This document summarizes a presentation given by Jason R. Harshman and Tami A. Augustine at the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education conference in Indianapolis. The presentation explored developing a more globally minded approach to teacher education. It discussed incorporating global citizenship education, contemplative practices, and modeling simulations to help teacher candidates develop perspective consciousness and a critical understanding of complex global issues. The presentation provided examples of activities and reflections from teacher candidates that demonstrated growth in open-mindedness, empathy, and understanding of interconnectedness.
What a Difference a Global Education Paradigm for Social Studies Teacher Education Can Make
1. Jason R. Harshman
Tami A. Augustine
The Ohio State University
American Association of Colleges for Teacher
Education (AACTE) Conference
Indianapolis, IN
March 2, 2014
2. Purpose & Rationale
RQ: How can we develop a more globally minded approach to teacher
education and what does this pedagogical approach mean for
transformative thinking by teacher candidates?
“little work to date on understanding what impact global citizenship
education programs have actually had on students’ perceptions of their roles
and responsibilities as global citizens” (Richardson, De Fabrizio, & AnsuKyeremeh, 2011, p. 96).
“I am honestly ashamed of my worldview. I ultimately viewed everywhere
outside of the U.S. as a place that needed help and guidance from either U.S.
participation or observation. I figured I could be used someday as a teacher
over in some third world country or even just help build a few houses. I still
plan on doing both of those things, however, I will no longer be going into
world traveling with such a Euro-centric viewpoint. I am completely guilty of
what we have been discussing in class—I have always looked at history from
only the White American perspective.”
3. Pre-course reflections
“Our social studies education
throughout school was very
one sided. They did not teach
from any point of view than
the typical text book stand
point. There are many items
listed on the "Other Teachers'
Decisions" that the way my
teachers taught falls into. For
example, the teachers tended
to reaffirm stereotypes among
other groups and portrayed
other cultures through an
American viewpoint rather
than from the actual cultural
view point.”
“My high school and undergraduate
education was definitely lacking a
global touch…Once I got to
college, the only world cultures class
I took was, again, history. My
education about the modern-day
world and even recent history is
severely lacking. The fact that those
sort of classes are not required for
even a future Social Studies teacher
makes it difficult for more global
educators to enter the workforce
and the vicious circle continues.”
4. Problem #1: Globalization
• Dichotomizing the
local and the
global.
• Focus on markets
and technology.
• Something that
happens around
us.
7. Global Education is…
• “an approach that develops students’ knowledge, skills, and
dispositions to promote individual and collective responsibility for a
sustainable, equitable, just, humane, and peaceful world.”
• “A way to prepare students to develop a critical perspective that would
allow them to view the world with critical understandings and concern.”
• “A method of helping students develop a sense of social responsibility
and commitment to finding just and peaceful solutions to global
problems.”
• “A critical study of cultures, peoples, and systems of various nationstates yet which must avoid exotic understandings of cultural
practices.”
• “A way to promote global issues such as diversity, equity, and social
justice, especially issues of
power, privilege, oppression, racism, sexism, classism, xenophobia, ex
ploitation, and more.”
Ukpokudo, O.N. (2010). Teacher preparation for global perspectives pedagogy. In B. Subedi
(Ed.) Critical global perspectives: Rethinking knowledge about global societies. (pp. 121-142).
Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
8. Constructing a Global Education
Paradigm in the Social Studies
As “the degree of frequency of events involving global interdependencies” continues
to rise, the inclusion of more perspectives in order to learn about the complexity of
global issues is needed (Pike & Selby, 1988, p. 3).
“Idealizing the global as a novel process of interconnectedness conceals inequality
and disguises the long-standing interdependence and imbalanced power relations
among countries, regions, and cultures” (Agbaria, 2011, p. 70).
“It is this perspective—local, critical, and in light of prevailing global economic
competition—that must become a part of global education” (Gaudelli, 2013, p. 554).
“Basic principles and purposes of civic education and citizen development are
stunted and distorted when discrimination against minorities remains a social norm.
But the social studies curriculum, with its traditional focus on history rather than
issues, often treats racism and prejudice as though these are resolved social
events, historic artifacts from a previous period” (Nelson & Pang, 2006, p. 116).
