5 Reasons Why US Education, Since 2000, Has Encouraged Global Mindsets
Marketing to international students, recognizing the ignorance of Americans about the world and that big problems require international solutions
It is not difficult to understand why higher education institutions in America over the last two decades have endorsed global citizenship.
First, it’s clearly marketing, a way of attracting international students who would be put off by an America-central education that taught students to over-value American financial and strategic interests in the world, or that promoted “patriotism” or loyalty to the United States.
Secondly, the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC caught the vast majority of Americans off-guard. It was a bolt out of the blue. Initially, we didn’t have any ideas as to the genesis of those attacks, the cause of them, nor how the United States is perceived in parts of the world.
Before 9/11/2001, most Americans were unaware that Islamic fundamentalists posed a serious threat inside our own shores, nor why certain factions might resent American influence in their world. After 9/11, we tended to over-generalize about “the Islamic world” and misjudge countries based on whether, in President George W. Bush’s egocentric words, “you’re either with us or you are with the terrorists.”
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq highlighted deficiencies in the educations of Americans. We didn’t have enough foreign language speakers, particularly Arabic, Pashtu, and Persian speakers who could understand the points of view of citizens of other countries. We invaded Iraq and Afghanistan with lots of wrong assumptions, and a lack of knowledge of the histories of those regions.
Thirdly, an interdisciplinary group of educators realized their students were ignorant if not illiterate about international issues and world history.
Fourth, these educators recognized a host of problems involving the environment, human rights, terrorism, and extreme poverty that could not be effectively addressed by one nation alone but require international cooperation.
Fifth, in an increasingly globalized world, with more and more migration and more citizens traveling internationally, the way national histories are taught to the exclusion of global or world history seemed outmoded. There is a lot more to understanding the world than grasping national, Western or Euro-American concepts.
Why Does Global Citizenship Matter?
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