The Knowledge Capital of Nations

The Knowledge Capital of Nations PDF

Author: Eric A. Hanushek

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2023-08-15

Total Pages: 275

ISBN-13: 026254895X

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A rigorous, pathbreaking analysis demonstrating that a country's prosperity is directly related in the long run to the skills of its population. In this book Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann make a simple, central claim, developed with rigorous theoretical and empirical support: knowledge is the key to a country's development. Of course, every country acknowledges the importance of developing human capital, but Hanushek and Woessmann argue that message has become distorted, with politicians and researchers concentrating not on valued skills but on proxies for them. The common focus is on school attainment, although time in school provides a very misleading picture of how skills enter into development. Hanushek and Woessmann contend that the cognitive skills of the population—which they term the “knowledge capital” of a nation—are essential to long-run prosperity. Hanushek and Woessmann subject their hypotheses about the relationship between cognitive skills (as consistently measured by international student assessments) and economic growth to a series of tests, including alternate specifications, different subsets of countries, and econometric analysis of causal interpretations. They find that their main results are remarkably robust, and equally applicable to developing and developed countries. They demonstrate, for example, that the “Latin American growth puzzle” and the “East Asian miracle” can be explained by these regions' knowledge capital. Turning to the policy implications of their argument, they call for an education system that develops effective accountability, promotes choice and competition, and provides direct rewards for good performance.

The United Nations and Education

The United Nations and Education PDF

Author: David Coleman

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-11-10

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 1134306210

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The UN is often questioned about its ongoing relevance and overall effectiveness in the 21st century, particularly in its involvement with educational policy and co-operation around the globe. This ground-breaking book examines the four key agencies within the UN system that share the vital role of addressing educational futures: UNESCO, the World Bank, UNICEF and UNDP. As the core of educational multilateralism, these agencies powerfully reflect the UN's historic grounding in peace, human rights and economic development. The history of each agency's commitment to education is explored with critical detachment, with particular attention paid to the post-Cold War period, during which each agency has needed to re-think the impact of globalisation on both its modes of operation as well as the content of its education policies. Just as education policy itself has been subject to the impact of globalisation, so to has each agency had to adapt at a time when not only education but also their own mandates have been thrown open to question. This timely book will be essential reading for all those working with and for UN agencies, foreign aid workers and the development co-operation industry. At a time when education policies, budgets and strategies appear wide open to profound changes, this book will provide a much-needed roadmap to the future.

The United Nations and Higher Education

The United Nations and Higher Education PDF

Author: Kevin Kester

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2020-04-01

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1648020569

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In this book, Kevin Kester details how the United Nations promotion of higher education for peace and international understanding sometimes unintentionally contributes to the reproduction of conflict and violence across diverse cultures. He shows this through an indepth examination of peace curricula, pedagogy and policy in one United Nations higher education institution, where he indicates how dominant philosophical and pedagogical models that signify acceptable peace education ultimately undermine the very goals of educational peacebuilding. Kester contends that theoretical and pedagogical training must develop beyond the dominant psycho-social, rational and state-centric assumptions that permeate the field today if higher education is to better contribute to personal and societal peacebuilding. Drawing from the fields of educational philosophy and sociology, he argues for new concepts of poststructural violence and second order reflexivity that can assist scholars in reducing conflict and building peace in lasting ways. He complements his fieldwork findings with personal reflections throughout the book to reimagine the transformative possibilities of peacebuilding education for the 21st century.

The Welfare of Nations

The Welfare of Nations PDF

Author: James Bartholomew

Publisher: Cato Institute

Published: 2016-11-15

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 193970992X

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What damage is being done by failing welfare states? What lessons can be learned from the best welfare states? And—is it too late to stop welfare states from permanently diminishing the lives and liberties of people around the world? Traveling around the globe, James Bartholomew examines welfare models, searching for the best education, health care, and support services in 11 vastly different countries; illuminating the advantages and disadvantages of other nations' welfare states; and delving into crucial issues such as literacy, poverty, and inequality. This is a hard-hitting and provocative contribution to understanding how welfare states, as the defining form of government today, are changing the very nature of modern civilization.

