The Education Systems of the Americas: Introduction

Jornitz, S.; Parreira do Amaral, M.

Zusammenfassung

The chapter introduces the readers to the contents and rationales of this handbook.This Handbook focuses on the education systems on the American continents -North, Central, and South America - and includes chapters for most countries inthis region, also the Caribbean. This introductory chapter first offers a conceptualdiscussion of central concepts that build the object of interest of the chapters,namely national education systems, and discusses their status and relevance forunderstanding education in the global era. By doing so, it sets the intellectualframework for the country chapters. By deliberating on the conceptual leverage ofeach term, it aims at both sharpening their analytical traction and pointing to theirmultifaceted nature - a crucial intellectual activity before any comparative exercise.It closes with a brief outline of the common structure that builds thebackbone of the individual country chapters is then presented. This section brieflyexpounds the rationale of the different parts of the chapters, offering somejustification for the organizational principles deployed, including their selective nature. In making these decisions transparent, the section also functions as auseful reading aid.