Shifting Terrains: Mapping Education within a Global Landscape

In this article, the authors draw on critical social theory and educational theory and research to review and deconstruct educational discourses that have become common in this era of mass globalization. Key issues embedded within these discourses include addressing the educational needs of children from marginalized social and cultural groups, preparing students for the information-based jobs of the future, restructuring schools to fit with the reterritorialization of urban and suburban spaces, and gauging the effects of mass media on stereotypical notions of youths, schools, and schooling. The authors deploy Arjun Appadurai's model of ever shifting and interrelated global flows to bring into relief how various aspects of globalization both enable and constrain different kinds of social, spatial, and economic mobility for today's youths. They conclude by suggesting new ways to understand the complex and paradoxical effects of globalization on education and schooling.