ABSTRACT
Since the mid-to late 1980s, educational policy has increasingly been incorporated around the world within the broader discourses about the changing nature of the global economy. It is argued that since the global economy is characterized as “knowledge-based,” it requires greater levels of education and training than ever before. Educational systems are asked to produce a workforce more adequately prepared to meet the challenges of globalization. At the same time, it has been suggested that economic development is not possible without policies that encourage greater participation in education, especially by those who have traditionally been marginalized. Indeed, greater access to education is considered essential for success in the knowledge economy. In this way, a new rhetoric of access and equity in education seems to be emerging, inextricably tied to the assumptions about globalization’s policy imperatives for education.
