Livros - 0522L

I write this text as an inbetweener. Inbetweener in a sense that the dichotomy insider or outsider is redundant taking in consideration my positionality in relation to the research project and the research team. I can be considered as an insider because I am a team member, who collaborated with the research; I am a member of the Latin American and African Network of Researchers in Privatization of Education (Relaappe); and publish together with the project principal investigator. Yet, I can be also seen as an outsider because the focus of my research is global education poli- cies and the African continent, a different geography.

Education is regarded as a public good (RIZVI, 2016) and a human right (MCCOWAN, 2013) that is critical to minimize inequalities. Nevertheless, education is also seen as an investment and strategy to fight poverty. This last tendency has become more pronounced since the theory of human capital was formulated in the 1960s (KLEES, 2012). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank (WB) have played key roles in the last decades in spreading the notion of education as an important factor for economic performance. Consequently, organizations with different mandates and characteristics are involved in this education endeavour. This leads bilateral and multi-lateral organizations and even non-governmental organizations to choose education as a priority and become actively engaged in the construction of a global architecture of education (TARABINI, 2010).

In this XXI century most countries worldwide also have faced major pressures to reform their educational systems. In this process new actors are emerging: there has been a rise in transnational coordination and a growing engagement of non-state actors, including transnational private actors, research organizations and entrepreneurs, who promote the educational policies that they consider appropriate (VERGER et al., 2018).

Another tendency, particularly in the Global South, is the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships (e.g. Global Partnership for Education) that are triggering major changes in education policy and funding. These multi-stakeholder partnerships include govern- ments from the Global North, who are considered the donors, and countries from the Global South, who are considered the recipients of development aid, along with multilateral agencies, civil society organizations, private foundations and private companies, who all act as partners. At the international level, funding with the charac- teristics of the Global Partnership for Education significantly affect international relations, since it promotes a form of governance that is not state-centred. These multi-stakeholder partnerships increase the authority of private actors as policymakers, since the private sector is not simply a participant but a legal partner (MENASHY, 2019).

ucing education to schooling and students’ performance in standardized tests results in subjects like mathematics and in the language of instruction. This measurement culture promotes teaching to test and education standardization, typically involving providing scripted lesson guides and the existence of a national prescribed curriculum.

This measurement obsession also leads to the focus on science, scientific evidence, and valorisation of good practices. Yet is frequent the cherry-picking of research and studies that confirm these preferred education policy options. This strategy also legitimizes the organiza- tions actions and depoliticises its positions, putting the responsibility for its decision in external actors, apparently neutral. At this respect our work, among others, around the Ayrton Senna Institute and the Global Partnership for Education is illustrative of this tendency (SIL- VA; ADRIÃO, 2021; SILVA; OLIVEIRA, 2021a, 2021b)

As this book shows, in Brazil, non-state actors, and particularly philanthrocapitalists, are involved in shaping and reforming the public education. Their modus operandi is venture philanthropy. This means that investments must lead to visible and measurable positive results that can be presented to investors. This effort to show results limits the goals and focus of the interventions. It also can jeopardise education as a public good and a human right. Therefore, the approach that the authors follow and the framework that they developed (SILVEIRA; ADRIÃO, 2022) is innovative and very welcome.

The effort from the team of author of this book to map and analyse the different non-state actors involved in the education in Brazil is massive and a key contribution to understand this pheno- menon in the second biggest country in population size in the Americas.

The book also shows that these non-state actors, in Brazil, prioritize the public education, partnering with the different states and municipalities developing hundreds of programmes and initia- tives. This is a particular interesting phenomenon to observe since these programs are a public-private partnership. Yet, in this case, the private providers are not private companies but foundations or think tanks funded by the profits and the venture philanthropy investments of the shareholders of private companies.

The results from the research presented in this book allow those of us that battle for education as a public good and a human right to imagine alternatives and push them forward.

Viana do Castelo, June, 2nd 2022
Rui da Silva
(Center for African Studies of the University of Porto)

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD
Rui da Silva

PRESENTATION
Theresa Adrião

Private programs in public state schools in Brazil: consequences of privatization to the human right to education
Sabrina Moehlecke
Raquel Borghi
Maria Lúcia Cecco
Adriana Dragone Silveira

Incidence of institutes Ayrton Senna, Natura and Unibanco on Brazilian education: privatization and philanthrocapitalism
Theresa Adrião
Antonio Lisboa Leitão de Souza

Analysis of the conditions of educational provision and implications for the human right to education in schools with the Educação Integral, Jovem de Futuro and Acelera Brasil programs
Cassia Domiciano
Danilo Kanno
Santiago Castigio e Monteiro

Educational assessment in the programs Acelera Brasil, Jovem de Futuro and Ensino Médio Integral and the assurance the human right to education
RegianeHelena Bertagna
Andréia Ferreira da Silva
Elisangela Maria Pereira
Úrsula Adelaide de Lélis

Privatization of management and the human right Education: accountability/social control in three educational programs
Nadia Drabach
Márcia Cossetin
Teise Garcia

Work relations and the privatization of education in Brazil
Selma Venco
Maria Vieira Silva
Cintia Brazorotto
lávio Sousa

About the authors