Global Change and Education Policy (EDUC90782)

In recent years, it has become clear that an understanding of educational processes requires an ability to interpret and negotiate the profound economic, political and cultural shifts that define the nature of the context in which education now takes place.

This subject is designed to enable students to understand changes associated with contemporary processes of globalisation and to explore the implications of these changes for educators and policy makers.

The subject is based on the assumption that it is no longer possible to interpret and analyse educational change by focusing solely on national political spaces and policy processes. Instead, it is necessary to examine how global policy ideas and practices shape the ways policies are developed and monitored.

The subject will review some of the key debates surrounding the notion of globalisation, explore how educational ideas circulate around the world, and examine how global institutions (such as transnational corporations, intergovernmental organisations, NGOs and the media) promote particular education ideas, practices and agendas.