Transcript Education and Training and the New Public Diplomacy

Education and Training and
the New Public Diplomacy
Eleanor J. Brown, W. John Morgan and
Simon McGrath
UNESCO Centre for Comparative
Education Research
University of Nottingham
The Changing Nature of Public
Diplomacy
• Traditional Diplomacy  few – few style
• Open Diplomacy  few – many style
• New Public Diplomacy  many – many
style
• Demos Report on Cultural Diplomacy
Cultural Exchange and
Partnerships in Education
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Language Teaching
Academic Exchanges
Professional development links
Teaching of the global dimension in
schools
International Education Aims
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Build tolerance and understanding
Communication
Developing relationships between nations
Recognize and appreciate diversity
Prepare young people for life in a global
community and economy
Aims of this paper
• Examine connections between
international education and training and
new public diplomacy
• Consider implications for policy at national
and international levels
• Look at the traditional relationship
between education and cultural relations
to see if it has changed in light of new
trends in public diplomacy
Public Diplomacy
• Propaganda
• Nation branding
• These are “about the communication of information and ideas to
foreign publics with a view to changing their attitudes towards to
originating country” (Melissen 2005: 16)
• Cultural relations
• This “has traditionally been close to diplomacy, although distinct
from it, but recent developments in both fields now reveal
considerable overlap between the two concepts” (ibid: 16)
• There is now a shift toward the cultural relations
and away from propaganda
The Hierarchical Nature of
Traditional Public Diplomacy
• “Work aiming to inform and engage
individuals and organizations overseas, in
order to improve understanding of and
influence for the United Kingdom in a
manner consistent with governmental
medium and long term goals.” (Carter
2005)
The Changing Environment
• Multi-actor international environment
• Civil society organizations
- NGOs
- Trans-national advocacy networks
• International Organizations
• Cyber literate public
• More international travel and business
 This leads to a demand for public diplomacy
that is not so bound to the raison d’etat and
which acknowledges the advantages of mutually
beneficial and equal partnerships
New network based public
diplomacy
• “A network based model that is more than
a bilateral mechanism for the
dissemination of a particular agenda can
benefit from engagement with participants
from various civil societies, each
contributing to common, beneficial
outcomes” (Fisher 2006: 4)
New Public Diplomacy
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Mutual benefit
Equal participation
Network based
Not hierarchical
Cooperation
Shared values
Two-way street
Listening as well as telling
From hierarchy to network
• There seems to be more support for the
idea that the future of international
cooperation for peace and development
can only truly be achieved through
genuine cooperation and shared values
and these can never be enforced
successfully in a hierarchical way.
Power and Cooperation
• Hard power  Soft power  New public
diplomacy: Cooperation and Facilitation
• Telling  Listening
• New network based public diplomacy will
be better received because it is a “two-way
street” (Melissen 2005: 18) unlike
propaganda it listens as well as tells and is
therefore more likely to build trust and
respect than the traditional models.
The importance of Education and
Training
• In the new many-many environment of
public diplomacy education and training is
vital because the general population’s
attitude to international issues and cultural
affairs is key to projecting a positive image
of the country.
The Internationalization of
Higher Education
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International students
Global partnerships
Links and collaborative projects
Campuses overseas
Educational exchange
Britain and Brazil
• Study of links between Britain and Brazil
• Set out to replace the traditional NorthSouth relationship of donor and recipient
with genuine academic partnerships
• Do partnerships help maintain and
perpetuate colonial links?
• Use of language
• Understanding strengths and weaknesses
Education and Neo-colonialism
• Neocolonialism is “the deliberate policies
of the industrialized countries to maintain
domination” (Canto & Hannah 2001: 28)
• “Education is one essential element of the
neo-colonial structure. It helps to maintain
and to some extent perpetuate colonial
links.” (ibid: 29)
Equal Partnerships
• Existence of previous knowledge of the
other partner to establish realistic
expectations
• Genuine sharing of each others’
experiences
• Application of each others’ knowledge
rather than a one-way transfer
• (Canto & Hannah 2001: 32)
Conclusion of the Canto and
Hannah Study
• In “each of the case studies examined,
vertical or traditional elements continue to
exist alongside horizontal or advanced
elements, representing neither a neocolonial nor an equal partnership, but
elements of both.” (Canto & Hannah 2001:
37)
School links and Partnerships
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Global citizenship
Links and the international school award
Ambassadors of the future
Global gateway
British Council, UNESCO ASPnet,
The meeting of cultures
The importance of global
citizenship
• “We are no longer represented just by our
leaders. Knowingly or not, we are all
representatives of our countries and we
have the tools to make an impact. We are
all diplomats now. It is therefore critical
that we ensure that our British citizens –
especially young people – have the skills
and capacity to cope with this new era of
global cultural connections (Bound et al
2007: 76).
Global Citizenship
• Important part of the curriculum
• Taught across a range of subjects
• Equipping young people to be good
ambassadors
• Seeing things from a world perspective
Key Concepts of the Global
Dimension in School
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Global Citizenship
Conflict resolution
Diversity
Human Rights
Interdependence
Social Justice
Sustainable development
Values and Perceptions
International Linking
• Partner schools all over the world
• Conduct projects with students in far away
places
• Take an interest in developments in parts of the
world where there is an international connection
• “asking questions and developing critical
thinking skills, … acknowledging the complexity
of global issues, revealing the global part of
everyday local life, … understanding how we
relate to the environment and to each other as
human beings” (Oxfam 2006: 3)
Cultural Sensitivity
• Cultures are “meeting mingling and
morphing” (Bound et al 2007: 19) and we
must all, as citizens, be ready to adapt to
this. For this reason the international
dimension in education and training is vital
to the new public diplomacy.
Aims of the Study
• Does the experience of international
partnerships in education provide a setting for
greater cultural awareness and understanding of
international issues?
• Are such partnerships are a neo-colonial or an
equal relationship, why this is the case and
where can improvements be made?
• Are equal partnerships are indeed more
successful?
Hypotheses
• Educational partnership projects are far more
likely to succeed and build positive attitudes and
cultural sensitivity if they are genuinely mutually
beneficial, horizontal and equal partnerships.
Countries, particularly former colonial powers,
need to be careful when claiming to support
mutual links that in practice may be neo-colonial
activities, serving to maintain the status quo.
Recommendations on the future of academic
partnerships will be based on this premise.
Research
• This will focus initially on British Council
partnerships in education and training
• It will also be a comparative study of
projects in Serbia and Jordan
Contact details
Eleanor J. Brown
Research Associate
UNESCO Centre for Comparative Education Research,
School of Education, University of Nottingham,
Nottingham, NG8 1BB.
Tel: +44 (115) 95 14467
Fax: +44 (115) 95 14397
E-Mail: [email protected]
www.nottingham.ac.uk/education/centres/uccer