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Apple, M. W.; Kenway, J.; & Singh, M. (Eds.). (2005). Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies and Politics. New York: Peter Lang.
311 pages
$35 (Paperback) ISBN 0820471208Reviewed by Amani Hamdan
University of Western OntarioOctober 21, 2005
Globalizing Education: Policies, Pedagogies and Politics consists of 16 chapters that discuss different aspects of education in a globalized context. Globalization and its effects on education is the focus of many publications (i.e., books and journals), and this book encompasses the perspectives of various educational politicians and educators on the key issues and their implications for education in a globalized milieu.
The first chapter, entitled “Globalizing education: perspectives from above and below,” written by the editors, Michael Singh, Jane Kenway, and Michael W. Apple, serves as an introduction to the book. The authors begin with a definition of “globalization,” and an indication of the broad conceptual framework that informs the book. The book’s main theme is an engagement in critically analyzing the “negativity of the ideological and institutional forms of neo-liberal globalization…[ and] points to the innovative possibilities present in progressive transformative movements, struggles, and practices…” (p. 25).
The second chapter of the book, “Globalizing the young in the age of desire: some educational policy issues,” is co-authored by Jane Kenway and Elizabeth Bullen. This chapter draws attention to the effect of globalization on young students; “it focuses on issues of pleasure, agency, and knowledge politics” (p.31). The authors explain various challenges which education policies face in gaining the consent of the young in the age of desire and point to the urgency of new policies that would help teachers “enchant the classroom and problematise the corporate curriculum” (p.31). Kenway and Bullen pinpoint the “5D relationship” which is being dissatisfied, disengaged, disaffected, disrespectful, and disruptive. The major concern is how to engage young adults in the educational process. Kenway and Bullen argue that overcoming the negative affects of globalization on the educational process has to start with the commitment of teachers to understanding the forces that globalization reproduces and its effects on the identity construction of students. The challenge is to help young adults to be aware of the shortcomings of the media-consumer culture which reinforces and encourages the racial, gender, and class hierarchies. According to Kenway and Bullen, school curriculum has to be inclusive of “how advertising construct students’ desires, identities, and values….how consuming is equated with good life” (p. 40).
“Cultural pedagogies of technology in a globalized economy,” the third chapter, is authored by Helen Nixon. Nixon discusses how “the new information technologies and communication have been thoroughly implicated in some of the big cultural shifts associated with globalization” (p.46). In other words digitization and the interdependency on computer networks have created global flows of capital worldwide. Although computer networking has enabled the transference of technologies and information advancement across nations, the downside is that the education sectors are profoundly challenged. This, according to Nixon, highlights the emergence of new cultural pedagogies within a globalized cultural economy, necessitating a plan for curriculum and pedagogy in formal education that works with and against the IT cultural pedagogy. Nixon’s most interesting point pertains to media and its cultural pedagogies. The media, with its “pervasiveness in all aspects of social life” (p. 57) is contributing to how we “think, feel, believe, and fear” (p.47), thus affecting people’s identity and their way of acting and interacting. Although Nixon’s argument does not highlight the task of educational institutions tasks in the media culture milieu, it nonetheless implicitly encourages teachers and policy makers to create an awareness of the negative effects of media, such as inequality of educational opportunity. This inequality is manifested and reproduced through the societal divisions resulting from globalization.
In the fourth chapter of the book, “New policies, new possibilities? Adult learners in the global economy”, author Sue Shore discusses the “New Knowledge”-education as a commodity which has negative implications for education, particularly adult education. Shore argues that although “particular representation of whiteness guided the assumptions of successful and productive citizenship” (p. 62) educators and policy makers need to remember the racialized culture of globalization. Shore’s chapter focuses exclusively on the relation between whiteness and globalization, and contemporary concerns for social inclusion, particularly adult education and training policies. Shore supports Edwards Said’s “contrapuntal readings,” which is a pedagogical move involving the reading of text in and against the political and historical contexts that produced it. Contrapuntal readings also situate racialized landscapes at the center of contemporary policy analysis (p. 64).
