By Dan Tagliarina
Increasingly as educators we are asked to address, or find
ourselves using language of, “global perspectives.” While exactly what we mean
by global perspectives is not always clear, what is clear is that there is a
drive—one I argue that is appropriate for a liberal arts education—to
understand different viewpoints and to recognize the legitimacy of a variety of
positions on different topics where evidence can be reasonably interpreted in
different ways. This post is not about these views directly, but rather draws
on two types of assignments I use in my classes to get students to think
through other perspectives. These assignments are blogs and in-class
simulations
Part of
coming to terms with other perspectives is also understanding forms of
communication. Different forms of communication can have different purposes,
along with their own rules and norms. In other words, not all writing is
created equal or meant to do the same thing. A note scrawled on a piece of
paper and left on your roommate’s desk is not the same as a text sent to a
friend or a research paper submitted for an upper-level class. This should be
obvious. What is often less clear about this is that for each of these forms of
writing (and so many more) to be effective the writer needs to think about who
the audience is, and what the point of the communication is. Is it inquisitive
(do you want to grab dinner tonight after class)? Is it informative (my car
won’t start; I’m not going to class)? Is it scholarly (For the foregoing
reasons, I argue, it is highly illogical to conclude that the moon is actually
a malevolent force causing humans to periodically misbehave)?
Considering
the intended audience and intended message requires students to think through
what to say based on how it is likely to be received. This is where blogging
assignments come in. In many of my upper-level classes I have students maintain
their own blogs, posting weekly for most of the semester on a topic of their
choosing related to the course topic. The idea is to have students engage in
learning outside of the classroom, and share this learning with a public
audience. For this activity students must practice a form of writing—public
online discourse—that inherently requires thinking about how the audience will
perceive the information. The audience is not fully known, so students must
think about who the audience might be, and what these potential perspectives
are (while still completing an assignment for a specific class). Also, as a
less formal form of writing, students are given the opportunity to communicate
in their own style, while trying to be informative. It is my hope, in part,
that this assignment has students thinking through the perspectives of their
potential audience, as well as their own perspective, as they try to engage in
a form of public discourse.
In turning
to in-class simulations the connection to global perspectives is more direct.
By having students engage in simulations of any kind—in my classes these often
take the form of moot courts—we are asking the students to inhabit a specific
role and perspective to perform some assigned task. Basically, we are asking
students to be someone else. This
requires students to think through other perspectives, and in the case of moot
courts, often make arguments with which they might not agree. In researching
and performing roles that are not just “student” the students can expand their
own horizons, breakdown the typical confines of books and classrooms, and start
to think about how classroom learning becomes applicable outside of campus. In
this sense, simulations become a simulacrum for an aspect of the non-collegiate
world. Combining any simulation with post-simulation reflection papers than
furthers the chance to have students engage in metacognition and consider how
the simulations help them to think more globally, even if on a small scale, as
they engage in other experiences and consider other viewpoints.
Blogging
and simulations can push students towards global perspective as these
activities, in their own ways, ask students to think through the implications
of interactions and to change their perspective for viewing these interactions.
Global perspectives, in this context, could be beyond the U.S., it could be
beyond the local, at the very least it is beyond the confines of the typical
college learning environment. Both blogs and simulations are about thinking
through various other perspectives: those of readers, including different
audiences; portraying other roles engaging in specific behavior.
Then the challenge becomes
assessing whether students are doing any of this. For me, I am looking for if
the students are able to think through various other positions, and understand these
other positions. These assignments are not about forcing views on anyone, or
requiring students to accept new ideas. These assignments are aimed at having
students reflect on what they, and others, think and believe, and in so doing
come to a better understanding of their own positions and of the positions of
others. Recognition of various perspectives is at the heart of democratic norms
required for a thriving civil society. That is what I see as the goal of
pursuing “global perspectives,” and one that is both achievable and measurable.
How “global” these global perspectives are will vary from class to class, and
professor to professor, but the goal should be to broader our students horizons
and push them to understand multiple viewpoints.
