World Society perspective in Schools?

“The international system of peoples and states is characterized by such extensive interdependencies and the historical crisscrossing of fates and fortunes that the scope of special as well as generalized moral obligations to our fellow human beings far transcends the perspective of the territorially bounded state-centric system… I shall defend the perspective of a world society as the correct vantage point from which to reason about obligations across borders.”
(Seyla Benhabib ‘The Rights of Others; Aliens, residents and citizens.’)

Benhabib takes an important stand in political theory in the modern age, in which notions of state and citizenship are undergoing transformation and disaggregation. In an era when unprecedented numbers of people are moving, or being displaced the needs of migrants and the murky waters of Nationalism are issues of paramount importance.

Refugee camps and transit centers provide important insight into ‘The rights of others,’ the dismal reality of life with an obscured sense of citizenry. What is our moral obligation to education? As I have made mention, the camps that I encountered in western Tanzania have operated National education programs; Congolese curriculum and exams in the Congolese camp, and Burundian curriculum (when education was still active in the Burundian camp) respectively. This is supposed to give the country’s nationals a sense of belonging, and an institutionalized recognition upon their pending return. So, although the community initiates much of the education informally, the systems eventually put in place are national, operated from inside the borders of the countries they left.

Here is a perfect example of how far we have to go before transcending state-centrism; Schools still operate as an instrument for nationalist ideals, while humans themselves exist far outside straightforward ideas of territory and selfhood. When will schools begin to demonstrate the scope of human experience? When will notions of selfhood and the community be integrated into curriculum? As people continue to move and are increasingly displaced we will be asked to face these questions.

It is also important to recognize that countries of conflict or civil war may not have a reliable education system, or more often, schools are used as training grounds for the next soldiers, or compatriots of insurgent forces. Therefore, we must ask ourselves, what is the appropriate curriculum for pupils who exist outside the Nation?
I am an advocate of the development of Place-based education. As always, the reoccurring issue of evaluation, and popularity of the National exam prevents this from being easily established.