(Original computer file not found. This was retyped from the last draft. Some references are incomplete.)

As we begin the 21^st century, the media identifies more and more reasons for the institution of educational reform. Generally, the belief is that schools are not adequately preparing young people, especially minority children, for a world that has changed radically in the last 50 years and continues to offer rapid scientific technological advances. The problem then is not the end but the means to achieve such a goal. Should it involve the traditional changes espoused by teachers' unions concerning (a) smaller class size, (b) more pay, and (c) more quality in-service time or should it, in fact, involve reform of the education system itself.

One of the main goals of education is to provide students with the necessary qualifications to participate as active and responsible members of society. Employers complain about modern day education in that it does not effectively deal with issues of communication, cooperation skills, initiative, organization, and planning. In fact, mainstream education appears to be little more than a continuation of outdated modes of education better designed for the Industrial Age rather than the current Knowledge Age. Reformists promote the idea of educating students towards a global perspective; however, there is no clear consensus as to what actually is meant by 'global perspective'.

Although a single, professionally accepted definition of global perspective does not exist, many researchers have indicated that it should, in fact, arise as an outcome of a formal curriculum process. McCabe (197) offers various suggested definitions of 'global perspective' including: (1) Dealing with affective content which incorporates information, skills, and attitude about the world into a person's cognitive repertoire … (Kobus, 1983); (2) as a method of examining a problem or issue as it relates to world activities … (King, 1973); and(3) global awareness which allows people to exhibit an intellectual curiosity about the world that transcends local and national boundaries … (Tucker, 1986).

McCabe (1997) also indicates the Robert Hanvey (1982) provides the most widely cited definition and framework which includes the combination of five dimensions: perspective consciousness, state of the planet awareness, cross cultural awareness, knowledge of global dynamics, and awareness of human choices (p. 410.

"Education as it operates today is contributing to the coming about of a de facto multiethnic society in which ethnic or ethno-national origins are preserved and considered important." (Roosens, p. 20). Although comparative education is a rather neglected subject and we know very little of the real roots of the differences in the ways in which educational systems have developed in France, Britain, Germany, the United States, and the non-Eurocentric traditions, we are in a unique transitional period in which new insights are forming from an increasing array of research into how humans learn and an awareness of the best educational practices around the world.

A unique opportunity for studying integration of multi-cultures within a single environment can, of course, be found in many national schools in the US as well as in the UK. However, international schools offer a particularly appropriate milieu in which to study the notion of internationalism from a global perspective due to their locations, numbers, and individual diversities.

Over the last several generations, there has been a rapid raise in the number of globally mobile professional people whose children accompany them to various s worldwide postings, enrolling in international schools. These children can, therefore, be characterized, as international in some way. A study conducted by Hayden, Rancic, and Thompson (2000), involved interviewing more than 1,200 18 year old students based in international schools as well as more than 200 teachers. The consensus of the study found that, in general, there was agreement amongst both teachers and students that the notion of internationalism requires "open-mindedness, flexibility of thinking, second language competence, a positive attitude towards other value systems and cultures, respect for others, international experience, international mindedness, and a positive attitude towards one's own value system and cultures…." (p. 117).

Similar research conducted by McCabe (1994) found that experiences abroad resulted in students' ability to categorize their perspectives along five dimensions: (a) fear versus openness to accommodating new experiences; (b) recognizing that people are the same and/or different; (c) naiveté versus cross-cultural awareness; (d) nationalism versus anti-nationalism; and (3) ethnocentrism versus global-centrism.

At the Geneva conference in 1995 for Ministries of Education from around the world, UNESCO's Director General, Federico Mayor offered the following aims of education for peace, human rights, and democracy for the upcoming 21^st century:

• Education must develop the ability to appreciate the value of freedom and the importance of the social dynamic it generates.
• Education must develop the ability to recognize and accept difference as a value, at both the individual and social levels, together with ability to communicate and co-operate with others no matter how different they are felt to be.
• Education must develop the acceptance of compromise and the search for it as essential values in building a pluralistic world.
• Education must cultivate in citizens the ability to make choices, basing their judgments and actions on the rational analysis of situations and information.
• Education must teach citizens to respect the environment, thereby providing the basis for the sustainable development of humanity as a whole. (Peel, 1998, p. 15).

