Global Consciousness and Citizenship By Anju Jolly

We can safely say that globalization has caused us to concern with increased interdependence, interconnectedness and cultural diversity in the world. Although preparing students for employment is an important aspect of schooling, education also prepares students for citizenship, which means teaching them the civic and moral responsibilities. Citizenship, civic and moral responsibilities in a global world have to extend beyond our borders. As moral citizens we must not ignore that while we have abundance of food and prosperity in the US, there are thousands of people in other parts of the world who still live in poverty. While we complain about illegal immigrants in the US from Mexico, we must not forget that they leave Mexico because they are living a life of poverty and unemployment worst than the poor people experience here in the US. While we liberally use energy to meet our daily needs, we must not forget that energy is not going to last forever. While we continue to be a throwaway society, we cannot sustain landfills indefinitely.

I am not saying that we should be the 'saviors' for the world, however I am saying that we must be conscientious of the long terms impact of our habits, and also the difficulties experienced by our world neighbors, and do whatever we can to participate in world citizenship to alleviate these difficulties through personal and local action as much as we can, and also teach our students the same.

In essence, we can no longer 'mind our own business' without having to worry about how our actions impact others around the globe and how our lives are impacted by the actions of others around the globe. This week we will discuss the idea of global consciousness and citizenship.
So what is Global citizenship? In simple terms global citizenship is primarily a matter of economics, protecting the earth for ourselves and the future generations, accepting and working with diversity, and peace education (Noddings, 2005). So global citizenship deals with moral and ethical responsibilities we must carry out and also teach our children, to sustain healthy and happy life on earth. It not only provides a broader perspectives to our students to prepare themselves for jobs anywhere any place in the world it also prepares them to exercise responsible citizenship.

(Note - This definition of global citizenship is much different than the one that is criticized by the conservative politicians. What politicians like Newt Gingrich criticize is global citizenship where we pledge allegiance to some international alliance between countries like the UN or EU instead of the constitution of the United states. The definition in this course suggests to maintain our allegiance to the flag of the US. Along with that, if we are to work and communicate in the world outside the united states, then we must be willing to treat others the same as we want to be treated. )

Brenda Dyer & Brenda Bushell (1996) in their article titled World issue or World Perspective present five classic goals which constitute the "irreducible global perspective," if any of the five are not met, then the school is failing in part to address and prepare students for contemporary reality":

1. Perspective consciousness is the awareness that we each have a view of the world that is not universally shared and that the perspective of others has its own legitimacy.

2. Health of Planet awareness is an informed understanding of the concepts of justice, human rights and responsibilities in the health of society and of the planet. From the perspective of biocentrism, humans are one species within the planetary system and not in dominance over the planet.

3. Systems Consciousness is the ability to think in a systems mode with a holistic view of the interdependent nature of change and cause and effect.

4. Involvement Consciousness is the awareness of the ramifications of personal and collective choices.

5. Process-mindedness is the awareness that learning is a cooperative, open-ended journey.

Dyer and Bushell further claim that in global education, knowledge is not simply an understanding of each world issue in a list of discrete issues, but an awareness of the interconnections among these issues. Moreover, along with knowledge, the goals of global education increasingly emphasize values and attitudes. According to the National Council for the Social Studies in the U.S., the purpose of global education is to develop in youth the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to live effectively in a world possessing limited natural resources and characterized by ethnic diversity, cultural pluralism and increasing interdependence.
Angelo Carfagna (Spring, 2003) defines the skills for global citizens in more user-friendly words. He presents nine goals for globally competent learners developed by American council of International and Intercultural Education.

The globally conscientious learner is

1. Empowered by the experience of global education to help make a difference in society
2. Committed to lifelong global learning
3. Aware of diversity commonality and interdependence
4. Recognizes the geopolitical and economic interdependence of the world.
5. appreciates the impact of other cultures on American life
6. Accepts the importance of all people
7. Capable of working in diverse teams
8. Understands the non-universality of culture and values,
9. Accepts responsibility of global citizenship.

