Globalization and Education

Globalization and Education provides a critical introduction to various theories of globalization and the implications they are assumed to have for educational policy and practice. Using the current global financial crisis as a backdrop, internationally renowned author Fazal Razvi examine a series of questions about the ways in which globalization has been variously represented in theoretical, policy and popular discourses. In clear, concise language, Rizvi argues that the problem is not the idea of globalization itself but a particular ideological representation of the manner in which educational policy and practice should be aligned to its dictates.

Both an introduction to the topic and a fresh analysis designed to elicit wide-ranging discussions, the book opens with discussion of some of the key contemporary theories of globalization and education in order to show these are shaped by a neo-liberal social imaginary. The second half of the book describes some of the discontents such a social imaginary has produced among particular groups of people, relegating them to the edges of the global community and resulting in vast and unacceptably high levels of inequalities. Not content to accept the popular assumption that there is no alternative to a neoliberal view of globalization, the book concludes with an overview of the many alternatives already proposed and the role that education might need to play in articulating a better, more democratic and just, way of imagining the interconnected and interdependent world.

Ideal for courses in education policy and education studies, this valuable teaching resource is essential reading for anyone who wishes to read more about the issues and controversies at the intersection of globalization, education, and society.

Fazal Rizvi, Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign