Introduction

How world-minded are K-12 students?

One book that has attracted the interest of elementary school teachers in recent years is If the World Were a Village (Kids Can Press, 2003) It makes the world¡¯s peoples more understandable to young people and grown-ups at well. Noting how hard it is to think about such a large number as the population of the whole world¡ª6+ billion people, the book illustrates what a village of only 100 people would look like if it were a microcosm of the world as a whole. This imaginary analogy--the world as a village¡ªnot only helps young people understand the demographics of the world, but also calls upon them to think of the world as a real village where everyone has to deal with everyone else in one way or another.

From this book, children learn that only 5 of the people in the world village are from the United States while 21 are from China, 17 from India, 13 from Africa, and 8 from Latin America and the Caribbean. Nine of the 100 people speak English while 22 speak Chinese, 8 Hindi, 7 Spanish, 4 Arabic, 4 Bengali, 3 Portuguese, and 3 Russian. The book notes, in passing, that if you could say hello in these eight languages, you could greet over half the people in the village. The richest 20 people in the village each have incomes of an average $9000 per year while the poorest 20 people each have incomes of less than one dollar per day. Twenty-five people have no convenient, safe water; 40, no adequate sanitation; 32, no healthy air to breathe.

This is the world¡ªour village, but what do K-12 students know about it? According to former North Carolina governor James Hunt: in a special November 2004 issue of Phi Delta Kappan: ¡°Our students are trapped in a kind of educational isolationism, which may have suited the Industrial Age but leaves students desperately under prepared for the demands of the 21st century global economy.¡± (p. 21) The same issue notes that a National Geographic Society/Roper Survey showed that of the eight countries in the study, American K-12 students ranked second from the bottom in knowledge of world affairs or geography (p. 57). Another article cites a Michigan study as follows:

Michigan schools teach little about Asia. A review of the Michigan Educational Assessment system found only one question that dealt with Asia, and in 2002 Michigan certified only one teacher of Japanese. (p. 24)

The Kappan also calls attention to still another study of the top U.S. colleges and universities preparing teachers and notes that only a few require coursework in non-Western history for students who are preparing to be history teachers (p. 28, 45). In contrast, a New York Times essay review (June 5, 2005) asserts that the internationalization of U.S. history is currently the dominant challenge for American research historians:

Fifty years ago, Louis Hartz expressed the hope that the cold war would bring an end to American provincialism, that international responsibility would lead to ¡°a new level of consciousness.¡± It hasn¡¯t happened. . . . [But] today, there is no retreating into the provincialism and innocence of the past. And because withdrawal is not an option, the work of the globalizing American historians possesses an urgency unknown to scholars of previous generations. (p.33)

Given this unsatisfactory state of affairs, it is not surprising that in the concluding Kappan article Sharon Kagan and Vivien Stewart include the following as one of their four main policy recommendations: ¡°An effective corps of teachers must be developed in every state to infuse all the core curriculum areas with international content.¡± (p. 59)

Internationalization is for all schools, all teachers, and all students

Thomas Friedman¡¯s new (2005) book, The World Is Flat, argues that the world has entered a third era of globalization, which he calls Globalization 3.0 He asserts that Globalization 1.0 (roughly 1492-1800) can be understood as countries globalizing while Globalization 2.0 (1800-2000) can best be described as companies globalizing. Therefore, the distinctive feature of Globalization 3.0 is the possibility for individuals to collaborate and compete globally. Thus, given the educational deficiencies cited above, it is not surprising that the attempt to internationalize the education of young Americans for this new era has become a formidable movement in the U.S. It appeals to liberals and conservatives alike although for partly different reasons. While it is often viewed as just one more interest group, adopting world-mindedness as a major goal of education could influence all of schooling. Internationalization is the context which conditions everything else, including not only what pupils know about the world, but how they think about what to do with their lives, how to allocate their time and other resources, and not least how as citizens to influence what governments do to address the pressing issues of our time.

That is far more than can be addressed, as some would have it, in social studies alone. Teacher preparation and the K-16 curriculum in other subjects must encompass more of the world as well. Science, for example, involves knowing not only about biological and physical phenomena which exist primarily or only outside the U.S. but also thinking about the implications of science for the world as a whole. And in fact, some of the best websites for international education are vehicles for the internationalization of science learning (e.g. www.jason.org, www.slb.com/seed, www.globe.gov ) GLOBE, for example, involves pre-university students from more than 100 countries in collaboration with scientists and in the collection and analysis of data on atmosphere, hydrology, and land cover. It earned the 2004 Goldman Sachs Technology Prize for Excellence in International Education. GLOBE is primarily sponsored not by an international education organization but by NASA, the space agency.

