Globalization of education refers to the worldwide discussions, processes, and institutions influencing local educational practices and policies. What comprises this global education superstructure? There are international organizations that directly and indirectly influence national school systems. There are multinational education corporations and schools. Government and professionals engage in global discussions about school policies. In the first issue of the journal Globalisation, Societies and Education (2003), Roger Dale and Susan Robertson state that the globalization of education would be considered as an intertwined set of global processes affecting education, such as worldwide discourses on human capital, economic development, and multiculturalism; intergovernmental organizations; information and communication technology; nongovernmental organizations; and multinational corporations.
The concept of globalized educational institutions and discourses developed after the term “globalization” was coined by the economist Theodore Levitt in 1985 to describe changes in global economics affecting production, consumption, and investment. The term was quickly applied to political and cultural changes that affect in common ways large segments of the world’s peoples. One of these common global phenomena is schooling. As the opening editorial in the first edition of Globalisation, Societies and Education – the very founding of this journal indicates the growing importance of globalization and education as a field of study – states: “formal education is the most commonly found institution and most commonly shared experience of all in the contemporary world.” However, the globalization of education does not mean that all schools are the same, as indicated by studies of differences between the local and the global.
In the 1990s, the language of globalization entered discourses about schooling. Government and business groups began talking about the necessity of schools meeting the needs of the global economy. For example, the United States’ organization Achieve, Inc., formed in 1996 by the National Governors Associations and CEOs of major corporations for the purpose of school reform, declared that “High school is now the front line in America’s battle to remain competitive on the increasingly competitive international economic stage.” The organization provided the previous definition of the global economy in a publication title which suggested the linkages made by politicians and businesspeople between education and globalization: “America’s High Schools: The Front Line in the Battle for Our Economic Future.”
The growth of worldwide educational discourses and institutions led to similar national educational agendas, particularly the concept that education should be viewed as an economic investment with the goal of developing human capital or better workers to promote economic growth. Consequently, educational discussions around the world often refer to human capital, lifelong learning for improving job skills, and economic development. Also, the global economy is sparking a mass migration of workers resulting in global discussions about multicultural education.
Intergovernmental organizations, such as the United Nations, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the World Bank, are promoting global educational agendas that reflect discourses about human capital, economic development, and multiculturalism. Information and communication technology is speeding the global flow of information and creating a library of world knowledges. Global nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), particularly those concerned with human rights and environmentalism, are trying to influence school curricula throughout the world. Multinational corporations, particularly those involved in publishing, information, testing, for-profit schooling, and computers, are marketing their products to governments, schools, and parents around the world.
In Chapter 4 I discussed human capital economics as the dominant goal directing American and global education. As a reminder to the reader, human capital stresses education as a cause of economic growth and increased income. In this section, I link human capital economics to consumerism.
Consumerism is a driving force in global economics. In a world of rising shopping malls, “Shop ‘til you drop” is the clarion call of our age. Human capital education promises students higher incomes that can be used to purchase more and more products.
The triumph of consumerism was made possible by the related actions of schools, advertising, and media. Mass-consumer culture integrates consumerism into all aspects of life from birth to death, including, but not limited to, education, leisure-time activities, the popular arts, the home, travel, and personal imagination. Mass-consumer culture captures the fantasy world of people with brand names and fashions that promise personal transformation, the vicarious thrill of imagining the glamorous lives of media celebrities, and the promise of escape from hard work through packaged travel and cruises to an envisioned paradise.
The ideology of consumerism was articulated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the appearance of industrial and agricultural abundance. As conceived by the turn-of-the-century economist Simon Patten, consumerism reconciled the Puritan virtue of hard work with the abundance of consumer goods. From the Puritan standpoint, the danger of abundant goods was more leisure time and possible moral decay. In Patten’s 1907 book The New Basis of Civilization, he argues that the consumption of new products and leisure-time activities would spur people to work harder. In Patten’s words, “The new morality does not consist in saving, but in expanding consumption.” Patten explains,
In the course of consumption … the new wants become complex … [and as a result the] worker steadily and cheerfully chooses the deprivations of this week. … Their investment in tomorrow’s goods enables society to increase its output and to broaden its productive areas.
