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Lecture 3Globalisation and Education

Lecture 2 Recap

Education and Policy Influences• Policy as central to everyday practice• Policy works to directly or indirectly empower

and disempower different groups• Powerful groups struggle over policy and

influence outcomes• Neo-liberalism (marketisation + economic

rationalism + managerialism) and neo-conservatism as influential

Today’s Lecture

• What is Globalisation?

• Globalisation and Education– School Retention– International Schools– Policy Borrowing

What’s that got to do with the price of tea in China?

• In an age of globalisation, this rhetorical question takes on new meaning.

• Globalisation implies that the price of tea in China, just like the condition of the rainforest in the Amazon or the uptake of a ‘skegg’ skate culture in urban London actually will influence your life.

• The idea is that everything influences everything else in a globalised world

Who says what about globalisation?

Sociologists• Processes to be studied and understood

Economists• Processes to be promoted

Education Departments• Processes to be responded to

DEFINITION: ‘A set of social, economic, political and cultural processes that cut across national boundaries, increasing levels of interconnectedness such that the world is reconstituted as a single social space’ (Holmes, Hughes & Julian, 2012, p.340).

GlobalisationGlobalisation refers to the way the world is connected:• Economically

– Monetary system– Gang of three – IMF, World Bank, WTO

• Politically– Policy– Nations coming together to tackle issues surrounding our common

humanity• Culturally

– Global culture – consumerism/westernisation– Cultural homogenisation– Cosmopolitan citizens

When thinking of globalisation think of…

A set of processes that underpins changes occurring in nations around the world• Technological advances• Flows of people, information and money• Agreements on conduct between nations covering the way that flows of people, information and money should

operate• A reduction in the ability of individual nations to shape and respond to their own local problems

A word used to signify political differences about changes in politics, economy and culture• Imposition of mass culture or the culture of dominant countries over local cultures• Challenge of supranational problems facing the environment and humanity at large

An approach to the world adopted by people who both accept and are subjected to global changes• An awareness of the consequences of personal and social decisions on the environment and the lives of people• A valuing of differences in culture and an awareness of existing prejudices against those differences• An integrated approach to the moral obligations of people towards others (human rights) and towards the environment

A contested field of debate about how the world is changing and how it should change in the future• The belief that globalisation is essentially an irreversible process and not able to be resisted by individual nation states• The belief that globalisation is merely uses as a substitute for one economic view of the world and its structure (neo-

liberalism) and thus represents the interests of dominant corporations and groups

What has globalisation got to do with education?

Global changes and events can and do influence Australian education systems and what happens in our classrooms

Policy• Flow of ideas and people influence policy problemsPoliticians• Increased awareness of how policies are developed and implemented overseasTeachers• The movement of students due to companies changing their location and the movement of people from different

countries influence the cohorts of students teachers engage with• Changes in policy and research influence what is required of teachersStudents• Students are increasingly aware of and influenced by global issues• Student movement influences the expectations that they hold of schoolsMedia• Global issues around education (and issues outside of education) gain the increasing attention of the public putting

pressure on policy makers,

“…education systems are being increasingly pressed into the service of national, economic and social ends”(Matthews and Sidhu, 2005, p.52).

Globalisation and Education

School Retention

Growth of International Education

Policy Borrowing

School Retention

• ‘Free trade’ deregulating markets• End of Australian manufacturing• Loss of Australian jobs• Increased school retention

YEAR RETENTION TO YEAR 12

1970 29.31975 34.11980 34.51985 46.41990 64.01997 74.52000 74.42005 76.62008 75.5

Retention rates to year 12 (ABS 2008)

University now a mass enterprise

BUT universities now having to do more with less (i.e. economic rationalism)

Diploma Disease

Credentialism

Education = Big Business

The Growth of International Education

• Manufacturing globally competitive citizens• Attracting International students to Australian

schools

International SchoolsA positive intercultural exchange or a money making (neo-liberal) exercise?

Matthews and Sidhu (2005) found:• Teachers couldn’t pronounce the names of their students• Students within schools identified spaces as “Australian” and “International”• Aware of “indifference, fear and ignorance”• Students spoke of ‘communication’ difficulties – in terms of culture• Lack of social contact• Racial taunts and feelings of “otherness”, felt they were “highly visible targets”

“Students did not automatically defer to western cultural preferences – indeed their immersion in Western culture appeared to reinforce rather than subjugate these tastes, suggesting that the international student experience is as likely to highlight and entrench ethno-cultural and national perspectives…the desire for Western education does not necessarily imply that people are entirely under the sway of global hegemonic practices, for it is possible that Western knowledge may be desired at the same time as it is despised…” (Matthews & Sidhu, 2005, p.60)

SO – rather than locating a “global subject” in the context of international schools they found an “intensification of nation-centred identities” (Matthews & Sidhu, 2005, p.62)

Neo-Conservative Reaction• Fear and anxiety• Racism• Nationalism• Neo-conservatism(Matthews & Sidhu, 2005)

SO conservatives feel the values, traditions and practices of the past were ideal and are in danger of disappearing

HOW DO THEY FEEL ABOUT GLOBALISATION?Internal fear – losing a sense of national identity

External fear – threats from other nations (see Apple reading)

Globalisation and Neo-Conservatives5. Current tensions in education?

• National Curriculum?• Values Education?

• Can you see both global and conservative ideas in these policies?

