WORLD LITERATURE AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES  

WORLD LITERATURE AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

 

“There is a growing consensus, both within the academic community and outside, that the current (political, economic) approaches to meeting human needs are unsustainable. Issues like global warming, the depletion of natural resources, access to clean water, the decline of biodiversity, [treatment of women, children’s rights] or HIV/AIDS are threatening the very core of survival on this planet. Institutions of higher education, obliged by their missions to prepare their students for life in the twenty-first century, cannot overlook these issues. They must address the question of how to foster a society that allows all people, today and in the future, to be healthy, to have their basic needs met, and to have fair and equitable access to the world’s resources. Universities and colleges that educate most of the people who develop and manage society’s public and corporate institutions have a profound responsibility to use their accumulated (intellectual, technological) expertise in order to achieve a sustainable future.”

—from the Salzburg Seminar description

 

Fifty-eight global competencies, many relating to the recognition of the interdependency and interconnectedness of all systems, are listed here below. Some are more crucial or fundamental than others. All are worthy of note because any one of them may strike a responsive chord within a reader. The competencies of a global learner include:

  • Intercultural relations skills
  • Interest in/reading about international current events
  • Ability to identify countries of the world and their locations
  • Ability to communicate with non-English speaking persons
  • Ability to listen
  • Technological awareness (Internet literacy)
  • Awareness of global issues
  • Empowered to acknowledge one’s ability to make a difference
  • Understanding of the dynamics of interactivity between government, business, and education
  • Comfortable with differences
  • Understanding of different political and economic systems while acknowledging economic interdependence
  • Awareness of history
  • Realize that challenges facing our world cannot be solved by the same kind of thinking and actions that created them
  • Knowledge of at least one non-Western culture
  • Environmental literacy
  • Understand the impact of other cultures on our lives and that culture affects behavior and attitude
  • Recognize that one’s own culture, religion, and values are not universally shared.
  • Ability to speak at least one other language
  • Self-confidence in one’s own ability, identity, skills, and cultural background.
  • Seek peaceful resolution of differences
  • Awareness of diversity, similarities, and interdependencies
  • Read on a regular basis newspapers and magazines covering international issues.
  • Identify historical and current major world events
  • Ability to be flexible and resourceful
  • Understand different education systems around the world
  • Understand different groupings within America’s own multicultural structure
  • Participate in a voluntary in-service programs (local, national, and international levels).
  • Ability to work in diverse teams
  • Understand various faith traditions
  • Awareness of world demography
  • Be motivated by love rather than fear
  • Realize that all the people of the world are important
  • Have a commitment to lifelong global learning
  • Ability to empathize and sympathize even while not accepting
  • Exposure to other cultures through participation in international study
  • Ability to function as a responsible member of the human species within the community of life
  • Awareness of human rights issues
  • Tolerance for ambiguity
  • Have knowledge of the United Nations and other international organizations
  • Knowledge of international business practices
  • Visit a non-English speaking community or country
  • Focus on quality of life issues in the world community (Recognize that the local concept of quality of life may be different in other parts of the world)
  • Participate in at least one student foreign exchange program
  • Understand decision making in a global community
  • Be able to apply trained skills to an international context
  • Accept responsibility for global citizenship
  • Ability to articulate human differences and similarities
  • Knowledge of human and social geography
  • Exercise moral leadership
  • Develop a long-term perspective
  • Understand that your community may become endangered without global competence
  • Experience the literature, music, and art of other cultures
  • Enjoy surprises, do not fear them
  • Be aware of the diversity of world sport
  • Have respect for human dignity
  • Speak, write, and read another language
  • Understand what it means to be ethical
  • Seek exposure to other cultures locally, including dining in ethnic restaurants whenever possible

 

 

 

ENGL 2333               WORLD LITERATURE SINCE 1650                  Dr. Vicki Sapp

Spring 2015                               Course Project

 

 

Assignment Description

Read the introductory pages here below carefully. A key part of this assignment will be to align our texts, power points and discussions this term with some (each of you choose the ones most relevant to your experience) of the 58 Global Competencies; use these as important guidelines for your essay.

 

Write an essay in which you identify how our texts, power points and discussions have helped you achieve several (as many as you see fit) of the “global competencies” listed here above. Write this in an instructive way, as if you were designing lesson material for other “global learners.” Organize your discussion by either the competency points with texts as illustration, or by the texts/contexts you choose with the competency points used as illustration. Specifically and carefully explain how these relate and illustrate/support.

 

Format

Essay format (paragraphs for introduction, body subtopics, conclusion). At least 500 words (not really possible to cover the assignment adequately in fewer).

 

Essay composed in Times Roman, 12-pt. font, double-spaced throughout. Any outside research/sources documented by MLA style. (See link here for MLA guidelines and samples).

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

 

No title page, put name centered at top of page one.

 

Submission

-Complete draft due Thursday, April 28 by 7 p.m. (15% of grade)

-Make edits and revisions according to my comments on your draft.

-Final draft due Thursday, May 7 by 7 p.m. (other 15% of grade)*

 

 

Evaluation Points

An “A” exercise will include the following:

  • Draft submitted on or before Thursday, April 28
  • Draft revised according to my edits and comments
  • Final draft submitted on or before Thursday, May 7
  • Assignment Description instructions followed
  • Essay written in mature, “professional” tone and diction
  • Essay structure clear with good paragraph development
  • Supporting text detail included to adequately support and illustrate points
  • Final draft is well edited for major sentence, word usage (spelling, diction) and formatting issues