Page 63 - EducationWorld October 2020

Special Essay

Importance of cross-

cultural education

RAVI HUTHEESINGH

FEW YEARS AGO WHILE TEACHING A two- Contemporary primary-secondary
week course at a university in Beirut, Lebanon,
I expressed a desire to visit Baalbek on the other students first need to understand and
A side of Beqaa Valley as it is reputed to have the identify with their own cultures and then
most impressive Roman ruins outside of Italy. Therefore, I
enquired from locals if they could help arrange an excursion. become curious about other cultures.
The response was almost unanimous: “Don’t go!” they Interaction can be enabled by emergent
said, explaining that the road was regularly patrolled by
Hezbollah and the ruined city was only 10 km from the ISIS new technologies
front in Syria. Nevertheless, I found a taxi driver willing to
take me there although as an American citizen, there was
the possibility that I could be held hostage for ransom. audio-video interactions. Under this programme, I have
En route, an armed soldier stopped us. After exchanging matched poor high school students in India with rich peers
a few words with my driver, he got into the front seat. in north-eastern USA, English speaking bilingual high
Seemingly oblivious of my presence, they spoke animatedly school students in Chile with Spanish speaking bilingual
in Arabic as we drove away. I wondered whether they were peers in the US. The objective of this initiative is to develop
negotiating a deal to take me hostage? Twenty minutes cross-cultural competence and understanding across
later, we stopped at a hut. The soldier got out, tapped on my geographic boundaries and socio-economic divides.
window and in a friendly voice offered me coffee. I declined, n the new Internet era, the role of the teacher has
so we moved on leaving him behind. Ichanged. She is no longer the purveyor of information
Sensing my relief, my driver said to me, “Don’t worry. He but a facilitator of experiential learning. Every classroom
is Muslim and I am Christian. But first, we are Lebanese.” worldwide can initiate video pen-pal interactions across
This simple yet profound statement of unity encapsulated national boundaries. All that’s required is a network and
so many important lessons. First, implicit bias — attitudes logistics coordinator such as Ravi Unites Schools, which
and stereotypes that impact understanding — generated can help to connect them through social media. And every
apprehension, prompting me to wonder if I was the subject teacher can facilitate and supervise cultural interactions to
of a negotiation. Secondly, I wondered why if deep-rooted make these experiences valuable.
political differences between Muslims and Christians Whole child education is important and necessary
of Lebanon could be transcended, why do antagonisms because that’s the way to arouse empathy, and nurturing
between Hindus and Muslims, Dalits and Brahmins persist empathy is the best way to create a peaceful world. The
back home? course I taught in Lebanon (as well as in Iraq and Indonesia)
As the world pivots toward a sharing economy (think was song-writing, in which I purposefully brought together
of global enterprises such as Uber and Airbnb), global students from traditionally opposed cultures and religions
peace will stop being an ideal and become a necessity. to collaborate and write music together.
We have been moving toward a decentralised sharing Millennials and Gen Z consume infinitely more music
economy ever since the Internet, Napster music service, than their predecessors, and that’s why developing interest
and p2p file sharing were invented in the 1990s. Now, as the in the arts through education is more logical and necessary
Covid-19 pandemic has forced schools to close and deliver today than ever. Humanity is at a crossroads and greater
content digitally, we are experiencing decentralisation of cooperation and empathy should be nurtured at a time when
knowledge as students are accessing multiple information children and youth are ripe for cross-cultural engagement.
and knowledge sources outside of conventional school Educators including parents need to create forums for such
environments. engagement because it’s participants who make the magic
This transition highlights the necessity of cultural in any collaborative and creative arts project.
education which can and must, be taught in schools Inter-cultural understanding and competence is critical
to prepare students for a global future. Contemporary for advancement, and for ensuring that the next generation
primary-secondary students first need to understand and transcends divisive religious, socio-economic, caste and
identify with their own cultures — which I define as one’s gender boundaries. By exposing contemporary students to
system of beliefs, behaviours and values — and then become peers from different cultures, we can inspire tomorrow’s
curious about other cultures. This can be done between leaders to empower those below to rise above them.
religiously and socio-economically diverse student groups
by using emergent new technologies. (Ravi Hutheesing is a US-based keynote speaker and the author of a
In 2018, I founded Ravi Unites Schools, a network of forthcoming book, Pivot: Empowering Students Today to Succeed in an
schools worldwide whose classrooms engage in real-time Unpredictable Tomorrow)

OCTOBER 2020 EDUCATIONWORLD 63