The global–local negotiation: between the official and the implemented history curriculum in Israeli classrooms

ABSTRACT

Globalisation and technological advances in the twenty-first century have caused a blurring of national lines, which in the past were the basis of a nearly indisputable model of civic identity. This process has led to a noticeable trend of the globally oriented pressures within the national curricula, on top of the existing locally oriented demands. By employing an interpretative, qualitative methodology, this study offers a multidimensional analysis of the tensions and power relations within the global–local nexus in history teaching. We reveal and discuss Israeli teachers’ perceptions and behaviours regarding the tension between the global and local inclinations within four major themes: teachers’ entrepreneurial performance, critical views of the existing curricula, the presence of Israeli–Palestinian conflict throughout teaching involvements, and the meaning the teachers attribute to Holocaust in their teaching. The context for this study is Israel: a developed OECD country locked into an intense and long-standing ethnic and political conflict. The tension between the ‘global’ and the ‘local’ in the Israeli education system, studied through the prism of teachers themselves, provides a thought-provoking case study.     

International Baccalaureate as a litmus test revealing conflicting values and power relations in the Israeli education system

This study comprises a comprehensive attempt to reveal the power relations and conflicting interests within the local–global nexus of the Israeli public education system. The perceptions of different stakeholders were explored, in regard to the implementation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program as an example of a globally oriented curriculum. Vignette scenarios and mixed methods were utilized in order to survey various stakeholders including parents, school principals, Education Ministry officials, academics, and educational entrepreneurs. Findings indicate that the Israeli education system is somewhat trapped between different and opposing pressures that force transformations in conflicting directions. The Israeli case may serve as a reference point for future research, advancing the study of power relations and tensions between different values and diverse stakeholders in modern education systems, especially within societies engaged in active conflict.     

Looking East: Shanghai,PISA 2009 and the reconstitution of reference societies in the global education policy field

This paper examines the outstanding performance of Shanghai, China on PISA 2009 and its effects on other national systems and within the global education policy field. The OECD's PISA is helping to create this field by constituting the globe as a commensurate space of school system performance. The effects of Shanghai's success are considered in three other national contexts: the USA, England and Australia. We combine (a) analysis of data from more than 30 research interviews with senior policy actors at the OECD, the IEA and within Australia and England; and (b) document analysis of policy speeches, commissioned research reports and media coverage from the three national contexts. Shanghai's performance in PISA 2009 produced a global ‘PISA-shock’ that has repositioned this system as a significant new ‘reference society’, shifting the global gaze in education from Finland to the ‘East’ at the beginning of the so-called ‘Asian century’.     

How not to reason with PISA data: an ironic investigation

International comparative testing, such as the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), has considerable impact on policy-makers, the media and the general public. A central assumption underlying PISA is that global variation in students’ academic performance is attributable to national educational structures and policies. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the problematic nature of this assumption. Rather than critiquing it from the outside, we turn the tools, data and presumptions of the current discourse of international comparisons upon themselves, showing that this assumption is refuted by analysis of immigrant student test scores. Data from the PISA 2009 tests show that Chinese immigrant students in New Zealand and Australia achieve math scores that are more similar to those of students in Shanghai than to their non-immigrant Australian and New Zealand peers. Thus, cultural background appears to be more consequential for the educational attainment of Chinese immigrant students than exposure to the educational systems of Australia or New Zealand. We discuss limitations of our analysis, using them as basis to discuss the shortcomings of PISA more generally.     

The cultural politics of national testing and test result release policy in South Korea: a critical discourse analysis

This paper examines the ideological construction of educational discourses embedded within the South Korean print media. Significantly, these discourses have recently promoted the resurrection of a sweeping national testing and test results release policy. Through careful examination of the “test plus release” policy, the authors show how the government has achieved hegemonic power by shaping public opinion through the national testing contexts. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of educational policy texts from the government and top 10 print media sources, this paper analyses how discourses on “accountability”, “the right to know” and “the fairness of the tests” have been produced, reproduced and recontextualized to favour particular perspectives. The authors also examine how government and influential print media discourses interact with political and cultural factors such as “acclaiming the evaluative state”, “education fever” and “meritocratic beliefs” to achieve public consent for the new “test plus release” policy.     

