Multicultural & Global Literacies

REPORTERS: Alpas, Caballero, Sacupayo

-----------------------------------------------------Reporter: Sheryl Caballero--------------------------------------------------

What is Multicultural Literacy?

Multicultural Literacy consists of the skills and ability to identify the creators of knowledge and their
interests (Banks, 1996), to uncover the assumptions of knowledge, to view knowledge from diverse
ethnic and cultural perspective, and to use knowledge to guided action that will create a humane and
just world (Boutte, 2008).

Multicultural Literacy then, brings attention to diversity, equity and social justice to foster cultural
awareness by addressing difficult issues like discrimination and oppression towards other ethnicities
(Boutte, 2008).
 According to Boutte (2008) education for multicultural literacy should help students to develop
the 21st century skills and attitudes that are needed to become active citizens who will work
towards achieving social justice within our communities. Because of the growing racial, language
and ethnic diversity in our country, Multicultural Literacy needs to be transformed in substantial
ways to prepare students to function effectively in the 21 st Century (Boutte, 2008).
 By making small changes within the classrooms, it can create big changes globally.
What is Global Literacy?
Global Literacy aims to address issues of globalization, racism, diversity and social justice (Guo, 2014). It
requires awareness and action, consistent with a broad understanding of humanity, the planet, and the
impact of human decision on both. Global Literacy also aims to empower students with knowledge and
take action to make a positive impact in the world and their local community (Guo, 2014).
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).
What is Global Competence?
Global Competence is a multi-dimensional construct that requires a combination of knowledge, skills,
attitudes and values successfully applied to global issues or intercultural situations. Global issues refer to
those that affect all people, and have deep implications for current and future generations. Intercultural
situations refer to face-to-face, virtual or mediated encounters with people who are perceived to be
from a different cultural background.
The need for global competence
 To live harmoniously in multicultural communities. Learn how to live well with other local,
national, and international communities. For instance, today's students may very well find
themselves studying abroad or even working with another culture within the same country.
 Understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others. why it's vital to support
corporate, government, or nonprofit missions that drive sustainability across the world. We
don't live in an isolated world, and our actions have consequences that reverberate throughout
the world and boomerang right back. It's important to do the right thing for everyone,
environment included, right from the start.
 Engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures. Figure out why it's critical
to use social media responsibly. The Twitter example used before should make it clear as to why
and how a tweet can have consequences around the world.
 Take action for collective well-being and sustainable development. Adapt to an ever-changing,
ever-globalized job market that can leave globally incompetent individuals in the dust. For
instance, it pays to learn the cultural mindset of others, or even to learn another language.

-----------------------------------------------------------Reporter: Liezel G.
Alpas-----------------------------------------------

As part of multicultural and global literacies, I will be discussing about the different Dimensions of
Global competence and its implication to education, the assessment strategy for global competence,
and the Factors of curriculum for global competence.
From the previous reporter, we have understood the meaning of multicultural and global literacies and
the need for global competence.
Education for global competence builds on the ideas of different models of global education. These are;

• Intercultural Education
• Global Citizenship Education
• Education for Democratic Citizenship
Despite the differences in their focus and scope, these models share a common goal to promote
students’ understanding of the world and empower them to express their views and participate in
society.

Acquiring global competence is a life-long process –there is no single point at which an individual
becomes completely globally competent.

Dimensions of Global competence and its implication to education

Global competence is defined by the four dimensions of global competence. A globally competent
individual has the capacity (1) to examine local, global and intercultural issues, (2) to understand and
appreciate the perspectives and world views of others, (3) to engage in open, appropriate and effective
interactions with people from different cultures, and (4) to act for collective well-being and sustainable
development.

Dimension 1: Examine Issues on Local, Global and Cultural Significance (such as poverty, economic
interdependence, migration, inequality, environmental risks, conflicts, cultural differences and
stereotypes)
This dimension refers to globally competent people’s practices of effectively combining knowledge
about the world and critical reasoning whenever they form their own opinion about a global issue.
Globally competent students can draw on and combine the disciplinary knowledge (as effective users of
both traditional and digital media) and modes of thinking acquired in schools to ask questions, analyze
data and arguments, explain phenomena, and develop a position concerning a local, global or cultural
issue according to Boix Mansilla and Jackson, 2011.

