A working library for educators who want to bring global competence into their practice — concepts, organizations, and the assessment tools I find most useful.
Global competence begins with attention to the actual room: who is in it, what they bring with them, and what they need. Curriculum follows from that, not the other way around.
The framework asks students and teachers to investigate the world, take other perspectives seriously, and work across difference. In practice that means hard conversations about injustice, real relationships between students who don't share a first language, and critical thinking applied to both the news feed and the lunchroom.
For multilingual students specifically, the work depends on access: texts in their first language, translation tools, devices that function reliably, and projects that allow them to use what they already know. From there, the goal is to point that capacity at something consequential — poverty, inequity, the political questions classrooms often avoid.
A short list of organizations I'd recommend to any teacher starting this work.
Developers of the Global Competence Matrix and a useful first stop for whole-school work.
Visit site →Their Center for Global Education runs a strong certification program and the International Studies Schools Network.
Visit site →Teacher and scholar exchange programs administered by the U.S. State Department. The route I took to the Philippines.
Visit site →An older framework, but useful for making the institutional case for global learning to administrators.
Visit site →A classroom-to-classroom network in more than 140 countries. Project-based and easier to use than expected.
Visit site →Primarily higher-education focused, but their research is consistently strong.
Visit site →Four assessment tools — two for measuring student growth, two for reflecting on your own practice.
A rubric for assessing investigation, perspective-taking, communication, and action across grade levels.
Self-assessment instrument from Tichnor-Wagner et al. for educators reflecting on twelve elements of practice.
International benchmark used to assess students' readiness to engage with a global, interconnected world.
Validated assessment of intercultural competence used in K-12, higher ed, and professional development.
A short reading list. If you only have time for one, read the OECD framework.
Tichnor-Wagner, Parkhouse, Glazier, and Cain · ASCD, 2019
Veronica Boix Mansilla and Anthony Jackson · Asia Society / CCSSO
OECD, 2018. The single most important document on this list.
Interviews with classroom teachers doing this work in real schools.
Edutopia. A good piece to share with a colleague who is new to the concept.
This website is not an official U.S. Department of State website. The views and information presented are the participant's own and do not represent the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, the U.S. Department of State, or IREX.