The Future of Education for All as a Global Regime of Educational Governance

The article considers the future of Education for All (EFA) understood as a global regime of educational governance. The article sets out an understanding of global governance, world order, power, and legitimacy within which EFA is embedded. It explains what is meant by EFA as a regime of global governance and as part of a “regime complex” along with other regimes that affect education and development. The article traces the genealogy of EFA, focusing on key tensions and contradictions. The emphasis is on understanding the effects of different kinds of power linked to broader global interests within a changing world order. The article concludes by considering the future of EFA. It is suggested that EFA since the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action is giving way to a new global regime of educational governance in which education and in particular learning is linked to sustainable development, albeit in contradictory ways.