Matthews quoted Charles Gellar (1981) who offered a challenge for international teachers by declaring that:

An international education for a small but important segment of the world's population -- those involved in diplomacy, business, and academic life -- may be the essential minimum necessary in developing a world view which builds on the principles of tolerance, co-operation, justice and peace,; a world view we must have if we are to survive. This is a mighty heavy burden of responsibility for any group to bear. For those who call themselves teachers it should be borne with enthusiasm (p. 33).

For a number of reasons, international schools are generally not innovative in their curriculum and tend to follow a conservative amalgam of different traditions, most notably Eurocentric. There are some who feel that the uniqueness of international schools is not then to be found in the curriculum nor its associated activities but in the diversity of the student population and in the types of teachers found in these schools and their adjustments to the special needs of a mobile and generally transient highly motivated, multilingual population.

In 1988, a survey of schools in Europe offering a combination of International Baccalaureate (an externally examined, international curriculum) and American curriculum. The average international school was found to have teachers of 8 nationalities facing students representing more than 49 nationalities. They, therefore, shared very few cultural norms regarding such things as discipline, dress modes of address and homework.

…The effect of the diversity of background is significant in that although the students do not receive a coherent, didactic approach formed from a synthesis of national styles, they are instead exposed to a wide range of such styles from which to construct their own cultural synthesis. The transience of the students necessitates that the ideal of providing an international education must coexist with the need for the curriculum to articulate with that of the domestic school from which the student arrives and tow which he or she may well return. This severely constrains any radical restructuring and limits the extent of reform which can be attempted in terms of content. (Matthews, p. 31).

While there is evidence that students have been successful in developing their own cultural synthesis, there is less evidence corroborating the educators' understanding of the history behind traditions and behaviors in different cultures. Brain research over the last 10 years has provided us with solid proof of the importance of, for example, the amygdala as the storehouse of emotional memory and its importance in dealing with individual behavior patterns. Additional evidence has shown the importance of incorporating the seven different Gardner intelligences (linguistic, musical, logical-mathematical; spatial intelligence; bodily-kinesthetic; intra-personal; and social (interpersonal) into the curriculum. (Batelaan, P & Van Hoof, p. 12). However, there appears to be a paucity of information regarding improvements that can be made in the training and in-servicing of current educators to inform them of additional research that might enable them to, if not achieve different behaviors, at least better understand the source of behaviors exhibited within their classrooms. It is this source of behavior that is important in improving current education practice.

Subsequently then, educators must draw on many bodies of research and relate them to each other to formulate cohesive educational policy. Leonard Shlain, author of The Alphabet versus The Goddess, has proposed that there is much to be learned from combining what we already know about how the brain learns with what we know of language development. In particular, he is concerned with the distinction made between eastern and western cultures and attributes attitudinal and historical traditions to the type of alphabet learning within the language system.

The word hemisphere, meaning one half a sphere has only two common uses: to describe the hemispheres of the brain and to describe the hemispheres of the planet. Earth has two complementary yet antipodal dominant cultures: the east and the west. Their distinguishing features mirror the lateralized hemispheric functions of a single human's cortex. Traditionally, the west has been outer directed and dualistic; the east, inward seeking and monist. The west sees its history as a series of events; the east tends to perceive patterns that recur. Western medicine tends toward being mechanistic: Eastern medicine embraces a holistic approach. The West's aspects predominately personifies the left brain; the East's predominantly characterize the right (Shlain, p. 159).

Slain writes that when we speak and listen we use both sides of the brain. The left hemisphere processes text in a linear fashion while the right hemisphere evaluates speech's nonverbal clues such as vocal inflection. Literacy, in contrast, depends primarily on the skills of the left hemisphere in men and women. He believes that the right hemisphere processes tasks in a more holistic (feminine/nurturing) manner while the left hemisphere processes tasks in a logical fashion (masculine/hunter) manner.

