Globalizing Education Policy

The proposal is important. There is a need for the kind of discussion that these authors are offering and their planning and organization suggest a well thought out approach. It is a growing policy area, more and more evident, and it impinges on many aspects of educational practice, even when it is not named directly in them [viz the field of assessment may or may not recognize the global aspects of their work, or may be unable to provide a reasonable theorization of the global field they are in]. This book offers a very good chance to introduce the subject across a wide range of educational and educational research work. Its market in the US and the UK will depend on the reputation of the authors, and so I think sales are assured there, and I imagine so in Australia and perhaps the Pacific Rim], sales outside those areas will depend on whether the book is aimed at a more complex version of globalization than they seem to suggest [see below]. The rise of courses using globalization and education as their main categorization is on the rise, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and across the field of the social sciences. However there is a problem of the scarcity of solid books [as opposed the documents and working papers] to support them. This is an opportunity for a readable text, using solid cases, informed by social science thinking. Because of the nature of the subject, there is a good chance that the book would go into reprint, and should be revised within a few years. They are going to provide a form of analysis, and examples, which will make the book sustainable, realistically in its proposed form, for about 5-10 years. Both authors have good track records in this area and the publisher is being offered recognized expertise in this proposal. One of the problems with both the analyses and cases to be used is to do with the perspective of the text. Globalization is often seen as Americanization [sometimes elided with anglo-saxon] phenomenon across the world yet the US [and possibly the UK, as the state most heavily permeated by foreign capital in Europe] appears to be only half aware of globalizing effects across the wider world. Much as I would like to read about Trinidad and Tobago, if this book is to be a serious contribution, the reader needs to know about China [as well as India an improvement on what is generally available and very important], latin America and most of all [for reason of sales], Germany, Spain and France. Europe [the Community] has to be in the book, as it is an example of transnational governance and is significantly different to World Bank etc [also, I was surprised to find use of England as opposed to UK was this just thoughtlessness or is an interesting case being made here ?] At the centre of the book is still a fairly normative view, based on Americanization, and counter cases have to be studied here all the book will do [without care] is explain how the globalizing effect is without choice, dominant, pervasive and homogenizing. If it ignores certain kinds of cases, then that is exactly what it will show. For every Singapore, it needs to review oppositional and resistant cases. This has been the problem of books produced from an English perspective [based on NZ, Aus, the US and the UK]; in effect this is a single policy arena, and a book which reflects should describe itself as doing just that. Yes, [I recommend publishing the book] very much so, but on revision and not before. It could be an excellent as opposed to a good but limited book. Overall, I have confidence in the authors, their expertise, capabilities and their interests, otherwise I would have said that not enough work is evident here about the americanizing world seen from outside. instead, I suggest they should a further opportunity to extend their thinking and redraft. the general organization of the book may look the same but the outlook and reach of the book will be extended, and its val

Fazal Rizvi is a Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. Bob Lingard is a Professorial Research Fellow at the School of Education, University of Queensland, Australia.

1. Introduction 2. Perspectives on Globalization 3. Analyzing Educational Policies 4. Educational Purposes 5. Curriculum and Pedagogy 6. Assessment and Accountability 7. Educational Governance 8. Access and Equity 9. Student Mobility and Educational Trade 10. Alternatives to Neo-liberal Globalization