Students in service of the state: Uncoupling student trips abroad and global competence

Student exchange programs and trips abroad are consistently portrayed in scholarship as a strategy for promoting students’ global competence. Through a thematic document analysis of a mandatory course developed by the Israeli MOE for students embarking on trips abroad and additional sources, I explore the discourse used to portray these trips in the Israeli context, showing an alternative model that places the state rather than students at the center of these programs. Although from an education perspective this discourse is distinct, political science scholarship suggests the goals it embodies could be embedded across many national contexts, albeit more discretely.     

A cross-national comparison of international strategies: global citizenship and the advancement of national competitiveness

This paper examines national-level strategies concerning internationalisation of education and the extent to which global citizenship is deployed in their discourse. We focus on a cross-national comparison of selected internationalisation strategies in Australia, Canada, Ireland, the UK and the USA, all countries with highly developed economies and a relatively high proportion of the market share of international students. We draw on a thematic textual analysis and the use of corpus technologies to explore the framing of discourses and language use in each strategy. Our comparative analysis of national strategies highlights a dominant approach to international education that is primarily competitive in its orientation, with national interest as the key driver. This cross-national comparison also revealed considerable variation in framing of strategic internationalisation on a discourse level. Based on findings, we argue that internationalisation strategies limit the possibilities of advancing central tenets of global citizenship.     

THE DEMOCRATISATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IN FRANCE AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A NEO-WEBERIAN GLOCAL APPROACH TO EDUCATION REFORMS

ABSTRACT:  The structural reforms of the education system in France (1959, 1963, and 1975) were part both of a global process of democratisation of education launched after the Second World War and of a larger modernisation project in which knowledge producers (experts, scholars and consultants) played a crucial role. Instead of a national approach or a world system approach to education reforms I propose a neo-Weberian glocal perspective that focuses on knowledge producers as a status group, education discourse structuration and education global networks; this perspective integrates national contexts and their peculiarities in the analysis without losing sight of the global forces. Global education networks centered in international organisations – such as UNESCO and the OECD – in which French knowledge-producers were largely involved, adopted a discourse inspired by the American school model that was adopted by scholars in different countries. The reformist network, in which scholars, experts and policy makers participated, enhanced reformist discourse structuration in the knowledge-production institutions (universities and national institutes) around social problems such as 'technological and scientific lag', 'inequality of opportunity', and 'disenchantment from the education system', thus, fostering transformations of the French education system.     

'The Trouble with Our Schools': A media construction of public discourses on Queensland schools

This paper gives an account of competing public discourses on schooling. In particular, it investigates one newspaper's coverage of the release of an educational report. The paper combines interview data with a critical discourse analysis of newspaper texts to show how media reporting of Queensland schools constructed a preferred discourse on education that represented schools as being in crisis, 'in trouble'. The analysis describes how the paper shaped popular opinion on educational policy through the construction of public discourses of crisis in education. Further, the analysis shows how this discourse positioned particular groups as the authoritative voice on standards in Queensland schools. It shows how, at a time when teacher quality was under question, the media constructed a public discourse that diminished the authority of teachers to speak about education policy, granting that authority to the newspaper's editor, who assumed the people's voice on educational issues. This analysis of the construction of public discourses about education policy gives insights into the media's place in educational policy-making. In so doing, the paper adds to the small body of literature that investigates the relationships between the media and education.     

Globalisation of education policies: does PISA have an effect?

The paper examines the role of PISA in the globalisation of education policies. It approaches the question by assessing the effects of PISA on the ways in which new legislation was debated in national contexts in the period 1994–2013. The study asks: Has there been an increase in the number of references to the international community in debates on education policy due to PISA, and, if so, is this change confined to debates on education policy? Our analysis shows that education policy debates feature an increasingly global discourse in which organisations such as the OECD have an authoritative role. Yet, our findings do not support the claim that PISA is the cause of a change in this respect. Debating national policies in a global context and utilising the same transnational discourses regardless of the policy issue area in question has long been with us, yet there is a global trend in which national policies are increasingly often debated through appeals to models and policy advice promulgated by international organisations.     

