Education in Global Education

Global education, or global studies, is an interdisciplinary approach to learning concepts and skills necessary to function in a world that is increasingly interconnected and multicultural. The curricula based on this approach are grounded in traditional academic disciplines but are taught in the context of project-and problem-based inquiries. The learner examines issues from the vantage point of the individual, the local community, the nation, and the world community. As social conditioning, an essential component of schooling, global studies takes an international stance that respects local allegiances and cultural diversity while adhering to the principles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

There is, however, no standard definition among proponents of global education. Kenneth A. Tye and Barbara Benham Tye of the Center for Human Interdependence (CHI) in Orange County, California, an educational training program that emphasizes global awareness, constructed the following working definition:

Global education involves learning about those problems and issues that cut across national boundaries, and about the interconnectedness of systems—ecological, cultural, economic, political and technological. Global education involves perspective taking—seeing things through the eyes and minds of others—and it means the realization that while individuals and groups may view life differently, they also have common needs and wants.

Global education is distinct from the concept of globalization, that is, the forces of market capitalism, which tend to focus discussion on global economic systems and information technologies. From a pedagogical standpoint, economic prosperity and technological progress are part of a broader emphasis on planetary interconnectedness, interdependency, and sustainability. Key concepts in global education include human rights, environmental responsibility, cultural studies, and sustainable economies. Global education views national politics and transnational economic policies with an eye toward international accountability. It stresses the role of global ethics in shaping humane, environmentally sound attitudes toward the world as a single ecosystem, and it teaches that a globally conscious citizenry can effectively overcome such problems as climate change, ocean pollution, and resource depletion with ingenuity, leadership, and cooperation.

One of the aims of global education is a shared international global ethic that would be used to govern socioeconomic decision-making. This ethic would be based on a system of universal values found in United Nations documents on human rights, agreements of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, proposals of Amnesty International and other NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) for the realization of human rights, and the Earth Chapter project.

The value and utility of global education derives from the sense that international events require all societies and their citizens to become knowledgeable about the world beyond their national borders. Usually, this imperative is cast in economic terms. Business and political leaders warn that, as the world's economies and financial systems are incredibly interconnected, our material well-being depends on professionals and workers with sophisticated knowledge of the global economy. In their view, family and local community can no longer define our values. Rather, community-based values must be integrated into the large-scale social institutions that govern our lives.