9. Foundational Habits of Mind
OpenMindedness
Awareness of the
diversity of ideas
and practices to be
found in human
societies around
the world, of how
such ideas and
practices compare
Empathy
Examining the
thoughts and
feelings of others
from their own
perspective and
includes
perspective
consciousness
Interconnectedness
Connection of
global systems
and dynamics
Of
students, commu
nities and other
peoples –
inequities
10. - Risky
Tami A. Augustine
- Political
- Cultural
- Articulates worldviews through "subaltern
knowledge”
- Liberating
Overlap
Spiritual Pedagogy
- Embodied
Critical Global Education
- Examination of unequal global
- Sacred & Grounded in
- Develops knowledge, skills and
Truth
formations
dispositions for critically studying
- Dialogic
cultures, peoples, and nation-states
- Redemptive
- Global issues:
11. Globally Minded Approaches
to Teacher Education
“teachers need to work on themselves…rather than
becoming dogmatic or close-minded, teachers can
ready themselves, through a variety of exercises, for the
challenges, difficulties, and possibilities of education in a
globalizing environment” (Hansen, 2011, p. 33).
Bond (2003): Three approaches are often used by
faculty to internationalize curriculum
• Add-on
• Curricula infusion
• Transformative approach
13. Contemplative Practice
We found the silence you kept talking
about. And I feel like it got us ready to learn
and we could start thinking deeper. Really
let us open our mind completely.
When we do the meditation, I feel as if I’m
a new person after it. I’m not stressed. My
mind is clearer. And then, you can really
actually get into deeper stuff. You can
actually talk about stuff like that. Well, me
personally, I can clear out the stress, clear
out the checklist, and then really talk about
the stuff that we need to talk about. It’s
good. I really like that.
14. connecting with stillness
connecting with stillness
“We focus on the outside world in
education and don’t look much at
inwardly focused reflective skills and
attentions, but inward focus impacts
the way we build memories, make
meaning, and transfer that learning into
new context” (Yang, 2012).
16. World Religions Panel
• Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism
• “The truth is one, the wise call it by many
names.”
• Faith not as a religion – but as a way of life.
17. “Am called Kah
Moma, born in
Mutengene Cameroon. From a
family of five and am
the second child. My
parents are still alive
both engaged in petty
trading business.
Did my primary and
secondary schooling
in Buea - Cameroon
where i obtained my
GCE ordinary and
advanced level. I then
proceeded to the
University of Buea Cameroon where i
had my Bsc Degree in
Sociology and
Anthropology in
2008.”
18. Modeling a Simulation: Global Education,
Curricula, & CCSS
“our
lessons
on
citizenship
education brought to our attention
the importance of teaching with
open-mindedness
to
all
perspectives.
In
discussing
standards and perspectives, we took
the previous lesson that stressed
representing multiple voices and
incorporated that into an introduction
to the standards. We learned how
these “voices” can be represented
and still teach the standards.”
19. Global Education Resources
Scavenger Hunt
I thought it was important that this
source was from the Great Britain
because it was more likely to be
unbiased about the US use of
fracking. Similarly, it allowed me to
understand whether or not other
countries, like Great Britain are
using fracking as well.
I knew that I wanted to incorporate
multiple perspectives but I had trouble
thinking where they could come from.
This website had specific viewpoints
on fracking that made it easy to create
participants in a fracking conversation.
This Saudi Arabian website contained information on The
Kingdom Holding company. It gave me information on
Prince Alwaleed and what the company he owns does that
was crucial for understanding what his perspective on
fracking in the United States.
#toFrackOrNot
President Obama, Prince Alwaleed, Sandra
Steingraber, Dan Dinges, and Larry Jenkins
20. Global Agents
“teachers need to work on
themselves…rather
than
becoming
dogmatic
or
close-minded, teachers can
ready themselves, through
a variety of exercises, for
the
challenges, difficulties, and
possibilities of education in
a globalizing environment.”
