International Students And Global Education Sociology Essay

International Students And Global Education Sociology set astir(predicate)There is a widespread recognition and belief that our increasingly connect and interdependent globular society mandates that students be educated to develop habits of the caput that embrace tolerance, a commitment to coope ration, an appreciation of our common worldity, and a instinct of responsibility. The internationalistic students atomic number 18 the emerging leader of tomorrow. instinct globular issues is scathing to the students across the ball-shaped as they endeavor to promote democratic principles and neighborly justice, improve our stinting competitiveness, and provide leadership in the future. However, not copious is being done in public schools and classrooms to expose students to global issues. inquiry shows that most American students lag behind their peers in separate countries in their acquaintance of human beings geography, foreign languages, and cultures ( National Geogra phic-Roper, 2002). Our curriculum must brook a paradigm shift recognizing that in order to be rattling globally competitive our teachers must be globally competent. Educating young muckle to become global citizens will al slump them to learn around the interdependency of the worlds systems, believe that solutions to global challenges atomic number 18 attain able-bodied, and feel morally compelled to confront global injustices and take obligated for(p) action to promote a just, peaceful and sustainable world. If we truly aspire to founder a world-class education that connects and sees that what we do pushs other humans in the world, we must engage with the world. The challenges that side of meat the world to mean solar day-from global p everyplacety and climate change to financial systems and conflict-require globally-minded solutions (OMeara, 1997). Knowledge of these skills is demand so that young stack can invent a future that appropriately addresses global challen ges.These young international students must gain global competence in addressing international issues as well as gaining the faculty to break down with flock of diverse cultural backgrounds. Teaching for global nexus should be grounded in the personal experiences of the student and her/his community. Teachers must be able to help students to connect global issues with daily vivification experiences. According to Ryan and Durning (1997) students ought to ensure the impact of their daily consumption (and garbage) on the lives of other people and places in the world the consumption of coffee, reinvigoratedspapers, t-shirts, shoes, car, computer, hamburger, french-fries and cola ar traced from their origins through the inequities of the production bear on to the consequences of waste products. Teachers must approach global education from variant perspectives, says prosperous Merryfield, associate professor of hearty studies and global education at The Ohio narrate Universit y. For examplesome teachers have the rationale that, in order to compete in a global economy, students need a global perspectivebut others loss to sour the world a better place in monetary value of the environment and social justice. Still others want to promote cross-cultural sagaciousness. apiece of these is a valid approach, says Merryfield, as long as teachers emphasize quaternate perspectives and global interdependence (Rasmussen, 1998, p.2).Teachers also need to have the competences they argon assay to teach students. Our college preps do not prepare teachers to be globally competent. Understanding global issues makes teachers to a greater extent apt to guiding students in the global challenges that face their countries of origin. Given the fragile state of the world and the train of continued destruction, more emphasis should be given to preparing students to become stewards of the earth and participants in country for global social justice. Authentic education oc curs when students from diverse cultures act as and work together, especially when they have equal status and collaborative goals that have content in their lives (Johnson Johnson, 1992). Global educators find ways to emergence their students experiences with people different from themselves through work with international students from local universities, immigrant organizations in the community, service learning projects, exchanges through e-mail or videos, and taking students everywhereseas (Wilson, 1993). In a 10th grade world history, a unit on the center of tutelage East, some teachers may motivate students by presenting exotic images-such as the harem, polygamy, tumefy dancing, Arab sheiks, and camel races-and may fail to challenge students comments that stereotype all Arabs as supporters of act of terrorism or all Arab women as having hardly a(prenominal) rights. But Global educators, however, purposefully address stereotypes and challenge the exotic images and mis perceptions that students bring with them into the classroom. They develop littleons to replace misinformation with experience of the complexity of cultures, cultural conflicts, and global issues. To begin a unit on the Middle East, for example, a global educator asks students to brainstorm what they know about Muslims, Arabs, and the Middle East and then immediately addresses common misperceptions. When students confuse the wrong Arab and Muslim, the teacher helps students map where Arabs live and introduces primary sources for students to differentiate diverse Arab cultures and the Muslim world (Said, 1997). Said (1993) ideas on how Europeans constructed the Orient can help students recognize the exotic images of the Middle East in popular media, entertainment, and textbooks, and distinguish them from the materials that people of other countries have posted on the profits and what local Egyptian, Lebanese, and Iranian students say about their lives back home. In increment an appreciation of the complexities at heart other cultures, students learn to challenge sweeping generalizations, misinformation, and stereotypes.Global ChallengesSustainable festering and climate