Diversity, Education, Globalization

Several weeks ago, I got assignments to make a mind map based on some articles and a review of an article (Critical Reading and Writing class). If a cup of mocca coffee is combination of milk, chocolate and coffee, my assignment is combination of diversity, education and globalization.

Well, firstly my lecturer gave an article Diversity in Education in an Era of Globalization (Anita Dighe). Then she asked the students to make a mind map of that article, including our position when we're reading that article, and to develop our knowledge, she asked us to look for other sources with same issue so that we can have better understanding in making a mind map, the mistake was. . . I only read ONE article, Opinion : Diversity in the Curriculum is the Next Step for Leadership in a Globally Interconnected World (Alison Akant and Sandra B. Durant), beside first article from my lecturer, but yeeaaahh that's okay, finally I finished my assignment, and here it is my mind map . . . not really good, but . . . . I was trying my best to make it ;)

P.S. sorry for my bad hand-writing, heheheee . . .

and the second assignment is making a review of the first article, well, I'm not really good in critical thinking, but yeaah I'm trying and trying, because my lecturer said that a habit of thinking, reading and writing critically is able to be build . . . and this is my review . . .

Diversity in Education in an Era of Globalization

Anita Dighe

Reviewed by Hani Sahid

Sanata Dharma University

            Dighe’s article entitled Diversity in Education in an Era of Globaization  is an article with an idea about education system which can be applied in the era of globalization. This article would be a reference to educator to develop a better education system.

            The way she introduces her claim is good, by explaining about globalization, but it is so narrow, it is better to give a brief explanation of globalization in general then she can start to claim globalization in a specific way. Then she brings India as the example of a country that gets bad impact of globalization. It is better to add more examples in the article and it is also better if she also gives an example of the education system condition of advance country, so her claims will be more supported, because in fact, globalization does not only give bad impact to develop country but also to advance country.

            The main idea of Dighe’s claim is based on Rogers (1999) that there are three main development discourses those are deficit, disadvantage and diversity. Deficit itself means people are not able and education is transformed, while disadvantage discourse means all structure in the society is caused by the privileged. The last is diversity discourse, it is valued as the best education system which is flexible, adaptable and able to be used by all people who are different from one another. Another references that she takes to support her claim is Torres’ (2000) which said that the ultimate goal of education is learning and learning has to meet the needs and interests of learner, diversity is the norm, so then there will be no single pattern for everybody but does not mean creating discrimination. Dighe’s claim about diversity discourse is great because by applying diversity discourse, it means the educator lead the learner to be an active learner, it is the same as Driyarkara’s philosophy – education is defined as an attempt to humanize a young man or a young man lifting the human level (1950, 74) or it can be simply said humanizing the human being. The claim is agreeable that in education, educator  does not only give knowledge to other but also gives the experience to the learner.

            Beside the content of the article which is good, actually the way Dighe writes this article is also good because she gives a real example and gives theories of two experts to support her claim, but this article will be difficult to understand by people that do not really good in language because she uses uncommon words, though that is what makes this article is interesting and challenging. Overall, Dighe’s claim – the best education system that may be applied is diversity discourse – is really agreeable and acceptable.