Globalisation and educational policy

Question 1

Globalisation definition

Answer 1

the growing interconnectedness of societies across the world, with the spread of the same culture, consumer goods and economic interests across the globe

Question 2

Globalisation impacts eductional policy in 2 main ways

Answer 2

1. the privatisation and marketisation of education
2. international comparisons

Question 3

Globalisation and marketisation and privatisation of education

Answer 3

• features of education policies of the 3 main political parties since the 1980s, promoted by neoliberal international organisations like the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank
• the global education market is predicted to reach $8 trillion by 2030 (was $6 trillion in 2022) - Morgan Stanley
• Hancock (2014) - estimated education exports from Britain by independent schools, colleges, universities and education publishers/businesses to ‘priority markets’ like Brazil, China, India etc were worth £18 billion to UK economy in 2012

Question 4

3 dimensions of globalisation

Answer 4

• Economic globalisation - trade, production and consumption (eg TNCs) - decline in production jobs in UK as manufacturing has moved abroad, so shift in UK job market towards service and leisure
• Cultural globalisation - spread of ideas (eg through technology), music, fashion, politics, news etc
• Increasing migration - for work or education (voluntary) or involuntary (fleeing war of prosecution) - increased multiculturalism in UK society

Question 5

5 ways in which globalisation has affected education in the UK

Answer 5

• increased competition for jobs abroad - New Labour gov. increased spending on education to give students more skills to compete in labour markets
• establishment of global IT companies (google, apple etc) now involved in making curriculums and learning materials - TNCs are increasingly involved in shaping education eg through exam boards and creating resources for profit
• increasing migration makes education more multicultural eg all schools now teach about the ‘6 world religions’ in RE
• increasing cultural globalisation challenges the relevance of a ‘National Curriculum’ and ideas about what literature and history should be taught
• growth of ICT companies and global media challenges traditional schooling eg getting information from youtube etc

Question 6

Moral panic definition

Answer 6

a wave of public concern about some exaggerated or imagined threat to society, stirred up by overblown and sensationalised reporting in the media

Question 7

Examples of international student achievement surveys

Answer 7

• OECD’s PISA (programme for international student assessment)
• TIMSS (trends in mathematics and science study)
• PIRLS (progress in international reading literacy study) produced by the IEA (international association for the evaluation of educational achievement)

Question 8

What are international student achievement surveys?

Answer 8

these involve conducting tests in mathematics, science and reading among representative samples of between 325000-600000 9-15 year old school students in 50-65 countries, conducted every 3-5 years
the data is then used to rank the countries’ relative performances, used by participating countries to monitor their education systems in a global context

Question 9

Impact of international comparisons on education

Answer 9

• deeply influence educational policy and are often used to assess the effectiveness of existing policies
• Ofsted has used these comparisons to propose reasons for England’s generally poor performance and suggest solutions based on policies from the top performing systems in central europe and asia
• Alexander (2012) suggested that PISA and TIMSS results have led to educational, economic and political moral panics over the state of british education and the search for miracle cures - policies from high performing countries which can be transplanted into the british system to solve educational problems

Question 10

2022 England PISA rankings

Answer 10

• 11th in maths (up from 27th in 2009)
• 13th for reading (up from 25th in 2009)
• 13th for science (up from 16th in 2009)
  above average among 65 countries in all 3 subjects

Question 11

International comparisons - examples of policies given by Alexander (2012)

Answer 11

• the national literacy and numeracy strategies introduced by Labour from 1998-2010, imposing a requirement on all primary schools to teach 2 hours of literacy and numeracy every day
• slimming down the national curriculum (2010-15 Conservative-Lib dem coalition) to ‘essential knowledge’ in english, mathematics and science
• raising academic entry requirements for trainee teachers from 2012 - generally derived from comparisons with Finland
• ‘master teachers’ - Labour plan if it won 2015 elections (Conservative got majority) to create an elite grade of ‘master teachers’ in all state schools, citing a similar policy in Singapore (came 3rd in PISA in 2012)

Question 12

Evaluation of international comparisons - strengths

Answer 12

• useful to see whether educational spending matches achievement - UK spends above average on education yet performs worse than some countries that spend less suggesting spending is not being used effectively
• useful for comparing international standards
• Oakes (2013) suggests they show what is humanly possible for young people to achieve at different ages
• provide evidence for policy makers wanting to learn from other countries on what policies seem to work best and what policies don’t, helping to understand our own education system and perhaps how to improve it

Question 13

Evaluation of international comparisons - limitations

Answer 13

• based on a narrow conception of education (literacy, numeracy and science)
• Kelly (2009) suggests globalisation has led to a view that education is primarily an economic activity rather than concerned with well-being, culture and social/personal development
• test results don’t necessarily mean the education is better or worse in certain countries due to external factors like culture or development of the country
• Alexander (2012) points out that comparing England with high-performing countries such as Singapore is pointless because the cultures are so different and the education systems operate on vastly different scales (England has 23,000 schools whilst Singapore has 350)
• can have damaging and wasteful effects on policy - Alexander points out the ‘inappropriate transplanting of policies from elsewhere’ and the reconfiguring of the entire national curriculum to respond less to national culture, values and needs