Education for Intercultural Citizenship Michael Byram

Overview An example – practice Grau, teurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum Mephisto to Faust (Goethe) Theory nonetheless … – Concepts e.g. international/cosmopolitan community – The role of universities in communities 2

The Malvinas/Falklands War (1982): An opportunity for citizenship education in the foreign language classroom in Argentina and the UK 50 Argentinean university students of English (CEFR C1) AND 50 UK students of Spanish (Honours) - researched conflict and communicated synchronically and diachronically (wiki and Elluminate) -- focus on interaction based on respect, mutual understanding and cooperative conflict resolution - created PPTs about the war, interviewed Argentine and English war veteran - collaboratively created advertisement to show contact and reconciliation 3

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civic participation: - created blogs/facebook pages and noting reactions - produced leaflets and distributed in city centre of La Plata 5

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‘Action in the Community’ Distributed leaflets taught special class in English language school taught class with NGO in poor neighbourhood [youtube] [see handout for details] 8

Barnett, R 1997, Higher education: a critical business. Open University Press Domains Levels of criticalityKnowledgeSelfWorld 4 Transformatory critique Knowledge critiqueReconstruction of self Critique-in-action (collective reconstruction of world) 3 Refashioning of traditions Critical thought (malleable traditions of thought Development of self within traditions Mutual understanding and development of traditions 2 ReflexivityCritical thinking (reflection on one’s understanding Self-reflection (reflection on one’s own projects) Reflective practice (‘metacompetence’, ‘adaptability’, ‘flexibility’) 1 critical skillsDiscipline-specific critical thinking skills Self-monitoring to given standards and norms Problem-solving (means-end instrumentalism) Forms of criticalityCritical reasonCritical self- reflection Critical action 9

Internationalism e.g. “Liberal internationalism” a generally optimistic approach based upon the belief that independent societies and autonomous individuals can through greater interaction and co-operation evolve towards common purposes, chief among these would be peace and prosperity. (Halliday, F. 1988, Three concepts of internationalism. International Affairs 64, 3, p.192 – emphasis added) 10

An international identification? Citizenship/identity : B...n = Argentinean M..y L = British L..se = British B..n: Hey, I was thinking a way of giving the same message… M..y L: And then what we need to do now to change the prejudices. L…se: Ok, sounds good. B..n: Maybe we could put something an English veteran said in English… and something an Argentine veteran said in Spanish… related to peace, of course. M..y L: Do we have those quotes? L..ise: How do we get hold of an English veteran? B..n: I think I didn't express myself correctly. I was thinking about quotes. L…se: Ok. B..n: I remember the English veteran you have to interview, he said something like "there are no winners in war". That’s short and effective. L…se: I like it. What are we going to get from an Argentinian veteran? M..y L: Could we have that as text over the pictures? L…se: Yes, that’s a good idea. B..n: Yes, I can do it. 11

Terminology Human Rights Education, Education for Equality, Peace and Media Education, Education for Intercultural Understanding, Education for Sustainable Development, International Education, Intercultural Education, Cosmopolitan Citizenship Education and Global Education …. are some examples that stress various nuances of the term. Margaret Trotta Tuomi, Liliana Jacott and Ulla Lundgren 2008, Education for World Citizenship. Preparing students to be agents of social change

WORLD CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION Global education Human rights education Education for intercultural citizenship Education for sustainable society Anti-racist education Citizenship education värdegrundsfostran= education for fundamental/common basic values ” Internationalisation Conflict solving Intercultural competence in foreign language education Peace education WCE AND ADJOINING CONCEPTS 13

World citizenship World Citizenship acknowledges the interlinking local, national and global aspects of citizenship. It is a political concept, an active commitment to the world which all living beings have in common and which all humans must take responsibility for. Margaret Trotta Tuomi, Liliana Jacott and Ulla Lundgren 2008, Education for World Citizenship. Preparing students to be agents of social change

Internationalism or cosmopolitanism? Internationalism - relations between groups Cosmopolitanism - relations of individual to others ‘concentric circles’ metaphor i.e. national identity ‘surpassed’ by cosmopolitan identification (with all others) – [Nussbaum argument ‘For love of country’] BUT … 15

Counter-argument: – ‘national v. cosmopolitan is reification…. ‘Many individuals now seem to be, more than ever, prone to articulate complex affiliations, meaningful attachments and multiple allegiances to issues, people, places and traditions that lie beyond the boundaries of the nation state’ – Vertovec and Cohen 2002 cited in: Mitchell, Katharyne; Parker, Walter C. 2008, I Pledge Allegiance to... Flexible Citizenship and Shifting Scales of Belonging. Teachers College Record, v110 n4 p Empirical research - young people don't see the local, national and global as ever-widening spatial spheres to be straddled, but see them more as simultaneous, converging aspects of the sphere of citizenship (Parmenter – personal communication) 16

Argentinean /British students – a cosmopolitan community? Die menschlichen Willen stehen in vielfachen Beziehungen zu einander; jede solche Beziehung ist eine gegenseitige Wirkung (...) Jedes solches Verhältniss stellt Einheit in der Mehrheit oder Mehrheit in der Einheit dar. Es besteht aus Förderungen, Erleichterungen, Leistungen, welche hinüber und herüber gehen, und als Ausdrücke der Willen und ihrer Kräfte betrachtet werden. (...) Das Verhältniss selber, und also die Verbindung wird entweder als reales und organisches Leben begriffen — dies ist das Wesen der Gemeinschaft, (...) Para 1. GEMEINSCHAFT UND GESELLSCHAFT. ABHANDLUNG DES COMMUNISMUS UND DES SOCIALISMUS ALS EMPIRISCHER CULTURFORMEN. VON FERDINAND TÖNNIES. 17

Tönnies on ‘community’ The wills of human beings interact in many different ways. Every such relationship is reciprocal (….) Every relationship of this kind involves some kind of balance between unity and diversity. This consists of mutual encouragement and the sharing of burdens and achievements, which can be seen as expressions of people’s energies and wills. (…) The relationship itself, and the social bond that stems from it, may be conceived either as having real organic life, and that is the essence of Community 18

Universities and their knowledges ( a) Knowledge for itself/knowledge in itself: - the ‘ivory tower university’, intent on producing pure knowledge, irrespective of its utility in the world. The knowledge is produced apart from the world and is held apart from the world (b) knowledge for itself/ knowledge in the world – the ‘professionalised university’ located in the world to a large extent – with the professions – but which conducts those knowledge activities so as to advance the university’s own interests (c) knowledge in itself/ knowledge for the world – ‘the ‘entrepreneurial university’ in its starkest form, characterised by a form of knowledge production held largely apart from the world but where the knowledge producers are applied to – or sold to – the world so as to yield, characteristically, the highest economic return ( d) knowledge in the world/ knowledge for the world - a university both active in the world and generating knowledge through those activities in the world. It is intent on improving the world – its knowledges are put to work for the world – the ‘developmental university’ Barnett, R. (2011) Being a University. Routledge. 19

Universities and communities Our Mission: The Talloires Network is an international association of institutions committed to strengthening the civic roles and social responsibilities of higher education. We work together to implement the recommendations of the Talloires Declaration and build a global movement of engaged universities. Our Vision: We believe that higher education institutions do not exist in isolation from society, nor from the communities in which they are located. The Talloires Network envisions universities around the world as a vibrant and dynamic force in their societies, incorporating civic engagement and community service into their research and teaching mission. Talloires network

Conclusion “Universities should be focused on communities” (?) Which community/ies? Have universities sufficiently theorised (pace Mephisto) ? 21