Globalization and the Emergence of Supranational Organizations: Implications for Graduate Programs in Higher Education Administration, Research Paper Example

In their article Kienle and Loyd looked through the question of globalization in the modern world and how the necessity to meet its demands may affect the organization and administration of higher education in the United States of America (2005).

The article states that as the globalization changes the patterns of living and working in the world, in the same way it has an impact on the education. It seems to me that it’s pretty true if to take into a consideration the fact that the main goal of higher education is to teach people how to work and make living in an outside world, and thus education must provide people with lessons on how to work and survive in terms of world globalization. But such a necessity to embrace a global focus places additional pressure on educational system supervisors as they need to construct appropriate curricula, make changes in the methods and pedagogy, and so on. The point that was raised in the article and with which I cannot agree is that education should become absolutely globalized and thus loose its national identities. I agree that for modern system of education such aspects as internationalization of curriculum, migration of students, international cooperation in research and so on are very important and even essential, but still it seems to me that some part of national traditions in education must be preserved. For example, British education has long standing traditions and British colleges and universities are still ranked top in the whole world for the most part because of those traditions.

As a conclusion, I agree that a systematic change in higher education, that will help to meet the demands of globalization, will be as well beneficial for the students as they will learn how to compete in the global marketplace and will obtain a far less limited and ethnocentric view of the world. But still I believe that national traditions and values of education must be saved as they help to preserve national values, history and ethnic originality.

What Happens to Educational Administration When Organization Trumps Ethics

In their article Kumar and Mitchell examined the question of application of ethical and moral codes in a contemporary educational administration (2004). They studied the problem of isolation of the administrative elite from all other participants of an educational process. In their article Mitchell and Kumar made a research of all the organizational construction strategies that are now being applied to educational organizations and they also tried to understand to what extend this administrative conduct is effective, just, and viable (2004).

The authors stated that in recent decades schools have become educational organizations that first of all care for the well-being of the educational organization itself. Thus teachers, students, and junior administrators have no right to interfere in the operations of an organization and they basically have no voice in decision-making about schools’ future development and operation. And it can’t be doubted that such an approach toward education has negative consequences for the whole educational system and the quality of its operation. While it is true that administration of educational organizations requires strong managerial and administrative skills, it is also doubtless that an educational administrator must be familiar with the whole educational process. A person that works in educational administration must care not only for making profit and finding funding for a school, but also about the process and final results of education itself. As Kumar and Mitchell have stated in their article in an educational setting administrative strategies should emerge intrinsically from within the practices, not extrinsically imposed to meet secondary goals such as efficiency, quick fixes, or surface solutions while keeping all other considerations, including moral ones, at bay (2004).

I agree with authors that in the modern setting of world globalization and business orientation, educational organizations start to conduct their operations in a more business like manner, applying all the strategies and practices of business administration. While such an approach may be beneficial from the view point of schools’ management, it seems to me that it is absolutely incorrect from the viewpoint of the main goal of schools – to provide people with an adequate education and to broaden their horizons.

When 21^st – Century Schooling Just Isn’t Good Enough: A Modest Proposal

In this article Alfie Kohn centered his argument upon the necessity to start creating education of the 22^nd century just now, when we still have ahead one century to live (2009). The author stated that the most important aspects of future schooling would be competitiveness, orientation only on skills that the future employer of a student will need, emphasis on technology and mathematics, and complete standardization of educational strategies and methods.

While I agree with the statement that we already need to start thinking about the education of the 22^nd century, I totally disagree with the entire picture of the future education drawn by Alfie Kohn. First of all, I absolutely disagree with the author’s statement that the future schooling would be focused not on what a child will need, but rather on what corporations will need. Kohn states that in the 22^nd century children would need to study only those skills and information that would be required by their future employers and they wouldn’t need to be taught critical thinking skills. To me it sounds like there would be raised robots, but not living beings. Furthermore, I don’t agree that kids would only need to study mathematics and technology subjects. It is true that in the modern and future era of technology development these subjects would be of great usefulness, but still it seems to me that education should as well care about the moral and cultural aspects of people’s development.

So basically, I disagree with the point raised by Alfie Kohn that primary orientation of education administration in the 22^nd century would be based on an idea to reach absolute usefulness and business-orientation of educational system. It seems to me that apart from obtaining useful skills education must provide humans with spiritual and intellectual development.

NYC’s Smaller Schools Movement

This article describes a new educational program that has been adopted and started to be implemented in the New York City. The basic idea of this new program is that new and small schools are being opened throughout the city instead of investing money in the reconstruction of already existing, but old and big schools (Schachter, 2009).

I find this program to be quite an effective one, because the main point that is promoted by its creators is that education in small schools, with a fewer number of pupils, is much more effective and beneficial for both teachers and children. In fact while remaining district schools these new schools offer all the possibilities and high levels of preparation that can be found in charter schools. With the fewer number of pupils in each class teachers are able to show greater attention to each kid and to get a better insight into one’s needs and capabilities. In addition, a greater level of trust and friendliness can be developed among children as they have to interact with a decreased number of classmates. Furthermore, small schools help to generate a sense of community among teachers and pupils and therefore a warmer and healthier educational atmosphere can be achieved. Another great aspect of such a school system is that it offers deeper concentration and orientation on the specific fields, for example computers, technology, aerospace, etc. and new schools also function as city’s college prep schools providing their pupils with an insight into a life and education that awaits them in colleges.

Thus a conclusion may be drawn that a new school system that was developed and is now being launched by the administration of NYC is truly beneficial to all parties, meaning children, teachers, educators, and the city’s community in general.

