Globalisation and professional development at schools

JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 88-95 GLOBALISATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT SCHOOLS Nguyen Thu Trang Hanoi Nationnal University of Education E-mail: trangioe@yahoo.com Abstract. This paper discusses the profound influences of globalisation on professional development at educational organisations and suggests recom- mendations to promote the advantages of globalisation’s impacts in school. The paper focuses on professional development as the key for educational organisations to adapt to the environment in which they are operated. The paper then takes into consideration the impacts of the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science – as the consequences of globalisation – on education and professional development. To conclude, the paper proposes resolutions to improve the status of professional development at school. Keyworld: globalisation, professional, development, school. 1. Introduction For the last decades, globalisation, initiated from the economic sector, has in- creasingly spread out all over the world and has led to significant changes in every aspect of the society. This paper discusses the profound influences of globalisation on professional development at schools. The paper begins with the need for educa- tional organizations to change to adapt to the changing world surrounding them and explains why professional development is at the core of the process of changing. The second section explores the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science as the consequences of globalisation with their impacts on education and professional development. Finally, the paper suggests recommendations for educa- tional stakeholders so as to promote the advantages of globalisation’s influences on professional development at school. 88 Globalisation and professional development at schools 2. Content 2.1. The role of professional development for the adaptive edu- cational organizations in the changing world Dean Inge once said that ‘He who marries the spirit of the age will soon find himself a widower’. By this he implies the changing nature of the society since it was born. Educational organizations can be defined as groups of people working and studying together within a society; thus being inevitably influenced by specific social changes within a particular historical period. Hence, Hargreaves and Fullan (1998) alert that it is vital that schools do not try to ignore these outside forces. The question here is how schools adapt to the changing environment surround them. Gregory (2001) believes that the adaptive capacity of educational institutions to the outside forces can find its root in changing staff’s beliefs and actions. This leads to the next question: How can people’s belief and actions be changed in order to enables schools to face the challenges of the changing world? Many authors suggest that the best solution for an educational institution to remain dynamic and adaptable is building it to become a learning organization which skills at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights. Bennett and O’Brien (2004) argue that in a learning organization, changes and improvement benefit both individuals and the organization as a whole. In the pursuit of building learning organizations, teachers’ professional development is regarded as one of the most effective activities promoted by schools’ leaders and policy-makers to improve the quality of teaching, and, therefore, learning. This power of teachers’ professional development is well proved in a large amount of research conducted over the past decades [10]. These reports demonstrate the positive relationship between rich professional development activities and the high performances of teaching and learning in a vast number of subjects like science, mathematics and literacy. Meanwhile, Hargreaves and Fullan (1998) emphasise the collaborative aspect of professional development activities and explain its benefit to students’ learning as well as teachers’ and schools’ capacity to change: How teachers work with other... affects how well they work with their pupils. Pursuing continuous improvement together makes more sense than complying with changes from outside, rejecting change altogether. Moreover, culture of collabora- tion strengthen teachers’ sense of common purpose and enable them to interact assertively with external pressures for changes – adopting changes that they value, selectively incorporating aspects of them that fit their own purposes, and rejecting ones that are seen as educationally unsound or irrelevant [6;4-5]. 89 Nguyen Thu Trang To summarize, there are two assumptions underlying this section. Firstly, edu- cational institutions are elements of the society system; therefore, they are challenged by the outside forces caused by rapid social changes. Secondly, as an education in- stitution is a living system, responses to those outside forces should initiate from its staff. This can be well done through professional development activities since they could make differences in human beliefs and behaviours. The following section discusses some sources of influences on education and professional development within the particular context of globalisation. 2.2. Influences on education and professional development in the context of globalisation Olssen, Codd and O’Neill (2004) define globalisation as the ‘new’ ways in which the individual nation-state is influenced by the international world order. The process of globalisation emerged initially in economic sector from the early 1970s, then spread out and has profound influences on every aspect of society. This section starts with the influences of the global knowledge-based economy and global advanced technology and science on education and professional development. It then goes further to explore educational management and professional development in the context of globalisation. In the global economy, education has gained a unique position with the growing importance of the knowledge-based economy, where intellectuals replace natural resources and money as the major source of capital. The notion of the knowledge- based economy has two aspects. From the first aspect, education is to produce ‘highly skilled workforce’ [3;200]. From the second aspect, education ‘itself becomes a marketable service’ and teachers become productive employers of ‘a billion dollar export industry’ [3;199]. In effect, ‘improved education was one of the major factors contributing to economic growth’ [9;147]. The emergence of this knowledge-based economy, on one hand, heightens the role of schools and teachers in the society, which in turn highlights the importance of teachers’ professional development activities as a key for improving the quality of teaching and learning. On the other hand, the market-driven education system, which is resulted from the knowledge-based economy, causes the feelings of ‘anxious, fearful, cynical, opportunistic and bureaucratic’ [6;vii] or ‘pressures to compete’ to attract clients (students and their caregivers, for example) and ‘insular school- based activities’ [6;18] among educators. These feelings might erode the culture in which professional development is well cultivated – the culture that should have ‘encouraged collegiality, reflection, risk taking, and collaborative problem solving’ [4;18]. 90 Globalisation and professional development at schools The advancement in technology and science also has influenced professional development in two ways. Firstly, teachers call for in-service training to enable them to keep pace with the increasing demands of the changing world as knowledge and skills are getting more complex while it is impossible for any teacher training courses within the four or five-year period to provide them enough for their thirty- year-career. In effect, educators all over the world have recently promoted ‘learning through life’ as a key to the 21st century ‘for adapting to the evolving requirements of the labour market and for better mastery of the changing time-frames and rhythms of individual existence’ [12;100]. Secondly, as the world becomes a ‘global village’ thank to advanced technology in communication, people need to learn to work and study together, either within an institution or at national and international levels. Teaching in schools, therefore, ‘requires not only skilful individual effort but a sense of interdependence with others to accomplish goals that none could achieve alone’ [10;34]. Consequently, networks are established to connect educational stakeholders locally and globally (Team-Up, which helps New Zealand parents, caregivers and families/whanau get involved in and support their child’s education, is an instance). Also, the spread of advanced telecommunication enriches schools with various forms of professional development like distant-learning, online database or online forum (LeadSpace, where New Zealand educators exchange resources and ideas about lead- ership, is an example). It is clear from the discussion above that the contemporary context of the global knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science has caused profound changes in the nature and purpose of education; thus calling and facilitat- ing professional development activities in response to the demand of outside forces. However, whether this urgent growth of professional development is entirely beneficial to teachers? Hargreaves and Fullan (1998) worry about the increasing pressures placed on teachers as they are required to become productive employers in educational industry and have to face with the dizziness of a time of rapid change and increasing professional expectations in the contemporary society of diverse, com- plexity and uncertainty. More importantly, schools and teachers are at risk of being used as the pawns serving for political and economic interest of certain groups in the society. Theses authors claim: Many teachers are already overwhelmed by pressures for change within their own schools and classrooms... Aren’t we in danger of making schools into dumping grounds for social and economic problems that are really other people’s responsibil- ity... It is also true that teachers have become increasingly and unreasonably buffeted by the single-issue demands of various interest groups, and by the capricious policy whims of successive government [6;5-6]. 91 Nguyen Thu Trang To discuss the politics of the influences of globalisation on professional devel- opment, it might also be important to examine the ideology of neo-liberalism that underpin the new trends of educational management in the globalisation era. In the view of neo-liberalism, ‘the centrality of the market is one of the central’ and ‘the role of the state is now seen as that of the “mediator” and “instigator” of the successful operation of the market’ [9;138]. While its aim is ‘to present a positive conception of the state’s role in creating the appropriate market by providing the conditions, laws and institutions necessary for its operation’ [9;136], neo-liberalism is blamed to de-professionalize teachers in terms of reducing teachers’ autonomy and eroding the culture of trust, which are essential for the improvement of professional development. This argument is based on the notion of trust as ‘an attitude or dis- position from which people will act towards each other in particular ways’ [9;192], which is believed to improve productivity and civic engagement. Neo-liberalism is underpinned accountability, which is a form of management resulted from the market-driven educational systems. Michael (2004) claims that accountability ‘simply means accounting for the “ability” promised and resources given’ [8;134]. Many authors value accountability as an explicit and visible and more effective and more efficient approach of management. With regard to professional development, accountability is a vital tool to assure the quality of education pro- vided by schools and teachers, since these educators are responsible for the efficiency of the resources invested by stakeholders. This in turn promotes professional devel- opment activities as one of the most effective ways to improve teaching and learning performance. Moreover, accountability is important to educators themselves, for ac- countability results in school-based management that offers them with more freedom in the pursuit of professional development [8]. Every coin has two sides, however. Strong accountability is associated with manageralism, which much concerns with the notion of ‘quality’. The point is that in the view of