Preeminence in the "Global Village" is a critical competence for the American economy to develop. The President, in his speech at the Auraria Campus, made a point of emphasizing this fact. In American Higher Ed in general - and in Student Affairs specifically - we are oft tempted to look at education strictly through a lens of "social good." We dislike the 'dirty business' of, well..., "business." But we need to broaden our awareness. For businesses to survive and thrive in today's market conditions they must plan for the future and not only keep up with the market - but get out infront of it. In the reality of the Global Village (yes, that is the technical term) - this means not only extending the firm's reach but also expanding its awareness of cultural imperatives in globally disparate marketplaces (a source of no end of ethical conflicts when it comes to doing business - for example - in markets where bribery is the norm - which is not, it should be clear, as uncommon as we - coming from an American perspective would like to think.) Whether or not the model of American Higher Education is reformed to accomodate a shift in paradigm to that of the Neo-Liberal state - even if we, as an institution, manage to consolidate our practices and avoid what some would call a corrupting influence - the reality is that our students will have to face up to that reality once they leave our protective arms. Are we preparing them for such a climate?
The problem, for America, in capturing these new economic opportunities is our own ethnocentric views on the world and how it should or should not operate. Americans are notoriously internationally illiterate. In order to broaden our dialect (and I am not talking about linguistics - though being multi-lingual would certainly taking into account even the average citizen of the EU - though that is another discussion) we must espouse in our graduates a wider context of culture.
When we speak of diversity in our nation we often think of leveling the playing field for minorities and the under-priviledged and disenfranchised of our citizenry. Certainly I am not arguing against this. But today we are doing our students and our society a great disservice in limiting our discussion of "diversity" to our nation's borders (or immediately beyond them). We have entire programs dedicated to the study of certain identities - whether they are naturally or socially constructed (some would argue that there is no such thing as a "naturally constructed" identity - and, this - though a facinating discussion - is too far ranging for this moment). We emphasize the importance of diversity - but non-American 'diversity' is poorly under-represented in the conversation.
There are only few ways to establish an international cultural fluency in our graduates. Study abroad is one excellent approach. Another is actively recruiting international students (the inspiration for this post - but it exceeded the response limit, my thanks to Karla for contributing it to our dialog). Recruiting international students certainly has its benefits from a perspective of diversity. But when we bring international students to our shores the day-to-ay intricacies of their culture(s) are subliminated in their quest to fit in. Travel and toursim are completely different critters. Two weeks of snapping photos on the well-beaten tourist track are, quite frankly, laughably inadequate for developing trans-national cultural competences which translate into the kind of fluency required in the global market. The only other tools are social media and the classic - case studies. The latter, while providing some insight, does not go nearly far enough and leaves the student with only a taste of the realities consumers face in diverse global marketplaces. The latter is, I believe, the single most under-utilized tool we have available for preparing our students to navigate global realities. Yes, you can "start a global business from your laptop (Obama, 2011)" but starting a successful and sustainable enterprise requires that you get out from behind our own American assumptions and acquire a practical (as opposed to theoretical) grounding in the cultural realities of those marketplaces in which your business will have presence.
~David Dorr
You make an interesting point that when we bring international students to our shores that they move from their day-to-day to just trying to fit in. Studies (Pyvis 2005, Wan 1999, & Thorstensson 2001) have shown that international students often have trouble transitioning to the U.S. culture. I believe part of the trouble transitioning is due to the U.S. culture (usually institutions) the international student is trying to acculturate to is not prepared to have international relationships. When I have seen, international students come to campuses I rarely see them engaged outside of their cultural groups. They are experiencing the U.S. often not with U.S. students but with other students of their culture. Does this achieve our goal of globalizing? When our U.S. students, not all but I would say most, are not prepared to engage with them where is the value?
ReplyDeleteSimply because you have international students on a campus does not mean you are global. Engagement is the key. When our new international students arrive on a campus we should not only create space for them to adjust to our culture. We should look inward and how we are welcoming and engaging these students as a whole campus not just the international office.
I enjoyed David's lively discussion and Karla's excellent comment regarding the need for more actual engagement between international students and the hosting community.
ReplyDeleteAs a "third-culture" military-brat kid who grew up between U.S. and Japanese locations throughout my childhood, and who has taught abroad at a vocational college in Tokyo, I found Americans and Japanese equally prone to inadequately promote and engage in engagement practices on a broad scale.
Some critical elements that contributed to engagement success I observed were: 1. Presence of supportive locals (whether in the educational or general community realms) who went out of their way to serve as cultural guides and facilitators on a consistent basis; 2. Travelers who spent disproportionately more time in the actual culture rather than hanging out in comforting enclaves that recreated elements of life back home; 3. Travelers taking language courses during the actual travel experience (in the local language of currency, of course); 4. Travelers who participated in activities, clubs that involved elements of the local culture- music and arts, sports, spirituality/religion, cuisine, hiking, etc. 5. Travelers who lived more like the locals to some tolerable extent (food, accomodations, clothing, etc.) as opposed to trying to replicate the lifestyle back home as much as possible; 6. Travelers who met and began hanging out with travelers from other foreign lands, thus creating multiple cultural lenses through which to experience and interpret local culture.
It would be too much to expect any traveler to immediately seek out and incorporate all six (and more) elements above with respect to getting to truly experience the local culture from multiple experiences, but starting with a couple and building confidence from there is a good start, particularly the learning of the local language while on site.
Thanks David for this interesting post.
ReplyDeleteThese days, concepts are changing in a way that is understandable and in a way hardly to be imposed during the complicated life of the world which we live in and which has become a reality not an option. We are in an era of openness to different cultures through communication technology, free economy and global concerns that we are sharing.
From here, globalization should be considered for higher education through good planning programs and real the work to international students and involve them in the issues of higher education as they are part of this entity and not only the students (cash cow) who are increasing the income of the university. Numbers of international students has increased significantly and they have become exist culture in American society that must be taken care of and identified by co-existence with it. The university must take the concerns and needs of international students in its future plans and integrate them in the university and the community to achieve the interest of all parties.