From Open to Inclusive – Asserting rights-based approaches in globalized learning
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This document discusses the impact of globalization on education and learning. It argues that while globalization has increased access to information and opened up opportunities for learning, it has also exacerbated inequalities in access. The document examines how economic factors largely drive developments in education under globalization. It emphasizes the need for rights-based and inclusive approaches to learning to ensure populations at risk of exclusion can fully participate. Strategies like universal design and innovative learning systems are needed to promote meaningful social inclusion in globalized education.
From Open to Inclusive – Asserting rights-based approaches in globalized learning
- 1. 1 From Opento Inclusive – Asserting rights-basedapproaches inglobalizedlearning ABSTRACT This paper investigates the nature, scale and impact of globalization as applied to advanced learning and education systems. It links this to issues around inclusion and equity of access. The nature of learning is being profoundly transformed by both the technological sophistication of e-learning delivery systems and the nature and extent of globalized economic and social relationships. The process is both interconnected and isolating, as profound inequalities are opening in terms of access and equity. This has specific impact on populations at risk of exclusion (whether gender, disability, ethnic origin, minority status, etc.). This paper considers the demands and perspectives of meaningful inclusion in new learning paradigms in terms of policy, strategy and rights-based frameworks. It investigates methods (e.g. universal design for learning) and policy outcomes (labor market entry) that underline meaningful inclusion. It references the challenges stemming from the impact of the Crisisand the need now to prioritizeinnovation in learningdesign and delivery systems. KEY WORDS Globalization; e-Learning; Rights-based approaches; Innovation; Social Inclusion; Strategic policy; universal design for learning. 1 Introduction Globalization has become one of the most used words today when describing economic, social and commercial trends. The impact of ever more sophisticated information and communications technologies means that people can discuss and contact each other over vast distances almost instantaneously. It also means that the reach and scope of such technologies is now available across the planet. Such a transformation, in such a relatively short time, poses huge challenges for traditional structures and institutions. People now have the means to compare and contrastissues, to debate and contrast situations and to have access to examples of diverse approaches and standards practically atthe push of a button. Such an environment, however, masks real difficulties for large sections of the world’s population. Such technological resources are not available to all. In fact, research demonstrates that the levels of impoverishment, hunger and marginalization for the populations in the world’s developing countries are actually increasing. This means that access to communications and technology – like access to wealth – can be highly unequal. In addition, globalization has the potential to increase differences, if not geographically then in terms of finance and power. Globalization has been cited as a process that drives down wages and degrades the quality of working conditions. Jobs and processing can be switched with extraordinary speed from one region to another with little concern for local communities or their needs. Finally, globalization has been regarded by many as a process of cultural and social homogenization, where alternative views and points of dissent are drowned out by the pre-eminence of the market and seemingly endless cycles of consumerism,consumption and intellectual sterility. The impact on education and learning of the globalization process is equally contradictory. On the one hand, learning resources (such as course materials, accepted terminology, subject range and internet-based learning) have been criticized for being overwhelmingly centered on US or European models and norms – and, in particular, by being dominated by exclusively English language
- 2. 2 orientations. On the other, globalization opens up real possibilities for transformative learning, where knowledge exponentially grows without constraints of national curricula or vested self-interest. 2. Impact of globalization on education and learning Globalization refers to the totality of processes and relationships that are emerging with a world system of market economics – including production, ownership, movement of capital and movement of labor. It also refers to the instantaneous nature of communications demanded by this system and made possibleby the advanced development of information and communications technologies. The consequences for education and learning are critical in this context. Cohen and Kennedy (2000) cite six issues around globalization thatimpactdirectly on education: Changingconcepts of spaceand time An increasingnumber of cultural interactions Common problems facingthe world’s inhabitants Growing interconnections and interdependence Networks of increasingly powerful transnational actorsand organization Synchronization of all dimensionsinvolved in globalization. A key issue in this identified discourse is economics. The interdependence of education (and associated schooling systems) and prevailing systems of economic organization has long been acknowledged. In an age of globalization however the connection is immediate, apparent and dominant. Certain forms of education have been identified as ultimately surviving or failing based on their economic rationality rather than technological development or learner relevance. This has been