The professionalization and expansion of advertising in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a key contribution to the creation of a global mass-consumer culture. Advertising prompted desires for new products; it convinced consumers that existing products were unfashionable, and therefore obsolete; and it made brand names into playthings in personal fantasies. The advertising profession transformed the capitalist model of buyers making rational choices in a free market into a consumerist model where the buyer was driven by irrational emotions associated with particular brand names and/or products.
Consumerism is strikingly different from other ideologies that place an emphasis on either social harmony or an abandonment of worldly concerns. Many religions value the denial of materialistic desires. Different branches of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity reject the way of life represented by the consumer seeking personal transformation through the buying of goods. Confucianism emphasizes the importance of social harmony over individual pursuit of wealth. Today, fundamentalist Islamic governments, such as in Iran and Afghanistan, are attempting to protect their populations from what they consider to be degenerate Western consumerism.
The following is a list of the basic ideas that form the ideology of consumerism. Of course, consumerism is aligned with notions of human capital education.
Basic ideas of consumerist ideology:
The Common Core State Curriculum reflects the global trend to emphasize skills needed for success in employment and higher education. It is a skills-based curriculum in contrast to one emphasizing the learning of specific knowledge. “Skills have become the global currency of twenty-first century economies,” declared the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s publication Trends Shaping Education 2013. As I discuss in my book the Economization of Education, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum are globally promoting skill-based schooling with many nations aligning their curricula to skills considered necessary for employment and economic growth. The OECD defines skills as the “ability to do something” which could include the ability to operate a machine (hard skill) or the ability to get along with others (soft skill). Skill-based instruction, it is claimed, will solve most economic problems, including economic development and growth, unemployment, and inequalities in wealth.
Skills are divided into hard and soft, with hard skills usually referring to such things as literacy instruction and numeracy, and soft skills to character traits that will help the worker succeed in the workplace. The OECD defines skills as the “ability to do something” which could include the ability to operate a machine (hard skill) or the ability to get along with others (soft skill). Skill-based instruction, it is claimed, will solve most economic problems, including economic development and growth, unemployment, and inequalities in wealth. Preschool is now considered an important time to teach soft skills, such as grit and conscientiousness, for later success in school and work.
There are many questions surrounding the concept of skills. Are these skills to be general skills required by the economy or skills specifically related to a particular job or trade? What role do cultural differences play in teaching skills, or are skills to be global and unrelated to a specific culture? Will skill instruction solve other global problems, such as the protection of human rights and the environment? And, most importantly, is there a global skills gap?
The World Economic Forum’s report Education and Skills 2.0 highlights the confusion over the question of a skills gap:
One arena in which accountability matters hugely is the effort to ensure that the skills imparted by an education system match those needed by employers. This issue has recently come to prominence because of the large number of reports from American National Association of Colleges and Employers who say they cannot find workers who have the skills needed to perform specific jobs even when pay levels are high. Many economists, by contrast, say that the empirical evidence does not support the existence of any significant skills gap. This is an issue that is unresolved in countries at all income levels [emphasis in original].
Despite these questions about the existence of a skills gap, globally schools are adopting skill-based curricula to meet the needs of future employers.
The OECD is a major force in global testing and in supporting human capital education for a knowledge economy. The OECD links education to economic growth. The OECD’s 1961 founding document states as its goal “to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and employment and a rising standard of living in Member countries, while maintaining financial stability, and thus to contribute to the development of the world economy.” From its original membership of twenty nations it has expanded to thirty of the richest nations in the world. In addition, the OECD provides expertise and exchanges ideas with more than 100 other countries, including the least-developed countries in Africa.
In keeping with its concerns with economic growth, the OECD promotes the role of education in economic development. Along with economic growth, OECD leaders express concern about nations having shared values to ensure against social disintegration and crime. The stated values of education according to the OECD are that:
Both individuals and countries benefit from education. For individuals, the potential benefits lay in general quality of life and in the economic returns of sustained, satisfying employment. For countries, the potential benefits lie in economic growth and the development of shared values that underpin social cohesion.
