Cristian Cox presentation abstract

Quality and equity: challenges for education and training in a global perspective

A distinction will be made between quality and equity in education and training as objectives and the issues concerning the politics and policies for their achievement.

Regarding quality and equity as goals or orienting criteria there are convergent views  in the international arena,  whereas regarding the political and policy conditions for their achievement, there is less convergence and less visibility of the key issues. A topic to address here is that educational policies do not seem to travel well internationally unless there are national capacities to process global pressures and influences and adapt and adjust them to relevant local conditions. A relevant question in this respect is if the challenges surrounding the quality and equity agenda in education and training are the same for low, middle and high income countries. 

In this context, the introduction will  attempt firstly to characterize the international convergence on quality and equity in education and training in the new century: points of convergence referred to curriculum and classroom practices. Secondly, the issue of national capacities for policy design and implementation in developing contexts –for addressing the agreed upon and desired aims - will be posed.