“Language Education & Global Citizenship” (13) – From Intercultural to Global Education in the EFL Context (by N. Eckardt)

Editor’s note: Mr Nico Eckardt completed his studies of English and music at the PH Karlsruhe in the Secondary School Degree in January 2020 and took part in my Global English(es): Teaching English in Asia class in the summer term of 2018. As he got quite interested in concepts of education for the 21st century and “Future Skills”, he turned his interest into a Bachelor thesis in 2019. His thesis “From Intercultural to Global Education in the EFL Context” is summarized in this article and uploaded on the Research/Full-texts page.
In his Master Degree, he enrolled in my “Postcolonial Theory and Short Fiction” class last semester and then wrote his Master thesis about “Raising Awareness for Global Citizenship“. A summary of this thesis will follow here later; the full text is already uploaded.
It is most rewarding to support students on their way to becoming engaged professionals, especially when their interests are harnessed to the subject of responsibility towards future generations and sustainability. The Corona-year 2020 only intensified the single-mindedness of individuals in our “Professional Learning Community” (PLC), who actively work towards raising awareness for prime 21st century goals such as “Global Citizenship Education” and “Decolonization”, for example by becoming educators (multipliers) and by becoming authors (for example on this blog) who address an international readership.
As we have readers from 219 countries, this author can hopefully raise awareness of Global Citizenship in society in general and spark interest in Global Citizenship Education in classrooms in particular.

 

Introduction

Our world is dynamic and constantly changing. People experience changes that are affected by globalization. Humans are able to experience globalization in various areas of life in the 21^st century. Nowadays, intercultural encounters have become omnipresent in the Western world. As a result, numerous approaches deal with the interaction of cultures, such as multiculturality, interculturality, cross-culturality and transculturality (for a definition of terms and comparison of concepts cf. C. Seeger’s article on this blog on Transculturality). These approaches pose challenges and involve discussions of how people can or should become global citizens.

Globalization and interaction throughout diverse cultures will affect future pupils more and more. Therefore, education has to be adapted.¹ In German school curricula, especially the ones for “English as a Foreign Language” (EFL) classroom, the teaching of intercultural communicative competence is already an integral part. This becomes apparent in the latest curriculum of the federal state Baden-Wuerttemberg of 2016. However, how can schools and education in Germany now get from educating pupils in interculturality to mentoring pupils in becoming global citizens? This article is dedicated to the question of how intercultural learning has to adapt to Global Citizenship Education in the German EFL classroom in the future.

First, there will be a discussion of globalization and the diverse approaches to culture over the last years, as well as the question how those approaches are “translated” into the classroom. Second, the gap between intercultural and global education will be explained, so as to be able to answer the question of where intercultural education ends and where global education starts.
Then, Global Citizenship will be examined in more detail: What is Global Citizenship and how can future pupils become Global Citizens?
The last chapter will take a look at teachers and the conditions under which they can become competent global educators.

 

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Cultural education and globalization

2.1 Development of cultural education

2.2 Culture and globalization for the secondary German EFL classroom in the curriculum of Baden-Wuerttemberg

3. The gap between intercultural competence and global education

4. Future students as global citizens

4.1 Global citizenship

4.2 Global citizenship on a local level

5. Teacher qualification for global education

5.1 Knowledge of teachers as global educators

5.2 The role of teachers in global education

6. Conclusion

 

2.  Cultural education and globalization

As globalization took root in the modern world, everything grew increasingly interconnected: Technology changed, and trade is now possible throughout the world (cf. Soriano 2015, vii). Globalization consists of “financial, industrial and commercial capital, new international relations and the emergence of transnational companies” (cf. Soriano 2015, 41). Through increasing possibilities of transportation, the world has shrunk and crossing borders became easier (cf. Soriano 2015, vii). Therefore, migration turned into one of the biggest motors of globalization (cf. Soriano 2015, viii). Consequently, not only products are exported, but also capital, which leads to effects on the environment, cultures, political systems, economies, and prosperity (cf. Soriano 2015, 41). Now different cultures can spread easily all over the world. 

Globalization can be described as the interaction of

1. increasing internationalization of financial markets, product markets, and labour markets;
2. location competition of nation states;
3. rapid developments of new information and communication technologies;
4. the increase in the importance of globally connected markets (cf. Blossfeld 2005, quoted in: Aktionsrat Bildung 2017, 26).

These four fields have been developing since the early 1990s (Aktionsrat Bildung 2017, 25). Now the question is asked how the acceptance of globalization could be enhanced through education (Aktionsrat Bildung 2017, 33). In addition, the question comes up whether or how globalization itself can or should be questioned through education. 

“Globalization is the meta-context (Bronfenbrenner, 1977) for schooling in the 21^st century” (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco 2009, 62). In our case, we have a great variety of immigrant and refugee pupils in Europe, which leads to diverse challenges for the education systems. Some immigrant children have well-educated parents, while other children are illiterate. Some pupils were excellently schooled in their home countries, while others could not go to school at all (cf. Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco 2009, 64). Furthermore, there are cases where immigrant pupils attended schools in their new countries which were segregated from other schools. In these new schools the problem of “triple segregation” arises, which involves “race, poverty, and linguistic isolation” (Orfield & Lee 2006, quoted in: Suárez-Orozco &  Suárez-Orozco 2009, 64).

Humans have always migrated. Reasons for migratory movements differ. On the one hand, some people move because of new opportunities. On the other hand, there are people who leave their home countries because of poverty, war, hunger, or oppression (cf. Soriano 2015, 42). Schools in Europe and the US have many pupils with migrational backgrounds now (cf. Soriano 2015, viii). For instance, in 2018 2.4 million immigrants entered the 27 states of the European Union (cf. eurostat). Consequently, schools need to develop the ability to understand the world and its problems and instill a sense of responsibility and cooperation, to enhance the resolution of the great problems that humanity is suffering from: Poverty, interethnic conflicts, wars, energy supply, environment, climate change, pandemics  (cf. Soriano 2015, viii).² This is done ultimately to end causes for migration.

In order to understand what is meant by “intercultural competence” one has to understand some other related terms first. These are “identity“, “culture“, “intercultural encounter”, and “competence” (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 13). Identity is a “person’s sense of who they are and the self-descriptions to which they attribute significance and value” (Huber & Reynolds 2014, 13). There are different identities for every person, a personal and a social identity. Those two dimensions of identity come into play when a person bases their identity on “personal attributes” or when participating in a social group (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 13). Social identity, again, could be split up into different parts, with one aspect being the cultural identity, which is affected by a specific a cultural group that a person is a member of and participates in (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 13), and the other being civic, i.e. belonging to a certain ethnic group or nation. There are other theories about identity which also consider a sphere of cultural identity to enhance the scope.

Every culture or cultural group in itself can be heterogeneous. Material culture, social culture, and subjective culture together affect a cultural group (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 13-14). There is no determination of the size of a group to form a culture, and every person is able to belong to more than one cultural group at the same time (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 14). The boundaries of cultures become vague because the aspects which they are defined by are always changeable (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 14-15) as long as the cultural group does not isolate itself from the rest of the world. Intercultural encounters can take place either face-to-face or virtually (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 16).

