Global Literacy - Chapter 3 Summary

As part of my Global Literacy course, I chose to summarize Chapter 3 of Educating for Global Competence: Preparing Our Youth to Engage the World

Within Chapter 3, the authors focus on the processes that students would take when investigating issues and demonstrating global competences.  There are four steps identified that provide a framework for students to investigate world issues.  In addition to investigating the issues, students can continue to gain proficiency in Common Core standards.

The following four areas of investigation were discussed by the authors:

1.  Students will identify an issue, generate a question about the issue, and explain how the issue is related to local, regional, and global researchable questions.

2.  Students will use a variety of languages and sources, both domestic and international, to provide justification when addressing why and how the researchable question has a global significance.    

3.  By analyzing, integrating and synthesizing evidence, students will be able to create answers to the researchable questions that others can understand and comprehend.

4.  After completing the above three steps, students will able to develop an argument based on the evidence.  This argument would consider multiple viewpoints, including local, regional, and global perspectives while drawing conclusions that can be backed up by research.

Three separate lessons were used to describe examples of this process in classrooms around the world.  In all three examples, students completed the four areas of investigation.

The first example described a literature course where a 12th grade student was asked to look at the local, regional, and global significance of an author’s work.  The student selected a Cuban author. She used close reading to justify her argument that marginalization played a role in the author’s work.  

The second example lesson was a math lesson from a sixth grade classroom.  The lesson had students compare number systems from around the world and time periods.  They discussed why certain regions and individuals used a specific type of number system by researching how the different number systems suited the different needs of the citizens.

The third lesson example was from a Kenyan student’s 12th grade graduation project on the knowledge and beliefs about HIV/AIDS from three different religious groups.  The student conducted a survey and used the results to justify his hypothesis that different religious groups had different levels of knowledge and beliefs about HIV/AIDS.  Although his survey was only conducted between two schools, the issue he identified could easily be researched and investigated further.

In the conclusion of the chapter, the authors make it a point to mention that in addition to investigating global issues, students are also meeting the expectations of the Common Core State Standards.  By conducting the investigations about global issues, students are preparing themselves for college and possible careers while improving their global competence.  

As I reflect on this chapter, I realize that the four areas of investigation could be utilized by all subject areas.  I cannot stop thinking about different lessons and issues that I would like my math students to investigate.  I plan on looking at upcoming units and performance tasks to see if I can expand the focus to a more broader, global approach.  I would also like to share this information with my staff and encourage them to introduce this investigating process with their classrooms and improve the global competence levels of all grades in my school.