NAIS – Teaching Global Citizenship
This workshop was presented by Vicki Weeks from the Lake Side School in Seattle. She is the Director of Global Studies.
As the world grows smaller, how can we encourage students to value the diversity and complexity of a global society? Lakeside School has embraced this challenge and built a model for a global service learning program. Students spend four to six weeks in the developing world, living in village settings, and engaging in service learning projects. How did we develop program goals, design a curriculum, and ensure that students bring their service commitment back to our local community? We will present lessons learned from 2005 trips to China, India, and Peru, and describe next steps in developing Lakeside�s global service learning program.
Here are my notes that I took during her session “What is Global Citizenship and how do we teach it?” She primarily focused on High School students, but I can see ways on how to adapt the concept to middle and elementary school.
GLOBAL includes LOCAL
Create a committe that includes members from the
- Board
- Community members
- Faculty
- Administrator
Getting these groups involved is important if you want buy in.
Global Citizen:
- Knowledge
- A global citizen understands certain concepts and can call on a body of knowledge
- Geography & History
- Culture, including an understanding of one’s own culture
- Development
- Sustainability
- Finance and global economics
- US role in the World
- Skills
- A global citizen possesses certain skills
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Flexibility and resilience
- Creativity
- Communication
- teamwork
- Intelligent risk taker
- observation and reflection
- Attitude
- A global citizen embodies certain attitudes
- respectful
- ethical
- curious, open minded
- self-aware
- action oriented
- optimistic
- self-confident yet humble
In order for teachers to integrate and teach about being a global citizen, they need to be one! Send teachers abroad for service learning
Encourage students to say” What is my responsibility as a citizen of the world?” NOT
“It is my birthright”
Areas, that need constant improvement and attention:
- Curricular Integration
- Capacity for all students to be able to participate
- Deeper local connections
- Global Studies portfolio
- Language proficiency
- Senior globalization final project
Recommended reading: Five Minds for the Future
Could my child one day grow up to be president of the United States? That’s the question on the minds of parents who are witnessing history being made as President Barack Obama steps into his new role as Commander-in-Chief.
Some view his composure under pressure and multicultural empathy as important attributes of his character. Global Wonders, an award-winning educational entertainment DVD series that teaches children, 2-7, about cross-cultural friendships, couldn’t agree more. By exposing kids and families to a kaleidoscope of new cultures of their family, friends, neighbors and world, Global Wonders is helping teach children to become global citizens who are more aware and sensitive to other cultures and traditions.
Even if kids may not be exposed to the multi-cultural influences that shaped President Obama’s upbringing in Hawaii, Indonesia and Kansas, Global Wonders brings the world to them with dazzling animation, live action, fun music sing-alongs and friendly cross-cultural characters. According to an increasing body of research on child development, children who form friendships with children from different cultures are more likely to be viewed by teachers as being more socially inclusive and having leadership skills. Obama’s ease in navigating cross-racial and cross-ethnic divides may be a byproduct of his early exposure to cross-cultural friendships developed during his formative years.
Just 10 years ago, Lovelace and Scheiner’s preschooler race-relations study in collaboration with Sesame Street, revealed that preschoolers overwhelmingly believed that their mothers would feel negatively (“sad†or “angryâ€) about their participation in interracial friendships. The researchers, in collaboration with Sesame Street, then created two films, “Visiting Leshia†and “Play Date†portraying African-American and European-American children visiting one another in their respective homes and playing together. Again, after viewing the films, the children were asked how the A-A and E-A mothers of the children in the film would feel about the children’s play dates and relationships. Once again, children’s perceptions of parental response demonstrated that the mothers would be “sad†or “angry.†As a result, the authors recommended to Sesame Street to create skits and scenarios depicting mothers and fathers positively responding to their children’s interracial play dates and friendships for future shows. Ten years later, Global Wonders has done just that.
If you’d like to speak with Rashmi Turner, a first generation Indian-American and mother of two young cross-cultural children who founded the Global Wonders brand, we would be happy to arrange an interview with her.
Best,
Shari Nakakura
For Inspiring Minds Communication/Global Wonders
509/366-7778, nakakuras@aol.com