Not only is the analogy made between hemispheres of the brain and those of different cultures but there also appears to be a relationship between the type of language learned and the left/right hemisphere orientation. According to Shlain, who develops his theories through a presentation of global, historical events beginning with pre-literacy periods right up to the present Information Age, the left brain attributes evolved when a culture developed an alphabet. The left brain attributes make themselves known in work, the establishment of goals, focusing on tasks, quest for power and the acquisition of money -- a very dualistic nature. He posits the theory that prior to a culture's becoming literate, there is solid anthropological evidence supporting the idea that earlier cultures were more right-brain oriented and feministic/holistic values were highly regarded.

He points out that alphabet are specific to their cultures and are not easily translatable even though the principle behind alphabets has remained virtually unchanged after 3500 years of usage (Shlain, p. 182). The principle, of course, is that alphabets attempt to correlate one letter or letter combination with each of the 43 distinctive sounds or phonemes that the human voice can easily articulate.

In China, for example, there is no alphabet, no parts of speech and none of the complex rules of grammar typical of Western language. What we refer to in the West as common nouns and verbs are represented in China by symbols called radicals, of which there are 217 basic representations. Contrary to the linear pattern of western text, the eye of the Chinese reader must comprehend all the radicals simultaneously whereas expressing the same set of ideas in an alphabet language requires many linear lines of expositions. the simultaneous perception of many different radicals calls forth the right brain's ability to synthesize more than it does the left brain's power to analyze.

Another right-brained features of Chinese writing is its emphasis on form. calligraphy is a highly developed art in the East. In contrast, Western readers care little about the font displayed when they are reading. Content supersedes form in the West whereas form is an indispensable adjunct to content in the East. the values that typify the right brain include empathy, generosity, tolerance of dissent, love of nature, nurturance of children, laughter, playfulness, mysticism, forgiveness of enemies and non-violence. These aspects, present in both men and women, express the feminine gatherer/nurturer side of human nature.

Scientist have corroborated the right and left orientation in eastern and western written languages. Researchers tested  a select group of Chinese and English speaking individuals who had learned to read and write both languages as small children and who, later in life, had experienced damage to one hemisphere or the other.

Right-handed subjects who had damage to their left hemisphere lost the ability to speak either Chinese or English and although they could not write English, they retained a limited ability to communicate in written Chinese. Those with damage to their right hemispheres could still speak Chinese and English and although they could write English, they had difficulty writing Chinese. (Shlain, p. 184)

In many traditional cultures, teachers were held in high esteem, largely because the subject of instruction was what that particular society considered useful, i.e. the values, norms, and cultures of the wider society determined curriculum content (Obanya, p. 14). Teachers were deemed useful because they performed a necessary role for the good of the society. The relationship between the needs of society, parents, teachers, and students have, unfortunately, become muddled with the passage of time and, today, lack of respect is a common complaint amongst educators. part of the problem is because there is little agreement as to what defines an effective teacher. Even international schools are not immune to this sort of 'in-house' bickering. Recent studies show that this discrepancy can be directly related to the cultural norms of the individual teacher.

In an effort to determine what an effective teachers is, educators from several Asian schools of various nationalities were brought together. It wasn't difficult to obtain a working definition satisfactory to the working party: "An effective teacher creates an environment which allows a student to fulfil his/her potential and fulfils the goals of the society/parents/school." (Cheng et. al, p. 55). However, upon further analysis, it became apparent that the manner in which effective teaching would be displayed in class varied amongst the different cultural groups represented.

Accordingly, the majority of the Chinese staff believed it was their duty to take students systematically through a clear set of highly structured tasks, directed toward an examination. Students were expected to copy drill and memorize the basics, or foundation knowledge of their discipline, in forms that closely resembled its presentation by the teacher and/or the text. The teachers were expected to adjust the pace and sequencing to the group's level of understanding. Feedback was used to point out weaknesses or errors in the students' thinking so as to ensure an accurate understanding of the discipline.

These attitudes reflect Chinese society at large whereby individuals are expected to move toward the perfection of their character as it relates to their place within the hierarchy. In educational terms, this means that everyone is assumed to be capable of learning and achieving as long as they put in the time and effort. Individual differences are not considered as relevant as effort in determining what a person achieves. They are, therefore, expected to respond to high expectations with high degrees of effort. After all, the primary goals of education in this culture is employment.

