Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2012/2013 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org Page 1 From the Editor Welcome to the Fall edition of the Journal of International Social Studies and our new editing team. I am Dr Ruth Reynolds from the University of Newcastle in Australia and I am fortunate enough to be the new editor of this wonderful journal and have the privilege to follow in the footsteps of our previous editor Beverley (Lee) Bisland. No one should underestimate the challenge associated with setting up a new journal and so our new team need to acknowledge that we ‘are standing on the shoulders of giants’ with much of what we take for granted with the journal painstakingly thought through and carefully established by the previous team; Lee Bisland, Gloria Alter, Carolyn O’Mahony, and Michelle Frabroni. Fortunately we continue to have the services of Gloria and Carolyn as well as our new editors Anatoli Rapoport and Deborah Hutton. We would like to elicit readers’ feedback about the direction of our journal and be responsive to our readers, so let us know when we are doing well and if you have suggestions please share. Remember we are always looking for new research and ideas associated with international social studies. As Anatoli’s section on International Perspectives indicated there are also some important themes we could pursue in special editions and if you have special edition ideas and special edition editors you think could provide guidance let us know. I met many of you in person at the NCSS conference in Seattle and hope to meet more of our readers electronically in the future. I have asked all the editorial team to write a little about themselves in their sections so our readers can get to know them better so the following is a little about myself and Deb Hutton, our Assistant Editor. About the Editors Dr Ruth Reynolds I was a primary /elementary school teacher for many years before I became a teacher education at the University of Newcastle in Australia where I am currently a senior lecturer. I have been involved in innovative teaching in Social Studies (called Studies of Society and Environment until very recently in Australia) in schools and at university and my latest love (and sometimes hate) is the pedagogy of I pads. I have conducted research in various aspects of social studies including curriculum history, geographic place knowledge, teaching global education in preservice courses and teaching using historical fiction. I have published five books in teacher education and primary teaching pedagogy, and ten books for teachers who are teaching Social Education as well as numerous refereed articles, chapters in books and conference papers in the areas of pedagogy, social science curriculum, peace education and social justice issues. I have over AUS$100,000 in research grants for projects associated with teacher education including $56,000 for examination of professional experience practices. I currently supervise ten higher degree research students. Additionally I have held Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2012/2013 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org Page 2 a number of administrative positions in the School of Education including Assistant Dean Teacher Education, have been involved in state and national curriculum development advisory boards and was a past President of the Social Educators’ Association of Australia. You can find more about me on: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/staff/research- profile/Ruth_Reynolds/Publications.html Deborah Hutton Deborah Hutton is the Assistant Director of Indiana University's (IU) Center for the Study of Global Change (CSGC). She is the FLAS Fellowship coordinator, co-director of its annual Institute for Curriculum and Campus Internationalization, director of the New Tech Global Issues All-School Project, and project director of the newly released Internationalizing the Academic Standards: Indiana. For multiple international/global outreach projects under her direction, the CSGC received the Goldman Sachs Foundation & Asia Society's Excellence in International Education Prize for Higher Education (2005) and was highlighted in the American Council on Education's Promising Practices: Spotlighting Excellence in Comprehensive Internationalization (2002). She was the contributing editor of the Globalization issue of Faces: People, Places, and Cultures (2006). Her teaching experience includes secondary geography and history, as well as undergraduate and graduate university courses in social studies and global education. In the past, she has worked on projects to promote global education in Russian schools, strengthen social studies education in Africa, and internationalize IU preservice teacher education, as well as facilitated an IU overseas study experience in the People's Republic of China. Hutton has been a member of the NCSS since the early 1980s and was on the International Activities Committee, led by Jan Tucker, when it first started lobbying the NCSS for recognition of international social studies educators, now realized in the International Assembly. Editorial Social studies, democracy and global service We have some very rich choices for readers of our journal in this edition with a variety of viewpoints around some important concerns for international social studies. Catherine Broom from the University of British Colombia in Canada has provided us with some interesting comparisons between students’ views of what they are taught in social studies and their teachers views in ‘Understanding Social Studies: Student and Teacher Voices in Relation to Theoretical Orientations’. When there is a disconnect between teacher and student as regards their understanding of the purpose of social studies student tend to dislike the school subject more. As Broom noted, ‘this study thus supports the importance of exploring the philosophies undergirding a subject’s conception as this will influence how it is understood, taught, learned, and valued’ (p.21). Pat Avery, Sara Levy, Annette Simmons and Michael Scarlett, in their paper ‘Adolescents’ Conceptions of Democracy in Central/Eastern Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2012/2013 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org Page 3 Europe and the United States’ provided insights into how students in some of the new democracies of Europe view democracy as a concept. They found most students described democracy in terms of freedoms and rights and were least likely to mention civic equality. This conception of democracy will obviously have implications for these nations as these adolescents become the voting citizens. It provides food for thought for us all as members of longstanding democracies – to what extent is equality of citizens seen by us as an imperative? Neo Liberal rhetoric surrounds us