PISA• In an era of globalisation where international competitiveness is of

primary concern, there is increased pressure to measure how well the Australian education system compares to other nations

• PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) • Reading literacy, mathematical literacy and scientific literacy• Administered across 25 OECD countries and 31 partner countries

involving 15 year old students

Australia’s Performance in PISA 2000 and 2009

• Australia’s average rankings in PISA have declined over the past decade• In 2000 only one country significantly outperformed Australia in reading, literacy and mathematical

literacy and two countries significantly outperformed Australia in scientific literacy• By 2009, Australia was significantly outperformed by six other countries in scientific literacy and

reading literacy and twelve countries in mathematical literacy• Many of the countries that outperformed Australia are located within the Asia-Pacific region. • Based on trends observed in PISA results over the last decade, the OECD warns that advanced

economies, like Australia, must not take for granted that they will always have the skills and capabilities superior to those in other parts of the world. At a time of intensified global competition, countries will need to work hard to maintain a knowledge and skill base that keeps up with changing demands (OECD in Gonski Report).

• In addition, performance in PISA also highlights the significant gap between the highest and lowest performing students in Australia relative to other OECD countries. Australia has a high degree of performance inequality, higher than the OECD average.

(Gonski Report, 2012).

“Australian education fails one in four people – but not the wealthy ones” (Lamb, 2015)

Australia’s mean scores in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy in PISA, 2000 & 2009 (adapted from Gonski Report,

2012).    Australia’s

mean scoreOECD

average score

Countries that significantly

outperformed Australia

Reading 2000

2009

528

515

500

493

Finland

Shanghai-China, Korea, Finland, Hong-Kong China,

Singapore and Canada

Mathematics 2000

2009

533

514

500

496

Japan

Shanghai-China, Singapore, Hong-Kong China, Korea, Chinese Taipei, Finland,

Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Netherlands

and Macao-China

Science 2000

2009

528

527

500

501

Japan, Korea

Shanghai-China, Finland, Hong-Kong-China, Singapore,

Japan and Korea

Response to PISA

• Education policies across nations are showing a tendency to ‘harmonise’ in response to these results. Particularly for countries ‘slipping’ down the ranks, there is pressure to come up with a solution

Consider Australia’s recent policy responses (NAPLAN, My School, National Curriculum)…Whose policies are we emulating?

What is the track record of those policies?

The Finnish Phenomenon….• Finnish children do not start school until they are seven• They rarely take exams or do homework until they are well into their teens• The children are not formally measured at all for the first six years of their education• There is only one mandatory standardised test in Finland which is taken when children are sixteen• All children, clever or not, are taught in the same classroom• Finland spends around 30% less per student than the US• 93% of Finns graduate from high school and 66% go to college (the highest rate in Europe)• The difference between the weakest and strongest student is the smallest in the world• Primary school students get 75 minutes of breaks a day (lunch and recess) – their school day is shorter• Teachers only spend 4 hours a day in the classroom and take two hours a week for ‘professional development’• Finland has the same amount of teachers as New York City but far fewer students (600 000 students compared to 1.1

million)• The school system is 100% state funded – no “private” schools• All teachers in Finland must have a masters degree – teachers are selected from the top 10% of graduates• In 2010, 6600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots• The national curriculum provides only broad guidelines• Teachers are given the same status as doctors and lawyers• Teachers have high autonomy and are encouraged to try new ideas and approaches• Creative arts subjects are valued alongside core subjects• FOCUS ON SOCIAL JUSTICE

Caution

Finland has a relatively homogenous population and relative income equality which makes the demographics different from that of Australia or the US

HOWEVERFinland’s neighbour Norway is a similar size and shares a similarly homogenous culture. Their education system, however, follows similar strategies/policies as the US and Australia AND, achieves similar rankings (as the US) in international studies

Question

Are Australian policy makers getting it wrong???

Why Understand Globalisation?

It influences…

• Students we teach• The people who teach it• What is taught (curriculum)• How it is taught (pedagogy)• How teaching is measured and evaluated

(assessment)

ReferencesApple, M. W. (2005). Doing things the ‘right’ way: legitimating educational inequalities in conservative times1. Educational Review, 57(3), 271-293. doi: 10.1080/00131910500149002Connell, R. (2013). Why do market ‘reforms’ persistently increase inequality? Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 34(2), 279-285. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2013.770253Connell et al. (2011). Education, Change and Society. South Melbourne: Oxford University PressFurz, B., Savy, P., Brym, R. & Lie, J. (2008). Sociology in Today’s World. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.Gorur, R., & Wu, M. (2015). Leaning Too Far? PISA, Policy and Australia's "Top Five" Ambitions. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 36(5), 647-664. doi: 10.1080/01596306.2014.930020Hardy, I. (2014). A Logic of Appropriation: Enacting National Testing (NAPLAN) in Australia. Journal of Education Policy, 29(1), 1-18. doi: 10.1080/02680939.2013.782425Matthews, J., & Sidhu, R. (2005). Desperately seeking the global subject: international education, citizenship and cosmopolitanism. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 3(1), 49-66. doi: 10.1080/14767720500046179OECD. (2015). Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). from http://www.oecd.org/pisa/aboutpisa/Sahlberg, P. (2011). The Fourth Way of Finland. Journal of Educational Change, 12(2), 173-185. doi: 10.1007/s10833-011-9157-y