1. 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). 2
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2. 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.
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3. 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.
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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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4. 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;
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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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5. 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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6. 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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7. 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;
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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;
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8. 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;
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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;
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9. Lecture 17
17.1 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)
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10. 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;
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11. Lecture 18
18.1 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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12. 23
Maasai People
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13. 25
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14. 27
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15. 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;
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- focus on praxis-based learning, and conserving cultural IK.
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16. 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 19
19.1 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)
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17. 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! 34
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