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**Global Education in 2011** **Reflection #1:Questions to Consider: (please provide your reflections to the following questions BEFORE progressing with this Wikispace).**

What is Global Education? Is Global Education a new trend in curriculums? How connected are the concepts of Global Education and 21st c Learning? How will today’s students become involved with global studies/issues? Is a Canadian perspective of Global Education different then a perspective from another nation? What is the greatest advantage to a student if they are provided with a Global Education?

Are you a global educator????

Teachers are currently adjusting to the many changes regarding curriculum and debating “what should be the focus of our teaching” daily with our students. Technology, occupations, and knowledge are all areas changing at increasing rates influencing education to be a force that engages students with current and relevant information and utilities a variety of learning activities. Many believe that global education, thereby helping to mold the “global citizen”, is the current task of education curriculums. McIntosh views the global citizen as “a citizen with habits of mind, heart, body and soul that have to do with working for and preserving a network of relationships and connections across lines of differences and distinctness, while keeping and deepening a sense of one’s own identity and integrity” (p 385 – text). Tupper reminds educators that there is a “care-less” or a “care-ful”l method of instructing students towards global citizenship. With careless citizens “denying or ignoring the false universalism embedded in liberal democracies…..that fail to understand the deep inequities that exist in the world” (p 259 – Tupper). Whereas Tupper views care-full citizenship as “in and of itself an action, a way of being” (p 260) through “participatory citizenship (that) promotes understanding of the workings of social and political organizations through participation in such organizations” (p 261).

Educators currently are bombarded with startling facts about changes predicted to our education systems, with emphasis placed on teacher to CHANGE and get ready for how our students will interact in a global environment. Please view the following two video clips – perhaps you have already watched these as they are often used to start “discussions” about what we should do ….

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 * 1) View clip #1 – Shift Happens Educational 2010

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 * 1) View clip #2 – A Vision of K-12 Students Today

Although some of the facts in these videos may already be outdated they indicate a clear change in instruction and a need for curriculums and teachers to TRY new methods. **Reflection #2 – Please record your response to each of these videos.**



In Alberta Social Studies we begin with the grade 10 theme of “globalization” and progress through nationalism to ideologies as key related issues by grade 12. Students are challenged to consider greater influences to their understanding of history through more then Eurocentric or ethnocentric perspective. But this process is often hampered with a student’s lack of historical reference, time restrictions for in-depth studies and some believe with high stakes testing at the grade 12 level the whole process is doomed before we begin (Tupper). As Smith indicates the challenge for curriculum in the new “millennium may be to develop the ability to deconstruct theory…and question previous unquestioned assumptions” (p 369 Smith) and consider our role in not just our local society but that of a global society (p 369). McIntosh encourages educators to develop with their students “global sensibility ….and to bring this sensibility into the school” (391). She refers to the advantages of travel (p 397) as a method for developing global awareness, analysis of global issues, and not giving up on “young people even if they do not want to become global citizens (396) – who among us understood these issues at the age of 16-18? McIntosh also promotes the understandings of the roles all peoples, including women, play in our globalizing world ( p 396).
 * The Challenge**

Many teachers feel overwhelmed by the amount of information about global education and are pressured to develop projects that reflect and encourage students to build more authentic global perspectives. The following are only a few of the many excellent sites that teachers may begin their challenge to understand the role of global education and how best to fit this theme into their curriculums.

Many educators believe that students often understand the world more clearly because they are not jaded with past negative experiences. Others believe students are not afraid to TRY something new – therefore without the fear of failure they are willing to experience outside their comfort zones. The following are project sites that support global education initiatives in Canada.
 * Project sites:**

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 * Sites:**

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 * Sites that include global education projects**

After experimenting with a few of these sites, do you see any valuable resources that might engage students in global “understanding” of citizenship and enrich their global education?
 * Reflection #3**