“… Global Citizenship.”
At a Glance:
- Occupation: University Instructional Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies
- Relevant Industries: Education, Philosophy, Educational Philosophy, Curriculum Specialists, Human and Community Development, Global Citizenship
- Experience:
- Graphic Design: 10yrs+ professionally, 9yrs freelancing (19+years in total)
- Academic: 5yrs+
- Studied:
- Bachelor of Graphic Design (unfinished)
- Bachelor of Liberal Arts (Concentration in Humanities)
- PhD in Philosophy and Education
In Summary:
- For WORK, Gonazalo is PhD in Liberal Arts (Philosophy of Education) and is currently an Instructional Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies at one of the premier Universities in the United States. You’ll find that Gonzalo is a very thoughtful man, and we get all philosophical, as we delve into:
- The humanistic side of academic development.
- What actually is a doctorate?
- What a typical day of a university lecturer / professor is like.
- The theory behind education systems in general – across demographics, and across countries.
- We talk about the philosophy of education for global citizenship – how cool does that sound? Listen-on to find out what that’s all about!
- And more!
And so into the world of Philosophy and Education we shall delve….onto episode 12 ~
Podcast Content and Show Notes:
Please note that I have no affiliation with any products or companies which are referenced in the show notes / hyperlinks. They have been provided for reference purposes.
Also, timestamps may differ slightly by a few seconds.
| 00:02:44 | Gonzalo is visiting from Chicago, USA |
| 00:03:05 | How Gonzalo and I met |
| Met on the same day I met Justin (add link to Justin’s podcast) | |
| 00:05:05 | What’s that accent of Gonzalo’s? |
| Argentina! | |
| Love the Korean food! | |
| Live squid, sashimi | |
| Korean vegetables | |
| Vegan temple food restaurant | |
| The restaurant they went to was: Balwoo Gongyang | |
| (also included in the Michelin Guide in Seoul) | |
| Burger at Justin’s Place | |
| Justin recently opened a bar/restaurant called: California Kitchen | |
| 00:09:31 | If you could tell us what your job title is, and what you do? |
| Instructional Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies | |
| Most of his students are either getting a Masters or a Doctorate in Education | |
| (an unrelated aside just out of personal interest – Doctorate vs PhD: link 1, link 2) | |
| Most are experienced full time teachers who wish to become curriculum specialists | |
| Instructional Assistant Professor | |
| Involves teaching, lecturing, researching | |
| Will normally teach 2 courses over 10 weeks (each quarter). Examples of the names of classes he teaches: | |
| Curriculum and Program Evaluation (Masters level class) | |
| Curriculum for Human and Community Development | |
| What is a good human life? What does it mean to grow as a person? | |
| What does it mean to cultivate a good community? | |
| What type of education/curriculum will promote this type of thing? | |
| 00:16:06 | Are these curriculums for what type of students? Elementary/Middle/High School, University, etc? |
| Gonzalo’s specialty is the theory behind all of this. | |
| Gonzalo’s students each have their own focus area, who take these theories and apply it in their respective fields (could be an elementary school teacher, could be a University Lecturer, etc) | |
| 00:18:29 | Do you address just the Humanistic side, or do you also look at the aspect of optimising academic achievement? |
| Gonzalo focuses on the Humanistic side more | |
| There is already plenty of focus on developing Human Capital. | |
| e.g.: ability to code in Python (Software Development) | |
| There is something dangerous with how we over-emphasise this aspect of education (acquiring particular skills, getting well-paying jobs, etc) | |
| This gets confused with what is the purpose of life. | |
| There is still a lot of unhappiness despite economic success | |
| Education can potentially help with avoiding these pains and help people live good lives. | |
| 00:23:06 | Are you starting to see education systems starting to adopt these types of things, or are these things still very idealistic “nice to haves?” |
| There is a lot of inequality in society in the US | |
| The same goes in the education system in the US | |
| Private schools are adopting more holistic education programs, but the poorer schools are not. | |
| 00:26:26 | Why do you think this is the case? |
| Lack of trust in the kids | |
| Perception that students in poorer areas are not performing as well in standardised tests. | |
| Hence feel they need to narrow the focus on academic performance | |
| 00:33:46 | Some teachers can make certain styles work while others can’t (stricts vs relaxed) |
| 00:34:41 | Education system in Korea and Japan is very strict and competitive. |
| Excessive pressure on students compared to Australia | |
| High level of competition of jobs for university graduates | |
| Education should emphasise what it means to have a good life in general. | |
