Globalization of Education

An Introduction

Joel Spring

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317748755
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Comparative Education

Continuing Joel Spring's reportage and analysis of the intersection of global forces and education, this text offers a comprehensive overview and synthesis of current research, theories, and models related to the topic. Written in his signature clear, narrative style, Spring introduces the processes, institutions, and forces by which schooling has been globalized and examines the impact of these forces on schooling in local contexts. Significant conceptual frameworks are added to this Second Edition, specifically the "economization of education, " "corporatization of education" and the "audit state." These concepts are embedded in the global educational plans of major organizations such as the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD), World Economic Forum, and multinational corporations.

Globalization of Education, Second Edition features new and updated information on
• The World Bank
• OECD and the United Nations
• The World Trade Organization and the Global Culture of Higher Education
• Corporatization of Global Education
• Religious and Indigenous Education Models
• The Global Workforce: Migration and the Talent Auction
• Globalization and Complex Thought

1
Globalization of Education

Globalization of education refers to worldwide networks, processes, and institutions affecting local educational practices and policies. The key word is “worldwide.” Events happen on a global scale that affect national and local school systems. Global educational policies and practices exist in a superstructure above national and local schools. Nothing is static in this superstructure. Nations continue to independently control their school systems while being influenced by this superstructure of global education processes. Today, many nations choose to adopt policies from this global superstructure in order to compete in the global economy.

What constitutes this global education superstructure? There are international organizational networks that directly and indirectly influence national school systems along with multinational education corporations and schools. In the first issue of the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education (2003), the editors stated that globalization of education would be considered as an intertwined set of global processes affecting education, such as worldwide discourses on human capital, economic development, and multiculturalism; intergovernmental organizations (IGOs); information and communication technology; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); and multinational corporations.¹ Each of these aspects of the educational global superstructure is discussed in later chapters. For example, global discourses exist about the knowledge economy, lifelong learning, global migration, and brain circulation.

The major global institutions affecting worldwide educational policies are the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD); the World Bank; the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the World Trade Organization (WTO) and its General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS); and other IGOs and NGOs, such as human rights, environmental, and women’s organizations. English, as the global language of business and tourism, also impacts local schools often resulting in English being made part of the curriculum. Explanations and analyses of the previously discussed aspects of educational globalization and their impact on national school systems constitute the major part of this book.

Global Corporatization of Education

I will use “global corporatization” and the “economization of education” as important concepts, but not the only concepts, in describing some trends in global education. Multinational corporations, including global education corporations, are currently influencing global school policies with the goal of educating and shaping human behaviors for the corporate workplace. I call this the “global corporatization of education” with multinational corporations pressuring national school systems to adopt favorable education policies. These multinational corporations network through international organizations, such as the OECD, the World Economic Forum, and the WTO, and through regional trade groups.

Global corporatization of education involves schooling for a global labor market using human capital economic theories. These theories, as I explain in more detail later in this chapter, focus on shaping human behavior and knowledge to meet corporate needs. Simply stated, human capital economists claim that investment in education to produce better workers will result in economic growth, reduction of inequality of incomes, and increased employment.

In this book, I consider human capital education as part of the ongoing “economization of education.” What I mean by the economization of education is the increasing influence of educational research conducted by economists and judging school outcomes in economic terms. The economization of education shifts concerns from schooling for such things as civic participation, protecting human rights, and environmentalism to economic growth and employment.

The global economization of education emphasizes teaching skills for the workplace. Human capital education emphasizes teaching two types of skills. One type is the cognitive skills and knowledge needed to succeed in the workplace. The other type, which is referred to as “soft skills,” is the behavior needed to function in the corporate world. Human capital economists argue that preschool is necessary for the development of soft skills or character traits to succeed in the workplace.²

Corporatization, in the context of teaching soft skills, means shaping human behavior to meet business needs. This fits another economic paradigm referred to as “nudge” based on the work of University of Chicago economist Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, a regulatory official in the U.S. government, in their book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness.³ Nudge involves the application by governments of behavioral economics and social psychology to shape public behavior. Sometimes called “libertarian paternalism,” behavioral control of the population is considered in the interest of those wanting to reduce government spending and taxes, while solving problems of unemployment and government dependency by changing public behaviors.⁴ In an article on the use of nudge in the United Kingdom, New York Times reporter Katrin Bennhold stated, “Every civil servant in Britain is now being trained in behavioral science. The nudge unit has a waiting list of government departments eager to work with it, and other countries, from Denmark to Australia, have expressed interest.”⁵

