Introduction

Education is often conceived of as a motor of social change. Numerous public opinion leaders have requested educationalists to make an effort to overcome social evils, or to pursue the happiness of future generations. Since the introduction of obligatory primary schooling, itself an effort taken to foster the establishment of modern national societies (see Boli et al., 1985; Meyer et al., 1992), education has been seen as a motor for the advancement of society; even critical scholars of education have underpinned its capacity to transform social structures to achieve a more just order (Apple, 2004; Freire, 2000; Giroux, 1983).