Fostering Global Competency in Your Classroom

Most educators are themselves the product of other educators, and this is true for me as well. Not only was I raised by two career public school teachers, but I had many remarkable teachers to model and emulate. My ninth-grade world history teacher, Mr. Miller, was passionate, knowledgeable, a touch zany—all things I tried to incorporate into my own practice. The thing I was most grateful for was how he endeavored to connect us to the wider world we inhabited.

As we studied the history of the globe, he would make sure we went beyond the past and taught us about the present by including current events, inviting international guests to talk with us, and adding his own travel anecdotes. Some things he did were subtle. For example, instead of saying, “If you visit Asia,” he would say, “When you visit Asia.” Decades later, when I traveled to some of the same places he mentioned in class, I wondered if my being there was the result of his efforts to make the world seem smaller, understandable, and more attainable.

Many schools and districts have created “portraits of a graduate” that define the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that a graduate from their institutions will acquire during their K–12 education to ensure future success. Many of these have featured some combination of “the four Cs”: communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking. Since then, districts have expanded this basic list to move beyond academics and focus more on a whole-child model that includes physical health, mental well-being, character, and the role students will play as citizens of an interconnected global community. 

That last element is more commonly known as “global competency.” It is the future-ready skill that is just as important as more well-known ones like communication and critical thinking, yet remains underutilized in classrooms.

What is Global Competency?

There are many definitions of what it takes to be a well-informed and empowered global citizen, but one of the best comes from Educating for Global Competence, by Veronica Boix Mansilla and Anthony Jackson, who define it as “the capacity and disposition to understand and act on issues of global significance.” This doesn’t just mean being wise to the dangers of climate change or occasionally reading international news. Global competency includes understanding cultures and developing respect for the people and ideas that students will encounter as they seek to make their own place in the world.

Students demonstrate global competence by doing the following:

• Investigating the world beyond their immediate area while making connections to what is happening within their local context
• Recognizing and appreciating perspectives of others from diverse places and cultures
• Communicating with diverse audiences and fostering appropriate interactions across cultural groups
• Feeling empowered to take collective action for sustainable development locally and globally

Our students might attend college with students from other countries. They could eventually work for an international corporation with offices on other continents, or they may decide to backpack around the world. Whatever they choose to do, global competency would be an immense asset because this skill set helps to keep more doors open in a world that continues to become more complex and interdependent.

How To Foster Global Competency in the Classroom

Even if you don’t teach a world language, you have a role in building future global citizens. Getting started isn’t as complicated as you might think. Many of the resources and strategies you would use to teach and assess other success skills, like critical thinking and problem-solving, can also be applied to global competency.

One of the best resources for a better understanding of what global competency looks like at the grade level you teach is the Asia Society’s Global Competence Outcomes and Rubric. This resource breaks down each of the four previously mentioned indicators into developmentally appropriate “I can” statements, which allow learners to reflect on their own progress and help teachers create relevant learning experiences. 

Global competency works across the curriculum and can be included in most subjects.

History classes often explore global events, so there are many opportunities to branch out and address what is going on in the places and with the people in your history textbook. For example, when studying ancient Egypt, you might look at current events in present-day Egypt and discuss local connections to contemporary challenges like water management or infrastructure projects. You might also utilize immersive content like the tours available to educators on Cyark’s Tapestry platform that allow for the exploring of far-off places.

Diversifying your texts in a language arts class is a good first step, but you can also build global competency through context. When your students read a novel, story, or essay that takes place in another part of the globe, spend some time helping them get familiar with the culture to broaden their understanding.

In science class, investigating challenges of sustainability is core to many parts of the Next Generation Science Standards, and many case studies draw on examples from across the globe. This is a natural way to fold in global competency. Learners can examine and compare the solutions pioneered in other countries with those being done here in America. For example, students could learn how the “extreme conservation” strategies used by park rangers in Virunga National Park to protect and preserve mountain gorilla populations have shaped the methods used to protect animals in other countries (such as black bears from poaching in the United States).

Visual arts teachers can profile the work of artists across the globe and have students explore how their lives and cultures provide inspiration for their art.

Global competency is about helping students see themselves as part of a larger, interdependent world. Years from now, perhaps our students will find themselves studying, working, traveling, or collaborating in places they once only read about in school. If so, the seeds of that journey may have been planted in our classrooms.