discussion

CHAPTER 1 EDUCATING FOR GLOBAL COMPETENCE

Group 1

● Global competence is the ability to understand and act on global issues.

● Globalization, the accelerating traffic of goods, ideas, people, and capital around the world, has changed the face of labor. (Coatsworth, 2004). Understanding changing economies in a multipolar world is critical to youth if they are to participate thoughtfully in the economies of tomorrow.

● Jobs that demand expert thinking and complex communication will remain in growing demand in the world over.

● Schools now bear a new fundamental responsibility: to prepare students for difference and complexity in the world they live in. Emergence of initiatives to foster international understanding in school curricula has brought attention to the importance of global competence.

WHAT IS GLOBAL COMPETENCE?

● Globally Competent Students: ○ Investigate the world beyond their immediate environment. ○ Recognize perspectives of others and their own. ○ Communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences. ○ Take action to improve conditions

● Applying knowledge to real life situations makes understanding deeper. This helps shape the perspectives that form part of global competency in students.

● Weigh and integrate evidence from varied sources to create coherent responses and draw defensible conclusions.

● Hanvey’s Five Dimensions on Global Competence are being incorporated around the world in schools. It is one way to delineate the steps to create globally competent citizens. The accepted definition on global competence is from the Task Force on Global Competence.

GLOBALLY COMPETENT STUDENTS

WHY IS GLOBAL COMPETENCY ESSENTIAL FOR 21ST CENTURY

STUDENTS?

Students have a responsibility to be good stewards of Earth. It’s important to adapt to climate change and be aware and take action to combat the effects of global warming on Earth, since it affects every human currently living and future generations.

=Climate Instability

Students need to know how to live in diverse societies. All educators have the responsibility to help students learn global competence across all subject areas.

Global Migration

It would be beneficial for students to have knowledge about other countries and cultures, to think creatively and to use systems thinking, and to know more than one language.

Flattened Global Economy

GLOBAL COMPETENCY IN ACTION

“Educators are expected to teach core sets of concepts and skills that curriculum experts at national, regional, and local levels deem essential. Preparing youth for the work of their generation involves revisiting such core concepts and skills and putting them to the service of a deeper, better, and more participatory understanding of the world in which we live. Nurturing students’ global competence enables education leaders to examine how engaging crucial global issues can catalyze learning of this core content and how learning such content can inform students’ worldviews” (Hayes Jacobs, 2014).

● Are we articulating global competencies in the Florida B.E.S.T. standards?

● How can we articulate global competencies in our lesson plans to motivate and develop global citizens?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

● Hanvey, R. G. (1982). An attainable global perspective. Theory Into Practice, 21(3), 162–167. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405848209543001

● Hayes Jacob, H. (2014). Educating for Global Competence: Redefining Learning for an Interconnected World. Mastering Global Literacy. Solution Tree Press.

REFERENCES

Thank you!