MANAGING EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE GLOBALIZED WORLD: A DEWEYAN PERSPECTIVE

In the globalization scenarios we currently face, educational systems are challenged by different and sometimes competing pressures and requests. These call for a deep transformation of the organization, role, and social function of educational systems. Within this context, the very concept of education has come to be understood in different ways, which sometimes distort its moral and social value. In this essay, Maura Striano contends that from a Deweyan perspective, educational transformation must be seen as strictly connected to social change, and education should be understood as a process that facilitates and supports social growth and development. In order to be effective and fruitful, Striano suggests, this transformation must occur from the inside of educational systems and can only be brought about by reflective and inquiry-based inner processes if it is to have a sound moral and social impact within the changing framework of the globalized world. That education shares in the confusion of transition, and in the demand for reorganization, is a source of encouragement and not of despair. It proves how integrally the school is bound up with the entire movement of modern life. - John Dewey, The Educational Situation