Global & Cultural Understanding

Every generation confronts the challenge of discerning what capacities and dispositions are the most important to nurture among its young people at a given moment in time. Today, profound economic, digital, demographic, and environmental forces are shaping people’s lives on the planet, thereby making the promotion of cultural and global understanding a priority. Our contemporary context requires us to examine how (1) young people can develop the capacity to understand themselves as well as people living in contexts that are different to their own; (2) teachers and learning environments can foster learners’ dispositions to make sense of the global issues of our times and take action toward societal wellbeing and sustainability; and (3) such capacities are both supported and hindered in today’s digital landscapes.

Resources

Book
Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation
A resource from Out of Eden Learn

Slow Looking: The Art and Practice of Learning Through Observation
A resource from Out of Eden Learn

Slow Looking provides a robust argument for the importance of slow looking in learning environments both general and specialized, formal and informal, and its connection to major concepts in teaching, learning, and knowledge. A museum-originated practice increasingly seen as holding wide educational benefits, slow looking contends that patient, immersive attention to content can produce active cognitive opportunities for meaning-making and critical thinking that may not be possible though high-speed means of information delivery. Addressing the multi-disciplinary applications of this purposeful behavioral practice, this book draws examples from the visual arts, literature, science, and everyday life, using original, real-world scenarios to illustrate the complexities and rewards of slow looking. ISBN-13: 978-1138240407

Discount Flyer
Find it on Amazon

×
Book
Children Are Citizens Book 2017
A resource from Children Are Citizens

Children Are Citizens Book 2017
A resource from Children Are Citizens

People from all around the world know about Washington, DC. They talk about it, write about it, draw it, and make movies and TV shows about it. But almost always, we hear only the opinions and ideas of adults.

For this book we invited some of our youngest citizens—preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders from DC Bilingual Public Charter School, Sacred Heart School, Seaton Elementary School (DCPS), E.W. Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, Sunshine Early Learning Center, and J.O. Wilson Elementary School (DCPS)—to tell us what they think of our city. We asked them to share their ideas in order to help other children (and adults) learn about what is important about DC. We asked their teachers to help students research the city and discuss their ideas with classmates and children from the other schools. Each teacher guided the children in different ways. The result is Washington, DC: "What People Like Most is in This Book!,” a title suggested by the children that conveys their connection to their city. In this book you will find a set of descriptions, theories, and stories—shared in pictures, words, and photographs—that are thoughtful, informative, and sometimes surprising. As Sergio Spaggiari, a veteran educator from Reggio Emilia, Italy, notes, "It seems that for cities to be understood and appreciated, they should be talked about in stories." You can learn a lot about our city from the stories in this book.

Jim Reese
Director, The Professional Development Collaborative at
Washington International School

On behalf of the Children Are Citizens coordinating team: Mara Krechevsky, Ben Mardell, Nathalie Ryan, Joanne Seelig, Stacy Steyaert, and Tim Wright

Use the resource links on the right to view the full book.

Children Are Citizens Book 2017

×
Article
How To Be A Global Thinker
A resource from Globalizing the Classroom, Interdisciplinary & Global Studies, Nurturing Global Competence in the Early Years, Educating Global Citizens through a US and China Lens, Signature Pedagogies in Global Education & Global Children

How To Be A Global Thinker
A resource from Globalizing the Classroom, Interdisciplinary & Global Studies, Nurturing Global Competence in the Early Years, Educating Global Citizens through a US and China Lens, Signature Pedagogies in Global Education & Global Children

View Full Article
Download PDF

×
Article
Interdisciplinary Learning: A Cognitive-Epistemological Foundation
A resource from Interdisciplinary & Global Studies

Interdisciplinary Learning: A Cognitive-Epistemological Foundation
A resource from Interdisciplinary & Global Studies

Preparing individuals to lead informed and fulfilling lives in dynamic knowledge societies requires that we nurture synthesizing minds. We must nurture individuals’ capacity to to knit together knowledge from vast and disparate sources into coherent wholes in order to address pressing issues of cultural and natural survival (Gardner 2006). Synthesis is a fundamental human capacity. It manifests early in life, when children engage in symbolic play, create artistic compositions, or learn the rules of a new game. To a certain extent, we learn to synthesize rather effortlessly by participating in societies where analogies, rich visual representations, and simple systems are ubiquitous. Interdisciplinary synthesis, however, presents heightened cognitive demands and requires deliberate instruction. It implies the integration of knowledge and modes of thinking in two or more disciplines in search for better understanding. Understanding how individuals learn to integrate different forms of expertise to create a work of art, explain a multifaceted phenomenon, fashion a new technology or propose a sustainable environmental solution is essential if we are to cultivate this capacity among collegiate and pre-collegiate youth. What cognitive processes are central to interdisciplinary integration? What kind of “knowing” is embodied in a historical monument, an explanation overfishing or a sustainable development policy? On what basis can we discern the relative success of such form of integrative cognition? Ultimately, how can we design instruction to nurture potent forms of interdisciplinary integration?
Find and download the full article under Resource Links to the right.

Download PDF

×
Article
Leading with the World in Mind
A resource from

Leading with the World in Mind
A resource from

In today’s interconnected world, leaders face new challenges and opportunities, and must possess different skills and competencies than were previously expected, such as comfort dealing with ambiguity and complexity, and the ability to work across cultural and linguistic differences. Globalization and advances in technology enable capital, goods, information, and people to easily move across borders. Simultaneously, global demographic changes and rapid urbanization in developing countries are causing a shift toward emerging markets. This increasing interconnectedness, and the opportunities for global cooperation and competition they present, accelerate the pace of innovation and require new business models and leadership styles. The ability to understand and navigate these changing global dynamics and the business, linguistic, and cultural landscape of developing markets is becoming increasingly important to success in international business.

Leading with the World in Mind

×