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Global Citizenship
Since International
Baccalaureate is a vehicle for creating "global citizens,"
this study about "global citizenship education" will be of
interest to those researching IB. -- Since the founding of the Ecole Internationale de Genève (International School of Geneva, or Ecolint) under the League of Nations Charter in 1924, educators sought to create a model that would teach children to reach beyond these old paradigms to global citizenship. Only in 1962 however, would the creation of a new and unique model for global citizenship education emerge the United World Colleges. (p.1) -- ideological mission of creating global citizens (p.4) -- humanistic connections (p.8) -- This monograph explores whether and if so, how, teachers in the UWCs [United World Colleges] seek to educate students toward the values of global citizenship across the academic spectrum, while working within the framework of the IB (p. 9) --While the history of the IB is not the focus of this monograph, I would like briefly to note the important role that AC {UWC of the Atlantic} played in its creation. Alec Peterson, before becoming the first director of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and one of the key developers of the IB, had previously helped to develop the formal curriculum at AC. (p.11) -- Today, leadership in the organization includes Queen Noor of Jordan, Nelson Mandela, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Shelby Davis... (p.14) -- In the twenty-eight years since its publication, Hanveyıs (1975) article has become seminal to those who seek to challenge and improve the fields of both international and global citizenship education. Hanvey begins a dialogue with regard to defining the critical dimensions of a "global perspective" toward which he believes all humans should reach. He lists the following critical dimensions : 1) perspective consciousness, 2) "state of the planet" awareness, 3) cross-cultural awareness, 4) knowledge of global dynamics, and 5) awareness of human choices. ... universal values and ideals to which a global citizen must adhere. (p.21) -- Challenging the International Baccalaureate (IB) as too rooted in a "western humanist tradition," Walker (2000), the Director-General of the IB Organization (IBO), emphasizes the importance of relativism. He believes that in order to educate citizens for a globalizing world effectively, international schools must address and enforce the ideal that diversity must be respected and emphasized, not just tolerated. (p.22) -- "global schools" as places where students are educated about universal values and morals. (p.23) -- movement away from content knowledge and skills and toward values consistent with global citizenship. The exact nature of those values is key to the discussion, but the dialectic between universalism and relativism is one fundamental aspect. (p.23) -- IB as a Vehicle for Creating Global Citizens (p.24) -- The explicit mission of global citizenship education only reinforces the role of the teacher in translating that ideology to students. (p.28) -- Each area addresses an attitude, value, or habit of mind that global citizenship education seeks to imbue in students. (p.36) -- First, global citizenship education is not an individual subject to be taught in one class. Rather it is integrated into all disciplines, just as the processes of globalization reach into every area of life ... Second, and perhaps most importantly above all, the continuing development of global citizenship education cannot be a western, Euro-American monologue. (p.37) -- ³We live in a global village² (p.65) -- One other key area where the application of science reaches toward the values of global citizenship is in the central concept of ³Gaiaism.² (p.73) -- Global Citizenship Education through Literature (p.66) -- Global Citizenship Education through History (p.69) -- Global Citizenship Education through Science (p.72) --Teaching for Global Citizenship Education Across the Disciplines (p.75) -- . . . Teachersı Definitions of Global Citizenship Universalism and relativism . . . Interdependence of all life . . . Connection of the local and the global . . . Cross-cultural awareness. . . (p.65) Debbie ============ ========= ========= ========= == Global Citizenship Education in Practice: An Exploration of Teachers in the United World Colleges Andrew Mahlstedt Monograph International Comparative Education School of Education, Stanford University, August 2003 ============ ========= ========= ========= == EXCERPTS: Page iv: Abstract Increasing globalization calls for new forms to education to respond to emerging concepts of global citizenship. This study explores the question of whether, and if so how, education for the values of global citizenship is possible. Building a definition of global citizenship education from the growing literature, and supplementing these ideas with world society theory and curriculum theory, I examine one example of global citizenship education in practice the United World Colleges (UWCs). Through document analysis, questionnaires, and interviews, I detail the pedagogical processes by which teachers at the UWCs seek to educate students toward the values of global citizenship, in comparison with theories from the literature. I conclude that the methods used by UWC teachers do indeed work within the theories detailed in the literature, and create a snapshot of global citizenship education in practice. Page 1: 1. Introduction Emerging from the second great world war in 30 years a war whose fighting extended from Europe to Asia to North America to Africa the world faced a critical point in history. Religious missionaries, conquesting mercenaries, and political emissaries had increasingly traveled the globe for millennia, yet the end of the second world war advanced an explosive burst in the globalization of economic, political, military, cultural, and social interconnections. The creation of the United Nations in 1945, and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights signed in 1948, called politically into question for the first time the idea that there exist certain universal norms to which all members of the global community have a right, despite potentially opposing national or local norms. Yet this paradigm shift from local and national to global citizenship has not come so easily as the signing of the Declaration. Since the founding of the Ecole Internationale de Genève (International School of Geneva, or Ecolint) under the League of Nations Charter in 1924, educators sought to create a model that would teach children to reach beyond these old paradigms to global citizenship. Only in 1962 however, would the creation of a new and unique model for global