Global education and the liberal project

Good Governance in Basic Education in Egypt: Paradoxical or Self Explanatory?

Populism has risen to become a contemporary political phenomenon at both the global, national and local levels. Electoral contestations, including the election of district heads or “Pilkada”, were infiltrated by populist political practices. In this paper, I mostly use the perspective of political philosophy on populism. The main thesis of this paper is that populism threatens the existence of democracy when populist actors and politicians exploit the ethnic and religious sentiments of the voters, or exploit the people's vulnerabilities as mere populist narratives and rhetoric to win the electoral support. On the other hand, the discourse on antagonism in left populism is able to make a positive contribution to democracy as long as it is always placed within the framework of an antagonistic democratic discourse. Within the framework of antagonistic democracy, left populism consistently exposes the depravity of power, constructs the “people” as a group that opposes the oligarchic and neoliberal elites, and struggles for the right to social justice of the oppressed. This politico-philosophical analysis of populism is relevant in reflecting on the moments of electoral contestations such as the election of district heads (Pilkada) and on the fight for a better future of democracy.


 The paper investigates changing ideals of stoicism from the perspective of political philosophy. In the early stoa, the sage was idealized, while in the middle and late period, the ideal of the prokopton became the centre of philosophical attention. In the argument I distinguish between two political models. In one of the models, sages have an actual role, while in the other they do not. In the second model it is only the ideal of the sage that helps create and maintain the political system most in harmony with natural law.

Book review of: Klaudia Śledzińska (ed.). Responsibility – Participation - Conscious Citizenship – The Dilemmas of Global Education. Warszawskie Wydawnictwo Sociologiczne. Warszawa 2017.

How might we support young people to understand who they are in an interconnected world, prepare them to consider multiple perspectives as they collaborate with others across cultures and languages to improve conditions, and provide opportunities for them to participate positively in civic life, school, and work? Preparing students for today’s world requires not only that we think about what matters most for students to learn, but also what kind of teaching and learning will prove most effective. Building on Lee Shulman’s idea of signature pedagogies, we propose a pedagogical approach uniquely tailored to nurturing deep, relevant, and compelling global learning and a concomitant framework for developing teacher expertise. We define signature pedagogies in global education as a pervasive set of teaching practices that nurture students’ capacity and disposition to understand and act on matters of global significance. Signature pedagogies organize learners’ experience to inculcate in them hallmark global competence habits of mind: investigating the world, taking perspective, communicating across difference, and taking action. They offer students ample opportunities to engage in “junior versions” of authentic practices in relevant fields, and represent instructional tropes, paths, or motifs. Using illustrative cases at the elementary school level, we describe two types of signature pedagogies in global education: research expedition and purposeful comparisons. Research expedition pedagogy focuses on learner’s understanding and experience of a distant place – geo-physical and environmental qualities, built and natural landscapes, people and social organizations, as well as manifestations of culture in the form of taste, values, practice, relationships and beliefs – and helps them develop a sense of personal connection to it. Purposeful comparisons pedagogy builds on the premise that an individual can understand the world by examining a single phenomenon across multiple locations through the lens of a question that makes cross-case analysis necessary. It often involves creating a model or a frame that helps us distil relevant aspects of each case, identifying similarities and differences to inform our understanding. When such signature pedagogies are designed to be a regular part of the learning experience, they nurture understanding of the world and key global dispositions in learners.

The global contexts in which we all live and interact seem to demand that we think about providing a global education for our students. We live in a world in which our geopolitical, environmental and economic fates are increasingly interconnected. New developments in technology, communications and global economics are forging changes that make a distinctive new world. We live within an increasingly integrated world-wide economic system accompanied by profound and deepening inequality; we wrestle with increasing concerns about environmental degradation and sustainability. We confront a situation where individuals coexist with increasingly powerful aggregations of global media conglomerates and businesses. Of the world’s 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries. We try to make sense of the complex and varied effects of innovations in technology, media and communications that compress time and space and intermix groups and cultures. In this speeded up and intermingled world, we also develop increasingly flexible, transnational identities and ideas of citizenship and, at the same time, we face rising tensions among cultural diversity, tradition and cosmopolitan culture. All of this seems to require thoughtful attention in education. Ideas about the nature of the global connections we experience, and our understandings of the most compelling challenges in a new global world and who has power to influence the world are shaped by myriad forces. Young people learn about global issues primarily from television, movies, newspapers and magazines, from social and religious groups, friends and family, and from their work environments and schools. Ideally, formal education should provide an intellectual foundation of information and critical perspectives that will guide students to embrace active and constructive citizenship in a changing world. Yet, just as there are many definitions of the global, there are many lists of what global education should entail and many definitions of what education for cosmopolitanism might be. Identifying themes in global education theory turns out to be tricky, as the related but distinct fields of social studies education, science education, environmental education, multicultural education, critical theory, peace education, education for human rights and development education all include theorists who call for