everywhere at the moment. How equal are we within that democratic dialogue? Both of these papers allow us to rethink some of our basic understandings of what social studies may be and provide an international perspective on that. The third of our peer reviewed articles examined the impact of a service learning project in Malawi could have on pre service teachers’ global awareness. Frans Doppen and Jennifer Tesar in ‘The Mwanje Project: Engaging preservice teachers in global service learning’ explores the extent to which we can implement service learning from afar in a global context. They engaged the local community to assist the more distant community in Malawi, learning about the wider world and how they can participate in it for a more socially just world along the way. While wary of engendering neocolonial attitudes and charity approaches the authors found their approach, which involved community building at many levels, had a positive impact on both students and community members. What these articles have in common is the notion that it is vital that we, as international social studies teachers, investigate the message we are trying to convey at the point at which it is received. We as expert social studies teachers have sophisticated views of the major issues of our teaching area. We must ensure we are eliciting some comprehension of the ideas of the students we teach. These three articles do just that and provide some guidance for the rest of us in monitoring our impact on teaching practice. Robert G. Hanvey, Author of 'An Attainable Global Perspective’ (1976): A Farewell Tribute Robert Hanvey passed away on October 18th, 2012. Reading his obituary in The Herald Times (10/23/12, A2) of Bloomington, Indiana, it was obvious he was an eclectic person with a multitude of interests and skills (sailor, pilot, visual artist, photographer, poet and storyteller). There was, however, little there about his contribution to the area that interests us, his contribution to global education and global perspectives, including peace education in our curriculum. He made a seminal contribution to our thinking about Global Education. In his highly influential article, 'An Attainable Global Perspective,’ he devised a model of global awareness and consciousness that incorporated five dimensions. I paraphrase these dimensions below: Perspective Consciousness – Appreciation of the fact that one’s own view of the world is not necessarily the same as that of someone else. Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2012/2013 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org Page 4 State of the Planet Awareness – Exploration of world conditions and developments, including conflicts, resources and environmental issues. Cross-Cultural Awareness - Awareness of the diversity of ideas and practices to be found in human societies around the world and how such ideas and practices compare and contrast. Knowledge of Global Dynamics - Knowledge of key traits and mechanisms of global systems (economic, ecological, political, technological, etc.), which directly impact how the world constantly changes. Awareness of Human Choices - Awareness of one’s own cultural perspective. Heater (2003) argued that Hanvey provided the basis for the later work of Pike and Selby (1988) in the United Kingdom, who added social and action skills at local and global levels to his widely modelled perspective of global education. Kirkwood (2001) also built on Hanvey’s dimensions in her essential elements of global education: multiples perspectives, comprehension and appreciation of cultures, knowledge of global issues and the world as interrelated systems (Zhong, Wilson and Quashiga, 2008). Acknowledging the increased sophistication of our views of global education with reference to increased critical analysis of the flaws of globalisation along with its opportunities (Hicks, 2003; Merryfield and Duty, 2008; Myers, 2010; Ukpokodu, 2010), does not reduce our debt to Hanvey’s earlier contribution. Howard Mehlinger kindly gave Deborah and me permission to use some of his words from his tribute at Robert Hanvey’s memorial service: In 1976, the Center for Global Perspectives published his essay, An Attainable Global Perspective that seems likely to be remembered as his most significant contribution to education. Global studies as an idea for curriculum study had been around for at least a decade, but many find the idea to be complex and difficult to implement. Bob’s essay is a good example of his ability to take a complex topic and make it clear to the reader. According to Google, the essay has been cited 361 times in articles relating to international and global studies. The Center for Global Perspectives published five editions and then a revision in 1982. It was also reprinted countless times for use in classes and teacher workshops. I don’t know anyone who aspires to leadership in the field of global studies who has not studied An Attainable Global Perspective. In 1986, Teachers College Press published Global Geography, a geography textbook designed for use with middle school and junior high students. The book was co- authored by Alan Backler and Robert Hanvey. It is a further example of the way that his ideas from An Attainable Global Perspective reached students. Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2012, 1-5. Corresponding author email: Ruth.Reynolds@newcastle.edu.au ©2012/2013 International Assembly Journal of International Social Studies Website: http://www.iajiss.org Page 5 Hail and farewell, Robert Hanvey. References Hanvey, R. G. (1976). An Attainable Global Perspective. New York: Center for Global Perspectives in Education. Heater, D. (2004). A History of Education for Citizenship. London: Routledge Falmer 2004. Hicks, D. (2006). Lessons for the Future: The missing dimension in education. Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing. Kirkwood, T. F. (2001). Our global age requires global education: Clarifying definitional ambiguities. The Social Studies, 92, 10-15. Merryfield, M. and L. Duty (2008). Globalisation. In J. Arthur, I. Davies and C. L. Hahn (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Education for Citizenship and Democracy, 80-91. London: SAGE. Myers, J. P. (2010). The curriculum of globalisation. In B.Subedi, (Ed.), Critical Global Perspectives, 103-120. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Pike, G. and D. Selby, (1988). Global Teacher, Global Learner. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Ukpokodu, O. (2010). Teacher preparation for global perspectives pedagogy. In B.Subedi, (Ed.), Critical Global Perspectives, 121-142. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing, Inc. Zong, G., A. H. Wilson and A. Y. Quashiga (2008). Global education. In L. S. Levstik and C. A. Tyson (Eds), Handbook of Research in Social Studies Education, 197-216. New York and London: Routledge.