ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the potency of globalization, the free market, and neoliberalism, and their influences on education–its purposes, policies, and practices across post-industrial nations–while their inextricable links form the meta-theoretical lens for this critical policy analysis. K. Marx and F. Engels wrote about the effects of globalization on local industries and trade in The Communist Manifesto, and Keynes described the effects of globalization on the everyday life of the London citizen in The Economic Consequences of Peace. Free market economic theory contends that individuals pursuing their self-interests spur production, consumption, and competition for goods and services. The market rewards successful entrepreneurs if their innovation satisfies consumer needs and demand. Neoliberalism is assimilated with globalization–it is the foot servant of a globalized free market economy. Neoliberalism infiltrates economic coordination, social distribution, and personal motivation. Historians and analysts also mention the German Freiberg School as being influential in modern neoliberal history.
