The World According to Sesame Street

International students: Was Sesame Street -- a staple of American children'’s television for more than 30 years -- a part of your growing up? Perhaps as Plaza Sésamo (Mexico), Alam Simsim (Egypt), Ulitsa Sezam (Russia) or Zhima Jie (China).

The World According to Sesame Street, a new documentary premiering at the Sundance Film Festival this week, looks at the cultural impact of this celebrated program in other parts of the world. (Unlike most American media exports, Sesame Street is adapted to local cultures when it goes abroad.)

The feature-length film profiles the efforts of three producers from the Sesame Street Workshop to bring about local versions of the program in Kosovo, Bangladesh, and South Africa.

"Education is always more than simply alphabets and numbers, and the contradictions inherent in teaching humane values in worlds where AIDS, ethnic genocide, and poverty dominate the landscape make this film a primer on art, media, and intercultural dialogue," writes festival director Geoffrey Gilmore on the Sundance Web site.

Did you watch a local version of Sesame Street as a child, in Latin America, Asia, Africa, Europe, or the Middle East? If you did, or if you have any thoughts on the globalization of this American media icon, post your comments and impressions here.

In the meantime, check out these sources for more on the global phenomenon of Sesame Street:

"G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street
(O'Neill Stacks LC6579.S47 G58 2001)
This collection of research reports on Sesame Street includes a chapter, "The World of Sesame Street Research," on globalization covering the co-production model as well as curriculum and production differences and similarities across cultures.

Sesame Street Around the World
This section of the Sesame Street Web site provides information (in English and the native language) about programs in 10 different countries, with more to come.

Scholarly Article Search
Search for "sesame street" in Communication Abstracts and you'll find articles among the results focusing on programs in Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, and the Netherlands. Try the same search in the educational database ERIC and you'll find even more. (Add the word "foreign" or "international" to your ERIC search to pare down the results).