Introduction: All Teachers Are Global Educators

At the same time, teachers' classrooms are becoming more global with growing numbers of students born outside the United States, and school demographics are becoming increasingly diverse, requiring teachers to adapt new strategies to effectively reach students whose racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds may differ from their own. Approximately one in four students in the United States are first- or second-generation immigrants, 4.5 million are English language learners who speak one or more of 350 languages, and—as of 2016—a majority of children under the age of 5 are ethnoracial minorities, signaling that the diversity in our schools is a long-term trend that is here to stay. At the same time, the U.S. teaching force does not reflect these demographic changes. In the 2015–2016 school year, 80 percent of teachers identified as white (Taie & Goldring, 2018).

Students are also living in what military and business leaders have dubbed a VUCA world—one that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. At the macro level, this includes unpredictable government elections, the rise of new political movements, shifts in international alliances, the advent of new technologies, and more. At the micro level, students are grasping with volatility and uncertainty in immediate, personal ways: public health crises, such as the opioid epidemic and lead-contaminated water; a surge in hate crimes that target individuals' religion, race, or sexual identity; a constant barrage of school shootings; fears that parents or loved ones will get incarcerated or deported at any time.

Students cannot simply check the baggage they carry with them at the door. Research on the science of learning and development has repeatedly shown that physical and mental stress and trauma affect students' cognitive development (Cantor, Osher, Berg, Steyer, & Rose, 2018). Unless society addresses the underlying causes that adversely affect students' physical and mental health, these undue impediments to learning will remain.

In this current landscape, what does a true vision of equitable teaching and learning look like? We argue that it is a comprehensive approach that addresses students' cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral development. It is teaching that arms students with the knowledge and skillset to not merely survive but thrive in an ever-changing, interconnected world—one that both paves a pathway for students to pursue their passions and dreams and opens windows to opportunities students might not have known existed. It is teaching that addresses the unique background each student brings and the institutional barriers students face on account of the racial, ethnic, cultural, or linguistic group with which they identify. It is teaching that provides students with the foundation to be the change they want to see in their own communities and the wider world.

This is not a utopic vision of teaching. Imagine a 1st grade classroom where English language learners in a semirural North Carolina community discuss the causes and effects of deforestation in the Amazon and articulate concrete actions they will take to protect the rainforest. Imagine 8th grade students in a town with a military base debate the pros and cons of the Vietnam War from the perspectives of both the Americans and the Vietnamese. Imagine 10th graders in Washington, DC and Ghana who collaborate across continents to discuss a lack of access to potable drinking water and devise STEM solutions to the problem. These are all realities. Teaching for global competence is one way that educators are already working toward this holistic vision of education.

What Is Global Competence?

Global competence is the set of knowledge, skills, mindsets, and values needed to thrive in a diverse, globalized society. In essence, global competence is the toolbox that equips students to reach their career aspirations in a globally connected economy (Asia Society & Longview Foundation, 2016) and take individual and collective responsibility as global citizens who make their local communities, their countries, and the world a more just, sustainable place for all of humankind (Banks, 2014; Zhao, 2010).

Global competence, global awareness, global citizenship, global literacy, intercultural competence, international education, and global education are often used interchangeably. We recognize that there are distinctions among these terms and even ambiguity within them (Kirkwood, 2001a; Oxley & Morris, 2013). However, for the purposes of this book, we are less concerned about getting hung up on terminology than we are about supporting teachers as they cultivate the underlying attributes that allow students to thrive in a world that is complex, interconnected, and filled with a diversity of landscapes, people, and perspectives. Throughout this book, we use the term global competence to describe these attributes, though we recognize that some schools, districts, or policy guidelines may use others.

Global competence is multidimensional in nature (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2018a; Reimers, 2009; UNESCO, 2015), addressing social-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive domains of learning. The cognitive domain covers "knowledge and thinking skills necessary to better understand the world and its complexities," the social-emotional domain emphasizes "values, attitudes, and social skills … that enable learners to live together with others respectfully and peacefully," and the behavioral domain relates to "conduct, performance, practical application, and engagement" (UNESCO, 2015, p. 22).

