ABSTRACT
Global perspectives are oft en marginalized in multicultural education and in social studies methods courses. Even when global histories and cultures are taught, the perspectives of diverse people of color in the world are oft en missing. Unfortunately, U.S. schools oft en emphasize selective dimensions of global knowledge that construct international aspects of diff erences as exotic and inferior. A lack of critical conversation about global issues and events can lead students to develop stereotypes and prejudice. Th e dichotomous approach to representing cultures as superior or inferior comes from infl uences of the historical legacy of Western colonial and neocolonialism which are deeply entrenched within educational discourses (Smith, 1999). Rarely have I encountered students in my methods courses who have unlearned their Whiteness in the global context (for a more detailed discussion of this issue, please see Segall chapter 44). Since students in U.S. society are oft en socialized into viewing the United States as the political and the cultural center of the world, it is not uncommon for students to take less seriously the knowledge they encounter about non-Western societies. However, through this lesson and the overall orientation of the course, I expect students to learn to critique dominant forms of global knowledge and identify useful resources on how global societies interpret culture, history and experience. I have found that teaching texts written by authors from outside of the Anglo and American traditions is fraught with challenges since the students that I teach have rarely been exposed to texts that have been authored by people from Asia, Africa, or the Americas.
