https://courseoutline.auckland.ac.nz/dco/course/EDUC/212/1253

EDUC 212 : Global Education Policy for All?

Education and Social Work

2025 Semester One (1253) (15 POINTS)

Course Prescription

Interrogates how and why education is positioned in contemporary times as a key vehicle for promoting sustainable development and as a fundamental human right. Specific attention is given to the politics and power dynamics behind global educational policies and frameworks, and the impacts these have on learners, educators, communities and societies throughout Oceania and beyond.

Course Overview

The past sixty years have seen education become enshrined as a right, and a key vehicle for promoting sustainable development for all citizens globally. In doing so, it has become positioned as central to the economic and social well-being of individuals, communities, and nations, as well as to supporting engaged, responsible, and cohesive citizens at the national and global level. These arguments have been promoted by a range of international actors and organisations. While guaranteeing education as a right is often unquestioned, this course seeks to critically explore the agendas, interests, and key actors which have been behind the push to universalise educational provision. In doing so, the course interrogates who has benefited, and who has been left out, from this positioning of education as the key driver of sustainable development, particularly as economies and societies are more globalised and interconnected in nature on one hand, but more unequal on the other.

As part of the course, we explore:

  • The impacts of globalisation on education, and the rise of the global development agenda for education alongside some of the key rationales for why education is important to the ‘development’ of societies around the world today. 
  • The politics of, and policies framing the global governance of educational policymaking and practice today.  As part of this we assess  the mandates and roles of some of the key international and regional organisations who are shaping the global agenda for education (alongside a critical exploration of their interests) and examine in depth the way education is connected to the project of sustainable development within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) themselves. 
  • How this constellation of global actors and policies is working to (re)shape different sub-sectors (early childhood, primary/secondary schooling, tertiary education) and areas of educational practice in Aotearoa New Zealand and our wider region.
Weaving together theory, practices and policies, the intention is for students gain a better understanding of by whom, how, and with what effect global actors and their interests are (re)shaping the nature, form and function of education in societies around the world.  

Course Requirements

No pre-requisites or restrictions

Capabilities Developed in this Course

Capability 1: People and Place
Capability 2: Sustainability
Capability 3: Knowledge and Practice
Capability 4: Critical Thinking
Capability 5: Solution Seeking
Capability 6: Communication
Capability 7: Collaboration
Graduate Profile: Bachelor of Arts

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate an understanding of and be able to critically evaluate justificatory narratives for education in relation to sustainable development. (Capability 2 and 7)
  2. Critically appraise, critique, compare and contrast various national educational policies and practices based on an understanding of the forces influencing them at a global, regional and local level. (Capability 1, 3 and 4)
  3. Summarise and critically assess the role, mandates and functions of global actors influencing educational policy making and the agendas they are currently promoting in regards to educational practices and decision-making (Capability 4, 5, 6 and 7)

Assessments

Assessment Type Percentage Classification
Student generated reading quizzes (using Peerwise) 25% Individual Coursework
Analysis of national education policies 35% Individual Coursework
Final exam 40% Individual Examination
3 types 100%
Assessment Type Learning Outcome Addressed
1 2 3
Student generated reading quizzes (using Peerwise)
Analysis of national education policies
Final exam

To pass this course, students must submit all assessments and achieve at least 50% for the overall course.

Next Offered

Semester One, 2026

Teaching & Learning Methods

Lectures are designed to not only disseminate ideas and introduce key concepts, but also engender discussion and conversation with peers.  You will be expected to engage in small group conversations and to share ideas with the class as part of being in lecture.  

Tutorials are designed and structured to extend ideas in the lecture, but are primarily focussed on supporting you with successfully completing course assessments.

