Never has the world been as rich in scientific knowledge as it is today. But what are its main sources? In accessible and engaging fashion, Global Mega-Science examines the origins of this unprecedented growth of knowledge production over the past hundred and twenty years. David P. Baker and Justin J.W. Powell integrate sociological and historical approaches with unique scientometric data to argue that at the heart of this phenomenon is the unparalleled cultural success of universities and their connection to science: the university-science model. Considering why science is so deeply linked to (higher) educational development, the authors analyze the accumulation of capacity to produce research-and demonstrate how the university facilitates the emerging knowledge society.

The age of global mega-science was built on the symbiotic relationship between higher education and science, especially the worldwide research collaborations among networked university-based scientists. These relationships are key for scholars and citizens to understand the past, future, and sustainability of science.

Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world's population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society--that is, a society that is actively created and defined by education.

Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how mass education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at large: from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that education is a primary rather than a reactive institution is then tested by examining the degree to which education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how mass education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life.

Using American schools as a reference point, this book provides a comprehensive, comparative description of schooling as a global institution. Each chapter develops a story about a particular global trend: continuing gender differences in achievement, new methods nations employ to govern their schools, the rapidly increasing use of private tutoring, school violence, the development of effective curriculums, and the everyday work of teachers, among other topics.

The authors draw on a four-year investigation conducted in forty-seven countries that examined many aspects of K-12 schooling, such as how schools are run, what teachers teach, and what students learn in mathematics and science. Baker and LeTendre present the results of the study in a non-technical and accessible fashion, outlining the implications of current trends for both education policy discussions and theoretical explorations of the role of education in society. Running throughout the book is a discussion of how world educational trends and the forces behind them will work to change and shape the possible directions education may take in the future.

This volume of International Perspectives on Education and Society explores how educational research from a comparative perspective has been instrumental in broadening and testing hypotheses from institutional theory. Institutional theory has also played an increasingly influential role in developing an understanding of education in society. This symbiotic relationship has proven intellectually productive. In light of the impact that comparative education research has had on institutional theory, the chapters in this volume ask where the comparative and international study of education as an institution is heading in the 21st century. Chapters range from theoretical discussions of the impact that comparative research has had on institutional theory to highly empirical comparative scholarship that tests basic institutional assumptions and trends. Two pioneers in the field, John W. Meyer and Francisco O. Ramirez, contribute the Forward and the concluding chapter. In addition to the editors, other contributors to this volume include M. Fernanda Astiz, Janice Aurini, Jason Beech, Edward F. Bodine, Karen Bradley, Claudia Buchmann, Scott Davies, Gili S. Drori, David H. Kamens, Jong-Seon Kim, Hyeyoung Moon, Hyunjoon Park, Emilio A. Parrado, Lauren Rauscher, John G. Richardson, David F. Suarez, and Regina E. Werum.

This volume of International Perspectives on Education and Society highlights the valuable role that educational policy plays in the development of education and society around the world. The role of policy in the development of education is crucial. Much rests on the decisions, support, and most of all resources that policymakers can either give or withhold in any given situation. The eleven chapters in this volume present persuasive arguments that the internationalization of educational policy has a wide and irreversible effect on schooling and society around the world. Indeed, educational policy is intricately woven into the development of societies. Chapters range from empirical investigations of educational policies impact on national schooling trends to narrative histories of policy-important multilateral organizations and professional societies. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Sheng Y. Cheng, Holger Daun, Diane G. Gal, Stephen P. Heyneman, W. James Jacob, Nancy O. Kendall, Veronica Martini, Mary Ann Maslak, Diane B. Napier, Jordan Naidoo, and David N. Wilson.

Only 150 years ago, the majority of the world's population was largely illiterate. Today, not only do most people over fifteen have basic reading and writing skills, but 20 percent of the population attends some form of higher education. What are the effects of such radical, large-scale change? David Baker argues that the education revolution has transformed our world into a schooled society--that is, a society that is actively created and defined by education.

Drawing on neo-institutionalism, The Schooled Society shows how mass education interjects itself and its ideologies into culture at large: from the dynamics of social mobility, to how we measure intelligence, to the values we promote. The proposition that education is a primary rather than a reactive institution is then tested by examining the degree to which education has influenced other large-scale social forces, such as the economy, politics, and religion. Rich, groundbreaking, and globally-oriented, The Schooled Society sheds light on how mass education has dramatically altered the face of society and human life.

Never has the world been as rich in scientific knowledge as it is today. But what are its main sources? In accessible and engaging fashion, Global Mega-Science examines the origins of this unprecedented growth of knowledge production over the past hundred and twenty years. David P. Baker and Justin J.W. Powell integrate sociological and historical approaches with unique scientometric data to argue that at the heart of this phenomenon is the unparalleled cultural success of universities and their connection to science: the university-science model. Considering why science is so deeply linked to (higher) educational development, the authors analyze the accumulation of capacity to produce research-and demonstrate how the university facilitates the emerging knowledge society.

The age of global mega-science was built on the symbiotic relationship between higher education and science, especially the worldwide research collaborations among networked university-based scientists. These relationships are key for scholars and citizens to understand the past, future, and sustainability of science.

Since the World Conference on Education for All (EFA) in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, the push for modern mass schooling has become a primary focus of national education policymakers and researchers around the world. The EFA declaration that grew out of this conference served as a culmination of a century-long movement to transform existing national educational systems into the most comprehensive mass system of schooling ever devised. Comparative education researchers have been studying both the promises and the challenges surrounding EFA for decades, but in comparative education research literature there is still neither consensus on the impact that EFA has nor clearly identified global trends in either EFA policymaking or policy implementation. It seems that for every promise that EFA brings, there is an accompanying challenge. It is this struggle between the global promises and the national challenges that this volume of International Perspectives on Education and Society seeks to identify and explain. Chapters range from critical syntheses of EFA policymaking or policy implementation to original comparative education research on the impact that EFA has had in specific nations or across clusters of nations. It compares and contrasts the promises of EFA v. implementation of policy. The international contributions ensure global coverage of content. It is part of the International Perspectives on Education and Society series.

Higher education worldwide, including the university and other related academic programs, is currently undergoing intensive change and transformation perhaps as no other time in its long history. One factor contributing to this rapid transformation is the global expansion of higher education at unprecedented rates. More of the world's population is continuing to higher education (and other forms of tertiary education) now than ever before. In fact, enrollment in institutions of higher education around the world is growing at a rapid rate. Some scholars have suggested that one reason for this rapid expansion is that the role of higher education has shifted over the last 50 years from an elite to a mass institution. As a result of this rapid expansion and shift in focus, the nature of students, faculty, the curriculum, and assessment is changing within the institution. And in society, the value of higher education and its impact on socioeconomic status, human capital, and technical innovation is changing as well. As a whole, the chapters in this volume in the International Perspectives on Education and Society series present a thoughtful discussion of the worldwide transformation of higher education from multiple perspectives. Contributors include Gaele Goastellec, David Turner, John C. Weidman, Adiya Enkhjargal, Christine Min Wotipka, Francisco O. Ramirez, Karin Amos, Lucia Bruno, Marcelo Parreira do Amaral, Mark S. Johnson, Christopher Collins, Robert A. Rhoads, Sunwoong Kim, Jun Li, Jing Lin, Chuing Prudence Chou, Philip G. Altbach, and Patti McGill Peterson.