Expert Emphasizes the Need for Transcultural Education for 21st Century Students
According to an expert in teacher education in order to remain competitive in the 21st century and to develop a better understanding of the world around them both teachers and college students need to engage in what he terms “transcultural education.
Mark Dressman says that for students their experience needs to go beyond the traditional trip to western Europe and further out into the world to prepare them for life in workplaces that increasingly becoming more culturally diverse.
“In addition to developing an identity as someone from a particular city, state or country, transcultural education focuses on getting students to start thinking of themselves as citizens of the world,” he said. This is, he continues an approach that is being used increasingly in businesses in every sector of industry.
He says that the transcultural education model is both dialogic and interdisciplinary in its nature. By this he means that rather than just learning about the nature of other cultures in a traditional “textbook” manner this method encourages both students and teachers to experience another culture and their perspectives in a far more direct and connected manner.
Dressman himself has plans to take a group of University of Illinois, where he is employed, students on a trip to Morocco next spring. He himself is familiar with the region as he spent time there as a Peace Corps volunteer. He intends for them to follow an eight week course of study which will include them meeting and interacting with peers from a university in Rabat as well as travelling on to a smaller city in the mountain region called Azrou, where he will have them assist high school students preparing and studying for the equivalent of a baccalaureate exam.
This he feels will change the way the students feel and think about the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. involvement in western Asia, giving them a more informed and hopefully tolerant opinion.
For those without the financial resources to undertake such a trip though Dressman says that the current range of “Web 2.0” tools can also be very useful in expanding multicultural understanding. “Online tools really can make the world smaller,” he said. “If you take a few students somewhere and they take photos and videos of their experiences, they can share it with their peers and inform a broader range of students.”
For instance as a part of his eight week Moroccan course he will be having the students create a social networking site that will be able to se4ver as a virtual meeting place for other students and educators interested in the subject.
October 20th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
I read this and Mr. Dressman’s September article in Science News. In Science News he said,
“Dressman cites the worldly supporting cast assembled by President Barack Obama – including senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, all of whom have spent significant time living and studying abroad – to help solve the nation’s problems and rehabilitate America’s image in the world. As a boy, Obama lived for four years in Indonesia, and it was his cultured, worldly perspective that helped elevate him from the senate to the presidency, Dressman said.”
If Mr Obama, Ms, Jarrett and Mr. Geithner are the examples he uses to promote his program, I say run as fast as you can from whatever he’s selling.
Look at the mess these people have made of our country. Enough said.