managerialism, ‘the quality of education is reduced to key performance indicators, each of which can be measured and recorded’ [3;201]. Hence, Codd (2005) claims managerialism erodes the culture of professionalism by restricting personal initiatives, self-reflection and professional autonomy. Instead, it produces a culture of distrust among professionals and the public, which diminishes the professionalism of teachers. In summary, there are three assumptions underlying the second section of this paper. Firstly, education is a component which is affected by the other areas of the society system like politics or economics; at the same time, education is a system in which its components such as educational organizations and professional devel- opment activities are mutual connected. Therefore, professional development is at the melting-pot of influences both from outside like political-economic forces and from inside such as forms of organizational management. Secondly, professional de- 92 Globalisation and professional development at schools velopment can only be cultivated in a supportive environment, which encourages the creativity and efforts of each individual as well as the collaboration among staff in a school and among schools locally and internationally. Thirdly, globalisation with the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science has brought about a new status for education, new forms of educational management and new opportu- nities for teachers’ professional developments; yet there might be more disadvantages rather than advantages. Nevertheless, while many critics blame political-economic pressures as a cause of problems in education in general and professional development in particular, oth- ers acknowledge that the influences are here to stay and that educational stakehold- ers should find ways to adapt to this new context rather than ignoring, escaping from or fighting against them. The problem is not with globalisation, but with how it has been managed. The next part will suggest recommendations for educational stakeholders to promote professional development within the context of globalisa- tion. 2.3. Recommendations for educational stakeholders to promote professional development in the context of globalisation To begin with, professional development is a continuous process as outside and inside forces are changing all the time; therefore, it demands a long term investment from government, not only one-shot workshops or short courses. Government and policy-makers should consider the balance between political-economic purposes and the sustain growth of education and professional development so that these activities are not merely means for politics and economy but also the end of social efforts. Moreover, government needs to ‘ensure that assessment and accountability measures are not used gratuitously or exploitatively to shame state education and create government pretexts to reorganizing it’ [6;132]. Instead, more attention should be paid on how these data can be used for improving the quality of teaching and learning. Headteachers as the leading force at school also have vital role in promoting professional development. Since educational organizations are human communities, it is suggested that headteacher should build collaborative relationship within staff of the school and among schools locally and nationally [6]. While the leadership of headteachers is important, Senge (1999) claims that ‘Little significant change can occur if it is driven only from the top’ [11;171]. He therefore argues that the notion of a hero-leader should be given up and the conception of leader must be broaden as leadership community, where each person is considered a leader and everyone needs to respond to the adaptive challenge. This also means to empower teachers 93 Nguyen Thu Trang with more freedom and authority to be creative in their teaching practice and more responsibility to be inspired in their own professional learning process. Teachers themselves should join professional networks and should try to in- volve all other teachers and stakeholders into their teaching practice since peers’ observation and conversation, parent partnerships’ and especially students’ feed- back help teachers reflect what they are doing well and what they need to improve. This self-reflection is of paramount importance in their process of professional de- velopment. 3. Conclusion In conclusion, as components of social system, education and educational or- ganizations are challenging by the outside forces that come from others areas of the society such as politics or economics. Professional development, of which the ultimate aim is to improve the quality of teaching and learning, is regarded as one of the most effective approaches for educational organizations to adapt to changing environment. Nowadays, the trend of globalisation has had profound influences on schools and professional development. These influences are both positive and neg- ative. Nevertheless, schools cannot ignore, escape from or fight against the forces surrounds them. Instead, they need to find resolutions to live in harmony with the world outside schools’ walls. The improvement of professional development in the context of globalisation calls for the collaboration of all educational stakeholders. Among them, while teachers are at the core of professional development, headteach- ers has a crucial role to play as they are ‘the gatekeepers and gate-openers of their schools’ [6;113], which support teachers and connect with stakeholders in the pursuit of enhancing professions at schools. Above all, it is worth to acknowledge that globalisation is not ‘a homogeneous or universalizing process. Its various dimensions – economic, political and cultural – will have different manifestations in different national contexts’ [9;11]. Hence, the influences and recommendations discussed in this paper should be considered according to particular conditions, both historically and geographically. REFERENCES [1] Bennett, J. K., & O’Brien, M. J., 1994. The building blocks of the learning orga- nization. Training, 31(6), 41–49. [2] Brien, A., 1998. Professional ethics and the culture of trust. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(4), 391-409. [3] Codd, J., 2005. 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