State and Civil Society Response to Education for All: Linking Global Dreams to National Realities in Peru

Abstract

Just how influential are global policies in national education systems? A case study focusing on Peru's response to EFA provides insights pertinent to behaviors of countries with weak economies, sizable ethnic minorities, and a still undefined national project. Convergence of ideals of universal basic education access and good quality of schooling abound in policy discourse yet commitment to specific targets lags. While Peru became one of the few countries to produce an EFA national plan, it exists only on the margin of political action. This study probes domestic and exogenous factors affecting state behavior and concludes that the world of democratic ideas finds much easier acceptance among decision-makers than the resolution of relations of economic, political, and cultural domination within and between countries – forces embodying powerful dynamics that determine the likelihood of an adequate national response to either domestic problems or global proposals.

Citation

Stromquist, N.P. (2007), "State and Civil Society Response to Education for All: Linking Global Dreams to National Realities in Peru", Baker, D.P. and Wiseman, A.W. (Ed.) Education for All (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 257-278. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3679(06)08008-X