Educational framing and discursive educational opportunity structures in comparative and international education

ABSTRACT

This conceptual paper draws on theoretical insights from the concept of discursive opportunity structure. The paper uses a summative content analysis (a comparison of historical records) to demonstrate how discursive opportunity structures shape the multi-level nature of educational governance, which operates at different scales in different regions. Before the Coronavirus (COVID-19) struck, the post-2008 global recession had begun to give way to the ‘gated global,’ as nations were retreating towards closed regionalism and trans-regionalism as evidenced by an uptick in regional trading agreements (RTAs). This implies that globalisation is metamorphosing as global responsibilities are transferred to the regional level. This paper will use the 15 Member grouping, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as an example of how political opportunities at the regional level are currently molding national educational agendas. It draws attention to how education is framed horizontally and vertically while illuminating what I term ‘discursive educational opportunity structure’ in which actors, institutions, and text define, develop, and maintain the dominant discourses. This piece demonstrates how institutional opportunities arise at different levels of the educational system and how their dominant discourses are framed and mobilised by various actors to advance their causes.

KEYWORDS:

• Discursive opportunity structures
• political opportunity structures
• discursive educational opportunity structures
• CARICOM
• trans-regionalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Aspect of this work draw upon Jules (2012). I am grateful to Richard Arnold for his research assistance on this paper.

2 CARICOM’s current members are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. However, the Bahamas and Haiti are not members of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

3 Ideological pluralism is a term coined by regional leaders to symbolize the different forms of socialism, an unconventional or ‘third path’ towards attaining economic development that occurred in Guyana, guided by Prime Minister Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham from 1966 to 1980 and President from 1980 to 1985; Jamaica, aided by Prime Minister Michael Norman Manley from 1972 to 1980; and Grenada, under Prime Minister Maurice Rupert Bishop from 1979 to 1983.

4 The SCME, from 1975 to 1997, was the Ministerial Committee designated as an institution of the CARICOM under the Original Treaty of Chaguaramas. In 2001, the Treaty of Chaguaramas was revised and SCME was reformed into the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD).

5 CARICOM citizens may establish companies and business enterprises in any CARICOM nation and be treated as a local national.

6 The protocols were institutions and structures including the right of establishment; provision of services and movement of capital; industrial policy; trade policy; agricultural policy; transport policy; disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors; competition policy and consumer protection; and disputes settlement. The institutional structure of the Community as set out in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (CARICOM, 2001) consists of two Principal Organs (the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community ([CHGCC] and its Bureau) and the Community Council of Ministers (Community Council). The two principal organs are assisted by four 'Councils,' three 'Bodies,' and the CARICOM Secretariat, which is the 'Principal Administrative Organs.' The four Councils are: the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP); the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED); the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR); and the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD). The three bodies are: the Legal Affairs Committee, which provides legal advice to the organs and bodies of the Community; the Budget Committee, which examines the draft budget, work program of the CARICOM Secretariat, and submits recommendations to the Community Council; and the Committee of Central Bank Governors, which provides recommendations to the COFAP on monetary and financial matter.

7 The Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CHGCC), which consists of the Heads of Government of the Member States, is the supreme Organ of the Caribbean Community and determines and provides its policy direction. As a body, it is responsible for making the financial arrangements, the final authority for the conclusion of Treaties on behalf of the Community, and for entering into relationships between the Community and International Organizations and States.

8 Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) replaced the SCME in 1997 as the body responsible for promoting human and social development as described under Article 17 of the Revised Treaty.

9 The term “mini-systems” follows the definition provided by Wallerstein (1974). Wallerstein argues that capitalist integration of mini-systems has led to their demise. The mini-systems that he refers to are nation-states.