Towards a ‘critical cultural political economy’ account of the globalising of education

Abstract

This paper outlines the basis of an alternative theoretical approach to the study of the globalisation of 'education' -a Critical, Cultural Political Economy of Education (CCPEE) approach. Our purpose here is to bring this body of concepts -critical, cultural, political, economy -into our interrogation of globalising projects and processes within what we will refer to as the 'education ensemble' as the topic of enquiry, whose authoritative, allocative, ideational and feeling structures, properties and practices, emerge from and play into global economic, political and cultural processes In the first half of the paper we introduce and develop the concepts that will underpin our approach. In the second half of the paper we explore the explanatory potential and epistemic gain of a CCPEE approach by examining the different manifestations of the relationship between globalisation as a political, cultural and economic project and an education ensemble. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities this perspective offers.

Curriculum making as social practice: complex webs of enactment

“…Education policy across Europe and further afield has, in recent years, been an important component of wider public social policy, driven by powerful discourses from supra-national organisations, albeit of differing nature, such as the OECD, the EU and UNESCO. In an increasingly inter-connected and complex world, education policy has been utilised to achieve ambitious and often paradoxically competing social and economic goals, such as improving economic competitiveness and social mobility, and enhancing social cohesion in increasingly heterogeneous populations (Robertson & Dale, 2015). The school curriculum forms a significant part of education policy in European nation-states.…”

A conceptual framework to analyse the multiscalar politics of education for sustainable peacebuilding

“…We stand more aligned with the position of Novelli and Smith (2011, 14) who argue that acknowledging education's contribution to peacebuilding would entail 'the need for structural and institutional changes that involve changes to existing power relations within society'. Combining Fraser's theory with various insights of scholars working on the relation between education and social justice (Connell 2012;Robertson and Dale 2014;Young 2006), we have developed three interrelated goals to ascertain education's contribution towards social justice/peacebuilding agendas in CACs. These are:…”

“…CPE, when critically applied to education (hence becoming CCPEE, see Robertson and Dale 2014) locates educational policy production, reproduction, modification and adaptation within the aspiration of legitimating a particular social, political and economic order (Jones 2010;Robertson 2012). CCPEE allows one to make explicit the struggles and conflicts between discourses, practices and institutions of schooling, and the impact these have on the on-going social contract (Robertson 2012).…”

“…In CPE, the role of culture is brought into equal footing with political and economic structures and institutions, as a constitutive element and as a contingent factor in the actions of actors. Social processes come to be understood as a related set of 'moments' between the cultural (discourse, language, beliefs and values), the political (power and institutions) and economic (the practices in which social relations are produced and articulated) (Jessop 2015;Robertson and Dale 2014). What CPE analysis brings back is acknowledgement that there are multiple cultural forms and scripts, economies and forms of political organisation, and it allows us, for example to identify how peacebuilding as a concept evolves discursively and materially in relation to the multiplicity of other narratives for education.…”

“…Drawing on and adapting elements of the Strategic Relational Approach (SRA) (Jessop 2005;Hay 2002aHay , 2002b, a Critical Cultural Political Economy Analysis of Education (CCPEE) (Robertson 2014;Robertson and Dale 2014), and concepts of social justice (Fraser 1995;Keddie 2012) we provide an analytical framework for understanding how education works (or does not) to promote transformative solutions in such context. Throughout we provide examples of how the theoretical and analytical concepts we propose shed new light on various aspects of the educational apparatus in CACs, and the ways they engage with projects of peacebuilding and social transformation.…”