شبكة المعلومات العربية التربوية

This conceptual paper looks at the influence of how state philanthropy in education is used to build democracy. By using the example of Tunisia, it will look at how states manage grantees, choose partners, frame problems, and evaluate the educational results of philanthropical endeavors. In drawing from the international relations literature, on the conceptual scaffolding of “soft diplomacy,” this paper will examine the rise of state philanthropy in education where donor countries spend billions of dollars trying to (re)shape national educational systems under the guise of security. The paper explores the difference between educational philanthropy (in the form of Zakat, Sadaqah, and Waqf) and state philanthropy by explaining how the former is waning in support while the latter thrives under perceived new threats. By doing this, the paper seeks to contribute to the existing literature on philanthropy by exploring how new actors (both state and non-state alike) are using soft diplomacy to reshape Islamic philanthropy in education. The paper concludes by suggesting that we are now entering a complicated time in educational philanthropy that is no longer based on individual giving but one directed and dictated by the geometries of statist interventionism. (Published abstract)