The OECD’s global testing products, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), are creating global standards for the knowledge required to function in what the OECD defines as the everyday life of a global economy. Also, the tests are serving as an “Academic Olympiad” with nations comparing the scores of their students with those of other nations. The result is national education policy leaders trying to plan their curriculum to meet the challenge of OECD testing, particularly preparation for TIMSS. Wanting to impress their national leaders, school officials hope their students do well on these tests in comparison to other countries. The consequence is a trend to uniformity of national curricula as school leaders attempt to prepare their students to do well on the test. Writing about the effect of PISA and TIMSS on world education culture, David P. Baker and Gerald K. LeTendre assert, “After the first set of TIMSS results became public, the United States went into a kind of soul searching. … The release of the more recent international study on OECD nations called PISA led Germany into a national education crisis. Around the world, countries are using the results of international tests as a kind of Academic Olympiad, serving as a referendum on their school system’s performance.”
The potential global influence of PISA is vast, since the participating member nations and partners represent, according to the OECD, 90 percent of the world economy. These assessments are on a three-year cycle beginning in 2000 with each assessment year devoted to a particular topic. For instance, international assessment of reading is scheduled for 2009, mathematics for 2012, and science for 2015. The OECD promotes PISA as an important element in the global knowledge economy: “PISA seeks to measure how well young adults, at age 15 and therefore approaching the end of compulsory schooling, are prepared to meet the challenges of today’s knowledge societies – what PISA refers to as ‘literacy.’”
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría echoed the dominant global discourse on education and the knowledge economy:
In a highly competitive globalized economy, knowledge, skills and know-how are key factors for productivity, economic growth and better living conditions. … Our estimates show that adding one extra year to the average years of schooling increases GDP per capita by 4 to 6 per cent. Two main paths of transmission can explain this result: First, education builds human capital and enables workers to be more productive. Second, education increases countries’ capacity to innovate – an indispensable prerequisite for growth and competitiveness in today’s global knowledge economy.
The OECD is contributing to a world culture of schooling through its testing, research, and higher education programs. In fact, one of its programs promotes the international sharing of educational ideas:
The OECD Programme on Educational Building (PEB) promotes the exchange and analysis of policy, research and experience in all matters related to educational building. The planning and design of educational facilities – schools, colleges and universities – has an impact on educational outcomes which is significant but hard to quantify.
While OECD policies do influence developing nations and the organization’s data collection reflects concern about poor countries, the major concern is the economies of member nations. In other words, what problems are faced by the world’s wealthiest nations in educating their populations for competition in the global knowledge economy? This difference in emphasis on developed as contrasted to developing nations is captured in the definition of the knowledge economy given in a 2007 OECD book Human Capital: “In developed economies, the value of knowledge and information in all their forms is becoming ever more apparent, a trend that is being facilitated by the rapid spread of highspeed information technology” [emphasis in original].
“Today,” declares the 2007 official guide to the World Bank, “the World Bank Group is the world’s largest funder of education.” Founded in 1944, the World Bank provides educational loans to developing nations based on the idea that investment in education is the key to economic development. Educational improvement became a goal of the World Bank in 1968 when its then president Robert McNamara announced, “Our aim here will be to provide assistance where it will contribute most to economic development. This will mean emphasis on educational planning, the starting point for the whole process of educational improvement.” McNamara went on to explain that it would mean an expansion of the World Bank’s educational activities. The World Bank continues to present its educational goals in the framework of economic development: “Education is central to development. … It is one of the most powerful instruments for reducing poverty and inequality and lays a foundation for sustained economic growth.”
The World Bank and the United Nations share a common educational network. The World Bank entered into a mutual agreement with the United Nations in 1947 which specified that the Bank would act as an independent specialized agency of the United Nations and as an observer in the United Nations’ General Assembly.
The World Bank supports the United Nations’ Millennium Goals and Targets which were endorsed by 189 countries at the 2000 United Nations Millennium Assembly. The Millennium Goals directly addressing education issues are:
These two Millennium Goals were part of the Education for All program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which had established as two of its global goals the provision of free and compulsory primary education for all and the achieving of gender parity by 2005 and gender equality by 2015. High lighting the intertwined activities of the World Bank and United Nations agencies is the fact that these two goals were a product of the 1990 World Conference on Education for All convened by the World Bank, UNESCO, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). This world conference was attended by representatives from 155 governments.
