INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS

OPENING DOORS…CREATING

UNDERSTANDING

OPENING REFLECTION

I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any.

Mohandas Ghandi

IBO MISSION STATEMENT

□The IBO aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

□To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

IBO MISSION STATEMENT

□These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

IM: A four-pronged approach

1: Understanding the concept of IM2: The world beyond school:

> Understanding other cultures> Awareness of global issues

3: Focusing on IM within the school4: Performance approach to curriculum

development and pedagogy

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (1)

□Imagine for a moment that you have been abducted by aliens and that you are now on board their craft. They are friendly intelligent and inquisitive. They ask you this question: “What qualities distinguish citizens of your country and your culture from other peoples and other cultures on planet earth?” What would be your response?

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (2)

□Imagine you are visiting a country outside of North America and Europe (say Botswana). A local resident of the city you are visiting welcomes you to his home and engages you in a friendly and lively conversation. What questions would you ask him in order to form a better idea of his people and his culture?

THINKING ABOUT IM

□International mindedness is about understanding how, and why, other people on the planet live, think, feel and act as they do. It is about getting on the inside of their shared systems of beliefs and values with a view to understanding their history and the culture they have created enabling human life to flourish and prosper.

INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS…

□… is an intellectual perspective characterized by the belief that truth and value does not flourish in one’s own culture exclusively

□…is an ethical commitment to seek what is “good” and “true” in all cultural views and practices

□…is a habit of open-mindedness celebrating diversity and difference

APPROACHES TO IM (1)

□INTERNATIONALISMPrimarily a concept drawn from economics/political science. The focus is on creating transnational organizations (UN, ICJ)fostering the creation of links and relationships which would make global commerce and cooperation more efficient and more beneficial to all parties involved.

APPROACHES TO IM (2)

□COSMOPOLITANISM This idea, first enunciated by

Diogenes of Sinope (c 412 BCE) posits the notion that all human beings belong to the same global moral community (and not the local clan) thus opening the door to a universal moral code. The 20th century idea of “crimes against humanity” is rooted in this notion.

STEPS TOWARD IM

□International mindedness is more than flags, food, fashion, folk dancing and music

□It involves more than reading newspapers from other countries

□It is not just comparing customs and practices that may be different from those “we” practice

□International mindedness is not about “tolerance” or about “getting to know the competition”

QUESTIONS□How can we come to recognize and

understand “truth” and “value” in cultural beliefs and practices which are foreign to our own?

□What does “understanding” in this context mean? Does it mean “acceptance”?

□How are “conflicts” in beliefs and practices to be approached? Can they be resolved?

□How do we handle incompatible beliefs and practices?

□Who decides the answers to these questions?

HOW DO WE UNDERSTAND CULTURE?

□Culture encompasses the language, religious and ethical beliefs, legal and political structures, social constructs, customs and practices of a people

□The above influence an individual’s, thinking, feeling, responses, actions and imaginings to situations

□Culture shapes individual and group identity thus creating both loyalty and, potentially, xenophobia

CATEGORIES OF COMPARISON (1)

□Language and meaning□Forms of art□Spheres of knowledge/education□Religion and spirituality□Uses of technology□Family structures and relationships□Political/economic organization□Customs and practices

CATEGORIES OF COMPARISON (2)

□ Power, authority and law□ Relationships between individuals and groups,

the young and the elderly, rich and poor, majority and minority, citizen and foreigner, strong and weak, church and state, “normal” and “deviant”

□ Gender roles, attitudes to sex, marriage and family

□ Ethical, political and economic values; religious beliefs

□ Distribution of education, health care, wealth□ Attitudes toward the disabled, the unborn, the

elderly, the environment, criminals, the poor, the police and military, the “other”

FOSTERING INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS

□Fostering international mindedness requires a “whole school” approach cutting across curriculum areas and school organization

□International mindedness is not something which can be relegated to a specific course or a specific activity occurring during the course of the academic year

□IM must be part of the culture of the school informing all of its activities and forms of interaction

CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY

□What themes and ideas would highlight cultural similarities and differences?

□How can the grounds for these similarities and differences best be explored?

□What activities will lead students to understand them and to locate what is good and valuable about them?

□How do these shed light on the roots of our own beliefs and practices?

□How can we tell if we have succeeded?

