Hi everyone. This is my first caravansary! As for my situation: My country has a LOT to do to catch up to the rest of the developed world. Unlike your countries—China and the U.S.—Nigeria is still struggling to figure out democracy and to figure out how to improve our education system. Right now, it’s pretty terrible. In fact, of the 62 countries that are listed in the PISA results, not one is from Africa!
My essential questions are: What has been working for China to make it so successful on these international tests? What has been working (or not) for the U.S.? Are these standardized tests the way to go??
Before I try to address your questions, I’m curious to know what the main problems in Nigeria are that you feel is keeping the country (and the education system) from improving?
Well, where do I begin? As you know from the demographics page on this blog with the links to wikipedia info, Nigeria is the second-most populated country in Africa. As for our economy, it is very big, mostly due to massive oil reserves. In 2010, Nigeria earned $59 Billion from oil. Unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption so regular people don’t see a lot of that money. Outside of the big cities, there is still a lot of poverty in the rural areas. (The life expectancy in Nigeria is 48-years-old!)
As for the education system, we suffer from sub-par facilities and under-paid, under-trained teachers. Perhaps one other difficulty is that we are not a homogenous country. I suppose this can also be a strength, but our divisions often cause tension. As Gannon reports, Nigeria has “about 300 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups, with as many distinct languages and dialects” (Gannon, 2013).
What does help a bit is that roughly 70% of our country is divided into three main regions and cultures: Yoruba (21%), Hausa-Falani (29%), and Ibo (18%). And the three main languages are spoken by about 68% of the population.
But so much diversity causes a lot of difficulty when it comes to creating a unified national approach to education.
I can’t imagine so many sub-ethnic groups and languages! It puts our situation here in the U.S. into perspective. We really only have two main languages to consider: English and, to a lesser extent, Spanish. And even just that additional language causes us headaches! There are, of course, other languages spoken by the kids of immigrants (legal and otherwise). We struggle with how to educate ELLs (English Language Learners) in the midst of native speakers. Nigeria’s challenge is immense!
I don’t know, but I do wonder if Nigeria’s difficulty with establishing a national, standardized curriculum is not in fact a blessing. In China, for example, our leaders have (slowly!) been trying to de-centralize control of curricula so that local authorities have more autonomy and can adapt to the unique environments they function within. And in a country like yours with so many different factions, it seems like local control is important so that education can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of each region and sub-group.
For one of my classes on education, I’m trying to come up with ideas for what a functional, effective system of education would look like. As I try to do this, I’m reminded of the French theorist Edgar Morin’s “principle of rational uncertainty” mentioned in Spring’s book (Spring, 2009). We’re complex social beings, ones that act according to logic and emotion, analysis and whimsy. In other words, we’re not robots!
One thing this makes me think about is how we view global education–the how and the why–through our various lenses. Spring’s chapter 8 highlights some of these ideas: how human capital theorists seem to believe that we all act (or should act!) to increase the wealth of the world; world education theorists believe that Western/first-world ideas offer the “best practices” that the world should follow; whereas post-colonial/cultural theorists have a more cynical view of this process of trying to spread a first-world/Westernized approach–they think of global education as often being like code-speak for Western/First World nations wanting to spread their own views on education and economics and politics, etc., with the idea that these approaches are the “best” ways to ensure “progress,” but the post-colonialists/culturalists are skeptical. They feel that approaches to education should be left up to local populations and cultures for them to choose their own path to prosperity (whatever prosperity means to them).
Living in a post-colonial county, surrounded by mostly post-colonial countries, we’re naturally suspicious of our former colonizers and any first-world country. When they show up, it’s usually for oil or other natural resources. We’re even suspicious about the famous people who do all of those commercials promoting aid to Africa. I can’t post them here, so I’ve added another page to this blog and titled it, “I Am African…Really?!” (I added the last bit.) The thing is, these people are famous actors; they don’t live in Africa, in our communities, dealing with the complexity of life that is unique to each specific place. On the one hand, it’s nice they’re raising awareness about problems in Africa; then again, the unspoken message becomes, “Africans can’t fix these problems. They’re not capable. They’re too corrupt or too backward or too ignorant.” One group that is trying to change those perceptions, for example, is “AiD” (Africa in the Diaspora). It’s still aid coming from outside the continent, but the outside investors are Africans. And the goal of the group is to fund African aid groups doing the work of transforming social and community conditions. There’s an important shift in how that works and it’s a positive one for Africans.