Chapter Five of the book is entitled “Globalizing the rustbelt and public schools” by Pat Thomson. By ‘rustbelt’ Thomson metaphorically refers to post-industrial cities, having borrowed the term from her book of the same title Schooling the Rustbelt Kids making the difference in changing times (2005). Thomson discusses issues of globalization of educational process from different angle- poverty. What is found unique about this chapter is that it highlights the effect of globalization on the already struggling school. According to her, schools in disadvantaged areas are struggling in the current economic and political environment. Like schools everywhere they are being asked to do more with less while they face more and more obstacles. Thomson adds that all forms of inequalities caused by globalization, which is increasingly widening the gap between the rich and the poor, should be made visible and troubling” (p. 90) by teachers and policy makers. Thomson’s emphasis is on the local geography that influences certain schools in poor and already struggling neighborhoods. She argues that various factors which have become entangled are permeated by national and global events, of which globalization is a major factor. This chapter exemplifies the effect of globalization on public school system.
In Chapter Six, “International trade in education services: governing the liberalization and regulation of private enterprise,” Christopher Ziguras argues that governments “need to consider what social, educational, and economic objectives they want to encourage from the international trade in education, what principles should govern its regulation, and the best mechanisms to achieve these objectives” (pp. 93-94). This chapter further discusses policies whose goals are to liberalize the trade of education services particularly at the World Trade Organization. According to Ziguras, “The most common form of international trade in education involves student traveling to another country to study for a period of time” (p. 94). Ziguras discusses different programs in which education is an international, regulated trade (i.e., online, off shore, etc). Like Ziguras, I agree that educational trade raises concerns about the commodification and rationalization of education in both importing and exporting countries (p.102). However, like proponents of liberalization of international education, I argue that educational trade “facilitate greater understanding of international issues and cultural diversity which is major social benefit achieved through enhanced international mobility of students” (p.107). Yet, imposing one standard of curricula content internationally is a threat to educational trade. Ziguras pinpoints that local governments should take a more assertive role in developing curricula which informs the social and cultural contexts and realities that shape students’ lives.
“Responsive education: enabling transformative engagements with transitions in global/national imperatives” is seventh chapter of the book, written by Michael Singh. Singh is a pioneer researcher in the field of the globalization of education and transitions of global/national imperatives. Through this chapter, Singh offers “six overlapping and interrelated lenses to learn about uneven and disjointed global national flows that might be studies across the curriculum” (p.113). Facing the realities brought by globalization is major priority in Singh’s discussion. According to Singh, although there are a few who are convinced that education must not succumb to the interests of either neoliberal or conservative ideologies or to abandoning students’ identity formation, teachers and policy makers need to prepare students for lives where globalization and its imperatives are realities. Singh spends the reminder of the chapter answering the question of how this can be done. How can educators and policy makers prepare students for the global/national imperatives? One of many ways is to develop “a meaningful engagement in curriculum narratives that provide students with opportunities to analyze, interpret, and comprehend multifaceted dimensions of globalization” (p.119). Singh devotes his chapter to answering the significant question of how to shift the attention of teachers and educational institutions towards “an education that is responsive to the imperative of contemporary globalization” (p.132) rather than merely condemning it.
The eighth chapter, written by Gayle Morris, is entitled “Performing pedagogy and the re (construction) of global/local selves.” Morris tackles a unique perspective with regard to globalization and education. A major characteristic of today’s globalized world is the diversity of people living within societies and communities. Classrooms in public schools and universities in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Britain are comprised of students from all parts of the world, a reality which is increasing the challenges faced by teachers and policy makers. Morris particularly discusses second language teaching and learning and the inadequacy of second language educators who are mostly approaching from “White/mainstream” positivist models and approaches to language teaching (p. 137). Morris highlights the “fixing” of immigrants and ethnic minority identity, and how the inefficient training of ESL teachers is affecting the global/ local selves of students. This chapter is invaluable contribution in this volume given the number of immigrants to western countries is on the rise.