EXAMPLES OF PRACTICE (1)

□Screen foreign films and identify differences in cultural outlook and explore the basis for these differences

□Invite guest speakers to address specific questions or issues

□Take students to a temple, church, mosque and have someone speak about religion and the culture it informs

EXAMPLES OF PRACTICE (2)

□Ask foreign students to speak about what they find most difficult in adapting to their host culture and why this is so

□Ask resident students to speak about what they find most difficult to accept about people from other cultures and why this is so

□Ask all students to share their insights into what these differences mean and how they might be addressed

EXAMPLES OF PRACTICE (3)

□Have students create short films, TV programs, blogs, podcasts, wikis etc. focusing on international issues as extensions of class work

□Publish a regular column in the student newspaper/faculty bulletins devoted to exploring cultural themes

□Use art as a means of exploring IM□Create theatre highlighting issues in

IM

EXAMPLES OF PRACTICE (4)

□As part of CAS, have your students engage in humanitarian work in another country

□Establish a prize (award) to be presented annually at graduation to the student who writes an essay, or produces a short film, on an IM theme

□Sponsor an IM awareness week (month) involving the whole school community

TEACHING IM

□International mindedness is a “natural” fit in some subject areas – e.g., history, languages A1 and B, visual arts etc

□In incorporating IM themes one aim should be to foster the development of understanding of the ideas explored

□Have students follow-up such work with reflection pieces

TEACHING IM - SCIENCE

□Identify a specific area of interest and then compare and contrast how 3 different societies approach it, i.e., science education, control of scientific research, science and religion, the social status of science

□Identify a specific issue and then compare and contrast how 3 different societies approach it, i.e., global warming, birth control, reproductive technologies, AIDS research, GMOs

TEACHING IM - ETHICS

□Identify several ethical issues and then explore how, if at all, these are viewed in other societies, e.g., same-sex marriage, abortion/euthanasia, academic honesty, distribution of wealth, child labor, the sex trade

□Explore the reasoning behind ethical judgments and the source and support for the ethical principles and values used

TEACHING IM – SOCIAL SCIENCE

□Explore how different societies approach class, deviance, work, entertainment, adolescence, education, marriage, kinship and family, economic organization, criminal justice, substance-abuse etc

□Consider whether or not some social problems are unique to the societies in which they occur

TEACHING IM – TOK

□Different WOKs lead to cross-cultural exploration, e.g., emotion, reason, faith

□Different AOKs lead to comparison and contrast reflections., e.g., What role do the arts play in different cultures? Do all cultures recognize individual rights? How is history used in different cultures?

□How is truth understood in different cultures?

□Is autonomy of thought valued in all societies?

CHALLENGES/ISSUES TEACHING IM

□To what degree does fostering international mindedness erode cultural identity and social solidarity?

□Does international mindedness require that we accept all divergent beliefs and practices?

□What common values must we adopt if we are to become a society whose citizens are drawn from every corner of the world?

CASE STUDY – EXCISION (1)

□Excision (FGM)…refers to "all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs whether for cultural, religious or other non-therapeutic reasons. The procedure has no health benefits for girls and women.

CASE STUDY – EXCISION (2)

□An estimated 140 million women worldwide have undergone an excision procedure

□In Africa, about three million girls are at risk for FGM annually

□It is mostly carried out on young girls sometime between infancy and age 15

□FGM is internationally recognized as a violation of the human rights of girls and women

GLOBAL AWARENESS

A orientation seeking to foster awareness and understanding of the global economy, the new geo-political realities and the global issues facing today’s students so that they may better compete in the global marketplace and contribute to making the world a better place for all.

GLOBAL ISSUES

□Population growth□Economic development□Global warming□Species extinction □Ethno-diversity□Terrorism□Disease□Sex trade□Human Rights

OBSTACLES TO INTERNATIONAL

MINDEDNESS□The school culture: Superintendent,

principals, teachers, coaches etc□The attitude of other students and parents□The prevailing attitude of the community

at large□Messages received from national

authorities, the media, community leaders□The influence of friends, personal

experiences □The student’s developmental position

OUTCOMES

□What do we hope to achieve in our schools by focusing attention on international mindedness?

□How is fostering IM linked with the IB Learner Profile?

□What are the criteria of success?□What “action” will follow the

exploration of IM?

WHY INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS?

□We live in a global village□We fear what we do not recognize and

understand…□When our fear is great we either flee, or

we seek to destroy the cause of our fear…□Harmony among peoples, and cooperative

interdependence, requires understanding…

□International mindedness seeks to foster the development of that understanding.

CONCLUDING THOUGHT

□Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.Tolstoy

□War does not decide who is right, only who is left. anon

QUO VADIS?