US Higher Ed partnerships with India

http://chronicle.com/article/Despite-Hurdles-India-Is-Ripe/126491/

It's gratifying to see this topic featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education. On Monday night, I attended the Kennesaw State University reception to celebrate their partnership with the India, China & America Institute. This university has made a successful partnership between their Coles College of Business and Business School. I'd like to see more than just business, engineering and technology partnerships. The US has much to learn from India in its history of education and vice versa.

Congratulations to my mentor, Dr. Jagdish Sheth

Dr. Jagdish Sheth to be conferred Global Management Guru Award by BIMTECH

I first heard of the great Dr. Jagdish Sheth in the Spring of 2007 when he sponsored Salman Rushdie's lecture at Emory. While listening to his introduction and amazing accomplishments, including his founding of the India, China and America (ICA) Institute, I thought, I gotta meet this guy!

And I did, within just a few weeks, in attending the ICA Institute's Education for Innovation in India, China and America conference. After this conference, I suggested we start an online community to continue the momentum, and the visionary Dr. Sheth didn't want to stop there. He sponsored my application to the board of the ICA Institute for a Research Fellowship, and I was privileged to share the office next to his for the next two years and spearhead the significant growth of the ICA Institute's virtual presence. Dr. Sheth introduced me to alternative perspectives on emerging economies and academia and has continued to challenge me in new directions for projects and research. Congratulations to my mentor on his most recent accolades!

Dr. Jagdish Sheth to be conferred Global Management Guru Award by Birla Institute of Management Technology

Vol. 2 JEKEM Publication Notice

The Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets has just published
its latest issue at
http://www.icainstitute.org/ojs/index.php/working_papers.

Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets
Vol 2 (2010): Journal of Emerging Knowledge in Emerging Markets Second
Edition
Table of Contents
http://www.icainstitute.org/ojs/index.php/working_papers/issue/view/3

Articles
--------
Foreword
Jagdish Sheth

Editor-in-Chief's Note
Ashok Roy

How Emerging Market Firms Compete in Global Markets
Rajaram Veliyath, Lance Brouthers

International Trade as an Engine of Economic growth Revisited: A case of
Egypt
Galen Smith, Kishore G. Kulkarni

The Nano Controversy: Peasant Identities, the Land Question and Neoliberal
Industrialization in Marxist West Bengal, India
Sarasij Majumder

Fractals: A More Dynamic & Multidimensional Approach to Business Analytics
Priya Roy

Understanding Brazil’s Oil Industry: Policy Dynamics and Self-Sufficiency
Erjia Guan

Turkey: Another $1 Trillion Emerging Economy?
Murat Doral

Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta: The Emergence of a Super Zone
Carola B Ramon-Berjano

India’s Emerging Technology Commercialization Policy: Lessons From The
American Model
Roop Singh, Sonali Tare

Flying Towards the Successful Skies:The Emerging Region Multinationals
Roli Nigam, Zhan Su

Economics and Psychology: Exciting Interface in the Emerging Market Milieu
Sudhanva Char, Cherry A. Collier


________________________________________________________________________
Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets
http://www.icainstitute.org/ojs

Kennesaw State expanding to India

Kennesaw State expanding to India
The Marietta Daily Journal - News, Sports, Classifieds, Businesses in Marietta, GA

by Jon Gillooly
jgillooly@mdjonline.com


KENNESAW - A half dozen Kennesaw State University professors will be packing for a trip to Mumbai, India, this fall to launch one of that country's first executive M.B.A. programs offered in collaboration with an American university.

"Hopefully this will be one cog in the effort to expand Georgia's presence in India and India's presence in Georgia. It's all part of an effort to provide global opportunities for students," KSU President Dr. Dan Papp said.

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra and is the largest city in India. Formerly known as Bombay, Fodor's travel guidebook describes Mumbai as India's seaside financial capital with a population approaching 20 million.

Under the agreement, KSU's Coles College of Business will help Mumbai Business School launch its first executive M.B.A. program and teach the curriculum. Graduates of Mumbai Business School's Post-Graduate Program for Working Executives will receive certificates from Coles College.

The partnership will also provide funding for research, travel and development opportunities for Coles College faculty, and will open the door for the college to help train U.S. executives whose companies want to do business in India, said Dr. Ken Harmon, Coles College dean.

The executive MBA degree will take an estimated 18 months to complete. KSU professors will teach a third of the program to a group of 35 to 40 students in Mumbai at a time.

