Inequality in Education

Inequality in Education: Comparative and International Perspectives is a compilation of conceptual chapters and national case studies that includes a series of methods for measuring education inequalities. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on global trends in the distribution of formal schooling in national populations. It also offers a strategic comparative and international education policy statement on recent shifts in education inequality, and new approaches to explore, develop and improve comparative education and policy research globally. Contributing authors examine how education as a process interacts with government finance policy to form patterns of access to education services. In addition to case perspectives from 18 countries across six geographic regions, the volume includes six conceptual chapters on topics that influence education inequality, such as gender, disability, language and economics, and a summary chapter that presents new evidence on the pernicious consequences of inequality in the distribution of education. The book offers (1) a better and more holistic understanding of ways to measure education inequalities; and (2) strategies for facing the challenge of inequality in education in the processes of policy formation, planning and implementation at the local, regional, national and global levels.

Donald B. Holsinger is Professor Emeritus in Education and Development Studies at Brigham Young University, and has held academic appointments at the University of Chicago, the University of Arizona, and the State University of New York (Albany). He is a former President of the Comparative and International Education Society and Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank. W. James Jacob is Acting Director of the Institute for International Studies in Education at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education, and is the former Assistant Director of the Center for International and Development Education at the University of California (Los Angeles).