Knowledge in the Marketplace: The Global Commodification of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Abstract

This chapter presents the commodification thesis as it applies to teaching and learning in higher education in the context of globalization, internationalization, and the knowledge economy. Research on higher education has traditionally veered between two approaches: on the one hand, theoretical frameworks which position universities as reflecting the configuration of forces in the socio-economic context; on the other hand, frameworks which detach universities analytically from the macro socio- political context in order to study their inner workings. Less attention has been paid to the interaction between macro forces such as those associated with globalization and the activities that occur within universities, including processes associated with internationalization. This chapter takes a step in this direction by examining the relationship between the ‘macro’ forces impacting on higher education and the ‘micro’ processes of learning and teaching in universities. It therefore begins by examining the extent to which contemporary ideological, structural and economic developments in higher education apply pressures on universities to commodify and internationalize the educational process. It then draws on the recent literatureon teaching and learning to outline key features of effective education in order to assess the possible impact of commodification on student learning. One major approach to internationalization, virtual education, is selected as a site that is particularly vulnerable to forces of commodification. The chapter illustrates how the repositioning of virtual higher education as an international service operating mainly on the basis of economic considerations is inimical to high quality learning