And we haven’t even mentioned religion yet! Spring quotes Eduardo Mendieta as stating: “A theory of globalization that makes no room for religion has major theoretical flaws” (Spring, 2009). This is certainly true in Nigeria, especially in the north part of the country. In that part (the biggest region by far) the ethnic group is the Hausa-Falani. They are predominantly Muslim and quite devout; any education system, and its curriculum, that does not take their religion into consideration faces an almost impossible task at convincing them to buy in.
Religion is important to many people in the U.S., but the vast majority is Christian and no other religion has significant enough numbers to cause much friction. We still have significant separation of “church and state”–meaning, religion and our public institutions. Still, there is a faction of our country that is more conservative and who believe that our institutions should allow more religious elements. But, mostly, religious considerations are not a huge factor in our education systems and curricula.
It’s really interesting to get an African’s perspective on aid sent to Africa! I never thought about it that way.
“Asians are great at math.” Ever hear that one? Say it 100,00 times and it starts to sound like an obvious truth, right?! But you already know an Asian student who is not good in math—me! I can do basic math, but I’ve never really enjoyed it. The reason so many Chinese youth score well on international math tests is that they were taught math for many, many hours and days and years. If Nigerian or American youth were taught the same math for the same amount of time, they could also score the same high scores. I believe that.
So, I got to wondering how good Asians really are at math? Are we born able to do it? Well, I found an interesting study. It’s a paper that was published in the Journal of Engineering Education and re-published on the American Society for Engineering Education. One of the goals of the research was to determine if Asian-American engineering students are better at math than their non-Asian counterparts. The verdict? From the report: “The academic record of [Asian-American] participants was not significantly different from participants in other racial/ethnic groups” (Trytten, Wong-Lowe & Walden, 2012). Interestingly, the study also showed that even the Asian-American students believed the stereotype that said they were better at math!
Or consider the following from the University of Texas—Austin:
The facts are that Asian Americans are a diverse group of individuals, with diverse experiences. Did you know, for example that:
• Asian American college students are more likely to seek medical leave, more likely to go on academic probation, and are less likely to graduate in 4 years. 1
• Asian American students were more likely than White students to report difficulties with stress, sleep, and feelings of hopelessness, yet they were less likely to seek counseling. 2
• 33% of Asian American students drop out of high school or don’t graduate on time. 3
• In 2004, 11.8% of Asian Americans lived below the poverty line, experiencing the greatest rise in poverty among all groups (“Ut counseling and,” 2013)
Another study reported on in the New York Times combats the stereotype that almost all Asian-American students get bachelor’s degrees in math and science. From the article: “The report found that contrary to stereotype, most of the bachelor’s degrees that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders received in 2003 were in business, management, social sciences or humanities, not in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering or math” (Lewin, 2008).
I guess Asians are as complicated as anyone! And yet people think we’re all the same.
I hope you all agree that this experience has been great! I want to do more of this–learning about other cultures and other people. I want to become more globally competent. I have a suggestion: Why don’t we write up some document that explains why we think this experience, and other similar things, are important and useful? We could then send that document to the people at our colleges that decide on what courses to offer and what topics are important. No one at my college has ever asked me! I’ve never been asked to fill out a survey with a simple question like, “What classes/subjects/topics would you like to see offered at this college?” Well, I would like to see more opportunties for internationalization. Just like this project we did in this class.
I’ll set up a Google Doc, share the link, and then we can start drafting it. I recommend we send it to several people at our colleges–including people like department chairs, deans, and (why not!?) the presidents of our colleges.
