International seminar discusses the various influences of private capital on the global governance of education
There are similarities in the ways in which the right to education is denied in different countries. The effects of neoliberalism on education can be seen from the international level (governance bodies such as the UN) to the local level (fighting against school closures). The struggles to stop the push for privatization in education also converge among international civil society organizations - they have the digitalization of education and multistakeholder governance as their biggest challenges.
This was the theme of the first day of the International Seminar "Global trends in education: the impact of governance structures, privatization and digitalization," which took place on September 25 and 26 at the Institute of International Relations of the University of São Paulo (IRI-USP), and was organized by Andressa Pellanda, general coordinator of the Brazilian Campaign for the Right to Education, and partners (see below).
With the theme "Global governance today: challenges, power and privatization in the complex international sphere and digitalization," internationally renowned experts - whether in academic research or activism - explained how the economic power of countries in the Global North and private conglomerates cannot meddle within networks of influence to define the direction of education in other countries.
Pedro Dallari, director and professor at IRI-USP, opened the event by emphasizing the importance of this discussion as a sign of maturity. "There is no sectoral governance that does not have an international dimension. Public policies have become international and management action in the different fields has become international," he said.
Andressa Pellanda, who is finishing her doctorate at IRI-USP with research on global governance in education, is organizing the seminar in partnership with the Institute, USP's Faculty of Education, the Center for African Studies at the University of Porto (Portugal) and the Transnational Institute (TNI), which is also supporting the initiative.
"It's a moment of exchange for us to think together about the global agenda for education, which reverberates in Brazil [in] the influence of private actors in education, especially in the digitalization agenda - since the Connected Schools Program was launched this week by President Lula [PT] himself and the chair of civil society is represented by an organization related to the private sector," warned Pellanda, adding that this agenda is "a very important issue, but not very well known."
Alongside Pellanda at the opening table, Cristiane Lucena Carneiro, a professor at IRI-USP, introduced and mediated the first day of the event. "In the field of International Relations research, which once again is somewhat disconnected from the practice of public policy, there is a growing and renewed interest in looking at the nature of the problem [the influence of the private sector], including questioning the common sense [of political participation] with regard to global governance," said Carneiro.
Also at the opening table, the president of the board of the Center for African Studies at the University of Porto, Rui da Silva, classified the seminar as a breakthrough moment in his work as a researcher and activist. "We tend to look only at transfers and influences from the Global North to the Global South, but we came to talk about these movements that are also considered South-South," said da Silva, who researches education in Portuguese-speaking countries, especially in Africa.
WATCH THE INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR IN FULL
Multistakeholder governance
The first panel discussion featured academic contributions on the multistakeholder governance of education in various areas, the need for a global reform of education and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in global governance.
Gonzalo Berrón, project director at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation - Brazil and associate fellow and member of the Corporate Power Team at the Transnational Institute (TNI), began the debate by talking about multistakeholder governance. He gave an overview of the growing presence of the private sector in governance bodies - such as the UN - and criticised the actions of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education in these decision-making spaces, to the detriment of the participation of social movements and civil society organisations.
Berrón explained that the term "multistakeholder governance" or multistakeholderism is a political practice that involves bringing together multiple stakeholders in decision-making. In theory, it sounds democratic, but in practice it can weaken the autonomy of countries to carry out their own governance. According to Berrón, the state needs to decide on its policies and not be influenced by multistakeholder governance. He also pointed out that the term is spoken of with a positive connotation in speeches, including by the UN, as something that is part of the common sense of global governance, when in reality it is a "naturalisation of a jargon that biases not only the mechanisms of governance, but also the public policies that emerge from the education system".
Frank Adamson, a professor at California State University - Sacramento (USA), analysed how the privatisation of education works through the lens of neoliberalism. To do so, he presented educational experiences from various countries and highlighted how privatisation processes impact these networks in similar ways, generating inequalities in systems in the United States (examples from Oakland and New Orleans) and Latin America (Chile). He uses the metaphor of the fractal in these analyses - a geometric object with a similar structure at infinite scales, regardless of whether it is seen from the general or the specific. "Many in Oakland don't know about the student occupations in São Paulo that prevented school closures; and many in São Paulo probably don't know that Oakland is also suffering from large-scale school closures, based on the same ideas of efficiency that are part of neoliberal processes," he points out.
