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FUTURE TEACHERS CONFRONT GLOBALIZATION:
A Critical Approach to "Good Citizenship" in Social Studies Education

Brad Porfilio and Glen McClary
D’Youville College
U. S. A.

Introduction
Globalization: An Overview
Promoting "Good Citizenship" in Our Social Studies and Science Classrooms
"Good Citizenship" and Social Studies: Final Thoughts
References

Introduction

Over the past hundred years, the field of social studies has been “mired in confusion” (Sears, 1997, p.19). Practitioners, teacher educators, and business leaders have each attempted to define the terrain over how to educate youth to become "good citizens." Unfortunately, many classroom teachers often mirror their classrooms after the form of discipline and notion of citizenship taught in many teacher education programs. Social studies classrooms are generally vacuous spaces, where young people, irrespective of race, class and gender, are taught disconnected facts about mostly dead White men. In fact, students in North America generally “learn virtually nothing about the contributions, perspectives, or talents of women or those outside the mainstream culture” (Nieto, 2002, p. 9).  It is not surprising, therefore, that many social studies educators believe the dominant approach to social studies has little relevance to students’ lives (Kornfeld & Goodman, 1998).  [paragraph 1]

As teacher educators, we believe it is our obligation to broaden future teachers’ view of what constitutes teaching and learning in secondary classrooms.  The traditional "banking model" of education holds little relevance in today’s global society (Christensen, 2000). Not only does it fail to account for the diverse identities of students, but it also promotes a passive type of citizenship, where the great majority of students become apathetic towards social, political and economic issues impacting the globe (Sears, 1997).   Therefore, we believe it is imperative to promote an active model of citizenship in our classrooms.  Future teachers must come to recognize what issues perpetuate social, cultural and economic injustices across the globe. They must learn how to teach their students to do the same interrogation of the global society—a critical reading of the "world" that allows global citizens to take effective action against social injustices (Christensen, 2000). [paragraph 2]

Our teaching models go beyond "assigning and telling" future teachers to read classroom textbooks for the purpose of regurgitating information on examinations (Vacca & Vacca, 2002).  We have taken an interdisciplinary approach to promoting "good citizenship." The incorporation of various fields of study in our classrooms, such as science, history, and sociology, helps students reflect deeply upon the nature of social problems (Apple, 1990; Freire, 1990; Derman-Sparks, 2002; Giroux & Giroux, 2003). It has been shown, for instance, that focusing on "good citizenship" across the teacher education spectrum helps develop future teachers who are reflective practitioners, individuals who continue to improve their teaching practices for the purpose of molding critical, caring citizens (Grant & Vansledright, 2001).  Clearly, if the two million new teachers, who are expected to enter the profession over the next decade, embrace critical forms of pedagogies, our grade 7-12 students will be armed with the knowledge necessary to both recognize and dismantle unjust social practices that create social inequalities within our interconnected world.  [paragraph 3]

The purpose of this essay is to shed light on how we guide predominantly White pre-service teachers (ninety percent of our students are identified as White) to understand the value of employing an interdisciplinary, social reconstructionist approach to teaching and learning in their secondary classrooms. Specifically, we will detail how science and social studies are excellent examples where teachers can educate public school students from specificity to general concepts and generalizations that develop critical thinking skills and empathy for social justice issues. Through “one of the most hotly debated issues of the present era,” globalization, we demonstrate how we model "good citizenship" lessons to future teachers (Kellner, 2002, p. 286).  [paragraph 4]

          Globalization: Overview

Many theorists of globalization have developed hollow portraits of how goods, services, people, and information traverse national boundaries in contemporary society (Kellner, 2002; Leonard, 2003). Some have focused exclusively on detailing how economic imperatives and relationships are transported from wealthy countries to impoverished regions across the globe (Robins & Webster, 1999; Sklair, 2001), while other scholars focus on how technological developments such as computerized networks, satellite communication systems, and various forms of transportation are central in creating a global economy (Castells, 1998; Gates, 1999). [paragraph 5]

We avoid both of these one-sided approaches at looking at this phenomenon in our classrooms. We realize various forms of technology along with the global restructuring of capital work to fuel a global network society.  Moreover, we are critical of the dominant discourse in the wider society that normalizes the idea that peace, prosperity, and progress emanate from the birth of new technologies and unfettered capitalism. On the contrary, transformative scholars have not only documented how globalization has perpetuated social and economic inequities in advanced and developed countries, but also have illustrated how it ensnares more and more global citizens in poverty, pollution and hopelessness (Leonard, 2003; McLaren & Farahmandpur, 2003).  This critical examination of globalization comes to color life inside our classrooms. [paragraph 6]

