Textbooks, Markets, and Meanings: Educational Reform inPostcommunist Romania

In 1995, the Romanian government launched the first large-scale education reform since the fall of communism. Largely financed through a World Bank loan, the reform targeted the sector’s core dimensions: mission, content, governance, and subjectivities. Textbooks were placed at the center of these transformations, with more than half of the total reform budget allocated to creating a free market for publishing companies responsible for producing textbooks and educational materials. This paper seeks to uncover the explicit and implicit rationalities that underpinned this decision. It argues that, in line with neoliberal ideology, textbooks were regarded as the most cost-effective investment in education. By the same token, the introduction of open competition in the private sector for the publishing, printing, and distribution of textbooks was framed as the most appropriate way to ensure higher textbook quality. However, the decision to prioritize textbooks was not solely driven by economic considerations. Drawing on critical approaches to textbook research, the paper contends that in the post-communist context, textbooks were seen as key instruments for disseminating the “legitimate knowledge” associated with the emerging political-economic order. However, the textbook reform could not have been carried out without the support of Romanian education specialists, who were both ideological and materially co-opted. Finally, the article highlights the inherent contradictions embodied in the ‘textbook’ in postcommunist Romania, particularly in relation to centralization, student–teacher relations, and social justice.