What is Global Competence anyway?

Today I am loving the Asia Society's 'education and learning' stockpile. Asia society has created efforts across domains to form the Partnership for Global Learning. It is an innovative educational movement.

"As a membership network, its purpose is to provide leadership and structure to move international education from the margins to the mainstream by connecting policy and practice to prepare American students to excel in an interconnected world."

The interconnected programs and schools are pushing boundaries in order to advance global competence in youth. So, what exactly is global competence? Broken down, it works like this....

Investigate the world

Children are naturally curious. A Montessori school toy.

Students investigate the world beyond their immediate environment.

This means they are able to Generate and explain the significance of locally, regionally or globally focused researchable questions.

Identify, collect and analyze the knowledge and evidence required to answer questions using a variety of international sources, media and languages.

Weigh, integrate and synthesize evidence collected to construct coherent responses that is appropriate to the context of issues or problems.

Develop an argument based on compelling evidence that considers multiple perspectives and draws defensible conclusions.

Recognize Perspectives

Image from Pieterse's 'Globalization and Culture'

Students recognize their own and others’ perspective.

Recognize and articulate one’s own perspective on situations, events, issues or phenomena and identify the influences on that perspective.

Articulate and explain perspectives of other people, groups or schools of thought and identify the influences on those perspectives.

Explain how the interaction of ideas across cultures influences the development of knowledge and situations, events, issues or phenomena.

Articulate how the consequences of differential access to knowledge, technology and resources affect the quality of life and influences perspectives.

Communicate Ideas 传达想法

deel Ideeën mee

communiquez les idées

Teilen Sie Ideen mit

Επικοινωνήστε τις ιδέες

Comunichi le idee

考えを伝えなさい

아이디어를 전하십시오

Comunique idéias

Связывайте идеи

Comunique las ideas
Kuwasiliana wawazo
لإيصال الأفكار

Students communicate their ideas effectively with diverse audiences.

Recognize that diverse audiences may perceive different meanings from the same information.

Use appropriate language, behavior and strategies to effectively communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, with diverse audiences.

Explain how effective communication impacts understanding and collaboration in an interdependent world.

Select and effectively use appropriate technology and media to communicate with diverse audiences.

Take ACTION

Image from Change.org on Social Entrepeneurship

Students translate their ideas and findings into appropriate actions to improve conditions.

Recognize one’s capacity to advocate for and contribute to improvement locally, regionally, or globally.

Identify opportunities for personal and collaborative action to address situations, events, issues or phenomena in ways which can make a difference.

Assess options for action based on evidence and the potential for impact, taking into account varied perspectives and potential consequences for others.

Act creatively and innovatively to contribute to improvement locally, regionally or globally both personally and collaboratively.

*all of this information came from Asia society, 'What is Global Competence'

Freedom and Education

...Without freedom they (the oppressed and oppressor) cannot exist authentically...
Paolo Freire

"A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of though, even more basic than his freedom of speech."
John Holt

"Let childhood ripen in chidren...let the germ of his character reveal itself freely."

Man is Free but is everywhere in chains."
Rousseau

Freedom in Education is as urgent as the idea of 'development as freedom,' for without self liberation how can we reflect and then create transformation and action in the world? The above illustration is from the cover of a book about the educational models of Paolo Freire, who is famous for his 'Pedagogy of the Oppressed.' His main ideas are focused around the practice of:

conscientização: learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions and to take action agains the oppressive elements of reality...

reflection,
action,
transformation,

humanization

Freire seeks to awaken the people unto themselves, using dialogue and reflection about the state of society and injustice. Furthermore, working to self-liberate and transform dynamics of oppression.


"Those who authentically commit themselves to the people must re-examine themselves constantly." -Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed


Freire's liberation of learning is in dissent to the industrialization approach to education. During the era of industrialization schools began to emulate the supply and demand approach to labor. There was a need for factory workers and so children were trained to be disciplined, to repeat back, and to copy. Rote learning and the structure of standardized testing are indicators of this archaic dynamic in classrooms today. Freire spoke out against oppression, especially of rural, local populations in Brazil. The change which this pedagogue was conjuring was a dialectic that stems from the people themselves. Community circles of sharing were an important way to learn the needs and wants of the village through the use of embodied speech, rather than empty word.
This calls for leaders to step forth and become actors in intercommunication.

Therefore, no change is prescriptive. What works for one group of people in schools, or learning, may not work for another group of people at another time and place.


"The starting point for organizing the program content of political action must be a present, existential, concrete situation reflecting the aspirations of the people."


In terms of education and development this issue of place-based initiative is of paramount importance. All too often western ideals of education are applied haphazardly to other nations around the world, while they are often incongruous to the culture of the place and people. Freire's notion of pedagogy is still revolutionary and inspires many to become masters of their own thinking.