We live in a truly global age.

A SPECIAL SECTION ON INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION . . . To solve most of the major

problems facing our country

Putting the World into today — from wiping out ter-

rorism to minimizing global
environmental problems to
eliminating the scourge of

World-Class Education:
AIDS — will require every
young person to learn more
about other regions, cultures,
and languages.

Introduction — U.S. Secretary of State

Colin Powell

Ours is a world of 24-hour

Ms. Kagan and Ms. Stewart, guest editors of this news cycles, global markets,
and high-speed Internet. We
need to look no further than
special section, present a discussion of the need to our morning paper to see that
our future, and the future of
strengthen international education in American our children, is inextricably
linked to the complex chal-
schools. Noting the gap between American students’ international lenges of the global commu-
nity. And for our children to
knowledge and skills and those they will need to effectively be prepared to take their
place in that world and rise to
navigate an increasingly interconnected world, the editors sound those challenges, they must
first understand it.
a call not only to promote international education in our schools — U.S. Secretary of Education
Rod Paige
but to rethink the intent of education in the 21st century.
Our students are trapped in a
kind of educational isolation-
BY SHARON LYNN KAGAN AND VIVIEN STEWART ism, which may have suited
the Industrial Age but leaves
students desperately under-
S THE comments to the right clearly indicate, increasing global

A
prepared for the demands of
interdependence, though a dominant feature of our age, has, until the 21st-century global econ-
omy. Every student will need a
recently, been a neglected aspect of American education reform. solid grounding of knowledge
What many know intuitively — but have not dared to admit — about the history of the U.S.
is that American students’ knowledge of other countries, cultures, and our vital democratic insti-
tutions. But we must also inte-
and languages has not begun to keep pace with the escalating im- grate knowledge of world his-
portance of this knowledge to our nation’s economic prosperity tory, geography, science and
and national security. technology, world languages,
literature, and international
While shocking, this situation has some obvious explanations. In the past, for affairs into the school day.
example, complex international transactions were the domain of diplomats and — Former North Carolina Gov.
international policy and business experts. Educators were remote from the inter- James B. Hunt, Jr.
national agenda. Despite periodic calls for more internationalized content, inter-
As diverse as America has be-
national education was simply not seen as germane to the needs of most Ameri- come, it remains remarkably
cans, except in intermittent periods of national crisis. inward-looking. Without an
Today, however, globalization is driving demand for an internationally com- educational and media estab-
lishment that takes on the re-
petent work force. New security challenges require greater proficiency in world sponsibility of teaching and
languages, and the increasing diversity in our nation’s classrooms and workplaces informing and respecting the
necessitates a greater understanding of other cultures. Ensuring basic academic riches of foreign cultures, this
country could become a para-
SHARON LYNN KAGAN is Virginia & Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Pol- noid and parochial suburb of
icy, co-director of the National Center for Children and Families, and associate dean for policy, a vital global village.
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, N.Y., as well as professor adjunct at the Child — CBS News Correspondent
Study Center, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. VIVIEN STEWART is vice president for educa- Morley Safer,
tion programs, Asia Society, New York, N.Y. Co-editor, “60 Minutes”

Illustration: Susan Todd NOVEMBER 2004 195

skills for all students, the major focus of education re-
form over the past decade, is certainly fundamental,
but looking ahead in a rapidly globalizing world, we
must consider what other knowledge and skills will be
important to students’ success as workers and citizens
in the 21st century. Among these will certainly be in-
ternational knowledge and skills.
DEFINING INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
The term “international education” is used to de-
scribe a range of activities in different contexts. For ex-
ample, international education offices in institutions
of higher education deal with foreign students, stu-
dent study abroad, and international research, among
other things. In this Kappan special section, we use in-
ternational education (IE) or international studies to
refer to the intentional preparation of American stu-
dents to be contributing citizens, productive workers,
and competent leaders in the interconnected world of
the 21st century. While definitions vary in the precise
language used, IE is generally taken to include:
• knowledge of other world regions, cultures, and
global/international issues;
• skills in communicating in languages other than
English, working in global or cross-cultural environ-
ments, and using information from different sources
around the world; and
• values of respect and concern for other cultures
and peoples.
We do not see international education as an addi-
tional, separate subject, but rather as an emphasis that
is integrated into all the major curriculum areas.
ADDRESSING INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION
Through the articles we have gathered for this spe-
cial section, we bring to the attention of Kappan read-
ers critical issues in international education. We and
the other contributors will analyze why international
knowledge and skills are critical for our nation in the
current century.
In the first part of this special section, the issues are
examined from several different perspectives. First, two
former governors, James B. Hunt, Jr., of North Caro-
lina and John Engler of Michigan, discuss the connec-
tions between international education, economics, and
democracy. Then two educators, Ted Sanders and Vivi-
en Stewart, provide an overview of new developments
around the U.S., highlighting approaches to interna-
196 PHI DELTA KAPPAN
tional education that some schools and states are already
taking and exploring what state and national policies
are needed to build capacity. Finally, noted commu-
nications researcher Susan Bales examines what the
general public understands about this issue.
The second part of this special section takes stock
of how well American education is preparing students
for the global age. We present articles on a number of
different dimensions of this emerging field. With high
school reform capturing increasing attention, Anthony
Jackson outlines how a nascent network of interna-
tional studies high schools aims both to promote 21st-
century skills and to graduate more low-income stu-
dents who are ready for higher education. Myriam Met
examines the calls — coming primarily from outside
the education system — for new thinking about the
scope of foreign language education and synthesizes
the research on what would make foreign language in-
struction more effective. James Kelly argues that teach-
ing about the world must become a required element
of teacher preparation and analyzes the systemic issues
that need to be addressed. Finally, since students may
be learning more about world regions and issues out-
side the school than inside, articles by Ellen Wartella
and Gary Knell and by Linda Roberts discuss how
media and information technology can transform not
only the ways in which students learn about other cul-
tures but our very notions of the classroom.
As we grapple with ways to promote international
education, many questions remain unanswered. In the
third part of this special section, we guest editors step
back and offer our reflections on how this critically im-
portant field — one that lacks textbooks, a codified
research base, dependable funding streams, and major
professional capacity — can move forward. We sug-
gest that in order for IE to assume its justified role in
education, a rethinking of the intent of education in
the 21st century is in order. The special section con-
cludes with a guide to organizations and resources that
support international education.
Our goal in the articles that follow is to take hon-
est stock of where American schools stand with respect
to promoting international knowledge and skills and
to share some promising efforts. We make no claim to
be inclusive of all the efforts taking hold throughout
the U.S., but we do raise some critical issues for con-
sideration. We aim to provoke conversation and to
generate interest in what we regard as one of the na-
tion’s truly “high-stakes” issues, perhaps one of the most
neglected issues of our time. K