The Culture Wheel by Andrea Fonte Weaver (Fonte Weaver 2018)

 

“Competence” is understood as having the skills and ability to do something successfully (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 16). Meanwhile, “intercultural competence” consists of the components of attitudes, knowledge, understanding, and skills. These components help a person to understand, respect, and communicate appropriately and respectfully establish relationships with people of different cultural backgrounds (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 23).

“Culture is conceptualized as a dynamic and complex process of construction; its invisible and implicit characteristics are emphasized” (Banks 2010, 1). In older theories, this complex construction is exemplified by the iceberg model. The tip of the iceberg shows the visible part of cultures in public spheres (e.g. clothing), while the part under water represents the complexity which is not visible at first sight (e.g. attitudes).³

Iceberg Model (Systems Innovation 2020)

Through the statement of Banks, there is the understanding that teaching about culture could be more difficult and certainly more diverse than it might seem.⁴

However, there is the need to educate students in an intercultural manner, since working together within a group of diverse cultures will be the only way to solve problems such as global warming, the HIV/AIDS or Covid-19 epidemics, poverty, racism, sexism, terrorism, international conflict, and war. Examples are conflicts between the Western and Arab nations, North Korea and its neighbors, and Israel and Palestine (cf. Banks 2010, 5). Nevertheless, global exchange has to start with one culture connecting with another (any other) one to experiment working together, learning to deal with difficulties and hurdles, taking advantage of new possibilities and then generating and spreading new ideas. This way, this first intercultural exchange can lead to ideas and possibilities for the next cultural group and then start cascading.

 

2.1 Development of cultural education

Multicultural education started out in the United States after the Civil Rights Movement (cf. Banks 2009, 13). The US Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s fought for ending racial segregation and bringing forward human rights throughout the country, with activists like Martin Luther King Jr. at the forefront. “Multicultural education is an approach to school reform designed to actualize educational equality for students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, social-class, and linguistic groups” (Banks 2009, 13). The introduction of this concept was used to promote democracy as well as social justice and has the main goal of giving every student equal opportunity in academic studies (cf. Bank 2009, 13). The reason for multiculturalism was about eliminating problems in education for specific ethnic groups in order to introduce equality for all participating students (cf. Banks 2009, 13). Up until then some ethnic groups were not able to succeed in school or university, which led to further social issues following the pupils’ time in education by not having the same opportunities in the working world.

Arguments came up that this change would not be sufficient and structural changes for education would be needed (cf. Banks 2009, 13). Aspects that had to change would be the teachers’ attitudes, their expectations, their testing, assessment, language and the norms and values of the schools (cf. Banks 2009, 14). As a result, the students should be educated in skills, knowledge, cultural capital, and attitudes which would be needed in a multicultural environment (cf. Banks 2009, 14).

Multicultural education originated in the United States, and Western Europe then also installed intercultural education into their school curricula. Educators argued that multicultural education would leave out the analysis of the institutional structures, such as racism, capitalism, and power (cf. Banks 2009, 14). For instance, institutionalized racism occurs when marks of pupils with migrational backgrounds are generally lower than pupils in their home country. Research has shown institutionalized racism as a problem that can be hard to track and prove. Nevertheless, there is a growing awareness of the importance of this topic and we have more awareness of institutionalized racism now.

Above all, when there are encounters between two persons, each person evaluates the behavior of the opposite by their own cultural assumptions, which have been imprinted throughout their whole lives (cf. Göbel 2011, 192). Therefore, every pupil has to be educated in intercultural competence. Intercultural competence is the ability to perceive influential conditions and factors on one’s own judgment, as well as to think about them, re-evaluate them, empathize with one’s counterpart, and take action. This ability needs to be acted out by the individual by always trying to take other perspectives of other people who have different cultural backgrounds. Afterward, these perspectivizing abilities need to be reflected, valued, respected, and used in a productive context (cf. Thomas, Kinast & Schroll-Machl 2000, quoted in: Göbel 2011, 193). In everyday contexts, pupils need to be aware of intercultural encounters and take these opportunities as learning experiences to grow in their own behavior for future encounters.

In 1999 Jacques Demorgon described a basic challenge in intercultural learning. Demorgon drew on earlier studies on culture-boundedness and applied them to the new question of intercultural learning. This difficulty lies in the fact that a person’s behavior, their expressions and language, and their ways of thinking are deeply imprinted by their cultural assumptions, which are consolidated through everyday life (cf. Demorgon 1999, 83). A person is rarely conscious of this imprint (cf. Demorgon 1999, 83).

James A. Banks (2004) formulated five “Dimensions of Multicultural Education”:

Dimensions of multicultural education by Joanna Rose Saculo (Saculo 2014)

 

First, there is “content integration”. This content has to be directly related to a specific topic of cultural encounters and cultural behavior in order to show examples of various different cultures (cf. Banks 2009, 15f). For instance, specific cultural identities and lifestyles can be observed and reflected.
Second, there is “the knowledge construction process”, which is about teaching activities that would help the pupils to understand the influence of the construction of knowledge (cf. Banks 2009, 16). Here, intercultural encounters can be reflected. Knowledge about cultures is used to explore different ways of behavior. Before intercultural encounters can be used, there has to be a creation of knowledge of aspects of cultures.
Third, there is “prejudice reduction” to “help students to develop democratic racial attitudes” (Banks 2009, 16). Prejudice and stereotypes has to be overcome in order to form democratic attitudes in democratic ways to represent equality to everyone.
Fourth, there is “an equity pedagogy” that helps with the facilitation of academic achievement in an equal way for all pupils (cf. Banks 2009, 16). Democratic racial attitudes can be used to live out equity directly in classroom situations. These attitudes have to be practiced, reflected and challenged in an ongoing way.
Last, there is “an empowering school culture”, which is about “restructuring the culture and organization of the school so that students from diverse groups experience equality” (Banks 2009, 17) during their everyday life. Schools have to facilitate intercultural experiences and place emphasis on the reflection and learning opportunities within these experiences.

To sum it up: If teachers make their pupils aware of the five dimensions, they can practice their own behaviors and encounters with different cultures.

So far, the terms multiculturalism and interculturalism were used. But what is the difference between multiculturalism and interculturalism? Adjacent to multiculturalism, which started in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, first discussions about interculturalism came up in the 1980s (cf. Dietz 2009, 3). These discussions came up in the discourse of pedagogical and sociopolitical stances. (For more detail and background, please read the article by C.V. Seeger.)

“Interculturality” and “interculturalism” denote diverse cultures existing together at the same time and in the same place, but with the newly added factor of interacting with each other in a positive manner (cf. Dietz & Cortés 2008, in: Dietz 2009, 8). While multiculturalism acknowledges diversity in culture and religion, interculturalism stresses the intersection of culture and religion.  Furthermore, in multiculturalism minorities are empowered through education. In interculturalism, minorities and majorities are brought together on the same level (cf. Dietz 2009, 8).

