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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Anja GiudiciORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
Do political parties approach education with different social policy aims? We argue that while parties have adopted a common language of equality as an aim of education, they draw on different conceptions of it linked to diverging social projects. To make this argument, we first normatively distin- guish education as a tool for creating equal opportunity, equal outcomes, and representational diversity. We then draw on an original dataset coding the educational content in the political manifestos of the largest center-left and center-right party across 19 Western democracies from 1950 to present. The analysis shows that left parties emphasise more equality of outcome than rightwing parties and pay less attention to equality of opportunity, and that they associate equality-related aims more extensively with promises of resources. These findings suggest that there remain critical differences in parties' understanding of edu- cation as a tool of social policy.
Author(s): Gingrich J, Giudici A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Social Policy & Administration
Year: 2023
Volume: 57
Issue: 2
Pages: 172-188
Print publication date: 01/03/2023
Online publication date: 15/12/2022
Acceptance date: 21/11/2022
Date deposited: 15/12/2022
ISSN (print): 0144-5596
ISSN (electronic): 1467-9515
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12878
DOI: 10.1111/spol.12878
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