Below is an example of Examining issues of global significance

In her history course, a student learns about industrialization and economic growth in developing
countries, and how these have been influenced by foreign investments. She learns that many girls of her
age work in poor conditions in factories for up to ten hours a day, instead of going to school. Her teacher
encourages each student to bring one item of clothing to class and look at the label to see where it was
manufactured. The student is surprised to notice that most of her clothes were made in Bangladesh. The
student wonders under what conditions her clothes were made. She looks at the websites of various
high-street brand shops to see if the websites can tell her about their manufacturing standards and
policies. She discovers that some clothing brands are more concerned with human rights in their
factories than others, and she also discovers that some clothing brands have a long history of poor
conditions in their factories. She reads different journalistic articles about the issue and watches a short
documentary on YouTube. Based on what she discovers, she starts to buy fair-trade clothing and
becomes an advocate for ethically responsible manufacturing.

Dimension 2: Understand and appreciate the perspectives and world views of others
This dimension highlights that globally competent people are willing and capable of considering global
problems and other people’s perspectives and behaviours from multiple viewpoints.

Engaging with different perspectives and world views requires individuals to examine the origins and
implications of others and their own assumptions. This in turn implies a profound respect for and
interest in who the other is, their concept of reality and their emotions.

Individuals with this competence retain their cultural identity but are simultaneously aware of the
cultural values and beliefs of people around them. However, the ability to see through ‘another cultural
filter’ provides opportunities to deepen and question one’s own perspectives, and thus make more
mature decisions when dealing with others (Fennes and Hapgood, 1997).

Understanding perspectives and worldviews: An example

A student notices that certain members of his class have stopped eating lunch. When he inquires, they
tell him that they are participating in a religious fast. The student is curious and asks more about what
that involves: for how long will they fast? When can they eat? What can they eat? What is the religious
significance of the fast? The student learns that for his classmates fasting is something that they do
every year, along with their families and religious community. He also learns that fasting is significant to
his classmates as for them it is a way of demonstrating control over their bodies. The student reflects on
this
significance. Although he does not fast, he recognizes that the themes of community, sacrifice and
material transcendence are common to many different religions, including that of his own religious
heritage. He recognizes that different groups can attribute the same meaning to different practices.

Dimension 3: Engage in open, appropriate and effective interactions across cultures

This dimension describes that a globally competent individuals are able to establish positive interactions
with people of different national, ethnic, religious, social or cultural backgrounds or gender.
It emphasizes individuals’ capacity to interact with others across differences in respectful dialogues, the
desire to understand the other, and their efforts to include marginalized groups in a way that are open,
appropriate and effective.

Interacting openly, effectively and appropriately across cultural differences: An example

Jo and Ai are collaborating on a school project with a student from another country, Mike. The students
set up a video chat on a web platform to brainstorm ideas but at the arranged time for the meeting, they
cannot find Mike online. A few hours later, the students manage to connect on the web platform. Jo
complains that not showing up at the first meeting is not a good way to start and gets angry when she
receives no explanation at all from Mike, who remains silent at the other end of the line. Ai thus
suspends her judgement about Mike’s behavior and asks Mike politely why they could not find him
online. Mike explains that this is probably due to a misunderstanding about the meeting time, as Jo and
Ai’s country moved to daylight saving time the night before while his country did not. Thanks to Ai’s
intervention, the students could laugh about their little incident and successfully start to work on their
project.

Dimension 4: Take Action for Collective well-being and Sustainable Development

This dimension focuses on young people’s role as active and responsible members of society, and refers
to individuals’ readiness to respond to a given local, global or intercultural issue or situation. It is the
capacity and disposition to take constructive action toward sustainable development and collective well-
being.

Globally competent people are engaged to improve living conditions in their own communities and also
to build a more just, peaceful, inclusive and environmentally sustainable world.

