Economics and Political Economy
• Economists have never been wholly satisfied
with or agreed on a definition of their subject.
However, consider this suggested by the
distinguished British economist Lionel Robbins.
• ‘Economics is the science which studies human
behaviour as a relationship between ends and
scarce means which have alternative uses.’
Economics and Political Economy
• ‘Political economy in my vocabulary is not
scientific economics, a collection of value free
generalizations about the way in which
economic systems work. It is a discussion of
public policy in the economic field.
• And while it makes appeal to the findings of
economic science, it also involves assumptions
which are essentially normative in character. It
consists of prescription rather than description.’
Economics and Political Economy
• ‘Although, since it is concerned with practice, its
recommendations make use of what aspires to
be a scientific examination of the results of
action rather than wishful thinking regardless of
consequences.’
• Lord Robbins, Political Economy: Past and
Present, Macmillan, London, 1976.
The Political Economy of Education
• By way of example, I offer a short report on a
problem in the political economy of education
undertaken by the UNESCO Chair at the
University of Nottingham.
• ‘Globalization’ has brought with it renewed
concern about the emigration of skilled labour
from developing countries.
• Initially, the term ‘brain drain’ was applied to the
movement of scientists and technicians. More
recently, the emphasis has been on skilled
workers defined more broadly and including
those in the social sectors, such as health
workers and teachers.
Should Teachers Stay at Home?
• A study commissioned by the UK Department for
International Development following debates at
the Commonwealth Education Ministers’
Conference, Edinburgh, 2003.
• The concern, expressed chiefly by South Africa
and by Jamaica, was about the impact of
organized international teacher recruitment on
local education systems.
• It led to a Commonwealth Protocol on Teacher
Recruitment in 2004, which included a
recommendation for further research.
The Research
• Investigated and analysed the experiences of
four Commonwealth countries – two ‘receiving’
countries, the United Kingdom and Botswana,
and two ‘sending’ countries, Jamaica and South
Africa – in teacher recruitment and retention.
• It aimed to identify the extent of international
migration of teachers, the ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors
for migration and the consequences for
developing countries.
Partner Institutions
•
•
•
•
•
University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica
University of Botswana, Gaberone, Botswana.
Commonwealth Secretariat,
Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of
London
• Teacher trade unions in the countries under
review.
Data Collection
• The research was constrained both by budgetary
limitations and by a limited time-frame for completion of
two years.
• Different kinds of data were collected, much gathered
during visits to around twenty schools in each of the four
countries. In each school visited, questionnaires were
administered to head teachers, native teachers and
expatriate teachers
• The intention was partly to provide a qualitative
assessment of the impact of international teacher
mobility, so we compared schools which had been
affected by such movements with ‘control’ schools that
had not.
Data Collection
• The fieldwork was not nationally representative, but
limited to particular geographic regions— specifically the
area around Gaborone (Botswana), Kingston (Jamaica),
London and Birmingham (England) and Pietermaritzburg
(South Africa).
• A mixture of schools was sampled—rural and urban,
secondary and primary, government and private.
• Other criteria for selection were country specific—for
example, in South Africa, the racial composition and
history of schools are an important source of
differentiation and so was used in the selection of
schools.
Research Findings
• We found evidence of significant international
mobility of teachers in all four countries.
• A third of trainee teachers in Jamaica intended
to migrate, as did a quarter in South Africa.
• Around a half or more of all teachers in each
country were interested in working abroad.
• However, there were indications that much of the
international recruitment was a transitional
response to disequilibria in the market for local
teachers.
Research Findings
• International teacher mobility is driven primarily
by the prospect of income gains—on average,
teachers from developing countries can double
their real income by teaching in England.
• These large income gains—over a fifth of which
are remitted or saved—provide the prima facie
case for a liberal view towards migration.
• They dwarf the fiscal cost to the government
from having to train replacement teachers.
• Indeed, these training costs are probably in
large part covered by taxes paid on repatriated
income gains.
Research Findings
• A key issue is the impact of international teacher
recruitment on the educational systems in
developing countries.
• In Jamaica and South Africa, we found no
evidence of serious adverse impacts. Migrant
teachers were replaced without serious adverse
educational impacts.
• It is possible that there are ‘knock-on’ effects on
more disadvantaged schools, but again we
found no evidence of this.
Conclusions
• Teacher recruitment and mobility have had a
largely positive effect – despite some negative
aspects for sending countries – on poverty and
international development, mainly due to
teachers sending money home and returning
home with savings.
