16. Globalisation of mathematics education and the world’s first monoculture: Assessment spread’s association with consumerism and human capital

doi:10.11647/obp.0407.16

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0407.16

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright

Mark Wolfmeyer

Published On

2024-12-11

Page Range

pp. 405–434

Language

English

Print Length

30 pages

16. Globalisation of mathematics education and the world’s first monoculture

Assessment spread’s association with consumerism and human capital

Mark Wolfmeyer (author)

Chapter of: Breaking Images: Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education(pp. 405–434)

The global spread of mass schooling supports ideologies of human capital and consumerism that we can consider as the world’s first monoculture. Educational organisations with global reaches, such as the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, spread particular mathematics education goals that present opportunities for analysis and critique by mathematics educators who seek to advance causes beyond or in opposition to the consumer industrial complex. In this chapter I utilise Joel Spring’s review of perspectives on globalisation and education to motivate extended analysis of one example of ‘assessment spread’ within mathematics education, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. Complementary methods of analysis (historical/contextual and content-based) reveal a strong association between mathematics education assessment spread and the rise of a world culture emphasising human capital and lifelong consumerism.

Contributors

Mark Wolfmeyer

(author)

Professor and Department Chair of Secondary Education in the College of Education at Kutztown University

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6590-5722

Mark Wolfmeyer is Professor and Department Chair of Secondary Education in the College of Education at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, Kutztown, PA, USA. He teaches courses in educational foundations and mathematics and STEM education to undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Wolfmeyer’s research centers on the policy and politics of mathematics and STEM education.