Knowledge, Differences and Identity in the Time of Globalization: Institutional Discourse and Practices

The discourse of globalization that pertains to higher education reform is troubling. The first troubling thing about much of the discourse that concerns globalization is that it most often does not name a human subject. We propose that globalization discourse should be written for and directed towards human beings or students. The second troubling thing about the discourse of globalization is the way that it antagonizes and marginalizes who that missing subject might be. The two relationships form the themes of this book.The nature and logic of discourse about globalization expresses a social rationality that serves as a precondition to constructing relevant meanings. The way that we conceive or obscure the subject produces a condition or position where those whom are the subject of the discourse must indeed await its effects—who is the pertinent policy about? Or, for whom is policy intended? Much policy discourse holds consequences for the way in which outcomes of policies are understood or explained in the social milieu where policies are enacted. The same discourse constructs and deconstructs identities and, as we will see, the language of reform in fact antagonizes and marginalizes students by virtue of a particular vagueness in the discourse and symbols of the discourse. What is at issue in the discourse of globalization is the character and logic of collective identities. How then to relate students to the cluster of features that comprise globalization?

About the Author :
Jim Kusch is Professor of Education at Eastern Mediterranean University in Northern Cyprus. Previously he was Visiting Professor at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, and Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin in the US. He has led projects in Latvia and Venezuela. In 2010, he gave papers at Ohalo University in Israel and two papers in Cairo, Egypt.

Review :
"Knowledge, Differences and Identity in the Time of Globalization: Institutional Discourse and Practices, edited by Jim Kusch, offers students of globalization an understanding of the meaning of the term for educational policy studies focusing on a series of themes that explore relations between knowledge, power culture, communication and history. It constitutes a wide ranging dialogue by seasoned scholars like Tom Popkewitz and Carl Grant based on a conference held in May 2009 at the Eastern Mediterranean University. The result is an impressive volume that records the ruminations by twelve international scholars on the nature of globalization and its complex and changing contours as an emerging discourse. This set of reflections on the changing nature of the globalized student provide fresh insights into questions of subjectivity and identity. It is an invaluable guide to the globalization debates in education and to its policy consequences."—Michael A. Peters, University of Illinois, USA"The interlocking of the four components—power, culture, communication and history—elucidate the epistemological impact of the subject of Kusch's book. The categorical distinction of education and information is a logical consequence of asking for a global educational feature. How much information does a society in the 21st century endure? The eastern and the western societies whose common trademark consists of the contradiction of the impediment and the promotion of migration of people at the same time."—Dr Thomas Dittelbach, University of Bern, Switzerland"Curiously, globalization is a powerful discourse that is everywhere heard and yet filled with completely different local meaning. Drawing on critical theories and feminist studies, the authors discuss how decision-makers use 'globalization' as the absent Other or, in the case of PISA and international league tables, as the international statistical mean to advance their own local policy agendas. This is a book with sharp analyses and thought-provoking ideas – highly recommended."—Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor of Comparative and International Education, Columbia University, New York, USA