Part Three of the book turns to the question of international society and international relations after September 11, starting with a chapter by Richard Falk, who argues that international society remains a useful starting point for studying today's globalized world because it is predicated on the dual assertions of international anarchy and a (potentially) global normative order – a duality that provides a fertile breeding ground for different accounts of what the world should look like. The author discusses the changing geopolitical context of globalization and global governance, suggesting that if globalization is to be retained as a label for the current phase of international relations, its net must be cast far more broadly than it has been – since the events of 2001 it needs to be interpreted far less economistically, and more comprehensively. The last part of the chapter considers approaches to global governance, international society, and world society given this altered understanding of ‘globalization’. The author identifies five overlapping accounts of globalization that provide alternative and competing pictures of the future of global governance and international society: corporate globalization, which refers to the growth of transnational business and the forging of common interests and values based on neoliberal economics; civic globalization, which in many ways is a civil society response to the corporate variety and has manifested itself in a number of transnational anti‐globalization movements, but has now moved beyond straightforward opposition towards the articulation of new global political agendas; imperial globalization, which is a US‐led form of globalization that seeks not the creation of a genuinely multinational neoliberal global economy but rather the extension of American power and the satisfaction of US interests narrowly conceived; apocalyptic globalization, the variant promoted by Osama Bin Laden and his followers and aims to overthrow the society of states and replace it with an Islamic world state; and regional globalization, in which a number of regions around the world are developing their own subsystems as a way of moderating pressures created by the global flow of capital. The author argues that none of these forms of globalization is likely to predominate completely, but that the relationship between them is likely to shape the nature of global governance for the foreseeable future.

Book Review: Liberal democracy in times of crisis: Political Philosophy Perspective (Recenzia na knihu: Liberální demokracie v době krize: Perspektiva politické filosofie) Journal Politické vedy has been released since 1998. The aim of the academically reviewed journal is to publish original articles of Slovak and foreign authors, concerning different fields of social science

In this essay, we seek to understand the role of a psychologist in a Private Education Institution in the city of Uberlndia. To follow this path, we developed a collaborative research with a school psychologist, with the aim of following her daily practice for approximately one year. During this period, we followed four Conversation Circles with families of students from the 6th to the 9th year of Elementary School and carried out an initial interview, two interviews about the conversation circles and a final interview with the psychologist; in addition to field diary entries and participant observations, including the institution's Pedagogical Exhibition. As for Conversation Circles, the number of participating families ranged from 55 in the first meeting and 12 families in the last meeting. The conversation circles relied on Art as a trigger for reflections, exchanges and learning. The topics addressed in the discussions were related to issues of adolescence and were chosen by the families, as follows: 1st Round of Conversation: Bullying: the importance of the family's role; 2nd and 3rd Conversation Round: I became a teenager, now what? and 4th Conversation Round: Authority x Autonomy. In the interviews with the psychologist, it was possible to follow the performance of Psychology in the work with adolescents and their classes for the 6th and 7th. In this way, our qualitative analysis was composed of four main categories, namely: "Capitalist relationship that marks: how the Can the means of production of capital define the means of production of knowledge?", in which we discussed Neoliberalism and how it manifests itself in private educational institutions. In the second category, "The role in Psychology at work with adolescents: Development of Socioemotional Competencies and skills for work? ", we discussed socio-emotional skills classes and how this training permeates a sociability linked to the productive and social sphere of bourgeois hegemony. In the fourth "The role of Psychology in working with families: What is up to the school, what is up to the family?", we present the conversation circles and discuss the school-family relationship. In the final category, "On the role of Psychology in a Private Education Institution: The Pedagogical Exhibition" we debated on what place Psychology occupied in the institution and, in a broad way, what was the role of School Psychology in an Educational Institution. We believe that it is urgent to broaden the discussion and democratize knowledge about the role of school psychology in Private Education Institutions, understanding that Critical School Psychology starts from a different logic from the neoliberal and utilitarian logic. There is potential in the work of the school psychologist, in the construction of practices with families, adolescents and the community. We defend a network practice, a consistent pedagogical political project aligned with emancipatory and democratic education. In view of the implementation of law no. 13.935/2019, which provides for the work of Psychology and social assistance in education networks, we understand the relevance of this work and the contribution towards understanding the limits and possibilities of practice in Psychology in Basic Education. This research contributes to the potential of doing School Psychology in private educational contexts, in which the marketing logic is superimposed on the educational logic, pointing out possible ways of working in this scenario.