Laying the Groundwork

Since MSU¡¯s mission includes emphasis on both internationalization and outreach to K-12 schools, support for internationalization of K-12 schooling is a logical corollary of these priorities. Nevertheless, finding effective ways to support improvement efforts in elementary and secondary education is not easy and requires substantial commitments and capabilities on the part of the university.

University commitment and recognition

At MSU , the Office of International Studies in Education was established in 1984 to promote an international dimension in all aspects of College of Education research, teaching, and service. In seeking a comparative understanding of educational policies, institutions and practices, the goal is to find ways to enhance the learning of children, teachers, and other adults in the United States while contributing to the worldwide effort of educators to meet the economic, environmental, social, cultural and political challenges of our time (this wording of the Office¡¯s mission is found in the sesquicentennial volume The Spirit of Michigan State, by J. Bruce McCristal, Michigan State University Press, 2004, p. 260).

In the College of Education as in other MSU Colleges, much attention has been given to increasing globalization. Over time the College has become an institution widely recognized for both its work in education in developing countries and for its educational research on what industrialized countries can learn from one another. Currently it has major projects in a number of key countries: China, Egypt, India and Vietnam. Other developing countries where College faculty have done substantial work over the last decade or so include Algeria, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Guinea, Indonesia, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, South Africa, Thailand, and Zimbabwe. More recently, MSU¡¯s American doctoral students in education have worked in such high need areas as Afghanistan, Moldova and Sudan. Lastly, but by no means least, international master¡¯s and doctoral students in education greatly enrich this mixture of experience since they typically come from 30-40 countries throughout the world. For example, a Pakistani Muslim student brought his international perspective to the committee the College of Education set up to deal with issues that arose in the aftermath of 9/11:

Being a member of the college¡¯s committee for following up on 9/11 was another excellent experience. While I was a member of that panel, we talked about how we as educators should respond to the events following 9/11. Being part of the committee, I had an opportunity to say to a wide audience what I wanted to say about this event and to suggest ways of responding.

The international capabilities of the College of Education are only a small part of the international capabilities of MSU as a whole. These greater capabilities are documented elsewhere in this self-study as well as in the just completed Area Studies Review. The area studies centers and other Title VI centers serve as particularly important sources of support for the internationalization of K-12 schooling.

Efforts to achieve these internationalization goals recently received extraordinary recognition. MSU won the 2004 Goldman Sachs Foundation Higher Education Prize for Excellence in International Education. In addition to the honor, the prize included $25,000 for the university. There are five Goldman Sachs prizes in international education each year, but only one goes to a university or college. The Goldman Sachs Foundation announced the awards this year through a full-page ad in The Financial Times, November 29, 2004. The higher education award which MSU received is for a "higher education institution that shows exceptional commitment to promoting K-16 international knowledge and skills through its teacher preparation program or through ongoing partnerships with local schools to introduce international content."

Building capability through international research and graduate study

Internationalization at the university level is successful only when it builds on a base of expert knowledge, which then can help others to gain the necessary understanding. Special emphasis has been given over the past 20 years to recruiting faculty with strong international experience and qualifications in education. About 20 such faculty members are now highlighted in the international leadership section of the College website.

As a result, the MSU College of Education has become a leading U.S. university for international research in education. For example, the on-line book exhibit on the college website includes 22 books of international research by college faculty members in the last ten years. It is unlikely that any other U.S. university can match this record.

This international research capability rose to a still higher level last year when the college received a $5 million grant from the Sun Wah Foundation of Hong Kong to create, under the direction of Professor Yong Zhao, a U.S. China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.

More generally, the faculty¡¯s areas of international strength include the following:

¡¤ TIMSS-type IEA multinational research on curricula, teaching and learning (especially mathematics, science and civic education)
¡¤ Other international research and outreach to improve the teaching of mathematics and science
¡¤ Technical assistance and applied research to support primary and secondary school improvement in developing countries
¡¤ International research and development using innovative pedagogy and new forms of school-community relations to address issues of environmental education and community development
¡¤ International research on teacher learning and professional development
¡¤ International research and outreach to help educators understand and use technology and to make available needed on-line resources
¡¤ International research on school choice, decentralization and educational finance
¡¤ International research on higher education (especially in Africa)

The exceptional productivity of this record is evidence of a supportive environment for international research. This was not always the case. Before the Office of International Studies in Education was established in 1984, the college was very active internationally but without a strong research base. Since 1984 priority has been given to building up this research capacity through faculty recruitment and taking advantage of external funding opportunities. Moreover this buildup was not limited to a small, separate comparative education program. Instead, the college adopted an infusion approach, making international research potentially relevant throughout the college as well as to all the K-12 practitioners served by the college. Much of this research has been truly comparative and multinational whereas comparative education in general has been much criticized for relying too much on single country studies which do not allow for an explicitly comparative dimension.

