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
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Date
2014
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Massey University
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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.
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Keywords
Koreans, Foreign students, Education, New Zealand, Korea, Education and globalisation, Research Subject Categories::SOCIAL SCIENCES::Social sciences::Education::International education