edited works
Non-State Actors in Education in the Global South.
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA & Geoffrey WALFORD, Routledge Special Issues as Books Series, Routledge, 2018. More information and order here. See flyer on right for discount. Synopsis Fuelled by social equity concerns, there have been vigorous debates on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals. There are further questions on the relative effectiveness of government and private schooling in delivering good learning outcomes for all. Within this debate, several empirical questions abound. Do students from poorer backgrounds achieve as well in private schools as their advantaged peers? What are the relative out-of-pocket costs of accessing private schooling compared to government schooling? Is fee-paying non-state provision ‘affordable’ to the poorest households? What is the nature of the education market at different levels? What are the relationships between different non-state actors and the state, and how should they conduct themselves? The chapters in this volume present new empirical evidence and conduct critical analysis on some of these questions. This book was selected for publication by Routledge as part of its Special Issues as Books Series, originally appearing as Vol 42(5) of the Oxford Review of Education. |
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Non-state Private Actors in Education in the Global South. Special Issue, Oxford Review of Education.
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA & Geoffrey WALFORD, 42(5), 2016.
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Synopsis
This Special Issue is concerned with the growth of non-government schooling in the Global South where a great variety of non-state private providers have become increasingly active. A vigorous debate has emerged on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals, as well as on the relative effectiveness of private schooling and its ability to mitigate against social inequities. A number of empirical questions abound, such as relative student achievement and learning outcomes; relative costs; impacts on households accessing fee-paying sectors; the nature of the market at various education levels; relationships between different types of non-state actors and between them and the state; and regulatory compulsions. There is also a need to sharpen conceptualisations on the types of non-state actors operating in the Global South, and the nature of their engagement. This Special Issue brings together eight original contributions addressing some of these questions.
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA & Geoffrey WALFORD, 42(5), 2016.
Access it here.
Synopsis
This Special Issue is concerned with the growth of non-government schooling in the Global South where a great variety of non-state private providers have become increasingly active. A vigorous debate has emerged on the appropriateness of certain non-state actors, particularly those with commercial and entrepreneurial motives, to meet universal education goals, as well as on the relative effectiveness of private schooling and its ability to mitigate against social inequities. A number of empirical questions abound, such as relative student achievement and learning outcomes; relative costs; impacts on households accessing fee-paying sectors; the nature of the market at various education levels; relationships between different types of non-state actors and between them and the state; and regulatory compulsions. There is also a need to sharpen conceptualisations on the types of non-state actors operating in the Global South, and the nature of their engagement. This Special Issue brings together eight original contributions addressing some of these questions.
Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage?
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA, Symposium Books, 2013
ISBN 978-1-873927-91-5
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Synopsis
Low-fee private schooling represents a point of heated debate in the international policy context of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. While on the one hand there is an increased push for free and universal access with assumed State responsibility, reports on the mushrooming of private schools targeting socially and economically disadvantaged groups in a range of developing countries, particularly across Africa and Asia, have emerged over the last decade. Low-fee private schooling has, thus, become a provocative and illuminating area of research and policy interest on the impacts of privatisation and its different forms in developing countries. This edited volume aims to add to the growing literature on low-fee private schooling by presenting seven studies in five countries (Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan), and is bookended by chapters analysing some of the evidence and debates on the topic thus far.
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA, Symposium Books, 2013
ISBN 978-1-873927-91-5
Order it here.
Synopsis
Low-fee private schooling represents a point of heated debate in the international policy context of Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals. While on the one hand there is an increased push for free and universal access with assumed State responsibility, reports on the mushrooming of private schools targeting socially and economically disadvantaged groups in a range of developing countries, particularly across Africa and Asia, have emerged over the last decade. Low-fee private schooling has, thus, become a provocative and illuminating area of research and policy interest on the impacts of privatisation and its different forms in developing countries. This edited volume aims to add to the growing literature on low-fee private schooling by presenting seven studies in five countries (Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan), and is bookended by chapters analysing some of the evidence and debates on the topic thus far.
Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA & Geoffrey WALFORD, Symposium Books, 2007
ISBN 978-1-873927-85-4
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Synopsis
The increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries struggling to achieve Education for All and Millennium Development Goals warrants a focused examination of the phenomenon. However, there is little work on the nature and extent of private provision in countries that, on the one hand, are striving to meet international commitments of universal schooling provision and, on the other, face such challenges as constrained public budgets, low levels of quality, and persistent schooling gaps. This volume brings together new research evidence from academics and policy makers on the nature and extent of private provision in a range of countries across Asia and Africa. As South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for the majority of the world’s population of children out of school, this book sheds new light on the changing context of schooling provision in some of the most vulnerable regions. Of particular interest is the nature and potential impact of private provision on the educational opportunities of economically and socially disadvantaged children.
Edited by Prachi SRIVASTAVA & Geoffrey WALFORD, Symposium Books, 2007
ISBN 978-1-873927-85-4
Order it here.
Synopsis
The increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries struggling to achieve Education for All and Millennium Development Goals warrants a focused examination of the phenomenon. However, there is little work on the nature and extent of private provision in countries that, on the one hand, are striving to meet international commitments of universal schooling provision and, on the other, face such challenges as constrained public budgets, low levels of quality, and persistent schooling gaps. This volume brings together new research evidence from academics and policy makers on the nature and extent of private provision in a range of countries across Asia and Africa. As South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa account for the majority of the world’s population of children out of school, this book sheds new light on the changing context of schooling provision in some of the most vulnerable regions. Of particular interest is the nature and potential impact of private provision on the educational opportunities of economically and socially disadvantaged children.
PAPERS IN SCHOLARLY JOURNALS & BOOK CHAPTERS
Srivastava, P. & Noronha, C., The myth of free and barrier-free access: India's Right to Education Act--private schooling costs and household experiences. Oxford Review of Education, 42(5), pp. 561-578, 2016.
