The Heart of Global Education: The Philosophy

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

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

• 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
  
  

Globalization - Fear or Freedom

My neighbor Gloria, a sixty eight year old woman refuses to buy any goods at her local Wal-Mart store. She adamantly says “I do not want to be their patron; they have taken away business from small shops in our town”. Reflecting on her comment I sense that there is a fear of globalization in small towns of USA especially where the labor jobs have been sent away to China, India and other developing countries. This comment from my neighbor inspired me to search for more information. As an educator I realized that globalization is indeed changing the face of America and how we deal with it today will determine what kind of life our children will have tomorrow.

Globalization is complex. It is complex because it has created interdependence at all levels of society. At economic level it refers to multinational companies of developed nations using labor from developing countries, hence creating a shift in types of jobs and productivity in the US; at political level these big companies have been accused of gaining power beyond boundaries of nation states hence threatening the nation state power structure; and at cultural level it refers to mixing of cultural values of people across the globe.

Although there is much dialog over the Web about positives and negatives of globalization, I believe globalization is about us – the people. I do not want to give into the fear of unknown outcomes of this global revolution; rather I want to focus on what I can do to deal with it. With Internet connectivity, people can communicate with other people anywhere, seek out relationships at all levels, and exercise individual freedom of expression and influence masses if they want to. That is empowering and at individual level I want to center on that.

Furthermore, a study, done in 1999, to generate curriculum recommendations from multinational perspective, reported the following challenges that we should monitor as we teach:

• The economic gap among countries and between people within countries will widen significantly. This means the gap between rich and poor will widen.
• Information technologies will dramatically reduce the privacy of individuals.
• The inequalities between those who have access to information technologies and those who do not will increase dramatically. This refers to digital divide that is already dividing people in the US.
• Poverty in developing countries will increase. Poverty and homelessness is at rise in the US as well.
• Conflict of interest between developing and developed nations will increase due to environmental deterioration.
• The cost of obtaining adequate water will rise dramatically due to population growth and environmental deterioration
• Deforestation will dramatically affect diversity of life, air, soil, and water quality (Parker, Ninomiya, and Cogan, 1999, p.125)

I believe that these trends are interdependent and have direct implications for educators in the classroom:

1. Students and teachers need to view all areas across the curriculum from a global perspective. Connecting the dots from events in one country to the events in our country.
2. All students should have the access to technology in school and also should be taught to solve problems in meaningful ways. Thinking critically and strategically is the key here.
3. Students should be taught social skills to deal with cultures other than our own, and to maintain a proper conduct while communicating with people across the globe via technology.
4. Students should be made aware of the issue of equality and inequality and critically examine their civic responsibility as citizens living in their local communities and the global community.
5. Last but not the least, students should be taught to see connections between the world problems and our citizenship in terms of environment and use of natural resources. (More on this later)

Interdependence suggests that we must accept that we are not alone. What would I say to a parent who feels the same as my neighbor Gloria does? I would say, old jobs are not coming back, and if they did we would not be able to afford basic necessities of life today. However we can embrace it; we can read, we can learn, we can understand the economic, social, and political forces in this new global world, and use our freedoms to help prepare our children to live in it successfully.

Reference
Parker, W. C., Ninomiya, A., and Cogan, J. (1999). Educating world citizens: Towards multinational curriculum development. American Research Journal 36,(2) 117-148.