Document Type

Open Access Capstone

Publication Date

2005

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of teaching an introductory course on International Education in a US classroom. The study focuses on some of the leading challenges of discussing links between international education and international development from a variety of global perspectives, particularly the Third World perspective. The underlying goal of this reflective research is to address the importance of International Education is today’s world where education continues to be political and where what we see, understand, and value in the First World impacts the Third World more directly and severely than ever before. Free Market and globalization continue to shrink our world but covertly hide the underlying social, political and economic implications of this inter-connectedness. Unmasking these underlying implications is very important in understanding global inequality and legacy of Third World Poverty. The much promised better life that education has failed to deliver in the Third World while the First World prospers forces International Educators to look more critically into the role of education itself in widening this gap between the two worlds. Given the broader political context and importance of International Education, the role of international educators is an important one. Drawing from experiences of a dozen instructors, this research focuses on some of the major conflicts in introducing Third world issues in a first world classroom. The study also discusses how each of these conflicts were handled by the individual instructors and what innovative methods were used to improve the teaching of the course every subsequent semester.

Pages

1-84

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