Reconciling paradigms: Global economic competitiveness and global education as alternative approaches for constructing curricula: A review of the current debates as they apply to secondary schooling in Ontario

This thesis examines the current debates in curriculum construction as to whether to pursue a curriculum for global economic competitiveness or a curriculum of global education in the context of the secondary school curriculum in Ontario (i.e. grades 7-12/OAC). The arguments in favour of the two kinds of global paradigms are divergent. Proponents of education for global economic competitiveness argue that competition and wealth are our measure of success and that this should guide our educational reforms and curricula construction. Proponents of global education argue that the measure of success should be the recognition of our common interdependent global needs and responsibilities, with consequent implications for educational and curricula reforms.;The review and analysis of these debates involved both an investigation of the debate in Ontario as well as a review of how this debate has been played out elsewhere in the last decade across Canada and in the United States, England, France, Germany and Japan. These jurisdictions were examined to determine to what extent their debates and reforms could inform the debates in Ontario. Data was collected via a literature review, field interviews with Ministry officials and educators in all of the countries mentioned (except Japan), site visits to schools and a review of pertinent curricular and policy documents.;It is argued that there should be a reconciliation between the two global paradigms. This requires a curriculum which incorporates the technological, scientific and economic competencies of global competitivism with the vision and awareness of global education, namely of the need for political, cultural and ecological change in a common global future. The thesis includes a description of the principles of a "reconciled" global curriculum developed by the author in order to render more concrete the issues discussed. However, it is acknowledged that in spite of the value of such a reconciliation, the dominant paradigm in Ontario's (and Canada's) curricula debates and agenda for school reform is still one of global economic competitiveness.;Up to the present, Ontario's educational goals have pursued the promotion of human capital, the global status quo, global utilitarian skills, and an education for wealth creation. Increasingly lesser importance has been accorded to the goals of education in the humanities, the spiritual and the cultural, education that highly values the public good (rather than excessive individualism), education about alternative global visions for the future, or education about the limits to economic growth. While reconciliation of the two paradigms is attainable, it is not being actively pursued in either the educational debates or curriculum reforms in Ontario.