Education and Globalization

In my second semester, sophomore year of college I am taking a UH370 course that focuses on global inequality. To specify my blog for the semester I have chosen to focus on education and globalization. When I first thought of this topic I wasn’t sure if the two would relate very well but after doing some research I have quickly found that globalization and education is a widespread discussion. Just like everything else in the world education is being turned into more of a business then a learning environment. There are three main elements to the modern model of education according to Willaim Tabb in his essay Globalization and Education as a commodity. The first element is making “the provision of education more cost efficient,” and what we have been seeing in the U.S. in the past four years is making testing standardized and focusing on marketable skills. Many of these elements have been seen in different ways all over the world. Most schools have experienced cutbacks within public schooling and closing down of “inefficient” programs that do not perfectly correlate with business needs. More often than not we are seeing students that can’t keep up being left behind. Schools are no longer around to teach students but instead to find the next business men and women.
Even more important is that schools are being made more accessible and easy to attend. This is done with most courses being given online or through CD. Now you don’t even have to go to school, you can learn anything anywhere. These classes and online schools are run by businesses and outside management. This means education can be standardized just like any other business. All of these education businesses are sold all around the world in many different languages making the standardized schooling available to all people. Many of these education courses have been created by the United States and therefore are globalizing western beliefs. I plan on doing more research about westernized schools in other countries like that created by Oprah or schools created by religious sects. I think it will be really interesting to see how many religious schools are built around the world.
I have chosen this topic and all it has to offer because I want to be a third grade teacher. For this reason education is very interesting to me. As stated earlier, education is being globalized by the standardized online courses and world- wide schools. Another interesting point to this topic is the idea of immigration due to globalization of education. What I will discuss this semester are the ideas that globalization of education is made through mass education online, government funding, and standardized classes. I hope that this topic can last the whole semester with everything we talk about in class. From this topic I hope to have a better overall understanding of education and how different countries run their schools. By learning more about the problems of schooling or what works I can become a better teacher. I think it will be an eye opening topic and I look forward to researching and discussing it with my classmates.