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| Learning locally |
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| And thinking globally |
The Wrong Bet reading by Yong Zhao explains the
contradiction and differences between the globalized/international efforts to
create a core global curriculum and its differences between the local
decentralized curriculum.
At the beginning it mentions all
the benefits of the internationalized curricula and explains how all the
efforts made by some countries are clearly focused in being competitive around
the world and how they are pushing the instruction in order to create stronger
students who are capable of exceeding other students from different countries.
For me, the biggest contradiction
is that in the fighting for this competitiveness education is being narrowed,
students are focused only in being competitive and the are almost only “test
prepared” and in doing so they are leaving in a margin other very important
subjects. In the reading, Zhao explains how the arts, humanities, and science
are being left apart because most of the effort of international competition is
focused on math and English.
If I am to make a personal comment
in this topic, I should speak for the ones left in the “margin” section. While
the humanities subjects are commonly left apart in this race, the “local
humanities” are the biggest example. They do not even enter in to the race,
they are not accepted as competitors… So. Why to teach them in a
global/internationalized education?? My answer
could be kind of naïve. Students cannot understand the global world, the
international interconnected world if they do not understand their roots; they
place where they belong to, the country where they and their parents were born.
So for me is simple, is thinking globally and learning locally. Learning history
is not only (never) only memorizing dates and facts, is understanding,
assimilating, making connections: truly learning! So this way they can face
global competitiveness.
I love your comment about thinking globally and learning locally. I think it's very important to understand our roots and where we come from before trying to go global. Every person is different and has different needs, this is why we diferentiate. The same thing happens with countries. A global curriculum would not encompass all of the needs that each country needs.
ResponderEliminarI do agree with you that the idea of leaving out humanities core subjects out of the picture of global citizen students will not give them the knowledge of there own ethnicity background and historical, social and political events. This will make students even less prepared to face the world's cultural global perspective new trends and to be less competitive against others that do acquire this knowledge.
ResponderEliminarEste comentario ha sido eliminado por el autor.
ResponderEliminarAle Reyes did the second post :).
ResponderEliminarI agree with you and loved: "thinking globally and learning locally". Every place has its own needs and background. Context cannot and should not be left aside when creating and applying a curriculum. Globalization should never mean leaving your own heritage behind.
ResponderEliminar