Manifestations of neoliberal discourses within a local job‐training program

The purpose of conducting this study was to understand how neoliberal discourses manifest within the local context of a short‐term, job‐training program offered at a two‐year college in the USA. Ethnographic data were collected at the local site through interviews, observations and document analysis. We then situated these data within a global context represented by a corpus of purposively selected national and international policy texts. Focusing on three components of discourse as social action—genres, representations and identities—the data analysis illuminated three interrelated themes relating to how institutional actors translated neoliberal discourses available at the global scale into practice. The ideological consequences for learners as well as examples of counter‐hegemonic resistance are discussed.     

Globalisation and the politics of international tests: the case of Israel

Comparative international tests of students' achievements have become increasingly popular over the past decade. An outcome of this widespread practice is the tendency of various countries to evaluate their national status according to their pupils' international ranking in such achievement tests, partly due to the common belief that high ranking is an indication of the nation's future ability to compete in the global market. Using PISA 2000 and PISA 2006 data, the present study aims to show that the low achievements of Israeli pupils were to be expected, and that their average scores are a reflection of the economic and demographic characteristics of their country. Our findings suggest that the public debate in Israel on school achievements has been magnified out of all proportion. We also discuss the educational policy which derives proposals for educational reform from a conception of globalisation of education. This policy focuses on the setting of standards for educational achievements aimed at improving pupils' place on the international scale. Finally, we claim that the focus on the international grading of educational achievements deflects public attention from an understanding of the significance of inequalities within the country.     

Exams tested by Covid-19: An opportunity to rethink standardized senior secondary examinations

PROSPECTS - The global Covid-19 pandemic is testing the responsiveness of school systems. Extensive discourse about disruptions to the standardized examinations students take in their final year of...     

Theorizing Social Justice Ambiguities in an Era of Neoliberalism: The Case of Postapartheid South Africa

In this essay, Sharon Subreenduth explores how social justice policies have both global–local and historical dynamics and maintains that, as a result, dominant Western models of social justice limit engagement with alternative modes of understanding social justice in non‐Western locations. She uses the South African experience as a case study for examining the complexities of social justice policy in the context of the decolonizing efforts that undergird national policy in South Africa as it simultaneously negotiates neoliberal globalizing dynamics. The essay specifically analyzes the neoliberal concept of choice and how it figures within the discourse and practice of race and education within society. Moving beyond binaries, Subreenduth highlights the murky areas of social justice and articulates what they tell us about meta‐analysis, narrative, resistance, complicities, infiltration, and the neoliberal il/logic of local–global histories.     

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION – GOOD FOR BUSINESS BUT NOT FOR THE STATE? THE IB CURRICULUM AND GLOBAL CAPITALISM

ABSTRACT:  In the 1970s and the 1980s, multicultural education spread in many countries. However, in the mid-1980s the golden age of multiculturalism came to an end. Neo-conservative political forces attacked multicultural policies and progressively a neo-liberal discourse pervaded economic and social policies, also affecting national education systems. In contrast, multicultural approaches have emerged with tremendous vigour in the field of business management. Juxtaposing cognitive, emotional and socio-communicative multiculturalism found in organisational studies onto multiculturalism in the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum indicates whether multiculturalism in international schools aims to respond to the needs of global capitalism. The findings show that emotional, cognitive and socio-communicative multiculturalism are seen as essential traits for good performance in transnational corporations, and they are strongly encouraged in the IB curriculum. The relevance of multicultural skills in global management alongside the decay of multiculturalism in public education systems entails a growing educational disparity between lower class and higher class children. A new educational structure in which two differentiated systems – a national system and an international system – emerges and redefines the terms of inequality of opportunities.     

促进学生国际流动的国家政策:何以可以与何以可为?

随着全球社会发展与国际教育相互关系变得广泛与深刻,国家已成为参与国际高等教育竞争有影响力的行动者.作为国际教育竞争的基石与国家经济竞争力领域的关键结构,学生国际流动被视为促进国家公共外交与培养全球竞争力人才的重要政策工具.全球范围促进学生国际流动的国家政策呈现既复杂又不平衡的特点.以国际教育战略与项目计划为发展先导、参...     

