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INTERNATIONALIZING THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS' IMAGES AND

EXPERIENCES OF THE WORLD

By

Olga M. Bonfiglio

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Department of Teacher Education

1 995

ABSTRACT

INTERNATIONALIZING THE UNDERGRADUATE CURRICULUM:
A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS’ IMAGES AND
EXPERIENCES OF THE WORLD
By

Olga M. Bonfiglio

The purpose of this study was to learn about students’ attitudes and
perceptions of the world in order to inform an internationalized undergraduate
curriculum which provided them with a global perspective. A global perspective
enables students to address a global society that is complex, contradictory.
interconnected, and constantly changing. This perspective develops in students a
way of seeing that enables them to derive meaning out of ambiguity. make
connections among disparate and sometimes contradictory parts, realize the effects
of an individual’s actions on others and vice versa, communicate with diverse
peoples, and make Informed and deliberative choices about life in the loml, national.
and global societies.

The methodology of the study consisted of soliciting students’ images of the
world through their narratives of pictures of people from all parts of the world. A

literary analysis of these narratives revealed that students were concerned about

Olga M. Bonfiglio
moral and ethical issues of community, that they believed in the American dream,
and that they held ethnocentric attitudes.

This study suggests that an internationalized curriculum revolves around
students’ self-directed learning. To dothis, professors may incorporate the students’
knowledge and experiences into the curriculum. Professors may also give students
the opportunity to engage in dialogue and reflection on their experiences in
conjunction with the knowledge of the academic disciplines. Students need the time
and space to learn how to derive meaning about the world, its problems and
dynamics. One useful way to do this is through metaphors because they help to
provide a more holistic and interconnected view of the world. Finally, to provide
students with skills that will allow them to interact with people who are different from
themselves, professors may teach students intercultural communication and

negotiation.

Copyright by
OLGA M. BONFIGLIO

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Dzena Houghton, my sixth-grade teacher at Kaier School in Melvindale,
who introduced me to the world through social studies.

To Hal Boles, my living ideal of a professor, who said I could and should
obtain a doctoral degree.

To the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, which through the National Fellowship
Program literally opened the world to me and allowed me to discover the field of
international education, which set me on a course to identify. experience, and teach
the “global perspective.”

To the WMU College of Business and Peg Sanders and Roberta Allen, in
particular, who first opened the possibility to my dream of being a college professor,
and to those students who taught me how to teach.

To SIETAR, who introduced me to intercultural communication. and Diane
Zeller, in particular, who encouraged me to go to that first conference in Amsterdam.

To Sharon Feinman-Nemser, who introduced me to John Dewey and
transferred her love and excitement of him to me.

To Wanda May for introducing me to curriculum theory and research, the

means I needed to construct the global perspective.

 

 

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To Paulo Freire, who took some time to talk with me and whose example
inspires me and my subsequent work as a teacher.

To Barb Reinken, who taught me the "MSU system“ and helped me work
through it in the most efficacious way.

To Tom Carroll and Gail Campana, who gave me the time to work on this
dissertation and the opportunities to discover the wild and wonderful world of
university outreach-one of those important bridges between theory and practice.

To Joe Levine, who showed me the strategic means of pursuing the
dissertation and who recognized and patiently led me toward the connection
between teaching and learning long before I did.

To Faith Gabelnick, who helped “legitimize” my analytical method, who
recognized my talent for seeing the images, and who showed me how love for the
students is really the core of teaching.

To Sue Cooley Miller, who provided the finishing touches on this work and
who gave me the confidence to know that there is, indeed, an end to the
dissertation.

To Katie See, Michael Schechter, and Kathy Fitzpatrick of James Madison
College, who supplied me with names of students for the study and background on
the college. And to Bill Allen, whose interest and early appreciation of this work
spurred me on to complete it with knowledge of its importance to liberal education.

To the members of my dissertation committee: Eddie Moore, my spiritual

leader, who recognized the worth of this work from the very start; Jan Alleman, who

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challenged me to consider the wider audiences; Doug Campbell, ”the anthropolo-
gist," who taught me qualitative research methods, who encouraged me to
experiment with it, and who was always there to support my efforts with interest and
meticulous care; and Lynn Paine, who served as my advisor and director throughout
these last five years, who read and reread my drafts, and who opened a path to
excellence and showed me the best of what it means to be an advisor and teacher.

To the Madison students who took the time to help me with this projectnand
to those I met as I roamed the college—who inspired me in their zeal for making a
contribution to society, and who taught me the key to good teaching: listening to
students.

To Mom and Dad, who always encouraged my learning through their
example, love, and interest in my intellectual and educational pursuits.

To my nephew, Kevin, who reminded me that there is more to life than papers
and books; and to his parents, Denise and John, who gave me respite from my work
by generously and continuously opening their home and their hearts to me.

To my husband, Kurt, who challenged me to examine the assumptions, who
introduced me to the importance of the images, and whose love and patience never

failed in my attempt to do what I really wanted to do.

vii

 

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
LIST OF TABLES ............................................... xii
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................. xiii
PREFACE ...................................................... 1
INTRODUCTION ................................................ 3
Chapter
1. IN SEARCH OF AN INTERNATIONALIZED CURRICULUM ......... 10
The Problems in the lnternationalized Curriculum ................. 13
Competing Purposes and Directions in the
Intemationalized Curriculum ............................ 13
Institutional Constraints on the lnternationalized
Curriculum .......................................... 19
The Gap Between Knowledge and Understanding ............... 21
The Problem With Knowledge-Centered Curriculum ............. 26
An Alternative: The Learner-Centered Curriculum ................ 29
2. THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY ........ 32
Theoretical Framework ..................................... 32
Curriculum Orientation and Assumptions ...................... 32
Importance of Images to Learning ........................... 35
The Picture-Stimulus Instrument (PSI) ......................... 39
Selection of the Pictures ................................... 41
The Interviews ............................................ 44
Narrative Interview, the First Interview ........................ 44
Visitation Interview, the Second Interview ..................... 46
World Attitudes Survey .................................... 48
Global Problems Questionnaire ............................. 49

viii

Sample Population ......................................... 49

James Madison College ................................... 50
Michigan State University .................................. 53
Size of the Sample ....................................... 54
Criteria for Selection of the Students ......................... 55
Recruitment of the Students ................................ 56
Data Collection and Analysis ................................. 57
Data Collection .......................................... 57
Data Analysis ........................................... 59
Validity of the Study ...................................... 60
Commentary ............................................ 63
STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES OF EDUCATION, DIVERSITY.
AND INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL .............................. 65
Students’ Perceptions of the College ........................... 67
Students’ Dislike of Undergraduate Education .................. 73
Problems and Adjustments ................................. 76
Commentary ............................................ 78
Ethnic Diversity Experiences ............................ - ..... 79
Students’ Ethnic Identity and Precollegiate
Exposure to Diversity .................................... 80
Students’ Exposure to Ethnic Diversity ........................ 82
White Students’ Experiences With Diversity .................... 85
Black Students’ Experiences With Diversity .................... 85
Confronting Diversity at MSU ............................... 88
Commentary ............................................ 93
Students’ International Experiences ........................... 96
Learning About Oneself in Another Culture .................... 97
Learning About One’s Culture Through Travel .................. 98
Learning About the World’s Ways ........................... 100
Learning How America Interacts With Other Countries .......... 102
Travel Hopes and Dreams ................................ 103
Commentary ........................................... 104

IMAGES OF LIFE THROUGH MORAL AND ETHICAL BELIEFS . . . . 108

Fitting Into the System ..................................... 109
Authority .............................................. 109
Working Inside or Outside the System ....................... 114
Commentary ........................................... 121

Images of Relationship in a Community ....................... 122
Relationship Based on a Commitment to Others ............... 122
lnterconnectedness of Relationship ......................... 125

ix

Commentary ........................................... 128

The Search for the Meaning and Purpose of Life ................ 128
Achieving Purpose in Life ................................. 129
Achieving Purpose Through Self-Transformation ............... 135
Commentary ........................................... 141

Images of Family and God .................................. 142
Family ................................................ 142
Relationship With God ................................... 145
Commentary ........................................... 147

Responding to Life’s Tragedies .............................. 149
Commentary ........................................... 157

STUDENTS' IMAGES OF AMERICA AND THE THIRD WORLD . . . . 160

Images of the Third World .................................. 161
Poverty of the Third World ................................ 162
The “Noble Savage" ..................................... 166
Cultural Encounters ..................................... 174
Commentary ........................................... 177

Images and Attitudes Toward America ........................ 179
Equality ............................................... 185
Commentary ........................................... 188

Comparing the Narratives to the Surveys ...................... 190
Commentary ........................................... 193

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE INTER-

NATIONALIZED CURRICULUM ............................. 195

Summary and Conclusions of the Findings ..................... 196
Affective Quality of Education .............................. 199
Experiential Quality of Education ........................... 200
Reflective Quality of Education ............................. 201
Difficulties With Economic and Racial Diversity ................ 202

Implications for the Student-Centered Intemational-
ized Curriculum ......................................... 203
Looking at Reality in Different Ways ......................... 205
Deriving Meaning Through Metaphor ........................ 208
Deriving Meaning Through Dialogue and Reflection ............ 211
Communicating in an lnternationalized Curriculum ............. 213
Teaching in an lnternationalized Curriculum ................... 215

 

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APPENDICES

A. Students of the Study ...................................... 218
B. Participant Response Letter of Informed and Voluntary
Consent ................................................ 219
C. Biographical Data Sheet ................................... 220
D. Biographical Interview Schedule ............................. 223
E. Instructions for Narrative Interviews ........................... 224
F. Global Problems Questionnaire .............................. 225
G. World Attitudes Survey .................................... 226
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................... 236

xi

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page
1. Secondary Judges’ Selections of Pictures ...................... 43
2. Matrix of Participant Groups ................................. 54
3. Racial Make-Up of Students’ High Schools ...................... 83
4. News Interests in the Areas of the World ....................... 191

A1. Students of the Study ...................................... 218

xii

 

Fig

 

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page

1. Lewis Moran’s "Pyramid of Human Development" ............... 164

xiii

PREFACE

A young man stands on a precipice overlooking the new world before him.
Behind him is the old world which is familiar but no longer viable. However,
the new world is out there in the unknown abyss beyond the precipice. He
looks ahead at the landscape before him and tells us what he sees.

First, he sees the temple where he finds the men participating in a ”sunset
ritual." They “go into the temple to give thanks for the day and demonstrate
their gratitude that they were allowed to live like the sun, standing in an
attitude of prayer." But the men of the temple have a jumble of feelings: they
are devout, questioning, skeptical, practical, and lost.

The young man has a vision. It is something horrifying yet awesome and
intriguing. He sees the old society slowly passing away. It is being guarded
by those who look orderly and strong but who lack purpose except to keep
order among the people. They are not defending the society from outside
enemies, but from those within who are trying to change it. The society they
are defending is a passing society. It is like an old road that is maintained by
patchwork. Everyone knows it needs to be completely overhauled, but
somehow they resist doing it. Actually, not many people even use the old
road anymore.

The young man also notices that the people are hanging on to the old system
for convenience much as they hold on to old family traditions, because they
"don’t want to lose the good cooking." But the young man knows that it will
be difficult for the family to carry on the old traditions because the old people
who know them will pass away and the young will emerge before them with
new ways.

The young man wants to launch out on the new land, but he is fearful. He
worries that he might sell out to the authorities, betray his truths, or co-opt
himself. He also fears that he may allow himself to be overwhelmed by the
system and try to strike back through escapism, like a woman who avenges
her abusive husband by getting drunk at the local bar and allows the men to
“whirl her around." The young man doesn’t like this alternative because he
recognizes that escape is only a temporary solution without lasting
satisfaction or enjoyment. On the other hand, he fears he will end up as ”one

1

2

of the cogs in the diplomatic wheel of state.” He’ll just go along,

unacknowledged, while he participates in continuing the system that

obscures him. He will end up hopeless and disillusioned, like a slave to a

master that has little regard for him as a man or a human being.

This story is a composite of my interpretation of Tom’s narratives of 13
pictures, which I presented to him as part of this study on undergraduate students’
images of the world. It “re—presents" what he sees in the world and the choices that
lie before him as he readies himself to take his place in it. The composite is apropos
to most of the students involved in this study at this stage of their early adulthood.
It reflects their quest for purpose and meaning in a world they want to impact and
gives insight into the challenges they expect to meet in a world that is immersed in
change and transition. It was through such narratives that I developed a means of

listening to students and then talking critically about how an internationalized

curriculum can be responsive to them and what they face in a global society.

INTRODUCTION

I designed this study for the purpose of learning about undergraduate
students’ images and experiences of the world as a means of informing an
internationalized curriculum. I was not exactly sure what I would learn or how I
would apply my analysis to curriculum. I just knew I wanted to conduct a study that
would elicit students’ responses about themselves, their undergraduate experience,
their impressions about life and the world, and their plans for working in that world.
The data I collected Challenged many of my taken-for-granted assumptions about
students, teaching, and learning. It also stimulated my reflection about what an
internationalized undergraduate curriculum could offer students to prepare them for
professional life and work in a global society.

My inspiration forthis topic came as a result of being afforded the opportunity
to travel all over the world during the mid-19803. It was a Childhood dream fulfilled.
However, once on myjourneys, I soon realized how unprepared Iwas to understand
the world, its interactions, or the bigger picture of how I or my country had any
connection to the rest of the world beyond business, foreign relations, and tourism.
My first stop was Nicaragua during the time of the trade embargo and just after CIA
covert operations had destroyed a port city’s harbor. I saw the effects my own

government’s policies had on the people of this three-million—person nation with 60%

3

4
of them under the age of 15. A year and a half later, I experienced the trauma of an
international environmental crisis by being caught in the plume of the Chernobyl
radiation cloud. When I went to China, I discovered that I didn’t feel as comfortable
there as I had during my visits to several countries in Latin America and Europe,
where I felt I blended in well and where I even fooled myself into thinking that no one
took me for an American. These experiences were all part of a gradual
transformative process that enabled me to develop a personal understanding of the
emerging realities of a global society that was complex, contradictory,
interconnected, and ever-changing.

Here is an example of what I saw in the world. Business and government
complained that the US. was losing its competitive edge to Japan in the global
marketplace. As a response to this competition, huge multinational corporations
began to ”out-source” their labor to Third World countries or to ”downsize” their
personnel at home. This strategy subsequently left many middle-class Americans
unemployed or underemployed. Meanwhile, environmentalists warned the world
about the destruction of the ozone layer and the Brazilian rain forest as the most
dangerous problems confronting life on earth. The Cold War ended and with it
entered a time of increased confusion. Enemies became friends; friends became
enemies. Where there had been unity, there was now division; and where there had
been division, there was now unity. Small countries dared to oppose powerful
nations. Previously-communist countries wanted to institute capitalism. The United

Nations became an army of peacekeepers, and NATO became an impotent armory

5

avoiding conflict. The US. became the undisputed world power, but it refused to
send ground troops to police troubled areas. Millions of Africans starved to death
or died of AIDS. Industrial nations strategized on how they could maintain their high
standard of living. Poor and/or persecuted Third World refugees fled their
homelands and were seen as a drain on First World national treasuries, while
wealthy natives of Hong Kong were welcomed warmly into their new countries.
Thousands of acres of American farmland were “developed” into gated communities
for rising elites, and subsidies to erect basketball courtsfor the poor in the inner
cities were cut. Nearly two billion dollars worth of prisons were erected instead
(District Office of Senator Carl Levin, 1995).

The global society is a complex and dynamic network of political, economic,
social, historical, environmental, and cultural factors. It consists of people who are
different from each other in physical appearance, philosophical orientation, and
cultural practice, but yet highly dependent on one another. What happens in one
part of the world, even the most remote part, can have an effect on many other
parts. The global society is connected by media and telecommunications that
provide instant information to almost any part of the world at any time. It is not
governed by or recognized by a particular entity, nor is it controlled by a single
legitimate body, although several attempts have been made. It does not have a
single currency or a universal means for controlling finance and trade, yet It has a
distinctive and historically unprecedented global economy. It is no longer guided by

nation-states. Rather, it is currently guided by international capitalism, which is a

6

network of multinational corporations that operate without borders. It has no
effective means for settling disputes, and it has no way of dealing with the mass
migrations of people from poor countries to rich countries (Cleveland, 1993;
Goldsmith, 1993; Reich, 1992; Thurow, 1993).

These examples are but a sampling of the global realities that describe the
kind of world college students are entering in the 19903. Because of the complexity
of these global realities, sorting through them leaves most people in a wake of
information overload. Education is halted by many as the answer for preparing
students to meet these challenges. However, determining what should go into that
education remains unclear and debatable. For example, some educators are
focused on increasing the use of technology. Others want to include more study-
abroad experiences and foreign language instruction. Afew want to include a global
studies component to the curriculum, either infused into present classes or held as
a separate course requirement for all students. What is common to these ideas,
however, is that they are based on the assumption that providing more information
about the world will help the students know more about it and in turn will enable
them to deal with it. This kind of curriculum is what I refer to in this study as
”knowledge-centered." Indeed, I can not quibble over the fact that under such a
curriculum students would have access to more information than they presently do,
but it is unclear if they would see the world differently or if what they Ieam would

affect their attitudes or behavior such that they could live in this world or solve its

7

problems any better. However, I contend that this should be the purpose of
education, that it be transformative.

As a teacher, I have spent the last ten years looking for ways to help students
prepare for a global society that impinges on daily life both at home and abroad.
However, I needed first to develop a way of finding out how students saw the world
so that I had a better idea of what they were starting with. Only then did I feel
competent to suggest a way education could prepare them. So I devised a study not
focused on students’ knowledge of the world, but on their images of it. As I will
explain more fully in Chapter One, I assumed that it was the students’ images that
directed their attitudes, thinking, and behaviors. Therefore, I reasoned that ifl could
show that these images surfaced in even simple stories, then I could convince
educators of the central role that images play in students’ attitudes and learning.
Consequently, learning, not teaching, would be the basis of curriculum design.
Likewise, I suggest that the findings of this study, the theoretical framework, and
methodology (outlined in Chapter Two) open pathways for educators about how we
may think about curriculum, teaching, and learning in undergraduate education.
What I suggest are not ”the answers” to the question of how we internationalize the
curriculum. Instead I talk about how we may conceptualize education as a
transformative process leading to “self-directed learning“ as well as an adaptation
to the global society.

The 19 students who participated in this study were not typical of most college

students today. In fact, I specifically chose them because they were academically

8

above average, articulate, and already being educated in an internationalized
curriculum. I wanted to see if what they were learning had an effect on their images.
In this sense I was testing my hypothesis about images. However, what I learned
from the students was far more complex and interesting. For example, I learned that
these students had intense and highly instructive experiences outside the classroom
(Chapter Three). They had a profound moral and ethical life and reflected on it often
(Chapter Four). They were heavily influenced by American cultural values (Chapter
Five). Such data have import for the internationalized curriculum, which I discuss
in the last chapter.

As I got to know the students both through the interviews and through my
analysis of their narratives, I also found that they were affecting me deeply. About
half way through the data collection, I found myself calling them ”my students.” I
was obviously becoming attached to them. I was even catching their college spirit.
Indeed, as I wrote this dissertation, I felt Challenged to maintain a high standard of
excellence by being especially thorough in my analyses and relentlessly fair and
accurate in my portrayal of the students. In short, I fell in love with the students and
found that they were transforming me not only intellectually but spiritually as a
teacher. It was at this point that I began to realize that learning was a powerful and
affective process for both the teacher and the student. I reflect on this phenomenon
in Chapter Six.

l have been inspired by my experiences with this study. I hope that it opens

new avenues to curriculum research and expands the dialogue on teaching and

9

learning as it applies to the internationalized curriculum. I think it at least raises
questions about the importance of regarding learning as a transformative process
for both the student and the teacher, rather than as only an accumulation of

knowledge.

CHAPTER ONE

IN SEARCH OF AN INTERNATIONALIZED CURRICULUM

Preparing students for life and work in a complex global society has led higher
education over the past few years to an increased interest in and determination to
internationalize the undergraduate curriculum. Many colleges and universities have
approached this task by encouraging their students to take courses in languages,
area studies, and international relations, as well as to participate in study abroad,
student and faculty exchanges, and service programs. Faculty have revised
curricula to infuse international components into general education courses or to
design separate global courses for their curricula and to provide programmatic
options and concentrations. International education offices have seen to it that
libraries are stocked with books and resources; they have provided on-campus
lectures and seminars and hosted world-cultures events. Faculty and students learn
howto interact with individuals outside the US. through computer-based simulations
and direct communications technologies. Admissions offices have also recruited
students from all over the world to help make the campus more international.
Academic deans have invited and funded their faculty to gain expertise and

experience abroad so they might incorporate an international perspective into their

10

11
courses (Backman, 1984; Pickert 8 Turlington, 1992; Tonkin 8. Edwards, 1981).

Michigan State University, the institutional focus of this study, has been recognized
as a leader in such international education efforts for the past 30 years.

National and university-wide studies on the long- or short-term outcomes of
these efforts have shown mixed results. For example, studies concluded on study-
abroad programs have found that the overseas experience greatly increased
students’ interests in international affairs (Barrows, 1981; Carlson, 1990). On the
other hand, tests measuring students’ general knowledge of world affairs yielded
scores ranging between 50% and 65% correct. A few studies have indicated that
students’ exposure to ideas in school and at the university did not necessarily alter
their attitudes or values (Derisi, 1973; Yocum, 1988). What was most Characteristic
in these studies, however, was that they did not evaluate students’ understanding
of global affairs or of their ability to solve global problems. Instead, the studies
measured students’ memory of disciplinary knowledge or their stated attitudes
toward certain problems. And these measures were close-ended—that is,
respondents answered multiple-choice survey questions; they did not respond in
their own words.

Part of the difficulty of designing an internationalized curriculum lies in its
historical precedents. Undergraduate curricula have been generally modeled after
graduate curricula, which consist of specialized disciplinary knowledge about
particular geographical areas and/or global themes. Under this model,

undergraduate students often miss the opportunity to learn how to conceptualize or

12

connect material that cuts across disciplines or how to relate the material to their
experience such that they develop an understanding about how the world operates
(Peterson, 1990; Tonkin & Edwards, 1981). Knowledge is also segmented into
disciplines. The ineffectual nature of this approach was noted by former Secretary
of State Cyrus Vance (1980), who said that ”few foreign policy issues are easily
subsumed under a single field such as history, economics, sociology, political
science, or anthropology. More typically they combine all of them and more” (p. 5).

Some people, however, have argued that what all college students need, to
be prepared for a global society, is more language training and study-abroad
experience (Study Commission on Global Education, 1987). Many colleges and
universities have thus stepped up their requirements for students to participate in
these programs because they are deemed to provide students with more culturally
sensitive course work. The students, it is assumed, will then learn how to
communicate effectively with people from other countries. However, the focus of
these courses is on the written word in the study of grammar and literature. Spoken
language is considered secondary. Study abroad helps to augment classroom
studies by immersing students in the language and culture of a country. But
preparation and debriefing for such overseas assignments, as well as guidance from
professors and an exchange of ideas, insights, and experiences among students,
are lacking (Fugate, 1994).

In this study I focused on students’ images and experiences of the world to

find out what they understood or imagined, not what they knew about the world.

13

This is an affective component oftheir learning, which influences their notions of and
behaviors toward people from other cultures. It is the human aspect behind their
historical, political, and economic knowledge. However, before I share the
methodology and findings that led me to this conclusion, I will first review the four
constraints of the present-day internationalized curriculum that detract from a focus
on student learning, namely: (a) competing purposes and directions, (b) the
institutional constraints on an internationalized curriculum, (c) the inherent gap
between knowledge and understanding, and (d) the problem of a knowledge-

centered curriculum.

WWII“ I' l' ID'I

The internationalized curriculum in higher education took shape in the late
1950s as a response to the federal govemment’s call for specialists capable of
analyzing and directing the govemment’s policies of the Cold War (Smuckler, 1994).
Its curriculum design back then, however, still influences curriculum today.
Basically, students study the political and economic affairs of state, Ieam a foreign
language, and participate in a semester- or year-long study-abroad program.

In the last ten years, much of higher education has gotten caught up with
business and govemment’s plea to prepare students for work in the global
marketplace, as advocated by people like Labor Secretary Robert Reich (1992).

This plea resembles the 165-year-old argument between social efficiency education

14

and citizenship education found in the K-12 schools. One may argue that an
economic orientation to the internationalized curriculum is justified as far as
preparing students for the future needs of the work force. However, confining
undergraduate education exclusively to economic competition glosses over social
problems like pandemic poverty, hunger, arms proliferation, environmental
degradation, migration, overpopulation, ethnic conflict, and war, which affect life in
the US as well. Pickert and Turlington (1992) agree with this assessment:

America’s competitive economic position in the world presents real problems,

but we caution against excessive reliance on the rationale of economic

competitiveness for expanding efforts in this field. . . . However, we would like
to see more emphasis in institutional missions statements . . . which prepare
students to learn on their own and to use international knowledge for

cooperative as well as competitive venture. (pp. 104-105)

Additionally, what is missed in economic-oriented curricula are the skills of
interacting with people in the global marketplace. Evidence of this oversight was
documented by Rosalie Tung (1988), who found that highly competent American
executives’ success rate overseas was dismal because of their lack of adaptability
to people different from themselves and cultures unfamiliar to their own. Officials in
the US. State Department fared no better in this area, as Harris and Moran (1987)
illustrate the effect American arrogance has on people of other cultures. They quote
an Iranian businessman who commented on reasons the Iranian students took over
the US. embassy in 1979:

More than anything, I believe, Iranians’ public demonstrations of anger are an

expression of deep anxiety about the conflicts brought about by Westemiza-

tion. . . . Rather than being supportive and understanding of the dilemma,

almost all the foreigners I knew in Iran (chiefly Americans) were not only
ignorant of their hosts’ ways but downright insulting. I cannot count the

15

number of times I saw Americans ridicule and humiliate their Iranian co-

workers. They were “farkles,” something less than human; their ancient

customs were “hokey—pokey.” I even knew of a fellow who rode his
motorcycle through a mosque. The anti-Western sentiment that today has

Iranians in the streets hardly comes as a surprise. (pp. 35-36)

Morehead Kennedy (1986), one of the State Department officials who was taken
hostage, corroborates this view in his book The Ayatollah in the Cathedral. Finally,
Loret M. Ruppe (1984), former director of the Peace Corps for the Reagan
Administration, cites a 1977 study that reported that many volunteers believed
Americans’ greatest problem overseas was a failure to respect the value systems
of other countries.

Cognizant of Americans’ ignorance of other countries, educators in the late
1970s launched the global education movement, which sought to prepare students
for life and work in a global society. Arndt (1984) outlines the educational philosophy
behind this idea:

International education is not a field, but rather an approach to all fields. The

international approach in education must take place in every discipline. As

[global] interdependence affects and in turn is affected by every field and

discipline and indeed by some not yet invented, so the understanding of

interdependence influences all human knowledge. . . . lntemational
education, in other words, is an approach to learning that aims at two kinds
of competence: professional expertise and citizen awareness. Each must
take place both in the United States and with educated classes in other

nations. (pp. 28-29)

However, despite the evidence that American economic and political
leadership warrants changed attitudes overseas, and despite the extensive workthat

some global educators have pursued in fleshing out ways to teach global

understanding (Becker, 1979), some constituencies still fear that teaching students

16

global education will weaken America’s position in the world. They associate global
education with bending to the will of other nations because it emphasizes a
”subjective approach based on feelings and attitudes” (Fonte 8 Ryerson, 1994, p.
108). This view is represented by Fonte and Ryerson (1994), editors fora collection
of writings that asserts that global education should focus on American cultural
values and Western civilization, as well as America's role in the world. History,
geography, economics, international relations, comparative government, and foreign
languages are the disciplines of an internationalized curriculum. they say.
Curriculum should have a balance of views and not be one-sided in favor of victims
or the disenfranchised minority groups. Finally, Fullinwider (1994) in the same
publication argues against cultural relativism, which he claims is a willy-nilly
approach to values. Sewall (1994) expands on these views by arguing that curricula
that promote ”cooperation of a planetary future,” as advocated by peace and
environmental studies, are hostile to democratic capitalism, values upon which this
country was founded. Such curricula, he says, also focus on the bad things America
has done to other peoples instead of celebrating our achievements. Western
civilization ends up being downgraded and pitted against other cultures.
Nevertheless, Sewall also observes that such curricular approaches are lodged in
an ideological struggle between liberals and conservatives and that ”resolution of
such differences goes far beyond the scope of international education“ (p. 51). In

other words, such debate does not belong in education.

17

Lasch (1995) calls this refusal to discuss sectarian arguments American
education’s legacy of Horace Mann. He describes it as a sacrifice of divisiveness
in favor of unity, which has ultimately left public education "bland, innocuous, [and]
mind-numbing" (p. 10). Tonkin and Edwards (1981) also counter Roussean claims
of education by cautioning that “neither innocence nor ignorance provides protection
against [foreign] manipulation” (pp. 23-24). They stress that the realities of
international interdependence are upon us not as an idea, but as a simple fact of life.
The issue for Americans now is how we will manage this interdependence.

Perhaps the arguments about internationalized curriculum should return to a
discussion about what curriculum is supposed to do. It was Tyler (1949) who first
stated that curriculum should have purpose, provide experiences to attain these
purposes, effectively organize itself to these purposes. and evaluate to what extent
these purposes were attained. However, deciding what to include in an
internationalized curriculum is difficult when so little evaluative research is available.
For example, Barrows’s (1981) landmark study of 3,000 university students tried to
draw a correlation between students’ knowledge and beliefs about lntemational
topics. He found that:

- There was- no association between language study and the
development of knowledge and sensitivity to other cultures, although
the affective component of foreign language and history was
moderately associated.

- Students’ global knowledge was obtained most frequently from
reading international news, which they became more attuned to as a

result of a study-abroad experience.

. There was no association between course work and students’ global
knowledge.

18
- Experience abroad was related to global knowledge, but itwas unclear
whether the experience led to global knowledge or if globally
knowledgeable students engaged in experiences abroad.

Carlson’s (1990) comparison of study-abroad and stay-at-home junior-level
students, a replication of Barrows’s 1981 study, revealed that the study-abroad
students increased their foreign language proficiency, gained more global knowledge
from their nonacademic experiences abroad than their academic experiences, and
felt more satisfied with theirjunior year abroad than their stay-at-home peers. Nearly
half of the study-abroad students expected to obtain careers living and/or working
abroad.

Sincethe 1980s, research on internationalized curriculum has tended tofocus
on study-abroad programs. These programs have beensuccessful in increasing
students’ knowledge and sensitivity to world affairs (Pickert 8. Turlington, 1992).
However, the study-abroad experience presents an incomplete picture of the
effectiveness of internationalized curricula for three reasons. First, the number of
students involved in study-abroad programs is usually small (Barrows, 1981; MSU,
1984, 1990). For example, Michigan State University had 1,000 out of 40,000
students participate in study-abroad programs during the 1993-94 academic year.
Second, it is difficult to differentiate the effect of the programs on students. Students
who are successful in study-abroad programs may already have been predisposed
to learning about and working with other cultures, whereas others may have already

had experience overseas. Third, most study-abroad programs take place in Europe,

thus leaving out experience with two-thirds of the rest of the world. At Michigan

19

State in 1993-94, for example, 63% of the study-abroad programs were located in
Europe, 9.4% in Asia, 8.5% in Latin America, 6.2% in Oceania, 5.8% in North
America, 3.5% in Africa, 3.1% in Russia, and 0.5% in the Middle East (MSU Study-
Abroad Office, 1995).

Evaluations of study-abroad students’ knowledge of the world are limited and
evade answering questions about their ability to live and work in other cultures or to
deal with global problems. One major problem with such assessments is the method
of research itself. Researchers rely on quantitative methods that measure students’
acquired knowledge, which are, in fact, a test of students’ memory against an
authoritative body of knowledge. Researchers who attempt to measure students’
attitudes, like Barrows and Carlson, leave little room for participants to elaborate
their responses or for researchers to know exactly what participants meant. Another
problem isthat competing purposes and directions inthe internationalized curriculum
make its design difficult to conceptualize. Such a problem is further complicated by
the institutional constraints of curriculum change.

II'II' ID |.| II
I l I' I' I D . |

Colleges and universities have recognized the need for international
education, but curriculum is driven by concern over institutional structures and
funding support, which in turn are driven by political priorities of the federal
government (Smuckler, 1994). For example, Backman (1984) cites five obstacles

of the internationalized curriculum: (a) lack of institutional commitment from senior

20

administrators, (b) lack of faculty support, (0) lack of a statement of mission or goals,
(d) lack of financial backing, and (e) funding cutbacks that threaten institutional
change. Meanwhile, a recent article in the Chronicle for Higher Education
mentioned that universities are now responding to the govemment’s international
program-funding cutbacks by ”turning their attention from traditional areas studies
programs [Africa, Latin America, Asia] to problem-focused programs" (Heginbotham,
1994, p. A68). They are particularly focused on building more effective social,
economic, and political systems in former totalitarian states and socialist Third World
countries.

Funding changes affect institutional structures, too. For example, MSU
program directors in the long-established area studies offices (i.e., African Studies,
Latin American Studies, and so on), were worried about being left out of the
university’s effort to internationalize the entire undergraduate curriculum (Graham,
1993). Some faculty in these area studies offices had more than 20 years of
international field experience and tended to be social scientists who were
interdisciplinary in their approach and focused on the Third World. As a result,
faculty members from other disciplines who were not interested in these areas of the
world hesitated about participating in internationalizing efforts. Faculty even found
themselves at odds defining an internationalized curriculum. Finally, those in charge
of this internationalizing effort knew that implementation of any curriculum was
dependent on faculty support. These more recent problems echo Backman (1984)

and corroborate what Sm uckler and Somers (1989) observe: international education

21
programs are focused on establishing, managing, and funding programs. In other
words, student learning is not what is driving the curriculum design.

Michigan State University has made a valiant effort to try to broach these
institutional constraints by approaching individual faculty members in each discipline,
rather than by instituting an all-out mandate to internationalize the curriculum (Lim,
1994). Reform has centered on training faculty through workshops and holding
university-wide consultations on curricular and structural change with the vision that
the university could play a key role in transforming students to the ”global century“
(Graham, 1993; Lim, 1993). The university also sought to integrate knowledge and
practice, develop long-term structural strategies, create stronger incentives and
rewards for faculty and students to participate, strengthen cultural understanding,
and reorient funding practices toward a longer term endowment approach (Lim,
1993). However, even these efforts, which encouraged many faculty to participate,
were focused on faculty as the dispensers of knowledge, not on student learning.

The next section will illustrate why this focus is problematic.

Wm

Higher education curricula are designed to train students to use their rational
minds in search of knowledge and truth. The expected outcome of this training is
to produce individuals who are able to think critically and systematically, analyze and
interpret data, and make recommendations or decisions to solve problems. It is

important to recognize that this approach to knowledge is derived from scientific

22
rationalism, which had its foundation in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
Enlightenment, the Age of Science and Reason.

Some scholars regard this search for knowledge as not only overextended
for today’s complexities but responsible for producing a proliferation of data rather
than a greater understanding of phenomena. Former University of Chicago
President Robert Hutchins (cited in Smith, 1990) comments on how the social
sciences, the discipline upon which most internationalized curricula are based, have
been affected:

[Modern man] believes . . . that if we can gather enough information about the

world we can master it. Since we do not know precisely which facts will prove

to be helpful, we gather them all and hope for the best. This is what is called
the scientific spirit. . . . A large part of what we call the social sciences is large

chunks of such data, undigested, unrelated, and meaningless. (p. 251)

Derek Bok (1986), former president of Harvard University, adds that the
specialization, complexity, and increasing amounts of knowledge prevent faculty
from connecting different fields of learning in ways that will subsequently enable
undergraduate students to integrate their learning. Knowledge is less permanent,
and uncertainty about what to believe or even what is worthy to believe prevails.
Such conflicts about knowledge occupy debate about what constitutes knowledge
and in turn distract faculty from helping students develop a conceptual
understanding of phenomena.

Gardner (1991) is particularly concerned about the gap between knowledge
and understanding in his book The Unschooled Mind. He identifies this gap as

students’ inability to translate knowledge from one learned example to another when

23

they encounter it in a different form from that in which they have been formally
instructed and tested. Students resort to earlier learning methods, one of which he
calls the ”intuitive" or ”natural“ phase of understanding. This phase, which occurs
at about age five, is comprised of extremely strong and deeply ingrained
”conceptions, stereotypes, and ’scripts’ that students bring to their school learning”
without 'refashioning or eradicating them” (p. 5). Reverting to the ”natural phase”
occurs even among college students who have been ”well-trained and who exhibit
all the overt signs of success, like faithful attendance at good schools, high grades
and high test scores, accolades from their teachers” (p. 3).

Gardner says that part of the reason for this gap of understanding lies in the
organization of school bureaucracies that do not concentrate on teaching for
understanding as much as they do on turning out students ”who embody certain
attitudes and virtues" (p. 8). Under such a system, students are guided to enter a
world of ”disciplinary and epistemological constraints” that make understanding
difficult. Instead, they learn by “rote, ritualistic, or conventional performances” (p. 9).
Gardner calls this second phase of learning the “traditional student” phase. It occurs
at ages seven or eight and consists of mastery over the 'literacies, concepts, and
disciplinary forms of the school” (p. 7). Genuine understanding, however, Gardner
points out, comes through when students become ”disciplinary experts”; that is, they
are able to master the concepts and skills of a discipline and then apply them to new

and different situations from the ones they originally learned. This phase can occur

24

at any age, as Child prodigies attest, but mostly it is cultivated learning that comes
with age.

Related to the gap between knowledge and understanding are the ways
people learn. The school system assumes that ”everyone can learn the same
materials in the same way and that a uniform, universal measure suffices to test
student learning" (Gardner, 1991, p. 12). Gardner, however, champions a multiple
intelligences (Ml) theory. By representing knowledge as different forms of
intelligences,1 he contends that students can understand phenomena from “multiple
entry points" rather than only through the entry points of language and logical-
mathematical analysis under which most educational institutions traditionally
operate.

Gardner’s forerunner, John Dewey (193811963), also argues that there is a
gap between knowledge and understanding because ”experience and education
cannot be directly equated to each other" (p. 25). He is concerned about the
learner’s ”continuity of experience,” which ”arouses curiosity, strengthens initiative,
and sets up desires and purpose that are sufficiently intense to carry a person over
dead places in the future” (p. 38). In other words, for Dewey, experience makes the
connection between what is taught and what is understood. In order to achieve this

connection, however, the teacher ascertains that the learning environment is

 

1The seven intelligences include language, logical-mathematical analysis,
spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to
make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of
ourselves (p. 12).