Progressive Education: Why It’s Hard to Beat, but Also Hard to Find

In his article Alfie Kohn defined progressive education, summarized its main aspects and features, and also compared and contrasted it with traditional or conventional type of education. In this article Kohn also brought forth the subject of why progressive education is better than conventional one and why do children enjoy it more.

The main point that Alfie Kohn raised in this article is that progressive education is not only more appealing to students, but it is also more effective in terms of reaching the main goals of education. The main feature of progressive education that makes it so reliable and beneficial for kids is that it is not just limited to academics and getting some limited skills, it is not just focused on the behavior of pupils, but it cares about the underlying motives and values of those behaviors, it teaches children not to simple meet the expectations of adults, but to think critically with their own brains. And at this point I agree with Kohn that implementation of this type of schooling stimulates children to attend schools and to broaden their horizons. But implementation of progressive education requires a lot of effort from the educational system’s creators. New approaches and methods of pedagogy must be applied and in its turn this requires new vision of teaching from professors, teachers, and education administrators. I agree with Kohn that for using progressive education a series of innovations must be applied. These innovations include democratic classrooms, multiage instructions, looping, cooperative learning, abolition of grades, and so on.

But even though it is widely accepted that progressive education is much more effective than a traditional one, nevertheless schools with progressive type of education are quite difficult to find. The problem may be that such type of education requires much more effort, industriousness, and insight form both educators and students.

Education Administrators

A chapter of the Occupational Outlook Handbook devoted to the job of education administrator gives a solid description of the main requirements and qualifications that are necessary in order to work in this field, this article also describes the nature of the work, work environment, and possible training (Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008).

It seems to me that the job of education administrator is really challenging, but at the same time it’s very important for the community. Basically, education administrator has the same main duties as any other manager. Those are to set standards and goals, and to establish policies and procedures to reach those goals. But the main aspect of this job that distinguishes it from all other jobs in administration is that education administrator has to deal with somewhat two or even three “fronts”. On one side, education administrator has to cooperate with teachers in order to develop curriculum and set standards for its realization, and also it’s a part of administrator’s job to evaluate teacher’s performance and to fire them if necessary. On the other side, education administrator has to interact and deal with students who may not be satisfied with the standards and principles of a school. In addition, very often administrators have to cooperate with parents, social organizations, and other representatives of a community.

So on overall, I agree with the article that the job of education administrator offers excellent opportunities for advancement, professional development and self-development. But at the same time this job requires a lot of effort, insight and psychological stability. Education administrator has to understand the basics of a teaching job, has to be a good manager, and also must have strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Grading: The Issue is Not How, but Why

In this article Alfie Kohn raised a very important issue of the education administration and supervision in particular, and of education in general – that is the question of grading students’ work (1994). In his article author examines different reasons for and against the necessity to use any grading system, he looks through effects and consequences ofdifferent types of evaluation, and what results they have on students’ performance and motivation.

Kohn suggested that there are three basic reasons for the creation and implementation of various grading systems. It is perceived that grading helps to sort and motivate students, and to provide them with necessary feedback.  I agree with Kohn that grades that are distributed by teachers are sometimes very subjective, especially in the subjects that are not connected with precise measures and calculations. For example, a teacher may evaluate a student’s literature paper in terms of personal like or dislike, but if the teacher didn’t like the paper it doesn’t mean that it was bad. The argument that was raised in this article is that any system of grading is very unjust and it may promote complexes and psychological insecurities in students. Personally I think that very often unfair grades distributed by teachers do not help children to learn, but rather leave them with a feeling that they are not understood correctly and it leads to kids’ closure and desire not to share their believes and ideas. It’s like Campbell stated that grading systems turn schools into “bargain-basement personnel screening agencies for business” (1974).  Therefore, systems for students’ assessment can’t be a true source of students’ motivation, very often they even can achieve an opposite result. I think that true motivation is based on whether students like the subject, the professor, the type of work they do in classes, whether they are interested in what they doing and studying.

So I can draw a conclusion that the basic drive for the creation and launch of different grading systems – helping students to internalize and work toward meeting high standards – is beneficial in its origin. But the methods by which grades are distributed and how they are perceived – as rewards and punishments – is absolutely false and not motivating.

References

Kienle, A. W., & Loyd, N. L. (2005). Globalization and the Emergence of Supranational organizations: implications for graduate programs in higher education administration. College Student Journal. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from Article Archive database. http://www.articlearchives.com/education-training/education-systems-institutions/1261529-1.html

Kumar, R., & Mitchell, C. (2004). What Happens to Educational Administration When Organization Trumps Ethics. McGill Journal of Education 39(2): 127-144. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3965/is_200404/ai_n9363597/?tag=content;col1

Kohn, A. (2009). When 21st-Century Schooling Just Isn’t Good Enough: A Modest Proposal. District Administration, 6(4). http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1887&p=2#0

Schachter, R. (2009). NYC’s Smaller Schools Movement. District Administration, June-July 2009 Issue. http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=2028#

Kohn, A. (2008). Progressive Education: Why it’s Hard to Beat, but Also Hard to Find. Independent School. Retrieved July 14, 2009, from Alfie Kohn’s Official Web Site. http://www.nais.org/publications/ismagazinearticle.cfm?Itemnumber=150652&sn.ItemNumber=145956

United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition: Education Administrators. Retrieved July 13, 2009, from http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos007.htm

Kohn, A. (1994). Grading: The Issue Is Not How, but Why. Educational Leadership 52: 38-41. http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/grading.htm

Campbell, D. N. (1974). Being Number One: Competition in Education. Phi Delta Kappan: 143-146.