Before I left for the Motherland (Africa), I completed ten weeks of Fulbright coursework in the fall of 2023 while teaching full-time. Among a group of more than 30 Fulbright educators from around the US, I read and wrote commentary on the topics of global education and global competency. Below, you will find my comments from our message boards, which we had to frequently visit and post in response to prompts from our instructors and peers.
I provide you these responses as an invitation into my mindset before the trip and as an opportunity for me to do my own personal pre and post assessments. As I continue to write and share via this blog, I know that I have a tendency to be sometimes idealistic, verbose, santicimonious, skeptical, unresolved, and or pessismistic in my prose. Hopefully, my words are thought-provoking, not "click-bait-y"; complex, not convoluted; self-honest, not self-righteous; unifying, not divisive. This post is not meant to be read all in one setting, so feel free to skip around and leave a comment. I welcome the dialogue. That said, I give you thoughts from one Black male educator before his transformative trip to Ghana.
Note: If you want to know more about the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program, click here.
September 24, 2023
Instructor Prompt #1: Process your understanding of Week 1’s texts, with a special focus on global competence, using the Project Zero thinking routine and The 4 C’s.
Connections: In discussing "global competence," the prefix "inter" is prevalent in this week's content: interconnectedness, interdependent, interdisciplinary, and interaction. For us to become global citizens, we as teachers must engage and honor the complex interplay among individuals, interpersonal communities, institutions, and ideologies. In other words, the personal and professional development of my global competence and teaching practice is heavily predicated on my own introspection, a desire and willingness to make physical, intellectual, and pedagogical moves/shifts, the search for different perspectives, and a sense of belonging among like-minded teachers with similar equity-based dispositions and teaching philosophies.
Challenges: One of the "inter" words that was not touched on was "interest." I understand global education is about communication and collaboration; however, I want to highlight how history, political climate, and power shape the motives and methods in which communication and collaboration take shape. For example, given America's historical track record on domestic and foreign affairs, I can see how global education can be corrupted or co-opted by corporate interests and political tensions. I appreciate the readings inviting us teachers to be self-aware, relational, and nonviolent; however, as a Black male teacher and student in our current education system, I learned from years of Eurocentric standards and academia that I was a "nobody," or just a footnote to check off the "multiculturalism" teaching checklist. My global competence thus far in my life has included experiencing and learning violence by the hands of a particular education system, thus I have had to develop a different unnamed political and socioemotional set of habits of mind and skills to protect, regulate, and educate myself when harm is being done. The readings discuss one of the goals of global competence and education being conflict prevention, but I ask what about conflict resolution? the difference between harm reduction and healing? Resistance versus liberation? Restoration versus reconciliation?
And to be clear, I do not think one has to be radical, militant, liberal or conservative to consider these questions, for history, if we go beyond the history taught in our classes, has many perspectives and voices to offer.
Peer Question#1: Have you had to address resistance to this work (global education) from fellow teachers and/or communities? How did you approach and resolve that resistance?
To address your concluding question, I wonder if the resistance from our colleagues comes from professional fatigue, frustration with systemic issues, work overload, and or the unfamiliarity with the concept of global competency. I have spoken to both young and old teachers whose dispositions are not "teachers are lifelong learners," thus their inclination to adapt and evolve is little to none. Furthermore, given our political climate in our country, especially depending on the political leanings of your local area, we have seen teachers, parents, and political leaders move into silos and echo chambers, thus not knowing how to or willing to branch out or build bridges with folks who may be different in some way or another. Also, it may be difficult to think "global" when the "local" is overwhelmingly rife and ridden with concerns and issues. And that is not to say that individuals are small-minded, but to say that systemic failure and or lack of institutional accountability are reasons for a particular type of myopia, blind eye, or ignorance.
Full disclosure: I work in San Francisco, California where everyone publicly claims to be progressive in their thinking but refuses to listen and learn from anyone else outside of the state. In regards to your rural farming community context, I wonder if those folks in that community feel seen, heard, and recognized for the good work they do, for a lack of recognition may make the people feel as though: "why would I care about someone hundreds of miles away if no one see me here?"
October 8, 2023
Instructor Prompt#2: How can you leverage the concept of "glocal" to inspire, motivate, and convince your students and school community to embrace global citizenship and global education?
