Evaluating Globalisation and Education Reforms: Paradigms and Ideologies

The UN Decade for Human Rights Education began in 1995, and since that time many nations have reported activities and programs in line with the decade (United Nations 1998; UNHCHR 2005). While 1995 was a pivotal year in the history of human rights education, the curricular movement neither began nor ended with the UN Decade. Human rights education has been developing for several decades, and efforts to introduce human rights into formal school curricula have included diverse and ongoing activities by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and dedicated individuals throughout the world. Beyond advocating for human rights education in schools, the actors involved in promoting human rights education also have been involved in creating and developing a curricular movement. This article builds on previous comparative education research by analyzing the current discourse surrounding this emerging education model— human rights education. The first section provides a brief history of human rights education in formal education. The second section reviews research on international reforms, emphasizing analyses of processes in global diffusion and variation at national or local levels. Closely related, the third section discusses linkages and relational and associational processes that spread ideas and construct new models such as human rights education. The fourth section focuses on the current state of human rights education, ex-

The chapter offers a synthesis of current research findings on globalisation and education reforms, with reference to major paradigms and ideology. The chapter analyses the shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation, education reforms, paradigms, and their impact on education policy and pedagogy. The chapter critiques globalisation, policy and education reforms and suggests the emergence of new economic and political dimensions of cultural imperialism. Such hegemonic shifts in ideology and policy are likely to have significant economic and cultural implications for national education systems, reforms and policy implementations. The chapter also evaluates discourses of globalisation, and the ubiquitous trend towards the international large-scale assessment, and global educational standards. It is suggested there is a need to continue to explore critically the new challenges confronting the global village in the provision of authentic democracy, equality, social justice, against the background of education reforms.

The chapter analyses and evaluates the ascent of a neo-liberal and neo-conservative higher education policy, global university rankings, internationalization, quality assurance, entrepreneurial and competition for international students among universities, both locally and globally. Higher education policy reforms reflect aspects of a dominant ideology of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism. Neo-liberal policies are largely based on dominant market-oriented ideologies, rather than democratic policy reforms. The commodification of higher education, with its focus on vocationalism and labour market prospects for highly skilled and competent graduates, is a vivid outcome of market-driven economic imperatives of neo-liberal ideology. The chapter analyses the shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation, and neo-liberalism, and their impact on education policy. The chapter critiques globalisation, policy and education reform and suggests the emergence of new economic and political dimensions of neo-liberalism as cultural imperialism. Such hegemonic shifts in ideology and policy are likely to have significant economic and cultural implications for national education systems, reforms and policy implementations.KeywordsAcademic achievementAuthentic democracyBusiness-oriented model of educationCompetitive market forcesCritical discourse analysisCultural imperialismDiscourses of globalisationEconomic inequalityEducation reformsGlobal citizenshipGlobal university rankingGlobalisationGlobal university rankings,governanceHigher education policyHuman capitalHuman rights educationIdeologyIntercultural understandingInternationalizationMacro-social perspectiveMarketisationNeo-conservatismNeo-liberal higher education policyNeo-liberal ideologyParadigmsPerformance indicatorsProgressive pedagogyQuality education for allSocial inequalitySocial stratificationSocial justiceSocial stratificationTransformative pedagogy

What Does Globalization Mean for Educational Change? A Comparative Approach

CIES Bibliography 2011

One consequence of the hype around globalization and education and debates on global political actors such as the World Bank, IMF and WTO—is that there has not been sufficient attention paid by education theorists to the development of a rigorous set of analytic categories that might enable us to make sense of the profound changes which now characterize education in the new millennium. 1 This is not a problema confined to education. Writing in the New Left Review, Fredric Jameson observes that debates on globalization have tended to be shaped by “…ideological appropriations— discussions not of the process itself, but of its effects, good or bad: judgements, in other words, totalizing in nature; while functional descriptions tend to isolate particular elements without relating them to each other.” In this paper we start from the position that little or nothing can be explained in terms of the causal powers of globalization; rather we shall be suggesting that globalization is the outcome of processes that involve real actors—economic and political—with real interests. Following Martin Shaw, we also take the view that globalization does not undermine the state but includes the transformation of state forms; “…it is both predicated on and produces such transformations.”3 Examining how these processes of transformation work, however, requires systematic investigation into the organization and strategies of particular actors whose horizons or effects might be described as global.

Transnational Advocacy, Global Civil Society? Emerging Evidence from the Field of Education

L'objectif des auteurs de cet article est double. Il s'agit d'une part de presenter une etude exploratoire sur les tendances actuelles temoignant de l'emergence d'un nouvel activisme non gouvernemental dans le champ de l'education et d'autre part de dresser un cadre analytique afin d'evaluer l'importance de cet activisme, en elaborant des concepts bases sur les recherches ayant porte sur les nouveaux mouvements sociaux et les debats theoriques actuels a propos de la societe civile mondiale.

Human right education in mainland China developed quickly in recent years. The problems became visible in the progress of its development. The development ideas and methods should be adjusted. A reform of human rights education in mainland China is necessary for its further development. Human rights education should be launched for masses, should be further popularized; human rights education resources should be delivered evenly, get to a balanced development; the teaching methods and contents should be improved; both the quantity and quality of human rights teachers should be increased; The government and society should establish special funds for promoting human rights education. Keywords-reform; human rights education; mainland China;

