Publisher's Synopsis
Western governments appear to have a deep and unquestioning faith in the miraculous power of mass schooling to change society. In First and Third Worlds alike, the modern state pushes tirelessly to expand mass education and to deepen the school's effect upon children. This book explores why, how and with what actual effects politicians and bureaucrats try to spread schooling to younger children, older adults and previously disenfranchised groups. The author argues that the school provides an institutional stage on which political actors signal various (contradictory) ideals: broadening membership in the polity, promising mass opportunity in the wage sector and deepening a presumed commitment to the child's individual development. He advances a theory of the "fragile state" where Western political expectations and organizations are placed within pluralistic Third World settings. Using southern Africa as an example, he details the dilemmas faced by the central state, how it tries to influence local schools and what the results are within the classroom.
