Global Membership First, Rather Than Global Leadership

Global Membership First, Rather Than Global Leadership

  

  The World Education Forum 2015 was held at Songdo, Incheon a few months ago.     Many world-famous figures took part and presented the Incheon declaration with a new  vision for education till 2030. Observing the Forum, I felt once again that Korea has       become  one of the global leaders in education. Currently, many schools in Korea

already have some kind of international relationship with those in other countries. Most

educational institutes have implemented programs centered around the ideas of

‘globalization’, ‘global citizenship’, and especially ‘global leadership,’ including such

vocabulary in their educational goals and curriculums. It shows how much effort we all

put in to fulfill the nationwide task of educating our students to become global leaders in

the future.

   However, I’d like to raise a question about this. I remember one of my friends from the Korean National Commission for UNESCO asking the audience in his lecture one day: 

What will happen if every student wants to be a leader, furthermore a global leader? Is it even possible? If it is possible, then is it desirable? His answer was very clear. It was

that we should be a member of the international community first before trying to become a global leader. Global membership is more important than global leadership, and global

membership programs will be more needed than global leadership programs. This is

definitely the point we need to seriously consider. The well-known goal of “thinking

globally and acting locally” can not be accomplished until we become a member of the

global village.

   In 1999, I took part in the Paris World Parliament for Children and brought two students with the help of Korean National Commission for UNESCO. At that time, I regrettably

encouraged students to try to make friends with students from advanced countries rather

than with those from internationally powerless ones. When I worked as an English

teacher, I taught students they should learn so-called standard Englishes like American or British English, neglecting world Englishes that have been used globally and with no

problems throughout the international community. Many principals and teachers, even

students and their parents, prefer white-skinned native English teachers to be assigned

to their schools. They would like to have sister school programs with schools in

advanced countries like the USA, England and other European countries rather than

Asian or African countries.

   Luckily this has been changing in recent times. More and more people believe that

international relationships with underdeveloped or undeveloped countries are as important as those with advanced ones. More and more people believe that a variety of world

Englishes should be treated as legitimately as standard Englishes. Thankfully the youth are more flexible and reasonable than the older generation in this respect. They have started

to enthusiastically take part in many international programs, obtaining desirable values as global citizens, reflectively and critically. Now it is imperative that the older generation

should help the youth learn to respect all humans; to live and prosper together with them

in this global society. We should think about how to encourage our youth to be good,

supportive members of this global community. Before we ask them to be global leaders,

we must ask them to be global citizens who try to communicate and work together with

other members without prejudice.