Review of the book: Learning as development: Rethinking international education in a changing world
Author(s)
Akinrinola, Ademola
Ogwal, Susan
McCarthy, Cameron
Issue Date
2018-10-01
Keyword(s)
International Education
Learning
Development
Abstract
In Learning as Development, Daniel A. Wagner offers a timely intervention in the discussion of what cluster of policies and orientations
might help accelerate stalled processes in underdeveloped countries in order to foster change and growth. Since the decade after
WWII, this area of research has fallen under the banner of what is called development, and its related disciplinary field came to be
known as development studies. Wagner, despite his protestation, is writing in this tradition even as he seeks to condemn and revise it.
A starting point for the author, then, is the way in which development is imagined in the first place, and the traditional paradigm
which stresses indices of economic growth and education expansion as the sine qua non of societal modernization and maturity. In this
development model, the strength or weakness of a nation’s economy determines its overall level of growth as measured by GNP, GDP
per capita, etc., the implication being that economic growth and expansion result in the diffusion and wide dissemination of social and
economic rewards and enhanced quality of life among citizens of developing countries. But this development model, as Wagner argues
in the book, is not sustainable; it bypasses too many sectors of the poor, non‑urban, and minority language groups who are outside the
reach of central government powers and corporate entities that both absorb and distribute material rewards unequally in the third
world. Wagner explores case after case in which “vital resources may or may not ‘trickle down’ to fulfil the needs and values of
ordinary individuals” (p. 2).
This is the default collection for all research and scholarship developed by faculty, staff, or students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Use this login method if you
don't
have an
@illinois.edu
email address.
(Oops, I do have one)
IDEALS migrated to a new platform on June 23, 2022. If you created
your account prior to this date, you will have to reset your password
using the forgot-password link below.
