July 16, 2007

Going Global 101

“Global” is the buzzword on campuses throughout the country. With greater recognition of the threads connecting countries and cultures, educators are increasingly scrambling to integrate global lessons. But how can we properly prepare students to succeed in the global economy and to face challenges that cross borders? How can we prepare world citizens who can collaborate across cultures and countries and make a difference anywhere in the world?

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There is no single path to creating a global university or a global curriculum. In fact, what you do is actually less important than how you view what you are doing. In other words, if you believe it is vital to prepare the next generation as world citizens, your methods will spring from that fundamental mindset. Innovations will arise from the imperative. And innovators are building tremendous programs throughout the country that spread knowledge of other countries and cultures, convey appreciation for the rich diversity and interconnected nature of our world, and instill intercultural competencies.

But many others are having trouble figuring out this global game, have limited access to resources and are surrounded by naysayers. At Fairleigh Dickinson, where in 2000 we introduced a mission to prepare world citizens through global education, we have worked hard to develop creative ways to integrate global lessons throughout our programs and activities. To those devoted toward the same end, we offer these 10 free tips and simple suggestions that can help internationalize your campus, globalize your classroom and turn your students into world citizens. Perhaps the best thing about these thoughts is that they can be translated into classroom activities or used as the base for larger programs and campus events.

1. Welcome Global Experts. Guest lecturers and speakers roam the planet looking for audiences and venues to introduce their ideas and insights. Invite them, make them feel at home and provide them opportunities to offer international perspectives on global subjects. Be sure to also seize the benefits of technology. Use videoconferencing to broadcast global scholars and use the Web for virtual presentations. At Fairleigh Dickinson, we have created Global Virtual Faculty, scholars and professionals from around the globe who contribute to the classroom via the Internet (see http://www.globaleducation.edu).

2. Connect to the United Nations. Regardless of its flaws, the United Nations represents the dominant international organization of our times, and it features a wide range of viewpoints and a rich arsenal of resources on global issues. FDU’s U.N. Pathways Program regularly brings students to U.N. headquarters for briefings and brings ambassadors to campus. But even if you are not located close to New York City, you can take advantage of features like U.N. Webcasts and videoconferences, the CyberSchoolBus (for teachers and young people) and, of course, the Model U.N.

3. Make It Current. In addition to the fact that students need to be connected to current events, today’s news items remind us constantly of global connections, diverse cultures and common destinies. But news itself is subject to different frames and viewpoints, providing interesting lessons in how perceptions vary. To keep current and to shed light on views from abroad, we recommend comparing news coverage of similar events from different countries. Check out the Internet Public Library for links to newspapers from around the world.

4. Give Students the Keys. Students have many areas of interest and concern that inevitably have global links and impact. In projects and programs, let them research these areas, and share their findings. In the undergraduate course we developed and introduced this spring semester, Globalization and World Citizenship, students create a Weblog that explores a global issue of personal interest. Students not only supply background information on the site, but also guides to action. In the process, they became not just scholars of the subject but activists capable of spreading information and understanding how to translate values into action. (To review the course outlines, assignments and resources, see http://webcampus.fdu.edu and use “fdu” as the username and password.)

5. Enter the Obvious Global Gateways. Too often we search long and far for global resources when we have a rich, international melting pot under our roof. We may not all have visiting scholars from exotic locales, but we all — students and faculty alike — have backgrounds that transcend borders. One example: International students at University of the Pacific, in California, hold an informal “international film festival” every two weeks, screening movies from their home countries. The event serves to build conversation and understanding on campus. Find ways for faculty and students on your campus to share personal backgrounds, insights and traditions that open new windows to other cultures. You’ll not only provide valuable learning opportunities, but you’ll bring community and classroom members closer together.

6. Whet the Appetite. Sometimes the way to global understanding goes though the stomach. The foods we relish and the menus at our favorite restaurants nicely illustrate the process of globalization and shed light on important cultural traditions. One easy exercise is to sample some menus (see http://www.usmenuguide.com) and trace the origin of foods and their contributions to different countries and cultures.

7. Move to the Beat. One surefire way to engage students is to fire up the iPod and tune into the tunes that travel the globe. From reggae to rock and rap, country to classic, the origins and influences of our favorite music read like a jet pilot’s itinerary. A fascinating exercise for students is to compare the various MTV channels and their respective Web sites around the globe. The differences and similarities highlight the promise and peril of cultural globalization.

8. Count the Change. Sooner or later, you’ll need to stop having so much fun with cultural lessons and get into dollars and yens. From the clothes they wear to the careers they will pursue, students’ lives are tightly interwoven with the global production process. Certainly read people like Thomas Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz, but don’t forget to make it personal. Ask students to compare wages in different countries, to trace the production of their favorite products, or to examine the economic clout of familiar corporations.

9. Put the Powerful on Trial. Political, economic and cultural issues are often revealed best by looking through the eyes of the opposition. Consider how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) react to the major political and economic institutions. For example, compare major companies’ Web sites with anti-corporate sites like wakeupwalmart.com or killercoke.org. Study the claims and contentions, offer rebuttals, and then referee the debates.