citizenship education emerge the United World Colleges. Old concepts of nationalism die hard, and it is going to require a new and broad perspective of attitudes of future generations enabling them to think quite naturally in terms of their responsibilities as world citizens. In that connexion the United World Colleges are helping in pioneering work of great significance. --U Thant, Secretary-General of the United Nations (1961-1971), 1971 Page 2: In 1962, the United World College of the Atlantic took the first steps toward education for global citizenship. The United World Colleges (UWCs) respond not to the practical needs of a local and national community, as most schools do, but rather to the mission of educating global citizens. Despite their ³pioneering work,² however, no one has yet sought to define how teachers in the UWCs seek to educate students toward the values of global citizenship. Many have written about the role of education in creating values consistent with national citizenship. Concurrently, many have written on the increasing interconnectedness of global institutions, generally referred to as the process of globalization. However, few have researched the interconnection of these two realms global citizenship education. As globalization continues to spread, it becomes increasingly crucial to understand current models of global citizenship education. In this monograph, I thus research the teaching of the formal academic education of the United World Colleges (UWCs) in order to explore global citizenship education in practice. While the focus of this research is the teachers and their enacted curriculum, I will also examine the externally developed and assessed curriculum of the UWCs, the International Baccalaureate (IB), as it sets the guidelines by which teachers design the formal curriculum. My central research questions focus broadly on defining global citizenship, and specifically on understanding whether or not teachers in the UWCs educate students toward the values of global citizenship while working within the guidelines created by the IB. I seek to understand whether or not it is possible, and if so how, to educate students toward the values of global citizenship while working within traditional academic disciplines. Embedded within the research focus then, is an exploration the balance and potential tension between universalism, or the values of Page 3: common humanity, and relativism, or the celebration of local cultures and traditions. This theme becomes prevalent through the monograph. In the next section I explore the problem of global citizenship education in general, and in the UWCs specifically. Following this I provide a historical background to the UWCs founding and development. Next I critically review the existing literature surrounding education for global citizenship, focusing on five key areas: 1) the concept of the global citizen, 2) education for global citizenship, 3) the IB as a vehicle for creating global citizens, 4) the UWCs, and 5) the role of teachers in delivering the curriculum. Then I explain the conceptual framework through which I analyze my data; this framework is based in world society theory, curriculum theory, and literature theorizing about how to educate students for global citizenship. Following this, I describe the data sources class observations, teacher questionnaires, teacher interviews, and IB subject guides and qualitative methods I used to answer my research questions. I then present and discuss my findings, which address the methods that UWC teachers use to educate students toward the values of global citizenship from both broad and narrow foci. Finally, I end with a brief consideration of the limitations of this study, suggestions for further research, and a brief conclusion. Page 4: 2. Statement of the Problem Is it indeed possible to educate students toward the values of global citizenship while working within the constraints of traditional academic disciplines? If it is, how would a teacher do so? This monograph will explore the methods used by teachers in the United World Colleges (UWCs) to answer to these questions. I choose the UWCs as my case study because many have purported the UWCs to be an ideal example of global citizenship education (Renaud 1975; Peterson 1983; Jonietz 1991; Hill 2002). A quote from Robert Blackburn, the Deputy-Director General of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is indicative of the unique nature of the UWCs: So if you take any IB school from the UN New York [United Nations International School] to the International School in Dar es Salaam, both excellent schools, these were set up to meet actual, practical, and local needs. The UWC were not set up for any practical need, but to further a particular educational and international philosophy that educational barriers can be broken down and that internationalism can be made effective at the 18+ age. There is a different motive between the UWC and many of the other schools² (quoted in Jonietz 1991). Whereas the traditional view of education is the pragmatic advancement and development of the nation, Blackburnıs quote illustrates a much different motive for the UWCs. Contrary to a practical, actual, or local need, the UWCs respond to their ideological mission of creating global citizens.1 As I explain in more detail later, world society theory provides a lens for looking at this concept of the global citizen, which I argue forms a basis for the mission of the UWCs. World society theorists have used ------------ --------- --------- - 1 This is not to say that the UWCs are the only schools that have this ideological mission. While not necessarily drawing students to the schools for the expressed purposes within their mission, the Conference of Internationally- minded schools was created in 1951. Membership was open to schools that ³consciously aim at furthering world peace and international understanding through education.