The Future of Comparative and International Education in a Globalised World

This article examines the history and future prospects of comparative and international education with particular reference to the impact of globalisation and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). Connections and interactions between comparative educationists and the technologies of printing and electronic communications are examined in a historical context. The global nature of communications in comparative and international education is demonstrated both spatially and historically, using information from all regions of the world. The changing nature of technologies is noted to have broadened the audience for comparative insights. The development of textbooks, journals, conferences, international agencies, the Internet, web-based communications, and professional comparative education societies is related to the themes of communications and globalisation.     

The Future of Comparative and International Education in a Globalised World

This article examines the history and future prospects of comparative and international education with particular reference to the impact of globalisation and Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). Connections and interactions between comparative educationists and the technologies of printing and electronic communications are examined in a historical context. The global nature of communications in comparative and international education is demonstrated both spatially and historically, using information from all regions of the world. The changing nature of technologies is noted to have broadened the audience for comparative insights. The development of textbooks, journals, conferences, international agencies, the Internet, web-based communications, and professional comparative education societies is related to the themes of communications and globalisation.     

Globalisation,Post-modernity and the State: Comparative education facing the third millennium

In this article, the implications for globalisation and Post-modernity are assessed in terms of the self-understanding and practice of comparative education, particularly in relation to contemporary theories of the state, and civil society. It is argued that, while globalisation and post-modernity are usually seen as discrete phenomena, each raises complex questions of difference and hybridity, power and collective action, which can no longer be seen in relation to the nation-state alone. Different meanings of globalisation are canvassed, based in part on Sklair's taxonomy, while examples of the impact of globalisation, especially on higher education, are given. The implications of post-modern thought are also analysed, particularly for research and understanding in comparative education. Referring to Putnam's work on civil society, it is argued that both globalisation and post-modernity are linked to changes in the nature of late capitalism, and crises in the modern state. It is finally argued that neither offers much in practice to the much needed renewal of democracy, including in education; indeed that both arguably contribute to a trend towards individualism, and a retreat from democratic engagement and visions of the social good.     

Reconceptualising Comparative and International Education

It is argued that the field of comparative and international education must be fundamentally reconceptualised and redeveloped in ways that better demonstrate its potential to contribute to: (I) the improvement of educational policy and practice world‐wide; and (2) advances in theoretical work relating specifically to education and to the social sciences more generally. Traditional strengths of the field upon which we can build are identified, but the discussion focuses upon the nature, significance and potential of emergent trends and new possibilities. This meta‐analysis is presented to stimulate and widen discussion and to help generate further avenues for future research and development. Particular attention is given to the research orientation and potential of our multidisciplinary field; to the implications of globalisation; to the challenges of post‐modern and post‐colonial perspectives; to new frames of reference and units of analysis; to the significance of culture and context; to new forms of discourse; and to the importance of forging stronger linkages between theory and practice, insiders and outsiders and the comparative and international dimensions of our field.     

Globalisation and Education in the Postcolonial World: Towards a conceptual framework

The article examines the relevance of existing accounts of globalisation and education for low income, postcolonial countries, with special reference to the education systems of sub-Saharan Africa. Using recent developments in globalisation theory, existing accounts are analysed in relation to their view of the origins, nature and future trajectory of globalisation and the implications for education. It is argued that most of the recent literature deals with Western industrialised countries and the newly industrialised countries of the Pacific Rim and therefore has limited relevance for low income countries. The literature that is concerned with low income countries often lacks a firm theoretical basis and has been limited to a discussion of the impact of economic globalisation on education. Drawing on recent work on the political economy of development and the state in Africa, the article sets out a conceptual framework for understanding various aspects of the education/globalisation relationship in low income, postcolonial countries including economic, political and cultural aspects.     

Nationalisation, Localisation and Globalisation in Finnish Higher Education

This article analyses and discusses the interplay between the social processes of nationalisation, localisation and globalisation in a single European nation state. The view of nationalisation put forward draws on a national case study based on historical and sociological research findings. The second part of the article presents a case study of the nature of globalisation and localisation in an average Finnish university. The article shows that nationalisation of Finnish higher education has created a cultural understanding of higher education institutions important for competition with other nations. As for localisation, on the one hand higher education institutions support their local communities and provinces to gain social and economic benefits. On the other hand, local communities and provinces support their higher education institutions in the hope of benefiting from them. The case studies also suggest that economic globalisation creates new dynamics within higher education institutions both through strategic alliances between higher education and commercial enterprises and through the emergence of alternative new funding sources for research.     