25
conducive to providing quality experiences for the students, which includes noting
his/her attitudes, giving ”sympathetic understanding,“ and knowing the student’s
needs and capacities. The teacher then becomes a facilitator for the student’s
learning.

Dewey, like Gardner, is concerned that knowledge learned apart from the
”formation of enduring attitudes” (p. 48) may lack understanding:

What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography

and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual

loses his own soul: loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values
to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has
learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future

experiences as they occur? (p. 49)

Dewey is concerned that such learning is isolated and disconnected from the
”continuity of experience." This disconnection occurs, for example, when educators
orient themselves to preparing students forthe future. This future-oriented approach
thwarts the ”continuity of experience” because students cannot ready themselves
for the future in the present. It is a contradiction. "Education as growth or maturity
should be an ever-present process" (p. 50). By this he means that students Ieam
from their experience by paying attention to phenomena as they exist in the present.
They learn how to allow knowledge to penetrate ”from within" rather than ”from
without.” They learn how to learn from experience, which is a lifelong skill that
enables them to address new situations they will meet throughout their lives.

In looking specifically at internationalized curriculum, London (1994) mirrors

Bok’s and Hutchins’s sentiments by noting, for example, the gap between knowledge

and understanding as an overwhelming "information explosion” that does not

26

necessarily ensure wisdom. He argues that understanding people from other
cultures should begin with a knowledge of the self. In this way he advocates a return
to a ”curriculum that informs students about this culture and others, that offers the
best that is known and written, that provides students with knowledge of truly great
works, the deposited wisdom of our civilization” (p. 41).

However, London is also assuming that knowledge is the authoritative
centerpiece of curriculum handed down by experts and that a student’s job is to
digest this knowledge in order to be informed about his/her country and the world.
But It is unclear whether or not the student learns how to act in and on this world,
especially one that changes constantly and harbors diverse views of reality. The
next section will explain why a knowledge-centered approach acts as an Impediment

to student learning and what alternatives are available to enhance it instead.

II Ell lll'llli ll DI ID 'I
. Educators like London (1994) assume that knowledge is truth about reality
that has been discovered, tested, and codified. Such knowledge has usually been
formulated by starting with a theory or hypothesis and then by carefully testing its
validitythrough evidence. Evidence is obtained by meticulously dissectingthe whole
into distinct parts, measuring them, determining their cause-and-effect relationships,
and then seeing how the parts converge into a unified whole. Logic and reason are
the tools used to arrive at conclusions (Bateson, 1980). This knowledge is then

“stored“ in the authoritative texts of the academic disciplines where it can be passed

27

on to future generations. Students study these texts in order to master the discipline
and to be knowledgeable of the field.

When we consider the knowledge-centered curriculum, there is an Important
assumption about human nature that underlies its approach. Basically, this
assumption comes from John Locke’s idea that human beings are born without
knowledge and that they are a 'tabula rasa ”who only learn by acquiring knowledge
through the “sensory intelligence.” Such an assumption has significant implications
about what educators teach their students, how they relate to them, and what
happens to them in the process. For example, Dewey (1933) believes that a
Lockean approach to learning undermines the student’s individuality and creates a
distance between the teacher and student. He contends that ”the subject matter is
learned in isolation; it was put, as it were, in a water-tight compartment“ (p. 48).
Instead, Dewey deems learning to be a social process that requires a relationship
between the teacher and student in a spirit of “shared inquiry.” In this relationship
the teacher and the student engage in the learning process together, collaboratively.
The teacher does not transmit knowledge or ”hand down” a finished product.

Freire (1990) shuns Locke’s conception of learning by comparing It to
”banking”: teachers ”deposit" knowledge into students as though they were
'depositories.‘ Instead, Freire sees education as a transforming process where
students become "conscientized” to the political, social, and economic factors of
society, which allow them to respond to it as actors or ”subjects” rather than as

”objects“ who accept it and perpetuate it. According to Freire, students need to learn

28

how to “liberate” themselves from knowledge that is merely handed down to them
without question. Education in this context, he says, is a political endeavor because
it encourages students to create knowledge according to their reality. Thejob of the
teacher, then, is one not of persuasion or proselytization to a particular point of view.
Instead, the job is one of convening learners and creating an environment for them
to reflect on and be able to express their own reality.

Another problem inherent in a knowledge-centered curriculum is the
implication that knowledge consists of time-tested truths about reality. With this
assumption, teaching becomes the central activity of the educational process and
is seen as a technical endeavor bent on indoctrinating students to these truths.
Grumet (1988) sees such an approach to curriculum as responsible for the
separation between the intellectual and the emotional. She says that schools teach
students to repress this emotional side, which often results in their own alienation
from others and which creates a classroom atmosphere of students competing with
each other for the teacher’s attention. This approach establishes and maintains a
pattern of emotional dependency in students. Grumet regards teaching as an
aesthetic form that helps students achieve clarity in and expression of their ideas as
well as to gain Insight into their experience. However, to create this environment a
teacher must be able to listen to students and be attentive to them and theirfeelings,
conflicts, distractions, and shadows. A teacher who cultivates this affective quality
provides an atmosphere of com passion, attention, and connection. Noddings (1986)

agrees with the importance of the affective quality in education. In her "ethic of

29

caring," she entreats teachers to model caring behavior so that students may learn
by example how to be caring persons themselves.

Thus, teaching is not all technique and information distribution. It frequently
is a wrenching struggle to help students learn (Elbow, 1986). In a knowledge-
oriented curriculum, professors are more prone to rely on the course content
because they think their job is to teach students the knowledge of the discipline.
They forget that learning is an active process and that students need the time and
space to indulge in it. Students also need to see how the texts and theories relate
to them. By including students’ experiences in the curriculum and allowing them to
reflect on them, students can take time to discover these connections. But students
also need the affective quality in the curriculum, which has to do with the emotional
content of education: relationships, safety, encouragement, and love. Considering
these three basic components of curriculum, that it is experiential, reflective, and
affective, l have taken a position in this study that the internationalized curriculum
should be a learner-centered curriculum. Thus, I focus on students and, in
particular, their images and experience of the world. The next section outlines my
operating assumptions for this type of internationalized curriculum, as well as the

theoretical framework and methodology of the study.

In this study I have contended that current approaches to the internationalized
curriculum which emphasizes course work, language study, and study abroad in a

knowledge-oriented curriculum overlooks learning processes and qualities that

30

would help students connect knowledge to themselves, their experience, their
images, and their concerns. What I am suggesting here is a curriculum that moves
students beyond the accumulation of knowledge and instead focuses on giving them
skills, perspectives, and confidence that will enable them to address a complex,
ambiguous, unpredictable, constantly changing global society. This type of
curriculum is a learner-centered curriculum.

I make four assumptions for a learner-centered curriculum. First, I assume
that our ways of living and working in the world are changing and that our current
curricula, even those that are designed to provide students with knowledge about the
global society, are still upholding a view that knowledge somehow leads to
enlightened action. Second, I assume that people become educated so that they
may act on and in their world in more efficacious ways. Here I am adopting the
Enlightenment phi/asaphes’view that society can be constructed through thoughtful
and rational means. However, I also assume that this construction of society should
include the participation of all of its members, not just an enlightened elite. Third, I
assume that the affect between the teacher and student has a great deal to do with
students’ learning and that knowledge is best understood when students’ affective
needs are addressed. Fourth, I assume that the learning process affects the teacher
as well as the student. Therefore, I contend that curricula be designed to combine
the cognitive with the affective and give students a safe place in which to explore
knowledgeuboth disciplinary as well as personal—and that they are afforded the

opportunity to experiment with it, question it, understand it, and deveIOp their own.

31

I am advocating a curriculum of involvement and participation, experience and
reflection, that leads to a transformation that enables students to make a response
to the global society.

The next Chapter provides the theoretical framework behind my assumptions
and the methodology of the study, which allow me to suggest directions toward a
learner-centered curriculum that prepares students for life and work in a global

society.

CHAPTER TWO

THE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY

In this chapter I will explain the theoretical framework I used in this study to
develop a methodology aimed at obtaining the students’ images and experiences
of the world. The theoretical framework was learner-centered, which attempted to
address the affective, experiential, and reflective qualities of a transformative
education. This methodology was comprised of the Picture-Stimulus Instrument
(PSI), biographical interviews, and attitudinal questionnaires. I will also discuss in
more detail how and why I chose these particular students for the study and what

implications this Choice has on the directions for an internationalized curriculum.

IbeDLeticaLELamerrk
Curriculum means different things to different people because its design is
dependent on one’s assumptions about reality, knowledge, and human nature (May,
1992; McCutcheon, 1982). In this study I assume that reality is fluid and continually
evolving (Van Manen, 1982). I also assume that knowledge is constructed out of
social, political, and historical contexts from which meaning is derived and

understanding of reality is enhanced through interactions with others and events

32

33
(Barone, 1982; Berger & Luckman, 1966/1990; Schubert, 1986). Therefore,

knowledge is subjective and learned through experience (Dewey, 1938/1963;
MacDonald, 1982; Vallance, 1982; Van Manen, 1982). Because members of a
given society have diverse views of reality and knowledge, they need to figure out
ways of communicating with each other in the midst of these multiplicities (Bowers,
1984).

My conception of curriculum is different from the knowledge-oriented
curriculum that I described in Chapter One. It is one in which students seek
knowledge about society by discerning who they are, what they envision the world
to be, and how they choose to live together in a democratic society. Discernment
is critical and is characterized as a reflective and dialogical process that encourages
students to derive meaning from observation and experience rather than to adopt
truths exclusively from authoritative experts and texts. This conception of curriculum
is generally recognized as the hermeneutic or interpretivist orientation. It can teach
students skills in meaning-making, a life-long tool for understanding and shaping
their environment.

The hermeneutic orientation is particularly well-suited to a study based on
narratives because it "stresses that myths contain some underlying meaning, at least
for the people who tell the myths, and it is our job [as anthropologists] to discover
that meaning" (Bernard, 1994, p. 14). Hermeneutics had its origin in Bible study,

where it was assumed that readers could extract truth from the text through careful

34

analysis or exegesis. It eventually was adopted by anthropologists who were
interested in a Close and careful study of free-flowing native texts.

Hermeneutics is also well-suited to a learner-centered curriculum that
prepares students for a global society that is complex, interconnected, contradictory,
and constantly changing. For example, if society is seen as constructed, then it can
be seen as something that can be acted on, endorsed, and/or altered rather than
merely accepted. Such an orientation toward the world is ”liberating” because
individuals assume responsibility for their actions rather than to be objects of a
dehumanizing mass society that promotes naivety and an unquestioned conformity
to authoritarian truths (Freire, 1990). Education becomes a means that encourages
students to re-create knowledge and reality. In this effort, students learn to
transform themselves from “objects” to “su bjects” because they learn to make critical
reflections and take deliberative and responsive action for the good of the entire
society.

Education under the hermeneutic orientation has several characteristics.
First, education becomes a process of meaning-making through an inductive
construction of theory. This process includes developing a sensitivity to emerging
patterns, seeking commonalities, testing several different constructions, and attuning
oneself to one’s own experiences and contexts (Vallance, 1982). Students also
develop an ability to communicate what lies deep within them so that they learn how
to connect and cooperate with others (Schu bert, 1986). They also learn to construct

meaning by communicating and collaborating with others. Finally, students learn

35

how to operate in an ”interpretive community” by practicing it in the Classroom. The
teacher acts not as an authority figure but rather as a facilitator to the group and to
its mission (Atkins, 1986). The group meanwhile attempts to do its work by focusing
on dialogue, learning how to tolerate differences of opinion, and raising and
reflecting on questions about how to create and sustain a ”good society" (Bellah,
Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler, & Tipton, 1992).

l have found the hermeneutic approach to curriculum to provide a viable
theoretical framework leading toward a leamer—centered internationalized curriculum.
However, understanding students’ needs in such a curriculum required a research
methodology that provided me insights. I did not think I could obtain such insights
if I simply asked students survey or interview questions about their learning needs
and experiences. Instead, I sought to taptheir images of the world, which I assumed
to precede and shape their interpretations of reality and their perceptions of
knowledge and experience. I assumed, therefore, that these images were what
educators needed to consider in order to engage in transformative education. And
the presumed outcome that I suggested for such a curriculum was one in which
students learned how to define and approach the problems and demands of the
global society. In the next section, I will discuss the role of images in learning and

its function as the centerpiece of the methodology of this study.

lmportancectlmagesjfleaming
Images come from the "imaginative intelligence,” which is that part of the

person that takes in nontangible information and formulates meaningful and

36
subjective stories about reality (Taylor, 1982). "Sensory intelligence,“ on the other
hand, takes in physical information and then uses logic and reason to make sense
of the world. It is "sensory intelligence” upon which most curriculum, research, and
policymaking are oriented. Although "sensory intelligence" is an important means
to an end, I argue in this study that we cut ourselves off from intangible and affective
insights unless we employ our “imaginative intelligence” as well.

Carl Jung (1964), a scientist and psychologist who immersed himself in the
study of symbols and archetypes of the ”imaginative intelligence,“ says that

imagination and intuition are vital to our understanding [of reality and the

meaning of life]. . . . Here they play an increasingly important role, which
supplements that of the ”rational" intellect and its application to a specific

problem. (p. 82)

He says that the problem with images and symbols is that they are a "nuisance [to
the scientific mind] because they cannot be formulated in a way that is satisfactory
to intellect and logic” (p. 80). And yet such ”cultural symbols” are important to
human beings because these symbols give meaning to life, "enable [human beings]
to find a place for [themselves] in the universe,” and express the ”eternal truths“ that
”evoke a deep emotional response in some individuals" (p. 83).

Geertz (1964) agrees with Jung and adds that a sensory-oriented approach
to reality occurs because social science attempts to see phenomena as ideology and
an ordered system of cultural symbols, rather than as social and psychological
reality. Social science then assumes an evaluative stance and claims that its

methods are authentic because they are scientific. Consequently, Geertz says that

when social scientists use a sensory approach to knowledge, they are at a loss with

37
how to deal with the figurative language used by their subjects because they are
unfamiliar with how metaphor, analogy, irony, ambiguity, pun, paradox, hyperbole,
and rhythm operate to express a message. In short, they miss the whole point of the
"imaginative intelligence" which is able to help them make meaning out of
experience and observation.

Images of reality are powerful guides that supersede logic and objectivity
(Taylor, 1982). They influence a person’s behavior, attitudes, and thinking about
how the world works and how one responds to it (Boulding, 1956). Images are
pictured formulations of individuals’ beliefs about “themselves and the world around
them” (Ajzen 8 Fishbein, 1985, p. 56). Presumably, humans’ capacity to think with
images evolved from early life, where visualization was used as a means of
connecting with nature (Samuels 8 Samuels, 1975). Words and written language
have gradually separated human beings from this ”primitive“ way of thinking and
have refocused it to rational thought. The downside to this development is that
”words came to function as labels, allowing man [sic] to detach himself from his
experience and [instead] to analyze it" (pp. 11-12). Nevertheless, despite the
development of rational thought through languages, human beings are still guided
by images. Jung (1964) again explicates how images and symbols affect human
thought

Awareness of a symbol, even without interpretation, changes a person’s

universe. For the symbol always operates first on a non-verbal, non-rational

level, exciting in a common way the very physiology of the people perceiving
the symbol. Each universal symbol has a specific generalized effect on the

perceivers. It’s as if the energy in the original form is transmitted to the
maple who perceive the symbol. (p. 85)

38
The importance of images is that ”whatever the unconscious may be, it is a natural
phenomenon producing symbols that prove to be meaningful“ (Jung, 1964, p. 93).

Fisher (1988) talks about the dynamics and functions of images, or
”mindsets“ as he calls them. They provide a kind of cognitive map that allows
human beings to perceive more easily and to bring ”to each new experience or event
a pre-established frame of reference for understanding it" (p. 23). Furthermore,
through a shared "system of cognitive structure,“ cultures and societies are able to
function because certain images provide them with a "framework of mental
constructs of the external world” (p. 23).

Given that the image and its accompanying symbols play such an influential
role in behavior, attitudes, and thinking, I was interested in exploring how students’
images could be tapped in order to talk about how the educative process could be
a transformative one. In this process, what would be transformed are the students’
images of reality, which influence their knowledge and interpretations of reality.
Through this study I am attempting to address Jung’s (1964) call to delve into the
seldom-explored world ofthe ”imaginative intelligence," which he considers to be the
”essence of man":

In a period of human history when all available energy is spent in the

investigation of nature, very little attention is paid to the essence of man,

which is his psyche, although many researches are made into its conscious
function. But the really complex and unfamiliar part of the mind, from which

symbols are produced, is still virtually unexplored. (p. 93)

It is also important to note that transformative education also involves the

affective element of nurturing students’ essence or “soul,” as Plato might call it.

39

However, a teacher can only encounter the “souls“ of students by listening to them.
I attempted to do this in this study by soliciting narratives from students, interpreting
them, and then identifying and understanding the images and attitudes they
projected. What I collected was a means of developing a learner-centered
curriculum that articulates the elements of a global perspective and suggests a
process for attaining it.

The next section describes the instruments l employed to obtain these data

and make these conclusions.

II E' | -Sl' I | I llESll

The Picture-Stimulus Instrument (PSI) used in this study is based on the
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) designed by Henry A. Murray in the 1930s. It is
a projective research methodology that assumes that human beings “have a basic
psychological tendency to project their personal needs, inclinations, and themes into
their verbal responses and behavioral styles" (Pelto 8 Pelto, 1978, p. 89).
Projections may be defined as “the inclination to see in all outside reality the values
and convictions that are already a part of the personality” (Henry, 1956, p. 7).
Projections arise from the individual’s tendency to develop a consistent personality.
The price of this consistency, however, is an increasing tendency to interpret reality
in terms of what the individual expects to see. Projections come out as a result of
the individual’s inability to suppress conscious and unconscious inner feelings and
convictions. By having students tell narratives, the PSI theoretically has a way of

evoking these spontaneous inner feelings and convictions.

40

It is important to note that having students tell these narratives from a set of
pictures is not much different than having people relate information in regular social
interaction. The same process occurs: messages are formulated by interrelated
ideas to reflect patterns ordinarily used by the individual. Use of a projective method
provides a ”cryptic outline“ of “certain basic life events,“ but the individual responds
to these events in the same manner as he/she would in reality (Henry, 1956).

Narratives are also one means of tapping into students’ images of the world.
Through storytelling, one is able to convey content that has some moral meaning.
Holland (1968) talks about how literature “transforms” the storyteller’s ”primitive
wishes and fears into significance and coherence” (p. 30). In other words, by telling
the story, the act of telling transforms what has been an individual’s concern to
”something that is worth something to everybody" (p. 30). The ideas in the story are
comprised of fantasies which ”gratify wishes and impulses, experiences, or ally
experience of life and its meaning in intense, encapsulated form” (p. 30). Thus, by
providing students with a stimulus of 13 pictures, I directed their attention to their
fantasies or images about life, family, community, and work, which were the basic
themes of the pictures.

The value of my methodology was that it provided an open-ended approach
so that students could be freed from structured or data-based responses. The PSI
theoretically gave students an opportunity to go beyond what they may have
consciously known about the world and instead encouraged them to use their

imaginations and convey their images. The PSI also helped to minimize students’

41
tendency to prejudice their answers and to bypass the more constructed or guarded
responses that may come out in interviews and surveys because they had to be
focused on the task of creating narratives (Devine, 1989, Cited in Triandis, Kurowski,
Tethiel, 8 Chan, 1993). Avoiding this tendency was especially important with this
particular sample population because I was advised that the students were
especially self-conscious about ”looking liberal enough" and using politically correct

language (See, 1994).

S I I. [II E' |

The PSI was constructed from journalistic photographs, slides from the MSU
African Studies Center, and my own personal collection. My initial selection of
pictures entailed consultation with a jury of two white male social science
professionals (an anthropologistlpsychologist and a psychologist/religious studies
specialist) familiar enough with intercultural communication and the projective
technique to assist me in selecting pictures appropriate for the study. I provided
them with 50 choices, from which they selected 16 pictures according to' the
following criteria, which we developed during our work session. The criteria were
based on what we predicted would best elicit a diversity of responses from students.
These criteria include:

- The picture depicts an undefined, yet reasonably recognizable
circumstance that allows students to tell a narrative.

- The picture is dramatic and can evoke a variety of stories.

42

- The complete set of pictures includes a mix of racial and cultural
representations as well as a mix of male and female characters, age
groups, modern and traditional dress and scenes, and social classes.

- The picture contains people in action or In interaction with others.
- The picture features a main Character or group.

. The picture avoids stereotypes or overly typical scenes.

. None of the pictures contains Americans or American scenes.

. The picture evokes much conversation on the part of the judges.
. The picture seems intuitively suitable.

To reduce the instrument to ten pictures and to refine further the selection, I
invited a second group of jurists. These jurists were from the parts of the world
represented in the pictures. To help balance the two groups of judges according to
gender, I selected five females for this second group. The composition of the
second group ofjudges included:

white, male, American anthropologist

black, female, South African educator
Latino, female, Guatemalan social scientist
white, male, British/South African educator
black, Latino, female, Panamanian educator
Asian, female, Indonesian mathematician
black, female, American educator

(D‘I'IITIUOUJ>

I met each jurist separately, explained the intention of the study to them, and
asked them to select 10 pictures out of the 16. Once they had made their selections,
I asked them why they had not selected the other six pictures. I did not give them
the criteria because I wanted to learn what they did not like about the pictures; e.g.,

were there stereotypes or offensive portrayals of the people? In this way I was able

43

to ascertain from a different point of view that the pictures met the criteria. The
secondary jurists’ selections are shown in Table 1. The letters (A through G)
indicate. the judge, which correspond to the descriptions given above. The "x”
denotes their ten selections, whereas the '[x]" signifies a tie between the two

choices, which then brought the number of 11 selections.

Table 1: Secondary judges’ selections of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A B C D E F G
1 x x x x x x
2 x x x x
3 [x] x x
4 x x x x x
5 x x x 'x
6 x x x x x x x
7 x x x x
8 x x x x x x
9 x x x x x
10 x
11 x [x] x x
12 x x x x
13 x x x x
14 x x x x
15 x x [x] x x
16 x x x x x x x

44
Based on the secondary judges’ selections, there was a majority agreement
on #1, #2, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #11, #12, #14, #15, and #16. Pictures #3, #10, and
#13 received the fewest votes and were eliminated. Although I had intended to
include only 10 pictures for the PSI, I chose 13 pictures because the secondary
judges’ selections provided a more complete view of the criteria. I then had the
pictures reproduced to 8" x 10" prints, dry mounted on matte board, and covered

with acetate for presentation to the students.

IDBJDIQDLIBINS
The PSI was one part of the entire three-hour contact with the students. In
this section I describe how I administered these interviews, which were in two 90-
minute sessions and which enabled me to obtain data on both the students’ images

and experiences.

II I' II' II E'Ill'

As the session began, lwarrned upthe students by asking them to talk about
themselves. This talk was primarily biographical and based on the Biographical
Data Sheet (see Appendix C), which I had asked them to complete before our
meeting. The warm-up also included a recognition of any significant events
(personal or current news) that occurred before the students’ arrival at the interview,
in order to identify any outside occurrences that may have influenced students’

responses. I had the tape recorder on during the entire session, including this wann-

up.

45

Many students were quite elaborate in telling their personal/family history
and/or their experiences at college. I found that in following students’ lead,
especially during the Narrative Interview, l was able to create a more free-flowing
atmosphere whereby I obtained more substantial data. In some cases, students
seemed to steer the interviews toward their own agendas. Given that I was
interested in obtaining as much contextual information about the students as
possible, I considered these agendas essential evidence that I might not have
procured had I insisted on a strict questionnaire schedule. The problem with this
approach, however, was that for some students I did not finish all the questions on
the interview schedule.

Upon completion of the biographical portion of this first interview, I turned to
the PSI and asked the students to describe what was happening in the scene, what
led up to it, what would happen aflenNard, and what the characters were thinking
and feeling. I passed out one picture at a time and permitted the students to hold
it to get a closer look. For the first picture I gave them instructions for the task (see
Appendix E). After the first picture, I repeated a short version of the instructions to
let them know they were doing as I asked. Some projective-methodology
researchers recommend this repetition and reassurance as a means of ascertaining
that the participant understands and feels comfortable with the instructions (Arnold,
1962).

Students found some pictures easier to tell stories about than others. Many
were more prone to provide descriptions, and l gradually learned how to coax them

into telling a story. Overall, about a third of the students found the PSI difficult,

46

perhaps because they had no way of checking with me whether or not their story
was “right.“ I repeatedly assured them that providing me with a story was the object
of the exercise and nodded affirmatively during the first few pictures to let them know

that they had indeed produced one.

I!"II'II' IIS III'

To obtain a fuller context of the students’ lives so that I might better
understand and interpret their narratives, I held a second 90-minute interview, this
time in the students’ living quarters. In preparation for this interview, I asked
students to choose three "artifacts” they possessed that said something about
themselves and then to relate their thoughts. This was the Three Objects Exercise.
I subsequently found that what they Chose and how they talked about their "artifacts”
helped to understand their narratives, especially those narratives that were highly
symbolic.

The Visitation Interview also consisted of students’ elaboration of three
questions from the first 33 questions of the World Attitudes Survey (see Appendix
G) and a series of questions from the Global Problems Questionnaire (see Appendix
F). These instruments helped me obtain their opinions on certain world issues and
to compare them with their images from the narratives. This was particularly helpful
in analyzing the data in Chapter Five which had to do with ethnocentricity. Such a
strategy provided dramatic evidence into how knowledge and attitudes about the

world were not necessarily consistent. It also opened the question on the effect of

47

a knowledge-oriented curriculum to one that attempted to transform attitudes.1
These data were only made more significant because these students had studied
under a highly knowledge-oriented, internationalized curriculum! It suggests that
knowledge without an attention to images can be lost and that stereotypes and
ethnocentricity can prevail and/or be unaffected by the education. This is a
significant finding for transformational education!

Time became a factor in completing all the questions I planned for these
interviews, and I realized that I had to be more disciplined in their administration.
About a third of the way through the interviews,2 I found that I could gather
biographical data and focus on the narratives in the first interview and save the
World Attitudes and Global Problems questions and the Three Objects Exercise for
the second interview. However, I do not think that this revision of my protocol
contaminated the data because lfound that I could learn more about the student by
going with the flow of the interview rather than by following a strict protocol.

Thus, the Visitation Interview was more casual given its location and its task.
Afew students who were anxious at the first interview were more comfortable during
the second, probably because they were on their own turf and more acquainted with

me. This second interview also provided a means of double-checking or elaborating

 

1In a longitudinal study, I would incorporate the effects of knowledge on
subsequent action.

2I conducted the interviews as students were available.

48

on information given in the first interview to get a better sense of the students by

seeing where and how they lived.

mm

The World Attitudes Survey (see Appendix G) was based on the affective
portion of Barrows’s (1981) survey of global understanding. I chose to use the first
33 questions in this study because they could provide background data on students’
opinions of world affairs. From these 33 questions I asked students to pick three
questions to elaborate. The survey employs a 5-point and a 7-point Likert scale to
assess the students’ attitudes on various world issues.

Barrows’s survey was designed to measure global understanding by
operationalizing it to the following phenomena: Chauvinism or excessive patriotism,
popularity of participating in world government, international cooperation with regard
to immigration and direct foreign investment, human rights, interest in global
development and other cultures, and feelings of kinship with foreign peoples.

I adopted Barrows’s survey because it was designed to obtain
undergraduates’ affective attitudes on specific topics of international relations.
Employing it also simplified this portion of the study; the survey’s questions had
already been tested by other researchers, and it provided a way of allowing students
to discuss world affairs. Second, although not covered in the results of this study,
the survey provided me with a future opportunity to compare this study’s results with

Barrows’s and Carlson’s studies, both of which used the same instrument.

49
El I I E | | D l' .

In the Global Problems Questionnaire (see Appendix F), l was interested in
learning how students connected themselves to other peoples and problems in the
world through their experience and their knowledge. I was not concerned about
what they said as much as how they approached the questions, especially in
questions 10 through 14. In this way I could learn about what they considered
important from a moral and ethical point of view rather than from a policy point of
view. However, I did not incorporate this material into my analysis because it
became too cumbersome to relate it to the students’ images, whose focus I wanted

to highlight in this work.

SampleEomilatlon

The 19 students of this study came from James Madison College, a 1,000-
student residential, liberal arts college of Michigan State University. All but Six of the
students were international relations majors, and several had aspirations for
international careers. All but two of them had some overseas experience in either
a study-abroad program or through travel with their families. They were all highly
articulate and provided elaborate details in their narratives, which made this project
far more successful than I had expected.

The Students ranged in age from 19 to 23 years old. Thirteen students were
majors in International Relations (IR), four in Social Relations (SR), and two in
Political Economy (PE). Three were sophomores, seven were juniors, and nine

were seniors. Students’ grade point averages ranged between 2.7 and 3.9, with 3.3

50

as the median GPA. Three were honors students, and nine made the honor roll for
the Spring 1994 semester, the time when the data for this study were collected.
Among these students, seven expected to go to law school, five were headed for the
professoriate, and the rest were planning careers in business, education, agriculture,
and social work.

Students generally came from stable families; that is, only five students had
divorced parents and one student’s father was deceased. Their parents were well-
educated, with 16 of the fathers and 14 of the mothers having a postsecondary
degree. These students came mostly from professional- and business-class
families, with only two students coming from working-class families.

Appendix A lists the 19 students of the study, their majors, and career plans.

I provide it as a reference guide for this study.

JamesMadisonfiollege

"Madison,“ as the college is fondly called, is located in Case Hall on the west-
central side of MSU’s campus. It offers students the advantages of a small, liberal
arts college and the services, facilities, and variety of people in a Big Ten university.
The college offers four majors: International Relations (IR), Social Relations (SR),
Political Economy (PE), and Political Theory (PT), which prepare students for
professional careers in policymaking and policy analysis in business, government,
and the human services. The curriculum provides students with a grounding in
social science theory and research methods, as well as political and economic

thought.

51

The curriculum also requires students to participate in a semester-long field
experience that assists them in meeting their educational and professional goals.
Many students use this requirement as an opportunity to go overseas. Overseas
programs sponsored by the college are available in Brussels, the Caribbean, and
Cambridge, but students are permitted to participate in MSU and other university
programs. The administration is currently working to raise funds to make an
overseas experience mandatory and financially feasible for all students (Case
Statement, 1994-98).

The college regards teaching as a priority. Classes are no larger than 25
students, and classrooms are set up in seminar style to encourage discussion.
Students seem to respond well to professors. For example, the halls of the faculty
offices were usually filled with students sitting on benches waiting to see their
professors. Professors interact with students at lectures, forums, and college
events. Students imitate their professors; e.g., they talk politics in the halls, in the
dorms, at mealtimes. Although students referred to faculty members more formally
as “professor,“ they reported that professors were generally available to them and
respectful toward them.

Madison is a place that exudes hard work and success. At night, students
occupy the vacant classrooms to study together in groups. Located in the halls of
the faculty offices for all to see are bulletin boards filled with business cards of
Madison alumni. Lobby bulletin boards announce honor roll students. Pictures

placed over the entrances to the dining hall depict MSU athletic accomplishment.

52

Last spring a new support group was formed by students to provide a social and
intellectual outlet for African American students.

The college encourages students to assert their leadership and service
through extracurricular activities on campus and/or in the community (Fitzpatrick,
1994). Students volunteer their services in various academic, social, and service
organizations on campus and in the community. Part of the reason for this active
participation in the college is that students are already inclined toward leadership in
public life and community service before they come to Madison. Madison is able to
attract these students because they can continue in these activities (Fitzpatrick,
1994). Also, although these activities are not formally required by the college
curriculum, students soon understand that they are expected to participate. Every
student I talked with was involved in volunteer services in the college, the university,
and/or the community.

One of the elements I found that most characterized Madison students was
their intense appreciation for Madison. I also sensed a feeling of loyalty to the
college in their willingness to achieve not only for themselves, of course, but for the
honor of Madison. For example, students, as well as faculty, constantly talked about
what it meant to be ”Madisonian” in terms of upholding reputations as excellent and
enlightened students. I found the students were also aware of the high regard other

MSU professors had of them as well.

53
II'I' SII II' .I

Selecting students from MSU was a strategic choice because of the
international opportunities it affords students. This Big Ten university comprises
more than 40,000 students, with an international student population of nearly 2,300
students from 112 countries. International students avail American students
opportunities to encounter people from other countries through classes, residence
halls, and various student-life programs and activities. of which the university is a
strong and vigorous promoter. The university also makes a serious effort and prides
itself on providing students with international educational opportunities through
course work, interdisciplinary majors, overseas study programs, area studies and
foreign language instruction, international organizations and clubs, and numerous
lectures on international subjects.

MSU has been a national leader in international education for the past 30
years and has always taken this role seriously by creating the office of the dean of
international programs, the first such office ever established at a university in the
United States (Smuckler, 1994). The dean manages the numerous area and
thematic programs that encompass studies throughout the world. Three programs
have been designed by the US. Office of Education as National Resource Centers
for Foreign Language and lntemational Studies: the African Studies Center, the
Center for Advanced Study of International Development, and the Center for Latin
American and Caribbean Studies. Faculty from nearly every one of the 15 colleges

of the university are involved in international research.

54

Sizeettbefiample

The size of the sample was determined by four considerations. First, I
decided on a group size of 20 students because it would be manageable for me to
collect data within the students’ academic schedule and without the interference of
spring break, mid-terms, or final examinations. Second, because I wanted to
compare students by race and gender, I needed a sufficient number of students for
each cell that would enable me to make some reasonable assertions. However, I
eventually discovered that the sample size was too small to make many cogent
arguments on this point. I refer to race and gender only when a prominent pattern

has emerged. I selected students according to the matrix shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Matrix of participant groups.

=

 

African American European American

 

Female 5

5
Male 5 5 I

 

 

 

 

 

Third, I chose the African American and European American racial groups
because they represented the predominant racial composition of the college and this
area of the United States. If this study were replicated in other parts of the country,
other racial combinations might be more appropriate.

Fourth, the small size of the sample afforded me an in-depth analysis of

students and their images and experiences. The value of these data was that

55

enough patterns emerged that l was able to gain some good insights to suggest

directions for the internationalized curriculum.

C'I'ESII' [IISIII
Below are the criteria I used for selecting 193 students:

- Full-time MSU undergraduates, males and females, 18 to 25 years
old, and classified racially as African American or European American.

- Majors in International Relations, Social Relations, or Political
Economy at James Madison College.

- May or may not have spent time overseas.

- Native to the United States.

I tried to obtain a "homogeneous" sample of students who had been exposed
to internationalized curriculum in order to see whether their images were affected by
their knowledge of international issues. Specifically, I sought students with declared
majors in the International Relations (IR) program at Madison. However, because
of a lack of available IR students to fill all these cells of the gender/racial matrix, I
invited six students with declared majors in Social Relations and Political Economy
to participate. Although these students did not major in IR, they had been exposed
to an internationalized curriculum through the common first-year courses and
through the strong internationally comparative elements within their major (Allen,
1993). Some of these students had traveled overseas, so I felt comfortable that the

sample was in keeping with my original intention.

 

3I had intended for the study to consist of 20 students, but I was unable to find
one more African American male willing to participate.

56

I chose students native to the United States because I wanted to study
American cultural patterns within the narratives. I also wanted to create a
homogeneous group of American traditional-aged students so that I might compare
them with American students from other colleges as well as students from other
nations in future research.

Study abroad has been the focus of most internationalized curricula for the
past 15 years. Using study abroad as a criterion would have been another means
of ”homogenizing" the group; however, I ran into trouble finding enough students
who met this criterion. As it happened, 10 students had participated in some kind
of study-abroad program for a semester or a year in high school or college, and all
but two students had traveled in another country. Among those students who did not
have any experience abroad, I was able to learn where they would like to go abroad
and why. As it turned out, their reasons matched the stated experience of the

students who had traveled.

WM

To obtain names of potential students, I consulted James Madison College
faculty and staff. I gave them the criteria (see above) as their guide for suggesting
candidates. I also asked several student-interviewees for referrals, especially when
I needed African Americans and students with study-abroad experience.

I followed a consistent procedure for recruitment. I first contacted the student-
candidates by telephone, explaining who I was, how I had obtained their names,

what the research project was about, what they would do, how much time they

57

needed to commit, and what they would be paid for participating. Forthose students
who agreed to participate, I set up an appointment for the Narrative Interview and
then sent them a letter that reiterated our-telephone conversation, two letters of
informed and voluntary consent with a copy for me and one for the student (see
Appendix B), and the Biographical Data Sheet (Appendix C). At the end of the
Narrative Interview, I set up a second meeting and gave the students the World
Attitudes Survey (Appendix G), which I asked them to fill out and bring to this
meeting. I also asked them to choose three questions from among the first 33

questions to elaborate at our meeting.

Dataficflectionanunalvsis

Data_C_Qll.e_c1IQn

I collected the data from February through April 1994. To obtain a context for
both the university and James Madison College, during this time I read the State
News, the MSU student-operated daily newspaper. I consulted James Madison
College reports and MSU studies on international programming. I also attended a
few Social Relations and International Relations classes at Madison, as well as a
Student Senate meeting, a faculty-candidate selection meeting, a Model UN
- exercise for freshman students, a residence hall evening activity, a college forum
presentation, and a student-conducted discussion called Racism 101. I collected
and read various Madison College publications, including Admissions and fund-

raising materials and weekly newsletters. Finally, I conducted untaped Interviews

58

with three faculty members to obtain names of candidates forthe study and to clarify
information about programs the students had mentioned In their interviews.

These informal visits gave me an opportunity to experience the cultural
climate of Madison first hand. From the visits I obtained a sense of what the 19
students of the study were talking about as I observed the interactions among the
students and faculty in this environment. This information helped me greatly to
understand the curriculum from the students’ point of view, which I address in
Chapter Three.