Western teachers, on the other hand, see an effective teacher as more of a facilitator, whose role is to remain flexible by providing a general direction rather than a systematic or methodical step by step guidance. Provoking students to think aloud and to defend their position offers one method of challenging the students. Therefore, the classroom is to be seen as active and feedback on student work has to achieve a balance between criticism and praise. Interestingly, Western teachers saw Chinese students as unusually good at rote learning and memorization but perceived that they were unwilling or incapable of thinking more deeply about their subject.

Once can imagine then a scene within a classroom where a Chinese student, appropriately taught by his/her parents to respect adults in a position of authority and with an unwillingness to have his/her actions reflect either positively or negatively on the entire family might appear docile or even lazy to a Western teacher whose own background would predispose him/her to expect more assertiveness and independence from good students.

William Glasser observed some time ago that many educators teach thoughtless conformity to school rules and call the conforming child responsible .. without understanding anything of the significance of the child's cultures (in Kohn, 1997, p. 434). formal schooling was referred to as a historical product of Western philosophy and thinking but the educational psychological research was also a product of western science and culture. As Azuma (1995) observes, "research is always influenced by cultural biases, and as researchers we may be even more culturally blinded than the human groups we study." (in Schwalb et al., p. 298).

Additional studies have been conducted in Australia which, for historical reasons, has a rather large Muslim population, dating back to the 1860s when camels and their Afghani drivers were imported to open up the trade and transport routes of the Australian Outback. Until recently, there has been a dominant European, educational perspective which has been reflected in the curriculum while the Muslim perspective has been viewed as less relevant. Bullivant (1981) describes the tension that exists in relation to whose culture should be transmitted through the school curriculum (in Clyne, 1998, p. 284).

Islam, itself, is a social, not an individualistic religion, which continually moves towards the social ethic of the idea of Islam as a state where a federal union of communities will be built on Islamic law. Education, then, is about learning to become a good Muslim. IN Muslim countries, good teachers are recognized by their ability to discipline the students and learning generally takes place using rote learning and recitation of known facts, rather than student generated learning.

In contrast, teachers in Australian schools have different expectations of their role and are moving away from teacher dominated learning to what they see as a more progressive role as facilitators of student learning. Emphasis is often seen to be on the process of questioning and inquiry, rather than on content. The students' own experiences and opinions are encouraged and ware used to substantiate material found in thee textbooks.

In an effort to develop more effective and culturally sensitive educational practices, Australia now offers a program whereby Muslim parents have the right to communicate their concerns about education and to participate in decision making via school councils and parents' organizations but it also allows parents to choose a school for their children outside the school system that is funded by the government. These schools then offer a more traditional, Muslim education which satisfies the needs of the parents and preserves their cultural integrity. (Clyne, p. 287).

Most schools, both national and international, have very stringent policies regarding cheating. A survey done of 650 middle and high school age students in Switzerland, Australia, Italy, Germany, and the US (Curtis, 1996) estimated that between 25-50% had cheated within the previous three months. These results were corroborated both by a 1994 Louis Harris poll (p. 38) that indicated 45% of 11-13 year old boys cheated and another study by the Bern Institute fur Pschologie that indicated 26% of boys and girls aged 10-12 admitted cheating while a whopping 76% for ages 14-19 admitted to cheating (Curtis, 38-39).

Their actions, of course, took many different forms, with the most popular methods of cheating acknowledged to be (1) copying from another student's paper during a test, (b) the use of crib sheets, (c) copying directly from a source without attribution, and (d) exchanging or copying answers on homework before class.

Interestingly, the survey also found that not all students were aware of their school's policy on cheating. Although they generally perceived cheating as wrong, they did not differentiate between different types for cheating. For example, was it just as bad to cheat on an examination as it was to get extra help from home on assignments? Schools were not always clear as to what exactly constituted "cheating". In a multi-cultural school setting, this becomes critical in determining the official policy.

In several Eastern oriented cultures, the role of the individual is minimized and, has been stated earlier, the primary goal of education is to achieve employment. It is possible, therefore, that a student would be able to identify the "master" amongst other students within the class, copy his/her answers, and fully expect to receive a grade for the assignment because, in fact, it is a value within his/her society to identify and learn from the "one who knows". In international schools, a common area to see this type of behavior is during an Art lesson where students are expected to coy the teacher, 'the master', and copy his/her work as well as possible. without adequate dialogue between the administrators and the parents, a realistic policy will not be possible without imposing the notion of Western cultural values at the expense of other cultural values.