Taking action for well-being and sustainable development: An example

A group of students decides to initiate an environmental awareness campaign on the ways in which their
school contributes to local and global waste and pollution. With support from their teachers, they
arrange a series of talks on how to reduce waste and energy consumption. They also design and
strategically distribute information posters that help guide students to make better choices when buying
products and when disposing of waste. Furthermore, they collaborate with both student representatives
and school administrators to introduce recycling bins and energy conservation strategies on the school
premises.

The Assessment Strategy for Global Competence

How do we assess global competence?

The global competence assessment in PISA 2018 is composed of two parts: a cognitive assessment and a
background questionnaire.

The cognitive assessment is designed to elicit students’ capacities to critically examine global issues;
recognize outside influences on perspectives and world views; understand how to communicate with
others in intercultural contexts; and identify and compare different courses of action to address global
and intercultural issues.

In the background questionnaire, students will be asked to report how familiar they are with global
issues; how developed their linguistic and communication skills are; to what extent they hold certain
attitudes, such as respect for people from different cultural backgrounds; and what opportunities they
have at school to develop global competence.

Taken together, the cognitive assessment and the background questionnaire address the following
educational policy questions:

• To what degree are students able to critically examine contemporary issues of local, global and
intercultural significance?
• To what degree are students able to understand and appreciate multiple cultural perspectives
(including their own) and manage differences and conflicts?
• To what degree are students prepared to interact respectfully across cultural differences?
• To what degree do students care about the world and take action to make a positive difference in
other peoples’ lives and to safeguard the environment?
• What inequalities exist in access to education for global competence between and within countries?
• What approaches to multicultural, intercultural and global education are most commonly used in
school systems around the world?
• How are teachers being prepared to develop students’ global competence?

Curriculum for Global Competence

The four dimensions of global competence are supported by four inseparable factors: knowledge, skills,
attitudes and values.

Factor 1: KNOWLEDGE about the world and other cultures

Global competence is supported by knowledge of global issues that affect lives locally and around the
globe as well as intercultural knowledge, that is, knowledge about the similarities, differences and
relations between cultures.

A curriculum should pay attention to the following four knowledge domains:

(1) Culture and intercultural relations;

(2) Socioeconomic development and interdependence;
(3) Environmental sustainability; and
(4) Global institutions, conflicts and human rights.

Culture and intercultural relations (language, arts, traditions and norms)

 Acquiring knowledge in this domain can help young people become more aware of their own
cultural identity, help them understand differences and similarities among and within cultures,
and encourage them to value the importance of protecting cultural differences and diversity.

Socioeconomic development and interdependence

  This refers to the study of development patterns in different regions of the world, with a focus
on the links and interdependences between societies and economies.

Environmental sustainability
 Students need a solid foundation in environmental issues in order to promote and support
sustainability which help students understand the complex systems and policies surrounding the
demand for and use of natural resources.

Global institutions, conflicts and human rights

 The fourth knowledge domain of global competence focuses on formal and informal institutions
that support peaceful relationships between people and the respect of fundamental human
rights.
 Acquiring deep knowledge in this domain is instrumental for young people to develop values
such as peace, non-discrimination, equality, justice, non-violence, tolerance and respect.

Factor 2: SKILLS to understand the world and to take action

Global competence also builds on specific cognitive, communication and socio-emotional “skills”
including:
(1) Reason with Information
 Globally competent students are able to reason with information from different sources,
i.e., textbooks, peers, influential adults, traditional and digital media.
 They can evaluate the worth, validity and reliability of any material on the basis of its
internal consistency, and its consistency with evidence and with one’s own knowledge
and experience.
(2) Communicate effectively and respectfully
 Effective communication requires being able to express oneself clearly, confidently, and
without anger, even when expressing a fundamental disagreement.
 Respectful communication requires understanding the expectations and perspectives of
diverse audiences, and applying that understanding to meet the audience’s needs.
(3) Perspective Taking
 refers to the cognitive and social skills individuals need in order to understand how
other people think and feel
 Perspective taking does not only involve imagining another person’s point of view but
also entails understanding how various perspectives are related to one another.
(4) Conflict Management and Resolution
 Competent students approach conflicts in a constructive manner, recognizing that
conflict is a process to be managed rather than seeking to negate it.

