International Education in the Era of Globalisation

Introduction

Next year’s Ecolint Education Conference, hosted by the International School of Geneva, will take place as usual at the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva from 9.00 (registration from 8.30) to 16.00 on Saturday 12th January 2013. Last year this annual event attracted 250 delegates from independent and state schools in Switzerland as well as from a large number of other countries. As in previous years the conference will be in both English and French, with simultaneous translation available throughout the day.

Theme of the conference

In 1971, when the first International Baccalaureate Diplomas were handed out to students, international education was a fairly rare concept and the world was not as interconnected as it is today. Since then times have changed dramatically: in the last 10 years alone the number of international schools has doubled with huge growth in Asia while today, unlike in the 1980s, the majority of the student population of international schools is local.

The world climate has changed too with exponential growth in information technology, the off-shoring of employment and multinationals, we are well and truly in Marshall McLuhan’s “global village”. At the same time, visa restrictions and a north/south socioeconomic divide have further entrenched human beings in mental and physical bunkers. 

This conference’s theme attempts to investigate international education alongside globalisation in detail and without falling into facile generalisations or glamorous futurologist predictions. Our speakers are distinguished and knowledgeable about the roles of politics, economics, technology and culture in various parts of the world and are well placed to give us an overview of the role education plays in these realms. They bring with them the wisdom of the past, the diversity of the present and the creativity to make intelligent  conjecture about tomorrow. Our day together promises to be rich and thought-provoking.

Among the questions we will ask are:

• What are the ethical implications of a changing world for international education?
• How should we adapt our views of international education to make sure our students are best prepared for the world? Which elements of international education need to be defended and promoted more now than ever before?
• How can an international education make the world a better place?
• What is the role of information technology in today’s expression of international education?

We hope that the conference will stimulate you to look further and search deeper for what it means to be internationally-minded in your schools and in your lives.

Speakers

We are delighted to announce that we have gathered an extremely distinguished panel of speakers for the conference:
 

	Martin Jacques Visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and author of When China Rules the World How China is changing the world and what this means for education
	Christine Ockrent Journalist and former COO of  the AEF, the French Television and Radio World Service A new Education for a new Europe
	Sugata Mitra Professor of Educational Technology at Newcastle University in the UK and Visiting Professor at MIT The Hole in the Wall: information literacy in the developing world

Who is this conference for?

This conference should interest educational administrators and policy makers, principals of both state and international schools, those involved in teacher education, and teachers in all types of school, as well as anyone interested in the future development of school education.

How to apply

Please complete the online registration form no later than 10th January 2012.

For further information, please contact Ms. Rosaline Marquis, ISG, on +41 (0)22 787 24 22 or at conference@ecolint.ch.