"They're going to wind up having a tremendous set of experiences developing a tremendous set of new perspectives in how the world works, in this case in India, and they will bring those perspectives back to Atlanta and Ke nnesaw State. It will also provide an opportunity for kids at KSU to go to India because now we have KSU in India," Papp said.

U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-east Cobb) is a member of the Senate India Caucus, which works with Indian government officials, Indian Americans and other friends of India in the U.S. to promote the relationship between both countries.

"As the world's oldest democracy, I believe it is critical for the United States to strengthen our relationship with India, the world's largest democracy," Isakson said.

"A strong relationship between the United States and India will enable collaboration across a broad range of issues. The partnership between Kennesaw State University and Mumbai Business School is a great example of furthering cooperation and economic opportunities between our two great nations," Isakson said.

Spearheading the program for KSU is Dr. Govind Hariharan, chair of the Department of Economics, Fina nce & Quantitative Analysis at Coles College.

Himself a native of India, Hariharan said there is a hunger among Indians to be educated in the U.S. business education model since the U.S. is still the world's leading economic power.

Harmon said the cost of the program to KSU is zero.

"These students will be paying Mumbai Business School and we will reach an agreement with Mumbai Business School where they cover the cost, and there should be a residual that comes back to the Coles College," Harmon said, noting it's premature to say what that number is right now.

Harmon spoke of the importance of India as a rising business center in the world.

"Any relevant business school has to be connected to India frankly just because of its importance and dominance in the world economy," Harmon said.

"It's the second largest English speaking population in the world. Its government structure is more similar to ours. And if you look at the demographics and you look at the economic shift, China and India are quickly becoming the primary powers economically in the world, and so to do business you have to be aware of those locations, how to do business there, how to connect with them culturally, etc.," he said.

Hariharan said the U.S. economy has traditionally depended upon domestic consumer spending as the key driver, making up by many estimates 70 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

"Much of it was financed through borrowing and has resulted in debt ridden consumers. As a result, in order to get businesses to invest, expand and employ more people, exports are the key. The future export markets are in countries such as India with young populations and high growth rates in middle class and economy. After all, India's middle class is larger than the entire U.S. population," Hariharan said.

A few months back, when noted economist Dr. Albert Niemi Jr. delive red his annual forecast lecture for Bank of North Georgia friends, Niemi said in the next 20 years, the global market place will be driven by China, and at the end of that 20-year period, by India.

"The successful American companies are going to be those that can tap the markets in China and India. So that's going to be the place to be," Niemi said.

Harmon sees the KSU partnership as directly helping the Peach State.

"It raises the profile of Georgia in the world," he said. "This will actually bring business into Georgia. We will understand the world better. We would actually like to help people go do more business in India and help India get connected back here to Georgia as well. Understand, when we're over there branding the Coles College and Kennesaw State the idea of Georgia is being branded as well, and so we make those connections, and so my point is this is a great way to help Georgia, and I think it puts us at the forefront of the international community."

Harmon said India is a country that puts an emphasis on relationships, which is why the KSU professors need to be in India rather than communicating with students by video streaming.

"You don't just go in and say 'let's do a contract.' You go in and make connections to people, and these are very centered, very deep people as a culture," he said. "They want to connect. It's a human-to-human type of thing. Business builds on relationships. Relationships don't follow business."

KSU's Coles College of Business, which has about 4,000 undergraduates and 1,000 graduate students, is the second largest business school in Georgia behind Georgia State, he said.


Thanks for reading!

TechCrunch: Why America Needs To Start Educating Its Workforce Again

Excerpt from : Why America Needs To Start Educating Its Workforce Again

by Vivek Wadhwa

My team made several trips to India during 2007 and 2008 and met the executives of dozens of leading companies to solve this puzzle. We also interviewed workers in R&D labs and reviewed the types of work they were doing. We were astonished at what we learned. I’ll explain.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Japanese achieved major advances in manufacturing management, which led to their rise as an economic power. The Japanese economic miracle and the country’s new manufacturing skills and methods surprised western firms; but the Japanese had done this by studying, adopting, and eventually perfecting the best practices of the West itself.

My research team (at Harvard and Duke) found that India is achieving similar feats in workforce development by learning from the best practices of the western companies that have outsourced their computer systems and call centers there. It has adopted these practices and perfected them. Faced with severe talent shortages; escalating salaries; and a lagging education system, Indian industry had to adapt and has built innovative and comprehensive approaches to workforce training and management. Their initial focus was on training new recruits and filling entry-level skill gaps. Now, they are investing in constantly improving the skills and management abilities of their workers and in providing incentives for them to stay and to grow with the company.

