Our Global Age Requires Global Education: Clarifying Definitional Ambiguities

Examining the Citizenship and Democracy Education Textbook and Curriculum in terms of Global Education

“…Bu yüzden hem doğrudan hem dolaylı yollarla küreselleşmeden etkilenen eğitim ortamı içerisinde yetişen bireylere değişen kültürel ortama ayak uydurmalarına yardımcı olacak bir eğitimin verilmesi gerekmektedir (Kirkwood, 2001;Merryfield, 1997;Ukpokodu, 1999). Bu noktada, eğitimde bireylere kazandırılmak istenen farklılıklara saygı duyma, sorunların farkında olma, sorunlara çözüm üretmede yardımcı değer ve becerileri kazandırma ve dünyada olan olaylara farklı açılardan bakabilmeyi sağlama gibi amaçlar, dünyayı bir bütün olarak ele alan ve bireyleri dünyanın bir parçası yapmayı amaç edinen küresel eğitime insanları yönlendirmektedir.…”

“…Faced with a plethora of educational choices in such political environments, families -the smallest structural units of society -are squeezed between the dominant groups in education due to the policies in place and, at times, even guided through misinformation towards failing schools with incompetent teachers (Lakes and Carter, 2011). Therefore the individuals in those educational settings affected by globalization both directly and indirectly need an education that could help them keep pace with the changing cultural environment (Kirkwood, 2001;Merryfield, 1997;Ukpokodu, 1999). At this point, desirable aims of education such as respect to differences, awareness of problems, acquisition of values and skills necessary for problemsolving, and multiple perspectives on what happens around the world lead people towards global education, which sees the world as a whole and aims to make individuals parts of it.…”

“…Hanvey (2004) stresses the need for a global consciousness in order to cope with problems in a world in which countries are more and more interdependent, and puts forward five dimensions of global education considered to be conducive to this consciousness: "perspective consciousness, state-of-theplanet awareness, cross-cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices" (p. 2). Kirkwood (2001), on the other hand, categorizes Hanvey's (2004) skills under four themes, which have been adopted by many scholars Merryfield, 1997;Pike, 2000). These themes are 1) multiple perspectives, 2) comprehension and appreciation of cultures 3) knowledge of global issues, and 4) the world as an interrelated system.…”

“…The multiple perspectives theme involves individuals' skills to consider events from different angles; the theme of understanding and respecting cultures involves the empathy skills and responsibility values in interacting with different cultures; the theme of knowledge of global issues includes an awareness of, and proposing solutions for, problems such as migration, overpopulation, decrease in natural resources, financial crises, war, natural disasters, hole in the ozone layer, etc. even if these may not exist in one's own country; and finally, the theme of the world as an interrelated system focuses on individuals seeing themselves as parts of the world, which has now come to be a system of seemingly unrelated but actually closely-knit events and mechanism, especially due to political and economic interests Hanvey, 2004;Kirkwood, 2001;Merryfield, 1997;Pike, 2000).…”

Curriculum as an International Text: Evaluation of Global Education from Junior High School Students' Knowledge and Attitude in Taiwan

“…According to Kirkwood (2001), students today face a new world order and their daily contacts include individuals from diverse ethnic, gender, linguistic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Moreover, students experience some of history's most serious health problems, inequities among less-developed and more-developed nations, environmental deterioration, overpopulation transnational migrations, ethnic nationalism, and the decline of the nation-state.…”