(Hansen, 2011, p. 33)
21. “We proceeded down the alley and encountered
many people BUT nearly all had headphones
plugged into their ears or were chatting on their
cellphones. It was quite sad to see this amount of
alienation because the reason for which we were
patrolling High Street was interconnectedness to
the world not to some phone or some headphones.
Think about this for a moment. Can not the
mindless devotion to cell phones and the plugging
in of earphones be a powerful metaphor for how
many of our fellow women and men think about the
larger world? Everyone seems to be in their own
little worlds and don’t see the wider world.”
"Uniting the flavors of many
nations under one menu."
Hybridity? Deterritorializing food
and culture? Border crossing? A
product of and for global capital?
What about homogenizing and
conflating a nation’s multiple
cuisines into a single flavor?”
22. Community and Cross-cultural learning
• Noor Islamic Center
• Multiculturalism/Global cultures in the
North Market
• Global Agents in School Districts
• Dabakh African Restaurant
• Banana Leaf Indian Restaurant
• Somali Women and Children’s Alliance
24. Open-Mindedness
• All this has made me more open-minded I would
definitely say because I started this program
crying in your office saying I can’t do this. I’ve
come a ways since then so that’s been
transformative definitely and maybe being just
more accepting of other people’s views in social
studies especially. Because I think sometimes I let
my pride issues like run where I just don’t want to
listen to other people’s opinions but I think I’ve
become better with that. Like with John. I was
really mad at him after that conversation about
feminism, but now we talk more and we actually
have a lot of the same beliefs. This all helped me
be able to talk like that and listen.
25. Empathy
I think that’s one thing that a lot of us struggled with and
are probably, at least for myself, am now able to push past
that and understand what she means. Looking at people
that we thought were evil or did something terrible and
things like that. Seeing them as a person and realizing
something had to make them tick to do that. When you stop
“othering” them you can see something happened to this
person. I just had a kid at school fight and I really thought
about that video and empathy and realized he didn’t
necessarily just do that because they wanted to pick a fight
but that maybe there was a deeper lying reason for that
and I at least needed to slow down and ask him about it.
26. Interconnectedness
• The whole interconnectedness through a spiritual lens
kinda has got me thinking a lot. I just thought we were
connected through trade and stuff like that. Like – you
are always connected to something and someone.
• I originally said that I thought interconnectedness was
this (interlacing fingers) but now I don’t think so cause
interconnectedness can’t just do this (pulling fingers
apart). It’s not that simple – if you wanted to disconnect
something you’d have to go through like a million strings
to try and get one out and then it would all knot up
anyway. I mean – we might think it’s possible – but is it
really?
27. Reflective Inquiry and Application in
the Social Studies Classroom
•
How can students effectively use critical
media literacy to analyze the power dynamics
of Western dominant nations and those they
effect to foster a critical global perspective?
•
How does a global education approach to
teaching
citizenship
education
inform
instruction in a 21st century social studies
classroom?
•
How does critical pedagogy inform teaching
for global mindedness in a 21st century social
studies classroom?
•
How will incorporating a critical global
education approach to teaching for social
justice in the social studies classroom
positively effect students’ motivation and
learning?
“There is no such thing as
a complete global
education, but I do think
that we can achieve a
thorough global education.
Have I been given this
through my 17 odd years of
schooling? No. Do I think
that I have been given the
tools to make this a reality
in my own future? Yes.
Can I make this a reality for
my own students? Well
that will require a great
deal of change from far
more important educators
than myself, but you better
bet I am gonna try.”
29. IMPLICATIONS/TAKE AWAYS
• Global teacher educators do not only teach about global education
but incorporate and model globally minded practices throughout
their course(s).
• Global teacher education provides pre-service teachers with
opportunities to develop perspective consciousness and crosscultural skill development.
• Global teacher education requires that pre-service teachers
decenter their worldview to more thoroughly examine and teach
about complex global issues.
