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Networking Knowledge Considering Alexander von Humboldt’s Legacy
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Summary
Global citizenship and diversity are
well-represented concepts in today’s higher education. Learning
outcomes and competencies are designed to sensitize students to the
many cultural backgrounds of U.S. learning institutions.
Nevertheless, true globality, as represented through diverse
discourses and perspectives of the world, still seems neglected in
curricula and course assignments. This article explores the
possibilities offered through a new shared space in education where
different forms of networked knowledge and multifaceted perspectives
can build a global platform of exchange in a diverse student
population. The universal science concept described by Alexander von
Humboldt at the beginning of the 19th Century illuminates
this intertwined approach to knowledge of the world, which has the
potential to positively impact contemporary curricula and course
design. Von Humboldt’s writings emphasize inclusion and interplay
among cultures and natural phenomena. By inviting our students to be
active representatives of diverse discourses, these interconnecting
links will become more transparent. In turn, productive forms of
knowing about the world may enrich current learning objectives and
thereby reflect a true global citizenship as it evolves in a new
shared space of education. Keywords: global citizenship, plurality,
diverse discourses, multicultural education
Zusammenfassung
Weltbürgerschaft und kulturelle Vielfalt sind überall gegenwärtige
Konzepte im heutigen Bildungswesen. In den Vereinigten Staaten
werden Lernziele und Kompetenzen geformt, um die Studenten gegenüber
den vielen kulturellen Hintergründen, die
in den Bildungsinstitutionen vorzutreffen sind, zu
sensibilisieren.Trotzdem wird
wahre Globalität, wie sie heute in den vielfältigen Diskursen
und Perspektiven der Welt repräsentiert ist, immer noch in
Lehrplänen und Studienarbeiten vernachlässigt. Dieser Artikel
untersucht die Möglichkeiten, die sich heute im Bildungswesen durch
den neuen, gemeinsam geteilten, globalen Bildungsraum anbieten, in
dem die multikulturelle Studentenbevölkerung verschiedene Formen
vernetzten Wissens und facettenreiche Perspektiven der Welt eine
globale Plattform des Austausches bildet. Das von Alexander von
Humboldt am Anfang des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts beschriebene
universale Wissenschaftskonzept, beleuchtet solch einen vernetzten
Ansatz an ein Wissen um die Welt, der auf heutige Bildungskonzepte
und Kursdesigns einen positiven Einfluss nehmen könnte. Humboldts
Schriften unterstreichen die Bedeutung der Inklusivität und des
Wechselspiels zwischen Kulturen und Naturphänomenen. Indem wir
Studenten mit unterschiedlichem kulturellen Hintergrundwissen dazu
einladen, ihre jeweiligen Diskurse des Wissens aktiv zu
repräsentieren, werden diese gegenseitig mit einander verknüpten
Beziehungen des Wissens transparenter. Auf diese Weise,
entsteht die Möglichkeit, heutige Lernziele mit neuen,
produktiven Formen des Weltwissens zu berreichern, worin sich ein
wahres Weltbürgertum, wie es sich in diesem neuen
Bildungsraum des globalen Austausches hervortut, wiederspiegeln
würde.
Résumé
La citoyenneté mondiale et la diversité figurent
aujourd’hui parmi les concepts les plus représentés dans les études
supérieures. Les
résultats de l’apprentissage et les compétences sont conçus pour
rendre les étudiants sensibles aux nombreuses origines culturelles
des établissements d’instruction des États-Unis.
Néanmoins, la vraie globalité, représentée à travers des
perspectives et des discours divers, semble être toujours négligée
dans les programmes scolaires et les attributions de cours.
Dans cet article l’auteur explore les possibilités offertes
par un nouvel espace partagé dans le domaine de l’éducation
-- une éducation caractérisée d’ailleurs par des formes
variées de connaissances atteintes dans des réseaux différents et en
des perspectives multiples qui peuvent
contribuer à construire une plate-forme globale d’échange
dans une population d’étudiants hétérogène.