Promoting "Good Citizenship" in Our Social Studies and Science Classrooms

 In our social studies and science methods courses, we provide critical scholarship, films, and reflective journal assignments to guide students to interrogate the role globalization plays in North American society as well as the role it plays in developments across the globe. We have found that students often come to a more critical view of globalization when common assumptions associated with science and technologies are challenged. For instance, we expose future teachers to critical scholarship that challenges the common conception of scientific developments being a benefit to all members in society.  Students learn that computing technology was not developed as a neutral tool to promote symmetrical relations of power.  Rather, government, business, and corporate leaders developed computers in the 1940s to control resources, territories, and soldiers (Hanson, 1982; Bromley & Apple, 1998). This knowledge helps students begin to recognize how very parochial, and often self-interested, social visions drive how computing technology is utilized in today’s society. [paragraph 7]

Additional critical scholarship surrounding technology and schooling broaden students’ understanding of how entrenched forms of gender, class, and race discrimination blocks computers from ushering social change (Cooper & Weaver, 2003; Leonard, 2003).  For instance, large-scale corporations often "donate" computers to inner-city schools located in North America in hopes to attract a new stable of loyal technological customers. They do so without providing teachers with training to use the technology for democratic ends, without technological support to fix the technology, and without the necessary funding to have smaller classrooms, which allows teachers to use computers to meet the peculiar needs of students. The lack of support given by corporations ensures that the use of computing technology increases the profit and salaries of corporate leaders, rather than truly improving society. As several critical scholars suggest, cyber students generally harness computing technology to consume various cultural texts produced by corporate giants.  They play violent video games, listen to music, and access other socially toxic information; rarely, do they use the device for democratic ends (de Castell & Bryson, 1998; Jenson, 1999; Margolis & Fisher, 2002). [paragraph 8]

Next, we show students how large-scale corporations have employed computing technology in ways that create social inequalities across the globe. Computers have facilitated "corporate flight" from North America. Transnational capitalists have employed speed technologies to reestablish their operations in more "desirable" locations. Corporate leaders enter so-called Third World regions because they avoid the cost associated with minimum wage laws, taxes and environmental regulations (Aguirre 2001; Giroux & Giroux, 2003).  Clips from Michael Moore’s (1989) Roger and Me do an outstanding job documenting the devastation that corporate flight has had on many inner cities in Northern parts of North America. After examining the film, many students are able to connect corporate flight with the devastation of the urban center surrounding our learning community.  Instead of placing the blame for urban blight and crime on the shoulders of elderly residents, impoverished and working poor African Americans, and impoverished citizens of the dominant culture, future teachers grasp how corporate greed and technology merge together to create social ills in urban parts of North America. [paragraph 9]

After looking endemically at globalization’s influence, students examine the "big global picture" of transnational giants devouring our planet in the quest to make profits (Aristide, 2002). Bigelow and Peterson’s (2002) Rethinking Globalization: Teaching for Justice in An Unjust World has proven to be an invaluable resource in creating a true critical global literacy amongst our students. The authors "hold back no punches" in documenting the vast inequalities of wealth, the intensification of our polluted earth, and the commercial imperatives wrought out by neoliberal free market economics over the past twenty years. For instance, students learn of the proliferation of global sweatshops launched in many Third World countries, as young children and women are forced to toil in debilitating conditions for corporate conglomerates such as Nike (Bigelow & Peterson, 2002). [paragraph 10]

Several articles from Bigelow & Peterson's book also help pre-service teachers recognize how computing technology serves as the linchpin in propagating an insatiable consumer culture. They ascertain how corporate giants use the Internet to inundate cyber citizens with images and slogans designed to play upon their insecurities and emotions. Citizens across the globe often become compelled to purchase an array of goods to live up to mass-produced, computer-enhanced images that define beauty or “coolness.” Through this discovery, students also make out the greater impact of today’s media culture; its major function is to perpetuate the exploitation of labor across the globe (Bigelow, 2002, p. 300).   Finally, several authors lend a critical examination of corporate globalization in relation to environmental concerns.  This research spurs our students to view the current global form of capitalism as antithetical to fostering ecologically responsible cultures.  It is “inherently hostile to the ecological health of our planet, whether it’s polluting the natural environment or the specter of global warming that threatens the earth’s delicate biosphere” (McKibben, 2002, p. 261). [paragraph 11]

