Fritsch, W., Werkstetter Caravaca, A., Berger, T., & Waldow, F. (2024). Why and how they listen: on the (im) possibility of inclusion in the global governance of education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 1-13. (open access)
Abstract: “International Organisations in the field of education face increasing demands for greater inclusivity by and of those affected by their work. IOs respond by carrying out various forms of consultations in order to maintain their legitimacy, which leads to tensions with the largely expert-driven, ‘technocratic’ mode of operation of most IOs and potentially disrupts their organisational coherence and identity. This paper examines how UNESCO and OECD navigate this tension in two recent landmark initiatives: UNESCO’s Futures of Education (2019–2022) and OECD’s Future of Education and Skills 2030 (2015-present). We argue that IOs favour ‘additive’ over ‘disruptive’ inclusion to maintain organisational coherence, raising questions about the possibility of ‘disruptive’ inclusion within global governance.”
For the purposes of this paper, we distinguish between two kinds of inclusion, which we call ‘additive’ and ‘disruptive’ inclusion, respectively . . . In processes
of additive inclusion, previously excluded actors are brought into the central narrative (as disseminated e.g. through landmark reports), yet their substantive position(s) do not substantially alter the vision of the future of education promoted by the report. . .In contrast, disruptive forms of inclusion link the inclusion of previously excluded actors to substantial
revisions of dominant understandings of education. . .In the cases we studied here, additive inclusion proceeded without the realisation of a disruptive agenda.
NOTE: The Center for Intercultural Dialogue held focus groups as part of the information gathering stage of the Futures of Education project, preparing what we learned as a report for UNESCO, in 2021.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 