International Education and Cultural Competence

A fundamental part of globalisation is education, it is what sparks the growth of intercultural understanding, cultural awareness and knowledge. International education refers to when an individual or group from any culture, travels to another country of different cultural traditions and studies there.

It’s importance lies not only for the benefit of the individual person, but to a worldwide scale, it’s effects are:

• Brings cultures together through equal education
• Globalising industries
• Creates an international and diverse work force
• We are able to understand global issues

However like all movements that revolve around globalisation, international education does have it’s issues, mainly based on; ethnocentrism and parochialism

Australia being a country which hosts a great amount of international students is a great example of how parochialism is present in the attitudes of Australians. As according to Marginson; “Australian’s are often too parochial, trapped within an Australian-centred view of a diverse and complex world”. The consequence of this mindset in a large amount of Australian students is that the international students who come to seek understanding of Australian culture will find difficulty or little success as the local students seek little to no interest in learning of their culture.

While it’s clear this mindset is still present, I do believe there is a shift away from parochialism as worldly affairs and events that have occurred, as well as reported incidents in other countries as well as our own, resulting in mass interest and subsequently, cultural understanding. However this also may boost the ethnocentric attitude of many.

The decrease of both these attitudes within Australian students, and as a population in general, is important to help accommodate International Students and make the effects of International education come to fruition.

 

Global Film

Cinema and the art of filmmaking to many cultures are a detrimental part of their national identity. Through film they are able to express political and social issues within their country, as well as simply providing entertainment to their population. It is clear however that western influence is prominent in Global films, and this arguably seems to be just nature, as the roots of cinema are in Western culture. When one examines a film from another culture, there are clear aspects of the picture that would be found in a Western film, however done with the technological capabilities of the country.

Let’s take a look at Nollywood as an example. The term Nollywood refers to the Nigerian film industry which is the third largest film industry in the world. It’s emergence dates back to the early 1990’s. Nigerian films are never showed in Cinemas as they are all made straight to video. What is so unique about Nollywood films is that they are able to produce full length pictures in a a small amount of time. “Small amount of time” in Hollywood would be deemed 3 months give or take, while Nigerian filmmakers have from days to 2 weeks. Thirty new films are delivered to Nigerian shops and market’s every week. That is a significant amount especially when you think about how many new hollywood movies come out monthly.

Here are some trailers for some popular films:

When watching these two trailers, the influence of Western cinema is clear, but still the film is an embodiment of their culture through the setting as well as the political and social situations.

 

Globalisation

What’s globally trending on social media at the moment? the olympics? the dab…still? The Running man (Can it die already)? Donald Trump? Taylor Swift vs Kanye (Team Swift all the way). Trending topics are simply popular things going on at the moment which have caught global attention through social media. This is globalisation.

Examples of this is the US presidential race which has particularly placed the spotlight on Donald Trump. Over social media there is high level of interest when it comes to Donald Trump, whether it’d be people in the comments section of every article digging into him or even some people who create videos which attempt to praise him and persuade the public to relate to his ideals. Which ever side you are on, it is clear that his presence has sparked global interest and to an extent is shaping the global community as they form opinion based on fact. I honestly care more about my girl Tay Tay beating  the social media battle against Kanye, but let’s move on.

However social media is only but a small part of globalisation as a whole.

Globalisation is based on the international population being shaped by technological advancements and development as well as social, political, economical and religious influence on society. Other examples is the stock market, the price of oil, natural disasters, terrorist activities, political advancements, and pretty much anything you hear in the news. All in which shape the world we live in today for better or worse.