30. Contact Information
• Jason R. Harshman:
E-mail: harshman.22@osu.edu
Twitter: @tchlrnchnge
Website: http://jasonrharshman.weebly.com/
• Tami A. Augustine:
E-mail: augustine.19@osu.edu
Twitter: @tchheartmind
Website:
http://augustine16.wix.com/teachheartmind
Notes de l'éditeur
Conflation of globalization and global education leads to misunderstanding of what global education entails and why more critical approaches to globaleducation in teacher education are required
Merryfield’s “"What a Difference Global Education can Make” (2002)
We identify three misconceptions that persist when discussing and conceptualizing global education (we welcome more thoughts/ideas).There are multiple forms of globalization and it is not new. Think historically.It is more than economics: cultural pluralism,hybridity, and the fact that tribal music is Mariah Carey in Nigeria.
A current events approach is inadequate and can have the opposite effect: Strange, exotic, weird events pop up and that is all student learn about that country, place, people. It is like using the quiz to say this is what is going on in the world, without context or criticism.Image from Hanvey, 1976.
Twain: schooling and educationLacks a critical perspective, is more concerned with history rather than future oriented, and is being marginalized by emphasis on U.S. civics and government education.Emphasis on competition, economic/capitalist motivations. Lack of resources that are current, diverse, and not produced in the U.S.Hanvey writes: “If this is the way the media are: event-centered, and potent servants of both traditional and emergent elements of the national culture, what then of the schools? The schools, after all, are also carriers of the national culture. But the schools must stake out a niche that balances and corrects the media” (p. 4).
What I like about these is that you are offered multiple entry points. Global Ed. is not one, set approach or there is not one way to say you are doing the work of global education.Think back to our class on global citizenship and what it means to be a global citizen? We will come back to this next week, but I want you to start revisiting and thinking about the issues we brought up a few weeks ago: are you a global citizen simply by being here? Is it a privileges status? Do you have to travel to be a global citizen (think about last week’s Anthony Bourdain clip), are global citizens necessarily people with good intentions?So how do we bridge this “out there” global perspective with our lives here?How many of you want a teaching job someday?
Case’s perceptual: “formulate opinions about the world on the basis of extensive, open-minded inquiry” and through the promotion of “rational reflection” (p. 320).
In earlier literature on Global Education we talk about the perceptual dimension and the substantive. The field breaks up what we do as global educators already – acknowledging the need to foundational habits of mind before moving to bring in the global educationperspectove. Evolution in the field to a more critical approach to global education continues to emphasize the importance of habits of mind such as open-mindedness and empathy – and I would add a sense of interconnectedness between peoples as foundational to be able to move toward a more critical approach. It was this emphasis on these habits that served as a bridge for how I came to my approach of teaching global education. Frame as perceptual dimension (case) inner dimension (pike and selby)Empathy – case 1992Interconnectedness – case 1992 – merryfield expands in 1998 – pushing to more critical place by including the interconnectedness of inequality, power dynamics, etc.
What distinguishes my approach to teaching global education is the inclusion of the spiritual pedagogy as a way to teach the global. What you see here is the combination of a spiritual pedagogy – which is based on work by bell hooks, Parker Palmer, and Cynthia Dilllard. The work Dillard discusses is a spiritual research paradigm and this work shifts this into a pedagogy to be taught in teacher education classes – along with other pedagogies. The ways in which to combine the spiritual pedagogy and critical global education became clear as we used the habits of mind to act an a bridge between the two.
We divide our global education pedagogy in teacher ed into three sections:Content and Perspective development—laying a foundation and helping students unpack prejudices, stereotypes, and attempt to fill in gaps in knowledgeCurriculum and Resources—we begin from the question: Who is missing? To look to decenter the Eurocentric voices and build not only multiple perspectives, but multiple positionalties related to an issue to better discuss issues of power, patriarchy, social injustice, inequity, and more.Application by the student teachers and reflection: how do they transfer their learning and provide opportunities to their own students to, as Kumashiro discusses, learning is supposed to be unsettling. Darker Nations: Zinn’s publisher, a history of the cold war students do not typically have—not in college, but also the high school content that focuses on U.S. and U.S.S.R.this book offers examinations of the non-aligned nations to provide better understanding for currents issues.Diversity and Citizenship Ed: the Banks book offers examinations of diversity and citizenship from multiple countries beyond the U.S.Noddings: peace education, place-based education, feminism, citizenship, not much depth on concepts within global ed, but a breadth that offers multiple entry points for students.Kumashiro: What we like about this text is that the first section gives an accessible discussion of what social justice work involves and the role educators can play. The second section of the book is broken up by discipline—social studies, English, mathematics, science (interestingly, not art)—and gives lesson ideas for integrating the theories into the classroom. Students were asked to look at the lesson ideas across multiple disciplines and how they would incorporate global perspectives to not only teach for social justice, but to also demonstrate that global approaches are trans-disciplinary and not relegated only to social studies (as we know).