Context matters. Across geographic, political, and cultural lines, teachers and students must navigate and negotiate in order to reach one another and teach one another. The concept of "glocal" as well as the National Geographic article makes me think about my own hyphenated semi-bicultural experience in America as a "African"-"American." I point this out because like the article emphasizes, we are teaching across perspectives, therefore we sometimes must move and shift our thinking and viewpoints even if we cannot change our physical locations and points of view.
Also, discussion of "place-based" education reminds me that we would like our students to be prepared to think and create to survive inside and outside of a capitalistic society as well as within and outside of Western or Eurocentric societies; I would like my students to have the skills to get jobs but also the life skills to make, maintain, give life to their local communities in forms that are beyond monetary value. It is sometimes difficult to imagine "life-giving and life-affirming" teaching practices and philosophies when the different legal, medical, political, and other systems are steeped in life-negating or soul-sucking tension and contention. I point out these other systems because education must contend with them all when that young person enters our classroom.
Lastly, I recognize the influence of White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and Capitalism as massive ideological forces and sources of elite power, but I do want my students like the ones in the "Washington Post" article to know that power has many sources, many methods of acquisition, and many types; power is not just concentrated in the hands of a few, so we the common folx must find and leverage our positions of power and our individual and collective dreaming, wisdom, and agency to make local change and not be discouraged by scalability or massive change; change is many times slow and incremental.
My Question: how do we create bridges between local schools and communities, especially in communities that may not feel loved or have animosity toward an education system that has been negligent or hostile to local community members?
Peer Question#2: How could teachers scaffold a Globally Competent curriculum to engage students of all abilities or linguistic levels?
Great question! As an English teacher who fights to make English Language Arts more about expression and less so about language-policing, I think that this type of curriculum can invite us all to bring our native tongue and accents to the classroom to see how language shapes perception. I am excited to do translation work with my students to see the limits of the English language and the opportunities presented by using other languages.
In addition to differentiated teaching for different linguistic needs, I also am wondering how do we as teachers learn and teach a language of love, compassion, and respect to students to complement and affirm a student's home language, so they can have the sociocultural and socioemotional literacy skills to "read the room" and maintain a safe space especially when they are newcomers into a community space.
Also, in regards to convincing folks about global competence and global education, I wonder if teachers and district-level administrators speak the same language, so to speak. Teachers speak more "love" languages while sometimes administrators are put into compromising positions to speak more business. As we cross over cultural and professional lines, we must have some shared language to represent and articulate shared goals. Your question just makes me think of professional development ideas, scaffolds, and policies that integrate Global Competence as a tenant or priority in a school's mission statement. As a teacher who has worked in a district and outside of a district, I see my "glocal" contributions stretching to a district level.
October 10, 2023
Instructor Prompt#3: Identify an SDG (Sustainable Development Goal) that aligns to a concept/topic/theme in your curriculum. Explain how you could incorporate this SDG into your curriculum.
Why might this topic matter to me, friends, and the world?
The purpose, intentions, and rationale of the SDGs make sense in helping us all see the intersectionality between global issues; while the "why" is easy to get behind, the "how" is where the opportunity lies for collaborative decision-making and creative problem-solving. Also, we must be consistent and unwavering in our efforts, not letting everyday distractions or media stories derail us from our goals, or letting short-term pleasures or gains to allow us to rest on our laurels. Also, we must consider ways to avoid fatigue and pessimism in this work. If anything, the SDGs invite us to care about and serve one another and see both our commonalities and individualities as humans.
We can't let capitalism and "free market" thinking completely dominate our methods to meet the SDGs, for no market is truly free but actually manipulated via various lobbyists. I point this barrier out because the economics and politics behind world issues are seemingly omnipresent -both personal and interpersonal; public and private. The SDGs hopefully allow us to dream and act somewhat outside of competition and transactional relationships.
MY QUESTION: Where is that sweet spot between competition and cooperation to produce the best methods to meet these SDGs?
In the context of my English Language Arts/Composition courses, I want to use the SDGs as lenses to analyze literature and as points for inquiry into how a literary text reflects real-world dilemmas and inequities. These SDGs stood out:
Goal: #4: Quality Education
Goal #10: Reduced Inequalities
Goal # 12: Partnerships
Goal: #16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions
Goal #17: Responsible Consumption and Production
In regards to "Quality Education," I want my students to learn how to be critical and compassionate observers, thinkers, and creators who can be mindful of their physical and digital consumption and production. To me, digital literacy is critical to becoming a good global citizen. In other words, I want the language of the SDGs to become part of an interdisciplinary "Humanities" language we use to discuss texts and personal experiences in my class.
