This work explores the meaning of equality and freedom of education in a global context and their relationship to the universal right to education. It also proposes evaluating school systems according to their achievement of equality and freedom. The author's inter-civilizational analysis of educational rights focuses on four of the world's major civilizations: Confucian, Islamic, Western and Hindu. He begins by considering educational rights as part of the global flow of ideas and the global culture of schooling. He also considers the tension this generates within different civilizational traditions. Next he proceeds to: examine the meaning of educational rights in the Confucian tradition, in the recent history of China and in the Chinese Constitution; look at educational rights in the context of Islamic civilization and as presented in the constitutions of Islamic countries; explore the problems created by the Western natural rights tradition and the eventual acceptance of educational rights as represented in European constitutions; and investigate the effect of global culture on India and the blend of Western and Hindu ideas in the Indian consitution.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface. Global Education and an Intercivilizational Analysis. China: Confucius, Mao Zedong, and Socialist Modernization. Equality and Freedom in Islamic Education. Natural Rights and Education in the West. India: Education, Human Rights, and the Global Flow. A Constitutional Provision for Educational Rights.
Review :
"This volume is a useful resource for students of the social foundations of education and for educators preparing for the challenges of increasing intercivilizational classrooms."
—CHOICE
"The strength of Spring's analysis lies in its comparative orientation. This is perhaps one of the first serious works that looks at the articulation of educational rights at the global level from a comparative perspective. It certainly paves way for other students, researchers, and scholars of comparative education to take up research along these lines."
—Comparative Educational Review
"...this book is worth a read, and cuts new ground in relating talk about educational rights to globalization. The very comparison of systems of rights around education, including liberty, equality, and educational opportunity, represents an important contribution to discussion and debate."
—Globalization, Societies and Education
"One of the few books that analyzes the meaning of universal freedom within the current debates over the globalization of capital. This is not only an important book, but an urgent one...."
—Peter McLaren
University of California, Los Angeles
"Clear in organization and bold in content....The historical, international, and interdisciplinary perspectives provide strong support....The breadth of scholarship is impressive--and consistent with Spring's other texts."
—Brian Morgan
York University
"What I like most is the clear definition of the terms/ideas that Spring uses as the basis for creating a new vision of education and for evaluating existing systems of schooling."
—David Gabbard
East Carolina University