² (Hill 2003) While this conference has since dissolved, the international schools community has continued to attempt to define, albeit vaguely and indecisively, some difference between "international schools" and "internationally- minded schools." Page 5: document analysis to detail the emergence of global citizenship through increasing isomorphism in curricula around the world (Kamens et. al. 1996, Ramirez 1997; Rauner 1998), but I believe education to be more holistic than the content of textbooks. To complement this document analysis then, I will examine how teachers utilize the formal academic education in the UWCs to attempt to succeed in their mission. Past studies have found quantitatively that the UWCs do in fact succeed in their mission through a number of educational constructs residential life, extra-curricular activities that include service to the local community and participation in the local environment, as well as cultural days and global affairs meetings, all of which bring together a student body from vastly diverse national, political, religious, and cultural perspectives (Wilkinson 2002, Branson 1997). They both found that out-of-class experiences affected the formation of studentsı global identities more than the formal academic experiences. That said, Branson writes, "the research findings emphasized that care should be taken not to overlook the critical contribution that the classroom makes towards citizenship education" (p. 80). Despite this statement, her report fails to fully explore the means by which teachers at the UWCs seek to educate students toward an enhanced identity of global citizenship. Fundamentally, teachers play a crucial role in the delivery of education and can "make or break" the delivery of education. Therefore, the question of a UWC education emerges: can teachers indeed use the academic curriculum to work towards Blackburnıs "certain educational ideology," as defined in the UWC mission, or is the formal academic education more functional in nature more actual and practical in need, responding to the demands of university admissions, end of year IB exams, and traditional expectations and Page 6: teaching experiences? Does the global citizenship education that occurs in the UWCs only happen outside of the classroom? The perspective of Robert Hanvey is instructive here: "It is especially important at the outset to admit the limited impact of formal schooling and the often profound impact of informal socialization" (Hanvey 1975, p. 1) I do believe that, as with everything, there is no clear dichotomy between the impacts of formal and extra-curricular education; but I explore the extent to which teachers can and do utilize the formal academic education to educate students towards the values of global citizenship. The extent to which teachers in the UWCs educate for global citizenship is to some level structured by the official curriculum, the International Baccalaureate (IB). This secondary- level academic curriculum was originally created by teachers from the Ecole Internationale de Genève (International School of Geneva, or Ecolint) and the first UWC. Since its creation in the 1960s, the IB curriculum has grown to use in 1438 schools in 115 countries.2 In the process of such tremendous expansion, the IB has grown to be the commonly accepted, foremost model of a curriculum for a secondary-level "international education" which I contend has the potential to be, though is not necessarily, consistent with a model of global citizenship education. While the literature uses the varied terms "global citizenship education," "education for world citizenship," "global education," and "international education" synonymously, I would like to clarify a key difference between the first and the last. 3 For the purposes of this monograph, "global citizenship education" refers to education that seeks to push students to expand their understanding of and personal identification Page 7: with a geopolitical paradigm beyond the nation-state. In doing so, it necessarily encourages some level of engagement with normative universal values 4 , while simultaneously engaging our relativistic differences. "International education" etymologically deals more with education "between nations," and in so does not push students to move beyond the historical limit of the nation-state in terms of self-identification. International education creates an understanding of humanity's relativistic differences, while failing to engage our universalistic commonalities. International education differs from "national education" however, in that it does offer students declarative knowledge of nations and cultures other than their own. The figure on the following page compares student identity formation through international and global citizenship education. The bold circles represent the extent with which each type of education pushes students to identify, whereas the dotted line represents awareness of a level without identity connection. As the figure shows, international education creates in students identities of local and national citizenship, while creating awareness about international differences and similarities. The emphasis, however, is always on the nation-state as the highest level of connection, and so international education fails to bridge student identities into a universal humanist global connection. Global citizenship education differs in that, while not replacing local or national citizenship, it adds yet another layer to studentsı identities by encouraging them ------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- - 4 While I acknowledge the debate over the viability, and very existence, of any universal values, this monograph is not a philosophical interrogation of the concept. Rather it is an attempt to detail the values that teachers who have the goal of educating global citizens hold as essential. Page 8: to understand their individual universal humanistic connections in addition to differences. 5 [Figure 1] As the foremost model for international or global citizenship education, many have challenged how truly "international" the IB is (Azraai 1981; Fox 1985; Jonietz 1991; Walker 1999; Walker 2000; Lewis 2001), but few have examined how "global" the IB is within the context of the UWCs. Given the questions as to the "Euro-centrism" of the IB and the extensive demands of its curricula, I examine the UWC teachers' enactment of the IB in order to explore whether, and if so how, it can be "globalized." Much of the success of the IB lies in its flexibility for adaptation to an individual school's foci; in so it can be adapted to be more or less "international," or even "global." If the UWCs' mission is to reach beyond the international to global citizenship education, how do teachers in the UWCs adapt the IB to reach toward their mission of creating responsible global citizens? Page 9: With each school averaging students from 75 countries, teachers from ten countries, a residential learning environment, a rigorous selection process, and an explicit mission to educate "responsible citizens" of a "united world," the UWCs are the best model to explore the possibility of infusing the values of global citizenship into the teaching of formal academic subjects. This monograph explores whether and if so, how, teachers in the UWCs seek to educate students toward the values of global citizenship across the academic spectrum, while working within the framework of the IB. Furthermore, I look beyond curricular facts or concepts considered "global" in nature that might create a proscribed "cultural literacy"6 of global mindedness, and more to the values that teachers in the UWCs emphasize as crucial to successful global citizens. Page 11-12: While the history of the IB is not the focus of this monograph, I would like briefly to note the important role that AC played in its creation. Alec Peterson, before becoming the first director of the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) and one of the key developers of the IB, had previously helped to develop the formal curriculum at AC. With Petersonıs great influence on each, there existed great similarities between AC's original curricular program and the IB. In addition to the curricular contributions of AC to the IB, AC was the one of the original nine schools to participate in the experimental stage of the IB, and it was the first school to wholly abandon its other diploma program in favor of the IB in 1971. The historically tight link between the UWCs and the IB will be important to keep in mind as this monograph explores their current relationship. 