Nongovernmental, governmental, and supranational organizations—such as the Asia Society, World Savvy, the U.S. Department of Education, the OECD, and UNESCO—have created frameworks that delineate specific attributes that collectively comprise global competence. Figure 0.1 provides an overview of these different frameworks. Despite differences in wording, these frameworks coalesce around the following cognitive, social-emotional, and behavioral domains:

• Knowledge of global issues, trends, and globalization processes using analytic and critical thinking (cognitive domain).
• Dispositions of empathy, valuing multiple perspectives, appreciation for diversity, and a sense of responsibility toward a common humanity (social-emotional domain).
• Skills related to effective intercultural communication and collaboration, including speaking more than one language and acting on issues of global importance (behavioral domain).

Figure 0.1. Global Competence Frameworks

Importantly, global competence is not about the world "out there." It is rooted in understanding ourselves and our place in the world as a foundation for understanding those around us. Developing global competence also does not mean trading in one's cultural or national identity for global citizenship or "one-world government." Rather, it embraces how "cultural, national, regional, and global identifications are interrelated, complex, and evolving" (Banks, 2008, p. 134). Indeed, one can develop global citizenship while maintaining strong cultural, national, and local affiliations.

In addition, global competence is also not a content area unto itself. It is instead rooted in disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge that cuts across all disciplines (Mansilla & Jackson, 2011). Therefore, it should not be treated as an "add-on"—limited to an elective course in which a handful of students enroll, a one-time international day, or a multicultural fair—but integrated into existing courses and curricula to which all students are exposed throughout the school year (Tichnor-Wagner, Parkhouse, Glazier, & Cain, 2016).

Because global competence is a multifaceted construct, it can help prepare students to thrive in a variety of ways. From a career-readiness perspective, business and industry leaders argue that global competence is desired and required of employees and will give students a leg up in a competitive, global marketplace. From a civic perspective, global competence helps students learn to live together in communities marked by increasing diversity, and it illuminates the root causes of inequities that exist in our world and how students can combat such injustices (Tichnor-Wagner, 2016). This all points back to equity, whether it is providing students with equitable access to opportunities that will help them succeed in postsecondary education (and beyond) or giving students the tools to disrupt global injustices that play out in their local communities. Therefore, global competence is not a "nice-to-have"; it is a "must have" for all students, for both their individual betterment and the betterment of the world in which they live.

Globally Competent Teaching

More states, districts, and schools are inserting terms such as global awareness, global citizen, global competence, and international into school names, mission and vision statements, teacher evaluations, and more (Parker, 2008; Tichnor-Wagner, 2016). School, district, and state global scholar certificate programs are on the rise, with the purpose of recognizing global competence in both students and teachers (Singmaster, Norman, & Manise, 2018), as are Seals of Biliteracy, which acknowledge students' bilingualism achievement on high school diplomas (Heineke, Davin, & Bedford, 2018). This has left educators asking, "Becoming more global sounds great, but how do we actually do it?"

When we first embarked on this work in 2013, definitions for what global competence meant for students abounded. Missing, though, was a clear delineation of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions teachers need to instill global competence in their students. This interrelated set of dispositions, knowledge, and skills is what we refer to as globally competent teaching (Figure 0.2).

Figure 0.2. Elements of Globally Competent Teaching

Globally competent teaching is composed of 12 distinct yet interrelated elements. We identified these elements through a systematic review of scholarly literature that addressed how K–12 teachers develop global competence. We also conducted a systematic literature review of publications and frameworks produced by leading education organizations that address K–12 teachers' global competence development (including the Asia Society, Global Teacher Education, the Longview Foundation, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and World Savvy). Following state-adopted professional standards for teachers—which require educators to demonstrate professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions for licensure (e.g., National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE])—we delineated the 12 elements by dispositions, knowledge, and skills because globally competent teaching is part and parcel of what effective teachers are already doing.

Teaching dispositions encompass the "professional attitudes, values, and beliefs demonstrated through both verbal and nonverbal behaviors as educators interact with students, families, colleagues, and communities" (NCATE, 2008). Globally competent teaching dispositions specifically emphasize the attitudes, values, and beliefs needed to work effectively with students and families from all backgrounds and instill a global mindset in students. Such a mindset embraces an appreciation of diversity, universal rights and commonalities across humanity, and a responsibility for the planet we inhabit and the diversity of people who live on it. They include

• Element 1: Empathy and valuing multiple perspectives.
• Element 2: Commitment to promoting equity worldwide.

