Global Change and Educational Reform in Ontario and Canada

Canadian education has been responding to global change for many decades. Over the last 30 years, two global paradigms have dominated debates about education in Ontario and in Canada. The first paradigm, global economic competitiveness, maintains that knowl- edge has become the competitive advantage of industrial nations in the global economy and that utilitarian principles should guide our educational reforms. The second paradigm, global interdependence, holds that we should acknowledge our interdependent global needs and responsibilities and that this should guide our educational reforms. I argue that to prepare students for the global challenges of the new century, excellence in education should be defined as meeting the requirements of both paradigms and as including the study of all major global change — economic and technological — as well as the study of world cultures, politics, ecology, and humanitarian issues. Depuis les 30 dernieres annees, deux paradigmes dominent les debats sur l’education en Ontario et dans l’ensemble du Canada. Le premier paradigme, la mondialisation de la competitivite economique, maintient que la connaissance est devenue l’avantage concur- rentiel des pays industrialises dans l’economie mondiale et que des principes utilitaires devraient guider les reformes en education. Le second paradigme, l’interdependance a l’echelle mondiale, soutient que nous devrions reconnaitre l’interdependance de nos besoins et de nos responsabilites a l’echelle mondiale et que c’est ce principe qui devrait guider les reformes en education. L’auteur avance pour sa part que pour preparer les eleves aux defis mondiaux du nouveau siecle, l’excellence en education devrait etre definie en fonction des exigences des deux paradigmes, ce qui suppose l’etude des changements economiques et technologiques a l’echelle mondiale ainsi que l’etude des diverses cultures, de la politique, de l’ecologie et des questions humanitaires.