Vital interests: cultivating global competence in the international studies classroom

Abstract

Are students being prepared for the challenges they will face in a globalising world? We investigated whether middle school students were interested in global issues, had knowledge of global issues and possessed the skills needed for competence as a citizen in a globalising world in the context of participating in a five-week, web-based international negotiation simulation conducted by the GlobalEd Project. A repeated measures ANOVA on a pre-and post-test scores and a chi square analysis on qualitative data indicated significant pre-to postincreases in knowledge and skills from this educational programme. Potential implications of these findings with regard to global education are discussed. Globalisation is everywhere, or so we are told. We hear about it on the television news. We read about it in newspapers and on the web. And, we experience it in our everyday lives. Global events have changed the ways each us of interact with others and our surroundings. Email, texting, social-networking, Internet video connections and other forms of communication allow us to communicate with individuals around the globe daily, in ways and at speeds that did not exist a generation ago. Implicitly, then, these globalising developments raise the question of whether members of society (and particularly American youth) are becoming more attuned to global issues and events than previous generations and whether they possess the interest and skills necessary to work effectively in this evolving, globalising world. Put simply, the development of interest in and skills relevant to global affairs is redefining what we might consider 'vital interests' for the current generation of students coming of age, and there has been evidence presented suggesting that American students are significantly behind students from other countries with regard to their perceptions of global awareness and global citizenship (Boyer et al. 2004(Boyer et al. , 2005 Brown 2007a, 2007b; NivSolomon et al. 2009;Yukhymenko and Brown 2009).Along these lines, Koehn and Rosenau (2002) discuss the degree to which individuals develop 'transnational competence' as they try to cope with the sociopolitical transformations of our time. They point to the new challenges created at individual and collective levels as people confront growing interdependence. These

On “Stepping Back and Letting Go”: The Role of Control in the Success or Failure of Social Studies Simulations

“…Two recent studies investigated simulations' impact on student achievement (Johnson, Boyer, & Brown, 2011;Parker et al, 2011Parker et al, , 2013. The findings of these studies demonstrated that simulations played a role in increasing student achievement.…”

Global citizenship education starts with teacher training and professional development

“…Scholars and practitioners have called for updating curricula (Waks, 2003) and additional ways to address insufficient training and lack of teacher professional development (Levine, 2010). Curricula that incorporate global citizenship education can help students understand and appreciate diverse perspectives, as well as remain competitive in a global marketplace (Johnson et al, 2011). Brunell (2013) emphasizes, in particular, that the pedagogical method of experiential learning (learning through experience) elicits student interest in global issues, builds global civic skills, and helps groom global citizens.…”

An ideology critique of global citizenship education

“…Others, however, do not see any contradiction between the two discourses, and argue for a complementary relation between both (e.g. Held & McGrew, 2003;Johnson et al, 2011;Jorgenson & Shultz, 2012). According to Johnson et al (2011), GCE is vital for the 'continued competitiveness of national economies and national security' (p. 516), and this endeavour complements the more humanistic goals of a critical approach to GCE:…”

“…As a way to struggle against this neoliberal trend, researchers advocate a logic of compensation, wherein critical democratic and emancipatory discourses and practices compensate for the overriding influence of neoliberalism in education (Camicia & Franklin, 2011;Huckle, 2004;Johnson, Boyer, & Brown, 2011;Jorgenson & Shultz, 2012). As mentioned by Jorgenson and Shultz (2012, p.…”