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Abstract
We examine relative household costs and experiences of accessing private and government schooling under India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 in the early implementation phase. The Act deems that no child should incur any fee, charges, or expenses in accessing schooling. Private schools are mandated to allocate 25% of their seats for free via 'freeships' for socially and economically disadvantaged children. Furthermore, the Act has a number of provisions attempting to ease barriers to admission and entry to all schools, including private schools. This paper reports household-level data on the schooling patterns, experiences, and perceptions in ones Delhi slum accessing schooling based on a survey of 290 households and 40 semi-structured interviews. We found very low instances of children with private school freeships. Furthermore, children in 'free' private school seats incurred the second highest costs of accessing schooling after full-fee-paying students in relatively high-fee private schools. Finally, households accessing freeships and higher-fee schools experienced considerable barriers to securing a seat and admission.
Srivastava, P., 'Questioning the global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs', in A. Verger, C. Lubienski, and G. Steiner-Khamsi, (Eds.), The World Yearbook of Education 2016: the global education industry. (Routledge, New York, 2016
Download the proof here.
Abstract
This chapter argues that we are entering a ‘second-wave’ in our understandings and analyses of the low-fee private sector; as is the sector, of its evolution. What first seemed like small, disconnected, individual schools ‘mushrooming’ in specific contexts where there was little or poor quality state provision, has taken root as a phenomenon, purportedly of scale, backed by corporate actors, particularly in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. I argue that the second wave sees a shift from ‘one-off mom-and-pop teaching shops’ in schooling micro-ecosystems (individual villages, slum communities, and urban neighbourhoods), to their coexistence with corporate-backed school chains and allied service providers. These chains operate as part of a micro-system within themselves, sometimes across geographical boundaries beyond the local (across districts, cities, regions, and countries). The entry of ‘big’ corporate capital, both domestic and international, and the emergence of an ecosystem of allied service providers for this sector (education micro-finance institutions; rating systems; scripted curriculum delivery systems; education technology providers (low- and high-tech, etc.)), many of which are also corporate-backed or run, are markers of institutional evolution (DiMaggio & Powell 1983).
Srivastava, P., Philanthropic engagement in education: localised expressions of global flows in India. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 13(1): 5-32, 2016.
Access it here.
Abstract
This article argues that the rise of domestic and international philanthropic engagement in education in India cannot be understood in isolation; rather, it is part of a broader trend of what is termed ‘new global philanthropy in education’ in the Global South. Central to understanding the nature of this engagement is the localised expression of global flows, that is, the movement and connections of ideas and actors that enable philanthropic action and discourse. Based on a global review of the literature, this article contextualises and applies a conceptual framework of philanthropic governance to India given the country’s prominence in the review. It also presents illustrative examples of philanthropic engagement in India.
Srivastava, P., & Baur, L., ‘New global philanthropy and philanthropic governance in education in a post-2015 world’, in K. Mundy, A. Green, R. Lingard, & A. Verger (Eds.), The Handbook of Global Education Policy. (Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, UK, 2016)
Access it here.
Abstract
The tail-end of EFA, the post-2015 discourse, the disenchantment with ODA, and the growing presence of an increased array of international and domestic private non-state actors constitute a new moment of the politics of education. Alongside the funding and learning crises framing post-2015 engagement in education, there is a growing buzz around the potential of philanthropic actors to fill resource gaps and substantive gaps in scaling up ‘solutions’. This chapter reports results of a systematic-type literature review on philanthropic and private foundation engagement in education in developing countries. Results are extended by a discourse analysis of strategy documents of some of the most immediate post-2015 international fora and strategies impacting education, and comparing these with previous frameworks to locate the articulated roles of the private sector and philanthropic actors. Results of the review found a tendency of the logics of intervention of philanthropic engagement to be market-oriented, results-oriented and metrics-based, and top-down, and for the post-2015 architecture for philanthropic engagement in education to be framed by blurring corporate, philanthropic, and domestic and international development activities and actors, operating in new formal and non-formal global policy spaces. The chapter sketches the beginnings of a conceptual analytic on ‘new global philanthropy’ and philanthropic governance in the new moment of the politics of education intimated above.
Srivastava, P., & Noronha, C., Institutional Framing of the Right to Education Act: contestation, controversy, and concessions. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(18), pp. 51-58, 2014.
Download it here.
Abstract
While some of the controversies on India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) were reported in the media and publicly discussed, this paper exposes contestation, controversy, and concessions that were made in policy backrooms throughout the processes framing the Act. The paper presents results from a larger household, school, and institutional-level study on the role of the private sector and the early phase of implementation of the RTE Act . We report data from semi-structured interviews with key education officials and implementers, some of whom were responsible for drafting the Act, and trace successive iterations of draft bills. We found financial concessions, concessions on quality, and concessions on pre-school as an unfulfilled right. We also trace the evolution of the 25% free seats provision and outline the related internal controversy.
Srivastava, P., & Noronha, C., 'Early private school responses to India's Right to Education Act: implications for equity', in I. Macpherson, S. Robertson, & G. Walford (Eds.), Education, Privatisation and Social Justice: case studies from Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2014.)
Order it here.
Abstract
The broader debate surrounding India's Right to Education Act raises questions about the role that the private sector could and should play in expanding access to basic education for the most disadvantaged, and whether, the 25% free seats provision in particular, is emblematic of further privatization. This chapter presents analysis of data on how private schools accessed by households in a Delhi slum responded to the Act in the early phase of implementation. We found considerable policy-practice gaps regarding the implementation of the Act and the free seats provision by schools in our study. This was not helped by unclear procedures set by the government for private schools regarding implementation and reimbursement.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: issues and evidence’, in P. Srivastava (Ed.), Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013.)
Download full text here.
