Curriculum Shifts as Education Priorities Begins to Change 2/12

All of the readings assigned for class today dealt with some type of globalization whether it be language, education or workforce centered. Each reading described in detail the changes that would occur if English was the primary language taught in schools or used gaining work capital. However, the two readings I will be focusing on for my post are “Globalization, Corporatism, and Critical Language Education” and “Eduscapes.” Before describing in detail the educational shift globalization would have on the curriculum, in the article “Educscapes” Carmen explains to the reader that, “So while we might accept that greater educational standardization is part of the globalisation and massification of higher education, educational provision in fact looks very different on the ground where it is culturally, locally, and regionally differentiated” (99). This is important to recognize because if the U.S. was ever to globalize education and shift education policies, they will look and act completely different compared to Singapore or England. One of the main concerns discussed in, “Globalization, Corporatism, and Critical Language Education” is that, “Issues of language rights are now compounded by another level of complexity: the shifting and ambiguous positions and relations of the state, the nation, the multinational corporation, and their real and virtual borders” (2). If we take a closer look at this statement, we realize that even if policies were to switch regarding language curriculum, they would need to switch with knowledge of the corporate order pertaining to that language. For example, if we required Mandarin to be taught within school and all students were required to learn it, this would mean that the language of Mandarin must have some financial and entrepreneurial gain for students. The questions I still have regarding this shift in policies and literacy education are: What would this look like regarding lesson plans? How would assessments be based? Would writing and reading outcomes shift? How could we tell if this type of learning was successful?