The following table illustrates the difference between multiculturalism and interculturality as the level of cultural encounters which is currently lived out in public cultural spheres. Meanwhile, multiculturalism and interculturalism are the normative levels which are based on the discourses of culture in pedagogy, sociopolitics, and ethics.

 

Diversity in Multicultural and Intercultural Discourses  (Dietz & Cortés 2008, in: Dietz 2009, 8)

 

Michael Byram (1989), Professor Emeritus at Durham University (a former school teacher) postulated: “Let it be said immediately that the young people who need to come to terms with otherness in their own society are not just ‘the majority’, but also those who are ‘the minorities’” (Byram 1989, 25). This statement shows how in interculturalism, minorities have to adapt culturally in the same way as the majorities do. Everyone is affected, albeit in different ways.

Communication is a key factor for pupils in global education, and teachers should enhance students’ abilities to communicate with people who have different languages and cultural backgrounds. Pupils in many countries can experience these differences in their everyday lives simply by attending school. For communication, a common or international language is needed: “Language has a privileged role within intercultural encounters” (Huber & Reynolds 2014, 23). Since language is the most effective way of communication between people, it should be used in situations of experiencing different cultural backgrounds. In Germany, the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom is the relevant place for pupils to use and practice such a language.

Most countries do not yet have curricula that are geared towards globalization (cf. Soriano 2015, viii). This lack calls for addressing the need for language education and keeping intercultural communication in mind when planning lessons. Anyway, especially when learning about cultures that are different from one’s own, language becomes increasingly important. Language works as a link (or a hurdle) when it comes to communication between different cultures. Consequently, “communication between different cultures needs to be addressed, also because individuals are now being deemed responsible for their own ‘self-capitalising’ over their lifetimes” (Lingard 2009, 18, quoted in: Ball 2012, 2). This means that individuals need to put their own selves into the center of their growth. Due to this change, there is an urgent need for pupils to be prepared for the changing world, which means learning an international language to start with.

 

2.2 Culture and globalization for the secondary German EFL classroom in the curriculum of Baden-Wuerttemberg

In 2016 the new Federal Curriculum for the German EFL classroom in Baden-Wuerttemberg was introduced. Globalization prompted the change of the curriculum because by 2013 40% of people in Germany who were under 20 years had some sort of migrational background (cf. Bildungsplaene Baden-Wuerttemberg). The core themes of the 2016 Curriculum are democracy education, peace education, and cultural education (ibid.). Baden-Wuerttemberg shares these goals with those of other federal states in Germany.

The curriculum is led by six guiding principles. One of these guiding principles is “education for tolerance and acceptance of variety” (“Erziehung zur Toleranz und Akzeptanz von Vielfalt”, cf. Bildungsplaene Baden-Wuerttemberg).⁵ This guiding principle promotes intercultural and interreligious dialogue (ibid.). Therefore, pupils need to develop respect and appreciation of “otherness” on the basis of human dignity, the Christian view of human life (and tolerance),⁶ and the German Constitution (ibid.). Consequently, the school has to be a place of tolerance and cosmopolitanism (ibid.).

Furthermore, pupils need to be enabled to find their own identities without discrimination (ibid.). In order to find out about their identity (or identities), pupils should deal with different personalities of other students so as to be able to gain experiences which are about difference and intercultural encounters. These experiences can be used to challenge their own identities and thereby to evolve as a person. Due to the diversity of the German society (ibid.), they then can learn to empathize with one another (ibid.). “Education for tolerance and acceptance of variety” can be enhanced by active participation in this society.

As mentioned above, the EFL classroom is a good place for pupils to learn about cultural and historical differences (ibid.). Here, pupils participate in shaping situations of intercultural communication, and they use specific cultural forms, for example politeness (ibid.). Meanwhile, all materials and media which are used in the classroom should be understood and used for the enhancement of intercultural contexts so that they become meaningful to the pupils (ibid.).

As was also already mentioned, the superordinate goal of EFL teaching in Baden-Wuerttemberg is intercultural communicative competence (ibid.). Language awareness, text and media competence, language-learning competence, and sociocultural knowledge build the framework which helps compound intercultural communicative competence (ibid.).

Now the challenge of global education in the curriculum in Baden-Wuerttemberg lies in the fact that only cultural aspects of the target language are addressed. For instance, in the EFL classroom, teachers and pupils can discuss cultural aspects of India (or “India”) and then compare them to culture in “the Western world”. Then, cultural experiences may become more intense for students and learning outcomes can increase. 

Intercultural competence and multilingualism are essential in every German curriculum. Nevertheless, there is the need for a political brief, in order to achieve a common approach for global education (cf. Maurič 2016, 46). One example of a successful political brief can be observed in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A common approach needs to combine and concentrate the contents to align education in a global manner (cf. Wintersteiner et al. 2014, quoted in: Maurič 2016, 57). The SDGs provide a platform of goals which have to be addressed and tackled on a global level. These goals were set up with a global perspective in mind, instead of just considering the Western point of view (as the Millenium Goals did before). 

 

3. The gap between intercultural competence and global education

 

In Developing intercultural competence through education, the authors come to the conclusion that developing intercultural competence would offer a foundation for pupils to become future global citizens (cf. Huber & Reynolds 2014, 21). In addition, Soriano (2015) agrees by stating that intercultural education would be a foundation of global education (cf. Soriano 2015, 44).

In the 1990s, multiculturalism became accepted as an educational concept or way of life by people who experience intercultural encounters. Nevertheless, post-9/11 there are “ongoing ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious differences”⁷ which are not tolerable, and this is the reason why often the role of education is in the center of discussion (cf. May 2009, 33-34). Education often works as a point of introduction for individuals into society. Therefore, education is at the center of bringing multicultural backgrounds together. Stephen May talks about a “post-multicultural environment” that we live in now (cf. May 2009, 34). The challenges are:

• the ongoing critique of multiculturalism from the Right;
• the tendency of multiculturalism to concentrate on culture at the expense of structural concerns such as racism and socioeconomic inequality;
• the challenges that postmodernist understandings of identity present for multiculturalism;
• the urgent need to develop a multiculturalist paradigm that effectively addresses – and, where necessary, redresses – all of the above (Torres 1998, quoted in: May 2009, 34).

The intercultural competence of children needs to be enhanced (cf. Soriano 2015, 44). Pupils need to develop cultural identities that bring opportunities for living successfully with different cultures and learn to live their lives as global citizens (cf. Soriano 2015, 44). Therefore, they need to be educated in universal values (cf. Soriano 2015, 44), rather than values that are only applicable to one specific culture.⁸

There are challenges when developing interculturality, one being cultural identity and the other being the global dimension of citizenship (cf. Soriano 2015, 44). The life of every person is determined by the thinking, feeling, and acting of the world into which they were born, and “another world perceived through the media” (cf. Soriano 2015, 44f). Therefore, cultural identity can change easily and has to adapt in increasingly digital communication. With digitalization, new problems come up which challenge an individual’s cultural identity. On the one hand, through digital communication physical distance disappears. On the other hand, social surroundings do not disappear (cf. Soriano 2015, 45).

