Economics and Political Economy

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 sampledrural and urban,
  secondary and primary, government and private.
• Other criteria for selection were country
  specificfor 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.

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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.

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Research Findings

• International teacher mobility is driven
  primarily by the prospect of income gainson
  average, teachers from developing countries can
  double their real income by teaching in England.
• These large income gainsover a fifth of which
  are remitted or savedprovide 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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
  inter-generational income mobility is much more
  positivist in method and content, but again
  provides scientific evidence that could be used
  in a political economy analysis.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Thank You !

• W. John Morgan
• UNESCO Chair and Centre for Comparative Education
  Research, School of Education, University of
  Nottingham, U.K.
• john.morgan_at_nottingham.ac.uk