Development and Education

Abstract

In Development and Education, Chabbott and Ramirez, contend the hypothesis of a positive relationship between education and economic, political, and cultural development. The authors examine two shortcomings of this assumption: (a) although many empirical studies show a positive relationship between many forms of education and individual economic, political, and cultural development, the effects of education on development at the collective level are ambiguous and (b) while the evidence of this for ambiguity has been mounting, reliance on education as the fulcrum for individual and for collective development has been growing. The authors used several decades of cross-national studies to explore the empirical relationship between education and development. Additionally they examined the way education as an instrument to attain national progress and justice has been produced and diffused through development discourse, organizations, and professionals. Despite the variance among the types of education prescribed from one decade to another education became an important component in the global blueprint for development. The authors explain this rationale by the following factors: education serving as an investment in human capital, which tends to increase the productivity of labor and contribute to economic growth and development at the societal level and education being a human right, the prime mechanism for human beings to better themselves and to participate fully in the economy, politics, and culture of their societies. The authors conclude that there is a paradox that despite growing scholarly acknowledgment that our understanding of the link between education and development contains many gray areas, public confidence in these links, manifest in national policies and in international declarations, continues to grow. It is this paradox that prompts for further exploration of the link between education and socio-economic development.