Discussions about the knowledge economy occur on the networks linking the World Bank to governments, global intergovernmental and non governmental organizations, and multinational corporations. In its book Constructing Knowledge Societies, the World Bank declares, “The ability of a society to produce, select, adapt, commercialize, and use knowledge is critical for sustained economic growth and improved living standards.” The book continues, “Knowledge has become the most important factor in economic development.” The World Bank states that its assistance for EKE (Education for the Knowledge Economy) is aimed at helping countries adapt their entire education systems to the new challenges of the “learning” economy in “two complementary ways. … Formation of a strong human capital base … [and] Construction of an effective national innovation system.” The creation of a national innovation system for assisting schools to adapt to the knowledge economy creates another global network. The World Bank describes this network: “A national innovation system is a well-articulated network of firms, research centers, universities, and think tanks that work together to take advantage of the growing stock of global knowledge, assimilate and adapt it to local needs, and create new technology.”
Nothing better expresses the World Bank’s commitment to the idea of a knowledge economy and the role of education in developing human capital than its publication Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy. The book offers a roadmap for developing countries on how to prepare their populations for the knowledge economy in order to bring about economic growth. The role of the World Bank is to loan money to ensure the growth of an educated labor force that can apply knowledge to increase productivity. These loans, according to World Bank policies, might provide support to both public and private educational institutions. In the framework of public–private partnerships, the World Bank supports private education in developing countries when governments cannot afford to support public schools for all.
However, in many countries there are other providers of education. Private education encompasses a wide range of providers including forprofit schools (that operate as enterprises), religious schools, non-profit schools run by NGOs, publicly funded schools operated by private boards, and community-owned schools. In other words, there is a market for education. In low-income countries excess demand for schooling results in private supply when the state cannot afford schooling for all.
The global education business is supported by human capital education ideology. The 1995 creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) opened the door to the prospect of free trade in educational materials and services, and the marketing of higher education. The General Agreement on Trade in Services’ (GATS) Article XXVIII provides the following definition: “‘supply of a service’ includes the production, distribution, marketing, sale and delivery of a service.” Educational services are included under this definition.
What types of educational services are covered by GATS? Writing about the effect of GATS on higher education, Jane Knight used the following classifications of educational services. First, according to Knight’s classification, is “cross-border supply” which includes distance learning, e-learning, and virtual universities. “Consumption abroad” is the largest share of the global market in educational services involving students who go to another country to study. “Commercial presence” means the establishment of facilities in another country, such as branch campuses and franchising arrangements in another country. The travel of scholars, researchers, and teachers to another country to work falls under the classification of “presence of natural persons.”
In Chapter 8 I discussed the development of global education business, including for-profit schools, tutoring and test preparation centers, and the global publishing industry. These industries have a stake in human capital education because of its reliance on test publishing companies, the lack of enough publicly supported schools in some countries allowing room for for-profits, and the anxieties of parents which result in sending their children to for-profit test preparation and tutoring centers.
The global education businesses are contributing a global uniformity of schooling. What is the cultural effect of this uniformity? What is the effect on students preparing for the same examinations? Does the global marketing of tests and testing programs of international organizations contribute to a uniformity of world education culture and promotion of English as the global language? Is worldwide testing leading to a global standardization of knowledge in professional fields? At this time any answer would have to be speculative since there is no concrete evidence about the effect of global testing programs. However, one could argue that if students worldwide are preparing for similar tests then they are being exposed to a uniform educational and professional culture that might contribute to creating a world culture.
The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) first demonstrated the possibility of making comparisons among test scores of different nations. Founded in 1967 with origins dating back to a UNESCO gathering in 1958, the IEA initially attempted to identify through testing effective educational methods that could be shared among nations. According to the organization’s official history, the original group of psychometricians, educational psychologists, and sociologists thought of education as a global enterprise to be evaluated by national comparisons of test scores. They “viewed the world as a natural educational laboratory, where different school systems experiment in different ways to obtain optimal results in the education of their youth.” They assumed that educational goals were similar between nations but that the methods of achieving those goals were different. Inter national testing, it was believed, would reveal to the world community the best educational practices. The organization tried to prove that large-scale cross-cultural testing was possible when between 1959 and 1962 they tested 13-year-olds in twelve countries in mathematics, reading comprehension, geog raphy, science, and nonverbal ability. The results of this project showed, according to an IEA statement, that “it is possible to construct common tests and questionnaires that ‘work’ cross-culturally. Furthermore, the study revealed that the effects of language differences can be minimized through the careful translation of instruments.”
