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81GLOBALIZATION AND EDUCATION
Mitra Abdollahi *
Globalization is a process derived from the weaknesses of modernity that have led to the emergence of modernism. The most significant factor for its evolution has been the rapid progress in information technologies. In connection with that our interest shall focus this time on classification, processing, analysis and creation of the data, rather than mere access to them. Investing in educational systems and developing shifts to such ideas as decentralization, creativity, school centralization, as well as applying technologies in schools are all essential for not falling behind the globalization.
All those who are in charge of the current educational systems, consider the particular changes and evolutions comprehensively in order to design a reliable program for the students to help them enter a sophisticated and dynamic future that is going to be influenced by economical, social, cultural and educational factors. How is it possible to develop globalization with the help of information technologies while simultaneously keeping the specific norms and ideologies of a society?
The concept of globalization has a prominent history in the political and international literature. Some believe that globalization is 400 years old and the emergence of modernism only helped to shape it. Some suggest that modernism has various features and globalization is one of its irreversible streams. Modernism originated in the West and initially encountered strong opposition from traditionalists, but eventually it prevailed. Globalization began in the past; its form has been renewed, and the rapid progress in information technologies has been a major shaping factor for it.
“The beginning of all current changes is the emersion of a phenomenon called globalization” says Kingel. He believes it was signified around half a century ago, in India by Salvador Dali’s 1943 painting “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man”. It is no surprise that in this masterpiece, “new man” refers to the person
Post-graduate student at the Institute of Philosophy, Sociology and Law of the RA National Academy of Science.
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from North America who had to live in that era. (6)
Anthony Giddens maintains globalization is a process derived from modernity and suggests that postmodernism is a complete globalization. (2)
There are many evidences pointing to the new circumstances in the world. Weaknesses displayed by the modernity and emergence of postmodernism together with the sets of values, principles and rules; the spread of the international trade; development of the information and communication technologies with transformation of communications in various aspects such as their time, speed, shape and cost; the flow of international investments; the relative elimination of the borders are all simply the significant attributes of the globalization path. (5)
In Toffler’s opinion, the current structure of civilization is based on the “third wave”: the advance of the information age. Accordingly, awareness brings along wealth and power and unawareness results in ignorance and poverty. In his view, the firms were created in the first wave (age of agriculture) and they focused on mass production and development in the second wave (age of industry). In the postindustrial and information age, the companies are built to satisfy the new changes and what becomes important in the world of information explosion is not so much the access to this information, but its creation, classification, processing, and analysis. It is obvious that these are possible with the help of the information technologies. (9)
Generally, it can be stated that globalization has generated a situation where each society can benefit from it depending on its own political, economical, cultural, and educational aspects. As a matter of fact, educating students and improving the structure of education must be the first focal point.
As far as education itself is concerned, one may articulate that it refers to the educational system of each nation that is a regular and targeted systematical flow aimed at development and growth of talents. Education is a process that is individually achievable in several years. It is a targeted system with goals emerging in the long run which result in a steady growth of the cultural, social, and economical levels of a society.
A typical example of the education’s influence on development of a country can be demonstrated by a simple case. After the industrial revolution implemented by Stalin in the Soviet Union, the Russians launched the first satellite to the space, which caused the fear of the Americans who started to think about their weakness and figured out that the problem lies in their educational system. They embarked on reforming their educational programs and invested heftily in that. They did achieve outstanding successes and education is now accessible to
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any children in America. (10)
For this reason, school programs are of special concern in the developed countries and teachers have to update their knowledge and skills, whereas those lacking this aspiration have sought an early retirement. (10)
Since the educational system is a part of the whole, it is intensely affected by globalization. In a globalized educational system, creativity, initiative, school centralization, cooperation, and applying modern technologies are crucial. Nowadays, centralized structures and bureaucracy in learning have been replaced by postmodern structures that feature cooperation from bottom to top, respect to an individual’s mentality and creativity, privatization of education, decrease in the number of public schools and equipping schools with information technologies.
