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Education, Markets and

Globalisation

Presenter: Dr Muavia Gallie (PhD)

Lecture 16 - 19

Week 5: 8 – 11 March 2010

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Introduction

1. Assignment (500 - 550 words) - Choose a topic on Globalisation from within your field of specialisation;

2. Design and produce an A3 poster on the assignment;

3. Work in groups of three (3) - produce your own work (different topics) - read each other‟s essay and make constructive suggestions - final product must be marked out of 10 - declaration -hand in on 8 March 2010 by 14h00;

4. Examination in June (100 marks).

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Lecture 16

16.1 Implications for Knowledge, Education and Learning

• Within this framework of knowledge, education and learning, 10 components:

1. Focus on abstract concepts;

2. Uses a holistic, as opposed to discrete, approach;

3. Enhances the student‟s ability to manipulate symbols;

4. Enhances the student‟s ability to acquire and utilise knowledge;

5. Produces an increased quality of scientifically and technically trained

persons;

6. Blurs the distinction between mental and physical labour;

7. Encourages students to work in team;

8. Uses virtual teams around the world;

9. Is an agile and flexible system, and

10. Break the boundaries of space and time. 3

16.1.1 A focus on abstract concepts

• Challenges for KEL will be ability of learners to be more

familiar and comfortable with abstract concepts and

uncertain situations;

• Today‟s academic approach is about presenting

students with ready-made problems and then asks them

to solve them;

• Reality is that problems are rarely that clearly defined;

• It requires those seeking valuable employment to seek

out problems, gather the necessary information, and

make decisions and choices based on complex

uncertain realities.4

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16.1.2 Uses a holistic, as apposed to

discrete, approach

• Today‟s education is divided into very rigid academic,

discipline, focused on discrete units of research;

• Emerging Information Society and global economy

requires a holistic understanding of systems thinking,

including the world system and business eco-

systems;

• Inter-disciplinary research approaches are seen as

critical to achieving a more comprehensive

understanding the complex reality currently facing the

world system.5

16.1.3 Enhancing the student‟s ability to

manipulate symbols

• Symbols are highly abstracted manifestations of some

concrete for of reality;

• Highly productive employment will require the learner

to constantly manipulate symbols, such as political,

legal and business terms and concepts (such as

intellectual property right), and digital money (in

financial systems and accounting concepts);

• These „symbolic analysts‟ are in high demand.

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16.1.4 Enhancing the student‟s ability to

acquire and utilise knowledge• Past, academic practitioners often saw themselves as wise, delivering

data, information, knowledge and wisdom;

• To eagerly awaiting students, whose minds were empty vessels waiting

to be filled;

• Knowledge is increasing at such a monumental rate, that no single

person can hope to adequately convey as comprehensive an

understanding of a subject as is possible, or as could be absorbed by

most students;

• “objective of education is not longer simply to convey a body of

knowledge, but to teach how to learn, problem-solve and synthesize

the old with the new”;

• New technologies allow academic practitioners to move from being

“sage on the stage” into role of “guide on the side” and assist students;7

16.1.5 Produces an increased quantity of

scientifically and technically trained persons• Knowledge as a key factor of production, perhaps more

important;

• New kinds of industries – biotechnology, new materials

science, human genetics, advanced computing, artificial

intelligence – demand employees that remain highly trained in

science and technology;

• Research and development is a critical component to harness

the combined resources of its academic research institutions

(public + private);

• National Systems of Innovation – universities will have to

quickly adapt to the needs and to be a key provider. 8

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16.1.6 Blurs the distinction between mental

and physical labour

• Fordist-Taylorist development model made strict

separations between mental and physical labour;

• New innovation-mediated paradigm requires a much

more holistic approach to business enterprise and

intellectual contributions of all employees;

• Very difficult to make concrete distinctions between

many information age-oriented manufacturing facilities

and computer laboratories.