Finally, because so many students were interested in the study, I held a
pizza-party meeting after all the interviews were completed. During the meeting I
went into more detail about the intention of the study, my process, and what I hoped
would come out of the study. I also used this occasion as an opportunity to listen to
the students’ comments about the study as a serious critique. It was, in fact, as a
result of this meeting that I decided to change my focus of the study from a
sociological analysis of students’ responses to ethnically diverse people to a literary
analysis of their narratives. I did this because of the students’ unspoken but
communicated disappointment with my focus. Judging from my reading of the State
News and the students’ reaction to my announcement, I determined that they were
quite tired of this topic. The university had promoted multiculturalism, Madison
professors had taught the ”salad bowl“ approach to diversity, and the State News
had conveyed students’ struggles and complaints about diversity and its effects on

them. Political correctness was prevalent on campus, and a few students referred

59

to It in the interviews-some with distaste, some with acquiescence, and some with
conviction. However, following the lead of the students at the pizza party, I
discovered that the students’ narratives were much deeper and more interesting
once I decided to change my focus. In fact, upon analysis of their narratives,
students avoided much discussion of the characters’ ethnicity and instead
concentrated on the plot. They only referred to ethnicity as a means of providing a
setting and appropriate plot for the story. This decision to Change the focus of the
study Is an example of how the students helped guide the study by my listening to

them.

W

l transcribed the audio tapes of the two interviews of each student. With each
narrative I performed a literary analysis of the plot, setting, characters’ interactions,
tone, negative content, and the viewpoint. I also looked at the narratives in relation
to each student’s biographical data. This gave me further insight Into the meaning
of their narratives. Finally, I examined the patterns that emerged from a picture-by-
picture composite of the narratives. Through these efforts I was able to make
meaning out of their narratives as well as to obtain a sense of what was important
to them. I also analyzed the transcriptions for clues about how students perceived
their education at Madison, what it meant to them, and how their affective needs
were addressed. Once again, these data were confined to what the 19 students said

about the college; I did not interview faculty or administrators.

60
evidence of race and gender influence. Rather, I used gender and racial differences
in Chapters Three and Six to puzzle out how they could be employed in the

internationalized curriculum.

1! I. II [II SI I

I address the validity of this study by aligning it to its purpose, the theoretical
framework, administration procedures, and analysis of the data. As Lincoln (1993)
suggests, the rigor of qualitative research may be different from that of other
research, but it is no less rigorous. The purpose of such a rigorous posture is that
the researcher tries to establish credibility for her work. I followed this advice by
taking care to conduct the interviews as consistently as possible by using a schedule
of questions, keeping to the time limits, and standardizing all procedures from
recruitment to interviewing to analysis. I also asked students to refrain from
discussing their interviews with others until I had collected all the data. During the
three-hour interviews, I audio-taped the students and later transcribed the tapes so
that I might have as accurate 3 record as possible. From these transcriptions I not
only backed up my assertions with quotations and paraphrases, but I referred to
them continually while writing this work. To triangulate the analysis, I performed a
literary analysis on each narrative, on each student’s set of narratives, and on a
composite of the students’ narratives for each picture, and drew on student Interview
data. Finally, I searched for patterns among the themes of the narratives. l

quantified data whenever possible.

61

Because I had adopted a hermeneutic orientation for this study, it was
important to understand the meaning students attached to their narratives by
creating a context (Maxwell, 1992). This context consisted of biographical
information and attitudinal surveys on each student, as well as a familiarity with the
college and university environment. I also included an explanation of my own
biases, intentions, and experiences pertinent to the subject, which are outlined in the
Preface and Chapter One. Despite this work, however, It is not possible to assess
even these contexts because "a method by itself is neither valid nor invalid; methods
can produce valid data or accounts in some Circumstances and invalid ones in
others. . . . Validity is relative in this sense because understanding is relative“
(Maxwell, 1992, p. 284). What is an important consideration for validity in a
hermeneutic study, says Maxwell, is its "interpretive validity.” Interpretive validity is
focused on the researcher’s ability to make inferences from the material and to
capture the ”participant’s perspective.” However, even these accounts are ”always
constructed by the researcher(s) on the basis of participants’ accounts and other
evidence“ (Maxwell, 1992, p. 290). This is why I provide my biases and make clear
throughout this work that my analyses of the data were my interpretations that
allowed me to make sense of what students said so that I could apply them to an
internationalized curriculum.

Validity of qualitative research usually entails a consideration of the purpose
of the research project itself (Pelto 8 Pelto, 1978; Silverrnan, 1993). My goal for this

study was to begin to build a theory or a direction for an internationalized curriculum.

62

In this way I discovered that my process of research was indeed the theory itself.
For example, only as l analyzed the data did I realize that l was moving in a
hermeneutic direction. Only as I examined what students shared did I ascertain that
their experiences played a major role in their education. Only as I interacted with
and listened to students did I gain insight into their genuine concerns about
education and the internationalized curriculum l was trying to develop. And only as
I studied their narratives did I discover that l was, in fact, applying literary analysis
to learn about their concerns about the world. This study became a means by which
I learned about the importance of images in the learning process, their relationship
to knowledge, and the viability of the hermeneutic orientation as a curriculum tool.

Traditionally, validity of a study is determined through its generalizability.
However, a qualitative study does not work with a random sample, and the goal of
qualitative research is not to ”adjudicate between participants’ competing versions"
of phenomena (Silverman, 1993, p. 158). Qualitative research employs purposive
sampling strategies, which is how I chose the 19 students of this study, who were
admittedly far from the norm of most college students in their abilities, their
knowledge, and their college program and experiences.

The goal of purposive sampling, however, Is to be ”useful in making sense of
similar persons or situations, rather than on an explicit sampling process and the
drawing of conclusions about a specified population through statistical inference“
(Yin, 1984, Cited in Maxwell, 1992, p. 293). In other words, by using a small number

of students I was able to define a global perspective and to discern ways of moving

63

students toward it. I was not looking for consensus or even trends of thought.
Instead, I was focused on listening to students for ideas, sentiments, and
considerations that would help me reflect on teaching and learning in an
internationalized curriculum at the undergraduate level. I also resisted the
temptation to seek truth or to try to evaluate the students or the college in its ability
to deliver an internationalized curriculum. The value and importance of this study
is that, through its ideas and explorations, I have been able to challenge a
programmatical approach to curriculum, formulate conclusions from students’
perspectives, and address assumptions about knowledge and its relationship to

learning.

Commentanr

As should be clear by now, I was a bit unorthodox with the methodology and
focus of this study. I employed some ethnographic methods, and yet I administered
an instrument. The interviews were only three hours long, yet I sought data about
students” inner lives. The data I was looking for were about the imagination, not a
typical subject for education-school doctoral theses. The goal of the research was
to develop a theory of curriculum, which is a common topic in educational
scholarship but not usually among dissertation students. Yet I was compelled to do
this study because of my interest in finding ways to prepare students for a global
society.

Many people approach the subject of preparing students for a global society

from the position of technological Change. But technology isjust an extension of the

64

Many people approach the subject of preparing students for a global society
from the position of technological Change. But technology Isjust an extension of the
knowledge-accumulation exercise academe has been performing since the
Enlightenment. I wanted this study to help me learn how to identify and transform
students’ outlooks on life, perspectives on reality, and relationships with others so
that they could live and work more effectively and with greater satisfaction in a
changing global society. Such a task is much more difficult, it cannot be measured,
and it defies technical formulas for solving problems. But such obstacles should not
deter educators. On the contrary, such challenges should spur us on to meet them
in our mission to understand better the processes of teaching and learning.

Actually, I see this work as a culmination of ten years of study, reflection, and
international experience. It is my first attempt to address a topic in a systematic
research format. And even though it may be a clumsy attempt, it is a significant
endeavor because through it I committed myself to exploring alternative methods
and practices of education through students’ learning needs.

The following three Chapters present interpretations of the data regarding the
students’ experiences as well as their narrative images of the pictures I showed
them. In these chapters l highlight the affective qualities involved in the educative
process, the difficulties students have in learning about the world, and some ways

their education transformed their ideas about and Interactions with the world.

CHAPTER THREE

STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES OF EDUCATION, DIVERSITY, AND

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

The methodology I employed in this study was a contrived yet an evolving
one that attempted to dip below the surface of students’ ”sensory intelligence" to that
of their ”imaginative intelligence.” This approach, coupled with my inquiries into their
biographies, experiences with undergraduate education, ethnic diversity, and
overseas travel, enabled me to obtain a broader view of the affective qualities of
education that appeared to complement and enhance their academic program. This
education was not only about learning the disciplines in the academic curriculum.
It was about the learning that students acquired through the social and reflective
curricula.

Through the social curriculum, students learn the conventions of the
professional class. They learn how to act. talk, dress, think, and interact with others.
These skills are implicitly and explicitly communicated through the college ”culture”
and reward system. They are modeled by faculty and staff of the college. For
example, Madison emphasizes a commitment to public life. It accomplishes this

goal through the academic curriculum by teaching students the Federalist Papers,

65

66

political history and thought. But it also accomplishes this goal through the social
curriculum by selecting students who have been involved in high school activities
and community service, and by encouraging them to continue such activities during
their college years (Fitzpatrick, 1994). The fact that the college has been named
after one of America’s founding fathers who promoted citizen responsibility is also
a purposeful Choice of the social curriculum because it provides students with a
model of citizenship. Because Madison is a residential college with classrooms,
dorm rooms, cafeteria, and activity rooms all under one roof, students get the
message that they are in a special program within a huge, 40,000-student campus.
These expectations and amenities help shape the social curriculum that, in turn,
helps to shape the students. I found Madison students tended to be serious,
intense, responsible, and socially aware. They also felt privileged and set apart as
Madison students. I also discovered this trait in two alumni I subsequently met.
The reflective curriculum embodies academia’s ideal of the quest for
knowledge and learning. This quest takes on the aura of a quiet, monastic life where
scholastics of medieval days engaged in reading, writing, and reflection over ideas.
Even though the active and busy MSU campus hardly embodies this ideal anymore,
traces of it still exist. I found that some Madison students do indeed engage in the
reflective curriculum by writing journals, playing music, taking private time for
thinking, and engaging in informal conversations with other students, friends, family,
and, of course, faculty members. I became especially aware of the reflective

curriculum when the students told me about their international travel experiences.

67

In this chapter I identify and discuss the social and reflective curricula in order
to provide a more comprehensive picture of Madison and to emphasize the
importance of these curricula as they are distinguished from the academic
curriculum. The academic curriculum focuses on disciplinary knowledge and is
obviously central to students’ purpose in pursuing a college education. However, as
I point out in this chapter, the students also learned from the more inconspicuous
social and reflective curricula, which will become important components of the

internationalized curriculum.

mm

The college years are a significant time for 18 to 22 year olds. It is a time of
experimentation, maturation, and confidence building. Students are making serious
decisions about their lives, and they are doing it through exposure to different ideas,
a variety of people, and demanding situations. In this Chapter I will relate what the
students told me about some of the educational experiences they had as
undergraduates at Madison and MSU. Ifocus in particular on their stories about
interpersonal relationships both on campus and overseas because these have a
profound influence on students and their learning. These experiences are part of the
social and reflective curricula which seem to enhance learning in the academic
curriculum.

The students were quite clear about their initial attraction to Madison: they
were looking for a college with small classes, access to faculty, and interaction with

other students. The Idea of a residential college in a large university setting was

68

especially appealing. But they applied to Madison for many reasons. Nine said they
were interested in the training they would receive, three wanted a liberal arts
education, three were looking for a way into law school, and three were interested
in international relations. Once at Madison, students generally enjoyed it, and none
of them had serious complaints about the school as a whole. What was especially
interesting was that elem student expressed gratitude for being at Madison, despite
the fact that the work was demanding. They thought that their educational
background was comparable to an Ivy League school and would make them
competitive candidates for graduate and professional schools. For example, in a
college report on 409 graduates covering the years 1992 to 1994, students said they

made the following plans (Allen, 1994):

Law school 28.6%
Graduate school 21.2%
Employment 22.0%
Undecided 16.6%
Seeking employment 7.5%
Traveling 3.6%

Thus, students may have thought that the stress of getting through Madison was
worth it because they knew that those before them had succeeded and that they,
too, were obtaining an excellent academic education whose rewards would

eventually lead them to occupational success.

69

Despite the students’ talk about the expected outcomes of their education,
they described their experience of Madison mostly In terms of hmthey were taught
rather than what they were taught. The students readily regarded their professors
as key to their learning experience at Madison because they offered students the
skills that would help them to succeed. These skills tended to emphasize processes
that cultivated lifelong learning tools. For example, students said that professors
taught them to be accurate, precise, and objective in their observations, speech, and
writing. Students also thought that they were being trained to think and to learn how
to ”make things happen.“ One way this occurred was through a sensitivity to
language. Sandra said that students were taught to ”unpack“ and ”deconstruct“
words in order to identify the assumptions and diminish ambiguity. Doris said that
she learned the value of language and how good speaking skills convey an image
of power. Jack commented on professors’ openness and encouragement, which led
students to participate: “They don’t teach you to think, rather, they let you think.”
Steve mentioned that professors help build students’ confidence when they
“consider [students’] ideas worth something." Finally, Greg said that the general
message Madison sent its students was that ”we’re going to Challenge you with
different thoughts, and you’re going to have to form your own opinions and figure out
what’s right for yourself.“

Students said that professors also served as vital resources for them. Not
only were they experts in their academic field, but they had experience in the wider

international and public affairs arena like the State Department, United Nations, and

70

NATO. Students said that professors’ contacts also brought a certain realism and
credibility to the classroom. Their contacts had also proven helpful to students
seeking field experiences and employment.

Students reported that professors taught in the seminar style, and the rooms
were arranged in U-shapes to facilitate class discussion. Students liked the seminar
format of class rather than the lecture method, even though they said some
professors were more skilled than others in conducting discussions. The seminar
format encouraged them to listen and respond to each other’s comments in class
and not just to talk to the professor. By sharing ideas with other Students, they
Ieamed how to build on each other’s ideas as a group.

Students said that Madison ”training“ actually began in ”Policy,” the year-long
class that every freshman was required to take. ”Policy" was described as the
induction or the "rite of passage" into Madisonian culture where students came to
understand what the college expected of them. For example, among other things,
students studied the Federalist Papers, the foundation of American democracy and
citizenship and the cornerstone of the Madison curriculum. They also learned about
social policy issues from historical, legal, economic, and political perspectives.

Martha called Policy "the weeder course" that everybody will talk about "till
the day they die.” She said that students will claim it was the hardest class they ever
took even if it was not. Jack, a sophomore, was philosophical about Policy and the
first year in general. ”If you make it past the first year, you’re pretty much going to

be set for the pace. And the pace is Intense." He also said that professors

71

encouraged students to try things out without worrying about whether what they said
was right or wrong. This encouragement helped students gain confidence in taking
risks and making decisions, essential skills for people who expected to- obtain
managerial and leadership positions. Randy said that students were trained to get
used to asking and trying to answer the tough questions. ”The more you know, the
tougher your questions will get,“ he said.

Students perceived they were also learning time-management skills, another
essential component of leadership development. BecauSe most Madison students
were overachievers, very busy people, and constantly ”heading things,“ Mary
pointed out that these skills came in handy. Finally, students were exposed to a staff
of professors from different countries, languages, and ideologies. In fact, according
to a. recent self-study at the college, Madison had one of the highest ratios of
international and minority faculty at MSU (Allen, 1994). Mary said that the
advantage of this kind of staffing was that students had the opportunity to challenge
their own stereotypes and biases and to practice working in a multicultural and
international environment.

Students experienced a sense of community as "Madisonians" that persisted
well after graduation. For example, students talked about feeling a commonality as
a result of having gone through a rigorous program. Martha spoke specifically about
this commonality through the example of the college’s twenty-fifth anniversary
celebration. She' reported that some alumni had actually brought copies of their

Federalist Papers with them from the time they had Policy class as freshmen. She

72

also noticed that people, both present students and alumni, wanted to be there to
celebrate their common Madison heritage, which they wore with pride. Doris went
on to explain how this common heritage and strong and lasting feeling of community
manifested itself.

Everything I’ve gotten from that school is support. Even when I get ready to

leave, I can imagine coming back and talking to people. It’s not like I’m going

to sever these ties and leave because I never got anything from them. ltjust
isn’t true. If I ran Into Madison grads anywhere else, we’d become buddies
in a minute. I have a list of Madison grads in the DC area that I can contact
this summer in case I need anything or whatever. I don’t have a doubt in my
mind that they would help me. I suppose it’s the alma mater syndrome, but

I feel that most of us have a good feeling coming out of it. And that’s a

different feeling with some other schools where students just want to get out.

(Doris)

Students generally appreciated their Madison education. In fact, this was the
only higher education institution I had ever visited in which all the students had such
overwhelmingly good things to say about their college. Actually, I found students
quite protective of Madison. When they talked about the college, they sometimes
were careful about what they said and seemed concerned about what I might record
or interpret. For example, after a couple of students mentioned they did not like
some Madison classes, they quickly placed the blame on themselves. Mark found
the subject matter in Policy unenjoyable, but he also admitted that he was not
focused on school at that time. Denise said that writing Class was especially difficult
for her, probably because she had not been adequately prepared for it in high

school. Jane had trouble with her Policy class, but she claimed that sorority rushing

that year had interfered with her time and concentration on that class.

73

l was able to get a sense of how students regarded undergraduate curricula
by asking them what classes they disliked. Most of their criticism was leveled at
non-Madison courses, and, once again, students stressed the affective elements of
education. For example, students resented large 500-person lecture halls. Fran
found that such a format reduced her accountability to the professor and affected her
performance. “In small classes at Madison, everyone knows when you have not
read your assignment, but in a large lecture no one knows and no one cares.“

At least half of the students disliked the required Classes in micro, macro, and
international economics because they were too theoretical and abstract, ortheyjust
did not like numbers and "all those curves“ (Ellen). Sandra cited her dislike for
classes that made students do “infantile projects” like “scratching rocks” to test for
hardness in Geology 200.

A few students talked about professors who treated students unfairIy. For
example, Steve had a math class where the professor taught undergraduates as
graduate students. The tests comprised questions that counted for too many points
and made passing them difficult. As a result, half the class dropped out. Steve
resented having to take IAH 201, which had an attendance requirement and
consisted of watching videos on closed-Circuit television. Martha, who is Jewish,
talked about one philosophy class where the T.A.’s biases implied that students had
to believe in Jesus as their personal savior. She also cited examples she had heard

from other students in which professors openly discouraged Madison students from

74

entering class discussions because the professors were afraid the students would
dominate. And she was vehement about professors who “talked down to students“
or did not care about students and gave them no credit for thinking. Greg spoke
about courses in education, his major, which he regarded as too theoretical and
lacking in field experience. At least Madison professors admitted that they taught
theory classes, he retorted.

Other students discussed their resistance to theory classes. For example,
Doris found her first two years at Madison to be full of theory. She said that the
theory tended to give IR a "squeaky clean” Image of order and deliberation. She
knew better than that. However, her third-year Comparative Politics Class started
to bring out the "IR intrigue” by focusing on how groups like the CIA worked to
accomplish a mission. I

The college’s emphasis on theory and the analytical approach was meant to
help students think about solving problems. However, three of the women students
objected to this single-minded approach because it omitted the human element in
policymaking and discouraged thinking about problems in divergent ways. For
example, Martha said that community was the most overlooked aspect of the IR
curriculum because the emphasis was on “inter-state relations,“ not community
relations. Ellen spoke about how this theoretical approach to education affected
students.

At Madison we are prepared to solve the problems of the world. We are so

ready to make decisions at the international level. We know political

economy and what all these people have done and what’s going on in the
world. We want to make decisions and we are ready. The problem is that

75

we’ve got to learn how the decisions we make on an international level affect

things on the national and at the state level, and breaking that down to cities

and counties and down to the core of what our society is about. It is about
people. (Ellen)

Jane corroborated this view that despite the fact that IR students were more
in tune with international issues than most MSU students, IR students also tended
to focus on the ”relations between states and the state actors“ rather than on how
peOple were affected by policies they made.

I was at my honors option and we were talking about war and conflict.

People were talking about millions of people dying as though it wasjust like:

'Oh, here is my crayon, or here’s my pillow.” Just things that weren’t really

that important. . . . You know, we can talk about these topics but a lot of times

when you are studying people, you forget they’re human beings; they’re just
your subject. (Jane)

On another note, Ellen, a poet and writer, found that her own style of thinking
and writing was not as readily accepted by Madison professors. Through the
interviews I found her thinking in analogies and to be quite animistic in her
perceptions; that is, everything was alive. For example, she told me that when she
was a little girl she used to pick up the worms from the sidewalk and put them back
into the grass because she was afraid they would dry up. She said she loved the
MSU campus so much that it took her 20 minutes to make a five-minute walk
because she wanted to see everything. Finally, after we had finished the last of the
13 pictures in the Narrative Interview, I put the pictures all back in a box. Ellen
sighed and then commented that she felt she had just spent time with the people in

the pictures and was now sad because they were ”all put back into the box.‘ Her

approach was most obviously different from the more analytical problem-solving

76

approach taught at Madison. For example, Ellen spoke about her freshman writing
class where the professor said he would “re-teach” students how to write. ”But he
couldn’t teach me to live and experience life," she said. ”You cannot put it in me.
You can’t make me feel."

Several students could not resist making suggestions about the Madison
curriculum or education in general. Alan would have appreciated more opportunities
for oral speechmaking and rhetoric. Martha suggested that professors relate their
personal experiences more in class despite their fear they might promote their
biases. Concentrating on being "bibliographically correct“ clouded their own
humanity, she said. Marge reiterated the importance of class discussions that made
”boring books” more understandable and enjoyable. Finally, Fran summed up what
she thought a good curriculum should include: ties between theory and practice, a
reinforcement of what is learned in other classes, professors who had field
experiences and then told them to students, and curricula that related to students’

expenence.

EmblemsandAdiustments

As Challenging and wonderful as Madison was for the students, the college
expectations, and those of students themselves, led to problems in adjustment.
Denise said she had been planning to become a lawyer until Madison gave her a
taste of the demands of reading extensively and writing prolifically. Alter her
freshman year, she changed her career goals and decided to work with abused

children and unwed mothers. Ellen said she had been ”scared of all myprofessors"

77

and had gone into several periods of depresSion during her time at Madison. The
"sensory overload" was too much, and she was too embarrassed to talk to
professors. Now, as a senior, she reflected on her education and found that
Madison had indeed helped her “learn to start accepting myself more" and to find her
own voice and style.

Although all the students saw a Madison education as helping them with their
careers, a few students were not sure what skills they were gaining. I After providing
me with an eloquent explanation of NATO, the EC, and the UN, Doris expressed her
ambivalence about her knowledge.

I feel like I don’t have any skills. I can’t say that I know how to do something
specifically that’s really important to anybody. I don’t know why I think that.
I consider the skills I’ve gotten from Madison as skills that I think everybody
should have, ljust assume that everybody has them. But lthink I’m probably
wrong about that because, on the other [side of the] coin, even when l was
hired by the State Department [for a field experience], they didn’t tell me a lot
about why I was hired. But part of it was because I had the economics, like
a really broad program in economics. I guess all the political science people
who apply there or at least most of them, don’t have the statistics and political
science and they’d really like you to have some economics, logic, and things
like that. . . . So I suppose I do have some skills that I don’t even think about
them being special, but I suppose they are. (Doris)

Sandra’s week-long project with a poor family in Mississippi started her
wondering about her skills as well. This project was sponsored by her church.

It just bothered me because everybody there was like a resource
development major or vet major or biochemistry and they could do stuff and
then like, you know, we all bring something and, well, I could tell you how this
relates to the theory that the United States is turning into the Third World.
That’s about all I could do, but I couldn't bring International relations into what
I was doing as much. But, you know, it is a different culture down there, and
learning how to deal with that I’ve definitely learned at James Madison. And
the ethnicity. So I mean, it still helped but I couldn’t apply my major directly
to what I was doing. I still did pretty well, I think. The nuns that I talked to

78

said that they thought I could do this as a career, that I could make it my life.
They thought I had what it took, and that meant a lot to hear. (Sandra)

Greg also wondered whether he was really learning skills that he could apply.
He wanted to be a teacher, but he did not know how his SR major gave him a
subject to teach. Nevertheless, he recognized that he was seeing the world from
different perspectives, ones he had not considered or pursued before.

Finally, even though students felt privileged to be at Madison, there was a
certain pressure that existed in living up to its expectations as bright and hard-
working students who were doing and will do great things. This pressure came from
the students themselves and from perceived faculty opinion. Some of it also came
from other MSU professors who expected Madison students to have the best grades
and to be articulate in class. The college had the reputation on campus as the "last
bastion of political intellectualism on campus" (Doris), and Madison students were
also perceived as ”policy wonks" and nonscience and nonmath people. Students”
opinions of themselves ran in a similar vein. "IR majors tend to be a little bit on the
pretentious side, a little proud, really elitist. We are." (Jane). I also found from the
classes and events I attended that Madison students tended to be opinionated and

long-winded in expressing themselves.

Qommentarv

What was most interesting and most consistent among the students’
comments about Madison was the prominence they gave to the affective quality of

education. In this way students experienced a connection to the college through

79

faculty members’ expectations and encouragement for excellence, they learned to
live and work with other students as well as to learn from them, and they felt tied to
a school that seemed committed to their learning and success. These-qualities are
part of the social curriculum that students apparently found especially appealing and
supportive because even though the students were challenged to their highest
capacities, they found a personal satisfaction in having made the effort to achieve.

This social curriculum appears to be an essential component of the learning
process that complements and enhances the academic curriculum. It also has a
transforming effect on students. For example, Mary said that freshman students
came back from Christmas vacation realizing that after only one semester they had
changed and that their parents had noticed a difference in them as well. This
change manifested itself in students’ ability to think more deeply and to articulate
their ideas more clearly. This is, of course, the academic curriculum at work, which
teaches critical thinking. But it is also the social curriculum at work, which produces
an environment that feeds and reinforces behaviors and attitudes.

What was especially interesting in the students’ discussion about their
education was the call for a bridge between theory and practice, which I discuss in
the next two sections. Here I will give examples of students’ encounters with the

experiential side of their education, as well as the human element of policy.

Ell '-D' 'I E .
l was interested in learning about students’ attitudes toward ethnicity because

it is one of the more concrete and visible components involved in relationships with

80

peOple at the international level. I defined ethnicity broadly as the qualities of race,
nationality, religion, and culture that are found among groups of people both at home
and abroad. What I discovered was that some students were having profound
experiences with ethnicity and that others were isolating themselves from it. In this
section I outline how students identify themselves ethnically, how they have been
exposed to diversity before and during their education at MSU, and how they relate
to ethnically diverse people.
E | D' 'I

All of the students I selected were American-born males and females, blacks
and whites. In asking them to describe in writing their ethnic backgrounds‘ on the
Biographical Data Sheet (see Appendix C), students’ responses yielded a
comu00pia of description that defied my simplistic definitions of ethnicity and
expanded on the ways American ethnicity could be described. In fact, there was
only one person who designated herself as an ”American,“ and this student was the
most ethnically mixed person in the group, with a mother of Italian and German
origin and a father of African, Cheyenne, and French (Creole) origin. Six students
included race in their ethnic description, calling themselves ”white male,” “white

female,” and ”black.” One black male claimed he was of ”African descent.” Two

 

1I did not provide them with a definition of ethnicity so that I could learn how they
defined the term. As expected, the variety of responses signified the confusion that
surrounds such a widely used term, especially among supposedly homogeneous
groups.

81

students referred to their religions in their descriptions: they were Irish Catholic and
Jewish. The one male who was Jewish did not identify himself as such until the very
end of the second interview, and he revealed this fact as an afterthought. Seven
students used distinct ethnicities to describe themselves, such as Irish, Italian,
English, German, Polish, Slovak, Cherokee. But they did not identify themselves as
hyphenated Americans, i.e., Irish-American, Italian-American, and so on. Others
clumped themselves into regional identities, such as Eastern European, African
American, Hispanic-Cuban, Scandinavian, and "Swamp Yankee” (family roots go
back to the America of the 17003).

I wondered whether students’ ethnic identities were tied to their families’
immigration to the United States. Three students were second generation (i.e., their
parents had immigrated), five students were third generation, and ten students (five
black and five white) did not indicate how far back their families went. One black
student did not mark any of these categories. Of the three second-generation
students, one black female spoke with pride2 about her heritage. Of the five third-
generation students, four expressed pride in their heritages. Of the ten students
whose families went back further than four generations, the black students identified
themselves racially, whereas the white students either identified themselves racially

or as nothing. This ovenlvhelming lack of ethnic identity and its focus on race was

 

2Ethnic pride is my term, which refers to the student’s acknowledgment of and
enthusiasm for his/her ethnic identity. African Americans in my sample, who
described themselves mostly in racial terms, expressed a racial pride.

82

surprising to me, given my own inclination to identify with my Italian ethnic
background.

Females were more expressive about their ethnicity, especially those of the
second- and third-generation group. White males did not express much ethnic pride
in their descriptions except for one student whose family went back to colonial
America. He expressed the same pride as did the one black “mixed” female whose
family had a similar historical heritage. Although certainly not conclusive, these
data suggest that ethnic identity and proximity of family immigration may be related.
However, ethnic identity in America may change as the offspring of immigrants relate

less to that experience and accept an "American" ethnic identity.

Students’ exposure to diversity in their high schools was quite patterned.
However, their descriptions tended to refer to the racial make-up of the school, even
though I used the term “diversity" in the interview. As Table 3 shows, eight students
went to homogeneous schools, including all five white females; five males went to
racially mixed schools, and six black students went to predominantly white schools.
There were no white students who went to predominantly black schools. One black
male, who was adopted by white parents and who had always lived in white
neighborhoods, first encountered blacks in school while in the ninth grade. One
other black male went to a mixed school but lived in an 80% to 90% white
neighborhood. Two white males commented that in the foUr years since they had

left high school, their school’s demographics had been changing significantly. One

83

school had changed from predominantly white middle class to Portuguese and
Vietnamese. The other school had changed from 35% black to 50% black and 15%

Chaldean.

Table 3: Racial make-up of students’ high schools.

 

 

 

 

 

WW:
Black males 0 2 2
White males 2. 3 0
Black females 1b 0 4
White females 5. 9 O =‘

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘Signifies all-white school.

”Signifies all-black school.

Only four white students said they had been exposed to ethnic diversity
through theirfamilies. For example, two white males’ mothers had had international
exchange students live with the family in the home. Two white females' fathers had
had overseas work assignments that allowed the entire family to live abroad. One
of these students talked about how her family had traveled abroad several times and

had acquired an array of international friends who often visited her home.

 

3I used the terms "homogeneous," “mastoid,” and "predominantly white” to
describe the data after they had been collected. Homogeneous refers to schools
that were either all white or all black.

84

Nearly all of the students said they had experienced an increase in their
awareness of diversity since they arrived at MSU. It appears that most students
believed that diversity is probably a way of life. At least in their classes at Madison
they were taught that diversity is like a salad and that the dressing (or our common
American heritage) was what holds us together as a nation. Nevertheless, half of
the students said they minimized their discussions and/or encounters with people
from diverse groups. Also, when students referred to diversity, they usually spoke
in terms of racial differences.

For many students, living in a diverse environment was still a new and
disorienting experience, even though a couple of students deliberately used the
campus to experiment with living with diversity and freeing themselves from their
prejudicial attitudes. All of the students used politically correct (PC) language, and
students told me that Madison taught it and corrected people who did not use it.
However, I did not gather from my interviews with Madison students, my
observations, or my reading of the campus newspaper that there was much
community dialogue going on about diversity among the different groups of students.
Even when I attended a Madison student forum called Racism 101 , which comprised

25 to 30 students mostly from minority groups, I did not hear dialogue. I heard
testimonials about minorities’ invisibility on campus. Thus, both white and minority
students seemed left with unresolved and unspoken tensions about diversity.
Despite this, students were indeed having experiences with it, as the following

examples and vignettes illustrate.

85
IM'I SI l I'E . MT” [1' 'I

Some white students, like Sandra, were simply oblivious to diversity before
coming to MSU. Sandra recalled her thoughts about a Mexican student she knew
in high school: ”I don’t think it ever occurred to me that he was different. I think I
thought he had a tan or something.“ Coming to MSU allowed her to recognize
diversity. However, ethnicity was not the only diversity Sandra discovered at MSU.
This was the first time she encountered people who were not Catholic. As a native
of another state, she also became aware of regional differences.

Everyone moves so quickly here [in Michigan]. Everyone’s so tense, so

driven. Everything’s such a big deal, and pe0ple are so relaxed in Kansas

City, laid back, don’t worry as much. And I lived in Kentucky for a little while,

and I’ve been to Texas a lot and it’s the same there. (Sandra)

Frank related a story about how he suddenly realized that he was in the midst
of an almost impossible configuration of diversity when he and his friends played
pick-up basketball one day. He is Jewish, and he was with friends who were
Palestinian and Chaldean Iraqi.

ltjust really struck me that there we were. People with our backgrounds had

been killing each other for hundreds and hundreds of years, and we were all

friends and got along well. And that it was a shame that it couldn’t be that
way for others. (Frank)

BI IS! I I’E . lll'IID' 'l

Whereas white students spoke about their discoveries of diversity, black
students spoke widely about having to deal with racial differences. They framed
the eir discussion as an issue of identity, competence, and acceptance. For example,

Steve, a tall, handsome, clean-cut young man, talked about going to an Arab-owned

86

store in his neighborhood. He was being watched by a suspecting owner, who
thought he would steal something. Then the owner accused him of stealing and
started to yell at him from the back of the store.

I don’t even remember what she said I stole. I don’t know. From that day on,

I would just have nothing. Haven’t been very. . . . and I know it’s not the right

thing to do. And it’s just like my instincts flip back to me whenever I deal with

them. Not all of them. lt’sjust like the one in the stores in particular. (Steve)
Jack’s experience of being a minority on campus often resulted in feeling a need to
“overcompensate.“

I assume a lot of times . . . I have to overcompensate. I don’t think I do it

consciously; ljust think I do it because it is just a natural thing. And in a

professional situation, if I go into a meeting or something, I automatically

assume that l have to be more prepared. It is true, it is true. You do have to
be more prepared because the racism, people might not have it, but they use
those biases. And when you are outnumbered, it can come crushing down.

You got to be more prepared as a black person. (Jack)

Shirley believed that misconceptions about Affirmative Action quotas have
brought on this need for overcompensation: "So you have to work to show people
that you’re here [at Madison] because you’re smart enough to be here; you’ve got
the grades to be here.”

Besides coping with the problem of overcompensation, adjustment to a

predominantly white environment after coming from a predominantly black one can
prove to be a struggle for some black students, as it was for Denise. She talked
vaguely about there being ”a big difference“ and that there were always ”boundaries”
between the races. For example, as a freshman student, she found MSU

'i ntimidating” as the only black person in a class. A shy person, she waited for

others to make a friendly gesture toward her. Then, in her junior year, she adjusted

87
well to MSU and felt more comfortable because she had made friendships with other
black women. However, she did not have any white friends.

As difficult as it was for black students to feel comfortable in a predominantly
white college environment, diversity within the black minority group was often
overlooked. For example, Jane is half Cuban and half African American. During her
schooling at MSU, she admitted to having discovered her “Hispanic side,” which she
enjoyed more because of its culture emphasis. She found that the ”black part" of her
identity was more difficult to accept because she thought it was ”culture-less.”

I’m black, but I always [identify with my Hispanic side]. I always think that

being black is kind of incidental. ltjust happens that I came out this way. . . .

Being Hispanic . . . has nothing to do with your race, necessarily. It’s your

language, culture, and ethnicity. So it goes across racial boundaries. Like

they say about Cuba, it is mestizo. . . . I know that I’m black, but I always
identify with being Cuban or Hispanic because if you tell people that you’re

a black American, that’s it. I guess what I’m trying to say is that l have

basically, I’m more multicultural in scope. (Jane)

Doris, on the other hand, reveled in her ethnic mixture and found campus
discussions about diversity irrelevant. Consequently, she had not paid much
attention to the diversity campaigns of the university or of Madison because she
thought she was already doing what they promoted. When she met people, she said
she concentrated on them as individuals rather than as members of a race or

ethnicity. 'I figure [diversity] isjust part of the world, and why bother dividing people
any more than they already are.“ Doris did not speak about the interpersonal

difficulties the other black students were having, and I failed to ask her. I later

wondered whether she had these same types of difficulties or whether she just

88

ignored them. I also wondered whether her mixed complexion confused others such
that they did not identify her as black. ‘

Mark had the most unique ethnicity experience; he had to learn that he was
black. Mark was adopted at age three by white parents. Although they took special
care to expose him and his adopted brother and sister to their African American
heritage through books, cultural programs, and black music, he did not have much
exposure to black children until he was in the ninth grade in a mixed school. And
because he was basically living in a white world, he did not really know who he was
as an African American. Mark told me a story about the day he realized that he was
black. He and his mother were in the car, stopped at a gas station. Mark then took
out a black pen and put it next to his skin to prove to his mother than he was not
black.

I was trying so hard to be someone else, I didn’t realize that just because I

wasn’t as dark as that pen I was still black. And that just shows the level of

the psychological impact that was on me in my life. I was really trying to be

someone I wasn’t. She [my mother] definitely told me I was black and that I

had this quality. That it was my ancestry and you can’t get around that. But

I was trying to do everything I could to try to not be who I was. And so that
shows the confusion I was going through. I was seven at this time. (Mark)

C I I' D' 'l IIISI-I

Several students talked about how they had taken time in their lives at MSU
to confront diversity. For example, Shirley said she became more aware of cultural
differences by attending MSU events like Chicano History Week, which she said
helped her overcome Latino stereotypes. Tom was engaging in racial discussions

for the first time in his life through his fiance, whom he called a ”racial polyglot.” She

89

had provided him with new ideas and perspectives about ethnicity that he had not
previously considered. Sandra went on a week-long field trip with her church to
assist a poor black family in a Mississippi housing project. Randy had planned to
use his field experience in Hong Kong and China to learn what it was like to be a
minority. Such examples exude an open-mindedness, experimentation, and
exposure to diversity that university multicultural programs would like to see in
students. However, the next two vignettes illustrate examples of the tensions
students confront in such environments.
Mary, in her position as a resident assistant (RA), addressed diversity directly
with the freshman students she supervised. One night at the beginning of the fall
semester, a group of new freshmen gathered in her room for a ”college talk.”
Somewhere in the conversation, one of the members mentioned that she did not
think blacks and whites could get along in society. Mary decided that an opportunity
had opened for her and her RA colleagues to broaden the freshmen’s perspectives
and to disprove this theory. The RAs planned a program to expose their charges to
diversity through individuals who represented various groups. For example, in one
session they talked about the nature of culture and invited two Jewish students to
discuss how they kept kosher lifestyles and lived out their beliefs. They organized
sessions on black/white issues and let students hear what it was like to be the only
black student in a lecture hall of 500 students. They even organized a panel on
gays, which exposed the freshmen to people they had only heard about but had

never met-or recognized as gay. The year-long program was a success, and at the

90
end, many students thanked Mary and her team for their effort. In effect, Mary and
her team were also modeling a new type of social curriculum where they had made
it safe forthe freshmen to expose themselves and to discuss ideas and perspectives
they had neverthought about and a diversity of people they had never encountered.

