The Global Educational Reform Movement and Its Impact on Schooling

Abstract

In many parts of the world, public schooling is challenged by alternative arrangements thought to improve educational performance. Competition, choice, prescribed curricula, standardized testing, and privatization have become common tactics to fix the shortcomings of ineffective education systems. This chapter suggests that one product of globalization in education is a belief system that guides education policy-making throughout the world called the Global Educational Reform Movement. This chapter explores the origin of this movement and then describes its most common features and how this global movement impacts teaching and learning in schools. This chapter suggests that the impacts of this movement on overall quality of education systems have been negative and argues that international student assessments prove that, instead, alternative education policies succeed in improving quality and equity of education systems. These include enhancing equity in schooling, building teacher professionalism, encouraging collaborative practices, promoting trust-based responsibility, and strengthening public education systems.