Furthermore, citizenship skills need to be taught because “it is urgent to cover the growing deficit of humanity of the current societies and put people in the center of political concerns” (Cassen 1998, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 49). This deficit is about not having people of different cultural backgrounds in the center of politics. As a result, culture needs to be “understood as part of the discourse of power and inequality” (May 2009, 40). This is not the case yet, which leads to the problem that minority ethnic groups are “being contained within their culture(s) and the discursive practices associated with them (Hoffman 1996, quoted in: May 2009, 43). Teachers have to open up the social worlds of pupils by confronting them with other cultures and beliefs in their everyday lives.

Above all, intercultural education has the goal of bringing together majorities and minorities (cf. Dietz 2009, 9). Nowadays pupils in Europe are increasingly heterogeneous, which makes socio-cultural relations more complex. This shifting dynamic leads to the point that the society of the majority is not able to meet the diversity of societies because this shift happens fast and majorities are not trained in dealing with heterogeneity (cf. Gogolin et al. 1997, quoted in: Dietz 2009, 8). Nevertheless, while multicultural and intercultural education could possibly face the challenges and problems that diversity brings with it, there are hardly any empirical studies yet about processes and relations that take place interculturally in school (cf. Dietz 2009, 102).

According to Escámez, universal values should be taught in regions that suffer from poverty, inequity, and violence (cf. Escámez 2013, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 51) as well as in regions that do not have to deal with these factors. Therefore, “there is a moral obligation to educate students to be citizens to transform that situation if we would like to live in a fair society and fair world” (Boni 2011, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 51).

Under the auspices of the Council of Europe, guidelines were set up in 2008 for values which should be taught through global education. Those values are:

1. Self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect, and respect for others;
2. social responsibility;
3. responsibility for the environment;
4. mindfulness;
5. visionary attitude, in the sense of building future visions about how a better world should be developed;
6. active participation in the community;
7. solidarity (Carvalho et al. 2008, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 52).

These guidelines were set up because “students are aware of the need to live with values that guide their lives” (Soriano 2015, 52). Values need to be applicable for the individual as well as for a society (cf. Soriano 2015, 52). The goal is to build a global culture of peace through the promotion of values, attitudes, and behavior which enable the realization of development and human rights (Osler 2005, 6, quoted in: Hillyard 2008, 17). School has to embed global education into the classroom in order to educate the students about values, attitudes, and behavior (cf. Hillyard 2008, 17).

In addition, global learning can be divided into five domains. These five domains show how global learning is a journey, rather than something that just can be acquired through a single experience (cf. Sobania 2015, 23). These domains are global knowledge, global challenges, global systems and organizations, global civic engagement, and global identities (cf. Sobania 2015, 23).

For global knowledge students have to learn about history, experiences, power structures, and world views (cf. Sobania 2015, 23). After gaining knowledge, pupils can address global challenges (cf. Sobania 2015, 23). Furthermore, pupils have to be able to apply this new knowledge to global systems and organizations (cf. Sobania 2015, 23).
Global civic engagement means that pupils should actively engage with people who have different cultural backgrounds (cf. Sobania 2015, 23). In order to form global identities, students need to draw the line between their personal identity and the complex social and civic problems of the world (cf. Sobania 2015, 23). This can be achieved through global citizenship education.

Ursula Maurič described global citizenship education as a concept (cf. chapter 2.2). This concept combines

• peace education,
• democracy education,
• political education,
• global learning,
• intercultural learning and
• skillful interaction with multilingualism (cf. Maurič 2016, 18). 

Therefore, pupils should be empowered as individuals in self-competence, social competence, and system competence (cf. Maurič 2016, 18).

Peace education calls for political education about shortages, conflicts and power, especially with goods. There are shortages of goods in parts of the world, then there are conflicts because of the distribution of those goods, and finally, the shortage and distribution are controlled through power and establishment (cf. Pelinka 1999, quoted in: Maurič 2016, 28).

Next, there is democracy education, which has been one of the main focuses of the Council of Europe since the mid-1990s (cf. Maurič 2016, 29). The Council of Europe says:

‘Education for democratic citizenship’ means education, training, awareness-raising, information, practices and activities which aim, by equipping learners with knowledge, skills and understanding and developing their attitudes and behavior, to empower them to exercise and defend their democratic rights and responsibilities and society, to value and to play an active part in democratic life, with a view to the promotion and protection of democracy and the rule of law. (Council of Europe, quoted in Maurič 2016, 29)

Therefore, democracy education or political education is one of the key aspects of global education in the western world.

Then, global learning starts. Global learning familiarizes students with the complex connections of worldwide developments and their own roles within world affairs. The goal is to individually make judgments and show possible actions through the reflection of politics, social issues, economics, culture, religion, as well as human rights. This should not happen in an unbiased manner, but rather through the lens of human rights (cf. Maurič 2016, 31).

Intercultural learning is also featured in global citizenship education (cf. chapter 2.2). Interculturality, migration and multilingualism are often discussed together which leads to problems with the concepts of the single aspects (cf. Maurič 2016, 34). These problems will be discussed in the following paragraph.

Multilingualism is highly controversial throughout western society and education. This is because multilingualism could be used to work as a link between educational tasks and topics of racism, discrimination, social issues, and unequal academic achievements (cf. Maurič 2016, 35). These aspects have to be discussed in direct relation to multilingualism. The controversy brings up the questions of whether there is an appreciation of different languages in the Western world and whether some languages are more empowered in specific contexts (cf. Maurič 2016, 35). For instance, English is a language with a lot of power. Therefore, could this empowerment of languages lead to a situation where people who speak other languages are less appreciated, subordinated, or exploited?

To come back to the start: For Maurič, peace education is linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and combines political education and global learning. Pupils need to learn about other cultures with values of non-violence (cf. Maurič 2016, 35). The participation of social actors who work with the children outside of their school life is important for peace education (cf. Maurič 2016, 36) and could bring the personal values of a student to the next level, to enhance intercultural encounters. 

Maurič explains ways to enhance the lives of pupils with and for their intercultural encounters in their everyday lives. In the middle of these encounters pupils always act as individuals. Therefore, all aspects should be taught through empowering the pupils as individuals. Every individual person is influenced by groups. Those groups are made up of their nationality, race, and ethnicity, religion, exceptionality and non-exceptionality, social class, and genders (cf. Banks 2010, 14). Therefore, self-competence, social competence and system competence should be understood as interdisciplinary competencies which are embedded in an inclusive setting and a holistic image of what it means to be human (cf. Maurič 2016, 37).

 

4.   Future students as global citizens

“Global citizenship has become one of the most important issues for English language teachers around the world, as we witness the growing importance of language in the international scenario and its incorporation as part of the discourse of socio-economic inclusion” (Gimenez & Sheehan 2008, 4).