10. Become Bridge Builders. What better way to convey the interconnections that dominate than to make your own connections. Partner with institutions and programs abroad and, especially, link to classrooms and help students collaborate with students abroad. Have students engage in dialogues and activities with international students that consider big questions and involve contemplation and deliberation. While learning about issues, students inevitably will learn about the other and learn how to cooperate and act with the other.

There are some conspicuous areas — such as foreign language study and study abroad — that we have left off the list. This is not because we feel that these are not important. On the contrary, they are fundamental, but they also are obvious pieces of the puzzle that most campuses are already pursuing.

The most important thing to remember is that there is no one path that is right for everyone and every institution. There are so many avenues available. The richness of our different approaches can redefine American higher education.

J. Michael Adams is president of Fairleigh Dickinson University, in New Jersey, where Angelo Carfagna is director of communications. They are co-authors of the book Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation (Kumarian Press Inc., 2006) and co-developers of the undergraduate course “Globalization and World Citizenship” at Fairleigh Dickinson. (To explore that link, use “fdu” as the username and password).

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Comments

The article concentrates on teaching global awareness to (predominantly) American students. Many programs do this, usually with extensive study abroad options and a diverse and internationally oriented curriculum, as noted.

But the other side of internationalisation is the recruitment and retention of international students to US campuses. Here, we need to insure that visa restrictions are fair( which they were not after 9-11, a Federal matter), to welcome and design teaching programs that cross cultures, and that permit an exchange of values and ideas among US and international students. For this, you could look to America’s smallest research university, Clark, and the intake in its international development and geography programs. The students are not expecting to obtain luctrative employment in the US , but train for international philanthropic and development-sector jobs, in the main. I am sure there are many such examples.

SP, at 8:45 am EDT on July 16, 2007

From Frizbane Manley, Professor of Globalization

Wow! … foreign language study is so fundamental we can leave it off the list.

Thomas Friedman? … Tom’s stuff is okay for someone living a very insular life, but for anyone paying attention to the world in which s/he lives, there’s very little either new or of interest there.

For the dark side of globalization, make sure your students read Amy Chua’s “World on Fire.”

What struck me as odd about these recommendations is the fact that if that’s what it’s all about, I have apparently been “going global” all of these years and didn’t even know it. I just love these new fangled programs.

Frizbane Manley, at 9:10 am EDT on July 16, 2007

This is helpful, and offers up several very good ideas for those of us who are not directly responsible for globalizing our campuses to share with others who are.

Peter C., at 11:55 am EDT on July 16, 2007

... and if they don’t understand you...

How comfy this prescription is. Really comfy. The world comes to us, on our terms, or we go into the world, also on our terms. They got something we want, we go get it. No risk taken. No words exchanged, just, er, “culture,” and a sense of the “global.” I’d like the writer of the recipe to explain how we are going to speak with the people of the world, if this country is becoming more and more afraid of foreign languages? Or does he propose we try some sort of chip we install in “the others” which will enable them to speak to us in plain English? Or, if that fails, just do the usual, “if they don’t understand us, let’s talk LOUDER!”

Evelyn, at 1:05 pm EDT on July 16, 2007

“Global goes Global?”

While interesting in a way—this report should be preserved for the use of historians maybe a hundred years hence, studying the directions of American higher education, I find the suggestions to be remarkably divorced from classroom experience. I too was struck by the absence of study of languages other than English. I also was struck by the degree to which globalization seems conceptualized as the internationalization of North American-Western European capitalism. I would wonder about how much time students have after film festivals and downloading tunes and holding mock trials of Walmart or Nike to actually grasp the realities of most of the world and how it lives. Study wages? Fine, but study what wages mean to ordinary Chinese or Indians or Brazilians—often I have observed a trend toward comparing “middle class” life styles here with “middle class” life styles there. As one student raised the troubling point—"if they don’t eat beef, what do they make their burgers from?” I fear too much of the Global 101 sketched here is simply projecting American expectations onto a wider world and calling it global.

We need to do things beyond this interesting list of activities...

Frank Conlon Professor Emeritus of History, South Asian Studies and Comparative ReligionsUniversity of Washington

Frank Conlon, Professor Emeritus at University of Washington, at 3:30 pm EDT on July 16, 2007

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

How about a little something to enliven this discussion.

I suppose admitting I have read “Where Have All The Leaders Gone?” by Lee Iacocca is practically as bad as admitting I watch “Friends” (which I don’t) or look things up in Wikipedia (which I do all the time), but here is a little blurb about BUSINESS globalization from Lee’s book ...

“My friend, former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who knows something about globalization because he’s one of the few people who has seen the whole globe from the Moon, sent me this piece that he said was making the rounds on the Internet. It makes [my] point vividly:

Question: What is the truest definition of Globalization?

Answer: Princess Diana’s death.

Question: How come?