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16.1.7 Encourages students to work in teams

• Need for employees to be able to work closely in

teams;

• Working in teams requires students to develop skills in

group dynamics, compromise, debate, persuasion,

organisation, leadership and management skills;

• Most academic institutions and programmes are set up

to do the opposite, to force students to think only of

themselves and their own personal development,

perhaps with some very limited group work.10

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16.1.8 Uses virtual teams around the world

• Need to enhance virtual and networked activity;

• Students should learn to work in global

networked virtual teams;

• These teams are being used increasingly in

industry and international organisations for R&D

activities.

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16.1.9 Is an agile and flexible system

• Academic institutions must become less rigid

and more flexible in their attempt to meet the

varied needs of learners and the global

economy;

• This include variety in time, place, approach and

curriculum offerings;

• Academic offerings should be adapted to reflect

these new knowledge, education and learning

requirements.12

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16.1.10.1 Break the boundaries of space

and time• Using advanced ICT, new system of KEL should apply a wide

range of synchronous and asynchronous activities that aid the

professor and student in breaking the boundaries of space and

time;

• Synchronous include real time lectures (featuring audio,

presentations, web sites and even video), quizzes and group

discussions; all of which can occur with the instructor being at

the same location or even a different location from the learner;

• Asynchronous activities include archived lectures (in audio and

video), and other archived course material that can be

accessed at nearly anytime, anyplace;13

16.1.10.3 Break the boundaries of space

and time

• Private sector (national level) -strengthen public-private partnerships – three

critical role:

- rethinking of education – to meet the demands of the age of globalisation -

information by providing, systematically, input into the analytical and decision

making processes in areas such as strategic shifts, curricula, restructuring,

standards, and evaluation;

- collaboration in training for the new economy – employer can train workers

quickly and place them into positions – training costs are lower – technology in

these enterprises is usually advanced – quick responses to the needs of the

marketplace;

- provision of educational services – public sector will be unable to continue

bearing the majority financial responsibility for the financing and provision of

education;14

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16.1.10.2 Break the boundaries of space

and time• “graduates lack the capacity to learn new skills and assimilate new knowledge”;

• To change this, active responses should occur within the public and private

sector at national, regional and international levels;

• National level, KEL should be addressed with policy approach that:

- allow as many people as possible to engage in productive healthy forms of

employment that enhances their quality of life;

- meet the increasing demands of global enterprises operating within the global

economy;

• Developing countries are lagging behind – generating and disseminating of

knowledge;

• To overcome – MPCICs (Multimedia, Multipurpose Community Information

Centres) or Telecentres;

• Centres can enhance the KEL opportunities for communities;15

16.1.10.4 Break the boundaries of space and time• Responses for GIIC in collaboration with its members and international partners:

1. Create and support a forum to connect scientists, information technologists, policy

makers, and practitioners for the purpose of rethinking education in the age of

globalisation and information;

2. Support mechanisms for the exchange of ideas and experiences in the use of

educational technologies;

3. Encourage explorations, experimentation to push the frontiers of the potential of

information technologies and communications for more effective learning;

4. Engage in the design of pilot “learning communities” that expands the time and

space dimensions of education;

5. Encourage, and engage in, collaborative schemes for the development of

educational curriculum-related software that can be used worldwide to achieve

economies of scale and expertise;

6. Support the design of information infrastructure that is most appropriate for

education and that is cost-effective, implementable and sustainable at large scales;16

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Lecture 1717.1 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Colonialist or early missionary mentality is still very much alive in

societies that were once colonised;

• Majority of African youth still subscribe to the “American dream”;

• Urbanisation – abandon of indigenous knowledge, in the belief

that new knowledge and opportunities are to be found in town;

• Realities – mass unemployment, high costs of urban life and

further education, growing pandemic of AIDS, homeless, jobless

and penniless;

• Neither traditional skills to sustain, nor specialised and expensive

skills required for employment;

• Inevitable result is poverty;

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17.2 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Breaking-up of indigenous communities, as seen by community elders;