10 Page 12-13: The UWCs movement has expanded to ten schools in ten countries on five continents. Though tied together through the common mission and student selection processes, the schools operate to a great extent independently and are encouraged to develop their own characteristics. Today there are three models of UWC. First, the "classic" model is built off the original UWC of the Atlantic design; these are two- year residential colleges that offer a pre-university IB program to 17 to 19 year olds. The "classic" model colleges include UWC of the Atlantic (AC), Lester B. Pearson UWC of the Pacific (PC), Armand Hammer UWC of the American West (AW), UWC of the Adriatic (AD), Li Po Chun UWC of Hong Kong (LPC), Red Cross Nordic UWC (RCN), and Mahindra UWC of India (MI). Secondly, UWC of South East Asia (SEA) and Waterford-KaMhlaba UWC of Southern Africa (WK) were originally traditional international schools which the UWCs subsumed into the UWC movement. These two schools offer the same UWC program as in other UWCs, but within the community of grades K to 12 (SEA) and 6 to 12 (WK) international schools. Finally, the Simon Bolivar UWC of Agriculture (SB) offers a tertiary level, farm administration education for 18 to 21 year olds.13 See Table One for a complete listing of UWCs, their model, location, and founding year. Page 14: Today, leadership in the organization includes Queen Noor of Jordan, Nelson Mandela, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Shelby Davis, an American venture capitalist, has established an unrestricted, multi- year, multi- million dollar need-based educational grant to fund the university education of as many UWC students as are admitted to five prestigious American colleges and universities. 16 In the 2002-2003 school year, there were over 200 Davis UWC Graduate Scholarships for students from 30 countries. Page 19: In order to provide background for this monograph, I critically review literature from five interwoven fields. First, I explore two bodies of literature concerning the concept of the global citizen and education for global citizenship in order to situate these two key concepts in a broader framework. Second, I examine the debate surrounding official curriculum of the UWCs the IB and its role in educating global citizens, as well as the limited literature on the UWCs. Finally, I briefly emphasize the specific role of teachers in delivering academic curricula. Page 19-20: World society theoryıs concept of increasing isomorphism further helps us understand the concept of global citizenship (Meyer et. al. 1997). Many researchers seek to provide empirical evidence that supports this increasing isomorphism (Ramirez 1997; Nussbaum 1997; Rauner 1998; Frank et. al. 2000; Boli and Thomas 1999). Embedded in and crucial to their arguments is the concept of a "world citizen" or larger imagined community. Several depict trends in academic curricula they believe to be contributing to and concurrent with the development of the concept of a global citizen (Nussbaum 1997; Rauner 1998; Frank et. al. 2000). Ramirez (1997, p.60) concludes that there is an emerging worldwide focus on world community, human rights, and the "global and internally dependent character of educational, employment, and environmental issues. "Boli and Thomas (1999, p.40) similarly conclude that "INGOs [international non-governmental organizations] translate the diffuse global identity and authority of world citizenship into specific rights, claims, and prescriptions for state behavior." Page 20: Though researchers are increasingly detailing the worldwide emergence of the concept, the notion of education for global citizenship is still a relatively new one. The literature details globalization as leading to increasing isomorphism, and notes the effects of that increasing isomorphism on education, institutions, and culture. The emergence of the concept of a global citizen forms the foundation for my monograph; now I turn to the work of those who have theorized the potential for educating global citizens. Page 21: In the twenty-eight years since its publication, Hanveyıs (1975) article has become seminal to those who seek to challenge and improve the fields of both international and global citizenship education. Hanvey begins a dialogue with regard to defining the critical dimensions of a "global perspective" toward which he believes all humans should reach. He lists the following critical dimensions : 1) perspective consciousness, 2) "state of the planet" awareness, 3) cross-cultural awareness, 4) knowledge of global dynamics, and 5) awareness of human choices. For Hanvey, it is axiomatic that a global perspective is not a "cultural literacy" of knowledge that one can simply memorize; on the contrary, they are universal values and ideals to which a global citizen must adhere. This supports the focus of my research that education for global citizenship is more than the dissemination of facts about the world, and more about values consistent with global citizenship. Page 22: Challenging the International Baccalaureate (IB) as too rooted in a "western humanist tradition," Walker (2000), the Director-General of the IB Organization (IBO), emphasizes the importance of relativism. He believes that in order to educate citizens for Page 23: a globalizing world effectively, international schools must address and enforce the ideal that diversity must be respected and emphasized, not just tolerated. On the flip side of Walker's (2000) emphasis on relativity and diversity over the universality of human experience, Lewis (2001) espouses a highly idealistic view of "global schools" as places where students are educated about universal values and morals. In doing so, he calls for the inclusion of morals/values education into global schools. This