UNIT 4 MULTICULTURAL AND GLOBAL LITERACY

Learning Outcomes

1. Discuss global and multicultural literacy

2. Discuss the competencies needed for global and multicultural literacies
3. Discuss ways on how to improve global and multicultural literacy

(HANNAH)
MULTICULTURAL LITERACY

Multicultural literacy refers to the skills involved when uncovering bias in regards to
culture, as well as the ability to take different perspectives to gain a more humane perspective. It
is important for students to be multiculturally literate because we live in a multicultural
community. Students need to be able to take the perspectives of different cultures to allow
themselves to grow into responsible citizens, who consider other people's opinions.

GLOBAL LITERACY

Global literacy is an understanding of how the world is organized and interconnected.

These students have an understanding of and appreciation for the different cultures, customs,
systems and relationships that exist throughout the world. Globally literate students are
empowered to affect positive change in the world.’

According to the Ontario Ministry of Education (2015) A global citizen should display most or
all of the following characteristics:

 Respect for humans no matter their race, gender, religion or political perspectives.
  Respect for diversity and various perspectives.
  Promoting sustainable patterns of living, consumption, and production.
  Appreciate the natural world and demonstrate respectful towards the rights of all
living things.

How are Multicultural and Global Literacy Interconnected?

Every classroom contains students of different race, religion, and cultural groups. Students
embrace diverse behaviors, cultural values, patterns of practice, and communication. Yet they all
share one commonality: their educational opportunity (Guo, 2014).
Teachers should teach their students that other cultures exist and that these deserve to be
acknowledged and respected. Integrating a variety of cultural context into lessons and activities,
teaches students to view the world from many angles, creates a respect for diversity and enables
students to learn exciting information. As classrooms become increasingly more diverse, it is
important for educators to acknowledge an address diversity issues and to integrate
multiculturalism information into the classroom curriculum (Guo, 2014).

6 Reasons Global Competence Matters

The Asia Society Center for Global Education notes five reasons why global competence
matters and we should be engaging young people now in learning experiences that focus on
developing these skills, attitudes and dispositions. We added an additional benefit.

1. Global competence is the toolkit that a productive, involved citizenry uses to meet
the problems and opportunities of the world. In the curriculum, global competence
challenges students to investigate the world, consider a variety of perspectives,
communicate ideas and take meaningful action. A globally focused curriculum engages
students in their own learning and motivates them to strive for knowledge and
understanding. And a curious, inspired student strives to learn more in school and
beyond.
2. A new generation of students requires different skills from the generations that
came before. The world is changing fast. Boundaries—literal as well as figurative— are
shifting and even disappearing altogether. The culture that once lived halfway around the
world now lives just down the block. The ability to thrive in this new and rapidly
changing environment is grounded in a globally focused curriculum.

3. More than ever before, individual actions reach around the globe. Environmental
concerns, economic shifts, global poverty, population growth, human rights and political
conflict can seem intractable and overwhelming, yet they absolutely require thoughtful
action. In a globally focused curriculum, students learn that the world needs them to act,
and that they can make a difference.

(REN)
4. Global competence integrates knowledge of the world and the skill of application
with the disposition to think and behave productively. Global competence is not
restricted to knowing about other cultures and other perspectives. In addition to
knowledge of the world, a globally competent citizen exhibits habits like critical thinking,
rational optimism, innovation, empathy and awareness of the influences of culture on
individual behavior and world events.

5. Success in career and life will depend on global competence, because career and life
will play out on the global stage. Already, government, business and cultural
institutions are called to solve the world’s problems cooperatively. Engaging in these
challenges requires high-order knowledge and thinking skill, as well as shared language
 and cultural understanding. In a globally focused curriculum, students prepare to
approach problems from multiple perspectives and to thrive in a global future.

6. Working with and building relationships with people who have different
backgrounds adds meaning, depth and joy to your life. Varied perspectives and
worldviews enhance our own understandings and constructs (both mental and social).

In Education for Global Competence: Preparing our Youth to Engage the World, Asia
Society expounds upon these reasons for preparing for global competence and details exactly
what they feel the four skills of globally competent students are:

1. Investigate the world beyond their immediate environment: Framing significant

problems and conducting well-crafted and age-appropriate research.
2. Recognize perspectives, others’ and their own: Articulating and explaining such
perspectives thoughtfully and respectfully.
3. Communicate ideas effectively with diverse audiences: Bridging geographic,
linguistic, ideological and cultural barriers.
4. Take action to improve
conditions: Viewi
ng themselves as
players in the world and
participating
reflectively.