Carfagna further lists the competencies of global citizenship as,

1. Recognizing that you are a full member of a global community
2. Understanding how your actions impact others and how others' actions impact you
3. Having an attitude that is respectful of the diversity of human experiences
4. Being aware of the value and limitations of specific identities and being unafraid to go beyond them.
5. Possessing the ability to imagine and or experience yourself in another time and space
6. Recognizing the interconnectedness of economic, social political and environmental systems.
This week you will spend some time reading about global consciousness and reflecting about how to integrate it in your own curriculum without having to add more to your already demanding schedule.

References

Carfagna A. (Spring, 2003). Breaking down notions of us and them: Answering globalization with global learning. Fairleigh Dickenson University (FDU) Magazine.

Dyer B. & Bushell B. (1996) World issue or World Perspective. Language Teacher. retrieved from http://www.jalt-publications.org/tlt/files/96/nov/global.html

What is Globalization By Anju Jolly

I have found that many of my teacher colleagues and students do not understand what is globalization. So I am posting this essay to develop a better understanding and dialog about globalization.

When we hear the word Globalization (or globalisation), we tend to think about news stories of outsourcing to India, or rubber slippers with lead paint made in China, or contaminated tomatoes grown in Mexico. Some feel disgust with the word and others feel fearful. In fact globalization is much misunderstood in the educational circles because educators do not see connection between globalization and their everyday teaching. Globalization refers to people on the globe communicating with each other from anywhere, at any time, seamlessly on economic, political, cultural and technological planes of society. On economic plane, manufacturing companies can go to any country where labor is cheaper to produce goods and market those goods anywhere across the globe. On political plane there is greater exchange of opportunity and ideas between developed countries and developing countries. On cultural plane people from different countries are discovering new ways of relating to each other. And, the speed of communication on the technological plane makes it all possible.

Globalization connects directly or indirectly with many school related activities. To start the day, the rising cost of busing is influenced by the price of gas which is due to rise in energy use throughout the globe; many ingredients in the school lunches are made in countries outside of US; the drinks that are made available in the soda machines are there as a result of global branding culture, the cell phones IPods and computer devices that teachers and students are using are most likely made or assembled in China.

This undeniably points towards the interconnectedness and interdependence of countries, cultures, ideologies, languages and resources. Globalization thus “promotes not only the expansion of education but also its importance in everyday life in terms of both material production and life success” (Stromquist, 2002, p. viii). Teachers and parents need to connect the dots between global to the local. They need to understand the depth of globalization in order to see the importance of changing the way we thinking about teaching and learning.

Strands of Globalization

The classification here is not comprehensive however it does present the main tenets of globalization that have significance to education. These strands are not discrete and they overlap and interrelate in complex ways.

Economic Globalization

The hallmark of globalization has been in the area of business and commerce. In 1980 total world trade growth was at the rate of 4.5 percent annually. In 1990, the rate rose to 6.8% and the value of trade doubled to almost 8 trillion (Yergin & Stainslaw cited in Adams and Carfagna, p. 29). In 2004 the trade rate rose even more to 14% (WTO). Along with the EU countries, U.S. trade partners in South America include Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Dominican Republic. In east, along with India and China, US trade partners extend to Hong-Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and Philippines.

Another economic indication of globalization is that U.S. ownership of foreign assets increased sharply in last 15 years and foreign ownership of US assets increased even more. Today a little less than 50% of US assets in forms of treasuries, and bonds are owned by foreign countries like China and Japan. This has great implications for teaching children about personal finances and importance of money management. These children will grow up and may serve in leadership roles, and need to understand the ethical values related to stewardship of personal and public finances.

Along with increased trade, imports of information due to outsourcing is one of the most criticized activity. India accounts for more than 12% of imports of data processing and IT services. Although India is the largest supplier of IT services, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan may also be following for outsourcing (USTIC, 2003). Because outsourcing offers a cheaper solution to IT companies, it poses competition for U.S. based IT consultants. In order to be successful they have to either engage in coming up with creative entrepreneurship or settle for low paying job for which they may be over qualified. This has significant implication in the classroom for teacher to provide activities with divergent thinking, creativity and entrepreneurship.