Caravansaries--Cultural e-Exchange 
Hi everyone. This is my first caravansary! As for my situation: My country has a LOT to do to catch up to the rest of the developed world. Unlike your countries—China and the U.S.—Nigeria is still struggling to figure out democracy and to figure out how to improve our education system. Right now, it’s pretty terrible. In fact, of the 62 countries that are listed in the PISA results, not one is from Africa!
My essential questions are: What has been working for China to make it so successful on these international tests? What has been working (or not) for the U.S.? Are these standardized tests the way to go??
Hi Abike.
Before I try to address your questions, I’m curious to know what the main problems in Nigeria are that you feel is keeping the country (and the education system) from improving?
Hi Joe.
Well, where do I begin? As you know from the demographics page on this blog with the links to wikipedia info, Nigeria is the second-most populated country in Africa. As for our economy, it is very big, mostly due to massive oil reserves. In 2010, Nigeria earned $59 Billion from oil. Unfortunately, there is a lot of corruption so regular people don’t see a lot of that money. Outside of the big cities, there is still a lot of poverty in the rural areas. (The life expectancy in Nigeria is 48-years-old!)
As for the education system, we suffer from sub-par facilities and under-paid, under-trained teachers. Perhaps one other difficulty is that we are not a homogenous country. I suppose this can also be a strength, but our divisions often cause tension. As Gannon reports, Nigeria has “about 300 ethnic and sub-ethnic groups, with as many distinct languages and dialects” (Gannon, 2013).
What does help a bit is that roughly 70% of our country is divided into three main regions and cultures: Yoruba (21%), Hausa-Falani (29%), and Ibo (18%). And the three main languages are spoken by about 68% of the population.
But so much diversity causes a lot of difficulty when it comes to creating a unified national approach to education.
Abike,
I can’t imagine so many sub-ethnic groups and languages! It puts our situation here in the U.S. into perspective. We really only have two main languages to consider: English and, to a lesser extent, Spanish. And even just that additional language causes us headaches! There are, of course, other languages spoken by the kids of immigrants (legal and otherwise). We struggle with how to educate ELLs (English Language Learners) in the midst of native speakers. Nigeria’s challenge is immense!
Abike,
I don’t know, but I do wonder if Nigeria’s difficulty with establishing a national, standardized curriculum is not in fact a blessing. In China, for example, our leaders have (slowly!) been trying to de-centralize control of curricula so that local authorities have more autonomy and can adapt to the unique environments they function within. And in a country like yours with so many different factions, it seems like local control is important so that education can be tailored to meet the unique requirements of each region and sub-group.
For one of my classes on education, I’m trying to come up with ideas for what a functional, effective system of education would look like. As I try to do this, I’m reminded of the French theorist Edgar Morin’s “principle of rational uncertainty” mentioned in Spring’s book (Spring, 2009). We’re complex social beings, ones that act according to logic and emotion, analysis and whimsy. In other words, we’re not robots!
One thing this makes me think about is how we view global education–the how and the why–through our various lenses. Spring’s chapter 8 highlights some of these ideas: how human capital theorists seem to believe that we all act (or should act!) to increase the wealth of the world; world education theorists believe that Western/first-world ideas offer the “best practices” that the world should follow; whereas post-colonial/cultural theorists have a more cynical view of this process of trying to spread a first-world/Westernized approach–they think of global education as often being like code-speak for Western/First World nations wanting to spread their own views on education and economics and politics, etc., with the idea that these approaches are the “best” ways to ensure “progress,” but the post-colonialists/culturalists are skeptical. They feel that approaches to education should be left up to local populations and cultures for them to choose their own path to prosperity (whatever prosperity means to them).
