Series Editor Preface

Summary

This book brings together a combination of local and international scholars who have long been engaged in educational research, policy and practice in Central America and the Latin Caribbean (CALC). This is a region characterized by precarity and insecurity, stemming from social, economic, and political structures that are seen to ‘deeply entrench patterns of inequality’. We are pleased to support this work in a region where there is scant English language literature on the challenges faced by education, the dynamics of global forces and the ‘local efforts that seek to address, mitigate and even counteract these forces’.

Chapters in Education and Development in Central America and the Latin Caribbean cover all of the Spanish speaking countries of the region: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. This, when combined with a common and challenging theoretical framework rooted in international political economy, provides a unique focus and distinctive analytical strengths. Collectively, the authors critically examine how education is both challenging and contributing to inequalities and exclusion in the face of global and local pressures. This is informed by original empirical research, the shared theoretical frame, decolonial influences and insights derived from deep local engagement with educational policy and practice.

We hope that this timely contribution to the Bristol Studies in Comparative and International Education series will stimulate further transformative research within the CALC region, contribute to pertinent theoretical advances and make helpful and informed contributions to ongoing policy and practice.