Besides demonstrating the possibility of global testing programs, the IEA claimed to have an effect on the curriculum of participating nations. Following a 1970 seminar on Curriculum Development and Evaluation involving twenty-three countries, IEA officials claimed that “this seminar had a major influence on curriculum development in at least two-thirds of the countries that attended.” Through the years the IEA has conducted a number of international testing programs and studies, in cluding First International Mathematics Study (FIMS), International Mathematics Study (SIMS), International Science Study (ISS), Preprimary Education (PPP), Computers in Education Study (COMPED), Information Tech nology in Education (ITE), Civic Education Study (CIVED), and Languages in Education Study (LES).
In 1995, the IEA worked with the OECD to collect data for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). IEA officials called the 1995 TIMSS “the largest and most ambitious study of comparative education undertaken.” They claimed that “It was made possible by virtue of IEA experience and expertise, developed through the years of consecutive studies, which saw research vision combining with practical needs as defined by educational policy-makers.”
Today, the IEA remains a possible source for creating uniform worldwide educational practices. The organization’s stated goal is to create global educational benchmarks by which educational systems can be judged. In fact, the following mission statement includes the creation of a global network of educational evaluators.
The worldwide standardization of professional knowledge may be a result of the marketing prowess of Pearson, the global corporation discussed in the final section of this chapter. Pearson markets its inter national computer-based tests through its Pearson VUE division. According to the company’s official history, in 1994 the Virtual University Enterprises (VUE) was established by three pioneers in the field of electronic tests, including the developer of the first electronic system, E. Clarke Porter. Pearson purchased VUE in 2000. In 2006, Pearson acquired Promissor, a provider of knowledge measurement services, which certifies professionals in a variety of fields. Focusing on the certification of professionals, Pearson VUE serves 162 countries with 4,400 Pearson VUE Testing Centers. “Today,” according to its company description,
Pearson VUE, Pearson’s computer-based testing business unit, serves the Information Technology industry and the professional certification, licensor, and regulatory markets. From operational centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, and China, the business provides a variety of services to the electronic testing market.
The range of computer-based tests offered by Pearson is astonishing and it is beyond the scope of this book to list all the tests. However, Pearson VUE provides the following categories of online tests: Academic/ Admissions; Driving Tests; Employment, Human Resources and Safety; Financial Services, Health, Medicine; Information Technology (IT); Insurance; Legal Services; Real Estate, Appraisers and Inspectors; and State Regulated. On December 17, 2007 Pearson VUE announced that it had signed a contract with the Association for Financial Professions to provide test development to be delivered globally in over 230 Pearson Professional Centers by its Pearson VUE Authorized Test Centers. On the same date it announced renewal of its contract with Kaplan Test Prep for delivery of the “Ultimate Practice Test” for another Pearson VUE test – the Graduate Management Admission Test.
While Pearson VUE may be aiding the global standardization of professions and government licensing, worldwide language testing is possibly resulting in the standardization of a global English language as contrasted with forms of English associated with particular cultures or nations. As I discuss in the following text, global standardization of English, which in part involves the global reach of the U.S.-based Educational Testing Service (ETS), seems to be in the form of a global business English that allows communication across cultures in the world’s workplaces. Focused primarily on work situations, it may result in teaching a limited vocabulary. This form of English may – and again I want to stress the word may – limit the ability of workers to express in English their discontent and demands for change regarding economic, political, and social conditions. The trend toward a global business English was reflected on a sign I saw in Shanghai that read, “Learn the English words your bosses want to hear!”
Until 2000, ETS focused primarily on the U.S. testing market. In 2000, business executive Kurt Landgraf became President and CEO, turning a nonprofit organization into one that looks like a for-profit with earnings of more than $800 million a year. As part of Landgraf’s planning, the company expanded into 180 countries. “Our mission is not just a U.S.-oriented mission but a global mission,” Landgraf is quoted as saying in a magazine article. “We can offer educational systems to the world, but to do that, you have to take a lesson from the commercial world [emphasis in original].” The official corporate description of ETS’s global marketing is:
ETS’s Global Division and its subsidiaries fulfill ETS’s mission in markets around the world. We assist businesses, educational institutions, governments, ministries of education, professional organizations, and test takers by designing, developing and delivering ETS’s standard and customized measurement products and services which include assessments, preparation materials and technical assistance.
