Why Global Education?

From Flickr Creative Commons: The Dream Rocket Project

In a recent blog post from Cool Cat Teacher Blog, Global Education came up as a topic for the day. This post lead me to World Savvy, a website that defines Global Education, and the importance of it.  One quote from the website that really caught my attention is about the impact Global Education has on students. "Research show that students who learn 'about global issues are more than twice as likely to see the point of personally undertaking social action. Global learning encourages awareness and critical thought about issues such as poverty, climate change, different religions and cultures as well as world trade and politics,' and students who are educated about global issues, from multiple perspectives, are more likely to exhibit tolerance and acceptance of religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity, and demonstrate increased empathy for individuals." I want all of those qualities to be present in my classroom and the actions of my students. It takes time to help children become well-rounded students and citizens, but I think that using Global Education is a great way to instill those qualities and perspectives into students throughout their K-12 schooling. In the following video, a 6th grade teacher tells why she thinks global education is important. What would you do if your school decided to go global?



According to an article from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, global education is: "an education perspective which arises from the fact that contemporary people live and interact in an increasingly globalised world. this makes it crucial for education to give learners the opportunity and competences to reflect and share their own point of view and role within a global, interconnected society, as well as to understand and discuss complex relationships of common social, ecological, political and economic issues, so as to derive new ways of thinking and acting. However, global education should not be presented as an approach that we may all accept uncritically, since we already know there are dilemmas, tensions, doubts and different perceptions in an education process when dealing with global issues." Using this description, I think that global education is the future of education. I want to be able to instill the foundations of global learning into my students as a future teacher. What about you, what do you like or not like about global education in the classroom?