The World Bank’s doublespeak on teachers – an analysis of 10 years of lending and advice
During the last few decades, the World Bank has become a central actor in shaping the global education policy agenda and is increasingly involved in education to the point of becoming the largest supplier of external funding to the sector. Its growing capacity to shape policy goes far beyond its lending activity and involves a significant “ideational” power also in influencing educational issues such as learning outcomes, education quality and teacher related issues.
This review of the World Bank’s activity around teachers in the last ten years reveals a significant disconnection between, on the one hand, the policy preferences that predominate in the Bank’s publications on teachers and, on the other hand, the teachers’ related policies that the Bank effectively supports through its lending operations.