So it is clear that economic globalization is driven by trade and commerce, by currency exchange rates, and by cost and availability of labor (Humes, W. 2008). The most astounding part of economic globalization is that multinational companies that manage production and deliver services in more than one country can exert a great degree of power over our lives; more power than the states and nation governments can. For example McDonalds, Wall Mart, General Electric, Boeing, Coca cola, Cisco, and Kodak are some examples of multinational companies. Multinational companies are mostly driven by profits and their loyalties are to the global market and not to any national policies. This has direct implications on us. This sends jobs out of the United States and creates unemployment at home. At the same time it also brings goods into the US which are cheaper and affordable for us. Also, multinational companies' use of cheap labor elsewhere, leads to reduction in the tax contribution that employment brings for us. Goods sold by an American company might have parts made in China, those parts then assembled in Mexico and finally sold through the Internet all over the world.

All this has indirect implication that relate to our identity. What is our local, regional and national identity. We will talk about that more later in this course.

Political Globalization

This refers to the role that political organizations play that are above and beyond any one national government in making policies that influence us. For example transnational agencies like The World Health Organization (WHO), World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), United Nations (UN), these are all political organizations that exist for the purpose of improving lives in third world countries by bringing them some benefits of advanced democracies such as rights of child, women's education etc. however these are seen by some as the political elite that create policies that set priorities for the world and as a result poor countries at time are worst off. (Search out on the Web news clips about NAFTA Agreement in Seattle).

Movement Across Borders

In last 20 years, the number of international migrants around the world has increased 200 percent, from 100 to 200 million per year. According to the UN at least 2.2 million migrants will arrive in the rich world every year from now until 2050. In addition, mobility is further enhanced with people traveling more and more, and communicating internationally across the globe. Today there are more than ten thousand Americans (unofficial count) living in China. This kind of massive movement and mixing, restructures relationships and lifestyles. Today’s children will be living in a world where daily communicating with people of cultures and countries other than the US will be a norm. Some may even need to speak other languages. Also more immigrants coming to this country places greater burdens for schools to educate them through ESL education or bilingual education

Cultural Globalization

Where there is mixing of people of different cultures, there is influence of one culture on another. Globalization has brought American culture and our brand of freedom across the world. It is often referred to the trend towards standardization of taste in things, fashions, popular culture, music, film, television. This means that everyone has access to greater variety in things such as customs and attitudes (Humes, 2008). On the flip side, assessing liberal values of one culture encourages trends where people question their morality, values as well as traditions. This presents particular challenge to schools that are traditionally used to promoting one brand of democratic values.

Technological Globalization

This relates to the rapid advances in information technology. Not only we have massive information about any topic any time on the Web, we can send information instantly across the globe, can carry out virtual meetings, make phone calls, do shopping online, do banking online, socialize online through face book or U Tube or Twitter, pay taxes online and even seek out a doctor's expertise online, all with the click of a button.

Borrowing from Nelly Stromquist (2003, p. xxi), globalization is moving us towards a ‘knowledge society’. Knowledge society is not a new phenomenon. Societies have generated knowledge for many reasons throughout histories. One is for national defense. The other is for exploration, and yet another is to seek renewed solutions to old problems. Information revolution has downside; it subjects the minds of our students to advertisements and propaganda of ideas that shape their young minds. Additionally, with the availability of information at fingertips, it also takes away the monopoly the educational institutions used to have in dispensing knowledge. This has implications to educators in how they must teach young people to provide media literacy, to evaluate information that they read and see on the Web, and also to exercise social responsibility in communicating their ideas and acting out their urges on the internet.

Collectively all these strands pose a great challenge on the schools and teachers to prepare students for working and living in the globalized world. This narrative provides a start of a dialogue between you, the teachers, and the globalized world . As we go through the course we will continue to build upon this basic organization to expand your understanding and identify problems associated with it and seek solutions to prepare our students for it.

References

Humes, W. (2008) the Discourse of global citizenship; Philosophy Theory and pedagogy. In M.A. Peters and Britton, A. Blee, H. ( Eds) Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy Theory and Pedagogy. 41-52

Stromquist, N. (2002) Education in a Globalized world: A connectivity of economic power technology and knowledge. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. Inc

Adams, Michael J. & Carfagna, Angelo (2006) Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation. Bloomfield CT: Kumerian Press Inc