Balancing globalisation and local identity in the reform of education in Romania

Abstract

This chapter reports on the mechanisms activated by the reform of education at the confluence of economic, political and sociocultural factors in a system in transition to democracy and a functional market economy. The paper analyses the fluctuating balance between ideological and professional positions in the decision making process based on a case study of the curriculum reform in Romania, which has been developed within the Education Reform Project co-financed by the Romanian government and the World Bank. The tensions among customs, traditions, mentalities, the will to integrate, and the desire to keep a cultural specificity in a global world, are not yet resolved. Such tensions bring new issues into the contemporary debates regarding globalisation and the new polarization of power. In this context, the reform in mathematics and science education is approached from the perspective of the relationship between knowledge and power during the industrial époque in Eastern Europe, stressing some of its implications for the post-industrial era and sketching some future developments in the framework of the knowledge society. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.