Blurring boundaries: How philanthropic corporations dissolve the public-private boundary in education

• In Event: School choice and the global world order

Proposal

The growing influence of philanthropy in education has become a global phenomenon (UNESCO, 2022) that has attracted increasing research interest in recent years (Erfurth & Ridge, 2021). The expansion of edu-philanthropy can be understood as a consequence of the global transformation of contemporary educational governance (Dale, 2005) that tends to favor non-state actors' (e.g., entrepreneurs, ed-tech private companies, international organizations, venture capital firms, unicorn companies and think tanks) participation in traditional governance, curricular and development educational activities (Cone et al., 2022; Fontdevila et al., 2023; Komljenovic et al., 2023; Lewis, 2017).
In the case of philanthropic foundations, several literature has sought to document the role and expansion of new philanthropy and has focused on studying iconic cases that illustrate the mechanisms through which philanthropic actors influence school management, curriculum, or teacher policies (Rowe, 2024). Departing from the idea of “privatization of education policy” (cf. Ball & Youdell, 2008; Ball, 2013), most research has focused on understanding the rise of "new" or "venture" philanthropy and on describing the strategies of big philanthropic foundations to mobilize privatization reforms nationally and internationally (Reckhow & Tompinks, 2018; Avelar, 2020).
Much research on edu-philanthropy has shown the impact of philanthropic corporations on the privatization process, through the management of public projects, growth of private financing models, or concession of public activities to private actors through public-private partnerships (Erfurth & Ridge, 2021; Ball & Junemann, 2011; Olmedo, 2014; Hogan & Williamson, 2023; Carvalho & Viseu, 2023; Saura et al., 2022; Avelar & Ball, 2019; Edwards et al., 2021; Srivastava & Oh, 2012).
However, little research has been done on the mechanisms and effects (social, practical and symbolic) of the emergence of philanthropic corporations in the public arena. Starting from a critical analysis of public-private partnerships, this article investigates how corporate philanthropic actors blur the divide between the public and the private, and what are the discursive, political, and organizational strategies to do so, using the Chilean education system as a framework. Chile is particularly interesting for this objective, considering the extreme levels of exogenous privatization and the centrality of private education in the country (Verger et al., 2017), the extreme levels of social and educational inequality (OECD, 2022), the existing back-and-forth dynamics in education policy change (Villalobos et al., 2024), and the growth and dynamism of edu-philanthropy as an area of investment in the last decades (Bird & Aninat, 2022).
Methodologically speaking, the article is developed from the logic of network ethnography (Santori, Ball and Junemann, 2015) and multimodal discourse analysis (Van Leeuwen, 2012). We identified 29 philanthropic corporations operating in the Chilean education system, conducting in-depth desk research that included the foundations' objectives, their main documents, reports and archival material, as well as information on their boards of directors and main activities. This information was complemented by 15 semi-structured interviews with the executive directors or CEOs of the foundations (Flick, 2014). Executive directors or representatives of philanthropic foundations of diverse size, history, and focus of action were interviewed, achieving a heterogeneous sample of more than 50% of the foundations identified by the study. Finally, 22 non-participant observations were made of events in which philanthropic corporations participated. In these events, the disposition, roles and main discourses were analyzed, as well as the dynamics of participation and interaction of the interviewees.
The results show that, unlike the aggressive advocacy strategies often associated with big philanthropic organizations at the state level, most small edu-philanthropic foundations focus on influencing education through the programs they design or fund. With these initiatives, edu-philanthropic foundations aim to scale up and disseminate their programs, effective practices or models for the school system. Although this may not be explicitly acknowledged as a policy influence but rather as 'generosity', it is evident that through their programs and expertise, foundations seek to shape education policy design and implementation in schools, promoting specific discourses, approaches, and practices, as well as expanding these initiatives into the school system (Powell, 2019).
Second, the analysis reveals that both philanthropic corporations and state actors make significant efforts to blur the symbolic boundaries between the public and the private. The recurrent use of conceptual phrases (“the public is not the state”; “the private has a public role”; “the public is the social area”) cements the idea that the private is not anchored to the government, but rather is a shared and common property, where private actors play a relevant role. Thus, contrary to the discourses of antithesis between public and private actors, this analysis reveals the growing processes of collaboration between public and private actors as a fundamental axis for the development and growth of the philanthropic ecosystem. Similar trends were also observed in India more than a decade ago by Nambissan & Ball (2010), whose research shows the synergies created through PPPs and how these alliances favored the involvement of philanthropic actors.
Finally, and in contrast to other studies (Ball, 2012), the results show that the relationship between the public and private sectors is primarily driven by public actors. Thus, decision-makers, political operators, and state technicians (from both the political left and right) tend to agree on the centrality and importance of philanthropic corporations (and private actors in general) as pivotal policymakers. Although the arguments are diverse (political viability, technical support, capacity for innovation, capacity to generate consensus), this cements the idea that public-private partnerships are necessary to advance the country's educational policies.

Authors

• Cristobal Villalobos, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile

• Macarena Hernandez

• Lluís Parcerisa, University of Barcelona