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Education must adapt to globalization, Methodist academics say

Jul. 25, 2005

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

A UMNS Feature
By Hendrik Pieterse and Vicki Brown*

Educators must teach a broader vision of what it means to be human in a
world struggling with the effects of globalization, speakers told staff
and students from Methodist-related schools in 19 different countries.

"Unless we equip young people to become more fully human and take a
stand, we are not fulfilling our task as Methodist educators," said
Peter Vardy, vice principal at Heythrop College, University of London.

Vardy and others explored the ethical challenges globalization raises
for Methodist-related education at the fourth meeting of the
International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and
Universities, held July 11-14 at Westminster School in Adelaide,
Australia.

Speakers warned that much education today is "outcome dominated" and
fails to deal with what it means to be human amid the complexities of
our global world.

"Institutional evil flourishes where fear is present - where people fear
to make a stand," Vardy said. Preventing that, he said, means educating
young people to challenge unjust economic systems and institutional
evil.

Ninety-two participants explored the topic "Globalization: Ethical
Implications for Methodist-related Education" at the conference, for
which the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry
provided staff and financial support.

Presidents, administrators, faculty and students struggled with the
question of how Methodist-related institutions of higher education
identify and educate leaders to meet these ethical challenges.

Walter Klaiber, a retired United Methodist bishop from Germany, called
for a new approach to Christian education that he termed "global
learning." He defined global learning as a holistic approach that
rejects the narrow intellectualism of traditional Western education,
while fostering awareness of the "connectedness" of different cultures
and communities.

"To learn to see (our neighbours) or even to learn to see the world
through their eyes would be one of the most important goals of a form of
global learning," Klaiber said.

The Rev. Jerome King Del Pino, top staff executive of the Board of
Higher Education and Ministry, said the international association is an
extension of the principle that "knowledge and vital piety belong
together," that there can be no effective commitment to care for the
world and participate in God's mission to renew the world, without
leaders who are "characterized by intellectual excellence" as well as
"holiness of heart and life."

"It is not an exaggeration to assert that if Methodist-related
educational institutions and the church that created them would be true
to their calling, they will claim the 'world as their parish' and
promote learning that removes barriers - social, political, racial,
economic - that divide and separate the human family of God," Del Pino
said after the conference.

Other speakers and participants challenged United Methodist churches and
educators to help shape the impact of globalization on the economy, the
environment, and religion and culture.

Masayuki Ida, associate dean of the Graduate School of International
Management at Aoyama Gakuin University in Japan, warned of the growing
digital divide between the rich and the poor.

The world's developing countries own just 4 percent of the world's
computers. In 2002, there were only 6.3 million Internet subscribers on
the entire African continent, compared with 34.3 million in the United
Kingdom alone.

Ida noted that globalization has brought economic and technological
advances that have provided millions of people with unprecedented
opportunities for commerce, self-improvement and social connection. But
he and others warned globalization also brings the dangers of exclusion,
injustice and marginalization.

Globalization does offer an important window of opportunity for
protecting the environment, one in which educators have a critical role,
said Peter Mullins, chief executive officer of Greenpeace Australia
Pacific.

He challenged educators to become more aware and informed about threats
to the environment and the complex solutions that are needed.

"Take a leadership role in pushing environmental awareness and thinking
into your schools," he said.

While most of the conference attendees were educators, 10 students from
the United States and Australia participated through the cooperation of
the Board of Higher Education and Ministry's Campus Ministry Section.

The students visited an aboriginal college, Tauondi College, in Port
Adelaide, South Australia.

Tahara Rahman, a 21-year-old recent graduate of Wiley College in
Marshall, Texas, said she took away from the conference the idea that
"silence is consent" when there is an injustice.

"If you sit back and don't do anything, it's just like you are
consenting," she said.

In other business, the association's board re-elected as president
Rukudzo Murapa of Zimbabwe, the vice chancellor of Africa University.
Almir de Souza Maya of Brazil, president of the Latin American
Association of Methodist Institutions of Education, was elected vice
president, and Wanda Bigham, the Board of Higher Education and
Ministry's assistant general secretary of Schools, Colleges and
Universities, will serve as secretary/treasurer.

The International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges and
Universities represents more than 700 Methodist educational institutions
around the world. It aims to develop a dynamic, worldwide network of
member institutions for preparing a new generation of Christian leaders.

In panel discussions and group sessions, participants warned that the
injustices and inequities that frequently accompany globalization may
end up leaving large sections of the world's population behind.

"How can we talk about globalization when two-thirds of the world's
population lives under the poverty line?" asked panelist Elvira Romera
of Argentina, a consultant to the minister of education in the Buenos
Aires province.

The United Methodist Church should respond to globalization by fostering
a sense of wholeness that calls for respect of all living things and
working to overcome the divisions that still plague the body of Christ,
Klaiber said.

"The church has to face this reality in all its complexity," he said.

*Pieterse is director of scholarly research, and Brown is associate
editor and writer in the Office of Interpretation of the United
Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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