INTRODUCING GLOBAL COMPETENCY AND EDUCATION
GLOBAL EDUCATION
Global education is a teaching framework designed to holistically prepare students to be competitive in a constantly-evolving modern world. Ideally, students will enter the workforce ready to collaborate with groups from diverse backgrounds equipped with the critical consciousness and creativity needed to address global issues. This need is particularly salient in science. While most us of are aware of the direct effects of climate change, we must build an educational system that encourages young people to work alongside folks from around the globe to innovate effective solutions to tackle negative environmental impacts. According to the Asia Society,
"To gain global competence, students need to be actively engaged in their learning and have the time and opportunity to reflect. They need to cultivate their curiosity and ability to think critically. They must be able to take what they learn and use it to conceptualize possible solutions to complex problems. They have to be confident in expressing their ideas, but also willing to consider the ideas of others. They need to learn to collaborate with peers from different backgrounds and different nations."
As educators, we should encourage students to practice these skills by facilitating a culture of curiosity, care, and collaboration in the classroom. For students to graduate with the globally competency skills that they will need in their futures, they must have ample opportunity to practice empathy, open-mindedness, communication, and critical thinking. This will enable them to approach new situations through different lenses and collaborate effectively with those from a diverse array of backgrounds. Regardless of subject area, adopting a framework of global education builds the skills necessary for our students to leave school prepared to solve the world's problems. By prioritizing critical thinking and reflection, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of global phenomena and begin to see themselves as changemakers in their communities.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
In addition to the Asia Society's "Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World" cited above, there are a number of digital tools and platforms that I would recommend for teachers to get a better understanding of global education.
The first is World Savvy's Global Competency Matrix. As one of the first tools that we reviewed as a Fulbright cohort, I found this helpful to give insight into the skills, values, behaviors, and core concepts of global education. While many of us have pedagogies that already fit within the majority of this framework, I found it helpful for contextualizing global education within my lab-based classroom and for highlighting areas that I may forget to explicitly teach.
Next, I would recommend reviewing AFS's Concepts and Theories of Culture. Most American educators are fortunate to teach in a culturally- and linguistically-diverse environment. This enables us to facilitate an environment of curiosity, respect, and cultural competence that students can take outside of the classroom. By first building an understanding of models of culture, students can make sense of the similarities and differences that enrich our world.
One of the most impactful articles that I read during the Fulbright course was James Yoonil Auh's "Global citizenship is now a radical idea, but one that we need" because of its clear call for global education in the face of long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the "polarised cultural battles" we see in the United States. As our country continues to reject humanistic tenets like empathy, open-mindedness, and diversity, the need for facilitating an appreciation of these values becomes more pressing.
While I am critical of the use of global education for gaining international power or influence, I do find the tools outlined in The Diplomatic Insight's Education Diplomacy for Soft Power Strategy to be helpful for understanding areas of focus for global education. By prioritizing partnership, cultural exchange, digital skills, and sustainable education, students can learn about the world outside of their own communities and build a curiosity and respect for diverse nations to make sense of the issues that we all face.
In addition to building an understanding of global education, it is important that students appreciate their own communities and the natural environments that they were raised in. In Getting Smart's toolkit titled, "What is Place-Based Education and Why Does it Matter?", educators can develop their own ideas around Place-Based Education, a theory of learning designed to leverage the power of local immersive experiences. By encouraging an appreciation of our localities, we enable students to care for those around them and become stewards of their communities.
Lastly, I would recommend perusing Empatico's Library of Teaching Tools for Building Empathy to embed more of these humanizing practices into your curriculum. Broken down by skill, content area, and age group, the Library offers engaging activities of varying lengths that can easily be incorporated into all of our classrooms.
ORGANIZATIONS IN THE FIELD
There are a number or organizations in the field that offer tools or resources to help educators bring global education into our classrooms.
Responsible for the Global Competency Matrix outlined above, World Savvy is an educational organization designed to facilitate learning experiences to combat xenophobia and encourage an appreciation of diversity. Started in Oakland, World Savvy offers free and paid programs to support teachers in approaching education with a global mindset. By offering professional development to teachers and administrators, the organization hopes to evolve the educational system into one that facilitates valuing diversity, empathy, and partnership in young people.
Similarly, Primary Source is another organization that partners with teachers and schools to broaden student access to global learning opportunities. Through thoughtfully-designed professional development, the group aims to develop meaningful curricular resources and teaching activities that educators can use to innovate their classrooms and build important global competency skills in their students.
Another organization offering free tools, AFS offers local scholarships and study abroad opportunities to underrepresented students. Through these programs, students can access paid-for global opportunities that build their global competence skills and broaden their understanding of modern issues. Students can also create lifelong partnerships that enable them to approach their careers with an appreciation for the various cultures that enrich our world.
Our World in Data is a site that I really enjoy using with my students. The organization offers a variety of free tools with the goal of increasing access to information so that we can build a deeper understanding of the issues we face. Through their work, students can learn about a variety of problems and broaden their self-perception as agents of change.
Lastly, the GLOBE Program offers learning activities and student research opportunities for young people to get involved in tackling the scientific issues that they see in their communities. By building a network of global citizen scientists, students and teachers can gain an understanding of the obstacles facing communities around the world and design projects aimed at creating solutions to these scientific issues. Each of these facilitates empathy and agency within student groups and deepens student sensemaking through collaboration and hands-on learning.
All of these organizations offer a variety of opportunities for students, teachers, and schools to become involved in global learning. While some can be costly, many also offer free or scholarship programs for under-resourced schools, making them valuable for implementing global education in every classroom.
