Running Head: EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

Educating Globalization in the Classroom

Carina M. Cooper-Rachow
University of Florida

EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

Abstract
A teacher welcomes her classroom, and the day begins to unfold as any school day would, but
instead of talking about history she introduces global events and the trend of technology as she
asks, how many of you watched the news last night? A couple of students raise their hands. She
asks, how many of you can remember a time when the TV was all that you had as a means to
watch the news, or even reading a newspaper? None raise their hands.
Now it's our turn, how many of us teachers remember a day when we didn't have our
news channel handy on an app on our phones? Or could only view the weather by stopping in the
midst of our busy routines to listen to the weather man? It wasn't too long ago that I remember
sitting every night watching the news with my grandparents, and sure I had a cell phone, but
nothing in comparison to the one I have today. How is it that globalization is impacting not only
our countries, states, cities, and towns, but how is it impacting our educational practice and what
we are teaching our students? Within this research brief I will express my learned understanding
of globalization, it's impact on our educational practices, and outline a couple of exemplar
lessons that can help our students learn about the global economy they are a part of everyday.

EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

Educating Globalization in the Classroom

Globalization impacts us all. It impacts our small, local communities, and on a larger
scale it impacts our entire world. Educating our students on the impacts of globalization opens up
possibilities to teach about the reality it plays on each of us, every day. Knight (2009) expresses
the concern and understanding that in a globalized culture and in the visual aspects of culture
there is a great power to create not only friends, but enemies. As educators, I think it is important
to explain all of the impacts that our visual culture plays on globalization and the significance of
expressing opinions in a positive, yet educational way. Art as a form of language can create road
blocks of communication because unlike verbal language that has patterns and constant structure,
art reflects ones opinions and can be construed to the interpretation of someone else without
regard to the true purpose or meaning behind the work (Kindler, 2009). Students quickly jump to
controversial concepts and thus can create strong enemies, which blinds the viewer to their true
concern, idea, or opinion. The purpose of becoming a global citizen in art is to help foster
"communication from one human being to another about things that count" (Anderson, 2009, p.
231). In Anderson's article he reflected a mural project which allowed students to bridge the cap
of the misunderstandings and cultural differences amongst societies, and through this project his
students are communicating on a global scale but in a way that spreads positive initiatives and
allows them to become active globalized citizens.
The Practice of Globalization
Understanding Globalization
What is globalization? Delacruz (2011) explains that the definition of globalization
derives from and is:

EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

[C]ommonly meant to refer to those fundamental global transformations of human

societies brought about by transnational expansion, integration, and interdependency of
human social networks and flows of resources, goods, ideas, and culture; the geopolitical,
economic, legal, and culture reorganization of human social life on a global scale; a
movement away from particularistic tribal, ethnic, regional, religious, or nation-state
systems; and a conscious acceptance or reconceptualization of humanity itself by people
worldwide toward the idea of globalism: an ecological. holistic one-world/whole earth
point of view. (p. xi)
As global communities and a global world we are experiencing all of these shifts every day. We
understand that our countries gain domination over one another in the global economies and
transformations through their marketing, politics, and culture, but globalization doesn't stop
there. Many times it is referenced to the largest picture but that doesn't reflect what actually
occurs within the level of contact we experience every day, outside of watching the news.
Globalization is effecting our own counties, cities, towns and neighborhoods. The growth of our
global world is transferring many new cultures and religions all over our country. Our small
towns are transforming into mini global villages, and through this development our children and
families are exposed to more and more cultural shifts every day. "Many people are global
consumers, not producers" (Keifer-Boyd, 2009, p. 27) and because average people don't develop
or produce for a larger cause this naturally places us in the fragile state to take what has been
given.
Global Educational Practices
As art teachers, how can we help our students gain the knowledge needed for them to
become not only active global consumers', but also active producers? What impacts our students

EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

ability to learn about globalization? First, we must develop a classroom environment that
"emphasizes diversity [in] education and the development of critical equity, while repositioning
the learners' active and relational selves at the center of all learning" (Guyas, 2009, p. 300).
Educators are to foster a safe place for our students to explore and understand what it means for
them to become globalized civilians. Our job is no longer to feed them concepts and help them
pass a test, but to "position our learners as global citizens, providing them with the knowledge
and skills necessary for them to successful transverse the global landscape" (Hill, 2009, p. 255),
and as we help shape our students cognitive learning to their personal and cultural experiences
we allow them to realistically engage in not only larger initiatives, but first and foremost their
local occurrences. As Hill (2009) states, "we need to foster global awareness while
simultaneously maintaining and protecting local knowledge and cultural systems (p.256), and in
doing so we are helping our students think on a small, yet comfortable scale, so they can gain
confidence to move onto larger challenges.
But, how do we teach and successfully explain the globalized visual culture so that our
students can comfortably communicate their ideas and opinions on the impacts of globalization?
In teaching about culture, it is important to remember that visual culture reflects our human
ancestry, and therefore it allows our students to reflect on their personal relation to historical
influences (Kindler, 2009). Educating our students to engage in visual culture through this point
of view helps create strong ties to the purpose of visual culture for our students knowledge of
understanding. Students should be educated in the idea that promoting and developing global
awareness through visual culture helps as it "communicates and mediates ideas and values,
invites reflection and commentary, prompts action and response, and even provides opportunities
for gainful employment" (Kindler, 2009, p. 156). Lin (2009) makes an excellent point that:

