Globalization, structural adjustment and educational reform

Schools, universities and other educational institutions now encounter far more challenges than ever before, and are subjected to unprecedented levels of external scrutiny. All providers of education today inhabit a more competitive world where resources are becoming scarcer, but at the same time they have to accommodate to increasing demands from local communities, as well as changing, and often rising, expectations from parents and employers. Within such a policy context, schools and universities nowadays are increasingly governed by market ideologies, and significantly shaped by the corporate discourse of efficiency and effectiveness. The change in governance ideology in the education sector has undoubtedly altered the ways educational institutions are managed, as also the day-to-day work of teachers and academics. This chapter examines how the ideas of globalization, and structural adjustment, economic rationalism and managerialism have dominated the discourse of education, with particular reference to the processes of corporatization and marketization of education in different parts of the globe.