Previous to joining this class on international development and educational issues, I had preconceived ideas on education that were developed by the western society I lived in. I believed that children world-wide deserved the right to an education, but I felt that the best type of education was a western-style education. I knew that developing countries had challenges in providing educational services, but I did not know that many marginalized groups such as females in certain countries and the disabled, have difficulty receiving any educational services at all.  Throughout the class, through our assignments, readings, projects, blogs and discussions, my initial ideals on education were challenged and I achieved a more open-minded approach to international educational issues.

One of our assignments was the photovoice project. Initially I was skeptical as to what we would actually be doing and what we would be learning from the project.  We were instructed to take pictures in order to answer the question, “what is education?”  At the beginning of the term, I would have answered with a generic, “school.” However, because of this class, I have come to realize that education is all around us; in our heritage, culture and traditions.  For example, in the documentary, “Schooling the World,” we saw how children in a small village in India are losing important cultural traditions by being instructed in a purely westernized educational system. Education needs to include cultural customs in order to be complete.

Learning about the challenges that developing countries face in establishing their educational policies was eye-opening.  We discovered that they are still trying to figure out how their educational system will look as they become more economically successful. In one case study we learned that in a small town in Mexico, a representative group of citizens were on a school committee that helped employ teachers and develop the curriculum.  We studied many interesting examples of developing countries decisions on the kind of educational system they wanted and those that they did not want to implement.

Reading through the international educational policy blogs was extremely thought provoking. It is inspiring that there are many organizations that are making global education for all a priority. I was impressed that many organizations, like UNICEF and the Global Partnership for Education are able to work with and influence governments to implement educational policies that benefit the children of their countries.

In researching my policy memo for the Country Issue Project, I was able to learn about a specific educational issue in great depth. I chose to investigate the policy of providing an inclusive education to children with disabilities in Vietnam. This issue was close to my heart because I had volunteered at a school for the deaf in Vietnam in 2012. I communicated with the children by signing and their smiles and enthusiasm stole my heart. However, in researching my policy memo, I discovered that these kind of specialized schools are few and far between and that over half of Vietnamese disabled children receive no educational instruction at all. Their best chance of an education is if the government implements a policy of inclusive education so that they can receive an education in their local community school. I plan on returning to Vietnam someday and I believe that I will see disabled children more fully integrated into their local communities.

As a global citizen of the world, I believe that we all need to keep informed of international issues and do what we can to improve the world we live in. I have learned in this class that international education is of paramount importance. As countries are able to implement strong educational policies, their economies will flourish and the quality of life will improve for all of their citizens.