In summary, the corporatization of global education refers to corporate influence over national school policies, enlisting economists to judge the work of school systems, teaching cognitive skills and knowledge needed in the workplace, and shaping behavior in schools and by government to meet the needs of corporations and to sustain free market economics. While the corporatization of education is the main trend in global education, there are other voices competing to be heard, as I will describe subsequently, such as education for civic activism, human rights, the environment, and religious and Indigenous forms of schooling.

An example of complete corporatization of human life can be found in Fallen Land by novelist Patrick Flanery. The heads of his imaginary company called EKK envision a global corporation that is “active everywhere, touching all aspects of a person’s life, from conception… to death and disposal (cremation, organ and tissue recycling, human remains management).”⁶

The EKK’s corporate divisions include fertility and biotech, health care and medical subcontracting, charter school administration, curriculum development, profit-making universities, employment, employee relations, financial and assets management, security and incarceration, immigration and detention centers, entertainment, travel, hotel and resort management, and old-age care. In other words, all parts of a citizen’s life are corporatized.

Paralleling human capital concerns with teaching soft skills or character traits needed for corporate life, EKK provides its employees with a home protection system that monitors not only for fire and burglary, but also family behaviors. In other words, family members are to be protected against family interactions or behavior traits that might harm their ability to be efficient corporate workers. The home protection system will report back to EKK any household or individual behaviors detrimental to the good of corporate life. Of course, EKK operates its own schools designed to educate obedient workers.

Will, as Patrick Flanery suggests, every aspect of human life be brought under global corporate control for either profit or to ensure the education and behavioral control of workers to meet corporate needs? Is this a future direction of global education?

Globalization of Education

In 1985, the economist Theodore Levitt coined the term “globalization” to describe changes in global economics.⁷ The term was quickly applied to political and cultural changes that affect in common ways large segments of the world’s peoples. One of these common global phenomena is schooling. As the opening editorial in the first edition of Globalisation, Societies and Education—the very founding of this journal indicates the growing importance of globalization and education as a field of study—states, “Formal education is the most commonly found institution and most commonly shared experience of all in the contemporary world.”⁸ However, globalization of education does not mean that all schools are the same as indicated by studies of differences between the local and the global.⁹

The European Commission’s document Teaching and Learning: On Route to the Learning Society describes three basic causes of globalization: “the advent of the information society, scientific and technical civilisation and the globalisation of the economy. All three contribute to the development of a learning society.”¹⁰

The growth of worldwide educational institutions, networks, and discourses has led to similar national educational agendas, particularly the concept of education as an economic investment. Consequently, educational discourses around the world often refer to economic growth, teaching work-related skills, and lifelong learning for work. Also, the global economy is sparking a mass migration of workers resulting in global discussions about multicultural education.

IGOs, such as the United Nations, OECD, and the World Bank, are promoting global educational agendas that reflect discourses about job preparation, economic development, and multiculturalism. Information and communication technology is speeding the global flow of information and creating a library of world knowledges. Global NGOs, particularly those concerned with human rights and environmentalism, are influencing school curricula throughout the world. Multinational corporations, particularly those involved in publishing, information, testing, for-profit schooling, and computers, are marketing their products to governments, schools, and parents around the world.

Global and Comparative Education

How is the study of globalization and education different from the traditional field of comparative education? First, researchers on globalization and education are not drawn exclusively from comparative education though many of those studying globalization are identified with that field. As a new field of study, researchers into the processes and effects of globalization on educational practices and policies come from a variety of education disciplines, including anthropology, curriculum studies, economics, history, sociology, educational policy, comparative education, psychology, and instructional methodologies. For instance, the book Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies, & Politics is edited by Michael Apple, a curriculum researcher; Jane Kenway, a sociology of education researcher; and Michael Singh, an educational policy researcher.¹¹ Consequently, at least in its initial stages, research in this new field is interdisciplinary.

Second, comparative education has traditionally focused on comparing the education systems of nations. Referrin...