Teaching to discern. Hernando Arturo Estévez Cuervo
recognized a couple of decades ago: “This truly exceptional time in history calls for exceptional solutions. The world as we know it, all the relationships we took as given, are undergoing profound rethinking and reconstruction. Imagination, innovation, vision and creativity are required.” (UNESCO, 1996, p. 11).
Boutros Boutros-Ghali presented three threats of globalization in relation to education. First, the danger that nation-states will dissolve into transnational powers, with states being unable to guarantee the equality of opportunities on education. Second, that communities will fight to avoid diversity. And third, that ties of solidarity will be destroyed. In this regard, he said:
I see individuals, countries, entire regions of the planet sinking more and more into misery. I see a widening gap between info-rich and info-poor, between those who are connected and those who are not, between those who have information and knowledge and those who do not have them. (UNESCO, 2006)
In this sense, it is necessary to set up the proper structure to support social development through educational policies. This means that not only internationalization but also all the actions of strategic management of an institution need to pay special attention to the relations between stakeholders (within political, bureaucratic and symbolic interactions). These forms of interactions refer to the legal framework that affects universities, the interplay between what society demands of universities, and institutional autonomy. This promotes a permanent rethinking of what a university is and about the possibility of new environments that foster competitiveness, scientific research and technological advancement, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity to transform societies.
International Curriculum Development to Put Forth Relevant Social Teaching
One of the needs for internationalizing the university through a mobility program is to create an appropriate international curriculum. This curriculum should impact the particular curriculums in different areas of knowledge inside the university and the development of knowledge and skills of international and multicultural students. Such a curriculum advancement has social implications: It promotes a real appropriation of knowledge to solve real problems by means of academic reflections, enriched by international perspectives.
Innovations for Building Better Societies by Means of a University’s Mission Statements
Universities must develop actions that promote, facilitate and encourage the creation and implementation of socially relevant research projects. Therefore, it is necessary to produce alliances and agreements that promote knowledge transfer, infrastructure integration, cooperation and common projects with national and international researchers and institutions. This collaboration was highlighted as urgent at the Conference of UNESCO in Paris in July 2009.
This cooperation is specified within two concepts: academic collaborations and international development cooperation. Both concepts are seen as mechanisms to deal with the growing academic competitive scenario of higher education, which is determined by the liberalization of education guided from a market-based perspective.
Extension, understood as the aspect of academia that allows the interaction of the university with other sectors of society, must be intrinsically integrated with teaching and research. Also known as “public service,” it contributes to the solution of social problems and to the development of knowledge inside a community. Its purpose is to establish processes of interaction and association among various social and community stakeholders.
HEIs at the service of a global society
We are living in an era of opulence and increased wellbeing. Revenues have been rising around the world; infant and maternal mortality rates have declined significantly in the so-called developing world; life expectancy has visibly and significantly increased. Lifestyles have become more active, and the use of a variety of innovative technologies has reduced the daily chores, especially for women. The levels of education have increased dramatically, to the point that primary education coverage is almost complete. However, the advantages of this advanced world are not for everyone. Poor people in underdeveloped countries continue to suffer deprivation and experience a lack of opportunities. Education is a tool to remedy inequality through the formulation of solutions, the improvement of social inclusion and citizenship, and the professional development of people.
Social development is based on the premise that human welfare depends on the preservation of ecosystems; in that sense, development implies an awareness that the challenges of future generations depend on our current socio-economical decisions. We cannot think of social transformation without thinking about the limits of the world’s resources; social change involves considering the sustainability of our oceans, atmosphere and climate, among other resources.
Technologies Should be at the Service of Marginalized People
In our contemporary world, technologies strength social ties and connect cultures. Access to an informational network has increased as nearly half of the world population is living in urban areas and more than 60% are using mobile telephones.
Although face-to-face interactions are important in this hyper-technologized world, the internationalization of Colombian HEIs also depends on the use of available technologies. In the end, learning how to use technologies in this globalized world helps to provide solutions to social constraints: It connects the countryside with the urban, researchers with the business sector, universities with governments.
Today, the world offers wealth, technologies, knowledge, abilities and institutions that were not available for previous generations; these days, travelling around the world, and even around outer space, is possible. Yet, in visible and distinct ways, the world today is also facing huge deficits and discontents. Nearly 1.2 billion people, about a fifth of all humanity, are living below a poverty line of $1.25 per capita per day. Nearly 40% of all children under five are malnourished, and half of all children live below the poverty line. All of this includes low access to education in a large part of the global population.
While inequality in access to education is frightening, educational institutions must provide strategies for promoting access to education, and they have an important social role as mediators between society and government in order to implement those strategies through public policies. Therefore, they have an important role in enabling a real change in the conditions of those who are less favored.
Internationalization Includes Educators
In this essay, our main purpose has been to offer a perspective for social development through the internationalization of educational institutions. There is a last issue to consider: namely, the lack of experience in global connectivity of a number of educators. Although educational institutions must provide training in technologies and learning of a second language to their staff members and educators, the government, and specifically, the Ministry of Education, should invest in strategies for internationalizing educators. To strengthen international cooperation is one way to do that; such cooperation could provide researchers with the possibility of access to scholarships and funding for travelling and studying abroad.
Nowadays, faculty members should acquire the appropriate training and experience to their academic fields within an international context. It is not enough to attend international conferences. Faculty members should spend at least six months in another country to understand and acquire the skills to become effective as international educators. Faculty members with international experience provide leadership and inspire motivation throughout the institution.
Our historical moment challenges the traditional relationships between science, academia and society. The democratization and relevance of scientific knowledge are traversed by social and ecological justice, as well as by the recognition of a plurality of knowledge.
Therefore, there should be an ethical commitment of both educational institutions and governments that links global development and higher education; namely, a commitment to respect and recognize the relevance of higher education in connecting people with the world. This also implies the institutions being prone to dialogue with local knowledge, in order to exalt what they could provide in order to answer global questions; this includes listening to local solutions for global societal needs: Sometimes, the knowledge for taking action against problems experienced in communities around the globe