Globalization, Trade Agreements and Education

Globalization is about more than just the economy. Trade agreements have an impact beyond international exchanges of goods. Trade agreements are being used as a tool to commodify and privatize social rights, as well as to entrench inequality, both within countries and between countries. Public education does not on the surface seem like an area that should be affected by trade agreements. Unfortunately, trade agreements—both those in place and those proposed—do have a negative impact on public education.

Articles and links here present background about the impact of globalization and trade agreements in education. They also provide information about how the BCTF works with other organizations—in Canada and internationally—to defend public education in the face of globalization.

• Building Teacher Solidarity
  A Rethinking Schools interview with Larry Kuehn about building ties between teachers in Canada, Mexico, and the United States through the Tri-national Coalition in Defense of Public Education.
• Resistance to making education a tradable commodity
  Presentation by Larry Kuehn to the Education Forum of the People’s Summit of the Americas, Mar del Plata, Argentina, November, 2005
• Leaning between conspiracy and hegemony: OECD, UNESCO, and the tower of PISA 
  This article by Larry Kuehn, which was published in Passing the test: The false promises of standardized testing (M. Moll (Ed.). 2004), takes an in-depth look at international testing programs and the impetus behind them.
• Globalization comes home
  A presentation on the impact of globalization on education right to the classroom level made by Larry Kuehn to the Federation Leadership Institute, November 17–18, 2003.
• Keep public education out of trade agreements
  Larry Kuehn makes the case for excluding education from trade agreements. Two trade agreements being negotiated are the primary focus of the article—the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).
• Responding to globalization of education in the Americas— Strategies to support public education
  Presentation to IDEA conference, Quito, Ecuador October 1999 by Larry Kuehn, Director of Research and Technology, BCTF.
• IDEA - Initiative for Democratic Education in the Americas
  The BCTF International Solidarity Program has provided orgaizational and financial support to bring together teacher unions and others defending public education throughout the Americas. This is some background on these activities.
• Research reports related to the defense of public education in the Americas.
• Marjorie Cohen's paper, The World Trade Organisation and post-secondary education: implications for the public system, is the text of a public lecture delivered at the University of South Australia.
• Education International – GATS and globalization