Scott K. Phillips’ “Developing local teachers’ skills for addressing ethno-specific drug issues of global proportions” is the ninth chapter of the book. In it he discusses “pedagogical orientation and strategies adopted in producing a professional development program for enhancing teachers’ abilities to deliver drug education in ethnoculturally and linguistically diverse school communities” (p.151). This discussion adds a fresh twist to the volume in that it highlights a significant and vital threat produced partially by this globalized era. The main theme of Phillips’ research is on discussing with teachers and students how an educational response situated in historical and local context can help curb legal and illegal drug abuse. He concludes that schools can do little without the support of family, peer, and community institutions such as spiritual organizations. Although I agree with many aspects of Phillip’s argument, he has overlooked the fact that many schools are unable to meet the challenges of supporting minority and working class students let alone addressing issues of drug abuse. In many cases immigrants and ethnic minority student are economically challenged and thus less able to comprehend the global traffic in drugs. The chapter lacks practicality in addressing parenting practices as resources for designing effective drug education experience and developing local teachers’ skills.
Lynton Brown’s “Virtual spaces for innovative pedagogical actions: education, technology, and globalization” discusses how the media and formal education are defining the meaning and relationship of world events and their consequence for local communities. In other words, how do events of global scale affect individual lives? “A new “literacy” that is an asset in international competition, and where the demands for skilled labour open borders” (p.171) is a demand on education in this globalized era. According to Brown, the technologization of curriculum and pedagogy is the expression of the transition in the global local relations. Brown critique education that is positioned, as a result of globalized economy, and as a private investment instead of public good (p.167). What options are students and educators who oppose to these educational reforms left with? The case study designed by Brown and Singh as a mediation and mitigation of the changing conditions of higher education provided students opportunities to be producers of useful knowledge. Like Brown I contend that the de-skilling resulted from technological control of education can be opposed by strategic technologization of education that links curriculum innovation, knowledge production, and cultural formation (p.188).
Susan Grieshaber and Nicola Yelland’s “Living in liminal times: early childhood education and young children in the global/local information society” explores the globalization effect on early childhood education. The authors encourage the use of communication and computing technologies for young children and oppose the argument that childhood is being lost through children’s immersion in technological pedagogies. Computer-based knowledge and information-producing activities require that all students afford living expenses and be up-to-date with the latest technologies, the reality of minority of young children. Thus, I argue that unless governments support working class families, the reworking of curriculum policies that are extensively embedded in information and communication technologies is meaningless. Grieshaber and Yelland encourage new technologically- rich ways of engaging and enhancing young children’s learning in public school, while overlooking the realities of ethnic minorities and the economic situation that is imposed by globalization. I argue that the emphasis on the use of technology in all grades flies in the face of the need to reduce dependencies on technology. This overemphasis on ICT is one facet of globalization that is deepening the gap between rich and the poor.
The twelfth chapter, “Are markets in education democratic? Noliberal globalism, vouchers, and the politics of choice” is written by Michael Apple. Apple focuses on conservatism as a trend that has accompanied the modernization and information technology age. Apple particularly explores the American educational policies as the United States moves towards conservatism. Apple, a prominent theorist, acknowledges that understanding what and where education is going internally require an understanding of the United States as a key player within the international context. American conservative emphases in western traditions, including language and religion, is the neoconservative strategy to face the challenges coming form Far Eastern cultures such as Japan and China. Apple rightly opposes the privatization of public schools at all costs, knowing that this would enhance social inequity. The essence of democracy and citizenship is under threat as a result of the marketization of American schools. Apple’s chapter is amongst the best articulated in the book. Apple opposes to all forms of the application of neoconservative ideologies in public schools.
