Globalisation and open and distance learning: possibilities and problems for nomadic and traveller education

Abstract

[Abstract]: Globalisation is a ‘hot topic’, engendering widely ranging analysis and emotion. Globalisation, particularly in concert with open and distance learning, is claimed by some commentators to promote the recognition and valuing of difference and by others to perpetuate the marginalisation of groups who deviate from ‘the norm’. This debate applies also to the education of nomads and Travellers such as pastoralists and circus and fairground or show people. In some cases, their mobility is effectively articulated with global flows and crossing national boundaries; in other cases, that mobility is seen as damaging to economic development, particularly in ‘Third World’ countries. The argument is illustrated by six national studies of nomadic and Traveller education in Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe (Danaher, 2000a). The paper concludes that attending to the sociocultural and political, as much as to the financial and technological, dimensions of globalisation is crucial if the possibilities for nomadic and Traveller education are to be realised and if the problems are to be minimised. Central to that process is the nomads’ and Travellers’ capacity to set the educational agenda for themselves.