Abstract
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the research evidence on low-fee private schooling in developing countries since the early research activity on the sector. It interrogates the evidence and raises key issues in low-fee private schooling research, namely: the problem of definition; the problem with official data; the question of affordability; and the question of quality regarding inputs, achievement, school recognition/registration status, and quality perceptions and recuperation mechanisms.
Srivastava, P., Privatization and Education for All: unravelling the mobilizing frames. Development. 53(4): 522-528, 2010.
Freely download full text here.
Abstract
Prachi Srivastava argues that the seeming paradox of privatization within the context of Education for All is a result of the limited number of policy options that were legitimized by key policy actors of the movement, due to its internally contentious alliance. She identifies four ‘mobilizing frames’ that are strategically used to coalesce action around privatization: scarce resources, efficiency, competition-choice-quality, and social equity.
Srivastava, P., & Oh, S. Private foundations, philanthropy, and partnership in education and development: mapping the terrain. International Journal of Educational Development. 30(5):460-471, 2010.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
There has been increasing interest on the role of private foundations in education finance and delivery. We argue that this is due to a macro-policy context of stagnating levels of official development assistance for education and an uncritical acceptance of a logic of neutrality and the efficiency and effectiveness of partnerships and philanthropy. This paper reports on the results of a literature review on private foundations in education and development. It found significant contestation against the claims of neutrality, efficiency, effectiveness. It also identifies salient methodological and substantive issues for the development of a research agenda on the issue.
Srivastava, P., Public-private partnerships or privatisation? Questioning the state’s role in education in India. Development in Practice. 20(4/5):540-553, 2010.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
This contribution examines the Government of India's proposed public-private partnership (PPP) strategies in education in its Tenth and Eleventh Five Year Plans. The analysis aims to ascertain the state's role as financier, manager, and regulator of education in view of the proposed PPP strategies. The analysis shows that strategies strongly link PPPs in education with privatisation, and further, that despite assertions of 'a greatly expanded role for the state', the proposed strategies result in a diminished role for the state in education financing, management, and regulation.
Srivastava, P., & Hopwood, N., A practical iterative framework for qualitative data analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 8(1): 76-84, 2009.
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Abstract
The role of iteration in qualitative data analysis, not as a repetitive mechanical task but as a reflexive process, is key to sparking insight and developing meaning. In this paper the authors presents a simple framework for qualitative data analysis comprising three iterative questions. The authors developed it to analyze qualitative data and to engage with the process of continuous meaning-making and progressive focusing inherent to analysis processes. They briefly present the framework and locate it within a more general discussion on analytic reflexivity. They then highlight its usefulness, particularly for newer researchers, by showing practical applications of the framework in two very different studies.
Srivastava, P., ‘From schools to secretariats: crossing organisational boundaries in fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh’, in D. Sridhar (Ed.), Anthropologists inside Organisations: South Asian case studies, pp. 109-131. (Sage, London, 2008).
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Abstract
This chapter uses a reflexive approach and provides a first-hand account of crossing complex organisational boundaries during fieldwork conducted in India. The author describes how mediating her positionality was crucial in accessing participants and data at the local level in schools and at the administrative levels of government. The chapter also presents challenges that were encountered and strategies used to mitigate them.
Srivastava, P., ‘School choice in India: disadvantaged groups and low-fee private schools’, in M. Forsey, S. Davies, and G. Walford (Eds.), The Globalization of School Choice?, (pp. 185-208). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2008.)
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Abstract
Increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries have led to the emergence of private schooling for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. The ‘low-fee private’ sector in India is one example of a private schooling sector that is targeted to and financed by fees from lower income households that have traditionally had low participation in formal schooling. Thus, the emergence of the low-fee private sector marks the need to examine changing school choice behaviours of disadvantaged groups. Dominant middle-class hegemonic discourse in India and the wider literature has characterised these groups as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘likely to be duped’ or as ‘irresponsible’, ignorant of the benefits of schooling, and unwilling to send their children to school due to limited resources. To arrive at a more nuanced understanding, this chapter, based on a study of low-fee private schooling in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, presents a model explaining the school choice processes of one group of disadvantaged households accessing the low-fee private sector. Challenging traditional assumptions, results indicate that households in the study made active choices about their children’s schooling through a complex process that involved analysing competing school sectors, incorporating their beliefs about education, analysing local school markets, and managing particular constraints.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: towards a new institutional understanding of an emerging model of private schooling in India. Research Papers in Education. 23(4): 451-475, 2008.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
While the recent emergence of private schooling targeting socially and economically disadvantaged groups in India has been noted, the broader educational discourse in India conceptualises what have been termed here ‘low‐fee private’ (LFP) schools, as a loose collection of independent ‘teaching shops’. Combining theoretical concepts from new institutional economics and the sociological variant of new institutionalism in organisational theory, empirical results from this study on LFP schooling in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh counter such assumptions.
Far from being a fragmented set of schools, LFP schools employed the shadow institutional framework, a codified yet informal set of norms and procedures, to operate as part of a distinct private schooling sector. Despite the fact that LFP case study schools were independently owned, managed, and financed, they used the shadow framework to manipulate and mediate the formal policy and regulatory framework for their benefit and formed part of the de facto LFP sector, a sub‐sector of the greater private unaided sector. Even though the shadow framework was contrary to or usurped the official regulatory and policy framework, it operated with the knowledge and sometimes full participation of institutional actors who propelled it as a vehicle for legitimacy because of perverse incentives embedded in the formal framework. The article presents the specific norms and procedures comprising the shadow framework, and outlines the potential implications of this new private schooling sector on the provision and delivery of schooling for disadvantaged groups.
Srivastava, P., ‘For philanthropy or profit?: the management and operation of low-fee private schools in India?’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 153-186). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007.)