Active participation in externally funded international research projects has enhanced the internationalization of the college and our teacher preparation program in multiple ways, three of which are of particular importance. First, these projects have engaged the active involvement of a number of faculty and graduate students, many of whom had no prior international experience. Their engagement in international projects has increased the international expertise and commitment to comparative and international education among faculty and graduate students, which in turn, has been integrated into their teaching and advising of students. Secondly, findings and results from international and cross-national comparative research projects, as appropriate, are thoughtfully used to improve education coursework at MSU. Thirdly, MSU=s international reputation for excellence in education, and its concomitant commitment to international research and programs have attracted highly talented graduate students from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Courses which are primarily international in content are offered at both master's and Ph.D. levels. These courses fulfill distribution requirements for college degrees. At the master's level, one such course, EAD 813 on education, development and social change, is the university's most comprehensive course at the master's level on this vital topic. TE 815, Comparative Analysis of Educational Practice, focuses on recent classroom level research in other countries with important implications for the practicing U.S. teachers who take this course ¡ª it makes extensive use of the international research done by MSU College of Education faculty. TE 816, Education in Transition, is also primarily international in content and recently has focused on the relationship between education and democracy as it evolves in countries around the world. This course is of particular value to teachers in Michigan who are required to teach about core democratic values. CEP 826, Evaluation of Educational Policies and Programs, is another course that has been regularly taught from an international perspective. At the Ph.D. level TE 923, Comparative Perspectives on Teaching, Curriculum, and Teacher Education is one of nine selective courses from which TE Ph.D. students must choose three. It provides more theoretical perspective for use of comparative studies in understanding policy and practices in the U.S. and other countries.

Internationalization of teacher preparation

Internationalization in the development of new MSU standards for teacher education

MSU in its Teachers for a New Era project has funding from the Carnegie Corporation and other donors to develop new university-wide standards for teacher preparation. In recognition of the widespread expectation that K-12 teachers have an important responsibility to help their students learn about the physical, social, economic, political and cultural diversity of the world outside the United States, these standards put new emphasis on knowledge that goes beyond the U.S. The statements in Box 1 are illustrations of this emphasis from the latest provisional text for these standards in the area of social studies, on the one hand, and literacy, literature, and language, on the other (note that this is very selective; the many points which are not international in nature have been omitted).

Other teacher preparation efforts: TE 250

In addition to the development of standards, other important efforts to internationalize the teacher preparation program have been undertaken. Special attention has been given to TE 250, Human Diversity, Power, and Opportunity in Social Institutions, coordinated by Professor Chris Wheeler. TE 250 is an introductory course required of all students in the teacher preparation program and offered to students throughout the university as a service course. The course staff has worked with several of MSU's area studies centers to prepare materials and case studies on themes related to the course, but with a focus on Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. This new content serves to reinforce the course's efforts to deal with race, ethnicity, gender, disability, socio-economic class and their impact on education. During the summer months of 2004, seven instructors engaged in intensive readings and discussions of articles, novels and movies on these topics in order to include international experiences in their respective sections for the academic year 2004-2005. These materials and instructor experiences during this pilot phase are being posted on a web site to be available to instructors from other universities. A conference is planned for Fall 2005 for instructors from Michigan and neighboring states to examine the results of this pilot, to share lessons and to plan ways such content can be a part of similar courses in other college programs. Funding is provided under the U.S. Department of Education Title VI area studies programs at MSU.

Other teacher preparation efforts: study abroad

Students in the teacher preparation program are also encouraged to develop their international interests, knowledge and competencies through participation in Study Abroad. The College currently has three undergraduate summer study abroad programs and two pre-internship overseas teaching programs for our teacher preparation students that it offers on an annual or biennial basis. According to a recent survey of study abroad offerings in other institutions, these programs are among the widest selection of overseas study/internship experiences provided by any U.S. teacher education program. New offerings are continually being planned and introduced. In addition, students in education benefit from the much wider array of study abroad courses offered by other MSU colleges.

