Education Beyond Techno-global Rationality: Transnational Learning, Communicative Agency and the Neo-colonial Ethic

Abstract

The marriage of twenty-first-century horizons of technology and the global ideal constitutes techno-global rationality as it reflects contemporary impulses, frames and teleologies. Fast-paced automation, the importance of cosmopolitanism and the colonial legacy have come to dominate educational discourse and drive calls for streamlined educative practice. Although such efficiency models empower a transactional/linear mode of teaching and learning, they do little to privilege integrative voices, deliberation and intersubjective care found in global citizenship education (GCE) definitions. We argue such rationality has exacerbated a neo-colonial ethic that promulgates economic, political and cultural pressure to control and narrow otherwise diverse learning opportunities. Drawing from recent research into technology and GCE in two International Baccalaureate international schools, we note the importance of communicative outreach and agency in diversity. We also highlight the distorting effects of hyper-rationalised neo-colonial interpretations of global agency. This article will interest those seeking to develop global educational policy and practice along with revitalising interpretations of technology integration.