Theorizing and Realizing the Globalized Classroom

Abstract

This chapter examines what criteria, conditions, or characteristics actually constitute a globalized classroom. A graduate course on online education taught in Japan is presented as a case in point. Online mentoring and educational technologies spanning six countries are described. Explanatory frameworks include globalization, constructivism as a cross-cultural pedagogy, cultural attitudes toward the adoption of online technologies, transformative learning, and empowerment. Voluntary feedback from the graduate students, mostly translated from Japanese, provides evidence such as: (a) that mainstream Western constructivism has some universality to be readily accepted by Japanese students, (b) that unfamiliar online information and communication technologies (ICT) are also welcomed, (c) that a positive form of globalization can occur in such a class, and d) that their learning was transformative and empowering. The theoretical framework accounts for the changes which students reported in their attitudes and practices. Thus the class provides a model for realizing the globalized classroom.