Fran, however, did not choose to address racism in her new job as an RA;
rather, it chose her. Just two weeks after the fall semester had started, she met four
black women on her floor whom she greeted with: "Well, the whole gang’s going to
dinner.“ The women took offense at this comment and reported it to the minority
aide in the hall. Gradually, the rift escalated. One of the women liked to play loud
music, and once, when she played it at 3 am, Fran asked her to turn it down. ”I had
asked other students, white students, to do the same, but I guess this one student
thought I was singling her out because she was African American.” The rift
escalated even more, and Fran was distraught.

I couldn’t talk to them; I knew ljust couldn’t handle myself. So I talked with

the minority aide for mediation because I knew I couldn’t handle myself and

the ways they were treating me. They would make snide comments behind
my back—not behind my back, but straight to my face! (Fran)

Before Fran took the RAjob, she had been warned of the volatile environment
at her particular hall, and especially about its racial incidents. Such an assignment
would be especially difficult for her after having been at Case Hall, where it was
calm, studious, and intellectual. Fran spent many sleepless nights worrying about

her relationship with the four black women until one night she realized it was

affecting the job she was supposed to be doing with the 40 to 60 Other people she

91
was responsible for on her floor. She decided she was going to do something about
it.

I approached them [the four black women], saying this was ridiculous and we

needed to talk about it. Right away they thought it was a good idea. They

thought it was ridiculous, too. They admitted that they had jumped to
conclusions immediately without really knowing me. And I realized my
insensitivity or offense to them. (Fran)

Many of the students’ experiences with diversity were not positive. In fact,
nine students of both races said they handled diversity by minimizing discussion on
the topic as well as by limiting their interaction with people unlike themselves.
However, it eventually became apparent to me that many white as well as black
students had also tired of hearing about diversity on campus. For example, at the
end of the data collection, I had arranged a pizza party for students interested in
learning more about the study. When I mentioned that my work would probably
concentrate on ethnic diversity, there was a general groan followed by a
disappointed silence. Although I did not address the group’s response at the time,
I eventually extrapolated from this incident and from their interviews the students’
weariness over the issue of ethnic diversity. Below are some examples.

Martha claimed that she had "a hard time with diversity because I grew up
never really believing there was a difference in the first place." She reasoned that

if diversity and thinking diversely were supposed to have pe0ple come together to

engender the feeling that ”we all fit together,” then she wondered why the university

confronted diversity as something that emphasized separateness.

92

Alan’s work in student government had led him to believe that diversity had
often become a form of competition among student groups vying to obtain more
funds or to control university life. ”They [minority groups] want to stand out, so they
use their ethnicity and it’s really not a factor of what they’re talking about.” He cited
women’s groups as an example of one group that did not represent its constituency,
did not want to compromise, and did not listen to other opinions because they
thought their position was right. What resulted, Alan believed, was a polarization
among the vast majority of students along ethnic and gender lines.

Jack, who was also in student government and one of the few blacks there,
saw diversity from a different perspective. He said that students were not actually
racist in their language or actions, but that they were racist in their way of thinking.
For example, minorities were subtly discredited for their values or opinions because
people held stereotypical Opinions about them. Shirley concurred with this position
and added that racial diversity was difficult enough until one had to deal with gender
diversity, too. Once again, she cited overcoming stereotypes as the greatest
obstacle to being accepted as a competent and vital person.

Only five students (two black males, one black female, and two white
females) concluded that the key to handling diversity was to treat others with
respect. Steve summed up this view when I asked him how he would order the
world if he could. He suggested that a common language would serve as one way
of promoting a universal tolerance of differences and that performance could be

used as a measure of competence.

93

One language, no discrimination on the basis of anything but your
performance. That’d be my dream, I guess. One language is key. . . . All one
language and no dialects. Make everybody talk to each other constantly so
they keep the same language. We got to get rid of that. Everybody’s on the
same page. Language is one, and then no discrimination, you know, like
racial, gender, sexual preference, nothin’. Although I don’t agree with
homosexuality, I feel like, me as a human, does not have a right to judge or
condemn. (Steve)

Commentary

Students’ experiences of diversity were as complex as the issue itself,
whether it entailed identity or getting along with and understanding people from other
ethnic or racial groups. Although the university has tried to promote positive
attitudes toward diversity, these students seemed to be left on their own to find ways
of actually dealing with it. And at least half of the students in this study reported that
they minimized having to face it directly. Meanwhile, minority students were hurt by
other students’ misunderstandings or tacit discrimination toward them; some white
students were frustrated by the demands of minorities. Only a small number ofwhite
female students attempted to deal with diversity directly on an interpersonal level.

The students’ reactions to diversity seem to reflect the ambiguity of the
university (and society) in its own disconnection between policy and practice. Most
of these students were either paralyzed or inert in making a response to the issue
of diversity. It is important to note that such a reaction is an example of how the
social curriculum influences students: students learn the ideas, manners, and social
conventions of their environment through the example of their elders. One reason

for this lack of response may be that they have few models from which to learn.

94

They are literally on their own to try to figure out how they can confront diversity and
deal with the accompanying emotions.

This idea illuminates another element of the social curriculum that surfaced
in the students’ interview statements. Ideas, manners, and social conventions have
a reinforcing effect on students and the institution; that is, a social practice is likely
to continue until someone breaks the chain reaction that has been created. Mary
and Fran attempted to break the "chain" of ignorance about diversity through their
own commitment to act against that ignorance. However, they did not resort to a
policy to make a change, nor did they rely on the authorities to solve their problems.
They responded as human beings with other human beings. This is an important
point. It is so easy in a university environment to focus on the theoretical. But as far
as diversity is concerned, the social curriculum has consistently promoted a passive,
sterile, intellectual posture through such devices as affirmative action and political
correctness. However, if the academic curriculum incorporated students’
experiences of diversity, for example, students would have an opportunity to talk to
each other, to understand each other’s struggles with diversity, and to gain insight
into finding ways of responding. This is the kind of curriculum that I call
transformative; that is, students change as a result of their education.

There is another angle to Mary and Fran’s response to diversity that is key in
a transformation-oriented curriculum. To get to the point of responding to the
students in their charge, each of these women had to deal with the conflict within

herself over diversity. I suspect that they did this through some sort of reflection,

95

which I refer to as the reflective curriculum. In other words, these two students
exemplified Freire’s (1990) conceptualization of the educative process that combines
reflection with action. He calls it “conscientization.“ In conscientization, individuals
reflect on their reality and identify their oppressions. These oppressions include the
inability to see what is happening and/or the inability to act. Once an individual
begins to see, he/she connects with others to engage in dialogue over the issue.
Through dialogue, the group exposes and demystifies the realities of the oppression
and then discusses the meanings, strategies, and choices available to them to deal
with their plight. Through this process the people become transformed because they
have agreed to take the responsibility for their own situation and to act on it.

Mary and Fran seem to have gone through a conscientization process except
for the dialogue over the problem with a group. But it is important to note that they
responded through a direct confrontation with the students with whom they were
dealing. They did not rely on a policy, a class, or some third party. The other
students I cited in this section were reflective about racial diversity and its effects on
them; however, none of them spoke to me about how they acted on these
reflections.4

Bridging the gap between theory and practice is difficult in the academic

curriculum because so much attention is given to theory. However, students in my

 

‘This is not to say that these students did not act. ljust did not have evidence of
their action. It may also be that as a white female researcher l was more tuned in
to 'hear” the white female students. Nevertheless, Mary and Fran became models
of a transformative educative process.

96

sample clamored for this. In this way they were calling for the classroom to become
a laboratory, as Dewey would suggest. In this laboratory, students could work to
make theory and practice come together in an atmosphere of dialogue, reflection,
and problem solving for action.

In the next section I describe students’ experiences abroad. Here is another
place where theory and practice could potentially come together to help students
understand diversity. What is striking about the students’ accounts of their
experiences abroad, however, is that although they were still dealing with cultural
and language differences, their tense tone dissipated and they focused on the

adventure and spiritual growth they derived from their encounters with diversity.

All but two students had visited another country, and out of the 19, I
considered three to be well-traveled; that is, they had been all over the world over
a period of years. The most popularly visited areas were Europe and Canada, with
six students going to each area. Two students had lived in Zimbabwe, and one of
them in Indonesia and Mexico as well. Six students had participated in summer-
abroad programs in Brussels, Africa, and Spain. Two students had traveled abroad
through high school programs, one in Quebec and another in Spain. Two students
had spent their semester field experience in South Korea. One student was
planning a six-month field experience in Asia.

In recent years, more colleges have promoted the study-abroad experience,

which is a good way of introducing'students to other ways of living and working.

97

Most of the students of this study found their study abroad an exciting and
worthwhile experience. Through it, students came face to face with another culture,
and in turn confronted their own values and assumptions about life. This is an
example of the reflective curriculum. Below is a discussion of three patterns that
emerged from the students’ Interviews about their experiences overseas. I also
included comments from students who had not yet traveled but who mirrored some

of these patterns as well.

I 'il ID “.9 II Ell

One common experience of these student travelers was that travel allowed
them to find out more about themselves and their capacities. For example, after a
summer in the Brussels program, Sandra learned that her reactions to things
constantly surprised her because she could not define or limit herself by a familiar
environment. For example, she found outthat she had wanderlust, was courageous,
and could just enjoy herself taking in life as she experienced it.

Shirley discovered thejoy of knowing and speaking another language when
she stayed with a French host family in Quebec.

It was a really good experience talking to them because I was the one that

really knew French well enough to speak; I was the one talking. It was a

really good experience just to try and communicate with someone else [in a

language] other than using English. (Shirley)

Doris found out how self-sufficient she was when she spent a summer in

Europe traveling by herself and then settling down for five weeks in Brussels as a

housesitter with a newly made friend from another university.

98

So here I was in Brussels, living on my own. I went to the markets to do
shopping. I had to fix my own food. I had to make sure everything was clean
and be responsible for myself. Getting around the city was completely my
responsibility. I got to know the tram system real well. I mean, that to me
was worth more than any of the class-type things that I did because I had
such great memories of living there. (Doris)

Going to Kenya for a summer became a spiritual experience for Mark
because through it he had an opportunity to discover his African roots, which had put
him on the path leading to his own personal and professional interests.

I realized I was going back to the place where my ancestors were born and

raised and grew. Being there, it was like a homecoming, basically. Ifelt at

ease. I’ve never been around a surrounding that all, where people were like
me. Of course you can go to certain places like Detroit or a big city . . . but
not entire countries where you see black people not only just working but
living there. Students on airplanes, what have you. The people with money.

(Mark)

During Mary’s year abroad in Zimbabwe, she learned what it was like to be
treated as a minority and how difficult it was to hold her own while being openly
judged and verbally assaulted by people who did not even know her. She also
learned about the strength of her convictions and her ability to resist being
consumed by people’s stereotypes and ploys against her as a white American
woman. She said, "I don’t equate my experience with what minorities here go
through because I think it’s a lot rougher. But I learned so many coping skills. It

takes a while to learn that you are actually being discriminated against.”

LearningAbmnflne’sSultuLelhmugblravel
Living in another culture helped the students understand some of their own

cultural assumptions that they had taken for granted or of which they were unaware.

99

Many students talked about discovering American culture or at least becoming
cognizant of it while they were abroad. They also found out what people from other
cultures thought about Americans. These revelations came to them as a surprise.
Below are some examples of how students reacted.

Living six weeks in Zimbabwe helped Alan learn that Zimbabwean life was
more present-oriented and relational than American life. People took time with each
other, savored their meals, and enjoyed pleasant conversation. Alan learned how to
live and enjoy this way of life. Only upon his return to the USA did he notice how his
behavior had changed. For example, he found that he was usually the last one to
finish eating at a family dinner. He also realized how security conscious Americans
were. When his group entered a Zimbabwean neighborhood, all the children would
come out to greet them. He compared this experience with the neighborhoods in
America, where a stranger’s appearance would prompt ”pulling the kids in and
shutting and locking the doors.”

As Tom stepped off the plane in Berlin, he became cognizant of the depth of
the German people, which he reckoned occurred because oftheir long history. “This
is a country!” he related to me. As a result of his time spent in Germany, Tom
concluded that Americans do not really have a culture.

Jane’s first experience abroad was in an international youth program that
brought her and numerous other children from all over the world to a conference in
the Philippines. In one of the projects of the program, the children introduced

themselves by explaining their own culture to the others. Here she discovered her

100

pride in American culture. "It was nice to be an American in a setting like that. You
also got to see that other countries had things to offer.“

Mary’s experience in Zimbabwe gave her time to find out that the local people
perceived Americans as "rich and snotty” and the ”women [as] sleepling] with
everyone.” Many of the peOpIe she encountered had never met any Americans, and
she was disturbed by how their perceptions had been shaped by American movies
and television they had watched and then projected on to her.

Fran recalled how ethnocentric her middle-school texts were after she
returned from two years of living in Africa. “Just living over there taught me that not
all perspectives in the world are Western.” As a result, her teachers would ask her

to talk about her experiences in Africa as a supplement to the text.

Students traveling abroad learned that the reality of the world was much
different from what they may have imagined or learned about through their reading
or from the media. For instance, they knew intellectually that people had different
cultural values and standards, but they did not understand this seemingly simple
concept until they confronted it. Sandra had to adjust her preconceptions of
Europeans while she was on her trip in Brussels.

I thought European people were a lot more open-minded and liberal than

Americans. They’re extremely prejudiced, a lot of them. I saw people that

were black [or gypsies] on trains being harassed by the conductors. I noticed

that all the men that were rude or derogatory towards me were non-

Caucasian, which surprised me. And I saw how segregated the cities are and
that bothered me a lot. I dated one guy and he didn’t like me to drink when

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he drank. You know, he could have a beer but I was supposed to drink
coffee because it wasn’t Iadylike. (Sandra)

Jane had always heard that Cuba was a literate society, but was confounded
when she discovered that they used the pages of books as toilet paper. "You can
read about this, but until you see it and use the pages of a book to wipe your butt,
you cannot know it.”

Students expressed the importance of individuals influencing world events.
Martha’s experience of being in Israel during the Gulf War taught her that what the
media portrayed about the war left out the crucial components of what was going on
behind the scenes that eventually led to the war’s end. Her experience while in
Israel showed her how individuals influenced events.

The hard-working people who don’t get the recognition are the ones who are

making the difference. I guess I have a lot of respect for the people who sit

in their rooms for hours and hours and hours and try to haggle over little
issues to avoid big conflict. (Martha)

Randy wanted to reach out for new perspectives that he thought he could
obtain through travel. After graduation he wanted to go to Africa to live and work
among the people. He believed that too many policymakers act without an
understanding of who the native people are, what they believe in, how they live, or
what they want, and he aimed to circumvent that approach. Last summer he was
on his way to his field experience in a Hong Kong trading business to learn about
development from the ”appropriating class” so that he could eventually transfer that

knowledge to his work in Africa.

It’s beneficial for me to be in a position, from the businessman’s position, to
see their lives and what they operate under. I’m someone who really tries to

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live what I’m thinking. How can I develop industries in African countries?
How does business operate in policy? Which laws work well to get
businesspeople in a place and which don’t? (Randy)

I 'll 9 'II llll'IIDIl 0 I'

In the interviews, students also related what they learned about America’s
presence overseas. For example, Mary said she became intimately acquainted with
the American tendency to indulge in a "savior” mentality-that is, to go to other
countries for the purpose of doing good. She, in fact, had gone to Africa with the
intention of conducting a research project on women there, maybe for the purpose
of helping them. Upon her return to IR classes at Madison, she became irritated and
impatient with students who would go on "long tangents without necessarily
stopping“ about how the US. could solve everyone else’s problems without knowing
the people, the place, or the history ofwhoever they’re trying to save. "I realized that
if more people went and understood how minorities felt, for example, it would be a
lot easier to work in the public realm.”

The ”savior mentality” is difficult to overcome, and it is not about being smart
or schooled. It is an orientation to the world that fits in with Americans’ beliefs about
themselves and reality. A few other students were in touch with this “savior"
tendency and were able to address it as they reflected on their overseas experience.
Torn compared the American way with the German way. .

Americans have this tendency to believe everything that they say is the truth

and that they are crusading to save the world is an American thing. [In]

Germany, you don’t save the world. You fix it, reform it, you take it over, but

you don’t save it. Americans, you deliver the world from evil, and the
Americans were big on that for quite some time and we managed to

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institutionalize ourselves having that role. That’s a problem because the way

we’re saving the world is not exactly the way India would like to be saved, or

Brazil, China, even France. (T om)

Sandra explained that the 'savior” mentality could also apply to our own
country. She reflected on her experience in Mississippi and realized that love for the
people being served may be a preferable alternative to saving them.

You need to care and you need to realize, like emotionally and mentally, you

can’t let it get to you. You can’t let it hurt you so much that you’re rendered

and you can’t do anything about it. You have to maintain the right attitude,
and some of the kids on our trip can do that. Some of them got really
depressed and they just thought, what can I do. There’s nothing. The only
other attitude that it’s important to have is to realize that the people you’re
helping are not ”the people you’re helping.“ . . . Because I’m not going to be

able to solve all their problems. All I can do is help them solve their
problems. (Sandra)

Iravelhonesandfireams

To find out what students anticipated in travel abroad, I asked those who
either had not been abroad or who did not have extensive experience abroad to tell
me about where they would like to go and why. Jack would like to go on a field
experience to Ghana, where most of the slaves came from, or to South Africa, "just
to see . . . if what I see on TV is true.“ Denise would like to see what Japan is like
because it is such a competitor of the US. Greg would like to go to northern Africa
and the Middle East because he is interested in religious places.

Steve would like to travel almost all of the continents, but he was particularly
interested in visiting the Amazon and the Nile. Steve thought the Amazon was a
powerful force of nature, and he was attracted to such things because 'theyjust kind

of make you feel insignificant almost, or they put you in your place. It’s kind of like

 

 

 

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humbling when you see something just that much better or that much greater than
you.” The Nile, for example, has particular religious and historical meaning for him:

[Its] historic meaning to so many things for me, like the story of Moses floating

along the Nile, and just like its position in the world, like I even heard scientific

theories as well as like just religious beliefs that the Garden of Eden was In

Africa. (Steve)

These last four students were anticipating the same things that those who had
traveled talked about throughout this section. Travel is a spiritual experience. It
evokes curiosity and adventure and leads the traveler to examine his/her ”truths” or
to learn about others’ ”truths.” Of course, this curiosity exposes the traveler to
vulnerability and has the potential of changing his/her outlook, as some of the
students anticipated. But travel is irresistible because of the excitement it evokes.

And if the traveler remains open to experience and flexible with whatever must be

confronted, travel can bring the gift of personal growth and insight.

Commentary

In a review of the research done on study abroad, Kauffman, Martin, Weaver,
and Weaver (1992) point out that students’ experiences overseas often lead to a
change in their knowledge about the international community, their globally oriented
behavior patterns, and their affective growth. Because this study has been focused
on transformation, it is significant that the qualitative evidence I collected on the
students’ attitudes and experiences of study abroad should corroborate the findings

of previous quantitative studies. What is more important, however, is that these

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attitudes elaborate on what some refer to as 'world-mindedness” and I call the global
perspective.

Sampson and Smith (cited in Kauffman et al., 1992, p. 81) produced a
seminal work on students’ affective change through study abroad. Much as I did in
Chapter One, they distinguished wortd-mindedness (“a value orientation, or frame
of reference, apartfrom knowledge about, or interest in, international relations“) with
international-mindedness ("an interest in or knowledge about international affairs”).
They cite four major elements of world-mindedness that offer universities evaluation
criteria for their students’ study-abroad experience: (3) students understand the
“interdependency“ of peoples and nations; (b) they develop a concem for the
problems confronting other nations and all humankind; (c) they learn how to tolerate
values that are different from their own, but to feel comfortable with their own culture
and individual values; and (d) they increase their sense of cross-cultural empathy.
These elements parallel many of the concerns I raised in the Preface and Chapter
One about what an internationalized curriculum should aim to do.

Kauffman et al. (1992) also discuss students’ personal development while on
study-abroad assignments, which also matched the students’ experiences in this
study. For example, they became more self-aware, self-confident, and developed
a sense of autonomy; they learned how to integrate themselves with others, which
eventually led to an openness to new ideas and an empathy with the people of that

culture; and they had an opportunity to reexamine their own values.

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Study abroad is without a doubt an essential component of any
internationalized curriculum. It is hailed by students and educators alike for many
of the same reasons as l have just discussed. As part of the curriculum, it is
important for educators to recognize that study abroad—or even travel abroadualso
provides students with an understanding of the world that the theoretical academic
curriculum cannot give. And what a student learns will be different from anyone else
because this learning is a response to his/her own experiences, personality, and
predispositions. Study/travel abroad gives students an experience of scale. They
learn about the vastness of the world’s geography, the diversity of peoples, the
sensations of life. Study/travel abroad offers students a panorama that engulfs and
invites them to listen to the meanings of a particular place and people. In short,
study/travel calls forth the reflective curriculum, which was probably the most
outstanding characteristic of the students’ comments about their time overseas.

As I stated in the previous section, the depth and the value of the students’
overseas experiences can be enhanced and put into perspective if they have an
opportunity to share them with others in the academic curriculum. Most students,
however, do not have this luxury. Cross-cultural scholars claim that reentry into the
home culture is one of the most difficult aspects of the overseas experience (Kohls,
1984). Kauffman et al. (1992) also cite the difficulties students experience. For
example, students thought that no one was interested in them or their travels; their
relationships with family and friends suffered; and they questioned and even rejected

the values, beliefs, and behaviors of the home culture. Much of this difficulty was

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due to the personal and intellectual changes that had occurred within the students
as a result of their exposure to different peoples and cultures overseas.

Intercultural trainers stress the importance of debriefing (SIETAR, 1986).
Debriefing can enhance the student’s personal, intellectual, and social growth and
development because it can direct and focus students on discerning the meaning
of their experiences. Through debriefing, professors have an opportunity to open
dialogue and reflection on the students’ experiences and to help them make
connections with theory.

Finally, it strikes me that the study-abroad experience plays a key role in the
social curriculum as well as the reflective curriculum. That is, students learn the
skills of interaction in both an international environment and among the traveled.
These are not strong suits among Americans (Kauffman et al., 1992), but it is a trait
among those who live in the global community.

The next chapter will shift from the students’ experiences to their images of
the world. It is the first of two chapters that present my interpretations of the
students’ narratives of the 13 pictures. In it I will feature and compare each student’s

overall theme.

CHAPTER FOUR

IMAGES OF LIFE THROUGH MORAL AND ETHICAL BELIEFS

The students I studied showed a strong interest in moral and ethical
questions. This became clear as I interpreted the themes that came out of their
narratives of the 13 pictures I had presented to them. To get to these themes, I
performed a literary analysis of the plot, setting, characters’ interactions, negative
content, tone, and the viewpoint of each student’s narratives in relationship to their
biographical interviews. I also analyzed composites of all the students’ narratives
picture by picture to look for patterns and to get a sense of what these students were
saying as a group. As with any literary analysis, the interpretations are those of the
analyst. The ultimate end of this chapter and Chapter Five, as well, is that from
these narratives I could derive some meaning, which would assist me in listening to
the students and in developing directions for the internationalized curriculum.

The moral and ethical concerns that came out of the students’ narratives
included the following questions: What is the purpose of life? How do peOpIe live
together in a community? How do I deal with life and its tragedies? How do I fit into
society? To uncover these concerns surprised me because I had originally expected

to learn about students’ images of ethnically diverse peoples of the world. As it

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turned out, only about half of the students even referred to the ethnicity of the
characters, and most of these references were a means of getting their story started
by placing it geographically.

Actually, it is significant that the students should focus on life’s questions.
They represent the “people part of IR,” as one student called it, which underlies the
interpersonal dynamics of international affairs. Through these narratives I will
demonstrate how the students are grappling with these existential questions and

what they mean to the internationalized curriculum.

E'll' | I II S I

This section of the chapter outlines students’ dilemmas involved in becoming
a part of “the system”; that is, they first recognize how the system works and then
discern how to deal with the roles and expectations of membership in “the system.”
The topics of concern included the role of and relationship to authority and deciding
whether to work inside or outside the system. In this context I understood ”the
system" to mean professional life and work as practitioners in business, government,
and human service institutions because these are the careers students are preparing

themselves to assume after college.

Authority
Several students, particularly white females, focused intently on authority

relationships in their narratives. Basically, they viewed authority as a hierarchical

and patriarchal system in which the authority figure built his power and strength

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through the dependency of subordinates. Sometimes this was done in a benevolent
way; other times it was done in a cruel, domineering way. The authority created this
dependency in his subordinates by playing the role of provider and encouraging
people to rely on him for direction and sustenance. As recipients of authority’s good
will, the subordinates became indebted to authority and consequently felt obligated
to accede to it. As long as the assumptions about this relationship remained intact,
the system prevailed because the relationships between authority and subordinates
were mutually reinforcing.

For example, some students, like Marge, described authority as patriarchal
and kind. In her narrative of Picture #1, she portrayed authority through the father
who worked hard at his job all day and came home to the comforting attention of his
wife and children. As the family’s provider, the father earned his position as the
center of attention who also deserved the special treatment of back rubs and a
comfortable, peaceful home. The mother’s role in the family was to make things run
smoothly, take care of the children, and provide emotional stability to the home. The
daughters learned these proper female roles by imitating their mother.

. . . Maybe she’s rubbing his [the father's] back; he has a sore back from

work. Kind of looks like he’s in pain, but it doesn’t look like severe pain;

maybe his back’s sore, she’s rubbing it. The little girls are picking flowers.

Maybe he’s come home from work. She’s [the mother] probably been taking

care of the kids all day. He’s been hard at work and has come home. Looks

like they’re a hard-working kind of family; don’t have much money. This
image of her reminds me of someone who is very comforting and gives a very
safe feeling, someone who will take care of everything. She’ll probably

continue making dinner, maybe, they’re gathering some stuff there and taking
care of the family, put the kids to bed, like a daily routine. (Marge, #1)

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In this narrative, Marge presented a hierarchical image of authority whereby
the subordinates’ movement within the system was always toward authority—in this
case, the father, who was the breadwinner. Doris illustrated this same hierarchical
image, only she showed another side of this relationship: those who could get
closest to authority received the most benefits. The dictator in Picture #11, like
Marge’s father in Picture #1, was a provider. He provided the soldiers with the
“promise of steady work . . . and a steady diet,“ an important consideration for poor
people. As a result, the soldiers were willing to uphold the authority of the dictator
even ifthey had to suppress their own people. The soldiers’ support of the dictator
was an act of dependency rooted in their own need for survival. This survival theme
occurred again in Doris’s narrative of Picture #8. The Indian peasants accepted the
”religious imperialism” of the Spanish conquistadors who came to the New Wortd
because, through it, they were able to survive the conquerors.

This is a picture of a man carrying a cross, and what this makes me think of

is the spread of Christianity in the New World. . . . And the cross seems to

weigh very heavily on his back, and it makes me think of the forced changing
of religion. . . . It’s not crushing him at all. He’s carrying it because he’s
strong, but it seems to be something that is contrasted with the landscape of
the painting which has to do much more with the natural background, which
may have to do with his original religion which was much more freer and
flowing than the one which he had adopted or which his ancestors had

adopted to stay alive to survive. (Doris, #8)

Some students characterized the hierarchical authority figure as cruel and
unjust, with a pervasive influence over the subordinates. Sandra, for example, saw

the men in Picture #7 as prisoners of the Nazi government who had been rounded

up and sent off to concentration camps. The authorities regarded these prisoners

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as a faceless mass lacking in humanity. They were being "herded to eat or to [go
to] the gas chambers.” The use of the word "herded” implied that the authority
figures treated the prisoners as animals. Likewise, Marge’s wealthy industrialists of
Picture #7 ruled completely over the lives of the miners, who worked long hours in
underground tunnels where they were constantly “covered with soot,” never saw the
light of day, and eventually died of black lung. Their lives were so bad that home
wasn’t even a respite for them because they were too tired from their work to spend
much time with their family. These men were alienated from everyone and
everything.

It was interesting to note that in each of these narratives the authority figures
were talked about a lot, but they were missing from the pictures. One doesn’t see
the dictators of Picture #1 1 or the wealthy industrialists of Picture #7. One only sees
the effects of their power through their subordinates. Randy commented on this
invisible quality of authority, only he made authority even more remote by identifying
it not as an individual but as an institution, e.g., the industrial plant in Picture #7 and
the army in Picture #11.

This man has got a low-income job, definitely. He also looks like he’s

probably from the 19203 or before, sometime during that ugly industrial age

in the US. I bet these guys are just waiting to go home. None of them looks
real happy, just kind of waiting for the day when they don’t have to do this
anymore. I think this is not the same look of pride or satisfaction that was on
the face of the picture [immigrant family in Picture #2] earlier. This man does
what he has to do for whatever reason. (Randy, #7)
This is a Nigerian army recently formed together after, under their own

command, no longer under the British. Probably the 60s, the symbol of their
new nation. All these men are giving up their old way of life, like just the way

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they’re supposed to do, and they’re patriotic and joined the army. (Randy,
#11) _

In other words, Randy painted an even grimmer portrayal of an authority that
exercised absolute power over people but that acted in an amorphous way.

The students were quick to point out that the negative effects of authority did
not take place only among the oppressed workers or concentration camp victims.
The minions who carried out the orders of the authorities were also exploited. Here
the students showed their disgust for these people. Marge’s soldiers in Picture #11
prostituted themselves to the dictator in order to survive. She regarded these men
as pathetic and impotent.

They don’t look like hard-line military people, they look, they’re too nice

looking, or they look too nice to be hard-line military. They don’t look like

they’re threatening even though they have guns. You almost feel sorry for
them because they have to do this, join the army to get food and work.

(Marge, #11)

Sandra’s German soldier had either been ”brainwashed by the propaganda
of Hitler or he’s so afraid not to obey orders that he’ll do anything.” Randy’s account
of the man in Picture #4 entailed a story about ”the product of colonialism, kind of
middle-class civil servant type” and who just “kind of [goes] along with what’s
happening.“ Randy speculated that the man may have sold out to former colonial
interests because "he certainly is not what .we’d like to call the traditional African;
[he’s] somewhat Europeanized.‘ Randy also wondered ifthe man had

accepted bribes or something like that which is always the charge against

African civil servants and their corruption. Or maybe he’sa good civil servant

and is trying to do something legitimate, something good for his own child,
something good for his own country. (Randy, #4)

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The students’ images of hierarchical authority are filled with apprehension and
disgust regarding the ways authority figures assume their roles, as well as the way
they treat their people and their subordinates. However, these images provide clues
about the ways the students see authority figures operate. It is significant that these
students, who are preparing themselves for professional work where they will have
authority or act as subordinates to authority, have such narrow views of what
authority does and how it interacts with others. Perhaps these images of authority
indicate some of the students’ accompanying attitudes and questions about their
ability and willingness to fit into ”the system.“ In the next section, students address

this very issue directly.

llll' I'I DI'IIISI

In a composite look at the students’ narratives, I found that several students
spent time talking about the costs and benefits of working inside “the system.“
Because they were political science majors with an eye toward business,
professional, and human service careers, this made sense that they would have
images and questions about ”the system.” In Picture #1 1, for example, the students
had the soldiers represent the subordinates who had become a part of the system,
the army. Life in the army offered the benefits of improving one’s lot in life, of being
associated with the ruling elite, and of belonging to a group that the masses readily
recognized as authority. However, ten students saw that the cost of being a part of

the system was very dear. The soldiers worked to reinforce the authority’s power

and status in society, which meant that they sometimes were ordered to quell

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discontent among the village people, many of whom were members of their families.
In Picture #11, seven students told narratives about a purposeless system that was
perpetuated in spite of the people’s discontent with it.

I would guess that this is perhaps an army that might not do that well because
they don’t have the necessary drive to be an army of lean, mean fighting
machines. You don’t see that here. You get the feeling that this is more just
a show: ”Hey, we can do this, too.” (George, #11)

After decolonialization it was necessary to create a local militia which, in
theory, would be responsible for defense against aggression. But, of course,
that wasn’t what it was really going to be used for; it was to be used to keep
order as some sort of police force. Luckily, in this particular country the
ethnic clashes were not that pronounced. (T om, #11)

' . . . A lot of times in some countries they pick the soldiers. Anybody can be
a soldier if you agree with the political mood of that time. Swinging with
politics: "Oh so, I decided to become a soldier. . . .” They’re not doing
anything important at this time, so they’re just walking along. (Ellen, #11)

The soldiers wondered whether joining the system was worth it or right for them.

This is in Haiti. lt’sjust after a military coup, and the soldiers have taken over
from a very corrupt dictator in hopes of giving the country back to the people.
And they’re marching right now through the streets. In front of the
presidential palace in the background of this photo. Although some of them
believe that what they did was right and the, it’s kind of like a parade. There’s
people on both sides. They’re thanking the soldiers for what they did.
There’s a couple soldiers in the group that are very skeptical and wondering
if the military power who just took over the government is going to do any
better job. A lot of skeptics in the group. (Fran, #11)

_ But the militia has been wrecked by dissention in the last few years, mostly
dealing over its role in the society at large; all it seems to be good for any
more are troop drills, displays of strength for the regime, which is not a very
stable regime. And so as the soldiers jog, they wonder each themselves,
each individually: what is their role, what is their role in the society? What
can the military’s role be? What can their role be? (T om, #11)

The soldiers saw themselves ceding to a life as pawns of the system, which would

lead to either self-destruction at worst, or boredom at best.

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In this picture I see an army of basically boys, perhaps in Somalia where the
civil war goes on. They’ve been recruited into the army to fight a war that
perhaps [they] don’t have any real interest in. I see the typical recruit of
young men that fight wars that they don’t initiate or have any real benefits to
be gained from. They’re simply just pawns used by the government or the'
powers that be. Just manipulated to their own whims. (Greg, #11)

. . . The men may feel scared and may not know why they’re fighting. . . .
They probably enlisted in the war because they think that maybe they will get
some benefits, that the conditions will be better when they go home, that they
will be able to get jobs and really provide for their families. But they really
don’t know why they’re over here, why they’re fighting or what’s going on.
(Shirley, #1 1)

Who knows how many of these soldiers are enough to go fight battles against
their own people, even though they joined the army thinking they were going
to protect them or thinking that they were going to do something with what
happens today in Liberia with a unified African force. (Randy, #11)

These students also outlined the advantages and disadvantages of
conforming to the system through a discussion of Picture #10. For example, two
students admitted that conformity assured safety and security.

These women, they’re in a small village and there seems to be, there’s going
to be some trouble that may arise in this village . . . and they’re going back to
their place where they stay in their little hut to stay there and wait for the
husband to come so he can give her the directions of what to do. (Denise,
#10)

. . . Yeah, this is sad, they were fleeing East Pakistan, which is now
Bangladesh, and they went over into the asylum region of India because it
was really close to their border and they were trying to escape Western
Pakistani aggression and harm to their families. And they went over to
asylum because culturally or rather ethnically, they’re not that different and
they’re refugees and they’re just trying to get by and it’s really sad. But today
in 1994 they’re probably still in the same predicament because there’s not a
lot of money to take Care of them, so it’s just really too bad. (Jane, #10)

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Four students believed that conformity to the system assured them a role and an
identity. However, a suspicious and foreboding tone pervaded the students”
narratives about the price of conformity to the system:

._. . Couple women walking, they’re on their way to the market, perhaps, to
purchase some food for the family. They don’t have a lot of money, they’ll get
some vegetables that are brought up from the south. They have to take care
of the children. The men are out with the animals right now. They’re
responsible, they have to tend to the chores of the day, such as getting the
water so they’ll get some of the food they brought up from the south. Later
they’ll be responsible for preparing the meals, having things ready for the
men and the boys coming back from the herds, the herds being an important
part of their life. It’s this strict Islamic culture, at least in relationship to the
women. They have very few freedoms. Controlled by their husbands.
They’re meant to be the standard good wives. They don’t really question
what’s going on, it’sjust how their mothers were and their grandmothers were
and that’s how they are and that’s how they’ll pass on to their daughters they
have there with them for the daily chores. (Alan, #10)

. . . The young girl is looking at the child. . . . She’s looking, maybe she’s
approaching the age when she’s starting to think about motherhood. Maybe
the look she’s giving this child is: "Gosh, what will I have to do when this is
my turn?" Maybe the look that she gives conveys that sense of “I’m going to

be growing up soon. This is the way that life is.” (George, #10)

I looked at individual students’ narratives that addressed the problem of
dealing with the system. For example, the major thrust of Frank’s narratives was a
metaphoric search for finding a place in the system. He characterized this search
through the continual mentioning of his characters’ eyes. These characters were
looking for something, but did not know what it was. His narratives were also filled
with characters who found life and work monotonous, alienating, lonely, and
impersonal. Yet they remained paralyzed from taking action and instead sat back

passively and watched others. For example, the miners in Picture #7 hated their

lives but accepted them as their destiny.

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. . . They’re all just going to be tired and not very happy. They certainly don’t
enjoy their work, but the expression on the faces, even though they’re not
happy, they just have to deal with it. This is what we do. And after they leave
for today, they’re going to come back the next day and go through exactly the

same thing. . . . (Frank, #7)

In Picture #6, Frank noticed that the ‘man in dark glasses stood on the
sidelines, out of view, watching the woman dance. He saw the spectacle she had
made of herself, yet he remained "quiet to himself” and did not intervene. It was
difficult to know what the man was thinking or feeling. Frank's narrative of Picture
#5 perhaps illuminated the key problem of fitting into the system: having a
relationship with others. For example, the man in the back in the t-shirt watched
another man tell a story to a small gathering ofpeople. He sat there thinking that life
could be acted on instead ofjust being observed.

Frank’s narratives pointed to another common theme among the students
who addressed the problem of fitting into the system: individuals lack a choice in
determining their lives. But a few students could find their way through the system.
Jane, for example, illustrated her strategy in Picture #9 whereby a chef of lower-
class status set aside his hatred of the elite class and instead concentrated on what
he could do for them.