view is certainly open to criticism whose morals and values should a global school espouse? Nonetheless, the apparent poles of this debate allow for both concepts of relativism and universalism to be embraced. The very concept of global citizenship, or even of educating for a similar perspective, draws on some level of universalism; however, the path through which one travels to universalism may be through emphasizing differences. It is important for my research to detail how the United World Colleges and the IB address this debate. As this body of literature shows, there has been in fact a good deal of theorizing over what would constitute effective global citizenship education. Hanvey's (1975) research is certainly seminal to the discussion, and many of the articles cited here acknowledge his influence. The roots of the discussion lie in the movement away from content knowledge and skills and toward values consistent with global citizenship. The exact nature of those values is key to the discussion, but the dialectic between universalism and relativism is one fundamental aspect. In order to render this more concrete, however, I move to the International Baccalaureate diploma program. In the 35 years since its creation, this curriculum has grown to be an internationally accepted, Page 24: though often challenged, framework for international education, and potentially global citizenship education. 4.3 The IB as a Vehicle for Creating Global Citizens Excluding the International School of Geneva, the United Nations International School, and the first UWC, for a long time the majority of "international schools" were more accurately ³bi- national schools,² serving an expatriate community with their home nation's curriculum and diploma (Fox 1985). Several writers argue that it was the development of the IB that allowed for the "internationalization" of international schools (Renaud 1975; Peterson 1977; Fox 1985; Goodman 1985; Peterson 1987; de Moraes 1998; Hill 2002). Renaud and Peterson, the first two Directors of the IBO, write about the early aims of the organization. They both acknowledge its practical rationale to offer a consistent, universally accepted diploma program for internationally mobile students who may move several times within the last two years of secondary school. Yet they both also emphasize its secondary aim: ³a form of education which opens windows on a wider culture than the purely national² (Peterson 1977). To a great extent, most praise the IB for its extreme academic rigor and challenge to students (Savage 1982; Jacoby 1992, Daniel and Cox 1992). Most research on the IB focuses less on the secondary ideological mission stated above, and more on its primary goal of university preparation through the development of well-rounded critical thinkers. While a fine goal for an academic curriculum, that end alone fails to reach towards the Page 25: values of education for global citizenship as proclaimed by the UWCs. Thus I focus on the efficacy of the secondary mission of the IB. Despite this apparent mission, even if secondary, in the last 25 years many have called for greater global representation within the IB curriculum (Azraai 1981; Fox 1985; Jonietz 1991; Walker 1999; Walker 2000; Lewis 2001). Azraai (1981), the Malaysian Ambassador to the UN, speaks of the need to include the contributions of Eastern, Islamic, and African thought in the curriculum. Fox (1985) also challenges the Euro-centrism of the degree, calling for its "tropicalization." Peterson, one of the creators of the IB, responds to this criticism in his history of the IB with the pragmatic explanation that the majority of students in the IB program were applying to universities in North America and Europe. Still, he admits to a slight bit of Euro-centrism in the syllabi. Aside from pragmatic concerns though, the Euro-centrism within the IB conflicts with both the clear mission of the UWCs and the expressed secondary aim of the IB. 22 Blackburn addresses this concern in a 1989 interview (Jonietz 1991). The Deputy Director-General of the IB at the time, Blackburn poses the question to himself mid-interview, "how international is the IB?", to which he answers bluntly, "we are not happy with this" (Jonietz, p. 218). He continues to describe how, from an insider's view, the IB at the time was nonetheless making great efforts to truly "internationalize" its curriculum and move from its Euro-centric roots. Despite apparent efforts to "internationalize" however, the curriculum continues to be attacked for Euro-centrism and a failure to deliver on its potential for global citizenship education. That said, one of the supposed strengths of the curriculum is the flexibility it allows teachers and schools, although this varies somewhat from subject to subject. As Page 26: the UWCs' mission is explicitly to promote the values of global citizenship, I examine UWC teachers' ability to adapt the IB framework to the mission of the school. This examination provides an understanding of the current potentials and challenges for global citizenship education. Page 28: The explicit mission of global citizenship education only reinforces the role of the teacher in translating that ideology to students. Page 34: While there exist a variety of methods available for assessing student learning, an International Baccalaureate Organization conference in September, 2002, delineated a similar tripartite division for the evaluation of international education. The conference notes break curriculum into knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The notes also mention ³values² as a distinct area of international education. Here values are "grounded in shared human values and addressing cultural diversity" (IBO Conference proceedings 2002, p. 2). Hill uses a similar method to examine a history of the IB and "international education," breaking the goals of curriculum into content, skills, and attitudes. Hill Page 36: Each area addresses an attitude, value, or habit of mind that global citizenship education seeks to imbue in students. This meshes with the curriculum theories described above. Many of these topics could be categorized as declarative knowledge they are indeed rooted in facts or concepts but the categorization into global citizenship education comes with identification that these are not bland facts that can be taught with one perspective or another, but rather key values, which must be presented with a specific alignment in order to reach toward the goals of global citizenship education. While the values of global citizenship can be taught through declarative knowledge, this is not necessarily the case.26 Page 37: First, global citizenship education is not an individual subject to be taught in one class. Rather it is integrated into all disciplines, just as the processes of globalization reach into every area of life (Alger and Harf 1986). Second, and perhaps most importantly above all, the continuing development of global citizenship education cannot be a western, Euro-American monologue. Though the West may currently be dominant in global society, the emergence of true global citizenship must grow from a multi-logue between a diversity of world cultures and nations, from the core and the periphery. As Soetjakmoto writes, ³it is becoming obvious that universalistic concepts of a cosmopolitan world order derived from a single dominant cultural perspective do not have much meaning for our understanding of the dynamics of interdependence and its present structural disparities² (Soetjakmoto 1984, p. 7). I concur with this former Ambassador and Rector of United Nations University, and believe that it is the responsibility of those in power in the West to actively invite voices from the developing world into the multi-logue. Page 38: 5.3.1 Universalism and relativism The very concept of global citizenship requires some level of credence in universal values. Global citizens must believe that all members of our species share some common humanity, and recognize a universal bond based on those shared traits. [. . .] For the teacher of global citizenship this means pushing students to recognize some level of shared humanity without de-emphasizing the diversities of humanity. Furthermore, engaging this debate within a diverse classroom allows students to shape their own understandings of what traits are shared and where valuable human diversity lies. Ultimately, students develop an awareness of their own national and cultural perspectives, and an awareness of the humanistic commonalities of perspective that can simultaneously exist. This 'perspective consciousness' is a key product of the debate within universalism and relativism. Page 39: 5.3.2 ³State of the planet² awareness I use Hanveyıs term here to include a wider range of issues that affect the health of the planet, from mass poverty and hunger, to overpopulation; however, the majority of the literature focuses on awareness of environmental issues as central to global citizenship education [. . .] . An awareness of and interest in the protection of the environment is integrally connected to the sustainable development of humanity. This ³state of the planet awareness² foreshadows what today has come to be called 'sustainable development.' The integration of environmental awareness with humanityıs sustainable development creates a key value for global citizenship education (Hill 2002). Teachers must engender not only the value of environmental and human life, but also a questioning of the path of human 'progress' at the expense of these. 5.3.3 Interdependence of all life The third point within the values of global citizenship education blends from the previous. This is an understanding of and adherence to the belief that all organic life is fundamentally interconnected and interdependent (Hanvey 1975; Soetjakmoto 1985; Enloe 1985; Alger and Harf 1986; Merryfield and Remy 1995; Walker 2000). This area involves a study of global actors and global processes, as well as the development of the skills of cooperation and compromise, but it is the fundamental philosophy of interdependence which allows for its study. Hanvey addresses this idea as the 'inevitability of global change,' but pushes the student of global citizenship to question the desirability and multiple definitions of global growth and progress. Only through a knowledge and questioning of the dynamics of global interdependence can students reach toward global citizenship. Teachers can emphasize understanding of this Page 40: value through revealing the web-like interconnection of global events rather than the apparent isolation of national or regional happenings. 5.3.4 Connection of the local and the global This concept blurs from the idea of interdependence explained above; it differs, however, in its focus. By encouraging students to connect with their local communities and become aware of their own national and cultural heritages, while growing in awareness of diverse global perspectives and issues, students of global citizenship can see the magnitude of their own actions on the global stage [. . .] . Hanvey describes this connection as an ³awareness of human choices,² which I believe captures well the marrow of this concept. Global citizenship education so values the connection of the local to the global because in doing so students necessarily see that their personal actions and choices can affect others around the globe. Through increasing student awareness and adherence to this value, teachers can encourage and empower them to act, fostering a personal and social responsibility that does not exist without this feeling of connectedness. 5.3.5 Cross-cultural awareness The fifth element within global citizenship education describes more than a factual knowledge of the ³other.²27 Global citizens reach more towards the intangible understanding of anotherıs perspective from the inside. This is more than 'tolerance of other cultures' [. . .] . True cross-cultural awareness moves beyond simply tolerating another culture to what anthropologist-philosopher Magoroh Mayuyama labels 'trans-spection' (Hanvey 1975). Trans-spection Page 41: moves beyond empathy; it is the post- modern understanding of the experience of ³other.² Here the other ceases to be the other, and becomes the familiar through recognition of common human experiences and emotions. This is perhaps the most difficult of the attitudes of global citizenship education, available only through direct experience within foreign cultures or with foreign peoples (Soetjakmoto 1984). International schools, but also diverse national schools, thus hold the greatest potential for the development of deeper cross-cultural awareness. In these culturally and nationally diverse classrooms, teachers hold the ability to engender in students an internal understanding of the 'other' by drawing all students into the perspectives of diverse student experiences not their own. Page 42: This monograph explores the way that teachers within the United World Colleges seek to educate students toward the ideals of global citizenship. Though this is the expressed mission of the UWCs, Branson (1997) found that, on the whole, it was the extra-curricular student life at the UWCs that led to an increase of a 'global identity.' Nonetheless, as she admits, the effect of classroom education cannot be underestimated. . . . Page 50: 6.1.7 IB Subject Guide Following my interviews, I obtained a copy of the official 2002-2003 IB subject guide for the three courses taught by the teachers I interviewed. I used the guide as reference during the data analysis stage to refer to the IB curriculum and guidelines of which teachers had spoken to me. I obtained the subject guides from the teachers or other IB teachers that I know. Page 54: Daren also brought up an interesting point in response to Bransonıs (1997) findings that student identities as global citizens are cultivated more outside of the classroom than within the classroom. Though I did not tell him of these findings, he surmised that the impact of formal classroom education most likely develops in studentsı identities more after a little time. 