Background/Context Human rights education has proliferated in the past four decades and can be found in policy discussions, textbook reforms, and grassroots initiatives across the globe. This article specifically explores the role of creativity and imagination in human rights education (HRE) by focusing on a case study of one non-governmental (NGO) organization's program operating across India. Purpose/Objective This article argues that human rights education can and should be creative and innovative in its approaches to ensure access and sustainability of programs that seek to transform the learning experiences of marginalized students. Evidence from India contributes to the discussion of HRE by presenting teachers’ and students’ experiences with one particular human rights education program in India that incorporates an array of strategies to secure support and contextually-relevant curricula and pedagogy for poor children. Research questions that guided the larger study from which data are presented here included (a) How have differentiated motivations for, conceptualizations of, and initiatives towards HRE operated at the levels of policy, curriculum and pedagogy, and practice in India? (b) What impact has HRE had on Indian teachers and youth from diverse backgrounds who have participated in one NGO program? Research Design The larger study from which the data are drawn is a vertical case study utilizing primarily qualitative methods. Participants in the larger study included 118 human rights education teachers, 625 students, 80 staff and policy makers of human rights education, and 8 parents. Observations of teacher trainings included hundreds more participants. The majority of student respondents came from ‘tribal’ (indigenous) or Dalit (previously called “untouchable”) communities, both comprising the most marginalized sections of Indian society. Design and Methods This study was primarily qualitative and was carried out from August 2008 to August 2010 (13 months of fieldwork during that period). Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 118 teachers, 25 students, 8 parents, and 80 staff and officials of human rights education in India. 59 focus groups were carried out with an additional 600 students. Observations were also carried out of teacher trainings in human rights and human rights camps for students. Follow up data were collected on subsequent, but shorter, field visits from 2011-2013. Conclusions/Recommendations The study found the following: (a) Human rights education that is creative, contextualized, and engaging offers a meaningful opportunity for educators, families and students to critique and interrogate social inequalities. (b) Non-governmental organizations can provide a unique perspective on human rights education by drawing on diverse creative approaches if they are able to engage effectively with students, communities, educators and schools. (c) Research on human rights education must attend to how local communities, activists, artists and educators make meaning of normative frameworks (like human rights) in order to understand how creativity, imagination and innovation are engaged and ‘indigenized’ in productive and transformative ways. Further attention to creativity and imagination in human rights education can illuminate how HRE influences—and is mediated by—existing community realities and societal structures. I started learning about human rights in class six. I first thought they are giving us more of a burden with yet another subject and more books. But the teachers were so different after they started teaching human rights: human rights teachers talk nicely to us, they don't scold and beat us. They encouraged us to try new things and cultivate different talents like dance, poetry, drama, singing, and everything. Other subject teachers would just teach their subjects and they beat us also. They put the pressure of other people on us. But the human rights teachers release us from that. Through this course, I started writing poems about women's rights and children's issues and my human rights teacher encouraged me to send it to the newspaper when I was in class eight. They liked it and even published it! I had never ever thought something like that would happen. My grandmother can't read–she is a sweeper in someone's home–but I showed it to her in the newspaper and she was so happy. I kept writing poems and made a collection of 125 of them. My teacher encouraged me to put them together in a book and she raised money from teachers and got the publisher to give us a discounted rate. They are putting all the proceeds of the book sales in a bank account under my name so that I can go to college. I can't imagine what my life would be if this human rights class would not have been there. When I grow up, I would like to do a lot more in the field of human rights. —Fatima, 16-year-old human rights student in India1

Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2008)

Since 1 July l997 Hong Kong has become a Special Administrative Region under the Peoples Republic of China. There is a difference in the interpretation of human rights between East and West. Even before the change of sovereignty human rights education was not an important element in the Hong Kong school curricula. The hidden curriculum is not supportive of human rights education either. During the United Nation Decade for Human Rights Education (1995–2005), Hong Kong people are torn between the dichotomy of liberalism-communitarianism over human rights. This paper examines the attitude about human rights of the Hong Kong Chinese people and the issues of human rights in Hong Kong schools, thereby throwing light on the prospect of human rights education in its relationship to education reform taking place in Hong Kong. The conclusion is that Hong Kongs education reform proposals already embody the spirit of human rights and they have laid the foundation for the development of human rights education.

South Africa’s higher education landscape mirrors its history of its relentlessly discriminatory past along racial, gender, social, political and class lines. Within this setting teacher education aims to cultivate its teaching and learning toward the fostering of moral persons who are caring towards the other and concerned with social justice and transformation. In this sense we explored the relationship between human rights education and human rights literacies and how these can be called upon to create one avenue to drive this agenda. In this chapter we use evidence-based findings to unpack the (im)possibilities for human rights literacies as revealed through student-teachers’ views of human rights education. As students’ views may reveal what and how they learned and what the curriculum offered them, we may unlock (im)possibilities for reviving human rights education and supporting human rights literacies through teacher education. We concentrated on the human rights education section in two surveys (S2013_RSA and S2015_RSA) to see how findings might shed light on future directions for teacher education to support human rights literacies, dynamically fluid, and that are continuously developing in response to the South African context. In response to critique against human rights education as stagnant, declarationist and as having lost its critical and transformative edge (Keet et al., South African Journal of Higher Education, 31, 79–95, 2017; Spreen and Monaghan, Human rights education: Theory, research, praxis, 2017; Keet, Human rights education or human rights in education: A conceptual analysis, 2007) we argue that for human rights literacies and human rights education to be supportive of one another, human rights education programmes in teacher education should regard human rights literacies as a disposition toward thinking and practising human rights that occupies the spaces that emerge when one transcends the division between what is legislation (written) and what is lived. For this reason, we recommend transformative pedagogies be included in teacher education programmes for human rights.

The chapter synthesises recent research findings on globalisation and the politics of human rights education policy reforms globally. The chapter analyses and evaluates the shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation and human rights education reforms and their impact on societies, education policy and pedagogy.

The chapter synthesises recent research findings on globalisation and the politics of human rights education policy reforms globally. The chapter analyses and evaluates the shifts in methodological approaches to globalisation and human rights education reforms and their impact on societies, education policy and pedagogy.