I think this man is like in absolute bliss. "Those people there are kind of

obnoxious but I’ll just pretend they don’t exist.” In fact, in this man’s eyes,

they’re not even around because all he cares about is his food and the fact
that he’s, well, he’s already prepared it and he really is a chef, or he’s helped
in the preparation of this food. And now he wants to make sure that it’s
delivered to the guests in the proper way so that everything is on its plate in
nice, neat fashion. And it’s got to be pretty; got to be aesthetic. So he’s just

making sure that these people eat his meal, the way he wants them to. I like
this one. (Jane, #9)

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The last two lines of Jane’s narrative are key to uncovering her projected
image of the chef who wanted to make sure the elites “eat his meal the way he
wants them to." This statement is a metaphoric “force feeding” of the elites into
attitudes that Jane espouses. However, implicit in this act of ”force feeding" is
Jane’s image of the elites as controlling the system. Jane was only trying to get
them to make the system work to her liking. In this sense she is invested in a
hierarchical system where decisions are made at the top.

Frank agreed with Jane that the system needed to be changed. But he
suggested that the workers themselves adopt an attitude of purpose to help them
overcome their dismal lives rather than wait for the elites to change them. He
suggested that “helping out other people” (#12) or getting things “back to a normal
way of life the next day” (#1) were good strategies for change. Such a change in
attitude was a way in which subordinates in the system could accept responsibility
for their own actions.

Steve agreed with Frank that developing an attitude of working for a purpose
was a good strategy, only he believed that this purpose should be to survive the best
one could, even though it might be antithetical to a good life.

. . . This woman looks like she’s crying. What could have made her start

crying? It could be anything. I don’t know. Maybe her husband beat her.

Maybe she just found out her son just got killed in the revolution. . . . This

woman could, she’s going to stop crying, get up, she’s going to say: “I’m tired

of this stuff.” She’s going to run out. She’s going to raise up her two
daughters good, and one day they’re going to leave Guatemala to a wholly

democratic government that is separate from any influence of America.
(Steve, #1)

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Tom tried to deal with the system by finding his way through the fears and
doubts of having to live with an outmoded system. He used Picture #8 to tell a
mythic tale about a slave girl who found the right attitude to effect a plan for dealing
with the system. I recount it here in its entirety.

This is a picture that hung on the wall of a white slave owner. The man at the
house, the white slave owner, had taken an interest in one of the female
slaves that he owned when she was very young, 15 or 16, and he raped her.
But he felt guilty about it afterwards and so he provided her with some
clandestine education and it soon came out that she liked painting and
wanted to paint pictures. And he provided her the opportunity to do so. This
is the first thing that she painted [Picture #8]. And he asked her what it was
and she said, ”This is the plight of my people; this is what you do to us.“ And
the man, of course, is quite surprised by this and thought that the girl actually
had come to have an affection for him, and she has, but she can’t get past
the fact that he’s white and owns her. She should be able to pass this fact
but can’t and he doesn’t understand this and so he whacks her. And she just
stands and takes it and doesn’t run or cower. And this infuriates him all the
more, and he hits her again and he hits her again. She falls down and breaks
her arm, hits her head, is taken back out to the fields, and dies a couple
weeks later. And he has the picture and can’t figure out what to do with it.
He feels horrible, sometimes. Sometimes he feels horrible, sometimes he
feels like lt’sjust about to happen. And he hangs the picture up to remind him
of his guilt, but he doesn’t free the slaves. (Tom, #8)

Taking into consideration Tom’s own career objective1 about being an
advisor to politicians, his narrative of Picture #8 was one in which he aspired to
adopt the attitude of the slave girl who was able to keep her spiritual center intact
despite her master's need to overpower and suppress her. Here Tom identified how
personal strength would not only guide him through ”the system," but it would allow

him to live with purpose and confidence.

 

1This narrative is an example of how students’ biographical context provided
clues that led to my interpretation of the narrative.

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Commentary

In this section the students shared their images of ”the system.“ It is an
impersonal entity, often invisible,'that is ruled by a hierarchical, patriarchal figure
who has absolute power and authority over others and is often cruel and unjust to
his people. Maintaining power is authority’s chief concern, and subordinates are
obliged to help authority in this pursuit. Although the students recoiled from
complete accession to "the system,“ most nonetheless wanted to be a part of it.
”The system" offered the benefits of security, identity, and association with authority.
However, the price they thought they must pay for these benefits was that they
would be involved in perpetuating something that threatened their own individuality
and self-expression. This was the crux of their dilemma.

With this image of ”the system,” the students mused in their narratives about
what conformity to “the system" would mean. For example, of the 19 students, 5
were willing to conform to ”the system" but refused to be forced to do something that
went against their principles. Four students were willing to accept “the system”
because they would probably cope with it by bonding with others. Six students
spoke about living with the fear or uncertainty that conformity brought. Only three
students preferred to opt out of the system. Students’ willingness to be a part of “the
system” perhaps also came out of a recognition that society was shaped by its
pe0ple. The next section looks at students’ images of a nonhierarchical authority

system and offers an alternative interaction among members of such a society.

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I [Bll' I. . C .I

The students’ narratives provide images about how they see people relating
to each other in a nonhierarchical system—that is, in a community. These images
offer instructive and moralistic scenarios of what happens when people make a
commitment to each other rather than to an authority figure. In this section I highlight
three woman students who provided the most comprehensive and intricate images
of community among the students and whose narratives focused most directly on the

qualities of these relationships.

Bll' I'B I C 'I IIQII

Denise’s conception of relationship was based on people’s willingness to
spend time together and to be present to one another.
This man worked. He had a long day. While driving home from work he had
been thinking about his children and just spending some quality time. Maybe
going for a walk and just having a good time with his family. So he, when he
got out of the car, his little son ran to him and he had his ball and he got his
son and they took a walk in the garden. And they played with the ball and
just spent quality time as a father and son together. And they stayed in the
garden for hours and then they returned home to eat dinner with the rest of
the family. (Denise, #4)
The father in Picture #4 came home from work and spent “hours walking in the
garden“ with his son. We do not know what the father and son said or did while they
were in the garden, but it was clear that the bond between them was strengthened
as a result of spending time together. Time together, Denise stressed, gave people
the opportunity to build strong families because they were able to develop a bond

of trust in each other.

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The father and son of Picture #4 came out of the garden different from before
they entered it, but Denise did not say how. Instead she intimated that this bond had
a hidden quality that could not be predicted or called on at will. And she did not
name these qualities; instead, through the structure of her narrative, she left the
readers/listeners to think about their own relationships.

Denise also addressed the ways a bond of trust manifested itself. For
example, a woman in Picture #6 noticed that her dancing friend was going too far
with the men. Denise’s narrative focused on the two women’s interactions.

This lady, she had a long day at work and she just thought about having a

good time later on that night. So her and some of her friends went to a club.

She got, had had a few too many drinks and she got on the dance floor and

she’s having a good time, really not aware of what’s going on. And men are

looking at her and some are even razzing on her. And she still is just having

a good time. And one of her girlfriends, who she came to the club with, got

her off the dance floor, made her set down and calm herself down because

the way she was going, she was about to get into some trouble. And after

she had calmed down a little bit, the girlfriend took her home. (Denise, #6)
The girlfriend intervened by sparing the dancing woman from potential harm she
might have later regretted. It is interesting to note that the dancing woman did not
resist her friend’s action even though she may or may not have understood what she
was doing at the time. The bond between the two women allowed them to trust in
each other's judgment and to care for each other when they needed it.

Denise’s image of relationship also included people taking time to share the
joys of life with each other. For example, the characters of her narratives had parties

and gatherings to celebrate such things as the pride of a son’s college graduation

(#9), a girl’s coming of age (#5), a boy’s assumption into manhood (#11), or an old

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woman’s birthday (#13). Overall, Denise’s characters were animated, enthusiastic,
and interested in each other’s lives.

Commitment to others in community is complex because it involves making
conflicting choices about the ways people lead their lives together. One of the more
difficult conflicts is the quandary between individuals’ rights and the group’s rights.
Mary posed this dilemma in Picture #10, which I present in its entirety.

We are in the neighboring country of the picture with the mosque. The girl

with the blue skirt is being reprimanded by her two elders because she didn’t

wear her veil when she went out. She foolishly went on an errand for her
other sister, who’s out with a boy. Heaven forbid it’s her older sister. She
was going to warn the sister that Mom and Aunt were coming. She got
busted before she left the house without her veil, not thinking. So now she’s
in trouble. Although she’s a very good girl; she loves her family very much.
She was trying to look out for her sister. They try to look out for each other",
they’re a close family. Sometimes they get into a little mischief. So that’s the
problem, she’s being reprimanded. In the future, she knows never to go out
without her veil. I see her being a very well-rounded woman in the end. In
her society she won’t be able to go very far in terms of career advancement,
but I don’t think that necessarily has to be an important issue for her because
she’s a very good mother and she relates well. This little rebellion that she

lived now at this time in her life helped her understand better, she’s not
always the goody-goody. (Mary, #10)

Mary told a story about how the community held its people to certain
expectations, regardless of extenuating circumstances. At first glance one might
deem that forgetting to wear a veil outdoors would not be a serious infraction of
custom, especially when the young girl’s intention wasto save her sister from a more
pressing concern. The young girl judged her loyalty to her sister more important
than her adherence to the community’s custom. Although we might see her act as
admirable, the girl learned that following the rules and customs of the community

were more important than her individual or even her sister’s concerns.

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Mary did not debate this question. Instead, she mentioned that the young
woman learned from her mistake and grew into a ”well-rounded woman" and a ”very
good mother” who ”relates well” with the rest of her society. Mary told a story about
an individual’s acceptance of the community’s expectations. Wearing a veil was
something young women were expected to do as members of this particular
community. However, the issue was not about which garb to wear. The veil
represented the girl’s identity with and commitment to the community. To forget to
wear it was a sin against the community.

Mary’s conclusion to the story was that the veil incident helped the young girl
understand that ”she is not a goody-goody.” In other words, the girl did not choose
to wear the veil because she was obligated. She wore it because she had
committed herself to the community. Following custom without understanding the
principle behind it was innocence. It was what a ”goody-goody" would do. Following
custom and knowing its significance was what shaped the girl into a ”well-rounded”

adult and a good mother and solidified her commitment to community.

I I I I [B I I' I .

Whereas Denise and Mary illustrated the outcomes of commitment in
relationship, Martha had an image of relationship in community that concentrated on
interconnectedness. Through interconnectedness, members learned to adapt their
relationships to changing circumstances. Martha’s narrative of Picture #1 captured
this phenomenon most clearly. I provide it in its entirety and divide it into four parts

to show how the relationship between the two women developed.

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The woman lying down in pain is the mother of the two children. And the
woman who is standing over her seems to be someone from her community
who either has a mother role or a healing role because this mother who is
laying down looks like she’s in pain. I don’t know if perhaps she had an
accident with what looks like weaving in the background or if maybe she just
feels ill.

But she’s curled up; she obviously can’t care for herself or for the children,
who are just doing their own thing in the background. So she doesn’t look
like the type of person who would have called someone in to help her out
unless it was absolutely necessary. There’s something that’s very wrong and
she doesn’t know what the cause of what is wrong because she tries to be
very independent, and when you’re a mother, you don’t want to go back to
being the child.

So the woman who’s come to help her is obviously someone who is very
important to her. She’s brought along some different healing herbs and some
water in the background to do the best she can with what she has to make
this woman feel better. I think that eventually she will feel better, but I think
that looking at where she is and the little comfort she has, it’s not a
permanent wellness. She’s going to have a hard life and she’s going to do
the best she can.

The pivotal part of this picture, and I’m not sure if this is what you want from
these pictures, but what I see in this picture is three generations and each
one will in its time take its turn to take care of each other. And whether it’s
the mother of the two children that needs help now or the children who later
grow up to take care of the older woman, it doesn’t really matter because
obviously in this community, they take care of each other, even if they don’t

have a lot. (Martha, #1)

In Part One, the sick woman and the healing woman encountered each other
as two independent individuals. The sick woman needed to be healed, and she
depended on the healing woman’s skills. In Part Two the sick woman tried ”to be
very independent” because she didn’t ”want to go back to being the child.” That is,
she believed her illness would make her dependent on others, and she feared this

prospect. In Part Three the sick woman realized that ”it’s not a permanent wellness”

and that she needed to find a new way to live. She could not be as independent as

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she once had been. Part Four showed the sick woman’s new attitude: she was no
longer ashamed of being sick and dependent because ”obviously in this community,
they take care of each other.” She knew she would be cared for, just as she had
cared for her mother before her and her daughter when she was a baby.

Martha’s narrative illustrated her image of relationship as fluid and
interconnected because the members must respond to constantly changing
conditions. This image surfaced in Martha’s other stories, only sometimes it involved
risk. For example, the family in Picture #2 was too poor to provide for all the
children, so the mother and father decided to put all their resources, hopes, and
dreams for the future into their oldest son ”to make sure that he gets what he needs
to succeed.” Martha set up this precarious situation to demonstrate the myriad
feelings involved with making commitments. She helped her readers/listeners
empathize and understand the courage and restraint it took for the family to follow
through on their choice. ”Grandma” in Picture #13 showed a similar restraint when
she allowed her sons to prepare the family meal.

This is Grandma, and she is definitely the head of the house. . . . She can’t

get over being his mother, and she’s helping him pour, even though he is an

adult and can definitely pour the drink or the wine or whatever for himself.

She’s sitting back and allowing them to do whatever it is they have to do to

get the meal ready. (Martha, #13)
Even though she had fixed meals ”a million times” and ”probably better,” the
grandmother allowed her sons to ”take their places as adults in the family and do

their share of the work.” She realized that her sons wanted to contribute to the

family in their own way, too. So she backed off and let them.

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Commentary

As I reflect on these narratives, I find that commitment and
interconnectedness strike an interesting image of interpersonal relationships that can
be compared to another image, the yin-yang energy of tai-chi movements. The
fonrvard movement of yang energy produces a counterbalance to the backward
movement of yinenergy. Together, yin-yangcreatea beautiful ”dance.“ This is the
give-and-take attitudethat comes through Denise’s, Martha’s, and Mary’s narratives.
Too much yin or too much yang upsets the balance. Knowing each person’s
strengths and weaknesses helps in applying suitable counterweights, especially
when changing conditions affect the balance. So restraint and reciprocity are
required in order to maintain the ”dance.” This is how relationships are maintained.

These narratives also provide an alternative image of society that is different
from the dreaded hierarchical ”system.” In Denise’s, Mary’s, and Martha’s image of
community, order in the society is established by people who are guided by a
responsibility and commitment to each other rather than by a conformity to the
authority. These narratives convey a sense of order that is less bound by rules and

more attentive to people’s needs.

II S III II II . IE [I'll

One other concern that emerged from the students’ narratives was a search
for the meaning and purpose of life. Male students were especially articulate on this
theme. In their narratives they had their characters confront difficult situations that

necessitated reflection on their own being and purpose in life in order to decide on

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what action and attitudes they would take. Throughout their narratives, the students
also conveyed their characters’ sense of responsibility toward others in their
community. However, the foundation for these attitudes sprang from each

character’s own understanding and development of a self-image.

E|"E 'I'E

I found Randy very philosophical by nature. Throughout the interviews he
expressed himself as a man who spent much time diligently searching life’s
questions and mysteries. In his narratives he was especially attentive to the ways
people were able to feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in their lives.
One way Randy cited was through choosing an attitude to address one’s life
situation. For example, the ”faceless young men” in Picture #12 lived in the "poor
section of an Asian city” and spent a lifetime shoveling mud. Although it was not
much, it was the best they could do to earn a living. As a result, they felt a sense of
accomplishment because they knew they were ”survivors.” ”They do whatever they
have to do. And they’ll go home and they’ll go out and they’ll do it again. It is just
their life. They’ve accepted it rightly or wrongly” (Randy, #12).

Randy told a narrative about the members of a poor family in Picture #2 who
decided to uproot themselves from their homeland in order to start all over again to
make a better life. They reaped satisfaction as a result because they had made a
decision to do something about their lives and were following through on it. Randy
pointed out that the woman was ”a very, very proud-looking woman so whatever it

is they’ve done, it seems like they’re happy with what happened.” And even though

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the man did ”some kind of grungy work” in a coal mine, he had enough ”obviously
[to] pay the bills” and ”have a roof over his head and his family.”

Randy contrasted these characters with those in Pictures #7 and #8, who
lacked purpose. The miners in Picture #7 awaited the day of deliverance when they
no longer had to work such terrible jobs or live such awful lives. Likewise, the Indian
in Picture #8 was forced to carry the cross of colonial Spain, a symbol of the
oppression of his people and the loss of their traditional way of life.

This man has got a low-income job, definitely. He also looks like he’s

probably from the 19203 or before, sometime during that ugly industrial age

in the US. I bet these guys are just waiting to go home. None of them looks
real happy, just kind of waiting for the day when they don’t have to do this
anymore. I think this is not the same look of pride or satisfaction that was on
the face of the picture [immigrant family of Picture #23] earlier. This man

does what he has to do for whatever reason. (Randy, #7)

I see this as a symbolic reference to what looks like probably an Indian,

Native American in South America, an lncan or descendant of an lncan.

Basically, carrying his own cross the way Jesus did to what amOunts to his

own crucifixion. lthink he is the traditional life that’s been destroyed for the

sake of something that was meant to be better. But I don’t think he’s bearing
this cross willingly. (Randy, “#8)
These people were victims of society because they did not choose a direction for
their lives and consequently had no purpose for living.

Greg also focused on this theme of purposefulness and offered some insight
into how people attained it. His poor farmer in Picture #8 endured hardship and
oppression just as Randy’s Indian and miners. Yet, like Randy’s poor family of
Picture #2 and young Asian men of Picture #12, the farmer did not feel exploited

because he did not allow others to tell him who he was or how he should live. He

did not play the victim, either. Greg’s farmer was a man of independence and

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dignity, believing what he believed, not what someone else told him to believe. He
was a man of purpose who could not be easily discouraged. ”I can tell by the look
on his face that he’s proud and strong,” said Greg, because if he must bear a cross,
he would choose his own way of carrying it.

Greg also used the example of the chef in Picture #9 to trace the means by
which a person developed a sense of purpose. The chef was reflecting on his class
status with resentment and jealousy because ”he’s a very middle-class person, he
works in a nice restaurant to feed the people who are rather wealthy, who can afford
to eat in a fine place that serves food like this” (Greg, #9). Greg’s point was that the
chef chose his attitude, and he did not grovel in self-pity about what he did not have.
The chef focused on who he was, what he had to offer, and how he could do his
work. This was another man who refused to play the victim. He was a man of
purpose. And here lay Greg’s other point: victims lack purpose and wait for others
either to tell them what to do or to give them what they need. People of purpose,
however, make choices about how they respond to their situations because they
take responsibility for their lives.

Alan’s image of purposefulness came from a societal perspective, whereas
Randy and Greg focused more on the individual’s attitudes. Alan discussed how
things outside a person afforded his characters purpose and dignity while they
simultaneously helped to establish and maintain the social order. He illustrated this

point through Picture #8, whose setting was in the post-Civil War period, a time of

132

great disorder and social upheaval. His character was a former slave who found his
real freedom through work.

. . . It was right that they [the former slaves] shouldn’t throw in the towel and

say, ”Forget it, I’m going to kill the big man over there and steal his big house

’cause I know we can do it. There’s forty of us and three of them. We can

have all he has.” That’s not what you want to pursue. You want to pursue

the biblical teachings in life. You know, the work ethic. If you can carry your
burden, your cross that’s been placed upon you by others just as Jesus had

a burden placed upon him, then you will get your reward in the future. (Alan,

#8)

Alan said that the former slaves did not rebel against their former masters
because they believed that if they worked hard, they would be rewarded. They also
knew that their reward might not come in this life, but it might come to their children.
Consequently, for Alan, work became central to stabilizing society because people
who worked had a stake in the future. They had purpose. This theme emerged
again in Picture #11, too, as the black soldiers tried to ”make something of
themselves in the white man’s world” and then would ”be able to show the folks back
home that this poor black kid from southern Mississippi can do something for himself
other than just sitting around.” That is, these men had jobs, a significant
accomplishment for poor people. And the effect on these men was great because,
as soldiers, they attained a sense of self-respect, purpose, and meaning for the first
time in their lives. ”For the first time seeing the rest of the world and for the first time
having people see them as being someone with position and authority and power,
and most of them are liking that pretty much” (Alan, #11).

Alan claimed that work established and maintained order in society in another

way. Through their work, people had roles to play that gave them an identity as well

133

as a purpose. For example, throughout Alan’s narratives he referred to people in
their roles as farmers (#2), shopkeepers and clerks (#3), laborers (#5, #8), miners
(#7), city workers (#12), patriarchs (#9), and matriarchs (#13). He talked about how
gender roles helped to keep the society together by taking care of daily needs:
women went to market, took care of the children, drew water, and prepared meals
while the men were ”out with the animals” (#10). In Picture #7 he showed how the
miners worked hard, monotonous, dirty, low-wagejobs where ”there’s not a lot ofjoy
to it.” But they submitted themselves to such drudgery because it gave them
purpose: they were providing for their families.

But they consider themselves lucky to have a job, working, able to provide

something to their families, not a lot, but they’re able to provide. The future

for these men right here is probably what yesterday was and what tomorrow’s
going to be: they’ll go in the shafts, they’ll work, and just hope to scratch on
by. They pretty much have a wash on their lives, they don’t see themselves
getting much more than this, but they can do more for their children and keep
the family, then they’ll consider themselves having succeeded, at least to

some level. (Alan, #7)

Roles were seen by other students as an extremely important component for
ordering society because people derived purpose from them. Greg elaborated on
this idea by talking about how people with different roles worked together and
complemented one another in order to achieve a common goal, namely, to make a
good society together. They found vibrancy and bonding in each other’s effort as a
result. For example, Greg maintained that one of the major goals of community was
to socialize the children into the roles they would play as members of the community.

. . . They are in an agricultural-based setting where they work hard to plant

the crops and do the work and everybody in the village takes, has a special
role of what they do. The children are involved in the work of the village, and

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they work all day and plant crops. The men go out and hunt, although the
women may hunt as well. (Greg, #5)

Greg’s image of community was one in which everyone was focused on
providing for the life and order of the community. The people established order
through a rhythm and a routine: they worked during the day, ate with the family in
the evening, and visited each other at night. They had a common purpose, felt a
responsibility toward each other, and derived a sense of unity among. themselves.
Greg used this same theme of purposefulness and responsibility to describe the two
young men of Picture #12, who helped the community by digging it out of a recent
mud slide.

[They] are working together to help save the place where they grew up. They

have a sense of responsibility, a sense of community. . . . The important thing

is that they’re working together as a group to help the village be maintained.

(Greg, #12)

”Back-breaking work” did not scare them away because they knew they were
working together to accomplish a goal. ”The village will really value their work and
positively reinforce their value to the society.” In other words, the two young men felt
good about themselves because they knew they were contributing to something that
was bigger than themselves. They acted responsibly toward the society, and this
responsibility bred their own purposefulness.

Randy’s, Alan’s, and Greg’s narratives recall the quality of community life that
Denise, Martha, and Mary talked about in their narratives. They mirror the feeling

the characters experienced as a result of committing themselves to each other as

a community. There was also a complementarity evident in the two approaches: the

135

women concentrated on the people’s feelings of closeness in community while the
men focused on their feelings of purposefulness in community. However, both the
men and the women emphasized the quality of interconnectedness, which was
especially needed when people were challenged to adapt their lives and their

relationships to the demands of a situation.

9|" E II ISIE-I E I'

The black males were concerned about a purposeful life, too, but they differed
from Greg, Alan, and Randy by insisting that one go through a personal
transformation before they enlist others to follow their leadership. Mark explained
this process in Picture #9. I provide it here in its entirety.

Beforehand, I see this chef thinking about what to prepare, what should he
prepare for this feast here. He knows the usual stuff, but he wants something
different. He contemplates some unique dishes, unique pastries, but he asks
his boss about this, but his boss just says to stick with the basics because
this group of people does not like a variation, changes. Just don’t be
creative. Just give them the usual food and that should be fine. This guy, he
goes along with it but he’s not happy with it, so he cooks his food and now it’s
here and the guests love it and he wishes he could change the menu
sometimes. He doesn’t like being stagnant, he likes being productive. He
likes to learn new things, but he can’t do that in this restaurant because
everyone who eats here wants the same thing. So he says to himself he’ll
leave, maybe he’ll start his own restaurant so he can cook and have variety
of different meals he can offer to people. So he cooks here for some time
and afterwards he does open his own restaurant and he becomes very
successful, a very successful chef such that people [come] from all over the
area. He cooks and he cooks, and he knows that even though he is happy
now, that he had to go through this other stage first. He had to go through
that little point first to get to where he is now. The stage before, he is very
successful now. He enjoys cooking. He has his own kitchen now, moving
very positively. (Mark, #9)

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The chef in Picture #9 was only able to give to others when he made a
commitment to himself. The restaurant owner he worked for ”feeds” his customers’
desire for ”the basics because this group of people does not like a variation,
changes. ’Just don’t be creative [the boss tells him]. Just give them the usual food
and that should be fine.” But the chef wanted to present his customers with a
variety of meals. So he left his job and started his own restaurant. Here he could
offer what he wanted, only then did he feel successful. As the chef reflected on his
success and his transformation, he realized that ”he had to go through this other
stage first, to go through that little point first to get to where he is now.” This step
made all the difference, but he had to take a risk and commit himself to an idea first.
Like Greg’s, Randy’s, and Alan’s characters, Mark’s chef took responsibility for his
own actions. And once he had an image of what he wanted to do or to get out of life,
he was able to commit himself to it.

The chefs commitment to himself, which I call genuine commitment, is
different from raw commitment. Raw commitment is born out of a sense of obligation
and can result in resentment, anger, or self-destruction, as represented by Mark’s
story of the young soldiers in Picture #11: they must obey orders to march toward
the president’s palace and overtake him in a coup. Mark pointed out that many
soldiers ”don’t feel comfortable to talk about it [the proposed coup] because they
realize dangers ofthat.” Genuine commitment, on the other hand, is a more difficult

burden to carry out. It is about striving for truth and one’s convictions and paying the

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price. Mark illustrated this kind of commitment through the man carrying the cross
in Picture #8.

Beforehand, I see a man who has been an outcast in society. I see a man
who has spoken the truth yet others didn’t want to hear the truth. I see a man
who has tried to live righteously, but too many unrighteous persons or
environments would not let him survive. He’s condemned by his people,
society, condemned by everyone around him. And now he is carrying the
burdens of his words. (Mark, #8)

However, Mark reminded his readers/listeners that remaining steadfast to one’s
beliefs, despite the cost, reinforced one’s own commitment to a cause. He
concluded Picture #8:

Afterward, I see him walking through this sea here and crossing the other

side. He sees the land, he touches the land and feels at home. He’s by

himself now. He feels that he is where he should be. He feels that others will
join him. He feels that he has a sign to stay put and keep on speaking the
message which he had spoken for so long. He feels that he shall be
redeemed and will survive. He knows it’s been a long process but he has
never-ending faith in the Creator so he knows that he must carry the burden
of his words until others listen. But until that time, he must continue. (Mark,

#8)

For Mark, the key in one’s commitment to others lay in being true to oneself.
It may entail stepping away from the crowd and bearing the discomfort and
uncertainty of change, but it was the way one could act responsibly. Then there was
no need of waiting for someone else’s approval.

Finally, Mark demonstrated different situations in which self-transformation
took place within the context of the community. For example, it occurred when each
member was committed to each other, as with the immigrant family in Picture #2:

. . . I see them as experiencing hard times, currently in terms of their dress

and dirt on their clothes. I see them as a farming family, maybe in the
Midwest. They work hard for a living. They don’t make very much, they

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really work hard, but the family’s committed to one another. They’re strong
and depend on one another. . . . (Mark, #2)

It occurred when the people were grounded in God in a way that allowed them to
understand who they were and where they were going as in Picture #3.

Beforehand, I see them waking to the daily rituals or the prayer of the house
in the morning time. I see them set for another day to follow the path of the
Creator. I see them religiously fit experiences in one with the Creator. They
have a purpose and a distinct belief in what they’re doing and they won’t let
anything stop them. (Mark, #3)

It occurred When the people were grounded in the community’s tradition, as did the
newly married couple in Picture #5.

I see the tradition carrying on, their cultural traditions. I see them very
important to them, even though they’re the younger generation. They
understand their culture, traditions, and ways they respect them. And they
live their life like their ancestors, like their grandparents. They really
understand who they are. They work as hard as they can to get it. (Mark, #5)

Mark spoke about personal transformation as God-inspired and community-
reinforced. As a result, people were directed toward a purpose on earth. However,
these transformations were inner-oriented, hidden, and silent. George called
attention to this particular quality by focusing on compassion and respect toward
human frailty. He represented the outward sign of these processes through a look,
an object, a simple action as shown in Picture #4.

. . . He certainly likes his son. He has a personal bond to the son. . . . He

looks like the kind of person that for him the son is an incredible joy. The look

on his face is a serious look or at least it could be a first look that is serious,
but there is, if you look closely, you can see there’s a smile on his face. He’s

a serious person, probably well aware of good, bad in the world and has

probably grown as a person from that. You see that in his face. It’s not

stubbornness, but it’s a seriousness that comes with deeper understanding
of things. (George, #4)

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Behind the father’s smile was a serious look of knowing the good and bad of the
world very deeply. The father contemplated that these were the things that his little
son would need to learn on his own journey through life. George illustrated this
compassion and respect in Picture #1 , too, where the woman’s silent but supportive
caress strengthened her friend, who was being persecuted for his political beliefs.

. . . She’s certainly trying to comfort the person as are the children coming to
the rescue. This is not something immediate, this has not just happened.
Otherwise the reaction of the people would have been different. This is
something that the person has had this happen or the incident has occurred
some time ago, either a few hours or such. The person probably doesn’t
have access to adequate health care, or it may be that if he has, political
torture of some sorts that he’s afraid to seek additional help. It could be that
this is the only help that is available to him now. (George, #1)

In Picture #2 the faces of a loving but poor family remained determined and proud
de3pite hard times. They might not have had much in the way of material comfort,
but they had much in emotional support because they had each other.

. . . The family is ragged and certainly poor and certainly dirty. But they’re a
family and there are smiles on this family. This is a loving family; if nothing
else they have a deep love for one another. The man, well, everyone’s face
is worn, the man’s face is worn especially. He's wearing what looks like a
make-shift pair of work boots. So certainly the family toils. It doesn’t look like
an abusive home. He has an arm around his daughter; the other hand is
blocked and is probably on his wife. His wife is holding an infant and she’s
smiling. The smiles in this picture are not staged or the type of photographed
smiles that you often see. This is a family that has come on hard times and
has continued to successfully continue that nucleus of love that should make
up a family. (George, #2)

The miners’ heaviness, despair, and defeat in Picture #7 was conveyed through one
man’s expression. However, it connoted a unity of suffering among all the miners.

. . . The man has a very dirty face. But the look on his face is that of
someone who’s felt that they’re almost beaten. There’s a difference between

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someone who gives up and someone who is still reeling from that punch.
This person is reeling from that punch. (George, #7)

Finally, in Picture #10 a young girl’s ”questioning look” crystallized her anticipation
and fear of her impending initiation into motherhood and all its responsibilities.
The young girl is looking at the child. . . . Maybe she’s approaching the age
when she’s starting to think about motherhood. Maybe the look she’s giving
this child is: ”Gosh, what will I have to do when this is my turn?” Maybe the
look that she gives conveys that sense of ”I’m going to be growing up soon.”
This is the way life is. (George, #10)
George’s narratives represented subtle actions expressed in a brief moment.
They were an articulation of the acceptance and understanding of humanness that
led to a self-transformation. However, self-transformation was so subtle that George
warned of its visibility: ”Only if you look closely can you see.” Moreover, George
offered no gimmicks, answers, or techniques for seeing or experiencing one’s
humanness except that one must ”deal with it as best you can.” Yet, despite
George’s patience and compassion for individuals engaged in self-transformation,
he knew, too, that life was about joy and celebration. He also knew that, sometimes,
the most appropriate thing a person could do was drink to the occasion, as in Picture
#13, or to hold on tightly to each other and dance, as in Picture #6.
She’s not drinking to get drunk, I don’t think. Although she could surprise us
all. It could be an occasion. The label on this wine bottle looks like it’s
probably been around for quite some time; it’s worn and torn, and there are
fragments of it clinging to the bottle. Perhaps it was saved for an occasion
such as this one now. (George, #13)
Here we have a scene that looks like an outright party. . . . Maybe this is a
wedding. Maybe this is a bar mitzvah. Maybe this is, the writing underneath
of whatever it is they’re holding commemorates this event. Perhaps they won

something. . . . I don’t think this is a conservative society because of the beer
bottles there. Because of the celebration that’s going on, this isn’t a serious,

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special deal. . . . The people off to the side that are, it looks like either
pointing or poking the woman who’s dancing. I would guess that the close,
physical, playful contact is indicative that they’re all friends, maybe family.
Maybe she’s the youngest in the family: the kid sister that’s grown up and
getting married, and all the brothers are around her poking her and playing
with her like that. There’s certainly no maliciousness. But their actions
suggest that this is a very close, this is a very close people. . . . The man has
his arm around her. They could be man and wife, lovers, orjust friends. . . .
These are two people who are a pair and are at a function where something
they’ve done or had done to them as a pair is being celebrated. (George, #6)

Commentary

The narratives in this section, like those in the previous section, offer an
important look into students’ images of life in a community. Members have a sense
of responsibility and commitment toward others and themselves. They cultivate
integrity and self-respect through their work and their relationships. They are able
to articulate a purpose and a meaning to life for themselves. They end up with a
commitment to the community, but each is motivated by a different process. Denise,
Martha, and Mary tried to create an environment that helped the members
understand their bonding and interconnectedness to each other, as well as their
feelings of empathy and mutual respect for each other. Greg, Alan, Mark, and
Randy tried to be responsive to what they regarded as their responsibilities to
themselves and to others in order to create a safe and stable environment. George
and Mark tried to show that commitment to others first requires a commitment to
oneself. The next section will discuss the importance the students attached to family

and God as a means of grounding them individually.

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ImagesoLEamilyandfiod

Eamily

In looking at a composite of the narratives, the students also talked about the
importance of family as a source of grounding and support. For example, they
typically presented Picture #4 as an image of a loving father’s relationship with his
child. Five students saw the father as a provider. Doris and Steve expressed this
theme particularly well.

This father and son, we can put them in western Africa, and it looks like this
father just got back from work and he’s probably someone of relative
importance because he seems to have a pretty decent watch and is wearing
a western jacket. . . . It looks like he just got back from work and his son,
who’s a really little baby, [is] waiting there for him. His father is going to take
some time out between getting him and even before he takes off his work
clothes, he’s going to pay some attention to this kid and play with .him with
this ball. Afterwards, I can just see this man. I can see a family eating dinner
and the man going to sit outside somewhere and read a paper while his son
kind of runs around and plays. (Doris, #4)

I say this is a father with his son, by the way he’s looking at him. . . . I don’t
know, that watch is screaming to me, money, for some reason. He’s got a
suit coat. His son is wearing pretty hip clothing. I want to say he’s been
separated for a while, been at work or something of that nature, a lunch break
or at the end of the day. Just kind of being with his son. What happened
next? He’ll probably put him down and tell him to go in the house with his
mother and other kids, go back to handle more business. He’s looking at his
watch to see what time it is and thinking about being somewhere else in
about 15 minutes. (Steve, #4)

Four students saw the father as a mentor, with Mary telling the most compelling
narrative on this point.

This is Simba, the father. Simba means power or if you say ”Simba warshe,”
that’s the power of God. . . . This [is] Tendye, the first-born son, carrying with
it all the honors and privileges that it does. In the African family there’s very
much the mission of respect for the oldest child. So Tendye will always have
the respect of his brothers and sisters and cousins and whatever. But

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because of Simba’s patience with Tendye and because he always treats the
child with respect, Tendye grows up to be a very honest and compassionate
man and will fight in the revolution of this country and will eventually grow up
to be very influential in the politics of that country due to his father’s guidance
and always telling him that we should respect people. [He demonstrated] this
with the way he treated other cultures and other people and other
nationalities within their country. (Mary, #4)

The students were quite expressive in their narratives about the way parents
provided their children with a foundation of love and support that would allow them
to meet the challenges of the world. Included in many of these discussions was the
importance of family tradition. For example, Picture #13 prompted seven students
to discuss how family traditions gave meaning to life and connected the members
not only to each other, but to the past. The grandmother was seen as the keeper of
the family traditions, who brought the members together for various occasions, even
when the times had changed and the family was dispersing outward from its center.
Alan captured this sense of change and the grandmother’s role of keeping the family
traditions alive.

It’s a family gathering. . . maybe a religious holiday, a time when they’re all
together. Matriarch, the grandmother holds some importance or reverence
in the family; people look up to her, treat her with respect. She enjoys her
place of respect within the family. The kids are her children, are grown up,
little grandchildren, they’re moving out. It’s a new world, expanding,
something she’s not used to, doesn’t know much; so she’s clinging to the
family, the old values, the old traditional values. Her sons, her grandsons,
what have you, moving off, getting new jobs with new companies. And there
are automobiles coming around, more than she ever saw. Machinery.
There’s electricity. Something new and different for her, but she finds it
important to maintain the family connections and ties with her family because
of still some connection with the old world whether moving on to the new
world, still sees that important and whether it’s a case of whether they’re
humoring Grandma or they’re actually in deference to her, still treating her
and seeing that’s important to her, living up to this tradition that they had
developed in Eastern European society. (Alan, #13)

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The setting was around a meal where the old grandmother told stories,
prepared traditional foods, and created an environment where each person enjoyed
each other’s company. Five students pointed out that these traditions were the
secret of a good family life. Five other students focused on the character of the
grandmother herself as the ”proof in the pudding” of how one person can create an
environment where people can bond with each other. Some students achieved this
theme by having the grandmother reminisce and review her life. In Jack’s account,
he portrayed the grandmother as heavily lined, arthritic, and as one who had lived
a life of labor. But she was ”a lucky woman” because she had lived a life of love for
her children and they gave to her in return.

