My reflection: Globalisation and education

Coming from Indonesia as a mathematics educator to study in Australia has raised a number of critical issues for me. Comparing the situation of education in Indonesia with that in Australia immediately leads to a recognition of the huge disparity of resources. Students in both countries may be highly motivated, smart, active learners, but there is a huge gap in terms of access to all kinds of learning resources. The question arises then about how the global ideal of equitable access to education for all can be realized.

In addition, we have to ask ourselves: what is the essence of education and what is its role in an increasingly globalised world? There is a danger that the philosophies and models proposed in educational research based in countries like Australia and the USA focus too narrowly on their own socio-economic context, and are too exclusively oriented towards such values as maintaining their own prosperity and their own position of advantage in relation to other countries.

What can help people see their situation as part of a bigger global picture and respond in a way that expresses the values that will be essential for our common human future? What kinds of collaborative projects between teachers and students in Indonesia and Australia, for example, could be developed in order to enrich each other and to build new understandings of the role of education? These questions are as relevant for mathematics teachers as for any others.