October 22, 2023
Instructor Prompt #4: What do you think you know about global citizenship?
"Story-telling" is one of the most powerful tools we have in developing global citizenship and empathy. Global citizenship must find a balance among identity politics, human rights, and interdependence; currently in the states, we have high levels of individualism, tribalism, and capitalism causing us to divide, demonize, and dehumanize one another. We can't share stories if we do not want to share space and face-time with others or if we do not think one another is human or worthy of humane treatment. We can't listen well if we are so self-centered or if we are so under attack (i.e. political minority groups); we can't serve others if we value self-indulgence over individual accountability and social responsibility and if we are in a constant "protective" or defensive state due to the constant threat of physical, economic, and social disenfranchisement. We must equip our students with skills to filter, critique, and process narratives and the intentions behind certain narratives in order to make sense of their own positionality. We see similar tensions globally due to American exceptionalism; global citizenship is about empathy as well as responsible use of people's or a nation's positions of privilege and power. Like the video pointed out, we need a global ethic, some common or shared set of moral principles to encourage cooperation and collaboration instead of coercion and colonization; to encourage sharing instead of seizing; to encourage structures of sustainability instead of makeshift solutions or temporary fixes.
In regards to developing global citizenship, how can we teach our student's different types of literacies as well as refine their story-telling abilities? I say this because I want students to be able to read and analyze quantitative data (numbers) and qualitative data (novels) as well as the different ways people can manipulate and create stories around said data. Because the literary analysis paper becomes the holy grail of writing in high school, how can we high school teachers make personal narrative-writing just as important so that students can dictate and track their own positionality in the world. I want to hear other's stories as well as tell you mine.
I want to do more personal narrative writing and positionality writing to make students feel like agents and author's of their own lives, not just blind consumers or spectators. Your story, our stories are a part of a global anthology.
October 29, 2023
Peer Question#3: When I was hired at my school I was told that the school doesn't have outright behavior problems, we have an apathy problem... I am wondering how other educators go about teaching/helping students develop high (or even higher) standards and expectations for themselves?
In regards to your question, I wonder about the integration and role of focus groups and student-generated goal-setting, both academic and social. Of course, we do some much relationship-building and community-building, yet we must know that students come in with such distrust of our education system and its gatekeepers. Depending on the year, I ask students to identify and self-report their love language in order for them and me to understand how they want to be loved and affirmed. The student-generated goal-setting allows students to compete with themselves and create metrics and methods based on that goal, which then could be paired with teacher goals for a student. This question of "good enough" becomes "good enough for whom or what"? Good enough for an education system that is riddled with racial and gender bias? Good enough for an outside community that may have low expectations of them? Good enough for self?
From my personal experience as a Black student and now as a Black teacher, I know that students grow seemingly apathetic because of past school trauma, the subtly discriminatory practices, policies, and ideologies, and sometimes students' misconception or apprehension around self-accountability. As we teach culturally-responsively, we still must model and teach self-accountability because I know my Sophomores and Seniors start to run, hide or shut down when I start emailing about missing work. Also, I want to draw the distinction between students not caring about "schooling" versus students caring about education. Many Black and Brown students do not like "schooling" due to the traditional models of school being exclusionary and white-student-normed. Also, the "model minority" myth is weaponized and casted against "apathetic" students. However, if a student feels a teacher's passion or connects with the curriculum or some personal interest, then a student will engage in education, especially self-directed.
Also, I also wonder about the overall cultural and social well-being of a school community, for the things that happen in the hallway affect our kids in the classroom. A student may have poor experiences from day-to-day class to class, and then get to our class periods and feel cognitively and emotionally withdrawn, fatigued, and or disregulated. For example, living in a food desert, I remember eating "Hot Cheetos" everyday made my stomach hurt and more inclined to put my head down, seemingly appearing as if I am apathetic. I also remember seeing my male counterparts in elementary school being sent out of class frequently, thus excommunicating them from the classroom community and further disrupting their academic and social well-being and efficacy. Behaviors are attached to mindset, so we must help our young people find healthy academic and social role models, help our young people examine their social media diets and consumptions of sometimes anti-social behaviors, and embrace the different members of the village from counselors or para-educators to parents. Thanks for your introspection each week!
