Alba's Globalization Challenges

GLOBALIZATION 

¿Globalization?

One of the definitions that we can found to describe the meaning of globalization, is the one given by Anthony Giddens, former director of London School of Economics, who define the word globalization as “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”.

However, on the other hand we can define “Globalization” as a phenomenon of open economies and borders that has been developed as the result of the increase of commercial exchanges, the circulation of ideas and people, the dissemination of information and knowledge, and so on. 

In my opinion, we can analyze the world we are living in from four different points of view. There is a social view, a natural view, a cultural view and an ethical view. These four views are important aspects to take into account when we, as teachers, are trying to define the world globalization and also trying to teach our pupils in this global world.

If we focus on the social view, I would say that one of the characteristics of our world is inequality, so welfares raised in some countries have not spread to other countries. However, new technologies have contributed worldwide important changes, but despite of that, the social and economic inequalities have not disappeared. The result of that can be summarized in that way: globalization has made rich countries richer and poor countries poorer.  

On the other hand, if we focus on cultural view, we can find “the first word” with big cultural possibilities but with lots of irrelevant information, and the “third word” with big lack of educational resources where most of the population is illiterate. Again, the new technologies have made bigger the difference between the world that can have access to big amounts of information and knowledge and the world that can’t have it.

But, if we focus on the ethical view, we have a desire to get a better world. However, each step make to get this better world expect by everyone has to be based on the equality principle. 

Despite I have commented some negatives aspects of globalization, it is important to have an open view of that word, because living in a global world it has also positive qualities. 

Finding out new cultures through food

We have to take into account that globalization does not remove any culture or despise it, if not the idea behind this word is to mix global cultures with the local’s ones. A clear example can be found in any city’s restaurants. Wherever we go, no matter the city or the country, we will find different kinds of restaurants “Chinese, Spanish, Italians, Pakistanis, etc.”. That is a consequence of globalization, and also it is an open door to know through the gastronomy new cultures. 

Once I have analyzed the word “globalization” I am going to talk about why education and globalization are linked.

First of all, we have to take into account that we are living in a complex and constantly changing society, so this is the reason why we, as teachers, have to take advantage of this pluralistic world to find new reasons and ways to teach. If we have in mind the differences between students and embrace other cultures, we get a first argument to do intercultural education, which is a natural feature of the community.

It is important to think that multiculturality in our classrooms is a consequence of the globalization process that has made possible the worldwide people’s movement.  
At this point, we can find one of globalization's characteristic: 

The relationship's increase between different countries around the world has produced a continuous flow of population; and this flow of population has been possible thanks to the transportation development. 

The poster

Now, I would like to mention a Lisón quotation: 
"although community may seem homogeneous, it always has a certain degree of internal cultural heterogeneity, intracultura.". 
This aspect can be seen it in the picture in the right side. It is important to remember that interculturality is given by each one of our pupils’ personal culture. So, as we have seen culture is not an static concept. 
Based on this idea, as future teachers we must be able to work culture with our students in an open way. A good way to do this is bearing in mind the 4 savoirs exposed by Byram: 
- to explore new cultures.
- to know our own culture and the others' culture.
- to interpret things from other cultures and compare them with our own culture. (make students show interest for their own and their classmates' culture). 
- to respect their classmates' culture and to be open-minded with cultures they are not familiar with.  

On the other hand, the newspaper’s picture represents the amount of information that students receive continuously in their daily lives; as well as they can get information by using new technologies. As future teachers we have to think about how ICT has open worldwide borders. In that case, we have to teach students to filter information; otherwise, they will not become competent citizens in this global world. 

That makes me talk about another characteristic of the globalization process: 

Globalization has been developed thanks to the technological revolution and the emergence of new media like internet.

HOW EDUCATION HAS CHANGED DUE TO THE APPEARANCE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES?

Telecommunication revolution

The truth is that we could make a long list, but I am going to focus on a specific aspect. 

As we all know, one of the contribution of the telecommunication revolution has been the opportunity to communicate instantly between people from other places of the world. 

Nowadays, a major part of schools have included new technologies as a part of their students' schedule, however, I would like to talk about how this telecommunication revolution has influenced the school where I did my teaching practice last year. 

This school had a project whose main objective was to improve students' language English skills. This project consisted in writing emails to a pen pal from UK. With this project students improved their English level and they learnt a new culture, as well as they show their own. 

Maybe it cannot seem a very innovative project but in Spain it is, so if the telecommunication revolution, consequence of globalization, had not existed, many schools could not carry out innovative projects like this one. 

GLOSSARY

COMMUNICATION: comes from Latin “communis”, which means the involvement or relationship that exists between individuals. Communication is a characteristic and a need for individuals and societies in order to exchange information and interact with each other. Is the way people convey information through the exchange of messages, thoughts or information that can be verbal or non-verbal. We have to be aware that although communication is related to the action of transmitting something orally or in writing, we must take into account that we can communicate without speaking or writing. Gestures are also a different way to communicate.

CULTURE: we can find two concepts that define this word. If we conceive the word culture as something static, the definition I will give it would be the following one: set of lifestyles and customs of an age or social group. However, there is a dynamic definition for the word culture that it is understood as the way each person thinks, believes and acts as a product of being in contact with different kinds of people in a diversity of contexts.

IDENTITY: set of traits of an individual or a collective that differentiates one from others. Is the awareness that a person has about himself/herself and unlike to any other.

*I have considered important to define this word because from my point of view, the culture in which a person moves and is part of your surroundings influences a person’s personality and consequently its identity.

INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE: Meyer (1991), defines this concept as the identification of a person's ability to act appropriately and flexibly to deal with actions, attitudes and expectations of people from other cultures. The adequacy and flexibility imply possess a knowledge of the cultural differences between the language itself and, in addition, have the ability to solve problems as a result of such cultural differences. Intercultural competence includes the ability to stabilize their own identity in the process of mediation between cultures and help others to stabilize his.

MULTILINGUALISM: is the co-existence of several languages ​​in the same area and at the same level. We must differentiate multilingualism and plurilingualism. The last one refers to the ability of a person to know and use more than one communication code (language).

SOCIALIZATION: is the process through which people learn and internalize the rules and values of a society and of a specific culture. THis learning allows us to obtain the necessary skills to develop ourselves successfully in social interactions.