Read more...

JEKEM Call for Papers

Call for Papers: Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets (JEKEM)

Announcing preparations for the second issue of the India, China & America Institute's new Working Papers Journal, Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets (JEKEM) to be published in May 2010. This journal provides a forum for the exchange of ideas and shared learning experiences among policy makers, scholars and practitioners on the global economic impact of India, China and America.

View the first issue here:
www.icainstitute.org/ojs/index.php/working_papers/issue/current

You are invited to submit your scholarly works in progress related to the rise of emerging economies, in particular China and India, and their impact on global markets, global resources and geopolitics of the world. The following topics are of particular interest:

Agriculture and Food Sciences
Corporate Social Responsibility
Education
Emerging Markets
Energy
Environment & Conservation
Global Compliance and Global Transactions
Healthcare and Life Sciences
Information and Communication Technology
Innovation
Logistics & Transportation
Manufacturing
Media and Entertainment
Policy Analysis
Retail
Security
Strategic Sourcing
Trade & Finance

Focus and Scope
The India, China & America Institute's Working Papers Journal, Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets (JEKEM), seeks to facilitate the exchange of ideas and shared learning experiences among policy makers, business executives and thought leaders on issues related to the rise of emerging economies, in particular China and India, and their impact on global markets, global resources and geopolitics of the world. The ICA Institute offers this journal in order to provide an open access forum to identify and drive synergies among India, China and America in the areas of emerging markets, commercial growth and alignment of policies for the benefit of a vast number of people.

For our purposes, Working Papers are defined as any pre-publication version of academic articles, book chapters, hypothesis, or reviews. The Working Papers posted on this site are deemed to be in-progress, or under submission, or even in press. The author(s) offer these Working Papers primarily in the interests of scholarship, and it is understood that they may not be refereed. We welcome submissions of Working Papers from anyone. These Working Papers may be downloaded and also cited without prior permission from the author, however, are, of course, subject to the fair use of professional scholarship. Any comments on the Working papers and/or questions should be sent directly to the author(s).

Please visit the Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Marketsfor more information about submissions: http://www.icainstitute.org/ojs/index.php/working_papers/about/submissions

Peer Review Process
Since the Journal of Emerging Knowledge on Emerging Markets seeks to promote discussion on research in progress, reviews are not as rigorous as refereed or peer-reviewed journal reviews. Submissions are blind-reviewed by members of the Editorial Review Board for the purpose of eliminating biased, illogical, irrelevant or unsubstantiated submissions.
Deadline for submissions to the second issue: March 15th, 2010

Please direct all inquiries to Roxanne Russell, Managing Editor, roxanne@icainstitute.org

U.S. students prefer India as key study destination

U.S. students prefer India as key study destination

siliconindia news bureau

Bangalore: just like U.S. is the top study destination for Indian students, India too is a preferred destination for U.S. students. A new survey has found out that India is one of the five nations preferred by the U.S. students as a key educational destination. China, Japan, South Africa and Argentina are among the other preferable educational destinations for U.S. students.

According to the Open Doors 2009 survey conducted by the Institute of International Education, the number of Americans studying abroad increased by 8.5 percent to 262,416 in the 2007-08 academic year. The survey shows that the number of students to nearly all of the top 25 destinations increased, notably to destinations less traditional for study abroad: China, Ireland, Austria and India (up about 20 percent each), as well as Costa Rica, Japan, Argentina and South Africa (up nearly 15 percent each).

At the same time, the number of international students at colleges and universities in the U.S. increased by eight percent to an all-time high of 671,616 in the 2008-09 academic year while the number of 'new' international students - those enrolled for the first time at a U.S. college or university in fall 2008 - increased by 16 percent.

Read more...

OGoBiblios 74

In Ecological Thinking: The Politics of Epistemic Location, Code (2006) frames her philosophy of “ecological thinking” in reverent analysis of Rachel Carson’s methods in works like Silent Spring. She calls Carson a “practitioner of a practical ecology reliant on ‘empirical generalizations’,” yet also dependent on “narrow and precise local hypotheses.” She characterizes this method as “living the tension… working back and forth between an instituted, rhetorically monitored scientific orthodoxy and an attentive respect for particularity that is subversive of many of the fundamental assumptions of scientific orthodoxy.” She then builds an argument around such negotiations of empiricism. Code seeks to articulate an epistemology and accompanying methods/methodologies “capable of generating and adjudicating knowledge both about the factuality of the physical/material world and about a social order whose epistemic assumptions are complicit in sustaining its own positive and negative enactments” (p.97). Finally, she proposes an epistemology that assumes “statements of fact indeed acquire or fail to achieve factual status situationally according to the patterns of authority and expertise constitutive of the institution(s) of knowledge production in whose discursive spaces they circulate and within whose praxes they are constituted and embedded” (p. 99).

