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This thesis examines the tensions and contradictions of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as a force for more inclusive tertiary education, particularly for adults without a college degree in the United States. Through a multimethodological research approach yielding three discrete papers, presented as chapters, this work seeks to augment and clarify the existing MOOCs literature across conceptual, quantitative, and qualitative domains. The first paper develops a conceptual framework, 'hegemonic design bias,' that describes the socio-technical development ecosystem in which MOOCs are embedded. This framework helps account for why MOOCs have yet to serve as a democratising force in education by highlighting the processes and constraints that bias MOOC production toward the already well-educated. The potential economic implications of these developments are also considered. The second paper provides insight into how underrepresented learners are engaging with entry-level MOOCs. The exploration of learning analytic data from an initial sample of more than 260,000 enrolees through cluster analysis and multinomial logistic regression indicates that students without a college degree are more likely to be high-performing learners compared to college-educated students in these courses. Additionally, students from approximated lower socioeconomic backgrounds are no less likely to be successful than students from approximated middle and higher socioeconomic backgrounds in these courses. The third paper provides insight into the opportunities and challenges producers face in building inclusive MOOCs through a qualitative analysis of six semi-structured interviews. The interviews unearthed diverse conceptions of inclusion among producers that reflect a sincere normative commitment to make inclusive MOOCs, though the conceptions were quite distinct and fragmented. Producers were intentional about utilising best-practice pedagogy, as well as innovative program design, to include diverse learners. Innovative technology partners helped create interactive, unique experiences, but this also led to challenges in harmonising the design process and required the considerable influence of intermediary actors. To conclude, I briefly consider the implications of these findings for research, practice, and policy, with particular attention to how the public and social sectors can incentivise improved design of MOOCs with the specific intent of helping adults without college degrees develop human capital in order to remain economically resilient amidst the disruptions of skills-biased technological change.

This dissertation examines the role early childhood education (ECE) plays in shaping children's educational trajectories by focusing on one country that is experiencing the most rapid and massive expansion of preschool access in sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia. This thesis consists of three distinctive but interconnected papers. The first paper assesses changes in the relationship between preschool attendance and students' early grade reading achievement during the large-scale expansion of public preschool (O-Class) in Ethiopia. It leverages two Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) datasets that straddle the reform period from 2010 to 2016, during which pre-primary enrolment rates soared by nearly ten times. The results suggest that the large-scale preschool expansion strengthened the role of preschool attendance in predicting second- and third-grade students' reading performance. The second paper further examines the differential influence of preschool by various child, family, and school characteristics. Despite the benefit of increased access to preschool on average, the results show that the preschool benefits were greater for affluent children, which suggest that the largescale expansion of preschool may come at the expense of equitable gains between advantaged and disadvantaged children. The third paper investigates how the relation between preschool attendance and student outcomes evolves from early childhood to adolescence. The results indicate that preschool attendance led to significant improvement in academic achievement in receptive vocabulary and language and increased educational attainment by age 15, the age at which most students are transitioning to secondary school. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of quality of preschool, as well as subsequent school experiences. These quality dimensions have the potential not only to determine the preservation of preschool benefits but to facilitate students' positive academic trajectories from early childhood through adolescence. Directions for future research and policy implications related to ECE in Ethiopia are discussed.

This thesis explores the degree of independent action possible by national governments in deciding their education policies – in other words, what may be termed their sphere of authority (SoA) – in the context of globalisation; whereby Pakistan, perhaps more than many nation states, is subject to a variety of geopolitical and economic pressures. This issue is explored through a study of the recent education policy review process in Pakistan that resulted in a White Paper: ‘Education in Pakistan’ in 2007. In exploring the SoA of the government of Pakistan in deciding its education policy priorities, key areas of enquiry include the tensions between national and global interests and their attempted discursive management by the government of Pakistan. The research uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as its main methodological resource and looks at two kinds of textual data: interviews with key policy actors and selected policy texts. The methodology of CDA draws attention to the fact that texts are embedded within linguistic, discursive and structural contexts, and that these contexts provide resources that are mobilized by different actors. The textual data resources were analysed to see how language shapes the construction of the White Paper; what discourses are being drawn upon and contested in the articulation of the White Paper and thus what broad power structures shape the White Paper and illustrate the SoA of the government of Pakistan. The findings suggest that the policy review process as illustrated by the White Paper reveals various tensions caused by differences between global and national education policy interests. These tensions are visible in the style and genre of policy; the pursuit of global policy prescriptions; trends to privatization of provision; and disputes over the issue of language and about the ideological principles that should inform educational provision. The research suggests that inclusive and ‘soft’ governance discourse along with a process of consultation were used by the government in an attempt to manage these tensions. The expertise with which the government designed the consultation process and deployed discursive resources sought to establish and maintain its SoA.