World-class education: A response to global challenges

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World-class education: A response to global challenges Clementina Acedo

Published online: 21 September 2012  UNESCO IBE 2012

The importance of world-class education is demonstrated in the remarkable amount of attention the concept—and its implications for major education reforms—are currently attracting around the world. In several countries national and local education reforms seek to create educational systems whose graduates can successfully participate in a global society and contribute to an expanding global economy. This importance is also reflected in the wide range of specific educational programs being created, the choices being made, and the new educational challenges that are emerging. This special issue of Prospects critically examines the continued efforts to identify and analyze the possibilities and limitations of attempts to further refine measures of worldclass education. Further, it presents detailed case studies of the interpretations made by several countries and initiatives, such as South Korea, China, the state of Ohio in the United States, and the International Baccalaureate (IB), as they design and implement institutional responses to the evolving global challenges. The authors contributing to this issue, guest-edited by Dr. Don Adams, point to the complexity of various definitions that the concept encompasses. They also single out a predominant definition, which equates a ‘‘world-class’’ educational system with students’ excellent scores on international tests. In some countries, attaining world-class education has become a vigorous national policy. One might view the increasingly important international assessments as entrance examinations to the exclusive club of countries with such educational systems or see them as a set of supranational instruments for standardization. Thus, as Adams points out, important questions remain to be answered: Who is involved in advocating for testing to play a key role in constructing quality education? Whose voices are being heard? Whose are not? Whose discourse is it that results in particular standards, benchmarks, and indicators? Susan Robertson notes that we could view world-class education as an education ‘‘[…] that is open-minded about, and open to, learning that engages with a range of world concerns’’. Instead, it has been viewed instrumentally. The foci become questions related to what world-class education involves, what path will lead to it, and who will benefit. She C. Acedo (&) UNESCO IBE, P.O. Box 199, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected]

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suggests that questions should focus not on the demand but rather on ‘‘who is advancing the claim’’ and who stands to benefit from the claim. The answers to these questions may be useful to both universities and the larger societies they serve. Robertson further notes that the widely published rankings ‘‘take on a life of their own’’, which leads to ‘‘fragments of knowledge which parade as fractals’’. Henry Levin argues persuasively that schools have a broader imp