Page 26 - Education in a Digital World

Developing a Global Perspective 13

Waters and Brooks 2011). Indeed, in many cases, education is now considered to be
an almost wholly globalised concern. As Jenny Ozga (2011, p.219) observes, there
are many commentators who continue to:

advance analysis in terms of the ‘world institutionalisation of education’ and
who see the national context and international organisations as having only a
minor mediating effect on the onward march of a world system. Local
uniqueness is recognised, but it features as a rather quaint aberration in a
standardising world.

While many other commentators (this book included) take a rather more
nuanced perspective, growing numbers of scholars of education policy, sociology
and economics have paid considerable amounts of attention to the globalised nature
of education over the last thirty years or so. Even at the level of compulsory
schooling, it is being increasingly argued that “education as an institution has
become a global enterprise” (Spring 2009, p.10). This shift in perception reflects a
number of notable recent trends. At all levels of education, for example, one can
identify an increasing movement and mobility of students and educators – tradi-
tionally from ‘East to West’ but now increasingly in all directions. These trends are
complemented by the setting-up of international schools, international curricula and
international assessment regimes, as well as an increasingly fierce global competition
between educational providers for student outcomes. Education provision around
the world is certainly now subject to intensified international regimes of standardi-
sation, scrutiny and competition – not least through comparisons such as global
‘indicators’ of educational ‘quality’ and ‘effectiveness’ in the form of the TIMSS and
PISA testing regimes. The number of areas of global change within education are
therefore substantial and far-reaching.
While many of the issues just listed are concerned largely with compulsory schooling,
some commentators would contend that the globalisation of education has been
particularly pronounced in the international marketisation and commodification of
higher education. As Melanie Wilson (2010, p.182) contends:

There is little doubt that the impact of globalisation on higher education has
reshaped and continues to reshape the landscape of academia. Universities are
increasingly more connected as global research initiatives become more
commonplace; global university rankings influence university mandates and
focus; global trade impacts publicly funded universities; and faculty and stu-
dents can teach and learn in new globally networked ways. This changing
landscape has challenged universities and colleges to revisit their raison d’être,
all while remaining viable in this new global context.

If we reflect upon the many issues implicit in this quotation, then a number of
important features of contemporary globalised education come to the fore.