Module 18: globalisation introduction
TWO APPROACHES TO GLOBALISATION IN EDUCATION
Download 0.71 Mb.
|
- Navigate this page:
- The concentric circles approach
- The systems approach
TWO APPROACHES TO GLOBALISATION IN EDUCATIONOne global educator who has not been awarded this honour yet is Robin Richardson. Nevertheless, he is one of the key thinkers in the world about globalisation and education. Robin works in England as a consultant on multicultural and anti-racist education and, at one time, was Chief Inspector in one of the education regions of London. He has also worked as a consultant or lecturer in a range of governmental and other organisations in the UK, in most west European countries, and in Australia, Czech Republic, Israel, Kenya, Lesotho, India, Japan, South Africa and the United States. As long ago as 1980, he was writing school textbooks with titles such as World in Conflict, Progress and Poverty and Planet in Crisis. So, whenever he writes anything about globalisation and education, you can generally be sure that it is not only very learned and wise, but also of value in day to day teaching. In one of his latest books, Here, There and Everywhere: Belonging, Identity and Equality in Schools, Robin Richardson contrasts two approaches to learning about globalisation and its effects – the concentric circles approach and the systems approach. The differences between these are important as they underpin significant differences not only in thinking about the nature of globalisation but also in philosophies of education. The concentric circles approachRobin Richardson drew inspiration from a novel called Lark Rise to Candleford to describe the concentric circles approach. The novel, written by Flora Thompson, is autobiographical and paints a vivid picture of life growing up in a small English village in the 1880s: Beyond the garden in summer there were fields of oats and barley and wheat which sighed and rustled when the wind blew, and which filled the air with pollen and heavy earth scents. The fields were flat and stretched away to a distant line of trees on the horizon. To the children at that time those trees marked the boundary of their world. Beyond their world enclosed by trees there was, they were told, a wider world where there were hamlets similar to their own, and towns, and cities, and the sea, and beyond the sea other countries where people spoke languages different from their own. Their father had told them so. But for the children, in their small world bounded by the trees, this wider world was but an idea, unrealized. Whereas everything within their own world was more than life-size, and more richly coloured. Robin Richardson used this passage from Lark Rise to Candleford to depict the concentric circle view of the world. 
Inside the innermost circle is the world we see and touch, hear and smell. It is our personal world and, beyond it, can be found the local region, national borders, oceans and the far-off countries of the world, each cascading out from the centre in concentric circles, just like when you throw a stone in a pool of water. The concentric circles approach is very often used as a way of structuring school syllabuses in geography, history and other social science subjects.
… it is no longer possible to understand your local world unless you see it as belonging to systems much larger than itself – systems in which skylines and national boundaries are largely irrelevant. “here” is not only the centre of concentric circles but also where various global systems meet, for example systems of economics, politics, ecology and culture. Source: Richardson, R. (2004) Here, There and Everywhere: Belonging, Identity and Equality in Schools, Trentham Books, Stoke-on-Trent, p. 12. This means that we cannot adequately understand the centre circle or, indeed, any of those around it, unless we see it/them as part of something far larger and more complex than itself. Thus, there is a need to map onto the concentric circles the notion of world systems, with four of the most important of these being economics, politics, ecology and culture. 
As the diagram shows, the systems act like drive-belts on a motor, turning and shaping our personal and local worlds in line with events and processes that are taking place elsewhere in the systems. Robin Richardson concludes that this is a more realistic basis for planning school curricula and suggests that “interdependence” be seen as a key word in curriculum planning. Economic interdependence is an essential concept in geography. Ecological interdependence is fundamental in biology and chemistry. Political interdependence is central in all studies of causation in history. Cultural interdependence, involving fusion, cross-over and mutual influences and borrowings, is a recurring feature in art, design, drama, literature, music and technology. Source: Richardson, R. (2004) Here, There and Everywhere: Belonging, Identity and Equality in Schools, Trentham Books, Stoke-on-Trent, p. 13. In fact, the situation is even more complex than this because we can no longer see the school curriculum as made up of separate subjects. The major contemporary issues facing the world today – such as the topics of sustainable agriculture, gender and development, population, sustainable communities, tourism and so on in this section of Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future – are interdisciplinary. Thus, there is a need to recognise that the systems that drive the world today demand new responses in education. If disciplinary specialists working on their own cannot solve these major contemporary issues in the real world then it makes little sense for teachers and students to study them in disciplinary boxes in classrooms. (See Module 6 Activity 2.) Q7: Do you think the World Core Curriculum follows the concentric circle or the systems approach? Why? Directory: education education -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d education -> 100 Village Primary School Music Classrooms education -> Between global market and international and regional cooperation education -> Biographies of Patriots of Color at The Battle of Bunker Hill John Ashbow Colony: Connecticut Age: 22 Race: Native American Status: Free Rank: Private Position: Rail Fence Unit: Putnam/Durkee education -> a geospatial Activity a buffer from the Storms education -> Guide to Preparedness education -> Social Sciences Teaching Unit Levels 2 6 Environmental Justice education -> I. Introduction 2 II. The Creation of Literate Environments education -> Harold j. Brody, md education -> October/November 2015 Teacher's Guide Table of Contents Download 0.71 Mb. Share with your friends:
|