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Abstract
The emergence of what I term, the low-fee private (LFP) sector, has marked a change in the nature of schooling provision for disadvantaged groups in India. This change necessitates an examination of schooling behaviours and patterns among traditionally low participating groups; the regulatory frameworks through which LFP schools function; and an understanding of the daily realities within which LFP schools operate. This chapter provides an account of the marketised schooling arena for disadvantaged groups in this study on LFP schools in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, and an 'inside look' oh how LFP schools were managed and operated. The discussion provides a descriptive analysis of LFP school management structure and strategies, the challenges they faced, and the motives of their owners.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: challenging an era of Education for All and quality provision?’, in G. Verma, C. Bagley, & M. M. Jha (Eds.), International Perspectives on Educational Diversity and Inclusion: studies from America, Europe and India, (pp. 138-161.) (Routledge, New York, 2007).
View excerpt here.
Abstract
The widespread emergence of what is termed here, 'low-fee private' schooling, heralds the need to look beyond international and national rhetoric framed by various Education for All (EFA) targets and campaigns in order to closely examine emerging private sectors of schooling in developing countries facing the problem of increasing educational demand, constrained public budgets, and deteriorating actual or perceived quality of state education. Paradoxically, the increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling for disadvantaged groups point to an alteration in the way that schooling is delivered and accessed in an era of increased outward commitment to the EFA goals of access, equity, and quality in schooling provided by the State. This chapter provides a starting point in the analysis of the context for the private provision of schooling in India. It provides an analysis of the EFA discourse in India by focusing on two debates most closely linked with the changing nature of schooling provision for disadvantaged groups: quality schooling and increased private provision.
Walford, G., & Srivastava, P., ‘Examining private schooling in less economically developed countries: key issues and new evidence’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 7-14). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007.)
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Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the edited volume raising new issues for the analysis of private schooling in developing countries.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling and mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Compare. 36(4): 497-514, 2006.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
This paper presents disadvantaged households' ‘mental models’ about low‐fee private (LFP) schooling for their daughters in a study in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh. It argues that assumptions in the dominant discourse on girls' schooling in India obscure the complex negotiations and trade‐offs disadvantaged families make when considering schooling choices for their daughters. Furthermore, they obscure a focus on change resulting from and intertwined with changing socio‐economic structures and institutional contexts for schooling over time. The changing institutional context for education through increased LFP provision is the focus for analysis. Data show that participants were not selective in choosing the LFP sector by gender, and thought of it as representing the best chance for their daughters' livelihoods.
Srivastava, P., Reconciling multiple researcher positionalities and languages in international research. Research in Comparative and International Education. 1(3): 210-222, 2006.
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Abstract
Through the development of a set of ideas combining Merton's conceptions of the 'Insider and Outsider' with Lacan's notions of identity construction, the article examines: (1) the role of multiple researcher identities and positionalities, and (2) working in more than one language during data collection and analysis. The article aims to fill a surprising gap in existing literature on such issues in international educational research. Through a reflexive exercise on the fieldwork and data analysis process in one study, the article puts forward the concept of 'currencies' as a way to mediate researcher positionality and achieve temporary shared positionalities with research participants. It also highlights the need to mediate different languages during data analysis and presentation, introducing the concept of 'analytic languages' as a potentially useful construct in doing so.
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Abstract
We examine relative household costs and experiences of accessing private and government schooling under India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 in the early implementation phase. The Act deems that no child should incur any fee, charges, or expenses in accessing schooling. Private schools are mandated to allocate 25% of their seats for free via 'freeships' for socially and economically disadvantaged children. Furthermore, the Act has a number of provisions attempting to ease barriers to admission and entry to all schools, including private schools. This paper reports household-level data on the schooling patterns, experiences, and perceptions in ones Delhi slum accessing schooling based on a survey of 290 households and 40 semi-structured interviews. We found very low instances of children with private school freeships. Furthermore, children in 'free' private school seats incurred the second highest costs of accessing schooling after full-fee-paying students in relatively high-fee private schools. Finally, households accessing freeships and higher-fee schools experienced considerable barriers to securing a seat and admission.
Srivastava, P., 'Questioning the global scaling-up of low-fee private schooling: the nexus between business, philanthropy, and PPPs', in A. Verger, C. Lubienski, and G. Steiner-Khamsi, (Eds.), The World Yearbook of Education 2016: the global education industry. (Routledge, New York, 2016
Download the proof here.
Abstract
This chapter argues that we are entering a ‘second-wave’ in our understandings and analyses of the low-fee private sector; as is the sector, of its evolution. What first seemed like small, disconnected, individual schools ‘mushrooming’ in specific contexts where there was little or poor quality state provision, has taken root as a phenomenon, purportedly of scale, backed by corporate actors, particularly in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. I argue that the second wave sees a shift from ‘one-off mom-and-pop teaching shops’ in schooling micro-ecosystems (individual villages, slum communities, and urban neighbourhoods), to their coexistence with corporate-backed school chains and allied service providers. These chains operate as part of a micro-system within themselves, sometimes across geographical boundaries beyond the local (across districts, cities, regions, and countries). The entry of ‘big’ corporate capital, both domestic and international, and the emergence of an ecosystem of allied service providers for this sector (education micro-finance institutions; rating systems; scripted curriculum delivery systems; education technology providers (low- and high-tech, etc.)), many of which are also corporate-backed or run, are markers of institutional evolution (DiMaggio & Powell 1983).
Srivastava, P., Philanthropic engagement in education: localised expressions of global flows in India. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 13(1): 5-32, 2016.
Access it here.
Abstract
This article argues that the rise of domestic and international philanthropic engagement in education in India cannot be understood in isolation; rather, it is part of a broader trend of what is termed ‘new global philanthropy in education’ in the Global South. Central to understanding the nature of this engagement is the localised expression of global flows, that is, the movement and connections of ideas and actors that enable philanthropic action and discourse. Based on a global review of the literature, this article contextualises and applies a conceptual framework of philanthropic governance to India given the country’s prominence in the review. It also presents illustrative examples of philanthropic engagement in India.
