Globalization To The Rescue!
By Pedro Trivella
Pedro Trivella is an Asbury Park School District ESL/Bilingual Educator.
Should we embrace Nationalism or Globalism as we guide our English Language Learners through their academic and acculturation process?
If America’s DNA is intercultural, why has global education not played a greater role in our education system? For me, Globalism just comes as second nature. I was born and raised in Venezuela by a Puerto Rican/Venezuelan mother and an Italian father. Additionally, I moved to the United States at the tender age of 18 to learn English and to earn a college education.
Becoming a second language learner in a completely new culture has definitely been the most challenging and rewarding experience of my life. The most valuable lesson that I have acquired during my acculturation trajectory is realizing that for minority language children, it is not just about learning content in a second language, but it is also about building a strong identity that leads to empowerment and inclusion.
Leveraging the pertinent, and often-undervalued, aspect that culture plays in education has always guided my mission of education equity. Nonetheless, recently becoming a Teachers of Global Classrooms Fulbright scholar combined with our unprecedented remote learning reality, has strongly fueled my “Globalism to the rescue” mission. There is no denying that the devastating consequences that the Coronavirus has brought upon us has abruptly shed light on the valuable role that global education plays in our daily lives. Unfortunately, it took for such an unprecedented event to take place for us to realize that “what happens in China does not stay in China. Dr, Martin Luther King always knew that cultivating globalism was key in achieving borderless love and justice across the world. In “A Christmas Sermon on Peace” he said that “”Before you finish breakfast, you’ve depended on half the world” (King, 1967).
What is Global Education?
Globalism plays a pivotal role in cultivating equitable learning opportunities for our English Language learners. Fostering Global learning strategies empower EL students to actively participate in their academic, social emotional, and acculturation process. Fostering user friendly global tools enable educators to create 21st Century learning spaces that value and celebrate diversity and inclusion. When students visualize themselves as global citizens, they actively participate in their identity development, academic growth and citizenship engagement.
Global education embraces a comprehensive learning approach that promotes students’ curiosity, exploration, and awareness about the world and how it works. The Asia Society’s Center for Global Education’s article “Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World” (2018), substantiates that global competent students use the big ideas, tools, methods, and languages that are central to any discipline (mathematics, literature, history, science, and the arts) to engage the pressing issues of our time.
Globally competent students effectively combine knowledge about the world and critical reason to form their own opinion about a global issue. Learners who acquire a mature level of development in this dimension use higher-order thinking skills, such as selecting and weighing appropriate evidence to reason about global developments.
According to Boix Mansilla and Jackson (2011), global minded students can draw on and combine the disciplinary knowledge and modes of thinking acquired in schools to ask questions, analyze data and arguments, explain phenomena, and develop a position concerning a local, global or cultural issue.
Why Teach For Global Competence?
Inescapable economic, cultural, technological, environmental, and political forces are affecting every society on earth and making nations and peoples more interdependent than ever before. Responding effectively to these forces will require creative multinational solutions to be negotiated and carried out by individuals who can and do participate simultaneously in local, national, and global civic life. Put simply, if individuals and their communities are to thrive in the future, schools must prepare today’s students to be globally competent.
Educating for global competence increases students’ future employability. Effective communication and appropriate behavior within diverse teams are keys to success in many jobs, and will remain so as technology continues to make it easier for people to connect across the globe. Employers increasingly seek to attract learners who easily adapt and are able to apply and transfer their skills and knowledge to new contexts. Our world interconnected work environment expects young people to understand the dynamics of globalization (British Council, 2013).
I think we can all agree that we are living in a polarizing society where conflict is mostly viewed as the catalyst for divineness. I strongly agree with Rychen and Salganik’s theory that competent students approach conflicts in a constructive manner, recognizing that conflict is a process to be managed rather than seeking to negate it (Rychen and Salganik, 2003). Taking an active part in conflict management and resolution requires listening and seeking common solutions. Global education enables students to address conflict by analyzing key issues, needs and interests (e.g. power, recognition of merit, division of work, equity); identifying the origins of the conflict and the diverse perspectives of those involved in the conflict, recognizing that the parties might differ culturally; identifying areas of agreement and disagreement; and reframing the conflict to build consensus.
Global Education creates classroom environments that value diversity and global engagement. Consequently, it is particularly beneficial to ELs since it naturally motivates them to develop citizenship responsibilities and acquire new ways of saying, and doing.
Both OECD and the Center for Global Education have identified four key aspects of global competence. Globally competent youth:
- Investigate the world beyond their immediate environment, framing significant problems and conducting well-crafted research.
- Recognize perspectives, others’ and their own, articulating and explaining such perspectives thoughtfully and respectfully.
- Communicate ideas effectively with culturally diverse audiences.
- Take action to improve conditions, viewing themselves as players in the world and participating reflectively (The Asia Society’s Center for Global Education, 2018, pg. 5).
Some of the most successful Global Education Learning Strategies that I have routinely embedded in my lessons are:
1. How Else & Why: How do global heroes/ambassadors say it? How else can I say it? Why is it important for me to embrace it? Identifying diverse ways to express important messages develops learners’ analyzing thinking skills and communication efficacy.