7 Global Competencies (ROVELYN)

Making your way in a complex world takes a broad range of knowledge, skills and
practices. David Young from Participate outlines seven priority competencies:
 1. Appreciation of culture. Students see their own cultures as strengths, seek to understand
the cultures of others, are aware of similarities and differences among cultures and
understand that behaviors and values are often tied to cultures.
2. Evaluation of information. Students regularly question easily accessible information to
seek deeper understanding and thoughtfully evaluate materials and perspectives, rather
than accepting things at face value.
3. Cross-cultural communication skills. Students effectively exchange ideas with peers
and adults from different backgrounds — either virtually or in person — and have the
skills to enter new communities and spaces.
4. Perspective taking skills. Students demonstrate curiosity and empathy and may show
compassion for the perspectives of others.
5. Intelligent humility. Students understand that their knowledge is not finite and
appreciate how much more there is to learn about the world. Students understand the
grandiosity of the world and its complexities.
6. Divergent thinking. Students see alternative or original solutions to existing problems
and can envision the world differently from how it currently exists.
7. Technological literacy. Students utilize and explore existing technologies to
communicate and collaborate with others, and to learn and share new ideas and
information. Students create new technologies or discover new uses for technologies that
help them and others navigate their worlds

Teaching Practices that Promotes Global Competence in the Classroom (AVE)

Pedagogies for promoting global competence Various student-centered
pedagogies can help students to develop critical thinking with regards to global issues, respectful
communication, conflict management skills, perspective taking and adaptability.

1. Group-based co-operative project work can improve reasoning and collaborative skills.
It involves topic- or theme-based tasks suitable for various levels and ages, in which
goals and content are negotiated by all participants, and learners can create their own
learning materials that they present and evaluate together. In order to co-operate
effectively, learners need to feel safe and comfortable, and the task and its goals must be
clearly set for them. Learners participating in co-operative tasks soon realise that in order
to be efficient, they need to be respectful, attentive, honest and empathic (Barrett et al.,
2014). Project work can effectively connect students within and across borders. For
example, Global Cities has created a digital exchange program (Global Scholar) through
which students in 26 countries are given the opportunity to work in e-classrooms across
the world (Global Cities, 2017). Harvard Project Zero also established a digital exchange
program in 57 countries.
2. Students can voice their differences, biases and culturally determined beliefs through
organised discussions in the classroom. In order to stimulate discussion, a teacher
typically uses a thought-provoking video clip, image or text (Costa and Kallick, 2013).
 Students can then present supporting evidence, comment and express their differing
points of view. Class discussion is, by nature, an interactive endeavour, and reflective
dialogue engenders proactive listening and responding to ideas expressed by one’s peers.
By exchanging views in the classroom, students learn that there is not always a single
right answer to a problem to be memorised and presented; they learn to understand the
reasons why others hold different views and are able to reflect on the origins of their own
beliefs (Ritchhart et al., 2011).
3. Structured debates constitute a specific format of class discussion that is increasingly
used in secondary and higher education as a way to raise students’ awareness about
global and intercultural issues, and to let them practice their communication and
argumentation skills (see the web platform “idebate.org” and Schuster and Meany (2005)
for resources on debates in school education). In this format, students are given
instructions to join a team either supporting or opposing a polemic point of view – for
instance, “the Internet should be censored” or “hosting the Olympics is a good
investment”. It is often helpful for students to articulate views that may be different from
their own. Service learning is another tool that can help students to develop multiple
global skills through real-world experience. This requires learners to participate in
organised activities that are based on what has been learnt in the classroom and that
benefit their communities. After the activities, learners are required to reflect critically on
their service experience to gain further understanding of course content, and enhance
their sense of role in society with regard to civic, social, economic and political issues
(Bringle and Clayton, 2012).
4. Service learning is strongly tied to the curriculum and differs both from other types of
educational experiences in the community and from volunteering. Through service
learning, students not only “serve to learn,” which is applied learning, but also “learn to
serve” (Bringle et al., 2016).

5. The Story Circle approach has been used in numerous classrooms around the world to
let students practice key intercultural skills, including respect, cultural self-awareness and
empathy (Deardorff, forthcoming). The students, in groups of 5-6, take turns sharing a 3-
minute story from their own experience based on specific prompts such as “Tell us about
your first experience when you encountered someone who was different from you.” After
all students in the group have shared their personal stories, students then take turns
briefly sharing the most memorable point from each story in a “flash back” activity.
Other types of intercultural engagement involve simulations, interviews, role plays and
online games (for examples of specific activities to use in the classroom, see Anna Lindh
Foundation, 2017; Berardo and Deardorff, 2012; Council of Europe, 2015; Fantini, 1997;
Seelye, 1996; Storti, 2017; Stringer