Cynical neoliberalism or true agency? Israeli governmental discourse about entrepreneurship in the education system

This study examines and characterises the governmental discourse regarding entrepreneurship policy in the Israeli education system as a case study to expand existing knowledge regarding national entrepreneurship policy in education. The study is based on in-depth interviews with key governmental policymakers (holding the top of the pyramid position in the Ministry of Education) involved in the creation and formulation of the education policy in Israel for over a decade. We provide a unique glimpse into the mindset where decisions that shape the entire Israeli education system are made, and present new insights regarding the components of entrepreneurship policy in education in Israel, as well as the characteristics of such policy, its expressions and the construction of entrepreneurship as a field of policy in the education sector.     

Shifting discourses from boy preference to boy crisis: educating boys and nation building in neoliberal China

ABSTRACT

It is well established that China has emerged as a major economic power, resulting from the nation’s neoliberal modernization. What is less understood is the socio-cultural and educational impact of this change on public institutions. This article focuses on the education system, which is currently seen as central to delivering the nation’s modernization project, particularly through suzhi jiaoyu (education for quality). More specifically, we engage with a pervasive public discourse of a boy crisis. We suggest the need critically to explore the local (national) meanings within a contemporary Chinese context of this assumed projected crisis that appears to be established as a western phenomenon. We argue that the discourse of a boy crisis can be read as a strategic move to re-inscribe an earlier discourse, that of the boy preference, that in turn is discursively linked to nation building at a time of globally inflected socio-economic transformations.     

Portuguese,French and British discourses on colonial education: Church–State relations,school expansion and missionary competition in Africa, 1890–1930

This article draws a comparison between the Portuguese in relation to British and French discourses on overseas educational policies at the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century until the 1930s. It focuses on three main colonial educational dynamics: school expansion (comparing the public and private sectors); State–Church relations (comparing these relationships at the European and colonial levels); and missionary competition (comparing Catholic with Protestant strategies towards educational incorporation). Colonial discourse is seen here as a power‐knowledge discourse aimed at constructing the colonial subjects as individuals, enabling them to imagine themselves as belonging to a particular cultural polity. The article intends to show how cross‐national discourses on education affect the principles on which theories of schooling are built and the ways in which they influence the first attempts to systematize pedagogical and school models in the colonial peripheries. On the other hand, it tries to understand, within government technologies of domination, the conflicting views, negotiations and ambiguities between global policy formulation and local school system implementation. In this sense, the author sought to analyse the different ways in which concepts such as ‘assimilation’, ‘civilizing mission’, ‘adapted education’, and ‘learning by doing’ were mobilized and appropriated into the colonial education discourses in order to legitimize particular governmental strategies. Two main ideas run through the text: the first attempts to demonstrate the existence of discontinuities between official educational ideologies at home and local system and school expansion strategies in the colonies. The second claims that educational borrowing from other colonies at the Empires' peripheries was, more often that is thought, a crucial feature of colonial educational discourse.     

Welcome and exclusion: an analysis of The Australian newspaper’s coverage of international students

For countries such as Australia exporting education is recognised as an important contributor to the nation’s economy. The embodiment of this export industry in Australia is the presence of international students in tertiary institutions across the country. Despite their considerable contribution to social, political, cultural and economic life, there have been recent examples of violence, exploitation and discrimination against international students in Australia. To understand how international students are both welcomed and excluded from Australian life, we use critical discourse analysis (CDA) to analyse news reports published in an Australian national newspaper from 2009 to 2011. Following van Dijk (Ideology: a multidisciplinary approach, Sage, Thousand Oaks, 1998) we view newspapers as ideological institutions that mobilise discursive power to polarise public opinion to support their ideological agenda(s). In the case of international students we use CDA to show how media discourses construct international students in ways that commodify their participation in higher education and marginalise them as the excluded ‘other’ in Australian society. Our conceptual and analytical approach has broader implications for national higher education policy and international student experience by exposing the social inequalities that accompany globalised international education.