Privatisation and globalisation

• Dimensions to globalisation

  1. Economic globalisation (declining manufacturing jobs, global ICT, involvement of powerful corporations)
  2. Cultural globalisation (multinational sponsorship, international competition)
  3. Increasing migration (multicultural education, increase in equal opportunity)
• As a result of globalisation, education has become

  • More consumerist
  • More individualised, diverse, hyperreal
  • Increasingly fragmented
• Decline in manufacturing jobs

  • Due to the globalisation of trade, production and consumption.
  • Most of what we consume in the UK is produced and manufactured abroad, in China.
  • This has directly impacted the underachievement of boys.
  • The government feels obliged to tailor education to meet the needs of the new globalised economy, providing students with relevant skills.
  • This has led to less of an emphasis on socially cohesive objectives like equality of opportunity and the depreciation of cultural values.
• Global ICT

  • The establishment of global ICT companies such as google and apple are powerful institutions which are now involved in writing curriculums, online learning materials for various governments around the worlds.
  • Disney is involved with writing educational software.
• Involvement of powerful corporations

  • Education is increasingly shaped by transnational corporations who make profit out of providing these educational series to government ie. the exam edexcell has been written by Pearsons, a global corporation
  • Transnational corporations write curriculums and create online learning material and textbooks.
• Cultural globalisation

  • Refers to the rapid speed of ideas and values around the globe, mainly bought about as a result of the economic growth of ICT.
• Multinational sponsorship ie. Coca Cola

  • Multinational cooperations have increasingly become involved in education, sponsoring academies and under 'economic globalisation' becoming involved in curriculum writing, textbooks and exams.
  • There is a worldwide trend towards privatisation, marketisation and competition.
• International competition: PISA

  • International education systems compete, but also improve based on global league tables like PISA, an online assessment based in Paris.
  • It aims to create a test the whole world can take and map where the best educational practise takes place.
  • The results of the 2015 PISA show Singapore and Hong Chong at the top.
  • The assessment is a measure of whether existing policies are working effectively, and also influence the formation of the new policies.
  • Puts pressure of policy makers to import international policies to solve educational problems
• Policies implemented due to PISA

  1. The national literacy and numeracy strategy (a requirement to teach an hour of each a day)
  2. Slimming down of the national curriculum (to essential knowledge in English, maths and science)
  3. Raising the academic entry requirements for trainee teachers (derived from Finland)
• Strengths of PISA

  • Useful to see whether education spending matches educational achievement in the UK. The UKs average spend is a lot more than other countries yet perform worse.
  • Useful for comparing standards.
  • Provides evidence of which policies do and don't work.
• Weaknesses of PISA

  • Based on a very narrow conception of education. These measures are focussing on a view that education is of economic benefit, doesn't consider mental health or wellbeing.
  • Tests don't necessarily mean the education received by pupils is better or worse in different countries. Example: China has a very tailored curriculum with long school days. They are taught by repetitive learning.
  • Challenges the relevance of the national curriculum if it is teaching a global culture.
• Multicultural education

  • Increasing immigration as made the UK a much more multicultural society.
  • Increasing migration has meant education is now more multicultural ie. all schools are taught about the 6 world religions and we have many faith schools.
  • Schools have responded to the increasing number of polish children entering school.
• Increase in equal opportunity

  • Migration can have reversed effects of other globalisation trends.
  • Increased multicultural education can lead to an increase of opportunity fostering the talents of every individual in order to make the country more competitive.
• Schools are more 'consumerist' and provide more individual choice

  • Marketisation has effectively made schools into businesses.
  • Marketisation has been particular toxic at universities as they are heavily reliant on marketing on a global scale by setting up overseas branched. Universities charge 3x the fees to overseas students.
  • The introduction of open enrolment means parents now have more choice over which school to send their child to for their ‘consumer needs’.
• Education has become more individualised and diverse

  • Teachers are expected to use a variety of teaching approaches in their delivery of lessons to take into account the variety of learning styles of students.
  • Students are increasingly being directed to online sources for leaning support, or even as a main source of tuition for some courses.
  • Private schools have even set themselves up online for overseas students to access virtual classrooms.
  • Since new labour the UK has seen an increasing diversity of school types
  • More vocational education providers.
• Education has become fragmented

  • Private schools enjoy a very costly education with clearly structured lessons and school years meaning they can release their full potential by the time they leave school.
  • Children from working class backgrounds feel alienated by a middle class school system and they may experience disruption to their learning from badly behaved pupils.
  • The increase in home schooling shows education becoming more fragmented.
• Evaluation of fragmentation

  • Doesn’t fit well with the functionalist idea of education. If education is fragmented, it is unlikely that education can perform the function of creating value consensus in a particular society.
  • Stephan Ball – most of the changed produced by globalisation in education policy are linked to neoliberal policies. To Ball this means that government actually have increasingly less control over education as the networks that run education involved private companies as much as government policy makers.