particularly identified in relation to distancelearning. The pioneering work of Rumble (1997) and Hulsmann (2000) showed that the future of distance education and e-learning, for example, would be decided by economic factors. Their focus was not so much on the objective question around what benefits and costs of learning methodologies, but whose benefits and costs. Simpson, of the United Kingdom’s Open University, links discussion of such new learning paradigms directly to economic concepts derived from the discoursearound the process of globalization: Return on investment Willingto pay factors Resalevalueof qualifications Investment risk. Goran Therborn has looked at this from the sociological perspective that analyzes the impact of globalization, and globalization concepts, on the nature, purpose and structure of education in a rapidly evolving world society. He locates the changes in higher education under five topical discourses: Competition Economics Socio-critical discourse State power (or impotence)
- 3. 3 Cultural and planetary ecology. Therborn graphically links globalization to a ruthless system of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ and sees this divide having an increasing importance for how we structure and appreciate the importance of learning and education. The winners are those for whom an opened world is an opportunity for action, connection to resourceful friends, improved mobility (geographic and social), access to information and enriched access. For losers, globalization is a closure of opportunities, employment options, chances for decent wages or profits and a cultural invasion thatsubverts importantvalues. This stark presentation of the contradictory nature of globalization outlines the challenges for education and learning if sense is to be made of the emerging planetary social order. Old certainties are certainly displaced by a discourse that is ambivalent, amorphous and linked as directly to the ownership of educational institutions as to the subject matter that has traditionally been taught there, ‘neutral’ and ‘value free’. Globalization has in many ways become an issue about the commodification of knowledge. Knowledge in this sense becomes just another item to be sold and traded. Yet this is all located in a web of vastly increased possibilities and opportunities if only the right and effective balance can be achieved. 3. Learning, technology and globalized society All accept that technology is having an increasing impact on our lives. Information and communications technologies evolve at a rapid pace. They affect the way we live, how we work, how we communicate and how we learn. Globalization is a powerful driving force and takes this process of technological changeand how we learn to an entirely unprecedented level of global contexts. This applies to the world of business as much as to formal education. Corporate business in today’s world increasingly demands a flexible labor force with the ability to adapt to rapid changes in market conditions. Corporations operating at global levels (and even those operating at local level) find that to compete successfully they require attitudes among staff that stress adaptability and innovation. They require from employees generic skills, specialized knowledge, innovation and collaborative problem-solvingrather than the mere ability to take instructions and complete routine tasks. Individuals must be able to make themselves available to a globalized labor market not just once in a lifetime but constantly – because of volatility, ongoing change and what has been termed the process of permanent insecurity. This enhanced emphasis on competitiveness also has a direct bearing on the understanding of the importance of standards and quality. Globalization places constraints not just on individuals. It also constrains companies, groups and national governments to conform to international standards and an unremittingemphasis on quality. According to Castells (2000), the present technological revolution is characterized not just by the centrality of knowledge and information, in which there is little new. Rather the revolution is characterized by: …the application of such knowledge and information to knowledge information and generation processing/communication devices, in a cumulative feedback loop between innovation and the uses of innovation. (p. 31) This conceptual framework does not see globalized information technology as a simple tool to be used. Rather it is a process to be developed. Castells sees this new technological paradigm as a material foundation for a new network society. This society will be shaped by five criteria , which will be critical to understand learningin globalized contexts.They are: Information will beits raw material The effects of new technologies will be pervasive – all processes of individual and collective existence will bedirectly sped by the new medium
- 4. 4 The networking logic of the system is well adapted to increasing complexity of action and unpredictablepatterns of development arisingfromthe creative power of such interaction The paradigm will be based on flexibility – not only processes are reversible but organizations and institutionscan bemodified and even fundamentally re-ordered There is a growing convergence of specific technologies into a highly integrated system. The challenge is to respond to and shape the change by a deeper level of expertise and understanding – as opposed to passively reacting to every current and trend. This process of using the globalization process creatively and in a community centered way will demand extra resources in terms of research, analytical capacity and the theoretical synthesis that enables people to understand their environment rather than accept itmeekly. Italso raises significantissues around accessfor all. 4. Globalized educational contexts Our current educational institutions emerge from