In this ground-breaking book, Joel Spring examines globalization and its worldwide effects on education. A central thesis is that industrial-consumerism is the dominant paradigm in the integration of education and economic planning in modern economic security states.
In the twenty-first century, national school systems have similar grades and promotion plans, instructional methods, curriculum organization, and linkages between secondary and higher education. Although there are local variations, the most striking feature is the sameness of educational systems. How did this happen? How was education globalized? Spring explains and analyzes this phenomenon and its consequences for human life and the future improvement of social and economic organizations. Central themes include: *the elements of the educational security state and the industrial-consumer paradigm in relationship to classical forms of education such as Confucianism, Islam, and Christianity, and their concerns with creating a just and ethical society;