Western governments appear to have a deep and unquestioning faith in the miraculous power of mass schooling to change society. In First and Third Worlds alike, the modern state pushes tirelessly to expand mass education and to deepen the school's effect upon children. This book explores why, how and with what actual effects politicians and bureaucrats try to spread schooling to younger children, older adults and previously disenfranchised groups. The author argues that the school provides an institutional stage on which political actors signal various (contradictory) ideals: broadening membership in the polity, promising mass opportunity in the wage sector and deepening a presumed commitment to the child's individual development. He advances a theory of the "fragile state" where Western political expectations and organizations are placed within pluralistic Third World settings. Using southern Africa as an example, he details the dilemmas faced by the central state, how it tries to influence local schools and what the results are within the classroom.
- ISBN10 0415902282
- ISBN13 9780415902281
- Publish Date December 1994 (first published 7 March 1991)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 11 April 1996
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Routledge
- Edition New edition
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English