Living in a post-colonial county, surrounded by mostly post-colonial countries, we’re naturally suspicious of our former colonizers and any first-world country. When they show up, it’s usually for oil or other natural resources. We’re even suspicious about the famous people who do all of those commercials promoting aid to Africa. I can’t post them here, so I’ve added another page to this blog and titled it, “I Am African…Really?!” (I added the last bit.) The thing is, these people are famous actors; they don’t live in Africa, in our communities, dealing with the complexity of life that is unique to each specific place. On the one hand, it’s nice they’re raising awareness about problems in Africa; then again, the unspoken message becomes, “Africans can’t fix these problems. They’re not capable. They’re too corrupt or too backward or too ignorant.” One group that is trying to change those perceptions, for example, is “AiD” (Africa in the Diaspora). It’s still aid coming from outside the continent, but the outside investors are Africans. And the goal of the group is to fund African aid groups doing the work of transforming social and community conditions. There’s an important shift in how that works and it’s a positive one for Africans.
And we haven’t even mentioned religion yet! Spring quotes Eduardo Mendieta as stating: “A theory of globalization that makes no room for religion has major theoretical flaws” (Spring, 2009). This is certainly true in Nigeria, especially in the north part of the country. In that part (the biggest region by far) the ethnic group is the Hausa-Falani. They are predominantly Muslim and quite devout; any education system, and its curriculum, that does not take their religion into consideration faces an almost impossible task at convincing them to buy in.
Is it the same in the U.S.?
Hi Abike.
Religion is important to many people in the U.S., but the vast majority is Christian and no other religion has significant enough numbers to cause much friction. We still have significant separation of “church and state”–meaning, religion and our public institutions. Still, there is a faction of our country that is more conservative and who believe that our institutions should allow more religious elements. But, mostly, religious considerations are not a huge factor in our education systems and curricula.
Abike.
It’s really interesting to get an African’s perspective on aid sent to Africa! I never thought about it that way.
“Asians are great at math.” Ever hear that one? Say it 100,00 times and it starts to sound like an obvious truth, right?! But you already know an Asian student who is not good in math—me! I can do basic math, but I’ve never really enjoyed it. The reason so many Chinese youth score well on international math tests is that they were taught math for many, many hours and days and years. If Nigerian or American youth were taught the same math for the same amount of time, they could also score the same high scores. I believe that.
So, I got to wondering how good Asians really are at math? Are we born able to do it? Well, I found an interesting study. It’s a paper that was published in the Journal of Engineering Education and re-published on the American Society for Engineering Education. One of the goals of the research was to determine if Asian-American engineering students are better at math than their non-Asian counterparts. The verdict? From the report: “The academic record of [Asian-American] participants was not significantly different from participants in other racial/ethnic groups” (Trytten, Wong-Lowe & Walden, 2012). Interestingly, the study also showed that even the Asian-American students believed the stereotype that said they were better at math!
Or consider the following from the University of Texas—Austin:
Another study reported on in the New York Times combats the stereotype that almost all Asian-American students get bachelor’s degrees in math and science. From the article: “The report found that contrary to stereotype, most of the bachelor’s degrees that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders received in 2003 were in business, management, social sciences or humanities, not in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering or math” (Lewin, 2008).
I guess Asians are as complicated as anyone! And yet people think we’re all the same.
Jan and Joe:
I hope you all agree that this experience has been great! I want to do more of this–learning about other cultures and other people. I want to become more globally competent. I have a suggestion: Why don’t we write up some document that explains why we think this experience, and other similar things, are important and useful? We could then send that document to the people at our colleges that decide on what courses to offer and what topics are important. No one at my college has ever asked me! I’ve never been asked to fill out a survey with a simple question like, “What classes/subjects/topics would you like to see offered at this college?” Well, I would like to see more opportunties for internationalization. Just like this project we did in this class.
What do you both think?
Abike,
I think a document like that is a great idea.
We could call it a manifesto. One definition of “manifesto”:
“a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifesto)
How about…”The Global Student Manifesto”?
I’ll set up a Google Doc, share the link, and then we can start drafting it. I recommend we send it to several people at our colleges–including people like department chairs, deans, and (why not!?) the presidents of our colleges.
See you on the Google Doc!