OGoBiblios 73

Mouly, V.S. & Sankaran, J. K. (1995). Organizational Ethnography: An illustrative application in the study of Indian R&D settings. New Delhi: Sage Publications.

Mouly & Sankaran (1995) provide an organizational ethnography of two research and development (R&D) environments in India: public sector and private sector. Though the stated goal of the research is comparison of the R&D settings towards their end of proving the hypothesis that public sector R&D is inefficent, they focus much more attention on the qualitative method than the findings. For example, they title their book, Organizational Ethnography: An illustrative application in the study of R&D settings and give disproportionate attention to generic discussion of ethnography and ethnographic methods. They use ethnographic paradigms from cultural anthropology to set up their data analysis, discussing Gregory’s (1983) three dimensions of contrast in cultural paradigms for organizational studies: holistic-particulate, explanatory-interpretive, and native view-external view. They do not ever specifically state where they intend their approach to fall in these dimensions proposed by Gregory. They do set up a list of domains for inquiry in their data analysis, focusing on themes emerging from the data. Their findings confirm their hypothesis that public sector R&D is inefficient and they provide a model of the ineffectiveness of public sector R&D teams.

Mouly and Sankaran’s (1995) study provides a useful look at the application of the qualitative paradigm to organizational research in both exemplary and cautionary ways. First, it will be an important part of my research and the formation of theoretical frameworks and plans for data analysis to take an interdisciplinary approach, pulling from literature in organizational development and several other business-related fields. Secondly, Mouly and Sankaran’s (1995) disproportionate attention to the ethnographic methodology may reflect a defensive stance because of a history of placing more value on quantitative methods in this field. This same historical bias towards quantitative methods exists in instructional design. Finally, I felt frustrated as a reader when Mouly and Sankaran did not clearly connect the dots between their research design and a theoretical framework; this oversight highlighted for me the importance of clearly laying out my approach.

OGoBiblios 72

Edmundson, A. (2007). The Cultural Adaptation Process (CAP) Model: Designing e-learning for another culture. In A. Edmundson (Ed.) Globalizing e-learning cultural challenges(pp. 2-17). Hershey, PA: Information Science

Edmundson (2007) offers a case study to test her proposed cultural adaptation process (CAP) model to evaluate e-learning courses and to include cultural profiles in learner analysis. She relies on an eclectic theoretical framework, pulling from instructional design and industrial anthropology. The “foundational framework” of course evaluation in Edmundson’s (2007) CAP model is based on Marinetti & Dunn’s (2002) guidelines for adapting courses for different cultures. Edmundson also modifies Henderson’s (1996) multiple cultural model for instructional design from fourteen dimensions represented in a continuum to nine and calls her modification the simplified multiple cultural model (SMCM): pedagagogical paradigm (instructivist/objectivist—constructivist/cognitive); experiential value (abstract—concrete); teacher role (didactic—facilitative); value of errors (errorless learning—learning from experience); motivation (extrinsic—intrinsic); accommodation of individual differences (non-existent—multifaceted); learner control (non-existent-unrestricted); user activity (mathemagenic—generative) and cooperative learning (unsupported—integral). To include learner analysis based on cultural characteristics in the CAP model framework, she pulls from three industrial anthropology models of oppositional cultural dimensions: Hofstede’s (1984, 1997) five cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation); Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner’s (1998) seven cultural dimensions (universalism v particularism, individualism v communitarianism, specific v diffuse cultures, affective v neutral cultures, achievement v ascription, sequential v synchronic cultures and internal v external control); and Hall’s (1981) concept of monochronic v polychronic cultures. She then applies this model in a cross-border context between the US and India and uses case study research design to evaluate a course developed by a US corporate training company for Indian learners. Edmundson’s data analysis is limited to description and evaluation of the process for course development and learner analysis, revealing that the current CAP model may not provide optimal guidance for the “flow of analytical activities.”

Edmundson’s study reflects one of the challenges in conducting research with a cultural focus in instructional design: finding a theoretical framework for analysis of results that does not rely on structured, oppositional continuums. The neatness of these continuums makes them highly attractive and easy to apply. For example, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions have been applied ad nauseam and rarely reveal more in the findings than the presence of these differences in a learning environment or the predictable implications of how they function (Paulus et al., 2005; Dunn & Marinetti, 2007). Another challenge reflected in Edmundson’s study is that culture focused research is still emergent in instructional design (Richey, 2009), so proposed models are often either untested or tested only by their creators and tend to be prescriptive rather than descriptive.