| Things like Automation and Globalisation of the economy could make the labour market even worse 20yrs from now. | |
| 00:41:01 | High stakes of standardized tests. |
| Driven by fear, don’t want to take risks. | |
| 00:43:31 | What’s a doctorate? |
| Doctorate in Medicine – MD | |
| Doctorate in Philosophy – PhD (can actually be a doctorate in any subject, just has Philosophy in the name) | |
| Doctorate in Education – EDD | |
| These typically involve: | |
| At least 4yrs worth of classes | |
| Exams | |
| Writing a Dissertation: original research | |
| 00:45:01 | What do you mean when you say you’re doing research? (what are you actually doing?) |
| Terms mentioned | |
| Whitepapers | |
| Gonzalo is doing 2 research projects: | |
| The philosophy of education for global citizenship | |
| For example: | |
| What is a global citizen? | |
| What should the focus of education be in the context of global citizenship? | |
| Typically you gain an education to become a good citizen of that country (learn the language, history, etc.) | |
| It’s about trying to tweak that with a global view. | |
| Note: Gona | |
| There are feedback mechanisms in society if on is not considered to be living as a good citizen of that country (adults complain, you get reprimanded, etc.) | |
| However, we don’t really know what a global citizen is supposed to look like. | |
| 00:49:01 | 2 reasons why global citizenship is important: |
| We need to cooperate across our differences/borders to solve the worlds problems (global poverty, nuclear war, degradation of borders). | |
| Increasingly we need to deal with people with different backgrounds/nationalities. | |
| Some deal with it by embracing the other culture, and others by not embracing. | |
| 00:53:41 | Gonzalo has seen people who he believes embody what it means to be global citizens. |
| Daisaku Ikeda | |
| Founder of SOKA | |
| Getting too caught up in trying to attain something, and forgetting the reality of what you already have. | |
| Values are things which have been created by us, and we can create new values together. | |
| That capacity for creating value, is the central skill for being a global citizen. | |
| Local vs Universal Values | |
| Moral Values of what it means to be a good person is an example of “thin values”. | |
| Thick values: collective to particular cultural practices | |
| Example: | |
| Being polite is specific to each culture. | |
| Friendship: some things are universal and some are very particular. | |
| Argentina: same gender male friendship – involves actual expressions of care – say “I love you man”, hug, playful teasing, etc. This is all part of being friends, and if you don’t do that, there is a type of distance. | |
| Japan: seems to be more about expressions of respect. | |
| People from Argentina and Japan can combine to create new values about friendship (a fusion of the two cultures). | |
| You have your culture, I have my culture. We will transcend above this to something more universal. | |
| 01:06:34 | JigooChon (지구촌) – Global Village – we’re a single close-knit ommunity on planet earth. |
| 01:06:56 | The above is just one of 2 areas you are researching. What’s the other area about? |
| Theories of expertise: In people who are really good at something…. What’s going in, in a person’s mind in moments of peak performance? What is their thinking process? | |
| 2 sides of the debate about this: | |
| One side of the argument: there’s no thinking going on. It’s an embodied habit. | |
| Other side of the argument: no they’re hyper-aware, they know exactly what’s going on. | |
| State of Flow | |
| You don’t need to be an expert to be in a state of flow. | |
| Research will be in the context of expert teachers – will involve observation and interviews. | |
| Hypothesis is that it is more embodied habit. Not thinking about it in the moment, like a habit, but it’s not completely mindless. Instead there is some type of reflection going on… similar to feeling compassion… like trying to connect with students, paying attention to body language.. | |
| … but if it’s a type of reflection that interferes with their habits this type of thing will generally happen before or after the moments of peak performance. | |
| … if this type of reflection happens during the moment of performance, this will generally indicate they are not at their best. | |
| 01:12:29 | What’s actually involved in the research for the first area, about global citizenship? |
| The time-consuming tasks involved in writing and publishing a research paper. | |
| Peer review process | |
| 01:18:13 | Have you seen similar/different job titles for the same/similar thing that you do? (Instructional Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies) |
| At the end of the day they’re all professors = research + teaching. | |
| In the US, all the other words are about rank. | |
| Just “professor” means you’re at the top (then, in descending order:) | |
| Associate Professor | |
| Assistant Professor | |
| Instructional Assistant Professor / Lecturer | |
| And there are probably more below. | |
| It may be a little different in the British system |