Working Papers

Portraying Nation-States and the International Community: Shaping or Reforming Citizenship Education? A Cross-National Study (1933–1969)
By: Camille Fabo 

This study examines how education has been used as a tool for social cohesion during periods of national identity transformation and the conceptualization of international identity. It investigates the evolution of educational discourses and policies aimed at nation-building, patriotism, and peace education for international understanding, focusing on their translation into reforms over time. Drawing on government reports on educational reforms published in the International Yearbook of Education by the International Bureau of Education (1933–1969), the study reveals a post-World War II rise in peace education policies accompanied by a decline in nation-building policies. However, while peace education policies were often normative and lacked concrete structural reforms, nation-building policies frequently translated into substantial educational reforms.

Global Talk, Reputational Stock: The Right to Education in Autocracies’ Education Reforms 
By: Tom Nachtigal, Marcia Yang, Minju Choi, and Jieun Song

Autocracies have leveraged human rights language to gain legitimacy and sustain their rule under a liberal world order. How have these legitimation-seeking practices shifted amid backlash against global liberal hegemony? We investigate this cross-nationally by analyzing discursive emphases on the right to education in 10,563 national reforms (1965-2021) from 179 countries using structural topic modeling and multi-level linear regressions. Findings show that autocracies emphasized this discourse primarily during the period when liberal norms were globally dominant in the post-Cold War era and in correlation with the global discourse around the right to education. However, these discursive emphases dramatically decline in the post-liberal era across the board. We suggest that the global environment shapes autocratic legitimation practices: as the liberal world order weakens, so do pressures to express conformity with liberally perceived norms.

Do Education Reform Increase Access to Learning?
By: Rie Kijima, Patricia Bromley, Jared Furuta, Lisa Overbey, Minju Choi, and Heitor Santos

Systematic education reforms are widespread and common; virtually every nation articulates and embarks on a path of education reform. However, despite their ubiquitous nature, education reforms are often criticized for failing to yield meaningful results. This study challenges the common critique that systematic education reforms are ineffective acts of window dressing. Using a longitudinal, cross-national database and two-way fixed effects, we assess the influence of education reforms on educational outcomes as measured by growth of access to secondary education. Our empirical analyses show that there is a strong positive association between countries' adoption of education reforms dedicated to expanding access to education and growth in secondary enrollment. We find evidence that counters the widely accepted conception that reforms do not improve the education systems. We also provide a nuanced framework for understanding where critiques of education reform emerge from: Gains are rather small in magnitude and diminish over time.

Education Reform and Nation-State Organizational Expansion, 1960-2018
By: Heitor Santos

When reforming their education systems, countries often create ministries, agencies, or committees tasked with the mission of addressing issues of strategic priority. Not only has formal organization expanded dramatically, but these professionalized structures often seem to pave the way for all other types of education reform. This paper explores the cultural and structural factors predicting national-level education reforms dedicated to the creation of these new organizational structures. Drawing on 7,161 country-year observations from the World Education Reform Database, it examines two dimension of nation-state actorhood. First, it proposes an account of the organizational expansion of the nation-state as an act of conformity with a cultural model. Secondly, it posits that organizational expansion also serves the purpose of image building, conferring legitimacy to the nation-state before the media and civil society. Findings provide support for a neo-institutional model of nation-state actorhood. The adoption of reforms dedicated to the creation of new organizational structures in a given year is associated with an increased likelihood that a country will also engage in organizational expansion in the subsequent year. This model of the nation-state as a rationalized actor is weakened in the 2010s, following the fragmentation of the liberal order. Countries in which media and civil society are more empowered to disseminate information about the government are more likely to adopt reforms dedicated to the creation of new organizational structures.

Education Reform and the Global Learning Crisis: When Does Reform Help? 
(figures separately provided here)
By: Rie Kijima and Patricia Bromley

In this study, we seek to understand the relationship between national education reforms and achievement. To do so, we draw on two newly established education databases to test if education reform is linked to increased learning outcomes. First, we use the Harmonized Learning Outcomes (HLO) Database which combines student test scores from major international and regional assessments. Second, we use the newly established World Education Reform Database that consists of national education reforms from 189 countries. Using synthetic control to estimate the causal impact of national education reforms on learning outcomes, our key results show that learning outcomes increase after countries articulate quality-focused national education reforms. Our study advances the field by providing new empirical evidence about the relationship between education reform and learning worldwide.