- Email: [email protected]
Globalisation, enterprise and knowledge: education, training and development in Africa
Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 213–226
well handles the need to present a picture that may entice students in the North who might initially be put off by a more directly political approach. If my interest, however, were critical pedagogy in the range of incidental, non-formal and formal settings found in development education, I would be less drawn to this volume.
Reference Goodburn, A., 1998. It’s a Question of Faith: Discourses of Fundamentalism and Critical Pedagogy in the Writing Classroom. Journal of Composition Theory 18 (2), 333–353.
Peter Tamas, UMASS Amherst, School of Education, Center for International Education, Amherst, MA 01003, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2003.11.004
Globalisation, enterprise and knowledge: education, training and development in Africa Kenneth King & Simon McGrath, Symposium Books Oxford, 2002, ISBN 1 873927 49 5, 230 pages, Cost not given This rather important book is as wide-ranging in scope as its title suggests. Forming the core of the book are the results of an empirical study financed by the UK Department for International Development with the generic title ‘Learning to Compete’. The central focus of that research was the extent to which training and skill development for micro and small enterprise (MSE) was providing the key underpinning to generate and sustain competitiveness in three very different countries of subSaharan Africa – Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. But this volume is not a slavish account of that research; rather it uses the findings in an illustrative way whilst addressing the broader themes of the title. The authors bring a splendid breadth and depth of knowledge to their theme, which is well supported by the efforts of their national partners.
225
The second chapter of the book gives a useful, broad overview of the current arguments relating to globalisation, enterprise and the knowledge economy. It does not shy away from the huge challenges for the economies of sub-Saharan Africa arising from the globalised and post-Fordist environments which increasingly affect them, but it does manage to present this new world as one of opportunity as well as threat. Through the following chapters, there are accounts of both new approaches being taken by international agencies towards the way they invest in human and economic development in African countries, and an ultimately irritating argument that the present focus by the same agencies on the prioritisation of basic education for all takes insufficient account of the needs of other parts of the education sector in relation to economic development. Whilst in one sense that is of course true, and one may acknowledge their critique of the often simplistic and exaggerated claims made for the outcomes of investment in primary education, there are issues of human rights to be mentioned, as well as a simple reality check on (a) the past and existing performance of the secondary, technical and higher education sectors in relation to economic development, and (b) where the necessary increase in funding might be accessed. One might also say that in a number of African countries, professional elites would jump at the chance to re-orient education financing towards the provision of more academic secondary and tertiary education, whilst showing little or no regard for the skills sector! Chapter Four looks at the very varied histories of skills education in the formal schooling systems of the three countries, almost entirely from the perspective of the written curriculum. It does not really focus in any detail on what actually happens in the schools and classrooms in relation to the delivery of that curriculum. In arguing for a curriculum for competitiveness, it consistently underestimates the fragile levels of both human and physical resources in so many schools, which leave those schools with so little creative energy to invest in new ways of thinking about what can be achieved in schools. Perhaps we should remember that in the industrialised countries of Europe, all has
226
Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 213–226
not been deemed to be well with the ways in which skills-related curricula have been taught in schools. But the core of the book lies in chapters Five, Six and Seven, where the arguments for a move from training to skills development are well put, and the crumbs of good practice to be found in the three countries and elsewhere are rehearsed. The account of the 1990s as a lost decade for training systems, with The World Bank’s 1991 paper Vocational and Technical Education and Training being identified as a key determinant in this process, is well done. The need to shift from supplyled to demand-led approaches echoes current thinking in many dimensions of the education business. Thereafter, the authors paint a number of canvasses that provide tantalising glimpses of new ways of conceptualising knowledge acquisition and
skill development. They argue that, particularly in Ghana, there is a successful experience of medium and small enterprises in comparison with larger scale enterprises, which fits coherently with the post-Fordist model of globalisation, suggesting that these experiences have key lessons for us. The book ends with a short set of hard questions that will need to be addressed by all who call themselves educators, if the African responses to globalisation are to be successful. Terry Allsop, IRFOL, The Michael Young Centre, Purbeck Road, Cambridge CB2 2PG, UK E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2003.11.005
well handles the need to present a picture that may entice students in the North who might initially be put off by a more directly political approach. If my interest, however, were critical pedagogy in the range of incidental, non-formal and formal settings found in development education, I would be less drawn to this volume.
