The Emergence of Education Public Private Partnerships Across Three Case Studies: Guyana, Liberia, Kazakhstan

• In Event: Marketization and privatization in education

Proposal

Objectives or purposes as related to comparative and international education
Within the field of comparative and international education, there is growing literature on the proliferation of education public-private partnerships (ePPPs), particularly in developing countries. Many scholars have focused on the rapid expansion of the global education industry (GEI), a globalized network of private actors providing education services that make ePPPs possible (Verger, Lubienski, & Steiner-Khamsi, 2016).
Education PPPs can take many forms, but they are generally understood as private actors involved in policymaking, education provision, transnational accreditation and school management of the public education system (Robertson & Verger, 2012; Steiner-Khamsi, & Dugonjić-Rodwin, 2018). Furthermore, ePPPs have become “a tool of governance in education development,” moving the state further away from direct education provision and advancing a neoliberal imaginary of the state’s inefficiency (Robertson & Verger, 2012, p. 31). While some scholars have discussed the conditions that enable ePPPs to emerge, little is known about how these conditions vary across social contexts and how these variances are reflected in the nature of ePPPs (Verger, et al., 2012).
Our study aims to compare how different historical, political, and economic conditions, which we call historico-political spaces, shape the emergence of ePPPs in the Global South. This qualitative comparative case study pursues the following research questions: (1) What are the circumstances and motivations of the state that contribute to the emergence of ePPPs in natural-resource wealthy, post-conflict, and post-Soviet contexts? (2) Who are the actors? (3) How has the state been shaped by historical, political, and economic factors?
Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
To analyze how a particular historico-political context shapes ePPPs in our three cases, we advance research on policy borrowing to explore the relationship between particular contexts and different types of externalization (Schriewer, & Martinez, 2004; Vavrus, 2004; Takayama, 2010). According to Schriewer and Martinez, “externalizations “filter” the reception and description of an international environment according to the changing problem configurations and reflection situations internal to a given system” (Schriewer, & Martinez, 2004, p. 32). State and non-state policy actors make external references to examples of successful approaches elsewhere – referred to as “best practices” and “international standards” – to legitimize ePPPs as a policy idea in transnational contexts (Robertson & Verger, 2012; Phillips, 2004; Steiner-Khamsi, 2016).
Steiner-Khamsi (2016) identifies four types of externalization: policy learning or references to (1) other educational systems; (2) other sectors in society; (3) broadly defined international standards or “best practices”; and (4) non-state actors, particularly the GEI (Steiner-Khamsi, 2016). We use “externalization” as a theoretical framework to analyze rationales and reasons for the development of different ePPPs in the three historico-political spaces.
Research methods
This study utilizes a comparative case study approach to focus on the three cases of ePPPs in Guyana, Liberia, and Kazakhstan. Case studies allow for an in-depth investigation of a phenomenon, allowing us to analyze state circumstances and rationales for the emergence of ePPPs in the three countries (Yin, 2009). The multiple case study framework allows us to draw a single set of cross-case conclusions based on a document analysis of policies, reports and press releases issued by governments, partnership stakeholders, and international organizations, as well as media articles related to the ePPPs.
We assigned codes to each document based on 12 key themes which were identified during a comparative literature review on these historico-political contexts: weak governance, availability, quality, choice, competitiveness in the labor market, diversification, diversity of pedagogy, effectiveness and/or efficiency, innovation, externalization, material resource appeal, and specialized capacity-building. For this multiple case study, we drew conclusions based on the most prevalent themes identified for each country.
Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Our study demonstrates that certain themes identified may be more prevalent in particular contexts. While all of the cases share “externalization” as a common rationale for the emergence of the ePPP, each case emphasizes a particular type of externalization based on its historical, political, and economic context. In Guyana, the government externalized by prioritizing going overseas for higher education training (MoE, 2019), which we broadly classify as appealing to the West for international standards and best practices. Liberia externalized through non-state actors and drew inspiration from the post-disaster privatization of the education system in New Orleans to recover from the impact of conflict. Externalization in Kazakhstan took place through a focus on international standards and best practices provided by the OECD and other international organizations, as the country seeks to upgrade and legitimize its education system on the world stage after its post-Socialist past.
Scholarly originality or contribution to existing knowledge
The nature of these ePPPs and justifications for them are reflective of their particular historico-political environments. Each case, representing a different historico-political space, has experienced some form of state deficit: lack of capacity (Guyana), lack of legitimacy (Liberia), lack of global integration (Kazakhstan). Our study aims to contribute to the literature about how the emergence of ePPPs varies across the Global South. While on the surface, different types of externalization are used to justify ePPPs across these contexts, using a historico-political framework to explain these justifications provides more detail about why certain models of ePPPs emerge.

Authors

• Kairat Kurakbayev, Columbia University, Teachers College

• Katrina Malinda Webster, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Alyssa Baylor, Teachers College/Columbia University