The Synchronic and Diachronic Evolution of Key Themes around SDG4 after 2015: From a Quantitative Analysis of Web-Downloaded Texts

• In Event: The SDGs as a product of and mechanism for the global governance of education

Proposal

The authoritative ideas of what education should be like under SDG4 are constructed through the discourse among key actors of the "international education community". The author analyzed the discourse during the process of formulating SDGs and the period after 2015 until December 2022. During the SDGs formation period, themes such as cognitive and noncognitive skills, learning outcomes, measurement and indicators, were identified among others. The characteristics groups of actors in the discourse were: Mission-driven CSOs, Constituency-based CSOs, Technical specialist groups, UN-member states, and philanthropies.

The latter part of the paper presents the evolution of post-2015 discourse based on the large sample text mining using 832 web-downloaded texts. The list of key themes remains basically unchanged, while the relative weight among them has changed over time. The emphasis has shifted from global, structural topics to more local, specific ones: particularly, there is increased attention to individual learners and their skills and knowledge. It suggests the uprooted nature of global governance. Whether the global agenda makes any substantial impact on people’s life world depends on factors outside of the governance mechanism. Meanwhile, the fact that the word SDGs permeated to the household level contributed to widening the basis of participation in the global discourse. Also, two contrasting perspectives are observed: one discusses education’s contributions to noneducational goals, such as employment, economic growth, achieving sustainability, or guaranteeing basic human rights, while another represents traditional educationalism which tends to equate schooling with education shaped by the traditional classifications of primary, secondary, and higher education.

Author

• Shoko Yamada, Nagoya University