How NGOs React: Globalization and Education Reform in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Mongolia

* Critical retrospective on the first decades of the transition from planned to free-market economy in Central Asia * Contributions from both Eastern and Western scholars * Includes both theoretical NGO research and practical examples taken from experience During the important, early years of post-socialist transformation in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia, the Open Society Institute/Soros Foundation was arguably the largest and most influential network in the region. How NGOs Reactfollows the Soros Foundation's educational reform programs there and raises larger questions about the role of NGOs in a centralist government, relationships NGOs have with international donors and development banks, and strategies NGOs use to interpret global reforms locally. The authors, all former or current educational experts of the Soros Foundation, analyze 'the post-socialist reform package' at the country-level, highlighting the common features such as decentralization, privatization, vouchers and liberalization of the textbook publishing market. They look at the global reforms and their variations as they were transferred to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan over the past decade. A unique combination of perspectives from Western as well as Eastern scholars based in the region makes this collection an essential retrospective on key processes involved in transforming educational systems since the collapse of the socialist bloc. Contributors:Tatiana Abdushukurova, Erika Dailey, Valentin Deichman, Natsagdorj Enkhtuya, Alexandr Ivanov, Saule Kalikova, Elmina Kazimzade, Anna Matiashvili and Armenuhi Tadevosyan.

Iveta Silova is an Assistant Professor of Transcultural, Comparative, and International Education at the College of Education, Lehigh University. She is the author of From Sites of Occupation to Symbols of Multiculturalism: Re-conceptualizing Minority Education in Post-Soviet Latvia (Information Age Publishing, 2006) and coeditor (with Mark Bray and Virginija Budiene) of Education in a Hidden Marketplace: Monitoring of Private Tutoring (Open Society Institute, 2006).Gita Steiner-Khamsi is Professor of Comparative and International Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York (since 1995). She was a guest professor at Humboldt University, Berlin; Stanford University; O.I.S.E. at University of Toronto; University of London Institute of Education. She is 2009 President of the U.S. Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) and committee member of the World Congress of Comparative Education Societies. She published 4 books and numerous journal articles and book chapters. The two most recent publications are The Global Politics of Educational Borrowing and Lending (Teachers College Press, 2004) and Educational Import: Local Encounter with Global Forces in Mongolia (Palgrave Macmillan 2006). She does analytical work and applied research in Mongolia, Central Asia, and Europe.