Because global competence is not in itself a discipline but a way of teaching that cuts across all disciplines (Mansilla & Jackson, 2011), the "subject-matter" knowledge of global competence reflects a disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding of the cultures, systems, structures, and events around the world and how they are interconnected with one another and with our own lives. Globally competent teaching knowledge includes

• Element 3: Understanding of global conditions and current events.
• Element 4: Understanding of the ways that the world is interconnected.
• Element 5: Experiential understanding of multiple cultures.
• Element 6: Understanding of intercultural communication.

Globally competent teaching skills emphasize pedagogical content knowledge: "the ways of representing and formulating the subject that makes it comprehensible to others" (Shulman, 1986, p. 9). As NCATE (2008) defines it, pedagogical content knowledge is "the interaction of the subject matter and effective teaching strategies to help students learn the subject matter. It requires a thorough understanding of the content to teach it in multiple ways, drawing on the cultural backgrounds and prior knowledge and experiences of students" (p. 89).

The skills section truly differentiates globally competent teaching from other models of global competence (see Figure 0.1), as it integrates global dispositions and knowledge into how teachers manage their classroom environment, plan for and implement instruction, and assess student learning. The six globally competent teaching skills cover the core components of instructional practice delineated in the InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards (2013), developed by the Interstate Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium convened by the Council for Chief State School Officers, and outline what teachers across all content areas and grade levels should know and be able to do. This includes "planning for instruction by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context" (Standard 7); using a variety of instructional strategies to understand content, make connections, and meaningfully apply knowledge (Standard 8); and using a range of formative and summative assessments to "engage learners in their own growth, to monitor learner progress, and to guide the teacher's and learner's decision making" (Standard 6).

Globally competent teaching skills include the ability to

• Element 7: Communicate in multiple languages.
• Element 8: Create a classroom environment that values diversity and global engagement.
• Element 9: Integrate learning experiences for students that promote content-aligned explorations of the world.
• Element 10: Facilitate intercultural and international conversations that promote active listening, critical thinking, and perspective recognition.
• Element 11: Develop local, national, and international partnerships that provide real-world contexts for global learning opportunities.
• Element 12: Develop and use appropriate methods of inquiry to assess students' global competence development.

These 12 elements of globally competent teaching incorporate best teaching practices that emphasize providing real-world contexts for learning in order to develop higher-order thinking skills and validate students' unique backgrounds. As written in the InTASC standards (2013):

Effective teachers have high expectations for each and every learner and implement developmentally appropriate, challenging learning experiences within a variety of learning environments that help all learners meet high standards and reach their full potential. Teachers do this by combining a base of professional knowledge, including an understanding of how cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical development occurs, with the recognition that learners are individuals who bring differing personal and family backgrounds, skills, abilities, perspectives, talents, and interests. (p. 8)

Integrating learning experiences that promote content-aligned investigations of the world and assessing global competence development promote the teaching of challenging standards using authentic and inquiry-based instruction and assessment. Together, empathy and valuing multiple perspectives, understanding multiple cultures, understanding intercultural communication, and communicating in multiple languages incorporate and validate students' diverse perspectives and experiences, reflective of culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogies that best reach culturally and linguistically diverse learners (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Paris, 2012). Both facilitating intercultural conversations and developing partnerships for global learning teach students to communicate and collaborate with people from diverse backgrounds, an emphasized skill for college and career readiness. In this regard, as with the "meat" or "content" of the concept of global competence, globally competent teaching is not an add-on but a compilation of dispositions, knowledge, and skills proven to help all learners succeed academically, socially, and emotionally.

Developing Globally Competent Teaching Practices

Once we identified the 12 elements of globally competent teaching, a second question immediately emerged. How do teachers operationalize this in their daily practice? Some tools exist that measure global or cultural competence. For example the Intercultural Development Inventory—commonly used as pre-post measures in studies on the effect of cross-cultural experiences such as study abroad—measures orientation toward cultural differences through a 50-item Likert scale questionnaire (Hammer, Bennett, & Wiseman, 2003). However, such tools do not provide insight into steps teachers should take to become more globally aware, nor do they directly translate to practical classroom applications.

