A Need for Change to Prepare Students to be Erudite Leaders of the Future

In the highly competitive transnational marketplace the United States is confronted with unending pressure to sustain a competitive position, adapt to continuous changes, and prepare K-12 students to be contributors in the global workforce when they graduate. Public school administrators and decision-makers will be challenged with integrating courses and workshops about diversity and multiculturalism into K-12 curricula. Additionally, many teachers will require training about cultural awareness and sensitivity so their students receive non-biased, ethical information to increase their perspicacity about diversification in customs and cultures among people (Eberly, Rand and Oâ??Connor, 2007).
Anarchic situations occurring around the world can have an adverse effect on people across all cultures. In the Middle East, for example, the clash between absolutists and secularists over what each sect recognizes as the appropriate affectation for worshiping Allah may impact on students when they are uprooted and migrate to a new environment (Bilgrami, 2003). It is likely that many of these K-12 students will experience some cultural impingements because they may not have had opportunities to engage in camaraderie, or associate with people from different cultures and ethnicities.
Demographic displacements involving massive movements of people around the globe can affect people and their cultures. Measurable increases in immigrants to the United States (U. S.), and the movement of people within the country, could have an impact on the American public school system and K-12 students. Administrators and teachers should understand that children of new immigrants desperately need attention, guidance and encouragement so they can begin to absorb and share their talents and knowledge with others around them. This will prepare them to adapt to change and live in a complicated global society (Brabant and Hochman, 2004).
The impact of globalization has formed an innovative, functioning core of new competitive players. Expanding public school curricula to include coursework about understanding globalization could aid K-12 students in developing a competitive advantage (Barnett, 2005). Students with an understanding about diversity, multiculturalism and globalization would be valued assets in the highly competitive global marketplace.
Globalization has influenced the homogenization of peoples from multifarious societies with diversified customs, cultures and ethnicities. They now have unlimited opportunities to interact, learn about other people, and improve their economies (Ali, 2001). Productive advancements in computer technologies, innovative computer platforms, strategically-placed, global satellite systems, and enhanced communication systems, allow for ease of access to information and research.
Collectively, these multifunctional, interactive, computer platforms provide ingenious methods for people and organizations to coordinate the movement of commodities, financial transactions, goods, labor and services across borders, and around the globe. Such enhancements also serve to propel countries into the highly competitive global arena. As an example, China, Peoples Republic of China (PRC), retains its body of ideas and political identity as a 3rd world, communist/socialist country (Fish and Jameson, 1998). By capitalizing from the benefits of globalization China PRC has emerged from the shadows to the forefront as a recognized competitor in the global marketplace.
These platforms will support businesses, organizations and transnational enterprises to collaboratively share processes, procedures, data, customer bases and innovative strategies across borders, or to engage in business functions-acquisitions, takeovers, partnerships and joint ventures. Innovative companies carve out new market niches, broaden customer bases, enhance research and expand product development while increasing profits and shareholder wealth. The integration of systematic action plans could aid the global business community with opening new frontiers.