Education quality and social justice in the South: Towards a conceptual framework

The chapter sets out a conceptual framework for understanding issues relating to the quality of education in the global South. It is argued that education quality is best understood as a contested terrain involving competing views of what is meant by a good quality education, how it can be implemented and evaluated linked to different conceptions of human development. The chapter starts by outlining and critiquing dominant approaches to understanding education quality. This provides a basis for setting out our own conceptual framework based on social justice principles and the human capabilities approach. It is argued that our proposed framework builds on but also usefully extends existing frameworks.