Critical Project 2_Marisa Totino

After reading and reflecting on issues related to the themes we discuss this week, what critical topics you think as important for the international community to know in order to facilitate change for a better world?

The material covered in week two addresses many themes that are important for consideration when attempting to facilitate change for a better world in the international community. Certainly, as educators in the United States, we have an obligation to set the pace and example to facilitate this change and two particular themes in the reading resonate with me that I believe can impact world change: migration and classroom focus.

Gollnick and Chinn explain that unlike immigration, migration takes place as a person or family moves from place to place in response to lack of jobs, subsient wages, and starvation (319). The moment of these migrant families is critical to consider as educators, as students and adult educators in these families are engaging in multiple educational experiences in rather short periods of time. Educators in these scenarios must pay particular attention to these migrant families; it is important to understand and learn about the learning/education methods of other areas/countries. Through understanding the methods of learning and educating, educators are better able to adapt to their students and prepare lessons and educational tools that can help educate and assimilate students to new educational approaches. Consider, for example Stroshcens’ discussion of adult education in Thailand in King and Wang; higher education in Thailand can be pursued whether or not students have completed secondary levels of education (17). This varies very differently from the higher education system in the United States, therefore it is important for Universities in the United States to understand the process and develop opportunities and programs that can incorporate this type of adult learning.

The educator’s point of view of classroom focus is critical to institute world change in the international community. Gollnick and Chinn discuss classroom focus and offer two outlooks on classroom focus: social reform and maintain status quo (110). As can be interpreted by their classifications, social reform is the point of view in which educators create a classroom environment in which they encourage societal and political change in students and status quo reflects the point of view in which educators teach students at their economic level so that students of higher classes are trained for high-wage jobs and lower classes prepare students for low-wage jobs. The educator perspective here is critical and educators should understand and create a classroom environment that encourages social reform; which will allow students of all economic levels to question, learn, and pursue individual and community goals.