Therefore, we developed the Globally Competent Learning Continuum (GCLC) as a self-reflection tool to drive professional growth by breaking down the broad—and sometimes daunting—construct of globally competent teaching into manageable steps for implementation and steady improvement. The GCLC delineates the 12 elements of globally competent teaching and breaks each down into five developmental levels: nascent, beginning, progressing, proficient, and advanced. Unlike Likert-scale assessments that place teachers at a particular level of global or cultural competence based on their responses to a cluster of questions, rubrics allow users to rate themselves based on descriptors for each level, identify clear benchmarks for success, and document progress over time (McGury, Shallenberg, & Tolliver, 2008).

As teachers progress from nascent to advanced, the continuum moves from the personal to the interpersonal, with teachers taking the work upon themselves in the early stages and gradually releasing responsibility to students in the advanced stages. At the later stages, students initiate their own intercultural and international conversations and partnerships and evaluate their own global learning. Likewise, under a commitment to equity worldwide, teachers come to recognize inequities that exist locally (and globally) before encouraging students and the school community to take action on those inequities.

The continuum also moves from the local to the global. In the early levels, teachers recognize their own perspective, culture, language, and context before extending outward to recognize the perspectives, cultures, languages, and contexts of others. This embraces a "glocal" mindset that recognizes the intersecting cultural, regional, national, and global identities and affiliations we hold (Banks, 2008). It also reinforces a recognition that our personal, local actions are interconnected with the actions of others around the world (Robertson, 1995). Finally, as teachers move through the levels, they also move from basic awareness and exposure to the world to critically analyzing global inequities and taking actions to address them (Merryfield, 1998; O'Connor & Zeichner, 2011).

The GCLC uses self-reflection as a key driver for teacher learning. For each element, teachers first read through each developmental level and select the level that best describes them, reflecting on the professional and personal experiences that justify their choice. Second, teachers identify an element (or elements) they would like to improve and then read the description for the next highest level to understand what is required for growth. Third, teachers take actions that help them reach the next developmental level—for example, reading a series of articles and books, participating in a professional learning opportunity abroad, teaching a new unit that infuses global perspectives, or researching organizations that provide service-learning opportunities around issues of global concern. Finally, teachers reflect to see if their actions have led them to reach the next developmental level. They can continue the process for the next level or move on to a different element. Because developing global competence is a lifelong journey—and the world we live in is ever-changing—even when the advanced level is reached, there is always room for continued growth.

Research, Development, and Validation

We developed the GCLC through a two-year iterative research process consisting of four stages that developed the construct of globally competent teaching and tested the content validity, internal consistency reliability, and internal structure of the self-reflection tool. Stage 1 identified the 12 elements of globally competent teaching through a systematic literature review (described earlier). Stage 2 broke down each globally competent teaching element into developmental levels. This initial rubric underwent extensive review by 57 practicing K–12 teachers, 7 teacher educators, and 8 global education field experts to determine the representative and relevance of the elements and their developmental levels. Based on the data, modifications to the continuum were made. Stage 3 evaluated internal consistency and overall stability of the 12 elements and their 5 developmental levels through a pilot test with 111 practicing K–12 teachers and a focus group of educators. During Stage 4, final revisions were made. We assessed participant interpretation and use along with overall content validity by conducting cognitive interviews with nine in-service teachers, representing elementary, middle, and high school, and asked a second round of global education experts to provide an expert review.

Teachers and administrators across the United States who have used the GCLC in online courses, district-based professional development, and national global learning cohorts have overwhelmingly stated in evaluations that it is a valuable resource for exploring global issues, gaining global and cultural knowledge, and self-reflecting. Comments that educators have made about the GCLC include "This has changed a lot of views I had and made me reflect about issues that I usually did not pay attention to," "It has helped me to understand my students better," "It will enable me to design more activities that incorporate global awareness," and "It has helped us see where the gaps are and provide those resources for teachers and students in curriculum and strategic plans."

