Globalization and school curriculum change: locating a transnational imaginary

Abstract

This essay discusses a number of issues that have arisen from some initial attempts to design a research project on the links between globalization and school curriculum change. This research is broadly concerned with the ways in which processes and effects of economic and cultural globalization are becoming evident in curriculum policies and school programmes, and expressed by teachers and students, with particular reference to the ways in which meanings that circulate in increasingly globalized media (such as television and the internet) are deployed in the construction of school knowledge. The author's particular interests are in the conceptual and methodological aspects of this research and, in this essay, an approach to conceptualizing globalization as a ‘transnational imaginary’ in curriculum work is outlined. Two contextual issues that might complicate efforts are then briefly explored to inquire into local expressions of this imaginary. The issues on which this essay focus are (1) global perspectives that are already entrenched in many school subjects, and (2) popular expectations that the globalization of new information technologies will transform schools and their curricular.