In recent months, there has been heightened attention to global education on the part of government, education, and industry. These sectors of our society recognize that global education is not a question of need in U.S. schools; we are far beyond the point of urgency in preparation of students who are well equipped to live and thrive in our 21st-century global society. The question is: What are we going to do about it?While it is certainly heartening for world language pro- fessionals to witness the increased interest in changing the education experience for students in PK-16 so that all students in U.S. schools have the opportunity to become globally prepared citizens, this goal has long been a part of our belief system. We value global education and hold firm to the belief that languages are the core of global preparation; the study of languages makes global competence possible. Therefore, how can we ensure as a profession that our students have access to experiences that will enable them to reach global competence?Several collaborative projects and initiatives are underway that will have a significant impact on ACTFL's work to raise public awareness of the major role of PK-16 language study in the development of a globally competent citizenry.The Languages for All? conference held September 30, 2013, on the campus of the University of Maryland convened more than 150 educators, policy makers, researchers, and experts in national intelligence to discuss the question of how the United States can make languages a reality for all students in PK-16. Participants at this forum, organized by the University of Maryland Center for Advanced Study in partnership with ACTFL, responded to the white paper written by experts in our field that cites evidence of the increased demand for languages other than English in the past 10 years and the failure of schools to prepare students with these critical skills (Brecht et al., 2013).U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan raised similar concerns at the opening event of International Education Week on November 18, 2013, saying,Today, a nation's prosperity depends on its people's ability to thrive in the global marketplace. This is true for the U.S. and for our neighbors across the globe. What's more, in a nation as diverse as ours, the ability to interact comfortably and confidently with people of all backgrounds and points of view is critical. And that makes it more important than ever to provide all students with a well-rounded, world-class education-including opportunities to gain global competencies and world language skills; to understand other cultures; and to study abroad. (U.S. Department of Education, 2013, n.p, italics in original)Secretary Duncan's introductory remarks launched Mapping the Nation: Making the Case for Global Competency, an interactive map predicated on North Carolina's Center for International Understanding's work and produced by the Asia Society, the Longview Foundation, and SAS. This online resource shows the nation's global competitiveness based on data on economics, demographics, and education in each state and county (Asia Society; 2013; see http://mappingthenation. …

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to understand, more deeply, what the field of citizenship education stands for, in both theory and practice, historically and currently, and especially, in relation to the new Australian Curriculum: Civics and Citizenship. The authors have drawn on the backgrounds in social studies/social education, multicultural education, democracy education and Indigenous studies, in order to more deeply and profoundly understand “civics and citizenship education” and what it represents today in Australia.Design/methodology/approach– Methodologically, the authors see epistemological spaces as discursive productions from post-structural/post-modern and critical perspectives. These positions draw upon the notion of discourse as an absent power that can validate/legitimize vs negate/de-legitimize. The authors employ a meta-level analysis that historicizes the spaces made possible/impossible for those in deviant subject positions through a critique of the current literature juxtaposed with a presentation and analysis of “citizenship snapshots” of the authors. In this way, the authors attempt to move beyond conceptions of deviant citizenship based on curricular content and instructional method, and explore the realms of epistemology through the study of exclusion/inclusion.Findings– Reflecting the highly personal and individualized nature of the type of research required to be conducted in this aspect of national and personal identity, each of the authors draws here on personal experiences with aspects of citizenship that are not noticeably present in the current national curriculum. Specifically, the three “citizenship snapshots” at the heart of this paper’s discussion and analysis – snapshots constructed by academics who both understand and resist the racialised/classed privilege bestowed upon them by nation states – are: “The boomerang citizen”, “privileged and non-privileged citizen immigrants”, and “Indigenous citizenship, sovereignty & colonialism”.Originality/value– Drawing both on the current international scholarship on citizenship, power and social changes and the critical/post-structuralist qualitative methodology set forth by the authors, this work describes and problematizes the evolving “citizenship identities” in an attempt to critically assess the new civics and citizenship component of the Australian curriculum; understand the ongoing development of national, regional and global “trans/international” citizenship youth identities; and make connections between citizenship education, identity development and the global youth “occupy”/liberation movements.