Indian IT firms to be Harvard case study

Indian IT firms to be Harvard case study
SiliconIndia

David A Garvin, the C Roland Christensen Professor of business administration at the B-school, is at present on a India mission, building up case studies along with his research associates, on these two midsize companies. They are conducting extensive interviews with top 25 senior executives of Indian firms to understand the distinctive qualities of the Indian business environment, organizations and leadership.

The case study he is focusing on will include work place practices like innovations in terms of knowledge management at MindTree and innovative human resource practices and vision community at Zensar. "The distinctive aspect of these companies is their management practices. MindTree has a distinctive culture, because they have a very strong value system, like sharing and they believe in collaborations," said Garvin who first visited India in 1969. "Zensar has got a vision community, where a cross section of the organization is empowered to develop proposals on major policies and issues of the company. You don't see this form of empowerment very often."

Read more...

Indian civil servants at U.S. to get global perspective

Indian civil servants at U.S. to get global perspective
SiliconIndia

A group of 18 civil servants from India have joined a U.S. school to get a broader, international perspective on public policy matters by learning how these issues are addressed in America.

The seven week intensive programme at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University on "Issues in Public Policy: an International Perspective" forms part of their Post Graduate Programme in Public Management (PGPPM).

Read more...

OGoBiblios 71

Edmonds, G. S., Branch, R. C. & Mukherjee, P. (1994). A Conceptual Framework for Comparing Instructional Design Models. Educational Technology Research and Development, 42(4), 55-72.

Edmonds, Branch & Mukherjee propose a conceptual framework for comparing instructional design models that consists of the following categories and subcategories: orientation- prescriptive, descriptive and elements of both; knowledge structure- procedural, declarative and elements of both; expertise level- expert, intermediate, novice and suitable for all; structure- system, soft-system, intuitive and aspects of each; context- K-12, higher education, business and government; and level- unit, module, lesson, course, institutional and mass.

OGoBiblios 70

Wild, M. & Henderson, L. (1997). Contextualising learning in the World Wide Web: accounting for the impact of culture. Education and Information Technologies 2, 179-192.

Wild & Henderson (1997) propose a model for “investigating and developing culturally appropriate instructional materials” (p.181) and consider it a framework for conducting research in this area. Pulling from Henderson’s (1996) work, they argue that culture is significant in instructional design because “distinctive and significant symbolic meanings and values develop around information, its use and structuring in any cultural group… when the act of instructional design translates this information into products or artifacts of learning that artifact embodies cultural influences, such as the instructional designer’s world view, the designer’s values, ideologies, culture, class and gender, and, the designer’s commitment to a particular design paradigm” (p.184).

OGoBiblios 69

Branch, R.M. & Deissler, C.H. (2008). In Januszewski, A., & Molenda, M. (Eds.), Educational technology: A definition with commentary. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Branch & Deissler (2008) provide a discussion on technological processes in the context of educational technology, “extend[ing] the work of Seels and Richey (1994)” (p. 195). They define technological processes as “a series of meaningful activities constructed upon organizing themes” (p.196) They emphasize a systematic view of processes as part of their theoretical framework and the application of principles or theories as the practical framework. ADDIE is emphasized as a development process and ASSURE is featured as a media utilization model. In conclusion, they emphasize: “Useful processes need to be capable of responding to the emerging trends in instructional technology” (p.210).

OGoBiblios 68

Gustafson, K.L. & Branch, R.M. (1997). Revisioning models of instructional development. Educational Technology Research & Development, 45(3), 73-89.


Gustafson & Branch review the history of instructional development models, starting with Silvern’s (1965) application of systems theory to instructional design. They focus their review of models on those that include the steps of analysis, design, production, evaluation and revision, and acknowledge that some authors would include implementation. They find that these models have been researched, applied and modified in different contexts for different audiences: college courses, large-scale curriculum planning, military training, individual classrooms with teachers as designers, and self-based lessons/commercial products. They also suggest that models serve the role of conceptual and communication tools. Positing a taxonomy of instructional design models, they categorize models for purpose into classroom, products and systems models and then offer a set of characteristics by which to compare them: typical output, resources committed to development, team or individual effort, instructional design skill or experience, emphasis on development or selection, amount of front-end analysis/needs assessment, technological complexity of delivery media, amount of tryout and revision and amount of distribution/dissemination. Finally, they acknowledge recent developments in instructional development models such as rapid prototyping and use of expert systems, but conclude that these models do not depart from earlier models if one views the process as iterative and recursive rather than linear and progressive: “While we have no quarrel with those who are exploring alternative ways of developing learning environments, we believe many claims for uniqueness are overstated” (p.86).

