The “Food and Festivals” Approach to Educating Students on Global Citizenship

One of the most crucial educational goals at many elite institutions is teaching students how to be global citizens. Global citizenship refers to being educated about other countries regarding their culture, beliefs, values, etc., and being able to contextualize yourself within the larger social world using this knowledge. This involves understanding your place in relation to others across the globe and being knowledgeable about various things within a global setting. Each of the elite educational institutions that we have studied throughout this course employs different methods and techniques in order to educate their students on the notion of global citizenship. The school that I am researching, Everdeen, has a variety of different approaches that they use. One of their most prominent is what is known as the “Food and Festivals” approach. This approach is one that turns the cultures of different countries “into something the communities consume and celebrate” (Howard 7). Instead of formally educating the students about different countries’ cultures in the classroom and through taught lessons, the school chooses to put on multicultural festivals and fairs instead. 

When asked how their school provides opportunities for students to reflect on different cultural values, students at Everdeen describe that the school puts on a “fair every year.” This fair seems to function as an educational opportunity that the school takes to bring aspects of many different cultures to their students. The student whose interviews I read described the fair like so: “Um, so they bring food, so, different types of foods and then you get to go around and try it all out, but you have to pay for it, obviously. Um, then the house will hold, like, different dances–.” It is clear here that the only aspects of the cultures that are represented at the fair are their traditional food items, music styles, and dances. These aspects of culture are very important, but there are many more aspects that do not appear to be touched on at this fair that the school puts on. With this type of fair, I am envisioning lots of tables splayed out with enormous spreads of authentic food, with music being played behind each and people dancing all around. This is all fun and represents many aspects of the cultures, but it does not quite educate the students on some of the important areas that they would need to be knowledgeable about in order to be well-functioning global citizens. 

At these types of fairs where cultures from around the globe become some type of materialistic object for people to view and eat, students do not always take away the desired messages. The students seem to be associating this supposed multicultural learning opportunity with something that is more along the lines of a “carnival.” One student even mentioned that there are “different rides” at the event, which definitely does make it seem like a carnival. By combining these two functions, a multicultural educational event and a carnival, the school is sending conflicting messages out to students. They are not being given the opportunity to really learn about these cultures in terms of their values, traditions, beliefs, etc. Instead, they are reducing them to certain foods and music styles. There is so much more to be learned about people’s cultures, and these students simply aren’t learning it through this approach. It is easy for the school to brand the event in a seemingly educational way, but when you boil it down, it is not very educational at all.  If these students are supposedly being educated on global citizenship and what it means to be a contributing member of the global community, they should have more to say about how the school educates them on different cultures than just by putting on some type of carnival. 

There are many alternative approaches to educating students on global citizenship that Everdeen could incorporate into its curriculum as alternatives to this approach. Culture needs to be “something to integrate throughout students’ educational experiences” (Howard 7). By this, it is meant that cultures should not just be given one day a year to be showcased to the student body. Information about them should be constantly incorporated into the learning that happens within the classrooms every day. By doing this instead, the school will be able to educate students on the other aspects of culture, not just food and music. Gaining this knowledge will allow students to better understand their own culture in relation to others, and they will be able to contextualize themselves within the larger global community, just as they should be doing as global citizens. 

Citation: Adam Howard (2020): Globally elite: four domains of becoming globally-oriented within elite schools, Educational Review, DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2020.1805412