Friday, August 30, 2013

How to Use This Guide: An Introduction

Why global education? Or as students may well put it, "Why are we learning about people on the other side of the world who we will probably never meet? Why does it matter?" It matters because going forward we will be meeting with them anyway; if not face-to-face, then through communications, through work, through university research and collaborative projects. Perspectives that are not our own matter: because we need the rest of the world more than ever to shape a better future in which we can perceive our histories globally, in order to understand more effective solutions to problems that many of us face. Restricting ourselves to understanding history from our own perspective only, for example, limits our understanding of people we need to work with, and causes breakdowns in communication. Gaining an understanding of different cultures on the other hand enables a broadened worldview that frees us to communicate more easily when communication is vital.  The Asia Society, an eminent leader in global education, discusses "global competence" as being one of the major skills that every student needs to master: the ability to "understand and act on issues of global significance."

This guide is an attempt to integrate the intensive learning and knowledge I have gained over the course of the past year into a series of resources for educators at Crystal Lake Middle School in Broward County, Florida. Please feel free to use the resources, add comments, add resources yourselves, and inform all of us of new resources, especially local ones. I also would like to encourage anyone who is interested to apply for a Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship, or any of the other travel opportunities that I have supplied under Travel Opportunities for Teachers.

In fact, by clicking on any of the tabs on this blog, you will find information about the indicated topic. If you haven't yet read my travel blog, you can click on that as well. 

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