FreshEd Live: Altered States of Education with Gita Steiner-Khamsi

Gita Steiner-Khamsi recently took part in the first ever FreshEd Live event recorded on 14 April 2019 in San Francisco. Professor Steiner-Khamsi addressed a range of issues related to private sector engagement in public education and touched upon topics such as Bridge International, the International Baccalaureate, the Abidjan Principles and from network governance to system theory. Gita Steiner-Khamsi theorized why the State has taken on the logic of business and how a quantum leap in privatization has radically altered education.

Gita Steiner-Khamsi talked about the transformation of education and the role and legitimation of the State and the private sector in education. Thereby, she explained how economistic thinking entered the education sector, contributing to an enabling environment for private sector engagement. She highlighted the risks and opportunities of private sector engagement in education, how the private sector has challenged traditional aid, and why there is no way back from excluding the private sector from the education arena. In her talk, Gita Steiner-Khamsi also explained why she entered the research field of private sector engagement in education.

The podcast, which was supported by NORRAG, was recorded in San Francisco as a side activity of the CIES Conference and was attended by more than 60 experts and colleagues who contributed to the discussion during the final Q&A.

Listen to the podcast on FreshEd, a weekly podcast about education research hosted by Will Brehm since October 2015, or below:

Gita Steiner-Khamsi is permanent faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition, she has been seconded to the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva as a faculty member and by NORRAG as the director.