Higher education is rapidly expanding and growing in many countries around the world. Some countries are expanding more rapidly than others. Evan Schofer and John Meyer explore and theorize the similarities of expansion in some countries as well as the global trends as a whole. The authors seem to be more optimistic to the idea of a global integrated education system, or the idea of one day unifying “world culture”. In contrast to this idea, Gita Steiner-Khamsi, also explores globalization, but seems to argues the idea of a common international model to be more “Imaginary” rather than it becoming a reality. Both of these authors make compelling arguments and I find myself wondering whether an international common model can be created and most importantly will it work?
Schofer & Meyer Main Views of Globalization
Before one can explore the Idea of globalization and higher education, Schofer & Meyer first describe the original power dynamics related to higher education in society. According to Schofer & Meyer (2005), Before World War II, higher education was generally seen and used to generate a limited set of elites to fulfil a set number of elite national society and occupational systems positions. There was a point in time in which there was a fear of “over education” and too many unemployed graduates. This idea weakened once there was a worldwide hegemonic view that higher education would generate human capital that benefits not only the individuals but more importantly the country. Schofer & Meyer then make their argument that after World War II, the rise of democratization and human rights movements worldwide sparked the expansion of higher education. Higher education began to open their doors to minorities and other demographics that could not have enter before. Along with the new developments and technology systems across the world, countries then began to want to “race to the top” and encourage research and more educated civilians to better the country.
Schofer & Meyer Findings in Global Trends
When it comes to global trends, Schofer & Meyer ‘s (2005) study find some interesting results. According to Schofer & Meyer (2005), “Higher education expansion expands faster in countries with expanded secondary education systems” (p.916). This would make sense in the fact that there are more people attending high school or high school equivalent education, that the population of qualified individuals entering into higher education would increase as well. Another interesting finding to note, according to Schofer & Meyer (2005), higher education in countries with more diverse ethnicities and languages are slower in expansion. Schofer & Meyer (2005) suggest this is because competing groups generate more exclusions and that governments have to capacity to limit their growths.
The Elite fear of Expansion in Comparison to Germany
From reading the Schofer & Meyer article, I found interesting how countries were originally worried about expanding higher education not in the sense of the economy but more so concerns associated in protecting the elite class. Schofer & Meyer (2005) mention how in the United States of America, the East coast tried to block Western universities from expanding at first, which as we all know it was a failed attempt. According to Schofer & Meyer (2005), There were strong states in Britain and France that were able to delay the higher education expansion for a great extent to keep the elite programs as they were. According to Schofer & Meyer (2005), after the 1970’s communist countries sharply restricted further higher education expansion. This reminded me of my previous case study of the massification of the German Higher education. According to Mayer et. al (2002) German professors were at first opposed to open access of universities as they saw it as a an “intellectual downfall” and therefore wanted to limit access to higher education. According to Mayer et. al (2002), In 1993 the German Science Council recommended the influx of students be redirected away from universities and towards the vocational (blue collar) institutions.
Stiener-Khamsi’s Argument
I found Stiener-Khamsi’s argument of the common international higher education model to be unrealistic a fascinating one. Stiener-Khamsi’s main argument that the idea of a common model of education is imaginary is mostly due to the growth of new patriotism in some countries and the effects of the lower developed country not having the resources to keep up with the new demand. In my opinion, what I believe Stiener-Khamsi is trying to say is that there will always be competitive countries trying be more elite than others when it comes to education. This would mean that as long as countries try to be more advanced than the others, there will be a few countries who would rather exclude commonality and “preserve” their eliteness. I also believe that Stiener-Khamsi is trying to argue that if this common international model were to become a reality, it would only become a burden to under developed countries who do not have the sources to facilitate such new higher standards of educations.
Conclusion
Overall, in my opinion, I would love to see a common international education model happen. This would hopefully tackle a lot of inequalities throughout the world and make things more level. In all honesty, I would have to side with Stiener-Khams and say that this idea is more “imaginary”. As my international higher education class has shown me so far, higher education and its meaning and values are not consistent globally. There is no perfect education system model and there are too many conflicting views on what needs to be taught, what should be taught, and more importantly who needs to has access this education. In the current political climate, we see some numerous political figures battling both nationally and international on many ideas and none of them seem to be a remedy to local inequalities. A perfect example of the countries not cooperating with each other is the recent “brexit” the United Kingdom had with the European Union. The European Union was created to unify the nations together yet the United Kingdom is in the process of breaking its ties with the EU. If the UK breaks away from the EU, which has been in place for years, then how are we as a worldwide identity to all to come to a common international education and all be in favor for it?
References
Mayer, K., U., Walter, M., Pollak, R. (2002). Institutional Change and Inequalities of Access
in German Higher Education. Institutional Forms and Equality of Opportunity, Prague.
Schofer, E., & Meyer, J. (2005). The Worldwide Expansion of Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. American Sociological Review, 70(6), 898-920.
Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2004). The global politics of educational borrowing and lending. New York: Teachers College Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment