Schools must promote greater global understanding

Schools must promote greater global understanding

Simon Marcus Gower
Principal
Harapan Bangsa High School
Tangerang, Banten

Globalization is something that has been spoken of and written
of in many different contexts, but an area in which globalization
has, perhaps, not been thought of enough is that of education.
Many schools, it seems, are lagging behind in coming to terms
with the effects of globalization.

Of course, the effects are many and various. But among the
most common spoken and written about are the free-flowing nature
of capital, goods and services between nations, the accompanying
economic interdependence of nations and the spread of
'international' (generally taken to mean Western) ideas, ideals,
thinking processes and value systems.

All of this has brought about many changes in the way in which
we live and so, in turn, it has inevitably influenced the way in
which we must educate and prepare students to perform in this
'globalized' world.

There can be little doubt that in many ways globalization has
made the world a smaller place. A smaller place in which nation
states are very much more prone to a domino effect. An incident
in one nation is more liable, now, to have repercussions in many
other nations.

There can be now more profound and powerful example of this
than what happened around a year ago on a relatively small
American island and at the capital of that nation. The effects of
those planes being deliberately crashed into buildings for
motives of terror have been felt all around the globe. From
economic downturns, to all out war and the replacement of
unwanted regimes to the nation by nation scrutiny of potential
terrorist groups, few if any nations have escaped the domino
effect of Sept. 11, 2001.

But what has that effect done to schools and education? In
particular, what have been the repercussions for Indonesian
schools? In the immediate aftermath of those attacks it was clear
that many school students did not have the capacity to comprehend
what had happened. For many the horrific reality of crashed
planes, destroyed buildings and massive loss of life was nothing
that they could truly relate to. High school students were heard
to say things like, "Great explosions weren't they, better than
the movies." Some expressed admiration for the terrorists with
comments like, "They were so clever to do that." And for others
still the figures of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden were
reduced to little more than cartoon characters like some Tom and
Jerry cat and mouse chase.

Schools consistently missed the opportunity to proffer lessons
and learning from those events. It was regrettably the case that
many schoolteachers did not use such events to illustrate the
need for greater understanding and tolerance of differences.
Instead indifference to these 'global' events meant relative
inaction on the part of many teachers and so many school students
were left either having no understanding of the events or
becoming entrenched in ignorance that suggested this was merely a
'West versus Islam' clash.

Certainly globalization has cut across borders and reduced
distances between peoples and nations. Technology allows us to
see real-time live what is happening on the other side of the
globe and so we can feel much closer to distant peoples and
cultures.

However, the era of globalization may also be categorized as
an era of disenfranchisement and disintegration. At the beginning
of the twentieth century there were little more than fifty
countries in the world. At the beginning of the twenty-first
century that figure had nearly quadrupled so that there are now
nearly two-hundred nations all trying to be part of out
'globalized' world.

Schools need to catch-up with the global age. Fundamentally
schools must exist in the future tense. They must try to move
with the times to equip students for future needs. But presently
they may be seen to be lagging behind. Students of today need a
broad worldview, so that they may compete and have the potential
to understand the complexities of our shrinking yet complicated
world.

Students need to be educated with a more open view of the
world. Greater appreciation for and understanding of current
affairs needs to be encouraged by all schoolteachers. Currently,
should you ask a high school student his or her thoughts on the
Middle East or terrorist groups around the world being targeted
by governments you will likely be faced with blank expressions
and no viewpoint or comment by a majority.

Ask a student to name current political world leaders, and you
will not get very far. However, ask them to name the latest
successful Hollywood movie star or hottest pop babe and you will
get responses. Of course there is an element of teenage appeal
here but this also represents one of the conundrums of
globalization for educators. People can now easily access and
appreciate foreign cultural icons and this, in turn, with time
can alter value systems, traditions and cultural ways.

Yet a deeper understanding of what is really happening
culturally, economically and politically can remain alien and
even mysterious. Schools and teachers need to come to terms with
the challenges that lie ahead in the age of globalization. Key
amongst these is the challenge of having to broaden students'
horizons. Without a real worldview students are literally
disabled and will be left behind.

The task for teachers is, then, to guide their students
through the intricate maze that is globalization. Critical to
this 'guidance' is a tolerance and patience for alternative and
different ways of life. Only then can students and teachers
understand and perhaps assimilate those differences and
alternatives. The tools exist for schools to find a way into the
global age. With broadcast television featuring overseas
productions and the streaming supply of information from the
Internet access is not really a problem but interpretation can be
more difficult to achieve.

This is surely at the heart of how schools and teachers must
catch-up with the era of globalization. Interpreting and putting
to best use the wealth and complexity of change and information
about the human race that comes to us daily has to be done with
sensitivity and intelligence.

It will be all too easy for people to get lost in the
globalization maze and so it is vital that schools and educators
think fast to develop their curricula and syllabus material to
appreciate the global context. This is not at all a small task
but the sooner a worldview informs what educators do the better.