Globalization and International Education

Robin Shields, Richard Race, Simon Pratt-Adams

• Editore: Bloomsbury Academic
• Anno: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781441111418
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Pedagogía
• Categoria: Educación general

Globalization and International Education introduces key international issues in education and considers the changes in education stemming from the rapid social, economic and cultural transformations associated with globalization. Grounded in a strong conceptual, theoretical framework, this accessible text will guide the reader through this evolving area. Reflective exercises, chapter summaries and useful websites will encourage and support student learning and the application of new concepts. Recent debate and developments are considered, including: - international aid, education and development
- education in conflict and emergencies
- education and the 'knowledge economy' Globalization and International Education is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students studying education.

1

Education and International Development

Chapter Outline

Introduction

Education and colonial rule

Birth of the ‘development era’

Human capital and modernization theories

Aid agencies

Case studies: Nepal and Zambia

Summary

Useful websites

Introduction

In the latter half of the twentieth century, a new way of conceptualizing education took hold. In many parts of the world – particularly in European colonies that had recently won independence – education was linked to countries’ social and economic development. As part of this conceptualization, a new field of practice in international education emerged, which sought to spur improvement in living standards by increasing the availability and quality of education. This chapter discusses the emergence of international development education as a domain of theory and practice. It begins by describing education in colonial societies and then turns to early work in international development following World War II. The chapter gives an overview of key theories that informed early development work and describes the growth of development organizations at the national and international levels. Finally, it offers two illustrative case studies that demonstrate how the expansion of education was associated with development efforts in Nepal and Zambia.

Education and colonial rule

If one had used the term ‘international development’ at the turn of the twentieth century, it is doubtful whether it would have been clearly understood by anyone. Any form of systematic cooperation between countries to reduce poverty and create economic growth throughout the world did not yet exist. Instead, colonial models of governance dominated international politics: the great majority of Africa and Asia were ruled by European powers, either directly or indirectly. Britain ruled most of contemporary India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as large parts of Africa and the Caribbean, while France controlled much of west and north Africa. By 1914, Europe’s major colonial powers controlled 35 per cent of the world’s land area (Bassett and Winter-Nelson, 2010:109).

In the eyes of European colonial powers such as Britain, France and Belgium, the colonial relationship was mutually beneficial and natural: colonized societies benefited from supposedly superior European governance, while the colonizing countries obtained access to low-cost raw materials and basic labour. ‘Development’, or the systematic improvement of living conditions in colonized societies, was a relatively minor aspect of this relationship. Although colonial government came to accept some responsibility for the welfare of colonized people, the extent of development was relatively limited and never intended to put colonized territories on equal footing with European countries (Abbott, 1971).

Education figured largely in the policies and activities of colonial governments. For example, the British colonial government in contemporary India established educational administrations that took some responsibility for starting schools, although priority was given to the children of British parents. By the turn of the twentieth century, universities had been established in Calcutta and Mumbai, although less than 5 per cent of the population received formal education (Gallego, 2010:228). Lord Curzon, viceroy and governor-general of India, speaking at a conference in 1905, laid out a vision for education in India that focused on employment and national progress, claiming:

Education is required not primarily as the instrument of culture, of the source of learning, but as the key to employment, the condition of all national advance and prosperity, and the sole stepping-stone for every class of the community to higher things. (Karkaria, 1907:47–8)

However, in other areas, education was linked directly to the oppression of colonized societies. Thus, Cecil Rhodes, a British politician and businessman who controlled large areas of southern Africa through his business interests, believed that:

We have got to treat the Natives where they are, in a state of barbarism. We are to be lords over them . . . The Natives should be a source of assistance to the white man as labourers. This must be the main purpose of his education. (Cited in Bassey, 1999:32)

Colonial rule viewed anything more than the minimum level of education necessary to ensure operation of the colony as dangerous: educated members of society were likely to make demands for employment suiting their skills. Thus, Curzon claimed that ‘the Indian University turns out only a discontented horde of office seekers, whom we educated for places which are not in existence for them to fill’ (Gosh, 2007:383).