World Development Report 2018

World Development Report 2018 PDF

Author: World Bank Group

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2017-10-16

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1464810982

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Every year, the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) features a topic of central importance to global development. The 2018 WDR—LEARNING to Realize Education’s Promise—is the first ever devoted entirely to education. And the time is right: education has long been critical to human welfare, but it is even more so in a time of rapid economic and social change. The best way to equip children and youth for the future is to make their learning the center of all efforts to promote education. The 2018 WDR explores four main themes: First, education’s promise: education is a powerful instrument for eradicating poverty and promoting shared prosperity, but fulfilling its potential requires better policies—both within and outside the education system. Second, the need to shine a light on learning: despite gains in access to education, recent learning assessments reveal that many young people around the world, especially those who are poor or marginalized, are leaving school unequipped with even the foundational skills they need for life. At the same time, internationally comparable learning assessments show that skills in many middle-income countries lag far behind what those countries aspire to. And too often these shortcomings are hidden—so as a first step to tackling this learning crisis, it is essential to shine a light on it by assessing student learning better. Third, how to make schools work for all learners: research on areas such as brain science, pedagogical innovations, and school management has identified interventions that promote learning by ensuring that learners are prepared, teachers are both skilled and motivated, and other inputs support the teacher-learner relationship. Fourth, how to make systems work for learning: achieving learning throughout an education system requires more than just scaling up effective interventions. Countries must also overcome technical and political barriers by deploying salient metrics for mobilizing actors and tracking progress, building coalitions for learning, and taking an adaptive approach to reform.

Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries

Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries PDF

Author: Daniel A. Wagner

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

Published: 2022-02-21

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1800642032

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Improving learning evidence and outcomes for those most in need in developing countries is at the heart of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal on Education (SDG4). This timely volume brings together contributions on current empirical research and analysis of emerging trends that focus on improving the quality of education through better policy and practice, particularly for those who need improved 'learning at the bottom of the pyramid' (LBOP). This volume brings together academic research experts, government officials and field-based practitioners. National and global experts present multiple broad thematic papers – ranging from the effects of migration and improving teaching to the potential of educational technologies, and better metrics for understanding and financing education. In addition, local experts, practitioners and policymakers describe their own work on LBOP issues being undertaken in Kenya, India, Mexico and Ivory Coast. The contributors argue persuasively that learning equity is a moral imperative, but also one that will have educational, economic and social impacts. They further outline how achieving SDG4 will take renewed and persistent effort by stakeholders to use better measurement tools to promote learning achievement among poor and marginalized children. This volume builds on the second international conference on Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid (LBOP2).* It will be an indispensable resource for policymakers, researchers and government thinktanks, and local experts, as well as any readers interested in the implementation of learning equity across the globe. *The first volume Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid (LBOP1), may be obtained at: http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/learning-bottom-pyramid-4608

The Rebirth of Education

The Rebirth of Education PDF

Author: Lant Pritchett

Publisher: CGD Books

Published: 2013-09-30

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1933286776

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Despite great progress around the world in getting more kids into schools, too many leave without even the most basic skills. In India’s rural Andhra Pradesh, for instance, only about one in twenty children in fifth grade can perform basic arithmetic. The problem is that schooling is not the same as learning. In The Rebirth of Education, Lant Pritchett uses two metaphors from nature to explain why. The first draws on Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom’s book about the difference between centralized and decentralized organizations, The Starfish and the Spider. Schools systems tend be centralized and suffer from the limitations inherent in top-down designs. The second metaphor is the concept of isomorphic mimicry. Pritchett argues that many developing countries superficially imitate systems that were successful in other nations— much as a nonpoisonous snake mimics the look of a poisonous one. Pritchett argues that the solution is to allow functional systems to evolve locally out of an environment pressured for success. Such an ecosystem needs to be open to variety and experimentation, locally operated, and flexibly financed. The only main cost is ceding control; the reward would be the rebirth of education suited for today’s world.