Education, Language, and Economics

Book excerpt: There are two contending opinions with regard to the seemingly amorphous phenomenon of globalization. Some believe that globalization has brought rapid prosperity to developing countries while others argue that globalization best serves the needs of countries of the developed world. Bringing globalization under the microscope of education, this book illustrates how globalization is producing unprecedented impacts on education and culture through a series of country case studies elaborating on effects of economic and educational policies in the modern globalized world. New emphasis on the interplay between state and education policy initiatives in developed and developing countries also illuminates the direct and indirect impact of globalization in equity and quality-driven education reforms, with particular focus on the contribution of marketization or privatization to the ongoing commodification of education and curricula, presenting dilemmas to both developed and developing countries to provide quality education for all, protect human rights, and ensure equity in all realms of human endeavor. This book offers a multiplicity of approaches to education and development, and posits that distributional equity and quality education in a globalized world require a strong state and commitment to social justice to counteract growing disparities evident in educational and economic indices. The authors illustrate how respatialization of the contemporary state is rapidly taking shape in concrete institutions to recast the boundaries of the social, political and economic in fundamental ways. Education, Language, and Economics: Growing National and Global Dilemmas serves as an ideal introduction to key contemporary debates on politics, culture, and the economy.