Our flagship study abroad program, developed under the leadership of Anne Schneller over the past several years, is the Pre-internship Teaching Program. Initially offered in South Africa, it provides students between their fourth and fifth year of the MSU teacher preparation program, after they have completed their bachelor's degree, an opportunity to gain experience teaching overseas in the regular schools of another country. In South Africa, students taught in a diverse set of South African schools and had home stays with South African educators. At the request of the Office of Study Abroad, after the first two years of this program in fall 2003, the college conducted a self-study of the pre-internship program's impact on interns and future teachers. Results indicated that participants in the South African pre-internship program felt a great increase in confidence in their own classroom teaching when they returned to Michigan; an increase in understanding of multicultural issues in education; an increase in their teaching about South Africa and Africa in their Michigan classrooms; and an increase in their personal and professional growth as a result of this program.

To offer increased opportunities for study abroad participation, the college has now developed a second site for this program in New South Wales, Australia, building on the college's earlier relationships in Australia and its successful undergraduate study abroad program in that country. This site was inaugurated in summer 2004. In the future, this program will alternate between South Africa and Australia until such time as the demand for this program is large enough to support annual programs at each site. Although the number of countries where English is used as a language of instruction and schools are open in the June-August period is limited, the college has begun to consider other sites, such as Malaysia.

Finally at the undergraduate level, the college currently offers undergraduate courses in education for study abroad in Australia and the Netherlands and is planning other future offerings in Malaysia and China.

Internationalization in professional development for K-12 teachers and administrators

Several current initiatives cater to the internationalization of experienced K-12 teachers and administrators.

International online teacher resources

MSU¡¯s area studies centers have developed an array of free online curricular materials and background resources for K-12 teachers to use (www.isp.msu.edu/resources/web). Three of these websites are region oriented: Exploring Africa from the African Studies Center; LASER, Latin American Schools and Educational Resources from the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Windows on Asia from the Asian Studies Center. The African site was the first to be developed as an initiative under the leadership of John Metzler, director of outreach for the African Studies Center. All three sites were developed by faculty experts in consultation with area teachers. In addition to general background information on their respective regions and the countries in them, they provide access to current news and offer a variety of special features. All of them offer curricular materials such as lesson plans for teachers to use in their classrooms. They also provide links to select external resources of many kinds.

Study group to give K-12 teachers an international perspective

The well known LATTICE project has for the last ten years offered professional development with international content to K-12 teachers in the Lansing area. LATTICE stands for Linking All Types of Teachers to International Cross-cultural Education. It is an outreach partnership between Lansing area school districts and various units at MSU. It brings together about 25 MSU international students and 25 K-12 teachers once a month for intensive study and discussion of international and multicultural issues. A cumulative total of 450 individuals have now participated in LATTICE and 13 school districts have been involved. The project has received a number of awards and has been widely reported at professional meetings. The international members of LATTICE received the University Diversity Award in 2005. An empirical evaluation of the program has been published in the peer reviewed journal Studies in Educational Evaluation 28 (2002): 315-328. After being heavily dependent on its founder and director Sally McClintock for its first ten years, the project has accepted the director¡¯s wish for a less overzealous assignment and has arranged for a transition to two new co-directors, namely John Metzler, Director of Outreach for the African Studies Center and Margaret Holtschlag, teacher in Haslett School District and former Michigan Teacher of the Year.

The U.S. China Center outreach to K-12 administrators

The U.S. China Center for Research on Educational Excellence (see above) is also playing an important role in the internationalization of MSU¡¯s professional development for K-12 administrators and teachers. As it develops and disseminates effective models of education to integrate the strengths of both Eastern and Western educational practices, the Center is designing special experiences for K-12 educators. For example, in July 2005 the Center in collaboration with the MSU Office for K-12 Outreach and other organizations such as the National Association of Secondary School Principals, is sponsoring the U.S. China Series on Secondary Education Reform. At this conference 100 superintendents, principals and lead teachers from across the United States will meet here in East Lansing with 100 of their Chinese counterparts. The second conference in this series will be held in China in 2006. The aim of this first conference is to create an effective model for future collaborations and to establish a sustainable professional network among Chinese and American educational leaders. It will address such questions as ¡°What can U.S. and Chinese educators learn from each other regarding secondary reform efforts to prepare future generations of students with an international perspective and the skills necessary for productive collaborations?¡±

Graduate Studies in Education Overseas (GSEO)

