Ei-iE

Leading the profession

Teachers and education support personnel know what works in education. They must be recognised and empowered to deliver on the promise of quality education for all.

At the classroom level, academic freedom and professional autonomy are prerequisites for quality teaching and learning. As professionals, teachers must be afforded the space and trust to make the best possible decisions for their students.

Beyond the classroom, education policy must be informed by the vast experience and insights only education professionals can provide. We advocate for the involvement of teachers, education support personnel and their representative organisations in all decision-making in education and work towards the expansion of sectoral policy dialogue at all levels and in all countries.

Our work in this area

  1. Worlds of Education 27 March 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #20: Half-Hearted Commitment to Teacher Learning, by Mark Ginsburg

    Mark Ginsburg

    I recently completed work on a moderated discussion (Ginsburg et al., 2018) for the Comparative Education Review (CER) focused on the World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise (WDR) (Filmer et al., 2018). In the moderated discussion I muted my voice in order to facilitate a conversation among...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #20: Half-Hearted Commitment to Teacher Learning, by Mark Ginsburg
  2. Worlds of Education 13 March 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #18: “Behind the Scores; Myths on Korean education” by Hyunsu Hwang

    Hyunsu Hwang

    The “Forward” of the 2018 World Development Report (WDR) by the World Bank Group’s president, Jim Yong Kim, shocked me. It starts: “Education and learning raise aspirations, set values, and ultimately enrich lives. The country where I was born, the Republic of Korea, is a good example of how education...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #18: “Behind the Scores; Myths on Korean education” by Hyunsu Hwang
  3. Worlds of Education 6 March 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #17: The World Bank’s Reports and its Practices – Organised Hypocrisy? By Salim Vally

    Salim Vally

    This blog argues that the inconsistencies of the World Bank seen as instances of ‘organised hypocrisy’ and ‘duplicity’ are not new nor are they limited to the area of education. On the heels of the WDR, another significant World Bank report, The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #17: The World Bank’s Reports and its Practices – Organised Hypocrisy? By Salim Vally
  4. Worlds of Education 27 February 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #16: Early Childhood Education, Poverty and Privatization: Why is ECE so important and underfunded in World Bank policy? By Carol Anne Spreen

    Carol Anne Spreen

    Learning does not begin when a child enters school. It is widely known that from birth to age five the brain develops more rapidly than at any other stage of life, and it is also most sensitive to influences from the external environment (such as cognitive stimulation, language development, care,...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #16: Early Childhood Education, Poverty and Privatization: Why is ECE so important and underfunded in World Bank policy? By Carol Anne Spreen
  5. Worlds of Education 20 February 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #15: Technical and vocational education and training – realising the potential to transform the lives of millions, by Pat Forward

    Pat Forward

    The most striking features of the World Development Report 2018’s chapter on technical and vocational training (TVET) are that it is a superficial examination of the role and impact of TVET around the world, and that it persists in perpetuating a very narrow framing of the role that the sector...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #15: Technical and vocational education and training – realising the potential to transform the lives of millions, by Pat Forward
  6. Worlds of Education 13 February 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #14: Where is the World in the WDR 2018? An Appeal to Rename it the ‘American Development Report’ by Jeremy Rappleye & Hikaru Komatsu

    Jeremy Rappleye, Hikaru Komatsu

    The 2018 World Development Report “Learning to Realize Education’s Promise” provides deep insights into the worldview of the World Bank, the world’s most powerful development institution. Instead of critically questioning the Bank’s explicit claims – as most of the blogs thus far have done – it is also worth pausing...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #14: Where is the World in the WDR 2018? An Appeal to Rename it the ‘American Development Report’ by Jeremy Rappleye & Hikaru Komatsu
  7. Worlds of Education 6 February 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #13: “It’s not a learning crisis, it’s an international development crisis! A decolonial critique” by Iveta Silova

    Iveta Silova

    The 2018 World Development Report (WDR) “Learning to Realize Education’s Promise” has been widely praised for placing education at the forefront of the international development agenda. But while signaling a global commitment to increasing education access and quality in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the 2018 WDR...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #13: “It’s not a learning crisis, it’s an international development crisis! A decolonial critique” by Iveta Silova
  8. Worlds of Education 30 January 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #12:The World Bank and the chalkface: a teacher’s perspective by Jelmer Evers

    Jelmer Evers

    My colleagues in my school probably know the World Bank quite superficially, at least if they teach economics history, geography or social sciences. For the rest of them I would say there is name recognition, but not much more than that. However, they would recognize its policy, the tone and...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #12:The World Bank and the chalkface: a teacher’s perspective by Jelmer Evers
  9. News 24 January 2018

    EI teacher standards to create “common understanding” within the profession

    Australian researcher Tom Alegounarias presented his work on the development of global professional teaching standards to Education International’s Executive Board, part of an effort to provide teachers the power to define their own profession.

