Introduction: Exploring Power Dynamics in Education across Southeast Asia

The Introduction describes the aim of this volume, which is to illustrate the relationship between education and power in contemporary Southeast Asia. The themes of this volume, by which the chapters are organized, are centralization and decentralization; privatization and marketization; and equity and justice. Finally, the Introduction introduces four questions that tie together the volume's chapters: (1) What educational practices have resulted from the domestic and regional competition among the many actors (both domestically and regionally) and histories (from religious and colonial to independence and contemporary) in the region? (2) How has educational governance been altered because of these actors and histories? (3) In what ways are changes in educational systems reflective of the larger political economy and power relations of the region or globe? and (4) What educational outcomes result from such configurations of these dynamics?