This 25th anniversary of "Rethinking Schools" can be thought of as its silver anniversary. Silver itself must be considered through contrasting lenses. On the one hand, as lessons in "Rethinking Globalization" teach, silver and gold were the basis of Europe's horrendous exploitation of Latin America. On the other hand, silver is often associated…

The objective of this study was to explore inductively the complex ways in which everyday discourse reflects larger--and often competing--cultural worldviews. A phenomenological framework was used to analyze transcripts generated through 13 focus group discussions involving 100 individuals. This particular analysis highlights how individuals who…

This paper examines the impact of the International Standard School (ISS) on the identity of Indonesia as a postcolonial nation. According to the Indonesian Ministry of National Education, an ISS is "a school which complies with the National Standard of Education and enriches its standards from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and…

Since the start of the global financial crisis a little over two years ago, many concerns have been raised on how it might affect funding to higher education and whether or not it might hasten moves toward greater cost sharing. While, globally, some steps have been taken in this direction, in most countries, hard decisions have yet to be taken on…

Organized research units--also known as centers, institutes, and laboratories--are increasingly prominent in the university. This paper examines how ORUs emerge to promote global agendas and international collaborations in an academic health center in North America. The roles these units play in helping researchers work across institutional and…

Children throughout the world are exposed to traumatic events such as sexual or physical abuse, severe accidents, cancer or other life threatening illness, natural or man-made disasters, war, terrorism, the sudden death of a parent or close friend or relative, among other things. Recently, natural disasters have caused property damage and loss of…

The scholarship nexus between education and globalization provides limited insights into how global education has been framed and rendered. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it seeks a better understanding of the nature of the mission of preparing citizens for the global age and what it entails in the context of learning and teaching…

This paper begins by examining how debates about literature's usefulness or, more specifically, its uselessness, have been framed in terms of the binary between utilitarianism and pragmatism on the one hand, and between humanism and idealism on the other. Instead of conceiving the literature curriculum in terms of a position one privileges in a…

This paper attempts to develop a conceptualisation of social justice in higher education based on a close reading of the current literature in the field. An important assumption we make is that higher education is a valuable mechanism for social justice. We set the literature against policy documents that detail South African aspirations with…

Over the past decade, many universities have re-evaluated their roles and approaches towards learning in the context of a globalised society. Some institutions have responded to globalisation by marketing themselves more effectively internationally. Others have responded by promoting ideas such as "graduates as global citizens" or by…

Over the course of education's history, there have been four key shifts in the way in which education has been seen and organised. These are identified as Thinking and Acting Individually, Thinking and Acting Locally, Thinking Nationally and Acting Locally, and Thinking Internationally and Acting Locally. Each shift has seen a new set of…

This essay builds on the concept of students as partners in change proposed in "The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change" by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley ("2009") and points out why the current movement toward curriculum standardization and homogenization is counterproductive in preparing students to become competent…

This paper is written in response to a paper by Maria Rivera on issues of language and identity. I give an autobiographical account of my own experiences in relation to language identity and colonialism. I relate language and issues of alienation during the colonial time and I reflect on how that past is still currently distorting the way we look…

From previous research on second language acquisition and early language learning, educators know that young children have a cognitive advantage to learning a foreign language over other age groups (e.g., Garcia-Sierra et al.; Hyltenstam and Abrahamsson; Singleton and Ryan; Werker et al.). More recently, an increase in functional benefits for…

This article presents the results of a case study at a Canadian university that used a combination of surveys and focus groups to explore faculty members' and students' perceptions of plagiarism. The research suggests that the globalization of education and remix culture have contributed to competing and contradictory understandings of plagiarism…