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Open research questions in Global Educational Policies and Reforms

1,881 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 22,182 Global Educational Policies and Reforms papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-026-09759-x OPEN FILE The educational initiatives of the IBE and OECD in the 1960s: Tensions and trajectories for 21st‑century global governance in education Christian Ydesen1 Received: 19 December 2025 / Accepted: 2 April 2026 © The Author(s) 2026, modified publication 2026 Abstract This article examines the 1960s as a pivotal decade in shaping global educa- tion governance. Drawing on archival sources and historical analysis, it explores the role of international conferences and organizations in fostering collaboration, negotiation, and contestation within the education policy landscape. The study takes an empirical start- ing point in the annual International Conferences on Public Education (ICPE), which by 1962 had expanded to include other intergovernmental organizations, such as the Organi- sation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These conferences played a crucial role in shaping educational discourse while also reflecting broader geopolitical struggles. During this period, tensions emerged between the International Bureau of Edu- cation (IBE)’s interdisciplinary and universalist ideals and external pressures, culminating in its integration into the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1969. Simultaneously, the OECD strengthened its role in education policy, introducing new methodologies, such as systems theory and educational planning. These developments marked both continuity and transformation, as emerging tools and technolo- gies reconfigured the governance of global education. By examining the role of knowledge exchange and how intergovernmental organizations position themselves strategically, this article contributes to our understanding of how the 1960s shaped contemporary global edu- cation governance, highlighting the enduring influence of this formative decade. Through a historical and sociological approach, it offers insights into the origins of current challenges in global education governance and underscores the relevance of this period for contempo- rary debates on the future of education globally.

    The educational initiatives of the IBE and OECD in the 1960s: Tensions and trajectories for 21st-century global governance in education · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies the challenge of donors exploiting moments of political and sectoral uncertainty to advance their agendas. It highlights the challenge of recipient governments having limited bargaining power in times of crisis. The paper also notes the challenge of donors using seemingly neutral 'knowledge-based regulatory instruments' to legitimise their influence.

    Policy field and donor game: Education reform in Ethiopia, 1970s-2020s · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how donors influence education policy in aid-recipient countries. It highlights the need to examine the shifting alignments of donor influence across different political regimes.

    Policy field and donor game: Education reform in Ethiopia, 1970s-2020s · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies challenges in ensuring the quality of unregistered alternative provision. It highlights the need for strategic planning and collaboration between schools, local authorities, and providers. It notes the challenges in providing support for young people who are school refusers or at risk of exploitation.

    Exposing the work of the market through the case of Alternative Provision for English school students · 2026 · DOI

  • investigating the use of unregistered alternative provision in other areas, - examining the long-term effects of unregistered alternative provision on students, - exploring the role of local authorities in commissioning unregistered alternative provision

    Exposing the work of the market through the case of Alternative Provision for English school students · 2026 · DOI

  • examining how GYOs may be used to further privatize public education, - exploring how GYOs may exploit communities of color, - investigating how GYOs may entrench neoliberal reform agendas

    Planting Promise or Precarity? Considering Grow Your Own Programs & Teacher Diversity in Neoliberal Times · 2025 · DOI

  • Philanthropic organisations have become increasingly influential in education systems, yet little is known about how their legitimacy is produced within schools.

    Performing legitimacy: philanthropic foundations and the embeddedness of privatisation in Chilean public schools · 2026 · DOI

  • The analysis highlights underexplored contextual factors shaping trainees’ experiences, and proposes methodological strategies—individual-level, longitudinal, comparative designs embedded in home-country contexts—to move the field beyond the currently thin empirical debate.

    Western Promises? A Critical Review of the (Anti-)Democratic Effects of Western Education in Non-Western Countries · 2026 · DOI

  • , districts and municipalities) in Latin American education systems have evolved in structural and auxiliary ways, yet their roles, effectiveness, and impact on school improvement remain understudied.

    What Do We Know About the Middle Tier of Education Governance from Latin America? · 2026 · DOI

  • First, it contends that theory choice has been limited by a contemporary reliance on ‘consistency’ as an epistemic criterion.

