Global Education Checklist

A valuable tool..

The Three Tensions of Globalization

Are we facing globalization or MacDonaldization?

Culture Shock & The Problem Of Adjustment To New Cultural Environments

A very useful article on culture shock from a different part of the world; Brazil. 

Key Excerpts of The Global Conversation

A small appetizing excerpt from the blog of Neale Donald Walsch; The Global Conversation:

"The basic message of all the sacred scriptures is the same. What is different is how human beings have been interpreting them.

There is nothing “wrong” with having different interpretations. What may not benefit you, however, is separating yourself over these differences, making each other wrong because of these differences, and killing each other as a result of these differences.

This is what you are now doing.

It is what you have been doing for quite some time."

Webcast of the closing session of "The international summit on the teaching profession"

http://media.rampard.com/cotl/20110317/doe/replay.asx

First-Ever International Summit on the Teaching Profession

Sixteen Countries and Regions Convened for First-Ever International Summit on the Teaching Profession to Promote Building, Developing and Sustaining World Class Teaching Force held by U.S. Department of Education. The summit will assemble education ministers, national union leaders and accomplished teachers from countries with high performing and rapidly improving educational systems (based on the latest PISA 2009). In addition to the United States, the invited countries and regions are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, People’s Republic of China, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Republic of Korea, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. 


http://www.eng.uvm.dk/Aktuelt/News/Eng/2011/Marts/110317%20Education%20summit%20in%20New%20York.aspx

Neale Donald Walsch; "Do people in Wisconsin and Libya want the same thing?"

2012 - The Revolution Has Begun

President Obama on Education at TechBoston

President Obama's comments on education in the U.S. at TechBoston this tuesday. For more information on the american educational system, get hold of "Waiting for Superman", a highly recommendable documentary from the director of "An inconvenient truth", Davis Guggenheim.

Challenge 3

Which tools can we use to become increasingly openminded as individuals and as professionals?

Since teenagehood I’ve sought out my culture-fix, as I named it, regularly. In a way, one could call it an addiction, but at least not a harmfull one. Nevertheless it's not always popular going for the seemingly unexplainable. Taking it's starting point in a predilection to the things in life, which I do not understand, with an innate fundamental feeling that understanding is not the primary goal, rather it is a different experience of joy, without being able to explain exactly why, because I'm never sure that I quite understand the situation as I'm supposed to myself. I guess most people can relate to this, but rarely to the same extent. An example is looking at art. There are never two similar analysis to one painting, and there can never be a correct analysis. Another example is musical lyrics. What can be quite as entertaining and cheering as children singing along in a language they don’t understand? They put their own meaning into the song, make up their own version, living in a fantasy creating assimilation as they go along. Later in school they accomodate, finding out what the song was actually about, but they will always carry the first adventorous experience inside, even though it wasn’t the truthful meaning of the song.

Encountering another culture cannot be much different. Our memories are intact. All it takes, is a similar experience or situation to recall a certain feeling. We cannot decide to throw away what we’ve once been taught, but we can decide to think twice about our approach. Wanting to get as close to understanding a culture as possible, there must be certain criteria of which to reach the optimum of understanding the strange and not alienating it. The tools we’re given are other individuals to pass on their knowledge and our own common sense of how to communicate in a given situation. To get answers, one needs to ask questions, but these questions has to be formulated on the conditions of the foreign culture. How can one formulate a question on these conditions, without knowing the culture? There is no certainty to that off course, but it is important to be aware of one’s own cultural identity, here lies the answer to one’s own reactions towards what is encountered. A useful tool of communication is to ask authentic questions of high appreciation in a dialogical discourse. This method was introduced by Olga Dysthe as both a didactical and pedagogical tool of teaching and learning. Another useful communication tool is ”Non-violent Communication” or ”Compassionate Communication”, introduced by Marshall Rosenberg. This method involves three recommendations:

1. Describe without using evalualistic judgement or moralistic labels.

2. Avoid blaming or behaving defensively, illuminate the personal needs of the other.

3. Request the specific behaviour. Avoid demand, threat, guilt or shaming.

Vi vil ikke assimilere os - We don't want to assimilate

Even though this is a danish news spot, I find it absolutely relevant to our ongoing discussions about cultural differences and dilemmas. The youngsters in the interviews are asking for a definition of being danish, relating to the newly appointed Minister of Integration in Denmark; Soeren Pind. On his first day of appointment, Pind states that all foreigners in Denmark shall assimilate, the integration has failed. Many concider this to be a harsh statement, coming from the supposed leader of integration in a country, that is increasingly dependent on foreign workers and know-how - a country which already has the very sad reputation of being xenophbic and at the same time (the danish government) manages to support and cooperate with the global elite; The government of The United States. Wonder how that all adds up to Hares and Amir?

Hares El Daoud from Palestine (left) and Amir Hassan from Egypt. 
"Not all our values can be combined with the Danish."says Hare.

Challenge 4

How to cope with cultural dilemmas in an increasingly globalized world?

