Globalization and corporatization : the evolving nature of education

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between globalization, corporations, and education. Using the combined methods of Critical Autoethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis, this paper attempts to offer hope and alternatives to the current corporate-global order we find ourselves in. Five key areas are explored through the course of this paper. First, this paper studies the phenomenon known as globalization. Second, this paper studies the history of corporate interest in education. The need to situate such interests in the past is necessary in developing the pattern of domination that corporations have implicated themselves in regarding the educational community. Third, this paper explores the roots of globalization, that is, colonization. The colonization of earlier years is examined in comparison with the globalization of today. Essential to such a study is the impact upon North American indigenous populations as one of the original groups to experience colonization and now globalization. Of great significance is the alternative that First Nations educational beliefs offer to education. Fourth, this paper,as a case study, examines a more contemporary issue, and that is the contract that the University of British Columbia, The Alma Mater Society of The University of British Columbia, and Coca-Cola Bottling Ltd. signed in 1995. Exploration of the contract and its implications provides an opportunity to explore the dangers between corporate and educational partnerships. Finally, this paper focuses in on activities of dissent towards the current corporate-global order and how these signs of dissent equate into hope for a different tomorrow.Education, Faculty ofEducational Studies (EDST), Department ofGraduat