Philosophy of Education in the Era of Globalization Edited by Yvonne Raley and Gerhard Preyer New York London First published 2010 by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Taylor & Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereaf- ter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trade- marks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Philosophy of education in the era of globalization / edited by Yvonne Raley and Gerhard Preyer. p. cm. — (Routledge international studies in the philosophy of education) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Education—Philosophy. 2. Education and globalization. I. Raley, Yvonne. II. Preyer, Gerhard. LB14.7.P545 2009 370.1—dc22 2009009743 ISBN 0-203-87111-1 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-99606-6 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-87111-1 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-99606-8 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-87111-9 (ebk) Contents Introduction 1 PART I Education in a Globalized Society 1 How Should We Educate Students Whose Cultures Frown upon Rational Disputation? Cultural Difference and the Role of Reason in Multicultural Democratic Education 7 HARVEY SIEGEL 2 Can Liberals Take Their Own Side in an Argument? 15 ROBERT TALISSE 3 Literacy and Citizenship: Tradition, Reason, and Critique in Democratic Education 30 HANAN ALEXANDER 4 After All, How Small is the World? Global Citizenship as an Educational Ideal 51 DORET DE RUYTER 5 Education for Global Citizenship and Survival 67 RANDALL CURREN PART II New Pedagogical Approaches 6 Why They Hate Us: A Pedagogical Proposal 91 IRFAN KHAWAJA viii Contents 7 Global Aspirations for Gender Equality in Education: What Kind of Pedagogy? 110 ELAINE UNTERHALTER AND AMY NORTH 8 ‘Let Us Now Praise . ’: Rethinking Role Models and Heroes in an Egalitarian Age 129 MEIRA LEVINSON PART III Moral and Religious Education 9 Privilege, Well-being, and Participation in Higher Education 165 HARRY BRIGHOUSE AND PAULA MCAVOY 10 In Defense of Multiculturalism 181 MARK HALSTEAD 11 Children’s Autonomy and Symbolic Clothing in Schools: Help or Hindrance? 198 DIANNE GERELUK 12 Global Religious Education 212 PETER SIMPSON Contributors 227 Author Index 231 Subject Index 237 Introduction One of us recently had the following experience. She had written a short case study on the suffering of women in some parts of the Islamic world. The case study was intended as a discussion basis for the topic of gender equality in a forthcoming ethics text. During the review process, one reviewer recom- mended—with an obvious air of sarcasm—that the author turn the case into a marketing campaign for the book. The reviewer suggested that the author condemn the Prophet Mohammed so that radical Muslims could condemn us to death in turn. The ethics text would make headline news, the reviewer went on to say. The author, he thought, had a good chance of getting herself killed, but the publisher would make a nice profi t. While this may have been intended to be amusing, the aim of these com- ments was to show clearly that the issues this case study was bringing up could be considered too politically sensitive for the classroom. What is more, the reviewer’s comments prompted the editor to consider removing the case from the book. After some discussion about academic freedom and the value of a liberal education, the case stayed in the text. But a lesson was learned: Something has changed. The classroom is no longer as insulated from politics as it once was. It is no longer a place where sensitive issues can be discussed without concerns about repercussions. The makeup of the students is also different from what it has been in previous decades, and educators fi nd themselves facing an unprecedented variety of educational, ethnic, and religious backgrounds in their students. Last, today’s students are facing an entirely new set of problems compared to the world of as little as ten years ago. These changes cannot be ignored. Indeed, as educators we would not be doing well by our students if we did ignore them. Terrorism, ethnocen- trism, religious tension, competition over limited resources, and war are just a few of the issues that educators must fi nd ways to engage in with their students. But we must also consider how the issues are best addressed. After all, higher education is supposed to help students prepare for citizen- ship in this new and much more globalized world. As educators, we must ask ourselves some fundamental questions: What is an ideal global citizen, and how should global citizenry be fostered? What 2 Philosophy of Education in the Era of Globalization kind of skills and abilities are needed in democratic decision making? How do we deal with cultures in which democratic decision making and argu- mentation are not considered to be important values? How should education address the problems of cultural clashes that globalization brings with it? By and large, Western societies endorse rational discourse, as well as religious and value pluralism. Against that background, how can educators even begin to explain terrorism and religious fundamentalism to their students? And how do we instill religious tolerance in a time when fundamentalism has become inextricably tied with terrorism? To what degree should religious tolerance be promoted in the fi rst place? Furthermore, how do we promote economic growth in the face of overpopulation and its depletion of resources? How should we address the gender inequalities that still exist in the world? And last but not least: Do institutions of higher learning have an obligation to improve their students’ character, so that they might feel obligated to promote change? Should education, in other words, be value neutral or value laden? This volume of new essays in the philosophy of education tries to grap- ple with the questions just raised. The book has been divided into three parts. Part I: Education in a Globalized Society contains several introduc- tory essays that address fundamental questions. Harvey Siegel, in his essay “How Should We Educate Students Whose Cultures Frown upon Rational Disputation? Cultural Difference and the Role of Reason in Multicultural Democratic Education,” suggests that the skill of rational argumentation is crucial to full participation in democratic decision making. While some cultures may reject the democratic ideal of reasoned discourse, Siegel argues that this ideal takes precedence—at least in societies that aspire to having a democratic system in the fi rst place. Robert Talisse’s essay “Can Liberals Take their own Side in an Argu- ment?” addresses a tension within liberal democracy itself: that because of the value pluralism that liberalism is built on, it cannot fi nd a rational basis for one of the very principles that is fundamental to it, the principle of tol- eration. In this era of globalization, and the culture clashes it has brought with it, this problem has become even more pressing. As Talisse puts it, “there are no argumentative resources available to the liberal when making a principled case for core liberal values.” Talisse then tries to fi nd a way to allay these tensions, both in education and in society in general. Hanan Alexander’s essay “Literacy and Citizenship: Tradition, Reason, and Critique in Democratic Education” concerns itself with a dilemma involved in the idea of democratic literacy: Because democratic literacy entails ‘initiation’ into particular modes of expression, it can end up exclud- ing particular groups—groups that express themselves differently—from what the author calls ‘the language of political power.’ Alexander’s essay promotes one particular account of democratic literacy that he views as resolving this dilemma. Doret de Ruyter, in “After All, How Small is the World? Global Citizen- ship as an Educational Ideal,” sets out to develop and defend a particular Introduction 3 conception of global citizenship. In her view, a world citizen has the moral and political duty to respect the rights of others to live their lives as they see fi t. Second, a world citizen should be committed to promoting human fl ourishing. Randall Curren is also concerned with what kind of global citi- zenship education should foster. His essay “Education for Global Citizen- ship and Survival” starts with the important assumption that our current ways of life—especially in Western society—are actually materially unsus- tainable. Therefore, for Curren, any conception of global citizenship, and consequently the education that prepares for it, must take into account the challenges of sustainability and survivability in light of resource depletion, overpopulation, and climate change. Part II: New Pedagogical Approaches offers a variety of pedagogical suggestions that attempt to respond to the changed circumstances of the last decade. Irfan Khawaja, in his essay “Why They Hate Us: A Pedagogical Proposal,” advocates that the explanation of terrorism needs to be explic- itly taught on the undergraduate level. While Khawaja thinks that ade- quately doing so would require students to develop an understanding of the complexities of philosophical action theory, he nevertheless considers the explanation of terrorism to be something any undergraduate student must confront during his or her studies.