Working for a better world
Education can help build a better global society – and every teacher has a vital role to play, Dr Carlos Alberto Torres tells Crispin Andrews
Argentinian-born Carlos Alberto Torres is a political sociologist and a truly global educationalist. Professor of Social Sciences and Comparative Education and director of the Latin American Center at the University of California, Los Angeles, United States, he has been a visiting professor at universities as far afield as Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Mexico, Portugal, Taiwan, South Korea and Sweden. Over the past two decades, he has lectured throughout Latin America and the USA – where he has also been involved in a wide range of educational research programmes and projects – and at universities in the United Kingdom, Finland, Japan, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.
Dr Torres has authored 40 books as well as more than 150 research articles, book chapters and encyclopedia entries in several languages. He is founding director of the Paulo Freire Institute in São Paulo, Brazil. He talks to IB World about his own particular theory of internationalism and why he believes that in today’s world, international-mindedness is more important than ever.
IB World What is your definition of the international dimension to education?
Carlos Alberto Torres My understanding is different to the traditional notion. Yes, schools must try to expose young people to different understandings of the world and the cultures within it, but it must be done in a way that reflects the actual realities of the world in which we live. An international dimension to education must help young people understand the changes in the global political economy that deeply affect lives. It must recognize the realities of large-scale economic migration that is creating more diverse multi-cultural societies across the European Union and the USA, but now also in countries previously more culturally homogenous, like South Korea. Finally, an international dimension must recognize that in some places the workings of capitalism undermine the basic rights of many, including the right of children to be educated.
IB What do students get out of educational experiences with a strong international dimension?
CAT There are so many benefits, but one of the most important is the opportunity to be multi-lingual. I can’t imagine an international dimension where students are not exposed to different languages. Apart from the obvious communication value, language-learning is a key with which the psyche of other cultures can be unlocked, allowing much more to be learned from exchanges with people from other cultures and countries. Secondly, with the increasing globalization of the political economy, an education with
a strong international dimension will help students better understand the processes involved should they wish to move around within the system during their lives.
Most of all, a student who experiences a strong international element to their learning will learn to look at themselves, their own culture and the world in a broader, more balanced way. The Ancient Greeks said that through travel, a person gains a deeper philosophical understanding of what people do and why. If you are only concerned with who you are, your own immediate surroundings and the community in which you live, you miss out on a great opportunity to appreciate the wider world.
IB What might be the consequences for individuals and societies if education systems do not have
a strong international dimension?
CAT People who grow up with too narrow an educational experience can be prone to developing extremely insular, culturally insensitive viewpoints. Students may run the risk of developing extremely deterministic perspectives, emphasizing sets of principles which are more divisive than constructive given the nature of today’s world.
I am also concerned that we do not become over-reliant on technology and the mass media for our understanding of, and experiences within, the world. Yes, technology enables us to communicate with people all over the world, but being part of an online group can give a false sense of community, as you are still sitting in your office, your school or your living room surrounded by your own things in your own town and your own country. Travel to other places and you get the benefits of immersing yourself within that culture, interacting with people and finding out about their beliefs, practices and ideas through first-hand experience.
IB Should the needs of society, the individual, or both, be at the heart of a school’s rationale for determining its own unique philosophy of international-mindedness?
CAT The idea of human rights is the one fundamental constant that should sit at the heart of any system of learning. The traditions of education are to expand intellectual horizons and to focus on the cognitive and moral dimensions of life: if we are to honour these, an understanding of the importance of human rights on an individual and societal level, how they can and ought to be protected – but also why at times they are undermined or disregarded – is essential.
IB How well do you think IB is achieving its goal of developing international-mindedness?
CAT Yes, I am impressed with your work. The International Baccalaureate appears to be developing
a most promising model. I would, however, urge you to consider the work done by the late Brazilian educational theorist, Paulo Freire [author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed], on critical pedagogy and how consciousness engages knowledge.
IB What do principals and other school leaders need to do to facilitate the development of an international dimension within their schools?
CAT Even though principals have to deal with all sorts of immediate practical problems such as behaviour, discipline and standards, they should also give themselves time to sit back from everyday matters and theorize about what they want their school to stand for and their students to achieve. If school leaders can look with more depth at the world in which they are living, they have a very powerful weapon with which to enlighten and energize their students. I would advise those who lead schools to travel not just as a simple tourist, but as a scholar with a curious mind. This sense of curiosity can be transmitted to staff and students.
IB To be truly international, must a student also have a strong sense of their own national identity?
CAT I have always believed that a truly international education is the way to work towards a better world,
but the more I travel the more I have come to realize that what people get from their own cultural source is equally important. In the UK, people drive German cars, watch American television programmes, drink Mexican tequila and eat Indian food – yet they feel very British. Yes, we must look outwards and press for global understanding, but at the same time look to our own sources for inspiration and take advantage of who we are to make ourselves better.
IB Is it possible for schools to overcome barriers of class, poverty and language to ensure
a truly inclusive educational system?
CAT It is changes in the dynamics of the global political economy that will determine the future shape of societies. Education can contribute to this, and to ensure its contribution is for the better we must learn about
the world as it is – cynicism, inequality and injustice alongside cultural richness, morality and love.
IB and the wider world
George Walker, former International Baccalaureate director general, gives a personal view of how IB can bring an international outlook to education
I much prefer the term ‘global-mindedness’ to ‘international-mindedness’. The concept of an international world belongs to the 20th century, when events took place in distant, exotic countries whose schools – to use Alec Peterson’s phrase – were across frontiers. In the 21st century, those frontiers have been largely removed by electronic communication and ease of travel. Today, the global world starts on our doorstep, where the cost of buying a house is affected by the cost of labour in China, manufacturing in India modifies the weather in Florida and mass migration alters our national identity.
This is the world of globalization – the unprecedented global movement of capital, goods, services, people, ideas and carbon dioxide. It is a world that has very little connection with the events of the second world war and the subsequent cold war that launched the International Baccalaureate. So the next challenge for the IB is to ensure its programmes help students become globally minded.
Three consequences of globalization will challenge schools in the 21st century and I believe the IB is responding to each of them. The first is diversity. The chances of working with, living with or networking with someone of a different culture are now very high thanks to rapidly growing migration. Every aspect of the IB – its programmes, assessment, governance and administration – helps its students draw on different experiences from around the globe.
The second challenge is complexity. More information, new forms of information, different cultural perspectives and a greater sense of individual empowerment are all conspiring to make issues more complicated. All three IB programmes encourage students to acquire critical thinking skills: they recognize that future global citizens will need to live with more ambiguity and be less inclined to seek quick solutions.
The third challenge is inequality. Globalization produces winners and losers and the winners can no longer ignore the plight of the losers if the world is to live in peace. The three IB programmes share a common set of values described in the IB Learner Profile. These encourage students to combine (in Thomas Friedman’s words) a “business school brain with a social worker’s heart”. A strong set of ethical values will be the IB’s most precious gift to the 21st-century global citizen, who must ”understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.”
