Educating Global Citizens v. Training Global Nomads

Educating Global Citizens v. Training Global NomadsMark Bartels, Uganda Studies Program

Kimberly Spragg, Australia Studies Centre

Critical Breakthroughs in Student Learning at the Uganda Studies Program and the Australia Studies Centre

The ProblemThe ProblemRather than learning how to become native to ones place to know the people and plants and animals and customs of a particular locale and thus to live sustainably in that place we are socialized into a materialistic way of life that blinds us to both the cultural and the ecological realities of our community and our landscape. We assume we will (and should) move upward and become more mobile, moving from place to place. --Wes Jackson

Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh. Education for Homelessness or Homemaking? The Christian College in a Postmodern Culture. Christian Scholars Review 32, no. 3 (Spring 2003): 283. 3The Problemeducation today often dislocates people from their native place to such a degree that it has created a powerful class of itinerant professional[s] --Wendell Berry

Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, 281. The Problemthe conventional wisdom holds that all education is good, and the more of it one has, the better . . . The truth is that without significant precautions, education can equip people merely to be more effective vandals of the earth. --David Orr

Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, 281. The ProblemOur question is: What happens if we allow homecoming to be the guiding metaphor for our educational praxis?

Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, 282. The Traditional NomadRobyn Davidson. No Fixed Address: Nomads and the Fate of the Planet. Quarterly Essay 24 (2006): 49. The Modern NomadRobyn Davidson, 50. The Modern NomadAnd the more mobile we become, the less sense we have of being sensually enmeshed with our world and interdependent with, responsible for, others.

Robyn Davidson, 51. Connecting Telos & PraxisConnecting Telos & PraxisTrue education is always about learning to connect knowing with doing, belief with behavior; and yet that connection is incredibly difficult to make for students in the modern university.Steven Garber. The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 57Connecting Telos & PraxisTrue education is always about learning to connect knowing with doing, belief with behavior; and yet that connection is incredibly difficult to make for students in the modern university.

This issue and how we resolve it matters. For those whose vocations give them responsibility for students, it is not enough to know that they are able to answer all the questions posed during their university yearseither those that come formally within the classroom or those that come late at night in a caf.Steven Garber, 57Our Version of a Christian Global Citizenthe Pilgrim and the Monk

Students as PilgrimsStudents as PilgrimsTo embrace the identity of pilgrim now is first of all to embrace a certain type of mobility in the context of globalization. . . To accept our status as pilgrims on our way back to God is, as Augustine saw, to accept the provisional nature of human government. Our status as pilgrims makes clear that our primary identity is not that defined for us by national borders. The pilgrim seeks to transgress all artificial borders that impede the quest for communion with God and with other people.William T. Cavanaugh. Migrant, Tourist, Pilgrim, Monk: Mobility and Identity in a Global Age. Theological Studies 69 (2008): 351. Students as PilgrimsHumility, therefore, was the essential virtue of the pilgrim. Pilgrimage was a kenotic movement, a stripping away of the external sources of stability in ones life. The pilgrims way was the way of the cross: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow me. (Mk 8:34). The journey required a disorientation from the trappings of ones quotidian identity, in order to respond to a call from the source of ones deeper identity.

William T. Cavanaugh, 349. Students as PilgrimsI think the biggest lesson I will have learned from this all will be something about arrogance, something about how subtle it can be, something about how much I wish it wasnt so engrained into my identity. Ive also learned a bit more about my privilege, the weight of choice, and the need to set limits for myself (because no one is about to tell me that I can not do anything that I want to do). I dont think I ever would have understood these concepts had I not studied abroadat least not the on the scale of cultural arrogance.

USP Student-Fall 2009Students as PilgrimsNo account of pilgrimage could be complete without an analysis of those on whom the pilgrim depends. Those who journey as pilgrims are not self-sufficient, but must rely on those who abide along the way, those who remain in place in order to offer hospitality to those who journey.William T. Cavanaugh, 353. Students as MonksStudents as MonksBecause the practice of hospitality is so significant in establishing and reinforcing social relationships and moral bonds, we notice its more subversive character only when socially undervalued persons are welcomed. In contrast to a tame hospitality that welcomes persons already well situated in a community, hospitality that welcomes the least and recognizes their equal value can be an act of resistance and defiance, a challenge to the values and expectations of the larger community. Christine D. Pohl. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 62.Students as MonksA resident is a temporary occupant, putting down few roots and investing little, knowing little, and perhaps caring little for the immediate locale beyond its ability to gratify . . . The inhabitant, by contrast, dwells . . . Good inhabitance is an art requiring detailed knowledge of a place, the capacity for observation, and a sense of care and rootedness.-- David OrrSteven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh, 288. Students as MonksAmidst the hypermobility of a globalized world, there is much to recommend stability . . . And yet . . . There is nothing inherently superior about stability over mobility, the local over the global. The telos of stability and mobility makes all the difference. William T. Cavanaugh, 355. Educating the Global CitizenThe Praxis of Home-makingASC PraxisCoaxing the Colonial Student to Jump Off the Veranda.ASC PraxisLike children of empire, colonial students have a sense of entitlement, as if the world is theirs for discovery, if not for the taking. New cultures are experienced in just the same way as new commodities are coveted, purchased and owned.

