Tomorrow's schools : today's industry : economic agendas and competitive forces in global education : New Zealand and South Korea : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

Abstract

Over the last four decades, education has been moving away from being not just a national or state responsibility, but also a tradable commodity, with its design, funding, pedagogical content, and resourcing closely linked to trade and industry. This thesis posits that education industries in both New Zealand and South Korea are manifestations of the long-term effects of a global mantra of competition and economic trade agendas and/or policies that the United States of America, the World Bank, and the IMF have strategically developed and implemented since the 1980s. This competitive mantra has been influential in growing the ‘shadow’ education industry in South Korea that flourishes alongside the egalitarian state school-system deemed, to be in ‘crisis’ or ‘collapse’ since 1999. The result is societal pressure for Korean students to spend many hours of intensive after-school study at huge financial and social cost to families. A number of Korean parents have sent their young children abroad for educational sojourns since 1999, with many thousands being enrolled in New Zealand’s state schools as foreign fee-paying students (FFPS) and, thus, becoming part of New Zealand’s ‘billion-dollar’ export education industry. This thesis argues that further ‘shadow’ industry activity, particularly in the guise of public-private partnerships (PPPs), is increasingly being spread into the state-schooling sectors of countries, including New Zealand, that have accepted education policies and ‘good ideas’ from the World Bank and the OECD. Consequently the potential is high for there to be a surge of competition and credentialism that will facilitate further private investment in education and ultimately create similar pressures to those already experienced by Korean students. With New Zealand’s support of the WTO general agreement on trade in services (GATS), its continued participation in global tests, such as the OECD Programme for International Assessment (PISA), and legislation in place for charter schools and public-private partnerships, it appears that a restructuring of education or a global education reform movement is already well underway.