specific historical conditions as influenced by economic considerations in their time as globalization in ours. Technological transformation enables us to look at old questions in new ways. The ICT revolution does, however, enable us to look at the transformation of pedagogy in an international and interdependent context. In this environment students build out from teacher-led models to active learning styles, where learners are responsible for their own learning. Globalization posits another approach where students will join a knowledge generating community and increasingly focus on collaborative problem solving. In such a socio-cultural dynamic, learning is still aboutacademic rigor,butequally grounded in generic skillsof: Synergistic collaboration Socialization Research methodology Dialectical discoursevia networked learningcommunities Communication Negotiation of meaning. In European contexts, the Bologna Agreement attempts to promote educational coordination, exchange and the mutual recognition of diplomas and qualifications. Even prior to Bologna, transnational cooperation within the European educational sector had been quite extensive through programs like Erasmus and Socrates. These programs have promoted much exchange and shared learning. Many universities have developed shared teaching courses, language proficiency training and graduate student placements. There is also an economic rationale for this – the European Union attempts to promote free movement of labor and educational harmonization is seen as an important element in this process. For better or worse, education and economics are intimately connected. Globalization merely serves to copper-fasten this dynamic on an international level. An aspect of this debate is the issue of quality and standards and whether human knowledge can serve other than purely utilitarian ends. Globalization also can serve a progressive agenda from a learning perspective. This may be regarded under the followingheadings: International interdependence Technological innovation Improved access Innovativecreativity.
- 5. 5 Globalization is not a one way street. While it is a powerful force shaping all our lives, it is a process that also offers unparalleled opportunities if a strategic purpose and sense of vision around the primacy of human perspectives is present. The planet faces extraordinary challenges in terms of equality of opportunity, exploitation, ecological crises and conflict. For these reasons alone, an international perspectiveon learningis critical. While learning is about more than market forces, it is nonetheless shaped powerfully by them. There is a risk that educational knowledge and techniques could be reduced to goods to be sold in a purely competitive and utilitarian way. There is an equal risk that the standards and quality systems demanded through the globalization process could leavea cloistered academic world untouched. Creative synergy demands that innovation be constantly applied to the world of learning. The technologies that drive globalized learning can also open profound opportunities and new levels of access for those traditionally excluded by reason of geography, social class or marginalization. Workers employed in peripheral jobs are vulnerable to redundancy, lack promotional outlets and suffer great educational disadvantages. If globalization is about global markets it is equally about global learning and this simply cannot be achieved without maximizing access, learning and human development. This raises thequestion of meaningful inclusion. 5. Envisaging Social Inclusion Social inclusion is not about halting the irreversible. It is about ensuring that alternative aspects of the human experience are fostered and vindicated. This in itself calls for communities of the marginalized to better define their needs and their potential contribution to the wider societies and communities of which they are part. Rather they should be seen as integral components of a global effort to ensure that the world passed on to subsequent generations is not a uniform, suburbanized market place but a livingand diversecollection of richly differentcommunities. Social inclusion can be therefore seen as an integral element of a reassertion of the primacy of human values in teaching, research and best practice. Overcoming exclusion and marginalization means equippingstudents and educational stakeholders alike not simply with the mechanisms to understand social challenges - but also, and more fundamentally, to be able to do something about them. Social exclusion implies both a structure and a process in the ordering of human relations. As a structure, social exclusion relates to unequal levels of ownership of resources, unequal levels of opportunity and unequal levels of privilege and status in accessing goods, services or information. As a process, s ocial exclusion is concerned with categories that historically may vary but are, in whatever form, denied full participation and equality. As a process, it is also further concerned with the forces and groups that, for whatever reason,implement and maintain exclusion. Social exclusion concerns itself therefore with: Groups that can be defined as excluded The nature of the exclusion experienced The attitudes of those who maintain exclusionary practices The knowledge, skillsand attitudes of officialsin developingpolicies in theseareas The body of knowledge and practiceregardingequality legislation and practice. Two issues emerge strongly from this. One is the question of equality of opportunity. Embedded firmly in the thinking and values of the French Revolution, equality as a concept has been a highly contentious issue in Europe ever since. From Napoleon to Thatcher, equality has been often derided and demeaned as a concept. From securing the franchise to ensuring a documented Bill of Rights in Northern Ireland, equality has been at the coalface of resistance and opposition from vested social interests. In the United States there is a richer tradition of the acceptance and assertion of rights but a corresponding marginalization of the need to accept any underlying a priori equal status between
