Education, culture and the world
Recent years have seen a globalisation of education policy. Yet, exactly how such circumstances affect culture and educational outcomes is not fully known. The EU-funded CETH (Comparative education theory) project aimed to find out. The study was intended to illustrate educational systems as social institutions, while producing a new theoretical and methodological basis for comparison. The team first defined culture and examined educational systems in terms of culture. The work also examined the ancient Greek origins of previous such comparative efforts and of organised education itself. A review of European subject literature illustrated trends of educational comparisons against other cultures. This phase helped to identify the conceptual foundations of the European world and its educational institutions. Researchers argued for a re-emergence of ancient Greek representations, in combination with conflicting new concepts. Researchers documented the relationship between the concept of globalisation and new transnational educational policies. It seems that globalisation has created a new social structure, sustained by a global communications network. The study identified the core significations embedded in the present situation. Lastly, work addressed the comparability of education systems, in addition to the purpose of comparison. Results indicate that an appropriate contemporary approach would reveal the European origins of education as an institution and the current internationalisation of education policy. Furthermore, a suitable approach would address the cultural environment in which an educational system was established. Based on the different natures of the societies in question, the project recommended a new approach involving syncrisis rather than traditional comparisons. The concept refers to a figure of speech comparing opposites or contradictory notions in one sentence. The proposed approach would focus on the societies' signitive aspects rather than functional dimensions. CETH developed a new framework for considering the comparability of educational systems in an internationalised context. The outcome revives and invigorates methodological debates about the subject.
Keywords
Education, culture, educational systems, Ancient Greece, European Modernity, globalisation, comparative theory