Module

The course will cover the following topics:
  • Interrogating the 'development' project and education's role within this
  • Conceptualising the 'global' within education policy and practice today
  • The role of mass schooling in modernising society
  • The rise of the global development agenda for education through the MDGs and SDGs
  • Key actors shaping the global education agenda today
  • The TRUMP curriculum: transnational influences on curriculum policy today
  • From global to local: the emergence of a place based curriculum
  • Making teachers: Teach First and its global diffusion
  • Governing from a distance: teachers work and global scrutiny
  • The privatisation of education
  • Education in times of crisis and conflict
  • Academic freedom and higher education under threat in the global era

Exam Mode

Attendance may be required on campus for the exam. Further information will be provided on Canvas when examination details have been confirmed. 

Workload Expectations

This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.

For this course, you can expect to spend 2 hours in an in-person lecture each week, an additional 1.5 hrs in an in-person workshop (tutorial) on a separate day, and approximately 6-7 hours per week working independently and outside of class on completing assigned readings, coursework assignments and exam preparation.  

Delivery Mode

Campus Experience

Attendance is expected in all scheduled activities including the lecture and workshops and is strongly correlated with student success in the course.

Lectures will be available as recordings. All other learning activities including workshops will not be available as recordings.

The course will not include live online events.

The final exam will occur online via Inspera, but will be timetabled by the examinations office during the examination period of Semester 1. Students will be notified of the time/date of the exam on SSO and through their student email address.  

The activities for the course are scheduled on a standard weekly timetable.

Learning Resources

Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Each week will require you to complete a required reading, which will be available online through the reading list.  Workshops may require you from time to time to watch a short video or film clip ahead of the session.  These will again be included in Canvas for easy access. 

Student Feedback

At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.

Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.

Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.

The course has now run for three years.   Each year, we take student feedback on board and identify how we can improve the course.  Based on feedback from students in 2024, there a few changes we will be making to the class:
  1. Ensure that students are using Peerwise to support each others' learning and engagement with the reading, rather than to compete against each other.  We will do this by changing how Peerwise engagement is assessed, and also reduce the overall weighting of this assignment towards your overall mark.
  2. Provide you with full lecture slides after each lecture.  To incentivise students to attend lectures regularly, we did not provide full lecture slides on Canvas, but rather an outline version.  Many students found this challenging and requested that after the lecture, we endeavour to provide the full slides.
  3. Ensure that we provide you more opportunities to engage with peers you might not know prior.   While we do tend to have a lot of discussions during our lectures and workshops, we have generally allowed students to choose who they speak with.  We will still offer that choice but also intersperse this with times where we place you into pairs or groups to mix things up.  

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

Students can use generative artificial intelligence text and art generation software, such as ChatGPT and DALL.E 2, on their assessments in this course, but only with prior permission from the instructor. Without permission, you are expected to complete assessments without substantial assistance, including from automated tools (this includes translation software). 

If you are given permission to use such tools, you must acknowledge this. Please include a paragraph at the end of any assessment that uses AI explaining what you used the tool for and what prompts you used to get the results.

 Referencing: For guidance on how to reference AI generated content in your writing, visit Quick©ite.

Please be aware of the limitations of ChatGPT, including the following:

  1. In order to achieve high-quality results, you must provide suitable prompts. Keep refining your prompts until you get quality outputs.
  2. Do not rely on any information given by the tool. Unless you can confirm the answer with another source, assume that any facts or figures provided by the tool are incorrect. It is your responsibility to ensure that the tool does not make any errors or omissions, and it works best for topics that you are familiar with.

Class Representatives

Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.

Class representatives will be sought in the first two weeks of the course.

Inclusive Learning

All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.

Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz

The teaching team is committed to supporting an inclusive and supportive environment for all students, and have sought to accomodate a range of learning needs and styles in the past.   Please be in touch with the course director early in the term to discuss any specific accomodations or requests you have.   

Special Circumstances

If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.

If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.

This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.

Learning Continuity

In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.

Student Charter and Responsibilities

The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.

Disclaimer

Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.

In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Published on 21/11/2024 06:01 p.m.