CP three characteristics: the continuous creation of new categories, openness to new information, and an implicit awareness of more than one perspective. She states that the essence of mindfulness is flexible thinking. Fellow Mary Rose O’Reilly, in Radical Presence: Teaching as a Contemplative Practice, says that it has to do with being awake, being there, being present, listening, creating a space for learning and for developing an inner life by your very attention to the moment. The time of silence at the beginning of class permitted us to get ready for learning. They were able to clear their minds – and then be ready to grapple with complex material that was new to them – and most often had no answers. It really helped us mark the beginning of class. And all it took was two minutes.This introduction and embracing of silence also extended into our activities – one called a serial testimony had a big impact on the students. This came out of an article we read about listening in a democratic society. In the article Walter Parker discussed the importance of listening not only in society and to strangers – but also in the classroom where he felt there simply is not enough listening. I asked to listen to people who may be different than us or have different views and privilege what the speaker is saying and see it from there perspective – and set aside my own reaction to what they are saying. To take the stance of acknowledging the speakers expertise in their own experience and that as the listener I have incomplete knowledge. Finally, cto respond with care – in that we do not need to say everything that we think – but rather choose what will add to the space.Combined with other activities – this changed how the students say listening. Students began describing listening and deep listening and for them there was a clear difference. When we listen we may or may not actually be listening – especially in the classroom. We are thinking about a rebuttal - oh I know what I will say next!– or how I can fix whatever it is they are sharing. I have a solution!, what we will make for dinner, our to-do lists. Deep listening is slower, focused, and difficult. It created a space where we were better able to disagree with one another – question what each other said and know that we had been listened to. It is also difficult to be listened to in such a manner as the participants wanted that immediate feedback – whether positive or negative – they wanted someone to respond to their comments immediately. The pauses we created were uncomfortable. Multiple participants discussed that they realized they had a need for that validation from someone else and wrote in their reflections about wanted to be more confident in their own thoughts. Enough so that they could stand on their own. Deep listening also allowed them to honor another person’s perspective and really hear it and consider it.
An increasing number of studies in cognitive psychology, from around the world and most recently in the United States, suggests that reflection and quiet time are essential for learning. It is a mind that integrates information and experiences so students can move forward with greater confidence, less stress, and better prepared for learning.Writing – offering reflection and “speaking back” to discussions, points raised in class we discussed in depth or that we did not pick up, readings, etc. and also to revisit topics from previous classes.
I take a few minutes at the end of my classes to introduce perspectives not yet considered to the work students do as educators and citizens in an increasingly interconnected world. The videos, images, and other resources used for "Views and Voices in Our World" typically align with a theme or essential concept from that day's class and serve as equal parts motivation, reflection, and perspective consciousness for students as they continue to expand how they think about their work as teachers.
As a way to discuss multiple perspectives – I brought in a world religions panel – or at least the world religions that we focus on in the Ohio middle school content standards. Minus Christianity. The people I chose intentionally worked toward addressing stereotypes – so the two Muslim men were from a middle-class neighborhood and were immigrants – but their younger siblings were born here in the US. The woman representing Hinduism grew up Southern Baptist and converted to Hinduism. It was about each religion individually – shifting to the Abrahimic religions and the Dharmic religions- to where they all intersect and are quite similar. We also discussed what it is like living in a country where your religion is not the dominant religionAnd then how we can teach other’s faiths without making unintentional mistakes or being offensive. How would you want a teacher to teach about your faith to young people.
