Global Understanding Course Inspires Teacher Innovation

Thanks to the support of several key institutions, Primary Source's recent course, Teaching for Global Understanding in the 21st Century, readied educators to provide their students with the content knowledge of other cultures, peoples, and histories they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. The intensive one-week summer program provided 57 educators with a strong background in a range of contemporary global issues, an introduction to current scholarship on how to address these challenges, and a model for using new technologies to develop students' 21st century skills, such as cross-cultural communication and critical thinking.

Partnerships with Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, the Longview Foundation, EF Education, Barefoot Books, and Watertown Savings Bank enabled Primary Source to successfully develop this course, hosted by Boston College. Educators of all grade levels and subjects explored themes that cross national boundaries: the global economy, social justice and human rights, the globalization of culture, the environment, and health and education.

Participating teachers left at the end of the course with a range of new strategies for engaging students. From the online orientation and Google Earth tour of course themes, to a live video-conference with teachers in Egypt, to an interactive technology workshop with Apple Education, educators gained first-hand experience with cutting-edge teaching tools that were almost unheard of ten years ago.

"Although I already cover many global topics in the classroom," noted one educator in the course, "this institute gave me new, exciting ways to connect students to the world. I can't wait to utilize these new tools."

The course also helped to shift the perspective of many educators who took part in the course. "There is much we already teach our students," another participating teacher reflected, "but we need to open them up more to the world and other students and teachers in other countries. Primary Source gave me ideas and now I have to be an agent of change."

As a result of Teaching for Global Understanding, a number of educators will be implementing new teaching strategies to integrate global themes into the classroom. Others will begin global education initiatives on a school or district-wide level. Some teachers plan on integrating elements of the International Declaration of Human Rights into all grade levels at their school, in an effort to raise student awareness about global human rights issues. Other course participants plan to bring a global focus to school assemblies and school-wide faculty meetings.

Download a video podcast* with teacher perspectives on Teaching for Global Understanding in the 21st Century.

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