Core Questions:

1. What were/are the effects of colonial/imperial control on local (native) populations? How have colonized regions responded?
2. Are nationalist uprisings a strong force to oppose colonial control?  What are the on-going struggles that have not yet resolved themselves?
3. Is the trend of globalization in fact a new form of imperial control (neo-colonialism)?  Are poorer nations of the world under a different type of colonial/imperial control coming from large multinational corporations and organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

Overview: This research unit balances the critics and advocates of economic globalization and the World Bank and evaluates how the World Bank has influenced developing countries.

Time Required: 4-7 classroom periods depending on the extent. 1-2 library days, 1 additional in class preparation day, and 2-4 normal (45 minute) class periods to present.

Suggested Grade Levels: Grades 8-12

Interdisciplinary Applications: Social Studies

NJ Core Content Standards: 6.3: 8-14; 6.4: 9-12; 6.5: 18; 6.6: 7-16; 6.7: 7-12; 6.8: 10,11,16,17; 6.9: 4-8.

Instructional Objectives:

1. Students will define and describe the role of super-national agencies such as the World Bank in promoting economic development.
2. Students will be able to assess the benefits and the potential damages to development programs, paying particular attention to the impacts of development on the local environment, organized labor, child labor, and indigenous cultures.

Strategies:

1. Click on the links to the web sites below and print out the documents. These documents are from the World Bank and highlight features, programs, and attempts to avoid problems before they become problems.
2. This is a PowerPoint presentation that summarizes the programs available for development—most of these are long-term development projects that will bear fruit in more than 10 years in some cases.
3. To follow-up, assign the students to create a sustainable development strategy for a struggling country.  Click on the link provided and it will bring up your MICROSOFT WORD program.  As you see from the specifications sheet, the areas that the students should focus on are Infrastructure, Health Care, Tourism, Education, and Agriculture/Environmental. Divide the class into 5 groups. The students should be able to see a variety of projects to get their ideas.

Materials:

• Research materials Progress
• Log and rubrics

Resources: Research materials can be found on the following web sites:

• The World Bank--at a glance.  A good introduction.
• An Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper on San Tome and Principe. It is a good starting point to see how the World Bank assesses problems.
• Operational Directive 4.20--Indigenous people. Planning is the key to include indigenous cultures who may not fit in the mainstream through geographic or cultural isolation.
• Operations Directive 4.30--Involuntary Resettlement. I would suggest that you could cut and paste this document down after you print one copy for yourself to a more reasonable size as there are not as many strong "talking points" for the size of the document.
• Child Labor: Issues and Directions for the World Bank. Click on the PDF link to view the paper.... cut the essentials out of it for your discussion in class or for use as a handout.
• Here is what the International Labour Organization has to say about the issue of child labor. Here is also a worksheet I developed to guide the students through this issue and to focus their attention (this worksheet has not been submitted).
• Print a copy of this introduction to environmental issues in the World Bank. There are many very good ideas here for projects; each has its own link to click through to such as biodiversity, deforestation, climate change, and soil conservation.
• The Montreal Protocol, which deals with ozone depletion, can be viewed here.
• World Bank PowerPoint presentation.
• The Progress Log.
• Presentation and report rubrics.

Assessment: Oral presentation and written report. The presentation project has an assessment scorecard on it. The grade is weighted to the effective oral presentation and the defense of the proposal from questions from the students. Students' questions of other proposals are also counted towards their grades.

• Written reports (individual grade): 30 points
• Research binder (individual grade): 20 points
• Oral participation in conference (individual grade): 40 points
• Progress Log (web sites, works cited, dates): 10 points
• TOTAL: 100 points