changePeople all over the world are struggling with riddles of a magnitude no other generation has faced. take down in the most affluent nations, one million million millions of people suffer from hunger, homelessness, and unattended health problems. Sach (1995) opines that wars, civil conflicts and invasions take the lives of millions more. Global changes in the climate are creating pure(a) local weather conditions, destroying lives and keeping. Well intended projects continue to despoil the attain, body of water and air ( Sach, 1995 p.7). Millions of tons of hazardous waste softend by industrialized countries are exported to non-industrialized areas of the world without regard to the health and environment consequences. Jacobson (1991) says that over three zillion pounds of pe sticides a year are used globally causing human poisonings, harm to fish and wildlife, livestock losses, groundwater contamination, destruction of natural vegetation, and more pests disgustful to pesticides (Jacobson et al, 1991, p. 45). Deforestation, soil erosion, destruction of habitat, extinction of species, and depletion of aquifers are but a few of the legion(predicate) attacks on our planet. art object natural resources are stripped from the earth, cutting species are genetically engineered by corporations for profitability and monopolized through complex international patent laws with few constraints for releasing them into the environment. According to Shiva (1997) ancient knowledge of plants and animals, and even human genetic material, are stolen from indigenous peoples and used to generate wealth for a few while the cultures which generated the knowledge are decimated. As these examples demonstrate, human rights and environmental issues are clearly intertwined.A coun try exchangeable Kenya is a prime example of not providing an economic infrastructure to meet the subsistence needs of the communities in the northern part of the country and creating man do famine. Countries with hungry people export grains or feed them to livestock for export. Millions of jobs are eliminated by technology or runaway factories as CEO salaries skyrocket. While the United Nations ratified a Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989, more than 250 million baberen are forced into labor (Sanders, 1997). Enormous resources are wasted on the production of guns and weapons of mass destruction as social programs and education funds are drastically reduced. Projects to solve one problem have created other problems. McMichaels (1993) observes that dams, viewed for decades as creating clean energy and providing irrigation, are responsible for destroying the means of subsistence for millions of people who are forced to relocate their homes (McMichaels, 1993 page 36). mo dify the natural flow of rivers, these dams flood millions of hectares of arable land, create conditions for water born(p) diseases and prevent fish from spawning. Aquaculture, heralded as the answer to declining fish and shrimp populations, is despoiling the habitat of other species.The primacy of profit maximization over all other values is the core of both social and environmental problems. Nations and nature are being restructured to meet this primary goal, not to meet the needs of unexceptional people or to ensure a sustainable environment. The problems created are global, with consequences for many different countries and communities. For example, when U. S. companies move plants and jobs to other countries to take advantage of cheaper labor, they leave economic devastation in local U.S. communities and undermine the existing economies in the new locations. At the same time, they take advantage of less stringent environmental policies in other countries that allow them to p ollute more alleviately or to use chemicals banned in the United States. Sometimes, these chemicals return to consumers in the U.S. in the imported products. Global problems necessitate going beyond national borders to encompass the concept of global citizenship. By learning how global issues affect one-on-one and community lives, how and why decisions are made which affect the planet and life on it and, most importantly, means by which the future can be influenced, global education can prepare students to become socially responsible international citizens.The empowerment of womenEmpowerment of women has been one of the strongest drivers of social evolution over the past century, and many argue that it is the most efficient strategy for addressing the global challenges in this chapter. Only two countries allowed women to vote at the beginning of the 20th century today there is virtually universal suffrage, the average ratio of women legislators worldwide has reached 19.2%, and o ver 20 countries have women heads of state or government. patriarchal structures are increasingly challenged, and the movement toward gender equality is irreversible.With an estimated control of over 70% of global consumer spending, women are strongly influencing market preferences. Analysis shows a direct interdependence amid countries Gender Gap Index and their fighting Index scores and that Fortune 500 companies with more gender-balanced boards could outperform the others by as much as 50%. Yet the Gender integrity Index 2010 shows that significant differences still sojourn in economic conflict and political empowerment.Gender stereotyping continues to have negative impacts on women around the world, and although go along is being made on closing the gender paste in terms of establishing global and national policies, real improvement will unaccompanied be achieved when conflicts between written laws and customary and religious laws and practices are eliminated. environme ntal disasters, food and financial crises, armed conflicts, and forced displacement further increase vulnerabilities and generate new forms of disadvantages for women and children.Women account for over 40% of the worlds workforce, earn less than 25% of the wages, and represent about 70% of people living in scantness. An OECD survey found that women spend more time on undischarged work than men do