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 * SELECTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS: **

1

“ What is an educated person? What should schools be teaching to students? In searching for answers to these questions, we must consider first not the curriculum, but the human condition. And we must reflect especially on two essential realities of life. First, each person is unique. In defining goals, it is crucial for educators to affirm the special characteristics of each student. We must create in schools a climate in which students are empowered, and we must find ways in the nation's classrooms to celebrate the potential of each child. But beyond the diversity of individuals, educators also must acknowledge a second reality: the deeply rooted characteristics that bind together the human community. We must show students that people around the world share a great many experiences. Attention to both these aspects of our existence is critical to any discussion of what all children should learn.

What, then, does it mean to be an educated person? It means respecting the miracle of life, being empowered in the use of language, and responding sensitively to the aesthetic. Being truly educated means putting learning in historical perspective, understanding groups and institutions, having reverence for the natural world, and affirming the dignity of work. And, above all, being an educated person means being guided by values and beliefs and connecting the lessons of the classroom to the realities of life.”

©Boyer, E. (1995) The Educated Person - From the 1995 ASCD Yearbook p.16-

2

“Culture is something you grow up in, belong to and are not really conscious of In Thai there is a saying that 'Birds do not see the sky, nor fish the water', not unless the bird is plucked out of the sky and the fish is taken out of water. James Cambridge states in his article that:

'...The problem may be that international education enhances and celebrates cultural diversity in its exotic and peripheral component - the so-called "sambas, saris and steel bands" aspects of culture...' //(ibid)//

It appears that international schools are focusing on the first layer of culture, and rarely addressing the second and third. The teachers cannot be blamed for this - most are expatriates who usually stay in Thailand for only two to four years and they find it natural to socialise with fellow expatriates. Understandably, because, while Thais are generally resilient, good natured, hospitable and friendly people, they have a deep-seated lack of confidence when dealing with foreigners. Not surprisingly, the foreign teachers are often unaware or alien to the true and in-depth social skills or values of the indigenous Thai and therefore, unable to cultivate them in the Thai students. After all, culture is what one grows up with, or absorbs naturally over a long period of assimilation.”

‘International Cultural Overpass: its relation to and alienation from indigenous culture’, by Chamnongsri Hanchanlash, (Chamnongsri Rutnin) in //International Schools Journal//, Vol.23, No. 2, (April 2004).

3

“Access to power is easily controlled through selective access to particular languages with high status. As a result of recent globalization, the relationship between language and power as well as critical approaches to language use and language learning have become increasingly significant. It is the development of this critical language awareness and its role in critical thinking in all learning that is important for the growth of intercultural awareness and international-mindedness. Investigating the possible interpretations of any communication and consequent available choices is part of being interculturally aware. With this awareness, learners are able to become decentred from any unilateral cultural-based assumptions and continually question their borders of identity. Michael Worton, Vice-Provost of University College London, has been quoted as saying:

To learn another language is quite simply and profoundly one of the best  ways of learning to recognise the world and to see how others and otherness   inhabit it. It is an education in difference as a pathway to understanding how to   contribute to […] global citizenship. (Worton, quoted in Reisz 2010: 39) ” Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme Language and learning in IB Programmes, Published September 2011, Published on behalf of the International Baccalaureate Organization