This chapter documents the extreme stresses that cyberspace applies to state law by examining how private international law, or conflict of laws, has responded to the online global world. This highlights both the penetration of globalization into the ‘private’ sphere and the strongly ‘public’ or collective political nature of much of the ‘private’ ordering through national law. The chapter shows that the nation state is asserting itself against the very phenomenon—globalization (through cyberspace)—that threatens its existence, and does not shy away from accepting the fragmentation of this global cyberspace along traditional political boundaries as collateral damage to its own survival. Yet, the frequent appeal to international human rights normativity in recent conflicts jurisprudence suggests an awareness of the unsuitability and illegitimacy of nation state law for the global online world.

How questions concerning democracy and emancipation thread through teacher education is currently under theorized and there is a paucity of cross-national studies examining the problem. In this study, we draw from a number of theoretical frameworks for their discursive positioning of democracy and emancipation in teacher education and what we are calling teacher educators’ democratic assignment. The framework allowed us to identify key words which we then used for a limited content analysis of policy documents in two European countries, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, in two separate timelines 2000/2002 and 2010/2012. Our findings indicate that despite significant cultural and contextual differences between the two education systems, key words linked to democracy and emancipation have significantly decreased in policy documentation in both countries in this timeline. This prompts our hypothesis that a paradigm shift has occurred in the discursive positioning of teacher educators’ democratic assignment. The findings suggest the need for a deeper discourse analysis of the four documents as the next phase in the research design. The findings while tentative have implications, well beyond two nation states, for contemporary issues in teacher education and society that require collective consciousness and action.

Westernization as a historical process of universalizing western cultural and societal norms has, in terms of global education, evolved into a narrative of competition, resource-hoarding, erasure, and general accumulation of capital by the few. Universities and colleges are hubs for the production and reproduction of ideologies and ways of knowing that permeate the highest echelons of the global milieu and contribute to the creation of the global imaginary. The research questions that guided this study asked how Western hegemony is dialogically reinforced in global higher education at the regional and supranational level, and how historical determinants have impacted the regional and supranational translation and manifestation of Western educational models. Through a framework of world system theory and world society theory, I analyzed narratives and calls for improved global higher education at the regional and supranational level to identify mechanisms that have upheld western hegemony within global higher education. I employed a comparative-historical, mixed-methods analysis that utilized two qualitative approaches: historical narrative inquiry through a systematic review of journals and discourse analysis of documents published by the supranational and regional organizations sampled in this study. The overarching mechanisms that allowed for the maintenance of westernization were capacity in Africa, identity in LATC, and affect in Europe. The biased operationalization of global quality indicators has allowed for contemporary reproductions of colonial representations. Historical processes of colonization have evolved to maintain the global imaginary of world society while concretizing the asymmetric relationships of a networked society within the world system. These findings contribute to the body of literature on the manner in which global higher education systems interpret, mediate, sustain, and resist processes of westernization.

Cultivation of core competencies has been a hot issue in China’s basic FLE reform currently. Core competencies in English include all the language qualities and competencies conducive to students’ sustainable development and development of the society. To meet the demanding requirements of fostering core competencies in English, “Four Modernizations” are suggested metaphorically and technically to solve the key problems in cultivating core competencies ecologically. After exploring the feasibility and connotations of “Four Modernizations” from an ecological perspective in philosophy of language, this article puts forth some strategies to make basic foreign language education life-stylized, mathematized and logicized, communitized and ecologized in the hope of constructing linguistic-cultural ecology by means of modern information technology to transform FLE from exam-orientation to core-competency-orientation in a fun way.