Nationalism and Internationalism in Education in Europe in the 1920s through the Eyes of an American Observer

This article addresses the ways in which education systems responded to the aftermath of World War I with respect to education for nationalism and internationalism. It does so by drawing on theories of internationalism and through an analysis of the writings of Daniel Prescott, an American scholar who toured European schools in the middle of the 1920s. Influenced by his experience of frontline warfare as a volunteer driver in France in 1917, Prescott travelled in Austria, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany and Switzerland from September 1926 to June 1927 hoping to see education systems being more internationalist and less chauvinist. He interviewed prominent educationists and observed and interviewed teachers in schools, sending regular reports by letter to his sponsors and then publishing a book Education and International Relations. A Study of the Social Forces That Determine the Influence of Education, in 1930. The analysis of his account of his observations demonstrates that Prescott collected evidence of a growing internationalist approach to education particularly among elementary school teachers. The analysis also relates this to the contemporaneous concern to develop internationalism as a response to the nationalism at the heart of WWI

Applied Linguist, Ethnographer, International(ist) Citizen - Perspectives on the Language Learner

In this article, I consider three ways of envisioning the language learner, and the disciplines or theories on which they are based. The language learner as ‘applied linguist’ suggests that learners and their teachers draw on linguistic analyses of the language they are learning/teaching. To see the language learner as ‘ethnographer’ means to include the skills, knowledge and attitudes of ethnography in what is taught/learnt. The language learner as international/intercultural citizen needs to take into account insights from both citizenship education and internationalism, a counterforce to nationalism and chauvinism, which language teaching is well-placed to support. In pursuing these three possible visions of the language learner the crucial criterion is that language learning should have educational value and respond to contemporary societal conditions

The Responsibilities of Language Teachers when Teaching Intercultural Competence and Citizenship - An Essay

All teachers have responsibilities towards their learners, especially if their learners are children. They make decisions about what to teach, how to teach and what kind of person they expect their learners to become as a result. Language teachers are no exception as they decide such matters as whether learners should attempt to imitate native speakers. The decisions have become more complex as language teaching has embraced intercultural competence and citizenship education as a major focus, together with linguistic competences such as syntactic and semantic competence. Teaching intercultural competence includes encouraging learners to critique social norms and beliefs in one’s own and other societies, and this raises major moral issues for language teachers. When language teaching also contributes to education for citizenship, as is increasingly expected in curricular documents, then the moral issues become even more acute. One response is to hide behind a relativist stance but it is argued here that ‘values pluralism’ (Isaiah Berlin) offers a better position, and one which is especially appropriate to language teaching. Language teachers do not need to become moral philosophers but dealing with moral issues should be included in teacher education

Intercultural ethics: questions of methods in language and intercultural communication

This paper explores how questions of ethics and questions of method are intertwined and unavoidable in any serious study of language and intercultural communication. It argues that the focus on difference and solution orientations to intercultural conflict has been a fundamental driver for theory, data collection and methods in the field. These approaches, the paper argues, have created a considerable consciousness raising industry, with methods, trainings and ‘critical incidents’, which ultimately focus intellectual energy in areas which may be productive in terms of courses and publications but which have a problematic basis in their ethical terrain. Dieser Artikel untersucht wie ethische und methodische Fragen nicht nur ineinander greifen, sondern in keiner ernstzunehmenden Studie ueber Sprache und interkulturelle Kommunikation ausgelassen werden duerfen. Es wird hier argumentiert, dass der Schwerpunkt auf Verschiedenheit und Problemorientierung im interkulturellen Konflikt einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf theoretische Entwicklungen, Datenerhebung und Methoden in diesem Bereich hatte. Dieser Artikel legt auch dar, wie diese Ansaetze eine betraechtliche ‘Bewusstseinsbildungs – Branche' erzeugt haben, mit Methoden, Trainings, und ‘kritischen Interaktionssituationen’, welche letztendlich allen intellektuellen Arbeitseifer auf Bereiche konzentriert hat, die zwar ertragreich sind in Bezug auf Kurse und Publikationen, jedoch eine problematische Grundlage im ethischen Bereich aufweisen

Service learning and intercultural citizenship in foreign-language education

Service Learning, a pedagogy combining formal learning with community service, has recently developed into Intercultural Service Learning (ISL). Intercultural Citizenship Education (ICE) combines foreign-language education and education for (intercultural) citizenship. They have different origins and applications but recent work in ISL is linked to foreign language education, as is ICE. A comparison of the two reveals considerable similarities and the potential for mutual enrichment. The article first explains the two types of education and their origins and theory, and examples of each are then provided. Thus the ways in which they complement each other and the potential for further coherence and enrichment are demonstrated. In particular it is argued that foreign language education can gain from the experience and rigour of ISL to give new possibilities for language teachers

Teaching Intercultural Citizenship through Intercultural Service Learning in World Language Education

Globalization and internationalization have created a need for dialogue among people of different persuasions in our own societies and beyond. Language teachers can meet this challenge through the concepts of intercultural citizenship and intercultural service learning, renewing emphasis on educational and humanistic aims as well as instrumental. Students in an advanced Spanish course volunteered in a school and a legal center, interacting one-on-one with unaccompanied minors and immigrants fleeing Central America. The evaluation focused on the impact on learners’ understanding of the society in which they live, and perceptions of their own language learning during their work as active citizens. Data from students’ academic blogs and diaries were analyzed thematically. They show a heightened awareness of language competence, as students use their knowledge of Spanish in their voluntary work, and increased intercultural competence in students’ reports on their critical evaluation of perspectives and practices in their own culture and those of others

Are researchers in Europe European researchers? A study of doctoral researchers at the University of Luxembourg

How doctoral researchers (and their supervisors) experience and conceptualise the process of becoming a researcher and the identifications that are enacted during the process has hitherto been researched only in terms of disciplinary and professional identities. Yet, within Europe, the creation of a common Higher Education Area has a potential impact on the doctoral experience and there is a declared intention to encourage doctoral students to see themselves as European researchers. The University of Luxembourg has policies and characteristics which might be expected to support this direction of development, and this study analyses the nuances of doctoral researcher experiences, at this University, of European and wider international identifications comparing these with policies at European and local levels. The opportunities offered to researchers in Luxembourg to ensure the policies are implemented are considered by participants to be significant. Whether the level of expenditure needed is possible in other countries and universities is an open question but remains a crucial condition for policies to be successful