• International recruitment of teachers does
present challenges to sending countries.
• However, it is not the main reason for teacher
shortages in some developing countries.
Primarily, other internal issues need to be
addressed.
Policy Recommendations
• Governments need to manage teacher shortages.
• While compensation is not recommended, receiving
countries could provide assistance to sending countries
via their aid budget, for instance by funding teacher
exchanges.
• Sending and receiving countries could develop a formal
agreement to manage the process of teacher migration.
• Sending country governments could allow teachers to
take unpaid leave to teach abroad.
• Governments that subsidise teacher training could
consider increasing cost sharing or making subsidies
conditional on teachers working in a state school for a
set period.
For Discussion
• Is international teacher mobility a positive or a
negative phenomenon?
• Should it be regulated and if so how?
• Should ‘source’ countries be compensated and if
so how?
• Should teachers stay at home?
Journal Articles
• ‘Should teachers stay at home? The impact of
international teacher mobility' (with S. Appleton
and A. Sives). Journal of International
Development, Vol.18, No. 6, 2006, pp. 771-786.
• ‘Teacher migration from Jamaica: Assessing the
short-term impact’, (with A. Sives and S.
Appleton), Caribbean Journal of Education, Vol.
27, No. 1, 2006, pp. 85-111.
• ‘The impact of international teacher migration on
schooling in developing countries: The case of
southern Africa' (with S. Appleton and A. Sives),
Globalization, Societies and Education, Vol.4,
No. 1, March 2006, pp. 121-142.
Journal Articles
• ‘Teachers as community leaders: The potential
impact of teacher migration on Education for All
and Millennium Development Goals.’ (with A.
Sives and S. Appleton), International Journal of
Adult and Lifelong Education, Vol. 3, No.1, 2005,
pp. 3-11.
• ‘Managing the international recruitment of health
workers and of teachers: Do the Commonwealth
Agreements provide an answer?’ (with A. Sives
and S. Appleton), The Round Table: The
Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs,
Vol. 94, No. 379, April 2005, pp. 225-238.
The Report
• Morgan, W. J., Sives, A. and Appleton, S., 2006,
Teacher mobility, brain drain and educational
resources in the Commonwealth, Researching
the Issues, DfID, London, Research Monograph,
xvii and 218p.
• PdF copy available from DfID website.
Political Economy and Education
• Consider again the Robbins’ quotation with
which we began: ’It is a discussion of public
policy in the economic field… essentially
normative in character… It consists of
prescription rather than description.’ The
research that I have described was
commissioned for policy reasons and ended with
policy recommendations.
Political Economy and Education
• In that sense, it fits with Robbins’ definition as an
example of the political economy of education in
that it was guided by economic knowledge and
concepts.
• This type of research in education should be
seen as contributing to our knowledge and
understanding of education policy as a
necessary part of public policy analysis.
Political Economy and Education
• The two other papers considered today have
similarities to this approach.
• The paper on ‘Strategies for Investment in adult
lifelong learning ‘ might in fact be taken as
another clear example of the political economy
of education. It is clearly normative in approach.
• The paper on ‘School tracking and intergenerational income mobility’ is much more
positivist in method and content, but again
provides scientific evidence that could be used
in a political economy analysis.
Political Economy and Education
• There are many non-economic explanations for
the importance of education to individuals and to
the societies to which they belong, including the
global society. These are not denied by a
political economy approach. Indeed, they are
part of it. For example: Education for social
cohesion. However, each of these, such as the
example I have given, also has an economic
dimension.
Political Economy and Education
• Making the connections between the two in the
interest of effective public policy is crucial in a
‘knowledge-based economy’ and in a ‘learning
society’. The political economy of education
contributes to public policy analysis both
generally, and in its focus on power relations in
educational policy making, in the allocation of
both public and private educational investment,
and in the social distribution of educational
benefits.
Suggested Reading
• M. Carnoy, ‘The Political Economy of Education’,
International Social Science Journal, Vol.37, No.
2, 1985, pp. 157-173.
• D. Rooney, et al, 2003, Public Policy in
Knowledge-Based Economies, Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, Mass.
• M. Gradstein, et al, 2004, The Political Economy
of Education: Implications for growth and
inequality, MIT Press, Mass.
Thank You !
•
W. John Morgan
• UNESCO Chair and Centre for Comparative
Education Research, School of Education,
University of Nottingham, U.K.
•
•
john.morgan@nottingham.ac.uk