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Institute of
International Education
809 United Nations Plaza
7th Floor
New York, NY 10017
USA
Tel: +1 (212) 984 5367
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Exploring Global Views and Visions: Understanding Our New Cultural Context Through the Liberal Arts |
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By Naomi F. Collins, Ph.D.
"Globalism" as a term seems both abstract and overused, yet it has real meaning and impact. Everyone recognizes that traditional borders no longer define the beginnings and ends of phenomena -- communication, mobility, commerce, and the spread of information, fashion, and disease. That the world is "shrinking," and that we live in a 24/7 time continuum, is not news, but it is a pressing reality. Whereas historic exploration and mobility resulted in limited encounter, today's technologies have resulted in continuous, multiple, and multipolar encounter and interaction between and among cultures.
Yet "globalism" is discussed most commonly through a narrower lens, that of "markets" and commercial activity. Recently the sciences have also discussed global "challenges;" for example, global warming and other environmental issues, bio-diversity, diseases without borders, such as the AIDS and TB epidemics, genetically altered crops, and other topics. A liberal arts approach to understanding our new global context appears to be just entering higher education curricula.
Currently, as written in Change Magazine (September/October 2002, pp. 51-52), it is not uncommon to view the internationalization of higher education as extra rather than integral, marginal rather than mainstream. But as the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington struck at the core of American commercial, governmental, and personal life, they showed not only that we Americans are not exempt from the impact of global events, but also that higher education cannot unbundle a global perspective from the center of academic concerns, content, and activity. Not since the launch of Sputnik in October 1957 were we so shaken in our assumptions about our place in the world and our preparedness as a nation, and so questioning of our ability to equip our students to thrive and compete in a new context. If in 1957 we were astonished at the gap we uncovered between Soviet and American students' math, science, and language skills, we were now startled at the chilling vision of U.S. agencies' apparent inability to muster linguists to interpret messages in airplane black boxes, or in potentially prophetic letters stacked on officials' desks.
Pressure to broaden the bandwidth of liberal arts education comes from at least two sources, students and employers. Students, according to ACE's national surveys reported in Public Experience, Attitudes, and Knowledge, want and expect to have an internationalized education. Even before 9/11, student poll surveys indicated that 88% of students believed international education gave them a competitive edge in the workforce; 86% strongly or somewhat agreed that knowing a foreign language improved their chances for career success. Eighty-three percent believed that international education opportunities are an important consideration when selecting a college or university; 70% believed it very important or somewhat important to interact with foreign students, study foreign language, and/or have the opportunity to study abroad. And 85% planned to participate in international courses or programs-- 57% in foreign language; 50% in courses on history or culture of another country; 48% in a study abroad program. (Public Experience, pp.20 - 23; see also Green, Change, May/June 2002 issue).
The study concludes that colleges and universities with robust international offerings will have a competitive advantage in attracting new students. The evidence would indicate that students recognize that they will live and work in a worldwide context, and that they seek to master the knowledge and competencies to equip themselves to succeed in this transnational setting.
Nor, apparently, did the events of 9/11 scare students into insularity. Institute of International Education surveys, reported in Open Doors, indicate that credit-bearing study abroad has realized continued growth in the years since 2001. Furthermore, the range of countries of interest has broadened. Equally important, beyond exchanges, students are drawn to curricular offerings on other cultures, religions, lifestyles, and comparative perspectives. (The New York Times, February 12, 2002, p. A 13.)
Corporate and business leaders also express preference for graduates prepared to work in a new global context. Although data on actual factors affecting hiring are hard to muster, with multiple variables among candidates, private sector employers maintain that when other factors are comparable, they favor internationally experienced, broadly educated candidates.
The challenge for the educational community today is to ramp up its response to these pressures from students and the workplace to meet these new and growing needs.
Clearly, the new era calls for new ways to view our expanded universe, and new ways to expand traditional liberal arts to incorporate a larger vision. Like the shock of Sputnik, the defining drama surrounding 9/11 and its aftermath creates a "teachable moment" and great opportunity. Those students entering colleges with education that provided a worldwide perspective will expect an expansion of that base in college.
At least three broad phenomena of the world that graduates enter today are:
• Continuous and multiple encounters among and between cultures;
• Complex interrelationships among cultures, with reverberating impacts on one another (both benign and destructive); and
• Cerebral skills as the bases of economies, the often called "knowledge economy" that has overtaken agricultural, manufacturing, and industrial based economies. For the new economies, methodical approaches to inquiry, understanding, and expression are essential. Skills include systematic logic and reasoned argument, analysis and assessment, critical and interpretive thinking, mastery of "content," and sensitive and appropriate communications. These approaches and skills are inherent in a liberal arts education.
In sum: while CNN spans the world, Internet affects almost everyone's life, and the "global marketplace" shapes our days and future, academic attention to the human dimension of globalization and our new international context grows more essential.
At a time when financiers and economists use and interpret the flow of capital and corporations across borders, policy analysts explain the evolution of nation-states and ethnic identification, and computer and network theorists and practitioners laud the wonders of connectivity and instantaneity, the challenge of the liberal arts and humanities is to provide meaning to this new world, offer perspective, explore contexts, analyze implications and impact on individuals, cultures, and civic society. With expanded liberal arts content, approaches, and context, graduates will be more empowered than ever to engage a world of continuous cultural encounter and interaction.
Dr. Naomi F. Collins, Ph.D. is a consultant to cultural and higher education organizations. She has served as Executive Director of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and is author of the forthcoming book, Through Dark Days and White Nights: Four Decades Observing a Changing Russia.
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