OGoBiblios 67

Ezer, J. (2006). Gandhi's third assassination: Information and communications technology education in India. Information Technology for Development (12)3, 201-212.

Summary

In “Gandhi's third assassination: Information and communications technology education in India,” Ezer (2006) interviews faculty and students in India to get an impression of the attitudes towards ICT and ICT education in India. He concludes that students and faculty show optimism about ICT and seem to have whole heartedly adopted the Western model of individualistic, rational and imperialistic success. He uses his conclusion to claim that this model does not follow Ghandian philosophy. Ezer’s findings indicate that although faculty members and students in India see ICT as a means for overcoming the myriad of development challenges in India, this aspect of ICT seems to be overshadowed by their focus on ICT as the pathway to success for Indian individuals and to global economic power for India.

Relevance to Cultural Studies in Instructional Technology

Ezer’s focus relies heavily on the cultural context of ICT and ICT education in India. He lays the groundwork for his findings about attitudes towards ICT and ICT education by discussing the authority dependent roots of the educational system in India. Ezer explores what Indian faculty and students believe to be the purpose of ICT. In particular, he poses the question of whether ICT and ICT education should work towards the benefit of individuals or society. His findings provide some empirical evidence to refute commonly held assumptions about Indian collectivist tendencies.

Reflection

This article has been particularly helpful to me in providing an empirical study on the attitudes of the Indian academic community towards ICT and the future of India in general. I have observed for myself that there seems to be an almost giddy love for IT in the people I know in and from India. I expected to find more skepticism as I began to research about the topic in academia, but, as Ezer’s findings suggest, skepticism towards ICT is not as prevalent in the Indian academic community as in other parts of the world. In my research, I find Marxist type critiques and other skeptics coming mostly from writers outside of India, though many are Non-resident Indians. As I reflect back on my last article review, ending with a hurrah for embracing ICT, I am glad to be reminded to keep healthy skepticism alive.

What I was most pleased to find in this article, however, was some confirmation of my own suspicions that the old model of Indians as collectivist needs to be modified and modernized. In my own experience with my in-law Indian cousins and peers, I find a great push towards individualism and independence in my generation. As this shift is an important characteristic to consider in the dynamics of workforce development in India, I have been looking for empirical studies to back up my own hunches. Ezer does a thorough job of providing examples that show college students and recent college graduates in India are not displaying collectivist ideology. They choose highly successful IT entrepreneurs as their heroes and model their life plans towards this type of success.

Another important finding in this article to me is that of the “reverence for rational thought and management metrics.” I am particularly interested in this need for clear data in India, and its impact on instructional design and development towards innovation. Innovation is the primary drive for workforce development in India, yet innovation is notoriously difficult to measure.

OGoBiblios 66

Petrina, S. (1998). Multidisciplinary Technology Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 8, 103-138.

Petrina, S. (2004). The politics of curriculum and instructional design/theory/form: Critical problems, projects, units and modules. Interchange 35(1), 81-126.

Though I don’t agree fully with the multidisciplinary technology education curriculum Petrina (1998) lays out, I do feel the same intense desire to fundamentally change the curricular structure of our educational system. However, in a defeatist mindset, as I read the article I thought only of how he was pipe-dreaming because it would be impossible to make sure large scale changes. It’s truly impressive to see such a large scale initiative moving forward.

I will focus on the major reservations I had about Petrina’s (1998) multidisciplinary technology education curriculum as it started to dissolve into his own view of the world. This was surprising to me as I had also read Petrina (2004) and knew him to hold suspect those who wish to force singular worldviews on others. Though I appreciate and actually agree with Petrina’s final vision of personal responsibility, I think his approach is a better model for a class on being a “simple,” “frugal,” “modest,” “socially-active” “Marxist” than as an underlying curriculum for all multidisciplinary technology education. I have had to reconcile my leftist leaning self with the reality that those who see the world as an essentially competitive environment are not necessarily wrong, nor are they non-reflective thinkers. What if training an entire generation of children to be nurturers only left them completely vulnerable to those who act with force? Does it seem feasible that the competition, greed and violence tied to some survival instincts can be trained away with the right curriculum?

