Научная статья на тему 'Global citizenship education for sustainable development of teacher candidates in the USA'

Global citizenship education for sustainable development of teacher candidates in the USA Текст научной статьи по специальности «Науки об образовании»

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Текст научной работы на тему «Global citizenship education for sustainable development of teacher candidates in the USA»

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER CANDIDATES IN THE USA

T. Koshmanova

The paper analyzes complex issues of global citizenship education in the conditions of globalization. Influencing a broad spectrum of world issues, globalization is considered in the unity of three aspects -economical, political and cultural. Economically, globalization is characterized by the free flow of capital and merchandise, as well as the growth of consumerism on the worldwide level; politically, globalization complicates the formation of independent states raising a question about what exactly global citizenship means; and culturally, globalization resulted in the loss of cultural diversity and a rapid growth of cultural homogeneity [6; 8].

It is currently a wide spread interest in global citizenship education, though this problem has been on educational agenda for a long time. For a while, American teacher educators considered globalization rather as gaining knowledge about the world, than developing students’ skills and experiences of active participation in the solution of socially and economically significant issues. Today a new educational paradigm came instead of traditional understanding of learning. Current interest to global education genetically connects to such traditional educational themes as teaching values, patriotism, and the formation of civic behavior of students-prospective teachers; these topics were broadly explored in post-war time by the American and European educators. These studies were not unproblematic because they were grounded in search of compromise between traditional and democratic education, in exploration of the issues of civic responsibility, personal autonomy and self-actualization, as well as in radical educational critique of the structures of social order. The language of modern global citizenship education has retained much of the idealism and critical energy of the most progressive versions of moral education and religious understanding. Based on the analysis of literature, the study considers both current barriers and perspectives of global citizenship education for sustainable development of teacher candidates.

The paper consists of three parts: the first one analyzes theoretical issues of global citizenship education for sustainable development of the American students-prospective teachers; the second - considers barriers and perspectives of this issue in teacher education classes; and the third

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one-suggests short practical recommendations of implementing global citizenship education in the context of teacher education.

Theoretical problems of global citizenship education for sustainable development. Modern Western research envisions global citizenship education as life-long activity of students which is characterized by a never-ending process of making choices, innovation and cooperation [5]. Personal accountability for decision-making is closely connected with continuously growing process of correct reasoning and rationality.

The individuality strives for decision-making in the system of continuous innovation. For many, life-long learning is the realization of the medieval alchemist’ faith in finding the philosopher’s stone, which had to unlock material and spiritual secrets by finding the theory that would unify everything. Many believe that today computer learning became such a stone. Some scholars argue that computer learning represents an unfulfilled promise about the creation of new cosmopolitan citizen of the world that the Enlightenment philosophers could only dream about [4]. According to this author, a new era of computer learning will realize a dream of a free market neoliberalism, and the school will create a more just society and individuality of student by suggesting "more choices into the system, advocating reason, the richer the offerings and the greater the benefits to consumers, students and families” [4, c. 4].

From the view of a different perspective, Hargreaves (2003) characterizes a lifelong student from the position of denial of neoliberal reforms grounded in free choice, market competition and materialism, in hope to form a child of the future with "a cosmopolitan identity which allows tolerance of race and gender differences, genuine curiosity toward and willingness to learn from other cultures, and responsibility toward excluded groups within and beyond one’s society” [3, c.xix].

In the first half of the 20th century, under the influence of Dewey, American school was a place of students’ socialization where they internalized given norms of collective identity. Today’s school is reformed as a space for living, and therefore responsibility is no longer taught as social practice aimed at a concrete social sphere. Today responsibility is placed on continuous activity of communities where students gain complex experiences of cooperation under the slogan of freedom and absence of time constraints. Freedom of contemporary reforms also demonstrates certain fatalism where unfinished cosmopolitanism acts. This relates to understanding of globalization as inevitability for teachers who are destined to accept it and change their curricular and models in favor of students’

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lifelong learning for sustainable development [5], aimed at the improvement of modern world.

Challenges and perspectives of global citizenship education.

Radical division between global citizenship education leading to the formation of an open-minded, caring, and good-hearted person of the world, on one side, and the necessity to prepare students for the conditions of tough world competition, on the other side, definitely supports the idea that global citizenship education continues to struggle with two opposite goals.

The first barrier on the way of development of global citizenship education becomes a traditional understanding of the process of learning as a one-sided transmission of knowledge from teacher to student instead of using methods leading to the formation of transformational knowledge, grounded in independent thinking and gaining positive experience of citizenship activity. To some degree, this choice is not new because it has always been in the hearts of the best representatives of the world educational thought. Transformational learning represents a threefold purpose of global citizenship education: (1) the development of critical attitude toward the existing system; (2) the development of empathy, caring for which promotes the formation of the person of the world; and (3) the development of experience of active participation in the solution of issues which influence global community of people [1].