Set-up discussion board, Skype for class sessions, KwaZulu Natal University in Durban, S. Africa--full time Graduate students, teachers seeking a Master’s degree—some drove over one hour to go to school and Internet access was either on campus or through their smart phones--Discussions about citizenship and LGBT rights, global perspectives, colonialism, work of educators, Mandela’s passingReturned for perspective on class work and topics in student teaching, citizenship in S. Africa and U.S.
A second area we focus on is curriculum and resources—simulation on creating a global education curriculum in schools—analysis of the curricula/state standards they will teach to discuss the extent to which it is or is not desirable, possible, what would be needed to achieve the goal. Students took on perspectives and then engaged in a simulation (methodologically this was done to model for students how to organize and run a simulation. Students also reflected on the extent to which the simulation addressed the CCSS for their grade level while also integrating a global education approach.
After we develop the ability to acknowledge our own worldviews – the understanding of MP and being able to identify the missing voices and perspectivesExamination of current resources on particular topicAdditional resources must introduce multiple perspectives/ missing voices/ global perspectivesThree resources must be from outside the US5th grade lesson that incorporates multiple perspectives inside the US, takes fracking outside the US to examine what countries around the world are doing – and the interconnectedness of such decisions across the globe The lesson asks the 5th graders to have their toFrack or Not conversation via twitter.What we see here are some justifications as to why one student chose her resources- I had them justify this so we can get at their thinking and reasons behind. We don’t just choose a resource because it is the first thing we find – we need to make intentional choices around them – why did we choose these resources?
Also needed to move outside of the classroom for a community connections approach. Global agents assignment along with a semester long project using Tumblr.
Throughout the city, away from class, but related to class themes/discussions—photos, videos, and blogging for a dialogue to also use social media. Cultural globalization (Appadurai) and that culture is always becoming (Stuart Hall) as is place (Massey).
Multiculturalism and the Market: Michael W. Hobson, The Year I Smelled Like Milk: Stories from Beijing and Beyond (2010): “You know,” I said during Free Talk, “apartments in Beijing all smell like soy sauce to me.’ “Really?” Their fascination told me I was onto something. I continued: ”What do you think Americans smell like?” They didn’t even pause: “Milk!” Students could not just festishize culture nor just consume, but were require dot go beyond the surface by learning about the products and speaking with the shop owners
SkypeAfter introductions to global education extended learning – what can we do to take actions. Builds off GE definition of Asia Society. Gave great examples of what to do in MS classrooms and what had been done in other classrooms they have worked with. Social Justice – ActionResources
Third section: Application and reflection of students/Transformative aspect of global teacher educationOne of the main findings of the study was that the SP was transformative for the participants – especially in relation to the habits of mind. In order for transformative learning to take place, the heart, spirit, and the mind must be engaged in the learning process. Central process to transformative learning may be rational, effective, or experiential – not one single experience or approach – internal or external (Taylor, 2006)“Transformative learning creates a more expansive understanding of the world regarding how one sees and experiences both others and one’s self and is grounded in one’s entire being. Such learning increases one’s sense of an ability to make a difference in the world and leads to a greater sense of purpose and meaning” (p. 37).
Connecting with compassion – which connects it to habits of heart. You just can’t separate them. Seeing things from other people’s perspective but using that vision to – I think using that to guide the way that you approach situations in certain ways. But, now, its an action. If I feel empathy – I want to take action. We also talked a lot about empathy and violence. One video I showed of a woman from Ireland was call “Disarming with Empathy” and the idea was – once I have empathy – I no longer need violence nor forgiveness – because I see myself in you.Shortly after we watched this President Obama gave his speech regarding the use of chemical weapons in syria ad potential US response. One of the students created a wordle and we examined the words – which we found to focus on the humanitarian reasons for bombing Syria. It brought us back to the video – and in the video we use empathy to avoid violence – but they felt President Obama was playing on people's empathy of children and the innocent to use violence. We grappled with the question – is empathy inherently non-violent? Once we introduce violence – even to protect the innocent – what does it become?
Interconnectedness got more and more complex to the students. As we shifted away from the interconnectedness of trade or the economy – the students began to see the interconnectedness of the environment – the events around the world – and the interconnectedness of people they have never even met. This was a big shift for them.