    Bringing back theory choice: comparative epistemology in educational administration and leadership research · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite the visibility of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs), little is known about how educators from the Global South construct professional identities in stratified contexts.

    Professional Identity and Context-Specific Legitimacy: Filipino English Teachers in South Korea · 2026 · DOI

  • Rather, its enduring responsibility is to develop learners who possess the intellectual, ethical, social, and adaptive capacities to engage intelligently and confidently with futures that remain unknown.

    How Do We Teach for a Future We Cannot Know? Rethinking the Purpose of Education in an Age of Uncertainty · 2026 · DOI

  • Despite the country’s strong emphasis on gender equity and equality in education, limited research has been conducted on this issue.

    Understanding and addressing gendered learning and socioemotional differences among students: teachers’ insights from Rwanda · 2025 · DOI

  • Whether countervailing tendencies in teachers' collective occupational culture will actually lead to teachers' empowerment in education, and the linking of their interest to broader cultural change, remains to be seen.

    Teachers, class culture, and the politics of schooling · 1986 · DOI

  • Prior critiques of the vulnerability zeitgeist have not historicized safety as a technology of power. The book fills a gap in understanding the connection between safety discourses and neoliberalism.

    Review of The Safetyfication of Education: Neoliberalism, Psychopolitics and the End of Critical Education, by Marta Estellés · 2026 · DOI

  • The book identifies a gap in understanding how education reforms travel and settle. The author argues that the decisive variable is not where ideas move but when they take shape, accelerate, and congeal.

    Book Review: Time in Education Policy Transfer: The Seven Temporalities of Global School Reform · 2026 · DOI

  • Consequently, the results are not generalisable but serve as a critical case study with international relevance, given the shared challenges facing adult education systems globally, underscoring the need for further research into principals’ enactment strategies across diverse adult education settings and contexts.

    Principals’ enactment strategies: enacting education based on scientific foundation and proven experience in Swedish adult education · 2026 · DOI

  • Inequality in education undermines the prospects of marginalized groups and reinforces disparities in societies. The lack of a universal operational definition of equity. The significant disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

    Inequality of educational outcomes: A comparative analysis of national trends based on data from PISA, 2000–2018 · 2026 · DOI

  • The impact of the pandemic on educational inequality is an important topic that requires a thorough investigation. Future studies can build on the findings of this study to investigate the effects of interventions on educational inequality.

    Inequality of educational outcomes: A comparative analysis of national trends based on data from PISA, 2000–2018 · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in understanding the entanglement of politics, ethics, infrastructure, and affect in contemporary education. The study recognizes a need to examine the normalization of violence through power and disposability in education.

    The Ethics and Politics of New Brutalism in Education: Infrastructures, Affects, and Insurgent Possibilities · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of how educational networks can support cultural change and improvement in diverse international contexts. The study highlights the need for more research on the possibilities and pitfalls associated with initiating and sustaining school-to-school improvement networks in different cultural and policy contexts.

    Educational networks as catalysts for cultural change: a tale of two systems · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in understanding how to initiate and sustain school-to-school improvement networks in diverse international cultural and policy contexts.

    Correction: Educational networks as catalysts for cultural change: a tale of two systems · 2026 · DOI

  • Future research should explore the impact of the 'school improvement industry' on educational change. Researchers should study the ways in which educators resist private forces and reclaim their power in educational change. The paper suggests that future research should focus on teacher-led reform and its potential to shape the future of education.

    The school improvement industry, resistance, and prophecy: Notes on the state of educational change and its future · 2026 · DOI

  • The paper identifies a gap in the current state of educational change, where influential outsiders have increasingly gained the spotlight. The author argues that educators have consistently been relegated to the dark and sharp edges of change.

    The school improvement industry, resistance, and prophecy: Notes on the state of educational change and its future · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a need to address the legacy of linguistic divisions in Morocco's language policies. The impact of language policies on education has not been fully understood.

    Mohammed Errihani: Language, Power, and the Economics of Education in Morocco.Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2023, xix + 140 pp, Hb £129.99, ISBN 978-3-031-51593-4 · 2026 · DOI

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1,881 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 22,182 Global Educational Policies and Reforms papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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