Global Literacy Conference Summary

      

GSF recently conducted its inaugural conference on global literacy and international education at St. Paul’s School in Concord, NH.

 

Held May 4-6, 2006 on the grounds of St. Paul’s and intended primarily for educators, policymakers, and concerned citizens, this event brought together experts from different disciplines and fields to deliberate the essential components of international education and help define explicitly what it means to be "globally literate." More specifically, what do young people need to know about the world in order to succeed in the twenty-first century? What knowledge, skills, and perspectives best prepare young citizens for the global challenges and opportunities we face?

 

 

As an essential first step as part of a larger project to define, measure, and promote global literacy, this conference provided an opportunity for a group of distinguished scholars and practitioners to advance the field by defining it more rigorously. The director of the project, GSF President, Dr. Chris Harth, coordinated the event and moderated the four conference sessions. Other participants included Colonel Robert Gordon (ret), Senior Vice President, City Year; Dr. Akira Iriye, Charles Warren Professor Emeritus of History, Harvard University; Dr. Alexander Murphy, Professor of Geography and Rippey Chair in Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Oregon; Dr. Scott Silverstone, Associate Professor of Political Science, United States Military Academy; Dr. Otho Tucker, President, Otho Tucker Educational Services; and Ambassador Kenneth Yalowitz, McCulloch Director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding, Dartmouth College.

 

 

More than fifty people from across the region and the country participated in the event, including representatives from the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the New Hampshire Department of Education, and the World Affairs Councils of both New Hampshire and Windham (VT). Also attending were educators and administrators from more than a dozen schools, including Derryfield School, Brimmer and May School, Newton Country Day School, New Hampton School, Saint Bani School, Kearsarge Regional High School, and Interlakes High School, as well as numerous faculty and students from St. Paul’s School.

 

 

Among the highlights was a captivating panel discussion on Thursday, May 4, about the growing importance of international awareness and education. All the panelists emphasized the need both to recognize the “flattening” of the globe and to adjust our educational approaches accordingly. As Colonel Gordon phrased it, “that train has left the station.” Technological advances and growing global connectedness will increasingly affect us whether or not we are cognizant and adaptive. Regardless of past practices and the pull of pop culture, preparing young citizens for the twenty-first century requires a higher degree of global awareness and engagement than in the past. Unfortunately, as the panelists noted repeatedly, young Americans are woefully deficient in what would seem to be basic skills and knowledge. One in three young adults (18-24 years old) in the United States, for instance, cannot locate the Pacific Ocean on a map, the same fraction that think we fought against the Soviet Union in WWII and that estimate the U.S. population as one-to-two billion. Less than one in three graduate from college, with similar numbers of college students requiring remedial work. For that matter, only one third of young Americans vote, which is comparable to the number who read a newspaper to stay abreast of current events. The panelists agreed: the world’s leading democracy demands a better prepared citizenry.      

 

   

Similar themes pervaded Friday’s proceedings, which focused on prioritizing the essential components of international education. Concentrating on knowledge, skills, and perspectives, the three sessions on Friday involved the sharing of some quantitative data from GSF’s recent survey of nearly 200 experts in the field, brief presentations by the panelists, and thoughtful deliberations among the panelists and the audience about the relative importance of various elements and different ways they might be combined and pursued. In terms of specific findings, the top five subject areas identified were world history, world geography, comparative government, international relations, and international economics, with the Middle East and East Asia standing out as the two most important regions to study. Among the top skills were reading, writing, and critical thinking, with cross-cultural communication and cooperation with others not far behind. While perhaps harder to define, measure, and cultivate, the two most important perspectives were intellectual curiosity and tolerance of differences, followed by flexibility, a sense of interconnectedness, appreciation of diversity, and understanding of complex systems. 

 

  

Much useful feedback about the survey and the project was derived from the ensuing discussions. Over the next few months, the conference proceedings and survey findings will be compiled, edited, and published as a GSF Working Paper. GSF also plans to revise the survey and redistribute it to a larger audience in the fall of 2006, holding a subsequent conference to address the second round of findings and to help craft more explicit and detailed guidelines for international education. In the meantime and in response to calls from varied quarters for practical assistance and instructional materials, GSF plans to expand significantly its online offering of global education resources and invites all interested parties to share ideas and materials. For more information about this project or about GSF’s other programs to promote international awareness and education, including campaigns to place globes in classrooms and to provide travel grants to students and faculty, please explore our website, submit our online information form, or contact us directly.