Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education 9781681232898, 9781681232904, 9781681232911

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Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA ©

A Volume in Teaching and Learning Social Studies Series Editor: William B. Russell III, University of Central Florida

Teaching and Learning Social Studies William B. Russell III Series Editor Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education (2015) Edited by Lydiah Nganga and John Kambutu Doing Race in Social Studies: Critical Perspectives (2015) Edited by Prentice T. Chandler Getting at the Core of the Common Core With Social Studies (2014) Edited by Thomas N. Turner, Jeremiah Clabough, and William Cole

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © Digital Social Studies (2013) Edited by William B. Russell III

Integrative Strategies for the K-12 Social Studies Classroom (2013) Edited by Timothy Lintner, University of South Carolina Aiken Let the Music Play! Harnessing the Power of Music for History and Social Studies Classrooms (2012) Edited by Anthony M. Pellegrino and Christopher Dean Lee Contemporary Social Studies: An Essential Reader (2012) Edited by William B. Russell III

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © Edited by

Lydiah Nganga and John Kambutu University of Wyoming at Casper

Information Age Publishing, Inc. Charlotte, North Carolina • www.infoagepub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data CIP data for this book can be found on the Library of Congress website: http://www.loc.gov/index.html

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Paperback: 978-1-68123-289-8

Hardcover: 978-1-68123-290-4 E-Book: 978-1-68123-291-1

Copyright © 2016 IAP–Information Age Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or by photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. Printed in the United States of America

DEDICATION Dedicated to the memory of Edward Mwangi (1937–2014). A father whose advice regarding the importance of education to his children and grandchildren will never be forgotten. A community member whose dedication to social issues will always be appreciated.

CONTENTS Preface Lydiah Nganga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii 1. Theoretical Foundations of Global and Social Justice Education: An Introduction Lydiah Nganga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Teaching Globalization—What Are the Challenges for Teachers, Teacher Educators, and Curriculum Makers Graham Butt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3. Critical Teacher Education for Global Competence in Brazil Malia Spofford Xavier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 4. Contesting Institutional Epistemologies of Diversity: The Shift to Global/Local Framework in Teacher Education Amanda Richey and Leena Her . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 5. Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education: Using Children’s Literature, Threaded Discussions and Other Instructional Strategies Lydiah Nganga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 6. Teaching Toward Social Justice Using Text Sets as Mirrors and Windows for Local, National, and Global Issues Renee Moran, Monica Billen, and Karin Keith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

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7. Reading a Different Culture: The Use of International Children’s Literature in Teacher Education Yukari Takimoto Amos and Janet A. Finke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 8. Data, Maps, and Critical Thinking: Exploring Global Issues Through Student-Created Cartograms Peter William Moran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 9. Early Lessons in an Introductory Technology Course: The Evolution of Teacher Candidates’ Conceptualization of Social Justice Debby Shulsky and Jana Willis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 10. Global Citizenship and The Convention on the Rights of the Child Through Transformational Education Lois McFadyen Christensen, Amanda Pendergrass, and Melissa Whetstone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

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11. Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education: A Pedagogy for Social Justice Juliet A. Schiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 12. Human Trafficking: Focusing the Preservice Classroom on Social Justice Karla Eidson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 13. Class Activities for Understanding Self and Others in Local, National, and Global Contexts Charise Pimentel and Kathleen Fite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 14. Internationalizing Curricula in Teacher Education: Melding Old and New Ideas to Global Citizenship Amy Roberts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 15. Cultural Immersion Program Prepares Educators for Globalization Social Justice Teaching John Kambutu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271 16. Cultural Immersion Exposes the Positive and Negative Nature of Globalization Kathleen Nganga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

PREFACE L. NGANGA

Lydiah Nganga

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Our goal for writing Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education was to explore the curricula strategies that teacher preparation programs are using to inculcate preservice teachers with various social justice skills within the contexts of globalization. Because public school teachers are charged with the all-important responsibility of preparing children for “publicness” (Goodlad, Mantle-Bomley, & Goodlad, 2004), all teacher education programs should examine continually if, and how they are helping their preservice educators to acquire pertinent skills. Although a variety of skills are needed, an education that prepares learners for social justice and global inclusiveness is invaluable. We define social justice and global inclusive education as curricula that promote an appreciation of democratic and social justice ideals. Thus, an education that takes into account the fact that advanced technologies and information age have transformed the world into a “global village,” that is, a “virtual” place of interdependence and interconnections, vis-à-vis a physical place governed by rigid cultural, economic, and political boundaries is offered. Such an education promotes active engagement in a social and political democracy (Goodlad, 1984). Also promoted are skills in collaboration, critical thinking, problem solving, social justice, global mindedness, ethical practice, and lifelong learning. An education for social justice and global inclusiveness, therefore, provides all learners with favorable conditions to achieve academically, and to participate fully in the advancement of the “common good.” To accomplish this goal, chapter authors address how they conceptualize teaching for global education and social justice.

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. ix–xi Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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In Chapter 1, Lydiah Nganga explores the basic tenants of globalization and the relevance of a curriculum that prepares learners for global awareness and social justice. Graham Butt provides a detailed theoretical outline of the conception of globalization and the need for a balanced understanding while teaching for global education and social justice in Chapter 2. This is followed by a chapter by Malia Spofford Xavier’s on critical education for global competence in Brazil. In Chapter 4, Amanda Richey and Leena Her discuss teacher education in the context of institutional epistemologies and the need for teacher education programs to support preservice teacher candidates in exploring global and local contexts. In Chapter 5, Lydiah Nganga discusses key instructional strategies used in a methods course to help preservice teachers develop skills in global and social justice awareness. The following chapter by Renee Moran, Monica Billen, and Karin Keith explores struggles they have encountered with preservice teachers and ways in which they have engaged these future teachers in social justice oriented activities. Chapter 7, by Yukari Takiumoto Amos and Janet A. Finke discusses the use of international children’s literature in teacher education. This is followed by Pete William Moran’s chapter which discusses the use of data, maps, and critical thinking. Chapter 9, by Debby Shulsky and Jana Willis explores infusion of technology to teach for social justice. The following chapter by Lois McFadyen Christensen, Amanda Pendergrass, and Melissa Whetstone discusses the Convention on the Rights of the Child as transformative education. Chapter 11, by Juliet A. Schiller examines promoting human rights as pedagogy for social justice. In Chapter 12, Karla Eidson examines human trafficking in an effort to foster social justice awareness and global mindedness. Charise Pimentel and Kathleen Fite explores class activities for understanding self and others in local, national, and global context in Chapter 13. Chapter 14, by Amy C. Roberts discusses internalization of teacher education curriculum through the use of simulations. The last two chapters explore internalizing curriculum in teacher education. In Chapter 15, John Kambutu discusses the use of international service learning as a forum to expand global mindedness and social justice. Kathleen Nganga, in Chapter 16 discusses why participation in international service learning is critical. The 16 chapters included in this book represent a wide array of ideas that are being used in teacher education programs to help prepare preservice teachers who are well equipped to teach for global mindedness and social justice. Through the use of different instructional strategies and materials, teacher educators have detailed how they help future teachers think critically, challenge existing paradigms as well as gather tools that will helps them educate the future citizens in a more globalized world.

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REFERENCES Goodlad, J. I. (1984). A place called school. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Goodlad, J.I., Mantle-Bromley, C., & Goodlad, S.J (2004). Education for everyone: Agenda for education in a democracy. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We would like to acknowledge the efforts and contributions of all authors who helped to make this project become a reality. We would also like to thank the peer reviewers who did a blind review and made invaluable suggestions on how to improve the work. Appreciation to William Russell III, series editor for Information Age Publishing’s Teaching & Learning Social Studies series, for his guidance. Thanks also to Evans, Tim, and Kathleen for their encouragement and who gave a listening ear when the writing road was tough. Kathleen, may you find this book particularly intriguing in your pursuit of social justice.

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—Lydiah Nganga and John Kambutu

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education p. xiii Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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CHAPTER 1

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF GLOBAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © An Introduction

L. NGANGA

Lydiah Nganga

The necessity to teach for global and social justice education in teacher education programs is becoming more relevant than ever before due to rapid globalization. Teachers have a responsibility to prepare students for in increasingly interdependent world. Additionally, an education for global awareness and social justice requires an understanding of global and social issues. This chapter, therefore, explores the basic tenants of globalization and the relevance of a curriculum that prepares learners for global awareness and social justice.

INTRODUCTION The term globalization has been defined in many ways by different scholars. For example, Kambutu and Nganga (2008) defined it as increased interconnectedness and interdependence. In the context of this chapter, I

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 1–6 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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will define globalization as a phenomenon that affects global communities everywhere irrespective of their geographical or political location. To understand the impact of globalization therefore requires one to be knowledgeable of what is happening locally and nationally, around the world, world political systems and economies, world health issues, movement of populations and the impact of political and geographical boundaries among others global issues. Dale (2000) argued that globalization is a result of capitalism and global competition, at most resulting in economic or sociopolitical regions of influence. In addition, globalization affects education systems and policies (Dale, 1999). “In fact nations are borrowing educational policies, comparing educational systems, and setting educational benchmarks based on recommendations from an international agenda” (Rutkowski & Rutkowski (n.d). To that end, Apple (2011) noted that education today cannot be understood without recognizing that educational policies are integrated with global economies and crises. Furthermore,

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reforms and crises in one country have significant effects in others; and that immigration and population flows from one nation or area to another have tremendous impact on what counts as official knowledge, what counts as responsive and effective education, what counts as appropriate teaching. (Apple, 2011, p. 223)

Notwithstanding, globalization affects different countries and nations differently. Consequently, Kirkwood-Tucker (2013) argued that globalization is the primary reason that global awareness education is a more practical concept today than it has been in the past. As more countries embrace capitalism, it is clear that the impact of globalization on education has far-reaching consequences. Education institutions are looked upon as preparers of human capital, thus they must provide knowledge, learning and skills in new technologies that are required to function in a globalized world (Landorf & Nevin, 2007; Nganga, 2013). In this sense, educators can play a critical role in mediating and challenging the differential benefits of globalization. For example, educators can explore power differential between nations that are former colonizers, formally colonized nations and those with neocolonial histories (Apple, 2011; Nganga & Han, 2013). Such an approach then, requires teachers who have a global awareness and those who can teach for social justice. What Does it Take to Implement a Curriculum With a Global Education and Social Justice Focus? To answer this question, we must look at world systems that make global education and social justice awareness necessary components of

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teacher education. Technologically, the world is at our fingertips. The global economy, political and cultural systems are ever changing. With these changes, our education system needs to prepare students who are global minded thus, teaching global and social justice education is inevitable. Our children need to understand the world in which they live in more than ever before. They need to learn about other cultures and to respect the diversity that the world presents to them. This can only be accomplished if teacher educators prepare teachers who are global citizens and who can teach for social justice. To that end, colleges of education in the United States are increasingly utilizing a variety of instructional strategies in order to prepare globally minded teachers who are able to work well with international and diverse communities (Alfaro, 2008). Indeed, “the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) have long called for global education in both K–12 classrooms and preservice teacher education programs” (Zong, 2009, p. 71). For teachers to offer an education that embraces global perspectives, a commitment to social justice must be embedded in their instruction. Subsequently, a clear understanding of what teaching for global education and social justice means is crucial.

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Global Education Defined Tye and Tye (1992) defined global education as

(1) The study of problems and issues that cut across national boundaries and the interconnectedness of systems involved—economic, environmental, cultural, political, and technological. (2) The cultivation of cross-cultural understanding, which includes development of skills of perspective taking—that is, being able to see life from someone else’s point of view. Global perspectives are important at every grade level, in early curricular, subject area, and for all children and adults. (p. 6)

To Merryfield and Wilson (2005, p. 141) global education should include the following elements: • • • • • • • •

local/global connections; perspective consciousness/multiple perspectives; the world as a system; global issues; power in a global context; nonstate actors; prejudice reduction; cross-cultural competence;

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• research and thinking skills; • participation in local and global communities; and • use of electronic technologies. Social Justice Education Defined According Philpott and Dagenais (2011) the ideals of social justice education have been referred to as: culturally relevant teaching; teaching against the grain; improving the life; chances of all children; teaching for diversity; multicultural education; antioppressive education and addressing generic issues influenced by privilege and power. (pp. 87–88)

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Nonetheless, the most widely held definition of social justice education has been the “explicit recognition of the marked disparities in educational opportunities, resources, achievement, and long-term outcomes among minority and low-income pupil groups and their White, middleclass peers” (Shakman et al., 2007, p. 7). Thus, social justice education is curriculum for students to examine power and privilege and how it is used in education to reproduce inequality either purposefully or unintentionally. Adams, Bell, and Griffin (1997) stipulated that an education for social justice should begin with people’s lived experiences and move toward fostering critical perspectives and actions that are directed toward social change. For educators, therefore, a pedagogical approach that acknowledges and respects all learners is critical. GLOBAL EDUCATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Social justice is a fundamental concept in global education (Landorf & Nevin, 2007). Thus, global education exemplifies constant questioning and reflections of social justice issues. Banks (2005) put teaching for social justice in the forefront of the goals of global education. Nonetheless, the primary goal of both fields is to facilitate the teaching and learning of respect for oneself and the other (Landorf & Nevin, 2007). A key tenet is “the importance of developing awareness of oppressive social conditions, termed as critical consciousness. Awareness of oppressive conditions (whether affecting oneself or another), are presumed to be necessary and conducive for social action” (Torres-Harding & Meyers, 2013, pp. 214–215). Additionally, education for global and social justice requires a great sense of self-awareness that includes knowing one’s own attitudes,

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beliefs, values, and cultural worldview. Such an education also encourages learners from traditionally marginalized groups to express themselves. In conclusion an education for global awareness and social justice requires enhancing the critical consciousness of learners. It requires educators to willingly challenge their students, to use a curriculum that helps learners confront sometimes difficult information about social injustices and inequalities. Additionally, global issues such as imbalance of power between developed and developing nations, distribution and control of global resources, immigration, terrorism, availability of clean water, world hunger, and health issues among others should be in the forefront of such a curriculum. Such an education is likely to provoke strong resistance in students that may be manifested through verbal challenges in the classroom, challenging the credentials of faculty, denial and even disengagement from classroom assignments (Goodman, 2001). Thus, educators for social justice and global awareness should support their learners though the use of different strategies that promote perspective taking. In this book, authors will address instructional strategies and activities that they have used to teach for issues of global education and social justice.

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Adams, M., Bell, L. N., & Griffin, P. (1997). Teaching for diversity and social justice: A source book. New York, NY: Routledge. Alfaro, C. (2008). Global student teaching experiences: Stories bridging cultural and inter-cultural differences. Multicultural Education (Summer), 20–26. Apple, M. W. (2011). Global crises, social justice and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 62(2), 222–234. Banks, C. A. M. (2005). Improving multicultural education: Lessons from the intergroup education movement. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Dale, R. (1999). Specifying globalization effects on national policy: A focus on the mechanisms. Journal of Education Policy, 14(1), 1–17. Dale, R. (2000). Globalization and education: Demonstrating a ‘common world educational culture’ or locating a ‘globally structured educational agenda’? Educational Theory, 50(4), 427–448. Goodman, D. J. (2001). Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Kambutu, J., & Nganga, L. (2008). In these uncertain times: Educators build cultural awareness through planned international experiences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(4), 939–951. Kirkwood-Tucker, T. F. (2013). Creative pedagogy in integrating a global awareness in mandated social studies curricula and instruction. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 227–238). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

6 L. NGANGA Landorf, H., & Nevin, A. (2007). Inclusive global education: Implications for social justice. Journal of Education Administration, 45(6), 711–723. Merryfield, M. M., & Wilson, A. (2005). The many dimensions of global education. National Council for Social Studies Bulletin, No. 103. Nganga, L. (2013). Preparing teachers for global consciousness in the age of globalization. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 227–238). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Nganga, L., & Han, K. T. (2013). Immigration and global economies in the context of globalization. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 37–50). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Philpott, R., & Dagenais, D. (2011). Grappling with social justice: Exploring new teachers’ practice and experiences. Education, Citizenship and Justice, 7(1), 85–99. Rutkowski, L., & Rutkowski, D. (n.d). An empirical look at globalization in education: An example with TIMSS mathematics data. Retrieved from http://www.iea.nl/ fileadmin/user_upload/IRC/IRC_2008/Papers/IRC2008_Rutkowski_ Rutkowski2.pdf Shakman K., Cochran-Smith, M., Jong C., Terrell, D., Barnatt, T., & McQuillan, P. (2007). Reclaiming teacher quality: The case for social justice. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL. Torres-Harding, S. R., & Meyers, S. A. (2013). Teaching for social justice and social action. Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, 41, 213–219 Tye, B. B., & Tye, K. A. (1992). Global education: A study of School change. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Zong, G. (2009). Global perspectives in teacher education research and practice. In T. F. Kirkwood-Tucker (Ed.), Visions in global education: The globalization of curriculum and pedagogy in teacher education and schools. Perspectives from Canada, Russia, and the United States (pp. 71–89). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

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CHAPTER 2

TEACHING GLOBALIZATION What Are the Challenges for Teachers, Teacher Educators and Curriculum Makers? G. BUTT

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This chapter explores 3 issues related to the teaching of globalization, each of which has implications for the work of teachers, teacher educators and curriculum makers. Here the analysis sits within a framework which acknowledges the importance of education for social justice as the foundation on which most aspects of globalization can be successfully taught. Achieving social justice is generally understood to involve establishing the conditions necessary for individuals to realize their potential to lead fulfilling lives. This implies that we must all aim to contribute positively to society, in various ways, and take responsibility for our membership of that society; this has notable ramifications politically, economically, socially and in terms of the focus of educational provision. The achievement of social justice—in itself a contentious issue—is viewed as only being possible with the support of societal institutions (for health care, welfare, employment rights, justice, social security, education, etc.) which protect the equality of opportunity of the individual and sustain their development. With reference to these institutions, both formal and informal, John Rawls (1971) correctly asserts that they should ensure: “the appropriate distribution of the benefits and burdens of social cooperation” (p. 4).

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Unfortunately, there is neither the space here to return to the question of whether this is ever possible, nor to debate whether the desire to achieve social justice is counter intuitive (because, for some, the establishment of a socially just society involves elements of injustice for certain members of that society). However, this apparent tension should be recognized. My aim in this chapter is to offer a theoretical outline of the concept of globalization which will help educators, at whatever level, to achieve a firmer purchase on its place in education. This outline will explore how globalization is commonly viewed as a set of processes, rather than a singular condition, which owe much to the emergence of interregional networks, improved systems of interaction and better means of financial exchange (Held, McGrew, Goldblatt, & Perraton, 1999). Globalization is also often conceived of as a set of complex networks of relationships between international institutions, nongovernmental organizations and transnational corporations (TNCs). How the processes associated with globalization affect many aspects of life across the globe—be they cultural, economic, political, legal, military or environmental—and how globalization has led to a shifting of ideas about the territoriality of socioeconomic and political space, is acknowledged. I conclude with comments for teacher educators about the practicalities of establishing a curriculum for global mindedness and social justice, aware of the expectations of both the school curriculum and teachers themselves. The spatial shift which sits at the heart of globalization has been achieved by “cutting across” political frontiers and by reforming “local,” “regional,” “national” and “continental” space. In essence, globalization has led to an expansion of the scale and spatial reach within which power is organized and exercised by countries, TNCs and other organizations; as a consequence our increasingly interconnected global system reveals that the exercise of power through the decisions and actions of agencies on one continent can have significant consequences for nations, communities, households and individuals on another. In this context the significance of adopting a theoretical lens which also allows us to focus on aspects of social justice, as a principle that should underpin any consideration of globalization and education, becomes clear.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CONCEPTS OF GLOBALIZATION

The first issue to be considered concerns the conceptualization of globalization held by those who educate children, train teachers or devise school curricula. Many educators still experience difficulty in pinning down what the term “globalization” actually means—a problem which largely stems from the fact that it is a word regularly used to describe a

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wide range of multifaceted, complex, processes and outcomes. This definition issue is not helped by the actions of governments who regularly assert that globalization benefits their citizens, but at times choose to attribute any number of problems facing their nations to the forces of globalization (Garrett, Evans, & Williams, 2006). To complicate matters further, we know that some of the processes associated with globalization may have rapid and significant impact in certain places at specific times, but almost no effect elsewhere—indeed, globalization may cause considerable short term change within a particular location, while at other times its impacts are almost negligible (Apple, 2010). The concept of globalization is therefore difficult to pin down precisely, not least because it is used so expansively to cover a plethora of social, political, economic and cultural issues, processes and conditions occurring at the global to local scales. It is also a term that is used by a wide variety of agencies (political leaders, the media, academics, businesses, trades unions, etc), each with reference to their own contexts and in subtly different ways. The sociologist Anthony Giddens (2002), in his introduction to Runaway World, notes the popularity of the term while also acknowledging the problems associated with achieving its concise definition. Amin (1997) similarly draws distinctions between the definitions applied by different commentators, which he believes often reflect their particular political or philosophical positioning:

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Globalization is [either] the triumph of capitalism on a world scale over national and local autonomy … [or] Less dramatically, it is nothing more than the intensification of exchange between distinct national social formations and, as such, still governable through the interstate system. (Amin 1997, pp. 123–124)

He alights on a description of globalization that locates the term somewhere near the middle of available definitions, as he considers globalization to be a process which blurs traditional territorial and social boundaries through the interpenetration of local and distant events. It is not difficult to find proponents on each side of these positioning arguments—Guttal (2007), for example, weighs up the opinions of the proponents for globalization (who claim that it is both a “natural” and an inevitable outcome of technological progress, which creates positive economic and political convergences), with those against (who argue that globalization is hegemonic and antagonistic to local and national economies); Guttal eventually chooses to side with the latter—stating that globalization is a form of capitalist expansion that entails the integration of local and national economies into a global, unregulated market economy. Identifying its driving forces as the institutions of global capitalism—particularly the actions of TNCs—he also acknowledges the role of

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the state in constructing the enabling environments in which globalization can flourish. Kitching (2003) also observes that many commentators “take sides” with respect to globalization, either “to commend and celebrate it, (or) to decry and denounce it” (p.6) and that such positioning is often an expression of personal political intent. For example, neoliberals tend to be enthusiastic supporters of globalization, seeing the desirability of free markets and the inevitability of the rise of globalizing forces. As one might expect, the concepts of space and scale are central to our understanding of globalization. Here the work of geographers has been helpful in advancing our understanding, although some have criticized their rather restrained contributions to debates about globalization (Dicken, 2004). By contrast sociologists have often led the way. John Holmwood (2007), a British sociologist, helpfully draws attention to the local–global nexus within globalization choosing three geographical phenomena to illustrate his point (the tsunami in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, the Kashmir earthquake of October 8, 2005, and Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the southern coast of the United States on August 25, 2005). The global mass media’s coverage of these events had “the paradoxical effect of rendering others as both immediate and remote” (p. 86) (Holmwood, 2007)—a recognized effect of globalization which can help to portray the global, as local. This conceptualization sits easily with elements of Amin’s (1997) notion of “out there—in here” connectivity. In summary, there are obvious dangers when using the term “globalization” given its very slippery nature—indeed Bonefeld (2006) refers to both the word and its associated concepts as being “spongy.” We must therefore be prepared to avoid the temptations of using it loosely as a “catch all” to describe almost any process, or condition, that is observable at the global scale. This has prompted some commentators, for example Susan Strange (1995), to comment that the word “globalization’” is often employed by “woolly thinkers” who lump together common trends without making much attempt to distinguish those which are important from those that are trivial. In essence, she argues, if globalization is used as a term to say everything, it says nothing. This was recognized almost two decades ago by Hirst and Thompson (1996), who believed at the time that the concept of globalization was neither as significant, nor as important, as many commentators were claiming. As educators we have real problems when handling such complexity—there are obvious dangers of seeking to apply definitions that are either too narrow and selective, or too broad and embracing, for young learners. This issue is acknowledged by Kambutu (2013), who recognizes that the impacts of globalization are largely lauded by neoliberals who perceive the superiority of already dominant Western economic and education systems, which they believe should

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be replicated globally (despite obvious injustices that are visited upon the less advantaged). The difficulties involved in understanding globalization (as a set of processes, a concept, or a theorization) arise from the discourses that surround it, masking its essential elements. Interestingly, Hay and Marsh (2000) argue that the most successful application of the concept of globalization is not achieved through seeking a new, prima facie explanation, but by regarding it as a reframing of existing processes. STUDYING GLOBALIZATION The second issue considered will be the studying of globalization in the school curriculum. The opportunities and challenges faced by young people growing up in our rapidly globalizing world should certainly be appreciated by curriculum makers. We have already seen how the complexities of globalization can create dilemmas for educationists, whose aim is hopefully to help learners achieve a clearer appreciation of the ideas that underpin it. Many educators (as well as academics interested in globalization as a concept) choose to focus on its economic aspects, while others may seek to highlight a variety of social, political, cultural, ideological and technological drivers and consequences. Within this context aspects of social justice must also come to the fore. Some have observed that students are experiencing their lives in a “supercomplex” (Lambert, 1999) and “risky” world (Lambert & Machon, 2001), where the factors of economic, social and cultural change are increasingly globalized. We are, therefore, not presented with a straightforward, curriculum-making proposition when we aim to teach about globalization through different school subjects and disciplines. Because curriculum makers lack a single, agreed, comprehensive definition of globalization there is some sense in starting the process of curriculum construction by considering statements that outline its broad components (while acknowledging that these statements are also contestable) (Butt, 2011). Below are six statements about globalization, based on the work of Lauder, Brown, Dillabough, and Halsey (2006), which might be employed to underpin the construction of a curriculum unit on this theme:

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• people and countries are becoming more interdependent globally, and as a consequence national and cultural boundaries are (for many) becoming less significant; • national and regional economies are generally declining in importance, compared to the influence of global trade and markets;

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• information technology (including the Internet) has achieved greater connectivity between people globally; • travel (particularly cheap air travel) has achieved greater connectivity between people globally; • global networks (of money, goods, services, migrants, students, knowledge, information, music, ideas, technology, etc.) are growing, and the flow within these networks is increasing rapidly; • time and space are being compressed. Considerations of environmental, political and ideological factors are largely absent from this list, but may legitimately be introduced by curriculum makers. The six statements above would arguably also benefit from the inclusion of the concepts of deterritorialization and reterritorialization of socioeconomic and political space, and from consideration of the ways in which the spatial reach of different aspects of power has increased. Most significantly, from the perspective of the theme of this chapter, this list does not explicitly draw reference to aspects of social justice— although it is clear that each of the points could be viewed through such a lens. The role and function of social justice education in this context should therefore be explored—not least to ensure that the aims of social justice are closely allied to those of economic development in the curriculum. The interplay between the forces of globalization and the key components of social justice (such as health care, employment rights, education, social security and public services) are obvious, while the issues of equality of opportunities, fair distribution of wealth, and social mobility also need to be addressed in schools. We must strive to achieve balanced and sophisticated understandings of the concept of globalization—too often school curricula demonize globalizing processes as degrading environments, reducing wages, destroying welfare, worsening social conditions, and weakening cultures without providing any counter arguments. These pressures may certainly be apparent across the world, but they are by no means universal—globalization implies both winners and losers, not just losers. It is also simplistic to assume that all the pressures associated with globalization will fall upon the traditionally disadvantaged. Some lower waged workers in developing countries may actually benefit from enhanced employment prospects, subsequently forcing workers in the developed world to experience more challenging employment prospects (such as lower wages, contracted work, poorer conditions of service, less job diversity). This situation is neither uniform, nor absolute (Butt, 2011). Here, the motives and actions of TNCs tend to be heavily criticized and although there are many questions that large corporate bodies need to answer with reference to social justice

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issues, the impacts of their actions are often nuanced and diverse. So, just as we must not ignore (say) the human rights abuses of workers, the banning of trades unions, the payment of low wages to impoverished workers, or the use of child labor by some TNCs, we must also recognize that the lives of many people (in both the developed and developing worlds) would be poorer without their existence. The outrages perpetrated by certain corporations must be documented, taught about and denounced from the perspective of social injustice—but we must also acknowledge that many governments, and indeed workers and consumers, see only opportunities associated with these organizations (Norberg, 2004; Shipman, 2002). The imagined power of many TNCs can be overplayed, despite the economic might of the biggest corporations being both well documented and often breathtaking. Giddens (2003), for example, argues that although the ways in which countries interact with each other has been changed forever by globalization, the notion that TNCs are now more powerful than nation-states is largely fanciful. When acting collaboratively countries have much greater influence than any TNC—these corporations do not yet ‘run the world’, despite having much control and influence.

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The final issue concerns the wider impacts of globalization on education. We can readily observe that the forces of globalization are influencing education policies and practices worldwide. In a number of jurisdictions the national curricula, national standards, modes of teaching and forms of assessment are all tending toward uniformity as a result of globalization. Additionally, the negative effects on schools of “competition, public sector downsizing and creeping privatization” are all recognized by Kelly (2009), who draws a contrast between these issues and the supporters of globalization who focus on the longer term gains of “bringing nations together through trade and greater efficiency in the provision of better public services” (p. 53). Apple (2010), in his introductory remarks to Global Crises, Social Justice and Education, similarly observes that education policy and practice is now affected by an increasingly integrated global economy, which is itself subject to crises that impact on the economies and societal institutions of many countries. The ripple effect is tangible, not least on educational provision: social and ideological dynamics … are now fundamentally restructuring what education does, how it is controlled, and who benefits from it throughout the world. (p. 1)

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In these circumstances governments have regularly found themselves weakened, with politicians and policymakers facing dilemmas about whether to adopt a laissez faire approach to the forces of globalization or to swim against a tide of seemingly inevitable, uncontrollable change. The tension is between those who seek to manage the impact of globalization in the democratic interest of their citizens, and those who believe that markets should be allowed to promote longer term prosperity (without too much concern for the inevitable side effects). With respect to education, Burbules and Torres (2000) note the effects of globalization both on the adoption of education policies and the reduction of national influences on educational practice; here the consequences of globalization are often being used to justify greater performance management, deregulation of education services and the marketization of school choice. Smith (2002) also recognizes how education policymakers increasingly look to adopt market-led solutions to problems, accepting the refocusing of education as a private, rather than a public, good. The privatization of education in developed countries, often complicit with the direct involvement of large corporate interests, therefore comes with the blessing of many policymakers (Butt, 2011). Politicians on the political right often borrow educational ideas and policies from other developed countries, and view education (particularly higher education) as primarily providing a competitive edge for their nation in the global economy (Butt, 2007). Within the globalized economic system, education is therefore now charged with the responsibility of increasing international competitiveness and delivering economic growth, but without the concomitant prioritization of issues of social justice and inclusion. This can have a profound effect on the construction of school curricula, not least through a tendency toward the creation of uniformity. Here is a direct link to governments investing in their nation’s human capital through education, specifically with the aim of producing highly skilled workers who will promote economic growth and competitiveness (Spring, 2009). Additionally, the direct influence of TNCs within schools is a cause for concern—both through brand promotion in the classroom and the sponsoring of educational programs and curricular content. For TNCs, schools have the distinct advantage of already organizing their students along key demographics such as age and academic ability—making it possible for companies to easily target their advertising and marketing to young consumers (Smith, 2002). The possibilities of engaging with, and indeed capturing, young consumers through educational inputs is an attractive prospect for many companies. Even more appealing is the prospect of holding onto these young consumers as they progress into adulthood. Bottery (2006) realizes the implications of the globalized educational marketplace and describes educational professionals as being at an

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important crossroads with respect to their response to globalization. His fear is that many educators are choosing to retreat from the influences of globalization (toward the “parochial and insular”), rather than embracing and shaping them to their (educational) advantage. He asserts that at the very least educators should recognize the growing influence of global factors and appreciate that education is increasingly a globalized phenomenon—hence the connection with concepts of “knowledge economy” and “intellectual capital,” and their relationship with training and education, come to the fore. The paradox is that knowledge economies tend to emphasize the importance of the flexibility of workforces and organizational structures, at a time when educational systems are often becoming more standardized and inflexible. As Bottery (2006) observes: “educators [are] conditioned in ways which make them singularly ill-equipped to help their students deal with these challenges” (p. 104). The impact of globalization can also be seen on teacher education. Furlong (2013) describes how the influences of globalization are increasingly apparent in education and teacher preparation, but that most governments imagine that a sensible response is the pursuit of neoliberal policies. He notes that education policy making (in England, at least) has been driven by neoliberal influences, whatever the political stripe of the government in power. As such, teacher education policies are now developed along very similar lines by all political parties. Educational provision, policy making and reform do not exist in a vacuum. It has always been important to realize the social, economic and political contexts in which education (in schools, universities and teacher training institutions) takes place—these increasingly relate to the forces of globalization. In essence, it is foolish to assume that one can alter educational provision in schools (or elsewhere) simply by concentrating and legislating for change in the schools themselves.

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Suggestions for Teacher Educators

I write from the perspective of a university-based teacher educator who currently works in the English system of initial teacher training and who has over 20 years’ experience of training preservice geography teachers (for the postgraduate certificate in education). This 1-year qualification, awarded alongside Qualified Teacher Status, enables postgraduates who already have a first degree in geography (or another discipline) to become qualified to teach their subject in state secondary schools in England. My career background may therefore color my suggestions for other teacher educators whose aim is to prepare new teachers to “teach globalization” through their own education systems—for example, there

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are significant differences when working with (say) undergraduates who aspire to gain a general teaching qualification for primary school teaching (students aged 4 to 11 years), compared to training prospective secondary school teachers (students aged 11 to 18 years) who have a degree in the subject they wish to teach (which may have already introduced them to concepts of globalization and globalism). The English maintained school system (as opposed to the private school system of independent and, so called, “public schools”) deems it compulsory for children to study a national curriculum—introduced in 1988, but subject to frequent revisions—which to a considerable degree determines what teacher educators must prepare teachers to teach. As such, the Geography National Curriculum (DfE, 2013a) and Citizenship National Curriculum (DfE, 2013b)—which largely encapsulate aspects of globalization and social justice—are documents which (geography) educators must thoroughly engage with. Direct mention of aspects of globalization are limited within these statutory curricula, however teachers are permitted (and expected) to interpret the national curriculum statutory orders in broad terms, encouraged by the expansive opening statements (“purpose of study”) of both the geography and citizenship curricula:

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Geography: “A high-quality geography education should inspire in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives” More detail is provided in the key stage statements, for example, in key stage 3 (11–13 years) the entry for human geography states: “human geography relates to: population and urbanization; international development; economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors; and the use of natural resources.” Citizenship: “A high-quality citizenship education helps to provide pupils with knowledge, skills and understanding to prepare them to play a full and active part in society.” It is soon apparent that for both teachers in schools, and teacher educators in higher education institutions (HEIs), there is considerable latitude to introduce content that promotes the implementation of a curriculum which fosters education for global mindedness and social justice.

For those working outside the English system there will obviously be different education statutes, expectations and experiences. However, surveys of geography education in a number of more and less economically developed countries (see Butt & Lambert, 2014; Gerber, 2001; Rawling,

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2004) reveal that the teaching of globalization at secondary school level is considered important within many national jurisdictions’ school geography curricula and initial teacher education programs. Nonetheless, Tye (1999) (cited in Reynolds et al., 2012) found that in a survey of 52 countries there were only a few professional education programs for teachers interested in developing global education. This was particularly the case in initial teacher education, where the demand for courses to produce globally aware teachers was extremely limited. However, this situation will almost certainly have changed somewhat over the past 15 years. It is also worth noting that many crowded initial teacher education programs would not be defined by the sole objective of producing ‘global education teachers’ per se, but would be more likely to include a module or unit on global education (just as they might on citizenship, social justice, etc.). The situation for those teacher educators working in multidisciplinary contexts may be challenging (Reynolds et al., 2012). Here the difficulties of implementing sessions on “global perspectives” for a new generation of teachers—by a group of teacher educators, across a range of teacher education programs (as reported in the Australian context)—highlight personal, professional and political dilemmas. This project recognized the need for professional cooperation within the context of teacher education—in itself a problematic area, described here as a “world of compromise.” For Reynolds and her coworkers global education must incorporate aspects of globalization, alongside considerations of “peace education, environmental education, development education, multicultural education and various forms of critical education associated with social justice” (p. 1). This is, of course, neither an inconsiderable, nor necessarily straightforward, undertaking. Drawing on the work of Hoepper (2011), Reynolds et al. (2012) define global education with reference to the concept of “world consciousness”— whereby people increasingly see themselves not only as local and national citizens, but also as citizens of the world. Global mindedness implies a rise in one’s sense of global citizenship, with concomitant challenges and opportunities for learners. Here we should note—as indeed Reynolds et al. (2012) do—that global education is not necessarily the same thing as education about globalization: both fields intersect and overlap, but without clearer, universally accepted definitions these are difficult concepts to isolate into specific, easily definable, units. Global citizenship is something different again, with most definitions specifying that a disposition to action should underpin its delivery: the concept of active citizenship, which will help to shape a better shared future for the world, has inherent connections to social justice, human rights, peace, sustainability, and personal responsibility. It is worth noting that education about globalization does not necessarily take this explicit step into exploring particular values

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and prompting the need for individual participation—even though it usually incorporates the study of interdependence, sustainability, social justice and cultural diversity. The issue of the interdisciplinarity of global education is interesting. ‘Global perspectives—a framework for global education in Australian schools’ (Global Education Project, 2008) largely assumes that an interdisciplinary approach is adopted by teachers and teacher educators, although reference is made to teaching “within and across subject areas.” As we have seen, in many countries the theme of “globalization” may be taught in many national contexts predominantly within just one school discipline (as in the case of geography teaching in English secondary schools1). Helpfully the project offers a useful rationale for schools wishing to introduce global perspectives across the curriculum and therefore, by implication, for those engaged in the professional development of teachers and the preparation of preservice teachers:

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A global perspective offers students and teachers

• an approach which takes into account the whole of human society and the environments in which people live • an emphasis on the future, the dynamic nature of human society, and each person’s capacity to choose and shape preferred futures • an opportunity to explore important themes such as change, interdependence, identity and diversity, rights and responsibilities, peace building, poverty and wealth, sustainability and global justice • a focus on cooperative learning and action, and shared responsibility • an emphasis on critical thinking and communication • an opportunity to develop positive and responsible values and attitudes, important skills and an orientation to active participation. (Global Education Project, 2008, p. 4)

This leads to the articulation of five “learning emphases,” which reflect recurrent themes in global education, each of which has a spatial and a temporal dimension: • Interdependence and globalization—an understanding of the complex social, economic and political links between people and the impact that changes have on others. • Identity and cultural diversity—an understanding of self and one’s own culture, and being open to the cultures of others. • Social justice and human rights—an understanding of the impact of inequality and discrimination, the importance of standing up for our own rights and our responsibility to respect the rights of others.

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• Peace building and conflict resolution—an understanding of the importance of building and maintaining positive and trusting relationships and ways conflict can be prevented or peacefully resolved. • Sustainable futures—an understanding of the ways in which we can meet our current needs without diminishing the quality of the environment or reducing the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs (Global Education Project 2008, p. 5). It is worth noting that the process of achieving agreement about the nature of, and methods for, both training teachers and delivering global education and education about globalization, social justice and citizenship in schools is often both contested and problematic. Reynolds’ study “revealed some sharp divisions of opinions among (these) educators about the development of more sophisticated approaches to teaching about global education as they continued with the project” (Reynolds et al., 2012 p. 1).

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What Are the Practical Issues of Establishing a Curriculum for Global Mindedness  and Social Justice in Teacher Education?

There are certain issues when establishing any new curriculum in teacher education that are generic, and others that have particular resonance given the specific themes of global mindedness and social justice. First, altering the school curriculum raises generic issues for teachers and teacher educators: do aspects of global mindedness and social justice already occur within the statutory orders for the school curriculum and its assessment? If not, in strongly state regulated curricula, the latitude to develop and encourage this aspect of education may be limited. Second, and related to the first issue, do the national standards and assessment of preservice teachers allow for the development of an initial teacher training curriculum that incorporates aspects of global mindedness and social justice? Changes may also infringe upon the regulations of training departments within universities, teacher colleges and other higher education institutions permitted to train teachers. Third, the possibilities of bureaucratic processes slowing, or even curtailing, the implementation of new courses should be considered—introducing new course content that is not part of current teacher training syllabuses, with associated changes in accreditation and teaching arrangements, have previously upset plans for curriculum innovation in many jurisdictions. “Bolting on” new content, rather than sensitively integrating this into new or existing courses, is always problematic—particularly with respect to initial teacher educa-

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tion syllabuses (and staff) that tend to be overloaded and faced with competing demands on their time. Finally, and relating specifically to the theme of globalization, there may not be access to the resources necessary to adapt teacher education courses in all subject areas. This lack of resources, as well as an understandable lack of expertise (or willingness) of some teachers educators to engage with new material, will inevitably cause problems. As with any new course, resourcing global education requires contributions being forthcoming at a variety of levels: from people with expertise in global perspectives, from those capable of producing online resources, from dedicated, collaborative teams keen to initiate new programs, and from those who can mentor colleagues who wish to change their teacher education modules. The codesigning and sharing of resources, and the coordination of disciplinary and inter disciplinary programs, is never straightforward; we should also not forget that those involved in initial teacher education require professional development too (Reynolds et al., 2012). Such actions will initially be tentative and developmental, carried out by a team or by dedicated individuals who share the sense of a need for change but who will almost certainly face a variety of practical and theoretical hurdles. However, if the driving force for change is real and shared—the need to create the next generations of teachers who are concerned, responsible and literate in global education—then change will occur. Those who are attracted by the prospect of setting up a curriculum for global mindedness and social justice in teacher education must not be dissuaded by the challenge. But the reach of global education is great and there may be a need to persuade preservice teachers, whatever their subject discipline, that global education is important, relevant and urgent.

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The challenges for teachers, teacher educators and curriculum makers when “teaching globalization” are increasingly apparent. These are bound up with considerations of the promotion of social justice—a concept that has significant points of contact with the globalization education agenda. A curriculum that sensibly prepares learners for global citizenship and which also fosters realistic principles of social justice is required—one that does not simply extinguish any prospect of hope, in the face of globalization and the specter of terrorism (Fischman & Haas 2009; Fischman & McLaren 2005). We have seen that globalization describes a set of processes which have real impact on the lives of all people on the planet; processes which young learners must appreciate and understand if they are to be considered truly educated. However, as

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educators we must resist the temptation to oversimplify or casually demonize the effects of globalization as inevitable, unswervingly malignant and unidirectional. The effects of globalization are capable of moderation at both the local and national scales (Malet, 2007; Steger, 2009). But neither should we be complacent. Questions of social justice, inclusion and social inequality are inevitably raised by globalization—often with direct impacts on educational provision (for example, should state education be considered as a private or a public good? Should the increasing global uniformity of educational practices, caused by trade in educational services and policies, be a cause for concern? Should learning be considered a commodity to be invested in, or a basic human right? [Butt, 2011]). Wang, Lin, Spalding, Odell, and Klecka (2011) offer a helpful commentary on the prospects for teacher education in an era of globalization. They note that periods of growth in the global economy have also had profound social, political, economic and educational impacts internationally—not least for the ways in which schools are expected to prepare young people for the world of work. Education systems in different jurisdictions have witnessed significant changes in the functions that schools perform, the teaching they deliver and the teacher preparation programs they offer. Identifying two competing perspectives that conceptualize the impact of globalization on education—the “economic imperative perspective” and the “critical resistant perspective”—Wang et al. (2011) outline their effects on teaching and teacher education. The former prioritizes the case for continuing capitalist development, assuming that every nation’s security and competitiveness in the global economy relies on its ability to produce innovative products that appeal to mass consumption. It is therefore considered important for nations to find the means to produce and distribute such products effectively, and to service consumer needs at the global scale. With respect to education, this mean that “successful” nations must produce globally competitive workforces—hence the recent education reform agendas in many economically developed countries, based on training (rather than educating) such a labor force (with concomitant imperatives to re shape teacher education programs and to reform many aspects of how schools work, and what they teach). The teacher education sector is required to produce teachers who can prepare their nation’s future workforce with relevant qualities and skills— not least to generate innovative ideas, to solve problems, to communicate effectively, and to be flexible in the workplace. The traditional incapability of teacher preparation programs to meet these needs, in the eyes of neoliberal commentators, has seen the implementation of centralized educational reform and increasing demands for greater accountability, more rigorous teacher training standards, higher stakes assessment and

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radical curriculum changes—all designed to address these perceived inadequacies. Often such centralized imperatives for reform clash with diverse cultural and educational norms at the local, regional and national scales. The economic imperative prioritizes the requirements of successfully engaging with global markets, but only affords sparse recognition of the potentially negative impacts of globalization on society, employment and culture. The critical resistance perspective—proponents of which have so far had only limited impact on educational policy making and practice— foregrounds the processes by which governments, businesses and TNCs make decisions which favor the production of capital and the maximization of profit. Here national education systems are conceptualized as mere subsectors of the state economy, where the need to prepare citizens who are well versed in social justice, human rights and democracy (and who might therefore question, or indeed resist, the rise of global capitalism) is largely rejected. For those who adopt a critical resistance perspective, teacher education is seen as part of a broader revolutionary force against global capitalism—where teachers need to understand the way power affects state education and the curriculum, and where teachers have a responsibility to support the needs of the marginalized, oppressed and disenfranchised. In conclusion, it should be recognized that just as the effects of globalization vary spatially, so too do people’s perceptions of its impacts on their lives. Research conducted among members of the general public in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and New Zealand asked what they primarily associated with the word “globalization” (Garrett et al., 2006). Unsurprisingly, perhaps, their responses centered on aspects of economy, culture, power and communication—but differences emerged in the contrasting priorities that the groups gave to these categories, and whether they evaluated them in positive or negative terms. Interestingly, respondents from the United States held a more positive outlook on globalization and its effects than those from other jurisdictions. Such research may have something significant to say about the ways in which education in different national contexts might start to approach teaching young people about both globalization and social justice.

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1.

Although concepts linked to globalization may also be taught, particularly at post 16 level, in economics and/or sociology courses in some English schools.

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REFERENCES Amin, A. (1997). Placing globalisation. Theory, Culture and Society, 14(2), 123–137. Apple, M. (Ed). (2010). Global crises, social justice and education. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. Bonefeld, W. (2006). Anti-globalization and the question of socialism. Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, 34(1), 39–59. Bottery, M. (2006). Education and globalization: Redefining the role of the educational professional. Educational Review, 58(1), 95–113. Burbules, N., & Torres, C. (Eds.). (2000). Globalization and education: An introduction. In Globalization and education: Critical perspectives (pp. 1–26). London, England: Routledge. Butt, G. (2007). Review of education, globalization and social change (H. Lauder, P. Brown, J. A. Dillabough, & H. Halsey, Eds.). Educational Review, 59(3), 369–370. Butt, G. (2011). Globalization, geography education and the curriculum: What are the challenges for curriculum makers in geography? Curriculum Journal, 22(3), 423–438. Butt, G., & Lambert, D. (2014). International perspectives on the future of geography education: An analysis of national curricula and standards. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 23(1), 1–12. DfE (Department for Education). (2013a). National Curriculum in England: Geography programmes of study. Retrieved September 7, 2015, from https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england- geography-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england- geography-programmes-of-study DfE (Department for Education). (2013b). National Curriculum in England: Citizenship programmes of study. Retrieved September 7, 2015, from https:// www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england- citizenship-programmes-of-study Dicken, P. (2004). Geographers and ‘globalization’: (Yet) another missed boat? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 29(1), 5–26. Fischman, G., & Haas, E. (2009). Critical pedagogy and hope in the context of neoliberal globalization. In W. Ayers, T. Quinn, & D. Stovall (Eds.), Handbook of social justice in education (pp. 565–575). Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. Fischman, G., & McLaren, P. (2005). Is there any space for hope? Teacher education and social justice in the age of globalization and terror. In G. Fischman, P. McLaren, H. Sünker, & C. Lankshear (Eds.), Critical theories, radical pedagogies and global conflicts (pp. 343–359). Lanham; MD: Rowman and Littlefield Furlong, J. (2013). Globalization, neoliberalism, and the reform of teacher education in England. The Educational Forum, 77(1), 28–50. Garrett, P., Evans, B., & Williams, A. (2006). What does the word ‘globalization’ mean to you?: Comparative perceptions and evaluations in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the UK. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 5, 392–412.

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24 G. BUTT Gerber, R. (2001). The state of geographical education around the world. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 10(4), 349–362. Giddens, A. (2003). Runaway world: How globalization is reshaping our lives. London, England: Profile Books. Global Education Project. (2008). Global perspectives: A framework for global education in Australian schools. Carlton South, Victoria: Curriculum Corporation. Guttal, S. (2007). Globalisation. Development in Practice, 17(4-5), 523–531. doi:10.1080/09614520701469492

Hay, C., & Marsh, D. (Eds.). (2000). Demystifying globalization. London, England: Macmillan Held, D., McGrew, A., Goldblatt, D., & Perraton, J. (1999). Global transformations: Politics, economics and culture. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. Hirst, P., & Thompson, G. (1996). Globalisation in question: The international and political economy and the possibilities of governance. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. Hoepper, B. (2011). Our globalising world: The context for studying society and environment. In R. Gilbert & B. Hoepper (Eds.), Teaching society and environment (pp. 21–31). South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage. Holmwood, J. (2007). ‘Only connect’: The challenge of globalisation for the social sciences. Twenty-First Century Society, 2(1), 79–94. Kelly, A. (2009). Globalization and education: A review of conflicting perspectives and their effects on policy and professional practice in the UK. Globalization, Societies and Education, 7(1), 51–68. Kambutu, J. (2013). Globalization: History, consequences and what to do with it. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional strategies (pp. 1–10). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Kitching, G. (2003). Seeking social justice through globalization: Escaping a nationalist perspective. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. Lambert, D. (1999). Geography and moral education in a supercomplex world: The significance of values education and some remaining dilemmas. Ethics, Place and Environment, 2(1), 5–18. Lambert, D., & Machon, P. (Eds.). (2001). Citizens in a risky world. In Citizenship through geography education (pp. 199–209). London, England: RoutledgeFalmer. Lauder, H., Brown, P., Dillabough, J. A., & Halsey, H. (Eds.). (2006). Education, globalization and social change. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Malet, R. (2007). The globalization of education and the modernization of schools: A comparative study of French and English educational policies. In G. Butt & H. Gunter (Eds.), Modernizing schools: People, learning and organisations (pp. 203–216). London, England: Continuum. Norberg, J. (2004). In defence of global capitalism. Washington, DC: Cato Institute. Rawling, E. (2004). Introduction: School geography around the world. In A. Kent, E. Rawling, & A. Robinson (Eds.), Geographical education: Expanding horizons in a shrinking world (pp. 167–169). Glasgow, Scotland: SAGT with CGE. Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

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Teaching Globalization 25 Reynolds, R., Brown, J., Bradbery, D., Donnelly, D., Ferguson, P. K., & Macqueen, S. (2012). Globalizing teacher training: embedding global education perspectives in multi-disciplinary pre-service teacher programs. Retrieved from http:/ /files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED542463.pdf Shipman, A. (2002). The globalization myth. Cambridge, England: Icon Books. Smith, M. (2002). Globalization and the incorporation of education. Retrieved from http://www.infoed.org/biblio/globalization.htm Spring, J. (2009). Globalization of education. London, England: Routledge. Steger, M. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Strange, S. (1995). The limits of politics. Government and Opposition, 30(3), 291–311. Tye, K. (1999). Global education: A worldwide movement. A preview of a study of global education practices in 52 countries. Issues in Global Education. Retrieved from http://www.globaled.org/issues/150/index.html Wang, J., Lin, E., Spalding, E., Odell, S., & Klecka, C. (2011). Understanding teacher education in an era of globalization. Journal of Teacher Education, 62, 115–120.

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CHAPTER 3

CRITICAL TEACHER EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL COMPETENCE IN BRAZIL

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Malia Spofford Xavier

INTRODUCTION

One of the more sensitive issues in global-minded teacher education for social justice is the role of language in the classroom. Linguistic diversity tends to parallel socioeconomic and cultural diversity, and academic discourse has been shown to be alienating to many language learners, creating further inequalities in schooling and significant challenges for classroom teachers invested in social justice (Gee, 2004). Language study and use in education plays a crucial role in perpetuating inequality (Bartlett, 2007). At the same time, English, in part as a result of its being the language of the Internet, has become the newest global lingua franca, with nonnative speakers outnumbering their native counterparts (Dewey, 2007). While the nature and extent of globalization are constantly debated, Edwards and Usher have demonstrated the effects of these large-scale processes on pedagogy (2008). It stands to reason that given globalization’s impact on academic practices, the increased prominence of English and multilingual contexts will also affect teaching practices across the curriculum. What’s more, policy shifts for basic education

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 27–52 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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teachers in modern democracies indicate the new responsibility of educating “global citizens” (Duncan, 2013; Gil, 2013)—demanding the elaboration of new skill sets without reliable precedents, producing a sensation of “disorientation and dislocation” in the rapid reconfiguration of educational objectives and practices (Edwards & Usher, 2008, p. 2). How can teacher educators prepare teacher candidates for these creative challenges of the profession? Furthermore, how can teacher educators provide teacher development that stimulates awareness of the connections between language, globalization, and social justice? In working with preservice English teachers in Brazil, my central concern is how the development of global competence in teachers serves to disrupt exclusionist and marginalizing practices related to language in education. According to West (2012, p. 2), global competence includes

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knowledge of other world regions, cultures, and international issues; skills in communicating in languages other than English while working in global or cross-cultural environments; the ability to use information from different sources around the world; and modeling the values and perspectives of respect and concern for other cultures, peoples, and global realities.

The recent appearance of a “new globalized and technologized citizen” who can “enact different forms of citizenship” in society (Mattos, 2011) implies that teacher educators need to prepare teacher candidates for unprecedented roles in teaching these future citizens, including issues of equality and inclusion that are of great relevance on the global scale (Edwards & Usher, 2008; Kumaravadivelu, 2012; Rizvi & Lingard, 2009). Prioritizing of 21st century skills for global citizenship and critical literacy in public school students is crucial for both teacher education programs and classroom pedagogy (Menezes de Souza & Monte Mor, 2006; West, 2012; Zeichner, 2012). This chapter discusses strategies through which social justice education from the perspective of critical pedagogy (Freire, 2009) can effectively merge with teacher education for global competence. Parallel with a discussion of the Brazilian context of teacher education for social justice and global competence, I explain the role of a nationally funded project, PIBID (Programa Institucional de Iniciação a Docência—Institutional Program for Initiation to the Teaching Profession), pronounced “pea-beedj,” in providing opportunities for critical language teacher education in public, high-needs schools. Since 2012, I have coordinated two PIBIDEnglish teams at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP) titled “Global English Literatures in Basic Education,” currently involving 12 student teachers and three supervising teachers. In the second half of the chapter I give specific examples of student teacher development activities that have effectively stimulated global competence within the project, pre-

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sented as adaptable for other contexts of teacher education. Throughout the chapter, I discuss the participants’ own teaching experiences in the schools and their reflections on the significance of that process in terms of social justice and global-minded teaching. PIBID and its Social Context In educating teachers for social justice, even when cultivating a global perspective is the primary objective, I begin with the particular injustices suffered in teachers’ local contexts. By social justice, I mean a purposeful critique of and response to naturalized/normalized social structures, beliefs, and practices of inequality and violation of human rights, which furthermore aims to reveal, address, and contribute toward the rectification of these inequalities. Brazil, along with Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is one of the BRICS nations, considered a fast-growing world economy but still often characterized as a developing nation. Brazil is marked by a high index of wealth and social inequality (as measured by the Gini Index), and social relations continue to be affected by the legacy of slavery and colonial oppression. In the region of Brazil where this PIBID project is carried out, the interior of Minas Gerais, over 70% of the population is of African descent, according to the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. Locally, much of this population is descended from the former slaves in the 18th century gold rush in Ouro Preto—populations which, after emancipation in 1888, came to live in both urban and nonurban spaces, such as rural districts and morros—neighborhoods built up along the steep hills—and these remain, on the whole, socially and economically marginalized. Compulsory basic education is new for many working-class families, prevented from or unable to complete basic education in previous generations. This perpetuation of this inequality is most apparent in public institutions. Brazilian public schools, on the whole, serve socially disadvantaged students (Windle & Nogueira, in press) and many schools in our region are ranked as having low Indices of Basic Development. Given this scenario of inequality, teacher education for the public sphere remains a critical area for growth and investment. The country as a whole has been facing significant challenges in developing quality teachers and public schools for the inclusive education of citizens in a globalized society. Teacher working conditions continue to be poor and salary is very low for a field requiring a professional degree (Diniz, Nunes, Cunha & Azevedo, 2011). Furthermore, teachers are attributed low social prestige and, in many classrooms, run the risk of dealing with violent students. As such, there is urgent need to educate high-quality, highly

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motivated teacher candidates who can weather difficult circumstances and contribute, as leaders, toward creating a more equitable and just educational system from within. The national PIBID program aims to make a positive intervention in this process of improving teacher quality and educational outcomes in public schools. PIBID began in 2007 through a partnership between the Brazilian federal government’s Ministry of Education and Culture and CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Center for Professional Development in Higher Education). PIBID is now present in over 200 federal and nonprofit institutions of higher education throughout the country. It involves all teacher certification specialties across the curriculum. A university professor from the teacher education course serves as coordinator, selecting students, schools, and supervising teachers to work together as a team. PIBID has several objectives for this important work in Brazilian public education and teacher education. According to CAPES, PIBID aims to:

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• place increased value on the teaching profession; • improve the quality of teacher education for basic education, through increased partnerships between universities and schools; • articulate the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education, improving academic activities in higher education; • place scholarship students in everyday situations in public schools, offering them opportunities to create and participate in interdisciplinary and innovative teaching activities (methodology, technology, practices) that seek to overcome problems identified in the teaching-learning process; and • offer an incentive to public schools to mobilize their teachers as coeducators of future teachers and primary players in developing the profession. Through PIBID, hundreds of university student teachers at UFOP, divided into respective projects by subject area, are supported with monthly stipends, materials, and conference grants as they gain crucial professional experience. PIBID student teachers spend at least 10 hours weekly embedded as a team with a supervising teacher in a local, highneeds elementary or secondary school. On a weekly basis, student teachers meet with their university coordinator who helps them develop both the theoretical and practical basis for the outreach project. As coordinator of PIBID-English, I have found this demanding project to be an effective instance of engaged learning and partnership. Most students’ transform from insecure teachers to dynamic and thoughtful leaders in English

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teaching, given this interplay between support and responsibility. The ideal candidate for PIBID is in the sophomore year, before the teaching practicum (which is completed in junior and senior years). This target population of students in the early phases of study reveals an important aspect of this program: to offer teacher candidates the opportunity to have a positive experience in the schools prior to their student teaching practicum, offering ample pedagogical and practical support, without the need to take over a classroom or work alone. The teaching practicum can be an extremely stressful experience for student teachers and often leads them to feel traumatized and opt out of a teaching career. Furthermore, prolonged contact and partnership between university and high-needs schools has been shown to be an effective approach to preparing teachers for careers in challenging environments (Mascarenhas, Parsons, & Burrowbridge, 2010). PIBID constitutes an important university-school partnership in which everyone involved is an active learner and contributor. It is also an important collaborative and community experience, thus providing an optimal learning experience for student teachers of English (Mateus, 2013). In the first phase of the project cycle, student teams employ qualitative methodologies to better understand the school and it students, such as classroom observations and questionnaires. Based on the results of this research, PIBID student teachers then propose, plan, and execute specific educational projects to enrich the school curriculum and respond to school and student needs and/or desires, hopes, and dreams, some of which are discussed in the second half of this chapter. This differentiated position within the school—not as student teachers doing an official practicum, not yet as teachers, but instead as part of a funded project team—allows for supported creativity and experimentation, two attractive facets of the teaching career which sometimes are not easily experienced in the student teaching practicum in its traditional format (Xavier, 2013). The results of the PIBID-English project in achieving the objectives set by the CAPES program have been overwhelmingly positive. Student teachers responding to a questionnaire most often ascribed the descriptors “inspiring,” “motivating,” and “transformational” to their project experience. Several have already gone on to begin careers in public education as English teachers. As one PIBID participant, H., wrote in an questionnaire after completing one semester of teaching in a public middle school, “I imagined [teaching in public schools] would be intimidating at the start, but I have become very interested in this field, and I think it has been well worth my effort. When I imagine myself in the profession, I always foresee it in a positive manner, because I find it compelling and challenging to confront the profession’s difficulties for the greater good!” This same student is currently applying for a job in the school where he

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worked on the project. As his response indicates, student teachers tend to experience considerable conflict and anxiety entering into what must be characterized as a troubled profession in Brazil. The project, however, provides the stability and positive support necessary to reimagine professional roles in service of a democratic society and its global, inclusive growth. The “greater good” becomes something achievable that student teachers can take an active part in creating and contributing toward in concrete ways. Part of that process of reimagination, as described by H. above, relates to the focal topic of our PIBID-English project: Global English literatures. With the objective of decentralizing the study of English literature and language (and related cultural production, such as film and music), the project focused on mostly postcolonial or multilingual contexts of English use, such as Nigeria, India, Australia, and the Caribbean, as well as African American communities in the United States. These regions and populations tend to represent perspectives that resonate with the complexities of the Brazilian context, generating a high level of interest in students, whether in PIBID teacher development seminars or at the collaborating middle schools, as we observed during several school-based literature activities described in the latter half of this chapter. Student teachers have noted in their workshops and classes that students need a sense of proximity, inclusion, and relevance in order to be interested in learning English. This can manifest in surprising ways. For example, students participating in a PIBID-English short poem workshop remarked on how the physical appearance of Kendal Hippolyte, a dread-locked jazz poet from St. Lucia, made them feel more included. Workshops on Bob Marley’s life and music elicited a similar sense of belonging across cultural and linguistic divides. As a student teacher M. put it, “They look at him and they look around themselves—and they seem similar, connected somehow. This comparison, even though it’s superficial, helps them overcome their feelings of exclusion from English speaking communities.” By globalizing and diversifying teaching material, high-needs students begin to accept the relevance of English to their own lives. While English proficiency and global competence provides numerous opportunities for international participation, for preservice teachers and their school students, it also provides a way of understanding self and the process of becoming, through contact with the other in literary works. PIBID-English worked with Global English literatures and narrative at different levels: the greater narrative of teaching, the narrative of reflections on teaching, and the teaching and learning of narratives (Mattos, 2009). As Freire (2009, p. 163) explains, critical education revolves around narratives and their constant renovation:

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Critical Teacher Education for Global Competence in Brazil 33 A careful analysis of the teacher-student relationship at any level, inside or outside the school, reveals its fundamentally narrative character. This relationship involves a narrating Subject (the teacher) and patient, listening objects (the students). The contents, whether values or empirical dimensions of reality, tend in the process of being narrated to become lifeless and petrified.

This lifelessness and petrifaction—two characteristics of many English languages public school classrooms today, which teach English as if it were a dead, classic language—are symptoms of what Freire termed “narration sickness.” The source of this sickness, in part, is the “static, compartmentalized, and predictable” approach both to language teaching and teacher education programs, scripts proscribing professional behavior and parameters which are often at odds with actual demands and teaching conditions encountered after graduation. Freire signals words as the vectors of this illness: “Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating verbosity” (p. 163). Gee (2008, p. 200) refers to a similar phenomenon which he terms “content fetish,” where an “academic area is composed of a set of facts or body of information and the way learning should work is through teaching and testing such facts and information.” In the grammar-translation classroom so typical of this region of Brazil, the bodies of learners are, like the words themselves, transformed into hollow receptacles, emptied by the teacher’s gaze down along the neat rows of desks, and into which content—the present simple, countable nouns, there is/there are, and so on—is “deposited” (Freire, 2009, p. 163). Such a vision of language is symptomatic of greater problems surrounding language learning in Brazil. “Global English Literatures in Basic Education” departed from the idea that English is no longer strictly associated with hegemonic nations nor can the model of the native speaker be wielded as a means to unify and standardize English language learning (Canagarajah, 2007; Rajagopalan, 2007). English now can “belong” to anyone who chooses to learn it and use it beyond national borders. Literature and especially global literatures in English—when appropriately selected and presented can be a mirror for “acts of critical reflection” (Festino, 2011, p. 52), the gazing into the self in order to comprehend the gaze of the other. It is a foundation of dialogue. Indeed, student teachers involved in the project responding to a questionnaire remarked on their sense of “inclusion” that studying literature and English as a global language afforded them, increasing both their confidence and motivation levels as speakers and teachers of a foreign language. At the same time global literatures can offer a motivating frame for language learning, and learning about self and subjectivity.

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Global Englishes in the Global South: Problematics of language study and teacher identity An important factor in planning school interventions in the PIBIDEnglish project had to do with local traditions of critical pedagogy and critical literacy. Freire and multiple others in this tradition of critical pedagogy, such as Fanon, Mignolo, and Walsh have emphasized the need for decolonial or anticolonial thinking and education in former colonies of European powers. Education is seen as a political act that can resist, subvert and transgress in a process of “unlearning and relearning” (Walsh, 2013, pp. 24–25). In Sousa Santos’ (2010) work on the Global South, he discusses knowledge within a vision of postimperial, intercultural human rights, drawn from the roots of modernity and including those marginalized and dispossessed by the capitalist and Eurocentric imagination, particularly in terms of alternative or contesting epistemologies. Terming this centuries-long violence an “epistemicide,” Sousa Santos asserts the need for knowledge to be generated from the nonimperial South, rather than imposed from the Occidental, Eurocentric traditions (associated, most typically, with the North). As Sousa Santos, Nunes, and Meneses (2008) state, “there is no global social justice without global cognitive justice” (p. xix). When working with future teachers—especially those who will be teaching English language and cultures in Brazil—the perspective of “global cognitive justice” poses a particular challenge. Although never directly colonized by an Anglophone empire, the strong neoliberal and cultural influences of the United States of America and England, along with times of direct political intervention in the Brazilian government, gives English a troubled status when considering English education as an act of “freedom.” For the Brazilian middle class and cultural elite in particular, the United States is nevertheless still considered a model and a cultural and economic superior. Shopping abroad, wearing imported clothing, speaking nativelike English, having relatives who live abroad: these are all important status markers or indicators of the possession of cultural capital (Clemente, 2007; Windle & Nogueira, in press). On the other hand, members of the lower socioeconomic classes often feel excluded from foreign language learning, complicating the teaching and learning process in public schools. The general understanding of how and why one learns a language is marked by inaccurate and alienating beliefs, some of which threaten the potential for English language education to contribute to a social justice education. As Barcelos’s (1999) classic article shows, the culture of foreign language learning in Brazil at the university level and in English teacher education programs includes beliefs such as:

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• A simplistic, fatalistic, and structuralist view of language, in which the student may be “weak” or “strong”, and needs to try to “dominate” the language; • A paternalistic, teacher-centered view of the teacher-student relationship, in which the teacher is responsible for student learning, impeding learner autonomy; • Language can only be learned, through sufficient exposure, by living abroad. While this research was conducted over a decade ago, these beliefs still hold true, particularly in basic public education, where we might add the following common maxims:

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• English isn’t learned in public schools (Lima, 2011); • Public school students themselves will ask, “If I don’t even know how to speak Portuguese correctly, then why am I learning English?” (Bartlett, 2007) This last statement, in particular, is repeated each semester in teaching practicum courses, as students discuss their field experiences. Through observations of PIBID-English activities in my role as coordinator, I have repeatedly heard this phrase from children as young as 10 years old, when first placed in English classes. This raises more serious questions, about what it means to “speak correctly” and what the relationship between linguistic diversity and social legitimacy actually is. The role of language in the classroom and in the curriculum is a crucial issue for social justice education to address and, as I discussed earlier, the PIBID-English project works with what is known as “Global Englishes” in order to promote inclusion and diversity, validating hybrid and complex forms of language that don’t follow a monolingual native model. Hornberger (2003) and Garcia (2009) describe multilingual and bilingual language ecosystems in schools as flexible, fluid language and literacy continua where students engage in translanguaging. Even in a so-called monolingual classroom, students’ language practices can be understood in this way to highlight the complexity and diversity of language use and learning. Inaccurate and fixed beliefs about languages and how we learn them can prevent student teachers accepting the idea that they are in fact capable of teaching English in heterogeneous public school settings. Overcoming these beliefs involves the active legitimization of linguistic diversity among nonnative English speakers, designed to help socially disadvantaged students gain the confidence and momentum to feel included, achieve greater proficiency, and not give up before seeing initial results. Through literary and

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theoretical readings, discussions, and activities which challenge common views, the PIBID-English project prepares teachers to disrupt the problematic view of language learning and language itself in circulation in public schools and even among traditional practicum student teachers. The assertion of public school students’ alleged linguistic (dis)abilities effectively abandons them to a linguistic vacuum, implying drastic consequences for democracy and subjectivity in the broader culture. The following examples of traditional student teachers’ perceptions of public school students were compiled through interview, observation, and free discussion in our university teaching certification program (first teaching experience, second semester of practicum). The student teachers described below, notably, did not participate in PIBID-English. The public school where the student teachers carried out their practicum is located at the center of a small colonial-era city in Minas Gerais. PIBIDEnglish and PIBID-Portuguese also carried out projects in this school. The school has significant problems of space, noise, and temperature levels in the classrooms. While it is considered a “good” school by its own administration and in the view of student teachers, in 2011 it had an Index of Development of Basic Education of only 4.3 on a scale of 10.0. The student teachers I document here taught several classes belonging to the same teacher, C., in two separate semesters. One particular class of seventh graders became the subject of discussion of student teachers in the weekly reflective seminar on several occasions. I also personally observed student teachers at work in this class. The problems the student teachers identified began as descriptive, of behaviors I co-observed: students throw erasers, sing, pace around the classroom in agitation. They apply bright lipstick and draw on their hands with whiteout. They huddle at the back of the room, listening to music on cell phones. They sleep. They turn their backs. From my perspective as a teacher educator and language teacher, all are indicators of low levels of motivation and interest in the subject material, and of ineffective classroom management techniques such as the failure to communicate clear objectives to the students. For these student teachers, however, such behavior tended to be taken as a personal affront. One student teacher, A., taught a semester with this particular class, and both in conversation with me and in formal presentations to her peers in our reflective seminar related how she felt threatened by the students and ineffective as a teacher. She described her students repeatedly as “aborigines,” “animals from the zoo,” and “bands of savages” who threaten to “stampede” the teacher. A. explained that she hated every minute of teaching them and “wished to kill them all.” Her tone was desperate and indignant, if highly rhetorical. She was adamant about not wanting to ever teach middle school during her career, if she were to continue teach at all.

