A nation apart? A global society increases the need to learn more about the world outside our borders 

We all got a geography lesson in the fall of 2001 as the U.S. turned its attention to Afghanistan. For many Americans — especially younger ones — the nightly news was an abrupt introduction to the relevance of Asian cartography. The need to understand the history and culture of places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran became strikingly clear.

In the wake of Sept. 11, schools across the country seized the opportunity to explore the beliefs and values of inhabitants of the Middle East and beyond. Indeed, the whole Asian continent — from Turkey to Russia to Indonesia — has become a vital cog in the world’s economic, security and social machinery. Sixty percent of the world’s population lives there.

Africa — although less of an economic force — undeniably impacts the U.S. and the rest of the world as emigration and tourism bring concerns about AIDS and civil unrest closer to home.

U.S. residents have long lived insulated, as though on an island nation that clearly dominates its closest neighbors to the north and south. That isolation, coupled with the nation’s economic, political and military superiority, has engendered little desire in most Americans for learning about cultures beyond our borders. Few become fluent in a second language or travel overseas, a distinct difference from Europeans, most of whom live within easy access to several countries and languages.

In a shrinking world, however, Americans can no longer afford to cling to comfortable ignorance. In many areas of Sacramento — named America’s most diverse city by Time magazine in 2002 — foreign-born residents comprise one-third to half of the population. In one typical neighborhood, native white residents live side-by-side with people born in Mexico, El Salvador, Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Punjab, Russia, Ukraine — to name just a few.

Unfortunately, most students don’t know much about the world outside our borders. A 2002 National Geographic-Roper poll of the geographic literacy of young Americans (ages 18 to 24) came in with some eyebrow-raising results: despite almost daily mention of the countries in the news, only 13 percent could identify Iran or Iraq on a map. Just 17 percent could locate Afghanistan. Three-quarters grossly overstated the population of the U.S., and most could not name four countries with nuclear weapons. The average young American could locate just three countries on a map of Europe. Perhaps most shocking is the fact that one in 10 could not locate the U.S. on a world map.

Seventy-eight percent of young adults polled from Sweden, the top performer on the survey, knew at least 34 of the 56 questions, while only 22 percent of young Americans scored as well. In all countries polled, those who travel outside their home country or speak more than one language did better on the survey. Swedish young adults, about 90 percent of whom speak more than one language and travel internationally, scored higher, compared with U.S. young adults. Only one in five had traveled outside the U.S. in the previous three years, and about a third spoke more than one language.

What is the significance of these results in the real world?

“Obviously, in a post-9/11 environment our national security demands that many, many more people know about other regions, languages and cultures so that we can be prepared for the threats that exist,” says Michael Levine, executive education director for the Asia Society. “But even more importantly, the global age requires that our children get to know much more about the 90 percent of the world beyond our borders. For effective citizenship, schools need to focus on what it will take for children to thrive in a global neighborhood, to become an engaged, democratic citizen of the world. This is no longer a luxury for a few diplomats and international specialists, it’s a question of competing and being successful economically, of being safe and secure.”

Ignorance about other cultures comes at a high cost in today’s diverse society. Unfamiliarity breeds distrust, and distrust breeds fear and racism. In one Northern California community, fights with racist overtones broke out at several high schools. In leading a community dialogue about how to improve student unity, a task force convened by the school district recommended, in part, building opportunities into the curriculum for students to explore the cultural backgrounds of their classmates to engender greater understanding.

To today’s schoolchildren, finding relevance in global education is usually as simple as looking at the child in the next seat. In California, after Spanish, the top 10 languages spoken by English language learners are Asian tongues — mostly from East Asia. The National Commission on Asia in the Schools surveyed young adults and found that almost all of them felt they should learn more about world cultures.

The main reasons Americans felt they should study Asia was its influence on the U.S. economy and the size of its population. Asian Americans constitute one of the country’s fastest-growing and most affluent demographic groups, and trade with Asia exceeds $870 billion annually.

“If we really want to maintain our economic advantage, our children need to be knowledgeable about parts of the world that affect their lives,” says Karen Leong Clancy, a Belmont-Redwood Shores School District trustee. “Many of the jobs we have in California are related somehow to Asia. You can go into any store and see products made in Asia. From dock workers who handle goods delivered to our port cities to those who work with technology, California relies on the trade we have with Asia. That’s why I think it is especially important that we understand how we’re linked to Asia and what benefits we gain from this connection.”

What is global education?

Rather than an additional subject that must be wedged into an already-demanding schedule, global, or international, education may best be viewed as a new way of teaching the same core subjects. And it’s not just the domain of history and social science teachers, says Levine: “An international education gives much more emphasis to the international dimension of all the major subject areas.”

As No Child Left Behind tightens its hold on the curriculum and time teachers have to improvise, rethinking the way they choose examples, discussion topics, writing assignments and supplemental reading materials to include more of an international perspective is especially important for educators.

