Global Education: How We Prepare Students for Their “Future in the World”
During this year’s International Education Week we have been highlighting a different education program each day on our Council’s social media feeds. Global education is at the heart of what we do at the World Affairs Council of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, but we realize that actually defining this concept and implementing it in a K-12 setting can be quite daunting. This year’s International Education Summit showed that students need to develop key skills in order to prepare them for their “future in the world” and there is so much that teachers can do to develop these skills and practices in their classrooms.
Finding Your “Lens”
As a former teacher who has sat on plenty of strategic planning committees and professional development sessions for different schools and districts, I know that one of the biggest challenges is adopting the right lens through which to view this work. If your school is taking on a concerted effort to promote global education and cultural awareness, a great place to start is with your state’s academic standards and national standards for a particular academic subject area. For Social Studies, the NCSS C3 Framework acknowledges the importance of global awareness in preparing students for college, career, and civic life. Here at the council, our macro-level approach to global education is informed by these standards as well as frameworks provided by the Asia Society and P21’s Frameworks for 21st Century Learning from Battelle for Kids. The Asia Society defines four different domains of global competence and the P21 Framework specifies particular skills that students need to succeed in a globally and digitally connected world.
Implementing the Domains and Skills in the Classroom
1. Investigate the World
Learning Target: Students should be able to “investigate the world beyond their immediate environment, framing significant problems and conducting well-crafted and age-appropriate research” (Asia Society, 2011, p. 25).
Classroom activities should provide students with the opportunity to examine authentic global issues in order to draw conclusions and potentially suggest a plan of action for tackling that issue. Many pedagogical approaches that you may already use in your classroom can assist with this domain, such as inquiry-based learning, problem or project-based learning, and any general research skills that you may teach in your curriculum. These kinds of lessons often start with a broad issue or question at the start of the lesson or unit and students will address supporting questions and topics along the way. Inquiry and project-based learning also allows teachers to scaffold a lesson to an appropriate level. More structured lessons may require teachers to develop supporting questions, topics, and articles for examination, whereas more self-directed and motivated students may be able to develop these questions and topics on their own and find their own supporting articles with research. These pedagogical techniques are a great way for students to take some ownership of the lesson and expose them to the types of skills that they’ll need in their future careers, as problem-solving is crucial to every business and organization.
2. Recognize Perspectives
Learning Target: Students should be able to “recognize perspectives, others’ and their own, articulating and explaining such perspectives thoughtfully and respectfully” (Asia Society, 2011, p. 25).
In an age where information and misinformation is widespread and readily accessible, this skill is absolutely critical for teachers to address with their students and there are several ways to bring up this domain in the classroom.
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- Historical Thinking Skills and Document/Source Analysis: In the latest redesign of AP courses in Social Studies, courses were changed to include more writing and less multiple-choice questions, reflecting the true work of historians and social scientists. Examining primary documents is an important component of history curriculums. Students should be able to examine a document and identify its historical context, intended audience, purpose, and the point of view of the author as well as others who may have read or seen the document during that time. Stanford History Education Group’s Reading Like a Historian program provides awesome lessons and resources for teachers implementing historical thinking and sourcing into their lessons for the first time.
- Literacy: In this modern era, literacy refers to more than just reading comprehension. Students should also be media literate, understanding different forms of media, how media is created, potential biases, and the spread of misinformation. Technological literacy is also important and it provides students with the tools that they need to consume and create content and thrive in a competitive economy.
- Examine Your Curricular Materials: How much exposure do your students have to the contributions of women, minorities, and those of non-Western cultures in your classroom? Are there any biases or misconceptions that are reflected in the sources or materials that you use? New York University developed a Culturally Responsive Curriculum Scorecard to help teachers identify the strengths and weaknesses of their current curriculums regarding diversity and representation. It’s important for students to be exposed to the variety of cultures and differences that they might encounter in their future so they can be more collaborative and respectful students and future employees.
- Bring in Outside Voices: Having a guest speaker from a local organization, business, or community is a great way to engage students in the modern-day work surrounding a particular topic. The World Affairs Council can help you find a speaker that fits your needs!
3. Communicate Ideas
Learning Target: Students should be able to “communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences, bridging geographic, linguistic, ideological, and cultural barriers” (Asia Society, 2011, p. 25).
Students love a good opportunity to share their opinions on a topic that is meaningful to them, and practice makes perfect. While practicing writing and presentation skills, look for opportunities for student choice and voice in the final product. Making the experience as authentic as possible also allows students to get a glimpse of what the future of work might look like for them. When practicing persuasive writing, give students the opportunity to actually mail their works to a politician, community organization, or other interested party. Letters to the editor and other opinion pieces can also highlight student voices. The Pulitzer Center holds an annual Local Letters for Global Change contest where students respond to an article or resource from the Pulitzer Center collection and propose action on a particular issue. Are you holding presentations in class? Invite a special guest judge or audience member from your school or the community. It will make the experience feel relevant and encourage students to do their best.
4. Take Action
Learning Target: Students will be able to “take action to improve conditions, viewing themselves as players in the world and participating reflectively” (Asia Society, 2011, p. 25).
Building upon the previous domains, allow students to take ownership of a project or something they care about by taking action to advocate for change. Allow students to bring an idea or proposal to a government body, business, community organization, or school leadership. Show students ways in which others have fought for change throughout history and discuss the effectiveness of the strategies used, groups and individuals involved, and outcome of their efforts. The “civic life” aspect of the national social studies standards often gets overlooked in an effort to cover content, but finding ways in which to be intentional about talking about advocacy and action are important in showing students what’s possible. I was extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to attend the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations with my students, after being invited as part of a special all-girls school delegation. My students who attended with me got to see UN delegates and NGOs working together in parallel events to discuss matters that were important to them. Making change doesn’t have to be confined to the US political system– international organizations and local community organizations also tackle the same issues. Service-learning and other volunteer-based activities are another good way to engage students with the issue directly.
The council’s International Education Summit gives us an opportunity to design an event around student voices. The topics we covered in this year’s summit reflected countries and issues that the students indicated would be most important to their future in the world. From climate change to refugee resettlement, we made sure to include ways in which students can partner with local organizations in the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky region to address particular issues.
How We Can Help
The World Affairs Council of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is committed to being a resource for all educators who want to promote cultural understanding and global awareness in their classrooms. We’ve provided educator guides for our International Education Summit events that contain discussion questions, related lesson plans, and ways to take action on global topics. We can also help provide guest speakers for your class on a particular topic and work with you to create events. Starting in 2022, we will be holding monthly teacher professional development sessions on some of the 21st century skills needed to ensure competency across all four of the domains discussed earlier. We’d love for you to connect with us via our educator newsletter subscription and we hope to see you at a future event!
