called the most influential organization in education reform globally. Not only is it the single largest funder of education for international development, but it also produces knowledge, circulates discourse, and structures policymaking processes in ways that extend its influence far beyond its primary role as a bank. However, while much literature has been produced about the World Bank, the field of education lacks a sys…
Challenging the gold standard consensus
This paper seeks to raise awareness among educational researchers and practitioners of some significant weaknesses and internal contradictions of randomised control trials (RCTs). Although critiques throughout the years from education scholars have pointed to the detrimental effects of this experimental approach on education practice and values, RCTs are considered the gold standard for assessing the impact of education policies and interventions…
Post-colonial contexts, the state, and education reform
The central argument of this article is that post-colonial states operate-and have always operated, due to their roots in colonialism and capitalism-according to an "ethos of privatization," through which state agents derive private benefit from positions ostensibly responsible for providing public services. The article offers a framework for understanding the ethos of privatization as central to state behavior that is based on insights from lite…
Critical perspectives at the mid-point of Sustainable Development Goal 4
Hidden in plain sight
Ritual governance, rationalized bureaucracy, and ‘failure
The Onto-Epistemic Foundations of Global Governance and Global Education Policies
This theoretical article not only applies a decolonial critique to the Christian-positivist-liberal-capitalist foundations of global governance and global education policies but also suggests an alternative approach to constructing globality that respects and learns from onto-epistemic difference, rather than furthering the epistemicide of non-Western and Indigenous worldviews by forcing them to assimilate to Western modernity. This article seeks…
Low-fee private preschools as the symbol of imagined ‘modernity’? – Parental perspectives on early childhood care and education (Ecce) in an urban informal settlement in Zambia
Globalization and privatization of education in Honduras-Or the need to reconsider the dynamics and legacy of state formation
While much literature has been produced on globalization, privatization, and the State individually, it has not been common to treat them together, at least not in the field of comparative and international education. There is excellent work that has documented the ways in which globalization and privatization have influenced education reform, but extant scholarship typically has not engaged with theories of the State. In this paper, through the …
Singapore’s educational export strategies
Since the 1990s, Singapore has firmly established its reputation in the global education policy space as one of the best education systems in the world. However, existing policy transfer literature on Singapore has been mainly interested in Singapore as a decontextualised, ahistorical case, rather than as a unique player in the global education policy sphere. Analysis of how Singapore’s educational policies and lessons have been exported to other…
Low-fee private schools for early childhood care and education? Insights from Zambia in the context of economic globalisation
Privatización de la política educativa y gobernanza en red en la República Dominicana
Este artículo analiza los desarrollos recientes de política educativa en la República Dominicana prestando atención a los modos en que una serie de nuevos actores no estatales participan de los procesos de reforma educativa. A partir de entrevistas en profundidad con policymakers, representantes del gobierno, agencias de cooperación, organismos internacionales y organizaciones filantrópicas, se explora el desarrollo de nuevas formas de privatizac…
Investigating effective teaching and learning for sustainable development and global citizenship
Islas en El Mar
Este ensayo ofrece, desde una perspectiva sistémica, hallazgos sobre el funcionamiento de la reciente estrategia de descentralización educativa en El Salvador, denominada Sistema Integrado de Escuela Inclusiva de Tiempo Pleno (SI-EITP), con el objetivo de conocer el sentido de su funcionamiento y la experiencia de la participación de la comunidad educativa inmersa en sus dinâmicas. Por medio de una revisión de los documentos relacionados con el d…
The sociology of policy change within international organisations
For international organisations in the global education policy field, legitimacy is based in large part on the supposed techno-rational basis of these organisations and their ability to credibly produce knowledge and policy expertise. However, as the present article demonstrates, there are clearly a range of macro–micro organisational dynamics driving the production of knowledge and the policy ideas that are advanced. By revealing the way that a …
Community participation and empowerment in marginalised contexts
Based on research in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, this article argues that the globally popular reform of school-based management suffers from several shortcomings and is a partial, extractive, and technocratic means of engendering parental and community participation. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that it is necessary to move beyond SBM as a technocratic reform if community participation is to contribute as well to community empowerment. More …
Spatializing a global education phenomenon
Along with the dramatic expansion of private tutoring around the world, a significant body of literature has been produced to understand this phenomenon. While many studies consider the issue of geographic location, the spatial dimension tends not to be a central focus of private tutoring studies. In contrast, the present essay applies mobility theory to research from Cambodia, where private tutoring is essential to student success. It does so in…
The perfect counterinsurgent