As a result, teachers face new challenges. This is a research field that has yet to be explored (cf. Gimenez & Sheehan 2008, 4): “The next generation, immigrant and native alike, will need a new set of skills, competencies, and sensibilities to be fully engaged citizens in the economies and societies of the 21^st century” (Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco 2009, 62).

Nowadays Western education is technocratic, preparing pupils “for the harsh realities of the competitive labor market” rather than “preparing young people to lead intellectually and spiritually meaningful lives” (Aviram 2015, 4). Yet, the educational goal should be to teach in a “student-centric” way and to show students how they can live “meaningful lives” (cf. Aviram 2015, 19) and become global citizens. The EFL classroom is a pre-destined place for this goal. Globalization and the English language are “deeply intertwined” (cf. Gimenez 2008, 48). Therefore, the EFL classroom can help spread global citizenship.

“Citizenship education should help students to develop an identity and attachment to the global community and a human connection to people around the world. Global identities, attachments, and commitments constitute cosmopolitanism” (Nussbaum 2002, cited in Banks 2009, 312).

Future pupils need to be educated in cosmopolitanism to make decisions and take actions that are about global interests and also benefit humankind (cf. Banks 2009, 312). Consequently, pupils would have to realize that “no local loyalty can ever justify forgetting that each human being has responsibilities to every other” (Appiah 2009, xvi, cited in Banks 2009, 313).

 

4.1 Global citizenship

Citizenship is the status of a person in a nation-state. Meanwhile, “a citizen is an individual who lives in a nation-state and has certain rights and privileges, as well as duties to the state, such as allegiance to the government” (Lagassé 2000, quoted in Banks 2009, 303). Therefore, citizenship education should include cultural rights for citizens from diverse racial, cultural, ethnic, and language groups (cf. Fraser 2000 & Young 1989, quoted in Banks 2009, 303). Through worldwide immigration, nationalism, and globalization, citizenship and citizenship education have caused controversy in various ways. In order to become a full citizen in a civic community of a nation-state, a person has to give up their own cultural identity, which is embedded in assimilationist, liberal, and universal conceptions of citizenship (cf. Gordon 1964 & Young 1989, 2000, cited in Banks 2009, 304). Nevertheless, there are nationalists as well as assimilationists who worry “that if citizens are allowed to retain identifications with their cultural communities they will not acquire sufficiently strong attachments to their nation-states” (Banks 2009, 310).

There are millions of people who have citizenship somewhere in the world but live in another nation, and there are people who are stateless, for example refugees, who do not have certain citizenship (cf. Benhabib 2004, quoted in Banks 2009, 308). Consequently, there is diverse citizenship everywhere. This is why pupils need to be educated for a global society (cf. Banks 2009, 308).

In order to become global citizens, children need to learn certain skills. Those skills “are defined as the set of cognitive, emotional, and communicative skills, knowledge and attitudes that, linked together, make it possible for the citizen to act constructively in society” (Mockus 2004 & Soriano 2006, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 50). Therefore, with those skills, knowledge and attitudes, pupils will have a “basis for decision making and participation in a world characterized by cultural pluralism, interconnectedness, and international economic competition” and can “understand the complexity of globalization and develop skills in cross-cultural interaction if they are to become effective citizens in a pluralistic and interdependent world” (Merryfield 1995). Consequently, technology, ecology, economy, as well as social and political issues are no longer addressed to single nations but become a system for the whole world (cf. Merryfield 1995), which have to be dealt with by people who are global citizens.

There is an urgent need for future pupils to become global citizens rather than local citizens since there is a risk involved when human actions are only considered at a local level (cf. Jiménez 2008, 32). A deeper cultural understanding is required which goes beyond the one own culture of an individual.

 

4.2 Global citizenship on a local level

Global citizenship manifests in many ways by Joaquin Gonzalez Dorao (Rinne 2019)

Students are increasingly confronted with the interaction of increasingly diverse communities. They will therefore need to talk, understand, relate and work with diverse cultures (cf. Sobania 2015, 1). Differences which students will be confronted with relate to politics, socio-economics, race,⁹ ethnicity, and religion (cf. Sobania 2015, 1). As a result, studies abroad for students became a prevalent feature in their education. Yet, for Europeans, studying abroad within Europe only gives them the chance to interact with people who have a similar cultural and socio-economic backgrounds that can be experienced at home as well (cf. Sobania 2015, 1). Therefore, the question arises whether differences can only be experienced by going overseas (cf. Sobania 2015, 1) or whether there are other possibilities to experience diversity at a local level.

Experiences made in off-campus studies which take place on a local level can have the same outcomes as programs which take place overseas (cf. Sobania 2015, 2). In general, different cultures can be experienced anywhere, locally or globally, and location does not matter, as long as there is learning involved (cf. Sobania 2015, 2f). In this situation, it is important to be “globally minded and locally focused” (Sobania 2015, 3) in order to be educated on a global level while staying local. Furthermore, students can learn globally while being in school by dealing with pupils who are international, multicultural, or multilingual (cf. Sobania 2015, 17). This would be helped by teachers who would create learning opportunities around this fact.

 

5. Teacher qualification for global education

Firstly, teachers need to be qualified to teach global education in order to be able to teach future pupils to become global citizens. If we want teachers who are able to take on with enough effectiveness the challenges that await them in the classrooms of this expectant century, we should try to encourage them to check the possible benefits of having teaching experience in a global world. The success of their work will also depend on how they hitch onto the ways of a new cultural literacy (Rego & Moledo 2015, 77).

Above all, there should be an effort for teacher education to encourage future teachers to gain experience with diverse populations in face-to-face situations (cf. Merryfield 2000, 430). Since the meaning of those experiences will only come to the surface afterwards, such an experience always needs to be interpreted by the future teacher (cf. Merryfield 2000, 431). [Editor’s note: A doctoral dissertation on this later realization and nascent professionalization in our project is being prepared by Philipp Reul.]
Afterwards, the lived experience, which occurred through travel or longer stays abroad in internships, will help open up new perspectives on cultural differences, stereotypes, and generalizations (cf. Merryfield 2000, 434). Teachers who spent time abroad stated that this experience helped them to reflect on their own world into which they were born (cf. Merryfield 2000, 435). Nevertheless, “experiences alone do not make a person a multicultural or global educator” (Merryfield 2000, 440). In order to work as a global educator for future students, the teachers must bring together their own identity and their lived experience (cf. Merryfield 2000, 441). This can only happen when the lived experience is reflected.

Experiences with various cultures are different from experiences with one’s own culture and are substantial for future teachers (cf. Merryfield 1995). These experiences need to be integrated into programs for teacher education and could occur in different forms such as study tours, exchanges, semesters abroad, contact with international students or teaching in other countries, as in the Laos project, which sparked a great deal of future-oriented learning and research. Such experiences could take place either at home on a local level or abroad (cf. Merryfield 1995).

