Education and Global Citizenship

Educational policy, curriculum development, and instructional practices – all of these revolve around a central question – “what kind of a citizen does the education system aims at developing?” If the policymakers can answer this convincingly, then half of the battle is won. The response to this question provides the direction in which a state/country wants to proceed. Once the direction is clear, all that remains is the alignment of educational policies, curriculum, and instructional practices in the desired direction.

Traditionally, the educational policymakers have focused on citizenship values within national framework (as suggested in various national education commission, NCERT and MHRD reports). However, this definition needs a revision because the present India is deeply connected with the international community.

•               Economic Argument: In 1991, India began major economic reforms and since then its economy has been gradually opening up. In his book ‘Breakout Nations’ , Ruchir Sharma reports that for more than past three decades India’s GDP growth-rate is highly correlated (>.9) with the average GDP growth-rate across emerging markets. Multinational corporations have entered many sectors and the Indian companies, too, are going global. In short, the Indian economy is greatly affected by the global economy. The economic projections can no longer be based on domestic factors alone; and our youth have to have some understanding of how the world economy works.

•               Cultural Argument: Due to the revolutionary expansion of telecommunication and internet, the youth is exposed to cultures of various parts of the world like never before. From the world cinema, literature and television to sports and fashion – today’s youth is consuming and sharing everything that is easily accessible to them. Societal norms (e.g., linguistic, clothing & fashion, behavioural and thinking pattern) are being redefined at a fast pace. For an example, let’s look at the cultural value of obedience. In traditional Indian society, an ideal student would be the one who is obedient and follows everything that the teacher says. However, today the students have a lot many sources of accessing learning-content. Therefore, in the case of discrepancy between teacher’s instruction and students’ prior knowledge, the students may no longer accept everything that the teacher says. They might question – question teacher’s source of information and even his/her understanding. Though the educators and policy-makers like to say that they encourage inquiry-driven approach to learning, the conflict between questioning and obedience is often explicit in the Indian classrooms. We have to look at India’s cultural-values, given their dynamism, in the global perspective.
•               Environmental Argument: A lot has been said about global climate change and environmental hazards by so many experts. It is a high time we inculcate values in our children for taking the responsibility of environment in and beyond India.

•               Security Argument: Since independence, India has been dealing with external security threats. After 9/11 attacks in New York, the global security concerns have been reported widely. The terrorists and anti-India organizations often have strong interlinks that transcend various parts of the world. Note that late-adolescence is the developmental stage when the youngsters are deeply concerned about national security and tackling threats and need all the answers. Our education system needs to deal with these issues to help youth understand that things are not as simple as bombing or invading a country. This may also help youth deal with extremism, hate-propaganda and war-mongering.   

•               Resource Constraint Argument: With increasing world population and decreasing available resources, future citizens may find it more challenging to coexist peacefully. We already feel the tension with neighbours for water. In future, need for energy, raw material for industries and water-scarcity may trigger bigger conflicts. The education system has to equip younger minds with international understanding and skills for conflict resolution.

Considering these arguments, let’s rethink – what kind of future citizens do we need? Based on my understanding of today’s knowledge-based economy and modern educational research on required knowledge and skills for the 21st century, I would suggest the following characteristics that we may like to see in a citizen:

1.                  Understands how the world functions economically, politically, technologically and environmentally (as suggested by Oxfam, UK).

2.                  Is globally competent in respective field of study

3.                  Is able to identify and define problems, gather evidences, and produce knowledge.

a.                   Is capable of implementing knowledge based solutions to the real world for sustainable development

4.                  Is able to develop and maintain successful relationship based on mutual respect and acceptance with people of different religions, nationality, racial and linguistic backgrounds, and cultures.

5.                  Identifies personal interest with the collective interest of human society.

6.                  Critically analyses and understands the difference between hate-propaganda, war mongering and systematic injustice.

7.                  Thinks globally, analyses nationally and acts locally (based on Lynn Davis’ work on global citizenship).

Implications for Curriculum

            When we define global citizenship as described above the aim of the curriculum changes in parts, if not completely. Though science and mathematics remain important, subjects like languages, commerce and social sciences gain high value as well. Curricula for math and science become inquiry-based, where students have to identify and define problems, form hypothesis, design experiments, collect and analyse data, infer results, and design improvement plans. The focus is more on the depth of learning, rather than its broadness. Just as reading and writing, computer programming languages and coding also become part of students’ required skill-set right from primary schools.

