The Impact of Globalization on Education

The notion of globalisation and its relation to education is widely being discussed among politicians, philosophers, scholars, educators and students throughout the world. Some fully reject and refuse to accept this phenomenon, others try to understand and accept this notion, still others completely accept the idea of globalisation and associate with it all progressive changes in the new century's socio-cultural and educational space. Moreover, for a considerable part of the planet's residents the very spirit of the terms "globalism" and "globalisation" still remains an unknown, enigmatic, almost supernatural entity. The contemporary globalising epoch is characterised by pervasive events making a considerable affect on human development, human consciousness and on various aspects of education and child development. These events include: (1) the unprecedented emergence and dissemination of information and knowledge; (2) the digitisation of information and virtualisation of objective reality; (3) the spreading of the English language as an essential global tool for education and international communication; (4) the dissemination of the ideas of global and multicultural education; (5) the rise of the European Union; (6) the market orientation of Russian and the former entities of the former Socialist block;(7) the spreading of the cultural and educational canons of the Anglo-American or Atlantic civilisation upon other cultures and civilisations; and (9) unparalleled demographic growth, especially in Eastern and Southern cultures.