"How can global education programs influence the profession of teaching?" I tried to answer this question by:
1. Learning theoretical frameworks 2. Having direct experiences 3. Developing new findings 4. Enacting change Click on any of the bulleted headings above or the pictures to the right to see highlights. |
I developed new findings about the best ways to deliver global education programs for teachers.
Charting "Disorienting Dilemmas" in China
In November of 2011, I took a group of 38 educators to China as part of my job with the UNC Center for International Understanding. The purpose of the trip was to study Chinese culture, history, and education systems, and to develop partnerships with schools in Jiangsu Province, China. I used this trip to see how some of the articles I had read about transformative learning mixed with reality, and to test a hypothesis I had developed that collaborative activities elicit the strongest "disorienting dilemmas." I was interested to see if this was the case because I believed that somewhat uncomfortable intercultural collaborations can cause the greatest growth in global awareness.
To test this hypothesis, I did three things:
To test this hypothesis, I did three things:
- Categorized the program activities into three types: 1) Conference-style lectures; 2) Tourism-Related Activities; and 3) Collaborations with Chinese Counterparts.
- Created a chart of attitudes that participants could use to track their emotions as the different types of activities happened. The chart included three "positive" emotions - connectedness, wonder, and optimism - and three "negative" emotions - bewilderment, reluctance, and apprehension.
- Analyzed how emotions changed as the types of activities changed.
November 8 registered almost across the board as the highest day of connectedness. It was the second day of partnership visits, and was the only full day of time with Chinese partners. It is important to compare this score of high “connectedness” on the 8th with several scores on the 7th, which included a program high score of “apprehension”, a program low score for “optimism”, and a program high score for bewilderment. Based on this data I believe that the 7th created a “disorienting dilemma” for participants, after which they were able to calm down, reflect with their small groups, and achieve high growth in optimism by the next day and a program high of connectedness. These results imply that by pulling participants out of their comfort zone and into a controlled disequilibrium has the potential to elicit gains in their feelings of connectedness with another culture. When they are able to be put into a tough situation that is trying to their senses and their comfort, and when they learn that they are able to get through it, they make gains. Of the three types of experiences that participants had, these results indicate that the collaborations with Chinese counterparts had the most effect, followed by tourism-related activities, and then finally, conference-style lectures.
My key finding was that intercultural collaborations are the most effective way of creating disorienting dilemmas during teacher global education programs. I believe that they therefore offer the most potential for growth in participants' global awareness. |
Seeing that the most transformation and gains in global awareness happened as a result of the partnership activities, we must ask ourselves whether we are providing this type of experience enough to educators. Do enough educators have the opportunity to really engage with counterparts abroad? Even if they are on an international study program, are they given the types of experiences that will draw them out of their comfort zones and into the types of disorienting dilemmas that will allow the most growth? Many more educators are studying abroad now, but it remains to be learned whether their experiences are maximizing their potential for learning.