Globalizing Classrooms: Promoting Skills and Understanding

Laura Steinbach, has a new priority for her school: global education. As an administrator for Rawson Saunders School a school exclusively for children with dyslexia in Central Texas, she is busy overseeing everything from bus schedules to curriculum. Now she is adding to her to-do list: Steinbach is supporting one of her teachers, Tina Thammavongsa-Brunson, as she travels to Brazil as part of the Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) Fellowship. Steinbach, who recently attended the TGC Global Education Symposium, was moved to continue promoting global classrooms in her school, “I was fired up… I ended up wondering not can we do this, but what do I need to do to get this done.”

The TGC Global Education Symposium brought together more than 130 teachers and administrators from 37 states, to expand global education in their classrooms and communities. TGC fellows will then spend up to three weeks in Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, or Ukraine participating in local schools, culture, and learning how to catalyze global engagement in their classrooms. These exchange programs are essential for not only developing skills in students, but also promoting global understanding.

 Despite the growing demands placed on schools to achieve higher test scores with smaller budgets, internationalizing education remains important. Dr. Margaret Frieswyk, Superintendent of Schools in Avon, Massachusetts and panelist at the Symposium, believes that global classrooms teach skills that are essential for employable students. “The skills we are talking about are empathy and critical thinking…moving from flags and festivals, to really understanding what is it like to be from another country,” Frieswyk said.

Michael Baer, a high school physics teacher, is accepting the challenge to globalize his classroom in the rural Amish community of Berne, Indiana. He hopes that his exchange in Ukraine will not only expand his students’ knowledge of the region, but also find common ground with the people. “We are going to show students that they are not all that different from my community. There is a great parallel between the Ukrainian people and Americans, and I think that’s a great global lesson.”

The Teachers for Global Classrooms (TGC) Program is funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered by IREX.