Postcolonialism And Comparative Education

The article considers the relevance of recent developments in postcolonial theory for comparative education research. The article starts with an account of these developments. This account is then used as a basis for a critical discussion of previous theoretical frameworks that have been used by comparative researchers to explain the colonial legacy. The implications of adopting a postcolonial approach in comparative education are discussed in relation to issues of race, culture, language and the curriculum. The article concludes by arguing that a consideration of the postcolonial condition is necessary for developing a more holistic and less eurocentric understanding of the relationship between globalisation and education.     

Postcolonialism And Comparative Education

The article considers the relevance of recent developments in postcolonial theory for comparative education research. The article starts with an account of these developments. This account is then used as a basis for a critical discussion of previous theoretical frameworks that have been used by comparative researchers to explain the colonial legacy. The implications of adopting a postcolonial approach in comparative education are discussed in relation to issues of race, culture, language and the curriculum. The article concludes by arguing that a consideration of the postcolonial condition is necessary for developing a more holistic and less eurocentric understanding of the relationship between globalisation and education.     

Impacts of Globalisation on Higher Education Reform in China: A Trend of Decentralisation and Autonomy

By tracing back the historical context of educational changes, this article explores in detail the impacts of globalisation on China’s higher education reform. A trend of decentralisation in both rights and responsibilities is revealed in terms of structural adjustment, human resource exploitation and retention, curriculum development, and education provision. Also some remaining problems and new challenges from the progress of globalisation are discussed to draw a conclusion that there is a need of combining both centralisation decentralisation approaches in China’s both present and future reforms.     

Learning for the future: the emergence of lifelong learning and the internationalisation of education as the fourth way?

This article explores the discourse of international educational reform that aims at meeting the various challenges of globalisation and a knowledge-based economy and preparing students for a better future in the twenty-first century. Specifically, it reviews the dominant themes, trends and goals of modern education. It does so by exploring the shared themes of curriculum adaptation, the emerging models of learning and innovation, the trend towards lifelong learning for all and the growing need for the internationalisation of education. It concludes by suggesting an overall trend of the sectorisation and de-sectorisation of education emerging under new social and economic circumstances in the twenty-first century.     

Globalisation and Societal Culture: Redefining schooling and school leadership in the twenty-first century

This paper highlights the importance of societal culture to developing theory, policy and practice within an increasingly globalising educational context. It argues that tensions exist between globalisation and societal culture and that globalisation makes the recognition of societal culture and cross-cultural similarities and differences more, not less, important. Consequently, the inclusion of societal culture as a factor in investigations covering such themes as the curriculum, teaching and learning, leadership and school-based management is seen as an imperative for the future development of comparative education. Accordingly, the first part of the paper clarifies the concept of 'globalisation'. In the second part, globalisation and societal culture are juxtaposed and the interface between them is explored. The third part offers a set of dimensions by which to gauge the influence of, and to compare, cultures. Finally, we illustrate our argument for greater cultural sensitivity by raising some key issues concerning school reform and improvement.     

Globalisation,the State and Education Policy in Singapore

This paper explores the concept of globalisation and educational policy making in the context of a recently developed ‘strong state’, Singapore. It suggests both the need to clarify the concept of globalisation from such concepts as dependency and centre-periphery and to avoid overly deterministic accounts of the influence of global trends on education policy making. An analysis is provided of policy initiatives in Singapore between 1979 and 1991 located within state-based imperatives to respond to both global and state-centric challenges.     

Successful globalisation,education and sustainable development

This article examines the role of education in ‘successful globalisation’ and how this links with agendas for sustainable development. In the first part ‘successful globalisation’ is defined as economic growth combined with equality and social peace. Japan and the East Asian tiger economies – particularly South Korea and Taiwan – have been uniquely successful in the last half century in achieving both rapid economic growth over long periods and relative income equality and social cohesion. A host of factors have been responsible for this, including fortuitous geo-political circumstances and good timing. However, education has also played a major role. The article, based on a review of international and national research literatures, analyses how far China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka have managed to develop their own forms of successful engagement with the global economy and what part education policy has played. In the second part we relate our concept of successful globalisation to the parallel discourses of sustainable development and education for sustainable development and reflect on what our notion of ‘successful globalisation’ can borrow from and lend to these literatures.     

Globalisation,city development and citizenship education in China's Shanghai

Globalisation has extended the competition between nation-states to that between metropolises of the same or different nations. Many studies have shown how nation-states respond to the challenge of globalisation by reconfiguring their citizenship education curriculum into a multileveled framework comprising personal, social, local, national and global dimensions. However, how metropolises reshape their citizenship education to meet the demands of their nation-state's national solidarity in order to respond to the external challenges of globalisation, and the global–national–local relationships arising from the reconfiguration are under-researched. With reference to Shanghai, the study aims to explore the perceptions of students and teachers about the dynamics and complexities in the juggling of global, national, local, and personal–social dimensions of multiple identity in a multileveled polity. Data are drawn from a questionnaire survey and interviews with students and teachers including principals. The study shows that students and teachers considered these four dimensions important, and that complex relationships between these dimensions exist. The article argues that in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world these dimensions intersect with, and are complementary to, one another. In a multileveled polity, different actors including global forces, nation-state, local government and individuals interact in an intertwined manner in the processes of remaking cities for modernisation and globalisation.     

