"There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter--the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something. Of these trembling cities the greatest is the last--the city of final destination, the city that is a goal. It is this third city that accounts for New York’s high strung disposition, its poetical deportment, its dedication to the arts, and its incomparable achievements. Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion" - EB White.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Assignment G- Globalization

I believe that the teaching and learning concepts in Preparing Citizens for a Global Community, a position statement presented by the National Council for the Social Studies addresses the concerns about the impact of globalization on education as outlined by M. Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard’s article Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium. Both recognize that globalization is changing the world, and that the current education system needs to be rethought in order to prepare students to engage in this changing world.
Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard believe that in order to prepare students for the changes that are taking place due to globalization, education needs to develop students’ cognitive skills, interpersonal sensibilities, and cultural sophistication (3). Students need to be able to understand the global system, have the ability to think analytically and creatively both within and outside disciplinary boundaries, have knowledge of the culture and traditions of others as well as respect for ones own cultural traditions, be able to cultivate hybrid identities, and foster tolerance and appreciation across racial, linguistic, national, and cultural boundaries (23-24).
The NCSS thinks that social studies can be means of providing students with a global and international education. Global and international education aims for students to: gain knowledge of world cultures; understand the historical, geographic, economic, political, cultural, and environmental relationships among world regions and people; examine the nature of cultural differences and national or regional conflicts; act to influence public policy and private behavior on behalf of international understanding; act with tolerance and empathy (2). In order to engage students in global education, educators should use an interdisciplinary approach, take advantage of technology, use primary sources from other countries, include “internationally experienced” members of the community in the classroom, emphasize interactive methodology (Model U.N. etc), address global issues, and encourage multiple perspectives (7).
The NCSS addresses the concerns about globalization that were presented by Suarez-Orozco and Qin-Hilliard. The NCSS agrees that the world is rapidly changing, information technology is increasing contact among people, political changes have lead to increased interaction among governments and a growing influence of Non-Government Organizations, and that the world economy is progressively more connected and interdependent. Students need to be able to learn about, appreciate, and tolerate people of different cultures. The NCSS also agrees that in order to prepare students to successfully engage in the globalized world, an interdisciplinary approach is required and that students need to be able to approach global issues from multiple perspectives. What are missing from each article are models and methods for transferring these ideas into the classroom. While it is important to be aware of problems that exist in education; it does teachers little good if there are no models for implementing these new approaches into the curriculum.

Articles Cited:
Suarez-Orozco, M and Qin-Hilliard D (2004) Globalization: Culture and Education in the New Millennium , Berkeley, CA: Univ of CA Press

NCSS, Preparing Citizens for a Global Community
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2 comments:

Ali said...

Kevin -

You do a good job at outlining the key features of S-O & Q-H's argument and the NCSS teaching & learning concepts. I agree that neither provide strategies for translating these abstract concepts into concrete classroom practice, but I hope your experience at HSSIS has given you some ideas on how this might be done.

Ali

November 16, 2008 at 7:10 PM
Kevin said...

I believe that the changes that the NCSS ans S-O & Q-H article suggest are happening organically in classrooms. One of the great things about teaching is that institutional changes are not required for change to occur in the classroom. Teachers, especially Social Studies teachers, understand that globalization is changing the world, and I believe that they are doing their best to prepare their students, with or without the help of school administrations.
At HSSIS we have students who participate in model UN, many of our Social Studies teachers approach global and national issues from multiple perspectives, and our SLP encouraged tolerance (I hate that word) and for students to think globally about issues (Human Rights). Most of this happens without the support (and at times in spite of) the school administration.

December 13, 2008 at 8:24 AM

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