Education and Social Transition in the Third World

Description

Through a comparative analysis of educational theory and practice, this analytic overview illuminates the larger economic and political changes occurring in five peripheral countries--China, Cuba, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Nicaragua--commonly viewed as in transition to socialism. Current political patterns and leadership in these countries have emerged in the context of predominantly agricultural, industrially underdeveloped economies. Each state has played a major role in social transformation, relying on the educational system to train, educate, and socialize its future citizens. Discussing the similarities and differences among these states, the authors show the primacy of politics and the interaction of material and ideological goals in the process of social transition, and how shifting policies reflect and are reflected in educational change. This collection first examines critical analyses of education in capitalist societies, both industrialized and peripheral, and explores the utility of those perspectives in the political and educational conditions of the countries under study. Together these essays offer the first systematic explanation of how and why education in socialist countries undergoing rapid change differs from education in developing capitalist countries. Contributions to the study were made by Mary Ann Burris, Anton Johnston, and Carlos Alberto Torres. Originally published in 1990. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. Cover Contents List of Tables Acknowledgments Part I: Education and Transition: Theory and Method 1. The Search for Method Definitions Why Education? The State and Education The Case Studies Toward a Theory of Education in the Transition 2. The State and Social Transformation The Centrality of Politics Limits on the Conditioned State and the Revolutionary Alternative Limits on the Transition The Formation of the Transition State The Context of the Transition Constituting the Transition State 3. Education and the Transition State The Conditioned Capitalist Inheritance Education in the Transition: Reforms and New Contradictions Part II: The Case Studies 4. Introduction to the Case Studies China Cuba Tanzania Mozambique Nicaragua Scope of Studies 5. Struggle, Criticism, Transformation: Education in the People's Republic of China Whence It Came: Traditional Legacies New China: A State in Contention Change in Education, 1949-1987 Contending Models of Socialist Development Conclusions Chronology of Education and Major Policy Changes in China The Beijing Summer, 1989 6. Educational Reform and Social Transformation in Cuba, 1959-1989 Prerevolutionary Conditions Economic and Political Change After the Revolution Educational Expansion and Reform in the Revolutionary Period Educational Reforms Under the Revolution The Consequences and Problems of Cuban Education Chronology of Economic Change and Educational Policy in Revolutionary Cuba 7. "Modernizing" a Socialist Vision: Education in Tanzania Social Transformation: The Contexts Educational Reform: The Setting Educational Reform in Tanzania, 1961-1986 Persisting Problems Schools and Other National Policy Goals Socialist Vision and Capitalist Practice Chronology of Education and Politics in Tanzania 8. The Mozambican State and Education The Colonial Legacy Ten Years of Independence: The Economy, Chss, and the State Trends in Education Tensions and Problems in the Educational System Concluding Observations Chronology of Education and Major Policy Changes in Mozambique 9. Education and Social Transformation in Nicaragua 1979-1989 The Revolution and the Legacy Economic and Social Change After the Triumph The New Education: Possibilities and Contradictions Accomplishments and Conflicts in Nicaraguan Education Chronology of Educational Policy in Nicaragua Part III: Conclusions 10. Education and Social Transformation: Theory and Practice Accomplishments and Shortfalls Tensions and Tendencies Selected Bibliography Index