WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:12.000 Internationalization of Education has got an amazing history. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:18.000 If you actually look back, there was movement of scholars all the way through Europe in the Middle Ages. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:24.000 The idea of knowledge being created in one place and then being transmitted through scholarly institutions 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:28.000 across a very, very wide geographical area has an incredible pedigree. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.320 We're doing it now in different ways, but the idea of this creation of knowledge and 00:00:35.318 --> 00:00:40.378 something which began with human civilization. 00:00:40.378 --> 00:00:44.938 There are changes in the international character of education and some of that change is happening 00:00:44.938 --> 00:00:47.098 quite quickly. 00:00:47.098 --> 00:00:50.178 Some of it is driven by economic factors. 00:00:50.178 --> 00:00:57.478 It is clear that the advanced state of capitalism that we're now in is invoking forms of trade, 00:00:57.478 --> 00:01:02.638 forms of communication, forms of exchange which we've not seen previously. 00:01:02.638 --> 00:01:10.638 Accompanying that economic development, migration of labour, migration of capital, ideas, markets, 00:01:10.635 --> 00:01:14.555 and shifting because of these international pressures. Those are all now features of our 00:01:14.555 --> 00:01:22.875 economy and of our society. Education is changing to meet the needs coming from that and also 00:01:22.875 --> 00:01:30.315 it's changing because we have an acute recognition of inequalities in educational opportunity 00:01:30.315 --> 00:01:37.835 and in attainment. For everybody to participate in a global economy and for the kind of things 00:01:37.835 --> 00:01:41.755 that we see as dysfunctional, conflict between people, conflict between nations, 00:01:42.435 --> 00:01:45.955 we need to ensure that education is equitable 00:01:45.953 --> 00:01:50.913 distributed. It is about life chances, it's about getting the skills embedded 00:01:50.913 --> 00:01:56.073 right the way across the world and not just concentrated in a few centers. 00:01:56.073 --> 00:02:01.853 That issue of the relationship between internationalization and globalization is 00:02:01.853 --> 00:02:07.673 playing out differently in different societies. I was in Japan recently and the 00:02:07.673 --> 00:02:11.233 government there is looking at how they can incorporate an understanding of 00:02:11.233 --> 00:02:15.753 development education in the national curriculum for all, because they see 00:02:15.753 --> 00:02:21.273 Japanese youth as being somewhat insular. Those youth are entirely adequate in 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:27.890 terms of being able to grasp key aspects of language, of foreign languages, in terms of 00:02:27.890 --> 00:02:35.110 languages other than Japanese, of numeracy, sciences and so on. But what they feel that 00:02:35.110 --> 00:02:40.430 they lack is an empathy and understanding of other cultures. So that's how it's playing 00:02:40.430 --> 00:02:47.930 out there. One thing that's absolutely critical to recognise is that in any national curriculum, 00:02:47.930 --> 00:02:51.770 Many subjects, many themes, many issues can compete for space. 00:02:51.770 --> 00:02:56.590 There's just too much to put into the curriculum for schools and for young people. 00:02:56.588 --> 00:03:03.868 So an international agenda has to compete alongside so many other things, jostling for 00:03:03.868 --> 00:03:08.488 space in terms of a domestic agenda for space international curriculum. 00:03:08.488 --> 00:03:14.648 We know in England for example that modern foreign language is not as widely studied 00:03:14.648 --> 00:03:19.768 by young people as perhaps it should be to enable their international mobility and their 00:03:19.768 --> 00:03:21.968 understanding of other cultures. 00:03:21.968 --> 00:03:26.048 It would be good for them, it would be good for the economy to have both those skills and 00:03:26.048 --> 00:03:31.908 that understanding. So you do have to produce a rationale for including a 00:03:31.905 --> 00:03:37.565 any aspects of international education into a national curriculum. It has to be 00:03:37.565 --> 00:03:42.905 legitimated, it has to be evidenced and that's why we want to run a conference. 00:03:42.905 --> 00:03:47.085 We want to see what should be included, what kind of space it should actually 00:03:47.085 --> 00:03:53.085 assume, what the purpose of it actually is. And we just recognize that there are 00:03:53.085 --> 00:03:58.005 different rationales in different settings around the world. I think it is a 00:03:58.005 --> 00:04:02.525 The key question is international education, i.e. looking at all the common elements across 00:04:02.525 --> 00:04:07.225 the globe, leading to an absolutely common curriculum for everybody. 00:04:07.223 --> 00:04:10.743 I don't see it running that way at all. 00:04:10.743 --> 00:04:16.603 We need to actually discuss the differences that are emerging in different national systems 00:04:16.603 --> 00:04:22.223 and the different pressures that are being exerted on international education. 00:04:22.223 --> 00:04:25.723 For example, if you ask a Native American what's most important to them in the curriculum, 00:04:25.723 --> 00:04:28.463 they'll say it's absolutely history. 00:04:28.463 --> 00:04:34.083 It's the history of their culture which is fundamental to them, both in terms of handing 00:04:34.083 --> 00:04:38.343 on the accumulated knowledge of previous generations and generating new knowledge. 00:04:38.343 --> 00:04:42.543 You talk to a European, many Europeans will say, oh, it's absolutely about 00:04:42.540 --> 00:04:48.380 science, it's about the STEM subjects, and they should form the central part of the curriculum. 00:04:48.380 --> 00:04:54.000 So different cultures emphasise different elements of curriculum. Now in that, is there 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.420 an ineluctable march towards the same body of knowledge? No, far from it. It's quite 00:04:58.420 --> 00:05:02.920 contested. It needs to be discussed. What do we want to achieve? It doesn't assume world 00:05:02.920 --> 00:05:07.980 government, it just assumes a dialogue about what internationalisation of education actually 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:08.480 consistent.