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While this characterization might have been an isolated occurrence, in the following semester, J., student teaching with the same group of students, used similar language to describe the students and even went so far as to declare that she felt traumatized by the class she taught there. “As soon as you turn your back,” she recalled, “they curse at you.” For these student teachers, the public school students are, somehow, incompatible with what it should mean to be an English teacher in Brazilian public schools, an assertion both ironic and destructive to imagined democratic future(s). This discourse is a further an alarming indication of an impasse in the relationships between public school students and neoliberal, upwardly mobile, future teachers who study at a federal university, a social institution of certain prestige. Student teachers’ portrayal of their relationship with students suggests something beyond the negativity contained in iterative, prescribed discourses regarding language use in Brazilian public schools, perhaps transiting into a nihilistic view of the student, represented by student teachers through a discourse of nonhumanity. It demonstrates an extreme othering of the student asymptotic to dehumanization—stripping the student of language itself, not only English, and likening the student to an animal: typical of colonial thinking (Greenblatt, 1990). On the other hand, this language may be seen as a way of managing a traumatic moment of initiation into the teaching career, confirming the need for other kinds of introductions to the public school “reality” for student teachers, such as that offered by the PIBIDEnglish project. Student teachers’ reactions to public school students’ (mis)use of language seems to be mirrored by the students’ own self-perceptions. Their refrains of shame become self-erected barriers to learning and transformation: “Pra que vou usar isso, ?fessora, se nem sei usar português direito?” [What am I gonna use [English] for, teach’, if I don’t even know howta talk Portuguese good?] (Bartlett, 2007). What concerns me, as a language teacher educator interested in social justice and global competence, is the erasure of the subject, the privation of language, the re-creation of the nonlingual animal in a space already marked by inequality, the Brazilian public school. As the coordinator of PIBID-English, I question what, on a practical level, can be done to interrupt the reenactment of a script that has seen ample play already during the centuries following the European encounter with indigenous peoples of the Americas, and the consequences of which are known to be grave (Greenblatt, 1990; Mignolo, 1995). How much of this impasse can be attributed to a lack of understanding about how language might successfully be learned in the context of urban, high-needs public schools? Are the students—and the studentteachers—given viable and practical alternatives?

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PIBID-English has based its critical-reflective work on the supposition that these scripted responses and narratives can be supplanted by others which embrace superdiversity (an effect of globalization) and disrupt ideological constructs and limiting beliefs. As Blommaert and Rampton (2011, p. 5) show, named languages are in fact “ideological constructions” tied to the rise of various empires and states that, contrary to popular practice and conception, should not be conceived as “bounded.” In the context of the public school classroom, exchanging the idea of “language” for “linguistic repertoire” seems to open possibilities for learning and reflect a more just sense of humanity. The authors (p. 6) define linguistic repertoire as “individuals’ very variable (and often rather fragmentary) grasp of a plurality of differentially shared styles, registers and genres, which are picked up (and maybe then partially forgotten) within biographical trajectories that develop in actual histories and topographies,” all of which are affected by the currents of globalization. PIBIDEnglish took these issues head on with public school students by discussing the reasons we teach English and creating activities designed to disrupt negative perceptions of language learning and social identity as related to English study.

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Literature, Social Justice, and Globalization: From the University to the Schools

From the outset, the PIBID-English project in Global English Literatures foregrounded two principal objectives: to better prepare preservice teachers for their careers and to improve the quality of English teaching in local public schools, based on a more inclusive view of language use and learning. PIBID-English’s weekly meetings acted like a “literary clinic,” often centering on a literary reading in order to foster this view and stimulate the development of global competence. Literary works have the capacity to expose subjectivities and interior experiences, providing a window into the other and offers alternative narratives for structuring and imagining one’s own life, or career. These important effects have been tested recently by social psychologists (Comer Kidd & Castano, 2013) who studied the effects of reading literary fiction on theory of mind, defined as “the human capacity to comprehend that other people hold beliefs and desires and that these may differ from one’s own beliefs and desires,” a key facet of global competence. Literary fiction, in particular, is polyphonic and “writerly,” disrupting readers’ expectations and beliefs and exposing them to multiple perspectives (Comer Kidd & Castano, 2013). Among the texts which were notable in this process of honing literary awareness and skills in PIBID student teachers, and could

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be adapted for other contexts of teacher education, I highlight here the works of Chinua Achebe and Kendal Hippolyte. In particular, Hippolyte and Achebe became the inspirations for several projects in the schools, which were designed by student teachers to involve middle school students in English language learning and cultivate their critical thinking and global awareness. I will briefly discuss how these authors’ works were presented and student teacher reactions to them before describing the school activities created by PIBID-English participants. Kendel Hippolyte (b. 1952) is an award-winning St. Lucian poet and playwright who spent a significant amount of time in Jamaica during the 1970s. His work moves through a range of Englishes, from standard to Caribbean, and dialogs with the native Kweyol language of St. Lucia. I selected these poems because of their accessible language, postcolonial perspectives, and critical interrogation of identity and power. Of these, “A Caribbean Round” (Hippolyte, 1992) made the most impact on student teachers. The discussion surrounding the poem became very intense in our weekly meeting. Student teachers immediately remarked that they wanted to create activities based on the poem for their students in the public schools. Some student teachers posted the poem to their Facebook walls, suggestive of its importance to them. As one participant, M., wrote in her final report, upon reading this poem, “we immediately got the idea to create a workshop based on short poems, focusing on global literatures, belonging to authors from diverse nationalities and styles.” This workshop was carried out with excellent results in terms of student interest and linguistic production, described in the next section. As the title of this poem intimates, the poem is circular in structure, beginning and ending with the subject’s name, “Josephine Jacobie,” tracing the events of her life as a compact, week-long series of seemingly inevitable mishaps and mistreatment:

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Josephine Jacobie born on a Monday seduced on a Tuesday feller left on Wednesday they put her out Thursday she get a job Friday? the money done Saturday? she cry all Sunday? the baby born Monday—? What you think she call the baby?? Josephine Jacobie

While grounded in Caribbean experience and language, the poem’s theme of gendered, socioeconomic subalternity incites the possibility of

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dialogue with numerous other postcolonial sites of lyric production, including Brazil. With PIBID student teachers, I asked and discussed questions including, who gets to speak? What does it mean to speak through a particular language? To whom does English belong? What is “standard” English? The example of Hippolyte’s own biography and the kind of language in his poem challenged canonical and native-model views of English literature. The poem reveals the cultural contexts where language is made to mean, and our lives made to fit preestablished orders and patterns indicative of hidden power gradients, thus providing a more critical vision of the global cultures that are present within the English language. In PIBID-English, short poems were very effective tools both for teacher development and in classroom work, because they did not take up much time for the initial reading and this allowed for in-depth analysis and related activities including poetry writing, role-play, and artistic interpretations and adaptations of the poems. Chinua Achebe (1930–2013) published poetry, fiction, essays, and nonfiction largely based on colonial and postcolonial Nigeria and the debate surrounding “African” literature. The student teachers in the PIBIDEnglish project read, over a period of several weeks, the classic novel Things Fall Apart (Achebe, 1994), which draws on the oral tradition of the Igbo people as it follows the life of the protagonist Kwonko during the beginning of British colonial occupation of what would become Nigeria. This novel, originally published in 1958, was selected for its colonial theme, detailed exploration of language and culture, and accessible linguistic and literary features for intermediate-level readers. The PIBIDEnglish teams also engaged in a discussion about African identity and “African Literature.” According to Brazilian law 10.639/03, topics in African and Afro-Brazilian history and cultures are required to be taught in basic education; however, this law is often disregarded. The in-service English teachers participating in PIBID-English have stated that they do not teach about African countries and Afro-Brazilian identities, because of the “lack of available material” and its apparent disconnection from the English language. As such, this introduction to Achebe served as a moment for thinking about how to work with African and Afro-Brazilian history and cultures, even in English class. Through the process of reading of Things Fall Apart, student teachers grappled with how the author represented an indigenous African culture and language through the English language, and the political consequences of this language choice, a topic Achebe discusses in essay format elsewhere (1975). Upon learning that English is a second language in many African countries, participants’ expressed surprise and interest in the topic, which one student teacher stated would help him “create better, more conscientious citizens” as a future teaching professional.

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PIBID-ENGLISH EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE AND GLOBAL COMPETENCE One of the main objectives of working with literature in weekly PIBID meetings was to brainstorm ways to utilize literature in teaching English in middle schools from a critical literacy, global-minded, and linguistically inclusive perspective. The results of PIBID student teachers’ application of numerous workshops and classes in the collaborating schools indicate that the beginning linguistic level of students in middle school does not impede the success of language classes created in multimodal dialog with literary works, ranging from graphic novels to plays and poetry. Lourenço (2011) suggests this broader interpretation of literature would be most productive in public schools, which our experiences have confirmed. As Lourenço describes the multimodal production of literary texts is a frontier little explored for its potential impact on the classroom as well as on teacher education programs. Drawing on Zappone (2008), Lourenço defines fiction broadly as including “adaptations, translations … mangas, fanzines, movies” (p. 98). This shift from exclusive to inclusive curriculum helps students feel part of the language, as if it belongs to them and they, to it, in order to create the possibility for meaning and learning (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005). Here, to present evidence of how student teachers developed global competence through PIBID-English weekly meetings and readings, I detail selected workshops they designed and carried out in collaborating middle schools. An early in-class workshop led by PIBID-English student teachers centered around music as a form of lyric poetry, drawing on student intrinsic motivation to listen to music and engage with popular culture in English in their everyday lives. The workshop involved students in short critical literacy activities about song lyrics, with discussions and the production of written phrases in response to the question, “How can we change the world?”, adapted from Michael Jackson’s song “Cry”:

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You can change the world (I can’t do it by myself) You can touch the sky (Gonna take somebody’s help) You’re the chosen one (I’m gonna need some kind of sign) If we all cry at the same time tonight

The focal topic was the global environment and what each person can do to make a difference with the problems affecting people across the entire planet. Teaching as a team of five, student teachers gave a general introduction as a prelistening activity, utilizing handouts and the chalkboard as visual support. A class of approximately 30 sixth graders, and subsequently a group of eighth graders, received handouts of Michael

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Jackson’s song “Cry” and “Earth Song” about the environment. After listening to the music, student teachers elicited and clarified meaning of the song. Student teachers then gave examples of answers to the question, “How can we change the world?”, and students were divided into groups of 6 or 7 and paired with a student teacher. Using dictionaries as a support, they wrote and illustrated answers to this question from their own lives. Answers included “We can recycle,” “Peace,” “Love,” and “Go to school.” Considering most English classes do not use or produce the language beyond the teaching of discrete grammar and vocabulary points, this activity generated considerable linguistic production in English among students. The activity was socialized in the form of a mural on display in the school. Importantly, this activity established a viable model for classroom management to ensure student engagement. In a narrative report, the leading student teacher, J., of this workshop summed up the importance of the workshop in his own development as a teacher:

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The vision of language teaching which predominates in public schools in Brazil (where I studied my whole life) is that it is tiring, unproductive, and useless. But with the project in Global Literatures, my vision began to change in a very positive way. I perceived that we don’t need to tie ourselves down with traditional methods of teaching and that innovating is always welcome, for the teacher, and for the students, who begin to see new possibilities for learning that seemed out of reach before. We saw how teaching language becomes an important tool for the inclusion of the student in the world, and for the student’s critical education as well. Through the music workshop, students began to have a new concept of what one should expect from an English class, because they were able to produce activities in English. And for me, the best part was my increasing desire to continue with this kind of work as a teacher in a public school.

Using similar techniques, in the second semester, PIBID-English student teachers conducted a short poem workshop with sixth graders, including Hippolyte’s “Caribbean Round,” poems by Shakespeare and Robert Frost, as well as poems from India, Africa. First, this poem and several others were the subject of a two-class session workshop (one hour and forty minutes). The approximately 35 sixth-grade students were divided into small groups of six or seven, each led by a PIBID student teacher and supervised by the classroom teacher. Each of these groups worked on a separate short poem, and illustrated their understanding of the poem, writing phrases taken from the poems under their drawings. At the end of the workshop, the groups read and presented their poems, including their illustration and interpretation. By dividing the class into small groups and giving individual attention, school students were able to effectively engage with literary works, even in their first year of language study,

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and problems with discipline were avoided. The students level of understanding of the poetry, and the ability to represent this through drawing and presentation, surprised the supervising teacher who remarked on the “major gains in reading ability and interest in reading” resulting from PIBID-English activities in the school. A mural was created with the drawings and, along with all the other work produced during the school year, displayed at an end-of-year event. Similar workshops in literature were modeled on this one, featuring artistic production and the creation of comic strips and dioramas based on excerpts from well-known stories, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Some of these titles were selected because they were available, in Portuguese, in the small inschool libraries. It was thought that students might be motivated to check out these books after reading parts in English, and in fact, this turned out to be the case, as reported by the school librarian. In several workshops, students transposed the story into illustrated comic strips, writing their own dialog in English on critical literacy topics such as bullying. A multiliteracies approach was consistently used in order to increase student motivation and engagement with literature. In all of these activities, PIBID student teachers found it was necessary to provide models and clear parameters for student productivity, whether oral or written, in a highly structured, supportive, and interactive classroom environment. The “Literary Map” activity was implemented as a culmination of two semesters of PIBID-English in one of the participating middle schools. Students were responsible for planning and decorating thematic classrooms representing different countries where English is spoken around the world, including Nigeria and Jamaica. The “stands” included information about culture, literature, typical foods, famous authors, interesting facts, and so on. One group of students drew sketches of the great authors of these countries. This was designed to be an interactive display, where other students could place their hand into a box and choose a slip of paper with information about the various authors and their works. The end of year schoolwide event, Literary Café, incorporated the Literary Map and celebrated the linguistic and critical growth of the hundreds of students affected by PIBID-English’s numerous activities throughout the school year. In the words of a PIBID student teacher, J., “Through PIBID I realized the importance of offering student the opportunity to get to know other cultures and realities, because that is how they will begin to understand the advantages of learning English and how this language can help them follow new paths in their lives.”

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Educating Teachers as Global Citizens: Classroom Practices for Teacher Educators Across the Curriculum In this section I offer some suggestions on how to help student teachers develop global awareness and the character to persevere in high needs schools. For the purposes of the activities in this section, I define global awareness within the tradition of Freireian teacher consciousness-raising. That is, student teachers gradually become aware of their position in the social interactions and currents that occur beyond their geographic region and local cultural practices—as well as within these, as a consequence of networks of global–local interactions. This is not a fixed position, as globalization, at its current rapid pace, demands constant “mappings and remappings” (Kellner, 1995, as cited in Edwards & Usher 2008). Beyond literary readings, PIBID-English weekly meetings between the project coordinator, supervising teachers, and student teachers engaged with topics in teacher development for content and perspectives on identity, the profession, and the greater scenario of education in a globalized world. In our project, global awareness became a foregrounded topic from the first week of meetings, when the concept of “Global Englishes” was discussed in detail, using videos available on YouTube. These activities were also tested in teacher development seminars, content-area courses, and, in some cases, in outreach projects with K–12 students. To develop global awareness, traditional ice-breaking or team-building activities conducted at the beginning of a course or project may be focused through a more refined lens. One example taken from our PIBID project is the game “Two truths and a lie.” In this game, each student writes three sentences about him or herself, two of which are true, and one of which is a lie. The student’s classmates must guess which sentence is the lie, and it’s often hard to tell, which leads to greater student engagement. This is an accessible game for advanced beginner English students or higher levels (A2 and above). I used this icebreaker because of its adaptability to a range of English levels, a problem particular to my area of teacher education—but it is generally an enjoyable and efficient activity even when language proficiency isn’t an issue. Instead of leaving the topics open, however, teacher educators might ask that the sentences have to do with, for example, cultural identity, Internet usage, and/or world travel, as we did in PIBID-English. To obviate the factor of randomness of this particular activity, however, an alternative would be to ask students to work in pairs and interview one another with specific questions, such as:

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• Have you ever traveled abroad? If so, where did you go and what did you do there? If not, where would you like to go and why?

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• Describe where you are from and some unique characteristics of your community/home culture and language. • Do you know anyone from another country or culture, or someone who speaks languages other than the local L1 (“native” language)? If language proficiency is an problem, some example answers might be given so students have additional support to express their experiences and ideas. After the interview, pairs share the most surprising or interesting thing they learned about their partner, or report this information is the two truths and a lie format. The teacher educator then creates a discussion around the issues that arise during the interviews and sharing period. These interviews have been effective at stimulating dialogue surrounding global awareness and diversity in the PIBID-English project. Such a discussion sets the tone for the class or project, helps students to conceive of their peers as diverse, and urges them to reflect on their own cultural, geographic, and linguistic identities. Theoretical readings in postcolonial theory, gender and race studies, among other fields, support the development of global awareness as well as its articulation and integration with school outreach practices. Through readings and discussion, participants in our project began to perceive their own diversity, which, as one student teacher L. stated in her semester report, would lead them to treat school students with “caring, courtesy and respect,” since “students have much to learn from us, and we from them.”

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Actively Engage Students With Members of the Academic Community From Other Parts of the World

Most university or college campuses, especially in the United States, are increasingly international, even if selected student populations (for example, those enrolled in teacher certification courses) may be more homogenous. As such, there may be existing programs to use as a resource for finding collaborators. An important topic for student teachers in the United States to reflect on is how English language learners (or L1 language learners) cope with the demands of academic discourse and what their needs are as students. At our university in Brazil, the focus is more about integrating diverse perspectives and linguistic practices into a traditionally insular and monolingual (L1) program. We have few foreigners at UFOP, but a recent grant from Fulbright has allowed us to host two English teaching assistants (ETAs) from the United States for a period of 2 years. The ETAs participate directly in the PIBID teams and provide an intercultural perspective on English teaching through targeted workshops including titles such as “University life in the US” and “American cultural

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foods.” Their integration into PIBID also offers the chance for student teachers and school students to practice communicative English with native speakers, a unique opportunity in this region of Brazil. One PIBIDEnglish team, with the help of an ETA, developed a video exchange program between a U.S. middle school and the Brazilian middle school where the project is hosted. Another ETA helped create a Environmental Club at a participating elementary school, integrating English study across the curriculum. Yet it is also important to note that guest speakers or team contributors needn’t be from another country to provide alternative perspectives on teaching and learning, or what “school” is or could be. In PIBIDEnglish, those students who grew up in the private school system have productive debates surrounding educational practices and sociocultural contexts with the students who graduated from public schools. Local diversity also needs to be foregrounded and given respect in order to allow for an authentic concept of the global and to stimulate deeper collaboration between student teachers. University centers for teaching and learning or existing international programs can be called upon to organize debates and round tables surrounding topics of globalization and social justice to amplify student teacher perspectives. Inviting a speaker from a different country or who has spent time in another educational context also provides intellectual counterpoint and raises student teacher awareness about language spectrums and cultural differences, as they play out in the K–12 classroom.

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Internationalize Your Field of Study: Actively Discuss Concepts Such as “Globalization” and “Global Englishes” and the Consequences for Social Justice

Content-integrated approaches to teacher education effectively foreground controversial concepts that affect teaching across the curriculum. For example, teacher education courses can take on concepts like “globalization” or “social justice” directly, nuancing them while also helping student teachers learn more about teaching techniques and mastering content area. Some PIBID student teachers participated in an advancedlevel English Speaking and Listening course titled “Language and the Creation of a Sustainable Society,” which I designed and taught with these issues in mind. Students actively improved their own English speaking and listening comprehension skills while reflecting on how to teach these same skills, through dialogues and debates about concepts including: the role of English in a globalized world; what sustainable globalization could look like; the environment; social and economic justice; education and

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sustainability; and the connection between the English language and arts and culture. They produced various projects, created websites, told social justice stories, and role-played town hall debates over environmental controversies in our local context. Students reported a more critical appreciation of the language they were learning and its role and importance in a variety of contexts. In course evaluations, they also reported feeling more like “protagonists” in the complex ecosystem of language learning, rather than passive players. The study of the English language and other world languages readily lends itself to global awareness, but I contend that nearly every certification area can find moments and methods for content integration to address issues of diversity and justice on a worldwide scale. A biology teacher education program, might, for example, create an teacher education course that questions how to teach about global warming and the effects of this process on impoverished communities, with student teachers proposing teaching modules and simulating teaching and doing actual outreach. At once, student teachers learn content (what is global warming? How does it affect impoverished communities around the world?); they reflect on how to teach this subject and design learning materials, while also practicing teaching (through simulation or outreach partnerships). A mathematics teacher education course could discuss, for example, the role of mathematics education in promoting gender or race equality in countries where women and minorities have traditionally been excluded from STEM professions.

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Compare Educational Systems and Practices Across Countries

Comparison of education systems serves to relativize education practices and stimulate creativity among student teachers. Student teachers, who have had a long apprenticeship of observation in education systems designed, in part, to replicate themselves and the social order, may experience difficulty in transitioning to pedagogical thinking (Kansanen, Pitkäniemi, Byman, & Hulkkonen, 2000). Theoretical readings, especially by historical philosophers such as Michel Foucault, show students how to denaturalize their surroundings and think critically. Material drawn from more accessibly sources, like YouTube, TED, and a variety of Internet news outlets, provides fodder for debates and discussions. PIBIDEnglish’s examination of the variety of ways in which educational systems are structured and classroom teaching are practiced, such as in Finland, the United States, and in other regions of Brazil, has given perspective to UFOP’s student teachers on the practices they have grown used to or may

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have normalized through their apprenticeship of observation. Awareness of the interaction between policy, administration, institutional culture, and classroom practice, and the ability to articulate these in comparison to other contexts, will be valuable as they enter their professional careers and try to act in favor of social justice and linguistic inclusion. In Brazil, a developing nation especially in regards to public education, however, this kind of comparison can have negative effects in terms of feelings of shame, frustration, and even resentment. For example, when student teachers see a video about a public school in the United States and they quickly remark that there is no possible connection or productive reflection to be generated when comparing with Brazil, since the material and cultural realities are so disparate, with Brazil on the losing side. However, I have taken precautions to conduct such comparisons with care, prefacing them with a discussion regarding these inequalities, thus offering an important moment to reflect on the need for social justice and how public education lies at the crux of the movement for transformation and social improvement. I have found that it is acceptable for global dialogues to be uncomfortable as long as this stimulates discussion and reflection without becoming violent or alienating. While it is necessary for teachers to be able to work effectively in current conditions (insofar as this is possible), they must also be prepared to be agents of positive change and development, and know what can be done with resources once they are secured.

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Engage Student Teachers With the Work of Inspirational Educators, Artists, and Researchers

In developing student teachers to work in high-needs schools, I have sought to inspire them through the examples in society of those who overcame difficulties, are leaders in their field, or are thinking against the grain to develop solutions for social problems. The work of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes, for example, as African Americans before and during the Civil Rights era in the United States, resonated deeply with my student teachers, who are immersed in an Afro-Brazilian majority work environment while they conduct outreach work in PIBID; nearly half of them, as well, identify as non-White. Reading news reports about Malala Yousafzai, the young woman who was shot by the Taliban for her activism in favor of women’s education in Pakistan, showed student teachers that the challenges they face, while certainly daunting, are not insuperable. Likewise, Chimamanda Adichie’s popular TED talk, “The Power of a Single Story,” struck a chord with PIBID students who are used to hearing the same negative refrains—a single, defeated story—about the teaching

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career and public schooling in Brazil. One student remarked her participation in the project the contact “changed her way of thinking” about teaching and public schooling. Indeed, here, it is time for a new story and greater value given to teachers. Project discussions centering on highly publicized international projects such as Pencils of Promise also validated the difficult work they are doing and the intellectual risks they are taking in the school environment. Through readings about other work in international education for socially disadvantaged youth, in particular the “Tablets without Teachers” experiment carried out in Ethiopia by One Laptop per Child, student teachers reported that they felt inspired to reconsider their own beliefs about their students’ “ability to learn,” their own identities as teachers, and affirmed the importance of attending to individual student needs in an interactive learning environments.

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Intensive, long-term, team-based partnerships between university student teachers and high-needs schools, such as PIBID in Brazil, can effectively contribute to the development of teacher candidates for global competence and linguistic inclusion. Through teacher education activities focused through the lens of social justice and globalization, PIBIDEnglish student teachers began to think creatively about how to inspire socially disadvantaged students to new concepts of language learning through literature and critical thinking. Literature additionally provided a critical context for the examination of the subjective and empathetic self across cultures. A content-integrated approach to linguistic inclusion raises student teachers’ consciousness about their roles in enacting social justice in an increasingly globalized world. Global English literatures stimulated student teachers to amplify their ability to comprehend a wide range of perspectives and transpose this into classroom practices. Indeed, the PIBID-English project successfully touched on all the points of the definition of global competence offered by West (2012, p. 2), quoted in the introduction to the chapter: student teachers acquired “knowledge of other world regions, cultures, and international issues” through weekly discussions and readings; they developed “skills in communicating in languages other than English while working in global or cross-cultural environments” through interactions with foreigners and literary works; they engaged “the ability to use information from different sources around the world” when preparing their school-based activities; and modeled “the values and perspectives of respect and concern for other cultures, peoples, and global realities” in activities such as the Literary Map and music workshops.

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In discussions as well as in their final reports, PIBID students relayed their satisfaction in this work, describing the prolonged contact with the school as “crucial” to their professional development. One student, H., declared his intention to continue in the teaching profession, despite the known difficulties in the Brazilian context, and another, N., is currently working as a teacher at the same school where she student taught with PIBID. I expect these cases to multiply as students graduate. The creativity and connection exemplified in the activities PIBID-English student teachers developed for the students at the cooperating schools go beyond teaching mere linguistic content, seeking also to stimulate students’ critical thinking and questioning of the status quo as they learned about multiple perspectives and began to perceive their own social positions. As reported by supervising teachers and administrators, student teachers’ original workshops and classes had a strong impact on school culture of reading, the value of foreign languages in the school, and the global imaginary among the school students. The attention that students received from PIBID-English student teachers also boosted students’ selfvalue and sense of empowerment. As such, PIBID represents a vital collaboration between preservice teachers and school students in reimagining a just, global society that would include even those abandoned at the “public” margins of this democracy, and in which students would have a voice that could be heard well beyond the borders of the schoolyard.

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Critical Teacher Education for Global Competence in Brazil 51 Dewey, M. (2007) English as a lingua franca and globalization: An interconnected perspective. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 17(3), 332–354. Diniz, M., Nunes, C., Cunha, C., & Azevedo, A. L. (2011). A formação e a condição docente num contexto de complexidade e diversidade. Formação Docente, Belo Horizonte, 4(4), 13–22. Duncan, A. (2013). Building a stronger pipeline of globally-competent citizens: Remarks of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at the International Education Week ‘Mapping the Nation: Making the Case for Global Competency’ Launch Event. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/building-stronger-pipeline-globally-competent-citizens Edwards, R., & Usher, R. (2008). Globalisation and pedagogy: Space, place and identity. London, England: Routledge. Festino, C. G. (2011). The importance of the literary text in the teaching of English as an international language. Todas as Letras Q, 13(1), 54–62. Freire, P. (2009). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum International. Garcia, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Malden, MA: Basil/Blackwell. Gee, J. (2004). Situated language and learning. A critique of traditional schooling. New York, NY: Routledge. Gee, J. P. (2008). Game-like learning: An example of situated learning and implications for opportunity to learn. Retrieved from http://www.academiccolab .org/resources/documents/Game-Like%20Learning.rev.pdf Gil, L. (2013). Supporting America’s English learners: A promise we must keep. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/blog/2013/11/supporting-americas-englishlearners-a-promise-we-must-keep/ Greenblatt, S. (1990). Learning to curse: Essays in early modern culture. New York, NY: Routledge. Hippolyte, K. (1992). “A Caribbean Round” in seven poems by Kendel Hippolyte. Wasafiri, 8(16), 48–52. Hornberger, N. (Ed.). (2003). Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice in multilingual settings. Clevedon, United Kingdom: Multilingual Matters. Kansanen, P., Pitkäniemi, H., Byman, R., & Hulkkonen, H. (2000). Pedagogical thinking in a student’s mind. In P. Kansanen (Ed.), Discussions on some educational issues IX (pp. 27–51). Helsinki, Finland: Department of Teacher Education, University of Helsinki. Kumaravadivelu, B. (2012). (Re)visioning language teacher education. In Language teacher education for a global society: A modular model for knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing and seeing (pp. 1–19). New York, NY: Routledge Lima, D. (Ed.). (2011). Inglês em escolas públicas não funciona? ?uma questão, múltiplos olhares. São Paulo, Brazil: Parábola. Lourenço, D. (2011). Letramento Literário e a Ausência de Políticas Públicas Nacionais e Estaduais para o Ensino de Literaturas em Língua Inglesa. In JORDÃO (org.) Letramentos e Multiletramentos no Ensino de Línguas e Literaturas. Revista X, 1, 92-109.

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52 M. S. XAVIER Mascarenhas, A., Parsons, S. A. & Burrowbridge, S. (2010). Preparing teachers for high-needs schools: A focus on thoughtfully adaptive teaching. Bank Street Occasional Papers #25. Mateus, E. (2013). Práticas de formação colaborativa de professores/as de inglês: representações de uma experiência no Pibid. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 13(4), 1106–1130. Mattos, A. M. A. (Ed.). (2009). Narratives on teaching and teacher education: An international perspective. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Mattos, A. M. A. (2011). O Ensino de Inglês como Língua Estrangeira na Escola Pública: Novos Letramentos, Globalização e Cidadania. 248 f. (Doutorado)—Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos e Literários em Inglês, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo. Menezes de Souza, L. M. T., & Monte Mor, W. M. (2006). Orientações curriculares para o ensino médio: linguagens, códigos e suas tecnologias—conhecimentos de línguas estrangeiras. Brasília: Ministério da Educação / Secretaria de Educação Básica. Mignolo, W. (1995). The darker side of the renaissance. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Rajagopalan, K. (2007). Revisiting the nativity scene. Studies in Language, 31(1), 193–205. Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2009). Globalizing education policy. London, England: Routledge. Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K. R., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. P. (2005). WCER Working Paper No. 2005-4. Sousa Santos, B. (2010). Descolonizar el saber, reinventar o poder. Montevideo, Uruguay: Trilce. Sousa Santos, B., Nunes, J., & Meneses, M. (2008). Opening up the Canon of Knowledge and Recognition of Difference. In B. Sousa Santos (Ed.), Other knowledge is possible: Beyond northern epistemologies. Brooklyn, NY: Verso. Walsh, C. (Ed.). (2013). Pedagogias decoloniales: Práticas insurgentes de resistir, (re)existir y (re)vivir [Decolonial pedagogy: Practices insurgents to resist (re)exist and (re)live]. Tomo I. Quito, Ecuador: Ediciones Abya Yala. West, C. (2012). Toward globally competent pedagogy. Retrieved from http:// www.nafsa.org/uploadedFiles/Chez_NAFSA/Find_Resources/Publications/Periodicals/Epublications/epub_toward_globally.pdf Windle, J., & Nogueira, M.A. (in press). British Journal of Sociology of Education. Xavier, M. M. S. (2013). Transformando a formação inicial do professor de Língua Inglesa da escola básica através do PIBID. In: IX SIMPOED: Simpósio de Formação e Profissão Docente, 2013, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais. IX SIMPOED: Formação de Professores e Políticas Públicas, pp. 1139–1149. Zappone, M. (2008). Fanfics – um caso de letramento literário na cibercultura? Letras de Hoje, Porto Alegre, 43(2), 29–33. Zeichner, K. (2012). Two visions of teaching and teacher education for the twenty first century. Social Policy, Education and Curriculum Research Unit. North Dartmouth: Centre for Policy Analyses /UMass Dartmouth, pp. b - kk.

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CHAPTER 4

CONTESTING INSTITUTIONAL EPISTEMOLOGIES OF DIVERSITY

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The Shift to a Global/Local Framework in Teacher Education A. RICHEY AND L.Amanda HER Richey and Leena Her

Teacher education is a critical arena for supporting preservice teacher candidates’ exploration of their own identities and practices in local and global contexts. Where and when students might undertake this project depends greatly on the values and culture of the institution, and the extent that teacher educators commit to what Willinksy (1998) termed “educational accountability” (p. 16, emphasis added). Unlike the typical calls for teacher accountability that link teacher worth and success to P–12 learners’ standardized test scores, this form of accountability concerns “such divides as East and West, primitive and civilized … how the world has been constructed around centers and margins, and how these divisions were bolstered through forms of scholarship supported by imperialism” (p. 16). In this broader sense, teacher educators are responsible for teaching an “account” of how education—including schooling—has

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reinforced and reproduced divisions that have shaped how we see and experience the world. North American schooling has increasingly become influenced by the shifts to greater standardization and hyperaccountability (Johnson, Johnson, Farenga, & Ness, 2005; Sleeter, 2008; Taubman, 2009). The distinctly neoliberal notions of surveillance and “free markets” have paradoxically supported neoconservative pushes to regulate and standardize societal “producers,” that is, teachers and others working in education (Apple, 2004, p. 30). Schools of education in U.S. universities and colleges are not immune to these trends and have been the locus of intense debate over teacher accountability (including the role of assessments such as the edTPA) and approaches to “diversity” education as expressed in university programming, coursework and climate. National accrediting entities such as National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (now Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation) with their reliance on rubrics that are meant to measure the effectiveness of individual teacher preparation programs act as “conglomerates” in the “business of education” (Johnson et al., 2005, p. 60). While the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education has been criticized for its disconnection from empirical research and its reduction of teacher education programs to a list of rubrics, it does exemplify how standards have become the “national pastime of educational practice” (p. 84). Teacher educators are complicit in this transformation as we shift focus from wider conversations about what education is and could be to how to standardization can be used to prove worth in the face of increased external pressure, what Taubman (2009) termed the “audit culture” (p. 88). We concern ourselves in this chapter on how issues of diversity and global education are present in higher education—in particular, the southern regional comprehensive university where we teach—and how rethinking this approach might open up spaces for challenging the way we “do” diversity education for preservice teachers. Clearly, how institutions “do” diversity varies greatly. We agree with Sara Ahmed’s (2011) concern that diversity has a great deal of “institutional appeal” with its focus on “toolboxes” and “good practices” where research efforts “[translate] into mission speech, turning stories of diversity and equality into institutional success stories” (p. 10). In this way, diversity becomes less a descriptor of demographics and more a rhizomatic expression of power that operates openly in institutional programming. In this chapter we speak back to what Ahmed terms the “harmonious, empty pluralism” (p. 8) of diversity in higher education and reimagine curriculum that shifts from a focus on difference and diversity to promoting teacher candidates’ reflexive engagement with the complexities of the global/local continuum. Utilizing a postcolonial

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framework and critiques of globalization and U.S. education through the institutional articulation of “diversity” education, we ask questions about how we can and should support students to put postcolonial theory to work in understanding the relationship between “self ” and “other,” global and local, hegemony and structural oppression. We unpack the process of doing this work in two different contexts—a faculty learning community and a first year learning community for early education students. We conclude the chapter with a reimagining of what using the global/local framework in real classroom contexts could mean for teacher education.

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INSTITUTIONAL EPISTEMOLOGIES OF “DIVERSITY”

Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a large regional comprehensive university in a suburban area of metro Atlanta. While KSU’s classification is that of a “regional comprehensive institution” there is currently an intensive focus on becoming a Doctoral/Research University and achieving the Carnegie classification of an “engaged university.” Engagement, here, is broadly defined and is meant to encompass global engagement and local/ community-level work that links coursework and degree programs to engagement with important social issues. KSU is the second largest producer of teachers in the state of Georgia—a status that has compelled the KSU Educator Preparation Program to continually revise and innovate programs that are competitive and current, but that cohere to the multiple standards mandated by state and national policies and accrediting boards. While teacher education candidates come from primarily local suburbs in the metro Atlanta area (and the surrounding counties), they attend a university with a large international population and a proliferation of programs that attempt to address global issues. Like many institutions across the United States, KSU has adopted several global initiatives to support student learning, engagement, and faculty development. Undergraduates are able to earn a global engagement certificate, faculty are able to apply for grants to support research through global learning initiative grants, faculty are encouraged to include global learning materials into coursework and are evaluated based on their inclusion of these materials. Yet, as teacher educators we thought that we lacked critical knowledge about globalization. We grappled with how to infuse global perspectives in our own courses because despite the growing attention by scholars in social sciences, research and scholarship in teacher education on globalization is rather minimal (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). Our central concern was that the implementation of global perspectives focused on exposure to diversity and “culture,” but

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deemphasized the importance of social justice perspectives in college classrooms. We believed that social justice is a key component in praxisbased global learning, and as such, deserved more attention in curriculum development, university programming, and faculty development. Approaches to multicultural education that focus on understanding personal bias and difference in the context of interpersonal strategies and superficial understandings of “culture” miss important opportunities to help preservice teacher candidates interrogate their positions and histories and envision possible action for change. Indeed, many multicultural education courses are organized around “increasing empathy” and “understanding culture” (Gorski, 2009) rather than focusing attention on locating preservice teachers identities along a complicated axis of history and privilege where understandings of the “educational legacy of imperialism” (Willinsky, 1998, p. 4) could spark important critical conversations about how schools function and for whom they function—or to think about how an “equality regime can be an inequality regime given new form” (Ahmed, 2012, p. 8).

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Before describing our process toward creating a social justice oriented global perspective, we think it is important to introduce who we are and how we arrived at selecting globalization and social justice as an area of concern and interest. We are assistant professors in the same department at Kennesaw State University. We share similar interdisciplinary training in fields of anthropology, education, and cultural studies. Unlike many of our colleagues in the school of education, we do not have previous careers as teachers or administrators in P–12 schools. We see this “limitation,” as some would call it, as a lens in providing us a different view of education, one that allows us to draw from our training in anthropology and the humanities to think about educational issues, design curriculum for our courses, and design research projects that were cross-disciplinary in nature. Amanda Richey is a White, middle-class American woman who grew up in the U.S. south—Tennessee, in particular. She teaches in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages programs and undergraduate social foundations courses. She is interested in how culture is (re)presented in the “official” curricula of textbooks (Apple, 1993) and as a scholar is grounded in the criticalist perspectives of poststructural feminism articulated by Lather (1991). Amanda’s scholarship on mothering

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has informed her understandings of literacy and family engagement in schools. Leena Her is a Hmong American woman who grew up in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She teaches courses in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, educational theory, and research methodology. She has conducted research on ethnic and minority schooling in Northern California, Central California, and Vientiane, Laos. She draws on poststructuralist, postcolonial and transnational feminist theories in her studies of effects of deficit discourses in schools, gender inequities in ethnic minority schooling, and English language instruction and language ideologies in Laos. Her interest in education research extends from her personal experiences in school as an immigrant and nonnative English speaker and her work experience as a cultural liaison and program coordinator of a literacy program at a shelter for homeless families. We organized a group of five faculty members with shared interest in globalization and education then drafted a proposal to participate in a university-funded interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Community to share our resources, advance pedagogy and curriculum, and develop resources for KSU faculty and students. We set out to work on the following problems:

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• How can we incorporate globalization and social justice content for education students at Kennesaw State University? • How can we engage students to assist them to question and rethink assumptions about global citizenship? • Given the broad approaches to globalization, how can we as educators conceptualize globalization to most effectively meet the needs of our students in the local context of the Atlanta metro area and Northwest Georgia? • How do we localize the global in conceptual terms and infuse a social justice approach into research and service pursuits? Our proposal was funded and as a result we were able to purchase books to guide our work. We selected texts from across several disciplines drawing from anthropology (Inda & Rosaldo, 2007), education (Apple, 2010), postcolonial studies (Coloma, Means, & Kim, 2009), gender studies (Davids & van Diel, 2005), and poststructural theory (Grewel & Kaplan, 1994). We met once a month to discuss readings and develop curricular materials on globalism, social justice, and diversity in the teacher preparation programs. Each member of the Faculty Learning Community facilitated the book discussions and we took turns keeping meeting min-

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utes to capture the conversation. Participants were encouraged to maintain reflective journals and share them at times they preferred. The meetings were rich with discussions guided by the questions we posed in the proposal. Several themes were identified during our meetings. We discussed how important it is for educator preparation programs to draw from a more interdisciplinary curriculum in teacher education programs. In particular, like Ladson-Billings (2004), our various training in anthropology, cultural studies, and critical studies and our experience teaching students with background in these fields saw how expanding beyond development and psychology frameworks in education could introduce new tools for our students to rethink their assumptions about social justice, power, education and thus rather than simply perpetuate the act of teaching, they reflectively enact their roles as teachers as critical pedagogues. Another theme that was identified was the importance of using theory in teacher education and not to “intellectually marginalize” (Apple, 2010) teacher candidates. We discussed the importance of developing methods to teach our students to use “powerful theory, especially powerful critical theories” (p. 13) to open up conversations about how power operates, and to insist that we work together with our students to see how alternative systems could be built or new possibilities reimagined. Another theme that we recognized was critical reflection of our own understanding of globalism. We wanted to introduce new theoretical concepts to help our students to become more critical and effective educators. We understood that this required that we develop a critical understanding of globalization and its uses within the institutional context. Our end goal was to use this understanding to expand the teacher preparation curriculum in order to address issues of social justice in education. In the following section, we provide a summary of our emerging sense of globalization and our application of these theories and concepts within our teaching practice and toward understanding our particular institution of higher education.

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GLOBALIZATION AND “DIVERSITY” EDUCATION Tsing (2008) argued that the concept of globalization became popular in media and advertisement in the 1990s. During this period, globalization became an endorsement of international free trade and corporations reorganized to find new markets and created new systems to operate transnationally to increase profit margins. Cultural connoisseurs sought out the global experience through food, music, and travel. Tsing suggested that this globalism attracted an expanding audience based on its futurism; its incorporation of various entities—the corporate, the popu-

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list, the cultural, and the excluded margins, the centers; and “its rhetoric of linkage and circulation” that made globalization appear to be positive for everyone (p. 70). The “charisma” of globalism, as Tsing described, captivated educational institutions as well. Drawn by the rhetoric of an increasingly interconnected world and of an inevitable connected future, institutions of higher education developed initiatives to support a variety of preparation programs to increase student marketability. Their goals were focused on enhancing student knowledge of diverse others whom they will inevitably interact with, and to create reciprocal relationships with emerging cultural and economic powers such as China and India. This type of preparation was inspired by the perception of the time-space compression (Harvey, 1989) that globalization creates. Due to globalization, capital flows in myriad directions. People, images and ideas speed up. Interaction and interconnection systems intensify and stretch in that what happens in one context effects what occurs in another. This heightened entanglement implies that what happens locally has global repercussions. In educator preparation programs the view of the time-space compression heightens the concern that more and more students will have to contend with the distance between their culture and the culture of others, more foreign to them. One way to work through this compression is to prepare students to work with the encroaching diversity. These initiatives are predicated on the assumption that difference and diversity is territorialized in foreign contexts. That is, unlike the culturally and linguistically diverse students they might encounter in their classrooms whose differences are be understood and celebrated by the teacher so that they might be able to acculturate and assimilate these students, differences and diversity brought about by globalization, can not be assimilated. Therefore, students must be prepared to engage and interact with this difference. For instance, at KSU students are encouraged to earn a global education certificate by taking courses and participating in travel abroad experiences where they can complete their teaching practicum to develop the skills, knowledge, and attitude to work with people of different nationalities and culture. The irony of these efforts is that diversity is not something that is out there for students to take in and to understand. This diversity is present in local context and is situated in their everyday experiences. The emphasis on globalization and this underlining notion that difference and diversity is encroaching upon them in a western context due to interconnectedness and cultural flows reaffirms the us/them binary which can and does reinforce Orientalist (Said, 1978) notions of positionality—east versus west, civilized versus uncivilized, culture (i.e, difference) versus nonculture—and does nothing to challenge the power structures that make these binaries “stick.” This also builds on the idea that students

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must leave their local contexts in order to find diverse experiences and cultural others—an idea that challenges, perhaps, the proliferation of short term “cultural encounters” that are the basis of so many assignments in education courses focused on diversity. Given these assumptions, we should “hold onto the excitement of this endorsement of planetary interconnections without trading our critical stance for globalist wishes and fantasies” (Tsing 2008, p. 69). In an effort to do this, we adopt anthropological perspectives of globalization, which provide more complex and nuanced view of the processes of globalization. Anthropologists argue that circuits of connectivity and integration do not affect communities in equitable ways (Apple, 2010; Inda & Rosaldo, 2008; Tsing, 2008). Not everyone participates equally in circuits of interconnection that traverse the globe. Globalization is awkward and uneven where different groups possess varying positions of political and economic resources. It is possible that “the very processes that produce movement and linkages also promote immobility, exclusion, and disconnection” (Inda & Rosaldo, 2008, p. 6).

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ARTICULATING A GLOBAL/LOCAL FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHER EDUCATION

As a result of our conversations and work in the Faculty Learning Community, a global/local framework was constructed. The framework was envisioned to be a reflexive, political, and pedagogical tool to decenter “difference” and to rethink binaries (i.e., us/them) that are plentiful in “diversity” and multicultural education courses. A global/local framework moves beyond just understanding difference and building empathy for “diverse” students who are increasingly viewed as “at risk” inside classrooms by employing “powerful theory” as process for change and counterhegemonic action in schools and communities. Within this global/local framework, we adopt perspectives from postcolonial, anti-imperialist, and diaspora studies to situate global histories, legacies, and movements within our local classrooms, curricular materials, and educational institutions. Because we guide our students to work among “culturally and linguistically different” students, we believe that a postcolonial approach toward the global/local must assist teacher candidates to interrogate imperialist legacies of constructions of difference (Willinsky, 1998). Our goal is to relocate nationalist, imperialist, colonialist legacies in curricular and institutional spaces of the university classroom in order to better prepare our students to work with all students in schools. For example, educators/researchers who work in the area of immigrant education must forge a productive dialogue with diaspora

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studies to question students’ understandings of nationalism, the category of the “immigrant,” and multiculturalism (Lukose, 2007). By approaching the study and teaching of students who are immigrants through a diasporic lens we collapse binaries of differences based on geographic location and or static categories of identity. In so doing we hope to move preservice teachers (and the teacher educators that work with them) into a new space of action, or praxis where understanding the “account” (to borrow Willinsky’s term) of education is to find ways to transform it. THE FIRST YEAR LEARNING COMMUNITY

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A primary goal of the Faculty Learning Community was to create curriculum around the global/local issues we discussed and find spaces to work with preservice teacher candidates with the described issues. As an avenue for this, Amanda and Leena proposed a first year learning community with incoming freshman students who were interested in education and global issues (meaning, in part, we thought we might get noneducation students, too). Our home institution has a thriving first year studies department and supports faculty to propose innovative learning communities that utilize the cohort model and offer a high level of support to new students. In these communities a smaller number of students (usually 25) take two to three courses together around a theme. Additionally, students in these learning communities are asked to participate in shared extracurricular activities, develop support relationships with faculty and other student colleagues, and are required to fulfill enhanced course objectives that focus on globalization, critical thinking, and engagement. The first year is a critical time for college students’ sense of belonging and support in a new environment (MacGregor & Smith, 2005). Meaningful first year experiences (including first year learning communities) have a positive impact on cognitive development, academic engagement and achievement (Reason, Terenzini, & Domingo, 2006). In addition, these experiences are an opportunity to ignite an early emphasis on higher order thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, and critique across multiple courses, experiences, and projects. Teacher education students at our institution typically start education coursework in the sophomore year. Thus, crafting an earlier experience in globalization and education—especially one that included increased levels of support and collegiality—was appealing to us. We designed the first year learning community to include a social foundations education anchor course, EDUC 2120. Since the fall of 2007, the Georgia Board of Regents has required three foundational “professional education courses” for teacher candidates: EDUC 2110, EDUC 2120, and

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EDUC 2130 (referred to by insiders as “Area F”). These three courses act, collectively, as the required foundations coursework for all undergraduate teacher education candidates in the Georgia Board of Regents system. The second course, EDUC 2120, entitled “Exploring Sociocultural Perspectives on Diversity in Educational Contexts” is often (and problematically) referred to as the “diversity” course at our institution. At KSU, this course is offered every semester (including summer) in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats. This course is offered in 10 sections per semester with approximately 300 preservice teacher candidates enrolled at one time. Quoting from the official syllabus, course objectives are focused on examining “culture” and reflecting on one’s own “cultural identity and learning styles.” Moreover, students are asked to identify school practices that “perpetuate and maintain achievement gaps, including negative stereotypes, related to race, class, poverty, persons with disabilities, gender, sexual orientation, and other forms of prejudice and discrimination.” The focus for the course, as stated in the state-mandated and college-approved syllabus, is to develop “strategies” such as “observing, analyzing, and comparing” that deal with “challenges” in “cultural” differences. We quote heavily here in order to foreground the lack of social and political ideological context and centering of microinteractions occurring at interpersonal levels. It is without surprise, then, that these courses tend to focus on what Gorski (2009) terms the “human relations” level of multicultural education, an approach that tends to posit “culture” as an “other,” and cultural “difference” as something that requires understanding, tolerance, and competency. Clearly, the way a course “looks” on paper and how it is delivered and experienced in class by different instructors with different philosophies and expertise are two different issues. But, importantly, EDUC 2120 is considered by many faculty to be the “diversity course,” recalling Ahmed’s (2011) notion that conversations about diversity often turn to “success stories” (p. 10) carried out in the packaged diversity course (or program) in higher education settings. It was this course that we chose to “anchor” the first year learning community; the secondary course was a world history seminar that introduced students to the major historical trends and world cultures. This course was particularly interesting to us for a site of inquiry. We theorized that a traditional multicultural education curriculum that focuses on human relations tended to posit globalization as something that happens “out there”—a static space that is not challenged by colonial and postcolonial conditions that are actively negotiated “here.” We wondered if there was a way to do a better job positioning ourselves (and supporting our preservice teachers to locate themselves) in more complex webs of political and ideological significance. How could we better service our social justice aims in the undergraduate classroom with a postcolonial lens, one in

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which globalism (a concept Tsing coined to take into account the uncritical “endorsements of the importance of the global” [2008, p. 69]) would be problematized and deconstructed? How do we involve our students in this reworking of “doing” diversity education? Apple (2010) argues that it is important for educators, and by extension, teacher educators, to understand the world “relationally” (p. 8). We hoped to answer Asher’s (2009) call to “[prepare] teachers, especially in times of increasing global interdependence to teacher different students in nonessentialist ways that foster the democratic participation of all” (p. 66). The goals of all First Year Learning Communities at KSU include integrative learning, inquiry and analysis, global learning for engaged Citizenship and critical thinking. In particular, we had the following aims:

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• The three courses, coupled with the service learning field experience should provide a context for students to be able to situate global issues within local contexts. This combination of courses allows for cross-disciplinary inquiry into pressing local issues such as immigration policy, school-community relationships, and disparities and inequities in achievement and access. • While EDUC 2120 will pose a great many problems for students to extend their learning, the other course (and extracurricular activities) provides a space to work out and solve problems. It is hoped that the course combination will serve as a method of triangulation for inquiry whereby students can position themselves as active agents within their own learning projects. • All three courses have a global theme with objectives of increasing intercultural competence, building reflexive practice, understanding a variety of cultural groups and the culture of self, and understanding the intimate link between the “them” centers the concept of global learning in a local context. Students are asked to see how globalization, global movement of ideas and materials affect the local contexts of their communities. • A primary objective of this learning community centers on fundamental critiques—a critique of “how things are,” a rethinking of traditional educational models, and a redesign of education in the pursuit of social justice and global interconnectedness. This first year learning community took place during fall semester, 2012. We initiated a research study that examined the implementation and integration of globalization and social justice (what we call the global/ local framework) that we developed in the faculty learning community. Our goal was to document the process of implementation, the challenges

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associated with the implementation of curriculum, and gather student feedback from this new curriculum. We also hoped to study how integration of the global/local framework would impact students in the FYLC. We designed the study so that each of us would have different roles within the classroom context. Amanda served as the instructor of record for the course. As the instructor of record, she met with and collaborated with the instructor of the history course. Although she was the instructor of record, students were also aware that she too was a researcher. Leena was introduced to the class as the “researcher.” As the researcher she kept field notes and engaged with the class as a participant-observer by actively participating in classroom activities and discussions. We utilized action research methodology (Hinchey, 2008) by engaging a variety of data collection procedures in an attempt to “work” curriculum that had been previously developed and conceptualized in the Faculty Learning Community. Our inherent critique, as referenced above, was that social foundations courses at our institution were devoid of the critical work of developing theory—and, in particular, an understanding (if partial) of postcolonial theory. We met regularly to reflect on the process of implementing this new curriculum and how it materialized in the classroom and to what effect. We recorded our conversations and kept reflection memos, collected student work samples, made observational notes and memos and worked through the heuristic process of dialogue that these data encounters engendered. As Douglass and Moustakas (1985) note, “heuristics is concerned with meanings, not measurements; with essence, not appearance; with quality, not quantity; with experience, not behavior” (p. 42). Importantly, the heuristic process concerns personal engagement with a context, and “autobiographical connections” (Moustakas, 1990, p. 14). Our intention in this study was never to generate “results” that were meant to be replicated and generalized, but to stimulate conversations and explore possibilities in teacher education. While an extensive data analysis from this project is still ongoing (and not the focus of this chapter) we capture two “data moments” from the teaching of the course, utilizing Cochran and Lytle’s (2005) concept of “working the dialectic” (p. 635) of the practitioner/researcher roles in order to intentionally blur each role in order to foreground the “reciprocal, recursive, and symbiotic relationships of research and practice, analysis and action, inquiry and experience, theorizing and doing and being researchers and practitioners as well as the dialectic of generating local knowledge of practice while making that knowledge accessible and usable in other contexts” (p. 635). In our case we found two moments particularly salient: the cultural memoir assignment and the globalization pre-

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sentations. Below, we will summarize the assignments and capture students’ voices as they completed the assignments. The cultural memoir was designed to allow students to (re) present their ethnocultural heritages, identities, and histories as well as elucidate how they were not, in fact, “culture-less” (a refrain often heard from White students) and could situate themselves in historical, cultural, and political contexts. In the initial iteration, students framed their memoirs by drawing on discourses of individualism (DiAngelo, 2010; Varenne, 1992) and opinion (DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2009). Students also framed their experiences primarily from the perspective of the values they learned in their immediate families and local communities. While students were required to create these presentations early in the semester, they were also required to revisit and revise the assignment at the end of the semester, after they had acquired a common conceptual language and framework around the global/local, identity, and schooling. What follow are four excerpts from these final papers. (Note: we have not edited these passages or denoted errors in order to honor the voices of the students in their own words).

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A difficult phase for the cultural memoir is that it makes you take an analytical look at your race, culture, ethnic group, and community. This is not always bad, but it can be because it makes you realize certain actions and events were not as they seemed before; they were something more. Seeing and critically depicting society, its events, and hidden agendas helps to be able to decipher what is really going on in this country and world. As a CIS-gender[ed] White female, I am exceptionally privileged; this is a fact that prior to this class I was not fully aware of. When typing up my cultural memoir, I felt like my culture was very insignificant. I failed to realize that my lack of culture is not looked down upon by a large portion of society, as I’d always been jealous of individuals in minority groups or those who had a large culture base that they could pull from; I wanted to be something other than what I am, and creating my cultural memoir made me feel quite insecure about my lack of an interesting background. I barely mentioned ethnicity or race, putting myself into the broad and general category of being White, a place that until then I had not known to be so influential and incorrectly labeled as “right.” When I created my cultural memoir, my lack of confidence in my own culture greatly influenced the way that I represented myself. I was afraid to correctly label myself due to the chance that my peers could then judge me based off of my beliefs and my opinions, as I’m well aware of the fact that my views are very different from the “norm.” In my reevaluation of myself from my cultural memoir I ask: just how much information about others have I received from a biased standpoint that has caused me to see them (and thus myself) in a distorted lens? How about the world as a whole? I stated that I was ‘colorblind’, and accepted all different

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As the excerpts above demonstrate, these four students admit that they are “in process” as they are beginning to grapple with theory and think about themselves “relationally” (Apple, 2010, p. 8) and in historical and global contexts. This is not transformation writ large, but the beginnings of critical reflection and inquiry that we hope they will hone as preservice teacher candidates and induction teachers. The second “data moment” involves a series of globalization presentations. Students were required to read a short work on globalization (Steger, 2009) and complicate the story of globalization they had read in order to decenter the us/them binary implicit in the summaries. They were required to make connections with the major course concepts (power/privilege, hegemony, and the sociopolitical context of schooling) in a meaningful way. One student, Anne (a pseudonym), recently found a Klu Klux Klan flyer in her yard (many students spoke up with a similar report—sadly, the KKK is alive and well in Georgia). In observational memos, we wrote: Group 6 did an excellent job making a distinction between here-and-now globalization and the subjective quality of connections. They also made a point about contextualizing issues. Anne juxtaposed the issue of South African apartheid and the current Ku Klux Klan activity in Georgia, and then brought out they flyer that she had saved in order to share it with the class.

Another group focused on “cultural globalization” and used McDonald’s as an example: we export “identities” that we send out messages but that these messages aren’t always good or true—and [Ellen] used an excellent example of how

Contesting Institutional Epistemologies of Diversity 67 the movie Aladdin portrays Arabs and sword-swinging exotics. Also she said our news is different—we export a different message (essentially gossip and celebrity news and sound bytes)—e.g. Beyonce’s baby. She said “the message has changed.”

In these examples students drew from their experiences to connect global phenomena to local contexts. Their connections between the global and their local experiences were driven by a critique of power and inequality. We end this chapter with Katie, one of the students in the FYLC. We think it is important to highlight this particular moment in class because it chronicles what we see as a leap from theory to action—forays into activism that move diversity coursework from “interpersonal strategies” to “counterhegemonic action” (Gorski, 2009). Last month in class, Katie related a story about a recent car trip with her mother. They were on their way to church. Somehow the topic drifted to her experience in the course. “We were talking about Muslims and 9/ 11,” said Katie. I recalled the conversations we had in class about the experience of Muslim families in schools post-9/11, Islamophobia, and the (mis)representations of Muslims, Islam, and the so-called “Muslim world” in popular culture. Katie continued, “I told [my mother] that Muslim students experience discrimination in school and that Muslims women who wear the headscarf are harassed. I told her about the podcast.” Earlier that month I had assigned a podcast that contained first person narratives of one Muslim family’s experience with hate crimes brought on by an inflammatory and discriminatory classroom lesson resulting in ripping apart their family and forcing them to relocate to another state. Many of my students had been moved to tears and admitted it was the first time they had considered the intersection of 9/11 (which happened when they were in second grade), structural oppression, and curriculum. Katie recounted the spiel that followed and how, after a mere 2 months of school, she found herself suddenly at odds with her family’s worldview. She explained to us that she “spilled her guts” to her mother on that car ride. (Later in an online course discussion board post she would claim that the course had “sunk into my heart.”) At the end of the conversation, her mother said: “I still hate Muslims.” Katie shrugged and rolled her eyes. After she told the story, half a dozen hands shot up with similar stories. Many students’ ideological battles seem to be happening on Facebook. Others decided to organize a small counterprotest to a popular conservative preacher who sets up shop on the green outside the education building once or twice a semester. After that event, two students breathlessly told Amanda they had shouted at the preacher, even as he called them “bitch” and “slut,” that Muslims had rights and that same-sex marriage

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was a not a sin. What we describe in the above example is not transformation writ large but an example how students can find a space to safely start the process of thinking “relationally” (Apple, 2010) about their locations in social, cultural, and political contexts. CONCLUSION This chapter documents our process as teacher educators as we came together to critically reflect on our positions as teacher educators, our institutions and their epistemologies of diversity, and how we moved from this place into the classroom to implement new curriculum focused on localizing the global. We present how we moved from critique to new possibilities to engage our students to think critically and relationally about the “charisma” of globalism. We shared their voices and their perspectives to give educators insight into the possibilities of the global/local framework for teacher preparation. Our process reveals to us that once the binaries we hold onto in teacher preparation programs begin to crumble, students begin to move from empathy to connectivity and from those who understand differences to those who work actively to change their circumstances. As educators we also move along with them as they present us with new challenges of working with change agents.

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Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Apple, M. (1993). Official knowledge: Democratic education in a conservative age. New York, NY: Routledge. Apple, M. (2004). Creating difference: Neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, and the politics of educational reform. Educational Policy, 18(12), 12–44. Apple, M. (Ed.). (2010). Global crises, social justice, and education. New York, NY: Routledge. Asher, N. (2009). Made in the (multicultural) U.S.A.: Unpacking tensions of race, culture, gender, and sexuality in education. Educational Researcher, 36(2), 65–73. Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. M. (Eds.). (2010). Studying teacher education: The report of the AERA panel on research and teacher education. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Coloma, R. S., Means, A., & Kim, A. (2009). Palimpsest histories and catachrestic interventions. In R. S. Coloma (Ed.), Postcolonial challenges in education (pp. 3–22). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Davids, T., & van Driel, F. (Eds.). (2005). The gender question in globalization: Changing perspectives and practices. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.

Contesting Institutional Epistemologies of Diversity 69 DiAngelo, R. J. (2010). Why can’t we all just be individuals?: Countering the discourse of individualism in anti-racist education. interactions. UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 6(1), Article 4. Retrieved from http:// escholarship.org/uc/item/5fm4h8wm DiAngelo, R., & Sensoy, O. (2009). We don’t want your opinion: Knowledge construction and the discourse of opinion in the equity classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 42(4) 443–455. Douglass, B., & Moustakas, C. (1985). Heuristic inquiry: The internal search to know. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 25(3), 39–55. Hinchy, P. (2009). Action research: A primer. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Gorski, P. C. (2009). What we’re teaching teachers: An analysis of multicultural teacher education coursework syllabi. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 309–318. Grewel, I., & Kaplan, C. (1994). Scattered hegemonies: Postmodernity and transnational feminist practices. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Inda J. X., & Renaldo, R. (2008). The anthropology of globalization: A reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Johnson, D. D., Johnson, B., Farenga, S. J., & Ness, D. (2005). Trivializing teacher education: The accreditation squeeze. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield. Lather, P. (1991). Getting smart: Feminist research and pedagogy with/in the postmodern. New York, NY: Routledge. Ladson-Billings, G. (2004). It’s not the culture of poverty, it’s the poverty of culture: The problem with teacher education. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 37(2), 104–109. Lukose, R. (2007). The children of liberalization: Youth agency and globalization in India. In N. Dolby & F. Rivzi (Eds.), Youth moves: Identities and education in global perspectives (pp. 133–150). New York, NY: Routledge. MacGregor, J., & Smith, B. L. (May-June, 2005). Where are learning communities now? National leaders take stock. About Campus, 10(2), 2–8. Moustakas, C. (1990) Heuristic research: Design, methodology and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Reason, R. D., Terenzini, P. T., & Domingo, R. J. (2006). First things first: Developing academic competence in the first year of college. Research in Higher Education, 47(2), 149–175. Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Steger, M. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. Sleeter, C. (2008). Equity, democracy, and neoliberal assaults on teacher education. Teacher and Teacher Education, 54(8). Taubman, P. M. (2009). Teaching by numbers: Deconstructing the discourses of standardization an accountability in education. New York, NY: Routledge. Tsing, A. (2008). The global situation. In J.X. Inda & R. Resaldo (Eds.), The anthropology of globalization: A reader (pp. 66–98). Malden, MA: Blackwell. Varenne, H. (1992). America and I. In J. Armstrong & P. Devita (Eds.), American culture: Outsiders looking in (pp. 29–38). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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Willinsky, J. (1998). Learning to divide the world: Education at empire’s end. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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CHAPTER 5

GLOBAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN TEACHER EDUCATION

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Using Children’s Literature, Threaded Discussions, and Other Instructional Strategies L. NGANGA

Lydiah Nganga

In this chapter instructional strategies and activities used in a social studies methods course to help preservice teachers develop skills critical to cultural appreciation, global mindedness, and social justice are discussed. These instructional strategies include discussions, graphic organizers, children’s literature and research, online threaded discussions, and reflective writing. Coupled with units that explore global and social justice issues, these strategies help in the development of teaching skills that are crucial to the development of globally minded teachers who are ready for social action.

In essence, when taught well global education encompasses social justice. Social justice requires cultural sensitivity to the needs of people of diverse ethnic populations. Global education extends to preparing learners for life in pluralistic societies that are not only ethnically diverse but also transcultural. It is therefore critical to equip learners with skills that pre-

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 71–92 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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pare them to function. This calls for instructional strategies that develop learners who possess a high degree of world-mindedness and who are interculturally knowledgeable (Schuerholz-Lehr, 2007). A global social justice education curriculum also prepares world-minded learners who favor a worldview of humankind when confronted with social issues instead of narrow nationalistic views. According to Sampson and Smith (1957), such a curriculum prepares learners who have a heightened awareness of international issues. Additionally, these learners are able to transcend national boundaries while thinking about the human condition. An education that includes global social justice therefore, provides students with the opportunity to put their own values into action (TorresHarding & Meyers, 2013). Furthermore, such an education enhances learners’ intentions to engage in social justice, an increased cultural awareness and the ability to live in a more just and fair world (Goodman, 2001). According to Freire (1970), education for social justice also is key in helping learners to be willing to engage with marginalized others in a genuine, empathic, caring and collaborative relationships. “Teaching for social justice is teaching that arouses students, engages them in a quest to identify obstacles to their full humanity, to their freedom, and then to drive, to move against those obstacles” (Grant & Gibson, 2010, p. 27). Therefore, for teachers, to offer an education for global social justice, sometimes requires exploring controversial issues. According to Haas and Laughlin (1997) teaching about controversial issues is unsettling and requires complex reasoning abilities. Thus, the intentional introduction of controversy is nonexistent, particularly in elementary classrooms— “Lower grade teachers do not feel properly trained or prepared to address such issues, and they are reluctant to engage in teaching subjects that, they feel, will take valuable instructional time” (Haas & Laughlin, 1997, p. 158). Others are afraid of repercussions from parents and administrators. The paradox is that students are exposed to controversy on a daily basis through their homes, schools and communities in which they live in. As such, preservice teachers need to be equipped with skills that will help them to better meet the needs of the children with whom they will work. Students need to acquire appropriate academic skills that promote the development of informed, skilled citizens who can make wellreasoned decisions (National Council for the Social Studies, 2010). While teaching for global social justice education teachers should provide experiences that teach students the following:

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• Teach students to recognize and understand underlying assumptions and values in their own perspectives and those of others and how they change over time.

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• Identify stereotypes students bring to class and address stereotypes directly. • Teach students to recognize how exotica (the out of the ordinary) may interfere with cultural understanding. • Aim to balance between cultural differences and commonalities and teach students to examine cultural universals. • Teach about prejudice and discrimination within and across the diverse world regions. • Teach the dynamic nature of cultural change and diffusion. • Help students understand how cultural norms change over time in real people’s lives (Duplas, 2008, p. 38, adapted from Merryfield, 2004, pp. 271–273).