'The immediate impact may be more valued as interpersonal, but with time this may change.' From a broad perspective, he did feel that the formal academic curriculum has a role to play in the development of values consistent with global citizenship. Notably as well, he said that this role is not restricted to the Page 55: social sciences, which could be viewed as the most natural site for global citizenship education. When I asked Daren about his feelings on the effectiveness of the IB in contributing to the UWC mission as a formal academic curriculum, his tone changed from very casual and informal to more deliberate and careful. The potentially political nature of the interaction of the UWCs with the IB became apparent in his hesitancy to choose the correct words. That said, Daren was clear in his conviction that while opinions may vary, he felt strongly that there may be some danger in trying to create an academic curriculum solely on the UWCs' mission. The IB serves as an external moderator to the academics of the UWCs; without the IB, Daren seemed to imply, the academics of the UWCs potentially could suffer from too much ideology and not enough practical academics. He made it clear that from his experience as an IB teacher and a UWCs administrator that, while not perfect, the IB serves the UWCs quite solidly. In his role as college head, Darenıs insight into the characteristics that the school values in a teacher candidate, as well as his wide-angle perspective on the potential for global citizenship education and the role of the IB in that goal are crucial to my understanding of the monograph topic. From the interview, it becomes clear that at least from an administrative perspective, the IB does serve the UWCs effectively in theeducation of UWC students toward the values detailed in the UWC Mission Statement. Furthermore, he similarly sees a role for all disciplines to educate toward these values. To understand the Mission Statement in greater depth, and how it fits within values of global citizenship defined by the broader literature, I now focus on an analysis of that document. Page 56: 7.2 Mission Statement Through international education, experience and community service, United World Colleges enable young people to become responsible citizens, politically and environmentally aware, and committed to the ideals of peace and justice, understanding and cooperation, and the implementation of these ideals through action and personal example.33 The official Mission Statement of the UWCs states that the colleges enable students 'to become responsible citizens.' The mission does not explicitly state whether local, national, global, or other citizens; this omission serves the ideals of the school well. The movement has never intended for students to displace their own national citizenship for global citizenship; indeed, that idea is counter to the concept of global citizenship described in the conceptual framework. The UWCs encourage students to take pride in their own national and cultural heritage, but also to acknowledge some level of universal global community. The UWCs enable students to become responsible citizens of their local communities at home and school, as well as of their home nation, but also of the world. To build these identities of universal humanitarian citizenship, the UWCs detail in the Missio n Statement their commitment to 'experience and community service.' These foci of a UWC education assure a rootedness for UWC students in the local community of the college. By connecting issues that are ostensibly 'local' with their own experiences at home or global ones about which they learn in classes, UWC students actively experience the connection of 'the local and the global.' The history teacher I interviewed related to me his efforts to engage these possibilities by using students' experiences practicing community service to connect seemingly divergent class issues. Page 57: The 'environmental awareness' emphasized in the Mission Statement develops an understanding of the multifarious and challenging issues that face the global environment. While not exp licitly stated, environmental 'awareness' has come to be synonymous with concern for the protection of the earth. By developing values coherent with the stewardship of the environment and the complex processes that government that stewardship, the UWCs accentuate their commitment to 'state of the planet' awareness. The Chemistry teacher interviewed related to me her efforts to challenge students to critically examine the unquestioned industrialization and development of the world. The 'understanding and cooperation' that the Mission Statement emphasizes leads toward the greater 'cross-cultural awareness' that defines global citizenship education. By creating an academic environment in which students from diverse cultural and national backgrounds learn from and about each other, the UWCs culture students who do not simply 'tolerate' each other, but who understand and cooperate with each other because it is necessary to do so. Again, the History teacher related to me his understanding of his role as a 'moderator' more than a teacher, whereby he allows students to safely express their views and listen to others. Finally, the explicit commitment to the 'ideals of peace and justice' in the Mission Statement raises the debated issues of 'universalism' and 'relativism' that define global citizenship education. Peace, as a global universal ideal, is commonly accepted as a desire for all humanity; however when coupled with the relativity of views on and experiences with justice, the issue becomes a balancing act that teachers must push students to critically examine in their teaching. The Literature teacher interviewed related to me her experiences using a novel to draw out class debate over the concept of a Page 58: 'just war,' and the complexities expressed by students over the balancing ideals of peace and justice inherent in this concept. I must note that while the UWCs Mission Statement aligns in many ways with the definition of global citizenship outlined in the conceptual framework, it also differs in the emphasis on the implementation of these ideals 'through action and