Cross-Cultural Commitment in General Education; Dr. James McKinney

and then my guest is that virginia's mechanic is associate professor and her personal or political science department who would discuss that and his words education program or wichita state in seven different requirements that it didn't go the instructors and the stands and start a series on the cross cultural commitment that has built an intimate duet general education program here at the university's the first well i think i messed up rickety for columbine taught me about the cost of coal as i said the general education program a committee institution temporarily understanding by the students of cross cultural relations and that the development of western and possible not western cultures yes i think it probably has been overlooked a little bit a lot of education what possessed me

it means something's wrong tree critical moment sentiment there are certain courses to offer courses that have an international dimension i know that there have been some courses specifically developed for this notion of cross cultural understanding human inability of the pomegranate is trying to develop this i just can't be sent to a third of the journal education program was was somewhat well in terms of this cross cultural component i thought the winners are bypassing that it wasn't and i think that sense of the president twenty eight hundred and nine hundred for instance on campus and i feel that the edwards the state when we have in trying to present program a real commitment to

press corps general education program will inclusion for example if you were to compare to canaan which has programs in terms of soviet and some extent he's hispanic let the murders that his decisions that is and a couple of others say we have a chorus and we have the eu program in latin america studies which is somewhat when we can buy a budget cuts i think that we need more of this i think particularly need something in the future of the middle east and african regional capital so it's very important two things it is very difficult not only for students but also remembers when i have large numbers of thousands coming into it because it rained vincent some help in terms of the minister

even though i am specialist in international relations in latin america studies for a number of years and i really feel that we are taking steps at the present time we have an international student committee which has been working for about a year trying to formulate a programs that will not only help students but also helped me understand you know didn't from woodstock kansas and investors how it will be the facts of a cross cultural maybe obvious that location of country's major cities and things like that how big was that point and i crossed a thousand times the notion that these facts are critical for himself but i think they are now the thing that strikes me the most was respect to marston says affected many students don't need much about geography of movement that

stands for talking about that actually like namibia which is a significant patients was a long commute is concerned but i think that if you're the us ted stevens nine out of ten students probably will not know when the libyans are using to go into to other parts of the world and i think that they have at least some kind of parks were countries are well we have students on this campus from some zombie ran iraq as cetera et cetera but i think the last things i asked to look at the students home on the map probably wouldn't have relied so i think it's important but i think that crest cars were saying goes beyond this i think you have to understand how other people think and i think that because americans are sort of perceive ourselves as a model and everyone should try to calculate exactly why don't

americans better understanding toward others countries this is well america says this is not just like a simplified the visitor centers and being kind of a burden and that really trying to understand the cause of that this kind of bridge to understand thats almost as if republicans say that a lot of americans i didn't think of those other countries it's almost look down there are an increasing number of things within a couple years ago i had my class international missions which were listed he said cannot bring some ice slides on israel to question of the will for good ideas on firestone's particular class head being a

palestinian id and has been posting was offended because some muslims had pictures of camels and he came up to me afterwards and he said what do you think we are as of a kansas think the world can have risen as the show weekend edition show sponsors do you think it's possible to really gained a sense of cross cultural communication in just the classroom setting no no i strongly feel that that people ought to have to travel abroad the unfortunate thing about it is is that so many people don't travel long or their students' i mean maybe if you live or something of the sort that you can do this but we need more programs

on campus and we do have some opportunities for example dr sebastiani department has a soviet studies program in news was sponsoring french program a moment there are some signs of trying to direct to coach last major programs in mexico and ankles to write about that is a way that you're going to have to learn the culture and i think that there's something i understand the culture to it because too often the tourists away as you go down the main street and you never get into the back country is a rural villages and understanding are people who you think will be the troops with whether to rescind everything that it seems like that has become so americanized almost common humanity dolls in japan and things like that you know you know

how do you get especially freshman young kids coming out of high school try to get them to really understand how important this isn't even a lot of the kids especially coming from a smaller communities smaller areas of traveling to find iran on a map how do you how do you get them to realize that this is a very important part of her education courses that students should take that have some kind of international component force but because we don't really have that many courses on campus scientists and as the alliance becomes de emphasize to some degree in our curriculum we found that the people loved moving toward engineering business world that is they're seen as relatively an

important aspect that i think general education funding is is an important step toward maybe cross cultural understanding you think that there needs to be more of an emphasis i know we talk about a troubled about the college level will learn about the the secondary level at the high school level do you think that what kind of cross cultural things about him that will notice the spin very clearly demonstrated that people picked up their ideas and habits and perceptions at a very early age and that's well that is a concern because i think the cross cultural understanding often results from language and the attention come to the mission was majoring in metal and fifteen french or spanish and hostile toward it but a student who is in the

first or second grade and you said to them we're going to learn to speak spanish they're just terribly excited about and that's when you start it i don't really believe that cross cultural understanding can come about when you're simply monolingual that you know one language unfortunate because most the world other than the us is bilingual as well and to place a graveyard language yeah well that comes from working on the show i've been talking to earlier and he said that he had been taught english and both started teaching english in grade school for him and that just it just seems like a there are so many other languages no that's true but as part of the situation and come to this country is that we are

going to have to cross cultural understanding in this country alone are contradictory expenses and probably fifteen to twenty percent of the population in the very near future lab space and sings and two we tend to think of this whole melting pot where people should not speak up your own language and so what we need to do is to focus on the early age language and i think this may start in the elementary schools continue strong has is secondary schools and the universities and i think that sense we often for stevens at the college level to take the line which is a requirement was a little of the language understand that this is a world which is shrinking along which is beginning to have people lived as a typical american parent today when the tickets are going to go they didn't reply to an english speakers are sewn together

and in many cases they're going to be the only american it feel about the proposal which has finally has been made at least on campus that would have each with the states didn't literally about that other nation know or has to know about the new law that as the location but the political system the language the culture of the entire situation of the country and the philippines thank you engineers who uses to have so many requirements already opponents crying because we don't require another fifteen or twenty hours or arabs like i think there's also been proposed that instant take about three courses maybe history course scores and at that point of course in his we're going to put into it was latin america the middle east or africa at least again

but i think that we have momentum american students and for instance could commingle if you look at the patterns of behavior on campus or sometimes couples who are phone or on domestic budget only find at a time and i think we need to create and they wanted to talk to force in society and what would be the two best films from your country and then have a key for influencers not subscription one that would be sponsored by a university that people would come in i think the film goodfellas when his country's future clip a lot of people the country violence a lot of gospel ok well thank you very much we are at a time it seems he started talking about it says it like thank you very much for coming by

my guest conductor james mechanic who is associate professor and chairperson of political science department here wichita state and we've been talking about general education requirements the city and university in your community my name is lewis was their assistance for marlin just as states in that in addition we'll continue after this