Global diversity has been evolving since prehistoric times. As one culture encountered another, very often one was obliterated, either through conquest or assimilation. During the later half of the 20th century, after a war based on prejudice and racial hatred, perhaps some of us as a world have begun to see global diversity and tolerance as a benefit to society as a whole. This is an ongoing human development, and the desire for global diversity is not universal. New prejudices and racial hatred may be in the wind as terrorism, both international and domestic, strikes at the hearts of even the most stanch egalitarians from time to time.
Tolerance is fostered by knowledge of other cultures. Without tolerance, global diversity is dream not a reality. As Stephen Raymond, in this blog at http://sraymond-pofde.blogspot.com/ mentioned, “The world has gotten smaller, and I for one think it’s a good thing.” I for two think it is a good thing, too. As we are able to bring our friends and families closer and learn new ideas from those we may have considered less-than-friends, our global village will only thrive and strive for higher achievements.
Education and curriculum developers at all levels of education must be the vanguard of the movement for global diversity. This means that U.S. schools, especially the post-secondary ones, need to examine how they engage international students as well as how they invite U.S. students to become knowledgeable of other cultures. I agree with Karen Wondergem’s blog at http://wondergemprinciplesofdistanceed.blogspot.com/ that the curriculum design at universities must open up. I would go as far as to extend that to the K-12 curricula.
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I agree that tolerance is still something that is often lacking when it comes to global diversity. We as Americans often think that since we are not in the midst of a civil rights uprising in our own country that we are tolerant of all. We are far from that. How many times have you heard a joke about Muslims and laughed? You have just shown just how intolerant you are. I hate to say that I have done that same at times. We have just lumped all Middle Easterners into one stereotype. As a Georgian, I pray that I am not perceived as a character in Deliverance. That is what I think when I am tempted to laugh at jokes and make racial/cultural comments that are perceived as derogatory.
ReplyDeleteWe are more likely to be tolerant of people that are close to us. If we can bring the world together into a tighter knit community I believe that tolerance will follow (but not without resistance).
I agree that education needs to embrace global diversity. We as Americans can learn much from other societies that do not have education so easily given to them. I think that we take for granted our education. It would be easiest for higher education to work on this first, but why couldn’t the K-12 sector get involved? Even the youngest students would be interested in having a class from another part of the world to be “pen pals” with. I am sure that with a little searching, teaming up students from different countries would be beneficial in instilling tolerance along with unimaginable exchanges of knowledge.
This may be something that I may try next school year. I have never thought of it before. I'll have to let everyone know about what becomes of this epiphany.
I agree with your view on extending it to K-12 curricula. The knowledge that K-12 U.S. students have of other cultures is very limited. All levels of education must be open to engage with international students to achieve global diversity. With all of the new technologies available to us, collaboration among all learners on all levels should be in the forefront for education and curriculum developers. Universities must open up to international learners and lead the way, bringing behind them the rest of the education population on all levels. However, until we have tolerance for all; global diversity is but a dream, as you stated.
ReplyDeleteThe opening up of curricula from K-infinity would be wonderful. I am attempting this with my K-8 district by attaching to the HS district we feed into. My hope is to create learning communities for the teachers and students as well as a content repository for resources and activities. Further on synchronous tools will be encouraged to extend experts throughout this network to collaborate with each other offering the best to our learners. We are starting within to build community as you mentioned tolerance being a growth area. Teachers need to become facilitators instead of controllers of information first. Collaboration for students seems easier. Our kickoff is this coming school year. I can't wait. I consider this as our world getting bigger, not smaller. It is time to open everyone's eyes to be like those of a child's. Everything and everyone included.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
~Laurie
Cynthia,
ReplyDeleteThe ways in which we foster tolerance and understanding reflect our own personalities most of the time. When we discuss that curricula needs to address the fact we must be careful to not leave it in other people's hands to design opportunities in ur lessons that promote our goals. If an educator is interested in promoting tolerance she/he does not need to wait for curriculum designers to do so. There are plenty of opportunities in those 'Standards' they make educators use to include the teaching of higher value skills.
Yes, easier said than done I know. There would still be a need for a supportive administration that understands what education should be, and understanding colleagues, parents and students who value the proposed content, but sometimes risks are necessary to provoke change.
If you and I and all of those committed to make that change happen keep our efforts despite the controversies they might bring then it will necessarily happen.
This was an interesting perspective on diversity and distance education. I would have never thought of relating the two together, but I can see your point. Do you really think diversity is present when you never see the person you are interacting with? You know nothing about the person sitting behind the computer except whet they type. So how do you qualify diversity? I am a firm believer in learning, distance education has a common thread with people “knowledge” everyone enrolled in online class have several thing going on in their life that restrict them from the tradition classroom environment. With this knowledge gained, they can make a difference I their workplace, home, and personal life. Learning online is non-bias to anyone background, culture, or gender wouldn’t you say?
ReplyDeleteRobert