Transcript Slide 1

Starbucks and Green Tea:
Education in the Age of Globalization
Yong Zhao, Ph. D
University Distinguished Professor
Director, US-China Center for Research on
Educational Excellence
College of Education
Michigan State University
[email protected]
http://zhao.educ.msu.edu
Schools have not necessarily much to do with
education. - Winston Churchill
The only time my education was interrupted was when I
was in school. - George Bernard Shaw
What does education often do? It makes a straight-cut
ditch of a free, meandering brook. - Henry David
Thoreau
My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so
she kept me out of school. - Margaret Mead
In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice. Then
he made school boards. - Mark Twain
“Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce,
industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by
competitors throughout the world… We have, in effect, been committing an act
of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.” -- A Nation at Risk
“In the international competition to have the biggest and best supply of
knowledge workers, America is falling behind” – Bill Gates
1983
2005
“It is, however, not completely true
that nobody’s told the kids. The world
is indeed one global village. We live
among determined, well-educated,
and strongly motivated competitors.”
“Clearly, we're no longer the only
economic kid on the block.”
“America's position in the world may
once have been reasonably secure
with only a few exceptionally welltrained men and women. It is no
longer.”
“Meanwhile, competition around the
world is only becoming stiffer.”
“We are raising a new generation of
Americans that is scientifically and
technologically illiterate.”
“This is reaching crisis stages in the
fields of science and engineering.”
Trade Winds
Trade Goods
Percent of GDP
Trade Goods
Increase
Foreign Investment
(2000)
(billions)
1990
2003
33%
42%
Developing
Nations
High-income
Nations
21%
6%
Developing
Nations
High-income
Nations
$1,100
$182
Forms of Globalization
McDonaldization and Starbucks in the Forbidden City: Global Consumerism
Madagascar and Jackie Chan: Pop Cosmopolitanism
Microsoft and Toyota: Multiple Citizenships
Bin Laden and SARS: Local Elephants in the Global Bedroom
Nintendo and Yahoo Messenger: Virtuality and Reality
al jazeera and Google News: Crossfire in the Global Media
Chinese Shoes and Indian Doctors: Neo-colonialism and Re-division of Labor
Out-of-Africa 3 and Out-of-Asia 2: Human Migration and the Re-mixing of Races
and Cultures
Migratory Patterns
Migration from developing countries to high-income countries
1960-1965
1995-2000
2.8 million
13.6 million
People living in a non-native country
year
millions of people
2000
175
“The number of international tourists increased from 1.2
billion in 1995 to 1.5 billion in 2003.”
New Wave of Surfers
An estimated 1 billion people live,
entertain, work and seek information online
Internet Users
United States
China
Users (millions)
185
11%
100
30%
Teenagers
87% of all teenagers in the U.S. use the
internet, 11 million are daily users.
“We're now entering what I think is a fundamental paradigm shift. A
truly disruptive, Gutenberg-printing-press-like paradigm shift, and
nobody's told the kids.” – Thomas Friedman
Patents Pending
Number of patents recorded by the
World Intellectual Property
Organization (2002)
300,000
Percentage of patents awarded to
American and Japanese inventors
66%
Worldwide patent applications
registered in the United States
Number of patent applications
originating from the United States
170,000
90,000
Patents generated (2003)
India
China
341
297
“The University of California alone generated more than either country.
IBM accounted for five times as many as the two combined.”
Each generation of Americans has outstripped its
parents in education, in literacy, and in economic
attainment. For the first time in the history of our
country, the educational skills of one generation will
not surpass, will not equal, will not even approach,
those of their parents.
– Paul Cooperman, A Nation at Risk
Public Views of the U.S. in Western Countries
Pew Global Attitudes Project (2005)
Population that view the U.S. favorably
Germany
41%
Spain
41%
United Kingdom
55%
Canada
59%
United States
83%
Our neighbor, Canada gave the U.S. a 59% favorable rating, only 1
point higher than what they gave to China.
Geography as a measure
4th
8th
12th
Students achieving
“proficient” level
21%
30%
25%
Students failing to reach
“basic” level
26%
26%
29%
NAEP Results (grade)
Percentage of teachers
who participated in study
abroad programs
between 1972-2000
Education majors
All eventual teachers
3%
5%
Global Conversation
In 2002, the General Accountability Office report that “The [Army,
Department of State, Foreign Commercial Service, and FBI]…reported
shortages of translators and interpreters as well as … diplomats and
intelligence specialists, with foreign language skills that are critical to
successful job performance…[T]hese shortfalls have adversely affected
agency operations and hindered U.S. military, law enforcement, intelligence,
counterterrorism, and diplomatic efforts.”
B.A. Degrees in foreign languages (2000-2001)
Japanese
328
Chinese
183
Hebrew
27
Middle Eastern
29
Arabic
7
“Public education does not serve a public. It creates a public”
-- Neil Postman.
The flattened world and the virtual world require a new public, a
public with clear understandings of other cultures, other people,
other languages, and other tools. Our schools need to act to
provide an education that will prepare them for these new
worlds.
Risk-taking and Back to the Basics:
Driving Forces of Education Reform
• Why Asians Cannot think: Strengths and
Weaknesses of East Asian Education
–
–
–
–
Knowledge-centered
Centralized
Discipline-based
Testing-oriented
• Why Johnny Cannot Add: Strengths and
Weaknesses of American Education
–
–
–
–
Child-centered
Decentralized
Activity-based
Process-oriented
Citizenship in Three Worlds and the Reengineering of Schools:
Tasks, Tools, and Talking Points
• Citizenship in 3 Worlds
– Local
– Global
– Virtual
• Re-schooling
– What to teach: 21st Century Skills
– Who is to teach: Virtual Schools and (Im)Exporting of
Teachers
– Who is to pay: Brain Drain and Brain Gain
– Who is to control: School Boards vs. UNESCO