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This article takes a critical look at the practices and foundations of global governance and global campaigns such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It does so by discussing the case of global citizenship education (GCEd). In addition to highlighting severe limitations related to the practice and monitoring of GCEd, it makes explicit the onto-epistemic assumptions that are embedded in these structures, but which are infrequently acknowledged—and are thus "hiding in plain sight." It shows that common conceptions of GCEd hide the Christian-positivist-liberal-capitalist foundations from which GCEd and global governance have emerged and by which they are constrained. It argues that GCEd and global governance thus tend to serve as a force for exclusion rather than inclusion. • Makes explicit the onto-epistemic assumptions of global governance. • Clarifies the Christian-positivist-liberal-capitalist origins of these assumptions. • Examines the case of global citizenship education. • Addresses gaps in the practice and monitoring of global citizenship education. • Provides suggestions for moving forward inside and outside global goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The World Bank has been called the most influential organization in education reform globally. Not only is it the single largest funder of education for international development, but it also produces knowledge, circulates discourse, and structures policymaking processes in ways that extend its influence far beyond its primary role as a bank. However, while much literature has been produced about the World Bank, the field of education lacks a systematic discussion of what has been reported about how the World Bank influences policy formation at the country level. Through the conduct of a theoretically informed systematic literature review of 70 publications, this article clarifies and provides examples for the numerous ways that the World Bank influences policy formation. In all, the article documents 11 pathways through which the World Bank influences policymaking. The article concludes by suggesting areas where research on the World Bank can be improved, namely, through more explicit attention to the theoretical and methodological approaches employed. The goal of this review is to encourage scholars to be more specific in their conceptualizations and discussions of World Bank influence, to go beyond general claims of policy imposition or agenda shaping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores (1) the public and private options available at the ECCE level, (2) parents' expectation for ECCE, and (3) preferred and actual choice of preschools in an urban informal settlement in Zambia. The findings reveal strong demand for ECCE among the urban poor. This demand overwhelms low-fee private (LFP) preschool options due both to an insufficient number of public preschools as well as parents' relative preference for the LFP options. Typically, LFP preschools offer highly academic oriented curriculum with English as a medium of instruction, divergent from the government's play-based and mother-tongue based curriculum. By adopting critical cultural political economy approach as an analytical framework, we found that urban poor parents increasingly view investing in LFP preschools as an important household strategy to 'transform' their children into 'modern' citizens, eventually exiting from their stigmatized lifestyle and marginalized social status. • There are strong demands for ECCE in urban informal settlements in Zambia. • Parents overwhelmingly chose low-fee private (LFP) preschool options due mainly to an insufficient public provision. • LFP preschools are also preferred option for many parents as they offer academically oriented curriculum taught in English. • Parents view investing in LFP preschools as a critical strategy to 'transform' their children into 'modern citizens'. • Critical cultural political economy approach offers insight into how modernity and (pre)schooling are imagined locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]