Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

This paper focuses on the cultural dynamics of globalization as they relate to the formation of “global citizenship”—a product of cultural globalization dynamics—in relation to three prestigious private schools in Hawaii: Punahou, ‘Iolani, and St. Louis. A Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) will be conducted of each institution’s official public website with the objective to identify whether the discursive sets of each school suggest the presence of global citizenship and show evidence of a cultural divergence, convergence, or hybridization amongst them as a result of cultural globalization. The aforementioned three secondary schools are some of the first educational institutions created in Hawaii as a response to external forces nearly two centuries ago and are still operating today. They introduced the concept of cosmopolitanism through technological advancement and in the form of a shared Christian value system. The longevity of each school, the historical similarities and backgrounds of each, and the demand by the parental population to send their students to these schools for the promise of a better future in a globalized world, make them excellent comparative cases which will help to illuminate the complex cultural globalization dynamics as they pertain to the global citizenship model.