Introducing a neo‐Weberian perspective in the study of globalisation and education: structural reforms of the education systems in France and Israel after the Second World War

Abstract

Only since the 1990s has the impact of globalisation on education drawn scholarly attention, primarily due to the impact of international school achievement surveys. This study argues that the globalisation of education began much earlier, with the establishment of intergovernmental agencies, such as UNESCO and the OECD, and the adoption of American educational models after the Second World War. The neo-Weberian perspective I propose focuses on knowledge producers and education global networks and incorporates an analysis of the specific national context and their peculiarities without losing sight of the globalisation process and its homogenising character. Knowledge producers constitute a status group that increases its social and academic capital through advancing global education models locally. The analysis of reforms in the education systems of France and Israel after the Second World War shows how the diffusion of global educational models that stress equality of opportunity enhanced local transformations and affected national policies. Such an analysis elaborates the process whereby knowledge producers, linked to global networks, constructed 'social problems' according to the education knowledge production institutionalised in each country and the socio-politic conditions of each society, and how their alliance with highly ranked functionaries brought about structural reforms aiming at the 'democratisation of education' in France and Israel.

The construction of a managerial education discourse and the involvement of philanthropic entrepreneurs: the case of Israel

“…The neo-Weberian theoretical approach that I have developed in the past draws on these insights and integrates the double global-local perspective, the role of scholars and the significance of discourse and networks into the same approach (Resnik, 2008). I intend to analyze the proposed managerial reform -the Dovrat Reform -using this approach.…”

“…The neo-Weberian approach includes three key concepts -reformist discourse structuration, knowledge producers as a status group and global education networks. I have analyzed the neo-Weberian approach elsewhere detail (Resnik, 2006(Resnik, , 2007(Resnik, , 2008, therefore I will only outline it here and describe its new dynamics in more detail.…”

Spatial Theorizing in Comparative and International Education Research

“…The study of networks, connections, and flows is not new in comparative and international education. Authors such as Gita Steiner- Khamsi and Hubert Quist (2000) and Julia Resnik (2008) have included in their analysis of educational transfer a description of the actors involved in the specific cases that they researched and the ways in which they relate to each other. Indeed, the call to engage with SNA in comparative and international education has been previously made by Steiner-Khamsi (2004), who notes that "research on educational transfer lags behind network analysis" and that even though the importance of networks for disseminating educational reform has been highlighted, "we have not provided concrete empirical evidence" (214).…”

Lessons Learned from the Study of a Jewish-Israeli High School: Critical Pedagogy in Contention

“…This pedagogical process aiming to advantage underprivileged students has become even more important in light of the increasingly central role that exams have been playing in the current educational policy (Carnoy, 1999). Exams and certificates are perceived not only as a dominant scholastic paradigm (Resnik, 2008), but also as a symbolic coming-of-age ritual and as a way to prophesy future success in the job market (Rochex, 2006). In other words, the implementation of critical pedagogy, in its various forms, in traditional urban schools met the challenge of strengthening the students learning abilities in order to improve their grades and overcome the deepening achievement gap.…”