Srivastava, P., & Baur, L., ‘New global philanthropy and philanthropic governance in education in a post-2015 world’, in K. Mundy, A. Green, R. Lingard, & A. Verger (Eds.), The Handbook of Global Education Policy. (Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, UK, 2016)
Access it here.
Abstract
The tail-end of EFA, the post-2015 discourse, the disenchantment with ODA, and the growing presence of an increased array of international and domestic private non-state actors constitute a new moment of the politics of education. Alongside the funding and learning crises framing post-2015 engagement in education, there is a growing buzz around the potential of philanthropic actors to fill resource gaps and substantive gaps in scaling up ‘solutions’. This chapter reports results of a systematic-type literature review on philanthropic and private foundation engagement in education in developing countries. Results are extended by a discourse analysis of strategy documents of some of the most immediate post-2015 international fora and strategies impacting education, and comparing these with previous frameworks to locate the articulated roles of the private sector and philanthropic actors. Results of the review found a tendency of the logics of intervention of philanthropic engagement to be market-oriented, results-oriented and metrics-based, and top-down, and for the post-2015 architecture for philanthropic engagement in education to be framed by blurring corporate, philanthropic, and domestic and international development activities and actors, operating in new formal and non-formal global policy spaces. The chapter sketches the beginnings of a conceptual analytic on ‘new global philanthropy’ and philanthropic governance in the new moment of the politics of education intimated above.
Srivastava, P., & Noronha, C., Institutional Framing of the Right to Education Act: contestation, controversy, and concessions. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(18), pp. 51-58, 2014.
Download it here.
Abstract
While some of the controversies on India's Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) were reported in the media and publicly discussed, this paper exposes contestation, controversy, and concessions that were made in policy backrooms throughout the processes framing the Act. The paper presents results from a larger household, school, and institutional-level study on the role of the private sector and the early phase of implementation of the RTE Act . We report data from semi-structured interviews with key education officials and implementers, some of whom were responsible for drafting the Act, and trace successive iterations of draft bills. We found financial concessions, concessions on quality, and concessions on pre-school as an unfulfilled right. We also trace the evolution of the 25% free seats provision and outline the related internal controversy.
Srivastava, P., & Noronha, C., 'Early private school responses to India's Right to Education Act: implications for equity', in I. Macpherson, S. Robertson, & G. Walford (Eds.), Education, Privatisation and Social Justice: case studies from Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2014.)
Order it here.
Abstract
The broader debate surrounding India's Right to Education Act raises questions about the role that the private sector could and should play in expanding access to basic education for the most disadvantaged, and whether, the 25% free seats provision in particular, is emblematic of further privatization. This chapter presents analysis of data on how private schools accessed by households in a Delhi slum responded to the Act in the early phase of implementation. We found considerable policy-practice gaps regarding the implementation of the Act and the free seats provision by schools in our study. This was not helped by unclear procedures set by the government for private schools regarding implementation and reimbursement.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: issues and evidence’, in P. Srivastava (Ed.), Low-fee Private Schooling: aggravating equity or mitigating disadvantage? Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2013.)
Download full text here.
Abstract
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the research evidence on low-fee private schooling in developing countries since the early research activity on the sector. It interrogates the evidence and raises key issues in low-fee private schooling research, namely: the problem of definition; the problem with official data; the question of affordability; and the question of quality regarding inputs, achievement, school recognition/registration status, and quality perceptions and recuperation mechanisms.
Srivastava, P., Privatization and Education for All: unravelling the mobilizing frames. Development. 53(4): 522-528, 2010.
Freely download full text here.
Abstract
Prachi Srivastava argues that the seeming paradox of privatization within the context of Education for All is a result of the limited number of policy options that were legitimized by key policy actors of the movement, due to its internally contentious alliance. She identifies four ‘mobilizing frames’ that are strategically used to coalesce action around privatization: scarce resources, efficiency, competition-choice-quality, and social equity.
Srivastava, P., & Oh, S. Private foundations, philanthropy, and partnership in education and development: mapping the terrain. International Journal of Educational Development. 30(5):460-471, 2010.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
There has been increasing interest on the role of private foundations in education finance and delivery. We argue that this is due to a macro-policy context of stagnating levels of official development assistance for education and an uncritical acceptance of a logic of neutrality and the efficiency and effectiveness of partnerships and philanthropy. This paper reports on the results of a literature review on private foundations in education and development. It found significant contestation against the claims of neutrality, efficiency, effectiveness. It also identifies salient methodological and substantive issues for the development of a research agenda on the issue.
Srivastava, P., Public-private partnerships or privatisation? Questioning the state’s role in education in India. Development in Practice. 20(4/5):540-553, 2010.
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Abstract
This contribution examines the Government of India's proposed public-private partnership (PPP) strategies in education in its Tenth and Eleventh Five Year Plans. The analysis aims to ascertain the state's role as financier, manager, and regulator of education in view of the proposed PPP strategies. The analysis shows that strategies strongly link PPPs in education with privatisation, and further, that despite assertions of 'a greatly expanded role for the state', the proposed strategies result in a diminished role for the state in education financing, management, and regulation.
Srivastava, P., & Hopwood, N., A practical iterative framework for qualitative data analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 8(1): 76-84, 2009.
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Abstract
The role of iteration in qualitative data analysis, not as a repetitive mechanical task but as a reflexive process, is key to sparking insight and developing meaning. In this paper the authors presents a simple framework for qualitative data analysis comprising three iterative questions. The authors developed it to analyze qualitative data and to engage with the process of continuous meaning-making and progressive focusing inherent to analysis processes. They briefly present the framework and locate it within a more general discussion on analytic reflexivity. They then highlight its usefulness, particularly for newer researchers, by showing practical applications of the framework in two very different studies.