- 6. 6 human beings, except in the context of the obligations of citizenship. Equality should not be seen therefore as axiomatic and widely accepted in all western societies. Second is the question of the norm against which exclusion is judged. In charting the poor levels of access for those experiencing social exclusion the literature of the European Union refers constantly to ‘average’ persons. In a context where the average is never defined or the normal spelled out, it is difficult to see social exclusion as anything other than that which is variably defined at any one time by individuals and structures which envisage themselves as average or normal. Clearly this value- ridden concept is less than useful. The norm clearly does not refer to a statistical average. Nor does it refer to a historical constant. Its very use excludes. Its very use contains the bias against which equality approaches mustengage. What is important is that conceptual clarity be employed from the outset in approaching issues around social exclusion. What is important is that a rigorous analysis of the existing conditions and characteristics of the presenting society be employed to make sense of the discrimination in practice and attitude that undoubtedly exists. The issue of social exclusion has been addressed in two broad ways in Europe. One is the approach of the British government since 1997. The other is the approach of the European Union. Within the latter, there are significant degrees of national difference and application, but with a common understanding of a linkage to employment creation and legal redress in which it is accepted that host societies have to themselves change. Great emphasis is placed on transnational actions. Inclusion is seen as diversity. The British approach has centred more on a problem-based focus where research, best practice and standards will produce a British integration for all. Little if any emphasis is placed on transnational actions.Inclusion isseen as integration. 6. Open Learning, Access and Inclusion Grave problems persist throughout the European Union, despite financial harmonization and freer movement of goods and labour. Unemployment remains disturbingly high. Social and economic inequality has increased with wide variations in access to income. Racism and discrimination have increased. Most importantly, the grim instability of violence has re-appeared with shocking intensity in the Balkan wars and genocide. Above all, the shock of the crisis since the banking collapse of 2008, has now seen a ruthless focus on neo-liberal responses based on austerity and deconstruction of social welfaresystems established over the last60 years. Central to European growth and development strategy has been the whole concept of employment. The ability to find and retain work is viewed as fundamental to human development. Employment is more than simply being able to earn money for a task performed. It is seen as central to human identity and development and is an essential constituentof personal identity. In a situation where the fundamental characteristics of work and employment have been transformed by the pace of change it still remains true that work, however constituted, is central to the participation and development of human beings in society. It is for this reason that European employment strategies and interventions have been the foundation of wider social and community approaches. Employment therefore is seen as the key bridge in the movement to enhanced social inclusion. The glue holding this all together is the concept of lifelong learning. This is of fundamental importance in understanding the significant shift away from skill specific training towards training and education that is focused on process,problemsolving,adaptability and innovation. Nothing reflects the pace and rate of change in contemporary European societies than this concept. The move away from school-based (or location based) education and training to more complex and flexible forms of learning design and delivery is changing the nature of our understanding of learning. The change of understanding in moving from time-limited curricula to self-study, open-learning and on-line learning (often in work contexts) alters profoundly the traditional understanding of traditional training and educational approaches and methodologies. The stated reference of education and
- 7. 7 training to actually existing social and economic characteristics of the labour market drives learning in the direction of applicability and relevance rather than mere accumulation of formal knowledge. Of all the priorities advanced by the EU in the context of unprecedented levels of social change and economic transformation, the concept of lifelonglearning holds out most promise as the way to view best practice in education, training and development particularly in relation to the process of social inclusion. Its ethos and methodology will influence most strongly the characteristics of training provision and occupational guidance in the years ahead. It is well therefore that professionals and administrators working with social exclusion have as thorough an understanding as possible of the principlesinvolved. Although there has been a considerable increase in participation rates and schooling during the last ten years or so, many young people still leave school without the requisite qualifications, knowledge or skills for open, competitive employment. In addition they often do not have that love of learning and motivation to learn that is essential for further learningand growth in the rest of their lives. Throughout all Member States of the EU - and indeed in countries