The Globalisation of Education - what are the implications?

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The Globalisation of Education - what are the
implications?

• John Schostak

Revised version of a talk given for the
Information Technology Strategy Committee seminar
series, at the Hong Kong Institute of Education,
November 2002
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Realist Architecture for action Schostak
(2002)
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Background thinking

• The idea its philosophical origins in
• Meaning of education v. schooling, training
• globalisation - are we at a critical point in
  history?
• and discussions about possible on-line futures
  EU framework 6 visions
• Social and cultural practices
• the development of on-line mechanisms and
  cyber-structures to invent the future
• Portals, dynamic data base management and
  emergence mechanisms
• Democratic processes governing interaction
• The material realisation
• technical developments in global communications
  city of learning, city-plus and Norwich
  Plus

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Continuation of notes from previous slide
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Emergence of on-line Education Space

• Given masses of distributed providers and
  clients
• Given global choice of providers
• Given increasing influence of global employers
  to define training, professional and skills needs
• Required strategies for emergence of, and
  assuring quality of, on-line
• Curriculum, Assessment
• qualifications
• commercial institutions offering
  courses and qualifications
• self-elected educational and schooling
  communities

For social justice
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GLOBAL-LOCAL EDUCATIONAL SPACES

• Ways of managing
• Local Modernist, geographically specific -e.g.,
  national
• Supplied by specialist institutions
• Post-modern, On-line, global
• Distributed
• Complexly supplied

Education System
Critical, creative processes
Naturalising process
Schooling/ training
Education
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An On-line fantasy
Emergence of an Educational Innovation Network
(EIN), connecting schools with a university,
which is then connected to a community and is
then connected to an E-city network
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(No Transcript)
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EU Framework 6 - see http//www.cordis.lu/ist/

• A regional (not national) approach to
  infrastructure development
• Large scale role-outs
• Construction of collaborative networks across the
  public and private sectors
• Ubiquity and mobility (anywhere, anytime, anyone)
  as key concepts BANs, PANs, LANs, WANs, Full
  Internet
• Open protocols to ensure sharability and
  communication across platforms, databases etc.

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Suppose

• The infrastructures are in place from BANs to
  full internet - anywhere, anytime, anyone
• The ceilings have been removed, ie., no worries
  about broadband capacities for absolutely
  anything our imaginations can conceive of doing
• Now what?

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A brainstorming session May 2002

• Tools for
• Communications - loss of the power to broadcast
  to captivated masses - replacement by emergent
  districts and communities management of light
  and dark networks
• Relevance and the adaptability of learners
  loss of linearity - parallel activities
• Emergence v. planning Quality and trust
  metrics IPR v freeware, free content
• Management of Dangers

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So, what do we fear?

• Erosion of HEIs autonomy, innovative and critical
  potentials
• Erosion, even loss, of teacher role
• Loss of face-to-face teacher student
  student-student contact and community
• Increasing stealth powers (Dark side) of
  global commercial enterprises to define and
  control education for their purposes

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Stealth Architecture Schostak (2002)
Light side Closed curricula Controlled
Dark side Open curricula Unpredictable
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Making open curricula educational

• Self-governance to enhance
• Creative Powers
• Expression
• Access to Information
• Generating and exploring agendas of interest
  through critical dialogue
• Engagement in Action to realise curricular
  interests
• Access to Resources to support needs, interests,
  and opportunities

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Political Contexts of Education

• Guardianship
• Anarchic
• Totalitarian
• Polyarchy (as threshold to democratic, and
  characteristic of most contemporary
  democracies)
• Democratic

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So, what do I see as the most important
challenges facing the accomplishment of
education?

• Fragmentation - collapse of boundaries/identities
  
• Personal
• Political
• Ethical
• Cultural
• Alienation/freedom from the real
• Virtual realities - everywhere and nowhere
• Unlimited Transformation/translation
• Uncertainty
• Freedom from origins/identity/authority

Resolved through emergence of global-local
educational communities?
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So, its time for discussion about

• The role of HEIs - if any - in consortia with
  other kinds of providers as a catalyst of the
  new educational spaces (resource providers)
• The governance of global educational communities
  and the management of quality, interests, and
  relevance to personal and local needs (practical
  mechanisms of governance)
• The cultural, professional and organisational
  changes necessary to adapt to the new educational
  environments (relevant cultural, organisational,
  professional practices)
• And, a concept of education appropriate to the
  new on-line worlds (appropriate philosophies)

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References

• Dahl, R.A. (1989) Democracy and its Critics, New
  Haven and London Yale University Press
• Sayer, A. (1993) Method in Social Science. A
  Realist Approach, London, New York Routledge
• Schostak, J.F. (2002) Understanding, Designing
  and Conducting Qualitative Research in Education.
  Framing the Project. Open University Press