• Lack of evolvement has be deliberate – matter of free choice to protect natural

environment and to maintain traditional lifestyle;

• Culture and traditions of indigenous knowledge provide codes of conduct

addressing all aspects of the community – economic, social, environmental and

psychological - when these are in place, they keep the society in its equilibrium;

• Poverty is not an unavoidable consequence of climate change such as drought –

for centuries have tribal people had practical solutions to problems of fluctuating

climates;

• Example 1: Maasai pastoralists of northern Tanzania & southern Kenya

traditionally know where to find water, and green shrubs that can fed young

calves, even during long periods of drought;

• Example 2: Ethiopia – “threat of famine can be overcome by local expertise –

wild plant grows on Somali border, under the driest conditions, less than 200 mm

of rain a year – other crops, things people have known where to find in distress

times – but if you destroy the natural environment of such plants, you lose these

resources, and your monocultures won‟t save you” (Worede in Seabrook 1993,

p.31)18

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17.3 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Greatest threat to economic stability of Africa, not changing climate;

• Rather, gradual erosion of indigenous knowledge and accompanying destruction

of natural wealth – plants, animals, insects, soils, clean air and water – and

human cultural wealth such as songs, proverbs, folklore and social cooperation;

• Robs people of their ability to respond to social and environmental change:

- by removing the resource base;

- by attacking the foundations of human identity;

• Fashionable phrases:

- sustainable development

- conflict resolution

- good governance

- poverty alleviation

- environmental stewardship

all about “fostering a sense of peace with ourselves and our cultural identity”;

• About rebuilding the sense of self-esteem and confidence;

• Not about returning to destructive tribalism, grounded in insecurity and fear;

• About rediscover who we are, despite belonging to a tribe, nation and world.19

17.4 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Real meaning of education: “bringing up and drawing out”;

• Senge (1990) – Latin words: educare (rear/foster) + educere (draw out/develop);

• Process of raising up young people to adulthood, and drawing out or developing

their potential to contribute to society:

- Learning to hunt wild game or herd livestock,

- prepare food or weave cloth,

- search for wild honey or distinguish medicinal plants from poisonous ones,

closer to true meaning of „education‟ than learning to make marks on paper;

• Not saying that literacy, numeracy and new languages are not necessary;

• No society can live in isolation – communication very important;

• Increasingly interdependent world – languages of international economics and

politics – to defend our rights and demand development of our own terms like

animal tracks, bird calls and weather patterns;

• Missing? A system of teaching and learning that can combine the two;

• Two extremes exist:

- either kept in home environments, missing out on „modern‟ aspects;

- forced into full-time schooling, missing out on „traditional‟ aspects;20

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Lecture 1818.1 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford, Ngila and Rafiki (Aang

Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Case study: Aang Serian Community College, Arusha town, Tanzania

- Aang Seria = House of Peace (Arusha dialect of Maasai language);

- founded in 1999 by young Tanzanians and Oxford graduate (non-profit);

- registered with Tanzanian National art Council;

- post-primary education to 40 young adults (16 – 35 yrs);

- search for appropriate balance between „indigenous‟ and „Western‟ knowledge;

- conventional classes like English, Kiswahili, computer studies and basic literacy

are combined with innovative seminar course on Indigenous Knowledge (IK) and

Globalisation;

- Aang Serian leaders developed concepts after meeting in UN in August 2001

(commemoration of the International day for the World‟s Indigenous Peoples);

- they emphasised integrated education in slowing the destruction of IK, with the

following principles: (1) Active Participation; (2) Critical Thinking; (3) Learning

from Elders; and (4) Integrating Theory and Practice;

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Maasai People

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18.2 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

18.2.1 Active Participation

- during seminars, students share their personal experiences and views;

- facilitators encourages every student to make a contribution;

- builds self-esteem and ensures that information is placed in a familiar context;

- everyone may be an „expert‟;

- ideas exchanged in environment of open-mindedness and willingness to listen;