While focusing on the basics, Levine suggests that school districts use “rigorous, relevant, very interesting content to make kids able and effective readers, computer literate and young scientists.” He also suggested that district boards consider ways to create more personalized instruction in high schools, including international studies and languages as a new theme in world history, geography, global science, economics, contemporary arts and film.

Reforms do not have to begin in secondary school, Levine added. “Among the more interesting subjects that elementary school educators can use within their current curricular approaches would be studies of other cultures, including more in-depth study of foreign languages in the early grades. In terms of reading and writing and language arts skills, the very diverse students who go to school in California will be highly motivated if they see content that relates to their cultural backgrounds, to the genuine stories that are nested in their home lives and those of their ancestors.”

The American Forum for Global Education identified 10 key categories of global issues that students should study from an international perspective:

• Conflict and its control, including violence, terrorism and war;
• Economic systems, including international trade, aid, and investment;
• Global belief systems, ideologies, religions and philosophies;
• Human rights and social justice, human needs and quality of life;
• Management of the planet’s resources, energy and environment;
• Political systems: the international structures, institutions, actors and procedures;
• Population, including demographic growth, patterns, movements and trends;
• Race and ethnicity: human commonality and diversity;
• The technocratic revolution in science, technology and communications; and
• Sustainable political, economic and social development.

The Education Commission of the States also emphasizes effective foreign-language instruction beginning at an early age.

“Communication has always been an important factor in one’s success in any career or project,” says Clancy. “Although many people speak English in our global society, not everyone does. The more we’re able to speak other languages, the better we’ll be able to communicate and hopefully better understand other countries and other cultures.”

Rather than the usual recitation of facts about global power struggles, true global education helps students see how their lives intersect with the rest of the earth’s inhabitants.

“Today, a converging set of economic, demographic and national security trends means that all of our young people will need to acquire some international knowledge and skills in order to be successful as workers and citizens,” said Vivien Stewart, vice president of the Asia Society and executive director of the National Coalition on Asia and International Studies in the Schools. Stewart testified before a Congressional subcommittee in 2003 regarding the reauthorization of Title VI of the Higher Education Act, which promotes the development of international expertise in the nation’s teachers.

Preparing teachers for global ed

Indeed, since most students won’t travel overseas themselves, the primary way they will discover the rest of the world is through the efforts of their teachers.

The National Commission on Asia in the Schools survey showed that three of four students said they got more information about Asia from their social studies or history classes than from newspapers and magazines, television or books. Most expressed a desire to become more familiar with Asian languages, literature and arts.

Teachers’ primary guidelines in those subjects — the California academic standards and curriculum frameworks — however, sometimes give them little assistance when it comes to infusing a global perspective in the lessons. “The standards themselves are global, because obviously it’s world history. But it could be taught in a way that students come out without a global picture of what an issue means,” notes Craig Wilson, a teacher of history and social science at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento, one of a few schools in the state offering an International Baccalaureate program that teaches students to analyze subjects from a global perspective.

Most educators acknowledge that California’s world-class standards clearly allow discussion of the international impact of most topics under discussion. The problem is, how to help teachers weave a global perspective throughout the curriculum when most have not experienced life overseas.

“Teachers will teach what’s familiar to them,” observes Melodie Lew, San Mateo-Foster City trustee and a member of CSBA’s Board of Directors. “In seventh grade, when teachers have a choice of something about Asia or Roman-Egyptian history, they’ll go towards the Roman-Egyptian aspect instead of the Asian aspect because they’re more familiar with that. That’s what they were taught. Also, if they’re of a European background — because so much of the teaching and history of the United States is very connected with Europe — that’s a natural bridge. But there’s no natural bridge right now to Asia.”

The Asia Society found that teachers were hungry for instructional materials that would add depth, balance and meaning to their lessons on Asia. Their review of history and geography textbooks revealed a number of highly regarded, recently published texts that contain deficiencies or outright inaccuracies about Asia. Many times the necessity of covering a vast span of history in a few hundred pages results in a superficial treatment of the culture, which is often presented primarily through Western eyes. While a number of universities, museums, and cultural associations offer high-quality materials that can be used in the classroom, most teachers are unaware of them.

The Asia Society’s Levine recommends that states first create an audit of helpful programs that already exist to create an inventory of resources that schools can tap into to find out about model instructional programs, student leadership initiatives such as Model U.N., travel and exchange programs, and programs that use technology to link young people and teachers here with those overseas. Such an inventory should include information about professional development programs and successful curricular projects that can give teachers a start in globalizing their lessons, he says. A number of non-profit organizations and university outreach centers — many supported with federal Title VI funds — also provide assistance.

“Teachers obviously cannot teach what they don’t know,” says Levine. “California is among the leaders in terms of professional development work that’s going on in this area, but we think there needs to be a much greater emphasis in schools of education so that teachers who graduate with a teaching credential really do know the international dimension of their subject.”