Helen Raduntz wrote “The marketization of education within the global capitalist economy” to discus the capitalist market penetration of the domain of education. Neoliberal interpretations of globalization as a human progress and capitalist forms of production are exerting an influence on social life through public institutions including schools. Like Raduntz I agree that education whether public schools or universities are subjected to contradictory demands. Education is under pressure from market rules, and ethics and equity concerns. Raduntz rightly argues that educators in “the marketization process have been marginalized in favors of trainers and business mangers, learning has become automated through the use of information and communication technologies” (p. 242). Capitalizing education is placing knowledge in commodity market, which will be neither beneficial nor productive for the educational process in the long term. Although Raduntz’s argument is logically oriented, she was unable to develop or suggest a strategy to face such challenges.
In “Teachers’ and public-sector workers’ engagement with “globalization from above:” resisting regressive parochialism in Queensland” Peter Kell discusses the issue of globalizing education on a local scale. He examines the local political response of teachers on globalizing education. Kell particularly explores the effect of “global formulation for competitiveness in the context of local developments in Queensland in the late twentieth century” (p. 248). The uniqueness of this chapter is that it gives an idea of the depth of the destruction incurred by the use of conservative ideologies within local schools. How would the Queensland case study differ from one conducted in less developed cities of Australia or other Western nations? This is a question that needs to be considered by global educators and policy makers.
Suzanne Franzway, the author of “Making progressive educational politics in the current globalization crisis”, analyzes the resultant success of neoliberal globalism. Progressive education has been obstructed, she maintains, by nation states that mediate, engage and respond with economic, cultural, and political globalization obstacles. Franzway’s discussion particularly focuses on how globalization creates an obstacle for progressive and democratic education. Franzway’s discussion is first to point out issues of gender division as a result of globalization. Poverty is affecting more single mothers and women than men. Poverty and low-wages dilemmas are an issue for women both locally and globally. Franzway argues that gender relations in work unions are at the heart of globalization, a perspective usually overlooked in discussion by neoliberal and neoconservatives.
The final chapter, entitled “Rethinking the democratic purposes of public schooling in a globalizing world,” is written by Alan Reid. Reid’s chapter concludes this volume on globalizing education with an analysis of education, particularly a democratic one. Reid declares that the tension is not between public education and globalization, but rather between globalization and democracy. He highlights strategies for education policy actors. For public education to sustain and promote moral democracy, Reid argues, governments would support and fund schools that commit their programs to building democracy. However, governments that are not supportive of democratic public education will overlook the importance of democratic progressive approach to education which is a necessary commitment of schooling and education today. Although Reid’s arguments are innovative they are based on the assumption that local communities are aware of and opposed to the neoliberal market-based agenda, an assumption which cannot be generalized.
Each chapter in this volume, which is indispensable for teachers, administrators, and policy makers, discusses significant issues pertinent to the educational process in a globalized world. It is a must-read for teachers in the new millennium. I encourage the translation of this volume to make it accessible to others in the field of education and policy making worldwide. I also recommend this book for adult educators, university professors, and especially to policy makers and global educators. This timely volume is also highly recommended for teachers in the fields of citizenship and peace studies. Indeed, teachers in Europe and North American, particularly those who teach in schools and educational settings with a large sector of minorities, need to be educated and aware of struggles and dilemmas of new immigrants in a globalized, hierarchal world.
About the Reviewer
Amani Hamdan is currently pursuing her PhD at the Faculty of Education at
the University of Western Ontario. Her research interests are the education of immigrant Arab Muslim women, critical multicultural education, Muslim's representation in Canadian schools and curriculum. Amani received her MAED in 2002 from Mount Saint Vincent University and researched global education in Canadian schools. She currently works as a volunteer to help new immigrants from Arab Muslim nations. Amani teaches the multicultural education courses for pre-service teachers at the University of Western Ontario.Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.
Editors: Gene V Glass, Kate Corby, Gustavo Fischman
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