personal example.' This ideal reflects the founder's strong belief that 'if you believe in something, you must not just think or talk or write, but must act' (Peterson 1987: 2). For the UWCs, the implementation of these ideals is indeed a fundamental part of their 'responsible citizenship.' The Mission Statement also explicit fails to address the issue of 'interconnectedness.' However the omission or inclusion of specific values in the UWCs' Mission Statement by no means guarantees their implementation in a UWC education. Though nearly all teachers marked on their questionnaire that the Mission Statement guides their teaching in some way, it was less the specifics within the statement and more the overarching ideals. Furthermore, the statement serves as a guide for the entirety of a UWC education including residential life, extra-curricular activities, and the formal classroom education so again the statement can only aid our understanding of the teaching of global citizenship in the UWCs to a limited extent. Keeping in mind the political nature of both the position of administrators, detailed above, and a Mission Statement, I now turn to teacher questionnaires and my class observations to gain a more 'inside look' into the classroom education at the UWCs. Page 63: I would first like to discuss the anomalies. One teacher had very strong views regarding the relationship between the UWCs and the IB. This teacher had had considerable experience with the IB, and felt that the current form of the IB demands "an unreasonable amount of work from both the teachers and the students' There are only so many hours in a day to accomplish both the IB goals and the UWC goals, and in my mind the UWC goals have been taking a back seat in this struggle" (Teacher 1). Though the Mathematics teacher did not explain her view as fully, it is clear from her answers that she feels that the IB does not teach for the values of global citizenship. However, she also marked that she feels that Mathematics curricula are generally acultural and perhaps lack the potential to educate for the values of global citizenship. As there was only one response from the Mathematics department, it is difficult to know whether this is an overall feeling in the Mathematics department or one teacherıs opinion, but it does support Branson's (1997) findings that Mathematics is seen as acultural and an aside from global citizenship education. Page 65: Table 2: Teachers' Definitions of Global Citizenship Universalism and relativism · "the common human bonds and common humanity of every person" · It "is not about establishing a globalized culture but about a recognition of the importance and value and contribution of cultures around the world, both large and small" "State of the planet" awareness · "One who understands the major trends in the world, has compassion for the least fortunate, and tries to do something about it" Interdependence of all life · "We live in a global village" · "One who, when making choices, considers a very broad spectrum of cultures, peoples, politics in order to inform his/her decisions" · "We all need to keep in mind the needs and desires of others even if they are on the other side of the world" · "Every individual and group action has consequences that are often far-reaching" Connection of the local and the global · "One who is aware of the local and the global" · "We live in a global village" · "We all need to become less parochial (more aware) so that we can live responsibly and peaceably" Cross-cultural awareness · "Our own lives become richer when we can appreciate others at a deep level" · "In the world of today, an appreciation and understanding of others is of critical importance" · "An individual who has become aware of the world outside his or her own fishpond and has learned that it is necessary to search for the value in all cultures, races, religions, and walks of life" Page 66: . . . Global Citizenship Education through Literature The IB syllabus in Language A1 Higher Level guides the teacher in the selection of fifteen works of literature to be read over the course of two years. Ten of the works are to be originally written in the language of the course generally the student's mother tongue and five are to be "world literature," originally written in another language. These "world literature" selections can be chosen from a vast list of poems, novels, plays, or non-fictional prose, or chosen freely by the school. Seven of the ten works written in the language of the course are selected from a proscribed book list; the other three are freely chosen. Page 69: . . . Global Citizenship Education through History The IB syllabus in History Higher Level guides the teacher in the collection of three contributory areas: 1) one prescribed subject (choice of three), 2) two or three 20th century world history topics (choice of six), and 3) the regional option. In the regional option, the school chooses one of five different world regions,35 and within that option chooses from as many as 22 topical choices. Page 72: . . . Global Citizenship Education through Science The IB syllabus for the sciences guides the teacher in the collection of a core body of knowledge, a higher level extension of that core knowledge, and a choice of two "options" out of a possible six or seven. This focus on declarative and procedural knowledge in the sciences ostensibly allows the least natural connection to education for the values of global citizenship. Science is generally viewed as "acultural," empirical truth that rises above differences in national, political, and cultural differences. 36 Yet the IB syllabus again allows for enough room for UWC teachers to instill the values of global citizenship through a detailed study of science. Page 73-74: One other key area where the application of science reaches toward the values of global citizenship is in the central concept of "Gaiaism." "I teach about the interconnectedness of the world and its peoples, which coincidentally or not often mirrors many of the native cultures of the world." This awareness of and adherence to the belief that all living things are interconnected is one of the key values of global citizenship. Leena pushes her students not only to awareness of this value, but also to value the actions that they can take to affect the globe on a micro and macro level because of the principle of Gaiaism. Page 75: . . .Teaching for Global Citizenship Education Across the Disciplines [. . . ] Regardless, the detailed studies of three teachersı enactment of the IB curriculum reveal a surprising and remarkable adherence to the education of values consistent with global citizenship across the disciplines in the UWCs. _________________ http://www.stanford.edu/dept/SUSE/ICE/monographs/Mahlstedt.pdf |