. . . Her face leads me to believe she’s lived a good life. She’s an older

woman, but she looks as though she’s had a lot of good years, probably a lot

of kids. Hands look very rough, she probably did some kind of labor-intensive
work. . . . She either had a hard life working in some labor-intensive job

’cause she can’t hold the thing still enough to pour a glass so he’s helping

her. So she’s obviously loved by a group of people there who are here for

everybody. . . . People around her are helping her out and are not burdened
by her. Maybe not burdened by her, maybe more respectful of her and

thankful to her for all that she’s done. A real loving family. (Jack, #13)

The grandmother had endured the past, but she did not bemoan it. Instead, she
focused on the present, her offspring, and in Ellen’s narrative, celebrated them both
by asking for more wine, a metaphor for joy and celebration.

Eight of the female and two of the male students showed a particular

fascination with the grandmother as the glue that held the family together. The

females’ recognition of the grandmother may be an image of how women make a

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significant contribution to society by providing a strong and nurturing foundation in
family life. Sandra provides an excellent example.

She’s sort of like a matriarch. She was born in Europe, but she came over
to the States probably as a young mother and she’s very respected and
revered in her own way by the family. And they’re celebrating her birthday or
something, and they’ve got the dishes out that she brought over with her. Her
sons, she’s proud of them because maybe one was like a dry cleaner and
maybe one had his own business and then their sons were a lawyer or
maybe a doctor or something. And she’s proud of what’s happened to her
family. (Sandra, #13)

Finally, students showed that closeness and tradition could provide a stable
compass to direct family members’ lives, as Doris and Greg illustrate.

. . . She’s very old, and I can imagine the family is sitting around her and after
the meal is done and the dishes are cleared away, sitting around her listening
to stories about how things were in the family and in the country 50, 60, 70
years ago when she was a young woman. And that the children are probably
not going to listen to her because children usually don’t when they’re very
young, but that they will remember this get-together and they will remember
what their grandmother said later on when they grow and probably end up
passing on the same storytelling or the same level of storytelling to their own
children. (Doris, #13)

This reminds me of an Italian grandmother who is perhaps celebrating her
birthday with her family and they’re having a big feast. . . . They’re very tight,
they take pride in where they come from and they’re very close. They relate

to where their roots are from, Italy, perhaps where they migrated from. (Greg,
#13)

Bll' I. III'II GI

Another source of rootedness and direction that students cited as useful in
dealing with life was a relationship with God, as exemplified in the narratives on
Picture #3. Eleven students (seven black and four white) spoke about the

importance of God in their lives. In their biographical interviews, black students and

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white women especially related to me the central role religion played in their lives.
The importance of religion surfaced in their narratives, as well. Shirley, who was
quite devout in her faith, expressed most explicitly the process and outcome of
prayer as one who knew it intimately.

There is a group of men in what looks to me like a religious temple
somewhere, maybe in Israel or Mecca. It’s considered to be holy. They’re
praying, kneeling, probably asking the Lord for guidance or help or to help
them in whatever situation that they have. They probably come in peace and
in brotherhood. They may have been probably from that country but had to
leave and have come back to regain their culture, to walk on the Holy Land.
They probably feel whole inside and feel restored and at peace with
themselves and at peace with the world. They were probably faced with
religious persecution at some time, so now they feel like they have to come
back and regain their religious ties. (Shirley, #3)

Five other students saw a more political side of religion by believing that it was an
aspect of life that could unify people and give them common ground upon which to
solve their problems. Greg and Jane spoke well to this idea.
This would appear to me to be a Moslem, Islamic mosque where the people
are. They’ve got Allah and the importance that the people in this picture are
all coming together even though they may come from different backgrounds,
different lifestyles, maybe rich or poor. But they’re coming together to pray
together to the same God. (Greg, #3)
. . . It looks like this picture was taken in the 703 or 803, and there’s probably
a lot of political instability, and ljust see that these people are praying for not
necessarily peace because that’s so general and it depends on what it is you
really want. But I think these men are praying for just a better life and the
safety 0f their families. . . . (Jane, #3)
Only two white males expressed a skepticism about religion because they saw it as
a part of life that people indulge in as a social expectation.
The students had their characters relating to God through prayer. As Denise

pointed out earlier, taking time with and being present to one another was a

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necessary part of relationship. Prayer was a means of spending time with God, and
it also represented the faithful’s steadfastness and commitment to what their beliefs
were, despite doubt and uncertainty. Mark best described the power of prayer.

I see them waking to the daily rituals or the prayer of the house in the
morning time. I see them set for another day to follow the path ofthe Creator.
I see them religiously fit experience in one with the Creator. They have a
purpose and a distinct belief in what they’re doing, and they won’t let anything
stop them. And during this time they come to think or to pray, ritual prayer,
and give thanks to the Creator for what he has given them so far and will give
them in the future. . . . They understand the purpose, they are moving in the
same direction. I feel some might not be as sure as others in their belief
system. I believe all have been raised in Islam, but I feel that some have
done it because it’s been a tradition and some are kind of confused about
their belief because they’re not exactly sure what to believe. Others are very
solemn and very sure of what they’re doing. Others are still continuing on the
purpose of direction and trying to reclaim or have a stake in the Creator. I
feel afterwards that they’ll continue what they’ve done in the past in terms of
their religious life no matter if they are truly convinced in terms of what they’re
doing or maybe that they’re sure they’re going to keep on doing whatever
they’re doing no matter what. That’s how they were raised. They still have
a belief in a higher being, powerful, and believe they shall return in the next
week to continue doing the same thing so that that belief is not broken. (Mark,
#3)

Commentary

Grounding in family and religion completes the nucleus of elements that the
students said make up a society: community, friends, self, purpose for living, family,
and religion. Iwas surprised that this last aspect of the students’ lives came through
in the narratives; on the other hand, I should not have been. The students
expressed their closeness to family and God in their biographies and in the Three
Objects portion of this study, where I asked students to name objects that said

something about themselves. Many of them chose objects that tied them to their

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families. For example, Marge had a plethora of family pictures, letters, ticket stubs,
and other memorabilia that she had acquired over the years. Doris chose the top
of a huge German beer stein, which represented a time before her parents’ divorce
when her family had all been together. She also selected a portrait of her deceased
grandmother, whose traditions she and her family still practice. Shirley treasured a
high school graduation plaque her mother had made for her, which represented not
only their closeness but her mother’s pride in her past accomplishments and the
encouragement of her future endeavors. Sandra chose a portrait of the three
generations of women in her family. Martha chose a paper sun that her sister had
made for her, and which some of her friends said resembled her father. Mary also
showed me a family portrait.

Students also chose religious items in the Three Objects exercise. For
example, Shirley and Steve chose their Bibles. Jack showed me his collection of old
black music, which included spirituals. Denise read me a religious poem and
showed me a picture that represented Kawanza, the African Christmas. Sandra
named her rosary and a picture that had been given to her by a member of a poor
family she met while on a service project with her campus parish.

Grounding seemed to be an important theme among the students because
it seemed to provide them with a direction, a routine, and ways of handling conflict
and uncertainty in their lives. It is significant that the artifacts that the students chose

for the Three Objects exercise represented images of themselves and their ties to

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others. In fact, these objects helped them make connections with people, places,

times, and things othenrvise unrelated to them.

Life is full of tragedy, and human beings are constantly challenged to find
ways of coping with it. Some try to carry the burden alone. Some avoid facing it at
all. Others turn to their family and friends to help share the burden by responding
to life as it is. Several black students, especially the females, talked about
responding to life’s tragedies in their narratives by saying what they thought and felt,
by facing life squarely and pragmatically, and by refusing to be passive victims
engaged in dependent or self-destructive behavior. Shirley’s narratives were a
prime example of this attitude, and Picture #7 in particular described this view. I
include it in its entirety and divide it into ”stanzas” to facilitate discussing it.

The people seem to be sad.

They’re afraid of something’s going on.

They look like they’ve been hurt, like they’ve been marching or walking
through the rain or something.

It seems like someone’s forcing them to go where they don’t want to or do
something they don’t want to do.

Looks like it could have come about from the Jewish Holocaust.

The men in the picture look scared, like this could be their last day here.

They’re probably thinking about their families, their wives, their children, jobs,
homes.

They probably don’t want their wives, children to be faced with this.

They possibly wish that it could be over.

The soldier probably feels like he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing and
this is right.

He probably thinks that he’s doing his job, that he’s serving some kind of
service to mankind, but he’s actually harming society.

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There could be a lot of lives lost, families broken up, a lot of sad and grieving

women and children.

There could be a lot of widows left behind, too, who have to raise a family on

their own.

The families will struggle alter the loss if there is a loss.

They will possibly have to move to another country to try and start over, to

make a new life for themselves.

The people doing this could also be brought to justice.

They could be charged or even if a war erupts, people could die.

They could be jailed forever, but in the end, no one will gain anything.

There’ll be a lot of suffering for everyone.

No side will win, and it will be a great harm to society. (Shirley, #7)

In the first stanza, Shirley identified the characters and set the tone of the
story in order to work up to the climactic and shocking fifth sentenceuthat this scene
was like the Jewish Holocaust. The second stanza described in more detail why the
men were sad: they were thinking not only of what might happen to them but to their
families. They knew what lay ahead for them and wished it to be over as soon as
possible. The third stanza focused on the soldier who was carrying out this terrible
deed. He felt justified in his actions not only because he was just following orders
but because he thought he was doing it for the good of humanity. Hi3 act of killing
the men had a ripple effect on the men’s families. In the fourth stanza, Shirley
revealed the paradoxical moral of her narrative: the perpetrators may be brought to
justice for their crimes, but everyone would suffer in the end. No one would win.
Humanity as a whole would take a giant step backwards.

Shirley’s story of Picture #7 focused on an image of life: human beings are

subject to the forces of good and evil within and outside themselves, and no one

eswpes this fate. As a result, the only thing people can do is to face life and

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respond to it. Shirley advocated responding to life as a group. She assumed that
humans were communal and interconnected beings and that what happened to one
person affected others both inside and outside the group. Shirley was group-
oriented throughout most of her narratives as she identified characters as ”the
people,” ”the men,” ”the soldiers,” ”the women and children,” ”the families.”
Consequently, her literary stylistics paralleled her theme that coping with life required
a group response rather than an individual response. Otherwise, a person could end
up like the man in Picture #8 who bore ”the burden of carrying a whole family, whole
situation, on his shoulders.”

Shirley gave several examples of how people coped with life’s trials as
members of a group. The grandmother in Picture #13 accepted her old age when
she gathered her family around her and recalled the family traditions and stories
about ”how things were when she grew up.”

. . . She’s probably very tired. If she has children or grandchildren, she

probably tells them stories of how things were when she grew up, about the

culture and the things that have gone on. They probably follow all of the
customs of their religion, the traditions. They may be very sick and elderly,
but maybe someone is helping them. Their children or grandchildren

probably have to take care of them. (Shirley, #13)

The two hard-working men in Picture #12 found mutual support in each other that
inspired them to overcome their poverty and start a business together.

. . . They may not like the type of work that they’re doing, but they may be

doing it so they can provide for their families. They may be doing itjust while

they’re there in America, ifthey are in America. They’re looking to get ahead
to maybe start a business of their own. They look to be in a poor area. They
want to do something to get them out of that situation. They are probably

tired; they feel tired. They feel like theyjust can't go on anymore and may not
want to do this anymore. They’re probably very intelligent, very smart, hard

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working. They may be thinking about ways they can start their own business
and get ahead, and so they might be doing this so they can provide for their
families. (Shirley, #12)

The mother and father in Picture #2 together summoned courage to move away from

a poor lifestyle by deciding to risk everything and pursue the American dream.

This is a family. . . . They probably have strong familial ties and strong ethnic
ties. They’re probably hard working. . . . The parents are sacrificing a lot for
their kids to get a good education at school. They’re probably just thinking
that they want to get ahead and make it in America and to adopt the
American values of life, liberty and justice, a nice job. They could have come
over from an impoverished country or one that is having political problems
there. But they seem to want to conform to the, assimilate into the society
and work hard to get that American dream. (Shirley, #2)

Like Shirley, Ellen developed this theme of a group response to tragedy by

demonstrating the emotional bonding that occurred among members. Such bonding

not only helped to relieve the burden, but inspired people to go on living. For

example, in Picture #7 the miners awaited word about the survival of their friend who

was trapped in a cave-in. They held on to each other with the hope that he was still

alive.

This man’s very frightened; he fears death. This [other] man is hopeful. He
understands the reality of what can be. . . . He had his lips together in
determination because now where the dust is, there will be light. (Ellen, #7)

The men made a group response to a tragedy and at the same time realized

the frailty of their own mortality. As they thought about their friend and his survival,

they knew that any one of them could have been trapped in the cave-in.

But if they’re coal miners, if the mine collapsed, then aftenlvards they get over
it and then they get black lung and they die. Never being able to take a full
breath the rest of their lives. Their lungs are constricted with the black, slimy
ooze. (Ellen, #7)

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In her narratives, Ellen was fascinated by how people got through human
tragedies. For example, she said that Picture #8 was a painting, obviously ”done by
someone who understands the burdens that life sometimes puts people through.
Someone who hadn’t always seen good times.” What she was describing was the
spiritual grounding that people developed in order to be able to respond to life’s
tragedies and burdens. She commented on how the gnarled and arthritic hands of
the grandmother of Picture #13 kept her ”grounded” to the frailty of human life.

This woman looks like somebody’s grandma. She’s a lot of people's

grandmother. She’s a great, great, great grandmother and very old. She’s

lived her life working very hard for her family, and her hands are very gnarled
and twisted with arthritis. . . . But her hands are what grounds her to life.

(Ellen, #13)

But the real story behind Ellen’s themes was the characters’ responses to
tragedy. They harbored no resentment. Instead, they just responded to life with
hope and comfort for each other, as the miners in Picture #7 waited to hear about
their friend who was trapped in the mine.

They receive very little money, and their clothes are never clean. This man’s

very frightened; he fears death. This man is hopeful, but he understands the

reality of what can be . . . he knows he’s looking for the news of his friend,
and he’s just looking like: ”Well, Roy, what do you think?” . . . Or he’s telling
him something, but he’s not comforting him, although men do comfort in

different ways. (Ellen, #7)

Or they responded to life with determination as the man with the cross did in Picture
#8.

. . . But in a way, and I think a man painted it, he was trying to capture the

feelings of the burden of life. . . . This person is struggling, but he’s bearing

the weight of responsibility and just as Jesus, if you believe in that, some
people don’t. I do, and I feel sorry for those who don’t. Some people don’t

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understand the weight of the world and what it really means to struggle for
anything. (Ellen, #8)

Or they responded withjoy, tipping their glass, as the old grandmother did in Picture

#13.

They’re drinking homemade wine. Maybe they own a vineyard. Maybe they
grow grapes. But they’re definitely farmers. But they’re successful, although
it took a long time to get it that way. She doesn’t want the man who’s pouring
the wine to be stingy with it. He’s about to pull back, and she’s about to help
him give her some more: ”Don’t be stingy with that wine.” (Ellen, #13)

Doris emphasized the importance ofthe group response to tragedy and life’s

difficulties through the women in Picture #13.

These are three women and a baby, actually I would say two women and a
girl. I would put this in, I’m not sure what part of the world, but I would say
North Africa somewhere. These women seem to be not wealthy at all. . . . I
think what they’re doing Is that they’re taking this baby with them to a session
where the women can sit down on their own and talk about what’s happened
during the day. They spend the entire day doing the type of work either at a
market selling things or at home doing cleaning or fixing things for their
husband and children. So this is the time that they’re taking out now to get
together as women. And they must take their children because their
husbands aren’t going to watch their children. . . . [They] finally have this
session where they can let their own emotions and stories come out without
having to worry about other responsibilities. For this time they can take care
of themselves. So I think they’re all going to go to one particular person’s
house and be in a back room somewhere and sit down on mats and drink
some tea and be able to tell stories to each other. (Doris, #10)

Every once in a while, these women withdrew from the demands and responsibilities

of marriage and motherhood to a hidden life that gave them comfort and respite

through each other. Here they ”can let their own emotions and stories come out

without having to worry about other responsibilities. For this time they can take care

of themselves.” The women were rejuvenating themselves for the days ahead.

Doris repeated what Denise said earlier about the importance of spending time

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together. Time provided people emotional bonds. And time was especially
important when people had to deal with tragedy.

In an intricate, profound, and highly symbolic set of narratives, Jack
addressed the nature of dealing with tragedy by tying together many of the students’
themes that I have already outlined in this chapter. For example, just as Greg, Alan,
Randy, and Frank had observed, Jack illustrated the value of responding to life’s
tragedies by looking beyond its pain and discomfort to life’s purpose, namely, to
share love and joy with others in and through God. In his narrative of Picture #1, a
woman in childbirth was in great pain but she was not ovenrvhelmed by it because
”she has a feeling of goodness in her face while she’s going through a little pain.”
The woman acknowledged her pain, but she focused on and anticipated the
happiness of motherhood she would have after the baby was born. Besides, she
recognized that her discomfort was only temporary.

Jack readily admitted that life could be difficult. But he asserted through his
narratives that these difficulties could be handled if people reminded themselves of
who they were and what was important. For example, the man in Picture #8 found
himself unjustly accused of a crime, and yet as he reflected on his situation, he came
to the attitude that he was ”not carrying a burden; he’s carrying the release from his
burdens.” In other words, the man was focused on accepting his present pain as a
metaphor for the personal struggle of transforming himself to choose his attitude
rather than fight or deny what others had said against him. This attitude is

reminiscent of George’s and Mark’s narratives on self-transformation.

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. . . He looks like he’s going off to carry a cross somewhere. He probably did
something wrong. Maybe did something wrong and wanted to go and pay the
price. Or maybe he’s believed to have done something wrong and is going
to be sacrificed as a result. The cross serves as a kind of religious tone to it.
Maybe he’s been unjustly accused of some kind of crime. He’s carrying a
cross because he knows when he gets back from wherever he’s going that
he’s going to be either killed or chastised or put in jail. I think it kind of looks
like he’s saying: he’s carrying this burden all of his life and to what end? To
die or even be killed and to live your life and go to heaven, so he’s lcoking.
He’s carrying not a burden; he’s carrying the release from his burdens. But
I’d like to find out, I’m still strong if I don’t. I’Il carry this cross until I die. He’s
walking uphill because his life is probably an uphill struggle, mountains for
him. He’s carrying this cross that will one day relieve him of his burden. . . .
This is his personal cross, not that he’s taking it to somebody or anything.
He’s carrying his own cross. (Jack, #8)

Like the black women in this section, Jack saw life as tragic. He said that

eyery human being must accept this fact. No one was spared, not by economic

status, race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality. However, he arrived at the same

conclusion as Denise, Mary, and Martha when he asserted that one comfort people

could have in life was sharing the love of their family or community. Jack’s

narratives exhibited this love. For example, the people in Picture #5 shared their

love for each other by taking time with each together.

These people are having a good time. This is probably occurring after
somebody won something or after a good performance of a dance. Looks
like she’s dressed to dance, so maybe they’ll dance a while or just have a
dance afterward. They’re all the same kind of people ethnically. They kick
back and relax and have a good time. (Jack, #5)

They enjoyed being with each other, as the father and son in Picture #4.

. . . I think it’s a father, proud of his son, playing with his son, not really paying
attention to the camera because that’s not what he’s really about. He’s just
with his son; he’s not taking a picture of a moment in his life. (Jack, #4)

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In short, the people were present to each other. Jack focused on the satisfaction

and purposefulness that love and joy could bring to life. But, he cautioned in Picture

#3, family and community must be grounded in a relationship with God because

through God people could come together in unity.
The men that are standing, oh, they all have to prepare to get up to the place
where you pray because they’re all at different stages dressed. He has on
shoes. They’re all throwing their shoes off to the side. He’s getting his shoes
off. These guys must be making preparations to pray. Very spiritual minded.
Nice mosque. Good architecture. They look like they’re workers, working
people, possibly businessmen. I see this one guy is laying down here. I
wonder if they, I think they’re just praying. They want to pray so they can
continue their day’s activities. (Jack, #3)

In this symbolic narrative, Jack showed that the worshippers may be at ”different

stages” in their dress, that is, in their spirituality, or they may be from different

classes in the community, but their daily prayer to the same God brought them

together and allowed them to love others.

Commentary

These last narratives on tragedy were very interesting because they
expressed an issue in American culture that is frequently missed: life is tragic.
Typically, Americans are optimistic toward life (Stewart, 1972). However, this
aspect of life did not escape the notice of these four black students.

What is interesting about this finding, as with all the findings of this chapter,
is that the different gender and racial groups noted different aspects of life. For
example, the white females were concerned about authority and equality, the white

males were focused on providing for their families, the black males were interested

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in transforming themselves as preparation for leadership in the community, and the
black females were certain that bonding in the face of tragedy helped individuals get
through the sadness. These four approaches represent different outlooks on life
which contribute to a more holistic view of, in this case, community. They also
provide a broader understanding of community that would otherwise be missed ifjust
one viewpoint predominated. Learning to listen to and appreciate a diversity of
viewpoints is among one of the important skills needed in a pluralistic global society.
Different people from different groups will have different viewpoints. Race and
gender represent obvious differences; however, they are not the only differences
among people. As the students noted in Chapter Three, language, religion, and
regional differences also prevail. Probably the most important lesson about different
viewpoints is that they can not and should not be determined by exterior labels.
Labeling encourages stereotyping and can lead to discrimination. What is important
is that students learn that there are pluralistic viewpoints and that communication will
be difficult unless people learn how to listen carefully to each other and see the
value of each viewpoint as It relates to the whole. Teaching students how to listen
to people of differing viewpoints is a practical skill that can be practiced in the
classroom setting.

Another important insight of this chapter is that the students are interested in
moral and ethical issues. This finding is significant for the internationalized
curriculum because moral and ethical questions provide a means of examining and

discussing the human aspects of policy as well as the technical aspects. Such

 

 

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discussion encourages the making of a ”good society,” as Bellah (1991) advocates.
A ”good society,” he says, is made by citizens who take the time and effort to reflect
on and discuss with others how they would like their society to be. Such discussions
involve a questioning of assumptions, a grappling with dilemmas and trade-offs, a
determination of how institutions should serve the people, and a platform for
generating ideas, deliberating over them, and coming to a decision. This is what
democratic citizenship is about, and professors can help their students learn this
democratic process by including a look at the moral and ethical implications of policy
issues.

In the next chapter, I take a different tack with the narratives. Whereas in this
chapter I mostly examined the students’ narratives separately, in the next chapter
I examine them from a composite view of each picture. Through my analysis I
discovered students’ images of America and the Third World. I also elucidate how
their lack of cultural knowledge and understanding led to stereotypical images of

other cultures as well as their own culture.

CHAPTER FIVE

STUDENTS’ IMAGES OF AMERICA AND THE THIRD WORLD1

This chapter shows how students’ images and attitudes are connected,
particularly as they relate to their perceptions about America and the Third World.
I focused on composites of the students’ narratives for each picture. From these
composites certain patterns emerged which elucidated the difficulties professors
would encounter ifthey used atransformative educative process aimed at preparing
students for global realities. Namely, students have images about America and the
Third World that have been influenced by ethnocentric values and assumptions.
This is not surprising, given that every society ”trains” its young to hold beliefs
”based on feelings that one’s own group is the center of what is reasonable and
proper in life” (Brislin, 1993, p.38). Implicit in these beliefs, however, is the feeling
of superiority over other cultures. And the problem with ethnocentrism in the context
of an internationalized curriculum is that students become predisposed to attitudes
that preclude a global perspective that allows one to deal with a world that is

complex, interconnected, constantly changing, and contradictory. A person with an

 

1In the interests of brevity, I use the term ”Third World” to identify those
geographical areas in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. I use it because it is a familiar
term. I do not intend it as a descriptive term of inferiority.

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ethnocentric perspective generally sees the world as dogmatic, simplistic, inner-
oriented, and monocultural (Brislin, 1993).

It is important to note, however, that the students’ ethnocentrism did not come
out of prejudice or vindictiveness toward Third World people. Rather, ethnocentrism
is a part of every culture’s belief system that is integral to the nature of culture itself.
As Keesing (1974) states:

Culture, conceived as a system of competence shared in its broad design

and deeper principles, and varying between individuals in its specificities, is

then not all of what an individual knows and thinks and feels about his [or her]
world. It is his [or her] theory of what his [or her] fellows know, believe, and
mean, his [or her] theory of the code being followed, the game being played,

in the society into which he [or she] was born. (p. 89)

In other words, Keesing suggests that people in a culture are not generally aware
that the ”game being played” is one with rules that we have agreed to enact. Rather,
we behaye as though we have decided on these rules. This behavior appears when
we encounter other cultures and use the ”codes” of our ”game” to interpret these
other cultures. The examples I provide from the students’ narratives illustrate these
ethnocentric images and attitudes about the Third World that were, incidentally, the
exact opposites to those images of America. As I point out these images, I will draw

on other intercultural and anthropological literature that helps to explain how

ethnocentrism is conveyed and reinforced.

lmagesoitbelhirdflorld
The students had three prevailing images of the Third World: (a) it is poor,

(b) it is the place of the ”noble savage,” and (c) it is a land of cultural contact and

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exploitation. I will discuss each of these images in light of the students’ ethnocentric
attitudes, values, and assumptions, and some of the international development

literature.

Boyenyeflhelhlrdflofld

In their narratives, students associated poverty in the Third World with
nature’s destructiveness, the lack of technology, hopelessness, and rural life. For
example, they typically set the scene of Picture #12 in Asia in the aftermath of a
terrible storm. They then commented on the relationship between nature and
humankind. They described nature as ”traumatic” and as an ”encroachment on the
people.” Yet, it was something the people had learned to live with because of its
ceaseless presence ”for thousands of years.” Doris provided an example of this
view.

Here they willjust continue shoveling all the mud into their wheelbarrows and

burying it away and perhaps stacking it somewhere to help drain the water

out of the town. Probably by this time they’ve come up with systems to drain

this water out of the towns because of how familiar they are with having

monsoons and having the same problem every single year. (Doris, #12)
As a result of having to live with nature’s destruction, the people could best respond
to their situation by simply cleaning up the mess so ”they can get on with their lives
and maybe build a house.”

Students also associated Third World poverty with the lack of technology. For

example, several students pointed out that the men in Picture #12 used a ”low-tech

method” and a ”strong back” to clean up the mud slide. Behind this association was

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the assumption that technology would make work easier, protect one’s property,
control nature, and bring the people out of their poverty.

These guys are probably going to shovel mud periodically throughout their life

though because this is probably going to keep happening because they don’t

have the money to build dikes to keep the floods from happening. (Sandra,

#12)

I suppose they are trying to drain this area; that means that they don’t have

access to other means for, they don’t have infrastructure here to be able to

move a tractor or the resources to move a tractor into this. This is more a

stone-layered-individually type of people. (George, #12)

It is interesting that George’s comment of a ”stone-layered-individually type of
people” assumes that there are levels of civilized life, which this particular culture in
Picture #12 has achieved: primitive stone-age. Lewis Morgan, afamous nineteenth-
century anthropologist, invented a hierarchical view of civilization, which harkens to
George’s image. He called it a ”Pyramid of Human Development,” which identified
different levels or stages of civilization as illustrated in Figure 1 (cited in Kohls, 1984,
pp. 12-16).

Tom’s narrative took a different direction while retaining the same attitude and
tone as George and Sandra. Through it he reflected on what life must be like for
these people whose impoverished lives resemble slavery and whose fate is never
to escape it.

None of the people in this picture have ever known what It would be like to

have a road that didn’t have to be shoveled, didn’t have to be remade with

patch dirt. The overseer in the back is a member of one of the local
consortiums which does these things and collects some taxes for maintaining
this road, while the two who work are basically hired help. They, their
economic situation is not very good, they take what they can get. What’s

needed is a strong back to maintain the roads, not that anyone really uses
these roads very much, but it’s work. And because it’s work, they can

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manage it. All they have to do is shovel and think about the money that
they’ll earn at the end of the day, which they can basically use to buy some
clothes, which they find around. But certainly there isn’t any real hope of
escaping this system or anywhere to escape to that they know. The overseer
in the back, meanwhile, has several other contracts to complete today, and
he wishes they would work faster than they already are going. (Tom, #12)

 

 

/ we was." \

Figure 1. Lewis Moran’s ”Pyramid of Human Development” (cited in
Kohls, 1984, p. 14).

Only Mary expressed the hope that these men would somehow escape their poverty.
However, in Mary’s narrative, these men would do it in a way that resembled the
story of poor, young Abraham Lincoln, who read by the fire at night and eventually

grew up to be someone.

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They live by the water, yeah, because where else would you have your
laundry? It’s not a flood, they just live in a poorer section of town. They’re
clearing away this mud to make a ravine fortheir rice paddies. So these boys
when they go, work all day and into the night. They go to school, they’re
teaching themselves at night, and by candlelight, of course, because they live
in a very poor section of town without electricity. (Mary, #12)

Students focused on the poverty of the people in the pictures, and they used
different ways to communicate it. For example, they made special note of the
people’s clothing.

He’s talking to people he hasn’t seen in years, people he grew up with and
went to the missionary school with. You can tell he’s not really from [there].
He’s wearing a very fancy watch, and he appears to have a ring on. So he’s
at a very different socioeconomic level than all these people here. (Fran, #5)

The men look like they work really, really hard. They have t-shirts on, they’re
rather grimy, grungy, so they could be men who have just gotten off work and
they’re at some sort of bar type place where they can relax and have some
fun after they’re finished with their hard work of the day. (Doris, #5)

We have a very joyous occasion. The faces are Asian. The clothing
suggests that it’s certainly not an upper-class affair. The faces are the most
telling things here. They’re not just smiling and laughing; they’re having a
very, very good time. The men are wearing, one man is wearing a t-shirt,
somewhat worn; the other man is wearing a short-sleeve button dress shirt,
and a watch. . . . The other fellow, because he has a button dress shirt, that’s
not just a laborer, although he could just be dressing up for the occasion and
looks more along the lines of someone who might have a small business, a
small business in a developing country, it is nonetheless. So you certainly
have a person who is at least within the context, confines of their society sort
of moved up to the next tier or level. (George, #5)

They used space to show the crowded conditions under which the people lived.

There’s a feeling of community here, closeness. That everyone is close in
the photograph probably suggests that living quarters are somewhat
cramped. . . . Maybe the man is smiling because his friend is offering him a
drink after a hard day at work at his small business. Maybe he’s
congratulating the proud new father of a child. This is a community we’re
looking at where people from the community are family. (George, #5)

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These people look happy, like they’re having fun. They’re all smooshed up
together. . . . He’s wearing a little more westernized look and 30’s the girl
here. (Ellen, #5)

Students also noted the people’s cultural traditions, which connoted primitiveness
but which gave them some happiness.

A celebration of some sort going on. The people seem to be happy and

laughing and enjoying their culture and their heritage. They look like they’re

having a good time. They could possibly be Native American. They’re
having some kind of celebration ora traditional feast or something. They may
be on a reservation or some kind of camp or something. But they look like
they’re still trying to preserve their culture and their heritage like they haven’t
assimilated into the American culture. They’re probably feeling like they’re
having a good time, they’re happy, but they may be feeling hurt or rejected.

They may be using the celebration to try to overcome the hurt or that

isolation. (Shirley, #5)

Every week after the work is done, everyone gathers together and lets loose

and relaxes. We’re having a celebration. The glass of some sort of, probably

mildly alcoholic beverage, is making its rounds of the laughing party-goers
who, though they, in what might be considered abject poverty, enjoy the good

moments of solidarity in their lives. (T om, #5)

Finally, students associated poverty with rural life through the words they
used to describe the setting. For example, in Picture #5 they used the words
”village,” ”tent,” ”tribe,” ”slum,” and ”camp.” These words connote lifestyles that
might be considered preindustrial and premodern. By implication, the people in the
pictures were ”primitive” or the embodiment of the ”noble savage,” which I discuss

in detail in the next section.

The second prevalent image that emerged from the students’ narratives on

the Third World was that it was the land of the ”noble savage.” The ”noble savage”

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is a nineteenth-century anthropological term that originally described the two-fold
character of the people of Africa. These people were looked upon as noble because
they lived simple, tranquil, agricultural lives. They were ”tribal” people who lived in
small villages and were described as the essence of happiness and innocence, living
in primitive, bucolic lands. However, these same people could also act like savages,
strike without any warning, and kill without reason. The colonialists both admired
and feared them.

In Picture #5 these images came through as the students portrayed their
”noble” side. Below are some examples.

They, I don’t know what I get people and tranquility from these people; I
usually think that way of native or indigenous inhabitants of cultures. They
seem to be more at peace with the earth and other people, to accept it all
sometimes. Tomorrow he’s going to get up at the break of dawn, him and his
crew, and leave in their jeep out of the jungle. (Steve, #5)

This looks like one of those places you see on National Geographic when
they’re in the rain forest of Brazil, somewhere off in the bush studying native
cultures. (Steve, #5)

Another images was the people’s adherence to ”tribal” lifestyles of hunting
and gathering during the day and community relationships at night.

I think what I see here is a tribe of people who live and work together. They
probably had a very long day in the fields; they are in an agricultural-based
setting where they work hard to plant the crops and do the work and
everybody in the village takes, has a special role of what they do. The
children are involved in the work of the village, and they work all day and
plant crops. The men go out and hunt, although the women may hunt as
well. And they worked all day and in the night while the village comes
together. . . . They share stories and sing songs. This is a way that some of
the older children are educated into the tribal ways, cultures, traditions. So
they work together and they have a good time, that’s the key thing, they enjoy
themselves. (Greg, #5)

 

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. . . It looks like they’re just having a good time after a meal. Looks like
they’ve been working. Look kind of dirty. Again, it looks like they don’t have
very much money. It looks like a family, I’d say. . . . It’s definitely a
celebration here. Then they’ll go back to their lives aften/vard. They’ll go back
to work; the next day they will, but today they’ll just relax and celebrate.
(Marge, #5)

I think that for a lot of people who have really tough lives it’s these times
when they can get together as a community and celebrate and worship that
really keeps them going and helps them maintain their identity. (Sandra, #5)

The students associated poverty with traditional culture and noted that even
though the pe0ple did not have much in the way of material goods, they made the
most of their lives with each other, as the following narratives demonstrate.

This, I guess, would be southeastern Asia area. We’ll say it's in the late 503
or so in a slum outside of the city, one of the bigger cities in Asia, maybe
Bangkok or Manila or somewhere around that area. This is just basically a
night get—together with people from the local area having fun, talking. . . .
(Alan, #5)

They’re in Asia someplace. But I don’t think it’s the Philippines. I think
another one of those colorful cultures like, maybe, a place like Indonesia or
like Thailand. They’re just partying and socializing and having a good old
time. They look really, really poor, but I don’t think it matters; I think they
enjoy their life. (Jane, #5)

Tradition and ritual provide a stable cultural life for the people as they
organize their lives around life’s events: coming of age, marriage, birth, someone’s
success, time after a day’s work.

This is East Asia. And this is a festival, probably for a wedding or somebody
coming of age. And everyone’s crammed together in a tent and having a
really good time. There’s a glass being offered that probably, you know, it’s
probably alcoholic and everyone’s laughing and living it up and, well, men
and women are interacting. So it’s got to be some sort of, either it’s a
religious coming of age or it’s marriage. (Randy, #5)

Now the bu/a is the African term for ”bride price.” . . . The bula is when a man
takes a wife, the family goes into negotiation. . . . The ”bride price” is a very

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complex set of rules that must be followed in negotiations between the
families. The two families get to know each other. So it can be kind of
stressful and very difficult, but in the end, there’s a big celebration. In
Thailand, they pass around a drink that symbolizes that they are now family.
This drink [is] made in a very special way for seven days by the elder women
of the family. So this is the time after the talks when both of the families sit
down and recognize that they are married and that they are now one family.
(Mary, #5)

They, before the picture was taken, they were all at their various houses in
their village preparing for this party to happen to celebrate somebody’s
birthday, the lady’s birthday. She was becoming of age to womanhood, so
they have a big party for when she turns 19, and she gets to take her first,
she takes some type of special drink that every woman who turns 19 does,
and her father is very excited. (Denise, #5)

These Asian people may be tired. Looks like they’re probably having some
type of festival. Maybe they’re celebrating a birth or a holiday in their culture.
lthinkthat they’re probably celebrating in a traditional manner, especially the
way the woman is dressed. (Randy, #5)
They’ve been preparing for this celebration for a while for the wedding of the
woman’s child. . . . I see them succeeding, struggling, yeah, but I see them
succeeding. I see the tradition carrying on, their cultural traditions. I see
them very important to them; even though they’re the younger generation,
they understand their culture, traditions, and the way they respect them and
they live their life like their ancestors, like their grandparents. They really
understand who they are. They work as hard as they can to get it. (Mark, #5)
It is interesting that Mark notes that these people ”really understand who they
are.” Such comments, as well as this whole group of insights about the people in
Picture #5, almost suggest an idealized version about these people’s way of life.
The students portrayed the savage side of the ”noble savage” through Picture
#6 by talking about unbridled sexuality, and in Pictures #1 and #11 by alluding to
revolution and social and political chaos. In Picture #6, for example, students
usually placed the scene in a Latin American bar or club where people indulged in

some sort of celebration like a wedding or bar mitzvah (George),the winning of a

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political election (Fran), the overthrow of the government or a national soccer
championship (Steve), family reunion (Mark), Mardi Gras or national festival (Greg),
or Carnival (Jane, Ellen). Fran was the only one to place this picture in a very large
city in the US, but she added an ethnic spin to it by mentioning that the party was
”in the Italian district of the city.” About half of the students commented that the
people at the party had also gone overboard due to alcohol and excessive
merrymaking. Randy’s narrative was particularly revealing about the savage nature
of these people; he saw them as ”primal looking”: ”Maybe this is just a bar scene
and I would guess, I would say Rio because it’s a city that personifies partying and
crowded dancing, somewhat more primal-looking” (Randy, #6).

The students mostly talked about the woman dancing in the center, but the
males and females saw her differently. The male students speculated about who the
woman was and why she was there. For example, Mark said that although the
woman was the ”life of the party,” her family chastised her for it. Jack said she was
a stripper at a bachelor party. Tom said she was a battered wife out for a release
from her husband’s hold over her. Randy said the woman ”maybe she got more than
what she bargained for,” but left his meaning up to the imagination. Steve thought
she probably would ”wake up tomorrow with some guy she didn’t know and wonder
what happened last night.”

