ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the importance of thinking critically about schooling in global/local contexts. The research presented in the monograph is multi-faceted, in dialogue with studies of neoliberalism, educational policy, school ethnographies as well as gendered learner identities. This chapter outlines the parameters of the global education context outlining key concepts foundational to the analysis. Specific attention is paid to neoliberalism and neoliberal policy enactment, as well as how research continues to document how educators are often in tension with the neoliberal agenda. The overall aim is to set the foundation for how the survival school operates in a tightly bound and tense interplay between the personal, institutional and contextual.