EDUCATING GLOBALIZATION

[The] ability to communicate visually is said to have become imperative in a digitally

mediated society, not only because people's lives are conditioned by the visual but
because electronic technologies accelerate the use of visual and multimedia
communications globally, in ways that necessitate attention to student skills in critical
thinking and meaning-making. (p. 199)
Educating our students on their impacts locally, globally and personally will help strengthen their
ties to the global world and the continuation of globalization.
Exemplar Global Lessons
Some exemplar lessons expressed in our readings helped developed an understanding of
ways in which we can effectively see the global connection our students can make with our
growing world. Bode (2009) studied the art and culture of students in the Amazon rainforest
where the oil contamination reflects in the artwork developed by many locals. As she began
working with students she noticed a student's artwork in particular that reflected more than the
average Amazon life and culture. Through the exposure from a TV this student's work reflected a
statue of Liberty and a cityscape, which was much different than the traditional forms of the
rainforest and cultural-indigenous life. This exposed the understanding and the impact that
technology plays in our students ideas and reflections in their artwork. No longer is the simple
culture created and expressed, but the trends and major landmarks of society that imprint into our
students minds to be expressed on another level of personalization.
Another example when Guyas (2009) developed an anthropology study where students
had to study their cultural identities and experiences. They were to "explore [this] through
analyzing photographic representations and verbal narratives" (p. 305). Allowing students to
explore this concepts opens opportunities for them to be understood and for them to understand

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their individual impacts that go beyond the boundaries of their locations. It opens up
opportunities for students to explore their history, culture, beliefs, and opinions for the world in
which they live in. Helping students to explore these concepts teachers can use software's and
technological tools such as virtual globes that allow students to explore outside influences of
their identity. Students who come from multicultural families, who might have never visited their
families native land can have the opportunity to experience it through virtual globes like Google
Earth. Not only are we enabling students to discover their identities now, but this form of
research and exploration can:
Provide a context in which learners can interact over a span of time, seeks further
information about what they see, and build a knowledge base about various geographical
locations depicted in these representations as well as historical, political, economic and
other related events and issues. (Simms, & Carpenter, III, 2009, p. 140)
Reflecting the Educational Role
Learning about globalization and the role in which we all play in our many forms of
societies helps me reflect on my role as an educator. Understanding that my role starts at a local
and relatively small size, but as I grow and educate myself on the globalized advances this
allows me to become a global citizen on a larger scale. Referring back to my example classroom
introduction, as educators we have to wonder if what we are doing in the classroom is truly
allowing our students to gain the knowledge of the global world they live in. Even though they
currently maintain a pretty muted lifestyle in the grand scale of globalization they will one day
become active participants in the global growth we are experiencing now. It makes you wonder
how much more the world will change by the time our students are able to explore this concept.
As an educator, I have learned the importance of helping my students think outside of the

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classroom walls they sit in everyday during the week. I want to help my students find community
or local initiatives so they can be a part of something concrete, which will help them visually see
and feel the impact they have on their own local advocacies. Through this course, I have gained
an understanding of the impacts our technological advancements play in our everyday life,
especially over the last decade. Now with the ability to quickly access global information we are
quickly exposed to the globalized society, and that comes with responsibility to stay actively
engaged with technology so we can continue to grow as it does. With our concepts and
understandings of education constantly shifting it is important to maintain a larger picture that
we are preparing our students for the world in which they will embark in, not the test they are
required to pass. We have to create opportunities for our students to discover, challenge, and
question the world they live in and the society they are a part of, so that they can become active
and positive global consumers as well as take initiatives as global producers in the years to
come.

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References
Anderson, T. (2009). The Kids' Guernica Peace Mural Project: A paradigm for global art
education. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization,
art, and education (pp. 231-240). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Bode, P. (2009). The circulatory system of oil contamination, visual culture, and Amazon
indigenous life. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo,
(Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 269-277). Reston, VA: National Art
Education Association.
Delacruz, E. M. (2011). Mapping the Terrain: Globalization, art, and education. In E. M.
Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and
education (pp. x-xviii). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Hill, P (2009). Global Colonization: The case of distance education in Jamaica. In E. M.
Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and
education (pp. 254-259). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Guyas, A. (2009). Life and practice of transnationalism. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M.
Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 300-306). Reston,
VA: National Art Education Association.
Kindler, A. M. (2009). Art and art education in an age of globalization. In E. M. Delacruz, A.
Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 151157). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
Keifer-Boyd, K. (2009). Cybernet activist art pedagogy. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M.
Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 126-134). Reston,
VA: National Art Education Association.

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Knight, W. (2009). Never again: A (K)night with Ben. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M.

Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 68-75). Reston,
VA: National Art Education Association.
Lin, C. C. (2009). Beyond visual literacy competencies: Teaching and learning art with
technology in the global age. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M. Parsons, and A. Kuo,
(Eds.),Globalization, art, and education (pp. 198-204). Reston, VA: National Art
Education Association.
Simms, M., & Carpenter, S. B. (2009). Putting the world together: Virtual globes and the
changing nature of (digital) global representations. In E. M. Delacruz, A. Arnold, M.
Parsons, and A. Kuo, (Eds.), Globalization, art, and education (pp. 135-141). Reston,
VA: National Art Education Association.

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