A summary of a Dr. Martin Luther King “My Dream, Your Dream, Our Dream” lesson is as follows:
- Students watched a video of Dr. King, which highlighted several of his quotes.
- Learners selected their favorite quotes and formed small groups based on their selections.
- Children analyzed, evaluated, and shared the messages that they perceived from their quotes.
- Each group translated their favorite quotes into its members’ home languages (Spanish and Creole)
- Students engaged in a journal writing independent activity in which they were able to use their own words to express their selected quotes’ message.
2. Comparative Approach: This enables learners to widen their multicultural agency by comparing and contrasting their own native countries’ events to other countries across the world.
A comparative approach activity that I implemented during Haitian Flag Month enabled all students to engage in authentic reflective practice.
Haitian native students interviewed their peers and staff members to identify the similarities and differences that exist among various cultures.
This student driven activity offered all children with opportunities to evaluate their own cultural lens while cementing the general consensus and message displayed in the Hatian Flag: “It is in our Unity that we find our Strength”
3. 3 Ys: Why is it important to me, my community, my nation and the world?
Nurturing students’ disposition to discern the significance of an issue by embracing the global strategy’s 3 Ys, proved to be quite effective during a “Should we ban plastic water bottles?” lesson. Learners evaluated the impact that plastic has on their personal lives, community beaches, and world’s sea life. Thereafter, a classroom vote took place, which facilitated a discussion regarding sustainable environmental support practices.
4. Circle of Action Routine: Engaging ELs in civic oriented activities propels them to develop a strong sense of self.
I agree with Bringle and Clayton (2012) that service learning is a powerful tool that can help students to develop multiple global skills through real-world experience. Students are able to apply and transfer acquired knowledge and skills into projects that benefit themselves, their family and friends, their community, and the world (Bringle and Clayton, 2012). After the activities, learners reflect on their service experiences and gain further understanding of course content, while enhancing their sense of role in society with regard to civic, social, economic and political issues. The “Fostering homeless animals” Pre-K activity below demonstrates that children are never too young to embrace, value, and practice empathy. Through service learning, these young students are not only “served to learn,” which is applied learning, but also “learned to serve”.
5. Step In – Step Out – Step Back In: This global routine challenges students to reflect and evaluate on the potential misconceptions they may form when meeting people (particularly ones that come from different ethnic backgrounds) for the first time.
I share Fennes and Hapgood’s (1997) view that the ability to see through ‘another cultural filter’ provides opportunities to deepen and question one’s own perspectives, and thus make more mature decisions when dealing with others. In this activity shown below, my first grade virtual summer school students effortlessly embraced it after we read “Owen & Mzee”, a story about a real life friendship that was formed between two unlikely animals in Africa. Some of the students even connected and applied this strategy to another previously read story “No More Pets”, as well as a challenge that I was experiencing at home between my old dog “Pancho” and my new pet “GiGi”.
You do not need to be an expert on every global issue to educate your students in global citizenship. It is much more important to have an ongoing willingness to embrace routines that help students develop intercultural agency. To view how the learning strategies mentioned above are conducive to support Common Core Standards, learners’ objectives, and be effortlessly implemented in multiple subjects, please refer to Dr. King’s lesson I presented at the New Jersey TV Learning Live.
Global Education creates equitable learning experiences for all students through cultural connections and cohesiveness. Fostering global competence among all learners, both ELs and mainstream students, is interconnected and simultaneously serves two purposes. Offering our EL students a learning space where their multicultural backgrounds are viewed and embraced as assets by all stakeholders enables them to holistically develop strong identities. Additionally, Global education equips monolingual learners with the intercultural and 21st Century efficacy needed to become productive members of our diverse and evolving intercultural society.
My redesigned mission of empowering EL students with equitable education and life opportunities is guided by the following belief: As we pursue our American Dream, we must first and foremost embrace our unique essence, develop strong identities, voices, and moral compass. Only then, we will be able to enrich our lives and positively impact our communities, Nation, and World.
References:
Boix Mansilla, V. and A. Jackson (2011), Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World, Asia Society and Council of Chief State School Officers.
Bringle, R. G. and P. H. Clayton (2012), “Civic education through service-learning: What, how, and why? in L. McIlrath, A. Lyons and R. Munck (eds.), Higher Education and Civic Engagement: Comparative Perspectives, Palgrave, New York, pp. 101-124.
British Council (2013), Culture at Work: The Value of Intercultural Skills in the Workplace, British Council, United Kingdom.
Fennes, H. and K. Hapgood (1997), Intercultural Learning in the Classroom: Crossing Borders, Cassell, London.
Going Global: Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World. OECD /Asia Society, 2018.
https://asiasociety.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/teaching-for-global-competence-in-a-rapidly-changing-world-edu.pdf
King, Martin Luther (1967), “A Christmas Sermon on Peace.” Massey Lectures. Massey Lectures, 1967, Atlanta, Georgia, Ebenezer Baptist Church.
Rychen, D. S. and L.H. Salganik (eds.) (2003), Key Competencies for a Successful Life and a Well-Functioning Society, Hogrefe and Huber, Göttingen, Germany.