Ultimately, much will depend on the extent to which teachers feel prepared to discuss unfamiliar cultures.

“If you look at the California standards and frameworks, you find discussion about the importance of having a diverse educational program and learning about other parts of the world and other cultures,” says Clancy. “Yet, if it’s not included in the teacher preparation piece, if teachers are not comfortable and confident about the material, they might just skim over that area. We need to give teachers all the tools they need to do the job we want them to do.”

“I think teachers need to have a certain comfort level, and if they’re not comfortable with it, then they’re not going to access the materials,” agrees Lew.

Lew says teachers can start with simple techniques for incorporating a global perspective, such as comparing the life of a cow in California with one in India — an idea suggested by a colleague in Wisconsin.

Where education has gone global

Some exciting programs currently exist throughout California. Each approaches global education in a different way.

Los Angeles Unified’s Southgate International Studies school opened in September with the help of the Asia Society and a grant from the Gates Foundation. Aside from approaching all studies through a decidedly global lens, the school’s students — mostly native Spanish speakers — will all study Mandarin or Japanese, says principal Sherrie Lopez-Quach.

The Contemporary World History Project based in Stockton organizes a forum for students to discuss global issues such as terrorism, human rights, the environment and international economics. Each participating classroom adopts the identity of a foreign country, so the students must research that nation’s perspective so they can negotiate treaties on unresolved world issues. Notably, instead of targeting honors or gifted students, the project aims specifically at English learners and groups traditionally less engaged with school. Teachers learn techniques to help students succeed at working in small groups as they research their subjects and make presentations to the class, discuss the issues online with other classes and finally meet for a day of “treaty negotiations” at the university.

Project director Maria Gutierrez-Stearn was impressed by the way students respond. One group, after researching child labor laws in India, raised the money to donate a cow to an impoverished family so their children could attend school instead of working to help support the family. “They went beyond the simulation [of the negotiations] to effect change in the real world. They cared,” she said. “I believe that students who participate in the project are also better prepared for life in the 21st century because they have walked in the shoes of other world citizens and tasted the complexity of resolving international conflicts. I would expect them to be much better prepared with the knowledge, attitudes and skills required to function in our multicultural society and beyond our cultural borders.”

Mira Loma teacher Wilson, whose freshman English learners usually represent Ukraine in the simulation, says the project’s professional development activities are the best he has ever been involved in. It’s not easy, though. “The strategies are so foundational that it requires a philosophical change in the way you approach teaching. It’s not going to be an easy implementation.”

Yet, in the first week of class, his English learners were active the entire period, reading scripts in English to practice group roles, learning to take notes on their own research and speak in front of the class. By the time they’re chatting online with the other groups, Wilson says his students are grabbing dictionaries and talking with each other about the best way to communicate some very complex ideas.

Wilson’s class was “the first time I started to understand the economic problems that countries deal with. It opened my eyes to see things another way,” says former student Yelisey Shendrya from Romania, who’s a junior this year. “Each time we had group work, we learned new things about each other.”

Call to action

In calling on Congress to strengthen support for international studies in the preparation of teachers, the Asia Society’s Stewart pushed for closing the international knowledge gap.

“Our children will live in a world fundamentally different from the one we’ve known. Certainly we must continue to improve performance in reading, math and science,” she said. “But in the 21st century, like it or not, knowledge of the world is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity.”

The U.S. State Department and Department of Education sponsors a week of activities to promote global education and opportunities to study abroad. This year, International Education Week is Nov. 15-19.

“It has become very clear that broadening our international understanding is critical,” said Education Secretary Rod Paige. “This will mean renewed efforts to encourage the study of foreign languages and cultures, and to provide opportunities for all students to broaden their knowledge of the world.”

Supporting the effort in California, a workshop will be presented on Dec. 3 at CSBA’s Annual Education Conference and Trade Show to inform school leaders about resources and professional development that is available to help address the international knowledge gap in their schools. “Putting the ‘World’ into World-Class Education” will be hosted by Vivien Stewart, vice president for education of the Asia Society, Richard Winefield, vice president of interactive and educational services for PBS affiliate KQED, John Burns, STAR test development coordinator for the California Department of Education, as well as Belmont-Redwood Shores’ Clancy.

“CSBA is an organization of school board members — we’re locally elected education policy makers,” says Clancy. “I think we need to take a leading role in developing the policies on curriculum, assessment, and professional development. We’re the group that is best equipped to think about how these policies can affect our students.”

It will take time to instill greater familiarity among educators with less-studied areas of the globe, says school board member Lew. She would like to see the state’s standards tests include elements of global education, “because if things are tested, people will study them.” As state and local education leaders become more conscious of the imperative of international studies, Lew predicts, an emphasis on global education will begin to infuse practices in California classrooms.

“It’s going to be an evolution,” says Lew, “not a revolution.”

Kristi Garrett is associate editor of California Schools.