Le concept de la science universelle décrit par Alexander von
Humboldt au début du dix-neuvième siècle éclaire cette approche
étroitement liée aux connaissances du monde qui a le potentiel
d’avoir un impact positif sur les programmes scolaires contemporains
et les conceptions des cours.
En effet, dans son oeuvre Von Humboldt met l’emphase sur
l’importance de l’inclusion et de l’interaction entre les cultures
et les phénomènes naturels.
En invitant nos étudiants à être des représentants actifs de
discours divers, ces liens d’interconnexion leur seront de plus en
plus évidents. Par
conséquent, il se peut que les objectifs du savoir
puissent être enrichis par ces façons différentes de connaître le monde
tandis qu’ils réflèteront de plus en plus une véritable citoyenneté
mondiale qui évoluera en même temps en réponse à ce nouvel espace
partagé dans l’éducation contemporaine.
Mots-clés: la citoyenneté mondiale, la pluralité,
les discours divers, l’éducation
multiculturelle
Educators play a part in the process of defining
themselves and their roles within a given educational setting,
discipline and culture. The educational landscape, on the other
hand, keeps shifting with time. Today, U.S. learning institutions
are booming with a new generation of students representing an
unprecedented level of cultural diversity. Students from all parts
of the globe fill our classrooms, bringing with them a rich web of
cultures, languages, values, and belief systems that represent a
variety of perspectives and ways of knowing about the world.
At the same time, at an equally overwhelming
pace, new technology enables a sharing and exchange of an
unprecedented flow of information, which frees up new forms of
multimodal literacies we have only just begun to tap into (Kress,
2003).
In stark
contrast to this somewhat amorphous mass, higher education seems to
be moving in a diametrically opposed direction. Institutions are
battling competencies and learning outcomes, measuring and mapping
wherever possible and streamlining the academic landscape to satisfy
the need for quantifiable and measurable knowledge patterns. But
what are we measuring?
To an educator in an urban college of New York
City, among students from around 80 different countries, languages
and presumably even more cultures, the very idea of measuring
presents a challenge. Does not the very concept of diversity
compromise the idea of fixed standards? Does not the prism, which
reflects these endless combinations of variables, evade possible
definitions? This incongruity in itself might be the very nature of
the contemporary teaching and learning context. Nevertheless, in
spite of this intriguing transformation, we press forward with
learning objectives that in fact have excluded the objects
themselves from the equation: the learners and the world they
represent.
Students enter our learning institutions with
their very own portmanteau, a suitcase rich with unique discourses
and perspectives of the world. Still, its content often goes
missing. While global citizenship is a well-established competency,
the very globality in the student population is likely to be
overlooked in curricula and course assignments. These shortcomings
are addressed in research and academic discussions through
pedagogical concepts that seek to include, not exclude, culturally
diverse values and cultural identities. Such an approach is perhaps
best represented through Geneva Gay’s well-developed concept of
culturally responsive teaching a more multidimensional and inclusive
pedagogy that might yield greater motivation and better results in a
diverse student body
(Gay, 2010). The need for better teaching tools is further confirmed
in projected statistics, which speak for an even greater increase in
the diversity of students in the U.S. public school system (Rychly &
Graves, 2012).
Whereas cultural values and diverse forms of
communicating (Gay, 2012) are essential to the effective learning
process, this new shared space of diverse and truly global
discourses constitutes a new form of networked knowledge and
multifaceted perspectives, and the question remains: How do we come
to terms with this phenomenon in our programs and curricula? The
question is relevant because although the goals of the global
citizenship competency reflect the insights we seek to cultivate in
our students, the curricula that are designed to meet this objective
often lack the ideal they embrace. It is here that Alexander von
Humboldt’s vision of the world comes into play.
