The role of education in development: an educationalist’s response to some recent work in development economics

McGrath, Simon

Abstract

This paper delves beneath the widespread belief that education (often repackaged as human capital) is important in development to consider the role that the discipline
of education plays in shaping the wider discourses of development. In particular, it will explore recent texts by important figures in development economics (Collier,
Easterly, Sachs and Stiglitz) to see what they say (and don’t say) about education’s role in development and to contrast this with educationalists’ accounts. This will
lead on to a consideration of what the implications of such a reading are for the field of international and comparative education. The paper concludes that the
relative marginalisation of educational accounts in mainstream development thinking is a major challenge to which international and comparative education needs to respond.

Citation

McGrath, S. (2010). The role of education in development: an educationalist’s response to some recent work in development economics. Comparative Education, 46(2), https://doi.org/10.1080/03050061003775553

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2012
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 19, 2012
• Journal: Comparative Education
• Print ISSN: 0305-0068
• Electronic ISSN: 1360-0486
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 46
• Issue: 2
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03050061003775553
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1012882
• Publisher URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050061003775553
• Additional Information: This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in the Comparative Education, 2010, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03050061003775553