ABSTRACT
The August 2000 issue of Comparative Education was devoted to the issues surrounding ‘Comparative Education for the Twenty-first Century’. The issue was thoughtful and raised a number of important questions that deserve even more thoughtful and critical responses. Among the questions that Angela Little asked in her own contribution to the special issue were: ‘How will differential access to education provision and quality lead to the further marginalisation of young people? . . . How will different forms of education serve to legitimate and reproduce social and economic stratification?’ (Little, 2000, pp. 292-293). These are questions that are not limited by geographical borders. As Michael Crossley reminds us, ‘It is now increasingly difficult to understand education in any context without reference to the global forces that influence policy and practice’ (Crossley, 2000, p. 324). In this chapter I wish to focus on one particular set of global tendencies and provide an analysis of the ways in which it may engage in the legitimation and reproduction that Little asks us to pay attention to.