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In the next section, I provide several activities and instructional strategies that I have used to help preservice teachers develop global and social justice skills in a social studies methods course. These activities and strategies can be used to help learners to begin to recognize and respond to various forms of injustices and misconceptions that have developed based on the use of certain materials while excluding multiple perspectives. Instructional Strategies That Promote Global Mindedness and Social Justice Skills in Teacher Education

According to the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), the aim of the social studies is the promotion of civic competence—the knowledge, intellectual process, and democratic dispositions required of students to be active and engaged participants in public life. The NCSS emphasizes the importance of educating students who are committed to the ideas and values of democracy. (NCSS, 2010, p. 3)

In two of its 10 themes, NCSS also calls for skills that help students to understand cultural diversity and global awareness. That is, how culture shapes societies and the interconnected of global societies. The Discussion Strategy While exploring what learners already know, I use the discussion strategy. According to Orlich, Harder, Callahan, Trevisan, and Brown (2007),

74 L. NGANGA the discussion method requires the teacher to develop a view point and to tolerate and facilitate the exchange of a wide range of ideas. Discussion is an active process of student-teacher involvement in the classroom environment. Discussions allow a student to discover and state a personal opinion or perspective, not merely repeat what the teacher or text has already presented. (p. 255)

I find the discussion strategy helpful because it provides students with the opportunity to develop a better understanding of content. Additionally, through discussion, preservice teachers are able to not only share their views, but also to see how they can later teach similar topics in their future classrooms. According to Angell and Avery (1997) “children’s perceptions of social and political issues suggest that opportunities for the young to share their thoughts and concerns with one another constitutes a powerful means of exploring global issues” (p. 222). Through modeling the use of the discussions strategy, the teacher also helps the learners to develop skills in recognizing what is relevant to an issue as well as questions that need to be asked. The discussion strategy also facilitates the development of a positive classroom environment where all voices are heard and opinions are respected while discussing issues of social justice and global education. In addition to the discussion strategy, I also find graphic organizers very helpful because they provide a visual for learners.

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Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers provide students with tools, concepts, and language to organize, understand, and apply information to achieve a variety of purposes. According to Gallavan and Kottler (2007) graphic organizers are “useful for reading difficult materials, highlighting information, valuing cultural diversity, meeting needs of special populations, and supporting language learning” (p. 117). Because social justice and global education issues can be complex, graphic organizers helps learners to sort out information as well as see relationships, make meaning, and arrange data quickly. Additionally, graphic organizers help learners to narrow data to most important concepts and to consider multiple perspectives. While teaching for social justice and global education, I find graphic organizers to be a very helpful tool for preassessment, helping students identify important learning from readings and discussions and for postassessment activities.

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Online Threaded Discussions According to Meyers (2008) online discussions seem more collegial and informal than those that occur in person and thereby challenge conventional notions of power and authority in the college classroom. This type of an environment provides students with a space where they are more likely to share thoughts and feelings regarding certain topics. Additionally, threaded discussions are a great strategy to use to promote transformative learning (McAuliffe & Lovell, 2000; Palloff & Pratt, 1999). When used well, threaded discussions form a supportive class community. Furthermore, they promote student collaboration and tolerance of ambiguity (Cranton, 2006). While teaching for global social justice, online threaded discussions proved to be a great way to extend in-class class discussions as well as a place where all learners have a voice. As an extension to learning, I have found threaded discussions to be helpful in the review of literature on global and social justice issues. Learners are not constrained by time, and being able to read and react to their peers acts as added support to learning.

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Using Children’s Literature to Teach Global Education and Social Justice

Children’s literature plays an important role in teaching global education and social justice. Children’s books help children to experience another culture without the need to travel to faraway places. When used to accompany other informational books, children’s books provide learners with the human touch for areas being studied and promote understanding of the human condition. West (1998) also notes that “because our values are formed at an early age, it is essential that children be exposed to good literature that celebrates diversity and helps to alleviate the intolerance, prejudice, and injustice suffered by many ethnic groups. Children’s literature that focuses on cultural differences and communicates important values of acceptance and tolerance can be very effective” (p. 181). Additionally, using children’s literature is a good way to help children make connections with people far away and to explore cultural universals (Zarrillo, 2012). Consequently, Lobron and Selman (2007) stated that stories that contain social issues assist learners in developing and exploring their own beliefs about issues such as racism, prejudice, and social justice. After reading books with children, the teacher can then have students do a cross-cultural comparison.

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I use children’s books to introduce critical issues into the classroom and to accompany course textbooks. The themes that arise during readings and discussions help to shine light on differing opinions regarding social justice and global perspectives. Becoming a social justice educator is a journey. It requires an educator to self-reflect on a regular basis. Through discussions and readings, preservice teachers are encouraged to think about their social identities and how those identities influence how they interpret what they read from the children’s books and other literature. Additionally, they think about how they might use these children’s books in their own classrooms for global awareness and social justice. According to Derman-Sparks and Edwards (2010) “ultimately, the most important thing we bring to our teaching is who we are. Deepening our understanding of who we are now and how we came to be that person is at least the heart of becoming an antibias teacher” (p. 22). Thus, preparing teachers who have an awareness of their own biases and how to overcome them is key to social justice and global perspectives. From children’s books preservice teachers list questions that they have, make comments about characters, or anything that they find to be of importance. Additionally, they explore issues of power and privilege, cultural relevance and personal connections. These skills are relevant to teaching for social justice and global awareness. They provide a lens through which content is viewed as well as a powerful catalyst for thoughtful critical analysis.    In summary of this section, the purpose of using children’s books is to help preservice teachers explore social justice and global education issues, thus providing teachers with ways to introduce and teach critical issues with future students. Children’s books promote discussions that most likely won’t be available with traditional textbooks. Children’s literature provides opportunities for open discussions on controversial issues, social issues and global issues. Such discussions are crucial since they help learners grasp complex issues as well as how to problem solve. Thus, teachers have a moral imperative to help their learners develop global perspectives as well as teaching social justice. Using children’s books is a great way to do so.

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Reflective Practice Reflective practice is a strategy that requires classroom teachers to think about their own practice. According to Holdan and Hansen (2009), reflective practice has many aspects. These include; thinking about the planning process, the teaching process, what happened during teaching and if one accomplished their goals. It also includes reviewing an experience to identify inaccurate conceptions. This cycle of inquiry fosters new

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self-understandings and teaching practices (Lambert, 1998). Other research studies describe reflections as a process that requires an individual to apply prior knowledge and evolving insights to new or uncertain insights (Dewey, 1960; Schon; 1983; Spalding & Wilson, 2002). The process requires an individual to make conscious decisions to generate both new understandings and changes in a situation. Reflective practice also helps “to uncover beliefs, as well as accurate and inaccurate perceptions about teaching and student learning.… Or to build a deeper understanding that the consequences of teachers’ actions can build an expanded repertoire of teaching skills” (Holdan & Hansen, 2009, p. 75). To that end, Pedro (2005) stipulated that because teachers are expected to think critically about issues of equity and social justice, reflection is pivotal. It is essential for teacher educators to facilitate reflective practice with preservice teachers. Using reflective writing on key topics of discussions can further develop preservice teachers’ repertoire of skills to explore not only topics of social justice and global education, but also to become responsible citizens, a primary purpose of social studies education (Duplass, 2008). Shoffnier (2008) concludes that teacher educators must create opportunities that provide preservice teachers with opportunities that allow growth and change in individual understanding. Using reflective practice provides preservice teachers with such opportunities. Thus, I use reflective practice that comprises not only of writing about what one is thinking about a certain topic, but also how one might plan, teach and assess such a topic. Additionally, my preservice teachers read research articles and reflect on application of new learning to their individual knowledge as well as classroom situations. These strategies are implemented through several course activities that promote global and social justice learning.

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Activities That Global Education and Social Justice Education Unit: Rethinking Columbus

Strategies: Discussion, graphic organizers and children’s books This unit is designed to help preservice teachers recognize that examining social justice and global issues requires considering multiple perspectives and use of several resources. Essential questions: 1. How do our actions affect the world and how does the world affect our actions?

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2. How interdependent is our world? How interdependent should our world be? 3. To what extent does diversity strengthen our global community? 4. To what extent does the collision of cultures result in progress for all? 5. How close are we to achieving peace and justice in a global village? 6. How can we promote peace and justice? (Libresco, Balantic, & Kipling, 2011, p. 195). Activity 1: What do we know about Christopher Columbus? I start the activity by finding out what the preservice teachers know about Columbus and Native Americans. Many preservice teachers perceive Columbus a great hero and explorer who opened the “New World” to Europeans. Many have no idea that Columbus encounters with the Native Americans were not at all friendly (Bigelow & Peterson, 1998; Nganga, 2013). A class discussion follows using the six essential questions followed by exploring stereotypes about Native Americans and why they are wrong. During discussions, I walk around the classroom and take one of the students’ items. I then claim it is mine because I discovered it. The students quickly notice where I am going with this activity (Columbus as a discoverer of land that was already occupied by other people and claiming ownership). Preservice teachers then read Columbus and Native issues in the elementary classroom (Peterson, 1998, pp. 35–41). The work starts with:

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many of us grew up with the seemingly innocent refrain; in fourteen hundred and nighty two Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Throughout our schooling, our understanding of Columbus didn’t move much beyond this simple rhyme.… We need to help students understand the context of European colonialism that sought wealth at the expense of Native Americans. Students should understand that many Native peoples resisted the European invasion, and despite a history of near genocide, the Native American contribution to the world economy and culture was gigantic. (p. 35)

Following the reading, they develop a graphic organizer that shows old knowledge (OK), new knowledge (NK), and the need for using a multiple perspectives lenses (MP). See Figure 5.1. In addition to the graphic organizer, preservice teachers also identify questions that they still have on the topic which leads us to research and threaded discussions. Students read two articles and react to online threaded discussions. These articles are: 1. Thinking about Columbus: The use and utility of the image of Columbus in Western thought (Sowell, 1993).

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Figure 5.1. The encounter of Columbus and the Native American (OK, NK, and MP).

2. Columbus, A Hero? Rethinking Columbus in an Elementary Classroom (Sweeney, 1993). Activity 2: Using threaded discussions to uncover multiple perspectives Question 1: (a) Discuss the contradicting viewpoints in Thinking about Columbus: The Use and Utility of the Image of Columbus in Western Thought by David Sowell and explain why different people feel differently about Columbus. (b) Based on your prior knowledge of Columbus and your new knowledge, how do you see yourself approaching similar topics in a classroom situation? Why? Synopsis of the Reading: In this article Sowell deconstructs Columbus and the need to think deeper as we interpret historical events. Sowell (1993) states that it seems unjust to focus upon the glories of Columbus without giving the negative consequences of contact equal if not greater emphasis. If we seek social justice, self-government, religious tolerance, and cultural autonomy, all principles allegedly held in high esteem in this country, a white-washing narrative of the 1492 seems inappropriate … intellectual freedom demands a confrontation with the full implications of contact. (p. 24)

Question 2: In the article “Columbus, A Hero? Rethinking Columbus in an Elementary Classroom (Sweeney, 1993), the author states “How children learn history will ultimately influence how they view the present and judge the actions of their leaders. When students get the message that a

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particular historical event was right and just, they will view similar current events as justifiable. The Columbus myth is a perfect example.” Based on this reading, what do you see as your role as a social studies teacher? How might you teach a balanced historical perspective on the events of 1492. Question 3. What some people claim as a gain is seen by others as a loss and an injustice. How do you find a balance to presenting the reality of history without bias? How do you tie past global and local historical injustices with current events? In conclusion, threaded discussions provide preservice teachers with an opportunity to not only think about teaching from a global and social justice perspective, but also a forum for them to self-reflect, connect experiences with social issues, and reach an understanding of course material (Cranton, 2006). Nonetheless, when using threaded discussions to support classroom learning, teacher educators should consciously be aware of what makes threaded discussion a positive learning experience. They must encourage students to grapple with their positions on sometimes controversial issues and help them to become cognizant of their existing assumptions and the need for a paradigm shift.

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Activity 3: What might the Taino Indians say about Columbus? In this activity, I use discussions, graphic organizers and children’s books as my instructional strategies. Before reading Encounter, we take a look at Columbus perspectives regarding his encounter with the Native Americans. In a journal entry, Columbus wrote: I found very many islands filled with people without number, and all of them I have taken possession for their Highnesses.… As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information on whatever there is in these parts. (n.p)

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/taino/taino-conquest.htm

Reading: Encounter by Jane Yolen Students read, Encounter (Yolen, 1996) that is told from the point of view of a Native American boy. The reading is followed by discussions using the following questions. • From whose perspective is the story told? • How did Native Americans welcome strangers? • What were the long term outcomes of Native American encounter with the Europeans? • How do the views in this story contradict views from history books that you have read in the past?

Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education 81 Table 5.1. Compare and Contrast the Taino People’s Perspectives With Those of Columbus During Their Encounter Columbus’ perspectives of his encounter with the Native Americans

The Native Americans perspectives on the encounter with Columbus

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• Why is it important to use multiple sources while teaching history? The discussions raise important issues regarding teaching social justice and the selection of materials that are used in elementary classrooms. Preservice teachers then create a compare and contrast chart on the views of Columbus and those of the Taino Indians. Through the use of multiple perspectives, preservice teachers unearth the issues of social injustices that the Taino people encountered—that is slavery, genocide and colonization that resulted from Columbus “discovery of the New World.” See Table 5.1. Other activities lesson ideas on social justice using children’s literature can be found at http://6elementssje.blogspot.com/2013/10/encounter .html. Unit: Cultural Universal

Strategies: Discussion, graphic organizers and children’s book My goal for the unit on cultural universals is to help preservice teachers develop an understanding of how the study of cultural universals is a useful dimension for understanding a given society and exploring crosscultural similarities and differences. Through exploring human experiences that have existed in all cultures, in the past and present, learners can develop a better understanding of the “other”, thus fostering a positive regard of those who are different than themselves. Additionally, for preservice teachers, this promotes inquiry into cultural differences as well as a better understanding of families and students they will work with in

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the future regardless of differences such a race, culture, religion, native language, sexual orientation, and ability differences (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005). Essential questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

What is a community? What are the needs of a community? How are the needs of a community met? Are the needs of our community the same as for other communities? Explain. What do a people need to survive no matter where they live? What are cultural universal? Are people, families, and cultures more alike or more different? How can family responsibilities be shared equally? To what extent is it possible to extend this (sharing roles equally) to the larger society? To what extent can prejudice and discrimination be overcome in society? What is the impact of diversity on communities, nations, and the world?

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Reading: Mama Says: A Book of Love for Mothers and Sons by Walker, Dillon, and Dillon (2009). This children’s book is about mothers around the world and how they share important lessons with their sons. Cultural universals addressed in this book are a mothers love for her children, values and virtues mothers instill in children all around the world. These values and virtues are of universal importance (Kindness, sharing, diligence, faith, courage and hard work). For example in one of the pages “Mama says, Be strong, Mama says, Be bright, Mama says, Sometimes hard work, May keep you up all night.” The book also represents different cultures and languages. After reading the book, learners explore cultural universals. I build the analysis around communities and what is common among them. I elicit from my students a list of what they think are cultural universals and go through the essential questions. This is followed by mapping community needs and a discussion on how communities meet those needs around the world based on their environments. In a culminating activity, learners develop a poster of needs and wants and discuss how these might be influenced by culture.

Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education 83 Key concepts •The choices we make affect others. •We might not like something, but it is okay for others to like it.

•Honor other peoples opinions. •Agree and disagree respectifuly.

Figure 5.2.

Respect

Tolerance

Treating others the way we would want to be treated

Culture

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• The human race is diverse. •Respect cultural diversity. •Each individual has a role to play in our world- it is about team work.

Reading: Is There Really a Human Race? (Curtis & Cornell, 2006). Grade level: 2 to 4 The book explores questions regarding the human race. The authors ask questions the following question. Is the human race an obstacle course? Is it a sprint? The message is clear. What matters are the choices we make along the way for we all have a role to play in making the world a better place for humanity. See Figure 5.2. Reading: The Skin You Live In (Tyler, 2005). This is a lively book written in a songlike style celebrating all the things we do in our skin, all the colors that it comes in, and all the wonderful things that are inside our skin that makes each of us unique. See Table 5.2. Appropriate objective while discussing uniqueness of individuals (K–6th) 1. Explore the meaning of uniqueness. 2. Discuss individual differences and what makes us same and different.

84 L. NGANGA Table 5.2. Concepts and Key Points Concepts

Key Points

Identity

• Self-identity is important. • Identity influences how we see ourselves.

Skin color

• Skin color should not matter in the decision we make regarding others. • All people should be treated with kindness and respect regardless of their race, skin color or religion.

Culture

• We might be different, but we are all valuable. • All children need to be affirmed. • Importance of valuing other cultures.

Uniqueness

• We might look different but we are also very similar in many ways.

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Justice and rights

• All people’s rights are protected under the United States constitution. • The belief in “justice for all.” • The universal declaration of human rights (preamble).

3. Students use Venn diagrams to compare themselves with another person and identify unique qualities in the person they choose. 4. Students write a letter to the individual they choose as one of their new best friend discussing an issue of fair and unfairness. 5. Discuss how one can take a stand in the face of injustice. 6. Discuss how one can help a friend who is being made fun of or bullied because they are different. To conclude the unit on cultural universals, students read the Declaration of Human Rights Preamble and compare and contrast it with the Bill of Rights and the Preamble that are part to the U.S. Constitution. They also develop their own human rights articles and a class constitution that can be used as classroom rules based on the readings and discussions. Declaration of Human Rights Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education 85 Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

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Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge. (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop)

The following is an example of a class constitution that was developed by a group of preservice teachers in the fall of 2013. During the creation of this constitution, students discussed pros and cons of what to include and came to a consensus. Students Class Constitution We the students of Humanities/Social studies, in order to form competent teachers shall: • come to class prepared • be respectful of other classmates and our instructor and their opinions • respect diversity • create a community of learners and work cooperatively for the common good • listen attentively and participate fully and willingly • become lifelong learners • speak freely without retaliation • have the right to bear snacks to class • take care of classroom space • turn in work on time • the instructor has the right to veto students decision for the common good • in case of irreconcilable differences, the student have the right to seek mediation from the instructor or the school administration This shall be done to ensure that we are all effective teachers. Article 1- Legislative body- The student body

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Article 2- The instructor Article 3- The school administration Activity: Reflective Writing Preservice teachers do weekly writing reflections as part of their learning. In the writing, they record their reflections on readings, discussions and class activities pertaining to global education and social justice. Guided reflection questions are provided. After each unit, I ask preservice teachers to reflect on their learning. Their accounts go beyond recounting events as evidenced in the following quotes: • Teaching for social justice and global education requires good planning

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When Dr. ___________ had us research modern day slavery, I knew very little about it. This made it stressful. A teacher has to know much more than their students to teach such issues and to tie them with history. I was surprised to learn that some of the clothes we wear today come from places where people are paid very little. This is global exploitation. Furthermore to learn that children are exploited to make some of the most beautiful carpets on earth was disheartening. Connecting modern day slavery with American slavery was hard. That was because I have to first look up information on slavery and the treatment of African Americans in the past and think or how what happens now has been influenced by what happened in the past. Although I enjoyed writing the assignment of “to be a slave” written from a slaves perspective, the process was stressful, but I was able to empathize more with what African Americans might have felt during that time.  If I were to do this as a teacher, I learned I have to give students enough time to really develop their stories. This would give them adequate time to research their characters, geography, and other factors that might be included in their stories.  Slavery in the past and present is truly a global use that affects so many. People are uprooted from their families, from their homelands and more so, they are dehumanized. Teaching such concepts and helping students to broaden their minds is not an easy task.

• History is told through human interpretation As teachers we must try to examine the filter that has brought the historical perspective.  Often the bias of the original observer can distort the truth of the event.  It can be dangerous to take into account only one source of information from one perspective.  Additionally, our own, even unintended bias can affect the information that is presented to our students.  When I was an elementary student, long ago :), the American perspective of history was the only

Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education 87 one that was taught. “Christopher Columbus discovered America and had to defend himself against the savages that were here.” As a high school student, I was shown another perspective.  Realizing that America was taken from people, who loved this country long before we did, changed my reality. After taking this methods course and exploring the many historical view points on this “supposed discovery”, I am of the view that teachers have the ability to not miss educate students. We should not teach our students the way I was taught in elementary school. It is misleading and biased. Teachers are responsible for teaching students to see the world from multiple perspectives.

• Regarding misinformation

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I cannot believe how misinformed I was about Columbus. I always thought of him as a hero. Seeing the side of the “other” made me rethink this. I never knew Columbus was such a mean person to those he met during his explorations. I have truly learned that global and social justice issues really depend on “whose perspectives” are included. I have to be conscious what I teach to my students and use multiple perspectives. Providing student with an opportunity to learn more is important. But a teacher must not take sides.

• My role as a future teacher

This means to me that we need to make sure that our history lessons teaches about just people and actions, and support them.  Our lessons also need to include about the unjust events or people and we need to clearly explain what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.  With Columbus we need to teach that he came into a new land and tried to profit from it and take advantage of the people. As a teacher we need to teach and inform on the just and unjust people and actions in history. One idea that comes to me that I am not going to go into depth in is when America dropped the first atomic bombs.  Do we teach that as a good or bad event, that is something to ponder because both sides of it can be justified?

• On teaching for social justice Students must first come to understand why social justice is important.  Why should all students be allowed to learn? I need to address social justice at a class level. For example for third grades, we would discuss the effects of an unjust classroom verses a just classroom. “Which class would you rather be a part of?” After having such a discussion, I would have students come up with their own rules. By discussing a socially just classroom and then allowing students to decide how to make our class socially just, the students take ownership of their classroom. If they take ownership, the students will be more

88 L. NGANGA likely to manage their own behavior and be aware of each of the student's needs around them. I can then use this foundational information to move to more complex issues. For example in this course, when we first made did the “trial of the big bad wolf verses the three little pig,” it played a good foundation for our activity on social justice regarding Rosa Parks trial. I loved how each of us was able to play an important role and use our background knowledge to support this activity. It was fun, interactive, and students would learn a lot about our justice system … the good and the bad.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS TO TEACHER EDUCATION

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The challenges presented by globalization require teachers who are equipped and ready to educate for global consciousness and social justice because “children’s learning must be rooted in the ethical imperatives of global citizenship, which require new ways of finding information, making connections, and listening to diverse voices from the world in response to pressing global challenges (Heilman, 2008, p. 32). Thus, teacher educators should take it upon themselves to develop future educators who are globally minded as well as ready to teach for social justice. Well-designed activities and instructional strategies are crucial in fostering such skills. However, teacher educators must have a clear understanding of what they want to accomplish and why they want to accomplish it. Global education for social justice is transformative education in that it develops competencies that help learners to be open minded to global and social issues. Specifically, learners develop an awareness of the human conditions that make us the same and different. Learners also develop historical empathy, that is, the ability to not only see views of others but also to understand the circumstances and concepts surrounding issues and events. Such an understanding is critical to developing multiple perspectives as well as a better understanding of other cultures and events that happen at local levels while affecting many around the globe. By using activities and teaching strategies that help students make connections with global issues that happen in faraway places through relating them to what happens at the local and national levels, educators can help their students to see the interconnectedness of world citizens. Furthermore, such activities can promote pluralism, equality, and human rights. In this article, I have shared several activities and instructional strategies that promote these skills. Using discussions, graphic organizers, online threaded discussions; reflective writing and children’s books are great instructional strategies to use while exploring global education and social justice issues. For example, the topic of explorers and consequent takeover of other people’s

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lands needs to be taught using multiple perspectives. A case in point is the topic of Columbus and the Native American people. History depends on who wrote it and from whose perceptive it was told. Thus, the use of multiple resources, activities and instructional strategies helps learners to understand the complexities of such topic as “Columbus discoveries” and the people who he encountered. While covering such topics though, the teacher must lay a foundation through exploring what the learners already know and address misconceptions. Only by doing so, can we instill new knowledge to learners. Exploring themes that investigate cultural universals can helpful to students develop an understanding of those different from themselves (Alleman, Knighton, & Brophy, 2007). Most children’s books can be used to develop themes that can be tied to cultural universals. Thus, educators can easily help learners through the use of children’s books to explore rather complex issues while tying human needs (cultural universally) to issues of social justice. This makes it easy for learners to see the commonalities between people and the connection to what they experience at home. Thusly said, “social justice education is ultimately education for freedom, where the promotion of basic human rights and dignity fosters social change” (Grant & Gibson, 2010, p. 27). This type of education prepares students for a deliberative democracy that values diversity, social responsibility, and human rights and encourages them to examine their world with empathy and an eye toward justice. Finally, I have found graphic organizers helpful in preassessments, during learning and postassessment activities while teaching for global and social justice education. As discussed in this article, graphic organizers can be helpful while teaching topics that consider alternative thinking, brainstorming possible solutions, comparing and contrasting among other teaching and learning functions. Moreover, while addressing controversial issues using a variety of activities and instructional strategies can help learners build skills that promote critical thinking, intercultural understanding and the ability to empathize with those who are different. Such skills are necessary in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse. In conclusion, preparing preservice teachers who can teach for global awareness and social justice is imperative. This involves helping them to explore underlying values and assumptions through well-thought activities and instructional strategies. It also requires a high level of teacher involvement. Researchers have stated that simply involving learners in cultural activities does not challenge learner’s ideas (Aboud & Levy, 2000; Day, 1995; Lee & Lee, 2001). Rather, learners are more engaged when teachers create opportunities that evoke curiosity, disequilibrium and where the teacher is a facilitator rather than a director in learning activities (Lee, Ramsay, & Sweeney, 2008; Nganga, 2015). The implications for

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teacher educators are clear. Preparing preservice teachers for global and social justice education requires well thought activities and instructional strategies that are not only engaging but also those that help these future teachers to develop knowledge and skills that they will need to teach global citizens. REFERENCES Aboud, F. E., & Levy, S. R. (2000). Interventions to reduce prejudice and discrimination in children and adolescents. In S. Oskamp (Ed.), Reducing prejudice and discrimination (pp. 269–294). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Alleman, J., Knighton, B., & Brophy, J. (2007). Incorporating all children using community and cultural universals as the centerpiece. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40(2), 166–173. Angell, A. V., & Avery, P. G. (1997). Examining global issues in the elementary classroom. In M. E. Hass & M. A. Laughlin (Eds.), Meeting the standards: Social studies readings for K-6th educators (pp. 221–225). Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. Bigelow, B., & Peterson, B. (1998). Rethinking Columbus, The next 500 years. Milwauke, WI: Rethinking Schools. Cranton, P. (2006). Understanding and promoting transformative learning. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. Curtis, J. L., & Cornell, L. (2006). Is there really a human race? New York, NY: HarperCollins. Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Day, J.A. E. (1995). Multicultural resources in preschool provision: An observational study. Early Child Development and Care, 110(June), 47–68. Derman-Sparks, L., & Olson-Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education for Young Children. Dewey, J. (1960). How we think: A restatement of the relation of reflective thinking to the educative process. Chicago, IL: D.C. Heath. Duplass, J.A. (2008). Teaching elementary social studies: Strategies, standards, and internet resources (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Gallavan, N. P., & Kottler, E. (2007). Eight types of graphic organizers for empowering social studies students and teachers. The Social Studies, 98, 117–123. Goodman, D. J. (2001). Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. Grant, C. A., & Gibson, M. G. (2010). These are revolutionary times: Human rights, social justice, and popular protest. In T. K.Chapman and N. Hobbel (Eds.), Social justice pedagogy across the curriculum: The practice of freedom (pp. 10–35). New York, NY: Routledge.

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Global and Social Justice in Teacher Education 91 Hass, M. E., & Laughlin, M. A. (Eds.). (1997). Meeting the standards: Social studies readings for K-6th educators. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. Heilman, E. E. (2008). Including voices from the world through global citizenship education. Social Studies and Young Learners, 20(4), 30–42. Holdan, E. G., & Hansen, M. (2009). Using online discussion to encourage reflective thinking in pre-service teachers. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 5(3), 74–82. Lambert, L. (1998). Building leadership capacity in schools. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Lee, R., Ramsey, P. G., & Sweeney, B. (2008, November). Engaging young children in activities and conversations about race and social class. Beyond the Journal. Young Children on the Web, 1–9. Lee, C.E., & D. Lee. 2001. Kindergarten geography: Teaching diversity to young people.Journal of Geography, 100(5), 152–57. Libresco, A. S., Balantic, J., & Kipling, J. C. (2011). Every book is a social studies book: How to meet standards with picture books, K-6. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited. Lobron, A., & Selman, R. (2007). The interdependence of social awareness and literacy instruction. The Reading Teacher, 60(6), 528–537. McAuliffe, B., & Lovell, R. (2000). Encouraging transformation: Guidelines for constructivist and developmental instruction. In G. McAuliffe & K. Eriksen (Eds.), Preparing counselors and therapists: Creating constructivist and developmental programs (pp. 14–41). Virginia Beach, VA: Donning. Merryfield, M. M. (2004). Elementary students in substantive culture learning. Social Education, 64(4), 270–273. Meyers, S. A. (2008). Putting social justice into practice in psychology courses. In B. Perlman, L. I. McCann, & S. H. McFadden (Eds.), Lessons learned: Practical advice for the teaching of psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 273–281). Washington, DC: Association for Psychological Science. Nganga, L. (2013). Preparing teachers for global consciousness in the age of globalization. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 227–238). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Nganga, L. (2015). Culturally responsive and anti-biased teaching benefits early childhood pre-service teachers. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 4(2), 1–16. Retrieved from http://www.sciedupress.com/journal/index.php/jct National Council for the Social Studies. (2010). National curriculum standards for social studies: A framework for teaching, learning, and assessment (NCSS Bulletin 111). Silver Spring, MD: Author. Orlich, D. C., Harder, R. J., Callahan, R. C., Trevisan, M. S., & Brown A. H. (2007). Teaching strategies. A guide to effective instruction. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (1999). Building learning communities in cyberspace: Effective strategies for the online classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Pedro, J. Y. (2005). Reflection in teacher education: Exploring pre-service teachers’ meaning of reflective practice. Reflective Practice, 6(1), 49–66.

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92 L. NGANGA Peterson, B. (1998). Columbus and Native issues in the elementary classroom. In B. Bigelow & B. Peterson (Eds.), Rethinking Columbus, The next 500 years (pp. 35–41). Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Sampson, D. L., & Smith, H. P. (1957). A scale to measure world-minded attitudes. Journal of Social Psychology, 45, 99–106. Schon, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic books. Schuerholz-Lehr, S. (2007). Teaching for global literacy in higher education: How prepared are educators? Journal of Studies in International Education, 11(2), 180–204 Shoffnier, M. (2008). Informal reflection in pre-service teacher education. Reflective Practice, 9(2), 123–134. Sowell, D. (1993). Thinking about Columbus: The use and utility of the image of Columbus in Western thought. Juniata Voices. Retrieved from http://www .juniata.edu/services/jcpress/voices/voices/1993_david_sowell_1.pdf Spalding, E., & Wilson, A. (2002). Demystifying reflection: A study of pedagogical strategies that encourage reflective journal writing. Teachers College Record, 104, 1393–1421. Sweeney, M. (1993). Columbus, a hero? Rethinking Columbus in an elementary classroom. The Radical Teacher, 43, 25–29. Torres-Harding, S. R., & Meyers, S. A. (2013). Teaching for social justice and social action. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community, 44, 213–219. Tyler, M. (2005). The skin you live in. Chicago, IL: Chicago Children’s Museum. United Nations. (2014). The universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/#atop Walker, R. D., Dillon, L., & Dillion, D. (2009). Mama says: A book of love for mothers and sons. New York, NY: The Blue Sky Press/Scholastic. West, W. (1998). Multicultural literary guide: A teacher’s companion to independent reading in the early grades. In D. B. Eldrigde (Ed.), Teacher talk: Multicultural lesson plans for elementary classrooms (pp. 181–204). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Yolen, J. (1996). Encounter. New York, NY: Harcourt Children’s Books. Zarrillo, J. (2012). Teaching elementary social studies: Principles and applications (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

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CHAPTER 6

TEACHING TOWARD SOCIAL JUSTICE USING TEXT SETS AS MIRRORS AND WINDOWS FOR LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL ISSUES

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R. MORAN, M. BILLEN, K. KEITH Renee Moran,AND Monica Billen, and Karin Keith

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Allison stood at the front of the classroom, expectant faces looking back at her. She felt a heavy weight of responsibility as she considered that most of these undergraduate students would be beginning their student teaching experience in an elementary classroom in just a few short months. In just a year after that, many would be responsible for their own class of elementary age students. She had just shared a pivotal piece of children’s literature—one that she believed had the potential for spurring discussion of important issues about globalization, diversity, and social justice. She asked for thoughts, comments, and ideas. She was met with silence. She probed further, and one student commented briefly and hesitantly. Class ended without fanfare. As Dr. Allison walked back to her office feeling discouraged, one student followed to ask a question about

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 93–120 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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an upcoming assignment. As the conversation came to a close the student commented, “Everyone sure is quiet in class.” Dr. Allison, trying not to sound so glum acknowledged his observation as the student continued, “I would rather just listen than have to talk like that.” As the student walked away, his comments resonated with Dr. Allison. Her goal was clear in her mind: she wanted her students to grapple with globalization and diversity before entering the elementary classroom. She hoped they would confront their own biases and consider how their own beliefs may or may not impact their instructional choices and interactions in their future elementary classroom. She believed that her undergraduate reading methods course, with its focus on literature, provided the perfect framework for exploring these important issues. However, what she had not considered was that her students were very likely impacted by their years of “doing” school—ingesting information, searching for the right answer, and demonstrating their proficiencies on high stakes tests. It occurred to her that it was quite possible that her students were more comfortable with a banking style of education (Freire, 1970); an education where they felt more comfortable in the safe realm of PowerPoints and note taking than in an environment that required critical thinking, discussion, and debate. She realized that just as her students needed to learn content, they also needed to learn a new way of thinking. Encouraging a foundational shift in their thinking would be a difficult feat, much more difficult than just memorizing content from a PowerPoint. Dr. Allison recognized that she must begin to scaffold and model this process with her students in a very deliberate way. She began to brainstorm activities and strategies that could orient them to these processes and increase their comfort level in participating in an evolutionary democratic learning community (Johnston, 2004). Ultimately, she hoped that her students’ awareness would be raised, that they would be able to look both inward and outward, and that they would enter the elementary classroom with the skills to create a similar environment with their own students where critical thinking is valued and encouraged. While Dr. Allison is a fictional character based on the experiences of the three authors, she represents thoughts and struggles that we have all encountered in our experiences with preservice teachers. Through these experiences, we have pondered ways in which to engage future teachers in social justice issues oriented toward helping students to become more global minded. The purpose of the chapter is twofold: (a) to convince the reader of the importance and need for social justice education that creates local, national and global awareness in teacher preparation programs, and (b) to provide practical implications for teacher educators to create these experiences.

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REVIEW OF LITERATURE Various researchers have argued that our schools are falling short when it comes to preparing students who are capable of becoming informed, conscious decision makers in a democratic society. From this viewpoint, the current focus on standardization and accountability is producing a generation of students who are very good at looking for right answers and understanding a text based on an authority’s opinion, but very deficient in forming their own opinions and interpretations (McDaniel, 2004). According to McDaniel, we are weighing the views of the powers that be (teachers, authors, etc.) over the views of students, and as a result, are producing students who rarely think critically and independently. Morrell (2010) argues that we need individuals who are intellectually capable of solving the difficult problems of our nation and world. In order to do so, students must view themselves as empowered agents of change. For students to view themselves as change agents, they need teachers with a deep understanding about how to teach from a critical stance. Hooks (1994) and Dinkelman (2003) noted that if the college classroom lacks a feeling of safety students may hesitate to speak out and engage in activities. Students may be particularly hesitant to voice their opinions if they are different or go against the grain. Hooks (1994) argued that opening up dialogue is one of the simplest ways to confront these barriers while Dinkelman (2003) noted that teacher reactions, body language, and comments influence such an environment. Girouz (1992) concurred, stating that “we need to create the conditions and safe spaces that offer teachers and students the opportunity to be border crossers, learn new languages, refigure the boundaries of interdisciplinary discourse, and consistently work to make the familiar strange and the given problematic” (p. 9). By opening up dialogue in a safe environment, an instructor allows students to push boundaries of interdisciplinary discourse.

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CREATING CLASSROOMS THAT FOSTER SOCIAL JUSTICE In an increasingly diverse world, boundaries of communities no longer seem to lie within a certain radius. Growing technology connects individuals from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and economic classes. Our communities are also seeing more and more diverse populations entering public schools. Thus, it is even more important that teachers grapple with relevant social justice issues so they may master important social justice knowledge. Although it has become a common understanding that social justice education is important (Boutte, 2008), this understanding may not always transfer into classroom practice.

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Proponents of social justice and critical literacy that supports global mindedness claim that this stance toward learning, one where students reflect on their own lives to view injustice and identify the windows of possibility that exist in our global world, is the key to creating a more caring citizenry (Bouttte, 2008; Johnston, 2004). Students would not simply just intake information, but would wade through this information, constantly question the validity of this information, view this information using a variety of perspectives, and form their own opinions about its legitimacy. Students would see themselves as part of a larger whole and allow their beliefs to guide their choices and experiences (Braskamp & Engberg, 2011). In this manner, students would insist on accountability for the measures and mandates with which they are confronted (O’Quinn, 2005). Students would then, according to O’Quinn, be able to imagine a society in which they are cocreators rather than one in which they are simply passive participants and observers of information. This may be the only means of survival in a 21st century world which requires skills to process propaganda, navigate multiple formats of material, and critique overwhelming sources of information (Williams, 2001). For some, this is an uncomfortable notion, one that has the tainted feel of indoctrination. Müller (2012) documents how unnerving it felt to open spaces for fourth grade students to confront long-held biases revealed during literature discussion groups. Yet through these literature discussions, students not only confronted biases, but also made intertextual connections that lead to intercontextual links between conversations with little interference from the teacher. In other words, students have these conversations without the teacher’s presence because the teacher oriented students toward these conversations throughout the academic year. In doing so, students are able to change their worlds and see possibilities that did not exist before these discussions. Critical theorists argue that we are politicizing students with every act in our schools, even silence bears a political message of some sort. Based on this assumption, students must be provided with the skills to unpack the plethora of messages aimed at them and help them learn how to make informed decisions about how to accept or reject the information before them. We align ourselves with the notion that social justice is a personal responsibility for those that reside in a democratic society (Novak, 2000). We also agree that the purpose of social justice education is to help students think critically about the world, about how their actions impact the world, and about how to empathize and understand those around them (Fox, 2007). Instructors play a significant role in scaffolding and encouraging students to gain greater insight and understanding of the diverse world around them. Yet, scholars acknowledge that there is little understanding about what helps individuals to gain intercultural sensitivity

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(Taylor, 2014). To complicate matters further, approximately 85% of teachers are white in the United States (Multiverse, 2004). Many of those teachers will be responsible for instructing students from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, however studies have demonstrated that white preservice teachers often avoid discussing issues of race or acknowledge the roles they play in maintaining racism (Case & Hemmings, 2005; Marx & Pennington, 2003; McIntyre, 1997). Optimally, preservice teachers would study abroad so that they are immersed in another culture and experience first-hand what it feels like to be the “other” (Marx & Moss, 2011). When study abroad experiences are not possible, educators can require preservice teachers to interact with individuals they consider different from themselves, engage in service learning opportunities, create curriculum that intentionally incorporates diversity content, and design curriculuar spaces that allow teachers to safely nudge students toward a greater understanding of social justice issues (Braskamp & Engberg, 2011). Bergan and Berdan (2013) suggest that this teaching begin in kindergarten. If this is the case, it is imperative for preservice teachers to learn how to help students to gain such a mindset. Teachers are in a particularly powerful position to affect change in that they are responsible for instructing hundreds and thousands of students throughout the course of their career (Boutte, 2008). For those teachers who do embark on this framework, they will have to become more comfortable with releasing some of the power in their classrooms to their students, joining students in the path of learning, along with the possibility of feeling ostracized by their own colleagues (Kern, 2007). Hooks (1994) noted that many teachers fear this loss of control in an area which may require a paradigm shift. Hooks (1994) described her feelings of implementing a social justice, multicultural curriculum thus: “I had tremendous fear that I would teach in a manner that would reinforce those hierarchies. Yet I had absolutely no model, no example of what it would mean to enter a classroom and teach in a different way” (Hooks, 1994, p. 142). Other scholars advocate that teachers begin practicing justice oriented pedagogy by getting to know students and their diverse backgrounds on a deeper level (Nieto, 2004). Nieto acknowledged the feelings of isolation that teachers who practice justice oriented pedagogy experience. However, these teachers felt that their pedagogical moves where they made deep connections with their students contributed to the greater good of society. Thus, she suggests that teachers interested in teaching from a justice oriented stance begin that work by first getting to know the students in their classrooms in order to appreciate the diverse backgrounds of the learners in this setting and to create a community of learners who expand the repertoire of knowledge of everyone in the classroom setting.

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FOSTERING GLOBALIZATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION Albeit, the idea of teaching about different cultures has long been part of the social studies curriculum, both nationally and abroad; this curriculum lacks a critical stance. Toni Kirkwood (2001) explains that from a social studies perspective global education helps students (a) gain and take multiple perspectives; (b) comprehend and appreciate other cultures; (c) become aware of global issues; and (d) see how the world is interrelated. Little is said about how to help teachers learn to problematize global issues and critically examine how texts produce locally, nationally, and internationally perpetuated ideology. For example, Busey and Waring (2012) suggest that teachers use soccer as a pedagogical tool to address global mindedness. While many of the curricular activities suggested by these authors warrant attention, such as having students gain an understanding of absolute (latitude and longitude) and relative (one’s place in relation to a location) location to the 2014 World Cup event, they fail to suggest that teachers problematize the controversial zealous spending of the Brazilian taxpayers money on World Cup venues when much of the Brazilian citizenry experienced gravely impoverished conditions. Nor do they suggest that teachers help students examine the implications of paying soccer stars millions of dollars. Wolfe (2010) suggests, “If teaching practices are theorized as places in which people act on and with each other, rather than being acted on by macro level power structures, then critical literacy teaching becomes a process of power relations and not an abstract set of beliefs and models” (p. 382). Therefore, teacher education programs must help teacher candidates “have an understanding of cultural family values and practices which influence individual students among the various ethnic populations they teach” (Zahn, Sandell, & Lindsay, 2007, p. 331). According to Braskamp and Engberg (2011), colleges and universities interested in fostering students global perspectives need to take students’ development into consideration. In their study 5,352 students from 46 different private and public colleges completed the Global Perspective Inventory, a 64-item inventory measuring students’ cognitive (how do I know?), intrapersonal (who am I?), and interpersonal (how do I relate to others?) domains. According to their research, university faculty need to take students’ development into consideration when creating course activities focused on global perspectives, as well as design assignments that require students to interact with individuals they consider different than themselves, and as they engage in these experiences support students as they take risks with their own thinking.

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CRITICAL LITERACY McDaniel (2004) reminded us when considering the classroom implications of implementing a critical framework to bear in mind that it is a comprehensive philosophy rather than a particular set of techniques or strategies. This is in concurrence with Friere’s (1970) call for localized methods that are created anew with a respect for each individual group’s needs (McDaniel, 2004). Siu-Runyan (2007) contrasted the areas of traditional reading, critical reading, and critical literacy. In a traditional reading format, there is a heavy focus on content and the authority of the teacher. For example, learners might focus on facts or opinions in the text. From this traditional reading stance, the text takes precedence over the reader. The meaning intended by the author receives the authority rather than the individual meaning that the reader brings to the text. This stance toward reading mirrors new criticism theory and that supported by Common Core State Standards (Calkins, Ehrenworth, & Lehman, 2012). Essentially, thought processes are objective in manner and a right or wrong answer can be obtained. In contrast, critical reading instruction, which could be considered a midway ground between traditional and critical literacy, asks students to reflect critically on a text. For example, they might think about author intentionality or the context of the piece. Janks (2005) has termed this talking back to the text. This involves “a process of construction with a particularly critical eye toward elements of the particular historical, social, and political contexts that permeate and foreground any text” (Stevens & Bean, 2007, p. 6). In further contrast, a classroom leaning on the tenets of social justice makes the focal point of the reading the power and assumptions presented in the text. Students might be asked to think about who the text benefits or what inherent contradictions exist in the pages (Siu-Runyan, 2007). Proponents believe a text does not exist in isolation; it cannot simply send a message to a reader which is then interpreted (Mosley & Rogers, 2011). Comparatively, our own personal beliefs and presuppositions always invade what we read and in this way alter the text (Schmidt, Armstrong, & Everett, 2007). As Siu-Runyan (2007) notes:

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New and increasingly more accepted definitions of what texts are make us realize that literacy does not take place in a vacuum but includes wider social, cultural, historical, and political contexts. All texts are ideological. They are all written from a particular standpoint, and as such there is no such thing as an impartial, objective, or a neutral position from which a text can be read, written, viewed or spoken. (p. 67)

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In this manner, we move beyond apathetic acceptance of the text (Marshall & Klein, 2009). Alternately, learners engage in practices that involve discerning questions about assumptions. Ciardiello (2004) offers a framework that includes the following: examining multiple perspectives; finding an authentic voice; recognizing social barriers and crossing borders of separation; regaining one’s identity, and listening to and responding to the call of service. Stribling (2008) touches on looking critically at text and making connections to larger social issues which then can be a springboard for valuable discussion about existing injustices (Rogers & Mosley, 2006). An alternative is to have students begin with their own personal experiences and then explore and make sense of the text through these experiences. When text is connected to students’ own lives they may be more apt to comprehend social issues and express more willingness to act upon their beliefs (Stribling, 2008). This approach goes further than just asking students to use critical thinking skills, rather it encourages a new look at the world and one’s own place in activism (McDaniel, 2004). Ko (2013) studied one college professor who taught English as a Foreign Language in Taiwan from a critical stance. This is a great example of the role that instructors play in creating safe boundaries where students can push boundaries. Ko (2013) illustrated the impact previous learning experiences may have on students’ ability to engage in difficult conversations. Ko documented the difficulties and challenges this teacher faced throughout the semester as he worked to help students “see through the hidden assumptions behind various texts” (p. 95). This teacher faced many challenges including, difficulty eliciting student responses to texts since students had few previous dialogic learning experiences, conflicting student beliefs about what constituted language learning, and student opposition to contextualized learning. That is to say, students felt that a critical stance toward reading had little to do with learning the English language. Instead, they wanted isolated lessons in vocabulary and grammar. Despite students beliefs about how one learns English, they felt small group discussions and whole group sharing experiences helped them expand their thinking. Ko advised instructors to be patient with students who are experiencing critical literacy for the first time. He also suggests that students might be more open to ideas presented within a critical literacy framework if these ideas are discussed within texts that allow students to make cultural and relevant connections. Taylor (2014) states, “If there is a greater understanding of self and of difference, even if only through reductive cultural generalities, this is a beginning” (p. 33). While these general opportunities to look at culturally relevant texts is simply a starting point, this exposure to “the other” through shared activities and

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discussions opens the door for deeper conversations about intercultural sensitivity. In this chapter we propose tools to explore social justice issues. As Dewey (1938) points out, it is these experiences which will “fruitfully live on in subsequent experiences” (p. 28). We propose strategies that do the following: allow preservice teachers to experience an evolutionary, democratic learning community, build content knowledge in literacy while simultaneously encouraging preservice teachers to teach reading with an awareness of social justice; and lastly create opportunities for them to consider local, national, and global issues.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © EXPERIENCING AN EVOLUTIONARY, DEMOCRATIC LEARNING COMMUNITY

Before teachers help students to engage with the strategies, it is crucial for teachers to build a community of learners so that individuals within the community feel safe enough to experience an evolutionary, democratic learning community. This is because it is in this community that learners experience a “shared commitment and common good that binds us” (hooks, 1994, p. 40). As such, learners come to understand that intellectual development helps us to live more connected lives. Cochran-Smith (2004) wisely points out that reading achievement, while important, does not guarantee students preparedness to actively participate in a democratic community. Therefore, democratic learning communities are essential to help learners begin to create a space where they freely, openly, and responsibly negotiate meaning within and among other members in the community. We begin this section by describing ways in which teachers can begin to build community within their classrooms, move on to describe ways in which teachers can help students begin to take a variety of perspectives when discussing issues during class, and end the chapter by discussing ways teachers can encourage students to take action and advocate for change. For each strategy presented we describe the strategy, discuss skills the strategy addresses, describe practical ways to implement the strategy, and provide a vignette where readers can see the strategy enacted in the classroom. We believe that before beginning the difficult work of delving into the issues of social justice and globalization with preservice teachers, it is essential that we build a community of trust within the collegiate classroom. Students must feel that they are in an environment in which they can safely grapple with sensitive issues and voice their opinions, even if

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those opinions differ from the majority. The following practices are designed to assist in the creation of such a community. Community Building Activity 1: Ethnographer for a Day: Mirrors That Reflect Individuals in the Classroom Recognizing and valuing the strengths of one’s peers can be an avenue to community building in the classroom. This can be accomplished by setting aside space and time for learners to observe and articulate how they view the talents and strengths of other students. This opportunity to observe and articulate observations allows students to learn to more carefully view the world through a variety of lens by first seeing their classmates through different lenses. Teachers introduce this strategy by teaching students how to look at people and events from a variety of perspectives. To introduce this concept the teacher uses the picture book, Ish (Reynolds, 2004). In this book a boy crumples his drawing and throws it on the floor, believing it is not very good. His sister grabs the crumpled piece of paper, and he chases her to her room where he finds that she has created a gallery of his crumpled drawings on her way. She encourages him to look at the drawings from a different perspective. He decides to give drawing another try. After sharing this book, the teacher then discusses the job of an ethnographer, explaining that ethnographers make careful observations and take notes about people in their natural environment using objects in their everyday lives. As people interact with others and go about their lives, the ethnographer observes these interactions, suspending judgments about individuals and their interactions with people and objects in their world. The teacher introduces students to the practice of making notes about their observations with a photograph. Photographs are easier to use than videos because many videos on topics of social justice have voice overs that influence the viewers’ thoughts about what is being viewed. The teacher can select a photograph that depicts, for example, homelessness. The teacher asks students to take notes about what they observe in the photo. The teacher then asks students to share their notes, pointing out the places in the notes where the students made judgments rather than observations. For example, when this activity was introduced in one preservice classroom a student wrote that the man in the photo was dirty. The teacher explained that a description which suspends judgment would show the reader what made the man appear dirty rather than telling the reader that the man was dirty. She went on to explain that a description that suspends judgment might state that the man had a tear in his shirt and that the shirt appeared to be white with black smudges on the front.

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As students continue to build their understanding about how to make observations and suspend their judgments, teachers ask students to volunteer to be the “ethnographer for the day.” In this role, students make observations about what happens during the day-to-day operations within the classroom. Then, at the close of each day, the ethnographer shares her observations. During this sharing, students begin to learn how to observe their worlds more closely and to deliberately look at their classmates from different perspectives. Community Building Activity 2: Community Cards: Mirrors That Reflect Perspectives of our Classmates

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After students have an understanding about observing their classmates more closely, the teacher should ask everyone to explicitly be on the lookout for strengths in each of their classmates for a couple of weeks. The teacher begins by reading The Favorite Daughter (Say, 2013). In this book a blonde Japanese-American daughter is teased by classmates after bringing a baby picture to class where she is dressed in a kimono and an art teacher mispronounces her name. The girl decides that her new name is Michelle. The father patiently adheres to his daughter’s wishes and suggests they go have sushi at their favorite restaurant. On the walk home, through Michelle’s favorite parts of the city, she discovers all the places where Japanese and American cultures intersect. Through this book, the instructor encourages students to view and appreciate each other and the many ways we express who we are through dress, food, traditions, places, and cultures. During class meetings, the teacher asks students to discuss their perceptions of who they are and how they express that culture in the ways they dress, the food they eat, the traditions they share, the places they visit and love, and their own strengths and weaknesses. This helps students to gain an awareness of the similar and different cultural knowledge that everyone brings to the community of learners. This information also helps the teacher to learn about the students in his classroom so that he can suggest texts that broaden students’ understandings about their world. At the end of the week the teacher asks students to place a folded piece of paper with their name on the front on top of their desks and then to stand up behind their chairs. Then, students rotate through each student’s community card, making notes about things they learned about this individual that they found interesting or observations of how students expressed their own cultural identity, or embraced the cultural identify of another classmate during the past couple of weeks. Students rotate to each desk, making notes on each student’s community card. Before writ-

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ing their own observation, the teacher should ask students to read observations made by other students. In this way, they learn that everyone views students from a variety of perspectives and has unique observations of each classmate. Once everyone rotates through every student in the classroom, students take the opportunity to read through the notes left by their classmates. Shortly after the first class meeting, students in Dr. Allison’s class anxiously stood behind their desk chair. They had just finished learning about ethnography, the act of observing and noting everyday occurrences, and waited patiently for Dr. Allison to provide the cue to begin writing about their observations of other students. Dr. Allison reminded the students that they had taken the opportunity to share books about different cultural experiences and students had expressed various ways they communicated their identities and cultural ways of knowing. Now, she asked them to write notes to their classmates about what they had learned from each other, ways they had observed their classmates expressing their cultural identities, or ways they observed classmates embracing each other’s cultural ways of knowing. Students quickly started writing. Dr. Allison read one note that stated, “Jenny, I never knew that you had to work so hard to afford college tuition. This must be a testament to the hard work you learned from your mother who raised you as a single-mother who did not attend college.” Another student wrote, “Ben, I love your shirt with the intricate colorful weaving that for you symbolizes the tightness and uniqueness of your family.” And another wrote, “Thanks Huili for teaching us about your cultural experiences of cooking dumplings. I look forward to this weekend when you come to my apartment to share with my family how to make dumplings.”

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Community Building Activity 3: Our Single Story: Windows to View Perspectives

Students begin by reflecting on stories they might recall that “otherized” a person from a different class or race. Parents might often try to control youngsters’ choices by instilling fear of a situation, a group of people, or a particular location. To help students recall these stories the teacher asks students to think about a time when they felt fear, a general lack of comfort, anxiety, or vulnerability as an adult for no apparent reason. Then to trace that emotion to a story they were told. The teacher then asks the students to sketch or make a visual collage of that situation with as many details as possible. For homework, the instructor asks the preservice teachers to locate and bring to the next class meeting a similar

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story or image that expresses a similar kind of emotion, but in a different part of the world. The next class session opens by listening to the TED Talk, “The Danger of a Single Story” by Chimamanda Nigozi Adichie. In this story, Adichie explains how the stories she read and wrote as a child in Nigeria were influenced by the British and American children’s books she read. She describes her blonde haired and blue-eyed characters who played in the snow despite the fact that she had never saw snow and never traveled outside of Nigeria. She goes on to explain how her American college roommate perceived her as an African based on stories encountered in the media. The instructor then asks students about the story and images they researched from various parts of the world. Students discuss the “Single Story” within the stories and images they brought to class in small groups. The students should specifically discuss the connections between their own stories and those in the story or image brought to class. A synthesis of the conversations are discussed in whole group. The students are then asked to cut the story or image brought to class and to metaphorically place the story or image in the place in their sketch or visual image. Students should then complete a reflective writing to compare and contrast emotions the people in the stories or images might feel were they to be in the place, situation, or with the group of people from the student’s original story. Through this activity they begin to see that we all live with single stories that color our perspective of the world. In the reflective writing, the instructor asks that the students address how they can “reject” the single stories they have lived with and create multiple stories about the people, places, and situations in their lives. During these community building activities students not only begin to reflect on how they view themselves, but also gain a perspective about how others view them and how some of their perspectives are culturally situated. This sets the stage so that learners begin to use their observations more intently as a window from which to view their world and to seek alternative views that might be a plausible explanation for their observations. It is from this vantage point that students can read texts, watch news clips, and view images that depict local, national, and global issues and be better equipped to discuss and take up alternative explanations about what they read, see, and hear.

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Teaching With an Awareness of Social Justice: Creating Opportunities to Consider Local, National, and Global Issues The strategies detailed in the previous section are just three examples of ways in which to begin to build a democratic learning community

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(Johnston, 2004) in the college classroom. When a teacher feels that the foundation of the community has begun to be established and that students have an understanding about the value of multiple perspectives, they may then move on to the incorporation of activities focusing on social justice and global mindedness. In the following section we provide four practical strategies which integrate social justice education, globalization, and the content area of reading methods. In our experience, these strategies have been successful in simultaneously preparing preservice teachers to be strong teachers of reading, as well as teachers who are sensitive to diversity and in tune to issues at the local, national and global level. Comber and Simpson (2001) note that

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it is the psychological space in between the student and the text that is of the utmost importance. This is the negotiated space that is marked by both the past experiences of the student and the particular presentation of the text, both the content of the text and what has been left out of the text. (p. 37)

Because our work took place in a reading methods course, texts are central to each of the strategies outlined below. However, we believe that each of these strategies could easily be adapted to fit nicely in the context of a social studies, science, or other core methods course for preservice teachers. To begin thinking about social justice issues using texts, preservice teachers are asked to create a text set about a given topic such as immigration, equality, poverty, hunger, war, peace, child labor, health, clean water, or social class. The topic should be one that has the potential for sparking interest, empathy, and/or debate. The instructor can model this process by creating his own text set (Robb, 2002), a compilation of both linguistic and nonlinguistic artifacts such as books, photographs, paintings, songs, films, maps, and brochures around this topic. The students should keep in mind that the texts represented should provide a mirror of their students’ lives, but also a window from which to glimpse the world. In this way, teachers begin with what students know and broaden that idea so that students begin to think about how their community connects to the global world. These text sets allow students to form communities of readers because all students in the classroom engage with a variety of linguistic and nonlinguistic sources to make meaning about the topic at hand. For example, one text set compiled around the theme of “Fences: The Physical, Psychological and Social Boundaries of Knowledge” includes the picture books The Other Side (Woodson, 2001), The Harmonica (Johnston, 2008), The Librarian of Basra: A True Story From Iraq (Johnston, 2008), Erika’s Story (Vandeer Zee, 2003), Monster (Meyers, 2004), and Schooled

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(Korman, 2008). In each of these books, characters face both physical and metaphorical fences that set boundaries for the characters in each of the books. In addition to these picture books, students discuss the symbolic meaning of fences in paintings by Pissaro and Holmes which prominently show communities surrounded by fences. Students discuss the purposes of fences in the paintings, in their own communities, and in their nation; as well as ways that individuals may cross these fences. From a global perspective, students could discuss how the Berlin Wall served as a way to divide Germany, and ways that fences create borders between countries and what it means when immigrants cross those fences. As a culminating experience, students watch the film Rabbit Proof Fence: The True Story of One of the Greatest Escapes of All Time to discuss and write about the fences that exist in the world, as well as how to tear fences down to embrace the world beyond the fence. After demonstrating how to create a text set, preservice teachers create their own text set, while the instructor continues to demonstrate how to use text sets to focus on social justice and global issues. One such demonstration should be to discern the number of texts available on a given topic and the characters, settings, and themes within each of these texts in the text set. The text set becomes central to each of the activities described in the following section. These activities serve as models for methods for teachers to think about social justice and global issues in their own elementary classrooms. For each strategy we address: the description of the strategy including the focus of the skill, the steps required to implement it, as well as a real life classroom example.

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Strategy 1: Book Pass

Strategy Skill Focus In this activity students are provided with the experience of examining several texts which focus on a particular social justice issue. The primary purpose of this activity is for students to consider their own views on the texts, listen actively to the views of others, and to take note of the variety of perspectives that may result from a single text. Strategy Description Teachers bring several text sets they have compiled on various social justice issues to class to share. Students are then divided into small groups of four to six students. These groups participate in a book pass (Allen, 2004) using texts from the text set. Each student in the group holds a different text. Students log the title and author, if known. The teacher then gives students approximately 5 minutes to read the text or to examine the

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nonlinguistic artifact (i.e. photo, painting, pamphlet, graphic, etc.). After the 5 minutes, students make notes about what they noticed. After students complete their notes, they pass the text to the person to their left. The process begins again until all students in the group have examined each piece of text within the group. As the books are passed, teachers may ask students to notice “who is not present in the text?, whose ideas are presented and whose ideas are left out?, how are ethnic characters portrayed? how is social class portrayed? or how does this book replicate ideas from society?” After the initial pass and once all students in the group have examined each text in the group, students discuss what they wrote down. It is during this time that students have the opportunity to voice their opinions, to agree or disagree about the texts represented in the book pass, and to hear about a variety of perspectives taken from the content of the texts.

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Strategy Steps

1. Compile several text sets and bring to class. 2. Divide students into groups of four to six giving each group one text set. Each student should begin with one book. 3. The student examines the text in their hand, notes observations and begins to read. At this time, the instructor can ask that students simply read and make observations or to read with a specific question in mind (i.e., what depictions of power are depicted in this text? Are there examples of stereotypes presented in the texts?). 4. After five minutes the student passes the book to their left and repeats the process with a new book. This process continues until each student has examined all books in the text set. 5. Students discuss their observations about each text with their group, noting differences and similarities in their noticings. Real Classroom Example Jacob, Neva, Emily, Ashton, and Kevin gather in a small group as Dr. Allison has directed. They begin quietly leafing through each text and artifact provided and jotting down notes. The text set focuses on gender issues in education and includes several children’s books and a couple of photographs. One of the children’s books entitled Ruby’s Wish (2002) by Shirin Yim Bridges is set in China many years ago in the home of an old man who had many wives and over one hundred children and grandchildren. Among these children is a little girl named Ruby who is given the opportunity to attend school, a rarity in this particular culture in this par-

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ticular period of history. Through hard work and dedication, she excels in her studies, especially calligraphy.  Although she feels the weight of gender differences, Ruby never outwardly shows her distress.  Rather, she expresses herself through a poem “Alas, bad luck to be born a girl; worse luck to be born into this house where only boys are cared for” (n. p.) Ruby’s poem is noticed by her teachers and has an impact on her grandfather.  When her grandfather asks about the meaning of the poem, Ruby says she is bothered that boys get a chance to go to the university and girls do not.  Time passes and the girls in Ruby’s’ family get married and many of the boys go to university.  Although Ruby was disappointed she may not go to the university, she remains dedicated to her schoolwork. New Year’s Day arrives and Ruby is given a thick red envelope.  Inside is a letter from a university with an acceptance for Ruby as one of their first female students. As the students complete their note taking, they begin with a tentative discussion of Ruby’s Wish. Jacob notes, “I really liked the character of Ruby. She is a fight the system kind of person. I’m glad that women don’t face this kind of discrimination anymore.” “I don’t know” Neva jumps in. “While I realize that it is much easier now for a woman to go to college, I think there is still gender inequality at the university, particularly in certain programs.” Thus, the conversation continued as the members of the group discussed their own experiences with gender inequity and how these may or may not permeate the elementary classroom. Two members of the group related to Ruby as they expressed their path as first generation college students and how those challenges had impacted them.

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Strategy 2: Multiple Reading, Multiple Perspectives

Strategy Skill Focus In the preceding strategy, students considered their own views of a text or artifact as well as those of their peers. This strategy focuses on helping students use a text to reflect on a variety of perspectives including viewpoints that may come in direct conflict with their own beliefs. In this way, the text offers both a mirror to view their own beliefs and a window from which to view a multitude of beliefs. Strategy Description Mosley and Rogers (2011) note that in order to grasp a racial literacy framework, individuals must have a deeper understanding of how race impacts choices. In order to help students reflect from a variety of perspectives, teachers intentionally ask students to take different perspectives as they read/examine a text a second and third time. First, students read a

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book from their text set considering the theme or big idea. For example, a theme in The Other Side (Woodson, 2001) is friendship. With this theme in mind, students engage in dialogue with others in the group to discuss their understanding of friendship. Then students read the book again, taking a different perspective. For example, students might consider how their perspective might change if they read the book as a mother, another friend, or a grandmother who grew up during a civil rights era. Students might also engage in “switching” by changing a character’s gender, clothing, class, ethnicity, et cetera and discuss how the text would change (McLaughlin & DeVoogd, 2004). Using the text, students enter a safe place to confront ideologies that may be locally reproduced in tacit ways. This affords the teacher the opportunity to expand students’ knowledge beyond local ways of knowing.

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Strategy Steps

1. Provide students with a text that they have already read. 2. As they read the book a second time, ask the student to take on a different perspective, one that is different from their own. 3. As students read the book a third time, ask students to switch the gender, ethnicity, social class, et cetera of the character and discuss how ideas presented in the book would change. 4. Allow students time to reflect on and discuss with peers the implications of engaging in this process. Real Classroom Example A small group of students in Dr. Allison’s class had just completed the book pass activity using a text set containing books and artifacts addressing war and dictatorship. She asked them to read The Composition (1998) by Antonio Skarmela and Alfonso Ruano for the third time. The story takes place in an unnamed town where there is an undercurrent of fear with words like jail and dictatorship whispered quietly. A little boy named Pedro struggles to understand the world around him. He knows his parents listen to the radio nightly, but he doesn’t really understand why. When he questions them, they provide him with vague answers, yet Pedro begins to understand that something is amiss as he watches his best friend’s father be taken away. After such an event, Pedro asks his parents if they agree with the dictatorship. They hesitantly answer no.  Pedro then asks, “Father, am I against the dictatorship?” (n.p.). Pedro’s mother responds, “Children aren’t against anything.  Children are just children.  They have to go to school, study hard, play, and be good to their

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parents” (n.p.). When Pedro attempts to continue the conversation, he is sent to bed. In school the following day, a military captain comes to Pedro’s class and asks the students to write a composition report on what their parents do in the evenings.  At this point in the story, it is clear Pedro is struggling with a moral decision. Does he tell the truth and endanger his family or lie and defy the government? A week later, Pedro’s parents appear shocked as Pedro mentions that a captain came to his classroom and asked him to give an account of his family’s evening whereabouts. His father’s spoon falls to his plate and his parents exchange a long look. Pedro reads his composition aloud. In his writing, he creates a fictitious nightly chess game, which serves to protect his family and prevent them from being harmed. Dr. Allison had noted that after the two rounds of reading the text, many of her students were frustrated with the parents in the story for not preparing their children for these type of encounters. Ashton argued, “They should have been upfront with Pedro. He deserved to know what was happening and be prepared.” For the third reading, Dr. Allison asked her students to read the text from the perspective of the mother and/or the father and consider why they might have made the decisions they did. After this experience Ashton noted, “I guess when I think about it from their perspective, they were afraid and trying to protect him.” Other students chimed in with ideas that many parents in difficult situations often try to normalize life as much as possible. Dr. Allison then asked students to read the text and switch the gender of the main character from a male to a female. She asked students to discuss how the parents might have reacted had the main character been a girl, how the military captain visiting the school might have reacted had Pedro been female. During this discussion the students’ intertextual and intercontextual connections, branching into topics such as human trafficking. Darby admitted the power differential between the military captain and male/female character altered her feelings. She stated, “If Pedro were female I would be deeply afraid that the military captain would physically or sexually harm her. I think he would be more likely to force a female to accurately give up the family’s whereabouts.” This led to a discussion about feminism and eventually to females sold as sex slaves recently addressed in news stories.

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Strategy 3: Book Clubs Strategy Skill Focus In the previous strategy, students practiced understanding different perspectives in a short story. The purpose of this strategy is to allow stu-

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dents to delve deeper into discussion and deeper understanding of social justice issues. Books clubs may provide an environment conducive to delving into issues of race which are often avoided and to consider what Guinier (2004) refers to as the constructs of racial literacy. A chapter book may allow students to connect and understand characters on a deeper level, as they discuss and analyze characters throughout many different events. Students will be able to further understand different perspectives as they consider characters in the story, and further understand how their student peers understand story events and characters (Müller, 2012). Additionally, this strategy will also serve as a model for how to organize and lead a book club in students’ future classrooms

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Strategy Description In this strategy, students engage in a book club with a small group of student peers. The students may choose, from selected chapter books, what interests them the most. Several class periods throughout the semester, students will spend approximately twenty minutes discussing their assigned reading for that day. The book clubs can be organized very loosely or can be quite structured. For a less structured approach, students can come to book club meetings with general questions to discuss. For a more structured approach, students can be assigned certain jobs for each book club meeting. Some “jobs” may include but are not limited to: (a) the connector, who records and shares with the group a moment where he or she made a connection to the text, (b) the discussion leader, who comes to the club meeting with four to five poignant questions and leads the group discussion, (c) the theme finder, who takes charge of identifying and elaborating on a potential theme for the selected chapters, from his or her perspective, (d) the illustrator who identifies an important moment from the text, visualizes it from his or her perspective, and illustrates that moment, and (e) the psychologist who chooses a character to deeply analyze, which involves taking note of actions, past experiences, and the author’s character description. Additionally, to further encourage awareness of globalization the job of investigator can be added (Müller, 2012). The investigator’s job would be to bring in a global perspective through a supplementary piece of text, video clip, etc. that might expand the discussion. Students come to each book club meeting prepared to present and discuss their “job” responsibility for the meeting. The students can decide and create a schedule for who will fulfill each responsibility each club meeting. When students have been coached to pay attention to certain aspects of the text, the group discussions may be more guided and incorporate deep analysis.