These days, education is no longer an elite training as compared to the past when education was specifically devoted to training governing elites for the country. Today students are trained for workplaces that are in constant change, teaching them to adapt themselves to the everyday development. In places where hierarchical management has been replaced with a horizontal one and creativity has become more important than following the instructions, the educational system should work on group skills of the students, their flexibility and tolerance to other cultures. (7)
Globalization has compelled most countries to analyze their educational systems continuously and to identify, circumvent and replace any inefficient strategies. Decentralization is one of the most important factors for managing progress and globalization. Developed countries have made their employees autonomous through decentralization and delegation of power which has led to growth of the personal identity. As a special trait in the neoclassic management, it has been demonstrated that in smaller organizations the idea generation is more effective and applicable. (6) Under these organizational and directional developments, the educational system is also brought to the regional/local decision-making level and the number of large schools has decreased. In this dimension, school management plan has been proposed and it has resulted in improvements of the employees’ morale and efficiency. Therefore, it is essential to apply participation-based structures in educational organizations.
Nowadays, in order to keep pace with globalization, each country has to train its students to possess a pair of identities in a manner that they would not be contradictory: First, it is the national identity that in the past used to be the only cherished one to the point of being sacred; students must challenge it with their personal experiments as to institutionalize them eventually. Second, a global identity of a world citizen who is inseparable from the other people of the world, and who lives in a
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global village where in this age of communication everybody will be informed of any event. Such event will be reflected on everyone’s life, economy, politics, learning, and culture. This is why globalization is a process that compresses time and space. Dr. Giddens believes that globalization is a movement that intensifies the social interactions and connects distant places, so that any event will impact the people’s destiny. (8)
Hence, schools are responsible to prepare students for development and train students to become active constituents in various groups. Schools should foster students’ global identity, i.e. they should encourage students to embrace other cultures, humanitarianism, and to comprehend their global responsibility. (7)
Presently, Internet has brought the possibility of utilizing the proper learning opportunities for everyone, which is one of the factors of globalization. Those who have not used this opportunity are called the vulnerable illiterate individuals. Since Internet has prepared an environment for instructors to learn and comprehend, advancement of the learning process quality through the Internet network is one of the expectations from the information technology. Surveys have demonstrated that among the significant effects of information technology are effectiveness of teaching via Internet, increase of learning motivation, and activating the learners through involving them with the materials taught. Other benefits include saving time, capital, educational equipment and facilitating the decision making process for managers. (8)
Lirtard believes that any science that lacks the possibility of being transformed into computer-recognizable values is going to be done away with and that the direction of the new studies will depend on their capability of being interpreted in a computer language.
Therefore, the features of globalization of education include:
1. Shift in the research priorities such as reduction of the information lifetime.
2. Compression of the environment: the world is set like a class to teach creativity and there is a possibility of arranging audio and speech communications among all students and instructors throughout the world.
3. Change in educational objectives.
4. Variations in methods of gaining knowledge: learning assignments based on computer language capabilities, supplementing the traditional memory databases with computer data processing databases, growth of virtual universities, etc. Managers of education must direct the educational programs to globalization through such things as peer-learning and cooperative learning; experimental learning based on the real world; development of mental work and critical self-awareness; free and unlimited education through various appropri-
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ate approaches, for instance convergence of the close and relatively similar subjects and creation of inter-disciplinary specialties; probable shift from the required education to an in-time, particular and occasional learning; curricula based on learners’ requirements and commercial needs; and finally, developing skills crucial for individual life and career aspects such as group work, problem-solving, data processing, computer use and communication. (10, 3)
July, 2010.
Reference Sources and Literature
1. Ali Allagheband. Basics of Educational Management. Tehran. First Edition. 2005
2. Bahare Sazmand. Culture & Human Rights under Strategic Globalization. No. 36. 2005
3. Heydesh, Z. Bullock E. Debber. Challenges in Graduate Education in the Third Millennium. 2002
4. IIEP Newsletter. Vol. XVI. No. 2. Apr 1998
5. Madan Sarap. An Introductory Guide to Post-Structuralism and Postmodernism. 1993
6. Mark Olssen, John A. Codd, Anne-Marie O'Neill. Education Policy: Globalization, Citizenship and Democracy. Thousand Islands Sage. London. Delhi. 2004
7. Parker, Walter C., Akira Ninomiya, & John Cogan. "Educating ‘World Citizens’: Toward Multinational Curriculum Development." American Educational Research Journal, 36 (Summer 1999): 117-145
8. Sekineh Shahi. Investigating Organizational Communication Structure in Graduate Studies in the Path to Globalization. Ph.D. Graduation Work in Khuzestan. 2008
9. Soleyman Iranzadeh. Adaptive Management in the Framework of new Paradigms. Tabriz. Center of Governmental Management Education. 2001
10. www.ren2010.cps.k12.il.us
11. Yadollah Mehrali Zadeh. Globalization, Organizational Changes and Resource Expansion Programming. Ahwaz. 2006
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