21st century skills in the United States: a late, partial and silent reform. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Anderson-Levitt, Kathryn
• Is Part Of: Comparative education. Number 57:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 99
• Page End: 114
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Twenty-first century skills -- competencies -- standards -- United States -- soft power -- world society; Education -- Periodicals; Comparative education -- Periodicals; 370.9
• DOI: 10.1080/03050068.2020.1845059
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0305-0068

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the history of US movements for competencies, often called 'twenty-first century skills', in international context. Ironically, US actors were a source of early ideas about competencies but 'late' adopters of a competency-added reform—a partial and silent policy incorporated within the Common Core State Standards of 2010. The US case might appear to support a realist theory that the country independently invented the same solution to the same problem addressed by other countries' competency-based reforms. However, this article shows that some US actors actually invited international influence, supporting the theory that the common problem was actually a social construction. In addition, soft power exercised by technology corporations partly explains how the solution of a competency-added curriculum was finally adopted by most US states.