Professional reading update - Globalisation and education 2

As noted in the last update, there is now a substantial literature on globalisation and education – more than enough to justify another go at this topic.  Copies of the following can be obtained from the QTU library. Don’t forget to include your professional reading when recording your continuing professional development for QCoT.

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Research on Globalization and Education

Joel Spring
Review of Educational Research, 78(2), June 2008, pp. 330-363.

This is a thorough, readable, relatively brief and balanced overview of the research literature, which provides a definition of globalisation and education as a field, a summary of the four major theoretical perspectives (world culture, world systems, postcolonial and culturalist), a review of some of the aspects covered in the research (e.g. global curriculum, lifelong learning, the knowledge economy, neoliberalism, global migration), and a discussion of the roles of some organisations associated with the globalisation of education (e.g. the World Bank, the OECD, UNESCO, and various corporations and NGOs).

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Globalization, the Nation-State and the Citizen: Dilemmas and Directions for Civics and Citizenship Education

Alan Reid, Judith Gill and Alan Sears (Eds.)
New York: Routledge (2010)

This book takes as its starting point that the roles that schools play in civics and citizenship education take place through at least three modalities: through the way that schools are structured and funded, through specific formal representation of civics and citizenship in the formal curriculum, and through the culture and processes of schools and systems. This has been long established in nation-states. What is new is the way in which the challenges of globalisation have “injected a new dynamic into these relationships”. The introductory section of the book provides an overview. This is followed by twelve case studies from twelve diverse countries, demonstrating that “while globalisation has common features … context does matter on how these impact nation-states and how those states respond”. The chapter on Australia by Reid and Gill is an insightful analysis of education reform during the Howard years. The concluding section provides some “reflections and analysis”.

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Changing Teacher Professionalism: International Trends, Challenges and Ways Forward

Sharon Gewirtz, Pat Mahony, Ian Hextall and Alan Cribb (Eds.)
London: Routledge (2008),

This book explores one of the more important features of educational globalisation: its impact on the ways in which the work and roles of teachers are defined, valued (or not) and carried out. The various authors note that neo-liberalism and new management technologies have seen an increase in central regulation of teachers’ work and a diminishment of professional autonomy. At the same time, practice has been affected by consumerism, “demands for public services that are more responsive to diverse social and cultural identities and transformations in information and communications technologies”. The book is divided into three parts. The first examines the changing social and political context in which teachers’ work takes place. The second examines changes in the working lives of teachers and of their professional identities and practices. The third explores how teachers’ professional practice could be enhanced. The book includes a chapter by Bob Lingard which discusses the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study.

John McCollow
Research Officer