Across many colonial territories, particularly those in Africa, the work of European Christian missionaries included a number of educational activities. Missionary education centred on religious content, but the curriculum was sufficiently broad to include the provision of basic literacy and numeracy skills. The impact of missionary education was profound: according to one estimate, 99 per cent of all African schools in 1942 were established by missionaries (Coleman, 1958), and many of these are still in operation today.

Birth of the ‘development era’

The close of World War II marked a turning point in international political relationships: due to the heavy toll of war and growing political awareness in the colonies, European powers could no longer maintain their empires. Beginning with India in 1947, one colony after another gained political independence from colonizing European powers, often only after considerable struggle. However, the rapid withdrawal of European governance created its own set of problems: former colonies were left with new, often unstable governments, limited infrastructure, and economies that were highly dependent on trade with colonial powers (Presbich, 1959; Escobar, 1995).

In his 1949 inaugural address, US President Harry Truman proposed a new agenda for relations with former colonies that would greatly raise their standards of living by extending industry and free market capitalism. The speech came at a crucial time in world politics; while colonial empires (especially those of Great Britain and France) were beginning to decline, two new competing superpowers, the capitalist United States and the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), were on the rise. In his speech, Truman called for a foreign policy that would:

Make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development. Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens. With the cooperation of business, private capital, agriculture, and labour in this country, this program can greatly increase the industrial activity in other nations and can raise substantially their standards of living. (Inaugural Addresses, 2009:113)

Truman’s speech reflected the values and worldview that would guide work in international development over the next half century. It defined democracy, scientific knowledge and economic growth as the keys to all countries’ prosperity and progress. Furthermore, Truman’s speech represented a new view on living conditions in former colonies. In contrast to Rhodes’s earlier view of poverty in southern Africa as a consequence of what he termed ‘barbarism’, Truman believed that ‘humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people’ (Inaugural Addresses, 2009:112). Instead of a natural condition, poverty became a technical problem that could be addressed through science, democracy and industrialization.

The founding of the United Nations in 1945, to promote good will between countries and coordinate a range of international affairs, marked another important milestone in the emergence of international development. Echoing Truman’s sentiments, its founding charter contained a mandate to promote ‘conditions of economic and social progress and development’ as well as ‘solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems’ (United Nations, 1948). This laid out a clear vision for development that linked economic factors to health and social problems, and it created the first coordinated international effort to address these perceived problems. The newly founded United Nations was supported by a range of financial institutions, most notably the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (formally called the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development). These were originally founded to stabilize international trade and to finance the reconstruction of countries decimated in World War II, but in later years they would go on to play an important role in international development (Kapur et al., 1997).

Even with fresh memories of the horrors of World War II, an uneasy new stand-off between two major global powers came to be known as the Cold War. At the heart of the Cold War were ideological differences in political economy: one side, led by the United States, believed in free market capitalism and multiparty democracy. The other side, led by Soviet Russia, advocated centrally planned economies and the global solidarity of communist parties. Cold War politics quickly transformed international relationships, as Western Capitalist and Soviet powers sought to extend their influence to other parts of the world (Escobar, 1995). The term ‘Third World’ emerged to describe countries – many of which were former colonies – that were not aligned to either free market capitalism (i.e. the ‘first world’) or Soviet communism (i.e. the ‘second world’ – D’Aeth, 1975). For several decades, United States’ foreign policy stressed that the spread of communist models of government in Third World countries should be actively opposed, using force if necessary.

The effect of Cold War politics on international development was twofold: on the one hand, the ideological battles of the Cold War prompted the outbreak of real wars in the Third World (e.g. Korea, Vietnam and Afghanistan), in which rival factions (e.g. North and South Vietnam, North and South Korea, Afghan factions) were backed by capitalist and Soviet powers. On the other hand, both sides in the Cold War started large-scale aid programs as part of their foreign policy. Aid became a key tool in promoting good will, gaining political influence in strategically important areas, and promoting the two respective models of political economy in the nonaligned Third World.

