Cross-cultural Education Research In The Era Of Globalization

As a hot issue and new idea of international education in 21 st century,cross-cultural education pays more attention to cross-cultural adjustment and dialogue issues and points out approaches of cultivating.A series of literature,special reports and declarations released by UNESCO(United Nations Educational,Scientific,and Cultural Organization)clearly show the necessity of and a strong theoretical basis for cross-cultural education research.However,a specialized and systematic study of cross-cultural education is still relatively few to this day and has not been formed theoretically.The study devotes itself to analyse the major difficulties cross-cultural education emerged in the era of globalization,employ a methodology of concept history to attain enlightenments from the most influential practical cross-cultural activities,and further introduce the theory of cultural complementation into crosss-cultural education.The thesis finally comes up with response settlement measures and solutions both from metaphysical and physical views by comprehensively utilizing literature research and critical thought.Chapter One mainly demonstrates the concept,characteristics,and core factors of cross-cultural education and lays a theoretical foundation for the whole thesis.Different from multicultural education,the concept of cross-cultural education has its own epoch background and realistic characteristics.This dissertation extensively assimilates the ideas of the rich experience,important practical and theoretical values from other related theories sucha as Education for International Understanding,Peace Education or Comparative Education.The cross-cultural education possesses several characteristics as diversity,otherness,openness,interactivity,inclusiveness and multilinguality which reveal that the related research must focus on the issues including cultural identity,cultural awareness,intercultural dialogue and cross-cultural adaptation.Chapter Two is mainly devoted to the study of the development of cross-cultural educational practical activities before 1980 s with the methodology of concept history.The concept of cross-cultural education was put forward in 1990 s but the real cross-cultural activities existed in the history which could be examined by comparing the most influential cultural exchanges and intercourse between states and the nations.Chinese culture never develops in isolation but has been communicating and interacting with other nations during 3000-year-history of civilization,thus accumulates lots of useful experiences and lessons as the logic starting point and basis for the theoretical construction of cross-cultural education.The characteristics of Chinese practical cross-cultural education activities change at various times and over different periods in history: Spreading Chinese traditional culture before 1840;absorbing the essence of Western culture from 1840 to 1949;assimilating the Soviet Culture from 1949 to 1978;and still being influenced by some western doctrines but turning to focus mainly on cross-cultural interactions after 1978.The cross-cultural education in European and American countries experiences several stages including cultural assimilation and integration in Middle Ages,cultural expansion and cultural colonization from 16 th to mid-20 th century and western cultural dissemination after 1945,which is concerning more about immigration and racial problems which increase the root motivation of pursuing the cross-cultural education development.Chapter Three presents the current situations,opportunities,challenges and existing problems of cross-cultural education in the era of globalization.The concept of globalization presents differently according to the scholars' different views.The dissertation chiefly focuses on the cultural dimensions of globalization and its characteristics.In this context cross-cultural education meets with the chances such as more cultural choices brought by abundant world culture,cultural information resources sharing with the convenience of cultural exchange and more cross-cultural educational spaces under the circumstance of cultural diversity.Severe challenges come with opportunities.The existing cultural phenomena pose the problems simultaneously as followed: more choices bring confusion,plentiful cultural information resources indicate the difficulties in grasping the related cultural knowledge and vast cross-cultural educational spaces may lead to cultural split.Cultural identity crises,cultural hegemony,cultural colonization and even cultural diversity could create barriers of intercultural dialogue in the research of cross-cultural education.All the challenges demand people to contemplate the cause or origin carefully and taking the right measures cautiously while conducting the research on cross-cultural education.Chapter Four analyses the possibilities of the theory of cultural complementation as the fundamental cultural standpoint in cross-cultural education to deal with various challenges from the metaphysical view.The study expounds cultural complementation and its implication,inspiration and significance in cross-cultural education from anthropological,psychological,historical and modern perspectives respectively.As a priority selection,this theory will be helpful in reflecting other cultural standpoints,improving individual cross-cultural abilities of adaptation and dialogue,and thus solve the cultural identity issues in the era of globalization.It is of great theoretical significance and practical value to research the theory of cultural complementation which brings new educational thoughts to deal with the current global issues,endows the teacher with powers and autonomy to develop curriculum,promotes the mutual development of the initiative of teachers and students,and then greatly enhances the pertinence of cross-cultural education.Chapter Five initially puts forward the propositions of cross-cultural education under the standpoint of cultural complementation including principles,objects,strategies and contents.The cross-cultural education firmly opposes cultural colonization and hegemony,promots cultural identification and awareness,respectscultural diversity and difference,and determines cultural complementation position.The ideas of cultural complementation determine the aims as absorbing different cultural knowledge,enhancing cultural construction-integration level,learning intercultural communication techniques,strengthening the abilities of judging and selecting correct values,cherishing different cultures and cultivating open and inclusive mentality.Cultural adaptability and dialogue are the key factors to determine the methodology and significance-value directivity in the cross-cultural educational field by the lights of the cultural complementation ideas.Furthermore,educational effects hinge on the teachers' cross-cultural literacy and capacity,likewise,the student acceptance is affected by teacher's behavior performance in teaching process.The dissertation finally puts forward 19 motivated,practicable and effective strategies including curriculum as the prerequisite and foundation for realization of the theoretical assumptions.