Petrina’s (1998) article reminded me of my days as a 20 year old Freshman Composition teacher at Auburn University: new to the exhilarating feelings of liberation that come from a paradigm shift, like a feminist evangelist, I filled my English 101 curriculum with lessons designed to have students encounter the other, question assumptions, and, eventually, reveal the gender inequities of the current system. Later, I questioned my right to bring my personal political point of view into the classroom. As an instructional designer, Petrina (2004) seems to think I might skip straight to the process and delivery of the course and ignore the political implications of curriculum and content. In his own outline for process and delivery, Petrina (1998) clearly leans toward not only considering political implications but forcefully pushing a particular agenda.

I very much appreciated the education in curriculum theory history Petrina (2004) provided and believe the type of critical thinking and engaged learning that Petrina (1998) proposes in his curriculum is a great start towards an improved educational system. I would just like to see that model opened up to value individual differences and the complexity of human nature.

OGoBiblios 65

Kho, E.C. (2001). An evaluation study of the effectiveness of a U.S.-based global leadershipdevelopment program. Dissertation Abstracts International 62 (03), 1120. (UMI No. 3009228)

Summary

Kho’s (2001) dissertation, “An evaluation study of the effectiveness of a U.S.-based global leadership development program,” offers a case study in corporate management training for the needs of a globalized economy. The primary goal of the dissertation is to evaluate the effectiveness of a global leadership development program in developing literature-identified global leadership competencies. Kho seeks to achieve this goal by identifying what the participants learned in the program through self-reports and surveys, comparing what participants learned with the global leadership competencies identified in the literature, and identifying the process used to develop the participants in the program.

In the literature review, Kho discusses some of the culture differences that must be resolved as a result of globalization; highlights the difference between the global and expatriate manager; discusses briefly the difference between the leader and the manager; summarizes the literature-identified global leadership competencies and developmental strategies; and outlines the current research on the effectiveness of leadership development program in developing global leadership competencies.

Kho identifies a gap in the literature of empirical research evaluating the merit of global leadership development practices and seeks to fill that gap by conducting an evaluation study of a Partner Exchange Program undertaken by Gap, Inc.. Kho chose Gap because it represents problems and challenges faced by other US companies trying to develop global leadership competencies. In this program, twelve traveling partners and twelve home partners were selected by Gap to spend six months as store manager in another country.

Kho gathered data about the Partner Exchange Program by conducting interviews with the traveling partners and analyzing their journals and field reports. In analyzing the data, Kho identified the following themes: inquisitiveness, calmness, self-confidence, global thinking, work-personal balance, and repatriation. Her findings strongly supported the conclusion that the Partner Exchange Program (PEP) did develop the global leadership qualities identified in the literature: cultural empathy and adaptability; global mindset; individual development; relational skills and support systems; and professional competence.

Kho acknowledged the following limitations of the study: relies on self-reports; only investigates short-term effects of the program; does not distinguish between how what was learned may have differed in each country; only focuses on the development of global leadership competencies for US managers and leaders; and does not consider component influences of parts in the process.

Critique

Kho is effective in synthesizing the results by matching up anecdotes from the interviews with points from the literature review. For example, Kho’s identified themes from the interviews coincide with the literature-identified competencies, and Kho provides both excerpts to illustrate points and aggregate data about the number of participants who express points relevant to a similar theme.

If one were to apply a check-off list to this dissertation, Kho’s dissertation would fulfill all requirements. All of the elements of conceptual framework, precise definitions, literature review, methodology, limitations, results, discussion and conclusion are present and well-developed. Yet, in substance there seemed to be something lacking. I would call it a sort of “well duh” factor- nothing really groundbreaking here. Kho calls this an evaluation study, but those who split hairs about this sort of thing might instead call it a validation study: does this program do what it set out to do? Yes. So? As Kho acknowledges in her limitations section, the more interesting question might be: are the competency goals achieved in this program the appropriate global leadership competencies for the goals of the organization?

Also, there are sections where this dissertation reads almost like a laundry list of nods to each comment made by a reviewer. These tangential points can be distracting and do not fit into the overall structure of the dissertation. For example, she adds on a research question about the process of the program, but does not fully develop the literature review for this section or the results.

Finally, there was an overt flaw in the execution of the research design. She intended to include a survey of managers to check for behavioral changes in the managers; however, organizational changes made it difficult for her to complete this component as intended. Instead of removing this part of the research design from the disstertation, she includes it as if it will be part of the research throughout until acknowledging that she was unable to obtain this data in the results section. This gaping hole in the research project damaged its credibility, in my opinion.