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Strategy Steps 1. Select several chapter books that may deal with globalization, social justice, or diversity. 2. Briefly preview the books for the students so that they may make a choice that interests them. 3. Allow students to vote for their first, second, and third choice book. 4. Organize students into groups of four or five based on their top pick books. 5. Schedule several class periods throughout the semester where the students may meet for approximately 20 minutes 6. Create a packet for the students to keep track of their thoughts and observations throughout their book club. 7. Allow students to meet and create a schedule for their upcoming book club meetings. The schedule should include how many pages or chapters they would like to have read by each meeting. If desired, the schedule could also include who will be fulfilling each club job for each meeting. 8. During book club meetings, the teacher can monitor book clubs and record relevant discussion points. After book club meetings, spend some time discussing and relevant issues that may have come up during the discussions. 9. Students can complete a final book project about the book’s themes or social justice issues.

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Real Classroom Example

Dr. Allison decided to collect and review several children’s chapter books for her class of future teachers. She decided she wanted her students to engage in children’s literature so that they were more familiar with books that students may be reading in the elementary classroom. After researching many books that focused on diversity and social justice, she chose six to preview for her students. The students were excited to read a “fun” piece of literature that wasn’t a college textbook or an empirical article. After hearing about each book, each student wrote down his or her top three choices. Dr. Allison placed the students in book clubs, carefully considering the student’s top book choice, the student’s background and strengths, and their ability to engage in discussion. She scheduled time into her class periods for the groups to meet and discuss their book selections and cre-

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ated a packet for students that elaborated on each of the book club jobs. The packet also included space where students could choose to record their job responsibility for each group meeting. On the next day of class, Dr. Allison came prepared to model and describe each of the book club jobs. The class also discussed how their previous class activities prepared them to deeply engage in each of these responsibilities. The groups then met and made a schedule for the upcoming book club meetings, assigning chapters to be read by each meeting and who would fulfill each job each time. On the first day of the book club meetings, Dr. Allison monitored the class and was fascinated and intrigued by the conversations that students were having. She thought back to the frustration she felt after trying to engage the class in a deep discussion earlier that semester. Surprised by their progress, she wondered if allowing students to work in small groups calmed fears and allowed for more discussion. Dr. Allison stopped by one group of five students who were reading The Watsons go to Birmingham. The students looked somber as one student shared her vivid illustration of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and discussed how the bombing affected the Watson family. The conversation lead to the “psychologist,” who shared her thoughts about Kenny, a 10-year-old with a lazy eye, who was often bullied at school. She analyzed and discussed how she interpreted his reaction to the bombing, why it was so difficult for him to understand and how his past experiences had influenced this understanding. The “connector” related the bombing in Birmingham to less severe injustices that he sees in his practicum experience in fifth grade. He discussed some of the comments and bullying that he had witnessed. The theme finder interrupted and touted, “That is the theme I chose for these chapters—injustice.” She connected this theme to the events from the chapters and asked her peers if they considered a similar theme. The “discussion leader” concluded the book club meeting with a discussion of future practice. He asked about how teachers could incorporate these kind of deep discussions about social justice with elementary age children. The group wondered about the maturity levels of different age groups and resolved that they would love to see their students of any age engaging in dialogue as they currently were. Dr. Allison encouraged one group to engage in Story Recycling, turning one type of text into another (Feathers, 1993). For example, she suggested they use the ideas discussed in The Watson’s go to Birmingham to create a poem, song, or poster that extends the idea of bullying in the book. She asks another student to engage in the role of “investigator,” an optional role for all students to research examples of bullying on a global and political level (Müller, 2012). She briefly visited other groups in the class and was further impressed with the conversations. However, she did

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notice one group who was struggling to keep conversation flowing. She wrote down on her clipboard to spend more time with that particular group next week. The class period ended with the class discussing the themes that they had encountered in their various chapter books. Strategy 4: Advocating for Change Strategy Skill Focus: In the previous strategies, we attempted to get students to verbalize their own views and then to consider the views of their peers as well as an alternate perspective that might not be natural or initially comfortable for them. This activity, advocating for change, encourages students to move from a localized perspective to a more global perspective as they consider social justice issues.

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Strategy Description Using a previously read and discussed text set, teachers identify social justice issues within the texts and brainstorm ways to address the issue. Mosley and Rogers (2011) note that critical literacy should encourage “students to take action by giving new meaning to social and political transformations” (p. 185). In this activity, students consider the issues from the standpoints of a personally responsible citizen, a participatory citizen, and a justice oriented citizen (Westheimer & Kahne, 2004). According to Wesheimer and Kahne a personally responsible citizen addresses social issues by contributing to the cause (i.e., contributes food to food drive). A participatory citizen addresses social issues by actively participating in the cause (i.e., organizes a food drive). They contrast these stances with that of the justice-oriented citizen, characterized as the citizen who questions, debates, and works to change systems that reproduce patterns of injustice (i.e., explores why people are hungry in the first place and acts to address the root of the issue). Using this knowledge, students identify agencies that address the social justice issue they identified in the text, interview a person from that agency, and then determine whether that agency encourages citizens to be personally responsible, participatory, or justice oriented. Students make presentations about the issues they identified in the texts and what they discovered about the agencies that address these social issues. Strategy Steps 1.

Students look back at a familiar text set.

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2. They consider the text from the following perspectives: personally responsible citizen, a participatory citizen, and a justice oriented citizen. 3. Students identify an agency that addresses the issue in the text and contact the agency to set up an interview. 4. After conducting the interview, each student will determine whether the agency encourages citizens to be personally responsible, participatory, or justice oriented. 5. Students present their findings and reflections on the project to their peers. They conclude their presentation by discussing an agency that takes a justice oriented stance, contrasting the actions of the justice oriented agency with the actions of the agency they researched.

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Real Life Classroom Example Neva chose to focus on the text set on immigration and particularly the children’s book entitled How Many Days to America: A Thanksgiving Story (1988) by Eve Bunting. While hiding under his bed, the main character, a little boy, and his sister tremble as they see boots of soldiers walking around their home. When the soldiers depart, his father instructs them that they must leave immediately. “Why?” the little boy wonders and his father answers simply “Because we do not think the way they think, my son” (n.p.). At this moment, he is given privy to a new concept that he has little time to process before they vanish in the night, bartering what little they have and boarding a small crowded ship. After many nights on the boat, the refugees spot land. As they come close to land, soldiers are seen guarding the land. As the little boy asks if the land will do, his father replies, “It would do. But they will not take us” (n.p.). The story ends with the family’s acceptance in America and with sharing of thanksgiving. Neva chose to contact a local nonprofit agency housed in a local church which served new immigrants and provided services such as temporary housing in the church building, clothing, food, and menial labor around the church in exchange for the necessities provided. After interviewing a member of the nonprofit organization in charge of the immigration project, Neva shared her findings with her classmates. She believed that she could categorize the nonprofit organization in the participatory citizen category because they often organized events or programs which could support the education and/or basic needs of immigrants. However, Neva argued the agency was not in the realm of justice oriented citizenry because they did not seek to consider, debate, or advocate to address the root issues that new immigrants face in America such as low-paying occupations, refusal to recognize internationally earned degrees, or racist

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views which serve to denigrate individuals born outside of the United States. CONCLUSION The strategies presented in this chapter provide preservice teachers with ideas about how to use texts as both a mirror and window to reflect on, confront, and expand their cultural ways of knowing. Elie Wiesel wisely noted that “there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” We believe these strategies and texts (1) disrupt the commonplace; (2) interrogate multiple viewpoints (3) focus on sociopolitical issues; and (4) ask students to take action and promote social justice (Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002) and thereby provide a zone where students can expand and explore ways to prevent and protest injustices within their communities, nations, and world. We are certain that it is vital for teachers to not only be aware of global and social justice issues, but to take a stance when grappling with these issues. Our hope is that these strategies provide an opportunity for students, teachers, and teacher educators to begin to think about the stance they will take.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © REFERENCES

Allen, J. (2004). Tools for teaching content literacy. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Bergan, S., & Berdan, M. (2013). Raising global children. Alexandria, VA: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Boutte, G. S. (2008). Beyond the illusion of diversity: How early childhood teachers can promote social justice. The Social Studies, 99(4) 165–173. Braskamp, L., & Engberg, M. (2011). How colleges can influence the development of a global perspective. Liberal Education, 34–39. Busey, C., & Waring, S. (2012). Global mindedness as the “goal”: Soccer as a pedagogical tool in the social studies. The Social Studies, 103(6), 260–266. Calkins, L., Ehrenworth, M., & Lehman, C. (2012). Pathways to the common core: Accelerating achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Case, K. A., & Hemmings, A. (2005). Distancing strategies: White women pre-service teachers and anti-racist curriculum. Urban Education, 40(6), 606–626. Chimamanda, N. A. (2009, October). The danger of a single story [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_ of_a_single_story Ciardiello, A. V. (2004). Democracy’s young heroes: An instructional model of critical literacy practices. The Reading Teacher, 58(2), 138–147. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press.

118 R. MORAN, M. BILLEN, and K. KEITH Comber, B., & Simpson, A. (2001). Negotiating critical literacies in classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Dinkelman, T. (2003). Self-study in teacher education: A means and ends tool for promoting reflective teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(1), 6–18. doi:10.1177/0022487102238654 Feathers, K. (1993). Infotext: Reading and learning. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Pippin. Fox, K. R. (2006). Using author studies in children’s literature to explore social justice issues. The Social Studies 97(6), 251–256. Friere, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Herder and Herder. Giroux, H. A. (1993). Literacy and the politics of difference. In C. Lankshear & P. L. McLaren (Eds.), Critical literacy: Politics, praxis, and the postmodern (pp. 367–377). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Guinier, L. (2004). From racial liberalism to racial literacy: Brown v. Board of Education and the interest-divergence dilemma. Journal of American History, 91(1), 92–118. Hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge. Janks, J. (2005). Language and the design of texts. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 4(3), 97–110. Johnston, P. H. (2004). Choice words: How our language affects children’s learning. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Johnston, P. H. (2008). The librarian of Basra: A true story from Iraq. New York, NY: Harcourt. Kern, D. (2007). Flying with critical literacy wings. The NERA Journal, 43(2), 87–89. Kirkwood, T. F. (2001). Our global age requires global education: Clarifying definitional ambiguities. The Social Studies, 92(1), 10–15. Ko, M. (2013). A case study of an EFL teacher’s critical literacy teaching in a reading class in Taiwan. Language Teaching Research, 17(1), 91–108. Lewison, M., Flint, A. S., & Van Sluys, K. (2002). Taking on critical literacy: The journey of newcomers and novices. Language Arts, 79(5), 382–392. Marshall, J., & Klein, A. M. (2009). Lessons in social action: Equipping and inspiring students to improve their world. The Social Studies, 100(5), 218–221. Marx, S., & Pennington, J. (2003). Pedagogies of critical race theory: Experimentations with white pre-service teachers. Qualitative Studies in Education, 16(1), 91–110. McDaniel, C. (2004). Critical literacy: A questioning stance and the possibility for change. The Reading Teacher, 57(5), 472–481. McIntyre, A. (1997). Making meaning of Whiteness: Exploring racial identity with White teachers. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Müller, K. (2012). Developing understandings of social justice: Critical thinking in action in a literature discussion group. Journal of Children’s Literature, 38(2), 22–36. Morrell, E. (2010). Critical research and the future of literacy education. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 53(2), 96–104.

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Teaching Toward Social Justice 119 Mosley, M., & Rogers, R. (2011). Inhabiting the tragic gap: Pre-service teachers practicing racial literacy. Teaching Education, 22(3), 303–324. Multiverse. (2004). Teachers: Your area. Retrieved January 11, 2010, from http:// www.mulitverse.ac.uk/viewarticle2.aspx?contentID=441&categoryId=0 Nieto, S. (2003). Challenging current notions of “highly qualified teachers” through work in a teacher inquiry group. Journal of Teacher Education, 54(5), 386–398. Novak, M. (2000). Defining social justice. Essay Adapted from lecture given at the University of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.calculemus.org/lect/ FilozGosp04-05/novak.html O’Quinn, E. J. (2005). Critical literacy in democratic education: Responding to sociopolitical tensions in U.S. schools. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(4), 260–267. Robb, L. (2002). Multiple texts: Multiple opportunities for teaching and learning. Voices From the Middle, 9(4), 28–32. Rogers, R., & Mosley, M. (2011). Racial literacy in a second-grade classroom: Critical race theory, whiteness studies, and literacy research. Reading Research Quarterly, 41(4), 462–495. Schmidt, R., Armstrong, L., & Everett, T. (2007). Teacher resistance to critical conversation: Exploring why teachers avoid difficult topics in their classrooms. The NERA Journal, 43(2), 49–55. Siu-Runyan, Y. (2007). Critical literacies: Stepping beyond the NCLB act. The NERA Journal, 43(2), 63–71. Stevens, L. P., & Bean, T. W. (2007). Critical literacy: Contest, research and practice in the K–12 classroom. London, England: SAGE. Stribling, S. M. (2008). Using critical literacy practices in the classroom. The NERA Journal, 44(1), 34–38. Taylor, S. (2014). Globally-minded students: defining, measuring and developing intercultural sensitivity. International Schools Journal, 33(2), 26–34. Thomas, J. (Producer), & Noyce, P. (Director). (2003). Rabbit proof fence: The true story of one of the greatest escapes of all time [Motion picture]. HanWay Films. Westheimer, J., & Kahne, J. (2004). What kind of citizen? The politics of educating for democracy. American Educational Research Journal, 41(2), 237–269. Williams, S. D. (2001). Part 1: Thinking out of the pro-verbal box. Computers and Composition, 18(1), 21–32. Wolfe, P. (2010). Preservice teachers planning for critical literacy teaching. English Education, 42(4), 368–390. Zahn, G., Sandell, E., & Lindsay, C. (2007). Fostering global-mindedness in teacher preparation. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 19(3), 331–333.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CHILDREN’S BOOKS CITED

Bridges, S. Y. (2002). Ruby’s wish. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books. Bunting, E. (1988). How many days to America? New York, NY: Clarion Books. Curtis, C. (1963). The Watsons go to Birmingham. New York, NY: Random House.

120 R. MORAN, M. BILLEN, and K. KEITH Korman, G. (2008). Schooled. New York, NY: Hyperion Books. Meyers, W. D. (2004). Monster. New York, NY: Harper Collins. Reynolds, P. H. (2004). Ish. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. Say, A. (2013). The favorite daughter. New York, NY: Scholastic. Skarmela, A., & Ruano, A. (1998). The composition. Berkeley, CA: Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press. Vander Zee, R. (2003). Erika’s story. Mankato, MN: Creative Editions. Woodson, J. (2001). The other side. New York: Putnam.

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CHAPTER 7

READING A DIFFERENT CULTURE

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The Use of International Children’s Literature in Teacher Education Y. TAKIMOTO AMOS AND J. A.Amos FINKE Yukari Takimoto and Janet A. Finke

INTRODUCTION

Merryfield (1994) laments that only about 5% of the nation’s K–12 teachers have had any academic preparation in global education and that college students in teacher education programs take fewer courses with global or international content than do all other college majors. We have seen this for ourselves with several students in the teacher education program at our university who could not differentiate Japan from China. This became apparent when one student stated to Yukari, a Japanese native, “Although you’re from Japan, a communist country, I’m glad that you’re not a communist!” The majority of our students are monolingual English speakers and do not seem to have much interest in learning foreign languages besides Spanish. Students in teacher education programs are, ironically, the by-products of the K–12 education system that we strive to change. Banks (2001)

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 121–140 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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explains the reasons why most students have little awareness or understanding of other countries: most nation-states focus on helping students to develop nationalism rather than to understand their role as citizens of the world. The teaching of nationalism often results in students’ learning misconceptions, stereotypes, and myths about other nations and acquiring negative and confused attitudes toward them. (p. 57)

Banks (2001) further adds another reason: “many teachers are likely to view global education as an add-on to an already crowded curriculum and thus to assign it a low priority” (p. 57). The worldwide dominance of the English language and the economic, political, and military power the United States holds in the world make its citizens, in particular, more vulnerable to ignorance about other countries.

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If we attempt to educate our students so that they can effectively participate in the globalized world, it is essential that we reform our own K–12 education system. In order to reform K–12 education nationwide it is imperative that teacher education programs throughout the land educate teacher candidates for globalism. One way to accomplish the challenging task in teacher education programs is to use children’s literature from other countries. Children are molded by their life experiences and these experiences include the books they read (Hadaway & McKenna, 2007). Reading stories from other countries allows children to discover a world beyond their own family and community in which they live (Thomas, 2010). In addition, stories from a variety of culture can raise children’s cultural consciousness. Thus, reading international literature in classroom is a welcoming activity in the current educational environment that values globalism, in other words, diverse perspectives from various cultural groups in the world. In this context, preparing teacher candidates for the effective use of international and multicultural literature has become important in teacher education programs nationwide. Nathenson-Mejia and Escamilla (2003) found that using Latino children’s literature in field experience seminars helped White preservice teachers to bridge cultural gaps and broaden their personal perspective and understanding of cultures different from their own. Colby and Lyon (2004) noted that teacher candidates had realized how significant their role would be in using multicultural literature in the classroom for the benefit of all students. Laframboise and Griffith (1997) reported that the use of multicultural literature allowed teacher candidates to have vicarious experiences of people and created an

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environment where they were encouraged to examine values and attitudes, express divergent views, and learn reflective practices. While offering teacher candidates many opportunities to gain broader understandings about the world and the people different from them, the use of multicultural and international literature also presents challenges. Obtaining high-quality texts is challenging. A more complicated issue is, however, how teachers select what literature should be taught. The ways teachers select depends on how they interpret the literature. This point presents a particular challenge to international literature. International literature reflects upon each country’s unique cultural values and practices and usually not written for people outside the country of origin in mind. Therefore, it is possible that the readers in other countries may not understand those values and misinterpret the stories. Freeman and Lehman (2001) state, “The clash of values between the culture of the book and the reader’s culture may cause that reader to reject or react negatively to a literary work that may have nothing to do with the book’s quality as literature” (p. 27). Sorter (1997) calls these readers’ resistance or rejection as “aesthetic restriction” where readers “dismiss the work out of hand because of elements in the text that the reader finds unacceptable” (pp. 217–218). Boyd (2002), for example, described one ninth-grader’s frustrations and disappointment with Chain of Fire in two categories: immunity from embracing an alternative cultural perspective and struggle to understand. Rice (2005) reported that sixth graders’ interpretations of Hispanic American stories written by Gary Soto were negatively influenced due to the unfamiliarity with physical appearance, language, and food customs the stories presented. Brindley and Laframboise (2002) warn, “Many preservice teachers come into teacher preparation programs with culturally insular perspectives and do not experience the cognitive dissonance necessary to reexamine their cultural beliefs” (p. 405). These teacher candidates’ lack of experiences with diverse perspectives are problematic because they may manifest “aesthetic restriction” and dismiss the literatures that could provide K–12 students with a reality that people in other cultures may have different perspectives but those perspectives are equally important to their own. Ideally, teachers should authentically interpret stories that originate from countries that speak different languages, believe in different religions, and hold different values.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CHAPTER OVERVIEW

This chapter is organized in the following sections: theoretical framework, teacher candidates’ interpretations, classroom practices, and conclusions. First, we will introduce the chapter’s theoretical framework,

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ethnocentric monoculturalism. Second, we will report the findings of the study we conducted with teacher candidates. We investigated how U.S. teacher candidates interpreted children’s literature from Japan and how their interpretations affected their use of the literature. Based on the findings of the study, we taught a special class in which we used the same children’s literature to promote multiple perspectives and foster global mindedness among the teacher candidates. The descriptions of the special class will consist of the third section of the chapter. We will conclude the chapter with applications and implications to teacher education.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: ETHNOCENTRIC MONOCULTURALISM

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In order to understand other cultures, it is important that we develop and strengthen cultural consciousness. Bennett (2010) defines cultural consciousness as: The recognition or awareness on the part of an individual that he or she has a view of the world that is not universally shared and differs profoundly from that held by many members of different nations and ethnic groups. (p. 354)

Unfortunately, the above process is frequently blocked by ethnocentrism, broadly defined as “an interpretive framework based on the perception that one’s own ethnic or cultural group (in-group) is superior to other groups (out-groups)” (Ragsdale, 2006, p. 204). This is a result of judging behaviors and beliefs of other cultures only in terms of what is normative and appropriate to one’s own culture. For example, Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines a cartoon as “a preparatory design, drawing, or painting … a drawing intended as satire, caricature, or humor … a ludicrously simplistic, unrealistic, or one-dimensional portrayal or version … [or] an animated cartoon. However, this definition, according to Price (2001), is a great injustice to Japanese anime, which contains creative storytelling and handmade artistic achievements, and is a manifestation of Western ethnocentrism. Ragsdale (2006) states a key factor associated with ethnocentrism is “an inability among members of in-groups to acknowledge that cultural differences are not intrinsic markers of the social inferiority of others” (p. 206). The above example of Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary is also a good example of the social power the Western societies hold to define sociocultural norms, thus more accurately speaking, it is a manifestation of ethnocen-

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tric monoculturalism. Ethnocentric monoculturalism is a combination of ethnocentrism (valuing of one’s ethnic/cultural group over others) and monoculturalism (belief in one “right” culture) and posits the individual’s culture as normal and valid, while other cultures are viewed as abnormal, inferior, or pathological, with corresponding differential treatment (Taylor, 2006) as explained as below: In the United States, the European American ethnic/cultural group holds the majority of social power and therefore determines the dominant cultural values. European American culture is considered the norm, and other cultures are considered deviant from the norm. When faced with the abnormal, many people react with distaste and want to remove the abnormal. (p. 203)

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The existence of power—one group’s ability to define and impose its reality and beliefs upon another group (Sue, 2001) distinguishes ethnocentrism from ethnocentric monoculturalism. Sue (2004) lists five major attributes of ethnocentric monoculturalism: • • • • •

belief in superiority, “choseness,” and entitlement; belief in the inferiority of other groups; the power to define reality; manifestation in institutions; and the invisible veil.

The superior status of the dominant group in society not only makes them prone to “believing that their definitions of problems and solutions are the right ones” (Sue, 2004, p. 765) but also results in an inability to emphasize or understand the viewpoints or experiences of other individuals who are different from them (Eidelson & Eidelson, 2003). Because of the intrinsic belief in their superiority, any differences are seen as inferior. The ability of the European American cultural group to define social, economic, and political reality makes it difficult for them to see “how the centric reality is a constructed, versus natural, phenomenon” (Taylor, 2006, p. 203), thus becoming invisible, because it is equated with normalcy in institutions. Invisibility is a product of cultural conditioning (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2000) and Sue (2004) claims that people in the United States are trapped in a European American worldview that “only allows them to see the world from one perspective” (p. 762). With ethnocentric monoculturalism as a theoretical framework, we analyze how teacher candidates interpreted the children’s literature from Japan and taught a class using the same literature.

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TEACHER CANDIDATES’ INTERPRETATIONS Participants and Procedures Sixty-four teacher candidates (10 White males, 50 White females, 3 Latinos, and 1 Latina) who were enrolled in the teacher education program in a rural area of the Pacific Northwest were the participants. They read two children’s literature stories from Japan that dealt with death (Gongitsune and Faithful Elephants, both translated in English) and answered the following questions in an essay as a class assignment: (1) Make a short summery of the story, (2) What kind of themes or purposes do you think the story represents? (3) Write down your honest feelings freely after reading the story, (4) Would you use the story as an international children’s literature once you start teaching? Before reading the stories, the participants were informed that both stories were famous stories and widely read among children in Japan at school and at home. For the synopsis of the stories, see the appendix. The essays the participants wrote were first analyzed in the following steps: (1) the cognitive domain—whether or not the participants correctly understood the theme/purpose of the story; (2) the behavioral domain – whether or not the participants would introduce the story in their future class; (3) the affective domain—whether or not the participants had positive feelings toward the story. While analyzing each participant in the three domains, the data was simultaneously analyzed thematically in a process that “involves coding and then segregating the data by codes into data clumps for further analysis and description” (Glesne, 2006, p. 147). In the end, all the codes were arranged into a logical order where several codes were clumped together in one thematic category and were combined with the analysis of the three domains in each participant. Findings

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In the cognitive domain, out of 64 participants, 58 participants understood the purpose of Faithful Elephants correctly and wrote that the story was written to “introduce children the horror of war and how war affects everybody, even animals.” It seems that the participants who understood the story, considered the theme of the story to be a worthwhile value. Most of the six students who did not understand the purpose correctly wrote that the story was about animal abuse. On the other hand, Gongitsune presented a more difficult reading for the participants. Only three participants (1 White female, 1 Latina, and 1 Latino) correctly understood the purpose of the story. Others wrote comments like, “To teach

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children that stealing is wrong,” and “To teach children the importance of gun control.” In the behavioral domain, most participants were reluctant to introduce the stories to children. In Faithful Elephants, 31 participants said that they would absolutely not introduce the story, 25 participants said that they would introduce it only to secondary level students, and eight participants said that they would introduce it to students of any grade. Gongitsune showed a significantly negative result with only nine participants willing to introduce. It seems how the participants reacted to the stories affectively were directly related to their willingness to introduce. Firstly, the participants felt both stories to be too sad and expressed a concern about emotional disturbance children might develop. One White male student wrote, “I was saddened by the story and felt depressed after reading it, which is a way that I would not like to make a child feel.” A White female participant wrote, “There is a lot of emotional trauma connected with the story and I would be worried that it would be more disturbing for my students than helpful.” It seems that the participants believed that children’s stories should have happy endings. Many participants reported reading stories only with happy endings when they were children. For example, a White female participant said, “It is difficult for me to read a children’s story that has an unpleasant ending. It is different to feel troubled after a story rather than getting the warm, fuzzy feeling most American stories give.” Another White female wrote,

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The part I did not like was the ending because the fox died. If I had read this book as a child I would have cried because the ending was so sad. I would not have understood why Gon had to die at the end. I am a fan of happy endings and this story, in my opinion, did not have a happy ending just a life lesson.

The participants who were accustomed to happy ending stories as represented by Disney films, were unable to equate their culture of happy endings to the Japanese one of unhappy endings. They failed to accept that their viewpoint was not universally shared. Not only did the participants fail to accept stories with unhappy endings, but also they positioned their viewpoint absolutely right by condemning how the elephants were killed and presenting a better solution in Faithful Elephants. A following statement by a White female participant represents their feeling: “It made me angry that the zookeepers chose to starve the elephants to death. Inhumane!” These participants firmly believed that “there were ways they could have killed the elephants without having them suffer,” such as moving the elephants to a different city

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or killing them with a rifle. In reality, it was impossible to move the elephants from heavily bombed Tokyo even to a nearby city. It would probably have caused more chaos to the city by doing so. It was also impossible to use a rifle to kill the elephants because the Japanese Imperial Army confiscated all the weapons. In Gongitsune, the participants showed a similar pattern of offering a better solution with such a comment; “Hyoju should have handled his anger at Gon in the end, instead of just shooting him.” The participants’ reaction was caused by their lack of historical and cultural knowledge of Japan and fueled by prescriptive attitudes with a frequent use of “should have.” Besides being sad stories, the participants’ negative reaction was caused by their lack of empathy to the situation in which the main characters in both stories were placed. In both stories, the main characters were treated like those who lack good moral judgment. The following comments represent this point: “The zookeepers were acting foolishly and downright stupid!” (a White female), “I thought the zoo keepers were pretty heartless to ignore the obvious suffering of the elephants. Starvation is probably one of the most horrendous ways to tie because it is so prolonged” (a White female), and “I wanted to yell out at Hyoju, ‘No you don’t know what you are doing! You are judging Gon out of your anger instead of understanding his heart” (a White female), and “I feel pity for both Gon and Hyoju” (a White male). Building empathetic feelings toward the main characters did not occur among the participants because they felt that they were so superior morally that they would not choose to act like the characters did. Their firm stance of their own moral superiority seems to have prevented the participants from analyzing various emotions the main characters went through, such as disappointment, agony, anger, and dilemma. Without analyzing the emotions, only the actions taken by the main characters were focused, which made the zookeepers, Hyoju, and Gon two-dimensional rather than three-dimensional figures, thus created a far wider psychological distance between the participants and the characters. The participants’ negativity further originated from their own conceptualization of international children’s literature. To the participants, international children’s literature should be the ones that provide readers with cultural information. A White female quoted, “Although it was set in Japan, I see no part that stands out as vital knowledge about the Japanese culture,” while another White female wrote, “I didn’t really see the value in it regards to teaching students about a different culture. The purpose of the story to me was to make readers aware of the repercussions of war than focusing on the Japanese culture.” Another White female wrote, “I do not believe that this piece of literature taps into any cultural differences from other countries, or is even relatable to anyone. There are no

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parts of it that I feel are vital to the culture or history of Japan.” These comments illustrate the participants’ expectation that international children’s literature should present the information about exotic and profound cultural differences. The following comment manifests their desire to see cultural differences: “Gon gives a good picture of Japanese culture and life in a farming village. The conversation about marriage between Hyoju and his mother is a good example, as well as the funeral scene when all the women of the village are cooking and there is a procession. The harvest festival and the bonfire dance where also good examples of Japanese customs” (a White male). The pursuit of cultural differences, however, lead the participants to assume that other cultures do not or should not share themes deemed universal with such comments like, “I don’t think the story offered anything culturally different than another country would have in a time of war” (a White female) and “I found the story to be more of a generalized affect versus a specific cultural affect students could find parallels to” (a White female). The attitude that the stories should have focused on specific Japanese cultures rather than portraying universal themes suggests the participants’ understanding that there is nothing to learn from others with regard to universal themes because they are culturally neutral. The participants failed to acknowledge that other people deal with universal themes differently because of the cultural differences.

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The overall finding of the study described above is that aesthetic restriction occurred among the teacher candidates because of the unfamiliarity of the story lines (in particular, dealing with death), their inability to be empathetic toward the main characters, and their expectation of international children’s literature. Most importantly, the teacher candidates’ ethnocentric monoculturalism seems to be the direct cause of aesthetic restriction. Deeply alarmed with aesthetic restriction manifested by our teacher candidates and determined to deepen, refine, and enrich their initial interpretations, we ventured on to teach a class using the same children’s stories from Japan, in a small group setting. Our intention was to provide our teacher candidates with the opportunities to discuss their interpretations with peers first and then guide them to the deeper level of interpretations so that they would clarify their misinterpretations. We took Gee’s (2000) advice to heart who stated that in order to build the “right” types of situated meanings, experiences must be scaffolded by a more capable other from within the Discourse. We hoped that carefully guided dialogue

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would move our teacher candidates “beyond the personal and interrogate the ways in which sociopolitical systems and power relationships have shaped their perceptions and responses” (Rice, 2005, p. 357). Teacher Candidate Focus Group Seminar Our goal in the focus group was to provide exposure to a learning community where teacher candidates were able to gain some insight into the greater global community. Realizing that this process would involve more than the “out there” reality typical of many classrooms, we hoped to move the teacher candidates toward the reality that “truth is not a statement about reality, but a living relationship between ourselves and the world” (Palmer, 1966, p. 35). To do this, we focused on asking questions that opened the candidates to possibilities. The questions posed were “true [pedagogical] questions” (Bingham, 2005), creating space where we were genuinely searching for information from the teacher candidates. We wanted to break open issues, allowing teacher candidates to gain insight into themselves and their taken-for-granteds, international children’s literature and using it in the classroom, and an expanded view of the world. As a result, three distinct themes emerged in the focus group discussion. These three themes were linked to shifts in teacher candidate thinking. The first related to intentionality of teacher candidates thinking about themselves, their own culture, and other cultures. The second shift occurred through a discussion related to parent perceptions and input, causing reflection on teacher candidate’s comfort zones and responsibilities as teachers. The third shift came during the dialogue about introducing cultural differences. Each shift occurred following a true pedagogical question and the evolving discussion.

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Intentionality The first shift in teacher candidate thinking occurred well into the focus group discussion. After teacher candidates had expressed their concerns about using either one of the stories with young children in a classroom setting, a thinking question (Rock, 2006) was posed. Thinking questions allow individuals to recognize their own thinking and allow them to think more clearly about an issue. Dr. Amos:

So, this is actually a Japanese compulsory curriculum. Everybody has to use it. If you go to Japan, I think it’s spe-

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Amber:

cific to second grade or even first grade. It’s a requirement. So what do you think about that? (Pseudonyms replace all teacher candidate names) It’s so much a part of their culture. What happened there and how devastating it was and what I took away from the end of it was we don’t ever want to have war again. So maybe the thought process is we’re going to make sure this never happens—we’re going to instill it at a young age, so I’m okay with that I guess.

Dr. Amos follows up with a clarifying question for Amber, wanting to know if she is saying that it’s okay in Japan.

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Amber:

James:

Dr. Amos: James: Amber: Tina:

No, again. Depending on my classroom, the setting. I think if you—if this is something they’ve always done and it’s effective and it’s well received, I understand. I like this story. I would use this story again in some—I don’t know what grade … I think it’s OK that they’re doing it. I was just going to say, continuing from that—I just think it’s just the fundamental difference between America and Japan—and America, anywhere really, is all of our stories are used for the younger kids are happily ever after. Everything has been Americanized, really to fit with our—everything has to be positive and end up in a positive light. And we don’t really share things that are dark or sad. Why don’t you? It’s just the way it is. It’s— It’s not socially acceptable. … we have a lot of societal problems. And I wonder if maybe it’s because we’re always presenting – it’s always good to be good and happy and life is not like that … and a story like this is maybe one way to [give them fortitude in a safe way] so that they have strength.

Here we see that through the true question posed, the thinking of the teacher candidates expanded. They were no longer thinking that the story of the Faithful Elephants was inappropriate for young students just because it was a sad story. They had shifted their thinking based on the information that it was used with first and second graders in Japan and considering why the story was appropriate in that culture. As a result, teacher candidates began to see the value of the story for all students and called into question the notion that only “happily ever after stories” were acceptable for children.

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Center (2005) notes that an encounter with multiethnic literature often leaves readers searching for meaning due to a lack of tools to navigate the transaction. When readers are able to put aside their taken-for-granted understandings they are better able to be open to new perspectives. Center (2005) goes on to state, “an inadequate pedagogy [of multiethnic literature] results in disengaged or unproductive student response to multiethnic texts” (p. 226) and has developed a list o possible student responses: • dominant-class students who defend what “we” do as the best and only way to do things, resisting critiques of their own culture and privileges; • students from economic and cultural minorities who are silenced as White, middle, and upper class students dominate class discussions • students looking at cultural differences as a “spectacle, a diverting exotic side show (Wong) of incomprehensible “others”; • students being reinforced in their stereotypes of cultural outsiders as the barbaric “they” who eat monkey (or whatever) while “we” eat hamburgers; • students taking up a position of neutrality that avoids engagement with the text, seemingly saying, “Things like that happen in those countries. It doesn’t have anything to do with me. I have no opinion (Mehta & Ramaya, 2001, p. 14); and • students whose culture matches the culture of the texts, but who read them as “the same old same old, more gestures of White liberal guilt or futile reminders of what might have been had not this or this or this happened” (Brodkey, 1996, p. 194).

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Although we did not see all of these responses in the teacher candidate focus group, we did observe the struggle with meaning and a shift in willingness to consider a broader perspective when some cultural evidence was introduced. In order for these teacher candidates to have the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to engage their future students with multiethnic, international children’s literature, they need to experience meaningful engagement with it themselves. They need a personal understanding of different perspectives. They need to face differences and call into question their own taken-for-granteds. Comfort Zones and Teacher Responsibilities As the focus group discussion continued, another true question was posed. This question related to a comment Randi had made about par-

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ents being critical of teachers, parent-teacher conferences, and communication with parents. Dr. Finke:

Randi:

Amber:

Randi? I think you mentioned parents being upset and going to the school about issues. Do you think using a book like Poor Elephants—a story like that might get some flack from parents? Or, anyone, not just Randi. … I don’t have children, but I would not complain about this story if my hypothetical child’s teacher read it to them —even at a young age. But I know people who would complain. Don’t you think if you educate your parents and you’re communicating with them and your saying, “Hey! We’re doing this—this unit on World War II and we’re going to be reading a story—even make it available so they can discuss it at home—that it might bring value or if there’s a parent really opposed, they can pull their child out and you can still move forward with it? Yes … maybe … sure. … I don’t think that you should compromise your curriculum for one student because parents have that sort of belief, we have private schools if they don’t want free and public education they can pull their child out, you know, that’s my personal belief. I think that’s a slippery slope because if you give them the opportunity to say, “We’re going to do this,” and you want your student out, how much time are you going to allow a student to be out of the classroom and missing out on learning opportunities and there’s that child that gets taken out for this and that child that gets taken out for that. If every parent was going to object to one certain thing you did, all your kids will be everywhere all the time. I don’t think you tell them they don’t have to go, but you laid it out there so if the parent has an issue, they should come and communicate with you. And you guys problemsolve each situation. I mean, you’re supposed to be there for parents and kids to make sure the kids are getting their education. So if they say, “I’m really opposed to this” and most kids will talk their parents into going because they want to go with the group. So, when you’re thinking about children’s literature that you’re going to use in your classroom, is the issue of parent concerns a part of your thinking?

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Group: Randi:

James:

Amber:

Dr. Finke:

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James:

Amber: Tina: Dawn:

I think it’s really important to be aware of why you want that book in your classroom and to be able to support your decision with what’ beneficial for the student learning— and to be able to explain that to the parent—and even, at that point, if they still don’t agree then at least you’ve presented the argument. … So, I don’t foresee parents’ concerns being a huge, huge obstacle. It could be intimidating … But I don’t think necessarily, to go back to your question, what parents’ think should dictate what you do in the classroom.

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Here we see the shift from catering to parent opinions to having a strong rational for selecting the children’s literature used in the classroom and presenting that to parents. The conversation continues with an example of an accommodation for a student with religious beliefs that impact participation in holiday celebrations. Another idea emerges. Randi:

So, I think for the most part, it’s more of what the kids bring home, so in that case if you are going to [use] something that could perhaps be controversial like Nappy Hair, you need to have an articulated response that you are ready to say, “This is why I used this material. This is what I was trying to get across to the students and this is how it meets the [standards].

The conversation continues with some discussion about whether or not to use literature that is not liked or enjoyed by the teacher. The response highlights the change in thinking about the teacher’s comfort zone and responsibilities. Dr. Amos:

Dawn:

Dr. Amos:

What about children’s literature from other countries such as these or others which you may not have a proper background knowledge to completely understand—would you still use it? I think it’s your responsibility as a teacher to understand it. I think if you don’t grasp the concept, how are you going to teach it to your kids? So, it’s your responsibility to go Google it, you’ll probably find it—you know—and to understand … Could you tell us more about how you would try to understand?

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Amber: Tina: Dr. Amos: Tina:

I could research the heck out of it … … I think there are some things that are lost in translation … you’re not a part of that culture. So, what would you do? … I would hope that I would at least be cognitive of not knowing and then trying to find out.

Bieger (1995) asserts, “when children are left on their own, they generally choose literature that is familiar and that reflects their own interests and culture” (p. 309). It is clear then, that teachers have the responsibility to expose students to a variety of international children’s literature in order to promote recognition and acceptance of cultural differences, respect for otherness, and an openness to move away from islands of understanding that tend to create hostility. Unfortunately, much education that is currently deemed multicultural in today’s classrooms maintains a superficial view of diversity, focusing on food, holidays, and clothing. Providing teacher candidates with opportunities to engage in dialogue around international children’s literature will allow them to gain insight into the possibilities that exist for introducing their students to these stories and preparing them to be productive participants in a global society.

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Cultural Differences

The third shift in teacher candidate thinking came as a result of a true pedagogical question posed. This question related to what the reader brings to the understanding of a piece of international literature. The teacher candidates shifted from thinking about the stories from their personal perspectives, to consider the author’s/culture’s perspective and the impact that might have in their future classrooms. Dr. Amos:

Amber:

Have you ever thought about reading something from overseas or children’s literature or any novel from overseas written by people overseas? How do you try to interpret a story to understand? Have you ever thought about the fact that your interpretation is always reflective of the way you are raised? So how do you negotiate those differences? I think you acknowledge that. So, when you’re doing the reading, you might say, “This is my interpretation” which doesn’t make it right or wrong, but you need to be open and be aware of the other interpretations out there per se.

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Dawn:

Dr. Amos:

Or, what the writer’s interpretation was when he wrote it or she wrote it. I think it’s okay to have different interpretations. I think it’s fine to read a story—that your classroom and maybe every kid takes the story differently and interprets it differently, but I think that’s okay. And I think, you know, I think the only story that I know of that I’ve read from overseas was like Harry Potter. So it’s not, you know—that different. So Dawn, for everyone, too. I’m very curious. You said some interesting things so it’s okay to have different interpretations because everyone has a different background. I agree with that, but what about a book’s authenticity. A book is coming from overseas from Iran, or Africa— Kenya, or wherever. They have their authentic viewpoint about the story. If you allow yourself and your children to have their own interpretations, what’s going to happen to the book’s authenticity? Well, I think it’s important to maybe facilitate the understanding and like Amber was saying research it and maybe understand like this is my interpretation of it … maybe you could read about the background of the author and see where they’re coming from in order to see how their experiences have shaped this story and then you can maybe try to tell a story about the author to your students so they can see. And what author wouldn’t be honored that there was a discussion facilitated and different points of views and everybody listened and heard each other and the author’s point of view was in there too and it is discussed.

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Dawn:

Angie:

The discussion continues with some dialogue concerning individual perspectives. A shift is seen in considering authenticity. Randi:

We’re talking about our own personal lenses and what’s authentic. That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important to read a story like Poor Elephants in your classroom because if your students and even your own personal perspective is this big—by introducing multicultural books, books that are written from other viewpoints, you’re only widening the perspective. So you’re giving your students an opportunity … You’re giving them something they might not be getting at home.

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Dr. Amos: Amber:

But didn’t you, most of you said that even if there’s a book that is controversial, you wouldn’t use it at the elementary level? Yes, I did, but I don’t want to seem wishy-washy—but there’s a potential I might expose my younger kids to it. Through discussion and listening to different points of view, it opened my lens.… So we discuss it, I could see potential where it might be just like you said, exposure— and it doesn’t go deep and then it’s addressed later on. It’s repetitious and each time it’s a different aspect or deeper, so it’s kind of like the onion effect with them potentially.

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The conversation in the focus group led these teacher candidates to a place where they were able to consider the potential for their future students. They moved from researching the cultural perspective to gain some understanding of the story, to a willingness to introduce their future students to different perspectives by exposing them to international literature. They moved from a place of hinting at differences to explicitly addressing differences. Rather than looking at the stories superficially, or from the dominant cultural perspective, they have an openness to investigate and share the perspective of other. Thus, the teacher candidates were able to consider reading international literature “to include not only individual responses but cultural and social perspectives, as well” (Jewett, 2007, p. 153). International stories have great potential to provide teachers and students with global cultural awareness. Our knowledge and beliefs can be “greatly enhanced by exploring the richly authentic multicultural literature for children” (Mathis, 2001, p. 155). When students get to know cultures through story, they have the opportunity to develop a sensitive, respectful, and inquiring perspective of that culture. CONCLUSIONS: APPLICATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS TO TEACHER EDUCATION Reading international children’s literature is commendable, but it is the reflective interpretations of the teachers that make the materials truly global and oriented in social justice. Merely introducing international children’s literature does not mean that the authenticity of the book, in other words, culturally framed interpretations of the story will be delivered. We need a pedagogy that considers how students read culturally unfamiliar texts and how teachers can assist them in their authentic reading. Without such a pedagogy, as Harris (1997) describes, we import dif-

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ference into the classroom without figuring out how to help students to articulate or negotiate the differences that these texts bring to their attention. In doing so, Center (2005) adds that we expose students to global cultures but “without a sense of how to make a real connection to these readings” (p. 226). Our teacher candidates were able to deeply reflect upon their own taken-for-granted perceptions, face their fears upfront, and make a real connection to the cultural differences because of the pedagogical approach we took in which we carefully and strategically guided and molded their ways of thinking. In this sense, it can be said how much openness teacher candidates demonstrate and how much understanding they acquire toward global education and social justice depends on the pedagogical skills teacher educators hold. Therefore, it is critical that teacher educators themselves reflect upon, be constructively challenged regarding their own ways of thinking in relation to globalism and social justice, and commit to their own growth in disrupting ethnocentric monoculturalism.

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The Summary of Faithful Elephants

When Tokyo was showered with bombs during the bleak last days of World War II, the authorities feared that if the zoo were destroyed, the animals might accidentally be freed and wreak havoc on the city. So they decided that all the zoo animals would be killed. But the elephants wouldn't eat the poisonous food they were offered, and the needles in the syringes containing poison broke before they could penetrate the elephants' rough skin. So the elephants were starved to death, a slow and painful process watched by the zookeepers who loved them. The Summary of Gongitsune Gon is a little fox. Looking for food he comes to a little village where he repeatedly steals food and creates other mischief, constantly evading the angry villagers. One day Gon steals an eel in front of Hyoju, which Hyoju wanted to give to his sick old mother. His mother subsequently dies. Gon realizes his mistake and tries to make it up by secretly giving Hyoju gifts he stole, although the villagers now accuse Hyoju of stealing and beat him up. Afterwards, Gon only gives mushrooms and nuts he collected in the forest. Hyoju is grateful for the gifts, although he does not know where they come from. One day, Hyoju sees the fox sneaking around, and shoots

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him to death out of anger about the death of his mother. Only afterwards does he realize to his horror that the fox he just shot gave him all the mushrooms and nuts. REFERENCES Banks, J. A. (2001). Cultural diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Beiger, E. (1995). Promoting multicultural education through a literature-based approach. The Reading Teacher, 49(4), 308–312. Bennett, C. (2010). Comprehensive multicultural education (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon. Bingham, C. (2005). The hermeneutics of educational questioning. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 37(4), 553–565. Boyd, F. B. (2002). Conditions, concessions, and the many tender mercies of learning through multicultural literature. Reading Research and Instruction, 42(1), 58–92. Brindley, R., & Laframboise, K. L. (2002). The need to do more: Promoting multiple perspectives in preservice teacher education through children’s literature. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(4), 405–420. Brodkey, L. (1996). Writing permitted in designated areas only. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Center, C. (2005). “Desperately looking for meaning”: Reading multiethnic texts. MELUS, 30(2), 225–241 Colby, S. A., & Lyon, A. F. (2004). Heightening awareness about the importance of using multicultural literature. Multicultural Education, 11(3), 24–28. Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2000). Aversive racism and selective decisions: 1989 and 1999. Psychological Science, 11, 315–319. Eidelson, R. J., & Eidelson, J. I. (2003). Dangerous ideas: Five beliefs that propel groups toward conflict. American Psychologist, 58, 182–192. Freeman, E. B., & Lehman, B. A. (2001). Global perspectives in children’s literature. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Gee, J. P. (2000). Discourse and sociocultural studies in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook on reading research, (Vol. III, pp. 195–207). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Glesne, C. (2006). Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education. Hadaway, N., & McKenna, M. (Eds.). (2007). Breaking boundaries with global literature: Celebrating diversity in K–12 classrooms. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Harris, J. (1997). A teaching subject. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Jewett, P. (2007). Reading knee-deep. Reading Psychology, 28, 149–162. Laframboise, K. L., & Griffith, P. L. (1997). Using literature cases to examine diversity issues with preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(4), 369–382.

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140 Y. TAKIMOTO AMOS and J. A. FINKE Mathis, J. (2001, July/August). Respond to stories with stories: Teachers discuss multicultural children’s literature. The Social Studies, 155–160. Mehta, L., & Ramaya, S. (2001). Third world blues. The Leaflet, 100(1), 12–18. Merryfield, M. (1994). Teacher education in global and international education. Washington, DC: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. Nathenson-Mejia, S., & Escamilla, K. (2003). Connecting with Latino children: Bridging cultural gaps with children’s literature. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(1), 101–116. Palmer, P. (1966). To know as we are known: A spirituality of education. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. Price, S. (2001). Cartoons from another planet: Japanese animation as cross-cultural communication. Journal of American and Comparative Culture, 103–153. Ragsdale, K. (2006). Ethnocentrism. In Y. Jackson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of multicultural psychology (pp. 204–206). Thousands Oaks, CA: SAGE. Rice, P. S. (2005). It “ain’t” always so: Sixth graders’ interpretations of Hispanic American stories with universal themes. Children’s Literature in Education, 36(4), 343–362. Rock, D. (2006).  Quiet leadership: Six steps to transforming performance at work. New York, NY: Harper. Sorter, A. O. (1997). Reading literature of other cultures: Some issues in critical interpretation. In T. Rogers & A. O. Sorter (Eds.), Reading across cultures: Teaching literature in a diverse society (pp. 213–229). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Sue, D. W. (2001). Multidimensionall facets of cultural competence. The Counseling Psychologist, 29, 790–821. Sue, D. W. (2004). Whiteness and ethnocentric monoculturalism: Making the “invisible” visible. American Psychologist, 761–769. Taylor, J. F. (2006). Ethnocentric monoculturalism. In Y. Jackson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of multicultural psychology (pp. 203–204). Thousands Oaks, CA: SAGE. Thomas, A. R. (2010). But we don’t have any students like that here: Incorporating international children’s literature in a middle school language arts class. American Reading Online Yearbook XXX. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http:// americanreadingforum.org/yearbook/10_yearbook/documents/ARF_ Thomas-Vanilla_Copy.pdf

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CHAPTER 8

DATA, MAPS, AND CRITICAL THINKING

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Exploring Global Issues Through Student-Created Cartograms P. W. MORAN

Peter William Moran

This chapter discusses the use of student-created cartograms in a preservice elementary social studies methods course. A cartogram is a unique type of thematic map designed to graphically illustrate a particular set of statistical data in a manner that changes the scale of the map. These are value-by-area maps, where the geographic regions are enlarged or reduced in proportion to the data values within each region. Approximate geographic locations and spatial relationships of regions are preserved as much as possible; however the map is deliberately distorted in order to accent differences in the statistical distribution of a single element of data. In this project, preservice teachers researched global issues, located data sets germane to the topics they had selected, and produced hand-drawn cartograms that captured the statistical data in map form. The production of a cartogram involves critical thinking, creative problem solving, and spatial reasoning such that the completed cartogram looks like a map albeit one that has obvious distortions because of the differences in the statistical information from one region to the next. After having completed their cartograms, students then engaged

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in further research to discover underlying causes and effects of the statistical differences represented in their cartograms.

INTRODUCTION In recent decades, it has become commonplace for people to say that “the world is flat” or “the world is getting smaller,” implying that the world is densely interconnected and that developments in other parts of the globe have implications for other places to a degree that was not previously true (Friedman, 2005). In education circles, the response has been some momentum in recent decades to ensure that students in the United States are prepared to be global citizens. This push toward a more global education clearly places some pressure on teacher preparation programs to develop an ethos among preservice teachers to think beyond their own unique setting and consider the larger context of global issues (Beste, 2001; Bigelow & Peterson, 2002; Merryfield & Wilson, 2005; National Council on Economic Education, 2008). In order to accomplish that important goal, it is incumbent upon teacher preparation programs to provide preservice teachers with opportunities to explore global issues, deepen their reservoir of knowledge related to global concerns, and think critically about those issues. The activity discussed in this chapter is one example of a strategy for engaging preservice teachers in analyzing the complexity of global issues while also promoting critical thinking and creative problem solving (Finkle & Thorpe, 1997; Halvorson & Wescoat, 2007; Hindle, 1993; International Institute for Environment and Development, 2006; Klein, 1995). In short, the project requires preservice teachers to apply critical and higher order thinking in the creation, interpretation and analysis of cartograms (Wood, 1992). By engaging students in data analysis, synthesizing and manipulating statistical information, spatial reasoning, making inferences, drawing conclusions, and focused research, this cartograms project requires students to draw upon higher order thinking skills (Shepard & Cosgriff, 1998). Moreover, the project advances learning in multiple content areas by integrating mathematics, information literacy, geography and the sciences in the exploration of global issues. The cartograms project discussed in this chapter was implemented in different sections of an elementary social studies methods course at the university level. The examples included in the chapter come from different students in different sections of the course over a period of a few years. For each of the examples discussed below, individual students or students working in pairs were tasked with determining a global issue that they were interested in exploring and locating statistical data sets related

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to their topic using the Internet. The student cartograms were produced using the graph paper technique described below, and students engaged in focused research in order to explain the causes and effects of the phenomena illustrated in their cartograms. Cartograms in the Classroom A cartogram is a unique type of thematic map designed to graphically illustrate a particular set of statistical data in a manner that changes the scale of the map. These are value-by-area maps, where the geographic regions are enlarged or reduced in proportion to the data values within each region. Approximate geographic locations and spatial relationships of regions are preserved as much as possible; however the map is deliberately distorted in order to accent differences in the statistical distribution of a single element of data, such as population, from one region to the next. The first cartograms appeared in the 1920s and 1930s. In the United States, some of the earliest cartograms were a series of maps illustrating regional differences in population, distribution of wealth, manufacturing activity, mineral deposits, and oil production (Raisz, 1934). Among the more common contemporary examples of cartograms are those depicting world population by country. In world population cartograms, a nation that is relatively small in terms of geographic area yet heavily populated, such as Bangladesh, is represented as several times larger than its typical scale on a standard area projection. Conversely, Canada and Australia, for examples, shrink several fold in comparison to a typical geographic area scale projection (WorldMapper, n.d.). The term cartogram may not be entirely familiar to some preservice teachers, but they have undoubtedly seen these data driven maps in newspapers, popular news magazines and social studies books. These texts frequently feature cartograms because these maps are so effective in visually representing data sets for important social, economic, and political phenomena. Preservice teachers have likely had some experience in interpreting these types of maps, but typically their experience with cartograms has focused on basic level comprehension and rudimentary analysis. For example, it is likely that preservice teachers have used cartograms to identify countries that are larger or smaller than they appear in a common Mercator or Robinson projection because of the scaling distortions produced by the manipulation of the data set. Of course, there is value in students engaging in basic interpretation with these types of maps, however, such an approach neglects the rich—and often complex— understandings that such maps convey. The greater meaning and significance from working with these maps is derived from analyzing their con-

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text and making connections beyond simply the visually represented data. In other words, cartograms present opportunities for preservice teachers to undertake more rigorous analysis and synthesis in working with these maps, and in doing so, can gain deeper understanding of complex global issues. Creating Cartograms Creating cartograms as a classroom activity can be a thoroughly engaging and challenging exercise, and a valuable experience in terms of data analysis, spatial reasoning, critical thinking and creative problem solving. Cartograms begin with a data set, a map, and graph paper. Looking at the data, one has to make decisions regarding what an appropriate scale might be in order to capture the information on the graph paper. In other words, one has to think about how many squares on the graph paper will equal a particular value in the data set. Once the preservice teacher determines the scale he/she will use, the data is translated from the actual values into the number of grid squares that will represent the country, state or region on the cartogram. With the data translated into grid squares, the creation of the cartogram becomes a matter of systematically counting squares and penciling in the borders for each country, state or region included in the cartogram. Of course, the completed cartogram should, as much as possible, honor the shapes and spatial orientations of the countries included, as well as depict the spatial relationships between geographic regions. Essentially, it should look like a map, albeit one with numerous and often profound distortions. Each cartogram included in this chapter was produced using the graph paper method. Although it is a time consuming process involving a great deal of trial and error sketching and erasing of borders as well as counting of grid squares, the creation of a cartogram provides the valuable exercise in spatial reasoning and problem solving. Different data sets can present unusual challenges in terms of organizing the cartogram such that, in the end, it looks like a map with proper spatial relationships. Reasoning and creative problem solving are inherent in creating a cartogram by hand, and the process is quite illuminating for preservice teachers, particularly with respect to the spatial and organizational demands of the project.

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Analyzing Cartograms As described earlier, preservice teachers typically use cartograms to identify particular features of the map or to recognize change over time. For

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instance, when viewing a world population cartogram—because the scale has been altered to reflect population—a preservice teacher will typically focus on identifying countries that are represented as larger or smaller in size than they appear in a typical Robinson or Mercator projection map, or on the globe. While it is important to acknowledge a preservice teacher’s concrete knowledge of country identification, this basic level of knowledge would hardly be considered a matter of critical thinking in Bloom’s taxonomy. Such a practice fails to connect the data set represented to the far more important larger context of causation and the factors that produced the differences in statistical distribution, which are represented in the map. In short, students only engage critically when they use cartograms to look beyond the concrete data incorporated in the map and instead examine the richer and more nuanced understandings of how the phenomena depicted in the map came to be. The cartograms in Figures 8.1–8.3 are examples of what can be discovered by engaging in more focused research, analysis and interpretation.

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HIV/AIDS Prevalence

Drawing on data from the World Health Organization and the United Nations, the first cartogram visually captures the dimensions of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic around the world (United Nations, 2014; World Health Organization, 2014). Sarah, the preservice teacher who produced this cartogram, was inspired to focus on this issue because of her interest in the state of health care globally. By looking at HIV/AIDS prevalence by country she hoped to gain some insight into those parts of the world most dramatically impacted by the epidemic and the consequences that HIV/AIDS had for individuals and the broader society in those countries. It is readily apparent in examining Sarah’s cartogram that populations in sub-Saharan Africa suffer far more than neighboring regions. This initial observation is significant but it does not necessarily lead to thinking about the far more consequential social, cultural, economic, political and demographic factors that coalesced to produce this catastrophe (AVERT, 2014). For the research element of her project, Sarah chose to focus on exploring the impact of HIV/AIDS on sub-Saharan Africa and the devastating toll of the epidemic for that region. She found that since the beginning of the epidemic in the 1980s, more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS and more than 10 million children have lost at least one parent to AIDS. In countries particularly hard hit by HIV/AIDS, more than one in five adults is HIV positive, and life expectancy has fallen accordingly. Several sub-Saharan countries now report life expectancies of less than 40 years, in Swaziland it stands at 33 years. Furthermore, she

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Figure 8.1. Rice cartograms.

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Figure 8.1. Rice cartograms (continued).

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Figure 8.2. Military spending cartograms.

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Figure 8.3. HIV cartogram.

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found that providing rudimentary health care and social services for families affected by HIV/AIDS has diverted billions of dollars from other pressing needs in these developing countries. Still further, Sarah argued that the epidemic has been especially devastating among young adults in the prime of their economically productive years, which led to other important insights. She concluded that across southern Africa, AIDS related worker absenteeism and deaths, health care expenses, training and recruitment expenses have cost countries billions in lost economic productivity and have erased many of the development gains made in those economies. None of these observations are readily apparent in the cartogram, but through critical analysis and synthesis of her research Sarah gained a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of the staggering toll of the epidemic in human terms as well as social and economic costs.

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Military Spending

The second cartogram, depicting annual military spending by country, lends itself to a similar analysis. The data represented in the cartogram are drawn from official budgets or are estimates from policy analysts since 2000 (GlobalSecurity, 2014). Several interesting points are discernible in the basic interpretation of the cartogram. Most obviously, it is readily apparent that the United States spends several times more on the military than any other country; indeed, the cartogram illustrates that the United States spends roughly as much as the rest of the world combined. Beyond that observation, some analysis of the cartogram reveals other noteworthy inferences. Matthew, the student who produced this cartogram, first noted legacies of the Cold War. He concluded that the massive military spending that characterized the post-World War II period in the United States, western Europe, and the former Soviet Union largely persists today, more than twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. In searching for a deeper explanation of this phenomenon, Matthew argued that it is challenging to curtail military spending once a nation has committed billions to building up and maintaining a large army, navy, and air force, and investing heavily in the research and development of technologically advanced weapons systems, such as nuclear weapons, missile systems, nuclear submarines, and so forth. Moreover, the process of curtailing this spending is complicated further by the fact that the livelihoods of millions of workers and hundreds of communities are dependent, either directly or indirectly, on military spending. Such an observation, he maintained, brings to mind the controversy surrounding military base closures in the 1990s. In attempt-

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ing to understand the military spending in the United States, the preservice teacher explored further the global presence and influence of particular countries, again as a legacy of the Cold War. He found that the levels of military spending in the United States have much to do with the “footprint” of the United States’s military around the world. The United States maintains more than 700 military bases and other installations in more than 50 countries worldwide. Matthew concluded that the expense of maintaining and supplying a military presence that dots the globe is extraordinary, and expenditures of that nature are borne by only a few countries, the clearest example being the United States (Johnson, 2000, 2004). Beyond his research related largely to the United States, Matthew also connected military spending to other geopolitical situations around the world. He maintained that there were several examples on the cartogram of nations that invested relatively heavily in military spending because of hostile or potentially hostile neighboring countries. He argued that South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, India, Israel, and Saudi Arabia are among those where the presence of hostile neighboring countries explains higher levels of military spending. Finally, Matthew turned his attention to Africa. He conceded that, given the number of low-intensity civil wars and other armed conflicts that occur in Africa, he was surprised that military spending is comparatively very low. This insight shed light on two additional observations: first, these are conflicts fought with relatively inexpensive light arms, and, second, these are developing nations which are extremely poor in comparison to other parts of the world. In the end, the preservice teacher concluded that, perhaps as much as anything else, this cartogram is illustrative of development. Matthew argued that although fully developed, technologically advanced, wealthy countries, such as the United States, have the resources to devote billions to military spending while still providing extensive public and social services to the general population, this is not the case in the developing world. Although some developing countries commit proportionately more of their annual budgets to the military as opposed to providing public services or social welfare programs, the total amount of any of these commitments is paltry in comparison to the developed world.

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Rice Production 1970 and 2010 The final pair of cartograms, which capture changes in rice production over the past forty years, were created by two students, Amy and Katie, who were interested in the issue of hunger. They decided that looking more closely at grain production might be a useful avenue for analyzing

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hunger, and used the same scale in the production of both maps in order to facilitate simple comparisons between the two cartograms. In looking at these two maps, the most obvious observation that can be made is that rice is the essential crop produced in Asia and is much more central to the economies of Asian countries than is true for much of the rest of the world. That conclusion is true regardless of whether one is analyzing either the 1970 or the 2010 cartogram, and the preservice teachers correctly surmised that rice is the foundation of the diet for billions of Asians. Moreover, it is clear in comparing the two cartograms that rice production has increased markedly over the last 4 decades, particularly in south and east Asia. Production more than doubled in several countries, and increased more than threefold in Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Indeed, the dramatic increases in rice production are arguably the most significant observations that can be made in comparing the two cartograms. However, further analysis and research on the part of the preservice teachers revealed the profound impact of the Green Revolution on Asian rice production. Through their research, Amy and Katie found that since the late 1960s, the scientific breakthroughs associated with development of hybridized seed varieties in order to increase yields; coupled with the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as more sophisticated systems of irrigation have transformed agricultural productivity for several staples, including rice. Collectively, these innovations have been termed the “Green Revolution,” and the widespread adoption of these methods and seed varieties across Asia, in large measure, accounts for the phenomenal increases in rice production. Amy found that, with respect to rice production, the establishment of the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines in the late 1960s led to the development of IR8, the most successful and widely cultivated hybrid seed variety. Under optimal conditions, research demonstrated that IR8 could potentially produce as much ten times more rice per plant than standard varieties. The increases in yield that resulted from widespread adoption of hybridized seeds and Green Revolution farming practices have saved millions from starvation, and have transformed nations, such as India, into major exporters of rice. Having discovered some of the impact of the Green Revolution in Asia, Katie’s research focused on other parts of the world. In particular, she focused on Africa and found that the hybrid seed varieties and production practices, which were implemented with so much success in Asia, had been considerably less successful on the continent of Africa. Katie assumed, not unreasonably, that the introduction of Green Revolution innovations would have been applied more widely across Africa and that food security issues would be a lesser problem than was true in previous decades. This assumption seems particularly valid when one considers the

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chronic food shortages and famine that periodically plague parts of Africa. However, in comparing the two cartograms, it is clear that there have been rather limited increases in rice production in Africa over the past forty years. Katie’s research indicated that, despite much experimentation and investment from within and abroad, increasing rice production in Africa has been problematic due to the availability of water and lack of irrigation infrastructure, soil differences, as well as governmental corruption and inefficiency, and domestic political instability in several rice producing countries. Collectively, she maintained these factors have stymied efforts to expand rice production for large swaths of the continent, and production remains largely confined to the traditional rice growing region of West Africa—the “Rice Coast”—as well as Madagascar, Egypt and, more recently, Mali. Finally, in analyzing the increases in rice production, these two students briefly explored the pros and cons of the Green Revolution. On one hand, they discovered that the plant scientist generally recognized as the father of the Green Revolution, Norman Borlaug, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and honored with numerous other awards for his work in increasing staples production and, by extension, preventing famine in the developing world. On the other hand, Amy and Katie acknowledged the counterarguments that those increases in crop yields have come with steep environmental costs and that food security remains a persistent problem in much of the developing world because the increased production of cereals has led to changes in agricultural economies which have made food systems less efficient. They recognized that cereals, which previously were produced in subsistence agricultural systems to meet the needs of people, are now used to feed livestock.

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All maps are interesting and telling in their own respects (Wood, 1992). Some, however, can inform more than others, and some, such as cartograms, have tremendous potential to capture the essence of important social, political, economic and cultural phenomena. Having preservice teachers engage in basic interpretation and comprehension of various types of maps and diagrams is indeed a valuable exercise and certainly contributes to building a more global outlook among students. Such learning, however, is rather superficial and does not necessarily inspire students to investigate further in order to understand the complexity of global issues. Cartograms provide unique opportunities to probe more deeply and make more substantive connections to the geographic information presented. Cartograms lend themselves to serious analysis in

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terms of causation and exploring the social, economic, political, cultural and demographic factors that produced what is represented in the map. Moreover, engaging students in the creation of these types of maps can be a simultaneously stimulating and challenging experience with respect to problem solving, data analysis and creative thinking. Finally, the educational value inherent in the creation and in-depth analysis of cartograms is compounded when one considers the manner in which those activities complement the learning occurring in mathematics, science and other content areas. Cartograms have been staples of social studies instruction for decades. By planning strategically for preservice teachers to create and analyze these maps, it is possible to maximize their critical thinking, deepen their understanding of important global issues, and to make explicit some of the more profound connections and context that are captured in cartograms.

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AVERT. (2014). AVERTing AIDS and HIV. Retrieved February 6, 2014, from http:/ /www.avert.org/ Beste, S. D. (2001). Going global: Teaching how nations interconnect. Culver City, CA: Social Studies School Service. Bigelow, B., & Peterson, B. (2002). Rethinking globalization: Teaching for justice in an unjust world. Milwaukee, WI: Rethinking Schools. Finkle, S. L., & Thorpe, L. T. (1997). Problems as possibilities: Transforming garbage into gold. In B. F. Jones, C. M. Rasmussen, & M. C. Moffitt (Eds.), Reallife problem-solving: A collaborative approach to interdisciplinary learning (pp. 192–207).Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. GlobalSecurity. (2014). Worldwide military expenditures–2011. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm Halvorson, S. J., & Wescoat, J. L. (2007). Problem-based inquiry on world water problems in large undergraduate classes. Journal of Geography, 101(3), 91–102. Hindle, B. P. (1993). The “project”: Putting student-controlled, small group work and transferable skills at the core of a geography course. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 17(1), 11–20. International Institute for Environment and Development. (2006). Mapping for change: Practice, technologies and communication. Retrieved from http:// pubs.iied.org/pdfs/14507IIED.pdf?#page=14 Johnson, C. (2000). Blowback: The costs and consequences of American empire. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Co. Johnson, C. (2004). The sorrows of empire: Militarism, secrecy and the end of the Republic. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.

