from VCCA Journal, Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 1990, 34-36
© Copyright 1990 VCCA Journal
Often, "general education" is defined to include the teaching of skills in communication, interpersonal relationships, computer use, critical thinking, and understanding one's environment and one's culture. Fortunately, Virginia's State Task Force on General Education has also recognized the need for a global perspective. We would like to see this international/intercultural component given more prominence and a sharper focus.
Traditionally, recommendations for international education involve the areas of faculty exchange, study abroad, foreign language courses and international student admissions. The problem is that the focus is on specific areas. What we are seeking is a more comprehensive international program--one that will infuse international topics into the content of most discipline courses in Virginia's community colleges. Here and there this process has begun--at Tidewater Community College, at Virginia Western, at Southwestern Virginia Community College, at Northern Virginia Community College--and it is up to us to give a global perspective, an international spin as it were, to even more of our classes.
The Virginia Community College System report Toward the Year 2000 (Section II, items 4, 5) defined "international education" as education including national geography, history and government, and foreign language skills for "groups interested in the conversational skills necessary in an international community." Although language courses sometimes incorporate cultural training as well, this should not be left to chance. There should be a deliberate, carefully planned process by which the international perspective is inserted into the curriculum.
Before specific models or modules for courses are written, however, colleges should consider incorporating internationalization as a component of their stated missions. For example, Miami-Dade Community College has written an International Mission Statement that provides a college-wide basis for planning:
A community college should be a door to global communication and awareness. Understanding global interdependency in our increasingly complex societies is the key to economic, social, and cultural development. Global education can no longer be for a small elite; it must be an integral part of every student's education. Community colleges, because of their closeness to their communities, are uniquely suited to educate for global understanding.
Sample course modules are available from such colleges as Valencia Community College in Florida.
In Virginia Dr. Mary Ruth Clowdsley at Tidewater Community College has also worked with faculty to develop a number of modules.
The 1983 report A Nation at Risk stated the following.
Our once unchallenged pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being challenged by competition throughout the world.
A similar theme is found in the 1986 report Cornerstone of Competition by the Southern Governors' Association Advisory Council on International Education. Both reports acknowledge that our lives are interconnected with countries around the world. Our marketplace spans the globe where daily news events take place in countries which few Americans can locate. As a pervasive goal, education should better equip our students to understand the world in which we live.
On January 27, 1987, Governor Baliles called attention to this issue in his address to the Association of Virginia Colleges:
Has our educational system become a sanctuary from the world, from other cultures? It would seem so. There is an uncomfortably large number of supposedly educated Americans blissfully unaware of the world's complexities and unable to do much about them. Each day we pay a political and economic price for our inability to understand and communicate with our global neighbors.
International education introduces students to substantive knowledge and information about the world. This perspective encourages students to understand their own world views, to find information about world problems, and to participate in their local, national, and international environments.
We need to establish a coalition of faculty to share what courses have been written and to encourage the development and use of more, to teach our communities of the necessity of the U.S. remaining competitive in the world market, and to stress the need for cultural understanding to reduce conflict and maintain peace.
When, or while, that is being accomplished, we might also consider what impact lack of cultural understanding is having within our own borders on integrating the minority cultures into the general population.
References
Committee on the Future of the Virginia Community College System.Toward the Year 2000: The Future of the Virginia Community College System. 1988.
Nancy Sandberg is Dean of Instruction and Student Development at Paul D. Camp Community College.
Rita Krasnow is Professor of Sociology at Virginia Western Community College.