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Changing world order: Alternative perspectives relative to the future of education Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Bell-Jones, Jacqueline, 1951- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 02/10/2021 15:55:01 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282365 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter frice, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnation Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 CHANGING WORLD ORDER: ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES RELATIVE TO THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION by Jacqueline Bell-Jones A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION WITH A MAJOR IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 9 7 DMI NiJinber: 9738932 UMI Microform 9738932 Copyright 1997, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by jacqueline Bell-Jones entitled Changing World Order: Alternative Perspectives Relative to the Future of Education and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation Degree of Doctor of Education S-t!i 1-97 Date Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's st1brnission of th~ final copy of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby c~rtify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my dire tion and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation Date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or' the Dean of the Graduate_ College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. 4 DEDICATION Giving all praise, honor, and glory to God, Infinite Oneness, who gave me all that I needed to write this document. This dissertation is dedicated: To my family. Who nurtured the dream; To my close friends. Who encouraged it; To my husband, Who supported it; To my children. Who will build it; To my grandchildren. Who will fulfill it. Thank you, thank you all, very much, for your love, support, strength, and perseverance. I share this degree with you, who made the completion of all this a reality. A special thank you to my committee, especially to Dr. Frank Felix for his support, guidance, and great wisdom. Jacqueline Victoria Bell-Jones 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT 7 1. PROLOGUE AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 8 Prologue 8 A Historical Perspective 10 The Flawed Concept of an "Information Society" 11 The Changing Role of Work 15 The Case of the United States 17 Chronic Unemployment and Underemployment 23 Unemployment in a Different Perspective 26 The Functions of Work 30 Toward a Solution to the Work Dilemma... 33 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 39 Decline and Transformation 40 The Whole System Perspective 44 Assumptions 45 Inseparability of Environmental and Other Problems 46 Environment and Jobs 48 The Issue of Growth 50 Productivity 52 Technological Advance 53 Competition and Self-interest 54 Ownership 55 Concentration of Power 56 Rate of Return on Investment 57 3. METHODOLOGY 60 The Plausibility of Learning Society.... 60 The Global Gambling Casino 67 Economic Values and Economic Logic 69 The Dilemma Restated 71 The Nature of the Needed System Change 72 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS—Continued Page 3. The Goal of Modern Society 77 Cultural Change and the New World View 79 4. DISCUSSION 84 Educational Recommendations for the Future 86 Summary of the Situation 88 Underlying Assumptions 88 Desired Goals 89 The Pathfinding Project 84 A Collaborative Inquiry Based at The Institute of Noetic Science - San Francisco, California 94 5. CONCLUSION 99 REFERENCES 102 7 ABSTRACT To understand what the future requirements of education are to be, one m.ust examine education from a new perspective. One of the keys in understanding that the challenge facing education is recognizing that it is, in fact, a tool of the industrial world and is therefore tied to its capitalistic economic vision. The vision for the future is one in which the new world order is based on an age of ideas and information. Institutions of education have, over the years, evolved and emerges as the primary force in the transmittal of ideas. In this process of transmittal, it assigns value to those ideas which further the interest, goals, and means of western economics (capitalism). Future policy issues should address global economic concerns. Education must take into consideration the role that economics plays in the development of its curriculum. Furthermore, it must assume a position of leadership in the information age, where the validity of ideas will drive economy. 8 CHAPTER 1 PROLOGUE AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Prologue Closest passage was still hours away when Weaver drifted into the transparent half-bubble which occupied the twilight facet of his family's lodge. He adjusted the alignment of two of the membrane screens and, satisfied with the resulting privacy, deployed his hammock between them. No, I'll never be ungrateful for such a view of the stars, he realized, staring past the looming globe already too large to cover with the hand of an outstretched arm. But it is exciting to see a planet so close. He anticipated the coming delicious terror of falling-a sensation rarely felt by those born, bred, and raised in free-fall between worlds. Someday our lodge may raise a child to walk the future surface of that earth. ....A century before, when the planet now called Arkady was constructed from a guided collision between Mercury and Callisto, Weaver's family had been prospecting some likely looking asteroids on the outer edge of the Belt, some of which had been perturbed into new orbits by the 9 final close passages of Callisto between its theft from Jupiter and its marriage with Mercury. The lodge had come across another lodge, broken and burrowed into a small asteroid. Its inhabitants-all three hundred-had been dead for centuries. According to records they'd found aboard, most of the miners had been earthborn emigrants-and the transition to deep-spacing had been too great a psychic leap for their instincts and skills. Genetically, I'm a first generation spacefarer, he had often thought to himself. That had never meant anything in behavioral terms, until this present moment. ....This body could feel at home on a planet. Weaver thought, distracted momentarily by the arrival of siblings in the viewing room(he could tell where they had been at school-they were still chattering in Napoleonic French). The world's not for me-I haven't the muscles of a mudfoot, or the reflexes-but my unborn child-he or she should be the one. 10 He had seen all he wanted of Arkady, and unhooked his hammock, leaving room for others at the window. This view-and his vow-would remain with him for the rest of his life. Above Arkady, 2771 A.D. New Earths, by James Edward Obeng A Historical Perspective The Space Age heralded much about the coming "Information Society"; in all the industrialized countries of the world, a great change began to take place, involving a shift of emphasis from industrial production to providing services and information. By the late 1970's, it seemed obvious that in a decade or two, computers and robots would be ubiquitous, and the great majority of workers would be primarily involved with activities relating to information generation and processing.