Is the concept of culture useful when we talk about human differences? My claim is that the usefulness of the concept, it’s usability lies within and depends on the culture, and it also depends on, what the information about the culture is used for. In a very individualistic culture with a low belief in authorities (a low score in the Power Distance Index, G. Hofstede), it doesn't make much sense to talk about culture as a link between people. This is very evident for Danes. But in a culture with a strong belief in authorities (a high score in the Power Distance Index) as in Indonesia, the culture gives meaning to every action that takes place. Nothing takes place outside the cultural stipulations without someone noticing. The reaction doesn't have to be punishment, but it will always be brought to attention. For stronger violations, as infidelity, there are most certainly ways or parameters to act within.

Geert Hofstede has shown us, that it is in fact possible to determine which behaviour one can expect, when living and working in another culture. There is in almost every case of cultural meetings a built-in paradox: The culture is meant to sustain and maybe even develop a society, but all values of one culture seldom matches the values of another culture. As Hofstede describes it: " Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy. Cultural differences are a nuisance at best and often a disaster." Harmonizing cultures is either hard work or impossible. Whether it is a single individual or a whole nation wanting or having to harmonize, the cultural dilemma is the question of who has to compromize the most.

This is exactly the point of focus in the danish primary school today, at least internaly. Should we integrate, and force our own values upon the students, or should we let the culture in schools take shape after it’s content? This last solution is called inclusion and is a new way of rethinking the whole idea of learning. Inclusion is off course not only about culture, it’s about all differences among students – the classroom should be able to contain all schoolgoing children. In a broader perspective, this theory seems Utopian; goes to show how far we can evolve socially on a global level.

Geert Hofstede's five cultural dimensions

In Hofstede's homepage you can compare your own culture to your host culture (or any culture). Just click on the header of this blog. This is what you basically need to know about his measuring system, which applies on all cultures:


Power Distance Index (PDI) that is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It suggests that a society's level of inequality is endorsed by the followers as much as by the leaders. Power and inequality, of course, are extremely fundamental facts of any society and anybody with some international experience will be aware that 'all societies are unequal, but some are more unequal than others'.


Individualism (IDV) on the one side versus its opposite, collectivism, that is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups. On the individualist side we find societies in which the ties between individuals are loose: everyone is expected to look after him/herself and his/her immediate family. On the collectivist side, we find societies in which people from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups, often extended families (with uncles, aunts and grandparents) which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. The word 'collectivism' in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state. Again, the issue addressed by this dimension is an extremely fundamental one, regarding all societies in the world.


Masculinity (MAS) versus its opposite, femininity, refers to the distribution of roles between the genders which is another fundamental issue for any society to which a range of solutions are found. The IBM studies revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other. The assertive pole has been called 'masculine' and the modest, caring pole 'feminine'. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring values as the men; in the masculine countries they are somewhat assertive and competitive, but not as much as the men, so that these countries show a gap between men's values and women's values.


Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; it ultimately refers to man's search for Truth. It indicates to what extent a culture programs its members to feel either uncomfortable or comfortable in unstructured situations. Unstructured situations are novel, unknown, surprising, different from usual. Uncertainty avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'. People in uncertainty avoiding countries are also more emotional, and motivated by inner nervous energy. The opposite type, uncertainty accepting cultures, are more tolerant of opinions different from what they are used to; they try to have as few rules as possible, and on the philosophical and religious level they are relativist and allow many currents to flow side by side. People within these cultures are more phlegmatic and contemplative, and not expected by their environment to express emotions.


Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus short-term orientation: this fifth dimension was found in a study among students in 23 countries around the world, using a questionnaire designed by Chinese scholars It can be said to deal with Virtue regardless of Truth. Values associated with Long Term Orientation are thrift and perseverance; values associated with Short Term Orientation are respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'. Both the positively and the negatively rated values of this dimension are found in the teachings of Confucius, the most influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.; however, the dimension also applies to countries without a Confucian heritage.

John Pilger; The new rulers of the world

A journalistic documentary on the influences of globalization and what caused it to begin with; Profits. Pilger chose to analyze this allegation through visiting factories of global businesses in Indonesia.

Jacob Holdt's lifelong effort to break down prejudice between cultural differences

For the last four decades Jacob has been and still is the most prominent spokesman of cultural barriers and investigating the why and how to break down prejudice even towards people, who most believe to be condemned. His approach is telling about his own experiences, travelling through the lowest social layers in the U.S.A. and by living with the people whose lives he wants to describe, he manages to win their confidence; living under the same conditions as them. Travelling by hitch-hiking, with no money in his pocket, alone with his camera, he managed to document a truthful and heartfelt picture of the poorest citizens of The United States. He has worked independently by his own initiative and never in the interest of any government or organization.


His book "American Pictures/Roots of Opression" on the internet:
http://www.american-pictures.com/roots/roots.htm


This is from his second trip, disentangling the existence of Ku Klux Klan:
http://www.kukluxklan.info/#Ku_Klux_Klan


In March, Jacob is hosting a week of lectures showing  his pictures in Imperial Bio, this page is in danish, please run Google translate or similar:
http://www.holdt.us/to/Imperial/