Examines the coincident nature of recent educational reforms (multiculturalism, skills training, curricular redesign, school choice) in Canada and four other Anglophone democracies as related to two forms of globalization: economic globalization and global rationalization and standardization. Concludes that globalization is transforming education by squeezing power from the "middle" (professional educators) and redistributing it to centralized authorities and local groups. (SV)