all around the world - there is growing concern about the capacity of traditional schools and education systems to change, adapt and provide an appropriate foundation for lifelonglearning. It has become urgent for governments to review the ways in which schools are organized, the content of curricula, modes of delivery, design and location of places of learning and the integration of advanced information technologies into the overall educational structure. In such an environment it is important to evaluate and re-assess the role and function of schools in our society and the relationship between education a nd families, employment, business,enterprise,cultureand community. The OECD thinking on lifelong learning has produced a wide-ranging debate on the type of society we are presently constructing and wish to leave after us. Education and training are not just some abstract themes to be tacked on to the real business of making money. They are at the heart of what it means to grow and develop - both as individuals and as communities. That sense of community which is most threatened by the growth of social dysfunction, racism, violence and despair is best preserved in a context where people are allowed to learn and develop at their own pace with the satisfaction of knowing that their development feeds into processes of creativity and innovation for all. Lifelong learning requires more than vision. It requires investment. It is for that reason that it has been closely associated with the idea of equality from the outset. The emphasis on equality underlines the key role that learning plays in sustaining economic, social, cultural and political well- being. The emphasis on learning for all recognizes that education and training are prerequisites for not simply employment (or, even more rudimentary, a 'job') but for equitableparticipation in society. This is why the principles and methods of lifelong learning have had such a resonance in the disability community - especially in the United States among the independent living movement. Concepts of empowerment, autonomy, ease of access, flexibility and innovation are central to lifelong learning and fit well with the structures and objectives of the disability consumer movement. These issues are pointers to strategies and policies which will be central in the forthcoming approach to education and trainingfor social inclusion. This new open and competitive environment means that the emphasis on quality and transparency becomes more important than ever. It is incumbent on professionals and agencies to understand the structures, objectives and terminology. It is also important to have a strategic sense of the wider environment of social exclusion. Individual sectors experiencing exclusion will more and more have to engage with other sectors and groups marginalized by the attitudes and prejudices of "mainstream" society to develop networks and generic models of nest practice.
- 8. 8 7. Conclusions Social exclusion is a term that is now central to the debate about the direction of social policy. It is clear from what we have discussed that it does not have a distinct definition – or that its definitions can vary from setting to setting. As a result, there is confusion aboutits exactmeaning. Some are dismissive, suggesting that it is simply old-fashioned concern about the poor dressed up in fancy garb. In one sense, they are right: social exclusion is tied to the past. To suggest otherwise would be to devalue the commitment of previous generations to reducing poverty and inequality as well as expandingdemocracy. At the same time, it would be misleading to view it as simply a new veneer on old problems. 'Social exclusion' is also contemporary, even forward-looking, as it is used to emphasise that changes in economic and social life have rendered old remedies to social problems less effective, if not obsolete. New times have brought different forms of poverty and inequality, requiring modern solutions . It places equal emphasis – as we have seen – on the dynamic or rationale of the ‘excluder’ as much as the conditions of the ‘excluded’. By social inclusion we mean not just a static snapshot of inequality. As stated earlier, it is a set of processes, within the labour market, educational structure and welfare systems, by which individuals, households, communities or even whole social groups are pushed towards or kept within the margins of society. It encompasses not only material deprivation but more broadly the denial of opportunities to participate fully in social life. It is associated with stigmatisation and stereotyping. At first sight, paradoxically, some of those who experience exclusion even develop survival strategies , which are premised upon its continuance. Finally, it highlights the primary responsibility of the wider society for the condition of its marginal members, of the need for all to shareequally in the fruits of citizenship. Whatever definition is employed, the process of social inclusion isintimately linked to three themes: Equality Lifelong learning Democracy. References 1. Cohen, R. and Kennedy, M. (2000) Global Sociology, New York: New York University Press. 2. Rumble, G (1997) The Costs and Economics of Distance Education, London: Kogan Page. 3. Hulsmann, T (2000) Costs of Open Learning: a handbook, Oldenburg: Verlag Carl von Ossietsky Universitat. 4. Simpson,O (2005), The Cost Benefits of Retention, New York: Erlbaum. 5. Therborn, G. (2000),Introduction, International Sociology, June 2000. 6. Castells,M.(2000) Rise of the Network Society, Oxford: Blackwell. 7. Enders, J. and Fulton, O. (2002) Higher Education in a Globalizing World (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press). 8. Supiot, A. (2001), Beyond Employment (Oxford: University Press). 9. Bruce, A. et al.(2010), Discovering Vision (San Sebastian:EHU/UPV Creanova)
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