The female students sympathized with her but sensed impending danger due
to her Iascivious escapades. For example, Denise had the woman’s friends take her

home before she put herself at risk. Marge thought the woman would probably get

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drunk and then go to bed with someone. Several thought that she was putting
herself at risk for rape or assault (Shirley, Mary), or they were indignant with her
being handled by the men (Doris, Sandra, Mary) or forced to be where she did not
want to be (Martha). She could also ”get a reputation” by ”putting herself in a
compromising position” (Ellen). Only Jane seemed less shocked and less
judgmental about the woman, most likely because she had experienced parties like
Picture #6 first hand in Brazil and had a cultural-relativist interpretation of them.

This looks like Brazil, one of those Latin American countries. Like they’re

dancing in a conga line and they’re really drunk with lots of beer. This lady

is just having a great time because she works hard and she finally had a

chance to come to a party and she really let herself go and had a lot of fun.

Then again, in Latin America, you have a party just because it’s Thursday,

because I don’t think this is really a special occasion. I think it’s just

representative ofthe type of happy-invested people that they are down there.

They really have a blast. Actually, it looks like some of the guys kind of like

her, but those men down there can be kind of like touchy, feely. But it just

kind of goes with the territory. Actually, it looks like Carnival time, maybe.

(Jane, #6)

In considering the savage nature of the ”noble savage,” the students’
narratives illustrated a similarity of temperament between the woman in Picture #6
and nature in Picture #12. Both were referred to as ”female,” and both were
associated with uncontrollable outbursts of power: nature with her floods in Picture
#12 and the woman with her alluring sexuality in Picture #6. Humanities scholar
Camille Paglia (1990) says Western art and literature are filled with these
associations. However, five students also referred to passionate or ”savage”

outbursts in ”masculine” terms, with people trying to deal with citizens revolting

against oppressive governments. For example, in Picture #1, two students believed

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that the person lying down was either a wounded revolutionary or someone who had
been caught in a cross-fire of a revolution. Three other students referred to this
scene as one that had been caused by some kind of political or economic
oppression. For example, in Picture #1, George saw revolution.

So we have our person who has been a political victim, who through ideology
has been beaten of sorts by the police or some authoritative figure and has
returned home being consoled and can’t seek additional care is like, in fact,
that this torture had been done. Maybe it served a two-fold purpose: maybe
to extract information from him or maybe just to make an example. (George,
#1)

Steve’s narrative of Picture #11 more explicitly outlined a prevailing image of the
Third World as a place of oppression, war, and poverty.

. . . Or, I don’t know why. It’s like a recurrent theme, but when I look at Third
World countries and I put them in Latin America or West Indies, or Third
World countries for the most part just comes to my mind: overthrow comes
to my mind for some reason, like a faction overthrowing the government and
taking control. Definitely media-oriented or rooted in the media, I say. (Steve,
#11)

My first impression is a Latino family, Mexican. Who knows? It looks like
something bad has happened and either the man could have been hit, the
way he’s holding his face and the woman is trying to make him feel better for
whatever reason. lfl had to guess, I bet he had maybe protested something
or done something to that effect and now, since the kind of situation typically
a Latin American country couldn’t quite get, first of all wasn’t listened to or
othenrvise and certainly couldn’t get any kind of attention for what occurred.
Either that or he’s just got a toothache and doesn’t really have any dentist to
go to either. (Randy, #1)

I see there’s a family and there’s two little children, mother and father. This
is in a poor area. The area seems to be rich in culture, possibly Hispanic
culture. It looks like someone is suffering from a sickness or illness due to
malnutrition, poverty, hunger. This could have happened before this, there
could have been a war or just over the years the country has lost any
economic power that it had. . . . In the meantime they’re going to continue to
struggle and continue to have illnesses and sickness until something can be
done. (Shirley, #1)

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Anthropologist Jack Weatherford (1994) discusses the mentality that goes
into the conceptualization of the ”noble savage.” He speaks of it in terms of
humankind’s move from rural life to the cities. He points out the etymology of the
word ”savage,” which was viewed as a contrast between rural life and city life. City
life was regarded as civilized.

The Latin word silt/a, meaning ”woodland” or ”forest,” served as the source

of the English sat/age, the Spanish salve/e, and the French saw/age. The

word became synonymous with crude, harsh, ignorant, violent, animal-like,
and devoid of the human characteristics of love, loyalty, and reason. The rise
of cities created a global division of humans into city dwellers and rustics; it
divided them into the civilized and the savage. This distinction allowed even
the most common, uneducated, and unwashed urban dwellerto feel a certain
sense of superiority over rural and tribal people, no matter how noble the

latter may have been. (p. 117)

Weatherford claims that as the colonial powers subdued the native peoples
in the nineteenth century, the threat the natives had previously presented gradually
waned. In the twentieth century, the Europeans no longer perceived these people
as a danger, especially since the Europeans were unmatched in military arms and
technological sophistication. The native peoples then became ”objects of curiosity
and intrigue” (p. 201) for the Europeans. Weatherford muses that history is filled
with instances where ”people tend to de3pise or else romanticize that which once
made them afraid but no longer does 30” (p. 201). Thus grew the concept of the
”noble savage,” whose root is actually a statement of superiority over people who

live in the lands we now refer to as the Third World. However, a backlash of the

”noble savage” has inadvertently developed in recent years as those who were

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subdued through conquest and colonialization have fought back. The students may

be experiencing this outcome, as the next section describes.

CulturaLEncounters

A few students expressed concern about the confrontational relationship
between the First and Third Worlds as something that occurred beginning with the
conquests of the sixteenth century. This is not surprising because the
disenfranchisement of native people is one of the foundational arguments of the
multicultural movement that the students have presumably been exposed to overthe
past ten years of their schooling (Fonte & Ryerson, 1994). On the other hand, a
regard fortraditional cultures was a contradiction to my previous observation that the
students thought that the pe0ple of the Third World lacked an inclination to progress
and wealth. In reexamining their narratives, lfound that the students regretted the
fact that Third World peOple were losing old traditions and being forced to adopt the
modem or Western way. For example, Randy noted in Picture #8 that the Indian
was forced to sacrifice his traditional life for the promises of modern life. This
destruction of his traditional life would make his life meaningless.

I see this as a symbolic reference to what looks like probably an Indian,

Native American in South America, an lncan or descendent of an Incan.

Basically, carrying his own cross the way Jesus did to what amounts to his

own crucifixion. I think he is the traditional life that’s been destroyed for the

sake of something that was meant to be better. But I don’t think he’s bearing
this cross willingly. Maybe because hindsight is 20-20, but he himself is not,
and he knows he’s being crucified and it’s going to be a meaningless
crucifixion because it’s basically founded on nothing really. And I don’t know
what awaits, he’s heading uphill. Why? So everybody can see it? I don’t

know if they do it at a low-lying area. He’s got to go up, making it even a
worse experience than what Christ supposedly went through. (Randy, #8)

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Jane used this same picture to speak about the injustices of the Third World
”campesinos” by Western people who were more focused on their own pursuit of
progress than on people’s lives they affected.

. . . And so, I guess what I’m trying to say is that he’s poor, already suffering,

has to carry his own cross and yet, what he’s doing benefits everyone else

and not himself because he’s in that type of position--like Christ. I don’t think

it necessarily benefited him to be crucified and this man, it doesn’t really

benefit him directly to be poor, but his country and all the developed countries

benefit on his poverty and the fact that he has to work, like a horse, with low

wages. By the way, he’s barefoot, so it must mean that he’s pretty humble

because people in that part of the world value their shoes. . . . (Jane, #8)

Four other students continued this discussion of the destructiveness of
cultural contact by illustrating the effect Western culture had on traditional people.
For example, in Picture #5 Steve represented Western intrusion on traditional people
through the camera, an object of curiosity, voyeurism, and tourism and a metaphor
for Western technology. This picture also reminded him of television’s ”Star Trek,”
in which the prime directive forbids the explorer ships of Star Fleet to interfere with
cultures they encounter.

. . . Are you familiar with the prime directive on ”Star Trek”? They’re violating

the prime directive, interfering with other people. . . . They’re all gathered in

here as though it’s some type of marvel. Maybe they’re looking at the

camera, just trying to take in this whole experience. (Steve, #5)
Shirley saw Picture #5 as a group of Native Americans trying to cope with their
failure of assimilating to the mainstream white culture and the loss of their territories
and way of life.

. . . They’re having some kind of celebration or a traditional feast or

something. They may be on a reservation or some kind of camp or

something. But they look like they’re still trying to preserve their culture and
their heritage like they haven’t assimilated into the American culture. They’re

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probably feeling like they’re having a good time, they’re happy, but they may
be feeling hurt or rejected. They may be using the celebration to try to
overcome the hurt or that isolation. (Shirley, #5)

Tom told a narrative of a man who had come home to his village after being
educated in modern society. He concluded his narrative with the question of
whether or not the man would stay home with his people or go back to Western life.

It’s been a hard week working. We’ve been sitting here; we’ve got our
gentleman with the watch, our town’s educated person who went off to the
university and came back knowing scientific techniques of agriculture and
various things like that. He’s come back to the hometown now. Every week
after the work is done, everyone gathers together and lets loose and relaxes.
We’re having a celebration. The glass of some sort of, probably mildly
alcoholic beverage, making its rounds ofthe laughing party-goers whothough
they, in what might be considered abject poverty, enjoy the good moments
of solidarity in their lives. (Tom, #5)

Fran repeated a similar story, only she ended with the question of whether a village
could expect its best and brightest to stay in the village after they had tasted modern
life. She implied that the village still remained isolated and poor and did not reap the
benefit of having sent the young for education.

This is in Cambodia, and it’s a man who has just been out of his village for a
while. He actually went to a missionary school in this village and he was the
one that they sent out of the country to study. He actually attended the
university in England, and he’s just come back to his village. He’s talking to
people he hasn’t seen in years, people he grew up with and went to the
missionary school with. You can tell he’s not really from [there]. He’s
wearing a very fancy watch, and he appears to have a ring on; so he’s at a
very different socioeconomic level than all these people here. They are
listening to his every word and serving him. They’re just listening to his
stories. And then he will go probably to, he will leave Cambodia or go to one
of the major cities for the government. He’ll come back to the village on
occasion, maybe a couple times a year to see his parents, or when his
parents are dying. When his siblings have all gone to the city, he won’t return
to the village. (Fran, #5)

 

 

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Commentary

These narratives suggest that the students showed sensitivity to the effects
of cultural encounter but found themselves uncertain about the effects the modern
cultures had wrought on the Third World as a result. This is an interesting dilemma
because it addresses the students’ concern about the people affected by national
policy decisions. It was significant for this study because it was one of the few
places in all the narratives that the students directly connected policy to the lives of
people.

It is also important to realize that the students were not just making up these
images and associations about America and the Third World, nor were they random
impressions. The students were working out of some basic assumptions about the
ways they imagined America to be, which then became their comparative lenses for
describing the pictures I presented them of the Third World. In other words, they
were projecting on to the Third World what they understood about themselves and
America (Keesing, 1974). They were making judgments about culture, which I
define as:

. . . an integrated system of learned behavior patterns that are characteristics

of the members of any given society. Culture refers to the total way of life of

particular groups of people. It includes everything that a group of people
thinks, says, does, and makes its customs, language, material artifacts, and
shared systems of attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and transmitted

from generation to generation. (Kohls, 1984, p. 17)

One of the effects that culture has on its members is that certain images

influence the way the people think about themselves. It is what usually gives rise to

what Hall (1976/1989) calls ”cultural irrationality.”

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Cultural irrationality is deeply entrenched in the lives of all of us . . . because

culture equips each of us with built-in blinders, hidden and unstated

assumptions that control our thoughts and block the unraveling of cultural

processes. (pp. 219-220)

I contend that the students’ images were, in part, influenced by American
cultural values and assumptions, which, in turn, shaped the attitudes and images of
their narratives about the Third World. For example, one prominent assumption
students made was that Americans are able to control and exploit nature with
technology because our essence lies in controlling nature in the service of
humankind (Stewart, 1972). Consequently, there is an assumed relationship
between controlling nature and becoming a prosperous nation. The evidence is that
the US. is rich and the Third World is poor.

Stewart (1972) adds that Americans believe that wealth makes one superior
and poverty makes one inferior and that we have attained this wealth through hard
work and cleverness. We use many religious terms and connotations to describe
ourselves. This is why America is considered the ”promised land.” We believe that
anyone can be wealthy if he/she works hard enough. Anyone who does not achieve
some level of wealth is a laggard and evil. This is the prevailing attitude behind the
students’ images of the people of the Third World. Such a perspective on life is an
example of the ”cultural irrationality” about which Hall speaks. It is an ingredient for
disaster, however, when people of different cultures attempt to communicate.
People with such a perspective misunderstand the meaning and place of culture in

human life. Culture is the sum total of a group’s ways of living, which have been

developed to assure survival of the group in a particular environment.

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Consequently, culture is a product of adaptation and a response to what a group of
people perceives to be the valid needs of its members (Hoopes 8 Pusch, 1979, pp.
3-7).

The students’ narratives are products of their culture. The images and beliefs
they hold are rooted in cultural values and assumptions about life and reality and
about other peOples in the world. Research shows that most Americans are not
conscious of their own culture, mostly because they do not regard it as a culture
(Althen, 1988). Americans think they choose their own values. They also see the
democratic and the capitalist systems as the best possible systems in the world
because they have wrought the highest standard of living and the most individual
freedom any civilization has ever known. Consequently, it is not surprising that
many Americans, including the students of this study who are highly educated in
international relations, imagine that the Third World is inferior to the United States.
These are the signs of ethnocentrism. In the next section I explain the connection
between the students’ attitudes and images of the Third World and how they were

shaped by those they held about America.

I I EII'I I I I 9 .

The students’ image of America was based mostly on the American dream.
That every student, including those who were more skeptical of nationalistic
patriotism, referred to the dream revealed its visceral power and cultural
significance. That this theme cropped up in students’ narratives in different pictures

led me to conclude that the dream was an essential pivot point around which the

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students got their inspiration, direction, and meaning for life. For example, students
were captivated by Picture #2, which seemed to supply them with a mythic image
of the American dream where immigrants come to America and seek a life of
prosperity. Every student used this same theme for his/her narrative. Greg
recognized it immediately, and his narrative typifies the kind of story the students
told.

This one seems a little more familiar. I would say that this appears to be a
migrant family. I guess when I see this picture I see a very strong family, very
hard-working family who perhaps has come over to this country from another
one. I can’t exactly tell by the faces. Perhaps it’s Italian in descent. Perhaps
it’s Mexican. Could be Polish. It’s hard to say, but I see a family who has
probably come to the US. in the effort to have a better life for their children.
. . . But I see a family that is very determined to make it and stay together,
most importantly, to succeed. I think that’s shown by the father’s face and
mother's face. The way they stand, they stand very tall and it’s to give a very
dignified look. I’d say that they, at the time this picture was taken, they were
proud to be who they are, proud to be in a position where they can work hard
to succeed, and the children perhaps can have a better life than their parents
did. (Greg, #2)

Another common theme in the students’ narratives was the idea that the
family members felt hopeful in their quest to move themselves toward a new and
better future. Denise’s and George’s narratives epitomize the affect of the family.
It is interesting to note that these two students, who were African American, were as
inspired by the power of the dream as the European American students for whom
the dream was first derived.

This is a family from Europe and they have just arrived. They wanted to

leave the European country to come to America in search of the American

dream of prosperity. And they are posing for a picture. And this is their
house, which is no better than the one they left in Europe. They’re still

struggling. They’re still struggling, they haven’t captured the American dream
yet, but they are still hoping. (Denise, #2)

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George showed how family closeness and pride played a role in the
successful pursuit of the dream and life in general.

. . . This is a family that has come on hard times. And has continued to
successfully continue that nucleus of love that should make up a family. . . .
These people are not only a loving family, they are so determined. They look
like they’re so determined. They don’t look like they’re ready to give up. In
fact, it looks like it’s the last thing that they would do. They look proud for that
reason. My guess with this picture would be that they either had a family fall
on hard times, maybe like a Depression thing of perhaps even earlier. Or
perhaps a family that had always been less fortunate. But the bottom line is
that you have a family that is very loving here and no matter what the material
success of this family or the pe0ple in it, they are extremely wealthy in the
sense that they do have a family. (George, #2)

However, attaining the dream is not without its difficulties as Denise and
George intimated, and several students often referred to it as a heroic image of
those who endured poverty and hardship as a result. This heroic image emerged
especially in the narratives of Picture #8, in which all but four students spoke about
it. For example, Steve said that working hard and making sacrifices for the dream
was a worthy thing to do.

I definitely have to say that this is him working for somebody, maybe his

family, mother and father, and his plight is to be subjected to some inhumane

capitalist worker system. [laughter] At the end of this journey is death. But
it will all be worth it, I guess, because by doing so, he was able to help out his

family. (Steve, #8)

Jack intimated that a person could bear suffering if he/she could derive a purpose
from it, and most important, if one had reason to believe that the suffering would
end.

He’s walking uphill because his life is probably an uphill struggle, mountains

for him. He’s carrying this cross, which will one day relieve him of his burden.
He might be a picker or something, maybe a coffee bean picker in South

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America. But he knows that one day he’ll be released, so he carries this
cross. (Jack, #8)

Greg agreed with Jack and then attached a spiritual quality to the heroic pursuit of
the dream.

I can tell by the look on his face that he’s proud and strong and he works very

hard, but the cross that he carries symbolizes his belief in Christianity and

how through all the hardship he really carries his faith and believes in his
faith. He upholds his faith and that in turn helps keep him to be positive and
looking forward. I think that he hopes that someday his hard work on earth
and his devotion to his God will carry him into Heaven, which is where he’s
walking to, and why he carries the cross, a burdensome cross. But he still
has a very driven look on his face like he knows there’s something there

ahead of him. (Greg, #8)

Students suggested many ways of getting through the hardships, but they
tended to speak about it with an attitude of heroic virtue and stoicism. For example,
Greg said one should avoid victimhood. Denise said that one should remember that
God helps those who help themselves, even in the midst of hopelessness. Alan said
that one could get through life’s burdens by realizing that there would be a reward
at the end. But above all, Sandra said, one must keep going, keep moving, that this
was part of life and it was what it meant to be human.

. . . This picture definitely gives me the idea that this guy’s going to get to the

top of the hill and lay it [the cross] down. I mean, it’s not a hopeless picture

at all. It’s just one of sort of keep going. Not inspirational either, butjust sort

of, you know, this is how it is. (Sandra, #8)

The operating assumption behind these notions of pursuing the American
dream center on a belief in progress. Progress is an Enlightenment idea that has

played a significant role in American life. As intercultural communication scholars

Edward Stewart (1972) and Gary Althen (1988) point out, Americans are oriented

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to progress and believe that they can control or influence the future if they
systematically set and strive to reach goals. Change is especially desirable because
it produces improvements and leads to progress. Change occurs through the
individual who has the motivation to succeed in his/her endeavors, as well as the
ceaseless effort and hard work to discipline him/herself to accomplish goals. No
goal is seen as too hard or too remote to achieve if the individual wants it enough
and tries hard enough. In fact, those who fail are regarded as lacking in effort.
However, if one is without goals, even hard work can lead to utter despair,
hopelessness, and a loss of one’s humanity.

Twelve students illustrated this idea by contrasting the optimism of Picture #2
with the despair and hopelessness of Picture #7. The scene was typically set in a
coal mine where miners worked in ”the heat and pressure of the underground” and
never saw the light of day. Four placed the picture in the US, two in an ”industrial
society,” two in Germany, and two in a Nazi concentration camp. These settings
signified the miners’ lives of alienation, desperation, and drudgery with no hope of
escape. For example, Mark described the horror of working in the dark and dirty
coal mines in terms of a disappointment that the miners could not change their lives;
i.e., they could not attain the American dream. It is interesting to note the
importance Mark placed on education as a means to the dream. It is reminiscent of
Mary’s ”Abe Lincoln” narrative on page 165.

They feel depressed, but they feel that this is the only way they can survive,

the only way they can live for their families and provide a foundation. They

wish they could do more, but they did not go to school and didn’t have a
chance to go to school. They wanted to, but many of them are immigrants

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and it’s the only work they can find. So now they are stuck with dead-end
jobs and dirty jobs, unhealthy jobs. They suffer from it, their health is bad,
they’re sick all the time. Some of them have died. . . . But they know that’s
probably one of the dangers of the job, and they also know they must work
there because they can’t go anywhere else. Afterwards, they return home
soiled and dirty as ever, and yet they cannot change. They’re urged to
change their livelihood, but they can’t change, they’re stuck. There’s
nowhere they can go. Once they shower, get ready to eat, they think about
tomorrow and know what lies ahead, but they can’t change it. (Mark, #7)

Randy also spoke to his hopelessness.

This man has got a low-income job, definitely. He also looks like he’s
probably from the 19203 or before, sometime during that ugly industrial age
in the US. I bet these guys are just waiting to go home. None of them looks
real happy, just kind of waiting for the day when they don’t have to do this
anymore. I think this is not the same look of pride or satisfaction that was on
the face of the picture [of the immigrant family] earlier; this man does what he
has to do for whatever reason. (Randy, #7)

Nevertheless, students’ belief in the American dream still eked its way
through for this picture as four male students told a story about the men who worked
horrible jobs because they sought to provide for their families and at least to retain
the hope that their children would achieve the American dream. Alan’s narrative
painted the most complete picture of this attitude and concentrated on the miners’
driving motivation and inner sense of responsibility.

. . . And their life is this existence. There’s not a lot of joy to it. They kind of
accept it as the hard life. They may have a family back home waiting for
them, but poor. You know, wife is at home and cooks with what meager
rations they have that they can buy from the company store. Their kids are
poor, like at the local company school. They might get some education. They
[the parents] hold better for their kids than they have. But they consider
themselves lucky to have a job, work, able to provide something for their
families, not a lot, but they’re able to provide. . . . They pretty much have a
wash on their lives; they don’t see themselves getting much more than this,
but they can do more for their children and keep the family. Then they’ll
consider themselves having succeeded, at least to some level. (Alan, #7)

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It is interesting that it was the male students who hung on and promoted the
promises of the American dream, even through Pictures #7 and #8. One
explanation for this result is that as males they have been socialized to feel
responsible for providing for their families, one essential component of the dream.
However, Americans often carry this responsibility and belief in the dream one step
further; that is, we are materialists focused on the accumulation of wealth and
worldly goods (Althen, 1988; Stewart, 1972). The irony that surfaced in looking at
these narratives was that many of the students balked at images of material wealth,
which were represented in Picture #9. This is perhaps because they ran up against

another American value, equality.

Eguality

For all the rhetoric about the American dream, the students seemed to have
difficulty dealing with those people who had achieved it. Their images of wealth and
prosperity, the chief elements of the dream, were essentially denounced by students
as they told narratives of Picture #9. For example, students conveyed their attitudes
by first establishing that the scene was one where wealthy people dined. They
chose a setting that connoted wealth, including the US, Belgium, ”Britain, Wales,
and those snobby countries.” They placed their characters in buildings identified
with wealth and power: social club, home/mansion, restaurant, the White House, a
senator’s home in New Hampshire. Two students identified the scene as a power

event: a ”fancy corporate affair” or a ”business dinner party.”

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Students were quite detailed in illustrating the wealthy diners’ way of life and
also conveyed their disdainful feelings about them. For example, they described the
diners as ”conservative,” ”aristocratic,” ”powerful,” ”irresponsible,” ”important,”
”authoritarian,” ”lacking vitality in life ortheir ability to enjoy things,” ”patriarchal,” and
”stodgy and stuffy British aristocrats.” They used phrases to describe the diners’
lifestyles and attitudes, which I summarize and quote:

They have no knowledge of other people’s plight.

They regard others as their servants or ”cogs in the wheel that makes the
machinery of state go around.”

They do not appreciate the chef.
They go home and ”diddle~daddle.”

They are ”stodgy, stuffy British aristocrats who drive around in their Bentleys
and are waited on by hard-working servants.”

They have no feelings and are impoverished of their political obligations; they
can’t even enjoy their wealth, the food and aesthetic values available to them.

”Materialism doesn’t make you happy, even if you marry into a company
family; simplicity of life does.”

”A slave is a slave, regardless of the kindness of the master.”
Shirley’s narrative summarized the students’ general image and attitude toward the
wealthy. I include it in its entirety.

Looks like some sort of a dinner party. The people are probably happy. They
are wealthy. They have everything they want, all the best food, servants.
They probably feel like they deserve this, like people should wait on them.
They are probably putting themselves on a pedestal, feeling like this is how
things are supposed to be. That they’re supposed to be taken care of. That
they probably make money off of what other people are doing. They probably
don’t have a care in the world: they go and do whatever they want to do:
travel; they don’t have to worry about money or where the next meal is going

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to come from. . . . The people in the picture will continue to have their wealth
and their success, but they will start to panic if they feel it is going to be taken
away from them or if other pe0ple are going to come into power and start
doing different things; they probably don’t like change; they probably wouldn’t
like it if things evolved into something where their power could be taken away
from them, some of their wealth, or if other people started sharing in that

wealth. (Shirley, #9)

Interestingly enough, only two students, a black male and a black female,
spoke about Picture #9 as a story about social class inequality. For example,
Steve’s image of society was one in which the wealthy deliberately tried to segment
people according to social class. What resulted was inequality and discrimination,
which escaped the notice of those in power. The powerful had another agenda: to
keep their power at any cost and to ignore anyone not of their class. For example,
in Picture #9 Steve illustrated how those in the world of privilege were isolated from
the rest of society. The ”rich white peOpIe,” whom he identified as congressmen,
were expressionless, ambivalent, and ignorant of what was going on outside their
world of power and money. Their women did nothing during the day but watch soap
Operas. If the occasion for which they met was Thanksgiving, then the turkey was
missing. These metaphors provided insight into an image of the wealthy class: they
lack knowledge of and regard for people below them. Steve expressed his utter
disgust at these pe0ple who hold leadership positions in society but who just ”sit
back and wait to be fed.”

Inequality among the social classes was a theme for Jane as well. Like

Steve, she discussed the difficulty of transcending the inequalities of class status

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when the elites stood to gain from the losses of the poor. Picture #8 illustrated this
position.

And so, I guess what I’m trying to say is that he’s poor, already suffering, has

to carry his own cross and yet, what he’s doing benefits everyone else and

not himself because he’s in that type of position like Christ. I don’t think it
necessarily benefited him to be crucified and this man, it doesn’t really benefit
him directly to be poor, but his country and all the developed countries benefit
on his poverty and the fact that he has to work, like a horse, with low wages.

(Jane, #8)

Jane’s theme for Picture #10 paralleled that of Picture #8: the poor remained
poor because social inequalities prevailed in society and only a few people could
overcome a lower class status. For example, in her narrative of Picture #10, the
Bengali women may have escaped the oppressions of their country, but they could

not escape their impoverished status as refugees.

These are Pakistani women, no, they’re Bengali women. Yeah, this is sad,
they were fleeing East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, and they went
over into the asylum region of India because it was really close to their border
and they were trying to escape west Pakistani aggression and harm to their
families. And they went over to asylum because culturally or rather ethnically,
they’re not that different and they’re refugees and they’re just trying to get by
and it’s really sad, but today in 1994 they’re probably still in the same
predicament because there’s not a lot of money to take care of them, so it’s
just really too bad. (Jane, #10)

Commentary

Through these narratives l have been able to show the students’ attitudes
about wealth and prosperity: to be rich is to be on top; to be poor is to be
subordinate; to be financially subordinate is a great fear because poverty is seen as
shameful. Poverty is an indicator of one’s ability to take responsibility for one’s own

affairs and to take advantage of the unmined riches in a land of opportunity and

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unlimited wealth (Stewart, 1972). Such attitudes have religious overtones for
Americans and for a good reason.

We can trace this materialistic attitude to the Puritan tradition, whose values
still permeate our culture. For example, one of the key concerns of the Puritans was
to be among the Elect of God, which meant that one would go to Heaven. One could
tell who was of the Elect by their accumulated wealth. This is one of the reasons
why material prosperity is so vitally important to Americans.

However, America was also influenced by the values of the Enlightenment,
which promoted equality. Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence first
articulated the value that ”all men are created equal.” One of the struggles of our
history has been to make the Declaration a reality for all people. The students’
narratives about the hopes of the American dream, as in Picture #2, and their
impressions of those who realized it, as in Picture #9, are part of the schizophrenia
of the American mentality. Throughout our history we have debated this issue of
social equality by making provisions for those who suffer material poverty and then
by taking it away once we think the problem is solved or we feel we are being taken
advantage of by the poor. However, here lies the problem that befuddles us and that
emerged in the students’ narratives: we make a distinction between social equality
and economic equality. We also believe that economic equality yields social
equality. Although a philosophical discussion on this point is beyond the bounds of
this study, I call it to mind in order to suggest that such questions play a role in the

students’ contradictory images of and attitudes toward the Third World. I also

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suggest that atransformative educative process leading to a global perspective must
deal with these images and attitudes and recognize how deeply ingrained they are

in the American value system.

C . II II I' I II S

The images that I obtained from the students’ narratives make a striking point.
These students who have been studying under an internationalized curriculum do
have a certain knowledge about the Third World. However, their images, as
indicated by their narratives, turned out to be stereotypical and ethnocentric. This
observation had even greater gravity when I discovered that the students generally
lacked much personal interest in the Third World and that their stereotypes were
perpetuated despite their exposure to itthrough coursework and even study abroad.
Cultural assumptions and media exposure seem to be particularly significant factors,
owing at least to a reinforcement of these stereotypes.

For example, based on the data I collected from the Global Issues and the
World Attitudes Survey, students said they obtained most of their information about
the world from the media and from coursework. Although I did not assess
coursework, I did ask students about their media exposure. Fourteen students cited
newspapers as their primary source of international information. Almost all of them
said they watched television news, with 11 out of 15 specifying CNN as their most
frequently watched station. Thirteen students said they relied on coursework for
their information, eight read books, four talked to their international friends, and two

listened to the radio. One student reported that international news was a frequent

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topic of family conversation. Students indicated their interest in various regions of
the world on a five-point scale; results are shown in Table 4.2 Counting the number
of responses for each news interest revealed that the students’ top areas were the
United States (18 out of 19), Africa (14 out of 19), and Europe (12 out of 19). News
interest in Latin America (9 out of 19) and Asia (9 out of 19) was not as great, while
the area of least interest was Australia (3 out of 19). Local news (11 out of 19) had
variable interest, probably because many students were not from the East Lansing

area.

Table 4: News interests in the areas of the world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local USA Africa Asia Australia Europe L. America
A 5 1 1 5 2 0 2 5
B 6 7 9 7 3 10 4 I.
c 3 1 2 4 5 5 4 II
D 5 0 3 4 8 1 5 II
E 0 0 0 2 3 1 1 I

 

Key: A = extremely interested
E = not at all interested

To learn about students’ understanding of the Third World, I asked students
questions about their commonalities and differences with it. Two indicated that they

had no contact with Third World peOpIe. One said it was difficult to relate to the

 

2Unfortunately, I inadvertently left out the Middle East in the questionnaire.

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Third World. Four did not respond to the question. Only one student who had lived
in the Third World indicated that she had commonality with the people in every way
and pointed out that they were not all poor. Nine other students answered the
question by resorting to theory or spirituality. For example, one cited Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs as the process all human beings go through. Five students used
ideology as a common link among the peoples of the world by asserting that the
wealthy in both rich and poor countries always took resources away from the poor
for their own comfort. Two black males said they felt a connection through skin
color, and three black students identified with Third World people because of their
common struggle against oppression. Finally, three students saw their commonality
with peOpIe from the Third World because they thought that the people probably
strived for a better life or tried to make something of themselves.

Regarding their differences with the Third World, 1 1 students spoke in terms
of their own economic advantage. As with their narratives on cultural encounters,
one noticeable tone in their comments was a tinge of guilt. For example, some
expressed personal misgivings about taking things for granted or having so much
more than other people. Some spoke to feelings about how lucky they were to live
in this country. Four students spoke about political differences, specifically
addressing unfair practices against women, labor, and the use of the military against
people. Two students spoke about cultural differences.

In asking students about their commonality to the First World, they again

focused on their economic advantage in comparison to the Third World, only with

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more specific instances of things like high living standards, educational and career
opportunities, and access to resources. Two students saw their access to resources
and technology as putting them in an effective position to help solve the problems
of the Third World. A couple of students took a philosophical approach and spoke
about the ways capitalism forces people to compete for a materialistic life, and to live
industrial, fast-paced, and impersonal lives.

Finally, the students had great difficulty talking about their differences with the
First World. In fact, nine students did not respond to the question. Those who did
answer spoke in the same terms they did when the compared the First and Third
World, namely, economics, politics, and culture. Students also used class
distinctions as a mode of comparison. They assumed an upper-level status and
believed themselves to be more informed about the world than most other First

World people. Two spoke about cultural differences among First World nations.

Commentary

What is most prominent in the students’ stated impressions of the Third World
is that they matched their narratives, which were characterized by the principles of
the American dream: they were economically oriented, education is the means of
moving up the social hierarchy, and America is the land of opportunity. However,
recognizing one’s stereotypical attitudes and images, especially when they are
basically unknown, is integral to the goals of an internationalized curriculum for a
very important reason. In an interconnected and constantly changing global society,

communication is a necessity. Most educators concede that communication is

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important; however, they interpret communication in a global society as foreign
language ability. However, as I demonstrated with the data of this study, the
students’ knowledge of language as well astheir knowledge of international relations
did not eliminate their stereotypes of the Third World or of America. Knowledge of
one’s own cultural values and assumptions, as well as one’s understanding and
sensitivity to other cultures, is basic to forming relationships with people who are
different from oneself. The cost of such ”intercultural communication” is critical
because ”inaccurate and unfavorable stereotypes of other cultures and ethnic
groups cause us to misinterpret messages we receive from members of those
cultures and ethnic groups” (Gudykunst, 1994, p. x).

With this chapter I complete my review of the data. In the next and final
chapter I apply what I have learned from the students to the internationalized

undergraduate curriculum.

CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE

INTERNATIONALIZED CURRICULUM

Students face a global society that is complex, contradictory, interconnected,
and ever-changing. Yet the question remains: How can we in higher education
design an undergraduate curriculum that prepares students to meet the challenges
of living and working in a global society? In this study I suggested that we address
this question first by regarding education as a transformative process and curriculum
as learner-centered. Then I proposed that we look beyond a knowledge-only
approach to education and focus on students’ images and experiences of the world.

As a result of this study, I discovered some interesting things about students
that can aid in the direction and design of an internationalized curriculum that
cultivates a global perspective. As I will describe in this chapter, a global
perspective addresses the characteristics of a global society and develops in
students a way of seeing that enables them to derive meaning out of ambiguity,
make connections among disparate and sometimes contradictory parts, realize the
effects of an individual’s actions on others and vice versa, communicate with diverse

peoples, and make informed and deliberative choices about life in the local, national,

195

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and global societies. In this last chapter I will demonstrate how an internationalized
curriculum can move students toward a global perspective. I will do this first by
highlighting the findings of the study, and, with the help of the literature, I will reflect
on how professors may think about, construct, and teach in an internationalized

curriculum.

S III I. [II E' I.

In my interviews with the students, I discovered four outstanding qualities that
influenced their learning: affectivity, experience, reflection, and the struggle with
diversity. I derived these four qualities by listening to the students, a key element
for a learner-centered curriculum. It is important to note that a learner-centered
curriculum is different from a knowledge-oriented curriculum. It is more fluid and
flexible, less codified, and more aligned to students’ needs. However, I do not mean
to suggest that such a curriculum lacks goals and objectives. Rather, the goal of
curriculum is to facilitate students’ learning so that they may become ”self-directed”
learners (H oule, 1961 ). ”Self-directed” learners are goal-oriented, leaming-oriented,
and action-oriented.

It is important to recognize that one objection to a learner-centered curriculum
may be its seeming fuzziness, changeable nature, and unpredictable outcome.
Some professors may ask how students learn anything in a curriculum where
”anything goes.” Implied in this objection, however, is a need for certainty, structure,
and a means of measuring progress. But, as l have contended in this study,

certainty, structure, and a means of measuring progress are patently absent from a

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global society—and life in general. So through the internationalized curriculum,
students become familiar with living in such a society. This is the social curriculum
that I referred to in Chapter Three.

Also implied in this objection is the need to teach students to do the right
thing, which of course is a laudable reason for educating students in the first place.
Some pe0ple believe that setting up strict guidelines for right and wrong ways of
doing things will make choices eminently clear. Lynch (1962) cautions against such
approaches because they can result in ”totalism” and an inability to use one’s ”inner
resources.” Students end up believing that to know something will avail them of the
ability to do the right thing. '

Langer (1992) speaks of this approach as a ”mindlessness” which makes
peOpIe oblivious to alternatives and entraps them with mindsets that preclude
reflection. Such people believe that the world is guided by immutable and
unconditional truths. On the other hand, people who cultivate mindfulness are better
able to acknowledge the world’s uncertainties and ambiguities, focus on the present,
and sensitize themselves to the contexts and interrelationships of phenomena,
people, and events. Mindfulness elicits a multidimensional point of view that
predisposes people to tolerate and learn from failure, to seek out multiple
perspectives, and to make choices in the midst of trade-offs. These are the
objectives of a global perspective where knowledge is integral to mindfulness
because it leads to awareness. Mastery of knowledge, however, is secondary

because it does not necessarily lead to action; in fact, it often separates knowledge

198

and action. On the other hand, mindfulness can lead to action or, more important,
to transformation, as I will demonstrate in this chapter.

On another note is the question that my conclusions to this study are unique
to the Madison students and not generalizable to other college student populations.
It is certainly true that Madison, like all learning contexts, has some unique features,
but to say this is not generalizable misses the point of this study. I have designed
a study aimed at achieving a certain goal: exploring the features of a curriculum that
can move students toward a global perspective. In this effort I am focused on finding
ways to transform students by considering and eliciting their experiences and
images as a critical part of the curriculum that are in conjunction with disciplinary
knowledge. In this way I discover where the students are starting from so that I may
attempt to move them to a global perspective. I also find out where students are
going, what new trains of thought may be emerging that give clues to ideas for the
curriculum. Thus, the point of this study has not been to promote my methods and
findings, which may or may not be suitable to others’ particular contexts, but rather
to promote an approach to curriculum design that emphasizes student learning and
transformation. As I previously mentioned, one way to do this is by listening to the
students. Below I share the four factors of learning that I gathered by listening to
these students. It is from these factors that I develop the implications for- an

internationalized curriculum.