Possible ways to address conflict according to Rychen and Salganik, 2003

1. Analyzing key issues, needs and interests (e.g. power, recognition of merit, division
of work, equity);
2. identifying the origins of the conflict and the perspectives of those involved in the
conflict, recognizing that the parties might differ in status or power;
3. identifying areas of agreement and disagreement; reframing the conflict; managing
and regulating emotions,
 4. interpreting changes in one’s own and others’ underlying emotions and motivation
and dealing with stress, anxiety and insecurity, both in oneself and in others;
5. and prioritizing needs and goals, deciding on possible compromises and the
circumstances under which to reach them.

(5) Adaptability
 This refers to the ability to adapt one’s thinking and behaviours to the prevailing cultural
environment, or to novel situations and contexts that might present new demands or
challenges.
 Adaptable learners can more easily develop long-term interpersonal relationships with
people from other cultures, and remain resilient in changing circumstances

Factor 3: ATTITUDES of openness, respect for people from different cultural backgrounds and global
mindedness

Openness toward people from other cultural backgrounds mean

 The active willingness to seek out and embrace opportunities to engage with people from other
cultural backgrounds
 To discover and learn about their cultural perspectives and how they interpret familiar and
unfamiliar phenomena
 The willingness to suspend their own cultural values, beliefs and behaviours when interacting
with others learn about their linguistic and behavioral conventions
Respect for people from different cultural backgrounds
 Assumes the dignity of all human beings and their inalienable right to choose their own
affiliations, beliefs, opinions or practices.
 Does not require minimizing or ignoring significant and profound differences that might exist
between oneself and others, nor does it require agreeing with, adopting or converting to others’
beliefs.
 Based on recognition of the dignity, rights and freedoms of the other in a relationship of
equality.
Global Mindedness
 It is a worldview in which one sees oneself as connected to the world community and feels a
sense of responsibility for its members.
 Exercise agency and voice with a critical awareness of the fact that other people might have a
different vision of what humanity needs
 Strive to create space for different ways of living with dignity.
 Open to reflecting on and changing their vision as they learn about these different perspectives

Factor 4: VALUING Human Dignity and Cultural Diversity

Values are more general beliefs about the desirable goals that individuals strive for in life, reflecting
modes of conduct or states of being that an individual finds preferable to all other alternatives. In this
way, it serves as standards and criteria that people use both consciously and unconsciously in their
judgements and can motivate certain behaviors and attitudes.

Valuing human dignity and valuing cultural diversity contribute to global competence because they
constitute critical filters through which individuals process information about other cultures and decide
how to engage with others and the world
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”. – According to Article 1 of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Two Basic Foundations of Human Dignity as defined in Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
1. Every human being possesses an intrinsic worth, merely by being human.
2. This intrinsic worth should be recognized and respected by others, and certain forms of
treatment by others are inconsistent with respect for this intrinsic worth.
There are Four Aspects of Valuing the Equality of Core Rights and Dignity (Andrew Clapham, 2006)
1. The prohibition of all types of inhumane treatment, humiliation, or degradation.
2. The assurance of the possibility for individual choice and the conditions for each individual’s
self-fulfillment, autonomy or self-realization.
3. The recognition that the protection of group identity and culture may be essential for the
protection of personal dignity.
4. The creation of the necessary conditions for each individual to have their essential needs
satisfied.

Acknowledging the importance of values in education gives students some essential references to
navigate a world where not everyone holds their views, but everyone has a duty to uphold the principles
that allow different people to co-exist and to prosper.

-------------------------------------------------Reporter: Loressa Sacupayo----------------------------------------------------

My report is all about, GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING INTEGRATING GLOBAL & INTERCULTURAL ISSUES IN
THE CURRICULUM, PEDAGOGIES FOR PROMOTING GLOBAL COMPETENCE, ATTITUDES AND VALUES
INTEGRATION TOWARD GLOBAL COMPETENCE

Global understanding - is understanding is the ability to use knowledge to find meaning and connection
between different pieces of information and perspectives

The framework distinguishes 4 interrelated congnitive processes (OECD, 2018)

1. The capacity to evaluate information using connecting device.
2. The capacity to analyze multiple perspectives and worldviews.
3. The capacity to understand differences in communication.
4. The capacity to evaluate actions and consequences.