Humboldt presented a universal science concept
that emerged from travels and observations in areas far from his
familiar habitat. His idea of globally intertwined phenomena and
“truths” about the world, as well as his impact on a universal or
“general” education concept, have recently been revived and
reinterpreted.
As Ette points out, we are only now fulfilling
Humboldt´s unfinished project of modernity,
as “eine andere Moderne” (Ette, 2002).
We seem to have caught up with Humboldt’s pluralistic ideas
of universal interrelationships and shared forms of knowledge.
By revisiting Goya’s painting,
“El Sueno de la Razon Produce Monstruos”,
Ette compares Goya´s lament to the ambivalence of our own
times. The allegory of
the sleeping reason as a human contradiction speaks a universal
language, the “Ydioma Universal”
(Ette 2002). And indeed, while we possess the ability to
trade knowledge, goods and ideas by nothing more than a mouse click,
we are battling an increasingly baffling world of disorder wrapped
up in the Gordian knot of the rational and irrational.
Language as a universal tool is failing as we fail to
communicate differences while striving towards the safe havens of
measuring and mapping what resides in the familiar.
In Kosmos (1845),
Humboldt writes:
Was in einem engeren Gesichtskreise, in unserer Nähe, dem
forschenden Geist lange unerklärlich blieb, wird oft durch
Beobachtungen aufgehellt, die auf einer Wanderung in die
entlegensten Regionen angestellt worden sind. […] Eine allgemeine
Verkettung, nicht in einfacher linearer Richtung, sondern in
netzartig verschlungenem Gewebe. (Humboldt von, A. 1845, p.33)
This quote exemplifies Alexander von Humboldt’s
idea of a universal science in connection with cosmopolitanism
(Ette, 2002). Together with the vision of “Bildung” as a
manifestation of individual autonomy and “Weltbürgertum” this ideal
of the enlightened citizen came to play a pioneering role in the
subsequent development of general education concepts in the early 19th
century which are now under scrutiny in U.S. learning institutions.
In order to shed light on the familiar in our
immediate environment, in order to be able “to see” (Gesichtskreis),
we must venture into the unknown and open ourselves up to “distant
regions” that will uncover and help us decode what is strange and
foreign. It is through the reflection of ourselves in the foreign
that we gain an understanding of our “self” and where and how we fit
in a world of interconnected phenomena. This insight can be arrived
at, not in a linear fashion, but in an intricate web-like
(“netzartig”) fabric of the world.
What do educators in the culturally diverse urban
universities of today have in common with Humboldt’s world view,
which he shared in his lectures and his writings almost two
centuries ago? Like him, we are in the midst of an exciting and
unpredictable rethinking of the world. Like the citizens in Europe
at the time, we are experiencing a new wave of globalization and
exploration of global networks, socially, culturally, and
economically. And just like his colleagues in the generation
following the Enlightenment, we are excited about a new flood of
knowledge and information exchange, which is reflected in the move
from sources such as the 18th century Encyclopedia to our
omnipresent, accessible world of cyberspace. The vision of the
“cosmopolite”, “der Weltbürger”, is alive in new forms of global
sharing of knowledge, cultures, goods, and idea. At the same time,
educators are busy putting together straitjackets of everything
quantitative along with test formats and imagined learning outcomes.
Is there a more desirable path for us as educators in these times of
global communication and information exchange? And what is our role
in this complex worldwide web? Humboldt seemed to answer these
questions as he expounded on his philosophy of universal science.
Humboldt’s Kosmos, both as a scientific concept
and as a literary work, describes a network of knowledge, along with
the attempt to include and not to exclude. While firmly rooted in
the Western, Eurocentric sphere of knowledge, Humboldt communicated
between cultures and sought to bridge and recognize diverse worlds,
both culturally and physically. His concept was built on the
interconnectedness in a pluralistic world seen as one (Ette, 2002).
