Westernization as Lingua Franca: Historical and Discursive Patterns of Hegemony in Global Higher Education

Abstract

Westernization as a historical process of universalizing western cultural and societal norms has, in terms of global education, evolved into a narrative of competition, resource-hoarding, erasure, and general accumulation of capital by the few. Universities and colleges are hubs for the production and reproduction of ideologies and ways of knowing that permeate the highest echelons of the global milieu and contribute to the creation of the global imaginary. The research questions that guided this study asked how Western hegemony is dialogically reinforced in global higher education at the regional and supranational level, and how historical determinants have impacted the regional and supranational translation and manifestation of Western educational models. Through a framework of world system theory and world society theory, I analyzed narratives and calls for improved global higher education at the regional and supranational level to identify mechanisms that have upheld western hegemony within global higher education. I employed a comparative-historical, mixed-methods analysis that utilized two qualitative approaches: historical narrative inquiry through a systematic review of journals and discourse analysis of documents published by the supranational and regional organizations sampled in this study. The overarching mechanisms that allowed for the maintenance of westernization were capacity in Africa, identity in LATC, and affect in Europe. The biased operationalization of global quality indicators has allowed for contemporary reproductions of colonial representations. Historical processes of colonization have evolved to maintain the global imaginary of world society while concretizing the asymmetric relationships of a networked society within the world system. These findings contribute to the body of literature on the manner in which global higher education systems interpret, mediate, sustain, and resist processes of westernization.