    EI teacher standards to create “common understanding” within the profession
  10. Worlds of Education 23 January 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #11: School-Based Management: Questions and Concerns by D. Brent Edwards Jr.

    D. Brent Edwards Jr.

    One of the primary avenues highlighted for educational improvement in the World Bank’s World Development Report (WDR) 2018 is school-based management (SBM). This is not surprising, as SBM has been one of the World Bank’s preferred education governance reforms since the 1990s. Indeed, as Dean Nielsen, former Senior Evaluation Officer...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #11: School-Based Management: Questions and Concerns by D. Brent Edwards Jr.
  11. Worlds of Education 16 January 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #10: “We Need More than Just Better Teachers?” by Pasi Sahlberg

    Pasi Sahlberg

    The World Development report 2018 (WDR2018) is right about the global learning crisis: many children not in school, educational inequity, and low quality of learning outcomes. But it often misses the point when trying to use available evidence to realize education’s promise. The problem is that there are so many...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #10: “We Need More than Just Better Teachers?” by Pasi Sahlberg
  12. Worlds of Education 9 January 2018

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #9: A Critical Analysis of the World Bank’s World Development Report on Education by Steven J. Klees

    Steve Klees

    The annual World Development Report (WDR) is the World Bank’s flagship publication. The 2018 report is entitled Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. In the 40 year history of the WDR, this is the first time its focus has been on education. Many commentators have welcomed this as needed in this...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #9: A Critical Analysis of the World Bank’s World Development Report on Education by Steven J. Klees
  13. Worlds of Education 19 December 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #8: "Unions do contribute to quality education. An example from the Gambia", by Marie Antoinette Corr

    Marie Antoinette Corr

    The World Development Report 2018 recognises, although briefly, that poor working conditions for teachers can undermine learning (p.138). It argues that the status of the teaching profession has declined over the last few decades, and that as a result, “teachers deserve more from the systems that employ them” (p.138).

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #8: "Unions do contribute to quality education. An example from the Gambia", by Marie Antoinette Corr
  14. Worlds of Education 15 December 2017

    The new compact on domestic financing for education

    David Archer

    The replenishment events of major global funds tend to be donor-dominated affairs, but on 2nd February 2018 the replenishment of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) promises to be different. For the first time ever a replenishment conference will take place in Africa – hosted by Senegal – and on...

    The new compact on domestic financing for education
  15. Worlds of Education 12 December 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #7: “The Gender Dimension in the World Bank’s Perception”, by Nelly Stromquist

    Nelly P. Stromquist

    With the production of a World Development Report focused on education, the World Bank makes a decisive claim to its authority in education policy. Given an introductory section acknowledging 119 “researchers and specialists across the world” who provided “feedback and suggestions” for the report (WDR 2018 hereafter), it would seem...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #7: “The Gender Dimension in the World Bank’s Perception”, by Nelly Stromquist
  16. Worlds of Education 5 December 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #6: “A sceptic’s review” by Prachi Srivastava

    Prachi Srivastava

    When the World Bank announced that the 2018 World Development Report (WDR) would be on education, I was sceptical. I’m not denying the Bank’s research expertise. It devotes substantial money and staff and has a trove of reports that are accessible in the public domain. It’s also open to criticism...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #6: “A sceptic’s review” by Prachi Srivastava
  18. Worlds of Education 21 November 2017

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #4: Realizing education’s promise: teachers are the solution, not the problem.

    Howard Stevenson

    The World Bank’s 2018 world development report, with its focus on education and the need ‘to realize education’s promise’, is a welcome, if perhaps surprising, step forward. The report scores highly on intent, but it must work with teachers, not against them, if the report’s ambitions are to become a...

    #WDR2018 Reality Check #4: Realizing education’s promise: teachers are the solution, not the problem.