The Secrets Adventures of Order: Globalization, Education and Transformative Social Justice Learning

Carlos Alberto Torres

《Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Development （APJED）》 1卷1期 (2012/06) Pp. 1-7

https://doi.org/10.6228/APJED.01.01.01

並列摘要

There are many definitions of globalization, or perhaps more accurately, there are many globalizations. Discussing the four faces of globalization-globalization from above, globalization from below, the globalization of human rights, and the globalization of the war against terrorism-and their impacts on education and learning, this article offers and analysis of neoliberal globalization and how competition-base reforms affected educational policy in K-12 and higher education. These reforms are characterized by efforts to create measurable performance standards through extensive standardized testing (the new standards and accountability movement), introduction of new teaching and learning methods leading to the expectation of better performance at low cost (e.g., universalization of textbooks), and improvements in the selection and training of teachers. Competition-based reforms in higher education tend to adopt a vocational orientation and reflect the point of view that colleges and universities exist largely to serve the economic well being of a society. Privatization is the final major reform effort linked to neoliberal globalization and perhaps the most dominant. As an alternative, the article provide insights into the possibilities of employing the concept of marginality as a central construct for a model of transformative social justice learning. Following the inspiration of Paulo Freire I argue that transformative social justice learning is a social, political and pedagogical practice which will take place when people reach a deeper, richer, more textured and nuanced understanding of themselves and their world.

並列關鍵字

globalizations ； neoliberalism ； global citizenship ； Paulo Freire ； theory of marginality ； cosmopolitan democracies