Introduction
Introduction
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In the mid- and late-eighties, global education in the United States came under attack and was labeled un-American by various right wing individuals and groups. At the same time business leaders, representatives of mainstream religious groups, intellectuals, and influential politicians of major political parties were acknowledging and even extolling the virtues of the worldwide movement toward a new era of global development and cooperation. Many global educators in the United States responded in a defensive manner to such attacks. Words such as “balance” and “fairness” began to appear in their rhetoric. Simply put, this meant that curricular materials were often carefully screened to see that they did not present any of the perceived “dark side” of America’s history or current actions in the world. In addition, a number of global educators took the position that they should avoid collaboration with related movements such as peace and conflict studies, development education, intercultural education, human rights studies, and environmental studies. They did this because they felt that these “other” movements had sometimes been viewed as advocating particular value positions and as tending to be more political (read: potentially “un-American”) by right-wing critics, and because they were intimidated by such attacks. The safe thing became to have global education equated solely with learning about the processes and substance of international relations. Chauvinistic and nationalistic pressure upon those who promote global education is not unique to the United States. Similar pressures have been brought to bear on the movement in many countries. Data from a study of global education practices in 52 countries reported in the new book, Global Education: A Worldwide Movement, discussed in this article, attests to this fact. In many nations of the world today, schooling is still seen as a major force in the building of national loyalties. The relationship between education and, more specifically, global education on the one hand and nationalism on the other turned out to be a major theme throughout the findings of the study. The first chapter of the book was devoted to exploring the worldwide paradigm shift toward global interdependence and the meaning of this shift for educators everywhere. Don Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and recipient of the Noble Prize for Peace in 1987, wrote the Foreword to the book. He pointed out that globalization thus far has not marked a new age of moral progress, but instead has signaled the solidification of a world economic order based upon cynicism and individual profit. He stated that we should not allow the process of globalization to be merely a material transformation; our times demand a corresponding change in consciousness. For this reason, he has given strong support to the social movement known as global education.
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