The human being was not to be viewed in isolation, separated from
the physical world of botany, zoology, or even geology. The arts,
the aesthetics, and the human senses were to play a part in our
descriptions, observations, and explanations of world phenomena. He
spoke of the physical world and the sciences as “painting of the
world”, “ein Weltgemälde”, an interwoven dialog between the inner
and outer world, human
(aesthetic) perception, observation skills, and the physical,
natural environment (Knobloch, 2004).
Consequently, his thinking came to be shaped around an
interdisciplinary, cosmopolitan, or global approach to a worldwide
web of knowledge and the sciences, which in turn was to be
disseminated amongst the broader public.
In his view, a healthy society rested on broad public
knowledge and awareness of the world (Ette, 2006).
It is in the interwoven links between disciplines
and cultures and the capacity to make connections that true
knowledge transpires and learners can place themselves within the
broader scope of a historic time and place. Here, the intriguing
link between Humboldt’s universal science concept and the current
efforts to define and implement improved general education skills
becomes apparent. However, whereas the crossing of boundaries of
inherited, fixed disciplines into a thinking of cross-disciplinary
curricula has become a well-established approach, the inclusion and
integration of “the other” and the multifaceted perspectives of a
culturally diverse student body seem to go unnoticed.
In observations of and interactions with my own
and other subject areas, global themes such as women’s rights,
environmental, health, and education issues are largely treated
through our very own scientific and intellectual lens of Western
sensibilities. Against our best intentions, we still seem to
unilaterally “teach to” the students as passive receivers, rather
than as active representatives of knowledge. For example, a theme as
globally urgent as “energy” is often dealt with from the perspective
of the American “abuser“, whereas the widespread lack of energy in
other areas of the world seems to be left out in the discussion. And
yet, our classrooms are beaming with well-informed students from
Asia, South East Asia and Africa, who could inform on the topic from
a different angle and contribute with real-world examples and
experiences. Paired with current research, these unique sources
would shed light on the global complexity of these issues, broaden
the dialogue and add a sense of authenticity to curricula across the
disciplines.
Other culturally sensitive, less tangible topics
such as gender roles, race, and ethnicity, seem to be treated
predominantly from the American perspective, whereas other truths
and experiences, available first-hand in our students, are less
integrated in classroom discussions. As an example, today’s
multicultural classroom might represent five to seven different
languages and dialects and as many cultures, if not more. Students
are often multilingual, multicultural learners, in many cases from
former colonies with rich and complex stories to tell. And yet, we
seem to cling to domestic variations—Hispanic, African–American, or
maybe Asian–American experiences—that paint a world according to one
nation and its sociocultural issues. In other words, despite all
good intentions, we often treat a less-identified diversity as a
form of the American minority experience, instead of considering
them as active, global participants of knowledge and representatives
of diverse cultural know-how.
Similarly, basic science courses in Biology and
Chemistry are wide-open areas of globally challenging topics.
Epidemics and disease, microbiology, genetics, and general pathology
are subjects and disciplines that could be enriched by assignments
and discussions from a diverse, global student population with
grassroots experiences and culturally diverse approaches.
In this context, Humboldt’s idea of willingness
”to see” and to discover oneself in the foreign serves as a form of
true inclusion. To invite “the object” of our learning goals to be
an active producer and contributor of knowledge means to explore and
include unfamiliar and diverse discourses into our curricula; these
in turn make visible the “intermediate links” between different
perspectives and ways of viewing the world.
Hence, the interconnectedness of cultures and natural
phenomena is uncovered and a seemingly disparate, pluralistic world
is turned into a meaningful, intricate web of global exchange (Ette,
2006).
