African Education And Globalization

Containing both theoretical discussions of globalization and specific case analyses of individual African countries, this collection of essays examines the intersections of African education and globalization with multiple analytical and geographical emphases and intentions.

No one argues today that our world is modern. History teaches us that this modernity is the fruit of an evolution. This evolution that is the mainstream direction of world history has not been uniform on the entire face of the earth. At certain periods, in certain parts, localities, or countries of the world, changes and transformations took revolutionary forms. These changes and transformations are the result of the combination of factors. While some are involuntary, some are desired and sought for. The impacts of these changes and transformations affect the environment, life settings, as well as the lives of the people who are at their origin. The effects of changes and evolutions have taught human beings that change outcomes on the environment, on life setting, and to life itself can be induced. It is to these voluntary and planned transformations at the level of a community, a country, or group of countries from one continent to another, from one part of the world to another, has led to their classification as rich or poor, developed or underdeveloped. Other classifications place countries in three categories: developed countries (first world), emergent countries (second world), underdeveloped countries (third world).

This book examines some of the major challenges faced by African education by placing them in two important contexts. First, it explores how new economic dynamics, linked to globalisation, impact upon educational priorities and possibilities. Second, it stresses the need to locate educational policies and practices alongside approaches in other sectors. This leads to an analysis of the intersections between education, training and enterprise development. Through detailed examinations of recent policies and practices in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, the book shows how different national approaches emerge in spite of apparent convergences in donor agency policy and international policy discourses. Aimed at policy makers and practitioners as well as academics, the book outlines a series of theoretical, policy and practical challenges for the future of African education and its broader role in development.

This interdisciplinary collection of readings pertaining to schooling, higher education, adult and community development education, indigenous education and social movement learning in the African and Asian regions is a contribution to anti/critical colonial scholarship in comparative/international education and the sociology of education. The political and analytical standpoint that weaves through the text considers the imbrications of the colonial and imperial projects currently referenced as neoliberal globalization (globalization of capitalism) and development (compulsory Eurocentric-modernization) and their attendant and mutual implications for education, social reproduction and hegemony. Counter/anti-hegemonic and indigenous education projects and pre/existing alternatives are registered in the critique. At last, a remarkable collection of essays written by a range of scholars, mostly originating from Asia and Africa, demonstrating with admirable clarity how policies and practices of neo-liberal globalization in those regions cannot be adequately understood without appreciating how they are a product of the exploitative histories of colonialism. Written with conceptual sophistication, personal knowledge and deep conviction, these essays represent a major scholarly intervention in contemporary debates about globalization and education.??Fazal Rizvi, Professor, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia & Professor-Emeritus, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. This intriguing and provocative volume deals with crucial intersections between global forces and national initiatives with respect to the most crucial agency of transformation: education. The cumulative efforts of this assembly of committed intellectuals reveal the forces that retard progress in the two largest continents and offers compelling suggestions on how to redefine the boundaries of power, the contents of knowledge, and the use of critical thinking to create alternative spaces of autonomy, freedom, liberation and empowerment. Toyin Falola, University Distinguished Professor & Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor, University of Texas at Austin. This volume, well crafted by Dip Kapoor, one of the finest scholars in the postcolonial education field, brings together writers who examine processes of learning and education more broadly within the context of the dominant discourses of globalisation and 'development’. They unveil the underlying neocolonial, neoliberal tenets of these processes strongly echoing what Hardt and Negri would call 'Empire.’ In short, another important reading resource provided by Dip Kapoor and colleagues. Peter Mayo, Professor & Chair, Educational Studies, University of Malta. Finally, a much awaited intervention on neoliberal globalization from Asian and African perspectives! This book makes a compelling case for a historically grounded, regionally specific analysis of globalization. The contributions are extraordinary for their textured and embedded analysis of neoliberal globalization. One of those rare books that deserve to be read across the social sciences. Sangeeta Kamat, Associate Professor, International Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

This book assesses the influence of the international organization UNESCO on the development of national Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) systems in the Southern African Community Region (SADC), focusing particularly on Botswana and Namibia. Designed around UNESCO’s Better Education for Africa’s Rise (BEAR) project, the study is an excellent example of applied policy research. Analysis is from the perspective of key stakeholders including UNESCO headquarters and field offices, Ministries of Education and of Labor, employers and employees, education and training institutions, international partners and more. Both qualitative and quantitative evidence are used to provide a comparative overview, and the author also reveals the current state of data on skills. Readers will discover common goals and challenges across the nations but also a common lack of action to measure the impact and influence that UNESCO’s programs have had at a national level, prior to this study. Were the newly implemented educational policies successful or not? If the public policies failed, why was that? These chapters shed light on such questions and how UNESCO's contribution influenced the national development processes, in the context of globalization processes and trends of global mass education. The book has much to offer for both scholars and those working in UN agencies or national governments who seek to develop education systems and better link them to the world of work.

