Finding 1: Teachers must provide opportunities for intercultural collaboration
within and outside of the classroom.
I have always believed in the power of collaboration. I rely on collaboration in my classroom to allow students to construct their own knowledge and build relationships with each other. As I studied 21st century citizenship, I began to understand the need for new dimensions to the classic cooperative learning model. During my first semester, Yong Zhao’s (2009) work entitled Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization helped me understand the importance of intercultural contact. Zhao argues that schools must facilitate cross-cultural competency in order to foster success in the 21st century. He maintains that students will need to be prepared to collaborate with individuals from across the world in order to enter the 21st century job force successfully. In addition to reading Zhao’s work, my New Literacies and Media class had the opportunity to Skype with the author. During our discussion, I asked him how he thinks American teachers can expand their students’ ideas of citizenship. He stressed the interdependence of our world today and claimed that teachers must move away from nationalistic rhetoric. He pushed me to help my students understand how problems in other countries affect our community. He stressed that we are all human beings and should understand our connections to the world community. My experiences with Zhao’s work brought me to the understanding that intercultural collaboration would be essential to effective citizenship education in the modern world.
Throughout my course work, I have taken a special interest in exploring new dimensions of traditional cooperative learning pedagogy. In my Teacher as Researcher course, I formed my compelling question around the concept of collaboration. I asked, “How can I use blogging to facilitate a collaborative learning environment while providing instruction on global citizenship?” Through this project, I found that scholars have not agreed upon a single definition for global citizenship. Instead, many authors focus on the active qualities of global citizens. I quickly realized that teachers must allow students to build their own definitions of global citizenship through intercultural collaboration. In addition to completing a literature review, I surveyed 20 social studies teachers currently working in middle and high schools throughout North Carolina and interviewed four in-service teachers who work in social studies classrooms. I then defined my assumptions and analyzed my data. After I compiled my results, I spelled out my findings in a final research report. I concluded the following:
§ Many social studies educators feel responsible for building their students’ ideas of citizenship and supporting their inquiry.
§ Many social studies teachers are interested and willing to provide purposeful instruction on global citizenship in their classrooms, but they struggle to create materials on the topic.
§ Teachers commonly seek to define active global citizenship through global awareness and cultural tolerance.
§ Many social studies educators want to connect students with youth from around the world as a way to enhance their learning experiences.
§ Blogging provides an opportunity for students to build their own definitions of global citizenship by collaborating with students from other countries.
§ American policy makers should restructure the curriculum to include the concept of global citizenship with a specific focus on the significance of globalization for the 21st century classroom.
I then wrote a five-day unit for the Civics and Economics classroom that connects with the NC Essential Standards based on my research from this project. The unit relies on intercultural collaboration to build students’ knowledge of global citizenship. I sent the unit to my survey and interview participants for revisions. The final product calls for Civics and Economics teacher to partner with international classrooms and build intercultural dialogue around the concept of global citizenship. The unit not only allows students from different cultures to interact, but also requires that teachers collaborate in new ways.
§ Many social studies educators feel responsible for building their students’ ideas of citizenship and supporting their inquiry.
§ Many social studies teachers are interested and willing to provide purposeful instruction on global citizenship in their classrooms, but they struggle to create materials on the topic.
§ Teachers commonly seek to define active global citizenship through global awareness and cultural tolerance.
§ Many social studies educators want to connect students with youth from around the world as a way to enhance their learning experiences.
§ Blogging provides an opportunity for students to build their own definitions of global citizenship by collaborating with students from other countries.
§ American policy makers should restructure the curriculum to include the concept of global citizenship with a specific focus on the significance of globalization for the 21st century classroom.
I then wrote a five-day unit for the Civics and Economics classroom that connects with the NC Essential Standards based on my research from this project. The unit relies on intercultural collaboration to build students’ knowledge of global citizenship. I sent the unit to my survey and interview participants for revisions. The final product calls for Civics and Economics teacher to partner with international classrooms and build intercultural dialogue around the concept of global citizenship. The unit not only allows students from different cultures to interact, but also requires that teachers collaborate in new ways.
eci_523_final_research_report.docx | |
File Size: | 177 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Later in my graduate school career, I took a global learning course that allowed me to explore the tagline “Think global, act local.” I found that the core of global learning lies in the development of skills that facilitate intercultural contact. This intercultural contact does not require a trip abroad, but it can actually happen within your own community. I talked about my experiences with the Literacy Council of Wake County in my blog post on the topic. I think that this concept is especially relevant to students trying to explore the concept of global citizenship. Overall, my learning experiences with global learning and action research helped me understand that educators must embrace intercultural collaboration as a means of shaping students into 21st century citizens.
"It's Not A Competition: The Importance of Collaboration in Global Education" Blog Post
"It's Not A Competition: The Importance of Collaboration in Global Education" Blog Post