Data, Maps, and Critical Thinking 155 Klein, P. (1995). Using inquiry to enhance the learning and appreciation of geography. Journal of Geography, 45(3), 358–367. Merryfield, M., & Wison, A. (2005). Social studies and the world: Teaching global perspectives. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. National Council on Economic Education. (2008). Focus globalization. New York, NY: National Council on Economic Education. Raisz, E. (1934). The rectangular statistical cartogram. Geographical Review, 24(2), 292–296. Shepard, A., & Cosgriff, B. (1998). Problem-based learning: A bridge between planning education and planning practice. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 17(4), 348–357. United Nations. (2014). UNAIDS, AIDS info, People living with HIV, all ages. Retrieved from http://www.unaids.org/en/dataanalysis/datatools/aidsinfo/ Wood, D. (1992). The power of maps. New York, NY: Guilford Press. World Health Organization. (2014). Global health observatory: Number of people (all ages) living with HIV. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/gho/hiv/ epidemic_status/cases_all/en/ WorldMapper. (n.d.). The site contains more than 600 cartograms covering dozens of different topics and regions of the world. Retrieved from http:// www.worldmapper.org/about.html

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CHAPTER 9

EARLY LESSONS IN AN INTRODUCTORY TECHNOLOGY COURSE

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The Evolution of Teacher Candidates’ Conceptualization of Social Justice D. SHULSKY AND J. M. WILLIS Debby Shulsky and Jana M. Willis

INTRODUCTION

While as educators we agree it is imperative future teachers use global education to foster social justice and global mindedness, scholars continue to struggle with a concrete definition of “social justice.” For teacher educators this term can be quite elusive, particularly as it translates to their classroom practices (Wade, 2007). Education preparation programs must be forums that guide preservice teachers as they develop their own repertoire of practices grounded in empathy and social democracy, that is, the ability to consider the “other” before “self.” Social justice education in teacher education is described by Cochran-Smith (2009) as “a coherent and intellectual approach to the preparation of teachers that acknowledges the social and political contexts in which teaching, learning, school-

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ing, and ideas about justice have been located historically” (p. 446). Understanding preservice teachers’ perspectives on issues of social justice education is important if we are to promote novel ways for teachers to engage in this field of study. This chapter will share the evolution of preservice teacher candidates’ conceptualization of social justice through a technology-infused activity embedded in an introductory technology course. THE IMPERATIVE OF SOCIAL JUSTICE IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD Technological advancements in communication, transportation, and production have guided the developing globalized world of this century. Borders between nations are becoming blurred as nations interact in the international marketplace at greater depths. The dominant focus of 21st century globalization have been directed from an economic perspective focused on profit, competition, and efficiency (Agbaria, 2009; Noddings, 2005; Pike, 2007). The “race to the marketplace” has started, requiring internationally minded producers and consumers to be ready to compete for economic success. As guided by this limited economic viewpoint the education of the next generation of world citizens may be driven by the: (1) development of entrepreneurial skills; (2) belief that learning is best assessed through strict measureable outcomes, and (3) pressures of international comparisons of achievement (Pike, 2007). As schools are political and social vehicles, the strong economic narrative of globalization presents a limited perspective by which to frame 21st century learning. Absent from this view is an emphasis on the human condition within the global context. As a result it becomes imperative for educators to include discourse that empowers learners to understand the interdependence and connectedness of the human condition, including critical analysis of economic injustice, access to human rights, and the treatment of the planet (Noddings, 2005). This notion moves beyond globalization as a predominately economic phenomenon and highlights the need to include social justice issues in the global narrative.

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Exploring the Concept of Social Justice Social Justice is a heady concept. Scholars in the field express the term in a myriad of ways. Historically the continuum of social justice definitions includes these descriptors: awareness, fairness, equity, equal opportunity, empowerment, advocacy, full participation, critical consciousness, and social change (Barry, 2005; Bell, 1997; Freire, 1970/1992; Goodlad,

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2002; Smith, 1994). Today these definitions continue to translate the concept of social justice within the modern day landscape. In the context of teacher education, the authors align with Wade’s (2007) articulation of social justice. She states, “Social justice is the process of working toward, and the condition of meeting everyone’s basic needs and fulfilling everyone’s potential to live productive and empowered lives as participating citizens of a global community” (p. 5). This definition aligns perfectly with the Association of American Educators code of ethics (Association of the American Educators, 2014). Both are grounded in the premise that all educators teach students to live the role as a citizen with a conscious awareness and the civic efficacy to make a difference within their lives, local, and global communities. In cultivating advocates for social justice within a globalized world, teacher education programs need to construct effective programs that uphold the concepts of social justice if teacher candidates are to transfer these ideas from the college classroom to the K–12 learning environment. With this as a goal for K–12 teachers, teacher educators must design learning experiences that challenge teaching candidates to look beyond the foreground of the world, and seek the underlying inequalities of society. This is only a first step. Once these inequities or opportunities of change are unearthed and considered, they must be actively changed. As a result, the new generation of teachers must be equipped to teach their students to see the inequalities of the world, question the status quo, and discover their sense of agency to initiate change (Greene, 1998). As such, teacher educators need to create learning environments that expose teaching candidates to experiences in social justice. These experiences must begin with very basic conversations about inequity, to initiate awareness of the harsh realities that exist among marginalized populations. In the early 1990s, Giroux (1992) argued for a pedagogy that would help teachers gain the capacity to teach for social justice:

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Learning to teach that is premised on a stance for social justice recognizes the importance of social justice pedagogy. This social justice pedagogy refers to a deliberate attempt to construct authentic conditions through which educators and students can think critically about what stands as knowledge, how knowledge is produced, and how knowledge is transformed by a particular relationship between the self, others, and the larger world. (p. 99)

The heart of the project discussed in this chapter was to initiate the development of dispositions through which teacher candidates could begin the journey from “me” to “other” with the goal to have the candidates advance along the continuum of social justice education.

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THE TECHNOLOGY COURSE This journey begins with an instructional technology course, one of the first classes taken during the program of study in a teacher education program at a small southeastern university. The candidate population at this university is upper level (junior/senior) candidates seeking initial teacher certification. The candidates are approximately 80.0% female and 20% male with ages ranging from 22–50 years of age. Their reported race/ethnicity indicated 63% White, 19% Hispanic, 3% Black/African American, and 2% Asian. Candidates enrolled in this course possess technology skills that range from inexperienced to competent, creating a need for tools and experiences that can be adapted to their various skill sets. The course provides candidates with the foundational technology skills and knowledge necessary to support their future pedagogical practices. Curriculum, content knowledge, and pedagogy are integral and interactive components, as is the dimension of technology, appropriately used to support and extend the efficacy of both curricular and pedagogical efforts (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). Technology coupled with the social justice framework kept the focus of the assignment under study on teaching social awareness and learning processes rather than one on mere technology skills acquisition. When content knowledge is paired with technology it can be used in various ways within a lesson to support teaching and learning. The educational technology course described here constructs the first level of the candidates’ ability to integrate technology and content knowledge. This prepares candidates, within their social studies methods course, for the next level where pedagogical knowledge is infused with technology and content. Creating content-relevant technology assignments allow candidates to infuse their own experiences into diverse content areas and to make connections while developing technology competencies. The technology component would be a skill set learned in isolation unless incorporated into the content of the assignment (Lawless & Pellegrino, 2007). The technology skill set then gains its relevance (meaning-making) when candidates are able to apply the technology within a context. When the assignment also allows candidates to articulate their own experiences (meaning-making in their outside lives), lesson engagement can rise, enhancing the learning experiences in both technology and content (Falk & Dierking, 2000). Global mindedness and social justice served as the content foundation for the assignment explored in this study. The guiding standards from this southeastern university promotes the preparation of classroom teachers through engagement in opportunities in which they explore and gain competence in the skills and knowledge necessary for the development of

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caring citizens in their community and in a global society (Initial Teaching Standards, n.d.). This assignment created an opportunity for candidates to access to the world beyond the walls of the traditional classroom (Carano & Berson, 2007). The World Wide Web was used as an exploratory tool for collecting information and allowing candidates to explore a more global and diverse community than afforded by their own personal experiences. Teachers and school leaders have the potential to open student thinking to human similarities and differences on a local and global perspective to better prepare and engage all students in the knowledge and skills they will need in the changing world of the 21st century. (Van Vooren & Lindsey, 2012, p. 28)

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Despite student’s cumulative exposure to digital and media literacies and apparent “expertise” in maneuvering these landscapes (Bearne et al., 2007; Gilster, 1997; Marsh, 2010), schools have been remiss in recognizing and building upon the rich nature of this knowledge base (Minns, 1997). Simply granting students access to information does not involve higher levels of thinking or critical analyses. Media literacy requires the user to gain skills in how to access, validate, and apply information gained from the multiple perspectives that are accessible (Merryfield & Wilson, 2005; Zong, 2009). Students come to know the world around them by interacting with it and using their preexisting and operative cognitive structures (schema) to make sense of what they perceive (Bruner, 1985; Oran, 2011). A growing body of research indicates that students construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world by acting on, and interacting with, the environment, their teachers, family members, peers, older students, materials, books and forms of technology (Dewey, 1916; Fosnot, 1996; Malaguzzi, 1998; Piaget, 1952; Vygotsky, 1978). Traditionally, the purpose of classroom curricula has been to enhance students’ development broadly across all domains, and develop skills and competencies that are necessary to both in and of themselves, but are also linked to students’ long-term success in school and life (Kagan, Moore, & Bredekamp, 1995). Katz (2010) contends that while academic goals are more concerned with discrete bits of seemingly unrelated information, intellectual goals address more holistic understandings incorporating reasoning, hypothesizing, predicting, and analyzing information. The goal of this assignment was to guide the candidates through an exploratory and analytical experience that would enlighten and deepen their knowledge and awareness of social justice issues. Increasing the level of cognitive engagement of the teacher candidates will better prepare them to create and implement similar learning opportunities for students

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in their future classrooms. “As globalization alters the knowledge and skills young people need to become effective citizens, social studies teachers should learn and embrace new approaches for promoting 21st century skills” (Carano, Stuckart, & Whittaker, p. 4957). In an attempt to address this notion, the technology instructor collaborated with the social studies instructor in an effort to create a technology-rich experience that exposed candidates to the idea of constructivist teaching and the concept of social justice. Assignment Generation One As part of their introduction to online tools, candidates were instructed in the use of a free online image manipulation tool to create a collage representative of a self-selected social justice issue. They used an online photo tool, “FotoFlexer,” to create a layered image that integrated text and images to illustrate their self-selected issue. This assignment allowed the candidates to expand their basic image manipulation skills using a more sophisticated graphic tool. Using visual tools offered candidates “instant gratification” for their efforts and bolstered confidence in technology use. The choice of multimedia elements within instructional design projects can address the diverse needs of a selected audience. In this case multimedia served as a vehicle for varying content delivery, scaffolding learning, and engaging the learners. Increasing levels of diversity in the classroom and in the workplace elevates the need to design and develop instructional settings that meet the need for various language, learning, and cultural differences. So by design, the choice of technologies aligns to the concept of equal access and diverse needs of the learner population. The global world we live in brings the needs of the learner to the forefront of education and training and thus to the desktop of the instructional designer (Parrish & Linder-VanBerschot, 2010). The technology tool was introduced into the activity to establish the necessary technology skill set. Once candidates had received the skill set (digital collage), they needed a content assignment context to provide an authentic reason (meaning-making) for the technology use (Falk & Dierking, 2000). In this assignment, the required technology skill set was concrete but the content was open-ended, allowing candidates an opportunity to narrow the content focus, and promote ownership of all parts of the project. The content element of the assignment was issues in social justice. Candidates chose a topic in which they felt personally connected, something that was important in their lives, their families, their cultures, or their communities. Candidates then created a digital collage that they felt was representative of their chosen social justice issue. Instructors refrained from providing candidates with any preconceived conceptualizations of

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social justice issues; allowing for individual interpretation and construction of their own knowledge. The completed collages were downloaded and saved as an image to use with the subsequent writing assignment. After creating the digital collage, candidates completed the writing component of the assignment that required detailed description of the self-selected social justice issue. Prompts were provided to help extend their experience toward the ethical responsibilities of a teacher. The prompts were introduced to deepen the candidates’ experience with the digital collage to include self-reflection, awareness, and personal meaning-making (Falk & Dierking, 2000). The writing prompts included: Why do you care about this? What level of students do you intend to teach? What do you think they might need to know about this? How does this topic connect to community, state, or worldwide issues? Finally, the digital collages were included with their written commentaries as concept illustrations. This assignment yielded unsatisfactory outcomes in terms of social justice awareness. The issues selected by the candidates focused on social and hot media influenced topics (e.g. cancer, obesity, drug abuse, recycling, teen pregnancy). In their writing component there was little or no connection between their selected topic and social justice as noted in the following examples.

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I choose to do my Justice Collage on cancer. The reason that I choose to do it on cancer is because my g-mom had Stage 4 ovarian cancer about ten years ago but she had two surgeries and a very strong round of chemo and then was able to overcome it and be cancer free. A lot of this had to do with the fact that she choose to fight and ultimately this made her a survivor. A couple of months ago we found out that her cancer may be back again. They haven’t really found any cancer in her body yet we do know that they have found two tumors. This relates to the world because so many people today are fighting against cancer or know someone that is fighting against cancer and most people want to help find the cure. I think this important and should be something that all people are more passionate about whether they know someone with cancer or not. I intend to teach elementary special education and I think that doing a collage project could be beneficial to them to help them express themselves and the things they care about. I really think that this would be beneficial to them because a lot of special education students don’t know how to express themselves effectively because of their disability. I also think that a collage would be important to help make sure they understand the things that we are talking about.

164 D. SHULSKY and J. M. WILLIS I am planning on teaching history at the High School level, and this issue is important to me because I feel that this is a serious problem in the United States, and we need to take action to ensure the health of our children. This issue hits close to home with me because I am currently working as a waitress and day after day I see children who weigh twice as much as I do, because their parents allow them to consume as much “junk food” as they like. I have one niece and two nephews and, we have a very healthy diet and exercise plan to keep them in shape and healthy as they grow into young adults. I feel that it is important for children at all levels of education because it is never too late to change eating habits and make a decision to become a healthy individual. This issue is not only a state wide problem, but a problem that exists across the entire United States of America, and we need to stop it!

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The collage that I have created is about recycling. This is a topic that has been extremely important to me for many years now. At the rate in which we throw objects away and the amount of time it takes these objects to breakdown our planet has slowly accumulated tons and tons of trash. This issue is of great importance environmentally and ecologically and it affects every living thing. Recycling is such an easy solution to a growing problem and the earlier we show students that it is not a difficult task to recycle instead of simply throwing something away the greater chance we have at that child being a life-long conservationist. I intend on teaching third grade math and science and I would love to show my students how important our planet is and how we need to be treating it with respect.

The topics selected by the candidates were restricted to issues that were limited by the candidates’ personal experiences. The impact value of the issue often moved no farther than “self ” or at most their community. There was little sense of “other” identified in either their collage or their explanations. It was apparent the candidates were challenged by the complexity of social justice. The authors recognize that the constructivist approach to this assignment failed to create a rudimentary framework by which candidates could build an understanding of social justice as defined by Wade (2007).

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Assignment Generation Two The outcomes of Assignment Generation One prompted a revisit of the goals of the project and to explore alternative methods for increasing social justice awareness beyond “self.” Revisions were made to the course assignment and the new assignment was implemented the following semester with a new group of teacher candidates. During Assignment Generation Two, candidates were required to participate in an online discussion forum as part of their assignment, but prior to the creation of their collages. The discussion prompt was “Describe a time in your life when you were moved to take action or felt the need for action to be taken.” Candidates were to respond first to the initial prompt then to the postings of a minimum of three classmates. It should be noted that the topics posted were often very personal and emotionally driven (e.g., poverty, diversity, immigration) The peer responses ranged from confirmatory postings where they posted responses in agreement with the candidate’s actions or where the peer shared a similar experience. The postings were consistently positive with no indications of disagreement or potential conflict. The interactions were restricted to peer to peer engagement to protect and promote a sense of confidentiality and to prevent any perceived judgments by the instructor. The following week candidates were introduced to an assignment similar to the assignment used in Assignment Generation One, but this time the assignment was prefaced by the following instructions:

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In last week’s discussion you shared events from your life that moved you to action. These were probably very personal experiences in which the actions you took were limited to “your world.” This is the first step in your journey to becoming active global citizens. In this assignment you will expand your impact to a larger community and move yourself farther down the path of active citizenship. As you reflect consider the following quote: A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of. It always seems impossible until it’s done. —Nelson Mandela

Additionally, candidates were required to review the schools’ initial standards for all beginning teachers, specifically those related to Family & Community Involvement: “The candidate establishes and uses strong positive relationships among students, families, colleagues, schools and community to support the needs of all learners. The candidate fosters the development of caring citizens in their community and in a global society” (Initial Teaching Standards, n.d.). The candidates were asked to use the objectives of the standard as a

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guide and choose a community-based issue that offered an opportunity to move beyond themselves into the role of an active citizen in the broader community. In this assignment, they were asked to create a digital collage that represented a broader based concern or issue in which they were personally interested. The outcomes of Assignment Generation Two indicated an increased awareness of social justice beyond “self ” that was more critical than those of the initial attempts. The following examples from Assignment Generation Two are more illustrative of the candidates’ ability to move along the social justice continuum. This topic really gets to me because I have witnessed poverty close to home. So many children die each and every day because they don't have the basic necessities to sustain them. You see poverty throughout the United States and not just here but in other parts of the world as well. I hope that my future children will not have to suffer through this issue; if the issue still remains, then I hope my future children are helping to end poverty throughout the world. I intend to teach high schoolers in the future. I think they will need to know that they can do something about it, whether it is raising money or can goods, they can make a difference on ending poverty worldwide.

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I care about this topic because I grew up in an area that didn’t respect diversity and it shaped me as a young person and now that I am an adult I see how much I missed out on when I was younger. Diversity is something you see every day when you wake up and leave your house it is all around you from your community to your city and even the whole world. I hoping that once my children inherit this world from my generation that respecting diversity won’t be a problem anymore, but I know some people will always hate other people for whatever reasons they want to rationalize hate. The world is becoming a global community and other cultures are becoming more prevalent and I am hoping it will help the next generation learn to respect it before you hate it. I plan on teaching high school students in the area of social studies; in addition, I also plan to coach soccer or baseball. I think my students need to know that everyone is different and that isn’t bad you learn so much from people who

Early Lessons in an Introductory Technology Course 167 are different than you. When we respect diversity a whole new world opens to you and it’s like you are born again in the new world of acceptance and love. Immigration is a problem that many families face today. This affects me personally as my parents both came to this country as immigrants. If they had not taken the chance, I would not be here today. In our own community, many families deal with such difficulties. Because of the many regulations, families are broken apart. Immigration has been a common issue for many years and will more than likely continue as families from all over the world continue to travel to this country. Although my parents had the privilege to become citizens, times have changed and it has become a challenge for many. My goal is to teach elementary children and it is very probable that they too are facing a similar situation. Although not all children in a class are challenged with the same problems at home, if all are aware of the issue the class can better succeed as a whole. It is important that we understand the issue as our community continues to grow with diverse populations.

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These examples from Assignment Generation Two are illustrative of the movement toward a more globalized perspective. The Assignment Generation Two prompts were designed to scaffold the candidate from the discussion board focus on “self ” to the assignments’ focus on “other.” This moved the candidate closer to developing an understanding of social justice as defined by Wade (2007).

CONCLUSIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS

This project laid the foundation of conceptualizing social justice within a technology course. It merged technology and content. The design of the collage project was framed in constructivism with the expectation that candidates self-define, with limited assistance, their conceptualization of a social justice issue (Driscoll, 2000; Rice, Cullen, & Davis, 2011). This initiated the process of meaning-making and laid the foundation for preparing candidates with the ability to transfer this experience to the pedagogical focus of a social studies methods course where the social justice collage will be revisited, revised, and moved to action. At this stage of the project, the researchers are looking forward to the pedagogical phase, where candidates advance along the social justice continuum through

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experiences that encourage a deepening of consciousness and inspiration to action within the social studies methods course. Assignment Generation One Candidates prior knowledge of social justice was collapsed with social and hot media influenced topics (e.g., cancer, obesity, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, recycling). Although disappointing, it was not surprising that candidates chose topics to which they were personally connected. This aligned with the constructivist nature of the project that required that candidates develop their own definition of social justice. This resulted in topics that had limited perspectives and focused narrowly on issues that impacted them personally.

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Assignment Generation Two

The social justice collages produced during Assignment Generation Two contained a broader spectrum of issues that were more global in reach (e.g., famine, poverty, immigration, inequities). The inclusion of the discussion prompt prior to the assignment provided focus for the selection of the social justice issues. Comparatively, these candidates were better situated in their meaning-making to extend their views. Assignment Generation One and Assignment Generation Two

There was a disconnect between candidates’ internalization of such projects and the potential use and impact of such an activity with their future students. This illuminated the missing link to pedagogical practice. Pedagogical instruction was not within the scope of the technology course. As such the projects addressed technology skills and content understanding. The next phase of the project will extend this learning moment to include pedagogy through the application of the candidates’ conceptualization of social justice within a social studies methods course. We knew the constructivist nature of the collage assignment would be messy as candidates grappled in their attempts to identify social justice issues. We anticipated the project would create confusion, misdirection, and uncertain outcomes for the candidates. However, it initiated candidates’ journey along the social justice continuum. Looking forward, in fall 2014 candidates will enter the social studies methods course having expe-

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rienced a constructivist framework and bring with them an emerging personal conceptualization of social justice. As such the collage experience hopes to meaningfully impact the experiences of the candidates during their social studies methods course. As they advance along the continuum, the goal of the pedagogy course is to have candidates more deeply unpack the idea of social justice and how it could be cultivated within their future classrooms. The culminating impact of the entire journey, beginning in the technology course, continuing in the pedagogy course, and carrying forward to K–12 educational settings, hopes to be seen in candidates’ movement along the social justice continuum.

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Education has to shift to address the challenges of the global world. Challenges are more complex; social and political issues are bleeding across borders. Intercultural communication is more prevalent, whether due to the widening of cultural avenues or growth in technology innovations (Carano & Berson, 2007). In the face of these new global demands teacher preparation programs should create learning experiences that allow candidates the opportunity to expand their personal perspectives beyond the sense of “self ” to include “other.” In order for candidate’s to widen their individual perspectives development of a lens that is consciously aware of global injustice is required. The focus of this course was technology skill development with social justice providing the foundational content. However, this task is beyond the scope a technology course taken in isolation of content. Therefore, collaborative efforts with pedagogy courses are imperative in order to deepen the relationship between technology, content, and pedagogy (Koehler & Mishra, 2009). The authors contend that in this course technology provided candidates a vehicle by which they could access a world beyond the traditional classroom that illuminated issues of inequity and inequality. Broadening teacher candidates’ views of the world readies them to step into the role of world citizens, empowering them to become change agents who can then impart this approach to their future students—the next generation of world citizens. REFERENCES Agbaria, A. K. (2009). The social studies education discourse community on globalization: Exploring the agenda of preparing citizens for the global age. Journal of Studies in International Education, 15(1), 57–74.

170 D. SHULSKY and J. M. WILLIS Association of American Educators. (n.d.). AAE code of ethics for educators. Retrieved March 30, 2014, from http://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/ about-us/aae-code-of-ethics Barry, B. (2005). Why social justice matters. Cambridge, MA: Policy Press. Bearne, E., Clark, C., Johnson, A., Manford, P., Mottram, M., & Wolstencroft, H. (2007). Reading on screen. Leicester, United Kingdom: UKLA. Bell, L. A. (1997). Theoretical foundations for social justice education. In M. Adams, L. A. Bell, & P. Griffin (Eds.), Teaching for diversity and social justice (pp. 3–15). New York, NY: Routledge. Bruner, J. (1985). Child’s talk: Learning to use language. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 1(1), 111–114. Carano, K. T., & Berson, M. J. (2007). Breaking stereotypes: Constructing geographic literacy and cultural awareness through technology. The Social Studies, 98(2), 65–70. Carano, K. T., & Stuckart, D. W. (2014). Blogging for global literacy and cross-cultural awareness. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. B. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 179–202). New York, NY: Peter Lange. Cochran-Smith, M. (2009). Toward a theory of teacher education for social justice. In Second international handbook of educational change (pp. 445-467). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Netherlands. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York, NY: McMillian Press. Driscoll, M. (2000). Psychology of learning for instruction. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Falk, J. H., & Dierking, L. D. (2000). Learning from museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning. New York, NY: Alta Mira Press. Fosnot, C. T. 1996. Constructivism: A psychological theory of learning. In C. T. Fosnot (Ed.), Constructivism: Theory, perspectives and practice (pp. 8–33). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Freire, P. (1992). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. Ramos, Trans.) New York: NY: Continuum. (Original work published 1970) Gilster, P. (1997) Digital literacy. New York, NY: Wiley. Giroux, H. A. (1992). Language, difference, and curriculum theory: Beyond the politics of clarity. Theory into Practice, 31(3), 219–227. Goodlad, J. (2002). A place called school. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Greene, M. (1998). Introduction: teaching for social justice. In W. Ayers, J. A. Hunt, & T. Quinn (Eds.) Teaching for social justice (pp. xxvii-xlvi). New York, NY: New Press. Initial Teaching Standards. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://prtl.uhcl.edu/portal/page/ portal/SOE/Forms/form_files/InitialStandards.doc Kagan, S. L., Moore, E., & Bredekamp, S. (1995). Reconsidering children’s early learning and development: Toward shared beliefs and vocabulary. Washington, DC: National Goals Panel. Katz, L. (2010). STEM in the early years. Early Childhood Research & Practice, 12(2), 1–9.

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Early Lessons in an Introductory Technology Course 171 Keiser, D. (2005). Learners not widgets: Teacher education for social justice during transformational times. In M. Michelli & D. Keiser (Eds.), Teacher education for democracy and social justice (pp. 31–54). New York, NY: Routledge. Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 9(1), 60–70. Lawless, K. A., & Pellegrino, J. W. (2007). Professional development in integrating technology into teaching and learning: Knowns, unknowns, and ways to pursue better questions and answers. Review of Educational Research, 77(4), 575–614. Malaguzzi, L. (1998). History, ideas, and basic philosophy an interview with Lella Gandini. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), Hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced reflections (pp. 49–97). Westport, CT: Greenwood. Marsh, J. (2010). Young children’s play in online virtual worlds. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 8(1), 23–39. Merryfield, M. M., & Wilson, A. (2005). Social studies and the world: Teaching global perspectives. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. Minns, H. (1997). Read it to me now!: Learning at home and at school. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International. Noddings, N. (2005). Global citizenship: Promises and problems. In N. Noddings (Ed.), Educating citizens for global awareness (pp. 1-21). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Oran, H. G. (2011). Teaching for global learning through collaboration: A case study of K–12 educators’ conceptualizations and practices about global education. Kennesaw, GA: Kennesaw State University Parrish, P., & Linder-VanBerschot, J. (2010). Cultural dimensions of learning: Addressing the challenges of multicultural instruction. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(2), 1–19. Piaget, J. (1952). The child’s conception of number. New York, NY: Norton. Pike, G. (2007). Citizenship education in global context. Brock Education Journal, 17(1), 38–49. Rice, K., Cullen, J., & Davis, F. (2011). Technology in the classroom: The impact of teacher’s technology use and constructivism. Retrieved from http:// www.farnoushdavis.com/projects/504/Cullen_Davis_%20Final_ Synthesis_6.pdf Smith, D. M. (1994) Geography and social justice. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind and society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wade, R. C. (2007). Social studies for social justice: Teaching strategies for the elementary classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Pr. Van Vooren, C., & Lindsey, D. (2012). Leaders address inequity through a framework of international-mindedness. Journal of Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies, 2(1), 25–33. Zong, G. (2009). Global perspectives in teacher education research and practice. In T. Kirkwood-Tucker (Ed.), Visions in global education: The globalization of cur-

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172 D. SHULSKY and J. M. WILLIS riculum and pedagogy in teacher education and schools (pp. 71–89). New York, NY: Peter Lang.

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CHAPTER 10

GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND THE CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD THROUGH TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION

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STONE L. MCFADYEN CHRISTENSEN, A. PENDERGRASS, AND M. WHETLois McFadyen Christensen, Amanda Pendergrass, and Melissa Whetstone

“This global partnership will be guided in this work by the Convention on the Rights of the Child that luminous living document that enshrines the rights of every child without exception to a life of dignity and self-fulfillment.” —Nelson Mandela (May 6, 2000)

INTRODUCTION This chapter characterizes ways in which teachers, teacher educators, and candidates implement transformational educative practices involving

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 173–184 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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youngsters that will assist to build their knowledge about the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Social justice and global education issues are vital to confront as we enter the diversity and technological dynamics of the twenty first century (Aldridge & Goldman, 2007a; Christensen & Aldridge, 2013). Educators can confront such issues through transformational education. This includes teaching to make a global difference, which is closely connected to social justice (Christensen & Aldridge, 2013; Wink 2011). When educators work toward equal access for everyone, they promote social justice (Edelsky, 1999). Teaching for transformation differs from three other common types of teaching: transmission, transaction, and inquiry (Christensen & Aldridge, 2013). This chapter highlights coordinated activities that support children to consider the CRC as well as ways to teach about it for transformation. To accomplish these goals we asked the following questions: What is a transformative curriculum and how do teacher educators, teachers, and teacher candidates provide opportunities for educating children to become safe enough to observe, think, and act in order to transform global education (Christensen & Aldridge, 2013)? What does respect and development and look like in educative settings? How can educators at every level work toward providing safe educative environments in all global settings where children are able to express themselves while learning? Teaching to Make a Difference in the World. Transformation is a product of learning processes, whether educators are in teacher education classrooms or classrooms teaching children (Christensen & Aldridge, 2013). Working to make a difference in the world starts with the educator and moves outward to engage students in transformational projects. Teaching by transmission presupposes that “teachers are the sages on the stages” (Christensen & Aldridge, 2013). Only one person has the knowledge to be transmitted to students: the teacher. The misconception is that students have minimal knowledge about topics, in this situation, The Conventions on the Rights of the Child. Worksheets are prevalent and knowledge is solely at the factual level. Questions have specific correct answers. Classrooms are typified by quiet students. When teachers implement teaching for transaction, most often they follow curriculum guidebooks but offer students more choices and greater decision-making responsibilities than by transmission. Students work in groups or pairs; they share ideas and participate in strategies where there are concepts and generalizations studied, not just facts. Transaction teaching promotes higher order thinking. Students have choices to represent what they have learned through multiple means (Aldridge & Goldman, 2007; Christensen & Aldridge, 2013; Malaguzzi; 1998). The transaction curriculum is sometimes called the generative model (Wink, 2011) and the constructivist curriculum (Kamii, 2000).

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Teaching for inquiry is comparable to transformation except it lacks a goal to make a difference in the world. With inquiry, students in teacher education and schools are not necessarily engaged in a learning process with the explicit objective to make a difference in the world. They choose topics because of interests or grade level standards. For example, students learning through inquiry could be engaged in a study of recycling. However, with transformation in mind, recycling becomes a topic of study in order to find ways to better the environment.

WHAT DOES RESPECT AND FULL DEVELOPMENT LOOK LIKE IN EDUCATIVE SETTINGS?

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When educators listen attentively to children and respond respectfully, children reciprocate. Respected as individuals, students participate in classrooms, school communities, and universities (Malaguzzi, 1998). The role of the educator is a collaborator and colearner with students. Teachers do not sit back, only to observe. Instead teachers play active roles, showing respect through mutual participation in learning. For example, when children have a voice in educative studies and opportunities to learn about moral actions, the classroom and the school become springboards for democracy, social action, and transformation. When Amanda taught first grade, her students studied recycling and made decisions about how to start a recycling project in their school. First they discussed ideas in small groups. Several children recalled how group work was not easy and told Amanda about the importance of listening and being respectful even if they did not agree with each other (Daniel Pendergrass, 2013). Amanda emphasized reciprocity as being a building block to community building within the classroom. Drafted 25 years ago by world leaders, the UN CRC is a legally binding international document that outlines civil, cultural, social, and political rights for children to reach full potential in contexts where they reside. Central notions to the articles in the document specify that suitable environments in a world fit for children in global contexts include learning opportunities that develop children’s maximum capabilities. Children are members of a global family community with rights and responsibilities. Principles 12, 13 and 14 of the United Nation’s CRC explicitly state that children have the right to full development and deserve respect for their particular views (UN Convention on the Rights of the Children, 2014). These principles include respect, full attention to what children have to say, and allowing children to express viewpoints.

176 L. MCFADYEN CHRISTENSEN, A. PENDERGRASS, and M. WHETSTONE Article 12 1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child. 2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law. Article 13 1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child’s choice.

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2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary: (a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or

(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. Article 14 1. States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. 2. States Parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child. 3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others (UN CRC, 2014).

The articles and principles broaden and diffuse the values and beliefs of individuals and the countries that have supported, adopted, and ratified the CRC. Presently, out of the United Nation member countries, only Somalia and the United States have not ratified the CRC. A safe, suitable environment and educated global populace, especially for children, may provide settings for teachers and teacher candidates to learn about and subsequently implement the tenets the CRC with their K – 5 students. Through implementation of a transformative curriculum, teachers and candidates offer children abundant opportunities to deeply think and interact in groups, both locally and globally. Ample access to study the

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United Nations CRC through developmentally appropriate educational methods provides students, teachers, and candidates the opportunity to become transformational citizens who are more aware of issues of social justice. Development and Respect in Educative Settings Whereas social justice for some begins in classroom communities, for others it begins at home (Darder, Baldano, & Torres, 2003; Mitchell, 1934; Wink, 2011). In early childhood settings, community building is intentional. Community building takes many forms. Educators may begin classes with morning meetings, offering students time to discuss the day or the classes’s agendas. Students have opportunities to contribute to curriculum development, planning and working in groups as autonomous learners and decisionmakers. They listen to one another and problem solve together, building on others’ ideas. The learning environment is noticeably collaborative. It takes intrinsically motivated educators that have support systems to begin journeys toward envisioning educating the whole child to reach their full potential. This educator is a risk taker and open to innovation to develop a collaborative community. Each child is considered and realized as having rights as well as deserving of learning opportunities to develop to his or her full potential. Throughout life, children are affected and influenced by the interacting systems in their environments, either directly or indirectly (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). As they make these connections, they can be transformed to study new features and act accordingly to make a difference in their community or world. Children have the potential to positively impact the world if only given the chance. Just as rings that ripple around a pebble thrown into the water, dialogues that happen in the classroom can spread outwardly into homes and the community (Cowhey, 2006) and become guiding lights within conversations.   Respect is transactive. With respect, opinions matter and educators and classmates care about listening to the perspectives of others. When master teachers respectfully listen to candidates’ opinions in field settings and encourage them to implement ideas, they feel respected. Similarly when an educator listens attentively to youngsters’ comments in discussion they know their contributions are valued. Young students become involved in discussions and engage in the process of critical inquiry, discovery, and collaborative problem solving. Educators respect and care about their colleagues, families, community, and world because they are respected. This is true for students in teacher education courses as well. Lucy Sprague

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Mitchell (1934) reminds us that children’s likelihood to be learners, doers, and creative and constructive citizens results from having lived lives in which these qualities have been given a chance to steadily grow. Paulo Freire (1993) states that education is about dialogue and radical love. Young children and adults are fully aware when they are respected in educative settings. It is respect that leads toward young citizens feeling safe and being open and uninhibited to express their thoughts and connections. Providing Safe Educative Environments in All Global Settings

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All classrooms should be safe places where children feel secure, respected, valued, and loved. According to Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs, all humans have basic needs such as physiological, safety, and belongingness that must be met in order to achieve self-esteem and selfactualization. Children rely heavily on others around them to satisfy those physiological needs, keep them safe, and show them love in order to progress toward esteem and ultimately reach self-actualization (Goldman & Aldridge, 2008). As such, it becomes the responsibility of teachers and candidates to reach out and meet these very basic student needs.  Schools and teachers alike can provide a safe haven for children where they can in turn feel valued, respected, and loved through teaching. If candidates and students contribute to assessment means by creating rubrics, the value of learning becomes personal. Respect is an outcome for their industry and involvement. It is an educator’s responsibility to understand and recognize young children as respected citizens of a global society. As children embrace the world in which they live, not only are they affected by it, but they also act on it and make meaning of it (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 2007). By respecting their thoughts and ideas, children can be encouraged to care for others and make a difference in the world (Aldridge & Goldman, 2007b). It is fundamental for teachers at every level to respect the time it takes for candidates and children to mature, develop, and understand the world around them (Malaguzzi, 1998). This can be achieved by giving both teacher candidates and children time to develop and cultivate connections and overcome differences that they may have regarding assumptions about others (Rinaldi, 2006). When planning classroom curriculum, educators have to take into account this personal process while preparing and implementing projects and experiences (Gandini, 2004). It is vital for educators to understand

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that time has to be organized according to children’s needs rather than regimented as adults might regiment time through strict schedules. As time naturally unfolds, safe, educative environments invite children to observe, explore, and investigate ideas that are most important to their hearts (Dahlberg et al., 2007). Providing Opportunities to Transform Global Education As learners at every educational level involve parents, families, and communities in cooperation with educators oriented toward a transformational learning project, they are more able to visualize being a part of the international community. They envision being a global citizen. This is one approach for democracy to become genuine. Using the CRC to Teach for transformation. Teaching for transformation is often controversial and difficult to understand as compared to teaching as transmission or teaching as transaction (Aldridge, Manning, Christensen, & Strevy, 2007). What is transformation and what are the roles of the teachers, teacher educators, and candidates and children? What materials are employed within a transformational curriculum? Transformation is defined as “teaching children to care and make a difference in the world while simultaneously trying to make a difference in the world” (Aldridge et al., 2007, p. 27). Definitions abound for transformation whether they include religious affiliations, ideologies, or political beliefs. The educational meaning to which we refer transcends and focuses on teaching teachers, teacher candidates, and children to make a difference in the world (Aldridge & Goldman, 2007a). As such, transformation teaching is also associated with social justice. Again, social justice has multiple connotations but the term does not belong to any particular group. When people seek equality and access for everyone, they are working for social justice (Edelsky, 1999). The Role of the Teacher and Teacher Candidate. The teacher’s role in transformation starts with his or her self. Transformation teaching is not possible for teachers or candidates who have not experienced transformation personally. For instance, deep reflection to examine assumptions has to be accomplished. Stepping outside of one’s comfort zone and then reflecting with other educators about the experience is one way. A transformative teacher works to make a profound and positive difference in his or her students’ lives. The teacher consciously works to open his or her young students to have caring spirits and helps them to consider concrete experiences to promoting social justice. Teachers can do this by having students find a problem in the school neighborhood and problem

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solving it. Perhaps it could be young students watering an elder’s plants for them. Or it could be teacher candidates tutoring at a homeless shelter after school. These are concerted and persistent efforts on the parts of educators, particularly during the age of accountability. A transformative teacher does not neglect accountability or standards-based programs. However, she recognizes that there are broader issues to achieve while teaching and learning to accomplish standards and improve standardized test scores. A transformational teacher carefully considers the context in which she teaches and is sensitive to obstacles associated with some forms of transformation. Children in rural Alabama live in communities with diverse values and beliefs, as do children in refugee camps in Jordan, or children in metropolitan Milan. These are varied contexts; however, diversity exists through religious beliefs, languages spoken, varied cultural traditions, or economic status. While researching ways to help children transform their school, neighborhood or community, the teacher carefully considers contextual values and beliefs (Meier, 1995). The Role of the Students. Students at every level are expected to take an active role in developing the transformational curriculum. Students recommend ways to make a difference in their school, neighborhood, or community, often based on the topics promoted through the traditional curriculum. For example, if students are studying recycling, they are asked to think of ways to promote and implement recycling first within the school and then the local community. Transformative projects develop from the students’ suggestions. The Role of Materials. Materials are used to explore ways to make a difference in the world. They are used to develop projects and plans that implement change. Materials are used to support and document how the whole class, small groups, and individual transformational projects realized the entirety of the project. Authentic literature is used to consider ways others have made a difference in their communities. And, the Internet is searched for organizations and causes that work to promote positive change. Teachers and children search for a wide variety of resources that go beyond the use of traditional materials in the classroom. Individuals or human resources are also used to inspire and support transformational activities (Ostrow, 1995). Teachers and candidates think outside of the box just as children do.

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Strengths of Transformational Teaching If implemented appropriately and developmentally, transformation has numerous benefits for everyone involved. Some benefits include the following:

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1. Students and Teachers and/or faculty work together for the good of the school, neighborhood, community, and world. Projects move beyond the transmission and transactional curricula with the intended purpose of making particular aspects better for the world. Students negotiate the projects and how they are implemented with one another and the educators involved. 2. Students develop important dispositions such as problem solving, negotiating strategies, and a transformative attitude toward issues. Student involvement entails an incredible amount of critical thinking, caring and conflict resolution, while simultaneously promoting an attitude of social justice consciousness toward the world and others. 3. Multiple viewpoints are explored as well as potential issues and problems that could arise in implementing transformation. Students at every educative level consider if there is potential harm that may occur even when the good of their efforts are enacted. Critical evaluation of the topic, process, project, and all aspects of a transformational study are explored. Educators’ vigilance is necessary in these cases.

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It is vital that teacher education supports an effective and diverse pedagogy that sustains transformative educative settings. Educators who work for our youngest citizens to be able to think critically and globally give them complete respect and support. If members in educative settings enact the CRC ideals, children in every country would reach their full capacity. The potential to transform our global society will simultaneously improve, thus benefitting children, our valuable present and future leaders. This is transformation education. Our world depends on it. UN CRC ACTIVITIES AS A STARTING PLACE FOR TRANSFORMATIVE EDUCATION

Having access to varied renditions of the United Nations CRC will enable all student to have developmentally appropriate opportunities to engage in the document and learn how to become transformational citizens who are more aware of issues of social justice. The United Nations CRC is a document to introduce global rights. There are numerous websites that teachers and candidates can scrutinize as to whether these are viable for implementation into existing curriculum. Students at every level will naturally inquire about how they can help others when examining web documents. This is a viable opening for engagement.

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Activities for Students to Engage in Learning About the CRC Note: These are activities for children that are readers. (a) Have copies of The Rights of the Child from The Cyber School Bus Web site: http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/crc/simplified.html (b) This site can be implemented with teacher candidates or in teacher education courses. (c) http://srsg.violenceagainstchildren.org/sites/default/files/ cropped_images/RaisingUnderstanding_OCPC.pdf http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/crc/motion.html

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Discuss what most of these rights mean.

(d) Use easier verhttp://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/crc/motion .htmlsions at these sites:

http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/ plainchild.asp http://www.unicef.org/rightsite/files/ uncrcchilldfriendlylanguage.pdf

Using the “plain” language version, have students discuss and give examples of the meanings of some of the rights. (e) The vocabulary list, located at http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/ humanrights/resources/plainchild.asp can be printed and utilized to help explain some of the definitions.

(f) Have students read through some of the stories about global children. After each story, ask your students what they think are the rights of each child and what rights each child needs. (g) Letters can be written to Senators or Representatives after some of the stories are heard and the rights are identified. (h) See the ideas at this site: http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/ humanrights/resources/letter.asp (i) Students can read quotes by noted officials and Presidents at this site: http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/humanrights/resources/ quotable.asp

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(j) After a discussion of some of the difficult words and the definitions, students can be paired to write quotes about children’s rights. Post the quotes in the hallway of the school. Further Ideas for Students (a) Explore Free Rice at the following site: http://freerice.com/#/ english-vocabulary/1511. This is a great game that actually provides food to people globally. (b) Have students examine the Millennium Goals at this site: http:// www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/mdgs/flash/index.asp

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(c) School classrooms can set up global pen pals to interact via the Internet using this Web site: http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org/ flagtag/frm_ft_intro.asp?score=0&screen_height=800 REFERENCES

Aldridge, J., & Goldman, R. (2007a). Current issues and trends in education (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson/Allyn & Bacon. Aldridge, J., & Goldman, R. (2007b). Moving toward transformation: Teaching and learning in inclusive classrooms. Birmingham, AL: Seacoast. Aldridge, J., Manning, M., Christensen, L., & Strevy, D. (2007). Teaching for transformation. In J. Aldridge & R. Goldman (Eds.), Moving toward transformation: Teaching and learning in inclusive classrooms (pp. 27–32). Birmingham, AL: Seacoast. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Christensen, L. M., & Aldridge, J. (2013). Critical pedagogy for early childhood and elementary educators. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Cowhey, M. (2006). Black ants and Buddhists: Thinking critically and teaching differently in the primary grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Dahlberg, G., Moss, P., & Pence, A. (2007). Beyond quality in early childhood education and care: Languages of evaluation (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Darder, A., Baltodano, M., & Torres, R. D. (Eds.). (2003). The critical pedagogy reader. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer. Edelsky, C. (1999). Making justice our project. Urbana, IL: National Council for Teachers of English. Freire, P. (1993). Education for critical consciousness. New York, NY: Continuum. Gandini, L. (2004). Foundations of the Reggio Emilia approach. In J. Hendrick (Ed.), Next steps toward teaching the Reggio way: Accepting the challenge to change (2nd ed., pp. 13-26). Greenwich, CT: Ablex. Goldman, R., & Aldridge, J. (Eds.) (2008). A little book on theories of development. Birmingham, AL: Seacoast.

184 L. MCFADYEN CHRISTENSEN, A. PENDERGRASS, and M. WHETSTONE Kamii, C. (2000). Young children reinvent arithmetic: Implications of Piaget’s theory (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Malaguzzi, L. (1998). History, ideas, and basic philosophy. In C. Edwards, L. Gandini, & G. Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia approach—Advanced reflections (2nd ed., pp. 49-97). Greenwich, CT: Ablex. Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370-96. Meier, D. (1995). The power of their ideas: Lessons for America for a small school in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press. Mitchell, L. S. (1934). Social studies and geography. Progressive Education, 11, 97–105. Ostrow, J. (1995). A room with a different view: First through third graders build community and create curriculum. York, ME: Stenhouse. Rinaldi, C. (2006). In dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, researching, and learning. New York, NY: Routledge. UN Convention on the Rights of the Children. (2014). Retrieved from http:// www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/CRC/Pages/CRC25thAnniversary.aspx Wink, J. (2011). Critical pedagogy: Notes from the real world (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

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CHAPTER 11

PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN TEACHER EDUCATION

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © A Pedagogy for Social Justice

J. A. SCHILLER

Juliet A. Schiller

Human rights education (HRE) is based on a transformative model committed to social justice and a lens through which to observe the world. A transformative approach to HRE engages learners in understanding their own realities, has them analyze power and their position within it, and prioritizes how they might act in the face of injustice. This is particularly meaningful for vulnerable youth who must understand and act in complex political realities. Because so few teacher education programs implement HRE, teachers who currently utilize a human rights framework in their classrooms provide examples of ground-level approaches to enacting HRE. Therefore, this chapter provides an account of 2 urban high school teachers implementing HRE with their students, and how they informed my own development of a course utilizing HRE as a framework with preservice teachers at a small liberal arts university.

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 185–213 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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INTRODUCTION This chapter provides a vision of social justice pedagogy and global education using a human rights education (HRE) framework. Human rights education is based on a transformative model committed to social justice and a lens through which to observe the world. It specifically offers educators a methodology for teaching and leading others (Amnesty International, 2011). HRE is dedicated to promoting the human rights principles and positive value system that are set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Finally, HRE proposes a transformatory education wherein learners’ own context and struggles for justice are included and addressed and in which learners are empowered (Osler & Zhu, 2011). HRE aligns with justice-oriented pedagogies including social justice, critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970/1985; Shor, 1993; Shor & Freire, 1987), and multiculturalism (Sleeter, 1996). HRE provides a shared value system where each of these approaches intersect (Stone, 2002). Additionally, HRE ties in well to current teacher education programs as they seek to provide attention to the global perspective and a social justice commitment as stressed by the National Council For Accreditation in Teacher Education (n.d.). HRE provides the tools for people to apply human rights principles in their daily lives to combat discrimination, intolerance, and other human rights violations. Education has the potential to address some of these challenges by implementing human rights and values within teacher education programs and curriculum. UNESCO (n.d.) suggests that, “Quality education based on a human rights approach means that rights are implemented throughout the whole education system and in all learning environments” (para. 2). Because of the diversity of understanding surrounding HRE, teacher preparation must not only educate teachers to understand the social injustice and issues that plague schools, but also prepare teachers to move beyond an awareness into sustained action and empowering pedagogical approaches. Human rights concepts and instruments can be explored in teacher education as they relate to the economic, social, and philosophical foundations of education (Jennings, Parra-Medina, Hilfinger, & McLoughlin, 2006). Curriculum and methodology courses can be planned from a human rights perspective, analyzing how HRE reinterprets what currently exists in textbooks and lessons while skills are enhanced and the content is added to, rather than sacrificed (Jennings et al., 2006). Jennings et al. (2006) stress the importance of HRE in teacher education, particularly as related to marginalized students:

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In addition to approaching teacher preparation from a human rights perspective for the sake of preservice teachers’ dispositions, teaching excel-

Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education 187 lence, and creating humane school environments, such a perspective could also enable novice teachers to approach the profession itself with a new sophistication...In short, a human rights perspective can provide teachers a framework to interpret and understand the humanizing and sometimes dehumanizing nature of schooling and to advocate for themselves, their students and their students’ communities. (p. 296)

Rather than see HRE as additional content to be added to teacher education programs, it should be seen as a new interpretation of what is already being done to train preservice and in-service teachers as well as an opportunity to examine possibilities for promoting human rights within instruction to prepare children as citizens and academics. The United States was one of the original framers of the UDHR and should take leadership in incorporating HRE into formal education. The fact that very few teachers have been formally taught HRE in their teacher education programs means that its implementation might be lacking, incorrect, or taught without fully understanding its potential, particularly for urban youth. Teacher education courses such as those focusing on curriculum and content in the classroom, democratic classrooms, engaging with parents and caregivers, cultural pluralism in the United States and classes that explore active citizenship with students could implement HRE content and pedagogy.

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Conceptual Framework

HRE proponents stress the importance of learning to analyze conditions such as poverty, systematic inequalities, and opportunities through culturally responsive and meaningful content (Suárez, 2007; Tibbitts, 2008). Critical pedagogy provides a powerful complement for HRE (Gor, 2005; Magendzo, 2005; McEvoy Spero, 2012; Meintjes, 1997; Suárez, 2007; Tibbitts, 2008). The work of Freire (1970/2005), one of critical pedagogy’s pioneers, highlights the importance of problematizing conditions of oppression so that students become critically literate. Critical pedagogy includes understanding the distribution of power and decision making, allocation of resources, and how agendas shape politics with the goal that the individual has the ability to apply what has been learned with an active involvement in shaping the future (Douglas, 2002). Freire (1973) argued that humanizing education is not solely for the purpose of individual liberation from oppression, but also is a social goal that sees social structures as something that must be transformed (Collins, 2000). HRE is based on seeking to overcome social injustice (Ty, 2011) and therefore aligns with the goals of critical pedagogy. According to Ty (2011), critical pedagogy advocates the linking of education with action

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that promotes social justice, addresses human rights, and benefits the poor and oppressed. Situating curricula within critical pedagogy leads to explicitly analyzing issues of power, oppression, and transformation and honors the nonschool cultural practices of the students. It includes students in authentic dialogue about inequities and the process of advocating for justice (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). Dewey (1938) believed that teachers are forced to choose between a classical curriculum and a curriculum focused on the lived experiences of their students. More often that not, teachers choose a classical curriculum that is more acceptable professionally (Duncan-Andrade Morrell, 2008). Dewey (1938), however, argued that curriculum should not be seen as an either/or proposition but as a both/and endeavor. The child should be at the center of the curriculum to draw from their lived experiences. This does not replace, but rather builds upon the knowledge that children bring with them to school, making school relevant by engaging them with school knowledge through the lens of their lived social reality (Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008).

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Development of HRE

HRE developed over the last half century among scholars and practitioners throughout the world (Andreopoulos & Claude, 1997). HRE is often based on any of the three documents that compile the International Bill of Human Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976) and its Optional Protocol, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (2008). HRE materials may also include The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1989) and the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) (Leung, Yuen, & Chong, 2011; Stone, 2002; Tibbitts, 2002). These declarations and covenants represent only a part of HRE. Bajaj (2012) stresses the need for HRE to include education about human rights through content (cognitive), through human rights using participatory methods that create skills for active citizenship, and through fostering action-oriented components to foster learners’ ability to speak out and act against injustices. In 2006, the World Programme for Human Rights Education was proclaimed under the UN General Assembly to advance HRE in formal education and informal settings (United Nations World Programme for Human Rights Education, 2006). The first phase of the World Programme for Human Rights Education focused on primary and secondary school systems as the focus for implementing an HRE plan of action

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nationally. However, the United States, did not meet the obligation to submit a national human rights education evaluation report as requested to all member states and did not develop a strategy to implement HRE domestically (Banks, 2000; Gerber, 2008; McEvoy Spero, 2012). Core human rights treaties have the potential to address many of the inequities faced by marginalized groups in the United States. Human rights mechanisms (a defined set of processes and institutions) connect many of the causes of U.S. social justice activism by placing human dignity in all of social and economic justice work. By advancing HRE, the U.S. may encourage a deeper understanding of human rights principles, a commitment to social justice, and solidarity with those whose rights are denied (Osler & Starkey, 2010). Although the United States has not actively integrated HRE into its schools, educators and students in communities throughout the world have found ways to successfully implement HRE. For example, In Egypt, two nongovernmental organizations have been teaching HRE within dangerous conditions for over 6 years (ElGarri, 2000). Africa introduced Amnesty International Norway’s “Teaching for Freedom” (1992) program in 26 countries for teacher education students completing their last year in college. The United States has much to learn from programs and practices that are being implemented in education by the international community. To provide an educational system embedded with internationally accepted principles of human rights in the United States, an understanding of these rights is required. Education becomes associated with the full development of an individual while promoting specific strategies for combating poverty, racism, discrimination, employment disparities, and demographic changes (Freire, 1970), building an inclusive and democratic society. Apple (2004) similarly wrote about the need for schools to act responsibly toward “the needs of local communities and a changing social order” (p. 78). The author argued that it would become more important for urban students in particular to grapple with conflict and change through curriculum to have the skills to understand and participate in complex and repressive political realities and societal power structures. In addition to the transmission of knowledge, HRE has the potential to pass on human rights values from one generation to the next, contributing to a shared knowledge of human rights principles for all individuals in and making them easier to uphold (Andreopoulos & Claude, 1997). The goals for HRE include content knowledge of human rights standards as well as how human rights may be integrated into personal awareness and behaviors. This is particularly important within school communities as students come together to build connections and work together for

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common goals (Human Rights Resource Center, 2000). HRE has the potential to inspire and support students in their work to frame issues in human rights terms, lobby individuals in positions of power, intervene when they see a human rights violation taking place, organize with others, and defend their own rights as well as the rights of others (Human Rights Resource Center, 2000). TYPES OF HRE The ideology, outcomes of HRE, and content emphasis of HRE are differentially constructed depending on teacher mediation of information and the population it serves (Bajaj, 2012). Bajaj offers three initiatives of HRE to describe their specific social location and approach. The first is called Human Rights Education for Global Empowerment, which seeks to position learners as part of a global community rather than national citizens. It presents international standards as ideal and content may be delivered to include treaties and conventions, a history of human rights, and values such as empathy and compassion. The second approach to HRE is named Human Rights Education for Coexistence. This approach is often used in postconflict locations and emphasizes minority rights and intergroup relations within the larger framework of human rights. Sometimes called peace education, its purpose is to foster a respect for differences, mutual understanding, and dialogue. Finally, Bajaj (2012) presents an approach called Human Rights for Transformative Action. This method of HRE engages learners in understanding their own realities, has them analyze power and their position within it, and prioritizes how they might act in the face of injustice. It is not enough to teach about human rights, as Stone (2002) argues. Teachers must also teach for human rights, since activating students’ agency to affect positive change and transform their lives is one of the primary goals of HRE. Most often, HRE is enacted with K–12 students to look outside their own communities, whether poor or affluent, with the lens focused toward international human rights abuses. As schools reflect the larger society in which they are located, often mirroring and reproducing structural inequalities (DeLeon, 2011), students rarely have opportunities to point the lens at their own experiences or their own communities (Armaline, Glasberg, & Purkayastha, 2011). Using a localized lens for HRE provides a reference point against which students can identify and analyze their own human rights realities. Once students grasp an understanding of the concept and principles of human rights for their own lives, they may leave high school with a stronger understanding of how to meet twenty first century challenges as future decision makers.

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Informing Teacher Education: HRE in an Urban High School While the United Nations and the current scholarly literature advocate for implementing HRE into teacher education programs, no state presently requires preservice teachers to learn HRE during their preparation (Stone, 2002). Because so few teacher education programs implement HRE, teachers who already utilize a human rights framework in their classrooms provide examples of ground-level approaches to HRE. They offer opportunities for others to better understand how to implement and advance HRE in classrooms and provide models for teacher education programs to consider. The two urban teachers described in this section later informed my own practice as a teacher educator at a small liberal arts university. Their vision of HRE pedagogy was analyzed through research observations and the findings later integrated into a course I taught for future teachers called “Education and Culture,” which will be described later in the chapter. Because of the importance their practice had in the development of my own foundational course in teacher education, a substantive amount of time is given in this section to the enactment of HRE in their classrooms. It is my hope that this might be used as a model to inform other teacher educators to the ways that ground-level HRE may look in a K–12 classroom. The high school described in this section is located in a cosmopolitan city, “El Oeste” (pseudonym) in the West Coast with a population of approximately 800,000, of which, 302,774 of the population are White nonimmigrants while 283,038 are immigrants (Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, 2012). A neighborhood in El Oeste with particular economic and social conflict is Nuestro Barrio (pseudonym). Nuestro Barrio is the oldest neighborhood in the city, which had and continues to have the highest concentration of Latina/o and Latin American immigrants in the city, with an estimated 50.1% of residents in 2008 identifying as Latina/o (Planning Commission, 2008). Global High School (GHS) exists in this location of history and contested space. It is housed inside a small school site and playground amidst graffiti art, public transportation routes, a public hospital, homeless citizens, cafes, and newly renovated houses. It is a public high school that serves students who have been in the United States for fewer than four years and who are designated as English language learners. Although GHS is a public high school, it is modeled as a small school supported by the Small Schools for Equity and the Coalition of Essential Small Schools, operating under the Internationals Network for Public Schools and the local school district. The Internationals Network had 26 years of success educating English learners, according to the school district website. The rationale for providing a newcomer school is highlighted in a report by

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Boyson and Short (2003), who claim that traditional English as a second language and bilingual education programs are not designed to serve newcomer youth at the secondary level. This is in part due to the fact that curricula and materials assume that students have a certain degree of literacy skills and acculturation to U.S. schools. To bridge this divide, Boyson and Short indicate that newcomer schools, such as GHS have been implemented across the United States. GHS was established in August of 2009 to serve Grades 9–12. It moved into a prior elementary school site as a permanent location. Internationals Network for Public Schools funded the school’s opening, along with the school district and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Each grade level has approximately 100 students for an approximate total of 400 students. Each classroom has no more than 25 students to maintain a small school environment that provides many opportunities for one-onone or small group instruction. Ninety-six percent of GHS students qualify for the Free and Reduced Lunch program, a federally assisted meal program for families with incomes at or below 130% of the poverty level, or $29,965 for a family of four (USDA National School Lunch Program, 2012). Since 2009, 90% of students in the internationals schools have graduated high school, and 90% of internationals graduates go on to 4year colleges (School website, 2012). Because it can take newcomer immigrant adolescents longer than four years to pass all of the high school graduation exams, California law allows for newcomer immigrant students (designated as ELLs) to remain in school until they are 21 years old in order to learn English and pass graduation requirements. GHS’s website states the mission of GHS is to “empower each of our recent immigrant students to develop the academic, linguistic, and cultural skills necessary for success in high school, college, and beyond. Our diverse students develop strong academic English skills through interdisciplinary projects, collaboration, and actively participating in their community. The core values we strive to instill in all of our students are to Learn Together, Act with Empathy, Challenge Oneself, and Create Change” (school’s Balanced Score Card, 2012, p. 1). HRE provided the school with a framework toward developing a positive culture. Ms. Fine, one of the teacher’s in this example of HRE in practice and a founding teacher at Global High School, said that a positive culture was something the school was constantly working toward. Ms. Fine relayed that HRE helped to define ways to support their school’s climate:

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I think HRE is one more tool that we can use to support us when there is bullying or there’s teasing or there’s exclusion. I think human rights is another way to … we say “challenge yourselves, create change, act with empathy.” (Interview, September 5, 2012)

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The school maintains a college preparatory focus. All subjects include English language development through curriculum and various projects. Students participate in career internships and have the opportunity to attend college classes as residential students at UC Berkeley during the summer. Seniors have opportunities for career internships and community service. The school provides activities and after-school programming until 6 p.m. five days a week free of charge. The school also hosts a wellness center providing nursing, individual and group therapy, case management, connections to city services, and community resources (School district website, 2012). Unlike many newcomer pathway programs that provide intense specialized courses (Boyson & Short, 2003), curriculum and instruction at GHS prepare students to meet A-G requirements also known as specific courses leading to a 4-year college on the West Coast. GHS provides college preparatory courses regardless of student’s skill level or English proficiency. Students with little or no literacy in their native language are provided with targeted literacy and numeracy intervention classes, reading comprehension instruction, and team-based academic plans (Balanced Score Card, 2011–2012). All teachers at GHS are teachers of both language and content. In order to effectively teach content to English language learners, teachers think about the language demands as well as the language opportunities inherent in a particular academic task (Lopez, Mehr, & Witt, 2012). All of the students at GHS have been in the country for four years or less. Approximately 25% of the students at GHS have limited or interrupted formal schooling and are preliterate in their native language with little to no exposure to English (SFUSD Balanced Score Card, 2011–2012). The school has no expectation that students have proficiency in their native language or in the English language. Specifically, 20 countries and 15 languages are represented at GHS. 100% of the students in the population of GHS are English Language Learners. GHS builds upon their newcomer immigrant adolescents’ existing strengths and focuses on preparing them to succeed in college and careers in the United States by supporting complex language practices in academic English language and literacy (García & Sylvan, 2011). Some students come to GHS with little to no academic credits for high school. Most of the students’ families are also recent immigrants, many of whom are unfamiliar with US schooling and do not speak English. Because newcomer immigrant youth arrive to classrooms with greaterthan-average educational and socioemotional needs (Ruiz-de-Velasco, Fix, & Clewell, 2011), teachers are called upon to develop a pedagogy that meets the diverse challenges these youth face while they transition into U.S. schools (Bang et al., 2010). Newcomer immigrant youth may particu-

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larly benefit from a critical approach to knowledge and a language to articulate their struggles. Once newcomer youth become aware of their human rights, they may act to organize to defend them, gradually becoming agents of change rather than objects of social change (Cox & Thomas, 2004). Exploring HRE with newcomer immigrant youth will hopefully add to the body of research on HRE pedagogy and its applications in urban secondary schooling. TEACHERS Two teachers in this section enacted HRE in their classrooms. Both hold state teaching credentials in English. The two teachers were chosen because they have developed and implemented ninth and 10th grade HRE-integrated English courses over the past few years as colleagues. Each teacher strives to incorporate HRE approaches and reflect upon their teaching regularly. Both teachers are committed to providing HRE in their classrooms while meeting state standards for high school English.

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Portrait of Ms. Fine

I was inspired to make sure that our students were armed with UDHR knowledge and especially students who are in communities of color in the United States, immigrant communities; there’s so much, they face so many obstacles and so much oppression here, like they need to know that the UDHR exists. (Schiller, 2013).

Ms. Fine was 29 years old when she first learned about the UDHR while attending the University of San Francisco’s program in HRE. The program turned out to be a turning point. It provided the perfect theoretical complement to the teaching she was already doing at Global High School since 2009. Ms. Fine reflected that she was creating and writing curriculum for social change but never thought of it in terms of human rights. As a founding teacher of Global High School, Ms. Fine sat with other teachers to find ways to make HRE a part of the school culture: I think there are teachers (in San Francisco) who are just as dedicated and just as social justice orientated and working so hard and having strong relationships with their students, but I think the difference is it’s not schoolwide. I think what’s different is that our entire staff has this philosophy and our entire school has like this, kind of like these nets supporting underneath our students and I think that’s the difference. I think teachers and principals are doing really great things at other schools but they’re operating

Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education 195 within a really different structure than we are and so I think that’s the difference.

The school’s participation and structure within the Internationals Network shaped the way Ms. Fine looked at classroom instruction and gave her the tools she uses today. Throughout her four years at the school, Ms. Fine stated, she hasn’t stopped learning. Portrait of Ms. Patel It was really inspiring to see some students while reading Maus and learning about the Holocaust, you can just see justice flickering in their eyes. One of my goals is to support students to question unfairness and to be able to do it in such an adult way. Not just “It’s not fair!” but “Article 26 says …”

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Ms. Patel recognizes that there were some things a teaching program can’t prepare you for no matter how well it is structured. One class in particular was about democracy in education. Ms. Patel wished it framed it through a human rights lens because she says the class would have had “some teeth to it.” Ms. Patel stated that one thing the program did very well was prepare her to work with newcomer youth because of its emphasis on group work, multiple intelligences, and collaboration. When Ms. Patel arrived at Global High School, she said it was “so cool coming in to this school and seeing that they were doing exactly what I learned.” Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel provided multiple opportunities for students to engage in human rights activities, discussions, and projects in their 9th and 10th grade English classrooms. First, HRE engaged a vulnerable population with curriculum that they “knew” based on their lived experiences and traumas, leading them to construct their own human rights narrative. Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel drew upon the complexity of identities of their newcomer students to create an entry point for learning HRE. They both stressed the importance of knowing their students and using their complex identities as newcomers as a frame of reference while analyzing oppression, learning the content of HRE, and developing a voice to act against human rights violations. Students’ exposure to poverty, violence, homelessness, immigration policies, and migration practices influenced their understanding of the principles of human rights and how they recognized human rights violations as they occurred in both their home countries and current communities. Second, Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel used aspects of critical pedagogy in their classrooms to coconstruct knowledge with students around themes of oppression, create opportunities to question and consider social conditions, and develop students’ critical consciousness. Although the literacy

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instruction was heavily scaffolded due to students being ELLs, students remained fully engaged in their own learning and had opportunities to criticize freely, debate, and ask critical questions as their language skills emerged and developed. Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel carefully chose novels for their classrooms that included themes of oppression, discrimination, and human rights abuses to provide themes for students to discuss and analyze. Both teachers used participatory methods throughout the semester, providing opportunities for students to voice their opinions and give their perspectives. Each class was democratically structured in a way that engaged and empowered students to critically analyze real-life situations. Learning was cooperative and built upon the experiential knowledge of students. Third, Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel wove HRE into ninth- and 10th-grade English content with HRE pedagogy into each unit of study. Both teachers utilized critical dialogue as a way to form a community of learners. Each lesson and activity provided an opportunity to develop students’ critical consciousness while merging English language development into the process. Students were English language learners, and they were able to acquire skills to become more critically conscious using a human rights framework. Ms. Fine felt that her ELL students might not entirely understand the UDHR the first time, they would at least know that it existed. Ms. Fine shared in an interview that learning about human rights has the power to:

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provide a foundation to move them forward as critical thinkers in their communities … to read newspapers or to see bullying differently on the playground. I think they’ll come back to it in the curriculum when they learn about oppression and dictatorships. It’s something they can come back to and make those connections.

Developing a critical consciousness is a process and is something that the learner builds upon throughout his or her life through formal and informal learning opportunities, in which they analyze real world events. Ms. Fine echoed the belief that students would build upon their critical consciousness in and out of school after being exposed to HRE. CONNECTING HRE TO STUDENTS LIVED EXPERIENCES In Ms. Fine’s classes, the students’ lived experiences were the foundation for supporting students to access new knowledge. Ms. Fine recognized the potential HRE had to tap into and validate her students’ own lives. She felt that her students knew about human rights even if they didn’t have the language to express their knowledge just yet:

Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education 197 I think what teachers have to do, you have to make it personal and you have to make the curriculum something that the students are interested in. I also think what’s even more important for language learners is that they might not have language to express themselves, they might not have the, maybe the school skills to express themselves, but they have the life-experiences to express themselves and to make connections to. So as an English teacher and humanities teacher I think it’s so easy to use HRE, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as a launching point. The kids might not know it formally as “UDHR,” “HRE” or what the world uses to talk about social justice, but they definitely have experience in social justice issues and oppression.