Globalization, Education and Social Justice, which is the tenth volume in the 12-volume book series Globalisation, Comparative Education and Policy Research, presents up-to-date scholarly research on major discourses concerning global trends in education, social justice and policy research. It provides an easily accessible, practical yet scholarly source of information about the international concern in the field of social justice, globalisation, and policy research. Above all, the book offers the latest findings to the critical issues in education and social justice globally. It is a sourcebook of ideas for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in education, globalisation and social justice education reforms around the world. It offers a timely overview of current issues in social justice affecting education policy research in the global culture. It provides directions in education, and policy research, relevant to transformational educational reforms in the 21st century. The book critically examines the overall interplay between globalisation, education reforms, and social justice. It draws upon recent studies in the areas of globalisation, social justice education reforms and the role of the State. It explores conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches applicable in the research covering the State, globalisation, equity, education, and social justice. It demonstrates the neo-liberal ideological imperatives of education and policy reforms, and illustrates the way the relationship between the State and education policy affects current models and trends in education reforms for social justice and schooling globally. Various book chapters critique the dominant discourses and debates pertaining to the politics of social justice and education globally and the newly constructed and re-invented models of neo-liberal ideology in education and policy reforms. Using a number of diverse paradigms in comparative education research, ranging from critical theory to post-structuralist discourses, the authors, by focusing on globalisation, social justice and democracy, attempt to examine critically both the reasons and outcomes of education reforms and policy change for social justice. The volume offers a more informed critique on the Western-driven models of education reforms and implications for social justice. The book also draws upon recent studies in the areas of equity, cultural capital and dominant ideologies in education. The general intention is to make Globalization, Education and Social Justice available to a broad spectrum of users among policy-makers, academics, graduate students, education policy researchers, administrators, and practitioners in the education and related professions.

Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities is a product of papers presented at a National Education Conference held in Dodoma, Tanzania in November 2016 and organised by the Aga Khan University-Institute for Educational Development, East Africa (AKU-IED-EA). At present, Tanzanias development direction is guided by Vision 2025, which aims to achieve a high quality livelihood for its people be attainment of Vision 2025 will depend largely on rapid socio-economic development based on several social and economic pillars including, most importantly, education. Clearly, for Tanzania, the scope and quality of education remains the single most important prerequisite to the attainment of Vision 2025 and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The individual chapters in this publication, and their collective thrust, discuss the challenges in the education system in good faith and in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration guided by the belief that it is not the responsibility of the Government alone to see how these can be addressed. AKU IED EA has identd this as the responsibility of all well-meaning corporate bodies and citizens, and initiated thst conference of its type as its contribution to thore conference, as well as the publication, has to be seen as a model of good practice for universities in terms of sharing knowledge, experience, and practice with other stakeholders who are not in the academy, and more so, with politicians as well as government policy planners. The various authors of Education in Tanzania in the Era of Globalisation Challenges and Opportunities discuss issues within the context of the Tanzanian political economy against thects of globalization and seek to initiate a new kind of debate that is long overdue; a debate aimed at charting out appropriate strategies whose objective is to improve the quality of education in Tanzania so that it becomes a useful vehicle in enhancing processes of social change, transformation and development.

This is a collection of bold and visionary scholarship that reveals an insightful exposition of re-visioning African development from African perspectives. It provides educators, policy makers, social workers, non-governmental agencies, and development agencies with an interdisciplinary conceptual base that can effectively guide them in planning and implementing programs for socio-economic development in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa (politics, democracy, education, gender, technology, global relationships and the role of non-governmental organisations). The authors challenge the familiar paradigms in order to show how imperfectly, if at all, assumptions about globalisation and development theories have failed in their depictions and applications to Africa. The scholars in this volume both inform and advocate for a re-visioning of perceptions on Africa and how it navigates global processes.