Transformational knowledge is formed under the influence of personal values of students, social context and well as race, social class and gender. If the main goal of traditional academic knowledge is building of a scientific theory based on universal truth and quantitative studies, then the main goal of transformational knowledge is to change the society using academic basic knowledge by democratization and socialization. By taking part in the construction of knowledge future teachers question academic metanarratives. They create liberal and transformational ways of conceptualizing of national and world experience, which helps to the development of personal, cultural national and global identifications, their becoming as active citizens of global civil society.

The second barrier to creating a global citizenship educational system is the choice between the single and multiple perspectives [6; 1]. Globalization is mainly based on the Western understanding of social discourse, and therefore it ignores national borders and cultures, by traditionally dividing the world into "first world” (Western) and "developing” (non-western) countries and cultures. This way globalization supports a single view of the world, which in many ways reminds of as imperial view

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that belittles the value of national cultures for the benefit of a culture which decontextualizes the global consumer. Global citizenship education is in need of rethinking of the traditional approach to the single correct point of view in the benefit of value strengthening of multiple perspectives on such questions as development, administration and trade.

The third obstacle to the organization of global education is the choice between the national and global citizenship education. Mainly during a long period of time, the questions of citizen formation were the main focus of social sciences teachers. When speaking about the formation of the global citizenship education in the U.S., it is necessary to state that the formation of the citizen was viewed in two aspects: civic responsibility to become an active member of global community, and as a necessity to challenge inequalities between developed and developing worlds [8, c. 1214]. In both cases, global citizenship education is viewed as a question of government interest and is a part of governmental structures of a nation. American students are being taught to take responsibility for the decisions of such important questions as international conflict, dreadful conditions of the environment, human rights issues; this responsibility has to be taken by these students as citizens of U.S., and not as global citizens. If American citizens see a need of taking political actions for elimination of injustice, then the entire nation reacts and the American foreign policy reacts.

In many cases it is rather problematic to support national citizenship education in the context of globalization. Since many questions with which most of the people come in contact with are connected with international issues, it becomes quite difficult to imagine that one nation can resolve all these problems. On the other hand, global citizenship education also brings terminological difficulties in the educational aspect, since it is hard to identify concepts of global citizenship or global civil society. For example, we do not know for sure what the word "citizen” means in the global context, nor do we know if global citizenship can function in the same ways as national civic structures [2]. National citizenship education is organized with the aim of bringing patriotism and loyalty to one’s country; global citizenship education questions such a concept if there is a conflict of interests in the nation or in the world. Despite this, there is a continuous interest in the world to the problem of global citizenship, because without openness to this problem students will be unable to see and understand world challenges and inequalities, without limiting lenses of nationalistic thinking [6].

Conclusion. Regardless of existing dilemmas, there is an ongoing interest to the complex problems of global citizenship education, the aim of

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which is the necessity to develop global skills for active participation and lifelong learning in teacher candidates’ educational process. Specifically they are: (a) the feeling of continuous connectedness and responsibility for the world, empathy; (b) respect and acceptance of diverse views and cultures; ability to act by improving global civic environment. Such an interest is based on individualism and neoliberal economic ideas, stating that despite the outer differences, humanity is united by fundamentally similar needs, wants and wishes. Therefore, positive and active attitude toward the problems of global citizenship education is essential for the entire world. Coming from this point of view, the aim of global citizenship education is to help students develop knowledge and skills, which enable them to be competitive and successful in the world arena. In this case, globalization will be viewed as exclusively productive and positive force.

References

1. Banks, J. Citizenship education and diversity//Peters, M., Britton, A. & Blee, H., Eds. Global citizenship education: Philosophy, theory and Pedagogy, 317-331, Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers, 2008.

2. Gaudelli, W. World class: Teaching and learning in global time. London: Erlbaum Associates, 2003.

3. Hargreaves, A. Teaching in the knowledge society: Education in the age of insecurity. Maindenhead, England: Open University Press, 2003.

4. Maeroff, G. A Classroom of one: How online learning is changing our schools and colleges. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

5. Popkewitz, T.S. Cosmopolitanism, the citizen and the process of abjection. In Peters, M., Britton, A. & Blee, H., Eds. Global citizenship education: Philosophy, theory and Pedagogy, 133—152, Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers, 2008.

6. Richardson, G. Conflicting imaginaries: Global citizenship education in Canada as a site of contestation//In Peters, M., Britton, A., & Blee, H. Global Citizenship Education: Philosophy, Theory and Pedagogy, 113-131. Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers, 2008.

7. Starr, E, & Nelson, J. Teacher perspectives on global education, Canadian Social Studies, 28(1), 12-14. 1993

8. Torres, C.A. & Barbules, N. Globalization and Education: Critical Perspectives. New York: Routledge, 2000.

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