On the one hand, having spent time abroad as a student can be relevant when it comes to getting employed as a teacher at a school (cf.  Maurič 2016, 138). On the other hand, spending time abroad is about gaining personal experience. Likewise, similar experiences could be gained with buddy programs  (cf. Maurič 2016, 138). In buddy programs, future teachers help exchange students to arrive in the country in which they spend their time abroad. Those programs are common at universities, also at ours.

As an example, the country of Colombia is interesting to consider. Colombia faced a challenge in the 1980s, which was due to democratization and modernization of the state, which led to a new constitution in 1991. Therefore, education in schools had to move from being local to being multilingual and multicultural (cf. Jiménez 2008, 29). Consequently, the challenge arose that the universities were late and unprepared for the change of training teachers in citizenship competencies, although they were willing to participate (cf. Jiménez 2008, 30). As a result, the curriculum of the universities had to be enhanced by themes that take citizenship education into account, which are about “human rights, co-existence and peace, participation and democratic responsibility and identity, plurality and diversity” (Jiménez 2008, 30) – without having had the cultural or political experience to back this up. Education in Colombia was able to delocalize and become globally relevant in education, at least in the syllabus.

Furthermore, globalization will cause universities all over the world to shift their focus towards globalization due to “the shift in economic balance” (van der Zwaan 2017, 121). This change requires high investments into universities (cf. van der Zwaan 2017, 116), which have to be provided by goverments. For instance, China and India have multiplied the number of their universities and colleges by a hundred in order to meet the demand for higher education (cf. van der Zwaan 2017, 116). 

Esperanza Revelo Jiménez looks at two different ways to approach the training of teachers. First, there is “the Teaching for Understanding approach”, which was developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (cf. Jiménez 2018, 33). Here, the student’s needs can be taken into account and supporting topics can be interconnected easily (cf. Jiménez 2008, 33). Second, there is an approach which was developed by “the Facing History and Ourselves team” (Jiménez 2008, 33). The goal of this approach is “humane and informed citizenry” (Jiménez 2008, 33). The diverse backgrounds of the students and historical events can be used to examine “racism, prejudice and anti-semitism” (Jiménez 2008, 33).

The OSDE, which stands for “Open Spaces for Dialogue and Enquiry“, is an international project that deals with the education for global issues. Educators, academics, and civil society actors from eight countries take part in this project, which was initially funded by the British government (cf. Andreotti 2008, 40). The OSDE deals with the following objectives:

• to explore the links between people living in the “developed” countries of the North with those of the “developing” South, enabling people to understand the links between their own lives and those of people throughout the world;¹⁰
• to increase understanding of the economic, social, political, and environmental forces that shape our lives;
• to develop the skills, attitudes, and values that enable people to work together to take action to bring about change and take control of their own lives;
• to work towards achieving a more just and a more sustainable world in which power and resources are more equitably shared (Andreotti 2008, 40).

The goal of OSDE is to get students to “analyse and experiment with other forms of seeing/thinking and being/relating to one another” (Andreotti 2008, 42) by creating “a safe space for dialogue and enquiry” (Andreotti 2008, 43).

 

5.1 Knowledge of teachers as global educators

Chiefly, the education of teachers needs to be enhanced in order to be able to teach children and adolescents about global citizenship. Therefore, teacher education should focus on skills, competencies, and awareness (cf. Reimers 2009, quoted in: Soriano 2015, 70). Skills are about critical thinking, communication, language, collaboration, and technology (cf. Rego & Moledo 2015, 70).  Students have to face an increasingly diverse and inequitable world. As a result, teachers need to have knowledge of equity, diversity, and global interconnectedness (cf. Merryfield 2000, 429). The knowledge will help future teachers to reflect their own identities (cf. Merryfield 200, 435), and thus they will be able to teach their pupils to reflect as well.

The English language has a high status in the world. Therefore, in times of globalization, human rights need to be prioritized in the EFL classroom from a Western point of view (cf. Khuram 2008, 35). The teachers need training in human rights in order to design a framework for the education regarding this topic (cf. Khuram 2008, 37). This framework would need to be made relevant for the EFL classroom. The teaching material would give different views on specific topics. For example, a comparison of the views on the “war on terror” by both British and Pakistani students can be interesting for future students (cf. Khuram 2008, 37). As a result of globalization, children need to know that issues can be common throughout different cultures all around the world, even when the issues seem to be local at first (cf. Khuram 2008, 38).

In general, for global citizenship education, the supporting pillars are expertise in the subjects, such as in the EFL classroom, and didactics, classroom management, diagnostic analysis and social competence (cf.  Maurič 2016, 93). Those supporting pillars have to be understood as equally important for educating the students in global citizenship education (cf.  Maurič 2016, 93).  Therefore, continuing teacher training after studying at a university are crucial and needs to have a consistent picture of teachers in mind who are globally minded (cf.  Maurič 2016, 93). For instance, in Austria teachers have to take part in intercultural learning training, which includes work with intercultural parents, handling of conflicts, inter-religious matters, as well as language learning (cf.  Maurič 2016, 32+33). Therefore, the teachers are confronted with the need to increase their own global citizenship all the time.

For teacher training in global citizenship education, there is the need to get all the resources of a university together to achieve this goal (cf.  Maurič 2016, 164). Future teachers need to be encouraged to permanently reflect on personal convictions and actions (cf.  Maurič 2016, 164). This reflection should keep the global society in mind – in aspects of freedom, human rights, solidarity, participation and democracy (cf.  Maurič 2016, 164). Nevertheless, democracy is a Western ideal.

 

5.2 The role of teachers in global education

(Erasmus+)

International cooperation of universities as well as funding programs by the European Union, for instance Erasmus+, are essential for the internationalization of teachers and the universities themselves (cf. Maurič 2016, 68). Since complex international relationships, which are in place worldwide, cannot be explained from the viewpoint of a single nation-state, there is an urgent need for teachers to get out of their citizen position and become a global citizen (cf. Maurič 2016, 89). In order to educate students in global citizenship, the teachers need to be able to convey, empower, as well as exemplify democratic values for a global society (cf. Maurič 2016, 90). Because of this conveyance, empowerment and exemplification, participation and taking action in a global society is a key factor (cf. Maurič 2016, 90). Thus, being connected internationally or spending time abroad could be a step in the right direction.

As global citizenship educators, the role of teachers would change into the role of mentors. As mentors, there would be various areas to cover. Environmental conditions should be maintained, individuals must be encouraged to enhance self-confidence and self-esteem, and pupils need to be enabled to reflect in a focused and systematical way (cf. Aviram 2015, 25). The Sustainable Development Goals help here. They will serve as a foundation for students towards open-mindedness (cf. Hillyard 2008, 15). Vanessa Andreotti describes this mentor role as the role of a facilitator who has the task of “modeling behaviour, opening, holding and closing the time/space, guiding […] and not trying to impose his or her perspective” (Andreotti 2008, 44f).

