Evaluate the Impact of globalization on educational policy in the
UK (30)
In the 1988 education reform act, globalization helped with the expansion
of the privatization of the education system. Neo-liberal policies have
become the dominant policy related to education in the era of
globalization. This led to the education market becoming a multi-billion-
pound operation that provides large profits for UK based educational
institutions. For example, the sale of naming rights by the British Public
schools to overseas outlets, the expansion of UK universities to have
international campuses and the growth of multi-academy trusts which
provide educational provision to the worlds lesser developed nations. This
shows that globalization has provided help to those who need it,
improving the education system. This is supported by Hancock, who
estimated that exports from UK schools, colleges and universities were
worth £18 billion to the UK economy and the global education markets are
growing every year. This tells us globalization has been useful to the
government as due to privatization, they can play a reduced role in the
education system and reduce their funding. Therefore, globalization has
had a positive impact on the education system all over the world, as
schools can help each other and gain a profit from it. However, Marxists
may argue that it can only provide opportunities for the ruling classes.
This is because they can afford these to have the best education such as
going to one of the best universities. In addition, the ruling classes have
the technology to access resources from all over the world, so they are at
an advantage to the digital have nots.
Later on, in early 2000s, globalization led to the increasing competition
through the creation of international ranking between schools. Ranking
systems like the PISA tests enable education systems to compare the
performance of their students in math, English and science against other
students globally like the league tables in the UK. This means that
governments can clearly examine the impacts of their teaching, learning
and assessment strategies in a quantitative manner and modify or create
, educational policies to solve issues that appear. In addition, with these
comparisons, they can pick strategies from high performing school in
hopes to do well themselves. For example, solutions are made after the
UK performs badly, such as raising the academic requirements for trainee
teachers. This came from Finland, who were in the top six in 2015 where
teachers take extra math and English exams so they are as highly trained
as they can be. Alexander argued that this modification of policies occurs
because of moral panics from media headlines which suggest that the UK
is failing in some way, and it needs to be fixed. However, the PISA tests
and other international ranking systems can be criticized for not being
valid nor reliable. This is because they don’t reflect the effectiveness of
the education system, only the wider social circumstances school has no
control over. For example, poverty which may mean children don’t have
the nutrients they need to concentrate in exams or the resources in order
to be successful in education. Therefore, ranking of schools can be
beneficial for schools to improve but they shouldn’t be taken at face
value.
Later on, in 2007, globalization in education has led to the need for safety
and so the government created the PREVENT strategy and British Values.
In a globalized society, the world is interconnected so children can access
things all over the world, including other peoples and sensitive
information which can be damaging. The PREVENT policy is a legal
requirement for educational institutions to report what they perceive to be
a threat of child exploitation, grooming or radicalization. These policies
were introduced as a response to the increased risk of safeguarding issues
such as terrorism due to children being easily influenced by the
information they are given online and at school. The government
introduced these policies to act as a deterrent against radicalism and to
reinforce ideas of a global Britain. This links to the functionalist idea of
promoting social solidarity by sharing the same norms and values to
everyone in society to create a feeling of togetherness so we stick
together and aren’t easily influenced by outsiders who may pose a threat
to the UK. This means kids are protected and society stays functioning.