Using This Book

Trends in globalization highlight that all of us are part of a wider world. Historic increases in migration have reshaped our local communities. Technology can connect us in nanoseconds to people and ideas around the globe. The clothing we wear, the food we buy, and the devices on which we rely often get into our wardrobes, refrigerators, and hands through complex global supply chains. Regardless of where you live or the student population you teach, the purpose of this book is to bring out the global educator in you.

This book is written for teachers of all experience levels and grade levels from PreK through 12, teaching any and all subject areas. Preservice and inservice teachers can use this book as a tool to evolve their teaching practice to incorporate globally competent teaching elements. Through this book, teachers can develop a deeper understanding of what global competence means for themselves and their students, reflect on their strengths and areas for improvement across the 12 elements of globally competent teaching, and explore professional learning resources to aid their professional growth.

This book is also valuable for school administrators interested in supporting their staff's and students' global competence development. It gives insights into what you should look for in a classroom that regularly integrates global competence, along with resources you can provide to teachers as they embark on the journey of developing global competence. Since it provides a nuanced conceptualization of what global teaching and learning entails, school administrators can also use this book as a guidepost for designing professional development, instructional coaching, and curriculum that is focused on global competence.

Similarly, teacher educators who want to weave global competence into coursework and programs can use this book as a framework for planning and running both teacher preparation programs for preservice teachers and continuing education programs for inservice teachers. Teacher educators can use the chapters in this book as guideposts to assess whether the courses or additional learning experiences their programs provide are helping preservice and inservice teachers' global competence growth for specific elements. They can also be a tool for personal introspection as teacher educators incorporate global competence into their courses.

This book is divided into three sections—Dispositions, Knowledge, and Skills—and each chapter is devoted to an element of globally competent teaching. Chapters include a description of each element, tips for implementation delineated by developmental levels on the GCLC, and links to additional resources for continuing the journey. Each chapter also invites you to rate yourself on that particular globally competent teaching element. We encourage you to use the Globally Competent Learning Continuum Self-Reflection Tool (see Appendix) as a place to document the level you rate yourself (nascent, beginning, progressing, proficient, advanced) and note the evidence from your personal and professional experiences that justify your rating.

Examples of how these elements have been operationalized by real teachers in real schools are also prominent throughout the chapters and highlighted in real-life vignettes. These examples come from interviews, observations, and surveys of practicing K–12 teachers from a cross-section of grade levels (elementary, middle, and high school), subject areas (math, science, language arts, social studies, world language, and the arts), and locales (urban, suburban, and rural). Note that all teacher names are pseudonyms to protect confidentiality. We also infuse our own personal experiences as teacher educators and elementary, middle, and high school teachers working with diverse student populations.

There is no prescribed order for developing these 12 elements of globally competent teaching—or for reading these chapters. Just as teacher beliefs (dispositions) shape practice (skills), practices can also reshape teachers' beliefs (McLaughlin, 1990). The globally competent teaching elements themselves are interconnected and can be conceived as developing simultaneously and iteratively—as opposed to consecutively and linearly. For example, research suggests that learning to communicate in another language can increase empathy (Goetz, 2003). In gaining an experiential understanding of multiple cultures, a teacher may simultaneously come to value the perspectives of others and learn intercultural communication skills that facilitate international conversations. In developing international partnerships, a teacher may learn about a global inequity that sparks a desire to take action. Because of the interconnectedness of these elements, you will find that some of the same resources will cut across them, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Skype in the Classroom, the Global Read Aloud, and virtual exchange tools, to name a few.

At the same time, we encourage teachers to start with dispositions because those are the foundational lenses through which we engage with our world, our students, and our content. As will be made clear throughout the following chapters, a mindset that values multiple perspectives is requisite to understanding global conditions and current events, understanding intercultural communication, creating a classroom environment that values diversity, and facilitating intercultural conversations. A commitment to equity is likewise foundational to critically analyzing how global interconnectedness contributes to inequities within and across nations, understanding power dynamics that relate to language and intercultural communication, and developing partnerships that allow students to learn with and through the world.

No matter where you fall on the Globally Competent Learning Continuum—and whether you're just thinking about this work for the first time, have recently dabbled, or have 20 years of global teaching experience—the information in this book will help you further develop as a global educator in preparing all students for academic success, social-emotional well-being, and the ability to thrive in an ever-changing world.