Historicising the geopolitics of education and the SDGs: From Western hegemony to a multi-polar world?

Abstract

This paper seeks to take a critical and historical look at the rise and fall of the SDGs, with a particular focus on education. At the core of the argument is that the SDGs (2015–2030), their predecessor the Millennium Development Goals (2000–2015), and the Education for All movement (1990 onwards), were the product of a post-Cold War, neoliberal, development agenda whose framing and logic were constructed in a moment of uni-polar, US-led, Western hegemony, which today is collapsing around us. Geopolitics and global power are changing in important ways and we need to recognise this, and think through ways to ensure that we can support this in the interests of the marginalised global majority, in education and beyond. ‘Pax-Americana’ needs to be replaced with a ‘Pax-Pluralis’ that can underpin new global models of security, development and growth that can better address the massive global challenges that we face.