The above quote is one example of how Ms. Fine connected human rights to her students’ lived experiences to promote meaningful knowledge construction (Freire, 1970). She conveyed that HRE deepened the critical consciousness of her students by having them see injustices and their consequences through the eyes of real people; they were not simply something to be read about in a book. Like Ms. Fine, Ms. Patel believed in the importance of connecting human rights to her students’ lives by tapping into and validating their experiences. She believed that learning about the UDHR and its articles allowed the students to name inequities they saw and gave them a frame of reference to be able to speak out against injustice and inequity. Ms. Patel revealed that the key to teaching human rights was with the students themselves. “I think that’s what’s so amazing about HRE is that when students can bring their own experiences and their own lenses to it, like … they are so smart. When it’s human rights and it’s personal, that’s when you care.” In addition to HRE connecting with students personally, Ms. Patel also found that it provided opportunities for students to learn about each other’s experiences while developing cross-cultural communication. “I think HRE is a really powerful way for students to learn about their own culture and each others’ and ours and it helps turn our students to be metacognitive, aware adults.” Ms. Patel’s students were able to collectively identify and name themes such as torture and persecution using classroom materials. They also acquired an understanding of the connection between personal experiences to human rights issues and were encouraged to dialogue about these personal perspectives. One way that Ms. Patel drew upon students’ opinions and prior knowledge was through an activity called “The Four Corners.” The activity was developed to spark student interest in the new graphic novel unit Ms. Patel planned to introduce. She asked the following questions and then asked students to choose a corner to stand in to represent their opinion on the issue:

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• • • • • • • • • •

War is necessary. Some humans are better than other humans. People have a responsibility to be loyal to the country they live in. The best way to learn history is by reading a textbook. Family relationships are important. Comic books are for young children only. When you see racism, it is important to fight against it. School is the only place to learn. Stories are for entertainment only. Our lives are influenced by things that have happened before we were born.

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The four corners of the classroom represented an opinion. They included signs that read, “agree,” “disagree,” “strongly agree,” and “strongly disagree.” First, Ms. Patel asked students to translate the list of questions shown above into their home language. After they had translated the questions and understood them, Ms. Patel then asked students to choose a corner to stand in. Ms. Patel reminded students not to choose a corner based on where their friends were or what seemed popular with the rest of the class, but one that represented their individual opinion. After students chose their corner, and after each question, Ms. Patel asked students to partner up so that one partner would share his or her partner’s description of why they chose that particular corner. Right from the beginning, students scattered to each of the four corners, generating multiple opinions and conversations. “War is necessary,” said Ms. Patel. She called on students. “I disagree because war is very bad because it causes pain” answered Rex. “I strongly agree because some people are evil and do bad things,” answered Flora. Julia shared her partner’s opinion to the class, “She says she strongly disagrees because many people die in wars and people can talk to solve conflicts.” The activity sought ways to engage students in constructing and enhancing their learning through dialogue with peers. It also introduced the new novel, Maus. Ms. Patel wanted to draw her students into the topic of WWII and the Holocaust in a way that sought their opinions about some of the themes in the book. Later in the week, Ms. Patel continued framing human rights themes with students as she prepared them to read Maus. She implemented an HRE activity she was particularly proud of because she felt the activity was how HRE should “look” in the classroom. In this exercise, 10th grade students who were exposed to HRE the year before taught the new 9th grade students who were not exposed to HRE about human rights principles and themes.

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To begin, students were handed an interview guideline and assigned to ask each other about human rights violations in their home country. Two students in particular, Lao and Mary, had an intense conversation about human rights violations. Both were emerging English language speakers and able to carry on a conversation in English. After reading the prompt to describe a human rights violation in their home country, Mary, from El Salvador, explained animatedly to Lao an example she thought of immediately. Using hand gestures, she told Lao about men who sold boys and girls to the black market in El Salvador order to kill them for their body parts. She pointed to her stomach and made a cutting motion across it to articulate her point. Lao, from China, recognized what Mary was trying to communicate immediately. He said excitedly, “Oh, I understand! In China, they do that too!” Lao further explained to Mary that poor people in China sometimes sold their own body parts to have enough money to pay for luxury items such as an iPhone or laptop. Sharing this prior knowledge provided Lao and Mary with a lens to analyze human rights abuses in their own countries and coconstruct a developing understanding of how human rights applied to real-life situations. They shared their examples with students at their group and at the table next to them. Another Chinese student verified that what Lao said was true. Students in this example had an opportunity to shape and define their own understanding of human rights and human rights violations through this exercise.

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Teaching English Reading and Writing Through HRE Themes Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel saw high school English with ELL students as offering a unique contribution to HRE pedagogy. Ultimately, their focus was on providing English language instruction so that their students had the skills to graduate and use these skills to go to college and acquire jobs. The teachers’ choice of literature, essay topics, reading responses, and collaborative activities were infused with HRE. Although they faced challenges in teaching SIFE students, students with low academic literacy, and students learning a new language, both Ms. Fine and Ms. Patel saw an opportunity to engage their students in meaningful curriculum that had the potential to create change. “People Need to Know About This!” Ms. Fine taught her English classes grade-level requirements for high school through HRE pedagogy. She said that it was her responsibility to

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teach literary analysis and reading comprehension to prepare students to take the high school exit exams for graduation, but that it was a challenge because many of her students didn’t read. “Every kid is at their own level so some of the students are working on literary analysis and making connections between books and documents and some kids are learning to decode. As a teacher, Ms. Fine recognized the need to provide her high school students with literature they were interested in. She felt that students “grabbed on to HRE” when it was presented in the classroom: When you are teaching literacy to kids in their second language who can’t read or write in their first language, their own narrative has to become the launching point. When they are kids who can’t read or can’t write and they’ll at least listen to the narratives of other kids and do all the things that we are teaching in terms of reading comprehension or strategies for understanding a text orally, then that will transfer to emergent readers in English.

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Ms. Fine began the year by teaching about human rights and using the UDHR as a lens to read pieces of literature in class. During the first weeks of school, students simply learned about the UDHR and analyzed the 30 articles within the document. Although this unit occurred prior to my observation period, Ms. Fine said students shared different experiences orally, in writing, through images and videos, and listening about human rights violations. They learned what happened when human rights were not upheld. As part of the unit, students sat in groups of three to four, each small group responsible for reading about and learning three to four articles from the UDHR. They made posters of the articles and translated it into the various languages of the students at the school, illustrating the article with images to reflect each human right. Students were then responsible for teaching the rest of the class about their articles and did this until the entire document was learned together. Each group stood at the front of the class and read from a script they had prepared together: I am/We are going to talk about Article _____ (number). The title of this article is _____ (title of your Article). Article ____ says that __________ (sentence explaining your article). The picture on my poster shows _______ (explain your picture). I think Article _____ is important because ________ (why is this Article important?). Does anyone have any questions?”

At the end, each group member received a UDHR presentation rubric assessing how well he or she did for the presentation.

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“HRE: It Could Maybe Help Them to Learn Their Story” Even with the reading strategies, we are trying to push higher order thinking which is so hard when they’re learning English. One thing I really like about HRE is it automatically puts students into this critical thinking zone even if they don’t have high English levels.

Ms. Patel used vocabulary practice to bring a critical lens to classroom work and discussions. She placed students in heterogeneous small groups and passed out slips of paper with words written on one side and definitions on the other. Words such as “Prison,” “Nazi,” “Holocaust,” “Prejudice,” and “Antisemitism” were included in the activity. “First look at the word. For example, ‘Prison.’ Turn it over to see what it is. If you and your partner speak the same language, perhaps you can translate it. Then you can quiz your partner to make sure your partner understands the words.” The activity was designed to learn new vocabulary words that were used in the graphic novel, Maus. The activity provided opportunities to learn words that related to oppression and hatred, sparking impromptu discussions by students in class. “Miss, why they want to put yellow star on persons?” Ms. Patel answered, “To identify.” Students in the class exhaled with recognition, “Ooh.” Ms. Patel admitted that this activity was “pretty low-level” but that it was important for students to practice past tense. She found it a challenge to have time for students to practice vocabulary in groups, especially as three or more students were absent per day from class. Ms. Patel’s desired outcomes for the activity were for students to understand the concept of the words and the definitions and then to learn to analyze the words. She wanted them to understand everything in both English and their home language.

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Ms. Fine shared the importance of the students’ making connections from their lives to the academic content provided in the classroom. She was able to integrate concepts and principles of human rights into each and every lesson and activity in her English classrooms while meeting the standards for ninth and 10th grades. She believed that students would build upon human rights knowledge while reading textbooks or learning from teachers and peers in the future. Students gathered their own stories while reading the novels, so they had opportunities to make connections between the literature and their lives. Ms. Fine taught English to her students using a variety of differenti-

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ated instructional tools that she had developed over time. She said that she completely rewrote each novel in the classroom to offer support materials for the students’ different levels. Although it took extensive time and effort to create revised curriculum that was scaffolded to meet academic language needs, Ms. Fine’s classroom was seen as a model for other newcomer schools to implement in the district. This was a source of great pride for Ms. Fine, who spared no effort to reach the needs of each of her learners. In Ms. Patel’s classes, students learned about one another’s cultural backgrounds and experiences and drew upon these similarities and differences to engage with HRE activities and learning. Many of the students saw human rights through the lens of violations that they had experienced or witnessed. Several spoke to the contradiction between the UDHR’s purpose and the violations that occurred against them personally or in their countries of origin, while others seemed relieved that there was a document that would protect them from violations. Ms. Patel explained, “A lot of students were like, ‘Oh there’s this UDHR and everything’s okay. But others were like, ‘But we don’t have these rights!’” Because students were asked to analyze the human rights principles outlined in the UDHR and their meaning to their own lives, they became valuable experts in the classroom. They were also provided with opportunities to interview family or friends about human rights violations they had experienced, further giving opportunities to act as experts and facilitators as they shared their stories. Ms. Patel was explicit in her discussions with students about discrimination, racism, and immigration. Starting with the world of the students, Ms. Patel made use of real experiences, stories, and examples to draw them into discussions, writing, and cooperative—learning opportunities. Students formed opinions about racism, discrimination, and immigration and described their views and thoughts to others. Ms. Patel highlighted the importance of engaging students through their stories and through the stories of their family and community. Ms. Patel felt her students were at-risk for having their voices unheard and therefore provided an environment where human rights was learned and practiced. Ms. Patel based many of her activities on building skills in English language as required by ninth and 10th grade standards and for passing high school exit exams. She provided activities that used sentence strips, vocabulary cards, worksheets, and group collaboration to meet the standards through HRE. HRE provided a language and framework to read grade-level literature, which she incorporated frequently into the worksheets and activities in her classes.

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HRE In “Education and Culture” Course in Teacher Education For the past five years, I have taught at a small liberal arts university as an adjunct professor. I was hired to teach a course titled, “Education and Culture.” The course description states: This course introduces educators to the complex sociocultural variables that impact and influence the U.S. system of education. It enables educators to identify and analyze various social and cultural processes, the ideologies, values, beliefs, and attitudes that permeate the U.S. system of education. The course examines the inter/intrarelationships between society, culture, and education nationally and within the state of California.

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A broad interdisciplinary foundation, varied theoretical and practical experiences, and repeated opportunities to critically analyze ethnicity, race, class, gender, and the hegemonic curriculum were key ingredients in the course. I updated the course subsequent to student evaluations that asked for more concrete ways to integrate topics of race, class, gender, bias, discrimination, language, and globalization in K–12 classroom teaching along with ways to teach these themes through the required state standards. I developed a HRE framework to compliment the Education and Culture course I had been teaching for six semesters. The HRE framework was integrated into Education and Culture during the spring semester of 2013. I developed ideas, activities, and strategies that would potentially transform my students’ beliefs about teaching, academic objectives, relationships with their students, and engagement with parents using the principles and critical lens that HRE provides. My personal hope for preservice teachers leaving my class was that they would began to see themselves as active participants in the empowerment of students and as facilitators for academic success. Context

One of the competencies of HRE is to know one’s rights. The International Secretariat of Amnesty International defines HRE in part as, “Adequate protection of human rights depends on the individuals concerned knowing what their rights are” (Amnesty International, 1987). To gather background knowledge about my students’ understanding of human rights, I passed out a handout with 30 blank lines. “Please write down as many human rights as you can. Do this independently. You’ll have 5 minutes.” Most sat with a puzzled expression on their faces and more than a few looked embarrassed. When the five minutes were up, I asked students to share their responses. “The right to free speech,” said one. “The right

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to carry arms!” said Tommy. “Um, I think that there is a right to education?” voiced a student named Alisha. I passed out another paper, this one titled, “The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” On this paper, each one of the thirty human rights articles was printed in the simplified version. I asked students to partner to read the articles: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

13. 14.

15.

16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

Everyone is free and we should all be treated in the same way. Everyone is equal despite differences in skin color, sex, religion, language for example. Everyone has the right to life and to live in freedom and safety. No one has the right to treat you as a slave nor should you make anyone your slave. No one has the right to hurt you or to torture you. Everyone has the right to be treated equally by the law. The law is the same for everyone, it should be applied in the same way to all. Everyone has the right to ask for legal help when their rights are not respected. No one has the right to imprison you unjustly or expel you from your own country. Everyone has the right to a fair and public trial. Everyone should be considered innocent until guilt is proved. Every one has the right to ask for help if someone tries to harm you, but no-one can enter your home, open your letters or bother you or your family without a good reason. Everyone has the right to travel as they wish. Everyone has the right to go to another country and ask for protection if they are being persecuted or are in danger of being persecuted. Everyone has the right to belong to a country. No one has the right to prevent you from belonging to another country if you wish to. Everyone has the right to marry and have a family. Everyone has the right to own property and possessions. Everyone has the right to practice and observe all aspects of their own religion and change their religion if they want to. Everyone has the right to say what they think and to give and receive information. Everyone has the right to take part in meetings and to join associations in a peaceful way.

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21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30.

Everyone has the right to help choose and take part in the government of their country. Everyone has the right to social security and to opportunities to develop their skills. Everyone has the right to work for a fair wage in a safe environment and to join a trade union. Everyone has the right to rest and leisure. Everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living and medical help if they are ill. Everyone has the right to go to school. Everyone has the right to share in their community’s cultural life. Everyone must respect the “social order” that is necessary for all these rights to be available. Everyone must respect the rights of others, the community and public property. No one has the right to take away any of the rights in this declaration (www.hrea.org).

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After reading 30 human rights, Tommy laughed, realizing his mistake in thinking that human rights were the same as constitutional rights and voicing this to the class. A few other students made the same mistake, with answers such as “The right to free speech,” and “The right to due process.” Students in my class were surprised by their lack of knowledge about the UDHR and the 30 articles written in the document. I described how the United States was one of the initial drafters of this declaration and how it continues to serve as an international standard for the rights of human beings. I spend much of my time in the Education and Culture course modeling teaching practices that could be utilized in preservice teachers’ future classrooms. I provided the next activity as an example that could be used to teach a new concept. In this case, it was meant as a model activity for social studies teachers using the HRE framework and Common Core standards. I passed out sorting strips in yellow and pink. The yellow strips were sentences that gave examples of a “claim.” For example, “Article 23.” The pink strips of paper were called “evidence” and might have an example such as, “poverty in an urban community,” or “a day-laborer coming to the United States for work.” Students were asked to work in pairs to sort the strips so that they matched the articles they felt matched the evidence. This required critical thinking skills, as the examples of “evidence” were not always straightforward or written in the same language as the articles themselves. Students remained engaged during this activity, dis-

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cussing the different articles while sometimes finding more than one strip of “evidence” to fit an article of the UDHR. When they were finished with the sorting activity, we discussed their answers in a group. Later in the evening, to give more content background on human rights, we watched a short film called, “The Story of Human Rights” (www.youtube.com). The video begins with the question, “What are human rights?” and shows different people from all ages and backgrounds struggling to answer it. The video goes on to describe the concept and history of human rights and how it applies to many of the issues that plague the 21st century. At the end of the video and after our discussion of the articles of the UDHR, it is clear that for most of the students in my class, the concept of human rights principles are a new and unfamiliar territory. This was important, as it gave them an opportunity to experience what it was like to enter a classroom and not have all of the “right” answers (which was new for many who had been successful students in most of their classes and had much professional and personal material to add to conversations). We discussed the hidden curriculum and the ways that knowledge is legitimized and presented in schools throughout the semester, so this provided a quick feeling of discomfort, similar to how a student might feel who is unfamiliar with U.S. schooling or curriculum. The lack of prior knowledge also gave them opportunities to collaborate with peers and use critical thinking skills to work on an activity. Most importantly for me as the teacher educator, it gave them an introduction to HRE framework that would be used throughout the course. I described the purpose of introducing a human rights framework. The course, I explained, was an introduction to culture and how it impacts the lives of students and teachers in the classroom. Issues of identity, language, dominant cultural norms, and the “isms” would be topics for discussion throughout the semester. In order to frame these topics so that they connected personally and to the broader world in which we all live, we explored them through the international framework of human rights education, or HRE.

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Jennings (n.d.), whose work focuses on aligning HRE with common core standards, indicated that HRE does not take K–12 students away from these academic standards, but rather adds to K12 students’ understanding of the standards. According to Jennings, HRE helps K12 students relate to the standards in their private and public lives and enhances the associated meaning to increase their motivation to learn. Jennings further proposed that learning HRE prepares students to analyze history and the

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contemporary world (including their own immediate social contexts) using their knowledge of human rights, and that HRE promotes the skills and dispositions needed to make decisions and take actions, which protect and promote human rights. In a study by DiBara (2007), teachers in urban schools describe the importance of seeing education beyond simple content standards for schools to be transformational in their unique social and economic context. One teacher in the study stated, “she will be a successful teacher if [she] inspire[s] them to learn more, and to treat people better, and … instead of having these ideas and saying things, to actually go out and do something” (p. 20). DiBara found that not only are teachers in urban contexts challenged to provide their students with academic success, but most are also devoted to their students’ personal lives and development. Teachers in DiBara’s study saw the larger purpose of education as supporting their students’ development as human beings. As newcomer immigrant youth are more likely to drop out of school (Bridging Refugee Youth & Children’s Services, 2008) the role that teachers play is fundamental, and goes beyond the academic to the social and emotional. Research shows that newcomer immigrant students who have supportive relationships with teachers are more likely to do well in school (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2006).

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It is not enough to simply know students’ lived realities but it is also a responsibility of the teacher to explore the possible ways that students might internalize HRE. Without a deep knowledge, respect, and understanding of the lived realities of students, HRE can be painful when the teacher taps into prior trauma and exposure to human rights violations without providing a process for students to move toward empowerment. Since students understand human rights through their own contexts and struggles, teachers and students need to practice together how to translate human rights into a form that can be understood and applied in everyday situations within varied contexts. It is important that students engaging in HRE within these contexts first learn the rights inherent to all human beings, and then learn the treaties, law, and principles that guarantee these rights. It is also important for urban teachers and their students shape and define HRE in a way that is based on their own struggles and add these narratives to the current understanding of human rights. In this way, the principles of human rights move beyond theoretical concepts and become living, dynamic interpretations of HRE “on the ground.”

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The United States was one of the original framers of the UDHR and should take leadership in incorporating HRE into formal education. The fact that very few teachers have been formally taught HRE in their teacher education programs means that its implementation might be lacking, incorrect, or taught without fully understanding its potential, particularly for urban youth. Teacher education courses such as those focusing on curriculum and content in the classroom, democratic classrooms, engaging with parents and caregivers, cultural pluralism in the United States and classes that explore active citizenship with students could implement HRE content and pedagogy. When teachers have formal HRE included in their educational program, they are given opportunities to create HRE-based curriculum and pedagogy, engage in discussions about the purpose of HRE, and develop an understanding of the ways in which HRE offers an interpretation of social justice that is based on human rights content, law, and protective mechanisms and processes. Schools have an important role for promoting HRE and supporting teachers to teach human rights principles in classrooms.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CONCLUSION

Although many teachers have a commitment to social justice, very few have had training or education in human rights principles. For example, teachers often promote skills such as empathy or conflict resolution in schools. However, these efforts are not actual HRE because they do not promote the critical awareness in students that results from human rights theory, the human rights movement, the possibility of universal human rights for all and the accountability for people and governments to adhere to those rights (Gerber, 2008). For HRE to be effective, it must be incorporated at all levels, including teacher education programs. Teaching a course such as Education and Culture utilizing a HRE framework can present tremendous opportunities. My personal journey integrating HRE into an existing course sheds insight into some of the ways that I engaged students in grappling with topics using a human rights lens. We continued discussions of human rights principles and mechanisms to analyze issues of culture and schooling throughout the semester. For example, while learning about the rights and laws protecting LGBTQ individuals in schools, we analyzed curricula, looked at school climate surveys, and watched a movie titled “Bullied” (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2010). After each of these activities, we explored issues facing LGBTQ students and families using a human rights lens. Drawing upon Amnesty International USA’s “About LGBTQ Human

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Rights” (2013), we engaged in discussions about the rights of the child, the refusal of governments to address violence committed against LGBTQ people (Amnesty International USA, 2013), and marriage equality and the potential for same sex partners to be parents or guardians of children in the classroom. When the semester was over, students in the course wrote course evaluations that positively highlighted how culture and a human rights consciousness would be integrated into their teaching. For example, one stated, “I’m walking away with more knowledge about others’ cultures and how people’s lives differ. I have more skills to incorporate culture in many ways” (Teaching Evaluation, 2013). Another student wrote, “In an ideal world, this course could be cotaught in several sections; for math, science, history, language, etc.” (2013). Finally, a student concluded in his evaluation, “I walk away with lessons, techniques, and a different philosophy in teaching altogether” (2013). These attitudes continued after the students left the course and after they began teaching, as told to me by colleagues before the students graduated, and after, when the preservice teachers became classroom teachers and I obtained informal updates from principals or peers. In addition to the many opportunities that HRE has for teacher education, there are also challenges to integrating an HRE framework, specifically the need to have a background or understanding in HRE pedagogy and the principles and mechanisms that make up basic human rights. I had an opportunity to inform my practice through the observations of a veteran and a new teacher enacting HRE with their urban students. Increasing teachers’ awareness of human rights and providing them with enough material to introduce human rights into the classroom will build their confidence in teaching HRE. Whether or not teacher education programs feel “ready” to implement HRE into their programs, the truth is that most students in the U.S. are ill prepared to participate in domestic or world communities as fully informed citizens. “If students are to value justice, freedom, democracy, and respect for diversity and the fundamental dignity of all the people of the world, they need a broader, more comprehensive education than most of them are receiving now” (Stone, 2002, p. 540). Gerber (2008) maintains that human rights concepts and instruments, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), The International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Political Rights, The Convention on the Rights of the Child, and The Convention on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples can be used to explore the philosophical, social, and cultural foundations of education. It is possible to explore schools and schooling practices, students’ communities, decision making, and contemporary events from a human rights framework. Furthermore, science,

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math, language arts, social studies, and art can be taught to preservice teachers using a human rights perspective. In this way, teacher preparation programs may view the implementation of HRE as a way to strengthen content that is already being taught by teacher educators. Teacher education provides a foundation for learning content and pedagogy for aspiring teachers who wish to work with young people. Rarely does it offer an exploration into the ways that schools contribute to the disengagement and disenfranchisement of marginalized youth and the positionalities of teachers who often unknowingly participate as agents of oppression. Strengthening teacher education so that they develop an awareness of their role in promoting and protecting human rights for students is needed if we want to encourage social justice, cultural awareness, and equity.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © REFERENCES

Amnesty International. (1987). Human rights education: Amnesty International’s Position (Index: Pol 32/03/8). London, England: Amnesty International. Amnesty International. (1992). Teaching for freedom final evaluation (AI Index: POL 32/05/99 Distr: SC). London, England: Author. Amnesty International. (2011). Human rights basics. Retrieved from http:// www.amnestyusa.org/research/human-rights-basics Amnesty International USA. (2013). About LGBQ human rights. Retrieved from http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/lgbt-rights/about-lgbt-humanrights Andreopoulos, G., & Claude, P. R. (Ed.). (1997). Human rights education for the twenty-first century. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Apple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and curriculum. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. Armaline, W., Glasberg, D., & Purkayastha, B. (2011). Human rights in our own backyard: Injustice and resistance in the United States. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Bajaj, M. (2012). Schooling for social change: The rise and impact of human rights education in India. New York, NY: Continuum. Bang, H., Gaytán, F., O’Connor, E., Pakes, Rhodes, J., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2010). Academic trajectories of newcomer youth. Developmental Psychology, 46(3), 602–618. Banks, D. (2000). Promises to keep: Results of the National Survey of Human Rights Education. Human Rights USA. Retrieved from http://hrusa.org/education/ promisestokeep.htm Boyson, B. & Short, D. (2003). Secondary school newcomer programs in the United States. Santa Cruz, CA: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence, University of California. Bridging Refugee Youth & Children’s Services. (2008). Welcoming and orienting newcomer students. Retrieved from http://www.brycs.org/documents/upload/ brycs_spotspring2008-2.pdf

Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education 211 Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration. (2012). California immigrant integration scorecard. Retrieved from http://csii.usc.edu/documents/California_ Immigrant_Integration_Scorecard_web.pdf Collins, D. (2000). Paulo Freire: Una filosofia educativa para nuestro tiempo [Paulo Freire: A philosophy of education for our time]. Mexico City, Mexico: Universidad La Salle. [Edición bilingüe]. Cox, L., & Thomas, L. (2004). Close to home: Case studies of human rights work in the United States. New York, NY: The Ford Foundation. DeLeon, A. (2011). Education, human rights, and the state: Toward new visions. In W. Armaline, D. Glasberg, & B. Purkayashta (Eds.), Human rights in our own backyard: Injustice in the United States. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York, NY: Macmillan. DiBarra, J. (2007). Responsible to the kids: The goals and struggles of urban high school teachers. The New Educator, 3, 11–30. Douglas, A. (2002). Educating for real and hoped for political worlds: Ways forward in developing political literacy. Retrieved from http://www.citized.info/pdf/ commarticles/Anna_Douglas.pdf Duncan-Andrade, J., & Morrell, E. (2008). The art of critical pedagogy. Possibilities for moving theory to practice in urban schools. New York, NY: Peter Lang. ElGarrai, O. (2000). Problems and prospects of human rights education in Arab Islamic region: Egypt as a case study. Dissertations Abstract International, 61(11), 4274A. (UMI No. AAT 9996414). Freire, P. (2005). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Seabury Press. (Original work published 1970) Freire, P. (1973). Education for a critical consciousness. New York, NY: Seabury Press. Garcia, O., & Sylvan, C. (2011). Pedagogies and practices in multilingual classrooms: Singularities in pluralities. The Modern Language Review, 95(3), 385–400. Gor, H. (2005). Critical pedagogy, pedagogy for human rights: How are we educated? Istanbul, Turkey: The History Foundation. Human Rights Resource Center. (2000). The human rights education handbook: Effective practices for learning, action, and change. Retrieved from http:// www1.umn.edu/humanrts/edumat/hreduseries/hrhandbook/toc.html Jennings, L., Parra-Medina, D. Hilfinger Messias, D. & McLoughlin, K. (2006). Toward a critical social theory of youth empowerment. Journal of Community Practice, 14(1/2), 31–55. Jennings, T. (Designer) (n.d.). Integrating human rights education into the CA state standards [Powerpoint]. Leung, Y., Yeun, W., & Chong, Y. (2011). School-based human rights education: Case study in Hong Kong secondary schools. Intercultural Education, 22(2), 145–162. Lopez, N., Mehr, M., & Witt, D. (2012). Developing effective language objectives and activities in project-based learning. Internationals Network for Public Schools. Retrieved from http://internationalsnps.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2012/12/Integrating-Language-and-Content-Guide-Overview3.pdf

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212 J. A. SCHILLER Magendzo, A. (2005). Pedagogy of human rights education: A Latin American perspective. Intercultural Education 16(2), 137–143. McEvoy Spero, A. (2010). This is a public record: Teaching human rights through performing arts (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http:// www.theworldasitcouldbe.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/07/ McEvoy_Spero_Dissertation_Final_pdf.pdf Meintjes, G. (1997). Human rights education as empowerment: Reflections on pedagogy. In G. Andreopoulos & P. Claude (Eds.), Human rights education for the twenty-first century. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id= wic7yv7axLEC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=human+rights+education+ as+empowerment+mientjes&source=bl&ots=NhNp7AF3LY&sig= 2EnCPJ3PJfDPmM-4gOug2VCkM8Y&hl=en&sa=X&ved= 0CCMQ6AEwAGoVChMI8LLf5rHyxwIV0luICh3acgnE#v=onepage&q=human%20rights%20education%20as%20empowerment% 20mientjes&f=false National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.ncate.org National School Lunch Program. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.fns.usda.gov/ sites/default/files/NSLPFactSheet.pdf Ostler, A. & Starkey, H. (2010). Teachers and human rights education. Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England: Trentham Books. Osler, A., & Zhu, J. (2011). Narratives in teaching and research for justice and Human Rights. Education, citizenship and social Justice, 6(3), 223–235 Planning Commission. (2008). San Francisco General Plan: Mission area plan. Retrieved from http://www.sf-planning.org/ftp/general_plan/Mission.htm Ruiz-de-Velasco, J., Fix, M., & Clewell, B. C. (2001). Overlooked and underserved: Immigrant students in U.S. secondary schools (pp. 1–102). Washington, DC: The Urban Institute. San Francisco Unified School District. (2011–2012). Balanced score card: Single plan for student achievement. Retrieved from http://www.sfusd.edu/assets/sfusd-staff/ schools-and-facilities/files/balanced-score-cards/SFInternationalHS.pdf Schiller, J. (2013). “These rights go beyond borders and pieces of paper:” Urban high school teachers and newcomer immigrant youth engaging in human rights education. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of San Francisco). Available from USF Scholarship Repository. (3611437). Shor, I., & Freire, P. (1987). A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey. Shor, I. (1993). Education is politics: Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. In P. McLaren & P. Leonard (Eds.), Paulo Freire: A critical encounter. London, England: Routledge. Sleeter, C. (1996). Multicultural education as social activism. New York, NY: SUNY Press. Southern Poverty Law Center. (2010). Bullied: A student, a school and a case that made history [DVD]. Available from http://www.tolerance.org/kit/bullied-studentschool-and-case-made-history Stone, A. (2002). Human rights education and public policy in the United States: Mapping the road ahead. Human Rights Quarterly, 24(2), 537–557.

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Promoting Human Rights Education in Teacher Education 213 Suárez, D. (2007) Education professionals and the construction of human rights education. Comparative Education Review, 51(1), 48–70. Suárez-Orozco, C., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (2006). Moving stories: The educational pathways of immigrant youth. Retrieved from http://www.brycs.org/ clearinghouseresource.cfm?document=2368 Tibbitts, F. (2002). Understanding what we do: Emerging models for human rights education. International Review of Education/Internationale Zeitschrift Fur Erziehungswissenschaft, 48(3/4), 159–171. Tibbitts, F. (2008). Human rights education. In Encyclopedia of Peace Education. New York, NY: Teachers College, Columbia University. Retrieved from http:// www.tc.edu/centers/epe/ Ty, R. (2011). Human rights, conflict, transformation, and peace building: The state, NGOs, social movements, and civil society—The struggle for power, social justice, and social change (Doctoral dissertation). Northern Illinois University. UNESCO. (n.d.). Human rights and education. Retrieved from http://www.unesco .org/en/human-rights-education/d United Nations. (1948). Universal declaration of human rights. Retrieved from http:// www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml United Nations. (1976). International covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR). Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx United Nations. (1979). Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW). Retrieved from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/ cedaw/ United Nations. (1989). Convention on the rights of the child (CRC). Retrieved from http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx United Nations. (2006). Plan of action: World programme for human rights education. New York, NY: United Nations. United Nations. (2008). Optional protocol to the international covenant on economic, social, and cultural rights (ICESCR). Retrieved from https://treaties.un.org/ Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?mtdsg_no=IV-3-a&chapter=4&lang=en

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CHAPTER 12

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

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Focusing the Preservice Classroom on Social Justice K. EIDSON

Karla Eidson

This chapter outlines the sequence of a semester-long effort to foster social justice awareness and global-mindedness through an examination of human trafficking with special emphasis on the sex slave market in Nepal. Using identified strands from the National Council for Social Studies curriculum as the basis of the semester study, students learned effective methods of teaching geography, history, government, culture, and citizenship using the issue of human trafficking as their focus of inquiry and exploration. Through children’s literature and group projects, the students created lesson plans and units of study around the topic of slavery. Transitioning from the concept of U.S. citizenship to global citizenship, the students explored other countries through the strands of culture and geography, including the nation of Nepal. Using documentaries, interviews, and Internet research, students learned the details behind the plight of thousands of exploited women in Nepal. Students generated unique ways of creating awareness of the issue.

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 215–231 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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“Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.” —U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (October 9, 2009) As Secretary Duncan suggests, education is, at its core, a process rooted in social justice. By teaching our students to become perceptive participants in a democratic society, and especially as we encourage the development of the sort of critical thinking that does not accept the status quo at face value, we are also equipping them to be active champions of social justice in their own contexts. But how can we effectively bridge the gap between theory and practice? As teacher educators, my colleagues and I felt as if we were frequently wasting valuable classroom time with trial-and-error methods to propel the precepts of social justice education in our social studies methods classes. This chapter will show the specific steps we took in our preservice teacher program to use a social justice curriculum as a vehicle to build community within classes, to bridge gaps between students, to empower students, and ultimately to motivate them to become passionate social justice educators in their own classrooms. From the beginning of the semester until the end, this chapter will capture the experiences of one social studies methods class as they used social justice as the matrix within which to learn methods of teaching social studies in the elementary classroom.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © WHY INCLUDE SOCIAL JUSTICE?

A survey of recent and current research reveals a number of well-founded motivations for including social justice education in the preservice education curriculum. 1. It reflects an understanding that teachers can work to challenge and alter an educational system that presently inadequately serves large numbers of children, particularly poor children, children of color, and children with special needs (Kozol, 1991; Oakes & Lipton, 2003; Zollers, Albert, & Cochran-Smith, 2000). 2. Social justice education aids development and deployment of an academically rigorous curriculum relevant to the increasingly racially and ethnically diverse student population. It also bolsters the learning and achievement of all students in the classroom (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Haberman, 1995; Sleeter & Grant, 2009; Zeichner, 2003).

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3. Students are challenged to be active participants in our democratic society (Nieto, 2000; Oakes & Lipton, 2003). When I first began teaching social studies methods using the James Banks textbook (1996) 15 years ago, I recall my growing interest in the social reconstructionist approach to schooling wherein teachers work to unpack the hidden curriculum, reforming and restructuring curriculum so that students are challenged to question and examine the social structure of society. The students unpack assumptions around race, class, and gender, connect current issues to historical trends of the past, and critically challenge single versions of the truth (Banks, 2008). For teacher educators committed to social justice, it is more important than ever to recognize the importance of providing preservice teachers with an understanding of how to translate theory into practice, elucidating for them the complexities in translating a social justice vision into a context of accountability and standardization. As teachers often are required to follow a mandated curriculum and/or state content standards, they need to learn to effectively discern what to teach, what not to teach, and how to teach it. Teaching social studies from a social justice perspective often requires a “rethinking of the curriculum and its purposes, nature, and goals” (Lee, Menkart, & Okaazawa-Rey, 2006, p. 38). Teachers working within this framework enact lessons that challenge students “to critique prevailing norms, to examine underlying assumptions and values, and to explore their own roles in relation to social problems” (Wade, 2007, p. 11). Teaching for social justice requires one to challenge the hegemonic, status quo norms of historical knowledge and seriously examine the “Eurocentric cultural values, norms, and expectations that form the dominant perspectives through which many of us theorize about education and develop curriculum” (Lee et al., 2006, p. x). In a Eurocentric, patriarchal curriculum, taken-for-granted themes undergird the content of curriculum. Social studies texts in general suggest that in the United States, almost everyone is White, middle class, Christian, and heterosexual (Sleeter & Grant, 2009). Typically, U.S. history texts start in Europe, then move westward from British settlements on the East Coast. Texts may include some Native Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans, but only as they relate to the larger story dominated by White people (Sleeter & Grant, 2009). Social studies for social justice supports the continuing encouragement of juxtaposing historical text and content against various points of reference, so that we may able to develop a more critical and comprehensive understanding of reality (Zinn, 2003).

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INTRODUCING SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE METHODS CLASSROOM In our particular context, the social studies methods semester begins with a historical study of civil liberties in the United States. Our methods block is taught once a week, so there is nearly three hours of class time in which to fully explore a single curriculum strand identified by the National Council for Social Studies (NCSS, n.d.; see also Table 12.1). Beginning with an object lesson, I knock over a container of water at the beginning of class. I usually stage this “historical event” right around calling the roll (making sure it does not occur near the computer or other electronic equipment and that paper towels are handy nearby). After spilling the water and the cleanup, I ask students to take out a sheet of paper and write down the events of the past one minute in class. Students look confused and always wonder if this is a test of some kind, but I simply ask them to write down an account of what they know that happened within the past minute. I then collect all of the papers, and as a class we begin to construct “The Great Water-Spilling Event of March 16, 2014,” or whatever the date may be. We read each student’s historical account and piece together facts surrounding the event. Inevitably, some students missed the entire episode because they were texting their boyfriends or getting something out of their backpacks. Some students include names of people in their account: “Ashley went and got some paper towels to clean up.” Others assign motive to the action: “Dr. Eidson purposefully knocked over her water bottle”; and still others add text: “Dr. Eidson exclaimed, “Oh my, my water bottle! Someone get paper towels, quick!” When we piece everyone’s accounts together, we have then created the official historical documentation of “The Great Water-Spilling Event of March 16, 2014.” We discuss how each account is told from a certain perspective and therefore excludes facts and points of view not available or apparent to the writer. From here, we move on to a discussion of who was generally writing American history at certain times in the past. At this point in class, I ask students to remember a misspelled word that I am about to teach them. I teach them the word “History” as “His Story.” Writing “His Story” on the board, I ask students to think about what they know about early America. Who would have been writing down the accounts of what was happening? As a class, we come up with not only men, but rich, White men, since they were the only ones educated enough to be recording historical details in written form. In other words, the seed is planted that what we may have been traditionally taught in History classes, may have been only “His Story.” A social justice-based social studies curriculum is focused on multiplicity, conflict, and complexity (Agarwal, Epstein, Oppenheim, Oyler, &

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Students parallel their understandings of the slavery era in America to the plight of victims of human trafficking.

Time, Continuity, and Change: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ways human beings view themselves in and over time.

2.

People, Places, and Environments: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of people, places, and environments.

Individual Development and Identity: Students involved in social justice curriculum Social studies programs should include expe- came to feel a personal connection with those riences that provide for the study of individ- oppressed. ual development and identity.

3.

4.

Students located Nepal on a map and learned the names of other third world countries that have incidences of human trafficking and where they are located. Students researched the ports in America where sex slaves are brought in.

Learning about the culture of Nepal was crucial to understanding the plight of the women who were and are affected by trafficking. The concept of family identity and shame culture were explored to understand why women were not permitted to return to their homes after they were kidnapped and later rescued.

Culture: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of culture and cultural diversity.

Alignment With Social Justice Issue of Human Trafficking

1.

The 10 NCSS Themes The National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) is the national umbrella organization for the social studies.

Table 12.1.

(Table continues on next page)

Students reflect on times in their life they have felt hopeless and what they did to overcome that feeling (journal prompts). Class discussions occurred after viewings of documentary films in which victims were interviewed.

Students study world map and learn how to use Google Earth in the classroom. Trace the highway in Nepal and the border area shared with India to become familiar with the areas of high incidences of human trafficking. Students create lap-boards to teach geography and countries of the world.

Students became familiar with the misspelling of “history” as “His Story” and the fact that much of early American history was recorded by upperclass, educated, White males. Methods of teaching the history of the American Civil War were demonstrated through class discussion and brainstorming and creating a KWL chart before and after reading Patricia Polacco’s book Pink and Say. Students wrote lesson plans covering an event of the civil rights movement.

The rich culture of Nepal was discovered through a multi-media group presentation. Students created a Glogster poster that contained video clips of music and dancing, textile weaving, and many photographs of the people. This group title was “Culture of Nepal.”

Corresponding Activities Performed by Students

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Science, Technology, and Society: Social Students follow Red Thread movement on Twitter Student group presentations are Glogster posters Studies programs should include experiences and Facebook. Documentaries are viewed on You- that include video links and podcasts. that provide for the study of relationships Tube. among science, technology, and society.

Global Connections: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of global connections and interdependence.

8.

9.

10. Civic Ideals and Practices: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship in a democratic republic.

Depressed economy and issue of poverty is explored. Students learn that little industry equals few choices for livelihood and how this plays a factor in the problem of human trafficking.

Production, Distribution, and Consumption: Social Studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people organize for the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

7.

Women and girls sold into slavery is a violation of human rights that the students define as a social injustice requiring remedy, rather than a distant problem that is nebulous.

Students learn personal stories of affected persons through blog entries.

Corrupt law enforcement along the borders is discussed through viewing of a documentary. Students related current issues in Nepal to the U.S. civil rights movement wherein a few people had to break an unjust law in order to create change.

Power, Authority, and Governance: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance.

6.

Through teaching methods of citizenship and government, students are reminded of their own rights as Americans and explore the definition of “human rights” around the world.

Students’ research focus groups require them to explore how different countries depend on each other.

Students create chart with industry in Nepal and national income averages. Women’s role and perceived worth in the culture are revisited.

Students learn methods for teaching the branches of government, vote on decisions made regarding social justice issues, perform assignment centered around creating the democratic classroom. Group presentation is entitled “Faces of Change” and features historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr.

Students learn about the nongovernmental orga- Students collaborate on Glogster poster group nizations working with Red Thread Movement presentations, awareness campaign, and designcalled K.I. Nepal, the entity that helps patrol bor- ing and all class activities. ders. They become familiar with other social justice organizations through social media.

Corresponding Activities Performed by Students

Individuals, Groups, and Institutions: Social studies programs should include experiences that provide for the study of interactions among individuals, groups, and institutions.

Alignment With Social Justice Issue of Human Trafficking

5.

The 10 NCSS Themes

Table 12.1. (Continued)

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Sonu, 2010), requiring teachers and students to examine whose voice or perspective may be left out of the Eurocentric narrative. In teaching social studies for social justice, teachers work to instill wonder in their students, building curriculum that connects to their students’ lives and prior learning. Referring to “His Story” and the Eurocentric, patriarchal account of history as it is traditionally taught, together as a class we raise questions such as: Who or what might be absent from an account written by wealthy White males? Who stands to benefit or be hurt by the inclusions and omissions in this text? How is language used in specific ways to convey specific ideas in this text? Drawing a line across from “wealthy,” “White,” “educated,” and “male” and listing those excluded clearly illustrates to students that voices unlikely to be heard are those of the poor, women, children, the uneducated, and anyone who was not White. By identifying the absence of these other perspectives, teachers are in a position to challenge normative thought by integrating multiple—and perhaps less familiar—perspectives into the curriculum, especially the voices of those likely to have been dominated, marginalized, or excluded from “canonical” texts. As Wade explains, “Teaching multiple perspectives can help students realize that there is more than one story that can be told about any event that happens” (2007, p. 38). At this point, I ask students to brainstorm with me what they know about one event in American history: the Civil War. Words and phrases such as “blue and gray,” “Robert E. Lee,” “Abraham Lincoln,” and “gone with the wind” are typically generated, but the list is generally not very long. Introducing Patricia Polacco’s book Pink and Say (1994), I explain that this is another story about the Civil War. This account, however, is from two boys’ perspective, and we read together about the unlikely friendship of Pink and Say, the two principal characters—one of whom is Black and the other White. As the story unfolds, the students become more and more engaged, and there is usually not a dry eye in the room at the close of the book. After a moment, we go back to the list we wrote earlier about what we knew about the Civil War and begin to add words and phrases. Now, the students know that Blacks were not allowed at first to carry arms, but instead were given clubs and sticks. They know what the soldiers ate and what mealy worms are. They know that slaves were not permitted to be taught to read and what it meant to “jump the broom.” The students generate themes such as “friendship,” “trust,” and “loyalty.” The earlier list tends to be academic and somewhat dry; the second is rich with imagery and emotion. Class discussions ensue about how a student in an elementary classroom might not think he or she has anything in common with Robert E. Lee but might well know a thing or two about what it feels like to not be trusted or to have a friend who helped in a time of need. Mak-

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ing connections to student’s lives is the first step in the scaffolding process of creating a classroom environment where social justice themes can be taught and can take root. According to Darling-Hammond (2005), to become educators for social justice, teachers need to understand who they are and their views on the sources of inequity and privilege. Thus, beginning with the Civil War, students undertake a historical study of civil liberties in the United States. Moving forward from the war through the civil rights movement roughly a century later, the students engage in class discussions and write lesson plans centered around this topic in order to practice methods of teaching history.

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HOW THE ISSUE OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING WAS CHOSEN

As the chapter title indicates, the students themselves selected human trafficking as a topic they were passionate about. Greene (1998) explains that in a just society, everyone affected by a decision should have a part in making the decision. Likewise, hooks (1995) expresses as a fundamental goal of transformative pedagogy the creation of a democratic classroom setting in which everyone is committed to making a contribution. Using the methods outlined in Project-Based Learning (Boss, Larmer, Mergendoller, & Buck Institute for Education, 2013), students directed their own learning. Further, an emphasis on the NCSS curriculum strand of government in a participatory democracy mandated that group discussions surrounding future areas of inquiry should include opportunities for everyone’s voice to be heard. This ethic of inclusion arises from the precept of the democratic classroom (Colin & Heaney, 2001), which functions in our context as a laboratory in which preservice teachers may develop behaviors and strategies to aid them in their classrooms. Thus, they are equipping themselves to both teach and model behaviors geared to nurture the development of inclusive, participatory principles in their future students. As the students engaged in class discussion about which particular issue of social justice they wanted to learn more about, their self-directed inquiry identified a small organization recently created by a 20-year-old student at another university. The organization, called the Red Thread Movement, is focused on efforts to rescue women in Nepal from being sold into the sex trade. With the civil liberties research and activities from earlier in the semester fresh on their minds, the students were understandably appalled to learn from their review of the Red Thread Movement website and materials that slavery is not only still in existence but thriving in the modern world. Soon the students all became passionate about finding out all they

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could about Nepal, as many had little knowledge of the country. This, logically, led into discussion of methods of teaching geography and culture. When students became familiar with where Nepal was on the map, and as they learned more through their study of the Red Thread Movement, they discovered that Nepalese girls are usually brought across the border into India, where they are either trafficked to other places in the world or forced into sexual slavery in India. The class studied the cultures, customs, and traditions of both Nepal and India, affording deeper understanding of the plight of the trafficking victims. The students learned that an estimated 12,000 victims of sex trafficking cross the border between Nepal and India every year. Data indicate that the human trafficking industry, which is the world’s second largest criminal enterprise, is gaining momentum worldwide. It is a problem that is shockingly prevalent in Nepal, where women’s low status and insufficient education make them vulnerable targets for traffickers (Red Thread Movement, 2012). Using a world map with Nepal enlarged, students traced the east-west highway in Nepal, which is 1,026 km long and has 15 border stations. The border between Nepal and India is open, allowing citizens of these countries to travel between the two without visas or passports. Since victims of sex trafficking are nearly impossible to trace once they pass over the borders of their countries, border surveillance units at the legal checkpoints are the principal means to monitor the movement of traffickers between countries. The principal strategy of the Red Thread Movement is to increase border surveillance and rescue girls before they cross the borders. Next, students sought out personal stories through blog entries and the Internet. At this point, they began making real internal connections. The following blog entry is from the Red Thread Movement website, cited by a student in the class.

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A 16-year-old girl has been rescued after being trafficked into India, enslaved in numerous brothels, and eventually escaping. Here is her story. Alina1 grew up as a middle child in a family of 11 in a rural Nepalese village. Her mother was neglectful, so Alina moved in with her aunt. At age 14, Alina went to visit her sister. During this particular stay, Alina’s sister had to leave town for a few days, so Alina went to a neighbor’s home while she was gone. As Alina was helping with the household chores, the neighbor, a middle-aged woman, encouraged Alina saying, “You are so fast with your work!” Alina smiled. She rarely received any positive attention at home and the change was nice. The woman told Alina that she had worked in India making good money. Alina shared that she had a sister living in India. The neighbor offered to take her to her sister and to help her find a good job. She promised Alina that she would have money to buy nice clothes and

224 K. EIDSON extra to send home to her family. Out of a desire to help with family finances, in particular medical needs for her grandmother, Alina agreed to go to India. They talked for hours, discussing “life in India” and making plans. The woman warned Alina not to tell her sister about her plans, and the day after Alina’s sister returned, she slipped out to meet the woman and begin their journey. For 1 week, Alina stayed with the woman in India. During this time, the woman bought Alina nice clothes, treated her to fancy meals, and taught her about Indian culture. Unbeknownst to Alina, the woman was a local prostitute and trafficker, and was preparing [Alina] to be sold in India’s Red Light District [sic]. At the end of the week, the woman told Alina the truth: that she would be forced to work as a prostitute in a brothel. Alina cried and threatened to call the police, but she could not escape. The woman met with a brothel owner to broker the sale of Alina’s freedom. Once they had reached an agreement, they forced Alina to sign documents stating that she was there by choice. Sealed with a thumbprint at the bottom, [the document meant that] Alina’s freedom was ripped away from her. For 2 years, Alina was forced to work in different brothels, hotels, and dance bars in the Red Light District. Alina was sometimes rebellious and fought the traffickers and brothel owners. In one instance, she was given housework for 1 month instead of having customers. It was common for her to have eight customers a night. Sometimes she even had Nepali men as customers. When this occurred, she would cry and plead with them to help. Many times, they cried as well and did not assault her. Some even tried to help her escape. One day, after escaping from a brothel, Alina caught a train, where she met a Nepali beautician trainer. Without mentioning that she recently escaped from forced prostitution, Alina told her she wanted to return to Nepal to be with her family. The woman agreed to take her during the Dashain Festival, and [said] that Alina could stay with her and work in her beauty parlor until then. At the end of the month, the woman escorted Alina to Nepal and stayed in contact with her by phone. After the 2-week holiday, the woman invited Alina to return to India and work in the beauty parlor with her, not knowing that she was underage. Alina agreed. However, on their way back to India, the two were stopped by KIN [Kingdom Investments Nepal, an organization affiliated with the Red Thread Movement] staff at the border. Both were interviewed by the staff, where it was discovered that Alina was underage. Because the woman was not aware of this and had legitimate papers to work in India as a beautician, the staff let her go. Alina was taken to the safe house. Alina is now receiving counseling in the safe house for the 2 years she spent in India’s Red Light District. She is outgoing and willing to share information about her experiences with KIN staff. Though some parts of her story are hard to share, she works to continue in order to help other girls like her. Through her bravery and willingness to share, KIN hopes to better help other girls in similar situations.

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Human Trafficking 225 UPDATE: Alina, along with a KIN staff member, has met with a lawyer to begin steps to prosecute the woman who trafficked her into India and sold her into the brothels and possibly some of the brothel owners. KIN has a strong record of successfully prosecuting traffickers in Nepal. Thanks to the bravery of these girls and your contributions to their recovery, traffickers are being put away, making Nepali villages safer for other girls. (Red Thread Movement, 2012a)

The preservice students focused on this blog entry of one girl’s story because it had a clearly defined beginning and ending. By all accounts they could find, this was not an isolated type of story. It helped them understand the plight of one young girl and also helped them realize that the socially just thing to do was to help others like her not be trafficked in the first place. In other words, rather than trying to picture a statistic, they could picture a young girl named Alina, and they knew her story. Through studying the culture of Nepal, the students came to realize that there was an enormous social stigma attached to the girls who had been sold into slavery; even if they escaped their circumstances, many of these young women had few alternatives for survival. The culture dictates that their families disown the girls, and they are no longer welcome in their former villages and communities. The students realized that they appreciated how this particular social justice organization helped to teach the rescued girls skills such as weaving and sewing, along with giving them shelter at safe houses.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © WHAT THE STUDENTS DID ABOUT IT

At this point in the semester’s study of methods of teaching social studies, the students had covered the NCSS strands of history, citizenship and government, and geography and culture. The economics strand was the next logical topic. The students had come to recognize the economic factors contributing to the victimization of the Nepalese women, and concurrently, they achieved an understanding of the economic importance of awareness. Thus, the students, armed with their newfound knowledge (and with Red Thread bracelets upon their wrists), were ready to spread the news about the struggle of young women in Nepal and highlight what the Red Thread Movement’s mission was all about. Continuing the precepts of Project-Based Learning, the students divided into teams to brainstorm ways to promote awareness of the issue of human trafficking in general and specifically sexual slavery. The students selected a striking image of a young woman’s face with the words, “I bought this so they couldn’t buy her.” Using this design, they ordered Tshirts to be offered for sale, along with the bracelets woven by the young

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Nepalese women under the sponsorship of the Red Thread Movement. The students decided together that they would sell the bracelets at the website cost of $3.00. Proceeds would be sent back to the Red Thread Movement organization. Similarly, they determined that they would not profit from the sales of the T-shirts, opting for awareness as their focus rather than fund-raising. Students created note cards to carry around with them at all times, and when someone asked them about the meaning of the Red Thread bracelet they were wearing, they were to tell them some of these facts. Notecard information compiled by students included the following: • Did you know that there are more people in slavery now that at any other time in history? • Worldwide, it is estimated that somewhere between 700,000 and four million women, children, and men are trafficked each year, and no region is unaffected. • An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into the United States each year. • There have been reports of trafficking instances in at least 20 different states, with most cases occurring in New York, California, and Florida. • UNICEF reports that across the world, there are over one million children entering the sex trade every year and that approximately 30 million children have suffered sexual exploitation over the past 30 years. • The U.S. Department of State estimates that about 600,000 to 800,000 people—mostly women and children—are trafficked across national borders annually. • The specific program that I advocate is called The Red Thread Movement, and it is an awareness campaign started by current college students. • The average age of trafficked Nepalese girls is 12.

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The students committed to memory much of the card information and could be overheard across campus, reciting the facts about which they had become fiercely outraged. Armed with their knowledge and sense of social justice, the students brought back their information to sororities, student organizations, and churches. They promoted the social media presence of the Red Thread Movement among their peers and told of the organization’s mission and strategies. They organized a “Wear Red” fashion show and set up tables in the student center to sell bracelets and T-shirts and talk to anyone who would

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listen about the issue of human trafficking. Over 200 shirts were sold at cost over the course of the semester, and the students wore them on designated days, including a day in which the university newspaper came to interview the students about their experience during this semester with its social justice emphasis. Striking the “Yes We Can” pose taken from World War II’s Rosie the Riveter, the students held up their Red Thread bracelet–adorned arms in a gesture of determination to make a difference. The subsequent news story was featured on the front page of the student newspaper and as a featured article on the university website, including a slide show of photos of the students. They were thrilled to be able to spread even more local awareness through this medium. The featured newspaper article read, in part, as follows:

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Sex trafficking is a worldwide criminal enterprise, seen especially in thirdworld countries where women and young girls are coerced to leave their homes and villages and then placed into underground prostitution markets. These kidnapped victims are often forced to work within large cities in America and rest of the world, where they can seamlessly blend in to a diverse pool of citizens. The Red Thread Movement concentrates a large amount of their efforts in Nepal where the problem is significantly prevalent. There, women’s low social status and insufficient education make them vulnerable targets for traffickers, according to Eidson. “Many of my classes are composed mainly of females, so I knew they would be able to deeply relate with the cause in that way,” Eidson said. It was only halfway through the first class and two documentary videos later that her prediction came true, she said. For SHSU senior Christie Samayoa, seeing the video accounts of survivors and their stories was a jaw-dropping moment. “Hearing that these other women are experiencing things like this all over the world moves you and horrifies you at the same time,” she said. (Thompson, 2012)

CHALLENGES THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER During the information-gathering stage of choosing a particular focus area of social justice, the students watched several documentaries in class, a few of which were rather graphic. I had previewed the episodes and offered a disclaimer to the class about the potentially disturbing content. Still, in one documentary showing raw footage of an interview with some of the men involved in trafficking, the subtitles relayed the men’s sentiment that they did not have a moral problem with what they were doing, because these women were just like cattle; who has a problem with selling cattle? The date stamp clearly indicated that this was current footage, and

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the nature of the filming was authentic. All this proved more disturbing to some of the students than they could bear, and a few became so outwardly emotional that they had to leave the room for the rest of the documentary. Other challenges were posed by the common problem inherent in group work involving an equal division of labor, although the use of peer evaluations for group-participation grades was highly effective in mitigating the tendency for some students to coast along on others’ effort. Nevertheless, some students are always going to participate more, work harder, and carry a greater load of group work whenever a cooperative learning model is used. Interestingly, class discussions among these future teachers about the pros and cons of using this model in their classrooms offered a significant side benefit to this teaching methodology.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CREATING A PARADIGM SHIFT

The class discussion after the viewing of these documentaries was focused on what the students could do to help young women like those in the films. The students expressed a deep desire to make others aware of this growing problem, and they wanted to bring the perpetrators to justice. Significantly, all of the actions that they supported were outwardly focused. This is important, particularly in the preservice social studies classroom and especially at this time in history. We have already discussed the problems associated with teaching social studies and history through a Eurocentric lens, but what also needs addressing is the egocentric nature of many of our young adults today. Their worlds can become very small and focused on their own schedules, their own problems, and their own dreams and ambitions, with little thought to others around them. Further, the demands of college life often place students in an insular environment, a bubble that they rarely leave. But the social justice focus in the university curriculum forced these students to turn their gaze outward. Indeed, in my experience in the classroom, “millennial” students are eager to embrace the challenges present in our world, once they are effectively presented with the information. The current generation of students is deeply concerned about its impact on the world and feels a great sense of indignation at the many injustices present, particularly those involving personal freedom. This shift from self-absorbed student to activist for the downtrodden is nothing short of remarkable, and as was witnessed in this particular study, can happen in the short span of one semester.

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INSTILLING HOPE This has been the description of one experience using social justice as the vehicle with which to introduce preservice teachers to methods of teaching the strands of social studies. As the chapter comes to a close, we will end by describing a culminating event of the semester’s study. During the last week of class, Twitter followers of the Red Thread Movement saw a link to the blog entry below. Yesterday, the following story ran in Nepal: BHAIRAHAWA, APR 25—A teenage girl from Tanahu district, who was being trafficked to India by three men, was rescued from Belahiya border in Rupandehi district on Wednesday evening. Officials of K.I. Nepal, an organisation working against human trafficking, rescued 17-year-old Sima Thapa as a group of traffickers were trying to take her across the border. The three men fled leaving behind Thapa when they were stopped at a check post. Thapa, a native of Arunodaya VDC-3 in Tanahu, was drugged by the three men she had met in a passenger bus headed for Bhimad Bazaar. “When I woke up I was in Belahiya. They threatened to kill me if I did not do what they told me. I relented and walked along with them,” said Thapa. While two of the traffickers walked ahead to cross the border, Thapa was instructed to walk along with the third man and identify him as her uncle if inquired. Usha Gurung, in charge of KI Nepal Belahiya check post, said Thapa’s nervous expression suggested something was suspicious about her being there with a man. “When we stopped them for questioning, she first said that the man was her uncle. Not convinced, we pressed her to tell the truth when the man ran away. She later told us what had happened to her,” said Gurung. Police Inspector Mohan Bahadur Khand of the Belahiya Area Police Office said Thapa was handed over to her parents on Thursday. (Red Thread Movement, 2012b)

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 One student read this blog entry aloud and the class erupted in cheers and applause. There was such ownership of the cause that one could have thought these students themselves were the ones who had stopped this girl and her would-be captors at the borders. This serendipitously served as the perfect close to the semester, ending it with a success story and instilling hope that change can and does happen when we work together to bring it about. NOTE 1.

Name of subject has been changed to protect her identity.

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REFERENCES Agarwal, R., Epstein, S., Oppenheim, R., Oyler, C., & Sonu, D. (2010). From ideal to practice and back again: Beginning teachers teaching for social justice. Journal of Teacher Education, 61(3), 237–247. Banks, J. A. (1996). Multicultural education, transformative knowledge, and action: Historical and contemporary perspectives. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Banks, J. A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston, MA: Pearson. Boss, S., Larmer, J., Mergendoller, J. R., & Buck Institute for Education. (2013). PBL for 21st century success: Teaching critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity. Novato, CA: Buck Institute for Education. Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Colin, S. A. J., & Heaney, T. W. (2001). Negotiating the democratic classroom. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 91, 29–38. doi:10.1002/ace.28 Darling-Hammond, L. (2005). Educating the new educator: Teacher education and the future of democracy. New Educator, 1(1), 1–18. Greene, M. (1998). Introduction: Teaching for social justice. In W. Ayers, J. A. Hunt, & T. Quinn (Eds.), Teaching for social justice: A democracy and education reader (pp. xxvii-xlvi). New York, NY: The New Press. Haberman, M. (1995). Star teachers of children in poverty. West Lafayette, IN: Kappa Delta Pi. hooks, b. (1995). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge. Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York, NY: Crown. Lee, E., Menkart, D., & Okaazawa-Rey, M. (Eds.). (2006). Beyond heroes and holidays: A practical guide to K–12 anti-racist, multicultural education and staff development. Washington, DC: Teaching for Change. National Council for the Social Studies. (n.d.). National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Chapter 2—The themes of social studies. Retrieved from http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/strands Oakes, J., & Lipton, M. (2003). Teaching to change the world (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. Polacco, P. (1994). Pink and say. New York, NY: Philomel. Red Thread Movement. (2012a). #Escape. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/ RedThreadMovement.wordpress.com Red Thread Movement. (2012b). #nomoreslaves. Retrieved from https://twitter .com/RedThreadMovement.wordpress.com Sleeter, C., & Grant, C. (2009). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to race, class, and gender (6th ed.) New York, NY: Wiley. Thompson, S. (2012, May 4). Students spread local awareness of global issue. Today @ Sam. Retrieved from http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/ Wade, R. (2007) Social studies for social justice: Teaching strategies for the elementary classroom. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Zeichner, K. (2003). The adequacies and inadequacies of three current strategies to recruit, prepare, and retain the best teachers for all students. Teachers College Record, 105(3), 490–519.

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Human Trafficking 231 Zinn, H. (2003). A people’s history of the United States. New York, NY: HarperCollins. Zollers, N., Albert, L., & Cochran-Smith, M. (2000). In pursuit of social justice: Collaborative research and practice in teacher education. Action in Teacher Education, 22(2), 1–14.

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CHAPTER 13

CLASS ACTIVITIES FOR UNDERSTANDING SELF AND OTHERS IN LOCAL, NATIONAL, AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS

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C. PIMENTEL AND Charise K. FITE Pimentel and Kathleen Fite

The authors of this chapter identify several activities and projects they have used in their own teacher education program that have preservice teachers examine themselves and others as ethnic and racial beings. Among many other questions, this chapter addresses the following: What are preservice teachers’ perceptions of ethnic and racial others? How are these perceptions shaped by the narrow portrayals they are exposed to in various forms of media? What tools and strategies do preservice teachers need to deconstruct, challenge, and expand upon the limited narratives that are vigorously recycled in media? How do preservice teachers understand their own race and ethnicity within a sociopolitical context? With these questions in mind, we identify a number of classroom activities and projects that can be used in teacher education programs to help participants understand self and others in local, national, and global contexts.

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 233–252 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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INTRODUCTION As a result of the increased use of Internet sites, social media in particular, as well as international labor and economic relations, our world is more connected and interdependent than ever before. No doubt, we live in a global context in which we rely on each other for manufactured goods, services, and natural resources and are learning about distant others through Internet sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Our interconnectedness or “globalization” poses both challenges and opportunities for K–12 teachers in the United States (Sarker & Shearer, 2013), as they are charged with the task of not only cultivating responsible local and national citizens, but global citizens (Herrera, 2012) by providing opportunities for their students to learn about both self and others in a globalized context. The Internet serves as a resource for both teachers and students to learn about and interact with others all over the world. However, in the absence of face-to-face interactions, what students learn about others from computer technology runs the risk of being contrived and stereotypic. For example, Pimentel and Gutierrez (2014) deconstruct the disparaging images of Mexicans on YouTube videos that are seen around the world and ultimately shape major mass media depictions of Mexicans in countries that are far removed from a large Mexican populace. In his work, Pimentel and Gutierrez examine a clip of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Top Gear wherein Mexicans are blatantly referred to as “lazy, feckless, flatulent, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat” (p. 92). Clearly this characterization is not based on real relationships with people, but recycled images that appear on Internet sites and television that belittle a whole population. Yet, it would be a mistake to suggest that these limitations in understanding ethnic/racial others only occur on a global scale. Even at national and local levels, one’s interactions with ethnic/racial others remains limited. United States residents continue to live in segregated neighborhoods and children attend segregated schools (Bonilla-Silva, 2014; Kozol, 2005). Bonilla-Silva’s (2014) research shows that even though people may work in interracial workplaces, people rarely form close interracial friendships, with fewer than 10% of Whites having Black friends. Thus, even on a national level, a person’s interactions with ethnic and racial others can be “limited” in much the same way they are on a global scale. As teacher educators, we want our preservice teachers to become more aware of how they see themselves and others as ethnic/racial beings in local, national, and global contexts. The term phenomenology comes to play here (Bayne & Montague, 2011; Smith, 2013). Our perceptions of

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what happens shape how we view and respond to the environment and influence our behaviors. We take to any situation an experiential background that shapes and helps us in our interpretation and understanding of the environment and others. This can be especially powerful when we are observing the behavior of another person. We can never “be” that person, thus we have to interpret the situation based on limited information. In this chapter, we identify several activities and projects we, as teacher educators, use in our teacher education program that have preservice teachers examine themselves and others as ethnic and racial beings. Among many other questions, we set out to address the following: What are preservice teachers’ perceptions of ethnic and racial others? How are these perceptions shaped by the narrow portrayals they are exposed to in various forms of media? What tools and strategies do preservice teachers need to deconstruct, challenge, and expand upon the limited narratives that are vigorously recycled in media? How do preservice teachers understand their own race and ethnicity within a sociopolitical context? By expounding upon activities and projects that address these questions, we contribute to the educational literature that focuses on the practical aspects of implementing a social justice curriculum (Cowhey, 2006; Ladson-Billings, 2009; Lee, Menkart, & Okazawa-Rey, 2008). Before we delve into the various activities and projects we discuss in this chapter, we first provide a background and context for the activities we have developed.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © BACKGROUND

We (Charise Pimentel and Kathleen Fite) are teacher educators at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. Texas State University is historically a teachers’ college and teacher education remains a well-recognized cornerstone at the university. Currently, Texas State University prepares and graduates more teachers than any other university in the state of Texas and is the fourth largest teacher preparation university in the United States. The university is also a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) where more than 25% of the overall student population, as well as those students seeking teacher certification, are Hispanic. Most of our teacher graduates find teaching jobs within the state of Texas, where most current data from the Texas Education Agency indicate that of the over 5 million students enrolled in Texas public schools, 51.3% are Hispanic, 60.3% are living in poverty, and 15.5% are English language learners. Despite Hispanics’ strong representation within the public school system, there are drastic achievement gaps. Among the many indicators of achievement, high school graduation rates seem most glaring, whereby Hispanic stu-

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dents are nearly twice as likely to drop out of high school than White students. As we prepare teachers to teach in a school system that produces inequitable achievement outcomes along ethnic/racial, socioeconomic and linguistic lines, we center our teaching on social justice and transformative practices. Our teaching practices draw from Paulo Freire’s (1970) Critical Pedagogy, as we advocate for a problem posing and transformative education in which teachers and students seek to understand the varied lived experiences in our local, national, and global contexts and develop practices that work toward social justice. Over the many years we have worked as teacher educators within our teacher education program, we both have developed various activities and projects that we have successfully utilized in our classes. We have developed these activities and projects over time and we continue to tweak and change them as we learn from our students, professional conferences, readings, relationships, and our life experiences in an ever-changing sociopolitical context. Through the various class activities we include in this chapter, all of which can be adapted to specific class dynamics and demographics, we hope to offer a range of resources professors can draw from as they seek to prepare their preservice teachers to understand themselves and others in a sociopolitical global context. We present these activities and projects in formats that we have implemented in our own teacher education program, although our methods and outcomes often vary depending on student populations and teaching contexts. Thus, these activities and projects are meant to be flexible and can be adapted to specific student populations and classroom contexts. In what follows, we identify a number of classroom activities and projects that can be used in teacher education programs to help preservice teachers understand self and others in local, national, and global contexts.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY

As students consider what they already know about ethnic/racial others from local, national, and global contexts, ask them to consider the means from which they gained that knowledge and consider whether those informational sources (e.g., news reports, movies, Internet sites) have provided complex, well-developed representations of people or are they reductive and narrow. Have these sources, and further do we, rely on a single story that is recycled over and over again in our understandings of distant others? As part of a class discussion, watch the YouTube video entitled: “Chimamanda Adichie: The Danger of a Single Story” (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg). This 19-minute video features Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Adichie in a very provocative speech,

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wherein she gives vivid examples of how people often rely on “single stories” to understand both local and distant others. She discusses how she has naively relied on these single stories to understand the experiences of others, and that others often rely on these single stories as they imagine what it is like to be “African.” In addition to examining the dangers of single stories in a global context, such as the analysis Adichie provides, have students analyze the single stories that exist in our U.S. national context. Students can examine the single story of what it means to be American and how that affects Americans who do not fit that single story. As reference points, look at the overwhelming negative responses that erupted on social media when Indian American Nina Davuluri won the 2014 Miss American Pageant. As a class activity, students can review the negative commentary on social media that repeatedly points out that Nina Davuluri does not fit the single story of what it means to be “American.” Similarly, have students examine the negative responses that emerged when 11-year-old Mexican American Mariachi singer, Sebastien De La Cruz, sang the national anthem at the 2013 NBA finals wearing full mariachi regalia. Racist tweets and other forms of social media referred to him as a foreigner and an illegal alien who should never be allowed to sing the national anthem. These highly publicized incidents can easily lead into a discussion on how educators may be relying on single stories in schooling practices such as curriculum and language policies and programs that make students feel out of place, unwelcome, and/or foreign.