Srivastava, P., ‘From schools to secretariats: crossing organisational boundaries in fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh’, in D. Sridhar (Ed.), Anthropologists inside Organisations: South Asian case studies, pp. 109-131. (Sage, London, 2008).
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Abstract
This chapter uses a reflexive approach and provides a first-hand account of crossing complex organisational boundaries during fieldwork conducted in India. The author describes how mediating her positionality was crucial in accessing participants and data at the local level in schools and at the administrative levels of government. The chapter also presents challenges that were encountered and strategies used to mitigate them.
Srivastava, P., ‘School choice in India: disadvantaged groups and low-fee private schools’, in M. Forsey, S. Davies, and G. Walford (Eds.), The Globalization of School Choice?, (pp. 185-208). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2008.)
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Abstract
Increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling in economically developing countries have led to the emergence of private schooling for socio-economically disadvantaged groups. The ‘low-fee private’ sector in India is one example of a private schooling sector that is targeted to and financed by fees from lower income households that have traditionally had low participation in formal schooling. Thus, the emergence of the low-fee private sector marks the need to examine changing school choice behaviours of disadvantaged groups. Dominant middle-class hegemonic discourse in India and the wider literature has characterised these groups as ‘vulnerable’ and ‘likely to be duped’ or as ‘irresponsible’, ignorant of the benefits of schooling, and unwilling to send their children to school due to limited resources. To arrive at a more nuanced understanding, this chapter, based on a study of low-fee private schooling in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, presents a model explaining the school choice processes of one group of disadvantaged households accessing the low-fee private sector. Challenging traditional assumptions, results indicate that households in the study made active choices about their children’s schooling through a complex process that involved analysing competing school sectors, incorporating their beliefs about education, analysing local school markets, and managing particular constraints.
Srivastava, P., The shadow institutional framework: towards a new institutional understanding of an emerging model of private schooling in India. Research Papers in Education. 23(4): 451-475, 2008.
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Abstract
While the recent emergence of private schooling targeting socially and economically disadvantaged groups in India has been noted, the broader educational discourse in India conceptualises what have been termed here ‘low‐fee private’ (LFP) schools, as a loose collection of independent ‘teaching shops’. Combining theoretical concepts from new institutional economics and the sociological variant of new institutionalism in organisational theory, empirical results from this study on LFP schooling in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh counter such assumptions.
Far from being a fragmented set of schools, LFP schools employed the shadow institutional framework, a codified yet informal set of norms and procedures, to operate as part of a distinct private schooling sector. Despite the fact that LFP case study schools were independently owned, managed, and financed, they used the shadow framework to manipulate and mediate the formal policy and regulatory framework for their benefit and formed part of the de facto LFP sector, a sub‐sector of the greater private unaided sector. Even though the shadow framework was contrary to or usurped the official regulatory and policy framework, it operated with the knowledge and sometimes full participation of institutional actors who propelled it as a vehicle for legitimacy because of perverse incentives embedded in the formal framework. The article presents the specific norms and procedures comprising the shadow framework, and outlines the potential implications of this new private schooling sector on the provision and delivery of schooling for disadvantaged groups.
Srivastava, P., ‘For philanthropy or profit?: the management and operation of low-fee private schools in India?’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 153-186). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007.)
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Abstract
The emergence of what I term, the low-fee private (LFP) sector, has marked a change in the nature of schooling provision for disadvantaged groups in India. This change necessitates an examination of schooling behaviours and patterns among traditionally low participating groups; the regulatory frameworks through which LFP schools function; and an understanding of the daily realities within which LFP schools operate. This chapter provides an account of the marketised schooling arena for disadvantaged groups in this study on LFP schools in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh, and an 'inside look' oh how LFP schools were managed and operated. The discussion provides a descriptive analysis of LFP school management structure and strategies, the challenges they faced, and the motives of their owners.
Srivastava, P., ‘Low-fee private schooling: challenging an era of Education for All and quality provision?’, in G. Verma, C. Bagley, & M. M. Jha (Eds.), International Perspectives on Educational Diversity and Inclusion: studies from America, Europe and India, (pp. 138-161.) (Routledge, New York, 2007).
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Abstract
The widespread emergence of what is termed here, 'low-fee private' schooling, heralds the need to look beyond international and national rhetoric framed by various Education for All (EFA) targets and campaigns in order to closely examine emerging private sectors of schooling in developing countries facing the problem of increasing educational demand, constrained public budgets, and deteriorating actual or perceived quality of state education. Paradoxically, the increased marketisation and privatisation of schooling for disadvantaged groups point to an alteration in the way that schooling is delivered and accessed in an era of increased outward commitment to the EFA goals of access, equity, and quality in schooling provided by the State. This chapter provides a starting point in the analysis of the context for the private provision of schooling in India. It provides an analysis of the EFA discourse in India by focusing on two debates most closely linked with the changing nature of schooling provision for disadvantaged groups: quality schooling and increased private provision.
Walford, G., & Srivastava, P., ‘Examining private schooling in less economically developed countries: key issues and new evidence’, in P. Srivastava and G. Walford (Eds.) Private Schooling in Less Economically Developed Countries: Asian and African perspectives, (pp. 7-14). Oxford Studies in Comparative Education Series. (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2007.)
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Abstract
This chapter provides an introduction to the edited volume raising new issues for the analysis of private schooling in developing countries.
Srivastava, P., Private schooling and mental models about girls’ schooling in India. Compare. 36(4): 497-514, 2006.
Link to journal article here.