An important role of the Global Division is standardizing English as a global language. Almost all of its products are for English language learners. The division markets the widely used Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), and Test of Spoken English (TSE). TOEFL has long served as an assessment tool for determining the English language ability of foreign students seeking admission into U.S. universities. In 2002, ETS opened a Beijing, China office and began marketing TOEIC along with TOEFL. In addition, the Global Division offers TOEFL Practice Online which indirectly serves as a teaching tool for English instruction. In March 2007 ETS proudly announced that the service had been extended to its Chinese market. The Test of English for Distance Education (TEDE) is used worldwide to determine if a student has enough skills in English to participate in online courses conducted in English. The Criterion is a web-based Online Writing Evaluation that promises to evaluate student writing skills in seconds. In 2007 ETS’s Criterion won highest honors from the Global Learning Consortium. In addition to all these tests associated with global English, ETS offers ProofWriter, an online tool that provides immediate feedback on grammar and editing issues for English language essays.
In another major step in the global standardization of English, ETS and G2nd Systems signed an agreement in 2007 for G2nd Systems to join ETS’s Preferred Vendor Network and to use TOEIC. G2nd Systems is promoting an intercultural form of English for use in the global workplace. “G2nd Systems defines the way people use non-culture-specific English in workplace environments as intercultural English, which is not the same as any national version of English that naturally includes cultural presumptions, idioms and local ways of communicating ideas,” explains Lorelei Carobolante, CEO of G2nd Systems in a news release from ETS.
TOEIC test scores indicate how well people can communicate in English with others in today’s globally diverse workplace. G2nd Systems recognizes that measuring proficiency in English speaking and writing capabilities allows business professionals, teams and organizations to implement focused language strategies that will improve organizational effectiveness, customer satisfaction and employee productivity.
A for-profit corporation, G2nd advertises itself as “Global Collaborative Business Environments across multiple cultures at the same time!” and “Global Second Language Approach.” The corporate announcement of its affiliation with ETS states: “Today, over 5,000 corporations in more than 60 countries use the TOEIC test, and 4.5 million people take the test every year.” G2nd Systems offers instruction in an intercultural form of English as opposed to the Englishes of particular countries such as India, Britain, or the United States. Referring to “Intercultural English – A New Global Tool,” the company explains, “Intercultural English developed in response to the new dynamics emerging in today’s global business environment, characterized by multiple cultures operating in a collaborative structure to execute projects that are often geographically dispersed.” Highlighting the supposedly culturally neutral form of English taught by the organization, it claims: “Intercultural English is a communication tool rather than a national version of any language, and this tool is as vital as mathematics or computer literacy in facilitating normal business processes” [emphasis in original].
In summary, the expansion of international testing might be resulting in the global standardization of school subjects, professional knowledge requirements, and English. It would be interesting to analyze the content of all the various tests offered by Pearson on the standardization of professional knowledge. By using online tests Pearson is able to engage in global marketing. It would seem hard to deny that between ETS’s range of English tests, its online services in English composition, and its connection with G2nd Systems, it is having a global impact on how English is spoken and written. Can English as a global language be standardized so that it is not identified with a particular culture or nation?
Across the globe from Japan to India to Cape Town to Buenos Aires to the United States, parents worry about their children’s grades and test scores because they are tied to their children’s future economic success. Consequently, they seek out test preparation or cram schools and private learning services to help their children after school hours.
World culture theorists Baker and LeTendre label supplementary education providers as the “shadow education system.” From the perspective of the twenty-first century, the authors see a global growth of the shadow education system as pressures mount for students to pass high-stakes tests and the world’s governments attempt to closely link student achievement to future jobs. In their words, “Mass schooling sets the stage for the increasing importance of education as an institution, and to the degree that this process creates greater demand for quality schooling than is supplied, augmentation through shadow education is likely.”
Baker and LeTendre predict that shadow education systems will continue to grow as nations embrace human capital forms of schooling. Simply put, as schooling is made more important for a child’s future, families will invest more money in tutoring services for remedial education and for providing for enhanced school achievement.