In addition, the role of teaching is changing because the world has become more powerfully connected through media. Media offers pupils the ability to access knowledge and information easily (cf. Soriano 2015, 43). Therefore, “the school is no longer a stable institution of socialization because it is competing with other media” (Soriano 2015, 44). Consequently, pupils can participate “in global economics, politics, technology and environmental protection” (Soriano 2015, 54). As a result, teachers also have to be confident with media and need to keep up with the flow of information and knowledge their pupils are gaining. Then media could be an advantage rather than a challenge for teaching.

The globally connected world of today allows pupils to affect other people around the world. Therefore, teachers need to educate pupils about decision-making (cf. Merryfield 1995), because every decision that is made public through new media could reach people from all parts of the world. Adjacent to decision-making, teachers have to bind global knowledge and subject-specific knowledge together in order to show the connectedness of different subjects (cf. Merryfield 1995). For example, pupils can learn about different cultures from world literatures (cf. Merryfield 1995).

Moreover, children can be motivated when educated about the world which surrounds them (cf. Teaching English). This way of motivating could work easily in classes that are already characterized by mixed ethnicities, but also in single-nationality classes (cf. British Council). Teachers need to motivate their pupils “to do better and better”, especially regarding their responsibility to the communities in which they live and to the people around them (cf. British Council). Topics and ideas for the classroom could be:

1. Refugee crisis:

1. Imagine and talk about what it might be like to have no home;
2. reading articles, case studies, etc. on stories of immigrants;
3. looking at and reflecting on award winning photographs documenting the refugee crisis;
4. writing a proposal to a community leader on how to manage the large flow of immigrants into a country;
5. researching and understanding how refugee crises come to be.

2. Climate change

1. Project work to understand how climate change occurs;
2. creating a presentation on ways to tackle climate change, one person at a time;
3. creating a petition for the protection of wildlife from climate change;
4. presenting a case to raise funds for a wildlife / an earth cause.

3. Hate Crimes

1. Reading newspaper articles covering hate crime stories;
2. including poems about love (e.g. “The Language of Love” by Poet Ali), diversity (e.g. “The Crayon Box that Talked” by Shane De Rolf), and tolerance. Pupils can listen to them, explore themes in them, or use them for inspiration to create their own and then present them.

4. Food and Health

1. Sharing recipes from one’s culture;
2. watching famous chefs cook their native recipes;
3. exploring strange delicacies from around the world;
4. learning about persecuted minority cultures through their food;
5. create a class recipe book with recipes from around the globe.

5. Art and Music

1. Looking at revolutionary artwork (e.g. Banksy);
2. listening to music that tells a story (e.g. John Legend’s Glory);
3. creating artwork that represents oneself and one’s culture;
4. looking at paintings that present a way of life (cf. Teaching English).

As mentioned before, teachers need to be able to empower their pupils as individuals (cf. Maurič 2016, 37). Consequently, teachers themselves need to be empowered individuals as well. Thus, teachers need to be able to consciously approach their personal identity or identies. This should be an integral part of the lifelong process of professionalizing as a teacher (cf. Maurič 2016, 37). 

 

6. Conclusion

The subject of cultural education and global education is immense. While researching and writing this thesis, I faced the problem of what to take into account and what to leave out, due to the vast academic output on this topic and all the discussions which have gone on for decades. Additionally, I was surprised by how early the call for citizenship and global citizenship education arose. Cultures and globalization are dynamic and the process of their change is ongoing. Therefore, education has to keep up with those dynamics.

In general, is there a gap between intercultural and global education at all? No, there is no gap. Intercultural education and competence are an integral part of global citizenship education. However, there seems to be a gap in taking steps in order to set up global citizenship education in German schools. Globalization changes the world fast, and the education system is challenged to keep up with this tempo. It is a common observation that while the world moves on, government policies and school administration invariably lag behind. However, individual teachers can make use of their freedom in planning lessons to compensate this in a small way where it matters to them – in their own classrooms.

During my research, I noticed that in the literature there is confusion about the separation of approaches, concepts, and ideas. Therefore, the goal of this thesis was to bring more clarity into the discourse by introducing those concepts, ideas, and approaches, and then by contrasting them.

Chiefly, for successfully educating our future pupils as global citizens, we need to see, understand, and educate them as individuals. When boundaries of cultures are made to fade or disappear because we foreground global connectedness in our classrooms, our pupils can start their journeys towards becoming global citizens. Before this can happen, our own teacher education needs enhancing by global citizenship education, since, above all, we (future) teachers need to become global citizens ourselves before we can educate our future pupils in this manner.

Spending time abroad is substantial for future teachers, as well as for future students. As this can be a financial (or a cultural or political) hurdle for many teachers and students in many countries, the potential of local approaches for becoming global citizens needs exploring further. When we find ways to become global citizens at a local level, the goal of more people being global citizens can be reached more easily. The potential of this for a future change of globalization will be interesting. How will globalization change in the future once there are more global citizens? And how will this cascade and affect more people? Research on this may well find that future education and syllabi will have to change to accommodate global citizenship education.

 

Text by N. Eckardt

Editor’s notes by I. Martin

 

Notes

¹ Editor’s note: Where this topic is not yet embedded in the curriculum, educators could include it themselves in their course offering. In linguistics, this would be multilingualism, in cultural studies multiculturalism, in literary studies postcolonial or world literatures, and in language-teaching Global English(es).
The 12 previous posts in this series (“Language Education and Global Citizenship“), for example, grew out of my seminar “Global English(es), Global Citizenship Education and Global TEFL“, which originally grew out of our “Bi-directional learning and teaching in Laos” project and then underwent a steady metamorphosis over the last 4 years (“global educators need to become globally competent themselves first in order to teach […]”). As a University of Education, we have the privilege of educating the first generation of future teachers at this time who will be able – and hopefully obliged by the next curriculum – to make Global Citizenship Education a major topic, process, and goal in their EFL lessons.
As I write this, teacher education itself is being foregrounded and upgraded in the conference (22-23 November 2021) “Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung” (“quality initiative teacher education”), a nation-wide programme for professionalising teacher education to prepare for cross-sectional challenges such as digitalization, inclusion, diversity, and sustainablity. According to the panel, teacher education is no longer just an “important feature”, but “existential for society”.

² Editor’s note: This is why the initial sessions in the seminar mentioned in note¹ introduce “The Sustainable Development Goals” and “Teaching the Sustainable Development Goals“. Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoffman, a member of the ESD Expert Net, also comes in as a guest speaker to show positive solutions and ways forward in Education for Sustainable Development.

³ The iceberg model is one of the earlier examples to explain cultures. There are numerous other models which attempt to explain this complex phenomenon, e.g. the onion model or models like the Dension Culture Model or the Deal & Kennedy Culture Model.

⁴ Editor’s note: The concepts of culture taught in different countries would depend on their prevalent beliefs, ideologies, or discourse-control – ultimately their positionality – to begin with, and then on their exposure to modern and postmodern theories of culture and decoloniality. A broad spectrum of lessons “teaching culture” can be witnessed across university classrooms in both Germany and Laos, for example, stretching from knowledge-instruction about foreign customs (e.g. festivals, family structures) to discussions about cultural norms (e.g. “universal values vs. cultural relativism), “Othering”, or cultural theories.

