Overview of International Education Programs

International education embraces all subjects, grade levels, and nationalities. Through international education, both students and teachers broaden their experience and come to understand the commonalties and differences of cultures.

International Education is not a separate discipline; it is rather an approach to all subject areas taught in schools, an approach, which creates awareness of political, economic, and cultural interdependence that exists across borders.

Any teacher might regard him- or herself as an "international educator". As a group, international educators are professionals committed to helping schools expand instruction and activities to encompass broader and more diverse points of view. They campaign for students to learn foreign languages and to study them at earlier ages and for longer and more meaningful periods of time. They advocate student travel and teacher exchange. They encourage teachers and administrators to learn from educators all around the world and to participate in joint research and curriculum development projects.

International educators especially argue for schools to recognize the rich contexts of their own communities, and to seek out the countless "travel" experiences that can take place without a passport, such as visiting area museums, American Indian communities, ethnic neighborhoods, homeless shelters, schools for the deaf, and centers where older people live. International educators work to build community service activities as a part of student's academic work, helping students see the connection between community responsibility and global citizenship. Whether in their own classrooms or in far away places, they work to help students recognize and question injustice and inequity and to understand the enormous work it takes to solve conflicts and to practice democracy actively.

What international educators have not yet succeeded in doing is helping schools and communities address "how" this happens in an interconnected way.

Barriers are many. First and foremost, the American public has yet to be convinced of the importance of "internationalizing" education. Resisting mounting evidence, many parents continue to imagine that their children, like themselves, will work in the US, continue to echo the myth that "English is the world's language", and continue to see world conflicts as far removed.

Historically, foreign languages, foreign travel, and dialogue with "groups different from us" have been approached with fear, apprehension, or ignorance. As a result, teachers have not been given relevant international experiences or training, participation in programs has been limited to a tiny number of students, and instruction about global issues has remained isolated in the social studies or foreign language curriculum. Even among teachers themselves, attempts to integrate the curriculum to include global examples and problem solving approaches (e.g., in mathematics, literature, science, technology and family and consumer economics) are often met with the cry that the curriculum is "already too crowded", or that student discipline or other issues preclude time essential for curriculum innovation. Isolated from like-minded colleagues, usually without adequate time or models for collaboration, international educators in every subject area and at every grade level try to push new curriculum forward.

Program standards for international education have been put forth to address pre-service and teacher training, opportunities for student and teacher travel, community and business participation, and ways to highlight numerous international and multicultural learning opportunities that already exist in and outside of schools. Program standards for international education are needed to address costs implied, funding sources, resource inequity, and community fears for helping children (and adults) explore cultures on the other side of town and the other side of the globe.

Program standards paint a more coherent vision to link community, business, school, and ethnic neighborhoods. They also connect children to their personal, cultural, and national histories and their complex, global futures.

For questions about this information, contact Gerhard Fischer (608) 267-9265

Last updated on 2/25/2008 1:42:39 PM