199
ME I. D II [El I.

Students liked the Madisonian environment because it was open and active;
they generally believed that they were being trained to think, express themselves,
and make things happen. However, the most prominent element that made Madison
a good experience for students was its affective quality. It is interesting that this
quality emerged in a highly cognitive and content-oriented curriculum. Affectivity
seemed to provide the students with a means of connection to the professors, who
were the authority figures, masters of their disciplines, and conduits to knowledge.
Unlike their experience in the large lecture halls where students felt lost or
unchallenged by an impersonal and distant professor, the Madison students of this
study indicated that they wanted and liked to connect with their professors. For
example, students spoke positively and vociferously about their interactions with
faculty who they knew to be experts in their field and involved in national and
international activities and organizations. But these professors reached out to
students, respected them, spent time advising and talking with them informally, and
encouraged them to do their best.

Students also liked the Madison environment because they had a sense of
community with other students and with alumni, all of whom had a common
experience of the academic rigor. The smallness and residential nature of the
college also seemed to have much to do with this sense of community and
identification with the college. For example, some students said they felt a

connection to alumni and knew that they could consult them for internships, career

200

planning, and job opportunities. Students’ sense of belonging ran deep, and this
extended long after graduation, as evidenced by the pride and excitement of alumni
who attended the college’s twenty-fifth anniversary celebration. Affectivity was the
glue that held students together, and it was the support they needed to steer
themselves through the rigor, high stress, uncertainty, and explosion of knowledge

and information they found at Madison.

E 'I'ID I'l [El I.

The students in this study learned how to think critically and how to express
themselves on complex international subjects. The effect of this approach, however,
was that theory often got separated from students’ experience. The gravity of this
finding became especially apparent after I discovered that students were learning
important lessons about working with constituents, authority figures, and opposition
groups, and that they were grappling with volatile socioeconomic and political issues
through their volunteer activities, internships, study abroad, and student
assistantships. Their experiences with diversity on campus demonstrated their
struggle with relating to people from unfamiliar backgrounds. They were learning
that getting along with others was difficult and full of complexities, paradoxes, and
occasionally, a lack of answers. At the same time, students who studied overseas
realized that they gained self-confidence and developed new perspectives on the
world. These were alltransforming experiences which demonstrated the importance

of learning through experience. It also became apparent that the students’

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experiences could be useful ”subject matter” for the classroom because through

these experiences they could connect with theory and help make sense of it.

Bil I. 0 II [El I'

Athematic analysis of the students’ picture narratives revealed that they were
concerned with moral and ethical questions such as fitting into society, relating to
others in a society, finding meaning and purpose, gaining grounding and support in
God and family, and responding to life’s tragedies. As they prepared to launch into
their life's work, they talked about the fear and excitement they felt. Yet it was clear
that they were also searching for and reflecting on the meaning of a world they
wanted to influence. Most anticipated the dilemmas of becoming part of the system,
whereas others were determined to change it.

What was significant about these narratives was that in them the students
shared with me a part of the depth of themselves. As a result, I became convinced
of the prominence these moral and ethical concerns played in their lives and that
they needed time to think about them, play with them, and discuss their ideas with
others. The classroom is an ideal place for such an endeavor. Actually, these moral
and ethical concerns represented the students’ assumptions about what society is
and how it should be shaped. These concerns pointed to the underlying
assumptions that go into political, economic and social policy decision-making.
Reflecting on and understanding other people’s assumptions about society—and
getting in touch with one’s own--is a critical skill for a pluralistic global society where

competing interests oftentimes gets bogged down in the technicalities and

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complexities of policymaking. It involves learning how to deliberate and make

choices about how people can live together.

0136 II. Ill'll E . IB 'ID' 'I

Students perceived America as a place where an individual may pursue the
American dream, which is usually translated into owning a home, having a family,
and living a prosperous life. What was interesting was that the students’ images of
America influenced their perceptions of the Third World, which most were unfamiliar
with and only seven had visited. Nevertheless, their images of the Third World were
vivid, stereotypical, and ethnocentric. For example, they saw the Third World as
poor and the land of the noble savage. They also felt guilt and discomfort at past
practices of colonialism and exploitation. Coupled with these images were their
images of social class inequality in which they spared no energy to heap their
contempt on the wealthy elites for their power, privilege, and arrogance. What
seemed to underlie these attitudes was the students’ belief that the American dream
assured equality among all the classes.

The students' images of America and the Third World revealed an uncertainty
and ambiguity about what or how they could think about economic inequality. This
came out oftheir narratives as well as in their interviews as a struggle to understand
and live with people of diverse races and cultures. Unfortunately, there are few
guides available to students, especially, I contend, when images of the Third World,
multiculturalism, and poverty are coming from sources with some sort of political or

cultural agenda that projects and reinforces stereotypical and ethnocentric beliefs

203

and attitudes. The media often materialize as one of these sources; however,
discerning how pebple are influenced in their attitudes is much more complicated
and way beyond the scope of this study.

What is significant about these data, however, is that the students continued
to hold ethnocentric images despite the fact that several of them had traveled to the
Third World, studied languages, and were well-versed in international and social
relations. Also, when it came to racial diversity at home, I discovered that half of the
students avoided discussions on the subject or contact with individuals who fit these
categories. Such findings suggest a disconnect between knowledge, understanding,
and action. They point to a need for a curriculum that is designed to transform
students to new ways of seeing and behaving in a diverse global society. The next
section will outline the directions and considerations such a curriculum may take.

III [II Sill-Cl I

As I stated in Chapter One, preparing students for life and work in a global
society becomes problematic when the focus of the curriculum is more on the
structures of education rather than on the students’ learning and their development
toward a global perspective. Learning under this orientation is determined by the
students’ ability to know and articulate the theories and precepts of the discipline.
Likewise, a curriculum that relies on coursework, study abroad, and language as the
means for internationalizing students can produce a gap between students’

knowledge and understanding, as well as a confusion over ways of applying this

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knowledge to their life and work. This approach emphasizes a stockpiling of
knowledge rather than a creation of it. It encourages an analysis of phenomena but
not a stake in it. It focuses on the veracity or falsity of data instead of uncovering
and dealing with the contradictions, relationships, and contexts of human life in
society.

However, in this study I regarded the students’ comments about the
separation between theory and their experience as well as their knowledge and
images as a call to educators to expand their conceptions of knowledge. I have
identified two types of knowledge: disciplinary knowledge and personal knowledge,
which includes students’ images and experiences. It appears that an lntemational-
ized curriculum aimed at transforming students to a global perspective needs to
consider both kinds of knowledge for two reasons. First, educators need to know
where students are starting so they know how to move them toward a global
perspective. I did this with the PSI, the biographical interviews, and the World
Attitudes Survey; however, these tools are not the only tools available to educators.
Regardless of the specific instruments used, it is important for professors to find out
their students’ attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions because these are the elements
that influence students’ learning, and curriculum will flow from these factors.

Second, to transform students to a global perspective, professors need to
help students identify their images and attitudes of the world so that they become
aware of them and understand the assumptions behind them. Professors also need

to give students time and space to reflect and share their experiences so that they

205

may examine them in relation to theory. This is an illustration of Dewey’s concept
of the ”continuity of experience,” in which professors entreat students to pay
attention to phenomena in the present, to make sense of it, and to learn from it. For
example, Tom’s observation that Germany had a culture and the United States did
not, creates a learning opportunity in which students can examine cultural theory,
American cultural values, and their other cross-cultural experiences as well. Steve’s
experience of being physically searched in the Korean comer store provides an
opportunity to compare his experience to other students’ experiences of
discrimination so that students can then analyze the patterns, assumptions, and
dynamics involved with prejudice and discrimination. What students are doing with
these discussions is constructing their own theories and knowledge, and they do it
in conjunction with social science literature. Finally, students reflect on the kind of
individual response they can make to discrimination, for example, when they meet
it in the future. Such an approach to education leads to reflection and dialogue,
which can lead to transformation and action. They form the basic learning process
for an internationalized curriculum. The following sections of this chapter identify the

various elements of how I see this curriculum unfolding.

I I. IS I'I . [III III!

Living and working in a global society demands that we look at reality in ways
besides those that are based on linear cause-and-effect relationships, deductive
reasoning, quantification, and progress as we often find in undergraduate education.

One simple reason I advocate this change is because not everyone in the world

206

thinks in these terms, and we need to learn how to communicate with them. We also
need to realize that we think the way we do because we have been influenced by
the cultural values and assumptions of scientific rationalism, as I discussed in
Chapter Five. Another reason why we need to be able to see reality in nonlinear
terms is that the global society is complex, interconnected, contradictory, and
constantly changing. Living and working in such a society requires more holistic
perspectives on reality. Bateson (1979) describes this holistic process as an
”ecology of mind.”

An ”ecology of mind” unifies and ”sanctif[ies] the total natural world of which
we are a part” by seeing with eyes that allow us to uncover our assumptions about
reality (Bateson, 1979, p. 19). For example, Bateson postulates that the world is
joined together through chains and circles of ideas, interactions, and information.
Descriptions of phenomena are made not only in terms of logic and quantities, but
also in terms of the interactions with other phenomena and within their own internal
organization. In short, he posits an approach to learning that focuses on connecting
patterns, shapes and forms, and metaphoric descriptions. Such an approach to
curriculum is in line with seeing and working with the complexities of the global
society.

Bateson’s key component for learning is an awareness and analysis of the
commonalities and differences of phenomena through comparison. One cannot
know something, he says, without comparing it to something else because

comparison provides a useful context for understanding the relational schemes and

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values of varying entities. This strategy is precisely what the students in this study
employed as they interacted with people they met in their overseas travel. For
example, Sandra learned that Europeans were not as broad-minded (i.e., nonsexist,
nonprejudiced) as Americans or as she expected them to be. Mary discovered that
although Zimbabweans had no prior experience with Americans, they readily lumped
her into their television stereotypes of Americans. Mark felt an affinity to Kenya that
he had not felt in America once he noticed that black people ran the whole country.
Alan realized upon his return from Zimbabwe that he had inadvertently slowed down
his hurried life’s pace. These examples illustrate the process of learning through
comparison. They signify the conscious effort it takes on the part of the Ieamer to
experience the world and to reflect on it.

Bateson also says that we can deal with the contradictory nature of the world
by being ”Janus-like,” i.e., facing in two directions: inward toward one’s own
psychological and physical realities and outward toward the demands of the
environment and its peoples. It is out of such a posture that learners can make a
creative response. But a creative response also implies the risk of change, which
most peOpIe find difficult. Actually Bateson says that change is a confrontation with
the paradox of ”correctling] or fight[ing] obsolescence” and thereby losing
”coherence, clarity, and sanity if we let go of the obsolete” (p. 108). In short, people
resist change because it is so difficult to abandon the known, the familiar, and the
comfortable for something unknown, unpredictable, and uncontrollable. In the next

section I address how students may deal with these discombobulating factors of

208

changethrough metaphor, a comparative device that uses images to describe reality

and to derive meaning out of ambiguity.

D,"II'II IIIII

One of the most difficult tasks before us in a global society is to derive
meaning from ambiguity. One way to do this, however, is through metaphor.
Metaphor is a comparison of images ”from one field of discourse or experience to
describe some other field of experience in such a way as to suggest certain
parallels, commonalities, or useful contradictory connections between the two areas”
(Olds, 1992, p. 23). Meaning is then derived at another more enriching level of
comprehension. Because metaphor carries unrecognized or unconscious
assumptions, it is especially useful in seeing connections between the known and
unknown. Thus, metaphor can ”sharpen thought” and communicate different ideas
and views of the world.

Metaphor can play an especially important role in the internationalized
curriculum because through images it provides an expansive and creative way of
representing relationships and phenomena through images. For example, Tom’s
narrative of the slave girl in Picture #8 depicted her as standing up to her master.
This was a metaphor for his anticipated stance with the system. Jane's chef in
Picture #9 fed the wealthy people what she thought they should have. This was a
metaphor for Jane’s approach to social change. Several students’ use of the army

in Picture #11 was a metaphor for the social convention they felt obliged to adopt.

209

Metaphor leads to insight and understanding of a whole idea because words
themselves are not always conducive to describing or explaining ideas or
relationships. Olds says that metaphor offers learners a way to see and to articulate
the contradictions and complexities of reality because metaphor is holistic, heuristic,
integrative, and definitive. Metaphor also allows for hunches, serendipity,
visualization, and intuition, which all play a role in meaning-making. These elements
are the stuff of good theory that scientists use all the time (Olds, 1992). I am
suggesting that students be encouraged to use metaphor to create knowledge so
that they may make a creative response to the global society. In this way,
curriculum can support or facilitate the development of such metaphorical thinking.

Another important characteristic of metaphor as it pertains to learning and
meaning-making is that it crosses the boundaries between the ”sensory” and
”imaginative intelligences” in order to illustrate abstract ideas through concrete
images. By trying to express meaning through metaphor, one expands the
possibilities of the thing being compared because the mind is able to stretch its
imaginative capacity to comprehend and articulate the unknown through the known.
For example, hunches, intuition, visualization, and serendipity are actually
hypotheses created in the ”imaginative intelligence,” which are later formulated and
expressed in words and logical reasoning through the ”sensory intelligence.” Thus,
metaphor allows students to construct theory, one of the activities of knowledge ’
creation in an internationalized curriculum.

As the medieval world once turned to stone, we must turn to metaphor, the
inner building blocks of the mental landscape, to evoke a living expression of

210

the unity available in our time. Each field offers its own conditions and

assumptions, its own metaphors. If we seek a unifying level of metaphor, it

must emerge from the fields before us and carry us into new ways of thinking
and connecting. Its usefulness must be measured not only by
appropriateness within its own field but by the capacity to ”carry us beyond,”

which is the root meaning of metaphor. (Olds, 1992, p. xii)

The students’ narratives were metaphors of their view of reality. In the
process of creating their narratives, the students were forming bridges between the
physical and imagined worlds, between the ambiguous and the meaningful. In other
words, metaphors are connectors. They connect unlike things and create unity and
consistency of an idea while simultaneously paying attention to complex details.
Fran’s incredible story about the Chilean painter was an example of a metaphor that
connected two disparate cultures, the Indian and the Spanish, to make something
new, the Chilean culture. Jack’s story about the worshippers in ”different stages of
dress” served as a metaphor for their different stages of spirituality.

Metaphor is also a useful way to understand the theories of the discipline. In
reality, each discipline constructs theoretical frameworks which are metaphors used
to express certain realities. Seen in this light, students may be better able to
connect with these theories and to see them as provisional constructions of reality.
From this they learn the use and the role of theory.

Metaphor can help students create new knowledge and bridge the abstract
and obscure. But unless they share their metaphors with each other, new ideas and

knowledge remain elusive. Dialogue and reflection provide a means for sharing

these ideas with others and for deriving meaning in the process.

211
0.. H . II ID'I IBfll'

In a learner-oriented, hermeneutic, internationalized curriculum, students and
professors engage in dialogue on the world’s realities so that they learn how to
derive meaning from them, create knowledge about them, and respond to them
(Freire, 1990; MacDonald, 1982; McCutcheon, 1982; Schubert, 1986). This is done
by probing and questioning each other's ideas and assumptions and by reflecting
on experience and meaning. In this process both the professor and the students act
as learners to identify trends and patterns of ever-changing realities in order to
understand their own realities and to discern ways they may respond to them
individually or as a group (Atkins, 1986; Freire, 1969/1990; Schubert, 1986). Such
an approach to learning encourages a community-building process that involves
group discernment and communication among equals.

For example, in a learner-centered, hermeneutic, internationalized curriculum,
one of the primary ways of understanding the global society is by engaging in a
dialogue on its moral and ethical dilemmas, as the students did in Chapter Four.
Through dialogue, students can address the meaning of the human issues of a
global society such as identity, lifestyle, community, tragedy, family, relationship to
God, and responsibility to others. These issues are what inform the esoteric and
complex political, economic, social, and cultural issues of policy in our own society
and even in our relationships with other nations and cultures.

Providing students with opportunities to engage in dialogue about moral and

ethical issues gives them the opportunity of questioning their ”taken-for-granted”

212

assumptions about knowledge and reality, as well as their own attitudes and beliefs
(Bowers, 1984). This is a difficult task because it involves examining the familiar,
which takes time and requires a safe and engaging place (Bateson, 1979; Culley,
1985). The classroom has the potential for being such a place. However, creating
such a classroom for dialogue takes a special effort and commitment, which may
challenge the usual fiscal constraints and conventional academic priorities and
practices. For example, it appeared to me that the success of Madison was that
classes were small, and students had the opportunity to talk and to try out their ideas
and to learn from each other as well as from their professors. It was also obvious
that they appreciated the fact that their professors’ prime job at the college was to
teach students (Allen, 1994).

Although dialogue is crucial for learning in an internationalized curriculum,
Freire (1990) points out an aspect of dialogue that pe0ple frequently miss: it
requires reflection. Many people try to engage in dialogue without reflection, but
Freire cautions that ”action without reflection is activism” (pp. 52-53). Dialogue
without reflection can turn discussion into empty talk, posturing, or monologue, as
exemplified on Talk Radio. Reflection entails individual and group discernment over
an issue. It considers people, consequences, contexts, and motivations of the
stake-holders. Reflection also involves individual and group discernment and
deliberation over appropriate responses and their consequences.

The students of this study shared some of their personal reflections with me

on their experiences with multiculturalism and overseas study, as well as their moral

213

and ethical concerns. The extent and depth of their sharing indicated to me their
need and capacity to discuss such issues. Extending these reflections in dialogue
with others is an essential component of the internationalized curriculum. Students
need a time and place to discuss the meaning of their ideas and experiences so that
they might gain an understanding of them and learn from them. They need a place
to express themselves, to be challenged by others, and to consider how they may
respond to and participate in their world. Dialogue and reflection are skills that an
internationalized curriculum can provide.

Actually, persons who enter dialogue with others show that they are willing
to examine themselves and their actions rather than to be held up as authority
figures or paternalistic caretakers. Dialogue is an activity among equals. When it
is used, it sets a tone in the classroom that can invite participation, problem solving,
and reasoned discussion. It is the kind of communitarian and democratic
environment that Martha, Denise, and Mary described in Chapter Fourwhere people
spent time with each other and committed themselves to each other. These are
factors that lead to communication among the members of the community, which is

an especially critical skill in a global society that comprises diverse groups of people.

C 'l"lll’l'lC'l

Communication in the internationalized curriculum encompasses another
aspect, namely, connecting with peOpIe from diverse groups. Communication
among people with cultural differences is not easy. Besides the obvious language
barrier, people’s attitudes about each other can disrupt or block communication, as

we saw in Chapter Five with students’ ethnocentric images of Third World people.

214

Such images shape attitudes, which can result in paternalistic or aggressive
behavior, which, in turn, impedes communication. Marytalked about Americans who
play the role of ”savior" overseas and then forget to engage the people as
individuals. Expecting people to be a certain way, as Sandra did of the Europeans,
can also block an equal exchange. Effective intercultural communication entails a
three-step process: (a) understanding that everyone is influenced by his/her culture,
(b) knowing one’s own cultural values and assumptions, and (0) learning the
particulars of another culture. But even this process is intricate. Culture is very
complicated, and it includes such issues as time, space, language, motivation, and
work-related values. A person can never know everything about another culture, but
he/she can learn how to communicate and interact with people from other cultures.
Such skills are integral to a global perspective.

It is also important to note that intercultural communication is not about
abandoning one’s own culture or giving in to the cultural assumptions of the other.
It is about knowing enough about one’s own cultureuand that of the other-so that
negotiation can take place among equals. This attitude prepares the way for
negotiation or ”middle ground.”

Middle ground is an anthropological term that assumes that people are
aggressive by nature and that they need an incentive to negotiate (White, 1991).
There can be no middle ground if either side seeks to overpower the other.
However, in order to achieve middle ground, each side must recognize that both

sides have the power to overtake the other. Therefore, they deduce that it is an

215

advantage to deal with each other and to respect each other in order to meet their
own objectives. It is a civilized and diplomatic way of interacting with others, as
White (1991) attests in his history of French and Indian trade relations during the
17008. Middle ground also occurs when each side is clear about what commitment
it is willing to make with the other side. It strikes me that middle ground is very much
in keeping with the American value of equality and that the skill it advances is
negotiation.

I must make clear that when I speak of negotiation I do not regard it as a
business skill only. Negotiation is a communication skill that applies to living in a
diverse neighborhood or working in a diverse company, another conspicuous
characteristic of the global society. As the students showed in their comments about
their multicultural experiences, there was much room for learning how to negotiate
with people from different Ameflsan racial groups. Multiculturalism, by its nature of
openness to differences, inevitably breeds a climate for discrimination and prejudice
(Rauch, 1995). Learning how to recognize and deal with one’s own prejudices Is a
struggle, as Mary, Fran, Alan, and Steve demonstrated by their experiences with
racism in Chapter Three. Again, bringing such issues to the classroom and
discerning ways of responding to them is a service an internationalized curriculum

can render to students and society in general.

Il"|ll'l'l0'|

Analyzing and interpreting the students’ narratives, biographies, and surveys

gave me an opportunity to know the students in a different way. I began to develop

216

some understanding of them and their concerns in a way I had not experienced
before as an instructor. I began to see them as profound and insightful individuals
who were as concerned about the world as I was—that is, I felt a connection to them.
This connection also had an effect on my image of and attitudes toward college
students in general. I began to see students as people who already had some of the
answers, some very profound answers, inside them. In other words, students were
not empty vessels awaiting the knowledge and wisdom of the world to be poured into
them by teachers like me. They already had knowledge and understanding about
the world. What they wanted and needed from their teachers was a way to extract
their knowledge or bring it to the surface for them to be conscious of and to examine.
On the other hand, it is also my responsibility as an educator to expose students to
the knowledge and theories of the discipline. But with an emphasis on students’
learning, teaching theory and knowledge is done in conjunction. with the students’
experience. This gives theory and knowledge a context. Context helps students
learn because the professor has made an attempt to make knowledge relevant, to
connect it to the students, and therefore to make it vital to the students’ concerns for
learning about their world and their place in it. As a result of these insights, I also
began to see teaching in an internationalized curriculum as less a task of passing
on information and knowledge and more as a process of helping students surface
the questions and answers that were inside of them.

In this sense I began to see the educator as a convener. This new

perspective on teaching represents a significant shift from my own experience,

217

training, and images of who and what a teacher was. For example, I ceased looking
at students and the educative process in terms of roles with specified goals for
learning. Rather, I learned to regard students as individuals in search of knowledge,
wisdom, and understanding-and me as a partner—Ieamer with them in this pursuit.
This is how I grew to love these students and to enjoy them as people, not just as
subjects of a study. As a result, a strange thing occurred. I became aware that I,
too, had been transformed in the process of working with the students.

This insight came to me as a result of listening to the students. By listening
to them I was able to see something in them that I had not previously seen in
students. I saw my job as drawing out their knowledge and wisdom so that they
might realize that it was there for them to rely on when they met new situations in the
future. In other words, I saw the job of the professor in an internationalized
curriculum as one of building students’ confidence in themselves through
participation, to discover what they think, to examine it, to critique it, and to allow
them the room to change or amplify it. Such learning is transformative because it
is in the students’ control rather than the teacher’s; that is, students learn how to be
self-directed or responsible for their own learning, which in turn teaches them to
adapt to a complex, interconnected, contradictory, and ever-changing global society.

This is a great gift that teachers can aspire to give to their students.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A

STUDENTS OF THE STUDY

218

Table A1: Students of the study.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gender/Race Major Career Plans
BlaglLMalas
Jack Political Economy Business
George International Relations Music
Steve Political Economy Law or education
Mark Social Relations Professoriate
WhiteMales
Tom International Relations Professoriate
Greg Social Relations Education
Alan International Relations Law
Randy International Relations International development
Frank International Relations Business
BlacLEemales
Shirley Social Relations Law
Denise Social Relations Social work
Ellen International Relations Community development
Jane International Relations Law
Doris International Relations Foreign policy
llll 'l E |
Martha International Relations Law
Sandra International Relations International development
Fran International Relations International agriculture
Mary International Relations International development
Marge International Relations Forei n polic

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX B

PARTICIPANT RESPONSE LETTER OF INFORMED

AND VOLUNTARY CONSENT

219
Participant Response Letter of Informed and Voluntary Consent

I, (please print your name) give my
informed and voluntary consent to participate in the Bonfiglio study on James
Madison College students’ attitudes and perceptions of world affairs. I agree to
attend two 90-minute interviews, complete a Biographical Data Sheet, provide a tour
of my living quarters, and complete a World Attitudes Survey.

I understand that these interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed for analysis
and that the interviews (tapes and transcripts), written survey and biographical data,
and my name will be held in strictest confidence. The data will be shared only with
those connected with the study.

I understand that my name will not be revealed to anyone or in any presentations or
publications resulting from this study and that pseudonyms will be used.

I understand that my participation in this research project will not involve any
additional costs to me or my health care insurer.

I understand that my participation will in no way affect my grades at James Madison
College and that the information I give will not be shared with faculty or staff at the
college or Michigan State University.

I understand that I have a right to withdraw from the study at any time and will notify
the researcher of my decision. I also understand that I have the right to refuse to
answer any questions in the interviews or on the surveys and may stop the tape
recorder for remarks I do not wish to be recorded.

Finally, I understand that I will be paid $50 upon successful completion of the second
interview and the submission of the Biographical Data Sheet and the World Attitudes
Survey.

 

Signature of Participant

 

Date

 

Signature of Researcher
Olga M. Bonfiglio
tel. 351-3137

 

Date

APPENDIX C

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA SHEET

220

Biographical Data Sheet

Please complete the following questions. Should you wish to elaborate on your
answers, you may use the back of the page or attach additional sheets.
Remember that this data sheet will be kept confidential and that you may refuse
to answer any questions.

1.

Age

Gender

Year at MSU
Year enrolled

Major

Why did you choose to attend James Madison College?

Why did you choose your major?

What subjects have you studied during your residence at James Madison
College?

What subjects have you most enjoyed? Why?

What subjects have you least enjoyed? Why?

Which classes have contributed to your awareness of world issues? How?

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

221

What is your long-term educational objective?

Describe the kind of professional career which you would like to pursue.

What is your GPA?

Where have you traveled outside of the United States? For what

purpose? For how long?

Describe your participation in any study-abroad programs (purpose,
course of study, length of stay, place, lodging).

How would you describe your exposure to ethnic diversity before you
came to James Madison College?

How would you describe your exposure to ethnic diversity as a result of
your experiences at James Madison College?

How do you describe your ethnic origin?

What languages do you speak and at what level of proficiency (beginner,
intermediate, advanced, fluent)?

Where did you learn these languages? How long did you study?

222

19. What is your parents’ guardians’ native language? What languages do
they speak?

20. Were your parents born in a country other than the US? (Circle)

Father YES, Country NO
Mother YES, Country NO

21. Were your grandparents born in a country other than the US? (Circle)

 

 

 

Paternal grandmother YES, Country NO
Paternal grandfather YES, Country NO
Maternal grandmother YES, Country NO
Maternal grandfather YES, Country NO

 

22. What is the highest level of education your parents/guardians reached?

Z
9.
3'
to
q

Father
Eighth grade
High school
Bachelor's degree
Master’s degree
Doctoral degree
Other (please specify)

 

 

 

 

23. Occupation of your parents/guardians. If they are retired, deceased, or
unemployed, please indicate their last occupation.

Father

 

Mother

 

THIS SURVEY IS PART OF THE DATA FOR THE STUDY. PLEASE BRING.
IT WITH YOU TO THE FIRST INTERVIEW. THANKS, OLGA BONFIGLIO.

APPENDIX D

BIOGRAPHICAL INTERVIEW SCHEDULE

223

Biographical Interview Schedule

I will ask you several questions about your family, school, town or city. Please
answer the questions as completely as possible. Remember that this information
will be kept confidential and that you have the right to refuse to answer any
questions or to request that the audio-recorder be turned off.

1.

2.

10.

How many children in your family (including you)? _males _females
Describe your relationship with your brothers and sisters.
Describe your relationship with your parents.

Describe your hometown:
location

population

percentage of minorities
dominant ethnic group
major companies

Describe your high school:
population

percentage of minorities
dominant ethnic groups

Describe your involvement in extracurricular activities in high school (e.g.,
clubs. sports, projects).

Describe your more prominent friendships in high school. What were your
friends like? In what kinds of activities did you engage?

What was your favorite subject in high school?
Describe your favorite teacher. Why was helshe important to you?

Which colleges did you apply to for admission?

APPENDIX E

INSTRUCTIONS FOR NARRATIVE INTERVIEWS

224

Instructions for Narrative Interviews

II I EIIE'IE'I

This exercise is about telling stories from pictures. I will show you 13 pictures
from around the world and hand them to you so you may see them more closely.
As you look at each picture, tell me a story: What led up to the scene shown in
the picture and what is happening now? What are the thoughts and feelings of
the people in the picture? What will be the outcome?

Since I am interested in your ability to use your imagination, be sure to tell a story
with a plot and an outcome. Do not just describe the picture, although you may
describe what you see to help you construct your story.

This exercise is not a test of your knowledge about the people or places depicted
in the pictures. I do not know many details about the pictures myself.
Consequently, there are no right or wrong answers. If any of the pictures are
confounding or unfamiliar, just tell a story about what seems to be going on. I am
interested in your spontaneous responses to the pictures.

Take as much time as you need for each story. And, so that I won’t interrupt or
cut off your story before you are finished, tell me when you are finished.

80 that I don’t distract you from your story, I will not make comments or give you
facial expressions during this time. - I may, however, ask clarifying questions.

You may refuse to answer any questions I may ask or request that the tape
recorder be turned off.

I I I' III II E' IE'I

You did that well. Remember that I am interested in your telling a story that has a
plot and an outcome. Tell me what is happening now, what led up to the scene,
how it will end, and what the characters felt.

EEIIIE'I 9E"||

Is there anything further you want to tell me?

APPENDIX F

GLOBAL PROBLEMS QUESTIONNAIRE

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

225

Global Problems Questionnaire

Where have you traveled abroad? Under what circumstances?
Where would you like to travel abroad?
How did you choose these places?

What impressed you the most about your travel abroad? Or what intrigues
you about travel abroad?

Describe a memorable event with ethnically diverse people.
Describe another memorable event with ethnically diverse people.

What is your experience with ethnic diversity (defined as racial, cultural.
national differences)?

How would you characterize your ethnic background?
How important is ethnicity to you?
Do you feel a kinship to a worldwide family? If so, how? If no, why?

What do you have in common with people in the Third World? How do
you see yourself as different?

What do you have in common with people in the First World? How do you
see yourself as different?

How do you respond to news of people starving?

How do you respond to news of civilians being caught between warring
factions?

APPENDIX G

WORLD ATTITUDES SURVEY

226

Code
WORLD ATTITUDES SURVEY

I am interested in your perceptions of certain world problems. Please
indicate your view on each of them using the scales and blanks provided.

For each the following statements, indicate to what extent you agree or
disagree and circle the number in the line below to indicate your response.
Remember that your responses on this survey will be kept confidential and that
you may refuse to answer any questions.

Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly

Agree Agree Agree Indifferent Disagree Disagree Disagree
1 2 3 4 S 6 7

1. Pacifist demonstrations, i.e., picketing missile bases, peace walks,
etc., are harmful to the best interests of the American people.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

2. I believe that the United States should send food and materials to any
country that needs them.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
3. The best way to insure peace is to keep the United States stronger than

any other nation in the world.

1 2 3 A 5 6 7
4. The immigration of foreigners to this country should be kept to a

minimum so that we can provide for Americans first.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
5. Political freedom is a basic human right and no government should be

permitted to abridge it.

1 2 3 4 S 6 7
6. The main threat to basic American institutions during this century has

come from the infiltration of foreign ideas and doctrines.

l 2 3 4 S 6 7
7. Since the world's supplies of essential minerals are limited, the mining

and distribution of mineral resources should be controlled by an
international authority.
1 2 3 4 S 6 7

227

Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly

Agree Agree Agree Indifferent Disagree Disagree Disagree
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8. Everyone should have the right to leave any country, including her own,

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

and to return to her country.
1 2 3 A 5 6 7

We should be willing to settle all differences with other nations within
the framework of a World Government.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

War is a satisfactory way to solve international problems.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

No government should deny access to basic education to any of its
citizens.
I 2 3 4 5 6 7

We should not allow foreign business enterprises to have substantial
holdings in our country.
1 2 3 A 5 6 7

Under some conditions, war is necessary to maintain justice.
1 2 3 4 S 6 7

Patriotism and loyalty are the first and most important requirements of
a good citizen.
1 2 3 A 5 6 7

Immigrants should not be permitted to come into our country if they
compete with our workers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

We should have a World Government with the power to make laws that would
be binding to all its member nations.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Any healthy individual, regardless of race or religion, should be
allowed to live in whatever country he or she chooses.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1228

Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly
Agree Agree Agree Indifferent Disagree Disagree Disagree
1 2 3 b 5 6 7

18. There is no conceivable justification for war.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

19. Our country should have the right to prohibit certain racial and
religious groups from immigrating.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

20. An international authority should be established and given direct
control over the production of nuclear energy in all countries,
including the United States.

1 2 3 A 5 6 7

21. It is our responsibility to do everything possible to prevent people
from starving anywhere in the world.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
22. Changes in government should always be accomplished through peaceful

means. 7

1 2 3 A 5 6 7
23. It is none of our business if other governments restrict the personal

freedom of their citizens.

I 2 3 4 S 6 7
24. The only way peace can be maintained is to keep America so powerful and

well-armed that no other nation will dare to attack us.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

25. The United States should be open to all those who wish to settle here.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

26. No duties are more important than duties toward one's country.
1 2 3 4 S 6 7

229

Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly
Agree Agree Agree Indifferent Disagree Disagree Disagree
1 2 3 A 5 6 7
27. People should refuse to engage in any war, no matter how serious the

consequences to their country may be.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
28. I prefer to be a citizen of the world rather than of any country.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
29. I'm for my country, right or wrong.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

30. The United States ought to be willing to give up its independence and
submit to the authority of a United States of the World.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
31. Violent revolution is sometimes the only way to eliminate an oppressive

government.

1 2 3 A S 6 7

32. Well-fed people in developed nations should voluntarily cut back on
their food consumption and contribute food to the inadequately fed in
underdeveloped nations.

1 2 3 4 5 _ 6 7
33. We should not allow foreign business enterprises to buy American

farmland.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

PLEASE CHECK mm QUETIQIS (frm amng Questions 1-33) EAT YOU WOULD LIKE
TO ELABORATE ON IN THE SECOND INTERVIEW.

34.

35.

230

To what extent are you interested in the following news?

Extremely Not at All

Interested Interested
Local News 1 2 3 4 5
National News 1 2 3 4 5
African News l 2 3 4 5
Asian News 1 2 3 4 5
Australian News 1 2 3 4 5
European News 1 2 3 4 5
Latin American News 1 2 3 4 5

What are your major sources of information about other countries? Check
only the 3 most frequently consulted sources.

___ Books (list 1-3 most influential books)

Newspapers/magazines (list 1-3 sources usually read)

International newspapers/magazines (list 1-3 sources usually read)

International books (list 1-3 most influential books)

Television news (list 1-3 most frequently-watched stations)
Radio news

Family/relatives (what is their relationship to you?)

American friends
International friends (which countries do they come from?)

Courses, lectures, guest speakers

231

To what extent do you interact with peOple from other countries?

 

. Constant Occasional Not at All

General Contact 1 2 3 4 5
Contact with people 1 2 3 4 5

from specific country(ies)

(list)

Contact with students 1 2 3 4 5

from specific country(ies)

(list)

 

How would you rate your level of concern about the following items?

 

High Moderate Low

Human rights 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Significance of education 1 2 3 A 5 6 7
Treatment of foreigners 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
International cooperation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
U.S.A. 1 2 3 4 5. 6 7
Third World 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
International affairs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
East-West relations 1 2 3 A 5 6 7
Immigrant groups 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Social welfare 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
International peace 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Business as a career 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
International cooperation 1 2 3 4 S 6 7
in business and finance
Others 1 2 3 A 5 6 7

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

 

 

232

38. How would you rate Americans' level of concern about the following?
High Moderate Low
a. Human rights 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
b. Significance of education 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
c. Treatment of foreigners 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
d. International cooperation 1 2 3 4 S 6 7
e. U.S.A. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
f. Third World 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
g. International affairs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
h. East-West relations 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
i. Immigrant groups 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
j. Social welfare 1 2 3 4 S 6 7
k. International peace 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1. Business as a career 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
m. International cooperation I 2 3 4 S 6 7

in business and finance

 

 

n. Other -1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

 

39. To what extent does James Madison College emphasize the following
learning characteristics for its students?

Strongly Not at All
Emphasizes

a. Learning facts 1 2 3 4 5

b. Understanding theories 1 2 3 4 5

c. Applying knowlege to 1 2 3 4 5

practical issues

d. Applying research methods 1 2 3 4 S

2233

Systematic thinking

Familiarity with views from
different schools of thought

Obtaining international/
intercultural comparative
perspectives

Utilizing publications in
foreign languages

Awareness of social
implications of research

Awareness of political
implications of research

Obtaining knowledge from
different disciplines

Regular class attendance

Developing one's own point of
view and means of analysis

Freedom to choose areas of study
within courses & independent work

Active participation in class
discussions

Communication between students
and teaching staff

Instructor serves as main source
of information

Studying to get good grades
Taking on a heavy workload

Selecting demanding courses

40.

1234

Strongly
Emphasizes
Learning facts 1
Understanding theories 1
Applying knowlege to 1
practical issues
Applying research methods 1
Systematic thinking 1
Familiarity with views from 1
different schools of thought
Obtaining international/ 1
intercultural comparative
perspectives
Utilizing publications in 1
foreign languages '
Awareness of social implications 1
of research
Awareness of political 1
implications of research
Obtaining knowledge from 1
different disciplines
Regular class attendance 1
Developing one's own point of 1
view and means of analysis
Freedom to choose areas of study 1
within courses & independent work
Active participation in class 1
discussions
Communication between students 1
and teaching staff '
Instructor serves as main source 1

of information

To what extent should James Madison College emphasize the following
learning characteristics in its students?

Not at All

5

5

235

r. Studying to get good grades 1 2 3 4 5
5. Taking on a heavy workload 1 2 3 4 5
t. Selecting demanding courses 1 2 3 4 5

THIS SURVEY IS PART 0! THE DATA FOR THE STUDY. PLEASE BRING IT WITH YOU TO
THE SECOND INTERVIEW.

THANKS

OLGA BONFIGLIO

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