            As described in the previous article, the history and geography education needs to a different approach (based on John Dewey’s recommendations). The objective for ‘history’ should not be to glorify certain kings and describing wars, but to understand how wars are devastating for societies and why (and how) that should be avoided. History curriculum should put higher emphasis on the lives and struggles of ordinary people of respective times, the challenges that they faced and the solutions they obtained. Similarly, the subject of geography needs to aim at conveying how geographical factors affect human lives, culture, economic investments, developmental plans of governments and respective environmental issues; and how the interlink of all factors in other regions are different from (and similar to) learner’s geographic region.

            Nurturing critical minds is no small objective. The aim of teaching languages must be beyond achieving literacy. Audio-visual contents, especially movies and plays deserve a place in language curriculum. What and how much students are supposed to read and write must have strong justifications. In addition to the local literature, there has to be some incorporation of great works from different parts of the world. Also, a course on creative writing needs to be integrated in the formal curriculum. Poetry writing, play writing, script writing, movie making, literary critiquing are all ignored aspects of linguistic competency in the present curriculum across various educational boards in India – why?    

            Finally, in order to enhance students’ understanding of how the world functions, the high school curriculum needs to be flexible. Students should be allowed to take interdisciplinary courses. For example, a science student maybe interested in entrepreneurship, so why shouldn’t s/he be allowed to take a business course? Or a psychology student maybe interested in taking higher math course to learn matrix algebra which is essential for factor analysis of psychological constructs. In today’s competitive globalized world, we must give our students maximum learning opportunities. Rigid educational structure is not helping us achieve that.

Implication for Instructional Practices

As suggested by Davis (2008), schools can encourage students to think globally, analyse nationally and act locally on various vital issues. A typical classroom will use elements of critical pedagogy where students are active participants in the classroom discussions and the teacher’s role is that of a facilitator. Teacher guides students’ inquiry rather than preaching personal opinions. 

For example, a lesson on immigration issue can proceed in the following direction in a school in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat:

•         Global thinking: Are there accounts of Indians being discriminated abroad? (Explore cases of Indian students ill-treated in Australia/UK; labourers exploited in the Middle East and so on). Why is that happening? What do the native people think of Indian community?

•         National analysis: How does India treat immigrants? Explore the conflict between Bangladeshi immigrants and Bengali/Assamese people. What is the problem in Mumbai with internal migration? What is the conflict between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and North Indian community in Mumbai? What are the factors forcing people to migrate? What is the central government doing to ensure a balanced growth of India?

•         Local action: How is Ahmedabad/Gujarat dealing with international/national immigrants? How will it tackle immigration in future (as rapid development may attract skilled/unskilled people from everywhere)? Students plan activities to facilitate immigrants – e.g., meeting immigrant communities, inviting guests, visiting places where they encounter foreigners, making friends via internet and exposure to other cultures-food-music-dances- movies.

Note that the class discussions could be political in-nature. Therefore, it is imperative that the adolescents and youth are exposed to all sides of viewpoints while discussing a particular issue. The multiple perspectives from multiple sources may help them develop deeper understanding of the complex reality. For example, while discussing the Kashmir issue, one should look into the Indian government’s stand, the Pakistan government’s stand, the United Nations resolution as well as the viewpoints of various Kashmiri communities (people in valley, Jammu, Ladakh, and Gilgit-Baltistan).

            In order to have effective instructional practices, a democratic teacher-student relationship is highly warranted.  According to Paulo Freire (quoted in Bartlett, 2008), “…dialogue cannot occur between those who want to name the world and those who do not wish this naming – between those who deny other men the right to speak their word and those whose right to speak has been denied to them”. Teacher has to create an environment for a dialogue, and establish a horizontal relationship with the students. Furthermore, teachers themselves need to demonstrate global citizenship values. It has been well established in the educational literature that teachers can teach a lot via modelling desired behaviour and skills (as per Vygotsky’s developmental theory).

            The incorporation of the global citizenship, as defined in this article, in the formal education has a potential for nurturing independent critical minds that are capable of working collaboratively for the sustainable development, and producing (and utilizing) knowledge which can help resolve difficult issues. The goal is too idealistic; but we need to begin from somewhere, don’t we?

References

Bartlett, L. (2008). Paulo Freire and Peace Education. In Bajaj M. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of peace education (39-45). North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Davis, L. (2008). Global citizenship education. In Bajaj M. (Eds.) Encyclopedia of peace education (109-114). North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, Inc.