Global Education and Global Competence
When someone thinks of the term global education, they probably envision a class where students learn about different countries or geography of the world. However, global education is more than just learning about other countries and cultures. Global education refers to providing an education based on preparing students for a globalized society by teaching them skills in collaboration, communication, problem solving, analyzing, critical thinking, and more. It is not a taught subject built into the curriculum, rather it is integrated into what we teach everyday. In education, we are shifting away from traditional pedagogy and into a teaching framework that prepares students for life in this ever-changing, inter-connected world. When we prepare our students to function in and contribute to a globalized society, everyone benefits. In the classroom, this might look like analyzing local and global issues and what actions students can take, promoting and leveraging diversity, providing students with opportunities to engage in their local community or on a more global scale, and preparing our students to ask critical thinking questions (Teaching for Global Competence... 2018). “By nurturing these skills, we prepare students to be engaged local and global citizens, life-long learners, creative problem solvers, effective communicators across diverse cultures, and comfortable with ambiguity and change.” (What is Global Competence?, World Savvy)
Global competency is a concept with four main domains that describe global citizens developed by the Asia Society/OECD (2018). The first domain refers to intercultural awareness, meaning the ability to appreciate and understand diverse cultures and perspectives. The next domain refers to investigating the world, meaning that global citizens have the ability to examine and evaluate issues on the local, national, and international levels. The third domain is about taking action, meaning global citizens are able to take action to help solve issues on those various levels. Lastly, the fourth domain refers to communication. Global citizens are able to communicate their ideas with those of different backgrounds or cultures. Watch this video from World Savvy for a quick understanding about global competence or read Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World from Asia Society/OECD for a more comprehensive overview of global competence and global education.
Asia Society/OECD (2018), Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World, OECD Publishing, Paris/Asia Society, New York, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264289024-en.
World Savvy. (n.d.). What is Global Competence?. YouTube.
Organizations in the Field
Click on the underlined resources below to start learning about the different ways you can promote global citizenship in your classroom.
Place Based Education refers to integrating ways for students to engage and interact with the community around them to solve local issues and even connect them on the global scale. This kind of teaching creates critical thinkers, problem solvers, and promotes the idea that our students can change their world. Click on some of the resources below to see how you can incorporate place based education into your classroom.
Six Elements of Place Based Education
This website offers hundreds of resources to incorporate global education into classrooms, specifically at the elementary level. Kids can explore different countries on their own or educators can use one of the numerous resources available to help teach about a specific global topic. Use this resource as a tool to integrate multicultural perspectives into the classroom while encouraging students to ask thoughtful questions, engage in productive discussion, and gain a better appreciation and understanding of our world's diversity.
Sign up for free on Generation Global and gain access to resources to incorporate global education into your classroom. While this website's resources are geared towards high school aged students, activities can be modified to fit your classroom needs. Use this website as a resource for many downloadable tools such as this one related to productive dialogue and activities to implement in the classroom. Students can also sign up for a student account and begin thinking critically, asking good questions, and develop global communication skills.
World Savvy's mission is to engage and prepare young people to learn, participate, and thrive in a globalized world. World Savvy works with districts, schools, and teachers to provide coaching over time as opposed to a traditional style of professional development. In providing this teacher training and coaching, World Savvy is cultivating a strong cohesive teaching approach using evidence based practices across districts to help integrate global education. They have flexible programs ranging from 1-2 days to a year long partnership. Their programs are also available online, hybrid, and in person.
Common Sense Media is a website full of free resources to prepare students for the digital and the real world. It features full lessons and lesson plans related to social-emotional learning, problem solving, digital literacy, and online safety. Teachers can utilize these free resources to integrate these life skills into their classroom and promote critical thinking related to students' everyday lives and issues they might encounter. Their updated lessons also encompass how to use AI responsibly.
Recommended Resources
Check out these resources to strengthen your understanding of global education.
PSIA 2018 Global Competence Framework
This handbook gives more information about global competence and education to help better understand its future implications. Additionally, it outlines key dimensions of the global competence framework and how to assess global competence. Use this to reflect on your own global competencies.
University World News: Global Citizenship
Read this brief article from University World News to learn more about global citizenship and why it is more important than ever that we create global citizens in our classrooms today. This article highlights some of the struggles that educators are facing when it comes to global education.
AFS Intercultural Programs Resources
If you want to start small and build up your global classroom activity repertoire, this website from AFS features a list of classroom activities that you can utilize in your classroom to start building global citizens right now. Click on an activity to see a complete lesson plan and how to implement in your classroom.