⁵ The guiding perspectives are:

• Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE)
• Bildung für Toleranz und Akzeptanz von Vielfalt (BTV)
• Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung (PG)
• Berufliche Orientierung (BO)
• Medienbildung (MB)
• Verbraucherbildung (VB) (Bildungsplaene Baden-Wuerttemberg)

⁶ The Christian view on human life evolved out of the religion of Christianity. This view is based on the teachings and beliefs of Jesus Christ. The significance here is that in the Western world, tolerance of otherness is a core feature cemented in the Christian faith.

⁷ After the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the Western world experienced a political swing to the right, with rising scepticism towards migration from the east and certain religious beliefs, especially the Muslim faith, resulting in counter-extremism and more violence.

⁸ Editor’s note: The tenet of “universal values” is itself challenged by theories of “cultural relativism“. This conflict is unresolved in education and will be addressed in a future article.

⁹ Editor’s note: The term “race” as a way of pseudo-categorizing human populations should not be used anymore. Immigration slips handed out by airlines continue to baffle our Laos-interns when they enter Asia because there is a line in which their “race” needs to be stated, which they – being Whites – do not know. We therefore tell them in one of the preparatory workshops that they are “Caucasian”, which they then need to google. This goes to show how unracialised their entire existence has been up to this point.

¹⁰ “Developed” is a difficult term since it is written from a Western point of view. The term implicates that it is decided which countries are developed and which are not.
Editor’s note: “The common usage of the word developed implies that there is a gold-standard for ‘development’ overall, with a desirable (refined, superior) state of development at one end of the scale and an undesirable (‘raw’, unrefined, primitive, inferior) one at the other. The binary of ‘developed countries’ and ‘undeveloped’ or ‘underdeveloped countries’ is a value statement rooted in eurocentricism and colonialism; the criteria by which a country is deemed developed are chosen by those who deem themselves to be developed” [superior] (note 1 by the same editor in a previous article on this blog).

 

Illustrations

Creating Multicultural Education through Content:
Fonseca, Jessica (2019). “Creating Multicultural Education through Content. ” https://licensewithmosaiq.com/multicultural-education-content/ (last accessed 7 January 2021).

Dimensions of multicultural education: Saculo, Joanna Rose (2014). “Dimensions of multicultural education.” https://www.slideshare.net/jho_anne/dimensions-of-multicultural-education (last accessed 27 January 2021).

Erasmus+: Eramus+. https://www.erasmusplus.de (last accessed 7 January 2021).

Global citizenship manifests in many ways: Rinne, April (2019). “10 Resources to Cultivate & Inspire Global Citizenship” https://medium.com/@aprilrinne/10-resources-to-cultivate-inspire-global-citizenship-a077d2e351df (last accessed 7 January 2021).

Iceberg Model: Systems Innovation (2020). “Iceberg Model.” https://de.systemsinnovation.io/post/iceberg-model (last accessed 20 Januar 2021).

The Culture Wheel: Fonte Weaver, Andrea (2018). “Celebrating Our Culture: A New How-To-Guide” https://www.bridgestogether.org/celebrating-our-culture-a-new-how-to-guide/ (last accessed 7 January 2021).

 

References

Aktionsrat Bildung (2017). Bildung 2030 – veränderte Welt. Fragen an die Bildungspolitik. Münster: Waxmann.

Ball, Stephen J. (2012). Global Education Inc.: New policy networks and the neo-liberal imaginary. New York: Routledge.

Banks, James A. (ed.) (2009). The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education. New York: Routledge.

Banks, James A. & McGee Banks, Cherry A. (eds.) (2010). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives. New Jersey: Wiley.

Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg. “Bildung für Toleranz und Akzeptanz von Vielfalt (BTV)” http://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/Startseite/BP2016BW_ALLG/BP2016BW_ALLG_LP_BTV (last accessed 22 February 2019).

Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg. “Einführung in den Bildungsplan 2016” http://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/EINFUEHRUNG (last accessed 22 February 2019).

Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg. “Leitgedanken zum Kompetenzerwerb” http://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/SEK1/E1/LG (last accessed 22 February 2019).

Bildungspläne Baden-Württemberg. “Sprachbewusstheit” http://www.bildungsplaene-bw.de/,Lde/LS/BP2016BW/ALLG/SEK1/E1/PK/01 (last accessed 22 February 2019).

Byram, Michael (1989). Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education. Clevedon/Philadelphia: Multilingual Matters.

Demorgon, Jacques (1999). Interkulturelle Erkundungen. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer internationatel Pädagogik. Frankfurt/ New York: Campus.

Dietz, Gunther (2009). Multiculturalism, Interculturality and Diversity in Education. An Anthropological Approach. Münster: Waxmann.

eurostat Statistics explained. “Migration and migrant population statistics.” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migration_and_migrant_population_statistics (last accessed 20 January 2021).

Gimenez, Telma & Susan Sheehan (ed.) (2008). Global citizenship in the English language classroom. British Council.

Gorbunova, Lydmyla. http://pedagogika-filozoficzna.eu/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/47-58-gorbunowa.pdf (last accessed 26 February 2019).

Göbel, Kerstin (2011). “Interkulturelle Kompetenz und Englischunterricht.” In: Allemann-Ghionda, Cristina & Wolf-Dietrich Bukow (eds.). Orte der Diversität. Formate, Arrangements und Inszenierung, 191-208. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.

Huber, Josef (ed.) (2014). Developing intercultural competence through education. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publ.

Hunter, Sallie McNett (2013). “So What is Hyperculture? An Attempt to Define It.” https://deepfriedscifi.wordpress.com/2013/04/17/so-what-is-hyperculture-an-attempt-to-define-it/ (last accessed 26 February 2019).

Jo, Jo-Yeon O (2012). “Cross-Cultural Education.” https://www.academia.edu/7845998/Cross-cultural_Education (last accessed 26 February 2019).

Maurič, Ursula (2016). Global Citizenship Education als Chance für die Lehrerbildung: Bestehende Praxis, Potenzial und Perspektiven am Beispiel der Pädagogischen Hochschule Wien. Münster: Waxmann.

Merryfield, Merry (1995). “Teacher Education in Global and International Education.” https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED384601.pdf (last accessed 15 January 2019).

Merryfield, Merry M. (2000). “Why aren’t teachers being prepared to teach for diversity, equity, and global interconnectedness? A study of lived experiences in the making of multicultural and global educators.” Teaching and Teacher Education 16 (4): 429-443.

Sobania, Neal W. (ed.) (2015), Putting the Local in Global Education. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus.

Soriano, Encarnación (ed.) (2015). Rethinking Education For a Global, Transcultural World. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Teaching English. “Global Citizens.” https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/zahrazuhair/global-citizens (last accessed 25 February 2019).

Tully, James (ed.) (2014). On Global Citizenship: James Tully in Dialogue. London: Bloomsbury.

Van der Zwaan, Bert (2017). Higher Education in 2040: A Global Approach. Amsterdam: AUP.