In 2009, Major Jim Gant published a treatise online entitled One Tribe at a Time, outlining a strategy for victory in Afghanistan based on the still untested counterinsurgency doctrine developed by General David Petraeus. Gant was given the opportunity to put theory to the test by returning to the village of Mangwal in eastern Kunar Province. Evaluation of Gant’s mission has been overshadowed by the scandal that led to his resignation from the US…
Sheep to Slaughter
This essay seeks to articulate the process by which sacrifice took on new meanings, symbols, and practices in the context of the war in Afghanistan. It does so by examining five acts and the ‘axial figures’ associated with each of these acts, the first of which centers on the early efforts of Afghan political parties to change the focus of popular esteem from brave deeds to heroic deaths and the axial figure of veneration from the Warrior to the …
The suspect statistics of best practices
The present article addresses the production and global dissemination of ‘policy relevant knowledge’. It not only unpacks the methodological assumptions of a particular type of knowledge production – known as impact evaluations – but also analyses the issue of knowledge mobilisation within the political economy of the global education policy field. Having a critical understanding of impact evaluations is crucial because they are widely regarded a…
Caravan of Martyrs
What compels a person to strap a vest loaded with explosives onto his body and blow himself up in a crowded street? Scholars have answered this question by focusing on the pathology of the "terrorist mind" or the "brainwashing" practices of terrorist organizations. In Caravan of Martyrs , David Edwards argues that we need to understand the rise of suicide bombing in relation to the cultural beliefs and ritual practices associated with sacrifice. …
Shifting the perspective on community-based management of education
Los colegios en concesión de Bogotá
En el marco de agenda educativa global, las alianzas-público-privadas (como especialmente las escuelas chárter) son reformas con creciente prestigio académico y popularidad política. Supuestamente, y según sus promotores, estas reformas son consideradas una solución costo-eficiente. Existen dos aspectos de las escuelas chárter que han recibido poco interés académico: la gestión del profesorado y la adquisición de recursos. El objetivo de este art…
Learning from all? The World Bank, aid agencies and the construction of hegemony in education for development
This paper explores the nature and quality of the participation that characterises the Bank's consultations with external actors and examines the extent to which the Bank is responsive to such feedback when it comes to defining its policy preferences and strategies in the education domain. It draws on a case study of the participatory process that was organised around the definition of the last World Bank Education Strategy (WBES2020) and focuses…
The challenge of sustainability
Learning From the Swat Pathans
The conflict in Afghanistan, now two decades old, has generated considerable attention from journalists, policy analysts, and political scientists, but the literature on the conflict includes few references to the work of Fredrik Barth on political leadership among the Swat Pakhtuns of neighboring Pakistan. Here I explore the relevance of Barth's work to an analysis of the war in Afghanistan. In particular, I examine Barth's "methodological indiv…
Developing a Municipal Performance-Measurement System
Under the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin, the City of Atlanta introduced a new operating model for municipal government in early 2002. A central component of that effort has been a performance-measurement system—the "Atlanta Dashboard"—designed to assess various aspects of municipal performance and, through that assessment, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal services
Afghanistan, Ethnography, and the New World Order
Marginality and Migration
David Busby Edwards, Marginality and Migration: Cultural Dimensions of the Afghan Refugee Problem, The International Migration Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Special Issue: Refugees: Issues and Directions (Summer, 1986), pp. 313-325
Marginality and Migration
Given the duration of time that has passed since the Afghan refugee influx into Pakistan began and the absence of any immediate prospect for a political settlement which would allow the refugees to return home, it is necessary to consider what the long-term requirements of this population might be and the implications of permanent resettlement on both the refugees and the host country. For policy makers, these are urgent questions that must be co…
The Political Economy of Schooling in Cambodia
1. Introduction Chhinh Sitha, D. Brent Edwards Jr., James H. Williams, and Yuto Kitamura PART I: CONTEXT 2. The Backstory of Education in Cambodia Takayo Ogisu and James H. Williams 3. Getting to the Decision-Making Table in Educational Governance: The Emergence of Cambodian Civil Society within the 'New Global Geometry of Power' D. Brent Edwards Jr. and William C. Brehm PART II: SCHOOLS 4. Pedagogy in Cambodian Schools: A Logic that Governs Teac…
El programa Educo, las evaluaciones de impacto, y la economía política de la reforma educativa global
a en El Salvador, sino además se convirtió en una política educativa de carácter global, conocida por descentralizar, hacia las familias rurales, la responsabilidad de contratar y despedir maestros. Como se presenta en este artículo, su ascenso a la fama no fue producto únicamente del contexto político-económico en el que nació; su fama también es el resultado de las evaluaciones de impacto producidas por el Banco Mundial, que sirvieron como base…
Caravan of Martyrs
What compels a person to strap a vest loaded with explosives onto his body and blow himself up in a crowded street? Scholars have answered this question by focusing on the pathology of the "terrorist mind" or the "brainwashing" practices of terrorist organizations. In Caravan of Martyrs , David Edwards argues that we need to understand the rise of suicide bombing in relation to the cultural beliefs and ritual practices associated with sacrifice. …
Print Islam
