The uses of globalization in the (shifting) landscape of Educational Studies

The term ‘globalization’ does more than represent a set of material (and ideological) processes that have impacts on education and schooling. Additionally, ‘globalization’ operates as a conceptual lens or set of interventions, which is significantly impacting academic discourses in Education and in other disciplines. Not only has Globalization and Education (G&E) emerged as a new, trans-disciplinary field of Educational Studies, insights from this field and globalization studies more directly have impacted many other fields of Education. This paper summarizes major impacts of globalization on education and maps out a ‘first-wave’ G&E discourse by analyzing a small set of key texts published around the turn of the century. The paper distills key uses of globalization from this ‘first-wave’ G&E and more recent correctives to clarify the potential applications for—and implications of the ‘lens’ of—globalization for educational scholarship.Keywords: Globalization and Education, globalization, Educational Studies, methodology, deparochializing educationLe terme «mondialisation» ne représente pas seulement un ensemble matériel (et idéologique) de processus qui ont des impacts sur l'éducation et la scolarisation. En outre, la «mondialisation» opère comme un cadre conceptuel ou un ensemble d'interventions, ce qui influe de manière significative sur les discours académiques en éducation et dans d'autres disciplines. Non seulement la mondialisation et l'éducation (M & E) a émergé comme un nouveau champ transdisciplinaire des sciences de l'éducation, mais encore les idées dans ce domaine, et plus directement des études sur la mondialisation, ont eu un impact sur bien d'autres domaines de l'éducation. Cet article résume les principaux effets de la mondialisation sur l'éducation et met en perspective une «première vague» de discours sur la M & E en analysant un petit ensemble de textes fondamentaux publiés au tournant du siècle. L'article rend compte de certaines utilisations essentielles de la mondialisation provenant de cette «première vague» et de correctifs plus récents afin de clarifier les potentielles applications ainsi que les implications dans «l'optique» de la mondialisation pour des études en éducation.Mots-clés: mondialisation et éducation, mondialisation, sciences de l'éducation, méthodologie, « déparochialisation » de l'éducatio

What Larger Conditions and Logics Are in Play? Responding to Education as a Human Right in the 21st Century

Accepting much of the internal logic of Lee\u27s argument, I consider the wider conditions and logic in play such that education as a human right can be comprehended, debated, and ultimately defended and supported in the 21stcentury. I suggest that despite the idealist rhetoric of UN discourse that operated in Lee’s conception of education as a human right, providing (Western) schooling to improve the lives of marginalized individuals in developing-world contexts should be understood as the consolation prize rather than represent an idealized/naturalized education that can innocently transcend the logic of underdevelopment and performativity shaping education’s current manifestations in developing-world contexts

K-12 Global / International Education: Dancing with ‘Diversity, Democracy, and Social Justice’

For more than a century, distinct forms of global/international education have emerged across diverse national and local contexts. Despite their heterogeneity, it is possible to discern some similar features in regards to the larger visions of global/international education as well as to their real-world manifestations finding expression under the larger sweep of Eurocentric modernity. This article takes a conceptual and analytic approach in suturing the vocabularies, aims, practices and challenges of these multiple trajectories of global/international education with specific focus on the tensions arising out of the normative aspirations of teaching for ‘diversity, democracy and social justice’ in the K-12 domain

International Baccalaureate: Meanings, Uses and Tensions in a Globalizing World

Based on mission and programmatic steering, International Baccalaureate (IB) seeks to ‘create a better world’ via progressive educational curricula aimed at fostering ‘international mindedness.’ Across its fifty-plus year history, IB’s enduring progressive visions confront the pragmatic demands of viability and sustainability. Evident is the ‘malleability’ of IB, which allows for the distinctive uses of IB across the many diverse sites of its adoption; also evident is a set of dynamic tensions produced as the progressive visions entangle with instrumental realities. IB is emblematic of the growing prominence of international education, and the transnationalizing of schooling, under wider globalization processes

The Emergence of the International Baccalaureate Diploma in Ontario: Diffusion, Pilot Study and Prospective Research

AbstractThe International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP), created in the field of international schools in the late 1960s, has made considerable in-roads into publicly-funded schooling in many educational jurisdictions of the Anglo-West.  Although the IBDP did not enter into the Ontario public system until 1991, there are now forty-one (and growing) publicly-funded schools offering the IBDP in Ontario.  With the growth of IBDP schools and the increasing transnational policy presence of IB, academic research on the International Baccalaureate (IB) is emerging, albeit the Ontario context has not yet appeared in the research literature.  This paper outlines how the phenomenon of IB is beginning to be used as an object of academic research and describes the diffusion of IB in Ontario and globally. It then reports on a pilot study aimed to understand students’ perceptions on the impacts of the IBDP at one Catholic secondary school in Ontario, particularly around how well the IBDP supports academic development and ‘international mindedness’ in students.  It situates the aims and findings of this case study alongside past research, and then discusses more broadly potential lines of inquiry on IB that could be engaged in future research.