In most western oriented schools, students are led to accept competition as natural and desirable and to see themselves more as discrete individuals than as members o a community. The idea of competition is constantly reinforced during assessment, grade distribution, award ceremonies, classroom hierarchy, etc. However, one of the methodologies long promoted, from a Western standpoint, to improve socialization and group skills has been co-operative learning. Most educators have received intensive in-service training regarding its merits and appropriate use within the classroom and, in fact, have added it to their repertoire of teaching techniques. However, teachers have yet to see its merit for themselves.

Two common research themes involving educators and their work are: (1) the nature of individualism, and (2) the inappropriateness of individualism within the classroom environment (Hargreaves, p. 2270). The relationships between teachers and their colleagues in teaching are characterized by a pervasive culture of individualism, where teachers work and plan mainly alone, in isolation from their colleagues. This culture of individualism is organizationally undesirable, inhibiting the professional development of teachers and their responsiveness to change.

This then becomes a critical area of concern for educational policy for the 21^st century. The Industrial Age brought along with it the need to have a large number of workers producing materials in a similar manner, to a similar standard. Although change was an accepted part of life; the rate of change in the Information Age has greatly accelerated. Along with the rapid rate of change comes the knowledge that individuals cannot keep up with the technology on their own. Synergism, whereby the work of a whole far exceeds the sum total of work by individual members, should be playing a definite role in redesigned education. Continued individualism within the classroom environment to the exclusion of professional colleagues only constitutes a regression in educational policy.

While it has been noted that students attending an international school do possess "internationalism" to some degree, there is no corollary evidence supporting the "internationalism" of the curriculum. In fact, as has been mentioned earlier, the great majority of schools follow either a British or an American curriculum -- A Eurocentric viewpoint. International schools should be at the forefront f truly multi-cultural education. With is multi-ethnic population, local resources, articulate, and willing clientele, it should be our duty, as international educators, to promote this type of research. A telling commentary on the state of our multi-cultural education was offered in Raban's book Arabia, when he relayed what an Arab student thought about making friends in the USA.

…But in the USA, nobody knows anything about you if you are Arab. I come from Abu Dhabi. 'Where is Abu Dhabi? We never heard of Abu Dhabi'. In the school, … I learn about the Boston Tea Party, General Custer, The Gilded Age, the New Deal, Paul Revere … I learn the history of America, the history of Europe. I know of Queen Victoria and the Great War and Charlemagne. But in America, they know nothing of the Arabia … I wish that they knew a little bit of my history; all they know is sand and camels and what they see in Lawrence of Arabia. So, you see, it is hard to make friends. (p. 143)

Benjamin Lee Whorf, a twentieth-century linguist, put forth the idea that the language we learn profoundly shapes the universe we can imagine. If a culture's words describe a reality that is causal, linear, and mechanistic, then its members will accord more respect to the masculine left side of the corpus callosum, a mind set that manifests in patriarchy. If however, the features of a major new discovery force a people to empty and/or minimize the imagery of the right brain, then feminine values and status will be buoyed as a result. (in Shlain, pp. 385-386)

It is possible that we have at our disposal the ability to transform public education so that it does achieve its goal of allowing individual students to reach their own, personal highest achievement level as well as the practical expedient of finding satisfactory employment. According to Leonard Shlain, the answer may lie in the computer or -- more specifically -- the keyboard and the Internet.

Since mankind first began writing , whether via the alphabet or symbols, he/she used one dominant hand to produce the representations. The dominant hand reinforced the dominant hemisphere and, as mentioned above, particular characteristics of the left brain were, for the most part, pursued at the expense of the right brain until the invention of the typewriter that, for the first time, necessitated the use of both hemispheres.