Anthony Ogden. The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student. Frontiers: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 17 (Fall/Winter 2007-2008): 37-38. ASC PraxisAnthony Ogden, 38-39. ASC PraxisStudent tourist issues: Enter into the study abroad experience on their own terms.

Expect the host native to welcome them in the way they require.

27ASC PraxisThus, dichotomies surfaced because students wanted to be treated as part of the family only when they wanted to receive certain attention, but at other times, when the mothers began to treat them as their own children in a protective sense, they resisted this familial relationship.Barbara C. Schmidt-Rinehart and Susan M. Knight. The Homestay Component of Study Abroad: Three Perspectives. Foreign Language Annals 37, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 259.28ASC PraxisStudent tourist issues: Enter into the study abroad experience on their own terms.

Expect the host native to welcome them in the way they require.

Struggle with the global issues emphasis of the core classes.

29ASC PraxisFrankly, all this political stuff that we had to learn for this class I really dont care about. To me, politics are something corrupt, just as human beings are, and I dont involve myself into understanding them too deeply at the risk of actually figuring out what the stupid people who run the countries of this world really think about.

Art and Environment are kind of my forte, so for me they teach me the most about what I want to know about the culture and explain so much more to me than any of the other things really could. Probably because the language used in art and environment is something that I am used to, while the political stuff is all gibberish and unintelligible to me.ASC Student-Fall 2009ASC PraxisI decided . . . to ask a few more general questions and . . . I learned that . . . the man, was from Vietnam . . . Usually I would be like, thats cool or whatever, tell me more about your family . But NO! I suddenly asked him Do you experience a lot of prejudice being Vietnamese and living in America after the Vietnamese war? Since when do I ask questions like that of strangers? . . . I felt really smart at that moment. Because I asked him this I got to learn thathe was 12 at the time of that war, his brother was in the FBI and had to fight on the Americans side . . .ASC Student-Fall 2009ASC PraxisCoaxing students off the veranda: Accessible to the wimpy student.

Discomfort essential to student learning.

ASC PraxisOne of the things I learned in Australia was that if I allowed my American citizenship and loyalty to be greater than my heavenly citizenship, my vision of the world would always be skewed, and never accurate. It was a very uncomfortable discovery.ASC Student-Spring 2008ASC PraxisCoaxing students off the veranda: Accessible to the wimpy student.

Discomfort essential to student learning.

Study of Indigenous cultures aimed at homemaking. ASC PraxisI would love to see some of our Anglo church leaders, when asked to help a Native church, say, Yes, but on one condition: only if you will in turn send your pastors and leaders to come and equip us with the grace and gifting God has given you as Native people. When that day comes, it will verify that we are seen by our Anglo brethren as equal colaborers in the mission of the church.Richard Twiss. One Church, Many Tribes : Following Jesus the Way God Made You. (Revised. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2000)ASC PraxisCoaxing students off the veranda: Accessible to the wimpy student.

Discomfort essential to student learning.

Study of Indigenous cultures aimed at homemaking.

Emphasis on practical hospitality and action.

USP PraxisCoaxing Crusading Students DownOff Their (High) Horses.

USP PraxisCoaxing Crusading Students Down Off Their (High) Horses.Engage in intellectual and relational aspects of the semester within the context of the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love.

USP PraxisCoaxing Crusading Students Down Off Their (High) Horses.Engage in intellectual and relational aspects of the semester within the context of the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love.

We are as worried about being a hope-friendly and love-friendly program as we are about being a faith-friendly program.

USP PraxisUSP student tourist issues:USP PraxisUSP student tourist issues:how the posture of Helper can objectify others as much as the posture of Tourist.

USP PraxisBut it is not said of Jesus that he reached down from on high to pull us up from slavery, but that he became a slave with us. Gods compassion is a compassion that reveals itself in servanthood. Jesus became subject to the same powers and influences that dominate us, and suffered our fears, uncertainties, and anxieties with us. Jesus emptied himself.Henri Nouwen, Donald MacNeill and Douglass Morrison. Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. Revised. (New York: Doubleday, 2005), 23.USP PraxisTo try to lift others up to our own privileged position is honorable and perhaps even an expression of generosity, but to attempt to put ourselves in a position of disrepute and to become dependent and vulnerable seems to be a form of masochism that defies the best of our aspirations.

Henri Nouwen, et al, 28. USP PraxisThe world is more complicated than I thought. The program was not what I was expecting I thought I would learn about how I could help Ugandans, how to change the problems here, but instead I learned a lot about myself.

USP Student-Fall 2009USP PraxisUSP student tourist issues:how the posture of Helper can objectify others as much as the posture of Tourist.

USP PraxisUSP student tourist issues:how the posture of Helper can objectify others as much as the posture of Tourist.easily substituting knowledge & activism for Christian compassion.

USP PraxisThere appears to be a general assumption that it is good for people to be exposed to the pain and suffering of the world.