October 31, 2023
Instructor Prompt #5 : Reflect on your learning. Identify two resources from this week that impacted your thinking. Explain how you will use them as inspiration for designing global learning experiences that develop your students’ global competence.
With both my Sophomores and Seniors in my English classes, I always try to set dialogue norms and make space for students to find points of commonality; debates sometimes can leave the community in a heated space or with big emotions--emotions that some of my students do not have the SEL tools to handle . For quiet students, I have silent conversations via Padlet and I have all students design potential interview questions. I also will have the more silent students help take notes as scribes or design slideshows for class and have a more verbal partner present. Small group is a great precursor and confidence-builder. I also ask students to bring in content (videos, books) that they think goes well with the lessons or topics in class. Lastly, when we are having conversations, we name the "lowest hanging fruits"--meaning the questions and comments we tend to hear or see that are very low-level, sensationalist, dismissive, or antagonistic. By identifying the "low hanging fruit" questions and comments, we can then elevate conversations to avoid the regurgitation of online fodder. We sometimes draw an actual tree with fruits on the board to visually represent low-level commentary.
November 5, 2023
Instructor Prompt #6: Explore your response to the texts and concepts presented in Week 7. Then consider how you can leverage the global competency of taking action within your own classroom, school community, and professional life. Include specifics.
The video entitled "Youth Changemakers: Present Not Future Leaders" struck an interesting cord with me. As I listened to the brilliant young lady speak, I kept thinking about some of my students who are not big fans of our school system. I want to clarify that I am not criticizing anyone, especially the high-performing student speaker. I watched that video embodying a kid who may have rolled their eyes at the video because this speaker had the AP classes and the Harvard degree; in a mind of some young people with academic self-esteem challenges, the thought or the media portrayal implying that may be only the academically high-performing students are the "real" change-makers. Full disclosure, with my prep-school private high school education, I identify more with the speaker in terms of academic persona; however, as a teacher, I think about all of my blood brothers and students who were capable of doing AP classes but did not for some reason---the students who have the most potential to make change but no fancy certificates or status symbols for others to take them serious. And no, I do not want anyone to think of the racist trope of the "model minority." I just wonder if the kid with the 2.0 GPA can get a Ted Talk discussing how they brought change to their family and their community through means outside of school achievements.
I say all of this because I hope that we are elevating and amplifying any and all students for both their academic and personal gifts and tools they bring in. The reading entitled "Why We Can't Afford Whitewashed Social-Emotional Learning" also made me think about the confidence-building we must do for our young people. Last week, I asked my kids in my Sophomore and Senior English classes about the state of their creativity, and most said that they "left their creativity" back in the elementary school; instead, they just produce work, not really create work. For the topic of changemakers, our young people need to have their creativity honored and nurtured, meaning the holy grail 5-paragraph literary analysis essay will not always meet that mark! In conclusion, how are we showing models of young changemakers whom students can relate to? Through our selection of role models, what implicit messages are we sending about who is considered, qualified, and supported as a changemaker?
November 19, 2023
Instructor Prompt #7:
Start: What will you start doing as a result of what you learned this week?
Stop: Is there something you will stop doing or do differently?
Continue: Given what you know now, what will you continue doing?
START: I would like to start to think about this idea of an "authentic global audience."
STOP: I will stop vilifying aspects of technology; I do not want to frame technology in a negative light, especially in front of my tech-phobic faculty leaders and my students. I do not want anyone to fear a tool because a tool's effectiveness is related to the user's imagination and purpose.
Continue: I will continue to ask students to tell me about the questions that run through their mind as they decide how to use certain pieces of technology (i.e. chat gpt, poe, wikipedia, Sparknotes). I want to understand their rationale and thought-process as well as help my students do metacognitive work.
Peer Question #4: What is one thing you have said to a co-worker who is afraid of tech to make them re-think their aversion to tech?
Your point about keeping opinions to yourself registered with me. When it comes to perspectives being brought up in class, I tend to think about the climate of my school, my classroom, and the misperceptions that students may have of one another as well as me the teacher. I say this because sometimes, students struggle to empathize or question their own beliefs as well as want to dislike someone because of someone's appearance or associations. For example, my white lacrosse boys are always ridden off as "crazy, bigoted Republicans," while my students of color are expected to support any and all POC-presenting issues. Dealing with confirmation bias, the students are stuck or conflicted when the content from someone's mouth does not confirm their beliefs about that person.
