Global Issues in Education

Mayumi Ishikawa (Graduate School of Human Sciences)

Cource Objective
   The course critically examines issues concerning contemporary higher education characterized by increased global connectivity, competition and collaboration. By primarily drawing on studies in anthropology, sociology, as well as comparative and international education, students deepen understanding of emergent conditions that surround universities the world over, such as heightened mobility of students and scholars, the creation of educational hubs and off-shore facilities, the prevalence of the world university rankings and league tables, and increased regional coordination and standardization of credentials and/or accreditation systems, so as to understand changes in the traditional roles and expectations of higher education.

   Students are encouraged to acquire situated and analytical understanding of such "global" conditions by learning relevant theories and becoming familiar with issues such as the marketization or commodification of education, neoliberal state policies, power and dominance, as well as status and class reproduction. Issues of wider political and economic implications beyond the higher education arena, such as the rise of post-industrial societies and the knowledge-based economy, are also discussed as a pretext to understand the larger currents of scientific development and the human society.

   The dynamic global challenges that universities face today are also relevant to the future careers and lives of students. The course is thus intended to cultivate social science skills for the critical understanding of the globalizing world of which students themselves are part.

Learning Outcomes
   After studying this course you should be able to:
- Demonstrate by citing examples how universities in the world deal with new conditions associated with globalization.
- Identify major social forces that define changes in the traditional roles and expectations of higher education.
- Assess the impact of globalization on local higher education and society.
- Apply theories studied in the course to explain phenomena related to globalization of higher education.

Requirement / Prerequisite
   The course is for upper-level undergraduate students. Students are recommended, though not required, to have completed relevant introductory courses such as International Education 1 and Food, Culture and Society (both offered G30 4th semester).

Course Content

• Week 1. Introduction: Universities go global
  - Themes, topics and an overview of the course
  Richard Levin "World of Knowledge; from Their Student Bodies to Their Research Practices, Universities Are Becoming More Global" in Newsweek August 21-18, 2006. Pp. 36-42
• Week 2. Introduction 2
  -How universities are going global?: intensifying competition and collaboration
  Selected chapters from Wildavsky, B., The great brain race: how global universities are reshaping the world. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010.
• Week 3. International Student Mobility 1: Global trends
  - Understand the heightened transnational student mobility: who goes where? And how?
  OECD Education at a Glance 2012
• Week 4, 5 and 6 International Student Mobility: East Asia and Europe
  - Understand the transnational student mobility from regional and/or local perspectives
  Lee, Y-J. & Koo, H. "Wild gees fathers" and a globalised family strategy for education in Korea. IDPR, 2006. 28(4): pp. 533-553.
  Xiang, B. and W. Shen, International student migration and social stratification in China. International sJournal of Educational Development, 2009. 29(5): p. 513-522. Fukushima, G. S. Reverse Japan's insularity. The Japan Times, April 8, 2010.
  - Regionalization of higher education in Europe and policy rationale
  Selected chapters from Paul L. Gaston The Challenge of Bologna: What United States higher education has to learn from Europe, and why it matters that we learn it. Terling, VA: Stylus, 2010.
  Cairns, D. and J. Smyth, I wouldn�ft mind moving actually: Exploring Student Mobility in Northern Ireland. International Migration, 2011. 49(2): p. 135-161.
• Week 7. The world university rankings and the rise of the "world-class" university models  Is this the hierarchy we have to have? (Marginson 2006)
  Ishikawa, M. University Rankings, Global Models, and Emerging Hegemony: Critical Analysis from Japan. Journal of Studies in International Education. 13(2), 159-173, 2009.
  & Week 8. Mid-term review and student presentations (group or individual, depending on the class size, details to be announced) - Issues and topics in global higher education
• Week 9. Marketization of higher education
  - Identify key forces behind the globalization of HE: marketization and commodification
  Selected chapters from Ravinder Sidhu Universities and Globalization: To Market, To Market. Mahwah, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2006,
• Week 10. Towards the "Knowledge-based" society
  Paul Krugman "Degrees and Dollars", The New York Times, March 6, 2011.
  Philip Brown, Hugh Lauder and David Ashton "Education, globalization and the Future of Knowledge Economy", European Educational Research Journal, 7(2), 2008, 131-156.
• Week 11 and 12. Globalization and education
  Spring, Joel 2009. Globalization of Education: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
• Week 13 and 14. Critical issues and discussions: topics/readings to be decided.
  - Post-industrial society
  Selected chapters from Bell, Daniel. 1973. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting.
  - Information Age and Network Society
  Castel, M. 1997 Communal Heavens: Identity and Meaning in the Network Society. In The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. 2: The Power of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
  - Cultural capital, education and the reproduction of class
  Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press 1984.
• Week 15. Summary

Textbooks
   Reading materials will be handed out beforehand, and students are required to read them to be prepared for class discussion.

Grading Policy

• Class participation and homework 30%
• Mid-term presentation and 1500-word report 30 %
• Term paper 40%