Answer: An English princess with an Egyptian boyfriend crashes in a French tunnel, driving a German car with a Dutch engine, driven by a Belgian who was drunk on Scottish whiskey, followed closely by Italian Paparazzi, on Japanese motorcycles, treated by an American doctor, using Brazilian medicines!And this is sent to you by an American, using Bill Gates’ technology which he enjoyed stealing from the Japanese. And you are probably reading this on one of the IBM clones that use Taiwanese-made chips, and Korean-made monitors, assembled by Bangladeshi workers in a Singapore plant, transported by lorries driven by Indians, hijacked by Indonesians, unloaded by Sicilian longshoremen, trucked by Mexican illegal aliens, and finally sold to you.

That, my friend, is Globalization! Finally, an explanation in English.”

I suppose if Buzz ... or Lee ... or I were a bit more politically correct, we would edit out the “slurs” about Indonesians and Mexicans. In my defense – and I imagine in Buzz’s and Lee’s as well — I believe a quotation is a quotation is a quotation.

And isn’t that ironic, “Finally, an explanation in English?” I couldn’t help laughing at that Freudian slip.

Frizbane Manley, at 11:55 am EDT on July 17, 2007

Yes, learning languages is important and they can be taught and learned in a variety of ways, for a variety of lengths of time, in a variety of settings, and for a variety of purposes.

We also need to have more international interchange, with both students and teachers, as well as others, engaging in “study abroad", also for varying lengths of time (e.g., year, semester. summer and winter break).

Dan, at 11:10 am EDT on July 18, 2007

Hi Mr. Adams & Mr. Carfagna,

Your work is an excellent way to help the students to understand this ‘new’ world from fresh again. As a leader in an organization that focuses in bringing Jakarta’s youth from all nationalities together to ‘understand’ what is it mean to become ‘world citizens’, I believe that your work is a very important method in bringing the students to focus in one goal and educatively help them to ‘understand variety of differences in the world positively, and minimize stereotyping’. Please continue what you both have done, and it will be an honor to get to know your work more. Warmest regards from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Desiree Brigitte WE, Founder & President at IACE INDONESIA (Indonesia Academic & Cultural Exchanges), at 4:30 am EDT on July 19, 2007

What “Going Global” Really Means...

This program looks like a set of various means to enable foreign national and globalist propaganda, while promoting the consumption of foreign goods. These naturally trump any consideration of the “basic” understanding of foreign language — and therefore the former make the list, whereas the latter does not.

I’m a long-term student of international perspectives, having devoted a substantial part of my school years to studying foreign languages and cultures, and both living among and working with foreign nationals. As such, I’d have to conclude that “Going Global” as presently constructed shows an alarming naivete about the drawbacks and pitfalls of “globalization” as presently practiced in the U.S., and has absolutely nothing to do with enhancing the competitiveness of the U.S. Neither has it anything to do with the promotion of the evolved “best practices” that made the U.S. what it is (among them, ideals regarding concern for public safety, consumer rights, respect for intellectual property, respect for private property rights, respect for individual rights, political freedoms and racial equality) or understanding the rationales for the existence of these ideals and related practices. If anything, we have been witnessing a decline in the adherence to these ideals over the last few years in America itself, as other “more convenient” practices flourish.

So far, this type of programming has led in higher education circles to rants against “evil America-based multinationals” (especially Coca-Cola, on the basis of some VERY questionable scholarship). It has also led to an amplification of political correctness, questionable “environmental” activism and less than sound one-sided economic and environmental mandates. Pursuing greater internationalization has resulted in a large influx of international students and corresponding declines in numbers of American citizens in several critical areas of study- and in this environment prejudice against American students is flourishing.

Pursued uncritically, “Going Global” will be a triumph of style over substance, and a means to train the consumption and political habits of young Americans — who will be horrified to discover that four years of the intellectual equivalent of chanting “Kumbaya” have simply made them easy fodder for the rest of the world (which will not have abandoned perspectives involving self-interest, nationalism, and racism) to prey on.

Scrawed, at 6:55 pm EDT on July 19, 2007

In Response To Scrawed …

Needless to say, I’m here to shout “Amen! … and amen!”

And don’t forget to read that book by Amy Chua.

Frizbane Manley, at 6:05 am EDT on July 20, 2007

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Going Global 101

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Comments

From Frizbane Manley, Professor of Globalization

... and if they don’t understand you...

“Global goes Global?”

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

What “Going Global” Really Means...

In Response To Scrawed …

Jobs Related to Going Global 101

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Director, Summer Travel Study Program, Queretaro, Mexico University of California, Santa Barbara

Director — Center for International Programs St. Mary’s College of California

Dir. of the Center for International Trade & Security/Professor University of Georgia

Assistant Director for International Student Recruitment George Fox University

Assistant Director, International Programs and Services Drake University

Program Coordinator II University of Georgia

Global Learning Speciallist Azusa Pacific University

Dean of the Graduate School/Assistant Provost for Internationalization Fort Hays State University

International Programs Coordinator (002673) University of Maryland University College