Globalisation and Educational Policy Shifts

Abstract

Globalisation involves the transformation of space and time, transcending state territories, state frontiers, and historical traditions. Whereas international relations embody the notion of transactions between nations, global relations imply that social, economic, political, and cultural activities disengage from territorial authority and jurisdictions and function according to more immediate imperatives of worldwide spheres of interest. Through globalisation the economy is dominated by market forces run by transnational corporations owing allegiance to no nation-state and located wherever global advantage dictates. Paralleling the development of multinational industry is a global electronic fi nance market that exchanges more than a trillion dollars a day (Bergsten 1988 ).Globalising forces have a long history, but they accelerated in the 1980s following the economic worldwide liberalisations of the 1970s, the growing transportation systems, movements of people, and the emergence of a global communications network. Globalising processes do not involve all countries equally. Some are highly involved, while others are not, and some aspects in one and the same country are highly globalised, while others are not (McGrew 1992 ; Waters 1995 ; Hirst and Thompson 1996a , b ). Besides the economy, globalisation includes overlapping political and cultural processes such that economic issues often appear synonymous with political issues. Commentators claim a global political culture has emerged driven by what they call political neoliberalism, characterised by a kind of 'buccaneer individualism', ideological competitiveness, and a secular and materialistic market-oriented economy (Spragens 1995 ). Neoliberalism is an unfortunate label

Globalisation, Education Reforms and Policy: Competing Discourses

“…Some have described it as a process, while others as a condition, a system, a force or a phenomenon of time and place. In the last two decades (1990–2008), there has been a virtual explosion of interest in globalisation among comparative education scholars, and policy analysts (Appadurai 1990a , b ; Banya 2005 ; Bray 2005 ; Cheng 2005 ; Daun 2005 ; Giddens 1990 , 2000 ; Robertson 1992 ; Waters 1995 ; Arnove and Torres 1999 ; Sklair 1999 ; Carnoy 1999 ; Stromquist and Monkman 2000 ; Welch 2001 ; Crossley and Jarvis 2001 ; Carnoy and Rhoten 2002a , b ; Arnove 2015 ; Geo-JaJa and Zajda 2005 ; Rhoads et al 2005 ; Rust and Jacob 2005 ; Sabour 2005 ; Zajda 2005a , b , 2020b ; Zajda et al 2006 ; Biraimah et al 2008 ). Yet, there is still no visible general consensus, from the literature, as to what constitutes its fundamental characteristics or core processes.…”

“…In general, globalisation literature is divided between economic, social and cultural dimensions of globalisation. Rust and Jacob ( 2005 ) argued, from a political economy perspective, that globalisation was defined, dominated and controlled by giant transnational corporation and market forces, which, at were times, almost borderless:…”

“…Whereas international relations embody the notion of transactions between nations, global relations imply that social, economic, political, and cultural activities disengage from territorial authority and jurisdictions and function according to more immediate imperatives of worldwide spheres of interest. Through globalisation the economy is dominated by market forces run by transnational corporations owing allegiance to no nation state and located wherever global advantage dictates (Rust and Jacob 2005 ). Paralleling the development of multinational industry was a vivid example of a global electronic finance market that exchanges more than a trillion dollars a day (Bergsten 1988 , quoted in Rust and Jacob 2005 ).…”

“…Through globalisation the economy is dominated by market forces run by transnational corporations owing allegiance to no nation state and located wherever global advantage dictates (Rust and Jacob 2005 ). Paralleling the development of multinational industry was a vivid example of a global electronic finance market that exchanges more than a trillion dollars a day (Bergsten 1988 , quoted in Rust and Jacob 2005 ).…”

“…Globalisation, with its imposition of relentless and boundless consumerism, competition, and market forces, invited ideological and economic wars and conflict among individuals, communities and societies at large. Rust and Jacob ( 2005 ) believed that education and education policy change play a significant role in the globalisation agenda: The contemporary educational reform debate has been taken over by so-called neoliberal groups that popularise a special language not found in conventional education discourse. This language is based on a free-enterprise economic metaphor.…”