What Teacher Capacities do International School Recruiters Look For?

This article frames the intersection of the emerging fields of internationalizing teacher education (ITE) and international schooling (IS) and presents findings of a qualitative study that draws on interviews with international school recruiters to explore teacher qualities valuable for thriving in international school settings. Beyond general characteristics of good teachers, recruiters note the importance of adaptability to living and working in a foreign setting, cultural-sensitivity, and, especially, pedagogical flexibility. Additionally, recruiters discussed the significance of “fit” between the teacher and the school (and school community) as playing a role. Fit overlaps with adaptability, cultural sensitivity and pedagogical flexibility but also introduces more school-specific, subjective (and potentially parochial) factors for “fitting in.” Implications for teacher education are discussed, particularly on the importance of fostering teachers’ pedagogical flexibility.Cet article établit le rapport entre les domaines émergents de l’internationalisation de la formation enseignante et de l’école internationale et présente les résultats d’une étude qualitative qui relève des entrevues menées avec les recruteurs des écoles internationales pour explorer les compétences inhérentes aux enseignants capables de bien fonctionner dans ces contextes. Au-delà des caractéristiques indispensables aux exigences de la profession enseignante, les recruteurs ont spécialement mentionné l’adaptabilité à vivre et à travailler à l’étranger, la sensibilité culturelle et la flexibilité pédagogique. En outre, les recruteurs ont parlé du rôle important que joue la capacité de se ‘conformer’ entre l’enseignant et l’école (et, la communauté scolaire). En effet, cette capacité se dédouble de l’adaptabilité, de la sensibilité culturelle et de la flexibilité pédagogique, mais aussi introduit des facteurs scolaires plus spécifiques, notamment les facteurs personnels contribuant à la conformité. Les implications pour la formation enseignante, particulièrement dans le domaine de la flexibilité pédagogique, sont abordées

Reconceiving International Education: Theorizing Limits and Possibilities for Transcultural Learning

This multi-voiced paper explores the micro-level dimensions of human learning and becoming from transcultural encounters, lessons and/or curriculum under heightened transnationalism. It posits that mainstream approaches to conceptualizing the ‘education’ of international education lack sufficient theorization of difference, sociality, history and learning in trans-local spaces and suggests that there are expanding networks of transcultural engagements to be examined under the umbrella of international education. To explore this reconceived pedagogical landscape of international education three specific cases are presented: an auto-ethnographic reflection on coming into and making sense of one’s international experience, a conceptual framing of internationalizing preservice education curriculum and a qualitative analysis of the pedagogical impacts of undergraduates’ international internships. Each case illustrates the complexities, possibilities and challenges of (framing) learning and becoming in sites of transcultural engagement

Teaching (for) Dispositions? Old Debates, New Orthodoxies: Hanging onto a ‘Knowledge Approach’

Education has always been complicit in the shaping and promoting of dispositions. Teachers do teach (for) dispositions as they consciously and unconsciously respond to their students in the classroom. In their actions, teachers continuously informally assess students’ bodies, actions, comportment, expressed ideologies, and rhetoric. Under pervasive pressures for measurement and accountability, it is understandable that now even dispositions might be added to the mix of measurable entities for evaluation or certification. Moreover, in a context of diminishing state responsibility for social welfare, greater demands are placed on education—to make a difference—for example, to intervene in social injustices such as “racism.” In this context it may seem appropriate to demand that new teachers display the “correct set” of dispositions and sensitivities, as the call for papers suggests, “to issues of social justice and white privilege in this society.” Nevertheless, this paper argues conventionally that, despite the inseparability of dispositions from educational interactions and education’s necessary role in the learning and unlearning of prejudice, teachers ought to intentionally avoid any formal assessment of, or required pledges to, particular dispositions