The University of Montana
Department of Mathematical Sciences

Technical report #2/2008

Response to Multicultural visions of Globalization

Bharath Sriraman
Dept. of Mathematical Sciences
The University of Montana

Harry Adrian
Ottawa, Illinois

Abstract

The paper by White in this issue of Interchange contains an interesting model for a global educational perspective based on the writings of Aurobindo and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. White proposes a foundation for this new perspective based on the synthesis of Aurobindo’s and de Chardin’s theories of global, social, and conscious evolution. In our response we critique the author’s proposal from the perspective of the current challenges to social justice within the educational community. In particular the writings of Charles Darwin, Paolo Freire, Karl Marx, and Vivekananda (Aurobindo’s peer) are examined to present evolutionary and philosophical viewpoints on the origins and causes of inequity. We contend that no global multicultural perspective on education is possible unless we first address the fundamental inequities present within the socio-economic and educational structures that characterize the world today. Thus any attempt to introduce a “global educational agenda” within an educational institutional structure is bound to be problematic.

Keywords: Darwin; Education theories; Equity; Freire; Globalization; Karl Marx; Social Justice; Vivekananda

AMS Subject Classification: 97

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Pre-print of paper accepted in Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, vol. 39, no.1, pp. xx-xx