Abstract

This paper presents a philosophical analysis of the future challenges of education in globalization through a comparative approach to three paradigms: neoliberal, cosmopolitan, and critical. Through the use of a paradigm-analytical and critical hermeneutic approach, the study explores how each of these concepts represents education, knowledge, and the educational subject, and what globalization could mean for education in terms of meaning and practice. The neoliberal paradigm emphasizes education as an economic investment, knowledge as capital, and the educational subject as human capital, with a focus on the instrumentalization of learning. The cosmopolitan paradigm describes education as an ethical and civic project that encourages global citizenship, moral responsibility, and intercultural solidarity, whereas the critical paradigm contextualizes education within power relations and acknowledges both its contributions to new inequalities and its emancipatory possibilities. The research uncovers the conceptual pluralism and philosophical contradictions of these paradigms and shows that the future of education cannot be reduced to a one-dimensional model. The need to adopt a critical-reflexive perspective is indicated in this research by making clear the ontological, normative, and ethical assumptions of each perspective and by providing them with a theoretically informed basis for comprehending education under conditions of globalization.