Globalisation in Education, Culture and Science, 05/05

# The Stanford Approach ##### _Globalization of Education, Culture and Science_ --- - Francisco O. Ramírez (2012) __"The World Society Perspective: Concepts, Assumptions and Strategies"__, _Comparative Education_ 48(4) - Mike Zapp & Francisco O. Ramírez (2019) __"Beyond internationalisation and isomorphism - the construction of a global higher education regime"__, _Comparative Education_ 55(4) --- ## _The World Society Perspective: Concepts, Assumptions and Strategies_  ---- ### _WSP: Origins and Assumptions_ - An attempt to explain the rise and triumph of __mass schooling__ (after WWII).  - Mass schooling arose not primarily because eduaction solved problems but because education granted __legitimacy__ for the nation-state and its leadership.  - In other words, from this perspective, implementing mass schooling should be understood as a way to enact __"national-state identity"__ which was defined by external models or _blueprints_.  ---- ### _WSP: Origins and Assumptions_ - The nation-state is a model which presuppose __international society__.  - Nation-states acquire legitimacy to the degree that they enact proper nation-state identity.  - The expansion of educaiton is a central feature of the enactemnt of proper nation-state identity.  - Nation-states expand schooling beyond what one might expect if increased schooling was simply a reaction to local or national conditions.  ---- ### _WSP: Assumptions and Concepts_ - The WSP operates at the __macro level of analysis__ and regards nation-states as __highly embedded__ in the wider world.  - Actors are not wholly autonomous and their decisions are not simply a reflection of their interests or goals.  - Actors are constituted by the environment, which generates __identities__ that may be enacted by certain actors.  ---- ### _WSP: Assumptions and Concepts_ - Role of scientists, professionals and other experts: Educational blueprints command greater confidence because they are __consistent with established models of reality__ and because those that set forth these blueprints enjoy certified __authority__.  - __Knowledge__ before __values__: e.g., "dignity of the individual".  - The rise of the __individual person__ as a rationalising and legitimating myth is crucial.  ---- ### _WSP: Assumptions and Concepts_ The individual linked to other myths constitutes a __symbolic universe__ that legitimates roles, priorities and operating procedures by placing them in the most general frame of reference possible. __Nation__ as an aggregation of individuals...  ...childhood socialisation and __continuity__ over the course of life...  ...the myth of __progress__...  ...the state as a __protector__ of the nation. ---- ### _WSP: Assumptions and Concepts_ - __Institutional Isomorphism:__ Commonalities characterising otherwise different organisations.  - __Loose Coupling:__ ...the gaps.  ---- ### _WSP: Research_ - __Identification__ of world wide trends.  - __Hypothesis__ thesting strategy.  - __Modelling__ the diffusioin process.  - __Case__ studies.  --- ## _Beyond Internationalisation and Isomorphism - The Construction of a Global Higher Education Regime_  ---- ### Institutional Changes - Increase of mobile students and staff. - Increase of programmes and campuses (including international branch campuses). - Competitive environment (concerns about quality assurance and accrediation). - Collaboration. - Cross-national similarity in higher education discourses, policies, structures and curricula (__isomorphism__). - Growing importance of international organisations in educational policymaking. ---- ### Institutional Changes - __Internationalisation:__ Increasing permeability of national HE systems. - __Isomorphism:__ Increasing similarity of HE systems. - Research on these topics has shown less interest in the emergence of an overarching and integrating discursive, normative and regulative governance structure in HE.  ---- ### The Concept of Regime - This structure is approached as a __*Regime*__: "...implicit or explicit principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors' expectaitions converge in a given area of international relations".  - The __regime__ concept includes new modes of cooperation at __multiple levels__ and concerning __multiple types of actors__.  - It can be used to describe a low degree of formal institutionalisation but a high degree of __convergence in expectations__.  ---- ### Process of Regime Construction Facilitated by liberalisation and internationalisatoin wave in HE underpined by the _legitimacy_ of the university in the _knowledge society_. 1. __Agenda formation__: Priority item in a policy agenda.  2. __Institutional choice__: Official agreement and specification. (post-war decades)  3. __Operationalisation__: Establishment of normative and regulative frameworks as well as of the necesary organisational infrastructure.  ---- ### The Global HE Regime - The emergence of a genuinely global HE __discourse__ supported by and reflected in densifying __networks__ of international and national governmental and nongovernmental organisations and nation-states. - __UNESCO__. - Large network of 203 organisations divided in 6 types and 17 issue areas. - Organisations connected to events. ---- ### The Global HE Regime - Emergence of a __supranational quality assurance and accreditation sector__ establishing norms, standards and regulations. - UNESCO, OECD, WB, EU. - International QAA agencies (Accreditation Service for International Schools, Colleges and Universities). - 48% of all higher education institutions worldwide are accredited. ---- ### Conclusion "...In less than two decades, higher education has become a genuinely global discourse involving a massively expanding network of IOs and is now target of novel standards and regulations. UNESCO is undoubtedly the focal node of this structure lending the regime a global scope." --- # The End