Title: Educational aid under globalisation and a China-Africa model: features, dynamics and mechanisms
Abstract: This research was inspired by a big issue in China - the Beijing Summit and third ministerial conference of forum on China-Africa cooperation in 2006, which motivated me to start a systematic work about international aid to education, with a comparison between the
traditional roles and the new partners. Drawing on emerging theories about globalisation and development, this research will investigate the Chinese win-win policy based approach of educational aid to Africa and seek to find out whether and in what ways it is different from the
way of Western donors. From the theoretical discussion to the empirical study including both the documents and the field work (semi-structured interview) in China and Africa (in Tanzania which is the biggest recipient country in Africa from China), the research will try to get more understanding about the practice of educational aid under the global political economy context.
Firstly the research is trying to conceptualizing the terms globalisation and international aid to education. Considering education as a process of neo-liberalism and a politicization process, this part locates globalisation into a transformation process, related with the understanding about post-colonial world, modernization and post cold war time. Giving
historical introduction of the international aid especially an explanation of the different
motives of the donors and recipients, especially within the educational field, this part also
talks about the era of ‘knowledge economy’ and the key agendas of the United Union such
as the EFA and MDGs.
The documentary analysis is a comparison between the North (western donors, both
multilateral and bilateral) and South (here mainly China). From the multilateral level, this part
talks about the biggest lender for education- World Bank and its policies and theories,
claimed as ‘investing education for knowledge ec
onomy’. From the bilateral level, especially
a comparison between UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and Chinese
ministries, focusing on DfID’s ‘changing aid conditionalities’ for a kind of new bilateralism
with ‘partnership’. In terms of the Chinese approach, this part starts from the historical
introduction, with the Critical Discourse Analysis of the policies from Sino-Africa forums
especially the changes they made, followed by an exploratory of the ‘win-win’ theory and its
economic, political as well as the philosophical roots. The field work, mainly conducted in Beijing and Tanzania (Dar Es Salaam), which will be
developed more after this August. The main aim of the field work is to gain people’s
perception for the different aid models. The participants will be from different groups,
including people from the department of education in the universities, people who have
experienced the work of educational aid, or aided by some projects, people from the
contemporary aid organizations, and people from both ministries of education.
Finally there will be a thinking of the meanings of ‘education’, with the internal meaning
related with its representations, institutions and practice, and the external meaning which is
talking about the relationship between education and economic development as well as
international relationships.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
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