Session Information
07 SES 01 A, Different Perspectives on Intercultural Education
Paper Session
Contribution
The phenomenon of internationalization is widely discussed in many contexts, including the discourse of pedagogy and educational science. Concepts of ‘European Citizenship’ (Biesta, 2009), or attempts at ‘Global Citizenship Education’ (Brownlie, 2001; Davies, 2006; UNESCO, 2014) are omnipresent. However multi-layered the content of the concepts mentioned here may be, the basic intention is to enable young people to understand the complex social, political, ecological, cultural and economic contexts of a global society, and to see themselves as active agents in these global contexts. A multi-faceted world view can thus be seen as an important prerequisite both for shaping one’s own personal world and for coping responsibly with the challenges facing society as a whole. In this respect it is a central reference point for educational work. The paper examines whether and how business administration textbooks (in Austria) offer a multi-faceted world view when dealing with international contexts or global economic matters. Textbooks as instructional media are particularly relevant as objects of study because they allow insights into the kind of knowledge which can potentially have a nationwide impact on teaching settings, with the legitimation of society and the authorization of the state. The subject of business administration seemed particularly relevant, as the present economy is seen as a global network economy (e.g. Castells, 2010) where organizations (in the broadest sense), as well as their members, are embedded in complex global interrelations (e.g. Parker & Clegg, 2006). Companies, for example, operate and compete in worldwide markets of goods, services, and capital. International division of labor, labor globalization as well as knowledge transfer – just to name a few – are central features of the global shift. The knowledge manifested in business administration textbooks serves as a kind of construction material, supplying the basis for students’ patterns of perception and interpretation regarding these global matters. These textbooks ultimately offer an image of the global world-order. They thus have the potential to influence students’ behavior in their roles as citizens, as consumers, as well as their future roles as employers or employees. Accordingly, it seemed relevant to investigate what kind of knowledge is found in the books when ‘global economic contexts’ are directly or indirectly thematized? The approach to the study of textbook knowledge developed in this paper refers to work on discourse analysis by a selection of German-speaking Foucauldian scholars (esp. Keller, 2012; Diaz-Bone, 2006), concentrating on the performative nature of language in its knowledge-generating function. Discourses in a Foucauldian sense are to be interpreted as productive, reality-constituting factors that form the prerequisites for a particular knowledge, ‘by containing the conditions of thinking in language’ (Ruoff, 2008, p. 97). By providing ‘templates’ (Jäger, 2012, p. 73), which also include the establishment of classifications, hierarchies, dualisms, and normative charges, discourses provide a specific socio-historically situated knowledge for interpreting the world, and thus supply the basis for individual and collective consciousness. Discourses follow rules of formation (cf. Foucault, 2010). This means that discourses display a certain (repeatable and reconstructable) logic, which, as a kind of deep structure, causes numerous scattered utterances to appear on the surface. Discourses cannot be brought forth intentionally or completely revolutionized by individual subjects (cf. Foucault, 2001). The consequence in terms of research practices is that textual material is not read to discover what the author/authors mean, or what deeper intended meaning underlies the text. This is not about textual commentary, and thus not about what is said, but about how it is said, what modalities of statement contribute to the production of meaning, and how the interplay of utterances, especially scattered ones, creates the outline of a particular image.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Biesta, G. (2009). What Kind of Citizenship for European Higher Education? Beyond the Competent Active Citizen. European Educational Research Journal, 8, 146–158. doi:10.2304/eerj.2009.8.2.146 Brownlie, A. (2001). Citizenship education: the global dimension, guidance for key stages 3 and 4. London: Development Education Association. Castells, M. (2010). The Information Age: Economy, Society, and Culture. The Rise of the Network Society, Volume 1, Cambridge: Wiley-Blackwell. Davies, L. (2006). Global citizenship: abstraction or framework for action? Educational Review, 58, 5–25. doi:10.1080/00131910500352523 Diaz-Bone, R. (2006). Zur Methodologisierung der Foucaultschen Diskursanalyse. Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung, 7. Retrieved from http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/71/145 Foucault, M. (2001). Antwort auf eine Frage. In D. Defert & F. Ewald (Eds.), Michel Foucault: Schriften in vier Bänden. Dits et Ecrits I. 1954–1969 (pp. 859–886). Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp. Foucault, M. (2010). The Archaeology of Knowledge and the Discourse on Language. New York: Pantheon Books. Jäger, S. (2012). Kritische Diskursanalyse: Eine Einführung. Münster: Unrast Verlag. Keller, R. (2012). Doing Discourse Research. London: Sage. Parker, B., & Clegg, S. (2006). Globalization. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, T. Lawrence & W. Nord (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies. (pp. 651–674). London: SAGE Publications. Ruoff, M. (2007). Foucault-Lexikon. Entwicklung – Kernbegriffe – Zusammenhänge. Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink. Thoma, M. (2015). Critical analysis of textbooks: knowledge-generating logics and the emerging image of 'global economic contexts'. In Critical Studies in Education (2015). doi: 10.1080/17508487.2015.1111248 UNESCO (2014). Global Citizenship Education. Preparing learners for the challenges of the twenty-first century. Retrieved from http://unescodoc.unesco.org/images/002277/227729e.pdf
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