Peters, M. A. [Ed.] (2005). Education, globalization, and the state in the age of terrorism. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers.
“Education must actively reach beyond the confines of the modern state and project of nation-building to establish an orientation to the Other in cultural and political terms as a basis of new internationalism and world civic culture.” (p. 3)
The attacks of September 11th, 2001 changed the United States forever. Never before did we feel so vulnerable. As the country united against the idea of terrorism, we should have been searching for meaning in the attacks and to understand why these terrorists sought to harm our society, instead we played the victim and raced to place blame, not allowing ourselves more time to think our actions through. In this book, Michael A. Peters, Research Professor of Education at University of Glasgow, presents a series of eight chapters by different authors, each centering on a different aspect of how education is affected by war and how war is affected by education. Peters’ aim is to explain how our world changed after the 9/11 attacks, deconstructing what we can learn from the attacks, and how citizenship education, at all levels of schooling, needs to address the growing ethnocentrism of Western ideals and cultures.
Peters contends that the mentality surrounding terrorism, engineered by American political forces in the post 9/11 world as a “constant war”, has irreversibly changed lives. How education must address these changes is still under debate, yet it is clear that there is a need to steer toward a more global view of citizenship. The highlight of the book revolves around the role education plays in identity formation, citizenship development and terrorism, and how through understanding global perspectives, the education of our students could potentially serve as a key force in combating the underlying roots of global conflict, especially between the West and the Muslim world.
Peters asserts that as a society, we are not doing enough to educate our children about what he and many in postcolonial thought have referred to as the “Other,” meaning what is foreign to our society culturally and politically. In this case, the “Other” refers to what Americans struggle to understand about the Middle East and the Islamic world. Since the Muslim world is often perceived by Americans in problematic fashion, the notion of Other also signals an inherent division between cultural ideals, norms, religions and practices.
Peters singles out a point made by John Gray, author of Al Qaeda and What It Means to Be Modern (2003), which stated that the events of September 11th marked the termination of the West’s myth that there is a single path to modernity, that countries and people outside our understanding are remaining stagnant in their technologies and techniques. Peters builds on Gray’s ideas by tackling the misconception that fundamentalist-driven terror groups are medieval evils that need to be eradicated— drawing a parallel with the economic and military campaigns waged by the West for the sake of civilization and stability.
As a society, Peters notes that Americans did not concern themselves with the Middle East before 9/11 because they assumed that the people of the Middle East did not have the capabilities to do harm to our society, underestimating them because Americans did not attempt to become knowledgeable about their thoughts and abilities. In light of this, the essays in this volume draw on the expertise of scholars of various disciplines to set forth recommendations to the world’s educators, particularly from the West, so they may understand the multi-layered nature of the conflicts brought about by globalization. In considering the hypocrisy of the West in internationally preaching Enlightenment-inspired political and social ideals though fatally tripping over its own foot, Peters asks the question:
“Can the Western powers ever really divorce themselves from their national self-interest that has structured their approach to foreign policy in the Middle East since the turn of the last century?” (p. 6)
Peters sets the stage for a discussion of education in a world where forms of terrorism and resistance are reshaped parallel to changes in governing and globalization trends. Peters wishes to endorse global education, which is instruction that aims to educate students to be world citizens for an international society, rather than merely a national one. Global education advocates for social justice for all and exists without the constraints of state sovereignty. As a part of global education, issues of human rights must be addressed; but in order to do so, the hypocrisies that have been present in the past must be eliminated to convey the appropriate message to American and world youths.
Peters dives deeper into the real intention behind global education. He claims that global education is an essential framework that must be given to students to prevent future conflicts based on ignorance of the Other. In curricula centered on the principles of global education, students gain a better sense of different world viewpoints and thus, will develop a broader sense of how they and their nation play a role in a global society. This extensive understanding of oneself in relation to the larger world environment is the formation of citizenship identity. Peters advocates for educators to foster this kind of world citizenship, as its absence often is the cause of many of the conflicts that surround terrorism:
“If there is agreement among commentators, it is that new terrorism and new wars are, as Gilbert (2003, 10) puts it, ‘essentially, manifestations of the politics of identity,’ which presupposes that ‘one enters life as a person with a particular collective identity.’” (p. 19)
Since identity, as Peters believes, is the heart of conflict, it is through identity that we naturally align and divide with particular individuals and groups. In moving towards global citizenship education initiatives, we can expand our identities, aiming to encourage understanding, tolerance and respect for Otherness, which will reduce mistrust and in turn, conflict. The type of education which fosters global citizenship and interdependent identities is going to be the key to technological innovation, as it is the key to international partnerships and collaboration.
This book speaks to educators of all levels. To the politicians and policy makers, he begs for change and enforcement of a curriculum centered on the principles of global education. To educators, he expresses an even more essential request, to begin to foster an environment in which students can gain a better understanding of the cultures of the world, especially by educating them on what has constituted the category of the Other in our society.
As I was left to reflect on these themes, I concluded that the idealistic dream of a world without war may never be brought to fruition, but we, as educators, can prevent potential conflict by promoting respect and understanding of other cultures. We must teach the next generations about what we never sought to understand, so they may never have to undergo such terror and destruction in their lifetimes. In giving our students the skills to confidently differentiate between a genuine threat and fear of what is simply possessing Otherness, we will have provided them with the tools needed to create a less dysfunctional global society. Since there has been a global trend of an increased migration to urban areas, the people of the world’s cities will undoubtedly be our future leaders and therefore, the most necessary audience for a global education curriculum.
Since I have always been an advocate of providing students with a more cosmopolitan view of the world though foreign language studies, the perspectives of the book resonated profoundly. Peters’ multi-dimensional approach to address education in the age of terrorism presents a view that is often neglected in the U.S.; the influence of education on developing societal norms is strong. Peters contextualizes the role we play as educators in the time of a constant war, a time marked by a prevalence of terrorist acts. He promotes fostering an understanding in our students of the cultures that our society deems to be classified as an Other through global citizenship, allowing them to grow up not only thinking of themselves as Americans, but as citizens of the world.
References
Gilbert, P. (2003). New terror, new wars. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
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