As we free up new perspectives of knowing we are,
in fact, beginning to act on Humboldt’s moral reflection on “a
rational inquiry into nature” and world phenomena. In the
introduction to the first volume of Kosmos he writes:
Das wichtigste Resultat des sinnigen physischen Forschens ist daher
dieses: In der Mannigfaltigkeit die Einheit zu erkennen, von dem
Individuellen alles zu umfassen, was die Entdeckeungen der letzteren
Zeitalter uns darbieten, die Einzelheiten prüfend zu
sondern und doch nicht ihrer Masse zu unterliegen, der
erhabenen Bestimmung des Menschen eingedenk, den Geist der Natur zu
ergreifen, welcher unter der Decke der Erscheinungen verhüllt liegt.
(Humboldt, p. 6)
By communicating through inquiry how world
phenomena are perceived in a new shared space of knowledge, we are
able to grasp new truths hidden under the surface. Thereby, we might
have caught up with Humboldt’s call for a greater
understanding of ourselves through a reflection in the unfamiliar
without “succumbing beneath the weight of the whole”.
As we make
these networked ways of knowing more transparent, we might as a
result, contribute to productive and more multifaceted ways of
reflecting on our established educational learning goals in order to
better match a diverse and multicultural student body. Further, the
inclusion of multiple perspectives would help expand the lens
through which we wish to measure and calculate what we deem as
desired learning outcomes for the new generation of the multimodal,
global learning communities of today. Finally, in reflecting
ourselves in the different “foreign” realities, we move closer to
transforming Goya´s “Ydioma Universal” into forms of universal
communication which include, rather than exclude, what seems to fall
off our inherited, preconceived maps of knowing. References
Ette, O. (2001). The scientist as Weltbürger: Alexander von Humboldt
and the beginning of cosmopolitics.HiN: International Review for
Humboldtian Studies, II (2). Retrieved November 15, 2014,
from
http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/ette-cosmopolitics.htm
Ette, O. (2002). Weltbewußtsein. Alexander von Humboldt und das
unvollendete Projekt einer anderen Moderne. Weilerswist: Velbrück
Wissenschaft.
Ette, O. (2006). Alexander von Humboldt, Die Humboldtsche
Wissenschaft und ihre Relevanz im Netzzeitalter. HiN: International
Review for Humboldtian Studies, VII (12) Retrieved November 15, 2014
from
http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin12/ette.htm
Ette, O. (2009). Alexander von Humboldt und die Globalisierung. Das
Mobile des Wissen. Frankfurt am Main und Leipzig: Insel Verlag.
Gay, G. (2012). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research,
and practice. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.
Humboldt, A. von (1845). Kosmos. Entwurf einer Physischen
Weltbeschreibung. Bd.1. Stuttgart: Cottascher Verlag.
Humboldt, A. von (1864). Cosmos: A sketch of a physical description
of the universe. Vol. I. London: Henry G. Bohn.
Humboldt, W. (1960)
Werke in fünf Bänden Bd. 1. Schriften zur Anthropologie und
Geschichte. Flitner, A., & Giel, K. (Eds) Stuttgart: J. G.
Cotta‘sche Buchhandlung.
Knobloch, Eberhard (2004). Naturgenuß und Weltgemälde. Gedanken zu
Humboldts Kosmos. HiN:
International Review for Humboldtian Studies, V(9). Retrieved
November 15, 2014, from
http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin9/knobloch.htm
Kress, Gunther (2003). Literacy in the New Media Age. London and New
York: Routledge Press.
Rychly, L. & Graves, E. (2012). Teacher Characteristics for
Culturally Responsive Theory. Multicultural Perspectives, 14(1),
44–49.
How to cite
Lundberg, Karin (2015): Networking Knowledge:
Considering Alexander von Humboldt‘s Legacy in a New Shared Space in
Education. In: HiN - Humboldt im Netz. Internationale Zeitschrift
für Humboldt-Studien (Potsdam - Berlin) XVI, 30, S. 78-83. Online
verfügbar unter
<http://www.uni-potsdam.de/romanistik/hin/hin30/lundberg.htm>
Permanent URL unter
<http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/abfrage_collections.php?coll_id=594&la=de>
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