Speech : Larissa Chuprina

International Education: Bridging the Gap Transatlantically

Globalization in economy and education increases the necessity for learning to cooperate. International education in many countries and the United States is a response to this necessity. Though the main goals for international educations may be similar, the mechanisms, infrastructure, components, and tasks can vary from country to country, and from continent to continent. Very often the approach to international education depends on the economical status of the country, available resources, and on governmental priorities.

There is consensus among a scholars and practitioners on the importance of International Education on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. Though there is no agreed definition for international education, or for its structure and goals. In order to discuss the question whether Americans and Europeans understand “International Education” in the same way, we need to start with a king definition for this phenomenon.

Gerald L.Gutek in his recent book “American Education in a Global Society: Internationalizing Teacher Education”, that is available online, points to the fact that international education is still in its emerging state, and it needs definition and structure in the U.S.A. Gutek gives the following definition of international education that can be a good start for our discussion.

International education examines:

The definition recognizes that we are both citizens of nation-states and participants in a global society. The author identified and analyzed the tensions that exist between education for the nation-state and education for a global society, but believes in the possibilities for resolving these tensions. From the author’s opinion, the governance and organization of American Public schools does not contribute to the development of an international perspective.

From our perspective as international scholars (who came from Europe and have spent some time in the USA), international education in the U.S.A. could benefit more from a two-way flow of knowledge that could include both disseminating American ways and learning from other cultures. Such an exchange has a potential for bringing the best achievements in education and other spheres of life. (E.g., the experience of learning foreign languages, literacy, Basic Education, and Arts in many European countries).

Fulbright scholars from Europe were surprised to notice the absence of the World History of Journalism or European Journalism (which is about 400 years old) in the curricula of many American Schools of Communications. It is worth mentioning that in Europe, there are more public TV channels that include educational programs and a good coverage of international events, which is part of non-formal international education.

The data that were collected with the help of the questionnaire developed by the author of this article about the components of international education in Europe showed the following differences in approaches to International Education:

In Europe:

In short, European culture has effective approaches incorporating humanistic education that can be a good foundation for International Education on both continents. From our perspective, the main idea of International Education should be in learning from each other without dominance of one culture/country and with a two-way communication and knowledge flow.

Service Learning for students of International Programs on both continents can be a good start to learn about different cultures in their own country, locally, before going globally.

Such experience has a potential for developing in participants appreciation for difference and empathy for less fortunate nations and can be a common ground for multicultural education and international education in one given country. This common ground is respect for a human being, for world history and world experience, for languages, and different cultures. Every culture has unique experience that can be valuable for humanity.

Educators have an honorable role to be leaders in the development of societies, especially now, with globalization of education. It is our responsibility before the global society to lead them in the right direction for better understanding among nations and for the betterment of the world. We can do it together.