Scholarship, Practice and Leadership One

Scholarship, Practice and Leadership

One of the key changes of the late 20th century, certainly enhanced in the early 21st, is that of the economic, political, and cultural movements that broadly speaking, move the various countries of the world closer together. This idea, called globalism, refers to a number of theories that see the complexities of modern life such that events and actions are tied together, regardless of the geographic location of a specific country (political unit). The idea of globalism has become popular in economic and cultural terms with the advent of a number of macro-trade agreements combined with the ease of communication brought about with the Internet and cellular communication. The basic structure is really quite simple: a) political boundaries mean nothing to the earth as an organism -- ecology does not recognize nationalities, but is based on location and geography; b) a "zero-sum" theory applied economically indicates that enhanced cooperation between nations will increase the standard of living and ability to self-actualize for the developing world as they provide resources that are unique to their area; and c) if nations are tied together economically, there is a far greater chance that they will cooperate politically. Thus, in the long-term, war and conflict will diminish and political leaders will make decisions that are beneficial to the global population.

However, in all the literature there is one common assumption -- the leaders of the future will have an intellectual competency that will allow them to be global citizens, think outside the old, Cold War, paradigm, and provide multi-dimensional solutions to an increasingly complex world.

The basic template for this expertise is the ability in information literacy -- a set of competencies that an informed citizen, and especially a leader, in an information society should have so that they can participate intelligently and actively in the global village (Towards an Information Literate Society, 2003). Most institutions of higher education cannot emphasize enough the importance of a group of individuals who can not only access information, but analyze and synthesize that information. It is quite easy to "Google" a phrase, but not so easy to wade through that information to assess its validity, nor is it that simple to utilize library databases to delve into a topic in a more robust manner. Because globalization is primarily socio-economic, information literacy affects the manner and type of scholarship, leadership issues, and areas of focus for not only the academic world, but the business world as well. And, if we actually consider the ramifications, this competence influences national security, environmental sustainability, along with economic development. This is the new reality -- not a "might happen," but it "has happened." Because of this, we must use the lessons of the past to clearly define the role that education must play in preparing the children of today for the challenges of tomorrow (Jackson, 2009).

It would also be logical to for an objective observer to ask: well, what happened to literacy and informational competency? We do know from previous research that if we wait until High School to implement information literacy programs we have helped a bit, but likely too little too late -- it seems most of these students have already developed their "Google" habit and are content to utilize Wikipedia and basic Google for their information needs (Russell, 2009). However, reached before the High School years, there is a spectrum of literature that we should expect:

Alphabetic and numerical literacy -- writing name, address, phone number

Functional literacy -- reading and writing (various levels)

Social literacy -- communication within a specific cultural context

Information literacy -- critical location, evoluation and the use of basic information

Digital information literacy -- application of information literacy in the digital world

Gloal literacy -- the ability to think out of the box and use other cultural paradigms to make decisions (Bruce, 2003).

We must remember that this generation does not know life prior to the Internet. People who graduated from college after prior to 1995 still had to know how to use printed sources, but those born after 1990 simply have never had to rely on the printed word. Education, though, did not embrace the Internet society to the extent that the popular world did, and although by 2000 there were a number of sources devoted to electronic literacy the school systems still did not adequatley prepare an entire generation for critical thinking about sources and alternative ways to find information (Badke, 2009). To adequately teach these skills requires little more than a commitment from the teacher or curriculum monitor. It is a matter of framing assignments in the appropriate manner -- instead of simply requiring a: Research Paper on an Aspect of Costa Rica, work in a preliminary annotated bibligoraphy section that requires the appropriate vetting and analysis of the sources; require several types of sources, and explain why. Above all, since the research indivates that the major reasons student's fail to use robust informational resources is time management and self-management (read -- laziness and taking the shortcut), it is important to instruct on how to do research, how not to plagiarize, and what the actual point of primnary and secondary research are to the process of self-actualization and broad knowledge. These same studies show that if students are given relevancy as part of their explanation, they are more likely to acquire the necessary skills required (Turusheva, 2009).