McSchools for McWorld? Mediating global pressures with a McDonaldizing education policy response.

This paper argues that key education policy initiatives since the introduction of the National Curriculum in the UK are Government-mediated responses to pressures in the global knowledge economy. Successful implementation of these policies has required a change in the way in which education institutions and professionals are controlled and managed. George Ritzer's ‘McDonaldization’ thesis, a conceptualization of a dominant form of economic and cultural globalization, is outlined and it is then argued that national education policy has led to the ‘McDonaldization’ of the state school education system in England. Benjamin Barber's concept of ‘McWorld’ is used to represent the consumerist world which a narrowed educational vision seeks to serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]