Your Name and Title: Teri Horton, Director of College Writing/Instructional Effectiveness Specialist
School or Organization Name: Baker College
Co-Presenter Name(s): N/A
Area of the World from Which You Will Present: United States
Language in Which You Will Present: English
Target Audience(s): Educators in the United States
Short Session Description (one line): This session will explore the meaning and value of global competence and provide participants with concrete instructional strategies to help students appreciate and engage with the world beyond our borders.
Full Session Description (as long as you would like):
How can we motivate students to become global citizens? Over and over, studies show that most young adults in the United States “demonstrate a limited understanding of the world beyond their country’s borders,” and they place insufficient importance on world affairs, geography, and language and culture. Most colleges recognize this global deficit has impoverishing effects on their students, both educationally and economically. In fact, many colleges have incorporated some aspect of global competence into their mission statements. But how does such a goal reach the classroom? This session will explore teaching strategies that can help students make the shift toward a global and international perspective.
It should come as no surprise to college educators that students in the US lag behind other countries in their understanding of geopolitics, and the interconnectedness among people and places around the globe. In other words, US students lack the critical context necessary for navigating the international arena. Without context, students are not prepared for the 21st Century workforce, which requires them to compete and problem solve complex, global issues. Experts, such as Shari Becker Albright, point out “What we call global education, the rest of the world just calls education.”
Global education requires a globally oriented curriculum and educator. A single educator cannot possibly fill the global achievement gap ̶ nor should she try; however, small changes can have a transformative effect. It is not about stuffing our students’ heads with knowledge or shaming them for what they do not know. It is about convincing them there is a compelling reason to care and demonstrating that their engagement with the world beyond our borders is an absolute expectation. We must systematically integrate global perspective into our classrooms. World events should be discussed in every class, for what curricula does it not pertain? It should be a given that one of our students’ smartphone applications is a newspaper--and they should be directed to it often. Students need to be exposed to real-time stories that develop their sense of empathy, stories that focus on such things as human rights issues and global poverty. Whenever possible, students should be shown maps to visualize our interconnectedness with the world. It is imperative that we expand our students’ capacity for global awareness. With some small changes, we can begin to shift their gaze outward.
This session will discuss the meaning and value of attaining global competence, and it will explore the reasons many students today lack global awareness. Participants will learn concrete strategies to incorporate a global perspective into their undergraduate classrooms. The session will conclude with a brief discussion to expand the conversation.
- Participants will explore the meaning and value of global competence.
- Participants will gain an understanding of why US students lack global awareness.
- Participants will understand the qualities of a global educator.
- Participants will learn concrete strategies for incorporating a global perspective into their classrooms.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session: N/A
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