Abstract
This paper presents disadvantaged households' ‘mental models’ about low‐fee private (LFP) schooling for their daughters in a study in Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh. It argues that assumptions in the dominant discourse on girls' schooling in India obscure the complex negotiations and trade‐offs disadvantaged families make when considering schooling choices for their daughters. Furthermore, they obscure a focus on change resulting from and intertwined with changing socio‐economic structures and institutional contexts for schooling over time. The changing institutional context for education through increased LFP provision is the focus for analysis. Data show that participants were not selective in choosing the LFP sector by gender, and thought of it as representing the best chance for their daughters' livelihoods.
Srivastava, P., Reconciling multiple researcher positionalities and languages in international research. Research in Comparative and International Education. 1(3): 210-222, 2006.
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Abstract
Through the development of a set of ideas combining Merton's conceptions of the 'Insider and Outsider' with Lacan's notions of identity construction, the article examines: (1) the role of multiple researcher identities and positionalities, and (2) working in more than one language during data collection and analysis. The article aims to fill a surprising gap in existing literature on such issues in international educational research. Through a reflexive exercise on the fieldwork and data analysis process in one study, the article puts forward the concept of 'currencies' as a way to mediate researcher positionality and achieve temporary shared positionalities with research participants. It also highlights the need to mediate different languages during data analysis and presentation, introducing the concept of 'analytic languages' as a potentially useful construct in doing so.
Major Technical Reports &Working Papers
Srivastava, P., Read, R., & Baur, L., Private sector engagement in basic education in developing countries. Report commissioned by the European Commission Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DEVCO B4 Education Sector Unit), October 2016, pp. 62.
Abstract
This report was commissioned by the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development, Unit B4 Education Sector (DEVCO B4) of the European Commission to provide: (1) an overview of some of the key issues framing current private sector engagement in basic education, and (2) an analysis of the existing evidence in developing countries available through desk-based research. The report focuses on the low-fee private school sector and ancillary service providers; philanthropic and private foundation engagement; and corporate sector engagement. Illustrative examples have been integrated throughout the report.
Noronha, C., & Srivastava, P., India's Right to Education Act: household experiences and private school responses. Education Support Program Working Paper Series 2013, No. 53. PERI, Open Societies Foundations, 2013, pp. 52. Freely download full text here.
Abstract
This study aimed to shed light on the early phase of implementation of India’s landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), effective as of April 2010, with special attention on the role of the private sector (i.e. private unaided schools). This working paper reports household- and school-level results of a larger project in Delhi (Noronha & Srivastava, 2012). We report results on the implementation and mediation processes in schools; experiences of households accessing schooling under the RTE Act; and household and school understandings of the Act and its provisions. While the focus of our study was on the private sector and the 25% free seats provision, our investigation showed that this was just one facet, albeit important, of the Act. In fact, the Act necessitates fundamental changes, procedural and conceptual, to education as a whole.
Srivastava, P., Noronha, C., & Fennell, S., Private sector study: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Report submitted to DFID (India), 2013, pp. 68. Freely download full text here.
Abstract
This research study was commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in India to provide a broad overview of key issues associated with how the role of the private sector in education has evolved over the last ten years of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Government of India’s flagship programme for universal elementary education. The terms of reference set the focus of this study on broadly covering public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the emergence of low-fee private schooling. Additionally, the end of the first decade of SSA dovetails with the implementation of the RTE Act, bringing important changes to the general policy context framing the role of the private sector. Conversely, the RTE Act has implications for how SSA may evolve.
We begin by providing a brief overview of the different types of schooling provision in India. Next, we review the literature on private schooling in India and low-fee private schooling in relation to the SSA goals of access, equity, and outcomes, and then analyse official data sources to provide some idea of the relative contribution of government and private schools to elementary education. This is followed by an analysis of how PPPs have evolved over the Eleventh and Twelfth Five-Year Plans. The study examines new models of PPPs and implications for the private sector under the new SSA phase, ushered in by the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act). Finally, the report draws on primary data collection consisting of interviews with prominent members of academia, civil society activists, and donors to articulate current perspectives. The report concludes by noting a number of areas to be addressed in moving forward, taking into consideration the context of the RTE Act and a new phase for SSA.
Noronha, C., & Srivastava, P., The Right to Education Act in India: focuses on early implementation issues and the private sector. Report submitted to the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative, Soros Open Society Institute, Ottawa/New Delhi, University of Ottawa/CORD, 2012, pp. 159.
Abstract
This study aims to shed light on the early phase of implementation of India’s landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), effective as of April 2010. The RTE Act, the result of a long process of deliberation and public debate, is the first official Central Government legislation to fully confer the right to education by law and extend it across the country. This marks a significant shift in the formal policy and legal frameworks governing education in India, and also, how it should be conceptualised in the Indian context. Nonetheless, controversy surrounds the Act and its provisions in a number of areas, the most prominent being Section 12(1)(c) compelling all private schools to allocate 25% of their places in Class 1 (or pre-pre-primary as applicable) for free to socially and economically disadvantaged children to be retained until they complete elementary education (Class 8). Proponents claim that it is the only way for the state to achieve universal elementary education because of insufficient state sector capacity; critics maintain that the provision marks the most explicit institutional legitimization of the private sector without sufficient effort to strengthen the decaying state sector. Within this context, this study sought to understand the way in which the RTE Act directed local policy action, the way it was mediated/implemented by local schools, and the experiences of disadvantaged households accessing schooling in the context of the RTE Act, with particular attention on how they accessed private schools and their attempts in securing places under the 25% free seats provision.
Oh, S., & Srivastava, P., Open Society Institute review of education in 21 countries with a focus on conflict-affected contexts. A technical report commissioned by the Open Society Foundation-London, Soros Open Society Institute, Soros Network, 2009, pp. 100.