Statement Regarding its Personal Value

I was glad to find a dissertation on a topic related to corporate training for a multinational company as this is my particular research focus. What I found most useful in Kho’s dissertation was the section suggesting areas for further research. She suggests that future research: empirically consider whether literature-identified global leadership competencies are correct; focus on the identification and development of appropriate global leadership qualifications for managers and leaders from countries other than the US; track long-term behavior changes of the participants to examine enduring effects of such a program; provide more in-depth analysis of what was learned by participants with a country-specific lens; and focus on distinguishing the global manager from the global leader. Though leadership training is not currently a research interest of mine, these ideas could also be applied to my interest in training for innovation.

OGoBiblios 63

Leiberman, A. E. (2003). Taking ownership: Strengthening Indigenous Cultures and Languages through the Use of ICTs. Retrieved February 11, 2008 from Learnlink website: <http://learnlink.aed.org/Publications/Concept_Papers/taking_ownership.pdf>.

Summary

In “Taking Ownership: Strengthening Indigenous Cultures and Languages Through the Use of ICTs” Lieberman (2003) considers the dynamics of using information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the benefit of indigenous cultural causes. He develops this overview by starting from the broad perspective of the impact of globalization on indigenous cultures then narrowing his focus to the impact of ICTs. Though he acknowledges both actual and potentially negative consequences of ICTs on indigenous cultures, his aim in this article is to identify examples of positive initiatives and explore the potential for further use and benefits. He highlights indigenous culture ICT initiatives for community building, language revitalization, education, commerce and environmental protection and considers these initiatives with attention to policy, capacity building, usage and implementation. Throughout the article, Lieberman emphasizes the imperative of indigenous empowerment, self-determination and ideological sustainability in order to reach positive ends through ICTs.

Relevance to Cultural Studies in Instructional Technology

Though he does not only focus on the use of ICTs in education, his examples of political and economic uses still lie in a form of education- the dissemination of information.
By grounding his examples in the broader discussion of the impact of globalization and ICTs on indigenous cultures, Lieberman (2003) highlights some of the central questions about the socio-cultural implications of educational technology. Does widespread use of ICTs: Encourage homogenization of cultures? Replace indigenous forms of learning or the wisdom of tradition and elders? Reinforce detrimental economic hegemonies?

His answer to these questions seems to be, “Possibly”; however, he states, “it is preferable to take a pro-active and culturally sensitive approach to technology introduction.” The argument he makes in this article is that 1) the use of ICTs is already widespread and inevitable, and 2) policies towards productive and positive uses of ICTs may mediate the potential for negative consequences.

Reflection

I found this article to be personally valuable because of my research interest in instructional technology solutions for cross-border collaboration between the US (big, bad Western influencer) and India (home of approx. 84.33 million members of “scheduled tribes”) and because of my sappy passion for the betterment of all people. Lieberman takes the optimistic view that ICTs are an empowering force if access continues to spread and if the technology is used towards the end of purposeful cultural engagement. I am inclined towards Lieberman’s view because the presence and spread of ICT is not a choice, but a reality.

At the Education for Innovation in India, China & America conference in 2007, one of the attendees raised the question: “How do we take advantage of the educational opportunities of mobile learning? I’ve been to villages in India where there are certainly more cell phones than latrines.” In this question about the number of latrines as compared to the number of cell phones, one of the central questions of the dynamics of ICTs and cultural impact is highlighted. As Damarin (1998) points out, when the basic needs of a population are lacking, ICT initiatives often become lower priorities. However, in this conference attendee’s question, he did not rely on the “either/or” fallacy of framing the question as “Why would we take advantage of the educational opportunities of mobile learning when there are villages in India where there are certainly more cell phones than latrines?” This argument has all too often been framed as an either/or proposition, when in fact there are compelling reasons why technology, especially in the arena of education, should be a top priority. Lieberman’s article provided several examples of positive uses of technology by indigenous cultures that may allow them access to more resources and, therefore, possibly more capability to take care of basic needs.
I appreciated not only the optimism, but the pragmatism of Lieberman’s article. It provides clear examples of how technological literacy may well be as empowering as language literacy. As in this course, now we can take up the questions of impact, cultural sensitivity, etc. just as is necessary in language policy. This equality of importance may help place the T in the old 3R’s (readin’, ‘ritin’, and rithmetic) educational paradigm, so that the question of “if” ICT should be embraced as an educational tool for all cultures of the upcoming generation, may be replaced with “how”?