Education, the Nation State and the Global Economy

Abstract

There is a consensus amongst policy makers that education can provide the solution to the fundamental problem of liberal democracies – how to reconcile social justice with economic efficiency at a time when income and wealth are being polarised in Anglophone-dominated societies like Aotearoa New Zealand. This presents a paradox, since it is well understood that children living in poverty are likely to under-perform in education. Moreover, the standard explanation for the polarisation of income in terms of the global demand for skill is itself deficient. This paper explores the nature of this paradox, and the inadequate account given for polarisation of income, as a first step towards the development of an alternative agenda which is more likely to meet the goals of justice and efficiency in the context of the new global competition.