MCIES - My thoughts

                    Midwest Conference of the

Comparative and International Education Society (CIES)

                          October 10-11, 2014

                Indiana University, Bloomington

An Attainable Global Perspective by; Robert G. Hanvey

A global perspective is not a quantum, something you either have or don’t have. It is blend of many things and any given individual may be rich in certain elements and relatively lacking in others. The educational goal broadly seen may be to socialize significant collectivities of people so that the important elements of a global perspective are represented in the group. Viewed in this way, a global perspective may be a variable trait possessed in some form and degree by a population, with the precise character of that perspective determined by the specialized capacities, predispositions and attitudes of the group’s members. The implications of this notion, of course, is that diversified talents and inclinations can be encouraged and that standardized educational effects are not required. Every individual does not have to be brought to the same level of intellectual and moral development in order for a population to be moving in the direction of amore global perspective.

He identify five dimensions of a global perspective .These are: 

1. Perspective Consciousness

2. “State of the Planet” Awareness

3. Cross-Cultural Awareness

4. Knowledge of Global Dynamics

5. Awareness of Human Choices

Another topic of my interest is:

The Middle East

The Middle East (Near East) is a term used since the 1900s to mark the area at the juncture of Eurasia, Africa, the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. The defines a geographical area but does not have precise borders. The modern Middle East began after World War 1, when the Ottoman Empire, which was allied with the defeated Central Powers, was partitioned into a number of separate nations. Other defining events in this transformation included the establishment of Israel 1948 and the department of European powers, notably Britain and France from the area.

10 THINGS STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT: THE MIDDLE EAST

1.      There are many groups in the Middle East. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Jews, Armenians, Georgians, Egyptians, Kurds, Greeks, Assyrians, Azeris, Circassians, Berbers, Nubians, Samaritans, and Turkmens all live in the Middle East.

2.      The Middle East is very diverse in religions, most of which originated there. Islam in its many forms is the largest religion in the Middle East, but Judaism and Christianity are also important. There also minority religions like Bahai, Yazdanism, and Zoroastrianism.

3.      Most Muslims in the Middle East belong to the Sunni sect of Islam. Another sect, Shiite or Shia Islam, is the majority religion in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and Bahrain.

4.      Majority of the Muslims do not live in the Middle East. Over the centuries Islam spread for and wide, through Asia and Africa, and even to parts of Europe.

5.      Languages of the Middle East include languages from Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, and Altaic language families. Arabic, in its numerous varieties, and Persian are most widely spoken in the region.

6.      The 3 largest Middle Eastern economics, according to CIA World Factbook 2013 in terms of PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) are Turkey, followed by Iran and Saudi Arabia.

7.      Mass Production of oil began around 1945, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates having large quantities of oil.

8.      Arab Spring is the wave of demonstrations and protests (non-violent and violent), and civil wars in the Middle East’s mostly Arabic speaking nations that began on December 18, 2010.

9.      History… The world’s earliest civilizations originated in the Middle East: Mesapotamia (Summer, Akkad Assyria and Babylonia) and Egypt.

10.  Current Events… During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union, competed to influence regional allies. The United States sought to divert the Arab world from Soviet influence.