International Education’s Deafening “Culture of Silence”

Mark A. Ashwill Articles, Commentary, , , ,

Below is the first part of my latest essay for University World News. The editor’s title is International educators need to end their silence on Gaza. Follow this link to read it in its entirety.

Jainendra Jeevan, The Kathmandu Post

There is a price to pay for speaking the truth.  There is a bigger price for living a lie.

-Cornel West

Image: iStock Photo

I recently saw a post on LinkedIn by Elena D. Corbett, director of education abroad at Amideast, whom I immediately recognized as a kindred spirit. In no uncertain terms, she threw down a gauntlet for her fellow US international educators, calling them out for tolerating a “culture of silence” and indirectly challenging them to embrace a culture of action.

For those who remember, what were U.S. international ed practitioners doing back in the early days of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and the horrors of the surveillance and harassment regime that was enacted against so many Americans in the wake of 9/11? I’m genuinely curious.

As someone who has been in the field of international education for 35 years, I’m old enough to remember. The sad but true answer is “not much.”

Corbett proceeded to ask more questions of a rhetorical nature.  

Was the space active? Did it encourage knowledge? Did it organize? Or was there a culture of mostly silence back then, too, going about in the day-to-day as if nothing was amiss? A field that screams so loudly about justice is silent about so much…has this always been true?

…

Shalom (שלום), MAA

17 thoughts on “International Education’s Deafening “Culture of Silence””

  1. The great speech beyond Viet Nam, given by MLK Junior. … “ my country is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today….”
    Still the truth today.
    Sent from my iPhone

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  10. An indirect response to this article by Tom Millington, Founder and CEO at Abroadia:

    “For some time now I have been evaluating the term “scholar-practitioner” that has littered the international education landscape for some time now. While this serves a purpose, it connotates passivity during times of international duress. I think there is a segment of our field that has not been acknowledged enough. That is “practitioner-activist”. International educator luminaries such as Elena D. Corbett, PhD and Mark Ashwill have noted with searing acuity the silence that has overtaken the field when it comes to denouncing the very violence in the world that our profession has claimed to oppose.

    Inspired by both Corbett and Ashwill, Abroadia will soon take to the road to meet with a US Senator to make the case for removing Cuba from the “State Sponsor of Terrorism” list. For far too long US politicians have abstractified the lives of Cubans and with this visit we hope to remind them that Cubans are human beings, too. On behalf of Cuban children I will be gifting the senator over 20 drawings.

    Wish me luck!”

    Reply

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