Educational philosophies play an important role in curriculum development. They provide a foundational framework for organizing a curriculum. For globalization perspective to sink into the consciousness of educators we need to address this at a philosophical level. Purpose of public schooling is to raise our children to live in a democratic way of life. According to Dewey, “democratic society is participatory and emergent.” The participatory part refers to understanding the precepts of democracy, analyzing social political issues and acting independently in the interest of society as well as personal life. The emergent part refers to anticipating the emerging changes of social and political events and deal with them accordingly. Consequently, democratic society offers us a culture where citizens are free to pursue their interests, exercise their rights, and take responsibilities for their actions. It also provides us choices, and as citizens we make informed choices as we pursue life, liberty and happiness. Globalization has changed the way we act, work, and communicate with others. I strongly believe that this democratic purpose may not fully realize for the next generation if we do not prepare our children to deal with the realities of globalization.
The renewed framework that I propose, demands that we create a shift in the approach to education. We need to prepare our students with dual identities; an identity as an American citizen and also an identity as a citizen of the world. This I call making of Global Citizens, which encompasses both identities. The term ‘global citizens’ is alarming to some people. They fear that perhaps this will destroy our allegiance to the American flag. That is not the case. The concept of ‘Global Citizens’ focuses upon positive change that unites us as one humanity and one earth, and it is more uniting than separating. Global Citizenship is not something that replaces our traditional bonds with our country rather it extends a global dimension to it. A global citizen is more aware of the wider world, views all cultures and people as connected, respects and values diversity, and considers impacts of his/her actions on people across the world (Adams & Cargfagna, 2006). At the same time, a global citizen is still obligated to protect the rights and responsibilities of the democracy that he/she is endowed with as an American.
One of my friends, a physician, remarked once that he believes in treating all patients who come to his door, regardless of their insurance, because "human pain does not discriminate". Rich or poor both hurt the same when they are sick. That is a uniting factor. Anytime any of my students feel apathetic towards others I always remind them that people from other cultures feel sadness, experience love, hurt and pain, just like we do. A global citizen views all people with this uniting view.
The shift in foundational perspective of global citizenship lies in the following ideas. I recommend these ideas should be churning in the background, in everything we teach
- World interdependence: All ideas should be taught as inter-connected and related to the world outside our own microcosm. Connections are everywhere, and we can use our ingenuity and creativity to use connections to create solutions to our advantage.
- World Diversity: Cross cultural awareness is necessary to communicate with others and to find new solutions. A basic idea of acceptance and respect does not mean we reject our own ideas. Rather it is acceptance of the fact that people of other cultures may offer solutions that we have not consider. Learn from that and adapt it to our lives to solve problems. Take what works and ignore what does not.
- Change : Children should be taught how to learn new skills and knowledge to get along successfully as the time changes. It is the ease by which we are willing to learn new skills is what is important. In the 80s, when Japan was exporting massive technology to US, we thought learning Japanese would be a great thing. In the 90s some programs were offering French and Spanish so our students can work in Europe. Now it is Arabic and Mandarin. The idea here is that languages are important and not only should our students learn at least one other language, the students should also know how to learn a new one if the situation changes.
- Equity and Justice: As we teach equity and justice in our nation same principles apply to all people.
This is not an exhaustive list but it is a start. At an individual level education should provide activities that would make our students live life to the fullest. Check out the teaching link for Apple Learning I added, it has some very wonderful ideas to teach from global perspective.
Anju Jolly, Ed.D.
References
References
- Adams, Michael J. & Carfagna, Angelo (2006) Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation. Bloomfield CT: Kumerian Press Inc
- Dewey, John (1916) Democracy and Education, New York: McMillan
5 comments:
Dr. Jolly:
I believe that one of the best ways we (speaking as a secondary school teacher) can help develop global citizens is to teach more non-perishible skills. Rather than typing, shorthand, drafting etc. we should be focusing on things like critical thinking, summarization, study skills, rhetoric etc.
We seem to focus on the skills we need now (Japanese in the '80s in your example) and by the time we ramp up our educational delivery system for those skills, they are no longer in demand.
Don Dunlap
Dr. Jolly,
I thought that you might enjoy this blog post that I read recently on global education. Check it out at http://beyond-school.org/2008/01/12/beyond-global-collaborative-units-on-to-real-plns-podcast-with-chris-craft/.
Hello Jim,
I assume it is Jim Spatara from Sharon? Right?
Good to hear from you Jim.
I have lost your gmail address.
But this was a nice blog you shared, thanks for sharing it. Did you know that there is a job opening in Seoule Korea at the International school?
Hey if you are still footlose, you should try it. :)
Anyway thanks for reading my blog. Visit again. Ask Dan to visit it as well.
Anju Jolly
I am becoming more and more convinced that globalization will have a profound impact on how we will ultimately live. Thomas Freidman brings up an interesting point. “Twenty years ago would you rather be a C student living in Los Angles or an A student living in Bangalore?” The answer back then was obvious. Today the answer is not as clear. The internet has changed everything. And I for one think it is an exciting time to live. Change is a scary thing, but it must be dealt with.
Education, I agree must change. Talk to most educators in America today and the conversation centers around two themes, one, hoping that jobs will come back and the turbulent times will somehow slow down. The other theme is acquiescence into a slow demise. Betting on hope is always a poor bet and conceding defeat is unacceptable. We need to face the harsh reality that change is not only inevitable but upon us now, and that success is not a zero sum game were you are either a winner or a loser. Prosperity for China, and India does not have to translate into despair for the United States.
A complete paradigm shift is in order. You are absolutely right that it needs to start with a sound philosophy. The philosophies of the past will not work. We can not afford the cyclical change to which education is accustomed. Recycling old programs and relabeling them will not work. Globalization is a liner phenomenon for which the end is not in sight.
Education must come up with new and innovative ways of dealing with the present and future worlds of our. This is not an easy task. Teachers are as Will Richardson describes in his book Blogs, Wikkis and Podcasts are "digital immigrants". They are trying to assimilate into a digital culture. Teachers are struggling with this task.
I believe that part of the problem is part of the solution, the internet and the connectively that it provides will lead to a viable solution. The internet allows a democratization of ideas; no longer will a select few be dictating educational pedagogy to the masses. Instead, the collective intelligence of the masses is how this problem will be solved. Globalization is truly a two edged sword.
I agree that our students need to be more open minded to the things that happen outside their little world. I feel that our schools are so worried about preparing the students for today and not the future. By that I mean that we focus on internal structures of society. We tend not to look outside of our boundaries to help the development of our children. It is amazing how many of my students have no knowledge of the world outside Western Pa. let alone the U.S.
I try to incorporate every bit of my experiences from traveling and dealing with foreign students and businessmen in the hope that the kids understand that there are different views.
It almost seems that the things mentioned in your blog (World interdependence & diversity) only come to those with resources. Coming from a rural school district I find it extremely hard to engage my students in discussions or even lecture on our global issues. This is because, as mentioned above, most of them don't have the resources to leave our community.
It's time to use the resources we have in order to give these students the type of system that will move us into the global world. I agree that revamping our educational system is needed, but who (what politician) is going to stand up and admit what we are doing is not working. That would be admitting that NCLB is a failure. Both you and I know that will never happen.
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