The politics of legitimacy: roles of for-profit corporate and private philanthropic actors in global education

High-net-worth individuals, and the business organizations they found and lead, are becoming a class of ‘elite’ donors who use philanthropic vehicles and mechanisms often drawn from business to achieve their philanthropic goals. With the entry of this class of donors into the realm of global education, the authors argue that we are witnessing the commodification of legitimacy. Utilizing comparative methodology, they examine case studies from Brazil, China, India, and the United States to systematically analyze global trends and regional differences in contemporary for-profit corporate and private philanthropic enactment. The analysis reveals consistent themes, with regard to philanthropic trends, as well as contemporary philanthropic enactment patterns that show the capitalist economy to be a driving force of globalization and transformation in global education. The discussion reflects on how new roles simultaneously support and undermine global education goals, highlighting these trade-offs as they relate to legitimacy, transparency, and accountability. This contribution brings the attendant vulnerabilities and trade-offs of non-state actor engagement to the forefront of discourse around the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 and considers safeguards that can be taken to ensure equitable and democratic education governance.