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THAT’S NOT ME: “WE’RE A CULTURE NOT A COSTUME”

Every once in a while, there is news of college students who find themselves in trouble for wearing offensive ethnic/racial costumes that range from blackface, to an “illegal alien,” to a Chinese geisha. These incidents raise important questions about the dangers of representing ethnic/racial others through a Halloween costume. To address this issue, Ohio University students designed an impressive series of “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” posters, as part of a campaign to bring awareness to the offensiveness of the criticized costumes: http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/10/ in_the_immortal_words_of.html. As a classroom activity, professors can show these posters to their students and ask them to discuss, first in small groups and then as a larger class, some critical questions about these Halloween costumes. Some questions might include: Is it okay to wear a Halloween costume that represents another ethnic/racial person? What is it about these costumes that the people in the student group at Ohio University find offensive? Do you

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agree or disagree? From these discussions, there are likely to be varied responses. Whereas some students find the costumes inoffensive and even admit to having worn ethnic/racial costumes in the past, others are likely to say that the costumes are indeed offensive and that it is upsetting to see people wear these costumes. Still other students may be indecisive, stating that it depends on whether the costume makes a particular ethnic culture look negative. Much discussion is likely to ensue with some students responding that their intentions in wearing the questionable costumes is not to make fun of someone but rather to just have fun. They may further argue that they would not be offended if a person dressed up in a costume that represented their ethnic culture (e.g., German) at a cultural event (e.g., Wurstfest). Those who find the costumes offensive may offer reasons for their offensive nature: For example, instead of representing a particular ethnic/racial group as having a wide range of qualities and experiences, the costume reduces culture to a few symbolic features that are repeated in costumes over and over again. As some students might make clear, there is a dehumanizing element to these reductive and stereotypic characterizations. Within this discussion, the professor can easily make connections to the “Danger of a Single Story” activity. What is important in these discussions is that the students are listening to and considering their peers’ points of views. While students might not agree with each other, it is import for students to become aware of their varied views. This is part of the learning process. Even those who do not see the costumes as offensive, and may have even worn something similar in the past, will now have to take the stated offenses into consideration when making choices in the future. Do they wear something that they personally do not think is offensive, knowing that many others do?

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HURRICANE KATRINA: LOOTING VERSUS FINDING

As a professor discusses how ethnicity/race is represented in media, it is effective to provide examples of how constructs of race are often re/produced in the media. A great example of this is the news reporting that took place in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. One such example comes from two, almost exact, articles reporting the conditions in New Orleans days after hurricane Katrina hit the area. Both articles include a photograph that depicts very similar occurrences. These news reports with their accompanying photographs can easily be found by doing a search in Google Images with the key words “hurricane Katrina finding vs. looting.” Both photographs capture people wading through very deep water with a few belongings and a loaf of bread. They differ in that one photograph is of an African American man (by The Associated Press) and

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the other is of a White man and woman (by AFP/Getty Images). It is the caption alongside each photograph that was published on Yahoo.com that varies greatly and provides students the opportunity to analyze an instance of discursive racism. The text alongside the photograph of the two White people reads, “Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding [emphasis mine] bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans.” However, the text alongside the photograph which features an African American reads, “A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting [emphasis mine] a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005.” These news reports provide a great example of how we “read” something as straight forward as a photograph and interpret it very differently depending on the race of those featured in the photograph. This has to do with the racial lens from which we interpret events. This racial lens emerges, often unwittingly so, from a racialized society where different values get attached to concepts of race. Indeed, all of us interpret the world through the experiences we have lived within a given society. “Would we educators make the same racial inferences based on just an image?” is an important question to ask and can be explored with the activity below titled “The Job.” Another question is whether we would pick up on these racial frames if we were to read the two articles in isolation of each other. While it is obvious when they are paired up that a racial frame is being used to “read” and report on the images, would it be clear if we read these articles separately? A variation of discussing the articles together is to present students just one of the articles (either of them) and ask them to discuss the news report freely. Does racial framing come up as a discussed topic? If so, is it more difficult to identify the racialization of the White people in the photograph? Once the students discuss one of the news reports in isolation, they can then compare both of them together and consider if it is easier to recognize the racialization when they are seen side by side.

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REEVALUATING WHAT WE SEE FROM THE MEDIA For this activity, have students work in small groups of 3–4 participants. Though time limits can vary, allow for at least 10 minutes per person for presentation and reflection. Ask each student to bring in 1–3 pictures to class that evoke thought and emotion. Students should keep the label or title separate from the picture. Turn the pictures face down on the floor or table. It might be helpful to mount the pictures on paper so that the backs of the pictures are not revealing or distracting. Using a round-robin

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style, each student should “draw” a picture from the stack or group and tell what they think is happening in the picture, why it is happening or what lead to the event, and where the event took place. Then allow others in the group to comment and express their thoughts. Finally, let the person who brought the picture explain what the picture was actually about and why they selected it for the activity. Each of us takes to a situation like this all of our experiences and so we personalize what we see. Interpretations can be very different from one person to the next. For example, one picture might show a child, in what appears to be a war torn country, holding a gun. Another might be showing a house in what looks to be a far-off country where it is roughly constructed of sheets of metal. When the real story of the picture is revealed, students might be surprised to learn that what they thought was a house in a foreign country, is actually a shanty constructed after a hurricane or possibly a house in an area of great poverty within their own state. Conversations about the picture can lead to dialogue about the homeless population and how teachers can best serve children who may be enduring tough economic circumstances.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © REWRITING HISTORY-HEGEMONY

The term hegemony refers to control or domination (Merriam Webster Online, 2014). Though we do not often think about it, anytime we pick up a book or read an article, we are reading something where the content and style are reflective of the experiential lens of the author. School textbooks are no exception. Textbook authors are contracted to provide information, such as, historical, and to transmit knowledge and understanding to the upcoming generations. However, how the information is presented and what is presented is under the control of a supervising entity and is also skewed by the interpretation or explanation of the author. This activity gives students an opportunity to explore historical data to determine how a textbook or another historical book might be rewritten to present another “side” of history. History is often omitted from books or skewed due to hegemony, the author’s or dominant social views, contracted parameters, and space limitations. If writers gave equal space to groups discussed, books would become too large and expensive and thus inaccessible. Thus, students are to consider, given particular page limits, what is the impact of what is included in a particular text and what would the impact be if that text changed to give more representation to those who are often left out or are minimally mentioned? Some excellent resource books that can accompany this project include revisionist history textbooks such as, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

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(Takaki, 2008); A Different Mirror for Young People: A History of Multicultural America (Takaki, 2012); or a critical analysis of what is included in history text books, such as Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (Loewen, 2007). For this project, students are encouraged to bring a textbook or other historical book to class. Many of these have information about the author that can be read and discussed or perhaps information about the publisher or company can be found on the Internet. When examining the content of the book, identify a specific population (e.g., Navajo) and examine how that group is represented in the book. Have your students come together in groups of 3-5 and dialogue about the books’ representation of this particular population. Students can continue to share the content and perspective of each textbook or other historical books. Then, choosing one to discuss or allowing time for each, dialogue about how the “story” might have been different if presented with a different lens, for example those captured or forced into labor or inculcated into the social system. To extend this beyond a class activity, students can research other historical books or textbooks as well as first hand accounts, such as autobiographies, and then rewrite the history of a particular population by drawing from these resources. Personalizing history or trying to understand the phenomenal world of another is powerful. What students come to realize is that their peers and ultimately their students may have also encountered political, social, or historical catalysts that changed their lives and that of others. Understanding, or empathy, is a powerful part of teaching.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © THE JOB

While there are many vivid examples of how the media portrays racial minorities in a narrow and often distasteful manner, it is important to consider the racialization of White people in media and how this shapes our own racial lens. To examine how Whites are portrayed in media, ask students to bring in media examples to class, including print ads, commercials, television or movie clips, billboard advertisements, et cetera. Are there any common themes in the way White people are portrayed in media? How is this racialization different from the characterization of people of color in media? Do students rely on any of the identified racial constructs that are produced in the various media images? Do students draw from formulaic racial constructions to interpret race, and in particular, Whiteness? As students address these questions, show students a very

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brief video prompt (only the first 23 seconds of the YouTube video “The Job” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XGJq8wrw5I). Within this brief video prompt, students see several White people standing outside an office building. All of them are in professional attire (suit and tie and dress suits) and are engaged in various activities, including talking to each other, talking on their cell phones, looking things up on their cell phones, reading a newspaper, and drinking coffee. Once the students see the first 23 seconds of the video, ask them to write a oneparagraph narrative that explains what is happening in this scene and then to further develop the narrative by explaining what happens next in the scene. In order to interpret what is happening and how the scenario will continue to unfold, students must make decisions based on very limited cues, including the racial make up of those in the scene, and rely on their already formulated schemas of this particular racial group. Before showing the rest of the video, ask several students to read their narratives out loud to the class, reassuring them there is no “right” way to construct their narratives. Many of their narratives are likely to be similar in nature, usually consisting of the following elements: professionals are on break from work; they just finished giving a professional presentation; or there is conflict between workers at their law firm or some other professional work site. After several students share their narratives, the professor can then show the rest of the 3-minute video and then discuss how their own narratives, based on very limited information, were guided by dominant conceptions of race in media and in society and that the rest of the video actually disrupts those assumptions. As the students see the rest of the video, the people they were writing about are not employed at that building at all. In fact, they are unemployed. Then a Mexican man in a green pickup truck drives by and picks up several of the workers for day work. Not all workers are chosen; but those who are, pile up in the back of this man’s pickup truck. As the man drives away with content White workers in the back of his truck, those who are left behind are visibly upset and disappointed. As part of the discussion on the narratives the students wrote in comparison to the unexpected narrative presented in the video, discuss how racial cues may have helped form what they expected without even realizing it. Within this discussion, the professor can emphasize that the students were not expected to write a narrative that mirrored the direction the video actually took, but it is important to look at what they did write, and whether those narratives relied on the characters’ race at all? Do the students think their narratives would have been any different if the race of the characters were to change to Latino or African American?

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PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF OTHERS One of the goals of teacher educators is to help preservice teachers allow themselves to become more aware of how they “see” themselves and others and how this shapes their behavior as well as responses from others. A class activity that reflects how we use our “selves” in this interpretation is to pose a scenario for your college students. Ask them to reflect on what comes to mind after hearing a particular prompt. Students may do this activity with their eyes open or closed. The professor reads the following prompt(s) to his/her class: Prompt 1: It is your first day of class. You are waiting for your students to arrive. A little girl enters. She is beautiful (or cute) and appears eager to meet the teacher in class. Her hair is gorgeous (pretty) as are her eyes. She enters the room, appearing to have great joy and anticipation, and then shouts aloud “I love school!” The next scenario can be done immediately following the first or after a discussion of the first. Prompt 2: A small boy enters the classroom. Your eyes screen his unkempt appearance. He appears to need a bath and a haircut. He looks at you with disgust and says loudly “I hate school.” Next, he looks down at the floor as he shuffles his feet and enters the classroom. After reading the prompt(s), have your class discuss each scenario separately allowing them time to pair and share or have a large group discussion. A professor can use guiding questions for a large group discussion, such as the following: When I described the young girl to you, what is the image you got? How old was she? Was she tall or short? Thin or overweight? What color was her hair? How was it fixed? What color was her skin? Her eyes? What was she wearing? What was her posture like? Allow the class to share what they imagined … for the girl and for the boy. Students should consider how it is that they are in an imaginary situation and yet can call up such vivid pictures based only on a few words of description? The terms “halo effect” and “horn effect” (Shivers, 1998) are used to describe how perceptions can be influenced in a positive or negative way. Students can Google the terms to find other scenarios where the terms are applied. http:// dictionary.reference.com/browse/horns+and+halo+effect The professor can switch the scenario to have the girl represent negatively and the boy positively. How does this change how the students “see” the child? We also know that how we perceive someone influences how we treat them, our expectations for them, and in return how they respond. The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, is the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, the better they perform. The term self-fulfilling prophecy is also relevant as it refers to a belief set that can influence/effect something to be as one perceives it to be. (Google the terms or use YouTube to find out more about these terms. In fact, this is a great way to allow students to use their cell phones in class if your

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room can accommodate the volume of Internet searches.) A professor can have her/his class work in small groups to discuss what they think contributed to how they “saw” the child in the scenario and in turn how this might manifest in ways they “treat” or respond to a child’s behavior. What in their environment informs expectations/perceptions of what students look like and how they perform in school? How do social constructs of race, ethnicity, gender and economics contribute to these formulations? Which of the two children in the examples present a student who you would be eager to teach? Would you anticipate problems from the other? How might these expectations influence your teaching and the child’s performance? What behaviors would you consider “inviting”? Which would be “threatening”? How would each shape your teaching and relationship with the child?

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © MY LIFE IN A BAG

There are a many variations of life-reference activities that can be used with preservice teachers and their students. This activity is good because it helps connect home and school, makes the students prioritize, and is easily brought to class and shared. For this assignment, students are encouraged to think about how they could tell others about themselves. They are directed to bring “artifacts” that represent their lives from home and to place them in a small (brown) paper bag to share. They are to choose items of special meaning to them that represent what they believe to be their culture or heritage. They bring the bag with a designated number of items in it (five works well) to class. This is followed by a brief introduction to the activity and the activity concludes with a discussion of what students learned from the process. Groups of three to four students work well in most classes. For extraordinary large classes, this may necessitate finding creative spots to “share.” Students can stay in their chairs to “pair and share” or possibly find a spot in a hallway or outside the building where they can work in small groups. As students begin the sharing process, the first thing they need to do is review the guidelines for sharing. Students should consider: How much time does each person have to share? What options do they have for sharing? Should onlookers ask questions as the presentation unfolds or should they hold questions until the end? Who will be first, second, or third? How much time should be allowed for reflection at the end of the activity? Ask the students to reflect in writing as well as return to the larger group to share their thoughts. After the protocols are clarified, the sharing begins. The students can choose items from the bag in a desired order of presenting the artifacts or can allow another student to “draw one” from

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the bag. The other group members are asked to be active listeners and share in discussions as asked to do so by the presenter. What might be included in the bag? Photographs are commonly placed in the bag. With photographs, we find out about the constructs of the family unit as the presenter shares and the others try to connect what they see and hear to their own family or to assumptions they may have had about the person’s life based on other class interactions. At all times, the presenter has a choice of what is to be shared and discussed. Another common item is something from travel or from the student’s childhood. Key chains and tourist items are often included. This gives the presenter a chance to dialogue about travel they have been involved in. Since these students are prospective educators, they are encouraged to think about what their future students might bring to class and how their artifacts might differ. The professor might want the students to Google the Teddy Stoddard Story. There are multiple print and video variations of this. In essence, it chronicles gifts a child gives to a teacher that have great value to the child but that might be misunderstood or undervalued without knowing some background about the objects. Another item often included is a ticket stub or receipt. It could be to a local restaurant where the student likes to eat or it could be a concert or movie ticket. Any of these can provide insight into knowing more about the person. It can be fascinating to ask the presenter who first took her/him to the place or event and who went with them. If students have a difficult time choosing objects for the bag, the professor can give them further directions. They can also write on a slip of paper an event or item name instead of bringing it. Some students may not have access to photographs or items from home. Having them prioritize the items with the most special one shown first or presenting it last, representing greatest value, as this helps the students recognize how they value things and events in their lives. As with all sharing, a final reflection on the process and learning, written or oral, can prove valuable insight. Read about Donald Schön (1983) to learn more about the power of reflection and learning.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © LIFELINE ACTIVITY NOTEBOOK

This activity can be one of the first activities of the semester because it is great for building a sense of community. It is preferred that the students make a loose-leaf notebook and insert their work into page protectors. This activity is similar to a cultural heritage collage or an “About Me” poster. However, the Lifeline Activity Notebook may be more practical as students can easily put it in their backpacks and they can continue to

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update the notebook and eventually share it with their students or use it as part of a professional portfolio, selecting only appropriate pages for either use. Some students are keen on scrapbooking and may want to decorate the outside of the notebook or put the items in a regular scrap “book” rather than a loose-leaf binder. However, there is value in having a product they can add to or take away from, based on their audience and purpose. The sheet protectors serve a variety of purposes as they protect the work and make the product more durable. Loose-leaf notebooks allow for inserts on the cover and spine so that the notebook can be clearly labeled and stored on a shelf when not in use. As students begin to conceptualize the content and organization of the notebook, encourage them to think about the audience of the notebook. Is this for sharing parts of your life with students at the beginning of the year? Will preservice teachers have their own students add pages to a master notebook about themselves or create a similar project? Here is where curriculum and instruction are taught “unofficially” to students. The content must be suitable to the age group and to the purpose of the project, and the presentation, landscape or portrait sharing of the notebook, eye contact, introduction, clarification, engagement of audience, all play an important part in a successful lesson. The students are encouraged to clearly label photographs and pages so that others can take information from the page if the narrator is not present. These could be put in a class center for sharing and developing reading skills as well as social studies. Within these notebooks, students share a breadth of information. Usually included are family, friends, pets, vacation or travel, special events and awards, dreams and goals. As with organizing any good “book,” encourage them to have a planned order to the notebook or even a table of contents. Ultimately, students should include some introduction or orientation pages, the heart of the notebook, and a concluding thought or saying. Once the students have completed their notebooks, they can then share them with the larger class or in small groups. Professors can ask the students to set protocols for sharing, such as, they each get ten minutes, and to provide feedback to the presenter/teacher both orally and in writing. To wind up the assignment, ask the students to write a reflection paper. This paper, rather than the notebook, could be assigned a grade. The notebook may be more difficult to grade, as the quality may vary with some being elaborate and others simple. The reflective paper has them address questions such as why they chose the notebook and pages they did and why they chose to present the information as they did.

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THE SCARS OF BULLYING AND UNKINDNESS Many of the activities professors use to “teach or reinforce” concepts are actually adaptations to ones they have experienced. This activity precedes a class discussion on bullying and unkindness. Students are each given a piece of blank, 8½  11 inch, white paper. They are instructed to keep it flat on their desks until directions are given. They are also asked to turn to their right (or could be left) to find a “partner” for the activity, in some cases making a group of three and sharing across the group. To begin with, ask the class to fold the paper vertically or horizontally and to score along the fold with a fingernail to make the fold more exact. They may want detailed directions: to be told to fold the paper top to bottom, or side to side, but let them fold it how they choose to fold it. Next, ask them to make more folds and then unfold the paper. Then, ask them to wad the piece of paper up, put it in their hands, and make it as small and compressed as they can. They enjoy opening the paper and closing it and reopening and closing it even though they have no clue what the activity is directed toward. Once they have folded and wadded their paper as much as they want, tell them to make eye contact with their partner and to hand the wadded globe of paper to that person. Wait until all students are ready for the next task. Now, the second student is to open the paper and to make it flat on his/her desk, smoothing the paper so that no fold lines or other marks are visible on the paper. The student can use pencils, the edge of a desk, etc., to try to remove the fold lines and crimps. After much effort, there is a realization that there is nothing that can be done to remove the creases from the paper. Ask the class to stop, put the paper down, and imagine a scenario where the clean paper or slate represents a person or perhaps their first encounter with another person. All is new and fresh. Then because of prejudice, racism, and/or bullying, there are “scars” that are created. The person receiving the paper, tries to “erase or remove” the harsh words and scars…. But they remain. So that you do not leave this activity on a negative note, discuss specific examples of how the students, or others they know, have been hurt, intentionally or not, by something someone said or did. Ask them to consider how difficult it is to remove these thoughts and memories. Finally, brainstorm what they can do to help students deal with these types of situations in an effective way.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © ¿QUÉ DIJISTE? NO TE INTIENDO PROFESSORA

As part of a theme on language policies and practices, or more broadly bilingual education, consider conducting class for 15–20 minutes in a non-

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English language. If a professor is bilingual s/he can do this her/himself, but if not, a professor can invite a guest lecturer to class or show a 10–15 minute video clip to the class in a non-English language. As part of this lesson, have students do multiple tasks in the non-English language such as take a quiz on assigned reading or the video. Encourage them to read and write in the target language. Also, ask them to read a passage or give their responses to the quiz to the larger class in the target language. As an alternative to a lecture or video, a professor or guest lecturer can read the class a children’s story in a non-English language and then ask the students to pull out a piece of paper and write their responses to a series of questions about the story. This can be followed up with a discussion on the story and how they did on the questions in reference to the story. After the 15–20 minutes lesson in the non-English language, the professor can then lead a discussion in English on what it is like to be in a classroom where students do not understand or have various levels of comprehension of the language of instruction. During this discussion, students are usually very eager to respond. Often, students who are bilingual recite specific educational experiences when they had to sit and struggle in classrooms where they did not understand the language of instruction and were often made to feel unprepared and lacking in knowledge because they could not respond to the teacher’s requests or questions. Monolingual English-speaking students are usually quick to respond with responses such as “That was frustrating”; “After a few minutes, I just tuned out.” “I simply began to work on other things, because I wasn’t getting anything out of the lesson”; or “I had to ask a classmate who understood what you were saying to translate for me.” The professor can then prompt the students to link their emotional and behavioral responses to how children may respond to these educational experiences, being fully aware of the levity of children’s educational experiences. Children, of course, are much younger. They are not part of a “class lesson” on language. Their educational outcomes depend on how well they perform under these circumstances, and they often have to remain in these situations for extended amounts of time. A class discussion can provide insights into the educational experiences of others who have been instructed in a language they struggled to understand. The professor can also lead a discussion on what language accommodations teachers should make in their teaching. Within this type of discussion, students can usually brainstorm various ideas, such as having bilingual readers and other resources in their classrooms, labeling items in the classroom in the languages students speak (including English), allowing students to read and write in the language they are most comfortable, and setting up peer mentors within a class so students can use language practices such as language brokering (Pimentel & Sevin, 2010).

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I DON’T HAVE A CULTURE! It is important for students to understand the distinctions between the terms culture, ethnicity, and race. When discussing culture, it is not uncommon for White students to claim they do not have a culture. When this occurs, it provides a great opportunity for the class to define culture and identify the several broad layers of culture. Merriam Webster defines culture as “the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time.” http://www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/culture

This activity demystifies the idea that someone does not have a culture by demonstrating that everyone belongs to multiple cultures. For this activity, each person in the class needs to fold a sheet of paper into eight equal parts. Many want explicit directions, but encourage them to fold it according to their choosing with eight cells appearing on the front (and back) into which they can write. Then, after reading the definition again, have them identify as many “cultures” as they can of which they are a part: family, sorority, university student, Houstonian, Texan, generational group such as Millennial or Generation Y, church group, friend circle, sports group, aesthetical group such as art or music, political affiliation, et cetera. Then, they should number the cells of the groups named and insert into the cell some representation of culture: country western music, comfort food, football, etc. Students are often astonished by the number of groups that have “signature” cultural representations as well as how cultural signifiers can change from one person to the next even though they may belong to the same cultural group. This is a great activity to expand students’ conceptualization of culture and illustrate diversity even in a group that might seemingly be homogeneous. Even though someone may align with a particular group in some beliefs, they are likely to find that we all have a rich and varied culture; indeed, all of us have cultural affiliations and connections. Sharing their findings in a large group, such as a class, affords each class member to contribute to the diversity of the class. Creating a list of cultures using the overhead or computer allows the professor to present all the identified cultures to the class for review and discussion.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © INTERNATIONAL BARBIE

How is the ethnic/racial self and other represented in toys? While some toy companies have tried to diversify their doll offerings by providing dif-

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ferent shades of skin and other diverse physical features as well as incorporate some cultural artifacts within their doll accessories, we must ask what young children learn about themselves and others from these “culturally friendly” toys. Mattell is one such company who has diversified the “look” of their dolls by producing Barbie dolls that represent countries from around the world. An excellent online resource to show your students this collection of dolls is the Barbie Collector Dolls of the World website: http://www.barbiecollector.com/showcase/category/dolls-world #pDollsoftheWorldCollectionp. Once the students have surveyed the Barbie doll collection, ask them if they believe the dolls do a good job of representing their own as well as others’ lived experiences—experiences shaped by social constructs such as ethnicity, language, socioeconomics, immigration, race, gender, and sexuality. Students are usually quick to point out that the cultural artifacts that distinguish one Barbie doll from the next are contrived cultural symbols that fail to represent the nuanced, everyday identities and cultural experiences of the people they seek to represent. Mexican Barbie is in a bright pink, ruffled dress toting a Chihuahua dog, Australian Barbie is in a khaki safari outfit with a koala bear gripping her arm, and Japanese Barbie is wearing a kimono with a paper accordion fan in her hand. While most preservice teachers can easily identify the limitations of the superficial depictions of each doll, they then struggle to conceptualize what a “good” cultural toy might look like. To extend this activity further, ask students to design a cultural toy of their own. They can do this individually or in groups. Students may need several days to identify the everyday lived experiences of diverse children, narrow their focus to one particular cultural experience, and then think about what they will need to build a toy that captures that cultural experience. Students can ultimately present their cultural toys to the larger class and students can discuss whether the various toys effectively represent the diversity of cultural experiences rather than trivialized and simplified representations of culture.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CARTOONING AND STORYBOARDING AS A WAY OF UNDERSTANDING BEHAVIOR

This is an activity that is best done in groups of two. It requires some degree of art ability, but most all students find they can make stick figures to portray the characters. Divide a piece of paper into six sections. Number the sections so that each section is labeled 1-6. In the first section, have the pair decide on a topic they would like to address, such as, bully-

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ing or prejudice. In the last section, they will make a summarizing statement that pulls the story together or lends itself to a “thought to ponder.” The objective is for one person to draw a picture of the character he is portraying (stick figures are fastest) and to put a dialogue “bubble” next to it where s/he makes a statement. In the case of bullying, figure one might have the statement, “You can’t be on my team because you are a slow runner and we would lose.” Then figure two is drawn with a dialogue bubble and the second person has a chance to dialogue what they might say back to the statement. Cells could be added or deleted as needed, based on the conversation. What this activity does is have the participants “on the spot” experience how comments make us feel and how our response to a comment triggers another action. This can also be adapted for teachers and students to dialogue. So, if a students tells another student, “That’s so dumb,” the preservice teacher can practice responding to this and various other statements they will confront in their teaching experiences. Once the students have finished their cartoon, they can then dialogue and reflect. They can share alternative ways to solve a problem or acknowledge what triggers brought about a particular response. Have the students Google Editorial Cartooning and Social Justice to see examples of how this technique can be used.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © CONCLUSION

It is our hope that preservice teachers learn that being a multicultural/ social justice teacher means much more than hosting the occasional “ethnic” potluck or dance performance, which has been referred to as “fairyland” multicultural education (Nieto & Bode, 2012). Among many other things, social justice education involves teachers understanding their own as well as others’ ever-changing identities in an inequitable global context. Indeed, our approach to teaching begins with the understanding that all teaching practices are embedded in a sociopolitical context wherein students from diverse backgrounds struggle to obtain equitable educational experiences and opportunities. Ultimately, teaching is a political act, and as such, it is imperative for preservice teachers to gain critical perspectives and pedagogical tools to address social justice issues. The activities we have identified in this chapter are meant to contribute to this important work. While we have found success in implementing these activities in our own teacher education program, these activities are meant to be flexible and further developed to meet the needs of preservice teachers in other teacher education programs.

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REFERENCES Bayne, T., & Montague, M. (2011). Cognitive phenomenology. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2014). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Cowhey, M. (2006). Black ants and Buddhists: Thinking critically and teaching differently in the primary grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Continuum. Herrera, S. (2012). Globalization: Current constraints and promising perspectives. Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 6(1), 1–10. Kozol, J. (2006). The shame of the nation: The restoration of apartheid schooling in America. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press. Ladson-Billings, G. (2009). The dream-keepers: Successful teaches of African American Children. San Francisco, CA: Wiley. Lee, E., Menkart, D., & Okazawa-Rey, M. (Eds.). (2008). Beyond heroes and holidays: A practical guide to K–12 anti-racist, multicultural education and staff development. Washington, DC: Teaching For Change. Loewen, J. W. (2007). Lies my teacher told me: Everything your American history textbook got wrong. New York, NY: Touchstone. Merriam Webster Online. (n.d). Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2012). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Pimentel, C., & Sevin, T. (2009). The profits of language brokering. Language Magazine: The Journal of Communication & Education, 8(5), 16–19. Pimentel, O., & Gutierrez, K. (2014). Taqueros, luchadores, y los Brits: U.S. racial rhetoric and its global influence. In M. F. Williams & O. Pimentel (Eds.), Communicating race, ethnicity, and identity in technical communication (pp. 87–99). Amityville, NY: Baywood. Sarker, A., & Shearer, R. (2013). Developing literacy skills for global citizenship: Exploring personal culture and mining cultural gems from classroom experts. English in Texas, 43(2), 4–10. Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner, how professionals think in Action. New York, NY: Basic Books. Shivers, H. (1998, March). Halos, horns & Hawthorne: Potential flaws in the evaluation process. Professional Safety, 43(3), 38–41. Smith, D. (2013). Phenomenology. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (Ed.). Retrieved from http://plato.stanford .edu/archives/win2013/entries/phenomenology/ Takaki, R. (2008). A different mirror: A history of multicultural America. New York, NY: Back Bay Books. Takaki, R., & Stefoff, R. (2012). A different mirror for young people: A history of multicultural America (R. Stefoff, Adapter). New York, NY: Seven Stories Press.

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CHAPTER 14

INTERNATIONALIZING CURRICULA IN TEACHER EDUCATION

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © Melding Old and New Ideas to Global Citizenship

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Amy Roberts

Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.

—Nelson Mandela

This chapter uses the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) model as a framework to transform or design teacher education curriculum toward internationalization with a venue for authentic global experiences, content, depositions, and learning. The TPCK model emphasizes that teaching is highly contextual and dependent on the ability to modify and create curricula using a framework of 3 overlapping components: content, pedagogy, and technology for specific student audiences, in this case, middle class preservice teachers in a rural and land-locked state in the United States. To begin the concepts, globalization, internationalization, and global citizenship are defined, followed with an explanation of the TPCK frame-

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 253–269 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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work. This leads into discussion of specific classroom applications aligned with the TPCK framework appropriate for a variety of teacher education courses.

INTRODUCTION The internationalization and globalization of higher education are contemporary trends that position universities at the core of the 21st century global knowledge economy and as the flagship for postsecondary education worldwide (Altbach, 2004; Altbach & Knight, 2007). Scholars agree that processes of globalization are unalterable while those representing internationalization remain fluid and changeable (Mok, 2006). The globalization of higher education can be defined as economic, social, political and cultural events that bind 21st century university systems together (Altbach & Knight, 2007). In contrast internationalization represents university administration policies, initiatives, and practices adopted to prepare students to be internationally knowledgeable and globally competent with skill to examine the increasingly interdependent nature of the world in terms of environmental, cultural, economic and social dilemmas (Altbach & Knight, 2007; Scott, 2000). Interest in the internationalization of higher education has deepened and as a result civic education has expanded to include a national as well as a global focus. That said the concept of global citizenship is not new or unique and has been widely accepted in the higher education arena. Nationwide universities reference global citizenship in mission statements and/or as a program outcome. University centers for global citizenship are popular icons of this trend nationwide. Overall markers of universities progressing in this direction include commitment to research publications in leading and internationally recognized journals, expanding student and faculty travel abroad opportunities, and the integration of policies and programs emulating models of world-class institutions (Altbach, 2004; de Wit 2002). Curriculum transformation with emphasis on global citizenship is heralded as the overarching indicator of internationalization (Appelbaum, Friedler, Ortiz, & Wolff, 2009; Green & Schoenberg, 2006; Mansilla & Jackson, 2011). At its core curriculum transformation represents engagement with the modification, update, and revision of course content for all students across university communities to acquire the knowledge, skills, and depositions reflective of 21st century citizens and professionals (Green & Shoenberg, 2006). Efforts to internationalize teacher education in particular are aligned with the tenets of global citizenship to orient preservice teachers toward

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the study of global dilemmas and equitable solutions. In this context world problems become education dilemmas that can be utilized as a focus of study to contemplate solutions. Case (1993, p. 318) proposes that, “teachers themselves must gain knowledge of the world and perceptual understanding, a process that involves open-mindedness, anticipation of complexity, resistance to stereotyping, inclination to empathize, and nonchauvinism.” Yet seminal studies of teacher preparation (Haakenson, Savukova, & Mason, 1999; Merryfield, 1991; Sutton, 1999) suggest that few prospective teachers are exposed to international content either in university-required courses or in professional development tracks of education, and very few include foreign language in their program of studies. In response this chapter uses the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) model as a contemporary framework to optimize and transform classroom teaching and learning with a venue for authentic global experiences, content, depositions, and learning. The TPCK model emphasizes that teaching is highly contextual and dependent on the ability to modify and create curricula using a framework of three overlapping components: content, pedagogy, and technology for specific student audiences, in this case, middle class preservice teachers in a rural and landlocked state in the United States. To begin the concept, global citizenship, is defined and discussed. Next, an explanation of the TPCK model is provided which leads into description of selected applications appropriate for integration in a variety of teacher education courses.

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WHAT IS GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? Globally minded citizens envision the world with a stance of interconnectivity between all people (Appiah-Padi, 2001) and consider themselves global citizens based on diverse life experiences with different countries, people, and cultures. Some scholars define global citizenship as the “awareness of commitment to societal justice for marginalized groups, grassroots empowerment, nonviolent and authentic democracy, environmental stewardship, and North–South relations based on principles of equity, respect and sharing” (Toh, 1996, p. 185). Others argue that individuals, alarmed by the idea of a global perspective, regard efforts to foster global citizenship in K–16 curriculum as a threat to national unity (Tye, 1992). Critics maintain that globally minded scholars seek to indoctrinate students in a new world order advocating pacifism, moral relativism, opposition to nationalism via free-market economics, and redistribution of wealth to Third World nations (Sutton, 1999). Comparatively, Langton (1978) believes that modern life cannot be separated from

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local, national, and global struggles that detract from healthy lifestyles and habits. Such conditions, notes Langton, contribute to an apathy and consumerism that numbs the general United States population and induces a sense of helplessness for world and national issues beyond immediate surroundings. In this chapter global citizenship is defined as the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance. For teacher educators, the practice of global citizenship can be modeled in university classrooms through the study of global issues and dilemmas and or with exercises that engage students in the examination of cultures in local settings. Guiding ideas include: making connections between the global and the local; recognizing multiple perspectives; communicating personal views effectively; and taking action to improve conditions (Hutchings, 2002). A focus on global citizenship in teacher education courses, moreover, can have dual purposes in terms of the link between efforts of internationalization and multicultural education; these efforts are distinct in history and direction, but share alignment with emphasis on advocacy for cultural empathy and intercultural competence (Olson, Evans, & Shoenberg, 2007).

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © APPLICATION OF THE TPCK FRAMEWORK TO FOSTER GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

The TPCK framework is used as a model to guide teacher educators engaged with curricula transformation to foster global citizenship. This framework bridges the gap between description and design and avoids teaching global citizenship in isolation. The original intent of this model was to focus on teacher knowledge at a deeper level than the combination of pedagogy, content, and technology. Development of the model followed efforts to provide new and emerging technologies with professional development that inevitably was not sufficient to empower educators for teaching with technology. Figure 14.1 highlights the TPCK framework as three interrelated and overlapping components: content knowledge (CK), pedagogical knowledge (PK), and technological knowledge (TK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Content knowledge represents the specific content to be integrated in existing courses. Drawing from discussion of global citizenship, some examples for content include the study of concepts such as culture, intercultural competence, social justice, multiple perspectives, diversity, and equity, along with global hot topics within interdisciplinary studies of international comparative education, declaration of children’s human

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Source:

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Mishra and Koehler (2006).

Figure 14.1.

Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK).

rights, slavery, environmental stewardship, globalization, global relations, peace education, and human rights. Technology knowledge represents the foundation of standard technologies such as books, markers and whiteboards, as well as advanced technologies such as the Internet and digital video integrated and aligned with content knowledge. Unlike the other two domains of knowledge, TK is in a constant state of flux due to continuous technological advancements. Pedagogy can be defined as classroom practice—the art of teaching— that is typically viewed as an important element of the teaching and learn-

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ing process along with subject matter and content knowledge. Likewise PK includes in-depth understanding of instructional processes and methods of teaching and learning as outlined with discussion of global citizenship. Inherent in PK is the recognition of effective strategies to shape content to specific student populations depending on a particular course focus and or set of characteristics. This knowledge is highly contextual and differs from the pedagogical knowledge commonly accepted among instructors across university campuses (Misha & Koeler, 2006). When the three components of knowledge are considered holistically, technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is conceptualized, highlighting overarching connections and interactions. Pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) includes the selection and use of teaching methods appropriate for specific content areas. Technological content knowledge (TCK) pertains to knowledge of how technology and content are related, such as how a specific technological tool may impact the teaching of specific content. Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK) relates technology and pedagogy—or how various technologies may be applied during specific aspects of the teaching and learning process.

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SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS: INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

In this section collaborative learning, problem-based learning (PBL), and experiential learning are noted as viable applications within the TPACK model. Collaborative learning engages student teachers with interpersonal problem solving that cut across disciplinary boundaries. Curriculum researchers suggest that PBL expands the transfer of concepts to new problems, enhances intrinsic interest in content, and supports selfdirected study. More specifically, PBL provides structure for integrating the study of world issues (Bruner, 1960). I use the PBL case method in a variety of courses to examine world issues, linking the global to the local through the study of current events. Using an adaptation of the Biological Science Curriculum Study (BSCS) model, case studies addressing specific world issues can be organized as five sequential procedures: 1. Engage: Introduce case study topic. 2. Explore: Students are directly involved with case study dilemmas. They collaborate to develop a foundation of common experience. Using the Internet students investigate self-selected issues as related to the case study. 3. Explain: Students generate questions and answers pertaining to case study dilemmas.

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4. Elaborate: Students expand on new ideas, make connections to related concepts, and apply new understandings to the immediate environment. 5. Evaluate: Diagnostic process to determine if students acquire understanding of new concepts and knowledge. This medium compels student teachers to understand and apply theory rather than receive it passively (Silverman, Welty, & Lyon, 1992). Merryfield (2000) argues that online technologies are essential tools for teacher educators who value cross-cultural experiences, skills, and knowledge in local, national, and global contexts. She teaches online teacher education courses in global studies and asks questions such as: “In what ways can online pedagogy maximize cross-cultural learning?” (p. 151); “How does the facelessness of threaded discussions, chats, and online assignments affect teachers’ learning and perspectives?” (p. 147); and “How can specific online tools or strategies contribute to teachers’ development of world mindedness?” (p. 147). I have incorporated Merryfield’s overarching ideas in application of the TPCK model to integrate experiential learning simulations with a social studies methods course for elementary education majors. The aim is to improve intercultural competence in terms of developing awareness of culture as a point of reference. Cultural empathy and intercultural competence are leading concepts often highlighted within university mission statements detailing commitment to global citizenship. In classroom settings teacher educators can use these concepts to develop the study of culture along with multiple perspectives. To introduce the overarching tenets of culture I often use a four-page article by anthropologist Horace Miner (1956), Body Ritual Among the Nacirema. This article is easily reproduced by permission of the American Anthropological Association and can be accessed in an online format as well.  Miner (1956) details a group of people known as Nacirema, whose cultural beliefs are rooted in the perspective that the human body is delicate and therefore prone to sickness or disfiguration. He describes the shrine, which is code for the bathroom in U.S. households, and the charm box, code for the medicine cabinet and the medicine men, which refers to medical doctors. The worshipping behavior illustrates obsession with appearances, as the Nacirema fear the ugly natural form of the body, and perform a daily routine of cleansing and examining themselves in front of the mirror (p. 172). The overarching thesis is that the most usual routine for mainstream US people can be viewed as bizarre and exotic when judged from an outsider’s perspective or culture. The intent of this exercise is to consider that stewards of global citizenship embrace self-awareness and that

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students’ culture is not necessarily the norm nor does it set the standard as a reference point. The recognition of self-awareness enables student teachers to identify with the multiple perspectives of the human experience and a sense of responsibility for the world. SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS: BAFA BAFA EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING I have integrated the BAFA BAFA experiential learning simulation in a variety of courses such as social studies methods, foundations of literacy, freshman seminar, a special honors topics course, and study abroad prep workshops. The overarching focus of BAFA BAFA is to confront the complexities of culture shock as trauma experienced from departing from the comfort zone of a home culture and interacting in a new and different host culture. In some respects the BAFA BAFA simulation serves as a catalyst to connect my students with other cultures and to purposely transform fear and lack of knowledge into understanding. Milton Bennett (1994), director of the Intercultural Development Research Institute, introduced me to the BAFA BAFA simulation as a graduate student in an intercultural communication program. Dr. Bennett teaches that culture shock is a communication problem that involves frustrations stemming from lack of understanding for customs and value systems as well as the verbal and nonverbal communication of the host culture. The simulation actively engages all students as participants who are divided into two fundamentally distinct cultures: alphas and betas. Each culture gathers in a separate room and is given instructions simultaneously by an appointed leader or instructor. Once participants have learned the specific tasks and ways of behaving of the assigned culture, they practice in separate rooms to become comfortable with the new way of life. At this point members of each culture are exchanged on a touristlike basis for very brief periods of time. Next a few members of each culture are exchanged for 2 minutes. These exchanges continue until all members have experienced the other culture. All participants are forbidden to explain the rules of either culture to visitors so the only means of understanding is observation, along with trial and error by way of participation. Alpha is patterned on closed high-context cultures that value interpersonal relationships and physical closeness. Greetings are highly prescribed. In contrast Beta values time, money, and trading along with the idea that individuals are to be valued based on the amount of money they secure. The Beta has a specialized trading language that replicates the effect of interacting in environments with an unfamiliar language.

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The BAFA BAFA simulates the effects—both positive and negative—of traveling to an unfamiliar and disorienting culture. As a follow up all participants are joined together in one room to discuss what happened and consider issues regarding the interpretation of other cultures. Typically students report feeling alienated and confused because they were suddenly very different from others. This comment is viewed as a positive outcome of the simulation because it reaffirms the authentic cultural experience of the simulation and stimulates genuine discussion of stereotypes, how cultural barriers are created, and the profound impact of cultural differences in general. Students soon realize in this simulation that stereotypes make it difficult for people to collaborate effectively. Unlike life, however, the simulation gives students an opportunity to analyze and discuss how stereotypes are formed as well as methods for overcoming the negative effects. The most unique feature of BAFA BAFA is that interest and involvement reaches a climax in discussion after the simulation, rather than during the simulation itself. To extend this I use an online format to further develop discussion. Students are asked to write autobiographies linked to course content as well as their personal cultural norms, experiences with prejudice, privilege, and diversity. The autobiographies are used as the basis for a threaded discussion that is referenced throughout the semester. Each student autobiography has its own thread with interactive responses based on collaboration between students. The autobiography online discussion generates a sense of community that documents lived experiences, collective beliefs, and values. It also provides a context for students to make connections, recognize differences, ask questions, and examine sensitive topics. As a teacher educator this has been especially important given the homogenous make-up of most courses; in face-to-face discussion students sometimes comment that there are no differences—everyone is from the same state, attended the same K–12 schools, and will return to the same home communities to become public school teachers and therefore there is no need to explore beliefs, values, privilege, and so forth. The online format, therefore, provides flexibility of space and time; students can respond beyond a set faceto-face discussion and they tend to explore issues at greater depth than when sharing and confronting difficult topics in a face-to-face format.

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SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS: STUDY OF WORLD DILEMMAS My grandmother was the one who first took me to the ocean. One of her daughters had managed to get a permanent husband, and he worked in Gibara [Cuba], the seaport closest to our hometown. We went to Gibara. My

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grandmother, who was already sixty, and the rest of my family, had never seen the ocean, although it was only twenty or thirty miles from where we lived. I remember that once my Aunt Carolina came to my grandmother’s house crying and saying, “Do you realize what it means that I am 40 years old and have never seen the ocean? I will soon die of old age without ever having seen it.” (Arenas, 1993, p. 28)

The quote above has a clear and strong message about poverty, yet the middle class students in my courses cannot relate to the author, Reinaldo Arenas, who ate dirt as a young child because his family had no food and later in life died of AIDS in New York City as a Cuban asylum seeker. World dilemmas such as poverty, immigration, globalization, technology, human trafficking, and transnational endeavors define the notion of global village in the same way that multicultural populations present in all nations are described. No longer are nations as homogeneous as even a decade ago. In classroom settings, the study of global citizenship is similar to teaching with a multicultural perspective in terms of an emphasis on inclusiveness of diverse populations and world justice issues. Ideally, both areas of study are woven throughout curriculum and highlighted in specific lessons. Yet, key distinctions separate global citizenship from multicultural education. Global citizenship is unique because it develops a foundation of both global and local issues and encourages advocates to use new knowledge about the world to find solutions to global dilemmas. The study of world issues and dilemmas can be connected and woven into a curricular framework from a vast array of written and Internet sources along with social media tools such as Skype, wikis, blogs, iMovie, blogs, discussion forums, and podcasts. I organize students in small groups and assign one global issue to each group. Many sessions are dedicated to working as small groups in the computer lab to generate a foundation from alternative news sources accessed on the Internet, full-length YouTube documentaries, and dedicated world organization websites such as Oxfam. Using an adaptation of the BSCS model, selected topics can be generated from many sources. The 100 People Curriculum (http://www.100people.org/) identifies 10 interdisciplinary global dilemmas: water, food, transportation, health, economy, education, energy, shelter, war, and waste. The study of human rights, for example, offers students the opportunity to compare and contrast their own perceptions of human rights with those from other countries. Inherent to this topic is the responsibility of national governments to assure adequate nutrition and a standard quality of daily life for all citizens. Related to this issue are overpopulation and the distribution of food and medical attention from first world to third world countries. Lastly, topics developed around issues pertaining to the environment and its protection lead to an examination of immigra-

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tion issues, food production, and energy usage, that causes pollution and global warming. To begin I outline three guiding tenets of interdisciplinary investigation of global dilemmas with students. The investigation must be purposeful; students are required to examine a dilemma to the extent that it can be clearly explained or developed as a story that could not be presented through a single discipline. Second, interdisciplinary understanding is integrative: students’ disciplinary perspectives should be integrated to deepen or complement understanding. And lastly, interdisciplinary understanding is thoughtful: students should reflect about the nature of the interdisciplinary investigations and the limits of their own understanding. A foundation of world events and dilemmas also necessitates examination of the complexity of globalization and citizenship responsibilities. Prospective teachers who aspire to become effective educators in a pluralistic and interdependent world require a foundation of the meaning and consequences of globalization. Oftentimes videos impress global realities into a classroom in a way that the printed word cannot. Yet like other text, video should be examined critically. Teacher educators can encourage students to raise critical questions about how a video frames social reality: Whose story is featured, who speaks and who does not, what factors are highlighted to explain a dilemma, and what alternatives are either explored or ignored? In a freshman seminar course I invite international graduate students as guest speakers to complement the study of global issues. I often meet with the guest speakers far in advance to carefully discuss topics and convey their role as coinstructors in the classroom. As guest speakers, the international graduate students provide diverse knowledge, experiences, and perspectives that are invaluable in terms of first hand accounts. The guests challenge U.S. mainstream assumptions and Western views of the world; they share from the heart about family, education, and professional goals as well as provide a first hand account of daily life in the United States as foreigners.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS: SERVICE LEARNING IN LOCAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS

Thomas Friedman (2005) coined the term flattened world to capture the inescapable rise of contemporary globalization; his discourse has important implications for service-learning that honors Dewey’s (1966) vision of building democratic communities; researchers have described effects of service learning on a number of outcomes, including commitment to

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teaching, caring skills, attitudes toward diversity, application of service learning to practice (Root, 1997; Siegel, 1994; Swick, 1999; Wade, 1999) increased understanding of poverty (Boyle-Baise, 1998; Grady, 1997; Siegel, 1994) and increased for multicultural curricula and teaching strategies adapted to diverse students (Boyle-Baise, 1998; Siegel, 1994). The Internet offers an extensive array of options to engage in global service learning projects. Numerous web-based groups host forums, videoconferences, social action projects, and databases—all of which connect virtual networks of students, faculty, and others focused on global understanding that is grounded in the three overlapping areas of content, pedagogy, and technology. Two web-based organizations dedicated to elements of global citizenship include:

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• TakingItGlobal: Emphasis is on development of global citizenship through social action (www.tigweb.org). • The International Education and Resource Network (iEARN): Projects to foster positive change as the largest nonprofit network serving 130 countries (www.iearn.org). Yet it is important to note that service learning is rooted in a local context of place, interpersonal relationships, and public institutions such as universities, schools, libraries, food banks, and shelters. Integration of service learning as a course component should not be limited to development of a set of concepts, theories, or practices. Rather, service learning represents a pedagogy that transforms students and the broader university, while solving public dilemmas. The most significant element of service learning is expanding the boundaries of where learning occurs with an interdisciplinary frame of reference. In a recent freshman seminar course titled Hot Topics in Education I developed a service-learning component with both local and global elements. Students could choose their own service learning project based on assignment requirements. Nearly 100% of the students chose a service project that was integrated within the university community. This project was a grassroots organization to make jewelry in the local community from beautiful seeds from Brazil. Students were taught how to make necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and pendants that were packaged and sold nationwide. All proceeds were dedicated to an end goal of buying used mammogram equipment in Brazil for Brazilian women in rural communities. The director, a Brazilian herself, told students a story of disenfranchised women in Brazil as connected to gender discrimination, rural living, poverty, and women’s health issues. Students were passionate about their commitment to the project and stated that they would continue after our course requirements were complete. Some noted that this

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was their first service project and they enjoyed making jewelry that would benefit disadvantaged women in another part of the world. Others noted that they were internally motivated to complete the service because of family members and friends who were diagnosed with breast cancer. These students were thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the health of women far away because it connected them to their loved ones who suffered the same fate. Students were empowered to take action and make a difference that was actualized as the service was completed. This was important because students sometimes become overwhelmed with the study of global dilemmas in terms of the desperate conditions that the majority of people worldwide are faced with on a daily basis. In this line of reasoning, service learning lends itself to conceptions of global citizenship in the capacity to develop interdisciplinary knowledge on both global and local levels. As a course requirement, service learning should offer opportunity to understand competing forces, but also to help revitalize local culture with respect for the global context. Before introducing the service learning assignment I often tell students a story about my personal learning experience with a service project. At the time of the story, I was against processes of globalization and believed that the global raised serious issues about loss of the local. I boycotted stores like Walmart because of the undercutting of local business and fostering of excessive consumerism. Yet I decided to ask Walmart for help with a global dilemma that I was committed to, “women and children living in poverty in Central America.” The Walmart store in my community donated to me several racks of out of season baby clothes. Nearly all the clothes were zip up sleepers for infants. These clothes I believed would be ideal for babies whom I had seen around Antigua, Guatemala; babies that were in the street all day and night with their siblings begging for food and money. After 6:00 pm the temperature typically dropped and I suspected that the babies got cold and were more susceptible to getting sick and or contracting malaria and dengue. My daughter age 14 at the time, and I went to Antigua and decided to distribute the clothes freely on the streets, near a central market to whoever wanted or needed them. As soon as we started distributing the clothes many women began screaming and tried to grab the clothes out of our hands and bags. We had to run to get away from the crowd of women; the women unable to grab clothes were angry and began calling after us to stop running. We ran into the central market and split up to detract attention away from the image of two White foreign women giving away free baby clothes. This story raises many issues. My suggestion to students, based on this experience, is that providing service is complex and requires thoughtful

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practice that must be connected to civic spaces within local communities. Service learning involves working closely with individuals in the local community on a personal level. This process invites discussion of international reciprocity and connection, while affording local voices an important place in and service learning. These components were missing in my story. The thesis therefore is that while there is much that students can learn about global trends and issues through direct instruction and formal academic study; service learning provides a unique element of local wisdom that informs global knowledge. CONCLUSION

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The need to ensure that teacher preparation programs are producing quality teachers has long existed, but the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 raised the stakes for nearly all states and all university teacher education programs. The recent mandate for the Common Core Standards trumps previous initiatives because these standards incorporate 21st century skill sets such as technology and publication, integration of multiple sources from various media, gathering relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, and using digital media in presentations (Common Core Standards, 2012). As such teacher education programs are dedicated to a high standard of the knowledge and skills of graduates in addition to their ability to improve young learners’ academic performance. Likewise the sustained success of internationalizing teacher education is dependent on the vision of associated faculty. The mindset of teacher educators must be to mirror what is expected from preservice teachers. To this extent the seriousness of curriculum transformation of individual courses as well as entire programs deserves attention on equal footing with other elements of teacher education for continual refinement, evaluation of goals, and ongoing modification of procedures. In this chapter the TPACK framework guides instruction that intertwines technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge to optimize and transform classroom teaching and learning so that preservice teachers graduate with a venue for authentic global experiences and global learning. Understanding the practicalities of how to transform or design curriculum toward internationalization can be initiated with specific topics or units of study in an existing course, or as the foundation for an entire course. Becoming better at educating for global citizenship involves rethinking practice and recognizing that there are no simple templates for success. The burden falls on teacher educators who are often challenged to create structures and activities that promote a deep level of understanding for world dilemmas and events. A quote by Altinay (2010,

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p. 1) conveys the essence of this closing point, “a university education which does not provide effective tools and forums for students to think through their responsibilities and rights as one of the several billions on planet Earth, and along the way develop their moral compass, would be a failure.” REFERENCES Altbach, P. G. (2004). Globalization and the university: Myths and realities in an unequal world. Tertiary Education and Management, 10, 3–25. Altbach, P.G. & Knight, J. (2007). The internationalization of higher education: Motives and realities. Journal of Studies in International Education, 11, 290–305. Altinay, H. (2010). The case for global civics. Global economy and development working paper 35. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Appiah-Padi, S. (2001). How study in North America shapes the global perspectives of African students. Diversity Digest. Retrieved from http:// www.diversityweb.org/digest/sp01/study.html Applebaum, P., Friedler, L. M., Ortiz, C. E., & Wolff, E. F. (2009). Internationalizing the university mathematics curriculum. Journal of Studies in International Education, 13(3), 365–381. Arenas, R. (1993). Before night falls (D. Koch, Trans.). New York, NY: New York Times Best Book. Asia Society. (2001). Asia in the schools: Preparing young Americans for today’s interconnected world (National Commission on Asia in the Schools Report). Retrieved from InternationalED.org Bennett, M. (1994). Understanding culture’s influence on behavior. Houston, TX: Harcourt Brace. Boyle-Baise, M. (1998). Community service learning for multicultural education: An exploratory study with pre-service teachers. Equity and Excellence in Education, 31(2), 52–60. Bruner, J. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Case, R. (1993). Key elements of a global perspective. Social Education, 57, 318–325. Common Core Standards. (2012). Retrieved June 26, 2014 from http://edu .wyoming.gov/Programs/standards/common-core-state-standards.aspx de Wit, H. (2002). Internationalization of higher education in the United States of American and Europe. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Dewey, J. (1966). Democracy in education. New York, NY: Free Press. Friedman, T. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century.  New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Grady, K. (1997). Constructing the other through community service learning. In C. R. O’Grady (Ed.), Integrating service learning and multi-cultural education in colleges and universities. New York: Routledge.

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Green, M. F., & Shoenberg, R. (2006). Where faculty live: Internationalizing the disciplines. Washington, DC: American Council on Education. Haakenson, P., Savukova, G., & Mason, T. (1998). Teacher education reform and global education: United States and Russian perspectives. International Journal of Social Education, 13(2), 29–47. Langton, S. (Ed.). (1978). Citizen participation in America: Current reflections on state of the art. In Citizen participation in America (pp. 1–12). Lexington KY: Lexington Books. Mansilla, V. B., & Jackson, A. (2011). Educating for global competence: Preparing our youth to engage the world. New York, NY: Asia Society Merryfield, M. (1991). Preparing American secondary social studies teachers to teach with a global perspective: A status report. Journal of Teacher Education, 42, 11–20. Merryfield, M. (2000). Like a veil: Cross-cultural experiential learning online. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 3(2), 146–171. Miner, H. (1956). Body ritual among the Nacirema. American Anthropologist, 58(3), 503–507. Mishra, P., & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record, 108(6), 1017–1054. Mok, K. (2006). Questing for internationalization of universities in East Asia: Critical reflections. Paper presented at the International Symposium, Osaka University, Japan. Olson, C., Evans, R., & Shoenberg, R. (2007). At home in the world: Bridging the gap between internationalization and multi-cultural education. Washington DC: American Council on Education. Root, S. (1997). A review of research for teacher education. In J. Erickson & J. Anderson (Eds.), Learning with the community: Concepts and models for service learning in teacher education (pp. 42–72). Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education. Scott, P. (2000). Globalisation and higher education: Challenges for the 21st century. Journal of Studies in International Education, 4(1), 3–10. Siegel, S. (1994). Community service learning: A component to strengthen multicultural teacher education. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. Sutton, M. (1999). Fostering global awareness in teacher education programs. Michigan and Ohio Journal of Teacher Education, 12(1), 150–161. Silverman, R., Welty, W., & Lyon, S. (1992). Case studies for teacher problem solving. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Swick, K. (1999). Developing leadership in faculty and students: The power of servicelearning in teacher education. Clemson, SC: National Dropout Prevention Center. Toh, S. (1996). Partnerships as solidarity: Crossing north-south boundaries. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 42, 178–191. Tye, K. (1992). Restructuring schools: Beyond the rhetoric. Phi Delta Kappan, 9–14.

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Internationalizing Curricula in Teacher Education 269 Wade, R. (1999). Novice teachers’ experiences of community service-learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15, 667–684.

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CHAPTER 15

CULTURAL IMMERSION PROGRAM PREPARES EDUCATORS FOR GLOBALIZATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE TEACHING

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J. KAMBUTU

John Kambutu

Advanced technologies are perhaps responsible for the rise of modern globalization. While modern globalization has many dimensions, it allows the access of information in ways never imagined, thus enabling informed human interactions. In the United States, however, misinformation about “other” cultures along with misunderstanding of globalization abound. Consider, for example, the following reflection from a preservice teacher as she prepared to travel to Kenya, Africa to participate in a cultural immersion program, “I am having short, intense attacks of anxiety regarding this trip. I have overwhelming feelings of sheer fear that runs through my body. I am worried about getting a strange disease.” After travel, the student reported, “I feel sad that people would not participate in such a great experience because they are afraid.” Evidently, participating in cultural immersion allowed this participant to acquire objective and credible information, thus causing essential transformation in an age of globalization. Therefore, this chapter discusses the benefits of cultural immersion in the context of globalization and social justice.

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 271–290 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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BACKGROUND This chapter provides an analysis of globalization and social justice data that the author of this chapter, hereafter referenced as “instructor” collected in a preservice teacher education program. The instructor teaches foundation of education courses that have a multicultural and social justice focus. The mission of the teacher education program where the instructor teaches is to “prepare competent and democratic professionals.” To earn their certification, all preservice teachers in this program that is located a rural setting, are required to master a number of standards, including the ability to a “establish democratic learning environment.” This outcome focuses on multicultural and social justice education issues. Meanwhile, given the ongoing globalization trends, this teacher preparation program is encouraging its faculty to help students to acquire essential skills in democracy, globalization, and multicultural/social justice education. To teach to these skills, the instructor applied collaborative teaching, cultural immersion and service learning. To measure the effectiveness of these instructional approaches, the instructor collected data from students either by way of interviews, written reflections, field notes, emails, threaded discussions, and having students write letters to themselves. In this chapter, the instructor presents various pertinent findings in a coded format, that is, I. for interviews, Wr. for written reflections, Fn. for field notes, Pi. for personal letters and Td. for threaded discussions.

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Globalization is not a new phenomenon. Rather, it is a practice that is as old as humanity itself. While globalization has traditionally taken different formats, one constant is that it always allowed people of different cultural persuasions to mingle (Kambutu, 2013; Wiarda, 2007). Through globalization, for example, indigenous peoples traveled, and even settled in foreign lands with relative ease. In essence, therefore, globalization has always enabled the mixing of people for various reasons, but mostly the access of better economic opportunities. Traditionally, this mixing of people or globalization had good intentions—for example, helping the needy. Nowadays, however, globalization is responsible for a variety of injustice such as increased cultural domination, displacement of people from ancestral lands, increased militarism, contested emigration and immigration, racism, ethnic prejudice, religious intolerance and economic exploitation (Bauman, 2004; Gibson, 2010; Grant, 2014; Kambutu, 2013; Kambutu & Nganga, 2008; Suarez-Orozco & Sattin, 2007). Meanwhile, because modern globalization has created global wealth

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imbalance, Sokolower (2006) argued that people from poor countries are increasingly forced to immigrate to wealthy nations in search of economic opportunities. Unfortunately, these immigrants are likely to experience a variety of social injustice, including cultural misunderstanding and suspicion (Traor’e, 2006). Given that globalization is likely to have negative effects, Lee (2012) recommended a careful study of policies and practices associated with modern globalization. Advances in technologies have essentially transformed traditional globalization practices. For example, while traditional globalization operated in the context of rigid cultural and physical boundaries, modern globalization works in an interconnected world, that is, a “virtual” place of interdependence and interconnections, thanks to advances in technology (Tapscott, 2009). In modern globalization, people are able to mingle with relative ease and speed, thus causing different people to interpret globalization differently. For example, Krieger (2005) associated modern globalization with improved living standards. Nevertheless, Sleeter (2003) cautioned against glorification of modern globalization, as in the “global village” metaphor that is commonly used by people that benefit from globalization. To Sleeter, the global village metaphor is a scheme that is creatively designed and popularized by the groups that benefit from modern globalization in an effort to conceal the associated exploitative practices. In support of Sleeter’s views, Lee (2012) mentioned that, in essence, modern globalization is an invention of neoliberal Western elites, and its goal is to advance their economic, social and political hegemonies. In this scheme then, what is evident is the popularization of global consumerism or the “McWorld” phenomenon that “norms” Western goods, including culture, religion, politics, economics, epistemologies (Grant & Grant, 2007; Preskill, 2001). Meanwhile, the same scheme demeans products from poor and developing nations, creating a sense it is acceptable for developed nations to control and take them over. To promote pertinent control, Barber and Schulz (1996) singled out the use military power that is on the rise. Given the complicated nature of modern globalization, therefore, Sleeter (2003) recommended a careful and objective study of it, and especially the complementing neoliberal ideologies along with the ongoing expansion of global military excursions.

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GLOBALIZATION AND POPULAR PERSPECTIVES People understand modern globalization differently. For example, because of positionality, that is, whether one is in a position of advantage or disadvantage based on globalization, different perspectives are held. Typically, while the groups that benefit are likely to view modern global-

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ization favorably, the disadvantaged people hold unfavorable perspectives. To confirm this point, the instructor interviewed a convenient sample in the United States. Perhaps because this group benefited, or because they lacked critical awareness, they overwhelmingly supported modern globalization arguing that it has transformed the world into a “village” that benefits everyone by “marketing products worldwide, thus expanding global resources to the entire world.” Equally mentioned was the benefit of promoting global collaboration in order to “share opportunities’” especially with the poor people “in third world countries in order to create a better world” (Fn. 2012). Although modern globalization is designed to serve the interests of wealthy nations, Lee (2012) postulated that neoliberalism was responsible for the commonly held perception that globalization benefits everyone, including the exploited people in the poor nations of the world. Modern globalization does not benefit everyone. Instead, it is responsible for the increasing gap between economic classes. Indeed, modern globalization is most likely responsible for contemporary forms of injustice, including modern colonialism, cultural domination of indigenous people, displacement of people from ancestral lands, contested emigration and immigration, racism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance (Bauman, 2004; Gibson, 2010; Kambutu, 2013; Suarez-Orozco & Sattin, 2007). Reflecting on the ills of modern globalization, Perez, MonteroSieburth, and Gonzalez (2012) blamed it for the increasing immigration trends in the Canary Islands in Spain. Although these islands have always supported globalization, Suarez-Orozco and Suarez-Orozco (2001) were equally concerned over the increasing numbers of emigrants, especially immigrants on transit to Europe. Reflecting on the impact of increased immigration to the Canary Islands, Perez et al. (2012) indicated that temporary immigrants were impacting indigenous cultural and environmental setups in ways not seen before, and that generally, immigrants from Africa were “othered,” rejected, excluded, discriminated and highly stigmatized. In addition to being taunted as job takers, Perez et al. reported that African immigrants were further isolated because of race, a troubling injustice given that most African immigrants are victims of modern globalization. Modern globalization is impacting poor nations, Africa especially in many dramatic ways. For example, because these poor and developing nations continue to serve as sources of labor, raw materials and market for the developed ones, Lee (2012) postulated that modern globalization has essentially interrupted lifestyles in these nations in diverse and dramatic ways. Consider for example, the following reflection from one of the instructor’s student after participating in a cultural immersion program to Kenya, a developing nation:

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Cultural Immersion Program Prepares Educators for Globalization 275 Prior to this experience, I viewed globalization positively. However, it was disheartening to see greenhouses that stretch for miles through some of the most fertile soil on the planet (land surrounding Lake Naivasha), constructed by international companies to grow flowers for export to benefit a few already privileged people while the food that should be grown there to feed the local people is imported. Although I was already aware of the inefficacy of organizations like the International Monetary Fund to enact genuine positive change in the countries receiving aid, being able to see evidence makes it real, undeniable, and frustrating. This to me is evidence that there is need to reexamine the existing relationships between developed and less developed nations, particularly in the context of globalization. As the world becomes a village, it is essential that we all become empathic stewards of its resources. Our world has enough resources for everyone. A just sharing of those resources could ensure that the basic needs of all the people on earth are met. (Fn, June 2010; Adopted from Nganga, Kambutu, & Russell, 2013, pp. 7–8)

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Similarly, a different student was equally distraught by the effects of globalization on poor nations as the following feedback shows, International corporate firms that are exploiting Kenyans and other third world people are the problem. They are taking land and other natural resources from the natives as if it were their right. (Wr., 2006)

Given the knowledge gained relative to the intersection between poverty in developing nations and globalization, another participant concluded, “Mark Twain was indeed correct when he said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. This trip has taught me that globalization is problematic and that we need to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to thrive in a happy, healthy and long life in a globalized world (Td., 2013). But ensuring quality life for everyone in an age of modern globalization might be a daunting task because institutions that benefit from globalization have enacted various policies and practices that maintain modern globalization. Globalization flourishes, not withstanding its negative effects on the poor nations of the world because its policies are supported by various power international organizations. One such supportive organization is the World Bank. Consider, for example, its practices that are also supported by International Monetary Fund that require the implementation of “structural adjustment programs” as a condition for granting loans to poor third world countries (Steger, 2009). While structural adjustment programs are meant to guard against loan delinquencies, these programs have motivated companies from developed nations to “take over” property in third world countries, and faced with increasing foreign debts, these developing nations “invite” foreign investors to help raise essential

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funds to service external debts. The unintended consequence is the development of modern forms of colonialism and displacement of indigenous people from their ancestral lands. So, given the negative effects of modern globalization, an educational that examines the true meaning and practices of it is necessary. EDUCATION FOR GLOBAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE COMPETENCY An education for global and social justice competency is empowering because it promotes a critical understanding of global dynamics within the context of social justice. Social justice is a misunderstood area. For example, in conservative political circles in the United States, social justice is believed to be a “code word” for forced transfer of wealth (Beck, 2010). But in academia, social justice is understood in a completely different light. Instead of associating it with economic conspiracy, social justice is credited for examining and disrupting injustice, oppression and domination (Nieto & Bode, 2012). Essentially, social justice supports social democracy. Unlike political democracy that focuses more on issues of governance, social democracy is interested in the “other.” To that end, Goodlad, Mantle-Bromley, and Goodlad (2004) argued that in a social democracy, collective accomplishments are valued more than individual gains. Therefore, instead of social injustice, in a social democracy, there is evidence of fairness, justice, and kindness. Indeed, Hughes (2004, p. 15) view of a “Gracious Space” or a “setting” and a “spirit” that invites the stranger is very consistent with the principles of social democracy. Being a gracious space, therefore, a social democracy has no room for injustice. Instead, oppressive “institutional policies and practices” that allow individuals and society to support social inequality based on human differences, both natural and socially constructed” are continually examined and eliminated (Rios, 2010). This is what social justice is all about. To that end, West (2011) described it as love in public because it focuses more on the “other” in a public manner. An education for social justice, then, is transforming. An education for global issues and social justice must be taken seriously. As a result, Kirkwood (2001) recommended the following to be present in any education that teaches for global and social justice skills: moral purpose, consideration of basic human rights, human equality, and understanding and appreciation of diverse cultures. Other essential skills involve the development of intercultural relations, that is, the ability to understand how other people think, how other cultures work, and how other societies are likely to respond to foreign cultures Merryfield and Wilson (2005). An education thus designed is likely to generate informed

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global citizens that understand selves within the context of global “others.” Meanwhile, teaching for globalization and social justice could occur in many forms, but Gibson, Rimmington, and Landwehr-Brown (2008) recommended research-based studies. Given this recommendation, the instructor used research-based approaches to examine the effectiveness of collaborative teaching, cultural immersion and service learning; the instructional approaches he applied while teaching for global and social justice competencies. COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

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Collaborative teaching and learning is an instructional approach that invites the learner to be actively involved in the learning process. In collaborative learning, students are empowered to not only have a say relative to instructional content, but to also determine the appropriate learning resources. For this reason, Dewey (1916) was especially fond of collaborative teaching because it is aligned well with democratic principles of empowerment and freedom. In addition, collaborative teaching undermines the traditional teaching approaches of meaningless memorization and recitation. So, in collaborative teaching, the instructor serves as a facilitator or manager of the learning process, and not a know-it-all truth teller (Nganga & Kambutu, 2009). While collaborative teaching is an ideal instructional approach in general, it is especially useful when teaching challenging topics such as oppression/domination and social justice. This fact was especially evident when the instructor relinquished his traditional teaching approach of lecturing to students in favor of studentlead collaborative teaching. To be sure, there are times in the learning process, especially when teaching foundational information, when lecturing is necessary. But from the instructor’s experience, students are likely to resist any learning that they deem top-down, that is, initiated and controlled by the teacher. On the contrary, they are receptive to “bottom-up” learning or instruction that invites learners to be actively involved in the planning and implementation of the learning process. To institute collaborative teaching, the instructor uses a variety of instructional approaches. For example, to teach for globalization and individual differences, he offers a brief introduction in the context multicultural and social justice education. Then, he assigns reading activities that focus on different aspects of human differences such as culture, ethnicity, exceptionalities, sex and gender, class, language religion, race, et cetera. While studying, students are required to choose one difference, preferably one that is unfamiliar to them and respond in writing to the following prompts:

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• • • •

Why did you choose the difference you chose? What have you learned from the difference you chose? How do you see the knowledge gained influencing your teaching? What else would you like to share?

