Globalization and education

The relationship between Globalization and education is characterized by a number of paradoxes. While the intensification of economic globalization has reduced global poverty, it is also producing patterns of low-employment growth, rising youth unemployment and vulnerable employment. Economic globalization is also widening inequalities, between and within countries. Educational systems contribute to these inequalities by ignoring the educational needs of students in disadvantage and of many living in poor countries, while at the same time concentrating educational opportunities among the affluent, thus making high-quality training and education very exclusive. Current patterns of economic growth, coupled with demographic growth and urbanization, are depleting non-renewable natural resources and polluting the environment, causing irreversible ecological damage and climate change. Furthermore, along with growing recognition of cultural diversity (whether historically inherent to nation-states or resulting from greater migration and mobility), we also note a dramatic increase in cultural and religious chauvinism and in identity-based political mobilization and violence. Terrorism, drug-related violence, wars and internal conflicts and even intra-family and school-related violence are mounting.These patterns of violence raise questions for education in its capacity to shape values and attitudes for living together. Additionally, as a result of such conflicts and crises, almost 30 million children are deprived of their right to a basic education, creating generations of uneducated future adults who are too often ignored in development policies. These issues are fundamental challenges for human understanding of others and for social cohesion across the globe.
At the same time, we are witnessing a greater demand for voice in public affairs in a changing context of local and global governance. The spectacular progress in internet connectivity, mobile technologies and other digital media, combined with the democratization of access to public education and the development of different forms of private education, is transforming patterns of social, civic and political engagement. Additionally, the greater mobility of workers and learners between countries, across jobs and in learning spaces intensifies the need to reconsider how learning and competencies are recognized, validated and assessed.<ref name=":0" />
The changes taking place have implications for education and signal the emergence of a new global context for learning. Not all of these changes call for educational policy responses, but in any case they are forging new conditions. They require not only new practices, but also new perspectives from which to understand the nature of learning and the role of knowledge and education in human development. This new context of societal transformation demands that we revisit the purpose of education and the organization of learning.<ref name=":0" />

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