Open Book Publishers

16. Globalisation of mathematics education and the world’s first monoculture: Assessment spread’s association with consumerism and human capital

Mark Wolfmeyer(author)

Chapter of: Breaking Images: Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education(pp. 405–434)

Export Metadata

Raw

Metadata
Title	16. Globalisation of mathematics education and the world’s first monoculture
Subtitle	Assessment spread’s association with consumerism and human capital
Contributor	Mark Wolfmeyer(author)
DOI	https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0407.16
Landing page	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0407/chapters/10.11647/obp.0407.16
License	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Copyright	Mark Wolfmeyer
Publisher	Open Book Publishers
Published on	2024-12-11
Long abstract	The global spread of mass schooling supports ideologies of human capital and consumerism that we can consider as the world’s first monoculture. Educational organisations with global reaches, such as the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, spread particular mathematics education goals that present opportunities for analysis and critique by mathematics educators who seek to advance causes beyond or in opposition to the consumer industrial complex. In this chapter I utilise Joel Spring’s review of perspectives on globalisation and education to motivate extended analysis of one example of ‘assessment spread’ within mathematics education, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Complementary methods of analysis (historical/contextual and content-based) reveal a strong association between mathematics education assessment spread and the rise of a world culture emphasising human capital and lifelong consumerism.
Page range	pp. 405–434
Print length	30 pages
Language	English (Original)

Locations
	Landing Page	Full text URL	Platform
PDF	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0407/chapters/10.11647/obp.0407.16	Landing page	https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0407.16.pdf	Full text URL
HTML	https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0407/chapters/10.11647/obp.0407.16	Landing page	https://books.openbookpublishers.com/10.11647/obp.0407/ch16.xhtml	Full text URL	Publisher Website

Contributors

Mark Wolfmeyer

(author)

Professor and Department Chair of Secondary Education in the College of Education at Kutztown University

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6590-5722

Mark Wolfmeyer is Professor and Department Chair of Secondary Education in the College of Education at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA, USA. He teaches courses in educational foundations and mathematics and STEM education to undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Wolfmeyer’s research centers on the policy and politics of mathematics and STEM education.

References

Appelbaum, P., & Gerofsky, S. (2013). Performing alterglobalization in mathematics education: Plenary in the form of a jazz standard. Quaderni di Ricerca in Didattica (Mathematics), 23, 23–48.
Atweh, B., & Clarkson, P. (2010). Internationalization and globalization of mathematics education: Toward an agenda for reseach/action. In B. Atweh, H. Forgasz, & B. Nebres (Eds.), Sociocultural research on mathematics education: An international perspective (pp. 77–94). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410600042-12
Ernest, P. (2016). Mathematics education ideologies and globalization. In P. Ernest, B. Sriraman, & N. Ernest (Eds.), Critical mathematics education: Theory, praxis, and reality (pp. 35–79). Information Age.
Frankenstein, M. (1983). Critical mathematics education: An application of Paulo Freire’s epistemology. Journal of Education, 165(4), 315–339. https://doi.org/10.1177/002205748316500403
Freudenthal, H. (1975). Pupils’ achievements internationally compared: The IEA. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 6(2), 127–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00302542
Ghosh, A. (1997). Capitalism, nation state, and development in a globalised world. Economic and Political Weekly, 32(14), 683–686.
Gutstein, E. (2006). Reading and writing the world with mathematics: Toward a pedagogy for social justice. Taylor & Francis.
Harouni, H. (2015). Toward a political economy of mathematics education. Harvard Educational Review, 85(1), 50–74. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.85.1.2q580625188983p6
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). (2013). TIMSS 2011 Assessment. TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center.
International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). (n.d.). History. IEA. https://www.iea.nl/about/org/history
Keeley, B. (2007). Human capital: How what you know shapes your life. OECD publishing.
Keitel, C., & Kilpatrick, J. (2012). The rationality and irrationality of international comparative studies. In I. Huntley, G. Kaiser, & E. Luna (Eds.), International comparisons in mathematics education (pp. 241–255). Falmer. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203012086-19
Meyer, J., Kamens, D., & Benavot, A. (1992). School knowledge for the masses: World models and national primary curricular categories in the twentieth century. Falmer. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315225173
Ramirez, F. (2003). Toward a cultural anthropology of the world? In K. Anderson-Levitt (Ed.), Local meanings, global schooling: Anthropology and world culture theory (pp. 239–254). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403980359_12
Spring, J. (2004). How educational ideologies are shaping global society: Intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and the decline of the nation-state. Routledge.
Spring, J. (2014). Globalization of education: An introduction (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Stein, M. K., & Smith, M. S. (1998). Mathematical tasks as a framework for reflection: From research to practice. Mathematics teaching in the middle school, 3(4), 268–275.
Visioncarto. (2018). Buckminster Fuller’s Airocean projection (1954) [Map]. Visionscarto. https://visionscarto.net/base-maps#&gid=1&pid=1
Wolfmeyer, M. (2014). Math education for America? Policy networks, big business, and pedagogy wars. Routledge.
World Bank. (2007). Building knowledge economies: Advanced strategies for development. World Bank.
World Bank Group. (n.d.). Historical classification by income in XLS format [Data set]. Databank. http://databank.worldbank.org/data/download/site-content/OGHIST.xls

Export Metadata

The global spread of mass schooling supports ideologies of human capital and consumerism that we can consider as the world’s first monoculture. Educational organisations with global reaches, such as the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, spread particular mathematics education goals that present opportunities for analysis and critique by mathematics educators who seek to advance causes beyond or in opposition to the consumer industrial complex. In this chapter I utilise Joel Spring’s review of perspectives on globalisation and education to motivate extended analysis of one example of ‘assessment spread’ within mathematics education, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Complementary methods of analysis (historical/contextual and content-based) reveal a strong association between mathematics education assessment spread and the rise of a world culture emphasising human capital and lifelong consumerism.