At Humanities Prep, we have a mission to serve students with diverse needs through a democratic school community, and do so with a strong and explicit commitment to our seven Core Values. In our work to live our commitment to our values of democracy, diversity, respect, intellect, truth, peace and justice, the philosophy and practices that are part of creating globalized classrooms can be useful tools. Many of the articles and tools found in the ‘Resources’ tab of this page provide concrete tools that can help us to continue to create units, lessons and assessments for our students to bring our core values into the daily practices of our classrooms. Many of these are practices that are already valued by and integrated into our school community and practices; these tools are here to support the work that we already do.
Introduction
Global Education can mean many things to many people. For me, the essential component of global education is a commitment to approaching curriculum development, classroom practices and interactions in ways that honor and value multiple perspectives and diverse voices; particularly those that are often silenced or marginalized by dominant social and historical narratives. When done with nuance and on multiple fronts, this helps to cultivate a classroom and school environment based on true respect for humanity through awakening an awareness and appreciation for people and ideas grounded in a variety of cultural practices and values.
As members of the school community’s global consciousness grows, a consciousness of representation, bias and narrative must also be emphasized in order to encourage an inquiry based emphasis on critical thinking and questioning of socially constructed systems of power that place assign value to various aspects of cultures in order to maintain systems of oppression.
Through investigating the stories of people from around the world through these lenses, whether these stories take place at home or abroad, both young people and adults can be empowered to engage in their local, and global, communities as responsible, ethical and positively active members. As we learn about cultural norms different from our own, we inevitably question the inequities of our own society that we might assume to be “normal”, and gain new imagination around what kind of world is possible.
In this now famous talk filmed at a TED conference in 2009, author Chimamanda Adichie speaks to the necessity of cultivating in ourselves and in our students the habit of seeking out and considering the world from multiple perspectives and in lifting up the voices of people often silenced or marginalized by dominant narratives in order to combat bigotry, dismantle systems of oppression and inequity and support our students in growing into a generation of adults who are empowered and have the tools to create a more just world.
As educators, we must be conscious of the narratives we construct in our classrooms, and hold ourselves accountable for challenging the 'single story' if we seek to make our classrooms sites of true intellectual inquiry and social justice. In many ways, this is what the philosophy and practices promoted through 'Global Education' seek to do.
How this site might be useful:
Under the ‘Resources’ tab you will find several lists of different types of resources, the most useful of which will likely be the last four. The ‘Global Education Assessment Tools’ contains a variety of links to tools that have been designed and published by organizations working to support teachers in ‘globalizing’ their classrooms. Many are checklists that are in line with our Core Values and could be useful in planning both lessons and assessments.
The ‘Local Resource Guide’ is a list I compiled of local organizations working to compile resources on global education, as well as organizations and sites that might make good collaborators or field trips to enhance units you are developing or already teach, or great places to bring your advisory.
The ‘International Learning Opportunities’ list includes both travel opportunities for students and organizations that provide curriculum and support for teachers looking to globalize their classrooms and promote social justice through their classrooms.
Finally, under ‘Additional Resources’ you will find links to organizations that focus on anti-racist work and research and news sources that analyze the past and present through a racial justice lens. I’ve included these as they may be useful supports to the work we do in our school community to combat injustice and particularly racism, and in our immediate community. In our local and immediate context of New York City, it seems to me that the themes of global education resonate most with issues of racial injustice and supporting our students in making sense of and unlearning the racial power structures and biases they have been fed living in the US.
How Global Education relates to what we do at Humanities Prep:
What is Global Education?
