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Teacher Education

Notes Unfortunately, these suggestions concern only the adaptation of international educational systems
structured in relation to given economic goals for particular environments. They do not deal
with who is to determine the goals education should aim at and/or the economic goals themselves.
They ignore a fundamental aspect - power.
Alignment of education and economy has not been the only cause of such decline in the appeal
of teaching as a profession. Other factors one can refer to are the interests teachers hold; the
teachers' acceptance and compliance with such models; the hierarchical and bureaucratic structures
of schools; the failure of governments to promote rich professional development models and the
application of scientific methods, computers and business efficiency models to education, which
is creating a conflict in teacher education since it is at odds with the increasingly complex and
diverse roles of teachers.
17.3.7 Reformist approaches to globalisation
Having referred to the shortcomings of global economy/educational models that accept these
uncritically, the question arises as to whether one should abandon any effort to adapt education
to the current global situation. Some theorists (Commeyras and Mazile, 2001; Saito, 2003) would
answer in the negative and claim that education can/ought to be adapted to the current global
situation, though not naively. An approach to education need not merely accept the developing
global economic situation and adapt itself uncritically to it. The nature of the global economic
set-up and of education itself suggests the feasibility of such a possibility.
As for teachers, these, like all other stakeholders in education, need not accept passively the
current economic-social-political status quo. Indeed, teacher education programmes could be set
which, rather than adopt a neutralist approach towards globalisation, enable teachers to examine
the phenomenon critically and help them devise critical-political pedagogies in light of values
other than those of the economy.
17.3.8 The dialogical approach
According to this approach Globalisation is a phenomenon which contains a number of
shortcomings, yet opportunities exist that may enable educators to circumvent such limitations.
Detractors accuse the current global set-up of being biased in favour of politically and economically
hegemonic groups and nations.
In to do away with such shortcomings one need not abandon the ideal of global education and
supra-national educational models. The key concepts which ought to characterise such models
are 'dialogue' and 'global-understanding'.
17.3.9 Limitations to the dialogical approach

In terms of logistics, if common ground between different parties is found, there is no guarantee
that this will be consistent and consonant, due to the difficulty of coming to a mutual understanding
with those who are different or who have different interests
First of all different conceptions of knowledge and pedagogies may be contradictory and mutually
inconsistent. For instance, regarding the teaching profession, there are the different and competing
conceptions of teachers' rights and responsibilities (as well as the different ways of understanding
success or effectiveness in teaching).
A proponent of this approach may recognise these shortcomings, yet claim that these may be
curtailed or circumvented through the dialogue it suggests. The recognition of such shortcomings
would constitute a challenge rather than a stumbling block.

17.3.10 The progressive approach
• The first may be termed 'critical adaptation to the new situation'. This entails the pedagogical
transformations which must be as revolutionary as the technological transformations taking
place. However, this does not necessitate the mere adaptation of pedagogies so as to enable
individual students to deploy multiple technologies in light of the individualistic aims the
capitalist economy might promote. Rather, they have human well-being in general and

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