Reference Goodburn, A., 1998. It’s a Question of Faith: Discourses of Fundamentalism and Critical Pedagogy in the Writing Classroom. Journal of Composition Theory 18 (2), 333–353.
Peter Tamas, UMASS Amherst, School of Education, Center for International Education, Amherst, MA 01003, USA E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2003.11.004
Globalisation, enterprise and knowledge: education, training and development in Africa Kenneth King & Simon McGrath, Symposium Books Oxford, 2002, ISBN 1 873927 49 5, 230 pages, Cost not given This rather important book is as wide-ranging in scope as its title suggests. Forming the core of the book are the results of an empirical study financed by the UK Department for International Development with the generic title ‘Learning to Compete’. The central focus of that research was the extent to which training and skill development for micro and small enterprise (MSE) was providing the key underpinning to generate and sustain competitiveness in three very different countries of subSaharan Africa – Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. But this volume is not a slavish account of that research; rather it uses the findings in an illustrative way whilst addressing the broader themes of the title. The authors bring a splendid breadth and depth of knowledge to their theme, which is well supported by the efforts of their national partners.
225
The second chapter of the book gives a useful, broad overview of the current arguments relating to globalisation, enterprise and the knowledge economy. It does not shy away from the huge challenges for the economies of sub-Saharan Africa arising from the globalised and post-Fordist environments which increasingly affect them, but it does manage to present this new world as one of opportunity as well as threat. Through the following chapters, there are accounts of both new approaches being taken by international agencies towards the way they invest in human and economic development in African countries, and an ultimately irritating argument that the present focus by the same agencies on the prioritisation of basic education for all takes insufficient account of the needs of other parts of the education sector in relation to economic development. Whilst in one sense that is of course true, and one may acknowledge their critique of the often simplistic and exaggerated claims made for the outcomes of investment in primary education, there are issues of human rights to be mentioned, as well as a simple reality check on (a) the past and existing performance of the secondary, technical and higher education sectors in relation to economic development, and (b) where the necessary increase in funding might be accessed. One might also say that in a number of African countries, professional elites would jump at the chance to re-orient education financing towards the provision of more academic secondary and tertiary education, whilst showing little or no regard for the skills sector! Chapter Four looks at the very varied histories of skills education in the formal schooling systems of the three countries, almost entirely from the perspective of the written curriculum. It does not really focus in any detail on what actually happens in the schools and classrooms in relation to the delivery of that curriculum. In arguing for a curriculum for competitiveness, it consistently underestimates the fragile levels of both human and physical resources in so many schools, which leave those schools with so little creative energy to invest in new ways of thinking about what can be achieved in schools. Perhaps we should remember that in the industrialised countries of Europe, all has
226
Book reviews / International Journal of Educational Development 24 (2004) 213–226
not been deemed to be well with the ways in which skills-related curricula have been taught in schools. But the core of the book lies in chapters Five, Six and Seven, where the arguments for a move from training to skills development are well put, and the crumbs of good practice to be found in the three countries and elsewhere are rehearsed. The account of the 1990s as a lost decade for training systems, with The World Bank’s 1991 paper Vocational and Technical Education and Training being identified as a key determinant in this process, is well done. The need to shift from supplyled to demand-led approaches echoes current thinking in many dimensions of the education business. Thereafter, the authors paint a number of canvasses that provide tantalising glimpses of new ways of conceptualising knowledge acquisition and
skill development. They argue that, particularly in Ghana, there is a successful experience of medium and small enterprises in comparison with larger scale enterprises, which fits coherently with the post-Fordist model of globalisation, suggesting that these experiences have key lessons for us. The book ends with a short set of hard questions that will need to be addressed by all who call themselves educators, if the African responses to globalisation are to be successful. Terry Allsop, IRFOL, The Michael Young Centre, Purbeck Road, Cambridge CB2 2PG, UK E-mail address: [email protected] doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2003.11.005