Can American Social Science Majors Acquire an International Perspective?

Abstract

Concern is growing over the lack of sensitivity that American social sciences students display toward the rest of the world (Brademas 1983; Tiryakyan 1986; Shenon 1989; Hechinger 1989). In economic terms, this insensitivity is seen as preventing free trade; in political terms, as hampering effective diplomacy. In scientific terms, it prevents a proper use of comparative methods. Since the curriculum represents an ideological superstructure, innovations will alter students' world views only if they have been preceded by changes in the organization of academic institutions and disciplines. The effectiveness of curricular innovations requires a tightening of the links among disciplines and universities. Further, the effectiveness of these innovations depends also on a dialectic resolution of the tensions between the purity of disciplines and their relevance to the abilities and aspirations of students. Because students initate the beliefs and behaviors of their familial, academic, and disciplinary environments, these three environments combined should determine the range of the reforms proposed (Bourdieu et Passeron 1964, 1970).'