Interested in joining the for-profit shadow education system? Sylvan Learning offers franchises requiring an initial investment of $179,000 to $305,000 to people having a minimum net worth of $250,000. By offering K-12 tutoring services it is able to take advantage of government funds provided for for-profit educational services. Depending on the location, the franchise fee is from $42,000 to $48,000. Why might you choose Sylvan? The company advertises its sale of franchises by pointing out that it has served two million students since 1979, was ranked twenty-four times in Entrepreneur magazine’s Franchise 500 Ranking, number 61 overall in its 2009 Franchise 500 Ranking, and number 52 in the publication’s Top Global Franchises ranking. It was ranked in Bond’s Top 100 Franchises and number 57 in the 2008 Franchise Times’ Top 200 Systems. In addition, the Sylvan Learning franchise brand was selected as the best educational provider in Nickelodeon’s Parents Connect’s First Annual Parents’ Picks Awards and as Favorite Kids Learning Center by SheKnows.com. If you happen to be Hispanic, you may be tempted to invest in a franchise because Sylvan Learning was identified by Poder Enterprise Magazine as one of the Top Twenty-Five Franchises for Hispanics in April 2009.
Sylvan Learning’s promotion of its franchises highlights the political stake it has in the continued government funding of for-profit supplementary education services. It functions like any corporation trying to expand its reach and profits. Like any corporation it relies on having a global brand name that is impressed on the public through its $40 million advertising and marketing program. In the midst of the 2010 recession the company claimed, “Despite the economy, now is the right time to enter the supplemental education industry. According to Eduventures, Inc., the current demand is strong and the market is projected to continue with double-digit growth.” The company claimed that when in 2008 it decided to focus on “franchising to local entrepreneurs and business operators who can respond to the particular needs of each community while utilizing the tools, resources and brand equity of the Sylvan name,” it grew by 150 percent.
Sylvan Learning is also a global company with tutoring services located in the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. While this global reach is relatively small, it does indicate a potential future for Sylvan Learning as a major global education company.
Kumon Learning Centers have a vast number of global franchises with over 25,000 franchises in other countries. The Kumon Learning Centers were founded in Japan in 1958 by Toru Kumon. In 2010 the company was ranked number 12 in a list of franchises that included, beginning with number 1, Subway, followed by McDonald’s, 7-Eleven Inc., Hampton Inn, Supercuts, H&R Block, Dunkin’ Donuts, Jani-King, Servpro, ampm Mini Market, and Jan-Pro Franchising International Inc. This is quite an impressive list and indicates the growing global importance of the shadow education industry. In 2009, Kumon Learning Centers enrolled 4.2 million students in forty-six countries.
Another global example is Kaplan, which started as a test preparation company and is now a global company operating for-profit schools along with test preparation and language instruction. Kaplan’s operations in Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing are advertised as meeting “students’ demand for Western-style education.” In ten European countries it offers test preparation and English language instruction. “In the UK,” Kaplan states, “we are one of the largest providers of accoun tancy training and private higher education. We also operate the Dublin Business School, Ireland’s largest private undergraduate college.” Kaplan operates Tel-Aviv-based Kidum, the largest provider of test preparation in Israel. In Brazil, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela, Kaplan operates English language and test preparation programs designed to prepare students for admission to schools in the United States.
In summary, the shadow education system is now an important player in national and global politics. The agenda of these supplementary education services focuses on increasing revenues by lobbying for government financial support and school policies supporting assessment systems that drive students into buying their services. These companies are also seeking to expand revenues through globalization of their products and by expanding into new areas such as for-profit schools and English language instruction.
Human capital ideology dominates global education discourses. Human capital ideology supports the educational policies that will maximize profits for education businesses. Human capital ideology supports the testing companies and the shadow education industry because of the ideologies’ emphasis on high-stakes testing to promote and sort students for careers and higher education and for evaluating teachers and school administrators. By schools putting testing pressure on students, parents are willing to fork out extra money to the shadow education industry. Consequently, the shadow education system and multinational testing corporations are interested in public acceptance of human capital ideology and the legitimization of assessment-driven school systems.
In my book A New Paradigm for Global School Systems: Education for a Long and Happy Life, I offer an alternative to the current global focus on human capital education and consumerism. I propose that school policies be evaluated for their contribution to the social conditions that provide the conditions for human happiness and longevity rather than being judged by their contribution to economic growth and income. There is a great deal of international research on the social conditions that promote happiness and a long life. My work represents one effort to try to shift thinking about educational policies.
