Living Together: Globalisation,
Education and Intercultural Dialogue
In this blog post I will outline the meaning of
globalisation and to what extent it has impacted on Australian education.
Globalisation has created a global village whereby cultures are evolving and
integrating with others creating both positive and negative discourses. During the last decade, schooling policy has had to increasingly grapple
with processes that have a global reach.
According to Albrow “Globalisation refers to all those
processes by which the peoples of the world are incorporated into a single
world society, global society” (Albrow & King, 1990, p. 9)
“The cultural interactions arising from increased contact
between peoples have transformed our experience of cultural meanings and
knowledge. Ultimately this led to an immense expansion in the scope and spread
of abstract knowledge linked to science and the growing availability of mass,
formal education. The electronic mass media enable even those who lack
education to encounter new ideas and experiences”. (Chapter 2 thinking
globally:45)
-
it is possible to lift cultural meanings ou of
their orginal societal contexts and transplant them into others.
-
Knowledge about other peoples cultures
Joseph Zajda (2012) suggest that while there is some general
consensus on globalisation as a multi-faceted ideological construct defining a
convergence of cultural, economic and political dimensions ("global
village" now communicates global culture), there are significant
differences in discourses of globalisation, partly due to differences of
theoretical, ideological, and disciplinary perspectives.
This draws upon Foulcault’s ideas of discourses in
education, both structuralist and postmodernist theories. Also Giroux 2006
further establishes identity and culture discourses. Discourse, as defined by
Foucault, refers to “ways of constituting knowledge, together with the social
practices, forms of subjectivity and power relations which inhere in such knowledge’s
and relations between them”. (Weedon, 1987, p. 108).
In order to live globally and have this intercultural
dialogue in education, students must decide how they feel about other cultures.
Robertson (1992:100) suggests that we can respond to the reality by selection,
adaption or resistance.
In my opinion globalisation has created a global village
where students are able to interrelate through different discourses of culture
and identity, providing greater knowledge. My school was culturally diverse and
understanding other religions and traditions certainly provided greater
knowledge to me.
To conclude there is global migration challenges to
education. Nation-building & homogenisation of diverse populations has been
one of the key tasks allocated to formal education. In the context of global
mobility & the transnational processes to which it has given rise, the idea
of the existence of a single, homogeneous, national cultural identity has been
challenged, schools are expected to deal with complex, multiple identities, they
are urged to shape “global citizens”.
References:
Videos:
- Nayan Chanda’s presentation, Globalization in the Mirror of History
- Part 1 Part 2 (Flash Player required)
- PBS documentary: The Commanding Heights--Episode Three: The New
Rules of the Game - Chapter 15: The Global Debate (2:49) and Chapter 16:
The Battle Joined (5:08)
- PBS documentary: The Commanding Heights--Episode Three: The New
Rules of the Game - Chapter 18: The Global Divide (2:33)
- MacArthur Program Director John Slocum discusses the issues
surrounding global migration and human mobility (3:29)
Hattam, R., & Every, D. (2010). Teaching in
fractured classrooms: refugee education, public culture, community and ethics. Race
Ethnicity and Education, 13(4), 409-424. doi: 10.1080/13613324.2010.488918
Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist practice and
poststructuralist theory. Oxford, UK: B. Blackwell.
Unknown. (2013). Untitled. [online] Retrieved from:
http://moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au/pluginfile.php/412744/mod_book/chapter/16834/Thinking.Globally_Ch.2%28Cohen.Kennedy.2007%29.pdf
[Accessed: 27 Oct 2013].
Zajda, J. (2012). Living Together: Globalisation,
Education and Intercultural Dialogue | University of Western Sydney (UWS).
[online] Retrieved from: http://www.uws.edu.au/equity_diversity/equity_and_diversity/tools_and_resources/conference_documents/living_together_globalisation,_education_and_intercultural_dialogue
[Accessed: 27 Oct 2013].
Albrow,
M. & E. King (1990). Globalization, Knowledge, and Society: Readings
from International Sociology. London, UK, Sage Publications.
By manuel angelopoulos
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