Closing the first panel, Camilla Croso, director of the initiatives division at the Open Society Foundations, also dealt with multistakeholder governance and classified it as a "phenomenon that has been little studied and problematised". "When we look at the role of the private and corporate sector within multistakeholderism, we shouldn't just look at the number of seats the private sector has, but also at the proliferation of this sector in other instances, and how the private sector participates with another 'hat', sometimes as an NGO, sometimes as a United Nations agency. And to really understand how they disguise themselves, or make themselves appear to do so, so that we can better understand this influence, without forgetting the local level," emphasised Croso.
The influence of privatisation on education
The second panel featured Roberto Leão, who gave a global perspective on education workers. The international relations secretary of the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE) pointed out that these privatisation projects are increasingly enriching the rich and, by drawing a timeline, showed that it is no longer a question of supposed philanthropic investment, but investment made on purpose with a focus on profit.
"The investments in public education funds, even if we consider that they are too little for the need for education, are too much for the gluttony of those who want to appropriate them for profit. And we are seeing this happening more and more in global governance bodies. And we know the interests with which they govern," emphasised Leão.
"We must build a new, more democratic and participatory global governance." This was one of the central points of the presentation by Marcelo Di Stefano, representative of Public Services International (PSI) and co-chair of PSI Educação. Speaking about threats to public services, Di Stefano analysed global education after Covid-19 and how the pandemic has further affected the influence of the private sector. "There is a confrontation with the corporate power of international organisations and a blockade of progressive policies. The pandemic has demobilised us and the global stage has been occupied by corporate power," he said. He calls on the social movements of the Global South to form a strategic alliance to fight privatisation and fiscal austerity policies.
David Archer, Head of Programmes and Influence at ActionAid's Global Secretariat and a veteran activist for the right to education internationally, examined the Transforming Education Summit, highlighting the negative influence of privatisation in all sectors, especially education, which undermines funding in a systemic way. "We will never be able to fight privatisation effectively if we don't stop these investments in other sectors too, such as health," he said.
Archer pointed out that large-scale evaluations, such as the OECD's PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), are a "shortcut" so that privatist politicians and decision-makers don't have to fulfill the right to education for all people in full, and can have a positive image in their negotiations with the test results.
For him, the fight for climate justice can be a driving force behind the urgency of realising the right to education around the world, with the possibility of greater pressure to guarantee adequate funding.
María Ron Balsera, Programme Director of the Centre for Economics and Social Rights (CESR), also spoke about the threats to public services in the post-pandemic and said that we must stop thinking that there is not enough money to adequately fund education. "We need sustainable solutions (...) Increasing domestic resources through progressive taxation to finance public services is the best way to improve governance, increase control of public investments and popular participation. It's the only way to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals," he said.
Finalising the second panel on the first day of the seminar was Priscila Gonsales, researcher and founding director of the Educadigital Institute, discussed the digitalisation of education in global governance. Priscila presented a scenario of what technology really is (not just a device, but a network of interrelations) and its use in education.
"We have an outdated view of the use of technology. It has become privatised. [In the past], we used to be able to access any type of content freely... This no longer exists," says the researcher. Today, according to Gonsales, there is a mistaken view of education being at the service of the products of big companies, dictating how student data should be used - often in artificial intelligence services - so that they adapt to the needs imposed by supposed innovation.
"There's this idea that we should move away from the 'if' of using technology in education to the 'how' of using it. No. In order to think about governance, we have to think about 'what' technology and 'why' to use it," concluded Gonsales.
At the end of each panel, as was the case throughout the seminar, the experts answered various questions from the audience in person and online. We invite you to watch the entire seminar on the Brazilian Campaign's YouTube channel.