What we think about " Globalisation":
- mixing cultures to create a new culture
- trade
- worldwide expansion
- interaction
- integration
- crossing boarders
- the world has become smaller...
What we think about " Internationalisation" :
- localization
- connection between 2 countries
- changing English in your own language
- adaption
- unicode
...
What is important for children/ pupils to learn?
It is very important that kids become very open- minded. They don't have to be self- centered about there own country/ culture. We have to learn the kids to be more understanding about their own country but also to be more understanding about a foreign country instead of being all prejudiced. Instead of being prejudiced, it's better to learn our kids to ask questions about another culture, so that they can develop respect for that culture. If they have a more positive attitude about a certain country, it will be easier for them to communicate with people of that kind of culture.
What are you gonna teach to your kids?
We have to learn kids to have respect for different kind of cultures. You can do this in different ways: If there are kids in your class with a different culture; you can ask of the children to make a presentation of there own culture. This gives the kids the chance to learn about new cultures and to ask questions to enlighten their misunderstanding. Also if a teacher is talking about aspects of his own culture, ask persons of other cultures what they think about our " way of living" and " how it's different from theirs".
You can also do little projects. You can let your pupils write e- mails to persons from another country. The kids will learn about another language, another way of living, ... The teacher can also create an international corner in the classroom. This will make the kids curious about other cultures and they will be more motivated to learn about this " new culture".
In belgium, there is a book called " Ook een garnaal heeft een hoofd..." . It's a story about a teacher who has kids from different cultures. To get to know these different cultures, he's organising "an international evening".
Each kid prepares a meal, a game, a song, ... typical of their culture. On that international evening each kids presents their culture in different ways. This book gives you also different games, meals, stories, ... about other countries so this is something you can do in your own class.
How can we input internationalization into our own class?
We've seen a couple interesting possibilities that a teacher can use to input " internationalization" into his own class:
- E- twinning: search for different kinds of organisations all over europe so that we can get in touch with other cultures.
- Comenius: You have the possibilities to go to another country with your class to experience other cultures.
Reflection:
We are constantly confronted with globalisation and internationalisation, everywhere we go. I have some experience more than the other students since, it's my last year of my education as a teacher, so i do know how to make the pupils more respectful towards other cultures but what i didn't know was the "Comenius" project. This is such a good oppurtunity to explore a country with your class. The pupils can experience these countries at first hand, so they would have more knowledge about different countries and they can have an "image" of that certain country. E-twinning is also a good method to let the kids contact other pupils from all over Europe. I might use these 2 projects in the future.
