Adult Education: Advantages And Disadvantages In Globalisation Of Education (Essay Sample)

Impact of globalization on education
University Affiliation
Surname
Date
Introduction
. Globalization is said to be the process by which international integration occurs allowing different nations worldwide to interchange their ideas and various aspects characterizing their culture (Spring, 2014, p.17). Therefore, it allows broader interconnection of various countries with the outside world. It thus results to the ignoring of the borders between various nations and countries making the world continue to shrink and become more of one than many different nations. This leads to increased interdependence in the world allowing transfer of ideas since globalization makes the world kind of a village sharing (Simonson and Zvacek, 2014, p.33). This means that the local issues and practices will not only have an impact locally but will extend their impact globally. Most of the times, this interconnectedness of the various countries of the world carry both positive and negative impacts to a specific aspect that is experiencing globalization.
Vocational and adult education cultures have not been left out by globalization issue since globalization has also found roots in them. This makes the world share various aspects that are practiced in this field. The interchange of ideas in the adult and vocational education due to globalization has had different impacts on this area of education (Spring, 2014, p.19). For this reason, this paper takes a broader view of the effects of globalization on education by reviewing various literature in this area. This is so because education sector in the world plays a very vital role and that why most scholars have expressed interest to explore the globalization influence on the sector.it has been previously noticed that globalization in adult education has always had a great impact in the entire education sector (Zajda, 2010, p.67). However, these effects are either positive or negative and are as discussed below.
Advantages of globalization in adult education
Various advantages have been associated with the globalization of the adult and vocational education sector. First of all, it has been previously cited that it has increased chances of entering the global labor markets (Zajda, 2010, p.71). Therefore, it opens gateways to the job opportunities international market. This is because globalization enables transfer of ideas from the developed areas to the less developed allowing the individuals involved become more competitive in that wider market. It happens so because individuals are able to gather skills that are taught in other parts of the globe rather than only those delivered in their local adult education system (Aspin et al., 2012, p.113). Since most people learn so as to employ skills acquired in the labor market, it thus becomes of more importance to globalize the sector to avoid being left out in recruitment in the global labor market.
Another important aspect of globalization in the adult education sector is that it results into a common world education sector across all nations (Donn & Al Manthri, 2010, p.112). This contributes to equal service to all participants in adult education from various regions of the world. It also creates confidence in the learners knowing that whatever they are taught in their local institutions is also what is offered in the global education sector. The commonness in the education culture across the world also has an advantage to the teachers since most of the times it seeks to employ the same syllabus all over the world. Modernization is also easily influenced through globalization more so in the underdeveloped countries.
Globalization of the education sector assists in breaking the boundaries that exist in the communication and information technologies across various regions (Yuan et al., 2013, p.16). For instance, the emergence of technology-mediated teaching and learning has led to the revolutionized process of teaching as well as learning respectively. It has also led to an easier dissemination of knowledge to many individuals across the world. Among the technology that has been influenced by globalization is the use of the digital library which plays a great role in research by the students. The use of these advanced technologies in the adult education sector has encouraged the emergence of a new system of learning which has significantly enabled the breaking of the boundaries of time and space that exist between the teachers and their students (Yuan et al., 2013, p.13).
Globalization further enables the spirit of teamwork amongst students to have roots in the adult and vocational education. This is because it helps in breaking the boundaries that would exist between students who come from different regions of the world (Simonson and Zvacek, 2014, p.34). This teamwork developed in schools is what most of the employers look for in the recruits hence is of great importance. In addition to that, globalization influences the student’s ability to acquire and utilize knowledge acquired in the classroom (Rovai and Downey, 2010, p.146). It does this by helping them develop skills in assessing and applying that knowledge independently without interference by their teachers. From these advantages, therefore, the importance of globalization in adult education cannot be undermined.
Disadvantages of globalization on adult and vocational education
On the other hand, however, there are as many disadvantages associated with globalization as there are advantages. One of the disadvantages is that it does not impact developed and less developed countries the same way (Apple, 2010, p.197). For instance, there is a notion that with the globalization, the poor countries education system tend to deteriorate rather than improve. This is because the level of technology in the less developed countries is very low to adopt the education system of the developed countries. They also lack adequate resources to facilitate the adoption of the system practiced in those developed economies (Tarabini, 2010, p.204-205). Therefore, the adult education system in poor nations will prefe...