Also, group-think and or mob mentality can derail healthy discussion and disagreements, so any minority point of view is silenced or suppressed. If I ever share in class with my Seniors, I tend to share stories about how certain ideas came up in my life and challenged me. The story-telling aspect gets students to reflect on their own experiences; hearing the stories of others gets them to see different perspectives. I guess what I am saying is that the stories sometimes matter way more than the opinion; the stories give context and allow students to share rationale instead of a declaration of thought. Your commentary sparked that thought. I too wonder about over-sharing and under-sharing because my older students (HS Seniors) expect me to be a participant in discussion, not just a facilitator.
December 2, 2023
Instructor Prompt #8:
What: What have you learned from the readings and assignments this week?
So What: Why is this important to you? Why does it matter?
Now What: What are your next steps? How will you implement what you have learned?
What? What have you learned from the readings and assignments this week?
As I reviewed the reading, "Teaching for Global Competence in a Rapidly Changing World," I thought about how do I give my students permission, space, and the critical-thinking and critical "feeling" tools to be critical, vocal, frustrated, and hopeful about both local and global issues. I want my students to experience and share big emotions, big thoughts, big questions, and big actions as they learn. I don't want to contain or control but rather make room for my students and their big emotions, thoughts, questions, and actions. In other words, how am I building a personal and professional learning community among my own students, not just my faculty co-workers?
So What? Why is this important to you? Why does it matter?
I do not want my classroom to be another space where students feel socioemotionally-deprived or stunted or a space where students turn off emotions to turn on (or off) their brains. Sometimes confrontational, the respective work of the brain and the heart are not mutually exclusive but definitely complementary. I would like the four domains of Global Competence to include a fifth domain that makes explicit talk about local and global "feelings." I wonder if the experiences, causes, and perceptions or receptions of big emotions, big thoughts, and big actions are universally the same; I have this curiosity because a boy's tears is handled differently than a girl's tears as well as the fears of a political leader may be handled differently than the fears of a civilian. As we travel literally and intellectually around the globe via planes and lesson plans, how do our capacity and variety of emotions travel with us and land differently with different people and on different topics?
Now What? What are your next steps? How will you implement what you have learned?
I must remember to always make time and space for debrief circles, feelings circles, and student and teacher personal-narrative sharing. Teaching and learning can be deeply political as well as personal. I just do not want to lose the people or "person" aspect of my classroom, especially when things get heated or uncomfortable. In regards to the Hernandez piece about building trust with various stakeholders, I have to ensure and reassure my students that they can trust that I can gracefully hold (maybe not handle) mine and their big emotions, thoughts, and questions as my students are challenged to make shifts in their perspectives and potentially their practices.
December 11, 2023
Instructor Prompt #9: How have you evolved professionally and personally during the course? How has your understanding of global education changed during this course?
Evolution
This program has allowed me to refine, reimagine, and revitalize my teaching practice because of the different frameworks the course has given me. The idea of global citizenship inspired me and my kids to think beyond savior complexes, guilt, and shame but really go beyond performative acts of solidarity and service and question how we want to show up in the world with and for others in authentic and empathetic ways.
Reflection
I actually enjoyed the virtual classes because I enjoyed seeing and hearing from other teachers around the country. The sessions with the Fulbright alumni also ignited my imagination, making me think about all of the possibilities for my own work abroad. The Spotlight Challenges gave me an opportunity to be hands-on and more deliberate and creative in my classroom instruction. Also, the video specifically on Global Ethic versus National Interest made me think about the conflict between American Exceptionalism and Global citizenship. Lastly, the collection of teacher work and commentary on the discussion boards and Padlets functioned like a study guide or informational guide for me. I really enjoyed the inter-school activity because I got to step out of my little bubble and hear from other teachers in a different part of the state. I loved seeing my students' faces light up when they heard that they would be working with kids from a different place even if it was just a few Flipgrid videos. The opportunity indicated to me the potential interconnectedness and glocal community that can be made when teachers safely and intentionally create the space.
Future
I still want to know how to be a good, caring global citizen without feeling as though I have to know every single world issue and have some sort of response for every issue. I am grateful that the coursework made me seek out more coursework on Human Rights education. I just want to continue to increase my tools and frames as a teacher.
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