L'A. considere le role de trois formes de media ecrits dans le developpement de l'ideologie politique radicale islamique et de l'organisation en Afghanistan. A travers l'etude des journaux, des pamphlets et des magazines, il montre la maniere dont les formes textuelles ont complete le contenu ideologique en aidant a produire un militantisme politique islamique et des partis politiques autoritaires
Summoning Muslims
Gulbuddin hekmatyar madethe above statement in a speech to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, in the early 1980s. As the leader (amīr) of Hizb-i Islami Afghanistan (the Islamic Party of Afghanistan), one of the principal Islamic parties then fighting to overthrow the Marxist regime in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar was primarily concerned in this speech with condemning the leftist leadership in Kabul and its Soviet sponsors. However, the head of the …
Mad Mullahs and Englishmen
Winston Churchill was winning money at the Goodwood Races when he heard the news that a tribal uprising had broken out on the north-west frontier of India. Within a matter of hours, the young cavalry officer, who was then on home leave from his regiment in Bangalore, booked return passage on the Indian Mail. He also sent off a telegram to an old family friend, General Sir Bindon Blood, who had been appointed to head the column that was being disp…
The global education policy field
The sociology of policy change within international organisations
For international organisations in the global education policy field, legitimacy is based in large part on the supposed techno-rational basis of these organisations and their ability to credibly produce knowledge and policy expertise. However, as the present article demonstrates, there are clearly a range of macro–micro organisational dynamics driving the production of knowledge and the policy ideas that are advanced. By revealing the way that a …
Spatializing a global education phenomenon
Along with the dramatic expansion of private tutoring around the world, a significant body of literature has been produced to understand this phenomenon. While many studies consider the issue of geographic location, the spatial dimension tends not to be a central focus of private tutoring studies. In contrast, the present essay applies mobility theory to research from Cambodia, where private tutoring is essential to student success. It does so in…
Shifting the perspective on community-based management of education
The geometry of policy implementation
The emergence of Cambodian civil society within global educational governance
This paper uses Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic approach to analyze the emergence of civil society within global educational governance. The purpose is to understand the intersection of historical structures with global actors and spaces that have accompanied the globalization of education. Based on findings from a study on the impact in Cambodia of the Civil Society Education Fund – sponsored by the Global Campaign for Education – we first ident…
Rising from the ashes
This paper explores the relationship between the emergence of global education policies and conflict-affected contexts by analysing the trajectory of community-level education decentralization within and beyond El Salvador from the 1980s, during the country's civil war, to the 2000s, by which point this approach to education governance was being widely promoted and adapted around the world. The findings – based on two years of data collection – d…
Singapore’s educational export strategies
Since the 1990s, Singapore has firmly established its reputation in the global education policy space as one of the best education systems in the world. However, existing policy transfer literature on Singapore has been mainly interested in Singapore as a decontextualised, ahistorical case, rather than as a unique player in the global education policy sphere. Analysis of how Singapore’s educational policies and lessons have been exported to other…
Community participation and empowerment in marginalised contexts
Based on research in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, this article argues that the globally popular reform of school-based management suffers from several shortcomings and is a partial, extractive, and technocratic means of engendering parental and community participation. Ultimately, this article demonstrates that it is necessary to move beyond SBM as a technocratic reform if community participation is to contribute as well to community empowerment. More …
Critical Pedagogy and Democratic Education
Challenging the gold standard consensus
This paper seeks to raise awareness among educational researchers and practitioners of some significant weaknesses and internal contradictions of randomised control trials (RCTs). Although critiques throughout the years from education scholars have pointed to the detrimental effects of this experimental approach on education practice and values, RCTs are considered the gold standard for assessing the impact of education policies and interventions…
Critical perspectives at the mid-point of Sustainable Development Goal 4
Effects of midterm integration on state and trait anxiety in black and white elementary school children
This study investigated the effects of stress associated with school integration on state and trait anxiety for 637 Black and White fourth- fifth- and sixth-grade children. A court-ordered integration plan resulted in the transfer of children from all-White and all-Black schools into integrated schools 2 months before the end of the school year. The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC) was administered 1 week prior to the transfer a…
Charismatic leadership and political process in Afghanistan
(1986). Charismatic leadership and political process in Afghanistan. Central Asian Survey: Vol. 5, Native elites and the distribution of power, authority and income, pp. 273-299
Marginality and Migration
David Busby Edwards, Marginality and Migration: Cultural Dimensions of the Afghan Refugee Problem, The International Migration Review, Vol. 20, No. 2, Special Issue: Refugees: Issues and Directions (Summer, 1986), pp. 313-325