Originally perceived as a feminine activity, many males have learned to type with the advent of the computer. Shlain see the "entry into the communication equation of millions of men's left hands, directed by millions of male right brains tapping out one half of every computer-generated written message" (Shlain, p. 417) as a recognized factor in the diminution of patriarchy. The computer's unique word processing programs have increased the right hemisphere's influence on the composition of writing. As there are no pages to flip on a computer screen, linear thinking is further discouraged. Scrolling, with its reliance on right brain pattern recognition skills, is more akin to deciphering vertical Chinese ideograms than reading horizontal alphabet text. Iconic representations of words have also boosted a more Gestalt perception. The computer has carried human communication across a threshold as significant as writing which will lead to further adjustments in consciousness that favor a feminine world view.

Perhaps then the equalization of both the left and right hemispheres through the use of the computer and the Internet will allow us to overcome our own cultural biases. As educators, the incorporation of new learning research and a better understanding of different cultural behaviors should aid us in designing an effective educational program for the 21^st century. specifically, the forms needed should include the following:

Co-operative Attitude: Given the growing importance of "community" in adapting to the 21^st century, there should be a more co-operative attitude between parents, students, and administration with the knowledge that all are working together to achieve a multiethnic society in which ethnic origins are preserved and considered important.

Dissemination of Multi-Cultural Curriculum: Acknowledging that the Eurocentric viewpoint is only one of many, we should be working towards achieving a repertoire of material that incorporates relevant material necessary for the understanding of other cultures.

Standardization of Teaching Credentials: Currently, there is a disparity between the teaching credentials of various countries to the extent that only a relative few international teachers work outside their own environment. Generally, British, American, Australian, and Canadian teachers are hired to work overseas. Although well qualified, these teachers again present the Eurocentric viewpoint that needs to be revised if we are to accomplish truly multiethnic society.

Diminution of Individualism in Teaching Although, arguably, teacher personality does affect the classroom environment, there should be a greater effort to change the nature of the isolationist classroom. Research has shown that this individualism is actually inhibiting the rate of change and/or adaptability to change within the education environment. Perhaps the community of learning can begin from within the classroom as a microsystem of what the ultimate goal in education should be in the 21^st century -- the establishment of a multi-ethnic population that values each other's cultures and beliefs.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Batelaan, P. and Van Hoof, C., (19xx). Cooperative Learning in Intercultural Education, European Journal of Intercultural Studies, 7(3), 5-16.

Cheng, L., Drake, B., Falvey, P. and Gallimore, C., (1998). The Effective Teacher in a Bilingual Context. International Schools Journal, XVIII(1), 50-57.

Clyne, I., (1998). Cultural Diversity and the Curriculum: The Muslim Experience in Australia, European Journal of Intercultural Studies, 9(3), 279-189.

Curtis, J., (1996). Cheating -- Let's Face It, International Schools Journal, XV(2), 37-44.

Hargreaves, A., (19xx). Individualism and Individuality: Reinterpreting the Teacher Culture, Chapter 2, Learning Discourse, 227-246.

Hayden, M.C., Rancic, B.A., and Thompson, J.J., (March, 2000). Being International: Student and Teacher Perceptions from International Schools, Oxford Review of Education, 26(1), 107-124.

Kohn, A., (February, 1997). How Not To Teach Values, Phi Delta Kappan, 78(6), 428-440.

Matthews, M., (19xx). The Uniqueness of International Education, 24-34 (rest of source unknown).

McCabe, L.T., (Fall, 1997). Global Perspective Development, Education, 118(1), 41-47.

Obanya, P., (1995). The African Teacher of the 21^st Century, International Journal of Educational Management, 9(2), 4-9.

Peel, R., (1998). International Education Comes of Age, International Schools Journal, XVII(2), 12-17.

Raban, J., (1987). Arabia, London, U.K.: William Collins Sons & Co.

Roosens, E., (19xx). How Multicultural is the School in 'Multicultural Society/" A Belgian Case Study, Journal?, 11-21.

Shlain, L., (1998). The Alphabet versus the Goddess: The conflict Between Word and Image, New York: Penguin Putnam.

Shwalb, B.J. and Shwalb, D.W., (19xx). With Strength and Struggle: A Teacher's Process of Transforming Science into Multicultural Science. Where is Multicultural Science in Science Education Reform? European Journal of Intercultural Studies, 7(3), 33-41.

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