Achieve, Inc. and National Governors Association. America’s High Schools: The Front Line in the Battle for Our Economic Future. Washington, DC: Achieve, Inc. and National Governors Association, 2003. Illustrates human capital ideas related to the global economy.
Anderson Levitt, Kathryn, ed. Local Meanings, Global Schooling: Anthropology and World Culture Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. Emphasizes local power over global education policies.
Baker, David P., and Gerald K. LeTendre. National Differences, Global Similarities: World Culture and the Future of Schooling. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2005. Classic statement of world theorists that global education is evolving according to a Western model.
Breton, Gilles, and Michel Lambert, eds. Universities and Globalization: Private Linkages, Public Trust. Quebec, Canada: UNESCO, 2003. Good discussion of the globalization of higher education.
Dale, Roger, and Susan Robertson. “Editorial: Introduction.” In Globalisation, Societies and Education, Vol. 1, no. 1 (2003): 3–11. This introduction defines the field of educational globalization.
Educational Testing Service. “ETS Global.” Retrieved July 12, 2007 from http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitrn.435c0bd0ae7015d9510c3921509/?vgnextoid=d04b253b164f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD. Profiles the global reach of Educational Testing Services.
Goldman, Michael. Imperial Nature: The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005. This book criticizes the programs of the World Bank.
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. “Brief History of IEA.” Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.iea.nl/brief_history_iea.html. A history of the early development of global testing programs.
Keeley, Brian. Human Capital: How What You Know Shapes Your Life. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2007. OECD’s statement of human capital education.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Directorate for Education. “UNESCO Ministerial Round Table on Education and Economic Development: Keynote Speech by Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General Paris, October 19, 2007.” Retrieved November 13, 2010 from http://www.oecd.org/document/19/0,3343,en_2649_33723_1_1_1_1,00.html. Example of OECD’s approach to education issues.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Directorate for Education The Well-being of Nations: The Role of Human and Social Capital Education and Skills. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2001. This book describes the OECD’s intention to use global schools to educate workers to meet the needs of global corporations.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Directorate for Education Trends Shaping Education 2013. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2013. The OECD’s perspective on the future of global education systems.
Patten, Simon N. The New Basis of Civilization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968. Early statement of consumerism as a driving force in the modern economy.
Pearson VUE. “About Pearson VUE: Company History.” Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://www.pearsonvue.com/about/history. History of Pearson’s involvement in testing.
Spring, Joel. A New Paradigm for Global School Systems: Education for a Long and Happy Life. New York: Routledge, 2007. This book advocates basing global education on the goals of happiness and longevity.
Spring, Joel Globalization and Educational Rights: An Intercivilizational Analysis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2001. This book calls for a global standard for educational rights.
Spring, Joel Globalization of Education: An Introduction, 2nd edition. New York: Routledge, 2015. This book provides a global perspective on the development of contemporary education systems.
Spring, Joel Education and the Rise of the Global Economy. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998. A study of the globalization of human capital theories of education.
Spring, Joel The Economization of Education. New York: Routledge, 2015. Examines the increasing role of economists in influencing global education policies.
Stromquist, Nelly P. Education in a Globalized World: The Connectivity of Economic Power, Technology, and Knowledge. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Stromquist, Nelly P., and Karen Monkman, eds. Globalization and Education: Integration and Contestation Across Cultures. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
UNESCO. “Education for All (EFA) International Coordination: The Six EFA Goals and MDGs.” Retrieved October 5, 2007 from http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=53844&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
World Bank. “About Us: Organization: Boards of Directors.” Retrieved July 17, 2007 from http://www.worldbank.org, para. 1.
World Bank A Guide to the World Bank, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007.
World Bank Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2003.
World Bank Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002.
World Economic Forum. Education and Skills 2.0: New Targets and Innovative Approaches. Geneva: World Economic Forum, January 2014. This report emphasizes the role of global school systems in teaching skills wanted by businesses.
World Trade Organization (WTO). WTO Legal Texts: The Uruguay Round Agreements: Annex 1B General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Retrieved November 28, 2007 from http://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm#finalact.