related: politics of openness, economics of openness and technologies of openness.
All of these elements have practical, political and normative implications in edu-
cational policy texts, and have shape the new rhetorical agencies of teachers.
Let me introduce an example from the Norwegian core curriculum that shows a
combination of these concerns. The new global science and vastness of knowledge
production and its distribution present new threats in the form of“Scientific anal-
phabetism”or“Scientific Illiteracy”. The government introduced vital curriculum
goals to address the potential problems of globalisation and science dependency in
society. Open technology, global mass culture, new economy and a politics of
openness demand a new agency in teachers. A vital part of this rhetorical agency of
teaching relates to the ethical and global democratic demands of educating pupils to
be a part of an international culture of learning that equips them for new universal
endeavours.
Theflows between nations–of ideas and instruments, of capital and commodities, of
materials and machines–have become more extensive, formidable and inexorable. [...]
A research-based society risks becoming increasingly driven by technology. Theflow of
technological facts andfindings requires learning to avoid“scientific illiteracy”–the
inability to comprehend words like“gene splicing”,“ozone layer”or“immune system”,
and what social consequences they augur.
Networks of information are continuously being augmented; networks that bind together
firms and organizations, countries and continents, are constantly being built. [...]
The international culture of learning links humanity together through the development and
use of new knowledge to better the human condition. Adults living now and the young
growing up today must acquire the vision and wisdom which [to] equip them for
such universal endeavors, especially those that can help the world’s destitute. (KUF 1993 ,
pp. 27–28)These curriculum demands for primary and secondary education in Norway also
deeply affected teacher education. There was a strong government demand for the
training and involvement of teacher students in scientific methods and theory, the use
of modern technology, and the combining of national teacher training with studies
abroad, all in an extended for of training to address these education challenges.
Together with the demand for the development of a global teacher agency,
requiring sharing, global orientation and the use of new technology, a quite con-
tradictory demand was also introduced which become, particularly during the
1990s, a demanding strongly government-controlled agency.
24.4 The State as a State of Mind: The Teachers
as State Agents
A stronger emphasis on the teacher as a rhetorical agent was implemented in the
national curriculum, together with the global agency. This was a controversial act.
The agency of globalisation was challenging, but a rather free and open rhetorical
24 The Paradox of Teacher Agency in a Glocalised World 361