The False Promise of Global Learning: Why Education Needs Boundaries

Through the language of global learning, education is being reformed by corporations, political activists, and policy makers. Academic subject-based knowledge has been cast as elitist and outdated. Instead, the curriculum has been colonized in the name of skills for the global market, skills and attitudes for intercultural communities and preparing children for their roles as global citizens. Alex Standish argues that we can only educate children if we are clear about the boundaries that provide education with its moral worth. These include the boundaries between: education and political activity, public and private realms, education and training, theoretical and everyday knowledge, and subject disciplines. The False Promise of Global Learning demonstrates forcefully that the nature and purpose of education has become confused with social, economic, political, and therapeutic aims, and that control over the curriculum has been taken away from teachers and communities. This is a hard-hitting and persuasive work that will resonate with all educators who have a stake in how - and why - we educate our children.