Science education in an era of globalization: an introduction

Excerpt

With increasing intensity, issues related to the globalization of markets, ideas, culture, and natural and human ecologies have filled the news headlines and captured the attention of social scientists. Thus, for example, transnational flows of capital and jobs have catalyzed rural-to-urban migrations and the almost inevitable “Othering” of the underprivileged or alien (Woronov 2004). Likewise, we have witnessed a growing Hispanization of the US, Arabization of France, and Turkization of Germany where low-paying, unpleasant or dangerous occupations are the only ones that await newcomers. From the standpoint of some countries such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka where unemployment and military conflict are part of the landscape, these are not necessarily unwelcome consequences for their far-flung citizen-workers remit at least 10% of the national GDP. Given time, immigrants and refugees will form diasporic communities within their adopted countries and find refuge in whatever interstitial spaces that are sanctioned or tolerated. …