Intercultural education and the crisis of globalisation: some reflections

In this essay I reflect on the role of intercultural education in an emerging global crisis. Education systems are characterised by both divergent and convergent impulses. Divergent impulses include tradition, nationalism and religion. Convergent impulses (isomorphism) include science and technology, culture (including the English language), system compatibility and examinations and mobility (including the movement of ideas and the internet). The crisis of globalisation now seems to have four distinct elements: the economic recession, the new international order, hydrocarbon and other resource depletion, and climate change. Crisis is an over-used word but these are all fairly potent forces. What are the implications of these current and impending changes for intercultural education? Can schools and universities ever adapt and can they adapt quickly enough? The necessary curricular changes in schools and universities will involve the interaction of political power at crisis point with often traditionalistic epistemologies. It is possible to predict further international convergence and increased isomorphism but not how, or indeed whether, the crisis will be resolved.