Standard-based Global Education Updates

Standards-based Global Education Updates

Below you will find a list (and links) of New York State Standards with a description and ideas on how these standards align with the goals of Global Education. This was part of the reflection TGC fellows were asked to during our eight week on-line course in order to reflect on the ways we can 'globalize' our classrooms while continuing to meet state mandates.

Each standard listed below can be found here:

New York State Standards: Social Studies (Commencement Level)

New York State Education Department; NYSED.gov

Standard 1: History of the United States and New York

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States and New York.

Key Ideas:

The study of New York and United States history requires an analysis of the development of American culture, its diversity and multicultural context, and the ways people are unified by many values, practices, and traditions.
Important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs and traditions from New York State and United States history illustrate the connections and interactions of people and events across time and from a variety of perspectives.
Study about the major social, political, economic, cultural, and religious developments in New York State and United States history involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.
The skills of historical analysis include the ability to: explain the significance of historical evidence; weigh the importance, reliability, and validity of evidence; understand the concept of multiple causation; understand the importance of changing and competing interpretations of different historical developments.

2. If the goal is for students to gain an understanding of the historical context and legacy of the place(s) in which they live, an ethnic studies lens applied to this standard, and a focus on stories of migration and immigration could help integrate global competencies. Through the study of New York and the U.S., students could learn about the cultures of people in every corner of the globe. The stories of forced migrations and immigration movements to and from the United States educate us not only about events taking place in the U.S., but the events taking place in the places from whence various groups came. Taking an ethnic studies approach, which centers the voices of people of color, and investigates the construction of race in the US an worldwide pushes the goal of critical thinking and broadens the context of understanding a variety of groups of people in the ways they have negotiated working within a dominant culture and power structure. This connects to globalized education in that students will not simply study cultures as static, but understand the interactions between groups.

3. Lesson plan modifications would focus mainly on considering which ethnic group’s voice is centralized in the telling of stories of New York or U.S. history. In other words, is the story being told through the lens of dominant Anglo-American voices, and unquestioningly so, or is the story being told through the perspective of marginalized people and how they experienced the actions of members of the culture of power, and what they were doing to resist or to act independently of the dominant culture. These modifications will target the global competency of Critical Social Justice and Disciplinary.

4. A summative assessment to demonstrate understanding of the experiences of multiple ethnic groups in the U.S. of certain historical moments could be a comparative essay of the experiences of two groups of one moment, that includes an explanation of the history of that group in the U.S. including how and why they ended up in the U.S.

Standard 2: World History

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in world history and examine the broad sweep of history from a variety of perspectives.

Key Ideas:

The study of world history requires an understanding of world cultures and civilizations, including an analysis of important ideas, social and cultural values, beliefs, and traditions. This study also examines the human condition and the connections and interactions of people across time and space and the ways different people view the same event or issue from a variety of perspectives.

Establishing time frames, exploring different periodizations, examining themes across time and within cultures, and focusing on important turning points in world history help organize the study of world cultures and civilizations.
Study the major social, political, cultural, and religious developments in world history involves learning about the important roles and contributions of individuals and groups.
The skills of historical analysis include the ability to investigate differing and competing interpretations of the theories of history, hypothesize about why interpretations change over time, explain the importance of historical evidence, and understand the concepts of change and continuity over time.

2. Clearly, this standard is focused on global perspectives, but the openness allows for a lot of choices on the part of teachers, which sadly, are often driven by what content and themes appear on the state global history standardized exam. Often, curriculum that claims to be helping students develop an understanding ‘world cultures and civilizations’ is positioned from a Eurocentric perspective that perpetuates the notion that Europeans are the central actors in the story of the world. I would add to this standard a requirement for narratives that tell the stories of Africa, Asia, Central and South America from a perspective that places people and cultures of these places at the center. In order to do this, histories of the world before the European imperialism of the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries must be honored and studied in depth. In order to truly integrate global perspectives and competencies into this standard, it needs to be more specific.

3. With this modification in the standard, specific lesson plan modifications would be mostly content oriented that focus on the perspective of the lesson and research materials as well as the cultural group being investigated. I believe this work would address the global competencies of World Governance/Human Rights by helping students to question and learn beyond dominant narratives that reinforce unequal power structures throughout the world, and Critical Social Justice.

4. A summative assessment to assess whether or not students are developing an understanding of cultures from perspectives that differ from the dominant narrative of history that pervades the U.S. could be a simple “RAFT” assignment, where students take on a specific ‘role’ and write a creative ‘mock historical document’ based on evidence from texts and other research sources. To ensure that this not become an exercise in reiterating stereotypes or assumptions, students must be well prepared with thorough research from both primary and secondary sources and must be required to incorporate that research in specific ways in their writing piece.

Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

Students will use a variety of intellectual skills to demonstrate their understanding of the necessity for establishing governments; the governmental system of the U.S. and other nations; the United States Constitution; the basic civic values of American constitutional democracy; and the roles, rights, and responsibilities of citizenship, including avenues of participation.

Key Ideas:

The study of civics, citizenship, and government involves learning about political systems; the purposes of government and civic life; and the differing assumptions held by people across time and place regarding power, authority, and governance and law. (Adapted from The National Standards for Civics and Government, 1994)
The state and federal governments established by the Constitution of the United States and the State of New York embody basic civics values (such as justice, honesty, self-discipline, due process, equality, majority rule with respect for minority rights, and respect for self, others and property), principles, and practices and establish a system of shared and limited government. (Adapted from The National Standards for Civics and Government, 1994).
Central to civics and citizenship is an understanding of the roles of the citizen within the American constitutional democracy, and the scope and limitation of a citizen’s rights and responsibilities.
The study of civics and citizenship requires the ability to probe ideas and assumptions, ask and answer analytical questions, take a skeptical attitude toward questionable arguments, evaluate evidence, formulate rational conclusions, and develop and refine participatory skills.

2. Expanding on the note in the first ‘key idea’, this standard could emphasize the requirement for students to learn about a wide range of political systems and the political and human values that underlie them. In particular, including the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/) would push students’ thinking beyond the values set in place and reinforced by the United States Constitution. Students should be pushed to question the ways governments, including the U.S. Government do or do not meet the Human Rights listed in this document, which connects to the fourth ‘key idea’ listed in the standard of developing the ability to probe ideas and assumptions. This would expand the standard’s integration of global perspectives by encouraging students to think beyond the set of national values espoused in the Constitution that prioritize certain rights listed in the UN’s Declaration, such as freedoms, the right to trial and the right to property ownership yet omit rights such as the right to an education, to an adequate standard of living, to health care, etc. By thinking outside the set of norms and values of one’s students’ nation and culture, they will develop a more sophisticated global perspective. This document also requires of it’s reader to consider all humans, regardless of national identity, as equal and equally deserving of certain rights, services and protections. Breaking the hold of nationalism that often prevents people from exercising compassion and understanding for people from around the world, students will certainly strengthen their global competencies.

3. Targeting the global competencies of World Governance/Human Rights, Cosmopolitan and Critical Social Justice, lesson plan modifications would include an examination of the Declaration of Human Rights, including questions that ask students to compare and contrast the documents and actions of the U.S. Government with the expectations outlined in the Declaration. In general, studies of governments that meet a variety of these expectations could illuminate possibilities in students’ minds for ways the U.S. Government structures and policies could do more to meet these expectations. This will also support students in “fostering [a sense of] collective responsibility” with respect to their outlook on both domestic and foreign affairs.

4. Assigning a comparative analysis of the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Human Rights would provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of both documents, and of the ways that they align and where the Constitution falls short according to the Declaration of Human Rights.