Abstract
This review was commissioned by the ESP OSF-London to provide an analysis of OSI’s education interventions in 21 conflict-affected countries. Education interventions in the following countries are under review: Albania, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burma, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Georgia, Kosovo, Liberia, Macedonia, Nepal, Pakistan, Serbia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. The objectives of the review were to: (1) document past and current OSI education activities in the specified countries, and highlight why particular programmes have been judged successful, analyse the impact of education programmes and their significance, provide insights which can guide present and future practice; (2) analyse the role and added value of OSI in education as a private foundation as against other civil society actors; and (3) provide a commentary on the utility of the Inter-Agency Network of Education in Emergencies (INEE) minimum standards framework as is relevant to OSI operations.
Srivastava, P. Neither voice nor loyalty: school choice and the low-fee private sector in India. Research Publications Series, Occasional Paper No. 134. National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, Columbia University, New York, 2007, pp. 46.
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Abstract
The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, it presents a model examining the school choice processes of disadvantaged households accessing the LFP sector in a study on Lucknow District, Uttar Pradesh. The model presents households in the study as engaging in ‘active choice’. Active choice is seen as the deliberated action of households in making concerted choices about their children’s schooling through a complex process. The process involved assessing competing school sectors (mainly the state and LFP), and analyzing particular household circumstances and local school markets through a systemic set of values, beliefs, and ‘mental models’ (North, 1990) about education. Second, it focuses on the adept employment of engagement strategies specific to the LFP sector by households in the study to interact with their chosen schools. Since the schooling arena is heavily marketised, household behavior was expected to follow Hirschman’s (1970) classic ‘exit, voice, and loyalty’ framework. However, contextual specificities of the LFP sector necessitated a re-examination of this framework when applied here.
Srivastava, P. Disadvantaged groups and the private sector: challenges to and implications for Indian education policy. A report for the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, and for the Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. Department of Educational Studies, University of Oxford, 2006, pp. 75.
Srivastava, P., A household, school and state level analysis of the implications of low-fee charging private schools for socially and economically disadvantaged groups in India. Report for the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, New Delhi, 2003.
Reprints of Refereed Works Appearing as Book Chapters
Srivastava, P., & Oh, S. 'Private foundations, philanthropy, and partnership in education and development: mapping the terrain', in S.L. Robertson, K. Mundy, A. Verger, & F. Menashy (Eds.), Public Private Partnerships in Education: new actors and modes of governance in a globalizing world. (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, 2012.)
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Srivastava, P., ‘Public-private partnerships or privatisaton? Questioning the state’s role in education in India’, in P. Rose (Ed.), Achieving Education for All through public–private partnerships? Non-state provision of education in developing countries. (Routledge, London, 2010, hardback.) (Routledge, London, 2013, paperback.)
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other refereed contributions
Ehrenhalt, L., and Srivastava, P., ‘Jem and the Holograms’, in C. Mitchell & J. Reid-Walsh (Eds.), Girl Culture: an encyclopedia, (vol. 2). (Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2008).
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other contributions & Dissemination
Srivastava, P., & Hopwood, N., Reflection/Commentary on a past article: 'A practical iterative framework for qualitative data analysis', International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Special Issue, Top 20 in 20. Volume 17, pp. 1-3, 2018. Read the full text here.
Srivastava, P., The number one question policymakers need to ask themselves is, 'Low-fee for whom?'. Private or Public: Does the proliferation of low-fee/low-cost private schools improve or impede learning for all? UNESCO IIEP Learning Portal. July 2016. Read the transcript and listen to the full interview here.
Srivastava, P., Mind the gap: assessing the philanthropic 'buzz' in global education. NORRAG News, 52: 102-103, August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools and poor children: what do we really know? The Guardian, 12 August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling: what do we really know? From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blog, 11 August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Why private investors, governments, and aid agencies should rethink their strategies. Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer? EduDebate, WISE ed.review, Qatar Foundation, April 2014, electronic document. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Education post-2015: moving beyond lip-service. ENGAGE Magazine of the Steve Sinnott Foundation, Issue 8, p. 15, August 2013. View as a blog post here OR download full magazine issue here.
Martinez, A., & Srivastava, P., Gender dimensions of education in conflict-affected contexts. Education and Training Briefing Paper, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009, 2009, electronic document.
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Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling for disadvantaged girls in India. ID21 Education, Research Highlight. Institute of Development Studies, UK, 2007, electronic document.
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Srivastava, P., Why is schooling failing in the 'new' India? Open University-BBC open2.net, International Development. Milton Keynes, Open University, UK, 2006, electronic document.
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Srivastava, P., The number one question policymakers need to ask themselves is, 'Low-fee for whom?'. Private or Public: Does the proliferation of low-fee/low-cost private schools improve or impede learning for all? UNESCO IIEP Learning Portal. July 2016. Read the transcript and listen to the full interview here.
Srivastava, P., Mind the gap: assessing the philanthropic 'buzz' in global education. NORRAG News, 52: 102-103, August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schools and poor children: what do we really know? The Guardian, 12 August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling: what do we really know? From Poverty to Power, Oxfam blog, 11 August 2015. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Why private investors, governments, and aid agencies should rethink their strategies. Quality Education for All: are low-cost private schools the answer? EduDebate, WISE ed.review, Qatar Foundation, April 2014, electronic document. View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Education post-2015: moving beyond lip-service. ENGAGE Magazine of the Steve Sinnott Foundation, Issue 8, p. 15, August 2013. View as a blog post here OR download full magazine issue here.
Martinez, A., & Srivastava, P., Gender dimensions of education in conflict-affected contexts. Education and Training Briefing Paper, Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2009, 2009, electronic document.
View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Low-fee private schooling for disadvantaged girls in India. ID21 Education, Research Highlight. Institute of Development Studies, UK, 2007, electronic document.
View full text here.
Srivastava, P., Why is schooling failing in the 'new' India? Open University-BBC open2.net, International Development. Milton Keynes, Open University, UK, 2006, electronic document.
View full text here.