During small and whole class discussion sessions, the instructor asks learners to share their thoughts. The instructor facilitates both small and large group discussion during class time. Regularly, students choose to study the human differences that they are already familiar with such as special education, gender and class. Avoided are “toxic” or controversial topics such as race and racism, religion and homosexuality. DiAngelo (2012) postulated that, learners from the dominant group (White) will most certainly avoid controversial topics because of fear. For example, because being racist in the United States is considered a bad thing (not being racist is a good thing), Whites are afraid to confront race issues because of fear that they would access knowledge that shows how they benefit, directly or indirectly from racist policies and practices. As beneficiaries of racism, therefore, they would automatically become bad people because racism is “something that only bad people” do (Puchner & Markoowitz, 2014, p. 74). In assessing the dualism involved, that is, being racist is bad and not being racist is good, Lathan (2014, p.17) concluded, “many White people live in fear of their good faith actions being labeled as racist.” Being aware of this dynamic, therefore, the instructor allows his students to study familiar topics in order to allow them to develop essential emotional and cognitive security around issues of human differences. Developing emotional and cognitive security is critical. Indeed, although good learning is likely to occur in the context of emotional and cognitive dissonance, too much of it can hinder the learning process. Thus, it is essential to support learners both emotionally and cognitively especially when they are studying potentially challenging topics. To that end, while discussing familiar topics, the instructor scaffolds using relevant social justice terminologies such as colonization/domination, oppression, equity, prejudice, discrimination, race/racisms, and lesbian/gay/ bisexual/transgender/queer/intersex/questioning (Dunn & Dotson, 2014) and so forth. Also helpful in the process of demystifying controversial topics is teaching from comfort/familiar to discomfort/unfamiliar. For example, because all students have women in their lives (mothers, sisters, wives, etc.), they relate well to various gender based injustice, including issues of gender-based wage discrepancies. The instructor then uses this awareness as a bridge to topics that the students find unappealing. Perhaps because of this teaching approach—allowing learners to develop

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emotional and cognitive comfort around issues of human differences and social justice, learners express a desire to study other controversial topics. After choosing to study culture in details, for example, one student reported, “researching the topic I chose really helped me gain knowledge and respect for a culture that I knew very little about” (Wr., 2008). Meanwhile, another student who chose to study race and racism reflected thusly, I was scared at first to study about why Blacks are angry and Whites are frustrated, but then I said “be honest.” To start to understand racism we have to first know our prejudices, work through those and decide the changes we need to make. (Fn., 2008)

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Collaborative learning has many advantages, but being able to address real problems in a safe learning environment seems to have most value. However, reflecting on the meaning of collaborative learning, Stuckart and Glanz (2010) argued that organizing the learning environment in a form of a “miniature community,” coupled with ongoing communication between teachers and students is very helpful. When learners are immersed in a safe collaborative learning environment, they are likely to engage in learning that they would ordinarily not consider studying. To that end, one student chose to participate in a service-learning project that immersed learners in unfamiliar cultures. Reflecting on the effect of cultural immersion, the student indicated, Interacting with someone from another culture was a great experience. The food we ate gave me a visual presence of the country and of course a taste of her native country. This unit reduced my ignorance. I will definitely do this unit with my students. (Wr., 2007)

Given the noted benefits of immersion, the instructor added a cultural immersion experience to facilitate the study of globalization. CULTURAL IMMERSION Cultural immersion is an instructional approach that places people in unfamiliar cultures, away from familiar ones either for a short or long period of time. While some immersion programs involve a day or night trip, others allow people to participate in long programs that require home-stays or other forms of accommodations within the host culture. But whether designed for short or prolonged immersion, to be effective, participants should be physically present in host cultures. Equally helpful is the quality of the planned interactions between participants

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and host cultures. While interaction may take many forms, holding conversations, observing, listening, studying artifacts, reflecting, questioning and participating in meals and cultural activities are especially informative. Also helpful is participants’ ability to tolerate ambiguity and to suspend ethnocentrism or the tendency to use familiar cultures as a yardstick to judge unfamiliar ones (Kambutu & Nganga, 2008, 2014). Unless cultural immersion programs are planned carefully, however, they risk turning into tourist activities whose purpose is to show the unfamiliar in order to amuse the participants (Derman-Sparks & the A.B.C. Task Force, 1998). Tourist programs have value. However, Derman-Sparks and the A.B.C. Task Force (1998) critiqued tourist programs that are intended for educational purpose because they do not guard against ethnocentrism. Especially problematic is the lack of quality space for participants to interact objectively with unfamiliar cultures. As a result, tourist programs have a tendency to promote exotic views of unfamiliar cultures (Williams, 2005). So, instead of offering tourist programs, having carefully planned cultural immersion programs has value because such programs allow participants to grapple with unfamiliar cultural practices, using objective and informed cultural information, therefore, causing a new cultural understanding and appreciation. Notwithstanding the value of planned immersion, Robins, Lindsey, Lindsey, and Terrell (2002) cautioned that developing cultural understanding is an intentional act. Therefore, although it is possible to develop an understanding and appreciation of other cultures when one is required to, it is much easier and effective to acquire pertinent knowledge and skills when it is a personal choice. But making a choice without a reason to do so can be a challenge as is evident in the following reaction:

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I really do not know why we were learning stuff about diversity. Wyoming does not have diversity … this was a total waste of my time and I feel we should have learned other more important information, not about racism and diversity. (Wr. 2007)

Although this student’s feedback has merit especially because she rarely interacts with racial and ethnic diversity, modern globalization is gradually changing this reality. To that end, Liu (2007) reported that, because rural communities are experiencing increases in racial and ethnic immigration, people in rural communities should be helped to learn and acquire essential cultural skills. To make this happen, the instructor used both short and long-term cultural immersion as cultural instructional approaches.

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SHORT-TERM CULTURAL IMMERSION Recall that cultural immersion is a teaching approach that requires learners to be physically immersed in unfamiliar cultures for a short or a long period of time. To be effective though, immersion programs, whether short or long term, must be planned carefully. So the short-term (1–2 days) programs that the instructor offers are designed carefully to allow learners enough time to grapple with unfamiliar cultures in the context of globalization. But because the instructor’s students are in a rural setting, isolated from more culturally diverse cities, they have limited encounters with ethnic diversity and the realities of globalization. So, while one destination for these short cultural programs is a city, the other is an American Indian reservation. Given that these are short cultural programs, the risk of assuming “tourist” effect is real. Recall Derman-Sparks and the A.B.C. Task Force (1998) caution that unless cultural programs are planned carefully, they risk becoming tourist activities whose purpose is to show the unfamiliar in order to amuse the participants. As a result, the instructor prepared the students for short cultural immersion by asking them to participate in the following learning activities:

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• completing pre/post travel survey; • reading and critiquing at least one book that covers any topic on globalization, multicultural and social justice education prior to participating in cultural immersion; • designing and implementing a lesson plan or unit that shows various lesson modification strategies in order to teach to individual differences; • writing term papers and projects that demonstrate a clear understanding of multicultural issues in the classroom and how these issues affect teachers as instructional leaders; and • participating in discussion that examine and discuss global and multicultural issues. Although the instructor prepared students for short-term cultural immersion, previsit data showed that learners were uncomfortable. For example, given that students lacked prior experience with urban and American Indian cultures, they were concerned about being immersed in unfamiliar cultures. In addition to being afraid that they would do something that people in those cultures would find offensive, some students were concerned that they would not be able to speak the local (American Indian) languages. Although these concerns were valid, postvisit data showed that many students were surprised at the similarities between

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their own cultures and the cultures they encountered. Also, instead of questioning the value of cultural diversity, data showed that they saw value in having many different cultures in the classroom. As a result, many students expressed a desire to teach in a school that is culturally diverse. To that end, one student reported a change of attitude relative to American Indian cultures adding, “I would like to teach in American Indian schools because they have favorable working environment and many opportunities to work with children of diverse backgrounds.” This apparent learner transformation is perhaps prove that planned short-term cultural immersion programs have value. Valuable too are long-term cultural programs.

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The instructor has used summer international cultural immersion programs to help participants to acquire essential cultural and globalization knowledge. Implemented from the summer of 2004, these 10 days to 3 weeks summer immersion programs are intended for both college students and members of the general public. To date, close to 200 participants have participated. Similar to short-term programs, the instructor prepares participants for these long-term programs. But preparing people for effective international cultural immersion is rather tedious (for more details, see Kambutu & Nganga, 2008). Nevertheless, because immersing people in foreign cultures for a prolonged period of time is perhaps more beneficial than typical classroom teaching (while teaching for cultural understanding and appreciation), the effort and time involved is worth it. To that end, the instructor takes over 1 year planning and preparing participants for Kenya programs. The instructor’s international programs are implemented in Kenya, Africa. As a Kenyan immigrant to the United States, he attempted with futility to teach/modify the existing misinformed views about Africa through traditional teaching approaches. As a result, the instructor designed cultural immersion to allow participants to learn-by-doing, thus hoping to alter the held misinformation about Africa. For example, in the United States, there is a general misunderstanding that Africa is a country not a continent (Kambutu & Nganga, 2014), and the media, television especially might be to blame for this misconception. Consider, for example, the possible implication of the constant media coverage of Africanbased news such as war in Africa or Ebola in Africa instead of specifying the exact affected country or region in Africa. Evidently, this kind of generalized reporting is not only responsible for the existing misinformed

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perceptions of Africa as one homogenous country, but it also supports the notion that Africa is the “Dark continent” (Shillington, 1995). Generally, people in wealthy nations have a distorted image of Africa. Perhaps because of prejudicial media reporting many people associate Africa with poverty, tribal wars, starvation and strange diseases (Traor’e, 2006). Meanwhile, other similar stereotypical and ethnocentric notions about Africa, including the perception that there are no schools there are troubling. Perhaps because of the existing misinformation, participants in the instructor’s Kenya cultural programs expressed deep reservation about traveling to “Africa.” For example, one participant reported, Having short, intense attacks of anxiety regarding this trip. I have overwhelming feelings of sheer fear that runs through my body. I am worried about getting a disease (strangely, I haven’t been overly concerned about catching the AIDS virus), and I am wondering why I want to get out of the safety and comfort of my environment for 3 weeks. (Pl., 2004)

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Another participant expressed similar sentiments thusly “I am very nervous about the experience. I worry about dealing with bad food, safety, illness, and lack of comfort” (Fn., 2011). The existing misinformation in the United States about Africa is inexcusable especially in the current age of information and globalization. Recall that one characteristic of globalization is increases in modern technologies that have allowed people to interact globally, albeit virtually, and share/access information. Essentially, modern technologies have overcome the barriers that previously kept people relatively misinformed about global matters (Tapscott, 2009). Indeed, instead of being ignorant about other people, modern technologies have enabled people to be informed, but this reality is apparently not applying to Africa. Therefore, to help people in the United States to develop objective knowledge about Africa, the instructor implemented summer Kenya cultural immersion programs. KENYA SUMMER CULTURAL PROGRAMS Planning cultural immersion programs, let alone international ones, is a daunting task. International programs are especially challenging because they not only immerse participants in totally unfamiliar cultures for a longer time than local programs, but they also require satisfying various governmental protocols. Notwithstanding the challenges involved, the likelihood of helping participants to develop cultural understanding and appreciation motivates the instructor to implement international programs. Planned well, international cultural immersion programs have many benefits.

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Initially, the instructor planned 3-week immersion programs. However, these programs have now evolved into shorter (10–12 days) service-learning projects. After experiencing Kenya, participants requested the instructor to plan programs that would also allow learning-by-doing. The addition of service learning enriched the previous learning approach that relied on lectures, observations, discussions and field trips. In addition to using primary resources to explore Kenya’s holistically (history, geography, cultures, economy, education, archeology, ecology, ethnic, gender issues, HIV/AIDS epidemic, etc.) in the context of globalization and social justice, service learning is especially helpful because it supports concrete learning (vs. abstract learning). Therefore, while participating in various service learning projects, participants are able to suspend fear; a major hindrance when learning through cultural immersion. Indeed, learning through immersion only causes learners to be overly conscious and fearful about offending host cultures. This reality seems to dissipate when participants are actively involved in a project they deem meaningful to host cultures. But whether implementing either “passive” or “active” cultural immersion, it was essential to prepare participants well for cultural immersion. The instructor prepared participants for cultural immersion in a variety of ways. For example, for 1 year before travel, he holds regular meetings with participants to discuss the upcoming program. At these meetings, participants are allowed to ask questions and to express their feelings about the impending cultural program. In addition to encouraging participants to journal their thoughts, feelings, ideas or whatever, the instructor invites participants to schedule meetings with him, write emails or call him by telephone to express whatever is on their minds relative to the planned program. This activity is helpful because it assures participants that support is available. Meanwhile, to further introduce participants to host cultures, the instructor invites guest speakers, and assigns pretravel relevant reading materials. To assess participants’ mindset, the instructor requires participants to complete in writing the following pretravel questions:

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• Describe briefly: o Your thinking/feelings/sense about traveling to Kenya. o What you think will help you learn the most about Kenyan cultures during your visit.  • Visiting a new culture has the potential to cause discomfort. Thus, o Explain your position relative to being immersed in a new culture. o State the steps you have taken to address your current position.

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• International service learning opportunities are likely to help participants to develop cultural competence. Describe: o What cultural competence means to you. o Why it is important to be culturally competent? Although these questions are intended to help participants to think purposefully and objectively about the planned international cultural program, their responses help the instructor to not only adjust the planned programs as needed, but to also address the needs that individual participants might convey. Meanwhile, after each program, participants respond in writing to the following questions:

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• Describe briefly how Kenya cultural immersion/service-learning project has impacted you. • Explain briefly: o How the Kenya travel has clarified the misconceptions (if any) that you had prior to travel. o Any cultural areas/practices that are still unclear to you. • Describe: o An experience that helped you the most to learn about Kenyan cultures. o An important lesson you learned while interacting with Kenyan cultures (people, places and environments). • Describe ways in which your experiences in Kenya have impacted you as a citizen in a world that is increasingly becoming a “global village.” • Other: What else would you like to share? The instructor designed posttravel questions to not only help the participants to reflect on the value of the just concluded international cultural program, but to also think critically about the issues involved. Indeed, while immersed in foreign cultures, participants have many learning opportunities, many of which are unconventional and insidious. For example, while talking to a child somewhere or seeing a cultural event might appear like a regular form of human interaction, these activities could have dipper cultural meaning. So, by asking the planned postvisit questions, the instructor’s objective is to facilitate deeper and meaningful reflection. Data from both pre and posttravel feedback were analyzed. Consistently, the collected data showed that long-term cultural immersion programs promoted cultural understanding and appreciation (for details see Kambutu & Nganga, 2008, 2014). For example, although pre-

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travel data generally showed that participants were apprehensive because they associated Africa with lack of modern civilization, strange diseases and wars, posttravel data showed that participants developed a broader understanding of Africa, and for that matter, Kenya. Therefore, instead of discussing Africa as a country, participants reported that Kenya was a “beautiful country with welcoming, generous and kind people” (Wr., 2005). But perhaps most telling is the following reflection about the impact the media has relative to shaping perceptions: A lesson that was reinforced to me during this trip was the reality that the media really only focuses on the negative side of things. I was truly amazed at how green parts of Kenya were because I had only seen really dry-looking, dusty pictures. This trip gave me the opportunity to see different parts of the country and to get a much better picture of the Kenyan landscape than I had previously. I think that it is problematic that the media mainly show the negative about Africa to the outside world. (Wr., 2011)

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Meanwhile, another participant who, perhaps because of negative media coverage was so afraid about poor sanitation in Africa that he brought toilet paper from the United States was equally changed. In his posttravel reflection, this participant reported how surprised he was at finding “five star hotels all offering quality food in buffet style” (Em., 2006). Meanwhile, although pretravel data showed that participants were generally concerned about catching deadly diseases while in Africa, posttravel data showed that they appreciated the experience because it taught them many invaluable cultural lessons. As a result, one participant indicated that she was “incredibly grateful to have been able to have this opportunity and I am hoping to go back soon! (Td., 2013). Meanwhile, the participants’ initial perception that associated African with poverty was confirmed. Before travel, participants associated African with extreme poverty. The level of poverty the participants saw in Kenya was overwhelming. To that end, one participant reported being “confused” after seeing extreme poverty in Nakuru, the site for a service-learning project that constructed a kitchen that is feeding over 500 poor school children. In his written reflection he mentioned that witnessing the level of poverty he saw was a “life changing experience. I am a changed person. It brings me back to my religion and the story of the Good Samaritan. That’s who I want to be” (Wr., 2011). But most promising was the fact that these participants stopped blaming Kenyans for the prevailing extreme levels of poverty. Instead, they understood the intersection between the seen poverty and historical events such as colonization and the enslavement of African people. Equally understood is the negative effect of globalization to poor and developing countries. Commenting on the negative effects of globaliza-

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tion, for example, one participant reported that because of Kenya experience she was able to recognize the: Privileges I have in my own life partly because of globalization. This travel has helped me to be more open to the experience that others have and to stop assuming that I know about another people’s experience. (Wr., 2011)

Another participant expressed her understanding of the effects globalization by agreeing with Mark Twain that travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. CONCLUSION

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Advanced technologies have perhaps contributed to the rise of modern globalization. While modern globalization has many dimensions, it supports a virtual world of interdependence, interconnections and increased human interactions. Equally evident is an increase in various forms of global injustice, including displacements of indigenous people from ancestral lands, contested emigration and immigration policies, racism and ethnic prejudice, religious intolerance, increased military conflicts and exploitation of poor countries by wealthy ones. As a result, this chapter argues that it is essential to critically examine modern globalization. In specific, the chapter calls for an education that explores globalization using a social justice lens. Such an education has value because it calls for an examination of power and privilege in the context of the “other.” Equally examined are institutional policies and practices that promote inequalities. In practice, therefore, an education for globalization and social justice is holistic, involving, empowering, transforming and bent on social democracy. Although an education for globalization and social justice could be implemented easily, data presented this chapter point to the value of collaborative teaching as well as learning through immersion. Collaborative teaching is an empowering instructional approach because it allows learners to be involved fully in the learning process. While there are multiple ways to empower, allowing learners the freedom of choice is beneficial especially when teaching “toxic” and challenging topics such as oppression, domination and social justice. Because humans have a tendency to take the path of least resistance, when learners are given the freedom to choose, they are likely to prefer topics that they deem less controversial. This learning approach helps them to develop a sense of emotional and cognitive safety. When learners have developed emotional and cognitive comfort, they are likely to be receptive to studying more challenging topics. Therefore, with careful planning, it is easy

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for educators to use what the students already know or are comfortable with to study the more unfamiliar and uncomfortable topics, including issues of human differences, globalization and social justice. Meanwhile, cultural immersion is an equally effective instructional approach. Cultural immersion requires learners to be physically immersed/present in unfamiliar cultures for a short or a long period of time. With careful planning, cultural immersion creates space for learners to develop deep understanding and appreciation of other cultures. The value of cultural immersion is perhaps inherent in the fact that immersed learners have enough time to grapple with unfamiliar practices. But the data presented in this chapter indicate that adding a service-learning component to cultural immersion is even more beneficial because when participating in service-learning, learners are more likely to be fully immersed in foreign cultures, thus increasing both the amount and quality of learning accrued. As a result, this chapter supports strongly the use of cultural immersion and service learning as essential instructional approaches to issues of globalization and social justice.

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Barber, B. R., & Schulz, A. (1996). Jihad vs. McWorld: How globalization and tribalism are reshaping the world. New York, NY: Ballantine. Bauman, Z. (2004) Wasted lives: Modernity and its outcasts. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. Beck, G. (2010). What Glenn Beck meant about social justice. Retrieved November 13, 2011, from http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2010/04/16/what-glenn-beckmeant-about-social-justice/8452 Dewy, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New York, NY: Macmillan Derman-Parks & the A.B.C. Task Force. (1998). Anti-bias curriculum: Tools for empowering young children. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children. DiAngelo, R. (2012). What does it mean to be White: Developing White racial literacy. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Dunn, A. H., & Dotson, E. K. (2014). “You won’t believe what they said in class today”: Professor’s reflections on student resistance in multicultural education courses. Multicultural Perspectives, 16(2), 93–98. Gibson, M. L. (2010). Multicultural Perspectives, 12(3) 129–137. Gibson, K. L., Rimmington, G. M., & Landwehr-Brown, M. (2008). Developing global awareness and responsible world citizenship with global learning. Roeper Review, 30(1). Retrieved October 15, 2012, from http://web.ebscohost .com.proxy.uwlib.uwyo.edu/ehost/detail? Goodlad, J. I., Mantle-Bromley, C., & Goodlad, S. (2004). Education for everyone: Agenda for education in a democracy. San Francisco, CA: Josey Bass.

Cultural Immersion Program Prepares Educators for Globalization 289 Grant, C. (2014). Systems of oppression, the globalization of neoliberalism and NAME’s call to action. Multicultural Perspectives, 16(2), 99–109. Grant, C., & Grant, A. (2007). Schooling and globalization: What do we tell our kids & clients? Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 16(3/4), 213–225. Hughes, P. M. (2004). Gracious space: A practical guide for working better together. Seattle, WA: Center for Ethical Leadership. Kambutu, J. (2013). Globalization: History, consequences and what to do with it. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. B. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional strategies (pp.110). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Kambutu, J., & Nganga, L. (2008). In these uncertain times: Educators build cultural awareness through planned international experiences. Teacher and Teacher Education, 24, 939–951. Kambutu, J., & Nganga, L. (2014). Do you speak African? Teaching for diversity awareness in an era of globalization. Journal of International Social Studies, 3(1), 28–41. Kirkwood, T. (2001). Our global age requires global education: Clarifying definitional ambiguities. The Social Studies, 92, 1–16. Krieger, J. (2005). Globalization and state power. New York, NY: Pearson/Longman. Lathan, C. (2014). Dear White teacher. Rethinking schools, 29(1), 14–18. Lee, P. (2012). From common struggles to common dreams: Neoliberalism and multicultural education in a globalized environment. Multicultural Perspectives, 14(3), 129–135. Liu, W. (2007). The changing faces of Wyoming population. Cheyenne, WY: State Department of Administration and Information Economic Analysis Division. Merryfield, M. M., & Wilson, A. (2005). Social studies and the world: Teaching global perspectives. Silver Spring, MD: National Council for the Social Studies. Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2012). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education. New York, NY: Person. Nganga, L., Kambutu, J., & Russell, W. B., III. (2013). Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies. Effective instructional strategies. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Nganga, L., & Kambutu, J. (2009). Teaching for democracy and social justice in isolated rural settings: Challenges and pedagogical opportunities. In S. Greonke & A. Hatch (Eds), Critical pedagogy and teacher education in the neoliberal era: Small openings (pp. 191–204). Milton Keynes, England: Lighting Source UK. Perez, L. C., Montero-Sieburth, M., & Trujillo, E. (2012). Window dressing or transformation?: Intercultural education influenced by globalization and neoliberalism in a secondary school in the Canary Islands, Spain. Multicultural Perspectives, 14(3) 144–151. Puchner, L., & Markowitz, L. (2014). Racial diversity in the schools: A necessary evil? Multicultural Perspectives, 16(2), 72–78. Preskill, S. (2001). Contradictions of domestic containment: Forestalling human development during the cold war. In K. Graves, T. Glander, & C. Shea (Eds.),

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290 J. KAMBUTU Inexcusable omissions: Clarence Karier and the critical tradition in history of education scholarship (pp. 181–194). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Rios, F. (2010). Ayers controversy thrusts University of Wyoming Social Justice Research Center into spotlight. Retrieved from http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/ article_670d08a2-dc06-539b-a795-696a018263fb.html#ixzz20X0nTjC5 Robins, K. N., Lindsey, R. B, Lindsey, D. B., & Terrell, R. D. (2002). Culturally proficient instruction: A guide for people who teach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Shillington, K. (1995). History of Africa (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. Sleeter, C. (2003). Teaching globalization. Multicultural Perspectives, 5(2) 3–9. Sokolower, J. (2006). Bringing globalization home: A high school teacher helps immigrant students draw on their own expertise. Rethinking Schools, 21(1), 46–50. Steger, M. B. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Stuckart, D. W., & Glanz, J. (2010). Revisiting Dewey: Best practices for educating the whole child today. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Suarez-Orozco, M., & Sattin, C. (2007). Wanted: Global citizens. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 58–62. Suarez-Orozco, M., & Suarez-Orozco, C. (2001). Children of immigration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Tapscoott, D. (2009). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Traor’e, R. (2006). Voices of African students in America: “We’re not from the jungle.” Multicultural Perspectives, 8(2) 29–34. West, C. (2011). Justice is what love looks like in public. Retrieved May 17, 2012, from http://www.pinterest.com/kimberlyquinley/justice-is-what-love-looks-like -in-public-cornel Williams, T. R. (2005). Exploring the impact of study abroad on students’ intercultural communication skills: Adaptability and sensitivity. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9(4), 356–371. Wiarda, H. (2007). Globalization: Universal trends, regional implications. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

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CHAPTER 16

CULTURAL IMMERSION EXPOSES THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE NATURE OF GLOBALIZATION

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K. NGANGA

Kathleen Nganga

Globalization has both positive and negative effects. For example, while the wealthy and developed nations of the world are likely to benefit from globalization, the poor and developing ones are disadvantaged because they provide cheap raw materials, labor and market for goods that are manufactured by wealthy nations. This imbalance is unacceptable because it promotes economic, social and cultural instability in developing nations. This reality became evident during a recent international cultural immersion program to a developing nation, Kenya. This chapter argues that cultural immersion is a valuable teaching approach in the process of promoting a critical understanding of globalization.

INTRODUCTION Cultural immersion is influential in removing and deconstructing the existing preconceived notions about nations and continents, particularly Africa. Deep interaction with other people, coupled with guided critical

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education pp. 291–305 Copyright © 2016 by Information Age Publishing All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

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thinking has the potential to create bridges for internationalism and global perspective, while developing pathways for understanding other cultures and self. To that end, my experiences with cultural immersion have evinced its ability to teach the concepts of globalization, internationalism, and social justice. Additionally, many researchers contend that participating in international cultural immersion service learning can help participants to respect other cultures (Kambutu& Nganga, 2008; Mbugua, 2010). Indeed, Mark Twain was correct when he stated, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness … Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime” (The Christian Science Monitor, 2011, n.p.).  During my sophomore year in high school, I had an opportunity to accompany students from the University of Wyoming to Kenya as a volunteer for a cultural immersion service-learning program. While I had been to Kenya numerous times before, the included service component would add a new element to the trip. Through previous trips, I had learned that what I was shown through Western media outlets was not the complete picture of Africa. Travel, and to a larger extent cultural immersion, is essential because it allowed a more direct experience with African cultures, such an experience is essential in the process of countering the existing Western misconceptions of Africa. For example, being able to see that animals do not roam freely, and that Africa has large metropolitan cities; not just poverty and wilderness as is portrayed in Western media was refreshing and powerful. However, my experience was not unique. Consider, for example, Keim’s (2009, p.15) report that when American college students studying in African countries were asked to describe their attitudes before traveling to Africa, they used words like “poor, dangerous, hot, underdeveloped, violent, tribal, and spiritual.” However, after spending time in Africa, a definite change was evident because they associated the continent with beauty, diversity, friendliness, changes and vibrancy. In this case, therefore, cultural immersion was a powerful tool in the process of deconstructing misleading notions that describe Africa was one giant country, with one people, one tongue, and one history. Indeed, Africa’s complexities, along with boundless economic growth and cultural diversity are astounding. Therefore, when I got the opportunity to engage in a service-learning project, I seized it.

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SERVICE-LEARNING AND GLOBAL AWARENESS The University of Wyoming organized an international service-learning program in 2011. The purpose of this project was two-prong, that is, to

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help the participants from the United States to learn about other cultures while doing, and to benefit the host cultures by providing them with unmet needs. The purpose of the 2011 project, therefore, was to construct a kitchen and cafeteria at Mburu Gichua elementary school in Nakuru, Kenya. Over 500 internally displaced children (victims of political violence) attend this school. Because most of the schoolchildren were homeless, the school needed to start a lunch program that would enable these children to have at least one sure meal a day. The mandate of the 2011 service-learning, therefore, was construct a kitchen and a dining hall at the school. Constructing the kitchen and dining hall was hard work. For example, and in collaboration with members of the local community, we moved wheelbarrows of concrete, helped with laying building bricks, painted walls and cleared rubble from construction site. While this was hard work, working alongside the local people created many opportunities for participants from the United States to interact and learn from the host cultures. Additionally, such work caused the visitors to appreciate their contribution. Instead of patting themselves on the back for donating money to help the poor in a third world country, as is usually the case, this project was especially beneficial in terms of allowing the participants to learn-bydoing. One of the lessons we learned, for example, is that Kenyans are hard working people. However, because of historical reasons, such as colonization by the West, many people are still disadvantaged. Equally problematic is modern globalization that has allowed companies from the West to occupy many acres of land to grow crops for export, thus displacing thousands of people from their ancestral lands. Because Kenya is largely agrarian, taking land from the locals has devastating economic effects. The invaluable lessons that participants learned from the local community contradicted the information and images that are prevalent in American media, television especially. The media creates an image that Africa is a place of problems. Although it is true that Africa has its share of problems, the media does not provide an objective explanation of the situations in Africa and how they vary by country location. Rather, a deficit lens is used to explain African problems; one that shows Africa as lacking in critical culture, knowledge and skills (Kambutu & Nganga, 2014). Rarely does the media, including “learning television channels in America,” attempt to draw a link between Africa’s condition with its history of enslavement and eventual colonization by the so-called developed nations. Through enslavement and colonization, for example, Africa provided free labor and law materials to Western nations (Shillington, 1995). As a result, the fruits of African labor went into developing these nations, while Africa’s economy was destroyed. Nowadays, globalization is continuing to support these

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asymmetric economic relationships and systems of inequalities (Bauman, 2004; Grant, 2014; Nganga & Han, 2013; Suarez-Orozco & Sattin, 2007), hence the continued problems in Africa. Given this reality Keim (2013) asserted that Africa’s problems cannot, and should not be solved through foreign aid. Instead, developing a deeper understanding and appreciation of Africa’s plight is better, and participating in cultural immersion is an ideal approach to facilitate the development of informed and just narratives. Indeed, participating in cultural immersion gave me the ability to critically think about the existing misconceptions of Africa. Cultural immersion is especially beneficial because it offers multiple opportunities to experience foreign cultural systems in unbiased manners. To that end, as we interacted with host cultures in Kenya, we were able to experience the true nature of these cultures. One lesson that because obvious, for example, is the heavy focus on the wellbeing of children in these communities. In fact, in one community, the Masaai, their morning greetings, “Kasserian ingera” means, “how are the children?” In these communities, children are not only a source of community pride, but they also make life joyful and meaningful. Therefore, we learned that it is the responsibility of every community member to take care of children, hence the saying “it takes a village to raise a child.” Such an emphasis on the community drew sharp contrasts with American cultural practices and lives that are increasingly suburbanized. Urbanization has affected American cultural practices in dramatic ways. Consider, for example, Putnam’s (2001) statement that, “the real shift [in the weakened ‘sense of community’] is the way in which our lives are now centered inside the home, rather than on the neighborhood or community” (p. 211). Here, Putnam is postulating that as American culture becomes increasingly individualist, it appear to lose a sense of communitarian or living for the sake of others; whereas, in Kenya it appeared to be prevalent. As we interacted with cultures that seemed so different from ours, both in values and beliefs, we had many opportunities for selfevaluation. Indeed, one student felt such a deep connection with the communitarian values evinced in Kenyan culture that he decided to migrate to Kenya where he now lives and work. Meanwhile, other students empathized with Kenyans after seeing how much we have in common as human beings. As a result, they developed an interest in ensuring global justice so that children of the world will not have to experience hunger, wars, diseases and poverty. Indeed, because of this cultural immersion, many participants heightened their awareness of social justice, or the belief in the equality of opportunities, egalitarianism, and equity. To that end, participants and organizers planned a service-learning project whose goal was to provide clean drinking water to a Kenyan village.

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DRINKING WATER Participants in the 2011 service-learning project left Kenya wanting to do more, especially in the context of global social justice. As a result, I was excited for the opportunity to return to Kenya in 2013 to help in drilling a water well so a local community could have clean drinking water. Before engaging in the water project, we participated in an environmental cleaning activity in a slum in Nairobi. This work was transforming. In addition to experiencing filth of unimaginable proportion, it was horrifying to see humans scavenging from a nearby waste dump. However, seeing an elementary school in the slum located beside a river that runs whose water is as black as the night, or used oil, from pollution caused cognitive and emotional dissonance. Meanwhile, although this river was contaminated with sewage, as it was evident from the emanating smell, a group of women used the water to wash clothes and other items. The dissonance grew as I observed babies from the slums who were playing with plastic bags, and a foreign industry located in the slum apparently because of availability of cheap labor. For me, this was a paradox; people living in abject poverty in the “shadow” of an industrial site owned by a foreign company, arguably showed some of the effects of globalization. Although globalization has multiple meanings, commonly, it involves the economic a foreign factory is located in a slum to exploit cheap labor, the duality of globalization becomes apparent, thus creating a need to address this injustice. Meanwhile, although the slum experience exploitation of the poor by the wealthy (Kambutu, 2013). Therefore, to the extent that was confusing and depressing, the water well experiencing was uplifting and promising. The 2013 Kenya water project was intended to benefit the small community of Hillside in central Kenya. After seeing members of this community relying on water from a watering hole, participants and organizers from the 2011 Kenya program resolved to provide a well so this community could have access to clean water. The Hillside community is located in the foothills of the Aberdare Ranges in central Kenya. This community has a population of roughly 2,000 people who on average live on less than one U.S. dollar a day. Although Hillside community is situated in potentially rich and productive soils, the community is not able to sustain itself economically because of lack of reliable source/s of water. Equally problematic were persistent waterborne diseases such as typhoid, cholera, bilharzia and amebiasis. These health issues were apparently a result of drinking contaminated water from water holes and cisterns. After learning about these issues, therefore, the group that visited Kenya in 2011 decided to support the drilling of a water well that would provide the

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Hillside community with access to sufficient clean water for domestic use, and possibly irrigation. Having a water well would free up community women from the duties of fetching water. In dry months, it was common for women to walk up to 20 miles to the nearest river for water. However, the group learned that in recent years, perhaps because of global warming, the river has been drying up, thus creating additional challenges for women, including young schoolgirls who would be forced to drop out of school to help their mothers with the task of looking for water. Essentially, although this water project was intended to benefit the whole community, it was also designed to impact women’s lives in a number of ways because in this community, women are required to take care of a larger percentage of their family’s needs. Therefore, by providing water, it meant that community women would have one less thing to stress about. To fund this water project, the 2013 participants raised through donations over 48 thousand dollars. The 2013 group hired a drilling company to drill the water well. However, the project needed people to dig trenches to lay pipes that would bring water to a collecting site. Digging trenches by hand was primarily the task that the 2013 group was charged with. Once the work started, it quickly became a community effort because members of the Hillside community joined the effort. The tools we used were rudimentary, and at times, scooping dirt from the trenches with my bare hands was more effective than using the available blunt shovels. Nevertheless, considering the invaluable cultural lessons we learned as we worked alongside the local community, the discomfort we endured was worth it. While working alongside community members, we experienced true cultural immersion. Perhaps because the discomfort and fear that is typical when one is in a foreign culture disappeared, we were able to mix freely with the host culture. As the community opened up to us, we gained access to many important cultural practices. For example, we learned that this was a community of faith that had prayed for water for many years, and therefore, to them, the work we were doing was evidence of answered prayers. Additionally, we learned that because of their experiences with colonization that caused foreigners to “steal” their land, this community still distrusted us to a certain degree. Equally problematic was community’s recent experiences with foreign companies that, in an effort to acquire land to grow cash crops for export, displaced many locals from their ancestral lands. Notwithstanding the issues involved, however, the community’s hope that the water project would transform lives appeared to placate their attitudes toward us as Western foreigners. As I contemplated about the dynamics involved, it occurred to me that injustices of the distant past can affect people, sometimes forever. Therefore, in addition to thinking about ideal processes to eradicate injustice, I

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developed empathy for other communities around the world that are affected by similar injustice. For example, although environmental pollution is on the rise, systematic institutional and structural inequalities continue to impact people in many negative ways. Nevertheless, my feelings and thoughts were temporary overshadowed by the celebration that ensued once the water was found—when water gushed from the wellhead, we, both Kenyans and Americans rejoiced because this community was now going to have an easier life. Despite the joy, the knowledge that globalization would continue to shape this community, in positive and negative manners, remained an overbearing burden.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is a misunderstood phenomenon. For example, while some people view it as a beneficial force because it has interconnected the world through technology and information, others argue that it is an exploitative scheme, designed by wealthy nations of to exploit the poor (Grant, 2014; Lee, 2012: Kambutu, 2013; Nganga & Han, 2013). Evidently, globalization has both positive and negative effects in as is evidenced in areas of international trade, education systems and land ownership in Kenya. Increasingly international companies move to Kenya to take advantage of cheap labor and tropical climate, the affected local communities are challenged, including being forced out of their lands (Kambutu, 2013; Nganga & Han, 2013). Meanwhile, globalization is impacting local cultural practices through cultural globalization or “a standardization of cultural expressions around the world” (Watson, 2013). The media, television especially has played a critical role in enhancing cultural globalization. Commenting on the role that electronic media has played, Ardalan (2009) and Mandal (2013) indicated that electronic media had aided in the development new cultural norms, an irreversible process. To that end, Western cultural norms, and especially American television shows, music, clothing and hairstyles are gradually becoming the norm globally, including in Kenyan cultures. This new form of socialization dramatically changes cultural practices. Rather than wearing traditional ethnic dresses, for example, wearing of blue jeans and weaves have become the norm in Kenya. Admittedly, this cultural transformation has occurred before globally. Indeed, people have historically traveled across borders, bringing with them their cultural practices. Nevertheless, because of electronic media, global cultural transformation is happening at rates and speeds never seen before. Because the media portray cultures and ideologies from the powerful and privileged countries as the norm, these practices are in high demand, thus accelerating globalization.

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Because globalization serves as an instrument of cultural exploitation and oppression, its negative effects deserve a critical examination. Globalization has many negative effectives. For example, Kambutu and Nganga (2008, p. 946) condemned it for supporting the “struggle for control of the earth's resources—natural resources, human resources, and capital resources.” This aspect of globalization is visible in Kenya where mass consumption of goods from “developed” Western nations is on the rise, perhaps because electronic media creates a sense that in addition to these products being superior to indigenous goods, they are the “norm.” As a result, Kenyans are deeply interested in owning Western goods. To satisfy the increasing demand, therefore, foreign companies have established their companies in Kenya where raw materials and human labor is cheap and readily available. Given that foreign companies operating in developing nations are able to access cheap labor, raw materials and market for their goods, they are able to maximize profit. Reflecting on this phenomenon, Annan (2014) questioned the purpose of “international aid” because it promotes the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy nations. In Africa, for example, the wealthy and powerful countries have access to cheap beauty products (synthetic hair extensions), flowers, tea, coffee, rare earth minerals and so forth that they later sell at high prices. To Annan, this practice of maximizing profit on the back of the poor is “unethical” because it continues to build the gap between the poor and wealthy nations (Annan, 2013). But again, this is one side of globalization, that is, exploitation of poor nations by wealthy ones. Globalization that focuses on maximization of profit instead of prompting the common good is undesirable. Indeed, Lee (2012) and Sleeter (2003) held globalization responsible for increases in global injustices. Notwithstanding, however, globalization continue to receive less critical scrutiny because it serves the intended objectives—the advancement of neoliberal political, social and economic interests of the Western elites (Grant, 2014; Miller, 2010; Steger, 2009). Because globalization pays little attention to issues of human and civil rights, it resembles in many ways the thievery and crimes against humanity that occurred under the leadership of King Leopold II of Belgium (Hochschild, 1999). As a result, a careful analysis of policies that support globalization is needed. To that end, a study of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in the context of globalization could provide invaluable insight. Because of supporting “structural adjustment programs,” as a condition for granting loans to poor third world countries, Steger (2009) argued that the World Bank, albeit unintentionally, supports globalization policies, and especially the exploration of poor nations by the wealthy ones. Consider, for example, that in 2007 developing nations owed the World Bank a $3.3 million debt. To pay off this debt, as stipulated in structural adjustment

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programs, these countries had no choice than to “invite” developed nations to “invest” in their countries. It is because of these types of forced investments that poor countries have turned into sources of cheap labor, law material and markets for companies owned by developed nations. As a result, while wealth in Western nations continues to expand, countries in developing continents, including Africa, continue to fall into an abyss of poverty and injustice. To be sure, however, globalization has positive impact as is evident is the expanding global commerce, intellectual innovation, and medical advances. Thus, globalization is a paradox that should be examined critically.

S F O O 5 R 1 P 0 2 P IA © TEACHING FOR GLOBALIZATION

I believe that teaching for globalization should be approached from a critical lens. An education thus framed should not only focus on narratives from mainstream cultures (beneficiaries of globalization,) but must also include objective and detailed evaluations of globalization. A comprehensive study of globalization, therefore, must invite narratives from groups that are disadvantaged by globalization. el-Ojeili and Hayden (2006) supported this approach of study because it involves a holistic investigation of the policies and practices involved. Meanwhile, and education that is counter productive is one that focuses on deficits, as in what is lacking in developing nations, without examining both the historical and contemporary causes. One way to promote an education that examines globalization holistically is through cultural immersion. Cultural immersion is essential is the process of understanding globalization. When one is immersed in a foreign culture for a prolonged time, he/she is likely to consciously and unconsciously question existing notions, including the relationship between nationalism and internationalism. Although having a sense of nationalism is essential, cultural immersion creates ideal space to think critically about issues of human relations. Indeed, having the opportunity to see the impact that actions in one part of the world have on people in other parts of the world is transforming. Cultural immersion bridges both physical and ideology barriers that separate people, thus creating a sense of invisibility. Reflecting on the value of immersion, Anzaldua (2001) argued that spending time in shared spaces allows people to freely cross cultural bridges/borders, thus allowing them to see both sides of the borders/bridges. Ideally then, cultural immersion promotes authentic interactions that are essential to understanding how issues of globalization are closely entwined. While immersed in Kenya cultures, for example, I observed that some of the participants introspected and questioned the popular narrative that views

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Africa as the “dark continent” (Schillington, 1995) or “the other world” (Achebe, 1978). Therefore, instead of seeing Africans as “them,” participants were able to see the African plight as theirs, and as such talked about “us” instead. Participating in cultural immersion created a space for participants to experience globalization. For example, the opportunity to see the abject practices of growing carnations (flowers) in Naivasha, by international companies that underpays indigenous workers was especially disturbing. Equally challenging was the realization that most of these indigenous workers were experiencing health problems because of exposure to the chemicals involved in the growing and processing of carnations. Because the market for the flowers grown in Kenya is primarily Western nations (Make Wealthy History, 2009), the link between globalization and exploitation of developing nations became obvious. Equally helpful in illuminating the effects of globalization was the opportunity to see the indigenous people who are displaced from their lands by multinational corporations to create space to grow cash crops such as carnations, tea, coffee, white, and so forth for exporting to foreign countries, thus leaving the local people poor and hungry (Gibson, 2010; Grant & Grant, 2007). Cultural immersion gives participants avenues for understanding the issues involved in globalization, and as humans, they developed a sense of empathy and agency, preferring revitalization instead of the ongoing exploitation of the poor by wealthy nations. For when all countries of the world do well, everyone benefits. Indeed, internationalism does not have to come at the expense of nationalism. Rather, internationalism can bolster nationalism. While there may be a naiveté or grandiose element in believing that, collectively, in a willed world, there could be a reduction in global suffering, pain, and hardships, it is worth tying. The following reflections from my journal entries as I participated in the 2013 international cultural immersion program show the benefits of a well-planned cultural immersion in helping the participants to develop essential skills for global citizenry and social justice.

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Kenya, a developing country on the verge of so much, yet still strapped in the stranglehold of colonization, is making promising strides. Today, walking through the slums was an eye-opening and disturbing experience. It was impossible not to see the unprecedented links between the United States and the slums. Many Americans disregard the “others” of our society, specifically those living on the wrong side of the tracks; in the inner city, and the ghettos, in the same way that some Kenyans treat those who are living in the slums. Those living in such conditions are the people deemed the “takers.”

The Positive and Negative Nature of Globalization 301 What can change an attitude of apathy? An attitude fostered by those outside of the slums and the ghettos looking in, and those within the slums and the ghetto, who are now somewhat accepting of their condition. What can change a paradigm and a culture of “we are the slums?” Education, some proponents exclaim; however, how can a child who is hungry, who has no light, and is living in sewer focus on education? In order to fix the problems of today, there needs to be initiative. While the countries of the world rush to aid others, they should also consider aiding themselves. The principle of taking care of ones own backyard before calling over “friends” to help finish the garden may greatly apply. More importantly, those in positions of power should empathize with the suffering of others. How many wars could be avoided if people saw the faces; heard the stories, and placed themselves in positions of those suffering from the destruction of war? Would nations be willing to share their abundance if people experienced, even for a day, the pain of going without food? People deserve more. In a theological sense, humans are on earth to be stewards of it, not to trash it with plastic and waste.

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The task of creating a better world is charged to those not only in positions of power, but also for those in positions of disadvantage. To that end, the action that sickened me the most was that as we were cleaning the slums, the workers from the factory across the street were dropping plastic bags from their lunch boxes on the street and walking away, making the fruits of our labor tasteless. What is the meaning of humanity, if a human cannot help another and if people cannot help themselves? The next time you take a sip of your diet coke or don’t recycle your water bottle, consider the impact you are making, not just in your personal bubble, but in the larger sphere of life; on a global scale, for we live in a globalized world and it takes a village to take care of our global village. (Personal notes and reflections, 2013)

Indeed, participating in cultural immersion caused me to think more about the “other” and less about myself. CONCLUSION Participating in cultural immersion has value especially in the current context of globalization. Because globalization has both positive and negative effects, an education for globalization, that is, learning that examines globalization from a critical lens is needed. For example, to tackle issues of global injustice, including the unequal distribution of wealth, its necessary to immerse people in the affected environments. While such as immersion allows people to see for themselves the ills of globalization, it

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also eradicates physical barriers and boundaries that keeps people from identifying with global issues. Indeed, Maya Angelou’s contention that “travel cannot prevent bigotry” but it helps to demonstrate that “all people cry, laugh, eat, worry and die” speaks to the benefits of cultural immersion relative to the process of understanding each other in order to eradicate global injustice (Make Wealthy History, 2009). As humans share cultures and learn from each other, a sense of cultural understanding and appreciation develops. This fact became especially clear during my 2011 and 2013 international cultural programs For example, after seeing firsthand the impact that globalization had on indigenous Kenyans, participants engaged in critical thought, and resolved that becoming cognizant of atrocities associated with globalization was essential in order to eradicate global injustice. Because the best teacher is always the student, cultural immersion transforms participants into students who are liberated from ideological borders, dogmatic thinking and “normalized” narratives. In addition, cultural immersion breaks down cultural barriers while creating bridges for internationalism that nurtures a global perspective. Therefore, cultural immersion, when planned well, has the potential to illuminate both the positive and the negative sides of globalization and to cultivate skills essential to global citizenship. To that end, I recommend the following teaching approaches and resource because they facilitated my understanding of globalization along with its complexities:

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• Use carefully planned cultural immersion to teach for globalization ad social justice. Cultural immersion programs are especially beneficial because, when planned well, they have the potential to break down cultural barriers while creating bridges for internationalism that nurtures a global perspective. • Teach for globalization in a social justice context using a holistic and analytical lens. As you do, consider using Sleeter’s (2003) article because it provides a comprehensive morphology of globalization. Meanwhile, Nganga, Kambutu and Russell’s 2013 book that covers globalization comprehensively is worth considering. Equally resourceful is Grant’s (2014) article because it provides a comprehensive discussion of modern globalization. • Teach African history, along with contemporary events, globalization especially using a holistic, social justice and critical lens. Thus, instead of examining narratives of the groups that benefit from globalization, include voices from Africa because those narratives could provide invaluable input. • Diversify teaching materials. Teaching resources should come from multiple authors, cultures, and continents (Nganga, 2013). Because

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educators tend to create an impression that African is a country (it’s a continent), Kambutu and Nganga’s (2014) article is invaluable because it deconstructs this apparent confusion. • Help students to understand that Africa is a continent, not a county. Therefore, when students ask question about Africa, implore them to be specific; asking students to specify the African region, country, and ethnic group in question could help them to understand that Africa is not a country. Rather, it is a content of 54 different countries (Kambutu & Nganga, 2014). In addition, when teaching about Africa, it is essential to take a holistic and objective approach instead of relying on the usual deficit perspective that portrays African as a place of problems.

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Achebe, C. (1978). An image of Africa. Research in African Literatures, 9(1), 1–15. Annan, K. (2013). Forward. In Africa progress report 2013: Equity in extractives: Stewarding Africa’s natural resources for all (p. 7). Geneva, Switzerland: Africa Progress Panal. Retrieved from http://africaprogresspanel.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2013/08/2013_APR_Equity_in_Extractives_25062013_ENG_HR.pdf Annan, K. (2014). The next steps for Africa to meet its potential. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kofi-annan-the-next-steps-forafricato-meet-its-potential/2014/08/03/2c51223e-19c8-11e49e3b7f2f110c6265story.html Anzaldua, G. E. (2001). (Un)natural bridges, (un)safe places. In G. E. Anzaldua & A. Keating (Eds.), This bridge we call home: Radical vision for transformation (pp. 1–15): New York, NY: Routledge. Ardalan, K. (2009). Globalization and culture: Four paradigmatic views. Journal of Social Economics, 36(5) 513–534. Bauman, Z. (2004). Wasted lives: Modernity and its outcasts. Cambridge, England: Polity Press. The Christian Science Monitor. (2011).  Retrieved from http://www.csmonitor .com/World/Global-Issues/2011/1130/Mark-Twain-Top-5-world-travel-quotes/ Marseilles-France-A-really-polite-waiter-who-isn-t-an-idiot el-Ojeili, C., & Hayden, P. (2006). Critical theories on globalization. New York, NY: Palgrave McMillan. Gibson, M. L. (2010). Multicultural Perspectives, 12(3) 129–137. Grant, C. (2014). Systems of oppression, the globalization of neoliberalism and NAME’s call to action. Multicultural Perspectives, 16(2), 99–109. Grant, C., & Grant, A. (2007). Schooling and globalization: What do we tell our kids & clients? Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 16 (3/4), 213–225. Hochschild, A. (1999). King Leopold’s ghost: As story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa (Reprint ed.). New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.

304 K. NGANGA Kambutu, J. (2013). Globalization: History, consequences and what to do with it. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. B. Russell III (Eds.) Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional strategies (pp.1–10). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Kambutu, J., & Nganga, L. (2008). In these uncertain times: Educators build cultural awareness through planned international experiences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(4), 939–951. Kambutu, J., & Nganga, L. (2014). Do you speak African? Teaching for diversity awareness in an era of globalization. Journal of International Social Studies, 3(1), 28–41. Keim, C. A. (2013). Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and inventions of the American mind (3rd ed.) Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Lee, P. (2012). From common struggles to common dreams: Neoliberalism and multicultural education in a globalized environment. Multicultural Perspectives, 14(3), 129–135. Make Wealthy History. (2009). The price of Kenyan roses and the tragedy of Lake Naivasha. Retrieved from http://makewealthhistory.org/2009/02/13/the-price- of-kenyan-roses-and-the-tragedy-of-lake-naivasha/ Mandal, M. M. (2013). Globalization and its impact on Indian education and culture. Indian Streams Research Journal, 2(12), 1–3. Mbugua, T. (2010). Fostering culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy and global awareness through the integration of international service-learning in courses. Journal of Pedagogy, 1(2), 87–98. Miller, R. W. (2010). Globalizing justice: The ethics of poverty and power. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Nganga, L. (2013). Preparing teachers for global consciousness in the age of globalization. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. B. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 227–238). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Nganga, L., & Han, K.T. (2013). Immigration and global economies in the context of globalization. In L. Nganga, J. Kambutu, & W. B. Russell III (Eds.), Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches (pp. 37–50). New York, NY: Peter Lang. Nganga, L., Kambutu, J., & Russell, W. B. III. (Eds.). (2013). Exploring globalization opportunities and challenges in social studies: Effective instructional approaches. New York, NY: Peter Lang. Putnam, R. D. (2001). Mobility and sprawl. In R. D. Putnam (Ed.), Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community (pp. 204–215). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Shillington, K. (1995). History of Africa (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. Sleeter, C. (2003). Teaching globalization. Multicultural Perspectives, 5(2) 3–9. Steger, M. B. (2009). Globalization: A very short introduction. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Suarez-Orozco, M., & Sattin, C. (2007). Wanted: Global citizens. Educational Leadership, 64(7), 58–62. Watson, J. L. (2013). Cultural globalization. Encylopoedia Britanica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1357503/cultural-globalization

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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS Jerry Aldridge, EdD, is a professor emeritus of education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He currently serves as a representative of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education to the United Nations/UNICEF. He has served on the executive committee of the nongovernmental Committee on the Family at the UN and is vice chair of the Working Group on the Education of Young Refugee Children for the NGO Committee on Migration. He has published over 200 articles and 18 books, including Stealing From the Mother: The Marginalization of Women in Education and Psychology from 1900–2010 (2013), with Lois Christensen, and Critical Pedagogy for Early Childhood and Elementary Educators (2013), also with Lois Christensen. He recently returned to the United States from Indonesia, where he served as a visiting distinguished lecturer in human development at Bogor Agricultural University and was a senior consultant to the Indonesia Heritage Foundation which educates preschool teachers throughout Indonesia.

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Yukari Takimoto Amos is an associate professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Special Education at Central Washington University where she teaches multicultural education and teaching English as a second language-related classes. Her research interests are Asian American students’ school life, immigrant students’ English language learning, and preservice teachers’ dispositions toward cultural and linguistic diversity. Monica Billen is a doctoral candidate in literacy studies at The University of Tennessee within the Theory and Practice in Teacher Education department. As a former elementary school teacher, her research interests include elementary literacy instruction, preservice teacher development, and international literacy comparisons. She holds a BS in elementary education, an MA in teacher education, and a certificate in evaluation, 305

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statistics, and measurement. Monica is a member of the International Reading Association, American Educational Research Association, and is copresident elect of the Smoky Mountain Reading Council. She teaches reading methodology courses, coteaches teacher development courses, and mentors elementary interns. She is currently conducting a year-long study on the reflective development of intern teachers for her dissertation. Graham Butt joined the School of Education at Oxford Brookes University as a professor in Education in June 2012, having previously served as a reader in geography education and deputy head of the School of Education, University of Birmingham. He is a founding member, and chair, of the Geography Education Research Collective—a group of research-active geography educationists based in English universities, dedicated to the promotion of research and publication in their field. Graham is an invited member of the UK Committee of the International Geographical UnionCommission on Geography Education, and a long standing member of the Geographical Association. His research predominantly focuses on geography education, although he has also published on assessment, managing teacher workload, the role of teaching assistants and workforce modernization/remodeling.

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Lois McFadyen Christensen, PhD, is professor of early childhood and elementary education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is on the publications committee of the Association for Childhood Education International and is coeditor of the quarterly publication Focus on Teacher Education. She has published numerous articles on early childhood issues, social justice, and elementary education and is author of Critical Pedagogy for Early Childhood and Elementary Educators (2013), with Jerry Aldridge. She is an active member of NAEYC, ACEI, NCSS, AERA, and other professional organizations. As a mentor, Dr. Christensen has guided and published with many of her PhD students in early childhood education. Karla Eidson is a professor of education at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She received her PhD from Texas A&M University, where she also began her career educating preservice teachers. Raised in the Philippine Islands and an avid traveler, Dr. Eidson has led studyabroad trips for teacher candidates all over the world and serves as the coordinator of study abroad for her department. In addition to teaching, Dr. Eidson is a regular public speaker and an enthusiastic chocolate lover. She is currently collaborating with her novelist husband Thom on her first work of fiction. Dr. Eidson and her husband reside in College Sta-

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tion, Texas, with an assortment of cats and dogs and the only two of their six children left at home, although she brings them all back as often as she can. She may be contacted at [email protected]. Dr. Janet A. Finke, a professor of literacy education chair for the Department of Language, Literacy, and Special Education at Central Washington University, earned her BSEd from Washington State University and her MEd and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Janet has been a teacher and literacy curriculum coordinator in elementary schools. She has served as a mentor and school liaison with The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s Basic School National Network, and has traveled to South Sudan to provide professional development for teachers. Primary research interests include writing instruction, teacher preparation, and self-efficacy. One of Janet’s missions in life is to make the world a better place for children She considers teaching her vocation. She can be contacted at [email protected]

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Kathleen Fite, EdD is a distinguished alumni and professor of education at Texas State University. She is an advocate for children worldwide, has worked as a writer, consultant, researcher, and educator, and is a leader at many levels. She is a Gesell International Ambassador and serves on the Gesell Institute Advisory Council. She was recently a board member of the Association of Childhood Education International. She is also an international ambassador for the Decade for Childhood. Her teaching experience includes public school teaching as well as undergraduate through doctoral level university classes. Leena Her is an assistant professor in the Department of Inclusive Education. She teaches courses on social justice, critical multicultural education, qualitative methodology, and philosophy and inquiry in education research. Her research interests include ethnic and minority schooling in the United States and in Laos, deficit discourses of academic failure, global/transnational education, and gender discourses of ethnic minority women. John Kambutu is an associate professor of educational studies at the University of Wyoming at Casper. He received his PhD in education from the University of Wyoming. His research work is in cultural diversity, rural education, transformative learning and globalization/internationalization efforts. Dr. Kambutu has published several articles and book chapters. His most recent article was published in the Journal of International Social Studies. Dr. Kambutu had his first book published, a volume that he coedited with L. Nganga and W. B. Russell III. In addition, he has guest-edited a

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special themed issue entitled “Multicultural Education in an Internationalized/Globalized Age” in Multicultural Perspectives: The Official Journal of the National Association for Multicultural Education. An award-winning educator, John Kambutu believes strongly in an education that liberates humanity from the ills of ignorance, thus enabling all to live a free life. An education for critical change is transformative in design and practice. You can contact him at [email protected]. Karin J. Keith teaches in and coordinates the master of arts in reading at East Tennessee State University. She holds a doctor of philosophy in language and literacy education from the University of South Carolina. Recently, Dr. Keith received a $199,000 professional development grant. She has presented at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting, International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, Tennessee Reading Association, and at various regional and local meetings.

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Jennifer L. Kilgo, EdD, is a university professor of early intervention/ early childhood special education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has served in a number of national leadership positions, including president of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. She has authored or coauthored many journal articles, chapters, and books. Dr. Kilgo’s book, An Introduction to Young Children With Special Needs: Birth Through Age Eight (2014), with Richard Gargiulo, was published in its 4th edition. Dr. Kilgo has received numerous federally funded grants and currently serves as director of Project TransTeam at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which prepares graduate students from the disciplines of early childhood special education, physical therapy, and occupational therapy to serve young children with special needs and their families. Pete Moran is an associate professor and the department head for Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wyoming. I am in my 13th year at UW and teaches undergraduate courses in elementary humanities methods and the integration of art in elementary classrooms. At the graduate level, he teaches courses in curriculum and the history of education. His research interests include school integration, public policy and education, and teaching strategies for social studies. Renee Moran is an assistant professor in reading education at East Tennessee State University. She holds a doctor of philosophy in teacher education with a focus on literacy studies from The University of Tennessee. Renee instructs both graduate and undergraduate reading education

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courses and mentors preservice teachers. She has presented at various national, state, and local conferences including the Literacy Research Association, American Educational Research Association, and the International Reading Association. She is president of the Gilbreath Reading Council. Her research interests include: preservice and in-service teacher professional development, emergent literacy, and the impacts of policy implementations on teacher belief and practice. Kathleen Nganga is a political science major at Northwestern University, Illinois. In addition to enjoying political science, Nganga loves courses that focus on solving social problems. Additionally, she loves listening to state and national public radio programs, and watches national and international television programs that explore various complexities of human plights. She has an interest in public service; particularly areas that serve underserved groups. Because her passion is in social justice, issues that delve into fairness for all, building goodwill and the betterment of relationships at the local, national and international level are of great interest to her. To that end, Ms. Nganga has participated in service-learning projects in Kenya where she helped construct a kitchen and a dining hall at Mburu Gichua Elementary-Nakuru, poor rural schools. In addition, she helped construct a water well at the Hillside community in Central Kenya that is benefiting over 18,000 people. Kathleen’s love for travel is informed by Mark Twain’s believe that “Travel is fatal to prejudice and bigotry.”

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Lydiah Nganga is an associate professor of elementary and early childhood education at the University of Wyoming at Casper. She teaches humanities/social studies methods and early childhood courses. Dr. Nganga earned her PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wyoming. Her research focuses on global/international education, curriculum studies, multicultural education and social justice. Dr. Nganga has published three books. Her most recent book—Exploring Globalization Opportunities and Challenges in Social Studies: Effective Instructional Approaches is a volume coedited with J. Kambutu and W. B. Russell III (2013). She has also authored/coauthored several articles and book chapters that have been featured in books such as Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education in the Neoliberal Era (S. L. Greonke & J. A. Hatch, Eds.); Curriculum Development: Perspectives From Around the World (J. D. Kirylo & A. K. Nauman, Eds.); Early Childhood Education in Rural Communities: Access and Quality Issues (D. T. Williams & T. L. Mann, Eds.); and journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of International Social Studies, Early Years, An International Journal of Research and Development among others.

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Nganga is also an award-winning researcher and educator. Contact her at [email protected]. Amanda Daniel Pendergrass, PhD, is an assistant professor of early childhood and elementary education at the University of West Alabama. She teaches undergraduate and graduate students in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is the vice chair for the National Council for the Social Studies Early Childhood and Elementary Community. Dr. Pendergrass has presented at numerous national conferences including National Council for the Social Studies, National Association for the Education of Young Children, and International Society for the Social Studies. She is an active member of NAEYC, ACEI, NCSS, and other professional organizations.

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Charise Pimentel, PhD is an assistant professor at Texas State University in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, where she teaches and researches in the areas of race and education, multicultural education, bilingual education, critical media literacy, and critical whiteness studies. Her scholarly work appears in several academic journals such as the Journal of Latinos and Education, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Multicultural Education, and Multicultural Perspectives. She is currently working on an edited book titled When White Writes Black: Critical Perspectives on The Help and Other White-authored Narratives of Black Life. Amanda B. Richey is an assistant professor in the Department of Inclusive Education at Kennesaw State University. Her research interests focus on issues of gender and literacy, family and community engagement, culture and representation in schooling, and poststructuralist perspectives in critical multicultural and global education. Amy Roberts is an associate professor in the College of Education and associate adjunct professor in the global and area studies at the University of Wyoming in Laramie Wyoming. Prior to this appointment, Roberts was a classroom teacher in Gualpiles, Costa Rica and actively involved with the EARTH University outreach program in Limon, Costa Rica. Roberts is author of book chapters and articles in refereed journals as well as a frequent presenter at national and international conferences. Her research has included projects using case studies, demographic profiles, evaluations, and comparative analysis to critically examine the multiple layers and dimensions of the globalization and internationalization of education systems. Roberts’ current research agenda examines the continuous transformations of research methods and techniques of transnational field research methodologies in education.

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Juliet Schiller is a researcher, published author, and adjunct faculty in a school of education. Her research focuses specifically on understanding the educational realities and challenges faced by students, families, and schools in urban communities, and how teachers and students respond to these realities. Dr. Schiller has a passion for education and equity issues and has extensive experience in workshop development and training, using linguistically and culturally responsive approaches to instruction and assessment. Dr. Schiller’s experience includes junior high school teaching for close to a decade. She continues to work with disenfranchised youth, particularly new immigrants and refugees as they relocate into urban communities. Her research on human rights education has been recognized as forward-thinking and internationally focused as schools prepare students for a global future.

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Debby Shulsky has been an assistant professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Houston Clear Lake since fall 2010. She teaches social studies education to K–12 undergraduate certification candidates and facilitates the design and implementation of the capstone student teaching experience for all certification students. Dr. Shulsky is a critical educator whose research explores pedagogies that engage learners in meaningful curriculum that inspire independent thinking and active citizenship. Her scholarly endeavors are driven by her need to bridge educational theory to classroom practice. Melissa G. Whetstone is a recent PhD graduate in early childhood education with an emphasis in curriculum and instruction in the School of Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an early educator at Mountain Brook Baptist Church Early Learning Center. Here presentations include the history seminar at NAEYC, NCSS, International Society for the Social Studies and OMEP. Dr. Whetstone is an active member of NAEYC, ACEI, OMEP, and other professional organizations. Jana Willis is an associate professor in the School of Education Instructional Technology and Curriculum and Instruction programs at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Dr. Willis designs, develops, and implements online and hybrid courses. She works with teacher candidates and in-service teachers on effective use of technology in the PK–12 curriculum. Dr. Willis works with a local school district’s gifted and talented program, teaching fourth and fifth grade gifted students on the design and development of video games. Research interests include digital stories, technology integration, electronic portfolios, digital literacy, and project and problem based learning.

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Malia Spofford Xavier is an assistant professor of modern languages and English teacher education at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. She holds a PhD from Cornell University (2010). She cocoordinates the supervised teaching practicum as well as nationally funded outreach projects in socially disadvantaged public secondary schools. Her research in social justice, globalization, new technologies, and teacher education focuses on the development of global competence in preservice teachers as a means to improve language teaching quality and disrupt marginalizing practices related to language in educational settings.

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