Thus, by 1950 ‘international development’ – the systematic intervention in and restructuring of other countries in order to improve their standard of living – had emerged as a new area of foreign policy and international relations. In the coming decades, it was supported by a growth in academic fields of study (e.g. development economics) and governmental agencies (e.g. the World Bank and USAID).

Human capital and modernization theories

While Truman’s foreign policy and the UN Charter created lofty goals for the international community, it was unclear how these goals would be accomplished. The new concept of international development created a mandate for changes in a number of areas, including health, governance, finance, industry, agriculture and education. Among these, the last had a special significance, as investments in education could yield benefits in the remaining areas. For example, an educated population could provide skilled labour to support the growth of new industries.

The use of education to create economic growth was supported by a new body of economic theory defining the concept of human capital. As defined by economist Jacob Mincer in 1958, human capital refers to an individual’s traits and abilities that are economically productive (Mincer, 1958). For instance, knowing how to build a house, run a business or programme a computer are all forms of human capital. Mincer’s work compared the lifetime income of males in the United States with differing levels of education, and found that those with more education earned considerably more, even when the expense of additional education was taken into account. Education was then a way of creating human capital: investment in education would eventually yield economic return in much the same way that deposits in a savings account would yield interest. More simply put, human capital theory substantiates the proverb, ‘give a person a fish, feed them for a day; teach a person to fish, feed them for a lifetime’.

While Mincer’s work related to education in the United States, human capital had a strong influence on those in the newly forming field of international development. American economist W. W. Rostow believed that investment in human capital would put countries in the Third World on a path to economic take-off and prosperity. Rostow (1960) put forward a set of ideas about how countries develop, which collectively came to be known as modernization theory. Rostow’s modernization theory states that countries pass through the following five stages as part of their development:

1.Traditional society

2.Preconditions to take-off

3.Take-off

4.Drive to maturity

5.The age of high mass consumption

According to Rostow (1960), ‘traditional societies’ are characterized by agricultural economies, hierarchical social arrangements and a lack of science and technology. However, by meeting certain preconditions, including education and a strong national government, these ‘traditional societies’ are able to undergo a ‘take-off’ and eventually become industrialized, affluent countries. While education was not the only precondition to take-off, it was one of the key factors that would allow a country to create a high-growth, industrial economy.

Modernization theory had a significant effect on early work in international development. Rostow himself held positions in the cabinets of US presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and his ideas were highly influential in the newly formed United States Agency for International Development (USAID – Pearce, 2001). However, the ‘take-off’ that Rostow predicted failed to materialize in many countries – evidenced by persistent poverty even in countries that received large amounts of development aid (Escobar, 1995). It also bears the mark of Cold War politics, as Rostow continually points out the benefits of American model of free market capitalism over Soviet communism (Pearce, 2001).

Both human capital and modernization theories have left a lasting legacy on the development sector. Their impact is less visible in terms of concrete institutions and policies than in the way that development is conceptualized and discussed in society at large. For instance, development organizations (e.g. the UN, USAID and DFID) often speak about development in terms of growth and economic opportunity, and investment in education is seen as a necessary precursor to development (World Education Forum, 2000). These ideas are often taken to be so fundamentally true, that they do not need explanation. Thus, a the claim of UNICEF executive director Anthony Lake that ‘ending the cycle of poverty for children, their families and their communities begins with education’ is immediately understood to link education, growth and development, even without explicitly saying so (United Nations, 2010).

Reflective Exercise

•In your own words, define development. What does it mean for a society to be developed? Is education necessary for development, and is it sufficient to ensure development?

Aid agencies

The emergence of the field of international development brought with it the birth of a new form of governmental bureaucracy. In the decades...