worldwide, with the gap ranging from 1 hour per day in Denmark to 5 hours per day in India. FAO estimates that giving women the same assenting as men to agricultural resources could reduce the number of hungry people in the world by 12-17%, or 100-150 million people. Child malnutrition levels are estimated to be 60% above average where women lack the right to land ownership and 85% above average where they have no retrieve to credit. Microcredit institutions reported that by 2010, nearly 82% (about 105 million) of their poorest clients were women. However, many of their businesses are too small to transform their economic status, points out FEMNET.Empowerment of women is exceedingly accelerated by the closing gender gap in education. close to countries are reaching gender parity in primary education, and 50% of university students worldwide are women. Yet regional disparities are high, and UNESCO estimates that women represent about 66% of the 796 million adults who lack basic literacy skills. Although the health gender gap is closing, family planning and maternal health remain critical. Determining the size of the family should be recognized as a basic human right, and more attention should be given to womens health and social support for affordable child care worldwide, including industrial countries, which are facing demographic crises due to low fertility rates. Of the more than 500,000 maternal expirys per year, 99% happen in developing countries, with the highest prevalence in Africa and Asia due to high fertility rates and namby-pamby health care syste ms. Unless providing effective family planning to the 215 million women who lack it is seen as a key component of information, the UN goal to reduce maternal deathrate to 120 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2015 will not be achieved.Regulations should be enacted and enforced to stop female genital mutilation, which traumatizes about 3 million girls in Africa each year, in addition to the 100-142 million women worldwide bear upon by it today. While the prevalence of this in Egypt, Guinea, and some parts of Uganda is at over 90%, communities in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and even in the EU are also affected.Violence against women is the largest war today, as measured by death and casualties per year. While the proportion of women exposed to physical violence in their liveliness ranges from 12% to 59%, a function of region and culture, sexual assaults remain one of the most underreported crimes worldwide, continuing to be perpetrated with impunity.According to UNODC, 66% of the v ictims of the $32 trillion global industry of human trafficking are women and children. The Protocol to Prevent, smash and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, has 142 parties and 117 signatories thus far, but it has yet to be adopted and enforced by some key countries.Female pic increases during conflict, when sexual violence is often used as a weapon. retrieval from conflict and disaster should be used as opportunities to rectify inequalities. Nevertheless, women make up only 8% of peace negotiators, and only 25 countries have developed National Action Plans supporting UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on womens protection in conflict and participation in peace processes. tighten the gap between rich and poor?The world needs a long-term strategic plan for a global partnership between rich and poor. Such a plan should use the strength of free markets and rules based on global ethics to combat poverty. Conventional approaches to poverty reduction (techni cal assistance and credit) that work in low- and middle-income stable countries do not work in fragile countries, which need stability first. Ethical market economies and systems require improved fair trade, increased economic freedom, a level playing field guaranteed by an honest judicial system with devotion to the rule of law and by governments that provide political stability, a medical prognosis to participate in local development decisions, reduced corruption, insured property rights, business incentives to comply with social and environmental goals, a healthy investment climate, and access to land, capital, and information. Direction from central government with relatively free markets is competing with the decentralized, secern private enterprise for lifting people out of poverty (Hersh and . Paterson, 1994 pages 93-94)An alternative to laborious to beat the brain drain is to connect people overseas to the development process back home by a variety of Internet systems. According to UNDP, if the WTO eliminated agricultural export subsidies, developing countries would gain $72 billion per year, according to UNDP. Structural imbalances in world trade have to be corrected to assure fair competition, respect of human rights, and labor and environmental standards, as well as efficient management of the global cat valium and prevention of monopolies. Chinas monetary policy adjustments could help other countries economic development and access to world markets.International students must be exposed to these issues and cranny possible solutions in a project oriented instruction. Also as a resource, the native students from these countries provide a rich understanding of how the issues affect their lives. Australia has set up a recruiting structure that gives international students scholarships with a subscribe to that these students will work in Australia for five years after beginning before returning to the mother country. Relationships are being dev eloped to nourish cooperation and understanding. The case study of such programs would enhance students understanding of international connectedness as international students. They can learn that the human experience is an increasingly globalized phenomenon in which people are constantly being influenced by transnational, cross-cultural, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic interactions. It is therefore important international students begin developing a deeper understanding of the worlds economic, social, and political issues.