Henri Nouwen, et al, 51. USP PraxisThere appears to be a general assumption that it is good for people to be exposed to the pain and suffering of the world.

Can we reasonably expect compassion from the many isolated individuals who are constantly being reminded in the privacy of their homes or cars of the vast extent of human suffering?

Henri Nouwen, et al, 51. USP PraxisThere appears to be a general assumption that it is good for people to be exposed to the pain and suffering of the world.

Can we reasonably expect compassion from the many isolated individuals who are constantly being reminded in the privacy of their homes or cars of the vast extent of human suffering? We might ask, however, whether mass communication directed to millions of people who experience themselves as small, insignificant, powerless individuals does not in fact do more harm than good.Henri Nouwen, et al, 51. USP PraxisI have tried, in writing this book, to make an attempt to explore an approach to men of another faith and culture which is reverent and attentive, and which consists essentially not of assertion, not even of action, but of presence.John V. Taylor. The Primal Vision: Christian Presence Amid African Religion. (SCM Press: London, 1963), 135.USP PraxisI have tried, in writing this book, to make an attempt to explore an approach to men of another faith and culture which is reverent and attentive, and which consists essentially not of assertion, not even of action, but of presence.

Africans believe that presence is the debt they owe one another.

John V. Taylor, 135.USP PraxisI have tried, in writing this book, to make an attempt to explore an approach to men of another faith and culture which is reverent and attentive, and which consists essentially not of assertion, not even of action, but of presence.

Africans believe that presence is the debt they owe one another.

The Christian, whoever he may be, who stands in that world in the name of Christ, has nothing to offer unless he offers to be present, really and totally present, really and totally in the present.

John V. Taylor, 135, 136.USP PraxisOur rural home stays had a significant impact on me. Watching the people of Soroti interact with each other, everyone knew each other. The community provided, as much as it could, for the needs of its members based on intimate knowledge of one another. They relied far more on each other than on any outside entity-the Ugandan government, NGOs, aid agencies.USP Student-Fall 2009Potential for Homemaking on Study Abroad ProgramsPotential for HomemakingYes. Books read in Faith and Action, talks about community and compassion (suffering with people) have all influenced me to believe that as a Christian, I need to develop community and be near to those suffering; we should all be grounded in a place to do that well.USP Student-Fall 2009Potential for HomemakingYes. Books read in Faith and Action, talks about community and compassion (suffering with people) have all influenced me to believe that as a Christian, I need to develop community and be near to those suffering; we should all be grounded in a place to do that well.

A part of me is really excited about having a more permanent home because weve learned about good things like establishing community and caring for your neighbors. Before I hadnt been excited about this because it seemed like a boring lifethe life of my parents and my friends parentsbut now I am more excited about this sort of adult life because I have some more creative ideas about how to do it.USP Students-Fall 2009Potential for HomemakingKnow that, as Melanie says, You can bring the magic with you... You make the place around you magical. It's not Australia that opened your eyes, it's the experience that asked you to step outside of yourself, evaluate, and assess. This can be done in your local, convenient, mundane context but we do not take nearly enough time to look for the magic, to look for the lessons, to experience the bigger picture.ASC Student-Fall 2008Potential for HomemakingI think about how i have ignored cultures here and i am beginning to think about how i, personally, have marginalized people back at home.

The economics lecture really taught me ways in which I can influence my local community as well as the immediate importance to do so.

I've learned the importance of being rooted in a community vs. being a nomad/traveller who doesn't really have a place to call home.

ASC Students-Fall 2009BibliographyBouma-Prediger, Steven, and Brian J. Walsh. Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2008.

Bouma-Prediger, Steven, and Brian J. Walsh. Education for Homelessness or Homemaking? The Christian College in a Postmodern Culture. Christian Scholars Review 32, no. 3 (Spring 2003): 281-95.

Cavanaugh, William T. Migrant, Tourist, Pilgrim, Monk: Mobility and Identity in a Global Age. Theological Studies 69 (2008): 340-56.

Davidson, Robyn. No Fixed Address: Nomads and the Fate of the Planet. Quarterly Essay 24 (2006): 1-53.

Garber, Steven. The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007.

Iyer, Pico. The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000.

BibliographyNouwen, Henri, Donald MacNeill and Douglass Morrison. Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life. Revised. New York: Doubleday, 2005.

Nouwen, Henri. Can You Drink the Cup? Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 2006.

Ogden, Anthony. The View from the Veranda: Understanding Today's Colonial Student. Frontiers: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad 17 (Fall/Winter 2007-2008): 35-55.

Pohl, Christine D. Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999.

Schmidt-Rinehart, Barbara C., and Susan M. Knight. The Homestay Component of Study Abroad: Three Perspectives. Foreign Language Annals 37, no. 2 (Summer 2004): 254-62.

Taylor, John V. The Primal Vision: Christian Presence Amid African Religion. SCM Press: London, 1963.

BibliographyTwiss, Richard. One Church, Many Tribes : Following Jesus the Way God Made You. Revised. Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2000.

Volf, Miroslav. Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1996.

Wallis, Jim. Biblical Politics. Sojourners Magazine (April 1974).