"(...) Most recent policies and programmes of educational reform have been framed, justified and
promoted on a widely held belief that aligning educational policies and practices with the
economic, political and cultural changes that globalization signifies is necessary. However,
this signification has mostly been couched in neoliberal terms– the view that globalization is
largely an economic phenomenon, in which markets play a fundamental role in reconfiguring
the nature of social relations. So globally ubiquitous has this mode of thinking become that it
can appropriately be referred to as a ‘social imaginary’. The neoliberal imaginary of globalization
has re-cast the purposes and governance of education, viewing it in human capital terms while
supporting individual self-interests in an increasingly competitive society. This paper suggests
that the contemporary era demands new ways of interpreting global interconnectivity and
interdependence beyond globalization’s economic possibilities, but also as underpinned by moral
and intercultural concerns. Hence, the need to work towards global common goods is greater
now than ever before, as a way of ensuring that the world does not continue to slide into everincreasing levels of inequalities, distrust and social conflict. (...)" |