Marginality and Migration
Given the duration of time that has passed since the Afghan refugee influx into Pakistan began and the absence of any immediate prospect for a political settlement which would allow the refugees to return home, it is necessary to consider what the long-term requirements of this population might be and the implications of permanent resettlement on both the refugees and the host country. For policy makers, these are urgent questions that must be co…
Mad Mullahs and Englishmen
Winston Churchill was winning money at the Goodwood Races when he heard the news that a tribal uprising had broken out on the north-west frontier of India. Within a matter of hours, the young cavalry officer, who was then on home leave from his regiment in Bangalore, booked return passage on the Indian Mail. He also sent off a telegram to an old family friend, General Sir Bindon Blood, who had been appointed to head the column that was being disp…
Summoning Muslims
Gulbuddin hekmatyar madethe above statement in a speech to Afghan refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan, in the early 1980s. As the leader (amīr) of Hizb-i Islami Afghanistan (the Islamic Party of Afghanistan), one of the principal Islamic parties then fighting to overthrow the Marxist regime in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar was primarily concerned in this speech with condemning the leftist leadership in Kabul and its Soviet sponsors. However, the head of the …
Economy and Culture in Pakistan
Rhetorics and Politics in Afghan Traditional Storytelling . Margaret A. MILLS
Afghanistan, Ethnography, and the New World Order
Print Islam
L'A. considere le role de trois formes de media ecrits dans le developpement de l'ideologie politique radicale islamique et de l'organisation en Afghanistan. A travers l'etude des journaux, des pamphlets et des magazines, il montre la maniere dont les formes textuelles ont complete le contenu ideologique en aidant a produire un militantisme politique islamique et des partis politiques autoritaires
Heroes of the Age
Learning From the Swat Pathans
The conflict in Afghanistan, now two decades old, has generated considerable attention from journalists, policy analysts, and political scientists, but the literature on the conflict includes few references to the work of Fredrik Barth on political leadership among the Swat Pakhtuns of neighboring Pakistan. Here I explore the relevance of Barth's work to an analysis of the war in Afghanistan. In particular, I examine Barth's "methodological indiv…
Heroes of the Age
Bin Laden's Last Stand
Anthropological Quarterly - Volume 75, Number 1, Winter 2002
Developing a Municipal Performance-Measurement System
Under the leadership of Mayor Shirley Franklin, the City of Atlanta introduced a new operating model for municipal government in early 2002. A central component of that effort has been a performance-measurement system—the "Atlanta Dashboard"—designed to assess various aspects of municipal performance and, through that assessment, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal services
The challenge of sustainability
Missing the Point
Critical Pedagogy and Democratic Education
Manifestations of Sainthood in Islam
This collection of papers by various scholars discusses a wide range of practices and beliefs relating to saints in Islam. The studies also demonstrate the influence of sainthood on political structures in many societies
Lessons Learned from Community Organizations
Workforce diversity requires broader vision and scope in managing diversity so that there is greater inclusion inside and outside organizations. This paper provides this vision by extending the stream of workforce diversity research to community‐oriented inclusion and its processes. The authors interviewed 34 people with disabilities and 40 people without disabilities who were stakeholders of community arts and sports organizations. The participa…
Rising from the ashes
This paper explores the relationship between the emergence of global education policies and conflict-affected contexts by analysing the trajectory of community-level education decentralization within and beyond El Salvador from the 1980s, during the country's civil war, to the 2000s, by which point this approach to education governance was being widely promoted and adapted around the world. The findings – based on two years of data collection – d…
Learning from all? The World Bank, aid agencies and the construction of hegemony in education for development
This paper explores the nature and quality of the participation that characterises the Bank's consultations with external actors and examines the extent to which the Bank is responsive to such feedback when it comes to defining its policy preferences and strategies in the education domain. It draws on a case study of the participatory process that was organised around the definition of the last World Bank Education Strategy (WBES2020) and focuses…
The geometry of policy implementation
The emergence of Cambodian civil society within global educational governance
This paper uses Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic approach to analyze the emergence of civil society within global educational governance. The purpose is to understand the intersection of historical structures with global actors and spaces that have accompanied the globalization of education. Based on findings from a study on the impact in Cambodia of the Civil Society Education Fund – sponsored by the Global Campaign for Education – we first ident…
The Political Economy of Schooling in Cambodia
In the most in-depth look at education in Cambodia to date, scholars long engaged in research on Cambodia provide historical context and unpack key issues of high relevance to Cambodia and other developing countries as they expand and modernize their education systems and grapple with challenges to providing a quality and equitable education
Political science (47 works) · Sociology (37 works) · Law (32 works) · Politics (27 works) · Economics (26 works) · Law (22 works) · Global Educational Policies and Reforms (19 works) · Economic growth (14 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (14 works) · Public Administration (14 works)