Globalisation and Education Futures: Globalisation and Its Effects on Educational Leadership, Higher Education and Educational Policy

The book chapter argues that social life has become more complex of late, and that particular trend shows no signs of subsiding. Schools, education, and educational policy function in an interdependent relation with these larger social trends—both influencing, and being influenced by them, in turn. We might remain pessimistic and cynical when, as social observers, it seems to us that a business/commercial/utilitarian ideology has gained pre-eminence globally. But such matters are never settled, once and for all. We take heart in the numerous alternatives emerging to strictly technicist/commercial educational missions, goals, and methods of organisation. These alternatives are always in play. We need only gravitate to them, seek them out, and nurture them to help foster more humane social institutions, including education.