Political boundaries defended by nations are eroded by globalising networks and practices. An international discourse of school effectiveness dominates the public sphere, to the detriment of local and critical engagement. Challenged by social contexts, customs, policies, expectations and inertia, educators struggle with the culture and politics of education and, in the process, with the redefinition of its purposes and practices. Technical aspects of teaching and instruction are divorced from the values within education. The reduction of knowledge to skill, and reflection to competence, leaves little room for responsibility in teaching, learning and studying.
Pedagogy is a word used internationally.
But it means different things to different readers. Yet, whatever form it takes, pedagogy implies spaces for cultural action, transformations of the person and transformations of society. Transformations, however, are always mediated by emotional, material and intellectual contingencies. Such circumstances are never purely personal. Upbringing may be profoundly embedded and routinised.