The primary mission of Graduate Studies in Education Overseas (GSEO) is to deliver graduate programs to American/international schools' teachers and administrators outside the United States. In so doing, it provides another opportunity for College of Education faculty members to gain international experience and learn from the globalized network of K-12 practitioners in American schools. It also allows the college to recruit advanced graduate students with diverse international expertise. In 2004-05, GSEO served approximately 175 students in overseas locations, most of whom were MA candidates in three different programs. During the summer of 2004, the Master of Arts in Curriculum and Teaching (MACT) degree was offered by the Department of Teacher Education in Valbonne, France. The Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education offered the Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET) degree at the University of Plymouth in England. The Department of Educational Administration offered a Master's in Educational Administration (MAEAD) in Valbonne, France. All three master's programs are primarily summer, residential offerings with some on-line courses and directed study taken during the academic year. Summer programming accounts for approximately 80 percent of GSEO student credit hour (SCH) production. In 2005, all three MA programs will be offered in Plymouth due to facilities in Valbonne that are inadequate to meet current requirements.

In addition to supporting graduate programs directed to international school educators, GSEO supported two courses with international field experiences for Michigan educators during the summer of 2004. A four-day field experience exploring ensemble theater techniques for classroom management was held in conjunction with the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario for 24 Michigan teachers, most of whom were MACT candidates. A one-week field experience for 12 EAD graduate students focusing on adult and higher education was held in Southern England with the support and cooperation of the University of Plymouth. All but one participant was a Ph.D. candidate.

The on-line globalization of our master¡¯s programs

The building of an MSU global network of elementary, secondary and post-secondary educators is now reinforced through the on-line Master of Arts program in education. It is designed for experienced educators who are interested in enhancing their professional practice though on-line study of advanced professional knowledge related to teaching, learning and leadership in elementary and secondary school. The program is therefore available to educators throughout the world who can meet the admissions requirements. The following statement from a graduate (a French woman living in Brazil) is a testimonial to the potential of this program for reaching out and attracting individuals who in turn can contribute to the global mix of educators that is necessary to internationalization of K-12 education:

During my MA studies at MSU, I have reached a new way of how I perceive myself in context to the world and I came to understand that at the heart of the learning organization of the millennium, there is the intention towards a shift of mind, from seeing ourselves as separate from the world, to connect to the world. At MSU I have been showed directions to learning in new and different ways, for which I will always be grateful. Meaningful learning happened often, when I was brought in a relation with the instructor and the subject, struggling on issues to take me to a place of knowledge, where conflict, diversity, ambiguity, and paradox were embraced in order to examine the different ways of knowing, to clarify the inner sources of teaching and learning, not having my ignorance and fear exposed or to dictate the outcomes but to lead me on a road to find my own truths.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Although MSU has received special recognition for these important initiatives, we are in no position to be satisfied. What has been achieved so far is largely small gains for the work of many prospective and practicing K-12 educators and big gains only for the smaller number of individuals who have been most deeply involved, such as participants in the Pre-internship Teaching Study Abroad program in South Africa. What is needed now is bigger gains for much larger numbers of educators. The potential is there. The new TNE standards, for example, will apply to all of the nearly 500 students who emerge from MSU¡¯s five year teacher preparation program each year. Also, more and more MSU students are expected to do Study Abroad, and we will do our best to strengthen this expectation within the College of Education (this includes promoting programs offered by other colleges that would be of special benefit to prospective teachers). In the case of practicing educators, the on-line resources of the area studies centers can be accessed by a huge pool of as yet untapped teachers. The LATTICE study group can be replicated in other locations, a dissemination made easier by the distribution of an excellent DVD on creating new LATTICE-like groups. It is being sent to all the funded Title VI area studies centers in the country. LATTICE itself is making a successful transition to a new leadership team after its first ten years of being so closely identified with its dynamic founder Sally McClintock. In addition, recently established international projects within the College of Education, such as the U.S. China Center, the Egyptian Universities Partnerships, and TEDS, the large-scale cross-national research on teacher education, will all draw in faculty and students who have had little or no international experience as well as broadening and diversifying the experience of those who have. We also expect to engage and support colleagues at other peer institutions in collaborative internationalization efforts. To this end, MSU is hosting the Midwest regional meeting of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) in September 2005 and the theme of the meeting is ¡°Internationalization ¨C from kindergarten to graduate school¡±.

Please click here to download Box 1 (MSU standards for teacher preparation: Examples of emphasis on international content and understanding international diversity.)

Click here for a word document of the report.

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For More Information Contact:
Jack Schwille , Assistant Dean
Anne Schneller, Specialist
Marlene Green, Secretary
517 Erickson Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: 517-355-9627
Fax: 517- 353-6393