- emphasis on what different ethnic, religious and national groups can learn from

one another;

18.2.2 Critical Thinking

- sustainability depends on challenging received ideas about meaning of

„progress‟ - identification of „development‟ with Western-style industrialisation;

- seminar questions demand critical thinking about social change;

- evaluation of both positive and negative aspects of modernisation processes;

- consideration of role of international institutions such as UN, WB, IMF, WTO;

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18.2 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

18.2.3 Learning from Elders

- each student given individual workbook of questions related to themes;

- required to fill in answers by interviewing parents, grannies or elders;

- one week study leave after every three weeks of class-based work;

- if too far to travel home, students will be accommodated by local community;

- focus is on „learning within the home environment‟;

- helps to close the „generation gap‟ – rather than despising older people for

illiteracy, students recognise them as holders of valuable knowledge;

- acknowledge their contributions at the back of the completed work;

- apart from their teaching role, elders are also included in assessment process;

- before graduation, one elder must validate their knowledge and understanding;

18.2.4 Critical Thinking

- each student has to complete at least three out of five practical tasks: 1.

medicinal plant identification; 2. construction of a materially relevant object; 3.

performance of a traditional song, 4. performance of a traditional dance / drum

routine, 5. preparation of local dish (explain their cultural significance);

- task must be carried out to satisfaction of college staff and elders;

- focus on praxis-based learning, and conserving cultural IK. 30

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18.3 Education, indigenous knowledge and globalisation – Burford,

Ngila and Rafiki (Aang Serian Community College, Tanzania)

• Vision for the future

- accreditation of course by senior academics at Univ. of East London, UK;

- as a Univ. certificate that qualifies the holder entry to undergraduate course in

anthropology(with verification of written and spoken proficiency in English);

- hoped that African Univ. will accept the IK and Globalisation certificate to

appropriate degree course;

- developing a rural branch in Monduli District (north west of Arusha);

- develop other courses on integrated approach to organic agriculture, livestock

management, ethno-botany, and health care;

- also include subject like human rights, international environmental law,

comparative cultural studies and research methodology;

- buildings will be constructed from natural, locally available raw materials;

- use of solar and satellite facilities for ICT;

- although currently funded by industrialised countries, hoping to be self-

sustaining by providing courses for international fee-paying students;

- local participants can provide handicraft goods for sale in place of fees, or food

resources such as livestock and agricultural produce.

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Lecture 1919.1 Smith, M. K. (2002) 'Globalization and the incorporation

of education' the encyclopedia of informal education,

www.infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm.

• “To allow the market mechanism to be the sole director of the

fate of human beings and their natural environment, indeed,

even of the amount of use of purchasing power, would result in

the demolition of society … Robbed on the protective covering

of cultural institutions, human beings would perish from the

effects of social exposure; they would die as the victims of

acute social dislocation through vice, perversion, crime and

starvation. Nature would be reduced to its elements,

neighbourhoods and landscapes defiled, rivers polluted,

military safety jeopardised, the power to produce food and raw

materials destroyed.”

(Karl Polanyi 1957, p.73, quoted in Leys 2001, p.4) 32

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19.2 Smith, M. K. (2002) 'Globalization and the incorporation of education' the

encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/globalization.htm.

• Impact on education raises fundamental issues;

• Have conditioned the context of educators, people‟s

experience of formal and informal education;

• School and colleges have become sites for branding and

targets of corporate expansion;

• Policy makers automatically look to market „solutions‟;

• Powerful currents running against honest work to „question

globalisation‟;

• Focus of article on practice and experience of education:

- commodification and corporate takeover of education;

- threat to autonomy of national education systems;

- de-localisation and changing technologies and orientations;

- branding, globalisation and learning to be consumers.

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Contact details:

• E-mail: muavia@mweb.co.za;

– Or muavia.gallie@up.ac.za;

• Fax: 0866720520

• Powerpoint website: www.slideshare.net

Thank You!