第四次工业革命背景下的高等教育变革与发展

第四次工业革命的到来、新冠肺炎疫情的爆发、大国之间的博弈,这些重大事件使我们清醒地认识到,人类命运共同体是现代人类文明核心价值所在。推动人类文明融合、发展,是高等教育的核心价值所在,也是高等教育未来的发展方向。中国高等教育需要在百年未有之大变局中发挥智慧,为人类发展和社会进步贡献力量。以第四次工业革命为背景,分析高等教育面临的机遇和挑战,研判新时代高等教育的发展方向和变革路径,阐述西安交通大学在这一过程中的发展理念与探索实践,以期对中国高等教育的变革与发展提供理论和实践借鉴。     

Globalisation, transnational policies and adult education

Globalisation, transnational policies and adult education – This paper examines policy documents produced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the European Union (EU) in the field of adult education and learning. Both these entities address adult education as an explicit object of policy. This paper investigates how globalisation processes are constructed as policy problems when these transnational political agents propose adult education as a response. The author’s main argument is that while UNESCO presents the provision of adult education as a means for governments worldwide to overcome disadvantages experienced by their own citizenry, the EU institutionalises learning experiences as a means for governments to sustain regional economic growth and political expansion. After reviewing the literature on globalisation to elucidate the theories that inform current understanding of contemporary economic, political, cultural and ecological changes as political problems, she presents the conceptual and methodological framework of her analysis. The author then examines the active role played by UNESCO and the EU in promoting adult education as a policy objective at transnational level, and unpacks the specific problem “representations” that are substantiated by these organisations. She argues that UNESCO and EU processes assign specific values and meanings to globalisation, and that these reflect a limited understanding of the complexity of globalisation. Finally, she considers two of the effects produced by these problem representations.     

A ‘globalised’ curriculum – international comparative practices and the preschool child as a site of economic optimisation

Globalisation is often referred to as being external to education – a state of affairs presenting the modern curriculum with numerous challenges. In this article, ‘globalisation’ is examined as something that is internal to curriculum and analysed as a problematisation in a Foucaultian sense, that is, as a complex of attentions, worries and ways of reasoning, producing curricular variables. The analysis is made through an example of early childhood curriculum in Danish preschool, and the way the curricular variable of the preschool child comes into being through ‘globalisation’ as a problematisation, carried forth by comparative practices such as Programme for International Student Assessment. It thus explores some of the systems of reason that educational comparative practices carry through time, focusing on the ways in which configurations are reproduced and transformed, forming the preschool child as a site of economic optimisation.     

Globalisation and Comparative Education: A Caribbean perspective

The phenomenon of globalisation argues for a broader view of the world than was hitherto necessary; one that takes into account the diversity of the human experience and consequently one that requires a deeper understanding of the particularities of each of the constituencies that make up that experience. Comparative education, which has always stressed the significance of context and circumstance, is ideally placed to foster awareness of these elements that differentiate us, thereby facilitating our 'reading of the global' and cultivating in us a deeper appreciation of the interdependence of today's global community. The small states of the Caribbean which risk being further marginalised by the processes of globalisation stand to benefit from comparative education initiatives which would give greater international exposure to their particular circumstances and their contribution to world culture and civilisation. The Caribbean region has had a history of learning to live and work with people from diverse backgrounds, and in this regard could make a contribution to the new perspective which increasing globalisation calls for. It is this experience that the region can offer through greater participation in, and closer engagement with, the field of comparative education.     

区域教育发展的比较研究:背景、意义与实施

在当代中国教育改革与发展的区域分步推进中,各地区间在教育发展战略和教育政策上的差异性越来越明显,这对比较教育研究提出了新要求。区域教育改革与发展的比较研究应成为中国比较教育学科重要的研究领域,为中国的教育改革实践服务。     

Globalisation and Governance: Educational Policy Instruments and Regulatory Arrangements

For more than a decade, the economic, social, political and cultural effects of globalisation have been central topics of debate. Those who see globalisation as a combination of economic transactions and worldwide telecommunications tend to believe that its impact is profound, inasmuch as it is fundamentally altering the way in which we live and creating hybrid cultural styles. No country is immune from the effects of globalisation, and controversy continues to reign about its positive and negative consequences. The present study identifies and examines numerous challenges posed by globalisation and their implications for educational restructuring, with special attention being given to new forms of governance; the relation between the state, the market and civil society; and governmental policy instruments for education.