We conclude our look at globalization vis-à-vis Third Word countries by examining Disney’s role in creating social inequities in Haiti.  The "culture of innocence" surrounding Disney’s movies, toys, and amusement parks allows the company to shield itself from taking responsibility for producing clothing made in sweatshops (Giroux, 2000). The National Labor Committee’s (1996) Mickey Mouse Goes to Haiti pushes our students to get beyond the romantic notions associated with Disney’s "Magic Kingdom." Disney, just like many global conglomerates, subcontracts the production of its garments to sweatshops in the Third World.  Disney openly violates the human rights of its Haitian workers, as the company fails to pay its employees a "living wage," which leaves families without adequate food, clothing, shelter, or health care. The Haitian people also toil and live in unsafe environmental conditions, as corporate greed keeps business leaders from spending resources to protect laborers and the natural environment. [paragraph 12]

Teaching about the injustices associated with globalization often leaves future teachers overwhelmed. Our courses are often the first opportunities for White students to look deeply at the causes of inequities in schools and society. Just like the vast majority of White pre-service teachers, our students often struggle to get beyond their own experience living in North America (McIntyre, 1997; Feagin & Vera, 1995; McIntosh, 1992). They find it hard to fathom that the rules of society do not apply fairly to most global citizens. Some of our students feel guilty for accruing unearned racial and class privileges associated with living in an unjust society (Tatum, 1992). They often begin to question whether educators have the power to tackle entrenched systemic barriers that perpetuate social inequities both inside and outside of their classrooms. [paragraph 13]

To instill a sense of hope that critical educators can make a difference in fighting against globalization, we provide many "snapshots" of how transformative educators and concerned citizens are standing up against injustice across the globe. Once again, Rethinking Globalization proves to be an excellent resource, as it documents how elementary and secondary educators are guiding students to think deeply about the nature of globalization in their world.  The book also documents how the world’s closing of boundaries offers more collective opportunities for concerned citizens and tranformative educators to confront injustice. [paragraph 14]

By creating a series of instructional designs on this subject, future teachers gain more skill and confidence in broaching this subject to high school students. Our students create interdisciplinary, age-appropriate lesson plans that must stir adolescents to understand the various forces creating inequities across our planet. We also afford students the opportunity to "put into practice" what they learned about globalization, as many have the confidence to teach their lessons to local high school students. This often proves to be an invaluable experience. In-service teachers and Grade 7-12 students give our students extended feedback on their teaching performance. [paragraph 15]

Although computing technology has served as a handmaiden for corporate leaders to establish economic hegemony across the globe, we show future teachers how to subvert this phenomenon by using the same form of technology to promote social justice. For example, International Education and Resource Network has inspired many of our future teachers to teach "good citizenship" in their classrooms. The Network is a non-profit global telecommunications community, which establishes intercultural learning projects that focus on making lasting contributions to the welfare of the planet and its people (Cummins & Sayers, 1997). In this vein, American Federation of Teachers’ Child Labor Project deals directly with the issue of globalization, as it has been configured to help youth investigate the impact of child exploitation in today’s society.  Throughout the courses, we also share many alternative websites, discussion forms, and bookstores designed to create a just society (Berson, Cruz, Duplass, Johnston, 2004; Ebenezer & Lau, 2002). [paragraph 16]

"Good Citizenship" and the Social Studies: Final Thoughts

The current trajectory of how social studies educators teach for "good citizenship" fails to guide youth to recognize social inequalities or encourage our next generation to dismantle social inequalities in their daily lives, in their communities, and across the globe.  Yet, teacher educators have the power to alter this destructive path by collectively embracing an interdisciplinary, social reconstructionist pedagogy in teacher education programs. We hope the exemplary approach above serves as one piece in a much larger puzzle in the attempt to reconfigure "good citizenship" across the content areas, particularly in social studies and science education. Teacher educators must collaborate to ensure future teachers have the knowledge, skills and courage to guide students to become critically informed citizens. Our next generation must be able to detect what forces fuel social, economic and environmental injustices, such as those currently associated with corporate giants drawing the world into a system bent more on profit than on making the world a better place for all citizens. [paragraph 17]

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