Research on global education tends to focus on social studies and foreign language classes, often in the
upper grade levels.
However, the local, global and intercultural issues that students should learn about, in order to take
responsibility for and act upon them, cut across education levels and academic disciplines. For Global
education to translate abstraction into action, there is a need to integrate global issues and topics into
existing subjects (Klein, 2013; UNESCO, 2014)

Several countries are pursuing a dual approach, where content knowledge related to global
competence is both integrated into the existing curriculum and also taught in specific subjects or
courses.
Students can come to understand local, global and intercultural issues across ages, beginning in early
childhood when such issues are presented in developmentally appropriate ways (Boix Mansilla and
Jackson, 2011; UNESCO, 2015)

The way that a teacher frames a topic in the curriculum can significantly shape its contribution to global
competence.

When framing a topic to explore with students, teachers may consider the ways in which this topic
addresses local and global dynamics, and how it can enable students to understand broad global
patterns and the impact on their local environment. For instance, a mathematics teacher might invite
students to decide whether linear or exponential functions best fit the data on world population growth,
or a music teacher may explore how today’s hip hop is expressed differently around the world.

Teaching about minority cultures in different subject areas requires accurate content about and
comprehensive portrayals of ethnically and racially diverse groups and experiences.
Curricula should promote the integration of knowledge of other people, places and perspectives into the
everyday workings of the classroom throughout the year (UNESCO, 2014a), rather than using a “tourist
approach”, giving students a superficial glimpse of life in different countries every now and then

Connecting global and intercultural topics to the reality, contexts and needs of the learning group is an
effective methodological approach to make them relevant to adolescents

People learn better and become more engaged when the content relates to them, and when they can
see the parallels between many global issues and their immediate environment.

For example, students can become aware of the risks related to climate change by studying the effects
that natural phenomena (e.g. hurricanes, floods) have on their own community

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.

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.
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. Students can voice
their differences, biases and culturally determined beliefs through organized discussions in the
classroom.
CLASS DISCUSSION is an interactive approach that encourages proactive listening and responding to
ideas expressed by peers.

By exchanging views in the classroom, students learn that there is no single right answer to a problem,
understand the reasons why others hold different views and reflect on the origins of their own beliefs.

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.
Through service learning, students not only “serve to learn,” which is applied learning, but also “learn to
serve” (Bringle et al., 2016).

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

Teaching attitudes and values related to global competence

Allocating teaching time to a specific subject dealing with human rights issues and nondiscrimination is
an important first step in cultivating values for global competence.

But even more can be achieved by mainstreaming the principle of respect for human dignity and for
cultural diversity across all subjects. For example teachers can use multi-ethnic and multicultural
examples to illuminate general principles and concepts, or emphasise the contributions of people from
different ethnic groups to our collective knowledge and quality of life.

Values and attitudes are partly communicated through the formal curriculum but also through the ways
in which educators and students interact, how discipline is encouraged and the types of opinions and
behaviour that are validated in the classroom.

For example, a history lesson on the American Civil War may emphasise valuing racial equality;

However if the teacher disciplines minority students more severely, he or she communicates a
contradictory value system. It is likely that students will assimilate the culture of the classroom more
readily than they will learn the curriculum.For example, a teacher might reconsider the seating plan of
the classroom if he is hoping to promote racial and gender integration among his students.

Teachers can be instrumental in replacing stereotypes of minority and disadvantaged students with
more positive ones. However, teachers often find it difficult to engage in open discussions about diversity
and discrimination
Teachers may concentrate only on “safe” topics about cultural diversity, such as cross-group similarities,
ethnic customs, cuisines, costumes and celebrations, while neglecting more troubling issues such as
inequities, injustices and oppression (Gay, 2015).