Globalisation and professional development at schools

The paper focuses on professional development as the key for educational organisations to adapt to the environment in which they are operated. The paper then takes into consideration the impacts of the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science – as the consequences of globalisation – on education and professional development.
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Globalisation and professional development at schools JOURNAL OF SCIENCE OF HNUE Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 88-95 GLOBALISATION AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AT SCHOOLS Nguyen Thu Trang Hanoi Nationnal University of Education E-mail: trangioe@yahoo.com Abstract. This paper discusses the profound influences of globalisation on professional development at educational organisations and suggests recom- mendations to promote the advantages of globalisation’s impacts in school. The paper focuses on professional development as the key for educational organisations to adapt to the environment in which they are operated. The paper then takes into consideration the impacts of the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology and science – as the consequences of globalisation – on education and professional development. To conclude, the paper proposes resolutions to improve the status of professional development at school. Keyworld: globalisation, professional, development, school.1. Introduction For the last decades, globalisation, initiated from the economic sector, has in-creasingly spread out all over the world and has led to significant changes in everyaspect of the society. This paper discusses the profound influences of globalisationon professional development at schools. The paper begins with the need for educa-tional organizations to change to adapt to the changing world surrounding them andexplains why professional development is at the core of the process of changing. Thesecond section explores the knowledge-based economy and advanced technology andscience as the consequences of globalisation with their impacts on education andprofessional development. Finally, the paper suggests recommendations for educa-tional stakeholders so as to promote the advantages of globalisation’s influences onprofessional development at school.88 Globalisation and professional development at schools2. Content2.1. The role of professional development for the adaptive edu- cational organizations in the changing world Dean Inge once said that ‘He who marries the spirit of the age will soon findhimself a widower’. By this he implies the changing nature of the society since itwas born. Educational organizations can be defined as groups of people workingand studying together within a society; thus being inevitably influenced by specificsocial changes within a particular historical period. Hence, Hargreaves and Fullan(1998) alert that it is vital that schools do not try to ignore these outside forces.The question here is how schools adapt to the changing environment surround them.Gregory (2001) believes that the adaptive capacity of educational institutions to theoutside forces can find its root in changing staff’s beliefs and actions. This leadsto the next question: How can people’s belief and actions be changed in order toenables schools to face the challenges of the changing world? Many authors suggest that the best solution for an educational institutionto remain dynamic and adaptable is building it to become a learning organizationwhich skills at creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge, and at modifying itsbehaviour to reflect new knowledge and insights. Bennett and O’Brien (2004) arguethat in a learning organization, changes and improvement benefit both individualsand the organization as a whole. In the pursuit of building learning organizations,teachers’ professional development is regarded as one of the most effective activitiespromoted by schools’ leaders and policy-makers to improve the quality of teaching,and, therefore, learning. This power of teachers’ professional development is wellproved in a large amount of research conducted over the past decades [10]. Thesereports demonstrate the positive relationship between rich professional developmentactivities and the high performances of teaching and learning in a vast number ofsubjects like science, mathematics and literacy. Meanwhile, Hargreaves and Fullan(1998) emphasise the collaborative aspect of professional development activities andexplain its benefit to students’ learning as well as teachers’ and schools’ capacity tochange: How teachers work with other... affects how well they work with their pupils.Pursuing continuous improvement together makes more sense than complying withchanges from outside, rejecting change altogether. Moreover, culture of collabora-tion strengthen teachers’ sense of common purpose and enable them to interactassertively with external pressures for changes – adopting changes that they value,selectively incorporating aspects of them that fit their own purposes, and rejectingones that are seen as educati ...