Examinations Standards, Educational Assessments, and Globalizing Elites: The Case of the West African Examinations Council

Abstract

The term has come to define current geo-political order. A worldwide phenomenon, James Mittelman identifies globalization as a coalescence of varied transnational processes and domestic structures, allowing economy, politics, culture, and ideology of one country to penetrate another. The chain of causality runs from spatial reorganization of production to international trade and to integration of financial markets.... Driven by changing modes of competition, globalization compresses time and space aspects of modern social relations. (1) However, David Held et al. caution that because there is no precise definition, globalization is in danger of becoming the cliche of our times, big, all encompassing idea that offers little substantive insight into human condition. (2) In an effort to provide a more systematic analysis, Held and his colleagues identify three schools of thought associated with globalization: hyperglobalizers, transformationalists, and skeptics. Hyperglobalizers argue that modern economic and political interdependence has undermined importance of state. According to proponents of this school of thought, contemporary globalization defines a new era in which peoples everywhere are increasingly subject to disciplines of global marketplace. (3) Because demands of global market have become dominant, role of traditional nation-state in regulating economic activities has declined in importance. Instead, transnational networks control accumulation and movement of capital within a borderless (4) Transformationalists argue that globalization has been catalyst for unprecedented economic, social, and political change. They point to advances in technology and telecommunications that enable people in one part of world to easily have access to information about events in another region, thousands of miles away. One effect of this transformation in global relations is that governments and societies across globe are having to adjust to a world in which there is no longer a clear distinction between international and domestic, external and internal affairs. (5) In addition, previous distinctions between North/South, First and Third World, no longer hold as virtually all countries in world, if not all parts of their territory and all segments of their society, are now functionally part of that larger [global] system in one or more respects. (6) Skeptics draw on historical and statistical evidence to argue that economic integration generally attributed to globalization reflects more of an increasing internationalization (meaning increasing interactions between predominantly national economies) than a globalization. (7) They argue that globalization is a myth and that world financial markets were more closely integrated at end of 19th century (the era of gold standard) than they are now. Proponents of this school of thought do not believe that global economies are entering into an era of perfect integration. Instead, they see an increasing regionalization as world economy evolves into three trading blocks, North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific Rim. Significantly, Africa and Latin America are not considered to be a part of these trading blocks in any meaningful way. This essay adopts a skeptical analysis of globalization because I believe that only through a selective reading of history can scholars argue that globalization is a new phenomenon. The economic policies adopted during colonial era undermined development of local industries and oriented economies of African colonies toward producing raw materials to serve manufacturing sectors in Europe. Colonial-era economic policies thus laid groundwork for Africa's current marginalization. For many African countries, structural adjustment programs imposed upon them during 1980s and 1990s by World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have exacerbated their economic hardships and undermined their ability to participate fully in global economy. …