Just another brick in the wall? The changing legitimacy and centrality of the World Bank in global education

This chapter provides a synthesis of the evolving role of the World Bank in the education-for-development realm, while also identifying research areas that beg for further investigation. We show how, whilst the World Bank gained a hegemonic position in the education-for-development field during the 1980s, its commitment to the Washington Consensus and to a pro-market agenda ended up eroding its international legitimacy. In response, the Bank embraced a more heterodox reform agenda and a more client-oriented approach - with the downside of its policy message losing power and internal cohesion. In parallel, this international organization has gone through continual internal restructuring, and faces growing levels of competition on the part of other organizations similarly operating as sources of funding and technical expertise. All these factors have contributed to the Bank’s diminished centrality in the education-for-development compact, stimulating a process of soul-searching aimed at reassessing its own position in a multi-polar world.